American Exceptionalism vs. Cultural Equality

"The biggest enemy of real equality is make-believe equality. Some peoples, such as the Scots and the Japanese, lagged far behind for centuries before moving to the forefront of achievement. Pretending that they were equal during the centuries when they were not might have prevented the changes that developed their ability."

--Thomas Sowell

"The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom—whether black or white—who find in that paranoid vision an excuse for counterproductive and ultimately self-destructive attitudes and behavior." —Thomas Sowell

"The war now being waged in Congress over illegal immigration is mostly about which philosophy will prevail in the Republican Party. Will it be the conservative wing that brought the GOP to power after years of wandering in the political wilderness as a minority party, or will it be the moderate-liberal wing that became comfortable in the wilderness?" —Cal Thomas

"A government can be compared to our lungs. Our lungs are best when we don't realize they are helping us breathe. It is when we are constantly aware of our lungs that we know they have come down with an illness." —Lao-Tzu

"Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right." —Lawrence Auster

"He who is unaware of his ignorance will be only misled by his knowledge." —Richard Whately

Iran given June 29 deadline to respond to anti-nuke offer
San Francisco Chronicle - CA, USA
Washington -- Iran has less than three weeks to respond to the package of incentives offered by major powers in exchange for its suspending its enrichment of ...

Al Gore, solar intensity, glaciers

Global Warming: Some Inconvenient Glaciers

By Dennis T. Avery, Hudson Institute
Saturday, June 10, 2006

"Al Gore says the world’s glaciers are melting because humanity has emitted too much CO2.

However, a new peer-reviewed study shows that in South America‘s Andes Mountains the glaciers’ advances and retreats have not been governed by CO2, but by small variations in the sun’s intensity.

The study, led by P.J. Polissar of the University of Massachusetts, found that Andean glaciers expanded only four times during the 600 years of the Little Ice Age, which lasted from 1250 AD to 1850. Each of those glacier advances occurred during a solar minimum, when the sun’s lowered activity apparently dropped the mountain-top temperatures by 2—4 degrees C and increased precipitation by about 20 percent.

The Polissar team’s report, "Solar Modulation of Little Ice Age Climate in the Tropical Andes," was recently published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The team studied the glaciers’ moraines–piles of rocks, soil, tree trunks and other glacial debris left behind when the glaciers retreated. Then they matched the glacial debris with the sediment layers in nearby mountain lakes. The pronounced seasonality in the Andes precipitation allows the researchers to count years in the sediments and precisely date the glacial advances.

The Andes glacier study not only links glacial advances and retreats with the sun, but emphasizes that the earth’s glaciers have often retreated–and even disappeared–during past centuries, long before humans built cars and smokestacks.

Most of the Andes glaciers must have disappeared during the Holocene Warming that ended just 5,000 years ago. Temperatures then were as much as 2 degrees C warmer than today’s. So far, the Modern Warming has produced about only 0.8 degrees C of total temperature rise in its 150 years.

The sun has been linked to earth’s climate changes for the past 400 years–by sunspot records. Early astronomers noted that the two coldest periods of the Little Ice Age occurred when there were virtually no sunspots on the sun. The Sporer Minimum lasted from 1420 to 1570, and the Maunder Minimum from 1645 to 1710.

The solar-earth linkage came to the fore again in the 1980s, when researchers brought up the first long ice cores from Greenland and the Antarctic. The 400,000 years of temperature history contained in the ice cores clearly showed a moderate, natural cycle that raised temperatures at the latitude of New York and Paris by about 2 degrees C, and then lowered them by a similar amount. The cycles averaged about 1500 years in length. Carbon 14 and beryllium 10 isotopes in the ice clearly linked this temperature cycle to the sun.

The question for Al Gore is not whether our temperatures are rising; the key question is why they’re rising. Antarctic ice cores tell us that temperatures and CO2 in the atmosphere have tracked closely together through recent Ice Ages, but the CO2 changes have lagged behind the temperature changes by about 800 years.

Higher temperatures have produced more atmospheric CO2, rather than CO2 producing higher temperatures! That’s because most of the planet’s CO2 is stored in the oceans, and as the seawater warms, it can’t hold as much CO2.

If CO2 is the driving climate force, why did the earth begin warming in 1850, while human CO2 emissions didn’t start to really expand until about 1940? Mr. Gore doesn’t tell us the answer.

Why did the earth’s temperatures decline from 1940 to 1975, even as CO2 emissions were soaring? Mr. Gore doesn’t say.

How warm will New York get in the Modern Warming? Apparently Mr. Gore can’t tell us, but a total of 2 degrees C seems likely–based on the history in the ice cores."

DENNIS T. AVERY is a senior fellow for Hudson Institute in Washington, DC and the Director for Global Food Issues (www.cgfi.org). He was formerly a senior analyst for the Department of State. Readers may write them at Post Office Box 202, Churchville, VA 24421.

FAIR USE.

And now for some local news......

Superhero chases down Minn. purse snatcher

MINNEAPOLIS --Cameron Evans suits up in superhero garb as part of his job, but he may never have guessed that his alter ego, 'Luke Pie-Rocker,' would save someone's day."

Teresa Skarman was walking home Tuesday night when a purse snatcher grabbed her red leather bag.

The 55-year-old grocery store bagger screamed for help and Evans -- sporting orange tights, black boots and cape -- chased the mugger. Read on.

Spain ponders rights for all the great apes

Spain could soon become the first country in the world to give chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and other great apes some of the fundamental rights granted to human beings with a law being proposed by members of the ruling Socialist coalition. Read on.

Chertoff outlines detectors of illegals

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday announced new steps to make it easier for businesses to verify whether workers are in the country legally, and called for Congress to give the department authority to track mismatched Social Security numbers... Read on.

The Rude Beggar of the United Nations
Human Events - USA
American taxpayers provide 25% of the United Nations' "budget." In return, we are told by the international affairs experts -- who brought us the Oil-for-Food ...

Al-Zarqawi information spurs US offensive against Al Qaeda in Iraq
Chicago Tribune - United States
... in Iraq on Friday, staging an additional 38 raids based mostly on information uncovered during the hunt that led to the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in a US ...

'Judge' Ivins convicts the Marines
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
... Ivins and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., have concluded that the Marines are guilty, and there are no extenuating circumstances. Hang 'em! ...

LOSING THE UNITED NATIONS

"Some day, years from now, when historians sit down to write about how the United Nations was lost, they are going to turn to the arrogance on display yesterday when Secretary Kofi Annan's deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, lashed out at the American Congress and, for that matter, the Americans who elect the Congress. Mr. Malloch Brown was speaking in Midtown at a conference that included not only President Clinton's state secretary, Madeleine Albright, but also Mr. Malloch Brown's landlord, George Soros, who has likened President Bush to Hitler. Mr. Malloch Brown knew he was going to say something explosive; he prefaced his remarks by confessing that his message 'was not one a sitting United Nations official would normally make' to a public conference." READ ON.

"CUT & RUN JOHN" (MURTHA & KERRY)

What is it about the name John?

Anyway..... "Cut and Run John(s) say that killing Zarqawi was great, but pull the troops ... Remember, John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat said on May 18, "we have done everything we can do militarily in Iraq," ( I guess he was wrong wasn't he?). The great motivator also said on Thursday, he's not sure the troops deserve credit for killing Zarqawi.

NO TEARS FOR AL-ZARQAWI

Analysis: al-Zarqawi death boosts Iraq rule
Seattle Post Intelligencer - USA
By ROBERT H. REID. NEW YORK -- The death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may provide a much-needed morale boost to Iraq's new government. ...

Iraqis Celebrate Death of Al-Zarqawi
Forbes - USA
... Within minutes of the announcement of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki named three key security ministers - military and political ...

Collective relief over al-Zarqawi death
The Age - Melbourne,Victoria,Australia
The killing of Iraq's top terror leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, is great news for the people of Iraq and a boost for anti-terrorist forces in the country ...

World hails al-Zarqawi's death
NEWS.com.au - Australia
THE most-wanted man in the Middle East, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has been killed in a US air strike northeast of Baghdad, capping a massive three-year manhunt ...

Al-Zarqawi 'will not be missed' (Roundup)
Monsters and Critics.com - Glasgow,UK
The death Thursday of the leader of the terrorist al-Qaeda network in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was broadly welcomed in the West as an opportunity for peace ...

Death of al-Zarqawi in Iraq boosts morale of Canadian troops in ...
Calgary Sun - Canada
... insurgents. The base chow hall buzzed with the news as enlisted soldier discussed the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi over lunch Thursday. ...

Nations get 'wake-up' call about aging workers

From Globe and Mail - Canada
... The median age of the world's population by then will reach 38 years, a decade older than today, according to United Nations estimates. ...

If you read further into the article, it should become as clear to you as it did me, this problem is easy to solve. Here's my list of suggestions:

• Open our borders completely (i.e., no borders), no questions asked, and encourage mass immigration.
• Shut down the pharmaceutical industry. Those ba***rds are making us live longer.
• Tear down all hospitals (we could probably make them into wildlife refuges). Make it illegal to see doctors. Incarcerate (oops, can't afford prisons) execute anyone trying to practice medicine.
  
• Switch to a flat tax and tax at a rate of 80% - no exceptions. Allocate 1/2 of the tax revenue (40%) to Social Security. Eliminate Medicare. There's no reason for it. ( See point # 3 above). Allocate the other 1/2 of tax revenue to tackle global warming. You get the right privilege to try and live on the remaining 20%. Good luck with that.
  

There. I easily solved that problem within 5 minutes. Now rest peacefully tonight.

Study: Web is the No. 1 media

Web media is the dominant at-work media and No. 2 in the home, according to a new report from the Online Publishers Association.

The Web also ranked as the No. 1 daytime media.

A research project, conducted by Ball State University's Center for Media Design, tracked the media use of 350 people every 15 seconds. The subjects represented each gender, about equally, across three age groups: 18 to 34, 35 to 49 and 50-plus. The people were monitored by another person for approximately 13 hours, or 80 percent of their waking day. Read on.

"Big Bertha" Murtha

The Press And the Rush To Judgment
New York Sun - New York,NY,USA
... Rep. John Murtha, who has just been salivating for another My Lai incident to bolster his call for our retreat from Iraq. "Civilians ...

Kinross Gold calls Bolivia, Venezuela risky
Reuters - USA
CEO Tye Burt said at the Reuters Global Mining and Steel Summit in New York said Kinross has a few "no-go" countries, naming Venezuela and Bolivia, whose ...

Rash comments bring hurtful consequences
renewamerica.us - Washington,D.C.,USA

... John Murtha (D-PA) around Memorial Day regarding a supposed incident of a group of US Marines killing innocents (Haditha), show the disregard that Murtha has ...

Put Haditha massacre in perspective
Newsday - Long Island,NY,USA

... John Murtha (D-Pa.) declared that Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." Now, as investigators - some in uniform, some in the media - zoom in on ...

"We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations. George Washington's words may seem hard and cold today, but history has proven him right again and again. "To be prepared for war,'' he said, "is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.'' -- Ronald Reagan

The Gipper: RIP - The second anniversary of the death of President Ronald Reagan.

"Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American Revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capital can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.

You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream--the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path. Plutarch warned, "The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits."

The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing.

Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, "What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power." But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector."

--Ronald Reagan

There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States. Those who ask us to trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state are architects of a policy of accommodation.

-Ronald Reagan

Ha. Ha. Now this is a real knee slapper

Top UN Official Defends World Body

Paris -– The United Nations needed to be reformed, not because it was failing but because its many successes made it worthy of further investment, a senior U.N. official has asserted..."

This is the kind of doublespeak gibberish I expect from the Democratic Party. I suppose one might argue that it all depends on what the meaning of "is" success is. If you try to fail to succeed, and you do fail, I guess one can call that success. If your goal is to play the shell game with funds donated to the UN and members can line their pockets with riches, I guess one can call that success. If you are trying to run an inexpensive brothel using 11 year old girls from third world countries with little or no overhead, I guess you could call that success. Yep, it is a fine institution.

Chavez’s Alleged Hate List Targets Political Opponents

Since surviving a recall referendum in August 2004, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has tracked and sought to punish the millions of Venezuelans who signed petitions calling for the referendum, according to a human rights group from that South American country..." Read on..

Now that my friends, is a page right out of Castro's playbook, and shows an honest-to -goodness lack of political freedom.

Peru Rejects Hugo Chavez-Endorsed Candidate

A deeply divided Peru Sunday rejected the rhetoric and revolutionary vision of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez for a regional anti-U.S. 'nationalist' alliance in South America. Chavez's candidate in the Peruvian election, former military commander Ollanta Humala, conceded defeat early Monday in the final round of Peru's presidential election to former socialist President Alan Garcia. With nearly all of the votes counted, Garcia polled about 55 percent to Humala's 45 percent. Humala's main claim to fame before the 2006 election was that he led an unsuccessful coup attempt against former president Alberto Fujimori. Full Story.

RELATED STORY:
"Today, Peru has sent a message of national sovereignty and has defeated efforts by Hugo Chavez to incorporate us in the expansion strategy of his military and backward-looking model, which he's tried to implant in Latin America," Garcia told supporters after exit polls showed him winning the election.

Does meat-based diet contribute to global warming?

Charlotte Observer - Charlotte,NC,USA

What we eat affects not only our health but also our environment. Any nutritionist will tell you that most Americans are damaging ... Read more...

Well, of course; everything causes global warming.

Intellectuals against Imperialism Meet in Venezuela

Cuban News Agency - Cuba

Havana (ACN) The Venezuelan state of Anzoategui became the capital of culture and critical thought over the weekend as nearly a hundred intellectuals from Cuba, Venezuela and Spain attended the Fourth International Internet Network in Defense of Humanity meeting.

Chill out over global warming

You'll often hear the left lecture about the importance of dissent in a free society. Why not give it a whirl? Start by challenging global warming hysteria next time you're at a LoDo cocktail party and see what happens. Admittedly, I possess virtually no expertise in science. That puts me in exactly the same position as most dogmatic environmentalists who want to craft public policy around global warming fears. - Denver Post

Click Here For The Full Story

Viet Nam catches the consumerism bug

Housewife Hong Hanh thought nothing of spending more than US$1,200 on two handbags at a luxury shop in Ha Noi, where high-end labels such as Louis Vuitton have set up shop.

'In the past we had to travel abroad to buy these brands. Now everything is available here, particularly since the country’s renewal policy began almost 20 years ago,' says Hanh." Read on.

OPINION

Tehran's useful idiots?

During its 20th-century struggles for world domination, international communism periodically benefited from the naivete and willful ignorance of some in the Western media, who foolishly portrayed totalitarians as agrarian reformers and social democrats."

Leftist candidate distances self from Chavez

Aides to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador say that if elected next month, the leftist presidential candidate will govern more like Theodore Roosevelt -- whose economic policies featured trust-busting and progressive taxation -- than like Venezuelan firebrand Hugo Chavez." Read on.

Central Asian bloc considering Iran for membership

An obscure regional security group will consider admitting Iran as a member at a summit this month, accelerating its transformation into a political and military bloc with the potential to challenge U.S. interests." Read on.

Activists mired in manure

By Steven Milloy

Environmental activists are teaming up with state attorneys general and trial lawyers to bankrupt the nation's livestock farmers -- in the name of saving the environment. If the situation wasn't so serious, it would be hilarious." More.

Stabenow hit from both sides on aliens

Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow is under attack in Michigan for straddling the fence on the immigration bill, attempting to please both sides of an issue that has deeply divided her political base. Read on.

Islamic militia has control of Mogadishu

By Mohamed Olad Hassan

An Islamic militia said today it has seized Somalia's capital after weeks of bloody fighting and 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation. Read more.

‘Centrist’ Democrats Sound A Warning About ‘Liberal Fundamentalism’

A group of “centrist” Democrats is warning that online activist groups such as MoveOn.org could undermine the Party’s effort to recapture control of Congress. The Democratic Leadership Council said the phenomenon is best illustrated by the efforts of liberal advocacy groups to defeat Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.).." Read on...

Thomas More Law Center Seeks Supreme Court Review Of Court Decision Allowing California Public School To Teach Twelve Year-olds How To Become Muslims

ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, has requested that the United States Supreme Court review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision holding that it is constitutional for a California public school to engage in a three week intensive course for seventh graders on how to “become Muslims.”

For three weeks in 2001, impressionable twelve-year-old students were, among other things, placed into Islamic city groups, took Islamic names, wore identification tags that displayed their new Islamic name and the Star and Crescent Moon, which is the symbol of Muslims, were handed materials that instructed them to “Remember Allah always so that you may prosper,” completed the Islamic Five Pillars of Faith, including fasting, and memorized and recited the “Bismillah” or “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,” which students also wrote on banners that were hung on the classroom walls.

A California federal trial court and the Ninth Circuit determined that these practices did not violate the Constitution.

According to Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, “This case cries out ‘double standard.’ The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is the same court that held our Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional because it contained the phrase ‘under God,’ and yet they allow a three week intensive course on how to become Muslims, including class memorization of Islamic prayers and participation in Islamic religious rituals.”

Edward L. White III, the Law Center’s trial counsel handling the case, commented, “Although a public school may teach about religion, the school district here went far beyond an explanation of the historical or literary significance of Islam and placed these seventh graders into the position of becoming trainees in that religion. These young children were indoctrinated in Islam, which the Constitution forbids.”

It is anticipated that the Supreme Court will decide whether to review this case within the next few months."

You would never get away with this if you tried to have a 3 week course on "how to be a good Christian." Now that would be indoctrination and unconstitutional.

"Big John Bertha" Murtha

TV News Re: Innocent Civilians
Post Chronicle - USA
... I don't hear this scenario mentioned on the TV news reports, only drivel from Murtha and his gang and reporters telling us that the Marines MURDERED "innocent ...

Haditha... A Perspective
Post Chronicle - USA
... The matter is under investigation by the US military, but some prominent democrats, such as Pennsylvania Congressman Jack Murtha, have already passed judgment ...

Muttering madman Murtha
WorldNetDaily - Grants Pass,OR,USA
... If that is the truth, you can kiss goodbye due process for the Marines now on trial in the press by the likes of John Murtha. Murtha ...

Sticking With DeWine

By Hugh Hewitt
Beyond The News

Ohio Senator Mike DeWine faces a tough re-election campaign in the Buckeye State, primarily because of his participation with John McCain in the Gang of 14 and his support for Social Security benefits for illegal aliens who may one day become citizens based upon their contributions to the trust fund made while in the country wrongly.

Yet DeWine has a lifetime American Conservative Union rating that is very high and has voted for every Bush judicial nominee including Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, for the Bush tax cuts and for border fencing. And his opponent is a hyper-liberal congressman certain to parallel Barbara Boxer and Ted Kennedy in his votes should he win.

I, too, have disagreed with Senator DeWine on occasion, but he is a solid pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-property rights vote and he deserves our support for re-election. With more Supreme Court nominees likely in the near future, the GOP majority in the Senate simply cannot be thrown away.

NEWS FLASH: DESERTS ARE HOT

United Nations Report: Deserts threatened by global warming
Blogger News Network - USA
A new report, entitled 'Global Deserts Outlook,' has been released on World Environment Day by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). ..."

Preventing Periodontitis

About 50% of adults over 50 years of age are affected by periodontal diseases of the gums and bone that support teeth. At t the annual meeting of the American Association for Dental Research scientists from Quebec's Laval University reported that red wine can help to prevent and treat this disease.

Heavy-Handed says, "sip, swish, and swallow." Oh, and, enjoy!

Global Warming, and the State of Fear

On Global Warming, and State of Fear - KnowProSE.com: "All the data I have read largely supports global warming, but that doesn't make it right, and science is not a democracy where popular opinion gets to change how the universe works. If it did, we certainly would be in a much bigger mess than we are now. As Richard Feynman once said:

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

In other words, we should talk about reality instead of theories. Whether public opinion likes it or not, Global Warming is still a theory. There is strong evidence to support it, but again - like Feynman said:

We have a habit in writing articles published in scientific journals to make the work as finished as possible, to cover up all the tracks, to not worry about the blind alleys or describe how you had the wrong idea at first, and so on. So there isn't any place to publish, in a dignified manner, what you actually did in order to get to do the work.

I am not implying that the scientists who published these papers didn't do good work. What I am saying is that we don't know everything about how they came up with ideas and methods. We depend on scientists - as we always have - to make sure that they don't miss things. And to the credit of scientists, they don't usually miss things - or so we believe, because with nature we're almost 100% certain that if we know something, we'll eventually find out something else which will change our minds. Or which should change our minds. Albert Einstein ended up having disputes with Isaac Newton's ideas because they were deeply embedded in Science as being the only way. But it was that very resistance which helped prove Einstein's theories." Read more.

Murtha is wrong to presume guilt in Haditha, Iraq
Pueblo Chieftain - Pueblo,CO,USA

... John Murtha, D-Pa., has gotten himself another large blast of public exposure by condemning some US Marines as murderers and condemning the Marine Corps for ...