tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post4838673069767129800..comments2024-03-22T11:55:50.335+13:00Comments on Not PC: GUEST POST: ‘Global Warming: The Heart of the Matter’Peter Cresswellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10699845031503699181noreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-58535117375090786922010-01-05T08:56:57.807+13:002010-01-05T08:56:57.807+13:00No worries, PC. I have been talking to myself. You...No worries, PC. I have been talking to myself. You are right of course. Global warming ain't about religion or politics or war.<br /><br />And yes, I have been sloppy in adhering to copyright issues. Dot coms regardless.<br /><br />I bid you farewell and good cheer.sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-15244811922041170122010-01-05T08:33:32.112+13:002010-01-05T08:33:32.112+13:00Shari, while your recent posts here are certainly ...Shari, while your recent posts here are certainly interesting, they bear no relation at all to the topic of the thread, and they appear to violate the copyright of the publishers.<br /><br />If you wish to post pieces like this, then please make them on-topic, and simply post a short summary and an URL. And please learn to use quotation marks to distinguish your writing from someone else's.Peter Cresswellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10699845031503699181noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-61306814147535279482010-01-05T07:36:00.128+13:002010-01-05T07:36:00.128+13:00A Low and Dishonest Decade
Caroline Glick in Town...A Low and Dishonest Decade<br /><br />Caroline Glick in Townhall.com<br /><br />Monday, January 04, 2010<br /><br />Upon returning from Cairo on Tuesday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu proclaimed, "It's time to move the peace process forward." <br /><br />The most sympathetic interpretation of Netanyahu's proclamation is that he was engaging in political theater. <br /><br />It was a low and dishonest statement uttered at the end of what has been, in the immortal words of W.H. Auden, "a low and dishonest decade." <br /><br />...<br /><br />No less than what it tells us about Netanyahu, his statement is notable for what it tells us about Israel. <br /><br />Our continued willingness to ensnare ourselves in the rhetoric of peace processes demonstrates how little we have progressed in the past decade. <br /><br />...<br /><br />The past decade's major policies: the withdrawal from Gaza, the construction of the security fence, the acceptance of the road map peace plan, the Annapolis Conference, Operation Defensive Shield, the Second Lebanon War and Operation Cast Lead all shared one central feature. <br /><br />They were all predicated on ignoring the lessons of the failure of appeasement in 2000.<br /><br />...<br /><br />As we move into the second decade of this century, we need to understand how the last decade was so squandered. <br /><br />How is it possible that in 2010 Israel continues to embrace policies that have failed it - violently and continuously for so many years? <br /><br />Why, in 2010 are we still ignoring the lessons of 2000 and all that we have learned since then?<br /><br />...<br /><br />Auden's "low and dishonest decade" was the 1930s. <br /><br />It was the West's obsession then with appeasement that set the world on course for the cataclysm of World War II. <br /><br />As Israel enters the new decade, we must redouble our efforts to forestall a repeat of the cataclysm of the 1940s. <br /><br />Disturbingly, Netanyahu's call for a fraudulent peace process shows that we are off to an ignoble, untruthful start.sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-45827049589676790702010-01-05T07:09:22.588+13:002010-01-05T07:09:22.588+13:00January 04, 2010
Predictable response from Iran ...January 04, 2010<br /> <br />Predictable response from Iran to Obama's hedging of New Year's deadline<br /><br />Rick Moran<br /><br /> <br />Well, I guess we shouldn't be surprised by this. Michael Theodoulou writing in The National: <br /><br />Iran claimed yesterday that the West had given it another month to accept a United Nations-brokered nuclear deal - as Tehran defiantly set its own end-of-January deadline for world powers to agree to its already rejected counter proposals. <br /><br />Trumpeting Iran's hardened stance with confidence, Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister, warned that the Islamic republic would otherwise start producing more highly enriched uranium to fuel a Tehran medical research reactor. <br /><br />"This is an ultimatum," he proclaimed.<br /><br />In Obama's fantasyland, this is a sign of progress. <br /><br />As long as Iran leaves the door open a crack, the administration sees that as a chance to get concessions from Iran.<br /><br />Perhaps someone might want to list all the concessions Iran has made since this "engagement" started. <br /><br />You may have some trouble doing so because all we've gotten from the mullahs have been the back of their hand. <br /><br />They have ridiculed, spat upon, and summarily rejected every single overture made by Obama, the UN, and our allies. <br /><br />But knowing their adversary, the Iranians always leave a sliver of hope in their rejections. <br /><br />And like a drowning man reaching for a life preserver, Obama grasps the mirage believing he is not being taken for a ride by Tehran.sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-31322744319806208392010-01-05T07:03:06.042+13:002010-01-05T07:03:06.042+13:00January 04, 2010
Now stim bill money being sent ...January 04, 2010<br /> <br />Now stim bill money being sent to fake zip codes<br /><br />Rick Moran<br /><br /> <br />Jim Scarantino of New Mexico Watchdog was the first to uncover the fact that stim bill money was being listed as spent in non-existent congressional districts.<br /><br />Now he's uncovered another tasty tidbit; the money is going to fake zip codes:<br /><br />The agency charged with tracking the stimulus funds, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, attempted to eliminate this embarrassment by lumping all the billions reported going to nonexistent Congressional districts into a new category called the "unassigned" Congressional district. <br /><br />Closer examination of the latest recovery.gov report for New Mexico shows hundreds of thousands of dollars sent to and credited with creating jobs in zip codes that do not exist in New Mexico or anywhere else. <br /><br />Moreover, funds reported as being spent in New Mexico were given zip codes corresponding to areas in Washington and Oregon.<br /><br />The recovery.gov site reports that $373,874 was spent in zip code 97052. <br /><br />Unfortunately, this expenditure created zip jobs. <br /><br />But $36,218 was credited with creating 5 jobs in zip code 87258. <br /><br />A cool hundred grand went into zip code 86705, but didn't result in even one person finding work.<br /><br />None of these zip codes exist in New Mexico, or anywhere else, for that matter.<br /><br />The recovery.gov report also credits New Mexico with $131,139, though the zip codes receiving these funds (but creating no jobs) are in fact located in DuPont, Washington, Richland, Washington, and Gales Creek, Oregon.<br /><br />These errors were found by checking the zip codes reported at recovery.gov against the United States Postal Service's on-line zip code locator. <br /><br />Coming on top of our discovery of millions of dollars reportedly going to ten phantom New Mexico Congressional Districts, this latest discovery confirms that the data released by the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, at least for New Mexico, contains serious errors. <br /><br />All told, we have found over $27 million dollars that has been reported as going to either nonexistent Congressional districts or nonexistent zip codes.<br /><br />I suppose the White House will lump these expenditures under some bureaucratic rubric like "unassigned state." <br /><br />Next up: stim money listed as being spent on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter's moon Io as well as other "unassigned planets."sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-39472071836689663522010-01-05T06:51:02.833+13:002010-01-05T06:51:02.833+13:00January 04, 2010
Iran refuses to accept Kerry...January 04, 2010<br /> <br />Iran refuses to accept Kerry's surrender<br /><br />Rick Moran at American Thinker<br /><br /> <br />John Kerry's plan to go to Iran and do God knows what has been derailed by the Iranian leadership.<br /><br />Evidently, they wish to receive our surrender from Obama rather than Kerry.<br /><br />Bridget Johnson of The Hill writes:<br /><br />Iranian legislators on Sunday decided to not allow a visit from Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), according to Iranian media.<br /> <br />"Members of the Iranian parliament's Foreign Relations Committee (a subcommittee of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission) voiced opposition to the request after studying the issue," Hassan Ebrahimi, head of the committee, told the semi-official Fars News Agency.<br /><br />Several Iranian news outlets reported last week that Kerry had submitted an official request to visit Tehran in an emissary role. <br /><br />Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones told the Wall Street Journal before Christmas, though, that no trip had been scheduled. <br /><br />"Is he planning now on going to Iran? The answer is no," said Jones.<br /><br />When asked Sunday if Kerry had filed a travel request as claimed or if Iran had taken pre-emptive action against talk of a visit, Jones told The Hill, "John Kerry has no plans to travel to Iran."<br /><br />Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said last week that "legislative officials are studying the case and they are in charge for providing a response."<br /><br />On Saturday, Iranian legislators stepped up the rhetoric against the news that Kerry was considering traveling to Tehran with the blessing of the White House.<br /><br />"The Islamic Republic of Iran has no plans to negotiate with any American official, unless the country (the U.S.) changes its policies," member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Zohreh Elahian said, according to Fars News Agency.<br /><br />So Kerry says through a spokesman that he has no plans to go to Iran while the Iranian government studies the question of whether he should come? <br /><br />Someone is lying and since the Iranians have no reason to fib, it appears that Kerry is lying about his plans.<br /><br />Kerry also made a visit to Nicaragua back in the mid 1980's to bolster the communist government of Daniel Ortega while we were supplying aid to the contras to overthrow the Sandanista thugs. <br /><br />Unfortunately for him, he will apparently not get his photo-op with Ahmadinejad trashing his own country. <br /><br />They are waiting for Obama to give in so they can accept his apology in person.sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-7696783874441345672010-01-04T08:17:27.226+13:002010-01-04T08:17:27.226+13:00January 03, 2010
The Jihad Decade Cometh
By Pamel...January 03, 2010 <br />The Jihad Decade Cometh<br />By Pamela Geller<br /><br />...<br /><br />Islam's fatwa on the West during the Clinton administration came home to New York and Washington on September 11th.<br /><br /><br />...<br /><br />Removing Saddam Hussein was good. There is no way around that powerful truth. But why stop there? <br /><br />Removing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as well would have been even better. But Bush lost his mojo in 2006. <br /><br />The relentless pounding by the Left, Israel's halfhearted performance in the war with Hezb'allah in the summer of 2006, and the loss of the House and the Senate in November 2006 all contributed to the rout. <br /><br />But what really led to the downfall of Bush's leadership was the falsity of his premise. <br /><br />He wanted to believe, like Condi and Powell and the soft diplomacy crowd, that Islam would negotiate with the West. <br /><br />Islam cannot negotiate. <br /><br />Yet still the West continues its pursuit of the impossible, despite great risk. This is a function of the Western mind. <br /><br />These people think it inconceivable that talk can't solve anything and everything, that war is an indelible part of the human condition. <br /><br />But it is. <br /><br />War is as much in the makeup of man as sex, food, art, love, all of it. <br /><br />And wars must be fought. They will not disappear, but we will. <br /><br />Of course, we know this. But the Left, our in-house enemy, demonizes any war that America chooses to fight. <br /><br />The egregious, horrible crimes of Mao, Stalin, bin Laden, Che, Lenin, Pol Pot, Ahmadinejad, et al, which are so heinous and so enormous, are in their terrible minds a historical footnote. <br /><br />They become cultural icons for the "radical chic." Cold-blooded monsters have co-opted our country.<br /><br />And so successful was the Left at infiltrating our government, schools, and institutions that eight years after the most heinous attack on American soil, we elected an icon of our mortal enemy. <br /><br />A Kenyan, Indonesian, third-worldish boulevardier with as much understanding of the American experience as any foreign national. <br /><br />Don't call me a racist for calling him what he is -- I am not interested in the color of his skin, but in the content of his character. <br /><br />His lack of experience in all relevant areas to the office of the president is breathtaking. <br /><br />And his bowing to Islam and our enemies worldwide is disastrous. <br /><br />Bush's premise was false, but Bush was a patriot. Bush loved America, and he protected America, even if he refused to see the enemy for who and what it was. <br /><br />It was no accident that America was safe for eight years post-9/11.<br /><br />Eight years of safety is cracking apart now under a weak and pro-Islamic president. <br /><br />The jihadi attacks on America in 2009 were staggering. And it has only just begun. <br /><br />Dismantling the Bush protections against jihad and launching attacks on Americans, bloggers, tea partiers, town hallers, patriots, and vets is incomprehensible -- and if I hadn't lived through it, I wouldn't believe it possible. <br /><br />I pray that America examines the Left decade and takes stock. It was the appeasement of the Left that destroyed the foundations of this country. We must rebuild them. <br /><br />The advancement of Islam would never have been possible -- could never have happened -- without our surrender to the Left. The real war is against the Leftist/Islamic alliance.<br /><br />This is a fighting year.<br /><br /><br />Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and is former associate publisher of the New York Observer. She is the author (with Robert Spencer) of the forthcoming book The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (Simon and Schuster).sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-56191707332336540122010-01-04T07:06:05.104+13:002010-01-04T07:06:05.104+13:00Once upon a time, or rather at the birth of Time, ...Once upon a time, or rather at the birth of Time, when the gods were so new that they had no names, and Man was still damp from the clay of the pit whence he had been digged, Man claimed that he, too, was in some sort a god.<br /> <br />The gods weighed his evidence, and decided that Man's claim was good.<br /> <br />Having conceded Man's claim, the legend goes that they came by stealth and stole away this godhead, with intent to hide it where Man should never find it again. <br /> <br />But this was not so easy. <br /> <br />If they hid it anywhere on Earth the gods foresaw that Man would leave no stone unturned till he had recovered it. <br /><br />If they concealed it among themselves they feared Man might batter his way up even to the skies.<br /> <br />And while they were all thus at a stand, the wisest of the gods said, "I know. Give it to me!" <br /> <br />He closed his hand upon the tiny, unstable light of Man's stolen godhead, and when that great hand opened again the light was gone. <br /> <br />"All is well," said Brahm. "I have hidden it where Man will never dream of looking for it. <br /> <br />I have hidden it inside Man himself."<br /> <br /> <br />Rudyard Kipling.<br /> <br />From Arthur Mee's 'One Thousand Beautiful Things' (page 5).sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-27551328676820036272010-01-04T06:47:23.071+13:002010-01-04T06:47:23.071+13:00From independent.co.uk
Michel de Montaigne - Go w...From independent.co.uk<br /><br />Michel de Montaigne - Go with the flow<br /><br />Friday, 1 January 2010<br /><br />It's 2010: the years have moved on by one notch. <br /><br />At the same time, the calendar circles back to 1 January, giving us the illusion that we can start everything afresh. <br /><br />Some of us think of this as just another day, perhaps an uneventful and hungover one. <br /><br />For others, it means something more vigorous: making resolutions, wiping clean the slate, rejecting old inadequacies and trying to do the right thing, starting now.<br /><br />...<br /><br />I don't want to feel like a failure in 2010. <br /><br />I am making no resolutions and will be looking for wisdom from a different source: a man who knew a lot about living and had no patience for wiped slates or clean breaks. <br /><br />He was Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, the author of a book named simply Essays, a word he coined to mean "tries". <br /><br />A wine-growing nobleman and Bordeaux government official of the late 16th century, he slipped away from his work and home responsibilities as often as he could to attend to his real labour of love: writing digressive, entertaining, freewheeling thoughts about all that he had read, done or seen.<br /><br />...<br /><br />You were not supposed to publish books about yourself, unless it was to record great deeds for the benefit of posterity, or a spiritual quest like that of St Augustine. <br /><br />But Montaigne wrote about eating, scratching his ears, having sex, reading books, talking to neighbours, catching himself being absent-minded or vain or impulsive, sleeping, falling off his horse, playing word games with his wife and daughter, and watching his cat hunting birds.<br /><br />...<br /><br /> As with all of us, some of the things Montaigne did were flawed, and he makes no attempt to conceal this. <br /><br />He lets us see him being petty, lazy or ignorant, or doing things that no longer make sense to him. <br /><br />Yet it is all part of himself, and he accepts it all. "I rarely repent", he says - a strange admission for a good Catholic. <br /><br />He writes, with great cheer, "If I had to live over again, I would live as I have lived." <br /><br />It is enough just to be the way he is.<br /><br />...<br /><br /><br />Montaigne could have made New Year's resolutions: they were well established in his day. <br /><br />The Romans had looked back over their past actions at the end of each year so as to plan for the year ahead. <br /><br />When Julius Caesar re-organised the calendar in 46 BC, he set the year to start on 1 January - a month named for Janus, two-faced god of portals and gates. <br /><br />...<br /><br />Sarah Bakewell's 'How to Live: A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer' is published this month by Chatto & Windus. Montaigne's 'Essays' are published by Penguin Classicssharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-35856128967123204012010-01-03T11:43:20.477+13:002010-01-03T11:43:20.477+13:00http://playingforchange.com/
From the award-winni...http://playingforchange.com/<br /><br />From the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”, comes an incredible rendition of the legendary Bob Marley song “One Love” with Keb’ Mo’ and Manu Chao. <br /><br />This is the third video from the documentary and a follow up to the classic “Stand By Me” and the incredible “Don’t Worry.” <br /><br />Released in celebration of Bob Marley’s birthday on February 6th, this tribute to the legend is performed by musicians around the world adding their part to the song as it traveled the globe.<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xjPODksI08sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-70649769494596470322010-01-02T17:40:30.547+13:002010-01-02T17:40:30.547+13:00Oh Kurt. You are getting predictable. You have no...Oh Kurt. You are getting predictable. You have nothing to add to the thread so you like to comment on other posters.<br /><br />It would be amusing if it weren't so sad.<br /><br />Ha ha yes you are right there is a hell of a lot of Physics and maths in the IPCC report. But you haven't read it eh? Well, I have. And there is also alot of natural sciences in there based on observations and measurements.<br /><br />It is great reading and not too hard if you have a reasonable education. You do not need a PhD to read it though.<br /><br />All the defense I need of the Warmist position is in the IPCC report. It is public knowledge - it is your job to read it. Do you still get someone to change your nappies?Barrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-21816293278751661662010-01-02T16:50:38.446+13:002010-01-02T16:50:38.446+13:00Barry, stop claiming to have read the IPCC report,...Barry, stop claiming to have read the IPCC report, because it is obvious from messages posted above by FF, ACT Youth and others, that you have a huge huge hole in your knowledge of mathematical language. AFAIK, the IPCC is full of mathematics and physics, in which rube like you (and me) would have no clue at all to those.<br /><br />And you said, that <i>which is why you are chatting online and Obama is in the White House - he has brains and you do not</i>.<br /><br />This is not a scientific argument, but trolling, is it? And here you are chatting online too, which according to you, we don't have brains. You're correct there, that I and you don't have a brain to understanding scientific concepts as global warming or otherwise, you and me could be in the whitehouse instead of Obama.<br /><br />Again, you won't stop DOSA<i>ring</i>, will you. I am not here to argue about the science of AGW. I simply made an observation that you've never defended your warmist position scientifically except DOSA<i>ring</i> this blog with useless and irrelevant messages. Your scientific debate is with LGM, FF , ACT Youth and others, but not with me. I am just stating an observation (factual) of what I have read thru this thread and similar ones here at Not PC. You made comments like a headless chicken, ie, everywhere with no aim or no definitive answer but vague to the questions being put forward to you. Your way of answering is simply DOSA<i>ring</i>.Kurtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-2855019568338682812010-01-02T15:40:17.054+13:002010-01-02T15:40:17.054+13:00Ha ha Kurt. If you wanna see my reasons for being...Ha ha Kurt. If you wanna see my reasons for being an AGW supporter then go the the IPC report and read one of the referenced pieces of research that support AGW.<br /><br />It is the sheer number of those combined with the lack of credible skeptic articles that sway my position.<br /><br />Plus the fact that until skeptics can 100% disprove AGW it will remain a threat to be responded to by governments.<br /><br />Any government that failed to acknowledge a threat which has literally hundreds of pieces of scientific research backing it up would be negligent. Which is why you are chatting online and Obama is in the White House - he has brains and you do not.Barrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-3568303567936264912010-01-02T14:25:29.867+13:002010-01-02T14:25:29.867+13:00FF, see the other thread where I have stated to Ba...FF, see the other thread where I have stated to Barry clearly many times that he never argued/defended scientifically his position as a warmist, instead he bombarded the related threads on AGW with a <i>denial of service attack</i> type (DOSA) with useless & irrelevant messages to wear down his opponents. That's his tactic. <br /><br />I can see from his self-admission at RealClimate that he is a rube, and it made me realized why he debated in a DOSA fashion. It is simply that he is clueless to the subject/topic that he is trying to defend. Don't waste your time in debating with him, because no matter how clear your explanation to him, a rube like him wouldn't understand it or simply refuse to understand your point since his position on global warming is already made up.<br /><br />I am not a scientist myself and I wouldn't want to debate the AGW science with anyone since I am an artist like Barry (I have an MA in psychology), but I can understand some bits & pieces that have been discussed here on Not PC. All I asked Barry to start debating the science, such as you and others have shown here on this very thread including other related threads, but he keeps posting useless & irrelevant DOSA type messages.Kurtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-69560897049430118472010-01-02T13:33:43.271+13:002010-01-02T13:33:43.271+13:00Barry describing himself on a message that he post...Barry describing himself on a message that he posted in this <a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/01/unforced-variations-2/" rel="nofollow">RealClimate thread</a> :<br /><br /><br />Barry said:<br /><i><br /><br />Gavin : <b>The confusion in the denialosphere is based on a misunderstanding between ‘airborne fraction of CO2 emissions’ (not changing very much) and ‘CO2 fraction in the air’</b><br /><br />I got up to grade ten science and ditched it for arts, but even a <b>rube</b> like me understood the misconception just from reading the paper – no googling for blog help – when a (cough) skeptic posted that canard at a forum I frequent.<br /><br />Sorting that out wasn’t rocket surgery, I suppose. But reading climate-sci blogs like this has helped me be slightly less rub-ish. Thanks, Gavin (et al).<br /><br />The full version of the Knorr paper is online.</i><br /><br />Now, I knew that Barry is an artist/rube (ie, someone with a non-scientific background) because of the style of his argument here but his self-admission at RealClimate confirmed exactly that.Falafulu Fisinoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-38502321132690972322010-01-02T07:03:52.486+13:002010-01-02T07:03:52.486+13:00"A new Reagan revolution is brewing.
It is ..."A new Reagan revolution is brewing. <br /><br />It is a revolution within the ranks of the GOP, as the movement sweeps in to take control of the Republican Party. <br /><br />The days of the top-down old guard are over. <br /><br />This is a bottom-up movement of the grassroots, or what Congressman Gary Ackerman (D-NY) prefers to call the angry mobs "who commandeer the town-hall meetings." <br /><br />It is no longer acceptable for New York GOP bosses to reject principled Conservative Doug Hoffman and instead select a tax-and-spend Republican like Dede Scozzafava for NY's 23rd Congressional District special election. <br /><br />Neither is it allowable for the National Republican Senatorial Committee to dismiss Marco Rubio, the new Republican star running to take back our country in favor of Obama sycophant Governor Charlie Crist for the Florida Senate race. <br /><br />The new Republican rising stars will win. <br /><br />Borrowing the words of Thomas Paine for advice to the GOP: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." "<br /><br />From Phil Orenstein:<br />"Mr. Smith, You're Needed in Washington" in American Thinker.comsharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-15903876118196640442010-01-02T06:45:46.241+13:002010-01-02T06:45:46.241+13:00Remember that talking is one of the fine arts, the...Remember that talking is one of the fine arts, the noblest, the most important, and the most difficult, and that its fluent harmonies may be spoiled by the intrusion of a single harsh note. <br /> <br />Therefore conversation which is suggestive rather than argumentative, which lets out the most of each talker's results of thought, is commonly the pleasantest and the most profitable. <br /> <br />It is not easy, at the best, for two persons talking together to make the most of each other's thoughts; there are so many of them. <br /> <br />When John and Thomas, for instance, are talking together, it is natural enough that among the six there should be more or less confusion and misapprehension.<br /> <br />Our landlady turned pale; no doubt she thought there was a screw loose in my intellects, and that involved the probable loss of a boarder. <br /><br />A severe-looking person, who wears a Spanish cloak and a sad cheek, fluted by the passions of the melodrama, whom I understand to be the professional ruffian of the neighboring theatre, alluded, with a certain lifting of the brow, to Falstaff's nine men in buckram. <br /><br />Everybody looked up. <br /><br />I believe the old gentleman opposite was afraid I should seize the carving knife; at any rate, he slid it to one side, as it were carelessly.<br /> <br />I think, I said, I can make it plain to Benjamin Franklin here that there are at least six personalities distinctly to be recognised as taking part in that dialogue between John and Thomas.<br /> <br />Three Johns<br /> The real John; known only to his Maker.<br /> John's ideal John; never the real one, and often very unlike him.<br /> Thomas's ideal John; never the real John, nor John's John, but often very unlike either.<br /> <br />Three Thomases<br /> The real Thomas.<br /> Thomas's ideal Thomas.<br /> John's ideal Thomas.<br /> <br />Only one of the three Johns is taxed; only one can be weighed on a platform-balance; but the other two are just as important in the conversation. <br /> <br />Let us suppose the real John to be old, dull, and ill-looking. <br /><br />But, as the Higher Powers have not conferred on men the gift of seeing themselves in the true light, John very possibly conceives himself to be youthful, witty, and fascinating, and talks from the point of view of this ideal. <br /><br />Thomas, again, believes him to be an artful rogue, we will say; therefore he is, so far as Thomas's attitude in the conversation is concerned, an artful rogue, though really simple and stupid. <br /> <br />The same conditions apply to the three Thomases. <br /> <br />It follows that, until a man can be found who knows himself as his Maker knows him, or who sees himself as others see him, there must be at least six persons engaged in every dialogue between two. <br /> <br />Of these, the least important, philosophically speaking, is the one that we have called the real person. No wonder two disputants often get angry, when there are six of them talking and listening all at the same time.<br /> <br />A very unphilosophical application of the above remarks was made by a young fellow, answering to the name of John, who sits near me at table. <br /> <br />A certain basket of peaches, a rare vegetable, little known to boarding houses, was on its way to me via this un-lettered Johannes. <br /><br />He appropriated the three that remained in the basket, remarking that there was just one apiece for him. <br /><br />I convinced him that his practical inference was hasty and illogical, but in the meantime he had eaten the peaches.<br /> <br />From Oliver Wendell Holmes, in The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.<br /> <br />In Arthur Mee's 'One Thousand Beautiful Things'. (p. 132).sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-83224024166004456692010-01-01T09:39:47.535+13:002010-01-01T09:39:47.535+13:00An American mother's new dawn message to her s...An American mother's new dawn message to her son: "Stay Strong."sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-77441674874312404832009-12-31T07:00:46.976+13:002009-12-31T07:00:46.976+13:00Thought from an Iranian mother:
"I have a so...Thought from an Iranian mother:<br /><br />"I have a son in the Army. Will he shoot me?"sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-47435586491839842502009-12-31T06:28:30.916+13:002009-12-31T06:28:30.916+13:00Thoughts from Robin, psychotherapist and a recover...Thoughts from Robin, psychotherapist and a recovering liberal in Berkeley.<br /> <br /> <br />"It was a stirring night for this wandering Jew who has traveled from east to west, from Left to Right. <br /><br />As the Sufi poet Hafiz wrote, "This moment in time God has carved a place for you," and sitting in the sanctuary, I felt that place.<br /><br />Even though I didn't know the right words, or the hymns, or how to pray, it didn't matter. <br /><br />All the differences among people -- race, class, politics, even religion -- vanished. <br /><br />Faith, I realized, is the ultimate uniter. <br /><br />And in a heartbeat, I understood why leaders from Marx to Mao try to keep people away from God, and why they will always fail. <br /><br />I flashed to an image of those mothers who somehow find the superhuman strength to lift up a car and free their children. <br /><br />On Christmas Eve, I learned that this same unstoppable power exists inside all of us, especially when we stand together. <br /><br />As Jesus himself taught, faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain." <br /><br />http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/power_to_the_conservative_peop.htmlsharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-85648027432474993262009-12-31T06:07:39.676+13:002009-12-31T06:07:39.676+13:00And from Thomas Sowell in 'Unhealthy Arrogance...And from Thomas Sowell in 'Unhealthy Arrogance":<br /><br />...<br /><br />"In a sense, this administration is only the end result of a long social process that includes raising successive generations with dumbed-down education in schools and colleges that have become indoctrination centers for the visions of the left. <br /><br />Our education system has turned out many people who have never heard any other vision and who can only learn what is wrong with the prevailing vision from bitter experience. <br /><br />That bitter experience now awaits them, at home and abroad."sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-25756879891334329822009-12-31T06:01:19.209+13:002009-12-31T06:01:19.209+13:00A Soldier's Declaration
From Siegfried L. Sas...A Soldier's Declaration<br /><br />From Siegfried L. Sassoon, July 1917 <br /><br /><br />I am making this statement as an act of willful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it.<br /><br />I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. <br /><br />I believe that this war, upon which I entered as a war of defense and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. <br /><br />I believe that the purposes for which I and my fellow-soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation.<br /><br />I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust.<br /><br />I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed.<br /><br />On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practiced on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacence with which the majority of those at home regard the continuance of agonies which they do not share, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize.sharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-7460798201482649552009-12-30T08:16:08.805+13:002009-12-30T08:16:08.805+13:00Shari
Yup, Europe is degenerating. It is a great...Shari<br /><br />Yup, Europe is degenerating. It is a great tragedy, but when you consider that the only thing keeping those guys from warfare these last 50 years has been a US military presence, then it is no surprise that they are adopting yet more silliness. The transformation of Europe into a state of barbarity is an on-going process. Will anyone learn from it? <br /><br />Thanks for the new links. I noticed that the last one is broken. I'll try it again.<br /><br />LGMLGMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-3398249698180088282009-12-30T08:09:55.394+13:002009-12-30T08:09:55.394+13:00Shari
The concerning thing about the War Project ...Shari<br /><br />The concerning thing about the War Project are the implications.<br /><br />If government leaders deliberately started every war fought in recorded history for purely cynical self-serving motives designed to enhance their own political fortunes and these same government leaders disseminated for public consumption bogus “reasons” for their wars, all the while admitting in private their real self-serving motives,<br /><br />THEN <br /><br />what else might they be prepared to do to satisfy their motives.....? What else might they do in less stressful circumstances? <br /><br />When one considers the nature of domestic politics and the types of regulation, legislation and policy generated and enforced there is cause for concern. A lot of it takes the appearance of warfare- internal wars against the citizens. Indeed there is the descriptive term "welfare-warfare state"... <br /><br />LGMLGMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11906042.post-26569095026156362232009-12-30T07:24:22.960+13:002009-12-30T07:24:22.960+13:00December 29, 2009
Obama's Second Major Terro...December 29, 2009 <br /><br />Obama's Second Major Terror Failure in Two Months<br /><br />By James Lewis<br /><br /> <br />Luck was with us on Northwest flight 253. Dumb luck.<br /><br />This terror attack could easily have been averted but for the Aloha, baby! attitude of the Obumblers regarding domestic terrorism. <br /><br />At Fort Hood last month, a couple of cops finally brought down an Islamofascist killer after he murdered twelve soldiers and left thirty wounded on the tarmac. <br /><br />On Flight 253 to Detroit it happened to be an alert Dutch filmmaker who jumped the would-be bomber when his pants started to burn. <br /><br />But the bomb was an ingredient of Semtex, and he was trying to inject a liquid detonator that could have blown up the Airbus A 330 with 278 people on board. <br /><br />After a known Islamic radical psychiatrist shot more than forty unarmed American military personnel at Forth Hood last month, this is the second easily preventable failure of the Obama administration to protect the country against domestic terrorism. <br /><br />Obama has let down our guard, and al-Qaida's got his number. <br /><br />Under the reign of political correctness, anti-terror policy comes down to this: You can't profile terrorists -- certainly not by their African origins, by their known history of Islamist radicalism, or by their Muslim names. <br /><br />So you have to have "everybody's a suspect" rules, in which midwestern grandmas are treated the same as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who just barely failed to bring down Northwest 253. <br /><br />http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/obamas_second_major_terror_fai.htmlsharihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02395567799461863694noreply@blogger.com