Sep 07 2008

More political “science”

Category: Al Gore,environment,global warming,Group-think,science — harmonicminer @ 9:16 am

Powerline has a nice summary of the latest attempt of the political “scientists” to convince us that every single weather phenomenon is caused by “climate change”, the meaningless term whose usage has replaced “global warming” in many quarters, due to the inconvenient truth that the warmest year of the last 100 was 1934, and the second warmest was 1998.

Here’s more information on the very serious and eminent scientists who demur to the group think, politically inspired conclusions of the eco-panic Left.

As always, you have to read the fine print in the studies to learn the truth, and you have to ignore the summary and conclusions that make it into the press.  Powerline has a nice deconstruction of the latest.

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Sep 06 2008

Hey, Obama – About Those Comments You Made….

Category: China,Obama,USA — amuzikman @ 1:01 am

August 21, 2008, Chester, Virginia. Barack Obama says the following:

Everybody’s watching what’s going on in Beijing right now with the Olympics, Think about the amount of money that China has spent on infrastructure. Their ports, their train systems, their airports are vastly the superior to us now, which means if you are a corporation deciding where to do business you’re starting to think, “Beijing looks like a pretty good option.”

September 5, 2008. Los Angeles Times, page A7.

CHINA: Schools Were Poorly Built:

A Chinese government scientist says a rush to build schools probably led to construction flaws that caused many of them to collapse in May’s devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, the first official admission that building standards may have contributed to the deaths of many children.

The quake killed nearly 70,000 people and damaged more than 1000 schools.

So I’m thinking – NOW I know why Obama wanted to boycott the China Olympics. He doesn’t own a hard hat. And who’d want to be inside the Birds Nest stadium in an earthquake without one? Do we dare to imagine what might have been had the earthquake hit Beijing?

So, if you had to ride out a 7.9 earthquake, which country would you rather be in? And with a straight face Obama tells us China’s infrastructure is vastly superior to the United Sates. Tell that to the 70,000.

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Sep 05 2008

Oprah’s Right To Choose

Category: Obama,Oprah — amuzikman @ 10:14 am

Much has been made about Oprah Winfrey’s decision to throw her support behind Barack Obama. She has campaigned with him and for him. She has raised campaign funds for him. Perhaps most significantly she has hitched her considerable trademark to him and bestowed upon him her personal seal of approval.

Much has been said and written about whether or not this endorsement or any celebrity endorsement has any significant effect on a political election and one can find a variety of opinions on the subject. If nothing else, apparently Oprah will get credit for popularizing the description of Obama as “The One”. The fact that this smacks more of idol worship than of informed decision making is perhaps the subject of another blog.

The reason(s) for Oprah’s endorsement have also been the subject of considerable conjecture. I think it is safe to say two possible reasons can be removed from the discussion.

First, it is not because Oprah thinks this is a historical moment for African Americans. Her refusal to schedule Clarence Thomas on her show during his recent book tour seems to indicate political ideology trumps Civil Rights. After all, can there be a more powerful example of black achievement than his ascendancy to The Supreme Court of the United States?

Second it is not because Oprah thinks this is a historical moment for Women’s Rights. She has been profoundly anti-Hillary and again is using her veto power on the subject of inviting Sarah Palin to her show.

Oprah can do whatever she likes with her TV show. She has earned the right. And by the way, she too is a tremendous example of achievement, not only for the African American community and for women, but for anyone seeking inspiration for success. But let’s not pretend her reasons are lofty, noble, or worthy of a time-share in Valhalla. Oprah endorsed Obama for political reasons, plain and simple. Her viewers are not ignorant of the fact either. This from her community message board:

I’ve been watching O for years and I’ve increasingly come to the realization that her politics are far more important to her than the principles she espouses for ratings.

The good news for Clarence Thomas and Sarah Palin is that they are going to be just fine. I doubt either will lose any sleep over an Oprah snub. The good news for Americans is that we do not select our President and Vice President based on celebrity endorsements. But whether it is good news for Oprah to reveal herself to be just another “toe-tag’ liberal….well, that remains to be seen.

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Sep 04 2008

John McCain convention speech

Category: election 2008,McCain,Obama,politics — harmonicminer @ 10:00 pm

I watched McCain’s speech to the Republican National Convention tonight.

There will always be some policies that he’ll promote with which I’ll disagree.  I don’t expect to approve of his approach to illegal aliens, campaign finance “reform”, “global warming” or “climate change”, “bipartisanship”, etc.  He is starting to make the right noises about drilling…  now if he’ll add Anwar to his offshore drilling commitment, and nuclear energy as well.  We’ll see on that.  He occasionally makes populist sounding noises, and seemed to be suggesting a new entitlement program for people who have “lost jobs due to globalization”.  That’s worrisome, but maybe he only means to suggest a different way of allocating current unemployment compensation funds.

Nevertheless, with all the likely policy disagreements I’ll have with him, I have nothing but respect for McCain the man, and I think he’ll do the right things on foreign policy, taxes, spending, judges, education, etc.

Continue reading “John McCain convention speech”

Sep 04 2008

Universal lifestyle coverage

Category: election 2008,healthcare,humor,politics,Uncategorized — sardonicwhiner @ 8:52 am

Bluntly, the huge majority of people who “can’t afford health insurance” of any kind at any level have simply made other choices.  They need to:

1)    turn off all the devices that don’t need to be on (save money on electricity),
2)    drive less,
3)    eat at home, simply, no fast food, don’t buy expensive prepared meals from the freezer section, buy basic foods and prepare meals to a menu,
4)    turn in their cell phones back to the phone company and cancel the plan  (paying the turn off fee if they must…  they’ll still save money),
5)    cancel satellite or cable tv plan (you can live without tv if your antenna doesn’t work…  really),
6)    cancel internet service (use the library for “research” and email, listen to the radio for news),
7)    run the air conditioning in your home or apartment much less, or don’t use it at all, like the rest of humanity for all of human history,
8)    give the expensive car back to the loan company, or better yet, don’t buy it to start with…  drive a simple, reliable, middle aged car, and as little as possible,

9)    knock off the “dollar here”, “dollar there” expenditures on soda, coffee, etc.

10)    refuse to buy gadgets, trinkets, techno toys, designer clothes and shoes, etc.
11)    review all the ways they spend money, and impose some budget discipline, not spending on anything that isn’t really essential.

12)   maybe consider getting a job, if they don’t have one, and are able.

This sort of thing used to be taught in economics courses in high school, both “regular” economics and “home” economics.

Continue reading “Universal lifestyle coverage”

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Sep 04 2008

Camelot or Spamelot?

Category: Obama — amuzikman @ 12:40 am

There seems to be an effort, conscious or unconscious, on the part of Barack Obama to portray himself as JFK 2.0. He likes to cherry-picks certain historical events involving the former president as justification for his own views. His demeanor, charm, eloquence, and family (attractive wife, two lovely younger children) all invite comparisons with the man who’s abruptly abbreviated time in the White House was referred to as “Camelot”.

interestingly the origins of the connection between JFK and Camelot appear to have come from Jackie Kennedy, and only after JFK’s death (whereas Obama seems to want to perform a self-coronation). The comparison is certainly not surprising when one considers that the Broadway show, Camelot opened just a couple weeks after JFK’s inauguration and the song “Camelot” seems to have been a favorite of his. http://ask.yahoo.com/19990809.html

But beyond appearances there is little to commend a comparison between Obama and JFK. Larry Elder has a wonderful piece this week on Townhall.com showing little doubt that if he were alive today, JFK would have been much more at home in the Republican Party than the Democratic Party. http://townhall.com/Columnists/LarryElder/2008/09/04/jfk_democrats_role_model?page=1

I think in this case as with so many things about Barack Obama, he is a just a paper King Arthur – a life-sized cut-out, a cheap knock-off, a spoof of the original item, insisting to his followers that he also pulled the sword from the stone. But the comparison is only skin-deep and when I look at him I don’t think of Camelot so much as I do Spamelot.

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Sep 03 2008

Change of heart on universal health care

Category: economy,healthcare,humor,politics,Uncategorized — sardonicwhiner @ 8:50 am

I may have had a change of heart about universal health care, i.e., government funded health care for people who can’t afford it.

Herewith, my modest policy proposal:

In order to be fair to the taxpayers who are going to fund this health care program for the uninsured, we need to be sure that only people who have no other option are going to get healthcare on the public dime.    For that reason, a simple means test will be employed, to make sure that people who want government funded health care are people who couldn’t possibly afford the coverage themselves, and who are not simply operating with other financial priorities that use the money they could have spent on health insurance.

As a simple assessment philosophy, I propose that to qualify a person must prove they can only afford to live at or below the common living standard of the middle class in 1948, with no excess cash left over for frills.  No one in the middle class of the USA in 1948 was “poor” by any sane standard, nor should they be considered so now.

Continue reading “Change of heart on universal health care”

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Sep 02 2008

THE ONE

Category: election 2008,humor,Obama,politics,White House — sardonicwhiner @ 9:41 am

Obama being THE ONE and everything, do you ever find yourself wondering if there are any Obamas left in the alternate universes of the multiverse?

I’m trying to remember:  I used to live in an alternate universe myself, and I’m pretty sure there was no Obama in it.  Maybe there’s a reason he’s so accepting of “illegal aliens“…  Just ask yourself:  if the Obama we know is from another universe, how would we know?  Would it be the sparks when he makes an entrance (no border fences will be stopping this guy)?  Or something else?    Maybe like this?.

If Obama starts in with the flashy kung fu stuff, I’m outta here.

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Sep 01 2008

I Hate, Therefore I Am

Category: Bush,Clinton,election 2008,Group-think,McCain — amuzikman @ 8:00 am

It is clear to anyone paying attention to the Presidential race that a primary strategy being employed by the Obama campaign is to establish political equivalence between George Bush and John McCain. The Democratic candidate often repeats that a vote for McCain is a vote for 4 more years just like the last 8 years. The daily drumbeat is to fix in the minds of voters this simple equation, Bush=McCain.

The thinking behind this effort is fairly obvious. Bush is despised by the Left. McCain is like Bush. Therefore McCain should be despised as well.

Where did this hatred for Dubya come from? Why is he the object of such revulsion and animosity? The obvious answers are things like the 2000 election, the war in Iraq, the housing slump, high gas prices, hurricane Katrina, “global-warming”, Dick Cheney, “connections” to Big Oil, etc, etc, etc.

But I think the source of “Bush-loathing” goes a little farther back and is helpful in pointing out one rather significant difference between liberals and conservatives. I believe the genesis takes us to Bill Clinton.

Clinton did and said some things while in office that were considered pretty despicable by many people. They do not need to be reiterated here, no one has forgotten Monica Lewinski et al. But as a result of despicable actions he came to be despised by many, especially conservatives. But for those who did (and do) have contempt for Bill Clinton, it was because he earned it.

Enter George W. Bush. From day one he has been despised by the Left. At the time Bush took office I almost had the feeling  liberals (and their mainstream media shills) were saying, “OK, now we’ll show YOU how to detest a president!” But the difference is this. Because he was despised by the Left at the outset, EVERY action he has undertaken, seen through those lenses is considered to be despicable. Bush didn’t have to earn it, it was waiting for him when he got there and it has been that way for 8 years.

John McCain is NOT George Bush (yes, I’ve seen them together). But he does share one thing with Bush without even being elected – utter contempt from the Left. And like Bush, he won’t have to lift a finger, it will simply be bestowed upon him.

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