Pondering

I have a problem.  Well, not really a problem so much as a dilemma.  Politics is important to me, but it’s such a broad category and encompasses so much, and there are a lot of important issues.  I go through my Reader and see that I’ve noted several different posts that I think I may like to blog about in the future.  I feel spread a little thin.  So many topics, so little time!  I feel like I need to pick just one or 2 and focus on those.  But for a political blog, specificity can often be a death-knell.  I don’t have time to put the hip-waders on for each subject.  How can I pick just a couple?  What’s my passion?  It depends on the day, I suppose.  It can be anything from education, AGW, immigration, taxes, 2nd Amendment, 1st Amendment, abortion, liberalism, racial issues, elections, Islam, conservatism, and on and on. 

Perhaps if I lumped all my favorite posts together onto a single page of links?  I’m thinking out loud here.  I’m not shooting to be the big centralized location for political bloggers, I just want to share my thoughts on different topics.  Sometimes I haven’t formed a solid opinion on something and am trying to sort it out.  To be sure, political opinion is something that is always in flux and evolving.  I know my core beliefs, but there are issues on which I go back and forth – like capital punishment. 

Whatever the case, information is key.  What I’ve learned – especially over the last year – is that bloggers too often get dismissed for being “nothing more than bloggers.”  Journalists boil down to being nothing more than bloggers with a better paycheck, often-times, and citizen journalists don’t get the credit they deserve.  I’ve seen bloggers dig up more information than “journalists” did, particularly in the case of Obama.  So, “journalist” doesn’t impress me. 

Scarborough questions journalistic integrity over Obama

Meteorologist Anthony Watts has far more credibility spread over his blog than a lot of “journalists” do who spread the “green gospel” far and wide with no scientific basis whatsoever.  He’s got a lot more credibility than James Hansen at GISS, who has been known to skew data just to advance his personal agenda.

Political stuff often depresses me.  I live in IL.  ‘Nuff said.   

I’m not sure what I’ll do about my indecision, but I did want to get it off my chest.  Maybe it’s just a matter of putting my own thoughts down, instead of being goaded by the blogs I read.  The big topic today is Blagojevich, but at the moment, I don’t really care about that.  He’s been the governor here for 6 years, and frankly, I’m more than a little sick of him.  The scandal now is, to me, par for the course and something I saw coming 6 years ago.  Meh.  As far as I’m concerned, “journalists” are way behind the curve on this one.  Where were they in 2002 when this guy was running for office, campaigning on “hope” and “change”?  Why, I guess they were at the same place they were at in 2008, when Obama was doing the same exact thing. 

I’ll get my thoughts sorted out, one way or another.  Having a blog helps in that regard.  Thanks for joining me on the journey. 

Joe the Plumber Quote

From Black & Right

 

Quote Of The Day

I’m glad someone took it to them.

I am a plumber, and just a plumber, and here Barack Obama or John McCain, I mean these guys are going to deal with some serious issues coming up shortly. The media’s worried about whether I paid my taxes, they’re worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America. They really don’t. I asked a question. When you can’t ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me.
— Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, 10/18/08

That bothers a lot of us. Something I believe we’ll have to get used to.

A Perfect Storm

Wise words about a dangerous political ideology and the man who wants to implement it. 

The least qualified candidate in American history — at one of the most dangerous points in history.

Dear Craig Ferguson

I am writing this letter to you because you lost me, and I want to tell you why.  I hope that one day when you’re “Googling” yourself, you’ll come across this and understand.

I started watching you a few years ago, and I admired how you stepped out of your comedian role to lament the events of September 11th.  I thought it was a gutsy move, and still do. 

However, during this election, your first as an American citizen, despite your promise to “make fun of both sides equally,” you’ve done nothing of the sort.  I tried to take it in stride while you criticized and made fun of my choice for President.  That’s what comedians do, right?  Make fun of politicians?  But you never made any jokes about Obama.  Now, I invited you into my home, night after night, and a little respect would have been nice.  And I would have tolerated the pokes at my candidate if you’d made just as many pokes at your own.  Such was not the case.

You lost me completely though when you made the accusations of “mudslinging” against my candidates.  You were referring to the references that Sarah Palin had made about Obama’s connections to Bill Ayers.  “It was 40 years ago!  It doesn’t matter today!  Obama was 8 years old!” you cried.  That offended me, Craig, for a few reasons.

First of all, it’s not “mudslinging” when it’s truth.  And here’s why Obama’s association with Ayers matters. 

Imagine if you will, the year is 2040, and we’re coming up on another Presidential election, and one of the candidates is close friends and associates with an Al-Qaeda terrorist who was involved in the horror of 9/11.  Let’s say said friend has never apologized for the lives he took that day, expresses regret that he didn’t kill more Americans, wished he could have done more for his cause, that 3,000 dead Americans wasn’t enough to get his point across.  But the candidate defends that relationship by stating that September 11th happened when he was just 8 years old.  It was 40 years ago, for goodness sake! 

Will it matter then, Craig?  Will friends and associates of the potential President matter?  Should we start putting 9/11 on the back page of history, along with the ones who caused it?  Should we just forget then? 

Obama wasn’t 8 when Ayers stated on, ironically, 9-11-2001 that he wished he could have bombed more.  It wasn’t 40 years ago when Ayers said he was a Marxist and a “small c communist.”  Ayers killed people, and tried to kill more by trying to bomb Fort Dix, only the bombing failed and killed other Weathermen Underground terrorists instead.  Ayers hates America – today.  THAT’S why it matters, Craig.  Obama is friends today, with someone who hates America today, and you want to put this guy in the White House, as the leader of our nation, when he can’t even choose friends who love the country he wants to run??  He only has friends/mentors who express anti-American sentiment.  Guilt by association? Or known by the company he keeps? 

Both Ayers and bin Laden bombed the Pentagon.  Think they just might have anything in common?  Do you want the leader of America to be friends with anyone like that? 

It matters, Craig. 

Climate change?

I don’t believe in AGW.  Or, in regular people-speak, man-made global warming.  Are there changes in our climate?  Sure.  Is it something we can do anything about?  No.  You can’t make summer less hot or winter less cold, you just cope with it as best you can.  Every scientist out there will tell you there’s a difference between climate and weather, and I’ll grant them that’s true.  But you can’t have climate without weather.  At the same time, weathermen can’t predict the weather into next week, yet scientists think they can predict the climate into the next century?  Frankly, that’s just laughable.  If that were true, they would have predicted the astonishing drop in the global temperature this past year.  Instead they just try to cover their butts and claim that cooling is just a phase of warming.  Would you believe a car salesman if he told you the heater on your car that blasted out temperatures under 60° was really just a phase of the heater and was just getting colder before it got warmer?  No, you’d tell him to fix the heater or you weren’t buying the car.  Be honest now.  Heat is hot and cold is cold, and one is not a “phase” of the other.  Think about it people! 

Is there something going on with the climate?  Probably.  It’s call the sun.  You may have heard of it.  Closest star to earth?  Big round yellow thing in the sky?  Source of earth’s energy?  It has way more impact on our climate and our weather than human beings every could.  It’s 93 million miles away and makes us hot!  What can we make hot from 93 million miles away?  Nothing. 

And really, if climate change were all that serious, Al Gore would be practicing what he preaches.  But he’s not.  So, what’s good for him is NOT good for you.  He likes his big huge energy consuming house, running the A/C on his huge gas-guzzling limo full blast, jetting around all over the country and the world.  Guess what his “carbon footprint” is?  MUCH higher than yours, I guarantee it.  And if global warming was really the serious threat he likes to claim it is, he’d be putting his money where his mouth is.  The fact that he’s not should be a HUGE clue for you.  He wants to put YOUR money where his mouth is, and people, we shouldn’t let anyone do that. 

Below are some links which have helped solidify my opinion on this.  I hope you’re interested in taking a look. 

Corrupted science revealed

An encouraging response on satellite CO2 measurement from the AIRS Team

Alleviate world hunger: produce more clean carbon dioxide

Your 2007 Carbon Footprint

Global Whining vs. the Truth

The church of green

Are 32,000 Scientists Enough to Question Global Warming ‘Consensus?’

APS Fellow supports Monckton’s position

Sudden drop in Antarctic Temperatures 14 million years ago

AGW Begins to Take a Back Seat to Economic Concerns

Global Warming theorists getting colder by the day

Al Gore’s syndrome?

Weather Channel Founder Makes Another Challenge to Gore

Gore’s Hypocrisy Exposed in New Video

 

©DarcsFalcon

No Cash for Trash

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