W Iraq, '07, Don't Expect a Repeat

Voices: Why Awakening II won't save Iraq this time:



Good little column to read and remember when the next big terrorist attack hits. W was far from the perfect President, but he was and is PRO AMERICAN and did his best for what he saw as the best path to safety for our nation, and even the best path that could be obtained for the Iraqi people after escaping a brutal dictator.

Except it really was never about money. It is almost inconceivable Awakening II could get off the ground without Americans there to nurture it. This was not something that was cooked up in Washington, or even Baghdad.
In September 2007, Sattar got a chance to savor his victory. He was invited to meet President George W. Bush when the president visited Anbar province to talk to those who had help turn the province around.

By the fall of '07, The Party (Democrat) and it's media propaganda wing had destroyed the W Presidency using the twin levers of Katrina and Iraq. W however was determined to see Iraq through, so he was willing to listen to options that could make that happen. This was the time that HillBilly was talking about "General BETRAYus" and Harry Reid was saying we had "lost in Iraq". W had been shellacked in the previous years elections and his power to do anything constructive outside of military was close to nil. The nation was already effectively under TP Rule, but the budget for '07 was W's ... the deficit that year would be $165B, then the roof would cave in and America would enter it's existential BO crisis, which we are still suffering. 



Even Jimmuh Carter bowed to reality after inflation went through the roof,  the USSR went into Afghanistan, Iran took the hostages and the ill-conceived  "Jimmy Carter Desert Classic" left our hapless rescue team burning in the desert. The roof largely fell in during '79 and '80, and we were blessed from above with Reagan to restore America. We still had an electorate that was much more Makers than Takers, and they spoke loudly. 



We are now a nation where the outcry of the left after the SCOTUS rules that Christian businesses can't be forced to fund drug induced abortions of our unborn is deafening. "Gay marriage" is a major concern as it was during the death of the Roman Empire. "Income Inequality" is a big issue as the economy shrinks, less and less Americans work, while food and energy prices skyrocket. TP media and the population focuses on some guy that apparently purposely killed his child by leaving her locked in a car, various celebrity meltdowns and of course the latest branding of "Global Warming / Climate Change / Climate Disruption". 



We are more than "lost". By and large the populace is completely clueless and there isn't even a national leader visible with any suggestion of a vision forward. 



God, responsibility, hard work, sacrifice, rewards for success, acceptance that failures and yes, even "wasted effort" is part of growth and forward progress. Celebration of liberty that means "inequality of result", but the only small hope of a return to anything like the America that we were just throwing away seven short years ago. 



People, companies, sports teams, churches, and yes, even nations have a strong propensity to lose their way, often due to the very success they once worked so hard to achieve. It IS possible for them to see their errors and turn around, but right now it is very very hard to see that spirit coming to the fore in America. 



It is a great time to pray for America. 





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Pond Depression

Secrets of the Creative Brain - The Atlantic:

As of today it is two full weeks since my last productive day working on the pond. I've got in some very minor tweaking a few days, but no major progress. Thankfully last Saturday WAS a very nice day, but we are at Mindy's Miles in IA, a much better use of time.

Rain has been a constant companion -- the garden is muddy, the lawn is long, and sitting out on the deck watching my salmon smoke a bit is steamy. The prediction is that this rain pattern will end tomorrow with a high of 67 and I have my fingers and toes crossed! I'm very very sick of humid, cloudy, rainy weather!

The linked article on creativity is quite interesting to me relative to how the brain works. I'm certainly not in the "high creativity class", but there are aspects in there that still strike a nerve (or neuron)-- having thought about and visualized the pond / stream setup for years and now being mired in the real world mess phase of DOING with the constant rain, I was especially struck by:

In the R&D business, we kind of lump people into two categories: inventors and engineers. The inventor is the kite kind of person. They have a zillion ideas and they come up with great first prototypes. But generally an inventor … is not a tidy person. He sees the big picture and … [is] constantly lashing something together that doesn’t really work. And then the engineers are the strings, the craftsmen [who pick out a good idea] and make it really practical. So, one is about a good idea, the other is about … making it practical.

It is a range of course, but I am not a "tidy person" and I certainly have my share of "jury rigged" and "half baked" projects and ideas.

I was completely unaware of The Writers Workshop at University of IA and especially the relationship with Kurt Vonnegut! The article also covers the sad relationship between creativity and depression, bi-polar, substance abuse, etc ... the "demons" behind the "daemon" that are all too well known in the world of creativity.

Little bit on the academic side, but I enjoyed it.

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Science Surprise! Disruption?

Today’s Climate Embarrassment [With Comments and Video By John] | Power Line:

I predict the 2nd rebranding of "Global Warming", now from "Climate Change" to "Climate Disruption" is going to get a lot more prevalent. Let's watch the relatively near future to see how well my prediction does.

Here are some predictions that a group of august scientists was able to make last year after a five year study!

A five-year study presented in April 2013 concluding that water levels in the lakes were likely to drop even further, in part because of  the lack of precipitation in recent years brought on by climate change

As the predicted warming has stopped for the last 20 years, the climate industry was forced to re-brand from "Warming" to "Change" -- so when areas that formerly had a certain amount of rain had less, well that was PROOF of Climate Change no matter what the temp did. So the dropping of the Great Lakes levels was seized upon as a particularly useful datum for presentation to the slower brained masses that were not completely convinced of the urgency of "warming" by Al Gore jetting about and making a couple 100 million dollars.

But after reaching historic lows in 2013, water levels in the Great Lakes are now abruptly on the rise, a development that has startled scientists and thrilled just about everybody with a stake in the waterfront, including owners of beach houses, retailers in tourist areas and dockmasters who run marinas on the lakeshore.
Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior are at least a foot higher than they were a year ago, and are expected to rise three more inches over the next month. Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are seven to nine inches higher than a year ago.

As PL remarks, perhaps it is not the scientists that were "startled", but rather the NYTs, but for the rationally oriented, the fact of a five year study resulting in predictions that were invalidated in a single year gives a very strong indicator that the predictive abilities of the "science" used in the 5 year study is shall we say "severely limited".

Yogi Berra was famously quoted as "Predictions are hard to make, especially about the future". He seems to be far wiser than modern "scientists" or "elite journalists". If your "science" fails to make correct predictions, it is WRONG, as Feynman made so clear:

If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement, is the key to science. It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, It doesn’t make any difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is. If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.”

It doesn't make any difference if you are a former or current Vice President or President of the US. It doesn't matter how much money has been invested in your "experiment/prediction". It doesn't even matter what percentage of some population -- educated, insightful or otherwise were "polled" and agreed with you. 

Science is about correct predictions. It can be "settled" that it is wrong, it can NEVER be "settled" that it is right, since the next test could falsify the theory, and it is adherence to that rule which defines science relative to politics, religion, philosophy, art, etc. 
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Will BO Listen to SCOTUS?

Government by fiat - The Washington Post:

Of the checks and balances our founders carefully crafted, they were most concerned about the Court which had "neither the power of the sword or purse".  The Court has now stood up and struck down King BO with a couple of rulings. Will he listen?

As the results of his attacks on America become more obvious, his popularity has dropped, but he still has a completely subservient political lapdog in the Democrat Senate and a scared puppy of a Republican House confused by being in their view "attacked from the right" by the Tea Party wanting them to stand up to BO's usurpation of power as well as get spending under some tiny semblance of control.

The House puppy has yipped a bit though and is suing BO http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/06/24/boehner-considering-lawsuit-against-obama-over-executive-orders/ over his direct usurpation of the powers of Congress. The lapdog Senate is of course happy with anything it's Master does -- Constitution? Wasn't that recently lost?

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BO Amnesty Brings 50K Illegal Children to US

Obama's Amnesty Legislation Misunderstood by Illegal Immigrants—Now DHS Needs Thousands of Pairs of Men’s Briefs for Detained Illegal Immigrant Children - Hit & Run : Reason.com:

So BO semi covertly did his own little amnesty program for children that had been in the US for 5 years as of 2012 -- so this article and the NPR story seem to be missing something obvious that I suspect the smugglers and many of the kids are not.

Say you are "12" now. So when you are "processed", you swear, "I arrived in 2007 with my uncle, I was 5". That certainly isn't a much harder lie than "we lost the emails" or "you can keep your health care".

How would one figure all this out? Are we trying to find Honduran birth certificates? Not that would make any difference -- how do you prove that the kids were NOT in the US in '07? Same way you prove that there are NOT UFOs?

Seems to me that his eminent brilliance BO would have applied some of his gigantic brain to these questions --- but my belief is that this is just peachy with him. Tens of thousands of underage new wards of the state soon to become voters in formerly red states like TX and AZ. Win!

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Biological Government Waste at EPA

EPA employees asked to stop pooping in hallway. “Poop bandit” may still be on the loose. - The Washington Post:

Adds a bit of specifics to "In a pure democracy, people get the government they deserve". We were NOT supposed to be a pure democracy, but we have managed to destroy the republican curbs (Constitution, not having the Senate elected by popular vote, ...), and each day we see the "evidence" -- although in this case you could smell it as well!

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Q1 Corrected to 2.9% GDP Decline

Welcome to Japan: More on The Q1 GDP Report | Power Line:

I've been noting the acceleration of economic problems -- vying with FICA bankruptcy and personal aging for the most predictable of events.

The linked article talks of the US moving into a Japanese style economic funk, which I generally agree with, but we are a lot bigger economy -- when the big guy gets sick, it tends to be worse! Just as when things are good, it is "more good" in a big business, economy, city, etc, the inverse is ALSO true.

I disagree with the positive implications for Republicans politically. Our nation is over that 50% relative dependency mark now (which Romney was so thoroughly castigated for claiming to still have a 3% margin). The party of dependency is the Democrat party. When people get scared, they are going to tend to vote Democrat which going to exacerbate the problem. That is natural, it is part of why nations decline when they abandon the principles that made them great -- self reliance, thrift, competitiveness, excellence, etc, and switch over to "rights, safety, leveling, regulation".

The US economy resembles nothing more than an ailing back patient that has been over medicated, possibly operated on and is in an accelerating slide, accelerated by many of the "cures" that were supposed to be "the fix".

We need to slow government spending, TAKE SOME PAIN, remove some taxation so that those that can accelerate the economy SEE SOME GAIN ... but this time start the SLOW ARDUOUS PROCESS of realizing that there is no such thing as "economic safety", and that HARD WORK needs to be encouraged with INCENTIVES, while sloth needs to be STRONGLY discouraged with DISincentives.

BTW, raising the minimum wage is NOT an "incentive". It prices low skilled workers that first and foremost need to get in the habit of working out of the job market.

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Iraq, Given a Time Machine and Omniscience

The “givens” of Iraq | Power Line:

I get a bit peeved at the displays of Monday morning QBing that have hung around far too long, often accompanied with sanctimoniousness that is very unbecoming. George Will is smart enough to know better, but he too is proof that brains are never enough. Some good grace is required too.

I really think the primary W problem was his Christianity, and the fact that he is a far better Christian than I. He never counterattacked against his political adversaries as a Slick, BO, or even Reagan would do. He would always try to  make a reasoned argument, and since he read off a teleprompter far less well than BO .. or certainly Slick or Reagan, it fell flat, and his adversaries were certainly MORE than willing to take MAXIMUM advantage of that.

It seems absolutely incredible that a anyone EVER questioned W's motives. He wrote no anti-colonialist books, didn't hang out with any bombers of buildings, didn't sit in any "God damn America" church at all, and his family tree was a totally open book. He served honorably in the National Guard flying fighter jets, which is "safe service" only in the drug addled imagination of some far lefty. What exactly did they believe that he stood to "gain" by "leading the country to the wrong war under false pretenses"? When we went to war, something like 85% of the population was in favor, all the leadership from both parties including wide margin votes in both houses, plus the Pentagon and the CIA and every world power KNEW that Saddam had WMD.

As has been heavily celebrated in the MSM, "we didn't find them". We may well never find the Lois Lerner e-mails, the missing time on the Watergate tapes,  Amelia Earhart or Malaysian flight  371 but it is a real stretch to claim they never existed on the basis of not finding them. A bunch of dead Kurds from the '80s were pretty damned sure they existed.

I think Power Line did a great job of bringing a bit of "non-omniscient, perfect time machine knowledge" to the party here and it is worth a read. The teaser, to which I'd add, "and what about Mubarak"?

JOHN adds: When people pose “what if” questions about Iraq, they generally assume that if we had done nothing, Iraq in 2014 would look like Iraq in 2003. But that is almost certainly false. Why would Saddam have been any more secure against the tide of Islamic extremism than Assad?

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"Change" Goes Terminal

A Lame Duck Country? | RealClearPolitics:



BO ignores the Constitution -- but he was re-elected. There is no way he will be impeached -- Joe Biden as President? Yes, the bumbling fool may actually be better than BO, but it isn't going to happen.



We are at the mercy of a man sworn to destroy the "colonial powers" of which we are one. He continues to do a hell of a job, we can assume that he intends to "complete the job".



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Hildebeast Unlike Well Off, Victim of Circus Pants

Hillary Clinton says she’s unlike the ‘truly well off’ - The Washington Post:

Hats off to Michelle Obama or staff, Hildebeast, Puuurrrfect!

Hildebeast certainly isn't like the "standard well off" -- those with a few measly 100's of millions like her. She has been under 24hr Secret Service guard for over 20 years. Government aircraft and servants at her beck an call all the time. Not even Bill Gates or Warren Buffett get that level of treatment.

Also she is smug beyond even the inherited rich. Even they likely had to treat their parents with SOME level of respect -- Hildebeast has had a powerful husband who she can destroy at any instant because we know he as been a very bad boy. She has wielded power over wealthy and powerful people that made their money or worked their way up a corporate ladder over long and risky careers. She is DIFFERENT!

She is a force not seen on this planet since Marie Antoinette. As time goes by, I begin to understand more why the French developed the guillotine.

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Dedicated to Satan, My Kind of People

Blog: Obama, Alinksy and the Devil:

I read "Rules of Radicals" in '09 to get acquainted with a major influence of our then new fearless leader. It is always good to know your enemy, and make no mistake, BO is the enemy of any America that would have even been envisioned prior to Wilson in the '20s.

This little post over at American Thinker is short and sweet, but it opens the curtain a bit on the man that is one of the leading lights of our current burden BO, and our lady in waiting apparent, Hillbilly. It ought to be obvious by now that "virtue" is something that neither BO or Hildebeast subscribe to in any form -- neither did their mentors, Saul Alinsky, or Old Scratch himself.

Saul Alinsky interview in Playboy, 1972
ALINSKY: Hell would be heaven for me. All my life I've been with the have-nots. Over here, if you're a have-not, you're short of dough. If you're a have-not in hell, you're short of virtue. Once I get into hell, I'll start organizing the have-nots over there.
PLAYBOY: Why them?
ALINSKY: They're my kind of people.

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Harley vs Goldwing

Have to admit to a bit of head spin right now. 

When Marla got her Street Glide last year, we OUGHT to have traded in the 900 Kawasaki Vulcan, but we were certain that we could sell if for a good deal more outright. A year later we managed to get $100 less than we would have last year, so much for our skills in motorcycle sales! 

The HD dealer had the best cash offer for the bike by $400, and sitting on the floor was this nice 2005 "FLHTCU" Ultra Classic Electra Glide -- 88 CI, 5 speed tranny, "modern old school" (the newer ones are 103, 110, and 6 speed) with 40K miles on it, but very cherry for age. So I took it for a spin, now it is in my garage and I'll be learning and comparing. Pretty much with the Wing and the older Ultra, I'm at the  $$ value of a new "basic Ultra" (sort of an oxymoron I know) ... so I can do some thinking for a year or two here. 

I honestly didn't expect to be nearly as smitten as I was. I've ridden Marla's Street Glide for a good bit more than the test ride on the Ultra BEFORE the Glide had the little persons seat and bars put on it. For some reason, this baby just felt totally balanced and easy to ride right out of the chute. What blew me away was Marla EASILY getting on the back and going for a spin including a U-turn that was never all that fun 2-up on the Wing. For "around town / shorter trips / two up", it is clear that this is the go to bike right off. 

Sure, it has significantly less power than the wing, and yes, it definitely vibrates -- more slow than fast, but in this year class, still real vibration at highway speeds. Oh, yes, it is CERTAINLY hotter as far as heat rolling off it, and obviously much louder -- stock. However, in my 3rd year in the Wing, for DAY TO DAY, there is maybe such a thing as TOO "smooth and quiet" on a bike. Oh, certainly not when one is riding > 500 miles, and maybe I'll be discovering that 200, 300 is a reasonable limit on this year class of HD. I'm pretty certain there are more than a few "Iron Butt" > 1K miles in a day on this model though. They may also be gluttons for punishment, which I'm not, so I'll let you know. 

After giving up riding for 25 years, I KNEW that the bike I HAD to ride for a period of time was the Wing. It took more experience and tuning to get the Wing to where I really felt secure and comfortable on it  than I expected -- Progressive suspension in the front, fork brace, floor boards, etc, and it has been a superb machine. Pure performance wise in all aspects it blows the Ultra away .... BUT. 

I'm reminded a bit of high end stereo, where tube amps, vinyl, and all manner of strange approaches really do yield a "sound stage" where the performance comes alive. There is some pretty good evidence that what is causing it is actually due to DISTORTION (which theoretically should be avoided), but a special kind of distortion that when interacting with the human ear and brain, produces an experience that really can't be measured by machines. Or maybe it is just imaginary -- but if multiple people hear it and enjoy it, maybe "imaginary" is OK?

The biggest difference in the HD vs the Wing is at slow speeds -- the HD feels WAY lighter than it is and perfectly balanced. The Wing feels bigger than it is -- I'm sure that there area a lot of engineering factors making this happen -- the tall but narrow V-twin vs the flat opposed six,  the belt vs the shaft twisting forces, no doubt a bunch of rake, trail, and other factors that I'm not up on. The bottom line though is that it is instantly easy to understand why so many of the city police forces use Harleys for their street cops. 

Oh, I haven't lost ALL objectivity -- if I had to keep up with someone on a twisty road, I'd be on the Wing in a flash. However, since what I really want to do a good deal of the time is optimize riding experience with Marla, having us both on HDs makes that a little better, for both corner speeds and time to next break to get off the bike. 

So a test drive and a ride home vs 20K+ over two years on the Wing. I'm quite sure there will be lots more learning. That is providing it ever stops raining here in tropical MN! 

Hickenlooper Mag Ban, Good Government In Action

Hickenlooper: Staffer promised I’d sign gun law I never thought would pass, and by the way, it’s totally ineffective! « Hot Air:



In the spirit of John Kerry, "I voted for the war before I voted against it", it is worth watching this hilarious, but sad video of John Hickenlooper saying that "a staffer committed him to sign it, they didn't think it would pass, if they had known how much trouble it would cause they would not have signed it ... and hey, it is totally ineffective anyway!"







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Coal War Prior to Alternative Energy

Despite the hype, ‘carbon-free’ energy sources aren’t gaining traction globally | Watts Up With That?:

Not a lot of analysis in the article, but I think we all know that the rise from the '60s to the '70s was nuclear, and all the building of "green" energy now is barely keeping us close to that 14% number as many less nukes are built WW and the old trickle off line. Add in the fact that neither solar or wind does very well in cloudy / foggy / calm weather, and you have a recipe for 14% of your capacity to go AWOL under some conditions.



So the right thing to do is to slit our own throats by attacking our main source of electricity, coal.



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Financial News From Planet Hillary

Wealthy Clintons use trusts to avoid full estate tax they back:

There has been some coverage of Hillary being "dead broke" after they left the White House. Like a lot of criticism in our looking-glass media modern US, bias is really at the core of this entire discussion -- for both the media and us the media consumers.

First of all, EVERYONE, some of us more than others, go through transitions of "relative wealth". Having a quarter in your pocket when you are a kid, say $20 in early teens, $50 in college and some other figure in early work life are "feel good relative wealth".  (Inflation has likely shifted these enough so that I'm off on the specifics, but the idea is sound) If you worked hard for you your whole life in what was the past world up to the age of BO, had some luck, maybe stayed married to one person, did some investing, etc, there are many who have a net worth sufficient so that getting down to your last few thousands of cash on hand, $100K or so in ready investments would be "poverty".  In the actual world, Hillary feeling "poor" when she couldn't scrape together $10 million or so is understandable -- I'm sure that she DID feel that way and was being honest.

However, it certainly shows that she has close to zero actual feeling for the people that live from paycheck to paycheck or assistance check and were born into family trees of the same as far back as can be recalled. If she were a Republican it would be a boneheaded, hard-hearted enough thing to say that the media outlets would be hammering her mercilessly -- "born with a silver foot in her mouth", "born on third, thinks she hit a triple", etc. The MSM played gotcha with HW Bush in '92, and again with Giuliani in '07 on issues like "out of touch on common every day prices".

Certainly MANY people, poor, middle or whatever pay very little attention to everyday purchase items in the specific, because they are going to buy them anyway -- they have to drive and eat. Yes, they notice when products break $1 marks in some cases, but MANY people (me included) would be hard pressed to be anything better than the nearest buck or two. It is however a good way for the MSM to go after Republicans, so they like to do it, and then late night comedians like Jay Leno, who has 10's of millions of dollars in cars and motorcycles laugh about how wealthy the Republican is! It's Wonderland folks.

In the top linked article we see that SURPRISE! the Clintons have set things up to avoid estate taxes! You know, (I'm only guessing here), I bet they pull their hands rapidly away from a hot pan as well!

The point here is not what the Clintons do and the fact that they are hypocrites, it is what the media will really say about it. Bill Clinton is now considered the wealthiest living President http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/10-richest-us-presidents-f1C7100851

the entire Bush family net worth is $60 M that source lists Clinton at $80M based on trusts, off shore wealth and other aspects, it is hard to pin down the absolute specifics, but I think fair minded people can agree that both the Clintons and the Bushes are pretty much at the same wealth.

But are they treated the same in the press? That also seems like an easy question. The assertion is made that "well, they have their hearts in the right place" .. and if you look at the top 10 list, the Kennedys, FDR and LBJ would also be on this list. Is it REALLY "having their heart in the right place" when they CLAIM that they are going to re-distributed wealth to the "needy" (buy votes), but the money that they use will NOT be theirs or that of the people they associate with?

In the real world, vs the looking glass one, there would be SOME expectation that people would practice what they preach. If wealth is bad and redistribution is good, then SOME figure -- say $500K, or $250K or ?? in wealth would be "the top", and you would not be exposed to redistribution pressure until you hit that point. If you preached redistribution, THAT would be your level -- the valid level for "fair minded people" to live at.  In today's world even big anti-wealth Ralph Nader comes in at $4.2 M

In my world, wealth is good -- but like good health, sound mind, torque, firearms, etc, it carries PERSONAL responsibility -- more responsibility for more of it. How you deal with what you are blessed with is between you and God, and only becomes a matter for the state if it is used in a way that threatens the rights of others. God gave us a universe with MANY unlimited or nearly so blessings, although in this world sin and death mean that they are temporal.

In the next world though, I believe that the limits are off -- this one is just a "foretaste".  Unlimited High Performance motorcycles with no chance of untimely death! Count me in!

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Inflation Up, Housing Starts Down, Economy Down 1% In 1Q

Consumer price index jumps 0.4% in May as inflation heats up - Los Angeles Times:

There is nothing unexpected here other than it may have taken a little longer than expected to come home to roost. Inflation up, housing starts down, US economy down., Need we really say more? If there was an R in the White House, the MSM would be going absolutely NUTS!

 God, Guns, Gold, Gardens ... that is the future of "successful" meaning SURVIVING Americans.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/us-building-permits-tumble-64-in-may-housing-starts-down-65-cm362371

I love the "unexpectedly".

The nation voted for it, we got it, so now live with it.

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The Enemy Gets A Vote

Dick Cheney and Liz Cheney: The Collapsing Obama Doctrine - WSJ:

In my reading of the Civil War, one item comes up again and again relative to especially Gettysburg, although certainly many battles afterward is some version of "I think the Union Army had a lot to do with it".  Southerners, and even many northerners had assigned such godlike qualities to Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia that they believed the loss had to be due to "self induced errors" on the part of Lee and the southern forces.

Essentially, Lee, to some degree his generals, and many observers north and south had forgotten a common maxim of battle, "The enemy gets a vote", no matter how good you are, and certainly no matter how good you THINK you are, the enemy is going to have something to say about it.

Which means at a minimum, you need to understand who your enemy is.

Barack Obama is an enemy of the United States. He made it CRYSTAL CLEAR in his book "Dreams From My Father", but he has also made it clear over and over again in his statements and actions as President.

We elected a man that LOATHES what was once the core of America, and he CERTAINLY loathes the idea of America as a "world power".  He wants the idea of individual liberty, which means inequality of result, to be purged from the world stage, and he is completely fine with it being replaced by Sharia Law or Totalitarian Communist Rule -- ANYTHING is better than America as "exceptional, free, powerful" living on,

Cheney seems not to understand that. It is HARD for many Americans to see what has been wrought by the combination of our media, educational system, and good old fashioned human desire for "security, free stuff, and envy".

Obama released the current head of ISIS. I don't think this was in any way an oversight or mistake. He KNEW that he was releasing a very dangerous person that would likely either personally or through enablement cause attacks on the US. Obama WANTS the US to be attacked. He sat in Jeremiah Wright's "God damn  America" church for 20 years, he CERTAINLY agrees with Wrights positions -- he wrote a book saying it for Gods sake!

Both our foreign and domestic enemies are making excellent progress against us, and the American People are largely blind to it.

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You Must Be TP Member In GOOD STANDING!

Climate Mafia Chronicles | Power Line:

Poor lefty thought that he would try to inject some facts into the climate scam and got canned. He really really can't have been paying attention if he thought that TP allowed diversity of thought!

Gotta get your mind right, what we had there was a failure to communicate (Cool Hand Luke)

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Carter's Economy, Nixon's Excuses

The Dog Ate My E-Mails, for Two Years | National Review Online:

The DejaVu factor for those of us that lived through the '70s is huge, the title of the post, buried in the column sums it up extremely well.

While there was never any EVIDENCE that Nixon ordered the Watergate break-in, the infamous 18.5 min gap looked beyond suspicious, and coupled with the fact that Nixon was TRYING to go after enemies with the IRS (but failing), there were lots of things for people not to like -- oh, and he had a dark complexion and seemed "shifty", characteristics that were fine to go after him on, because he was after all a white R!

As this article covers, there no technical way that those e-mails were lost, and in fact, in private companies, somebody would be eating off a tin tray if they were --"spoilation of evidence". Seemed like every year or so we got some notice at IBM that we had to produce all e-mails, documentation, etc on some piece of technology we had built because somebody was fishing for patent infringement. Being able to "produce all e-mail" is WELL UNDERSTOOD!

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Carter's Economy, Nixon's Excuses

The Dog Ate My E-Mails, for Two Years | National Review Online:



The DejaVu factor for those of us that lived through the '70s is huge, the title of the post, buried in the column sums it up extremely well.



While there was never any EVIDENCE that Nixon ordered the Watergate break-in, the infamous 18.5 min gap looked beyond suspicious, and coupled with the fact that Nixon was TRYING to go after enemies with the IRS (but failing), there were lots of things for people not to like -- oh, and he had a dark complexion and seemed "shifty", characteristics that were fine to go after him on, because he was after all a white R!



As this article covers, there no technical way that those e-mails were lost, and in fact, in private companies, somebody would be eating off a tin tray if they were --"spoilation of evidence". Seemed like every year or so we got some notice at IBM that we had to produce all e-mails, documentation, etc on some piece of technology we had built because somebody was fishing for patent infringement. Being able to "produce all e-mail" is WELL UNDERSTOOD!



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Prosecuting Conservatives

IRS Gave FBI 1.1 Million Pages of Taxpayer Data to Encourage Prosecution of Conservatives | Power Line:

We see that the IRS illegally selectively transferred information to the FBI in hopes of finding something on which to prosecute conservatives. Did they succeed? We know that a witch hunt went on relative to Scott Walker in WI and his donors that was egregious enough that a judge stopped it as an illegal political vendetta. We know that Dinesh Dsouza who has done anti-BO movies and books was prosecuted in NY and ended up in a plea bargain. Did it have to do with this data? No way to know. How many more? No way to know, but we see a decent amount of activity by The Party (Democrat) seeking to use the wheels of government to defeat it's opponents. In a free nation, the term for this would be "chilling".

I'm more taken by the casual remark from one of the emails (this one wasn't "lost") that show how the propaganda wing of The Party, the MSM operates in lock step to control the narrative, giving Americans a "story" that they can believe that paints the opposition in a bad light and TP in good.

Thanks, as always, for the excellent support from Media. I do think it came out pretty well. The “secret donor” theme will continue–see Obama salvo today and Diane Reehm (sp).

Dianne Reehm is from NPR ... government funded as well as just biased ... basically the old USSR "Pravda".

We KNOW that TP is using USSR / Nazi style harassment up and to and including legal means to attack their "enemies" in what  is actually a Republican / Tea Party that is far left of center on the "Total Government Control - Anarchy scale". The conversation is between the hard core socialist Democrats and the soft core socialist Republicans ... BOTH want to maintain a government burning 40% of GDP and providing the fiction that everybody except maybe the 1% can get more out of the government than they put in.

The left hates Fox News and Talk Radio with a passion -- as well they should, since their position requires the silencing of opposition. Nothing screws up a good story like the real world. Were 95% government run by conservatives and staffed by conservatives and 90%+ of all reporters conservatives, they would have a definite point.

We are very very far gone.

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The White Hot Center of Power

Eric Cantor’s Defeat Exposed a Beltway Journalism Blind Spot - NYTimes.com:

The NYTs is doing a bit of navel gazing following he Cantor takedown, always an interesting spectacle to observe, and sometimes a little truth slips out as they do such a thing.

 "The same forces that keep politicians penned up within a few blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue work on journalists as well. No one wants to stray from the white-hot center of power for fear of being stuck in some forsaken locale when something big happens in Washington — which is why it has become one of the most overcovered places on earth."

Indeed, Washington IS DEFINITELY the "White Hot Center of Power" to The Party and it's minions in the MSM. It is also FAR too much so for the Republican Party, which Cantor discovered. The Tea Party movement is about exactly that, giving power back to WE THE PEOPLE. It has been heavily maligned as "racist", but BO being an arrogant narcissistic Washington power grabber is what the problem is. His being black is meaningless ... Clarence Thomas, Alan West, Mia Love, Thomas Sowell, Condoleeza Rice etc, etc are all black as well, but it is the left, not the right that is going to demonstrate to shut them up. The left is ABSOLUTELY CRAZY about any Black that leaves their very defined thought plantation and thinks on their own!

Certainly physical slavery is terrible, but killing freedom of thought for humans is just as bad and possibly worse. Freedom of spirit and of thought is what defines humans.

"Compromise" to The Party and MSM means more government incrementally forever ... perhaps some negotiation on exactly how much MORE can be called "compromise", but there is ABSOLUTE REFUSAL to allow any reduction at all!

DEcentralization of power was the exceptional magic that was America. The NYTs admits that it is no more, but there ARE Americans that see the danger and are willing to act, so even though the hope is very dim, it yet exists.

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Head of ISIS Was Released by BO

'I'll see you guys in New York': Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's parting words to U.S. troops in 2009 - Washington Times:

BO released the head of the organization that is setting up the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). BO released 5 known terrorists from Gitmo for one deserter a couple weeks ago.

BO wants to release ALL the guys in Gitmo and close it!

Tell me again why some people think that BO is on the side of the US? It seems to me that he is doing all he can do to give "his people" the upper hand.

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BO Cuts the Cheese

Obama likens denying climate change to thinking the moon is made of cheese - The Washington Post:

Just because you stink is certainly no reason that you can't stink worse!

BO is so knowledgeable -- he said that he had Al Quaeda on the run, and indeed he does -- straight to Baghdad and the establishment of an "International State of Iraq and Syria"  (ISIS) to further destabilize the mideast.

He recently traded 1 deranged anti-American deserter for 5 top notch terrorists -- mostly to get the news that his VA management is so bad that veterans are dying droves from delayed and substandard care. Oh, and we are to believe that his IRS "lost" emails, even though they are required by law to have multiple levels of backup. So who is going to jail then?

"Denying" what the Government / Climate Industry axis of funding and shakedowns has decreed is "science" is like saying that the moon is made of cheese! Wow! Nuggies on you!  BO is pretty much in grade school on that sort of a comment -- perhaps the more slow learner side of grade school.

This emperor is not only naked, he is naked and baby bubbling incoherent, snotty, soiled and wetting himself. As far as he can tell, there is no universe outside of his private BO stench bubble, so he just bumbles on.

Certainly, the fallen over in the left ditch media will do it's best to keep up the charade, but we are now past the point where even dedicated fabrication can't hide the disaster. Oil shock happening, self induced coal shock under way, economy in decline, world destabilizing at a rapid rate, corruption, scandal, incompetence, all gathering speed.

At this point in the W administration "The Party" (TP) with huge help of their propaganda wing in the MSM was able to use Katrina (of ALL things, it seems completely unbelievable) and Iraq to swing congress to their side. The country still rolled on for over a year after Harry and Nancy effectively took over the wheel on all but Iraq, and then it crashed miserably -- naturally, "all due to W". When you put TP in charge of 2 branches, there is no way they bear any responsibility for any problems!

Ice Still Floating Around Lake Superior

June icebergs still roaming Lake Superior | Updraft | Minnesota Public Radio News:

Couple of nice pics and the obligatory "nothing to do with Climate Change!". I'm quite certain that Warmists will be looking at a continental glacier a mile thick and saying "on average, it is getting warmer!".

I keep having this contrarian thought that the sun is the primary determinant of earth's temperature, and our ability to fully understand solar "climate" is even more flawed than our ability to understand earth's climate. This article suggests a 1 degree C drop by 2020 based on solar activity. No doubt, depending on what "base period" you decide to use (NOAA used 1981-2010), the data could still claim it is "in the top 10 warmest" ... as will the year that the ice sheet takes out Minneapolis will no doubt be!

In the meantime, please remember that when the Great Lakes were warm, THAT was absolutely significant proof of Global Warming,!  "Settled science" operates very much like religion!

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An Atheist On Athesim

An atheist explains the real consequences of adopting an atheistic worldview | Wintery Knight:

I think this Atheist does a pretty honest assessment of where Atheists are at philosophically, but often don't want to admit.  All is purposeless accident, so attempts to create any sort of a "reasonable rules of logic or behaviour" are just wishful thinking. Reason? Why should a random universe be "reasonable"? What does "reason" even mean? For that matter, what is "meaning"? Some random human brain fart that might be "adaptive" for some random evolutionary period? As he points out, making babies with somebody elses wife and even killing her husband is just as "moral" in an Atheist universe as any other action that one might on a whim decide to take. What part of "no morals" did you fail to understand?

Certainly, Atheists try to gain converts just like any other religion, so they do their best to "dress up their faith". Their faith that there ISN'T an ultimate power that may find their blatant rejection of some pretty significant power beyond "man being the measure of all things" to be significantly on the hubristic side. God gives them every opportunity, including dying in human form to show he exists and he loves them, but he also gives free will. It is a gift that can bring great joy in this life and forever, or if used to reject God, the destruction of families, relationships and nations in this life, and ultimately eternal destruction for the Atheist.

In the Atheist world there is no "justice", and the primary faith of the Atheist is that there is no justice in the universe at all, because in their hearts, they know what justice means -- from their point of view, they know it "randomly".

Our founders knew that the US was not possible without a people that believed in God. There can be no "unalienable rights" unless there is a creator to endow those rights. In a Godless universe, all there can ever be is temporary grants from the powerful -- sometimes the masses, sometimes the wealthy, some times those of noble birth, but always whatever "rights" one thinks they have are at the pleasure of the powerful.

America abandoned rule of law to attempt to loot the wealthy for more free stuff for the masses. That looting goes on, but the net result is that the looter generations become less and less oriented to work and responsibility, so the gulf between the lower and upper classes gets larger and larger. The lower find that even with more free stuff -- housing, food, medical care, internet, smart phones, flat screen TVs, etc, their lives are even emptier and more meaningless than before.

Most of that meaninglessness is the turning from God in hopes of being able to indulge whatever lust currently suits the fancy -- gay "marriage", abortion and drugs are major sacraments of the Atheist religion Paganism, the worship of the physical planet, is the state religion, called "environmentalism". We were intended to be stewards on nature, not to worship it -- which is idolatry. The world was made for man, not man for the world.  Zealotry in paganism is common -- total life change in dress, diet, friends, etc. It is highly reminiscent of some hyper "born again" kind of cult, only this is the pagan version.

As Western Civilization dies, this is what we increasingly see around us. Thankfully, we know that Christianity and the Church will stand against this modern onslaught as it has against all those past.  There are no such guarantees for America and the people that fall prey to the hopelessness of Atheism.


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Catastrophe Keeps a Promise

Best of the Web Today: Obama Keeps a Promise - WSJ:

Around the globe and at home, we see the catastrophe that is BO increasingly clearly now. Nature and Nations abhor a vacuum, and has Slow Joe Biden remarked in 2008:

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee warned at the second of his two Seattle fundraisers Sunday. "It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

His timing was slightly off, but BO has certainly failed all tests abysmally ... Libya, Egypt, Syria, Russia, Afghanistan and Iraq. 

As you know though, I think BO is very pleased with his results. America is diminished in fact and in image -- we talk of "Red Lines", and it is just talk. We let our enemies know years in advance that "we won't put troops in Iraq". True, BO is not to be trusted if you are and American, if he ways "You can keep your healthcare if you like it", you ought to have been certain that he was lying -- but that is a fiduciary lie to his own people of the most nasty sort. The kind of lie BO is a master at! When he is just promising to be feckless -- as in not defending a victory bought at great price in American blood and treasure, you can absolutely take him at his word. Feckless he has down cold. 

Even the VA situation has a silver lining to a guy like BO -- not caring for veterans cuts existing troop morale and makes future recruitment harder - "sauce for the goose". In a country that was awake, all would see the obvious tie between the disaster of VAcare and the disaster of BOcare, but we are no longer a country that is awake. We are too busy trying to find some scraps of what we know is a dying nation fading from the world stage.

We have guilty hopes that the Chinese will be benevolent masters, but that is one of the sad parts of having been the Great Power -- your successor generally likes to make it obvious that you have been DEFEATED, which means blood, extreme poverty and obvious submission. Both Britain and the US were rather large historical exceptions to that rule -- although not NEARLY benevolent enough for BO and many on the left, but take heart, China has a ruthless streak that will bring the historical rule back with a vengeance. 

So oil prices will rise and terrorist threats around the world will rise. Out economy was down 1% in the first quarter, a decent oil shock ought to be enough to push us into a "less possible to ignore" recession, although we know the MSM will work mightily to do so. We have solidly turned the decline corner, and a large nation in decline tends to pick up speed rapidly as it fails domestically and on the world stage. Friends run for cover in horror, enemies look for and exploit the opportunity with increasing vigor, 

"Gird your Loins". The irony that somehow BO was going to CLEAN something (Augean Stables or otherwise) is especially pungent ... Gun Runner, Benghazi, IRS, NSA, VA ... the level of scandal in this administration makes Nixon look like a saint! But of course, it is good to have "The Party" and it's media wing behind you! 

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The "Dreams" Legacy

The Prisoner Swap Deal - Thomas Sowell - Page 1:

Once again, a pearl of great price from Sowell.

One of the problems of many fundamentally decent people is that they find it hard to understand people who are not fundamentally decent, or whose moral compass points in a different direction from theirs.

As I've said many times ... and as BO said in his "Dreams" book, I think he has been VERY successful relative to his objective of tearing down "The Colonial Powers / Western Civilization" ... Sowell just says it better: 

As for Barack Obama, you cannot judge any President's competence by the results of his policies, without first knowing what he was trying to achieve. Many wise and decent people assume automatically that President Obama was trying to serve the interests of America. From that standpoint, he has failed abysmally, both at home and abroad. And that should legitimately call his competence into question. 

But what if his vision of the world is one in which the wealth and power of those at the top, whether at home or internationally, are deeply resented, and have been throughout his life, under the tutelage of a whole series of resenters? And what if his goal is to redress that imbalance?

Who can say that he has failed, when the fundamental institutions of this country have been successfully and perhaps irretrievably undermined, and when the positions of America and its allies on the world stage have been similarly, and even more dangerously, undermined around the world?

As for Barack Obama, you cannot judge any President's competence by the results of his policies, without first knowing what he was trying to achieve.

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"Voter" Relocation?

Obama Admin to Dump over 1,000 Illegal Immigrants in AZ This Weekend:

The only plausible reason for not requiring a picture ID to vote is a large scale operation to fix the vote -- we all have either been IDed for many simple tasks -- sending UPS, getting a cell phone, getting a hotel room, getting on a plane, etc, etc.

The ONLY reason that it makes sense to be against ID is that either you KNOW that an honest vote in  this nation would change what is happening IMMENSELY, or you are very worried that it would. I really don't think there are much more than say "10%" of people that actually believe it somehow "restricts the right to vote" -- if it is, then our gullibility factor is already beyond hope.

So what are the mechanisms to get illegal voters to the proper polls? Maybe bussing them in and dropping them in places that the effect is needed?

I can't see how one prevents an underage person from voting when an ID is not required?

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HOW "The Party" Will LEGALLY Limit Speech! (Both MN Senators For)

Democrats Try to Repeal First Amendment | Power Line:

Here we see the ACLU detailing what kind of Amerika TP is intent on creating. Note at the end that the law got ONLY support from TP, although the ACLU generously (for TP) uses assumptions of how it might be used by Republicans to suppress speech. "It might, legally", but not likely in the current world that is dominated by TP media and academia.

What it WOULD do however is to completely legalize what TP members do all the time -- use their positions to harass opposition candidates and organizations through campaign finance laws! This is a tactic that has been, and continues to be used against Scott Walker in WI. Read and understand the Udall Amendment, and keep the phrase "suppression of conservative advocacy" firmly in mind for the real world, much less generous than the ACLU version of looking at this.

FORTY ONE sponsors!! All  DEMOCRATS want to gut the First Amendment by giving themselves vast powers to REGULATE POLITICAL SPEECH!!!  What kind of country have we become where Senators, including those up for re-election  like Franken, can come out in favor of blatant totalitarian control of political speech and correctly assume that the MSM and general sleepy nature of our population will insulate them from damage!

THIS is why we have slid so far from being "The Land of the Free", and continue to tumble. In the ACLU letter quoted below, they try very hard to be on-partisan ... when ALL 41 of the signers were Democrats! The continued slide into tyranny demands the removal of free speech -- the Democrats are all over it.

To give just a few hypotheticals of what would be possible in a world where the Udall proposal is the 28th Amendment:

•  Congress would be allowed to restrict the publication of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s forthcoming memoir “Hard Choices” were she to run for office; 

• Congress could criminalize a blog on the Huffington Post by Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters, that accuses Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) of being a “climate change denier”; 

•  Congress could regulate this website by reform group Public Citizen, which urges voters to contact their members of Congress  in support of a constitutional amendment addressing  and the recent McCutcheon  case, under the theory that it is, in effect, a sham issue communication in favor of the Democratic Party; 

• A state election agency, run by a corrupt patronage appointee, could use state law to limit speech by anti-corruption groups supporting reform; 

• A local sheriff running for reelection and facing vociferous public criticism for draconian immigration policies and prisoner abuse could use state campaign finance laws to harass and prosecute his own detractors; 

• A district attorney running for reelection could selectively prosecute political opponents using state campaign finance restrictions

 And Congress could pass a law regulating this letter since it notes that all 41 sponsors are Democrats.  Such examples are not only plausible, they are endless.

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Freedom Summer II, Opportunity vs Outcome

Robert B. Reich: Freedom Summer II [Commentary] - baltimoresun.com:

Today, as then, a group of Americans is denied the dignity of decent wages and working conditions. Today, just as then, powerful forces are threatening and intimidating vulnerable people for exercising their legal rights. Today, just like 50 years ago, people who have been treated as voiceless and disposable are standing up and demanding change.

Yes indeed, millions of people are FORCED to work at Wally ... however, Reich does helpfully inform us "WalMart is no Bull Connor", gee, glad he covered that, I might have been confused!

Blacks demonstrated for equal OPPORTUNITY, current demonstrators want EQUAL OUTCOME  -- independent of their ability of lack thereof to achieve any sort of results at all. Now in theory they say "more equal", but why stop there? If $15 an hour is good, is not $25 OR $50 better? What principle would decide that number?

I've started a "balanced reading" of switching back and forth between Hayak's Fatal Conceit and Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century . Piketty may be against others making a lot of money, but his book is the most expensive I've ever bought on Kindle at $22.

I'll be doing a lot of reading, but basically Hayak's Fatal Conceit is the idea that things like culture, social structures, economics are "human created" and thus human understandable. He argues that they are emergent orders selected because "they work better" over eons of time, and when we meddle with things like "the market", we do so at peril to our economic well being and possibly even our civilization. Social Science fields tend to very much forget tghe "First, do no harm" maxim and assume that they can willy nilly play with the world economy to get their "desired results". Seems so reasonable to me that it is surprising that anyone even thinks of disagreeing.

Adam Smith no more "invented" the Invisible Hand than Newton "invented" gravity -- they both DISCOVERED them, with nearly zero idea of really "why" they work, only that they do.
But of course Piketty has a much higher opinion of his abilities, and KNOWS there is a huge problem with Capitalism called "inequality". Again, I'm mystified right from the start. If one compares me to the WORST brain surgeon at Mayo, or the WORST NFL QB, or the WORST opera singer, I'd assert that all the 1000x, 10,0000k and essentially infinite x comparisons of "inequality" are expressed very well. My contribution in any of those fields and MANY more is and would be even with significant effort so pitiful to defy mathematical comparison.

So why should the area of making money, creating wealth or investing be any different? Is it REALLY that surprising that Warren Buffet is a 1,000x of even a BILLION x better investor than 99.9999% of the population? To me it is not surprising at all.

And why is that bad? If Buffet allocates resources a billion times better than some idiot that say trades a deserter for 5 top notch terrorists (hypothetica), why NOT let Buffet do even MORE investing? His allocation is likely to generate WAY more wealth for the rest of us than we would otherwise have, even if Warren "takes" (a kind of fuzzy concept in a market economy) 90% of it! As long as we can eat, have a roof, buy some beer now and then, why exactly do we care what Warren does with his money or that he has more of it?

So essentially Hayak says that we are all bent on shooting our own feet off in attempt to "even up" economic allocation, and Piketty is INTENT to show us how to accomplish it!

People can write very long books over what seems obvious to me -- but I guess that just proves how stupid the Moose really is!

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Dialectical Freezing

Keep peeing in the pool?! Climate deniers lose their minds after new EPA rules - Salon.com:

BO has unilaterally declared that there will be a 30% reduction in C(2 emissions from coal plants. At least it is consistent with aborting 100's of millions of kids, they emit CO2 as well.

If our entire economy wasn't dependent on energy, and indeed for those of us in the northern climates, life itself, some of this would be of less interest. In this past year of "Real Current Global Warming Effect", even places as far south as Memphis would have had a lot of folks frozen to death without adequate power. Much like being a Veteran and relying on VA care doesn't exempt you from the harsh realities of the disaster of government run healthcare, even climate BELIEVERS turn into Popsicles  when exposed to temperatures below 32 for decent periods of time ... even if you are screaming IT'S GETTING WARMER in their ears!

The premise of "progressivism" is that the ends justify the means and that the means can be effectively ignored because of the wondrousness of the ends -- massive debts, no energy, shrinking economy, dwindling labor force and aging population, masses of non-working younger people, all of it makes no difference next to the majesty of the "progressive" vision.

All the government sponsored studies and "real science" (the kind funded by the government rather than folks that produce something) tell the "progressives" they are right. Not that they need to be told, they KNOW in the way that only those that ignore history, deny God, eschew results vs models,  and go to all ends to say "the vast majority of people agree with us" can be confident.  Hey, 97% of scientists agree with them, they MUST be right!

So we bray back and forth and call each other names, and even the little kid in the picture HIMSELF is "fouling the pool", since we too emit CO2. Meanwhile, the planet returns to a cooling trend and we set ourselves up for an energy crisis that is actually life threatening if you live in the center of the nation N of say Arkansas -- but no matter, the "progressives" have a wonderful vision of the future!

The title is a little snark at "Dialectical Materialism" the core of Marxism and Communism ... "mumbo jumbo"  is an adequate translation in the real world.

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Problems With Atheism

Paul Wallace: The Real Problem With Atheism:



I don't hugely disagree with much in the linked column, but it also isn't really aligned with my primary problems with Atheism:

1. Hubris -- There isn't a more narcissistic hubristic bombastic statement that a tiny, mortal, stupid, smelly human can make than "there is no God".  Death will certainly fix all those problems, and even a momentary reflection on that level of hubris makes one understand the sad reality of why Hell exists. Freedom is never free, and free will has ultimate consequences. 
2. Hopelessness -- We and all those we love die. There is no way to prove or disprove an afterlife. I believe that without God there is no love, and the desire of Atheists to do away with the hope to see those that they supposedly love in an afterlife comes close to a proof that without God there is no real love. 
3. Purposelessness -- Without a creator there can be no purpose. We and all we see happened through complete random chance and is utterly without purpose. As Shakespeare said in Macbeth: “Life ... is a tale. Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” In such a universe, nothing ultimately matters -- which calls trusting an Atheist into question. 
4. Truthless -- One of the names of Christ is Truth. We humans are never trustworthy, even under pain of death and hell, BUT, there is some pretty good historical evidence that a belief in a higher power and ultimate punishment improves the odds of truth and trust SOME (and in this life, that is as good as it gets). Even if it doesn't, the humility, the hope for an ultimate future, the belief that this really does all have reason for being and we are part of that plan helps make believers better bets to trust (still sorry bets, but BETTER). This is one reason that I sincerely hope that we never sink so low as to even consider an Atheist for president! 
5. Destructive -- Human civilization clawed it's way up from the Hobbesian swamp of "Nasty, Brutish and Short" over thousands of years at great cost. What we see in the West is a direct result of Judaeo - Christian Religion melded with Greek Philosophy. The 20th Century saw the breakout of the great Atheist Humanistic "isms" --- Communism and Fascism, resulting in the killing of hundreds of millions of people. Without God there is no "Natural Law", there is no "These truths are self-evident" ... there is no Truth, no Purpose, no Meaning, no Love.
   
   But death, there is LOTS of death because Atheists tend to attack and destroy. One doesn't need to spend much time reading or listening to them to hear their nasty sneering derision of believers, often times directed even more strongly at (soon to be former) friends or family members that they know will be hurt especially badly by it. Why not? It is a hopeless, purposeless, truthless, loveless nasty universe in which all that ultimately counts is the hubristic and narcissistic view of the atheist. There will be no ultimate judgment of their actions in their view, so why not try to beat the "false" hope, truth, love, etc out of those  "believers"? 

We humans always worship something. God is the worship of "that greater than which can not be imagined" -- truth, love, wisdom, hope, beauty, kindness, humility.

Atheism is very sad, but perhaps even sadder are the prayers of believers for those they love lost to this spiritual cancer. 

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US WILL Negotiate and Trade Hostages With/For Known Terrorists!

Taliban becomes our latest enemy to play Obama for a patsy | Power Line:

It is a great time to be an enemy of the US! Seize a "US Serviceman" (in name only, see some of his statements on the US and fact he likely deserted here) and trade him for FIVE big time terrorists from Gitmo!!! Man, I wonder what you could get for a busload of American school kids these days ... or maybe a planeload of US citizens headed to Disney ... BO in the WH for terrorists is basically a GEICO commercial "Happier than a witch in a broom factory"! Time to get some "chips" and reel in some goodies from the US!

The MSM is treating this with the kind of fawning admiration that one would expect for a TP administration in complete disarray, shedding the head of the VA in hopes of nipping that scandal in the bud and having jettison Carney the press secretary on the same day in hopes of keeping down VA disaster coverage.

A "helpful press" is VERY helpful to a bumbling idiot of a president, but it is very UNhelpful to the poor Americans that will pay the price for the establishment of the US as a great target for selective kidnapping.

Although perhaps it only works if the person taken has politics that agree with BO?

Bergdahl, "solider" released quote: "I am ashamed to be an American. And the title of US soldier is just the lie of fools. I am sorry for everything. The horror that is America is disgusting."

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