Year Without Summer, Some Minority Climate Thinking

Articles: 2014: The Year Without Summer:

The set of books I'd like to read is stacking up, add "The Year Without Summer: 1816 ...", the link off this article is definitely on this list. "A couple hundred years" isn't much in even very young earth history, and I have long suspected that we could hit some equivalent of a "Little Ice Age", "Medieval Warming Period", etc to end the couple decades of the "GW Scare Warming Period".

We saw a colder year last year, and so far 2014 is colder yet. Will this trend continue? Will this summer make us wonder if we are having summer? Spring as sure accomplished that relative to spring!

The winter of 2013-14 bears a striking resemblance to that of 1815-16, and there is every reason to believe that what follows will repeat the pattern of earlier periods of extreme cold.  The consequences will not be pleasant.  As some have begun to realize, periods of extreme cold are far more destructive than periods of warming.

I love that ... A FEW, and so far VERY FEW have figured out that things grow better when it is warm! Who knows, might some of them figure out that not having kids in a culture puts a limit on the future of that culture? That if your government constantly spends vastly more than it takes in that something is "unsustainable"? I dunno, figuring out such things seems to be hugely difficult for current Americans!

Or this from HuffPo where we get the nice paragraph:

Early on, Ms. Peters tears away at the misguided belief that if we develop sustainabletechnologies and change human behavior it will prevent the globe from "flipping" into the next Ice Age. It will not. We have delayed the latter some ticks of the geological clock, but we can't stop climate change, because that is what the earth has been doing for millions of years -- long before people walked upright.

The analogy used earlier in that article mixes up 1K and 100K and even after pointing out that we are long overdue for an ice age and there is nothing we can do to stop it, goes back to trying to figure out how to stop the temporary warming. I wonder, is it that all liberals are just ADD? "Hi, I'm from next door, a giant meteor is headed for the earth and will kill us all in a day .... Can I borrow a cup of sugar?" 

There are a couple more out there as well that I need to get around to. If we have a few years (even 100) of cooling, does it mean something momentous? Probably not, but as I've pointed out many times, and the Huffpo link points out, we ARE actually very due for the the big drop to continental ice sheets. 

Would a glacier advancing past Calgary be newsworthy? Nah, "the models say" that temp could go up a couple of degrees and some islands in the Pacific might go under in the next 100 years! Now THAT is REAL NEWS! Let's see if we can all go into hysterics and buy Al Gore a new jet! 

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An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America

http://www.amazon.com/An-Anxious-Age-Post-Protestant-America/dp/0385518811

I started this Blog partially because I thought it would be a great place to do book reviews. While I DO like to write (as the couple thousand blog entries out here show), I like to read MUCH MORE! So, when I'm done with a book, I find it daunting to get a summary down to a size of Blog entry that I want to write before opening another book. Writing LESS is often MUCH harder than blathering on for pages for one that has the "writers gene". 

So, I'm trying to reform, AGAIN. I'm going to try my hardest to give a VERY short summary of what **I** thought the book said, throw in some excerpts, and call it good! 

"Anxious Age" was quite humbling. Lots of references to other works and figures in American and world Religion that I was only barely aware of. 

The thesis is that Mainline Protestantism WAS the core of what it meant to be American. We lost that, and now the spiritual core of America has been converted to a "secular salvation" that is extremely unsatisfying and unable to carry the weight of what it means to be human. The NEED for the metaphysical, the spiritual -- the angels, demons, ghosts and goblins if you will. 

The core of this book is "the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression" and your knowledge of, and opposition to those forces defining you as "saved". So "history" is like the "patriarchal oppression of women", slavery, taking lands from indigenous people, colonialism. bigotry is racism, sexism, speciesism, homophobia, etc.

Power is anybody but people who are "saved" having any power (or wealth, or speech, etc) at all. Corruption is again anything that is not "of the saved" is corrupt -- and it is impossible for the "the saved" to be corrupt. For "mass opinion", I read bourgeoise, the "little people", the "unenlightened" ... the kind that might still hold to the old ought to have been abandoned "old time religion". I think you get the idea ... "liberalism now saves you".  

A need to see themselves as good people— a hunger for spiritual confidence in perfect parallel to the hungers that drove previous generations of American Protestants— still compels them in deeply significant ways. In their view, the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression are the constant themes of history. These horrors have a palpable, almost metaphysical presence in the world. And the post-Protestants believe the best way to know themselves as moral is to define themselves in opposition to such bigotry and oppression—understanding good and evil not primarily in terms of personal behavior but as states of mind about the social condition . Sin, in other words, appears as a social fact, and the redeemed personality becomes confident of its own salvation by being aware of that fact. By knowing about, and rejecting, the evil that darkens society. 

So the "believers" here are really new puritans -- although of course they would HATE that comparison.

They are, for the most part, politically liberal, preferring that government rather than private associations (such as intact families or the churches they left behind) address social concerns. They remain puritanical and highly judgmental, at least about health, and like all Puritans they are willing to use law to compel behavior they think right.

Lots of quotes from Tocqueville and others, and some somewhat interesting coverage of Catholic thought history in especially the late 20th century, on how it impossible for Catholicism to carry the metaphysical load that was borne by the mainline protestants for 150+ years as the "Mississippi of what it spiritually meant to be American".

If you like to be a bit challenged in your reading, and realize that even if you think you are well read, there is always someone much better read, it is worthy. It isn't very uplifting -- which seems to be a negative in this new ice age that we have run afoul of.

God Is Great, Beer is Good, People are Crazy

http://youtu.be/PKpQRjj_WbU

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-big-bang-evolution-ap-poll/

Brian Greene, a very smart physicist that I have read and enjoyed is "highly distressed" that Americans don't really seem to care much about the big bang, evolution or global warming. Brian Greene is VERY smart, but as far as being wise in the ways of humans, I believe that Billy Currington (or at least his songwriter) is WAY ahead.

"It is enormously distressing that science, which is our most powerful means for gaining insight into the world, insight into truth, is so mistrusted by so many people"
Brian Greene, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, told CBS News.

 Really Brian? TRUST of science for INSIGHT?

How about a beer with an old guy at a bar or even better a funeral for hopefully an aged family member who you loved and whose time came gently? Maybe falling in love, the birth of a child -- or just the sun going down over the desert as your Gold Wing glides into Roswell!

Science is about MATERIAL -- technical, DATA, information! "Insight"? Science can't tell us a single ultimate "why", and it says NOTHING about any values. It can give us knowledge about atoms and radioactivity, but it gives us ZERO "insight" into using them for watch faces, bombs, energy, or whatever.

 TRUTH? Are you kidding? Sure, 2+2 = 4, and math can be extended to at least appear to be a very good approximation of being AN abstract description language of the universe. Super, but why? For how long? How would we know? What ARE "we"? Why? ...

So smoking "causes cancer". OK, does that mean that you should or should not smoke? Suicide is now the 10th leading cause of death and rising rapidly.  http://www.afsp.org/understanding-suicide/facts-and-figures ... especially if you are 45 and over. Certainly the combination of data, stigma, taxes, etc HAS convinced a lot of people to cut smoking, but that in itself says nothing whatsoever about how happy they are ... before or after. "Science, in its really pure form, is just telling you what the state of the world IS. Not "was", that isn't generally repeatable or testable under CURRENT conditions. Not WILL BE ... that is clearly HYPOTHESIS, and only time may convert it into science.

Willingham said. "The more in-tune with reality your beliefs are, the more you are in a position to make a wise decision." 

Like a "wise decision" to put a bullet through you brain? Would science help you with that? Say that science "proved" that less people were good for the environment, maybe that is a very super "rational decision". "reality". Who is to say? Perhaps science could gather some data on that.

No, Religion is at the top of understanding Truth, Values and Meaning. Philosophy is about the metaphysical interpretation of our state. "Man as Man", and then we bring in science and technology. The engineers. Greene seems to think that Jordy ought to come up to tell Picard how to handle negotiations with the new cosmic entity based on how the plumbing on the Enterprise works.

God is Great, Beer is Good, and People (maybe especially scientists?) are crazy.

BO vs Reagan on Job Growth

This Simple Graph Compares Reagan’s and Obama’s ‘Recoveries’:

Of course BO doesn't really believe that a job is something we need and a majority of the country agrees with him!


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Science, and other Myths

An Apple a Day, and Other Myths - NYTimes.com:

The NYTs discovered in February that mammograms are not the slam dunk we once thought they were, now they seem to have realized that a ton of the "well, isn't it obvious" diet pronouncements on red meat, fats, fruits and vegetables, etc, etc are at best questionable.

This really ought not be news -- folk wisdom that has been around for at least 100s if not thousands of years tends to be MUCH more reliable than any late breaking science on a whole host of things relative to being human.

Why? Because the universe and the world is either "a random phenomenon" over such huge periods of time that humans have no chance to getting any big picture on what we are looking at with our tiny and also randomly created brains. Or it is designed by a being that is so much beyond our power of thought that the amazing thing is that we can even get some short-term localized hypothesis that SEEM to hold for some period of time -- maybe even a few decades, or as much as 100 years sometimes.

My belief is randomness and time are just other tools in the Creators toolbox and I have none of the qualms that Einstein had about "God playing dice". Yes, there is "order", but it is God's order, not mans. Let's face it, it if it IS all random as the atheists believe, then it is purposeless -- and understanding that for which there is no reason is best done with a shoulder shrug and a malted beverage.

We step into this physical realm for at most 100 years -- the first 20 we are not yet mentally developed enough to really know much of anything. For the next 50 or so we have "a decent chance" to learn a lot -- hopefully humility most of all, and maybe even believe that we got to know a couple people somewhat well.

I'm convinced that we are pretty much wrong on that actually knowing anyone else, but maybe that doesn't matter either. Maybe we just try to balance kindness and truth with as many people as we can. And focus on the long part -- eternity. If it is all meaningless, then so what -- pleasure is nice, but one doesn't usually have to make it all the way to their 50's to know that the best kinds of that as well are more focused on that hope of eternity. Church, family, friends, history, art -- maybe a big bike and the open road. Not all meaning has to be really meaningful.

Cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimers, accident, etc. Our exit is really the only certainty -- if you are in good enough standing with "The Party" (Democrat-TP), I'm of the opinion that taxes are no longer certain. Tom Daschle, Geitner, etc seem to be too much of a "sample" to believe that we all have to follow the same rules. Why should we? It's a pretty small step from breaking the Equal Protection Clause on "progressive taxation" to exempting "the right people". Why treat people equally? TP believes they are much "better" than that.  It looks to me that the payment of taxes has become yet another politically based uncertainty.

But not death -- so far. The Party may well start hastening the deaths of those that fail to get enough of the memos, but that is OK. Even the "members in good standing" are more and more ready to sign their own ticket to eternity.

So you know death is certain -- right now the #1 cause of injury death in the US is suicide, so apparently our Godless pseudo-socialist  nirvana isn't completely appealing to a pretty good segment of our population. Suicide along with addictions of all sorts and "mental health issues" is growing like crazy, but for some reason it is a lot easier for someone like Bloomberg to limit the size of folks sodas and try to take their gun rights away.

Bloomberg probably figures suicide, like abortion, increase in number of gay relationships and people not having children is GOOD -- we know that in the random world of natural selection, not having any offspring is a sure fire WIN! Right? Have we thought that completely through?

I often think that the 2nd half 20th century Western Civilization deserves the millennial cultural Darwin Award for voluntarily removing ourselves from the gene pool. Perhaps a crescent and a mushroom cloud would be a proper shape for such award?

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Give us More Bullies!

In the universe called reality there are actually limits on the ability of the prissy class to prevent bullying. Much better to have some big friends, preferably with big guns, and while you are at it maybe try to at least imagine what some testicles might be like on your own.

This fits so well with the various states working on "Bully Policies" for schools. These people are nuts. The best cure for a bully is somebody bigger and stronger that has some character that gives them the "what for", and if they don't get it, kicks their ass. They bully because they want to feel powerful -- a curb sandwich tends to reduce the feeling of power.

What the current gyrations do in the classroom and internationally is allow the dirt-balls that just just don't give a rats ass to operate with impunity, while preventing the usual "enforcers of truth and decency" ... the linemen from the football team, the wrestlers, the weight lifters and just the big tough good kids from making sure the weenies are keeping their profile suitably low. The good kids have something to lose, and these policies insure that they will let the actual bullies that "think they are tough" fail to learn their real status as they continue to beat up on the weak.

America used to be like that -- and our superheroes. Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, etc. We still like those guys, we go watch them at the movies, even though the current versions have a lot of "issues" compared to the old versions, when the chips are down, they still kick ass and are able to know the difference between good and evil.

But since we no longer as America see a clear sense of right and wrong and are very unsure  to even SURE that America is NOT on the "side of good". In fact our President wrote a whole book pretty much making the case that America was pretty damned bad (his Pastor even said God DAMN America ... but Barry was sleeping that day)

So we are a long way down the road to stamping out righteous heroes (along with the whole idea of righteousness), de-exceptionalzing our own capabilities relative to economic and military might,  and allowing the bullies to run roughshod.

Way to go Barry, and your prissy friends as well!  I'm sure Vlad will be gentle with you ... he has the perfect name for a nice gentle guy. Barry vs Vlad ... doubt that would be much of a draw for the WWE.

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You Can Still Follow the Constitution in America ! (for now)

Voters can bar racial discrimination by their government, for now | Power Line:

It is pretty easy to see where this is going. The equal protection clause of the Constitution says we ALL have to be treated ALIKE!

So the "progressive" income tax is illegal. Any kind of subsidy or sanction based on income is illegal.

And of course "affirmative action" has ALWAYS been illegal!

But for 100 years and more we have been just ignoring that clause, so such things keep being taken as "the law of the land", which means there is NO LAW, since the Constitution is our "Law Base Class" ... the rest of our laws "inherit" their validity from there.

What's more, the Constitution is based on NATURAL LAW, meaning GOD's LAW, these basic truths are "endowed by our Creator" and SELF EVIDENT. Only the left doesn't like God, Truth, or ANY curbs to it's ultimate power (well, the power IT believes to be unlimited).

So, FOR TODAY, a State can vote to follow the Constitution and not discriminate for and against some groups of people. But the 'liberals" show their hand yet again, they do NOT want to treat people equally!!

Orwell told us how it works "Some are more equal than others"!

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Yellow Doesn't Apply To Democrats

Democratic Senator Nearly Qualifies for Darwin Award | Power Line:

Being a Democrat means that you are smart, you know you are smart, and you simply do not have to think about it!

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I'm sure the general media will likely cover this not very much ... clearly not indicative of anything like Dan Quayle spelling "potato", or the REALLY young webbie favorite of Ted Stevens http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2014/01/15/net_neutrality_struck_down_in_a_victory_for_the_late_sen_ted_stevens.html

As I've pointed out on this Blog before, the BO "out-takes" are not all that flattering either ... spelling RSpect, 57 states so far, 10 thousand killed in a small town in KS, etc

The difference is a very small percentage ever even heard of the Bo out-takes, and if they did and are reminded, they roll their eyes and wonder what in the world one would bring those up for -- racism no doubt.

No, actually the treatment of Quayle, Steven's, W, Reagan, etc is actually HEALTHY! We as Americans are SUPPOSED to see that our leaders are temporary occupants of places of power and are supposed to be our EMPLOYEES, really our SERVANTS!

But "The Party" and their media outlets don't like THEIR powerful being made fun of, and they LOVE to deride anyone that would DARE to hold one of those positions, so in this time of less than 100% Party power, they go berserk when a "conservative" does something humanly "stupid". Making fun of W was super good sport, making fun of BO is "disrespectful", "racist", etc.

One of the dangers though is that The Party leaders tend to believe their own bullshit. They think Putin thinks of them as they think of themselves, economics, climate, medicine, etc should obey their extraterrestrial imaginary thinking, and yes, even bold yellow caution lines apply to mortals from this planet, but not to them1 ...and then they throw all of us out in front of the train -- at least eventually, unless we keep the 2nd amendment. Eventually, being hit by something going very fast is the only thing these other worlders understand!

BTW, I worked on early internet technologies, we OFTEN called the connections "pipes" ... which last I checked are pretty much like "tubes". But then why would John Stewart know that? I doubt he knows DNS from DHCP.

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Keystone, Insanity, Putin, Control

New Keystone XL Delay: 'A Stunning Act Of Political Cowardice':

Yes, Yes, BO is a coward and his minions in the MSM will be too busy talking about Korean ferries, missing planes and boys asking Miss America to prom and such to cover it even if he didn't go max stealth in making his latest announcement on Good Friday!

The Keystone Pipeline / Global Warming element is 100% SYMBOLIC ONLY!

1. The oil is being extracted both here and in Canada,  pipeline or no pipeline! 
2. The oil is being MOVED in ANY case as this article points out, less than 10K tank cars moved in '08, last year it was over 400K! Guess what ... LESS environmentally friendly and MUCH less safe!

So other than pure symbolism, there is NO REASON to protest this pipeline even if your are the most insanely green person possible, but still sane on other topics.

You need to find an extra special sort of extra symbolic insanity to stand in the way of ?? ... well, basically less train cars, or less oil coming from Canada to the US (which just means it goes elsewhere and gets burned).  That makes good sense if you are Warren Buffett and own the railroad I guess, but in other cases it seems baffling at first glance.

It USED to be that environmentalists loved to point out how "insecure" it was for us to get oil from Arab states -- only now I think we have fully given the lie to that fake caring. They don't want the oil to come from ANYWHERE, but guess what? Until BO declares it directly that we don't get the oil, and maybe issues an edict to the rest of the world to not use it either, all those Arab states STILL get money for oil and so does PUTIN!

Remember old Putin who we did a "reset" with after W, and to whom BO quietly promised "more flexibility" after he got re-elected? Yes, that guy.  Lower world oil prices and Putin takes a major league testosterone hit!

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/diane-francis/keystone-and-lng_b_5062039.html covers the obvious fairly well ...

Russia's oil and natural-gas industry, which provides 70 percent of the country's export income and 52 per cent of its governments revenues. Moscow now controls half the energy market in Europe and is able to adjust prices to punish or reward countries and to keep others quiet.

Surprise, while the Warmistas were smugly saying "conservation is the ONLY answer, since the US and Canada are out of oil", innovation in the technology of fracking was still operating. Liberals" always want to kill innovation for just that reason -- in the house of mirrors that is the liberal mind, "liberal" actually means CONTROL, and innovation is very damaging to control!

So, through the scourge of innovation, we now have "Together, the U.S. and Canada have more oil and natural-gas reserves than Russia or the Middle East.' (same article). 

Drop the cost of oil and the US and Canada have more diplomatic power and Putin, as well as those Arab states have LESS POWER! 

But let's face it, that isn't really the objective -- nor is "climate" for that matter. The object is CONTROL! 

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BDS Attacks Beauty and Truth

Robert Fulford: The BDS smokescreen | National Post:



It is easy to confuse beauty with goodness and truth, it does seem like they ought to go together, and in this case, they do.



Boycott, Divest, Sanction was a acronym that I was not familiar with ... although we do hear enough of the idea of the terms relative to anyone that doesn't fully prostrate themselves before the alter of "progressive" dogma in all its strains. It appears that Oxfam of which I had heard but never really knew anything about beyond "progressive / international" is indeed a solid member of the "progressive" tribe.



Proof of God and Christ is really awfully easy even if one hardly opens their eyes. You would certainly THINK that an organization like Oxfam  would be WILDLY opposed to a religion that puts women in burkas, marries off girls less than 10, burns, stones or throws gays from "a high place", and on and on.



You might think that, but you would be wrong! It is Israel that they actually hate!



Even with a crushed head, Satan can and does still direct the hatred of billions against God and Truth. At one time it was possible to add "The American Way" to that list, but old snake has managed to corrupt that last one away. The Church and the Word will stand -- nations don't have that guarantee, and when they turn away, they fall.



Does it really take any more of test of evil than to see the Muslim way proudly "Shopped, Invested, and Subsidized", while the Judeo-Christian side is "BDSed" to clearly see the truth?







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We Define the Truth, No Debate Allowed

Krauthammer Against The Tyrants - Emmett Tyrrell - Page 1:



I'm about half way through a wonderful book, An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America, not an easy read, but a challenging and somewhat humbling read on how Christianity in the US was morphed into a "social gospel":

In their view, the social forces of bigotry, power, corruption, mass opinion, militarism, and oppression are the constant themes of history. These horrors have a palpable, almost metaphysical presence in the world. And the post-Protestants believe the best way to know themselves as moral is to define themselves in opposition to such bigotry and oppression— understanding good and evil not primarily in terms of personal behavior but as states of mind about the social condition. Sin, in other words, appears as a social fact, and the redeemed personality becomes confident of its own salvation by being aware of that fact. By knowing about, and rejecting, the evil that darkens society. 

Bottum, Joseph (2014-02-11). An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America (p. 15). The Doubleday Religious Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

In this Holy Week, it is good to reflect on our fall "You will be as Gods, knowing good and evil".  Often we assume that Satan told the truth, that we now DO "know good and evil". I find it to be a dangerous step to take the father of lies at his word.



The modern left, the "post protestant new puritans" believe with their whole heart that they DO know evil ... "bigotry, power, corruption, mass-opinion, militarism and oppression", and their souls, like Michael Bloomberg's, are saved because of their opposition to what they know as evil.





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Nostalgia For USSR

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/04/better_soviet_posters_for_jay_carney_and_claire_shipmans_house.html

I've been listening to MPR since 1980. They always had a giant soft spot for wonderful Soviet schools, the collective farms, and those wondrous journalists at Pravda "Truth!" ... So very much in common with NPR, but not forced to deal with the lies of commercial media! 

I know a number of people on the left that were significantly shaken at the collapse of the USSR ... Damned Reagan! ... And The POPE no less! Why the UN ought to have intervened to prevent religion from interfering in a nice godless state!

So BO's press spokesman likes old USSR propaganda posters and it isn't much of an MSM story ... The world just isn't very surprising I guess. 

Boston Bombing "Worth It"!

Biden Tells Boston Bombing Victims “It Was Worth It” // Mr. Conservative:



Hard to even imagine the outrage and derision had W or really any conservative of any standing said this!



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Bloomberg Earns Place In Heaven

Bloomberg Boasts of Gun Control and Soda Ban: ‘I’ve Earned My Place In Heaven.’:



There really isn't a better time than Holy Week to remind ourselves of the state of the human soul!



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Get Out of the Top 10%!!!!

2014 Tax Day Chart: Who Pays the Most?:



Everything we need to know can be learned from "The Jerk"! It's not the cans he is after, it is YOU you stupid Jerk!



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Get out of the top 10% (and even 20%) of income earners! There is a highly defective person trying to get you!



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