Bitter Liberals

Bitter as Gall.

by:  J. D Longstreet

 

You know, one of the things that troubles me most, these days, is the overt bitterness of the liberals/progressives/socialists among us. It runs like a sour note through a symphony. It spills over in conversations one tries to have with a liberal/socialist. It runs through their writings, too.

 

If you have visited any liberal websites, you must be struck, as I have been, with the bitterness there.  Without doubt the most profane, sour, wrathful, speech I have ever heard/read comes from liberal/socialist websites or from comments liberal/socialist leave on the websites of conservatives.

 

What’s that about?  Has the communication skills of Americans degenerated to the point that we cannot have a single civil conversation in which we disagree without become profane and heaping scornful, demeaning, language on the opposition?

 

Now, don’t get me wrong.  I can toss about the Anglo-Saxon with the best of them, but you may have noticed we make a conscious effort here to not do it at all, on this site, or hold it to an absolute minimum.

 

When I began this piece I though maybe it was just “me”, my sensitivity to profanity.  Thirty years on the airwaves, as a broadcaster, with the FCC watching your every move and you DO become extremely conscious of what you say. You must… or face humongous fines from the government.  So, I thought it was just “me”.  Then, I decided to investigate a little.  A few clicks and I learn that it isn’t just me.  It is true.

 

Matthew Sheffield over at the Washington Times has a piece on profanity on the blogs.  You’ll find it interesting.  It’s at:

 

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/07/profanity-greater-on-liberal-blogs/ 

 

 

Some seem to think that the Left side of the political spectrum in America is filled with anger and rage and, yes, bitterness at the world not going the way they want it to go… and it has them frustrated and feeling impotent.  Apparently, the left cannot accept that the majority of Americans are conservative, to one degree or another.  Non-acceptance of this fact doesn’t change the fact, therefore… their frustration. Facts are strange that way.

 

I have noticed, over my year, that it is almost always the weak among us who resort to profanity to attempt to lend weight to their argument.  It never works, and the fact that it doesn’t work only weakens the user’s argument further and often causes them to emote even more bitterness, which, often turns quickly into personal attacks upon the opposition. The liberal has yet to grasp that the intelligent argument will win every time.

 

In Sheffield’s article, mentioned above, it is pointed out that Liberals are 12 times more likely to use profanity in their blogs than are conservatives.  Sheffield posits that it may be a reflection of the religiosity of conservatives over liberals.  Since conservatives are more religious they tend to use less profanity in their daily lives and that, naturally, carries over into their writings on the web. 

 

That may be true. And if it is, it tells me something I have suspected for a very long time. Liberals are a very unhappy lot. Isolation from God does that to the human animal. It sours our soul. It causes us to look inward for strength that isn’t there and we find instead, aloneness, fear, and impotence which turns to frustration, anger and bitterness at the world around us.

 

It would appear, then, that liberals fear lack of control.  But, what really sets them apart is that when they have control that fear is still with them.  When they gain control their happiness is fleeting for they soon fear losing that control and their anger is re-born of that fear and, this, I have concluded, explains their frustration.  It is a frustration born of never feeling secure no matter their circumstances.  Their existence is a never-ending cycle of hypersensitivity and one emotional crisis after another. 

 

Study after study has been made over the past four decades as to why liberals are so unhappy. In his book “Gross National Happiness” Mr. Arthur Brooks puts forth his idea that conservatives seem to feel that working hard and playing by the rules will bring success. Therefore conservatives are more optimistic, feel more in control of their lives and, as a result, are happier than liberals. I think he is on to something.

 

The left side of the political spectrum, especially in America, is now the home of liberals and is a very unhappy place.  Liberals have managed to coalesce groups of victims (real and perceived), of all sorts of social and economic unfairness beneath the banner of the Democratic Party. It is our opinion that the gullibility of the liberal mind has allowed leaders, of both sexes, to take advantage of their unhappy, angry, emotional, state to re-enforce those feelings and secure their own positions of power within the leftist movement.

 

There is a very old expression: “misery loves company”… and you know the other one about “birds of a feather”, etc, etc. That’s what I see when I survey the Democratic Party. They are, quite likely, the most miserable people in America. And it is sad, really.  We live in the greatest country on the globe where opportunities abound for the optimistic individual willing to take the risk necessary for success.  The liberal left is missing out on so much.

 

J. D. Longstreet   

 

 

 

 

  

America Will Adopt Socialism… and Die.

America Will Adopt Socialism… and Die.

 

Apparently, the people of the US have decided that socialism, rather than capitalism, is the way to go. The fact that it spells doom for what used to be the greatest nation on earth doesn’t seem to worry anyone except a few of us old “give me liberty or give me death” types… and there’s only a handful of us left.

 

I’m against the bailout.  If you are a regular reader of this scribe, you already deduced that, I’m sure. I understand the letters and e-mails to Congress are running 100 to one against the bailout… but the old hippies, socialists, and reprobates populating that body, and, yes, in charge of that body, these days haven’t the slightest interest in the people of the US… nor what we want.  They are involved in a power play to see who can secure the most power for their party… and the American people be damned.  I am ashamed of what my country has become and is becoming. 

 

This old conservative finds himself wishing it were possible for the US to go isolationist again.  We can’t, of course. It didn’t work the last time we tried it. I am so tired of us spending our blood and treasure saving the collective behinds of the rest of the world.  This week Shimon Peres, of Israel, said (at the UN) that the US had a duty to save the rest of the world from Iran. You can read for yourself what Peres said in an article titled: “Peres: U.S. has no choice but to save world from Ahmadinejad” at:

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024426.html   

 

Yes, had I the power, I would have ALREADY nuked Iran with tactical nukes …small ones designed to destroy “hardened” bunkers such as those within which they house their nuclear facilities. Why?  I would do it because they have threatened the US.  But, understand this:  I take strong exception to “the rest of the world” passing the buck and expecting us to get our young people killed and our money spent to save their sons and daughters, to save their fortunes and national treasuries, and to save their countries, while they sit back, and bitch, and moan, point accusing fingers and complain about everything we do!  I am of the opinion we ought to cut them off and adopt a position that the rest of the world is on it’s own.  They can fight their own wars and handle their own problems from starvation, to war, to Armageddon.  

 

Even our neighbor to the South constantly complains because we don’t just throw open the doors to our treasury and feed, clothe, educate, and give medical care to THEIR citizens (who have illegally “broken into” our country) even more than we have to date.  We should immediately invade and annex Mexico.  I’m tired of supporting that pitifully mismanaged country. There is a growing feeling among conservative Americans that if we are going to support Mexico, then we ought to own Mexico.

 

Like so many of us true conservatives, today, I am tired, and aggravated, and just generally PO’ed at the way things are being screwed-up in Washington by BOTH sides. In my opinion, this is the sorriest government we have had in my lifetime and we have had some sorry ones, too.

 

Look, the US is every bit as divided as it was in 1859.  In some ways we are MORE divided.  I have spent a great deal of time studying that period of US history, and I can tell you… we are in every bit as scary a time as our American ancestors were just prior to the last American Civil War.  Unfortunately, our semi-illiterate population, having never been taught the history of this nation, has no clue what is happening to us. Those of us who have studied our history KNOW what is happening and it is way beyond frightening.

 

The US is split right down the middle. We, in effect, already have two countries within the borders of a single nation… right now.  I’m not referring to a north/south split, either. I talk to people, daily, from all over the country, liberals and conservatives, and I can tell you… we are in deep, deep, trouble as a nation. There is no more common ground.  There is no “meeting place” where we can sit down and iron out our differences.  Don’t believe me?  Look at Congress today. That leaves one thing, and one thing only, as the eventual outcome.

 

Our entire political apparatus in the US has shifted to the left.  The Republican Party has become the Democratic Party of just a few years ago while the Democratic Party has become the New Socialist Party in America.  They have been hiding their leftward shift behind the nomenclature of “Progressive” while taking on the socialist philosophy. Now, they feel comfortable in dropping their façade so we can all see them for who they are.  But there is no outcry from the American people.  There is no outrage at the con game the democrats have been running on the American people.  No.  Instead, the American people have given them control of the legislative branch of the US government and stand ready to give them a socialist President in November.  We urge you to drop in on the Democrat Socialist Party of America’s website and stay there a while… and when you come away, you will have a new understanding of the Democrat Party in America.

 

I’m a veteran of the US military.  When I was sworn in I took an oath, as did all service personnel, and as did the President, and Senators, and Congresspersons, to protect and defend the Constitution of the US from ALL enemies… foreign and DOMESTIC!  At the time I took that oath (in the 1950’s) I had no idea the domestic enemies of the US would have infiltrated the halls of Congress as they have.  What is really galling, however, is the fact that the American people put them there by voting for them at the polling booth.  I know I shouldn’t be surprised.  The German people voted the Nationalist Socialist, by the name of Adolf Hitler, into office, as well.

 

This is a dangerous, dangerous, time in, and for, America.  We are at the “tipping point” at which Americans will decide if they wish to remain free or adopt a socialist form of government and give up their freedom(s).

 

I have lost faith in my fellow countrymen. I now believe Americans will give up their freedom and adopt socialism.  Why?   Because for slothful, illiterate Americans… slavery, dear reader, is much easier than freedom.  In slavery you don’t have to make tough decisions, you are not held accountable, all you have to do is follow orders.  If you do that… your basic, very basic, needs will be met… food, clothing, shelter, medical care, etc.  All you lose is FREEDOM!   And socialism is what the Democrat Party is selling!   Worse… Americans are clamoring for it like toddlers with their arms outstretched to their parents begging them:  “Pick me up, Mommy!  Pick me up, Mommy!” 

 

Socialized medicine is just another step down that path to national destruction for America.  Socialism has always ruined even the greatest empires, that adopted it… in any form.  Look at the Soviet Union.  Better yet, look at the mighty Roman Empire.  Remember “Bread and Circuses”?  Rome’s attempts to keep the citizens happy and distracted with food and entertainment brought the entire empire crashing down over time. Today we can look at Europe, which was set free only to turn on their liberators and adopt socialism and today exist in their own little world made free and kept free by the efforts of the American people whom they despise because they owe us and they know it and it drives them nuts! They are angry at America because of their self-imposed shame as a result of their dependence on America for their very survival.   

 

At the risk of being condescending, only the less intelligent among us are begging for socialized medicine and all the other socialized programs the democrats are offering.  Those of us, who weigh the damages socialism will do to America, and understand that it is suicide to go there, are holding out… but we are fighting a losing battle.  I am now convinced that ignorance will triumph in the election in November and that victory will consume the United States of America on a blazing pyre of national decay and, finally, national death.

 

I see a conflagration coming in America.  It is a conflagration America will not survive.

 

J. D. Longstreet

 

 

His Finger on Armageddon

His Finger on Armageddon

By: J. D. Longstreet

****************************

On the off chance that you have not noticed… there is a religious fanatic in charge of Iran. The even more troubling problem is… he has his finger on the button, which could trigger Armageddon.

I speak, of course, of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran. I should say the “Islamic Republic” of Iran.

I find myself in the group believing Iran will have a deliverable A-Bomb much sooner than our Intelligence community has told us. I think it wise to assume that in a matter of months, Iran will have nuclear weapons. Iran already has the delivery vehicles for those Nukes. Ahmadinejad has told us the target… Israel. In a few, blinding seconds, the state of Israel will cease to exist.

Ahmadinejad apparently believes it is his duty in life to prepare the way for the 12th Imam. To understand how Ahmadinejad’s belief can be fatal for Israel, it is necessary to understand, at least a little, about what he believes. Then it will become clear.

Well, in Christianity we have the return of Christ, often referred to as the “Second Coming of Christ”. In Shi’ite Islam they have the return of the 12th Imam. Ahmadinejad has said, openly, the 12th Imam will return within two years.

As with the Second Coming of Christ the event (Return of the 12th Imam) will be associated with a number of tribulations and lots of turmoil including great death… and great destruction.
In an article over at The Telegraph.Co.Uk titled: “Will the 12th Imam cause war with Iran”? Con Coughlin says the following:

“For those unacquainted with the more obscure tenets of Islamic theology, the 12th Imam is held by devout Shi’ite Muslims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed who went into “occlusion” in the ninth century at the age of five and hasn’t been seen since.

The Hidden Imam, as he is also known by his followers, will only return after a period of cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed – what Christians call the Apocalypse – and then lead the world into an era of universal peace.

Rumours abound of Mr Ahmadinejad’s devotion to the 12th Imam, and last year it was reported that he had persuaded his cabinet to sign a “contract” pledging themselves to work for his return.

Another example of his messianic tendencies surfaced after 108 people were killed in an aircraft crash in Teheran. Mr Ahmadinejad praised the victims, saying: “What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow.”

We urge you to read the entire article at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/09/28/do2804.xml

Why is this suddenly so troubling? Well, frankly, with the Islamic belief in Martyrdom so prevalent, and the associated eternal bliss expected, as a result, the religious nut, in Iran, with his finger on the button, becomes a very real threat.

Besides the above, a time of political chaos will set the stage for the 12th Imam’s, or Madhi’s, return. At least, the Shi’ite Moslems believe that it will.

Remember, Ahmadinejad is the man who stated, publicly, “Israel should be wiped from the map”. This is the man who has made huge donations (in the millions of dollars) to a shrine, which is said to contain the well from which the 12th Imam is to re-emerge into the world.

It is also believed the “Mahdi” will have a deputy, something of a forerunner (remember John the Baptist), who will prepare the world for the “Mahdi’s” return. Suppose someone thought himself to be that deputy and desired to bring about the chaos needed for the Mahdi’s return and… suppose, further, the self-described deputy had nuclear weapons to assist him in his quest for chaos.

Granted, there is a whole lot of supposing going on here, but… what if???

Would it not behoove those expecting to be on the receiving end of those missiles to intercede on the side of sanity and remove Mr. Ahmadinejad’s means of inflicting his end goal of chaos and the return of the Mahdi?

One of the few things we have learned, from watching these Middle Eastern hotheads, is that when they threaten something dire, they, almost, always deliver.

You can bet that if this old, gentile, Southern American boy is considering all this… then the Israelis are WAY ahead of me.

Here is a question to think about: Does anyone believe if the Iranians were to pull off a successful nuclear attack on Israel they would stop there… or would they continue their march of conquest to Europe? Huh?

J. D. Longstreet

Filed under:

conservative+Iran+Bomb+Israel+US+Armageddon

Are You Scared Yet?

Are You Scared Yet?

By:  J. D. Longstreet 

 

If you are a regular reader of this scribe then you have probably noticed that I have, at least up to now, said nothing about the financial meltdown the US mortgage system finds itself in these days.  There is a very good reason for that. Like the average American… I know very little about the financial markets! 

 

I never handled my own money.  There are, at least, two good reasons for that.  I refer you back to the last line of the paragraph above… and add to that the fact that my wife is a retired veteran of 30 some odd years in the banking business and she is a whiz at finances and bookkeeping… and… that’s why I stay away from issues pertaining to money… especially my own.  That probably explains why I still have some!

 

However, I, like so many other Americans, am anxiously watching my savings as this financial crisis drags on so I have a deep interest in what is going on and what needs to be done to fix it and to keep it from happening again.

 

I don’t trust many people to talk to me about money matters.  There is, however, one man who has my undivided attention when he talks money and that is… professor Walter E. Williams.  For those of you who have never heard of Dr. Williams… Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of the book: ”More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well”.

 

Professor Williams began a recent article by quoting H.L. Mencken:  “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed, and hence clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” Dr. Williams then goes on to explain why politicians tend to continually scare the hell out of us so that we look to them to save us. The good doctor is correct.  This government scare tactic also serves to solidify the national governor’s own job security while increasing their power over us, the governed, at the same time.

 

In any event, that is the general thrust of his article, which I’d like to recommend to you. It is titled: “Scaring Us to Death” and you will find it at:

 

http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2008/09/24/scaring_us_to_death

 

I have to tell you, I have been looking askance at this whole financial market mess and the way the Congress is seemingly dragging its feet in pursuit of a solution. I can’t help but wonder if 700 billion dollars is the answer… or just the beginning of a long treasury draining and taxpayer draining process that will wind up taking the US much farther down the one-way road to socialism.  I cannot help myself; I have even asked myself if this is the famed “October Surprise” we are always warned about along about this point in every Presidential election in America. 

 

Ok, so my paranoia is sticking its ugly head up again.  But, as a friend of mine used to say:  “When folks are out to get you… paranoia is just damned good thinking!”… I have to agree.

 

As I contemplate the goings on in Washington, amongst the ruling class, about how they are going to fix this… it amuses me, to some degree, when I realize that this is another case of the fox guarding the hen house.  I mean, the very people who caused this mess are now swearing to us they are going to “fix it”?”  You have got to be kidding!  Fortunately, “the truth is out there”, as they say, for anyone interested enough to look.  I did.  And this is what I found:

 

This whole mess had its birth in 1994 during the Clinton Administration. (Ok, OK!  Before you jump all over me about beating up on the Clinton Administration, do a little research of your own, on the Net, and you will quickly learn the same thing I have.) In that year, Clinton signed a bill to promote low-income home ownership for those applicants who did not qualify for fixed rate mortgages.  Business Week referred to the bill as  “one that argues for creative measures to promote homeownership”.  Thus began the mess the US, and, indeed, the world, finds itself in today.

 

When low-income folks began seeking loans to buy homes…homes they really couldn’t afford in the first place… the financial community came up with something called Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARM). Those ARM interest rates began low but because those rates are tied to the market they began to rise… and… as they rose… those low-income folks who had bought those homes became unable to pay and the banks, and lending institutions, were forced to foreclose on them… lots and lots and lots of them. The vast number of foreclosures soon began to bleed the investment banks and mortgage institutions literally to death. That is when the bottom fell out and that is what brought us to the edge of this particular financial cliff. 

 

Sher Zieve has an excellent article on this at The Land of the Free.Com titled:

“Democrats Caused Current Financial Crisis “.  You’ll find it at:

 

http://www.thelandofthefree.net/conservativeopinion/2008/09/21/democrats-caused-current-financial-crisis/ 

 

The point is… the government did it! Now, that same government is entrusted with fixing it?  Now… you TELL me… should we NOT be anxious???

 

Think about this for a moment:  If you are comfortable with the government suspending capitalism and saddling US citizens with the yoke of socialism then this 700 billion dollar bail-out, or rescue, of the financial markets in the US is just fine with you. Are you comfortable with the government owning your home?  Just asking.

 

Look, this is nationalization of the US financial markets.  It is the foundation for socialism in the United States.  If we do this… it will mean no more baby steps toward socialism in the US. Nosiree!  It means we are now talking giant steps.  And, as Walter Williams says… it is scaring some of us to death!

 

J. D. Longstreet

 

 

 

 

Sarah and the South

Why I Like Miss Sarah.

 

It’s no secret that I favor Ms. Sarah Palin for the next Vice-President of the US.  Heck, I have her photo on my website.  One look at that photo and you have to marvel at how our coldest state gave us our hottest governor!

 

I ran across a column… no… let me re-state that… I went looking for the latest column by one of my favorite conservative writers the other day, Jefferson Weaver.  Jeff is a Tar Heel, a conservative Tar Heel, and one I admire a great deal.  His writings are always a joy to read because I know where he is coming from, not just philosophically, but physically, too.  He’s a hunter and fisherman, enjoys the great outdoors, and knows how to enjoy and appreciate the natural wonders of this great state we share as our home, and… Jeff is a God-fearing southern man. Plus, Jeff’s politics, and mine, seem to run parallel to each other most of the time. 

 

His latest column is all about why Jeff likes Sarah Palin.  As I mentally wolfed it down the other day, I realized we were on exactly the same beam.  We both like Sarah… and for the same reasons.  Not that that should come as a surprise to anyone, we are both conservatives… southern conservatives.

 

We have pointed you to Jeff’s column on a couple of previous occasions and I hope to continue to do so in the future.  But just for today, I’d like you to click on over to the address I’m about to give you and read what Jeff has written about why HE likes Sarah Palin.  It eloquently sums up the southern conservative’s view of Miss Sarah.  Maybe, just maybe, you will be able to understand why her entrance onto the national political stage came as a breath of fresh air to conservatives who, like me, were suffocating in the vacuum created by the l candidates the two major political parties had given us to choose from this time around. We conservatives were sick at heart.  And that is putting it mildly.

 

So, now, I’d like you to go read Jeff’s column.  You’ll find it at:

 

http://www.whiteville.com/pages/2008WEBPAGES/SEPTEMBER2008/9.22.08.mon/jweaver.html

 

Do you begin to see the depth of feeling for this woman among southern conservatives… both men AND women?  She reminds us so much of the 1800’s Southern Belle in a gorgeous hoop skirt carrying a tiny parasol to protect her complexion from the sun, quoting scripture in a slow southern drawl with sugar dripping from every syllable… while having a Navy Colt Revolver strapped to her thigh beneath that lovely gown. Yep!   We like our women smart, tough, resilient, resourceful, determined, God-fearing, and, mind you, graciously feminine with drop dead good looks!  Miss Sarah fits the mold.  (Now, please, if you think women, fitting the description I just gave you, are difficult, if not impossible, to find, then, dear reader, you haven’t lived down South!)

All kidding aside, Miss Sarah will do well here in the American South.  I fully expect her, and her running mate, to do very well in November here in North Carolina. Truthfully, I want her to win, because I want to vote for her for President in 2012!

 

J. D. Longstreet

Who Are You Calling Stupid?… by Alan caruba

Who Are You Calling Stupid?

By Alan Caruba

 

If you read as much of the blather turned out by media folk like the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman and others, you begin to see certain themes emerge.

 

They don’t like humanity much.

 

One of their great concerns is population growth and, in concert with the use of various sources of energy, all the problems that come from too many people competing for food, water, and that parking space you want.

 

Their disdain for oil, the primary energy source of transportation, plus the source from which plastic is derived, along a thousand other uses, infuses everything they write. They don’t like natural gas or coal either. These misnamed “fossil fuels” transformed and improved life for everyone over the last century and earlier. The Earth is not running out of any of them.

 

Lastly, they are desperately clinging to the “global warming” lie despite the fact that most people have concluded it was and is a hoax. Most people are right. The Earth is already into a decade-old cooling cycle.

 

Thomas Friedman, whom we are constantly reminded won a Pulitzer Prize, thus crowning him among the smartest people on Earth, has a new book out. It is about the Earth and its title is “Hot, Flat, and Crowded.”  He’s wrong on at least two of his assertions.

 

The Earth is crowded. There are more than six billion people. In time, there will be less. That is a fundamental law of demography, why populations grow and decline

 

The great problem that wordsmiths like Friedman encounter is that they fall in love with their own words, particularly if they lead to great fame and great wealth. After a while, they begin to believe their fanciful notions of how the world works and where it’s headed. Given enough time and rope, and they are frequently found to be astonishingly wrong. In the meantime, however, you can be pretty sure he thinks you’re stupid.

 

The September 14, Sunday edition of The New York Times was a study in what might be called journalistic cognitive dissonance; on the front page the lead story was “Storm Damage is Extensive and Millions Lose Power.” It requires no genius to figure out that, without electrical power, everything grinds to a stop. More than half of the electrical power in the United States is generated by burning coal. It’s cheap. It’s abundant.

 

On the September 14 editorial page, Friedman, was explaining why we have to stop using oil as an energy source for transportation and replace coal and nuclear with wind turbines and solar panels to produce electricity. Friedman is convinced that perfectly good ways of producing power are stupid, are doomed, and should be replaced as soon as possible.

 

The title of Friedman’s column was, “Making America Stupid”, and it is a pretty good description of the entire environmental movement whose main objective often seems to be the thwarting of any new energy, i.e., power, sources in America. Visit any “Green” website and you will find they are spending millions to stop the building of coal-fired plants, filled with dark fears about nuclear power, and advocate nonsense.

 

It helps, if you are a New York Times editor, to be unable to make the connection between your page one story and the babbling of Thomas Friedman who is inside the same issue calling for “innovating a whole new industry of clean power” for America after the grudging admission that “Of course, we’re going to need oil for many years.” You think????

 

Friedman’s column lambastes the bad old Republicans for wanting to “focus our country on breathing life into a 19^th-century technology—“fossil fuels”—rather than giving birth to a 21^st-century technology—renewable energy.”

 

That fabulous renewable energy, wind and solar power and biofuels, would surely have been embraced by now if it could deliver the power efficiently and reliably. It cannot. The wind does not blow all the time and the sun does not shine all the time.

 

In Texas, there are lots of wind turbines, but they like all the rest in the nation provide barely one percent of our electricity needs. And they exist only because they are heavily subsidized with federal and state funding. Without government mandates, they would not exist. The same goes for solar power. And ethanol.

 

This is what happens when government intrudes itself into areas that should be left to intelligent people. During the Carter administration, the Department of Energy was established in 1977 for the purpose—we were told—of reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Thirty-one years later the budget for DOE is $24.2 billion a year. It has 16,000 employees and some 100,000 contract employees. Are we energy independent yet? This is the same Jimmy Carter who had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They’re gone now.

 

Friedman pauses in his criticism of Sen. McCain and the Republican solutions to our energy needs (“Drill, baby, drill!”) to make fun of their proposal for more nuclear plants, but Freidman wants to carpet America with solar panels and ruin the landscape will thousands of wind turbines. No thank you!

 

Gregg Easterbrook wrote a review of Friedman’s new book for Slate.com. He pointed out a lack of footnotes or source notes. Instead of citing any documentation, Friedman would have you simply accept his opinions as fact.

 

Easterbrook also took note of something that Friedman has in common with Al Gore; a very large home. Like Gore, he is constantly in flight somewhere around the world on commercial and private jets. While Friedman urges everyone to “lead as environmentally sustainable a life as you can,“ Easterbook notes that he “is lord of a manor and racing through more resources in his daily life than 10,000 rural Africans.”

 

There’s a reason why we don’t have more coal-fired and nuclear plants generating the electricity we need.

 

There’s a reason our electric power grid is not being upgraded to meet our future needs.

 

There’s a reason oil companies won’t spend billions to build new refineries.

 

There’s a reason food costs more when corn is converted into fuel instead of food.

 

The reason is more than thirty years of government regulations and general interference with the power and energy industries that must answer to their investors while coping with “environmental” laws that slow or render impossible the provision of our energy needs.

 

A real energy policy is based on access to our nation’s vast deposits of affordable coal and the ability of the oil and gas industry to extract the vast reserves of oil and natural gas that exist.

 

Friedman thinks it’s stupid to drill for oil and natural gas, and mine our coal. He thinks it’s smart to throw money at windmills and solar panels. He thinks you’re stupid enough to agree with him.

 

Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. He blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.

 

© Alan Caruba, September 2008

 

 

 

 

 

The Obama/Osama October Surprises?

Obama’s October Surprise & Osama’s October Surprise!

By:  J. D. Longstreet

You might want t read the title to this piece again.  Yep!  It’s a double whammy!  At least one of these “surprises” is a little difficult to believe.  That would be the Obama October surprise.

 

See, there is this e-mail flitting around, out on the ether, that Obama has an October surprise up his sleeve.  The rumor has it that sometime in the first week, or so, of October, Joe Biden, Obama’s Vice-Presidential candidate, will announce that he is stepping down, due to health reasons, and the rumor has it that Obama will immediately replace Biden with Hillary.  For obvious reasons that has a lot of people concerned.

 

I don’t put much stock in it, though.  I mean, step back and look closely at it and it looks awfully, well… dumb!  But, then again, dumb things have been known to happen in political campaigns.  The manipulation of voters would be just SO obvious, don’t you think?

 

My friend, and fellow blogger, Texas Fred, has written a piece about it that we recommend to you.  You’ll find it at:

 

http://texasfred.net/archives/2318

 

If Senator Biden did, in fact, step down from the candidacy for Vice-President, due to health reasons, would he not also be compelled to step down from his candidacy as Senator from Delaware?  Wouldn’t he owe that to his party, especially in Delaware?  No, I’m just not buying into this one.

 

Now, on to the second October Surprise:  The Osama October surprise.  The New York Sun is running a story that Osama is planning a number of overseas operations timed to influence the November elections in the US.

 

It is reported that back during that weekend, which separated the Democratic and Republican conventions, our US military intelligence agencies, and civilian intelligence agencies, picked up a number of messages from Osama’s Al Qaeda leadership instructing local cells to be ready for “imminent instructions”.  These messages have been reported to have been intercepted from multiple channels… some from couriers and some electronic messages, and some other unidentified methods of communication. You can read the article By Eli Lake, a staff reporter of the Sun, at:

 

http://www.nysun.com/foreign/spies-warn-that-al-qaeda-aims-for-october-surprise/86326

 

You may recall that Al Qaeda did something very like this in 2004, in Spain, by blowing up Madrid commuter trains just three days before the elections there and the Socialists Workers Party was voted into power in Spain. You may also recall the recorded messages Osama released the week of the US elections, also in 2004, in which he warned of dire consequences if President Bush was re-elected.  And, of course, there is the suicide bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, just a few days ago, which would tend to lend credence to Al Qaeda’s threats.  The Sun reports that the lobby of that particular hotel has been used as a meeting place for CIA officers and Pakistanis who felt it not wise to be observed meeting at the US Embassy there in Islamabad.

 

My opinion on Al Qaeda’s threats is that should they carry them out, they will most certainly aid the McCain camp and not the Obama camp.  But, then again, those people live in holes in the ground in some remote god forsaken wasteland far removed from the reality of the certain backlash such actions by them would cause and the danger it would bring to their continued existence. 

 

That said… if I had to choose which of the two rumored October surprises to put my money on, it would be on the Osama October surprise.  I just don’t buy the rumor of Biden stepping down.  THAT would be a Godsend to the Republicans.

 

J. D. Longstreet

 

 

 

US Bunker Busters make Stopover in Israel on way to Iran.

USDOD Approves Sale of Bunker-Busters to Israel
Is Permission to overfly Iraq next?

By: J. D. Longstreet

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Well, well, well. Who applied the pressure to the Pentagon to let Israel have these guided-missile” bombs? The last we heard, just a few days ago, was that the US was dragging it’s feet on the sale of these missiles to Israel. My, oh my, how things change… and so quickly, too.

The sale to Israel is pending Congressional approval, but nobody thinks that will be a problem.

The JPost (Jerusalem Post) is reporting that Israel has ordered 1000 of these precision bunker busters. You’ll find the entire article at:

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221142470441&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

Would you care to hazard a guess as to what use these GPS guided missiles will be used for? No, really?

The folks over at the Iran Almanac have taken notice. See the article at:

http://www.iranalmanac.com/news/lastnews.php?newsid=8484

See, Israel, has told the world if has no interest in taking a defensive “Wait and See” position on the promised attack by Iran, but instead will use preemption in order to stop an attack from Iran in the first place. You can see this report at:

www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219913194872&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israel simply cannot survive an atomic “First Strike” by Iran. They just are not physically large enough to absorb it. So, they do not have what some seem to think is the luxury of sitting back and allowing themselves to be “hit” first in a display of “good sportsmanship”. Ain’t gonna happen. It cannot be allowed to happen.

So far as we have been able to determine the US has not yet granted Israel permission to use Iraqi airspace to reach Iran with their fighter/bomber aircraft. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened…it simply means we don’t know. When it does, I expect we will hear a howl go up from  the new Iraqi government. Unless a bit of subterfuge is used… a little slight of hand, shall we say, we can expect those squeals of injured Iraqi pride to sound loud and clear and be amplified by the left wing media in this country and around the world… and you can bet, from the UN.

Some in Israel and in the US government are calling for more and stronger sanctions on Iran. Yeah, it’s the rose-colored glasses thing, again. People with their feet planted firmly on terra firma already know that more sanctions will not deter Iran. They are on what they see as a Holy Mission. That is the eradication of Israel… and… the United States, the little Satan and the BIG Satan! Sanctions will work on Iran about as well as they worked on Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. We all know how that eventually turned out. Iran’s Ahmadinejad said, just a few days ago: “Let them put sanctions on us. We are a very strong nation.” The Iranian president went on to say that many around the world would come to Iran’s defense in case of a US strike. (To Ahmadinejad,  an Israeli attack is the same thing as an American attack.)

As I look back over the events of the past few weeks, I have to wonder if the Russian incursion into the sovereign state of Georgia keyed this move by the US to supply Israel with the missiles it would need to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and thwart so much of the Russian supplied material both in Iran’s nuclear facilities and in Iran’s arsenal. Is the US prepared to give Russia a taste of it’s own medicine? Why, if Iran’s Russian arsenal holds up against Israeli/America tactics and armament as well as the Iraqi’s Russian supplied weapons did, well, that would be more humiliation on the Russian armament makers.

Ahhhh. International intrigue. Ain’t it grand?

J. D. Longstreet

Don’t Panic!… by Alan Caruba… UPDATED!!!

UPDATE: I’m deliberately leaving this article by Alan Caruba up for a second day, because we think it is an important piece and deserving of much exposure. Since this piece was written some things of note have taken place in the government having direct bearing on this whole mess. In our opinion the machinations of the Congress, in recent days, will only, in the long run, make things MUCH worse when “the next mess” is upon us. And rest assured… there will be a “next mess”.

Alan has written another excellent piece concerning those “machinations” we mentioned above, and how the less than brilliant leadership in our government got us where we are today. We think you will find it insightful, as Mr. Caruba’s offerings always are, and, we urge you to traipse on over to:
http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2008/09/assigning-blame.html and give it a good reading … after, of course, you read Alan’s piece below.

J. D. Longstreet
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DON’T PANIC!

By Alan Caruba

 

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” was best known for the two words on its cover, “Don’t Panic!”  Of course, when you have Vogons wandering around destroying entire planets to make way for galactic highways it’s hard to remain calm.

 

Anyone familiar with the “Hitchhiker” as a book or a movie would be well advised to consider its advice as the nation’s financial system deals, once again, with another greed-driven calamity.

 

Don’t panic! The nation has been through these financial shocks throughout its history. The one that historians point to, of course, is the Great Depression, but that occurred in part because then President Herbert Hoover did not want the federal government to get involved and matters just got worse. Hoover was an engineer by profession. Twice in the modern era engineers, Hoover and Carter, managed to make a muck of the nation’s economic well-being.

 

It was Franklin Roosevelt and his New Dealers that rather frantically tried every program they could think of to end the Great Depression, but it must be said that a nation rallying to the threats of World War II had much to do with the turnaround. Up until Pearl Harbor in 1941, the nation was struggling economically.

 

What came out of the Depression, however, was a matrix of government agencies whose purpose it was to avoid another Wall Street “crash” as occurred in 1929. Many of these agencies and New Deal programs linger on; some well beyond their practical use and some, such as the entitlement programs of Social Security and Medicare, verging on bankruptcy of their own. Government programs are rarely allowed to die.

 

Warnings about what is occurring to some large investment banks and the AIG, the insurer, have been circulating for a very long time. The mainstream media does not like to report such concerns. It is focused on today’s Dow Jones Average and the rise and fall of individual companies. You have to read publications like Business Week or The Economist to get the larger picture.

 

Since 1982, the nation has been through four major financial crises; five if you include the aftermath of 9/11.There was the savings-and-loan collapse, the dip the stock market took in 1987, the hedge fund implosion of the 1990s, and now the seizure of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-backed financial entities that underwrote the sub-prime mortgage mess.

 

In essence, greed drove the sub-prime mess because anyone with any sense at all knows you don’t loan money to people who are unlikely to repay it. Driven by misguided notions that low-income people have a right to own homes just like the middle class, the sub-prime mortgage program was doomed from the start.

 

Social parity or, to use one of Sen. Barack Obama’s favorite words, “fairness”, is not a substitute for sensible loan requirements. Indeed, it is usually not a good reason for any government program whereas personal responsibility is always a good idea.

 

The poor are, as often as not, poor for perfectly understandable reasons. They drop out of school. They have poor work habits. They prefer crime to a regular job. They engage in drugs and other bad habits. When you add in a middle class that has grown accustomed to easy credit and taking on too much unnecessary debt, you have the makings of a financial shockwave that spreads across the entire system.

 

Right now, some very big investment banks are in big trouble. The U.S. treasury is tapped out and, having swiftly learned the lesson of the Bear Sterns rescue, is saying you guys are on your own. Made bad loans? Have no idea what your assets actually represent? You call yourself bankers? Not for long.

 

Wall Street will be in a funk for a while, but most of us need to sit back and wait out the bloodletting that must inevitably follow. Bank deposits, to a certain level, are FDIC protected. Big, well-run banks like Bank of America just picked up Merrill Lynch at a bargain basement price and you can bet they believe the stock market will rebound at some point.

 

Why were the warnings ignored? For the same reason that people tend to ignore warnings. We don’t want to believe them.

 

Right now Americans are being warned that Congress must open up ANWR and the continental shelf to oil and natural gas exploration and drilling.

 

They are being warned that we need to build more coal-fired and nuclear plants to cope with the doubling of our need for electricity.

 

They are being warned that we need to encourage the oil industry to build more refineries.

 

They are being warned that the nation’s electrical grid needs upgrading.

 

You think the financial crisis is bad? Just wait until you cannot turn on the lights.

 

Vote for people who want to cut your taxes.

 

Vote for people who want to reduce the size of the federal government.

 

Vote for people who want to fix Social Security and Medicare.

 

Vote for people who want to drill here and drill now. And don’t vote for people who talk about “Big Oil” as if it is an evil institution instead of a vital national industry.

 

Vote for people who will eliminate the ethanol mandates.

 

Vote for people who will not support policies based on the United Nations-generated “global warming” hoax.

 

Vote for people who want to kill Islamic jihadists, not talk to them.

 

Vote as if your life and the future of the nation depend on it because it does.

 

And don’t panic!

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Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center, www.anxietycenter.com. He blogs daily at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com.

WANTED: A Real Leader for America

WANTED:  A Real Leader for America. 

By: J. D. Longstreet

*****************************

 

There are lots of different kinds of conservatives in the US.  Social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, political conservatives, religious conservatives, and the list goes on.  That is why it is so difficult to define exactly what a conservative is and who is a true conservative. Me?  Well, I am a conservative who can identify with everyone of the categories above… and then some.

 

As a conservative conservative… I am looking for a leader for America.  I don’t mean another limp-wristed suck-up who’ll go, hat in hand, to our fair-weather friends in Europe, and the UN, seeking permission to take care of America’s business, no matter what that business for America happens to be.  No!  I want a leader who will act and act without worry or more than passing consideration for what the remainder of the world thinks. See, I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks!

 

I want a leader who will NOT cross the aisle and “group hug” the democrats and socialists! I want a leader who will run the government in spite of their protestations of gloom and doom and certain apocalypse.  I want a leader who will put America first, above all else, and everyone else, and not try to save the planet as some in our government hallucinate about.

 

For instance, I want a leader that will go bomb the hell out of Iran and be done with it, and, when they recover, and begin, again, to build that A-bomb they are hell bent on constructing, bomb them again, and again, until they give up the idea… or die in the rubble of what used to be their country.

 

As a conservative I am sick to death of the namby-pamby “leaders” who wet themselves when a florescent light bulb pops in the capitol building.  I have had it with leaders who want to run to the nearest negotiating table when an enemy of this country makes threats against my fellow citizens and me.  I am nearly overcome with loathing for the appeasers and the talkers and the whiners and all the bitching and moaning, and hand wringing, and tree hugging, and pagan earth worship, and saving the planet by not using the resources God gave us to use.

 

I am nearly overcome by the total disconnect between the American governing families from the America Aristocracy who have no idea what the people they purportedly represent want.  Since our founding, we have actually created an American nobility to rule America, and we must disassemble that artificial nobility and get them out of the seat of our government and return it to the common man where it should have been all along. 

 

My kind of conservative does not want someone in charge (notice I did not say leader!)  who must seek a consensus.  Consensus is not leading!  Leading is, well, LEADING.  It means getting the hell out front and staying there while compelling others to follow. Leading is NOT bipartisanship!  America was not built by bipartisanship. My kind of conservative wants a leader who knows, instinctively, that we are at war with the political left in this country… and… if we are to remain a free country and not a mirror image of the European socialist states we must continue to combat the left at every turn.  It must be a “no quarter” conflict.  

 

And THAT is why Sarah Palin has brought life back to the conservative movement in America.  She seems to us the very person who will lead… and lead from the front.   She seems to us to be ready to move into the Oval Office as a true leader, at a moment’s notice, and spit in the eye of the left wing naysayers while doing it. Of the four persons running for the two highest offices in the land Mrs. Palin seems to have the most testosterone of any of them.  And we LIKE that!

 

My kind of conservative wants a true leader and not an apologist for Lenin and Marx and all the left wing socialists already in our government.

 

So, don’t try to convince me that America’s continued greatness depends on how many pip-squeak nations we bribe with foreign aid to love us!  Don’t try to convince me that we have to be part of the United Nations, quite likely the most corrupt organization on the face of the earth, to guarantee peace on earth.  Don’t try to convince me that duplicating the socialist statism of Europe is the road to greatness.  Because you will fail!  

 

I have lived through America’s climb to greatness beginning with the Second World War.  I have seen the struggles, taken part in the struggles, and I know what it has cost us.  And I, as a conservative, will not go quietly, silently, into the night while observing this country commit itself to mediocrity and, eventually, the ash heap of history, as another “has-been” nation which died by it’s own hand.

 

America was not built by our American ancestors to be a “second best” nation, an “also ran” nation.  The people who built America built her from the ground up to lead the world.  Our recent presidents have lost sight of that navigational point, a reference point left for them by those great American leaders who went before them.  As American citizens we must refocus our government toward understanding America’s role in the world as “The Leader”.  Nothing else is acceptable.

 

J. D. Longstreet