op ed review 12/6

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Beginning 1 year after enactment of the Cap and Trade Act, you won't be able to sell your home unless you retrofit it to comply with the energy and water efficiency standards of the "Cap & Trade" bill passed by the House of Representatives. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that in a few years the average cost to every family of four will be $6,800 per year. In effect, this bill prevents you from selling your home without the permission of the EPA administrator.

http://www.nachi.org/forum/f14/cap-and-trade-license-required-your-home-44750/

In the last two weeks, eight national polls have been released showing what the American people think of Obamacare. The results of those eight polls show that by an average margin of 8.5 percent, more people oppose Obamacare than support it. Half of the eight polls show Obamacare facing a double-digit deficit.

http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MmFiNzUwMzcwZTc3YjVjODEwMjcwZjM4MjFiNWI4OWE=

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants could receive health care coverage from their employers under the bills winding their way through Congress, despite President Obama's explicit pledge that illegal immigrants would not benefit.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/30/health-bills-fail-to-block-illegals-from-coverage/

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius would be awarded unprecedented new powers under the Democrat health care bill, including the authority to decide what medical care should be covered by insurers as well as the terms and conditions of coverage and who should receive it. "The legislation lists 1,697 times where the secretary of health and humans services is given the authority to create, determine or define things in the bill.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/HHS-would-become-federal-giant-under-Senate-plan-8586777-73718162.html

The Obama Administration and the Congressional Democrat leadership are desperately trying to create the false impression that the government takeover of health care now pending in Congress is rolling towards inevitable victory. But the truth is that the legislation is now hanging by a thread, and can be routed by the growing tide of public opposition.

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/12/02/committing-harrycare

One day after Comcast and NBC announced their merger deal, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts proudly weighed in to strongly support the Senate Democrats’ health care reform bill. “Roberts’ heartfelt letter of support of the Democrats’ singular policy issue was the first action he took in what is expected to be a twelve-month regulatory review process…..a move that sets a new standard for blatant pandering...”

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/04/comcast-nbc-deal-does-the-mergers-approval-rest-on-health-care/#more-41222

President Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” has ties to NAMBLA”

http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=927

He also has a recommended reading list for schools that will shock you.

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2009/12/breaking-obamas-safe-schools-czar-is-promoting-porn-in-the-classroom-kevin-jennings-and-the-glsen-reading-list/

The Obama administration has begun approving new lines of human embryonic stem cells that are eligible for federally funded experiments, opening the way for millions of taxpayer dollars to be used to conduct research that was put off-limits by President George W. Bush.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/02/AR2009120201955_pf.html

A bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage was rejected by New York lawmakers, a stunning outcome for advocates in a state that was the site of one of the gay rights movement's defining moments four decades ago, and a huge victory for opponents who said it could influence votes elsewhere.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Headlines/Default.aspx?id=795826

“Democrats had known there was an “intensity gap” between angry conservatives in the Republican Party and the unexcited Democratic base…..Yet no one suspected it was this bad.”

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/markos-moulitas/70053-brutal-poll-for-dems

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) likes flowers. She spent $2,993 of your money on them between June and October.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/30013.html

Col. Van T. Barfoot, one of the country's last-surviving Medal of Honor winners, has been ordered by his homeowner’s association to remove a flagpole from his yard. The decorated veteran of three wars, now 90 years old, raises the American flag every morning on the pole, then lowers and folds the flag at dusk each day.

http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/POLEGAT02_20091202-091201/309031/#When:14:12:20Z

The people of Honduras elected their new president, conservative businessman Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo. "Hondurans are not just electing a president. Their participation is a vote for freedom over Chavez-style socialism,

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/16181

“A line 1,000 deep formed at Sarah Palin's first book-tour stop last month in Grand Rapids, Mich. Fans toting camping gear arrived more than a day early in rural Washington State. And in suburban Indianapolis, crowds were so large that organizers gave out stickers instead of autographs when Palin's hand cramped. A similar throng is expected to gather today in Plano….”

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-palinadv_04met.ART0.State.Edition1.518fbdf.html

On Saturday's Huckabee show on FNC, host Mike Huckabee interviewed gameshow host Chuck Woolery, who admitted to being conservative and voiced support for term limits, the Constitution, and tea party protesters.: "I'm now sacrificing my career coming out as a conservative.”

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/brad-wilmouth/2009/11/29/chuck-woolery-comes-out-conservative-jokes-ill-never-be-hired-hollywo

A survey of North American light rail projects shows that costs of most LRT systems range from $15 million per mile to $100 million per mile. Seattle's new light rail system is by far the most expensive in the U.S. at $179 million per mile…. “In other words, we're number 1!”

http://soundpolitics.com/archives/013562.html

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

“Global warming's new clothes” By Rosslyn Smith 12/4/09

Some are unhappy that the Copenhagen conference on climate change is going forward. I think that it is entirely appropriate in light of the revelations coming out of CRU/IPCC. After all, Copenhagen was where Danish author Hans Christian Andersen published The Emperor's New Clothes in 1837. While we tend to remember the little boy who called out "But he isn't wearing anything at all!" we often forget that the entire story was about far more than a vain ruler.

It begins, after all, with two con men who promise they can weave cloth of unsurpassed beauty to the enlightened but which would be invisible to any man who was unfit for his office or unpardonably stupid. They would then tailor that fabric into a fabulous suit of clothes for the emperor. The emperor invested in the venture because such traits would be useful to someone like himself as emperors tend attract both sycophants and self serving manipulators.

The emperor gave the weaver/tailors all the luxury materials they asked for and they immediately began a lavish charade of diligent labor in front of empty looms. One by one the emperor sent trusted people to check on the progress as he fed more and more resources into the project. Lest they admit to their own apparent unfitness, one by one the trusted advisors returned to rave about the beauty of the cloth being made. To a man they had accepted the con men's premise that they could weave a magic cloth and they ended up doubting their own abilities, not those of the con men. Thus they were doubly wrong, Not only did they fall for the con, they also failed in their duty to the emperor. When the emperor himself came for a fitting, the con men acted every bit the tailors, working invisible fabric with imaginary pins and needles and even the vain emperor began to doubt himself.

I can almost excuse the politicians and the speculators who promoted man made global warming (AGW). Like Anderson's emperor, they invested in a tool that would advance their self interest. Representative democracies are supposed to have checks and balances to help keep such self-interest within reasonable bounds. In addition to the way the researchers themselves violated scientific standards, the actions of our journalists and educators who jumped on the AGW bandwagon made matters worse….

So who are the weavers and the tailors in the tale of AGW? Certainly the scientists at CRU/IPCC, but they had a great deal of help.

For decades now appalling orthodoxy has been ossifying many academic disciplines. As a result students are never exposed to competing ideas and attitudes. Increasingly that orthodoxy has spread to the political class in general. Writes David Bernstein: “... it's clear that many liberal-leaning institutions, starting with the universities, are sufficiently engaged in groupthink that they lack the most basic curiosity about or knowledge of what their ideological adversaries believe, and are instead inclined to dismiss them entirely as mere evil reactionaries. [And they are sufficiently isolated from contact with conservatives that they don't have personal experiences to suggest otherwise; it's easy enough, for example, to go to a top university, on to a major journalism school, and from there to the New York Times or MSNBC or The Huffington Post without ever having had a serious intellectual discussion with a conservative colleague or mentor.]

The transformation of journalists from whistleblowers to cheerleaders became obvious to many Americans during last year's presidential election. So pervasive is the leftist atmosphere that ambitious people in other industries and in many urban settings have learned that to even express curiosity about conservatism instead of accepting the crudest of caricatures of the political opposition might stigmatize them as unpardonably stupid and unfit for their high status jobs. Those who used to love to say that dissent is the highest form of patriotism have been assiduously working to assure that dissent from the agenda they have been weaving will be considered the lowest form of stupidity.

The moral of the "Emperor's New Clothes" certainly applies to AGW and many of those who accepted the assertions by non scientists with political agendas that the science was settled. The emperor's advisors and subjects were so afraid of appearing stupid that they suspended their judgment. Thus they ended up demonstrating to the entire world that they were indeed stupid.

How appropriate that the busy weavers of the left and those who still refuse to see that there is nothing at all to see in AGW will be going to the home town of the emperor who put all his shortcomings on full display.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/12/global_warmings_new_clothes_1.html

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"How many times has a liberal touted this or that government agenda with the idea that they're doing it 'for the children.' When more Americans begin to understand that the more accurate phrase is 'to the children,' it will be the beginning of the end for these power-hungry thugs. Here's hoping it happens sooner rather than later."

-Arnold Ahlert

"The reason the Democratic leadership and the White House are rushing to pass the [health care] bill is that they know it is killing them and believe doing it quickly will kill fewer of them than doing it slowly. If they pass it by year's end, perhaps voters will move on to other concerns by the November 2010 midterm elections."

-Byron York

"A liberal mistrusts lessons bought with experience. For him, theory is all. He's the only man who would sit down on a red-hot stove twice. That makes well-meaning Democrats marks for shysters selling health-care 'reform,' global warming and appeasement of radical Islamists."

-Wesley Pruden

"No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems -- of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind."

-Thomas Sowell

"President Obama was shown in photos Friday smiling with the couple who crashed his state dinner. The photos showed the husband, the wife and the president. If it's a crime to talk your way into the White House without a background check, all three of them could face charges."

-Argus Hamilton

"How do you on the one hand say: 'We need to send these troops over there; it's critical; this is in our national-security interest to do this.' But then say: 'But we're only going to keep them there for 18 months; we're going to start to withdraw them after 18 months'? I just don't understand the logic of how that works. ... This is not a football game, where the time runs out. To win this war, you have to defeat the enemy.”

-CBS anchor Bob Schieffer

"If I were with the Taliban right now, I'd put a little Post-it up on that month in 2011, and say: 'This is when we do our surge.'"

-MSNBC's Chris Matthews

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GLOBALONEY

“The scientific consensus that mankind has caused climate change was rocked yesterday as a leading academic called it a “load of hot air underpinned by fraud”. Professor Ian Plimer condemned the climate change lobby as “climate comrades” keeping the “gravy train” going. In a controversial talk just days before the start of a climate summit attended by world leaders in Copenhagen, Prof Plimer said Governments were treating the public like “fools” and using climate change to increase taxes. He said carbon dioxide has had no impact on temperature and that recent warming was part of the natural cycle of climate stretching over ­billions of years.

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/143573

“Climategate: it's all unravelling now: Carbon trading is the Emperor’s New Clothes of international finance. It was invented by none other than Ken Lay, whose Enron would currently be one of the prime beneficiaries in the global alternative energy market, if it hadn’t been shown to be (nearly) as fraudulent as the current AGW scam. It is a license to fleece, cheat and rob…..”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100018556/climategate-its-all-unravelling-now/

Leaked 'climategate' documents show huge flaws in the backbone of climate change science: 'Botch after botch after botch'

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/lorrie_goldstein/2009/11/29/11967916-sun.html

IBD editorial: “The shameless denial with which major newspapers and networks have treated "Climategate" layers even more scandal on top of the original one: Mainstream media now co-conspires with scientific hacks and big government. The evolution of America's dominant media from guardians of our freedoms to enablers of government growth has been a decades-long story, their biases copiously chronicled. But their response to the scientific scandal of the century, since it broke a week and a half ago, bids to become known as history's great unmasking of these supposedly independent journalists.”

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=513989

Scientists have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based. It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6936328.ece

Two Hollywood conservatives (yes, there are some) have called upon the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to rescind the prestigious, profitable gold Oscar statuette that it gave ex-Vice President Al Gore two years ago for the environmental movie "An Inconvenient Truth.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/al-gore-oscar-global-warming.html

Hypocrisy is the vice we find hardest to forgive, but it’s also the one we most enjoy discovering in others. And nothing piques our interest more than eco-hypocrisy as practised by the “green” celebrities who have been spouting green virtue but spewing out hundreds of tons of carbon from their private jets or multiple holiday homes around the globe.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/celebrity/article6931572.ece

It’s snowing in Houston:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl//6750042.html

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BOOKS

Acress Sandra Bullock says meeting Leigh Anne Tuohy, who she portrays in The Blind Side, showed her there really are some Christians who "walk the walk." The film, which opened the week before Thanksgiving, presents the true story of the Tuohys -- a well-off white family in Tennessee -- who welcome a homeless black youth into their home and then adopt him as their son. That young man, Michael Oher, became an All-American selection for Ole Miss and a first-round draft pick. He now plays for the NFL's Baltimore Ravens.

http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=792418

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LEFTIST WATCH

The anti-war left is turning on the president it helped put into office, launching a counteroffensive against President Obama's decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Activist groups are joining liberal members of Congress in condemning the president's expected announcement on Tuesday that he will order roughly 30,000 more troops to the war zone ''I simply can't believe you're about to do what they say you are going to do,'' do

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/30/anti-war-left-protests-obamas-afghanistan-war-strategy/

MSNBC reached a new shameful low when Chris Matthews referred to West Point as an "enemy camp." He was trying to convey his surprise that Barack Obama would go to such a place, somewhere, he said, where Paul Wolfowitz would be more comfortable.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzdhYTY0MDRiYTBlYjVkOTAwMjE2YWM5OGU5OTg1MDA=

Michael Moore writes that Obama should have fired Gen. Stanley McChrystal when the general went public with his call for up to 40,000 additional U.S. troops. "Let me be blunt: We love our kids in the armed services, but we f*#&in' hate these generals," Moore said.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/57811

Former DNC chairman Howard Dean declares the debate between capitalism and socialism to be over. “We’re going to have both.”

http://www.breitbart.tv/howard-dean-declares-debate-between-capitalism-and-socialism-to-be-over/

Arrest the whistleblowers: "You call it 'Climategate,' I call it 'E-mail-theft-gate.... Part of our looking at this will be looking at a criminal activity which could have well been coordinated."

-Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

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ACTIVISM

“We have a suggestion. We believe that the ACLU, which is often at the forefront of the battle against religious liberty, could benefit from a little less bah humbug. Therefore, we recommend sending them a Christmas card. Don't be rude or crude, simply ensure that the card says "Merry Christmas" and send it to 125 Broad Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10004. And sign it Bob Cratchit.”

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ARTICLES

As the Congress prepared to vote to let us enter the world of waits for doctors, waits for specialists, waits for testing and waits for surgery, radiation and chemo, we should pause to consider the relative records of the private medical care system in the United States with the socialized system in the U.K. In 2008, Britain had a cancer death rate 0.25% while the United States had a rate of only 0.18%. The UK cancer death rate was 38% higher than in the United States.

http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/02/u-k-cancer-death-rate-is-38-higher-than-in-u-s/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BigGovernment+(Big+Government)

Sixteen of the top 20 box office earners have either a G or PG rating which should be a clue that R rated films don’t do as well yet studios continue to add gratuitous irrelevant sex scenes that ruin the film. Why? It certainly can’t be artistic license because the principal reaction to them is usually-‘Ew!!! Why did they do that?

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/aliciacolon/2009/11/29/part-ii-appreciating-true-erotica/

More Iowans consider themselves to be conservatives than moderates or liberals, offering the state's Republican Party a potentially large pool of converts as it struggles to win back voters, according to a new Iowa Poll. Most current and former Iowa Republicans agree on two reasons why the party has lost elections and voters. It has nominated lackluster candidates, and officeholders have neglected to make spending control a top priority, according to the poll.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091129/NEWS09/911290341/-1/BUSINESS04/Iowa-Poll-Iowa-leans-conservative-offering-potential-for-GOP

RICHLAND—Welcome to Sarah Palin country, 220 miles and a world of politics away from Seattle. “By 9:30 Saturday night, some 250 of the faithful were camped outside the store, sitting in lawn chairs, covering themselves with blankets and sleeping bags, warming up with portable propane heaters. "She stands for what we stand for, which is greatly lacking in Seattle," said Debi Danielson, 54, of Yakima.”

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010379768_webpalin29m.html

“Just plain nuts: That's the only possible characterization for last night's presidential declaration of surrender in advance of a renewed campaign in Afghanistan. President Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan -- but he'll "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011." Then why send them? If you're going to tell the Taliban to be patient because we're leaving, what's the point in upping the blood ante?”

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/setting_up_our_military_to_fail_lBlTIHm69SM02Lly5JbNaO

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

One of the best 2 minute speeches you’ll ever see on health care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=G44NCvNDLfc

How government health care will work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfLXjsvmjZo

Crouching Tiger hidden hydrant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i5FlC1MpkE

The silent monks sing Halleluia

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFCeJTEzNU

“A doggy Christmas surprise”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtPKbMwnRo

STS-129 Ascent Video Highlights

http://www.vimeo.com/7852885

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WISE WORDS

"The state tends to expand in proportion to its means of existence and to live beyond its means, and these are, in the last analysis, nothing but the substance of the people. Woe to the people that cannot limit the sphere of action of the state! Freedom, private enterprise, wealth, happiness, independence, personal dignity, all vanish."

-Bastiat

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground."

-Thomas Jefferson

“The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule”

- H. L. Menken.