The little fables, parables, with a moral at the end, are the complete antidote to left wing ideology.

Want to know how to think about welfare and redistribution? Remember the stories of The Grasshopper and the Ant, and The Little Red Hen?

Wrestling with the Idea of global warming? How about The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and Chicken Little?

Considering President Obama, his Nobel prize and the media adoration?
Just recall the story The Emperor’s New Clothes.

Entrepreneurship and incrementalism? The Crow and the Pitcher

Taxes and regulation? The Dog and the Bone, and The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs.

Class envy? The Dog in the Manger, and The Fox and the Grapes.

Liberal Republicans? The Woman and the Viper.

Government size and power? The Frogs Who Desired a King.

Come to think of it, what is the first thing liberals try to do in any elementary school ? They try to remove the classic stories and replace them with “modern: tales. Now I know why.

Lately there has been a big hue and cry from the usual sources about the continuing inequalities and failures of capitalism.

What they are pointing to are two statistics recently published. One which purports that the average compensation of executives in Financial institutions increased from below 100k to about $140,000.

The other is the recent very high quarterly profits reported by the same financial companies, many of whom took Tarp fund money.

This is presented as some sort of abomination, but it is actually a statistical artifact of the commercial crash.

Let me explain. When a Bank or other finance company is in a boom and making lots of loans it’s profits will usually be very low, that is because it is lending its assets almost as fast as it gains them.
But after the crash all of the following happened; The banks laid off workers thus lowering costs, they wrote off a lot of bad debt, so that is no longer dragging them down, and most important, they are no longer making many loans. Therefore they are gaining money from their outstanding performing loans but little of that cash is going out.

Profits therefore look good, but it really means they are slowly liquidating their companies, it is not a sign of health!

Consequently, they have laid off workers, that means they laid off most of their younger executives and kept the most experienced, ie. the people making higher salaries. In addition some of these salaries are tied to profits, so if the profits go up so does the compensation. So although they may have actually reduce payroll costs the AVERAGE compensation goes up. Again, not a measure of economic health but rather the opposite.

It is amazing that so many people get so worked up over things they do not understand.

When debating someone on the pros and cons of either the stimulus or the Health Care bills, here is some important information to remember.

A brief history of big government programs:

1913: The income tax is made possible via Constitutional amendment. Critics protest that there is no top rate set, warning that the top rate might rise to as much as ten percent. They are assured that no such thing will ever happen.

1936: A Social Security Administration explanation of the programs says : “And finally, beginning in 1949, 12 years from now, you and your employer will each pay 3 cents on each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. That is the most you will ever pay.”

1962: AFDC is expanded to “fight poverty” Democrats argue that the numbers are very small and increasing payments will help families get out of poverty. Critics say it will lead to dependency. Before welfare reform you had 15 million recipients and were entering the fourth generation of dependency.

1964 – Critics of the Civil Rights Act charge that it will result in quotas. Hubert Humphrey responds “I‘ll eat my hat if this leads to racial quotas.”

1966 – Critics claim Medicare will be too expensive. The Democratic-dominated “House Ways and Means Committee estimated that Medicare would cost only about $12 billion by 1990 (a figure that included an allowance for inflation). This was supposedly a ‘conservative’ estimate. But in 1990 Medicare actually cost $107 billion.”

2003 – Medicare Part D, drug plan is estimated to cost “only” $340 billion over ten years. Only a few years later and the cost is $540 billion and rapidly rising.

Hat tip to Billy Hollis

I took this right off of Fark.com. it was posted by ALANOCU:

Obama Apologizes for Declaration of Independence
WASHINGTON (AP) - Just in time for the document’s 233rd anniversary, President Barack Obama has issued an executive order apologizing to Great Britain for America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776.

“It’s time to move away from the failed policies of the past,” said Obama during a Rose Garden press conference, “and the first step is apologizing for the original sin of this nation against the sensibilities of the international community.”

“The Declaration of Independence from the wise and benevolent guiding hand of Great Britain was, in the eyes of some, an important step,” said Obama. “But the manner in which it was handled was an affront to acceptable diplomatic norms. This crude and disparaging document heaped numerous, undeserved insults on the divine ruler of our compassionate and nurturing motherland. It used such crass and dispicable terms as ‘tyrant’ and ‘despot’ to describe the gracious tolerance of King George the Third to the aspersions and indignities heaped upon him by a cabal of ungrateful rebels.”

“Therefore,” declared Obama, “we, the people of the United States of America, do formally apologize and ask for the forgiveness of the descendants and heirs of Great Britain’s people and monarchy.”

Reaction to the apology was mixed.

Vice President Joe Biden said the apology was “a good start,” but noted that if we really wanted to make amends for 233 years of disloyalty, America would have to “show our sincerity with deeds, not words”.

“If we really want to make up with Great Britain,” said Biden, “we need to become more like them. We should adopt their health care system. And their ban on guns. And their ban on knives. Man, I hate knives… I cut myself on one last time I was in my secret undisclosed location under the old U.S. Naval Observatory… hey, this is off the record, right?”

Queen Elizabeth the Second said that she would “consider” accepting the apology if Obama would “take back this stupid iPod and send me a Kindle 2.”

Well, Micheal Jackson, the so called King of Pop died yesterday of heart failure.  Micheal and I grew up together as I am also fifty years old and remember watching him and his family in their first ever appearance on the old Ed Sullivan show. He suffered the fate of many child stars and certainly never had a normal life.

But I was amazed, and a bit appalled at all the big coverage this got. Fox news spent the entire night on it. The next morning all the talk shows covered it nearly nonstop including the sports shows. There were people, even well known athletes crying and going on about how great he was. This was more coverage than the death of an ex-president or a Pope gets!

What the hell people, yes he was a talented guy and a pop icon, yes maybe he reminded you of your childhood. But lets get real! HE WAS A PEDOPHILE AND A WEIRDO of THE HIGHEST ORDER! We ought not to celebrate that.

His talent and accomplishments are insignificant compared to his creepiness. Get over it.

taken from my blog :Impudent Domain With pictures!

It seems that Richad Posner in his blog with Gary Becker, is all concerned with the anti-intellectualism of the modern conservative movement.  Hat tip to Hawkins at Right Wing News for this one. Here is the excerpt and my reply

I sense intellectual deterioration of the once-vital conservative movement in the United States. As I shall explain, this may be a testament to its success.

Until the late 1960s (when I was in my late twenties), I was barely conscious of the existence of a conservative movement. It was obscure and marginal, symbolized by figures like Barry Goldwater (slaughtered by Lyndon Johnson in the 1964 presidential election), Ayn Rand, Russell Kirk, and William Buckley–figures who had no appeal for me. More powerful conservative thinkers, such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek, and other distinguished conservative economists, such as George Stigler, were on the scene, but were not well known outside the economics profession.

…By the end of the Clinton administration, I was content to celebrate the triumph of conservatism as I understood it, and had no desire for other than incremental changes in the economic and social structure of the United States. I saw no need for the estate tax to be abolished, marginal personal-income tax rates further reduced, the government shrunk, pragmatism in constitutional law jettisoned in favor of “originalism,” the rights of gun owners enlarged, our military posture strengthened, the rise of homosexual rights resisted, or the role of religion in the public sphere expanded. All these became causes embraced by the new conservatism that crested with the reelection of Bush in 2004.

My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

Well gee, where do I start.

Are you sure his name isn’t Richard Poseur? He might just be posing as a conservative, certainly he is posing as an intellectual.

I am sorry but when a big part of your argument is to lament that conservatives haven’t fallen for the Global warming myth like you have, then you have already lost any creditability you might have had.

Dismissing the desire for a public morality and moral order as simply “emotional” and “religious” is also not a sign of an intellectual heavyweight.

I have news for him, all of the old thinkers of the movement, Buckley, Friedman, even Goldwater were concerned about the downward slide of tradition and morality in our nation.

It is interesting that he even admits that in the 1990’s he didn’t want the size of government or taxes shrunk. That is not the position of any sort of conservative.

In short, you sir, are a tool, sorry if I am not intellectual enough for you.

Doesn’t seem too good to me.

Consider the following;  On top of their powerful special interest groups, and the aid of the mainstream media and academia and the celebrities the Democrats will soon be able to add more to their arsenal.

This huge slush fund will give billions to Acorn to fund political machine politics in amounts that can never be matched by the Republican party.

They will be in charge of redistricting in two years

They will put laws in place that will make many if not most workplaces union.

They will amnesty millions of illegal aliens who will vote in even higher numbers than now for democrats on account of the new giveaway money they will have.

I see Texas and Florida going democrat within two or three years, after that it wont much matter what happens because with California, New York, Texas and Florida sewed up all they need is a handful of other states.

Of course there is always the possibility that their idiotic activities will result in an economic collapse and stagflation, in fact it is probable.  But that is no guarantee that the Republican party can come back. Remember they can blame Bush for a real long time. FDR stretched out the great depression for ten years and only grew more popular.

Even if we do get a Republican president or two, no way they get congress back, so no real reform is possible.

Hate to be so negative, but I like to be realistic.  The failure of the Republican party not to reform the nation when they had the chance can now be seen for the criminal negligence it really was.

Look at western Europe, that is our future. And a sad one indeed it is, because there is no place left on earth that people can go for personal and economic freedom.

Here are some interesting excerpts from the Senate report.

“I am a skeptic…Global warming has become a new religion.” - Nobel Prize Winner for Physics, Ivar Giaever.

“Since I am no longer affiliated with any organization nor receiving any funding, I can speak quite frankly….As a scientist I remain skeptical.” - Atmospheric Scientist Dr. Joanne Simpson, the first woman in the world to receive a PhD in meteorology and formerly of NASA who has authored more than 190 studies and has been called “among the most preeminent scientists of the last 100 years.”

Warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history…When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.” - UN IPCC Japanese Scientist Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an award-winning PhD environmental physical chemist.

“The IPCC has actually become a closed circuit; it doesn’t listen to others. It doesn’t have open minds… I am really amazed that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given on scientifically incorrect conclusions by people who are not geologists,” - Indian geologist Dr. Arun D. Ahluwalia at Punjab University and a board member of the UN-supported International Year of the Planet.

“The models and forecasts of the UN IPCC “are incorrect because they only are based on mathematical models and presented results at scenarios that do not include, for example, solar activity.” - Victor Manuel Velasco Herrera, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics of the National Autonomous University of Mexico

“It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.” - U.S Government Atmospheric Scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

“Even doubling or tripling the amount of carbon dioxide will virtually have little impact, as water vapour and water condensed on particles as clouds dominate the worldwide scene and always will.” – . Geoffrey G. Duffy, a professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering of the University of Auckland, NZ.

“After reading [UN IPCC chairman] Pachauri’s asinine comment [comparing skeptics to] Flat Earthers, it’s hard to remain quiet.” - Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society’s Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review.

“For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?” - Geologist Dr. David Gee the chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress who has authored 130 plus peer reviewed papers, and is currently at Uppsala University in Sweden.

“Gore prompted me to start delving into the science again and I quickly found myself solidly in the skeptic camp…Climate models can at best be useful for explaining climate changes after the fact.” - Meteorologist Hajo Smit of Holland, who reversed his belief in man-made warming to become a skeptic, is a former member of the Dutch UN IPCC committee.

“Many [scientists] are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.” - Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh.

“Creating an ideology pegged to carbon dioxide is a dangerous nonsense…The present alarm on climate change is an instrument of social control, a pretext for major businesses and political battle. It became an ideology, which is concerning.” - Environmental Scientist Professor Delgado Domingos of Portugal, the founder of the Numerical Weather Forecast group, has more than 150 published articles.

“CO2 emissions make absolutely no difference one way or another….Every scientist knows this, but it doesn’t pay to say so…Global warming, as a political vehicle, keeps Europeans in the driver’s seat and developing nations walking barefoot.” - Dr. Takeda Kunihiko, vice-chancellor of the Institute of Science and Technology Research at Chubu University in Japan.

“The [global warming] scaremongering has its justification in the fact that it is something that generates funds.” - Award-winning Paleontologist Dr. Eduardo Tonni, of the Committee for Scientific Research in Buenos Aires and head of the Paleontology Department at the University of La Plata. # #

In addition, the report will feature new peer-reviewed scientific studies and analyses refuting man-made warming fears and a heavy dose of inconvenient climate developments. (See Below: Study: Half of warming due to Sun! –Sea Levels Fail to Rise? - Warming Fears in ‘Dustbin of History’)

The Senate Minority Report is an update of 2007’s blockbuster U.S. Senate Minority Report of over 400 dissenting scientists. See here: This new report will contain the names, quotes and analyses of literally hundreds of additional international scientists who publicly dissented from man-made climate fears in just 2008 alone.

So much for “consensus“

Just a little NON-politics.

Years ago, I floated through high school and college without reading many of the classic novels of literature.  I did read Moby Dick, For Whom The Bell Tolls, Animal Farm, Anna Karenina(more about this one later), and Ivanhoe.  That is about it. For all the rest of my book reports I relied on Cliff Notes, or Comics Illustrated (an invaluable source).
Lately I decided to make up for the past and actually try for a little self improvement.  I would forgo my usual reading of History, Fantasy and Science Fiction Novels, and books about football, and instead try to catch up on some of the most important novels of all time.

I turned to several online lists.  There was the NY Times list, and the Modern Library list.  There were several others, so I started reading about some of the novels which all of the lists seemed to agree on.  WOW! Was that ever a slap in the face.
Now, understand, the world is a pretty tough place. If you are not a trust fund baby, or have a tenured Ivory Tower University position then there is a lot of struggle, a lot of fear, and a lot of disappointment in the average human life.  It is not necessary, I suppose, for every work of literature to be uplifting, positive, or have a positive moral at the end.  But why is it that nearly every so called Classic work of literature is such a damn utterly depressing, nihilistic piece of Glop!

Let’s begin with a book rated very high on all lists; “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald.  In the first place, I never trust anyone who goes by three names. Especially when one of them is just an initial.  F. Scott Fitzgerald sounds like it could be the name of a serial killer, or assassin.
Now this book is set in the time of the roaring twenties and concerns the wealthier class of Americans. The beautiful people, the smart set.  If you have never read it, let me save you some time. A young guy named Nick hangs around Long Island and meets some rich people who throw cool parties.  Among them is a mysterious and handsome go getter named Gatsby.  Everyone screws everyone else’s wives and they all get drunk a lot.

Nick gets conflicting evidence that Gatsby is both a war hero and a bootlegger. Gatsby introduces Nick to mobsters. Things are not very upbeat but the writing is good, and the dialog is witty. Then things go downhill from there.  One of the wives who was screwing around gets run over, Gatsby’s car is identified. Gatsby is killed in his pool by the woman’s husband who also commits suicide. Nick attends the funeral.
WHAT THE HELL?  Considering the high level of teen suicides, I would not recommend this to an angst ridden youth.  But believe me, Gatsby is a study in positive thinking compared to some of the others. Now it is said that good writing covers a multitude of sins, and that the object of literature is to provoke.  Even if I agreed with those assumptions, it does not follow that the reader must be subjected to all that is most foul in society. And especially not all at once!

Also High on the list is “Anna Karenina”  By Leo Tolstoy.  Let’s see, this one seems to have it all.  Anna is unfaithful to her Husband, her brother is unfaithful to his wife.  Both women want divorces, but can’t get them. Anna makes a spectacle of herself in public and embarrasses the family.  Her sister in law’s sister falls for her lover and messes up a possible marriage to a wealthy man.  She eventually does marry this man but then his brother dies. Lot’s of people get sick. Anna’s lover rejects her, then she throws herself in front of a train.
OMG! By now I am reaching for the razor blades!  Hey, guess what? If I had wanted to learn about how people who cannot control themselves screw up their lives I would just watch Doctor Phil.

But it gets better. There is “The Grapes of Wrath” By John Steinbeck. Now this one will fill you up with the warm and fuzzies boys and girls.  This is the story of the Joad family, farmers who lose everything in the Dust bowl of the 1930’s.  The son Tom Joad is a muderer out of prison. The family leaves Oklahoma for California with Tom’s pregnant sister Rose and  Casy a former preacher who has lost his way.
They meet lot’s of destitute people. They almost starve, there are no jobs in California and they have to work as scabs in an orchard.  They get in a fight with union thugs and Casy is killed while Tom murders again and has to flee, and Rose’s child is still born.  By now the reader is wondering;  What the hell did I do that was so bad, I have to suffer through this?  Kill me now!

Then there is Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” about an angst ridden Young man who gets VD.  And let’s not forget Nabokov’s “Lolita” the story of a man who ruins his life, and his family’s lives by having impure thoughts about a teenage girl (If only he had the internet).  And wait! There is more. “Madame Bovary” by Gustav Flaubert, the Heroine of the story begins as an upper crust darling debutante, but is so demanding she ruins every relationship she has, she eventually ends up insane and kills herself.  Now why in the hell would anyone want to subject themselves to that?
The list goes on and on, story after story, adultery, penury, murder, rape, war, insanity, suicide, and generally boorish behavior.  Crime and Punishment, Les Miserables, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Slaughterhouse Five, East of Eden, Heart of Darkness, Vanity Fair, all guaranteed to make you want to eat a bullet. This does not even cover Joyce and Proust which are both incomprehensible and somewhat depressing at the same time.

Not all of the classics are like this, of course some are mostly horribly depressing but have a positive ending like Jane Eyre, or the protagonist does end up dying in the end, but for a good cause like in Lord Jim, or Gone With the Wind (well the cause was communism, but at least the hero thought it was a good cause).
No, think I will just stick with my fantasy and sports books, at least there is always someone in those books I can identify with.

You can read this and other words of wit at my blog (nice pictures too) Impudent Domain

The End of an Era

*From 1661 to 2008, It was a good run.
*
From time to time in the course of human events there exists new Ideas and new ways of thinking. These can have a profound effect upon history either for good or bad. It is my belief that this nation, and Great Britain before it, followed a new way of thinking, which arose during the enlightenment, much to the betterment of mankind.
That time has now ended. What do I mean by this? In the 347 years since the end of the theocracy of Oliver Cromwell to the election of Barack Obama, the world was dragged, kicking and screaming, into the modern era by the thoughts and ideas of the northern enlightenment. It is a system, for want of a better word, I call Anglo-Saxonism. But it is not based upon ethnicity.

Read More →

According to this: bbc(hat tip to Q&O) The Cubans might have a hoard of Black Gold next to them. But of course, we can’t develop our own, that might hurt the planet.

Here is my prediction of a possible future: Reeling from one self imposed financial crises to the next, a desperate Obama administration gins up a series of Cuban “outrages” and then invades so that it can get it’s hands on a lot of cheap oil.

The far left are gung ho for it, nary a peep is heard from the anti war crowd.

Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, broadcasting from three stations due to the fairness doctrine are against it, but they are ignored.

In an effort to garner more hard cash, and as a sop to one of their important special interest groups, the Democrats turn Havana into a giant casino/ sex industry/ tourist site.

Ok, so I have been drinking a little.

McCain has only one shot at winning now in the last month of the election. He has GOT TO go negative, and he has got to do it in a big way.

There should be ads going out non stop showing him trying to pass his Freddie and Fannie reform Bill, and show how Obama and Biden were opposed. He has to wrap Obama around ACORN and the whole financial meltdown as much as possible.

I know it goes against your grain to fight this way Senator, but being a nice guy right now is not going to get the job done.

Nothing else will work this close to the election.

It is almost gone, Noo ne can spend the time anymore fighting this thing.

Well, just got my power back. I was right in the path of the storm. Houston has really pulled together. Just after the storm I went out with a detail of neighbors and we cut up the trees that had fallen across the road. Then yesterday we had a big neighborhood grilling party to use up all the meat in everyone’s freezers that would go bad.

I came off lightly, my fence was destroyed, I need a new roof, and one window. But altogether not too bad. Well the biggest hardship was to miss one entire weekend worth of football.

We still have a lot of people with no power, and FEMA is only now starting to set up distribution centers. CIO for now.

During the primary battles, and shortly thereafter, Some of us said they would not vote for McCain due to his many apostasies from conservative dogma.

Since I am not a pure conservative myself I only said that I would support him IF and only if, he comes through with a decent running mate.

Read More →

here is the link, This is sad, Prayers and wishes to family

here

Read More →