Category Archives: The Culture

White House attacks science

Posted on March 5, 2014 | 1 comment

It’s the wrong kind of science, see, the kind that contradicts Wormtongue and his cronies and makes them look downright dumb:

“Evidently, if there is one thing the Obama Administration dislikes more than conservatives pointing out the numerous weaknesses in the case for catastrophic global warming it is a Democrat doing the same thing…

“Combining this with Secretary of State Kerry’s recent factually incorrect statements about global warming, it seems the Obama Administration both seeks to unfairly suppress dissenting views and is increasingly anti-science.”

Has to be to back up the boss. Who said, we must not forget, in his SOTU that AGW “is a fact.” Like this congenital liar would know fact from fancy.

Even his AGW acolytes are getting desperate. Dr. Jeff Masters of Weather Underground jumped the shark when he turned to the Voice of Russia to back up his claim that this deadly winter is the spawn of C02 rather than natural variability.

It really could be, as has been said before by others, that everything Wormtongue touches turns to poop.

Via Meteorological Musings & Watts Up With That.

UPDATE: Some are beginning to wonder if global warming science really is science: “Real science does not fear those who challenge it, does not work to have challengers’ articles banned from science journals, and does not compare skeptics to Holocaust deniers or, as Mr. Kerry did in Jakarta, members of the ‘Flat Earth Society.'”

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Posted in Blogosphere, Science/Engineering, The Culture, Weather/Climate

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Ours most divided era ever?

Posted on March 4, 2014 | 4 comments

American history says no, not by a long shot. Even Wormtongue’s constant, tasteless bashing of the “rich” in favor of the “poor” is nothing new. Although I expect when he says rich he really means the upper-middle class which he’d like to tax into oblivion and not the Democrat’s billionaire pal George Soros.

“The clash of rich and poor has been a constant theme of American history since the Revolution, and was integral to the framing of the Constitution. For the Founders, the ‘haves and have-nots’ were the two most important ‘factions’ that in the Constitutional order would check and balance one another so that neither could threaten the freedom of the other…

“Rather than fret over partisan rhetoric, we should focus on restoring the Constitutional vision of limited government so we can slow the growth of the federal Leviathan whose ruinous costs and encroaching power are the real danger.”

From the comments: “What is unique is the near-monopoly which one party has on the traditional news media of the day. That is what is unprecedented in US history—and infinitely more dangerous than any arguments about ideas and principles.”

Two viewpoints you really can’t emphasize too often these days.

Via Instapundit.

4 Comments

Posted in Blogosphere, Obsessions, The Culture, The Economy, Uncategorized

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“I am besieged by a thousand or more…”

Posted on March 2, 2014 | 4 comments

It’s traditional in these parts to read this aloud today, the 2nd of March, which is Texas Independence Day. Even big-Lefty Gov. Ann Richards did it when she was in office.

Commandancy of the Alamo

Bexar, Feby. 24th, 1836

To the People of Texas & all Americans in the World– Fellow
Citizens and Compatriots–

I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna–I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man–The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken–I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls–I shall never surrender or retreat.

Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all despatch–The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country–Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis, Lt. Col. comdt.

Much more detail at this classic site. And a contemporary view via the Alamo cam. And the best history, in my opinion. After 178 years you can still “hear” some of the old Alamo in this Deguello bugle call of No Quarter. The dictator’s troops played it before their final, successful dawn assault on March 6, 1836.

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Posted in South of the Border, Texana, The Culture

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History rhymes

Posted on February 28, 2014 | 6 comments

Bush Jr.’s assault on the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 made perfect sense after their sanctuaried client Al Queda’s murderous work in Lower Manhattan a few months before.

Likewise our 2003 invasion of Iraq where dictator Saddam Hussein had the means, the motive and the opportunity to aid Al Q as well, though our leftist federal bureaucrats never could seem to find the proof of it.

More than a decade of largely-feckless political and military operations later, Bush’s leftist successor cut and ran from Iraq and is hobbling what’s left of the American military in Afghanistan.

As pathetic as it all is, as Darkwater shows, this history actually rhymes—with Rudyard Kipling’s 1917 poem Mesopotamia. Kipling even called our aftermath as the leftist federal bureaucrats, their president and lifelong pols like Hillary Clinton continue their lucrative careers:

“Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide –
Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?”

You betcha. Their leftist media pals who likewise don’t believe in military service will continue to cover for them and the American dead of Iraq and Afghanistan will be forgotten by all but their families. Some of the crippled ones can even look forward to being assaulted on American streets.

I hope the volunteers of 2001 and 2003 and subsequently will impart the lesson they learned to a new generation of would-be warriors: our government cannot be trusted and joining the micro-managed American military—for any reason other than to repel a direct attack on the homeland—is only slow-motion suicide.

Via Darkwater at Phase Line Birnam Wood.

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Posted in Afghanistan, Iraq, Obamalot, The Culture, The War, Troops

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Rule 5: Emme Aronson

emmearonson

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Posted on February 27, 2014 in Rule 5, The Culture

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Our predatory police

Posted on February 26, 2014 | 3 comments

Four months after the Capitol police and Secret Service murdered Miriam Carey, in daylight on D.C. streets, her family’s lawyers have notified the feds they will sue for $75 million.

It won’t bring the 34-year-old mother back to her toddler daughter who narrowly escaped death from a police frenzy.

Most shocking of all is that the Democrat White House’s so-called “justice” department, along with D.C.’s Democrat newspaper—once lauded in story and film but now derisively known as the WaPo—are still mum about the murdered black mom.

Being big, male and Hispanic didn’t help Luis Rodriguez in Oklahoma when five members of the badge gang decided to go berserk. As their defenders put it, cops sometimes have to make snap decisions. We’re seeing a lot of snap decisions lately: cops shooting first, asking questions later, if there’s anyone left alive to ask.

UPDATE:  They’re ridiculously touchy, too. Chicago 13-year-old gets felony charge for hitting cop in shoulder with, wait for it, a snowball.

3 Comments

Posted in Guns, Obamalot, The Culture

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The Downton Abbey soaper

Posted on February 24, 2014 | 2 comments

I haven’t watched it more than a few minutes at a time on rare occasions. Mrs. Charm watches it religiously and seems not the least perturbed by any of it. She was sad when its season ended Sunday night, but I’m sure she’ll hunt for reruns.

I figure it is basically Upstairs Downstairs in retread, which, indeed, some critics contend. I was surprised to learn that some conservatives consider it offensive, probably for its portrayal of a society without much, if any, middle class—which is where the Democrats seem intent on taking all of us.

Terry at Sullivan’s Travelers thinks the Abbey is nothing to be concerned about:

“The political message is bien-pensant, when it can be detected at all. The way that social norms straightened the lives of women is given far greater emphasis than the way…social norms straightened the lives of men. Lord Grantham is a genuinely good-hearted person. Carson, the chief domestic, is tough, but fair. I was surprised to see the sole gay character, footman Thomas Barrow, presented as a villain (though they made him more likable by the end of season three).”

Like I say I don’t watch it, so I don’t know. I don’t generally watch the rube, anymore, except for Big 12 college football games in the fall and winter.

I remember watching Upstairs Downstairs at my ex-wife’s parents home way back when. They never missed it. They were well enough off to identify with the lords and ladies instead of the help.

Abbey apparently is just a similar soap opera in period clothes.

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Posted in Blogosphere, Mrs. Charm, Obsessions, Rancho Roly Poly, The Culture

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