See? You Matter Blogosphere!

Yesterday, when I published BHO: "Great Job Brownie, uh,... Janet", I was hoping that others immediately saw what I saw. And it looks like that is true. It wasn't only about Napolitano, it also involved the man who is responsible for her: Barack Obama.

So Congratulations bloggers on saying what needed to be said so that a day later Matt Drudge's headlines announce to the world that you were effective at getting the word out.

Here are the Drudge headlines.
Obama under fire on national security...
Says 'systemic failure' allowed airline plot...
Breach Was 'Catastrophic'...
Many question 'system worked' comment...

Quote of the Day

"At Belmont Club, under Spin versus spool post by Wretchard:

80. NahnCee:

You do realize that you’re expecting the same people who have been tracking weather the last 20 years and reporting fur shur global warming is happening to get it together to successfully track bad guys? Surely bad guys are just as erratic as the weather. If they have a blindered mind-set that there *is* global warming, what sort of blindered mind-set do you suppose these geniuses will have on whether or not Abdul is a terrorist?

Dec 28, 2009 - 6:01 pm

Folks, as I suggested in my last post, it is time for us adults (that is, those who have finally shucked off the adult suppression programming wrought by our rotting institutions) to come up with words that will help our neighbors better understand what their government has morphed into.

BHO: "Great Job Brownie, uh,... Janet"

“Brownie Janet, you're doing a heck of a job.” -- BHO in his silence.

One day after repeatedly saying "The system worked" on her round of Sunday talk shows, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano admitted that the aviation security system failed.

Our system did not work in this instance,” she said on NBC’s “Today” show.

There was no further comment from the Barack Hussein Obama White House on her job performance, so one may fairly say that Obama's approval of Janet "Brownnoser" Napolitano stands as noted in the headline of this post. Until further notice....

Merry Christmas

Sorry for my extended absence. Wishing you all a merry Christmas and a new year filled with joy and good health.

"Better Red Than Dead?..."

"Better Red Than Dead?...There You Go Again!"See the video below.

There's your new slogan America*. How could I have been so blind?

In a comment of mine, inspired by Mark Alger's ruminations, I lamented of coming up with a new slogan that encapsulates the intentions of the Greens. To preserve humanity they will see to it that we sacrifice to their new god, Sustainability.

• They will demand you must sacrifice your way of life to Sus. 
• You must sacrifice your old and lame to Sus. 
• You must sacrifice your posterity to Sus not yet in a manner reminiscent of pagan Moloch worship (but who knows?). 
• You may even be called to sacrifice yourself to Sus. 
• But most of all, Sus is a nervous god. You must cashier your Judeo-Christian ethic. Given the secular war against Christianity, it's clear they hold a view identical to what their megalomaniacal predecessor called "that Jewish disease."

It's really quite simple. Since the greens are apopletic about the "carbon footprint" each of us human beings imprints upon the earth, and since they have invested in themselves the moral superiority to speak for all of us on the matter of our "sustainability" as a species on this planet, they have essentially begun singing to the old Marxist tune of "The Internationale" but with lyrics changed from defending the worker from exploitation to protecting us all from overburdening the earth with ourselves.



Understand this you red flag waving fools:

Rule by Reds Means Your Death

[The above video may not appear on my main blog page. You will need to click the "Read more" below to see it]
Hat-tip to Breitbart for the above video. Marxism: The Ideology That Systematically Murdered 100 Million Human Beings. You know how they would save our planet, right?

*For those needing further explanation,

Blue Became Red and Red Became Blue

Jeopardy Category: 2000 Elections

"What political party voting symbolism was changed, first employed by USA Today and immediately adopted by all  Leftist Media, to distinguish between those who voted for the nominal conservative and those who voted for the Leftist?"

This was the equivalent of your bratty cousin -- suddenly realizing that the symbolism game wasn't going his way -- throwing the board in the air and demanding you all had to start over.

Getting a do-over has well served the aims of communist die-hards (Reds) who call themselves Greens, but we call them Watermelons.

That will be the subject of my next post: "Better Red Than Dead..."

Blowing Smoke

I received the following reply from Greg Craven, the author of the video that was the subject of yesterday's post, Traffic-Light Propagandist.

Yeah, that's why I posted a series of follow-up videos to address that argument. See the "Patching Holes" series of 3 vids, or the "How It All Ends" series of 70+ vids. Dig a little further.

Greg Craven

This appears to be nothing more than a form response that Mr. Craven saves for all of his critics. Is it a blanket comment "to address that argument;" a smoke screen behind which to evade the specific issues I raised about his presentation?

1. Which of my arguments did Mr. Craven address exactly?

Traffic-Light Propagandist

The traffic light tendency: they call themselves Green because they're too yellow to admit that they are really Reds. -- Lord Monckton

The presenter (Greg Craven) of the following video tries so earnestly to sell the Precautionary Principle to the fearful and gullible by employing a variation of Pascal's Wager. It appears he was too yellow to permit valid responses at the same site, as comments are turned off.

So Fine, Yet So Treacherous

Winter 69-70, Eastbound I94, somewhere East of Belleville. In those days it was two lanes each way until you get closer to Detroit. (Is it still? ["Yes" says Ed])

It started snowing before I left home. The interstate's road surface was clear due to the traffic.

I came up behind an 18 wheeler in the passing lane and forced to follow a bit slower than I liked. And then came the transition from 2 to 3 lanes.

There was snow on the new passing lane, but it looked to be less than an inch thick. So I started passing the truck.

Halfway past the truck my car starts to skid a bit (drifting really), in the rear and towards the right. Towards the truck. Oh-oh!

So I naturally try to steer in the direction of the skid. Unfortunately this is taking me closer to the truck. And I can feel the wobbliness in the rear -- this car had a very big engine with a high torque rear wheel drive (with posi-traction, THANK GOD!),  but virtually no weight in the rear. So it kept wanting to wiggle to the left as I jostled ever so gently my steering to the right and back again.

And I had no choice but to continue and try to pass. Pumping the brakes at that point almost certainly would not have been a good thing as locking up in the front wheels when trying to stabilize a skid seems a bit counter-productive.

I think I shall always retain a great deal of gratitude for that truck driver, because I'm certain he slowed his speed. Good thing too. He gave me the break I desperately needed.

For no sooner did I clear his front end than my steering to the right caused the car to straighten and then, under the slick conditions, to over-correct and really start skidding rear-left.

So I corrected again, and it started skidding right, but more violently.

One more correction, and she broke loose in the rear, and started ham-boning across 3 lanes of traffic. (All traffic behind me had apparently STOPPED -- Thanks to God AGAIN!)

I came to rest on the right shoulder guard rail with only a slight dent in the rear trunk lid as the consequence for my stupidity. (God must truly look out for small children and for at least one imbecile.)

I kept that dent in the trunk up to the day the car was retired.

I've not thought of that incident in years until this morning when I read of Ed's Thrill Ride, which seems to have occurred not far from the site of my incident.

Angel hair fine, newly fallen snow -- wet snow -- even though barely thick enough to cover the road surface, can build up in wheel-wells FAST. Be more cautious than I was in my youth.

Gross Sentimentality

Jeopardy Category: In A Green World

What is the charge against you when you seek an incubator for your premature baby, plead for medication for your grandma, or urge using corn to feed the poor instead of letting a smug pig burn it to heat his Tennessee mansions?

Lion Cheetah

Jeopardy Category: Wildlife

By what new name is a famous golfer now known?

Rules For Radicals

What would be a natural category on an episode of All-Tsar Jeopardy?

Or "All Czar Jeopardy" for those purists who'll insist on following the American media's choice of spelling for the Russian inspired word. I prefer Tsar because it looks like a misspelling of Star.

And thanks to Joan of Argghh! for the inspiration in comments.

The Pilot Program

What do "Progressives" call the methodical murder of 100 million people during the 20^th Century by Communist and Fascist governments?


**Update**
What do "Progressives" Incrementals call the methodical murder of 100 million people during the 20^th Century by Communist and Fascist governments?

Professional Courtesy

What do you call it when climate "scientist-advocates" are offered free servicing by Copenhagen's prostitutes?

Global-Warming Debate 'Will Determine Who Lives and Who Dies'

I spotted this story at JammieWearingFool.

JWF begins:

Debate? What debate? The science is settled, of course. We know global warming is a religion to these people, but now they're in the business of playing God and getting to decide who lives and who dies?

"People think that science is certain," he says with a hint of derision.

"We can't know what is going to happen. There will always be scientific uncertainty."

It is a moral matter, not a scientific one, Donald says, that requires us to take such drastic action now, even though the proof of actual damage remains hard to come by.

He is asked whether there is anything unethical revealed in the recent e-mails where fellow advocate-scientists discussed manipulating data and suppressing information that undermined their lucrative global-warming beliefs.

"On that I am agnostic," Donald says.

As far as he is concerned, he says with rising anger about the general indifference about climate change, the global-warming debate "will determine who lives and who dies."

The one thing that bothers me about this story the most is that "Donald" is the name that the original reporter, Charles Hurt, gave to protect his source: the "east coast university professor serving as panelist" at the Climate summit.

However, the line attributed to his highly esteemedness: the global-warming debate "will determine who lives and who dies" This sounds remarkably similar to Obama's "We are God's partners in matters of life and death," doesn't it?

As it fits within the entire spectrum of our globalist übermenschen who believe that the god of survivability must be served with -- what's the number?  -- six billion human beings being prevented from breathing, I think my readers want to know what I think of this story.

Pascal (the derivative) says: When told an übermensch says, or is only reported to have said, something worrisome, it's prudent to believe it and to prepare accordingly.

It's Rat Eat Rat at Carp & Hog-in [Updated]

For those too young to remember the teach-ins protesting the Vietnam War (I witnessed the very first), the same format was repeated by the same crowd to protest "ecological imperialism" a few years later (I attended that one too).

Thus, I tell you faithfully, the last part of bowdlerized Copenhagen -- Hog-in -- in this thread's title fits the Sinister Wingers who dragged the world to this pig fest. The carping part you already knew.

****Update****

(Is it really an update when you go back and add an element you had intended to spell out the first time? But your old-timers-disease slipped in back then, and you only remembered later you had forgotten to add it? Because God sees the need for us to feel our humility on a daily basis?)

Anyway, the rats of the third world were envisioning a feast for them at the expense of the civilized world (I think the PC prefer to call it "the developed nations," but you know what's really behind their double-think, right? Right.). As can be seen below, the taxation of civilization "for the 'developing nations' (wink)," is really a way for the übermenschen to steal from their middle class. So now they're apparently also going to make life difficult (per the "Danish text") for the uncivilized rats too -- Hence, "Rat Eat Rat" -- as can be seen at the end of the quote below (where this wrinkle was spelled out in my comment highlighted in blue).

**** End Update ****

From Papa Ray at BC:
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after 'Danish text' leak

Highlights furnished by Buddy Larsen:

“…world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations.

The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol’s principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions [nice gig you have going here Mr. Strongman: would be a shame were anything to happen to it]."  -- bracketed interpretation added by PtD

Buddy's candid(e) impression:

Words fail. w*o*r*d*s f*a*i*l. Horrors! Red Fascism! Why, how on earth can such a thing BE?

Too Many Links Are Too Taxing On Moderators

I'm guessing that the following post was held up due to security issues that are necessary for operating any large site (and perhaps even smaller ones).

What I may do in future is that any comment like this one that has more than two links I will post to this site and then link this site's post at PJMedia.

As I have no idea when the post with its links intact might appear at BC, and as it joins several critical posts together in response to another contributor's comment,that is the reason for this post.

53. Pascal (the derivative):
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Jason, Postmodernism already has its “science.” It goes by the name of “Post-Normal” Science, which Wretchard headlined twice, here and here, along with his extensive additional commentary (unusual for him) placed in with the comments.

Essentially, Post-Normal science reveals only what its members believe need to be revealed, what the public is ready to hear. So it one may not find it unusual that its leading proponent, Mike Hulme of the U of East Anglia, and the publisher of the Post-Normal Times: Putting Science Into Context (apparently now in hiatus) was one of the first to offer excuses for what was revealed by the emails, in the WSJ December 2 — where he admitted that his emails were among the ones purloined.

Interesting times.

Dec 6, 2009 - 11:41 pm

Defend Your Right to Exist

Nothing is more to be esteemed than aptness in discerning the true from the false. Other qualities of mind are of limited use, but precision of thought is essential to every aspect and walk of life. To distinguish accuracy from error is difficult not only in the sciences but also in the everyday affairs men engage in and discuss. Men are everywhere confronted with alternative routes--some true and others false--and reason must choose between them. Who chooses well has a sound mind, who chooses ill a defective one. Capacity for discerning accuracy is the most important measure of minds. --Antoine Arnauld The Art of Thinking

At the behest of a friend, I took the liberty of updating Arnauld's quote above to reflect our modern and scientific understanding of knowing (in keeping with the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle), and have replaced truth with accuracy.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suffices to kill him. But, if the universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the advantage which the universe has over him, the universe knows nothing of this.

All our dignity then, consists in thought. By it we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we cannot fill. Let us endeavor then, to think well; this is the principle of morality. -- Blaise Pascal Pensees 347 

Marie Claude brought the first quote to my attention at Belmont Club. I chose to use the second as it represents how these two allies influenced each other, and because the Philosophy Department at Oregon State University chose to use those quotes (out of many) to introduce these two philosopher/scientists, maybe for the same reason. Most of all, they serve well as a theme for this short discussion. Individual's have the RIGHT to fight gangs of men who act  no differently than all the unknowing brutal forces of the universe.


These two quotes illuminate the capacity of any man to understand what he may in a manner different from other creatures, be he genius or imbecile. What we are witnessing today is that too many of our geniuses are inclined to believe that all below them are imbeciles, and thereby somehow less noble than they.

Maybe -- maybe -- if we lived in a global meritocracy, there might be some grounds for the elite to run things. For then the most trusted executives with the most morally discerning lieutenants, the most competent professionals, the most just legal system, and the most charitable ombudsmen, they all would share the governing of the rest of us. Benign angels sowing peace and prosperity among men.



But what we have now is far worse. Tighten your seat belts, because right now you can meet a slew of people with whom you share sympathetic views most of the time -- and they may instantly fly off the handle were you to dare repeat the following observation. While in the Twentieth Century we survived at least two presidents who embodied the Peter Principle, in this Century we have been inflicted with presidencies that exemplify the Dilbert Principle. Made men are rightfully squeamish about their status, but the men who made them are angered that you dare pull back the curtain so that too many others might comprehend their scheming.

When the left and right sides of the aisles of government get along far better with each other than any of them do with most of their constituents, what would we expect?

^♫And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right^♫

We would expect that the last and current men at the top got there because moneyed interests had sound expectations that their wishes would be heeded.

^♫Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss^♫

I long ago discerned that  influential misanthropes must own the ear of many of our leaders simply because there no high profile party actively taking the contrary view (the "other side of the aisle") of the many proponents of negative population growth, while there was no lack of voices that found one thing or another wrong with religious faiths that consider innocent human life holy and deserving of protection and growth.


On top of it all, I believe I am not saying something new to you. Each of you has long ago suspected the same but were too trusting or too suppressed to bring it to voice. Heed your own senses! You have the gift of thought, and the natural instincts for self preservation. Stop acting like steers, and start acting like men again.  Know our wannabe masters want you enslaved and your drives perverted. Ignorance can be cured; you can cure it. No matter how much cowardice they have tried to inculcate in you, KNOW it is they who are that way by nature. Yes they may be ruthless, but they are cowards first. Make them fear you and you win.

The individual not only needs to resist the forces of conformity so that he may think more clearly for his own interests. He must encourage his neighbors to do the same. I know from experience, so I tell you that will be no easy task. Those who are looking to husband us like sheep need for us to look upon each other with more malice than we have for them.  S I N I S T E R  media exists for more than one reason! 

Love God with all your might, and love your neighbor as yourself.

That credo is the reason our secular world is working so hard to destroy Judeo-Christianity. (And so, beware the institutions of the faiths, because our masters have them controlled; for where they are not co-opted by the worship of man, then by they are often coerced into silence by means of the threat of taxation -- "the power to destroy.")

Learn to discriminate leaders from managers.  Beware of managers for whom you are are of no consequence other than objects for their own advancement; they believe they are superior to you.

You are men. Don't let the balderdash, thrown up by postmodern science, and spread by the relentless propaganda of the "sky is falling" media, convince you to deny the logic and gut senses God has given you.

You HAVE the ability to think on your own, to learn all that you need, to seek out and secure your own interests. To hell with this paternalistic, all powerful state and its statists and fascists and nutters.

It is in you.

Y O U  A R E  M A N!

Not Done Yet

I've a nice little expression of Pascal Fervor in the works, but I am not yet satisfied with it. I am looking to tie the past with the present.

I know that most of my readers are already convinced of my view on AGW. My aim is to encourage you to urge everyone to use their own God endowed intelligence before allowing Sinister media recognized experts to convince them that black is white and down is up.

Thank you for your patience.

Penetrate Their Thick Skulls

The effete snobs at the top of our celebrity culture know that Pascal employed ridicule to bring down their 17^th century predecessors, so they have pretty much foreseen and prepared for us to try and do the same to them now. The following is from my post at BC this morning.

Many BC commentators (Life Of The Mind’s analysis¹ is outstanding with extracts below the break) have indicated that Pascal’s device (”Elitists lose their power over the rest of the community once their pretensions are not taken seriously.” — Alexis) is greatly diminished in effect in our time. (Thank you Don Rickles and “Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts” for showing [the snobs] the way. </s> )


Our current crop of despots and charlatans have become calloused. They’ve trained to make it seem they are inured; that any verbal slings and arrows we lowlifes toss will appear to bounce off them. Their self-importance demands it — so naturally I came up with the silliest of posts to counter-balance them.


However, we should all keep on trying in the hopes that we simply have not stumbled upon the proper barbs that will penetrate their thick skulls.

¹LOTM's analysis, truncated but with emphasis added, follows:

UN = United Nimrods; I Pee Sea See Copenhagen

What more needs be said?
Junior high school humor seems so fitting to assess such sophomoric scheming dunderheads.

Poster Boy

Interesting to note. This photo comes from an article today in a Danish newspaper report that Al Gore canceled his talk in Copenhagen, originally scheduled for Dec 17. No doubt as the scandals heated up he got cold feet.

If you click on the photo it will open in a new window. Then you can hold the control key down and hit the plus sign on the number key pad to enlarge it. The sinister look in Al Gore's eyes becomes quite a bit more noticeable. >>shudder<< He almost became President in 2000.

Which Story is Sinister Media Pursuing?

Well, this really started out as a simple thought about a major human failing. It's one I've explored before, but it has come up again today involving two quite separate stories.

And then I rewrote my title and took a different track.

1. There's the battle to keep a lid on the overcooked data that -- I pray -- is lost as it would snatch defeat from the joys of victory for the climate schemers. 
2. And there's the battle by one public man to not reveal something that would be outrageously intrusive to ask of a private man. 

The news about Tiger Woods is really a personal story. The details of it should, and I hope will, remain private.

Yes, he has achieved status due his talent and hard work. But his large rewards are less due to the value of his work and more due to a cockeyed world that adores celebrity. That world, due to its raining awards for celebrity, thinks it is entitled to know all, to celebrate his falter as it were (whether or not it indeed is).

Tiger, if I were you, I'd say "I have enough of what you, crazy world, have offered. What more can I spend? If you don't back off, I will retire." Whatever happened, I hope the young man recovers all he may have lost. Forgive and be forgiven.

It's not as if Tiger, in his possible error, had been aiding and abetting those on the verge of enslaving the entire planet.

And which story is the Sinister Media Pursuing?

Ingenuity by Common Humans: Discounted by Our Demigods

Late today I encountered a frank new commenter at Belmont Club. It was on Wretchard's latest exploration of the AGW fraudulence.

Here is the comment "Bear" posted:

We should all be aware of who wants to pick the winners and losers.

Civilization as we know it is confronted with serious issues. It just so happens some think they can determine the outcome. These are not ignorant people, and carbon is a vehicle to the solution in their eyes. The problem is that they equate survival as a species with a socialist (we all know where that ends) state.
relentless growth is unsustainable.

Climate change propanganda is the vehicle to get there, since stating the obvious issues would generate even more populist resistance.

The myth that technology can solve everything is patently false.

this will end badly.

Bear, I’ve been battling with this concept a very long time. Few are willing to state it as you have.

There is redundancy in your assertion “The myth that technology can solve everything is patently false.” It sounds like you want to believe your line so much that you had to call technological solutions both a myth and patently false.

Dare you battle with me over it?

He responded:

Tragedy of the Climate "Scientists"

This morning in the UK Times Online published [emphasis added]

Climate Change Data Dumped

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

To qualify as science, a theory must come with all data intact Where data is excluded, it must come with an explanation. The object is for others to BE ABLE to test the theory; to let all comers try and prove it is wrong.

Hiding or discarding data is not science. Since such behavior will get a freshman flunked out of Lab 101, it appears some PhDs have traded their hard earned names as part of the requirements to obtain their latest grants; traded their good names for a bowl of beans as it were.

We know our politicians always hanker for reasons to tax us, so it appears these "scientists" are simply the paid tools of they who fund them. I have little doubt these are bright men who once sought a prominent position amongst noted scientists of the past.  All the more tragic that the 'leading climatologists" (in their own view at least) now appear to be the equivalent of the "learned" charlatans who worked for the despots of darker eras. Now, it seems, they are on the fast track of being forgotten along with the fraud who attempted to foist the "missing link" known as Piltdown Man on a credulous world a century before.

Steyn says it better than I

A couple of days ago, when I posted Facts Versus VIPs, I included a link to what I wrote more extensively at BC

The AGW fanatics constantly shout “peer review, peer reviewed.” What they are insisting is that it means nothing if the critics are not a member of the climate guild. That there is a catch-22 to gain entry to that guild, they don’t let on, but we all know it’s there. It’s like gang members challenging “where you from?” or a Chicago boss asking “who sent you?”

Mark Steyn. writing further about the disclosures of the CRU emails, concludes thusly:

But don't worry, it's all "peer-reviewed."

Here's what Phil Jones of the CRU and his colleague Michael Mann of Penn State mean by "peer review". When Climate Research published a paper dissenting from the Jones-Mann "consensus," Jones demanded that the journal "rid itself of this troublesome editor," and Mann advised that "we have to stop considering Climate Research as a legitimate peer-reviewed journal. Perhaps we should encourage our colleagues in the climate research community to no longer submit to, or cite papers."

So much for Climate Research. When Geophysical Research Letters also showed signs of wandering off the "consensus" reservation, Dr. Tom Wigley ("one of the world's foremost experts on climate change") suggested they get the goods on its editor, Jim Saiers, and go to his bosses at the American Geophysical Union to "get him ousted." When another pair of troublesome dissenters emerge, Dr. Jones assured Dr. Mann, "I can't see either of these papers being in the next IPCC report. Kevin and I will keep them out somehow – even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!"

Which, in essence, is what they did. The more frantically they talked up "peer review" as the only legitimate basis for criticism, the more assiduously they turned the process into what James Lewis calls the Chicago machine politics of international science. The headline in the Wall Street Journal Europe is unimproveable: "How To Forge A Consensus." Pressuring publishers, firing editors, blacklisting scientists: That's "peer review," climate-style. The more their echo chamber shriveled, the more Mann and Jones insisted that they and only they represent the "peer-reviewed" "consensus." And gullible types like Ed Begley Jr. and Andrew Revkin of the New York Times fell for it hook, line and tree-ring.

Dear readers, I'm sorry I don't have the flourish with words of a Mark Steyn, but I do have my extensive background in engineering to recognize a snow job when I see one. I know how the "peers" act when they know the facts favor them, and I also know how they act when they are trying desperately to sell something that does not work. They're hoping to be up and out of the company with all their gains long before the fit hits the shan.

I'll try to find the energy to continue offering my insights. Seeing Steyn use some of the same metaphors and imagery as I do, however clumsy I am have been at it, I find reassuring that my writing is improving.

Cheerful

[There's a video above that does not display in some feeds. Click over to the post (or click on the read more below where that is visible) to view it.]

Facts Versus VIPs

If you have ever looked at my masthead (up there ^ at the top) you may have wondered what in Blaise Pascal's Provincial Letters  was so remarkable. I'm about to tell you in simple terms.

He made a clear distinction. Be wary about following the recommendations of famous men simply because there is similarity with what they said then and what is being discussed now. Follow instead the procedures that let them arrive at the substantive and universally acclaimed opinions that earned them their fame.

This is an important distinction that every common man should bring to bear when powerful people try to invoke the words of famous men to aid them in their quest for power. It may well be, and sadly is true, that all the powerful men are doing is exploiting the names of the men who were once famous or courageous, but who have no more wisdom about the current issue at hand than do you. Indeed, their names may have been bought, or at least they were patronized and flattered into going along. In allowing their names to be used, they trustingly fell prey to the powerful men. We, to our advantage, have the benefit of not having been flattered into letting our guard down. For this reason alone I was not prepared to discredit accomplished men until the depth of their involvement with the scoundrels was better known. Cautious skepticism was good counsel. Now the degree of deception employed by many climate "scientists" stands revealed.

Daily Recognition

No matter what job I do, good or bad, I am often never sure if anybody notices.

But there is one sure exception.

My cat notices and appreciates it every time I clean out and add more litter to her box.

Trapped In 'Coma' 23 Years, Man Conscious Whole Time

This story, published in the UK's Mail Online today, apparently has been under wraps for about three years, Lord knows why. It testifies to the strength of the human spirit, so I love passing it on to you. That would be true even without the bonus of it poking the death cultists in the eyes.

Doctors were convinced that a man left totally paralysed by a 1983 car crash was in a vegetative state for 23 years. According to this news report, written by Allan Hall, once the doctors of then student Rom Houben misdiagnosed him, that remained his official condition.

From reading the article, this is my summary:
1) due to the work of a single investigative doctor working with the newest technology, the error was finally discovered three years ago;
2) that error, and the fact that Herr Houben was actually conscious the whole time, was not revealed until November 21, 2009.

He had no way of letting experts, family or friends know he could hear every word they said.

'I screamed, but there was nothing to hear,' said Mr Houben, now 46.

Doctors used a range of coma tests, recognised worldwide, before reluctantly concluding that his consciousness was 'extinct'.

But three years ago, new hi-tech scans showed his brain was still functioning almost completely normally.

Read more of the original report here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1230092/Patient-trapped-23-year-coma-conscious-along.html##ixzz0XekjAcE4

My additional commentary follows below the break.

A PC Bubble Bursts

I have been informed that the NBC direct embed of the featured video does not play in some foreign markets. So I am now providing the LiveLeak alternative in addition (found at Instapundit).


(The following is the address to the original NBC version I had embedded here.
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/clips/china-cold-open/1178451/)

Pray this is but the first of many extra dividends to fall out of the CRU hack revelations.

S I N I S T E R Sponsors

Today's title asserts that S I N I S T E R Media did not come about without the distinct aid of sinister sponsors. Let's look at what supports it.

Media is now what was once solely the province of newspapers. Newspapers were so much an essential element in our republic's functioning that our Founders were counting upon a free and independent journalism class to provide another check in their checks and balances scheme. So much so that they are the only profession mentioned in the Bill of Rights. Adding even more distinction to their importance, they were dubbed the "Fourth Estate" by the father of modern conservatism, Edmond Burke, without a trace of the irony hanging over his grave.

So media is heir to the Fourth Estate. As such, it is given somewhat more of a blank check in gaining access to the halls of government to ask nettlesome questions of those in power.

Why, with all the hoopla attendant to lobbyists in the halls of power, is there not even more hoopla over who influences the Fourth Estate and its editorial policies which affect what questions are asked of whom? Surely if it is a public concern over whether or not the money of corporations and other entities can influence government officials, whose sole source of money is not those entities, then surely similar concerns ought be raised of the money which principally sponsors the Fourth Estate and thereby affects its biases.

One of the biggest players in this game is General Electric. Not finding it sufficient to be a big sponsor for many TV programs and advertising in newspapers, GE bought RCA in large part to gain control of NBC, and with it control of its satellite operations like MSNBC, CNBC, and assorted other outlets. Gee, is it any surprise that one of the biggest gainers from the election of Obama and the Dems has been GE. I've warned of the rise of Minitrue before. How much further down the road are we to when the sponsors don't even have to pay to influence those in government? They can force your tax dollars to do it for them.

S I N I S T E R Media

Sinister wing = all those who promote, foster or tolerate new Marxist/socialist run governments despite that ideology's historic murder of 100 million people.

Sinister (adjective)

3 : singularly evil or productive of evil
4 a : of, relating to, or situated to the left or on the left side of something;

This morning I received an email from the Media Research Center.

MRC clearly have not gotten with the program of forcing the media to apologize for its huge shift L E F T.

One way to force the predominant media to answer for their bias is to persistently connect that bias to horrific results. The first few sentences of MRC's email, slightly edited (shown in bold red), provides an example.

From the Desk of:
David Martin, Executive Vice President

MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER
11/18/2009
Pascal,

While the sinister media focus on defending President Obama’s awkward bow to the emperor of Japan during his Asian sightseeing trip, millions of American seniors and working class citizens anxiously search for the truth about the government’s attempt to take over their health care.
But relying on an increasingly irrelevant sinister news media only leaves us frustrated by the steady dose of misinformation and spin.

In a badly dis- and misinformed society, where many who help spread the false information are well-meaning themselves, persistence in exposing the sinister roots of those in charge matters a great deal.

*******Update: S I N I S T E R Sponsors********

Progress-of

Back in July I delineated the progressive peeling back of the facade to reveal the true face of the "Progressive" with the following equation

Altruistic ==► Casuistic ==► Craven ==► Shameless ==► Brazen ==► [TBD]

I've been considering replacing TBD with Sneering for some time as there has been quite a bit of sneering on the part of Obama administration, especially as the healthcare bills have been dragged through Congress, despite constituents and many legislators kicking and screaming.

But it took a journalist's question and Nancy Pelosi's blunt response to reveal the current face of the "Progressives."

Altruistic ==► Casuistic ==► Craven ==► Shameless ==►
Brazen ==► Sneer at US ==► Contempt for US ==► [TBD]

Stay tuned. Don't dare look in Nancy Pelosi's attic as you're apt to find hidden there a horrifying portrait that has yet to be completed.

***UPDATE2*** 10 April 2015
The posers don't like this video much it seems. it and audio version keep getting deleted. Had to find another one.


The title is "Pelosi: we have to pass the health care bill so that you can find out what is in it" and it was posted by rexanders8


*** UPDATE *** 28 MAY 2010 ***

Someone does not like it that Madame Pelosi was shown on the video clip above actually displaying her contempt for us.

Her infamous response "Are you serious? Are you serious?" to the question "Where specifically does the Constitution grant Congress the authority for enacting an individual health insurance mandate?" has been removed.
Allegedly "due to terms of use violation."

Fortunately there are still audio recordings, but still -- the evil doer forcing the removal of proof of the evil doing is just one more flagrant demonstration of the Progress-of.

One Thing Will Save Our Republic

I posted this as a comment to Victor Davis Hanson's Thoughts from the Later Republic. I wrote it because so many other commentators were comparing Obama to Caesar, Pompey, Marius, etc.

51. Pascal (the derivative):

The significant similarity between Rome and US lay in our cultural decline and ossification of our institutions.

The significant disparity between Rome and US lay in that its leaders were also generals that had armies loyal to themselves, whilst our leaders are hardly close to the stature of any of theirs.

Our army, while ostensibly loyal to the constitution that is fundamental to our republic and not to any man, which sadly has declined along with our other institutions due to political inroads like affirmative action, PC, and long-standard CYA, could unseat any of our string of Marian-like socialists (Bush being the lite precursor to the heavy-handed Obama). But there really is no mechanism for them to do so without due process, and that is not likely coming from a gaggle of like-minded weak legislators and justices.

And Marius was deposed by Sulla, his long-standing fellow patrician-general but mortal enemy. Where oh where do we have anyone akin to Sulla politically let alone militarily?

No. No. NO! This is not the late Roman Republic. We will not get a temporary respite from a Marius/Obama socialist because we lack for a potential dictator/general like Sulla.

Now, you may say, but what if we could elevate a stately man into the more benign Cincinnatus dictator style of the early republic?

Sorry, Cincinnatus reigned as temporary dictator (twice) to repel external invaders, while Sulla had to overcome perfidy from the inside, which is more our situation. A scenario better fitting of a Cincinnatus would require that Islamo-fascist terrorism is anywhere akin to Parthia (who obliterated Crassus and his army) by the simple-minded proxy that contemporary Iran's locale is ancient Parthia, and the denial that traitors within our republic do not exist.

In my humble opinion — and very humble it is because I don’t see anyone here even giving me the time of day to respond in kind, let alone Dr. Hanson — the only thing that can save this republic short of a major upheaval is a major restoration of our great cultural heritage by majority agreement. Good luck with that project short of massive prayers that are miraculously answered.

IOW, short of divine intervention, we (~230 years) are on track for the appearance of our Imperator at a far faster rate than it took Rome (~500 years) to get there.

Radical Left = Sinister Wing

For the last few days I've taken to calling the radical left wing of our politics by the label – S I N I S T E R   W I N G – which they well deserve. It is guaranteed to be a label that namby-pamby "conservatives" will avoid out of fear of seeming gauche for stating the unpleasant reality.

With the deadly things that have happened under Marxism for the last hundred years, how can radicals – who still want to create a global government based on that proven deadliness – be thought of as not merely left but also sinister? It will be safer for all of us targeted-subjects to speak no longer of the Radical Left wing, but of the Sinister wing.

Please keep that in mind when you read the following comment I left at Eternity Road to an important Mark Alger thread a short while ago.

KG:

The danger from radical islam comes not from the shootings on home soil but from the insidious advance of this ideology by social means, by undermining the will to resist, by using our own institutions and insistence on freedom of religion and free speech to destroy our way of life.

Sinister-wing strategist Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals no. 4:

Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.

Any further questions? Please direct all who may have forgotten to this early warning (March 2004) from The Convergence of the Death Cults:

The signal danger of our era is that all the death cults, whether powered by pseudo-religious zeal, by Marxian economic nonsense, by environmentalist visions, or by the simple desire for power, are reaching out to one another. In their shared enterprise of subjecting Man to the will of an elite, they will suppress their parochial differences, at least until an inescapable yoke has been fastened upon us. -- Francis W. Porretto

The Radical Left has taken over the Democratic Party. They have been exceedingly and uncharacteristically accommodating to the most restrictive religion on the planet. That party now holds the reins of power in the Executive and Legislative branches of our government, and is still but a shaky (Kennedy) vote away from control of SCOTUS.

And the Justice Department is setting the stage to allow the planners of the 911 terrorist attacks to defend themselves with all the tricks I described in Victimoguery.

That is an awful lot of power in the hands of S I N I S T E R forces.

********Update: S I N I S T E R Media **********

Recovering from the Political Correctness Disease [Updated]

I was in the midst of writing what I consider an important essay titled "Reassessing Fundamentals" when news of the Fort Hood murders came to my attention.

Not only did I not finish it on 5 Nov, but I also had two other efforts I had started on 3 Nov and 1 Nov respectively with the revealing working titles "I'm sorry that I'm not completing my screeds," and "A Sign of Frustration."

I wasn't in a funk due to what was about to happen. No, I don't believe I was so clairvoyant this time. I was having difficulty because I feel that Orwell's warning, "the purpose of Newspeak is to destroy man's reasoning ability," required a more active counter-offensive. Before I could move on I wanted to reassess fundamentals of our language so that I could help lift the clouds on our minds.

Funny thing now that I consider it. Political Correctness is a form of Newspeak, with its inherent double-think of "better not say that." PC has long been in our schools and in our media (even much of "conservative" talk radio) and in most of all in our politicians. And now it is clearly at the very top of our military. It is what made the massacres at Fort Hood all that more inevitable -- and thus even more outrageous.

So I stopped writing what I was working on and moved around the web to add to the comments at various sites. I think I helped form thoughts at those places, and that's really what a writer hopes to achieve, gaining scarce credit or even no credit.

From the first my comments attacked the reports that had one voice after another calling the event a tragedy. I called it an outrage for a number of reasons, especially the gall of an army officer and presumed gentleman to act as if he were a cloaked spy; worse: an infiltrator bent on murdering enlisted men who were trained to respect and trust his rank. His act was so rank.

But in retrospect, as the role of the PC climate came to light, along with its diversity and multicultural aims, Political Correctness has finally begun to appear to be the worst element present. PC was the murdering Hasan's silent partner. Political Correctness was the institutional disease that was Hasan's great enabler.

That is the conclusion I hope all in America, the very many who still love her, will arrive at on their own. I give up trying to convince anyone who is viscerally unable to arrive at this same conclusion by using their own God-gifted commonsense . If commonsense and a core personal survival instinct cannot convince my fellow Americans, what chance do I have?

Here's how you will know when America is on the road to recovery from this disease. It could be very soon if Americans simply demand this first thing.

Even before Hasan is found guilty and executed, Political Correctness in our armed forces -- and all its concomitant poison -- must be executed long before he is.

*****Update*****

Michael Ramirez on Hasan's un-indicted co-conspirator downloaded from Townhall's archive.

The original ny post url image went bye-bye

For the Handful of People Smart Enough To Understand This, Not One of Whom Is "raygun"

They know how to bleat "death panels" with a guffaw, but haven't a clue that they're being led by Judas goats.

Thanks to Og for inspiring me to summarize his insight -- from our conversation.

Fair Warning to NY23

A combination of circumstances, attitudes on display, and personal experience compels me to offer this warning.

Expect widespread voter fraud in favor of the Democratic candidate for Congress, and expect the GOP to not only look the other way, but to obstruct any oversight, whether it be by Conservative Party leaders who have a candidate in this race (Doug Hoffman) or independents who wish to see some breaks in the lock the Democratic/Republican Parties have on everything from the electoral process to governing itself, or even lay Republicans dissatisfied with all leadership in DC.

I don't have a foolproof solution for you watchdogs. The best advice I can offer is to be very certain who you trust, and to watch your backs in any event. If your candidate is a good one, and you do the right things, at least you will feel Him by your side when push comes to shove.

USA Sovereignty: It's Been At Risk Since 1789

Last week I highlighted a segment of Lord Christopher Monckton's speech wherein he warned us of the threat to our sovereignty. Then I gave you a glimpse into how dismaying was his comment.

Since then Mark Vande Pol has put together a thorough review of how much treaty law affects our nation's constitution, and the federal power over the states and over our personal rights, the Bill of Rights notwithstanding.

In Patrick Henry, “Ratified”: The Treaty Power, Its Perils and Portents, Mr. Vande Pol (a recognized land restoration expert and author) provides us with several troubling observations and conclusions. One quite startling is:

Virtually every major Federal environmental law cites treaty law as its source of authority, simply because extending Federal police power within the States exceeds the enumerated powers the Federal government was granted in the Constitution.

He provides the records of the founding fathers during struggles to ratify our US Constitution so as to contrast for us the arguments between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. It was clear that the anti-federalists spotted the dangers inherent in the proposed constitution from the very start. Still, the Federalists poo-poohed those concerns, but not very convincingly, as shown. However, the forces clamoring to fix the then current financial crisis were so great that the majority of states representatives were willing to at least temporarily give power to foreign governments over how we governed ourselves as a form of guarantee for the loans they would then provide us (viz.: treaty law as the justification to pass federal taxes so as to repay national debt.)

Somehow, in all the years since 1789, the USA has never ratified an Amendment to our Constitution that would rescind that power of treaties. Not even after WW II when we were providing loans to the world through the Marshall Plan did we seek to amend that clause in our Constitution.

Mr. Vande Pol argues for and demonstrates what such an amendment would look like:

Whether to limit the treaty power in Article VI is one thing, but there should be NO disagreement about Amending Article II, Section 2, Clause2 of the Constitution as follows:

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present three quarters of the legislatures of the Several States concur;

Treaties operate at the Constitutional level. The same standard should apply to treaties as to amending the Constitution itself.

So this change at least goes a short way toward restoring some of the benefits of federalism without the bulk of its historic complications.

It is a very simple amendment that should brook no argument, so fire any representative who resists. It is that important.

He even provides us with this stunning observation:

"Now you know why George Bush’s administration was instituting programs to cut greenhouse gas emissions despite the fact that the Senate had rejected the Kyoto Protocols 98-0 -- Clinton had signed Kyoto."

I bet most of you are surprised to learn that. Mr Vande Pol shows it to be a consequence of another treaty ratified by the Senate in 1969 that allows the spirit of any international agreement signed by one of our Presidents to be followed even when our Senate fails to ratify the treaty.

This, my review of Mr Vande Pol's important work, is only a sketch. Please go and read the whole thing.

It will serve you and our nation to learn and understand how urgent it is that we prevail upon Mr. Obama not to sign the Copenhagen agreement. Copenhagen's provisions will be onerous far beyond what most all Americans have been informed.

We were woefully ill informed, that is, until today.

Thank you Mr Vande Pol.

Weathervane Politicians No More

Politicians have often been called weathervanes because "they move in the direction that the wind is blowing."

That remark was always meant to be disparaging because it implied that they would move in the direction that would get them reelected rather than the right direction.

Well, thanks to Lord Monckton, we have a new metaphor for the tendency of our politicians.

Lord Christopher Monckton speaks on October 14th, 2009 at a climate skeptic event sponsored by the Minnesota Free Market Institute. 

In the clip above, at about 1:28:40, after he quotes Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pumping Global Warming, he says

"that's the traffic light tendency: they call themselves Green because they're too yellow to admit that they are really Reds."

Personally, I preferred them when they were more like weathervanes. There they exhibited more humility and tended to act more like public servants and less like rulers.

Will BHO Cede the USA to UN Authority?

What am I talking about?

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy,” -- Daniel Webster (1782–1852), arguing against the taxers in 17 U.S. 327 (1819), a fact conceded by US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall even as the court decided in favor of the taxers. More at the source.

Keep that in mind as you listen to this:


If you believe that there are many more big hurdles to overcome before BHO's signature becomes constitutionally binding law (putting aside what the UN thinks his signature means), and that we may still be relatively safe from foreign control since the Senate still would have to affirm it with a two thirds vote, or that your rights under the constitution are protected even if it passes, you are horribly misinformed.

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur. [emphasis added]

all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land;

There is a chance you still fail to see the imminent threat. The above extracts from the United States Constitution are fully sourced at Treaty Law: The Constitution's Original Trojan Horse. I urge you to go there and read it. You will find a clear discussion of the relevant consequences of how treaty laws have, in the past, superseded our constitution and your rights.

And remember that Supreme Court ruling at the top as BHO blithely signs that "global warmimg" treaty at Copenhagen in December.

Statist Tools: Victimoguery

Most of us are willing to live and let live.
They could care less as long as they get what they want.

If the media and its journalists and opinion writers were truly independent, this word, or one that means the same thing, would have been invented long before now. Also, add this to the reasons for doubting that those whom we have accepted as  "leaders" of the Right opposing Statism are all that we need them to be. In that we are lacking leadership in this, I have stepped in to fill the vacuum.

Yesterday I spoke of one of the Statist tools that are used to divide us that I call tripwires. I went on to explain that there are phonies out there who act wounded by pretending that a tripwire has gone off and harmed them. I saw that they deserve special scrutiny. Every day that we lack focus on what it is they are doing, that is another day we permit them to continue their charlatanry. It is another day they succeed in stirring the pot of divisiveness. I referred to them yesterday, for want of a better word, as professional victims. I simply could not think of a word that accurately described these despicable people.

So I turned to my old friend, Francis W Porretto of Eternity Road, to see if he could provide me with the word. He quickly likened the scenario to which I'm referring to that of a professional staked goat. I interpreted that his simile suggests one who makes their living as bait to entrap an innocent target who has the misfortune to say or do anything with or related to them. He promised me he would think about it. That was days ago. When Fran cannot come up with a word, I am pretty confident it does not yet exist.

So here we are.

I am proposing to call such highwaymen, victimogues. They are either the setters and beneficiaries of such traps or the goats who bait themselves.  

victimogue (vik' tih mog): from victim + demagogue; one who masquerades as a victim and exploits the alleged harm in order to achieve personal gain. In the process they create real victims of the individuals, institutions, or whole communities who have been ensnared by the victimogue. Their practice is called victimoguery (vik' tih mog' uh ree).

Although I do not remember the names of the principals involved, I recall an incident from a few years ago that provides an outrageous example – or at least it was outrageous then. One man, upon hearing the word niggardly used properly to describe cheapening behavior, reacted as if the speaker had said the N word, and his reaction, though mistaken, still subsequently cost the bewildered speaker his job.

It is not clear who played out the incident to its despicable end. Someone involved acted as a demagogue, making a mountain out of a molehill, and rode out the incident to the extent that it made the speaker a victim of political correctness. Whether it was the reactor who played the victim or it was the speaker’s boss who chose to see the listener as a victim in order find cause to fire his employee, this is an example of what I propose we call victimoguery. 

Someone who discovers that some words used by others can grant them sudden and great power, and then chooses to ride it out despite a commonsensical explanation that should have ended the issue, that person is acting as a victimogue, and deserves as much societal reproof as any demagogue.

In insurance fraud cases, there are people who have been known to throw themselves into the path of cars and subsequently sue the actual victim of the staged event. Frequently the perpetrator is allied with a lawyer and a doctor to carry out the scam to the detriment of the real victim, all while playing the victim himself. It often takes a lot of detective work to uncover a racket ring like that. But the victimogue often employs his shtick in the broad daylight, counting on political correctness to stifle any support for the real victim.

This has gone on for so long because our media has not served its purpose and cried foul when indeed it is a foul deed. Instead they give one of the biggest perpetrators a slot on FNC. I doubt that is the kind of "fair and balanced" that Fox's favorable viewers have in mind.

Their "success" -- that is lack of real resistance -- led to this travesty inflicted upon Rush Limbaugh that really harms all of us. If Rush can be harmed simply by orchestrated charades and the perpetrators suffer no consequences again, what's to stop them from harming any of us? The victimogues couldn't make hay with what he really says. They resorted to libeling him with false reports of him uttering the type of words that keeps victimogues in business.

So I decided a word for their practice finally needed to be coined so their game could begin to be shut down. Had this been done sooner, the opinion of an Al Sharpton would carry no weight at all.

To aid us from allowing such nasty people to continue to acquire any degree of respect, our culture needs a special pejorative name that aids us in quickly identifying them. Whether anyone takes up my suggestion, victimogue, or chooses another more eloquent, I pray it be done. Such people need a name for their chosen profession so that everybody understands how damaging they are to comity. Most of us are willing to live and let live; they could care less as long as they get what they want.

Statist Tools: Tripwires

• "The evil Boosh. Bush is responsible for everything bad according to you."
• "STOP with the death panels stuff. It's just not true."
• "You third party boosters are nothing more than Democrat shills."
• "Sarah Palin? [Sneering laughter] My God man, there's nothing more you can tell me." [Walks out]

I suspect I am not alone in hearing similar exhortations erupt in the midst of an otherwise reasonable discussion. In each instance that I heard these, what I would call a "tripwire" had been triggered. What are tripwires? Where did they come from? What may be done about them?

In the incidents above, the tripwires were, respectively:

• The first mention of any of GWBush’s errors (reaction from a variety of conservatives who’ve been conditioned by the untrue attacks on W to defend him for nearly everything);
• After receiving a news story about QALY (reaction from a captive of the statist media);
• After anyone threatens to leave the GOP unless its leadership stops demonizing lower party members (reaction from a party hack);
• Any mention of Sarah Palin (reactions by any Dem and many RINOs).

When, upon hearing some words or phrases, a listener launches into a rant or other unbridled action, we may say metaphorically that the words acted as a tripwire.

As with someone who triggers the tripwire of an antipersonnel mine, most people who are set off by a tripwire (the 'sploder if you will), or a speaker who inadvertently sets one off (the tripper), are not pleased with the result.

But what of those who gain from the tripwires being triggered? Are they simply the beneficiaries of the tripwires naturally sprouting up as do weeds after spring rains, or do they have some role in setting or keeping the tripwires in place?

Deliberately speaking such words in the presence of a listener known to respond explosively is clearly a ploy that is seeking a repeat of that explosion.

• In the case of a joker, we see it done purely for entertainment, especially when applied to someone known to be strung too tightly.
• In the case of a trainer, the reason is to callous the listener so that they become inured to hearing the words.
• The more Machiavellian hit tripwires to derail the listener from whatever course or thought in which they are presently engaging.
• The worst are demagogues who use them to enrage mobs.

Those who engage in such manipulations can clearly be seen as provocateurs or, at the very least, tools of provocateurs. So clearly, some people gain from the setting and maintaining tripwires.

Then there are those who respond angrily to some words, as if the words were their tripwires. They aim to cause many speakers to curb their speech in the interest of maintaining comity or avoiding sanctions. Such a manipulator may become known as a censor or tool of a censor. Clearly, such people enjoy a degree of power from this situation than they would otherwise experience. So they benefit to from the setting and maintaining of tripwires.

Included in this group would be those who we should recognize carry around a chip on their shoulder and are ever ready to respond to any utterance that even vaguely sounds like a tripwire. For lack of a better word now, let's call them professional victims. I will provide an example of this tomorrow because this is a special case that may be the source of great damage to our society. At any rate, this sort of person helps provide justification for the promulgation of the tripwires and thereby aiding both the of the two previous types who set and maintain the trips.


Conclusion:

I have provided but a few examples of what I call tripwires and their consequences. You probably have more than a few of your own. You may call them hot-button items instead. Consider sharing some of yours in the comments. What is important to recognize is that our society has been put on edge by these items. And who is the primary culprit who has pressed them upon us by constant repetition of issues and items that promulgate them? Why it’s the media that most of us – as revealed by their financial collapse – have learned to mistrust in the extreme.

If you wish to be able to join with your fellow Americans to counter the Statist push we all recognize at least to some degree, you have got to find ways, train yourself if needed, to stop from exploding when someone trips your wires or pushes your hot-buttons.

Don’t let the scoundrels win. They who constantly lay landmines that harm our society and culture will continue to succeed until you get wise to their manipulation of you and your neighbors. Get together with your neighbors and discuss how it is that tripwires exist and shed light upon each and every one you can perceive.

Each tripwire is a little thing. Uncovering them one at a time will help you keep from triggering them and maybe, hopefully, defuse the bomb-like issues that divide us to begin with. Any success from each small but cumulative effort will serve you and America very well.

Memory Hole 101: Obama Worship Hidden Away for Now

********* UPDATE 10/17/09 to my post Not til 1909 published 9/24/09***********

The notorious "mmmmm mmmmm mmmmm, Barack Hussein Obama" School-Children Indoctrination Worship Song was blocked. Little doubt this was due to the extreme embarrassment it brought the President just as the heat from a previous gaffe had cooled. The poor baby was just recovering from the grief he brought on himself with his outrageous "I am God's Partner in matters of life and death" declaration that had been overheard and reported when this worship session turned up on the Internet.

So here is a new version of the video. If anyone notices that this one is also removed, please inform me. Thanks.

As If In Answer to a Prayer

I apologize for my extended absence. I have not abandoned my pledge, going back to early July, to increase my participation in the fight. I had good reason for silence -- I was seeking advice from some knowledgeable and talented friends before publishing about what I consider to be a very important issue.

A couple of days ago an idea struck me as if in answer to this prayer.

Dear Lord, lead us in the paths that will thwart those who divide us.

Since I still call myself agnostic, this probably is no miracle, but more like a sudden awakening to a purpose. However, it may be proper for you to offer thanks to Him should you find my efforts at all beneficial.

I began putting together what may be a multi-part essay, but I am trying to keep it to a single entry and powerful. I'm told that much of what I'm writing about is not really new. However, I've searched for others who have dealt with the topic, and I don't see anyone suggesting that you might consciously take note and do something about it, and for you to seek out and get help from others who are like minded.

If I complete it soon, it will be the next entry in my series "Statist Tools."