Kerry’s sure got his priorities right, No?

Sec of State  and part time villain on Scooby Doo John Kerry

How far in the sand can this administration bury its collective head? Secretary of State John Kerry, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt his “Global Warming is the greatest WMD threat in the world” gaff was not a faux pas, doubled down by issuing a guidance paper to all diplomats (emphasis mine):

Over the weekend, ahead of a round of low-level climate treaty talks that kicked off today in Bonn, Germany, Secretary of State John Kerry sent a fresh signal that he plans to keep global warming at the top of the State Department’s agenda.

The signal came in the form of Kerry’s first policy guidance message to all of his far-flung diplomats.

Ok, Let’s see here -  Ukraine is in turmoil, Venezuela is about to explode, the Iranians are closer to a nuclear weapon than ever, Hamas  unveiled a statue in the likeness of a rocket aimed at Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan is an unmitigated mess, North Korea is run by a madman, Libya is still basically ungoverned and the first policy guidance Kerry sends out is on CLIMATE CHANGE?

The world is falling apart and Kerry want's to talk about the seats on the Titanic.It's almost as if we've entered the - wait, what's that sound....

Dee de dee de, dee de dee de...

Then, the scene faded from color to black and white as the camera swung 180 degrees, stopping on a medium shot of a short man with black hair wearing a perfectly tailored Kuppenheimer suit. A lit Chesterfield smoldered in his right hand as he addressed the camera in deep sonorous tones that belied his lack of height:

"Submitted for your approval, an excursion into a bizarre alternate universe. Destination: a country that was once a shining beacon but is now presided over by a man whose unbridled arrogance and environmental hypocrisy are matched only by the mindless blathering of his loyal government minions, a nation formerly called the United States of America but with each passing day becomes more and more a part of The Twilight Zone."

Exit question: Am I wrong here?

The Ants On the Hill

It is easy for us on the right to pick and choose elements of the Liberal’s agenda and ridicule them individually. However, if you look at their agenda en mass the picture becomes clear, at least to me. The stark difference between Liberals and Conservatives is what the role of government should be.

Take a look at this headline:

Obama pitches $1B climate change 'resilience fund' by Laura Barron-Lopez at The Hill

Initially I was going to write a gripping post bitching about yet another waste of taxpayer dollars on some cause that I personally don’t agree with. Then it occurred to me, would I be just as pissed if it was me that directly benefited for government largess?   This thought led me to the (re) realization that the problem is not where the government spends taxpayer dollars - it’s that they are in a position to spend taxpayer dollars at all.

When I lived in Florida I found that if you leave just one measly crumb out on the counter, by morning ants would have somehow found find it. And God forbid if you were to leave a heap of dirty dishes in the sink, because, by the next morning thousands of the little buggers would be all over the kitchen. The point is that where there is food there would soon be ants. The same can be said of our federal government except instead of food, the bait is tax dollars. And it’s not ants it’s the rent-seekers and lobbyist and con artist in the guise of politicians who vie for those dollars.

Each year Americans send over two and a half trillion dollars to Washington. And even that’s not enough to quench their thirst for money so the federal government borrows yet another trillion or so from the Chinese. Now when you have that much money in one place there is no way any self-respecting lobbyist/rent-seeker/politician can resist. I mean is their job, right, it’s what they do. So each year the ants on Capitol Hill begin the feeding frenzy to divide up the spoils provided by the taxpayers. Now imagine that for a moment, $3,700,000,000,000.00 A YEAR! So the real point here is not where they decide to waste the taxpayers’ dollars it’s why in the world we send the dollars to these criminals in the first place.

Back in Florida if I didn’t want to wake up to an army of ants crawling all over my kitchen I would simply take the source of their visits  took away and Voilà- no ants. Thus, if we want to get rid of the constant corruption and cronyism in Washington - take away the source.

Ahhh, you say, if you do that, what about the babies? What about the homeless? What about the jobless?  What about all the great, wonderful things the federal government gives us?

Valid points I suppose, but here is the real question. Do you actually want the Federal government making decision to apply your tax dollars to - say a some bullshit climate change resilience fund? Who on God’s green earth would agree to pay for this crap? My guess is lobbyist/rent-seekers and others who benefit when the federal government disrupts the market and stupidly throws a billion dollars at something that will only benefit the cronies. So, by taking away the tax dollars (and the ability to borrow incessantly) the ants on the hill have no choice but to only apply those dollars to the most important missions such as keeping the country safe.

As for the babbies, the homeless and the jobless, the individual states are in a much better position to take care of these and many other issues now occupying the ants in Washington. I would argue that there is not one thing the Federal government can do (other than national security) better than the individual states can do for themselves. This way of thinking has the added bonus of keeping the states in line as well through competition. If, for example, California decides to raise taxes and build useless high-speed railways that’s their prerogative. However, they can’t bitch when all the folks who are paying for this crap decide to pack up and move to another state . So in California they either change their ways to or go bankrupt (remember there ain’t no money in the till in Washington for a bail out).

Exit homework assignment: for those who still doubt just how much the federal government should do for the electorate, read this essay about Davy Crockett and his views on federally funded welfare.  Spoiler alert - It's always easier to be compassionate with someone else's money. Here’s an excerpt:

 "There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week's pay. There are in that House (of representatives)  many very wealthy men – men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased – a debt which could not be paid by money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."

Please read it all - it’s worth it.

It's Cold because of Global Warming or something

 On February 13th, CBS This Morning Host Charlie Rose and his guest Michio Kaku (I really loved him in the Seven Samurai) managed to certify themselves to be as dumb as a bag of hammers. Kaku, a theoretical physics professor, and one of my favorites on the History Channel (if for no other reason than his hair) said (emphasis mine):

"That excess heat generated by all this warm water is destabilizing this gigantic bucket of cold air... So that's the irony, that heating could cause gigantic storms of historic proportions"

Well, the bad news is that the north polar region continues to rise in temperature, it seems to be irreversible at a certain point, so we may have to get used to a new normal. That is, a north polar region that is melting, causing more instability in this bucket, causing more things to spill out, which means more extremes. Some winters could be very mild, other winters could be horrendous.

And flying monkeys might fly out of my butt. Some could be mild some could be horrendous you say. Golly doesn’t that sound pretty much like it’s been for the last - I don’t know - FOREVER??? This guy is a theorist in physics, he's paid to theorize, that's what he does. Why would Rose have a theorist on to talk abbot the possible causes of weather instead of - I don’t know - maybe a meteorologist? Might as well have Dr. Sheldon Cooper on next.

Look folks, it's colder than a well-diggers aspirator out there and these guys would rather double down on the global warming oops climate change crap-sandwich than face the fact that the their 'settled science' nonsense ain't so settled.

 

Well call me old-fashioned but when I want to talk to someone about a particular subject, I tend to want to talk to someone who is actually in the field like say… the Weather Channel’s Nick Wiltgen (emphasis mine):

To emphasize, this vortex is semi-permanent. It is often in place near the poles. It is nothing new.

The vortex is strongest in winter, thanks to an increased temperature contrast between the polar regions and the mid-latitudes, including the United States.

Occasionally, pieces of the larger spin can break off and sweep toward southern Canada, helping to drive Arctic cold plunges into the U.S.

You mean this whole vortex thing has happened before??? Who would’a thunk it. This is what get’s me about Rose and his ilk. Specifically, they get a recognizable pseudo celebrity, in this case Kaku, and have them opine about subjects they know nothing about just to push a political agenda.

And here's why. The chicken little’s of the eco-nut world are horrified that there is no beach front property here in Kentucky by now as the Goriacle predicted in 2000. Combine that with the fact that the world’s actual temperature remained flat over the past 17 years and suddenly the tax dollar gravy train in the form of carbon taxes and wind and solar subsidies are in serious peril. And this is what really has the autocrats from the UN to Capital Hill pooping in their mess-kits, as well it should.

The alarmist will whine and moan that IT’S CLIMATE CHANGE NOT GLOBAL WARMING. I, however, am old enough to remember this canard:

Good times, good time..