CLIMATEGATE EXPLAINED: the neuroscience of screwing up.

"The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe."



Religion - it’s not just for Christians.

Link via Instapundit.

OBAMANOMICS is nothing more than smoke and mirrors, only really, really expensive smoke and mirrors. In the end, we will all pay.

LET'S KEEP the death tax dead.

Not a chance. By the time the Obama administration ends, the economy will be dead; the death tax will be alive and well.

WHERE ARE WE? A friend who works with an aircraft restoration group in California sent me these photos an aircraft “graveyard” containing remains of what may possibly be F-102 and F-106 aircraft. The two aircraft are highly desired for their restoration museum.

The pictures were apparently taken in New Mexico, somewhere in the vicinity of Socorro.

I’m looking for the graveyard where these aircraft are located. I haven’t been back to New Mexico in years, but the terrain strongly reminds me of the malpais along route 380 from Socorro to Carrizozo.

Thoughts, anyone?

SOME POLITICIANS 'acted stupidly' in 2009. Is there any other way?

IT APPLIES to cats, too.

My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this, he pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep. If he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head: Holy S##t!!!

My dog is a Democrat!

And since we have three cats, the wife and I are constantly outvoted.

From Don Surber's email.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS for all Americans.

I'll be happy if America keeps only one: "Elect people who aren’t complete morons."

THE MAN OF THE YEAR is a woman.

In the only survey that counts. Congratulations, Sarah.

“ALL THE SOARING CADENCES in the world, all the self-referencing, and all the whining and blame-gaming sadly cannot put the shattered Humpty-dumpty view of a once comfortable world back together again.”

UNHEALTHY ARROGANCE: Thomas Sowell on ObamaCare.

“What is ‘historic’ [about ObamaCare] is that this will be the first administration to show that it doesn't care one bit what the public wants or doesn't want.... [T]his is not about the public's health. It is about Obama's ego and his chance to impose his will and leave a legacy.”

If it passes, it will be a bitter legacy.

THE SYSTEM WORKED, except for that part when it failed.

Which is why Americans cannot afford to be complacent.

FROM JUDICIAL WATCH: Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2009.

From the entry on Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but applicable to them all: “At the heart of the corruption problem in Washington is a sense of entitlement. Politicians believe laws and rules (even the U.S. Constitution) apply to the rest of us but not to them.”

The “ten most wanted” in alphabetical order:

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner
Attorney General Eric Holder
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/Senator Roland Burris (D-IL) - a “two-fer”
President Barack Obama (D-US)
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven - a “many-fer”
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) would be on my list, but I suppose mere venality isn’t sufficient to make the top ten.

Read the complete “indictment” here.

IMAGINE THAT. Liberals aren’t quite so liberal when it’s their money being spent.

Via Instapundit.

GREEN GOES BROWN. "AltaRock Energy is abandoning its major geothermal demonstration project at The Geysers, north of San Francisco.... Earlier in the fall TRU Energy, a subsidiary of CLP in Hong Kong, announced it was writing off its whole investment in Solar Systems' 154-megawatt solar project in Mildura, Australia."

What? Green energy may cause earthquakes? Or be uneconomical? Heaven forfend ....

MARK STEYN on Obama's treatment of terrorism as a crime rather than an act of war: "This would be a big enough gamble in the best of circumstances. Up against the broader background ... it makes disaster inevitable."

WHY ARE WE SO BAD at detecting the guilty and so good at collective punishment of the innocent?

Detecting the guilty requires judgment; punishing the innocent does not.

SCRAPPLEFACE: “In the wake of the attempted Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Airlines flight 253, President Obama, in a news conference from the Pacific White House in Hawaii, on Monday cautioned Americans to avoid ‘lashing out against folks in puffy underpants.’" ... ‘Our future as a nation depends on how we react to this incident,’ the president said. ‘If we start profiling people based on the mere appearance of their slacks, a lot of incontinent adults as well as infants and toddlers will be swept up in the discriminatory backlash....’”

Read it all.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Nanny of the Year

SOME LESSONS to take home. Since the government can’t - or won’t - learn, we must.

THE LAST REFUGE from scoundrels:

Texas ... grew by almost half a million and accounted for 18 percent of the nation's total population growth. [It] had above-average immigrant growth, but domestic in-migration was nearly twice as high.

There may be lessons for public policy here. Texas over the decades has had low taxes (and no state income tax), low public spending and regulations that encourage job growth. It didn't have much of a housing bubble or a housing price bust.

Under Govs. George W. Bush and Rick Perry, it has placed tight limits on tort lawsuits, and has seen an influx of both corporate headquarters and medical doctors.

As a soon-to-be Texan again, I’m not sure I’m pleased with this development.