Come for the Politics, Stay for the Pathologies



Monday, November 30, 2009

Assume A Hockey Stick

You have probably heard the cogent points surrounding Climategate by now. A concise summary: Anthropogenic Global Warming  (AGW) alarmists at East Anglica University, with input from other “scientists” around the planet, have been caught red handed at their data manipulation trickery. Apparently it wasn’t terribly complicated. Anyone who passed Statistics 101 without cheating would be able to figure out how to set the parameters to achieve the “expected” results. When even that didn’t work, they directly manipulated data. And now we find out that they’ve covered their tracks by purposefully destroying their source data.  In most contexts such manipulation is known as fraud.

Roger L. Simon’s Climategate piece summarizes:

Things are “starting to unravel at the AGW seams,” because, apparently, the “dog ate the homework” – more specifically the temperature data on which the whole global warming “can of worms” depends. Yes, three clichés in one sentence, yet somehow apropos for this unraveling fiasco that every day becomes more eye-rolling. Today’s unraveling – intentionally saved, I am assuming, for the weekend – comes from the Timesonline:

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

Not to worry. Carol Browner – Obama’s climate czar – assures us that global warming science is “settled.” And Carol should know. She has a B. A. in English from the University of Florida, not to mention a law degree from the same institution. (Pop quiz, Carol. What’s the Second Law of Thermodynamics? How about Einstein’s Unified Field Theory? Oh, never mind.)

More important to this discussion than anything else is a discussion of what makes science science? For starters, it is not consensus. It is challenge and replication. Scientific facts can never be completely proven, they can only be disproven. (Arguably, that’s what just happened with global warming.) Consensus has no role in science. Acceptance and incorporation into the body of scientific knowledge comes after a hypothesis is tested repeatedly and the same results are achieved each time. Only then is the hypothesis accepted as  theory, and even then a “proven” theory is good only until such time as it is disproved. Serious scientists are still trying to prove Einstein wrong: that is how real science evolves.

This process is the reason cold fusion is not an accepted scientific theory. After a flurry of excitement, it became evident that the scientists’ experiments “proving” its existence could not be reliably repeated. And because there was no political movement pushing cold fusion as a way to save the earth, no one kept the truth under wraps. It was real science, not politics tinged with religion. That’s why we don’t have billions of dollars being funneled into cold fusion research and development, and the reason T. Boone Pickens didn’t get a multi-billion dollar federal grant to build “cold fusion farms” along the Lake Michigan coast: the inconvenient truth of the hypothesis of cold fusion is that it apparently doesn’t exist. Not that some aren’t still pursuing it, but they are outliers, willing to pursue highly improbable hypotheses. But they are still using scientific method in their pursuit, hoping to discover a new truth. The  researchers in the AGW camp: they’re just liars.

Respectable scientists spend their days looking for the exception that doesn’t make the rule, but breaks it and sets science on course for new explanations, new horizons, new discoveries. Rigor is the glue that holds scientific theory and advancement together.* When a group of pseudo-scientists abuse the scientific method in pursuit of a political philosophy and personal gain, the world has the right and the obligation to reject EVERYTHING  they have done and published. This would be true even if their political agenda was trivial. But when their agenda is no less ambitious than transferring the balance of power from advanced Western societies to underdeveloped third world dictatorships, we have cause for grave concern. A demand for significant blood letting does not seem inappropriate.

If you are a so-called “scientist” who has participated in a massive fraud you can’t expect to be taken seriously when the fraud is exposed. Nor should you expect to go unpunished; you should be rebuked, discredited and thrown out of the scientific community.

These chicken littles of global warming apocalypse - whether they are simply true believers willing to fudge for what they consider a greater truth/good,  completely fraudulent practitioners in search of personal gain, or government funding profiteers (like Phillip Jones from East Anglia University who has received more than $20 million in research grants) – must be made an example of.  In order to survive, science must rid itself of the charlatans who practice the methods of agenda politics and politicians must demand the rigors of scientific method be adhered to before funding anything.  As for the “fact” of AGW, we now have “consensus,” the debate is over: AGW is a HOAX!

Who are the deniers now?

 

 

*A complete digression: we also have a relatively recent  phenomenon of “string theorists” in physics who hypothesize great things. In order to adhere to scientific method, their work requires them to assume an ever increasing number of new hypotheses (many related to additional dimensions) based on complex mathematical calculations. However, string theory, too, is becoming “unraveled” under it’s own weight. Many physicists are pulling back from the brink before they become known as the “economists” of theoretical physics: “assume another dimension.”

A Hat Trick For Congress

Debate on the Healthcare Bill begins in the congress of liars today. The Senate is up first:  they will start anew lying not only to us, but to themselves. Their hat trick of lies will consist of mathemagician tricks that divert our attention while twisting facts to prove that:

  1. We can provide coverage for an additional 30 million Americans at no additional cost
  2. While improving overall health care for all, and – here’s the Big Lebowski -
  3. all-the-while cutting the deficit!

Seriously, we should hire these little geniuses to solve the budget deficit. Oh. We have. (Check out the National Debt Clock for yourself.)

 

John Stossel barely brushes the surface in explaining the foolhardy gimmickry used in America’s  legislative pit  in his column “We Pay Them to Lie to Us” :

Our pandering congressmen rarely cut. They just spend. Even as the deficit grows, they vomit up our money onto new pet "green" projects, bailouts for irresponsible industries, gifts for special interests and guarantees to everyone.

This pack of liars and thieves knows no bounds. Be sure to read Stossel’s, shall we say, priceless column; it concludes –correctly – that

If a business pulled the accounting tricks the politicians get away with, the owners would be in prison.

This would be laughable if it weren’t so dead serious. How does Harry Reid and his clown posse expect us to buy this? I presume he’s relying on the willful suspension of  disbelief that his sheeple have consistently demonstrated. But Harry might want to keep in mind that past performance is no indication of future results. For example, it seems that just 7% of the populace believe the stimulus created any jobs, and just 19% are buying the nonsense that the healthcare reform bill won’t increase the deficit.  Even Katie Couric and Chip Reid seem to be figuring this out, so how hard can it be?

Congress might have grounds for concern if the MSM turns on them. Because sheeple, being a fickle lot, will always follow a shepherd, but not necessarily the same shepherd.

The question is not how dumb do Harry and his cronies up on the Hill think we are; the real question is, just how dumb are we?

 

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Freedom SEALed

THANK YOU

Old_Glory_and_the_Blue_Angels

navy-seal-4

 US_Navy_SEALs_insignia

Lee Greenwood: God Bless the U.S.A.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there, and especially to our troops stationed around the world. Team Dewey is taking a few days on the road to visit relatives and will be back on Monday.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Fact Check This

Al GORE: People think about geothermal energy - when they think about it at all - in terms of the hot water bubbling up in some places, but two kilometers or so down in most places there are these incredibly hot rocks, 'cause the interior of the earth is extremely hot, several million degrees, and the crust of the earth is hot ...



Paul Shanklin

for

Rush Limbaugh

No wonder Al Gore is so worried about global warming. He thinks that 2 kilometers beneath the earth’s surface (1 1/4 miles) there is a bubbling cauldron of molten lava reaching temperatures of “several million” degrees. He didn’t specify whether that was Fahrenheit or centigrade. Not that it matters. At that depth the actual temperature is approximately 65 degrees. When you’re off by 1,999,935 suffice it to say the measurement scale doesn’t matter.

In fact, if at 2 kilometers down -which is barely scratching earth’s surface: the core is another 6200 kilometers in - we were getting thermal measurements in the “millions,” we’d be a star. No, not like Al – a real celestial body.

Newsbusters provides a great summary of the facts and science, if you think such things are important. Here’s the Conan clip of our little genius making his latest proclamation - which you really should watch. Just reading the transcript doesn’t do justice to the pomposity of this dangerous narcissist .


Seriously. This man is a dunce. Even if you weren’t the world-wide spokesman for anthropogenic global warming, wouldn’t his claim strike you as – preposterous? I mean, if you knew anything about science? Which is something we can safely assume Al doesn’t, based on this well publicized copy of his collegial accomplishments.

But in place of any real knowledge, Al has embraced his inner arrogance. That, along the reliably sycophantic MSM, has allowed him to continue to lecture us all on what kind of light bulbs to use, while predicting the GW apocalypse.

I guess if you’re doing Gaia’s work by preaching the error of our materialist ways, and selling carbon offset credits to those who chose not to repent and use just one square of toilet tissue per flush, you deserve a pass. With those credentials, we can certainly allow you a margin of error measured in Carl Sagan-sized numbers.

The fact that Algore’s quoted geothermal temperature numbers are off by an order of magnitude greater than 4 (That’s 10 to the 4th power for those of you who went to public school in the last 25 years: er, never mind. That won’t mean anything either.) should actually be reassuring. Because all we can confidently take away from this is that Al’s estimate of the temperature of the “really hot rocks” beneath the earth’s surface is just as accurate as the global warming alarmists estimates of the temperatures on the earth’s surface in the future. In other words, the sky isn’t falling. The polar ice caps aren’t melting. Baby seals aren’t dying. New York will not be under water next year.

Still, it’s hard to believe that the guy who invented the Internet could be caught up in such an exaggeration.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Senate Debates Ruin-Porn Legislation

Apparently there is yet another photographer who has figured out how to profit from Detroit’s misery (Ruins Of a Once-Great City). Such portfolios have become so ubiquitous that a term has been coined to describe it’s titillating nature: “ruin-porn."  I don’t mind: Detroit is certainly fair game in the commerce of “decay as art.”  Additionally, I welcome any and all attention that is drawn to it’s shambles. Not so people can wallow in horror and disgust, but so they can begin to comprehend the consequences of our insanely suicidal social policies.

 bar, vanity ballroom-2008

Bar in abandoned Vanity Ballroom: Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and Duke Ellington frequented this venue in it’s heyday.

But even with all the imaging, outsiders don’t really seem to understand the magnitude of the death and destruction here. It’s a bit like what happened in Iran following the corrupt re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Everybody seemed to be aware of the fact that untoward activities were unfolding, but except for a few unsettling images broadcast via Twitter, there wasn’t any real coverage. And no response to the distress calls from the Iranian people. It feels a bit like that here, too. Photographers keep showing up and taking pictures that people can emote over for a few minutes, and then they go about their business. But keep ignoring the path our country is on and soon you, too, will have no business to go back to.

lee plaza ballroom-2008

Lee Plaza Ballroom

If you can’t make it to the Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York to view Andrew Moore’s show, behold here a taste of what the Great Society has wrought on a once prosperous and proud city.

organ screen, ua theatre-2008 

Organ screen, abandoned United Artists theatre

Get up close and take a look into the abyss that 40 years of elite liberal East Coast driven social policies have created.

rouge 2008 Abandoned Ford River Rouge Plant, once a mighty symbol of American industrial prowess

And spare me the litany of other factors that contributed to Detroit’s decline; they contributed, they didn’t create. Only government policies that suck the souls of its citizens dry of any personal responsibility and self-respect can so effectively kill the motivation, drive and ambition of people. Only multiple generations of people born into the entitlement mentality of government provision and care can kill the soul of the people, and with them their city.

And don’t even think about calling me a racist. The only racists in this game are the effetes who somehow decided decades ago that perfectly capable men, women and children of color could not make their way in the world with out the helping hand of government. If that is not prima facie racism, I don’t know what is. And you can throw into that same vat the black race-hustlers who have amassed personal fortunes and huge power bases by ensuring that this system remains in place. They sicken me. They are the traitors to their race, not the conservative minded blacks who expect more from themselves than that.

While the Senate “debates” America’s economic future tonight and our President continues to dither over sending the support our troops need in a war terrorists are waging on us whether we care to participate or not, our city continues to atrophy into the ash heap of history. Detroit may just be beyond redemption. The rest of the country is still our call.

 

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Friday, November 20, 2009

Michigan: We’re All Spartans Now

 

"Michigan is going to lead a green industrial revolution in our nation," Granholm said. "We'll be a beacon that guides this country along the path …”

“For Michigan, growing a green economy means realizing we can no longer depend on the industries that once were our bedrock,"

- from radio address by Governor Granholm, May, 2009

You don’t suppose this is what Governor Granholm  had in mind do you?

Watch Mighigan go Green right before your very eyes

h/t Pundit and Pundette

 

Let’s Win One For DETROIT !!!

As shocking as it may seem, Motown may be in for a big win this year: Dewey From Detroit has been nominated for the 2009 Weblog Awards!!!

The 2009 Weblog Awards

Dewey From Detroit has been nominated in the following categories:

  • Best Blog
  • Best New Blog
  • Best Political Blog
  • Best New Political Blog
  • Best Humor Blog
  • Best Conservative Blog
  • Best Individual Blog

If you enjoy Dewey and wish to vote, here are The Weblog Award rules:

Rules And FAQ's

  • You can nominate yourself, don't be shy. (I’m not, I did)
  • The number of nominations a blog receives is irrelevant. One nomination is enough...
  • Rather than add a "me too" (i.e. multiple) nomination for a site in a category, please use the "+" icon to indicate your preference for nominees. The "+" ratings are one extra piece of information the finalist selection panel can use to help generate the finalist slates in each category.
  • Given the two previous items, we reserve the right to remove excessive comments (i.e. nominations) for the same site.
  • The nomination period is scheduled to end on Sunday, November 22, 2009, though we reserve the option to close nominations earlier or later.
  • Voting for selected finalists is scheduled to begin January 4, 2010. Finalists will be announced the week before voting begins.

So for now, you can all go to the 2009 Weblog Awards site, scroll way, way down near the end of the nominations comments and click the “+” next to deweyfromdetroit!!! What could be more fun?

After nominations close Sunday, a double-secret panel of selection czars will go behind closed doors (like our current administration and congress) and pick the finalists. I can’t work the panel like Harry Reid and offer them a Landrieu deal, because I’d go to jail. So I need your support.

If everything works out, and Dewey makes the cut, you can all go back on January 4, 2010 and win one for Motown!!!

MMM, MMM, MMM !!!

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Sarah Brings Power To The People

How is it that the “stupidest” woman on earth can drive the MSM to such distraction?

Sarah Palin Talks to Crowd in Grand Rapids Sarah addresses the crowd in Grand Rapids Michigan before her book signing.

Maybe because the MSM is the source of  this fraudulent construct of an ignorant wench, and they are resistant (as usual) to facts that repudiate their version of reality. Myth maintenance seems to be a primary objective for the liberal media.

Using the silver platter they usually provide for themselves,  Mark Steyn  serves them up with customary relish:

Rogue's Eleven [Mark Steyn]

If you wonder why American newspapering is dying, consider this sign-off:

AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this report.

Wow. That's ten "AP writers" plus Calvin Woodward, the AP writer whose twinkling pen honed the above contributions into the turgid sludge of the actual report. That's 11 writers for a 695-word report. What on? Obamacare? The Iranian nuke program? The upcoming trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

No, the Associated Press assigned 11 writers to "fact-check" Sarah Palin's new book, and in return the 11 fact-checkers triumphantly unearthed six errors. That's 1.8333333 writers for each error. What earth-shattering misstatements did they uncover for this impressive investment? Stand well back:

PALIN: Says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers" hotels.

THE FACTS: Although she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard)...

That looks like AP paid 1.8333333 fact-checkers to agree with Mrs Palin: She says she didn't "often" go for "high-end" hotels; they say she "usually opted for less-pricey hotels". That's gonna make one must-see edition of "Point/Counterpoint".

Or is AP arguing "four nights" counts as "often"? Is that the point? AP assigned 11 reporters to demonstrate that four is a large number?

Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker and his vast team of researchers (17 Minneapolis-area Somali jihadists, 29 Acorn-accredited child-sex slaves, and 43 unemployed Columbia School of Journalism graduates) fact-check AP's fact-checkers.

Coming next:

PALIN: How many AP fact-checkers does it take to change a lightbulb?

FACT: Palin has gone seriously "rogue" in her facts here. AP fact-checkers are prevented per union regulations from changing lightbulbs.

AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this joke. We'll be here all week.

Can you imagine how Barry would present to the masses if the right wing ran the media - and had as great a disregard for journalistic integrity as the left does? Between BHO and Joey B we have the entire Keystone Cops repertoire, except not funny. But since the left still rules with an iron hand, they have given us the most intelligent, articulate, sophisticated man ever elected to the presidency. And Sarah? She’s a twit. Because they  say so.

But then, that’s why we’re all here isn’t it?

ANDREA MITCHELL IN FLYOVERNBC’s anemic Andrea Mitchell in GR: like a fish out of water in “fly-over”

h/t annaz, who also has an excellent post on “Why I Still Love Sarah Palin.”

 

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009

FOX Interview: Obama Warns Deficit Spending Might Be a Bad Thing.

Well don’t that beat all? Did the Won just now get around to reading his Econ 101 briefing book?

And why did the President have to go to China to lecture us on the inherent problems with deficit spending?

President Barack Obama gave his sternest warning yet about the need to contain rising U.S. deficits, saying on Wednesday that if government debt were to pile up too much, it could lead to a double-dip recession.

With the U.S. unemployment rate at 10.2 percent, Obama told Fox News his administration faces a delicate balance of trying to boost the economy and spur job creation while putting the economy on a path toward long-term deficit reduction.

…"It is important though to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession," he said.

Just a couple thoughts: first, what recovery, Mr. President? Just because Joey pronounces it, doesn’t mean it’s real. Check your statistical reports. They’re anemic.

Secondly, if he knows deficit spending is likely to cripple us further, how can he possibly justify the course he’s got this country on? Healthcare reform that only a moron would believe is going to be funded by the stated sources, and a cap and trade plan that - in addition to being stupid 10 ways to Tuesday – will cost individuals and businesses an arm and a leg while accomplishing nothing (other than further delaying the development of future energy needs).

For the love of God, this man even makes Jimmy Carter look smart.

But I guess we see why he doesn’t like to talk to Fox News. They always make him look bad.

whineybaby

whiney baby h/t Tammy Bruce

Saving the Ta-Tas

Here’s an exact copy of an email team Dewey got from the White House two weeks ago (Dewey can be remiss in regularly checking all his email accounts). I have no idea how the White House got our email, but thought you might enjoy their attempt at “getting their message out” to all the good sheeple.

 

It's not working for women...
The White House, Washington

Our broken health care system that is. That’s right -- it’s not working for many women and their families.
In many states, insurance companies can still discriminate on the basis of gender -- and not just on costs. In some states, maternity care is not covered because pregnancy can be seen as a “pre-existing condition.” It’s even legal in some states to deny a woman coverage because she’s been a victim of domestic violence!
That’s not right. Nobody in America should be treated that way. That’s why First Lady Michelle Obama is standing up for women and families in this newest video. Take a look:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Women-Mothers-Families-and-Reform/?e=16&ref=image

With health insurance reform, the days of discrimination based on gender will be over. Insurance companies will be banned from denying coverage because of a pre-existing condition, or dropping your coverage when you get sick and need it most. They will have to cover preventive care like mammograms and pap smears. And they will be forced to abide by yearly caps on how much they can charge you for out-of-pocket expenses.
But we can’t make health insurance reform a reality without your help. As the First Lady says, talk to your family, your friends, your neighbors.
Share this video with them and help get the word out about what’s at stake. It’ll take all of us working together to deliver the change we need on health care. 

Thanks,
Nancy-Ann
Nancy-Ann DeParle
Director, White House Office of Health Reform

http://www.whitehouse.gov/?e=16&ref=whi

 


Pretty cool. An email. From the White House.

Maybe they should elaborate just a bit on exactly what kind of health care they really have in mind for women (and we assume everyone else as well.) Let’s start with this; ladies, you can now forget about your annual mammogram: New guidelines released by an influential government-funded authority on screening offer this message: never mind.

Yep,they’ve pulled a Rosanna Rosanna Dana on everything we’ve ever been told.  The  U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends you start mammograms at age 50 (currently 40)and have them every two years (currently annual). And remember those self-exams you were supposed to be doing monthly? You can skip them altogether now; in fact the U.S. PSTF demands that you stop. For your own good. You see, these new guidelines are meant to  give you  – peace of mind. Don’t worry your pretty little head.

The guidelines were formed by weighing benefits of screening compared with the harms of false positives, such as anxiety and unnecessary additional tests and biopsies, which are expensive and time-consuming.”

Boy, if this doesn’t smack of liberal-logic, I don’t know what does. As we’ve previously posted here and here, this is all about cost containment. Government provided healthcare cannot possibly begin to cover the types of tests and procedures that are now commonly available and used. It’s that simple: it COSTS TOO MUCH!

So if you also think this might have something to do with cost savings, get in line, because so do a whole lot of other people: doctors and scientists in the fields of oncology, radiology and cancer research.  Even Reuters is reporting a whiff of disingenuousness:

Cancer experts fear new U.S. breast imaging guidelines that recommend against routine screening mammograms for women in their 40s may have their roots in the current drive in Washington to reform healthcare.

Critics of the guidelines, issued on Monday by the U.S. Services Task Force, an independent panel sponsored by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Quality, say the new guidelines are a step backward and will lead to more cancer deaths.

Dr. Kopans, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School expresses out right cynicism:

"What is going to happen is insurers are going to say, 'The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force doesn't support screening. We're not going to pay for it,'" said Dr Daniel Kopans, professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and a senior radiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

"There were no new data to assess. One has to wonder why these new guidelines are being promulgated at a time when healthcare is under discussion and I am afraid their decision is related to saving money rather than saving lives," Kopans said.

Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer society says his group will still recommend mammograms for 40-something women, but expresses the obvious concern:

Lichtenfeld and other doctors are worried that insurance companies and government insurers will seize on the recommendations as a way to control rising health costs.

The list of critics is long: Mayo Clinic Researcher, Miami Herald, New York Times (!)… I think you get the point.

If you actually trust the government, operating as a single source Medical System – because that’s what it will become – to have checks and balances in place to avoid abuse and ensure you the best health care possible, well, you need to seek mental health care while it’s still available in this great country of ours.

As for us, we’re just confused. Do we want to save the ta-tas or not?

saveTeeWhite

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

More On Our Great Historic Leader

Tammy Bruce shares a few of Charles Krauthammer’s choice words regarding Obama’s trip overseas with us, and encourages us to do the same. So here it is: enjoy.

obama-dunking-bird 

“Well, that was definitely a world class bow in Tokyo.

    …there was a second incident that I found interesting when the President declared himself the first Pacific President. That’s because he grew up and spent some of his childhood in Hawaii, and in Indonesia and his mom took him on a visit to Japan, although all he remembers of that, as he says, was the ice cream. The first Pacific President? Well, Teddy Roosevelt, he built the Panama Canal in order to make the United States a Pacific power and he did. William Howard Taft, his successor, was the governor of the Philippines and John Kennedy and George Bush, Sr. were in the Pacific in the Second World War and spent some time in the Pacific Ocean itself. Bush, after having been shot down from his airplane and Kennedy after having his ship cut in half by a Japanese patrol boat. So these people actually spend time in the Pacific, but in Obama’s mind, it doesn’t in any way match the experience of the baby Jesus — excuse me, the baby Obama growing up on some Pacific island. The narcissism of the man is rather unbounded.

    Everything in Obama’s life makes him world historical.”

 

But it’s not about him.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Barrack Hussein Obama: The Musical

Barrack Hussein Obama continued his Far East Apology Tour this week. He continued to spend time bowing, scraping and prostrating himself in front of minor dignitaries and heads of state. His campaign to convince the rest of the world that the United States is now a third rate country seems to be gaining traction, as the Chinese seemed emboldened enough to lecture Obama on his inept handling of the economy.

But even between the stresses of the job, BHO found time to audition children for his next road show, Barrack Hussein Obama: the Musical. Mmm, Mmm, Mmm.

barry's kids Photo from WaPo: Children pose with wax figure of President Obama at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, Shanghai

These kids will be great for the European and Far East Brown Shirt tour, since they aren’t subject to the child labor laws imposed by Western governments.

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Sunday, November 15, 2009

Bow-rac Obama: Keeping It Real

Bowing

Question: Why would a powerful, narcissistic head-of-state bow to foreign royalty?

Answer: For the same reason liberals bow to the proprietors of certain ethnic restaurants; because they feel superior to them. And that makes them feel a little bit guilty.

And so now we have the Great Far Eastern Apology Tour. This time it’s more nuanced. The apologies are a bit more oblique. Such as this.

Obama is now the only sitting President who has failed to unabashedly defend the United States dropping  the A-bomb on Japan to end the war.  Obama couldn’t bring himself to do that. The video must really be watched to see how pathetically he handled a question that somebody in the State Department surely must have prepared him to answer. Bottom line: he couldn’t/didn’t answer the perennial question of whether we should have dropped the bomb. I am uncomfortable having someone serving as my president who can’t/won’t respond to that question.

 

H/T Powerline

If, when you’re done watching, you are confused by the President’s position, perhaps this previous post will help explain:  BHO’s thoughts on nuclear disarmament while still in college. Interesting, if for no other reason than it refers to the only documented example of Obama’s thinking from all of his brilliant collegiate years. (Apparently some prof found a copy of this old Sundial article in his files, or we wouldn’t have seen it either.) It may also explain why there are no other papers, articles or dissertations by the gifted one in circulation.

That brings us to the bow. To the emperor of Japan.

Heads of state DO NOT bow to royalty according to Thomas Lifson at American Thinker (his article has links to several photos demonstrating this fact). But even given that, Obama still got the bow wrong: there is no touching in bowing.

bo bow bowing1

Who does this guy take protocol lessons from anyway? His Sushi chef? It seems odd, given that State has an entire department dedicated to nothing but protocol, that Obama would not have been adequately briefed on appropriate behavior, especially after the flap over the “non-bow” to the Saudi king.

bowoSo let’s say ignorance of proper protocol probably is not the issue. There is something about the narcissistic personality that doesn’t think that rules – any rules – apply to them. Rules are for the others, the lessers, the little people. Narcissists charmingly do as they please.

They present the Queen of England with a tacky gift that’s also indicative of their totally self-absorbed nature, they refer to Great Britain in formal remarks as “England” (The Scots wish it were), they bow to the Saudi King and the Japanese Emperor and they scoff at the critics. They are simply being their charming, self-effacing selves. Keeping it real.

You know what I need a little less of in our President? Phony self-effacement.

It simply makes him look like a horses behind.

bowing horses ass

H/T on protocol : Touched With Fire

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Saturday, November 14, 2009

This Is Your Government With Drugs

The doctor is in:

dr obamaIt’s a beautiful Saturday in November. In Michigan it’s likely to be the last beautiful day we see for months. How would you like to spend it? Football game, yard clean-up, Christmas lights? How about waiting in line for a swine flu shot provided by Wayne County Health Services?(Assuming you are eligible per Obama-care guidelines. Note, we are not rationing. We are simply determining eligibility)

IMG_0695 

This is a scene at Schoolcraft College in Western Wayne County around noon. This is only one side of the line. It wraps around an entire complex of buildings. And do you see those little structures with white roofs that look like bus stops? They’re actually port-a-potties put in place for the occasion. So don’t tell me that government’s not efficient.

IMG_0697 Another view

The shots were only for the high priority group and were scheduled from 10:00 till 4:00. I’m betting they ran out well before that.

Oh, and by the way: I spotted at least 6 uniformed police on the premises while cruising through the parking lot. Probably on overtime. Not sure what they were there for. The crowd didn’t appear unruly and since everyone had been parked  for hours, traffic wasn’t really an issue either. But maybe they were expecting riots when they announced they ran out of vaccine.

There you have it: this is your government with drugs. “I’ll decide who gets them, where they get them, and (gulp) if they work.”

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Thursday, November 12, 2009

Just When You Think Nothing Can Surprise You Any More: Updated

MOTUS received this communiqué from one of her faithful readers and insisted that I post it in it’s entirety here. It’s from HillBuzz, a blog by two gay Hillary supporters from Chicago who were completely disgusted with the Chicago style head-butting that took Hillary out and shooed “Mr. Utopia” into office.

Here is the uncut post. Available at HillBuzz in it’s original. Just so you know I’m not making this up.

 

Thank you former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush


We know absolutely no one in Bush family circles and have never met former President George W. Bush or his wife Laura.

If you have been reading us for any length of time, you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.

Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.

We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster.  President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it.  ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.

Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush.  We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11.  He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone.  More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.

Honestly, we don’t think President Gore would have been much better that day.  The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that.

As we will always be grateful for what George and Laura Bush did this week, with no media attention, when they very quietly went to Ft. Hood and met personally with the families of the victims of this terrorist attack.

FOR HOURS.

The Bushes went and met privately with these families for HOURS, hugging them, holding them, comforting them.

If there are any of you out there with any connection at all to the Bushes, we implore you to give them our thanks…you tell them that a bunch of gay Hillary guys in Boystown, Chicago were wrong about the Bushes…and are deeply, deeply sorry for any jokes we told about them in the past, any bad thoughts we had about these good, good people.

You may be as surprised by this as we are ourselves, but from this day forward George W. and Laura Bush are now on the same list for us as the Clintons, Geraldine Ferraro, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, and the other political figures we keep in our hearts and never allow anyone to badmouth.

Criticize their policies academically and intelligently and discuss the Bush presidency in historical and political terms…but you mess with the Bushes personally and, from this day forward, you’ll answer to us.

We hope someday to be able to thank George W. and Laura in person for all they’ve done, and continue to do.  They didn’t have to head to Ft. Hood.  That was not their responsibility.

The Obamas should have done that.

But didn’t.

Wouldn’t.

Thank goodness George W. is still on his watch, with wonderful Laura at his side.

We are blessed as a nation to have these two out there…just as we are blessed to have the Clintons on the job, traveling the world doing the good they do.

And we are blessed to have Dick Cheney, wherever he is, keeping tabs on all that’s going on and speaking out when the current administration does anything too reckless and dangerous.

Cheney’s someone else we villainized and maligned in the past who we were also wrong about.  There has never been a Vice President, including Gore, Biden, or Mondale, who was more supportive of gay rights than “Darth Cheney”. There has never been a Vice President more spot-on right about the dangers facing this country from Islamic terrorism.

We live in strange, strange times indeed.

We are now officially committed fans of George W. and Laura Bush.  We are fans of Dick Cheney.  Our gratitude for them makes us newly protective of them, and the continued role they play in this country.

After the primary battle of 2008, we never thought we’d go back to Texas for anything, but sometime in 2010 we want to find some event in Dallas the Bushes will be at so at least one of us can go up to them, tell them we are deeply sorry for ever thinking ill of them, and thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their service to America.

We’re sure they will just stare at us and wonder why these gay Chicagoans are crying, but we don’t think we can get through a meeting with them without being emotional.

What they did at Ft. Hood for those families humbles us.  Every day, the Bushes are most likely doing something just like it behind the scenes.

We hope if any of you encounter them you will let them know this is deeply appreciated beyond partisan lines.

We will never look at the Bushes, the Bush presidencies, or their legacies the same again…and someday when his presidential library is built, we will be so proud to visit there and tell anyone will listen about November 10th, 2009, the day we finally appreciated former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.

Thank you for your service, Mr. President.  We’re sorry we didn’t appreciate you while you were in office, but we thank Heaven we’ve wised up and can see the good you are out there doing, under the radar, today.

*******

NOTE:  Because some of you wanted to re-read it again and have emailed us to ask for it, here’s what we said to President Bush on January 20th, at the beginning of The Golden Age of Hope and Change and Unicorns.

It’s actually really interesting to read the comments from way back then, to see either how mad at us people were that we dared to say anything nice about Bush or how pleased others out there were that Hillary Dems weren’t being evil to the man as he left office.

Visit the original, as the comments are worth reading too.

Update 11-16: I don’t know how this eluded me, but this post at Hillbuzz was posted earlier the same day. We are very close to no longer being Democrats, in which the Hillbuzz boys say:

For YEARS we’ve heard Republicans talk about what an insane cancer liberalism is, and how much liberals want to destroy America as we know it.

We never believed them…but the last few days have given a new clearness to everything for us.

Welcome to the “No-sheeples” network, boys.

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Another Sort of Veteran’s Day Story

Yikes. Under Britain’s socialized medical system, even if you’ve had a fall nasty enough to warrant X-rays, there may not be anyone around to read them.

That’s what happened to Hugh Jackson who took a bad tumble in his yard, hit his head on an apple tree and knocked himself out. Although the hospital took X-rays, they sent him home with painkillers. Sometime the next day a radiologist finally read the X-rays and sent an ambulance racing to Mr. Jackson’s home for what was a potentially life-threatening situation.  He was then immobilized on his back for five days. Unfortunately, he also had a lung disease which made immobility on his back counter-indicative: certainly not without adequate respiratory therapy treatments.

Sadly, Mr. Jackson died a few weeks later from the lung complications. An inquest determined that the cause of death was “natural causes.”

Maybe natural in Britain. Let’s hope they don’t become “natural” here as well.

By the way, Mr. Jackson was an 87 year old Royal Air Force WWII Veteran. But they did give him painkillers.

Veteran’s Day Tribute

A Veteran’s Day tribute via Retriever, who also has a fine reflection on the origin of Poppy Day:

In Flanders Field

In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place: and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders' fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe;
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high,
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders' Fields.

John McCrae, 1915.

“Words? Just Words”

Kudo's to the President. He delivered a fine speech at the memorial for the fallen soldiers at Fort Hood. It was appropriate and respectful in a muted and almost eloquent way. Not generally terms that I associate with Obama. In fact it was strikingly different from the usual piffle he spouts that is nearly always peppered with self-referential acknowledgments.

Speaking of his taped address at the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall, Neo-neocon took him to task today for just that unseemly habit:

As part of his taped address, Obama intoned:

    “Few would have foreseen … that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent.”

I have a bit of a quarrel with the word “led” to refer to what Obama is doing to this country. But of course, it’s never about him—except when it is. The man seems compelled to continually bring his personal history into each and every occasion, even when he can’t be bothered to be personally present.

This afternoon’s speech was actually so uncharacteristic as to give me pause over who the actual author might have been. But for this occasion it doesn’t matter. More important that the correct tone was struck, and the grieving families and troops made to feel that they are not adrift in a sea of political correctness.  And Obama did that. Speaking as America’s Commander-in-Chief he recognized the wanton murder of  the fallen soldiers. His address focused on the points that needed to be emphasized: sorrow for the deaths of 13 fallen soldiers, solace for the survivors, recognition of the exceptional mettle of our troops and the significance of their sacrifices:

Every evening that the sun sets in a tranquil town; every dawn that a flag is unfurled; every moment that an American enjoys life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—that is their legacy,”

And a passing but crucial acknowledgement that this was not just the result of some guy who snapped due to pre-traumatic stress disorder:

 “But this much we do know - no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor.”

He didn’t dwell on it, but he also didn’t offer up these fallen souls as sacrifice on the alter of diversity. For that I’m grateful. For that I’m willing to cut him some slack on the delivery, which to me sounded a little too stilted for the the most eloquent speaker in the history of the world. At lease he recognized that this wasn’t the usual political drivel he’s used to. Of course he was uncomfortable.

As Touched With Fire noted: “Maybe it's moments like today, where he had to face the Fort Hood community as Commander-in-Chief, that might help him to grow into the job.”

Maybe they aren’t just words after all.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

When The Gales of November Came Early: Update with Video Link


Gordon Lightfoot: The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

For those not familiar with the Great Lakes Basin, it is comprised of a vast series of in-land seas. Four of the Great Lakes more or less wrap around Michigan, continue east to Ontario on their way through Niagara Falls before flowing into the Atlantic ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway. The Great Lakes basin is the busiest commercial waterway in the world, shipping coal, iron ore and grain around the world.

great lakes

But for the ocean going behemoths that ply these seas, the Great Lakes can be as treacherous as any ocean. Storms here have claimed hundreds of ships and thousands of lives over the last two centuries. The Great Storm of 1913 alone took 250 people and 19 ships to a watery demise. That storm, also known as the “White Hurricane” took place over the course of 3 days in November during which two storms converged creating a blizzard on the Great Lakes accompanied by hurricane force winds.These conditions can cause a series of rogue waves, known as the three sisters on the Great Lakes because they usually come as a trio and are said to be anywhere from a 20 to 90 foot wall of water.

But as deadly as the storm of 1913 was, the most infamous ship wreak on the Great Lakes is the S. S. Edmund Fitzgerald; due in no small part to it’s being immortalized by Gordon Lightfoot.

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The Fitzgerald set sail from Superior, Wisconsin on the afternoon of Sunday, November 9, 1975 under Captain Ernest M. McSorley. She was en route to the steel mill on Zug Island, near Detroit, Michigan, with a full cargo of taconite. A second freighter, the Arthur M. Anderson, destined for Gary, Indiana out of Two Harbors, Minnesota, joined up with the Fitzgerald which, being the faster ship, was in the lead.

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Path of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior.

On the night of November 10, 1975 the Edmund Fitzgerald encountered one of the Great Lakes’ apocryphal late fall storms. Facing gale force winds of up to 45 knots and 16 -20 foot waves the Fitz lost radar and began taking on water. The official Coast Guard report cited “faulty hatch covers, lack of water tight cargo hold bulkheads and damage caused from an undetermined source.”

There are conflicting theories. Great Lakes mariners tend to favor the three sisters theory: in part because the Arthur Anderson, trailing a few miles behind, encountered two of the monster waves - estimated to be 30 feet high - themselves while still in contact with the Fitz. What is indisputable is that she went down with all 29 hands in Lake Superior just 17 miles from safe harbor in Whitefish Bay.

On this anniversary of the Fitz’s sinking, please join in our tradition of a proper Michigan toast to the ship and crew that went down in one of the worst storms documented in the history of Great Lakes shipping.

Most other locations have a mariner’s drink called the “dark and stormy” made of dark rum and Jamaican ginger beer.

GALES OF NOVEMBER

What we drink around here is similar but we’ve christened it the “Gales of November”. You’ll need an ounce and a half of Gosling’s black run, approximately 5 ounces of Vernor’s ginger ale and ice, if you must. Stir once, pray for the lost souls, and try not to think of the icy depths of Lake Superior on that fateful night.

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The Edmund Fitzgerald on a clear day

Update: Here’s an excellent video including footage of the underwater wreckage from Mrs. P at Patum Peperium

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Monday, November 9, 2009

Janet Napolitano Nailed It

Didn’t Janet Napolitano tell us months ago that the terrorists we really had to worry about were in the Army?

From the Department of Homeland Security February 20, 2009 report "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment:"

(U) Disgruntled Military Veterans

(U//FOUO) DHS/I&A assesses that rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

I guess Major Nidal Hasan has proved her to be correct. She just failed to mention that they would also be Islamic extremists in contact with Al-Qaeda.

Maybe DHS needs to update their intelligence. Yes, both ways.

 Hot Air covers all the sordid details.