Archives for December 2008
Happy New Year!
“progress”
“The average man of the present age [1948] has a metaphysic in the form of a conception known as “progress.” It is certainly to his credit that he does not wish to be a sentimentalist in his endeavors; he wants some measure for purposeful activity; he wants to feel that through the world some increasing purpose runs. And nothing is more common than to hear him discriminate people according to this metaphysic, his term for less worthy being “unprogressive.” Richard M. Weaver
The operative metaphysic for many became the environment, which ought to be objectively measurable, but defies agreement. Moreover, many of its’ adherents believe humanity and the environment are antithetical, that our existence necessarily harms the environment.
When God was the operative metaphysic, the majority of people incorporating God’s metaphysic would generally follow a benign course toward other people. This was because people were made in God’s image. Political decisions tended to favor the demographic majority.
Now that the majority accepts a metaphysic they believe to be opposed to mankind, and that same majority believes in growing and using the power of government, it follows that we should expect more political decisions to go against the interests of people. On a fundamental level, this may help explain why we already have so many regulations and so much government action that is hostile to our well being.
In terms of stewardship, preservation, efficacy, sound economics, husbandry, accountability, oversight, and pretty much every other concept that engenders wisdom, government runs a distant second to all other forms of organized human action. Who will protect the environment from the institutionalized, heavy handed, non-adaptive, one-size-fits-all, modus operandi of government?
Creative men and women will synthesize the protection of themselves with the protection of the environment, and they’ll have to overcome the negative effects of government and the ministrations of progressives to do it.
“That government is best which governs least.” Thomas Paine
Merry Christmas
Lifeline for Renewable Power
Without a radically expanded and smarter electrical grid, wind and solar will remain niche power sources.
By David Talbot
The Unsentimental Sentiment
“Every man participating in a culture has three levels of conscious reflection: his specific ideas about things, his general beliefs or convictions, and his metaphysical dream of the world.
“The first of these are the thoughts he employs in the activity of daily living; they direct his disposition of immediate matters and, so, constitute his wordliness. One can exist on this level alone for limited periods, though pure worldliness must eventually bring disharmony and conflict.
“Above this lies his body of beliefs, some of which may be heritages simply, but others of which he will have acquired in the ordinary course of his reflection. Even the simplest souls define a few rudimentary conceptions about the world, which they repeatedly apply as choices present themselves. These, too, however, rest on something more general.
“Surmounting all is an intuitive feeling about the immanent nature of reality, and this is the sanction to which both ideas and beliefs are ultimately referred for verification. Without the metaphysical dream it is impossible to think of men living together harmoniously over an extant of time. The dream carries with it an evaluation, which is the bond of spiritual community.”
Richard M. Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences, 1948.
Merry Christmas
SS Global Warming ship sinking in non-rising ocean, rats jump
U. S. Senate Minority Report:
More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims
Scientists Continue to Debunk “Consensus” in 2008
INTRODUCTION:
Over 650 dissenting scientists from around the globe challenged man-made global warming claims made by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and former Vice President Al Gore. This new 231-page U.S. Senate Minority Report report — updated from 2007’s groundbreaking report of over 400 scientists who voiced skepticism about the so-called global warming “consensus” — features the skeptical voices of over 650 prominent international scientists, including many current and former UN IPCC scientists, who have now turned against the UN IPCC. This updated report includes an additional 250 (and growing) scientists and climate researchers since the initial release in December 2007. The over 650 dissenting scientists are more than 12 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers. The chorus of skeptical scientific voices grow.
2009 County Budget approved
Note: The above panels are excerpts from a larger package that also contains details for a number of smaller funds.
Mr. Happel objected to the form of the meeting.
Donofrio v. Wells
The procedural history of this case is a fascinating expose of political maneuvering by vested interests in many tiers of the justice system. In the end, it seems more than serendipitous that Donofrio succeeded in getting his case into an initial review today by the Supreme Court. Hopefully, the Constitution will be justly served by the Court.
Donofrio v. Wells, Application to the Supreme Court for Emergency Stay
See a copy of Donofrio’s blog text at: Natural Born Citizen Blog text for his thorough description of the procedural history.
Oceans warm land
Oceanic influences on recent continental warming
Gilbert P. Compo Æ Prashant D. Sardeshmukh
Received: 22 August 2007 / Accepted: 14 July 2008 Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract
Evidence is presented that the recent worldwide
land warming has occurred largely in response to a
worldwide warming of the oceans rather than as a direct
response to increasing greenhouse gases (GHGs) over land.
Atmospheric model simulations of the last half-century
with prescribed observed ocean temperature changes, but
without prescribed GHG changes, account for most of the
land warming. The oceanic influence has occurred through
hydrodynamic-radiative teleconnections, primarily by
moistening and warming the air over land and increasing
the downward longwave radiation at the surface. The
oceans may themselves have warmed from a combination
of natural and anthropogenic influences.
kudos to pseudos
- The pseudo science of the climate change cartel.
- The pseudo statesmanship of the leftist democrats.
- The pseudo conservatism of republicans.
- The pseudo philosophy of moderates.
- The pseudo intellectualism of the modern university.
- The pseudo religion of fundamentalism — pick your brand.
- The pseudo market of the nationalized no-fault economy.
- The pseudo news from the main stream media.
- The pseudo democracy of the nanny state.
- The pseudo security of the welfare state.
- The pseudo healthcare of socialized medicine.
- The pseudo stewardship of government planners.
- The pseudo sanity of mental health.
- And the pseudo natural born citizen who became president.
People talk about tipping points. I think Americans have reached a tipping point — one where the pretense of knowledge is piling up faster than factual and reasonable knowledge. To be sure, the accretion of factual and reasonable knowledge has greatly accelerated with improvements in technology, but it just looks like the poseurs are winning the day in America. If you read the Victor Davis Hanson piece in the previous entry, as Americans lose their understanding of the liberal arts, they lose their capacity to advance Western civilization. The barbarians in Mumbai last week and the imams who filled their heads with jihadi mush, acted on this weakness as Americans celebrated Thanksgiving with one eye on the TV. The slippery slope of cultural coarsening accelerated (again) as terrorists (again) reduced Western civilization to bloody chunks of body parts and (again) shifted our concept of normalcy toward a state of random violence. The causal thread running through and linking all of this — terrorism, the abrogation of history, the politicizing of all human endeavors — is enabled by disconnection and the interruption of reality feedback. These conditions are necessary precedents if you want people to stop thinking and acting in the interest of their own survival, and they work especially well for the growing segment of the population unburdened by a conscience. All that’s required of us is tolerance, and acceptance that the bounds of what must be tolerated continually expand toward the unthinkable, the horrible, the terrible, and whatever new fad the polity wants to try on for size. Ideals, outcomes, objective measures, standards, fixed points for evaluation, better and worse, good and evil, laws, constitutions, all of these concepts must give way to tolerance. God forbid we become narrow minded.
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” H.L. Mencken [Read more…]
Victor Davis Hanson
As the classical university unravels, students seek knowledge and know-how elsewhere.
US & Iraq agree to withdraw troops
Agreement For Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq
Signed November 17, 2008 in Baghdad. Main stream media — Hello? Anyone there?
bailout dreams
For a long time the primary focus of American car makers has been financial services. Cars have been a vehicle (sorry) to get people into a payment schedule or a lease stream. Lease or purchase financing has been the main focus, not cars. They make their money primarily in finance charges, not in automobile gross margins over costs of production.
The market for alternative energy autos driven (sorry) by price, performance, quality, reliability, etc. — all the factors that people consider in acquiring a car — will determine the economic incentives for manufactures to build those vehicles. A bailout will not, cannot, provide those incentives.
There may be a good case to bail out American car makers, but the reasonable expectation that such a bailout will produce a positive evolution in American automobile products is not part of it. [Read more…]