Thursday, January 31, 2008

The Shell Game

Recently while stumping for his "wife's" current run for the white house Bill Clinton accidentally let the cat out of the bag with regard to the ongoing warmista program to increase government regulation of our lives and wallets. The warmista program is not really about "saving the planet", but increasing the political power of the collectivists. The present Democratic strategy of encouraging an economic recession in order to score political points for the upcoming elections has run afoul of the warmista strategy of pursuing the same objective.

The Democrats have been doing their best (with the help of the Republicans) to assure that an economic downturn occurs in time for them to use it as an issue to win back the White House and increase their majorities in both Houses of the Congress come next November. The game was given away when the spokesman for the leading contender for the Democratic nomination for President made the following statement on 30 January:

"We just have to slow down our economy and cut back our greenhouse gas emissions 'cause we have to save the planet for our grandchildren."

At a time that the nation is worried about a recession is that really the characterization his wife would want him making? "Slow down our economy"?


Mr. Clinton goes on to assert that his wife, if elected will solve this dilemma by establishing a new "energy Trust Fund". When either one of the Clintons begin using the words "trust fund" or "investment" hold on to your wallet. Just be assured that your suffering will not be in vain as it will be "for the children".

Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Bluff that Killed

In recent exchanges with not only some of my leftist friends but a European blogger, I have challenged the assertion that "Bush Lied" in order to generate support for the military action required to remove the Saddam regime in Iraq in 2003. The fact that virtually all western intelligence agencies were of the opinion that Saddam possessed so called WMDs has been completely ignored or dismissed conveniently by political opponents of the Bush administration. This is evident in the Goebbelesque strategy they have adopted and will in all likelihood continue to pursue. It is now publicly revealed by Arab News, the Middle East's English language daily that Saddam was in fact engaged in what turned out to be for him a suicidal bluff.
Saddam Hussein allowed the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction to deter rival Iran and did not think the United States would stage a major invasion,...He thought the United States would retaliate with the same type of attack as [Clinton] did in 1998 ... a four-day aerial attack...Saddam publicly denied having unconventional weapons before the US invasion, but prevented UN inspectors from working in the country from 1998 until 2002 and when they finally returned in November 2002, they often complained that Iraq wasn’t fully cooperating....Saddam also said that he wanted to keep up the illusion that he had the [WMD] program in part because he thought it would deter a likely Iranian invasion...Saddam had the intention of restarting an Iraqi weapons program at the time, and had engineers available for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

This information has been revealed by the FBI investigator who interrogated Saddam after his capture in December 2003 and is due to be the subject of a segment of CBS's "60 Minutes" on Jan 27, 2008. It will be interesting to observe how the sufferers of BDS attempt to spin/ignore this tidbit of news.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Unholy (Corrupt) Alliance

This global warming sure is a pain in the neck. In many parts of the nation the citizens are paying through the nose for home heating because the predicted warming has not alleviated the bitter and often record breaking cold. Some are wishing that Owl Gore's promise of steeply rising temperatures would lend a hand in stemming the flight of cash from their wallets caused by simply trying to avoid freezing to death. Strangely enough the prescribed cure for this supposed crisis is the accretion of more power (and taxes) to the very politicians who are responsible for the increases in the cost of energy which is necessary to warm our homes and businesses as well as transport the goods we require.

While our elected "leaders" are kow towing to the enviro nazis by removing sources of energy under US control from being developed such as Alaskan and offshore petroleum reserves and the vast low sulfur domestic coal deposits they are at the same time damning the "eeevil" corporations for price gouging as the costs of diminishing resources increase while demand is rising.
A large part of America's energy dependence on foreign sources can be traced to Sept. 18, 1996, when President Bill Clinton stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon on the Arizona side and signed an executive proclamation making 1.7 million acres of Utah a new national monument.[...] In fact, the declaration of 1.7 million Utah acres as a national monument, thereby depriving an energy-starved U.S. up to 62 billion tons of environmentally safe low-sulfur coal worth $1.2 trillion and minable with minimal surface impact, was a political payoff to the family of James Riady.
It would appear that the economic and political dumbing down of the government educated masses is paying off big time for our "progressive" friends as it is possible that this most corrupt duo may soon to be returned to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Let me know when a progressive politician or one of their enviro nazi minders comes out in favor of constructing a non polluting nuclear power plant to aid in solving this serious situation. Meanwhile Ms Clinton characterizes as "pathetic" the efforts of President Bush to convince our Arab "friends" to increase petroleum production. How right she is!

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Suspicion Confirmed!

During some stays in Venezuela hiding from Caribbean hurricanes some time back while cruising aboard our sailboat Leonidas we had occasion to utilize the facilities of two boat yards in Puerto La Cruz and Puerto Azúl. During both of those instances requiring fiberglass work on the boat's hull we had extreme difficulty obtaining acetone which is needed to thin the polyester resin as well as for cleanup. The reason given to us for this difficulty was that acetone was used in the processing of coca leaves into cocaine. That was before the ascent of Hugo Chávez as president of Venezuela who is apparently a fan of the use of coca according to statements during a recent 4 hour speech to the Venezuelan Assembly.

I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,'' he is seen saying on a video of the speech as he shows his biceps to the audience.

Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ''sends me Coppelia ice cream and a lot of other things that regularly reach me from Havana,'' Bolivian President Evo Morales ``sends me coca paste . . . I recommend it to you.''

Another uniquely Venezuelan solution to the problem of motorcyclists proceeding along the long lines of motorists stalled in traffic jams in Caracas robbing them at gunpoint is to prohibit two males from riding on any motorcycle anywhere in the country. One male OK. One male one female OK. Two females OK. You simply can't make this stuff up.

UPDATE : 27 Jan 2008 @ 08:24 EST

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Resist Censorship

There is an old saying that I know has permeated at least as far as Scandinavia for I first heard it several years ago from the lips of a member of the Communist Party of Sweden who is an old school chum of Mrs. ΛΕΟΝΙΔΑΣ: "As California goes, so goes the US, as they are in the progressive vanguard." There is considerable truth to this statement as is evidenced by myriad encroachments on liberty which have had their inception in the "golden state" such as draconian gun laws and scores of taxing schemes designed to transfer wealth from those who earned it to the more "leisurely" sectors of the population. It has been said of Maryland that "If you can dream it we can tax it". This goes in spades for California where the state practice also includes: "If you can do it we can regulate it."

One area that thus far has escaped the tax and regulate mentality of the modern collectivists in the US is freedom of speech, and even that is threatened by the spread of "anti hate" legislation which has begun to appear here and there. Mostly due to the efforts of our government school system, few of us here in the US understand that we inherited our traditions of liberty from the prudent adoption by our nation's founders of a written constitution which basically formalized the "Rights of Englishmen".

Britain on the other hand, has never formally adopted a written constitution and therefore Parliament is able to enact virtually any law which it deems appropriate. An example of such an act is: sections 18(1) and 27(3) of the Public Order Act of 1986 which prohibits "Stirring up Racial Hatred by displaying written material" likely to result in attitudes of hatred toward any ethnic, racial or religious group. Interestingly enough the law has not been applied to Muslim demonstrators such as those displaying signs reading "massacre those who insult Islam, May God curse the Queen, Butcher those who mock Islam and God bless Hitler". It is, however to be applied to a UK blogger who has called attention to the dangers of Islamists who advocate the positions referred to above. He is to be arrested for statements of fact, truth and personal opinion published on his blog.

If any of you, dear readers, care to peruse Lionheart's blog and its archives please get back to me in the comments to this posting and advise if contained therein are any incitements to violent actions against anyone. I would submit that in fact what "hatred" exists over these issues predates Lionheart's postings. If on the other hand you perhaps find this turn of events outrageous please feel free to exhibit your support in the manner you find most appropriate. One wonders if the flap over Salmond Rushdie's publication of "The Satanic Verses" would result in his prosecution by the current Labour Government. Also, if you believe that "this could never happen here in the US", think: 2 or more "progressive" appointments to the Supreme Court. You might also go here for additional discussion of this issue. Meanwhile:
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE!

cross posted at: Eternity Road

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Qui Bono?


These days one cannot even view the daily weather broadcast on the tube without being subjected to the ASSUMPTIONS of the warmista religion. Every unusual weather event especially anything related to an elevated temperature anywhere is cited as further evidence that mankind is to blame for destroying the planet and we must submit to draconian controls as well as the additional confiscation of our wealth in order to avert catastrophic changes to the climate. The substantial evidence to the contrary is invariably ignored and unreported.

Recently the number of scientists having a skeptical view of this doom and gloom scenario has emerged and in fact been revealed to exceed that of scientists who are said to consist of a "consensus" of the warmista persuasion. Nevertheless, the information presented to us by the MSM continues on the assumption that it has been settled that mankind is responsible for the eminent and catastrophic collapse of the Earth's ability to support life as we know it. The political nature of this campaign was in part revealed by the events recently transpiring in Bali, Indonesia sponsored by the United Nations to gin up support for an international protocol to replace the idiotic Kyoto accord which is set to expire in 2012.


Into this festive setting dropped a small group of scientists and free-market advocates intent on expressing a different point of view regarding the science, economics and policy implications of a new global warming treaty. Arriving from New Zealand, Australia, England, India, and the U.S., these "skeptics" came to present facts and empirical data to anyone who would dare listen. They came with a mission: to make the case for a more reasoned, balanced approach on the climate change issue and challenge the clarion call for a second draconian Kyoto-style treaty based on new revelations in science. But their job, as they soon would discover, would not be easy.

The treatment of this group of dissenters by the UN bureaucracy is a classic case of political suppression of the views of its opposition.
A small room at the [UN] NGO forum was granted to [the dissenters] during the first week to carry out [it]s task, and after disseminating numerous press notices at the on-site media center, some forty members of the press did actually turn out to hear another side of the global warming story. The first event began and was proceeding quite smoothly, in fact perhaps too smoothly, when word got out and reached the ears of certain U.N. administrators that a robust dialogue between skeptics and the media was occurring. That was apparently more than could be stomached. Needless to say, it did not take long before an official from the Secretariat's office promptly stormed into the meeting, broke up discussion, and ordered everyone out of the room.

This attitude on the part of UN bureaucrats was to continue through the entire 2 weeks of the gathering; however the skeptical (heretical) position was to a very limited extent made available for the world press.
With the recent revelation that a substantial number of well credited scientists indeed have a contrary evaluation of the data on climate change it is nothing short of scandalous that the media continue to report on the assumption that a "consensus" exists. On the other hand it is not so surprising considering the advice of "Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal of the early 1970s: "follow the money".
Qui Bono indeed!

Monday, January 07, 2008

Imagine That


Photo courtesy of: ERIC ENGMAN / Fairbanks, Alaska Daily News-Miner

"Ace and Cat Callaway stand in front of their log home as it continues to burn Thursday afternoon. Fire departments responded within minutes, but ended their service when they determined that the structure fell just outside their fire service area boundary."

Looks like the "last frontier" has finally succumbed to the predations of the ubiquitous tax man. This is said in all seriousness as we were under the impression that a spirit of "help your neighbor" obtained in frontier locations.

A Fairbanks, Alaska couple lost a home to fire Thursday because it was just outside the fire service [taxed] area and firefighters turned back from the scene [of the burning house].

Ace Callaway, the owner of the house, said officials told him his house was only 180 feet outside the area that the Steese Area Volunteer Fire Department covers, effectively putting it on the wrong side of the road. The nearest fire department is less than two miles away. Callaway says he's been paying for fire insurance for years and he assumed that the department covered a large radius.
From reading the story however, some suspicions do arise: 1) The homeowners are involved in a divorce 2) A "remodeling" was being planned and 3) Due to the planned "remodeling" a lot of their "furnishings were elsewhere". Additionally, the actions of the fire department were apparently not a complete surprise as evidenced by the final sentence of the article: "People on this side of the road are scared to death what will happen to them if their homes catch on fire,".

Could it be that your humble scribbler is too cynical due to his former career and life experience?

ht: neal boortz

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

A Hate Crime?



Of late, the enactment of so called "hate crime" legislation appears to be all the rage in the halls of the mostly two ring circuses we refer to as legislative bodies. These statutes generally pertain to one or another leftist designated "victim" group and boost the penalty for perpetrating ordinary crimes against members of those groups based on the mindset of the perpetrator. In ordinary language these are thought crimes. The list of protected groups is usually designated in the laws themselves. Prosecutions under such statutes are for the most part difficult due to many criminals failing to communicate their motivational rationale in such a way as to be obvious to a prosecutor. Occasionally however, the perpetrator will make statements that clearly reveal the motive for the crime to be his or her distaste for the group membership of the victim. One such case recently occurred in the environs of Chicago. Read the entire posting at Black Five for more data.

Marine Sgt. Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour). On December 1st, 2007, Mike went to visit a friend in Chicago before deploying to say goodbye. In order to get to his friend's residence, and keep in mind that Chicago is a myriad of diagonal and one-way streets, the front entrance (right way) to the one-way street was blocked. Mike, being a Marine, overcame and adapted by driving around the block to the other end of the street and backing up all the way to his friend's place.

While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides.
After [being] caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, the perpetrator made additional anti-military comments.

This is as clear an instance of a "hate" crime as one can cite. The rub of course is that members of the U.S. military are not designated as a leftist protected group. Incidentally, the suspect, an attorney, after being apprehended in the act and offering to pay the insurance deductible of $100.00 for the damages, accused the victim of seeking prosecution due to the attorney being Jewish!

Clearly, in the Orwellian world of 21st century U.S. some groups are more equal before the law than others. This of course applies to suspects as well as victims. According to some so called "civil rights" organizations and many social "science" professors, members of certain designated groups by definition, cannot commit hate crimes.