Friday Follies for February 20, 2015

The Church of Man-made Global Warming claims all the snow falling this winter is a result of greenhouse gases. Some NASA pseudo-scientist said this in an interview. We have proof these pseudo-scientists have falsified data to support their fraud. They arbitrarily raised the temperature reported by sensors around the world. They were caught when someone else checked the raw data for those sites and the results didn’t match the claims of the pseudo-scientists.

But this isn’t a rant against those charlatans. I just wanted a lead-in to this:

Ice-Geyser

Frozen geyser in Letchworth State Park, NY

CASTILE, N.Y. (AP) – The arctic conditions have turned a fountain at a state park in western New York into a five-story-tall “ice volcano.”

The pressure-fed fountain is in a pond near the Glen Iris Inn at Letchworth State Park, which straddles the Wyoming-Livingston county line 40 miles south of Rochester. Days of subzero temperatures have formed a solid cone of ice several feet thick with water still spouting out of the top.

Park officials tell local media that the formation dubbed an ice volcano is at least 50 feet high. — MyFoxNY.

***

NATO, or perhaps, just the EU, appears to be on a collision course with Putin’s Russia. After a shaky ceasefire between the Ukrainian government and Russian surrogates masquerading a rebels, the war of words has shifted further west.

Ukraine crisis: House of Lords criticises EU and Britain for ‘sleepwalking into crisis’ as Moscow and Nato remain on diplomatic collision course

Kim Sengupta, Thursday 19 February 2015

The fraught relationship between Russia and the West, which was supposed to improve following an agreement over Ukraine, has descended instead into renewed acrimony after a series of tense military and diplomatic confrontations.

France and Germany, which had brokered the Minsk accord last week, were yesterday trying to hold together the increasingly fragile ceasefire in Ukraine amid reports that fighting was spreading once again. Kremlin-backed separatists and Cossack fighters triumphantly paraded through the shattered town of Debaltseve, a strategic point they had captured in the past 48 hours.

Britain, which along with the EU will be strongly criticised by a House of Lords committee today for “sleep-walking into this crisis”, was drawn towards centre-stage after two Russian Bear bombers off the coast of Cornwall – but just outside UK airspace – were met by RAF jets scrambled from their base in Coningsby, Lincolnshire.

British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon, speaking before Parliament, “accused President Vladimir Putin of trying to extend his campaign of destabilisation to the Baltic countries. The Russian leader, he said, presented as much of a threat to Europe as Isis.” — The UK Independent.

Amid this discussion, there is one glaring omission: any comment from the United States. “The US administration has put on hold a decision on whether or not to supply the Ukrainian government with heavy weaponry; White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.” — The UK Independent.

After decades of dependence on the US military to safeguard their countries, the EU and other European nations have suddenly realized they are defenceless against Putin’s aggression. Europe has allowed their Cold War militaries to wither, failing to maintain their contributions to NATO and now, when that NATO strength may be required, it no longer exists. Europe depended on the United States for protection but now, suddenly, that dependence has proven to be fool-hardy amid Obama’s incompetence displayed around the world.

***

Words, actions, have consequences. Marie Harf has been presented with this lesson. After her farcical response to a question about opposing ISIS with a Jobs program, her self-generated controversy has cost her a promotion.

Report: Harf Won’t Get Top State Job; She ‘Failed Spectacularly’ In Test Run, Official Says

5:00 PM 02/19/2015

Jen Psaki might be getting the call to the big leagues, but that doesn’t mean Marie Harf is taking her old spot.

After a multitude of ineffective television appearances, headlined by her remark that helping ISIS fighters find jobs instead of killing our way out of war against the terror group should be the U.S.’s priority in the Middle East, Harf is not in line to become Psaki’s replacement as the top spokesperson at the State Department, according to a Daily Mail report.

A source told The Mail that Harf “failed spectacularly” during her “test run” for the top spokesperson job, as Psaki’s move to the White House had been in the works for some time.

“Jen’s move to the White House isn’t something that happened overnight,” a State Department official said, “and Marie’s TV appearances were an audition of sorts, a test run, and she failed spectacularly.”

Will Marie Harf learn from this lesson of life? I doubt it. She is still the poster-girl for every blond joke ever told.

The Weekend in Review

A weather front came through this weekend and hit Mrs. Crucis and me. She had congestion and sinus headaches, I just ached with a side order of sinus headache as well. Consequently, we didn’t do much, Church on Sunday, Sunday dinner out and then a retreat back home.

I hate Winter. Yeah, I know, it’s not Winter yet, still a bit over a month to go. That fact doesn’t make us feel any better.

Be that as it is, the weekend news is a bit sparse. A tornado hit Illinois yesterday, killing 6. The global warming idiots blame it on ‘climate change’ because a tornado occurred in November. They ignore the announcement from Colorado that the ski resorts are opening early this year due to the heavy, early season snowfalls.

***

One item from the weekend did catch my eye, a column and video by Charles Krauthammer. In the report, he contends that there is no difference between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party. He claims reports of civil war within the GOP is a liberal media myth. I wish it were.

For sake of argument, I will agree that the platform and political principles of the GOP and the Tea Party have many parallels. Many of the rank and file GOP are also Tea Party members. I disagree with Krauthammer’s statement that the parallels of the GOP and the Tea Party extend to the GOP establishment.

If his view was true, the recent unilateral debt limit increase would not have happened. Nor would the GOP establishment cave on the shutdown of last month. In those parallels were true, the GOP would have sponsored rallies across Washington to support their case. Some rallies did happen and some GOP pols attended. But—the establishment hid and did nothing.

So, no, I disagree with Krauthammer. The GOP establishment and the Tea Party do not agree. Krauthammer speaks as one of that establishment.

The view of many, including me, is that the GOP Washington establishment is nothing more than democrats lite. Instead of opposing the liberals, the dems and Obama at every point, the GOP establishment views that opposition as too difficult. It’s easier to cave than do anything. A pox on them!

***

I’ve stated before that I get a lot of emails, newsletters daily on news, politics and events. One headline newsletter had a poll at the bottom, a poll asking a single questions, “Is there any point to Republicans continuing to hold repeal votes on Obamacare?” You had to choose one of four responses.

  • Yes, it’s important the administration knows how divisive this still is
  • Yes, it keeps momentum going in case Republicans some day have the numbers to repeal it
  • Nope. Republicans lost this one, they should get over it
  • I could see trying to repeal specific parts, but not the whole law. That ship has sailed

The response to the poll was not as surprising as I thought. It mirrored my opinion and apparently a majority of others.

35% Yes, it’s important the administration knows how divisive this still is

 
53% Yes, it keeps momentum going in case Republicans some day have the numbers to repeal it

 
5% Nope. Republicans lost this one, they should get over it

 
8% I could see trying to repeal specific parts, but not the whole law. That ship has sailed

 

( 124784 votes )

Interesting, is it not? I wonder, as more and more people are affected, how this poll may change, will the second choice grow larger? Or, will the first choice, an upright middle-finger salute to Obama, as his personal favorability polls continue to fall, grow? Only time will tell.

***

Obamacare appears to be heading to the Supreme Court again. This time the issue is that it is unconstitutional because it is a tax bill and originated in the Senate, not the House. What Harry Reid did was to take a House bill about veterans, erase everything except the House number and dump Obamacare into it. Then in a Pelosi lead conference meeting, one where the ‘Pubs were excluded, approved the Senate Obamacare bill and sent it off for BOs signature.

That is unconstitutional say those who brought the suit. Here’s a brief report; some House ‘Pubs are supporting the suit. John Boehner and Eric Cantor aren’t with them.

Forty House Republicans side with Obamacare Origination Clause suit

By Valerie Richardson, The Washington Times, Sunday, November 17, 2013

The Constitution says revenue-raising bills must originate in the House, and since the bill that became Obamacare was written in the Senate, House Republicans say that’s a problem.

Led by Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, 40 members of the House have signed onto a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act on the grounds that it violates the Origination Clause because it failed to originate in the correct house of Congress.

The lawsuit, filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento, Calif., is now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. A federal judge sided in June with the Obama administration’s defense of the sweeping health-insurance law.

“Given that an Origination Clause challenge against a taxing bill of this magnitude has never before been mounted, it is imperative that this Court not sanction the lower court’s superficial analysis of the Origination Clause,” said the House Republicans’ “friend-of-the-court” brief filed Nov. 8.

Despite its round-one loss, the case, Sissel v. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is gaining interest among Obamacare critics who see it as the last best chance to overturn the massive health-care program in the courts.

“This support from members of the House is especially significant because PLF’s lawsuit defends the constitutional authority of the lower chamber, the legislative body that is closest to the people,” said Paul J. Beard II, the foundation’s principal attorney on the case.

You can read more, here, at the website. I’ve heard of this suit but nothing that is recent. Now…if only we can trust Chief Justice Roberts. That is the real question.

Monday Moments

Phhhbt! to Algore and his Globull Worming fraud. There are two articles in the news today that oppose the global warming acolytes. First item is that this Spring has been the coldest on record since 1975—well before the start of the so-called warming, and, coincidentally, both periods were at the bottom of the 11-year sun spot cycle.

The second item appeared in reports from Russian researchers monitoring Arctic sea ice. Instead of growing thinner as claimed by global warming frauds, it isn’t.

“Journalists say the entire process is very simple: once solar activity declines, the temperature drops. But besides solar activity, the climate is influenced by other factors, including the lithosphere, the atmosphere, the ocean, the glaciers. The share of solar activity in climate change is only 20%. This means that sun’s activity could trigger certain changes whereas the actual climate changing process takes place on the Earth”.

Solar activity follows different cycles, including an 11-year cycle, a 90-year cycle and a 200-year cycle. Yuri Nagovitsyn comments.

“Evidently, solar activity is on the decrease. The 11-year cycle doesn’t bring about considerable climate change – only 1-2%. The impact of the 200-year cycle is greater – up to 50%. In this respect, we could be in for a cooling period that lasts 200-250 years. The period of low solar activity could start in 2030-2040 but it won’t be as pervasive as in the late 17th century”. — The Global Warming Policy Foundation.

It appears that the solar cycles have more to do with the earth’s temperature than any man-made activity.  The 11-year cycle is well known. It directly affects radio/TV transmissions. At its peak, broadcast TV stations have far greater range than usual. Amateur radio operators know these cycles well. The troughs, however, when sun spot activity is low, TV/radio transmissions have much less range—and the weather is often much cooler as well.

What is coming, is multiple cycles bottoming, the 11-year cycle, the 90-year cycle and the 200-year cycle, at the same time. When the convergence of those cycles happened last, about 400 years ago, the period was known as the Little Ice Age.

Hey, Algore! Real science will always beat pseudo-science. You can only fool libs all the time.

***

Another item in the news today is now many Americans now fear or mistrust their government. Fox News published a poll recently that surprised many. To some, the poll was a confirmation of viewpoints wide spread across the country but never reported by the media. While this is reported on the WND website, the data is from FOX.

Americans fear government more than terror

Astonishing poll results for 1st time since 9/11 hijackings

According to a pair of recent polls, for the first time since the 9/11 terrorist hijackings, Americans are more fearful their government will abuse constitutional liberties than fail to keep its citizens safe.

A Fox News survey polling a random national sample of 619 registered voters the day after the bombing found despite the tragic event, those interviewed responded very differently than following 9/11.

For the first time since a similar question was asked in May 2001, more Americans answered “no” to the question, “Would you be willing to give up some of your personal freedom in order to reduce the threat of terrorism?”

Of those surveyed on April 16, 2013, 45 percent answered no to the question, compared to 43 percent answering yes.

In May 2001, before 9/11, the balance was similar, with 40 percent answering no to 33 percent answering yes.

But following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the numbers flipped dramatically, to 71 percent agreeing to sacrifice personal freedom to reduce the threat of terrorism.

Subsequent polls asking the same question in 2002, 2005 and 2006 found Americans consistently willing to give up freedom in exchange for security. Yet the numbers were declining from 71 percent following 9/11 to only 54 percent by May 2006.

Now, it would seem, the famous quote widely attributed to Benjamin Franklin – “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety” – is holding more sway with Americans than it has in over a dozen years.

A similar poll sampling 588 adults, conducted on April 17 and 18 for the Washington Post, also discovered the change in attitude.

“Which worries you more,” the Post asked, “that the government will not go far enough to investigate terrorism because of concerns about constitutional rights, or that it will go too far in compromising constitutional rights in order to investigate terrorism?”

The poll found 48 percent of respondents worry the government will go too far, compared to 41 percent who worry it won’t go far enough.

And similar to the Fox News poll, the Post found the worry to be a fresh development, as only 44 percent worried the government would go too far in January 2006 and only 27 percent worried the government would go too far in January 2010.

The Fox News poll was unique in that it further broke the responses down by political affiliation:

  • Bucking the trend, 51 percent of Democrats responded they would give up personal freedom to reduce the threat of terror, compared to 36 percent opposed.

  • Forty-seven percent of Republicans, on the other hand, opposed giving up freedoms, compared to only 43 percent in favor.

  • Yet independents were the most resistant, with only 29 percent willing to sacrifice freedom, while 58 percent stood opposed.

I’m not surprised all that much with the results of this poll. It mirrors sentiment I’ve observed over the last decade. The most tragic datum in the poll is this: 51 percent of Democrats responded they would give up personal freedom to reduce the threat of terror. We saw this in Boston where the populace gave up their 4th and 1st Amendment rights in the search for the remaining bomber. He was eventually found—outside of the search area by a resident who WASN’T quivering inside his home as ordered by the State.

The divide across the country continues to grow. The statists, those who depend on government for their security—economic, physical and political security, are content to give up their liberty. In past centuries, we called them subjects, peons and serfs.

Then, there are the rest of us who, for the most part, are the antithesis of those who would submit.

Last post

Oh!, I’m not stopping my blog. It’s the last post of the year, 2012. It’s New Years Eve. Snow is falling lightly outside. The temperature is hovering at freezing and the forecast calls for more snow throughout the day and into tomorrow.

My wife ran some last minutes errands this morning and we’re set for whatever may come—snow, ice or blizzard. Every year I promise to get an emergency generator and every year I don’t. I just hate to spend money on something that I may never use. I keep reminding myself it’s like insurance and I always forget. We’d need at least a 5KW generator at minimum. Then add the wiring necessary to have it perform properly and venting for the exhaust when it does.  

Not cheap.  And, I’m cheap; a holdover from my Depression Era parents and grandparents.

Truthfully, I’m not concerned about the weather. I have a strong tendency towards Cabin Fever. Before, if I started getting jumpy, I’d just get in the Tahoe and go somewhere…anywhere. The “where” didn’t matter. That’s not a real option at the moment. Saturday, the Tahoe’s transmission started slipping between gear shifts. Manual shifting appears to work but I’d rather not push it. I’ve phoned for an appointment at my friendly auto mechanic. He’ll return my call Wednesday, I expect.

I could drive my wife’s car, a rollerskate, in an emergency but I’d need a shoehorn to get in and help to get out. Not a viable option. So I’ll sit here, waiting for Wednesday and a callback.

Happy New Year!

***

The crazies come out at the end of every year. There were some examples in my American Thinker newsletter this week.

Professor Calls for Death Penalty for Climate Change ‘Deniers’

It is as inevitable as the rising of the sun; the Left, when thwarted in their quest for power, suggests the use of lethal force to compel those who disagree.

There is a nauseating litany of murders done by our betters in their pursuit of the Benthamite vision of “the greatest good for the most people” — which in their minds equates to collectivization and socialism. You have Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Margaret Sanger, Mao Tse Tung, Pol Pot. Now we can add one more name to the list: Professor Richard Parncutt, Musicologist at Graz University in Austria.

Parncutt has issued — and later retracted after it the public outcry — a manifesto calling for the execution of prominent “Climate Change Deniers”. What is interesting is that Parncutt hates the death penalty and supports Amnesty International’s efforts to end it.

This would be a shocking thing for a college professor to do were it an isolated incident, but this call has been made a number of times in the past. For instance, an anonymous poster at the liberal website Talking Points Memo called for similar action, as did Climate Progress editor Joe Romm, who called for “deniers” to be strangled in their beds. Grist magazine writer David Roberts called for Nuremberg trials for “deniers” and NASA’s James Hansen has likewise called for similar trials.

A common denominator of this kill-crazy proclamations is that they all are made by public employees…state-supported academics and government employees. They all hide behind their tenure, unions, government employee regulations that makes it nearly impossible to fire them; as long as they don’t embarrass their boss…too much.  You see, their bosses agree. That’s the real issue. Imagine the uproar if we declared the same for anyone supporting unproven pseudo-science as do these wackos?

Idiots.

***

Every once in a while an article appears that really invokes thought.  This is such one.  The title attracted me and then I read more. It’s really true that fiction is more often accurate than reality.

There is No Escape

Every once in a while we try to escape to one of those rare, childlike, stay-in-your-pajama’s, popcorn-munching days when we can block out the fear of a collapsing economy and hide from a repulsive culture that seems to embrace everything that is bad. Lately it just doesn’t work.

Settling in for an original “Star Trek” TV series episode called “A Piece of the Action,” I was shocked as it seemed more like a mocking commentary on our current crises.

Searching for a space vessel lost 100 years earlier, the crew of the USS Enterprise arrives on the planet Sigma Iotia II. The planet has been “contaminated” after salvaging a book from the lost vessel called Chicago Mobs of the Twenties; a book they now venerate and base their civilization on. Conventional government had broken down and society was now a tumult of mob bosses, crime, death, and revenge; it could operate no other way. One can’t help but think what an appropriate Rahm Emmanuel/Barack Obama scenario it was; similar to when Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals contaminated our own civilization.

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/12/there_is_no_escape.html#ixzz2Gf6aVkRD

It’s a long article but I urge you to follow the link and read the entire column.  The parallels draw in it are astounding, amazing and incredibly accurate.

***

Y’all have a great New Years! Make sure you survive it.

 

(Update: 9-1-2011) Random Items for Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Update: The unions in the story below have reversed their earlier decision.  I guess after spending millions to overturn Governor Walker’s efforts to control union abuses, they don’t have the funds to pay the city for the cost of the parade.  Frankly, I’m surprised they rolled. I expected them to cancel the parade instead.

Tomorrow is September. Labor Day is approaching and I wonder how many unionists will block attendance of festivities by the ‘Pubs and other conservatives? It’s already happened.  In Wisconsin (why am I not surprised!), union thugs told the ‘Pub US Representative Sean Duffy he couldn’t march in the parade.

In previous years, Republicans have worked the parade route, but this year they will not be allowed to take part. The parade is organized by local unions, which said Wisconsin Republicans “have openly attacked worker’s rights.”
Wisconsin politics — which hasn’t been pretty of late — has made its way into a local Labor Day parade. The organizers of the Wausau Labor Day parade announced they would not let Republican lawmakers take part in the Sept. 5 display. The parade is organized by 30 local unions. — WGBH.
 The unions are complaining that their money laundering scheme was uncovered and stopped.  Their “theft by deception”—having the taxpayers of the state pay for union benefits while the union funds intended for that purpose were sent out of state, was blocked ending clandestine democrat funding.  They didn’t like that either.

To retaliate, they won’t let ‘Pubs march, in what has been in past years, a non-partisan parade.  It’s not non-partisan any longer.

UPDATE:  It appears the story isn’t over.  The Wausau Mayor has stepped in and informed they must invite the Republicans or reimburse the city for the city’s cost of the parade.  The city is a co-sponsor of the event and provides liability insurance.

Wausau mayor to unions: Pay up if you ban Republicans from Labor Day parade

A parade organizer with the Marathon County Labor Council made it clear some Republican lawmakers aren’t invited. The reason: not supporting workers’ collective bargaining rights back in February.

But Mayor Jim Tipple says because the city of Wausau pays for a portion of the parade’s costs including liability insurance, the event is required to be non-partisan.

“The city does sponsor the parade[,] we have staff that close streets put up barricades police protection,’ says Tipple.

***

The latest supposed side effect of global warming? Mental illness. That’s according to a new report claiming that depression and post-traumatic stress will increase as a result of climate change. –The Heritage Foundation-Quick Hits

I agree with this but I think they’ve gotten the “cause and effect” reversed.  The whole man-made global warming thing is a creation of mental illness, not creating mental illness—except for Algore.  But then, with Algore, who can tell?
***
It’s wake-up time at the UN.  US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has proposed a radical change to funds for the United Nations
House Republicans are planning to introduce today legislation that seeks to force major changes at the United Nations, using as leverage the U.S.’s 22 percent contribution to the world body’s operating budget.
The bill by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, would require the UN to adopt a voluntary budget model in which countries selectively fund UN agencies rather than according to a set formula. It would end funding for Palestinian refugees, limit use of U.S. funds to only purposes outlined by Congress and stop contributions to peacekeeping operations until management changes are made.
The legislation represents the leading edge of Republican moves against the world body at a time when the Obama administration is increasingly building its foreign policy around multilateral institutions, making the alliance-based approach central to its stance on Libya. The bill may advance in the Republican-controlled House but is likely to hit opposition in the Senate and from President Barack Obama.
Obama has delegated much of his foreign policy to the UN. It’s unlikely this bill would pass the democrat controlled Senate and if it did, BO would veto it.  After all, the US must not exert its sovereignty against the UN!
***
Why am I not surprised?

Fiddlin’ on Friday

I’ve been looking for a topic for today and I haven’t been too successful. Some of our church teenagers shoveled our drive so we could get out yesterday. Some of the drifts and the one across our garage door exceeded three feet.

With weather in mind and all, here’s some companion cartoons to my posts earlier this week. A continuation of themes…

Up to his Schnozz in Global Warming!

On Obamacare…

EPA out of Control…


And then’s there’s Obama’s contempt of our courts and of congress…

Y’all have a great weekend. We’re forecasted to get some more snow Sunday night.

Tip of the hat to cartoonists, Glenn McCoy, Chuck Asay, Lisa Benson and Chris Muir.

Cartoon of the Day: Michael Rameriz

Algore’s Globull Worming.