ThinkProgress -- Thanking The Republican House

4 Things That Were Supposed To Happen By 2015 Because Obama Was Reelected | ThinkProgress:

Some lefties have been posting this and it reminded me how seldom we that have a conservative bent thank the Republican House of Representatives. Admittedly, one has to be severely gullible, a complete leftist, intellectually challenged, or all three to take anything from such a site remotely seriously, but FB lets one realize how prevalent such maladies really are today.

They picked 4 "supposedly predicted" things that "someone said" that would happen if BO was elected. Their picks:

1. Gas at $5.45 a gal
2. Unemployment over 8%
3. Stock Market Crash
4. Entire US Economy Collapse 

For someone with a conservative bent, looking at the list is incredible right off.  They are bragging bout low gas prices? Liberals? That would be about the equivalent of a conservative bragging about how large the deficit was, or how high interest rates were -- or maybe how many people had signed up for BOcare! One of the CORES of the left in this country has been "gas prices are too LOW"! We need to abandon fossil fuels, raise taxes on gas, force higher mileage standards, shut down Fracking, etc, etc. How bad off do you have to be before you brag about something that you found tooth and nail to insure would never happen? It boggles the mind!

Anyway, let's give them a short response:

1) . BO being responsible for lower gas prices is a lot like Slick Willie being responsible for a balanced budget -- Slick Willie fought a balanced budget tooth and nail and was totally drug into the deals kicking and screaming and the Gingrich House took all the blame for the "cuts" IN THE RATE OF GROWTH of medicare that allowed the "surplus" (it was still a deficit if you took future liabilities into account). Let's be real, gas prices are low because of Fracking in ND and Canada, BO had NOTHING to do with that and in fact would have stopped it if he could have.

If there had NOT been an R congress, BO would likely have had his way to do more than just block the Keystone -- as in more gas taxes, restrictions on ND drilling, etc. THANKS GOP HOUSE!


2). If you count the reduction of the work force under BO the real rate is something between 8.9% and 12% http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm ... again, if BO had his way on extending unemployment benefits forever, further minimum wage actions, etc, it would likely be much worse than that. So, pretty darned good prediction by whoever made it, but again, likely much worse without GOP House. THANKS!

3). Predicting the stock market is always a fools errand. BO has pumped well over $1T of printed money into the economy every year of his presidency, so so far the bubble has not popped. An organization like ThinkProgress applauding a high stock market, which is pretty much a pure 1% of the income earners benefit is maybe even funnier than them applauding low gas prices!

4). Oh really. Rush Limbaugh? He would be only a bit better "source" than ThinkProgress for "predictions". If they check around a bit they might find that Rush is in the radio rabble rousing business -- pretty much like all the folks at ThinkProgress, NBC, ABC, NYT, etc -- one hopes that the folks at ThinkProgress aren't dumb enough to take their own predictions as truth.

If you look at these 4 items and consider ThinkProgress, just imagine how really really bad things are. In '07 the budget deficit was $165B, the economy grew at about 5%, the Stock Market hit record highs, and the unemployment rate (with hugely greater labor participation) was 4.7%.

Somehow, I doubt ThinkProgress found any of that to be good at the time.We were also one year into Democrat control of both houses of congress in '07, and the "winds of change" were blowing us in a new direction!

Yes, I would like John Boehner to generally be tougher and a better speaker. Yes, I think they MIGHT have been able to do more with a few better speakers, writers and leaders ....
BUT, what they WERE able to accomplish is to prevent the very worst that BO would very likely have "accomplished" had they not been present.

We need to give some credit where credit is due.


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Resisting Arrest is Not a Right, Common Sense Has A Conservative Bias

Mike Rowe discusses Ferguson, Garner and police protest - CNN.com:

As he says, it is not only not a "right" it is a bad an dangerous idea -- no matter the color of your skin.

Mike seems to have a lot of common sense -- no doubt he will be considered "conservative", because unsurprisingly, common sense tends to have a "conservative bias". I really ought not to have to explain that, but in this day and age, I suppose I must.

"Conservative" means "sticking with what works", "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", and "First, do no harm". Conservatives believe that the earth has been spinning for a good while already and more than a few generations have managed to be born, find mates, produce the next generation and die without finding some magic bullet that produced utopia. Some things are better today than they were 100 years ago for sure, but outside of "technology", which is always at best a two edged sword, we are born, live and die in pretty much the same span give or take a decade or two as we have for thousands of years.

While evolution leads people to falsely believe in an "arrow of progress" as in "things get better", it really doesn't say that. It claims that RARELY some TINY PERCENTAGE of changes to an organism are "more adaptive". "More adaptive" should in no way be confused with some human idea of "better" -- for an Ebola virus for example, "more adaptive" might mean airborne transmission, which from our perspective would definitely not qualify as "better".

No, "on average", most changes don't work at all, a few work pretty well, and even the ones that we think are completely superb -- say antibiotics, turn out to have downsides that have negative potentials up to and including killing us all (eg. antibiotic resistant super organisms). So on a very high average, a bias against change is highly adaptive and is a major component of "common sense".

Again, since this is somewhat the age of the idiot (as in no common sense), I said BIAS, I did not say Amish /luddite complete rejection of EVERYTHING new FOREVER. "Bias" means not jumping quickly at the latest brand new idea, and being even more suspicious of anything that is going to "improve" something as complex as "society".

Prior to the radio, the TV, the internet, smart phones, etc, we probably tended to talk to each other a bit more than the party Mike describes in his column. Today, all that technology not only allows us to be constantly distracted, it allows us to pretty much filter our information sources so we only see and hear what we want to hear. Conservatives get their Fox and talk radio, liberals get NPR, CBS, ABC, NY Times, CNN, etc, etc.

Conservatives tend to be better at argument than liberals because they can't mange to NOT know what the liberal position is, and probably a couple levels of  rebuttal -- it is one of the advantages or disadvantages of being a minority party depending on how one looks at it.

But argument is bad today -- better to throw off a couple one-liners from the "news" outlet your tribe prefers and then just get huffy. The one thing odd about Mike's column is that he was at a party where liberals and conservatives were somewhat evenly divided -- that is really rare from my experience. Parties and even family events now days are pretty much one tribe or the other and everyone knows which. Make any comment that might be political -- like "the weather sure has been cold" for example, and your wife is likely bruising your shin.

Stick to non-political topics -- like "American Idol", or sports (as long as your team isn't the Redskins)  or ... well, maybe just check your smartphone like everyone else. ...

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Drinking the Original Kool-Aide, Jonestown and Associates,

Media Report Podesta’s Apology for Jonestown Quote, Ignore Jim Jones’s Strong Democratic Ties:

A few conservative outlets have been mentioning Jim Jones and Jonestown relative to the  "guilt by association" scam the MSM attempted to falsely create to start the new year relative to Steve Scalise. Kinda looks like nasty partisan politics with heavy handed MSM involvement will be part of the new year too. Damn! I was so certain they would resolve to mend their ways after the people had spoken so loudly in November!

I had just started IBM in '78. Still a Democrat as far as I knew, still assuming that whatever Uncle Walter Cronkite said  really was "the way it was". For over 30 years at IBM, whenever they came out with some "flavor of the day" program -- "Zero Defects", "Six Sigma", "Q-pride", etc etc, those of us that really built things used to question each other if it started to look like someone really believed the current tripe, with the phrase "Did you drink the Kool-Aide?".

The "Kool-Aide" was a reference to the mass suicide at Jonestown where 918 people died -- largest single loss of US civilian lives in one day since Pearl Harbor until 9-11.

Since I didn't pay much attention, I knew that a congressman was killed and accepted the media reports that it was "a bunch of RELIGIOUS nuts" -- now I find out what BRAND of nuts it really was. What it preached was "Apostolic Socialism" ... the Temple preached that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism". Hmmm

So what kind of politicians might be associated with this fine group? Oh, Jimmy Carter, Walter Mondale, Jerry Brown, etc. I love the Mondale quote ...“Knowing of your congregation’s deep involvement in the major social and constitutional issues of our country is a great inspiration to me.”

Wow, what a wonderful thing that Mondale was "inspired" by a nut and his followers, 918 of which drank poisoned Kool-Aide! Sorta brings a tear to your eye. Good thing that kind of association wasn't in any way brought out as a concern relative him running for president!

Somehow, the branding of Jonestown as "Religious Nuts" fit the narrative of the day a lot better than words like "Marxist, Socialist, Communist, etc" and association with Carter, Mondale, Brown, etc. Isn't that a surprise? There was no talk radio, no Fox and no Internet then, so nobody was the wiser.

And so it goes, what Walter said was yet again the way it wasn't in 1978.

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The GOP's Bad Habit

The GOP's Bad Habit | RealClearPolitics:

I love the title. The fact that the big incident used as "the example de jour" is false ( The now debunked  Steve Scalise spoke to "White Supremacists") points to a BIG habit of TP (The Party-D) has. Both their narratives and the supposed supporting "facts" are often false, but hey, it's TP -- just keep saying it and most people will assume it MUST be true! They hear it often enough.

It would be wonderful to see the MSM hold TP to a standard remotely like what the column ends with:

"Maybe someday the Republican Party will say clearly that anyone associated with Duke, his little group or any racist association should find somebody else to vote for. But this message must be sent with actions that have consequences -- and it wasn't sent this week. "

Yea, maybe "someday" TP will disassociate from known terrorist bombers like Bill Ayers, Tom Hayden, etc.  Or possibly clearly say that someone associated with Black Supremacists and race baiters like Reverend Wright, Obama, Holder, Sharpton, etc can "find someone else to vote for".

Perhaps the same for Nation of Islam folks like Louis Farrakhan who espouse the killing of Jews, or Black Panthers that support violence against whites. Maybe they will even tell known Communists that they need to "find someone else to vote for".

Somehow though, I don't think this will be happening very soon. Nor do I believe that it is likely that we will see TP narratives become any more reality oriented of fact based at any time in even the foreseeable future. Their BIG habits will remain constant -- and don't expect anyone in the MSM to be calling them "bad" anytime soon either. What would they have to print if they couldn't just make it up out of whole cloth!

The Pure Liberal Heart

A Year of Liberal Double Standards | National Review Online:

An excellent column pointing out a lot of the current crop of constant liberal double standards, but also taking on the important question of "Why?", especially in this quote:

If you work from the dogmatic assumption that liberalism is morally infallible and that liberals are, by definition, pitted against sinister and — more importantly — powerful forces, then it’s easy to explain away what seem like double standards. Any lapse, error, or transgression by conservatives is evidence of their real nature, while similar lapses, errors, and transgressions by liberals are trivial when balanced against the fact that their hearts are in the right place.

The whole column is well worth the time. Nothing really "new" to regular readers of this blog, but certainly very well done -- there is a reason Goldberg is editor of NR and I'm unknown!

In pretty much any place at time, we like to view ourselves in a somewhat heroic manner if there is any way at all we can rationalize that view. Since humans are rationalizing rather than rational creatures, we are almost always pretty darned good at seeing ourselves in a heroic positive light, and that goes at least double for the dominant religion of the day -- it is in a position to regularly heap accolades unto itself and opprobrium onto any that dare oppose it.

Today's dominant religion is Secular Humanism that decided to steal the term "liberal" from classic liberals -- those that believed in the liberty of the individual, property rights, small government, rule of law, etc.. Those in power get to do such things.

A very beneficial aspect of Christianity once being the dominant religion was that it put government in a subsidiary place and constantly pointed out that people WERE NOT supposed to be self satisfied -- in fact, people were supposed to be penitent and seeking redemption, seeing their work as a calling from God to be constantly improved along with their behavior and their caring for others. Your heart was never really "in the right" -- it was in fact "exceedingly wicked", and only by Grace, prayer and availing yourself of the sacraments and holy preaching could it stay in communion with the truly pure heart of Christ.

Secular Humanism is a far more smug calling. If you sign up for it, your heart is by definition "in the right place". I believe that the "bravery" sense of liberals that Goldberg mentions is the knowledge in their souls that they have sold out their eternal soul to bow to the graven image of the secular state, so their soul keenly feels that sense of eternal danger -- so they HOPE that they are "getting away with it". Being liberal might have somewhat the same feel as "Sr Skip Day".

The standard of God is a single standard. The standards of man are always at least double -- running down the endless litany of "liberal" double standards is always easy, because if it wasn't for double standards, they would have no standards at all!

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No Expectations, No Demands, No Shame

Quite possibly the most racist article you will ever read - Page 2 of 2 - Allen B. West - AllenBWest.com:

The quote I modified for the title is near the end of the article:

 "These men live in a culture with no expectations, no demands, and no shame."

The quote strikes me as at least one concept of liberal nirvana, but the article shows what the actual results are.

Most of us know what is in the article to be true if we have observed much of black culture for the past few decades. The once strong and very moral black culture that developed after slavery and actually thrived under Democrat controlled Jim Crow adversity, has devolved to a matriarchal welfare based anti-culture of drugs, dependency, no expectations and lawlessness that has totally devastated black lives.

As long as blacks remain "vote slaves" for TP ("The Party"-D), they can't be helped. As TP continues to rise in power, the blacks only hope is that once TP has total control, vast swaths of the rest of the population will join them in the despair of "no expectations, no demands and no shame".

When TP says "Hope and Change", think in terms of Despair and Destruction".

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Pelosi Spoke To Christian Business Group

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/12/30/a-higher-standard-for-the-gop/

UPDATE ... UNBELIEVABLY, the top story yesterday about Steve Scalise allegedly speaking to a neo-nazi group was "fake but accurate"!

Nancy Pelosi is under fire and may have to step down after reports today that she spoke to a Christian Business group in the mid-90's. In checking into some of the people at this meeting it was discovered that over 75% believed that killing unborn babies as wrong, 90% were against "gay marriage", a number of the businesses were profitable, and a few of the attendees had even donated to organizations identified for targeting by the IRS as "conservative". 

In a statement today, Pelosi said: 

This group in no way reflects my values and I apologize for having spoken to them. I was younger, I had less staff, and was really unaware that that type of bigoted "christian" even existed -- I thought they were a Unitarian group of non-profits!   

You all know my values. I favor subsidized killing of the unborn in any manner at any time at least up to birth. I am forced at times to speak to heterosexuals, but generally try to focus on the more representative  gay, lesbian, transsexual, cross-gender and uncertain. 

I have often and gladly spoken to Black Panthers, avowed black supremacists including Obama, Eric Holder and Al Sharpton. I regularly speak to Islamic freedom fighters, as well as any type of gang not including white people.  I have been willing to speak to Asian Gangs, but continue to re-evaluate that stand as evidence of too many of their families being intact and businesses being profitable continues to mount.  

I believe that anyone that gets into this country by any method should be able to vote early and often as long as they are in a group that strongly supports the values that you and I share.  Many Felons are on my staff and regularly help with all our vote outreach projects, especially focusing on the important dead vote as well as the current growth area of virtual voters.  

I have apologized repeatedly for being white, but am proud to be a woman. 

I thank you in the media for your continued strong support and hope that you and my constituents will accept my heartfelt apology. Together we can continue to stand strong and eventually stamp out Christians and profitable business. Thank You. 

Ok, so that may have been not a completely factual statement -- but in spirit I'd argue it is pretty darned close. 

The linked article is a good one -- covering just SOME of the many cases of Democrat malfeasance that are "forgiven and forgotten" -- Robert Byrd is always one of the most amazing to me, an actual OFFICIAL in the KKK that remained a D Senator to death. The article fails to mention Ted, Mr drown your young secretary, Kennedy. His "penalty" was that he didn't get to be president! (boo hoo) 

What the article fails to point out is the absolute insanity of the Rep Steve Scalise "charge". He supposedly SPOKE to a group over a DECADE ago that had connections to white supremacists? I can't even imagine how long the list would be if we went down the list of all sorts of "Nation of Islam", CAIR, communists, Black Panthers, gang connections, etc that Democrats had TALKED TO in the past. 

But I can't imagine that anyone in the media -- nor for that matter really people on the right would even WANT to demand that Democrats not TALK TO groups that may contain or be associated with causes that the candidate doesn't agree with. Why would we? There are basically only two parties in the country -- no matter how unpopular, marginalized, disenfranchised, etc some group may be, they are likely to vote for one party or the other. 

Much like leather fetish lesbian dykes may have 401Ks, jobs and even be somebodies daughter, sister, aunt, etc, even avowed white supremacists may likewise have 401Ks, jobs, be related to people, and do all manner of things that are common to all. They likely have to vote for one party or the other, and while one may THINK that given what identifies them, you could guess which party, you may not be right. 

Nation of Islam votes D, yet a large percentage of Jews vote D as well -- go figure. Most of this is likely left over from the false idea that "Nazi is right wing" (when of course like all other forms of Statism, it is LEFT wing), but it still remains one of the "biggest tent" paradoxes -- Nation of Islam wants to kill the Jews, yet they are both generally in the same political party! 

Of course we KNOW what the purpose of the coverage of this is. The Republicans won the election and are about to take over Congress, and The Party (TP- Democrat) and it's wholly supportive subsidiary, the MSM is MAD AS HELL! So, this is nothing but a very visible innuendo smear. It is clearly a smear they would never even consider -- or even be able to conceive of from the left, because they don't see that much wrong with Arab organizations with links to terrorism, support for Sharia Law, or black organizations that condone violence against whites or Jews, etc. 

The bottom line is that the MSM hates Republicans and we can get ready for outlandish smears of all manner over the next two years! 

The SR-71 Blackbird, The Titanium Spirit That Was America

The Thrill of Flying the SR-71 Blackbird:

This is one of those articles well worth just ignoring my words and reading in it's entirety.

This was the America that I was privileged to grow up in and enjoy most of my adult life in. The exceptional nation, and undisputed in that exceptional nature for those that cared for freedom vs the tyranny of the socialist system of the USSR. Even with the rise of godless socialists in this country during the sick 60s and the malaise of the '70s, we went to the moon, Reagan defeated the USSR, and we had unmatched audacious technology like the SR-71 that was undefeated. Enemy attempts, 4000, enemy success, ZIP! 4K to zip, American stats! Plus, in this rare case, we never lost anyone even in the ejection cases! Incredible for an aircraft that operated in the environment and mission of this one!

The Author of the article, Brian Shul is also the author of the book "Sled Driver", which thanks to thoughtful friend an autographed copy of which  has set on my shelf and been frequently read / admired for years, but now needs to move to my fireproof safe -- the non-autographed copies are worth $315!

Shul was shot down in Vietnam, assumed to never fly again, but with great personal effort came back and flew over 500 hours in the SR-71, or "Sled" as the pilots often referred to her as.

Just a sample from the article if you didn't take my advice! It is in reference to their penetrating Libyan airspace to assess damage after Reagan's '86 bombing of Libya:

It is a race this jet will not let us lose. The Mach eases to 3.5 as we crest 80,000 feet. We are a bullet now - except faster. We hit the turn, and I feel some relief as our nose swings away from a country we have seen quite enough of. Screaming past Tripoli , our phenomenal speed continues to rise, and the screaming Sled pummels the enemy one more time, laying down a parting sonic boom. In seconds, we can see nothing but the expansive blue of the Mediterranean . I realize that I still have my left hand full-forward and we're continuing to rocket along in maximum afterburner.

Some links:

The definitive SR-71 site which includes a list of SR-71s now on display which made me realize that the one that sat up at the MN Air National Guard Museum at the airport in the cites was "stolen" to sit at the CIA HQ in DC! I've seen that one before it moved, the one on the Intrepid in NYC, the trans-US speed record holder at 64min, at Smithsonian, the one at the US Alabama Museum in GA and the one at Wright Patterson ... so doing pretty well!

As this once great nation descends the path of Rome and Britain before her into the "ash heap of history", the SR-71 remains a symbol of what we once were. When we believed in God, I believe this battle with decline is one that "God would not let us lose" -- we abandoned him, he never abandoned us.


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The Lives That Don't Matter, 5 killed, 12 wounded, Chicago

5 killed, 12 wounded in Tuesday shootings | Chicago:

I know nobody cares about this article from Chicago, the TOP story on google news right now is about a teen that is SHOWN ON SURVEILLANCE VIDEO pointing  gun at an officer who shot and killed him.

That is the TOP story. There are NO stories about Chicago ... not even this one about a 14 year old being among those charged with the slaying of an 18 year old on Monday. The mug shots show you the people whose lives the media REALLY believes don't matter ... along with the victims of course.

They don't matter because they can't be used to further the agenda of "The Party" (TP-D) because they are the RESULT of the policies of TP! If there was too much focus here, people may realize that in Detroit, in DC, in Chicago, in Memphis, and in most major US cities, the welfare, unwed mothers and race baiting "Community Organizers" like Sharpton, Jackson and BO have led to an ACTUAL epidemic of killing of young black men. The ones that DON'T MATTER!

You are being told what to think about -- police shooting blacks, while blacks shooting blacks by the thousands (like 6K in 2011) due to the policies of TP is NOT NEWS!

All I needed to do was google "Chicago killing" to find a tiny bit of perspective, but the media wants to make sure that you, nor anyone else that follow mostly headlines has any perspective at all.

They want you to think that white officers shooting black teens is the problem you should be focused on!

You are being brainwashed by propaganda, get angry and get suspicious!

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So Called Christmas

Where Christmas really came from (Opinion) - CNN.com:

It is that time of the year, the 2nd most important Christian holiday after Easter, so we need to have a little gratuitous criticism and debunking from someone who at the very end declares themselves to be a "Christian" themselves. Interestingly, in the author, Jay Parini's Wiki entry, there is no mention of his Christianity. As our Pastor is fond of saying, "if accused of being a Christian, you want to make sure there is enough evidence to convict!".

Whatever the foundations of his faith, they wouldn't seem to have a lot of connection to the Bible as we know it:

But there was, among early Christian gatherings, a strong need to have a myth of origins, a story about the beginnings of the man who ultimately became the Messiah, the Christ. Probably drawing on Persian myths, Matthew and Luke came up with Christmas stories that have almost nothing in common. They can't be reconciled, in fact

The article contains the usual litany of solstice connections, commercialization, Isis/Horus, Celtic Yule, etc, etc. Advent is part of the "So called" Church year, Paul doesn't talk about Christmas, so all the references must be made up -- we need to naturally call the Virgin Birth into question and even Christ being described as "The Word" (it should really be "understanding" according to the gospel of Jay P)

We then have his "statement of faith":

But one must never forget that Christians themselves -- and I am one of them -- consider this a holy time, a time of spiritual renewal, a time of the year when darkness opens to the possibility of light. 

Whatever the specifics of his birth, Jesus became the Light of the World for those who follow his path. He is, indeed, the Prince of Peace, and he invites us to a change of heart, a way of overcoming violence in the world with love and grace.

Let's see, "spiritual renewal", "light of the world", if you "follow his path", a "change of heart", a "way of overcoming violence". Anything missing?

Hmmm ... Unto us is born a SAVIOR? How about KING? Anything about a cross? Dying as sacrifice for our sins? Resurrection? How about Mathew 10:34, "Do not suppose that I come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword"?

It gives pause to think where Christians have ended up. If CNN had someone that "called themselves gay", but suggested that what sexuality one practices is a choice and those that have strong religious beliefs have every right to seek to limit special rights claims for those that choose to be gay? I wonder if that would bring a large outcry, calls for bans, "justice", boycotts, etc? Ya think?

Certainly we Christians don't want to go the way of Islam, where if such as article was done by someone claiming to be Muslim, their life would be forfeit, any CNN site would be a legitimate bomb target, and CNN personnel would be in grave danger. However, how have we gotten so unwilling to stand up that it is likely that such an article will go pretty much without public comment?

The specific day of Christmas is not important to Christian doctrine, and no doubt there are connections to holidays that are even older. What is important is the actual message -- the birth of a SAVIOR, which means realizing that mankind is sorely in need of one! That is what Christians focus on.

The other part, which Jay and CNN are intent on destroying is the value of traditions that are thousands of years old  -- because that is what "progressives" do. They work to make it seem as if the world can be culturally obliterated and recreated in their image de jour at any point in history as easy as a new suit of clothes. As Burke pointed out, they want to destroy the culture of thousands of years "so man becomes as the flies of summer".

They seek to make our existence "factual" ... like eugenics once was, or the idea that everyone can live life by having no children, and the modern secular negation of culture will "live on" --- somehow. Perhaps some future secular "deity" (it looks like they may need to wait longer than Obama) will raise up new suitably leftist population from dry bones -- although certainly only enough to be "environmentally sound".  Can't get in the way of the "fact" of AGW!

So from CNN, please enjoy your pagan, commercial, "so called" holiday!

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Sarah Palin Hecklers at Gabby Giffords Memorial

Protesters heckle NYPD cops paying respects at slain officers' memorial - Washington Times:

Oh, sorry ...  it was pro cop killer hecklers at the memorial for the two officers in NYC.

The MSM memory hole has naturally totally forgotten the rush to try to generate SOME sort of connection with Sarah Palin using "crosshairs"  on her website prior to Giffords shooting. No matter how hard they tried -- and not only did they jump out right away claiming that Palin had effectively pulled the trigger, the nut that did the shooting was (as is usual) far more left wing than right wing. From the media POV, damn ... no story there, move along.

Now we have BO, Holder, de Blasio and Sharpton to one degree or another believing that even AFTER due process has operated and Grand Juries have spoken, the protests are "justified". While they are mostly smart enough to not directly condone chants like "What Do We Want?? DEAD COPS!", they don't like to directly take action to quell such protests either -- and in Sharpton's case, they speak at protests where this was chanted without even condemning the chanting.

But what is the media position? They agree with the "civil rights activists and leaders" at  the end of this article:

Civil rights activists and leaders, including Al Sharpton who has been at the forefront of the Garner protests, have insisted that the ongoing demonstrations are not fueling anti-police sentiments.

Try to imagine for a second if a nutcase killed a couple people and posted a bunch of rants supposedly by the "Tea Party" on some website / social media! I continue to be most worried that sme lefty fruitcake will do just that because they understand what the firestorm would be like!

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Government Healthcare Popular Like Concert Tickets in Britain

The queue that shames Britain: 7.11am and desperate patients wait in the cold and dark outside surgery - just so they can be seen by their GP  | Daily Mail Online:

People wait in line for concert tickets don't they?

In an increasingly Statist world, it is hard to get any real reports as to how state run medicine actually works. It doesn't require much thought to realize why that is so, but just in case your puzzler is sore, here are a few easy ones:

• There are many more well people than sick people and well people tend to like nationalized medicine. Why? Because it is cheaper of course! If you are generally well, then you have no idea how good it all works. It is like your fire insurance -- you likely assume yours is great, right? You most likely have never used it. 


• All the news sources tell you it is great. They even tell you that in the US. They also told you we were completely out of oil in the late '70s, starvation would be rampant by '90, the US was WAY past being able to produce more oil (for DECADES), lots of carbohydrates were good for you and the USSR was going to be around at least as long as the US (and was maybe even a nicer place). But hey, you might be unpopular if you thought independently of the mass media! 


• All those statistics on government run healthcare? They come from some GOVERNMENT! Of course you probably trust the government -- but still use FedX if it absolutely positively has to get there! But hey, just cuz they can't deliver mail all that well doesn't mean they can't do brain surgery. Right? 


• "You met someone", or "Everybody that I talked to ...". Strangely, so have I and 80% of those that I've talked to are on the other side -- in fact some of them came from Canada, England and other places to work in the US explicitly to get healthcare in the US! Sorry, neither my sample nor yours is REMOTELY statistically valid, and in fact it is REALLY hard to get statistical information on something like "how good is healthcare" because: 


1. Selection bias -- the coal mine canary problem. We interviewed 100 coal mine canaries as to the risk of their job, all responded it was risk free! See the problem?  The canaries that died in the line of duty (the reason for coal mine canaries) are not available for sample. In healthcare, those that have a REALLY bad experience are non-reporters in surveys, and in fact, those that are sick tend not to be anxious to pick up the phone, fill out surveys, etc either. (they are sick, remember?)
2. Pool removal -- those that have a really bad time with public healthcare may well have emigrated to another country (likely the US) rather than live on with the problem. Your health tends to be high on your priority list -- people have been known to leave countries due to high taxes, it is a rare person who doesn't find their health to be MUCH more important. 
3. Compared to what? If you live in say Canada it is unlikely that you get very much honest information about US healthcare (see media bias). The media is >90% Democrat, which means that their faith in government is statistically higher than someone who claims to be Christian having faith in the Virgin Birth. How would the average man in the street have ANY idea of what they ought to be comparing their healthcare to? 

Just like many things that I blog on, 90%+ of people have no exposure to any other view than "minimal standard MSM reporting", nor are they inclined to do much thinking about any of this. It's a damned shame that we have slipped to be so democratic. If we were more aristocratic, there would be no need for them to! 

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R-E-L-A-X! Fusion Is On the Way!

Skunk Works Reveals Compact Fusion Reactor Details | Technology content from Aviation Week:

OK, maybe not QUITE as small as the pair of units that power the Terminator in T3, but never the less a "Compact" Fusion Reactor (CFR) the size of a semi-trailer / container ship container vs a good sized building.

The article is well worth the read -- enough power for 80K homes or a major ship from a unit the size of a container -- lots of obstacles, certainly some likely over optimism, but WAY more real than "Hope and Change"!

It makes me think of Matt Ridley's excellent book "The Rational Optimist" which I read and liked but never blog reviewed. It gives a nice big picture of how from Malthus to Anthro Global Warming, alarmism as been constant, but so far human innovation has been FAR stronger.

The numerous predictions of "Peak Oil" and the reality of gas slipping under $2 due to Fracking is just one of the many examples of how innovation has a very strong tendency to trump a lot of what appears to be very rational pessimism that has the very bad Achilles heel of not taking technical innovation and the fact that "trend lines" often don't last into consideration.

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The Evil GOP

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/12/21/orig-snl-dr-evil-slams-north-korea-sony.cnn.html

Sure one has to be able to take a joke, but really, how much is this kind of gratuitous political negative advertising worth to TP?  (The Party - D)

"There is already a GOP and it is already an evil organization". Ha Ha

Right. Without a GOP, there would be only TP -- a one party system, and we can see how well that has worked in various places around the world.

We Want Dead Cops, Releasing the Genie

NYPD officers killed; New York ex-governor slams mayor - CNN.com:


Last week thousands of protesters in NYC chanted; "What do we want? --- DEAD COPS! 

This week they got them.

So there are something like a million Police in the US and something like 40M blacks. Let's see, if we are after eye for an eye "justice" here, vs the due process grand jury style, the police need to kill close to 80 more blacks. Better make sure they are all killed assassination style just standing around minding their own business if that is how we now do  "justice"!  Doesn't seem like the left leadership (BO, Holder, etc) is interested in honoring the results of our legal system via Grand Jury.

But maybe more importantly, we have released a malevolent genie -- one not seen since those heady days of the left in the late '60s, the tacit encouragement of angry mobs to kill, especially the police. The officers certainly realize it as they turned their backs on the NYC Mayor de Blasio as he walked into a press conference. The TP controlled media certainly gets it ... "Finger Pointing Begins". Contrast that with "Unarmed Black Teen Gunned Down" and countless things like "Ferguson Seeks Justice" --- nope, no "finger pointing" ever happened in Ferguson.

Somehow, the linked CNN article talks of the protests as "Black lives matter", peaceful, and seems to be blissfully unaware of  the many videos and articles (in the "right wing" media) showing the "Dead Cops" chants as linked. Isn't funny how ANY video that purports to show police violence is splashed everywhere, but thousands marching saying "What Do We Want --- Dead Cops!" is nearly invisible. Nobody in power -- not BO, not Holder, not de Blasio has had anything bad to say about this chant -- lots of words about "justice", even after the Grand Jury results, but nothing to say about thousands chanting that they want dead cops?

Is TP still running an exercise, or are we running up to the main event?  Cuba has a very active version of the CIA known as G2  perhaps our Dictator BO made a deal with his comrades for a bit of help?

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