No Cow Manure on His Shoe

Obama has this uncanny ability to come up smelling like a rose. Take, for instance, this whole marriage equality thing. The dude was dead-set against it (or at least that's what he stated), and the only reason that he changed his mind prior to the election was because his shoot from the hip VP, Mr. Biden (who I still kind of actually/strangely admire, believe it or not), opened his yapper (that, and it really wasn't all that major of a transformation, for Christ; still leaving everything up to the states and, yes, being to the RIGHT of frigging Dick Cheney).......But, sure enough, folks, there the dude was, smack dab in the middle of the glory. Not only did he contact the victorious litigants of the recent Supreme Court case, he called 'em on the frigging air (MSNBC, of course), for Christ! AND, AND, he also gets the proverbial, "thank you for your support, Mr. President." I mean, talk about yet another Teflon President here.

On Eva Marie Saint

If there's ever been a more beautiful woman in the galaxy, I ain't seen her.

He's Definitely Going to Have to Lose that Sweatshirt

This is Johnathan Lloyd. He's one of the finest high school football players in the country (Rivals has him rated as the 20th best "athlete" in the country and the 14th best player, regardless of position, in the talent rich state of North Carolina)....AND HE'S GOING TO DUKE!...To say that coach Cutcliffe has improved the football program at Duke is an understatement; the first bowl game in 20 years and recruiting players like this (hey, if Stanford and Notre Dame can do it, why not Duke?). I cannot wait to see how he does on the field.

Genreless

What would be my answer to the question, "So, what would be the one word that YOU would use to describe the incomparable (other than incomparable) Neko Case?"

On Lauren Bacall Being Attired in Little More than a Towel at the Beginning of "Harper"

Kind of made the rest of the film anticlimactic, huh?

Perhaps the Most Ridiculous Thing of All Time

About 10 years ago, Zimbabwe's department of health was told to stop using DDT (a perfectly safe non-carcinogenic) because many of its farmers were concerned that their tobacco (a fully known carcinogenic) was going to be rejected by the Europeans if even a trace amount of DDT was found on it....I mean, is that frigging absurd or what? The morons should have probably been more concerned about trace amounts of tobacco on their DDT!

On Liberal Scoundrels

Always playing the race card.

On Conservative Scoundrels

Always playing the patriotism card.

On the George Zimmerman Trial 2

I get a kick out of some of this analysis in the Zimmerman trial. I was watching Dr. Drew last night and all of these shrinks were hand-wringing and lamenting over the fact that these white defense attorneys weren't showing the proper amount of empathy for that fat black girl/star witness for the prosecution (if this is their star witness, I sure as hell hate to see the lesser ones); "These middle-aged white men have no idea what it's like to be in her shoes."......I mean, it was like, "Hello! That's not their damn job, asshole (being empathetic to adversarial witnesses). Their job is to impeach the chick and to try and get their client out of serving a frigging life sentence. You think that the young girl needs some empathy, huh? Fine. You give it to her, and give it to her for free. I'm sure that she'll appreciate it - probably not."

My Offer to Mexico

Yes, you can have California again. But, in addition to the land, you also have to take each and every one of those moronic politicians who have been driving that sucker into the ditch over the last 30 years or thereabouts. It's a package deal, me-buckos, a package deal. Yes?

My First Act as the New Attorney General

Sign an affidavit which accuses wd of being an unindicted (not to mention unenlightened and unemployable) co-conspirator.

Here We Go Again

I fear that Mr. Obama may have backed himself into yet another corner on foreign policy. Just like he did with Afghanistan being the "ignored war" and then once as President having to back the sucker up, so, too, I fear that he may done the same with Syria "crossing the line" now with chemical weapons (the death of those 150 evidently being far more egregious than the previous 80-90,000). Of course, it doesn't help that you always have hard-core interventionists like McCain (who always seems to want to shoot first these days) and Graham continuously prodding him and, yes, I do smell some capitulation on that front, too. Oy Vey.

On Shaquille O'Neal

Doesn't do enough commercials.

On the Idiots Who Put Those Three Ugly and Ginormous Windmills Smack Dab in the Middle of Picturesque Cape Ann (MA)

They should be pilloried, pistol-whipped, and pissed upon. Repeatedly.

25 Nobel Prize Winners Who Currently Support Biotechnology in Agriculture

Norman Borlaug
Nobel Peace Prize, 1970

James Watson
Peter C. Doherty
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1996
Paul D. Boyer
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1997

Oscar Arias Sanchez
Nobel Peace Prize, 1987
Paul Berg
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1980 Phillip
A. Sharp
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993
Douglas D. Osheroff
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996
Marshall Nirenberg
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1968
Richard E. Smalley
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1996
Edward Lewis
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
Sydney Brenner
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 2002
Eric Wieschaus
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1995
Leon N. Cooper
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1972
Edmond H. Fischer
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1992
George A. Olah
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1994
Christian de Duve
Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1974
Mario Molina
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1995
Arthur Kornberg
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1959
Donald A. Glaser
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1960
Roger Guillemin
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1977
Sheldon Glashow
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1979

Jean-Marie Lehn
Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1987
Richard J. Roberts,
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1993

Something For Desert?

According to economist and engineer, Indur Goklany, if the planet ever attempted to feed its 7 billion inhabitants via strictly organic farming methods, it would probably require that we then utilize over 80% of the earth's surface (we presently utilize less than 40%) STRICTLY FOR FARMING. And, yes, this would also mean that we would inevitably have to chop down a significant part of the rainforest and irrigate places such as the Sahara, Great Victorian, and Mojave Deserts and the Colorado Plateau. To say here that the greenies haven't thought this sucker through is an understatement.

The Not So Sweet Stench of Nostalgia

To those of you who think that the environment of pre-industrial America was somehow pristine, think again. In larger cities like New York and Philadelphia, hundreds of thousands of tons of horse manure (horses being the primary mode of transport for people and freight back then) were deposited onto the streets every year and the primary mode of heat was wood, a fuel with a carbon to hydrogen ratio of nearly 10:1 (natural gas, by comparison, has a carbon to hydrogen ratio of 1:4). The air quality in these cities was terrible back then and life in a more general sense was nasty, brutish, and short....But, hey, at least they had some windmills, right?

On Spurs Starting Forward, Kawhi Leonard

A star is born.

On Heat Reserve Forward, Chris "Birdman" Anderson

Not free-spirited enough.

On Spurs Reserve Forward, Boris Diaw

First-team all-ears-team.

On the Global Warming Alarmists' Assertion of a Positive Feedback Loop

It hasn't happened in the past and it isn't happening now. Period, end of discussion.

Miscellaneous 172

1) According to climatologist, John Christy, there exists in California temperature data which measures trends in both the San Joaquin Valley AND the Sierras. So, what precisely does this data show? It shows (again, inconveniently) the absolute opposite of what it's supposed to show; namely, that the greatest warming has been taking place in the lower elevations and the higher elevations essentially nada (for global warming to be taking place it has to show significantly more so in the mid to upper troposphere and less so on the earths' surface). Of course, the global warming alarmists have been focusing much more on these urbanized settings and so ergo, the data remains problematic.............2) On Conservative Black Chick, Crystal Wright - yeah, I'd do her, multiple times.............3) I obviously can't read President Obama's mind. But if this dude is purposefully trying to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible simply to make the Republicans look bad and thereby gain a foothold in 2014, then he isn't just a bad President, he's a bad human being, too - RIGHT UP THERE WITH SENATOR MITCH MCCONNELL!

The Complete and Unabridged List of Barney Frank's Statements Warning the Republicans About the Perils of Fannie and Freddie

...

A Pressing Comparison

If Alberto Gonzalez (whose actions I also opposed vociferously) had ever signed an affidavit accusing Andrea Mitchell or Charles Blow of being an "unindicted co-conspirator", the leftists on the blogs and in the media would have gone totally ballistic AND THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN JUSTIFIED....The fact that they've been so weaselly silent NOW when the same thing is being done to Fox News's James Rosen is rank hypocrisy in my book (though, no, it isn't surprising).

The Wit and Wisdom of Alan "Even a Broken Clock is Right Twice a Day" Greenspan

"Without stronger regulations, we increase the possibility of insolvency and crisis. Without restrictions on the the size of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, we put at risk our ability to preserve safe and sound financial markets in the United States." 2005...................................................................................P.S. On two distinct occasions (2005 and 2006), the Republicans in the House and Senate tried to put restrictions on the practices of Fannie and Freddie and on both occasions the Democrats (Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Gregory Meeks, etc.) demagogued the issue. Yeah, you had better believe that this was a bipartisan fiasco.

On the FHA Still Offering Loans With Only a 3% Down Payment

Have not these imbeciles in Washington learned anything? Unless a person puts a substantial down-payment into his or her purchase, there is literally zero incentive for a person not to walk away from it (yeah, their credit rating will probably be effected but a lot of these idiots simply don't give a rat's ass). Couple that with the ridiculously idiotic policy that's been coming out of the FED (preposterously low interest rates, a tripling of the monetary base, etc.) for a decade or so and it really ISN'T surprising the fact that the recovery has so anemic (thank the good Lord for the energy sector).

Why is Ray Allen the Greatest Outside Shooter in NBA History?

Try it's because the dude gets there three hours before anybody else and practices...and practices......and practices............Nothing ever comes easy, folks (well, unless of course you're a damned federal bureaucrat).

On the George Zimmerman Trial

There are two possibilities here, I believe. Either Mr. Zimmerman was getting the shit kicked out of him and pulled the gun in self defense, or he had the gun out with an intent to kill (as the state is now asserting) and decided to let this Martin kid beat on him a bit first. To me, the former seems much more plausible and for that reason alone I still have serious reasonable doubts (at least when it comes to second degree murder - manslaughter maybe not as much).

On Sharyl Attkisson

The woman is a consummate and award-winning professional who goes after Democrats and Republicans with equal fervor. The fact that you have some low-life and unemployable degenerate out there denigrating her is well beyond disgusting (CBS News has had forensic experts examine the computers and they totally substantiate Ms. Attkisson's claims), in my opinion (though, no, it isn't surprising at all, emanating from such a tiny crawl space).

Pay Dirty

CBS News has now confirmed that the home and work computers of investigative reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, have indeed been hacked into. Acting on behest of their attorneys, they apparently were not at liberty to say anything in addition to that, but I am telling you here, if this can in any way be traced back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (Ms. Attkisson has been doggedly pursuing both the Benghazi and Fast and Furious fiascoes) and/or the Justice Department, this could be the big one - THE REAL BIG ONE.

A 2012 Election Recap

The Etch-a-Sketch guy lost to the "I'll be more flexible after the election" guy and Karl Rove suffered a massive breakdown on the air (think in terms of those Japanese soldiers hiding in the jungle still thinking that the war was going on well into the '60s).

Following the Money, Eh?

Al Gore has made nearly a quarter of a billion dollars via crony capitalism and the spreading of misinformation (Michael Crichton, who actually liked and voted Al Gore, repeatedly stated that both the book and the movie were loaded with inaccuracies). Richard Lindzen has made a couple of thousand dollars doing consulting work (actual work) for an oil company - way, Way, WAY, past the point in which he had formulated his opinion on global warming. So, guess which one of these two men that the leftists are having trouble with. Yeah, huh?

I Guess That There's Always a First Time - NOT!

The earth is over four and a half billion years old and there is no evidence whatsoever of there ever having been a runaway greenhouse effect, this despite the fact that atmospheric CO2 levels have at various stages been many multiples of what they are presently. WHAT, PRAY TELL, is so difficult to understand here?

America, In a Nutshell

Total number of hits on Youtube; "Ben Powell on Globalism and Development" - 320, "Lady Gaga, Bad Romance" - 521,148,093.

Cast My Memory Back There, Lord

The paramount Samoan chief....a Mr. Peter Maivia. You remember, back when wrestling was fun/Vince McMahon had a sense of humor/wasn't all roided up himself..

On Why Immigration DOESN'T Depress Wages

a) Immigrants often represent a different type of labor. As economist Ben Powell frequently points out, American labor tends to cluster around the mean for both wages and skill sets, while immigrants, they, on the other hand, have a tendency to cluster around either the very high (70% of PhDs in the country are foreign born) or very low (a majority of farm hands and housekeepers are also foreign born) in both of these two variables and, so, hence, the two populations tend to compete infrequently.............And b) it isn't just the supply (of labor) curve that is being modified here. The demand curve (for labor, goods, and services) is also being modified and the end result, according to the Journal of Economic Perspectives, is essentially a wash (only the wages of high school drop-outs are truly effected and even with them it is only an 8% decrease).

On Eric Holder

Well, he lied about something. He either lied to the Congress about not knowing anything about the Justice Department targeting journalists (he signed an affidavit which named Fox reporter, James Rosen, an unindicted co-conspirator), or he lied to the judge when he requested the affidavit in the first place (that the dude never really had an intention of prosecuting Mr. Rosen). If I were the President here, I would demand his resignation immediately and put a squeaky clean person like Jim Webb or Pat Fitzgerald in his place. Show some leadership, in other words.

On Democracy

Democracy, absent a constitutional framework/democratic institutions (free press, freedom of speech, etc.) = Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolph Hitler, Hamas, and Idiot Ahmadinejad....You need more than simply elections, people.

On Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Procreating 2

It's the biggest miscarriage of celebrity justice since Aldo Ray got top billing over Ann Bancroft in the 1957 Jacques Tourneur cult classic, "Nightfall".

On Kim Kardashian and Kanye West Procreating

Let's just call it a synopsis of our decline and be done with it....Youza, huh?

A Stark and Simple Case for Free Markets

Look at the standard of living for humans, beginning with the birth of Christ and moving forward. The line is essentially a straight one for the better part of 18 centuries and then it rises exponentially. Why did it rise exponentially? I would argue that it is largely (along with a movement toward Democracy) based upon our strong transition from an agrarian and feudal economy to an industrial and capitalistic one, a transition in which people were no longer dominated strictly by the church and/or the monarchy and in which they least had the chance to market themselves/their ideas.....So, anybody out there got a better hypothesis?

Paul Driessen on Radical Environmentalism and Africa

"Solar panels for huts, and huts forever, seems to be their motto."

On My Recent Sampling (Four and a Half Minutes) of "Hardball"

It was an incessant barrage of angry, partisan ad hominen attacks and cartoonish spinning for Mr. Obama....WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MATTHEWS? The dude used to be fair and he even used to side with the Republicans on occasion. I mean, is it all just about a damned man-crush (kind of like me when I was 10 and Roberto Clemente) here? Seemingly so, huh?

On Free Trade

It has delivered hundreds of millions of Asians out of poverty and it will do the exact same thing for Africans. The only thing necessary will be for paranoiac, stupid, and demagogic politicians, pressure groups, and bureaucrats to not fuck it up........................................................................................And, yes, there's also one other thing that people have to realize. Countries do NOT become prosperous overnight. They/their economies all go through slow, developmental stages. The fact that you have all of these ignorant American leftists wringing their hands over concepts such as "sweat shops", while, yes, it may be laudable on a rudimentary level, is every bit as ethnocentric and dumb (the fact that if it weren't for these jobs most of  these folks would be living on the streets and picking out of garbage cans) as Pat Robertson crapping on the Buddha.

Sean Hannity on President Obama Having Discovered a Cure for Cancer AND Alzheimer's

"Yeah (replete with nasally delivery, of course), well what took him so long?....And what about those outstanding parking tickets?"

The Future of American Democracy?

I sure as hell hope not, folks. I mean, you've got this one guy who will seemingly stop at nothing (selectively leaking damaging testimony) to get the President and another one who will seemingly stop at nothing (claiming that the case is "solved" at the same time when you also have the IRS director of tax exempt groups pleading the fifth) in an effort to defend him. Yeah, I would say that we probably need a special prosecutor here. Maybe that Fitzgerald guy - nobody seems to like him.

(Kenyan Activist and Economist) James Shikwati, Unplugged

1) Why do Europe's developed countries impose their environmental ethics on poor countries that are simply trying to pass through a stage that they themselves went through?"............2) "Why do they tell poor countries to follow sustainable development doctrines that really mean little or no energy or economic development?"............3) "A sharp contrast exists between many developed countries' NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and the people they claim to represent. Wealthy countries want the earth to be green, the underdeveloped want the earth fed."............4) "After taking numerous risks to reach their current economic and technological status, why do they (the developed countries) tell poor countries to use no energy, and no agricultural or pest control technologies that might cause some conceivable risk of environmental harm?"............5) Corporate social responsibility ought not to be used to impose policies that kill people. It should not be used to render poor populations sick, unproductive and perpetually destitute. For rich countries to tell poor nations to ban chemicals that help control disease-carrying insects - and then claim to be responsible, humanitarian, and compassionate - is to engage in hypocrisy of the most lethal kind."............6) “Huge bureaucracies are financed (with the foreign aid money), corruption and complacency are promoted, Africans are taught to be beggars and not to be independent. In addition, development aid weakens the local markets everywhere and dampens the spirit of entrepreneurship that we so desperately need. As absurd as it may sound: Development aid is one of the reasons for Africa’s problems. If the West were to cancel these payments, normal Africans wouldn’t even notice. Only the functionaries would be hard hit. Which is why they maintain that the world would stop turning without this development aid.”............7) Rather than improving African economies, foreign aid only worsens their situation. 70 countries are poorer than they were in 1980, and 43 are worse off than they were in 1970. The anti-globalization crusaders could help Africa more  if they would advocate  for the promotion of free trade and abolition of subsidies in the West. Lift the protective barrier in the developed countries and allow consumers to sample African products. To empower the poor economically, give them a chance to trade."............8) “If they (the developed countries) really want to fight poverty, they should completely halt development aid and give Africa the opportunity to ensure its own survival. Currently, Africa is like a child that immediately cries for its babysitter when something goes wrong. Africa should stand on its own two feet.”................................................................................Wow, now this is somebody who I WOULD give a phony American birth certificate to (and, no, I am NOT a "birther" - it's a joke).

An Extreme Paucity of Perspective

"Between JFK and RWR the wrong president survived being shot."............Under zero circumstances whatsoever should the author of this comment ever be allowed to purchase a firearm, and he should seek psychiatric help immediately.

On Bending the Healthcare Cost Curve

There are only two ways (that I can figure) to really accomplish it (and, no, one of them ISN'T Obamacare); a) A single payer system replete with rationing or b) healthcare savings accounts supplemented with a catastrophic provision in which the patient controls his own expenditures (eliminating the middle-man of government and the insurance companies). I myself much prefer the latter option because it seems to be working for various non-insured healthcare procedures such as lasix eye surgery and nose (and boob) jobs (a much improved outcome at lowered costs).

Jeffrey Immelt Check-List

1) Get chummy with Bush.......2) Get chummy with Obama.......3) Hitch the wagon to as many government sponsored green energy initiatives as possible.......4) Pay absolutely nothing (and maybe even get some money back) in federal income taxes.......5) Try and figure out who the next President is going to be and get real chummy with him, too.

From the Asinine Mind of a Radical Environmentalist

"It's not possible for people to have the material lifestyle of the average American citizen. And that's not necessarily a healthy lifestyle to aspire to. In fact, there are many ways in which we find Americans very unhappy, because they can't spend any time with their families, or with their friends. There's no sense of community anymore. It's a hectic pace. Who would want to wish that on the rest of the world?" Brent Blackwelder, Friends of the Earth.............Can you even believe this guy? We have hundreds of millions of people in Asia, Africa, and Latin America who don't have electricity, who heat their "homes" with cow dung, and who are dying slow, agonizing deaths from malaria and malnutrition, and the best that this fucking imbecile can come up with is "hectic pace" and "no sense of community"? I mean, talk about a once noble movement that has totally gone off the rails and lost its perspective, this, folks, would be that number.

I Would Probably Go With These Three Guys (With Wilson and Polk Nipping at Their Heels) 2

What would be my answer to the question, "So, who, in your opinion, are the three most overrated Presidents in U.S. history?"

I Would Probably Go With These Three Guys (With Washington and Monroe Nipping at Their Heels)

What would be my answer to the question, "So, who, in your opinion, are the three greatest (I'm actually kind of nervous even using that word) Presidents in U.S. history?"

Discourses on Mass Appeal

"Germany will be at its greatest when its poorest citizens are also its most loyal." Adolph Hitler............."I consider it a great advantage when we have 700,000 small pensioners drawing from their annuities from the state, especially if they belong to those classes who otherwise do not have so much to lose by an upheaval and erroneously believe that they can actually gain much from it.......I have lived in France long enough to know that the faithfulness of most of the French to their government is largely connected with the fact that most of the French receive a state pension.......Whoever has a pension for his old age is far more content and far easier to handle than one who has no such respect." Otto von Bismarck............."If you want to acquire a reputation for generosity, therefore you have to be ostentatiously lavish, and a prince acting in that fashion will soon squander all his resources, only to be forced in the end, if he wants to maintain his reputation, to lay excessive burdens on the people...." Niccolo Machiavelli............."These Negroes, they‘re getting pretty uppity these days and that‘s a problem for us since they‘ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness. Now we‘ve got to do something about this, we‘ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference.......I’ll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years." Lyndon Baines Johnson (asserting here that Machiavelli was wrong, at least on an individual basis).

On the "Bromance"

I personally feel that it's a good thing whenever a Democrat and a Republican get together and form a positive relationship and, yes, I would absolutely like to see more of it (not that I'm holding my breath, mind you, with morons like Pelosi - the biotch hasn't even made spell-check yet - and Bitch McConnell ruling the roost).

The Progressive Solution to Debt

More debt/cowbell.

On Richard Lindzen

a) He's a Harvard educated astrophysicist (with a list of awards far too lengthy to mention).......b) He's the Alfred P. Sloan professor of meteorology at M.I.T........c) He's arguably the world's foremost expert on the atmosphere and on climate sensitivity.......d) He is the author of over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and numerous textbooks.......e) He (along with Michael Crichton and Phillip Stott) was able to turn a PBS audience from 58% to 29% pro AGW to 46% to 42% anti AGW - a 33 point swing in their opinion.......f) He has never been accused of hiding data/"declines".......g) He has never been accused of "adjusting" data (a la, Mr. Hansen).......h) He has never once engaged in retribution, law-suits, or ad hominem attacks against pro AGW people.......i) He has always conceded that global warming exists and that human activity may be playing a part in it (his only contentions being that the warming is hardly alarming and that there are other variables probably more important).

Oily Bed-Fellows

There are some things in life that are just so utterly delicious in their irony that you simply cannot pass them up. Take for instance this little factoid. DID YOU KNOW that one of the premium bank-rollers for Matt Damon's propagandist piece of shit hit-piece, "Promised Land" (a dramaturgical counterpart to Matthew Fox's ant-fracking HBO screed, "Gasland") , was none other that the royal family of the United Arab Emirates? It seems, folks, that these "more money in their pockets than brain cells in the noggins" low-lives stand to lose a massive amount of revenue to the American natural gas industry if in fact this fracking continues, and what better way, SERIOUSLY, to head it off at the pass than to hitch your oil tanker to yet another leftist Hollywood vehicle. It's brilliant!....Well, except for the fact that movie itself tanked (no pun intended).

On the Spurs' Gregg Popovich Being a "Great Coach"

Yeah, maybe, but when you have the services of Tim Duncan for 16 years, Tony Parker for 12 years, and Manu Ginobili for 11 years, you gotta figure that at least some of that greatness has been thrust upon him.

Academy Award Winner ("The Farmer's Daughter"), Loretta Young

What would be my answer to the question, "So, who would get your vote as the most under-appreciated starlit, hottie, and actress of the 1930s and '40s?"

On Why I Remain an Independent

Comprehend?

President Obama Versus Gary Johnson on Gay Marriage

I'm sorry (and I know that my liberal colleagues aren't going to like this) but Johnson wins on this issue via a technical knockout. The dude is totally in favor marriage equality to the point that he DOESN'T leave it up to the states to decide. Compare this to Obama who has literally done nothing but drag his feet for years and who only came out (no pun intended) when his often times unscripted Vice President (who, truthfully, I actually kind of like in a weird way) opened his yap. AND EVEN THEN, his opinion didn't differ all that markedly from Cheney, for Christ (leave it to the states to decide)..................................................................................Now, to be fair here, Governor Johnson knew that he couldn't win and so, yeah, the dude was totally free to take a principled position. But he did in fact do so and for that I have to give the man some credit (other independent candidates such as Pat Buchanan obviously took a different tack).

The Real "Inconvenient Truths", Part 1

a) That the most intense warming effects of CO2 are in the first 20 ppm, and that with each additional 20 ppm, the effects are logarithmically reduced.............b) That the climate models of the early '90s (even those that had factored in significant reductions in CO2) all predicted significantly higher warming than we've had (there's been virtually zero increase in warming since 1998).............c) That there are nearly 1,900 studies on the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age - the vast majority of which have stated that these time-frames were real, global, and possessive of temperatures that are different from those of today.............d) That there are numerous geological studies which have shown that CO2 levels have quite often been higher than those of today and that there has never been a runaway greenhouse effect (in fact, some of the time-frames have actually been glaciations).............e) That there has been no significant change (over the past 100 years) in the number and/or intensity of tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, etc. (yes, there's been more coverage due to the fact that we have more media, more people who are willing to reside in harm's way, etc. but, no, no significant changes have been noted).............f) There has been no significant reduction in global sea ice (this, per the University of Illinois's Arctic Science Research Center) and no significant increase in sea level (this, per the NASA satellites).............g) That the satellites have actually been measuring more escaping radiation from the stratosphere, not less.............h) That the world's polar bear population has actually been increasing and it is currently approximately 300% over what it was in the '70s.............i) That there is no geological evidence of global warming ever having triggered a mass extinction on earth (global cooling, asteroids, and gassing are all far more likely to cause extinctions).............j) That in almost every instance of CO2 and warming coexisting, it is the warming which plainly precedes the the increases in CO2.............k) By almost any calculation possible, it will be far less costly to adapt to global warming than it will be to prevent it (not that humans can necessarily control the planet's thermostat anyway, mind you).............l) That wind energy will more than likely never be a viable alternative to fossil fuels (it is far too inefficient and intermittent and has far too low of a power density ratio).............m) That the United States is already one of the most energy efficient countries on the planet and that this has largely happened because of market forces and not because of government mandates, U.N. agreements, etc..............n) That the correlation between solar cycles/ocean patterns and global warming is far more positive than the one which exists between CO2 and warming.............o) That the largest percentage of 20th Century warming took place prior to 1940, at a time when atmospheric CO2 was still well under 300 ppm.............p) That there have been zero hot-spots noted in the lower troposphere of the equator (yep, yet another untrue prediction by the IPCC/computer models).............q) That James Hansen literally did away with (via his various "adjustments") 35 years of global cooling (this, after having championed it in the '70s); 1940-1975.............r) That nearly half of those supposed 2,500 scientists who signed the IPCC report weren't actually scientists but reviewers and/or bureaucrats, and that, even of the scientists involved, a fair number of those actually disagreed with the "findings" and requested (mostly to no avail) that their names be removed (Paul Reiter actually sued the United Nations and won) from the document.

A Peaceful Shifting of Opinion

I already told you about the Intelligence Squared debate (on PBS) on global warming in which the skeptics fully eviscerated the warmists. Well, that same show has also done a similarly formatted debate on Islam and the results of that one were pretty darn conclusive as well...........................................................................................The specific question which was up for debate stated that, "Islam is a religion of peace", and the participants this time were Zeba Khan and Maajid Nawaz on the yes side and Ayaan Hirsi Ali (the author of the chilling book, "Infidel") and Douglas Murray on the no side. And just like with the previous debate, the audience was polled before and after as to their opinion. In this case, the audience's beginning opinion was 41% - yes, 25% - no, and 34% undecided and, yes, by the ending of the debate, these numbers had shifted markedly to 36% - yes, 55% - no, and 9% - undecided....Wow, I guess that the testimony of somebody who has thoroughly experienced first hand this religion of peace was sufficient enough to move the needle here. It sure as hell moved my needle.