harmonicminer

Earth struck by most powerful space storm in three years

The most powerful geomagnetic storm since December 2006 struck the Earth on Monday, a day earlier than expected.On 3 April, the SOHO spacecraft spotted a cloud of charged particles called a coronal mass ejection (CME) shooting from the sun at 500 kilometres per second. This velocity suggested the front would reach Earth in roughly three days.

“It hit earlier and harder than forecast,” says Doug Biesecker of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Fortunately, the storm was not intense enough to interfere strongly with power grids or satellite navigation, but it did trigger dazzling auroras in places like Icelan.

This just goes to show the danger of using too much solar power. If we keep sucking in the Sun’s energy with solar power arrays, it’s just bound to create more of these solar originating space storms.

It’s time for Congress to act.  We need laws restricting solar power generation to only those facilities required for national security, like the Denver Mint, and the Senate cloakroom.  The rest of us should return to wood burning stoves as soon as possible, a natural source of heat, unlike these silicon driven solar power converters, which are clearly unnatural and dangerous to the environment.

In addition, I propose that an international consortium be formed to study the effects of mining too much silicon from the earth.  Yes, we could run out of rocks, and if we continue to dig deeper and deeper into the earth’s crust to get more silicon, we could destabilize the tectonic plates whose slow motion is a requirement for our survival.   The mad rush for silicon based solar energy converter panels, combined with lavish suburban homes with granite countertops (tons of silicon there in every gated subdivision), inhabited by vain divas with silicone breast implants, could create a perfect storm, destabilizing the very continents, and sucking yet more solar storm activity towards the earth as more and more silicon is exposed above ground (especially at certain Hollywood premieres).

The photon hogs are going to kill us all.

The real hockey stick is the triple combination of silicon toxicity from over-mining, continental destabilization, and solar storms, predicted to peak all at once in 2012.

I’m ordering a bumper sticker for my Prius (oh, the guilt):

Don’t blame me, I burn wood

Go out today and cut down a tree to preserve the environment.

Teach your children, while there’s still time.

Planned Parenthood Abortion Center Charged for Hiding Sexual Abuse Fires Staff

The Planned Parenthood abortion center that was placed on probation by the Alabama health department for hiding a potential case of sexual abuse recently fired three of its staffers. The center received a one year probation from state officials in February.

As LifeNews.com reported, an undercover video showed a staffer at Planned Parenthood telling a woman who appears to be a victim of statutory rape that “we bend the rules.”

The Birmingham Planned Parenthood counselor tells pro-life advocate Lila Rose, who pretends to be a 14-year-old statutory rape victim, that it “does sometimes bend the rules a little bit” rather than report sexual abuse to state authorities.

The video also showed a Planned Parenthood employee telling a woman posing as a teenager how she can evade the state’s parental consent law.

Of course, this is probably only the proverbial tip of the floating glacier.  In almost every state, a pregnant girl under age 18 is by definition a victim of statutory rape, at a minimum, if not worse.  That means that even in states without “parental consent” laws, a pregnant 16 yr old is automatic evidence of a crime, and aborting that girl’s unborn child is by definition hiding the evidence of a crime.  It is well known that in the majority of cases, even involving junior high age girls, the father is a legal adult, more often than not over age 20.  So all the “privacy” protects the father of the aborted child much more than it protects the mother, who is often a victim.

So:  in cases of incest, who do you think drives the victim to the abortion clinic?  Maybe step-dad?  Uncle Cyrus?  Or the mother of the victimized girl, not wanting to rock the boat with step-dad?  Or?

In any case, as with ACORN’s exposure by some intrepid investigative journalists, I’m pretty sure that if a similar “sting” operation were run on most Planned Parenthood clinics, we’d learn that many of them look the other way, and by default shield the predators taking advantage of young girls.

This means that in addition to not protecting teen age girls, and holding adult males responsible for their actions, current practice often compounds abuse with a lifetime of regret for the mother whose child is aborted.

Obama and Democrats want a “Freedom of Choice” act, that would undo in a stroke ALL the state laws that go a little ways towards protecting teen age girls, notably parental consent laws (not to mention late term abortion restrictions and the like).

One wonders why the Left wants to protect predators.

Maybe this would be a good topic for your Christian university’s next Justice Week.

As Congress takes break, Obama names 15 recess appointments

President Barack Obama reignited a partisan fight over appointments Saturday when he announced his intention to fill 15 key vacant administration positions — that normally require Senate approval — while Congress is adjourned for vacation.

Saying he was tired of obstructionist Republican senators blocking his nominees for political purposes, Obama said he would resort to recess appointments to fill the jobs.

“The United States Senate has the responsibility to approve or disapprove of my nominees,” Obama said Saturday. “At a time of economic emergency, two top appointees to the Department of Treasury have been held up for nearly six months. I simply cannot allow partisan politics to stand in the way of the basic functioning of the government.”

It’s just so HARD to be President when you have a Senate that won’t confirm your nominees.  Especially when you really, really need to pay back your political cronies by appointing a highly partisan pay-back candidate, and those wascally weepublicans just won’t let you have your way.  And it’s so embarrassing to have to do what you rabidly criticized your predecessor for doing, but darn it, when YOU have a really, really good reason for appointing a payback candidate, you wish those right-wing lunatics would remember who won the election.

Maybe you should remind them who won the election.

Again.

While you still can.

Herewith, famous sayings of pinball players of my misspent youth and early adulthood.

* “It’s hard to play pinball when you have both hands wrapped around your neck.”  (An obvious reference to “choking” while trying to flip.)

*  “Hey, another Lazzie ball!”  (So named in honor of Lazarus being raised from the dead, in reference to the relatively rare phenomena of missing with both flippers up the middle, and the ball hitting the back wall and bouncing back into play anyway.)

*  “Another pin-ball related fatality.”  (Don’t ask.  I won’t tell.)

*  “Wow!  A double match, a special and two wins on points!”

*  “I had the high score on Highway Patrol for three weeks running!”  (Pull over, buddy.)

*  “Life isn’t fair.  HE got extra ball, double multi-ball on the same turn, a special and a round the world bonus.  I got bumpkus.”  (Live with it.  You could have been playing Alien Invasion or something.)

*  “I usually try to catch it on the flipper.”  (Nothing to do with dolphins.)

*  “You’re not holding your jaw right.”  (That’s pure mythology.  The set of the jaw has nothing to do with the ballistics involved.  However, the angle of your left knee certainly does matter.)

*  (After a TILT and lost ball)  “Hey, I hardly touched it!”

Obama’s friends in the media continue in campaign mode for him. Test question: can you find an article like the one quoted below that debunks, in USNews and World Report, the myth of 47 million “uninsured” that the Democrats keep bandying about?

5 Overblown Fears About Healthcare Reform

In Washington, everybody knows about unintended consequences: the outcomes you fail to anticipate when you change the way something works. But there’s another phenomenon that works somewhat in reverse: Preregulatory paranoia, or the fear that new rules meant to make the system better will instead produce mayhem and disaster.

It will be a long time before we know whether the historic healthcare reform finally passed by Congress will make the system better or worse. But the rhetoric surrounding the yearlong ordeal has already set new standards for overwrought fearmongering.

Hmm.. I would say that’s true, but the fearmongering and overblown rhetoric, not to mention simply lies, is mostly on the side of those promoting a much larger federal role in healthcare.

And the reason why it will be a “long time before we know whether the historic healthcare reform finally passed by Congress will make the system better or worse” is because the bill was deliberately designed NOT to do much of anything until this congress and president are no longer up for re-election, or at least are far distant from it. Not that much changes in the short term… which was done deliberately to dissociate the pernicious effects that are coming from the language of the bill, or simply to delay the electoral consequences.

The government will <not> take over one sixth of the economy. ………. In fact, it’s hard to identify any part of the private-sector healthcare industry that stands to lose under reform.

Which is why, of course, the private-sector big-pharma, big-law, big-insurance and big-med were more than happy for the government to take money from the people and give it them. The fact is that under the new plan, the total amount of healthcare spending in the USA will RISE to about 1/6 of the total economy, and instead of the about 1/2 that is currently under direct federal control, ALL of it will be in one way or another.

The federal debt will <not> explode. It might, but not because of healthcare reform.

No one with a lick of sense believes the CBO numbers. The author of this article needs to sit down with Paul Ryan and have a talk.  It is beyond incredible that anyone believes it’s possible to add tens of millions of new people to the rolls and not balloon the deficit.

Socalized medicine is <not> on the way. ……. Those who fear the advent of “socialized medicine” mainly seem to worry that the current set of reforms is just Phase 1, to be followed by bigger changes that will replace doctors with bureaucrats and render individual patients even more powerless than they are now.

Well, yes.

This is supposed to happen despite the likelihood that the Democrats who supported reform will lose seats in the November elections, while Republicans who opposed reform will gain seats.

Obvious this author doesn’t know a thing about the history of entitlement programs in the USA. Or worse, is simply concealing the facts for some political purpose. But everyone who can read knows that entitlement programs of this kind GROW, that government control always GROWS, and that the cost of this mess is going to multiply hugely beyond the Left’s predictions.

It seems much more likely that after surviving the battles of the last year, the current for-profit healthcare industry will be with us for the foreseeable future.

And costing us all a LOT more.

Read the history of the Medicare program and the rhetoric surrounding it at its passage, the predictions of what it would cost and what it would control, and the facts of what it now costs and what it controls.  And consider that it’s getting worse all the time, and that everyone who knows anything about it, and will tell the truth, admits it will not be able to keep its promises, made by the Leftists in government to buy votes, so that the baby boomers aren’t going to begin to get the benefit from it that the current senior generation has gotten while the boomers were funding it.

This will be worse. Far worse.

Of course, at the time Medicare was passed, there were plenty of “feel good articles” like the one quoted here, too.

But this is quack medicine and quack journalism.

Why America Hates Universal Health Care: The Real Reason
You should click the link and read the whole thing, but here’s the gist:  (warning…  at the link there are a couple of photos you may find obscene, but they make crucial points)

Not all ailments are equal.

• Blame: the final taboo

A built-in false assumption with the health-care debate is that sickness is always no-fault sickness. It’s never socially acceptable to assign blame for people’s medical problems, especially blame on the patient.

But I’m not afraid to confess that I’m a judgmental person. And I’m pretty confident that most Americans who oppose socialized medicine share this same judgment: that some people are partly or entirely to blame for their unwellness.

I’m perfectly willing to provide subsidized health care to people who are suffering due to no fault of their own. But in those cases, which, unfortunately, constitute perhaps a majority of all cases, where the unwellness is a consequence of the patient’s own misdeeds, bad habits, or stupid choices, I feel a deep-seated resentment that the rest of us should pick up the tab to fix medical problems that never should have happened in the first place.

I’m speaking specifically of medical problems caused by:

• Obesity
• Cigarette smoking
• Alcohol abuse
• Reckless behavior
• Criminal activity
• Unprotected promiscuous sex
• Use of illicit drugs
• Cultural traditions
• Bad diets

Now, I really don’t care if you overeat, smoke like a chimney, hump like a bunny or forget to lock the safety mechanism on your pistol as you jam it in your waistband. Fine by me. And as a laissez-faire social-libertarian live-and-let-live kind of person, I would never under normal circumstances condemn anyone for any of the behaviors listed above. That is: Until the bill for your stupidity shows up in my mailbox. Then suddenly, I’m forced to care about what you do, because I’m being forced to pay for the consequences.

This article is worth reading completely (click the link above). It will challenge anyone who thinks we should just “spread the cost” among all of us for the medical care of all of us… and in particular, why this is a uniquely un-American idea (and ideal, for that matter).

So take the risk, if you’re a universal health-care true believer, and read it all.

Then keep in mind that I’m going to have my nose at LEAST as deep in your business as yours will be in mine, if universal health care really does become a reality in the USA.

Think you wouldn’t like living under Sharia law?  Just wait until every decision you make involving recreation, diet, transportation, you name it, is being second-guessed by self-important bureaucratic functionaries watching the bottom line cost of your healthcare.

Congress clears historic health care bill

“This is what change looks like,” Obama said a few moments later in televised remarks that stirred memories of his 2008 campaign promise of “change we can believe in.”

All you young folks who voted for Obama? You’re going to pay for it, literally. Pretty much for your whole life. And then your kids can start.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll – Rasmussen Reportsâ„¢

As the House prepares to vote on the health care plan proposed by the President and Congressional Democrats, just 41% of voters favor the plan while 54% are opposed. Those figures include 26% who Strongly Favor the plan and 45% who are Strongly Opposed. Most voters believe it will raise the cost of health care and reduce the quality of care. Still, nearly two-out-of-three voters believe it is at least somewhat likely to pass and become law.

From a political perspective, 50% of voters are less likely to vote for a Member of Congress who supports the health care reform plan proposed by the President and Congressional Democrats. Just 20% believe that most Members of Congress will understand the proposed health care bill before they vote on it.

Here’s the graphic truth about public opinion on Obama’s presidency so far:

It’s those “strongly approve” and “strongly disapprove” people who feel most strongly, and who will be activists and donors for the coming campaigns.  That “strongly disapprove” number ought to make clear the political suicide being practiced by any congress-critter in a “purple” district who votes for the health care federal take-over.

Fight Between Erskine College and Its Denomination Will Head to Court (Complete coverage at the link.)

Like many church-based institutions of higher education, Erskine College and Seminary in Due West, South Carolina, has had many battles over the relationship between faith and learning at its campus. But the drama that unfolded at the college March 3 was unlike the online debates and denominational meeting grumblings that had come before.

In a special meeting that day, the General Synod of the denomination that sponsors Erskine—the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) Church—heard a commission’s report which concluded: “the oversight exercised by the Board of Trustees and the Administration of Erskine College and Seminary is not in faithful accordance with the standards of the ARP Church and the synod’s previously issued directives.”

More simply put, the commission found evidence of mission drift—as well as “a number of financial irregularities and administrative failures”—in the college and seminary and blamed the board for letting it happen.

As a result, the synod voted 204-to-68 to restructure the Erskine Board of Trustees, firing and replacing 14 board members and keeping 16 holdovers for a 30-member interim board of trustees. (The commission recommended that the board size be cut at the synod’s June meeting from 34 members to 16.)

A preliminary report issued last month by the ARP’s investigating commission found “irreconcilable and competing visions” among board members on several fronts, including the integration of faith and learning on campus. But that confusion, the commission said, was widespread.

It will indeed be interesting to see how things turn our for Erskine.

In this case, it was the “parent” church exercising some discipline over the educational institution. But what mechanism is going to produce that kind of oversight for Christian colleges and universities with much weaker denominational ties, or nearly none? All it takes is a couple of decades of diversion from the central mission of the institution, and it can become nearly impossible to change course and get back on track, when there is no body providing strong oversight to the board.  A skilled administration (in the absence of strong denominational and alumni input) can eventually “shape” a board, creating a dynamic where the board reflects the administration as much as vice versa, and diluting the essentially supervisory task of the board.

This is in addition to the normal challenges that even strongly denominational schools must face, including the generally leftward pull of academia, and the pressures created by the necessity to hire faculty whose graduate training will have been mostly at secular institutions.

There seems to be a general “chaos tending” pattern, a sort of missional entropy, at work.  Of course, no human institution is eternal, and some have completely changed while retaining their former names, and even large slices of their former rhetoric.

Having just reread the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges, I am reminded that one generation easily forgets the miracles experienced by the last, and the tendency to worship foreign gods seems ever-present.  And it’s awfully easy for us to start believing in our own strength and wisdom, our own cleverness and savvy, instead of in the same God as our forebears.