Fifty Years of Apocalyptic Global Warming Predictions and Why People Believe Them

You may have noticed that nearly all of the doomsday theories seem to begin with the phrase, “if current trends continue.” But, as I have just reviewed, current trends don’t continue. Global temperatures go down, then up, then stay flat. Population growth tapers off, new oil reserves are discovered, agricultural yields increase at even higher rates. Doomsday forecasters always overestimate gloomy trends and underestimate human ingenuity in problem solving.

Source: Fifty Years of Apocalyptic Global Warming Predictions and Why People Believe Them

A new and deeply meaningful rite of passage

We have a new United States citizen. This guy did it right despite some government stupidity:

When I met Miss D. in 2009, she encouraged me to pursue the matter, and after we married, I did so – only to run into a bureaucratic roadblock.  You see, the USCIS (which handles citizenship applications) wanted five years worth of tax returns, to prove I was paying my fair share towards our nation.  However, because my income had been workers-compensation-related for several years (and thus not taxable), I hadn’t met the minimum taxable income threshold that requires one to submit a tax return.  This did not satisfy USCIS, unfortunately – no tax returns, no citizenship!

I therefore approached the IRS and asked to file amended tax returns for the appropriate period, only to be told that this would be a waste of that agency’s time and resources (because I still wouldn’t owe any tax, after all), and therefore I should not do so.

See? Government idiocy. He waited five more years, filing the appropriate tax returns.

Becoming a US citizen will be a very solemn, moving moment for me.  I take the oath of allegiance very seriously.  I’ve already sworn part of it when taking the oath of federal law enforcement office as a prison chaplain, well over a decade ago.  The citizenship ceremony will add to that an abjuration of any and all previous loyalties.  In that sense, it’ll be a final, formal, legal and official severing of my ties to South Africa, where I’d spent almost two-thirds of my life so far.

An immigrant who did it right. A successful author whose books look interesting and are now on my ‘to buy and read’ list. Welcome, Peter Grant!

Source: A new and deeply meaningful rite of passage

The So-Called Equality Act: Making Some Americans More Equal than Others

Every totalitarian system has used the tactic of coercing people to affirm the regime’s agenda, even when they disagree.  Forcing people to mouth politically correct dogmas that they know are false is designed to break their spirit and their resistance.  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said the worst aspect of Communist totalitarianism was not the economic poverty or the lack of political rights; it was being forced to repeat the regime’s lies: “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie.”

There is no evil that Democrats won’t support and force upon us.

Source: The So-Called Equality Act: Making Some Americans More Equal than Others

‘Very Fine People on Both Sides’ | The American Spectator | Politics is too important to be taken seriously.

This is simply false. Trump’s comment about “very fine people on both sides” referred to the controversy over Lee’s statue, and not to anyone “spreading hate.” On the same day the rally happened, Trump made a public statement lamenting “the terrible events unfolding in Charlottesville, Virginia,” and condemning “in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence.” He continued: “It has no place in America. What is vital now is a swift restoration of law and order and the protection of innocent lives. No citizen should ever fear for their safety and security in our society.… I just got off the phone with the governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, and we agree that the hate and the division must stop, and must stop right now.” Three days later, when Trump took questions at the White House, reporters repeatedly asked him for further comment. You can read the entire transcript of that press conference, and see that the president specified he was speaking of the Lee statue when he said there were “very fine people on both sides” of the dispute. Furthermore, Trump asked, if memorials to Lee and other Confederates were now subject to destruction, “I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after?”

Indeed, such controversies are not moot speculation: Radical students at Hofstra University insist that a statue of Jefferson be removed from their campus, and at George Washington University, campus activists assert that the “Colonials” nickname of the school’s sports teams is “extremely offensive” and “glorifies the act of systemic oppression.” What is apparent from such claims is, first of all, that America’s schools have failed to properly teach history, and second, that we are living in an era of frightening radicalism, in which ignorance and rage walk hand-in-hand. As tragedies like Charlottesville demonstrate, political polarization is dangerous. And as Joe Biden’s remarks demonstrate, there are unscrupulous politicians who seek selfish advantage from this polarization.

I didn’t see any ‘right-wingers’ at Charlottesville. I saw two flavors of leftists. Supposedly the ‘right’ was represented by neo-Nazis and white supremacists. Nazis, neo or otherwise, are socialists by definition. And ‘white supremacists’ are engaging in normal left-wing identity politics. A pox on both sides.

Source: ‘Very Fine People on Both Sides’ | The American Spectator | Politics is too important to be taken seriously.

What Does Your Toilet Paper Have To Do With Inflation?

Dworksy cannot state categorically that the practice is occurring more frequently than it did in the past. However, “you can go up and down the aisles” in a supermarket and see it, he said. Indeed. Based on numerous sources, I was able to develop a partial list of products that seem to have shrunk, or whose packages offer less items than they once did. The list includes: cookies (package sizes and in the case of at least one popular brand, the cookies themselves), toilet paper, candy bars, chewing gum and other confectionary products (like Cadbury Eggs), ground pepper, tuna, yogurt, ice cream, orange juice, coffee, bags of tea, sugar, potato chips, toothpaste, deodorant, cake mix, cereal, blocks of cheese, paper towels, napkins, paper plates, crackers, hot dogs, bacon, frozen dinners, heads of lettuce, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes, mixed nuts, shaving cream, hair spray, bars of soap, tubs of margarine, detergent, bleach, shampoo, pet food, (some brands of) beer, (some brands of) hard liquor, diet shakes, diet bars, frozen pizza, peanut butter, mayonnaise, Gatorade (in some stores), vitamins, over-the-counter medicines, and even newspapers (page widths have shrunk from 16 inches in the early 1950s to 11 inches in most papers today).

This is inarguable. The ‘official’ inflation rate is far higher than reported. I first recognized this during the Clinton Administration. Clinton changed the ‘basket of goods’ whose prices comprise the Consumer Price Index. He removed staples like food and energy, and added non-essential items like computers. We all know that computer prices are constantly falling.

H/T: Bayou Renaissance Man

Source: What Does Your Toilet Paper Have To Do With Inflation?

Book Reveals Homosexualization of Catholic Church

The term “gay rights” is an example of controlling thought through language. The phrase refers to formal approval of homosexual practices as well as special privileges for gays, who supposedly have a “right” to hiring priority, immunity from criticism, and all the other bennies that come of being “oppressed.”

Source: Book Reveals Homosexualization of Catholic Church

Bracken: Covington Gives a Glimpse of Civil War Two

The Covington confrontation points to an ironclad historical pattern. Every previous genocide in modern times was preceded by a similar pattern of public demonization of state-designated scapegoats. But is correlation causation? Does the American Left intend to eventually commit genocide against white heritage American males? In my opinion, yes. Scapegoating is part of a clear pattern of conduct seen during every socialist power grab from the French Revolution until now. In the case of German national socialists, European Jews were the scapegoats of the Nazis during their climb to power. In the case of international socialists, AKA Communists, class enemies were usually but not always the designated scapegoats. Examples of class enemies would include the Kulaks in the Soviet Union, “landlords” in China, and “intellectuals” in Cambodia. But in other cases ethnic groups were targeted as scapegoats by Communists, to include the Ukrainians, Crimeans, Latvians and others.

So, are today’s Democrats already planning to load their white heritage American enemies into boxcars for trips to a new Gulag? Probably not many at this time, but Barack Obama’s political mentor Bill Ayers certainly considered it. Ayers believed that so many Americans would bitterly resist Communism that 25 million would have to be “eliminated.”

Invest in precious metals like lead, copper, and brass. Might also want to stock up on food and other necessities.

Source: Bracken: Covington Gives a Glimpse of Civil War Two