Obamacare is pretty funny... Until you realize how real it is.

IPCC dead wrong. Will this matter to the zealots?

I have actually been waiting for this to hit the interwebs.
Link:  IPCC's Global Warming Hypothesis Fails Ultimate Test - No Tropical 'Hotspot' After 17 Years of Immense CO2 Emissions

Link:  Sorry Global Warming Alarmists, The Earth Is Cooling.

Once upon a time I seized upon the Global Warming and touted the dogma to friends and family.  I was likewise worried about the population and world resources.  A funny thing happened.  Mt. Pinatubo erupted and belched up more "greenhouse" gasses then peoples produced.  Yet, the environment adapted.

I found out the Ozone hole had not been created, but discovered and assumed to been created.

There was this book, the Ultimate Resource, "As a particular resource becomes more scarce, its price rises; this rise of price creates an incentive for people to discover more of the resource, ration it and, eventually, develop substitutes."

I decided to learn more about Malthusians, and slowly began to get a more positive outlook for the planet.

As far as science goes the attempt to silence research and debate fell flat.  Emails were leaked, showing how money driven the whole debacle has become.

I hopefully see a time when we will actually be looking at measurements and data and critical hypothesis.  Al Gore might just have to get a real job...

What if the Obama Administration shows how corrupt it is and no one cares?

With quite some glee the I-told-you-so crowd, has been re-broadcasting the troubling IRS, DOJ, Benghazi scandals.  With little or no change in how the electorate perceives him.  We are gobsmacked by this.

So why the disconnect?  Simple the ongoing hysteria from the right for the last five years.

From a marine holding an umbrella to every mis-speak or mis-action. The birther nonsense, "you didn't build that" etc.

As an American and practicing Catholic I have any number of concerns about this administration. To whit:

• Its absolute and total love affair with abortion, up to and including support for murdering children who have already been born.  In this, it expresses the sole non-negotiable core value of the Dem leadership.
• Its obvious and deep hostility to the Catholic Church, expressed in the HHS Mandate, which aims to tell Catholics “Stay out of our bedrooms” while simultaneously frogmarching us in and forcing us to pay for what is done there.  I’m happy to stay out of everybody’ bedroom.  But don’t then stick a .45 in my ribs and make me buy your contraceptives for you.  Buy your own contraceptives.
• Its utterly arrogant claim to be able to secretly and unilaterally decree the murder of anybody on planet earth it decides is an enemy of the state, including American citizens.
• Its utterly arrogant claim to be able to secretly and unilaterally decree the indefinite detainment of anybody on planet earth it decides is an enemy of the state, including American citizens.
• It is utterly arrogant for the IRS, on Obama’s watch, to be intimidating political enemies with demands that they not protest at abortion clinics and with inquiries into the content of their prayers.
• It is utterly arrogant for the Obama administration DOJ to be leaking information to smear whistleblowers.
• It is utterly arrogant for the Obama Administration to spy on and intimidate the press.

There are other things, but these things alone are sufficient, I believe, for anybody who cares about American liberty and about the Catholic faith to be adamantly opposed to this Administration.

Nix v. Hedden

In 1893 It was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that affirmed the lower court ruling that the tomato should be classified as a vegetable rather than a fruit.

So by law the Tomato is a Vegetable.  Genetic evidence has shown that the tomato is a fruit.  Thankfully, you will not be incarcerated for treating a tomato one way or the other.  Neither, will you be considered a less than understanding person as well.

Just because the law of the land makes the Tomato a vegetable does not actually make it one.


Hmmmm, I wonder what else that applies too...

Our stupid government by the people.

It makes no difference if your Democrat or Republican.  You are going to spend money, inefficiently and decry the other side for doing the same.

Government is too big and slow and needs to be small.  The Federal government is a huge problem and getting bigger every year.  Our elected officials are so corrupted they do not discern between a reduction in the rate of increase and a cut in spending.

Yet, we vote the same jokers in and our liberal media decry when groups like the Tea-Party want to limit government.

Lets take a simple idea to reduce our spending in the US.  Get rid of paper dollars and put coins into play.  This is pretty simple to do and with some great fiscal benefit.   Boom save 5.6 Billion dollars!

Better still, lets get rid of the Penny. Consider that the U.S. spent almost $120 million to produce less than $50 million of circulating currency.  So let's make that coin go away, like our military did overseas and we the people did for the half-penny.

These two things would be quick and easy to do with long term benefits.

Will this happen?  Probably not... Why?  For the same reason we elect idiots.

What do we want from a president?

I keep reading how the right hates Obama.  More often it is equated to racism on the part of Conservatives, which, to me, confusing.  I have never come across a conservative who feel race is of any importance  rather words and deeds.  We tend to dislike Obama's policies, leadership, elitism and ideology.  On a personal level I am uncomfortable with the lavish lifestyle he has adopted.  

Going back through time I find there are quite a few decisions our leaders on both the right and left who I agree and disagree with.  President Obama is the first that I have difficulty pointing to something done that I applaud.

Which makes me wonder what is desired from a leader of the US? What do we want from a president?

Experience comes to mind.  Someone who has worked in the private sector and public in management or leadership.   CFO or CEO plus time as a Governor of a State are excellent on the resume for president.

Someone who stands on principle, and able to articulate that vision. Ignores the polls for decisions is an offshoot of that.

Able to negotiate. Understands where to compromise.

Thick skinned to critics.  Able to clearly state why an action was given,  so you can disagree but not dismantle said reason.

Sincere, trustworthy and ethical.

Which presidents are close to the ideals?  Reagan, Eisenhower, Truman are who comes to the top of my head with John Adams.

Stuff that makes me feel smug.

87 percent of the US supermarket meat (including beef, pork, chicken, and turkey products) tests positive for normal and antibiotic-resistant forms of Enterococcus bacteria. Between 2003 and 2011, antibiotic use on US livestock farms soared from 20 million pounds per year to 30 million pounds - a jaw-dropping 50 percent leap. These facilities now suck in 80 percent of the antibiotics consumed in the United States. The great bulk of these drugs are used not to treat sick animals, but rather to make them grow faster and keep them alive until slaughter under tight, filthy conditions. Link

• In 1998, the USDA implemented microbial testing for salmonella and E. coli 0157h7 so that if a plant repeatedly failed these tests, the USDA could shut down the plant. After being taken to court by the meat and poultry associations, the USDA no longer has that power.
• In 1972, the FDA conducted 50,000 food safety inspections. In 2006, the FDA conducted only 9,164.
• In the 1970s, the top five beef packers controlled about 25% of the market. Today, the top four control more than 80% of the market. 
• In the 1970s, there were thousands of slaughterhouses producing the majority of beef sold. Today there are only 13.
• The average American eats over 200 lbs. of meat a year. Link

Consumer Reports investigation: Talking turkey ➜ goo.gl/fVx6E
What’s bugging your meat? Shit and antibiotics, probably ➜ goo.gl/U5Kzr
The truth about your food with filmmaker R. Kenner ➜ goo.gl/y9mkg
Pharm Foods ➜ goo.gl/B4vEB
The video the meat industry doesn't want you to see ➜ goo.gl/IT2eN
Antibiotics and the Meat We Eat ➜ goo.gl/wduUI
US meat supply massively contaminated with superbugs ➜ goo.gl/g7IP3

Polling the peoples. Is it news?

Obama's Approval Rating on These Three Key Issues Has Tanked

• On the economy, 53 percent disapprove of Obama’s job performance, while only 41 percent approve.
• Obama’s approval rating on “gun policy” is also 41 percent. Meanwhile, 52 percent disapprove.
• And as the immigration debate continues to flare on Capitol Hill, only 40 percent approve of Obama’s handling of the issue. Fifty percent disapprove.

Here is the news.

Electric Light Orchestra - Here Is The News (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Electric Light Orchestra

I am not a fan of the 24 hour news networks.  Even less so over the last decade, where the need to share information has gone to the wayside for gaining market share.

In the USA we get Fox, CNN and MSNBC are our "big three" listed in the order of viewership.

Recently we had tragedy at the Boston Marathon.  If you wanted information the online sources provided this instantaneously.  Twitter feeds and social media had video pictures in unprecedented numbers.  Thanks to the HD camera in every phone people were able to identify loved ones and suspects, in some cases a bit to rabidly.

Where did the news agencies fit in?  Coverage for those interested in traditional media, could glom onto the next few days non-stop and not learn to terribly much.  Until the reporters started getting sourced information.

Cable TV is all about ratings.  You need people watching in order to sell advertising space.  Gathering more and more viewers is no longer an option, the market being saturated.  So you need to gain a core group of ratings that will bolster you during non-newsworthy events.  Fox started this by having an ideology when it comes to opinion shows.

The other two followed this example but more left of center, until MSNBC jumped off the cliff

News is evolving with less centralized control of information.  I can find more by checking hashtags as the trend then waiting for the networks, and the newspapers and magazines have dropped to the point of novelty.  NBC's Chuck Todd, commenting on meet the press let us know that Obama hates the uncontrolled media that we have.  No wonder, when you consider the way AP has become an arm of the White House.

Unless the Government seizes control of the Internet in a way that cannot be circumvented, the flow of information will continue.  My hope is that the dissemination  of that information will evolve as we connected types age.

Already, I lament the Trolling and Meme mentality we have seen.  Out from under the oppression of the controlled flow of information, we need to have discussion and debate, not winning for your choir.