Miscellaneous 178

1) According to a recent study by the OECD, by 2025, the Chinese will be emitting more greenhouse gasses than the United States, Europe, Japan, and all of the other OECD countries combined X2....So, you still wanna deep-six the Western economy, folks?............2) According to a recent survey by the American Economics Association, the impact of global warming (if in fact it happens) on global GDP breaks down as follows; 20% of economists feel that it will reduce GDP by 5%, 21% feel that it will reduce GDP by between 1 and 5%, 36% feel that it will have an effect of between -1 and +1% on GDP, 16% feel that it will increase GDP by between 1 and 5%, and 5% feel that it will increase GDP by 5%....So, there it is, folks, more than half of the economists surveyed state that global warming will either have a negligible or positive effect on global GDP and virtually every analysis that I've seen on the topic (including the one by professor Nordhaus of Yale, an alarmist himself) says that adapting to global warming will be significantly cheaper than preventing it (and how in the hell do you prevent solar forcings, volcanoes, the PDO, etc.?). Yep, I really do think that we all need to take some of Bjorn Lomborg's advice and chill.............3) According to environmental scientist, Chip Knappenberger (you know that you've arrived when that DeSmog blog starts to smear you), the effect of Waxman-Markey on global temperature would have been a .05 degree Celsius decrease in projected temperature or a two year avoidance of warming (so the projected temperature of 2050 wouldn't have happened until 2052). This, while the cost of energy would have skyrocketed and the economy shit the bed....What a couple of idiots, huh?............4) Corn ethanol has a power density of .05 watts per square meter, approximately 1/1,000th the amount of nuclear or a robust natural gas well. Couple that with the fact that ethanol emits copious amounts of nitrous oxide (a compound which the International Council of Science says is 300 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas) and radically pushes up the cost of food worldwide and you really do have to ask yourself the question here; this is "green" how exactly?

On Harry Reid

Doesn't spew the words, Koch brothers, enough.

On Why Murray Rothbard Stopped Writing for "National Review"

I'm guessing that it was because he refused to tow the line on defense and foreign policy and possibly on the social issues. A neocon and socon, he wasn't.

Peace Through Bloat

The U.S. largely demilitarized after the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Civil War (save of course for the 60,000 Union soldiers who occupied the South), the Spanish-American War, the Philippine War, and even World War 1. It was only after World War 2 that the Military Industrial Complex first kicked in and essentially took on a life of it's own...................................................................................Part of why this happened when it did was of course the Cold War, but I would argue that there were other, much more important reasons (this, in that I strongly believe that the Soviet threat was greatly exaggerated and, besides, most of our build-up had nothing to do with nuclear superiority and everything thing to do with the building up of conventional weaponry - you know, the weapons that eventually got us bogged down in Korea and Vietnam); fear-mongering by politicians, a bring-home-the-pork mentality by both politicians and constituents, corporate lobbying from the likes of Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, Exxon, BP, and even Colgate (I believe that those folks currently have the toothpaste contract with the military), and the fact that the Pentagon itself (not to the mention the hundreds and hundreds of base commanders whose primary focus continues to be to one of keeping that gravy-train chugging along ) seems to be a huge driving force in the padding of this bureaucracy............................................................................................Look, I'm not necessarily saying here that we shouldn't have a strong defense (the fact that there are still a shitload of bad actors out there and I'm certainly not opposed to using the Powell Doctrine when necessary) but the fact that we continue to spend more than the next 13-14 countries combined AND the fact that a lot of our interventions seem to come with a bevy of side-effects leads me to think that we could probably scale back at least a little (and, please, spare me the military industrial Keynesianism). Agree?

Two Quotes; One for the Neocons, The Other for the Progressives

To the neocons - "No war plan survives five minutes contact with the enemy." German General, Helmuth von Moltke (the younger one, I believe).............To the progressives - "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight can be built." Immanuel Kant, 1784.

A Climate of Extortion

Global warming skeptic, Lord Monckton, had a 2007 article (on climate sensitivity/feedbacks) published in "Physics and Society" and in a very short period of time the two individuals who approved the piece were canned. Yep, that's what we're up against here, people (Mann and Jones also tried to get the editor of "Geophysical Research Letters" shit-canned and veteran climatologist Patrick Michaels's PhD revoked - nice guys!!). Anybody who even attempts to go against the grain on this is either going to get smeared, harassed, or both. Thankfully, there are still a handful of established scientists and researchers whose integrity and credentials are such that these folks simply aren't going to be intimidated, silenced, etc.; people like Richard Lindzen, Judith Curry, Roy Spencer, John Christy, Will Happer, and David Evans....Oh, and as far as that Monckton piece goes, his theoretical assertion that a doubling of CO2 will get you somewhere between a .5 and a .8 degree Celsius temperature increase has pretty much been spot on and so maybe they need to hire those two fellows back.

On the Jackson, Fillmore, Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Nixon, Bush 2, and Obama Administrations

Governments of men and not so much of laws.

On the Duke Wayne, Kirk Douglas Classic Western, "The War Wagon"

Not enough bang-bang.................................................................................................Seriously, though, I did like that line when they shot the two dudes. Douglas goes, "Mine hit the ground first." Duke responds, "Mine was taller."

On Science and the State

From eugenics, nuclear armaments (and, yeah, it was a good thing that we got them prior to Hitler), all the way to global warming/"green" energy, the latter seems to influence the former, and not always in a positive way.

Miserable 20th Century European Leaders - Volume 1; Edward Grey

Mr. Grey was the British foreign secretary from 1905 to 1916, and it was predominantly through him that England made that fateful alliance with France (a country that they had fought numerous wars with) that ultimately led (along of course with a lot of other factors; trade wars, national and ethnic hatreds, incompetent governments, huge political miscalculations, the horrors of the Napoleonic wars having by that time faded, etc.) to World War One (yes, for all intents and purposes it obligated that England come to the aid of France in any conflict with Germany). Of course, what made this alliance all the more idiotic and foolhardy was the fact that it was done almost entirely in secret (and, yes, Winston Churchill, then a member of Parliament and the First Lord of the Admiralty, was in on it) and so, no, it didn't even have one iota of deterrence to it. Yeah, I would say that this Grey fellow was a real big POS.

Getting Even the Most Basic Things Wrong

In the IPCC climate models, when you increase the earth's temperature, the efficiency of the cooling goes down and you end up with a positive feedback. In nature, however, when the planet's temperature rises, you improve the efficiency of the cooling and a negative feedback emerges (a fact that has been proven over and over again by the satellites in their measurement of energy escaping back into space). It's Meteorology 101, folks, and the fact that this positive feedback theory got any traction at all (especially when we've known all along that the feedbacks in natural systems are almost always negative) is as prima facie as the evidence can get that science and government really shouldn't mix.

The British Healthcare System's Plan For Cancer

Don't get cancer, but if you do get the damned thing, die early.

On Melissa Leo's Performances in "Frozen River" and "The Fighter"

I'll take, "One of America's Finest Living Actresses; Exhibits A and B", for a thousand, Alex.

On Fox News's Resident Neocon Douche-Bag, Colonel Ralph Peters, Calling President Obama a "Coward"

That was way, WAY, over the line. I mean, I know that the President has made some miscues over the years and we should be holding him responsible but to get THAT personal over it, I'm sorry (let's face it here, folks, calling an individual a coward is about as close to calling him a traitor as you can get). And, yes, props to Colonel David Hunt (another Fox military analyst) for calling Mr. Peters on it tonight and by showing us that there still are at least a few folks with integrity over there.

Euripides on Dealing With Idiots

"It is not wise to speak wisdom to the foolish."

And They Say that the Right is "Anti-Science"

President Obama said this in 2008 (yes, he was just a candidate back then); "We've just seen a skyrocketing autism rate. Some people are suspicious that it's connected to the vaccines, THIS PERSON INCLUDED. The science is inconclusive, but we have to research it." He was wrong (in fact, we've known since 2002 that the vaccines are fully safe). He was exceedingly wrong and to hear a Presidential candidate speak so ignorantly is embarrassing. I'm sorry.

And Even if these Idiots are Right (And They're Certainly Not)

What's the solution? I mean, it's not like we have a whole bunch of plausible options here. We have population control, reducing GDP, improving efficiency, and improving carbon intensity - that's it! And being that the first two options are totally off the table, the only two things that we can realistically do are the latter two and neither of those are a panacea. a) While, yes, efficiency is clearly an important strategy moving forward, most of the research now says that efficiency simply leads to more utilization and the end-result is a wash and b) green energy is for all intents and purposes a joke (the fact that you would literally need to pave entire states for all of the wind and solar plants that it would take even to make a tiny dent, the fact that green energy is intermittent and you'd need a fossil fuel backup anyway, the fact that wind turbines especially require a massive amount of energy just to get started, etc., etc.). I mean, I know that this is a lot of difficult medicine to handle and all and the politicians/bureaucrats certainly aren't going to want to here it but we're going have to face the truth eventually and maybe now is a better time than later...........................................................................................P.S. And as I've stated on numerous other occasions, it is far, FAR, cheaper to adapt to climate change than it is to prevent it - 20-50 times cheaper potentially and so why in the hell would we want to devastate the world economy (think Spain and their stupid green energy policy but on a much grander scale), folks? I mean, really.

On Hamas Launching Rockets at Israeli Women and Children While Hiding Behind Their Own Women and Children

That kinda sounds like a double war-crime to me and, while, yes, I understand that the Israelis have retaliated and killed some Palestinians in response, I can't come up with one single other country that wouldn't have done exactly the same thing? I mean, can you even begin to imagine if the Kurds had started lobbing rockets into Iran, or if the Taiwanese had started lobbing rockets into mainland China? Hell to pay doesn't even begin to describe the thing.

On Carbon

He who controls it (and damned if the government isn't trying their hardest), controls life, and not in a good way.

On Iran and that al Qaeda Splinter Cell (ISIS) Duking it Out In Iraq

And this is bad for the U.S how exactly?

On the Balance of Nature Theory

It's an absolute myth. The fact of the matter is that the environment, the climate, and populations of species ARE ALWAYS CHANGING. I mean, I know that we like to put ourselves at the center of the universe and all but his whole notion that if it wasn't for man, nature would forever be in harmony is bullshit and the geological evidence proves it over and over and over.

On the "Academy" - Addendum

Here, folks, is an excellent definition of publication bias - "Publication bias is a well-known phenomenon in which positive results have a better chance of being published, are published earlier, and are published in journals with higher impact factors." H.H. Dubben, British Medical Journal, 2005.............I also heartily recommend that you read the 12/13/13 article in the London Guardian by Nobel Prize winner, Randy Schekman, in which the dude specifically targets journals such as "Nature" and "Science" (journals that have published a lot of global warming crap) as being especially culpable in this regard.

On 501 c 3s

Me - I wouldn't give any of these assholes tax-exempt status; none, none of the bums - left or right....Hell, I might even make the churches pay taxes.

The Everybody Gets a Trophy Science Edition

According to scientist (his PhD is in ecology) and researcher, Daniele Fanelli, positive results (i.e., those in which the authors have failed to reject the null hypothesis) in scientific journals have mushroomed from 70% (in 1991) to 90%. He sees this as an alarming trend in that the authors obviously haven't gotten any smarter over the years and that the only logical explanations here are fraud and publication bias (a softer version of fraud).....................................................................................I mean, just look at the mindlessness that is happening in climate science. There is NO WAY IN HELL that that Michael Mann article from 1999 (the one with the damned hockey stick) would have ever gotten past a legitimate peer-review process 25-30 years ago. But now, because of the fact that he and his fellow henchmen currently hold the keys to that kingdom, the sucker did get published....Of course, the fact that our tax dollars are continuing to pay for this mass corruption....

On Georgia Tech Climatologist Judith Curry's Recent Senate Testimony

Having this woman try to communicate (complicated topics, no less) with dullards like Sheldon Whitehouse and Barbara Boxer had to have been one of the more Kafkaesque moments in the entire history of the Senate. I only wish that I was there to witness the spectacle.

On the Bed-Wetters' Manifesto

The IPCC makes a litany of assumptions; a) that the norm of nature and climate is a steady state (rather than a chaotic one), b) that all climate change is undesirable, c) that living things are fragile and incapable of adapting to change, and d) that CO2 is the major driver of climate. To say that these assumptions are at the very minimum dubious is an understatement....................................................................................The real truth here, folks, is that a) the climate has always changed and it always will change, b) life is highly persistent and adaptable and very few species have actually gone extinct over the past million and a half years (this despite the fact that we've had multiple ice ages and warming optimums significantly higher than now), c) life for the most part has thrived during warm periods and if any climate change is to be feared it is global cooling (yeah, human beings didn't exactly do very well during the last ice age - HELLO!!), and d) there are countless variables that influence the weather and to say that a trace gas (a necessary one no less, one that we couldn't conceivably live without) which constitutes a tiny part of the overall energy budget is more important than solar forcings, oceanic oscillations, plate tectonics, volcanic (including underwater volcanoes) activity and inactivity, planetary perturbations, bacteria, cosmic rays, lunar and galactic cycles, cloud formations, etc., etc. is patently absurd..................................................................................Of course, the fact that 97% of their predictions (most of them apocalyptic) have been way off the mark and all of their reports extremely speculative hasn't helped, either.

To Fight to Save the Union, Jack

I wonder how many folks today would be willing to give up their life in order to prevent Texas (spurred on by right-leaning separatists) or Vermont (spurred on by left-leaning separatists) from seceding from the Union. My suspicion is that it's probably an exceedingly low number and yet this is exactly the same type of bullshit that Lincoln was peddling 150 years ago when he decided to morph into Julius Ceasar (Fidel Castro being a posthumous facsimile)/consolidate federal power well beyond even that which Alexander Hamilton had envisioned....Of course, we could always say that the damn bastards had WMD....

On Corn Ethanol

Taking all of that corn (close to 40% of the American bounty) and thrusting it out of damned tailpipes when there are still millions and millions folks in the word who are either starving or spending a disproportionate percentage of their disposable income just to be fed is about as immoral a Western policy as has ever been concocted (right up there the banning of DDT) and the politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen who created it should be pilloried. Thank you.

On the "Academy"

It, due to the rancid federalization of science/technology, has become little more than a welfare recipient of Washington. Of course, if it was simply that, we could probably live with the thing (much as we live with all of the other wasteful spending) but the cronyism and corruption that have accompanied it have also created a scenario in which both the science and resultant public policy have suffered just as immeasurably; the fact that only certain articles seemingly get funded and published through a broken peer-review process, the fact that the taxpayers are continuously getting scammed with such stupid shit as ethanol and wind, the fact that a moron like Al Gore was somehow able to "earn" a quarter of a billion dollars via the pimping of ludicrous cap and trade policies, etc.. In my opinion, folks, it is well beyond the time that science and government simply went their separate ways.......................................................................................P.S. And, yes, the fact that one of the wisest human beings in the history of the country agrees with me certainly doesn't hurt -  "The free university, historically the fountainhead of ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity....Yet in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become captive of a scientific technological elite. The prospect of domination by the nation's scholars through Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present - and is gravely to be regarded." President Dwight Eisenhower, 1961.

A Few Quick Points on CO2

1) CO2 is but a small part of the overall energy budget. 2) Human contributions to atmospheric CO2 are only about 4%. 3) Yes, the atmospheric CO2 levels have been increasing, but the increases have varied markedly (by as much 700%) from year to year (1993 - a .4 ppm increase and 1998 - a 2.8 ppm increase). 4) The divergence of CO2 and temperature over the past decade and a half is INCONTROVERTIBLE. This, while the correlation between atmospheric CO2 and surface properties remains at a robust .93 (the 1998 increase in CO2 coinciding with El Nino, for instance)!!!!! 5) The parts of the planet with the highest CO2 concentrations ARE NOT areas of high industrialization but rather those areas where the natural CO2 sinks prevail; the Amazon, Africa, parts of Asia, etc.. 6) The logical conclusion to be drawn here is that (and as was the case with the Vostok ice-core data, too), while, yes, atmospheric CO2 increases will get you SOME warming (I suspect about a .4 degree Celsius increase for every doubling of CO2), it is much more likely that it is the warming which causes the CO2 increases and not vice versa (the NATURAL warming causing CO2 to be emitted from the oceans).

Gore in the Balance

I would love to send Al Gore back to New York City in the 1840s, have him smell the air in which the average person could barely breathe due to the thousands and thousands of wood stoves and the thousands of tonnes of horse manure that literally lined the streets for as far as the eye could see. The fellow always talks about the "environmental balance" that our forefathers used to enjoy (never mind the fact that our forefathers dropped dead at age 40) and wouldn't it be a wonderful thing if he himself were able to enjoy it for at least a little while?

Bergdahl for wd

Now THAT would be an equal trade; one lacking in stability weasel in exchange for another.

On the Arab Claim to Western Palestine

It is much easier to claim than to build.

One of the Most Devastating Anti-War Summation in All of Human History

"War is sometimes called the the final arbiter of disputes among nations, even though it creates uncivilized chaos and butchery unrestrained by law. No one has ever suggested that applying the principles of military might - slaughter and devastation - actually means that justice has prevailed. What does prevail is the better army or navy, justice often by the bully. Lawful ideals and principles quickly fade from view as armies take to the field and clash. At that point the combatants start to manufacture reasons for the conflict. And when no good reason can be found, a bad one will do. Facts become distorted , history perverted, and the main reasons for almost all wars - territory, resources, and power - are usually masked over with some sort of moral or social objective." Historian and economist, Charles Adams, 2000.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

The Number of Countries Toward Which Senator McCain Hasn't Advocated Some Sort of Military Intervention

Yeah, I'm thinking that it's gotta be somewhere in the low single digits.

On Thomas Sowell

I like him but I liked him better before he was a war monger and sabre rattler. At this point I much prefer Bryan Caplan and Veronique de Rugy.

On Senator McCain's Assertion that Doing Nothing in Iraq is the Worst Option

Yeah, I'm gonna have to vote, no, on that one, folks. It is far, far, MORE dangerous to do something stupid, in my opinion, and, so, yeah, if Mr. Obama wants to kick back and get a better lay of the land prior to acting, that is AOK by me.....................................................................................P.S. And how 'bout the chutzpah of frigging Dick Cheney? The dude who was as wrong as anybody this side of the climate modelers on pretty much everything and he's telling Obama what to do? It's totally insane....I mean, not that I'm all that big of a fan of Mr. Obama's, either, but, man, if I were the dude, I would tell Dick Cheney (at the risk of punching downward) to stuff it, big time (his moronic daughter as well).

On Bill O'Reilly's Assertion that We Should be Bombing the Rebels in Iraq

Maybe. Maybe. But the way that I see this sucker, Iran has just as much invested in this Maliki asshole as we do and wouldn't it be refreshing for a change to see the Iranians take some of that incoming, Iranians and al Qaeda slaughtering each other while we take a much needed powder? I mean, yeah, I would tell the terrorists to stay away from Kurdistan and that if they didn't we would blow their derrieres all the way to kingdom-come but short of that, I'm saying, I say let these Neanderthal lunatics go, sell some popcorn even.

On Bibi Netanyahu

No, the dude wouldn't be my first choice, either. BUT WHO CREATED HIM? I would submit that it was Hamas (and their 7,000 rockets), Hezbollah (backed by Iran), Fatah and the al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade, the fact that Yasser Arafat said no to a very generous peace proposal (arrived at through months of good faith negotiating with President Clinton and Prime Minister Barak) and whose cherry on the top was a second Intifada, the fact that Ehud Olmert actually offered a better deal to the Palestinians in 2008 and was told to take a hike by Mahmoud Abbas, etc., etc.. President Eisenhower used to have an expression for situations like this; "the fury of an aroused Democracy", and, boy, is it ever apropos.

On Fred MacMurray Getting Top Billing Over Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity"

I'll take, "One of the Greatest Miscarriages of Justice in All of Human History", for a thousand, Alex.

On the Koch Brothers Donating $25,000,000 to the United Nergro College Fund

By my count that's approximately $24,999,999 more than wd and the rest of those lunkheads (aka experts at spending other people's money) have ever donated to the thing.

The Genius of Hamas

Here's a perfect example of how these assholes operate. Between the years 2006 and 2009, Hamas would frequently shell the gas stations in the Gaza strip and when the gas was extracted they would use this gas as one of the propellants (along with bug spray and various other household chemicals) in the numerous Kasam missiles that they had catapulted into southern Israel (they ended up launching approximately 7,000 of them during this period)........................................................................................Of course the real genius here is the fact that they knew fully well that the Israelis would respond to this act of virulent barbarism by restricting the flow of gasoline into Gaza and that the Israelis would ultimately be seen as the bad guys here. I mean, I know that it's as despicable as a human mind can possibly go and all but, still, you do have to give it to 'em, the lunatics.

On the Muslim Claim that Jerusalem is Their Third Holiest City

It is absolute rubbish. The only times that the Muslims have ever cared about Jerusalem have been when they haven't possessed the town. Other than that they could give a rat's ass about it and if you don't believe me just open up the damned Koran and look for a mention of it ANYWHERE (yep, that's right, zero mentions as opposed to over 700 mentions in the Bible)....Just bring a barf-bag, that's all.

Blood on His Hands?

Jimmy Carter said this in his book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid" - “There was no possibility that any Palestinian leader could accept such terms (as the ones offered at Camp David in 2000) and survive.” What I want to know is the same exact thing that Professor Alan Dershowitz wants to know, what Dennis Ross (U.S. Special Middle-East Coordinator under Bush 1 and Clinton) wants to know, and what Kenneth Stein (formerly of the Carter Center) wants to know; namely, did Mr. Carter, who was advising Yasser Arafat during those peace talks, advise Mr. Arafat to not take that very generous offer from Prime Minister Barak and President Clinton and to walk away instead? As far as I know, this is the one inquiry that the former President has never answered and the silence here is deafening.

On the "Who is Worse; Bush or Obama?", Sweepstakes

I honestly don't have a dog in this crap-fest but if I had to say which of the two was more culpable when it comes to the current sorrowful state in Iraq, I would probably have to go with Mr. Bush. I mean, it was W (against the advice of Colin Powell and Dick Armitage) who initially opened up this hornet's nest and I cannot tell you how many times that I've heard it stated that, if in fact Mr. Bush's goal was simply to get rid of Saddam (which, in retrospect, was a noble thing in that the fellow was probably worse than Gaddafi, Mubarak, the Saudi royal family, and the Assads combined), he could have done so relatively easily and in a way that in no way, shape, or form would have strengthened either al Qaeda or Iran (this, in that the army would not have been disbanded and the Ba'ath party would have still retained power)......................................................................................Now, this isn't to say that Mr. Obama has handled things (in Iraq and throughout the Middle-East) all that swimmingly, either, but the fact of the matter here is that Mr. Bush (much like Presidents McKinley, Wilson, Truman, Johnson, and Nixon prior to him) significantly overestimated the reach of American military and moral power and the results, quite frankly, have been disastrous.

On the Possibility that American Weapons May Have Ended up in the Hands of al Qaeda and the al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade

I hate to throw the I-word around but if any of this shit can be proven, yeah, this President just might be in some serious doo-doo (bipartisan even in that the dude is a lame-duck).

My All-Time Favorite Massively Uncomfortable Quentin Tarantino Moment?

Probably the one in which Michael Madsen was dancing to "Stuck in the Middle With You" while at the same time chopping off that copper's ear in "Reservoir Dogs".............................................................................................P.S. With apologies of course to Samuel L. Jackson's Bible quoting assassination blood-fest at the beginning of "Pulp Fiction".

On the World Conference Against Racism (Durbin 3)

Anti-Semites, racists, child molesters, child murderers, slave owners, misogynists, bloody misogynists, war criminals, gay murderers (as in those who kill gays), terrorists, terrorist funders, knuckle-dragging barbarians, perpetrators of egregious medieval stupidity, pathological liars, serial human-rights violators, propagandists, and ignoramuses/slant-heads all conspiring to denigrate the one democracy (i.e., Israel) in that whole hell-hole of a region in which Arab citizens actually DO have some rights. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable situation to me......NOT!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL8ANySuSuk

Please, take a minute or two out of your busy schedules and watch this. It underscores as much as anything that I've ever seen the absolute depravity that the Israelis are up against.

On Blake Lively's Performance in "The Town"

Wow, the hottie can act. Seriously.

The Bloated Role of Government in Healthcare

According to truecostblog.com, 53% of healthcare costs in America are paid for by the government (i.e., the taxpayers); Medicare, Medicaid, the V.A., benefits to municipal workers, etc.., and if you also include tax deductions, that percentage swells all the way up to 62%. Yeah, I would say that the government is the number one middle man here by a long shot.......And just this whole notion that adding multiple layers to a financial transaction being a good thing - it's bizarre, totally bizarre.

A Bigger Scam than Corn Ethanol?

............................................................................................................................................I'm thinking!!

On All of these 20th Anniversary O.J. Specials

I stepped on a huge cockroach in '94. I'll commemorate that.

On Bergdahl Apparently Already Having Been Bounced From the Coast Guard (For Psychological Reasons)

Two question. a) Why would Bergdahl, already having had one bad experience in the armed services, take yet another stab at it and b) why would the armed services be willing to give him that stab?

A Rare Moment of Truth From a Pathological Liar

"The Palestinian people have no national identity. I, Yasser Arafat, man of destiny, will give them that identity through conflict with Israel." Yasser Arafat (a man who was offered 97% of the West Bank and Gaza and East Jerusalem and who not only walked away from it, started a second Intifada as well).

I Ain't Gonna Miss Him

You?

Homeland Shmomeland

From 1948 to 1967, Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip and Jordan controlled the West Bank, and not one single time did either of these two countries ever offer the Palestinian people a state of their own. Even more incriminating than that is the fact that Palestinians themselves never even once asked for one!!!...And even today, for Christ sakes, according to a 2007 U.N. report, approximately two-thirds of the population of Jordan is Palestinian and guess how many rights that those folks have courtesy of the Hashemites. When, pray tell, is the world going to finally realize that this has NEVER been about a homeland for the Palestinians and all about pure hatred/laying the groundwork for a second damned Holocaust? Soon? Hopefully.

On the Idiotic Assertion that Competition Won't Bring Down the Cost of Healthcare Because Healthcare is a Necessity

This is an easy one to refute, folks. All that you have to do is compare healthcare spending as percentage of GDP prior to Medicare and Medicaid with that of what it's been since these programs. And here's the evidence. For the first 180 years or so of the republic, healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP was consistently in the low to middle single-digits, and it wasn't until government got massively involved (in the 1960s) that the numbers started skyrocketing. And the reasons for this are obvious. Whenever government gets into the business of subsiding something, the cost of that something invariably escalates. That, and the third-party payment system acts as a disincentive for folks to shop around and be better consumers, take better care of themselves, etc.. I mean, I know that the phrase, "getting rid of the middle man", has gotten a little clicheish over the years but in this instance I gotta go along with it.

On the Israelis and Gaza

While I'll happily stipulate that I don't agree with everything that Israel has done during this crisis; their various tactics, etc., the sequence of events as to how the scenario initially erupted most assuredly implicates the Palestinians; a) The Israelis dismantled hundreds of settlements and left the Gaza Strip completely. b) American Jews purchased a $14 million horticulture business from the settlers (close to 10% of the region's total GDP) and gave it to the Palestinians. c) Hamas immediately destroyed all of the greenhouses while simultaneously launching thousands of rockets into Israel. That's how it all started, people, and for clowns like Chomsky and Finkelstein to constantly try and make Israel the demon here is most unfortunate.

On the New York Times Eviscerating Bergdahl's Platoon-Mates for Having the Audacity to Dig Trenches in 100 Degree Heat Without Wearing All of Their Gear

Half of them (the New York Times schmucks, I'm saying) had never even seen a shovel before (at least not a literal one).

Don't Have to Live Like a Refugee (With Apologies to Mr. Petty)

Tens of millions of people (including 500,000 Middle-Eastern Jews) had to be relocated after WW2; Poles, Germans, Pakistanis, Indians, Vietnamese, etc., etc. and the only group that wasn't successfully integrated back into society was the Palestinians (many of who were actually Egyptians, Syrians, and Arabs from other countries). What does that tell you, people? It tells me that the Arab and Muslim countries of that region could give a rat's ass about the Palestinians (Black Sunday, case in point) and that the entirety of their motivation is pure unadulterated hatred of the Jews. I mean, yeah, I'd like to see a lasting peace over there as just much as anybody but, man.

One for the Central Planners

According to economist and former adviser to Mikhail Gorbachev, Yuri Maltsev, the only thing that there wasn't a shortage of in the old Soviet Union was televisions (black and white sets mostly of course), and the only reason for that was because that was how the state disseminated most its its propaganda....Well, it's good to see that they got at least one thing right.

On Negotiating With Terrorists

The costs will always go up and the returns will always go down.

On 1930s Sex-Pot, Tallulah Bankhead

Totally indiscriminate and probably did more chicks than dudes - what's not to love?

On Tonight's News 8 Lead-In, "Shooting Breaks Out in New Haven"

They should just make a damned loop-tape and be done with it.

A Demanding Situation

President Carter could have gotten all 67 hostages out of Iran if he had only agreed to turn over the Shah. He refused.......I'm  just sayin'.

Now that's a Kick

Many top coaches are reticent to use a scholarship on a kicker but when you have a chance to get somebody who's really amazing, you gotta do it. And that's exactly what Miami coach, Al Golden, did this weekend when offered a free ride to Rowlett Texas's Drew Galitz (Galitz accepted). You see, not only is this fellow one of the best placekickers in the country, he's one of the finest punters as well. A wasted scholarship? I don't think so!

An Olive Branch to the Progressives

One of the strategies that Piketty and others have put forth for reducing wealth inequality (R - G) is a wealth tax (ideally they would like a global one but even they know that that's totally a pipe-dream) - a tax on a person's net worth, in other words. The problem of course is that (as is the case with almost every tax) there's a downside; in this instance, a deadweight cost that could potentially slow economic growth in general........................................................................................How 'bout this for a nice little compromise; instead of a wealth tax we institute a national property tax of say .5% on all assets over a million dollars? That way, some dude who has $10 million in property would have to fork over $45,000 a year. a) (and, yes, I would strongly prefer that the money go to reducing the deficit - real naive, huh?) we would be reducing the inequality and b) we wouldn't be exacting all that much of a toll on possible investment....I'm not entirely certain that I love the idea, but as part of an overall grand bargain or something.......

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on the Afrikaner

"The most formidable antagonist who ever crossed the path of imperial Britain."......Well, you gotta at least admire 'em for that.

On Good Intentions

They're not enough and they never will be.

On French Economist, Thomas Piketty, Claiming that it was FDR (In 1933) Who Raised the Top Tax rate to 63% and Not President Hoover (in 1932)

He's either sloppy (and, yes, mistakes can be made when writing a 700 page volume), ignorant, or pushing an agenda; this one being that the Democrats are always much tougher on the rich than the Republicans.

10

That's the number of terrorists that it'll take next time.

Why Do You So Hate the Hungry People, Mr. Krugman?

Paul Krugman has it well within his power to send a big, fat, juicy check (try $105,000) to the New York City Food Bank TODAY. All that the guy has to do is take an hour or so of his time and debate Austrian economist, Robert Murphy (and, get this, Murphy is even willing to allow Krugman's fellow leftist, the irrepressible Ezra Klein, to moderate the thing). THAT'S IT. I mean, I know that he doesn't think that the Austrians are on a similar par to him and all but a) it's for charity and b) the fellow can't continue to have it both ways (on the one hand saying that they're marginal and on the other hand always criticizing them in his column)....It's really time to step up, Mr. Krugman.

On the Idiotic Assertion that Competition Won't Bring Down the Cost of Healthcare Because Healthcare is a Necessity

This is an easy one to refute, folks. All that you have to do is compare healthcare spending as percentage of GDP prior to Medicare and Medicaid with that of what it's been since these programs. And here's the evidence. For the first 180 years or so of the republic, healthcare spending as a percentage of GDP was consistently in the low to middle single-digits, and it wasn't until government got massively involved (in the 1960s) that the numbers started skyrocketing. And the reasons for this are obvious. Whenever government gets into the business of subsiding something, the cost of that something invariably escalates. That, and the third-party payment system acts as a disincentive for folks to shop around and be better consumers, take better care of themselves, etc.. I mean, I know that the phrase, "getting rid of the middle man", has gotten a little clicheish over the years but in this instance I gotta go along with it.

Yeah, Maybe We DO Need Some Gun-Control

Holding a gun to Stan's head and making him pay for Phil's hip replacement seems like such a morally untenable position and, yet, that is exactly what the socialist thugs have been advocating for close to a century now....Running out of other people's money, indeed.

On Securing the Release of Bergdahl

What cost would have been TOO MUCH? That's what I want to know. I mean, what if they had wanted the Blind Sheik and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed as well? Would that have been acceptable to secure the release of this character?......And the fact that people died looking for him. That's what really pisses me off the most here. Frigging douche-bag.

On Today's French Open Women's Final Between Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep (With Sharapova Winning in a 3 Set Nail-Biter)

I think that one of the broadcasters summed it up nicely when he simply referred to it as "glistening tennis" and one of the finest French open finals in decades (comparing it at one point to that epic 2001 final between Capriati and Clijsters).

On All of these Hard-Core Anti-Population Nut-Cases

Each of these virulent radicals has always had it well within their capacity and arsenal to reduce these numbers by one and as far as I know none of them has ever opted for this. Funny about that, huh?............................................................................................P.S. They evidently see themselves as a part of the ruling elite and, hence, far, FAR, more indispensable.

On the Falsehoods of War

They only die with difficulty, it seems.

On the United States of America Being the UNITED States of America

Yes, but it was always united by choice and not via the barrel of a Gatling gun. Or at least that's how it was prior to Lincoln coming along (the fact that Rhode Island, Virginia, and New York each insisted upon strong secession stipulations prior to their signing the Constitutional, the fact that New England almost seceded on three separate occasions in the early 19th Century, the fact that Maryland, New Jersey, and Delaware strongly considered forming their own confederacy; The Central Confederacy, etc.).

On wd, Octopus, Tao, Shaw, Jersey, Sue, Etc.

They blog with honor and distinction (or at least that's what Susan Rice says).

On Lifetime's New Reality Show, "Little People" (Think, "Real Housewives" With Dwarfs)

Every time that I think that these morons couldn't possibly go any lower, THEY DO. Again, and again, and again.

My Level of Concern for Bergdahl

Right now it's about a 2. I'm much more concerned about the families of the six soldiers who died while looking for him and all of the potential be-heading victims of the five miscreants/war-criminals that it took to release the fellow. That, and it's exceedingly difficult to prove desertion as opposed to "simply" being AWOL. My suspicion here is that the dude is going to be just fine.

On the Assertion that the Republican Party Has Moved Farther From the Center than the Democratic Party

I'm not entirely certain on this one, folks. I mean, yeah, you've got a fair number of crazy Republicans out there (Gohmert and Bachman are the two who most immediately come to mind) who are definitely to the right of Howard Baker, Lowell Weicker, and Jacob Javits, but I'm also old enough to remember folks such as Sam Nunn, Howell Heflin, William Proxmire, John Glenn, Dennis Deconcini, Ed Koch, the first Mayor Daley, Bob Kerry, and Paul Tsongas and all of these individuals were clearly to the RIGHT of Boxer, Sanders, Warren, etc.....I don't know, if I had to make an educated guess here, I would probably say that, yeah, the Republicans have more than likely moved a little bit further but that it isn't anywhere near as big a difference as the left maintains.

A Quick Off-the-Cuff Comment on the Republican Party

They really need to knock it off with anti-gay-marriage bullshit. I mean, it's 2014, for Christ sakes, and if they ever do hope to win the Presidency again....

On Jersey Recently Conflating Me With Glenn Beck

You can literally count on ONE HAND the number of times that I have ever listened to Glenn Beck (yes, I find him quite strange) for more than five minutes (on TV, the radio, Youtube, whatever) BUT because I apparently uttered something that Mr. Beck also believes (namely, that Woodrow Wilson, one of the earliest progressives, was one of the country's very worst Presidents), I am shamelessly, lazily, and moronically lumped into the same ridiculous little category. I mean, I know that partisans such as Jersey rarely if ever have the capacity to think beyond such simple dichotomies and all but, my God, folks, this is getting extremely pathetic..............................................................................................P.S. Jersey and his fellow ramrod, Octopus, also tried to say that Wilson wasn't really a progressive and that if he were alive today he'd be a Republican (never mind the fact that 99% of those 1960s Dixiecrats NEVER became Republicans and frigging croaked as Democrats). I say, quite doubtful, to that in that the vast, Vast, VAST percentage of those who are currently employed by the Woodrow Wilson Center continue to be rank and file Democrats and easily more than half of those are liberal Democrats....Yet another epic fail for Jersey, people.

On the Strategy of Dealing With Criticism of the President by Delegitimizing the Critic

  It's disgusting and it's getting extremely stale, hackneyed, etc.....I mean, really, Shaw, "rancid Obama haters" now? That's what we are to you?

Examples of "Animal Exuberance" that the NLRB has Found Acceptable Over the Years

Beatings, stabbings, bombings, threatening non-striker's families, destroying property, blocking entrances with broken glass and nails, and hurling brickbats....And if you think that maybe I'm exaggerating here, just take a look at the stats. From 1975 to 1998, there were 8,799 incidents of union violence and only 1,963 arrests and 258 convictions (http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/1599074-union-violence-protected-through-1973-court.html). It sure as hell looks to me as if a lot of these union thugs have gotten a free-pass, people.

On the State

Left unchecked, it will almost always morph into a predator.

On the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt Having Been Considered Gods at the Time

American politicians would have loved it back then.

On Bill O'Reilly Being Saner and More Reasonable than Chris Matthews and Nancy Grace

Yes, but only in the same way that Phyllis Diller was prettier than Totie Fields and Ruth Buzzi.

On Fox's Judge Jeanine Pirro

Definitely an attractive and fit 60-something year-old. Just maybe one or two too many plastic surgeries, that's all.

On MSNBC's Ari Melber Claiming that Sergeant Bergdahl is Being "Swiftboated"

I dare this asshole to say that to the families of the six soldiers who lost their lives looking for this Bergdahl character.......And what in the hell is going on over at that network? I mean, I know that Fox has a fair-share of unsavory individuals in their own right but this stuff (the rantings of these guttersnipes; Schultz, Perry, Sharpton, Maddow, O'Donnell, etc.) is downright creepy.

Truman Reconsidered

I have consistently put Truman amongst my top five favorites Presidents (the fact that his economic policies ultimately deviated from both FDR and Keynes being one the primary reasons). But I have to admit that economist and historian, Ralph Raico, has certainly provided some interesting counterpoints and now I have at least a little pause...................................................................................The main point that Raico addressed was the fact that Truman (continuing to expand the power of the Presidency) took the country to war in Korea without a declaration from Congress and that this act set an extremely terrible precedent for subsequent American adventurism. He also feels that Mr. Truman greatly exaggerated the Soviet threat and that, while, yes, these folks certainly possessed nuclear weapons, their economy was a veritable basket-case (many of the hospitals didn't even have hot water, for Christ) and the amount of money that we spent on defense was monstrously excessive (former Reagan budget director, David Stockman has on numerous occasions said essentially the same) - hence, the Military Industrial Complex..................................................................................And, so, yeah, Truman, just like Presidents Reagan, FDR, TR, McKinley, Polk, and the rest of them is probably much more of a mixed-bag than I initially thought (though, yes, I would still probably put him in the top five mainly because the rest of the bunch is mostly putrid).

John Maynard Keyenes on the Inflationary Credit Boom of the 1920s

He actually didn't think that it went FAR ENOUGH (he and Alvin Hansen literally going as far as to think that the government could continue to run deficits right up to the point of full employment with zero price inflation) and it was Mises and pretty much Mises only who predicted the ultimate bust....Yet another huge win for the Austrians, folks.

The Quest to Make McGeorge Bundy Look Acceptable

So much for brown rice being better for you, huh?

On that State Department Stooge Essentially Referring to those Platoon-Mates of Bowe Bergdahl as Liars (For their Statements About Bergdahl Being a Deserter

I'm surprised that she didn't say that they were "clinging to their guns and religion" as a topper.

On GMA Forty-Something Hotties, Any Robach and Lara Spencer

Anybody who says that they don't want to see these two make-out IS LYING!

Armed With the facts

According to the University of Maryland's John Lott, there were more than 1.8 million right to carry permits issued in the state of Florida from 1987 to 2010 and only 167 of these individuals ever had their permits revoked - .009% (with the vast majority of these instances being misdemeanors). I really don't think that we have all that much to worry about when it come to the lawful gun-owners of America (you know, those who would actually consent to a background check), folks........................................................................................P.S. And I'm not necessarily saying here that I'm opposed to background checks, just that they're probably much more for for solace than they are preventative and that we really shouldn't be expecting much once they're instituted.

On the Administration Trading 5 Taliban Terrorists for 1 American POW

The only reason that I might be willing to give the President the benefit of the doubt on this one is a sneaking suspicion that he's probably going to smoke these assholes the very first instance that he gets. The dude has a better than average record at killing these miscreants/knuckle-draggers and I can't help but think that this fact may have played at least a little into his calculation.....At least that's what I'm hoping for here.

On the Audience of the Fox Show, "Huckabee"

Not boot-licking enough.

Measurements of CO2 Via the Pettenkofer Method

As you can plainly see here, a significant portion of these reading are well in excess of 300 ppm and none of them were given so much as an ounce of credence by the IPCC. My friend and colleague, BB Idaho, says that it's preferable for us to wade through the data on our own. Well here's the damn data and if this isn't an incriminating piece of information against the alarmists, then I really don't know what to tell you.

 

Note to wd

Maybe you missed it when I mentioned it in a previous thread and so I'll tell you again. I have developed a system in which I no longer have to even accidentally see what you write - not a single word. I am using a 4.5 x 5.5 cutout which enables me to cover the comments section but which also allows me to see the author of the words, and when I see your name I promptly delete what I can properly assume to be more of your virulent idiocy. Look, if you want to keep wasting your time (and you do appear to have a plethora of it), knock your pathetic little self out but if you want to be a productive human being maybe you want to reassess this a little bit.