No Ice In Poland (Part 2)

Today's headline, "Atom-smasher Inspires Fear." I envision giant ants or grasshoppers invading our city streets as innocent onlookers cringe in fear at the destruction caused by these mutated insects. What is it with our media? Where is the news? If a levy is not letting go in Missouri or an election in Africa is not causing riots and mass killings, they start speculating on news. Isn't there a better topic than world destruction to speculate on? I can think of numerous topics that would provide greater conversation and less panic.

Instead we get speculation that this giant atom smasher would create a black hole that will suck all of us in or release some new and yet unknown particle that will turn Earth into an unlivable piece of rock. Yea, that makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Of course, that is how scientists felt when the atomic bomb being built. It was going to cause a chain reaction that would engulf the world. We know how that story ended. We won the war and stopped an invasion of Japan that would have amounted to a total bloodbath for both sides, not to mention that eradication of centuries of art and culture.

The media is always reaching for the negative side of any story. There is never a positive spin on an article unless the name Obama is in it. Any one that call the media unbiased has either prescription rose colored glasses or knows their pharmacist by name. Every once in a while, we will get an article about a local hero or some warm and fuzzy piece about something that has changed peoples lives but who wants to read a story that makes them feel good. We need to worry more and feel that there is no point in living. After all, isn't that what news is all about.

Icool

Cobb

Why Is There No Ice In Poland?

This is a joke from my childhood. It was at a time when Archie Bunker provided the picture of how all middle class American families treated the rest of America. We have come a long way since the All In The Family days as far as race relations and how we view the world. My children have a very difficult time differentiating race, color, or nationality. What normally gives it away is their accent.

The punch line to the joke is "Because the lady with the recipe died." Unfortunately, this joke may not be too far wrong if scientist’s predictions are correct. Today’s Yahoo headline is straight from a sci-fi epic; “No Polar Ice This Summer.” Wow, what a prediction. This could be a disaster of epic proportions. I am assuming that they mean the North Pole and not Antarctica. If it is the South Pole, where would all of the penguins go?

We can chalk this up to another liberal media scare tactic spoon fed by the global warming (can I get another grant so I don’t have to actually work) scientists. This is probably put out by the same group that predicted the tremendous increase in hurricanes several years ago. We were going to lose the entire east coast for most of the hurricane season followed by severe drought and locusts. At least they didn't predict an outbreak of Freddy Kruegers and razor gloves on the west coast.

Now I hear we will have $7.00 gas in two years. Wow. It has only doubled in the last year, so $7.00 doesn’t seem that much of a stretch. I would have been more alarmed at $20.00 gas. I realize that the media thinks we are stupid and not capable of forming any opinion but theirs but come on. Start giving us actual factual news instead of raiding B science fiction plots for some tragic disaster to rile us up. It gives science fiction a bad name and certainly waters down some of the classic story lines.

Icool

Cobb

What A Freak

I know I have said this before, at least once, but I do not watch broadcast news. There are several reasons but the major one is that I lose my voice due to all of the screaming at the screen. Anyone that can watch the evening news, be it local or national, without having the blood vessels on their forehead start to throb is either the subject from the rock opera Tommy or a tree hugging liberal. Their ability to twist the English language to support their causes must make their college English professors pulse with waves of pure euphoria.

I read a Yahoo editorial today from Charles Wheelan, PhD. He is a professor at the University of Chicago where he teaches master’s level classes on understanding the policy process (whatever that is) and regularly appears on NPR and other public radio stations. The opinion is based on the question, “What will happen when people get tired of $4.00 per gallon gas and are forced to retreat to a lesser quality of life?” He uses phrases like McMansion and carbon tax to help promote his ideas that we should all move back to the city and live in apartments and condos. That makes our commute to work shorter, which uses less gas. There is no thought of the increased road rage as the city roads become even more congested from the increased traffic. Or the crime, or the noise, or the schools… This statement comes from a man who actually lives in Chicago and has experienced the horrific delays on their splendid freeway system.

He appears to have an understanding of economics but understanding it and actually being able to apply it are apparently in different spheres of his brain. His idea of market place and free enterprise are all based on government intervention and resignation to failure of the system. Nothing has failed yet and government intervention into anything but national security is a certain recipe of a Rube Goldberg experience. Boys and girls, can you say failure? I know you can.

He does what most doom and gloom liberals do. He retreats into the scenario with the same set of rules that we currently have. When you throw money on the table, such as $5.00 per gallon gas or $200 per barrel oil, it gets peoples attention. When they say that the next big fuel source has yet to be discovered, there are thousands of people working on their own personal solution to the problem. When the change happens, it will create a paradigm shift of monumental proportions. Like the internet, it will be a life changing solution. But the blind leading the blind liberals would prefer to be the prophets of doom instead of the sign post of hope.

So don’t put a for sale sign in front of your four bedroom country manor just yet. We may suffer in the short term through the rocky roads of higher prices, but with the population of the world in excess of 6 billion, someone will develop an energy solution that will level the playing field and create the next plane of growth and prosperity. Just show me the money.

Icool

Cobb

Know When It's Over

I am a big fan of the guitar /keyboard based rock that carried the 70’s and ushered in the 80’s. For those of us who grew up during that time, we were blessed with a variety of diverse musicians, each contributing their own style and sound to the airwaves. One of the groups that formed from the remnants of several super groups was Asia. Asia was the incorporation of talent from Yes, Uriah Heep, and Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. That is quite a pedigree.

Their self titled album in 1982 created a big stir in the music world. It was a commercial success that you would expect from a group sporting Steve Howe from Yes and Carl Palmer from ELP. You could not turn on the radio without either hearing one of their songs or having it announced in the line up for the next set. It was released during the beginning of the 1st Reagan administration and was peppered with the typical musical liberalism of total nuclear destruction. Although the philosophy was from a bankrupt view point, the music rocked. The music was powerful and the lyrics very telling.

Their next several albums were good but nothing near to the success of their debut. The group lost members and deteriorated into a shell of the original line up. Fast forward to 2008 and the release of a new album Phoenix. It contains the original line-up and the back of the CD has a photo of the band members. It is almost frightening to look at the picture. All of them are obviously aging rockers and the latest product of their musical collaboration sounds extremely out of touch with even their sound from 1982. It sounds like they are stuck in the groove that created their dynamic debut album but the needle has severed the talent from the music. It is plain and lacking the spark of creativity that made 1982 such an exciting year.

Some groups like the Rolling Stones continue to put out music but it is the tour that people look forward to. People clamor for a Led Zeppelin or Cream reunion but Asia had their hay day and left no legacy to back it up. They look like a group of aging rockers that have blown through their fortunes and are looking for a cash infusion to retire on. I guess if I was in their shoes, I would consider the same thing.

Icool

Cobb

The Die Is Cast

History was made yesterday when Hillary Clinton finally reached the conclusion that she had been defeated. I know that she came that conclusion a few days earlier but the announcement cemented the end of her historic clash. So what next? We have knocked the woman out of the race and are now faced with two other history making candidates. Who would have thought even 8 years ago, when Gore, the shadow of the uber-president and soon to be savior of the pseudo-scientists and Bush, the failed re-invigorator of the conservative movement were to reenact the Clash of the Titans. Can anyone say Florida?

So now we have a racist black man and a senile white guy as our choices. One is charismatic and the other a decorated Vietnam War POW. One is a first time senator and the other has spent his life (other than the time in a POW camp) spending other peoples money in our nation's capitol. Neither share the conservative view that the way to help people is to not throw money at them. They both want to spend their way out of poverty instead of providing opportunity for people to help themselves. Neither support lowering taxes as a way to stimulate the economy (although McCain has done an about face since the Bush tax cuts; see historic expansion of the last 7 years). I implore Americans to take a hard look at what we are being presented as Presidential material. Is this the best we can do? Really, it this it? Wow, what a system failure.

Julius Caesar is reported to have said, "The die is cast." when he took his army into Rome and started the civil war against Pompey. It refers to an instance in time when you have reached the point of no return. With the elimination of Hillary as an option, we have cast the die and provided no clear cut opportunity to succeed. We will get what we ask for in either candidate. Our southern border will become a veritable cattle crossing of immigration. It will make the cowboy roundups of old look like a snail stampede. We will get higher taxes on those that create jobs, thereby eliminating their desire to be penalized to create more. We will get national medical insurance which will increase the deficit, create lines at the doctors office and destroy the American health care system. Is this the best we can do? Are we so blind that we are willing to give away the last of our freedoms to have the government spread it's smothering quilt over everything we do.

Maybe Julius Caesar has it right. The die is cast.

Icool

Cobb