POLIBLOG

POLLIWOG (Tadpole): the early stage of an animal that will eventually become a frog, hoping to be kissed by a princess, turning into a prince! POLIBLOG (Political Blog): the early stage of a center-right political blog that may eventually become a full blown blog of the center-right. Join in if you find any merit in the comments. If you are on the left and disagree, feel free to straighten me out! Who knows, with effort from all of us this blog may turn into a prince!

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Location: San Diego, California, United States

Monday, December 28, 2009

Why I Think Global Warming and Sustainability "are mostly bunk"!

In todays WSJ L. Gordon Crovitz writes "Technology Predictions Are Mostly Bunk", his view how technology improvements actually happen and the perception as documented by various quotations from the past. The key paragraphs:


'"Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further developments," said Roman engineer Julius Sextus Frontinus in 10 A.D. This end-of-progress view has been echoed many times, including by Charles Duell, commissioner for the U.S. Patent Office, who in 1899 said, "Everything that can be invented has already been invented."

It's worth recalling, especially in a gloomy year like the one drawing to an end, that the opposite is true: The more we invent, the more we invent. Knowledge grows on itself. '


You not only can't precict the future, but making decisions on technological predictions - either positive or negative - is a fools errand.

I particularly like this example: "No one will need more than 637kb of memory for a personal computer - 640K ought to be enough for anybody," Bill Gates, Microsoft, 1981.

Read the column, it is quite interesting!

P.S.: I am writing this on a Toshiba portable with 1 gig of RAM and 160 gig of disk drive!

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Thursday, December 24, 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

2009 has been a hell of a year - unfortunately for the Dems a true year of INFAMY after this mornings vote on ObamaCare.

I hold hope we can fix ObamaCare after the 2010 election with majorities in both the House and the Senate.

You say it can't happen? Follow the reactions to the passing of this Bill, the beginnning of defections in the House and the withdrawal of Dem opposition to any Republican within striking distance.

I am looking forward to 2010 as the nation wakes up to the facts of ObamaCare and the Dems are set back for another two or three decades. Optimistic? You bet, but we can compare notes in mid-November, 2010!

Again, have a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous and Healthy New Year!

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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

A Logical Analysis That Makes it Difficult to Defend Global Warming Alarmists

Debra Saunders in "A Cool Wind Braces the Hot-Air Crowd" gives her view of the Global Warming controversy with a calm and logical inspection of their actions. An example:


"You may have read about the 1,200 limos and 140 private planes commissioned to transport COP-15 [Copenhagen] dignitaries in style. Critics love to point to the hypocrisy of world leaders -- such as Prince Charles and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown -- touching down in separate private planes to a conference ostensibly dedicated to curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

But it's the Flying High Lords of Greendom's air of unreality that concerns me. If world leaders truly believed that global warming will lead to famine, rising sea levels and melting of the North Pole ice -- along with countless deaths -- surely they would want to set an example by flying commercial."


It is obvious this is true, so if they don't believe greenhouse gases are a problem, why do they keep saying so? Could it be another agenda?

Read the entire column to keep this alarmism in check!

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Monday, December 21, 2009

"When Liberal Dreams Collide With Public Opinion"

Micheal Barone shares his analysis of what the BHO administration is doing and why it most likely is a big mistake. Pointing out that he is the third Democrat elected in the last 40 years by campaigning in the center and governing on the left, to the dissatisfaction of the his constituency.

His first and last paragraph summarize quite well:


"In the Bella Center on the south side of Copenhagen and in the Senate chamber on the north side of the Capitol, we're seeing what happens when liberal dreams collide with American public opinion. It's like what happens when a butterfly collides with the windshield of a speeding SUV. Splat.

.....

Obama first came to national attention in 2004 by promising to heal partisan, ideological and racial divisions. Like the other two Democratic presidents elected in the last 40 years, he campaigned in the center and started off governing on the left. In Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill, we are seeing the results. Splat."


We shall see if this administration goes "splat" just as Jimmy Carter's and Bill Clinton's did - in Clinton's case his being malleable enough to move to center and even center right policies in many cases - a trait I do not believe BHO possesses!

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

"What Copenhagen Exposed"

David Warren's column in the Ottawa Citizen is the finest and clearest explanation of what the Global Warming Cabal is, along with a suggestion of action to be taken by all of us. A rational look at Global Warming! The entire column is here because of its importance. I have highlighted the comments that impacted me. Comment if you wish!


"The farce in Copenhagen continues. As I have intimated before, I am not without hope for this "earth summit." I see more and more evidence that people -- "electorates" in all the western countries, where we do have elections, and can throw the bums out, which is about the only pleasure we have as "electors" -- have seen through this imposture completely. My column today cannot be the best one on this subject. For that, I must refer the same reader to the London Telegraph, and Gerald Warner's column from Friday. Rather than trying to improve upon it, let me quote his own "lead graf":

"When your attempt at recreating the Congress of Vienna with a third-rate cast of extras turns into a shambles, when the data with which you have tried to terrify the world is daily exposed as ever more phoney, when the blatant greed and self-interest of the participants has become obvious to all beholders, when those pesky polar bears just keep increasing and multiplying -- what do you do?"

He goes on to examine a farce-within-the-farce, an attempt to "leak" -- through Greenpeace, no less -- an already much-circulated "secret document" from the usual UN press-releasers, suggesting global temperatures may rise "even higher" than the delegates are already shouting from under Copenhagen's blanket of snow. As Warner says, it was a crass trick, but, "the climate alarmists are no longer in a position to pick and choose their tactics."

But as I say, this gives me reason for hope. The environmentalists have taken the "global warming" imposture so far, have pushed it with claims so ridiculous, and are by now so well exposed, that some real good is being achieved.

The participants in Copenhagen may or may not succeed in burning through another trillion or five in borrowed money, to fuel new environmentalist bureaucracies. At the moment of writing, it appears even this accomplishment will be denied to them, for they are falling out among themselves, and Barack Obama's big galvanizing speech has impressed nobody.

But even if they are able to stitch up a plastic-surgical agreement, we may well be experiencing, in Copenhagen, the event that puts an end to environmental scare-mongering for a generation. The perpetrators of this scare-mongering (and I have listed so many earlier examples in previous columns) have finally overplayed their hand.

Strange to say, my delight in this is mixed. For the planet has real "environmental issues" that have gone unaddressed at Copenhagen, and will now be harder to address in light of the fallout.

The creation of new "carbon credit" schemes to reduce "greenhouse gas emissions" was not going to alleviate any of these problems. It was only going to line the pockets of some of the world's most corrupt bureaucrats and businessmen. Their pockets were already well-lined, and if they can't profit from Copenhagen deals, they will find other ways to be paid for useless services, and continue living like Al Gore. We needn't pray for them too earnestly.

But we do need to think about ways to reduce our actual "environmental footprints," strange as this must sound coming from me. We do have major pollution problems, coming out of China and through all the "third world" as massive populations are raised out of abject poverty, wherever old-fashioned capitalism is permitted.

For the most part, even the most primitive of "third world" dictators saw through the Copenhaggling immediately, and joined in only as a way to board the latest gravy train of western guilt money. This is by now a venerable suckering operation, that began the morning after each backward country became nominally independent. It has kept their politicians rich and their peoples poor.

We can't do anything about that, unless we are prepared to invade and occupy these countries. And given our reluctance to continue even in Afghanistan and Iraq against terrorists, I see no prospect of restoring the old imperialist order.
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But we can, in more than principle, move ahead of our imitators again, by setting a better example of how to live, one man and one woman at a time. We could -- I know this sounds a little idealistic, but bear with me -- try to export the best of our old Christian civilization, instead of the worst of our post-Christian one. For my reader may recall that civilization had nothing to do with conspicuous consumption, and put more of its money in cathedrals than into personal and corporate display. To say this would be "good for the environment" is an understatement: there is so much joyful life we could recover, by simply discarding what is not genuinely useful, and getting on with the root human task of salvation, through the advancement of the good, the beautiful, and the true."


This approach is not naivete. It is slowing down the alarmists using this as a tool of enrichment while we truly resolve the problem. The same approach is being used to solve the "imagined" HealthCare problem in our country and I am hopeful that it will not succeed. The real question is: When will we all wake up!

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Along the same lines as the last post...

Ben Stein, earlier this week in The American Spectator" summarized his thoughts on the whole global warming fiasco, and he is very much in line with my beliefs, which many of you may find extreme.

I would suggest you read and think through his theories - even though they draw parallels with the dreaded subjects of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler - give it a chance!! - I believe there is merit to what he believes is driving global warming, with the possibility of the same result somewhere in the future.

No!! I'm not a kook! Think it through! And if you don't understand how Marx and Hitler came to power re-read some history.

But this article is a good primer. Read "What a Piece of Work" is man! Thought provoking!

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Peggy Noonan's Different Look at the Polls

In "The Adam Lambert Problem" Ms. Noonan gives us her take on why American's by a large majority believe our country is headed in the wrong direction - 55% to 33% in a recent WSJ/NBC news poll. She believes the reasons are not economic, but social - the Adam Lambert episode being the most recent example.

The heart of her theory:


"Mr. Lambert's act left viewers feeling not just offended but assaulted. Again, "we don't care what you do in New York," but don't include us in it, don't bring it into our homes. Our children are here.

I don't mean to make too much of it. In the great scheme of things a creepy musical act doesn't matter much. But increasingly people feel at the mercy of the Adam Lamberts, who of course view themselves, when criticized, as victims of prudery and closed-mindedness. America is not prudish or closed-minded, it is exhausted. It cannot be exaggerated, how much Americans feel besieged by the culture of their own country, and to what lengths they have to go to protect their children from it.

It's things like this, every bit as much as taxes and spending, that leave people feeling jarred and dismayed, and worried about the future of their country.

Truly, 2009 was a bad year for public behavior."


It is interesting that the percentage supportive of the direction of our country is approaching the same percentage of the "hard" left base - somewhere between 20% and 30%. Is there a correlation?

I believe this is what we in the center left, center and right - not only the "hard" right, also 20% to 30% - are fearful of. Why does the left push this cultural degeneration? What is the goal? Is personal freedom all that counts? It certainly appears to be the case. Or is it that "POWER" comes to the left elites if the culture is ripped apart?

Careful, or you may get what you wish for!!

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More Silliness of Krugman

My lefty friends should read Matt Welch in Reason - "Paul Krugman's Selective Effigies" - to note more ideological inconsistencies in our Nobel Prize winning former Enron advising economist. This time to paraphrase: "It's ok for us to hang in effigy, but not for you. In fact, I'll even recommend hanging Joe Liberman in effigy." He is embarrassing!

Anyone want to defend his level of logic? His Nobel Prize?

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Friday, December 18, 2009

Silliness of Paul Krugman

If my lefty friends can stomach this ideological silliness from your Nobel Prize winning Economist - and former Enron advisor - you have my sympathy!

From WSJ's Best of the Web Today:


"His First-Ever Accurate Prediction!

"The big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster."--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, March 29, 2005

"We need to take on the way the Senate works. The filibuster, and the need for 60 votes to end debate, aren't in the Constitution. . . . So it's time to revise the rules."--former Enron adviser Krugman, New York Times, Dec. 18, 2009"


Please explain how you can listen to these people!

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Thursday, December 17, 2009

Monbiot or "Moonbat"

I began reading George Monbiot after he denounced the Climategate data fixers, thinking a strong supporter and promoter of the man made global warming theory had "seen the light". His column in the Guardian today shows it was just a blip on his radar and did nothing to disuade him of the "truth" from these data fixers. This belief is a "religion"!

Read his proposed speech for BHO at the Copenhagen Earth Summit. It is an amazing piece and the arrogance of this Englishman is even more amazing.

The National Post gives their view of Copenhagen in "The Copenhagen PR Scam". Their estimate is the demands of the G-77 group of poor nations, a subset of UN members which includes China, India and Brazil, would cost each Canadian household C$3000.00 per year in taxes to transfer to these "poor" nations. Talk about destroying our economies!!

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Friday, December 11, 2009

"My Way Into and Out of the Left"

Andrew Klavan gives an interview I find interesting on his journey from the left to the right. My lefty friends should read and summarize the faults in his logic. The comments following the article are interesting.

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CAP AND TAX

Sometimes referred to as Cap and Trade is being pushed by the left for quite obvious reasons that you do not hear about from the MSM. A couple of columns today point this out nicely.

Kimberley Strassel in the WSJ - I know, their opinion columns are the one exception in the MSM - explains what the EPA is doing and how they have set Cap and Tax back by their actions. BHO et al want the power but do not know how to get it in our democracy! It appears to me they are "grasping at straws".

Charles Krauthammer explains "The Environmental Shakedown" of the West by the third world members of the U.N. With their allies - the extreme environmentalists of the West - they are trying everything they can. Their success will bring an end to the economic miracle we have enjoyed for a century.

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

A VERY IMPORTANT READ!!!

Michael Barone gives us clarity on what Government is trying to achieve with Obamacare, Cap and Trade, et al, and it is not a good goal - or an achievable one! We had all better wake up!

Read "Misusing Knowledge to Expand government Power". It is important to understand what is going on.

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Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Clarity from Sowell on Job Creation

Thomas Sowell explains the basic economics of job creation in his "Jobs or Snow Jobs?"

It is easy to understand if you remove your ideological glasses and think about his comments. History even bears him out - note jobless rate with FDR's policies!

BHO is on the wrong track, and the country had better wake up before we truly have a depression!

His two closing paragraphs:

"None of this is peculiar to the current administration. The Roosevelt administration created huge numbers of government jobs during the 1930s-- and yet unemployment remained in double digits throughout FDR's first two terms.

Constant government experiments with new bright ideas is another common feature of Obama's "change" and FDR's New Deal. The uncertainty that this unpredictable experimentation generates makes employers reluctant to hire. Destroying some jobs while creating other jobs does not get you very far, except politically. But politically is what matters to politicians, even if their policies needlessly prolong a recession or depression."

Governments can put people to work - "on the dole" as they say in England - but it cannot "create jobs".

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Climategate! or The CRUtape Letters!: The Other Side

George Monbiot, a British supporter of Global Warming, who fortunately is fair enough to be critical of the scientists involved in Climategate but is still a believer, summarizes the other side in his Guardian column "The climate denial industry is out to dupe the public. And it's working".

It is a good summary of the thinking on the left - worth the read to keep all in perspective. I have only two comments.


  • No one - I repeat, no one - believes that man has no effect on the Earth's weather. We are part of the eco-environment so we have an effect. The discussion is the degree - as most discussions are - and whether we should turn our societies upside down in a leftist generated hysteria which is pushed to gain them POWER! Mr. Monbiot does not address this question.
  • His point about Industry hiding global warming is also hysteria. We live in a free market society where corporations protect their business and their stockholders as a first priority - think what you will of this but it is a fact - and therefore these industries will not "promote" what will hurt their business unless it is truly a "world crisis" (you may not want to believe this, but Exxon would really stop any activity if it could be "proven" that a world crisis would happen - please don't kid yourself about the morality of our industrial management class). The leftist ideologue position that this is a "cover-up" is silly!

Any comments?

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Monday, December 07, 2009

Ahh, if we only had MATURITY in the White House!

James Taranto in the WSJ's Best of the Web Today comments on a NYT "news analysis":


"The New York Times delivers a couple of surprises in a "news analysis" on President Obama's plan for a surge in Afghanistan:

'Obama strongly opposed President George W. Bush's surge in Iraq during his presidential campaign, and even now he has never publicly acknowledged that it was largely successful.
But in the White House Situation Room a little more than a month ago, he told his aides, "It turned out to be a good thing." And as many of Mr. Obama's own advisers have recounted in recent days in interviews, the decision on the surge of 30,000 troops to Afghanistan by next summer was at least partly inspired by the success of the effort in Iraq, which Mr. Bush's aides say is their best hope that historians will give them some credit when the history of a highly problematic war is written.'


Obama has been whining for months about the "mess" he "inherited" from Bush. If he would publicly acknowledge that his predecessor got something right, it would be a welcome sign of graciousness and maturity. No, we are not holding our breath."


Perhaps our problem is an ungracious, immature President? Put in place by immature and silly left?

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Sunday, December 06, 2009

Climategate! or The CRUtape Letters!

Global Warming believers should read both of the following articles to judge their belief as scientific fact or ideological fantasy.

Steven F. Hayward writes a lengthy article in The Weekly Standard which seems to me a good factual summary of what The CRUtape Letters show us. Worth the read. His opening paragrapgh summarizes the problem with the entire situation:

  • "Slowly and mostly unnoticed by the major news media, the air has been going out of the global warming balloon. Global temperatures stopped rising a few years ago, much to the dismay of the climate campaigners. The U.N.'s upcoming Copenhagen conference--which was supposed to yield a binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction treaty as a successor to the failed Kyoto Protocol--collapsed weeks in advance and remains on life support pending Obama's magical intervention. Cap and trade legislation is stalled on Capitol Hill. Recent opinion polls from Gallup, Pew, Rasmussen, ABC/Washington Post, and other pollsters all find a dramatic decline in public belief in human-caused global warming. The climate campaigners continue to insist this is because they have a "communications" problem, but after Al Gore's Nobel Prize/Academy Award double play, millions of dollars in paid advertising, and the relentless doom-mongering from the media echo chamber and the political class, this excuse is preposterous. And now the climate campaign is having its Emperor's New Clothes moment."

George Will weighs in on the subject with "TheClimate-Change Travesty." A couple of important paragraphs:

  • "The travesty is the intellectual arrogance of the authors of climate change models partially based on the problematic practice of reconstructing long-term prior climate changes. On such models we are supposed to wager trillions of dollars -- and substantially diminished freedom.

  • Some climate scientists compound their delusions of intellectual adequacy with messiah complexes. They seem to suppose themselves a small clerisy entrusted with the most urgent truth ever discovered. On it, and hence on them, the planet's fate depends. So some of them consider it virtuous to embroider facts, exaggerate certitudes, suppress inconvenient data, and manipulate the peer review process to suppress scholarly dissent and, above all, to declare that the debate is over."

Read and evaluate these two respected pundits to decide if you are saving the planet or being a useful idiot for another agenda.

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Wednesday, December 02, 2009

BHO v Rumsfeld on Afghanistan

Below is a Rumsfeld response to a section of BHO's speech last night. Want to bet on who is telling the truth and who is lying?





"In his speech to the nation last night, President Obama claimed that "Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive." Such a bald misstatement, at least as it pertains to the period I served as Secretary of Defense, deserves a response.

I am not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006. If any such requests occurred, "repeated" or not, the White House should promptly make them public. The President's assertion does a disservice to the truth and, in particular, to the thousands of men and women in uniform who have fought, served and sacrificed in Afghanistan.


In the interest of better understanding the President's announcement last night, I suggest that the Congress review the President's assertion in the forthcoming debate and determine exactly what requests were made, who made them, and where and why in the chain of command they were denied."


We not only need clarity, but TRUTH in order to get it!

(Thanks to The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb for the quote.)

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