Ruminations - 16mar2012

George Rebane

We watched a DVRd recent ’60 Minutes’ piece on a fifty year program by Texas ranchers to conserve over 150 African game species on their own range lands.  Through their own efforts they have taken contributions from the nation’s zoos and built up the herds/flocks, in the process saving many species that were on the brink of extinction in their native Africa.  The ranchers help pay for this by providing controlled hunting under the aegis of state and federal laws.  The animals are thriving and the enterprise has been a win-win-win all around.

Enter the eco-idiots, a breed that marbles our nation like a disease.  There is a faction that has been working diligently to make hunting of these animals illegal.  Their imminent success promises to shut down the entire conservation program/business.  Their only ‘reason’, besides rank insanity, is that the animals should be taken back to their native Africa and put on nature conserves where dysfunctional governments will allow poachers to kill them off.  In short, the animals should only live in their native habitat that can no longer protect them from extinction – period.

The program's nausea factor was increased by the female correspondent continuing to ask each rancher interviewee ‘If you love and want to save these animals, then why do you allow hunters to come and shoot them?’  The obvious economic answers washed off her little brain like water off a duck’s back.  Now consider the millions of like-minded viewers out there for whom such reportage makes sense.  Pass the barf bag please.

Anthony Watts has published another substantial summary of the scientific controversy over the now notorious temperature ‘hockey stick’ cooked up by Michael Mann over twelve years ago.  Locally, Russ Steele has been tracking the political controversy over anthropogenic global warming (AGW) that has become a public policy control tool for Agenda21 politicians, and article of fervent faith to the scientifically dimwitted.  The review of Mann’s latest book on this controversy again illustrates the sleaze in ‘the debate (about AGW) is over’ that is promoted by the politically correct grant hungry ‘scientists’ and their government handlers.

It is remarkable that the AGW question has not been submitted to a small panel of acknowledged experts who are independent of the government gravy train; a panel similar to the one assembled after the space shuttle Challenger disaster.  The amount of draconian public policy that has already been made by nations, and the more that is contemplated has all been done in the face of a constant stream of evidence that shows the error of the original and revised AGW conclusions.  Would such an issue of global importance be swept under the rug if it were not the only game in town that allows the socialist one-worlders to impose their diktats on the rest of us while we destroy thriving economies on the road to their new world order?

We are attending a Mercatus Center conference in Scottsdale.  As supporters of that institute at George Mason University, we have benefitted from their research into public policy issues that seek to buttress the preservation of rights summarized in The Bastiat Triangle (q.v.).  Of late I have become more and more impatient with what conservatives have traded for progress – namely, preaching homilies to the choir when they assemble (see my ongoing hissy fits about ‘Candyass Republicans’).  At these meetings we are regaled with speeches and presentations that document and memorialize noble accomplishments of free enterprise achieved under the umbrella of liberty.  We are again told how the future would be brighter for all, were we to successfully contain the many-headed monster of collectivism.  But everyone attending such conferences already knows this material chapter and verse, and that is why they wind up only being kumbayahs for conservatives.

This time, instead of having our bellies rubbed one more time, I would like to hear of some, or even any smidgeon of progress made in halting socialism and successfully educating our electorate, then students to reject the ‘solution by redistribution’ messages that originate from the Party of the Fixed Pie and wash across the land.  And if there is no such good news to report, then tell us what we can do to advance liberty and change direction.  Absent that, why gather us together to attend what can only be characterized as the moral equivalent of a wake?

Comments

[Gregory]

"It is remarkable that the AGW question has not been submitted to a small panel of acknowledged experts who are independent of the government gravy train; a panel similar to the one assembled after the space shuttle Challenger disaster."

No, it isn't. The government has no need to convene a panel to determine whether the answers it has been paying to get are answers it should have been paying for.

In other words, convening a panel to point a finger at the politicians and NSF bureaucrats who have been orchestrating the whole mess isn't the sort of thing the politicans and NSF bureaucrats is likely to do.

[Russ Steele]

Roger Kimball on how the liberal mind works:

If you are a liberal think tank, advocacy is OK because you are advocating the right ideas. If you are a conservative think tank, advocacy is not OK because it is “divisive,” “partisan,” and lacks “objectivity.”

[billy T]

Ladies and gentlemen, all is not lost. Yes, it is troubling that our march towards socialism is most difficult to reverse, especially since folks get lazy and love dem freebies. Freebies become a right in some mixed up jumbled mind sets. No one likes their freebies cut back. But, the American populace loves freedom first and foremost. The Texas hunting ranch may make Peta become unhinged, yet try taking away someone's guns or the right to hunt and all hell breaks loose. I have detected a bit of discouragement in Dr. Rebane's recent posts. No need to thrown in the towel. The demagogs are claiming we are launching a "war" on women. Well, read the latest NY Times/CBS poll below. CBS indeed has an agenda since it did not even discuss its own poll once on its many broadcasts. Makes us chuckle. We need women to win in November and put Obamie on the unemployment line. Women are the key. They are more fiscally conservative than men when it comes to the household budget. Women are the ones that are at the gas station more often than men. They are at the grocery store watching bread, milk, cereal, peanut butter, and meat shoot up 8-10% in less than at year. They know the fed overseers are full of dodo when they say inflation is "transitory" and isn't a threat. Women are more concerned about debt than men. War on Women? Only if you believe the libbowels. Sandra Fluke testified as neither a victim nor an expert. Read em' and weep. http://www.lifenews.com/2012/03/13/americans-strongly-oppose-obama-mandate-new-poll-shows/

[George Rebane]

billyT 910pm - Keep that uplifting spirit going Mr T. Just cause the odds are against us doesn't mean I intend to give up the good fight. As those gyrenes always say, 'Semper fi!'

[billy T]

Dr. Rebane and privileged fellow readers, the Ruminations above draw a pretty good comprehensive picture of the whack jobs that co-habituate this lovely planet with sane people. This is too rich. Where to begin. Well, them green jobs in Spain cost 2.5 jobs for every one created as widely reported before. But, did you know those jobs cost about $700,000.00/each to create and only one in ten green employees have stuck around. Booga booga, the hockey stick cometh. Oh yeah, the CBO now says our rear loaded Obamiecare will cost 1.7 trillion over 10 years, not the measly 900 billion Obamie promised. Slam, bam, thank you Obama Man. It gets more delicious. Now they say 3-5 million blue collar folks will lose their employer provided health bennies. Of course some negative Neo Cons are saying it is more like 20 million workers. Hey, young and old alike can now be put into Medicaid. Love driving down the hill to see a knee doc...in 90 days. The good news for our goose pimpled adorers of Big Government is when the working folk loose their employer provided health insurance, they will be taking home more after tax dollars. Bigger pay checks, rah rah rah! That means they will be paying The Great White Father in Washington more taxes. More taxes is fairer. Hey libbowells, if you really want to be fair, just have all the good looking people wear ugly masks just to be fair. Fair is the Holy Grail of you libs. It is not fair that good looking people generally make more pesos as well as taller folk. Forget trying to make more po folk wealthy and lift them out of poverty. You whack jobs prefer to put everybody in the leaky lifeboat. Misery loves company. Of course you whack jobs plan on directing the sea lanes from a nice lounge chair far far away from the stink. Yummy, the tax man cometh. http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Daily-Reports/2012/March/16/cbo-coverage-report.aspx

[Michael Anderson]

Billy T,

Another nice rant in a long string of rants. I'd love to see you build a tractor using a stirling some day. Big bucks will come your way...

http://www.stirlingengine.com/faq

M.

[Todd Juvinall]

BillT, you are priceless man, and you spell much better than me. LOL!
I wonder if a liberals idea of "fsir" reaches down to the Serengeti Plain. Since the liberal wants animals to have "rights" then how do they enforce that with a lion and a wildebeest? Especially when the lion is hungry.

[Michael Anderson]

Todd,

I ask you...if God didn't want us to eat animals then why did He make them out of meat?

M. Anderson

[billy T]

Mr. Anderson, I will get busy making that stirling contraption as soon as I find my glasses. Those instructions for assembly always come in small print and I can't understand those weird Chinese characters. Hey, I think I am missing a couple of screws. Good point about eating our furry friends. Animals do not only provide nourishment and ribs for dinner party entertainment, they also provide clothing for warmth on such a winter's day. Bear skin makes the best chaps. Water can't soak through em. Hummm....then again, if the Good Lord wanted use to be nudists, we would have all been born without clothes.

[Michael Anderson]

"Hummm....then again, if the Good Lord wanted us to be nudists, we would have all been born without clothes."

Billy T, are you telling us you were able to score a ticket to Burning Man??

[billy T]

Mr. Anderson, thanks for the inquiry. No, last time I was at Burning Man, I put a Dittos Rush sign on my tent and everybody stayed 20 feet away. It was an oasis in a sea of vulgarity. Nope, I just got back from a few hours in the slammer. I got drunk and started throwing me fists at those who were stereotyping us Irish. Happy St Paddy's Day.

[Michael Anderson]

What year was that? Sounds like people were being rude in your neighborhood, most people don't care about political affiliations at the event. I hang out at the airport, and almost half of the organizational team for 88NV are staunch conservatives. That's just how pilots are...

[billy T]

"the moral equivalent of a wake?" You mean http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-19/germany-s-solar-industry-may-disappear-eon-executive-says.html ?

[billy T]

In related news from the Fixed Pie Party, US Bank decided to close its branch on the UC Davis campus citing intolerable conditions of trying to conduct business with doors being blocked and other disruptions. A glance at the UC Davis Student Blog by yours truly calls for all students to harass "the parasite host." Hmmm. Our youngest and brightest are now going to lose out on the 3 million dollars that US Bank donates to student services and I suppose one might conclude the bank's pilot program to reach out to younger customers and establish good relationships has failed. Wonder how many bank employees lost their jobs for "the cause". When the revolution comes there will be no stinkin banks, no stinkin money, and no stinkin 2 ply toilet paper. http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/19/4350409/us-bank-closes-uc-davis-branch.html

[Todd Juvinall]

FOX reported this yesterday. Thank goodness at least one mainstream news did.

[billy T]

Mr. Juvinall, greetings. Suddenly I have become more optimistic concerning our students at UC Davis and the intelligence they have expressed in the comments section below this article. Quite reasoned thoughts expressed in a civil manner. All is not lost. From the UC Davis campus newspaper: http://www.theaggie.org/2012/03/19/u-s-bank-announces-closure-of-on-campus-branch/

[Wade I]

I think some panels of experts have looked at this.

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

Also too, not sure what hunting has to do with it except Democrats are totally dumb?