Michael Barone has a piece in the Washington Examiner whose thrust is to address the UN panels historic downgrading of past apocalyptic rhetoric regarding mans so-called impact on global climate.  We’ve apparently been given a 17 year waiver from the universe, something the ‘war’mists call a pause, a pause that conservatives note better explains the brief spell of warming amidst a much longer period of cooling.

Prior to Mann-made global warming, with the hockey stick seen-round-the-world, a tool ideally suited for the cold weather that preceded it and the cooling that followed it, we were doomed by an impending ice-age.  It warms for a few years, Al Gore writes a book, and it hasn’t warmed since.

All well documented but that wasn’t Barones’ point. In the  Examiner article he describes faith-based Mann made global warming as a religion, and in terms that make it clear that this is exactly what it is.

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A few years back then State Senator Jeanne Shaheen set the ball rolling toward declining care options in New Hampshire by acting as a shill for Blue Cross Blue Shield.  She wrote and husbanded (sexist!) SB 711 through the legislature until it became law.  The end result was fewer choices and higher premiums.

While health insurance coverage was little affected by Shaheen’s reforms, consumer choice was badly damaged. By 1997, the number of commercial health insurers serving New Hampshire dwindled to five from a previous high of 12. Those remaining in the market reduced their insurance offerings to cover only high-deductible, catastrophic-type health insurance plans.

Shaheen as a US Senator was the vote, as far as we’re concerned–and since she did actually cast a vote, that made ObamaCare (see also ShaheenCare) law; a law that has reduced the already Shaheenified number of available providers in the state to accommodate Shaheen Care2.0….to just one.

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The (Un)Affordable (Diminished)Care Act(like it does any of the things promised) includes mountains of evil not the least of which is this which should put a stake in the heart of any Democrat narrative about supporting American Families.

If they (a 60 year old couple with no kids) have identical earnings totaling $65,000, which will usually net down to $50,000 or below after all income and payroll taxes, their Obamacare exchange Silver Plan premium next year with the same earnings will be $16,382, or about one-third of what used to be their take-home pay. (And they call it the “Affordable Care Act”?)

What can this couple do? Well, they could decide to earn a few thousand dollars less, which will negate the five-figure premium hit. Encouraging ordinarily willing workers to put in less effort isn’t good in any economy, but especially not this one. But if either spouse’s earnings are unpredictable or hard to precisely track, they could still “mess up” and get socked with a premium they can’t afford.

The “easiest” solution would be to avoid the “wedding tax” entirely by getting divorced while still living together.

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Let me be clear.  I think it is awesome that this kid wants to break a record and increase ‘awareness” and I think we need more of these adventurous sorts in every age group, but will he be increasing awareness of his preconceived notions about the climate or educating us on how what he sees contradicts what he has been told he should believe?

Liautaud will venture out on Nov. 23 on a 40-day expedition. His goal is to bring attention to climate change, an issue he has been passionate about since a young age. Liautaud talked about his past arctic ventures and upcoming expedition alongside the founder of the Climate Reality Project, former Vice President Al Gore, Monday atSocial Good Summit.

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A senior Washington Post congressional reporter found it “interesting” that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told him that he answers to his constituents and the grassroots instead of the leaders in the Republican leadership who make up the permanent political class.

On Tuesday, Paul Kane said that in an interview in August, Cruz told him that every day in the Senate he tries to remember “to whom I am accountable; and it is not elected officials in Washington.” He also said, “with all respect,” it is not the mainstream media either.

“The people to whom I believe I am accountable are the men and women in Texas… who knocked on doors, who made phone calls, who stood up and said ‘Please, help turn this country around,'” Cruz, who is leading the defunding Obamacare efforts, told him.

And as it should be.  Too often, we see the Humble Folk make promises, say the right things, and generally seem to be truthful when talking to:

• Supporters that inhale and internalize what they are saying – they want to believe “maybe this time” (as in “won’t change”).

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This is one of those few times that I will reprint an entire post.  Yet, I am hearing similar things more and more: “why should I fight and support a Party that more and more is Democrat-like versus Freedom and Constitution loving?  Why should my time, my valuable time, be spent defending a Platform that is always ignored when times get hard to defend (or the converse – easy to walk away from when convenient).  Breeanne Howe does a good job (emphasis mine):

Dear GOP,

I’m breaking up with you. It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. We’ve had our ups and downs. The Tea Party years were tough enough, but I truly thought we could make it when we elected (who we thought were) more principled leaders to replace at least some of the old guard. Unfortunately, the old guard and their old ways just won’t go away and you seem to be more in tune with them.

Hear it often – heck, I hear myself saying it.  Principles over Party, for we look at what “Party – what Principles?” has wrought for this country in conjunction with the Democrats – a government that isn’t trusted to do the right thing, a government that doesn’t listen, a government that lies, a government that “looks down” on the Common Folk, elected officials that put themselves first versus why they were sent to their offices in the first place…

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Banned book week began Sunday, September 22nd, and runs until Saturday the 28th.  They even have their own web site.  http://www.bannedbooksweek.org/

I’m always a bit cautious when people start tossing the censorship thing around and the “banning books” crusade is as likely as any to declare the refusal of a group (school, library, whatever) to include a book in its collection or curriculum, or to exclude one, as “banning” or “censorship.” The actual word for this is choice.  People, parents, societies, cultures, school districts, towns and states, even individuals all exercise choices about material or activities deemed appropriate.  Their exclusion is not censorship unless it is statutory and total.

A store that sells travel books has not banned all other books unrelated to travel.  It has simply chosen not to make them available.  And neither schools nor libraries are required to carry every piece of rubbish simply because someone has put it between a front and back cover and named it a book.

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And make no mistake, to Progressives, politics IS a religion!  This is the post that I read from while we were yakking with Bill O’Brien during GrokTALK! (update: here too!) this past Saturday that outlines some of the VAST differences in outlook between Conservatives that are confident in themselves and in their fellow citizens and in Progressives that believe totally in Government and that it must be placed first – to the point that NOTHING should ever be detracted from it.  Tower of Babel, anyone?  A self-constructed idol, anyone?  Republicans are UNBELIEVERS and must be held to account for any attempt in diminishing the reach, the cost, and the power of their all-giving (hmm, they keep forgetting about “all-taking”) Government.  In setting the stage (emphasis mine):

CHAPEL HILL – Abortion safety laws make it “more dangerous for the black woman’s body.” Republican lawmakers “want kids to die.” Conservatives “are trying to take the U.S. hostage” and hope to “destroy our public school system.”

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The Democrat “conversation” about gun violence is dangerous.  It is dangerous because in its obsessive tunnel-vision group-think it purposefully ignores all acts of violence and their escalation in the absence of armed, law abiding citizens.

From NPR

There are fewer than 13 million firearms in circulation in Russia, compared with an estimated 300 million in the United States. That works out to about 9 guns per 100 people in Russia and closed to 100 guns per 100 people in America.

The most recent for Russia show that there were 21,603 killings in 2009.

According to the FBI, the United States had 13,636 homicides in 2009 with a population that is more than twice as large. More than 80 percent of those killings were gun-related.

It’s difficult to make a direct comparison of gun homicides in the two countries because Russia doesn’t break down its murder statistics.

Three observations.

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