JUSTAPHOTO CAT ‘n MOUSE

Posted on January 31, 2012 | Leave a comment

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GLOBAL WARMING’S LAST GASPS

Posted on January 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

Poor Al Gore, his schtick is losing its oomph.  The temperature stats are in for 2011 are in.  NASA has declared that global warming ended in 1997.  And a report from the British meteorological authorities at the infamous East Anglia University laboratories agrees.  For the alarmists out there I would point out these reports are not from Rush Limbaugh.  They are from NASA and East Anglia, the United Nation’s most favored source for climate change data.

The UK Daily Mail reports,

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met [Meteorological] Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997. 

There were some warming deniers but the serious debate over the last decade or more was about the cause, not the temperatures.  The cautionary side said “We think the reason the planet is warming is because the sun is emitting more heat.  It’s a cycle.  It’s not because there are too many lawn mowers and farting cows.  We know that scientists disagree over whether or not the warming is anthropological.  Let us not be rash lest we wind up playing Don Quixote to the sun.

The alarmists, on the other hand, stated flatly that the warming was man-made.  They said the science is settled, which it is not.  The warming alarmists also claimed there is a consensus and that proves their point of view.  But consensus has no standing in science.  Consensus once held that the sun revolves around a world that is flat.  Science politicized is science polluted.

The hoax is still running.  There is still money to be made.  But when the mantra changes from the Global Warming Crisis to the Climate Change Crisis it’s a sign the easy money has already been made.

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A LOOK AT THE REAL FORCE BEHIND THE ATTACK ADS?

Posted on January 29, 2012 | Leave a comment

On her Facebook page, Sarah Palin said,

We have witnessed something very disturbing this week. The Republican establishment which fought Ronald Reagan in the 1970s and which continues to fight the grassroots Tea Party movement today has adopted the tactics of the left in using the media and the politics of personal destruction to attack an opponent.

Palin is right of course.  The Democrats have long been the party of personal destruction.  However, in this year’s primaries the Republicans are cannibalizing themselves with the same tactic.  It would be easy to stop there and put the blame entirely on the politicians and their operatives.  But the key to wisdom is never to cease asking why.  So then, why do politicians first disparage then engage in personal attacks?  Because it works.  Why does it work?  Because it’s human nature to give a certain measure of credence to an accusation without demanding proof.  We have all heard the axiom that where there is smoke there is fire.

One more reason why personal attacks work is because it’s the headlines that carry the accusations and a headline reaches more people than does the substance that follows it.  Most voters don’t inform themselves fully and objectively on both sides of a story before making a judgment.  In a democracy, everyone gets a vote.  It is our response to them that makes them successful.  We are the force behind the personal attacks.  Not you or I of course, but it’s us.

Winston Churchill was aware of the weaknesses of Democracy when he said “Democracy is the worst form of government… except for all others.”

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CHEERS AND JEERS AT THE DEBATE

Posted on January 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

Florida was the best debate yet!  Every candidate did well.  The crowd was very much engaged.  It was the first debate that was actually fun to watch.  If you missed it, here is the CNN video.

When Gingrich walked in he was greeted loudly with a combination of boos and cheers.  Nothing could be more appropriate for a man of his controversy.  The audience was listening, thinking and objective.  They voiced their approval or disapproval according to the substance of the statements made, not according to who it was that made them

Who won?  They all did.  The in-fighting damage was done well before this debate.  However, this time the responses were high caliber and right on the mark.  Every candidate looked strong and got an enthusiastic response from the audience when they liked what he said.  Each one also felt the barbs of disapproval when they stepped out of line.  Gingrich won the least, but they all won because they made their party look good (let’s make that ‘look better’).

Nonetheless, it is still a ‘stuck with’ list.

.

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CHINA’S SECRET FOR SUCCESS

Posted on January 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

Thomas Friedman, a thoroughly honorable man of the left, champions China from the pages of the New York Times in the same way his predecessor Walter Duranty did of Stalinist Russia from the pages of the same newspaper.  Duranty denied Stalin’s atrocities; Friedman ignores China’s lack of human rights.  Friedman argues that we could solve our economic problems if only we would do as China does.

Here is a glimpse of how China does.

In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad   New York Times Jan 26, 2012

The explosion ripped through Building A5 on a Friday evening last May, an eruption of fire and noise that twisted metal pipes as if they were discarded straws….Two people were killed immediately, and over a dozen others hurt. As the injured were rushed into ambulances, one in particular stood out. His features had been smeared by the blast, scrubbed by heat and violence until a mat of red and black had replaced his mouth and nose.

[Workers must submit to] onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems.

Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste…

More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhone screens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77.

There is a Laffer curve for regulation.  No one has ever drawn one but one surely does exist.  Total regulation would stifle an economy and there would be no prosperity.  No regulation would be destructive to humanity and there would be no prosperity.  Somewhere in between, the curve peaks.  We are on the right side of the slope (over-regulation) and trending down.  If you want to know where China is, ask Tom Friedman.  But be prepared; he may not know.  He may not have thought about it.

Bob B

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Posted in Opinion, Political philosophy, Political polemics, Regulation

GINGRICH and the ‘STUCK WITH’ REPUBLICANS

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 2 comments

The more you hear Gingrich speak, the more you like him, if you are a conservative.  The more you learn about him and his history, the less you like him, if you are a conservative.  Some highly placed Republicans who are in a position to know him very well are absolutely certain he could never win the general election.  Nonetheless, it looks like Republican voters are either stuck with him, or stuck with Romney, or stuck with one of the others lower down the heap.

The Republican Party is an embarrassment.  Look who they offered to the voters since Reagan.  They put up Bob Dole to unseat Bill Clinton.  No contest.  For a Bush they gave us George instead of Jeb.  G.W. is a fine man, but Jeb was presidential material.  And then came John McCain.  He ran on the Republican ticket, I think.

Today the Party has such stalwarts as Rubio, Christie, Pawlenty, Thune, Jindal, Paul Ryan and more.  Just when we need to be choosing a candidate from such a grand list, we are given another list from which we must pick the name we would least mind being stuck with.  The Republicans best hope is a brokered convention.


 

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THE NEW YORK TIMES ON DAVOS

Posted on January 25, 2012 | 2 comments

The World Economic Forum is once again in cession in the posh town of Davos, Switzerland.  Today’s New York Times covers the conference with a story under the headline At Davos, a Big Issue Is the Have-Lots vs. the Have-Not.  The headline is right out of Alinsky, including the hyphens.

Believe it or not, I did not come here today to find fault with the New York Times.  I came to talk about bias; it’s just that taking examples from the Times was the easy way out.  Bias is the most insidious bias when it is subtle.  It is also very effective because from any given source it is usually incessant. Let’s examine this sentence taken from the Davos article.

“[The income gap now is] debated openly in areas where the primacy of laissez-faire capitalism used to be taken for granted and where talk of inequality used to be derided as class warfare.”  (emphasis mine)

“Laissez-faire” is from the French where it means ‘let it happen’.  In economics it has come to mean that level of market freedom  which is free-wheeling, devoid of any meaningful regulation, a little bit reckless.  Later in the same sentence we read ‘used to be derided as class warfare’.  Removing the subtleties what we get are the notions that free-wheeling unregulated markets with minimal regulation are  the essence (primacy) of capitalism and that there is general agreement that pitting the poor against the rich is not an act of class warfare (used to deride).  Of course, there is no such agreement.

And what about that word ‘inequality’ in there.  In the context of the broad subject at hand it carries with it the connotation of unfairness.

The phrasing of a sentence in that manner comes easily to a liberally minded journalist and he would disclaim any bias in it.  But you saw it.  Or did you?  I told you it was subtle.

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WHERE HAVE ALL THE GOOD OLD DEMOCRATS GONE?

Posted on January 24, 2012 | Leave a comment


“Keep America American” may not be a very catchy slogan, but who can condemn the goal of seeking to preserve the great American culture?  Chris Matthews can and did when he characterized the Mitt Romney slogan as calling for a return of the days of the Ku Klux Klan.  Apparently, Matthews’ opinion of his country is the same as that of a certain Reverend from a certain Black Liberation Theology church in Chicago.  There once was a time when Democrats and Republicans alike were equally and unabashedly proud of their country and clearly pro-American.  Sadly, this is no longer the case.

Michelle Obama said she was never proud to be an American until her husband won the nomination of the Democratic Party and promised to transform America into something it never was.  There once was a time when this alone would have doomed his candidacy.  Sadly, this is no longer the case.

On September 11, 2001 the United States was viciously attacked by an external enemy.  Like Pearl; Harbor, it came as a surprise and killed approximately the same number of people.  Like Pearl Harbor, the nation came together, united around a common foe.  But it was different this time.  Some first responders refused to ride in fire trucks that displayed the American flag.  Some apartment dwellers brought action against their neighbors for hanging the flag from their windows.  A high school student proudly turned her back on the flag and remained silent as the rest of her class recited the Pledge of Allegiance.

There was a time when a proliferation of such anti-American incidents would not have followed an event like 911.  Sadly, this is no longer the case.

These attitudes are rare among Republicans.  They seem to come almost entirely from the Democratic side.  Where are the good old Democrats who loved their land and wanted to improve it, not transform it?  Where are you?  The radicals have stolen your party.  Stand up and take it back.  Your country needs you.

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GINGRICH 40 ROMNEY 27. THERE GOES THE RANCH?

Posted on January 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

Where is the fat lady and when is she going to sing?  We want this to be over.  But more importantly, we want the choice to be a winner in November.

There is a school of thought that says conservatives will stay home and not vote if the nominee is Romney.  We don’t buy it.  Too much is at stake in this one and conservatives know it.  The risk with Romney is the risk of losing independents who do not share the strong aversion to Obama that is felt by voters who are clearly on the right.  Still, Republicans are likely to win with Romney.

Gingrich is another story entirely.  There is no doubt that his debating skills are far superior to Romney’s.  Newt is tough; he is beyond intimidation and his style at the podium is refreshing to a long frustrated audience.  His message plays very well to conservatives with short memories.  But can he win in November?

John Hinderaker at Power Line blog doesn’t give Gingrich give a chance.

It is hard to make clear-cut statements about the mercurial and often contradictory Gingrich, but one thing we can say with absolute certainty: he will never be President of the United States.

[I]f there is anyone who ought to be broadly acceptable to conservatives, it is Romney. Certainly not Gingrich, with his earmarks, his disfavor with the conservatives he led in the House in the 1990s, his career as a lobbyist, his support for Medicare Part D, his embrace of global warming dogma, and his attacks on private equity and even free enterprise itself. Republicans have flirted with a number of potentially bad choices this election season, but voting for Gingrich would be the worst of them.

Hinderaker makes a good case.  He should; he’s an attorney.  But the only thing we would “say with absolute certainty” is nothing is impossible in politics.  Didn’t we elect a community organizer whose goal was to socialize America and diminish her standing on the world stage?  Then surely we could elect a candidate whose goal is to reverse the socialization and to restore the nation’s standing internationally – no matter the baggage.

Now where in the world is that fat lady??

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HERE IS WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DOES NOT WANT NEWT TO WIN THE NOMINATION

Posted on January 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Much has been said about how well Newt Gingrich would do in televised debates with Barack Obama.  However, most of the accolades come from observers in the conservative camp.  Moderates and independents who do not share Gingrich’s views are not as impressed by his quick and witty sound bite retorts.  The candidate also has more baggage than either Romney or Paul, and I guess we still need to include Santorum.

But the real reason the Republican Party is not behind Gingrich for the nomination is none of the above.  The prime reason is the general public doesn’t favor Gingrich over Obama and the Republican Party wants to win.

These polls gathered by The Washington Examiner tell the story.  The comparisons between Gingrich and Romney are stark.

Fox News, 1/12-1/14:
Obama, fav/unfav, 51%/46%, +5
Romney, fav/unfav, 45%/38%, +7
Gingrich, fav/unfav, 27%/56%, -29

CBS/NYT, 1/12-1/17:
Obama, fav/unfav, 38%/45%, -7
Romney, fav/unfav, 21%/35%, -14
Gingrich, fav/unfav, 17%/49%, -32

PPP, 1/13-1/17:
Obama, app/dis, 47%/50%, -3
Romney, fav/unfav, 35%/53%, -18
Gingrich, fav/unfav, 26%/60%, -34

 

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