This is Awesome

This is also an indictment of the way in which all of these stories are communicated. Shame on you, media and "scientists" that behave this way.

'There are strong signs that these recent climate disasters were not random deviations from the usual weather, but instead signals of the emergence of a new normal for world climates'

A Like Mind (with more time and expertise)

I have been enjoying this blog about AGW, and the bunk that gets propped up as "science."

We are especially like minds in the media's role in the hysteria, like this post is which he destroys the headlines about the storm on St. Judes's Day. The British Press is just as bad, if not worse than the US.

"The Met Office have now issued their comprehensive report on the St Jude’s Day storm, that hit southern England in October.

Readers will recall idiotic headlines at the time, describing it as “The Storm of the Century”, “Unprecedented”, “Superstorm” and “A repeat of 1987”. I pointed out at the time that such claims were patent nonsense, and that the storm was not an unusual event.

The Met Office report now confirms what I was saying."

Much like the hype over typhoon Haiyan being the worst ever (like this Guardian article asserts) one of the strongest ever, or the deadliest ever, it wasn't. Every article that reveals the truth has to share how horrible it was to fend off accusations of callousness, I'm sure, but the criticism is rightly directed at the media outlets that hyped the horrible storm into the "worst, deadliest, strongest" so that more people would buy their papers or watch their telecasts (I can't bring myself to call them "newscasts" anymore). My new-found writer above also comments about this.

Simply put, don't listen to the talking heads. They lie.

Get an ID. Register. Vote.

I'm not wading into the memorializing of Nelson Mandela, there are plenty of place where people can experience the good and the contradictions of his life (he was human, after all), but this image that Yahoo chose to use cracked me up:

Here, that shirt's notion is called racist and an effort to disenfranchise the black vote by lefty/progressive/democrat loonies.

Friday Thing

Not much new in the Thing classifieds, but this has resurfaced, with two links, and at a much more reasonable price of $3600  $3800 Dude really needs to stop unposting/reposting

Have a great Thanksgiving!

You, Sir, Are A Jerk

This jerk gets his own post.

I had pictured this beater Thing in a post

and criticized the price, and apparently many agreed it was high. So much that the owner, rather than sell it for what it was actually worth, did this:

"I was selling my 73 Thing. Its complete but needs work. Pass side floor is bad. In fact the whole same thing is bad now. I got real tired of loosers wanting it for nothing." 

As I said when I posted this on The Samba, as someone who had given cars away, this is appalling. If I was on reddit, I'd unleash the hounds.

A Winter's Carol.

Enjoy!

This is from the last Taize worship service at Hyde Park Community United Methodist Church's Erie building, November 12, 2013. We sold the building and it will be demolished and replaced with several homes on the lot (expensive, too, I hear).

The octet + 1 (we had 3 sopranos that night) performed in the balcony. I recorded this with my iPhone 4s, on the floor slid away from me as far as I could so that my voice wasn't too present in the recording (I've tried recording us before) and with the mic end of the phone facing away from the group. I then imported it as audio into Audacity, but all I did there was snip the front and back ends to lose the phone noise and dead space.

Motorcycles.

I needed to get a replacement debit card (worn mag strip) and the guy at the bank and I started chatting. Crazy, huh?

He's a motorcycle dude, and he suggested this for me: a Triumph Thruxton. Pretty Cool.

I poked around today, and I think I'd prefer a Triumph Scrambler:

Neither are quite Steve McQueen, but hey, what is?

That's all folks!

Unintended Consequences, Again. Surprised?

This article has its share of good reporting and stupidity, but the fact remains that actions have consequences. Duh.

"As farmers rushed to find new places to plant corn, they wiped out millions of acres of conservation land, destroyed habitat and polluted water supplies, an Associated Press investigation found.

Five million acres of land set aside for conservation — more than Yellowstone, Everglades and Yosemite National Parks combined — have vanished on Obama's watch.

Landowners filled in wetlands. They plowed into pristine prairies, releasing carbon dioxide that had been locked in the soil.

Sprayers pumped out billions of pounds of fertilizer, some of which seeped into drinking water, contaminated rivers and worsened the huge dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico where marine life can't survive.

The consequences are so severe that environmentalists and many scientists have now rejected corn-based ethanol as bad environmental policy. But the Obama administration stands by it, highlighting its benefits to the farming industry rather than any negative impact."

What happens when you allow a policy belief to override science? You kill eagles and marine life chasing Global Warming alarmism. You destroy the environment to enact your policies which are more designed to control your population and the economy than to save the Earth.

"Fundamental Transformation" has a price, after all.....

Drive a VW Thing!

Happy 100th Year of US Income Tax!

 It was in a "this week in history" item, who knew?

I like this part:

"The Treasury Department will likely collect around $4.9 trillion from income and payroll taxes in 2014. That's a huge jump from the $5.4 billion collected in 1920 and the $43 billion in 1945."

So, I looked it up and the population has tripled while the collected taxes have grown nearly a thousandfold? Wow.

Jul 1, 1920

106.46 million

Jul 1, 1944

138.40 million

Nov 1, 2012

314.69 million

Thing Friday!

I should be working, but there are Things to examine on the internet!

Let's start with this beater. $1750? I don't think so, unless it runs great (which is doubtful given the condition). Mid-state New York. (see other post, the dude crushed it out of spite)

Next contestant is this lovely item. Reduced!! Should be about the above price!! Not $3000!! Kansas. (down to $2500)

This isn't a bad deal, for $5200 actually, if they accept a little less with cash in hand. Illinois.

Feeling handy? The car is free, you pay for the parts that need to be attached.....$3900 in New Hampshire.

This Florida thing is actually very reasonably priced at $6000 even with the blurry pictures. I agree, who needs a top!

C'mon, dude, no picture? (he added photos!) Seriously, with just 5,600 miles and asking $4900, we need visuals! Austin, TX.

Close to home, just over in Indy, is this $4000 flat tire Thing. Kid, you got potential! A little much for a non-runner, if you ask me.

How about another fixer-upper? $3800 obo (now just $3500)

$2300 or less could get you this Thing in Florida: The Samba.com is your best resource for all kinds of Things and info, but as you can see, there are plenty out there on craigslist.

This no-photo-ridiculously-low-priced Thing is on craigslist now, the link on the other post has gone dead. The description does not match the price. Period.

What Did They Know, and When Did They Know It?

So, according to this NYT article, about 15% of the population (roughly 48 million people) is without health insurance (which, of course, is not to say that they do not receive health care), yet according to this Forbes article, the Administration knew that about 93 million people would lose their existing coverage under ACA.

It's just they were different people, I guess, which made it all OK.

NYT: "In 2012, the bureau said, 15.4 percent of people were uninsured, down from 15.7 percent in 2011. The number of uninsured people, 48 million, was not statistically different from the estimate of 48.6 million in 2011. David S. Johnson, the chief of social and economic statistics at the bureau, said that much of the increase in coverage last year was attributable to government programs. Medicare covered 15.7 percent of the population, compared with 15.2 percent the previous year.

Census Bureau data showed significant changes in coverage over the last 13 years.

From 1999 to 2012, the bureau said, the proportion of people with private health insurance declined to 63.9 percent, from 73 percent, while the proportion with government coverage rose to 32.6 percent, from 24.2 percent."

Forbes: "How many people are exposed to these problems? 60 percent of Americans have private-sector health insurance—precisely the number that Jay Carney dismissed. As to the number of people facing cancellations, 51 percent of the employer-based market plus 53.5 percent of the non-group market (the middle of the administration’s range) amounts to 93 million Americans."

Weep, founders, weep.

Bwaaaaa Haaaaaaaaaa! Unintended Consequences and Hubris Alert!

"Just come in to my house and feel the walls shaking," he said. "They say it's the nocebo effect, but people who sit on my front porch have to leave within a half hour -- they felt it. Early on, I had a financial adviser sit in my kitchen and within five minutes he was complaining about ear popping.

Yup, wind turbines. That's stinks, for sure ( I want a home turbine to reduce my dependency on my local utility company, and some solar cells would be nice), but we always have unintended consequences, it seems.

It's Been A While Since Things

I wasted some valuable work time looking at Things via searchtempest on cragislist from around the nation (**update** all but the one I call the "pick of the litter" are no longer available! Other people like these, too, you know). First, some with no photos:

Here's one that says $1100, and there's no way that's right, if you read the description. (new link) Seriously, “…like new. The interior is black and exterior is pastel white all original new top, tires, brakes, bearings, generator, seats, tune up, new carburator, shocks, wiper motor,master cylinder, alignment parts, front tow hitch, headlamps, tail lamps and horn, The original windows are in the its original packages that go in the front compartment” is not $1100, it's $11000.... 

and there's this one:

73 Thing - Very good engine, starts &runs good. Has gas heater that looks like new. Need new conv. top & floorpans (new pans w/car). Orange , 85 k orig . mi. $3000  (my edit, he's now asking $2600 $2400!!!!) This is a fair deal, it seems.

Now, for $5000:

Or is it $5300? same phone number....

Here's a runner in Tampa, for a decent price if you like rusty Things. This and a parts Thing for $4250, not bad at all:

My pick of the litter, actually. No top is fine with me, a deal and a half at $3500. Cape Cod is a long way away.

"I quess my starting price of $4000 was over the top,I will reduce the asking price and listen to reasonable offers. My wife is bugging to sell this. Young girls are not included in the sale. 1973 orange Thing 55,000 miles,starts ,idles and runs smoothly,new motor parts,solid muffler and some brake lines replaced. Good clutch and trans,shifts easily. Some typical rust. Newer tires,have jack and tire removal accessories,side windows and top frame also. Good winter project. Parts are plentiful for restoration." 

******It's on Ebay now, January of 2014. I wish I had money!********

Last is a parts/needs a lot of restoration Thing for $850.   Sorry, the link is dead for this one, too. 

"73 rusty thing with lots of good original parts, I have no paperwork, the engine is locked up from sitting. This can be towed with a tow dolly. I am not parting it out! The engine is original thing case with gravel guard. One seat is missing ,the other is shot, rockers are shot. No title."

Wow, Is Anthony a Wiener or What?

Anthony Weiner says he'd be mayor 'if the Internet didn't exist'



What a wiener. 



...and I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling "internet".
In other words, Weiner meant that he'd be mayor if the truth didn't get out. What does that say about a person, who they are, how they'd lead and what they believe? I want me elected officials to be honest and forthcoming, not like Weiner.

Tor, We Hardly Knew Ye

Here's me in my scary-had-it-since-I-was-eleven-bought-it-at-Walt Disney World-for-$11-everyone-loves-or-is-scared-by-it mask:

Here's the real face it was made to mimic, Tor Johnson. I thought you'd want to know that.

Nothing To See Here, People, Keep Moving....

The National Park Service has closed privately run marinas, restaurants and inns throughout the country and in some cases even posted guards to keep people from using them during the government shutdown, arguing that it doesn’t have the money, manpower or authority to let them operate.

Views to Mt. Rushmore blocked......

Or, you could get kicked out of your home.

Not surprisingly, Wisconsin and it's eeeeevil republican governor said "nope, not gonna do it" to some NPS demands.


Oh, it's the House's fault. Not the kind, gentle, wise, educated, master of locution.

These folks beg to differ.....

Bread and Circuses

Seriously, folks, what is your red pill? What does it take for you to recognize the level of political theatrics BOTH SIDES of the aisle will go to to manipulate you?

The Parks are close because of the "Shutdown," but we can staff the placement of signs and barricades for open air, 24-7 accessible, non-staffed war memorials? In the interest of reaching across the aisle, here's part of CNN's version of the story, read the rest at the link you just skipped over.

Veterans break past World War II Memorial barricade

Posted by

CNN's Laura Koran and Ashley Killough

Update 1:45 p.m. ET: House GOP leadership sources tell CNN they plan to vote on a series of bills to fund the government, beginning Tuesday with three measures–spending for veterans, the District of Columbia and the Park Service.

Washington (CNN) – Busloads of World War II veterans, many in wheelchairs, broke past a barricade Tuesday morning to cross into the World War II Memorial, as onlookers applauded and a man playing the bagpipes led the way.

Moments earlier, a few Republican members of Congress had removed a section of the black gates that surrounded the site, allowing a line of veterans to roll past security officers, who willingly stood aside.

Follow @KilloughCNN Follow @laurakoran

Veteran Donald Quinn of Pascagoula, Mississippi, said he was pleased with his visit to the memorial, despite the initial blockade.

"I'm surprised to see so many people here and so many important people, but I've enjoyed it," he said. "At first I didn't think I'd come, but I'm glad I did."

Photo by Laura Koran

The National Park Service closed all of its parks, including national memorials, as a result of the federal government shutdown that went into effect at 12:01 a.m ET.

But a spokeswoman from the National Mall and Parks Service said efforts were no longer being made to hold anyone back.

"These are important visitors," Carol Johnson told reporters, adding that they're seeking guidance from the director's office on "where we go next."

"Obviously we did not want to do anything to mar the trip of these people," she said, saying the visitors came from Mississippi and Iowa. "They've come here specifically to see the memorial that was built for them."

Some Republican members of Congress and a Democratic senator were on site, blasting the federal government for fencing off the memorial. Outraged and baffled, Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, crossed through an opening in the railing earlier in the morning–before the breach–and got on the phone to try and reach the secretary of the Department of Interior.

"I don't get it. I'm furious. I'm trying to get a hold of people," he said, standing on the other side of the barricade and looking around for help. "But I can't seem to get a hold of anybody."

.......

Read the rest at the link.

IPCC Commentary Starting To Flow

First, this ridiculous, ridiculous story that has gotten press thanks to Yahoo.

A meteorologist who has covered weather for the Wall Street Journal tweeted that he has decided not to have children in order to leave a lighter carbon footprint, and is considering having a vasectomy.

He also vowed to stop flying after the world's recent climate-change report made him cry.

Uhm, wow.

Then, another story from Fox News. I can only imagine that it is on Fox because no one else would publish it, which is a shame, because the guy is absolutely a life-long ecologist, he's just committing what has become the mortal sin of "doubting."

"I've studied climate and its effects on life—all kinds of life ---for more than four decades, starting in 1968. Along the way, among other things, I developed a computer model of forests that in the 1990s we used to forecast the effects of climate on jack pine forests in Michigan that were the only habitat of the endangered Kirtland’s warbler.  A lot of effort was going into saving the bird’s habitat, and I wondered if, with global warming, it might all be in vain.

As a result I'm one of the reviewers of sections of the latest report on climate change and its impact by the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the first part of which was released last week in the form of a general summary for policymakers.

I had some serious concerns about the sections of the much bigger report that I reviewed — which hasn't yet been released---and I have some of the same reservations about the document that was published last week.  

The report’s language appears to be sometimes coupled with a selective reading or oversimplification of the facts, so that the authors have "high confidence" in something that is not the whole story.  

My biggest concern about the climate report is that it presents a number of speculative, and sometimes incomplete, conclusions embedded in  language that gives them more scientific heft than they deserve. The report, in other words, is "scientific-sounding," rather than clearly settled and based on indisputable fact.  Established facts about the global environment exist less often in science than laymen usually think.

...

Having worked for decades on climate change and its possible effects on life, I come away from the just published "summary for policymakers" believing that it does not allow a scientist, let alone a policymaker, to decide that we are, or are not, creating a global warming.   

As a result, I foresee two dangers. One is that it will simply  intensify the political, ideological and, yes, moral debate that has erupted over who does and does not believe we are causing global warming, and thus move us even farther from the important scientific effort that the issue deserves.

The second danger may be even worse: it reinforces the belief that there is some kind of climate normality, usually characterized as existing earlier in the twentieth century or before the Industrial Revolution (but after the Little Ice Age, which lasted from approximately the mid-1400s to 1700) that is desirable, even necessary, for our species and for the ecology of the planet.

In fact, there has never been such a thing, which is one of the reasons that biological evolution and adaptation exist in the first place. "

Exactly the point I've been making for years.

May Your Hometown Have This

Seriously, I hope wherever you live has someone making shirts like these:

all images from cincyshirts.com

Not that all is perfect in my city, it's run by Dems, after all.

There are four new public road projects that have me convinced that they are deliberately making traffic worse, I assume to make us clamor for the Streetcar, light rail, and more public transportation (+ bikes, duh).

Down on Riverside Drive, formerly Eastern Avenue, they have celebrated the new lanes and bike lanes that have made traffic worse, created jams where none had been, and made parking more difficult and scarce with a little party. The really cute part? The brand new pavement is so wavy, it may actually be worse that the old road. Just for fun, a water leak appeared in the middle of a slight curve that went unrepaired for over a week a block away from the Waterworks pumping station. Now we have a new rectangular patch in the middle of the new road. Shovel Ready Jobs! I drive towards the city every day as far west as Collins, and I have seen maybe 1 commuter cyclist in the morning, and maybe 3 different (several more than once, though) in the afternoon drive time. Not kidding.

Linwood Avenue from Mt. Lookout Square to Grand Beech (right by Columbia Pkwy) has been re-laned, but not for bicycles. It's just stupid. Seriously. One lane where there were two, no parking where there was, new parking where you could go around those waiting to turn at Christ the King, turn lanes that start in odd spots so you can't get over soon enough to help continuing traffic stay moving. Ridiculous.

More is planned for Mt. Lookout/Hyde Park.

Columbia Parkway becomes Wooster Pike as it enters Fairfax, and it is a major artery for those heading to those eastern 'burbs. At this major intersection, anchored by the classic Frisch's Mainliner, I recently discovered (along with a LOT of other drivers, gauging by the backup) that the left and right lanes are now Turn Only lanes, with only the center lane continuing forward. Instant bottleneck. Awesome decision.

Lastly, there is one closer to my home, in Anderson Township (btw, officially there is no place/area/community/neighborhood called "Beechmont." That's the main Avenue that runs through Mt. Washington and Anderson, but it's not a place, as such. People say it, but it's not real) you will find a re-laned Salem Avenue. Like Linwood, it has removed parking where some was, added it in other spots, and you now weave back and forth like a slalom course to account for new turn lanes. A retired CPD friend and neighbor calls it "stupid" and "confusing" and he's younger than I am, so no "grumpy old man" comments, please.

Spring Grove Avenue has a similar tale to tell, no doubt there are others. Makes me believe the Agenda 21 alarmists may be on to something....

$5900? Each? You Can't Be Serious!

Found these at a little lot in town, no one was there, so I took some pictures and opened some doors. When I called, the lady said $5900 for either. Yellow didn't run when they got it, does now: orange is how it arrived. Neither are worth that kind of money, just the poor paint jobs (with obvious bondo work in the rear of the rockers under the rear doors.

The pictures from the site make the yellow look a lot better than it does in person! Of the two, though, I'd take the yellow for a couple of reasons, but  mostly, the rockers on the orange have been covered with something that was screwed in place, plus there was rust in the wheel wells: all very typical, but it means there are hidden woes.

It was a surprise to me, wanting one but never having sat in one, that you are stepping over the threshold to get in and sit in a way that modern cars don't really make you do. Maybe that was because the seats in the yellow one are pretty beat? 

Bro-in-law the car guy called and offered $4000. He was too drunk after a football game and a concert to say much more.

How Much We Just Don't Know

"It is far below the level the panel predicted. "Not only is this the smallest cycle we've seen in the space age, it's the smallest cycle in 100 years," according to a NASA research scientist cited in the popular blog Universe Today("Solar Cycle 24: On track to be the weakest in 100 years)."


It never ceases to amaze me how much some folks think we know, compared to how little we truly know. Making trillion dollars worth of policy on things we don't really know is stupid.

Hubris, remember?

*image from NASA: Visible in the lower left corner, the sun emitted an M6 solar flare on Nov. 12, 2012, which peaked at 9:04 p.m. EST. This image is a blend of two images captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), one showing the sun in the 304 Angstrom wavelength and one in the 193 Angstrom wavelength. Credit: NASA/SDO

Just a save for myself, really.

So some guy posted an excellent comment about the reasons of the double standard applied when men or women are slutty in the comments regarding some bad behavior in Ireland and on the internet. If you are too lazy to click the link, here's what he said:

Some people have been complaining about how slanegirl is getting shamed while the guys she serviced publicly are getting praised. Let me take a shot at it  It is actually not a double standard, because both scenarios are vastly different in terms of circumstances and consequences. I can think of at least four crucial differences:

First, sleeping around is easier for women. Regardless of how you feel about promiscuity, we can all agree that a guy who manages to rack up a lot of sexual partners has to have some skills. It’s challenging for men to rack up partners, even for men with low standards. A man needs social intelligence, interpersonal skills, persistence, thick skin, and plain old dumb luck. For women, though, a vagina and a pulse is often enough. Whenever an accomplishment requires absolutely no challenge, no one respects it. It’s just viewed as a lack of self-discipline. People respect those who accomplish challenging feats, while they consider those who overindulge in easily obtained feats as weak, untrustworthy or flawed.

Second, women have potential to do more harm by sleeping around than men do. Say a man sleeps around with a bunch of different women. He’s definitely doing harm to these women if he pretends to be monogamous while sleeping around. He may cause them emotional pain by his promiscuity. He may cause unwanted pregnancy. He may spread VD. When women sleep around, however, they can cause not only all these same ill effects but one additional crucial ill effect: the risk of unknown parentage.

If one guy sleeps around with five women, each of whom is monogamous to him, and they all get pregnant, it’s a safe bet as to who the father is. If you reverse genders and have one woman who sleeps around with five men who are monogamous to her, and she gets pregnant, the father could be any of the five men. And if one of those men is tricked into raising a baby that isn’t his, he’s investing time, money, estate and property to provide for a child that isn’t carrying his DNA into the next generations, a costly mistake from an evolutionary standpoint.

Our two basic primal drives are to survive and to reproduce, and promiscuous women traditionally make it hard for a man to know for sure whether he is truly reproducing or is secretly raising another man’s child. Men stand a lot more to lose from promiscuous women than the other way around. And it’s no picnic for the child to not know who his real father is either. And it’s a mess for the women carrying on the deception as well. Or just look at any random episode of the Maury show if you don’t believe me.

Since the DNA test and the birth control pill didn’t exist until recently, there were no reliable ways to prevent pregnancy or prove parentage for most of human history. For this reason society developed a vested interest in preventing promiscuity among women, and society accomplished this by creating the promiscuous-girl stigma. And even though the creation of birth control and DNA tests have made this less of a risk than the past, long standing traditions and customs are not easy for society to break so the “tart” stigma remains.

Third, men have evolutionary reasons to be programmed to sleep around more. A lot of women roll their eyes when they hear that men are “hard-wired” to sleep around. But from an evolutionary standpoint, it makes total sense. If the two primal drives of humans are to survive and to reproduce, nothing leads to maximum reproduction like one man sleeping with multiple women. If one women sleeps with many men in a nine month period, she can only get pregnant just once. Nine months of rampant promiscuity would give the same result as nine months of highly sexed monogamy: one pregnancy. Now if one man sleeps with many women during a nine month period, you can get many pregnancies during that period. The more women he sleeps with, the more possible pregnancies. So from an evolutionary standpoint, there are concrete advantages to men being promiscuous compared to women being promiscuous. This doesn’t mean that women have evolved to be strictly monogamous. Women have evolved to be somewhat promiscuous too, something men badly underestimate. However they haven’t evolved to be as rampantly promiscuous as men.

Fourth, promiscuity poses more risk to women than to men. A woman has more to lose from choosing bad sex partners than a man does. She’s the one who gets stuck with going through a pregnancy and taking care of a baby alone if she chooses a deadbeat. For this reason, promiscuous women throughout history have historically been viewed as being a vastly more irresponsible risk takers than promiscuous men, who rightly or wrongly could always run away from the consequences of unwanted pregnancies easier than women could.

These four reasons explain why the longstanding tradition came about of men being rewarded for multiple partners while women get socially punished for similar promiscuity. Understand that I’m just explaining why the double standard came into existence and not condoning or condemning it. This is not an attempt to pass judgment or be self-righteous in any way. It’s just an explanation of why the two conditions are treated differently.

• 
  Profile

  08.31.13 at 5:31 am

  NOLA Jane

  That’s the best explanation for the double standard I have ever read, and I have read a lot of them, from a variety of disciplines.

Read more:http://www.uproxx.com/music/2013/08/a-photo-of-a-teen-having-oral-relations-at-an-eminem-concert-has-brought-out-the-worst-in-humanity/#ixzz2f4O52LKY



For fun, I added the reply from another commenter, mostly because she nailed it.

American Exceptionalism

Here's what #1 said yesterday, September 12th, 2013:

"Anyway, what American exceptionalism is not: It is not that we are better people.  It is not that we are superior people.  It is not that we are smarter people.  It is not that God loves us and hates everybody else.  It is not that God prefers us.  It is not that God doesn't prefer anybody else. 

American exceptionalism has nothing to do with anything but freedom and liberty.  Here is what American exceptionalism is.  ....

So what is it?  Well, if you know the history of the world... Read your Bible, read whatever historical account of humanity you hold dear, and what you'll read about is human tyranny.  You'll read of bondage. You'll read of slavery.  The vast majority of the people, the vast majority of the human beings who have lived and breathed and walked this planet have lived under the tyranny of despots, the vast majority. 

It isn't even close. 

The vast majority of the people of this world since the beginning of time have never known the kind of liberty and freedom that's taken for granted every day in this country.  Most people have lived in abject fear of their leaders. Most people have lived in abject fear of whoever held power over them.  Most people in the world have not had plentiful access to food and clean water.  It was a major daily undertaking for most people to come up with just those two basic things.

Just surviving was the primary occupation of most people in the world.  The history of the world is dictatorship, tyranny, subjugation, whatever you want to call it of populations -- and then along came the United States of America.  Pilgrims were the first to come here seeking freedom from all of that.  They were oppressed because of their religion.  They were told they had to believe in the king and his god, whatever it was, or they would be imprisoned.

They led an exodus from Europe to this country, people of the same mind-set.  They simply wanted to escape the tyranny of their ordinary lives.  This country was founded that way. For the first time in human history, a government and country was founded on the belief that leaders serve the population.  This country was the first in history, the EXCEPTION -- e-x-c-e-p-t, except. The exception to the rule is what American exceptionalism is.

It is because of this liberty and freedom that our country exists, because the founders recognized it comes from God. It's part of the natural yearning of the human spirit. It is not granted by a government. It's not granted by Putin. It's not granted by Obama or any other human being.  We are created with the natural yearning to be free, and it is other men and leaders throughout human history who have suppressed that and imprisoned people for seeking it. 

The US is the first time in the history of the world where a government was organized with a Constitution laying out the rules, that the individual was supreme and dominant, and that is what led to the US becoming the greatest country ever because it unleashed people to be the best they could be. Nothing like it had ever happened.  That's American exceptionalism.  Putin doesn't know what it is, Obama doesn't know what it is, and it just got trashed in the New York Times.  It's just unacceptable.

....

The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are an attempt to provide a political framework to facilitate God's will that each of us are born and remain free.  Read the Founders and you can conclude nothing other than that."


Here's what I said at the end of January of 2012. I probably had internalized his explanation, by the way.

"Our country is a unique experiment, there is only our short history to try to get some lessons about how our representative republic with it's focus on individual liberty and free(ish) markets have worked, but it's been pretty powerful, I think. The other ways, central planning, benevolent dictatorships, monarchies, tyrannical despots, are all there marching through history saying "tried it, failed." century after century. I happen to think that we are in many ways fighting against very basic human natures, conflicting ones: the scary, yet liberating desire to be free against the desire to have someone, anyone, take care of us, to push away responsibility and say "you decide, fix it for me, you take care of me" because that is so much easier than being an independent, self-actualized person. We head toward wanting more from our government to do stuff because it feeds that side of our nature, and our founders knew this as well. Similarly, I think that free markets are the most humane markets, they provide the most dignity and hope for those that need it, that capitalism has rescued more people from poverty than governments ever have, as it is what exists when there is no imposed economic system. Show me every poor country in the world and we will see closed market, meddling government (usually corrupt strong central, personality-driven Marxist-leaning), despots, many democratically elected.

Last thought, tonight, I promise: watching Diners, Dives, & Drive-ins, and thinking how I would love to eat at all of these places, and am honest enough to know that while I may think it would be cool to run one, I don't love it enough to do all the work these people do to live their dreams that provide these amazing meals. That's it, isn't it? To have the passion to do something that leads to success? I then re-read Michael's closing and thought "no. We don't need a brave leader, it's us. We the people."
That's what makes America unique in all of human history. All of human history is a long time. To want or expect or wait for our government, even though they are largely nice people that we chose, to take care of us isn't US!"

People have their own life stories that make them see the world the way they see it, and me talking isn't going to convince anyone of anything. It happens internally. Bill Clinton made me realize I wasn't a Democrat, even though I was more liberal at the time. All talk radio did was make me realize that I was conservative because it (Dr. Dean Edell, Rush, G. Gordon Liddy were the 3 I started with) articulated what I had been thinking.

The same thing goes for libs and progs, too, I think. They hear Rachel Maddow and think, "yes, exactly what I said!"  We have all heard of confirmation bias by now, right? Wiki,  Princeton, and this entertaining look explain it all for you, if you haven't.

They main difference that still presents itself in many ways is what I experienced recently yet again: Cons think libs and progs are wrong; libs and progs think cons are evil. Well, that's an oversimplification, but it's fair, I think. There are many cons who actually do think that the Pres and his minions are nefariously undermining the founding principles of our nation to remake it. I also happen to think that if you look at lib/prog/socialist/marxist policies, they are actually evil and directly responsible for a lot of death and mayhem, but mostly, they are just wrong.