Cauterize the Madness- Happy New Year 2007

More than ever before this holiday break was stressful and absurd with family infighting and bickering.

It is very good to be home. God bless the families that live by the good Book and think of others more than themselves. It is a rare quality indeed and one that we are blessed to observe here in our home town more than other places.

The specifics are many – the problem is singular:

Selfishness.

I have heard it said and do believe it is true that Greatest Generation gave up everything for their survival through the Great Depression and World War II. My grandparents (on both sides) came home from the war and built the greatest democracy in the world --all with a selfless spirit and focus on duty.
What came next was the Baby Boom which brought us the 60’s and the WIIFM generation (“What’s In It For Me”?) They had it so good from the sacrifice made by their parents that they got lazy and started expecting everything and expecting it now. Credit cards, lawyers, yoga, tofu and ADHD are what we have as a legacy.

It has run amuck.

The fruit of the selfishness is greed and the pursuit of money. Not that these things didn’t exist before, but I’m not sure it was as prevalent before. Now it seeks to separate families!

It shouldn’t have to be this way.

It won’t be this way.

God willing.

The Inconvenient Truth- Al Gore's Really Bad Movie

My oldest son (6th grade) came home one day last week and told me that they were watching Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" in school and would have to report on it. After my head lifted off my head and spun three times I took some Valium and decided to do some research with him so that we could put together a academically proper report. In my zeal I decided to write a report as though I was the student who was forced to listen liberal propaganda in the movie. What follows is MY report unedited with all the colorings that would SURELY get me kicked out of school. My son also wrote his report (based heavily on mine, I might add) without the sarcastic musings.

...........

I do not believe that global warming is caused by human beings. Global warming is part of a long term cycle caused by geo-climatic conditions occurring in hundred year cycles. I therefore believe that if humans cannot create global warming they cannot stop global warming. God made our wonderful earth to build glaciers, melt glaciers, spew billions of tons of toxic ash into the atmosphere from volcano’s and create hurricanes like Katrina. None of these were caused by people- they were caused by God. Although it takes faith to believe the way I do, in my opinion it takes a faith and arrogance to believe that global warming is caused by people.

Since 1895, the media has scared the public with global cooling and warming scares. From 1895 until the 1930's the media promoted a coming ice age. From the late 1920's until the 1960's they warned of global warming. From the 1950's until the 1970's they warned us again of a coming ice age. The present man-made global warming hype is just the latest scare.

The “hockey stick” was used in the movie to prove human caused global warming in the 20^th century. It is a hoax.

According to Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years a publication of the National Academy of Sciences published in 2006- the authors reaffirmed the existence of the Medieval Warm Period from about 900 AD to 1300 AD and the Little Ice Age from about 1500 to 1850. Both of these periods occurred long before the invention of the SUV or human industrial activity. In fact, scientists believe the Earth was warmer during the Medieval Warm Period when the Vikings grew crops in Greenland, than today. Maybe that is why they named it G R E E N land?

Alarmist politicians, Hollywood producers and teachers have been attempting to erase the Medieval Warm Period from the earth's climate history for at least a decade. David Deming, a professor at the University of Oklahoma's College of Geosciences, can testify to that. Dr. Deming was welcomed into the close-knit group of global warming believers after he published a paper in 1995 that noted some warming in the 20th century. Deming says he was then contacted by a global warming “scientists” who told him point blank "we have to get rid of the Medieval Warm Period." When the "Hockey Stick" graph first appeared in 1998, it did just that.

Speaking of this Al Gore movie, a pile of liberal excrement vainly propagated on young formative minds, the government recently published his A Skeptics Guide to Debunking Global Warming. The pamphlet available at: http://epw.senate.gov/repwhitepapers/6341044%20Hot%20&%20Cold%20Media.pdf. What follows is an excerpt from a floor speech given by James Inhofe Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works delivered Monday September 25, 2006.

What follows is a very brief summary of the science that the former Vice President promotes in either a wrong or misleading way:

· He promoted the now debunked “hockey stick” temperature chart in an attempt to prove man’s overwhelming impact on the climate

· He attempted to minimize the significance of Medieval Warm period and the Little Ice Age

· He insisted on a link between increased hurricane activity and global warming that most sciences believe does not exist.

· He asserted that today’s Arctic is experiencing unprecedented warmth while ignoring that temperatures in the 1930’s were as warm or warmer

· He claimed the Antarctic was warming and losing ice but failed to note, that is only true of a small region and the vast bulk has been cooling and gaining ice.

· He hyped unfounded fears that Greenland’s ice is in danger of disappearing

· He erroneously claimed that ice cap on Mt. Kilimanjaro is disappearing due to global warming, even while the region cools and researchers blame the ice loss on local land-use practices

· He made assertions of massive future sea level rise that is way out side of any supposed scientific “consensus” and is not supported in even the most alarmist literature.

· He incorrectly implied that a Peruvian glacier’s retreat is due to global warming, while ignoring the fact that the region has been cooling since the 1930s and other glaciers in South America are advancing

· He blamed global warming for water loss in Africa’s Lake Chad, despite NASA scientists concluding that local population and grazing factors are the more likely culprits

· He inaccurately claimed polar bears are drowning in significant numbers due to melting ice when in fact they are thriving

· He completely failed to inform viewers that the 48 scientists who accused President Bush of distorting science were part of a political advocacy group set up to support Democrat Presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

The movie we watched was nothing more than wild propaganda. It had a very one-sided point of view about global warming in saying that humans cause it. This movie is nothing more than an angry looser going insane in a desperate attempt to find legitimacy. He lost the presidential election in 2000 and has faded into obscurity. This movie was his attempt to find meaning in his life. He is a lost soul and a lost mind just as in the tradition established by his racist father who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

...............................

ASSIGNEMENT QUESTIONS

List several harmful effect of global warming.

1. Bigger electric bill from running our air conditioner
2. More suntan lotion for when I go fishing and swimming
3. Having to listen to junk science being forced down our throat in school.

State some small changes we could make in our lives to be less harmful to our environment.

1. The premise is wrong. I don’t believe that we can affect the environment with individual changes in lifestyle

Conclude by stating the following:
What I will do to make a positive impact upon this problem?

1. The premise is wrong. Global warming is not a problem. It is a natural cycle that our earth goes through. We are not gods, we cannot control the path that this earth takes and to think so is arrogant. There is no impact whatsoever that I can make on global warming.

Summarize my stance on this sensitive issue.

My stance on global warming is that naturally occurs without human intervention. This movie is based on junk science and arrogance. It is junk science because global warming and cooling has happened naturally for thousands of years with and without industry pollution. The idea that humans created global warming is arrogant because we are not God. The idea that we can stop global warming morphs arrogance into clinical stupidity.

PayPal Goes Postal- In a Good Way

Leave it the United States Federal government to continue to demonstrate irrelevance. This time (or as always) with the postal system.

I do a LOT of shipping with FedEx Ground, USPS and least of all UPS. For years I struggled to efficiently ship out items sold on eBay or items sent to customers. I usually guess as to shipping fees to charge eBay customers- but finally bought digital postal scales.

For years I have used our FedEx Ground stickers to adhere to boxes and it has been great because we get billed later and can pay for everything once per month. But FedEx charges more than USPS and occasionally have screwed up deliveries I have sent or received. So I have searched for a way to use USPS as long as it lessens my hassle.

So USPS finally came out with stamps.com. Cool – right? Not. You have to PAY just to use that service in addition to your postage fees. How about the USPS web site? Well there is “Click-n-Ship” but you still have to type in the addressee to see the costs and print out the label to stick on your box. USPS’s address import feature is bug ridden as is their desktop software – Shipping Assistant 3.0.

So yesterday the sun came out and God shined down upon me. It was right there all along but was hidden.

PAYPAL!

I have seen their “Print Shipping Label” feature for months but upon selecting that option was taken to PayPal’s UPS portal. NOT. I don’t like UPS because of the complete hassle in dropping off my package to their Gaylord location which is a TOTAL hassle. And of course, they charge to come here to pick it up.

But- when I dug deeper in PayPal I found that I could select USPS as the default shipper and use that to ship all items. Bingo!

No importing of addressees, no package drop off hassles (my Post Office is just 2 miles away), no pick up hassles (our mailman will pick up anything), shipping fee hassles are gone – I can pay directly from PayPal when printing out the USPS label, AND THE COSTS ARE THE LOWEST!

The stars have aligned.

Reagan Lives Again

We know only too well that war comes not when the forces of freedom are strong; it is when they are weak that tyrants are tempted. We simply cannot learn these lessons the hard way again without risking our destruction.

Ronald Reagan
RNC Convention in Detroit
July 1980

For some unknown reason, I decided to find Ronald Reagan audio clips online. I found a site that lists his most famous speeches beginning in 1964 when he campaigned for Barry Goldwater. I cannot begin to communicate how refreshing it is to hear the greatest president in my lifetime state (with clarity) the principles I embrace.

I actually listened to four or five entire speeches in mp3 format including is farewell in the Oval Office. They have been refreshing, inspiring and (dare I say), emotional.

In this present time there is NO conservative leadership, NO conservative ideal being modeled in Washington and certainly with NO conservative agenda from George W. Bush. Reagan has rescued me.

I came into my political awareness during the Reagan presidency but have always relied more on adulating fans of Reagan than my own first hand experience. It was time for me to go back, look and listen for myself.

With internet marvels such as Google image clips, audio clips and YouTube – Reagan’s leadership and charisma can be experienced once again. I think it’s what many conservatives need – it certainly is what I needed.