Celestial Junk

The Journal Science and the CPC

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:49:00 +0000

Not that long ago I chastised the Stephen Harper conservatives for playing the "monkey in the middle" on climate change. Harper & co. are hedging their bets by whole heartedly agreeing with IPCC claims, yet using every excuse under the sun to do nothing about climate change. Conservative apologists say that in a Canada dominated by a really really really mean media, Harper would be destroyed were he to take a principled stand. (thank goodness we don’t have to make any truly hard and unpopular decisions ... I’d hate to have to rely on my slippery CPC government, what with that really really really mean media out there)

I say that it is now time to make a clear and principled stand in "the middle". The Canadian public has been shown in poll after poll to be unconcerned about AGW while that really really really mean media is putting out sceptical editorial after editorial more so than ever before. And, scientists the world over, with some Canadian notables, have taken a wrecking ball to the IPCC line.

To add even more weight to AGW doubt, the prestigious journal Science has just published a NASA study which shows that the IPCC has got it all wrong ... that simply put, the models are useless (I call that a political opening):

A new study in the journal Science has just shown that all of the climate modeling results of the past are erroneous. The IPCC's modeling cronies have just been told that the figures used for greenhouse gas forcings are incorrect, meaning none of the model results from prior IPCC reports can be considered valid. What has caused climate scientists' assumptions to go awry? Short lived aerosol particles in the atmosphere changing how greenhouse gases react in previously unsuspected ways. The result is another devastating blow to the climate catastrophists' computer generated apocalyptic fantasies.

In a stunning article entitled “Improved Attribution of Climate Forcing to Emissions,” a group of researchers from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University in New York, led by Drew T. Shindell, have called into question the values used to calculate the “forcing” due to various greenhouse gases. “We calculated atmospheric composition changes, historical radiative forcing, and forcing per unit of emission due to aerosol and tropospheric ozone precursor emissions in a coupled composition-climate model,” states the paper's abstract. “We found that gas-aerosol interactions substantially alter the relative importance of the various emissions. In particular, methane emissions have a larger impact than that used in current carbon-trading schemes or in the Kyoto Protocol.”

According to the study, emissions of NOx, CO, and methane have substantial impacts on aerosols by altering the abundance of oxidants, especially hydroxyl, which convert SO2 into sulfate. Global abundance of hydroxyl and sulfate changes by 18% and 13% for increased NOx by significant amounts. By –13% and –9% for CO, and by –26% and –11% for methane. Coupling in the other direction is very weak because reactions of gases with aerosols only have a small effect on the amounts of radiatively active ozone and methane. For example, SO2 emissions enhance the removal of NOx through reactions on particulate surfaces, causing ozone to decrease, but the radiant forcing is only –0.004 W/m2. Increased SO2 leads to substantially reduced nitrate aerosol, however, owing to greater ammonium sulfate formation at the expense of ammonium nitrate.

... more.

I say it's time ... time for Stephen Harper and his minority government to state the obvious; that the science of AGW is on ever shakier ground and that they, the CPC, will not endanger the Canadian economy for a theory that is now proven to be unproven.

Even our former PM Jean Cretien understood the concept:

"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven."

... and clearly, there is no proof.

The Progressive Fort Hood Reality Filter

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:36:00 +0000

To progressives the world is divided into two classes of people ... victims and victimizers. Anyone belonging to a Western majority group either racially or culturally, anyone who is middle class or higher in economic status, and anyone who is of European ancestry, is seen as a victimizer ... no matter the facts, no matter the reality, no matter the violence wrought by the “victim”.

That's why, for progressives, the 13 dead at Fort Hood aren't really of major concern. What is of concern is the need to protect and "understand" the real victims in this case ... which in progressive minds are Muslims. After all, Muslims fall into any number of cherished progressive victim classes ... they are usually members of an ethnic minority and they are a religious minority in the West. What, with "victimizer" class Westerners in ever growing numbers decrying the sadistic and human rights trampling ideology of Islam, it’s clearly a call to action for the progressive class.

It's a slam dunk. Those in need of protection at this time are Muslims ... especially those living in America. After all, everybody remembers the incredibly violent backlash against Muslims that took place in American cities after the 911 slaughter of nearly 3000 Americans ... hundreds of innocent Muslims were killed by suicide bombing Catholics and it is estimated that nearly 1000 died from a dozen deadly conservative rampages. When reluctant police finally moved in, many of these reactionary conservatives died clinging to their guns and religion. And who can forget the Evangelical truck bombing of the NY mosque, or the Morman gang rapes of Muslim girls who entered Utah, by accident ... we can’t have that happening again.

Rumour has it that all these divergent but mainstream American groups are now operating under a shadowy organization called ... "Tea Baggers":

The U.S. Homeland Security secretary says she is working to prevent a possible wave of anti-Muslim sentiment after the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.

Janet Napolitano says her agency is working with groups across the United States to try to deflect any backlash against American Muslims following Thursday's rampage by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim who reportedly expressed growing dismay over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The shootings left 13 people dead and 29 wounded.

Napolitano was in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday for talks with security officials and a meeting with women university students in Abu Dhabi.

The Swedish Mini-Skirt Protest

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:10:00 +0000

It's amazing what is considered "a protest" among some.

... the Swedish miniskirt protest:

Her whole life Nalin Pekgul (42), covered her legs in long skirts. But when she noticed that girls in Tensta [Stockholm suburb] didn't want or dared to dress like they wanted to, she reconsidered.

"I bought.. let's see now.. one, two, three, four, five short skirts. That first time I put on my short skirt was March 8. It felt really weird. Since then, I had an even shorter skirt for the opening of parliament. And I'm used to sit as I want with my legs in long skirts. It's a little uncomfortable. But it's worth it," says Nalin Pekgul.

"The funny thing is that everybody is so shocked and everybody thinks that it's so pretty. All the Tensta residents come and ask what happened. Then I say it's my Taliban protest. And then they say that it's good. Everybody thinks it's really good. It's just I that think that it's a little tedious."

She doesn't hesitate to classify the new style as political.

"People should be able to dress as they want. If it's necessary that I wear a short skirt and show the way then I'll do that," she says.

A Major Concern Among Afghans

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 19:05:00 +0000

... are you going to stay?

When 500 U.S. Marines descended on this Taliban stronghold overnight, Afghan civilians were immediately suspicious about the intentions of the heavily armed Americans.

One question dominated all others: How long will the Americans stay? Five months later, there is still no clear answer.

"The No. 1 question the Marines get is: 'When are you going home?' " said Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, an Iraq combat veteran and now the top Marine in Afghanistan. "They can't believe we're staying."

Three battalions landed 4,500 troops in Helmand province in the early hours of July 2, the largest airborne assault since Vietnam.

[...]

"They're very hesitant to trust us, and I don't blame them," said Capt. Frank "Gus" Biggio, a Washington, D.C., lawyer and Marine reservist who heads a civil-affairs team in Nawa. "For centuries, they've seen foreigners come and go, promises made and broken."

... if the question were asked of Canadians ... "are you going to stay?" ... the answer would come as a clear .. "NO".

... more.

And then, there's the UK.

Opening the Second Front

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:18:00 +0000

J. R. Dunn:

Nobody on the planet earth quite equals the left for simple worldly corruption. The Renaissance princes might have been able to teach them a thing or two, but nobody else. Dig, and you will find. While digging, we might wish that things were different, that we could operate in as civil a manner as many of us would prefer. But we are not at the moment living in a civil epoch. No one reading these words ever has. We know of such a world once -- where decency is honored and nobility is a way of life, only because we have read about it. We are living in a different period now, a period in which our opponents feel completely at home. We cannot allow ourselves to be backed down by thugs such as these. To paraphrase Boccaccio: any tactic against such would-be tyrants is legitimate.

There is a difference between dissent and desertion, criticism and undermining. That difference has been lost amid a fog of relativism in the past few decades. But behind that fog, the hard stone of reality remains. It's no longer a game. People are going to die because of the actions taken by this country's leftists. Recognizing those differences has become a matter of life and death.

The terror conflict is a two-front war. It always has been, as reluctant as we have been to admit it. The time to open the second front is coming.

... now that you know the ending, read how we got there.

ht

A Warmist Embraces the Religion

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:31:00 +0000

So, you are one of those people who believes in AGW, but who scorns the notion that your belief is "religious" in nature.

You may find it strange then, that one of your own makes the point that only by becoming "religious", can warmists save the planet:

Climate change makes that position entirely incoherent. Because it is a global tragedy of the commons, individual action cannot be enough. I cannot ensure the survival of my grandchildren, nor even yours, without compelling you to behave in ways that science tells me are necessary. Not to act, not to coerce, itself becomes immoral.

There is a further twist to the argument. Compulsion will be needed but compulsion alone won't do it. People aren't made like that. They need to believe in what they are forced to do. They need idealism, and that will also mean its dark side: the pressure of conformism, the force of self-righteousness, huge moral weight attached to practically useless gestures like unplugging phone chargers. They need, in fact, something that does look a lot like religion. But we can't engineer it. It can only arise spontaneously. Should that happen, the denialists, who claim that it is all a religion, will for once be telling the truth, and when they do that, they'll have lost. I just hope it doesn't happen too late.

... read it all.

Recalling the Carnage

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 14:34:00 +0000

Stunning account of the Fort Hood war zone:

A young man walked up to me and asked if I could help him, I asked him, "where are you shot?", he told me in the chest...I directed him to go sit in my ambulance and an army medic sat with him and started oxygen and bandaging on him; in the mist of the madness I was trying to determine who would be the first to be transported still waiting on the helicopters to land so I could fly out the worst.

While getting more bandaging material off my ambulance several bystanders carried a soldier to my truck that had been shot in the head, he was conscious and breathing, he kept asking me "am I gonna die?", I told him I was doing the best I could, knowing from experience his situation appeared bleak.

... and from the discussion:

If it ever gets to the point where we forget who the real heroes are in this world, we're done like toast, and frankly we're not all that far from that. I've had just about enough of the Al Gores and the Barack Obamas and the John Edwards and the Bonos and the Stings and the dancing queens of all descriptions.

The courageous, real-world, modest, non-intellectualizing, non-frivolous, non-dancing, non self-absorbed people like Kate's friend Kim, and officer Kimberly Munley, are the fundament. In a perfect world, people like Kim Munley would make every wide-awake person heartsick by comparison with the rest. The pointless, frivolous endeavours of those egotistical, self-considered, self-pleasuring remora who endlessly try to turn their moral absence into a sententious lesson for those who are less profoundly self-absorbed should be identified for the damaging force that they are.

One needn't have seen Fargo to recognize what's ineffably beautiful about Officer Kim Munley's face. It should haunt and hurt and ache every wide-awake person who sees it. It's not a face you could ever fake, no matter how hard you tried. There's a pointed absence of any kind of lie whatsoever. She's modest and mortal and courageous, she's there, she's present. She embodies the perpetual forefront of those who turn heartsickness into resolve and action.

God bless her. Hopefully we'll wake up, at some point and realize realize what's valuable, and what isn't.

God bless the REAL heroes, as opposed to those who put on a costume for self-pleasuring purposes and then lecture the rest of us. ~ EBD

That Loving Feeling

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:04:00 +0000

... more.

How Safe are Canadian Forces Bases?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 21:41:00 +0000

From personal experience, I can tell you that a blind one legged narcoleptic could attack any number of Canadian Forces Bases with ease. Access to Canadian bases is so poorly monitored, that in one case I know of a major highway passes through the base and anybody can simply drive in and walk around without so much as having to go through a checkpoint. In most cases, anybody can get on base and commence to strolling around with hardly a sideways glance from the old geezers who look up while you drive past their security booth. A little Google Earth work, a few chit chats with locals, and it’d be child’s play to select the most likely place to find heaps of unarmed Canadian soldiers.

The fact is, that Kandahar Air Base is safer for soldiers than Canada's military bases at home. It's ironic, that perhaps some of the most protected military space in Canada is the "turf" of various Ottawa bureaucrats ... possibly the very same individuals responsible for keeping our soldiers safe and secure here at home.

I hope, that in the wake of Fort Hood and other near misses in America and Europe, that Canada’s command is reconsidering its incredibly laissez faire attitude toward protecting our “unarmed” troops. After all, we are fighting in Afghanistan, so I’d bet everything I own there are scores of resentful, self-pitying, shaheed worshiping, Khadr types in Canada who simply lack the courage to go get those promised virgins. Sooner or later either an unhinged follower of Muhammad, or a hardcore operative, are going to “punish” Canada for opposing Islamist designs on the world.

Meanwhile, in Italy, officials are getting concerned:

Italy was susceptible to terror attacks by allies of the Al-Qaeda network, the interior minister Roberto Maroni said on Friday. Maroni warned there were terror cells that identified with Al-Qaeda and they had "authorisation" to carry out attacks in Italy.

"Al-Qaeda is not present in Italy, however we are investigating terror cells who identify with it and have somehow obtained authorisation from Al-Qaeda," said Maroni.
He was speaking during a media conference at Rome's foreign press club.

"We are very worried," he said, warning that terrorists could be training in Italy to carry out attacks inside the country.

"We think there could be terror cells in Italy that are being created, financed and trained to carry out attacks against us."

Maroni said after the attack last month by a Libyan citizen against an army barracks in the northern city of Milan that "the conditions have changed" and that the event marked a "turning-point" in regard to this type of activity in Italy.

Early in October, an Italian soldier was injured after a 35-year-old Libyan Mohammed Game allegedly exploded a bomb at the entrance of the 'Santa Barbara' barracks using rudimentary explosives reportedly made of solid nitrate.

Two other alleged accomplices, an Egyptian and a Libyan, were arrested after the attack.

While Game suffered severe injuries to his face and his hand was amputated, no others were injured.

According to Maroni, before the attack by the Libyan, Italian cells would collect funds and recruit people to carry out attacks abroad.

Pre-Traumatic Stress Dissorder

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 17:25:00 +0000

***

I Wish His Name Was Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Political Correctness that Kills:

When it emerged early on Thursday afternoon that the shooter was Nidal Malik Hasan, there appeared shortly thereafter on Twitter a flurry of posts with the striking formulation: “Please judge Major Malik Nadal [sic] by his actions and not by his name.”

Concerned Tweeters can relax: There was never really any danger of that — and not just in the sense that the New York Times’s first report on Major Hasan never mentioned the words “Muslim” or “Islam,” or that ABC’s Martha Raddatz’s only observation on his name was that “as for the suspect, Nadal Hasan, as one officer’s wife told me, ‘I wish his name was Smith.’”

What a strange reaction. I suppose what she means is that, if his name were Smith, we could all retreat back into the same comforting illusions that allowed the bureaucracy to advance Nidal Malik Hasan to major and into the heart of Fort Hood while ignoring everything that mattered about the essence of this man.

The October Surprise

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:24:00 +0000

... coldest in 115 years:

NCDC has compiled the October temperatures and it ended up the 3rd coldest in 115 years. As we have shown it was cold over almost all the lower 48. Indeed only Florida came in above normal. There is no [NOAA/NCDC] press release out yet but it should be interesting.

... the details.

1 Trillion - 2.5 Trillion: No Big Deal

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:38:00 +0000

... among friends, a few trillion here and a few trillion there is nothing:

If House Democrats hold a vote on their health-care overhaul this weekend, they might as well vote on abolishing the Congressional Budget Office too. It would be no more audacious — and much more honest — than their current strategy for hiding the true cost of their legislation.

Never mind the everyday budget gimmicks House Democrats have used, such as removing $250 billion of deficit spending to be voted on separately. Or claiming their bill would cost just $894 billion — around $400 billion less than the CBO actually projected. We’ve seen this kind of trickery plenty in recent years; to suppress an inconvenient cost estimate of its proposed Medicare drug entitlement, the Bush administration threatened to fire Medicare’s chief actuary.

Deceptions on this scale are child’s play, at least when compared to what has to be the biggest fiscal obfuscation in the history of American politics: The current leadership has rigged the legislation so that 60 percent of its total cost will not be made public by the CBO in advance of the House vote. Here’s how they did it.
... keep reading.

Racist in Chief

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 15:02:00 +0000

Obama says don't jump to conclusions on shooting:

"We don't know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts," Obama said in a Rose Garden statement..."

Obama's rush to judgment of a white cop doing his job:

"But I think it's fair to say, No. 1, any of us would be pretty angry; No. 2, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, No. 3 ... that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately." The incident, Obama said, shows "how race remains a factor in this society."

" I am Ready to Puke! "

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 03:33:00 +0000

... Peters on the "Man Caused Disaster":

The Magnificant Bastard Strikes Again

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:33:00 +0000

National Post:

Many thanks for the invitation and for the courage to organize such an important gathering in the moment when political correctness tells you not to do it.

We are meeting one month before the Climate Change Copenhagen Summit and several weeks before the U.S. Senate hearing regarding the cap-and-trade scheme. For these reasons, today’s meeting can’t be an academic conference, even though the topic still needs academic discussion. There is no consensus — neither in science, nor in economic analysis or politics.

I have already been at a UN Summit in Copenhagen before. It was in 1995 at the so-called Social Summit. At that time, the Summit was attended by then U.S. Vice President Al Gore who — so it seems — will be there again this year. I did also attend, as Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, but I don’t plan to go there now. I don’t see any chance to influence the results or to be listened to.

In 1995, there were huge demonstrations organized by all kinds of anti-establishment groupings - from socialists and greens to anarchists and anti-globalizationists. I have never seen such clashes between demonstrators and police and army forces before. The difference is that I don’t expect any demonstrations in Copenhagen now. The anti-establishment people have in the meantime become insiders and will be sitting in the main hall. This is a shift with far-reaching consequences.

... keep reading.

... too bad that our own man is such a chicken shit! ... or is he?

El Nino ?

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:31:00 +0000

... and to think we had a brutal October. This makes for an amazing 2009, with a cold wet non-summer. A roasting hot September. Record cold October ... and now this.

Glib in Chief (updated)

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Watch the man's face ... beautifully done, from yuk yuk, to raw raw, to oh so mundane, this guy has got glib and soulless down pat ... as if he's practiced in front of a mirror ... or as the text book says, learned appropriate behaviours and responses only through observing others, not from any natural empathy or understanding found within the core of his being. The only time one gets a feeling of natural and genuine emotion from Obama is when he shows flashes of anger (Joe Wilson), revs up an adoring crowd (fund raising), disciplines unbelievers, or goes for a chuckle (unless it's one of those inappropriate moments of levity he's becoming known for).

If you've ever been in conflict with or shared space with one of these creatures, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about:

Update: From NBC No Less ...

After news broke out of the shooting at the Fort Hood Army post in Texas, the nation watched in horror as the toll of dead and injured climbed. The White House was notified immediately and by late afternoon, word went out that the president would speak about the incident prior to a previously scheduled appearance. At about 5 p.m., cable stations went to the president. The situation called for not only his trademark eloquence, but also grace and perspective.

But instead of a somber chief executive offering reassuring words and expressions of sympathy and compassion, viewers saw a wildly disconnected and inappropriately light president making introductory remarks. At the event, a Tribal Nations Conference hosted by the Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian affairs, the president thanked various staffers and offered a "shout-out" to "Dr. Joe Medicine Crow -- that Congressional Medal of Honor winner." Three minutes in, the president spoke about the shooting, in measured and appropriate terms. Who is advising him?

Note: NBC blames the handlers ... forever the lap dogs.

Mark November 5th on your calendar ... it's the Day the Obama Presidency died. Americans will not forget.

75 Percent of Americans Can't Join the Military

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:49:00 +0000

... because they'd never qualify:

About 75 percent of the country's 17- to 24-year-olds are ineligible for military service, largely because they are poorly educated, overweight and have physical ailments that make them unfit for the armed forces, according to a report issued Thursday. …

"We are very concerned," said retired Army Maj. Gen. James Kelley, a member of Mission: Readiness, the Washington-based nonprofit organization that issued the report. "We do have the greatest military in the world [—] we have the greatest planes, the greatest tanks, the greatest ships [—] but the key goal is having great people. Right now, we're attracting very highly qualified folks but that could change over time."

... more.

Taking the Gloves Off a Bit Too Late

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:57:00 +0000

Australia's Kevin Rudd appears to be taking the gloves off on ~~climate change~~ global warming. He's had it with those pesky deniers ... every last one of them.

Pity:

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has savaged the federal opposition's climate change sceptics, labelling them dangerous, arrogant gamblers prepared to bet on their grandchildren's future.

Mr Rudd capped a week dominated by debate on the government's handling of asylum seekers aboard the Oceanic Viking with a vicious political attack over an issue on which he had recently said little.

It had been about seven months since the prime minister - elected on a platform of action on climate change - last delivered a major speech on the topic.

"It's time to remove any polite veneer from this debate," he said in a lengthy address to Sydney's Lowy Institute on Friday.

"The stakes are that high."

... so scary, coming from the little Aussie socialist weasel. Somebody should remind this little Stalin that science always wins; which in this case means that he's going to lose.

Update: From Fred in the comments.

Typical Leftist Disdain for the Military

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:02:00 +0000

Just when it looked like Obama could finesse his way past the November election losses, those damn soldiers in Fort Hood had to get themselves killed.

After all, how can one go about expanding the nanny state and enjoying the fruits of underserved government largess while those damn military types keep dying. It becomes more difficult to invent victim classes at home, while soldiers sacrifice for lowly Afghans. No wonder leftists hate the military.

America's Right:

I was done, at least for now. I was ready to move on, to let Barack Obama’s disdain for the military speak for itself. But then I read that the president is, just today, delaying a health care-related trip to Capitol Hill and visiting wounded troops at Walter Reed Medical Center for the first time as Commander In Chief.

Being completely and utterly incapable and unwilling to show any modicum of respect or compassion toward those who lost their lives and were injured yesterday was enough to make me angry. Using our wounded combat veterans as politically convenient objects of feigned compassion, however, just pisses me off.

Sure, according to the White House, the trip to Walter Reed had been scheduled before the shootings occurred. I don’t buy it. Not for one fleeting instant. This president and this administration have had no problem looking straight into the eyes of the American people and lying about a wealth of matters before, whether it be the contents of health care reform legislation, the intention to investigate intelligence officials, or just the endless amount of campaign promises broken -- why should they stop now?

Because of what the NBC affiliate in the president’s home town of Chicago called his “frightening insensitivity,” White House officials feel as though they need damage control. Taking a page from the staged photo-op at Dover Air Force Base put together as damage control after the president’s refusal to listen to his commanders on the ground—another promise broken—and send needed reinforcements to Afghanistan was juxtaposed in the newspapers next to accounts of more than a dozen soldiers killed in a single day, Axelrod and his crew responded to yesterday’s startling display of ambivalence toward dead troops at home by scheduling face time with more servicemen and servicewomen.

Why should we believe that the president’s decision to visit troops today, of all days, as he was otherwise prepared to go to the mattresses on Capitol Hill for a crucial vote on his signature legislation, is anything but an effort at assuaging those like myself who point out his obvious disdain for the military? The benefit of the doubt, friends and neighbors, requires the very thing Barack Obama lacks most – credibility.

... first visit to Walter Reed ... are you kidding me?

Fort Hood: My Two Cents

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:00 +0000

Penny One:

Some things never change - Men sleep peacefully in their beds at night because rough men [women] stand ready to do violence on their behalf. ~ Orwell

"She happened to encounter the gunman. In an exchange of gunfire, she was wounded but managed to wound him four times," Cone said. "It was an amazing and aggressive performance by this police officer."

Penny Two:

Military officials were trying to piece together what may have pushed Hasan, an Army psychiatrist trained to help soldiers in distress, to turn on his comrades.

Oh really ... you're trying to "piece together":

Soldiers who witnessed the shooting rampage at Fort Hood that left 13 people dead reported that the gunman shouted "Allahu Akbar!" — an Arabic phrase for "God is great!" — before opening fire, the base commander said Friday.

I wonder how many tens of thousands of people have heard "Allahu Akbar!" moments before they perished.

***

From the comments:
Were they screaching Allahu Akbar too?
I wonder ... were they? (much editing and scrubbing has gone on since last night, but you'll get the drift)

Update: It just keeps getting better ... click.

Outstanding PowerPoint

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:37:00 +0000

If you've got a bit of time and are interested, the following two PowerPoint presentations offer an incredible insight into US COIN operations in Afghanistan:

We obtained two great PowerPoint presentations that are just right for the troops: lessons learned matched to photographs. One lesson learned picture tells a thousand stories? One is from the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines titled "COIN in Helmand Province, After the Clear – Thoughts and Tips on Non Kinetic Actions." See it here. The second is from Afghan National Army, LTG Zazai, the Corps commander for the ANA 205th Corps, titled "The Counterinsurgency Fight in 205th Hero Corps". Click here to view.

Source

Time for Harper to Show Some Leadership

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:56:00 +0000

I can understand why Stephen Harper drives "progressives" nuts with rage ... it's the bloody hypocrisy. I have no doubt that Harper & Co. are fully aware that the science that underpins the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming is badly flawed, and each month that passes finds more holes being drilled in the foundations of the IPCC's case. Just this week, for instance, 160 physicists signed a letter to the US senate that emphatically states that there is no consensus. Yet, Harper "pretends" that he is concerned about CO2 emissions ... while in fact, he does nothing.

This is politicking at its worst ... this is dirty tricks at its worst. Even the general public now has moved way ahead of the political class in its understanding that AGW is not a fact, but rather a theory.

It's time for Stephen Harper to take a real stand, not the misleading mush that he's been dishing up ... not the talk that isn't matched with the walk.

So Stephen, what do you really believe? Do you still think as you did while in opposition that AGW is just a global power grab by transnationalists? Or, is AGW a real threat to the planet ... in which case, we'd better start taking serious action ... yesterday.

In the end, it's clear that Harper still believes what he did years ago ... that AGW is a concoction dreamed up by the transnational socialists among us; like Suzuki, like Gore, like Soros, like Obama, like Strong, and like the parasites that lurk in the halls of the UN ... otherwise, the CPC would’ve prompted serious AGW mitigating action long ago.

It's time for Steve to offer some genuine leadership ... leadership that stands up in Copenhagen and says to the world that AGW is NOT a proven fact, and that Canada WILL NOT sacrifice her economy on the altar of transnationalism simply for a theory that is collapsing with every month that passes.

Or, is it that Steve, having been around the Ottawa mandarins for some time now, is salivating at the chance to increase the power of the PMO and buy votes in Eastern and Central Canada by skimming off Western wealth ... after all, Ottawa has a way of corrupting. Let's hope that the rot hasn't gotten under the Teflon of our CPC PM.

Ross McKitrick weighs in:

We are sleepwalking into some of the most disruptive and costly energy-policy misadventures since the National Energy Plan of the 1970s without the Conservatives having published a single estimate of the economic consequences.

Last week the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute released a report arguing that Canada could meet a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target of 20% below 2006 levels by 2020, at a cost of about 1.5% of Gross Domestic Product as of 2020. They referred to this as the “Government” target. That would be the Conservative government, of course, who adopted the target under their “Turning the Corner” plan announced in 2007.

Prior to that the Conservatives had blasted the Liberals for ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and imposing on Canada a ruinous requirement to cut GHG emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2008. The Conservatives rightly pointed out that this was completely unrealistic and would be devastating for the Canadian economy. So it was no small irony to see the new report point out, on Page 1, that the Conservative Government’s target equates to 3% below 1990 levels: almost identical to Kyoto.

Update: What Leadership Looks Like

Calling All Warmists

noreply@blogger.com (Paul) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:23:00 +0000

To all those blog crawlers who poo poo the sceptic community, I have just one simple question:

Do physicists count in your assessment of who is "qualified" or "not qualified" to hold an opinion on Anthropogenic Global Warming?

I'm just wondering, because 160 of them want your permission to express their opinion on the matter of AGW.

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