October 31, 2019

Evangelical leaders gather to pray for Trump at White House, blasting impeachment effort

Dana Mathewson

This is heartening, to say the least. The country has not (yet) dissolved into a cesspool of Leftism. The Never-Trumpers haven't won.

Evangelical pastors and leaders met and prayed with President Trump amid House Democrats' drive toward impeachment.

Fox News spoke with Pastor Jack Graham, Ralph Reed and the Rev. Johnnie Moore, three of the 25 leaders in attendance on Tuesday morning for an hour long, wide-ranging meeting in the Roosevelt Room at the White House. There, Trump was greeted with a standing ovation.

"We discussed our support," said Graham, the pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. "We assured him that evangelicals across America support him. ...We are unwavering in our support for the president."

Trump did not appear preoccupied with the impeachment inquiry, the advisers said, adding that the majority of their time was focused on various accomplishments: the nomination of federal judges, criminal justice reform, the defense of religious freedom, abortion reduction, the child tax credit, opportunity zones, the battle against opioid addiction and human trafficking, the Islamic State and the targeted operation leading to the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

"We prayed for the president, with thanksgiving, as always, that he would know God's wisdom and strength as the president of the United States," Graham said, noting they offer to pray for Trump frequently. It's a gesture he "always welcomes," ever "appreciative of the people who pray for him across the country."

Trump handily won the evangelical vote in 2016, and the leaders believe he has gained more support for reelection.

Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, added, "I have never seen a president more focused, more in command than what we saw with President Trump yesterday."

An excellent article. Please read it, here: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-pastors-pray-white-house

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A Line is a Terrible thing to Waist

Timothy Birdnow

I know for a fact that the Universe is expanding, and that it is much more rapid than thought. I keep having to buy larger belts for my pants. And, yes, it is causing a crisis...

Universe Is Expanding Much Faster Than We Thought, Creating a 'Crisis in Cosmology'

Oh, and there is a lot of dark matter involved in my waistline expansion, too!

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Michelle Obama "Let them Eat Cake"

Timothy Birdnow

Michelle Obama, the black Dr. Frank N. Furter, condemns white Americans for leaving dangerous "changing" neighborhoods.

She says of white flight "you're still running".

Well, gollyyyy!

I guess she missed it; black people flee the cities in rates comparable to whites, and for the same reasons. I used to work in the field and know; we had countless black people wanting to move into white neighborhoods, not because they loved living with white people but because they wanted to get away from crime, chaos, and disorder - exactly what you have in the ghetto.

But then, these black people didn't have Tony Rezko "donating" land to them, or get sweetheart mortgages, or get a no-show job at a hospital job that pays over three hundred grand a year.

Oh, and the Mooche currently lives in Kaloramo Heights, an exclusive neighborhood in D.C. with a minority population of 4%, while the surrounding areas are over fifty percent.

But those fleeing white folks don't have to worry about having their five hundred dollar tennis shoes stolen; unlike the Mooch they have canvas ones from Payless.

White a deplorable woman. Michelle has not just a touch of Marie Antoinette "let them eat cake" in her.

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The Scariest Halloween Costume

Timothy Birdnow

I was thinking about what to wear for Halloween. What could I wear that would scare people, shock or offend them? 

I live in the city of St. Louis near hipsters and gay activists. I hit on the perfect costume; I'm going to dress as a middle aged white man!  That ought to be enough to terrify my hippie dippie white Progressive neighbors, and especially the gay community nearby.

I suspect they will hide in their basements in fear, or at least howl in rage...

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Biden Denied Communion

Timothy Birdnow

Finally, Joe Biden has been denied Holy Communion by the Catholic Church.

Biden thinks that is just terrible.

Pro-abortion Biden won’t comment on being denied Communion, says ‘I’m a practicing Catholic’

In South Carolina Fr. Robert E. Morey withheld Communion from Biden, who has publicly taken stands against matters of Faith and Morals held by the Catholic Church.

What isn't understood by non-Catholics, and by many Catholics, for that matter, is that Biden was ex-Communicated when he took positions in favor of abortion and gay marriage. Those are in direct opposition to Catholic teaching and as such he is ineligible to receive the Sacraments. The Church was just too polite to tell him - and too afraid to make it public. Receiving the Sacraments - especially Holy Communion - is a grave sin when one is under excommunication.

The sad thing is the Church has been afraid to speak out on this, for fear of politcal reprisal. But their job is to save souls, and that means holding a man like Biden up as an example. To whom much is given much will be required. Biden is a national leader, and as such should have been dealt with as an apostate.

As the priest explained:

"The one thing it’s NOT is a private encounter, Talk to the media, or not, but withholding Holy Communion here is a PUBLIC act by the Church in response to PUBLIC acts of sin. It’s crucial to see that point.”

He's right. It is not just about saving old Joe's immortal soul, but in not allowing his sin to infect others. He must be rebuked publicly, as he has failed to repent in private.

If Catholicism is to survive it must start taking a stand. Conforming to modernity will be the death of it, as there is no good reason to bother with a religion that is secular in nature; there are more enjoyable things to do on a Sunday morning than sit in pew listening to a middle aged virgin tell you how you should be kinder to people.

There is a spiritual war going on in America, and indeed across the globe. We are losing. If we don't start fighting with more urgency the forces of darkness will triumph. And THEN we'll REALLY have something to answer for.

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October 30, 2019

Trump Threatens to Cut Off FEMA Aid to California

Timothy Birdnow

President Donald Trump is threatening to cut off FEMA funds to California. The Beholden State wants the U.S. taxpayer to keep bailing them out for the wildfires that have ravaged so much of California - fires that are a direct result of gross negligence, mismanagement, and idiotic environmentalist policies implemented in the People's Republic.

According to Ronald Stein at CFACT:

As California continues to throw good money after bad and baste in the fires of its own Gehenna, the White House has threatened to cut off emergency aid (FEMA) to residents displaced by the recent forest fires.

The state’s mismanagement of past funds has put it in the situation it is in today. Rather than patch the hole in the sinking ship the state would rather bring in a larger sump pump to evacuate the water. The water in this case is actually its fire maintenance budget and the sump pump represents more FEMA funding.



[...]

Back in 2012 utility companies lost the authority to manage the greenery within their right-of-way due to Obama-era legislation that changed the management of 193million acres of national forests and grasslands. Those regulations established a new blueprint to guide everything from logging to recreation and renewable energy development.

The guidelines apply to all 155 national forests, 20 grasslands and one prairie and represent the first major overhaul of forest rules in 30 years. It seemed like a good idea at the time in spite of the loud opposition voices warning against the new regulations.

Residents escaping the high costs of living in urban areas have created a problem for California’s forestry maintenance guidelines. As they move closer to forested areas animals are seeing their habitats disturbed. Utility services are expected to be brought to them no matter where they live.

This expansion into once forested areas is causing headaches for utility providers. They want more customers but don’t appreciate the burden minimal forest maintenance has placed on their ability to safeguard their equipment and the public who use it. It has caused them to petition CPUC and receive the authority to shut down services where it deems those services create a public hazard.

Today, electric utility companies up and down the state have all implemented Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) events, aka rolling blackouts, as a last line of defense against electric service disruption and possible massive wildfires to vulnerable communities caused by utility equipment.

Trump is right; there is no reason the rest of the country should be forced to subsidize California's experiments in returning the land to a state of nature. If they want to do that fine, but they then should man up (a laughable proposition in the land of transgenderism and the gay lifestyle) and fix their own problems. They won't.

Liberalism only works when there are other people there to bail them out. Much like teenagers who live at home and think life isn't that tough, the liberal has grand ideas that won't work but sound so pleasing to them. They manage to implement them because everyone assumes the adults will come and fix it when it fails.

Looks like Daddy is about to cut off the allowance.

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Explosion in Antarctic sea ice levels may cause another ice age

Dana Mathewson

If you have a direct line to AOC and/or Greta Thunberg, you may want to send them this article. Don't expect any thanks from them, however; you're more likely to get raspberries, and I don't mean the soft red kind you buy in the supermarket.

Upside-down "rivers" of warm ocean water may be one of the causes of Antarctica's ice shelves breaking up, leading to a rise in sea levels. But a new study suggests an increase in sea ice may lead to a much more devastating change in the Earth's climate— another ice age.

Using computer simulations, the research suggests that an increase in sea ice could significantly alter the circulation of the ocean, ultimately leading to a reverse greenhouse effect as carbon dioxide levels in the ocean increase and levels in the air decrease.

"One key question in the field is still what caused the Earth to periodically cycle in and out of ice ages,” University of Chicago professor and the study's co-author, Malte Jansen, said in a statement. "We are pretty confident that the carbon balance between the atmosphere and ocean must have changed, but we don’t quite know how or why."

The last major ice age ended at the end of the Pleistocene era, about 2.5 million years ago, as glaciers have periodically grown and then gotten smaller. Researchers believe that changes to the Earth's orbit may be partly responsible for some of the Earth's cooling, but additional factors have likely played a part, Jensen added.

"The most plausible explanation is that there was some change in how carbon was divided between the atmosphere and the ocean,” Jansen continued. "There’s no shortage of ideas about how this happens, but it’s not quite clear how they all fit together.”

Researchers also believe a mini-ice age may have occurred roughly 12,800 years ago. It likely stems from an asteroid impact that "rocked the Northern Hemisphere" and led to the Younger Dryas climate event.

Jansen pointed out that the Southern Ocean around Antarctica "plays a key role in ocean circulation" due to the deep waters in the region, leading it to have "outsize[d] consequences."

Now, I'm not going to start buying heavier clothes, though at 29 degrees it does seem unseasonably chilly here -- my wife just tossed the latest Lands End catalog that arrived in the mail -- and I'm not terribly impressed that this scientist seems fixated on carbon. But he does point out that the Southern Hemisphere plays a key role in the process, which is more than most of the Global Warmiacs do, so maybe there's hope for him after all.

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Shall not be Infringed (Unless it's a Property Right)

Timothy Birdnow

"The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”

John Adams

Municipal police in Greenwood Village, Colorado blew up a guys house trying to dislodge a trespassing shoplifter - and they refused to pay for it. To add insult to injury they won in court when the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it wasn't an illegal taking, so the homeowner gets nothing.

From the article:

But now it was just a neighborhood crime scene, the suburban home where an armed Walmart shoplifting suspect randomly barricaded himself after fleeing the store on a June afternoon in 2015. For 19 hours, the suspect holed up in a bathroom as a SWAT team fired gas munition and 40-millimeter rounds through the windows, drove an armored vehicle through the doors, tossed flash-bang grenades inside and used explosives to blow out the walls.

The suspect was captured alive, but the home was utterly destroyed, eventually condemned to be demolished by the City of Greenwood Village.

That left Leo Lech’s son, John Lech — who lived there with his girlfriend and her 9-year-old son — without a home. The city refused to compensate the Lech family for their losses but offered $5,000 in temporary rental assistance and for the insurance deductible.

Now, after the Leches sued, a federal appeals court has decided what else the city owes the Lech family for destroying their house more than four years ago: nothing.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit unanimously ruled that the city is not required to compensate the Lech family for their lost home because it was destroyed by police while they were trying to enforce the law, rather than taken by eminent domain.

The Lechs had sued under the Fifth Amendment’s Takings Clause, which guarantees citizens compensation if their property is seized by the government for public use. But the court said that Greenwood Village was acting within its "police power” when it damaged the house, which the court said doesn’t qualify as a "taking” under the Fifth Amendment. The court acknowledged that this may seem "unfair,” but when police have to protect the public, they can’t be "burdened with the condition” that they compensate whoever is damaged by their actions along the way.

"It just goes to show that they can blow up your house, throw you out on the streets and say, ‘See you later. Deal with it,’ ” Leo Lech said in an interview with The Washington Post on Tuesday. "What happened to us should never happen in this country, ever.”

Aren't municipalities required to maintain insurance for such things? They wrecked the guys house. They should have to pay for it, then try to get the money from the man they were pursuing. 

This hearkens back to the decrease in respect for property rights. We have allowed the State to whittle these right down to the point where your car can be seized if a passenger in it has a miniscule amount of drugs on them, for example. We also see this when corporations want land to develop; they simply use eminent domain to take it. We've seen it with the EPA seizing land from people for environmental reasons. It has been an ongoing war.

It ultimately goes back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964; no matter how well intentioned, that act fundamentally redefined the relationship between the individual and the State. Prior to that a property owner determined who could enter his property, who he would serve as a businessman, etc. He was king of his castle. After the Civil Rights Act we had the idea of "public acommodation" which meant that, well, you own your property, but the State can tell you what to do with it.

This had been coming for some time, granted; Roosevelt was particularly guilty of undermining property rights, as was Hoover and Wilson. But the Civil Rights Act systematically wiped out the concept of private property. We now do not question the right of the State to order us around.

And we no longer think the State has no right to invade property - or seize it, or even destroy it.

That is clearly what happened in this case.

Private property is the cornerstone of Western Civilization and especially American liberty. I wrote about this years ago at American Thinker. See here  and here. See also my piece from Canada Free Press.

Hot pursuit of a criminal does not give paramilitary cops the right to blow up somebody's house then not pay for it. Either we have property rights or we don't, and if the State can destroy your property, you do not have property rights. Without that, you have no rights at all.


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October 29, 2019

The American Republic Is at Stake

Dana Mathewson

One of the finest writers in front of the public these days wrote for a long time only under the pen name Spengler. Eventually "exposed" as David P. Goldman, his work can be found in a number of publications, including PJMedia.

Here is a powerful article titled "It's Time For Every American Patriot To Rally Around Trump." And he follows with "The American Republic Is at Stake." Those of you who are familiar with Mr. Goldman's writings know he will back this up to the hilt.

That's the canonical definition of chutzpah -- shameless effrontery -- and it summarizes the Democratic position on the attempted impeachment of President Trump. The Hillary Clinton campaign paid for the Steele dossier, assembled out of bits handed to ex-MI6 spook Christopher Steele from his Russian intelligence sources, and the FBI used this concoction to obtain FISA warrants to bug the Trump presidential campaign. Now, THAT'S foreign interference. And those facts aren't in dispute. When the Trump administration tries to get the truth out of foreign governments about their involvement in nefarious activities in the U.S., the Democrats scream, "Impeachment!"

The Wall Street Journal editors got this exactly right:

Democrats want to impeach Donald Trump for inviting Ukraine to investigate 2020 election rival Joe Biden. But then why are they opposed to investigating whether Democrats used Russian disinformation to get the FBI to investigate Donald Trump in 2016?

That’s the double standard now on gaudy public display over multiple news reports that U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the origins of the Russian fiasco of 2016 has become a criminal probe. Attorney General William Barr this year appointed Mr. Durham, a highly regarded and veteran prosecutor, to examine this part of the Russia tale that special counsel Robert Mueller chose to ignore.

Nothing less than the American republic is at stake here. It's time for every American patriot to rally around the president. Some of my neo-conservative ex-friends are cheering for the wrong side. Shame on them.

For the record, I don't care whether there was quid pro quo with Ukraine or not. If President Trump used military aid as a bargaining chip to persuade the government of Ukraine to investigate foreign subversion of our political system, he was doing his job as commander-in-chief to protect this country from its external enemies. The parade of striped-pants cookie-pushers from the State Department feeding information to closed-door Democratic Party kangaroo courts in the House of Representatives is irrelevant. Trump is fighting a mutiny by the U.S. intelligence community. If the mutineers succeed, it will be the end of the republic. If a cabal of bureaucrats nestling in the bowels of our $80 billion a year intelligence bureaucracy can bring down an elected president of the United States, the republic is finished.

The impeachment issue is a load of baloney, period. No less a constitutional scholar than Prof. Alan Dershowitz wrote (on the website of the Gatestone Institute):

So, the question remains: did President Trump commit impeachable offenses when he spoke on the phone to the president of Ukraine and/or when he directed members of the Executive Branch to refuse to cooperate, absent a court order, with congressional Democrats who are seeking his impeachment?

The answers are plainly no and no. There is a constitutionally significant difference between a political "sin," on the one hand, and a crime or impeachable offenses, on the other.

Even taking the worst-case scenario regarding Ukraine -- a quid pro quo exchange of foreign aid for a political favor -- that might be a political sin, but not a crime or impeachable offense.

Dershowitz explained, "The search for the perfect impeachable offense against President Trump is reminiscent of overzealous prosecutors who target the defendant first and then search for the crime with which to charge him. Or to paraphrase the former head of the Soviet secret police to Stalin: show me the man and I will find you the crime."

[...]

Every American should read carefully this interview with Prof. Angelo Codevilla, a former top staffer at the Senate Intelligence Committee (the interview was conducted by my friend David Samuels of Tablet Magazine). The power and capacity to abuse the power of America's intelligence services has grown to the point that it endangers our freedoms. Make no mistake: If they can railroad the president of the United States and members of the cabinet, they can do pretty much anything they want to you. Defend your freedoms. Support President Trump.

Any Spengler article is a must-read, in my estimation. This one is no exception! Find it here: https://pjmedia.com/spengler/i-killed-my-parents-and-now-i-ask-for-mercy-on-the-grounds-that-im-an-orphan/

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Proof Climate Data is Bad

Timothy Birdnow

Take a look at this.

This table gives us the climate data for the St. Louis metropolitan area. It cites three separate data sets from the three area temperature stations. You will note a major difference in the three; one is done deep in the city at the St. Louis Science Center, the second is the official temperature station at Lambert St. Louis International Airport in north St. Louis County, and the third is a dataset from Spirit of St. Louis Airport located rather farther out in Chesterfield in St. Louis County (in the Missouri River bottomland.)

Clearly, the official station at Lambert is experiencing the urban heat island effect. The temperature at Spirit is 1.5 degrees cooler on average than at Lambert. This is a result of a much lower night average of 3 degrees, a classic signiature of the urban heat island.

Why is this important? Because the official temperature at Lambert is what is used to calculate the overall temperature of Missouri. Lambert, along with the station at Columbia Regional Airport, Kansas City International, and at the Springfield airport, etc. are all subject to the urban heat island effect, and all are used to make the official calculations of statewide temperatures.

Remember, to determine the state's temperatures climate scientists and meteorologists take an average from these datasets. If you are to Trying to determine the temperature of, say, Warrenton Mo. you will average the flawed St. Louis data with the also flawed Columbia data. But Warrenton is likely much cooler.

The point is, we don't have any real idea of what the actual statewide temperature really is, and can't determine that using stations inside of artificially warm areas.

Look, the city of St. Louis, where I hang my hat, gets very little snow in winter. That is because St. Louis sits in a river valley, with two major rivers coming together just north of the city and a fairly large river (the Meramec) just south of the city. Meanwhile you have a lot of industry and residences pumping out heat, and plenty of blacktop absorbing heat and releasing it slowly at night. The result can be see in winter, when snowstorms are pushed either well north of or well south of the metropolitan area. When the rest of the state gets buried by blizzards St. Louis gets just an inch or so of snow.

That is partly a function of geography but also a result of the urban heat island effect.

The way temperature is calculated these days is rather like calculating river levels after a flood; they start with an inflated baseline. I would say this was just poor data, but the fact is it is used to prove the global warming theory. And nobody ever tries to fix the problem.

Which means it is intentional. The National Weather Service knows they are getting bad data but are more interested in promoting a theory than in getting accurate data.

Hat tip: Chris Halcomb via Anthony Lupo.

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Graham and Tudor Turtle Box Pelosi in on Impeachment

Timothy Birdnow

Lindsay Graham (the cracker) and Mitch (the bitch) McConnell have slammed the door shut on Nancy Pelosi (the San Francisco Bleat); they have issued a resolution demanding a fair impeachment inquiry and vote at the threat of summary judgement in the Senate.

The document:

  • calls on the House of Representatives, prior to proceeding any further with its impeachment investigation into President Trump, to vote to initiate a formal impeachment inquiry;
  • calls on the House of Representatives to provide President Trump, like every other American, with due process, to include the ability to confront his accusers, call witnesses on his behalf, and have a basic understanding of the accusations against him that would form any basis for impeachment; and
  • calls on the House of Representatives to provide members of the minority with the ability to participate fully in all proceedings and have equal authority to issue subpoenas and other compulsory process.
This has forced Norn, er, Nan to reverse course and call for a vote on impeachment - after having resolutely opposed such a vote.

So the Attack Turtle and the Crumbly Cracker have boxed in the Norn.

Pelosi didn't want this. An impeachment vote puts many vulnerable Democrats on the spot, and it closes off all avenues to her. Once done it cannot be undone. She knows that.

At this point Pelosi is trying to do damage control. I doubt she wants this, but has little choice. She's hoping to get this out of the way quickly now, methinks.

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You Wouldn't Manifest it as Anger - Transgenderism

Bill H.

This is in reply to a post about transgenderism.

My father was an alcoholic, as am I. Both of us never lost our families or careers, but we drank and lost our sense of self. When my father got sober and, nine years later I did likewise, I found out that feelings are often not what they seem.

My Dad and I both suffered from a great deal of anger. We did not beat our wives or anything like that. I got in bar fights for a while, but that phase didn't last long. But anger was always there for both of us. Anger management courses did nothing. You know that thing about expressing or "ventilating" your anger? Not only didn't work, it made things worse.
Then one time after I'd been sober a while I was talking with a psychologist about depression. This was not treatment, we were just chatting socially. He commented that I would never describe myself as depressed even if I was. I said that would be dangerous, to be depressed and not know it. I remember his response word for word. "Oh, no, you would manifest it as anger."
That social conversation started me on a journey. Was my anger actually something else disguised as anger? The answer, of course, is not just "yes," but "oh hell yes."
It wasn't depression as it turns out. I no longer have to deal with anger, though and I never dealt with anger. I worked until I found out what my problem was, I dealt with that problem, and the anger melted away.
How many of these poor lost souls who "transgender" ever would be saved a lot of pain if they had the good fortune to run across someone who helped them find out that the shape of their sexual organs was not what was causing them to feel weird?

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The Caliph's Panties

Timothy Birdnow

To make certain we got the right man, the U.S. military sent in a spy to steal Al-Baghdadi's underwear!

According to El Zorro (Fox):

Before al-Baghdadi could move, a Kurdish undercover operative was able to reach him and retrieve the self-styled "Caliph’s” underwear, Can said. Through a DNA test, he said they were able to confirm "100%” that the person of interest was al-Baghdadi.

Bear in mind the underwear had to be soiled to be of any use. That is one dirty job!

This was a guy who was constantly on the move, and his lifestyle was probably not the most hygienic. I wouldn't touch his filthy panties with a pliars. And after he was caught, I imagine they were much worse...

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Shutdown of nuclear after Fukushima caused more deaths than the accident itself

Dana Mathewson

There's a real lesson here: one that all the "renewable energy" wackos really should learn! Suffice to say, the Japanese have most likely learned it, the hard way.

More people died in the aftermath of the Fukushima, Japan nuclear accident from the subsequent shutdown of the country's nuclear power than from the disaster itself, according to a new study.

Within 14 months of the accident, the government shut down the operation of all of the country’s nuclear plants. That power was replaced by imported fossil fuels, leading to an increase in electricity prices by as much as 38% in some regions, making it unaffordable for certain energy users. The reduction in energy consumption led to an increase in deaths from cold weather, economists at Columbia University, Nagoya City University, and the University of Verona concluded in the paper circulated Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The research has not yet undergone peer review.

The share of power generation from fossil fuels rose from 62% to 88% in the four years after the accident, while the share of nuclear power generation declined from over 30% to zero. Using data from 21 of the largest cities in Japan — representing 28% of the total population — the paper found that higher electricity prices resulted in at least 1,280 additional deaths during 2011 to 2014.

No deaths have been attributed directly to radiation exposure from the nuclear accident [emphasis added], but an estimated 1,232 deaths occurred as a result of the evacuation from the disaster site.

"Therefore, the deaths from the higher electricity prices likely outnumber the deaths from the accident in only four years if we extrapolate our estimates to the entire country, and almost certainly outnumber the deaths over a longer time period given that the higher electricity prices persisted beyond the end of our study,” the paper says. "This suggests that ceasing nuclear energy production has contributed to more deaths than the accident itself.”

This has implications for power generation in this country and around the world. But will anybody heed it? Go here https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/shutdown-of-nuclear-after-fukushima-caused-more-deaths-than-the-accident-itself-study for the full article.

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The Point of the Nanny State

Timothy Birdnow

Washington D.C. is considering a bill to ban hot dogs and bacon from area hospitals.

According to Vegan News:

The Healthy Hospitals Amendment Act (HHAA) of 2019was recently introduced by Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh in Washington, DC. The bill aims to remove all processed meat from Washington, DC hospitals and promote more plant-based options and healthful beverages to patients, visitors, and staff. By 2030.

So, lawmakers know better what to serve patients then do their doctors.

This paternalistic attitude among government elites is galling. These Progressives believe they know better than everyone how we all should live.

It should be pointed out that one of the cornerstones of the arguments for socialized medicine is that doctors should be the ones making the decisions and that insurance companies now fund treatments based on what is profitable for them. But what does this do but dictate how people will eat in hospitals, cutting out the determination of the healthcare professionals and of the patients.

The article bemoans how a heart surgery patient may be greeted with bacon or sausage after his or her bipass. Well, why not? The worst thing you can do is make the heart patient hate the food he's going to eat and thus not try. And, quite frankly, nobody eats bacon and sausage in hospitals; they taste like rubber.

So much of this dietary regulation is intended to get Americans used to government telling them what to eat. If Amerians accept the bit in the mouth they will eventually accept the whole saddle. Dietary guidelines are the bit, the beginning of the process of breaking the American stallion. First it will be what we eat "for our own good" then when, then where, and eventually we will have to answer to our masters about everything.

Rememeber, to continue with my horse analogy, a horse doesn't get his choice of food, nor of when he eats. He eats what his master wants him to eat, when his master wants him to eat.

That is the whole point of the nanny state.

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Secret Imppeachment Hearings are o.k. but not Secret Terrorist Aassassinations

Timothy Birdnow

Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer are angry that the Trump Administration cut them out of the loop, did not inform them about the plan to end Al-Baghdadi. They think they should have been informed.

Why? Isn't it the Democratic controlled House of Representatives that is running an impeachment inquiry in a secret star chamber? Have they informed the President of anything involving THAT? And they have leaked worse than Soviet-era plumbing; why would the President take such a huge risk in informing people who would just accuse him of some new crime when he acted?

Cutting Congress out of this process was the best thing he could do.

And the fairest. If Pelosi and Schumer want to be treated fairly they should try employing the Golden Rule themselves.

BTW, Obama had a chance to kill Al-Baghdadi years before, but blew it. Trump is a doer. Obama and the Ruling Class are primarily talkers, full of hot air.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:43 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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New Taboo; Elon Musk Sued for Defenation

Timothy Birdnow

A man who participated in the rescue of a soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand is suing Elon Musk for defemation of character for calling him a "pedo guy" on Twitter after a heated exchange.

Musk called Vernon Unsworth a "pedo-guy" after Unsworth disdained the billionaire's offer of the use of a mini-sub for the rescue attempt. Unsworth called it a publicity stunt and said Mr. Musk could "stick it up his..."

A California court refused to dismiss the complaint.

I'm not sure when childish banter became a legal matter. But it has become so, and that to create new taboos. The idea is to make it impossible to mock certain protected elements of society. In bygone times calling someone a homosexual or sodomite was a course and uncivil thing but it was not a taboo. Now it is, and that because the Left wants to mainstream such activity. And they have succeeded. Now there is enormous societal pressures on anyone who does not conform to the new taboos, and we are starting to see legal pressures as well. Mr. Musk is being bitten by political correctness.

But this stuff only works one way. Take, for example, the vile and scurrilous accusations made against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The accusers have made despicable claims of sexual abuse, and have done so with no backing evidence. The media dutifully reports it, but Kavanaugh has to take it. Freedom of the Press! So the Media can get away with sliming a man's character, but Elon Musk can't call a guy a bad name on Twitter.

Twitter is a place for morons. As such, very little in the way of tweets should be prosecutable. How many such accusations have been made against President Trump on Twitter? Well, Mr. Trump tweets plenty of smack himself, and nobody would complain about twits tweeting trash against him as well. It's what is expected on the platform. If this lawsuit succeeds against Musk it will open the door to massive legal actions over every hurtful tweet.

This sets a very bad precedent.

Naaturally, it was allowed in California, the People's Republic. California should be severed from the rest of the country. I favor repatriating it back to Mexico, personally.

At any rate, this is a bad development, whether you like Elon Musk or not.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 08:27 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Media Starting to Realize Transgenderism isn't so Great

Timothy Birdnow

I would have believed it from Breitbart or on a very good day Fox News, but this is  MSN!

Hundreds of Young Trans People Seeking Help to Return to Original Sex

From the article:

Charlie Evans, 28, was born female but identified as male for nearly 10 years.

Last year, she detransitioned and went public with her story - and said she was stunned by the number of people she discovered in a similar position.

"I'm in communication with 19 and 20-year-olds who have had full gender reassignment surgery who wish they hadn't, and their dysphoria hasn't been relieved, they don't feel better for it," she says.

"They don't know what their options are now."

Charlie says she has been contacted by "hundreds" of people seeking help - 30 people alone in her area of Newcastle.

"I think some of the common characteristics are that they tend to be around their mid-20s, they're mostly female and mostly same-sex attracted, and often autistic as well.

[...]

Ruby is now 21 but first began identifying as male at 13.

After taking testosterone her voice got a lot deeper and she grew facial hair. Her body also changed.

She had been planning to have surgery to remove her breasts this summer. However, in May, Ruby voiced the growing doubts she had been harbouring and made the decision to come off testosterone and detransition to identify as female.

"I didn't think any change was going to be enough in the end and I thought it was better to work on changing how I felt about myself, than changing my body," says Ruby.

"I've seen similarities in the way I experience gender dysphoria, in the way I experience other body image issues."

Ruby explains she has also had an eating disorder but she does not feel that issue was explored in the therapy sessions she had when she went to gender identity services.

"When I was at my gender clinic to get referred for hormones, we had a session where I went over my mental health issues and I told them about my eating disorder and they didn't suggest that that could maybe connected with my gender dysphoria," says Ruby.

"For everyone who has gender dysphoria, whether they are trans or not, I want there to be more options for us because I think there is a system of saying, 'okay here's your hormones, here's your surgery, off you go'. I don't think that's helpful for anyone."

These are emotionally and mentally sick people who are being treated as if they are physically disabled. It's like performing a lobotomy on someone who suffers from depression. Future generations will consider this every bit as barbaric as lobotomies, or electroshocks, or the other now horrifying practices of earlier generations.

Sadly, the media and academia are entirely on board with this. Or are they? It may be we are seeing green shoots pop up out of the desert here.

Hat tip: John P.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:57 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Of Course D.C. Booed Trump!

Timothy Birdnow

Warner Todd Houston chronicles all of the Trump hatred on Twitter after the President was booed at the World Series.

I am not sure why that was even a story; Trump is guaranteed unpopular in Washington as that is a city whose bread and butter is the Deep State. You don't have to be some sort of political operative to boo the President in Washington; the city lives off of big government and the money it provides. Naturally the inhabitants of D.C. are going to hate anyone who tries to scale back the money and power of the Deep.

Trump should have gon4e to a game in Houston instead.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 07:40 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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October 28, 2019

All Things Work for Good

Timothy Birdnow

Here is a sweet story, our feel good story of the day.

A woman whose father had died continued to text his phone for four years - then on the day before the anniversary of his death got a reply.

From the article:

The following day, Patterson received a message from a man named Brad, who had apparently taken over her father's old phone number at some point after his death. Brad told Patterson that he'd lost his own daughter in a car crash in 2014, and that he had been reading her messages daily, admitting that they kept him alive during his mourning.

A portion of his response message read, "Hi sweetheart, I am not your father, but I have been getting all your messages for the past four years."

"My name is Brad and I lost my daughter in a car wreck August 2014 and your messages kept me alive," he added. "When you text me, I know it's a message from God."

Brad went on to express his admiration for the young lady later in the message.

"I'm sorry you lost someone so close to you, but I have listened to you over the years and I have watched you grow and go through more than anyone," he continued, "have wanted to text you back for years, but I didn't want to break your heart."

Brad added, "You are an extraordinary woman and I wish my daughter would have become the woman you are, thank you for your everyday updates, you remind me that there is a God and it wasn't his fault that my little girl is gone."

"All things work for good for those who love God"

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 10:24 AM | Comments (40) | Add Comment
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