McCain Comes Through

It's no secret that I have not been a big fan of John McCain. The only one lower on my list during the primaries was Ron Paul. It wasn't because I necessarily disagreed with all of Paul's ideas, but more because the guy comes off as a nut case. It's hard to take him seriously.

McCain, to me, represented everything that's gone wrong with the Republican party...a complete loss of conservative principles. For me, the label "maverick" could just as easily be exchanged for "disloyal."

Consequently, I haven't been too engaged in the current political process other than as a casual observer, while cautiously awaiting McCain's VP choice. For me, everything hinged on that selection.

The hubbub that swirled around his decision-making process didn't leave much hope.

Choosing Joe Lieberman would have only confirmed that McCain is really just a Democrat in an old elephant suit.

Talk of Tim Pawlenty wasn't much improvement. We Minnesota conservatives haven't been impressed with his performance, and his misguided views on energy policy and global warming have all but written him off in my book.

I hadn't heard of Sarah Palin until Newt Gingrich mentioned her name and gave a brief bio on a political talk show a few months ago. She sounded interesting, but her name never surfaced in recent discussions of McCain's vetting process.

So when he announced her selection yesterday, then gave us a chance to see and hear her first-hand, I was blown away.

Here's a woman who's bright, articulate, beautiful and has an impressive track record. She's run and won at the local level, then the state level. She's stood up to the "old boy" networks and special interests and stared them down. She's lived out her faith and values in an impressive manner. And all this was accomplished while being a devoted wife and mother.

Now the democrats are trying to shift the focus from Obama's inexperience (I mean, seriously, talk about a completely empty suit) to Palin's experience.

I don't think it will work.

Her track record of accomplishments if far more impressive than his. She had been serving in elected office five years before Obama stumbled into the Illinois legislature. She was taking stands and making decisions while Obama was voting "present" on difficult issues (130 times) rather taking a stand he could be held accountable for later on.

As a Governor, the buck stopped at her desk. Gov. Mike Huckabee said recently that as a governor one has to make more command decisions in a day than a typical year in Congress where things languish through endless committee hearings before any decisions are ever made.

McCain's selection of Palin has energized the Republican base like no other candidate I can imagine. I'm energized....even willing to contribute once again to the RNC! Just knowing someone with her values and judgement will have the ear of John McCain gives me hope, and I will work for her election.

Maybe there's hope afterall.

Imagine There's No Global Warming

This is from our fellow deniers at "Minnesotans for Global Warming"! Check out their website for some more hilarious music videos.

The Dangers of Politicizing Science

I just finished Michael Crichton's "State Fear", a highly recommended action/thriller that will keep you turning pages as quickly as you can.

But as good as the books is, I found his first appendix essay very thought-provoking. It's entitled Why Politicized Science is Dangerous and I was happy to see he has posted it as an essay on his website.

In it Michael traces several instances where science has been politicized with massively tragic results for mankind. The parallels to today's global warming issue are frightening.

I encourage you to take a few moments to check it out.

Climatology vs. Climatism: A Must Read!

I've just read one of the most insightful articles on the reality of global warming that I've ever run across, entitled "Climatology Versus Climatism" by Vinod K. Dar.

A couple of quotes:

Climatology is a science. Climatism is an ideology. Climatologists are scientists. Climatists are social or political organizers who abuse climatology in the service of ideologues. Climatology was and still is an investigation of nature. Climatism is the exploitation of the fear of nature to gain power, wealth and social esteem.

...

As the prospects for successfully implementing the program diminish, vast temper tantrums, fantastic accusations and staggering lies will be deployed to intimidate voters and politicians into submission. Screaming often works.

If that doesn't hit the Jim Hansen nail right on the head!! I'd highly recommend this article to all my readers.

The headlines are scary...could the alarmists be right?

"The outlook abroad is more than usually gloomy. Storms, floods and hurricanes seem to be completing the devastation which unseasonable weather began. In the United States and Canada the heat is unusually severe, and numerous deaths are already reported by sunstroke, this early in the season."

"In Europe, this year so far has been unusually disastrous, and there has been large losses of life and property by flood and fire. We have had the most distressing accounts of the floods in Hungary and elsewhere, the eruption of Mount Etna, the ravages of life by plague subsequent to the war, the famine pestilence in India; and now comes the prospect of cholera in Russia."

OMG! Catastrophe is looming! What shall we do??

Oops....wait a minute. I'm sorry. My mistake. Those paragraphs were taken from the North Star and St. John's Newfoundland News....dated July 19th, 1879. Bill Westcott ran across the articles and wrote a good piece covering this and comparing it to the hype of today.

When will people step back, take a collective breath and look at history? If they do they'll quickly realize that Yogi had it right: "This is like Déjà vu all over again!"

Curious Anomolies in Climate Science

I ran acros an interesting site that tells the tortuous journey of an AGW alarmist to a more enlightened postion of skeptic! It is entitled "Curious Anomolies in Climate Science" and is a nice, relatively succinct discourse of the history and science behind the AGW debate with lots of links to other sources.

Since my neighbor recently expressed an interest in knowing more about the subject (after reading a Letter to the Editor I wrote in our local newspaper), I'm going to pass along this as a great starting point for learning about the issue. Check it out.

Another Perspective on Big Oil Profits

This blurb came from the Vancouver Sun:

Exxon earned more than $128 million a day, or nearly $1,500 every second during the quarter. The company said that was after it paid $4,100 a second in taxes and $14,700 a second in expenses to run the business.

So the government get's almost $3 for every $1 Exxon's stockholders get! And that's BEFORE the government collects all the additional taxes from consumers at the pump.

So, with none of the risk the investors have endured, the gov't takes almost 75% of the profit!

But that isn't enough for Obama. He now wants to take a big chunk of the 25% the stockholders had left and distribute it to Americans via another stimulus check!

Democratic greed knows no bounds.