The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

An American Solstice Dream

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In the northern hemisphere, we stand on the brink of the darkest day of the year and the arrival of Winter.  But it is always darkest before the dawn so on this day also comes a promise that tomorrow the light will begin its annual return.  No coincidence the world now celebrates for the return of the light is return of the hope of life.  Whether recognized as the Sun or the Son, it is with contrite hope we bow our heads in prayers of mercy for release from the darkness.  And in these darkest hours, we dream.

I have a dream that one day, a day in the not-so-distant future, the American people will awaken from their chicken-in-every-pot stupor and realize that the freedoms for which this country’s Founders were willing to die, the freedoms for which millions of Patriots have died both here and abroad, have been taken from their sleeping hands by the wolves in sheep’s clothing they elected to represent them in Washington.

And in the cold, silent dawn of that dank morning, they will remember that freedom is a right given to us by our God.  And they will reach down deep into the unique fiber of what it means to be an American and, like the very best of masters, send their greedy servants back to the bowels of Hell from whence they came. That they will bring back a government of the people, by the people, and for the people; for all the people, not just a few who seek only personal advantage. That they will cause with one stroke of a mighty pen the rolling back of every piece of misnamed “progressive” legislation of the last 100 years that has made a mockery of the law of this land, thereby returning America back to Her beautiful, Constitutional origins that allow for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness by each and every individual.

I dream of a grown-up America.  Not the gawky adolescent who has pranced in front of the world mirror, flashing Her sacredness like some lame, hip-hop “can’t touch this” know-it-all but instead a manifestation of the joy that comes from living in real freedom, spreading the wealth of Her inherent kindness with the maturity that comes only when what is best loved has almost been lost.  An America that encourages self-responsibility and thereby encourages initiative, risk and innovation.  An America that accepts failure is inherent to life itself yet where those who fail through honest efforts are supported and failures from attempts for selfish gain are seen for what they are and effectively sent packing.

America, America…God indeed shed His grace on thee.  Yet just like any spoiled child you have become complacent and in that complacency you have become selfish and self-serving.  Confusing wants with needs you have sold your soul to the highest bidder; you have handed over your hard-earned money to buy the snake oil of every P.T. Barnum who would promise to dazzle you and astound you with the trick of giving you something for nothing. 

But freedom has never been free.  Dazzled until your eyes crossed, you allowed them to lull you to sleep, forgetting that your freedom is dependent upon your own vigilence, forgetting that it is your God-given right to create your own future; a future dependent solely upon your own honest efforts.  Forgetting that when you sleep, the only real evil in this world – those who are ruled solely by their ego – will not hesitate to steal the fruits of your labor.

 Today is the darkest day of the year.  It is a day when God’s most beloved archangel Lucifer boldly, brazenly walks this blessed land from sea to shining sea.

And so I dream of the Light.  And I pray that it illuminates the minds and hearts of those who would call themselves American and gives them the courage to uphold the portentous truths of Her Constitution.

Quote Of The Day

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“There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one.
There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful.
It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war;
the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both.”

(Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776)

The Week Before Christmas

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‘Twas the week before Christmas and down in D.C.
The snow started falling with our liberty.
Senator Reid handed out bribes with care,
In hopes that the votes needed soon would be there.
Americans had shouted in loudest of voice,
Rejecting the Democrats stealing their choice.
But Reid and the others just scuttled away
Hiding their dirt from the bright light of day.

Reid Unveils Health Bill Compromises

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It is somehow fitting that a bill hastily patched together under the cover of darkness is now being unveiled under the cover of a snowstorm blanketing Washington, D.C.  In the wee morning hours today, Harry Reid released the text of his amendment to the Senate’s version of the unconstitutional takeover of American medicine.  I’m reading it.  And it’s just as ugly has its cousin in the house.

Page 3:  The infamous “Secretary” will be the sole determinator of “essential benefit” restrictions.  (Read:  rationing.)

Page 9:  Regulates private insurance (i.e. the free market) by requiring insurance companies “rebate” their profits based on premium costs.

Page 17:  Eliminates “in-network” vs. “out of network” costs for emergency services.

Page 21:  Doctors specializing in ob/gyn will be required to accept any health insurance plan under which a patient may be covered.

Page 23:  Creates “Medical Data Reimbursement Centers” at “academic or other non-profit institutions” and these “centers” will publish fee schedules for services.

Page 30:  Defines clinical trials, which will be only those funded by the federal government or for drugs that have applied for FDA approval.  The studies or investigations are subject to “peer review” and such as determined only by the Secretary.  (For how well this works, reference global warming research.)

Page 38 contains the Big One:  Instead of outright denying federal funding for abortions, Harry and his cohorts have decided to leave abortion coverage up to the individual states and make it dependent upon laws in place 6 months prior to a plan year.  It requires separate accounting for premium monies that would go to plans that cover abortions.  In effect, this means that every American taxpayer will subsidize abortions since payment of premium subsidies will continue, thereby freeing up people’s money to go towards paying for a plan that covers them.  States like California are certain to allow for health insurance plans to cover voluntary abortion so people living in states that do not will still have to pay for someone else’s choice.

And right there I can stop reading. 

Nothing has changed and therefore this bill – and Harry Reid and every Senator who will even consider voting for it – needs to go.

Democratic Compassion In Action

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During the Senate’s struggles to cobble together some semblance of a piece of unconstitutional legislation they can tout as “health care reform”, the public option fell off the table.

Good news.

Or is it?

The “individual mandate”, the most particularly unconstitutional tidbit designed to force everyone to buy health insurance, subject to criminal prosecution by the IRS if you fail to pay the tax penalty for non-compliance, is still in place.

Which means that while the Democrats run around like Chicken Littles wringing their pseudo-compassionate hands over the abhorrant profits of those Evil Insurance Companies aka corporate oligarchies, they intend on forcing those who can’t afford to buy health insurance in the private sector today to buy health insurance in the private sector tomorrow or else levy tax penalties and jail people when those tax penalties can’t be paid.

Do they plan on claiming an increase in “jobs created or saved” when we then need to build more jails?  Or is this their idea of providing affordable housing for their constituents?

Make ‘Em Sweat

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It is with an ironic, interested eye that I’ve been watching “Climategate” unfold.  Those 30,000 scientists who’ve been telling us all along that global warming is a myth are now starting to get their proverbial day in court what with the recent “whistleblower” release of emails that point out lead IPCC researchers’ real intentions (note for the record I can not, in good conscience, call them IPCC scientists any more; real scientists maintain a humble and objective state of mind).

Much liberal schoozing is being slathered on about how the emails don’t really show any retarded-rightwing conspiracy (yes, Virginia, those who don’t worship at the feet of Al Gore are called “retarded” to our faces); liberals will only go so far to say that at best they are simply showing how “bias” creeps into research.  Call if whatever you like, but at the end of the day what has been passing for scientific facts are really just another garden-variety lie.  Global warming are figments of some grant-dependent-lifestyle wanker’s imagination brought to life, rather like Frankenstein’s monster.

The proof of the not even lukewarm pudding is really in the code used to create the data reports.  I found this piece and it’s obvious  to my long-time-ago programming brain cell that the intention is to deliberately create an outcome, not present the facts contained in the data.

1 ;

2 ; Apply a VERY ARTIFICAL correction for decline!!

3 ;

4 yrloc=[1400,findgen(19)*5.+1904]

5 valadj=[0.,0.,0.,0.,0.,-0.1,-0.25,-0.3,0.,-0.1,0.3,0.8,1.2,1.7,2.5,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6,2.6]*0.75   ; fudge factor

6 if n_elements(yrloc) ne n_elements(valadj) then message,’Oooops!’

7  

8

For you non-geek types, “ne” means “not equal” and the intention here is to say “Oooops!” when the output doesn’t match the preconceived outcome.  This is what you want to happen when you’re programming a machine to manufacture a part to specifications since all the parts have to eventually fit together, but Very Very Bad when analyzing data to determine what is going on with something.  It is the stuff of CYA and we all know how that goes when the truth eventually comes out.

Of course, this badness hasn’t stopped the EPA and so extends to their recent ruling on greenhouse gases.  As their report states, the EPA relies on the bad IPCC research, but it is strange to me why the media is overlooking one critical little detail found in the technical document supporting their conclusions about forcing control of CO2:

The ambient concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is presently about 0.039% by volume (or 386 ppm).  Projected increases in CO2 concentrations from anthropogenic emissions range from 41 to 158% above 2005 levels (of about 380 ppm) or 535 to 983 ppm by 2100 (Meehl et al., 2007) (see Section 5). Such increases would result in atmospheric CO2 concentrations of 0.054 to 0.098% by volume in 2100, which is well below published thresholds for adverse health effects.

 On one hand they are ruling that CO2 is so dangerous it must be regulated (and thereby let the progressive liberal Democrats further damn the American worker and economy), but on the other hand they are saying that even if we humans are to blame for it, the projected increase in CO2 in the air won’t be enough to hurt anyone even a hundred years from now.

Guess it all just goes to prove that Climate Change is what you call Global Warming when your Global Warming Conference is snowed out.

 

 

 

Quote Of The Day

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“There are those who say there is no evil in the world. There are others who argue that pink fluffy bunnies are the spawn of Satan and conspiring to overthrow civilization.  Let me be clear:  I believe people of goodwill on all sides can find common ground between the absurdly implausible caricatures I attribute to them on a daily basis. We must begin by finding the courage to acknowledge the hard truth that I am living testimony to the power of nuance to triumph over hard truth and come to the end of the sentence on a note of sonorous, polysyllabic, if somewhat hollow, uplift. Pause for applause.”
(Mark Steyn, NRO review of His Transparency’s speeches)

White House Lies About Walpin No Surprise

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In this administration’s typical Friday night fashion, and conveniently just after Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa released a reporton their investigation into the firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin last June, the White House released documents that clearly show their actions were, as many originally noted, in retaliation for Walpin’s daring to call out the misuse of funds by President Walking Eagle’s pal, Kevin Johnson.  Insight into the White House scramble to cover their tracks and “prevent and control the damage” is detailed here.

But there’s more to it than just using taxpayer money to pay someone to wash his car.  What has been kept under wraps is that Kevin Johnson was also under investigation for sexual misconduct.  Johnson’s fiancee, D.C. schools chief  (then St. Hope board member) Michelle Rhee, allegedly attempted “damage control”, sending her personal attorney to pay a visit to one of the women who had complained about Johnson and the “congressional report quotes the girl as saying the attorney “basically asked me to keep quiet,” and Johnson offered her $1,000 a month for the duration of her time with St. Hope.  Once investigators learned about that, the report says, they had “reasonable suspicions about potential hush money payments and witness tampering at a federally funded entity.””

Gerald Walpin reported on all of this, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento (namely, Lawrence Brown) decided to only go after the money with about as much force as an old, blind and toothless chihuahua.  Walpin didn’t like this obviously political choice, was strongly critical of the Corporation for National and Community Service and wanted the probe to continue, particularly in light of a new allegation that St. Hope employees might have destroyed evidence.

So in order to protect Barry’s icky little friend, Gerald Walpin ended up under a Chicago bus.

A Business Owner’s Plan For Managing Obama “Change”

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There’s often a lot of truth in humor.

 

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way.  To compensate for these increases, our prices would have to increase by about 10%.  But since we cannot increase our prices  right now, due to the dismal state of the economy, we will have to lay off sixty of our employees instead.  This has really been bothering me since I  believe we are family here and I didn’t know how to choose who would have to go.  

So, this is what I did.  I walked through our parking lots and found  sixty “Obama” bumper stickers on our employees’ cars and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go.

I can’t think of a more fair way to approach this problem.  They voted for change, I gave it to them.  

I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

Signed,
The Boss

Arguing For The Stupak Amendment In Plain English

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They must really think they’ve got the American people by the short hairs.  At least that’s the impression I get when reading quotes from anyone in Washington, including those from that man with the bad combover, David Axelrod.

On CNN’s Sunday “State of Union”, Axelrod is quoted as saying about the current health care debacle:  “This shouldn’t be a debate about abortion.  And he’s going to work with Senate and the House to try and ensure that at the end of the day, the status quo is not changed ….”  Meaning that President Walking Eagle is going to use his most charming Chicago-style persuasions to yank out anything remotely resembling a serious denial of federal funding of abortions from a final health care “reform” bill.

No one is asking the most basic question, that of the constitutionality of the federal government controlling American’s access to their health care, so of course the matter has deteriorated into a smoke-screen argument about abortion coverage.  Coverage that Pelosi is on the record saying she wants (including for illegal immigrants).

You will recall that the “Stupak amendment” was tacked onto HR 3962 last weekend in a last-ditch attempt to appease some of the Blue Dog Democrats into voting for it.  The amendment flat-out restricts any federal funds from going towards paying for abortions, rightly to the point that if someone is receiving a federal subsidy to pay for their health insurance, even if they purchase other coverage, that separate coverage may not include abortions.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with this.  Giving someone a subsidy (our hard-earned tax dollars) and then allowing them to use any resulting freed-up personal funds to pay for an additional health insurance policy with abortion coverage is still using the taxpayers’ money to subsidize abortions.  Color me a dangerous right-wing extremist or one of the conservative “mob”, but while I will not deny someone personal choice, whether directly or in such an indirect way as included in HR 3962 I refuse to help them pay for it.  As do millions upon millions of other American citizens. 

But because it goes against their agenda of overarching control, the progressives and liberals simply can’t let people be responsible for themselves.  I was privy to a short series of emails ranting about the loss of “womens’ rights” and such that are perceived to be insidiously hidden in the Stupak amendment.  It was sorely tempting to smack ’em down with common sense but I realized my time was better spent doing something more constructive than playing Wack-A-Mole.

Some of the arguments I read in the emails against this amendment were also bandied about on the House floor during debate, with the biggie coming in as “no one plans to have an abortion”.  And surely there are those rare instances when a pregnancy is a grave health matter and abortion may be the only viable option.  But you know, getting pregnant in the real world isn’t some mysterious, hoodoo voodoo process over which women have no control.  Getting pregnant is a choice.  In fact, I would go so far as to say it is a very deliberate choice, for no one holds a gun to people’s heads and forces them to insert Tab A into Slot B. 

Let’s just say it in plain English.  If you can’t save your pennies or find a rich sucker to pay for your own abortion, ladies, then I suggest you keep your legs crossed if you expect someone else to pay for your health insurance.