Northern Gleaner

The MSM Elected Obama by keeping smart people ignorant

2008-11-18T10:00:00.002-06:00

If you want any clearer example, this is it. Watch this video. It shows how otherwise bright people were so brainwashed by the media, that they bought whatever was said, that they believed lies, that they were duped into voting ignorant of the facts, that they believed anything told them, that they were unwilling to do any independent thinking on their own. So they voted for Obama.

What makes this so sad is I know many of these people. Some even go to Church with me. They were suckered in. They now have to live with the consequence of their lack of discernment. Like sheep they were led astray.

Now we are on this ride. I hope it comes out OK. I'm not sure it will. Neither is the stock market. This is now an Obama market, uncertain, unsure, unwilling to bet that Obama and the nuts in congress will allow us to do what we are called to do. It can't get it's footing because it doesn't trust Obama.

Watch the whole video. THEN, if you were foolish enough to have been suckered into the schemes of the Mainstream Media and shut off your thinking cap, mourn, not for me, for yourself. You got you into this mess.

How the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah lived we now Live

2008-11-18T08:30:00.003-06:00

If you are a student of old Testament history at all you will see a pattern that repeats itself over and over again. The nation would defeat it's enemies, fear God, live right, become prosperous, then get stupid, chase idols and be defeated back into bondage. Over and Over and Over again. This pattern:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

When I look at that pattern once more and look at the USA I wonder exactly where we are on this progression. Do we have Faith, Courage, Liberty, Abundance, Complacency, Apathy, Dependence, Are we headed for Bondage?

I know that the rise of irreligious thought is the beginning of the descent into bondage. We certainly have that in spades.

Our country doesn't need a bailout, it needs JESUS.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.
--Sir Alex Fraser Tytler (1742-1813) Scottish jurist and historian

Busting the political myths of 2008

2008-11-17T23:22:00.001-06:00

Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza has come up with five myths about the election.
No. 1: The Republican Party suffered a death blow. (History says otherwise, because every president since 1934 except George W. Bush lost House seats in his first midterm election.)
No. 2: Black and young voters swept Barack Obama to victory. (”Exit polling suggests that there was no statistically significant increase in voting among either group,” Cillizza said.)
No. 3: Now that they control the White House and Congress, Democrats will usher in a new progressive era. (Not true, he said, because many of the freshman Democrats, especially in the House, are moderate to conservative.)
No. 4: A Republican candidate could have won the presidency this year. (Not likely, Cillizza said, thanks to President Bush’s record.)
No. 5: McCain made a huge mistake in picking Sarah Palin. (Though Palin hurt McCain’s attempts to reach out to independents and Democrats, “it’s hard to imagine conservatives rallying to McCain - even to the relatively limited extent that they did - without Palin on the ticket.”)

Shown on Sunday Night, You need to show this to YOUR congegation if you have one

2008-11-17T22:49:00.004-06:00

Sometimes it's good to be reminded of what we give thanks for.

Sunday Night in Church this video was shown. Outstanding material.

I commend it to you.

Are we all born liberal but some never grow up? Is Peter Pan a Liberal?

2008-11-17T10:26:00.002-06:00

This guy has written a book and has this article as a tickler. Interesting hypothesis.

America is raising liberal crybabies
Posted: November 17, 2008
1:00 am Eastern

By Reb Bradley
© 2008

Barack Obama certainly beat the odds.

Not just by becoming president, mind you. But by staying out of jail, by not becoming a chronic drug abuser or alcoholic, by not dropping out of school, by graduating Harvard Law School and by getting married to, so far at least, one woman.

The odds were against him.

And not because he is black.

The odds were against him because of his childhood.

Barack Obama was very much a child of the '60s sexual revolution. He was raised, in part, by a teenage single mother and, later, by his pre-hippie, highly unconventional grandparents – a couple steeped in leftist politics, pot smoking and unorthodox ideas about child-rearing.

In a world where even many so-called "conservative" parents are raising "liberal" children – in other words, children who never really grow up – Barack Obama, indeed, beat the odds … in some respects.

But in another way, the coconut did not fall far from the Hawaiian tree.

Barack Obama is, politically speaking, just what one would expect from such an upbringing. He is very much a product of his social environment – not to mention his natural state, "born liberal."

Why are so many Americans raising liberal children today? Why did Barack Obama overwhelmingly win the youth vote and, particularly, the support of first-time voters?

As the author of the new book, "Born Liberal, Raised Right: How to Rescue America from Moral Decline – One Family at a Time," here's my hypothesis: All humans are born with the same predisposition toward life. We may each be born with our unique personalities, but we have the same bent: by nature we are all born liberal.

I propose that liberalism is, in fact, the natural condition of the human heart. For us to grow into conservatives, we must be trained against our nature.

In this age of technology, one might say that liberalism is our "default" operating condition. Throughout our childhoods, our parents must work hard and change our settings to keep us from operating in our default mode. If parents are successful, we enter adulthood with our new settings fully locked in. Left untrained, all children would grow up liberal in their outlook, which is something government schools seem hell-bent on ensuring.

I researched more than a dozen dictionaries in preparing my book, and I believe it is accurate to say that to be politically "liberal" is to be freed from restraints, liberated from moorings, ever-changing, having an evolving basis for values, not bound by tradition or orthodoxy.

In American politics, this means that pure liberals have an expanding view of the Constitution – a "living document" they call it – that should not be bound by the intent of its framers.

Does that sound familiar?

Why, it's a portrait of Barack Obama and the constituency that made him president.

But, knowing what I know about the excesses of liberal child-rearing techniques, I suspect there is more to Barack Obama than meets the eye.

That's because undisciplined, self-worshipping kids grow into liberals driven by the same narcissistic, over-emotional, passionate, "I-want-it-now" worldview they had as toddlers.

How might those characteristics manifest themselves in a president of the United States?

Well, let's see. We certainly have Bill Clinton as a recent case study.

But could this narcissistic worldview be dangerous for the country?

I suspect it could. But, then again, I believe liberalism is dangerous for the country, too. And that's why I wrote "Born Liberal, Raised Right" – because it's not inevitable that the future of America is liberalism.

The problems begin at home with indulgent parenting. But a little understanding, patience and courage are all it takes to change the parenting, the family … and the nation.

What IF It's proven that OBAMA is constitutionally unable to be POTUS

2008-11-17T08:20:00.002-06:00

You know that there are serious questions asking if in fact Obama is born in the USA, a requirement to be POTUS. There is no such tangible evidence that he was born here.

Lawsuits have been filed. One such is filed by none other than Alan Keyes. This is a serious lawsuit unlike earlier versions. He is not suing in the supreame court. He is suing the state of California for the 55 Electoraal votes. If he succeeds there, the domino effect will be amazing to see.

So, I asked the question of folks that should know: IF for some reason it is proven that Obama does not qualify and cannot take the oath of office what happens then.

Very interesting in researching all this:

Long and short, once the electoral college votes in December Biden would become POTUS. Until then the electors can vote however they chose. Biden, McCain or Palin.

What does this mean?

Senator Joe Biden would become the President-Elect if Obama were to become unable to serve as President (eg. death) after December 15, 2008 when the electors meet. Should President-Elect Obama be unable to serve as President prior to December 15, 2008, the day the Electoral College votes, several scenarios might happen. Some states are required by law to vote for their states voted candidate (ie. the President-Elect that can’t serve). Other states can select whomever they choose.
To answer your question, if it is after the Electoral College vote (12/15/2008), Senator Biden, if it is prior the Electoral College, it is unknown (Biden, Clinton, McCain, Palin, or someone else). This has never happened in US history.

This seems to be the most reasonable explanation. IF however Obama is disqualfied AFTER Jan 20 then Hillary would be elected by the house of Representitives. My guess. If however, The electors were to have to decide, if what I am reading is right, McCain would be POTUS. There would be no other choices. Ron Paul seems to think he is in the running still. I don't see how.

Here's what I don't get, what I don't understand. Obama could put us all out of our misery in a second. Just have the State of Hawaii produce under oath a certified embossed copy of the Birth Certificate just like I had to get when I got my passport and present it to 100 judicial people to examine. That would be that.

Why won't he do this? Does he LIKE constitutional crises?

But then we never got to see if he was a magna cum laude or a dunce in college either. No grades were ever released.

He's like the Phantom. No one knows.

What is he hiding?

If Starbucks Marketed like most CHURCHES

2008-11-16T22:34:00.001-06:00

Is there EVER temporal judgement?

2008-11-16T16:27:00.002-06:00

There was for Sodom and Gomorrah.

But not at the tower of Siloam.

Who sinned then? Jesus said no one.

But, is there ever temporal punishment? Ever? Today?

I watch the news and see convergent events and terrors. Open rebellion against God in every way. And I have to ask. Is there?

I won't pronounce it, but I am asking myself the question. So should we all. It is a horrible thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.

I just re read the sermon by Jonathon Edwards given in the 1700s. Sinners in the hands of an Angry God.

He certainly postulates that there is indeed temporal punishment for sin on this side of the veil. It's very different from the kind of preaching you hear on Christian TV. Or from most pulpits.

Maybe it's time we tell each other the truth. Judgement is come.

“Nobody ever defended anything successfully; there is only attack and attack and attack some more.” — General George S. Patton

2008-11-14T22:59:00.000-06:00

- Pajamas Media - http://pajamasmedia.com -

A Natural Patton: How Palin Nearly Saved McCain

Posted By Kyle-Anne Shiver On November 14, 2008 @ 12:00 am In . Feature 01, . Positioning, Elections 2008, Politics, US News | 143 Comments

“Nobody ever defended anything successfully; there is only attack and attack and attack some more.”

— General George S. Patton

For all the tacky talk in media circles, where folks have extremely over-inflated opinions of themselves, one would think that Sarah Palin was the sole arbiter of Republican defeat this year.

What a pile of preposterous poppycock!

From the beginning of ‘08, the accepted wisdom was that no matter whom the Democrats nominated, they would deliver to the Republicans an ignominious defeat. But this year’s defeat was anything but the complete rout it was supposed to be.

And the person who nearly even saved the day — and the election — for Republicans was Sarah Palin.

This is not a minority opinion. When Rasmussen conducted detailed exit [1] polling among Republicans, they found that a full 69% of respondents thought Sarah Palin helped — not hurt — McCain. Governor Palin has not garnered the status as America’s most highly regarded, most popular governor for nothing.

And how much do Republicans admire Sarah Palin? Far more than anyone else on our side of the aisle, according to more Rasmussen tidbits:

Ninety-one percent (91%) of Republicans have a favorable view of Palin, including 65% who say their view is very favorable. Only eight percent (8%) have an unfavorable view of her, including three percent (3%) very unfavorable.

When asked to choose among some of the GOP’s top names for their choice for the party’s 2012 presidential nominee, 64% say Palin. The next closest contenders are two former governors and unsuccessful challengers for the presidential nomination this year — Mike Huckabee of Arkansas with 12% support and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts with 11%.

And just how was it that the pitbull in lipstick upset the pundits and the prognosticators this year, at least in the matter of degree?

The woman, in my opinion, is a natural Patton. A fighter to the core. Palin seems to instinctively know that when one is hip-deep in a culture war and a fight for the survival of American exceptionalism, then one must do more than defend, defend, defend.

If one is not willing to attack in defense of one’s cause, then he ought to get out of the way at the very least — or consider joining the other side.

At least that’s my paraphrase of one of the Patton doctrines.

Sarah Palin came out [2] fighting on her night in the convention spotlight. In her speech, she relied on the same line of attack that catapulted her from Wasilla mayor to governor of Alaska: plainspoken, honest convictions and a sense of humor.

And she debuted with some of the most memorable lines of this entire campaign:

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a “community organizer,” except that you have actual responsibilities.

I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening.

We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

Sarah Palin’s appeal was her willingness to fight — and fight courageously — for the American taxpayers, the ones who actually pay the bills for all that bureaucratic largess and faux generosity.

In this vein, Governor Palin not only brought [3] experience and a track [4] record; she brought conviction to the cause and a willingness to unflinchingly expose her opposition’s “love” for the poor as just another con by just another liberal pandering for votes through the promise of government handouts.

For two months, Sarah Palin traversed the country, town to town, and everywhere the lady went tens of thousands waited hours to hear her speak. When this happened with Barack Obama, he was hailed as a demigod. When it happened to Sarah Palin, she was targeted as a hate monger if anyone there got the least bit excited.

Palin wasn’t hesitant to bring up the voter fraud investigations of ACORN and make certain that her hearers understood the intimate connections between Barack Obama and ACORN [5] shenanigans. Sarah Palin, the mother of an American soldier now in Iraq, wasn’t squeamish about picking holes in Obama’s national defense priorities, even when she was [6] derided in the media for doing so. Sarah Palin wasn’t shy about [7] repeating the very, very late release of Obama’s taped admission that his energy plan would naturally “bankrupt the coal industry.”

Palin never stopped. She fought on until the final tally. Absolutely Patton style.

And the pundits, critics, and insiders can turn themselves every which way and back again, but they will not succeed in tearing this natural leader away from the nearly two-thirds majority of Republican voters who have already hailed her as the next leader in waiting.

It must have been just awful for John McCain to have been upstaged the way he was by Governor Sarah Palin. But McCain’s time is clearly past and Palin’s is just beginning.

This is my own final word on this election.

May it rest in the infamy it deserves.

This election was a triumph not of principle or workable solutions, but of pander to the greed of hosts of those who think Obama will solve their problems and pay their bills from the public trough. From start to finish, Obama ran a campaign more suitable for American Idol than the presidency of the United States, and the mainstream media were his willing enablers in hiding disturbing facts from public view. Obama-Biden outspent McCain-Palin more than four to one and still failed to deliver the knockout punch they and their media lapdogs envisioned.

But Sarah Palin still has a whole state to run, a pipeline to finish, and millions of cubic feet of natural gas to deliver to us in the lower 48.

Godspeed, Governor Palin. Until we meet again. The sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned.

And to Election ‘08, goodbye and goodnight. Thank the Good Lord, it’s finally over.

Article printed from Pajamas Media: http://pajamasmedia.com

URL to article: http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/a-natural-patton-how-palin-nearly-saved-mccain/

URLs in this post:
[1] polling: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_2012/69_of_gop_voters_say_palin_hel
ped_mccain

[2] fighting: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/president/conventions/videos/20080903_PALIN_SPEECH.html
[3] experience: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288722,00.html
[4] record: http://pajamasmedia.com../../../../../blog/palin-and-pelosi-worlds-apart-in-house-cleaning-methodolo
gy/

[5] shenanigans: http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/stealing_the_presidency_an_oba.html
[6] derided: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2008_10/015452.php
[7] repeating: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/11/02/politics/fromtheroad/entry4564043.shtml

Click here to print.

What Happens when a Spineless Man Becomes President

2008-11-14T19:01:00.003-06:00

Larry Summers, Former Clinton administration official, former President of Harvard, guy who expressed an opinion is OUT as Secretary of the Treasury.

WHY?

Because Barack Obama FOLDED under pressure from the Feminazis.

This is a crime. We now have a cabinet being selected by the least offensive people clause.

This will only result in more spinelessness.

Barack, Please for America's sake, grow up. Develop a spine. We need you to not be such a wimp.

WINNING A WAR

2008-11-14T16:51:00.002-06:00

I argued with someone about the war and why she voted for Obama. She said, what about all those dead soldiers. I asked which ones? The war is over. We won. It really is. People who voted for Obama because of the war were snookered. It's like voting in opposition to men from mars. Not there. Fictional.

Thank God for George W Bush.

"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. "There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis, 'do you think the violence will kick up again,' but even the Iraqi journalists are sounding optimistic now and they're usually dour." There's a little bit of violence here and there, but nothing that's a threat to the general situation. Plus, not only the Iraqi Army, but even the National Police are well thought of by the populace. Training from U.S. toops has paid off, he says, in building a rapport.

He says the big problem everybody is talking about now is corruption. But hey, we have that here, too. He'll be heading to Afghanistan next week. "Afghanistan is a bad situation, but on Iraq I can't believe things have turned out so well."

He thinks that Obama will be able to pull troops out, and send some to Afghanistan, without creating problems in Iraq. Michael will be reporting from Afghanistan soon, and sending back video, so stay tuned. Things aren't going swimmingly there.

Is this right or wrong in your opinon?

2008-11-14T12:01:00.003-06:00

I'm interested.

A Priest in South Carolina has asked parishioners to refrainh from taking communion if they voted for Obama.

He says it was an intentional unrighteous act. SIN!

So, is he right or wrong? And WHY?

I have an opinion of course but I'm interested in yours.

Engage in this ONLY if you have a HUGE appetite for Long Winded Climatologists

2008-11-14T08:33:00.002-06:00

Not a fan of New York Times - me.

But, they have been running a debate of several renowned climatologists from around the globe. In reading all the pronouncements I have come to a few conclusions.

Our attempts at Control of Climate Change are futile.
CO2 may be saving our life and more could be better.
We are going to eventually enter into a great long cold spell, ice age, glaciers and all
The planet is in peril but not from global warming
No one knows anything for sure and that includes AGW proponents
The Models are all wrong

I have for a long time known this to be the case. This is not a surprise. What is sad is we have spent a great deal of time fighting the wrong war with the wrong tools. CO2 is not a pollutant. It's a byproduct and might just be the only thing between you and freezing to death. All the foolishness with Carbon Credits and Cap and Trade are just flim flam. Al Gore Lied. People died.

Read the whole thing, this first and then the debate and then the comments.

It's just as you thought. Anthropomorphic Global Warming propaganda is all about political control. It might just open your eyes to the reality of our world. Paranoia isn't Paranoia if you know for sure they are out to get you. They are.

A Benchmark of our Moral Decline

2008-11-14T08:09:00.004-06:00

About 12 years ago Reverend Joe Wright from Central Christian Church of Wichita Kansas voiced a prayer starting a legislative day. It started a riot. It was the beginning of Americans calling evil good and good evil.

Re Reading it again I see how far we have fallen. I publish this because I got it by email attributed to Billy Graham. I knew at once it wasn't his. Snopes has it right.

He would agree however.

Here is the original from Rev Joe Wright's website:

The Prayer of Repentance
This is the text of the original prayer delivered January 23, 1996 by Pastor Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives in Topeka.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and seek your direction and guidance.

We know your Word says, "Woe to those who call evil good," but that's exactly what we've done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values.

We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of your Word and called it moral pluralism.

We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have neglected the needy and called it self-preservation.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building esteem.

We have abused power and called it political savvy.

We have coveted our neighbors' possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us O God and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.

Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of Kansas, and who have been ordained by you, to govern this great state.

Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of your will. I ask it in the name of your son, the living savior, Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Fatherlessness

2008-11-13T12:13:00.001-06:00

From the NEW ZEALAND HEARLD

What an electrifying night Wednesday night was! Even though most had picked Obama to win, the American public is such a diverse bunch that a sure-thing is never really a sure-thing until the key states are won and strategists on both sides of the political debate are predicting the same result.

And so Obama won, and it was a historic day for the U.S. and the world. But while he's broken many barriers, there seems to me one way in which president-elect Obama is not that unusual. Once more, a man who effectively grew up without his father is about to become (one of the) most powerful men in the world.

Barack Obama's father, Barack Hussein Obama, was a Kenyan who met his mother while a foreign student at the University of Hawaii. The pair married but soon divorced, Obama senior returning to Kenya to father several more children before dying in a car accident in 1982.

Obama Jnr was largely rasied by his maternal grandmother and grandfather in Hawaii, though it is his grandmother who he credits in almost every interview for giving him his unique drive and inspiration in life.

Many, many presidents of the United States lost their fathers early. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Calvin Coolidge all lost their fathers before they were out of their teens. Some, like Bill Clinton, lost their biological fathers before they were born (and in Clinton's case was raised by a violent, alcoholic stepfather).

Psychologists believe there is something to losing a father at a young age which can give rise to a revolutionary - Jefferson and Washington fit this mold, as do - on the other side of the coin - Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong.

Certainly there seems to be something about an absent father that affects a life: some believe this to be the "reconstructed father". The idea is that when a father is absent, a man will either reconstruct him as some kind of hero and strive to be like him or make him proud; or will hate him and rise up against him (his image).

It has also been noted that in many of these cases where fathers were absent, but also where they were present but uninvolved or unlovable, it will be the influence of a very strong mother figure that will stamp itself on the young man.

Certainly Bill Clinton seemed very close to his mother despite the fact she was a gambling addict and married five times, often badly. Sometimes the mother is besotted with her son to the point of questionable mental stability.

Of course there are some notable exceptions to this fatherless rule of thumb - John F Kennedy had a very domineering father who propelled him to the top, and the Bush dynasty seems to create high achiever following high achiever (whatever you think they make of that achievement!)

It's interesting to ponder this pattern in our modern world where much is made of one-parent households and how prevalent they are.

What I have witnessed in my own life is that people without fathers seem to be more free to find their own paths in life and be their own people, be it for better or worse.

This can be better if they can negotiate their youth well with the help of a switched on and tuned in mother (or family), but can also lead to arrested development and perpetual adolescence (drug abuse, violence etc).

Of course, there are always those who will rise above whatever family circumstances they find themselves in and succeed. But there's no doubting that many of today's most successful politicians, entertainers and other luminaries did grow up without their fathers, and there must be something to that.

Maybe Savage was Right

2008-11-13T09:30:00.002-06:00

Some years ago Mike Savage coined the phrase, "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder".

Not much was made of it other than as a way to offend and irritate liberals.

Now a Psychiatrist from Chicago has taken up the cause. He has written a book that says that Liberals are trapped in political madness. I have struggled with this idea. I have friends who in all other ways appear to be rational human beings but then they cross over into the political madness of liberalism they seem to lose all capacity for rational thought or clear analysis.

How does such mass deception and psychosis come about? I'm puzzled.

This Psychiatrist tries to explain it:

"Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."
..............................
"A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do," he says. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do."

Dr. Rossiter says the liberal agenda preys on weakness and feelings of inferiority in the population by:

creating and reinforcing perceptions of victimization;
satisfying infantile claims to entitlement, indulgence and compensation;
augmenting primitive feelings of envy;
rejecting the sovereignty of the individual, subordinating him to the will of the government.

"The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind," he says. "When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious."

I'm not saying all Liberalism is a mental disorder, but self examination would be a good thing.

The unexamined political belief is not worth holding.

The unanalyzed political agenda is not worth promoting.

Keith Olberman and American Idol

2008-11-13T08:14:00.003-06:00

One thing both shows have in common is it causes otherwise normal people to watch mentally ill folks try to do things they aren't capable of on live TV.

I never watch either. Mental illness shouldn't be a spectator sport. I think American Idol is sick. So is Olberman. Shame on NBC for allowing this very sick man on the air to display his disease for the amusement of many. Now I hear that they have extended his contract. I guess he must have agreed to commit suicide to get ratings on live TV. Good pull for watchers, just not great for follow up. He'd be dead.

In a recent article in Conde Naste's blog reveals that Keith Doesn't vote so he can remain "Objective". Right. Dr Freud would have a field day with that delusion.

What makes it more disturbing is his press release. If this isn't the ramblings of mentally ill person I don't know what is.

I haven't been particularly clear in expressing myself on what the "symbolism" is. I know it's very idiosyncratic, but I would feel just a little hesitation, just a little drag on the airflow, if I went to criticize somebody, especially a president, for whom I had voted. It is driven by the same thing that used to make me keep my distance from the athletes I covered. I don't want anything, even that tiny bit of symbolic connection, to stand in between me and my responsibility to be analytical and critical.

Aren't there laws about this kind of shameless exploitation of sick people?

The Origins of the Bailout

2008-11-13T08:11:00.002-06:00

I got this from a Pastor Friend this morning, Thanks Terry.

Young Chuck in Montana bought a horse from a farmer for $100. The farmer agreed to deliver the horse the next day. The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the horse died.' Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said, 'Ok, then, just bring me the dead horse.'The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him? Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.' The farmer said, 'You can't raffle off a dead horse!' Chuck said, 'Sure I can, Watch me. I just won't tell any body he's dead.' A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead horse?' Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $998.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

Chuck grew up and works now for the government. He was the one who figured out how to "bail us out".

An Unintended Hilarity

2008-11-12T11:56:00.002-06:00

Monday night Peggy and I went to the opera. Lulu by Alban Berg. I anticipated seeing it. It was what I expected. Harsh, brutal and challenging musically. Right up my alley.

Read all about it in the link above. During Act 3, Scene One there is an exchange that a year ago wouldn't have resulted in uproarious laughter. It did Monday Night.

In the conversation one of the party guests is asking Dr Schone about getting some additional shares of the Jungfrau Rail Road Stock. Lulu owns 40,000 shares. This has been a good stock. Dr Alwa Schone manages many of these peoples money. Is an investment banker. During the exchange he says,

"I'm a banker, I know what I'm doing, you can rely on me to make good decisions in your behalf, your investments are safe with me. My integrity is my bond."

That's what appeared on the supertitle screen above. I have not reviewed the German libretto to see if that is an accurate translation. None the less, in the middle of impending tragedy and blackmail this line appeared and the whole house burst into laughter.

That shouldn't be funny. But looking at the current destruction on Wall Street and with Banks who's only fault is that they don't use masks or a gun when they rob you, it was.

12 Reasons Jesus Would Never Make it as an Elder in Most Churches

2008-11-12T11:27:00.002-06:00

Jesus had no job
Jesus only paid taxes when pressed
Jesus owned just the shirt on his back
Jesus told the rich man to go sell everything he had and give it to the poor
Jesus had intimate dealings with women who were not his wife
Jesus had both men and women as close friends
Jesus had a great relationship with his Mother
Jesus’ earthly Father just wasn’t around
Jesus wept and showed other great emotional outbursts
Jesus wasn’t afraid to take and deal with open criticism from women
Jesus had contempt for elders and experts
Jesus wasn’t married and didn’t have covenant children

Hat Tip From the Pew's Steve Scott

Originally posted.

Eulogy for the Lynched

2008-11-12T09:08:00.003-06:00

The MSM is expressing fake regret at having lynched George W Bush for the last 8 years.

They are in mourning for his demise. They are starting to miss having him to kick around any more.

I don't know if it ever happened after a lynch mob did it's dirty work, but this is a case of the press saying nice things about the dead so as no to appear as evil and divisive as they are. They are pretending to make nice because they want to mollify their consciences (what little they have).

Expect more of this. Expect GWB to be eulogised as a great man for the next several months.

Like I'm surprised. I am already missing him.

The MSM is a bunch of dweebs. I dislike them very much. I don't want Keith Olberman or Chris Matthews to ever say a decent thing about George Bush. I want them to remain the vermin they really are. They are NOT forgiven for their treason.

No amount of nose and glasses will cure this. I will not forget.

PRESIDENT BUSH'S AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2008-11-11T19:57:00.002-06:00

Abortion & Traditional Values

1. Banned Partial Birth Abortion — by far the most significant roll-back of abortion on demand since Roe v. Wade.

2. Reversed Clinton's move to strike Reagan's anti-abortion Mexico Policy.

3. By Executive Order (EO), reversed Clinton's policy of not requiring parental consent for abortions under the Medical Privacy Act.

4. By EO, prohibited federal funds for international family planning groups that provide abortions and related services.

5. Upheld the ban on abortions at military hospitals.

6. Made $33 million available for abstinence education programs in 2004.

7. Supports the Defense of Marriage Act — and a Constitutional amendment saying marriage is between one man and one woman.

8. Requires states to conduct criminal background checks on prospective foster and adoptive parents.

9. Requires districts to let students transfer out of dangerous schools.

10. Requires schools to have a zero-tolerance policy for classroom disruption (reintroducing discipline into classrooms).

11. Signed the Teacher Protection Act, which protects teachers from lawsuits related to student discipline.

12. Expanded the role of faith-based and community organizations in after-school programs.

Budget, Taxes & Economy

1. Signed two income tax cuts, one of which was the largest dollar-value tax cut in world history.

2. Supports permanent elimination of the death tax.

3. Turned around an inherited economy that was in recession, and deeply shocked as a result of the 9/11 attacks.

4. Is seeking legislation to amend the Constitution to give the president line-item veto authority.

5. In process of permanently eliminating IRS marriage penalty.

6. Increased small business incentives to expand and to hire new people.

7. Initiated discussion on privatizing Social Security and individual investment accounts.

8. Killed Clinton's "ergonomic" rules that OSHA was about to implement; rules would have shut down every home business in America.

9. Passed tough new laws to hold corporate criminals to account as a result of corporate scandals.

10. Reduced taxes on dividends and capital gains.

11. Signed trade promotion authority.

12. Reduced and is working to ultimately eliminate the estate tax for family farms and ranches.

13. Fight Europe's ban on importing biotech crops from the United States.

14. Exempt food from unilateral trade sanctions and embargoes.

15. Provided $20 million to states to help people with disabilities work from home.

16. Created a fund to encourage technologies that help the disabled.

17. Increased the annual contribution limit on Education IRA's from $500 to $2,000 per child.

18. Make permanent the $5,000 adoption tax credit and provide $1 billion over five years to increase the credit to $10,000.

19. Grant a complete tax exemption for prepaid or college tuition savings plans.

20. Reduced H1B visas from a high of 195,000 per year to 66,000 per year.

Character & Conduct as President

1. Changed the tone in the White House, restoring HONOR and DIGNITY to the presidency.

2. Has reintroduced the mention of God and faith into public discourse.

3. Handled himself with enormous courage, dignity, grace, determination, and leadership in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings and anthrax attacks. He almost single-handedly held this country together during those searing days:

Just three days after the attacks, in his address at the National Cathedral, the President reassured the nation when he said: "War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and at an hour, of our choosing."

On Friday, September 14, 2001, President Bush visited Ground Zero. Standing on a crushed and burned fire engine atop the smoldering pile at Ground Zero, he put his arm around a retired firefighter who had volunteered to help, and began speaking to the crowd. Rescue workers shouted that they could not hear him. Someone handed him a small American flag and bullhorn. The President spontaneously shouted: "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon." The crowd roared with cheers and chants of "USA! USA! USA!" Then he raised that American flag and rallied a nation.

Education & Employment Training

1. Signed the No Child Left Behind Act, delivering the most dramatic education reforms in a generation (challenging the soft bigotry of low expectations). The very liberal California Teachers union is currently running radio ads against the accountability provisions of this Act.

2. Announced "Jobs for the 21st Century," a comprehensive plan to better prepare workers for jobs in the new millennium by strengthening post-secondary education and job training, and by improving high school education.

3. Is working to provide vouchers to low-income students in persistently failing schools to help with costs of attending private schools. (Blocked in the Senate.)

4. Requires annual reading and math tests in grades three through eight.

5. Requires states to participate in the National Assessment of Education Progress, or an equivalent program, to establish a national benchmark for academic performance.

6. Requires school-by-school accountability report cards.

7. Established a $2.4 billion fund to help states implement teacher accountability systems.

8. Increased funding for the Troops-to-Teachers program, which recruits former military personnel to become teachers.

Environment & Energy

1. Killed the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty.

2. Submitted a comprehensive Energy Plan (awaits Congressional action). The plan works to develop cleaner technology, produce more natural gas here at home, make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, improve national grid, etc.

3. Established a $10 million grant program to promote private conservation initiatives.

4. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.

5. Changed parts of the Forestry Management Act to allow necessary cleanup of the national forests in order to reduce fire danger.

6. Part of national forests cleanup: Restricted judicial challenges (based on the Endangered Species Act and other challenges), and removed the need for an Environmental Impact Statement before removing fuels/logging to reduce fire danger.

7. Killed Clinton's CO2 rules that were choking off all of the electricity surplus to California.

8. Provided matching grants for state programs that help private landowners protect rare species.

Defense & Foreign Policy

1. Successfully executed two wars in the aftermath of 9/11/01: Afghanistan and Iraq. 50 million people who had lived under tyrannical regimes now live in freedom.

2. Saddam Hussein is now in prison. His two murderous sons are dead. All but a handful of the regime's senior members were killed or captured.

3. Leader by leader and member by member, al Maida is being hunted down in dozens of countries around the world. Of the senior al Qaeda leaders, operational managers, and key facilitators the U.S. Government has been tracking, nearly two-thirds have been taken into custody or killed. The detentions or deaths of senior al Qaeda leaders, including Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, the mastermind of 9/11, and Muhammad Atef, Osama bin Laden's second-in-command until his death in late 2001, have been important in the War on Terror.

4. Disarmed Libya of its chemical, nuclear and biological WMD's without bribes or bloodshed.

5. Continues to execute the War On Terror, getting worldwide cooperation to track funds/terrorists. Has cut off much of the terrorists' funding, and captured or killed many key leaders of the al Qaeda network.

6. Initiated a comprehensive review of our military, which was completed just prior to 9/11/01, and which accurately reported that ASYMMETRICAL WARFARE capabilities were critical in the 21st Century.

7. Killed the old US/Soviet Union ABM Treaty that was preventing the U.S. from deploying our ABM defenses.

8. Has been one of the strongest, if not THE strongest friend Israel has ever hand in the U.S. presidency.

9. Part of the coalition for an Israeli/Palestinian "Roadmap to Peace," along with Great Britain, Russia and the EU.

10. Pushed through THREE raises for our military. Increased military pay by more than $1 billion a year.

11. Signed the LARGEST nuclear arms reduction in world history with Russia.

12. Started withdrawing our troops from Bosnia, and has announced withdrawal of our troops from Germany and the Korean DMZ.

13. Prohibited putting U.S. troops under U.N. command.

14. Paid back UN dues only in return for reforms and reduction of U.S. share of the costs.

15. Earmarked at least 20 percent of the Defense procurement budget for next-generation weaponry.

16. Increased defense research and development spending by at least $20 billion from fiscal 2002 to 2006.

17. Ordered a comprehensive review of military weapons and strategy.

18. Ordered a review of overseas deployments.

19. Ordered renovation of military housing. The military has already upgraded about 10 percent of its inventory and expects to modernize 76,000 additional homes this year.

20. Is working to tighten restrictions on military-technology exports.

21. Brought back our EP-3 intel plane and crew from China without any bribes or bloodshed.

Globalization & Internationalism

1. Challenged the United Nations to live up to their responsibilities and not become another League of Nations (in other words, showed the UN to be completely irrelevant).

2. Killed U.S. involvement in the International Criminal Court.

3. Told the United Nations we weren't interested in their plans for gun control (i.e., the International Ban on Small Arms Trafficking Treaty).

4. The only President since the founding of the UN to essentially tell that organization it is irrelevant. He said: "The conduct of the Iraqi regime is a threat to the authority of the United Nations, and a threat to peace. Iraq has answered a decade of UN demands with a decade of defiance. All the world now faces a test, and the United Nations a difficult and defining moment. Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" We all know the outcome and the answer.

5. Told the Congress and the world, "America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our country."

Government Reform

1. Improved government efficiency by putting hundreds of thousands of jobs put up for bid. This weakens public-sector unions and cuts undeserved pay raises.

2. Initiated review of all federal agencies with the goal of eliminating federal jobs (completed September 2003) in an effort to reduce the size of the federal government while increasing private sector jobs.

3. Led the most extensive reorganization the Federal bureaucracy in over 50 years: After 9/11, condensed 20+ overlapping agencies and their intelligence sectors into one agency, the Department of Homeland Security.

4. Ordered each agency to draft a five-year plan to restructure itself, with fewer managers.

5. Converted federal service contracts to performance-based contracts wherever possible so that the contractor has measurable performance goals.

Health

1. Strengthen the National Health Service Corps to put more physicians in the neediest areas, and make its scholarship funds tax-free.

2. Double the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.

3. Signed Medicare Reform, which includes:

A 10-year privatization option.

Prescription drug benefits: Prior to this reform, Medicare paid for extended hospital stays for ulcer surgery, for example, at a cost of about $28,000 per patient. Yet Medicare would not pay for the drugs that eliminate the cause of most ulcers, drugs that cost about $500 a year. Now, drug coverage under Medicare will allow seniors to replace more expensive surgeries and hospitalizations with less expensive prescription medicine.

More health care choices: As President Bush stated, "…when seniors have the ability to make choices, health care plans within Medicare will have to compete for their business by offering higher quality service [at lower cost]. For the seniors of America, more choices and more control will mean better health care. These are the kinds of health care options we give to the members of Congress and federal employees. What's good for members of Congress is also good for seniors.

New Health Savings Accounts: Effective January 1, 2004, Americans can set aside up to $4,500 every year, tax free, to save for medical expenses. Depending on your tax bracket, that means you'll save between 10 to 35 percent on any costs covered by money in your account. Every year, the money not spent would stay in the account and gain interest tax-free, just like an IRA. These accounts will be good for small business owners, and employees. More businesses can focus on covering workers for major medical problems, such as hospitalization for an injury or illness. At the same time, employees and their families will use these accounts to cover doctors visits, or lab tests, or other smaller costs. Some employers will contribute to employee health accounts. This will help more American families get the health care they need at the price they can afford.

Homeland Security, Border Enforcement & Immigration

1. *See Government Reform above. Under President Bush's leadership, America has made an unprecedented commitment to homeland security.

2. Has CONSTRUCTION in process on the first 10 ABM silos in Alaska so that America will have a defense against North Korean nukes. Has ordered national and theater ballistic missile defenses to be deployed by 2004.

3. Announced a 9.7% increase in government-wide homeland security funding in his FY 2005 budget, nearly tripling the FY 2001 levels (excluding the Department of Defense and Project BioShield).

4. Before DHS was created, there were inspectors from three different agencies of the Federal Government and Border Patrol officers protecting our borders. Through DHS, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now consolidates all border activities into a single agency to create "one face at the border." This not only better secures the borders of the United States, but it also eliminates many of the inefficiencies that occurred under the old system. With over 18,000 CBP inspectors and 11,000 Border Patrol agents, CBP has 29,000 uniformed officers on our borders.

5. The Border Patrol is continuing installation of monitoring devices along the borders to detect illegal activity.

6. Launched Operation Tarmac to investigate businesses and workers in the secure areas of domestic airports and ensure immigration law compliance. Since 9/11, DHS has audited 3,640 businesses, examined 259,037 employee records, arrested 1,030 unauthorized workers, and participated in the criminal indictment of 774 individuals.

7. Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has conducted more than 124,000 port security patrols, 13,000 air patrols, boarded more than 92,000 vessels, interdicted over 14,000 individuals attempting to enter the United States illegally, and created and maintained more than 90 Maritime Security Zones.

8. Announced the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS), an internet-based system that is improving America's ability to track and monitor foreign students and exchange visitors. Over 870,000 students are registered in SEVIS. Of 285 completed field investigations, 71 aliens were arrested.

9. This week, the US-VISIT program began to digitally collect biometric identifiers to record the entry and exit of aliens who travel into the U.S on a visa. Together with the standard information, this new program will confirm compliance with visa and immigration policies.

10. Eliminated INS bureaucratic redundancies and lack of accountability.

11. Split the Immigration and Naturalization Service into two agencies: one to protect the border and interior, the other to deal with naturalization.

12. Signed the workplace verification bill to prevent hiring of illegal aliens.

13. Established a six-month deadline for processing immigration applications.

14. Information regarding nearly 100% of all containerized cargo is carefully screened by DHS before it arrives in the United States. Higher risk shipments are physically inspected for terrorist weapons and contraband prior to being released from the port of entry. Advanced technologies are being deployed to identify warning signs of chemical, biological, or radiological attacks. Since September 11, 2001, hundreds of thousands of first responders across America have been trained to recognize and respond to the effects of a WMD attack.

Judiciary & Tort Reform

1. Is urging federal liability reform to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.

2. Killed the liberal ABA's unconstitutional role in vetting federal judges. The Senate is supposed to advise and consent, not the ABA.

3. Is nominating strong, conservative judges to the judiciary.

4. Supports class action reform bill which limits lawyer fees so that more settlement money goes to victims.

Politics

1. His leadership resulted in Republican gains in the House and Senate, solidifying Republican control of both houses of Congress and the presidency.

2. Signed an EO enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision regarding union dues being used for political campaigns against individual's wishes.

Second Amendment

1. Ordered Attorney General Ashcroft to formally notify the Supreme Court that the OFFICIAL U.S. government position on the 2nd Amendment is that it supports INDIVIDUAL rights to own firearms, and is NOT a Leftist-imagined "collective" right.

2. Signed TWO bills into law that arm our pilots with handguns in the cockpit.

3. Currently pushing for full immunity from lawsuits for our national gun manufacturers.

4. *See Globalization & Internationalism.

Traditional Values, Compassion & Volunteerism

1. Endorses and promotes "The Responsibility Era." President Bush often speaks of the necessity of personal responsibility and civic volunteerism. He said, "In a compassionate society, people respect one another and take responsibility for the decisions they make in life. My hope is to change the culture from one that has said, if it feels good, do it; if you've got a problem, blame somebody else — to one in which every single American understands that he or she is responsible for the decisions that you make; you're responsible for loving your children with all your heart and all your soul; you're responsible for being involved with the quality of the education of your children; you're responsible for making sure the community in which you live is safe; you're responsible for loving your neighbor, just like you would like to be loved yourself."

2. Started the USA Freedom Corps, the most comprehensive clearinghouse of volunteer opportunities ever offered. For the first time in history, Americans can enter geographic information about where they want to get involved, such as state or zip code, as well as areas of interest ranging from education to the environment, and they can access volunteer opportunities offered by more than 50,000 organizations across the country and around the world.

3. Established the The White House Office and the Centers for the Faith-Based and Community Initiative — located in seven Federal agencies. The faith-based initiative supports the essential work of these important organizations. The goal is to make sure that grassroots leaders can compete on an equal footing for federal dollars, receive greater private support, and face fewer bureaucratic barriers. Work focuses on at-risk youth, ex-offenders, the homeless and hungry, substance abusers, those with HIV/AIDS, and welfare-to-work families.

4. The White House released a guidebook fully describing the Administration's belief that faith-based groups have a Constitutionally-protected right to maintain their religious identity through hiring — even when Federal funds are involved.

5. Issued an EO implementing the Supreme Court's Olmstead ruling, which requires moving disabled people from institutions to community-based facilities when possible.

6.Increased funding for low-interest loan programs to help people with disabilities purchase devices to assist them.

7. Revised the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Section 8 rent subsidies to disabled people, permitting them to use up to a year's worth of vouchers to finance down payments on homes. HUD has started pilot programs in 11 states.

8. Committed US funds to purchase medicine for millions of men, women and children now suffering with AIDS in Africa.

9. Heeding the words of our own Declaration of Independence, the president laid out the non-negotiable demands of human dignity for all people everywhere. On January 29, 2002, he said, "No nation owns these aspirations, and no nation is exempt from them. We have no intention of imposing our culture. But America will always stand firm for the non-negotiable demands of human dignity." As stated by the President, they are a virtual manifesto of conservative principles:

Equal Justice Freedom of Speech Limited Government Power Private Property Rights Religious Tolerance Respect for Women Rule of Law

AND this all by the end of his first term.

I am going to miss George W Bush.

What a GOOD man. And

A great President.

The REAL Alternative Energy Source

2008-11-10T11:47:00.002-06:00

I read about this over the weekend. Intended to write on it, but to be honest, Shannon did it much better.

I was reading about the new Hyperion mini-nuke power generator [h/t Instapundit] and as I read through the possible uses, it occurred to me that such generators would be very useful things to have in the event of almost any natural or manmade disaster. This in turn led me to think about how “alternative” electricity sources, i.e., wind and solar would fare under disaster conditions.

We all should think hard about this before we put all our energy eggs in the fragile alternative basket.

The Achilles heel of alternative sources is their inherent unreliability. Wind and solar produce electricity on mother nature’s schedule and under nature’s conditions. Since we cannot store the power they generate, this unreliability alone makes them largely useless for providing a significant percentage of our power needs. Even when they do crank out the power, they do so only under ideal conditions. Even normal extremes of wind, rain, snow, sandstorms, etc. routinely take such systems offline. Since they harvest energy from natural forces, their physical infrastructure must be exposed to those forces for them to work. When those forces become extreme, that infrastructure will take damage. Clearly, major disasters like hurricanes, massive blizzards, earthquakes, etc. would make them completely useless for extended periods.

The marketing imagery for solar and wind power always shows the systems generating power on clear, sunny days. They don’t show them operating at midnight in a blizzard. Yet, a realistic power source must be able to do just that. It must be able to generate power in freakish and unpredictable circumstances. The marketing also implies that solar and wind power work in a decentralized manner, but in order for them to produce serious power, such as that needed to heat a northern home in the winter, they need a lot of room and that means that the power generation must be far from its consumption point. If some disaster occurs, people won’t have local power when the power grid goes down.

Since most leftists today advocate using alternative sources as the primary energy sources for the entire planet, we should also think about the effects that planet-wide changes and disasters could have on them.

If global warming does turn out to have the kind of extreme effects that many of its proponents claim, alternative sources would fare worse than they do now. Increased humidity would lead to more rainy days, cutting the efficiency of solar panels. Increased violent weather would knock wind and solar offline. One of the nightmare global warming scenarios has the oceanic conveyor system shutting down, which would block the transport of heat from the equator to the northern latitudes. In this scenario, global warming would make the northern latitudes colder and snowfall heavier. So, at a time when they would need more power for heat, they would experience weather that would disrupt their energy generation!

We also need to plan for more freakish events such as volcanic winter. In April of 1815, the volcano of Mount Tambora, exploded in the largest eruption seen in 1,600 years. It triggered a world wide plunge in temperature, creating the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816. Imagine such an event in the future with everyone dependent on an energy grid that goes offline in bad weather!

Mini-nukes such as the Hyperion system represent the near perfect disaster energy source. First, such systems are completely insensitive to weather. They operate day or night, in any extreme from the Antarctic to the Equator, from the bottom of the ocean to outer space. Their small size means they don’t even require an extensive power grid. Individual buildings or neighborhoods could have their own reactors providing heat and power over very robust short transmission systems such as underground wires and pipes. The Hyperion system is small enough that it would not be damaged by an earthquake. At the worst, you would just need to tap new cables into it.

People in the developing world would benefit the most from this technology. Simply providing a reactor that could provide clean drinking water in almost any extremity would be a massive humanitarian boon. Insulating them from price shocks of fossil fuels would be even better, long term.

Mini-nukes would also provide power in the case of some future planet-spanning war. Check out the science fiction section of your local book store for possible scenarios. Having a reactor in the basement that produces electricity for five years would be a big bonus in case of a zombie outbreak (or a more prosaic biological or nuclear war).

A lot of advocates of alternative energy seem to work from an unconscious conception that energy is to some degree a luxury good. They believe that we can live just as safe, healthy and well without it. Working from this conception, they plan in a cavalier manner, assuming that conditions will always be ideal and predictable, and if not, well, we can do without luxuries if we have to.

In reality, energy is the heart of our lives. Without it most of us will die with days. Losing 50% of our energy during a northeastern blizzard would kill millions. Sustained shortages of energy would kill more slowly but just as surely as we reverted back to the horrific lives of our ancestors. We need to think about rare scenarios because we are so dependent on energy that it would take only the occurrence of one such scenario to destroy everything.

People who advocate alternative energy need to tear their eyes away from the marketing brochures and instead try think hard about how to keep an old woman in the slums of Detroit warm in the heart of a once-in-50-years blizzard. If they can’t do that, they need to shelve their plans.

WHERE DO I SIGN UP?