Apr 15 2010

War on Terror? Nah… someone’s feelings might be hurt

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 8:34 am

Seven Things Wrong With The Anti-Terrorism Policies of the TSA

# We are treating the War on Terror as a war on terror, and not a defense against jihad. We’ve made the decision that naming jihad as the enemy would give it an enemy. There is also a strong current of political correctness running through the debate. Some will now call me names, as if acknowledging that for religious reasons some people hate our culture makes me the bad one.
# Because we’re fighting terror, we identify tactics we dislike, and not the tacticians. This means that as long as the enemy can fit within the rules we define for legitimate users of our system, common sense gives us no probable cause to investigate further. In scrupulously avoiding the use of “profiling”, we ignore things we should not. Further, to avoid insulting a subset of legitimate users, we end up treating everyone as a suspect.
# We publicize each new attack and react to it, successful or not, leading both the public and the enemy to believe that such attacks are more common and more successful than they actually are.
# The controls we enact are in reaction to each new attack, rather than against all such attacks. This will lead to the eventual crippling of the enforcement system, as both its legitimate users and its enforcers become overburdened. Each new rule gives a hint to the attacker of what to try next.
# The rationale for a security control must be clear or the public will reject the control, one way or another. This is called psychological acceptability. An unacceptable control, such as too low a speed limit, will be ignored or will cause the public to find some clever means around the control. The key is that the public must perceive that the control offers enough protection to justify its use.
# Instituting controls to win the battle for perception doesn’t work. The only policy goal it achieves is a false sense of security. We believe that if following the rules is difficult for legitimate users, it must be more so for the enemy. In fact, the opposite may be true. Warning everyone what will be searched when boarding a plane, for instance, tells the enemy what not to bring along.
# A complex apparatus with a dense set of confusing rules can result in security through obscurity, which is to say, no security. Those enforcing and following the rules are led to believe that because of the hassle, no one could circumvent the rules. Someone not concerned with following the rules may find a way around them that those concerned with their minutiae miss or discount.


Apr 14 2010

Giving up our allies, or ganging up on them, too?

Category: Hizbullah,Iran,Israel,middle east,national security,Obama,Syriaharmonicminer @ 8:02 am

Obama is, once again, giving away the store… or at least the markets in Tel Aviv, by trying to make nice with the implacable enemies of supposed allies.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah. There have been rumors about this for a few days, but now U.S. officials, who at first refused to confirm them, are saying that the transfer has occurred.

The Scuds are believed to have a range of more than 435 miles. This means that Hezbollah can now bomb Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from Lebanon. During the 2006 war, the rockets Hezbollah rained on Israel had a range of 20 to 60 miles.

I hope you’ll read the entire article at the link above, and ponder the situation a bit.

One can only wonder: exactly how much damage can Obama-style foreign policy do in four years?

If the Carter administration is any guide, a truly immense amount.

Obama remains deeply confused about who are our allies and friends, and who are our adversaries. One hopes he doesn’t stay in office long enough to be educated directly by the course of events, though the next administration is going to have a lot of pieces to pick up.


Apr 13 2010

New life

Category: church,music,religion,societyharmonicminer @ 8:01 am

And despite the comment of the talking head at the end, this reborn musician did not “save himself.”


Apr 12 2010

Too much solar power?

Category: Uncategorizedsardonicwhiner @ 8:26 am

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.


Apr 11 2010

Love Life

Category: abortion,government,justice,legislation,liberty,love,theologyharmonicminer @ 8:14 am

h/t: SuzyB


Apr 10 2010

Shielding the guilty at Planned Parenthood

Category: Uncategorizedharmonicminer @ 8:45 am

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.


Apr 09 2010

Little White Truths

Category: corruption,Obama,virtueamuzikman @ 7:59 am

When your life and career are predicated on how well you consistently lie to people it is inevitable that the truth will slip out on occasion.  After all, constantly maintaining those lies requires constant vigilance.  Here are three possible recent slips of the tongue that may give pause for one to wonder if they serve to illuminates a lie:

1. As the First Lady spoke to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender delegate back in 2008 before Barack Obama was elected to office, she proved that once again the truth may be right in front of us.

When we took our trip to Africa and visited his home country in Kenya….

Is it just slightly possible the birthers have a point?  Is it slightly possible Barack O. has a reason to spend so much time and money to hide parts of his past?

2. Polls and polling data can be manipulated to provide a desired outcome.  Many polls are simply false, but wrap themselves in a garment of non-partisanship legitimacy in order to sway public opinion, not report it.  I call this a lie.  Here a recent article from The Politico describing a couple of spring special elections for congress and problems for the Democratic party.

According to sources familiar with the effort, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has already assembled teams of top party operatives, including veteran pollster John Anzalone and longtime ad man Saul Shorr

So much for pollster neutrality.

3. We were told Obamacare was about providing quality health care to the uninsured.  Now that it is law we find out that maybe we were lied to about the intent of this legislation.  Commenting on issues raised by the Tea Party movement, Reid said,

They want things to be the way they used to be. They will never be the way they used to be.

Is it just possible this so-called health care bill was about much more than helping the uninsured?

Funny how an off-handed truth can slip past the lie like a small dog through a picket fence.  But if you don’t pay attention you might miss it.  That’s what the liars are counting on!


Apr 08 2010

Young adults, with less money, will pay more

I just want to say thank you, once again, to all the young adults who voted for Obama. The fact that you volunteered to pay more for my health coverage and retirement is a sign of real respect for your elders.

Health premiums could rise 17 pct for young adults

Under the health care overhaul, young adults who buy their own insurance will carry a heavier burden of the medical costs of older Americans, a shift expected to raise insurance premiums for young people when the plan takes full effect.

Beginning in 2014, most Americans will be required to buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. That’s when premiums for young adults seeking coverage on the individual market would likely climb by 17 percent on average, or roughly $42 a month, according to an analysis of the plan conducted for The Associated Press. The analysis did not factor in tax credits to help offset the increase.

The higher costs will pinch many people in their 20s and early 30s who are struggling to start or advance their careers with the highest unemployment rate in 26 years.

Consider 24-year-old Nils Higdon. The self-employed percussionist and part-time teacher in Chicago pays $140 each month for health insurance. But he’s healthy and so far hasn’t needed it.

The law relies on Higdon and other young adults to shoulder more of the financial load in new health insurance risk pools. So under the new system, Higdon could expect to pay $300 to $500 a year more. Depending on his income, he might also qualify for tax credits.

At issue is the insurance industry’s practice of charging more for older customers, who are the costliest to insure. The new law restricts how much insurers can raise premium costs based on age alone.

Insurers typically charge six or seven times as much to older customers as to younger ones in states with no restrictions. The new law limits the ratio to 3-to-1, meaning a 50-year-old could be charged only three times as much as a 20-year-old.

The rest will be shouldered by young people in the form of higher premiums.

Higdon wonders how his peers, already scrambling to start careers during a recession, will react to paying more so older people can get cheaper coverage.

Of course, these people who are telling you that your premiums will go up by 17% are just trying to break it to you gently, to let you find out the truth in stages.  But this IS the government we’re talking about, and this IS an entitlement program, so you know, don’t you, that the real cost is going to be more.  Much more.  Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc., all cost much more than anyone dreamed they ever would.   So will this.

And, of course, for the many young adults who could afford health insurance but have simply chosen not to buy it themselves (something like 1/3 of the currently “uninsured” if memory serves), their cost under the new regime will be much more than they currently pay…  which is nothing.  But we really need to grab these deadbeats and shake some money out of them.  Don’t they know that their turn will come later, to have the generations after them pay for their healthcare?

The young musician in the article above, Nils Higdon, is a perfect representative for your demographic, because even though he’s about to be soaked, he is willing for it to be even worse, by being for single-payer health care (you can read about it at the link above).  Very generous of him.  And you, since I’m sure you agree, being a young Obama voter who really respects your elders, and wants to take care of them even more.

I suppose it’s just a good thing for me that most young drummers haven’t read Adam Smith, or F.A. Hayek, or Milton Friedman, or Thomas Sowell.  Undoubtedly, the screeds from these promoters of the greed motive would have poisoned their young, impressionable minds.

I see that Mr. Higdon is a self-employed drummer.  In the real world, in this economy, that sometimes means he makes most of his living as a golf caddy.  I’ve always thought that golf caddies should pay more for the health care of the old duffers, er, golfers, that they serve.  I mean, since the caddies already fund their retirement via social security and incompletely funded government pensions and so on, it just seems reasonable. 

If you’re going to carry their clubs, you may as well carry them, too.


Apr 07 2010

Hanging on to the Shuttle?

Category: national security,Obama,Russia,science,shuttle,spaceharmonicminer @ 8:03 am

Could moon rocket demise bring space shuttle reprieve?

The demise of NASA’s Constellation moon rockets is bringing faint hopes of a reprieve for the space shuttle.

NASA’s decades-old shuttle fleet has been headed for retirement since 2004, and only four more flights are scheduled. Now the White House’s plan to scrap the Constellation programme, a pair of rockets capable of taking astronauts back to the moon, has prompted renewed efforts to keep the shuttles running until new vehicles can replace them.

Two bills have been introduced in the US Congress to keep the shuttle flying while NASA works to develop replacements. The hope is that a modest extension, involving just a couple flights a year, could help retain jobs and maintain access to the International Space Station without relying on foreign launchers.

“If the space shuttle programme is terminated, Russia and China will be the only nations in the world with the capability to launch humans into space,” says Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who introduced the first of the two bills this month. “This is unacceptable.”

An extension to shuttle flights may struggle to win approval. Safety has been a concern, but a bigger hurdle may be money. The cost of a modest programme could exceed $2 billion per year, according to agency officials. “Where that money comes from is the big question,” shuttle programme manager John Shannon told reporters last week.

They seem to be able to find plenty of money in Washington for things that they think actually matter.  Does this matter?  Only if you think it’s fine for the USA to be dependent on Russia to get people into and out of orbit.

Obama obviously does.  Maybe he, too, has looked into Putin’s eyes and seen a man he can work with.

Or maybe Obama just doesn’t think it matters.


Apr 06 2010

Obama vs. Netanyahu: what you won’t read in the media

Category: Fatah,Hamas,Israel,middle east,Obama,Palestine,terrorismharmonicminer @ 8:03 am

Yoni The Blogger is a veteran of Israeli Special Forces. He can’t talk about much of what he used to do.  He is unapologetic in his defense of Israel, appropriately so.  He knows things about what goes on in Israel that seem rarely reported in US media.  Here is his take on the recent “summit” of Obama and Netanyahu.

Yoni the Blogger

We have seen the way President Obama treated Prime Minister Netanyahu during the recent visit.

It is clear that if Obama can’t push the Prime Minister into doing what he wants him to do, then Obama would like to force regime change in Israel.

Bibi must, make up his mind if he wants to be the Prime Minister.

I have my doubts.

Bibi upon return to Israel had the rules of engagement for our soldier tightened. Our soldiers if they are in a bullet proof vehicle can no longer shoot at Palestinians that are throwing molotov cocktails at them, it is now even prohibited to fire warning shots in the air at stone throwing Palestinians.

I have learned that IAF pilots stationed in the south are prohibited from travel alone from Tel Arad to Beer Sheva because of the Israeli citizen Beduin shooting at Jewish cars.

Let us not forget the multiple dozens of Buses that came from the north and south full of Israeli Arabs wanting to riot at the Temple Mount along side there Palestinian brothers.

So here is my advise to Bibi.

1. Declare that due to the financial situation in America, Israel is canceling the aid from America

2. Israel must start of PR campaign with ads on American TV showing the value of Israel to America

3. Declare an end to the peace process and annex Judea and Samaria

4. Behind closed doors tell American Military and CIA we will no longer going to give intel to America if the administration is anti Israel . George the first and Webster

5. Tell all Israeli citizens that if Palestinians throw stones at them it is a crime not to return fire. Allow more Jews to own guns

6. Order the IDF to remove all illegal Arab building in all parts of Israel

7. Lastly order the Chief of Staff of the IDF to hit Iran as soon as possible using any and all of the weapons at the disposal of the IDF as the situation warrants.

I am not holding my breath for Bibi to do any of this because he has folded every time the going got tough.


It is clear that, among US presidents, Obama is rivaled only by Jimmy Carter in his disdain for Israel.  I expect that Israel is simply counting the days till the 2012 elections, and hoping for the best.


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