Israel defends itself, UN demands cease fire

After allowing Arab terrorists to lob rockets into Israeli residential areas for years with apparent impunity, they finally had enough and retaliated against Hamas with a vengeance.

As is always the case, whenever Israel fights back for attacks started by Arab terrorists, world governments immediately condemn Israel and demand a cease fire. Hamas and Palestinian terror groups always position themselves in the midst of civilians, particularly women and children. When non-combatants are killed and wounded as always happens, the Arabs scream war crimes, holocaust and death to Israel. That’s the situation at the moment.

The UN Secretary General has demanded an immediate cease fire for the sake of “the children.” Russia too has demanded that Israel stop the retaliation. One wonders how long Putin would sit by while a neighboring country fired rockets into Russia.

Cheaper gasoline but no praise for Exxon

The price of gasoline hasn’t been this low in years. It’s amazing inasmuch as it had never been higher just a few months ago. Back then, when it was around $4/gal., everyone was outraged and Washington politicians were taking turns calling in oil company executives and berating them in front of television cameras for the benefit of the folks back home who were demanding that Washington do something.

Blaming oil companies for the price of gasoline is like blaming pig farmers for the price of bacon. Neither sets the price of what they produce.

So now that a barrel of oil has dropped by $100 in just a few months, why aren’t these various self-important Congressional and Senate committees calling in the oil execs again, this time to praise them for bringing down the price of oil? Why have the news media been mostly silent about oil prices recently?
For politicians to blame the oil companies for an unforeseen consequence of a problem they had a big hand in creating themselves is the ultimate hypocrisy.

Freezing? It must be Global Warming

Once again, as we back up to the stove to warm our hineys, the Global Warming “end of the world is nigh” crowd are assuring us that the cold weather actually proves that the earth is getting hotter. The one thing these predictors of doom all seem to have in common is that they are all getting paid by governments to “study” the problem. Should they all find that there’s nothing to Global Warming but their own hot air, then their funding would dry up and they would all be out of a job. That’s about as likely to happen as politician being in favor of term limits.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said:

“It is very likely that human activities are causing global warming.
Probable temperature rise by the end of the century will be between 1.8C and 4C (3.2-7.2F).
Possible temperature rise by the end of the century ranges between 1.1C and 6.4C (2-11.5F).
Sea levels are likely to rise by 28-43cm.
Arctic summer sea ice is likely to disappear in second half of century.
It is very likely that parts of the world will see an increase in the number of heatwaves.
Climate change is likely to lead to increased intensity of tropical storms.”

The one thing that these statements have in common is the qualifiers. None are actually definite but instead various forms of might happen. When doomsday fails to materialize, they will be able to say that they never said these things were going to happen for sure.

By then, it may be too late to reverse some of the actions put in place by the “Save the earth at any cost” activists and their supporters in government.

The European Union and UK governments have long been ahead of the United States when it comes to creative taxation. They discovered some years ago that the Global Warming fraud offered unlimited opportunities to soak the taxpayers under the guise of saving the planet. In these socialist countries, more and more revenue is needed to fund their projects and vote buying schemes. People have to keep warm in the winter and what better way to squeeze more money out of them than to demand money for burning heating fuel, be it gas, oil, coal or wood?

Our politicians have caught on to this and have plans to initiate a “cap and trade” scheme designed to rake in billions from industries that generate carbon dioxide. To do this, they must first declare that CO2 is a pollutant, even though it is also a byproduct of respiration. All living creatures breathe in oxygen and exhale the “polluting” gas. All plants absorb CO2 and give off oxygen. That’s how life works on earth.

You might ask, “What kind of stupidity is this? Who could possibly believe that CO2 is a pollutant?” Well, look at who voted in the liberals. They’re pushing this idiocy.

We also have the news media behind Global Warming as well. Just yesterday, the (AP) Associated Press released this:

"When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, global warming was a slow-moving environmental problem that was easy to ignore. Now it is a ticking time bomb that President-elect Barack Obama can't avoid. Since Clinton's inauguration, summer Arctic sea ice has lost the equivalent of Alaska, California and Texas. The 10 hottest years on record have occurred since Clinton's second inauguration. Global warming is accelerating. Time is close to running out, and Obama knows it. . . .

Mother Nature, of course, is oblivious to the federal government's machinations. Ironically, 2008 is on pace to be a slightly cooler year in a steadily rising temperature trend line. Experts say it's thanks to a La Nina weather variation. While skeptics are already using it as evidence of some kind of cooling trend, it actually illustrates how fast the world is warming.”

This isn’t really news, it’s opinion. As I read it the other night, I glanced at the outside thermometer on the wall. It read 23° F. The story they are pushing is that if it’s hot, it’s Global Warming. If it’s cold, that’s proof that it’s Global Warming. The science has decided and anyone who disagrees probably thinks the earth is flat. I’m not buying any of it. We’re being played for fools. It’s time we wake up and do something about it.

Christmas economy not that bad

The TV and major news outlets have been rife with gloomy stories about the abysmal state of the economy this year in general and during this Christmas season in particular. I’ve also read that Neiman Marcus and other retail stores that cater to the snob trade are reporting a big dip in sales this year. While I don’t dispute everything they’ve been saying, things can’t be as bad as they say, judging by the time it takes to find a parking place near the building at Wal-Mart. I stopped at the Gainesville store the other day to get a box of sugar-free cookies—one of my many vices. The actual time in the store is normally five minutes. I spent twenty minutes circling the parking lot looking for an empty slot. Although I have a handicapped placard, there were no empty handicapped parking spaces. I thought half the employees must be physically disabled and hogging all the parking places. Eventually I got lucky and found a spot a mere hundred yards away from the front door. When playing the parking game, most of the time when a car vacates a space, I’m on the other side of the lot and someone who just drove in gets it.

This afternoon I took my wife to the Sherman Wal-Mart to get "a few things." I've never seen so many people or cars. Getting a parking place took about twenty minutes and waiting on my wife took an additional hour and a half. Times may be hard, but not at Wal-Mart. Perhaps all the people who normally shop at Neiman's and the other brand name stores were there elbow to elbow with the regular Wal-Mart customers--the working class and wetback Mexicans.