If All You See…

…is a horrible fridge contributing to heat hiding in the deep oceans, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Israel Matzav, with a post on Obama playing the race card against Netanyahu.

Read: If All You See… »

Atlanta Radio Host Offers Crusader Wager

One of the things I mentioned (multiple times) regarding Obama’s cute little “hey, but Christians were bad hundreds and thousands of years ago” comment at the National Prayer Breakfast, a comment that refused to acknowledge the problems with extremist Islam, was that so many immediately went on the defensive, throwing out comparisons, and, really, going down the road Obama wanted them to travel. Because the comment from Obama was meant to distract, deflect, and make those who are against radical Islam defensive.

Since then, a few have started to wise up. Here’s one, as pointed out by Jazz Shaw, from Michael Graham at News Radio 106.7 in Atlanta

The Crusader Wager

Put up or shut up.

Every time the topic of violence in the name of Islam comes up on my radio show or my Twitter timeline, I hear the argument that President Obama made: “The problem isn’t Islam—it’s extremism.” While it may appear that Islam has a unique problem regarding fundamentalist violence, you p.c.-types say, the real problem is fundamentalism in and of itself. And since other religions have fundamentalists and extremists, too, (which they do) Christians should “get off their high horse,” “slavery,” “Crusades,” etc. etc.

This is, obviously, nonsense. No one who says it believes it. It’s just a dodge, a political-correct blocking movement for people, who for whatever reason, don’t want to deal with the Natural Truth:

No other religion today has the same problem of fundamentalist violence as Islam.

I’ve gotten so tired of this ridiculous claim, that I’m now insisting the people who make it put their money where their mouth is—and do so for a good cause.

It’s called the “Crusader Wager.”

I will set aside $100 for every death committed in the name of fundamentalist Christianity in the year 2015. You—the “The problem isn’t Islam” adherent—will set aside just ONE dollar for every death committed in the name of Islamist fundamentalism and violent jihad. Here’s the wager: if, on January 1, 2016, I have set aside more money than you have, I will donate every penny to the charity of your choice. If, however, your total is higher than mine, you will donate it to the Salvation Army. (Hey—it’s about the Crusades, right?).

The Crusader Wager is open to all comers. Email me Michael@MichaelGraham.com and I will send you a signed contract for you to sign, scan and return.

Clearly this is a great deal for the “It’s not Islam—it’s extremism!” crowd. I’m giving you a 100-1 advantage. If the problem of Islamist terror is even 50 TIMES worse than Christian violence—you still win! Which means that, if you refuse, you’ve proven my point: Islam has a problem unique among religions in the world today.

Go for it, all you folks you utterly refuse to condemn Islamists, and do all you can to defend the Islamists, with your deflections, distractions, “Islamophobia”, and “but, hey, Christians!!!!!!” I probably shouldn’t say anything, but you are in for a loss. The Jihad body count for January was 3998 killed.

Note: headline and text updated to reflect that 106.7 is in Atlanta, not NYC, just as Jazz Shaw did.

Read: Atlanta Radio Host Offers Crusader Wager »

It’s Bobby Jindal Vs The World, Baby!

Yes, I know, Bobby Jindal supposedly has some problems, but, then, what politician doesn’t? Including Republicans. It all depends on the level of problems. Jeb Bush? Big problems, such as Common Core and his amnesty belief. Marco Rubio? Amnesty. Rick Perry? Never sure what blunder will come from his mouth. Mike Huckabee? I like the guy, he says some great things, but, he is a bit too much of a Social Conservative for my liking as a presidential candidate. Someone is always going to have a problem with candidates. The American Conservative is upset because they say Jindal’s “victim act” is pitiful, but, then, the writers have long been against Jindal.

(Politico) In the past few weeks, Bobby Jindal has been attacked for insisting that Europe allows Muslims to control special “no-go zones,” belittled by the Weekly Standard for offering a “bizarre, anti-intellectual” position on overturning Obamacare, and dismissed as an underachieving lightweight for the Republican 2016 nomination.

The Louisiana governor is relishing it all.

No go zones are real, they are areas where it is a Bad Idea for you to enter. Much like Detroit, parts of New Orleans, parts of South Chicago, Birmingham’s Bluffs, sections of Atlanta. Syria.

During a 40-minute interview in Washington late last week, an energized Jindal hit back at his critics on the right and left, dismissing them as elitist hacks who can’t stand the idea of an Ivy League-educated, unapologetic conservative. He accused GOP bosses in Washington of trying to sanitize the nomination battle and “get us to stop being so rude.” He blasted right-leaning writers who’ve criticized him, saying they’re just out to curry favor with the editorial page of The New York Times and get booked on the Sunday shows. And the 43-year-old governor argued that some Republicans are fine with crony capitalism, as long as their pockets are being lined.

It’s all part of a concerted effort by the likely presidential candidate to run as the purest anti-Washington conservative in the GOP field – one who unlike, say, Ted Cruz, boasts years of executive experience.

“There’s this tendency amongst even conservative elites to back away from our principles,” Jindal told POLITICO at the offices of the Republican Governors Association. “We need to be unafraid…We don’t need to apologize for our beliefs.”

He’s absolutely correct. There’s a schism between the Inside The Beltway establishment Republicans and the Conservative base. Just like there is a schism between the average Democrats and the hardcore Progressives in the Democrat Party. A conflict of ideas is a Good Thing. Should we all simply be homogenous and refuse to stand for principles and ideas?

Jindal argues that any Republican replacement plan must focus on reducing costs and not replacing taxes with new revenue hikes.

“I said famously in ’12 that we can’t be the party of no, that we can’t be the stupid party,” he added. “We’re beginning to realize we have to offer solutions, especially now that we’re in the majority in both chambers. But there’s still a reluctance to go all the way and stand up for our conservative principles.”

The big question, is he the one who can offer the ideas and stand up for Conservative principles?

Red State notes

It’s another budget year in Louisiana, which means that it’s time for the annual festival in which lily-livered Republicans and the media they enable gather to wring their hands about Bobby Jindal’s fiscal policies. This year the hand wringing is perhaps more fervent than ever given governor Jindal’s elevated national profile due to the speculation that he will run for President. A sample of the kvetching can be found in Politico and the New York Times. Over at AmCon, serial changer of religious and political convictions Rod Dreher shows us how some alleged “conservatives” are doing it.

Here are the undisputed facts on the ground: 1. Lousiana is facing a $1.6 billion shortfall heading into this budget year. 2. A significant portion of that, by all accounts, is due to falling oil revenues, which are more or less constantly in flux. 3. Louisiana over the last several years has faced several such budget shortfalls and has, every year of Jindal’s tenure, made up the shortfalls by making real cuts in the budget as opposed to tax increases. If you add all these facts together, you have a perfect stew for the anxious and weak-willed to simmer in and complain about how Bobby Jindal has destroyed the State of Louisiana. I was privileged to be on the ground in Lousiana when the poltroons were playing this exact same chorus in 2011 and you can read some of the stories I wrote about this then and note the eerie similarities.

These stories crop up every year in Louisiana and have several features in common: 1. an observation that the state faces a budget shortfall, 2. complaining from various Republicans indicating that revenues (read: taxes) should be raised 3. anecdotal evidence that previous years’ budget cuts have wrought terrible hardships on the people of Louisiana. They always conveniently omit 1. Actual data 2. The context of previous years which indicates that this truly is another instance of same song, different verse.

Interestingly, if you actually look at Jindal’s record and beliefs, you find that they dovetail very well with the Conservative Base.

  • He’s heavily against Common Core
  • He’s heavily in favor of tax reform
  • He’s against slapping higher taxes on “the rich”, otherwise known as “producers”
  • He signed a bill authorizing chemical castration of sex offenders
  • The Business Journals ranked him #5 on a list of governors with the best job growth
  • He’s most definitely pro-life
  • He’s pro-offshore drilling
  • Seriously anti-Obamacare
  • Heavily pro-2nd Amendment.

And so much more. He’s a more outgoing version of Tim Pawlenty, who sadly dropped out of the 2012 primaries too early. Great ideas, unfortunately, Pawlenty was rather, um, boring. Jindal is not.

Unsurprisingly, with Jindal’s prospects for a presidential run rising, many liberal media outlets are taking shots at him. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank runs a big hit piece, which includes a rather unpleasant looking picture of Jindal.

Read: It’s Bobby Jindal Vs The World, Baby! »

Man With Largest Footprint In World Thinks “Climate Change” Bigger Threat Than Terrorism

Mr. Obama is a guy who has a massive, giant “carbon footprint”, estimated several years ago to be 41000 metric tons. The average American’s footprint was rated at 19mt, and I doubt that Obama’s has actually gone down. This is a guy who will take a cross-country trip to attend a brief official event before jumping into multiple fundraisers/campaign speeches on a constant basis, with all the planes, helicopters, automobiles, and everything else that is required. But, you know….

(Daily Caller) In a continuation of the softball White House media strategy that saw the president interviewed by “YouTube Stars” like the Fruit Loops bathing GloZell, Barack Obama sat down with Vox media, the progressive activist blog, to discuss the issues of the day.

In the course of that discussion, the site’s executive editor asked the president if the media “overstates the sort of level of alarm people should have about terrorism and this kind of chaos as opposed to a longer-term problem like climate change and epidemic disease?”

Obama quickly agreed, saying the media lives by the mantra, “If it bleeds, it leads.”

In all fairness, Vox guided Obama to the answer, but we shouldn’t be surprised by it, as Obama bows down to the the notion of Man-created Hotcoldwetdry. And, like the vast majority of Warmists, refuses to practice what he preaches. And, like most of the big shots in the Warmist cult, he increases his carbon footprint. And, while Warmists are blaming all the snowstorms in the Northeast on global warming/climate change, the RoP has been busy (via The Religion Of Peace)

  • 2015.02.09 (Kadhimiyah, Iraq) – A Sunni suicide bomber takes out eighteen innocents near a Shia shrine.
  • 2015.02.09 (Mogadishu, Somalia) – A member of parliament is assassinated by a group fighting for Islamic law.
  • 2015.02.08 (Diffa, Niger) – A Shahid suicide bomber detonates at a pepper market, killing five patrons.
  • 2015.02.07 (Baghdad, Iraq) – A brutal suicide bombing at a packed restaurant snuffs out the lives of twenty-two innocents.

Obama’s schtick was also about positioning terrorism as just news sensationalism

Oh, and here’s one for all the “zoMyGod, Christians are killing supposed witches in Africa!!!!!!” meme-ers

ISIS behead man… for WITCHCRAFT: Barbaric execution for ‘invoking magic’ plunges Middle East further into the Dark Ages

Climate change is something that happens, and always has. Yes, Mankind plays a small part in it, mostly from agriculture and landfills, as well as land use. Not too mention falsifying data. Islamic radicalism is a threat to 1st World societies, and it still shocks me that Liberals refuse to acknowledge the threat, since the hardcore Muslims, called “Islamists” to distinguish them from the so-called moderate Muslims, pretty much stand against everything Liberals believe in, and are competing for the same world-wide dominance as are Progressives.

BTW, Politico trashed the Vox interview with Obama and the way it was put together, noting that “I’ve seen subtler Scientology recruitment films.”

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Man With Largest Footprint In World Thinks “Climate Change” Bigger Threat Than Terrorism »

Buzzfeed Seems Shocked That People Can Be Fired For Exceeding Their Work Hours

Hyper-leftist Buzzfeed runs this story in their business section, as written by Sapna Maheshwari, who, like most liberals, seems shocked at The Way Business Works

Staples Threatens To Fire Staff For Working More Than 25 Hours A Week

Last year Alice*, 19, typically clocked anywhere from 25 hours to 40 hours a week at the Staples store where she works as a part-time staffer. The hours were great, she says, because she loves her co-workers and uses the job to help support her family.

She started working at Staples around the same time the office-supply chain was making headlines by forbidding its part-time employees from working more than 25 hours a week. The rules, rolled out in the lead-up to the Affordable Care Act, were seen by many staff members as an effort by the company to avoid paying benefits to “full-time” employees — classified under the law as anyone working more than 30 hours a week.

But for most of 2014, the rules didn’t really affect Alice or her colleagues, who regularly exceeded the threshold and were still considered part-time. That all changed this year, though, as the employer mandate kicked in; if Staples doesn’t pay benefits for people working more than 30 hours a week, it could face up to $3,000 in penalties per person.

Now, Alice is working far fewer hours — and if she clocks above 25, she may be fired.

“Before January, it was a smack on the wrist if anyone went over 25 hours — they got an email scolding them saying, ‘You went over 25, try not to do that,’” she told BuzzFeed News in an interview on the condition of anonymity, given she still works at the company. “But now it’s become really serious…they’ve threatened to write up managers and every person that goes up over 25 hours.”

In fact, quite a few companies do the same thing, even before the issues of Obamacare and the 30 hour classification. Two of my previous jobs at Very Big Companies had roughly 25% of their inside sales force as part timers, and have significant restrictions on the allowable hours. The first had a requirement that the part-timers did not average more than 33 hours a week over a 3 month period of time, otherwise they would be classified as full time, and significant benefits kicked in at full time hours. So, we scheduled them for no more than 25 hours, and had to keep a close eye on those hours. Write-ups could occur, and extra hours impacted the P&L. The other scheduled for 20 hours. Period. This gave them 5 hours to play with if they had to come in to do a deal. And they would literally have to hand deals as splits over if they were going to go above. And write ups kicked in immediately on a weekly basis.

Companies do his, both for cost control, because they have certain operational budgets, and second, for benefits of full time workers. Now with Ocare and the 30  hour classification, this is even more important, and, surprise!, guess who gets the pay the penalty: that’s right, the employees. Staples had the policy well before Ocare, but are now forced to stringently enforce it.

Read: Buzzfeed Seems Shocked That People Can Be Fired For Exceeding Their Work Hours »

Strange: An Ancient Event Confirms That The Climate Changes

Of course, this ancient event is supposed to create fear and anxiety and push Other People to give up their use of fossil fuels and move towards a 15th Century lifestyle

Climate Change Predications Confirmed by Ancient Warming Event

Current climate change predictions have been confirmed by an ancient warming event that surpasses today’s warming world, according to a new study.

Between 2.3 to 3.3 million years ago during the Pliocene Epoch, the Earth’s temperature was around 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than it is today, while atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) were around 350-450 parts per million (ppm), similar to the levels reached in the past few years (400 ppm).

Evidence of this previous warm period came from an analysis of ancient plankton fossils drilled from the ocean floor.

By studying the relationship between CO2 levels and climate change during a warmer period in Earth’s history, the scientists have been able to estimate how the climate will respond to rising CO2 levels – a parameter known as “climate sensitivity.” The findings, published in the journal Nature, are in line with future predictions from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), according to the international research team.

So, wait, what caused the increase in CO2 and temperatures?

Skeptics of man-made climate change (including even members of the US Senate) have long referred to the global warming “pause,” or “hiatus” as evidence that humans are not to blame for the changing climate, and that climate models are inaccurate. But this new study shows that despite this pause, climate models are right on target.

Ah, So, this is meant to protect the 95% failed computer models over real world data, as well as continue the trope that doom is coming sometime in the future, and that mankind is to blame. But, again, what caused that CO2 increase millions of years ago which supposedly caused the warming? And, can it be specifically blamed on CO2? The Sun is the primary driver of climate, and the weather that, over long periods of time, creates climate. If this all happened before fossil fuels, modern industry, DVRs, and hair dryers, could this not mean that the current warm period, which has a temperature that is below the temperature of several previous Holocene warm periods, is caused mostly by Nature? Warmists will say “no”, but, their own failure to modify their own lives to match their rhetoric gives lie to that notion.

Read: Strange: An Ancient Event Confirms That The Climate Changes »

If All You See…

…is a horrid washing machine, sucking up energy and precious water, when Everyone Else should be washing by hand, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Jammie Wearing Fools, with a post on Democratic imbeciles at the Grammys.

Read: If All You See… »

Fiddling With Temperature Data

Obviously, Warmists will attack the messengers, rather than wonder “hey, um, why exactly are the data sets messed with?”

The fiddling with temperature data is the biggest science scandal ever

When future generations look back on the global-warming scare of the past 30 years, nothing will shock them more than the extent to which the official temperature records – on which the entire panic ultimately rested – were systematically “adjusted” to show the Earth as having warmed much more than the actual data justified.

Two weeks ago, under the headline “How we are being tricked by flawed data on global warming”, I wrote about Paul Homewood, who, on his Notalotofpeopleknowthat blog, had checked the published temperature graphs for three weather stations in Paraguay against the temperatures that had originally been recorded. In each instance, the actual trend of 60 years of data had been dramatically reversed, so that a cooling trend was changed to one that showed a marked warming.

This was only the latest of many examples of a practice long recognised by expert observers around the world – one that raises an ever larger question mark over the entire official surface-temperature record.

Following my last article, Homewood checked a swathe of other South American weather stations around the original three. In each case he found the same suspicious one-way “adjustments”. First these were made by the US government’s Global Historical Climate Network (GHCN). They were then amplified by two of the main official surface records, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (Giss) and the National Climate Data Center (NCDC), which use the warming trends to estimate temperatures across the vast regions of the Earth where no measurements are taken. Yet these are the very records on which scientists and politicians rely for their belief in “global warming”.

As Christopher Booker goes on to note, Paul Homewood is looking into the Arctic, and finding lots of issues with the official data. In another post he notes information by Dave Burton which shows that adjustments have artificially increased land surface temperatures by 34.87% between 1900-2014, and

Dave Burton has taken the Cowton graph from the video, and added the narrative in green as above. Using specialised digital analysis techniques, Dave has calculated that adjustments have increased temperature trends for global land surfaces from 0.7527C/C to 1.01551C. In other words, about a quarter of the claimed global warming since 1900 is actually an artifact of adjustments.

Yes, global warming has occurred. This is the nature of the Holocene, and surely what has occurred throughout the lifespan of the Earth. Mini cooling and warming periods, which can last a couple hundred years to half a millennium or longer. Warmists want to blame this all on CO2 from Mankind, and state that warm period is somehow different from all the others, yet, a) they feel a need to change/adjust/modify/make up the data, and b) refuse to give up their own big CO2 lifestyles.

Read: Fiddling With Temperature Data »

Good News: Grammy’s Pay Homage To Criminals With “Hands Up” Display

Which is interesting, considering that the Grammys were held in rather White Los Angeles (9.2% Black) in rather White California (6.6% Black)

(Mediaite) Pharrell‘s performance of “Happy” at Sunday evening’s 57th Annual Grammy Awards included a tribute to the “Hands up, don’t shoot” mantra that emerged late last year following the shooting death of Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

Midway through the song, his dancers donning black hoodies and jeans threw their hands up in an obvious nod to the demonstrators who turned out following the deaths of Brown (and Eric Garner).

Here’s what that looked like.

I wonder if Pharrell will take back the assertion that Mike Brown was a bully.

Video if you’re interested.

https://twitter.com/katienelson/status/564622109125918720

Great comment at Mediaite: “Not only did he perpetuate a myth…even if it happened he trivialized it.” It didn’t happen. And Pharrell and his dancers are extolling a thug who assaulted a clerk, stole cigars, assaulted a police officer, attempted to take the officers gun, ran away when the gun went off, then came back and charged the officer.

As far as the demonstrators go, people who riot and loot multiple times, call for violence, and make death threats are not “demonstrators”.

Read: Good News: Grammy’s Pay Homage To Criminals With “Hands Up” Display »

Washington Post Questions Brian Williams’ Katrina “Criminal Gangs” Story

This makes me wonder: if Brian Williams could believe he was able to trot out these whoppers on a constant basis, who else in the news media does the same?

Questioning Brian Williams’s claims that ‘gangs’ terrorized the Ritz-Carlton during Katrina

There’s a story Brian Williams likes to tell. He has told it in a TV interview. He has told it to at least two book authors. But even though it had all the makings of a great yarn — danger, guns, resolve — Williams never reported it to his viewers.

It’s the one about the gangs that Williams claimed had “overrun” a posh Ritz-Carlton where he stayed during Hurricane Katrina.

Williams is an, as WP writer Terrence McCoy terms it, hibernation mode following the revelations regarding his adventures in a military helicopter that was shot down in Iraq, how he “stared down the barrel of an RPG”, which all turned out to be untrue. Stories he told again and again and again.

…few stories illustrated that predilection to talk more than his takes on Katrina — the stories with which he made his bones. But now some of them are taking heat.

Among them: The one he told about witnessing a suicide at the Superdome. Or the one he told about watching a body float past the Ritz-Carlton, perched at the edge of an otherwise dry French Quarter. Or the one about the dysentery he said he got. And, finally, the story he told about the Ritz-Carlton gangs. Three separate sources told reporters no gangs infiltrated the Ritz-Carlton.

Go ahead and read the rest of the Washington Post story for the full details, which, at best, show that Williams significantly embellished his narrative, at worst, simply made it up. Some report that there were a few nutjobs, possibly thugs, in the hotel, but not “criminal gangs”.

He eventually made a break for it, “wading” out into what is described as “two feet of floodwater, barely able to stand.” In front of the hotel, a violent confrontation loomed. “A gang was waiting on the streetcar tracks in front of the Ritz, ready go ‘smash and grab,’ as Williams put it, to take the vehicle.” Some Louisiana National Guardsmen then materialized to confront the marauders and ensure the “NBC trio didn’t get their escape vehicle hijacked. ‘They aimed weapons at the men on the street,’ Williams recalled. ‘Then we were on our own.’” Somehow, Williams said he soldiered on, making all of his broadcasts.

While it seems possible, because there darned sure were lots of “criminal gangs”, and just plain thugs running around New Orleans, Governor Blanco did such a poor job before, during, and after Katrina that having the National Guard at the hotel is rather unbelievable.

It’s difficult to tell what actually happened at the hotel. The Ritz-Carlton hasn’t commented much. It’s possible gangs overtook the hotel, brandished guns and terrorized the people inside. It’s possible Williams confronted a gang bent on stealing his car when he emerged from the hotel. But it’s also possible this was another case of what the American Journalism Review called “myth-making in New Orleans.”

You know what’s also strange? These kinds of issues, these “myths”, never occurred in Mississippi, which was hit very hard by Katrina. All 82 of Mississippi’s counties were declared federal disaster areas. The eye wall did not pass over New Orleans, but over Miss. cities. It was hit with a 27 foot storm surge that traveled up to 6 miles inland. Mississippi took the brunt of the right side of the hurricane, typically said to be the worst side. Yet, no “myths” or outlandish stories.

Interestingly, none of Brian Williams’ claims actually appeared on tape at the time they happened.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

Read: Washington Post Questions Brian Williams’ Katrina “Criminal Gangs” Story »

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