Appparently, the Left's enviromental tyranny applies only to America.
For years, the greeny-weenies have held production in this country hostage. "Drilling for oil is an evil thing!" "Drilling wrecks the environment." "Mining for coal is bad." "Drilling for shale and natural gas is no good either."
"We must be 'green.'" "Solar, wind and others "renewable" energy is the correct way."
When they say this they only mean the United States. Congress has recently approved drilling permits for the Gulf, thats our territorial waters for all of you keeping score, for countries such as China, Japan, and certain South American countries to name a few. Yet for years they, backed by their enviro-fascist base, have delayed, blocked, and flat out denied those rights to American companies. Giving sole access to OUR abundant oil reserves to foreign powers.
For years, Democrats have fought and denied the rights of American oil companies to drill on our own soil. However, Comrade Obama recently authorized, as part of the stimulus spending, over 400 billion dollars to South American countries to help develop their drilling programs. Also, while denying america the chance to drill in ANWAR, Congress apparently doesn't mind Russia drilling there.
Congress has created a labrynth of red tape for anyone wanting to build new refineries but clear they way for foreign interests to ship oil out of our country.
So the lesson from all this is that fossil fuels are only evil when the United States wants them. Starving our country of its own natural resources and empowering other countries. Does this sound like a good plan to anyone? Didn't think so. Its because of this policy that gasoline is is over $3/gallon at least, $4/gallon in some areas. If those road blocks were erased and american companies allowed to drill for ourt own resources you would see gas prices get cut in half in a matter of months.
Because, first, we would have a domestic supply instead of importing. Second, because we would have our own supply, foreign oil would drop for fear of loosing a share of the market. Thirdly is simple supply and demand. With a larger supply, demand, as well as price goes down.
Now lets look at the "green" side of the issue.
Solar...by now I am sure everyone has heard of Solyndra, what I am going to affectionately call, for lack of a better analogy, Obama-gate. Solyndra is one of a handful of companies that make solar panels that have recently gone under. It is simply a bad business model. If you sell a product for less than the cost to make it, your business will fail. Despite this horrible business model and the fact that auditors, like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, had reported that the companies accumulated losses for its five years in business totaled over $558 million, and expressing serious doubts about it future, the Obama administration gave it the first stimulus hand out to the sum of $535 million. And one of Solyndra's prinicipal investors, one George Kaiser from Oklahoma, just happens to be a major contributor to the Obama campaign.
Wind...the enviro-fascists love to extol the virtues of wind-turbine generated power but refuse to acknowledge its serious flaws. The first of which is that you can't just put a wind farm anywhere. Usually they are placed in the open plains or on top of ridge lines. Also you need acres upon acres to build them. This narrows the possible locations to the midwest or appalacia. If you live anywhere else in the country I guess you are just S.O.L.
The next big flaw is that they are huge, ugly, and noisy. Property values plummet around them because no one wants to have a view of dozens of large machinery. Countless liberal communities, after berating tax payers into paying for them, have filed injunctions and sanctions against wind farms close by. They insist the turbines only operate in winds of <20 mph. This decreases their effectiveness as they are designed to be operated in winds >40 mph.
Not mention that the turbines have killed countless birds and bats because when they are operating, they interfere with air current and emit a frequency that affects a bat's sonar.
All this and neither wind nor solar can even come close to the wattage of coal or nuclear power...
It is also worthy of notice that even their admonishments of oilriggs themselves were wrong. The Left has pegged oil riggs as these eyesores that destroy whatever ecosystem they are built in. It seems that is a lie as well. Oil riggs are now unable to be dismantled because they are now artificial reefs and now support whole ecosystems.
WARNING!!! SCIENCE CONTENT (aka FACT)!!!
You see, when a mommy polyp and a daddy polyp love each other very much...anyway, when polyps spawn, it drifts in the ocean current until it find something solid to land on, in this case the supports of an oil rigg. Then it attaches itself and begins to grow. They feed off plankton and as tehy grow, they shed their exo skeletons which start to form reefs along with any that die and calcify. This provides shelter for smaller fish and other marine life which, in turn, attracts larger predators which attracts even bigger predators. Before you know it an ecosystem is born. And all this happens on and around oil riggs. These artificial reefs have even been known to draw whales that feed on the krill and plankton as well....so much for the lifeless desolation that was supposed to happen...
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Lessons of 9/11
What has happened to this country??
I was originally going to post yesterday about my dismay and anger that there are still 9/11 conspiracies and idiots that believe them. I was going to follow that up with trying to introduce logic and fact into the situation to try to disuade some of them.
After a lot of throught and reflection I have changed my mind. Not in any way because that subject has any less importance to me. On the contrary, on this day it holds a great deal of importance and I will probably at least touch on it later. The reason I decided not to post about debunking 9/11 conspiracies is that there is no point in trying.
If, after 10 years, you people are still talking about these idiotic ideas then nothing I can say will ever convince you idiots otherwise. Because you are not interested in truth or facts. Stuart Chase once said "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, none will suffice." God, himself could come down in all his heavenly glory and tell you that 9/11 was not a government conspiracy and it wouldn't help.
Anyway....what has happened to this country?
There was a time when tragic events like this 9/11 were rallying cries, battle cries, promises to learn the lessons taught, and promises to never forget. In 1836 the Mexican Army attacked the Alamo killing all but two defenders. The answering cry became "Remember the Alamo!" It preceded men into battle and unified them in their resolve. In 1898 The USS Maine was sunk off of Havana, Cuba. During the Spanish-American War we heard "Remember the Maine!" Dec. 7 1941 saw the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. This event unified the country and saw us through World War II as we pursued those responsible.
9/11 should be no different. Like Pearl Harbor, it was an unprovoked attack by a foreign aggressor. Only this time even more American lives were lost. Nearly 3,000! This should have galvanized our country and brought us together. And it did...for about five minutes...
Democrats joined Republicans in enthusiastically approving going to war when it was politically expedient because even their constituents wanted it. But, as soon as the slightest wavering was seen, they changed positions in droves. Even going so far as to deny that they voted for war in the first place. They started calling this "Bush's War." They lied and said that we were over there for oil, or that Bush planned this from the beginning simply because he wanted a war, or to sure-up his political standing. The past ten years has seen Liberals blame America for what happened. "America's chickens are coming home to roost!" Rev. Jeremiah Wright proclaimed to his congregation. Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi are among those that say America brought this on ourselves by being so darned mean to the rest of the world. We have seen the cult of appeasement, led by Obama, Liberals and the Moveon.org crowd, try to downplay the evil of the terrorists, make deals with islamofascists around the world who want nothing more than to see America burn to the ground, and suck up to these bigots by trying to put a mosque at Ground Zero, which is bad taste at best and treasonous at worst. We saw them take a national tragedy and turn it into quick political points.
Obama even released "guidelines" about how memorials should be carried out: Al'Qaeda should be downplayed because they really aren't a threat; This tragedy should be diminished and equated with other terror attacks around the world because America is nothing special; we should not call them "terror attacks;" Jihadism is not to be mentioned.
Since the beginning of the year, as we approached the tenth anniversary, Liberals have been out there saying that we over-reacted to 9/11. It was just a misunderstanding, no reason to go to war. They tell us "You guys are Christians. Forgive and forget, right?" My question is "Why?!"
Forgiveness? Of course. As a christian, I am called to love, forgive, and pray for my enemies and those that persecute. So I do so freely without restraint or regret. But Forget? Never! There is no good reason to forget anything about that day.
Historically, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Do you really want another 9/11? If another attack comes, it might even be worse.
Emotionally, forgetting does not bring closure. It brings guilt that we may be dishonoring those who have gone before us. Acceptance brings closure and healing. Forgetting is not accepting anything.
Intellectually, forgetting what happened on 9/11 is to descend into ignorance and to condemn future generation to the same. It would be horrible if generations from now, children had no idea what 9/11 is.
It is also offensive, apparently not to Liberals who are asking us to forget what happened and move on. But it is offensive to the rest of us. Why don't you go to the families who have lost somebody-to the father who lost a child, the husband who lost a wife, or wife who lost a husband, children who have spent the last ten years not knowing a parent-and tell them that it's been ten years so they should just forget about it and move on? Or go to the NYPD and FDNY, that family that lost 343 of its own, and tell them that they should forget that sacrifice and move on. How about you go to the families of the people on Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA and tell them to forget about the bravery of their lost loved ones?
I will never forget. I did not have the misfortune of losing anyone in 9/11. I was not there. At the time, I was a freshman in college in California, PA. I watched in horror on TV as the second plane hit. However, after graduating in 2005 with a degree in Archeology I briefly was assigned to a project in 2007 where I went to New York and spent two month sifting through the rubble and debris from Ground Zero. It was a rather emotional experience to know that a piece of bone you come across was a person, the cross you uncovered was some one's necklace, the bracelet might have been a gift to a spouse that morning...I may not have been in NYC or Washington on that day. I may not have lost a loved one. But I was touched by this terrible tragedy none the less.
Today, as well as everyday in the future, we must remember what happened on September 11, 2001. We must remember without reservation or complaint. We remember with tears and pain and loss. But also pride, love and hope. Pride that our neighbors, when the moment came, rose to the occasion with flying colors. Love for those who were lost and those left behind to pick up the pieces. And hope that this sacrifice will not be in vain, that the lesson will never be forgotten.
We must remember that this tragedy was committed not by a handful of misguided men, but by a group of mass murders. And we must remember that they were sent by a larger group of islamofascists. We must remember that our only "crime" in this scenario is that our way of life is not theirs. Because our way of life put the lie to theirs, they could not stand to see ours flourish. They were terrorists that kidnapped that hijacked four planes, kidnapping their passengers, and used them to murder almost 3,000 people. By this action, they have declared themselves as our enemies. We must remember that they will do it again without the slightest provocation if given the chance.
Always remember that we may never repeat this tragedy...
I was originally going to post yesterday about my dismay and anger that there are still 9/11 conspiracies and idiots that believe them. I was going to follow that up with trying to introduce logic and fact into the situation to try to disuade some of them.
After a lot of throught and reflection I have changed my mind. Not in any way because that subject has any less importance to me. On the contrary, on this day it holds a great deal of importance and I will probably at least touch on it later. The reason I decided not to post about debunking 9/11 conspiracies is that there is no point in trying.
If, after 10 years, you people are still talking about these idiotic ideas then nothing I can say will ever convince you idiots otherwise. Because you are not interested in truth or facts. Stuart Chase once said "For those who believe, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, none will suffice." God, himself could come down in all his heavenly glory and tell you that 9/11 was not a government conspiracy and it wouldn't help.
Anyway....what has happened to this country?
There was a time when tragic events like this 9/11 were rallying cries, battle cries, promises to learn the lessons taught, and promises to never forget. In 1836 the Mexican Army attacked the Alamo killing all but two defenders. The answering cry became "Remember the Alamo!" It preceded men into battle and unified them in their resolve. In 1898 The USS Maine was sunk off of Havana, Cuba. During the Spanish-American War we heard "Remember the Maine!" Dec. 7 1941 saw the unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor. This event unified the country and saw us through World War II as we pursued those responsible.
9/11 should be no different. Like Pearl Harbor, it was an unprovoked attack by a foreign aggressor. Only this time even more American lives were lost. Nearly 3,000! This should have galvanized our country and brought us together. And it did...for about five minutes...
Democrats joined Republicans in enthusiastically approving going to war when it was politically expedient because even their constituents wanted it. But, as soon as the slightest wavering was seen, they changed positions in droves. Even going so far as to deny that they voted for war in the first place. They started calling this "Bush's War." They lied and said that we were over there for oil, or that Bush planned this from the beginning simply because he wanted a war, or to sure-up his political standing. The past ten years has seen Liberals blame America for what happened. "America's chickens are coming home to roost!" Rev. Jeremiah Wright proclaimed to his congregation. Sen. Harry Reid, Rep. Nancy Pelosi are among those that say America brought this on ourselves by being so darned mean to the rest of the world. We have seen the cult of appeasement, led by Obama, Liberals and the Moveon.org crowd, try to downplay the evil of the terrorists, make deals with islamofascists around the world who want nothing more than to see America burn to the ground, and suck up to these bigots by trying to put a mosque at Ground Zero, which is bad taste at best and treasonous at worst. We saw them take a national tragedy and turn it into quick political points.
Obama even released "guidelines" about how memorials should be carried out: Al'Qaeda should be downplayed because they really aren't a threat; This tragedy should be diminished and equated with other terror attacks around the world because America is nothing special; we should not call them "terror attacks;" Jihadism is not to be mentioned.
Since the beginning of the year, as we approached the tenth anniversary, Liberals have been out there saying that we over-reacted to 9/11. It was just a misunderstanding, no reason to go to war. They tell us "You guys are Christians. Forgive and forget, right?" My question is "Why?!"
Forgiveness? Of course. As a christian, I am called to love, forgive, and pray for my enemies and those that persecute. So I do so freely without restraint or regret. But Forget? Never! There is no good reason to forget anything about that day.
Historically, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. Do you really want another 9/11? If another attack comes, it might even be worse.
Emotionally, forgetting does not bring closure. It brings guilt that we may be dishonoring those who have gone before us. Acceptance brings closure and healing. Forgetting is not accepting anything.
Intellectually, forgetting what happened on 9/11 is to descend into ignorance and to condemn future generation to the same. It would be horrible if generations from now, children had no idea what 9/11 is.
It is also offensive, apparently not to Liberals who are asking us to forget what happened and move on. But it is offensive to the rest of us. Why don't you go to the families who have lost somebody-to the father who lost a child, the husband who lost a wife, or wife who lost a husband, children who have spent the last ten years not knowing a parent-and tell them that it's been ten years so they should just forget about it and move on? Or go to the NYPD and FDNY, that family that lost 343 of its own, and tell them that they should forget that sacrifice and move on. How about you go to the families of the people on Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, PA and tell them to forget about the bravery of their lost loved ones?
I will never forget. I did not have the misfortune of losing anyone in 9/11. I was not there. At the time, I was a freshman in college in California, PA. I watched in horror on TV as the second plane hit. However, after graduating in 2005 with a degree in Archeology I briefly was assigned to a project in 2007 where I went to New York and spent two month sifting through the rubble and debris from Ground Zero. It was a rather emotional experience to know that a piece of bone you come across was a person, the cross you uncovered was some one's necklace, the bracelet might have been a gift to a spouse that morning...I may not have been in NYC or Washington on that day. I may not have lost a loved one. But I was touched by this terrible tragedy none the less.
Today, as well as everyday in the future, we must remember what happened on September 11, 2001. We must remember without reservation or complaint. We remember with tears and pain and loss. But also pride, love and hope. Pride that our neighbors, when the moment came, rose to the occasion with flying colors. Love for those who were lost and those left behind to pick up the pieces. And hope that this sacrifice will not be in vain, that the lesson will never be forgotten.
We must remember that this tragedy was committed not by a handful of misguided men, but by a group of mass murders. And we must remember that they were sent by a larger group of islamofascists. We must remember that our only "crime" in this scenario is that our way of life is not theirs. Because our way of life put the lie to theirs, they could not stand to see ours flourish. They were terrorists that kidnapped that hijacked four planes, kidnapping their passengers, and used them to murder almost 3,000 people. By this action, they have declared themselves as our enemies. We must remember that they will do it again without the slightest provocation if given the chance.
Always remember that we may never repeat this tragedy...
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Broken record
So...I was gonna write something about 9/11 but in honor of Barak Husein Obama's unremarkable speech, I think I will save that for later.
Aren't you people tired of more of the same yet? He said nothing new tonight. Obama's plan for creating jobs is just the old one: tax and spend, tax and spend. This time its additional $450 BILLION. That is billion with a "b." But hey, when you have already spent over 4 TRILLION in just under three years and made sure that another 10 TRILLION will be spent in the next 10 years whats another $450 billion?
The major point of his "jobs plan," and it is only a plan at this point because he has not actually sent a bill to congress yet, there is no evidence that he even has a draft of it, is of course taxes. Taxes, taxes and more taxes. This time he wants to tax the job creators and employers, saying that they should be willing to pay more taxes. But he insisted this isn't class warfare, which brought laughter around the room. What he failed to mention, and what he and his cronies have always failed to mention, is that the top 5% of tax payers, i.e. the wealthy, pay about 50% of taxes in this country while the bottom 50% don't pay any at all. So, who's paying their fair share?
Anyway...he tried to sweeten the deal by throwing a few "tax credits" to employers. The question here is if an employer is aready paying billions in taxes and you tell them that you want them to pay more are tax credits that barely amount to 1% of the taxes you pay really much of an incentive to hire?
Where is the money coming from to pay for this new stimulus? And make no mistake, this is yet again a stimulus package even if they do no call it one. Well, it probably will come from the new taxes on employers. But just in case he wants Congress to find ways to cut spending "over 10 years." Don't get me wrong...cutting spending is great and needs to happen. BUt it needs to happen NOW. This is the same facade they tried to use in the debt debate a few months ago. While Obama gets to spend billions now, he wants cuts over ten years...the problem is that he has no way to make those cuts happen. Each Congress balances its own budget for that session only. So future congresses have no obligation to follow spending cuts that other congresses pass. Secondly, when spending and national debt are in the multiple trillions, with $10 trillion more to be accumulated in the next 10 years, what good is $1 trillion in cuts over ten years that will never come ti pass? This part is just a ploy so that when conservatives resist, and they will, Obama can run to the media and say "See! I tried. I gave them their spending cuts and they still won't budge." It also allows him to shift the blame yet again when this goes south.
He rounded his speeah out with a "Chicago politics" "agree with me or else" tone, sprinkled in his usual socialism by implying that the economy can only grow when government does, slipped more than a little partisan rhetoric by mocking the Tea Party freshmen who think government is too big, and finally absolved himself by saying if this plan fails it will be Congress's fault for not acting soon enough.
So, basically, Obama played the same broken record yet again. My last question is who got the more ratings last night? Obama, or the NFL?
UPDATE:
The AP showed surprising clarity for once. They actually fact-checked Obama. Every point of his speech they debunked and spoke against. They pointed out that this stimulus will not help jobs anytime within the next two years, if even then. And it will, in fact add to the deficit immediately. They admitted that IF the spending cuts materialize at all it will be down the road while the spending happends now. They admitted that Obama's "infrastructure bank" that would supposedly create jobs won't even be organized for another couple years, but the spending for it happens now.
This is not a conservative or Tea Party organization. This is the Associated Press!! They are the first wave, the grunts, of teh Liberal media. Even they see this for what it is
Aren't you people tired of more of the same yet? He said nothing new tonight. Obama's plan for creating jobs is just the old one: tax and spend, tax and spend. This time its additional $450 BILLION. That is billion with a "b." But hey, when you have already spent over 4 TRILLION in just under three years and made sure that another 10 TRILLION will be spent in the next 10 years whats another $450 billion?
The major point of his "jobs plan," and it is only a plan at this point because he has not actually sent a bill to congress yet, there is no evidence that he even has a draft of it, is of course taxes. Taxes, taxes and more taxes. This time he wants to tax the job creators and employers, saying that they should be willing to pay more taxes. But he insisted this isn't class warfare, which brought laughter around the room. What he failed to mention, and what he and his cronies have always failed to mention, is that the top 5% of tax payers, i.e. the wealthy, pay about 50% of taxes in this country while the bottom 50% don't pay any at all. So, who's paying their fair share?
Anyway...he tried to sweeten the deal by throwing a few "tax credits" to employers. The question here is if an employer is aready paying billions in taxes and you tell them that you want them to pay more are tax credits that barely amount to 1% of the taxes you pay really much of an incentive to hire?
Where is the money coming from to pay for this new stimulus? And make no mistake, this is yet again a stimulus package even if they do no call it one. Well, it probably will come from the new taxes on employers. But just in case he wants Congress to find ways to cut spending "over 10 years." Don't get me wrong...cutting spending is great and needs to happen. BUt it needs to happen NOW. This is the same facade they tried to use in the debt debate a few months ago. While Obama gets to spend billions now, he wants cuts over ten years...the problem is that he has no way to make those cuts happen. Each Congress balances its own budget for that session only. So future congresses have no obligation to follow spending cuts that other congresses pass. Secondly, when spending and national debt are in the multiple trillions, with $10 trillion more to be accumulated in the next 10 years, what good is $1 trillion in cuts over ten years that will never come ti pass? This part is just a ploy so that when conservatives resist, and they will, Obama can run to the media and say "See! I tried. I gave them their spending cuts and they still won't budge." It also allows him to shift the blame yet again when this goes south.
He rounded his speeah out with a "Chicago politics" "agree with me or else" tone, sprinkled in his usual socialism by implying that the economy can only grow when government does, slipped more than a little partisan rhetoric by mocking the Tea Party freshmen who think government is too big, and finally absolved himself by saying if this plan fails it will be Congress's fault for not acting soon enough.
So, basically, Obama played the same broken record yet again. My last question is who got the more ratings last night? Obama, or the NFL?
UPDATE:
The AP showed surprising clarity for once. They actually fact-checked Obama. Every point of his speech they debunked and spoke against. They pointed out that this stimulus will not help jobs anytime within the next two years, if even then. And it will, in fact add to the deficit immediately. They admitted that IF the spending cuts materialize at all it will be down the road while the spending happends now. They admitted that Obama's "infrastructure bank" that would supposedly create jobs won't even be organized for another couple years, but the spending for it happens now.
This is not a conservative or Tea Party organization. This is the Associated Press!! They are the first wave, the grunts, of teh Liberal media. Even they see this for what it is
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