Why I Was Wrong

James K. Glassman: Why I Was Wrong About 'Dow 36,000' - WSJ.com:

Very good column with a very good title. We ALL need to do this kind of analysis at LEAST a couple times a year, ideally more.

I realize that in writing a blog, the easiest thing to do is criticize what others have written or said, so that is mostly what I do -- it is easy and fun, and I write this blog for fun!

But blogging wasn't my life and still isn't much of it, so ...

I've been wrong LOTS of times ... some easy ones that come to mind:

1. Voting for Jimmy Carter and being a Democrat ... I'd been wrong for 21 years and it was a big change to vote for Reagan in '80! (but a good one) 
2. Dabbling in Atheism -- I went through the whole questioning thing. Had it not bee for the death of my friend Annette, I'm not sure if I would have ever found my way back to the road to Truth and would likely have left this vale of tears long ago bound for a much worse place. 
3. Some relationships with women that we won't go into! 
4. Thinking that pre-compiled Java would out run Just In Time (JIT) translation ... lots of resources spent, lots of disappointment. 
5. Voting for Perot after HW broke his "No New Taxes" pledge ... giving us Slick Willie and destroying a good number of extra fibers of the already frayed American moral fibre. I learned that politics is "the lesser of two weevils",  and will not forget that again. 
6. HUNDREDS of bad investment decisions ... failing to sell Juno at $80 something a share after I paid $2 a share for it because "I didn't want the tax bill", selling Apple at $150 and watching it go to $800 ... this list is SO long it could exceed War and Peace! 
7. Becoming WAY too trapped into IBM for WAY too long due to "pension" ... I'm quite sure that in < 5 years we will have enough inflation to make that pension worthless to REALLY show me that foolishness, but see #8.
8. Fairly consistently underestimating the resilience of the US economy ... I thought Slick Willie would kill it faster, and BO as well. The original model was pretty damned good, and "big MO" takes awhile to slow down ... so back to the linked article. 

Now that is FAR from a definitive list. The article is from 2011, but some of the quotes are right.

The first major change is that the relative economic standing of the U.S. is declining. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that U.S. growth will average a little more than 2% over the next 70 years, compared to about 3.5% during the second half of the 20th century. This is a stunning decline. 

The reasons? One is a demographic imbalance, with too few workers supporting too many retirees and other non-workers. Another is a growing preference for European-style security. Still others include inefficient investment in human capital, especially K-12 education, and an enormous buildup of debt partly meant to prevent financial catastrophe in 2008-09. Meanwhile, developing nations like China, India and Brazil are growing far 

As I often point out in this blog, the decline of America is REAL, the slow market growth is just one proof. The sad thing is that unlike our inevitable aging and decline, the US COULD still be vibrant and moving to a brighter future ... lower tax rates, more encouragement for work, less focus on "safety net", etc. BUT, we MUST recognize it is happening and TAKE ACTION! 

I'd argue with him that more investment in the current union / democrat party propaganda axis that calls itself "education" in the US is counterproductive ... charter schools, private schools, internet assisted home schooling, more accessible "boarding / prep / military schools" and other true education innovation that I can't even envision could provide the true base for the US to leap-frog the Chinese, Indians, etc ... but the NEA is ONLY going to go on "seniority based increasing 30 year and out to cushy retirement, 25 students in a box with one teacher, and big donations to The Party (TP) to keep the gravy train (for the teachers) rolling" as what to "invest" in. 

Anyway, being wrong is one of the best ways to learn. Admitting it is a way to share that a bit with others ... and in a competitive capitalist nation like we used to be, lots of mistakes tends to drive exciting levels of wealth both individually and collectively. 

... or we can just continue our decline! 

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The Perfect Symbol of BO

Fred Thompson Skewers The Obama Library in One ‘Perfect’ Tweet:



I find B0 (B ZERO) to be a better symbol than his holy odiferousness  BO



So $100,000,000 (lots of zeros) from a state that has nothing (well, less than nothing, but let's be kind) building a nothing a library has marvelous  symbolism!



I really think they ought to put it in Kenya ...  no matter if he was born there, he was VERY explicit in his book that Kenya is where his heart is! It's like the Reagan Library being in California rather than IL.



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Taxes, Kissing, Racism, Privacy

Louisiana Congressman Vance McAllister Won't Run for Re-election After a Kiss - WSJ.com

Scrolling down my Google News today I saw this -- a married Republican man captured on some grainy security tape by "unknown sources" kissing a female aide in his office. Gee, I thought, is kissing sex? I thought if it was consensual, it was a private matter ... oh wait, Republican. Never mind.

Then I see another Republican charged with tax fraud in NY.

and of course we have the sordid tale of Donald Sterling (marginal Democrat, but that isn't news) ... with a tape acquired by who cares  what means as a wife seeks to sue a former girlfriend of mixed race who was gifted a Ferrari a condo and other sundry items that apparently the wife seeks to recover.

Things this brings to mind:

• Tom Daschle failing to pay $120K in taxes from '05-'07, "discovered" in '09. You think anything would have ever come of that if BO didn't try to get him into HEW? No way ... if you want to read the article, it covers a bit about Nancy Killefer, and Tim Geithner as well. Let's face it, if you are a member of The Party (TP), then taxes are optional or much reduced -- they just hadn't worked out the full deal with the IRS to keep the TP stuff fully hushed in '09.

   Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and Daschle's former Democratic colleagues had rallied to Daschle's defense in the wake of questions about his failure to fully pay his taxes from 2005 through 2007. Last month, he paid $128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest.

• "Privacy" in this country is where? Who taped the conversation with Sterling? Who got the pics of Vance and his kiss? Let's face it, in a nation that PRIDES itself on letting KNOWN rapists, murderers or whatever go on technicalities so tiny that they defy imagination cares not ONE BIT about attacking people for being "racists or republicans" ... oh wait, maybe it is a settled BO pronouncement that racist and republican are just interchangeable terms now? Hard for us old guys to keep up. 

So Sterling is cheating on his wife and giving his mistress millions of dollars of stuff (including a FERRARI??  -- wow, this must have been some mistress, or Sterling just doesn't know his prices that well !  -- as "presents" -- and what we are worried about is some racist rant to the ex-girlfriend that is mixed race herself? He doesn't exactly sound like a Klansman to me -- again, if you want to read the BO book "Dreams" it seems pretty darned clear that BO and his "Choom Gang" said a lot of nasty things about whites.

I would be completely unsurprised if when you get a "couple joints and maybe a little blow" (but no horse ... his words, not mine), into his snottiness  even today, he and Michelle might have some choice words for white folk ... Hell, we KNOW that we are "bitter clingers", and he wanted to filter his mom's "white blood" out of his system. But hey, sorry ... wrong standard, TP says BO is A-OK!

I know all readers of this blog have NEVER said ANYTHING derogatory about men, women, liberals, conservatives, Fox watchers, management/grovelers, Vikings/Packers fans, etc, etc. I mean, that is why we once had "right to privacy and free speech" in this country ... so we made sure that we ALWAYS said EXACTLY what we would say to someone in front of our Mom, preacher, and the person in question! Right?

I mean taping someone whenever we want, making what they SAID public, and then prosecuting them in the court of public opinion is what "privacy and free speech" is about! Hell, maybe that is "The American Way" these days? We can tell, because there is no outrage at any of the sources of this! Just a lot of tsk tsking, head wagging, and sanctimony. It is only Christians that are hypocrites ... never the left!  

Oh wait, maybe it was about POLITICAL speech? No, can't be that, there are all sorts of restrictions on who can contribute to what when and how much, and we are even starting to tread on the path that if you LIE in political speech it can be slander. Really? Oh, ONLY if it is "speech against TP"! That makes sense ... if politicians couldn't lie, I'm not sure any of their speeches could get beyond the Pledge -. er, wait. "liberty and justice for ALL"? ... clearly not for rich folks, justice is equal treatment, and our politicians gave that up to fleece "the rich" long ago.

So why bother with the "free speech and privacy" thing at all? Because if you have enough standing in TP, THEN you get those rights! oh ... and abortion, THAT is part of privacy, just not if you are a baby! Who ever said anything about a baby being "safe (and private?) in it's mothers womb"? 

I think I could just go on, but you get the picture. I'm not sure why we have a defense budget, what is it that we value enough to defend at this point? The "right" to find someone that doesn't meet some PC standard so that we can all take umbrage (the only thing the US has a surplus of!) and therefore feel "good" in that wonderful schadenfreude way?

Marvelous. I think if we look at this and some of the stuff coming out on voter fraud, we can tell TP will be doing very well this fall!

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Bundy, Sterling, Wagging the Dog, The Party (TP)

Cliven Bundy: Another conservative folk hero exposes racial nerve - CNN.com:

I happen to be in the middle of the "left hand clapping" sound and fury book called  "Dog Whistle Politics". In a world with only a left side, one could imagine a complete creation on the right of "the southern strategy" and "coded messages' (the "dog whistle" ... only the DOGS ... (eg. white folk, but that is OK, NOT racist! ), can hear them). The one sided universe is always a tidy place, and the book really does a great job of pointing out how that one hand sounds (with A LOT of amplification!).

I wonder how "Monkey Call Politics" with some encoding that only blacks hear would fly? Even though monkeys are significantly smarter than dogs.

The next house that I build is only going to have a south side by the way -- the north side gets too many ice dams in the winter, so I've decided to do away with it. I know it is a brilliant idea -- like wealth without work, peace through weakness, leading from behind, ... where if you like your organs (or your guns), you can keep them! (Trust ME!)

Oh, you see a problem with a home without a north side? Actually it COULD somewhat be done, earth home -- but that isn't really the point here. The point is that everything in this world has AT LEAST 3 dimensions, usually more, but for US cases we like to focus on 2, when typically there IS actually just ONE being seen! Because that is what we are SUPPOSED to see!

I need to make "The Party" (TP) clear. One aspect of it is Democrats, but it is far more than that. Teachers, university professors, government workers, union members, hollywood people, media people, lawyers, doctors, corporate employees, etc are required to be  "registered Democrats" or to SHUT THE F**K UP! You have to be a de-facto TPM (THE Party Member) to even survive, let alone get ahead.

So "The Party" suggests that certain kinds of speech are "hate speech, disallowed". Interesting that BO in his book "Dreams" used the "N*word" multiple times, including calling his Grandfather a "House N##GER".  He also discusses the desire to "filter the white blood from his veins". There really is no dilemma there ... that is the difference between being IN or OUT of the TP (THE Party). As long as you have enough POWER, (and BO does), you actually have the "illusion of freedom" ... this is what those on the left dream of. Rising through the ranks with proper fealty to get to the point where YOU are the elite, the 1%, the mighty.

Really though, you are not. Unless your rights are UNALIENABLE,  endowed by your CREATOR, they are only temporary whims of some potentate or power group, see TP!

 In actual Freedom, like the US used to be, nobody really cared that much what Bundy, Sterling or BO said in some context that wasn't ACTION. Words were words and action was action ... you could be a racist, sexist, homo or homophobic, Cracker, Kike, Hymie, Dago, Whop, Pollack, etc, etc, and other than maybe getting your butt kicked if you wanted to bring your slurs out in the wrong context, "sticks and stones would break your bones, but words would never hurt you".

No longer --- we are WAY down the road to TP deciding "allowable speech" -- the discussion is supposed to be OVER (see SHUT THE F##K UP) on race, climate, BO care, Quantitative Easing, higher taxes for "the rich", etc, etc ... that list HAS grown and WILL keep growing.

So far, you won't go to jail for much of it (or worse), but these things take a bit -- you make it CLEAR that WE ... TP, will use whatever word, phrasing, etc, whenever and however we choose. (See BITTER CLINGERS) ... said by a Non-TPM, that kind of remark is RACIST! "Those people" were taken out and stereotyped, and for a Non-TPM, that is RACISM.

But that list grows every day ... climate "deniers" are not much better than racists already and their stock is going down nearly as fast as the temperature.

MUST we really care what some rancher in NV who was picked for his 15min of fame by being targeted by the BLM in the first place, or some NBA owner? The NBA is not exactly a "race equalized" environment last I checked. I mean, if the number of Blacks in prison is a result of racism rather than action, you CAN'T be going to tell me that blacks hold all those NBA places on MERIT can you?


OH, and if we DO care, then why does BO skate?

Right now, "racism" is a FAR better thing for TP to discuss than Ukraine, N Korea, the economy, BOcare, China, Keystone, IRS, NSA, Al Quaeda, or a WHOLE host of other things ... so all branches of TP, the propaganda wing called the MSM being key, and focused in race!


Wake up people ...



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NRA, Come for the Guns, Stay for the People

http://www.npr.org/2014/04/26/307150142/at-the-nra-meeting-come-for-the-guns-stay-for-the-camaraderie

I've always found that pretty much any group of people are just fine if you want to talk to them -- especially those with a passion about SOMETHING ... cars, motorcycles, shooting/guns, hunting, computers, stereo, ....

I'm not sure what NPR was after here ... maybe just straight up reporting? Maybe that "how odd, people that like guns are like other people"? 

I hope it was straight up reporting. 

In Love, Mia Love

Matheson retirement clears the way for Mia Love [Updated] | Power Line:

Gotta curb my enthusiasm but I just donated $50 to Mia and I'm a bit giddy.

I know she just is just another human being that puts her knickers on one leg at a time, and I'm SURE the TP ("The Party"(formerly Democrat)) is going to do ALL they can to take her down! Who knows, maybe she smoked a joint in HS? Seems like that would be a KILLER for HER ... perhaps Barry and his "choom gang" could heap some righteous indignation on her. She isn't running to represent Tokarado after all!

The Republican "War on Women" ... all women, including their mothers, sisters, wives, etc, has always seemed a tiny bit suspect to me (I KNOW, it is PROVEN ... like warming), but TP war on BLACK conservatives, and ESPECIALLY Black Conservative, ATTRACTIVE, INTELLIGENT, Women is VERY Clear!

Mia is CERTAINLY a woman of gigantic courage. Look at what they did to Sarah Palin! It is hard to even imagine how hard they are going to come after this woman -- take Sarah x Condoleezza x Allen West x Clarence Thomas, and we MAY be getting CLOSE to the ballpark, but I actually fear for her life. The left is SEETHING with hatred for this woman.

Man, they HATE any woman that is Republican. If she is attractive, they start going nuts. If she is intelligent as well, ALL the stops come out ... witness Sarah Palin ... "let's get her kids!!!!"

Throw BLACK into the mix and the apocalypse is absolutely here in the "liberal" mind. In order to get rid of this kind of "evil" how could they possibly stop at anything???

Talk about leaving the left wing Thought Plantation!! An intelligent, attractive, BLACK Republican Congress WOMAN!  If she is a Christian as well, there might be TP members actually having their heads explode!

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Was Muhammad a Child Molester?

Opinion: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? - CNN.com:

According to Wiki, at age 53 Muhammad consummated his then marriage of  3 years to his 3rd and favorite wife, Aisha.  She was 9, some documents say she may have been 10.

CNN is not going to title a column "Was Muhammad a Child Molester" partly because someone may be trying to come cut off somebodies head -- hell, they may try to come cut off mine! ... or Wiki's for that matter. That is the core meaning of "the religion of peace"!

But I really don't think that fear is the real reason for writing things like this. I suspect that the author is fine with Islam and whatever it wants to  say or do -- marry off girls less than 10, deny women education, have them wear Burkas, stone gays -- WHATEVER, because he sees Islam as not a threat to HIS religion, which is "Atheism / Secular Humanism / Environmentalism / Narcissism", essentially the worship of his own thoughts as divine.

But he IS bothered by the resurrection!  It seems "otherworldly", and he really does't like that for the same reason that Einstein was offended that God might "play dice". His faith is in the "watch with no watchmaker" ... a very predictable and understandable mechanical universe and biology that "emerged" out of  chaos (unbounded randomness).  Our universe, and likely MANY others (like 10 to the 500)  MUST have arisen without cause, meaning, or real effect in the cosmic sense, for his belief has no "why's" beyond his own mind. His mind MUST be the master of the universe, so our universe MUST be very special -- supremely ordered and predictable, yet totally random in origin! The metaphysical Goldilocks!

Which makes him REALLY uncomfortable with Christ and Christians. It is certain that the people of the Gospels saw SOMETHING that they BELIEVED was their risen savior. The author may be surprised that the Son of God raised from the dead is not instantly recognizable, etc  and complete with all human body limits (can't disappear, walk through walls, etc) All of the disciples save John went to their deaths as martyrs convinced that they and their brothers were changed and would not change "their story" even unto death by torture. "Their story" had become something not seen before or after in human history -- THE TRUTH, which the father of lies hates and seeks to destroy in all ways possible.

In this case, the author is led by his God (we all have one, Satan is happy to let you believe that YOU are god!) to introduce doubt in as many minds as he can relatively softly ..."they left out the ACTUAL resurrection" ... you know, the "specifics" of how the God of the Universe takes human form, dies, descends to hell where he atones for ALL human sin, then arises. Yes, it would be MUCH more "believable" with some "technical details".

Hopefully, if the author persists in his willful unbelief, his god will see fit on his path to eternity to clue him in on "how it is done" ... maybe there are hints in the quantum, or perhaps it is "beneath or beyond" that. I'm sure that Satan finds the "details" a source of never ending amusement ... especially when he gets to share them with one of his own.

At the end of the column the author touches on my favorite post resurrection vision from John 21, which I want on my tombstone "Gone Fishing -- John 21", so I thank him for that, and pray that he will decide that there is more to this universe than details and nice supposedly rational analysis. Christ loves the author more than I ever can, and has a wonderful purpose for him if ceases rejecting Christ the Risen Savior!

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Central Park 5 Railroad

What You Won't Read in the Papers About the 'Central Park Five' - Ann Coulter - Page 1:

In my listens to NPR I have heard multiple shows including whole hour segments with Ken Burns on this topic. I really enjoy Ken Burns and he does great work, but if you have a surgeon that you know absolutely hates you, you need to have a REALLY high degree of trust before you let him do brain surgery on you.

"The Civil War" was superb,  "Baseball" was fine ... and I've seen some of his stuff on national parks, etc.

But he has an agenda ... so do I, I'm not faulting him for his, I just preach PAY ATTENTION!  When he took on "The Central Park Five", it was pretty obvious that he wanted to convince a vast swath of Americans that we can be and were manipulated by our prejudices, public officials and media to believe things that are completely false!

I naturally agree with him whole heartedly -- we elected BO for goodness sake, we are freezing through yet another spring of "warming", we were out of oil in the '70s, Slick Willie "didn't have sex" ... the litany could go on nigh on forever.

But "The Central Park Five" seems to have a bit more of "another side". I'm not sure exactly why this "cause" excited Ken  so much, but he REALLY went over to the side of "lets beat on the powers that were" from that time. COULD it be true that "it was all a big trumped up racist mistake"? Sure. It could be true that BO really changed all his beliefs from the time he wrote "Dreams", or he never wrote it and didn't even believe all that stuff about doing in the "Colonialists" in the first place as well ... but I doubt it.

Many things are "possible", but the skeptic circuit is sounding on this one.

A bit of thought on this, and even a perusal of the show is WELL worth the time just to understand what Ken Burns THINKS (or at least wants to convince you for some reason) is possible if the government / media / elite decides they want to pin something on you! But look at Ann's evidence and consider both sides. (She has an agenda too ... but YOU don't, do you??)

Conservatives, Christians and Gun Owners take note! The next "Central Park 5 Railroad" might have you on it, and THIS time Ken will be making certain that there are no "holes" in the prosecution!

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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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