To quote Howard Beale in Network: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Do NOT blame the victims with crackpot theories about Haitian leaders historically making a pact with the devil, and this tragedy is the consequence. I just know that the Angry Left and atheists are going to present the embedded video as "proof" of the idiocy of modern conservatism and social conservatives in particular. Pat Robertson is like a crazy old uncle we put up with but whom doesn't speak for us.
(I guess I shouldn't use the phrase "crazy old uncle" given the fact I have 21 nephews and nieces whom may not agree with me either. At least a couple fell under the spell of The One, but given the overwhelming progressive domination of today's colleges and universities, that's not surprising.)
Let me make myself clear: The victims of Haiti are not responsible for this horrific tragedy; it was not a supernatural act. Do not add to their suffering with this pretentious, inflammatory nonsense. And while we're discussing religious urban legends, no, God did not create AIDS to punish homosexuality. We have enough to do as citizens living our faith without speculating about God's actions and thoughts, which I personally regard as intrinsically blasphemous.
The Hubris of Obamanomics
During the years I played organized baseball as a boy, I (a southpaw) played mainly outfield positions. (Normally left-handers play the outfield, first base or pitcher positions; it has to do with the fact that left-handers have to pivot for other infield position throws.) Towards the end of my last season, I made some spectacular catches, and my manager decided to put me at first base, saying he thought the other team might object that my new glove was "too big". I played close to the bag--but I remember in one of my last games, my teammates were throwing wildly to first base, several yards beyond the reach of my glove (above the bag or past the base). We had just the minimum number of players that game (9), and my coach started blasting me (not my misfiring fellow players) for letting the balls go by. He started threatening to pull me (effectively forfeiting the game), when I finally said, "Fine--if you want to do that, go ahead...", an answer he was not expecting. At that point, he stopped and actually gave me a piece of advice which changed my perspective of how to play the position. I'm paraphrasing: "Stop expecting the guys to throw the ball on target. Play the thrown ball like you would play a fly ball or line drive in the outfield--go for wherever the ball is thrown and then run for first base." It worked like a charm; we didn't win the game, but they didn't pad their lead. I'll never forget the opposing team manager's son slapping a line drive towards short infield gap in right field; I speared the ball and raced to first base for an unassisted double play. (They had been playing hit-and-run.) The opposing manager was livid, shouting out, "That was NOT a double-play ball! That was NOT a double-play ball!"
The obvious point to the story is how Obama looks at job creation and (small business) tax cuts: he's trying to thread the needle. His continuing to push for green jobs--most of which require funding of massive federal subsidies--is a particularly inefficient way of approaching job growth. Sometimes I think like I must be back in elementary school, with Obama taunting us, echoing GE CEO Jeff Immelt's warning that we are running behind the game in green energy technology, "the future". (You don't think Immelt's investment in wind turbines and other politically correct technology has anything to do with his grab for the federal teat, do you?) Earth to Obama: The vast number of American jobs in not in green energy, teaching, and other politically favored occupations. In most cases, you are going to find positions relevant to your training or experience. Recessionary effects on oil prices (down) also make green energy technology less competitive. And even if, say, other competitors win round 1, it doesn't mean America won't win round 2. (The cellphone industry is particularly prone to short hot product cycles.)
Let me give an example from information technology: most people don't remember that Microsoft didn't have a competitive application suite product in the late days of MS-DOS (towards the turn of the 1990's): You had Lotus 1-2-3 (spreadsheet), Word Perfect, and dBASE. Then came Windows 3, and Microsoft quickly released early versions of their Office Suite products, in particular, spreadsheet Excel. Early Windows versions of competitor products were delayed and often did little more that emulate the look and feel of their MS-DOS products. Microsoft took the early lead and never looked back.
You know, Obama, if you want to play like we're in elementary school, do I need to remind you that China and Brazil over the recent past have discovered vast offshore oilfields and foreign investors are drilling for oil near the Florida coast? Do you think if they hit oil first, some of the oil they may tap could come from the basin on our side of the offshore border? We have energy resources which are the envy of the world, but environmental activists, which support the Dems, force us to import most of our supplies--nearly $1 out of 5 imports is spent on foreign energy. How insane is that? Never mind that we could employ American workers using real-life technology and real-life skills today, not some speculative green energy pie-in-the-sky hype. Each new barrel we find and drill today or in the near future is one more barrel we don't have to buy (oil is fungible) from despots like Ahmadinejad and Chavez. You would think anti-war Dems would be pounding the table in favor of local oil and gas drilling--if for no other reason than to lower the dependence of the American economy on foreign energy supplies.... Instead, Obama is willing to make you pay the economic consequences for his reliance on the support of environmentalists.
So here's a HELL, NO to any new throwing money at green energy; companies like Intel and Microsoft were not the result of some state controlled planned economy, and I hardly expect an administration with less Cabinet members with private-sector business experience to have the slightest clue on how to grow the economy. What I do know is that Obama Administration spending of national debt money has been proven ineffective, and "Baby Stimulus" is being drawn by the same people with the same policies as the $787B parent. CUT BUSINESS PAYROLL TAXES PERMANENTLY. GET OUT OF THE WAY OF BUSINESS. STOP SPENDING LIKE A DRUNKEN SAILOR. STOP THREATENING NEW TAXES AND REGULATIONS. Got it, Obama? I swear to God; this is not rocket science!
A Post-Copenhagen Climate-Change Perspective
I decided to hold my tongue during the entire Copenhagen debacle. Did I expect the leaders to address the limitations of climate change modeling and the Climategate confirmations of alleged scientific fraud by Motley CRU? And when I heard them invite members of the League of Anti-American Despots (Iran's Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Chavez, and Zimbabwe's Mugabe: where's a good missile or drone when you need them?), it became very clear that this conference would quickly degenerate into yet another UN session of America-bashing, reminding America that "it's good when you spread the wealth around?" (proving that they listen to Obama, particularly when he apologizes for American economic success). Hillary Clinton, proving she hasn't forgotten how, as a Dem, to spend money she doesn't have, tried to mollify nations, using the pretext of environmental concern, to pay off America's enemies. (By the way, did anyone notice the irony and audacity of the leaders of two oil exporting nations (Iraq and Venezuela) headlining a climate change conference?)
A Palin Side Note
Now that Sarah "I'm not a quitter" Palin is a paid commentator on "fair and balanced" Fox News, she can explain her flip-flop on climate change:
A few weeks before she mounted the national stage, in July of last year, then-Gov. Palin told her state:
"Alaska's climate is warming. While there have been warming and cooling trends before, climatologists tell us that the current rate of warming is unprecedented within the time of human civilization. Many experts predict that Alaska, along with our northern latitude neighbors, will warm at a faster pace than any other areas, and the warming will continue for decades."
The governor did what a forward-looking leader should do. She created a subcabinet group to look at "carbon-trading markets" and examine "the expanded use of alternative fuels, energy conservation, energy efficiency, renewable energy."But in her recent missive urging Obama to boycott Copenhagen, Palin noticeably retreats from the "unprecedented" rhetoric, instead talking about "occurrence of these natural, cyclical environmental trends" (although she doesn't deny, whatever the source, "reality of some changes in climate.") Sarah spends most of the column insisting she had been consistently fighting radical environmentalists and her concern about the cost-benefit relationship of, e.g., cap-and-trade: how then does she justify the subsidies for alternative energy and related policies, and what constructive policies does she advocate for dealing with "reality of some changes in climate", whether man-made, natural or some combination? I agree with her position on the politically suicidal "cap-and-trade" measure pending in the Senate; I'm more concerned with the cost-effectiveness of government spending.
Political Cartoon
Larry Wright note that the Democratic leaders are willing to apologize to each other (or other countries), but not to the American people.
Musical Interlude: American Idol's Best Performance
Bo Bice, "In a Dream"
Abbreviated 90-minute American Idol (Atlanta audition) last night. I liked Jermaine Sellers' soulful version of Joan Osborne's "One of Us" (one of my favorite music moments from the 1990's), police officer Bryan Walker (who reminds me a bit of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs) did a decent version of the Carpenters' "Superstar", and Mallorie Haley did a credible cover of Janis Joplin's "Piece of My Heart" (my favorite Joplin tune).
Vanessa Wolf, from a limited-income background, is trying to hitch a country music ride with Carrie Underwood and Kellie Pickler, desperately looking for a future outside the limited opportunities of her little town; granted, there's a great human interest story there, but she is a diamond in the rough (limited, if any voice training) and up against tough competition. I would not have sent her to Hollywood. Undoubtedly this year's nomination for the William Hung award (i.e., the biggest novelty singer) will be 62-year-old General Larry Pratt's "Pants on the Ground". (The Idol age cutoff is 28.) I was not amused, although any 62-year-old who attempts to do the splits on national TV has chutzpah.
I'm continuing my American Idol retrospective, celebrating the return of another season of American Idol on Fox TV. If you look at post-Idol success, there is no doubt that the selection of season 4 winner Carrie Underwood has been vindicated in comparison to runner-up Bo Bice, whom hasn't charted a single since the title track from his first post-Idol album (and whom I supported). I still consider him the most consistent vocal performer in the history of the show and am disappointed by his lack of follow-up commercial success. There are few pop singers whom can pull off a brilliant a cappella performance; Bo Bice not only had the confidence and ability to pull it off--he accomplished the unprecedented feat late in the competition, risking everything with an obscure rock track. With all due respect to more commercially successful Idol alumni like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Daughtry, and others, they never gave a performance like this.
