Contemporary Politics and Newton’s Three Laws of Motion (Part 11)

“And Awaaay We Go”

BHO and the Progressives have wasted no time kicking off the second half of the First Reign of the Empty Suit That Would Be Emperor. Having seen the legislative route to their subjugation of America closed on November 2nd; they are now already pressing hard to assert their control via the Executive branch’s machinery. These unreformed statists are, perfectly in character, going about this business in the manner of heavy-handed despots. Strap in folks, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

==

The most visible and high profile manifestation of the new political gestalt is, of course, the Great Don’t Touch My Junk Affair of 2010. In this theatre of the absurd an army of bureau-weenies with ill-fitting uniforms perform humiliating warrantless strip searches on gaggles of traveling “sheeples,” so our government can make ridiculous claims to be keeping those “sheeples” safe, even while it carefully avoids profiling the wolves in their midst to maintain compliance with the suicidal dictates of Political Correctness.

I love “sheeples” as a word, as it gracefully merges “sheep” and “people” to describe those among us who are satisfied to consent to any outrage or abuse, as long as it originates from a source of “authority.” I’ve heard this word employed recently and eloquently by numerous conservative commentarians, including Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter. In the conservative blogosphere we even have our very own valued contributor “No Sheeples Here.” I can’t think of a better early nominee for next year’s word of year. The upcoming year should be all about deciding whether or not America will decline into a nation of sheeple.

Or, as it relates to this specific issue, and as the Strata-Sphere site puts it; whether we prefer to be molested or to be “profiled.” I choose profiling – it used to be simply known as good police work, after all. In fact, profiling is at the core of the very successful, and far less intrusive, Israeli approach to airline security. What the Israelis know that our hopelessly inept TSA apparatus does not know is: “the thing is not the thing,” or even better, “bombs don’t kill, the Radical Islamists who stuff bombs in their pants do.” Inconveniencing everyone in an endless game of hide and seek is a fool’s errand. The common sense response is old fashioned detective work that zeroes in on the suspects with the motivations – that is, profiling. The Israelis have been doing it very effectively for the better part of fifty years. I’m thinking, for example, that “profiling” had a little something to do with this FBI success that just broke in the news.

And if the alternative is outrageously blood-boiling petty brown-shirtism from my government, then I am ready and willing to push back against this so-called “authority” – hard, real hard. So is this guy. Sorry, we’re not buying any *bs* excuses about TSA employees “just doing their jobs.”

View this and tell me if you feel safer with these ass clowns "doing their jobs."



And this is no isolated incident. Here’s a representative sample of links (to links, to links), just for the historical record:

http://backyardconservative.blogspot.com/2010/11/tsa-tweets.html

http://lonelyconservative.com/2010/11/obama-admin-pushes-back-against-the-american-people-on-tsa-procedures/

http://dailycaller.com/2010/11/22/tsa-wants-you-to-know-theyre-not-thugs-which-is-why-theyre-confiscating-your-camera/

==

Here’s hoping there’s enough Patriots out there to counteract the acquiescence of the sheeples. BHO and the Progressives are counting on us failing. Like good little statists, they have many other outrages planned to help ensure this outcome.

For one thing, they lust after Internet censorship. So much so, they are even willing to use the DHS “security” apparatus to chase down copyright violations on the Internet. Why DHS for this? It makes no sense – copyright enforcement is a civil matter. The commenter @gitarcarver deftly deploys “workaround” as a euphemism for “unconstitutional power grab.” Prepare to see many more such “workarounds” attempted over the next two years.

==

Previously on this blog I have, with my usual brilliant insight, identified 2009 as a great year for the First Amendment and correctly predicted 2010 would be a fine year for the Tenth Amendment. 2011 is shaping up to be a good year for the Fourth Amendment. So far, this progression has not required We The People to bring the Second Amendment to bear - but BHO and the Progressives sure are making it hard, aren’t they?


Footnote

Here’s one of those “you just can’t make this stuff up” posts. What’s special about this one is the exceptionally long train of snarky comments from observers who are clearly not sheeples.

I’d be honored to be ranked in the middle of this snarkapalooza’s pack.  It gives me hope for the future of the republic.


Update 11/30/10

Upon further editorial review, I should have concluded the TSA discussion with a paragraph on this administration’s pattern of stubbornness in the face of public opinion, and how that pattern contributes toward the inevitability of a history-book-rattling collision with the American public. These posts would have provided the supporting evidence.

If you hold an airline ticket, you might be a “domestic extremist.”


Administration decides full cavity searches go too far (that’s awful big of ‘em).

Campaign Strategy Exclusive: Jack Wiley Dithers

(AP) – Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

While checking into the Alexandria, Virginia Radisson hotel on personal, ahem, business; I noticed a number of prominent elected Democrats roaming the lobby. The investigation I immediately launched uncovered a presentation in the Grand Ballroom from the prominent political research firm Light, Leboon, Levin, and Lee. I was able to acquire a copy of the PowerPoint handout carelessly left behind in the Men’s Room.

Our staff of Nobel Prize winning Analyzers agree this is the best possible strategy available to the Democrats in this year’s election cycle. They have also reached a consensus that the Republican Party can gain 50 House seats and 7 Senate seats simply by keeping quiet. They also agree the Republican Party could gain 70 House seats and 12 Senate seats by articulating a principled conservative, pro-growth, constitutionalist agenda. They are presently in the courtyard engaged in a heated debate over whether the Republican Party is capable of such articulation.

Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

Update 09/04/2010

Hey, now I can say I stole an idea from the dumbest man on television, Keith Olbermann.

LibertyAtStake’s Anatomy of the Blogosphere

Or: A Beginner’s Guide to the Blogosphere - From a Certified Beginner

The following words are contained in the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” an integral movement in the rock opera “Tommy,” by The Who.

My name is Tommy
And I became aware this year

These words could be the introduction to any number of timely themes for a post today, substituting “Tommy” for any number of people or groups.

• The American people becoming aware of the destructive agenda the Progressive Left has in mind for their country and way of life.

• The Progressive Left, in a panic, as it becomes aware that the American people are becoming aware of their agenda.

• The Democrat Party becoming aware, far too late in the game, it has been hijacked by the Progressive Left.

• The Republican Party becoming aware, perhaps in the nick of time, that principled conservatism is the path to enduring governing majorities.

• Barack Hussein Obama becoming aware, much later in life than most of us, and with far more profound consequences, that voting ‘present’ doesn’t work when you’re supposedly in charge.

• Pollsters becoming aware that if it walks like a Muslim and quacks like a Muslim, a large swath of the public will come to believe their own eyes.

• Team Amnesty, Team Deficit, Team Enviro, and Team Jihad all slowly becoming aware “We’re Not Gonna Take It” anymore.

• Glenn Beck becoming aware he can make money hand over fist by preaching founding principles.

• The criminally biased MSM becoming aware that those patriotic crowds gathering in the in the streets are mainstream America. Oh wait, the time hasn’t quite arrived for that particular theme.

==

This post is not about any of those things (at least not directly). Rather, it is about me becoming aware of a vibrant ecosystem called the blogosphere.

I did not come to it naturally. My own wife of 18 years has labeled me “anti-social.” My own kids have wondered aloud how I could possibly have any friends at all. I have trouble remembering the names of acquaintances and business associates I have not met personally at least three times. Then, if I don’t meet them again for an extended period of time, the cycle repeats. The concept of maintaining a large network of “BFFs” I’ve never actually met is absolutely beyond my comprehension. Trust me, you will not find me on Facebook nor Twitter. And I’m OK with all of that – I am comfortable in my own skin.

On the other hand, a lifetime of professional experience has acquainted me closely with the concept of applying Information Technology to mission directed systems. So, a particular line of thought came easily to me within the past year or so:

• BHO and the Progressives are obviously hell bent on trashing the Constitution ….
• That really pisses me off because I’m a Conservative …
• What can I possibly do about it …
• Well, there’s this TEA Party thing rising up in opposition to BHO and the progressives, maybe I’ll wade into the crowd and check it out ….
• Hmmmm…this TEA Party thing seems quite visceral, but it could possibly use some grounding in the Conservative principles it has tapped into ….
• Well, blogging technology may have matured to the point where it could be possible to reach a lot of these folks with a free blogger utility …
• {Some messing around online}
• Blogspot seems good enough, let’s get started …

==

The first month or so, I felt like Axl Rose's character getting off the bus in the "Welcome to the Jungle" video.




My original design vision for the blog – essentially writing an online book chronicling these intense times – kept me plowing forward. Among other early lessons, I learned how trivial it is to embed videos – so long as the publisher allows it. Seems like a perfectly libertarian model to me – supporting the free flow of information with respect for property rights.

By February my comment board style was taking full shape. The comment board is a place where a guy can have a good opinionated dust up (aka policy argument) without worrying about doing business or breaking bread with the idiot you just called an idiot. Excellent. It’s the Arena. Don’t step into the Arena unless you are prepared to drop the gloves and get dirt and maybe some blood under your fingernails. The really interesting thing is the key to success here is the same key that applies to so much of the rest of life – good humor. The well structured joke at your opponent’s expense is the Arena’s form of “disagreeing without being disagreeable.” Straight up vulgarity remains unpersuasive in the Arena.

I think it was March when I discovered I could use the Feedjit utility to gain some measure of understanding around who was coming to my blog, and use this information to direct my comment board activity to boards that were bringing people to my blog.  I allowed them to do so by signing my comments with my url. Shamelessly whoring my blog? I recall applying that label to the marketing department myself in the past.

For a brief period, I played a little game with Feedjit. Whenever I commented on Huffington Post, within seconds a swarm of HuffPo readers would follow the link to my right wing extremist blog. Then the effect would disappear. It was absolutely unlike any other effect I’ve observed before or since on Feedjit – exactly like a swarm of bees agitated by Dennis the Menace poking at their beehive. Soon my HuffPo account was banned without explanation. Make of this experience what you will. I am bemused by yet another indicator of Looney Left mob mentality.

If the Leftie Astro-Turf Coffee Party is any indication, the Left Wing blogosphere must be a stale and stultifying place to inhabit – with rigid rank hierarchies and top-down driven agendas. It must be a lot like trying to get anything done in any randomly chosen federal bureaucracy.

The right wing blogosphere I inhabit, by contrast, is a loosely knit and eclectic confederation of  individualists gathering together voluntarily. There are the Aggregators and Amplifiers, who keep those of us who are easily distracted on point. The News Analyzers and Policy Opinionators constantly pre-process it all to lend a bit of initial organization. The Humorists keep it entertaining. The Philosophers connect it all to back to founding principles and a roadmap for the future. Bloggers who stay on my blog roll do so because they consistently fill one or more of these roles for me as a reader.

I think I’m settling into a special sub-division of the Philosopher role – the Predictor. I think it fits. I’ve always been opinionated, and never gave too much of a damn what anybody thought of my opinions.

Prediction: 70-12. That’s the November seat turnover count for the House and Senate, respectively. It’s pre-ordained by Newtonian physics, you know.

BREAKING NEWS – PRESIDENT TO HOLD JULY 4th PICNIC FOR HEADS OF STATE

(AP) – Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

Our cracker-jack investigative journalism team has learned President Obama will be holding a Top Secret Camp David picnic on July 4th, for selected world heads of state. Certified White House Genius Valerie Jarrett told our source this picnic was a continuation of the administration’s new diplomatic outreach to the rest of the world. We have been able to obtain some of the correspondence that has gone into planning the event.

Afghani President Hamad Karzai declined, but said he was keeping his options open for July 2011.

Chinese Premier Hu Jintao accepted the RSVP, but with a note saying he insisted on approving all the purchase orders for event planning.

The leaders of Brazil, Turkey, and Iran all suggested a game of poker – on the condition it would be just them and Mr. Obama at the table. Kim Jong Il, Supreme Leader of North Korea, suggested bobbing for apples carved into the shapes of South Korean naval vessels. The North Korean leader is also scheduled to take on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a Festivus Feats of Strength match, to determine who gets to run the fireworks display at the end of the evening.

The Indian Prime Minister accepted on the condition he could assign his own security detail. The Mexican President’s invitation was the only one that included the words “go ahead and bring along as many friends and family as you can.”

Russian President Dimitry Medvedev initially said he needed to check with Vladimir Putin for permission. Mr. Medvedev then said he would participate on the condition of removing the Ant-Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems that protect Camp David and the rest of DC. The reply from Mr. Obama was “don’t be silly, no such thing exists. Come on over, dude.” Our sources at the Pentagon are nervous about the possibility of Mr. Obama actually asking whether such a thing exists. It might present an ethical dilemma.

Vice President Biden is scheduled to provide entertainment of an unspecified nature. Former Vice President Al Gore is scheduled to give a PowerPoint presentation on something kind of scientific-ish. Weather permitting.

The Prime Ministers of Israel, Great Britain, and Germany were sent invitations to a separate July 5th gathering; at which the plans included serving leftovers, listening to taped recordings of Mr. Obama’s old speeches, stupid pet tricks with Bo the dog, and VP Biden providing entertainment of an unspecified nature. July 5th was also the rain date for Mr. Gore’s PowerPoint presentation. However, none of these leaders accepted, so the July 5th event has been scrubbed.

Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

BREAKING NEWS – CONGRESS TAKES A PASS ON THE BUDGET

(AP) – Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.


Really – this comes right out of the You Can’t Make This Stuff Up Department.

Before this news broke, our crack investigative journalism team was working on a report to explain what was taking so long with the FY 2011 budget process. We’ve decided to just dump our findings into the public domain for the historical record.

==

When asked about the budget by our reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said “I can’t write the bill until it passes and I can see what’s in it.”

A House coalition lead by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Edwin Markey (D-MA) was working on an amendment to classify Carbon Dioxide as taxable income for plants, on the theory the new revenue would close the budget deficit.

A coalition of Senators led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), John Kerry (D-MA), and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) was working on an amendment to attach digital monitors to every citizen, in order to meter and tax carbon dioxide exhaled. Republicans have been torn between embracing the measure as a way to tell who the illegal aliens are, versus challenging the measure as double taxation in view of the House proposal.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) were working on a measure to reduce the deficit by selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the government of Greece.

Our attempt to interview Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) was a complete wash out because her phone was ringing off the hook. We couldn’t understand a word Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) was saying either, because she was looking for her new teeth the whole time. Nor could we understand anything Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) said, due what appeared to be a pointed pillow case on his head. When we approached Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) his head spun around 360 degrees and he spoke in tonques.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) was busy cobbling together a coalition of representatives who were determined to demand an Executive Order stating the deficit doesn’t exist. Representatives Weiner (D-NY) and Kucinich (D-Ohio) were working on a proposal to combine the US and Canadian budgets because the overall math will look better.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) was holding out for more funding for mosque construction in Northern Virginia. Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was holding out for more funding to promote the development of bad comedians. Just before going to press we began to uncover ties between ACORN and a mysterious effort with some financial ties to George Soros, apparently aimed at identifying and cultivating bad comedians in the inner city. The connection to Senator Franken continues to be investigated.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus wrote a letter to us stating they were waiting for a more comprehensive proposal. The Congressional Black Caucus wrote to us they were holding out for separate public bathrooms for TEA party members. Interestingly, this letter came on letter head using the name Congressional African-American Caucus. We may investigate this anomaly at some later date.

President Obama could not be reached for comment today. His staff said he was busy greasing himself up for tomorrow’s Greco-Roman wrestling match with Gen. Stanley McChrystal (D-voted for Obama and don’t forget it) on the South Lawn of the White House.

Jack Wiley Dithers reporting.

Quickie Analysis: Barry’s Gulf Oil Spill Speech

Or: It's Still All About Barry.


It is fitting that Barack Hussein Obama’s first speech from the Oval Office will go down as the speech that precipitated his final slide into complete and utter irrelevance.

This will be because he couldn’t help but make it all about Barry. The problem for him is making it all about Barry is what got him into this hole in the first place. Not being able to even recognize the root problem, he is incapable of observing the first rule of standing in holes – stop digging.

He couldn’t bring himself to make even the slightest admission that the government could have done anything better, or faster, in the containment response. In fact, he had the chutzpah to start off with the big lie that the federal government was calling the shots from day one: “we directed BP to assemble teams and equipment…” Even while you were turning away offers of skimmers from foreign governments, Barry? Something doesn’t add up about the “in charge” part of your narrative.

He also gave the federal government a belated pat on the back for deploying booms, assigning national guardsmen, issuing permits to build sand berms, and bringing in skimmers – precisely the containment tools and methods local jurisdictions have been screaming for at the tops of their collective lungs for eight weeks now! Government can do no wrong in the statist’s mind. And Barry is nothing if not a statist. It’s all about Barry.

He then pivoted easily into a so-called “Long Term Gulf Coast Restoration” program – making the unrealistic promise to give Gulf Coast residents anything and everything they need, at no cost to US taxpayers, completely underwritten by the evil BP corporation. If you believe this, I’ve got a bridge in … well, you know the rest. Make no mistake – this is just the old Community Organizer’s trick of promising something for nothing to people in need, in exchange for voting loyalty. It’s all about Barry. This program will cost the American taxpayer untold gazillions of dollars – you can take that much to the bank. Speaking for BP’s open-ended commitment before meeting with BP’s CEO for even the first time could prove to come back and bite Barry, too – we’ll see.

He then moved on to defending the drilling moratorium he reflexively imposed (like a good statist will) – on the specious grounds that he was misled about the risks on a somewhat related decision a few weeks before. Make no mistake – this was a sop to his political left wing. Does the FAA ground every airplane for six months whenever any single airplane crashes? Of course not – it would be a stupid overreaction. But Barry has an agenda to push here. It’s all about Barry.

And Barry smells an opportunity to impose more government control, like any good statist would. He announced still another phony commission – this one with the transparent mission of building out denser (read economically straight-jacketing) regulations for an industry that already deals with reams upon reams of regulation. Barry the statist used the opportunity tonight to make his clarion call for scorched earth regulation of another industry. It’s all about Barry.

Then came the big pitch for Barry’s true agenda - Cap and Tax. We got the old Progressive meme stating the US uses 20% of the world’s fossil fuel even though we’re 2% of the world’s population. No shit, Sherlock – we have the most prosperous society! If Kenyans would like to consume more fossil fuels and raise its standard of living, and change the ratios, they are welcome to have at it!

Notice he did not mention “Global Warming,” err I mean “Climate Change,” err I mean whatever the hell they are calling it now. That’s because the science is discredited. Instead, he engaged in the big lie that resources are running out closer to shore and on shore. Yeah, we’ll have that argument in the coming days and weeks – but just for starters; let's review this map of the status of coastal US off shore drilling areas (courtesy of Reuters).

Then he predictably got into wind and solar, surely knowing they are incapable of meeting even a pathetic percentage of demand – while failing to even mention nuclear, which does indeed have the ability to scale up to meeting significant portions of demand right now. But when the truth doesn’t fit Barry’s agenda, it cannot be mentioned. It’s all about Barry.

Then came the explicit mention of Waxman-Markey (aka “Cap and Tax”), without actually saying its name. This was the big sop to his political left wing we all expected. It’s all about Barry. We then heard the oblique reference to there being “costs” involved – but no specifics. Yeah, economically crippling costs! Make no mistake – when the statist is non-specific about costs, you can be sure the final bill will be astronomical.

Then he made another disingenuous promise to entertain all ideas in the Cap and Tax debate – just like he did right before the phony Blair House Summit that kicked off the last act of the ObamaCare tragic comedy. My personal favorite tonight was Barry the Wise wondering aloud why energy companies don’t spend as much on R&D as high tech companies. No shit, Sherlock – energy companies are already regulated to death! More regulation means more dollars for compliance and fewer dollars for everything else, including R&D. But of course more and more regulation is precisely what the statist always calls for. The only surprising thing here is he didn’t take the opportunity to call for more regulation of the high tech industry in the next breath. An amazing show of restraint, if you ask me. It’s all about Barry.

Finally came the hopey changey platitudes and insincere nods to prayer and patriotism.

It was all about Barry when the Progressive machine foisted this Empty Suit upon the republic, and sold him on false premises, using the compliant and biased MSM. It still is all about Barry, and that’s precisely the problem that presently plagues the republic.

For now, it’s as if these guys were running the country, and we’ll just have to muddle along with the checks and balances bestowed upon us by the American Founding Fathers ….

On The Enlightenment

The initial spark for this post came when I read this article on Reason.Com – in which a hero of the Left, the Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg, is said to show intolerance toward a New York cabbie’s religious views. The scene was set in 1989, and the Ayatollah Khomeini had just sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for the content of his book. (I believe the term of art is “fatwa.”) The cabbie, of course, was a Muslim.

The concluding catch-phrase in this article really hooked me - “You want to kill the Enlightenment, you’re going to have to come through me.” It also apparently captures a sentiment that is widespread throughout western society today, as evidenced by the huge response to Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.

What is it about western society that allows this sort of spontaneous, voluntary, decentralized, creative, and powerfully focused cultural event? One could argue the Age of Enlightenment is the wellspring that made it possible.

The Age of Enlightenment is a strictly western historical phenomenon – there is no direct parallel in eastern societies, and it shows. The Age of Enlightenment is a deep subject to tackle in and of itself. For this post, let’s use this working short-hand definition from the Wikipedia article:

In his famous essay "What is Enlightenment?" (1784), Immanuel Kant described it simply as freedom to use one's own intelligence.

I guess I’ll throw in this slightly lengthier shot at pinning it down, also from Wikipedia:

Dorinda Outram provides a good example of a standard, intellectual definition of the Enlightenment:


Enlightenment was a desire for human affairs to be guided by rationality rather than by faith, superstition, or revelation; a belief in the power of human reason to change society and liberate the individual from the restraints of custom or arbitrary authority; all backed up by a world view increasingly validated by science rather than by religion or tradition.

==

The Scientific Method is of The Enlightenment. Subverting the Scientific Method to skew data toward an ideologically driven conclusion is antithetical to the Enlightenment – see “Climate Gate.”

The American Founding Fathers were children of the Enlightenment. They created the most perfect governing framework yet conceived; based on the inalienable rights of every individual, and designed specifically to limit the authoritarian power of government to infringe on those rights. Those of us now actively engaged in protecting the integrity of the American Founding are of the Enlightenment.

The ideals of our judicial system – symbolized by Lady Justice’s blindfold – are based on the concept of equal justice for all. This vision is of the Enlightenment. The contemporary American Left’s obsession with race, gender, and sexual politics is antithetical to the Enlightenment.

The most existentially dangerous enemy of the Enlightenment we face today may be Radical Islamic Jihadism. But coming in a very close second is the contemporary American Left - the enablers of this international murder cult.

You see, the American Left is afflicted with the mental disease known as Political Correctness (PC). The disease of PC can present with the symptom of moral relativism, preventing its host from recognizing evil when he or she sees it, and acting accordingly to defend oneself against it. The great peril of our day is that the PC-blinded American Left runs our government at precisely the time the Jihadi tide is rising.

PC is not of the Enlightenment at all. PC is irrational.

PC offers a rigid set of dogmatic rules to its adherents, which often drives them into fits of hypocrisy – as with this ideologically addled beatnick.









PC causes its victims to fear the utterance of scary words – as with this incomprehensible incompetent.








PC causes its victims to lose perspective on their priorities – as with this confused old man.







PC even causes its victims to forget they have a national identity – as with our Apoligizer-In-Chief.







Or the entire Democrat caucus for that matter …







We simply must clean House in November if the American republic is to be preserved and the Enlightenment is to be perpetuated.



Footnote

The ink was hardly dry on this post and this fresh evidence of Lefty PC madness surfaced. Is there a patriotic Democrat left anywhere in the nation?  Brussels?  AYKM?

Conspiracy Is As Conspiracy Does

Conspiracy is thick in the air of the American body politic this week. The conservative mind finds this condition simultaneously amusing and alerting.

Conspiracy theories are generally anathema to the conservative mind. We conservatives believe the most prosperous economies are those economies driven by the uncounted self-directed decisions made by individual producers and consumers. We conservatives know every top-down command driven economy in history has failed to produce prosperity for any but the elitists making the central planning decisions.

Conservatism is rooted in an understanding of the human condition. We know this universal truth every beat cop knows: any conspiracy is immediately doomed the moment you put each suspect under separate questioning. In normal conditions, holding together a massive conspiracy seems a metaphysical impossibility to the conservative mind. The conspiracy theories that seem to stick with us – 9/11 Truthers, Who Shot JFK, Bush and Enron, Cheney and Halliburton – are generally kept on life support by agitators from the Left.

However, another important attribute of the conservative mind is this: observing reality as it exists in the present, and reaching pragmatic (non-ideological) conclusions about just what the hell is going on. BHO and the Progressives have given us ample reason to start seriously considering conspiracy theories. They have lately been living up fully to Rush Limbaugh’s label as “The Regime.” So, today’s post is an uncharacteristic indulgence in conspiracy theory – just an intellectual exercise, mind you.

The last caller into my favorite morning talk radio show – WMAL’s Christ Plante Show – gave me a jump start on this post. A man identifying himself as ‘Martin,’ and speaking in an Arabic accent, called in to remind us of the old Bush/Enron chestnut. Mr. Plante immediately recognized it as the usual Leftie tactic of distraction, then shooed him away by joking Barry and Ken Lay are really the same man. That’s one for the republic.

But I digress. ‘Martin’ is merely symbolic of what’s wrong with Leftie governance. Progressives are the ideology of “groupthink.” Their small circle of thought leaders create the message, their well-heeled and well-funded organizations promote the message by any means available, and their brown shirts (like ‘Martin’) fall right in line with the message.  The 'groupthink' inevitably leads toward the disaster of lemmings marching over the edge.  While the march is in progress, the appearance of conspiracy comes naturally to these people.

Is it a coincidence the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into Goldman Sachs was launched simultaneous with Barry’s latest legislative push, so-called “Financial Reform?” Maybe not when the permanent campaign theme in this effort is demonization of Wall Street. Was it coincidence on Tax Day when an astro-turf web site popped up to promote the same lie Barry promoted with a lame joke in front of a partisan crowd? Was it coincidence when the story of rate hikes by Anthem Blue Cross / Blue Shield in California broke just as ObamaCare looked like it was on the ropes?

First, there’s no way to really know until We The People retake Congress and get a hold of the investigative committees with jurisdiction. But, we can certainly say a pattern is developing, can’t we? Who knows, maybe it’s the kind of pattern that could result in the suspects being separated out for individual testimony in front of the relevant Congressional committees, beginning in 2011.

The Progressives have two huge problems here. First, their propensity for “groupthink” will continue to produce the appearance of conspiracy, and constantly fuel the suspicion. Second, the wide open information age we live in will prevent them from controlling the population’s perception – except for anyone still blind enough to get all their information from the criminally biased MSM, a shrinking minority of the population.


Footnote – A Trip Down ClimateGate Memory Lane

Hey, who remembers the breakup of the Progressive conspiracy over man-made Global Warming? Video courtesy of Minnesotans for Global Warming (M4GW). (Get it – they think they might like Minnesota to be warmer.)

The Consent of the Governed

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.


In case you didn’t recognize them, these are the first two sentences in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Being one of the “governed,” I’ve been thinking lately about the meaning of the words “consent of the governed” as it relates to my “government.”

This line of thought started with me remembering the best applause line I personally witnessed at the December 15 Emergency Senate Rally (chronicled by video number 22 in my YouTube Playlist ‘T.E.A. Party Film Festival’). Laura Ingraham, turning to face the Capitol building, declares “Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress, You No Longer Have Our Consent!” Patriotic hearts pound and patriotic voices rise to the heavens. That’s how I experienced it, anyway.  Still looking for the MSM report.

If your name is anything other than “Rip Van Winkle,” you are surely aware BHO and the Progressives shoved so-called “Health Care Reform” down our throats in opposition to the consent of the governed. It was not the first time, and if they have their way, it won’t be last. Various unpopular bailouts preceded it. Additional progressive outrages like Cap and Trade, Illegal Immigration Amnesty, more taxation, more deficit spending, and the Orwellian named “Fairness Doctrine” are already in the pipeline right behind it.

It has been, and will continue to be, a relentless progressive assault on the American Founding. This assault will be relentlessly visited upon us until We The People reclaim Congress. Therefore, I shall present the evidence as a relentless drum beat of links (below the line) - demonstrating this administration’s habit of governing in opposition to the consent of the governed.

I suspect that in due time we will get to an examination of this other sentence from the same paragraph in the Declaration – “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government …” We might then pause to reflect on why the Founders may have had those words in mind while crafting Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution.


Hey, how does everyone like the new “Daily Barry” feature?  Who knows how to read trend lines? :)

------------------------------------------------------------------------


GM Bailout



12/8/2008

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/behind-the-numbers/2008/12/poll_auto_bailout_wrong_way.html

12/4/2008

http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/03/news/economy/automakers_poll/?postversion=2008120312

2/26/2009

http://www.gallup.com/poll/116107/americans-reject-sequel-auto-bailout.aspx

3/30/2009

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/30/auto.ireporters/

4/13/2009

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2009/04/13/77-billion-more-to-bail-out-bankrupt-gm/

5/31/2009

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/auto_industry/may_2009/just_21_favor_gm_bailout_plan_67_oppose

6/2/2009

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124385428627671889.html

6/6/2009

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/view/enhanced_gm_bail_out_bad_for_americans/



“Stimulus”



1/29/2009

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/stimulus-package/poll-independents-swing-heavily-against-stimulus-package/



2/4/2009

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/economic_stimulus_package/february_2009/support_for_stimulus_package_falls_to_37



2/6/2009

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/06/stimulus.polls/index.html



2/24/2009

http://wwwwakeupamericans-spree.blogspot.com/2009/02/stimulus-plan-rewarding-bad-behavior.html



6/23/2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/22/AR2009062202000.html



11/17/2009

http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/obama_stimulus_spending_do_poorly_in_montana_poll/14245/



2/18/2010

http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/5051-poll-6-of-americans-believe-stimulus-created-jobs-7-believe-elvis-is-alive



2/25/2010

http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/01/25/poll.stimulus.money/index.html



Gitmo / KSM / War on Terror / National Defense



6/2/2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5inI8aDAvoSXM0RSQbIOwxObgfshg



11/17/2009

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/67959-poll-almost-two-thirds-want-miliary-trial-for-ksm



12/31/2009

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/poll-finds-americans-favor-waterboarding-christmas-day-terror-suspect/19299536



1/26/2010

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/print/60446



2/1/2010

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Poll-opposition-growing-to-domestic-civilian-trials-for-terrorists--83256752.html



2/11/2010

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/02/11/2010-02-11_poll_dont_try_terrorists_in_ny_or_any_court.html



3/10/2010

http://www.newsmax.com/Headline/poll-terrorism-nation-less/2010/03/10/id/352283



3/29/2010

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/29/cnn-poll-big-shift-on-closing-of-guantanamo-bay-facility/?fbid=O_aEXbEk5sw



4/8/2010

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/april_2010/55_oppose_limits_on_u_s_nuclear_response_to_attacks



Health Care “Reform”



11/24/2009

http://www.businessweek.com/blogs/money_politics/archives/2009/11/new_health_care.html



1/19/2010

http://abcnews.go.com/PollingUnit/Politics/health-care-reform-abc-news-poll-analysis/story?id=9593912



1/19/2010

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/19/2178310.aspx



3/9/2010

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126521/favor-oppose-obama-healthcare-plan.aspx



3/16/2010

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/washington-whispers/2010/03/16/chamber-polls-find-public-is-opposed-to-healthcare-plan.html



3/28/2010

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032804094.html



4/8/2010

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/04/08/most-voters-want-to-see-new-health-care-law-changed-or-repealed/



Cap and Trade / Energy



04/30/2009

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/04/30/zogby-poll-only-30-of-americans-support-cap-and-trade/



6/30/2009

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/environment_energy/42_say_climate_change_bill_will_hurt_the_economy



11/14/2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6916510.ece



1/25/2010

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/01/25/pew-poll-global-warming-dead-last-down-from-last-year/



3/11/2010

http://www.gallup.com/poll/126560/americans-global-warming-concerns-continue-drop.aspx



4/6/2010

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63536B20100406



“Comprehensive” Immigration “Reform”



4/14/2009

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/polltracker/2009/04/immigration-overhaul-ranks-low.html



4/16/2009

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2009/04/16/poll-immigration-amnesty-is-unpopular-outside-the-beltway-pols-remain-clueless.html



10/19/2009

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=18571



11/23/2009

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1421/where-the-public-stands-on-immigration-reform



2/3/2010

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/immigration-232367-reform-pass.html



2/25/2010

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2459112/posts

How’s a Poor Amateur Blogger Supposed To Keep Up?

It’s becoming difficult for this amateur blogger to update the Conservative Ascendancy Thermotron 2010 as often as I should. News arrives daily pushing one or more of the precisely calibrated meters upward. The bottom line is I now have no choice but to raise the probability for eventual impeachment of President Barack Hussein Obama to 15 percent. It now equals the recommended tip level for waitresses in the pre-Obama economy.

In the ‘Events’ category we must highlight the record setting snowfall that recently blanketed 49 states – all except for Hawaii, alleged birth place of your present President. The poster child simply has to be none other than the High Priest of Global Warming himself, Mr. Al Gore. The Goracle is symbolic of the complete collapse of the international Man-Made Global Warming fraud. The fraud’s inevitable collapse due to its own contradictions was given a huge push over the edge by the ever-so-unpredictable weather. Now, in the spirit of fairness and transparency, here’s the link to the Goracle’s blog. There you can find tons of trivia in support of the fraud. You can wade your way through all of it; or skip the dizzying read and take in this summary: “I am Al Gore and everything you observe in nature is caused by man-made Global Warming because I say so.” I do recommend taking a look at the photograph on the blog’s masthead. I just love how the photograph is staged to make the Goracle appear to be “The Most Learned Man on Earth.” My advice to Mr. Gore is hook up one of those giant monitors to e-trade; you’re going to need to trade out of that heavy concentration in green stocks real fast, before they completely tank.

And this is a good place to shamelessly plug my new poll. Click on the Polls ‘R Us picture and let me know which nominee for “Least Worthy Nobel Laureate” is most deserving of the (dis)honor. The Goracle is among the nominees.

The ‘Leftie Lunacy’ category heats up based on a recent NY Times / CBS News Poll showing only 6% of Americans believe the Stimulus bill has created any jobs. We know the NY Times and CBS News are in the tank for Obama, which only makes these numbers all the more startling. So, what is the administration doing about it? Why, they are treating us to an excellent demonstration of Leftie Lunacy, by sending out a phalanx of officials across the nation, including Obama himself, to convince the other 94% of us just how wrong we are.

The Looney Left often displays this peculiar mental disorder. Something in the Looney Left psyche instructs them they are capable of convincing the rest of us black is white, up is down, cold is hot, false is true – if only they explain it to us one more time a little more slowly. Team Obama was apparently nowhere nearby when the great Abraham Lincoln (R-IL) said “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” They fooled enough people to get elected. They will not fool enough people to change the perception of their Stimulus bill. This time they up against their record. A record growing worse and worse by the day.

One of my favorite morning radio talk shows – The Chris Plante Show (AM 630 WMAL in DC) – did a segment on this topic. The call-in audience was asked if the Obama Administration doesn’t know Stimulus has worked, or if they do know it and are lying to us. The better question is actually “why are they lying to us when they have to know Stimulus isn’t creating jobs.” Here’s my answer.

Stimulus is not and has never been about jobs. After interest payments are included, Stimulus will be more than a trillion of the American people’s dollars; and this gang of precinct hacks is using it as a slush fund to dispense political favor to projects of their choosing. It will go down as one of the monumental abuses of power in all of American history. The only good news is much of it has not even been spent yet (because it’s a slush fund!) – meaning perhaps we can recover some portion of the original robbery after taking Congress back in November.

Also on the brighter side, the failure of Stimulus furthers the ongoing Conservative Ascendancy. We conservatives have always said the only things a government can do to stimulate the economy is to cut taxes and reduce red tape. We have many examples through history demonstrating this, including recently the largest peace-time economic expansion in history that is credited to Ronald Reagan’s program. Governments cannot spend an economy into prosperity. Every dollar the government spends must first come out of the economy (Peter, meet Paul) or be printed as new money (which devalues everything Peter and Paul previously had). Seeing as there are zero historical examples of this approach ever working, and seeing as how Stimulus is such a monumental overreach; let’s hope this monumental disaster demonstrates indelibly and once and for all to the American public Keynsian Stimulus economics is a dead letter. When the public gets it, America’s politicians and America’s economists won’t be able to get away with foisting on the public any more of this top-down trillion dollar level central planning.

Their Thermotron poster child is Crazy Uncle Joe Biden, because, well, he’s just the funniest of the gang to watch when he says “The Stimuluuuus IS Werkinggg.” In unrelated Crazy Uncle Joe news, his motorcade actually impacted Peggy Fleming at the Vancouver Olympics. Really. Vancouver is the fourth instance of innocent civilians being struck by the sitting VP’s motorcade. Really. No calls yet for the appointment of an Independent Counsel to investigate.

The Thermotron poster child for GOP / TEA Party alignment is social media. Really.

There have recently been several gatherings of principled conservatives under various banners. No reports of food fights erupting at any of them. GOP Chairman Michael Steele met with 50 grass roots TEA Party organizers on February 16, and all emerged with clean suits and ties still neatly knotted. On February 17, Mr. Steele appeared on Fox and Friends. The transcripts seem to show comity between the RNC Chairman and TEA Party principles. On February 18, the established Conservative Political Action Committee began its annual 3-day conference which brings social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, security conservatives, and Ron Paul devotees under the same roof of a single hotel. There have even been reported sightings of “Don’t Tread On Me” flags, which can only mean TEA Party sympathizers are immediately in their midst. No reports of burning dumpsters or police in riot gear. And simultaneously in DC, the new TEA Party inspired Ensuring Liberty PAC is meeting. No sign of either CPAC or LPAC forming into an angry mob and marching on the other’s position. On February 17, a group of DC Conservative heavyweights signed something called the Mount Vernon Statement. This is a sure sign of the establishment catching up to the thought leadership now coming from TEA Party patriots.

No doubt the technology of social media has contributed mightily to the rapid sharing of ideas and coordination of agendas between these various aligned factions. More importantly, social media will continue to allow principled conservatives of all stripes to organize as a bloc behind selected candidates in individual races this November. To abuse an often abused political phrase – social media is a game changer.

I made this same point on an LA Times comment board here.

On the same day I was treated to a personal object lesson in the power of social media. A gentleman by the name of Jon Healy, self-identified as an ‘Editorial Writer’ at the LA Times, and I enjoyed a vigorous email exchange on the topic of comment board moderation – patterns and practices, policy, and technology. The most interesting portions of the dialogue are excerpted below. Perhaps some future technology historian will look back on our insights the same way we look back on the supposed statement from Thomas J. Watson in 1943 that the world might accommodate 5 mainframe computers.

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

Your comments at latimes.com

13 messages
Liberty At'Stake

Healey, Jon Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 8:36 PM
To: libertyatstake@gmail.com

Hey, I wanted to let you know that we have a policy against comments with URLs in them. It’s to guard
against spam and advertising bots, basically. Feel free to refer to your site, just avoid using the URL,
otherwise your comment may run afoul of the moderators. Thanks!

Jon Healey
Editorial writer
Los Angeles Times


LibertyAtStake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 9:08 AM

To: "Healey, Jon"

Thanks for the feedback, Jon.

I'll try to remember the exception.
I'm pretty sure you can deploy software that will automatically excludes comments with URLs. For example,
NY Post apparently does this. If I were in your position, and I believed in the policy, I would invest in a
software implementation. Then you wouldn't need to depend on every knucklehead like me to remember the
exception for themselves.

You probably need to have your lawyers update the LA Times Terms of Service for the sake of consistency. I found no mention of this policy. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong place?

 
Healey, Jon Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 10:30 AM

To: LibertyAtStake

Hey, you're right about the TOS. The anti-URL dictum was a decree from the head of latimes.com, not the
Times' lawyer. :-)

At the risk of trying your patience, let me share a little bit of the internal debate at the Times about comments.
The big debate internally is over whether to moderate comments. The traditional news guys say yes, the more
online-oriented folks say no. There are, of course, exceptions to that blanket statement, but the reason the
traditionalists want moderation is because they would like the comments to add something to the debate. We
get a remarkable amount of stuff that blurs the line between sharply worded observation and hate speech,
and a goodly amount that clearly crosses that line. I'm one of the folks who wants us not to moderate
comments because I think it violates the spirit of the Net, but because I read a great deal of what comes in, I
am sympathetic to the concerns on the other side. And please don't mistake this for political correctness or,
as Jonah Goldberg likes to put it, liberal fascism. We get stuff from people on both political extremes that
would curl your hair.

Anyway, a few months ago the Times started enabling online comments on the stories published in the
newspaper, not just the blog posts. This was a major step forward, IMHO; prior to that, only those of us in
Opinion had been enabling comments on newspaper pieces, and even then only on the pieces published
Monday through Friday (we didn't have anyone to moderate comments over the weekend). But the move
opened the floodgates of comments to moderate, leading to what I think is an unacceptable delay between
when comments are submitted and when they are published. It also raised a bunch of tough questions about
the proper standards for moderators. "Defamatory" is a fairly easy thing to judge, but what, exactly, is
"abusive," "racist," "hateful" or "disparaging"? The TOS was written to allow us to block *anything* that made our lawyers uncomfortable, and that's not useful guidance for the folks trying to decide what really isn't fit to publish.

{Mr. Healy goes on to describe some additional details on the internal debate at the LA Times, which I’ve deleted for the sake of brevity}


LibertyAtStake Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 12:19 PM

To: "Healey, Jon" Jon.Healey@latimes.com

My firm belief is it is a fool’s errand to attempt to censor anything beyond obviously abusive
content. Are you old enough to remember George Carlin’s “7 Words You Can’t Say on TV”
routine? The rules Carlin mocked were sort of the template for the only tenable model, both
practically and per the First Amendment (assuming for the sake of argument you consider only the
prohibited words and nothing else that was going on in TV censorship).

Your “traditional news guys” sound like the usual MSM suspects who wish to use their position to
direct the debate toward their own ideological ends (almost exclusively liberal). I have observed
the NY Times to be the most hilarious example of this model. It seems like comments are generally
closed within minutes of article publication. No matter, though, only ineffectual, effete pseudo-intellectuals
read the NY Times anyway.

Internet technology enables anyone to participate in the debate. Computer bytes are cheap and
there is no practical reason to censor anything that is reasonable (i.e. not obviously abusive). The
general population and the marketplace of ideas will sort things out much more efficiently than any
biased moderator could hope to. Some of the sites I’ve visited have voting mechanisms that help
the board participants democratically identify the favored (or disfavored) posters. But this
software product marketplace does seem to be in a crude state of maturity. Overall, maybe
productizing a superior comment board software solution could be the next Internet pot of gold for
some smart entrepreneur.

Of course, the organization that runs the site has all the rights of ownership and can configure the
supporting computer hardware and software however they choose. The free market will
determine how these choices affect participation in those sites. I have noticed many boards
already use software solutions that allow abusive comments to be reported by participants. If you
have an IT department even the least bit worthy of their salaries, they should be able identify and
implement this solution in no time at all.

I have no problem with anyone including URLs in any comments. A URL in itself is nothing more
than an index the reader can choose to follow, or not. If the index leads to abusive or
inappropriate content, it does not take much imagination to implement a solution allowing the
people to report it to the organization owning the board.


Footnote 1
 
On February 11 and February 12, I got into a public scuffle on this blog with the Daily Caller - concerning this very topic of comment moderation.  I have since figured out for myself it is apparent the Daily Caller implements software that automatically throws into moderation anything with more than one URL embedded.  I find this to be a reasonable anti-spamming measure.  LibertyAtStake ceases mock hostilities with the Daily Caller.

The Daily Caller Does It Again!

Does the Daily Caller have a dedicated member of the Global Warming cult censoring everything with a Climate Change tag?

Since discovering the Daily Caller a couple of weeks ago I have generally acquired the impression the Daily Caller is a friend of the First Amendment. I even made an unusually quick decision to bestow upon the Daily Caller an honored place on my 'Sites That Make Sense to Me' Link list. I have liberally sprinkled their site with comments since the initial discovery, and precisely two have gone into some kind of "automatic" moderation queue. Both were in the Global Warming issue area. I reported the first yesterday on this blog. The second occurred today - screenshot below.

Now, I readily admit to a few typos (I am a terrible at typing in a rush). But, really, can anyone see anything in there that warrants review? Or anything that couldn't be adjudicated in less than a single minute's review?

The imagined slights are piling up and I may have stop actively participating on the Daily Caller's site; and we all know how sought after that honor is.

As an aside, in keeping with the First Amendment theme of this blog, I have updated the 'Sites That Make Sense to Me' Link list with http://climaterealists.com/about.php. The Warmists already have enough paid mouthpieces.

From: http://dailycaller.com/2010/02/12/record-snow-storm-sparks-back-and-forth-over-global-warming/

Update: 5:00 pm; 2010-02-12

The reference comments have been accepted.  LibertyAtStake maintains a policy of cautious detente with the Daily Caller.

Sparring in the Dark Alleys of Modern American Opinion

I’ve been having some fun sparring with Leftie Loonies in some of America's darker alleys of opinion. The experience makes me feel like Will Smith battling the ghouls in “I am Legend.” Or maybe Charleton Heston battling the ghouls in “Omega Man” (if you would appreciate discovering the original art that inspired the modern copy cat).

Last evening, I went into one the darkest alleys of all - a blog run by CBS news, mysterious domain of the pixie fairy Katie Couric, and perennially stuck in fourth or fifth placed in evening news ratings. I had a nice little dust up with a squad of Lefties over the Global Warming fraud. It is very instructive to understanding Leftie tactics, so I find it worth recounting here. Follow this link for the entire thread. Or try my “random droppings” link. Th CBS thread has floated to the top of the query result as of this posting.

I started things off by identifying a long standing petition from Lord Christopher Monckton (long dedicated to undermining the Global Warming fraud) to debate Al Gore. Go ahead – annoy a Liberal – sign the petition today. (http://www.petitiononline.com/agdgw/petition.html)

Some left-wing troll with the screen name ‘troutfishyman’ predictably jumped in to discredit any information contrary to his position. Notice his preferred debate tactics: selectively avoid answering specific questions, change the subject, and ad hominem attacks on the opponent’s motives, character, and/or credentials. Several other trolls also jumped in to try the Leftie tactic of overwhelming force in numbers (although not logic).

I'm not even sure what this is supposed to mean.

A troll brings Senator DeMint into the thread unaccountably.

Here I begin to isolate ‘troutfishyman’ as the most worthy troll to spar with.

He selectively (and deceptively) answers one of my two queries, ignoring the other, and includes an ad hominem attack. I stay with the one inquiry he has selected by doing exactly what he desperately wants to avoid – naming names that other people can now look up.
 

I announce I’m leaving the thread, but “secretly” hang around.

Another troll named ‘HGOODGUY’ can’t resist what he thinks is a free shot, and I put him in his place.

‘troutfishyman’ lays in wait another 40 minutes before deciding it’s safe to get in the last word.

 

 The activity for the evening of February 10, for all intents and purposes, then stops. Early the next morning someone with the screen name ‘lakota2012’ joins the fray. He looks like a paid Leftie shock trooper to me. He starts things off with another incomplete answer and an ad-hominem attack. I am of course unaware - as I am fast asleep, since this is well past by bedtime. It does, however, look like a patriot named ‘HawkSpringsIsBack’ comes to my defense. Nice.

 

 

After awaking to the winter wonderland that has set snowfall records here in Metro DC; I posted the following.  lakota2012 takes up arms with a frenzied ad hominem attack.
 

 

Leftie shock trooper ‘lakota2012’ has been very busy all day today taking over the board conversation. He makes many specific references to my morning posting, which I've chosen to ignore. The patriot ‘HawkSpringIsBack’ has been giving him a pretty good fight. Nice.

Footnote 1

I also submitted a similar comment to the Daily Caller's board. It is apparently hanging in moderation limbo as of this posting.  My opinion of the Daily Caller’s commitment to the First Amendment hangs in the balance.

Update: 9:32 pm, 2010-02-11

The Daily Caller has accepted my comment.  They will retain their honored place on the "Sites That Make Sense to Me" Linklist.

Footnote 2

I couldn't be more serious that anyone who purports to think for himself or herself should take a look at these two resources and follow the leads provided to the truth.

==

Here’s a recommendation for a great book that is a beginner’s introduction to the relevant science that puts the lie to the myth of man-made global warming:

http://www.reasontofreedom.com/unstoppable_global_warming_by_s_fred_singer_and_dennis_t_avery.html

Did you notice Dr. Singer is the individual the left-wing trolls avoided taking on directly in last night's dust up?

==

See also this Wikipedia entry for an even lighter read that still gets closer to the truth than algore’s slide show could ever hope to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_global_warming_consensus