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Top Ten Pain in the Ass Taxes in History

Friday, August 28th, 2009

I’m late to the party here. AskMen put this up on tax day, April 15. It’s a good little nugget of research, handy for restoring the sense of perspective…or reminding yourself of what an inherently antisocial thing the tax really is…whichever seems appropriate to ya.

England only showed up twice in the list, or three times, depending on whether you think a pre-Norman Saxon society is English or not.

I’m not having much faith in the list-maker’s sense of judgment here about taxes. America’s death tax didn’t make the cut. Neither did capital gains, or the tax hike on the “wealthy” that started in the early 1930’s and continued onward from there. But it’s so outrageous that poor Al Gore has to pay a tax on his Nobel Peace Prize…when Gore’s sole contribution has been to lay the groundwork for what might very well turn out to be the most idiotic tax in all of world history.

If there was an cluelessly-unintentional-irony tax, you’d be going on the IRS’s installment plan right about now mister list-maker guy, and you’d be paying on it awhile.

Posted in Glad I Learned About This, History, ManBearPig | No Comments »

Cap and Trade Capsizing?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Ace is cautiously optimistic.

Cap and Trade off the Agenda, Now, Too?

Sounds that way.

Obama wasn’t crazy when he tried to rush socialism on us in one package. Cap and tax was his funding scheme for health care (and expanding the government generally). He was counting on those billions levied on evil energy producer (and then passed on to citizens, but in a hidden, plausible-deniability manner) to fund his spending initiatives.

Without all those sweet, sweet not-well-hidden taxes on the middle class, he is left with the options of either 1) exploding the deficit still further or 2) reneging on that pledge that is oh so important to him, to not tax the middle class further.

Ace points to Hot Air, which in turn points to Politico.

A handful of key senators on climate change are almost guaranteed to be tied up well into the fall on health care. Democrats from the Midwest and the South are resistant to a cap-and-trade proposal. And few if any Republicans are jumping in to help push a global warming and energy initiative.

As a result, many Democrats fear the lack of political will and the congressional calendar will conspire to punt climate change into next year.

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that all their initiatives have to do with making life more expensive and making the people who live that life more dependent. Every little thing they propose has to do with lowering the standard of living — save for the giveaways from the government coffers. That, to the best I can determine, is what makes it all worthwhile. All these hidden costs for being thick and stupid enough to bring things to the marketplace the legal way…the minimum wage, the social security taxes for hiring legal citizens instead of cheap illegal labor, the cap-n-trade scam “contributions”…and the decrease in our standard of living is measurable, for anyone who takes the time to do the math.

Here, let’s try it.

Two generations ago a house cost $8,000 and a skilled machinist got $4.50 an hour. He could buy that house with 1,778 hours. Can you buy a house with 1,778 hours of your time? Milk — three dollars a gallon now. Cap-and-Trade is exactly the kind of nonsense that could push it up to seven. Gasoline — three-fifty. How would you like to pay twelve? And then of course there’s health care…we all *LUV* to bitch and whine and piss and moan about the high cost of health care. That’s why we need ObamaCare! Because then it’ll all be free, right? Hey how about making it cheap instead of free? That’s what I asked at Cassy’s place, citing this article to support the idea that maybe that would be our most meaningful “reform” — tort reform, as opposed to Euroweenie single-payer health care plans. And my opposition tucks his tail under his skirt and cries wee, wee, wee, wee, wee all the way home. Not a single word comes my way in response. I opened up a taboo topic.

How come it’s always like this? Nobody wants to make anything more efficient or economical…at least nobody on the dem side of the house does. It’s always “free.” Way more expensive, and maybe paid-fer by someone else but always way more expensive…

I can’t answer this. But I think, here, we do have an irrefutable argument that liberalism is for people who lack a long-term memory. It is an argument sufficiently durable to be accepted, one piece at a time if not in total, by the most passionate democrat. Step through it with me, one step at a time, and have a liberal-dem you know validate each one —

The plan is, for any given commodity exchanged, that the transactions be conducted more sluggishly and awkwardly and therefore the price will go up, but that’s quite alright because it will be subsidized, offset, or entirely funded by the government…in other words, “free.” (The dem guy agrees.)

This puts the government in charge of things that weren’t under government control before. (The dem guy agrees.)

So benevolent and wise decisions are made, by a government run by decent people we can trust…provided we find them trustworthy… (The dem guy agrees.)

We all tend to trust people more if they share our position on the ideological spectrum. (The dem guy agrees.)

The government has been run by Republicans 28 years out of the last 41. (The dem guy…uh…starts to see where you’re going with this, and probably tries to change the subject.)

There you have it. Liberal-democrat politics are all about placing your most important life decisions in the hands of people you not only mistrust, but loathe down to the very marrow of your bones — 68% of the time. Or else, I was right when I said it’s all about sustaining a stunning ignorance about time, and the passage of it.

Maybe both.

I hope Ace is right, I really do. I hope this is one of those things where the proposed action hits a little bump in the road, and because of that one bump is pushed out of sight for generations and generations and generations. Or, to quote Ace’s commenter #1, lorien1973 — “I’m glad He’s failing.”

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Capitalism, Poisoning Individuality and Reason, Poisoning Strength, Poisoning Western Civilization | No Comments »

The Macho Response

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

UglySo Gerard sent us a link in an offline, to a politically-incorrect blog out in the Bay Area…and we hadn’t checked it out too long before it became an imperative to slam it into the sidebar.

There is an occasional picture that is not quite appropriate to an office environment, although I’m not sure this by itself justifies a “NSFW” warning…language isn’t fit for family viewing. The ideas are definitely dangerous. Unsuitable opinions. Terrible taste. Pictures of strange ugly creatures. Yup, we’re cousins, alright.

And this link, which we got here, is definitely not to be missed. It’s one of my favorite subjects: Our continuing efforts to somehow motivate the limousine liberals to live up to the same standards they slap down on the rest of us…and our ongoing failure in this effort, as they continue to impose their aristocratic, stratified, two-yardstick solution on society…

You know all those fevered editorials they churn out over there at the New York Times editorial board? Like, for instance, the hot fury published on June 30 wonderfully titled “Firefighters and Race.”

In this jewel the Times editorial board makes its displeasure plain in the very first sentence, huffing that the Supreme Court decision in favor of the New Haven firemen has “dealt a blow to diversity in the American workplace.” This was followed by a July 14th column by Times columnist Dowd titled “White Man’s Last Stand,” to which we will return shortly.

But first, let’s get the meat into the stew. You can just smell that sizzling hypocrisy, can’t you?

It seems the “American workplace” (to use the Times description) that is the New Haven fire department has a higher percentage of minorities than the American workplace that is…yes indeed… the New York Times editorial board its very self. To be quite specific:

• The New Haven fire department, according to press accounts, is 43% black and Latino. Or, if you prefer the term of art, 43% of the fire department is “minority.”

• The New York Times editorial board, according to the information provided by The New York Times, is — wait for it — 12% black and Latino. Or, again, 12 % “minority” if you prefer the term.

• The New York Times Op-Ed page team of columnists, an elite group of which Ms. Dowd is a star, is 19% black and, again according to the Times listing of its Op-Ed page columnists, 0% Latino.

That’s right. At the core of the beating intellectual heart of the left-wing establishment where such things are studied with the detail of Talmudic scholars, the New Haven fire department is doing more than three times better on race than the very liberal elites who have set themselves up as its sniffy critics. Perhaps instead of seething about “Firefighters and Race” the Times would have been better served by pondering “Editorial Writers and Race.” Or perhaps: “Too Black to Write; New York Times Column Writing and Race.”

One set of rules for Manhattan, and a different set of rules for everybody else.

Our society-at-large hasn’t been getting serious about tackling that particular problem because we’re too worked up about the planet on which we live getting too hot to sustain life, due to our not being taxed enough. The responsible thinker cannot help but wonder if the two problems are not somehow related. Anybody know off the top of their head what the annual net carbon footprint is of the New York Times? Just throw me a hint. For all I know they could be printing it on every damn page; I seldom-to-never read the thing.

But I’m certainly gonna read this “Macho Response” guy.

Posted in Is It Really a Man's World?, ManBearPig, My Blogger Friends, Poisoning Western Civilization, Racial Tension | 5 Comments »

Cap and Trade, Explained

Friday, July 17th, 2009

By Six Meat Buffet.

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Strength | 1 Comment »

“‘Cap And Tax’ Dead End”

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Sarah Palin, writing in the Washington Post today…

There is no shortage of threats to our economy. America’s unemployment rate recently hit its highest mark in more than 25 years and is expected to continue climbing. Worries are widespread that even when the economy finally rebounds, the recovery won’t bring jobs. Our nation’s debt is unsustainable, and the federal government’s reach into the private sector is unprecedented.

Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:

I am deeply concerned about President Obama’s cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.

American prosperity has always been driven by the steady supply of abundant, affordable energy. Particularly in Alaska, we understand the inherent link between energy and prosperity, energy and opportunity, and energy and security. Consequently, many of us in this huge, energy-rich state recognize that the president’s cap-and-trade energy tax would adversely affect every aspect of the U.S. economy.

There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn’t lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America’s economy.

I’m giving it two-to-one odds that this gets bottled up in the Senate. There is even a possibility, albeit a statistically negligible one, that the Senate passes it but President Obama decides He doesn’t have the stomach to sign off on it given what’s going on, and the political repercussions over the long term.

See, this notion that the hardcore environmentalist measures might do harm to the economy…it is no longer an extremist right-wing nutjob talking point. A year ago, maybe it was. Now, it’s middle-of-the-road stuff. Pain will do that. Pain makes people aware of things. People don’t want to ignore things when pain is involved.

That means there’s a one outta three shot this will become law, though. That’s way too high for my sense of comfort.

I’m from California, so if it’s worth my time to write to my senators, it’s worth everybody else’s time to do the same…and it might help to get the word out to those “moderate” friends of yours. People are in the mood for spooky tales of crumbling ice floes, drowning polar bears, and other signs of Armageddon? Try this: Thirteen dollar gallons of milk, nine dollar gallons of gas, ten dollars for a box of cereal, three to six hundred dollars for your kid’s next pair of shoes.

You need energy to create, package, transport and market all that stuff. You have to emit carbon to buy and sell them. And apologizing for your very existence is an expensive proposition.

Don’t worry, it won’t affect everything you do. Just the things that require energy.

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Capitalism, Poisoning Western Civilization, VPILF | No Comments »

Blogging is Bad for the Environment

Monday, July 13th, 2009

But you knew that already didn’t you? Yup, it’s bad. Bad when you’re putting your posts up, like I’m doing, and bad when you’re reading stuff — like you’re doing. Right. Now.

Twenty milligrams; that’s the average amount of carbon emissions generated from the time it took you to read the first two words of this article.
How green is your website? Calculating all the factors involved in a website can be tricky.

How green is your website? Calculating all the factors involved in a website can be tricky.

Now, depending on how quickly you read, around 80, perhaps even 100 milligrams of C02 have been released. And in the several minutes it will take you to get to the end of this story, the number of milligrams of greenhouse gas emitted could be several thousand, if not more.

This may not seem like a lot: “But in aggregate, if you consider all the people visiting a web site and then all the seconds that each of them spends on it, it turns out to be a large number,” says Dr. Alexander Wissner-Gross, an Environmental Fellow at Harvard University who studies the environmental impact of computing.

Wissner-Gross estimates every second someone spends browsing a simple web site generates roughly 20 milligrams of C02. Whether downloading a song, sending an email or streaming a video, almost every single activity that takes place in the virtual environment has an impact on the real one.

I’d suggest you go write a pleading apology for the damage you’ve caused, seal it up in a time capsule and bury it someplace where your own great-grandchildren will find it…but, of course, that would emit so-many-milligrams of you-know-what.

“Environmental fellow”? WTF?

Posted in ManBearPig | 3 Comments »

I Need Forgiveness From God, Not From You

Friday, June 26th, 2009

It all comes down to apologies for being. Not apologies for doing, but apologies for being.

Surely you’ve noticed, haven’t you. Anytime an issue comes up that has something to do with belief in a Capital-C Creator — it happens just as simultaneously and just as suddenly as if someone yelled “Go.” We line up left versus right. Crisply. There’s absolutely no question about who should go on which side, and it is purely a piety-versus-secularism schism. It absolutely, positively, has to do with whether you believe or whether you don’t. The disagreement is absolutely irreconcilable. And nobody, anywhere, no matter how weak and vacillating they may be, is wondering where they belong.

Do you know why that is? It’s because we’re debating something without really debating it. Do members of our modern aristocracy…our Hollywood celebs, our Obama-class demigods, our Household Names, our Congressmen, our Senators, our talk show hosts, our published authors, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera — possess the power, prestige, authority and privilege to demand apologies out of the hoi polloi simply for being? Not for barging into the elevator car before the passengers have had a chance to get off. Not for changing lanes without signaling. Not for taking a cell phone call in the middle of a movie. But simply for…existing? Taking up space on the globe? Breathing oxygen and turning it into that awful…dirty…toxic…polluting…carbon?

That is what today’s vote in the House of Representatives was really all about.

Just imagine. A tax on anything that consumes energy…which means…a tax on anything that requires energy in order for it to be manufactured, transported, used or discarded. Which means everything. A tax — read that as, apology — for being, carefully disguised as a tax on/apology for doing.

People on the “left” side of American politics, by the way, are to be congratulated for their laudable consistency. Everything that has to do with apologizing for being, they have been utterly consistent for the last two generations in saying — yes, we can! Yes, we should…apologize. Apologize for being, as if we should be apologizing for doing. The record is stunning and spellbinding. Abortion…minimum wage…gun control…carbon tax…cigarette tax…liquor tax…death tax. Any time we can express our profound regret for taking up space in this godless cosmos, through our taxes, yes we should absolutely express it. Not that we’ll recoup any salvation for doing so. Nothing can be done anymore according to the classical definition of “liberty.” Nothing except — getting married if you’re gay; joining the Boy Scouts when you’re an atheist; getting an abortion without your parents finding out when you’re fourteen. Freedom, it seems, is only championed on the left side of the aisle when it has to do with eroding a previously-existing definition of something. Our leftists are regular Bravehearts on the freedom issue, when it comes time to play Pretend — when children want to pretend to be grownups, when men want to pretend to be women, when Barack Obama wants to pretend to be humble, when women who despise their husbands pretend to “love” them so they can head on in to divorce court when the timing is most beneficial.

Meanwhile, Republicans are supposed to be scrambling around in vain, looking high and low for an identity? It’s simple. Nobody owes an apology to anybody else — not for simply existing, anyway — save for those substandard scoundrels who demand apologies from others for simply being. They, and they alone, reveal by their actions exactly what they are.

They are walking, living, breathing offenses to God. For it is only God’s place to demand apologies out of us…just for being. Mortal man has to wait for us to do something offensive or deplorable, to enjoy the slightest bit of justification in demanding apologies out of us. It’s a narrow distinction, but an all-important one.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Strength, Poisoning Western Civilization | 2 Comments »

Week Ending June 12, 2009

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

Do you realize what an incredible week this has been? I’m ready to go ahead and call it right now: In the months and years ahead, when Republicans and democrats try to figure out when the national scene all turned around, there will be bipartisan agreement that the fickle wheel of fortune did its spinning in the week ending June 12, 2009. That is when the Republicans really returned to power; when the democrats really fell out of it. When mainstream America figured out the Obama experiment was, in all the ways that mattered, a complete failure. Time to absorb the lessons of reality and let the tender bloated easily-bruised ego receive the punishment that had been coming.

There is, I confess, some wishful thinking involved in that. But that’s not really a bad thing. Every triumph against the odds, in human history, has started with that. And there certainly have been some. I’ll presume, for the thinking reader, no listmaking is necessary to bolster that point.

Let us instead fixate our list-making obsession on the week just departed. And in doing that, let us start with the big kahuna:

David Letterman’s sad, pathetic, stupid joke. Does Letterman have a Republican plant on his writing staff? The damage done here was incalculable. The joke delved down deep into what everybody knew, in their dark subconciousnesses, and brought it bubbling up into the light where it all had to be consciously acknowledged: How humor itself has been re-defined in the early part of the twenty-first century. Blue-blood super-liberal Manhattan comedian makes a conservative look like a buffoon, and the rest of us give a courtesy laugh. Even though it’s NOT FUNNY. This has been a seriously powerful weapon in the liberal arsenal, because if you respond to this the way a reasonable person does — roll your eyes — in our modern, twisted culture, you’re a die-hard lunatic extremist. In a more reasonable environment it is acknowledged that it takes a die-hard lunatic extremist to do the laughing.

The punchline simply didn’t pack any humor. Nobody’s waltzing into a bar and saying “Hey, didja hear the one about Alex Rodriguez and Sarah Palin’s daughter?”

What Letterman did, was wake up the “mainstream” Americans who don’t give a rip about conservatives or liberals — but who could’ve easily been suckered into voting liberal with some well-placed signals that Republicans are subhuman, beneath contempt, it’s okay to abuse ’em so it certainly should be alright to vote against ’em without bothering to study up on the issues. Well from here on out, maybe that will still work, but I think America will have a little bit better idea of what’s being done to it now. And that can’t be good for the plan.

Elsewhere on the Manhattan-lib fashion-plate front, Katie Couric’s ratings plummeted some more, and fellow fashion-plate blue-blood Manhattan-lib Jon Stewart actually had the balls to made fun of her about it.

Paul Krugman, seldom correct but never in doubt, tried to lead a charge against right-wing hate by fastening the identity of the Holocaust Memorial shooter to the conservative movement. And everly ambitious, he thought as long as he was at it he’d try to revive some credibility for that discredited Homeland Security report. He failed on both counts; as is usual for Mr. Krugman, his point failed when it was discovered the facts simply weren’t on his side. Hating George Bush, hating John McCain, being a registered Maryland democrat…these are not traits that typically apply to conservative-movement agitators. But they applied to this nutburger who’s supposed to be our new icon for conservative hate. Swing and a miss.

By now, there had arisen an urgent need to prove what was supposed to have already been proven seven months ago: that the democrats were innately nice folks, and there was something about human nature that made Republicans inherently mean. Typically, democrats like to pursue this with an objective of purity: Everything anybody does that is nice was inspired by a progressive movement somewhere, and every anecdote about man’s inhumanity to man has some conservatism in it somewhere. The Letterman joke all by itself was plenty enough to upset that applecart, so now the effort was to recover the sentiment through saturation. President Obama’s former Pastor and spiritual advisor Jeremiah Wright demonstrated his impeccable timing by choosing this as the week for his comments about talking to his former spiritual pupil: “Them Jews aren’t going to let me speak to him.” Good one! That guy we elected President to start our new Hopenchange good-time rock-n-roll chapter in history, who’d inspire us all to do better and love each other — he received spiritual counsel from this bigot for two solid decades. Republicans tried to warn ya. Ya didn’t listen. It was, and is, a reality. Yet another reminder.

And the week was still young.

Ah, but our country certainly knew what it was doing. We had a skeptical, energetic and free press filling us in on what was going on, and letting us come to our own decision about who would get our vote. Right? Well…hope you didn’t put too much faith in that. If you did, it might have come as a bit of a shock when Evan Thomas went on record to say President Obama “is sort of God.” Chris Matthews agreed. Yup. Real balanced and objective, there, gentlemen. I don’t understand why anyone ever doubted you. They must have been a bunch of unreasonable, lying, irrational, bitter angry conservatives.

Perhaps this is why — also this last week — a San Francisco Chronicle editor said “Obama and the fawning press need to get a room.”

After all that, the solid meat is still just ahead of us. Remember back in January when, if the world went to war and caught fire, you’d never have heard a single thing about it because the news was all filled up with stories about Michelle Obama’s gowns, Barack Obama’s ten balls (!), and hope was in the air? About how much the economy sucked but it was all going to get more better because we had our hopey changey iPresident now and He was going to fix everything? Nowadays the hardcore liberals, the mildly liberals, and the main-street guys who don’t care or say they don’t care — still defend that because hey, it’s only been five months since then. Give Him a chance! He’s trying His best! It’s too early, and He inherited all this! Well…sit down for this one…now, according to Rasmussen, by a six-point margin Republicans are more trusted than democrats on economic issues. Yup, that’s from this week too.

Now how’d that happen? I see a link between that story, and the one about the study from Ohio that found conservatives are more open to opposing arguments than liberals. Call me Pollyanna, but I think even the Main Street folks who don’t give a crap about any of this, intuitively understand that you can’t make good decisions in life if you already have your mind made up about something before you gather the facts. What I’m trying to say is that people want to follow a good leader, they know in their guts what a good leader looks like, and they don’t want to see someone locked into a mindset and with that mindset, a narrow field of options from which to choose for any given situation. Which, ironically, is what the democrats keep saying, citing reasons why conservatives can’t be trusted. But it turns out, in reality as well as in public opinion, liberals are the narrow-minded ones. This was aptly demonstrated when the study hit the innerwebs, and some cloistered communities of liberals aired their reactions to it. It typically looked something like this.

It’s not news to anyone who’s really been paying attention. But liberals are not open-minded, they’re not receptive to all points of view, they’re not willing to listen to new ideas, and they damn sure aren’t tolerant of anything called “diversity” unless, by diversity, you’re referring to monochrome concentrations of dark skin.

President Obama also thought He would demonstrate His impeccable political timing. Now that the country He was supposed to be leading was showing its reservations about investing in Him all this godlike power, He thought He’d appoint a czar to limit executive compensation at private firms. Now, He may have found it politically expedient to limit the effects of this to corporations accepting taxpayer funds in the form of bailout programs…and He may want to promote that…but you just can’t get around that it raises serious questions about the relationship between government and the private sector. And how long would such a policy remain limited to bailout firms? We’ll have to wait a few weeks for the polls to come out, I think. But my gut says most people are on my side on this thing, or at least, are similarly concerned. This is an alteration of the fundamental relationship between our government and the people it purports to govern. The party hacks get to decide if I’m making too much money, and cut me off at the knees if they think I’m getting as big as they are? What country is this again?

The point is, I thought it was Obama’s predecessor who was supposed to be making us ask that question.

Affirmative Action was in the news this week. You know what that is, right? That’s where, if your racial makeup is caucasian and you try to make something of yourself, you are artificially injured to help make up for the abuse that was heaped on persons of darker skin in times past. It’s a tit-for-tat thing. No wait…it isn’t…supposedly, it’s an effort to help the disenfranchised and underprivileged, and it’s entirely color-blind, any thoughts muttered to the contrary are purely hardcore right-wing agitprop. It’s long been my impression that a bare majority of the country does support Affirmative Action, but because and only because they believe that last summation. In other words, by a bare majority, we are on board with helping the underprivileged but we do not want special race-based privileges to apply. So it was further damaging when it came out that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayer ‘fessed up that she is an “Affirmative Action baby” in comments released by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Affirmative Action baby…as in…her test scores were not comparable to her classmates’ test scores. She leapfrogged ahead in line because of her racial background. Her statement that says that.

Is America on board with that kind of Affirmative Action program? An outcome-based one that confers the same prestigious position — Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, in this case! — upon members of beneficiary-groups with mediocre achievements, as it would upon a boring-old-white-guy who can offer spectacular achievements? Don’t forget, across all racial classifications, mediocre people vastly outnumber spectacular people. So what are the ultimate consequences of this? More to the point, could the country possibly become worried about such consequences? Want to have your next brain surgery done by someone who’d never been called on to truly distinguish himself, except by his or her race? Does Main Street USA’s support for Affirmative Action extend that far? Maybe we’re about to find out.

Congressman Barney Frank…whom nobody thinks is a Republican…demonstrated that much-lauded progressive-liberal patience and tolerance for diverse points of view during a live television interview. Wonder if they factored this in to that above-mentioned study.

And then we had that progressive-liberal respect for the rule of law demonstrated by our Climate Queen — yeah, that’s another matter, our liberals-in-charge want to control our weather. Climate czar Carol Browner apparently violated the Presidential Records Act.

So the picture’s pretty complete — as it has been for awhile, but in this damaging, damaging week, it was pencilled in, painted in, tinted, shaded, and framed to perfection in such a way that the apathetic mainstream centrist voters can understand it. And understand it well. These people are in power, uncontested, out of control, as closed-minded as any Republican has ever been, hateful, intolerant, impetuous, as pissy and resentful as any loser of elections has ever been. They are as dim and incurious as George W. Bush has ever been. They cannot get along with anyone else, even their own. They cannot deal with important decisions because they cannot deal with facts. They just want to have power over everybody else, and that’s all. Well, that and accumulate magnitudes of personal wealth as lofty and imposing as what they would deny to others.

The only thing missing from this week…and this may have happened too, if I missed it…was the usual, regularly “scheduled” embarrassing gaffe from Vice President Joe Biden. Other than that one cherry on top, everything else was there this week.

Small wonder that Biden’s old contender for the #2 spot, apparently felt so justified in saying I told you so.

Cross-posted at Right Wing News.

Posted in Bailouts, Blogs vs. MSM, Deranged Leftists, Elections, Incumbent Scandals, Liberals and Humor, ManBearPig, Matthews Mindset, Nanny State Crap, Obamamania, Obsessive Listmaking, Poisoning Capitalism, Poisoning Western Civilization, Racial Tension, VPILF | No Comments »

Just Switch Them Around, Barack

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

I keep hearing that Barack Obama is this awesome and mega-wonderful President. I’ve been skeptical about that, but out of the blue I suddenly realized: Have you ever given some thought to how little it would take for that to be really true? All He really needs to do, is treat people who make money the way He treats terrorists, and treat terrorists the way He treats people who make money.

That would be cool. He’d be all, like, “Hey you terrorists, if you’re killing less than 250,000 people a year you don’t have a thing to worry about.” And then behind closed doors He’d let loose with that maniacal James-Bond-bad-guy laugh that you just know He’s got down cold, and tax the ever loving snot out of ’em. Instantly, terrorists all over the world would wonder why they ever bothered to get into this line of work in the first place. He’d call up the biggest baddest terrorist and tell him “You know, I think it’s My preference that you should quit,” and the big bad terrorist would have to resign in disgrace. Then the U.S. Government would use TARP funds to take over that terrorist organization and start calling the shots about what kind of terrorist strikes it should make, until the damn thing goes bankrupt anyway.

As far as businessmen go, He’d be counseling the rest of us, leading us, guiding us, and lecturing us like we’re a bunch of paste-eating first-graders…that the businessmen are not our enemies. You know what, we really need to just get over our anger and fear and sit down & talk to them. All you guys with your bad attitudes toward ’em, you just change your attitudes because you’re the ones messing everything up. That’s precisely what’s needed! He’d sign a bunch of executive orders saying we can’t torture them with ever-increasing corporate taxes because America is a place where that just plain never, ever, ever happens. And when it does, people get angry with us, so if we know what’s good for us we’d better just stop it.

Then He’d point out that terrorism is a leading cause of global warming and He’d lay down a bunch of timetables for the terrorists to cease and desist. Stop polluting our planet, you terrorists!

He’d be talking so tough about them, that if there was a “stock exchange” for terrorists, every time He opened His mouth the average daily index would drop by several hundred points.

What a super-ultra-mega-mega-President He would be. He’d make George Washington look like Millard Fillmore.

Posted in ManBearPig, Torture and Civil Liberties and What-Not, Vision for Victory | No Comments »

Psychotic Earth Day Spokesman

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Hat tip to Boortz.

Posted in ManBearPig | 3 Comments »

EPA Holding a Gun to Congress’ Head

Friday, April 24th, 2009

Wall Street Journal:

President Obama’s global warming agenda has been losing support in Congress, but why let an irritant like democratic consent interfere with saving the world? So last Friday the Environmental Protection Agency decided to put a gun to the head of Congress and play cap-and-trade roulette with the U.S. economy.

The pistol comes in the form of a ruling that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant that threatens the public and therefore must be regulated under the 1970 Clean Air Act. This so-called “endangerment finding” sets the clock ticking on a vast array of taxes and regulation that EPA will have the power to impose across the economy, and all with little or no political debate.

This is a momentous decision that has the potential to affect the daily life of every American, yet most of the media barely noticed, and those that did largely applauded. When America’s Founders revolted against “taxation without representation,” this is precisely the kind of kingly diktat they had in mind.

The data have performed a mediocre-to-craptacular job of supporting the fairy tale of “global climate change” lately. Public support is not there, and is not likely to come back. But we did get a pro-global-warming crew elected.

The rocket-car’s fuel has been exhausted, it is moving on impetus alone, and we’re about to see if it can make it all the way across the canyon. Whether it works or not, there is no do-over.

The irony is such that you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Democracy, the great moderator, is about to reward us with a result that is integral on this issue: A one or a zero. No moderation about it. And, you can rest assured that whatever we decide about whether human activity is putting our global climate in some kind of danger…the truth will be utterly disconnected from it. If it’s right, it’ll be like the stopped clock being right. It will be purely random.

Thing I Know #129. Leaders; votes; clergy; academics; pundits; prevailing sentiment; political expediency. Wherever these decide what is & isn’t true, an empire will surely fall.

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Capitalism | No Comments »

Greenest Celebs

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Ten of your favorite Hollywood halfwits, arranged into a slideshow. The ones that are “greenest” as compiled by some flibbertigibbet by the name of Jaime Honkawa.

These days, eco-celebs are popping up like pesticide-free greens on an organic farm. From Leonardo DiCaprio to Brangelina, these sustain-a-stars are getting their hands dirty and showing that they care about the environment—sometimes almost as much as they care about taking home that little gold statue. (Almost.)

We’re counting down the top ten sexiest do-gooders to see what they’re doing to make our world a better place, and just how hot going green can make you.

I don’t know how old Honkawa is. My guess is she’s still using fake ID to buy booze. After all, being green isn’t supposed to be synonymous with, or relational to, being “hot.”

She seems to be blissfully ignorant of the basic difference in concepts between doing little, and doing much. At no time is this more evident than when she profiles Leonardo DiCaprio —

In addition to all that he created the Planet Green docu-series “Greensburg” that follows the sustainable reconstruction of a town that was torn apart by a tornado. Oh yeah, he’s also developing an eco-resort on a private island in Belize—you know, just as a side project. All this, and he was on “Growing Pains.” [emphasis mine]

The name of the game, Jaime dear, is to cut down on pollution. DiCaprio “offset” this abundance of wonderful greenology with all his wasteful ways in times past…which is another way of saying, if his net carbon emissions are equal to or greater than the average, he isn’t green at all. Assuming you really think carbon is some kind of pollutant.

This type of eco-warrior-ing is just another form of bathosploration. That means, if you’re slobbering over how “much” someone is doing, you’ve completely missed out on the concept already. It is a form of nihilism; the object of the exercise, is to paint a hole on the ground, jump into it, and pull it in after you. Quietly. The task at hand, can be defined as: Make the world, upon the instant in which you leave it, resemble as closely as possible what it was the moment you entered it. Pass through it like crap through a goose. If you’re making noise doing whatever it is you’re doing, you’re just not trying. If you’ve got a long list of things you’ve been doing, likewise, you’re just not trying.

Thanks for playing, Jaime. Now try again. Or don’t, and say you did.

Posted in Celebrity Halfwits, ManBearPig, Poisoning Individuality and Reason | No Comments »

Global Warming Victims Given Standing to Sue

Monday, April 13th, 2009

We didn’t have enough of a lawsuit-happy society just yet, so our “lawmakers” are fixing that.

Self-proclaimed victims of global warming or those who “expect to suffer” from it – from beachfront property owners to asthmatics – for the first time would be able to sue the federal government or private businesses over greenhouse gas emissions under a little-noticed provision slipped into the House climate bill.

Environmentalists say the measure was narrowly crafted to give citizens the unusual standing to sue the U.S. government as a way to force action on curbing emissions. But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sees a new cottage industry for lawyers.

“You could be spawning lawsuits at almost any place [climate-change modeling] computers place at harm’s risk,” said Bill Kovacs, energy lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Those poor, poor, pitiful poor, victimized, oh-so-trod-upon working families…with their beachfront vacation homes! Thank goodness someone is standing up for the little guy.

Don’t blame me, I voted for the non-lawyers.

Warning, the article behind the link contains a picture of Henry Waxman’s face, legendary nostrils clearly visible, with the caption underneath “Click the photo to enlarge.” I just couldn’t help thinking, who in the world would want to do that?

Posted in ManBearPig | 4 Comments »

“I Want, I Want, I Want; and by God, I Expect To Get”

Sunday, April 5th, 2009

I Think ^(Link) is admiring the work of Victor Davis Hanson…

Victor Davis Hanson does it again.

If anyone wished to know what the baby-boomer generation would do when, in its full maturity, it hit its first self-created, big-time recession, I think we are seeing the hysterical results.

Baby boomers. I’m one and when we want something, we expect to get it. Forget about consequences. Forget about the future. It’s all about me, right now.

I want a house, but I can’t afford one. That’s ok, bank A will get me into one. Bank A wants money for my mortgage but who would buy it? No problem, we’ll package it and sell it to bank B. Bank B needs money for those mortgages, but I’m not paying the mortgage. No problem, the government will handle it.

Same story, different want. I want a vacation, but I can’t afford one. That’s ok, I can use the equity in my house ……..

I want, I want, I want. And by God, I expect to get.

VDH himself, after putting together an admirably simplistic list of things that really are simple when all’s said and done, concludes…

At some point in all this serial hysteria, we are beginning to see the problem is not in the stars of the economy or of the war, but in ourselves—a weird generation that, when it finally came of age, proved to be just about what we could expect of it from what we saw in its youth.

It’s really quite sad, when inspect the wreckage. For all these decades, working hard and living in an apartment instead of a home, is a crisis…an intolerable crisis…you’ve just gotta have a house. And then when you have kids, a three-bedroom home is a crisis because you have to have five rooms plus a bonus. The car must be big, to make you feel safe, and you have to have two of ’em.

Once the baby-boom wave has come and gone, the nation will be financially weak. Ironic, because while they were here, most of them spent much of that lifespan babbling away something about drinking out of recycled-cardboard cups, unplugging your cell phone, and participating in Earth Hour…all to leave “mother earth” in better shape than when you found her.

But the bill is coming due for this entire generation’s entire lifetime of saying “I want I want I want” — and the solution is debt on top of the debt, so that their kids have to clean up the mess.

Try to do some fixing in the here-and-now? To actually produce something, to create real wealth as opposed to simply shuffling it around? Just find a way to do that — without someone calling you “greedy.” We aren’t contending with the ghostly disease of an ancient and deceased mindset; we’re battling demons that are consuming us right in the here-and-now. And losing.

Posted in Economy, ManBearPig, Poisoning Capitalism | 3 Comments »

If Earth Hour is a Slippery Slope…

Monday, March 30th, 2009

…then what lies at the bottom of the slope?

Hat tip to Harvey at IMAO.

Posted in Glad I Learned About This, ManBearPig, Nanny State Crap, Poisoning Individuality and Reason | 3 Comments »

Travis and Jonathan Celebrate Earth Hour

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

A little bit o’ bible learnin’ will keep yer soul from burnin’, ya need a little churchin’ up.

Thing I Know #300. People talk a lot about “coming together” to do vague, undefined things, when they want to present those things to outsiders as creative efforts, but what they’re really trying to do, is destroy something, or destroy the people who would be building something.

Together we can do this.

Posted in ManBearPig | No Comments »

What Better Demonstration of Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand…

Friday, March 27th, 2009

…than dishwasher detergent.

The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don’t work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

But it’s not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe’s left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

Andy, you’ve got to link some more boring stuff than this, if you want me to keep on ignoring you.

Just keep Sheryl Crowe out of Washington State, please. Something tells me the residents there have enjoyed all the creative, environmentally-conscious solutions they can handle for the time being.

Posted in ManBearPig | 4 Comments »

Global Warming Gone, but We’ll be Taxed Anyway

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Al Ritter, Baltimore Conservative Examiner:

Global Warming just isn’t happening anymore. The warming trend stopped in 2000, but that hasn’t stopped Al Gore and the 52 Scientists from the IPCC (United Nations) to continue to alarm the public. In 2009 we heard Al Gore reverse his claim of global warming to a message of “climate change.”

There has been a history of his type of terrorism, on the very first “Earth Day,” April 22, 1970; Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin claimed that the world was cooling. After a period of time it was found that we were actually warming, now that the trend has reversed the global warming alarmists argument no longer holds water.
:
This wouldn’t be a problem if it was merely a talking point, but it is not. This alarming terrorist plot has grown legs as yet another tax disguised as an issue. The cap and trade is just another tax to corporations to pass along to end users.

We need to let our representatives know how we feel, more taxes are not what we need now in our time of economic need. Especially on hair-brained, half baked, half wrong theories.

If the data coming in continue to show unkindness to the global warming movement, and things shape up in such a way that I win that money and steak dinner because Obama’s a one-termer…then, I think, in ’12 you’re going to start to see it all come out. Tax on breathing, tax on conserving energy, tax on flatulence, anything else they can cook up. Tax on cooking.

Just as soon as there’s this sense of “get it on the books now, or nevermore.”

I remember a Dilbert cartoon in which the boss tells Dilbert, “once we realized we could get you working in cubicles half the size of a prison cell, we realized anything was possible.”

Once they realized they could get people out on the streets, protesting, chanting, picketing, clamoring for their taxes to be raised just for existing — they realized anything was possible.

Posted in ManBearPig | 1 Comment »

Morgan’s Rules of Government

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Morgan’s First Rule of Government: Life thrives in order but matures toward chaos. Government has a role as long as order and life serve the same purpose; where their paths diverge, government must yield.

We know what governments look like when they champion order over life. This is exactly the government from which the Founding Fathers defected. Don’t take my word for it, read the Declaration of Independence. Why can’t conservatives and moderates be consistent in the life-versus-absolute-order dichotomy? The hardcore, extreme liberals who now run everything, are: Abortion, global warming, federalism, higher taxes, allowing “sovereign” tyrants to run roughshod over God’s children unfortunate enough to live under them…gun-grabbing even in the aftermath of the Heller decision…the list goes on and on. They are consistent in championing order over life. Why can’t the rest of us be consistent in opposing them?

Morgan’s Second Rule of Government: Consensus thrives in logic but develops toward nonsense. Government has a role in deriving its policies from consensus, as long as the consensus is rational; when consensus becomes silly, government must remain logical.

It’s not that I see the global warming movement as being synonymous with Hitler’s Final Solution — but they ARE driven by the same energies. Raw, passionate populism. Mob rule. “Everybody knowing” things that aren’t really true. Now, look at what global warming is: A tax on progress, designed to deliberately stop things from happening, not to collect revenue. It declares “human activity” illegal. By human activity, they mean life, but they won’t talk about it that way. It would become immediately unpopular if talked about that way. It’s too accurate.

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Capitalism, Poisoning Individuality and Reason, Poisoning Strength, Poisoning Western Civilization | 6 Comments »

My Thin Books

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

We were glad to see Bendreth appreciated our thin-book collection, so we decided to take an inventory of everything on that part of the shelf. Fortunately, they’re all together. We have to keep these that way, because if they’re scattered among the thicker ones, it can be really hard to find them again.

1. Movies made from video games that don’t suck
2. Republicans who survived scandals
3. democrats who didn’t
4. Television commercials, wherein the man is using the right product, and the woman is using the wrong one
5. People who demand higher taxes, and give extra money to the Treasury to show they really mean it
6. Tax increases that resulted in more revenue
Pelosi7. The Pelosi Congress’ record of achievement
8. Useful discoveries and inventions from charismatic, fun people
9. Government plans to meddle in the economy, that worked
10. Painting, lawncare, repairs, polishing, and other labors of love: How people maintain assets that they didn’t work for
11. Cultures around the world that are truly devoted to both free speech, and “tolerance”
12. What men have figured out about women
13. The democrat party’s commitment to victory, outside of elections
14. Wisdom from kids with their baseball caps on backwards
15. American cities with strict gun control laws, and consequentially, really low crime rates
16. Stories I have to tell about my vanishing civil liberties after 9/11/01
17. The world in which burglars can sue you for hurting themselves while breaking into your house: The Who’s Who of people who like it this way
18. People who believe in man-made global warming, and the smaller cars they drive
19. Socialist countries I’d like to visit
20. Television cartoons I like, that don’t have a coyote and a roadrunner
21. A complete history of ADHD-like symptoms shown by kids, Vol. I: Before we decided not to spank them anymore
22. How Christianity is just as bad, or What Rosie Meant
23. People around the world who despised the USA before but love it now, with Barack Obama in charge
GQ24. Looking back: A photo album of pleasant- and blissful-looking GQ models
25. Take that, Thomas Jefferson! Nations that were both ignorant and free
26. Jobs I got from poor people having more money to spend
27. Positive comments from the dedicated liberal about the things America has done
28. People who told other people “We’ve Come A Long Way, We’re Not There Yet” — and eventually got “There.”
29. Hollywood Told You So: A complete list of when it turned out they had the right idea
30. Temporary tax hikes that really were
31. Soothing the savage beast: When displays of compassion changed the viewpoint of people who were willing to kill on a whim
32. Real men who weren’t afraid to show their emotions, the women who loved them for it, and their meaningful accomplishments
33. Well-known liberal women I wish I could date
34. Wars and conflicts that ended with justice, finality, and lasting peace, thanks to the United Nations
35. Poverty in the United States: Poor people who are skinny and have no, or very small, TV sets
36. The skills I learned in my “Womens’ Studies” class, and how they helped me to help others
37. Politicians most universally esteemed for their “ethics” — whom you’d allow to watch your kids over the weekend
38. A complete history of angry people who stopped being angry when they were given the things they angrily demanded
39. Effective and respected appointments in the Obama Administration
40. How political correctness has made our lives better

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Capitalism, Poisoning Individuality and Reason | 3 Comments »

It is the Sun That Does it, Not Man

Saturday, February 14th, 2009

Hat tip: XtnYoda, via Rick, via Gerard.

Get ready to start paying your Sun-That-Does-It tax. You said it was change you could believe in…

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu has floated the idea of a carbon emissions tax to fight global warming, in an interview with The New York Times Thursday.

During the US presidential campaign, the notion was kept largely on the back burner as candidates were reluctant to promote the idea of costlier energy at a time when gasoline prices were soaring.

But since President Barack Obama’s administration took office in January, Congress has been working on setting up a system for swapping greenhouse gas emissions quotas similar to the one used in the European Union.

And Chu said “alternatives could emerge, including a tax on carbon emissions,” the Times reported.

Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, long concerned about global warming, acknowledged it would be a tough sell to get a law passed in the United States that could lead to higher energy prices.

But he said he “supports putting a price on carbon emissions to begin to address climate change” the daily said.

The guy’s a Nobel laureate, who am I to challenge him? He’s a college professor, works a lot with laser cooling, he’s published stuff, gotten his Nobel prize — his confirmation by the Senate was unanimous. He seems to have what it takes to do stuff…that has to do with earning praise from others…who, in turn, are trying to impress yet others. His family is buried in Ph.D.’s and other stellar credentials.

Arguments that we should be listening to people like Steven Chu, are not the same as the arguments that we should be listening to people like Jay Lehr and Chad Myers. The latter has to do with what we know, and what common sense tells us about what we know. The former has to do with building a sort of high-priesthood of such interpretations; if you’re beneath a certain authoritarian level, your role is to shut your mouth and wait to see what someone else tells you to do. That isn’t what I have in mind when I hear the word “scientific.”

Eratosthenes himself figured out the size of the earth by peeking in wells. He wasn’t a geologist or an astronomer, he was a library administrator. The Nobel laureates of that time said the earth didn’t have a diameter or a radius because it was flat. But the library guy was the one that got it right. He paid attention to the evidence before his own eyes, and figured out for himself what it meant.

Thing I Know #183. When an education has given you the ability to dismiss ideas more quickly, it’s not really an education.

Thing I Know #263. The one thing that’s wrong with higher education that nobody ever seems to want to discuss, is that it is valued through something called “prestige.” Get this prestigious diploma. Get that prestigious degree. Attend a prestigious university. My alma mater is more prestigious than yours. Trouble is that genuine learning has very, very little to do with prestige. It is, arguably, the exact opposite.

Thing I Know #276. Why do I give a rat’s ass where your education level is, if your head’s crammed full of things someone else put in there — with or without your conscious consent — and holds nary a speck of anything you’ve figured out for yourself?

Posted in ManBearPig, Poisoning Individuality and Reason | 1 Comment »

Unconstrained Manner

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Across the pond, pretty soon you’ll have to get a Mother-May-I from Her Majesty’s governmental nanny-state goo-gooders to buy an airline ticket or whatever they call it over there…

The UK’s so-called “environment czar” last week raised the possibility of rationing air travel, limiting UK citizens to just a few vacation trips abroad by air per year in order to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions.

Adair Turner, chairman of the independent Committee on Climate Change that advises UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, made the proposal before Parliament’s Environmental Audit Select Committee on Feb. 5. In remarks widely reported by UK media, Turner said, “We will have to constrain demand in an absolute sense with people not allowed to make as many journeys as they could in an unconstrained manner.”

Neal Boortz is wondering how long we have to wait until the same policies swim up over here.

Probably not too long.

Ships. Tea. Crates. Boston Harbor. Ker-SPLOOSH.

Posted in Europeans, ManBearPig | 2 Comments »

The Beast

Thursday, February 5th, 2009

Obama’s a better President than George W. Bush, because his limo is much bigger.

The BeastAsked if she wanted to drive it, [Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano,] the former Arizona governor replied: “You know, I haven’t driven for almost seven years.”

Bush’s limo appeared quite delicate next to the mean-looking Obama-mobile which had a scary front grill that looked like a plate of steel fangs and huge tires that could frighten potholes.

And forget about a spare tire, the trunk looks like it could fit another car in it if the limo gets a flat.

A second monster limo is in production and will be added to the presidential fleet when it’s ready. Guess it will be called “The Beast II”

Elsewhere in the news, Sen. Boxer is putting forward a great big bunch of “global warming principles“. For all Americans to follow. And by “all Americans” I mean you and me…not Boxer and Obama. Of course. They’re too good. Not like us.

Boxer chairs the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, the starting point for global-warming legislation in the Senate. (A fellow Californian, Rep. Harry Waxman, chairs the House committee that will simultaneously launch its own global-warming push.) Her announcement today gave no details on emission-reduction targets or a host of other issues closely watched by business and environmental groups.

But it made several broad promises, in keeping with Boxer’s pledge for a less complicated bill than the cap-and-trade push that failed in the Senate last year. Among them:

* To reduce emissions “to levels guided by science to avoid dangerous global warming” and to set targets that are “certain and enforceable,” as well as adjustable.

* To maintain state and local anti-warming efforts.

* To utilize a market-based system — that means cap-and-trade, as opposed to a carbon tax, which some economists favor to reduce emissions.

* To use proceeds from the sales of emissions permits for a variety of uses, including: support for consumers, governments, businesses and workers (presumably to help offset higher energy prices under the system); investments in alternative energy; preserving wildlife and ecosystems threatened by warming; and money for developing nations to help them respond to warming.

* To ensure a “level global playing field … so that countries contribute their fair share to the international effort to combat global warming.”

Those left-wing politicians get more and more awesome every single day! Who knows what other rules they’ll be passing against us tomorrow, that they also won’t have to follow themselves.

One thing confuses me though.

Does their awesomeness create this two-layer set of rules, one for them and one for everybody else? Or is this “Do As I Say Not As I Do,” the thing that inspires their awesomeness? Or is it all just a big mystery, and their awesomeness all just falls into that big sloppy file folder marked “There’s Just Something About Him (Them)”?

Posted in ManBearPig, Obamamania | No Comments »

The Climate Bill

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

Weeks, not months. True, it was not at all an issue in the 2008 elections, not by a damn sight…especially when you compare it to the rhetoric that was being flung around in the ’04 elections. It’s the data. They aren’t there to prop up this albatross anymore.

Too late. The globular-wormening activists have been voted in. Let that be a lesson to y’all: It’s not enough simply to withhold support from a shitty idea. You have to do what you can to defeat it, as well. Kick it when it’s down.

We didn’t do that. Now we’re going to pay the piper.

The Senate’s top environmental lawmaker offered a preview on Wednesday of major component of climate change legislation she said could be introduced “in weeks, not months.”

“We are not sitting back and waiting for some magic moment,” Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told reporters. “We’re ready to go.”

Boxer shepherded carbon-capping legislation to the Senate floor last year, the most progress any climate change bill has made in the U.S. Congress. That bill won 48 votes, with 36 opposed, but died after a procedural maneuver by opponents.

Any new legislation to limit emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide — such as those from coal-fired power plants and fossil-fueled vehicles — would build on that earlier measure, but would not follow it exactly, Boxer said.

“We may move in three weeks, we may move in six weeks, we could move in 10 weeks,” she said. “We could get a bill out of committee tomorrow … I want to get a bill out of there that every member has a stake in, every member understands every word of it, and so it will take a while …

“It could be weeks, not months, but it will be before the end of this year,” she said.

Posted in ManBearPig | 4 Comments »

Can I Have Some? I’m Not an Unemployed Climate Modeler Either

Friday, January 30th, 2009

The Heritage Foundation would like to know why this stimulus plan…this stimulus plan, that is getting stinkier and stinkier as each debate-free minute ticks by…includes $140 million for climate modelers who are having trouble finding work.

It would appear they do not actually exist. Except in the form of this demand for 140 big ones.

This raises the question of how many unemployed climate modelers are out there pounding the pavement.

When presented with that question, last Friday, Pat Michaels, former president of the American Association of State Climatologists stated “I don’t know one unemployed modeler.”

Things that make you go hmmmmm….

Lots of things.

Posted in Bailouts, ManBearPig | 3 Comments »

Wasteful

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Government snoopers in vans with infra-red cameras tattling on you?

It’s happening there, it can certainly happen here.

Posted in ManBearPig | 1 Comment »

Global Warming is Cool Again

Monday, January 26th, 2009

Question for Al Gore.

If the science is settled that we have to do these things in order to keep the planet from dying, and everyone knows it’s the right thing to do, and it’s all about ensuring our continuing survival rather than trying to sell us a big ol’ grab bag of socialism…how come you have to wait for the right people to be in charge before you can get it sold?

Posted in ManBearPig | No Comments »

Google Kills Polar Bears

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

Phil tracked down something truly alarming. Two Google searches produce the same quantity of that awful, horrible, toxic poison carbon as what you spew into our lovely atmosphere boiling a kettle of water for tea.

How’d you get here?

Making two internet searches through Google produces about the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle, it has been estimated.

A typical search through the online giant’s website is thought to generate about 7g of carbon dioxide. Boiling a kettle produces about 15g.

The emissions are caused both by the electricity required to power a user’s computer and send their request to servers around the world.

The discovery comes amid increasing warnings about the little-known environmental impact of computer and internet use.

According to Gartner, an American research firm, IT now causes about two per cent of global CO2 emissions and its carbon footprint exceeded that of the world’s aviation industry for the first time in 2007.

Dr Alex Wissner-Gross, a physicist from Harvard University who is leading research into the subject, has estimated that browsing a basic website generates about 0.02g of CO2 for every second it is viewed.

The trend continues: Whatever large numbers of people go off and do, is bad for the environment — except for things that somehow make a gesture, however meaningless it may be, toward the environment. Exactly like a deity. Have a conference on what to do about global warming, and you can send just as many 747s to that central spot, with five to ten passenger-butts per fuselage, or fewer, as you care to send. Having a rock concert as a benefit for Mother Earth? Even better.

Run a Google search to find out where the conference is, or where the rock concert is? Shame on you.

What if we get rid of Google? I guess, then, people will play video games like kids. And then that will be bad for the enviro. So then we’ll all just sit around on our asses in bistros, sipping espresso, chatting about whatever — and then that will be found to be toxic too. The movement is not about science, it’s about guilt; whatever large numbers of people are doing, that doesn’t provide the proper obeisance to Gaea, take it to the bank it’ll be found to be “bad for the environment.”

Posted in ManBearPig | No Comments »

What Killed the Global Warming Movement?

Monday, January 5th, 2009

Was it hard data?

Was it the everyday cooling trend that greeted us, face to face, throughout the seasons in ’08? Did it just become too difficult to believe in “an overall trend of increasing temperatures worldwide,” while chipping away at ice on your car’s windshield, on calendar dates previously unknown to require such an activity in years past?

Was it getting hit in the pocketbook? We lost our interest in living-less-life when our empty wallets made it compulsory for us to do so? Kind of like the first snow of the season looks so wonderful, and after you’ve been shoveling that white shit out of your driveway for a few weeks you don’t want to see it anymore?

Maybe it was the gradual realization, that a “movement” was all it ever was. A political movement. It always did behave more like something political than something scientific, after all…with that whole “The Debate Is Over” thing.

Or am I mistaken in my perception that it is “so 2007” and it’s still all the smarties that “know” it’s the Real Deal and only the knuckle-dragging rubes like me who are skeptical of it?

I’m just about ready to cross off the last of those five. There is, in ’09, something a bit pet-rock-ish about it all.

Posted in ManBearPig | 6 Comments »

Mr. Right Goes Nuts

Thursday, January 1st, 2009

Conservathink opened up the floor to some discussion about who might be the “Douchebag of the Year” for 2008. And Mr. Right commenter #2 (and 3), went stark-raving ballistic.

Dude makes some great points.

The entire MSM for the year-long mass Obama-orgasm masquerading as election coverage. Special mention to all on MSNBC, Keith Olbermoron and Chrissy “Tingle” Matthews in particular! I mean, come on, are they even bothering to pretend anymore???

Andy “Trig Troofer” Sullivan

Rod Blagojevich (Being from Illinois, I am just so, so proud!)

Al Franken, MN Secy of State Mark Ritchie, and anyone even remotely involved in the latest in a long, long line of statistically impossible “recounts” that is, as always, miraculously turning another Dem loss into a Dem win. Gee, what a shock!

Al Gore & the anthropocentric global warming farce brigade. Where’s my global warming, Al? The North Pole will melt in 5 years??? Really? Is that a promise? What drugs is this guy on? Seriously!

Former Ohio Dept of Jobs and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley and everyone else involved in illegally digging for dirt on Joe the Plumber! Welcome to the Soviet Union, Comrade! Guess speaking truth to power is only for liberals attacking Republicans, huh?

Rev. Jeremiah “God D–n, America” Wright

Bill Ayers & Bernardine Dohrn

ACORN

Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and all the Dems who helped Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae destroy the economy by giving loans to people who could never afford to repay them in the name of “fairness” and “social justice,” with a lot of kickbacks and campaign contributions for them and their friends thrown in as an entirely unrelated side-bonus. Oh, and throw in all the fat-cat CEO’s and profiteers that tried to cash in and then fiddled while Wall Street burned.

The big 3 US auto-makers and the a**holes at the UAW. Bail this out, you sub-morons!

Bush and Paulson can get in on this, too, for the trillion dollar kick in the groin of the American taxpayer! Up yours!!!

He promised more as he thought of them, and did indeed come back to deliver a second batch. I thought this first helping was far superior, though.

These nominations associated with the bailout, I’d submit under one big umbrella that I might call “Those Who Purport To Save Capitalism By Destroying It.” Regretfully, under that umbrella, I’d have to include all of us. For any occasion upon which —

a. Our politicians water down capitalism by mixing it in with marxist social programs;
b. Because of the incompatible mixing, people get shafted when they otherwise wouldn’t;
c. Some hotshot left-winger makes a speech or produces a movie, saying capitalism is to blame;
d. We fall for it.

Happens way too often.

The elections are too important to us, and we spend too much time thinking about them. I have this feeling of self-revulsion every time I babble away about them here, at The Blog That Nobody Reads — although, in my defense, by the time things have progressed to that point I have very little choice in the matter. I mean really. What should I pay attention to, a bunch of assholes flushing $700 billion of my money down a toilet? Or a fifty-cent ATM fee? Or that Simon Cowell is a jackass and Paula Abdul can’t string together a coherent sentence? Really, where should my fixation be, logically?

I see 2008 was, in many respects, a stronger reverberation of 2004. Back then we had a liberal democrat with no talent and nothing to offer, campaign to become our next President solely on the qualification that he was not George Bush. That didn’t work out, so in our surreal, illogical universe, the next time at-bat the liberal democrats tried exactly the same strategy. In fact, they discussed even less the seemingly staple topic of what their contender would be able to do once elected, and what he indeed would do. And this time it worked great. Possibly because those liberal democrats who constantly insist state matters should not be intermixed with religion, started offering up the idea that their candidate was some kind of Holy Messiah, incarnated upon this earthly plane to deliver us from evil.

Also in 2004, a bunch of wandering minstrels sought to convince us the earth was heating up to the point where it would no longer be able to support life, and it was all our fault. In 2008 they kept at it, and this time really made a bunch of fools out of themselves as things got downright chilly, from Martin Luther King Day all the way through Christmas. Finally, exasperated, they explained to us that when things get cooler, that’s scientific evidence that things are getting warmer. Those among us who cast votes based on this critical issue, decided, somehow, that that was pretty convincing.

Sarah Palin. Where to begin. All the vile bile that comes her way, if you were just visiting Earth right about now, you’d swear on your alien grandmother’s grave that she must have won.

In all the real life on this little rock in space I’ve been privileged to see over the years — I have never, ever, not once, seen a bunch of sore winners, win so resoundingly at something, and remain so sore. If I could somehow measure it, i think they’ve managed to match up with their December 2000 angst, anger and peevishness; I really do. It is truly a “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” situation. It’s up to those Republican Whos Down In Whoville, to teach that liberal Grinch how to be pleased with something on Christmas morning, even though he just got done stealing all their stuff.

Posted in Deranged Leftists, ManBearPig, Poisoning Science, Poisoning Western Civilization, VPILF | No Comments »

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