What a first class education and 30 years experience will get you
J-O-B-S is a three letter word. Joe Biden.I hope Sarah got a good laugh. I sure did.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Wake up America, and smell the gas
"The first results of the survey indicate previous assessments have severely underestimated Turkmenistan's gas reserves. The BP Statistical Review of World Energy, an industry bible, sets the country's reserves at 2.67 trillion cubic meters. Analysts expect that to be upgraded in light of the information on South Yolotan.
The findings suggest Turkmenistan should be able to confidently move ahead with plans to boost its exports of gas. At the moment, it sells most of its gas to Russia -- about 50 billion cubic meters a year, which is mostly resold to Ukraine -- and a little to Iran. But it has plans to export to China and Europe too, as well as significantly boost sales to Russia. China is building a pipeline from Turkmenistan that will have the capacity to bring 30 billion cubic meters a year, and Ashgabad has also agreed to sell 10 billion cubic meters to Europe. The European Union hopes that a gas pipeline will one day be built across the Caspian Sea, which would enable direct imports of Turkmen gas, bypassing Russia." WSJ, Oct. 16, 2009
Now that the fifth largest natural gas field in the world has been found in Turkmenistan, let‘s review what Governor Palin of Alaska, which has the mother load of energy resources for the USA, told Charlie Gibson about our relationship with Putin and former Soviet republics like the Ukraine. You didn’t see this part of the interview because ABC which is in the tank for Obama was trying to make her look like a beauty queen ingénue.
- GIBSON: And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
PALIN: Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.
But NATO, I think, should include Ukraine, definitely, at this point and I think that we need to — especially with new leadership coming in on January 20, being sworn on, on either ticket, we have got to make sure that we strengthen our allies, our ties with each one of those NATO members.
We have got to make sure that that is the group that can be counted upon to defend one another in a very dangerous world today.
GIBSON: And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade.
PALIN: What I think is that smaller democratic countries that are invaded by a larger power is something for us to be vigilant against. We have got to be cognizant of what the consequences are if a larger power is able to take over smaller democratic countries.
And we have got to be vigilant. We have got to show the support, in this case, for Georgia. The support that we can show is economic sanctions perhaps against Russia, if this is what it leads to.
It doesn’t have to lead to war and it doesn’t have to lead, as I said, to a Cold War, but economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, again, counting on our allies to help us do that in this mission of keeping our eye on Russia and Putin and some of his desire to control and to control much more than smaller democratic countries.
His mission, if it is to control energy supplies, also, coming from and through Russia, that’s a dangerous position for our world to be in, if we were to allow that to happen.
Reduced to holding pancake breakfasts?
I checked the website of the Prairie Fire Collective, the Weatherman group created in the late 1970s by Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. There was an ad on the page for a pancake breakfast fund raiser, although it was for December 2006. You really don't know whether to laugh or cry.The Prairie Fire Collective favored coming out of hiding, with members facing the criminal charges against them, while the May 19 Coalition continued in hiding. A decisive factor in Dohrn's coming out of hiding were her concerns about her children according to Wikipedia. The Prairie Fire Collective started to surrender to the authorities from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The remaining Weatherman Underground members continued to violently attack US institutions. East coast members favored a commitment to violence and challenged commitments of old leaders, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Jeff Jones.
Here's their statement of purpose. It has Bill and Bernadine written all over it.
- We oppose oppression in all its forms including racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and imperialism. We demand liberation and justice for all peoples. We recognize that we live in a capitalist system that favors a select few and oppresses the majority. This system cannot be reformed or voted out of office because reforms and elections do not challenge the fundamental causes of injustice.
Prairie Fire Organizing Committee.
The unrepentent Bill and Bernadine Ayers
Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers turned themselves in on December 3, 1980, in New York. Charges were dropped for Ayers. Dohrn received three years probation and a $15,000 fine. These criminals and others of the anti-war protest groups who tried to destroy the USA in the 1960s and 1970s went scot free and government officials who had violated privacy laws during their investigation were tried during the Carter Administration, receiving stiff fines, prison terms and ruined careers. They were later pardoned by Reagan. [See Wikipedia article which contains citations]Here's what Bill Ayers, who provided the spring board for Barack Obama's career in leftist politics by including him in the Annenberg Project to radicalize Chicago school children, said in 1970. To my knowledge, he hasn't recanted, but Palin is roundly criticized by the MSM and Obama campaign as "racist" for bringing up his friendship with Obama.
- "We were talking the other night and we realized that all our heroes are dead. Wow, what a trip! Ché, Nguyen Van Troi, the Vietnamese who tried to get McNamara. We're running their pictures in our paper with the line 'Live Like Him!' and they've all been killed. Outtasight, man. We've got a new slogan for the people that are going down to help with the sugar harvest: 'Cuba is for the Living!' "
Ayers' remarks typify Weatherman's tendency to define its situation in terms of extremes. Building socialism in Cuba is for the living; overthrowing American imperialism is a death trip. Weatherman, as early as the action in the streets of Chicago, already had begun to live in the shadow of death. Not long after the "Days of Rage," Weatherman would compensate for its death trip mentality with hedonistic orgies. Like a pendulum, moving from one extreme to the other, Weatherman swung from death trips to life trips to death trips … . Bill Ayers is quoted in an article by John Kifner, "Vandals in the Mother Country," New York Times Magazine, January 4, 1970. This quote appears in the publication, Weatherman, by Harold Jacobs, Ramparts Press, 1970. p. 86
Independent, non-profit, non-partisan, pt. 2
When I encounter a new name or organization I first go to the “about us” page, and then to the “funding” if I can find it (and that’s extremely difficult because so many political, community and church organizations both on the left and the right try to disguise or downplay this), and I then look at the “staff” or “advisory board” or “contacts” if possible (that too is sometimes hidden, but you may find an address).SourceWatch (a wiki) mentioned below defined itself as “a collaborative project of the Center for Media and Democracy to produce a directory of the people, organizations and issues shaping the public agenda.” However, when I looked up that organization and moved past its own glowing descriptions, I found this definition at Activist Cash.com.
- “The Center for Media & Democracy (CMD) is a counterculture public relations effort disguised as an independent media organization. CMD isn’t really a center it would be more accurate to call it a partnership, since it is essentially a two-person operation.” . . “Their books Mad Cow U.S.A. and Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! were produced and promoted using grant monies from the Foundation for Deep Ecology ($25,000) and the Education Foundation of America ($20,000), among others. Along with the more recent Trust Us: We’re Experts, these books are scare-mongering tales about a corporate culture out of control, and each implies that the public needs rescuing. Guess who the heroes in this fantasy are? “
Of course, this means I have to go to the “about us” page of Activist Cash.com and find out who funds them.
- “This site, created by the Center for Consumer Freedom, is committed to providing detailed and up-to-date information about the funding source of radical anti-consumer organizations and activists. We have analyzed over 410,000 pages of IRS documents to create this database, and new information will be added every month.
The organizations we track on this site are tax-exempt nonprofits. That means you have the right to know what they're up to. The same rule applies to the tax-exempt foundations that pay their bills.”
At its “about us” page I learn that
- “The Center for Consumer Freedom is supported by over 100 companies and thousands of individual consumers. From farm to fork, from urban to rural, our friends and supporters include businesses, their employees, and their customers.
The Center is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. We file regular statements with the Internal Revenue Service, which are open to public inspection.”
Independent, non-profit, non-partisan, pt. 1
These words have lost their meaning in today‘s political climate. They might have meaning for their tax status, but not their reliability, their slant or values. Ignore these terms when seeking information and do more than a cursory background check before trusting.Today I was attempting to look up information on a “consumer health care incentives” conference taking place this week. I found that web page from a table of contents that a publisher sent in an e-mail to a librarian list. All the conference topics used what I would call either jargon or mush terms--impossible for the outsider (like me who worked in a medical library for 14 years) to discern. But I could figure out the conference logo--a large carrot dangling in front of buildings labeled hospital, insurance company, government, etc. inside what looked like a stamp. So I examined the list of speakers and just picked one, Thomas P. Miller, who was presenting a paper for AEI, American Enterprise Institute, which I would define as libertarian in its economic views, conservative in its social views, and all over the map politically. Over the years I have found their reports and papers to be trustworthy and well-researched, even if I don‘t always agree with their conclusions.
After browsing Mr. Miller’s resume I found a google link directing me to a wiki, Source Watch. Wikis are all over the internet--they are user-created encyclopedias and they are not peer-reviewed--your 13 year old could contribute and probably has because anyone can edit the information an expert just contributed 30 minutes ago. The most famous wiki is probably Wikipedia, but they are proliferating like pet rabbits loosed after Easter. Sometimes a wiki can help you get someplace, but they are not in the same class with Encyclopedia Britannica which began publishing in 1768 or The World Book that you may remember from your schools days. Their advantage is they often contain really obscure information that isn’t available in a true encyclopedia.
Next entry will continue this theme, but now it's time to go to the coffee shop.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
What Sarah really said to Charlie
Remember how she was denigrated and dissed for that interview? Read the full interview and see what was edited out. She had a whole lot more to say about Russia and Iran than what we heard.The Charlotte Front and Center is a PUMA website for Hillary supporters and it is supporting McCain-Palin in their anger over the sexism and misogyny by the Obama people and supporters in the MSM.
Book TV
Each week I enjoy tuning in a few minutes or hours to Book-TV on C-SPAN, and it was gone! There in its place was a tour of Korea. So I googled asking what had happened to it. It's now on 94, which means I can't get it in my office because I don't have a box.- Bucyrus, Circleville, Columbus, Delaware, Galion, Kenton, Lancaster, Marysville, Mount Gilead, Mount Vernon, Pataskala, Thornville and Zanesville channel lineups
Big Ten Network will move to Standard Channel 58.
When available, BTN alternate games will air on Digital Channels 153-156.
Travel Channel will move to Basic Channel 14.
Time Warner Connection returns to Channel 24.
C-SPAN 2 will move to Digital Broadcast Channel 94.
Product Information Network (PIN) will launch on Digital Variety
Channel 166.
Vote from Home--in Columbus, Ohio
What a handsome group! Marc Gustafson, the founder, seems to be in two places at once--Columbus, Ohio and Oxford University where he is in Middle East Studies. His permanent address for campaign contributions is New York. He speaks Arabic.- Vote from Home is a Political Action Committee established in 2007 by a group of Marshall, Rhodes, Fulbright and Truman Scholars. VHF's mission is to recruit and track early Democratic voters in Ohio for the 2008 Election.
Update: Story about the group on Brownlee in Columbus Dispatch.
How to get our tax money back from ACORN
I just sent off my absentee ballot. I took the warning on the bottom seriously:- "Whoever commits election falsification is guilty of a felony of the Fifth degree."
So I looked up 5th degree felony (Ohio felony sentencing law by Burt W. Griffin and Lewis R. Katz is the source cited on the 'net). The penalty is 6-12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. What if ACORN had to return to the jurisdiction $2,500 for every falsified registration? Might put a huge crimp in that $800,000 Obama gave them for "services." What if Brunner had to pay up for election falsification?
The house on Brownlee according to Malkin contains out of state folks here only long enough to register others, and vote absentee. They are Marc Gustafson, Heather Halstead, Daniel Hemel, Jen Kyle and Greg Nolan. Nice, clean cut looking Ivy League type kids (except Gustafson and Halstead (a couple?) are no kids) working for non-profits, government and businesses, all here to steal our election. Two Truman scholars and two Marshall scholars. Tell me again, Heather MacDonald what exactly you don't like about Sarah Palin's small town, western values and ethics? I'd put her up against these moral midgets any day.
Why wasn't a 92% death rate enough?
Better science doesn't always mean a better life (Nov 2005). At least not a Down Syndrome baby. A faster, more accurate test for Down Syndrome.- Published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine (Nov. 10, 2005 issue), the study is known as the FASTER trial (First and Second Trimester Evaluation of Risk). It was funded by a $13 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development – one of the largest ever grants for an obstetrical study.
Dear Heather MacDonald
While on my walk this morning I listened to your complete interview on Laura Ingraham [your article here]. As I understand it, when you go to the polls in 3 weeks you are choosing between Barack Obama and Sarah Palin, not Obama and McCain. You think Obama has a better grasp of economic issues than Palin because he is articulate, thinks things through and has degrees from prestigious institutions (you didn't actually say that, but it was implied with typical east coast arrogance). Also, although Obama isn't staying home with his children and believes Down Syndrome babies should be aborted, you finally conceded when pushed by Ingraham that Palin should stay home with her baby, because that is the traditional conservative view.Here are five points you overlooked.
- 1) Of the four people running for office (and you're right either Joe or Sarah could become president the day after the inauguration), Sarah Palin is
- a) the only one with conservative credentials, and
b) the only one with balls.
2) Of the four people running for office, Sarah Palin is the only one who didn't have the opportunity in 2006 to turn this Fannie/Freddie subprime mess around and save the economy. John McCain tried for more regulation, Joe Biden and Barack Obama sided with all the other Democrats and fought it. These three Senators failed to save us.
3) Of the four people running for office, most of the Congress, the President, most of the cabinet, and most especially the Ben and Hank club, Sarah Palin is the only one who did NOT go to one of those prestigious schools like Dartmouth, Yale, Harvard or Columbia.
4) Of the four people running for office, Palin is the only one who doesn't stammer and stutter off teleprompter, who hasn't been coached to lie to us through nonsensical press interviews. Although I'm plenty sick of the phrases "Joe Six-Pack" and "Hockey-Moms" and might have preferred a ticket of say Mitt Romney and Condi Rice, conservatives didn't want a Mormon, and Democrats don't allow black women, even Republicans, to leave the plantation.
5) And read the research, Heather. It is the marriage of women to the father that reduces poverty among children, not whether she stays home or works. The idea behind welfare was a government plan to keep women at home with the children. See how well that worked out?
Where is the laundress when you need her?
Last week I did some ironing--and tackled a bit more this morning. The Laundress seems to be rather erratically blogging these days. I don't know if she had as much laundry as she claimed, but it was always interesting.The 20 lbs I lost 2 years ago have been creeping back since our trip to Ireland last September, to which was added all that pasta in Italy in June. So I got out some cotton slacks that were too big for me the winter of 2006 but now are bulging where they shouldn't. There's a rule of thumb in weight loss--5 lbs is a dress size (assuming you aren't obese). This rule doesn't work for slacks, at least not for the pear shaped maiden/woman. For slacks, it's the rule of thigh, not thumb. I'd guess 7 lbs, and you've blown it. Although it probably depends on where you carry your weight. Say what you want about Hillary's legs, but this is the healthiest body style--slim waist, heavy thighs and legs. Sure, you don't get those Hollywood or modeling jobs, and no one chases you at the beach, but you also are less likely to have heart attacks, diabetes and breast cancer as you age.
This week I packed up at least 5 or 6 pair of slacks and jeans that ranged from size 4 to 8, (expensive brands have a come-on of smaller size tags), all purchased at the Discovery Shop for about $4 each. Some were wool, some cotton, some poly-whatever blend. I'm back in the 10s, at least until I can get control of that craving for Pumpkin ice cream that is only available this time of year. In the fall I'm like a squirrel preparing for a long winter.
The house is loaded with food I don't usually keep on hand. We got the bad news Monday that our house guests won't be coming--she's in the hospital in Alexandria, VA with pneumonia. And since they live in Huntington Beach, CA, they aren't too happy about that. So having too much food around is a small problem compared to what these dear loved ones are going through. It's never fun to be hospitalized, but if you have to be, better close to home where you have your own doctor, and your kids are near by.
So if your prayer list isn't already jammed, please add a total stranger, sister Kate.
Are you an artist?
Here's some instruction on the web by James Gurney that will make you weep with envy and fill you with resolve to get all those supplies out and ready to go! I used to do that sketching trick from the van windows when we'd travel back from Lake Erie with watercolor pencils.If you were poor or low income
sitting on the edge of the bottom quintile, hoping to move up a notch, which would you prefer:- a job in an Ohio coal mine in Appalachia at $25/hour, or a job at an interstate McDonald's at $8/hour serving the people from Columbus and Cleveland who come down to see the fall colors in Appalachia
- the opportunity to shop at a Walmart on the outskirts of your community once a week, or driving 60 miles after filling the tank for the round trip to a Walmart 2 counties away to shop once a month
- living in your humble 2 bedroom home which grandpa bought in a not so great neighborhood near your friends and church, or being pushed into a balloon mortgage out in the suburbs by developers who bought the land with the help of city council rezoning to "revitalize" the down town
- being denied access to military recruiters who might make promises and come through on 50% of them, or hang out on the street corners with your friends and do a few drugs
- a job that has potential but no guarantees, or the security of a steady income stream from WIC, low income housing support, food stamps and SCHIP
- a used automobile that's not very fuel efficient or bus transportation that might get you within 2 miles of shopping and the doctor's office
- a used automobile that's not very fuel efficient or a fancy 10 speed bike and snappy lycra shorts with matching helmet
The Death Penalty
Unlike many Democrats who support the death penalty for inconvenient or impaired babies, and many Republicans who will save babies but not wretched criminals, I do not support the death penalty. But if I did, Ohio's own fatso complainer, who first claimed he was too fat, then that he got fat in prison, surely deserved it. If you want to read more about this worthless piece of slime, for whom Jesus gave his life because all of us are fallen and don't live up to God's standard of perfection, read Cheat Seeking Missiles.Anthropogenic global climate change
That big word means simply, "human caused,"--it's the same word stem as "anthopology" the study of humans, or "anthopomorphic," giving God human qualities or attributes. Anthropogenic global climate change theories and worries may be the absolute height of ANTHROPOCENTRICITY, the belief that humans are the most significant entity of the universe and everything must be interpreted in terms of our experience, especially science. Are you ready to come down a notch or two.The human contribution to the greenhouse effect is 0.28%. Ocean biologic activity, volcanoes, decaying plants, animal activity, etc. (none of which we can control) accounts for 4.72%, and 95% of it is caused by water vapor. Feel better now? Less guilty or more helpless? If these stats make you feel more helpless, it's because of your wanting to feel powerful, the root is your anthropocentricity. If you feel less guilty, then you probably suspected all along they were feeding you a load of crap.
And here's some more. The human contribution to sources of CO2 emissions is 3.4%. Nature does the rest--96.6%.
Every region, state and city seems to be writing and passing standards and legislation for either green house gases, or CO2 emissions or both while we the voters watch Dancing with the Stars or cheer the Buckeyes or pull our hair out over the Bengals. Wake up America. They are stealing our country (what we haven't already destroyed with sloth, gambling, pornography, hedonism, and turning away from God) with massive e-regulations you never voted on that will put Kyoto to shame. The EPA is expanding at such a rate, that the head may soon have to fight Hank Paulson to determine who is the most powerful!
Ohio is already loaded with this alternative-save-the-planet stuff, with only lip service being given to the economic advantages of clean coal, which is God's stored sunshine and energy just waiting for us to be grateful. And don't you think the rest of the country isn't eyeing Lake Erie--the next battle over water will make fights over oil look like squabbles on the playground!
Read this policy analysis on the expanding authority of the EPA.
A financial crisis, not an economic crisis
Could have fooled me, but here's what an expert says. And wasn't it the experts that got us into this mess?- It turns out that John McCain, who was widely mocked for saying that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," was actually right. We're in a financial crisis, not an economic crisis. We're not entering a second Great Depression, says Casey B. Mulligan is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago.
How do we know? Well, the economy outside the financial sector is healthier than it seems.Daily Policy Digest, digesting Casey B. Mulligan, "An Economy You Can Bank On," New York Times, Oct. 10, 2008
Following the Jennifer Brunner story
Maggie is on top of this. Check out her story If you Democrats think your guy is so great, there's no need for him to steal the election. And you Republicans keep in mind the local elections matter too."Acorn -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- has been around since 1970 and boasts 350,000 members. Acorn is now getting more attention as John McCain's campaign makes an issue of the fraud reports and Acorn's ties to Barack Obama. It's about time someone exposed this shady outfit that uses government dollars to lobby for larger government, says the Wall Street Journal." Read more.
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