Sunday, January 17, 2016

Real NY values

The first responders to 9/11 weren’t showing New York values they were showing American values. Unless of course the folks in NY think that Chicago, Philadelphia, or say New Orleans first responders wouldn’t show the same bravery.

But a real NY value is the belief that the people in NY are better than everyone else in every way.  Many New Yorkers, especially among the liberal elites, appear to carry a big chip on their shoulder and have no problem looking down their patrician noses at anything West of the Hudson—hence the wide spread understanding of Saul Steinberg’s “View of the World from Ninth Avenue” New Yorker magazine cover.

While the cultural elites, including many “conservative” commentators, have a love affair with NY it’s unlikely that most conservatives do; after all NYC is the exemplar of East coast elitism and liberal entitlement.

Now most folk in NYC are good honest hard working men and women just like most Americans but when anyone who doesn’t live in NYC, or isn’t an East Coast elitist, hears NY values here’s what they think of—and remember it’s liberals who love NYC who tell us that perception is reality when it comes to discrimination:

1) Organized crime and corrupt unions
2) A mayor who broke the law to honeymoon in Cuba and who thinks cops are evil
3) Citizens who stand by while a woman is murdered and don’t even bother to call the police.
4) Home to banks too big to fail that take money from the rest of the country to give their employee’s bonus’s.
5) Citizens who aren’t friendly.
6) Home to Wall Street where crony capitalism reigns and people who don’t actually produce anything make immense fortunes.
7) A city where the White elites praise Planned Parenthood and 78% of abortions kill Black or Hispanic unborn babies.
8) A city where honest citizens have to struggle to buy a gun but criminals have no problem getting armed
9) A city that has such high cigarette taxes that are so vigorously enforced that at least one Black man died as a result, and don’t forget that NY also has it’s very own income tax that goes on top of State and Federal taxes.
10) A city that attacks the schools that actually educate children to defend teacher’s unions.

To be honest it’s unclear just what positive values New York City, as opposed to individual New Yorkers, brings to the table.  While there are millions of New Yorkers who are great people the simple reality is that the folk in “fly over country” don’t have a very positive view of the wonders of real NY values.

The simple reality is that while the chattering class think Trump won big by attempting to convince voters that only in NY would first responders risk their lives most Americans who don’t live in NY or the cloistered elite gated refuges where rich political commentators live aren’t fond of NY.

That’s not because New Yorkers are bad but because of the image that NY has in the rest of the country.

That Trump is defending that NY image is a good reason to question his recent “conversion” to conservatism.

If Trump’s come to conservatism moment was real instead of just defending NY value’s he would have said which NY values he supports and which ones he doesn’t like.

But instead Trump said:

When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York.

That statement shows the smug and superior attitude that really represents NY values. After all who’s to say that no other American city could have done better?  But to a New Yorker like Trump he has to make sure we in fly over country know that no one could be better than New Yorkers.

New Yorkers did do a great job dealing with 9/11 but it’s New York values that made Trump single out New Yorkers as being the best.

Notice too that Cruz listed what he thought of, and which most American’s think of, as New York values:

And listen, there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York. But everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay-marriage, focus around money and the media.

But Donald didn’t address any of that. Probably because he couldn’t. By politicizing 9/11 Trump took the low road and ignored a very real issue that anyone should have with the Trump candidacy; just how will Donald act if elected?

We can be fairly sure that he’s going to be good on immigration but what about abortion, same sex marriage, crony capitalism, foreign policy etc?  Will he be a real conservative or will he be another “compassionate” conservative?

It’s perfectly understandable why folks like Trump.  He was the first candidate to get a lot of coverage by pointing out the truth that Washington is corrupt and doesn’t give a darn about the American people. 

But Cruz has been pointing out that same thing for longer than Trump has; the difference is that Trump is a media star so his comments got a lot more coverage than Cruz’s did.

One last thing it’s clear that Trump does ascribe to NY values since he’s said that a child born to an American mother is not an American just so he can try and get Cruz out of the way without having to address the issues Cruz raises. That sort of underhanded attack, backed by radical liberal Democrats, against a supposedly fellow conservative is what most of America would expect from a NY values kinda guy.

We need an anti-establishment President. We need to control immigration. But we don’t need a President who’s liberal on all the other issues; we can win on immigration but still lose the country.

The question Trump fans have to face is not whether or not we need an outsider to try and fix the cesspool that is Washington, we all agree on that, the question they have to ask is is Donald, who gave money to Hillary and Chuck Schumer, really going to support conservative values across the board or is he going to fall back on old habits if he’s elected?


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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The State of Denial Speech

For a great summary of all the lies, distortions, and misrepresentations in Obama's State of Denial speech I recommend this great Daily Signal article.

As with most speeches by liberal politicians the most interesting things are the one's that weren't mentioned:

1) American sailors seized by Iran and, at the time of the speech, still held captive.
2) Paris, San Bernardino, Philadelphia
3) Iran violating the nuclear accords and testing long range nuclear capable ballistic missiles
4) There are more Americans out of work today than any year since 1977--Jimmy Carter i.e. Obama light.
5) Energy prices are going up due to Obama's EPA
6) The IRS deliberately targeted Obama's political opponents
7) Black lives can't matter when we accept the mass killing of Blacks by other Blacks
8) Black women are 3 times more likely to abort their children than white women--but PP loves it
9) Obama fought fracking that is bringing down the cost of energy tooth and nail
10) If ISIS is being defeated what would they be capable of if they were winning?

Monday, December 28, 2015

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Dealing with Muslims

It's true that most Muslims, especially in the US, aren't big fans of terrorism.

One of the reasons is that far more Muslims die due to Muslim terrorism than do non-Muslims; groups like ISIS make the Westboro Baptists look inclusive.

But given that terrorism doesn't require much support even a small number of Muslims who believe that since Muhammad spread Islam via violence it's ok to use violence in the name of Islam can create a disproportionate amount of damage.

Further many Muslims believe that Islam should be in charge of civil affairs, i.e. sharia law, even if those Muslims don't support violence.

That creates a problem in the US. As a Catholic I look to my faith to define my morals and then I try and implement those morals through the law following the legal processes. But since the Church does not say we should be intolerant of other faiths or that the Church should run civil society my beliefs don't conflict with the Constitution.

Many Muslims however believe that the Quran comes first and that the Constitution is a bad thing; since Islam does not teach religious tolerance in general.  That means that those Muslims, however many or few they may be, can't really become Americans; they can't assimilate.

Since America does not benefit from bringing in people who reject America's founding principle it would seem obvious that screening would be immigrants would make sense.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

READ THIS: Critical warning from California Democrats!!!!!!!!!

Democrats in California have posted an urgent warning:
It appears that a new synthetic life form has broken into the wild.
They appear to be guns but they not only act on their own they can control people they come in contact with.
If we are to stop the plague of "gun violence" we have to be alert for these sentient weapons. If you spot them, or anyone who votes Republican, you must immediately retreat to a "safe space" and when you're done crying call the suicide hot line for support.
If you feel strong enough you can call 911, so long as the sentient weapons haven't taken over minorities or Muslims, and report the horror you've seen.
Be at peace because we Democrats are working tirelessly to ensure that you will never ever have a chance to have a gun to defend yourself from the sentient weapons.
While when you're being gunned down you might incorrectly think that the amazingly short 4 minutes it takes the truly brave police officers to respond isn't really all that short be assured that your death is a small price to pay for Democrats to know that anyone who attacks our armed security guards won't have guns.
Remember Democrats want sensible gun control laws where if you like your gun you can keep it.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Climate Science for real people

All you need to know to realize that the media are lying to you is this: Every single climate model has been shown, based on real world data, to be wrong.

Every single climate model predicted steadily rising temperatures for the last 18 years but even climate nuts admit the temperature has stayed constant.

The way science works is the following:

1) We make a guess about why something works the way it does
2) We create models or formulas that predict how things should behave if our guess is right
3) We compare those predictions to data:
       a) If the predictions match the data we have reason to believe our guess is right
       b) If the predictions don't match the data we know our guess was wrong

Here's what the models for man made global warming predict vs what we see


Given that the models predictions are wrong, though a few models are still within the statistical limit based on their errors, we know for a fact that the assumptions in those models were wrong and that the assumptions in those models, that man made C02 is causing the earth to warm in a particular way, are wrong.  Now it may be that further studies could show that something man is doing is impacting the climate but remember:

AS OF NOW THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC BASIS FOR SAYING MAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

Last summer some folks wrote a paper claiming the earth has in fact warmed in the last 18 years. Aside from the fact it only addressed one set of temperature measurements and other sets of measurements show that temperatures haven't gone up there are other huge problems with the study:

1) The study is basically saying that for more than 18 years all the same climate scientists who we are supposed to now trust have gotten the temperature records all wrong.  Apparently now they are new and improved scientists.

2) The "fix" to the data essentially lowers all measurements before 18 years ago and raises all temperatures after 18 years ago. The chance that honest calibration errors would result in such a fortuitous situation just before a major climate conference is vanishingly small

3) The authors of the paper have a direct financial and career interest in keeping the global warming scare alive; no climate change fears and the funding for climate scientists falls through the floor.

One last note; the man who gave a speech in Paris saying that mass shootings like the one in Colorado only happen in the US also says that the climate change is real and that it's the cause of Islamic terrorism.