The Preamble To The Constitution If Written Today...

                 If the preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America were written today, by the fine young graduates of our public school system, it would read much differently:

                “Like, we the dudes (and dudettes!) of the United States, in order to make a better, like, um, country, or whatever, and make things fair, and peaceful… and shit, provide for our, like, safety, and promote welfare!, and freedom for everybody forever, do, like, you know…make this Constitution for the U.S. of A, man! F---in’ right, hee, hee!”

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                In a similar vein, the “Declaration Of Independence” would instead have to be the “Declaration Of Interdependence With All The People’s Of The World, In Non-Judgmental Harmony, With The Intent To Share All Resources Equally and Peacefully, While Leaving Mother Earth As We Found Her.”

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                This is what the super-sized, federally-dominated, obscenely costly, bureaucratized and unionized, one-size-fits-all public education system has brought forth (recently) on this continent.

Democrats Propose "Progressive" Minimum Wage

(The third post from day one, one year ago today).

Washington, D.C.-

            The Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) announced today it has a new proposal for a 'progressive' minimum wage scale.
            "It is our pleasure to be able to bring to the floor of both houses of congress a bill that encapsulates much of what we hold dear as a party...and indeed as a nation. We feel that we have eliminated all merit-based incentives. We are deeply proud to bring you the Progressive Minimum-wage Scale-or PMS! If passed, this bill would institute varying minimum wage rates based entirely on your race, creed, color, gender, sexual orientation and history of past discrimination as a community. Basically, the 'have communities' would have a lower minimum wage rate than the 'have not' communities. Brilliant, if we say so ourselves!! In one simple stroke past grievances could be redressed. This will help accomplish what our progressive income tax has somehow failed to do. I am also happy to say that we are working on another bill that would permanently freeze these wage rates for all members of each community, no matter the job or experience level or risk inherent to the position, to be annually adjusted for inflation. And now the PMS:"

     Community                                                   Hourly Min. Rate

    * Male WASPS......................................... ...$4.75
    *Female WASPS....................................... ...$6.25
    *Males of Color......................................... ...$10.05
    *Females of Color..................................... ....$10.50
    *Atheist, Lesbian Women of Color............... .$17.75
    *Islamic 'Insurgents'...................................... .$20.10
    *Agnostic, Bi-Sexual, Transgender Mulattos...$35.00

After-Birth Abortion?

 (The second post from this date one year ago).


          Terrorist? No, “insurgent” or “freedom-fighter”.

          Terrorism? We say “man-caused disaster” or “workplace violence” in polite society!

          I thought those terms butchered the language.

          Now comes “after-birth abortion." In an article titled,  ”After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?” (really) in the February 2012, ‘Journal of Medical Ethics’ (really) the authors argue that what they call ‘after-birth abortion’ “should be permissible even in cases where the newborn is not disabled."

         This has occurred, in fact. According to the ‘National Review’ (May 5, 2014), in Canada  literally hundreds of babies born alive during attempted abortions were left to die on the table. Planned Parenthood not only defended this practice, one of its lobbyists testified that the question of whether a newborn lives or dies “should be left up to the woman".

Austin, Texas-Jan. 22, 2016

        A 42 year old W.A.S.P. was convicted early last month of brutally  murdering 19 people in 3 separate incidents over the the last two years. The evidence was conclusive and he was put on death row awaiting lethal injection. The defense was outraged and took the moral high-ground. Protests sprung up and legal challenges ensued. The prosecution then claimed that this was only an “after-birth abortion”, after which the defense appeared dismayed, confused and listless. The protests stopped and the challenges were dropped.

        Then, the defendant himself stated that he had actually not murdered anyone. He had simply performed a number (19) of “after-birth abortions”. He was granted a reprieve and a retrial. Today he was granted his freedom, the jury deliberating for only 3 minutes and 32 seconds before issuing a unanimous decision to acquit. The decision was announced to riotous celebration by those in attendance, the after-birth abortionist-American community (AAAC), Public Television and several MSNBC 'talking heads.'

        The former defendant is now eligible to receive funding under the Affordable Care Act, and the DNC has asked him through back-channels how he feels about “those non-viable tissue masses at Fox News Corp.” He will be appearing next week on 'The View.'

        I wish the language was all we butchered.

Feds To "Contract" State Of Minnesota

             The first post, from one year ago today, re-posted now on this site's anniversary.


Washington, D.C.-

             The federal government announced today that it has decided to “contract” the state of Minnesota.

             “We wish to make this very clear. This has nothing to do with succession. Minnesota was firmly against this move from the outset” stated the government spokesman. “The federal government alone is responsible for this action. The evidence that called for this move is pervasive, self-evident and overwhelming.

             “To wit: the University of Minnesota’s sports teams routinely lose to their neighboring North Dakota and North Dakota State teams…despite having several times the student body population of these schools. Indeed they are challenged by South Dakota’s teams on occasion, too. We won’t even start in on Wisconsin with the Packers and the Badgers. Hell, their own fans get shouted down in their own bars and restaurants! These are just neighboring states. If we look at Texas, for example…ugggh. The first ever ‘hail Mary’ pass in 1975  beat the Vikings. Dallas then took your Minnesota North Stars professional hockey team. The State of Hockey? Really? You had a 31-0 lead in a bowl game-held in Texas no less- on Texas Tech…and lost? Is that humanly possible?!!!? Louisiana? The Vikes lost Bountygate to the Saints when they were clearly the better team. The big bad Gophers men’s hockey team? Lost to Air force and  Yale…and ‘Union’ (with a student body approximately 47,000 less than the ‘U’) … just in the last few years?!!!! Michigan? The ‘U’ Had a 28-0 lead-at home- going into the 4^th quarter…and lost?? Holy crap!

             “New York? 41-donut. (Some sports historians now use the term ‘bagel’ ). California? Steve Young…’the Run’. They lost their pro basketball team to Los Angeles-the Lakers yet! Woulda thought they coulda kept that one. That was decades ago and they haven’t gotten a new professional basketball team yet! What? The Timberwolves?

            “ Nebraska? Is this a typo? It says here that in 1983 you lost at home to the Cornhuskers…84-13 (giggles, recomposes himself).  The ‘Love Boat’. The ‘whizzonater’. We could go on and on.

            “The business climate. The regulatory burden. The taxation.

            “The climate climate! (Embarrass, Minnesota is aptly named! Several days with temperatures lower than 40 below zero this past winter)? Ice covering lakes from November into May? Six months? Really? Half of the friggin’ year?

            “ Jessie (the ‘Body’) Ventura. Al Franken. Governor Goofy. The ONLY state in the union that voted for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan. Number 1 in voter fraud?

            “The state is basically one massive non-viable tissue mass crying out for after-birth abortion!

            “So we will return the state to a territory (from which neighboring states will be allowed to absorb any parts they  deem beneficial. For example North Dakota may want to incorporate the many natural wonders, the sheer physical beauty and diversity of the land. South Dakota may want the Twin Cities metropolis. Iowa may want a lake or two to call their own. Wisconsin may want a professional hockey team, and so on). We are perfectly happy to go back to 49 states. That said, perhaps a better functioning government like, say, Puerto Rico’s, could lead them to become our second 50^th state. Or if things get too chaotic in the new Minnesota Territory we could envision a new ‘East Dakota’ being formed as a viable second 50^th state as well”.

Presidential Wisdom, Then And Now

                 A comparison of U.S. Presidential quotes and speeches, older to newer, has a sobering effect on a knowledgeable person. First, the older oratory:

“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.”- George Washington

“One man with courage is a majority.”- Thomas Jefferson

“I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessing on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof!”- John Adams

“It is not strange… to mistake change for progress.”- Millard Fillmore

“Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”- Abraham Lincoln

“Speak softly and carry a big stick.”- Theodore Roosevelt

“I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say.”- Calvin Coolidge

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”- Franklin Roosevelt

“Let all nations know, whether they wish us well or ill, that we will go anywhere, and pay any price, in defense of freedom.”- John Kennedy

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”- Ronald Reagan

                                                                               *****

                Now the new and improved, progressive utterances from our modern-day leaders:

“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”- Hillary Clinton, ‘falsely describing’ her arrival in Bosnia in 1996. (Hillary, George Washington was under sniper fire. For seven years).

“I say a lot of things- millions of words a day- so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement.”-Hillary to the Philadelphia Daily News’ editorial board, “explaining” her previous quote. (Well, that clears it up!).

“I want you to listen to me. I’m gonna say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman…Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie. Not a single time! Never! These allegations are false.”- Bill Clinton, addressing the nation regarding allegations of an affair with a young White House intern.

“Indeed I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong.”- Bill Clinton, addressing the nation one week later. (He should have heeded old Silent Cal’s advice).

“YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”- Howard Dean, ‘excitedly’ addressing supporters in Iowa after finishing third in a primary. (Some folks are more easily pleased than others).

“But we have to pass the bill…so that you can, uh, find out what is in it.”- Nancy Pelosi ‘lobbying’ on behalf of the Affordable Care Act. (Wow. Scary. Ready. FIRE! Aim).

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”- Barack Obama  (addressing those of his followers with over-inflated egos and under-inflated brains).

“This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and the planet began to heal.”- Barack Obama, on what people will say when they look back at the moment he was elected. (Bad news, Barry, your people claim that the oceans are rising faster than ever and that the planet is rapidly becoming overheated. It certainly is succumbing to overheated rhetoric and hyper-inflated egos).

“I think that I’m a better speech writer than my speech writers. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors, and I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”- Barack Obama actually said this, according to Patrick Gaspard, Obama’s first White House political director. Gaspard was himself quoted in an interview with The New Yorker in November, 2008. (Yes, everyone knows that “community organizer” is the best way to acquire the knowledge and skills required to become the leader of the free world).

“Over the last 15 months we’ve travelled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states, I think, one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii I really wanted to go to, but my staff would not…uh, justify it.”- Barack Obama, May 9, 2008, at a campaign event in Beaverton, Oregon. (Since you were attempting to become the President of the United States, we were hoping you’d know how many of them there are. Maybe another year or two as community organizer would have been best).

                                                                              *****

                In the immortal words of Ricky Ricardo, “Darwin, you got some ‘splainin to do!”

Machine Over Man?

                 There has been, rightfully, a lot of talk recently about artificial intelligence. It appears to be just a matter of time until we reach the “Singularity,” that moment when machines surpass humans in their ability to process information in terms of speed and quantity. Many experts believe that, soon thereafter, it will prove impossible for humans to control or in any way shape what the rapidly increasing artificial intelligence does with its waxing brilliance.

                A brave new world indeed.

                It has recently occurred to me that men and machine are actually going in opposite directions in terms of their intelligence. Who hasn’t purchased something at a retail store and seen the look on a young cashier’s face when he/she tried to figure out how much change to give  back? If it wasn’t always obviously shown on their terminal, most couldn’t do it quickly and with confidence- if at all. Give them extra change so you can get back all bills, no pennies, or whatnot… and watch them nearly have a panic attack.

                Cursive writing is a nearly extinct skill. Even finding a young person who can print legibly and without excessive spelling errors is rare. Keyboards, you know. And, of course, calculators do our math for us.

                Logic? Rhetoric? Public speaking? Debate? Get real. Those are, like, so totally not cool! Unless there’s an app for them! We have spell-check, though, so we don’t have to know how to spell.

                The vast majority of us- the 99%- have ceded our intelligence to machines.  Which means we have ceded our independence to others. Either the most brilliant few humans can figure everything out before it’s too late, or it’s machine over man.

                And who wants a permanent, “artificial” master?  

                                                                                                                                       

The Clinton Foundation

                The Clinton Foundation’s acting chief executive recently acknowledged that the organization “made mistakes,” even while insisting it is fully committed to “honesty, transparency, and accountability.” The organization had previously revealed that it was reviewing its federal tax filings because it did not properly report donations from foreign governments over several years starting in 2010. Many have criticized or questioned the $2 billion foundation’s efforts to raise money from foreign governments while Hillary Clinton was the U.S. secretary of state.

                What could possibly be wrong with that? There’s never been any conflict-of-interest, influence peddling, preferential treatment, fraud, bribery, graft or corruption in and among governments, has there? Certainly that couldn’t happen with a charitable organization, right?

                Peter Schweizer, in his forthcoming book, “Clinton Cash,” alleges that the State Department did indeed give preferential treatment to foundation donors while Clinton was secretary of state. He also avers that the foundation repeatedly violated its own promise to disclose all of its donors. These are, or should be, serious charges. There are many potential ramifications if a sovereign government (of a large and free nation, yet!) gives preferential treatment or assistance to individual entities or other governments because they made a donation to an individual employee’s foundation. And none of them are good. That is all the more true if that “employee” was a former President or First Lady. Independence and integrity are shown the door as the sleaze factor takes over.

                The insistence that the foundation is committed to honesty, transparency and accountability is, of course, laughable on its face.

                The long and sordid history of Bill and Hillary Clinton makes clear that those are three words that never have and never will apply to them- or anything that they are involved with. The more lies they tell, the more they obfuscate and attempt to hide every shady aspect of their actions, the more honest and transparent and accountable they claim to wish to be. This has been going on for decades and decades now, in private life and while in office.

                Whether the topic is Whitewater, Travelgate,  Monica Lewinsky, Chinese influence, Vince Foster, Gennifer Flowers, Benghazi, using personal computers for government business, or any one of many others, there is always the desire on the Clinton’s part to cover up…to shield their actions- or inactions- from the public. They seem to take a childlike glee in seeing what they can get away with, and we have let them get away with that.

                The Clintons buy and sell obfuscation in bulk. They get the giant, economy sized package at Costco. If prevarication were an Olympic sport, they would be the first U.S. team. They might not medal, but they’d give the Russians, Chinese, North Koreans and Iranians a run for their money.

                Honesty, transparency and accountability are to the Clintons as humility, patriotism and tradition are to the Obamas.

                No, the Clinton Foundation isn’t based on any of these traits.

                The foundation of the Clinton’s lives is to do whatever they feel is in their best interests. And then deny it, if necessary.

                No longer should they be allowed to get away with it. It is time we do what is in our best interests.

                Let’s deny her the presidency. 

                It is necessary.

               To the future of the United States.

Memorial Day

                 From the days of the rag-tag militia that defeated the greatest military the world had yet known… on the way to becoming the strongest military in the history of the world…until now…a great fighting force down-sized and stretched to its limits… we in the U.S. have always been blessed with fighting men and women of peerless character and resolve. Here’s to you and your families on this Memorial Day.

                 God Bless and Semper Fi.

                                           ***************************************

                 Militia, Minutemen, army, navy, marines, Leathernecks, Devil Dogs, army air force, air force, USAF, the Big Red One, coast guard, Delta Force, Navy Seals, the Green Berets, Rangers, reserves, national guard, etc. Whatever your designation and whatever your branch, wherever and whenever you served and wherever you are now, whether gracing Heaven or Earth: Thank You.

Harvest Time

                “How was the harvest this year?”

             

                “Well, we did okay on hearts, but we fell well short of our goal on livers and kidneys.”

               

                There are persistent and credible reports of systemic, state-sanctioned, organ harvesting and transplant abuse of (non-consenting) prisoners of conscience in the “People’s Republic” of China. These organs are primarily taken from Falun Gong practitioners and other religious and ethnic minority groups.

                The Chinese Communist Party banned Falun Gong in 1999 and forced all party members to go through training on the issue and make statements illustrating their “correct  understanding” of it. Politically-incorrect prisoners subject to the death penalty have frequently had their organs “harvested,” as admitted by some in the Chinese medical community. Apparently, Falun Gong members have been the most frequent victims of this policy. (See the online site, Doctors against Forced Organ Harvesting).

                Ironically, many on the far left in this country would be okay with the imprisonment of some of our media’s more successful, politically-incorrect, conservatives. In fact, they have already laid the foundation for doing just that, as Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Mark Steyn, among others, can attest to.

   Run up against the Global Warming Gestapo, for example, and you will be censored- or worse. Many have literally called for skeptics to be jailed. I’m sure they would be fine with the involuntary harvesting of “Deniers” organs, as well.

              

              They could certainly use the brains.

         

              And the hearts.

                

The EPA Announces New Light-Pollution Guidelines

                The EPA announced vastly more stringent and restrictive “personal light” pollution guidelines yesterday, to the general approval of anti-light activists around the nation. The new rules, which go in effect July 1^st, will affect mainly suburban and rural residents.

                Landscape lighting, that staple of upscale modern suburban yards, will be hit the hardest by the new regulations. Each individual light in a household’s landscape lighting system will now be required to be “no brighter than an average firefly,” or approximately ½ of one lumen. Moreover, every other light in a sequence of lights will have to emit no light whatsoever. EPA chief Charles Do-gooder stated, “You know how there is Coors and Coors Light or Bud and Bud Light? Well, now there are Lights…and Lights Lights! There is still light there, just not as much of it.”

                There are other new restrictions as well, such as the limit on “rope” lighting. These lights are commonly used in some areas on patios and decks, and, especially, in portable ice houses across the northern tier of the country. The new laws restrict the length of these lights to ½ the length of the structure, or eight feet, whichever is less.

                Portable lanterns, such as those used by campers, have been banned entirely, except for those powered by rechargeable batteries. “Propane or gas lanterns that generate an actual flame are obviously far too dangerous to be allowed to exist,” stated an anti-light spokesperson. “Besides the blatant risk that they may cause  a forest fire, they are bright enough to induce temporary night-blindness in several owl species.” He went on to state that disposable battery operated lanterns pose a different threat to the environment, in-so-far-as the batteries themselves, when discarded, can leach lead and other chemicals into the ecosystem.

                Head lamps and hat lights face new lumen limits, too. These lights, popular because they allow the wearer to see at night while retaining the full use of both hands, will now also have to be positioned at the back of the wearer’s head, so as not to risk affecting the night vision of others in the area that he/she may be looking towards.

Book-light regulations have likewise been revised, but the new restrictions are dependent not on the light itself, but rather on the book or books they are to be used to read, and where the books are to be read. If the book is to be read indoors, the light can be up to a maximum of 30 lumens. If, however, the book is to be read outdoors, the cap on lumens is 4.

However, if the book in question is  “of an honest, tolerant, progressive nature,” there are no restrictions on the lighting tool’s brightness. If it is a “typically biased work by intolerant, right-wing, jack-booted thugs,” the light can be no more than 1/3 of a lumen.

 It is now illegal to attempt to use any form of portable lighting while trying to read a book published by Regnery Publishing, Inc.

The Arctic May Heat The Earth

                                                            Cold Is The New Hot?

                 Some “scientists” have recently become concerned that, if the Arctic warms as expected, vast amounts of permafrost will thaw out and emit carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This, they say, could further complicate efforts to slow global warming. Permafrost covers 24 percent of the surface of northern hemisphere land masses, claims the “International Permafrost Association.” (Alas, I’d recently let my membership lapse and was consequently unaware of this fact). These experts claim there may be over twice as much carbon contained in northern permafrost as there currently is in the atmosphere itself, as these frozen soils contain a vast amount of organic material largely in the form of dead plant life.

                A senior scientist at the Woods Hole Research Center said, “It’s built up over thousands and thousands of years. It’s all stored away in a freezer, and as we’re warming the Earth, and warming the Arctic, it’s starting to thaw.

                “As long as the carbon stays frozen in permafrost, it’s stable,” said a spokesman for the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado. “It’s kind of like broccoli in your freezer. But if you take that out, it eventually thaws out and goes bad.”

                No, I don’t think carbon “goes bad” ala’ rotting broccoli. Nor do I think carbon dioxide or methane “go bad.” In fact, for global warming hobbyists, these gases are just plain bad right out of the chute.

                Man  didn’t inject carbon into the Arctic permafrost. The comment that this dead plant matter “built up over thousands of years” leads one to the obvious conclusion that these land masses weren’t always ice- or even permafrost- laden, as things grew there. And that means the climate in these locations had to be much warmer in the distant past. How could that be?

                We’ve been told over and over that plants are  good,  as they absorb pollution and produce oxygen, etc., etc., but now, in this context, this moribund vegetation is being charged with aiding and abetting the assassination of the planet by gaseous means.

                “As long as the carbon stays frozen in permafrost, it’s stable?”

              

                Yes, as long as anything stays frozen, it’s stable… also known as dead.

ABC, George Stephanopoulos, And The Collapse Of Network News

                 First there was the Dan Rather (than tell the truth) fiasco  a few years ago when the long-time lead anchorman for CBS’s national news touted the authenticity of forged documents he was brandishing pertaining to George W. Bush’s stint in the Air National Guard. Then, a couple of months back, Brian (was I on the Lusitania?) Williams, famed and trusted anchor of NBC news, made an ass out of himself with false claims of his journalistic heroism. Now we have George Stephanopoulos from ABC donating $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation and failing to disclose that information to his bosses or his viewers, even as he interviewed Peter Schweizer, author of “Clinton Cash,” a book that chronicles the involvement of organizations that have donated to the foundation.

                Stephanopoulos, that network’s chief anchor and host of “Good Morning America” and “This Week,” was a top Clinton aide during the 1992 presidential election campaign and later in the Clinton White House.

Conflict of interest? Bias? No! Perish the thought!

Stephanopoulos has since repented to his viewers, stating, “I should have gone the extra mile to avoid even the appearance of a conflict. I apologize to all of you for failing to do that.”

He is currently also a Democratic Party political advisor.

Schweizer stated that Stephanopoulos’ donations “highlight precisely the lack of transparency and cronyism that I report on.”

Yet, incredibly, ABC proclaimed via a Thursday, May 14^th statement that it stands behind Stephanopoulos and that the anchor made an honest mistake.  Former ABC News president David Westin, who hired Mr. Stephanopoulos 18 years ago, while President Clinton was still in office, said he believed the network was right to stand by him despite the “bad mistake.”

It’s small wonder the American people don’t trust the mainstream media.  All three of the major network’s news heads have now glaringly, if inadvertently, revealed their bias and lack of integrity in remarkably short order.

Imagine, if you will, what would have been the result if one of these Big Three anchors had donated $75,000 to the Reagan Foundation or the George W. Bush Foundation, without disclosing that little nugget before interviewing someone involved with the foundation in question. Okay, okay, I know that’s impossible to conceive of and is likely making you giggle or guffaw. Even with full, prior disclosure they would almost certainly have been summarily dismissed for the donation alone, in “the interest of fairness, balance, objectivity and integrity.”

                If they had made the donation without disclosing that fact to their network heads, as in this case, their bosses may well have asked for the death penalty. 

                Since, however, Stephanopoulos’ beneficence aided a Democrat, they are instead breaking into a rousing rendition of “Stand By Your Man!"

She Blinded Me With Science

                No major hurricane has hit the U.S. since Katrina, et. al., in 2005. This is the longest “draught” of category 3 and higher hurricanes since scientists began tracking these storms in 1851! The previous record was the eight year span from 1861-1868, during the Civil War era!

                New research from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, published this past week in Geophysical Research Letters, attempts to suggest this is just a coincidence. That’s right, experts are actually calling this decade-long dearth of major hurricanes, “basically dumb luck.”

                So, when there are more large hurricanes than “normal” in a given time span, that is unquestionably a man-caused phenomenon? If, however, there are far fewer than usual, that can only be a case of simple cosmic happenstance? That doesn’t sound like science- or the application of scientific method or thought- to me. In a rational world, either both would be thought to be man-caused or both considered  “basically dumb luck.”

                The glaring inconsistencies speak of an irrational rationale for these “conclusions.”

               

                It is ironic that the true anti-science agenda is coming from…”scientists.”

North Korea Executes Narcoleptic Military Leader

                 Kim Jong-un, the ‘Supreme Leader’ of ‘the People’s Republic of North Korea,’ recently ordered the execution of the country’s Defense Minister for falling asleep in a meeting of government officials. The execution of Hyon Yong-chol was carried out on April 30^th at the Kanggon Military Training Area north of Pyongyang, as reported by Reuters, the Associated Press and South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. The information that generated these reports was furnished by the NIS, South Korea’s intelligence service.

                Apparently, in addition to inappropriate napping, the  head of North Korean military forces also may have questioned Kim Jong-un at some point, or even ‘talked back’ to him. No wonder Jong-un had him executed at a range of 100 feet by ZPU-4 anti-aircraft guns with a range of 8,000 yards! He had that coming to him… probably got off lightly.

                The pudgy little dictator has had at least 15 people executed for similar ‘crimes’ already this year. He had his uncle executed in 2013 for ‘treason,’ i.e. not completely agreeing with him on every issue. Now, it appears, he shut up his grieving aunt shortly thereafter in similar fashion, albeit by poisoning.

  

    Dad and grandpa would be proud!

             

                Executions and mass-murders…cherished Kim Jong family traditions.

               

                Family reunions must be a blast!

One Man...A Blast From The Past

                                                          One Man…In The Name Of Love (A re-post of one of my most popular musings from days of yore)

                     America had always been about hope. And liberty.

     Personal, constitutionally enumerated rights, limited government. You own your property, your body and its labor. Government can’t arbitrarily, capriciously take it away. This made us unique among nations. And it led to unique results.

                  For most of 200 years the country believed it could do anything. For most of 200 years, it did. Problem? Bring it on! Here’s a solution! We’re not talking about perfection, no mythical utopia or Heaven on Earth.

                 We’re talking about real problems wrestled with by real people.

                   And the answers they came up with were some of the most beautiful and profound ever crafted by man.

                  The Declaration of Independence (freedom from a repressive, unrepresentative government), the Emancipation Proclamation, the Marshall Plan, etc.

                 “Ask not what your country can do for you…ask what you can do for your country.”

                  “Let all nations know, whether they wish us well or ill, that we will go anywhere and pay any price in defense of freedom!” Duty. Honor. Country.

                  And then…something happened. Some things happened. Did they ever.

                  Berlin Wall, Sputnik, Kruschev…missile crisis…Bay-of-Pigs.

                 Cold war. Bomb shelters.

                   Vietnam. A protracted ‘partial’ but terrible war, run by committee. No total commitment. Cities burning. Riots. Race riots. Looting. Finger pointing. Lies. Kent State. JFK, MLK, RFK…assassinations. Doubt, guilt, embarrassment, loss. Recession, gas lines, OPEC.

     My God.

                    Troops coming home now. Some of our own spit on them. We abandon our friends. Desperate hands slowly losing their grip on the last helicopter out. First loss. Shame.

                   Wage and price controls? W.I.N.? Watergate, resignation, pardon. Recession. Malaise! Billy Beer, 15% interest rates, 11% unemployment, inflation in the teens! A new word must be coined for something thought impossible/oxymoronic…STAGFLATION.

                  It’s over. It’s really over. A  great run by a formerly fine little country with a formerly fine little experiment, but obviously we are truly to be left on the ash heap of history. America is essentially finished thought some in the intelligentsia. Many (most) ‘only’ thought our best days were behind us.

                  Hostage Crisis, 444 days and for the first time America has no effective response when its own are taken prisoner by a foreign nation. Disgrace. Weakness. Indecision. Guilt.

                  World mocks. Russians march. Markets down. Despair. Even the Statue of Liberty seems to shine less brightly. “Give us your tired, your poor…?” Hell, we’re tired and poor!

                 Nuclear winter. Global cooling. Silent Spring. Apocalypse Now. My God, there is no way out of all of this!  Where could the nation…the world…turn for inspiration?

                 Into the void strode one man, brashly declaring it to be, “Morning in America.” HUH?

                  He was right, as he made it right. The promise of a renewed America. Delivered, like almost all the others. Is this a politician? Hostages on the way back home during the inaugural. (“Ronald Reagan is president of your country now? O.K., back you go now, all big MISTAKE. Have nice trip, going to miss you, kiss, kiss!)”

The largest and longest economic expansion in American history. The seventeen ‘Fat Years’ that the Clinton administration benefited from. Interest rates and unemployment rates plummeted with the tax rates. So did inflation. The American Dream…restored. People in houses again, not doghouses. A new term had to be coined for a raging economy without inflation. “Reagan Rally” on Wall Street.

                  The seventeen fat years were proceeded by the thirteen anorexic ones. An incredible amount of time in each case to decide what policies work and don’t work.

                Call it like it is…the “Evil Empire”. Say what you believe. You believe? Give the world clarity…and hope. “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall.’

                   America’s back. Let all nations know. Back from the abyss.

                  A November night in Berlin. A wall has come down. A terrible, stark, hulking, soulless wall. Seperating family…humanity…from liberty, hope, dignity. Freedom replaces terror. Hope pushes away despair.

                 And a now former president smiles. History should never forget what you did here…and will remember  what you said here.

                  When the wall finally fell for president Reagan, and he went to that shining city on a hill, much of America was in mourning.

                 President Reagan’s legacy and beliefs are still here for us to follow, if we are wise enough and true enough to our constitution, our history, and our soul, to pull back from the new abyss we’re staring into now. An abyss of the soul. An abyss of character.

                  Mr. president, if we do follow your lead, perhaps it will forevermore be…”Morning in America” for us…as it is for you. Thank you Mr. president, thank you.

     POSTSCRIPT:

                 Ronald Reagan can easily be argued to have faced one of the four or five most difficult sets of problems to encounter any incoming president in American history, as I hope I’ve just illustrated.

                 He won the longest (Cold) war without firing a shot, turned a moribund economy around, gave hope and restored pride to the American people and indeed much of the world. Far from starting wars around the globe or nuking it out with the USSR, he negotiated the first real nuclear arms reduction treaties and hoped to eliminate nuclear arms entirely.

                 George Washington could’ve been king, was the first president and had to chart a course. He set precedents that would resonate throughout history and help define a nation. No pressure.

                 Abraham Lincoln had to keep the country together…through a civil war. “Could a nation so dedicated and so conceived long survive?” Wow. To me, this is obviously the toughest task any president has faced.

                Franklin Delano Roosevelt had an actual depression, as well as the Second World War to entertain him. Financial institutions and the rise of communism in the country were also concerns. Fortunately, he had a good and great buddy overseas. (As did Reagan).

                One can’t project persons or presidents into different eras and situations and proclaim to know exactly what they would have done or not done. And, of course, there is some subjectivity here. However it should be quite clear that these are presidents who faced some of the most daunting challenges in American history. Each of them helped shape a nation by their bold and courageous leadership.

                 If ever a second ‘Mount Rushmore’ is created, here’s hoping that president Reagan’s likeness is on it.

                 May they find a mountain big enough.

                                                                   

                                                                

                                                                

     

Tom Brady, the New England Patriots, and Deflategate

Patriot Games.

The newest crazed attack on the New England Patriots is really just another attack on the “One Percent,” those that are successful enough to bring out the worst in those who aren’t. The “One Percenters” are really a bit higher percentage of the population than that, but those that are so consumed with envy like the term, so I’m not going to try to take it from them.

The Colts, who were one of my favorite teams in the league until recently, are really in cahoots with another team or two and The League Itself to find a way to level the playing field, or, at the least, make the vast majority of NFL fans and teams feel better about themselves. It is always a great feeling to feel morally superior to others, especially others who happen to be successful! That’s a win-win for the allegedly aggrieved! It not only makes them feel superior to others on the face of it, but also explains why they haven’t attained the same level of success. Of course, they themselves would be in the same position as their tormentors if they lowered themselves to cheating! The Colts essentially said, it’s our ball (it’s properly inflated…isn’t it!?), and if we can’t win, we’re going home. So there!

Nearly every team in every professional sports league has done everything it could to find an advantage somewhere, whether it is clearly cheating or just a gray area. Grounds crews in most outdoor baseball parks cut the grass short if they had a speed team and let the grass grow long if they had a power team. Teams such as the Atlanta Falcons pumped artificial crowd noise into their stadiums at opportune times. The Twins are solidly accused of turning the air-conditioning up when their opponents were batting in the old Metrodome…and turning it off when the hometown squad was at the plate. Teams routinely give their opponents the colder, windier sideline, and the smaller locker rooms. Even in college, the Iowa Hawkeyes painted their opponent’s locker room pink…in order to make them feel less aggressive.

How many thugs, punks, wife and/or child abusers, thieves, attempted rapists, and the like, will be playing in their team’s first four games next season while Tom Brady isn’t allowed in the stadium?

Does this not seem bizarre to people?

Jameis Winston will be playing…assuming he doesn’t get another urge for free top-end seafood… or worse.

The evidence against Brady is circumstantial at best. Even if “guilty,” we’re talking about slightly deflating a football…maybe 1 or 2 psi! This leads off the national newscasts of all three network television stations?! Another earthquake in Nepal? North Korea launching missiles towards South Korea? Those stories will have to wait! And they accuse Fox News of having an agenda??!!

Many pitchers in baseball have “doctored” the ball over the years. Gaylord Perry used to put petroleum jelly on balls. Indian’s president Gabe Paul defended him by stating, “Gaylord  is a very honorable man. He only calls for the spitter when he needs it.” Phil Niekro, while with the Minnesota Twins, famously used an emory board and sand-paper to cut into the ball so that its flight was unpredictable. The ball would dip and flutter and do odd things in the manner of a really great knuckleball, yet was much easier to throw. This was actually dangerous to the batter, as well. (Unlike softer, less inflated footballs). He was suspended for 10 games, went on the Tonight Show wearing a tool-belt, and laughs were had all around!

Yet, I’ve heard local- and national- talking heads gloat over Brady’s suspension, literally saying things like, “Okay, Mr. Successful pretty-boy with the smug smile and the gorgeous wife, how do you like maybe having to play by the rules?” Several embarrassed themselves in a big way, on-air, their comments dripping with sheer envy and hatred.

For his misbehavior, Niekro was suspended for 6.2% of his team’s season. Brady is being suspended for 25% of New England’s 2015 season.

As always, this is about the NFL saving face and making money. They don’t want questions about the league’s clear and consistent rules and regulations for the handling and checking of footballs prior to game-time.

Because there aren’t any.

They do want parity- and to appeal to “the 99%.”

No matter how unfair it is.

One In Six Species Could Be Wiped Out By Climate Change

             So states a study published in the journal Science. Author Mark Urban (really?), an “evolutionary biologist” at the University of Connecticut, based his calculation on a meta-analysis of 131 previous studies that made predictions about how various species would fare in a warmer world.

An article in the Los Angeles Times about the study reported, “If current trends continue, the Earth’s temperature will wind up 4.3 degrees Celsius higher than it was before the onset of the industrial era.” Yes, and if current trends continue,  soon it will never be dark again in the northern hemisphere. For months on end now, it has been staying light later by a minute or two every night and getting light earlier in the morning, as well! I fear there will be little or no need for lighting of any sort soon. This would cause the lighting industry to collapse and might be the death knell for many owl species. Bats could face extinction, as well.

Too short a time period to extrapolate and make predictions, you say? Back in the 1970’s experts were shouting that, if current trends continue, the Earth was facing another ice age. Still too short? Over the course of the Pleistocene Era, starting about 1.8 million years ago, glacial ice sheets thickened and advanced, pushing their way across much of the land mass of the Earth. This “ice age” lasted until about 11,700 years ago, although many scientists claim that we are technically still in it. Primitive homo sapiens of the time surely were thinking, over the course of hundreds or thousands of years, “If current trends continue, we are so totally screwed. The whole damn planet will be covered in ice.”

As it was, many large mammals and other vertebrates died off during this time, due to the brutally harsh conditions. How many more species would have died off if those present trends continued and the ice sheets just kept expanding?

I’ve heard scientists say, time and again, that the tropics are home to the most plant and animal species and are a “treasured laboratory of diversity.” Are there more species on land and in the seas around the equator or in the arctic and Antarctic?

The 131 studies that were…studied…in this study, admittedly didn’t take into account “complex” factors such as how climate change may alter the way species interact with each other, nor did they attempt to predict how species might evolve and adapt to the changes.

Despite the admitted uncertainties faced in making these types of dramatic predictions, many scientists purport to believe we must act immediately to try to limit global warming/climate change, usually by drastically reducing emissions. Ready…Fire!!...Aim. Always a good plan!

Many dates in the Midwest have a record low temperature that is 60, 80 or even 90-plus degrees colder than their record high. Often times the records were only a few years apart, with some of the record cold temps in the last few years. Plants and animals managed to survive.

 This year, a lake I fish often had its  ice go out  35 days earlier than two years ago. And that date of two years past was the latest ever recorded. The lakes fish and the region’s flora and fauna are doing nicely, thank you.

I know that many “experts” will claim that I’m simply…well…not an expert and am not fully cognizant of the various complexities of planetary life. Well, most, if not all, of them aren’t either…and at least some admit it.

I will go with the historical record and logic- every time- over the catastrophic “predictions” of the experts. There is now and always will be climate change. (If there wasn’t, we’d be in trouble. That would mean, for example, that the sun expired or the Earth stopped rotating).  It is not, however, largely “man-caused.”

A temperature increase of one or two degrees- or even 3 or 4.3 degrees- is not going to be the end of the world.  The planet’s temperature has risen- and fallen- by that much, almost cyclically, at various times in the past.

If, however, the sun expired… so would we.

                

Pollen-Deprived Bees Are Poor Dancers!

                Thus read the headline of the article in the Science + Health section of the local paper this past Sunday, April 26^th. I was tragically unaware of this problem, as, I suspect, many of you reading this were as well.

                Heather Mattila, a biologist at Wellesley College, and an undergraduate student, also from Wellesley, conducted a study that led to this important finding. The study was published in PLOS One (Public Library of Science One). PLOS One claims to be the world’s largest journal by numbers of papers published….and it’s easy to see why.

                The study heads raised one group of bees with limited access to pollen and another with adequate pollen access. They then combined the bees in one hive and observed them.

                Worker bees without access to adequate pollen early in life turn out to be poor foragers  and dancers  as adults, the study found. The bees “waggle dance,” a figure-eight movement, is used to communicate to other members of the colony how far and in what direction to fly to find flowers. Pollen-deprived bees that went out to forage often did not return.

                “Pollen-stressed workers were less likely to waggle dance, and if they danced, the information they conveyed was less precise,” according to Mattila.

                I couldn’t help noticing that, just like with humans, it was the worker bees that were pollen-deprived. I’m sure the One-Percent were rolling in the stuff, probably wrenched from the pollen-baskets of the workers that collected it. We all know the Queen Bee wasn’t suffering from pollen-deprivation!

                As a first step in eliminating this imbalance, the hives should be forced into implementing a more progressive pollen-tax structure. Perhaps President Obama could accomplish this via executive fiat.

                I would like to see public television hold a telethon for these forgotten heroes. It’s too bad Jerry Lewis isn’t with us anymore, as I’m sure he could have waxed poetic on their behalf. “These guys are the bees-knees…well actually, they are whole bees and they need your help! Please, please give all you can to the Thriving Hives Foundation. Won’t you help feed those who feed us? Your donation will help to raise the self-esteem of those in need by ensuring they can dance as often, and as well, as any other bee in their hive!”

                Pollen levels, of course, have declined dramatically due to climate change. To make things worse, the budget for helping bees has recently been cut due to the sequester and Congressional Republican’s intolerance, bigotry, and general disdain for bees.

                If you’d like to help, please go to the following websites:

                WeCanDanceIfWeWantTo.com or BeeSomebody.org

Clumsy Spiders? Clumsy Science?

                This just in! From the Journal of Experimental Biology (sounds a little “Third Reichish” for my tastes) comes results of a study to determine how global warming affects spider locomotion. I don’t want to keep you waiting breathlessly, so let’s get right to the findings, shall we?

                You could probably have guessed that previous studies have found that global warming will indeed have a profound effect on spiders. There will be lots more of them! Yes, researchers claim warmer weather will lead to more spiders… and bigger ones! They also believe that a warming planet will “likely” have the effect of making poisonous spiders more common. Of course.

                But the new study claims that spiders will get faster, too. Since spiders rely on fluid to move their (previously) little limbs, researchers for the study wanted to test how temperature changes their ability to move. They found that at 59 degrees Fahrenheit, the spiders moved no faster than 20 centimeters a second. At the highest temperature tested, however, they nearly tripled that speed. Yet, they weren’t taking bigger steps…just more of them. They went from four steps a second to a high of ten steps a second.

              This led to the study’s second blockbuster finding: the higher temperatures made the spiders clumsier.  The researchers posit that the fluid that controls their limb movement just can’t keep up with the high speeds that come with high temperatures. Therefore, the arachnid’s joints weren’t as coordinated as they were at lower temperatures.

                This reporter felt it his duty to make you all aware of the nightmare that’s surely coming: throngs of rapidly traveling spiders pin-balling off each other and careening drunkenly off of inanimate objects all around.

                Come to think of it, just watching Daddy-Long-Legs spiders tumble all over will be worth the price of admission!

                Yes, scientists say we are soon to face an onslaught unlike any other. Earth will essentially become one big arachnid mosh pit.

 So be on the lookout for vast hordes of giant, poisonous spiders. They will be moving fast.

And stumbling into everything in sight.

                

The Rising Oceans Can Solve Our Water Shortage Problems: Kismet!

    

                Even if it were true that the oceans are inexorably rising due to the melting of glaciers caused by global warming and that mankind’s freshwater  resources are rapidly dwindling (as evidenced, for example, by the severe drought in California), therein lies our salvation! The first “problem” can alleviate the latter one!

                Just as liberals are worried about dwindling water resources and drought, they are terrified about the prospect of rising sea-levels.  Why? Use your imagination, lefties! The one "man-caused" problem can cure the other. Before we all die of thirst, or see our heavily-populated coastal areas completely submerged, we can simply utilize the supposedly swelling ocean. Let’s suck up the rising sea-water and run it through desalinization plants to provide the water for us to drink and utilize in agriculture, etc. Surely, utilizing this expanding water resource world-wide, for all 7- plus billion of us, would help check the rising of the oceans even as it alleviated the (fresh) water shortage on the continents. Crisis? What crisis?

                Truthfully, the planet has an inherent and almost mystical ability to heal itself. It’s almost as if it were intelligently designed.

              

The Answer To Any Question?: It's The U.S.'s Fault!

                I get tired of people blaming the United States for the number of Somali, and other “Middle-Eastern-Americans,” that have gone back to the deserts to fight for ISIL, Al-Quada and the like. “We need to do a better job of reaching out to the Somali (or fill-in-the-blank)-American community” is the cry of the day among liberal elitists.

                Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton recently opined in an interview, “I think we need to do a better job, all of us, in providing a lot of good reasons for young Somali youth to see their better future here in Minnesota.”

And I thought that pursuit of a better future was why they made the decision to leave home and come here in the first place!

 Dayton has promised that his office would do more to reach out to Somali community leaders, promote Somali-American appointments to state leadership positions and explore ways to boost job opportunities for young Somalis. “We pledged whatever assistance we could,” he said. A Minnesota House panel voted to increase state funding tenfold to that end.

Incredibly, Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison claims that there are a number of Somali-American kids so disaffected with life in the U.S. that they think they would have a better life and a better chance at influencing U.S. foreign policy by fighting there than voting here. Ellison appears concerned about this because of all the efforts he and others have already  made to let kids know there are other options when they feel disenchanted.

We are constantly bombarded with assertions that the vast majority of Muslim Somali (fill-in-the-blank)-Americans are peaceful and polite and law-abiding and hard-working and detest the gross misinterpretations of the Koran by extremists, etc., etc. Yet, when one informant from the community helped lead law enforcement to six men who were indicted recently, many in the community openly complained about his “betrayal.”

There is constant talk of “adrift” and despondent young Middle-Eastern men in this country with no jobs and no prospects being easily seduced by “extremists” into a (short) life of terror. That is simply bunk. The six men alluded to earlier were friends, had attended high school in Minneapolis and were attending community colleges where they were pursuing majors in everything from computer support to pre-nursing. Some of them were working and attending college at the same time…even going to NBA games. At least one worked multiple jobs and had come up with enough money that he was able to send some back to relatives in Africa. Another’s income helped support his single mother and younger siblings. One had recently proposed to a young woman and is planning to get married after college.

America provides these, and other immigrants, with jobs, health insurance, schooling, food stamps, and opportunities for business… among other things. Such as freedom. Somalia, on the other hand, is a rathole of starvation, repression and death.

Oddly enough, there is another primary reason the Islamo-apologists tout as a factor aiding recruitment of these “vulnerable” immigrant youth. Besides it being a “grand adventure,” some say that those who have integrated into our (U.S.) society feel guilty when they observe the plight of impoverished Muslims in countries with oppressive regimes. The executive director of the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism at the University of Maryland (whew!) said, “Meanwhile, you’re sipping a cappuccino and wearing your Adidas. How can you stand to live in such luxury?”

I see. America is at fault by ignoring and discriminating against these noble, innocent, stalwart, peace and freedom loving Muslim immigrants that came here to escape their rathole of starvation, repression and death. They are shunned, “disaffected,” poverty-stricken, and have no chance to succeed here, and therefore are likely to be recruited by Middle-Eastern terror groups.

And also, America is at fault for luring these self-same immigrants into a life of decadent luxury, thereby turning them away from the most noble and equitable notions of their religion of peace!

Detect a pattern here?

And what of all the immigrant groups who’ve come here before?  The Irish faced discrimination, but I don’t recall many of them, feeling disenfranchised, going back home and taking up with the IRA. Millions of Germans came to America over many decades, but I don’t remember seeing any news stories about scores of German-Americans going back overseas to fight for Hitler and the Third Reich.

If it is simply poverty and disenfranchisement, unemployment and lack of prospects that create terrorists, why aren’t there throngs of home-grown terrorists from Appalachia?

The new wave of immigrants is different from those who came here in the past. Previously, all that was desired was a chance. Nothing was demanded. Immigrant’s fondest wish was to become fully American. That is why they came.

It is no longer acceptable to tell certain truths in this country…or in much of the West. Here is one such truth: there is a difference between the Muslim faith and Judeo-Christianity. The latter naturally tends to foster free, open, democratic societies. The former does not.

               

Rising Sea Levels?

                Florida’s sea level rose nearly 9 inches in the 20^th century. (That isn’t even one-tenth of an inch per year, less than the height of two pennies stacked on their sides).  Yet  projections for sea level rise this century are as high as 78 inches, according to a 2014 study by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences.

                Sea levels have risen and fallen in the past, but now that man-caused-climate-change Kool-Aid drinkers are projecting up to an 867% greater rise this century than last, in order to shock and awe- and instill fear in- the general populace and the low-information voter. Why do you think that is? Are these “men of science” completely  unbiased and agenda-free?

                Really?  867%?

                Even if this were the case, that would put the average yearly sea level rise at just over ¾ of one inch per year for this century. 

                Good thing we have fast cars.

                Of one thing there can be no doubt: “chutzpa” levels among alarmists  are rising faster than the sea.

Governor Behooved To Cancel Study

                Minnesota’s leading moose researchers were involved in a study to find out why wild moose populations are declining in the state. Next month, for the third time, they were to attempt to put tracking collars on newborn calves in a comprehensive study to determine reasons for the decline.

                Unfortunately, the calves’ mothers have abandoned their collared babies at excessively high rates. In fact, about a fourth of all newborn calves collared so far have been left behind by their mothers to starve or wind up in zoos.

                Yes, in true Monty Python-esque fashion, this long-term study to determine why the wild moose population has been declining…  has led to a decline in the wild moose population.

                The Minnesota DNR has now ceased the study by order of the state’s governor.