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.”