VULCAN BABE, T'POLWERE JARRETT AND T'POL SEPARATED AT BIRTH!? OR ARE THEY ONE AND THE SAME!?
MAYBE THIS IS WHY TRANSITION CHIEF AND SOROS-HENCHMAN PODESTA BELIEVES IN UFO'S!?!?
IS THIS A PHOTO OF JARRETT AND OBAMA!?INQUIRING MORONS WANT TO KNOW!
DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
OBAMA SENIOR ADVISOR IS A VULCAN BABE!
VULCAN BABE, T'POLMAYBE THIS IS WHY TRANSITION CHIEF AND SOROS-HENCHMAN PODESTA BELIEVES IN UFO'S!?!?
IS THIS A PHOTO OF JARRETT AND OBAMA!?
The New World Order
From the Peninsula, Qatar's leading English daily, and according to a "scholar," no less:
No wonder the Maxists are in bed with the Moslems. Both groups vie to be the new world order.
Islam will function as a catalyst in shaping up the future world. It is going to be the ultimate answer to Communism and Capitalism, said prominent Indian Islamic Scholar T K Abdullah.Not Islamic nations. Not the Middle East. Not the United Arab Emirates. Islam will be the new world order! The caliphate?
Addressing a public meeting organised by Indian Islamic Association Qatar (IIAQ), Abdullah, a noted orator from the southern Indian State of Kerala said Islam will soon emerge as a major threat to Capitalism.
“Be it against Islam or in favour of it, Islam is the most widely debated issue in the contemporary world; and it is going to be the ultimate answer to the world’s problems. Islam will emerge as new world order blurring the boundaries of East and West”, he said. Quoting prominent Islamic scholars, Abdulla recalled how these visionaries had predicted the collapse of Communism decades before its fall in erstwhile Soviet Russia and East Europe. Now, it is Islam versus Capitalism. The foundation of capitalism has already been shaken. The whole system is struggling for its survival; and in the shaping up of new world order, Islam will certainly play a major role, he said.
No wonder the Maxists are in bed with the Moslems. Both groups vie to be the new world order.
HEIFETZ & GLUCK: ORFEO & EURIDICE
Jascha Heifetz plays Melodie (from Orfeo ed Euridice) by Christoph Willibald von Gluck (Transcribed by Heifetz).
Accompanist: Emanuel Bay
BONUS CLIP: PARIS OPERA DOING ORFEE ET EURYDICE DE GLUCK
Accompanist: Emanuel Bay
BONUS CLIP: PARIS OPERA DOING ORFEE ET EURYDICE DE GLUCK
MEDVEDEV TO OBAMA: "SURRENDER AND WE'LL BE NICE!"
MEDVEDEV HOLDS OUT A CARROT FOR OBAMA.
MY GUESS: OBAMA WILL TAKE IT, AND PROCLAIM PEACE IN OUR TIME.
AND WE WILL ALL BE LESS SAFE.
THE NEXT HUMONGOUS LIBERAL BOONDOGGLE: OBAMA'S "GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY"
OBAMA CAMPAIGNED ON IT: A "GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY".
HE REITERATED IT TODAY:
NOT HIS MONEY - WHICH I COULDN'T CARE LESS HOW HE SPENT.
BUT OURS.
IN A WORLD THAT'S NOT WARMING ANYMORE - (AND WHOSE PREVIOUS DECADE LONG WARMING MAY NOT HAVE BEEN ANTHROPOGENIC AT ALL) - ALL THIS AMOUNTS TOO IS A COLOSSAL WASTE OF MONEY AND RESOURCES.
UPDATE: YOU CAN WATCH OBAMA PROMOTE THIS BOONDOGGLE HERE.
BTW: IS IT ME, OR DOES OBAMA LOOK INCREDIBLY WIMPY AND UNCONVINCING AND UNINSPIRING - AND UN-PRESIDENTIAL - IN THIS VIDEO?!
HE REITERATED IT TODAY:
[OBAMA] pointed to the need for investing 150 billion dollars to build a green energy economy that he said would create five million new jobs.OBAMA WANTS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO INVEST 150 BILLION OF OUR DOLLARS.
NOT HIS MONEY - WHICH I COULDN'T CARE LESS HOW HE SPENT.
BUT OURS.
IN A WORLD THAT'S NOT WARMING ANYMORE - (AND WHOSE PREVIOUS DECADE LONG WARMING MAY NOT HAVE BEEN ANTHROPOGENIC AT ALL) - ALL THIS AMOUNTS TOO IS A COLOSSAL WASTE OF MONEY AND RESOURCES.
- IT'S A BOONDOGGLE OBAMA'S CRONIES ON THE LEFT ARE BOUND TO MAKE HUGE PROFITS ON - UNTIL THE LIBERAL "GREEN ENERGY ECONOMY" BUBBLE BURSTS JUST LIKE THE LIBERAL FANNIE MAE BUBBLE BURST.
The term boondoggle, in the sense of a project that wastes time and money, first appeared during the Great Depression in the 1930s, referring to the millions of jobs given to unemployed men and women to try to get the economy moving again, as part of the New Deal. It came into common usage after a 1935 New York Times headline claimed that over $3 million had been spent teaching the jobless how to make boon doggles.[1]
- IF OBAMA SUCCEEDS IN GETTING THIS BOONDOGGLE THROUGH CONGRESS -AND THAT IS HIGHLY LIKELY - IT'S GOING TO ACCOMPLISH ABSO-F*CKING-LUTLEY NOTHING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT.
- BUPKUSS.
- ALL IT WILL DO IS MAKE A FEW PEOPLE RICH - AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE.
UPDATE: YOU CAN WATCH OBAMA PROMOTE THIS BOONDOGGLE HERE.
BTW: IS IT ME, OR DOES OBAMA LOOK INCREDIBLY WIMPY AND UNCONVINCING AND UNINSPIRING - AND UN-PRESIDENTIAL - IN THIS VIDEO?!
DEMINT IS THE MAN: CRITICIZES MCCAIN AND GOP FOR ABANDONING CONSERVATIVE PRINICPLES
CNN:
South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint on Friday became one of the first high-profile Republicans to publicly criticize John McCain following his electoral defeat, blaming the Arizona senator for betraying conservative principles in his quest for the White House.The conservative senator, speaking to a group of GOP officials gathered in Myrtle Beach at a conference on the future of the Republican Party, described how the party had strayed from its own "brand," which, according to DeMint, should represent freedom, religious-based values and limited government.
"We have to be honest, and there's a lot of blame to go around, but I have to mention George Bush, and I have to mention Ted Stevens, and I'm afraid I even have to mention John McCain," he said.
DeMint offered a long list of complaints about McCain's record in the Senate and on the campaign trail.
RTWT.
DEMINT WOULD BE MY FIRST CHOICE FOR SENATE MINORITY LEADER.
OBAMA PROVES ONCE AGAIN HE'S FIRST AND FOREMOST A CORRUPT MACHINE POLITICIAN AND A LIAR: LOBBYISTS DOMINATE HIS TRANSITION
HOT AIR:
There is nothing inherently wrong with lobbying. There is plenty wrong with hypocrisy, especially on the grand scale committed by Barack Obama during this campaign. He regularly indulged in the populist demonization of lobbyists and claimed to lead a new movement to purify Washington of their eeeeevil influences. Now that he has the power, Obama has no problem working with lobbyists for fraudulently run mortgage giants and drug makers, smear artists, and asbestos-lawsuit defenders.
That’s change that 63 million suckers believed in.
GO THERE; THEY HAVE ALL THE DETAILS AND LINKS. MORE HERE, TOO.
OMINOUS SIGN: IRAN CONVERTS SOME RESERVES INTO GOLD
NYTIMES/AP:
Iranian newspapers are quoting a top adviser to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying the country has converted some of its foreign currency reserves into gold.IF TRUE, THIS MAY MEAN THAT THEY KNOW OF A MAJOR IMMINENT ATTACK... AGAINST THE WEST - OR AGAINST PERSIAN GULF OIL STATES...
The papers published Saturday did not say how much of Iran's estimated $120 billion in reserves were converted into gold. Iranian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The daily Jahan-e-Eghtesad, or Economy World, quoted presidential adviser Mojtaba Hashemi Samareh as saying Ahmadinejad ordered the change.
The decision comes after a dramatic fall in oil prices recently triggered by a global financial crisis. About 80 percent of Iran's foreign currency revenue comes from oil exports.
Study finds Greenland Ice Melt 'Slowed Significantly'
But some dishonest Dutchmen don't want to admit it
No self-respecting global warming presenter would ever miss the chance to warn the audience that higher temperatures could melt ice in places like Greenland, the melting water could lubricate the interface between ice and rock, and watch-out . the ice could increase its velocity, fall or move quickly into the sea, and cause a rapid rise in sea level. If you happen to be Al Gore, you might show us melting ice, water pouring into some moulin, and then cap it off with an image of water drowning out the World Trade Center Memorial. This story in its near infinite varieties appears on literally thousands of websites dealing with the global warming issue.
A recent article in the prestigious Science magazine has an alarming title that should thrill the greenhouse crusade: "Large and Rapid Melt-Induced Velocity Changes in the Ablation Zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet." Holy cow - it's just like Gore warned us. Throw the words `large,' `rapid,' `melt-induced velocity changes' together in a title of an article in Science and expect to get some high-level media attention. However, once we dove into this article, we found an amazing twist given the threatening title, and we could not wait to feature the piece on World Climate Report.
To begin, the research was conducted by a large team with the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research at Utrecht University, Netherlands; the authors state that "This work was supported by several grants from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research and the Netherlands Polar Programme."
van de Wal et al. focused their attention on measurements that are being made on the ice along the west coast of Greenland just north of the Arctic Circle (Figure 2). For the past 17 years, annual measurements have been made along the "K-transect" to measure movements of the ice sheet. However, they state "we started more detailed position measurements in 2005 by taking advantage of technological developments of GPS equipment and data processing. The new instruments record hourly position of stakes, which are drilled into the ice. The GPS (single-frequency) units need to be serviced only once in a year and deliver an ice velocity record with a temporal resolution of 1 day or better." To say the least, geospatial technologies are showing up everywhere in our lives from the family car to the golf course and now to our favorite transects in Greenland.
Probably the largest surprise in the article can be seen in the Figure 3 in which we can see the velocity changes at many sites over the 17-year period. The authors note that "The overall picture obtained by averaging all stake measurements at all sites for individual years indicates a small but significant (r=0.79, P < 0.05) decrease of 10% in the annual average velocity over 17 years". Despite all the talk about moulins, melting, rapid acceleration of ice, van der Wal et al. reveal that the ice movement in western Greenland over the past 17 years has . slowed significantly!
In discussing their results we find some very interesting language, to say the least. At one place they write "it has been suggested that the interaction between meltwater production and ice velocity provides a positive feedback, leading to a more rapid and stronger response of the ice sheet to climate warming than hitherto assumed. Our results are not quite in line with this view." At World Climate Report, we are far less polite, and instead of saying "our results are not quite in line with your view", we tend to say "our results suggest you are wrong"!
van der Wal et al. further write "Longer observational records with high temporal resolution in other ablation areas of the ice sheet are necessary to test the importance of the positive-feedback mechanism between melt rates and ice velocities. At present, we cannot conclude that this feedback is important." Again, we tend to say this moulin link to drowning the World Trade Center Memorial is nonsense, and the empirical evidence is overwhelmingly in our favor.
More here (See the original for links, graphics etc.)
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
No self-respecting global warming presenter would ever miss the chance to warn the audience that higher temperatures could melt ice in places like Greenland, the melting water could lubricate the interface between ice and rock, and watch-out . the ice could increase its velocity, fall or move quickly into the sea, and cause a rapid rise in sea level. If you happen to be Al Gore, you might show us melting ice, water pouring into some moulin, and then cap it off with an image of water drowning out the World Trade Center Memorial. This story in its near infinite varieties appears on literally thousands of websites dealing with the global warming issue.
A recent article in the prestigious Science magazine has an alarming title that should thrill the greenhouse crusade: "Large and Rapid Melt-Induced Velocity Changes in the Ablation Zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet." Holy cow - it's just like Gore warned us. Throw the words `large,' `rapid,' `melt-induced velocity changes' together in a title of an article in Science and expect to get some high-level media attention. However, once we dove into this article, we found an amazing twist given the threatening title, and we could not wait to feature the piece on World Climate Report.
To begin, the research was conducted by a large team with the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research at Utrecht University, Netherlands; the authors state that "This work was supported by several grants from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research and the Netherlands Polar Programme."
van de Wal et al. focused their attention on measurements that are being made on the ice along the west coast of Greenland just north of the Arctic Circle (Figure 2). For the past 17 years, annual measurements have been made along the "K-transect" to measure movements of the ice sheet. However, they state "we started more detailed position measurements in 2005 by taking advantage of technological developments of GPS equipment and data processing. The new instruments record hourly position of stakes, which are drilled into the ice. The GPS (single-frequency) units need to be serviced only once in a year and deliver an ice velocity record with a temporal resolution of 1 day or better." To say the least, geospatial technologies are showing up everywhere in our lives from the family car to the golf course and now to our favorite transects in Greenland.
Probably the largest surprise in the article can be seen in the Figure 3 in which we can see the velocity changes at many sites over the 17-year period. The authors note that "The overall picture obtained by averaging all stake measurements at all sites for individual years indicates a small but significant (r=0.79, P < 0.05) decrease of 10% in the annual average velocity over 17 years". Despite all the talk about moulins, melting, rapid acceleration of ice, van der Wal et al. reveal that the ice movement in western Greenland over the past 17 years has . slowed significantly!
In discussing their results we find some very interesting language, to say the least. At one place they write "it has been suggested that the interaction between meltwater production and ice velocity provides a positive feedback, leading to a more rapid and stronger response of the ice sheet to climate warming than hitherto assumed. Our results are not quite in line with this view." At World Climate Report, we are far less polite, and instead of saying "our results are not quite in line with your view", we tend to say "our results suggest you are wrong"!
van der Wal et al. further write "Longer observational records with high temporal resolution in other ablation areas of the ice sheet are necessary to test the importance of the positive-feedback mechanism between melt rates and ice velocities. At present, we cannot conclude that this feedback is important." Again, we tend to say this moulin link to drowning the World Trade Center Memorial is nonsense, and the empirical evidence is overwhelmingly in our favor.
More here (See the original for links, graphics etc.)
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Why they hate Sarah
(Irrelevant comment: Wotta babe!)
If it is generational change the electorate wants, some American conservatives are pinning their hopes on Sarah Palin. Unlike the recent crop of successful conservative leaders around the world, Palin is a bonfire lighter. She sparks a visceral hatred among her ideological opponents, more malign and more extreme than was the case even for Hillary Clinton, the previously most vilified politician since Margaret Thatcher. Note they are all women.
While race may no longer be an issue in post-partisan times, sexism is alive and well, but perpetrated most nakedly by the Aunty Alices of the media firmament. These are women who seek to ingratiate themselves with the dominant power group, even if it means trashing their own kind. They are to women what Uncle Tom was to black people.
And why? Mostly because of abortion, because as the American political analyst Michael Barone said this week, Palin did not abort her disabled baby. Barone later claimed he was joking, after being booed by journalists during a speech in Chicago when he reportedly said: "The liberal media attacked Sarah Palin because she did not abort her Down syndrome baby. They wanted her to kill that child." Palin represents so radical a disruption of the cultural order that she just has to be smashed. The amount of mud being thrown at her now is a measure of how seriously the threat of a Palin presidential campaign in 2012 is taken.
Source. Non-editorializing report of her recent press conference here
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Friday, November 14, 2008
OBAMA APPOINTS CRONY AND REZKO ASSOCIATE CHIEF ADVISOR
THIS APPOINTMENT PROVES ONCE AGAIN THAT OBAMA IS A SLIMEBALL, AND I PREDICT THAT HE'S GONNA HAVE THE MOST CORRUPT ADMINISTRATION OF ALL TIME.
BAILING OUT GM, FORD AND CHRYSLER BY GIVING THEM MONEY WOULD BE A MISTAKE
TWO GEMS FROM GLENN:
Total compensation per hour for the big-three carmakers is $73.20. That's a 52 percent differential from Toyota's (Detroit South) $48 compensation (wages + health and retirement benefits). In fact, the oversized UAW-driven pay package for Detroit is 132 percent higher than that of the entire manufacturing sector of the U.S., which comes in at $31.59.
posted at 02:20 PM by Glenn ReynoldsMEGAN MCARDLE ON TALK OF AN AUTO BAILOUT: "I do think that the UAW is perhaps the grossest example of something toxic about what a lot of American unions have turned into. . . . First, after the unions have put companies into an untenable position, they come to the rest of us looking for a handout to continue the unsustainable levels of pay and benefits. Almost everyone I know makes less than an autoworker, and has a whole lot less job security. Why should they pay autoworkers for the privilege of making cars no one wants?"
- FOREIGN AUTOMAKERS DO FINE MAKING CARS HERE.
- IF GM AND FORD AND CHRYSLER CAN'T THEN EFF'EM.
WHAT IF BUSH HAD NUKED TORA BORA?
I have believed from the start that Bush should have nuked Tora Bora in 2001. The GWOT would have ended right then and there. It would have sent the right message: Don't Tread On Me!
Instead Bush has has the USA wage a war with one hand behind our back, a war of half-assery. That's why I have long said that "Dubya stands for wimp " and that I would have never voted for him again except if he ran against any Democrat.
Nuking Tora Bora with a few small tactical nukes would have killed the entire al Qaeda leadership and warned everyone - terrorists and the nations which aid or harbor them - that they shouldn't fuck with us. Had Dubya done this the Bush Doctrine ("you're either with us or against us") would've has some teeth - and some positive effect. Now it's too late; what we could've done then in righteous reprisal can not be done now. Not until we are attacked here in the USA again.
MY BOTTOM-LINE: The real asymmetry in the GWOT is this: the enemy is willing to do anything to win and we are not.
Nukes were on Vanderluen's mind they other day; here's what he posted, GVDL:
HOW EFFIN' SAD.
[BTW: TRUMAN'S USE OF THE BOMB WAS NECESSARY, PROPER AND HUMANE - SAVING PERHAPS 20 MILLION JAPANESE LIVES. MORE HERE.]
Instead Bush has has the USA wage a war with one hand behind our back, a war of half-assery. That's why I have long said that "Dubya stands for wimp " and that I would have never voted for him again except if he ran against any Democrat.Nuking Tora Bora with a few small tactical nukes would have killed the entire al Qaeda leadership and warned everyone - terrorists and the nations which aid or harbor them - that they shouldn't fuck with us. Had Dubya done this the Bush Doctrine ("you're either with us or against us") would've has some teeth - and some positive effect. Now it's too late; what we could've done then in righteous reprisal can not be done now. Not until we are attacked here in the USA again.
MY BOTTOM-LINE: The real asymmetry in the GWOT is this: the enemy is willing to do anything to win and we are not.
Nukes were on Vanderluen's mind they other day; here's what he posted, GVDL:
I think we need to have the people of the world focus like a laser on the table stakes of going beyond these little patty-cake wars we are currently diddling around with and look, really look, at what can actually happen with one little slip.I THINK THIS WOULD ACCOMPLISH NOTHING.
What we need to do this is: "The Live Demo." By this I mean we need to find a small island or deserted space somewhere on the planet and sacrifice it for the greater good by setting off one, just one, low-yield thermonuclear device in the atmosphere for all the world to see.
Think of "The Live Demo" as a remedial educational moment for the entire world; a kind of slap upside the head coupled with a large shout out of: "PAY ATTENTION!"
- REMEMBER, IT TOOK TWO NUKES TO CONVINCE JAPAN TO QUIT.
- THE FIRST "DEMO" ON A REAL LIVING CITY DIDN'T DO THE TRICK.
- BESIDES: THE REAL POWER OF USING THE BOMB IS THE MESSAGE IT SENDS: "WE WILL STOP AT NOTHING TO ANNIHILATE YOU IF YOU ATTACK US!"
- WHEN WE APPEASE THE ENEMY, AND FIGHT WITH ONE HAND BEHIND OUR BACK - WHEN OUR POLITICIANS SAY THEY WOULD TO RETREAT WITHOUT VICTORY - THIS SENDS THE OPPOSITE MESSAGE - ONE WHICH EMBOLDENS THE ENEMY.
- OUR NEXT PRESIDENT, BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA, PROMISES TO DO THINGS WHICH WILL EMBOLDEN THE ENEMY, AND WEAKEN OUR CAPABILITIES TO INTERCEPT THEIR PLANS AND RETALIATE.
HOW EFFIN' SAD.
[BTW: TRUMAN'S USE OF THE BOMB WAS NECESSARY, PROPER AND HUMANE - SAVING PERHAPS 20 MILLION JAPANESE LIVES. MORE HERE.]
OBAMA IS BUILDING A BRIDGE BACK TO THE 20TH CENTURY AND THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION
OBAMA IS REASSEMBLING THE OL' CLINTON GANG.
- I WONDER HOW THE LOONY LEFT FEELS ABOUT THAT! HEH!
- THEIR NIGHTMARE IS THAT OBAMA MAY TURN OUT TO BE JUST ANOTHER HALF-WHITE ANGLO-SAXON AMERICAN!
- THERE'S NOTHING IN HIS LIFE WHICH MAKES ME BELIEVE THIS WILL HAPPEN.
- OBAMA IS A LOW-LIFE LEFTIE SCUMBAG WHO LIED ABOUT HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH WRIGHT AND AYERS AND KHALIDI - AND HE DIDN'T EVEN ATTEND HIS GRANDMOTHER'S MEMORIAL.
- AND HE LIED ABOUT THAT TOO; LAST WEEK THEY SAID HE WOULD ATTEND.
- OBAMA: AN UNGRATEFUL SCUMBAG. AMPLIFICATION: A LYING, CORRUPT, LEFT-WING, UNGRATEFUL SCUMBAG.
IN OBAMIAN FASHION, BIG BAD RAHM EMANUEL THROWS HIS FATHER UNDER A BUS AND APOLOGIZES TO ARABS
Rahm Emanuel is regarded as a tough, FOUL-MOUTHED SOB, but he went out of his way to appease Arabs today:
BBC: Obama aide apologises to US-Arabs
THIS BODES ILL FOR THE USA, ISRAEL AND THE FREE WORLD.
IT'S A BAD OMEN, A SIGN OF WORSE THINGS TO COME...
OF MORE KOW-TOWING OUR ENEMIES...
BBC: Obama aide apologises to US-Arabs
Rahm Emanuel apologised to Arab-Americans on behalf of his familyREUTERS/NYTIMES HERE.
President-elect Barack Obama's White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel has apologised to the US-Arab community for remarks made by his father.
Benjamin Emanuel told an Israeli newspaper that his son, who is Jewish, would "obviously influence the president to be pro-Israel".
He also referred to Arabs in a way which a leading Arab-American group called an "unacceptable smear".
A spokesman for Rahm Emanuel said he had called the group to apologise.
Mr Emanuel also offered to meet members of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
In the interview last week with the Israeli daily newspaper Ma'ariv, Israeli-born Benjamin Emanuel talked about his son's new job.
Anger at remarks
He said: "Obviously he'll influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to be mopping floors at the White House."
THIS BODES ILL FOR THE USA, ISRAEL AND THE FREE WORLD.
IT'S A BAD OMEN, A SIGN OF WORSE THINGS TO COME...
OF MORE KOW-TOWING OUR ENEMIES...
AS ISRAEL IS ATTACKED BY GAZA, THE UN AND THE EU DEMAND THAT ISRAEL APPEASE GAZA
As rockets cascade into Israel from Gaza, the UN and the EU demand that Israel open border crossings with Gaza
ITEM #1: Five rockets slam into Ashkelon area
ITEM #1: Five rockets slam into Ashkelon area
Following the morning's Kassam rocket strikes on Sderot and the Sha'ar Hanegev region, the Ashkelon area also came under attack on Friday afternoon.THESE ARE ATTACKS ON ISRAEL FROM GAZA.
Five Grad-type Katyusha rockets were fired at the region, one of which hit the city center and another that landed on its outskirts. Three more struck open areas. Shortly afterwards, another Kassam rocket landed in a kibbutz in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council. Also, a mortar shell exploded near the Kissufim area.
Three people were sent into shock as a result of the attack and were evacuated to Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital.
Earlier Friday, Gaza terrorists fired ten Kassams at the South, one of which lightly wounded an elderly woman in a Sha'ar Hanegev kibbutz.
- THESE ATTACKS ARE NOT AGAINST "SETTLEMENTS" IN SO-CALLED "OCCUPIED TERRITORY".
- NO OTHER NATION IN THE WORLD WOULD BE EXPECTED TO SEND HUMANITARIAN AID TO NATIONS ATTACKING THEM - ONLY ISRAEL.
- THIS IS ANTISEMITISM, PURE AND SIMPLE.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said that Israel's response to the incessant firing of rockets from the Gaza Strip, in which crossings to the area were closed, was "unacceptable."I HAVE COME TO EXPECT THIS PRO-ARAB APPEASING CRAP FROM THE UN AND THE EU.
In a statement released by the UN, Ban voiced his concern "that food and other life saving assistance is being denied to hundreds of thousands of people." He called to immediately end the "measures which increase the hardship and suffering of the civilian population of the Gaza" and "to allow urgently, the steady and sufficient supply of fuel and humanitarian assistance."
Ban indicated his desire to see Israel resume the facilitation of UNRWA's activities, as well as the access of other humanitarian organizations to Gaza.
The UN leader also condemned the attacks by the Palestinians, who fired 16 rockets into Israel on Friday. Four of the rockets were Grad-type Katyushas.
The European Union also called on Israel to reopen its border crossings with the Gaza Strip.
EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she was worried that "fuel and basic humanitarian assistance" is not reaching the Palestinians.
Ferrero-Waldner said that the crossings should be re-opened so food, fuel and medicine can begin moving into Gaza once more.
- IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THWARTED BY THE USA - UP UNTIL NOW.
- I BET POTUS OBAMA WILL SIDE WITH THE UN AND THE EU THE VERY FIRST CHANCE HE CAN.
- AND I BET THE ARABS KNOW THIS AND WILL THEREFORE INSTIGATE A BIG INCIDENT AS SOON AS OBAMA IS SWORN IN.
"GOD ONLY KNOWS WHERE I WOULD BE"
I don't know how much more of this crap I can take!
Note the cult-like quality to the above.
Note the cult-like quality to the above.
"Coolest" is now a bad word
The global temperature has been cooling for the last couple of years -- with record cold weather being reported incessantly from numerous places worldwide -- so how do global warmers deal with that? By substituting "less warm" for "cool"! So instead of saying that 2008 will be the coolest year of the last 10 years, they say that it is the "least warm"! I kid you not. See below:
It takes a bit of seeing it through the propaganda but they are actually admitting that global warming stopped in 1998 -- which it did.
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
"This year is on track to be about the 10th warmest globally since records began in 1850 but gaps in Arctic data mean the world may be slightly underestimating global warming, a leading scientist said on Tuesday. A natural cooling of the Pacific Ocean known as La Nina kept a lid on temperatures in 2008 despite an underlying warming trend, said Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England. "This year is about 10th," he told Reuters in a telephone interview. "La Nina in the Pacific lasted longer than we envisaged."
Jones's unit is one of the main sources of global climate data for the United Nations. The warmest year on record was 1998, followed by 2005 and 2003, with other years this century closely bunched. Tenth place would make 2008 the least warm since 1999.
Source
It takes a bit of seeing it through the propaganda but they are actually admitting that global warming stopped in 1998 -- which it did.
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Hate By Any Other Name
The LA Times covers the mass protests against the passage of Proposition 8, which amends the California constitution and clarifies that marriage is restricted to one man and one woman. Set aside the fact that African Americans were the most overwhelmingly pro-Prop 8 voters, or that some may have supported the measure simply because they were offended at gay marriage being imposed through a one-vote margin by California Supreme Court judicial fiat.
What's worth noting is that since the proposition passed, some of its opponents have behaved in a way that would be universally condemned if, say, conservatives had behaved in the same manner about Obama's victory. Most appalling, here is video of a cross being ripped out of an elderly woman's hand and being trampled upon.
Just asking: Where is the ACLU, and where are all the hate crimes advocates? Surely if a Christian had stomped on a symbol of gay pride, there would be you-know-what to pay. What makes it all right for gay activists to stamp on the most sacred symbol of the Christian faith?
It strikes me that different standards of behavior are expected from Americans depending on their political persuasion. Acts that would be characterized as unacceptable and hateful if employed by conservatives are treated as an acceptable expression of legitimate grievance when committed by the left.
Source
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
What's worth noting is that since the proposition passed, some of its opponents have behaved in a way that would be universally condemned if, say, conservatives had behaved in the same manner about Obama's victory. Most appalling, here is video of a cross being ripped out of an elderly woman's hand and being trampled upon.
Just asking: Where is the ACLU, and where are all the hate crimes advocates? Surely if a Christian had stomped on a symbol of gay pride, there would be you-know-what to pay. What makes it all right for gay activists to stamp on the most sacred symbol of the Christian faith?
It strikes me that different standards of behavior are expected from Americans depending on their political persuasion. Acts that would be characterized as unacceptable and hateful if employed by conservatives are treated as an acceptable expression of legitimate grievance when committed by the left.
Source
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
ISLAM'S SELF-LOATHING WOMEN
When a female lawyer from Egypt starts condoning that Muslim males rape Israeli women, as seen on Al-Arabiya television, you know that's a sign about just how inside-out the minds of some women under Islam can be. Here's the transcript from the repugnant program on MEMRI.
I said it before, I'll say it again: some women under Islam are simply downright unfeminine.
For the record, Al-Arabiya is run from the UAE with the Saudis providing subsidies.
I said it before, I'll say it again: some women under Islam are simply downright unfeminine.
For the record, Al-Arabiya is run from the UAE with the Saudis providing subsidies.
MORE ROCKET ATTACKS
Ashkelon has been struck by more rockets fired from Gaza, just shortly after Hamas fired at some Negev communities, and Sderot. And again, no serious action taken.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
OBAMA'S FIRST REAL TEST: WILL HE BE A PRAGMATIC PRO-MARKETEER OR A DOGMATIC DEMAGOGUE ON THE ECONOMY?
KUDLOW (EXCERPT):
Bush: “Free-market capitalism is far more than an economic theory. It is the engine of social mobility — the highway to the American Dream. And it is what transformed America from a rugged frontier to the greatest economic power in history — a nation that gave the world the steamboat and the airplane, the computer and the CAT scan, the Internet and the iPod.”
Capping all this off, Bush said, “The triumph of free-market capitalism has been proven across time, geography, culture, and faith. And it would be a terrible mistake to allow a few months of crisis to undermine 60 years of success.”
That reference to 60 years harkens back to the original post-WWII economic-rebuilding conference held in Bretton Woods, N.H., in July 1944. At that historic meeting, the U.S. and Britain led 170 delegates from around the world into a new era of free markets, free trade, and stable currencies. It was a conference of global coordination that broke down the isolationist and protectionist sentiments that upset the world order so badly during the prior 15 years.
Ultimately, the free-market system forged at Bretton Woods, which was in no small way predicated on economic prosperity, led to a triumph of Western values over Soviet state socialism.
And it was President Reagan — along with his friend, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — who applied the final blow to the now-defunct Soviet system with his rejuvenation of free-market capitalism.
So what George W. Bush seems to be saying is this: Do not discard that triumphal system just because we’ve had a rough year in the financial markets and the economy.
In a few weeks Barack Obama will inherit the mantle of the capitalist system. What will he do with this responsibility? That’s the question being asked everywhere.
... Investors want to know if economic rewards will be encouraged or penalized. Will trade remain open and free? Will we maintain competitive businesses that can compete worldwide? Or will we resort to the protection of ailing or failed businesses?
Will the U.S. lurch toward the semi-socialism of Old Europe? Or will we stay with free-market capitalism? Will we expand the nanny-state economy? Or will we keep the door wide open to entrepreneurial spirit and gales of creative destruction?
Investors want to know which way President-elect Obama is going to go. Might he reach back to the Democratic pro-growth supply-side policies of John F. Kennedy’s tax cuts, free trade, and strong dollar? Will he opt for Bill Clinton’s free-trade and strong-dollar policies, or even his capital-gains tax cut? Or will he fall back to the hopeless government tinkering of Jimmy Carter or the welfare-statism of Lyndon Johnson?
- BUSH DID WHAT WAS RIGHT IN IRAQ, DESPITE THE POLITICAL COST TO HIMSELF AND THE GOP.
- THIS TOOK COURAGE AND A COMMITMENT TO PRINCIPLES.
- THERE'S NOTHING IN OBAMA'S LIFE WHICH MAKES ME FEEL HE CAN DO THE SAME ON ANY ISSUE.
- THAT'S WHY I FEEL HE WON'T DO THE RIGHT THING ON THE ECONOMY, BUT WILL ASSUAGE HIS MINIONS, HIS MACHINE AND HIS ADORING CULTISTS.
- TO THE NATIONS HARM.
THE GOP MUST WIN OVER URBAN AMERICA TO BECOME THE MAJORITY PARTY - AND HERE'S HOW...
The 2008 presidential election county-by-county map ...
looks a lot like the 2004 map:
The GOP carried the rural counties and most of the suburban counties but loses most of the urban counties by a very wide margin.
Obama carried the cities by more than Kerry and this is why he won.
Some of this is due to voter fraud and some due to concentrations of students indoctrinated by left-wing dominated colleges professors.
Some of it is due to vestigial voting patterns and still strong urban machines and coalitions.
BUT MOST OF IT IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT OUR CITIES HAVE BEEN DEMOCRAT MACHINE STRONGHOLDS FOR DECADES AND DECADES.
Many of our largest cities are one-party towns in which the GOP has trouble fielding a real GOP candidate at all - like my hometown, NYC. We have elected a few GOP mayors: Lindsay - who was a liberal and a DISASTER, and Rudy and Mike Bloomberg. All liberal on the social issues. Rudy was a great mayor - he saved the city, and Bloomberg became a Republican in order to run and win on Rudy's GOP accomplishments.
The GOP needs to replicate and solidify Rudy's success, an to do this the GOP needs to refine and communicate an aggressive URBAN AGENDA which reflects conservative principles and policies - policies which would improve our cities and the GOP nationally.
I first wrote about this RIGHT AFTER THE 2004 ELECTION - and NOTHING was done about it, and that's why the GOP lost in 2008. Here's what I wrote:
PERHAPS RUDY.
THE AGENDA WOULD NOT ONLY REINVIGORATE THE GOP, IT WOULD SAVE THE CITIES.
AFTER ALL THIS IS ANOTHER WAY TO READ THE 2008 ELECTION MAP:
THE CITIES ARE WALLOWING IN A LIBERAL WASTELAND OF FAILED LIBERAL POLICIES.
IT'S TIME TO LIBERATE THE CITIES FROM THE FAILED POLICIES OF THE PAST.
IT'S TIME TO LIBERATE CITY-FOLK FROM THE CORRUPT DEMOCRAT URBAN MACHINES WHICH USE THESE POLICES TO MAINTAIN THEIR OWN POWER AT THE EXPENSE OF LIBERATING THE CITIZENS THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO SERVE.
AND IT'S TIME TO DO THIS NOW.
IT'S UP TO NEWT AND/OR MICHAEL STEELE.
NEWT, MICHAEL: THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.
looks a lot like the 2004 map:
The GOP carried the rural counties and most of the suburban counties but loses most of the urban counties by a very wide margin.
Obama carried the cities by more than Kerry and this is why he won.
Some of this is due to voter fraud and some due to concentrations of students indoctrinated by left-wing dominated colleges professors.
Some of it is due to vestigial voting patterns and still strong urban machines and coalitions.
BUT MOST OF IT IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT OUR CITIES HAVE BEEN DEMOCRAT MACHINE STRONGHOLDS FOR DECADES AND DECADES.
Many of our largest cities are one-party towns in which the GOP has trouble fielding a real GOP candidate at all - like my hometown, NYC. We have elected a few GOP mayors: Lindsay - who was a liberal and a DISASTER, and Rudy and Mike Bloomberg. All liberal on the social issues. Rudy was a great mayor - he saved the city, and Bloomberg became a Republican in order to run and win on Rudy's GOP accomplishments.
The GOP needs to replicate and solidify Rudy's success, an to do this the GOP needs to refine and communicate an aggressive URBAN AGENDA which reflects conservative principles and policies - policies which would improve our cities and the GOP nationally.
I first wrote about this RIGHT AFTER THE 2004 ELECTION - and NOTHING was done about it, and that's why the GOP lost in 2008. Here's what I wrote:
I STAND BY EVERY WORD AND I CALL UPON THE NEXT GOP CHAIRMAN TO ADDRESS THESE ISSUES AND CREATE A GOP URBAN AGENDA - PERHAPS EVEN APPOINTING A DEPUTY CHAIR FOR URBAN AFFAIRS.Message to the ascendant GOP: ASSERT AN URBAN AGENDA
Looking over the electoral map (by county) one cannot help but make at least one huge conclusion: the Democrats are still the majority party most of the big old cities - most majorities are HUGE.
WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR THIS?First, the cities have long been voting slaves to local Democrat machines. Second, the Democrats have long been the majority party for immigrants. Third, cities have long been magnets for ethnic diversity and the Democrats have traditionally been more diverse. Fourth, the urban poor have long been bought off by the largess of the liberal welfare state.All this is changing, but not enough. Clinton moved more toward the center and toward the GOP when he pledged "to end welfare as we know it." This helped Clinton at the polls.The GOP must make bigger and better overt overtures to the urban electorate, and it can do this merely by asserting its inclusive, color-blind, pro-business, anti-crime, personal empowerment (anti-welfare/anti-state dependency), school choice/teacher accountability, and low tax URBAN agenda.This effort should be led by former mayors Giuliani and Riordan, and Senators Coleman and Lugar - both former mayors, and Mayor Bloomberg.This newly assertive GOP Urban Agenda would help the cities, and just as importantly - it would be the death knell for the Left.
Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:45 PM
AN URBAN AGENDA FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM
Polipundit linked to a great map of the elections results; this one is in NOT merely by color (red versus blue), but also has a "3D" effect which amplifies the fact that the Left-wing Democrat Party is really NOT a national party, but ONLY the majority party of America's biggest cities. This fact is further buttressed by a poll in today's NYTIMES by Edison Media Research; this poll revealed that the Democrat Party got 60% of the votes cast in cities with over 500,000 people - the ONLY size city or town that they carried!This map (and this tally in this poll) indicates not just where the Democrats ARE NOW, but where the GOP must take the fight over the next few years if we are to finally eradicate the failed politics and policies of the Left-wing.We must take the fight to the cities - and we can do this by merely articulating AN URBAN AGENDA FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM which is based on the core principles of the GOP: empowerment, opportunity, and ownership.(1-a) Push for school choice and school vouchers. These empower parents and dis-empower the teacher's unions (and other unions - like custodians and principals) which are bleeding school budgets without improving the academic results.
(1 -b) We should also make all school systems accountable to mayors - not school boards - so that there is political accountability for results. We do this by making federal aid to schools conditional on these two changes.(2) Privatize public housing. This uplifts the working poor and makes them independent stakeholders, instead of people dependent on the state. Jack Kemp floated this idea 20 years ago; it's time to dust it off and implement it - perhaps by bringing him back as HUD Secretary! We need to ramp up low cost loans for this purpose and dispatch co-op advisers and incentivize local general contractors to undertake much needed improvements to these newly privately held assets.(3) Incentivize economic activity by cutting taxes on new businesses in the cities - and make this a federal/state/local partnership by making the federal portion of tax incentives dependent on equal participation of the state and the city. This would be a twist on revenue sharing; this would be "tax-cut sharing." This would incentivize the states and cities to "buy into" supply-side economics (which have been proven to work).
BOTTOM-LINE: BLUE cities all have higher unemployment, and lower high school graduation rates, and more crime than RED counties. This is in part due to several decades of failing Left-wing policies foisted on the the cities by the Democrat machines merely to get votes.The aggressive 3-point GOP program for the cities will end the decline of the cities, improve the lives of city-dwellers, and end the Left-wing Democrat Party's cynical and demagogic stranglehold on the cities.That's a win-win-win for everyone.
Permalink - Posted by Reliapundit
PERHAPS RUDY.
THE AGENDA WOULD NOT ONLY REINVIGORATE THE GOP, IT WOULD SAVE THE CITIES.
AFTER ALL THIS IS ANOTHER WAY TO READ THE 2008 ELECTION MAP:
THE CITIES ARE WALLOWING IN A LIBERAL WASTELAND OF FAILED LIBERAL POLICIES.
IT'S TIME TO LIBERATE THE CITIES FROM THE FAILED POLICIES OF THE PAST.
IT'S TIME TO LIBERATE CITY-FOLK FROM THE CORRUPT DEMOCRAT URBAN MACHINES WHICH USE THESE POLICES TO MAINTAIN THEIR OWN POWER AT THE EXPENSE OF LIBERATING THE CITIZENS THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO SERVE.
AND IT'S TIME TO DO THIS NOW.
IT'S UP TO NEWT AND/OR MICHAEL STEELE.
- IF THEY SUCCEED IN FORGING A NEW CONSERVATIVE GOP AGENDA FOR THE CITIES, THEN THE GOP WILL EMERGE VICTORIOUS IN 2012, AND OUR CITIES WILL BE REBORN, TOO.
- IT MJUST BE AN AGENDA WHICH DOESN'T MAKE APPEALS TO IDENTITY GROUPS (RACE OR IMMIGRANTS OR COLLEGE EDUCATED PROFESSIONALS OR THE URBAN-UNDERCLASS), BUT APPEALS TO OUR TRANSCENDENT INTERESTS.
NEWT, MICHAEL: THE BALL IS IN YOUR COURT.
THE FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL
Now that 9/11 is some seven years in the past, attention to what the Flight 93 Memorial really represents has waned. In my view, we need to revisit what's been going on in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Please take the time to watch the following video (with a hat tip to Bob McCarty Writes:
Read more HERE and HERE.
The present design of the memorial in not a fitting design for those brave individuals who refused to let United Flight 93 be used as a deadly missile, as were the other flights which reached their targets on 9/11.
Does 9/11 matter so little now that we are going to sit back and allow this atrocity of a memorial to become a reality, without even raising our voices in outrage? Do we care so little about the passengers and legitimate flight crew, all of whose lives were sacrificed so as to prevent the airliner from reaching its destination, that we just say "Oh, well"?
Please take the time to watch the following video (with a hat tip to Bob McCarty Writes:
Read more HERE and HERE.
The present design of the memorial in not a fitting design for those brave individuals who refused to let United Flight 93 be used as a deadly missile, as were the other flights which reached their targets on 9/11.
Does 9/11 matter so little now that we are going to sit back and allow this atrocity of a memorial to become a reality, without even raising our voices in outrage? Do we care so little about the passengers and legitimate flight crew, all of whose lives were sacrificed so as to prevent the airliner from reaching its destination, that we just say "Oh, well"?
Arizona might be able to initiate the debate that Al Gore says is over
An interesting email from Russell Cook below
See my story in American Thinker on how Arizona might be able to initiate the debate that Al Gore says is over.
It's a simple story - To make sure this debate doesn't happen, it appears an attempt was made to get a highly funded pro-Al Gore candidate (with ties to billionaire George Soros??) into our Arizona Corporation Commission, an agency with elected members who regulate our local electric utility companies - and who will decide if a huge cap-and-trade plan is credible or pointless.
Since the pro-Al Gore candidate lost his election, Arizona's Republican legislature leaders and Republican majority in the Corporation Commission can simply ask the WCI planners, Al Gore and the IPCC, "You say humans are causing global warming. Can you prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt?"
It's entertaining to think about: In the case of the eastern/mid-atlantic US states, they accepted the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's plan with no question of the underlying science whatsoever. If Arizona rejects the Western Climate Initiative's plan, the next 'dominoes' to fall might be Utah and Idaho, rejecting the same plan. Wouldn't that undermine the RGGI to the point of collapse? And if it collapses, how angry would the people living in the eastern/mid-atlantic US states be about their own utility regulators' ability do things right, and their Governors' failure to understand all sides of the issue?
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
See my story in American Thinker on how Arizona might be able to initiate the debate that Al Gore says is over.
It's a simple story - To make sure this debate doesn't happen, it appears an attempt was made to get a highly funded pro-Al Gore candidate (with ties to billionaire George Soros??) into our Arizona Corporation Commission, an agency with elected members who regulate our local electric utility companies - and who will decide if a huge cap-and-trade plan is credible or pointless.
Since the pro-Al Gore candidate lost his election, Arizona's Republican legislature leaders and Republican majority in the Corporation Commission can simply ask the WCI planners, Al Gore and the IPCC, "You say humans are causing global warming. Can you prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt?"
It's entertaining to think about: In the case of the eastern/mid-atlantic US states, they accepted the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative's plan with no question of the underlying science whatsoever. If Arizona rejects the Western Climate Initiative's plan, the next 'dominoes' to fall might be Utah and Idaho, rejecting the same plan. Wouldn't that undermine the RGGI to the point of collapse? And if it collapses, how angry would the people living in the eastern/mid-atlantic US states be about their own utility regulators' ability do things right, and their Governors' failure to understand all sides of the issue?
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Conservatives have a better sense of humor
The article below starts out with the claim -- popular among Leftist psychologists -- that conservatives are dogmatic and rigid and less flexible and less open to new ideas. There was never any good evidence for that, just some methodologically very weak research among college students. See here and here, for instance. It is a very common finding that conservatives are happier though. Whining is basic to Leftism. It is interesting that the findings below seem to have been based on an adult sample. The findings should therefore be more generalizable than the findings from college students -- whom psychologists normally study
In strict accordance with experimental protocol, we begin by asking you to rate, on a scale of 1 (not funny at all) to 9 (hilarious) the following three attempts at humor:
A) Jake is about to chip onto the green at his local golf course when a long funeral procession passes by. He stops in midswing, doffs his cap, closes his eyes and bows in prayer. His playing companion is deeply impressed. "That's the most thoughtful and touching thing I've ever seen," he says. Jake replies, "Yeah, well, we were married 35 years."
B) I think there should be something in science called the "reindeer effect." I don't know what it would be, but I think it'd be good to hear someone say, "Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect."
C) If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.
Those were some of the jokes rated by nearly 300 people in Boston in a recent study. (You can rate some of the others at TierneyLab, nytimes.com/tierneylab.) The researchers picked out a variety of jokes - good, bad, conventional, absurdist - to look for differences in reactions between self-described liberals and conservatives.
They expected conservatives to like traditional jokes, like the one about the golfing widower, that reinforce racial and gender stereotypes. And because liberals had previously been reported to be more flexible and open to new ideas, the researchers expected them to get a bigger laugh out of unconventional humor, like Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts" about the reindeer effect and Hambone.
Indeed, the conservatives did rate the traditional golf and marriage jokes as significantly funnier than the liberals did. But they also gave higher ratings to the absurdist "Deep Thoughts." In fact, they enjoyed all kinds of humor more.
"I was surprised," said Dan Ariely, a psychologist at Duke University, who collaborated on the study with Elisabeth Malin, a student at Mount Holyoke College. "Conservatives are supposed to be more rigid and less sophisticated, but they liked even the more complex humor."
Do conservatives have more fun? Should liberals start describing themselves as humor-challenged? To investigate these questions, we need to delve into the science of humor (not a funny enterprise), starting with two basic kinds of humor identified in the 1980s by Willibald Ruch, a psychologist who now teaches at the University of Zurich.
The first category is incongruity-resolution humor, or INC-RES in humor jargon. It covers traditional jokes and cartoons in which the incongruity of the punch line (the husband who misses his wife's funeral) can be resolved by other information (he's playing golf). You can clearly get the joke, and it often reinforces stereotypes (the golf-obsessed husband).
Dr. Ruch and other researchers reported that this humor, with its orderly structure and reinforcement of stereotypes, appealed most to conservatives who shunned ambiguity and complicated new ideas, and who were more repressed and conformist than liberals.
The second category, nonsense humor, covers many "Far Side" cartoons, Monty Python sketches and "Deep Thoughts." The punch line's incongruity isn't neatly resolved - you're left to enjoy the ambiguity and absurdity of the reindeer effect or Hambone's affection for dolphins. This humor was reported to appeal to liberals because of their "openness to ideas" and their tendency to "seek new experiences."
But then why didn't the liberals in the Boston experiment like the nonsense humor of "Deep Thoughts" as much as the conservatives did? One possible explanation is that conservatives' rigidity mattered less than another aspect of their personality. Rod Martin, the author of "The Psychology of Humor," said the results of the Boston study might reflect another trait that has been shown to correlate with a taste for jokes: cheerfulness.
"Conservatives tend to be happier than liberals in general," said Dr. Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario. "A conservative outlook rationalizes social inequality, accepting the world as it is, and making it less of a threat to one's well-being, whereas a liberal outlook leads to dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and a sense that things need to change before one can be really happy."
Another possible explanation is that conservatives, or at least the ones in Boston, really aren't the stiffs they're made out to be by social scientists. When these scientists analyze conservatives, they can sound like Victorians describing headhunters in Borneo. They try to be objective, but it's an alien culture.
The studies hailing liberals' nonconformity and "openness to ideas" have been done by social scientists working in a culture that's remarkably homogenous politically. Democrats outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one on social science and humanities faculties, according to studies by Daniel Klein, an economist at George Mason University. If you're a professor who truly "seeks new experiences," try going into a faculty club today and passing out McCain-Palin buttons.
Could it be that the image of conservatives as humorless, dogmatic neurotics is based more on political bias than sound social science? Philip Tetlock, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who reviews the evidence of cognitive differences in his 2005 book, "Expert Political Judgment," said that while there were valid differences, "liberals and conservatives are roughly equally closed-minded in dealing with dissonant real-world evidence."
So perhaps conservatives don't have a monopoly on humorless dogmatism. Maybe the stereotype of the dour, rigid conservative has more to do with social scientists' groupthink and wariness of outsiders - which, come to think of it, resembles the herding behavior of certain hoofed animals. Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect.
Source
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
In strict accordance with experimental protocol, we begin by asking you to rate, on a scale of 1 (not funny at all) to 9 (hilarious) the following three attempts at humor:
A) Jake is about to chip onto the green at his local golf course when a long funeral procession passes by. He stops in midswing, doffs his cap, closes his eyes and bows in prayer. His playing companion is deeply impressed. "That's the most thoughtful and touching thing I've ever seen," he says. Jake replies, "Yeah, well, we were married 35 years."
B) I think there should be something in science called the "reindeer effect." I don't know what it would be, but I think it'd be good to hear someone say, "Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect."
C) If you saw two guys named Hambone and Flippy, which one would you think liked dolphins the most? I'd say Flippy, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong, though. It's Hambone.
Those were some of the jokes rated by nearly 300 people in Boston in a recent study. (You can rate some of the others at TierneyLab, nytimes.com/tierneylab.) The researchers picked out a variety of jokes - good, bad, conventional, absurdist - to look for differences in reactions between self-described liberals and conservatives.
They expected conservatives to like traditional jokes, like the one about the golfing widower, that reinforce racial and gender stereotypes. And because liberals had previously been reported to be more flexible and open to new ideas, the researchers expected them to get a bigger laugh out of unconventional humor, like Jack Handey's "Deep Thoughts" about the reindeer effect and Hambone.
Indeed, the conservatives did rate the traditional golf and marriage jokes as significantly funnier than the liberals did. But they also gave higher ratings to the absurdist "Deep Thoughts." In fact, they enjoyed all kinds of humor more.
"I was surprised," said Dan Ariely, a psychologist at Duke University, who collaborated on the study with Elisabeth Malin, a student at Mount Holyoke College. "Conservatives are supposed to be more rigid and less sophisticated, but they liked even the more complex humor."
Do conservatives have more fun? Should liberals start describing themselves as humor-challenged? To investigate these questions, we need to delve into the science of humor (not a funny enterprise), starting with two basic kinds of humor identified in the 1980s by Willibald Ruch, a psychologist who now teaches at the University of Zurich.
The first category is incongruity-resolution humor, or INC-RES in humor jargon. It covers traditional jokes and cartoons in which the incongruity of the punch line (the husband who misses his wife's funeral) can be resolved by other information (he's playing golf). You can clearly get the joke, and it often reinforces stereotypes (the golf-obsessed husband).
Dr. Ruch and other researchers reported that this humor, with its orderly structure and reinforcement of stereotypes, appealed most to conservatives who shunned ambiguity and complicated new ideas, and who were more repressed and conformist than liberals.
The second category, nonsense humor, covers many "Far Side" cartoons, Monty Python sketches and "Deep Thoughts." The punch line's incongruity isn't neatly resolved - you're left to enjoy the ambiguity and absurdity of the reindeer effect or Hambone's affection for dolphins. This humor was reported to appeal to liberals because of their "openness to ideas" and their tendency to "seek new experiences."
But then why didn't the liberals in the Boston experiment like the nonsense humor of "Deep Thoughts" as much as the conservatives did? One possible explanation is that conservatives' rigidity mattered less than another aspect of their personality. Rod Martin, the author of "The Psychology of Humor," said the results of the Boston study might reflect another trait that has been shown to correlate with a taste for jokes: cheerfulness.
"Conservatives tend to be happier than liberals in general," said Dr. Martin, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario. "A conservative outlook rationalizes social inequality, accepting the world as it is, and making it less of a threat to one's well-being, whereas a liberal outlook leads to dissatisfaction with the world as it is, and a sense that things need to change before one can be really happy."
Another possible explanation is that conservatives, or at least the ones in Boston, really aren't the stiffs they're made out to be by social scientists. When these scientists analyze conservatives, they can sound like Victorians describing headhunters in Borneo. They try to be objective, but it's an alien culture.
The studies hailing liberals' nonconformity and "openness to ideas" have been done by social scientists working in a culture that's remarkably homogenous politically. Democrats outnumber Republicans by at least seven to one on social science and humanities faculties, according to studies by Daniel Klein, an economist at George Mason University. If you're a professor who truly "seeks new experiences," try going into a faculty club today and passing out McCain-Palin buttons.
Could it be that the image of conservatives as humorless, dogmatic neurotics is based more on political bias than sound social science? Philip Tetlock, a psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who reviews the evidence of cognitive differences in his 2005 book, "Expert Political Judgment," said that while there were valid differences, "liberals and conservatives are roughly equally closed-minded in dealing with dissonant real-world evidence."
So perhaps conservatives don't have a monopoly on humorless dogmatism. Maybe the stereotype of the dour, rigid conservative has more to do with social scientists' groupthink and wariness of outsiders - which, come to think of it, resembles the herding behavior of certain hoofed animals. Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect.
Source
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
RACE, RACE, RACE
From this article at U.S. News & World Report:
The article also mentions relocat[ing] firms that fled to industrial suburbs back to cities.
Pardon me, but many of those firms that "fled" had reasons for doing so - reasons having nothing to do with race. For example, a coin shop in Washington, D.C., left the inner city because (1) the tax rates were prohibitive and (2) the shop was robbed a gunpoint three times, the last time locking inside the walk-in safe a sales clerk who had terminal cancer and was undergoing hellacious chemotherapy. Take my word for it: none of those who worked at the coin shop was a racist.
Yet in these post-election days prior to the coronation of King Obama, all I hear on my local news is statements such as "Now is the time to end all racism in America."
I think I'm going to stop watching my local news. The blah-blah-blah is unbearable.
...President-elect Obama sees his administration continuing the Clinton years, which may include Clinton's call for a national conversation on race. We need more than another conversation; we need a "teach-in."...Utopianism! It's never worked in the past and will never work in the future.
[...]
Rather than unite the nation by putting our racial past and present aside, we can unite around a common commitment to end racial inequality.... Imagine a plan to rebuild and revitalize our inner cities that is based not on gentrification and displacement, but on people of all backgrounds living together, expanding our civic culture in communities that care for one another....
The article also mentions relocat[ing] firms that fled to industrial suburbs back to cities.
Pardon me, but many of those firms that "fled" had reasons for doing so - reasons having nothing to do with race. For example, a coin shop in Washington, D.C., left the inner city because (1) the tax rates were prohibitive and (2) the shop was robbed a gunpoint three times, the last time locking inside the walk-in safe a sales clerk who had terminal cancer and was undergoing hellacious chemotherapy. Take my word for it: none of those who worked at the coin shop was a racist.
Yet in these post-election days prior to the coronation of King Obama, all I hear on my local news is statements such as "Now is the time to end all racism in America."
I think I'm going to stop watching my local news. The blah-blah-blah is unbearable.
TONIGHT ON KFNX TALK-RADIO
[Image courtesy of Stogie]
Thursday, November 13, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, WC and I will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.
Our scheduled guest is Cassandra USA, author of Escape! From an Arab Marriage: Horror Stories of Women Who Fled From Abusive Muslim Husbands and Thirty-Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women: A Dissection of How Muslims Treat Women and Infidels.
Tune in if you can! In addition to AM air time at the scheduled hour, KFNX offers live streaming at the station's web site.
VOICES OF FREEDOM: THE SHOW THAT MAKES JIHADISTS CRY.
Web site for VOICES OF FREEDOM
Thursday, November 13, at 8:00 P.M. Phoenix time, WC and I will host "Voices of Freedom," a one-hour weekly show on KFNX 1100. See this time-zone chart (Refresh the page!) if you are in a different time zone than Phoenix, Arizona; click directly on the word "PHOENIX" to get a world map of time zones.Our scheduled guest is Cassandra USA, author of Escape! From an Arab Marriage: Horror Stories of Women Who Fled From Abusive Muslim Husbands and Thirty-Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women: A Dissection of How Muslims Treat Women and Infidels.
Tune in if you can! In addition to AM air time at the scheduled hour, KFNX offers live streaming at the station's web site.
VOICES OF FREEDOM: THE SHOW THAT MAKES JIHADISTS CRY.
Web site for VOICES OF FREEDOM
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
INSTEAD OF BAILOUTS, WHY NOT GIVE TAXPAYERS VOUCHERS?
INSTEAD OF GIVING BAILOUTS DIRECTLY TO THE CORPORATIONS AND BANKS - (WHOSE PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY IS TO THEIR STOCKHOLDERS AND CREDITORS), WHY NOT GIVE IT TO THE CITIZENS, THE TAXPAYERS AND CONSUMERS AND HAVE THE WEALTH TRICKLE UP!?!?
NOTE: THIS WOULD COST HALF OF WHAT THE CURRENT BAILOUT WOULD COST. (IT WOULD COST ABOUT $400 BILLION.)
- GIVE EVERY TAXPAYER A $1000 CAR VOUCHER GOOD TOWARD ANY NEW CHRYSLER, GM OR FORD CAR.
- GIVE EVERY TAXPAYER A $1000 STOCK VOUCHER GOOD TOWARD THE PURCHASE OF ANY BLUE CHIP DJIA STOCK OR DJ FINANCIAL STOCK. (MUST BE HELD FOR FIVE YEARS.)
- GIVE EVERY TAXPAYER A $1000 HEALTH-CARE VOUCHER GOOD FOR THE PURCHASE OF ANY HEALTH-CARE PLAN OR ANY HEALTH PROCEDURE.
- GIVE EVERY TAX PAYER A $1000 HOME IMPROVEMENT VOUCHER GOOD FOR ANY HOME IMPROVEMENT
NOTE: THIS WOULD COST HALF OF WHAT THE CURRENT BAILOUT WOULD COST. (IT WOULD COST ABOUT $400 BILLION.)
THE AHISTORICAL HYSTERICAL LEFT: WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN???
GATEWAY HAS THIS ABOUT HOW OBAMA MAY APPOINT GORE CLIMATE CZAR - JUST AS THE WORLD ENTERS A PROVABLE COOLING PHASE.
WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN... WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?
- NOT ONLY ARE WE COOLING NOW, BUT ALL THE EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT THE PREVIOUS WARMING PHASE WAS NOT OUTSIDE ANYTHING NORMAL AND NATURAL AND NON-MAN-MADE IN THE PAST - IN GEO-HISTORY.
- AND THAT'S WHEN I REALIZED THAT THE LEFT HAS BECOME ALMOST ENTIRELY AHISTORICAL OR ANTI-HISTORY.
- IT'S THE PRINCIPLE WAY THEIR DENIAL TAKES SHAPE.
- SOCIALISM SUCKS: There's not a single example of socialism/REDISTRIBUTION working well, and a shocking numbers of examples from all over the world and every culture of it failing and of its connections to horrific genocide, and yet the left still loves it.
- AGW IS BUNK: The left also has no use for geo-history which is replete with climate change which is no different than what we're currently experiencing.
- WE WON THE IRAQ WARS - ALL THREE OF THEM: And they ignore military history, too - as when they call Iraq a failure even though by historical standards is not just one of the best wars ever fought but THREE of the best wars ever fought (the anti-Saddam War, the anti-al Qaeda/Insurgency War, and the anti-civil war War).
- MANDATES SUCK: And they ignore history when they advocate mandated/central command economics - which prolonged the Depression.
- APPEASEMENT SUCKS: And they ignore history when they advocate appeasing our enemies; they ignore Munich and Gaza and so on.
WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN... WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN?
When Jimmy Carter Says "Pursuing Peace", He Means Selling Out Israel
Because Jimma is Dhimmah, you can take it to the bank, any move toward "peace" will be a move toward the appeasement of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Jimmy Carter vouches for Hamas.
Here's what it says in Hamas' official charter:
They spell it out in their Charter. They don't believe in initiatives. But, Jimmy Carter does believe in initiatives, so he goes on negotiating.
But, his negotiations are playing with the lives of Jews. I guess to Jimmy Carter the lives of Jews is not too high a price to pay for peace.
Carter: Obama will waste no time pursuing Middle East peace
By CNN and Haaretz Staff
Former United States President Jimmy Carter said in an interview with CNN this week he expected President-elect Barack Obama to waste no time pursuing Middle East peace talks once he takes office.
Carter told CNN he "thrilled" by Obama's election and praised his victory as heralding "a new approach" to the handling of the peace process. Carter said Obama "will not wait for even a month after he is president to start working on the peace process, where as you know, the previous two presidents waited till the least year they were in office before they began the peace process."
When asked by CNN if it would be unwise for Obama to focus on the peace process while the United States is facing an economic crisis, Carter said the process was too important to put off.
He related that when he became president, the United States was facing both an energy crisis and a troubled economy, but he still found a way to pursue peace in the Middle East.
"I think is a very important issue, I don't have any doubt in my mind that to find peace and security and human rights for the Palestinians and also for Israel would be a major factor in reducing the threat of terror," Carter told CNN.
Carter added that the failure to reach a settlement is one of the main causes of the "animosity and hatred and even violent acts against America and our allies."
Over the last year, Carter has taken on an increased role in the talks, offering to becoming a conduit between Hamas, Washington and even Israel. He has spoken out against Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip , calling it a "crime and an atrocity" on Thursday, and has blasted U.S. attempts to undermine Hamas as counterproductive.
Jimmy Carter vouches for Hamas.
Here's what it says in Hamas' official charter:
"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."
"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. ""There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."
But, his negotiations are playing with the lives of Jews. I guess to Jimmy Carter the lives of Jews is not too high a price to pay for peace.
Even The Lightbringer is now incorrect
Obama recently referred to mongrel dogs as "mutts like me". So is the term "mutt" a slur? I have no doubt that the old term "halfbreed" now is.
A Korean lady has protested:
I must say that I personally was rather pleased to see Obama calling himself a "mutt". It was definitely self-deprecating and I still adhere to the Christian view that humility is a virtue.
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
A Korean lady has protested:
"I've heard mixed-race people use that term to describe themselves before, usually in the same ha-ha way Obama did. I've also heard it thrown around as an insult, a pejorative, a slur. I've felt the slap of that word across my face" she wrote. "My fear, however, is that Obama, as the first mixed-race president, will shape the way most Americans view people of mixed race for at least a generation. And will Obama calling himself a 'mutt' - with humor, as if the word is nothing, nothing at all - make it socially acceptable for people to start calling me a mutt? My kids?"
I must say that I personally was rather pleased to see Obama calling himself a "mutt". It was definitely self-deprecating and I still adhere to the Christian view that humility is a virtue.
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Another Greenie coverup
The Warmist "scientists" are deathly afraid of Steve McIntyre. They KNOW he can expose their fraudulent statistical manipulations since he knocked off the fraudulent Mann "hockeystick" temperature chart.
Now he has turned his probing eyes onto the latest bit of data "adjustment" -- the claim that there is no mismatch between the actual atmospheric temperature data and the "models" -- if you "adjust" the data properly.
McIntyre wrote to Santer -- the lead author of the "adjustments" -- with a request that they provide him with their detailed figures. In science, that sort of request is normally replied to with all good speed and goodwill. But what if you have something to hide? The reply below from Santer to McIntyre shows you:
More here.
Mac is now trying to get the figures via Freedom of Information requests. Stay tuned.
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Now he has turned his probing eyes onto the latest bit of data "adjustment" -- the claim that there is no mismatch between the actual atmospheric temperature data and the "models" -- if you "adjust" the data properly.
McIntyre wrote to Santer -- the lead author of the "adjustments" -- with a request that they provide him with their detailed figures. In science, that sort of request is normally replied to with all good speed and goodwill. But what if you have something to hide? The reply below from Santer to McIntyre shows you:
Dear Mr. McIntyre,
I gather that your intent is to "audit" the findings of our recently-published paper in the International Journal of Climatology (IJoC). You are of course free to do so. I note that both the gridded model and observational datasets used in our IJoC paper are freely available to researchers. You should have no problem in accessing exactly the same model and observational datasets that we employed. You will need to do a little work in order to calculate synthetic Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) temperatures from climate model atmospheric temperature information. This should not pose any difficulties for you. Algorithms for calculating synthetic MSU temperatures have been published by ourselves and others in the peer-reviewed literature. You will also need to calculate spatially-averaged temperature changes from the gridded model and observational data. Again, that should not be too taxing.
In summary, you have access to all the raw information that you require in order to determine whether the conclusions reached in our IJoC paper are sound or unsound. I see no reason why I should do your work for you, and provide you with derived quantities (zonal means, synthetic MSU temperatures, etc.) which you can easily compute yourself.
I am copying this email to all co-authors of the 2008 Santer et al. IJoC paper, as well as to Professor Glenn McGregor at IJoC.
I gather that you have appointed yourself as an independent arbiter of the appropriate use of statistical tools in climate research. Rather that "auditing" our paper, you should be directing your attention to the 2007 IJoC paper published by David Douglass et al., which contains an egregious statistical error.
Please do not communicate with me in the future.
Ben Santer
More here.
Mac is now trying to get the figures via Freedom of Information requests. Stay tuned.
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
Get your very own "Draft Jamie Gorelick for Attorney General" Blog Widget...
...they won't last long!
Just copy and paste the code into your blog template and within seconds you'll be showing your staunch support for the masterful leadership skills of Ms. Gorelick.
Just copy and paste the code into your blog template and within seconds you'll be showing your staunch support for the masterful leadership skills of Ms. Gorelick.Tuesday, November 11, 2008
NIR BARKAT LOOKS TO BE JERUSALEM'S MAYOR-ELECT
So far, that's what it looks like. According to the Jerusalem Post and Channel 1 on TV, mayoral candidate Nir Barkat has won, with Rabbi Meir Porush coming in second. So far, this is only according to exit polls, which are only published around 10PM.
Barkat ran on a platform for helping Jerusalem, and he likely won over a lot of those who voted. The voter turnout was not that high in Jerusalem, but I have an idea it's because lot of leftists in the city did not like either candidate, and thus did not bother to vote.
If there's any candidate in this election whom I'm glad did not succeed, it's Arkadi Gaydamak:
Update: it looks even more now like Barkat has won. Great! More about results here.
Barkat ran on a platform for helping Jerusalem, and he likely won over a lot of those who voted. The voter turnout was not that high in Jerusalem, but I have an idea it's because lot of leftists in the city did not like either candidate, and thus did not bother to vote.
If there's any candidate in this election whom I'm glad did not succeed, it's Arkadi Gaydamak:
The insignificant turnout among Arab voters was a stinging blow for the the third major candidate in the race, Israeli-Russian billionaire tycoon Arkadi Gaydamak, who had courted the Arab vote in the city.The paper reported 2 days ago that Gaydamak was trying to get their vote through pandering: he said that he'd stop destruction of illegally built houses. In other words, he said he condones a crime. It shows how desperate he is, and it really ticks me off too. I'm not sorry Gaydamak failed in his campaign, if he's going to assail the sanctity of the great city by condoning corruption.
Update: it looks even more now like Barkat has won. Great! More about results here.
Ram Bahadur Bomjan - the Buddha Boy - Reappears
VOA:
Is he a possible rival for Obamessiah? More here.
A teenage Nepalese boy who some believe to be the reincarnation of the Buddha has re-emerged in a remote southern jungle after disappearing more than a-year-and-a-half ago.Officials said thousands of his followers flocked to see Ram Bahadur Bomjan speak Tuesday in Bara district about 150 kilometers south of Nepal's capital, Katmandu.
Police said the teenager plans to preach to his devotees for a short time every day for a week, and then plans to return to the jungle to meditate.
Bomjan has been nicknamed "Buddha Boy" by the local media. He first started drawing crowds in 2005, when his followers said he meditated for months without food, water or sleep. Tens of thousands of people flocked to see him sitting cross-legged beneath a tree.He left the meditation site in March of 2006, complaining about noisy crowds. He reappeared in a different location in December of that year and meditated there until March, when he vanished into the jungle again.
Nepalese Buddhist monks present khatas (ceremonial scarves) to devotee Ram Bahadur Bomjam, 10 Nov 2008
Many of the boy's followers believe he is the reincarnation of Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who founded the Buddhist religion some 2,500 years ago. Modern Buddhist religious leaders said they have not reached a conclusion about Bomjan because they have not been able to properly investigate him.
Is he a possible rival for Obamessiah? More here.
"POTUS-ELECT OBAMA" MEANS THAT IT'S TIME TO END AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: RELIAPUNDIT SCOOPS KEN BLACKWELL
BLACKWELL TODAY.
ME FRIDAY.
REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.
SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US.
ME FRIDAY.
REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.
SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US.
OBAMA'S ECONOMIC TEAM LOOKS LIKE A WHO'S WHO OF CORRUPT WALL STREET FIRMS AND GSE'S (FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC)
BLOOMBERG VIA HOT AIR:
Jonathan Weil notes that more than one of them have ties to corporate scandals, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac. For a candidate who promised change and hope, this looks very much like the same old incompetence and corruption:Take a good look at some of the 17 people our nation’s president-elect chose last week for his Transition Economic Advisory Board. And then try saying with a straight face that these are the leaders who should be advising him on how to navigate through the worst financial crisis in modern history.All of them have accounting scandals in their past, which doesn’t square with Obama’s promise to end the supposed cronyism and greed on which he blamed the current financial crisis.Weil calls on Obama to scrap his board entirely and start from scratch. Perhaps he might do so, after seeing how damaging Jim Johnson’s past was during his campaign and unhesitatingly tossing the former Fannie Mae chair under the bus last spring. If not, this looks like a Who’s Who of the kind of villains Obama painted in his vapid populist rhetoric over the last two years — which says volumes about his commitment to the ideals he espoused as a presidential candidate.
- OBAMA IS A PRODUCT OF THE CHICAGO MACHINE: THOROUGHLY LIBERAL AND TOTALLY CROOKED.
- WORSE THAN A LIMOUSINE LIBERAL - OR A RANGEL RADICAL; OBAMA'S A BREZHNEV SOCIALIST.
- ALL THE MORE REASON WE SHOULD BE SUPPORTING TAX CUTS FOR ALL INSTEAD OF BAILOUTS FOR SOME.
- AND WHY WE MUST ALWAYS SUPPORT THE SMALLEST GOVERNMENT POSSIBLE: POLITICIANS LOVE TO SPEND PUT MONEY AND BECAUSE IT'S NOT THEIRS. THEY SPEND IT CROOKEDLY.
Bush the Cooler
This question by Andy McCarthy in the context of President-Elect Obama's bizarre formulation about his proposed tax hikes - if your plan is really the way forward, why would you delay it in the face of that from which it is supposed to rescue us? - applies perfectly to the new fad phrase of "green jobs" (code for subsidies, mandates and taxes to pay for them which only weeks ago were still defended as not as costly as everyone's saying and only need the subsidies for another decade or so to be competitive).
In the context of Europe's current brake-slamming on the economic pain caused by green policies, it's the same point that I had planned to make during a 30-minute Powerpoint show on Saturday for the International Association of Political Consultants - except my half-hour turned into 15 minutes, with no visual aids allowed. [I appeared on a panel with former Shell CEO John Hoffmeister and a greenie who was Central-Casting-perfect. His fact-free, gloomsday ramble included frogs boiling and civilization marching off a cliff.]
Given this unanticipated format change, I was unable to make all my points. The one I did most enjoy offering to this mostly foreign, largely European audience interested in "the politics of global warming" was that we are on track to see the global temperatures having cooled by the day George W. Bush leaves office compared to when he entered.
You've just gotta love that. In fact, if you do, today's your lucky day: Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed is available for shipment! Order today and you can have it by Wednesday, the tenth anniversary of Bill Clinton signing a Kyoto Protocol with no hope of Senate ratification so that George W. Bush could be accused of arrogantly refusing to sign it.
Source
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
In the context of Europe's current brake-slamming on the economic pain caused by green policies, it's the same point that I had planned to make during a 30-minute Powerpoint show on Saturday for the International Association of Political Consultants - except my half-hour turned into 15 minutes, with no visual aids allowed. [I appeared on a panel with former Shell CEO John Hoffmeister and a greenie who was Central-Casting-perfect. His fact-free, gloomsday ramble included frogs boiling and civilization marching off a cliff.]
Given this unanticipated format change, I was unable to make all my points. The one I did most enjoy offering to this mostly foreign, largely European audience interested in "the politics of global warming" was that we are on track to see the global temperatures having cooled by the day George W. Bush leaves office compared to when he entered.
You've just gotta love that. In fact, if you do, today's your lucky day: Red Hot Lies: How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed is available for shipment! Order today and you can have it by Wednesday, the tenth anniversary of Bill Clinton signing a Kyoto Protocol with no hope of Senate ratification so that George W. Bush could be accused of arrogantly refusing to sign it.
Source
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here
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