Tony Kane wrote of the recent email hack aimed at Britain’s Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia. In today’s Huntsville Examiner, his article “ClimateGate emails provide unwanted scrutiny of climate scientists” describes the professional practices rampant among the Western World’s scientific elite.

On the surface, the emails seem to indicate scientists modified data to fit the anthropogenic global warming theory, tried to silence dissenting opinions and reflect a concerted effort to restrict access to climate data possibly by deleting it.

So other than that, we can all just relax and trust the gubbermint. This bill of particulars is damning if true. Kane cites specific emails describing or demanding unethical practices. Climate Research Unit Director, Dr. Phil Jones, appears particularly mendacious and culpable. Here, Dr. Jones discusses ways to thwart FOIA requests concerning the center’s academic research data.

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John McCain has recently shown Joe Lieberman and Lindsay Graham the same deeply abiding loyalty that his campaign staff once showed to Governor Palin. In other words, the wheel on the bus are going thump, thump, thump. The issue leading to the latest tergiversation from “Our Friend” Senator McCain is Cap and Trade.

It seems he’s found a really cool way of pretending he’s still a Republican. He now opposes the Cap and Trade legislation being crafted in the Senate. Politico.com describes how McCain has sawed his good old buddies off at the knees.

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman have been working overtime to craft a climate bill that can attract significant GOP support. But they aren’t exactly scoring points with their mutual best friend in the Senate, John McCain.

“Their start has been horrendous,” McCain said Thursday. “Obviously, they’re going nowhere.”

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We just got a fascinating glimpse of what proponents of nationalized healthcare will do to improve the outcomes of Federal Medical Programs. They won’t know that you are sick, they therefore won’t attempt to cure you. As a result, they will fail far less often and prove that socialized medicine has a much higher likelihood of producing positive healthcare outcomes. Also, what they don’t know about doesn’t cost Jack.

So just how would this X-Files Episode proceed? How does the government deliberately not know something? Wouldn’t deliberately not seeing the obvious look suspicious?

It would be kind of like letting a guy who hated the US Army’s involvement in Iraq, join the US Army, have his medical training paid for by US taxpayers, spend years saying things like “infidels should have their throats cut open and filled with boiling oil”, drive on post with semi-automatic weapons and then gun down fourteen of our soldiers. We all know the US government wouldn’t be stupid enough to allow those sorts of man-made disasters to ever happen again after 9-11.

Thus, they lay the groundwork carefully. Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, that breast cancer detection and treatment really bent the Cost Curve of Orszag in the wrong direction. Let’s say the tests are expensive, the treatments uncertain and the political ramifications of not spending this money generously quite daunting for the professional office-seeking class. How do you go about shunting this money to uses that generate more Quality-adjusted Life Years per dollar expenditure?

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John Maudlin confounds the best efforts of the Federal Government to lie about the current state of economic play. He measures not what the indicators say the economy is doing – but rather what happens to people who live and work in this economy. He elicits an accurate picture of this desert of the real by measuring statistics that are not easily cooked. Today he asks the probing question “If This is Recovery, Where Are the Taxes?”

It appears these taxes are not being collected. Missing sales tax revenue indicates that most people just aren’t buying the taxable goods. A point of sale tax can’t be levied absent sales volume. As a result of these revenue shortfalls, the states have been forced to reduce social spending.

The budgetary proration that has hit Alabama’s education budget is typical of what has happened nationwide. Schools here struggle to employ enough teachers to meet their enrollments. Disappointed children ask their underemployed parents to subsidize extra-curricular activities that no longer get funded. It seems like a perfect use for the almighty stimulus dollars that were passed to save the day.

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I have gained this from philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law. - Aristotle

Aristotle spoke these words and inspired an entire philosophy of how mankind should relate to the society they live in. Thinkers, theologians and revolutionaries from diverse backgrounds, all over the world, have drawn strength from this precept. Namely that a man who does right, with a true and decent nature, transcends law by holding to a code of conduct that makes it unnecessary for the governance over his daily existence.

From Paul the Apostle, to The Barons at Runnymede, through Frederick Douglas, and perhaps even the courageous man who stood in front of the Chinese Tank in Tiananmen Square, the truly elite among moral philosophers have understood that laws that constrain the righteous from right are steeped in sin and evil. Laws that deliberately constrain choice and individual initiative without protecting members of a society from mendacious or vile intent are not born of a noble source. Laws that deprive people of their means for the sake of installing others in power over their existence are the very opposite of true emancipation. We may well have seen this happen in the recent Health Care Reform Bill passed by the US House of Representatives.

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If my boy were a few years older, and expressed a desire to study architecture, my advice to him would be direct and simple. “Young Man, do not attend Columbia University even if they offer you a scholarship.”

To get a sense of the current academic climate that flourishes amongst our intellectual elite, in the rarified air of a top-drawer university, you would have had to have been a fly on the wall at Toast. Toast is a bar in 125th St that caters to the Columbia students and faculty. On Friday, 6 November, 10:30 PM, you could have seen Columbia University Architecture Professor, Dr. Lionel McIntyre punch female university employee, Camille Davis squarely in the face.

It turns out Dr. McIntyre, an African-American and Mrs. Davis, a Caucasian, were ruining a perfectly good evening out with Mr. Brewski by arguing about white privilege. The New York Post describes Dr. McIntyre’s response to the Dreaded Platinum Card of Albion as follows.

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Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid all three entered 2009 with a commanding mandate and as much political power as any Democratic Leadership has had since Lyndon Johnson in 1965. Their mandate ordered them to fix the economy and put America back to work. They didn’t want to do that. They wanted to socialize the economy instead.

An examination of what is wrong with the economy, shows that the Democratic Party’s efforts in this regard have very little to do with what is wrong. The Democrats have faced an economy that is not featuring consumer spending, has lost a significant number of jobs and has been badly hurt by questionable and morally compromised decision-making by powerful members of the banking industry.

To boost consumer spending, Barack Obama has thrown out short-term tax credits with loud, splashy press releases. He has also passed an $800Bn stimulus plan; adorned like a gaudy Corinthian Column, with pork barrel bonanzas such as The Austin Frisbee Golf Course and The Chula Vista Dog Walk. He also has Joe Biden out hawking a website that brags about jobs that have been created or saved.

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Last night’s election brought a cornucopia of good cheer. The gleeful image of Bruce Springstein chewing nails while a victorious GOP celebrated to “Born to Run” still has me in a state of elevated good cheer. The one downer was the special election in NY-23. But, like almost every rotten situation, Conservative Party Myrmidon Doug Hoffman’s narrow defeat offers GOP Party Chairman Michael Steele a valuable opportunity.

Michael Steele can change the GOP bylaws so that all national level races where sufficient time exists for a primary occur have primaries if more than one GOP candidate chooses to vie for the nomination. The GOP booted NY-23 by selecting Dede Scozzafava to run for the seat. They did so in a closed-door meeting of local party officials. Few members of the NY GOP had any actual input as to whether they wanted Scozzafava as their standard-bearer.

This would probably have been a non-issue, if Dede Scozzafava favored a set of beliefs consonant with the party she was nominated to represent in the special house election. She did not. She disagreed with the GOP Base on abortion, Obamacare, environmental issues and gun control. If I knew more about her positions, I could have ended that sentence with et cetera.

She, like Arlen Specter, Lincoln Chafee and perhaps also Charlie Christ, took the GOP banner as a flag of convenience. This obvious fact of life did nothing to dissuade the GOP from pumping $900,000 into the coffers of a pro-Obama vote who fraudulently dressed in their colors.

The legacy of Conservative Stalwart, James Buckley was another thorn in the side of the bumbling beareucrats of the New York GOP. He founded the New York Conservative Party to run against apostate GOP members who struck him as being to closely identical to liberal Democrats. Doug Hoffman saw the opportunity to run against two left-wingers and used the Conservative Party as a vehicle.

Those of you following Steve Foley’s travels up North know well what a heck of ride Doug Hoffman went for. He came from single-digit obscurity to within two points of a stellar victory. All of this was accomplished despite GOP Candidate Scozzafava’s endorsement of his political opponent and her obstinate determination to leave her name on the ballot. As a result of this and some other political shananigans, The Democrat, Bill Owens appeared on the ballot twice, Scozzafava appeared on the ballot twice, and Doug Hoffman only appeared once. Not that these people were trying to influence the outcome or anything.

This stirred the souls of Conservatives everywhere dissapointed in John McCain’s and Linsay Graham’s servile civility towards political enemies determined to see us all off once and for all. It also teed up a valuable opportunity for Chairman Michael Steele.

Here are Michael Steele’s most fortuitous courses of action. He needs to reach out to Doug Hoffman by no later than this Friday. He needs to congratulate the man and apologize on behalf of the party for Dede Scozzafava. He then needs to let it be known that Doug Hoffman was welcome in the GOP anytime he wanted to renounce the NY Conservative Party and compete against Scozzafava in a head-to-head primary to run in 2010. Let the opportunity for condign payback be a recruitment motivator.

Michael Steele then needs to pass a party bylaw that no opposed candidate may bypass a party primary and then run for a national office as a Republican. No advertising, funding, endorsement or any other activity will be taken out in that candidate’s name under the GOP aegis. In other words, any local party machinery that sabotages the will of the GOP people shall be placed under Michael Steele Interdict. A candidate represents our people when our people agree that that candidate represents our people.

This change in GOP bylaws would send a message to the party pettifogs in Florida, New York and in every other state. Let Barack Obama and Rahm Emanuel operate the Aristocray of Pull. We toughen our party by making our candidates hardened by combat. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Jim Webb and now Chris Christie all have something in common aside from successful careers in politics. All four men won the right to run for office in tough, contested primaries and went on to defeat candidates that a lot of K-Street experts didn’t believe they could win against.

As for these primaries being stacked against moderates, Chris Christie was the moderate primary candidate in the New Jersey GOP Primary. The conservatives accepted that he won fair and square and supported him in droves against Corzine. This proves that conservatives will loyally support a moderate candidate who properly honors both party and process and retains the will to draw distinctions from his opposition and actaully fight against liberalism.

Michael Steele can make the GOP tougher, fairer and more united against the Democrats by making all national candidates with inter-party opposition win a primary to run for a national office. If he learns that lesson from NY-23, than Doug Hoffman has done at least as much as Bob McDonnell and Chris Christie has to make the Obama Agenda a whole lot harder to pass without serious political consequence.

For this to happen, Chairman Steele has got to man up and make the decision that will turn last night’s blown election into a valuable turning point in GOP strategy and inter-party relations. Mr. Chairman, you may lead at any time.

If there were any part of the current Congressional Leadership’s agenda about to die a well-deserved death, it would be Senator Boxer and Senator Kerry’s asinine Cap and Trade Bill. This bill seeks to drive up energy prices and make business creation harder in the teeth of a brutal recession followed by a thus far flaccid recovery. On top of the economic reasons to avoid this course of action like you would a room full of transvestites with Swine Flu, the science behind this is proving increasingly ill-conceived and outright fraudulent.

Thus, it should shock no one that Senator Lindsay Graham has stepped off the GOP short bus and seeks to revitalize this maundering cadaver of a stupid legislative idea.
It seems Senator Graham has decided to strike a compromise with Senator Kerry. He believes he can find the perfect formula to pass this bill. Marc Morano offers us insight into the level of delusional me-too-ism at work in Lindsay Graham’s low-wattage brain pan.

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If our media worked to inform the people - instead of electing Democrats,
the Stimulus Plan of 2009 would go down in history with the $500
jet-fighter toilet seat. It would be remembered as our modern Teapot Dome
Scandal. It would go down in history as one of the most pathetically
wasteful and corrupt government programs ever spawned. Sixteen Billion
dollars of initial spending have been analyzed for effect. Thirty-thousand and eighty-three new workers have joined the workforce as
a result of these efforts.

Vice President Joe Biden shows surprising humility when he describes this
as better than expected. If I were Joe Biden, my personal expectations
would remain pretty low as well, but this is patently ridiculous. By any
fair and objective means of evaluation, this program has careened past
Failure-Land; afar into the darkling plain of Clusterkfuc Morder!

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Work grew boring; I took a break and watched about ten minutes of CNBC market coverage. I walked back to my cube understanding why the Cialis bottle has a warning about erections lasting longer than four hours. They had a big, giant odometer graphic on their screen with 10,000.xx in lurid, red numbers. It was the most important earnings season in YEARS!!!! They loudly announced.

This overblown hyperbole offers just another example of the American Media seeing the world as the world is not. Tyler Durden at Zerohedge.com patiently explains why the children at CNBC badly need a few minutes of time out rather than recess.

On a real basis (not nominal) the Dow at 10,000 ten years ago is equivalent to 7,537 today!

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<p>
My initial response to Barack Obama’s humble and gracious acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize wasn’t one of my finer moments in amateur political commentary.  I think I referred to it as the Nobel Respiration Prize over on Redstate.com.  Hemmingway defined greatness as grace under pressure.  He said nary a word about grace under nausea.  The latter, I posit is impossible. </p>
<p>
Churlishness is not an honorable human emotion.  It is, in some rare cases, a natural, almost autonomic response.  Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize triggered churlish reflex gagging by anyone who believes awards should reflect greatness and recognize hard work and profound genius.  President Obama’s selection represents neither.  </p>
<p>
His acceptance of this award, gracious, humble or otherwise, demeans any winner who legitimately deserves the implicit sobriquets that the casual observer associates with the award.  This, for once, is not entirely Barack Obama’s fault as a human being.  He held no gun to the heads of the five parasites who voted him the medal.  However, his receipt of the award, and his foolish decision to take it, could come back to hurt him.  It could even become like a curse. </p><!–break–>
<p>
To see the extent to which this could affect him, remember that Saul Alinsky encouraged the radical to forever find ways to ridicule and belittle the leaders of the enemies.  Barack Obama is now a leader, instead of an insurgent.  Every time he gets another award, another honor, another pathetically sycophantic string of hosannas from the “impartial” observers amongst the media, the ridicule bulls-eye grows larger.  </p>
<p>
When the radio is abuzz with talk show hosts sarcastically awarding Barack Obama the Heisman Trophy, the title as Next American Idol, and enshrinement into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the false and risible aims of the Nobel Committee massively backfire.  As Barack Obama’s defenders grow ever more preposterous, the man becomes more and more laughable.</p>
<p>
Much of this ridicule has a nasty edge.  Pat Buchanan refers to Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize as an <a href= http://www.takimag.com/article/the_affirmative-action_nobel/>Affirmative Action Program.</a>  His use of the race card here was no better than President Obama’s before and during the infamously stupid White House Beer Summit.  However, he doesn’t completely unsheathe the hate without reason.  Buchanan describes what rankles the souls of many as Barack Obama is so gracious and humble in accepting the unearned accolades.</p>
<p>
<i> They have reinforced the impression that Obama is someone who is forever being given prizes—Ivy League scholarships, law review editorships, prime-time speaking slots at national conventions—he did not earn.</i></P>
<p>
That passage reminded me of something that happened to me in the Sixth Grade.  Our science class had been assigned projects to highlight alternative energy sources.  (They were yammering about that mess in the Pleistocene Era as well.)  I made a mock-up of a nuclear reactor out of an empty Quaker Oats Can and some cotton and various other household implements. </P>
<p>
Another kid did the same project.  Mine looked better than his and got a better grade.  The kid wasn’t happy.  After threatening to “beat my @$$ like a snare-drum” (awesome taunt, by the way), he told me “You only did better than me because your Momma helped!”</p>
<p>
What could I say?  Momma had helped.  She got me a better collection of materials than him.  She handed me a picture showing the inside of a reactor.  Most importantly, she made it known, just like the angry kid in my class, that if I didn’t produce The David of Quaker Oat Can Fission Reactors, my posterior could well neigh resemble a percussion instrument.  </p>
<p>
Perhaps the little punk had a valid point.  I outperformed him in modeling a nuclear plant that would never get permits and therefore never be constructed in my lifetime.  It may have because I was given an unfair set of breaks and therefore, didn’t deserve the credit I had received. </p>
<p>
It made me feel bummed inside.   For some bizarre reason, I even thought of that guy when a teacher in a totally different subject gave me an award for being diligent in my studies.  </p>
<p>
So now this award becomes a burden.  No matter how hard CNN fact checks the SNL skits about Obama as a Do-Nothing President, they can’t fact-check resentment.  They will never undo the resentment that comes with even the appearance of unearned entitlement.  </p>
<p>
Mickey Kaus was trying to give President Obama exceptional advice when he told him to cast down this improper Corona Muralis.  The president has scaled no wall, conquered no foe and had not truly done anything yet that furthered the commonweal through the promotion of peace and goodwill among all mankind.  </p>
<p>
Barack Obama had only been officially President ten days when he was nominated.  He could have passed this toxic gold chalice back from whence it had been poured.  Refusing an unearned award in graceful and gentle manner would have shut up both Limbaugh and Levin more effectively than a year’s worth of SNL fact-checks.  But he chose to drink, and will imbibe the curse contained therein.  </p>
<p>
Perhaps in the future, as he reaches for something he genuinely feels he earned, Barack Obama will learn why this Nobel Peace Prize is a curse.  When someone slaps his hand and tells him to go enjoy his peace prize, he will understand what people quietly think.  The future may be just rather than fair to Barack Obama, but I have a hard time offering this man any figment of empathy.  </P>
<p>
He talks of “bitter people, who cling to their Bibles and guns.”  He describes his own grandmother, who sent him to the best private school in Hawaii, as a “typical white person.”   He said of John McCain.  “He claims he will follow Osauma Bin Ladin to the Gates of Hell, but won’t even go to the cave in Afghanistan where Bin Ladin lives.”  All the while he basks swaddled in unearned honors and ridiculous adulation.  </p>
<p>
Reality will prove hard on Barack Obama, if it ever encroaches on his world.  Karma has never proven an easy debt collector to stiff.  And that massive karmic revenge, unlike this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, would be President Barack Obama’s just due.  Because sometimes the worst curse that can befall a man is to get exactly that which he deserves.

Senator Max Baucus may have just earned himself a new nickname – “The Prestidigitator.” The recent CBO scoring of his new proposed Health Care Mandate seems to suggest he pulled the rabbit out of the hat. Presto! We can now afford to spend $900Bn we do not have on health insurance for people who can’t afford it.

Yet this ability to balance the cash flow diagram doesn’t really address what the Baucus Bill would cost us as a society. To understand the unintended yet malicious impact of Congress passing this Baucus bill, ask yourself a simple question. “Why did I get up this morning?”

For most of us, that sort of question elicits both a simple, practical answer and hopefully, one that involves a certain level of long-term ambition and drive. My simple answer involves a wife and child who wouldn’t eat if I didn’t work. My long-term answer has gone from making it and succeeding to paying off the mortgages and notes that come attached to the material rewards of success.

I’m truly fortunate to have gotten this far before Senator Baucus proposed perpetually yanking up the ladder. Because that is exactly what the Baucus Bill does to people who are just starting out and trying to support children and make it to Bonus Land at the same time. The Baucus Bill ultimately pays for itself by imposing an unintentional 70% marginal tax on success. (HT: The New Atlantis)

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When Comedian Whoopi Goldberg went on The View to defend Roman Polanski, I figured she had to be kidding. Her contention that feeding a thirteen year-old girl Quaaludes and champagne and then forcibly sodomizing her “wasn’t rape-rape” had to be one most asinine comments ever made by a literate adult, in front of a live television audience. Of course this all assumes that the word rape has a fixed definition that is universally accepted.

Yahoo’s online dictionary offers us a three part definition for the word rape; used as a noun.

1) The crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse.

2) The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction.

3) Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice.

Roman Polanski publically admitted that he drugged and fornicated a minor against her vocally expressed desires. If that doesn’t meet Whoopi Goldberg’s standard of “rape-rape,” I’ll say a prayer for anyone who gets treated badly enough to actually qualify as a victim. “Rape-rape” must involve Late Night with David Letterman or Date Night with “The Gimp.”

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It was a Thursday, 1 Oct 2009. The glories of fall shone resplendently, a gentle breeze stirred golden leaves into fanciful eddies and will-o-the-wisps. There are times so good, and moments so perfect that happiness appears to be the natural state of all mankind. It was just such perfect Autumnal radiance that I could imagine tasting the mulled apple cider.

Then I was stupid enough to surf the internet and read economic news….

On Friday, 2 Oct 2009 the Bureau of Labor Statistics stopped acting like a Ministry of Truth and actual told some. Joe Weisenthal offered his take on what proved to be unemployment numbers worthy of either the Weimar Republic or Spain right before Francisco Franco staged a coup.

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So, did you hear the one about the pimp, the underage Salvadoran hookers and the Community Organizers? Bank of America recently did and they even saw the video. It could have been an SNL skit - but the bank execs weren’t exactly laughing.

Having taken $45Bn in bailout money, and then catching the condign wrath of the American people for handing lots of it out in executive bonuses, they finally have come to realize that citizens expect a bank to use due diligence when deciding how to allocate other people’s funds. It’s a novel concept, but I certainly think it could serve us well. Bank of America moved rapidly to limit further damage by attenuating their business ties to ACORN.

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It was Sunday the 27th of September, and famous fugitive movie director, Roman Polanski, was arrested on a 30-year-old charge of sexual molestation. This led to a great uproar amongst the motion picture arts community. Who could possibly still want to put Polanski in jail?

Faded-Starlet, Debra Winger, offered up a reaction that typified the mystification that sophisticated people felt over Roman Polanski’s detention.

We hope today this latest order will be dropped. It is based on a three-decade-old case that is all but dead but for minor technicalities,” said jury president Debra Winger. “We stand by and wait for his release and his next masterwork.” (HT: Big Hollywood)

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It was a boring afternoon and I was heading back to the office after an off-site meeting. Then Rush Limbaugh had to go and say something that made me laugh so hard I nearly totaled the Focus. Col. Kaddafi had spoken at the UN and suggested reopening the entire Warren Commission investigation to find out if the Jews had shot JFK. Limbaugh compared the UN to the cantina scene from Star Wars and I very nearly laughed my way right into the ditch.

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To properly commemorate the 70th Anniversary of Josef Stalin’s invasion of Poland in 1939, US President Barack Obama announced the decision to halt all development of Ballistic Missile Defense in Eastern Europe. Eastern Europe cringed; the Russian’s celebrated and tried not to appear overly smug. The avuncular, cuddly President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denounced the Holocaust as a lie and predicted the eminent demise of Israel. It was all in a day’s work for America’s foppish dandy of a boy president.

Barack Obama described his new passive air defense plans in much the same way he described his health control plan to a joint session of Congress. It was a shame Congressman Joe Wilson wasn’t on hand to provide accurate and timely analysis. Orwell’s poltergeist blushed as Barack Obama described his new, inexpensive, energy-efficient strategy of doing nothing.

The best way to responsibly advance our security and the security of our allies is to deploy a missile defense system that best responds to the threats that we face and that utilizes technology that is both proven and cost-effective. – Barack Obama (HT: FT.Com)

Poland offered a differing strategic assessment of the Obama Administration’s decision. Polish President Lech Kaczynski feared that Poland was now in “a dangerous gray zone” between Western Europe and Russia. This was more diplomatic than “You Lie!” but nonetheless apropos.

Polish and Czech newspapers offered greater insight regarding how these two American allies really felt.

“Betrayal! The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back,” the Polish tabloid Fakt declared on its front page.

A Czech business daily stated the obvious.

“an ally we rely on has betrayed us, and exchanged us for its own, better relations with Russia, of which we are rightly afraid.”

Russian Dominus et Deus, Vladimir Putin, decided not to gloat over much as he made further demands Barack Obama. His KGB slip showed ever-so-teasingly in this statement of demands from an enfeebled rival.

“I expect that after this correct and brave decision, others will follow, including the complete removal of all restrictions on the transfer of high technology to Russia and activity to widen the membership of the World Trade Organization to (include) Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus,” Putin said.(HT: Reuters)

While Putin at least had the dignity not to gloat (much), the Nut-job President of Iran demonstrated the class and distinction you come to expect from a guy who convenes academic conferences to deny the historical occurrence of the Holocaust. He demonstrated just the sort of behavioral inclinations that made George W. Bush seek missile defense upgrades during an annual anti-Israel rally in Qods, Iran.

“The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false … It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim,” he told worshippers at Tehran University at the end of an annual anti-Israel “Qods (Jerusalem) Day” rally.

“Confronting the Zionist regime is a national and religious duty.”

And what anti-Israel rally would be complete without a prediction of Israel’s doom. The last guy on Earth that anyone would want to see waving around a nuclear launch briefcase maundered on through sadly predictable terrain.

“This regime (Israel) will not last long. Do not tie your fate to it … This regime has no future. Its life has come to an end,”

And against this leafy, green background of irrational hatred from Ahmadinejad and gutless appeasement from Barack Obama, we get the following news. It seems, with missile defense now off the table, the International Atomic Energy Agency can now let the cat wiggle out of the bag. Breitbart bears the bad tidings.

Experts at the world’s top atomic watchdog are in agreement that Tehran has the ability to make a nuclear bomb and is on the way to developing a missile system able to carry an atomic warhead, according to a secret report seen by The Associated Press.

The document says Iran has “sufficient information” to build a bomb. It says Iran is likely to “overcome problems” on developing a delivery system.

So US President Barack Obama has sawed Poland and Czechoslovakia off the periphery of the United States defense perimeter with a speech reminiscent of this one from Dean Acheson. The Russians thank him for his humble compliance – while demanding still much more.

The President of Iran understands well that the US has for all intents and purposes approved of his program to build nuclear weapons. This capitulatory approval was so obvious that the UNIAEA inspectors no longer see any point in even denying that Iran will produce thermonuclear missiles. Wasn’t there some pledge by Candidate Obama that he would rebuild our diplomatic standing in the rest of the world? How would Joe Wilson describe that pledge right about now?

The Internet can be weird and spooky some days; and not just because I post stuff on it. It’s been about three days since I finished the James Howard Kuntsler novel, World Made By Hand. I cruise through Wizbang this AM and see a link to this post, right here, about feral housing in Detroit, MI.

Societal decline has weighed heavily on the minds of many thinkers. Kuntsler has weighed in with a book entitled The Long Emergency. He hypothesizes that collapse comes from resource exhaustion, through unsustainable lifestyles, which in turn catalyzes a series of cascading disasters. This gives us the dystopic world of his fiction piece World Made By Hand.

Yet something scares me more than the atomic bombs and the plagues and the gangs of marauders from a geographically removed Mad Max movie. None of these things have actually happened full blast to the US. Still, however, we have neighborhoods in Detroit that can be described as follows.

Abandoned houses are really no big deal here. Some estimate that there are as many as 10,000 abandoned structures at any given time, and that seems conservative. But for a few beautiful months during the summer, some of these houses become “feral” in every sense: they disappear behind ivy or the untended shrubs and trees planted generations ago to decorate their yards. The wood that framed the rooms gets crushed by trees rooted still in the earth. The burnt lime, sand, gravel, and plaster slowly erode into dust, encouraged by ivy spreading tentacles in its endless search for more sunlight.(HT: Sweet Juniper)

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