THE DANGER OF WARMISM IS NOT TO THE PLANET BUT THE SANITY OF ITS ADVOCATES
Climate change is as grave a threat as the Ebola virus or the terrorists of the Islamic State, Secretary of State John Kerry said in anticipation of the UN conference in New York this week. All but a "tiny minority" of "extreme ideologues" in the "Flat Earth Society" think the planet is warming dangerously, he said in speeches in Indonesia and Hawaii. The temperature of the earth has been stable "for literally millions of years," Mr. Kerry said. When the most recent ice age peaked about 20,000 years ago, there was a glacier where Chicago is today. Lake Michigan is the residue from it. Palm trees once grew in Antarctica. During the Roman and Medieval Warm Periods 2,000 and 1,000 years ago, grapes grew in Northern England and Newfoundland. Only a blithering idiot would say the earth's temperature has been stable "for literally millions of years." But it was when Mr. Kerry said greenhouse gases are "a very thin layer of gases - a quarter inch, half an inch, somewhere in that vicinity - way up there at the edge of the atmosphere" that he set a "new standard for utter imbecility," said Mr. Ebell, environmental expert for the Competitive Enterprise Institute.
THE DOUBLE DEATH KNELL OF WARMISM AND DEMOCRAT FASCISM
The Left died last Sunday (9/21). It was a spectacular demise, with 400,000 weirdly costumed moonbats clogging up the streets of downtown Manhattan engaged in a "People's Climate March." What we witnessed was the socio-political equivalent of what biologists call "death fluorescence." They've actually photographed a death wave of bright blue fluorescence propagating through an organism as it dies. Reason TV essentially recorded the same phenomenon in New York on Sunday:
POLITICIANS NEED AN “OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY ADDICTS ANONYMOUS” PROGRAM
[This speech was delivered by Australian Senator David Leyonhjelm on the floor of the Australian Senate Chamber in Canberra on Tuesday, September 23] My name is David and I am an OPM addict. Actually, that is not true; I am not addicted. I might be one of the very few people in this house who is not, because addiction to OPM is a national crisis and I am surrounded by addicts. I am not talking about the drug opium but something far more terrible. I am talking about an addiction to other people's money. Spending other people's money on other people is what we do here. It is the worst kind of expenditure and it explains why so much public money is wasted. An inevitable characteristic of OPM is that so many grand government plans are destined for failure. Before we can do something about our addiction to OPM, we must first acknowledge our problem. What we need is an OPM Addicts Anonymous. Many government programs are not created because people demand them or because the market was unable to provide the services but because politicians have bought favor with OPM. Politicians are addicted to OPM because they use it to expand their influence, reward political cronies and keep their constituencies dependent on them. The time has come to admit: Politicians pretending to be compassionate, when all they are doing is handing out other people's money, are just thieves masquerading as angels.
THE BARBARIANS ARE INSIDE OUR GATES
Authorities uncovered and disrupted a plot by terrorists of the Islamic State to kidnap some Australians at random, behead them, make videos of the beheadings. In dawn raids Sept. 18, 800 federal and state law enforcement officers made 15 arrests in Sydney and Brisbane. More raids were conducted the next day. There are about 500,000 Moslems in Australia. About 160 are active supporters of the terror group, authorities suspect. At least 20 have returned to Australia after fighting for IS in Syria and Iraq, according to the Australian Secret Intelligence Service. We're the "Great Satan" in the Islamic State's demonology. Australia isn't even the "Little Satan." Australia hasn't bombed them. We have. If IS was planning kidnappings and beheadings there, why couldn't - our wouldn't - IS be planning comparable acts of terror here? There are about 2.6 million Moslems living in America today, up from 1 million in 2000, according to the 2010 U.S. Religion Census. At least 100, perhaps as many as 300 "Americans" are fighting with IS in Syria and Iraq, "senior U.S. officials" told the Washington Times. About 40 who fought with IS have returned to the U.S., said Rep. Tim Bishop, D-NY. For every one who went overseas to fight, there could be as many as ten IS supporters here at home. Former colleagues still on the job have told him "with no uncertainty" that IS has established "sleeper" cells in the U.S., former CIA Middle East operative Bob Baer told CNN's Jake Tapper.
ANTI-FRACKING ZEALOTS ARE THE ENEMIES OF HUMANITY
Recent news stories underscore the tremendous benefits brought by America's fracking revolution. * The global economy saves $4.9 billion per day in oil spending because of the shale oil boom. Without it there would be a 3 million barrel per day shortfall and prices would likely be 55% higher: $150/barrel. * Rust Belt cities and industries - from manufacturing, real estate and law to hotels, restaurants and many others - are rebounding because of drilling, fracking and production in nearby shale areas. In Ohio unemployment fell to 5.7% in July from 10.6% four years ago; oil output increased 26% just from the previous quarter, while gas production rose 31% - generating billions in state and local revenues. * The US oil and natural gas boom means jobs and business for almost 30,000 companies within the industry's vast and complex supply chain. Indeed, the petroleum industry accounts for nearly 10 million jobs and almost 8% of all domestic economic activity, including states far from actual drilling activities. * The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers launched a new website to help veterans and other men and women find high-paying jobs in the booming oilfield, fuel and petrochemical industries. The benefits of fracking are in the trillions, while the alleged risks are exaggerated or even fabricated. So what drives anti-fracking zealots who seem to materialize en masse whenever a new project is announced?
THE WORLD’S PROBLEM IS TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT
Yes, the world is a mess -- but there is a long-run solution. Most countries, including those with the biggest economies, are plagued with slow growth and rising, unsustainable debt burdens. The slow growth is in large part a result of excessively large government sectors -- with taxes, regulations and spending far beyond the optimal. And the rise in debt increases the pressure for more taxes, which slows growth even further and thus fuels the demand for even more government spending to take care of the growing numbers of those "left behind" (because of the lack of growth). This is an economic death spiral. Citizens in many countries, including the United States, feel they have lost control of their own governments -- because they have. They no longer think they are masters of their destinies. Large centralized government, by its nature, becomes uncaring at best, and brutal and oppressive at worst. The movement for secession in Scotland was a cry to regain control. There are secession moments all through Europe, as well as the rest of the world. A few examples:
THE DEMOCRATS’ WHITE VOTER PROBLEM
Hardly a week goes by without some Democrat Party hack putting finger to iPad and swiping out a screed about the Republican Party's problem with women or minorities. This time it was Debbie Wasserman Schultz with "The GOP's Woman Problem." Schultz claims that the Republican Party was "rejected again by a bloc of voters that make up more than half of the electorate." That claim is as real as Schultz's hair color. The Republican Party doesn't have a "woman problem." Romney in 2012 won the votes of white women in every age group; including young women. And Obama lost white women as he did all white voters. He lost white voters by 59% to 39%. He lost white voters of every age and gender. His loss among white voters was completely unprecedented for any winner of a presidential election. The GOP doesn't have a "woman problem," but the Democrats have a "white woman problem" and a "white man problem." The articles about the GOP's problem with minority voters blame the Republican Party for alienating minority voters. But shouldn't the Democrat Party be held accountable for alienating white voters? This is about more than just numbers.
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/19/14
Right now and for the next 46 days until November 4, we are in a street fight for the life of America. Which is why Ann Coulter said yesterday (9/18) that the only thing that matters right now is winning the Senate. She's right. There's no possible way to even slow down Zero's commitment for America's demise with Harry Reid still Majority Leader for the next two years. But she forgot about Louisiana... Compounding the bad news (good news for us) for Putin's Russia is a host of threats by ISIS to "liberate Chechnya and all the Caucasus" from Russia. Lots of Chechens are getting their "terrorist field training" with ISIS, and will now be bringing their skills back to their homeland. Chechnya is one of a half-dozen regions of the Russian North Caucasus with a predominately Moslem population... Meanwhile, the Zero Madness continues in DC. On Monday (9/15), he announced he wants to send 3,000 US soldiers to Liberia to somehow combat the Ebola virus. This is criminally insane. But here's the big question, asked by IBD: If protecting us from Ebola far away in Africa is so panic-button-pushing important, why is Zero doing nothing or saying anything about "the strange new diseases now spreading and infecting Americans here, which at least one prominent U.S. doctor says may be spread by illegal aliens now in our country with zero health care screening as part of Obama's open borders policy"?
HALF-FAST IN IRAQ
I joined the Marines during the war in Vietnam. Veterans of that era think it was lost because of the political constraints President Lyndon Johnson imposed on military operations. We lost because LBJ ordered on again, off again pinprick air attacks on nothingburger targets in North Vietnam to "send a message." The message North Vietnamese leaders got was the Americans wouldn't seriously harm them. Half measures in war end badly. Politicians decide whether to go to war, set strategic objectives. But political constraints on tactics diminish the effectiveness of military action. To send messages, you use Western Union, not the Air Force. We could have won easily, as I show below. And now, President Zero is being LBJ Redux in Iraq, fighting a half-fast war more to mollify domestic political critics than to deal with the threat ISIS poses.
IS DARRELL ISSA BEING BLACKMAILED?
I first met Darrell Issa on Halloween. He was a freshman Congressman in 2001, and he came to a Halloween Party my wife and I had at our home in McLean, Virginia. Two of his California colleagues, both good friends of ours, brought him. I make the world's greatest eggnog and it was served liberally. Given the crowd, the conversation naturally turned to politics and geopolitics. We were having a merry libational time solving the world's problems when the subject of Israel came up. Issa, who had been quiet, launched into a passionate plea for the Palestinian Arab "Right of Return." John Fund of the Wall Street Journal and I instantly glanced at each other, for we both well knew this was code for advocating the extinction of Israel. My ever-vigilant bride Rebel noticed, realized the conversation could go quickly sideways, and deftly changed the subject. Given this introduction, it came as little surprise to me that, one month later (11/30/01) conservative columnist Debbie Schlussel denounced Issa as "Jihad Darrell" for his public support of Hezbollah and Yasser Arafat. As a freshman, Issa was touted as "the richest man in Congress" - which he still is, with a net worth of over $355 million. That money, adroitly spent on generous campaign donations to one's colleagues, enables you to ascend the Congress power hierarchy. Which is why, when the Pubs got their majority back in January 2011, he was anointed as Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. And what has he accomplished regarding the most scandal-ridden presidency in US history? Nothing. Why?