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Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

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Monday, 16 January 2006
The Cultural Matrix
of Zealots

For most, the term Zealot brings to mind Religious Extremism. The shabbily dressed sweating figure clasping a Bible and pounding on a podium, A Puritan all in Black burning witches or a Muslim Extremist cutting off a victims head to the Litany of "God is Great!".

Those are indeed examples and few of us have not heard someone pronounce pontifically that ALL the Death, Destruction, Mayhem and Discord through Centuries can be more laid at the feet of Religion than any other cause.

Those who are satisfied with surface impressions and shoddy logic, will be nodding in agreement at this point.

Of course to make the above case one must ignore all the GOOD that has been the result of Religious Practices. It is true that Religion has been used in the manner I described above. It cannot be otherwise.


Religion IS one of the most powerful motivating forces on the Face of the Earth. Power cannot be a source for Evil without being a source for Good in the same order of Magnitude.

This little fact is blithely ignored by those who rail against Religious Zealotry.

They also ignore the fact that Religion is not THE most powerful motivation force in human history.

Sex is. Sex in fact is probably responsible for MORE Death, Destruction, Mayhem and Discord than any other motivator in all the Ages.


I however am unwilling to give it up, to create a More
Perfect World. I find some positive aspects in it despite the intense suffering it has caused me in the past, as have we all, I would wager to say.

All of the above would be moot if the Zealots of both extremes were willing to disavow what they deem the Ultimate Evil themselves, and leave the rest of us to make our own decisions.

BUT the main characteristic of the Zealot, despite ANY surface differences caused by the direction of their fanaticism is---


The total rejection that individual choice is the right of every human being. Individual choice is an anathema to them.



There is no difference between a Christan, Muslim or Socialist Progressive Zealot, except for the Chance of Birth, which landed them in their particular group. They think, in the same manner they act in the same manner.

No clearer example could be given than that of the philosophical journey traveled by a man named Bruce Bawer, an openly gay American ( from David's Medienkritik)

"A few years back, after a prolonged immersion in American Protestant fundamentalism (I was writing a book), I moved from the U.S. to Western Europe, ready to bask in an open, secular, liberal culture. Instead I discovered that European social democracy, too, was a kind of fundamentalism, rigid and doctrinaire, yielding what Swedish writer Johan Norberg calls "one-idea states"?nations where an echo chamber of insular elites calls the shots, where monochrome media daily reiterate statist mantras and shut out contrarian views, and where teachers and professors systematically misrepresent the U.S. (millions of Europeans believe that free public schools, unemployment insurance, and pensions are unknown in America). The more I saw of the European elites' chronic distrust of the public, and the public's habitual deference to those elites, the fonder I grew of the nasty, ridiculous rough-and-tumble of American democracy, in which every voice is heard?even if, as a result, the U.S. gets capital punishment and Europe gets gay marriage.

How did Western Europe come to be ruled by monolithic ideologues?"


I encourage to read further the works of this man, he is by no means a member of the Religious Right Fascist Movement. ;-)

I have a good friend who worriea about what the Religious Right might be up to. I do not recall if he has as some described them as the American Taliban, but it is a source of concern for him.

Compared to the other sources of repression, of freedom of thought, belief and expression, I find the case totally exaggerated. Americans are to a great extent immersed in egalitarian ideals. That cannot be said of elsewhere in this world

President Bush has been mocked over and over again when he stated that our enemies hate us because we are Free.

The TRUTH is that there are other Talibans far more dangerous to the concept of Libery, Freedom and Individual Choice and they make no bones about publicly stating their desires.

There can be nothing plainer than the words of Abu Musab al-Zarqaw

"We have declared a bitter war against democracy and all those who seek to enact it----"Democracy is also based on the right to choose your religion," he said, and that is "against the rule of God"

Those sentiments are amply echoed by Transnational Progressives.

One example, the British columnist Will Hutton,


" The essence of Hutton?s argument is that ?all Western democracies subscribe to a broad family of ideas that are liberal or leftist? (note the sly conflation here of ?liberal? and ?leftist,? which in Europe, of course, are opposites), and that first among these ideas is ?a belief in the primacy of society? as opposed to the insidious ?American belief in the primacy of the individual.? Hutton traces the prioritization of society over the individual back to medieval feudalism, which he holds up?hilariously?as an ideal. The trouble, he explains, started when Puritan individualists ?who passionately believed that they could individually establish a direct relationship with God? emigrated to North America and invented ?an explosively new and radical ideology? that justified ?an individualist rather than a social view of property.? This led to the American Revolution, which Hutton compares unfavorably with its French counterpart of 1789, since the former put the individual first (bad) while the latter introduced a ?new social contract? (good).
Indeed on of the problems Mr Hutton sees with America is the very concept of Freedom of Expression and the Press.

?European governments and the EU,? because they?re ?aggressive in their regulation of broadcasting content? and ban, for example, ?racist expression.? He favors, in short, allowing government bureaucrats to decide what is and isn?t racist (or, for that matter, sexist or homophobic) and to punish transgressors.

"While American broadcasters,? he notes, ?plead the First Amendment?s commitment to absolute free speech, making public interest regulation almost impossible??the knaves!??Europe acts to ensure that television and radio conform to public interest criteria.? Public interest criteria:



As it turns out the best cure for European propaganda is for them to actually visit the US.

As a polar opposite to Mr Bawer

"Jean-Francois Revel?s L?obsession anti-americaine, which has now appeared in the U.S. as Anti-Americanism.16 Revel?s earliest opinions of America, he tells us, were formed by ?the European press, which means that my judgment was unfavorable?; yet those opinions changed when he actually visited America during the Vietnam War. Decades later, he notes wryly, the European media still employ the same misrepresentations as they did back then==


Western Civilization IS under attack in the 21st Century by Zealots. To call them terrorists is simplistic, terrorism is but one tactic.

The world is divided into two camps as Robert Heinlein once stated

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surely curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort

I have stated this time and time again, and it bears repeaing, the only difference between the Muslim Taliban and the Transnational Progressive Taliban,is over WHO gets to Control Society, their goals and aims and idealized structure of Society is the same.

Linked to
Open Trackback Day at Pirates Man Your Women
Open Trackback Monday - OzzPoll at The Land of Ozz
Monday's Pun & Open Post at Bloggin' Outloud
Monday's Best Bets at Don Surber
A Day in Honor of a Great American from Peakah's Provocations...

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 5:26 AM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 17 January 2006 3:49 AM CST
The Open Trackback Alliance X
For Monday

For your listening pleasure while you browse

Cajun Zydeco

Making Love

In The Chicken

Coop!!!


the world thinks they know all about Americans, I intend to present music each week in this post illustrating our extreme diversity







When I first started upon my journey through the blogverse I created a
Statement of Purpose
Now upon reading it, one can realize that I did not hold to every detail of that original statement, but from it's basic premise, I have never swayed, in my belief that the Blogs are in fact the Committees of Correspondence of the Second American Revolution.

And that it is a Revolution of Information, no longer can we afford and allow elite gateways to control what we can see, hear and discuss.

One of the most important discoveries I make in those early days was the website of Samantha Burns, which included a unique informal community of bloggers, who not only linked to each other but actually browsed and read the blogs they linked to.

Later I was honored to be allowed to join another more formal blog community. At that time I decided that while I welcomed blogs that wanted to link to me, I was not that interested in simply joining blogrolls to add links. After that I made no more attempts to join any blog alliances. I have been kept busy supporting the linkages I have and at times I feel guilty that I cannot get around to all the websites on my blogroll as I could when it was smaller.

So why do I welcome this recent invitation to join the Open Trackback Alliance? Have I reconsidered my former decision?

No I am posting and joining this Alliance because it is RIGHT for me to do so.

Because it FULFILLS my original Statement of Purpose that the Blogs are indeed the 21st Century Committees of Correspondence, whose duty and honor it is to SHARE information, thoughts, ideas, news and to discuss the same. To diligently search for the truths that lie behind the distortions and half-truths of the Legacy Media.

What the blogs associated with the Samantha Burns site did informally, and without structure, this Alliance only aids and structures. There is in fact no conflict between what I do now, and what I decided to do sometime ago.

For I believe that those bloggers who find their way, here and in particular from the Blogs associated with Sam.

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

Some of us are more Serious, some of us are more lighthearted and some post the common ordinary things that make one smile and recall that Life without the simple things to treasure is meaningless.

And it is important that all have a platform from which to speak.

As I understand this process you can link to this post and trackback to this post on ANY subject or post you think important. It is open. I will repeat this every Monday.

The Committees of Correspondence welcomes your intelligent comments. And also welcomes you to join the

OPEN TRACKBACK ALLIANCE



Open Trackback Alliance


Blogs that Trackback to this Post:

On Monday
A flood of startup money may enable a flood of pro from Mister Snitch!
Latinos Unidos Fights New ICE Office in Colorado from Freedom Folks
Green Eggs And Rice from Don Surber
Scotland Yard Loses Discrimination Case from third world county
MLK day. from ★imaginekitty★

Y'al come back now, Y'heah? ;-)

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:06 AM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 17 January 2006 8:44 AM CST
Monday, 9 January 2006
UP THE COUNTER REVOLUTION!!!!!!

Libertarians of the World UNITE!

Yes I realize that statement is an almost impossible goal for individuals who pride themselves on rugged individualism.

Unite? When they pry my economic text from my cold dead hands! I can just hear them say.

But I have found an issue that any Red Blooded Libertarian (at least surely all the male ones) can stand behind, and beside and in front of to tell the truth.

Yes Guys our MOST SACRED INSTITUTIONS have been threatened, indeed, abandoned by their previous mainstay and driven into the wilderness.

Of what am I speaking? I speak of and FOR



THE SWEDISH BIKINI

TEAM

IN EXILE!!!



Yes I am here today to report The Sordid Tale of a Craven Beer Company which has surrendered to the Feminist TransNazi hordes and driven those Fair Maidens into the wilderness!

Their Viking Ancestors must be looking down from Valhalla and howling with SHAME!

But I cannot go on. I am too choked with emotion.

Turn you now over to their present defenders for the full revelation of this venality.









"Not so long ago, from a land not so far away, five gorgeous, bikini-clad beauty queens came forth into our land and descended upon outdoor man-places. They brought cases of ice-cold beer, gourmet camp food and festive music. Their parties pushed the native men-folk to the boundaries of their pleasure quotients. It really didn?t get any better than that! The Swedish Bikini Team beauties had no qualms about showing off their womanly virtues to worthy men; they had it and they flaunted it: in beer commercials, Playboy Magazine, live appearances, on Married With Children. These babes were born to party. Then, the dark forces of NAAG, the National Association of Angry Gals, an anti-armpit shaving, feminazi organization, mobilized?god, were they abnormally plain-looking?and set out to stop the original Swedish Bikini Team from making any more beer commercials. The final blow came when the Beer Company pussied out and left the beauty queens high and dry. They were ultimately forced into permanent exile by this gaggle of so-called "feminists". They shut down the entire original Swedish Bikini Team media campaign. NAAG also infiltrated the Beer Company that sponsored the television ads. This is part of an overall NAAG plan to eliminate all normal male-female relationships. They were disturbed by the fact that gorgeous bikini-clad babes sold their beer on TV. One of the NAAG hags, Gloria Allwet, even refuses to admit in public that there are any differences between men and women. How ridiculous! She refuses to differentiate between a slot and a tab! Get real, Gloria! Anyway, the bottom line is, unfortunately, the original Swedish Bikini Team is in permanent exile and will not rise again.

Not to be outdone by Politically Correct NAAG hags, I have decided to found a New Swedish Bikini Team and get revenge on those pathetic souls who caused the demise of the original SBT. The war is on.

Now that the new official Swedish Bikini Team has emerged from the friendly fiords of Scandinavia, it is time to pay our respects to the original Swedish Bikini Team. May they rest in blissful harmony in permanent exile and may they lead healthy, wealthy, happy lives."


There you have it Guys the Die Has Been cast,A Line Has Been Drawn in the Sand. The Barbarian Hordes are at the Gates!

It is time to take a STAND!

To paraphrase the words of on of the Founders of the American Revolution during the crisis in his day,

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.

Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace.

The war is actually begun

The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field, and our sisters are in Exile!

Why stand we here idle?

What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God!

I know not what course others may take; but as for me,



Give Me

Beer and Bikinis

Or Give Me Death!



Note: anyone know where I can get an audio file of the Deguello to put with this post?

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 9:34 AM CST
| Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 10 January 2006 2:17 AM CST
The Open Trackback Alliance IX
For Monday

For your listening pleasure while you browse

La Bamba!!

the world thinks they know all about Americans, I intend to present music each week in this post illustrating our extreme diversity







When I first started upon my journey through the blogverse I created a Statement of Purpose
Now upon reading it, one can realize that I did not hold to every detail of that original statement, but from it's basic premise, I have never swayed, in my belief that the Blogs are in fact the Committees of Correspondence of the Second American Revolution.

And that it is a Revolution of Information, no longer can we afford and allow elite gateways to control what we can see, hear and discuss.

One of the most important discoveries I make in those early days was the website of Samantha Burns, which included a unique informal community of bloggers, who not only linked to each other but actually browsed and read the blogs they linked to.

Later I was honored to be allowed to join another more formal blog community. At that time I decided that while I welcomed blogs that wanted to link to me, I was not that interested in simply joining blogrolls to add links. After that I made no more attempts to join any blog alliances. I have been kept busy supporting the linkages I have and at times I feel guilty that I cannot get around to all the websites on my blogroll as I could when it was smaller.

So why do I welcome this recent invitation to join the Open Trackback Alliance? Have I reconsidered my former decision?

No I am posting and joining this Alliance because it is RIGHT for me to do so.

Because it FULFILLS my original Statement of Purpose that the Blogs are indeed the 21st Century Committees of Correspondence, whose duty and honor it is to SHARE information, thoughts, ideas, news and to discuss the same. To diligently search for the truths that lie behind the distortions and half-truths of the Legacy Media.

What the blogs associated with the Samantha Burns site did informally, and without structure, this Alliance only aids and structures. There is in fact no conflict between what I do now, and what I decided to do sometime ago.

For I believe that those bloggers who find their way, here and in particular from the Blogs associated with Sam.

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

Some of us are more Serious, some of us are more lighthearted and some post the common ordinary things that make one smile and recall that Life without the simple things to treasure is meaningless.

And it is important that all have a platform from which to speak.

As I understand this process you can link to this post and trackback to this post on ANY subject or post you think important. It is open. I will repeat this every Monday.

The Committees of Correspondence welcomes your intelligent comments. And also welcomes you to join the

OPEN TRACKBACK ALLIANCE



Open Trackback Alliance


Blogs that Trackback to this Post:

On Monday

Belafonte Speaks, But What Does Brenda Lee Think? from Don Surber
The Knuckleheads of the Day award from The Florida Masochist
OTIM Open Post from The Florida Masochist
Sex & Love Book Review from Lyn at Bloggin' Outloud
LInkfest Haven from Linkfest Haven
Well, I may actually watch 20/20 on Friday... from third world county
How Congress Will Exploit The Abramoff Scandal from Don Surber
Deportation? from Freedom Folks
They both take money for a favor from The Florida Masochist
Your click is important, please hold from NIF

Y'al come back now, Y'heah? ;-)

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:55 AM CST
| Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 10 January 2006 2:06 AM CST
Monday, 2 January 2006
As seen in today's New York Daily News, by 9/11 family members Anthony Gardner & Particia Reilly
This just in





As seen in today's New York Daily News, by 9/11 family members Anthony Gardner & Particia Reilly:








New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Memory lapse
By ANTHONY GARDNER and PATRICIA REILLY
Monday, January 2nd, 2006

Congress and U.S. taxpayers gave the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. $2.78 billion to redevelop the World Trade Center site, entrusting them with the duty of building a magnificent memorial to the victims of Sept. 11, 2001. Just months before construction of the memorial is slated to begin, the LMDC is offering the American public a bargain basement version of Michael Arad's "Reflecting Absence."

The LMDC's latest iteration of Arad's design is one that is 31% smaller than the original, and the central waterfalls - the most powerful design feature - will only operate nine months out of the year. LMDC continues to shrink the memorial despite the fact the original design was too small to accommodate the estimated millions who will make a pilgrimage to the site. The memorial is being built with only one way in and one way out, putting the safety and security of future visitors in peril.

It is insulting that with all of the financial resources at its disposal the LMDC would try to foist an ever-shrinking memorial on the American people and then ask them to pay for it.

The fact that LMDC failed to consider the extra costs involved with heating the memorial's massive waterfalls so they may flow in the winter months reflects its gross mismanagement of the redevelopment. As reported in the Daily News, LMDC has misspent millions in tax dollars on projects completely unrelated to Sept. 11, such as giving $10 million to SoHo's Drawing Center and funding the pet projects of wealthy elites who serve on the LMDC board as they continue to shrink the memorial and refuse to pay heating bills.

Take Back the Memorial, an alliance of major Sept. 11 family groups, began at a time when LMDC's lack of focus nearly led to the placement of the International Freedom Center on sacred ground. Now, to the detriment of future visitors to the memorial, it appears that money has followed LMDC's misplaced priorities as evidenced by the allocation of $50 million to an unrelated cultural facility. Millions have also been spent on the Snohetta building design and we still don't know what it will contain, if it is even built at all.

We would like to be able to say that the WTC Memorial Foundation should take over, but some changes need to be made first. The foundation has said that the memorial is the priority, but actions speak louder than words. Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg, both members of the foundation's board, have yet to make a personal donation to the memorial.

It seems evident that the cultural facilities, not the memorial, are the true priority of some individuals who have been charged with building the memorial. The majority of Sept. 11 families are withholding donations until America gets a memorial design it deserves, one that preserves our national heritage, provides for the safety of visitors and honors the dead by telling their story without distraction.

We want a memorial that isn't crammed into a basement space, hidden from the light of day. We want public access to the physical remains of the twin tower footprints at bedrock.

The WTC Memorial Foundation must focus its attention on the Sept. 11 memorial. Board members whose priority is not the memorial must be replaced. As long as their focus remains on extraneous cultural matters they will continue to have difficulty raising funds.

LMDC, which must get its priorities straight, would benefit from new leadership. If changes aren't made fast in both the LMDC and the WTC Memorial Foundation, they will not only fail to honor those who died at that site on Sept. 11, 2001, but they will continue to fail us all.

Gardner and Reilly, who lost family members in the World Trade Center attack, are co-organizers of the Take Back the Memorial campaign.


|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 11:26 PM CST
| Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 3 January 2006 12:19 AM CST
The Open Trackback Alliance VIII For Monday
When I first started upon my journey through the blogverse I created a Statement of Purpose
Now upon reading it, one can realize that I did not hold to every detail of that original statement, but from it's basic premise, I have never swayed, in my belief that the Blogs are in fact the Committees of Correspondence of the Second American Revolution.

And that it is a Revolution of Information, no longer can we afford and allow elite gateways to control what we can see, hear and discuss.

One of the most important discoveries I make in those early days was the website of Samantha Burns, which included a unique informal community of bloggers, who not only linked to each other but actually browsed and read the blogs they linked to.

Later I was honored to be allowed to join another more formal blog community. At that time I decided that while I welcomed blogs that wanted to link to me, I was not that interested in simply joining blogrolls to add links. After that I made no more attempts to join any blog alliances. I have been kept busy supporting the linkages I have and at times I feel guilty that I cannot get around to all the websites on my blogroll as I could when it was smaller.

So why do I welcome this recent invitation to join the Open Trackback Alliance? Have I reconsidered my former decision?

No I am posting and joining this Alliance because it is RIGHT for me to do so.

Because it FULFILLS my original Statement of Purpose that the Blogs are indeed the 21st Century Committees of Correspondence, whose duty and honor it is to SHARE information, thoughts, ideas, news and to discuss the same. To diligently search for the truths that lie behind the distortions and half-truths of the Legacy Media.

What the blogs associated with the Samantha Burns site did informally, and without structure, this Alliance only aids and structures. There is in fact no conflict between what I do now, and what I decided to do sometime ago.

For I believe that those bloggers who find their way, here and in particular from the Blogs associated with Sam.

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY.

Some of us are more Serious, some of us are more lighthearted and some post the common ordinary things that make one smile and recall that Life without the simple things to treasure is meaningless.

And it is important that all have a platform from which to speak.

As I understand this process you can link to this post and trackback to this post on ANY subject or post you think important. It is open. I will repeat this every Monday.

The Committees of Correspondence welcomes your intelligent comments. And also welcomes you to join the

OPEN TRACKBACK ALLIANCE



Open Trackback Alliance


Blogs that Trackback to this Post:

On Monday
John Kerry from The Florida Masochist
The Freedom Folks: Race Pandering Whore Award from Freedom Folks
The Knucklehead of the Day award from The Florida Masochist
Predictions for 2005 from Conservative Cat
Belated Xmas Gifts from Hugh from third world county
This is not Child's Play from The Florida Masochist
1 Your Electricity, Their Lives from Don Surber
The Knuckleheads of the Day award from The Florida Masochist

Last Week While I Was Gone

Treatment Time Open Trackbacks from The Uncooperative Blogger
Open Pun, er, Post from Bloggin' Outloud

Y'al come back now, Y'heah? ;-)

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 5:52 AM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 3 January 2006 3:19 PM CST
Friday, 23 December 2005
Bush Job Approval
Forty-seven percent
(47%)
Update
Now 50%

President Bush Job Approval

Wednesday December 21, 2005--Forty-seven percent (47%)Now{50%} of American adults approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President. That's up three points since the President's speech on Sunday night.

These results are based upon nightly telephone surveys and reported on a three-day rolling average basis. Approximately two-thirds of the interviews for today's update were completed after the President's speech.

The President's speech had a measurable impact concerning the War on Terror. Fifty percent (50%) of Americans now say the U.S. and its allies are winning. That's up from 44% immediately before the speech and the highest level of optimism measured in 2005

Thirty percent (30%) of Americans say that they would definitely vote for Senator Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Presidential Election. Thirty-seven percent (37%) will definitely vote against her.

"Two weeks ago, support for Clinton was at its lowest level of the year with just 25% saying they would definitely vote for her."

So to Recap

Bush's Approval Rating is 47%Now {50%}

Hillary Clinton,touted as the Democratic Party's Best Hope for the Presidency in 2008 has an Approval rating of
30%.

Need we say more?

What a way to start a New Year and a Mid Term Election Year in fact!

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 12:01 AM CST
| Post Comment | View Comments (2) | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Friday, 23 December 2005 10:04 PM CST
Tuesday, 20 December 2005
The Infidel's Revenge Pen

What do you get the Crusader Infidel
Who has everything?


The Caffir's Companion?




How it works.
In the extreme heat of a terrorist explosion the components in the pens' chambers combine, and vaporize. The result is a fine atomized mist of fully active, reconstituted porcine plasma (pig's blood) permeating the entire scene; defiling the flesh and soul of the suicide bomber; paradise lost for terrorists and incentive eliminated for would-be-terrorists. Our products are safe, non-toxic and do not affect the eternity of infidels.

Overcome the fear of terror with the threat of eternal damnation.

When you buy and use an Infidel's Revenge ball-point pen you will be putting fear, uncertainty and doubt into the mind of would-be-suicide bombers. Fanatical "Muslim's of the Jihad" are motivated to commit their suicide bombings with the promise of immediate paradise and 72 virgin companions for eternity. However, their strict ancient doctrine also teaches that their souls are damned should their flesh come in contact with pig’s blood at the time of their death.


-------------------------------------------------


The Infidel's Revenge! is a powerful psychological deterrent to terror.
When you carry and use your Infidel's Revenge Ball Point Pen, you are joining an elite group of citizens committed to ending global terror. Imagine the impact on the worldwide "terror movement" knowing that the possibility of eternal damnation is resident in every drawer, every purse, every pocket everywhere. This simple solution holds the promise of dramatically reducing, and even ending, suicide bombings.

Don't leave home without one!

They make Great Gifts and are the perfect size for stocking stuffers.

Linked to
Those Bastards! at If it's Tuesday, it must be an Open Trackback Day
The Business of America is Business at Making Tracks
The Conservative Cat at Continue the Conversation and Evolve to a Higher Level
NIF at It's a beautiful day
Right Wing Nation at Tuesday Open Trackbacks

|


Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 3:07 AM CST
| Post Comment | Permalink | Share This Post
Updated: Tuesday, 20 December 2005 8:02 AM CST
Monday, 19 December 2005
If You Go Outside And Spit


You will have the same effect on the Climate as doubling carbon dioxide.

At least according to Reid A. Bryson who holds the 30th PhD in Meteorology granted in the history of American education. Emeritus Professor and founding chairman of the University of Wisconsin Department of Meteorology?now the Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences.

There is a very interesting article on this to be found in the May 23rd issue of the

WISCONSIN ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE NEWS.











The Faithful Heretic

A Wisconsin
Icon Pursues Tough Questions


Some people are lucky enough to enjoy their
work, some are lucky enough to love it, and then there’s
Reid Bryson. At age 86, he’s still hard at it every day,
delving into the science some say he invented.


Reid A. Bryson holds the 30th PhD in Meteorology
granted in the history of American education. Emeritus Professor
and founding chairman of the University of Wisconsin Department
of Meteorology—now the Department of Oceanic and Atmospheric
Sciences—in the 1970s he became the first director of
what’s now the UW’s Gaylord Nelson Institute of
Environmental Studies. He’s a member of the United Nations
Global 500 Roll of Honor—created, the U.N. says, to recognize
“outstanding achievements in the protection and improvement
of the environment.” He has authored five books and more
than 230 other publications and was identified by the British
Institute of Geographers as the most frequently cited climatologist
in the world.


Long ago in the Army Air Corps, Bryson and
a colleague prepared the aviation weather forecast that predicted
discovery of the jet stream by a group of B-29s flying to and
from Tokyo. Their warning to expect westerly winds at 168 knots
earned Bryson and his friend a chewing out from a general—and
the general’s apology the next day when he learned they
were right. Bryson flew into a couple of typhoons in 1944, three
years before the Weather Service officially did such things,
and he prepared the forecast for the homeward flight of the
Enola Gay. Back in Wisconsin, he built a program at the UW that’s
trained some of the nation’s leading climatologists.


How Little We Know


Bryson is a believer in climate change, in
that he’s as quick as anyone to acknowledge that Earth’s
climate has done nothing but change throughout the planet’s
existence. In fact, he took that knowledge a big step further,
earlier than probably anyone else. Almost 40 years ago, Bryson
stood before the American Association for the Advancement of
Science and presented a paper saying human activity could alter
climate.


“I was laughed off the platform for saying
that,” he told Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News.


In the 1960s, Bryson’s idea was widely
considered a radical proposition. But nowadays things have turned
almost in the opposite direction: Hardly a day passes without
some authority figure claiming that whatever the climate happens
to be doing, human activity must be part of the explanation.
And once again, Bryson is challenging the conventional wisdom.


“Climate’s always been changing
and it’s been changing rapidly at various times, and so
something was making it change in the past,” he told us
in an interview this past winter. “Before there were enough
people to make any difference at all, two million years ago,
nobody was changing the climate, yet the climate was changing,
okay?”


“All this argument is the temperature
going up or not, it’s absurd,” Bryson continues.
“Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the
early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re
coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting
more carbon dioxide into the air.”


Little Ice Age? That’s what chased the
Vikings out of Greenland after they’d farmed there for
a few hundred years during the Mediaeval Warm Period, an earlier
run of a few centuries when the planet was very likely warmer
than it is now, without any help from industrial activity in
making it that way. What’s called “proxy evidence”—assorted
clues extrapolated from marine sediment cores, pollen specimens,
and tree-ring data—helps reconstruct the climate in those
times before instrumental temperature records existed.


We ask about that evidence, but Bryson says
it’s second-tier stuff. “Don’t talk about
proxies,” he says. “We have written evidence, eyeball
evidence. When Eric the Red went to Greenland, how did he get
there? It’s all written down.”


Bryson describes the navigational instructions
provided for Norse mariners making their way from Europe to
their settlements in Greenland. The place was named for a reason:
The Norse farmed there from the 10th century to the 13th, a
somewhat longer period than the United States has existed. But
around 1200 the mariners’ instructions changed in a big
way. Ice became a major navigational reference. Today, old Viking
farmsteads are covered by glaciers.


Bryson mentions the retreat of Alpine glaciers,
common grist for current headlines. “What do they find
when the ice sheets retreat, in the Alps?”


We recall the two-year-old report saying a
mature forest and agricultural water-management structures had
been discovered emerging from the ice, seeing sunlight for the
first time in thousands of years. Bryson interrupts excitedly.


“A silver mine! The guys had stacked
up their tools because they were going to be back the next spring
to mine more silver, only the snow never went,” he says.
“There used to be less ice than now. It’s just getting
back to normal.”


What Leads, What Follows?


What is normal? Maybe continuous change is
the only thing that qualifies. There’s been warming over
the past 150 years and even though it’s less than one
degree, Celsius, something had to cause it. The usual suspect
is the “greenhouse effect,” various atmospheric
gases trapping solar energy, preventing it being reflected back
into space.


We ask Bryson what could be making the key
difference:


Q: Could you rank the things
that have the most significant impact and where would you put
carbon dioxide on the list?


A: Well let me give you one
fact first. In the first 30 feet of the atmosphere, on the average,
outward radiation from the Earth, which is what CO2 is supposed
to affect, how much [of the reflected energy] is absorbed by
water vapor? In the first 30 feet, 80 percent, okay?


Q: Eighty percent of the
heat radiated back from the surface is absorbed in the first
30 feet by water vapor…


A: And how much is absorbed
by carbon dioxide? Eight hundredths of one percent. One one-thousandth
as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and
have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide.


This begs questions about the widely publicized
mathematical models researchers run through supercomputers to
generate climate scenarios 50 or 100 years in the future. Bryson
says the data fed into the computers overemphasizes carbon dioxide
and accounts poorly for the effects of clouds—water vapor.
Asked to evaluate the models’ long-range predictive ability,
he answers with another question: “Do you believe a five-day
forecast?”


Bryson says he looks in the opposite direction,
at past climate conditions, for clues to future climate behavior.
Trying that approach in the weeks following our interview, Wisconsin
Energy Cooperative News soon found six separate papers about
Antarctic ice core studies, published in peer-reviewed scientific
journals between 1999 and 2006. The ice core data allowed researchers
to examine multiple climate changes reaching back over the past
650,000 years. All six studies found atmospheric carbon dioxide
concentrations tracking closely with temperatures, but with
CO2 lagging behind changes in temperature, rather than leading
them. The time lag between temperatures moving up—or down—and
carbon dioxide following ranged from a few hundred to a few
thousand years.


Renaissance Man, Marathon Man


When others were laughing at the concept, Reid
Bryson was laying the ground floor for scientific investigation
of human impacts on climate. We asked UW Professor Ed Hopkins,
the assistant state climatologist, about the significance of
Bryson’s work in advancing the science he’s now
practiced for six decades.


“His contributions are manifold,”
Hopkins said. “He wrote Climates of Hunger back in the
1970s looking at how climate changes over the last several thousand
years have affected human activity and human cultures.”


This, he suggests, is traceable to Bryson’s
high-school interest in archaeology, followed by college degrees
in geology, then meteorology, and studies in oceanography, limnology,
and other disciplines. “He’s looked at the interconnections
of all these things and their impact on human societies,”
Hopkins says. “He’s one of those people I would
say is a Renaissance person.”


The Renaissance, of course, produced its share
of heretics, and 21 years after he supposedly retired, one could
ponder whether Bryson’s work today is a tale of continuing
heresy, or of conventional wisdom being outpaced by an octogenarian.


Without addressing—or being asked—that
question, UW Green Bay Emeritus Professor Joseph Moran agrees
that Bryson qualifies as “the father of the science of
modern climatology.”


“In his lifetime, in his career, he has
shaped the future as well as the present state of climatology,”
Moran says, adding, “We’re going to see his legacy
with us for many generations to come.”


Holding bachelor’s and master’s
degrees from Boston College, Moran became a doctoral candidate
under Bryson in the late 1960s and early ’70s. “I
came to Wisconsin because he was there,” Moran told us.


With Hopkins, Moran co-authored Wisconsin’s
Weather and Climate, a book aimed at teachers, students, outdoor
enthusiasts, and workers with a need to understand what the
weather does and why. Bryson wrote a preface for the book but
Hopkins told us the editors “couldn’t fathom”
certain comments, thinking he was being too flippant with the
remark that “Wisconsin is not for wimps when it comes
to weather.”


Clearly what those editors couldn’t
fathom was that Bryson simply enjoys mulling over the reasons
weather and climate behave as they do and what might make them—and
consequently us—behave differently. This was immediately
obvious when we asked him why, at his age, he keeps showing
up for work at a job he’s no longer paid to do.


“It’s fun!” he said. Ed Hopkins
and Joe Moran would undoubtedly agree.


“I think that’s one of the reasons
for his longevity,” Moran says. “He’s so interested
and inquisitive. I regard him as a pot-stirrer. Sometimes people
don’t react well when you challenge their long-held ideas,
but that’s how real science takes place.”—Dave
Hoopman




Posted by ky/kentuckydan at 5:54 PM CST
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Updated: Wednesday, 23 May 2007 5:30 AM CDT
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Updated: Tuesday, 20 December 2005 7:31 AM CST

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