Bundy’s Race Comments Are Major Screw-Up: Whatever Goodwill He Had Built Up Went Out the Window and He Won’t Get It Back

Clive Bundy decided to discuss race relations following his victory against federal agents who were sent to rustle his cattle, and managed to turn many sympathetic people against him in the space of a few short minutes.

What an idiot.

Captains Who Abandon Ship Before Every One of Their Passengers is Accounted For Should Be Charged With Crimes: Recent Cruise Line/Ferry Disasters Had Captains Who Left While Leaving Passengers to Their Fates on Sinking Ships

I do not expect captains of stricken ships to go to the bottom of the ocean with their vessels, but they should be leaving their ships on the last lifeboats, or jumping into the water along with the passengers that they’re responsible for.   In two major passenger disasters, the captain of the Costa Concordia and the captain of the recent South Korean ferry abandoned ship before all hands and passengers were safely off.

The captain of the Costa Concordia abandoned ship and refused an Italian Coast Guard order to re-board the ship and take charge of the evacuation of the rest of the passengers.  He was charged with crimes by Italian authorities.  The captain of the South Korean ferry left on the very first lifeboat.  Authorities are seeking his arrest.

Some other examples of captains evacuating themselves before their passengers (credit to Wikipedia):

• November 12, 1965: Captain Byron Voustinas of the SS Yarmouth Castle
• April 7, 1990: Captain Hugo Larsen of the Scandinavian Star.
• August 3/4, 1991: Captain Yiannis Avranas of the cruise ship MTS Oceanos.
• January 13, 2012: Captain Francesco Schettino of the Costa Concordia.
• April 16, 2014: Captain Lee Joon-seok of the "Sewol ferry." The Captain and all of the crew (except one) escaped first, abandoning nearly 300 junior high school students to drown.

Some examples of captains going down with their ships, or choosing to stay aboard when they realized there were people still on board (credit to Wikipedia):

• September 12, 1857: William Lewis Herndon was in command of the commercial mail steamer Central America when it encountered a hurricane. Two ships came to the rescue, but could only save a fraction of the passengers, so Captain Herndon chose to remain with the rest.
• April 15, 1912: Captain Edward Smith was in command of the RMS Titanic when it struck an iceberg. Smith knew within minutes that the ship was doomed and did all in his power to prevent panic. Smith did not survive the sinking. As the ship went down, Smith was seen walking towards the bridge, only a few minutes before it and the rest of the ship's forward superstructure were engulfed by the sea.^[3] When the ship's lamp trimmer Samuel Hemming entered the bridge seconds after Smith was seen walking towards it, he found the bridge apparently empty.^[4] There are conflicting accounts of what happened to Smith: Some, including second radio operator Harold Bride,^[5] claimed to have seen him jumping in the water, or in the water swimming either toward a lifeboat or near the capsized collapsible lifeboat "B," while others claimed he committed suicide by shooting himself.^[6] Others including first class passenger Robert Williams Daniel said that Smith entered the wheelhouse on the bridge and died there when it was engulfed.^[7][8] The actual fate of captain Smith will probably remain uncertain.
• February 7, 1943: Commander Howard W. Gilmore, captain of the American submarine USS Growler (SS-215), gave the order to "clear the bridge," as his crew was being attacked by a Japanese gunboat. Two men had been shot dead; Gilmore and two others were wounded. After all others had entered the sub and Gilmore found that time was critically short, he spoke his last order: "Take her down." The executive officer, hearing his order, closed the hatch and submerged the crippled boat, saving all of the crew from the attack of the Japanese convoy escort. Commander Gilmore was never seen again, but the submarine made repairs and returned to battle. Gilmore received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his "distinguished gallantry," the first submariner to receive this award.
• October 29, 2012: Captain Robin Walbridge of the Bounty, a replica of the HMS Bounty, stayed on the ship until it capsized during Hurricane Sandy. Fourteen crew members who made it to life boats survived the sinking of the sailing ship and were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard helicopters. Walbridge's last known words were to his crew: "Abandon ship."^[9]

In the case of the USS Growler, the captain sacrificed himself to save his crew, hence his Medal of Honor.  Smith of the Titanic and Walbridge of the Bounty sailing replica were heavily criticized for their command decisions prior to their ships going down, but they still stayed aboard their sinking ships.

The captains of the South Korean Sewol ferry and the Costa Concordia could have chosen to stay on board until the last minute, before jumping into the water or being rescued by local Coast Guard and military rescue crews. They chose to save their own skins.

Some thoughts:

--All cruise line and ferry crews should speak a common language.   On too many cruise ships (all of them?), the crews can’t understand the captain or officers because they speak their own languages.   In worldwide aviation, English is the spoken language.  This should be a cruise line standard as well. Crews and officers need to be able to communicate with each other instantly, and not just through a translator, IF they’re fortunate to have one on board.

--Captains need far more training than they currently get.  It might be better if captains have a naval background and possesses the military ethos on their responsibilities to their passengers and crew.

--Captains are not bystanders when a disaster strikes aboard their ship.   They need to do their duty and save the lives of others, AND STAY ABOARD THEIR STRICKEN VESSEL to do it.

Something has to change.  I hate hearing stories that captain and crew abandoned ship and left passengers behind when a disaster at sea strikes.  That isn’t right, and no amount of apologizing by the dishonored captain or crew members will be sufficient to make up for their bad decision making, or for the people who die because the captain decided to save his own neck and then watch his own ship sink from the safety of a life raft.

Harry Reid Needs to Retire: He’s Acting Like Nevada’s Emperor over the Bundy Ranch Situation Instead of Acting Like the Senate Majority Leader and Dealing With More Pressing National Issues…Get With the Program, Reid, or Get Out of the Way!

Harry Reid is up to his eyeballs in the federal government vs. Nevada rancher situation, calling the civilian militias “domestic terrorists” and vowing that the fight “isn’t over.”

Get real, Reid, and do your job.  You’re not the Nevada Emperor, and not a particularly good Senate Majority Leader either.   Either do the job your Nevada constituents (including Clive Bundy) elected you to do, or retire. 

This situation was created by the Obama Administration ignoring legal protocol and going over to a direct armed confrontation, which brought the armed civilian militias out in droves to stop the federal rustlers.

The Obama Administration is at fault here.  

Reid needs to start acting like the Senate Majority Leader and get off his high horse, or retire.  The militias are playing him like a drum.

Obama Administration is Provoking a Domestic Uprising With Their Stupid Cattle Round-Up: They Need to Stop Sending Police, K-9 Units and SWAT Teams to Handle Arguments With Farmers and Ranchers

The civilian militias are having a field day, with the latest domestic blunders by President Obama and his Senate lap-dog, Harry Reid.   And the liberal media outfits aren’t covering any of it either.

The latest incident happened in Nevada, where federal officers and local police began rounding up cattle belonging to a local rancher.  The feds were claiming that Clive Bundy owed over a million dollars in grazing fees and brought in two hundred armed agents to rustle Bundy’s cattle.

Out came the militias, who were, of course, armed to the teeth, and a standoff ensued, with both sides pointing guns at each other, and several highly publicized confrontations being filmed in front of (conservative) news crews, and by private citizens, who almost instantly posted their videos to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

The feds backed off, but vowed to win in federal court.  That’s probably where this situation should have gone first.  Again, the Obama Administration seems hell-bent on short-cutting legal procedures.

In the meantime, now they have emboldened civilian militias looking for the next fight with federal government forces.   Thanks a lot, President Obama.   What’s next, a civil war when a state government refuses to enforce a federal law?  Sounds like a remake of Bleeding Kansas in the works.

Veteran Politicians Being Driven Out by Gridlock: Good, It’s About Time! Now Maybe Their Replacements Will Be Willing to Negotiate More Than Their Incompetent Predecessors

A lot of career or long-term politicians have decided to retire at the end of the term; the gridlock that is the hallmark of several sessions of Congress is said to be the reason for the frustration and decisions of some to retire.

GOOD!

If they’re not part of the solution, then they’re part of the problem. 

I don’t care if my state loses the chairperson’s position on this committee, or that committee.  It’s worth losing those politicians who hold those positions, if we get someone in there who is at least willing to talk to others.  Our current Congress doesn’t do enough talking; they refuse to meet with their political opponents to arrive at a deal.

As things stand, the only way that Congress can get anything done is if one party controls both houses of Congress.   It shouldn’t be that way.  

With recent debates on the budget and the debt ceiling, we’ve seen politicians make statements to the media about their positions on the debate, and then no meetings for weeks and months on end, until a week or two before the money is set to run out for the federal government to operate.  That doesn’t include Congressional paychecks, mind you.  Then there’s a flurry of meetings, like someone flipped the switch to the “Congress ON” setting.   They should have been meeting weeks and months prior, and hammering out a deal. 

Perhaps the next Congress should pass a law stating that their paychecks should be affected by the presence or absence of a budget agreement.   No budget=no pay.  After all, they force other federal employees to not get paid if there’s a shutdown.   Why shouldn’t Congress play by the same rules?

That’ll get them motivated to reach a budget deal much quicker, instead of shutting the government down.

So, to the Representatives and Senators who are retiring because they’re “frustrated,” bye bye.

Mozilla CEO Forced to Resign Over Donation to Anti-Gay Marriage Proposal in California: That Isn’t Right—ALL People Should Be Allowed to Exercise Their Freedom of Expression Regardless of Issue

A dating service called OKCupid recently asked Firefox users not to use the browser to access their site because of Mozilla’s CEO donating money to an anti-gay marriage proposal in California.  It started a firestorm, which lead to the CEO of Mozilla stepping down (?)  to defuse the situation.

Mozilla did not stand their ground for freedom of expression and their CEO was shown the door.

I do not support Mozilla’s spinelessness and hypocrisy on their statement of freedom of speech and equality.  Mozilla has shown that their statement only extends to certain individuals, and not all individuals, such as their ex-CEO. 

I don’t care about the ex-CEO’s politics or if he supported this or that or the other thing.   He can support whatever cause or political agenda he wants, with his vote or with his money, the same as anybody else, and the same as those who were opposed to Proposal 8.

I’m rethinking my use of Mozilla products over this situation.  If I can find a viable alternative that I like for Firefox and for Thunderbird, I may well take them.    That’s very unfortunate because I really like both products and Mozilla as a whole, until this scandal hit.

I’m very unhappy with Mozilla.  They should amend their statement to be not as inclusive as it currently is.  They’ve demonstrated that they will not support some legitimate forms of speech, such as monetary donations to anti-gay marriage proposals in the state of California.

I also think that the decision of the California state government to publish the names of donors to Proposal 8 is an obscenity.   If I want to support a particular party or proposal as a private citizen, it’s my right to do so, privately and free of threats of retaliation and harassment from any village idiots.   There’s at least one web site in California that has posted locations on maps of people who supported Prop 8, and harm has come to some of them.

Mozilla needs to decide which side it’s on, and California needs to stop the voter and donor intimidation.

United States Should Reverse its Decision to Give Up Internet Controls: U.S. Will Do a Much Better Job of Maintaining Internet Freedom of Expression Than Russia, China, Venezuela, Iran, and Other Nations Who Lock Up Their Own Citizens For Saying What’s On Their Mind

President Obama made a major mistake in giving up control of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which controls how users can access websites all over the world.

It’s not too late to reverse this decision.   Until every nation on the planet guarantees freedom of speech to their citizens, and establishes a history of respecting those rights, AND stops locking up those same citizens for daring to disagree with their governments, we have no business surrendering control of it to any international body.

American ingenuity and treasure was spent on creating the Internet, and it should rest permanently with the same department in the United States government that it has been with so far.

The Democrats talk about having an Internet free of government control, and that’s fine and dandy if all world governments agree to the same thing in a legally binding contract.   I don’t see us agreeing with Russia, Iran, China, or other regimes that have poor records on free speech.

Congress needs to reverse this decision before it’s too late.   The last thing we need is Vladimir Putin or one of a dozen despots around the world to decide that they want to shut down sites that report on what they’re doing.  Information is power, and these leaders who desperately want control of the web know it, and fear it.

That’s reason enough to keep the controls under U.S. jurisdiction permanently.

ATF Violates Court Order and Confiscates Gun Ownership Records in San Diego: How Did this Happen?

Wow.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives went after a customer list of people who bought parts to manufacture AR-15s from several gun store locations in San Diego.  At the heart of the dispute is one piece of the construct that is being reviewed by a San Diego court, and who had issued a restraining order against the ATF to hold off raiding the store until matters were settled in federal court first.

For whatever reason, the ATF violated the restraining order and went after the parts, the customer lists, and whatever else they felt like grabbing.

The U.S. district attorney for San Diego is said to be in possession of the customer lists; 5,000 people are said to be on the list.

Lots of questions on this story:

Did the ATF go to court to get the restraining order lifted?  If they didn’t, isn’t this search and seizure illegal, and all information gleaned from the confiscated computers and lists considered to be fruit from the poisonous tree?

Is the ATF in contempt of court?

Who issued the order for the ATF to ignore the court order?

Did the ATF search warrant come from a higher federal court than the one who issued the restraining order?  How does this work?

It look an awful lot like the ATF royally screwed up an open-and-shut case and violated a whole slew of federal laws related to the Second Amendment in the process.  This will be an interesting story to follow.

Crimea Votes for Independence As Precursor to Rejoining Russian Federation: European Union and U.S. Respond With Feeble Sanctions Against Russia

The Russian/Crimean situation has been royally screwed up by Russian oil-dependent European states, and by the feeble U.S. government.  Putin is laughing his head off at how weak the West has become.

If they want to stop Russia from overrunning the rest of Ukraine, they have to apply sanctions that will do more than hurt the Russian government and military.  Targeted sanctions against Russian and Ukrainian political figures is a joke.  Some of the targeted Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians and generals have no assets to seize in the E.U. or in the U.S. and have no interest in traveling to the Eurozone or to the United States.  Can we cut off Internet access to the entire Russian Federation?  That would get their attention.

Crimea is a lost cause; the Russian Army is already dug in there.   Let the Russians have the Crimea.  Ukraine isn’t about to launch a full-scale war against Russia to retake Crimea, but they will fight to keep the Russians out of the rest of Ukraine.  We should offer them NATO membership immediately.

This crisis has shown that European nations need to diversify their energy imports in order to preserve their national sovereignty against future Russian aggression.   They’re at Russia’s mercy much more than the U.S. is. 

I think we should also look at the criticisms that are being leveled at Russia for conducting this “referendum.”  They’ve raised the point that we did the same thing in Iraq and in Afghanistan while having our troops in control of both countries.  We also recognized Kosovo, almost immediately, after it broke away from what was left of Yugoslavia.   We also recognized South Sudan almost immediately.  The British held a referendum on the Falkland Islands during last year’s diplomatic flare-up with Argentina.  These are valid points that we cannot ignore.

We also cannot ignore the ballot language in Crimea.  The question was “Should Crimea join the Russian Federation now, or later?”  There was not a “No” option on the ballot.  This makes the referendum invalid.   Such ballot language in the United States would be challenged in court before the vote was even held.  And the language would be thrown out by the court.  If the revised language wasn’t submitted for approval in time, there would be no ballot question at that particular upcoming election.

Compare Britain’s Falklands 2013 referendum language from Wikipedia: ….they asked each voter if they supported the continuation of their status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom in view of Argentina's call for negotiations on the islands' sovereignty?   Yes or No.    A successful No vote would have lead to a second referendum which would lay out more options, including joining Argentina.  As it was, 99.8% of Falklands voters decided in favor of staying aligned with Britain, with a 92% turnout rate.  Credit to Wikipedia for the important stuff in this paragraph.

The British also allowed international monitors in to make sure the balloting was fair.  Russia did not.   In fact, there were reports that international observers (UN people, including the Secretary General’s emissary, not international voting observers) had automatic weapons fired over their heads in warning shots to get out and stay out of Crimea.

What we haven’t said yet is that we don’t like how Russia manipulated the vote, and that Russia seems hell-bent on getting their way, at any cost. 

The EU, the U.S. and Russia all have valid points.  We need to focus on keeping Russia out of the Baltics, Poland and other nations that share a border with Russia.  Putin’s empire building must stop in the Crimea.

Next Russian Move in Ukraine Will Be After the Paralympics are Done in Sochi

It looks like the Russians are focused back on behaving themselves while the Para-Olympics are taking place over in Sochi.   Someone had better schedule Olympics year-round in Sochi so that the Russians desist from power-slamming their neighbors while Sochi is being utilized by the international community.

The “vote” that the Russians have scheduled to complete their land-grab in the Crimea will happen as the Winter Olympics end.  Wonder if all the Russian soldiers who have invaded will get to vote too.

A Russian/Ukrainian Military Conflict is Imminent: Putin Asks for and Gets Russian Senate Approval to Use Military Force in Ukraine After Obama’s Weak Statement

My February 11th prediction appears to be coming true…I said that Russia would go after Ukraine with Putin daring the West to stop him, and that appears to be happening quicker and quicker.

If President Obama wants to get Putin’s attention now, he needs to send the entire Russian Black Sea fleet to the bottom of the Black Sea TODAY and destroy the Russian base on the Crimean Peninsula.  Easier said than done.  Our President is too timid to send in U.S. troops to get between the Russians and Ukrainians. Ukraine is going to have to fight to stay in one piece now, without international support.  The U.S. and NATO are going to sit this one out.  

Who didn’t see this coming?

If Ukraine Attempts to Use Its Law Enforcement Forces to Restore Order in Crimea, Russians Will Invade: They Did the Same Thing in Georgia/South Osettia War

If we’ve learned anything from recent history, it’s that Russia will not tolerate threats to ethnic Russian populations in any neighboring countries.  They invaded Georgia  in 2008 to stop the Georgians from cracking down on South Ossetians who had declared independence from Georgia and were calling for annexation to Russia.   That’s why I think the Russian Army will attack Ukraine.

With Ukraine coming apart, and the ethnic Russians in the eastern part of the country taking paramilitary action, Russia began maneuvers with a 150,000 man army in the region, and sent its military aircraft to threaten Ukraine’s borders.  They’re also protecting Ukraine’s former president.
 
Now that the Olympics are over, there’s nothing to stop Russia from going after Ukraine, in whole or part, should the Ukraine attempt to use force to retake their government buildings in the Crimea and bring the ethnic Russians back into line.  That’s exactly what the Ukrainians must do, and what Russia is waiting for them TO do. 

This is not going to go well for the Ukraine.   How far the Russians would take a military confrontation is unclear, but they’d love to have the entire country under their control again, and not just the eastern Ukraine.   They’d also love to reclaim the rest of the Black Sea fleet, which was divided between Russia and Ukraine.

The Russians have everything to gain and the Ukrainians everything to lose.

Un-backed Virtual Currencies Are Far Too Risky to Invest In: Fly-by-Night Exchanges Like Mt.Gox Come and Go on Slightest Vague Problem

One of the largest bitcoin exchanges got virtually robbed, and $400 million of their virtual money is gone, making the company insolvent.  MtGox is under investigation by American and Japanese agencies over the $400 million theft.

In an age where many companies are unable to secure their own servers due to cost, ignorance, or lack of care, why is everyone surprised that hackers managed to get into an online company to steal online money?   Investigators are saying that those who lost money are going to be out of luck.

What in the world is a bitcoin anyways?  From the first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry for it: “ Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer payment system and digital currency introduced as open source software in 2009 by pseudonymous developer Satoshi Nakamoto. It is a cryptocurrency, so-called because it uses cryptography to control the creation and transfer of money.^[5] Conventionally, the capitalized word "Bitcoin" refers to the technology and network, whereas lowercase "bitcoins" refers to the currency itself.^[6] “

In other words, people pay real money for a certain number of bitcoins.  At today’s exchange rate, one bitcoin is worth $558.00  The currency sharply devalued after the MtGox exchange was robbed of roughly $400 million in bitcoin currency a few days ago.

I don’t trust online-only currency that is not backed by full faith and credit of a sovereign government and in widespread use.    Seems like “buyer beware” is the word of the day when it comes to deciding whether or not to invest in this kind of currency.

Piers Morgan to End CNN Show: Americans Didn’t Like Non-Citizen Preaching to Them About Gun Control

It was announced that Piers Morgan and CNN will end his talk show, which is not a bad thing.

It’s bad enough that American  politicians of both stripes and their supporters are doing their part to shred parts of the Constitution that they don’t like, but when it came to a foreign reporter preaching to the American public about gun control, it was too much for many Americans to take.

No disrespect to the British, but we can handle our own debates in our own country, in the same way that you British folks can handle your own affairs without our input.  Piers Morgan went too far and it backfired on CNN in the form of declining ratings and revenue.  His condescending attitude didn’t help his cause either.

This is a smart move on the part of CNN.

If Karzai Won’t Sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), U.S. Should Zero Out All U.S. Forces No Later Than January 1st, 2015

Enough with Afghan President Karzai already.   His continued belligerence toward international forces and his refusal to sign agreements with the international community should lead to an immediate pull-out of all U.S. forces, to be completed no later than January 1st, 2015.

2,169 U.S. troops have died on behalf of the Afghan ingrate and not another soldier should be asked to fight there if Afghanistan doesn’t pull its head out of the sand and start to deal with these issues, and for the Afghan president to get his rotten attitude under control.

I know U.S. forces want to remain there to finish the job, but our own President isn’t committed to victory, and neither is the Afghan president.  Our military needs time to address the needs of its soldiers, to retool and rebuild.  They’ve been at war for a long time, the longest war in U.S. history, and those troops should come home.

Afghanistan should be allowed to revert back to tribal kingdoms as it was before the imperial powers got in there.  It’s a failed state in its current form, and no Western army will change that by force of arms.

Mid-January to Mid-February Notes

Need to do something for in-between times, when I’m working on stuff but am not ready to publish yet.  Thoughts:

--With all the trouble in the Ukraine, how long can it be before Russia invades, under the guise of “restoring order?”  Anyone remember the war that they had with Georgia a while over South Ossetia?   Once the Winter Olympics are over, I think there will be a Russian intervention, with Putin daring the West to try and stop him.

--With the kickoff of the Olympics, Russian TV commentators are behaving quite badly toward American Olympic athletes.  They’re doing a fine job of humiliating themselves.   In addition, anti-FBI and CIA propaganda has started appearing in Sochi businesses.

--Cossacks are helping to secure the Winter Olympics at Sochi.   I didn’t think the Cossacks were Putin supporters.   There’s a possibility of increased tension between the Russians and the Cossacks after the Olympics and possibly clashes too.

--President Obama can’t change laws on his own once they’ve been enacted by Congress as he’s done with his health care law.    Someone needs to take President Obama to court to rein him in; the GOP appears ready to do so.  He can’t do “what he wants” via Executive Orders despite what he thinks.  Limits on Executive Orders need to be permanently defined by the Supreme Court  for this President and all future Presidents.  Until this happens, the checks and balances system will remain under threat from an “over-reaching Executive Branch.”  American Presidents do not rule by fiat like North Korea’s president or Russia’s president do.

--The Bieber brat is facing charges in Los Angeles, in Florida and in Toronto. He may be facing federal charges for smoking pot on a plane bound for the Super Bowl earlier this month as well.   His dad isn’t helping matters.

 

That’s all for now.

Media Needs to Throw the Ignore on Dennis Rodman’s North Korean Jaunts: Don’t Give the Egotistical Wingbag Any More Coverage

The media needs to stop covering the Dennis Rodman/Kim Jong Un story.  They’re giving both megalomaniacs the kind of press that they both crave.

Rodman got into a rant with a CNN reporter today, with his fellow ex-NBA players looking awfully uncomfortable in the background.   He is way out of his league in the area of “cultural exchanges.”   His idea of a cultural exchange is to marry himself and put himself in front of the cameras in a wedding dress.

If he wants to be friends with the North Korean brat, whatever.  Keep the cameras away and don’t report on his movements, and see how often he goes to North Korea when everyone is ignoring him.

“Polar Vortex” is Nothing to Get Worked Up About: It’s Happened Before and is Not Unprecedented

The news networks have been overblowing the “polar vortex” thing related to the cold snap in the U.S. and elsewhere.  It’s not an unprecedented event…this has happened many times before, and not just in the winter either.  Polar air does drive southward from time to time.

It is not related to global warming, despite what the global warming alarmists are trumpeting on CNN and MSNBC.  It’s SUPPOSED to be cold in the winter.

According to news network precedence, if it happened twenty years ago, it didn’t happen.  The reason why is they are targeting people young enough to not remember the last time we had an extremely cold winter, or a cooler-than-average summer due to the jet stream being further south than normal, and further south than we would like it. 

This too, will pass.  Until then, we can experience what the Russians normally experience during the winter in their country: cold temperatures.

I’m enjoying watching the global warming alarmists try to whip up a panic.  THE SKY IS FALLING!  THE SKY IS FALLING!  (NOT!)

So, This is What Global Warming Feels Like: Alarmists in the U.S. Should Stand Outside Naked Over the Next Few Days and Enjoy Their “Global Warming”

Global warming freaks in the U.S. will be trying to ignore freezing their collective butts off this week as their “global warming” nonsense took another major hit, a couple of weeks after a Russian research vessel sent to Antarctica to monitor “thinning polar ice” got trapped by record THICK ice.  How many icebreakers got stuck down there in record ice?  Two?    HOW EMBARASSING!

When will these fools admit that their “settled science” is nothing of the sort, and that they have a huge amount of research left to conduct before even being ready to form a hypothesis on global heating and cooling?  The only thing that’s melting around here is the “settled science” theory.

Enjoy freezing your butts off, global warming alarmists and AL GORE.   You can blame your pipes freezing and your carbon-emitting cars not starting because they’re frozen on “global warming” too. 

Hezbollah Involvement in Syria Has Brought Retaliation From Syrian Groups into Lebanon’s Streets: Who Didn’t See This Coming?

As expected, Syrian militant groups opposed to Syrian President Assad’s reign of terror have struck back at Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based terror group, by attacking Hezbollah targets inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah has been complaining that the targets that are being hit are civilian targets, which may or may not be true, but with their attacks on Syrian civilians, they should have taken steps to protect Lebanese civilians from retaliation.  The Lebanese are caught in the middle again.

Hezbollah probably considers the loss of Lebanese civilians as acceptable losses if it helps to keep one of its major suppliers of weapons in power.  They’ve already ruined Lebanon, and now they’re doing their best to ruin Syria too.  Did they really think that the Syrian rebels would take no steps to strike back, especially where Hezbollah lives?

I have no sympathy for Hezbollah.  If they want to do some good in the region, they should pull their forces from Syria, leave Assad to his fate,  recognize Israel and work toward peaceful goals.