PolifrogBlog

There is no free in liberty.


.

Friday, July 29, 2011

Jon Stewart Skewers the Bystander and Chief...

polifrog



But does he?
How do you read a clown?





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Our Unhealthy Government Dependent Market ...

polifrog


CNBC:
First-quarter output was sharply revised down to a 0.4 percent pace from 1.9 percent.
Why do we believe the Commerce Department?
How can they be off by 1.5%?
Placebo numbers harm confidence.

Recall that Q2 came in at 1.3%.
How well will that reading hold considering Q1 was off by 1.5%?
Negative growth?

::::

And the Boehner bill fails it's vote last night, the market falls; the Boehner bill is amended and is scheduled for new vote and the market ... jumps.

market

A sick system.

Update:
I had problems posting this and forgot the H/T.
(H/T ZeroHedge for the chart)
Sorry.



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Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Gulf Between Observation and AGW Models Widens...

polifrog



Forbes:
NASA satellite data from the years 2000 through 2011 show the Earth's atmosphere is allowing far more heat to be released into space than alarmist computer models have predicted, reports a new study in the peer-reviewed science journal Remote Sensing. The study indicates far less future global warming will occur than United Nations computer models have predicted, and supports prior studies indicating increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide trap far less heat than alarmists have claimed.

...

In addition to finding that far less heat is being trapped than alarmist computer models have predicted, the NASA satellite data show the atmosphere begins shedding heat into space long before United Nations computer models predicted.

...

In short, the central premise of alarmist global warming theory is that carbon dioxide emissions should be directly and indirectly trapping a certain amount of heat in the earth's atmosphere and preventing it from escaping into space. Real-world measurements, however, show far less heat is being trapped in the earth's atmosphere than the alarmist computer models predict, and far more heat is escaping into space than the alarmist computer models predict.

When objective NASA satellite data, reported in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, show a "huge discrepancy" between alarmist climate models and real-world facts, climate scientists, the media and our elected officials would be wise to take notice. Whether or not they do so will tell us a great deal about how honest the purveyors of global warming alarmism truly are.








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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Mass Manipulation Via the Deflation Monster...

polifrog


With the many examples of hyperinflationary currency destruction and a history replete with not one example of currency destruction via hyperdeflation we continue our endless, flirtatious dance with inflation.

I understand the undeniably rational arguments that deflation is imminently dangerous as well as I understand the theoretical concept of a circle. The problem I have is that neither seem to exist in reality. Deflationary spiral theory strikes me as a theory in search of a reality.

Where is an example in history of this so feared mythical deflationary spiral? There is not one.

But for examples of hyperinflation we have:
Angola (1993), Argentina (1981), Austria (1922), Belarus (1999), Bolivia (1985), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992), Brazil (1994), China (1948),Danzig (1923), Georgia (1994), Germany (1923), Greece (1944), Hungary (1922), Hungary (1945), Isreal (1970's), Krajina (1993), Mexico (1980's), Nicaragua (1980's), Peru (late 1980's), Philippines (1940's), Poland (1922), Poland (1989), Romania (1990's), Taiwan (1948), Ukraine (1994), Yugoslavia (1999), Zaire(1992), Zimbabwe (2005)

But we are told that:
The problem with deflation on a wide scale (not just with one class of consumer goods) is that it leads to a highly unstable economy. If consumers expect that prices will fall, they put off purchases, which decreases demand and can cause prices to fall further, decreasing demand, rinse and repeat. (Dave Ribar)
Why do they force this irrational fear?
Why do we believe it?

The reality is that people can not forever delay the purchase of needs; people need things and will buy them when a floor in pricing is found.

It seems odd to me that we are being asked to be more fearful of a deflationary spiral than an inflationary spiral. We are being asked to consistently dabble in inflation which has no real upward ceiling aside from currency destruction so as to avoid a deflationary event which almost everyone admits has a floor.

This strikes me as an awfully risky strategy for a nation, however it does lend "the few" tools to by which macro economic manipulation may be attempted.deflation monster




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Smokin' In the Boy's Room or Breaking Bad?

polifrog



MyFoxDC:
State Police Sgt. Andy Perdue said Monday that traces of the drug were found in the ducts, principal's office, hallways and bathrooms of the Boone County Career and Technical Center. Perdue says the teacher admitted he smoked meth with the principal in the principal's office.

The principal and a teacher smoke meth in the principal's office.

I wonder if they will loose their jobs.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Plainly Pained by a Planless President...

polifrog


Poor Carney, caught between a bystander of a president and a suddenly ballsy press.

Show us the President's plan...





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A Blasphemous Use for Keynesian Theory...

polifrog


It seems that if, as Keynesians argue, the economy suffers as a result of government spending cuts during contractions then Keynesian logic would dictate that tax cuts commensurate with those cuts in government spending during contractions would be in order.




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Monday, July 25, 2011

Impressing the Fiscal Reality of Delayed Fiscal Coherence...

polifrog



We have lived under a broken debt funded system so long we no longer recognize a functioning system when we see one.

Our representatives are in power to reconcile needs and wants with our fiscal ability to meet those needs and wants. Doing so is difficult. That difficulty combined with cheap borrowing costs has lead to an over reliance on debt rather than doing the hard work of reconciling fiscal incoherence.

What we see today, the hard and messy work of reconciling fiscal incoherence, is healthy. One party understands that, the other does not and requires the coercive fear of limited debt availability to reign in their unreal dependence on other people's money, or more accurately, another generation's prosperity.

No, it is not simple; impressing reality on the irrational rarely is.



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Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Discordant James Protzman of Blue NC

polifrog


James Protzman
, BlueNC:

Reading this post today, everything finally clicked into place. I finally understand the Christianists, though it makes my head want to explode.

No, it's not about the Tea Party assassin in Norway. It's about Tea Party dominionists in Florida who want to loosen environmental restrictions that protect ocean animals. These god-fearing Christian soldiers are proud to say: "We cannot elevate nature above people," explained Edna Mattos, 63, leader of the Citrus County Tea Party Patriots, in an interview. "That's against the Bible and the Bill of Rights."

We have such fools here at home, those in favor of turning North Carolina's beaches into concrete bunkers. Those who want to give zygotes the same exalted status as living humans. Those who believe mercury is an essential ingredient for North Carolina rivers. Those very same partisan whores who believe elected officials should choose their voters instead of vice versa.

This Sunday I wish I was a schizophrenic militant Christianist too. Then I could pray to god that all these arrogant assholes would rot in hell.

To which I replied:

The statement:

I finally understand the Christianists.

and the statement:

Then I could pray to god that all these arrogant assholes would rot in hell.

are contradictory. You do not understand Christians.

and:

It is contradictory to define life as not life.

Those who want to give zygotes the same exalted status as living humans.

If there were only one polar bear and that polar bear were a "growing clump of cells" within its recently deceased mother would it be a life worth saving? Unfortunately I am unable to use humanity in this example due to the devaluing humanity has suffered from the left.

and:

Those very same partisan whores who believe elected officials should choose their voters instead of vice versa.

Elected officials are by definition chosen by their voters. To state otherwise is contradictory:

:::::

James Protzman replied by not only deleting my comment, and banning me, but labeling my comment as "intolerable".

Sorry for the deletion, but on this particular day in right wing hell, your words rose to the level of intolerably obnoxious. I have blocked your account.

Feel free to re-register as a real person with a real name and I will consider allowing you the privilege of participating in this community.

His house, his rules. OK.
I'll miss the exchange.

However, James Protzman's incongruity extends beyond the simple bending of logic via word. James Protzman's incongruous nature leads him to delete innocuous comments like mine above while tolerating the truly intolerable with an attaboy wrist-slap.





polifrog

Thursday, July 21, 2011

More Keynsian Cowbell--Automatic Stabilizers...

polifrog


In another example of Keynesian solutions resulting in the flatlining of American prosperity, American poverty was falling until the war on poverty and those much loved "automatic stabilizers" kicked into action.



polifrog

A Little More On That Watabe Tree Incident For the Dems Known as Redistricting ...

polifrog



'Nother short post, links really.
The New redistricting map.

And a clearer description of the NC Dem's Watabe Tree incident.
WashingtonPost:
Unlike the state GOP’s first proposal, though, this one puts McIntyre’s and Miller’s homes into other members’ districts. Furthermore, it would make both McIntyre’s and Kissel’s even more Republican than before.

...

The new map also would likely force McIntyre — perhaps the toughest of the four targets for Republicans to defeat — to move into the new 7th to run for reelection. And Miller, who is drawn into Rep. David Price’s (D-N.C.) district, would also face a tough reelection decision.

In the end, the map appears to be even better for the GOP than the first map proposed (details on that map here), concentrating more Republicans into the vulnerable Democrats’ districts while putting more Democratic voters in non-competitive districts.

Republicans said they made the changes in response to concerns raised by Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) that his majority-black district may not meet the requirements set forth by the Voting Rights Act. Because of this, Butterfield’s safe Democratic district would become even more Democratic than the first proposal, allowing Republicans to put even more of their voters in other districts.

Heh.

Watabe tree 7 min in:







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Redistricting Map 2....

polifrog



polifrog


RedState:

When the first North Carolina redistricting map came out at the beginning of July, Democrats of course bawled like stuck calves.

...

But then something interesting happened: Rep. GK Butterfield (D, NC-01) started complaining. Rep. Butterfield is a beneficiary (along with Rep. Mel Watts of NC-12) of the racial gerrymandering system set up in response to the Voting Rights Act; and he made some rather pointed objections to the first map, arguing that it ‘disenfranchised’ some of his former constituents by moving them into majority-white districts. North Carolinan Republicans thought about it – and must have decided that they agreed, because they went into the maps again and redrew both Butterfield’s and Watt’s districts to make them more in line with the VRA’s perceived guidelines.

Presented without comment; presented without time to do so.
Well, a small comment:

You mustn't go near a watape tree. They grab you.





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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

You mustn't go near a watape tree.

polifrog


RedState:

When the first North Carolina redistricting map came out at the beginning of July, Democrats of course bawled like stuck calves.

...

But then something interesting happened: Rep. GK Butterfield (D, NC-01) started complaining. Rep. Butterfield is a beneficiary (along with Rep. Mel Watts of NC-12) of the racial gerrymandering system set up in response to the Voting Rights Act; and he made some rather pointed objections to the first map, arguing that it ‘disenfranchised’ some of his former constituents by moving them into majority-white districts. North Carolinan Republicans thought about it – and must have decided that they agreed, because they went into the maps again and redrew both Butterfield’s and Watt’s districts to make them more in line with the VRA’s perceived guidelines.

Presented without comment; presented without time to do so.
Well, a small comment:

You mustn't go near a watape tree. They grab you.




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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Another $50 Billion for Bank of America ?

polifrog



Business Insider:

Bank of America is tanking again, as firm may need $50 Billion in fresh capital.
Is this bank still to0 big to fail when it is not one of many?
Their best bet would be to tread water as long as possible in hopes of a second Keynesian leg down in hopes of further shifting risk to all of us.

Moral Hazard.




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Monday, July 18, 2011

The Left's Regressive Shakedown of Small Business...

polifrog




Sean Corrigan, chief investment strategist at Diapason Commodities Management, CNBC:
Link
"The privileged few clustering around the Treasury Secretary and the Fed have eaten everybody else's lunch," Corrigan said.

Sounds pretty good so far, huh? Well, the article continues:

One key sticking point lies in raising taxes on higher earners, which many Republicans object to.

"If you want to preserve some kernel of the free market, you can't have corporate welfare socialism and then expect all the austerity to fall at the bottom of the pile," Corrigan said.

See the head fake?

We are lead to believe that the bottom of the pile is "the poor" or the half of the US that does not pay taxes. Of course no one is suggesting we raise taxes on "the poor". The discussion centers on whether or not to raise" taxes on higher earners" when many of those "high earners" are small business owners.

The real "bottom of the pile" if taxes are raised on high earners will be America's small businesses who are forced to support "corporate welfare socialism" in the financial sector.




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Sunday, July 17, 2011

Can He Crack Rarely, even a gibber his own?

polifrog


Connie Mack Berry,
No words of his own

Connie Mack Rarely,
a thought of his own

Connie Crack Barely,
wit of which he own

Can He Quack Lightly,
gibberish his own?

Poor Connie Mack Berry,
throw the man a bone...   

BlueNC

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Friday, July 15, 2011

Good Times...

polifrog



Reuters:
Black men are half as likely to die at any given time if they're in prison than if they aren't, suggests a new study of North Carolina inmates.

When does liberal failure become apparent to a liberal?


Update: Once again welcome DailyPundit readers

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The Path from Evil is Fraught With the Darkness of Self Recognition...

polifrog



Sam Spagnola sarcastically titles a recent post Suddenly a Broken System in reference to the NC redistricting process. He is right to note that there is nothing suddenly wrong in the NC redistricting process. Unless, of course, you are a liberal in search of a cudgel.

There is no doubt that the NC redistricting process has created another gerrymander only this time under conservative rule , but there is also no doubt that the gerrymander is the product of a racially based redistricting process created by democrats, a process that conservatives must abide by.

Why?


Unfortunately the Supreme Court found that the Voting Rights Act trumps the NC Constitution's firewall against gerrymandering.

NCGA :

Under the State Constitution, Senate and House districts must consist of contiguous territory. By tradition, the contiguity requirement also has been applied to Congressional districts. Contiguity means that all parts of a district must touch. The district must not have any detached parts.

Since the 1980's democrats in the NC House and NC Senate have abused the Voting Rights Act so as to break the NC firewall against gerrymandering. In so doing they broke NC's redistricting process. The current republican NCGA is forced to abide by that broken democrat process. That the results are unpleasing to democrats I hope enlightens them to basic racism in the process they crafted, a racism they chose to ignore due to the political gains they received from the process.

But therein lies the common ground, though. The belief that racism is evil. If as a result of being at the receiving end of their own redistricting process democrats recognize that their redistricting process is evil due to its racially based roots, then it seems to me that we can all agree that the process itself needs to be changed.

Unfortunately for democrats the path from evil is fraught with the darkness of self recognition.



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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Mitch McConnell Mulligan?

polifrog



McConnell:
Republicans will not be reduced to being the tax collectors for the Obama economy.






Not bad for a mulligan.




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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Rep. Brad Miller (NC-13) Gets One Right...

polifrog


Brad Miller:
...it is important that the American people know that their government is acting on their behalf, not on behalf of powerful financial institutions. It is important that the public and Congress be able to assess whether the enterprises settled claims that would limit taxpayer losses on a tough, arm's length basis, rather than providing another indirect subsidy to the banking industry.

Unfortunately there is nothing Miller can do to rectify his support in transferring $13 Trillion (according to PBS) of the citizenry's wealth to financial institutions. Nothing.

H/T Zero Hedge

FHFA BoNY Settlement Final

Monday, July 11, 2011

Thaddeus McCotter Interview

polifrog




Thaddeus McCotter (promise to keep the spelling correct going forward) high quality interview in video on Flashpoint (sorry, no embed). Although locally done the topics are national.

This is a 10 minute interview covering whether he is seriously running, domestic economic policy and Middle Eastern foreign policy. These will be favorites the coming political season. Unfortunately the discussion avoids McCotter's unfortunate support for the Auto Unions.

Currently McCotter seems best known for his press tag line ... "little known", but the first debate will change that.

Intelligence, Wit, Confidence.



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Sunday, July 10, 2011

Did Brit Hume Just Compare Operation Fast and Furious (Gunrunner) to Watergate?

polifrog



He does smell a puddy cat ... He does!



Stench...




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Using Keynes to Remedy the Inequity of Rising Standards of Living Between Generations...

polifrog



Today Dr. Brod gave us the generational redistibutionst's argument for Keynesianism:

Economists have generally pointed out that given steadily rising standards of living, what would really be inequitable would be leaving no debt to future generations (which is the core point of Queenan's article).

In most cultures leaving a stronger, wealthier tomorrow to subsequent generations would be a source of pride.

Only in liberalism would such success be a source of envy.

How best to remedy the inequity of the rising standards of living that benefit unborn generations?

Keynes and its generational redistribution, of course. Diminishing tomorrow for today through debt.

The result being the uniform equity of no rising standard of living across generations. Heck, we know it works, just look at Japan and it's success with Keynesian sourced generational redistribution otherwise known as Japan's 20 year recession.

Ultimately arguing for Keynes' generational redistributionist qualities is an admission of Keynesian born economic stagnancy and failed growth policy.


Bugs can be features to the socialist.
Insidious.



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Why Not Rob the Future of its Higher Standard of Living?

polifrog



Dr. Brod: (UNCG Economist)

Why not leave our children and grandchildren with debt? Why do they get to be the special generation with no debt? Has helicopter parenting progressed so far that we can't even run a deficit to save the economy? Why do our hearts ache more for future generations than they do for the millions of people who are unemployed right now?

Why?

Because it shifts real loss to subsequent generations for the mirage of a repaired economy today. As Dr. Brod has said in reference to the recession of 1937 which was second only to the current recession in severity after the Great Depression:

...what we saw in the 1930s is that fiscal stimulus worked while it was tried, and didn't work when it was pulled back.

In other words we traded real debt for no lasting gain. Keynes failed, FDR failed. The nation suffered.

We saw it again with the conclusion of WWII which was followed not by boom but by bust in the recession of 1945.

And in the most glaring example there is Japan which continuous the feel good Keynesian stimulus that has resulted not in boom, but a full generation of economic stagnancy. In Japan we see firsthand the real loss that was transferred to the unborn when Japanese leaders chose Keynesian solutions.

Those unborn are now young adults enduring the fiscal abuse metered out by elders who asked themselves:

Why not leave our children and grandchildren with debt? Why do they get to be the special generation with no debt?
and chose poorly.



Update:
Welcome Daily Pundit readers...


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Saturday, July 9, 2011

The Boomer Generation-- No sacrifice, But a Whole Lotta' Suck...

polifrog



Flipped past another Woodstock retrospective today.

When has the boomer generation ever known sacrifice?

The Hippies are, and have been "The Man" for some time now. The national debt problem is their pig, but they refuse responsibility for it. Firmly ensconced in moral relativism they selfishly support choice over life, they choose debt over thrift, they choose "The Man" over liberty, and they push poverty on all generations, but their own.

The majority of the boomer generation never gave a thought beyond their own peers. First rejecting the thrift, success and sacrifice of the greatest generation then engorging themselves on a combination of free love, consumerism, and me-ism made possible by the very sacrifice they rejected.

They found no satiation; not in art, not in chemicals, not in communes, not in their incessant self aggrandizing through the media, not in new age nonsense. They are lost in an endless maze of perpetual selfish desire unable to find contentment.

Now with the bill for all their excess firmly on the table, they pass on their last chance at finding contentment through meaningful sacrifice as they pass that bill to subsequent generations.

Once a child, then a hippie, now the man -- perpetually living off the plate of another.

Where once churches and community helped the down trodden we now funnel that help through a soulless government.

Where once we had a melting pot we now have cultural Balkanization.

Where we once had the crisp suit of moral certitude we now have the tie-dyed confusion of moral relativism.

Never before has our country suffered a more worthless, selfish, shiftless, horrible, or gluttonous group of malcontents so intent on shifting their individual responsibility to society at large and beyond than our aging boomer generation who refused all sacrifice.

Thanks for the suck Hippies.
You truly are --- The Worst Generation.
Say no to Woodstock...



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Paul Ryan Buys Wine While Others Get a Lot of Whine -- Heh....

polifrog




Erick Ercikson:

What happens when a whiney drunk liberal economist runs to a whiney lefty former journalist hard up for a story of something on something to salvage her reputation? You get salacious nonsense like this from Talking Points Memo.

Horror of horrors, a possibly drunk and possibly crazy left-wing economist Rutgers named Susan Feinberg, and her husband who she probably calls her partner, saw Representative Paul Ryan and two other economists drink a $300 bottle of wine.

And all the lefty economist got was whine.

So she whined to Susan Crabtree, a former reporter turned lefty hacktivist, to write up a whine list lamenting Paul Ryan and friends daring to use . . . wait for it . . . no seriously, wait for it . . .THEIR OWN DAMN MONEY to buy the wine.


Nanny leftist...






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Friday, July 8, 2011

Keynesians in Search of a Success Story in WW2 Find Only Their Argument's End...

polifrog



I find it interesting that when one asks for an example of Keynesian solutions having pulled our nation from recession we are never referenced to any of these recessions ...

recession of the early 2000's
recession of the early 1900's
recession of the early 1980's
recession of the mid 1970's
recession of the late 1960's
recession of the early 1960's
recession of the late 1950's
recession of the mid 1950's
recession of the late 1940's
recession of 1945
recession of 1937

Many were relatively small and presumably more manageable but they are all ignored.

No. One is almost ritually taken back to the Great Depression to find proof of Keynesian success. But was the Great Depression a Keynesian success?

Under Hoover government expanded by around 30% (Keynesian before Keynes was chic); the recession continued. Under FDR there was a tepid recovery but further Keynesian meddling likely produced one of the worst recessions in the period from the Great Depression to today, the recession of 1937.

With over a decade of Keynesian solutions attempted from 1929 to 1941 the lasting result was a structural recession. Keynesian solutions had stalled the economic cycle at the worst possible point and what had once been a recession had garnered the status of The Great Depression.

Enter WW2.

(It is interesting to recognize that sometime in the past 20 years a shift occurred such that references to Keynesian success lead less frequently to the Great Depression than they once did and more frequently to WW2. This, I believe, represents the slow recognition that Keynesian solutions failed to usher our nation from the Great Depression.

As a result Keyneians now more frequently turn to the argument ending contention that WW2 represents a Keynesian success story.)

Lets assume for a moment that WW2 was a Keynesian success. That Keynesians now rely on WW2, a wartime economy in which Government spending accounted for over 50% of GDP, as an example of Keynesianism pulling America from the grip of recession shows how far Keynesians will stretch to find a single success story. Really, Keynesians now argue with a straight face that recessions should be fought with the equivalent of not just wartime spending but World War spending when no such response was needed in recessions prior to the Great Depression.

Of course, I question if even WW2 was a successful Keynesian experiment. If stimulus spending is intended to prime our economy as Kenynesians argue, then how does gearing industry for war help? The recession of 1945 answers that for us. It does not. At the war's end all the priming of the pump represented by WW2 resulted in ... wait for it ... the 1945 recession, not a Keynesian boom.

Just imagine the state of our nation after the recession of 1945 had we not had a world of devastation to sell our wares to, a world that payed not just for our goods, but for the retooling of all that industrial wartime "stimulus" more accurately described as bad investments for a peacetime economy. Imagine if those broken nations had not been there to make our war debt manageable by offing us their markets. Imagine the state of our nation after the recession of 1945 had we been required to compete with even one functional industrial economy or if our cities and towns had been brought to the waste of theirs.

When being asked to believe that WW2 represented a Keynesian success, I am being asked to believe that Keynesian solutions require us not only to raise national spending to over 50% of GDP, but that we must also destroy the industrial capabilities of friend and foe alike, destroy their infrastructures, destroy their homes and cities, kill off a large part of their workforce, have them kill off a large portion of our workforce, and then have them pay for retooling our economy so that we may sell them goods, climb back from recession and give Keynes a pat on the back for a job well done.

Really? We have to do all this to make Keynesianism work? Really?

If it takes rehashing WW2 for Keynesianism to work, I want no part of it. And when Keynesians have only WW2 to rely on as an example of a Keynesian success story, they have lost their argument.




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Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Redistributing Wealth From the Poor for the Greater Good is Still Socialism...

polifrog


In all fairness where I am about to go has nothing to do with the article referenced but a portion of the article does dip into a topic of interest; the scope and morality of socialism:

... in 1994 with the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which opened the American-Mexican border to more economic activity. To encourage foreign investment in Mexico, its government started to strip Indian landowners of a long-held legal protection from privatization. The resulting conflict awakened ethnic tensions that dated back centuries, and spurred a populist support of indigenous heritage.

What interests me here is that the Mexican government recognized a social benefit for Mexico in increasing foreign investment. Whatever the merits, Indian landowners retained legal protection from privatization that hindered much needed foreign investment. Mexico's solution was to strip the Indian landowners of those legal protections that stymied foreign investment for the greater good of the state.

It seems to me this redistribution of "wealth" from the poor (rights of the poor were removed) for the greater good.... is socialism. All but the most socialist of us would rightly recognize this as a wrong. However, many of those individuals who see it as wrong to redistribute wealth from the poor for the greater good see no wrong in redistributing wealth from the productive for the greater good. But if all individuals are inherently equal then where is the morality in treating the poor differently from the productive?

The extreme socialist, of course, has the answer; that the greater good is always moral and that there is no wrong in redistributing wealth from the poor.

The moderate socialist, though, chooses to completely deny that redistribution of wealth from the poor for the greater good is socialist. They prefer, instead, to lay blame on those who benefit; corporations are for them the usual bogyman and, of course, the perennial favorite, America.

The fairer and more moral answer is to understand that socialism is fundamentally immoral and therefore no morality may be gleamed from it.







H/T to Ed Cone for referencing the linked article.
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Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Christina Romer Accurately Labels Our Keynesian Attempt at a Recovery as a "Growth-less Recovery"...

polifrog



Remember those green shoots? They were the result of Keynesian stimulus spending and revealed themselves to be no more than a blip in GDP. Although there is no doubt that stimulus showed up in GDP measurements, there was no organic economic growth as a result of that stimulus spending.

Christina Romer, former Chair of White House Council of Economic Advisers, correctly recognizes that Keynesian solutions result in what she calls a "growth-less recovery".




Thank you for the term...





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Chris Matthews, I Hate to Tell You This, But You Sound Like an Idiot When You Argue Deficits Follow Receipts...

polifrog


Chris Matthews does not get it.

Deficits follow spending (deficit spending sound familiar?) and spending follows receipts, but Chris Matthews believes deficits result from receipts.



The man seems to believe Greece deficit taxed their way into oblivion.




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Duke Power Applies for 15% Inflation Hike, Keynesians Observe No Inflation...

polifrog



Charlotte Observer:




Duke Energy filed Friday for an overall 15 percent rate hike, its largest such request in North Carolina in at least 20 years.

...

N.C. residential rates would go up 17 percent, adding $19 to the average $97 monthly bill. Commercial and industrial rates would rise 14 percent.

The Keynesian and statist view is that there is no inflation, of course they remove energy and food from their statistical representations of the data.

Keynesians bending reality through statistics...




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Bill Whittle - Bending the Politicization of Hollywood...

polifrog




Offered with no commentary:






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Monday, July 4, 2011

On This Fourth...

polifrog


A theocratic state adopts one religion to the exclusion of all others including atheism. By contrast, an atheocratic state excludes all religions with the exception of atheism (a faith in no god). Theocratic states and atheocratic states are the same in that they are based on exclusion and ultimately purges. We are familiar with the examples of theocratic states but less so of atheocratic states. Atheocratic regimes would include Cuba, China, the Soviet Union as well as much of Europe and increasingly the United States.

Had theocracy, freedom of thought, speech, worship, and atheism not found common ground on which to coexist there would be no Fourth of July. Our founders would have turned their backs on one another before setting pen to parchment.


With the Founder's guidance the US was once an example of governance that avoided both theocracy and athocracy. We were a nation in which no groups were disenfranchised to the benefit of a single group and instead all groups were allowed in the public square despite creed, color, religion et cetera. Some of these took longer to acheive than others; there is no compelling argument to drop others.




On this Fourth we should remember the inclusive government that has been lost to atheocracy.








Edited for clarity.


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Two Videos For the Fourth...

polifrog





and




It is our country, no theirs.



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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Thaddius McCotter - No Faux Rock Star...

polifrog


With Both Hands:





President Barack Obama plays a Rock Star, but he has no chops. Going on three years of Air Guitar Hero In Chief, perhaps it is time to listen to one who took the time to learn how to play. Here is Thad McCotter doing Norwegian Wood:






A little reality would go a long way right now/


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Saturday, July 2, 2011

Michigan Court Rationalizes the Irrational and Uses Equal Protection to Strike Down Law Requiring Equal Rights...

polifrog




OK, Michigan passes a law in 2006 that forced University of Michigan and other state schools to revise their admission policies such that race could not be a consideration in acceptance process.

Unfortunately the court found that treating people equally violates their equal protection:
In a 2-1 decision, the judges ruled that the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Monty? Python???
Ministry of the absurd.





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Joy, Joy. Failed Keynsian Shovel Ready Laughs...

polifrog





Note the joy in stalling the economic cycle at the worst possible moment.

The Freedom From Regulation Test...

polifrog


If you can not pee off the back porch or preferably when the need strikes anywhere in the yard while mowing, then you are not free from regulation.




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Friday, July 1, 2011

Redistricting and The Meaningless NC Constitution

polifrog


The Senate Redistricting Committee and the House Redistricting Committee have made public their proposed US Congressional districts map.

The NC Constitution requires these districts to be drawn along county lines as a hedge against gerrymandering; the federal government requires districts to be drawn along racial lines. Unfortunately it has been deemed by the Supreme Court that federal racial requirements in districting trump state constitutional requirements. There is no Tenth Amendment; there are no droids here. The result is the freedom to gerrymander effective representation into non existence via district 12, district 4 and all transgressions of county lines.

What we have here is a map of federalism in decline.




It appears I won't be updating my sidebar.

On the other hand, the 13th is drawn such that Brad Miller's socialist representation will likely come to an end in 2012.

A conservative, hopefully Tea Party leaning, candidate will likely find a new home in the 13th.



Edited for clarity.
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So, That Wisonson Union Battle ... Results are Trickling in...

polifrog



Lets take a look at a liberal disaster with the help of Byron York who, of course, does what the rest of the media can not:

Wednesday, school officials put in place new policies they estimate will turn that $400,000 deficit into a $1.5 million surplus. And it's all because of the very provisions that union leaders predicted would be disastrous.

...
Now, the collective bargaining agreement is gone, and the school district is free to shop around for coverage. And all of a sudden, WEA Trust has changed its position. "With these changes, the schools could go out for bids, and lo and behold, WEA Trust said, 'We can match the lowest bid,'" says Republican state Rep. Jim Steineke, who represents the area and supports the Walker changes.


Work rule changes mean teachers teach 6 instead of 5 periods a day as well as having to be in school for 40 hours a week rather than 37.5.

The changes mean Kaukauna can reduce the size of its classes -- from 31 students to 26 students in high school and from 26 students to 23 students in elementary school. In addition, there will be more teacher time for one-on-one sessions with troubled students. Those changes would not have been possible without the much-maligned changes in collective bargaining.


Give me some more of that new- age liberal disaster!






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Obamafuscation of Taxes...

polifrog



Vid by Mary Katharine Ham:



H/T Legal Insurrection:
In his rather “prickly” press conference on Wednesday, President Obama made it sound as if tax increases (or, to use the Democrats’ language, “cutting spending in the tax code”) were part of a last resort at trimming the deficit as the federal government reaches its $14 trillion debt ceiling. He even referred to “tax breaks for corporate jet owners” (see here for background on the absurdity of that language) as “tough decisions”:
He's right, tax cuts were never last ditch.




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Obama Defined by Inaction...

polifrog





Does he see golf as a photo-op?



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More Thaddeus McCotter...

polifrog


Not sure how I missed this speech (just under 30min in 3 installments):



Self Evident truths as opposed to moral relativism.
H/T hotair



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Jamaicans Nostalgic for Colonialism...

polifrog


Powerline...
When Jamaica became independent from Great Britain, residents of the Cayman Islands, which until then had been administered as part of the colony of Jamaica, were given a plebiscite in which they voted to remain a British colony rather than join Jamaica in independence. The rest is history.





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Good News From USAToday -- Thaddeus McCotter to Run...

polifrog



USAToday

Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich. will launch his presidential campaign on July 2, making him the third sitting member of the House to run for the White House in 2012.
Raising the caliber of debate .




Big Bore.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Our Atheocratic State Demands Environmental Contrition ...

polifrog



The religion of science, atheism, has found a home in western governments. And just as the unknown gives rise to superstition, the immeasurably of the future gives rise to science's equivalent ... conjecture; the best example of which is AGW. The result is environmental contrition.
The fact is that scientists and politicians have been too quick to assume causation when it comes to climate change. Like ancient tribes of people who made sacrifices to the gods of nature, modern societies are too easily convinced that they are the ones responsible for weather changes and that they can somehow atone for their environmental sins through changes in behavior. And this happens to be very convenient for politicians and profiteers who are intent on regulating global energy use for their own power and financial gain.

...

All pain for no measurable gain.




Where once Medieval Catholicism co-opted government and forced tithes, modern atheism has co-opted government and is forcing environmental contrition.

Although America is not a Theocracy, it's well on its way to becoming an Atheocratic state.



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Geithner Gives Up on Obama?

polifrog


I suppose there is only so much failure one man can endure...

We can help propel the economy through a downturn like Regan and the mid 1920's crash
http://www.economicnoise.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/employmentrecoveries-graph-dec.jpg

or we can stop the cycle through Keynesian solutions,

http://boombustblog.com/media/wpmu/uploads/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/03/image0015.png

So long and no fish for you ... we hope.





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Ace on the Recent Sixth Circuit ObamaCare Ruling ...

polifrog



Ace

But this new claim is that really there is only one clause that matters in the Constitution, and that is the Commerce Clause, and this one brief clause renders all 4400 other words in the Constitution null and void, because the Commerce Clause says, it is contended, that the federal government may do anything so long as, in the aggregate, it "affects interstate commerce," which, as is often pointed out, applies to everything.




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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Monday, June 27, 2011

The New Leftist Racism...

polifrog



H/T Bubba.


Dr. Sanity:
Real racism is indeed truly disgusting; and nowhere is it more real and objectively manifest than in the left's politically correct posturing and in the perpetual victimhood scams perpetrated by their compassionate policies--you know, the ones that infantalize other races and ethnicities and keep them "in their place" so that the truly superior denizens of the political left can manage their lives.

Dr. Sanity referenced this post in the NRO...
If you want to be disgusted, take a look at the front-page story in today’s New York Times, “On College Forms, a Question of Race, or Races, Can Perplex.” It’s about how selective colleges and universities are wrestling with the problem of how to deal with applicants who check more than one box for race and ethnicity: which mixes are to be most favored, whether it’s better to be mixed or pure, what do to about students who refuse to check any box, and how to tell if a student is really sincere in his or her self-identification or is just "gamming" the system. Now, maybe it’s just me, but I think a lot of people will find it really sickening to read about how these politically correct educrats sit around and give a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down to an 18-year-old based on his racial and ethnic mix. As for “gaming” the system, were we supposed to lament the fact that a black applicant 100 years ago might try to pass for white? I think our condemnation then and now should be more concentrated on the racially discriminatory system itself rather than on those who tried or try to game it.

There is another strain of leftist racism - the presumption of racism without proof, an example which would be the accusations of racism hurled toward the Tea Party.

The war on traditional racism has nearly been won and it seems evident that as the old racism fades into history, the proof of its existence fades with it. What is slower to fade, though, is the perception of political leverage gained from the charge of racism. What remains is the current sea of baseless charges of racism for political advantage. Furthermore, without proof that there is racism involved then merely labeling something as racist is indicative of viewing events through a racial prism.

When an individual charges racism where there is none, the charge of racism becomes an act of racism itself.




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Sunday, June 26, 2011

I Am Not A Witch ... I Am Not A Flake ... Palinization

polifrog





The urgency to bring down Palin before the 2008 election after her nomination helped fuel the insanity that swept the press during that period. That degree of urgency does not currently exist in reference to Bachmann.

That is not to say, however, that Chris Wallace did not lay the ground work for a repeat of what happened to Palin.

Poor journalism.





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Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Great Econ Hoodwink...

polifrog



Economics is a humanities masquerading as a science. Keynesians got it fundamentally wrong.

...all of the equations in neoclassical economics are rubbish. The differential equations describe nothing. Economics is not about mathematics, it is about the human being.



Yep...



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Frackers Fracking Windmills ...

polifrog



It is easy to discount the problem solving capabilities of innovation as it resides in a human blind spot, the future, and for that reason economists and scientists alike, unable to measure it, discount it.

Just as the unknown gives rise to superstition, the immeasurably of the future gives rise to science's equivalent ... conjecture.

Of course, the future always arrives with technology in hand and the carcasses of conjecture can be found from Malthusian Doctrine to Global Warming to Peak Oil.

Enter the combination of horizontal drilling combined with hydraulic fracturing.

It makes one wonder how long the antifrackers will play the part of Don Quixote and how much damage they will do tilting at our windmills.

WSJ...

The U.S. is in the midst of an energy revolution, and we don't mean solar panels or wind turbines. A new gusher of natural gas from shale has the potential to transform U.S. energy production—that is, unless politicians, greens and the industry mess it up.

...

The resulting boom is transforming America's energy landscape. As recently as 2000, shale gas was 1% of America's gas supplies; today it is 25%. Prior to the shale breakthrough, U.S. natural gas reserves were in decline, prices exceeded $15 per million British thermal units, and investors were building ports to import liquid natural gas. Today, proven reserves are the highest since 1971, prices have fallen close to $4 and ports are being retrofitted for LNG exports.

Of concern to our Greensboro NC. artists, writers and others wowed by "burning water"...

Fracking contaminates drinking water. One claim is that fracking creates cracks in rock formations that allow chemicals to leach into sources of fresh water. The problem with this argument is that the average shale formation is thousands of feet underground, while the average drinking well or aquifer is a few hundred feet deep. Separating the two is solid rock. This geological reality explains why EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, a determined enemy of fossil fuels, recently told Congress that there have been no "proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water."

A second charge, based on a Duke University study, claims that fracking has polluted drinking water with methane gas. Methane is naturally occurring and isn't by itself harmful in drinking water, though it can explode at high concentrations. Duke authors Rob Jackson and Avner Vengosh have written that their research shows "the average methane concentration to be 17 times higher in water wells located within a kilometer of active drilling sites."

They failed to note that researchers sampled a mere 68 wells across Pennsylvania and New York—where more than 20,000 water wells are drilled annually. They had no baseline data and thus no way of knowing if methane concentrations were high prior to drilling. They also acknowledged that methane was detected in 85% of the wells they tested, regardless of drilling operations, and that they'd found no trace of fracking fluids in any wells.

There is much more at the link.



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Friday, June 24, 2011

Bureaucracy Ignoring the Correct Choice...

polifrog



And by ignore, I mean petulant silence on Greece bailout two:



"You cannot fuse together different economies, with different rates of growth, with different patterns of trade across the world. We learned our lesson, we didn't join the EURO, thank God. You, I'm afraid, are currently trapped inside an economic prison."



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Thursday, June 23, 2011

More Thad McCotter...

polifrog



I am not sure how the deadpan thing would go over nationally but I like it.






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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Extending Recessions via Keynesian Solutions...

polifrog



It should be noted that the longest recessions and depressions as exemplified by the experiences of both Japan 90's and 2000's and the US during the Great Depression and our current recession have coincided with the greatest use of Keynesian solutions.




http://boombustblog.com/media/wpmu/uploads/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/03/image0015.png





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Tea Party Salvation...

polifrog



Gota give him points on the Foundation reference alone.



Then, of course, he gets points for being correct.





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Monday, June 20, 2011

Verification, Statistical Analysis, Meteorology, Economics and AGW...

polifrog


The image “http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/The-Use-and-Abuse-of-Statistics-2.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.We often hear tongue in cheek comparisons made between meteorology and economics. There is merit the comparison and the similarities between the two fields of study help illuminate a difference that points to the utility of statistics as a tool. Weather forecasters use statistics regularly, but do so honestly while AGW and economists do not. That honesty is born of real world verification of statistical analysis and dishonesty born of being freed of the same.

Verification is an integral part of the scientific process, but neither AGW or economics seem to be held accountable for their statistically based projections and are hence free to engage in propaganda via dark side of statistical analysis and enjoy its electrolysis like ability to impart the patina of credible scientific analysis on what would otherwise be immediately recognized as fraud.

Meteorology, however, uses statistics differently. Honestly, via verification.

Economists, like proponents of AGW use statistics dishonestly. Each is freed from verification of statistical analysis by the nature of their field of study; verifications of AGW forecasts are hidden in the distant future while verifications of economic forecasts and observations are hidden in the very complexity of economics and the endless perspectives one can derive from that complexity.

From this ability to avoid verification arises the dishonest use of statistics in defense of dearly held beliefs. This in combination with fields of study being predominantly populated by like minded individuals results in the loss of clout of entire fields of study.

Once again bias in academia damages academia itself, in this case by removing the layer of protection afforded by diversity of thought and the verification that arises against abuse of statistical analysis.




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Sunday, June 19, 2011

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Perdue Veto of NC Budget Overridden...

polifrog


Via WBT:

The North Carolina House has voted to cancel out Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue's veto of the two-year state budget.

The vote Wednesday just after midnight was 73-46. That's just enough to meet the three-fifths majority required to override a veto.


The NC Senate does not need democrat help to override a veto.

No link yet.


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Monday, June 13, 2011

Questioning the Data...

polifrog



I am frequently attacked by academics for denying the data ...
3. "Culled data... Keynesian catnip": Right. When the data contradict your deeply held beliefs, the data must be wrong.
The charge comes in different forms and it is partially correct. In fact, I question "the data" ( is it complete? is it manipulated? what agenda may be driving the data?) as it is always presented through the massaging magic of statistics.

After the global warming scandal it is amazing we let academics anywhere near such an easily abused tool as statistics.









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2 of 4 Dems Needed to Override Perdue Veto Will Vote to Override...

polifrog



Fayetteville Observer:

Two Cape Fear region lawmakers who are key figures in the state budget battle say they will vote to override Gov. Bev Perdue's budget veto.

Rep. William Brisson and Rep. Dewey Hill are among the five Democrats in the House who voted for the budget. Four are needed to override the veto.


I doubt Perdue would have vetoed the budget without assurances that she had the votes to block an override of her veto but there is the chance that she sees no political harm in having her veto overridden if she makes gains in solidifying her base.

William D. Brisson - 919-733-5772 - william.brisson@ncleg.net
Dewey L. Hill - 919-733-5830 - dewey.hill@ncleg.net

Two Dems still needed....

James W. Crawford - 919-733-5824 - jim.crawford@ncleg.net
Bill Owens - 919-733-0010 - bill.owens@ncleg.net
Timothy L. Spear - 919-715-3029 - tim.spear@ncleg.net



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Smile File Econ. Disappointments...

polifrog




http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pZkYvkH8LPM/TfN46CB4vlI/AAAAAAAAOPw/s3bfz-iikis/s1600/15.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qHOHrApNP10/TfN4u113UII/AAAAAAAAOOo/30udmGx6TpU/s1600/6.jpg





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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Judge Biery's Nullified Arrogance...

polifrog



Early this month Judge Fred Biery found that certain words cause irreparable damage; It was unclear to what...

Judge Biery’s ruling banned students and other speakers from using religious language in their speeches. Among the banned words or phrases are: “join in prayer,” “bow their heads,” “amen,” and “prayer.”

He also ordered the school district to remove the terms “invocation” and “benediction” from the graduation program.

“These terms shall be replaced with ‘opening remarks’ and ‘closing remarks,’” the judge’s order stated. His ruling also prohibits anyone from saying, “in [a deity’s name] we pray.”


Words, mind you, words. He was nullified by the 5th Circuit this past Friday. Expression won,

And Angela Hildenbrand, valedictorian of Medina Valley High School, near San Antonio publicly expressed her thanks in the form of prayer during the school's Saturday graduation ceremony.


Hildenbrand's prayer:

Lord, I thank you so much for the blessing of this day. And I just thank you for the amazing group of people that you surrounded me with.

God, I thank you for the support of our whole entire community through this case hearing; and also for Erin (Leu)and all the people at the Liberty Institute; and my parents, who’ve helped get me through the last couple of days.

Lord, I just thank you so much for your presence in our lives through these 18 years. And I just praise you for your incredible faithfulness through all adversity and all joy.

God, I thank you for the men and women who have given their lives helping to give us, and protect, the freedoms that we have today. And I ask that you please keep your hand of guidance on all of them — past, present and future military.

God, I thank you just so much for the freedom to be here today. And most of all, I thank you for loving us first.

God, I ask that you please keep each of us safe and well, as we all go our separate ways. And I can’t wait to see where you’ll be leading each of us. I ask that you’ll ask us all to remember where we come from, and to know where we stand.

God, I thank you for the gift of your Son and for the forgiveness that surpasses all understanding. And most of all, I thank you for your great love for us, and for our great nation, where we are free.

And it’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.



As it should be.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Generational Warfare Via the Generation of Peace...

polifrog



Bruce Krasting touches on a theme I revisit after his comments. Namely the coming generational war if Boomers attempt to continue generational trend of living off the plates others if they attempt to pass the cost of SS to susequent generations...

Bottom line; either a significant portion of seniors are going to be eating cat food, or the next few generations are going to be paying (unfairly) through the nose.

...

To me, it is absolutely insane to think that the Baby Boomers (I’m one) can put the burden of SS on younger workers. This simply will not work. The result of a policy approach that sticks everyone under 50 with the cost of the Boomers is going to result in deep social divides. We have enough problems in our society today. We don’t need/want Age Warfare to be added to the list. But if the plan to “fix” SS is one that sticks the bill onto young people we WILL have age warfare, it’s inevitable. The social consequences would be greater than the economic costs. Why does no one see this?

...

The solution(s) have to be born (largely) by the Baby Boomers themselves. Post the Boomers, SS can be a PayGo concept. But the transition is not PayGo. It is a huge inter-generational transfer of wealth. This means that well off Boomers (there are many, including myself) are going to have to dig into their pockets to support those in their age group who did not fair so well. That, in my opinion, is the only viable solution. That would be more representative of the American way. Fairness.

As I have gently mentioned previously:

The majority of the boomer generation could never stop thinking of themselves. First rejecting the thrift, success and sacrifice of the greatest generation then engorging themselves on a combination of free love, consumerism, and me-ism. Nothing satiated the boomer generation; not their incessant self aggrandizing through the media, not new age nonsense. They were lost in an endless maze of perpetual desire and unable to find contentment. Now with the bill for all their excess firmly on the table, they pass it on to subsequent generations. Once a hippie, now the man -- perpetually living off the plate of another.

Never before has our country seen such a worthless, selfish, shiftless, horrible, or gluttonous group of malcontents so intent on shifting their individual responsibility to society as the generation that followed the Greatest Generation.

They truly are --- The Worst Generation.





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Friday, June 3, 2011

Frackers Tilting at Windmills...

polifrog



It is easy to discount innovation as it resides in a human blind spot, the future, and for that reason economists and scientists alike, unable to measure it, discount it.

Just as the unknown gives rise to superstition, the immeasurably of the future gives rise to science's equivalent ... conjecture.

Of course, the future always arrives with technology in hand and the carcasses of conjecture can be found from Malthusian Doctrine to Global Warming to Peak Oil.

Salon:

Are we living at the beginning of the Age of Fossil Fuels, not its final decades? The very thought goes against everything that politicians and the educated public have been taught to believe in the past generation. According to the conventional wisdom, the U.S. and other industrial nations must undertake a rapid and expensive transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy for three reasons: The imminent depletion of fossil fuels, national security and the danger of global warming.

What if the conventional wisdom about the energy future of America and the world has been completely wrong? …

If gas hydrates as well as shale gas, tight oil, oil sands and other unconventional sources can be tapped at reasonable cost, then the global energy picture looks radically different than it did only a few years ago. Suddenly it appears that there may be enough accessible hydrocarbons to power industrial civilization for centuries, if not millennia, to come.

So much for the specter of depletion, as a reason to adopt renewable energy technologies like solar power and wind power. Whatever may be the case with Peak Oil in particular, the date of Peak Fossil Fuels has been pushed indefinitely into the future. What about national security as a reason to switch to renewable energy?

The U.S., Canada and Mexico, it turns out, are sitting on oceans of recoverable natural gas. Shale gas is combined with recoverable oil in the Bakken “play” along the U.S.-Canadian border and the Eagle Ford play in Texas. The shale gas reserves of China turn out to be enormous, too. Other countries with now-accessible natural gas reserves, according to the U.S. government, include Australia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, France, Poland and India.


It makes one wonder how long the antifrackers will play the part of Don Quixote and how much damage they will do tilting at our windmills.



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Breaking A Juggernaut Through Debt...

polifrog




Was the American dream of home ownership just that?

The transformation of Americans from a nation of savers and entrepreneurs in the era of the family farm to a nation of consumers in the last eighty years was a fateful one. Our ancestors thought that debt was shameful and a burden; we’ve come to think of cheap debt as part of our birthright. The American Dream as we’ve known it entailed a lifestyle based on permanent debt. The growth of the American economy depended on growing debt at every level from federal Keynesian stimulus to credit card and mortgage debt.

Savings and therefore growth can only be gained from the present, current growth is illusory when "savings" is instead pulled from the future in the form of debt.




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Thursday, June 2, 2011

Word Choice...

polifrog



You may have seen this, but it is worth the 2 minutes:






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