In 1975, the National Academy of Sciences published the graph below - showing that the 1930s were very hot in the northern hemisphere, and that there had been a sharp cooling trend since 1940.
Neither of these facts fit Hansen's theory, so he largely got rid of both.
Data.GISS: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis: Analysis Graphs and Plots…
He is Risen Indeed!
Allow me to share 3 songs that have spoken to me this Holy Week.
Glad – The Easter Song
It’s an old song from the early 1990′s by the acapella group Glad and it was one of the first songs I sang in college when I joined my church choir. We didn’t do it justice and really I doubt anyone can but the guys who sing it here.
Chris Tomlin – I Will Rise
This is my standard song I listen to when I need that spiritual booster shot in the arm and it never fails to put me in the right condition to listen to the Holy Spirit.
The Avett Brothers – The Ballad of Love and Hate
These guys are one of my favorite bands and while they aren’t necessarily a Christian band, this week I was listening to this song during a run and it occurred to me that this song has a double meaning. At first listening, the song appears to be the love story between a patient woman who unconditionally loves a man who does all he can to push her away. Other people recognize the goodness of the woman but apparently the object of her love ignores her and continues down a destructive road until he finally accepts the love of the woman.
That sounds like another love story about the Creator of the Universe who time and time again patiently forgives our attempts to reject Him and only after He sends His Son to pay the ultimate sacrifice do we finally realize the Savior has been there all along, waiting on us.
It’s Holy Week and Christians all over the world are experiencing this very emotional week of extreme highs and lows. It began with the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem riding a donkey to fulfill prophesy as the chosen Messiah. The mood then will sink as his closest disciples betray him and Jesus is crucified on a cross after suffering painful humiliation and beatings. The sorrow is changed to joy as Jesus rises from the dead on Sunday and signifies God’s triumph over Evil.
But what happens after that? Are Christians finished with their duty after Easter Sunday is over?
One of the final words spoken by Jesus on the cross was “It is finished” and in the Greek the word was “tetelestai” which means “to bring to an end.” Someone educated in the Greek language once told me that we derive our English word “Total” from tetelestai and the spiritual significance of that is very interesting (Which I’ll get to that later). But was it really finished after Jesus’ death on the cross and subsequent resurrection?
After Easter Sunday, do we go back to our normal lives that are consumed by the world and keep our joy and the secret of the Gospel hidden away until Christmas?
NO!!! That is not what Christians were meant to do. As the blog post I wrote during last year’s Holy Week explains, Christians who have “seen” the risen Christ are now commanded to tell others about this mysterious Gospel so others can encounter the Savior. To put it another way – The true meaning of a life can be summarized by six words and two commands – Come and See, Go and Tell.
The first command – “Come and See” – is the easy part for most Christians but it’s the second command that is much more difficult – “Go and Tell.” It’s hard to enter into difficult conversations with complete strangers and it’s even more difficult when the topic is religion.
So what do Christians do about it? Accept that sharing our faith is very difficult and just hope the Holy Spirit takes over our words and actions when the situation arises? That was my plan until I came face to face with my inability to share my faith to others.
I was in college working an internship with another student and all through the summer he had heard me talk about how I served in the Church, taught Sunday School, etc. and one day when we were alone he asked me a very simple question – “Can you tell me about Jesus?” What better opening can a Christian ask for when sharing the Gospel? So what did I do? I froze. I mumbled and ended up saying something like, “Uh, I will one day but not right now.”
I was totally unprepared to enter into a serious conversation about my Faith and describe to someone (who had never set foot in a church) who Jesus is and why His life/death are so important. I still remember that day, I still remember his name and I regret deeply I was so ill prepared. That very day I vowed I would never take my duty as a Christian so lightly.
Entering into a tough conversation is hard no matter what the setting or the subject matter but I’ve found that getting started is the hardest part and once I get going it’s not near as bad as I had feared. So I needed a way to get the conversation started and I found a great resource from the Evangelism Explosion (EE) organization.
EE was started in the 60’s by Dr. D. James Kennedy and is still used today as churches train their members to share their faith. It has many variants and I’m not a proponent of following a script because that puts the focus on me and not the Holy Spirit speaking through me but I do use two important questions to start the conversation and they are given below.
“Have you reached the point in your spiritual life where you know for certain that if you were to die tonight you would go to heaven?”
“If you were to die tonight and God were to ask you, ‘Why should I let you into heaven,’ how would you answer?”
Interesting questions, right?
The first one is a yes-or-no answer and you shouldn’t take any answer other than those two words. Either you are for certain or you aren’t. There is no “I’m pretty sure” or “I don’t think anyone knows for certain” type of answers. It’s either yes or no.
The second question is more difficult and will require more words but generally the answers fall into one of two categories I call “Works” and “Faith” type answers.
A typical “Works” answer goes something like this –
“Well, I try to follow the Ten Commandments and I’m sure I do better than most.”
“I always try to treat people like I want to be treated.”
“I teach Sunday School, I sing in the Choir, I give 10% to the church every month.”
“I tried my best to live up to the teachings of the Bible and think, for the most part, I’ve done that.”
Notice a pattern here? A person who gives a “Works” answer is placing his/her salvation on their life measuring up to God’s pass/fail grade. There’s just one problem with that salvation plan, even one sin committed in your entire life is enough to drop you below God’s passing grade.
Romans 3:23 – “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
On the other hand, a typical “Faith” answer goes something like this –
“I’ve accepted the death of Jesus as full payment for my sins and trust in that sacrifice to allow me to be seen as spotless in the eyes of God.”
Notice the difference in those two types of answers?
Ephesians 2:8-9 – “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Jesus paid the total sum of our sins on that cross and all we have to do to gain the confidence that we will spend eternity with God in Heaven is accept that grace as ‘tetelestai’ payment for our sins. Of course, after someone has come to the realization that Jesus died on the cross for his sins then his natural reaction is to follow his teachings and tell others about Him! That doesn’t mean that we have a ‘get out of hell’ card and can continue our old ways – The transformation that occurs once someone realizes their sins are forgiven compels them to change their life.
These two powerful questions do wonders to open the door to a conversation about Jesus. The questions cause people to look deep into their spiritual life and assess where they are and the questions also give a clear spiritual position to the person sharing the Gospel. I have personally used these questions to engage friends and strangers into conversations about the Gospel and have witnessed the Holy Spirit using my feeble talents to lead someone to a belief in Jesus as their Savior.
There is much more to EE and you can go here to get a power point style slide of a typical outline that works well for sharing the Gospel if you aren’t comfortable using your own words. Again, it isn’t meant as a script that you must follow but it does equip you with talking points and important scripture that you can share with someone during a brief conversation.
Once you have become a Christian, the most important thing you can do is equip yourself so that you can effectively communicate the Good News to others. You wouldn’t enter into a big project at work without being prepared so we shouldn’t enter into the most important job we can do as Christians unprepared. There are situations in life when ‘winging it’ is called for but evangelism is not one of those situations.
Prepare yourself.
Periodically I go to this site to look at atmospheric temperature measurements at various altitudes and today it appears we are heading for another Ice Age.
And when you add in more years for comparison it looks even more horrific.
It’s been a tough winter in the US and most of us are still waiting for spring temperatures to finally arrive but something tells me this drop in temperature measurement at 14,000 feet is an instrument error.
The temperature at higher altitudes is also dropping but not like the data at 14,000 feet.
So it’s probably a sensor error but still it’s a great graph to share with your AGW cult buddies. Send it to them and see if they have an explanation!
(h/t to Real Science Blog)
I recently showed how there has been no warming of the global temperatures over the past 15 years and I did that using the temperature data sets from UAH and HADCRUT. In case you were thinking I was cherry picking my datasets, I’ll use the interactive Goddard Institute of Space Studies (GISS) data tools to also show there has also been a halt to the calamitous global warming climate change predictions of the AGW cult.
I will give the GISS site props for providing web based tools to compare global temperature trends for different time periods and to grad the actual individual temperature station data and graph them with the click of a mouse. They did a great job here and with just a little reading on their website to figure out how to use the tools, in no time you can be generating graphs like those seen in this post.
I’ll be using the temperature trend maps that can be found here and the station data that can be found here. I encourage you to visit their website and play around with this data yourself.
The temperature trend during the winter months (Dec, Jan and Feb) has shown basically no warming (actually 0.06°C cooling) from 1998 to 2013.
The annual temperature trend has also shown basically no warming (0.09°C warming) from 1998-2012.
Let’s look at some individual temperature data from locations around the world. See if you can spot the temperature rises that the AGW cult has been reporting.
Oh, wait. This temperature chart does show a steady increase in temperatures at the Phoenix airport. Now here is something curious, a station that is only 21 miles from the airport shows a very different temperature trend.
Ft. Valley, Arizona (21 miles from Phoenix, Arizona).
The last two graphs highlight the difference between temperature stations located in a populated/urban area vs. a rural area. Temperature stations at airports will have buildings and concrete pavement to trap the heat and show temperature increases as the population/construction increases.
So there you have it. Another temperature data set showing no warming for 15 years and when you look at the individual temperature stations, you quickly come to the realization that the warming we saw prior to 1998 is not that all “unprecedented” as the AGW cult would like you to believe.
I heard this NPR story on the way home today and I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. The story took place in the home of Paul Gwaltney along with 6 others who were invited to share their diverse opinions on the supposed national conversation we are having on Gun control.
The views expressed by George Hartogensis were the ones that I bristled at and I’ll share them with you here (emphasis mine).
Gwaltney’s friend George Hartogensis has very different views on guns. Hartogensis, 54, served with Gwaltney in the Air Force nearly 25 years ago. “I’m a moderate, a political moderate,” he says, “which means to my leftist friends I’m a conservative, and to my conservative friends I’m a flaming liberal.”
Hartogensis does not own a gun. And among the group assembled in Gwaltney’s home, he’s the most ardent supporter of gun control. “We just have so damn many of them out there,” he says. “We’d be better off if we banned them.”
For his part, Hartogensis says it “would be a good thing” if all guns were confiscated. And it’s not that he doesn’t think hunters and handguns are cool, he says. “I went out with Paul one time and shot and had a great time. But I’m willing to give that up.”
Not surprisingly, Hartogensis favors gun registration and restrictions on magazine capacity. “I mean, what do we really need handguns for? I mean, they’re cool, but what do we really need ‘em for?” he asks.
Hartogensis is, in a sense, resigned. “I have to be honest — to me it’s just more of the same,” he says. “Until we change our culture and get guns off the street, we’re gonna see that. That is the price we pay. I have a 10-year-old son and that is why I’m against guns. I don’t want him to be shot.”
Yes, it’s amazing that someone who describes himself as ‘moderate’ thinks it’s perfectly ok to ignore the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, confiscate guns from private citizens and make their purchase illegal. Perhaps Mr. Hartogensis should move to the South Side of Chicago where he can live in the Utopia where guns are illegal to purchase. He might then realize why someone might need a handgun.
To end on a positive note, at least Mr. Gwaltney brought some sanity to the discussion:
“Certainly to protect children in schools, certainly we don’t want to see mass shootings. But will those laws fundamentally ever change that equation?” Gwaltney asks. “Trying to restrict either magazine capacity or assault weapons because they look different than other firearms that might have the same destructive power — those ultimately don’t get you to that goal.”
“When you get into the semi-automatic realm, everywhere you put the line … is arbitrary,” Gwaltney says. “If you put it down at a single bullet coming out of a gun, and you have to reload every time, you’ve completely restricted my right to self defense.”
Leftist philosophy is taking over and creating a culture where people in America cheer the comments of Mr. Hartogensis and vilify the comments of Mr. Gwaltney. I wish more people studied history and understood why we have the 2nd Amendment. Hint – It has nothing to do with hunting or target practice.
Photo courtesy of http://listverse.com/2012/12/07/ten-iconic-photos-of-wwii/
The American Society of Civil Engineers released their 2013 Infrastructure Report Card today and the grades aren’t very good.
But wait, I thought the 2009 Stimulus with all the shovel ready jobs was supposed to improve things and create jobs. Nope.
The problem with the 2009 stimulus was placing faith in Government bureaucracy to efficiently managing construction projects. As noted in this National Review article, the problem was with the way we (government) do things:
“The “way we do things” involves endless paperwork, union regulations, environmental red tape, and the like. That’s why it only took 410 days to build the Empire State building and 16 months to build the Pentagon but nearly 20 years to complete Boston’s Big Dig. Lord knows how long it will be for the government to finish work on Ground Zero.”
I’m a big fan of limited Government but building roads, bridges, levies, etc. is something that falls within the scope of our Federal and State governments and is money well spent because it benefits the whole of society. But after a wasteful spending of almost $800 billion in 2009 we are still faced with crumbling infrastructure that must be fixed.
I think I have an idea how to fix our Infrastructure problem, lower our unemployment rate and get some people off our ballooning Entitlement programs.
Instead of borrowing money for these infrastructure projects (like we did in 2009) and conducting these projects in the usual inefficient governmental way, let’s turn more control over to private companies and incentivize people who are on Welfare and Unemployment Insurance (UI) to work these construction jobs.
Give the engineers in the government programs like the Department of Transportation more power to select private contractors, prioritize jobs and execute them without the normal bureaucracy overreach.
Divert money from Welfare and UI to private contractors so they can use those funds to hire people who are able bodied but trapped in these Entitlement programs. Companies can be connected with local Welfare/UI offices and they’ll get Federal and State funds once they hire people from these programs.
No extra government spending will be required and many able bodied people who want to get a job can now get a job, pay taxes and stimulate the economy. Unemployment goes down, a portion of the Entitlement spending programs goes to put people to work and private contractors get a portion of their workforce paid by Federal and State money (higher profit margins for the private contractors).
The people on Welfare/UI were getting paid to sit at home anyway so why not use that money to put some of them to work rebuilding our infrastructure and give them real job experience that they can parlay for future work once the construction projects are completed?
Of course this sounds too easy and makes too much sense to ever get implemented.
Obama is now making another one of his favorite pivots – this time to Climate Change.
“President Barack Obama is preparing to tell all federal agencies for the first time that they should consider the impact on global warming before approving major projects, from pipelines to highways.”
The Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) cult continues to peddle their junk science and Leftists are all too eager to buy it. The Leftist have no need to challenge the AGW theories and compare them with measurable data because they don’t want to learn the real inconvenient truth. It’s easy for them to buy what the AGW cult is selling (and tell others to do the same because the ‘science is settled’ or something) because the AGW message feels so good to them. If the Left believes Humans (and more importantly human industries) are polluting the planet and causing environmental/climate catastrophes, then they can use that ‘science’ to attack their favorite enemy – Capitalism.
Obama’s latest ‘pivot’ reminded me that it is time for my quarterly update on global atmospheric CO2 concentrations and global temperatures. All of this data is easily obtainable from the Internet and takes about an hour if you start from scratch. It’s amazing how many sheeple don’t do this before gobbling the AGW cult lies.
Here is the graph of atmospheric CO2 measurements as gathered by the Mauna Loa observatory and you can see that the CO2 levels are continuing to increase.
Here are the plots of global temperature averages compiled by the Climate Research Unit and the University of Alabama Huntsville.
Let’s now look at these same temperature graphs but starting with 1998 and you can easily see that we are still in a period of flat temperature growth (I’ve added trend lines with the equation for extra emphasis) for the past 15 years.
Furthermore, if increasing atmospheric concentrations of CO2 cause increased global temperatures then we should see a linearly increasing line when we plot global temperature anomaly (delta from a baseline period) on the Y-axis and atmospheric CO2 concentration on the X-axis. From the graph below, you can see that something happened when CO2 concentrations increased to around the 370 ppm point to stop that upward trend and this inflection point raises questions. Is some other variable(s) counter acting any warming caused by CO2? Has the warming effect of CO2 reached a limit?
If CO2 is this magically powerful molecule that can control the Earth’s thermostat then someone must have changed the internal wiring of our climate system for the last 15 years.
And to add insult to injury for the AGW cult, their latest peer reviewed journal that supposedly blows the lid off skeptical claims that CO2 isn’t altering our climate has been revealed to be another victim of data manipulation. The AGW cult scientists are not just bad scientists, they are evil people.
So ignoring all these easily obtained data and the continued corruption of the AGW cult scientists, Obama will continue to grind industrial progress and jobs creation further into the abyss with this new ‘pivot’ to climate change.
Addendum – I have many posts on Climate Change that can be found here and if you are interested in a deeper dive of the science then I suggest two posts here and here.
Is there any hope of bringing Republicans and Democrats together to tackle the tough fiscal problems that the US faces? Believe it or not, I think there is!
The Heritage Blog produced a great info graphic comparing the recent budget plans from the House and the Senate:
It’s obvious these two plans are so far apart that neither has any hope of clearing both houses of Congress and if we had a President who was interesting in solving our problems, he’d call them together to reach a compromise. But we know that won’t happen…….But I think there is a chance for a compromise that would be very meaningful for our country.
But before I get to that, let’s go over a few givens that most people would accept as facts:
1) Obama and the Democrats have a desire to increase tax revenues via raising income taxes on the wealthy.
2) A vast majority of people who voted for Obama and continue to support Democratic candidates are big supporters of raising taxes on the wealthy.
3) Democrats believe that through higher taxes on the wealthy, the poor will have more money (i.e. handouts) from the government and their wealth will rise.
4) Obamacare is going to wreck our healthcare industry and this 20,000 page regulation nightmare will cause less people to receive needed care.
5) Obamacare will end up costing our Federal Government way more that was first estimated.
6) Obamacare will end up costing American citizens way more than was first estimated.
Given those knows facts, I have a radical compromise plan.
The Republicans in the House and Senate should agree to pass legislation that raises income tax rate (to levels set forth by the Democrats) on those making over $400,000 if (and only if) Obama and the Democrats in the House and Senate agree to repeal Obamacare.
What? Have you lost your mind? Raising taxes on the wealthy will be harmful for the economy and won’t raise tax revenue as history has shown us. Yes I know that.
Obama would never repeal his signature achievement of his presidency, not even for higher taxes on the wealthy! Yes I know that too.
Both of those critiques are true but think of the messaging opportunity this would give the Republicans.
Leftists scream about income inequality and in a sense that is why people like Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren got elected to the US Senate. Leftists have a soft spot for taxing the rich and they’ll thrown logic out the window if they have a chance to close the deal on higher tax rates for the evil 1%. Once they think this is a possibility, they’ll be like sharks swimming in a pool of blood – they’ll ignore everything else to accomplish this one overriding goal! And you can count on them applying the heat to Obama and Reid to get it done.
Republicans can easily point to all the harm that Obamacare is already causing and then say we need to repeal it and then address healthcare reform piecemeal instead of a grand plan that was hopelessly flawed. It can be sold as a win for the Democrats because they are abandoning a program that isn’t even implemented yet in favor of immediate tax rate increases on the wealthy. The Democratic base will think they’ll be getting instant handouts while abandoning future promises of better healthcare that more than likely wouldn’t have materialized in the first place.
Obama and the Democrats would be forced to defend Obamacare over the holy grail of Leftists ideology – taxing the rich. I don’t think they can do it.
For a few years we’d suffer under the high income tax rates on the wealthy but at least we’d be spared the evils of Obamacare and once we win the White House in 2016 and hopefully take control of the Senate as well, then we can come to the country’s rescue and show how these higher income tax rates didn’t really translate into more tax revenue. Of course we’d repeal those tax rates and return them to 2012 levels….for the good of the country.
What do you think? Am I crazy?
I finally had a clear western sky at sunset and drove a mile to an elevated spot that was clear of trees on the western horizon to get some pictures. I used my Barska 15X60 binoculars (on a tripod) and my iPhone5 to snap these pictures so they aren’t the best but I plan to bring my telescope later in the week to get some better pictures.
Go to Sky and Telescope to get help locating this comet and you’ll need binoculars. I found that the comet was visible with the naked eye but it helped to use averted vision to see it unaided. Go to Space Weather to see some much better photographs of this beautiful comet that will only be around for another 10 days.
We have real problems in this country but I fear we don’t have a culture equipped to solve them.
Exhibit A – The state of New York is in a legal battle over whether the citizens of New York City have a right to drink large sodas.
Exhibit B – The state legislature of Maryland is seeking to introduce a bill to prevent suspension of students for silly reasons. Like when a student was recently suspended for nibbling on a Pop Tart until it took the shape of a gun.
“A Maryland lawmaker, who is among those who think that Park Elementary School may have doled out too harsh a punishment, has now introduced a bill to stop students who chew Pop-Tarts, or other not-ordinarily-dangerous materials, into the shape of a gun — or who merely hold their fingers into the shape of a gun — from being suspended again.”
Exhibit C – We spent the last two months wringing our hands and gnashing our teeth over the Sequester Cuts that are only 2% of the projected 2013 spending for our Federal Government.
Exhibit D – Ashley Judd (D) is being mentioned as a serious candidate for US senate in Kentucky.
Exhibit E – A Michigan teacher confiscated a 3rd grader’s cupcakes because they had army men on them.
Exhibit F – No matter how many countless AGW cult predictions fail regarding Earth’s climate, the State Run Media sill give these liars a microphone.
There used to be a time when the culture of the US focused on real problems and the can-do attitude of the American people could solve any problem. It might have taken us a while and it was surely painful but we could always be counted on to remain focused and work the problem instead of being distracted by straw men arguments.
That is not the case now and I fear it will be our downfall. The majority of the US citizens lack common sense and this is very dangerous. Our enemies won’t need to attack us directly; they only need to wait for our inattentiveness to the real problems to consume us. Our demise will not be from a foreign attack but from implosion.
Unless we change the culture quickly, this will be our end game.
AGW scientists keep using that word, “Unprecedented” …
The Anthropogenic Global Warming cult thinks they have come up with the latest Earth shattering research paper that will finally convince skeptics that we should convert to the cult, worship at the altar of Al Gore and read from the holy texts consisting on Peer Reviewed literature.
The paper is behind a pay wall but the highlights of the paper can be found in this NPR story:
“It has put together a record of global temperatures going back to the end of the last ice age — about 11,000 years ago — when mammoths and saber-tooth cats roamed the planet. The study confirms that what we’re seeing now is unprecedented.”
“Shaun Marcott, a geologist at Oregon State University, says “global temperatures are warmer than about 75 percent of anything we’ve seen over the last 11,000 years or so.” The other way to look at that is, 25 percent of the time since the last ice age, it’s been warmer than now.”
“Here’s what happened. After the end of the ice age, the planet got warmer. Then, 5,000 years ago, it started to get cooler — but really slowly. In all, it cooled 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit, up until the last century or so. Then it flipped again — global average temperature shot up.”
“Temperatures now have gone from that cold period to the warm period in just 100 years,” Marcott says.”
So what the AGW scientists are saying in this new paper is that global temperatures, over the past 11,000 years, have gone through a cycle of gradual cooling and then followed by a rapid warming. According to the NPR story and the AGW scientists, this rapid increase in temperature is “unprecedented.”
Before I address the “unprecedented” claim, it’s worth noting how the scientists came to this conclusion. Scientists can’t go back and look at temperature data kept by wooly mammoths so they had to use a proxy. Proxies are physical pieces of evidence that can be used as substitutes for actual thermometer readings and there are many proxies in the climate scientist’s tool bag – tree rings, ice cores, fossils, coral, ocean sediments, etc.
So what proxy did the scientists use to gather this temperature data? From the NPR story:
“The research team tracked temperature by studying chemicals in the shells of tiny, fossilized sea creatures called foraminifera.”
This is a new one for me and I find it hard believe we can reconstruct global temperatures for 11,000 years from tiny, fossilized sea creatures but since I can’t read the full paper, I’ll assume these climate scientists are telling the truth. My issue with this paper is not the method they used but their claim that this recent, rapid warming is “unprecedented.”
Forget 11,000 years of temperature records, in 1999 there was another proxy discovered that produced over 400,000 years of temperature records for the continent of Antarctica. That proxy is called the Vostok Ice Cores and from this link you can see how scientists can analyze these cores to determine temperatures as well as atmospheric CO2 concentrations and pinpoint when major volcanic eruptions occurred. Fascinating stuff! Just one of the many reasons I love science!
I grabbed the Vostok Ice Core Data and graphed the temperature history below and added a couple of annotation arrows:
You’ll notice something interesting about this data. For the past 400,000 years the cooling trend (Blue arrow) has been gradual, encompassing about 75,000 years, and then the warming trend (Green arrow) has been steep, encompassing about 5,000 years.
Well that totally shoots a hole in the AGW scientist claim that recent gradual cooling followed by rapid warming is “unprecedented!” I would’ve thought that these scientists would not make claims based on a small timeframe when other data is readily available over a much larger timeframe. But then again, these AGW cult members are all about cherry picking their data to support their lies.
Also notice that the temperature deltas 125,000 and 325,000 years ago are higher than we are seeing right now! “Unprecedented!”
I’ll leave you with a final quote from the NPR story from one of the AGW cult cardinals, Dr. Gavin Schmidt:
“The climate changes to come are going to be larger than anything that human civilization and agriculture has seen in its entire existence,” says Gavin Schmidt, a climate researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. “And that is quite a sobering thought.”
Hucksters like Dr. Schmidt are still being paid to push their snake oil and the State Run Media is all too willing to give them a microphone. That is also “quite a sobering thought.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their report for February and considering the economically oppressive policies of Team Obama for the past 4 years, the report is actually good.
From the main report and Table B:
The Unemployment rate ticked down to 7.9%.
236,000 non-farm jobs were added in February.
Unlike in the recent past, the unemployment rate drop was NOT attributed to more part-time workers since that number stayed the same at about 8.0 million.
Government employment was one of the few areas to drop and they lost 10,000 jobs. No offense to the individuals who lost their government jobs in February but THIS IS A GOOD THING!
The Retail Industry added 23,700 jobs and that is amazing considering last February they shed 24,300 jobs!
The Construction industry added 48,000 jobs and this gives an indication that the Housing market might be coming back.
Even the Manufacturing industry (which is near and dear to my heart!) added 14,000 jobs – Not a lot but it’s maintained those gains over the last few months.
Average hourly earnings (all employees) have continued to rise for the past 3 months – from $23.75 in December 2012 to $23.82 in February 2013 (A 0.3% increase). Average hourly earnings for Production and non-supervisory employees have gone from $19.64 to $20.04 (a 2% increase). If everyone’s pay has increased by 0.3% but the hourly workers have seen increases of 2.0%, which means hourly workers have seen their pay increase more than Management – which dispels a common Leftist meme.
Here is more news from table A and Table A-2 (most of it good unless you are African American or under 20 years old):
The Labor Force Participation rate is the same it was in February 2012 – 63.5% now vs. 63.9% in Feb 2012. This is terrible and the smoking gun of failed Obama policies. Before the last Recession, the Labor Force participation rate was around 66% so this means people have either decided to retire early or the job market is so bad it’s easier to sit home and collect unemployment insurance.
If you are over 20 years old then you are doing better than average in the US. Men over 20 years old have an unemployment rate of 7.1% and women over 20 years old have an unemployment rate of 7.0% (and that is down from 7.7% and 7.6% respectively in Feb 2012).
If you are White then you are doing much better than the average – White unemployment rate is 6.8% as compared to 7.4% in Feb 2012.
If you are Asian then you are doing the best in the US – Asian unemployment rate is 6.1% as compared to 6.3% in Feb 2012.
Now the bad news for African Americans and people under 20 years old (who ironically voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama in both 2008 and 2012):
The African American Unemployment rate is 13.8% and Teenagers (16-19 years old) have an unemployment rate of 25.1%. And if the Leftists would have their way with raising the minimum wage, teenagers would be hit even harder as many more would lose their jobs since they make up a large percentage of people who work for the minimum wage.
More bad news for those out of work – there were 4.8 million people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks. The number of people out of work for other time periods – less than 5 weeks, 5-14 weeks and 15-26 weeks has been basically unchanged since the Feb 2012 data and those numbers were 2.7 million, 2.8 million and 1.7 million respectively. It’s still very tough to find a job out there thanks to Obamanomics.
A college education is expensive but if you are looking for motivation to take out that loan and bust your butt for four years then look at this statistic from Table A related to unemployment rates vs. education level for those 25 years and older. Those who have at least a Bachelor’s degree have an unemployment rate of 3.8%. Now compare that to those without a Bachelor’s degree – People with less than a high school diploma have an unemployment rate of 11.2%, those with a High School diploma have an unemployment rate of 8.1% and those with some college or an Associate’s degree have an unemployment rate of 6.7%.
So, as I stated in the opening paragraph, the February BLS Employment Report is actually a decent one. And if you are NOT young, African American or a high school dropout, then the economy, on the average, is actually improving for you.
Welcome to my repository of links that shows the lunacy of Ashley Judd. May the Bluegrass State choose wisely in 2014!
UPDATED REGULARLY – As more Ashley Judd Crazy is revealed. Last Update 11-MAR-13
Item #1 – Ashley Judd thinks coal mining is equivalent to raping the mountains. Because the mountains can’t shut that down and we’re not talking about date rape, we’re talking legitimate rape.
“the state-sanctioned, federal government-supported, coal industry-operated rape of Appalachia.”
Watch the full video here .
Item #2 – As this video from American Crossroads points out, Ashley Judd doesn’t even like Kentucky.
Item #3 – Ashley Judd is way beyond the typical ‘Hollywood Crazy’ as this piece by Josh Trevino points out.
Item #4 – Down home Kentucky girl ‘winters in Scotland’ just like most Kentuckians do. She’s so down to Earth! She’ll represent the hard working people of Kentucky well.
Item #5 – Ashley Judd writes long screed about her puffy face.
“When I am sick for more than a month and on medication (multiple rounds of steroids), the accusation is that because my face looks puffy, I have “clearly had work done,” with otherwise credible reporters with great bravo “identifying” precisely the procedures I allegedly have had done.”
If Ashley Judd has such ‘thin skin’ (pardon the pun) to fire off a manifesto on puffy faces, she’ll be reduced to a fetal position once she goes under the white hot glare of DC politics.
Item #6 – Ashley Judd loves her some UK basketball!
Item #7 – Here are some tweets that are worthy of a US Senator. Right?
This Easter give only chocolate bunnies & fluff chicks. 95% of real ones die in less than 1 yr. Resist the cute fest http://t.co/COssuEmWaJ—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) March 05, 2013
Oh, to nap or to exercise?—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) February 20, 2013
Puzzlingly poor: I had to try 3 different days before I could twist a new pump bottle of lotion open! "Walk away from the lotion, lady!"—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) February 20, 2013
Back to my cinnamon rolls! Bye for now. Have a fun evening.—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) February 16, 2013
My 2012 citizen hero: She has guts! Sandra Fluke and me: http://t.co/jz8Y8sF7—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) January 24, 2013
Hiccoughs are funny.—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) January 16, 2013
Playing a little Mad Gab – have you tried this fun game? It's a hoot!—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) January 13, 2013
My bee gives may have up to 1,000 pounds of honey this year. What should I do with it?—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) January 12, 2013
I hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was perfect. Yes, I baked more. & played some new game, pronunciation stuff, it was a hoot.—
ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) January 07, 2013
Item #8 –If you use Apple products then you are supporting rape!
What is it with Ashley Judd and comparing everything to rape?
A quote from the Daily Caller article:
“Apple is known for the clean lines of their products, the alluring simplicity of their designs,” Judd wrote in the article. “Dare I….go so far….as to suggest…this signature cleanness is stained by the shit and urine of raped women’s leaking fistulas?”
Item #9 – “What Was I doing in a Brothel?”
This video was obviously spliced/doctored but it’s still funny. Could this be the source of the puffy face?
Exit question – Honestly, I hope she decides to run for US Senate against Mitch McConnell. I haven’t lived in Kentucky in over 10 years but I was born in that beautiful state, lived there for 30 years and I can’t see any scenario where the people of the Bluegrass choose her over McConnell. But what if they do? I didn’t think Obama would be reelected either! If a fairly Red state of Kentucky votes for this moron over the ranking minority Senate leader, what does that say for the future of our country?
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven.
Matthew 18:21-22
This week’s sermon at my church was on bitterness and how we must let it go or it will consume us. My pastor laid out 5 facts about people who harbor bitterness and it got me thinking about my attitude toward politics.
People with bitterness:
1 – Justify their bitterness.
2 – Become overly critical.
3 – Secretly celebrate misfortunes of others.
4 – Write off entire groups of people.
5 – Struggle to see their bitterness in the mirror.
I am blessed to have a personality that forgives and forgets fairly easily so as I was listening to this sermon I couldn’t come up with an individual from my past that I still harbored bitterness toward and that made me feel pretty pious. But then I started thinking about a “group” I have bitterness toward that I have not forgiven and then that pious feeling morphed into a feeling of conviction. The group that I haven’t forgiven can be characterized by many names – Leftists, Obama supporters, Democrats, etc.
Those who frequent my blog know I have great disdain for Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et. al. who are destroying our country. I have not characterized my criticism of the Leftist Democrats as ‘bitterness’ but as I looked over these 5 traits of bitterness, I realized (to the outside observer) I met all of them!
I justify my aggressive attitude to Leftists because I feel that it is my duty as a US citizen to fight those who wish to defy the US Constitution. I want to secure a better future for my children and the only way I can to this, other than my vote, is to be vocal on Twitter, Facebook and this blog in my opposition to their actions.
I am extremely critical of Team Obama and will gladly write blog posts when I hear them say anything that I feel is in opposition to the Constitution, Free Market Capitalism or fiscal/economic Conservative principles.
I don’t secretly celebrate the misfortunes of Leftists, I publically celebrate them! I revel in such instances when: Team Obama gets caught threatening a journalist, the promises of Obamacare fall short or Leftists come unhinged.
When I interact with someone who is a Democrat/Liberal, I automatically put them in a box labeled – ‘seeks to destroy the US’ – and I do this with great ease. I do this even though I am personally friends with Democrats and know that they also feel they are acting in the best interest of the country.
I pat myself on the back when I embarrass a Leftist on twitter or write a blog post that I feel makes the case that they are evil and I am right.
So this is my dilemma. I am a follower of Jesus Christ and He has commanded me to forgive people because He has forgiven me. But I am also responsible for calling out evil when I see it and I have a duty to do leave this country in a better condition than I found it. Can I fight Leftists in the political arena and still do this in a manner that doesn’t harbor bitterness?
I think Yes!
For the most part, I have always adopted the mantle of ‘happy warrior’ and while I appear to the outside world as someone who is bitter, I engage in this political judo because I enjoy it. I love political debate and I enjoy fighting for what I believe is right. It’s not bitterness, it’s passion! Or at least that is what I tell myself when I look in the mirror….
While I feel I can continue to fight against Leftists without coming from a place of bitterness, I was convicted to alter at least one aspect of my social media modus operandi – I must stop pigeon holing other Democrats and instead approach them in this happy warrior mentality to have a healthy debate without demeaning them. If they want to get into the mud and start spouting memes from the Leftist hive mind then I’ll swing back but I must first treat them as individuals and not Leftists robots.
After listening to this sermon I realized I must stop assuming every Democrat wants to destroy the country. If I can engage in healthy debate instead of defaulting to ridicule then maybe I can influence the conversation in a positive manner. I’m just one person but if all conservatives adopted this method maybe we’d have a bigger impact. Grass roots conversations is how we’ll change the culture and the tenor of the debate and approaching the conversation in a more positive intent might yield bigger dividends.
So have I totally justified my aggressive political attitude/methods? Have I reconciled those actions with the teachings of Jesus?
Before I can say this, it should be noted that there is more to the passage from Matthew chapter 18. Jesus tells a parable that has a simple but profound takeaway – Because we have been forgiven a debt that we couldn’t repay (which happened when we acknowledge that we have placed our faith in the death/resurrection of Jesus as full payment for our sins), we should forgive smaller debts that our brothers and sisters have. Jesus gave no wiggle room for degrees of debts since they all pale in comparison to our sins against God.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him.25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Obama is in power for another 4 years, the US is going down the wrong path, now is the time for Patriots to stand up…….But Jesus commands us to forgive……
I’m struggling with this!
These People vote.
I know how bad the GOP wants that immigration fence built. Ok, let's build it and move it up to the Mason-Dixon line. Sound good? #UniteBlue—
United Forces (@GeeOhPees2) March 02, 2013
RWNJ's has the NRA issued you guys Brown German like uniforms and Boots yet? Because that is what your Wet Dream is about #uniteblue #tcot—
White Oval (@jimgzmail) March 02, 2013
RT @KennettDems: Rachel #Maddow: Only 6% of know that deficit is shrinking. Up to us to educate the 94% on.msnbc.com/Yhh2Hm #UniteBlue—
(@LOrion) February 23, 2013
You know why the Republican Party hates minimum wage hikes? Because minimum wage earners don't invest their money in hedge funds. #uniteblue—
Wayne A Schneider (@WayneASchneider) February 23, 2013
Let the states decide if Republicans can marry zite.to/YgLqBH #uniteblue—
Simon Says (@SayethSimon) February 22, 2013
The Neo-Confederate Supreme Court Gearing Up to Restore White Rule Over America | alternet.org/news-amp-polit… #UniteBlue—
(@fabucat) March 02, 2013
Republicans, if you want to win elections, then come up with actual ideas. And no, tanking the economy is not an actual idea #UniteBlue—
Young Liberal (@TheYoungLibs) March 01, 2013
@NancyPelosi You are still the only reason anything gets done in the House! #VAWA #fem2 #p2 #ctl #UniteBlue—
BlizzyBe Hussein O (@BlizzyBe) March 01, 2013
Too bad Bob Woodward threw this entire journalistic career in the crapper just to get noticed. Maybe Fox has a place for him.#UniteBlue—
Greg Zeszotarski (@cowguy001) March 02, 2013
The Tea Party's Plot Is On The Verge Of Treason businessinsider.com/none-dare-call… via @bi_contributors |In the 1800's they were tried & hung #UniteBlue—
Theresa Williams (@HeyIrish) March 02, 2013
political #haiku I'm a little numb/sequester is sickening/How many dead now? #uniteblue #p2—
Maureen O'Danu (@odanu) March 02, 2013
@Senate_GOPs @SenateDems @whitehouse The GOP built this sequester. We will remember and we will vote them out in 2014. #GOPFail #UniteBlue—
T Hill (@tlpwife) March 02, 2013
@SpeakerBoehner listen to @ezraklein because he has got your number. Shame on you for ignoring the welfare of the country. #UniteBlue—
Marcia M. (@martimr1) March 02, 2013
Capitalist ~ n. A vampire who drains the life from workers by breaking up & outsourcing viable manufacturing concerns #ctl #tcot #uniteblue—
Cletis Stump (@CletisStump) March 02, 2013
#YouMightBeADick if your name is Bush and you are related to anyone called "George." Did we say "Might Be?" Oops, our bad. #UniteBlue—
AndNowThis (@NP3Politics) March 02, 2013
Bama is a "taker" state, a "right to work" (for nothing) state, run by the #gop who brought you the now illegal Immigration law #uniteblue—
Kelly (@CamelotK) March 02, 2013
Sometimes I feel like John #McCain should be tried for treason for unleashing Sarah #Palin on an unsuspecting populous. #tcot #UniteBlue—
Robert Whitted (@ROBfromVA) March 02, 2013
Repubs say that MSNBC is super left biased…So shall I assume they are the station using the most facts? #UniteBlue—
Kevin Stern (@KevinAthans) March 02, 2013
I didn't think I could like anyone less than #RushLimbaugh but Justice Scalia is about to join that burn in hell club. #uniteblue—
True (@true_majority) March 02, 2013
Now is the time to draw a line in the sand & rescue the country from corporations & far right. Say No to Gun Violence #CTL #uniteblue—
Norberto Mcroy (@Norberto7549) March 02, 2013
The Tea Party Treason is the Creation of the Koch Bros. & their un-indicted Co-Conspirators. #uniteblue #p2 #tcot #dccc—
(@badwolf303) March 02, 2013
Limbaugh Uses Newtown Shooting To Hype Debunked Fast & Furious Conspiracy Theory #ItsNoFluke #StopRush #UniteBlue #p2 mm4a.org/TY8N0c—
Aurora Grajeda (@cihuamexica) March 02, 2013
Pres. Obama has spent less than any Pres. since Eisenhower! @TickedOffDem47 @lmvio @gdthomp01—
Joyce Jeffries (@MsRock4Ever) February 25, 2013
I decided im no longer jackn off with regular lotion, im using a blend of olive oil, n jergens!! #StopRush #TeamLaidback #uniteblue #ClubT—
Lil T (@LarryJo60871607) March 02, 2013
Eliminate Tax Breaks for the Rich and Big Business – bit.ly/13tzG4F | #Sequester #UniteBlue—
Rick Cooley (@cooleyrj) March 02, 2013
Obama Delivers the Devastating Truth: Republicans are Intentionally Killing the Recovery politicususa.com/obama-delivers… via @politicususa #UniteBlue—
Steve Wallace (@Stwallace23) March 02, 2013
Detroit PD should arrest the Emergency Manager if he/she tries to step foot in city limits. Just a thought. #UniteBlue #p2—
Michael Long (@mikeallenlong) March 02, 2013
I hope the first plane delayed 3 hours to take off & dumps 2 hours of fuel waiting to land is full of #Republicans! #UniteBlue #p2 #edshow—
Sam Gaut (@sgaut) March 02, 2013
People who work deserve a #LivingWage! We must reverse the growing inequality between rich and poor in our country.
#UniteBlue #Dem #p2—
Jeremiah Smith (@jbspharmd) March 02, 2013
I believe in the people of this country, that someday they will stop allowing rich people who don't care about them to rule them. #UniteBlue—
Vince Fra Diavolo (@PhillyVince) March 02, 2013
Bob Woodward (of Woodward and Bernstein fame who broke Watergate) was threatened by a Senior Obama White House Official, Director of White House Economic Council Gene Sperling, over a story Woodward plans to run tagging Obama as the originator of the Sequester Cuts.
Buzzfeed was quick to come to the White House’s defense:
“Officials often threaten reporters that they will “regret” printing something that is untrue, but Woodward took the remark as a threat.”
Apparently they are right! Remember last year when Obama’s Interior Secretary Ken Salazar threatened to punch a reporter?
“After being questioned about a major wild horse buyer who is under federal investigation and with whom he has business ties, U.S. Secretary of the Department of Interior Ken Salazar threatened to punch a reporter allegedly.
KKCO aired a clip of the exchange between Salazar and reporter Dave Philipps of The Colorado Springs Gazette at an election-day rally in Fountain, Colo.
“You know what. You can never do that. This is the Obama … You know what. You do that to me again. I’m gonna punch you out.”
Or maybe it’s just the Obama administration that threatens reporters. I don’t remember any stories of the Bush 41, Clinton or GW Bush White Houses threatening reporters …..but I digress.
The State Run Media (SRM) appears to be taking several tactics to diffuse this Woodward situation – 1) say it happens all the time, 2) ignore/deny it or 3) discredit Woodward.
It’s predictable that Media Matters for America Eric Boehlert did all three on Twitter:
FIXED: the DC clown car game continues as Hannity tries to cry tears on Fox becus WH "threatened" poor Bobby Woodward; #verklempt—
Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 28, 2013
love the quotes — not at all what WH aide emailed Woodward. but still love the quotes; MT @BDayspring "You'll regret this" – is a threat.—
Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 28, 2013
remember when Bob Woodward sat the Valerie Plame story for two years? bit.ly/XkkWAb #theBushyears—
Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 28, 2013
Woodward is no rookie reporter and he’s definitely no Right Wing blogger so there is no reason for him to make up this accusation. A man who was on the front lines of Watergate will not be intimidated nor will he neglect his journalistic integrity (and there are few out there who can match Woodward’s). If Woodward says he was threatened then the man’s reputation precedes him and we must take it at face value until further evidence contradicts his story.
I asked BuzzFeedAndrew if he was really serious that this sort of intimidation happens all the time.
Really? "Officials often threaten reporters that they will "regret" printing something that is untrue"
@BuzzFeedAndrew—
cosmoscon (@gdthomp01) February 28, 2013
When was the last time a WH official threatened you? RT @BuzzFeedAndrew Happens all the time.—
cosmoscon (@gdthomp01) February 28, 2013
There are two things that disturb me about the ‘it happens all the time’ defense.
First, I think that is a lie because if the Bush WH had said the same thing to reporters then the SRM would’ve pounced on Bush and rapidly come to the defense of the reporter. Can you imagine the reaction if a senior official from the George W. Bush White House would’ve said this same comment to Woodward 10 years ago? SRM would’ve pounced and it would be the lead story for weeks!
Second, if reporters are routinely intimidated by White House officials then this needs to be reported more often and stopped. Are there ‘journalists’ out there who have had similar treatment and remained silent? How do they live with themselves? There used to be a time when journalists would wish for an elected official’s administration to threaten them. They could break a story wide open and maybe even win awards.
If we have come to the point where the White House intimidates reporters from writing stories detrimental to the President then we are no better than Cold War Soviet Union. Without an independent 4th Estate doing their jobs then we are vulnerable to an Executive branch that can violate the Constitution and take away our Freedoms.
This is very troubling and let’s watch how other ‘journalists’ react to this obvious attempt of intimidation of Woodward.
It appears these Sequester cuts are going to happen so I’ve started thinking ahead, 3-6 months down the road, and asking myself how Obama will react once the monthly Unemployment data and Q1/Q2 GDP numbers are reported. The more I think about it, the more I realize that this Sequester Cut legislation may be seen as the turning point for America (and that could be either a turn for the worse or a turn for the better).
It is my belief that the effects of the $85 billion Sequester cuts will not be measurable in a $16 trillion economy. Those cuts amount to 0.5% of the US GDP which is within the margin of error so unless I’m way off on the multiplier for the Government portion of our economy, the Sequester cuts will be a non-factor with regard to short term economic data.
But that won’t stop the Left and Right from placing a huge correlation (or non correlation) between the Sequester cuts and these future economic reports. This Sequester Cut/Tax Increase issue is so polarizing, Dem and GOP Party members will not be able to restrain themselves after fresh Economic data is released. After each new Economic report, we’ll then see a Politician grab a microphone to proclaim how their position on the Sequester is being validated in that report.
Our political parties have drawn a Maginot line over the Sequester cuts so like it or not, every new economic report for the next 3-6 months will need to have a Sequester tie-in.
Over the coming months, one of the following scenarios will happen:
Scenario #1 – Unemployment and Q1/Q2 GDP data show the economy as ‘flat’ or growing
This is the worst case for Obama but the best case for the American people. Obama will now have to admit that the Sequester cuts were really not that big of a deal and he was just fear mongering about the damage these minimal cuts would inflict. The American people will realize that Obama was using Alinsky Rule #9 (“The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself”) and now that they finally stood up to the bully, they will not hesitate to do it again.
With Obama’s primary weapon (fear) nullified, Independents will give more credence to what the GOP is saying versus what Obama and Team Fearmonger are saying. In 2014, Republicans can solidify their control of the House and even some of the spineless GOP members might muster some courage to stand up to the Dems. Maybe the house will propose MORE spending cuts since the 2012 Sequester cuts worked so well for the US Economy!
Best case? This could really be the turning point for the GOP as more Americans open up to Fiscal and Economic Conservative principles.
Scenario #2 – Unemployment and Q1/Q2 GDP data shows a contraction of the economy and maybe even a double dip recession
This is the worst case for the American people but the best case for Obama. Now Obama can point to the House GOP as the ones who ‘forced’ the Sequester to happen (even though we know whose fault it is) and caused hard working Americans to lose their jobs and plunge America into yet another economic crisis. You can hear the State Run Media (SRM) being all too anxious to parrot this propaganda (Chuck Todd won’t be able to contain himself). The SRM will forget that economy was already showing signs of weakness before the Sequester cuts kicked in nor will they mention that the economy could also be weighed down with Obamacare looming on the horizon. Nope, the SRM will be consistent in their blame for the economic crisis – Republicans allowing the Sequester cuts to hit because they wanted to protect the wealthy 1% from another income tax hike.
Obama will blame-storm the GOP right up until the 2014 elections, the House will fall back into Democratic hands and that will be GAME OVER. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. You sank my battleship. Checkmate.
Obama will have carte blanche to raise taxes, increase spending for entitlement programs, pass Cap-And –Trade and pass other freedom robbing legislation like stricter gun control laws. There will be nobody to stop Obama for the final two years of his Presidency and that will just about seal the deal by placing American on a firm path to Greece/Destruction.
The Economic reports over the coming months will be like a high stakes game of chance and even if they aren’t aware, America is “All-In!” I guess it’s sort of fitting that in this politically polarized time, our future as a nation will be determined by a piece of Legislation that has little to no effect on the real economic outcome of our country.
Time to roll the dice!
I have a good idea how events will play out over the coming weeks after the Obamaquester spending cuts kick in. The blamestorming from Team Obama and the State Run Media will be fierce for a few weeks but once their dire projections fail to materialize, there will be better times once we push through it.
But before I get to that, let’s review two key facts:
So, even though the Sequester cuts were Obama’s idea and the cuts are a mere 2.4% of our estimated spending in 2013, Obama is telling the American people that these cuts will be devastating. Even NPR is supporting the Obama message by generating this scary headline.
As was pointed out in a comment from one of my recent blog posts, the American people were forced to cut their paychecks by 2% when the payroll tax holiday expired in January so we should expect our Federal Government to (at least) match those cuts in their own spending.
The Mercatus Center at George Mason University put together this chart showing the Federal Government spending with and without the Obamaquester cuts and you can see these ‘deep’ cuts are nothing of the kind.
Notice that spending is STILL INCREASING but that won’t stop Team Obama from demagoguing those who oppose these minimal cuts.
Now Here’s What Will Happen
In the week after the Obamaquester cuts kick in you can expect to see each of Obama’s cabinet Secretaries calling separate press conferences where they’ll tell how these ‘devastating’ cuts are hurting America.
Secretary of State John Kerry will tell us how massive cuts in his department will hamper National Security.
Secretary of the Treasury Neil Wolin will tell us how cuts to his department will curtail efforts to prevent money flowing to terrorist organizations.
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will tell us how cuts to his department will force civilian contractors to have reduced work weeks and will hurt our national security and hurt the economy.
Attorney General Eric Holder will tell us how cuts to his department will force prosecutors to let criminals go free.
Secretary of the Interior Kenneth Salazar will tell us how cuts to his department will limit oil/gas permitting and will drive up energy prices.
Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack will tell us how cuts to his department will shut down meat plants.
Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank will tell us how cuts to her department will limit patent approvals which will hurt startups and the economy.
Acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris will tell us how Obamaquester will be the reason for the increased Unemployment rate we’ll see in March.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius will tell us how cuts to her department will result in people being turned away from hospitals and implementation of Obamacare will be delayed.
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun L. S. Donovan will tell us how cuts to his department will result in hundreds of thousands more homeless.
Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood will tell us how cuts to his department will result in flight cancellations and vital road projects put on hold.
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will tell us how cuts to his department will result in rendering our energy grid less secure and scuttle many green energy projects.
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will tell us how cuts to his department will result in kids being booted from Head Start programs and massive teacher layoffs.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki will tell us how cuts to his department will result in closing VA hospitals and longer waits for wounded veterans coming home from Afghanistan.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will tell us how cuts to her department will result in limited border security, decreased security in airports and limit their fight against terrorism.
Fast Forward To The End Of March
After weeks of the Obama cabinet spewing their fear mongering and the State Run Media parroting the memes, Americans will slowly realize that all the gloom and doom never materialized. The economy was not affected. Our national security was not compromised. Cutting Federal Government spending was actually a good thing. Maybe we should do more to limit our Federal Government spending.
After the Obamaquester cuts hit, the blowback will be sever but have faith. We need to lean into the Team Obama scare tactics for a few weeks and good things will come out of it. The primary weapon of Obama – Government spending cuts will hurt America – will be utterly destroyed and he’ll never be able to use it again. We must push through this Obamaquester spending cuts to reach a turning point in the US.
Anyone who has stood up to a bully, dove off a cliff, started a new career or faced other fears knows this rule is mostly true. We can get so worked up over the anxiety of facing a fear that we are paralyzed and sometimes never muster the courage to face those very fears that are holding us back.
My son went through this process during his first year in football. He is a fairly aggressive kid and loves sports but God didn’t bless him with the frame of a football player. While my son has loved football since as long as he could talk, he was one of the smallest kids on the team and I expected him to be disappointed once he realized this game was for much bigger people. I noticed early on that due to his inexperience and after he was a little intimidated by the older, bigger kids, he held back during the first few practices. For the first time in my son’s short life, I saw anxiousness and a little bit of fear.
Then the first practice came with full pads and this was when full contact was allowed. He had several drills where he lined up with bigger kids and they’d run into each other and there was more than one occasion where my 8 year old son took a big blow and I wondered how he’d react.
After that first full pads practice was over, he came to the sidelines to gather his stuff and I asked him how the practice went. His response? “Dad, that is exactly why I wanted to play football, it was great!”
My son just discovered that the fear of getting hit was much more terrifying than actually getting hit. He went on to have a great time with his first season of football and sure enough he got smacked around pretty good but he escaped with no injuries and best of all, he came away with confidence knowing that he can face other fears that will come his way. It feels good to conquer a fear or stand up to a bully.
And now the American people are facing a bully and his name is Obamaquester. If you don’t know him, go here to find out about him and go here to see who created him. Keep in mind this isn’t the first time this monster has bullied us around. In the recent past he has gone by other names – TARP, Fiscal Cliff, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Cash for Clunkers, Shovel Ready Jobs, Budget Control Act of 2011, Raising the Debt Limit and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Just to name a few…..
Over the course of the past 4+ years a new crisis comes up every few months and we’re told by Obama that if we didn’t act (and SOON!) then our whole society would come crumbling down. It was during the Fiscal Cliff negotiations late last year that I finally realized that Team Obama prefers this “crisis around every corner” environment and they really don’t have any desire to address our country’s most pressing long term fiscal problems.
The election is over. Obama is in his 2nd term as POTUS and can’t be re-elected so why is he still in campaign mode and not actively working with Congress to address our out of control entitlement spending that will destroy our country? You can dismiss this crisis-every-few-months mode of operation if you realize that is the guy’s campaign strategy. Obama won in November so stop it!
But Obama doesn’t stop it. Why he continues to act in this manner is anybody’s guess – He’s ignorant, He’s being controlled by those who wish to destroy the country, He really hates America, He is so delusional that he thinks Keynesian Economics actually works, etc. – I don’t care the reason behind it. The fact remains that he is destroying America as he continues to demagogue the Republicans and scare the American people into following his disastrous course.
Enough!
It’s time for the Republicans in the House to stand up to the bully and let the Obamaquester cuts kick in. Obama proposed these cuts, mandated they be included in the BCA of 2011 and both sides in the House and Senate voted for them. Let it burn.
And here’s the best part about letting the Obamaquester cuts kick in.
Something wonderful will happen months after these supposedly disastrous cuts take place – Americans will wake up and realize everything is OK. The economy didn’t collapse over $85 billion spending cuts from a Federal ‘budget’ that is expected to spend $3.8 trillion in 2013. Independent voters across the land will realize that reducing the size of the Federal Government isn’t nearly as terrifying as Obama and the other Democrats made it out to be. People who only get their news from the Leftist, State supported news organizations will realize people like Chuck Todd, Brian Williams and Chris Matthews are really just shills for the Obama administration. Maybe those talking heads aren’t really telling us the unbiased news after all.
The epiphany that most US citizens will have post-Obamaquester is exactly what terrifies Obama and the Democrats. The American people will call the Left’s bluff, take a hit and realize there is nothing to be feared from a smaller government. The main weapon of fear for Team Obama will be nullified and the American people will realize the threats coming from Obama were really much less than advertised.
Stand up to the bully and let the Obamaquester happen. I don’t call Obamaquester a crisis – I call it a good first step.
Red State American Thinker Wall Street Journal sky and telescope
