40 posts tagged “obama”

I still laugh at the concept of a "new" politician because the game is still the same.

I guess we are really screwed for funds if the Dems are considering a national sales tax now!

John Taylor writing for the Financial Times had this to say about our government spending practices. 

Best line? 

Ask and your shall receive:

The debt was 41 per cent of GDP at the end of 1988, President Ronald Reagan’s last year in office, the same as at the end of 2008, President George W. Bush’s last year in office. If one thinks policies from Reagan to Bush were mistakes does it make any sense to double down on those mistakes, as with the 80 per cent debt-to-GDP level projected when Mr Obama leaves office?

I guess transparency is just another word used to help get elected.

I guess in the end politicians are just that... politicians.  And promises made during their campaign are just... rhetoric?

Wow.

I have nothing else to add.  I mean they got 14 sentences out of it.

What I find interesting with the global warming skeptic camp is that they can easily glom onto headlines when it is convenient to their belief system while ignoring other contradicting, more compelling data sets.

Take for instance the latest set of buzz regarding 2008 and its status on the warming hierarchy.  RealClimate has a great post about this.

The great thing about complex data is that one can basically come up with any number of headlines describing it - all of which can be literally true - but that give very different impressions. Thus we are sure that you will soon read that 2008 was warmer than any year in the 20th Century (with the exception of 1998), that is was the coolest year this century (starting from 2001), and that 7 or 8 of the 9 warmest years have occurred since 2000. There will undoubtedly also be a number of claims made that aren't true; 2008 is not the coolest year this decade (that was 2000), global warming hasn't 'stopped', CO₂ continues to be a greenhouse gas, and such variability is indeed predicted by climate models.

And George Monbiot has an excellent observation about the skeptic camp.

Until now, the "sceptics" have assured us that you can't believe the temperature readings at all; that the scientists at the Met Office, who produced the latest figures, are all liars; and that even if it were true that temperatures have risen, it doesn't mean anything. Now the temperature record - though only for 2008 - can suddenly be trusted, and the widest possible inferences be drawn from the latest figures, though not, of course, from the records of the preceding century. This is madness.

But what I truly find interesting about all of this is the inference of how the global warming / climate change movement is rooted in some sort of religious cult whackoism.  That there is this giant conspiracy among climate scientists to push a global socialist agenda.  That there is this belief system that twists science to push that agenda.

Well, the science speaks for itself.  In my mind it is the skeptics that use religious type of arguments (much like misguided creationist cherry-picking type arguments against evolution) to prove it is all hype and not science.  Using a talking point here to disprove the mountain of evidence there.  That is not science.  That is religion.

There is no smoking gun for skeptics.  Either you address all of it or none of it. 

The irony of linking climate change to religion is that we will have an answer to what is being predicted now in due time.  We are not waiting for a rapture or a second coming here.  We are not talking about predicting god in a computer model. 

We will definitely have more observations and even better understanding in the near future.

Present day hypotheses will be answered.   

But one thing is for sure.  And that is science and data will be at the heart of policies in the next administration.

Here we go...

I am Arthur, King of the Britons.  I seek the bravest and the finest knights in the land who will join me in my court at Camelot.  You have proved yourself worthy. Will you join me?

Well, according to The Guardian, Hillary Clinton will be accepting the Secretary of State position within Obama's cabinet.

I must admit though, my first thought was a sigh of relief since it was swirling before the election that John Kerry was a potential choice.

But the Clinton selection is further proof that Obama is looking to solidify his dynasty and complete the Round Table.

And now on to scene 24. A smashing scene with some lovely acting...

I have to admit that when I drive into work in the morning I listen to talk radio.  I mainly do so because sometimes there are interesting topics, but usually 1/2 of the time I switch to a music station because religion or absurdity creep into the on air discussion.  However, I did get catch this little tidbit this morning:

Check this out: a listener to my radio show emailed me and claimed that the day after the election, the Illinois Lottery featured a creepy winning number and that I should check it out.

Sure enough, I confirmed the bizarre claim. On the day after the election, in the Evening Pick Three lottery drawing in Obama's home state of Illinois, the winning number was 666.

Don't believe me? See for yourself. www.IllinoisLottery.com Click on the “numbers/ jackpots” tab and look up Nov. 5, 2008.

I'm sure that's just a coincidence. I certainly don't believe those who fear that Obama is the actual anti-Christ.

Then again, what are the odds of the mark of the beast being Illinois' winning lottery number the day after the election?

Needless to say -- I switched over to music after hearing this as the insanity troll in my head was ringing a large bell.

This kind of crap makes me want to never vote Republican ever again.  Seriously.

Because I hope for the best in conservative politicians who are supposed to fight for smaller government and less spending, I get to be on the same side of the political aisle with those who try to find a correlation with a number and our next president.

Where said number implies that Obama is a reincarnated supernatural creature because a book written over a 1000 years ago by humans with a substandard understanding of the world said that this number was the mark of the beast.

How splendid...