The Dispirited Defeated Left

I have lots of friends who I love dearly who are as left wing as you will ever find.

For a long time I have had the opportunity (even joy) to engage in spirited discussions re politics, culture, religion, and life in general.

Suddenly silence, nothing, from any of them.

I wondered. Is it just me? But I watch the talking head shows, I listen a bit to Air America, I listen to Right Wing Talk Radio, I read the blogs like Huffington. The air has gone all out of their balloon. Oh there’s a few hanger on’ers. But they are few and far between.

I know it would be easy to say they have accepted the bankruptcy of their positions; that they are unable to respond to reason and common sense.

But that never stopped them before.

Something has happened here. Could it be the calm before the storm? Did the Alito thing embarrass them so much? The Pillage Idiot thinks so. Is the lost 2006 election cycle to them painful? I think something is up.

Lawance Tribe, a political consultant was quoted:

Tribe said Friday that Democrats were increasingly discouraged in their efforts to mount opposition campaigns. "When it comes down to it, the numbers of Democrats means that it begins to feel to some like tilting at windmills,"

And at a time when Dick Morris says the country is turning left. His thesis is interesting and a warning to those of us who might become complacent.

It is always dangerous to generalize about ideological trends among the American electorate, since it will always lean right on certain issues (like defense, terrorism and taxes) and hew to the left on others (like healthcare, education, poverty and the environment). But the data are becoming overwhelming that the nation is moving left and is likely to stay that way through at least the 2006 election — and, if President Bush doesn’t adjust, for a lot longer.

A big part of the reason is the success the Bush administration has had in solving and hence diminishing the importance of the Republican agenda. Taxes have been cut, we have not had a terror attack since Sept. 11 and trial lawyers are on the defensive. The issues that remain — energy, environment, healthcare and Social Security — usually are Democratic and liberal.

The battle is still on. But, to my quieted lefty friends; come back little Sheba, come back. I still love you.

Martin Luther King's Conservative Roots

Martin Luther King Jr’s Holiday is being celebrated on Monday. You will hear Al Gore and all species of Liberals parroting things MLK supposedly said. Mostly it will be quotes from his late in life conversion from Conservative thought patterns to those influenced by liberals like Jesse Jackson.

Almost everything you will hear quoted Monday will be from the years 1964-1968. Four years of his whole life’s work is the shallow well from which liberals will draw their water.

What you are not going to hear on Monday are any quotes from his less famous years. The years he said what he believed and not what gave him fame.

He spoke conservative truths that resonate today in the emerging black conservative community from the early 50’s. He was passionate about helping black Americans in 1954 become all they could be in his mid 20’s during the Montgomery Bus Boycott and worked tirelessly until he was in his mid 30’s without wavering from fundamental black conservative principles.

It is easy to point to the pivotal day of his conversion; The Jobs and Freedom rally in Washington DC in August 1963 (he was 34 years old) with nearly a half million cheering people hanging on his every word. He used this platform to promote Kennedy’s Civil Rights Bill. This became law in 1964.

Fame is deceiving. From that point forward he said what the crowd cheered for and not what he really believed. The last 4 years of his life were governed by influences that caused the fame and acclimation to take the place of principle

He was murdered just after his 39th birthday.

He was a great man who believed in right principles that became perverted by the spotlight and voices around him filling his mind with more and more liberal fantasies. The power corrupting and absolute power corrupting principle held.

Here’s what you WON’T hear on Monday when the Liberals co-opt the stage like they did at Rosa Park’s funeral. They are shameless.

“Whatever your life’s work is, do it well,” he advised. “If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music.”

“Set out to do a good job,” not “a good Negro job.” Three years later, he was even more adamant: “We must seek to do our life’s work so well that nobody could do it better. The Negro who seeks to be merely a good Negro, whatever he is, has already flunked his matriculation examination for entrance into the university of integration.” Even the later King touted this line. “[W]e must work assiduously to aspire to excellence,” he proclaimed in 1967.

He excoriated schoolteachers “who can’t even speak the English language” and wouldn’t know a verb “if it was as big as that table.” “For a college graduate to be standing up talking about ‘you is,’” he charged, “there is no excuse for it.” He added angrily: “And some of these people are teaching our children and crippling our children.”

“Let’s live within our means. Save our money and invest it in meaningful ends.” Blacks shouldn’t spend more than they could afford on houses and cars, he counseled, and they should especially “stop wasting money on frivolities,” such as “all these alcoholic beverages.” “It would be one of the tragedies of this century,” he maintained, “if it is revealed that the Negroes spent more money for frivolities than we spent for the cause of freedom and justice and for meaningful ends.”

If blacks were to integrate themselves into America, King felt, black crime rates had to fall. “Let’s be honest with ourselves and say that . . . our standards have lagged behind at many points,” he declared in 1957. “Negroes constitute ten percent of the population of New York City, and yet they commit thirty-five percent of the crime,” he observed.

“We can begin a constructive program which will vigorously seek to improve our personal standards,” he said. “It is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of high maturity, to rise to the level of self-criticism,” King declared. “Through group unity we must convey to one another that our women must be respected, and that life is too precious to be destroyed in a Saturday night brawl, or a gang execution.”

“Through community agencies and religious institutions, we must develop a positive program through which Negro youth can become adjusted to urban living and improve their general level of behavior.”

He pointed out in 1957 that, in St. Louis, “the Negroes constitute twenty-six percent of the population, and yet seventy-six percent of the persons on the list for [A]id to [D]ependent [C]hildren are Negroes.” Several years later, he regretted that “56 percent of Negro children at some point in their lives have been recipients of public aid.”

He echoed Franklin D. Roosevelt’s argument that government handouts are a potential “narcotic” that can result in “moral disintegration,” robbing welfare clients of their “self-respect, their self-reliance and courage and determination.”

Shortly before his assassination, King even began to speak of a black “underclass”—“an underclass that is not a working class.” In King’s view, those who belonged to this group, “alienated from the routines of work,” lacked the “habits of discipline” that enable someone to succeed in the workplace. How could self-help be the road to success for people who seemed bent on destroying themselves?

"When these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters," King wrote in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail, "they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence."

So you read it here. You can also read all about it here and here and here

Happy Birthday Dr King

Why I am Optomistic but not Black

I am optimistic that a turn is taking place in the Black Community.  The conservative Christian black leaders (I Didn't say Republican) are beginning to take the mask off of the so called Poor Oppressed Black culture and starting to get at it's organic roots.  The black population in New Orleans  crushed by organized socialistic policies with permanent poverty as a result was washed away by Katrina.  It ain't coming back.  The backlash against so called self serving leaders like Jesse Jackson is accelerating.  I predict that Al Sharpton (who I actually believe is pretty sharp) will get on board.  Bill Cosby, Don King and others who are recognizable will say the things needed to be said.  This will give permission to the Church and Political leaders (Like Lynn Swan) to help restore the respect and culture 45 years of social experimentation by "intellectuals" who played around with other people's money, great society schemes and EOC boondoggles that generated the opposite results intended.  It's time to set the captives free.

Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty,  Free at LAST.

Lashawn Barber wrote this. I couldn't.  I'm White.

If American blacks, as a group, don’t start: 1) marrying before they have children, 2) stigmatizing illegitimacy as they once did, 3) ostracizing immorality and decadency, 4) holding themselves accountable for their children’s low educational achievement, 5) shunning criminality, and 6) resisting the “racism” hustle — moral decay, social pathologies, underachievement, and other ills will define the “black community.”

And thug culture will be the perverse crown jewel sitting at the top.

Addendum: It’s important to note that I’m advocating responsibility for individuals and responsibility within families. Without a return to strong and intact families, the tasks ahead will be extremely difficult to accomplish.

Black people do not need another propped-up, opportunistic so-called leader helping them do anything. I believe blacks as a group have the intellectual, spiritual and cultural knowledge they need to dig out of this hole. It requires policing our own and holding one another accountable for our actions, not listening to some stump speech from a puffed-up peacock. So please don’t comment on this thread about leaders for the black community, especially if you’re white.

http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/01/11/dine-young-cannibals/

 

Another powerful voice in the community is Alveda King, Neice of Martin Luther King jr.  Her father also died tragically.  She spoke last Sunday at the Justice Sunday II rally held in PA in suport of Judge Alito's confirmation. 

http://www.kingforamerica.com/index.htm

 

This rally was held at a Black Church which is Pastored by a Conservative (note I didn't say Republican) Black man.  Keep Hope Alive.

 

Of course the Snarky Left Wing Website Salon couldn't celebrate progress:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/01/09/justice_sunday/index_np.html

 

This train is leaving town and the left doesn't even know where the station is.

 

  

How to end Global Warming in 10 years, Not that anyone of us would know

Some German Scientists have just revealed a shocking fact. Plants put off Methane Gas when they grow. CH4. Nasty old greenhouse gas. So, planting trees doesn’t work. They say,

This is JUNK SCIENCE at it’s worst.

I don’t say that as someone who just fell off the turnip wagon. I spent many hours in Plant Physiology studying the Dark Cycle, sometimes called the Calvin Cycle.

It is a description of how plants create carbohydrates from Carbon, sunlight thru photosynthesis. You can read all about it here.

Here’s the short version. Plants put off gasses. Sometimes those gasses are CH4. Mostly because of certain anaerobic decomposition activities. By the way, bacteria which operate in those environment are plants too.

So, now I will reveal my cure for global warming.

Kill all life on earth completely.

Will it work? If it happens we’ll never know.

But that’s what the Looney left junk science advocates are really saying.

Of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere here is the breakdown of the sources:
90 billion tons from Vulcanite sources, 90 billion tons from oceanic life sources, 8 billion tons from terrestrial life sources (human and animal).

There’s a problem with this. We didn’t cause nor can we stop climate change. It’s going to be what it’s going to be.

Wear a coat if we’re going thru a new Ice Age as some say, or buy a new umbrella if we are going to go thru intense global warming.

I’m not sure, and if I were it doesn’t matter.

Adapt. You have no choice.

A Peek at Nationaized Medicine

Today I needed to get some stamps.  You knew, the postal rate changed.  Right? No problem you say?  HA!

 

I stood in line for a half hour.  I needed stamps for a small mailing I was doing.  About a hundred pieces. 

 

They didn't have the right stamps.  They didn't have any stamps.  So after waiting a half hour the poor guy behind the counter who I did NOT harass came up with a bad solutions.  If I put this stamp and 2 2cent stamps (they have no 4's)  It would work out.  A really bad fix.

 

I'm astounded that they can even keep track of this mess. 

 

I was talking to others in line.  The consensus is that if the USA ever nationalized health care we would have a system akin to the efficiency of the post office. 

 

NOT EFFICIENT

 

This is a mess, they are doing what they can.  But bureaucracies are really bad at doing almost anything. 

Delivering the mail is nearly out of their realm now.

 

Don't let them take over health care. They can't do that either.

 

 

 

The Messiah Mythology in Business

If you ever wonder why in business, in politics and in sports that some people can earn enormous huge gargantuan amounts of money and others do not, I have the answer for you.

 

They believe in the Messiah.  Not Jesus, a Messiah that will come and solve all their ills. 

 

Here’s what they believe:

            This person will move people to do great things because of his power

            This person will have knowledge of all things happening everywhere

            This person will have answers that are perfect

            This person knows where to find the people needed to do the job

            This person can perform miracles where none seem possible

            This person will be controversial but makes things happen

            This person can do what needs done because others can’t

            This person is worth lots of money because of his promises

            This person will get gigantic results because of who he is

 

If that sounds like Jesus it’s because it is.  And it’s the guy every company, ball team, and political party is looking for. 

 

The problem is, the last time this person showed up they hung him on a cross.

 

Oh, American business is still looking for him, and when he turns out to have feet of clay (as any human ultimately will) they crucify him and look for another messiah.

 

I know.  I was that person once for a company.  They were looking for the guy who was going to solve all their problems.  I solved some but they were looking for more so I was exiled.

 

When I see the likes of Ken Lay, Bernie Ebbers, and others who are scandal ridden, or Tom Delay and George W Bush, or Kobe Bryant, the wonder of their accomplishments whatever they might be are soon eclipsed by the need to get rid of this messiah and find a better one. 

 

I go back to pay.  The job of corporate messiah I took in 1985 for $55,000 per year was succeeded by the next corporate messiah at about double my starting salary.  The one after that was more still.

 

This has happened in spades in the last 20 years in American business.

 

It’s all a con game, I’ll try to con you into thinking I’m the next corporate messiah and you pay me thusly and I’ll get enough of a golden parachute to cover my sorry behind when you kick my butt out.  This con game is then played by the next would be Messiah.

 

Let’s stop the insanity.  There is no such thing as a corporate messiah.  Corporate boards hire these guys because it covers their sorry behinds.  We hired the best they say, he failed not us they say, let’s get a new one to sweep clean like a broom they say, in the end it’s all a spoof.

 

Same in politics and sports.

The job of being CEO of fairly large corporation is best held by someone who doesn’t have all the answers, who tries hard to find them, who works with good people toward a common goal and if a person they are working with isn’t good, helps find someone who is.

 

It’s not rocket science.  Don’t pay for rocket science. 

 

Corporate boards: hire for right money, get a good person, pay them well but not stupid and make your company a great company.  Take your position at the table.

 

This is getting out of hand.

 

That Job in 1985 I was hired for if it existed today would be a $250,000 per year job.  I would not have been then and am not now worth that much money.  Neither is anyone else for that size company.  Stop the insanity.

 

HMO's are out to Kill YOU

I admit I have seen far too many X-Files programs.   But, here's a conspiracy theory I hadn't thought of before.  A friend told me of it.  I did some research and found some disturbing information.

 

In states where Physician Assisted Suicide is legal, HMO's actively seek out doctors who will kill you so they make more money, that's just like the Sopranos.

 

In Europe where there is government financed health care the effort to save the taxpayer dollar is even more overt.  25% of deaths in nursing homes, hospice and hospitals were docs killing patients. 

 

That's what the Culture of Death has led us to.  Slippery that slope.

 

Here are some exerpts:

 Others fear that HMOs, motivated by their financial bottom line rather than compassion, will become dangerous advocates for PAS, forcing doctors and patients to make choices they wouldn't otherwise. In Oregon, for example, the assisted suicide law prohibits anyone to "coerce" or use "undue influence" to produce a request for assisted suicide. However, according to the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, "...there is absolutely nothing in the Oregon law to prevent HMOs, managed care companies, doctors or anyone else from suggesting, encouraging, offering, or bringing up assisted suicide with a patient who has not asked about it."

 

Since HMOs make money by cutting costs," he wrote, "and it could cost $40,000 (or more) to provide suicidal patients with proper care so that they don't want assisted suicide, the economic force of gravity is obvious."

 

 He went on to explain that in Oregon, Kaiser-Permanente, the largest not-for-profit HMO in the United States, sought out physicians who were willing to perform PAS. "Kaiser isn't merely permitting doctors to assist in patient suicides," he wrote, "it is actively soliciting its doctors to participate in the deadly practice."

 

Read the whole thing: http://www.kqed.org/topics/news/perspectives/youdecide/pop/suicide/2yes.html

 

 

They're out to KILL you, How far we have fallen.

Some months ago I published a fictional story about Timmy, a little boy who was misbehaving and his parents couldn't handle him, so they had him KILLED.

 

I had lots of people say I was way off on that, that it could never happen. 

 

Well, look at this story with these excerpts:

 

Wragg's 10-year-old son, Jacob, suffered from the degenerative disease of Hunter's syndrome and had multiple disabilities. On July 24, 2004, his father smothered Jacob, afterward calling the police to tell them he had killed his son, the BBC reported Dec. 12. She further noted that the judge justified the husband's decision to kill his son, even though he was not the primary caregiver; it was Wragg's wife who took the main strain of looking after Jacob. What the decision means, is that "our disabled children's lives are worth considerably less than the able-bodied."

 

Then, on Sept. 9, the Irish Examiner newspaper reported that a study carried out by researchers from the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam found that doctors are helping to hasten the deaths of sick children in a variety of ways, sometimes acting at the edges of the law.  The study was published in the September issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. It looked at 64 deaths of sick children during a four-month period. Of those, 42 cases involved medical decisions that could hasten death.

There's also this story, you can be Killed in India for just being defective, like being a female.  About 10,000,000 have been terminated in the last 20 years after ultrasound because they were just not penile endowed.

So before you call me nuts once more, ask yourself the question, who's going to make the decision about you living or dying in the future?  This is a life and death issue, YOURS.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For What it's Worth

I read the following this morning. I think it’s worth while. It has to do with the great divide and the fact that we (Right and Left) just aren’t talking anymore. I thought about the Buffalo Springfield Song:

There's something happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear.
There's a man with a gun over there,
Telling me I got to beware.
I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.

There's battle lines being drawn.
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong.
Young people speaking their minds,
Getting so much resistance from behind.
I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.

What a field day for the heat.
A thousand people in the street,
Singing songs and carrying signs,
Mostly say, “Hooray for our side.”
It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look what's going down.

Paranoia strikes deep:
Into your life it will creep.
It starts when you're always afraid.
You step out of line, the man come and take you away.

I can tell you with confidence that both left and right wing thinkers feel that song is about them, as the one the man will come and take away. Both sides feel the the other side is the one with the GUN. How is that possible? How did we get here? Who generated that much hate? Where is all the venom coming from? This is a conversation conservative thinkers are engaged in right now. Here's a peek into that world.

The Anchoress asked this morning:

I wonder if we are not putting too much energy into negativism, whether it’s actually constructive or just mean-spirited. It doesn’t matter if the left does these things, compiles these lists; for conservatives, some of this just seems to not be the best use of our time or our minds.

We on the right have tons of legitimate differences with folks on the left; on some issues our whole worldviews are utterly and absolutely at odds. There is more than enough to debate about, already, and too many subjects on which we may never be able to come together. We don’t really need to expend our time and energy on projects that simply come down to pointing a finger and saying, “ewwww…look at them” do we?

Isn’t that best left to the perpetual adolescents who live for it?

Negativity and cynicism are too easy to embrace. I know, because when back when I was a liberal, cynicism was the tool by which most of my opinions were shaped; it was simpler than thinking and always gave me a “moral” edge. And because I am human and sometimes inclined to laziness (and sometimes just eager to feel prideful and morally superior and “too smart to fall for” anything) I still find myself falling into cynicism (particularly about the fourth estate, for example) and going negative, because it IS so very easy to do.

Not all blogs embrace cynicism, of course, at least not habitually…but it’s worth thinking about: when does constructive criticism become negativity; when does healthy skepticism become cynicism, and do our better natures get buried under such easy weight?

Cynicism and negativity are like easy-to-make snacks, full of empty calories which fatten you up (and slow you down) while offering no nutrition. Feeding on them gives your body (and your mind) nothing on which to build, or grow, or heal.

I know, some will say that the left is incapable of extending a sentence of good-will toward the right, so why bother - President Bush tried changing the tone and got his extended hand smacked back - yeah, I know, I know. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Remember Atticus Finch, in To Kill A Mockingbird, who explained to his son (after losing a case and watching his unjustly accused black client fall victim to entrenched racism), “just because we’re licked a hundred times over is no reason not to try.” A positive act, upon being rebuffed, does nothing to injure the party offering it.

Clearly, I have work to do on myself. It’s worth thinking about, is alls I’m sayin’.

She had said earlier:

I was thinking about left and right, about how our political passions can overrun our humanity, sometimes, and make us behave in ways that seem quite outside of our instincts. I didn’t write it well, though, and I ticked off a few people.

From Sigmund:

In making the decision who best represents interests, consider this: Anyone who really wants to help his fellow man or represent the best interests of citizens, will not make the focus of their work speaking of human weaknesses, failures and hate. They will speak of man’s great potential and the possibility of participating in good works. More than anything, they will let their love for their fellow man and good works speak for them.

Mother Teresa rarely talked about her work. She went out and did what needed to be done. When she needed money to continue her good works, she demanded that we help- because that would tap into our higher and better selves. We too, could share in those works. She had no harsh words for those of different opinion.

Contrast that, for example, with Rachel Corrie and the ISM. Neither Corrie or the ISM were Mother Teresas, in any sense of the word. Despite noble statements to the contrary, their entire raison d’etre was and remains to promote and publicize an agenda of hate. Their website, and others like them, are filled not only with hate, but instructions on how best to hate.

Mother Teresa and her Order had no time to hate. There was too much work to be done. Rachel Corrie and her ilk had no time to get the job done. There was too much hate to spew.

We all of us do it, sometimes, let our passions get the better of us and spout off, and if we feed that, we find we are like little computers set for scorn, who cannot reboot - we get stuck on cynical, stuck on the sneer.

We might all do it, sometimes…but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to maintain a sense of just how far we are going, and know when we are out of control.

ME AGAIN:

So, how did we all get here, how do we get back. How do we stop the hate and venom from BOTH sides. I am somewhat fearful that even if my side or your side wins that the Buffalo Springfield song will come true once again as it did in the 70’s.

We must stop the hateful talk somehow, from BOTH SIDES.

Mark of the Beast, and you thought we were kidding

So many people think that all the prophecy about a mark in the hand and in the forehead as just so much baloney from religious right wingers.  OK.  How's this.

 

Get your mark right here.

Fire and Death in the Hole (Reflections on the West Virginia Mine Disaster)

My heart goes out to the folks who have suffered loss. I admire their faith and steadfastness (mostly).

Here’s my thoughts:

The media who jumped the gun on this should be ashamed of their behavior. They did no fact checking, no digging. When wildfire started, they fanned the flame. What ever happened to the journalistic maxim, "If your mother says I love you, check it out". And they blame the bloggers for being irresponsible. THEY broke the people’s hearts, not the company.

I was sure that at some point the liberals would figure out a way on how to blame Bush for all this. It didn’t take long. Thursday night on Primetime I see a reporter opine that lax mine inspections because of Bush policies are partially responsible for this disaster. Is there no end to their hatred of this President? They are shameful.

Mining is dangerous. Not as dangerous as farming. We lost people every year on the farm in various ways. Don’t want danger? Work at Wal-Mart. Pays less but very very safe (mostly).

This is a case of the cost of the 100% solution. 60% mine safety is cheap and unacceptable. 70% is more costly by half again and better. 80% is double the cost. Etc. 100% mine safety means 10 pounds of coal are mined annually at a cost of $50,000 per pound.

I got a micro picture of how it will be when the wrath of God comes. Most people believe that they will find God at the end on when trouble comes. It’s not true.

I remember black box tape recordings of people in a burning airplane in Manila in the 70s. They weren’t calling out to God, they were cursing him loudly. Vile evil things.

Then there was the plane that went down in Sioux Falls in the mid 80’s. After it crashed people leaped over each other without much consideration for anyone but themselves. I saw an unedited report that day. The man was cursing God out for the whole thing. I thought it would be better if he stayed away from Church for a while.

At the mine disaster I saw the service on TV when they thought everyone was safe and only one man had died. They were whooping it up. Bless God, Amazing Grace etc. The one man who died (they thought) family was there, the pastor asked if people would please come up and pray for them, there were about 140 people there, 3 came up and prayed.

Then, the bad news came, no more amazing grace how sweet the sound. The god they thought they loved had let them down. They begin to say things like, what good is god, there is no god, _ _ _ _ god. _ _ _ _ Jesus. Rough stuff. Angry stuff.

I didn’t lose anyone in that accident. I don’t have the right to judge. Maybe. I’'ve had crisis, loss, disaster, pain, suffering and shock in my life. I have sat and held the hand of many who were going thru things as hard as this and they didn't curse God. Their anchor held.

When I heard the report of what the people said I immediately thought of a passage from the Book of the Revelation: The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. (Revelation 16:10-11 NIV)

There will come a day when God will put all men in a place where none can look God in the eye and say, I never had a chance, I never knew, I wasn't aware. There will be no excuse. When God pours out his bowls in an attempt to cause people to come back to him, it will have in large part the opposite effect. They will curse God and die.

Sadly that’s exactly what happened to several when the small bowl was poured out on West Virginia. What will happen when the real woes begin?

It depends on who you are anchored to.

Proud to be a Republican or Democrat (are you?)

So you were waiting for me to tell you why this whole Abramhoff affair is going to taint but not bring down the Republican leadership in congress?

Why is this a non starter relative to the 2006 elections?

Here's why.  One brush paints the whole guilty bunch.  The list which I can't bear to publish is the one of the republican's who are just as guilty (only for bigger dollars, but then we are the party of the rich and we can't be bought with the puny contributions democrats apparently can).

So while this will cause great discourse it's without teeth. The relatively subdued tone and normal self-righteousness from the left has been muted.  And, NO, giving the money back (or to charity) doesn't make it OK that you are a slimebag (something my congressman Denny Hastert just did and so did Harry Reid).

Besides, this isn't the big one.  There's another shoe to drop.  Look out, that one WILL hurt.  I'm a little surprised Jack Abramhoff hasn't been killed and all his files disappeared.  No wait, that was only during the Clinton Administration. (for those of you historically challenged see Vince Foster)

40 Of The 45 Members Of The Senate Democrat Caucus:

• Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) Received At Least – $22,500
• Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN) Received At Least – $6,500
• Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE) Received At Least – $1,250
• Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) Received At Least – $2,000
• Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) Received At Least – $20,250
• Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) Received At Least – $21,765
• Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) Received At Least – $7,500
• Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) Received At Least – $12,950
• Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND) Received At Least – $8,000
• Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) Received At Least – $7,500
• Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) Received At Least – $14,792
• Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) Received At Least – $79,300
• Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) Received At Least – $14,000
• Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) Received At Least – $2,000
• Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) Received At Least – $1,250
• Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) Received At Least – $45,750
• Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) Received At Least – $9,000
• Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT) Received At Least – $2,000
• Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) Received At Least – $14,250
• Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) Received At Least – $3,300
• Senator John Kerry (D-MA) Received At Least – $98,550
• Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) Received At Least – $28,000
• Senator Pat Leahy (D-VT) Received At Least – $4,000
• Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) Received At Least – $6,000
• Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) Received At Least – $29,830
• Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Received At Least – $14,891
• Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) Received At Least – $10,550
• Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) Received At Least – $78,991
• Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) Received At Least – $20,168
• Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) Received At Least – $5,200
• Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) Received At Least – $7,500
• Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) Received At Least – $2,300
• Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) Received At Least – $3,500
• Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) Received At Least – $68,941
• Senator John Rockefeller (D-WV) Received At Least – $4,000
• Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) Received At Least – $4,500
• Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) Received At Least – $4,300
• Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) Received At Least – $29,550
• Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Received At Least – $6,250
• Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) Received At Least – $6,250

 

Of Beer, Barley and Bio-Breweries

I got this from a friend of mine out west.  AJ Skurdahl.  It is one of those things that seem too good to be true, but I think it just might be.  At first I thought it was one of those "raise rats to feed the cats for fur" things you've all seen.  But It's a legit deal.  So read the exerpt, look at the website.  This is the kind of thing that just might help many of us do well by doing good.  I love the creative thought.

 

The web site is http://www.resurgence.org/resurgence/articles/pauli.htm

 

An excerpt:

"This is not just theory; it's what we've put in practice in three breweries: one in Fiji, one in Tanzania and one in Namibia. When you make beer you have solid waste, C02 waste, heat waste and liquid waste. In solid barley waste you have 70% fibre and 26% protein, plus a few other things.

"In our three breweries we're growing mushrooms on the fibres. In collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Hong Kong Chinese University, we've developed a system to grow mushrooms on the spent grain. You can have up to five harvests of mushrooms in one batch of spent grain, and we've even succeeded in producing high-priced mushroom delicacies like shiitake and miyatake.

"None of the mushroom experts around the world ever thought of growing them on beer. As a systems thinker; I asked: what can we do with the fibres? We discovered that fibre is a mushroom feed, and so we use our fibre as mushroom feed.

"Now, with the 26% protein waste, we're cultivating earthworms. Earthworms like hot, sticky, wet environments, in which they convert vegetable proteins into animal proteins. To give you a figure, a middle-sized brewery with an annual production of 100,000 litres of beer will give you 10 tons of solid waste a day. 70% of that you can use to grow mushrooms.

"But what I found even more interesting is that with one ton of solid waste, you can produce about 130 kilos of earthworms. Therefore, a mid-sized brewery will produce about 1.3 tons of earthworms a day. That's a lot of earthworms. We feed them to chickens. So now we also have a chicken farm linked to our brewery.

"What this means is that there's no need to have any aid programmes for food in Tanzania. Just convert the sixteen breweries into chicken farms, and mushroom farms. You can create massive amounts of food. On top of it, the food is extremely healthy.

"In addition, the mushrooms convert lignin cellulose into carbohydrates. These carbohydrates, the waste from the mushroom farm, are given to the cattle. The cattle used to get food that had only 2% carbohydrates; now their food has 45% carbohydrates, thanks to the good work done by the mushrooms. So now we have a 45% carbohydrate feed stock for cattle, which is high quality feed.

"The cattle and the chicken produce much less methane with this type of feed, but they still do produce a lot. We catch all their droppings in a digester, which then generates steam. The largest digester we have is in Beijing, in a brewery that produces 800,000 litres of beer a year. It's one of the largest breweries in China. All the steam they need in the brewery comes from the digester; from the waste of the chickens and cattle. It's a very efficient process.

"So our chickens and cattle become a source of energy. We are not used to looking at a chicken as a source of energy; we look at it as the source of eggs and food. But a chicken is also one of the most efficient methane generators in the world. With three chickens and one cow, you can have electric light all evening in your home.

"Now, the digester also generates waste, called slurry, which has a very high BOD (biological oxygen demand). This is considered a problem by environmentalists, because of the large amount of oxygen that has to be added. The Chinese and the Vietnamese have worked with very high BOO slurries before.

"They put them into fish ponds on which they have floating gardens, so the roots of the flowers and ryes and tomatoes extract all the food. It's like floating hydroponics. Within twenty- four hours, the BOO of 1,000 (which is what our digesters give us) is broken down to a BOO of 25, without adding oxygen. So we have floating gardens and seven kinds of fish are bred in the ponds, which is the traditional Chinese way of dealing with slurries. This is nothing new; it's what the Chinese have been doing for thousands of years. We are now applying this at our industrial site which means that we have six or seven ponds the size of a hectare, one next to another, and we treat all our slurry that way.

"So, I'm asking my beer brewers, "In which business are you? Are you in the hydroponics business, the fishpond business, the chicken-farming business, or the mushroom business, while you happen to make some beer on the side?" From a systems point of view, it doesn't really matter. Nobody tries to maximize anything here; this is all optimization. That's the beauty of industrial clustering. The principle of the natural cycle is applied here as an industrial cycle. No more linear thinking.

"Let me summarize our results. First of all, in terms of output of nutrients, of fertilizer and of energy, we're doing seven times more than a brewery. This is the second Green revolution! We're producing seven times more food, fuel, and fertilizer. This means we've completely changed the economics of a brewery. It is also important to realize that you can't do this with a two-million-litre- a-year brewery. You can only do it with a small brewery.

"The second result is that we generate four times more jobs than in a normal brewery. We have four times more people employed, because all that clustering requires workers. However; every single component of the cluster is tested against the market. Our great advantage is that every resource comes free, because it is what was considered waste. From the brewery's point of view, everything is waste. Our additional expense is on the infrastructure, all of which is located around the brewery. That means we have eliminated transportation costs completely, which is a major advantage. The brewery is always located close to a consumption centre, which means the mushrooms are sold, the chickens are sold and the fish are sold locally. ~"

 

Of course, to work in the Dakotas water would have to be piped in from the Arctic or Great Lakes.

--
AJ

Right Place Wrong Guy

I have heard more than once from journalists and politicians that what Iraq needs is a “George Washington” to lead the country to independence. 

The lament has been that there is no such person on the horizon. 

 

I’m not convinced.  I watched 6 hours of a history of the crusades on the History Channel. I also saw a good movie, “Kingdom of Heaven”.  Also about the crusades.  My relatives according to ancient family trees were Germans who were part of the crusades into the Holy Land.  Since then I have done some reading.

 

Iraq doesn’t need a George Washington, Iraq needs a Saladin.  He is still a hero in the Muslim world.  What’s interesting is he wasn’t an Arab.  He was a Kurd.  Or if you like a Meade.

 

If you look at those links you will soon figure out why even today Muslims honor his name and revere his victories.

 

I would love to see a Saladin rise up.  I wonder if Saddam saw himself as a Saladin since Saladin was (like Saddam) born in Tikrit in Iraq. 

 

But, lets look for a new Saladin.  What is interesting is that the current prime minister is from Kurdistan, a Meade. 

 

Symbolism is everything in Islam.  Keep your eyes peeled.

 

An Endorsement of a Store I Love

I own no stock.  I have no axe to grind. Peggy and I just came from a visit to one of our favorite grocery stores. 

 

We live within 5 miles of Jewel, Dominick's, Sams Club, Trader Joes, Super Wal-Mart, Super Target and Meijers.  All ok stores except for the antichrist factor at Wal-Mart and Sams.

 

The one I really enjoy simply for the adventure factor is ALDI. 

 

When we lived in Germany we didn't shop much at Aldi.  Tengelman, Z Markt, and others.  Then there were a few super stores in Heilbronn.  I liked the small form market the best.  Too many choices drove me nuts.  Besides the Hefefleks were the best.  An oat cereal kind of like cheerios except better.

 

When we came back we started shopping Aldi.  I won't kid you at the beginning it was for the price.  Then I started discovering a little secret you won't learn except by shopping there often.  They will go out into the market and buy super premium product and sell it as a loss leader.  Anything.  Computers, TV's anything.

 

Here are some of my favorite products:  The Coffee.  The German Coffee is excellent,  Nearly anything with the Grandessa private label is excellent.  The frozen individual pizzas are excellent.  I particularly like the roasted vegetable.  Sugar wafers, excellent stuff.  The honey graham crackers are better than anything you can buy at mainstream stores.  And, a recent find.  Blueberry muffin mix.  Kind of semi sweet and very good.

 

It's not that I need the food but I enjoy Aldi.  In season you can buy excellent stolon. 

 

It's just plain a good place that's full of surprises every time.  But you have to look and you have to try.

 

 

 

I don’t believe everything I read or hear

In the last week a barrage of news stories has come out of South Korea about the scientist who cloned gene specific stem cells. At first I was only mildly interested. But then, as the story got more and more involved I became suspicious.

You see, I have watched just too darn many (all of them) X-Files episodes to allow me to buy what we are fed by government or in particular the media.

I think we will now discover there is more here than meets the eye. If he isn’t assassinated by large corporate government conspirators who are trying hard to keep a lid on this breakthrough because it might halt the global plan of oppression…….. Wait, that’s another X-File plot.

But, don’t buy everything you see. This doesn’t pass the smell test. Something’s up.

2006 Prediction Post

I have been accused of having a prophetic bent.  So:

 

These are my predictions for 2006.  At the end of last year and during the year I have made other predictions.  They are linked or listed at the bottom of this post. I don’t know for sure what will or won’t happen but I know that several of these will happen for sure. 

 

So have a great 2006, It looks like it could be a great year.

 

There will be at least 2 earthquakes of significant magnitude 6+ in California.  There will be one more somewhere else in America.  There will be others on the planet but these 3 are in America.

 

The year will be one of extremes in weather.  Record hot, cold, wind, rain, storm, snow and drought.  Just one major hurricane will occur on US soil in 2006.  It will be a cat 3.

 

There will be an outbreak of bird flu that will cause significant death but it will be restricted to the Asian countries.  Even when it arrives on other shores it will be far less virulent than first predicted by many.  Fear will be great.

 

An educational implosion will begin.  The whole system will begin to dissemble.  It will not stop in 2006.

 

The inner cities in America will begin to regentrify.  Cities will begin to see resergence as people move back.  Don’t give up on Detroit.

 

The major media figures who were dishonored and disgraced in 2005 will be multiplied in 2006.  This will continue until media types start to behave.

 

General Motors will face bankruptcy.  While a shock, it’s impact will be minimal on the economy.  Less than Katrina.

 

Employment in America will remain about the same.

Nearly a 25% decrease in housing starts slows the economy a little.

Inflation concerns and tighter credit contribute to the slowing.

 

Oil prices will begin the year at $60 crude. An attempt to manipulate the market some time in 2006 crude will cause crude to breach $100.  This manipulation will fail and the price will fall to $45. 

 

A major scare in the stock market causing a significant retrenchment.  It won’t hold.  The economy will do OK in spite of it all.

 

Judge Alito will be confirmed.  There will be one more vacancy in 2006. 

 

There will be several departures from the Presidents administration.  Rove, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Condelesa Rice will become Vice President when Cheney resigns after the fall elections.

 

The fall elections will be of little consequence.  Very little change in the balance of power.  The Republicans will actually pick up a seat in the Senate.

 

Scandals in government you see are just the beginning.  The ones that will hurt are bipartisan.  This is going to shake some who have been most self righteous and pontificate the most.  They will have to learn to eat bitter words.

 

Watch these things in political events:

Patriot act – Passes but with modifications

Social Security – no change in 2006

Health Care Reform – serious talk begins

Tax Reform – will continue but still not enough

 

The long questioned WMD issue will be settled in the first quarter of 2006.  It will silence the critics.

 

Iraq will settle down.  Leaders will emerge to bring it into better days. 

soldiers in Iraq will be nearly half what they were at their peak by years end.  About 80.000.  But they won’t all come home.  Some will be in Afghanistan, Kwait and a couple other countries. Afghanistan will require new interventions by US troops in 2006.  After the fall election even the critics will have to admit Iraq is a succes.

 

An alliance of Iran and Russia’s Putin will cause great concern as it should.  Putin will distance himself from America.

 

Osama bin Laden will finally be revealed as dead. 

 

There will be an attempt to detonate a dirty bomb in New York City.  It will fail but cause panic.

 

China will undergo a great natural disaster. 

 

In Russia 2 disasters of proportions not yet seen will take place in 2006. 

 

Israel will experience a quiet time of peace.

 

Persecution of those of faith will accelerate. 

 

5 major leaders of the Church will be lost.

 

Pray for our President.

 

Links to last year’s predictions:

 

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_northerngleaner_archive.html

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/09/economic-fallout-from-9-11-andor.html

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/07/if-you-got-guts-they-got-money.html

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/06/short-takes.html

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/10/hardhearted-republicans-put-money-over.html

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2005/09/send-money-but-send-it-to-right.html

 

After the Tsunami I said:

People’s response to incredible tragedy of this nature is predictable. Find someone to blame. This will mean the political landscape of the most devastated countries will change. Some not for the better.

 

There will be significant efforts to install a response and warning system for any future such events. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig. It makes you feel better but it doesn’t really change things. In the USA everyone at top levels is convinced that somewhere sometime in a major metro area a nuclear device will be detonated for maximum neutronic pollution. (dirty bomb) Pop quiz. If you live in or near any of these areas what is your civil defense plan for this predicted event? About the same as Siri Lanka’s I’ll wager.

 

Then there will be the money thrown at the effort and no one will have done enough. It’s already begun. Much of that money will be wasted, siphoned off, graft, theft and lost. Good intentioned people will give to good intentioned NGO’s and it will be stolen. If you give, give to organizations that have the fear of God as part of their charter. Theft is less there.

 

People will ponder the if-onlys. It is delusion to live in a world that believes that things will get better if only. If only I had more money, if only I had a better job, if only I were (or weren’t) married, if only, if only, if only. Things on balance never do get better. They only change. All change is perceived as loss. ALL CHANGE!

http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/2004/12/christmas-jesus-tsunami.html

 

 

I have a long version of this set of predictions as was given in a Church on January 1, 2006.  If you would like a copy emailed to you send me a messge with the subject line FULL TEXT 2006 and I will return it promptly.  Send that to generedlin@hotmail.com