Obviously, The Solution To “Climate Change” Is Government

By William Teach May 26, 2014 – 10:34 am

But, don’t say this is political issue or something. Here’s, humorously, DJ Jimmy Buff

The Green Life: Government must lead way on climate change

(Opening blather about Doom!)

The fixing requires something we’re lacking right now: Political will. Public acceptance of climate change is high, but nothing changes without governments leading the way because nothing that has needed to happen has ever happened without government making it so. From the end of slavery, the right for women to vote, the Civil Rights Act, the first clean water and air acts to marriage equality, government has said it must be so, and it was. It wasn’t the citizenry that had collectively decided to change — though many were in favor of the aforementioned progress — it was legislated.

Except, it was the citizens who cared. If it’s government forcing their opinions on We The People, then what you’re discussing is an authoritarian government. Which, of course, is part of what the Progressive movement is about: Government dominance, for “your own good”, of course.

There are big forces aligned against the government making changes. Notably, the Koch brothers have funded a group called Americans for Prosperity that has solicited and received the support of dozens of members of Congress on a thing they call the No Climate Tax Pledge, which states that signers “oppose legislation relating to climate change that includes a net increase in government revenue.”

In other words, how Dare!!!!! people use their Constitutionally protected voices. And Warmists wonder why we call them fascists.

In fact, the Warmist cult is dying out. Even those who believe in anthropogenic global warming, er, climate change, or whatever they want to call it, mostly refuse to do anything within their own lives, and more and more people are tired of hearing about all the doom and gloom. When polled, “climate change” typically comes in at the bottom. The latest Gallup poll shows

On the bright side, it’s ticked up 2%. But, still 14 out of 15 issues. Which is sad, considering that real environmental issues are important. Folding “climate change” into the issue damages it.

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Obviously, California Mass Murder Means Typical Calls For “Gun Control”

By William Teach May 26, 2014 – 7:21 am

Never let a good crisis go to waste

(Politico) Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Sunday he would urge Senate leaders to reconsider tougher gun control and mental health measures in the wake of this weekend’s deadly shootings near the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Appearing on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” the Connecticut Democrat said the recent shootings reminded him of the 2012 shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. after which “it seemed like we were on the verge of legislation that would stop the madness.”

Those measures, which would include tougher background checks on gun sales and certain mental health initiatives, ultimately failed in Congress. But Blumenthal said he would urge lawmakers to “reconfigure” the bills to focus more on the mental health provisions, where he said there could be some agreement with Republicans.

You can bet that the “reconfiguration” would still include all the restrictive measures which essentially impact law abiding gun owners, and barely impact, if impact at all, the criminals that use them. The problem here is that more mental health provisions could impact the privacy of citizens. Furthermore, there is a danger that the mental health provisions could be used in a political manner. And Congress has not been known lately for passing specific, targeted legislation. Instead, that legislation has seen the details left in the hands of political appointees and career bureaucrats.

And then there’s Mark O’Mara, who says he owns a gun and wants gun control

We have a problem with gun violence in this country. I think this much is not in dispute. The real debate is this: What do we do about it? Unfortunately, most answers to this question involve greater governmental regulation and intrusion into our lives.

Americans are fiercely independent, sometimes to a fault, and we bristle at any effort seen as trampling our inalienable rights. But the freedoms guaranteed in our Constitution have never been unfettered. Each amendment in the Bill of Rights has spawned a legacy of case law that interprets, defines, refines and restricts our basic freedoms based on the values and needs of the people at the time. (snip)

We’re free from government intrusion as long as we are not doing something illegal or something that would negatively affect our community. (I can live at peace in my home; I cannot do so with a meth lab.)

Yet, heavy handed gun control would impact those who are not doing anything illegal.

A gun in the hands of a law-abiding citizen is the perfect, unassailable instrument for self-defense and for the protection of one’s family. To tell someone who is acting reasonably and rationally that they have to give up that right is unfathomable to the responsible gun owner. That’s why gun rights advocates have such a negative response to any perceived restrictions on gun ownership: They know, without question, that they will only use their weapon properly.

But all too often guns are used improperly, without justification, with tragic results. While we have laws preventing convicted felons from legally owning guns, we live in a reality where even properly maintained guns wind up in the wrong hands, where the overly free commerce of firearms virtually assures that some of them will be used by people with criminal intentions.

Gun rights advocates often see a comment like that as an argument for further restriction on their use of weapons, but that’s not the way I intend it. I myself am a responsible gun owner. I believe in the right to justified self-defense. I also believe that reasonable restrictions to assure that only law-abiding citizens can purchase firearms better prevents over-restriction of our Second Amendment.

Mr. O’Mara fails to make any recommendations as to what gun control measures he wants. He seems to be saying quite a bit throughout his opinion piece that the rights of law abiding citizens is super awesome, but, hey, more gun control. Let’s not forget that California has some of the strongest gun control measures in not only the country, but in the world. Yet, it’s not just nuts like Elliot Rogers using a gun for murder, but the gangs that are rampant within lots of areas of the state of California. Massive, restrictive gun control only stops the law abiding from obtaining guns, taking away the means to defend themselves.

Let’s also not forget that Rogers used a knife and his auto. Yet, no one is calling for restrictions on knives and cars, are they? Why does it seem that there is more gun violence within areas that have the most gun restrictions? Why is it that more people are killed with hammers than guns?

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Bipartisan Lawmakers Call For Criminal Investigation Into VA Scandal

By William Teach May 26, 2014 – 7:01 am

Will Eric Holder use his highly politicized Justice Department to investigate?

(LA Times) The Justice Department should enter the investigation of whether Veterans Affairs employees have falsified records to cover up long waits at VA medical facilities, Democratic and Republican lawmakers said Sunday.

“Only the Department of Justice and the FBI have the resources, the expertise and the authority to do a prompt and effective criminal investigation of the secret waiting lists, potential destruction of documents, falsification of records, in effect, the cooking of books and covering up that may have occurred,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, agreed. The “Department of Justice needs to get involved,” he said on the same program.

The VA’s inspector general is investigating 26 sites to determine whether employees covered up long waits for medical appointments, and the Justice Department is already involved to some extent.

At this point, it’s pretty darned clear that employees covered up long waits: there’s no need for an internal review. These are established facts There’s been quite a bit of waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the Veterans Affairs. An internal review might uncover even more fraud, waste, and abuse. What’s needed is criminal investigation of what is already known. If the VA was a private company, they’d already be under investigation by a criminal agency of the government. Consider that the FBI immediately jumped into the mass shooting by Leftist nutjob Elliot Rogers in California, despite being an incident that should be handled by the State of California. Yet, so far, no (known) involvement by the FBI/Justice Dept of the VA.

(CNN) It’s “just the tip of the iceberg.” That’s what a congressional committee chairman investigating allegations of delayed care and cooked books at Veterans Affairs health care facilities told CNN.

Rep. Jeff Miller, a Florida Republican who heads the House Veterans Affairs panel, on Thursday forecast more serious developments in the national program serving nearly 9 million veterans.

“We’ve received some information and some tips that will make what has already come look like kindergarten stuff,” he told CNN’s New Day.

Here’s the kicker

The controversy has broadened since CNN first reported six months ago on allegations of alarming shortcomings within the VA medical care system that potentially have had deadly consequences in dozens of cases.

Yet, despite knowing that Obama pretty much learns the news when American citizens do, nothing has been done, and there is no external investigation. No criminal investigation. Maybe Obama should stop reading TMZ so much. Of course, far left groups are already circling the wagons to protect Obama and Shinecki, like the Center For American Progress, which notes that Shinseki has done good things for the VA. And

Secretary Shinseki has called for a full Inspector General report investigating the Phoenix VA and all other locations where these secret waiting lists were reported, as well as “face-to-face” audits of all VA facilities. Meanwhile, he immediately ordered the director and associate director of the Phoenix VA to be put on administrative leave and promised that those responsible will be held accountable.

Last time I checked, Secretary Shinseki is the person who is ultimately responsible for the VA as a Cabinet level Secretary. Yes, he has made some progress in helping the VA. Horrible things have also happened under his watch. It’ll be interesting to hear what he’s done about the waste, fraud, and abuse, much of which led to the deaths of American veterans, when Congress holds hearings.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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We’re Like Super Doomed From An Antarctic Ice Sheet

By William Teach May 25, 2014 – 3:20 pm

Like, super doomed, per hyper-Warmist and bloviator Chris Mooney

This Ice Sheet Will Unleash a Global Superstorm Sandy That Never Ends

Lots of blah blah hysteria

You need to really pause, and take a deep breath, to take in what that means: A little over three meters of sea level rise is already on its way into the ocean, with nothing to stop it. Granted, the process still takes a long time—likely hundreds of years—because as Alley explains, melting an ice sheet is a lot like unsnarling a traffic jam. “There’s this huge merge, that you take something that is a couple of miles thick, and a hundred miles wide, and you squeeze it way down,” he says. “And it’s coming out through a place that’s well less than a mile thick, and not nearly that wide.”

(More hyperventilation)

That’s why, as a human civilization on Earth, pretty much the dumbest thing you could possibly do is melt your planet’s ice sheets. And that’s why, if the news about West Antarctica isn’t enough to snap us into action on climate change, then we will only be able to thank ourselves for the disaster that is coming.

What’s missing in the article is proof of anthropogenic causation. The ice sheets have been melting for over 20000 years, from when the last glacial period “ended”. But, hey, in Warmists World hysteria is the same thing as science.

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If All You See…

By William Teach May 25, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is a horrible fossil fueled vehicle causing desertification, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Gateway Pundit, with a post on those peaceful Leftists threatening to shoot Dana Loesch

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Sorta Blogless Sunday Pinup

By William Teach May 25, 2014 – 8:43 am

Happy Sunday! Tomorrow is a day to remember all our service members who gave their lives in service to our country. Not sure who did this pinup.

What is happening in Ye Olde Blogosphere? The Fine 15

  1. Let’s start with American Power, which has lots of posts on the far left mass murderer, including on on the “men’s rights movement being far left
  2. Raised On Hoecakes comments sequestration and promises.
  3. Black and Right has the bitchslap of the day
  4. Bookworm sums up voter ID in one picture
  5. Capitalism is Freedom notes that the Comcast-Time Warner deal is looking really good
  6. Director Blue has the Freedom Index
  7. Flopping Aces notes things that are more important to Democrats than veterans
  8. Joshuapundit notes the the story that could really effect you the most
  9. Legal Insurrection discusses redistribution disguised as reparations
  10. neo-neocon covers Obama and his enablers
  11. Political Clown Parade wonders about all the waiting for reports
  12. Public Secrets things Obama is inept for some reason
  13. Rhymes With Right has an answer to a question
  14. Right Wing News notes a false hate crime victim suing Red Lobster and the waitress
  15. And last, but not least, Sister Toldjah has some scary info for Senator Fail, er, Kay Hagan

As always, the full set of pinups can be seen in the Patriotic Pinup category, or over at my Gallery page. While we are on pinups, since it is that time of year, have you gotten your “Pinups for Vets” calendar yet? And don’t forget to check out what I declare to be our War on Women Rule 5 and linky luv posts and things that interest me

Anyone else have a link or hotty-fest going on? Let me know so I can add you to the list. (BTW, since someone asked, the reason I leave links for the previous week up (or you might see a *) is because they are place holders for later in the day or for next weeks. Easier than rewriting all the time. Also, the listing order has to do with how they are added over time, not how good a post is. I just copy and paste from the previous week, then edit. If you see one of the *’s, go ahead and check out the blog anyhow, see if there is an update. I cannot update with my Android during the day.

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Hooray! Obama To Warn Of Foreign Policy Over-reach In West Point Commencement Campaign Speech

By William Teach May 25, 2014 – 8:23 am

So far, Mr. Obama’s foreign policy has been a mess. Yes, he does have a few successes. He ordered (after massive prodding) the attack that killed Bin Laden. Which ticks off Islamists, but, to hell with them. He got Anwar Al Awlaki (which has gotten him attacked by people on the left and right for targeting an American citizen. The attack and support of this is bipartisan. I applaud Obama). He’s drone-striked tons of Islamists. He’s done a good job in ignoring and playing tough with the nutjob leaders of North Korea, refusing to play their game (which might just be because Obama can’t be bothered). And then, um, er, well. Seriously, the only A given to Obama in 2013 by the Washington Post was for his dealings with China. Yet, as Charles Krauthammer notes, Obama just got punked by Putin regarding Asia, especially China. Iran is playing a game, stretching things out on their way to building the nuclear bomb. He’s annoyed our allies. His Libyan adventure is a mess. He made the US look weak regarding Syria. He’s even managed to annoy Canada. Seriously, Canada? There’s so much fail it’s hard to know what to include in the start of this post and keep it short. Even the NY Times’ Ross Douthat can’t find much to talk about as a success. Cue the Neverending Campaign

(Yahoo News) President Obama will use his commencement speech at West Point this week to defend his handling of an ever-widening array of foreign policy crises and to outline top national security goals for his fast-shrinking time in office, officials say.

Under fire from Republicans who accuse him of being a weak president overseeing a dramatic and dangerous American retreat from the world stage, the president who ordered the death of Osama bin Laden but has been powerless to stop the bloodbath in Syria will argue that he has struck the right balance – and will continue to do so.

“You will hear the president discuss how the United States will use all the tools in our arsenal without over-reaching,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity.

“He will lay out why the right policy is one that is both interventionist and internationalist, but not isolationist or unilateral,” the official said.

I bet this year’s West Point graduates are thrilled to have to listen to this whiny dreck, which will certainly include lots of blamestorming, and sound very much like a Typical Obama Campaign Speech, rather than hear something uplifting and inspirational from their Commander In Chief.

As far as “over-reaching” goes, it matters little, because Obama either fails to reach or reaches wrongly. Kinda like trying to shake everyone’s hand with your foot. The latter is more common.

After that, he’s going on a European tour, attempting to Look Presidential, but, so far, previous trips have show little reward. Which is what you can say about most of his foreign policy. He’s long on words, short on action. This sounds like one of his famous “pivots”, meant to distract from other affairs, rather than a serious continuation of policy that works.

Days after the speech, he heads to Europe for a trip heavily defined by his standoff with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine. Obama will reaffirm America’s ties to the continent in a speech in Warsaw, then attend a rich-nation summit in Brussels from which Putin has been banned.

He can speak about it all he wants, but, really, his best times dealing with European leaders has been taking selfies at Mandela’s funeral. Then he’ll attend a memorial in Normandy for the 70th anniversary of D-Day. Which he’ll surely make about himself.

Perhaps he can explain to the West Point grads how he’s failed to follow through on all the problems at the Veteran’s Administration. More likely, he’ll ask for $3 or whatever they can spare. On the bright side, at least these college grads have decent jobs in their immediate future.

Crossed at Right Wing News.

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Good News: Energy Prices Set To Spike

By William Teach May 24, 2014 – 4:18 pm

No worries, Obama and his 1%er friends will be A-OK

(AP) Electricity prices are probably on their way up across much of the U.S. as coal-fired plants, the dominant source of cheap power, shut down in response to environmental regulations and economic forces.

New and tighter pollution rules and tough competition from cleaner sources such as natural gas, wind and solar will lead to the closings of dozens of coal-burning plants across 20 states over the next three years. And many of those that stay open will need expensive retrofits.

Because of these and other factors, the Energy Department predicts retail power prices will rise 4 percent on average this year, the biggest increase since 2008. By 2020, prices are expected to climb an additional 13 percent, a forecast that does not include the costs of coming environmental rules.

There are consequences to executive actions, and this means higher energy prices, followed by rising cost of living. And with winters seemingly getting more brutal, it’s the citizens that pay the price, not Obama and his wanker minions.

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Posted in Barry Obama, Energy, Global Warming | 1 Comment | Trackback URL

If All You See…

By William Teach May 24, 2014 – 1:00 pm

…is an evil fossil fueled Jeep used to travel to evil beach bonfire parties, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Maggie’s Notebook, with a post on Dems voting to bail out the insurance companies.

Bonus image below the fold, since it was too small to enlarge without losing resolution

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2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season Predicted To Be Below Average

By William Teach May 24, 2014 – 10:01 am

You don’t say

(Accuweather) With the start of the Atlantic hurricane season merely days away, on Thursday, May 22, 2014, NOAA released its 2014 Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast, predicting a likely below-normal hurricane season. On par with AccuWeather.com’s forecast, released on May 14, the agency expects this season to offset the high hurricane activity seen in the last 20 years. Out of the last 20 years, 12 years have experienced above-normal hurricane seasons, according to NOAA. NOAA predicts a total of eight to 13 named storms, with three to six developing into hurricanes and one to two intensifying into major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher. The seasonal averages are 12 named storms, six hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

If by “high activity” they mean no major hurricanes making landfall on the US since October 2005, and just one barely a hurricane since October 2008, well, OK, then.

It’s hard to know if this is a reality check amongst previous predictions of doom, or simply a CYA that will allow Warmists to say “hey, look, we had more than predicted!!!!” if there are more.

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