The First Manifesto of the Wall Street Protesters

This video pokes the "Occupy Wall Street" brats' manifesto full of holes. It's almost thirty minutes long, so get comfortable.

Although he makes many very good arguments, I believe this guy is an anarchist. I am not an anarchist. Our founders were not anarchists. I believe as they did, that government is necessary to protect liberty, but they also knew that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. So they invented a representative democracy, which was designed to limit government power. I strongly believe that if we still followed The Constitution, we would still have the system of government that the founders designed, and the problems that we now face would be much less severe.

Are You Kidding Me? We're Mad as Hell...

Now here's a guy who can Rage Against the Kakistocracy with the best of them (and I think I know who I am):

Yeah, what he said.

My Letter to Puget Sound Energy

Dear PSE,

About six months ago, I started receiving "energy report cards" in the mail, telling me that I'm using significantly more energy than my neighbors. Several of my friends and co-workers have received similar notices. I understand the desire and the need to save energy, but I find this comparison to be intrusive and sanctimonious. I'm not in some contest to see who can be more "green". I'm trying to live my life as frugally and responsibly as practical, and I don't need unsolicited advice about how I should do it.

It isn't my concern how much energy my neighbors are using, or vice-versa. If I can afford to pay my electric bill according to our terms of service, then the issue should end there. We happen to have four active adults and one teen-ager living in this household. People are here all day. Some of us work from home, saving on transportation! I believe our energy consumption is legitimate.

I do not appreciate the "big brother" approach being employed here. I believe that you are being pressured by agents of Agenda 21 -- Sustainable Development/ICLEI to do this kind of thing, and I think that it is a diminishing matter of time before we lose yet another civil liberty, ushering in government control over our energy use with so-called "smart meters" and similar technology. Sure, it will start out voluntary, but the historical, natural progress of things is for it to become mandatory. This country used to be based on economic liberty, but increasingly it is based on government mandates and centralized control.

If you think this is conspiracy theory, you need look no further than Community Energy Challenge, shown on your Home Energy Report letterhead. This is conspiracy fact! Community Energy Challenge is supported by Sustainable Connections, ReSources, BALLE, and many others. These are NGOs and non-profits, using my tax dollars and the force of government to promote "sustainable development" all wrapped in a pretty green bow, in direct opposition to our property rights, economic freedom, free markets, capitalism, national sovereignty -- in short, our civil liberties -- and I strongly resent it! The website indicates that it is paid for in part by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. Thanks a heap, DOE. Which article of the Constitution gives government the authority to do that?

In a free market, I could simply say, "if you persist in this Orwellian scheme, I'll just take my business elsewhere", but of course we both know I can't do that.

Sincerely,
Karl Uppiano

Which article of the Constitution gives government the authority to do that?
www.antikakistocrat.blogspot.com

You're the 99%? What's the Problem?

Dude, if you're the 99%, then what in blazes is your major malfunction? Are you telling me that one percent of the population has you and all of the world's power and wealth cornered? Tell me another!

I certainly do not support corporatocracy (or union-ocracy) but if it weren't for the kakistocracy, we wouldn't be in this mess. An activist government is a fraud magnet. When government goes around trying to make the world "nice" by choosing winners and losers, and regulating everyone "for the good of the planet" or "for the good of society", that's when the special interests selfishly begin lobbying government to make their lives easier. If everyone had equal justice instead of social justice, then everyone could duke it out in the real world of good luck, bad luck, and the school of hard knocks and real work, on a truly level playing field -- not a government mandated one that gives special advantages to arbitrarily chosen "victim" groups, species and planets.

Here's life's first lesson: life ain't fair. I don't expect it to be. You shouldn't either. Government cannot make it so. Any government that governs against natural law is bound to fail. It is our individual duty -- not government's -- to help those less fortunate among us, including nature. True, some people are greedy, heartless bastards. But using government to force them to "play nice" (who gets to define "nice"?) always has, and always will, backfire.

Hear me now, and believe me later: to make the world a better place, the founders gave us the First Amendment. It's a great tool; you should try it. You can convince people to follow your lead -- voluntarily. You can convince people to join your church -- voluntarily. But the non-establishment clause says that you cannot make it mandatory.

If our politicians would follow The Constitution that they all take an oath to uphold and defend, the problems that we are facing today would be far less severe. Bailouts to large banks? Unauthorized. Take-over of the automobile industry? Unauthorized. Fraudulent grants to "green" industries? Unauthorized. The enumerated powers are very short, but the list of shame goes on.

Why I Deny Global Warming | Western Journalism.com

I'm not a denier, I'm a heretic, but News Editor over at Western Journalism reiterates what I have been saying since day one:

I’m a denier for several reasons. There is no substantive evidence that the planet has warmed significantly or that any significant warming will occur in the future. If any warming does occur, it likely will be concentrated at higher latitudes and therefore be beneficial. Climate research has largely degenerated into pathological science, and the coverage of global warming in the media is tendentious to the point of being fraudulent. Anyone who is an honest and competent scientist must be a denier.

(Continue reading...)

The alleged degree of global warming over the past 150 years is less than 1 deg C. Yet even in a technologically advanced country like the US, the inherent error in over 90 percent of the surveyed meteorological stations is greater than the putative signal. And these errors are not random, but systematically reflect a warming bias related to urbanization.

Urbanization, as in Agenda 21's "pack & stack". He continues:

Watts has documented countless instances of air temperature sensors located next to air conditioning vents or in the middle of asphalt parking lots. A typical scenario is that a temperature sensor that was in the middle of a pasture a hundred years ago is now surrounded by a concrete jungle. Urbanization has been a unidirectional process. It is entirely plausible – even likely – that all of the temperature rise that has been inferred from the data is an artifact that reflects the growth of urban heat islands.

The thermometers at KCID AM 1490, where I worked as an engineer just out of college was one of those reporting stations that started out in a field of grass. Don’t even get me started on the poor practices of the operators responsible for reading those thermometers. At least half the time, the temperature wasn’t taken at the right time, or wasn’t taken at all, but filled in from memory based on what the announcers were reading off the indoor/outdoor thermometer mounted above the mixing console.

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5, "Emperor"

Sometimes I just have to give my soul a rest from all of the tyranny, oppression and corruption. Valentina Lisitsa may very well be the most talented pianist of our time. I fell in love with this concerto when I first heard Andre Watts play it 25 years ago. I hope you enjoy it.

Valentina Lisitsa, Pianist

This was recorded live in Mexico City, but I cannot find out which orchestra or which conductor it was.

There must have been something in the water in the 1700s, what with Sir Issac Newton, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ludwig van Beethoven...

Obama: America Has a Debt Problem and a Failure of Leadership

In an email circulating the Internet, then Senator Barack Obama is quoted from 2006:

The fact that we are here today to debate raising America 's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America 's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, "the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.

This just seemed too good, so I snopesed it. It's true! Barack Obama did say that. Later, someone asked President Barack Obama about that quote, and he said:

I think that it's important to understand the vantage point of a senator versus the vantage point of a president. When you're a senator, traditionally what's happened is, this is always a lousy vote. Nobody likes to be tagged as having increased the debt limit — for the United States by a trillion dollars. As president, you start realizing, you know what, we, we can't play around with this stuff. This is the full faith and credit of the United States. And so that was just an example of a new senator making what is a political vote as opposed to doing what was important for the country. And I'm the first one to acknowledge it.

I'm sorry, Mr. President, but I have to take issue with your answer. You can't have it both ways. It sounds like you're just playing politics. You say you were grandstanding in the senate. A real statesman would do the right thing at all times. Sound economics isn't rocket science. I took economics and physics in college, and let me tell you, physics is much harder. I cannot accept the argument that you were just ignorant. What do you really believe?