[1]Welcome one and all to the most intense nightly read anywhere on the ‘sphere… Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble
[2]Lots going on as we move into Christmas week… and yes, we still dare to call it that here. Let’s get to it.
- It’s time we figured out that not having any attacks here in the US, post 9/11 is not a matter of luck. Investor’s Business Daily reads the doubters the riot act [3]. Kudos to them for that; It’s about time someone did. I have my problems with Bush, too [4], but his handling of terrorism isn’t one of them. (Yes, before you ask, that includes interrigation methods employed… it was and remains the correct thing to do.) Bush’s handling on terorism being proven the correct way of dealing with it, as it has been, is an important point because if we want to keep the reocrd of no-post-9/11 attacks that way, Obama’s going to need to emulate what Bush has been doing there. Can you imagine the howling from the left when he does? Nearly worth the price of admission.
[5]Yesterday, we reported snow in Vegas. Now, Snow in Malibu, too [6]. See, every time the Gorebots decalre the debate over man-made global warming a closed matter, Mother Nature kicks a little snow down to where the Gorebots live, and reopens it. And there are a lot of people… dare I say, the majority, who aren’t buying this dreck. Like this guy, for example [7]. Question is, will he have a job at CNN after this? No amount of questioning the global warming mantra can be brooked, ya know. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a pic of Babs Streisand’s Malibu estate covered in snow? You could print it up poster sized, and show it to her when she starts her usual global warming spiel…. can you imagine the rose in her cheeks? And yes, there will be the true believers like Streisand and like Benen [8]who insist that global warming is a threat. Mental midgets, all. Frankly, they only make themselves look more stupid with this argument, in the face of the pictures of the residents of Malibu shovelling snow.- A few years ago, there was a heavy prediction of snow for the whole of the northeast. Real wrath of God type stuff. The schools were closed, business shuttered, everyone bundled down. The result? Perhaps an inch of snow in some areas of the region. Most got nada. So, when I got up this morning and saw despite the forecasts we didn’t get any snow at all, I wondered if we had a repeat going. It did snow, though, today, and fairly heavy, too. That’s OK. Either way, I wasn’t stupid enough to dump my SUV for a ‘smart car’. I have the Rainier. It really doesn’t care much about the snow. It works in the real world.
[9]I saw one of those “smart cars” day before yesterday, trying to deal with a light snowfall. Trust me when I tell you, you don’t want one of them. You could almost hear the idiot chanting …”I’m saving the planet… I’m saving the planet… I’m saving the planet… I’m saving the planet… ” I can imagine them trying to drive that bit of crap today… I’m telling ya… The best planet savings those things do, is by reducing the population by the number of fools who manage to squeeze themselves into that thing. It’s a fatality waiting to happen.
Oil’s at $34/bbl or so [10], which to my mind obviates the needs for such idiocy, anyway. Ya know, about the prices; If there’s one thing that this price drop proves, the price spikes we saw last summer were decidedly not an oil availability issue. There was plenty in the ground, both here and abroad. So much for the ‘peak oil’ freaks. These price drops prove it, beyond any doubt. And don’t tell me it’s a global resession causing the price drops. Prices tend to fll on everything pretty much equally. You’ve been shopping of late, I’m sure, given Christmas time. And groceries for that matter. Have the prices of these been cut by over half in the last 6 months? No? Well, then…. the claim is exposed as so much plant food. So much, too, for those who say Domestic Drilling wouldn’t have helped. Look at the consumption rates. Claims to the contrary aside, they really haven’t dropped all that much. All it would have taken to prevent that run up from happening was a commitment from the US to actually start domestically drilling again, to the reserves we know are out there… and if you really want the prices falling, allowing exploration here in the US as well. Proof? Consider the timing of the bubble breaking, this time; All it took was a mere threat from the White House to allow more domestic drilling… and POP… the bubble goes away and over 6 months the price drops by well over $100/bbl. Oh… and added refining capacity wouldn’t hurt, either, gang. Of course the left isn’t having any of it, as Bruce points out [11]rather well.
It may not convey the total status, but it seems to me to be a good indicator of our problem now and even more so in the future [12]:
Shell Oil has canceled its drilling and other exploration plans for next year in the Beaufort Sea while it focuses on court challenges to its offshore plan….
Yeah, that’s pretty well the situation. Fighting tooth and nail to keep us in the 14th century. No, not Islamic Radicals. Their freinds, in the American left.
- Ramesh, today, [13] points out, regarding the Rick Warren/Obama thing:
By giving Warren a platform, Obama is not endorsing his views—but he is saying that those views are a legitimate part of the national conversation.That’s not a snub of liberals. But it is a swipe at one type of liberalism—the type that has been working to get people fired for making donations to the campaign for the initiative, that has attacked the Mormon Church for its support of it, and so forth.
I don’t know if I agree with the way he sets that up, but I’ll agree to his main point.
[14]And here’s the thing; Obama’s not taking sides in the matter, because he doesn’t want to suffer the consequences of having chosen one side of the argument or another. What’s got the homosexual rights crowd so pissed is that he’s not shutting down points of view opposite to theirs. Again, we find proof that the liberalism of today, isn’t. It’s fascism in all it’s glory, and Obama will suffer from it. Then again, that’s the bed he made for himself when he started playing the politics of faction. -
[1]Sirius/XM is ending the year with a lot less employees… mostly from programming and such. They’re started simulcasting on both systems for a lot of channels, and it shows. They started running freebie channels to try and drum up some business from people who have XM radios that aren’t active at the moment. Hey S/XM: If you’re trying to sell us on the idea of commercial free radio, does it make sense to have commercials on the channels you’re showcasing? And when’s the last time you changed the cut rotation? Take the “LaughUSA” channel… I’ve heard the same cuts four times now, in three days, and I’m not even listening that closely. I had considered activating my radio, and to ignore the sound quality, which suffers greatly from the amounts of digital compression applied. (Trust me, CD quality it isn’t. Those who know audio will understand when I say phase stability is a thing of the past. ) Frankly, I get more variety and better sound quality off my MP3 player, sorry Cheaper, too. . It’s not worth paying ~$120 a year to get insulted like that. I doubt I’m alone in this perception. And yes, I know the mp3 stream I use isn’t too stable either. But at least I’m not trying to cram two channels of 20-20k audio through what has to be 50kbit or less of bandwith. Yeccch. (I usually run 256 lame on my own stuff, 128 minimum. The compression artifacts show up once in a while, not continuously as they do with Satalite Radio. I love the idea, guys, but forgive me if I find your execution wanting in multiple areas. - Blago is the gift that keeps on giving. Ed Morrissey brings us news that Blago, good Democrat that he is,discussed laundering campaign funds. [15] Forgive me, but does it seem to you an unreasonable question to ask if such maneuvering isn’t how Obama managed to break all these campaign finance records?
- I kept telling you people that they were going to steal the election. Tell me I was wrong. Go ahead. [16]