What is a Fair Share?

Posted on 15-Apr-2013 by Highvoltage

One of the Left’s favorite memes is telling people that everyone should pay their fair share of taxes.  Of course they can never define what a ‘fair share’ is and it’s no accident we never see people like Elizabeth Warren tell us exactly what she means by this term.  If they told us what their real definition was it would frighten people because they basically want more tax revenue until there are no more wealthy people and we are all poor and dependent on the Government.

Instead of making everyone poor, I am a Conservative and I prefer to increase everyone’s wealth by following Free Market principles.  Since I’m not afraid to tell people what I feel is a ‘fair share’, let me attempt to define that term and prove that the wealthiest 50% of Americans are actually paying MORE than their ‘fair share.’

There are two measurements that I’ll use to formulate my ‘fair share’ definition – Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) share percentage and Total Income Tax share percentage.   These terms are reported annually by the IRS and are broken down by income demographics (Top 1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50%).  The IRS reports how much of the total US AGI is accounted for in each income demographic and how much each income demographic pays as a percent of overall income tax for that year.

So my definition of a ‘fair share’ is this – Each income demographic group should pay a percentage of total income tax that is equivalent to their corresponding AGI percentage.  In other words – If you are in an income demographic group that accounts for 20% of all income in the US then your total group should account for 20% of all income taxes collected.

Sounds fair, right?  Your percent of the income tax is equal to your share of the income.

Side Note – This definition is not the same as a Fair Tax system and while I’m a big proponent of this, we don’t have that now so I’m attempting a definition of ‘fair share’ that works with our existing progressive income tax structure.

Ok, now let’s dig into the data and see how close we come to my ‘fair share’ definition.  And in an interest to fully disclose my data source – I use the IRS website to obtain the particular spreadsheet that I need to generate the graphs you’ll see below.  Tax year 2010 is the latest data the IRS has published so that is what I’ll be using here.  I did a similar analysis with 2009 tax data and you can go here if you are interested.

Here is a graph showing how the various income demographic groups are divided in 2010 based on the minimum annual income (in 2010 dollars).

Income Groups

Now let’s look at the percent of AGI for the top 3 income demographics over the past 10 years and you can see that the top 1% accounted for roughly 20% of the total AGI, the top 5% accounted for around 35% and the top 10% accounted for around 45%.

percent of agi

If my definition of ‘fair share’ is correct then the amount of total income tax by these three income demographic groups should be about equal to their AGI percentages (20% for the top 1%, 35% for the top 5% and 45% for the top 10%).

1%

5%

10%

Wait a minute!  These income demographic groups are paying almost twice their percentage of tax revenue when compared to their AGI revenue.  How can Leftists say they aren’t paying their fair share?  The IRS data show that they are paying much more than their fair share!

To show it another way, I’ve graphed the AGI percentages vs. Tax percentages of the top 50% for 2010 and compared that with what the graph should look like if we used my definition of ‘fair share’ (Tax percentage equals AGI percentage).

fair share

When you look at a graph over the past 10 years (comparing 2001 with 2010) comparing AGI share with Tax share, you see that we are moving in a direction of more unfairness (each income demographic is paying a bigger share of the Tax revenue that doesn’t match their AGI share).

tax burden vs agi

It looks even worse when you look at each group and compare how much their AGI share increased versus their Tax share increased from 2001 to 2010.

increase in tax burden

The top 1% saw their AGI share increase by just over 1.5 percentage point from 2001 to 2010 but their share of the Tax revenue increased by over 4 percentage points!  Doesn’t it seem ‘fair’ that when your share of the total more income increases by X percentage points that your share of the income taxes shouldn’t increase by more than X percentage points?  Apparently not for Leftists!

There is no way you can honestly look at this data and tell the American people that the wealthy aren’t paying their fair share.  Any attempt to do so reveals that you are either ignorant of the data or have a more insidious purpose.  Or both.

Posted in economics, politics | 12 Comments

The Ghouls of the Left Come Out

Posted on 11-Apr-2013 by Highvoltage

If you haven’t been following the horrible atrocities coming to light from the Kermit Gosnell trial, then watch this video first.  Warning, this is very disturbing and details the brutal murder of babies that occurred for years inside a Philadelphia abortion clinic.

Severed feet, cutting the heads off babies that were born alive…..Disgusting and May God have mercy on our nation for allowing this to happen.

What is the reaction from the Far Left?  They are worried that this story will impact policies (i.e. Abortion) that they like.  They want the story suppressed and marginalized.

Just look at a few tweets from a couple of Leftist Ghouls on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/mikeyfranklin/status/322524460315975681

https://twitter.com/mikeyfranklin/status/322538378971193346

Here are a few of my replies to them (which of course went unanswered).

Leftists are upset about this Gosnell story, not because of the horrific murder of babies, but because this revelation of the true brutality of abortion might undermine their agenda.  They are just awful people.

Don’t forget that Obama once supported these kinds of abortions.

Posted in politics | 22 Comments

Building a Legacy at the University of Louisville

Posted on 09-Apr-2013 by Highvoltage

lou-champ-splash-552x404_07

It’s a great time to be a Louisville Cardinal!

The University of Louisville athletic programs have never been stronger and the results on the field are proof of that.

  • The football team beat #4 ranked Florida in the Sugar Bowl in January.
  • Earlier this year, football coach Charlie Strong turned down a highly lucrative job at the University of Tennessee in order to remain at U of L.
  • The baseball team is ranked in the top 10 and played in the finals of the College World Series in 2007.
  • The men’s soccer team made it to the championship game in 2010.
  • The women’s basketball team has made it to the championship game in 2009 and 2013.
  • Ten teams from U of L won Big East Championships during the 2011-2012 seasons.
  • The men’s basketball team followed up their Final Four appearance in 2012 with a championship in 2013.
  • Not to mention other post season tournament appearances by other sports such as volleyball, women’s soccer and softball in 2011-2012.

Yes, it’s a great time to be a Louisville Cardinal!  But it wasn’t always like this.

When I was a student at the University of Louisville in the late 80’s and early 90’s, we had a deep sports tradition in men’s basketball but that was it.  The football team was so bad that many students, including myself, would bypass the game and remain in the tailgating area.  The run down baseball field was located next to the Engineering school and I’d walk over between classes to catch some of the day games since admission was free and people rarely bothered to attend.  Outside of Freedom Hall (where the basketball team played), the rest of the facilities (including the football stadium) were outdated or in such disrepair that it was an embarrassment.

But not now!  In the picture below you can see the new sports complex located just to the west of I-65.  When I was in school, this area was dilapidated and contained cheap motels, gas stations and cheap restaurants but the University took over that area and totally renovated it.  What a powerful advertisement to the University sitting next to a major artery of the city!

new sports complex

What happened to turn the U of L athletic program around?  About 15 years ago the school hired Tom Jurich as their new Athletic Director.

NPR has a great story about the turnaround from a school many called ‘little brother’ (in reference to the larger, more successful athletic University of Kentucky) and rightfully focuses on the hiring of Mr. Jurich as the turning point.   Read the story to get a better idea of the turnaround but the part of the article that stood out to me was the management philosophy that enabled Mr. Jurich to bring about this successful transformation.

“You walk through our hallways, you see people bouncing off the walls. That’s good. I like to be able to try to rein people in instead of trying to create an energy. If you have to create an energy, you got the wrong people,” Jurich says.”

That is powerful!  If you build a team with people who 1) are scared to make waves, 2) refuse to push the envelope or 3) require constant motivation then you have assembled the wrong team.  You need people who have the drive and ambition to improve the business and once you have that kind of team, your only job as a leader is to set the vision and then step back and make sure they stay on track.

That’s not to say you build a team with people who are so aggressive that they destroy the team dynamic.  At the risk of putting words into someone else’s mouth, that is not what is meant when Mr. Jurich said he had to ‘rein’ in people.  What I believe he’s talking about is when people have ideas that don’t meet the goals and vision of the organization at the time and therefore you have to redirect those resources to other areas.  When you have a highly motivated team, the project field is target rich and you don’t have to spend time inventing projects to work on.  You spend your time allocating your resources to work on the projects that are most pressing and provide the most payback to the organization.

This is sound advice for any leader who is building a team.  Spend the extra time finding the right people and many of your day to day tactical management issues will suddenly vanish and you’ll find yourself immersed in long term strategic leadership.

Posted in sports | 2 Comments

A Life Changing Moment

Posted on 07-Apr-2013 by Highvoltage

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote in his poem “Rainy Days” these famous words:

“Into each life some rain must fall”

On March 7th, during my yearly physical, a little rain fell on me because that is the day I was diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

As bad as the announcement was, this was not a total shock.  Not because I don’t eat healthy, exercise and watch my weight but because genetically the odds were in favor of me contracting this disease.  My dad was diagnosed with it in his early 40’s and there were others in his family that died from complications of this disease (his mom and two of his brothers).

But even though I expected it, I was still in denial for the first couple of days.  My active lifestyle and stellar annual physicals had lulled me into a false sense of security that I’d somehow cheat this disease even though I was hard wired to get it.  And besides, I don’t fit the typical definition of someone who contracts Type II diabetes.  I don’t smoke.  I only drink water and avoid soft drinks and sweet tea (which is tough to do in the South!).  I don’t eat sweets and in fact I don’t even like them.  But that didn’t matter.

I must admit that I had made some lifestyle choices that weren’t the best over the past couple of years.  I significantly dropped off from my normal exercise routine and to make matters worse, I didn’t reduce my carb intake which resulted in my putting on about 15 pounds.  I also stayed up too late (blogging!) and didn’t get the amount of sleep I required which also contributed to my weight gain.  But still, I was in descent health and could still run a mile without stopping which is better than a vast majority of Americans.

The fact still remained that I had this disease and now it was time for me to make lifestyle changes to combat the disease.  Although this sounds harsh to some, my goal now is to die from something unrelated to Diabetes.  In an effort to hold me accountable to that goal and to share my story with others who may be in a similar situation, I’ll start a new ‘Diabetes’ category on my blog and this first entry will catalog the start of my journey living with this disease and catalog the progress I’ve made so far.

I’m still in a learning mode about this disease and there are orders of magnitudes of information that I don’t know.  The small lifestyle changes I’ve made over the past few weeks are only based on limited research on the internet and what I know about how my body responds to exercise and diet.

Unlike many who contract this disease, I’m not totally ignorant on a healthy lifestyle because I’ve been a runner since March of 1999.  When I turned 30 I found myself about 20 pounds overweight and decided to do something about it and running was something that I immediately took to.  I completed the Chicago Marathon in 2000 and ran 5-10 races a year up until a couple of years ago so I know how to train and fuel my body with good foods to keep my body in top shape.

Within the last few weeks, here are the changes I’ve made as well as some of the existing things I continued in an effort to reduce my blood sugar levels.

  • I started running or cycling 5 days a week (30-60 minutes for running and 1-2 hours cycling).
  • For my lunches on the weekdays I eat only a veggie sub from Subway.
  • I started taking one aspirin (325 mg) each day after my lunchtime run.
  • I now get 6-8 hours of sleep each night.
  • My meals are now smaller and more frequent and my daily meals look something like this – a small breakfast (oatmeal or breakfast sandwich), a mid morning snack of fruits/almonds/berries, veggie sub for lunch, a mid afternoon snack of fruits/almonds/berries and then a modest healthy dinner at home.
  • I restarted my daily dose of Acai berry juice (this is my favorite).  I used to drink this daily when I was exercising more regularly but then stopped it when my exercise dropped off.  This is not only a great tasting beverage but I find it has many beneficial health benefits as well.
  • I continued to take 2 multivitamins per day (I use these).
  • I started Metformin which is a standard entry level Diabetes drug.  Fortunately, I have not experienced the side effects of this medicine and as I enter into care of an Endocrinologist, my medicine and dosage may change but for right now, I think Metformin has been very beneficial to me over the past few weeks.
  • I limited myself to one alcoholic drink per day.

The graph below represents my daily blood sugar measurements (twice per day – out of bed and before dinner) over the past month.  The red dots show when I started to take Metformin (staring with one pill per day with the first red dot and then two pills per day after the two red dots).

blood sugar measurements

As an engineer, I’m fascinated with data and love the challenge of trying to figure out what process inputs affect the process output so I’ve enjoyed charting my blood sugar measurements after making various lifestyle/medicine changes.  You can see there was a lag of a couple of days when I started Metformin and the step function drop in blood sugar.  You can also notice the steady trend down in measurements and, more importantly, the less variation in measurements as I’ve progressed.

Now that I know the symptoms of this disease, I realize that I’ve been living with this for over a year and thankfully I got this wake-up call early enough to hopefully do something about it.  I will post regularly about Diabetes as I learn more and when I can share my progress and the lifestyle changes that I make that I feel have had an effect on my blood sugar.  I will be candid and tell the good with the bad in hopes that others may benefit from my sharing or maybe others who are more experienced battling this disease can counsel me on ways I can improve my health.

Posted in Diabetes | 20 Comments

AGW Cult Doubles Down On Stupid

Posted on 02-Apr-2013 by Highvoltage

You have to hand it to the Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) cult, they never give up or go off script even when the evidence against their primary thesis is hiding in plain sight.

It’s one thing for them to ignore an obscure blogger like myself when I publish a post every 3 months showing that there has been no increase in global temperatures for 15 years even though atmospheric CO2 continues to increase.  But when The Economist (a Left leaning magazine that has been a known to push climate change stories) published an article that casts serious doubt on the climate models and the AGW cult past predictions, you’d think the AGW cult would have to pack it in and admit they’ve been lying all these years.

Nope!

I had to check this link out and make sure this wasn’t an April fool’s tweet and sure enough the BBC article appears to be legit.  There is a real paper in Nature Geoscience that the BBC article references.

“Changes in sea ice significantly modulate climate change because of its high reflective and strong insulating nature. In contrast to Arctic sea ice, sea ice surrounding Antarctica has expanded, with record extent in 2010. This ice expansion has previously been attributed to dynamical atmospheric changes that induce atmospheric cooling. Here we show that accelerated basal melting of Antarctic ice shelves is likely to have contributed significantly to sea-ice expansion. Specifically, we present observations indicating that melt water from Antarctica’s ice shelves accumulates in a cool and fresh surface layer that shields the surface ocean from the warmer deeper waters that are melting the ice shelves.”

So melting ice produces cold water on the surface that refreezes and causes more ice extent in the South Pole.  Ok, I have two questions.

1 – How do they know this is true?

Easy, the climate models say so (from the abstract at Nature Geoscience):

“Simulating these processes in a coupled climate model we find that cool and fresh surface water from ice-shelf melt indeed leads to expanding sea ice in austral autumn and winter.”

The same climate models that were wrong in predicting global temperature rises (as shown in The Economist article reference above) also validate this latest theory on increased ice extent in the South Pole.  Great, that’s all the proof I need.

2 – Why aren’t the same phenomena happening in the North Pole?  The AGW cult likes to point to reduced ice extent in the North Pole as proof of their theory but melting ice can produce cold surface water there too.

Oddly enough, I couldn’t find the answer to that one!

Do you notice the desperation here?  The AGW cult started out with simple predictions of what will happen with more CO2 being added to the atmosphere (higher global temperatures, polar ice melt, rising oceans) but when that wasn’t scary enough they said storms would be stronger (hurricanes, tornados, floods), winters would be warmer, many northern locations would not have snow anymore and they even tried to tie earthquakes to AGW.  When that didn’t scare enough people (because those predictions didn’t come true) they then started the art of ‘hindcasting’ their predictions.  They’d take an event that they didn’t predict (i.e. colder winters, growing ice in Antarctica) and develop elaborate theories to say they predicted those events as well.

It’d be too kind to call the AGW cult clowns because their government funded research is not only wasting people’s money, they are destroying the once good reputation of Science by blatantly falsifying data.

The AGW cult is desperate and we should expect more unhinged behavior as more of their members realize they are standing in a corner that they’ve painted themselves into.  This is the real inconvenient truth that all liars eventually realize.

Posted in Climate Change | 3 Comments

Hansen Kills Two Birds With One Stone

Posted on 31-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

The AGW Cult corruption is easily proven as they tamper with past temperature data. In a saner world, these guys would be in jail.

Tony Heller's avatarReal Climate Science

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.

screenhunter_1137-may-12-16-36

Science News Ice Age

Neither of these facts fit Hansen’s theory, so he largely got rid of both.

ScreenHunter_52 Mar. 31 07.34

Data.GISS: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis: Analysis Graphs and Plots

GISS has a link on their web page to the data.

Annual and five-year running mean temperature changes with the base period 1951-1980 for the northern (red) and southern (blue) hemispheres.

available is a table

Data.GISS: GISS Surface Temperature Analysis: Analysis Graphs and Plots

Their public data link is of course forbidden, in the spirit of transparency.

ScreenHunter_59 Mar. 31 07.46

403 Forbidden

Fortunately I was able to find a link in the Internet archive from 2010.

ZonAnn.Ts+dSST.txt

The graph below plots Hansen’s Northern Hemisphere five year running mean from that data set…

View original post 137 more words

Posted in Climate Change | 1 Comment

He Is Risen!

Posted on 30-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

Posted in christianity | 1 Comment

So What Happens After Easter?

Posted on 29-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

emptytomb

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.

Posted in christianity | Leave a comment

The New Ice Age Is Here!

Posted on 27-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

20130327-093833.jpg

And when you add in more years for comparison it looks even more horrific.

20130327-094016.jpg

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.

20130327-094107.jpg

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)

Posted in Climate Change | Leave a comment

No Warming For 15 Years

Posted on 24-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

Winter trend 1998-2013

winter trend

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.

Annual Trend 1998-2012

annual trend

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.

Madrid, Spain

spain

Osterstund, Sweden

sweden

Godthab Nuuk, Greenland

greenland

Nagpur Sonega, India

India

Kimberley, South Africa

south africa

Anchorage, Alaska

anchorage

Paso Robles, California

california

Lake City, Florida

florida

Lincoln, Pennsylvania

penn

St. Louis, Missouri

st. louis

Phoenix, Arizona

phoenix

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).

ft valley

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.

Posted in Climate Change | 9 Comments

NPR Talks About Gun Control

Posted on 21-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

Posted in npr, politics | 4 Comments

A Way to Rebuild the US Infrastructure

Posted on 19-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

The American Society of Civil Engineers released their 2013 Infrastructure Report Card today and the grades aren’t very good.

report card

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.

Posted in economics, Entitlement Programs, politics | 1 Comment

Global Temperature and CO2 Update – March 2013

Posted on 17-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

co2

Here are the plots of global temperature averages compiled by the Climate Research Unit and the University of Alabama Huntsville.

cru1

uah1

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.

cru2

uah2

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?

cos vs cru

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.

Posted in Climate Change | 27 Comments

A Radical Budget Compromise Plan

Posted on 14-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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:

BL-house-senate-budget-comparison

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?

Posted in economics, healthcare, Over Regulation, politics | 1 Comment

Comet PanSTARRS Binocular Pictures

Posted on 12-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

panstarrs1

panstarrs2

panstarrs3

panstarrs4

Posted in astronomy | Leave a comment

Game Over?

Posted on 11-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

Posted in politics | 7 Comments

Unprecedented Warming

Posted on 10-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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:

vostok1

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.”

Posted in Climate Change, npr | 3 Comments

Takeaways From the Feb BLS Employment Report

Posted on 08-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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.

Posted in economics, politics | Leave a comment

Ashley Judd Senate Campaign HQ

Posted on 06-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

Ashley Judd

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!

ashley-judd-medusa1

judd sweat

Item #7 – Here are some tweets that are worthy of a US Senator. Right?

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?

Posted in politics | 15 Comments

Bitterness, Forgiveness and Politics

Posted on 04-Mar-2013 by Highvoltage

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!

Posted in christianity, politics | 9 Comments