Political Angst In America

2011-08-23T14:44:00.000-07:00

EPA Regulations

An interesting question that might be asked is why does the EPA promulgate regulations that are not based on cost benefit analyses, and in some instances are impossible to meet. (An example is the ozone level desired that is lower than the naturally occurring level in many places, such as in Marfa, Texas.) Why do they do that? The answer is that is in the same category as the "progressives" desire to criminalize all behavior. This gives the government the discretionary power to reward those who support them with "waivers" while they punish their opponents.

2011-08-23T14:22:00.000-07:00

Wealth Redistribution

Liberals/communists/socialists/progressives all have one major policy goal, and that is redistribution of wealth. But it is different in socialist Europe than in sort of capitalist America. In Europe the redistribution they want is from rich Germany to poorer countries like Greece, Spain and Italy. So far the Germans don't seem to like the idea that their industrious citizens should pay for the Idlers in southern Europe. In the US the emphasis is on transfer from the "rich" citizens to the "poor." In the US the Democrats hope to entice a majority of citizens to vote themselves mor of the earnings ot the minority who are described as being "rich." That will probably work.

2011-07-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

I saw a Fox News article about a Congressman from Oregon named Wu, who was accused of sexual misconduct. His political association was not given in the article. That means he is a Democrat because if he was a Republican he would have been identified as Republican Congressman Wu.

2011-07-18T16:26:00.000-07:00

The Democrats and Republicans are not doing a good job of explaining what is actually at issue in the current debate over increasing the national debt limit. The real issue is the spending level of the United States government and the size of government itself. Since the end of World War II the United States government has spent about 18 to 20% of the GDP each year. Obama and the Democrats want to increase that to 25%, and possibly even more. This is about the spending level of EU countries, and it hasn't worked out well for them. It produces structural unemployment in the range of 9 to 10%, and slow economic growth. There is indication that it reduces income "inequality," but that may be an illusion since there is more "class" structure in society in the US, with people more likely to remain in the "class" in which they were born. Democrats claim that debt levels of 90% of GDP are not a problem for a country like the United States (though it is for a small country like Greece or Ireland). They discount the possibility that interest rates may rise above the current low levels, a rosy outlook that assumes that other countries will be happy to lend to us endlessly. Democrats talk like revenue can be dramatically increased by taxes only on the "rich." This is simply not true. Consider the "Bush tax cuts," reviled by the Democrats. They claim that these tax cuts reduced government revenue by about $340 billion per year (though revenue actually went up after the cuts were enacted). They want to solve our revenue shortfall by rescinding the Bush "tax cuts" on the rich. The problem is that the revenue shortfall is $1.6 trillion per year, but the revenue from rescinding the tax cuts on "the rich" is only about $40 billion per year. Thus the nasty little secret is that Democrats will eventually have to raise taxes on everyone to raise the revenue they need to pay for their spending desires. Actually they already have tax increases in place, but they do not go into effect until 2013 after the next. As is his usual practice, Obama does not want the bad news to be realized by the public until after the next election. The Republicans are not doing a good job of explaining the situation to the people; that Obama is turning the United States into an EU type entitlement state. It appears that they think that the majority of people actually favor what the Democrats are doing, that socialism is what the majority of people actually want. The Republicans are at a disadvantage because the media are in the tank for Obama, and continually tell people the lie that failure of Republicans to give Obama what he wants will result in social security payments not being made, etc. But, the Republicans are losing the PR war to Obama, and this has serious negative implication for the future of the country.

2011-07-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

Today President Obama said that you can't get to $2.7 trillion in spending reduction without increasing revenue. He mentioned two potential revenue enhancements; closing the tax loopholes on corporate jets and oil companies. (It is curious that the corporate jet loophole was part of the vaunted Obama stimulus package and the oil company loophole is depreciation and investment credits that all companies get; his problem with the oil companies seems to be that they make a lot of profit.) Closing the corporate jet accelerated depreciation loophole will generate about $300 million per year, and the oil company change would generate at most $4 billion per year. (Both of these estimates assume that the companies will nor change their behavior, something that Obama assumes, but is by no means certain.) At any rate, the most revenue generated by these changes would be $43 billion over 10 years, a rather paltry amount compared to the desired reduction of $2.7 trillion, or about 1.6%. The discussion has been that there should be a 3:1 split between budget cuts and revenue enhancements indicating that the revenue enhancement should be 25% of the spending reduction. Obama obviously has some other revenue enhancements in mind. Why doesn't he spell those out rather than talking about minor things that he assumes appeal to the masses because they are aimed at those he demonizes.

2011-07-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

I think the Obama Administration will take care of the illegal immigration problem without having to address it directly. I have been reading that illegal immigration is down and that some Mexicans are going back because of the current bad economic conditions in the US. Obama has the goal of turning the US into a third world nation, so the lure of America to Mexicans will diminish as Obama's economic and "green energy" policies succeed.

2011-07-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

President Obama overuses two rhetorical devices: the "setting up a strawman," and the "false choice." In his recent press conference, in his fake "folksy" style he used the "false choice" when he berated private jet owners. He presented the choice as between tax breaks for private jet owners and education and healthcare for children. The problem with this is that the budget deficit is over a trillion dollars per year, while education has annual expenditures of hundreds of billion. The false choice is that eliminating the private jet tax break will generate about 3 billion dollars over ten years. This is a mere drop in the bucket compared to the budget deficit and the social spending that he says will be curtailed without the added revenue. Obama is also a hypocrite in that the tax break for private jet owners (a reduction in the depreciation time from 7 years to 5 years) was implemented as part of Obama's economic stimulus law from 2009, and is one of the tax cuts that he brags about providing to promote economic activity and employment.

2011-06-24T21:01:00.001-07:00

While everyone was following the developments in the sordid Anthony Weiner story, Obama signed Executive Order 13575, establishing the White House Rural Council. This EO appears to be the start of implementation of UN Agenda 21.Naturally, the MSM saw no need to report on this action, which threatens the liberty of rural Americans. Agenda 21 started at the Rio conference in 1992 which is also where the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC) was started. The goal of Agenda 21 and the IPCC is to establish a world socialist government. Agenda 21 is a comprehensive plan to be enacted on international, national, and local levels for sustainable development. Basically it calls for central planning in a socialist government. You can find a lot of articles on the internet discussing all aspects of Agenda 21. Liberals like it and conservatives and Libertarians don’t, as would be the case with any plan that proposes central planning with the consequent loss of individual liberty.

President Obama has decided to rule through Executive Order, bypassing Congress, and, when necessary, ignoring the Courts. His White House Council includes virtually everyone in his cabinet and his Czars. Why Homeland Security, the Attorney General, the Department of Defense, etc. are concerned with rural development is hard to understand. EO 13575 says that 16% of the people in the country live in rural areas. Those people will lose some of their liberty under this EO, particularly their property rights. The EO implies that the government will undertake central planning for “sustainable development of rural areas, including crops, energy development, conservation, outdoor recreation and access to healthcare. Based on what people in the Administration have said about “sustainable development, they plan to tell land owners what they can do with their land. I expect that they will move to stop drilling for oil and gas, for example. They also talk about zoning land to prevent farmers from subdividing for suburban development, which the Obama Administration doesn’t like. The MSM won’t report this story because they like the idea of central planning, and don’t want to stir up opposition. Again you can read about EO 13575 on the internet, and will find that Liberals love it and conservatives and libertarians loath it.

2011-06-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

The White House says that President Obama's position on gay marriage is "evolving." Years ago back in the 90's he was a supporter of gay marriage. When he ran for President he was for "civil unions" but not for gay marriage. I interpret the "evolving" position as meaning he is waiting for his pollsters to tell him which position gives him the most votes in the next election.

2011-06-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

Watching Democrat spinners on TV today it was interesting to see that they are all on message. I'm always impressed by the way the Democrats instantaneously get their message out to all of their spinners and media sycophants. This time the message is that Republicans have no new ideas, just those old Reagan and Bush ideas that "got us into this mess we are in." I don't know about the new idea thing because the Democrats ideas are all communist and socialist policies that have been tried and failed in the past in other countries. As far as what "got us into the mess we are in" it is clear that making mortgage loans to people who couldn't afford them was the root cause, and that was a Democrat plan. Furthermore, the "mess we are in" seems to be made worse by economic failure in Europe, and it is hard to see how George Bush had anything at all to do with that.

2011-06-15T16:41:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of discussion today about students lack of knowledge about American History. Most of them do not even know who fought in the American Revolution. Educators blame the situation of the No Child Left Behind Law which requires achievement tests in math and reading, so those subjects are emphasized. It seems to me that the knowledge of history could be improved by simply assigning history books in reading class. Surely they read something in reading class. I hope the students are not stuck reading about Dick and Jane.

2011-06-14T18:42:00.000-07:00

President Obama says he would like the country to produce more Engineers. That is a good idea. There is a strong correlation between the percentage of engineers in a countries workforce and the economic success of that country. At present the US ranks second on the list of countries with the highest proportion of engineers behind Israel. But the US is falling fast. Economic freedom is also an important factor, and in that category the US is falling fast now that Obama is President. In my opinion the problem is producing more engineers in America is related to the failure of the public education system. Most students graduating from high school are not equipped to handle engineering school. They need remedial instruction, particularly in math. Most don't want to spend the time taking remedial courses. I think the relatively low prestige of engineers compared to other professions is also a factor, particularly for qualified minorities choosing other careers.

2011-06-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

The FBI has no rules that give them more latitude in investigating citizens when they have no reasonable suspicion of illegal activity. More guess would be that they already did that, and they are just formalizing the practice. I haven't seem much about this in the liberal media. Can you imagine the hue and cry from liberals if this had been done while "the evil Bush" was President.

2011-06-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

The Obama Administration has been working on a plan to share missile defense technology with the Russians. Sarah Palin has this to say about what she terms this WTF policy. (Obama thinks WTF stands for "Win the Future.")

President Obama wants to give Russia our missile defense secrets because he believes that we can buy their friendship and cooperation with this taxpayer-funded gift. But giving military secrets and technologies to a rival or competitor like Russia is just plain dumb. You can't buy off Russia. And giving them advanced military technology will not create stability. What happens if Russia gives this technology (or sells it!) to other countries like Iran or China? After all, as Woolsey points out, Russia helped Iran with its missile and nuclear programs. Or what happens if an even more hardline leader comes to power in the Kremlin?

We are told that Sarah Palin is stupid. She seems to be a lot smarter with regard to defense policy than Obama.

2011-06-08T18:36:00.000-07:00

The cost of higher education keeps going up much faster than inflation. The Departure from government of Obama's economics guru Austan Goolsby offers one explanation. After helping Obama destroy the economy of the US. Goolsby is leaving to return to his day job as an economics professor at the University of Chicago, which pays him $460,000 per year. (I used to laugh at Goolsby's stupid economic ideas that he presented on TV, like increasing taxes to foster growth. If that is what they teach at Chicago, no wonder the nation is in trouble.) And, part of the reason college is so expensive is that the schools have bevy's of famous folks on the payroll at huge salaries, but who don't actually teach courses. I don't see why students should have to pay the salaries of the pontificators. Maybe the political party they belong to should pay them instead of the poor students.

2011-06-07T17:27:00.000-07:00

President Obama has stated that he doesn't like the Star Spangled Banner as the National Anthem. I guess that "bully pulpit" thing works because a college in Indiana has now banned the National Anthem from school events.

One of the many other things that Obama doesn't like about America, as he says frequently, is the idea of "American Exceptionalism." One of the unique things about America is the fact that the majority of people favor "individualism." (Other Anglo countries like Canada, Australia, and Great Britain have large pluralities that favor individualism, but most countries in the world have few people who like the idea of individualism.) Collectivists (be they socialists, Communists, fascists, Nazi's, or just progressives) obviously by their name do not like individualism. Obama is clearly a collectivist, as are most Democrats now. I suspect his dislike of individualism is at the root of his dislike of the idea of American Exceptionalism. Since most of the people who favor individualism are Anglo's and thus are white, In his autobiographies Obama repeatedly expresses his dislike for white people, so I think that us another reason for Obama's dislike of the American Exceptionalism concept.

2011-06-05T10:55:00.000-07:00

It appears that the US is in the process of losing the war in Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton says that the Obama Administration is trying to find some "moderate" Taliban leaders with whom we can negotiate our departure (in other words, our surrender). Apparently the Obama Administration does not realize that there is no such thing as a "moderate" Taliban, no more than there are any "moderate" Islamists. It was curious to me that during the Presidential election campaign in 2008 that Obama said the war in Iraq was bad, and that Bush had ignored the "good" war in Afghanistan. By that time the war in Iraq had been won. Bush seemed to understand that the war in Afghanistan was unwinnable because the US was unwilling to do what was necessary to win, which is to annihilate the Taliban, and it would be necessary to invade Pakistan to do that. Bush was just doing a holding action to prevent al Queda from re-establishing in Afghanistan. Obama promised to enlarge the war in Afghanistan, and even implied that he would invade Pakistan to attack the Taliban. But, as Bush knew, that is not politically possible. The Taliban realize that the US does not have the will to do what it takes to win, certainly no Democrat President has that will. Thus, the Taliban know that they can wait us out; they perceive that they are winning and have no reason to negotiate a peace agreement with us. To me, the fact that there were no peace demonstrations in the US as Obama escalated the was in Afghanistan clearly shows the hypocrisy of Democrats, and peaceniks like Cindy Sheehan and Nichael Moore.

2011-06-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

The EPA has announced new regulations on mercury emissions by powerplants that will cost about $11 billion per year. Lisa Jackson, the EPA Administrator says the new regulations will save 17,000 lives and $140 billion per year. Her claims are fanciful and the reality is that this is just another attack by the Obama Administration on the use of fossil fuel. The reality is that people in America, including those residing near power plants, do not now suffer from effects of mercury in the atmosphere. American powerplants release about 0.5% of the mercury released into the atmosphere, so the new regulations will do nothing but increase people's electricity bills. Of course, increasing electricity bills was one of Obama's campaign promises.

2011-05-31T18:32:00.000-07:00

The Liberal mindset is interesting. They see problems everywhere that they want to correct. This need for immediate action as compared to the caution of conservatives gives them a profound sense of moral superiority. One curious aspect of the Liberal mind is that they are interested in immediate draconian action to correct any deficiencies they perceive. They want new laws or regulations in short order . The action is paramount; whether or not the action corrects the situation, or even makes things worse, is of no import. All that matters is that action is taken; they don't have time to examine the results. They have to move on to solve the next perceived problem. Basically they are "process oriented" rather than being, as conservatives tend to be, "results oriented."

2011-05-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

A nation cannot long exist if it is a welfare state and has open borders. Poor people from third world countries who have no skills will flock to the country to get the free stuff, and eventually the welfare state will spend itself into oblivion. That is happening in the United States now, and our politicians are unwilling to address the issue. Democrats see the illegal immigrants as future voters who will ensure their hold on power. As usual the Republicans, being the stupid party, are not effective in stopping either the welfare state or the open borders.

Now there is talk about starting some sort of quest worker program. That won't work unless the law is changed so that anyone born in America is automatically and American citizen. Will the children born to the guest workers be citizen's? If so then the guest worker program will be a sham.

2011-05-26T16:08:00.000-07:00

The Senate voted down the Republican's proposed budget by 57 to 40. The media hailed this is a great success for the Democrats. Today the Senate voted down Obama's proposed budget by 97 to 0. That would seem to be, if not a victory for Republicans. at least a defeat for Obama. But maybe not, since he doesn't want a budget anyway.

2011-05-24T19:15:00.000-07:00

Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to Congress was well received by both Democrats and Republicans. Netanyahu was born in Israel, but grew up in the US, graduated from high school in Philadelphia, got a degree in Architecture from MIT and also graduated from Harvard. He speaks English like an American. It's too bad he wasn't born in America. Obama's leadership really looks bad compared to Netanyahu's.

2011-05-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Last week Obama had a meeting with the leader of Israel, and "sandbagged" him by proclaiming a new America policy that would virtually ensure the destruction of Israel. "Sandbagging" opponents in this way is a favorite technique of Obama. He did the same thing with the Supreme Court, and with Paul Ryan. Obama is a no class guy who practices politics in"the Chicago Way."

I was not surprised at Obama's antipathy towards Israel. He exhibited that in his autobiography, and with his choice of advisers, such as Samantha Power. He clearly favors Muslims, and doesn't like Israel.

2011-05-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

The Sofitel Hotel is in the news now due to a French bureaucrat getting into trouble while staying in a $3000 per night room. I stayed in the Sofitel once, and as I recall it cost only slightly more than my per diem allowance, which was a lot less than $3000 per day. My accommodations were excellent, so I wonder why a guy on the public payroll needed such an expensive room. This points up a significant issue that I see these days. Specifically that government employees are more and more acting like the Lord and Master of the people rather than servants of the people. This is reflected in the high salaries and benefits given to public employees now. Public employee unions demanding bargaining rights are one example of the current trend. The people need to re-establish primacy, but it will be difficult given that both political parties are on board with the government employees.

2011-05-20T16:30:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's speech on the Middle East yesterday confirms his antipathy toward Israel. His position was obvious during the 2008 Presidential election campaign given his selection of notable opponents of Israel such as Samatha Power and Susan Rice. Despite this the Jewish community supported him. Obama clearly favors Muslims, and regards Israel as an occupying colonial power in Muslim land. With Obama's support Iran will be able to destroy Israel without the need to resort to nuclear weapons. Obama's speech indicates that he encourages an Islamist takeover of the Middle East nations, including those that are now friendly to the US.

2011-05-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

An Evangelist named Harold Camping predicts the end of the world in 48 hours. He previously predicted the end back in 1994, but his mathematical equation was flawed. My prediction is that he will be back working on his equations again in about three days.

2011-05-19T08:16:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted anything for some time because I got a new computer and lost my password. I tried to reset the password a few times, and failed until now.

A lot has happened recently, not least the killing of Osama bin Laden. I saw a comment on the matter from an honest celebrity whose name I've forgotten. She said that she approved of the killing, but had to admit that if Bush were President instead of Obama she would have felt differently about it. Most Liberals are not that honest.

Over the past few months the hypocrisy of Liberals has become even more obvious. To them everything Bush ever did was bad, but Obama's continuation of Bush's policies is good. For example, there were anti-war protests around Bush all of the time. Now Obama has ramped up the war in Afghanistan and intervened in a civil war in Libya, yet there are no anti-war protests.

The Liberal hypocrisy is also evident at the state level. When the Republican governor of Wisconsin limits public employee union bargaining power there are major protests and the governor is demonized in the media. When the Democrat governor of New York makes more severe limitations on the unions there are no protests, and hardly any notice in the media.

2010-10-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

I see a lot of Democrat spinners on TV who proclaim that "Bush tax cuts" caused the financial meltdown in 2008, a theory that few if any economists embrace. Democrat talk show hosts also claim that mortgage loans to people who couldn't afford the houses they were buying was not much of a factor in the financial crisis, but to the extent it was a factor, the fault was with the bankers who made the loans. Now Democrats face election losses because the bad home loans are still a huge drag on the economy. The Democrats deserve their fate because, in fact, they, through bank regulators, forced the bankers to make half of their mortgage loans to minority people who got most of the subprime loans.

2010-10-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Obama said he was going to restore science to its proper place in government. Then he appointed John Holdren as his science advisor. Holdren has some rather bizarre ideas, particularly with regard to population control. Here is a discussion of some of Holdren's recommendations and predictions. I recall that Holdren also had the idea of putting a birth control substance into the water supply. The appointment of Holdren showed that Obama was interested in real science. After two years it is obvious that Obama's idea of good science involves claiming that science demands that the policies he wants be enacted; Obama is not interested in facts or data. After all, facts as messy things and may not support what he wants.

2010-10-08T09:53:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of discussion by politicians and "talking heads" on TV about how companies are sitting on cash rather than investing it. I don't hear any speculation that the creative people may have "gone Galt." This seems like a real possibility to me since it is apparent that the "Looters" and Moochers" are now in total control of the government. Maybe the left-media folks haven't read Atlas Shrugged.

2010-10-06T13:16:00.000-07:00

Jerry Brown pulled the trigger on his "October Surprise" right on schedule. I have a hard time understanding the issue. Meg Whitman had an illegal alien maid for many years. The maid had lied about his citizenship status, and was fired after it was determined that she was in the country illegally. Brown says that Whitman should quite whining, "apologize and move on." I'm trying to figure what Whitman should apologize for. I guess for being duped. Brown's message would seem to be that no one should hire a person who appears to be a Mexican without a thorough background check. That would not seem to be the message his supporters would like. Brown's "October Surprise" appears to be working in that Whitman has lost support. This whole "October Surprise" phenomena is curious to me. I can understand that Brown does not want to run his record since he is largely responsible for California's financial woes dating from his previous term as governor. I wonder why people are swayed by things that have nothing to do with public policy. I think the entire issue reflects badly on Brown because the maid has admitted that she committed a crime by using a false Social Security number, and is subject to prosecution.

2010-08-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

John Kerry first came to prominence with his unauthorized negotiations with the North Vietnamese to end the Vietnam war. (Since he was still in the Navy at the time this was a punishable offense, and could be construed as traitorous. This activity is probably why he didn't get an honorable discharge until after Carter became President.) Now he is negotiating with the Taliban to end the war in Afghanistan. (That is not the role of Senators, but presumably it is OK with Obama.) Kerry hasn't changed much. He likes capitulating to our enemies.

2010-08-31T12:37:00.000-07:00

The Obama Administration (EPA) is preparing to mandate E15 gasoline for the United States. At present gasoline sold in the US is E10, that is, the fuel is a blend of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol. E15 is 85% gasoline and 15% ethanol. Ethanol is made from corn, so the farm lobby is pushing hard for this change. This change should result in higher prices for corn. EPA has hesitated to make this change because E15 fuel burns hotter than E10, and is damaging to automobile engines and catalytic converters. One result of the change will be costly repair bills, and a shorter life for many cars now in service. (Democrats appear to be believers in the "broken window fallacy," so probably view the repair bills and replacement car sales as a positive.) Ethanol has about 2/3 the energy as gasoline, so the change will also reduce fleet car mileage by about 1.5%.

2010-08-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of debate about anchor babies now. The fact that 20% of the babies born in America have an illegal alien mother shows that something is wrong. One thing is that the Federal Government refuses to do anything about the situation. They refuse to deport illegal aliens unless they have a criminal record, and perhaps not even then. Back when the Constitution was written, or when the 14th Amendment was ratified, the politicians could not even conceive of the current welfare state that we have. It is insane for a welfare state to have no restrictions on immigration. I read that the only salvation for the social security program lies in the young people who come to the country illegally. I see no way that could be true. The people coming illegally are not well educated, so they will not earn large salaries, so their contribution to social security accounts will not be large. Eventually they will want to collect from social security. So the illegal aliens don't solve the social security funding shortfall, but rather just "kick the can down the road."

2010-08-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

It has been five years since Hurricane Katrina. The news media, including conservative Fox News, continue to refer to Katrina as the worst natural disaster in the history of the country. Apparently tese young people no nothing of history. About 1800 people perished in Hurricane Katrina. But the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 took over 8000 lives (and maybe as many as 12,000) and the 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane took 2500 lives.

2010-08-25T18:18:00.000-07:00

The attack on private property in the United States pre-dates the Obama Administration, but Obama has appointed communist bureaucrats who are more aggressive than their predecessors. The Marxism that Obama and the Democrats favor requires the elimination of private property. Here is a discussion of the sneaky approaches the government is using to use environmentalism to take private property.

2010-08-25T18:05:00.000-07:00

Someone firebombed the office of Democrat Congressman Russ Carnahan. The police described the bomber as an angry 50 year old white man. The media decided that he perfectly fit the profile of a Tea Partier, therefore it is obvious that the firebombing was the work of right wing conservatives. It turns out that the bomber was a radical leftist who was mad because Carnahan owed him back pay. No doubt the news agencies will print a correction. Don't hold your breath until that happens.

2010-08-24T11:47:00.000-07:00

The Democrats have claimed for some time now that the current economic difficulties in the US, and indeed for the entire world, were caused by the "Bush tax cuts." So, given that, the solution to our problems is simply to let those tax cuts expire, not just for the rich, but for everyone. That, combined with the huge, but largely hidden, tax increase already imposed by Obama will surely bring back prosperity. The Democrats have complete control of Congress as far as stopping legislation is concerned, so no action on their part is necessary to carry out this program. Success is easy for them to achieve.

2010-08-01T20:53:00.000-07:00

I have been convinced for some time that liberals had some sort of means for distributing “talking points” for dissemination by their “fellow travelers’ in the media. Attacks on conservatives would come simultaneously from all corners with such frequency that it was obvious that there was coordination. The Journolist story reveals that I was correct. The same thing had to be true of the liberal “global warming“narrative. The lack of skepticism about global warming by the media is astonishing, given that journalists are supposed to be inquisitive and not accept what they are told at face value. Instead they completely swallowed the lie that “big oil” was funding the global warming skeptics while environmental groups, liberal think tanks, the government, rent-seeking corporations, and the UN were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to advance the global warming scare story. Here is more from American Thinker.

2010-07-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Many people I talk to still believe what has become one of the great lies: that is, that large corporations have opposed the “cap and trade” law that environmentalists hope will stop the use of fossil fuels. Actually large companies are mostly “rent seekers” who will support any law that they can get passed which will harm their competitors or garner subsidies for themselves. Individual liberals who would like to see establishment of a socialist global government such as George Soros, Mrs. John Kerry and the Tides Foundation contributed huge sums of money to the cause, dwarfing expenditures of those opposed, who are mainly old retired scientists. This article by Shika Dalmia discusses this, and states that the Breakthrough Institute, a liberal think tank, estimates that $100 million was spent over the past two years on the campaign to get the carbon cap and trade bill passed.

2010-07-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

I have written a lot before about the problems with the average global temperature data that the proponents of global warming distribute. The curious thing that does not arouse the curiosity of journalists or even other “scientists” is that raw temperature data from around the world do not show any temperature increase, but the “adjusted” data does show warming. One problem I noted many years ago was that huge area of the world has no temperature measurements, and they do not use data from many regions. Instead they extrapolate or interpolate to get the temperature in those regions. It seems to me that it is impossible to take the monthly average temperature in Dallas and predict the temperature in El Paso with an accuracy of 0.1 degree. I have never seen the technical paper that demonstrates that this can be done successfully, and I doubt that it can be done. Here is a good discussion of this issue from the blog Strata-Sphere.

2010-07-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

I've been checking the mailbox, but my invitation to Chelsea Clinton's Wedding hasn't shown up yet. It looks like I will miss another of the most significant events of the century.

2010-07-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

The Republican candidate for governor of New York wants to use eminent domain to turn the 9/11 site into a war memorial. That would prevent Muslims from being able to turn the site into their own "victory memorial," in accordance with their long standing tradition. Democrat candidate Cuomo has no problem with the Muslims putting a Mosque on the spot. He is for religious freedom and all that. I wonder if he would be OK with a Japanese Shinto Temple at Pearl Harbor. When I visited Pearl Harbor their were more Japanese than Americans making the tour, and the Japanese appeared to be quite proud of their accomplishments in sinking the US Fleet with a sneak attack.

2010-07-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

I predict that elderly people who don't want to "do their duty" and just die will go offshore for medical aid after Obamacare kicks in. Here is another thought from the blog American Thinker that did not occur to me, but seems likely to happen. Namely, that a black market will develop. I think that wll also happen.

2010-07-23T16:26:00.000-07:00

When I was young I used to talk to my grandfather about politics. He usually didn't express many opinions in public, but he would tell me his views. He didn't like Franklin Roosevelt, and was one of the few people I knew who did not idolize FDR. He was convinced that FDR was a fascist. Since then I have found that a lot of European analysts, removed from the American political scene, agree with that assessment. More recently a young woman, Amity Shlaes, has studied the Roosevelt Administration and tends to agree. Obama is the first President since FDR to embrace FDR's antagonism to business, and the policies are failing just as they did in FDR's time. Obama probably assumes that, like in the time of FDR, the media can convince people that the policies are successful. But, in the age of the internet, the old line media and the "journolists" may not be able to pull it off. Here is an article by Amity Shlaes about the need to instill confidence in order to recover from the recession.

2010-07-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

Dead Penguins are washing up on the beaches of Rio de Janerio. They are migrating from their home waters because of the extreme cold. Experts suspect global warming is the probable cause. Or maybe Bush, Cheney and Halliburton have something to do with it since they are responsible for everything bad that ever happened. I was thinking Rove, but I'm not sure if his "power to cloud men's minds" works on penguins.

2010-07-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

T. Boone Pickens would like to convert large trucks in the United States to use natural gas fuel. He probably has an ulterior motive since he is in the oil and gas business. But, he is pretty old, and already has more money than he can ever spend no matter how many more football stadiums he builds for Oklahoma State. So, he may truly have patriotic motives. In the article there are some things he doesn't mention. Natural gas has less energy per unit volume than liquid fuel, even when compressed. This is a serious drawback in a small personal automobile, but is easily manageable in a large vehicle such as an 18-wheeler or a bus (and perhaps in a large pick-up truck). Because natural gas burns so much cleaner than gasoline or diesel the engines require less maintenance and will last longer. The higher octane rating of natural gas allows the engines to be designed to about the same efficiency level as diesel fueled engines. The United States uses about 21 trillion cubic feet of natural gas annually, and now has proven reserves of about 2000 trillion cubic feet, and probable reserves of 8000 trillion cubic feet. The shale gas development processes perfected in Texas are now being exported around the world, increasing the world's reserves of natural gas.

The Obama Administration is pushing the development of battery powered trucks. But these are not 18-wheelers, for which battery power is impractical. The battery powered trucks envisioned are the Fed Ex variety that make deliveries over fairly short routes within an urban environment.

Natural gas ties in with wind power for the following reason: wind power is intermittent, but people want electricity to be available on demand. Nuclear and coal-fired power plants are slow to respond to changing demand, so are not practical as backup to the wind turbine electric generators. Natural gas fired electric generating plants respond faster, so are the preferred wind power backup source.

2010-07-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

I have long thought that Obama and environmentalists have an agenda to turn the United States into a third world nation. Here is some thoughts on the matter from American Thinker. It really doesn't matter whether that is their agenda, it will be the result of their actions if they are successful.

2010-07-20T18:22:00.000-07:00

The various inquiries into the so-called "climategate" affair have all been non-serious "whitewashes." In all cases no critics were questioned: instead the the principals were asked if they had done anything untoward. They answered, "No." The inquiry board then said in effect, thanks, glad we cleared that up. Here are some comments that are similar to my conclusions.

2010-07-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Obama is on TV every day blaming Bush for the current economy. Businesses are not investing and are not hiring people somehow because of Bush's Administration. Obama, as usual, is confused. Investors and businesses do not look at the past for investment and hiring decisions, they look to the future. The future they see from the Obama Administration is more oppressive regulation, higher taxes, more bureaucracy, and an adversarial relationship with the Federal Government. Reacting to this bleak vision of the future they are naturally hoarding cash and postponing hiring. This is exactly what delayed recovery from the great depression under the similar policies of FDR. Unemployment actually was higher after the first six years of FDR's Administration than when he came in. Only World War II reduced unemployment. Apparently Obama and the Democrats are unable to learn from history. Either that, or they think that, like FDR they can achieve electoral success despite public rejection of their fascist agenda by blaming the Republicans for the sorry state of affairs.

2010-07-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Freedom of speech is under attack around the world. Muslims want the UN to make it illegal to criticize Islam. Obama would like to shut down conservative talk radio, and to provide public funding to left-wing newspapers that are failing financially, and Europeans want to criminalize criticism of "climate change." Totalitarian government is on the rise around the world, and tyranny is coming.

2010-07-07T17:39:00.000-07:00

The BP deep sea oil rig explosion and massive oil leak into the Gulf of Mexico provides the environmental crisis liberals have craved. It may be simple incompetence, but the Obama Administration did not take quick action to ameliorate the impact of the leak which could cause conspiracy nuts to suggest that the lack of effective action is deliberate. The Obama Administration is taking the opportunity to do what they have long wanted to do, and that is stop all off-shore drilling. A judge over-turned Obama's moratorium on deep water drilling, but Obama is ignoring the judge. They simply won't issue any more drilling permits. Obama's EPA is also moving to shut down much of the industry in Texas under the guise of improving air quality. Once the oil refineries in Texas are closed, the price of gasoline will skyrocket even if the price of oil falls. Here is some discussion. In a related story, the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram reported today that the cement kilns south of the DFW region are closing for good. It appears that we will have to buy cement from Mexico in the future. With a cessation of drilling in the Gulf, and closing a lot of industry, so unemployment in Texas will be going up. Texas is in the south, and votes Republican. so that fits in with Obama's master plan.

2010-07-06T11:26:00.000-07:00

Muslims are making a serious attempt to take over the west, including the United States. This plan for conquest of the west was developed by the Muslim Brotherhood back in the 1980's. The plan involves gradually inserting Sharia Law into the west until a critical mass is achieved, and then more violent methods can be adopted. (The critical mass is probably only 10% of the population or less, since the suicidal Muslims can frighten and intimidate the non-Muslim majority.) Attempts are being made to establish enclaves of Sharia Law in the US. Some of Obama's advisers and judicial appointments have said that they see no problem with having Sharia Law in the US. It seems to never occur to them that Sharia Law would be Unconstitutional. Obama is a Muslim, so he appears to have no issue with Sharia Law. AS reported before, Obama has told the NASA Administrator that his primary job is to improve relations with Muslims.

2010-07-06T07:46:00.001-07:00

There is a reason that Democrats are known as the 'evil' party and Republicans are the 'stupid' party. The Democrats manage to play the Republicans as suckers every time. Thomas Sowell has a good comment about this situation today.

2010-07-05T21:29:00.000-07:00

President Obama has told NASA Administrator Bolden that his foremost job is to improve relations with Muslim nations. THat seems to me to be a curious mission for the head of NASA since Muslim nations have nothing to offer. Obama talks about the outstanding achievements of Muslims in science, mathematics, and engineering. There actually are not many, and most of those happened a long time ago. There were some advances made by Muslims in astronomy and mathematics 900 years ago. The Persian Omar Khayyam is better known in the west for his poetry, perhaps due to the translations of FitzGerald, but he was the premier mathematician of his day, being the first to solve the cubic equation. But Muslim dogma has shut off scientific inquiry since then. To me this is another example of Obama's partiality toward Muslims. Bush wanted to induce Muslims to adopt democracy: Obama seems to want us to adopt Islam.

Here are some views on this issue from the blog Flopping Aces.

2010-07-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

It has been obvious for some time now that among women prominent in politics a lot more of the Republicans are good looking than the DEmocrats. Here is an article discussing the situation. Something not mentioed is that many of the Republican politicians have a lot of children. Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Liz Cheney each have five. This fact seems to particularly enrage liberals. The Democrats do have a former beauty contest winner in Jennifer Granholm, governor of Michigan.

2010-06-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Elana Kagan refused to speculate on where the Commerce Clause could not be used by Congress to pass laws controllling the activities of citizens. It is time for a Constitutional Amendment that spells out the limitations on the Commerce Clause because it currently can be used to justify anything Congress wants to pass.

2010-06-30T16:17:00.000-07:00

Al Gore has been accused of some sort of sexual impropriety, but the case is entirely a matter of "he said, she said," though so far she has said, but he hasn't. The liberal media, naturally, see no story since Gore is a liberal. For some reason they see a story when the accused is a conservative white male. Consider the infamous Duke LaCrosse case. In that instance one mentally unstable girl, not supported by her associate, made an accusation against three men, one of whom was proven to not even be present when the alleged attack took place. But the press ran with the case. Even now I read that some liberals believe the accused were guilty of something, perhaps being wealthy white men. I saw a black person on TV say that the men should have been convicted even if they did nothing as a form of "payback."

2010-06-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

In the Kagan Hearings I learned something about the law that I didn't know before. It turns out that the Bill of Rights (the first ten Amendments to the Constitution) only protect me from Federal Laws. The Fourteenth Amendment applies the Bill of Rights to the States. At least that is what the conservative Justices think; as far as I can tell the Liberals don't think individuals have the right to free speech or to bear arms. In the Chicago gun law case just decided it appears that the liberals don't think that citizens have a right to self defense. As I recall, Justice Sotomayor said hat the Constitution does not give citizens the right to self defense before her appointment was confirmed by the Senate. I seems certain to me that should one conservative Justice die or retire while Obama is President, it would be the end of the Constitution.

2010-06-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

I saw the Chairman of BP make a statement after his long meeting with Obama. The Chairman has an accent that sounds French, and I thought he looked French. On top of that his ideas sounded French. He said that both he and Obama are concerned about "the small people." [Editorial correction: the Chairman is Swedish, not French. But, no matter; French or Swedish, he is some sort of socialist.]I don't think he meant people who are small in stature; rather I am certain that he meant what American politicians refer to as the 'little people.' That means us ordinary folks, and I am really glad that BP and Obama are concerned about my welfare. Talking about 'little people' sounds a lot like Democrats, who think people can't take care of themselves. It is no surprise that the CEO of BP reached agreement with Obama. BP supports socialism of the fascist variety: they are in bed with the government: they do what the government wants, and expect the government to reciprocate by favoring them. BP is, from what I have read, the only oil company that primarily supports Democrats, and was a major contributor to Obama. For those who don't know, BP has been one of the most active groups lobbying in favor of Obama's carbon tax and trade initiative. That proves that they, like Obama, are all for us 'little people.' They want more control over us so they can 'take care of us.'

2010-06-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

I read a report of an interview with Carly Fiorina that indicated to me that she was a CEO rather than a politician. She talked about the need for effective government. Politicians usually talk about efficiency, and appear to not even have a concept of effectiveness. Liberals in particular want more laws and regulations to effect "efficiency." I have seen bureaucracies that were models of efficiency, and yet were unable to accomplish their goals. There are basically two types of people in the world, those who are "process" oriented, and those who are "outcome" oriented. Typically liberals of the various stripes are "process" types, and conservatives are "outcome" types. Regarding efficiency and effectiveness, it is instructive to note that all historians agree that in WWII the German army was more efficient than the American army. But, German generals agreed that the American army was more effective than the German army.

(Remember my main message to the world: Bureaucracy is the enemy.)

2010-06-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

People who support the cataclysmic AGW hypothesis have an uncharacteristically non-scientific attitude toward those who do not agree with them. If AGW is not a scam, why are the proponents so acrimonious toward those who challenge them. Here is some discussion by a scientist.

2010-06-11T15:36:00.000-07:00

There is a lot of chicanery in the global warming/climate change community. It turns out that a PhD in science does not make one a statistician or mathematician. Here is an example.

2010-06-11T14:58:00.000-07:00

Democrats plan to spend $125 million convincing Americans that Obamacare is a good deal. I got a flyer from the government telling me how much I would like it. Only at the end did in sort of an afterthought they told me that it is going to cost me a lot more money, and I’m going to lose the coverage I have because I have too much, and need to share or something. Here is some discussion.

2010-06-11T14:56:00.000-07:00

Al Gore (and Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA) like to say that, regarding AGW, “the science is settled.” This is an incredibly stupid statement on its face because the science is never settled on anything. Science may elevate some hypothesis to the level of a law because many tests have been done, and the hypothesis passes all of the tests. In the case of AGW, no tests have actually been done to verify the hypothesis, so AGW has not advanced beyond the state of being a hypothesis. Gore and others like to refer to computer models of the climate that show increasing temperature with increasing temperature levels. The problem with that is that the models do not agree with each other in most details, and the details do not match experience. The climate of the world is largely controlled by the hydrological cycle, specifically with regard to clouds which obviously have a significant impact on surface temperature. The computer models have proven to be inadequate in predicting cloud behavior. (I used to make my living constructing computer models of large systems, and if the details predicted by the models are not correct, the models are not reliable.) Here is the opinion of a scientist who is a “green.”

2010-06-10T10:14:00.000-07:00

I have written a lot about how it appears to me that Obama and the Democrats are following the Cloward-Piven's plan for converting the United States into a collectivist state that would, if the analysis of Friedrich Hayek is correct, will ultimately be run by a tyrant. I have found that most people have never heard of Cloward and Piven and their plan for creating a socialist state in the US. Here is some discussion by one of Obama's classmates at Columbia University. I think it is obvious to everyone that a democracy is in serious jeopardy when a majority of the people decide to vote thmeselves revenue collected from a minority of the people.

2010-06-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

I have been reading about the Joe Sestak "drop out of the Senate Race and we'll give you a great job" scandal. Joe said that he was offered a high level job by the Whitehouse if he would drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate contest, and that they talked about it several times. This is a clear violation of some stupid law that Bill Clinton signed when he was President. The White House at first denied it all. But, after a meeting between Obama and Bill Clinton, they said Rahm Emanuel got Bill Clinton to do it. But, DOJ has looked into it and no laws were broken. Democrats say it was just business as usual. That answer poses a problem in itself because Obama said he was not going to conduct "business as usual in Washington." Now Joe Sespak says that he and Clinton had a 60 second conversation, and that was it. So, we can imagine how the 60 second phone conversation might have gone:

Hi Joe, this is Bill Clinton,

Hi Bill, what's on your mind.

Joe, the President would like for you to drop out of the Senate race, and in return he'll appoint you to some unpaid high level commission where you can get a lot of good press.

Well Bill, tell the President that I'm not interested.

Joe, you should know that if you don't drop out of the Senate race, the Democrat Party will not support you.

Yeah, Bill, I understand that, and frankly this year it may be better to not have Obama's support.

OK Joe, I'll deliver the message.

Thanks Bill. See you around.

Does anyone believe that the "high level" job offer was an unpaid position on an advisory body that a Congressman is actually not eligible to serve on? I think not.

2010-06-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

If I had thought about it I would have realized that George Bush is responsible for the breakup of the marriage of Al and Tipper Gore. All Democrats tell me that Bush is the Anti-Christ, and is responsible for all evil in the world. It is sad if you think about it that Al was travelling around the world fighting global warming and Tipper cooled off. I also heard that Tipper's carbon footprint was just too large.

2010-05-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

Here is an article by an English writer who apparently doesn't believe in AGW.

2010-05-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

Obama is no more responsible for the oil well explosion in deep water in the Gulf than Bush was responsible for Katrina. There are some differences in the aftermath of each situation. In the case of Katrina the problem lay with the incompetent Mayor of New Orleans and the incompetent governor of Louisiana. They ignored Bush's suggestions to evacuate prior to the storm arriving, and could do nothing after the levee failure. Bush finally violated Federal Law and ordered in the military to save 50,000 people from the water. IN the case of the oil well explosion, Louisiana has a competent governor, but the Federal government has actually prevented them from taking action to prevent the oil from washing up on the shore. For example, government sank the platform, breaking the pipe causing the oil to be released at the bottom of the sea rather than near the surface where it could have been burned. Here is a discussion.

2010-05-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

When I was a boy in East Texas the sale of alcoholic beverages was prohibited. For a long time this condition was maintained by an alliance of Baptists and bootleggers. The bootleggers provided funding to the Baptist preachers to use in encouraging people to vote against allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages. We now have a similar situation with regard to climate control, as described in this article.

2010-05-17T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Obama Administration has apparently apologized to Red China for the Arizona's treatment of illegal aliens from Mexico. Given China's procedure for handling illegal aliens I'm sure they got a big chuckle out of the situation. Foreign leaders are beginning to recognize that Obama is a joke. We can expect that foreign countries will be pushing us around more and more as they realize there are no consequences from that action.

2010-05-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

During Hearings on the appointment of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, there are some questions I think she should be asked:

Her boss, President Obama, has expressed concern that the Constitution of the United States does not address income redistribution. Does she share his concern? Does she think the Court should remedy this alleged shortcoming?

Does she think the United States is a Republic or a Democracy?

I have heard a Hispanic Democrat Congressman, in a speech to Congress, assert that all people in the world have a Constitutional right to come to the United States. Does she agree with that Congressman?

Her boss, President Obama, has frequently said that he wants Judges that favor the poor and disadvantaged. This seems to be in opposition to the idea that there is rule of law, and that Justice is blind. Does she agree with President Obama?

She seems to have some issues with the First Amendment, freedom of speech. Does she agree with her boss, President Obama, that corporations should not be able to spend money on political campaigns? Does she still think, as she once wrote, that the government has the right to ban speech it deems “harmful?” Does she realize that her boss, President Obama, regards criticism of him as “harmful” speech and would like to restrict such criticism?

She seems to have some issues with the second amendment which states unambiguously that citizens have the right to own and bear arms. She needs to explain what rights she thinks people have with regard to arms.

Does she think that foreign laws should be considered in interpreting the Constitution of the United States?

Does she think non-state actors at war with the United States should be treated as criminals or as enemy combatants?

Does she think that all people have a Constitutional right to healthcare? Does she think that the government should be able to force citizens to provide that healthcare?

In the past she has expressed admiration for socialism. Does she believe in individual’s rights to own property? President Obama has appropriated private property without due process. Does she approve of that?

Does she think it is more important for government to provide liberty for citizens (the founding principle of the United States) or to ensure equality of outcome for citizens?

Does she think that the Constitution should be modified by Judicial fiat rather than by Amendment?

2010-05-17T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today the Ft Worth Star-Telegram had a story about the government's desire to annuitize individual 401(k)'s. The government thinks that there is too much risk for individuals to have their retirement money in the market. They think it would be better for the government to annuitize the funds so that the individual would have a guaranteed stream of income during retirement. Apparently the government would guarantee the annuity, since most annuities are run by insurance firms that have money invested in markets. The government seems to not recognize that there is more risk than just a falling stock market. There is also a risk of inflation. Given the enormous extent of deficit spending by the government, inflation is a significant risk. Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have long wanted to get their hands on the 401(k) and IRA money. They could use that money to pay current bills just the way they have with Social Security funding. They would also like to annuitize the 401(k) and IRA funds so older people would not have so much wealth that is transferred to heir on death. Democrats have long argued that it is fundamentally unfair that some people leave money to their children. Hilliary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi have both commented that it is fundamentally unfair that some people can leave money to their children. Annuitizing 401(k)'s and IRA's would at least stop that practice among the vast middle class, which is the group they are concerned about. They don't care what their really rich supporters do.

2010-05-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

Muslims are building two Mosques near the ruins of the Twin Towers in New York. This is amazing to me. I suppose the US has turned into such a pathetic nation that we allow our enemies to construct monuments to themselves at the site of their greatest victory over us. Somehow I doubt that we would have allowed the Japanese to put up a monument celebrating their victory at Pearl Harbor. (When I visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial most of the people there were Japanese, and they seemed to be proud of what their countryment had done.) I suppose it should be expected that in the age of Obama, America, or at least our leadership, are spineless wimps who let everyone use us as a punching bag.

2010-05-15T12:08:00.000-07:00

As he left Office British Prime Minister Brown said, "I tried to bring about fairness." Fairness is what socialists are always attempt to achieve. And, Brown had considerable success. He destroyed the economy of his country, but, as always happens in socialist societies, he was succeeding in making everyone equally bad off.

2010-05-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

I love the stories of changing animal behavior due to ‘climate change.’ I have read that Southern Pine Beetle’s are more active because of Global Warming. This seems odd since the southeastern US has actually cooled over the past 50 years. Now there is a story about more active caterpillars on the Isle of Wight due to ‘climate change.” It happens that the last couple of years have been remarkably cold in Great Britain. This brings up two questions that I haven’t seen the climate hysterics answer: first, how is the information that global warming is happening transmitted to the little critters since they cannot detect it from their local environment? And, why do the little critters become more active given that temperature is supposed to influence their energy level, and the environment they experience is actually getting cooler?

2010-05-13T21:36:00.000-07:00

The Nanny State is here. Now the government wants to track the Body Mass Index of all children in the country.

2010-05-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Here is more discussion about Obama, the first 'post-modern' president of the US.

2010-05-09T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have frequently opined that if the US were not a welfare state that illegal immigration would not be a problem. Illegal immigration by people exploiting the system provides another base of support for those who promote the welfare state. So, facilitating illegal immigration benefits both groups. Here are comments from someone who sees the situation as I do.

2010-05-09T18:55:00.000-07:00

Liberals and Democrats don 't like free speech. One example is Harvard Law School Dean Minow's comments to a student who suggested that a study be made into the possibility that there is a genetic basis for the low average IQ of Africans. Now we have President Obama complaining about freedom of speech. Summary: he likes his spin, doesn't like Fox News.

2010-05-08T20:38:00.000-07:00

Mayor Giuliani of New York refused to take money from Muslims after the 9/11 attacks. My guess is that Mayor Bloomberg will take their money. I wonder if Bloomberg ever heard of the Trojan Horse?

2010-05-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

The Obama and the Democrats plan on strangling business enterprises in the US with onerous rules, regulations, and new taxes. They may think they are promoting "social justice," which is another name for socialism, but the end result will be the demise of much private enterprise. The health reform legislation contained a lot of these stealth regulations that have nothing to do with health. (These are the provisions that Nancy Pelosi said the bill had to be passed for us to find out about.) The new requirement is that businesses must issue 1099 forms to everyone that they buy anything from that is valued at more than $600 over the course of a year. Here is an article describing the situation. This should provide employment for more accountants, and drive up the cost of doing business.

2010-05-06T20:40:00.000-07:00

Democrats passed the Obamacare legislation so we could find out what is in the new law. It's 2000 pages long, and refers a lot to previous laws and regulations, so they couldn't explain it, didn't have time. Of course part of the reason they couldn't explain it was because a lot of it was going to made up by unelected bureaucrats as they go along. The law was said to be intended to improve healthcare in the US, as well as "bending the cost curve" down. It is difficult to understand how that will work for some provisions of the law. For example. the law puts a tax on medical devices. I am uncertain as to what devices this covers, but apparently it would include things like artificial knees and hips, and pacemakers and stents used to treat heart disease. The tax will increase the cost of these devices, which would appear to mitigate against the goal of reducing the cost of healthcare. Another effect could be a reduction in the use of these devices; this would seem to mitigate against improved healthcare. During debate Obama suggested that old people were getting too much medical care, and that they should just take an aspirin and die. This is obviously the actual intent of the bill, raise the price so people will stop using them. It would have been simpler to just invoke "death panels" to decide who gets care, but Sarah Palin ruined that simple approach and forced Obama to set up a more circuitous path to achieve his objective of spending less money on healthcare of old people.

2010-05-06T07:29:00.000-07:00

I watched Charlie Rangel being interviewed about the financial crisis in Greece. He didn't think excessive pay for union members and government workers, which apparently includes most of the people, nor excessive entitlement payments, had anything to do with the situation. Instead, he blamed Goldman Sachs. Apparently they loaned too much money, or sold Greek bonds short, or something. At any rate, Charlie thought the problem was caused by capitalists rather than by politicians who promised more than could be delivered. Somehow, Republicans had caused the problem because they supported Goldman Sachs. That is curious since Goldman Sachs is well known as a supporter of Democrats. Later I saw a female Democrat spinner who seemed to think that the "Bush tax cuts" caused the financial crisis in Europe. It appeared to me that Democrats have an agenda of confuse and obfuscate, and blame everything that ever went wrong on George Bush. When I was a boy they blamed everything on Hoover, and that worked. So, I can see why they would continue that plan, but switching to Bush because a lot of their supporters don't even know who Hoover was.

2010-05-05T12:58:00.000-07:00

I used to keep a sign in my office that said "Bureaucracy is the Enemy." I noticed that some people thought that if we had the right procedures and rules in place, no one would have to think about anything, and that everything would work well. I also noticed that the people who had such great faith in bureaucracy also tended to be politically liberal. Curiously so-called liberals are opposed to individual liberty. Some smart guys like Ludwig von Mises had similar observations to mine.

2010-05-03T21:30:00.000-07:00

Mayor Bloomberg speculates that the attempted Time Square car bomber is probably someone who doesn't like the Obama healthcare bill. (No doubt one of the vicious members of the tea party movement.) I heard an announcement on TV that someone named Shazzazz Habaad (sp?) has been arrested on suspicion of being the attempted bomber. Who knew that Pakistani's were that concerned about Obama's healthcare bill. The liberals are sad tonight that this is another example of Muslim terrorism. They crave an example of a WASP terrorist, the kind of people they really hate. Here is another example of a big disappointment for Obama and the liberals.

2010-05-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about illegal immigration and racial discrimination, and it seems to me that since almost all illegal immigrants are Latinos, any law that addressed the problem could be deemed racial discrimination. (On TV I saw Al Sharpton mumble something incoherent about all of the Irish illegal immigrants that the Arizona law wouldn't address, or something. I wonder how many illegal immigrants from Ireland there are; maybe 100? Certainly not enough to be of much concern.) If the nation is unable to deal with the fact that the illegal alien problem involves Latinos, we might as well just open the borders. We could save a lot of money by disbanding the border guards and firing the customs agents.

2010-05-02T20:12:00.000-07:00

President Obama doesn't like anti-government rhetoric, and wants people to cut it out. (He didn't seem to mind it three years ago.) I think he just doesn't believe in freedom of speech for those who disagree with him. What else could be the explanation for giving the FTC control over the internet as is contained in the proposed financial reform law. (Wonder what rationale the Democrats have for this since the internet obviously had nothing to do with the financial meltdown.)

2010-05-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

President Obama is a prevaricator of the highest order. He demonstrates his skill frequently, as in a recent speech in which he vilifies Representative Boehner. He said that Boehner went to a meeting with Wall Street, and came back opposed to Obama's financial reform plan. He implies that Boehner was "bought off." This is typical lying by Obama. He fails to note that Boehner was opposed to the financial plan before the Wall Street meeting. For those who are knowledgeable, Obama's entire premise is flawed because most Wall Street executives, such as the head of Citi, BoA, J. P Morgan, and Goldman-Sachs favor Obama's financial reform, as well they would be expected to since it favors large firms at the expense of smaller firms, exactly what fascists favor. Obama also ignores the fact that Wall Street gave far more money to Democrats than Republicans in both 2008 and this year. In 2008 Goldman-Sachs gave about $1 million to Obama and about $40 million to Democrats. The MSM are in the tank for Obama, and do not point out Obama's obvious lies which they know about, but the public is unaware of because the MSM does not keep them informed.

2010-05-02T19:30:00.000-07:00

President Obama has often been described as the first "post-modern" American President. There are various definitions of post-modernism, but generally it evolved from the failure of communism, and the marriage of socialism and communism with environmentalism. The perversion of science into a political activity is a prominent feature of the movement. Here is some discussion from American Thinker.

2010-04-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Democrats favor equality of results over individual liberty. These are mutually exclusive conditions, and cannot exist together. The US was founded on the basis of equality of opportunity so that individual liberty could be achieved. Insistence on equality of outcome is why Democrats must necessarily not practice the “Rule of Law.” If there is “Rule of Law,” then laws cannot be applied in the unequal manner necessary to achieve equality of outcome. As F. A. Hayek reasoned, a state that enforces equality of outcome cannot have rule of law, and inevitably leads to a totalitarian state. History shows that Hayek was correct, but socialists and Democrats like Obama argue that it will be different under them. (Communists like Lenin, Stalin and Castro frankly acknowledge that they intend to have a totalitarian state.) Here are some similar thoughts from a more talented writer than me.

2010-04-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

The geniuses who thought up global warming have new ways of creating havoc, as reported here.

2010-04-24T16:44:00.000-07:00

Arizona passes a law that says that being an illegal alien in America is illegal in Arizona. That seems logical, but Obama says it is illegal. On C-Span I once saw a Democrat Congressman making a speech to Congress in which he said that all people in the world have a Constitutional right to come to America. It sounds like to me that we need to change the Constitution.

The Mexican Senate condemned the Arizona law. They say it will damage relations between the countries. Maybe relations need to be damaged. It appears to me that Mexico is basically invading the US. Mexico treats people illegally in Mexico quite harshly. They seem to have a double standard.

2010-04-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

The message for today is Remember November

2010-04-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Here's how they make solar power profitable. Why would anyone be surprised that if the government subsidizes solar generated electricity with very generous payments, some clever rascals will maximize their profit by hooking up some deisel power generators. After all, at the end of the wire no one can tell what the source of the electricity was.

2010-04-19T18:49:00.000-07:00

Senator Kerry has been illegally conducting foreign policy for the United States since he was in the navy during the Vietnam War. Now he appears to be acting as the unofficial Secretary of State for President Obama. One problem with this is that Kerry seems partial to communist dictators like those in Vietnam, and he liked the would be dictator of Honduras. Here is some discussion on this subject.

2010-04-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

Back in the late 1800’s Arrhenius suggested that raising the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere would cause the average temperature of the earth to increase. No one thought much about it until about the time I graduated from college. Early discussions I recall concentrated on the benefits that would result, such as longer growing seasons combined with higher CO2 concentration which would increase the world’s food supply. It was thought at the time that the main effect would be an increase in nighttime minimum temperature, but not much increase in maximum daytime temperature. (The increase in minimum temperature at night was the main factor in increasing the growing season.) These effects have in fact materialized. Plant growth rates have increased by about 15% over the past 100 years due to higher CO2 concentration. It is generally agreed that average temperature has increased slightly, but there is no proof that the increased CO2 level is the cause. The increase in average temperature is problematical because the claimed increase is much smaller than diurnal variations, is very much smaller than seasonal variations, and there is doubt about the accuracy of the measurements and the analysis methods used to “homogenize” the data. Many people claim to see evidence of warming in behavior of animals, and to observe it themselves. It is highly doubtful than humans or animals can perceive variations of a few tenths of a degree given the 100 degree F variation encountered at a given location over the course of a year.

After a lot of study and analysis I concluded that it is unlikely that increased CO2 concentration levels in the atmosphere would lead to significant increases in the global average temperature anomaly (GATA). But, whether or not CO2 emissions are causing noticeable increases in GATA I concluded that Al Gore and the UN IPCC are running a scam that has a different agenda than what they claim. There are many others who think as I do. John Coleman has written a good article describing the history of the movement. People who have not worked in a University or in industrial research may not appreciate the zeal with which grant money is sought. Without grants scientists will have to move on to another field, something that is not much fun.

2010-04-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

Strata Sphere has a good review of the the attempts to whitewash the CRU work on global warming (now called climate change).

2010-04-15T11:10:00.000-07:00

Robert Reich lays the blame for the financial collapse of 2008 on repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act in 1999 while Clinton was President. Reich is a Democrat, but he doesn't always drink the Kool-Aid. I agree with him that repeal of Glass-Stegall was a mistake. But there were other mistakes, most made by Democrats. The government coercion of lenders to provide home mortgages to people who were unlikely to make the payments was a deliberate policy of the Democrats, though Bush made it worse when he extended the program to illegal aliens. The MSM doesn't tell the public that most of the Wall Street people they are currently vilifying are mostly Democrats, and that Wall Street firms historically gave most of their political contributions to Democrats rather than Republicans. It is easy to see why the Democrats eased Reich out of office and back into academia.