Friday - March 16, 2007
Paranoid or Prepared?
The Mrs. has an excellent article about the difference.
How prepared is prepared enough and at what point does someone cross the line from being a responsible gun owner to some sort of stereotype. Are you prepared or paranoid to the extent of being delusional?
I also read Jim Rawles’ Survival Blog and find it very interesting to contrast the different mindsets Mrs. DuToit lays out. I consider myself modestly prepared. The ice-storm that hit us a few weeks ago was a good test of our preparedness as we were without utilities for about three days in below-freezing tempuratures. Now that we see where our weaknesses are, even for a major storm and not “the end of the world as we know it”, we can shore them up and make our homestead a little more solid.
How about you? Where do you stand on the preparedness scale?
Fighting Fire with Fire
From Misha, we get the newest in fighting gear available to our troops.
Introducing the RPC - Rocket Propelled Chainsaw.
Click the link to see it in action.
Thursday - March 15, 2007
Weaker is Stronger?
Via Xavier
James Randi Explains Homeopothy
There Ought to be a Law!
Our Friend John Stossel has an interesting read today.
Whenever someone is hurt in an accident, people say, “There ought to be a law!”
Politicians rush to oblige them and then take credit for all the lives they saved.
But shouldn’t they also accept blame for the lives lost because of those laws?
Heh
Wednesday - March 14, 2007
Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy
Clinton: Right-Wing Conspiracy Is Back
WASHINGTON (AP) - Mar 13, 10:57 AM (ET)
Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told Democrats Tuesday the “vast, right-wing conspiracy” is back, using a phrase she once coined to describe partisan criticism. Speaking to Democratic municipal officials, the New York senator used the term to hammer Republicans on election irregularities.
Clinton was first lady when she famously charged allegations of an affair between her then-president husband Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica Lewinsky were the result of a conservative conspiracy.
As evidence of the affair eventually came to light, the comment was ridiculed.But many Democrats have since insisted that Clinton was correct, pointing to the well-documented efforts by conservative financier Richard Mellon Scaife to fund a network of anti-Clinton investigations.
On Tuesday, she asserted the conspiracy is alive and well, and cited as proof the Election Day 2002 case of phone jamming in New Hampshire, a case in which two Republican operatives pleaded guilty to criminal charges, and a third was convicted.
“To the New Hampshire Democratic party’s credit, they sued and the trail led all the way to the Republican National Committee,” Clinton said. “So if anybody tells you there is no vast right-wing conspiracy, tell them that New Hampshire has proven it in court,” she said.
Former RNC operative James Tobin was convicted of telephone harassment and appealed his conviction. The investigation arose after Democratic organizers’ phones were overwhelmed by annoying hang-up calls hindering their get-out-the-vote efforts.
Bush’s Campaign Office In Spokane Burglarized, Vandalized
(SEATTLE TIMES) - Monday, October 11, 2004
Offices that house President Bush’s re-election campaign in Spokane were broken into and vandalized last night, the latest in a string of crimes at Republican offices across the country.
Workers arriving this morning found a hole smashed through the wall from an adjacent, vacant office. Bush campaign officials say a small amount of petty cash is missing and a computer and television had been moved and left near the hole.
“They must have gotten spooked because they ultimately left the computer and TV,” said Bill Hyslop, the campaign’s chairman for the Fifth Congressional District. The computer and the TV had recently arrived in Spokane and the computer was loaded with information from the Republican get-out-the vote program.
Spokane police responded this morning and took the computer’s monitor and the TV, Hyslop said. “We obviously have no idea who did this and are not going to cast aspersions,” said Hyslop, who served as U.S. attorney in Spokane under President George H.W. Bush.
In Bellevue last week, computers that stored the Republican get-out-the-vote database were stolen in a burglary at the Republican headquarters there. Bush campaign officials believe the break-ins are part of a broader attack on the president’s re-election offices around the country, including a burglary in Canton, Ohio, last night, gun shots fired in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee and union protestors storming offices in three Florida cities and Minneapolis.
on 03/14/2007 at 06:28 AM
Crime • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Hildabeast • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Motivational Poster Of The Day
Green Britannia
Can someone explain to me why the Brits haven’t crept out in the dead of night and tossed all the tea in to the London River and had their own little “London Tea Party”? Over 250 years ago we told the British government to f**k off when they tried to interfere too much in our lives. Now that same government is doing it to its own citizens at home.
Of course, we’re partly to blame since Al Gore is over there this week indoctrinating the government bullshitting the politicians in his vision of glowbull warming. We’re sorry, chaps. Try to ignore him as best you can ...
Warning To Homeowners As The Green Vision Is Unveiled
(DAILY MAIL-UK) - 00:29am on 14th March 2007
Ministers yesterday promised deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions that they warned would mean everyone in the country having to ‘live, work and travel differently’. They compared the scale of change that was necessary to reduce emissions by 60 per cent by 2050 to the industrial revolution of the 18th century.
The Government said that every new home should be ‘carbon neutral’ within ten years - and existing properties subject to a ‘home energy audit’ to assess how green they are.
Householders would be given access to ‘hassle-free’ renovation services to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. They would be able to ‘buy now, pay later’ for green improvements as their fuel bills decreased.
Zero carbon homes are insulated to reduce heating costs, use solar panels, windpower or other renewable energy sources, are made with environmentally friendly materials and use energy efficient light bulbs and appliances.
Critics said the plans raised the prospect of ‘eco-snoopers’ inspecting homes. Blair Gibbs, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “It’s bad enough that politicians want to take so much of our money away in tax. For them also to intrude into our homes in order to have the ability to penalise us even further is simply unacceptable.”
Unveiling the plans, Environment Secretary David Miliband said it would be “painful” to continue to have an “energy inefficient home”. Those that did would face higher bills, he added.
- More ...
on 03/14/2007 at 01:40 AM
Climate-Weather • EUro-peons • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
Carbon Footprint
Gary McCoy - Cagle Cartoons
Tuesday - March 13, 2007
Quote Of The Day
“They were experiencing temperatures that weren’t expected with global warming. But one of the things we see with global warming is unpredictability.”
-- Ann Atwood, organizer of the Bancroft-Arnesen expedition to traverse the Arctic.
“Ann said losing toes and going forward at all costs was never part of the journey,” said Ann Atwood, who helped organize the expedition. On Monday, the pair was at Canada’s Ward Hunt Island, awaiting a plane to take them to Resolute, Canada, where they were to return to Minneapolis later this week.
Then there was the cold — quite a bit colder, Atwood said, then Bancroft and Arnesen had expected. One night they measured the temperature inside their tent at 58 degrees below zero, and outside temperatures were exceeding 100 below zero at times, Atwood said.
Lost!
OK, avionauts! Tough one for you today. I’m lost over the only continent on the face of the Earth that has no deserts. None whatsoever. Down below me is a USAF base that is home to two F-16 “Viper” fighter squadrons. The base was built by a former enemy of the US - but that’s OK, ‘cause we get along with them nowadays. If you’ve ever been to this base, the golf course down there should be a dead giveaway ....
(Click image for larger 1065x915 in popup window)
(Photo from Google Earth Desktop)
Motivational Poster Of The Day
Heroes In Action: Part LXI
Yes Virginia, there are still honest-to-God heroes out there in this world and no honey, they are not in the NBA or on MTV. They are slogging away day after day fighting evil in the rain and mud, in sandstorms and danger zones in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sgt. Taylor is one of those heroes. Thanks to his quick, unselfish thinking, two Afghan National Police are alive today. Here’s the story ....
Army Sergeant Saves Two ANP With Quick Response
(CENTCOM) - March 13, 2007
On Feb. 22, 2006, Taylor and his intelligence team headed out to search for roadside bombs in a volatile region of Afghanistan. They had received word that a bomb had exploded in the area the night before, so his team – a combination of Afghan national police officers, Army intelligence personnel, and U.S. military police – planned to gather any information and evidence about the explosion. By studying the bomb’s components, they might be able to determine who manufactured it – and how to protect against similar devices in the future.
They climbed to the top of a ridge to scout the valley below, where the bomb was supposed to be. There were no civilians in sight, which instantly put Taylor on alert. The wooden box supposedly holding the shards of the bomb drew the team’s attention. Yet, instead of pieces of an exploded bomb, the box held a receiver for an anti-tank landmine – and a large rocket.
Having hardly any time to think, Taylor grabbed the two Afghan police officers near him and jumped on top of them in a ditch, just as the weapon exploded. The flying shrapnel found its mark with Taylor – but his body armor protected him from serious injury. The Afghans had been wearing only flannel shirts, and so were saved by Taylor’s split-second decision. For his actions, he was awarded the Bronze Star with “V” on Jan. 6, 2007.
CAIR Update
Not only is CAIR sleeping with the enemy, they are using the enemy to swindle people out of money. I can’t think of a better reason to send in the FBI to close this evil organization down and lock up every one of the top leaders. This organization has no place in America as their intentions are clearly known by now. With several of their leaders already in jail for terrorist-related charges these insidious spies in our midst continue to convince me that the conquest of America is their only goal. Shut ‘em down ... NOW!
CAIR’s Blood Money
-- By Patrick Poole
FrontPageMagazine.com - March 13, 2007
The terrorists had intended to topple one of the buildings onto the other, potentially killing tens of thousands of innocent Americans. Sadly, the fourteenth anniversary of that event passed last week with very little discussion by major media outlets, even though that lethal attack by Islamic terrorists ominously foreshadowed the unspeakable horror of 9/11.
At 8:00 pm on June 6, 2006, the Ohio affiliate of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OH) honored one of the unindicted conspirators in that 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Siraj Wahhaj, a Brooklyn, NY imam that had also served as a defense witness at the trial of one of the men convicted for that terrorist attack, the “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel-Rahman (a conviction that CAIR has labeled “a travesty of justice”). More than 400 CAIR-OH supporters gathered at this fundraising banquet.
Following the event, CAIR-OH issued a press release heralding the more than $100,000 that Siraj Wahhaj had helped raise that evening for the organization’s “civil liberties work”. CAIR-OH Director Adnan Mirza attributed the fundraiser’s success to the popularity of CAIR-OH’s agenda with Ohio Muslims. “Our community sent a very clear message that the work we do is vital to the well-being of the Ohio Muslim community and that CAIR-Ohio’s efforts are appreciated,” she said.
Of course, Siraj Wahhaj’s ties to the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack may not have been known to the hundreds of CAIR supporters who were in attendance that evening, but they were certainly known to CAIR. On repeated occasions, CAIR officials on the state and national level have not only risen to the defense of Wahhaj, but they have gone to great lengths to embrace the unindicted terror co-conspirator and involve him in the inner workings of the organization, such as having him serve on their Advisory Board. CAIR National spokesman, Ibrahim Hooper, has gone so far as to call Wahhaj “one of the most respected Muslim leaders in America.” Curiously, that article by Hooper praising Wahhaj has disappeared from CAIR’s website.
Private Property
I was on another forum earlier and a member from Norway posted a link to an interesting article about private property rights around the world.
If you look at the results, the USA ranks at 14th (tied with Canada and Ireland) for percieved PP rights.
The discussion about this report, and the remark from our friend in Norway that he cannot block access to his land from anyone using it, led to this comment from one of the posters:
None of us actually own land - we only rent it from the government with payments of taxes. If you don’t believe this, just try not paying your rent for a couple years. This gives many people the idea that if the government owns the land, and the government is “of-the-people, by-the-people, for-the-people”, then it follows logically that many feel they can use anything of the “government’s” for themselves.
This got me to really thinking about it. If we have to pay taxes every year for owning our land or it will be taken away from us (which it will), then do we really own it? If not, then it follows logically that the government agencies feel no compunction at all in taking it via eminent domain to give to developers. Is it any wonder?
Thoughts?
See Owe Too Rising
More and more climatologists and research scientists are calling “foul” over Al Gore and his movie “An Inconvenient Truth Bullshit”. Now even the NY TIMES is throwing the yellow flag on Gore for a 10-yard holding penalty. Holding what, nobody knows.
Gore has his Oscar for the fictional account of the end of the world and he’s jet-setting across the globe giving speeches here and there so there are still idiots out there buying what he’s holding. Lord only knows why.
The “Inconvenient Truth” of the matter is that Gore is full of shit. Always has been, always will be. After the 2000 election he went into a blue funk, grew a beard and ran off to France. From there he managed to rise from the ashes, probably with help from George Soros and a few Hollywood jerkwads to afflict us with this attempt to bring the engine of the world to a halt. Fortunately, Gore is not John Galt so we can safely ignore him.
He won’t be going away any time soon so you might as well kick back and enjoy the show. The Gorebot plods on in a futile attempt to relive the past glory of having been Slick Willy Clinton’s vice-prez. Pathetic ... absolutely pathetic ...
Gary McCoy - The Suburban Journal
From a Rapt Audience, a Call to Cool the Hype
(NY TIMES) - March 13, 2007
But part of his scientific audience is uneasy. In talks, articles and blog entries that have appeared since his film and accompanying book came out last year, these scientists argue that some of Mr. Gore’s central points are exaggerated and erroneous. They are alarmed, some say, at what they call his alarmism.
“I don’t want to pick on Al Gore,” Don J. Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University, told hundreds of experts at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. “But there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing, and we have to temper that with real data.”
Mr. Gore, in an e-mail exchange about the critics, said his work made “the most important and salient points” about climate change, if not “some nuances and distinctions” scientists might want. “The degree of scientific consensus on global warming has never been stronger,” he said, adding, “I am trying to communicate the essence of it in the lay language that I understand.”
Although Mr. Gore is not a scientist, he does rely heavily on the authority of science in “An Inconvenient Truth,” which is why scientists are sensitive to its details and claims.
Criticisms of Mr. Gore have come not only from conservative groups and prominent skeptics of catastrophic warming, but also from rank-and-file scientists like Dr. Easterbook, who told his peers that he had no political ax to grind. A few see natural variation as more central to global warming than heat-trapping gases. Many appear to occupy a middle ground in the climate debate, seeing human activity as a serious threat but challenging what they call the extremism of both skeptics and zealots.
Kevin Vranes, a climatologist at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado, said he sensed a growing backlash against exaggeration. While praising Mr. Gore for “getting the message out,” Dr. Vranes questioned whether his presentations were “overselling our certainty about knowing the future.”
Typically, the concern is not over the existence of climate change, or the idea that the human production of heat-trapping gases is partly or largely to blame for the globe’s recent warming. The question is whether Mr. Gore has gone beyond the scientific evidence.
“He’s a very polarizing figure in the science community,” said Roger A. Pielke Jr., an environmental scientist who is a colleague of Dr. Vranes at the University of Colorado center. “Very quickly, these discussions turn from the issue to the person, and become a referendum on Mr. Gore.”
“An Inconvenient Truth,” directed by Davis Guggenheim, was released last May and took in more than $46 million, making it one of the top-grossing documentaries ever. The companion book by Mr. Gore quickly became a best seller, reaching No. 1 on the New York Times list.
Mr. Gore depicted a future in which temperatures soar, ice sheets melt, seas rise, hurricanes batter the coasts and people die en masse. “Unless we act boldly,” he wrote, “our world will undergo a string of terrible catastrophes.”
He clearly has supporters among leading scientists, who commend his popularizations and call his science basically sound. In December, he spoke in San Francisco to the American Geophysical Union and got a reception fit for a rock star from thousands of attendees.“He has credibility in this community,” said Tim Killeen, the group’s president and director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a top group studying climate change. “There’s no question he’s read a lot and is able to respond in a very effective way.”
Some backers concede minor inaccuracies but see them as reasonable for a politician. James E. Hansen, an environmental scientist, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and a top adviser to Mr. Gore, said, “Al does an exceptionally good job of seeing the forest for the trees,” adding that Mr. Gore often did so “better than scientists.”
Still, Dr. Hansen said, the former vice president’s work may hold “imperfections” and “technical flaws.” He pointed to hurricanes, an icon for Mr. Gore, who highlights the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and cites research suggesting that global warming will cause both storm frequency and deadliness to rise. Yet this past Atlantic season produced fewer hurricanes than forecasters predicted (five versus nine), and none that hit the United States.
Moving Out
Fact #1: Companies move their corporate offices offshore to places like Bermuda every day to escape US taxes and allow them to compete with international companies who pay no US tax; Fact#2: Halliburton is moving where their clients are, not offshore to Bermuda so taxes are probably not their main reason for moving if they could just move to Bermuda which is much closer; Fact #3: Democrats have mercilessly harassed Halliburton from the day they found out Dick Cheney used to work there; Fact #4: What we really need to do is convince the bloviating Blotards in Congress to pack up and move themselves offshore - and slam the door behind them when they leave.
The Donks are at it again, pitching a hissy fit because their favorite whipping boy is packing up and moving out. Who will they harass now? No wonder they’re upset. The fact is that only about 10% of government revenue comes from corporate taxes, according to GAO figures. Nearly 80% comes from individual income taxes so unless the Halliburton employees decide to renounce their citizenship the tax revenue reduction will be negligible if even noticed at all in the giant $2 trillion bucket of money the government collects each year.
So what we have here is a tempest in a teapot, manufactured in whole by a political party that is totally bankrupt of ideas, divided and angry at everyone who refuses to accept them as overlords and masters. That would be Democrats. Of course they won’t stop Halliburton from moving out and they shouldn’t even try but their insane base expects them to bash anything associated with Bush/Cheney and so they scream, rant and yell at the EEEEVIL company and make all kinds of threats. Ain’t it sad to watch these alleged grownups behave like this ... ?
Halliburton’s Dubai Move Sparks US Political Ire
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Mon Mar 12, 5:44 PM ET
“Does this mean they are going to quit paying taxes in America?” asked Clinton, a US presidential candidate. “They get a lot of government contracts, is this going to affect the investigations that are going on? Because we have a lot of evidence of misuse of government contracts and how they have cheated the American soldier and cheated the American taxpayer,” Clinton, speaking in New York, said of Halliburton.
The firm and its former KBR subsidiary, which is being spun off, have endured several contracting controversies and investigations since Halliburton was awarded a no-bid 2.4 billion dollar contract to supply the US military on the eve of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
KBR agreed last year to pay the US government eight million dollars to settle fraud claims related to an Army supply contract. Halliburton’s Nigerian operations have also come under US government scrutiny in recent years. “It’s an example of corporate greed at its worst,” said Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“At the same time they’ll be avoiding US taxes, I’m sure they won’t stop insisting on taking their profits in cold hard US cash,” Leahy charged. Halliburton spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said, however, that Halliburton would still remain incorporated in the United States and that there would be no layoffs as a result of its move.
“As such, we anticipate absolutely no tax benefits from this decision,” Norcross said. Halliburton’s chief executive, Dave Lesar, will move his office from Houston, Texas, to Dubai, but Norcross said other top officers would remain situated in Houston.
Halliburton said it was relocating to Dubai for business reasons and that Lesar would oversee a ramped-up effort to win regional oil services contracts and related business.
Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan said he would seek a congressional review of Halliburton’s announcement. “I want to know, is Halliburton trying to run away from bad publicity on their contracts? Or are they trying to set up a corporate presence in Dubai so that they can avoid the restrictions that currently exist on doing business with prohibited countries like Iran?” Dorgan questioned.
Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman, said the lawmaker might seek a hearing in the House of Representatives. “This is a surprising development. I want to understand the ramifications for the US taxpayer and national security,” Waxman, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said.
on 03/13/2007 at 08:06 AM
Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Middle-East • Trackbacks (0) • Permalink
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