Investing The Souls Of Children In A Deep Evil

One of the worst things about evil is that all too often, those that are the principle actors of evil, believe that they are doing a good thing with the best of intentions.

Take for example the teachers that had their students send letters to the Israeli Ambassador to Spain in Madid that asked "Mr. Ambassador, how many Palestinians did you murder today?"

See: Israel Demands Explanation from Spain on Letters

This is a deep evil that has been done to these children. It invests them personally in the hatred by making them participants.

Everyone wants to believe that they are good. They also want to believe that the people that they love and respect are good. Now that these children have participated in this, they will have to confront their participation in something that is not good. A thing that they have been persuaded to participate in by people that they love, trust and respect.

The personal struggle that they will have to confront will be too much for many if not most of them. "How" they will reason "can people that I trust and respect goad me into evil? If they are good and deserving of my respect and my love, then what they have made me do must not be evil."

The teachers and others involved in this project surely believed that what they were doing was right and good.

What these teachers have done was a deep evil.

Who can repair the damage done to these children?

Hat Tips Weasel Zippers,
RealWest & Kosh of C2

The Looming Commercial Mortgage Debt Crisis

With California, New York, and some of the other large states on the verge of default, a problem with commercial property debt may push them that much closer to the brink.

See: Commercial Mortgage Default Rate in U.S. More Than Doubles

The default rate for commercial property mortgages held by U.S. banks more than doubled in the fourth quarter and may reach a peak of 5.4 percent at the end of next year, according to Real Capital Analytics Inc.

We may have rough seas ahead of us.

The timing of the midterm elections will make all of this that much more interesting.

Democrats Will Destroy California

The Democrats are inherently incapable of stopping themselves from destroying California.

See: California is a greater risk than Greece, warns JP Morgan chief

Mr Dimon told investors at the Wall Street bank's annual meeting that "there could be contagion" if a state the size of California, the biggest of the United States, had problems making debt repayments. "Greece itself would not be an issue for this company, nor would any other country," said Mr Dimon. "We don't really foresee the European Union coming apart." The senior banker said that JP Morgan Chase and other US rivals are largely immune from the European debt crisis, as the risks have largely been hedged.

California however poses more of a risk, given the state's $20bn (£13.1bn) budget deficit, which Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is desperately trying to reduce.

I have serious doubts about California coming to grips with it's debt problem. The Democrats own that state's legislature lock, stock and barrel. Even if Arnold Schwarzenegger were inclined to be a fiscal conservative, there is damn little that he could do to stop the Democrats from running the state smack into the ground.

The Democrats will not become fiscal conservatives. It just won't happen. Their very reason for existence is to create an ever expanding welfare state. It's what they promise to get elected and it is what they believe is right and good.

Given the Democrat's visceral hatred and fear of the concept that lowering taxes increases tax revenue, and their willingness if not eagerness to raise tax rates for both revenue collection and for social engineering purposes, what can we foresee them proposing to get themselves out of the mess that they have spent themselves into?

Can we really imagine for a moment that Democrats will seriously even entertain the notion of tax cuts and social spending reductions?

Tax cuts and social spending reductions, real tax cuts and real reductions in social spending, just won't happen.

Unfortunately, California is such a large part of our nations economy that when they hit the wall, the rest of us will feel it.

Obama Backer George Soros And The Collapse Of The Euro

See: Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

This may be an interesting summer.

Hillery Clinton's Risky Rhetoric On Pakistani Taxation Policies

See: Hillary urges rich Pakistanis to pay more tax

“The very well-off” in Pakistan “do not pay their fair share for the services that are needed, in health and education primarily,” she observed.

It's one thing to talk to Pakistanis about the Taliban but why does she think that she has license to lecture them on internal tax policy in regards to building up a welfare state?

Does she really believe that this kind of officious rhetoric helps us?

She has done this before.

Democrat Gov. David A. Paterson To Withdraw Campaign.

It's not a done deal yet, but likely will be in a few hours.

See: Paterson to Drop Out of Governor Race

Gov. David A. Paterson, his administration caught up in a whirlwind of allegations about its intervention in a domestic violence episode involving a top aide, is set to announce that he is suspending his election campaign and will not run in November, according to a person told about the plans.

Mr. Paterson is expected to make the announcement this afternoon. It would end his campaign less than a week after it officially began, with an angry speech at Hofstra University on Long Island. There, on the campus where he had gone to law school, the man who had been the state’s top official for 23 months — and a state senator for more than 20 years before that — presented himself as something of an outsider tiliting against special interests in Albany.

The New York Times is even acknowledging that Paterson is a Democrat in this article.

The New York Times Hides The Most Damning Truth About The New York Gov. David A. Paterson Scandel!

In a huge article detailing the corruption and abuse of political power at the heart of the scandal that threatens to bring down the Governor of New York, something is missing. It is not a mistake. It is a damning truth that can only be missing in an article of this length if this fact was omitted deliberately with knowing intent.

Take a look at the article for yourself.

See: Questions of Influence in Abuse Case of Paterson Aide

Have you spotted it yet?

The body of the article, that is everything from the first word after the byline to the last word at the bottom consists of about 2,031 words.

What is missing?

Hint: What is the Governor's Political Party?

Out of 2,031 words about a horrific scandal that threatens to knock a sitting Governor out office, Democrat is not used in the article even once.

Clearly, the truth of Gov. David A. Paterson's Democrat Party affiliation is a fact so damning, that it needed to be left out.

In fact, the only Political Party mentioned in the whole of the 2,031 words used in the NYT article about a present day political scandal involving corruption and violence is . . . Republican.

Go Figure.

Is Wall Street Switching Sides?

The times, they are a chang'en.

See: Democrats: Say Goodbye to Wall Street?

The securities and investment industry gave 2 to 1 to Democrats in early 2009 but sent nearly half its donations to Republicans by year's end, according to data complied by the Center for Responsive Politics for the Post.

The commercial banking industry and its employees gave nearly twice has much to Republicans during the last three months of 2009, the newspaper reported.

It may be that some of the Wall Street Execs and employees have figured out giving money to Democrats was like giving guns to gangsters.

The report cited JP Morgan Chase, headed by Obama supporter Jamie Dimon, as having scaled back its giving to Democrats.

"The bank and its employees, who doled out nearly $500,000 in federal contributions last year, went from giving 76 percent of the money to Democrats in the first quarter to giving 73 percent to Republicans in the fourth," the newspaper said.

Look for Democrats to start complaining about the need for more campaign contribution reform in the near future. I would not be too shocked if they start pushing hard for public financing of campaigns again.

Gasoline Prices Going Up In A Down Economy?

Gas prices are set to rise soon.

See: Experts: Gas prices in Chicago to top $3

What's pushing prices higher is the crude oil that's used to make motor fuel, said Fred Rozell of the Oil Price Information Service. Crude is an international commodity that has become ever more expensive as demand grows in China. As crude prices increase, so do gas gas prices.

Don't be shocked if the price per gallon goes up well over the $3 dollar mark,

In the not too distant future, some dumb and/or dishonest Democrats will be raising a stink about the rising price of gasoline (petrol) at the pump. Being economically challenged from their starting point, the complexities of supply and demand are not something that the Democrats care much about nor do they know how to cope with them save to use them to engage in class-warfare rhetoric.

The markets are rational. There is an increasing demand for certain types of crude. Other buyers are now on the market. The commodities markets, particularly the oil markets, are less and less directly tied to the American economy.

There is also the additional influence of the changing value of the dollar to account for. As the value of the dollar falls due to the actions of the Democrats and the Obama Administration, the dollar price of the commodity will also rise.

Shit will happen. Democrats will promote class-warfare. And the sun will also rise.

Greedy Democrats Lusting For A Tax On Gold

Democrat greed knows no bounds. Hungry for revenue from any source that She and her fellow Democrats can think of, the Governor Of Washington State is lusting for a sales tax on gold and other precious metals.

See: Is Washington's tax exemption on bullion a gold mine?

Gov. Chris Gregoire repeatedly has singled out the bullion tax break since she ran for her first term in 2004 as an example of the sort of preferential treatment that ought to end.

The governor followed through this year, proposing to start taxing bullion sales as part of her budget proposal to the Legislature. State-employee unions, interested in staving off job cuts, have come out in support.

The State-employees unions are the most powerful lobbies in the state of Washington. They have the Democrats by the short hairs. What they want, they get.

Unfortunately, the real world will not cooperate as slavishly as the Democrats and their State-employee union puppet-masters would like.

The association estimates there are now at least 100 coin and bullion dealers in the state — small coin shops and larger dealers who also sell gold as an investment for retirement accounts. Their businesses would be in jeopardy if the state reinstitutes the sales tax, Robinson said.

As an added blow, national coin-dealer trade shows no longer would consider meeting in Washington.

Because the price of gold is set like a stock on a national market, dealers operate on only a 1 to 3 percent markup, said Karen Feldman, who owns Tacoma Mall Blvd Coin Stamp & Jewelry.

Gold is selling at more than $1,000 an ounce, so if Washington dealers had to tack on a sales tax of nearly 10 percent, it would add about $100 to the price of a 1-ounce gold Krugerrand, Feldman said. Customers simply would buy gold on the Internet or in Oregon and Idaho, which don't tax bullion sales.

A tax on precious metal trades in Washington State would just move the transactions somewhere else. It is a predictable result. The Democrats are just too possessed by greed to give a tinker's damn.

HT: Fenway Nation

See Comment in Do You Deserve To Have Your 401k And Your IRA Confiscated?

Do You Deserve To Have Your 401k And Your IRA Confiscated?

If you plan on voting for Democrats, the answer is Hell Yes! Its your party pushing this abomination from hell so by all rights, you should suffer the worst from it.

See: Retiree Annuities May Be Promoted by Obama Aides

The U.S. Treasury and Labor Departments will ask for public comment as soon as next week on ways to promote the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams, according to Assistant Labor Secretary Phyllis C. Borzi and Deputy Assistant Treasury Secretary Mark Iwry, who are spearheading the effort.

I have some comments that I will be sending their way. I will politely suggest that they forget about this crazy idea. I would encourage you to do the same and to suggest that everyone that you know do the same as well. I will also forward a like missive to my local Congress-Critter and my state Senators. This is the kind of horrifically bad idea that will get passed through a Democrat controlled Congress and White-House in the dead of night if we aren't aggressively vigilant.

If this thing can't be stopped, I will liquidate my 401k's and my IRA's rather then give those scum sucking, bottom dwelling, excrements any more control over my retirement then they already have. Its my money. I earned it. I am going to spend it however I see fit. I would rather take the tax hit for liquidating everything then give the Democrats anything else to hang over my head.

Voting to put Democrats in office is no different then voting to put thugs and thieves in charge of safeguarding your rights and your money. Only bad things will come of it.

See also:Class Warfare's Next Target: 401(k) Savings

See also:Are the Democrats Coming After Your Savings?

HT: JCM at CC

Disproving The Nightmare Lie Of AGW

The Lysenkoism of Anthropogenic Global Warming will continue until like a Vampire, a wooden stake is driven through its heart.

See: The AGW Smoking Gun By Gary Thompson

The science behind the AGW hypothesis is that increased amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere (that humans produce by burning fossil fuels) will block more outgoing long-wave IR radiation (OLR) from exiting the atmosphere and thereby warm the surface. It is well-known that IR radiation causes CO2 molecules to vibrate, but only at very specific wavelengths (wavelengths are the distances between peaks of each wave), and that wavelength is 15µm. (Fifteen µm means that each wavelength crests at a distance of 15 millionths of a meter.) As was discussed above, this vibration of the molecule causes it to heat and then radiate IR radiation back toward the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. If the solar activity is taken to remain constant, more CO2 in the atmosphere will trap more of the OLR, and thus cause a net heating of the planet.

So what type of experiment could be performed to test this AGW hypothesis? If there were satellites in orbit monitoring the emission of OLR over time at the same location, then OLR could be measured in a very controlled manner. If, over time, the emission of OLR in the wavelengths that CO2 absorbs decreases over time, then that would prove the AGW hypothesis (i.e., that OLR is being absorbed by CO2 and heating the planet instead of being emitted from the atmosphere). But what if, over time (say, over thirty years), the emissions of OLR wavelengths that CO2 absorb remained constant? That would disprove the hypothesis and put the AGW argument to bed.

As luck would have it, that experiment has actually been performed! Three journal papers report the data from three monitoring satellites that have measured the OLR of 1997 and 2006 and compared those measurements to 1970, and they are located here, here, and here.

HT to PaladinPhil and JCM of CC


~~~

(Carthago delenda est!)

The peer review process needs to be reformed.

No more secret data.

No more secret software.

Everything must be be out in the open and available for all to see.

Bad CPAC Kookiness

The straw poll results out of the CPAC meeting are a bit of bad news.

See: Rep. Ron Paul surprise winner of CPAC presidential straw poll

Ron Paul, the isolationist nutburger, won the Presidential straw poll. Romney placed second with Palin showing at third.

Ron Paul is not acceptable.

No fucking way.

What an embarrassment.

Environmentalists And The Change In The Climate

The environment for the Climate Change Alarmist is changing. More and more their critics are likening them to Chicken Little, or the Boy Who Cried Wolf.

Unfortunately for them, those criticism are very apt.

See: Climate turning against kooky alarmists

The latest revelation is that there's been no significant warming for 15 years. One prominent climate scientist has acknowledged the current warming period may be no hotter than the medieval warming era (800 to 1300 A.D.) when the world lived green with nary a SUV or industrial smokestack around.

The devastating Hurricane Katrina of 2005 was cited as the harbinger of killer storms to come, spawned by a warming planet. Then came this winter's record snowstorms. Now the climate alarmists lecture us that one season's weather tells us nothing about climate change.

Actually, they've gone further to claim that the cold weather mess is in fact a product of a hotter globe. Their cause has come to resemble religion more than science -- it explains everything! One British Internet site, www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm, offers a list of articles linking global warming to a whole catalog of woes -- from the conflict in Darfur to the deadly 2007 Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse to more potent dope from poppies to higher waves off the Pacific Northwest coast to a boom in kitten litters in Toronto to the prevalence of acne.

It is not hard to predict that we will see more commentary like this in the future.

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Former IPCC Chairman: ‘Every error exaggerated the impact of change’

Professor Watson, a former IPCC Chairman, is calling for an investigation of what happened with the IPCC report. Professor Watson points out that that the errors are just too one sided to be easily excused as simple mistakes.

See UN must investigate warming ‘bias’, says former climate chief
‘Every error exaggerated the impact of change’

Professor Watson, currently chief scientific adviser to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said that if the errors had just been innocent mistakes, as has been claimed by the current chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, some would probably have understated the impact of climate change.

The errors have emerged in the past month after simple checking of the sources cited by the 2,500 scientists who produced the report.

The report falsely claimed that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 when evidence suggests that they will survive for another 300 years. It also claimed that global warming could cut rain-fed North African crop production by up to 50 per cent by 2020. A senior IPCC contributor has since admitted that there is no evidence to support this claim.

The Dutch Government has asked the IPCC to correct its claim that more than half the Netherlands is below sea level. The environment ministry said that only 26 per cent of the country was below sea level.

Professor Watson, who served as chairman of the IPCC from 1997-2002, said: “The mistakes all appear to have gone in the direction of making it seem like climate change is more serious by overstating the impact. That is worrying. The IPCC needs to look at this trend in the errors and ask why it happened.”

[Emphasis is mine - Syrah]

The "why" of it all is multifaceted. From the highly political nature of how Academia receives funding for research projects to the narcissistic desire of many in the environmental movement to save the world. The temptation of the dark side became too great for many of the well intentioned people in the environmental and climate sciences to resist.

They meant well. It is very important to understand that. They really did and really do want what is best. The did not wake one day and decide to be villains or monsters. Many fell into it unwittingly and with the best of intentions and the noblest of goals. They became caught up in something bigger than themselves, with their social and their financial lives caught up in a maelstrom of compounding errors and narcissistic conceits that became ever more impossible and dangerous to escape.

Much of their data was good and they could and did take refuge in that. Unfortunately, much of their data was just dead wrong, plain missing or even totally faked. Unsurprisingly, their conclusions suffered miserably from their impossible reality.

I recall being lectured as a young student of science about the sins of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko. He was a man who began with the best of intentions, the noblest of goals, and he was also terribly wrong. His error led to the deaths and imprisonments of those that challenged his ideas. His ideas had become the "settled science" of the party and were enforced by the guns and the bludgeons of the state.

Trofim Denisovich Lysenko's ideas became the scientific "consensus" of his nation. That consensus did not make his ideas any less wrong. That consensus did not prevent people from starving or from being shot or from being imprisoned because they were wrong.

The horror of Trofim Denisovich Lysenko's sins are truly monumental.

Every scientist and probably every politician should bow their heads in prayer every day, earnestly beseeching whatever God they pray to, that they do not become so full of themselves that they end up committing the same sins as Trofim Denisovich Lysenko.

~~~

(Carthago delenda est!)

The peer review process needs to be reformed.

No more secret data.

No more secret software.

Everything must be be out in the open and available for all to see.

Professor Jones: for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.

The foundations of the AGW movement has taken another serious blow, this time, one delivered by one of their principles.

See Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995

Professor Jones also conceded the possibility that the world was warmer in medieval times than now – suggesting global warming may not be a man-made phenomenon.

And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.

It has all been nothing but bafflegab and flumadiddle designed to help the power mad fleece the public treasuries. Tons and tons of money have been burned to foment this fraud. Countless laws and regulations have been passed and enforced to prevent something that mankind can neither start nor stop.

And it had all the scientific credibility of the Piltdown Man.

The peer review process needs to be reformed. (Carthago delenda est!)

No more secret data.

No more secret software.

Everything must be be out in the open and available for all to see.

The IPCC, Sea Levels and Flooding - An Underlying Credibility Issue

The IPCC is acknowledging that they erred when they stated that 55% of the Netherlands is below sea level.

See U.N. climate panel admits Dutch sea level flaw

The 2007 report included the sentence: "The Netherlands is an example of a country highly susceptible to both sea level rise and river flooding because 55 percent of its territory is below sea level."

"A preliminary analysis suggests that the sentence discussed should end with: 'because 55 percent of the Netherlands is at risk of flooding'," the IPCC note said.

So what drove the need to have the original erroneous sentence in the initial IPCC report?

Was it included because like the Himalayan Glacier Melt farce, it was meant to advance a political agenda?

Given all of the other problems that the IPCC report has been shown to have, given the revelations from the CRU email dump that brought to light the attempts to manipulate data and rig the peer review process, how can we believe that it was anything other than politics?

The whole peer review process needs to be reformed. No more secret data. No more secret software. If they can't tell us how they arrived at their conclusions including showing us the raw data and the underlying programing that they used to derive them, then they should not be taken anymore seriously then we should take the Discovery Institute "Intelligent Design" creationist.

Its time to scrap the IPCC in its entirety and start from scratch with data and programing that they can show us.

Zuckerman Versus Obama

Zuckerman is rumored to be considering a run for the Senate.

If he does, it looks like it will be a candidacy that is a reaction to Obama's extremism.

Read Zuckerman's own words: He's Done Everything Wrong

Obama’s ability to connect with voters is what launched him. But what has surprised me is how he has failed to connect with the voters since he’s been in office. He’s had so much overexposure. You have to be selective. He was doing five Sunday shows. How many press conferences? And now people stop listening to him. The fact is he had 49.5 million listeners to first speech on the economy. On Medicare, he had 24 million. He’s lost his audience. He has not rallied public opinion. He has plunged in the polls more than any other political figure since we’ve been using polls. He’s done everything wrong. Well, not everything, but the major things.

I don’t consider it a triumph. I consider it a disaster.

One business leader said to me, “In the Clinton administration, the policy people were at the center, and the political people were on the sideline. In the Obama administration, the political people are at the center, and the policy people are on the sidelines.”

I’m very disappointed. We endorsed him. I voted for him. I supported him publicly and privately.

There is talk that if Zuckerman decides to run for the Senate, he will do so as a Republican or as an Independent.

I could respect Zuckerman as an Independent. I would have a hard time trusting him as a Republican. He really should run as a Democrat. The Democrats need a few sane people in their Party. Mort could help them reduce the influence of the kooks in the Democrat Party and still stay true to his political ideals.

Is Zuckerman A Republican Or A Democrat?

He will have to decide if he is going to run for the Senate.

See Zuckerman Said to Mull Run for U.S. Senate

Mr. Zuckerman, 72, is known as a Democrat, , but if he runs, it would likely be as a Republican or independent, to avoid participating in a costly primary.

In doing so, Mr. Zuckerman would be following the path of his close friend and fellow media executive, Michael R. Bloomberg, who switched his party affiliation from Democratic to Republican to run for mayor of New York City.

What is he?

I do not like candidates that choose their political party affiliation by sticking a wet finger to the wind. They are suspect from the start. They cannot be trusted. One day they may be with you, the next they are against you.