Full Circle

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892–1984)

Except now the communists, trade unionists, statists and Islamists are coming for us. Who will speak?

Weakness vs. Strength

Does anyone doubt the weakness the world has shown results in this?

"If you don't stop, we will say harsh words". It didn't work with Hitler, it didn't work with the Soviets and it won't work with Iran.

Even I knew that.

(Alleged) AGW Momentum

Leaders of the Commonwealth countries called Saturday for a legally binding and a global fund with billions of dollars to help poor countries meet its mandates. The 53-nation meeting was the largest gathering of international leaders before next month's global climate summit in Copenhagen.

This is about wealth transfer. The attendees are calling for billions of dollars to be dedicated to small island nations for relief from the "catastrophic effects" of (alleged) AGW.


"Climate change is the predominant global challenge" the Commonwealth leaders said in a joint declaration. "For some of us, it is an existential threat."

Where are any of these effects? I keep hearing that seas are rising, yet no country, no island has shown any loss of shoreline?

The document called for a "legally binding" agreement by the world's nations.

Good luck with that. I seriously doubt Americans are in any mood for these shenanigans. Not with double-digit unemployment and no indication anything will be done to help that.

I fear this is in response to the fraud (alleged) AGW appears to be. Rush the agreement before the proverbial cat is out of the bag.

Journalism's Slow, Sad Death

Michael Gerson writes a well-thought-out piece in WaPo (via RCP) that I felt the need to comment on.

He seems to be saying that the death of journalism is at the hands of the internet. But I believe it was suicide. I believe the MSM has been dying a slow death since the 1960' (as far back as my experience goes).

Historically, news media has had it's warts for certain, but in the 60's, it took a much stronger turn. I suspect the advent of television had something to do with it; the power of television made some in the media believe they could, "change the world". Over the last 40-or-so years, I have seen the media turn the country against two wars, against a safe and large source of clean energy (nuclear power), in favor of big government and the list goes on. It's been largely done through opinion disguised as objective reporting. I can recall when every nuclear plant in the country had the first name of "troubled". Now, many see the traditional news media as the propaganda arm of the adminstration. And antics like a healthcare poem by the "esteemed" Katie Couric lend much weight to that opinion.

In the end, the news media has failed to police itself. Make objective reporting objective and call opinion, opinion. At least I can mostly count on that in the blogs.

Welcome Skeptical Science Readers

I notice I've been getting more hits from people via skepticalscience.com. I would argue it is neither skeptical nor scientific. It is agenda-driven and no more correct than this and any number of other opinion sites.

Glad you can stop in. If it walks like a duck (emails indicating climate-change fraud) and quacks like a duck (unwillingness to release raw data), it probably is a duck (a big steamin' pile of hoax). Remember, if the Leftists have to vilify and name-call, they are probably afraid of what you have to say.

Anyway, welcome. Take or leave what I have to say here. It's opinion.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Beer: Evil Twin is kegged and the Irish Red is in the primary fermenter. Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

The Bicycle: Time to clean up a maintain the Madone for the first nice day of spring (seems a long way off, doesn't it?).

The VRWC: It's Thanksgiving. We give thanks to God for His abundance. Not to Obama or Government or the UN, or even Gaia. To God. No matter how your life may seem, there is always much to give thanks for. Even if it is only God's unlimited love.

10 Principles

Ten members of the Republican National Committee have proposed these 10 Principles of Conservatism

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership;


Candidates are expected to follow at least 8. I like it.

Christmas and the ACLU

Shamelessly stolen from Joanne at Ozaukee Patriots.

Want to have some fun this CHRISTMAS? Send the ACLU a CHRISTMAS CARD this year.

As they are working so very hard to get rid of the CHRISTMAS part of this holiday, we should all send them a nice, CHRISTIAN card to brighten up their dark, sad, little world.

Make sure it says "Merry Christmas" on it.

Here's the address, just don't be rude or crude. (It's not the Christian way, you know.)

ACLU
125 Broad Street
18th Floor
New York , NY 10004

Two tons of Christmas cards would freeze their operations. They would have to go through it all because they would not know if any were regular mail containing contributions. So spend 44 cents and tell the ACLU to leave Christmas alone. Also tell them that there is no such thing as a "Holiday Tree". . . It's always been called a CHRISTMAS TREE! Oh, and if you are praying for them, tell them so, too. You don't need to remind them where they are headed if they don't change their ways. We want to be civil you know. After all it is the season for joy!

And pass this on to your email lists. We really want to communicate with the ACLU! They really DESERVE us!!

For those of you who aren't aware of them, the ACLU, (the American Civil Liberties Union) is the one suing the U.S. Government to take God, Christmas or anything Christian away from us. They represent the atheists and others in this war. Help put Christ back in Christmas!

Pass this on to your church, co-workers, family, and friends. What do you have to lose but 44 cents, what do you have to gain ----------- more than you will ever know.

Stay Tuned

The Beer: I'm ready to keg the Evil Twin. I have ingredients for an Irish Red. It will be a good winter.

The Bicycle: The Univega is on the trainer and waiting for my physical maladies to clear up. The mountain bike is ready for snow-rides.

The VRWC: CBS has picked up on the East Anglia/CRU Scandal. It will be interesting to see what may come of this. The spin machine is in full operation, though.

Rebound? Not So Much

Apparently, the economy is not rebounding as robustly as first thought.

Really? Look, I'm just a guy and even I can figure out that as long as the economy continues to bleed private-sector jobs, it will not grow in a particularly robust fashion. I fact, I expect 2010 to be no better than 2009.

Full disclosure: I recognize if the economy rebounds strongly in 2010, we're stuck with Democrats for a while. That may or may not be coloring my opinion.

I Believe I Said That

Huh...really? I'd never have guessed. Somewhere in these pages, I think I said "Our enemies will use this as propaganda".

Spin the Lie? Or Just Ignore It?

Looks like the (alleged) AGW folks are ignoring that we found out they are lying. Guess I'm not surprised.

(Alleged) AGW

I'll be waiting for the apologies. But I won't hold my breath.

Charen on Holder

Thanks, Mona. Said better than I.

Climate-gate?

We should be so lucky.

If this holds up to scrutiny, it could finally end the madness. Maybe.

Usual WaPo Propaganda

No, it isn't.

Many of Holder's critics appear to have forgotten that the Bush administration used civilian courts to put away dozens of terrorists, including "shoe bomber" Richard Reid; al-Qaeda agent Jose Padilla; "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh; the Lackawanna Six; and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was prosecuted for the same conspiracy for which Mohammed is likely to be charged. Many of these terrorists are locked in a supermax prison in Colorado, never to be seen again.

What the authors fail to state is that all of these were either US citizens or were arrested by US criminal authorities. The point here is that all of these were Mirandized. I keep going back to this point because courts have required over and over and over that a suspect be Mirandized or there is no trial. How many have gone free on this point alone?

Some say it is wrong to give Mohammed trial rights ordinarily conferred on Americans, but a benefit of civilian trials over commissions is that they make it harder for defendants to complain about kangaroo courts or victor's justice.

They will make these complaints anyway....especially after they are acquitted because of a technicality (There is that pesky Miranda thing again), then remain in custory as the AG has stated.

There are so many other arguments to make, but time and space prevent me from doing so.

Sunday

we were invited to lunch last sunday at the home of someone my wife met through some networking. Little did we know we were stepping into a den of Earth-Worshiping, Tree-Hugging, Obama-Loving Lefties. Allow me to illustrate:

Lefty: Healthcare.

Deekaman: We should all help our neighbors, but the government......

Lefty: But we don't, so the government should force people at the point of a gun to do so (OK, I'm paraphrasing, but you get the idea).

Rather than ruin the afternoon (they were otherwise nice people), the conversation ended there. But these were people who came from money-a couple lawyers, one of whom came from old Lake Geneva money and another who came from Chicago, a woman who never worked a day in her life an academic (at least he was a mathematician) and an artist.

Sometimes, it's good to shut up.

Excess Carbon Emission Regulatory Fee

Dr. Mankiw is kind enough to post this which makes me wonder what our future brings.

I may regret writing this. AK and were talking at work and he mentioned the ability of taxing authorities to access the computer in your car. I contains any number of different datum. Add to that, many vehicles have a tire pressure monitor. So here's the scenario: you go in for your emissions test. The technician connects in to your vehicle's computer which indicates you have been driving with a tire pressure less than that recommended for your vehicle. In addition to the results of your inspections, he hands you a bill for an "excess carbon emission regulatory fee" because your underinflated tires resulted in a lower efficiency.

Good thing nobody reads this blog, huh?

Debate and Drones

The Beer: I went to the Grand Opening Weekend of the new Northern Brewer Store in Metro Milwaukee. A little pricey, but the service was really great. I bought a new kettle (7-1/2 gal.), a kegging setup and a kit for Jamil's Evil Twin. Something of an amber ale. I've never had, but always willing.

The Bicycle: The bicycles are hung up in the workshop, waiting for me to clean and otherwise maintain them. My elbows are doing well and waiting for Spring.

The VRWC: Debate? Let me get this straight....there is little debate over the takeover of 1/6 of the economy, no debate regarding (alleged) Climate Change and no debate over trillions of dollars in debt. But we need to debate who is selected how for a Predator Drone? Pretty sure we don't debate any other targets....... Just sayin'.

Congressional Approval

Interesting reading this morning. What I take from this is that there is an anti-incumbent flavor amongst both Republicans and Independents. Less so with Democrats. In fact, Democrats appear to be quite happy with their parties heavy-handed tactics and irresponsible spending.

That leads me to another thought: Do Democrats want Congress to "Do Something" regardless of whether it is good or bad policy?

A Trial In New York?

This is the worst decision any President can possibly make. But it is calculated. Holding a show trial featuring former President Bush and his administration would be political suicide. But the Obama administration, I believe is doing this to provide a surrogate show trial. Admittedly, this is not my original idea, but it makes perfect sense. The Left has been trying to discredit the Bush administration since September 12 of 2001, with some success. But with falling poll numbers and a sea change in the voting of moderates, something had to be done to take everyone's eye off the ball. What better way than to put these five terrorists on trial in a US courtroom, fully televised where the defense can call Bush administration officials (possibly even the former President himself), CIA operatives, GITMO guards and interrogators and anyone else they see fit. The secrets of US anti-terror operations will be laid bare.

This will backfire. In a big way. It will please the far-left base, but no one else. Our enemies will use this as propaganda. The UN may even use it to conduct "War Crimes Trials" against former President Bush and members of the administration. The public won't like it at all.

I go so far as to call this action by the current adminstration "treasonous".

Is The Republic Undone?

The American Euro-Socialists are halfway to their Dystopian ideal. A bill still has to pass the Senate; an iffy proposition at best. Even so, if there is a Senate bill passed at all, there is sure to be Big Government in the middle of your healthcare. Reconciliation is almost sure to bring us the worst of all worlds. Any "Public Option"....at all.....must be defeated.

The Leftists will say, "What's the big deal? Medicare is nothing more than a 'Public Option', it didn't take over an industry". The big deal is that, yes, it did take over an industry. For those over 65.

It is reprehensible that AMA and AARP would endorse Socialized Healthcare. It undermines their constituents.

Any of you out there who support Socialized Healthcare.....would you give the Bush administration this much control and power over your life?

Whatever

I should feel horrible....why? I've watched 2/3 of the people I work with walked out the door because the economy sucks. TCO hasn't done anything to fix that.

More Leftist crap. I'm about as tired as I can be of it. "Feel sorry for me." Kiss my fat ass. I feel much more sorry for the UAW workers who don't have a job than I do some county occupational therapist.

Why does the county need an OT anyway?

RINO Season

And there's no bag limit.

I don't think the elections today are a reflection of Obama per se, but rather a reflection on the GOP. For entirely too long, we Conservatives have put up with RINO's who are no better than Democrats. Government just kept getting bigger and bigger. Our government got more and more cozy with the UN.

This is a Center-Right nation. More Right than Center. This should be a wake-up to big-government pols. Ignore us at your own political risk.