Gerald Dickens in Nature Geoscience: the climate change models are wrong

From USA Today:

Could the best climate models -- the ones used to predict global warming -- all be wrong?

Yes.

Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during a natural climate change 55 million years ago can be explained by excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. What caused the remainder of the warming is a mystery.

But the Global Warming Global Cooling The Sky Is Falling Chicken Little Regulatory Busybodies Climate Change prevention advocates have long been saying that Global Cooling Global Warming Climate Change is "settled science".
What gives? I thought we were about to redesign and remake our entire economy based on the prophecies of Saint Albert, The Goracle Of Music City? And what about the Climate Change bill that is still sitting on The Obamessiah's desk? Does it need to be reworked in light of new info? Is this study in Nature Geoscience the equivalent of a last minute reprieve from the Governor?

"In a nutshell, theoretical models cannot explain what we observe in the geological record," says oceanographer Gerald Dickens, study co-author and professor of Earth Science at Rice University in Houston. "There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models."

Oh shit.

Note to my friend in Korea, Cedric Katesby: Please find out if the journal "Nature Geoscience" is peer reviewed. I still haven't made it to the TCU library to research the 1970's journals. Am thinking this might happen sooner, rather than later.

Note to everyone who votes: There's no such thing as "settled" science. That's the difference between, say, science and theology. People talking of "settled" science are generally seeking more funding from the public tit.

The Emily Litela "Nevermind" video came from "Yid With Lid". The Yid also has a few more excerpts from the study, which at this point can only be accessed with the proper academic credentials.

The Pipe Creek Junction Cafe - Go There. Eat Catfish.

After searching since Christmas of 1983, I have found it.
It's only 300 miles from my home in Fort Worth; therefore I shall return.

I have found a Texas restaurant with good catfish. It's called the Pipe Creek Junction Cafe. (9878 Highway 16 South, Pipe Creek, TX 78063 830-535-6767)

As a Mississippian, I was spoiled from an early age. People there know how to catch (or raise), clean, fillet, cook, and serve catfish.
In Texas, I think they confuse catfish with ground beef. Or Armadillos.

Don't tell me about yer "Catfish and Company" in North Richland Hills. It's not even close. Hold those fillets up before they're battered, and I bet you could read a newspaper through them.
Don't bring up the old Bill Martin's places that used to be just outside Tarrant County, where I think they served Mud Cats in Hush Puppy batter.
And for the love of all things holy, don't suggest the industrialized, freeze-dried mess they bounce off the platters at Long John Silver's. I once took some LJS leftovers home to the dachshunds, and they ate the stuff. But they licked their rear ends for 30 minutes trying to get the taste out of their mouths.

The Pipe Creek Junction Cafe does catfish right. The batter isn't too thick and isn't over-spiced. The fillets are thick, and are composed of an actual 1/2 catfish. (Restaurants and wholesalers screw up when they try to slice these sections in half, giving some customers the false impression that they're eating more fish. Actually, it just doubles the batter and no one is fooled except Yankees and people from Dallas.)

The go-withs at Pipe Creek are good (although it's hard to screw up corn on the cob and a baked potato). The staff seems to be all high school kids, and they leave you alone and let you read in peace while you eat. Refills on the all-you-can-eat catfish arrived promptly.

I don't think anything I ate came from a can, or spent time in a microwave, or had time to dwell under a heat lamp.

Great stuff. I'll be eating here again on my way home. It's on Highway 16 between Helotes and Bandera. The quest for good Texas catfish is over !

Now I have to find someplace other than Red, Hot & Blues with decent pork barbeque.

Picture from this guy at Flickr

Global Warming leaves the northeast, said to be "looking for more gullible nations"

If Congress intends for Kleiner-Perkins-Gore and Generation Investment Management to make money off a Global Warming bill, they better get it signed quickly.



Can you imagine the nerve of someone selling the Global Warming con, ramming it through Congress, and then having to sign it with this happening? Or this? Or how about this?


A fresh coat of Whitening to Now Hampshire for the video link.

Richard Murphy of Tax Research UK. A Fisking.

A large percentage of the stuff I read online is either wrong, insane, or propaganda for something that is wrong or insane. I argue in the comment fields of various blogs a lot, trying to change people's minds while also trying to maintain the viewpoint that we all come to our opinions because of different life experiences.

Or maybe it's just DNA.

That was before The Kitten Accounting Corps turned me onto this rhetorical nightmare at a blog called Tax Research UK. It's part of an outfit called Tax Research LLP, which helps the British government create goofy-assed tax systems.

The author, a guy named Richard Murphy, is in my opinion so deeply and profoundly wrong on so many issues that he makes my head hurt. I'm trying to find something, anything, nice to say about what he's written, so I'll affirm that Mr. Murphy's grammar and punctuation are both excellent. I'm envious.
NickM has already done a Fisking on this, but dang it, I want to get my shots in too. Every now and then you can catch a Statist saying what he really believes. In the words of Rahm Emmanuel, you don't want to let these opportunities go to waste.

So.....
I'll be needing a few tools....
Scalpel - thanks.
Laptop - got it.
Righteous Indignation - I've got plenty.
Various Free Market, Libertarian and Christian websites - check.
Copy of Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics (3rd edition) - got it.
Chainsaw - yep.
Metzenbaum scissors - check.
Let the Fisking begin ! Here's Richard Murphy with Tax Research UK.

Traffic on this blog has been very high of late.
I have noted (and those who read the comments on this blog will also have noticed) that my blogs in support of government spending – which is the only (and I stress only) way to avoid depression in the UK and other economies - have not gone down well with the libertarian community.

I'll start with the easy part first. Government spending will not help you avoid depressions. Government spending (as the current rising employment rate shows) doesn't help end depressions either. All economies have occasional recessions. Achieving a depression requires lots of people in government, all working together as a team. (See Roosevelt, F.D., and Obama, B.H. Just wait.)

They think that all tax is theft;

Yep. Taxation is a necessary evil, but it's theft all the same. If a little old lady on a fixed income doesn't pay her taxes, big men with guns will take her away and seize her assets for taxes. That's called "theft" in most circles, but it's the only way we've found to pay huge subsidies to millionaire corn farmers in Iowa.

(They think) all government activity is bad and those who win a mandate for government spending from democratic electorates are ‘statists’.

No, we don't think all government activity is bad. I believe you're thinking of the Anarchists. Libertarians generally believe that the more government activity is minimized and the more individual liberty is increased, the more society will prosper. Libertarians tend to believe that society needs a functioning courts system for the enforcement of contracts. Some libertarians believe that government should provide basic infrastructure, like roads, sewers, and an electrical grid. There are a few differences between the U.S. libertarians and the U.K. libertarians, but we tend to have the same guiding principles. And the greatest of these is smaller government.

These people – who wish to undermine society as we know it and who would end all social security, state pensions, public health services, state education and much more besides – want to overturn society as we know it.

Well, of course we do. But I wouldn't say "overturn". More like "re-turn".

As one said recently – we should rely for support on our families churches, synagogues or mosques – but not the state.

I don't know who this "one" is, but I'd like to meet him and shake his hand. Here in Fort Worth, we have BAYLOR/ALL SAINTS Medical Center, Harris METHODIST Hospital, The SALVATION Army, The PRESBYTERIAN Night Shelter, The Broadway BAPTIST Agape Meal, and numerous other programs paid for by churches, synagogues, and mosques.

This ignores the fact that many are simply outside those communities of support.

Yes, at Baylor Baptist Hospital and the Broadway Baptist Agape meal, all those in line are asked if they have accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior, following him in Believer's Full Immersion Baptism since that sprinkling stuff the Methodists do just doesn't quite wash away sin.
Does anyone really believe that people are turned away because of beliefs?

For them I suspect the workhouse would beckon.

Ah, the workhouses....

"And the Union workhouses?" demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

I hate to go into Scrooge mode, but I live in what is politely known as a "diverse" neighborhood. From time to time, people come by asking me for money. I give it to them, but usually it is after leaves are raked, street gutters washed out, etc. Does that make me evil? Who can afford perpetual handouts?

This Victorian concept of grudging charity is what these people promote – with the consequence of a random lottery of survival – and destitution for many.

Richard, Richard, Richard....we've avoided grudging charity in the U.S. for a long time. Now our government has a random lottery chance of survival - with destitution for many.

I do not believe in this callous, self interested view of life. It offends my Christian beliefs that suggest we have a duty as a society to fulfil the instruction – present in all major religions – but not in libertarianism that we love our neighbour as ourselves.

What in the hell does giving money to Barack Obama and his henchmen have to do with loving my neighbor? Can someone, anyone, please explain that for me?
Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.
Give unto God the things that are God's.
As someone named Sam Duncan pointed out on the Counting Cats site, Christian Socialism is a contradiction in terms. The welfare state is the opposite of Christian charity, not its embodiment. Taking care of each other is an individual responsibility, not a societal responsibility.
One thing I've noticed from reading and traveling. The more government provides, the less the concept of charity is respected. In China, the idea is ridiculed. In England, not quite so much. In the U.S., it's revered. I wonder why.

Of course that requires that we love ourselves and that means we have rights – and that they should be respected. But there is no way an earthy civilised society can ignore the needs of others – and tax is the way we meet this need in our modern, complex society in which expectations of medical and social support are high –and the cost of meeting them as high.

Nobody is saying that the needs of others should be ignored. Most of the large L libertarians that I know try to help meet the needs of others. But if you want to make a total mess of things? Get the large S society involved. Our "modern, complex society" will take at least .50 cents of every charitable dollar for themselves, all in the name of "compassion".

Those who say otherwise are not offering an alternative within our society – they are suggesting we tear down our society and replace it with another. In doing so they show complete contempt for many, some (most, I suggest, by far)of whom are in the positions they are through no fault at all of their own. One on this blog has called those in need ‘an underclass’.

Why not call these people "an underclass"? Who has done more, spent more, wasted more, yapped more, and done more to create a permanent underclass than The United States Government? Take the African-American underclass, for instance. If someone fifty years ago had intentionally decided to destroy the black family through legal means, could they have made things any worse than government did? I have days where I think government wants to maintain a permanent underclass just to preserve voting blocs.

Poverty was going away nicely on its own until government got involved in trying to end it.

I make clear I think this as repugnant as racism. (multiple sics)

This is where you piss me off, Richard. What does racism have to do with any of this? As I tried to post on your Comment Field, libertarians are generally opposed to racism, fascism, totalitarianism, statism, and any other doctrine that refuses to allow people to get on with their lives without interference from....you.

I would reject this language from a racist. I would reject a call from the far left to over throw society.

The act of throwing more and more money into the gaping maw of the beast isn't "society". Starving the beast isn't an overthrow.

Why is it then that this vicious, self interested and, might I suggest inherently socially violent group are allowed to make this sort of contribution –

Oh for the love of God. Vicious? Socially violent? Here's an oath you have to abide by to have decision-making power in the U.S. Libertarian Party: “I hereby certify that I do not believe in nor advocate the initiation of the use of force to achieve political or social goals.”

....as they do all over so many blogs where those with real concern for society, from across the mainstream political spectrum, seek to discuss issues in an open, rational and respectful fashion?

I'm bringing all the respect I can to this disagreement. Look at any of my recent posts where Dr. Ralph and I go at each other, hammer and tongs, no holds barred. Sometimes I win, and the other two times, Dr. Ralph wins. But if you're continually advocating ideas that should've died off during Feudalism, I suspect you're not getting much of what you think is rational, respectful discussion.

I would love, for example, to see far-right libertarians thrown off the Guardian bogs as a matter of course – which might improve their appeal to many others as a result.

Statists love an echo chamber. That's the only way their ideas can prosper.

It is time we named these people for what they are – as being amongst the enemies of civilised society.

That's a typo on your part in the 2nd half of that sentence, Richard. I like it that way. As a Libertarian,I really do find myself amongst the enemies of civilised society.

I am happy to do that. It would be good if others would do the same – and fight them as we do racists.

That's the silliest, most ineffective false analogy I've heard in a long time. Well, Richard, we're going to fight you as we do child abusers. We're going to fight you just like we fight puppy torturers. We're going to fight you the way we fought the hoodlums who stole grandmother's Bible. We're going to fight you like Luke Skywalker fought The Empire on the ice planet Hoth. We're going to fight you like we fought the.... (oops. almost broke Godwin's Law).

NB: Comments from known libertarian abusers will not be allowed on this blog entry, or any other on this site.

Please define abuse. Is it someone who disagrees with you? On this site, I delete spam. I delete comments that are off-topic. I delete stuff that crosses an arbitrary line into obscenity. I don't think I've ever allowed a racist comment (by my definition) to remain on the site. This thing is my property, and I can allow what I want on it. But those are the things I think of as abusive.

Please, please, please, let me know how you define abuse. I think it's when anyone dares to introduce other opinions into your Big State Echo Chamber.

Stop the "Art Critique Law" ! ! ! ! ! !

Procrustes and Company over at State Of Protest are rallying voters to stop the "Art Critique" law before it passes.

Email the White House ASAP, and urge President Obama not to sign this legislation ! !

Then read the comments.

A Proposal That The White House Staff Take Some Time Off. A Few Years If Necessary.

According to The Washington Post, The White House Staff are working themselves to death.

Political Washington has long fostered a workaholic culture, the expectation that the rewards of service on the big stage of national government come with 18-hour, on-call days. But even the most hardy of Obama's staff members are beginning to recognize the toll that the pace is taking.

The grueling schedule has forced most of the presidential aides to abandon physical exercise, and the few who persist -- often because of incessant goading from their fitness-fixated commander in chief -- have planned their workouts at times that stretch their schedules even further.
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel arrives at the House of Representatives gym at 5:30 a.m.; his top aide, Sarah Feinberg, starts her workout at a Water Street gym at 5:15 a.m. By 5:30 a.m., the White House Bulletin -- a compilation of political clippings from newspapers and Web sites -- appears in inboxes and on BlackBerrys, demanding attention. By 7 a.m., West Executive Drive between the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building is filled with staffers' cars.

In the meantime, The Teleprompter Jesus has admitted that despite putting aside more than 750 billion dollars for cronies, patronage, make-work projects and featherbedding in an insane rush to pass a stimulus bill, an act that put our great-grandchildren into debt, unemployment will soon reach double digits.

The workaholics at Pennsylvania Avenue have managed to hit a ONE TRILLION DOLLAR Federal deficit for the first time ever. And we're only 9 months into the fiscal year.

Much has been written on these pages and elsewhere about Congress not having time to read the thousands of pages of legislation that Owebama is throwing their way.

In the meantime, nobody is hiring. My employer, Jukt Micronics, is laying people off. There are empty chain stores and warehouses everywhere you look.

Why? Mostly because nobody knows what insane stunt The Messianic Saviors Of Us All are going to pull next. Expanding a business, or starting a business, requires a somewhat stable environment.

But look what's coming down from Washington: the Employee Free Choice Act, The Fair Labor Standards Act, a host of potential Global Warming Global Cooling Climate Change legislation designed to punish all carbon-based life forms except those which have devolved into inorganic matter. In their free time, they're working on socialized medicine, and then working night shifts at the printing presses churning out ever more worthless dollars to pay for all this crap.

This is NOT a good way to encourage people to start hiring.

That gets us to the final question, one I've seen in anti-smoking ads aimed at tobacco executives....

Don't you White House guys ever take a day off?

Please. Think of your wives, husbands and kids. (And everyone else's. They might want to spend some money on their own one day.)

Every link in this post was shamelessly ripped off from Hot Air. Pics of workaholics came from here and here and here.

Samizdata's "Quote Of The Day"

Samizdata's Quote Of The Day for July 13, 2009:

“It has always been one of libertarianism’s insights…..that massive concentrations of government power are more likely to be used to benefit other huge concentrations of wealth and power than help the needy or downtrodden…the powerful few who benefit from government action are more highly motivated to work the mechanisms of democracy to their benefit than are the masses who all pay a little – often too little in each specific case to feel it worth fighting, or even knowing about – and thus win in the democratic game of shifting property and wealth from person, or group, to another. If a government were restricted to its libertarian minimums of protecting citizens’ life and property from force and fraud, all a corporation could do is to try to sell us something and we could decide whether or not to buy. It couldn’t tax us for its benefit, raise tariffs on its competitors to make their products more expensive, subsidize bad loans or overseas expansion, or take formerly private property on the grounds that it will make more lucrative use of it than would the former owner.”

Brian Doherty, Radicals for Capitalism, page 589.

The Weekly Radley - Autotune The News

From Radley Balko's Agitator Blog:
I have no idea how those children do this, but it is BRILLIANT.

An Unlikely Rant About NOT Having To Pay Enough Taxes

From Boston.com

Say, did you hear the one about the congressman who was asked to do his job? Talk about funny - this will crack you up!
Well, maybe it won’t. But Steny Hoyer thought it was hilarious.

Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, is the majority leader in the House of Representatives. At a news conference last week, he was talking about the healthcare overhaul being drafted on Capitol Hill, and a reporter asked whether he would support a pledge committing members of Congress to read the bill before voting on it, and to make the full text of the legislation available to the public online for 72 hours before the vote takes place.

That, reported CNSNews, gave Hoyer the giggles: The majority leader “found the idea of the pledge humorous, laughing as he responded to the question. ‘I’m laughing because . . . I don’t know how long this bill is going to be, but it’s going to be a very long bill,’ he said.’’


Much like the Porkulus abortion, the Healthcare Demolition Act will be a very, very long bill. No one, I repeat, no one had time to read the final version of The Porkulus Package before voting. Ditto for the Climate Change Travesty Act of 2009.
Yes, The Teleprompter Jesus has pledged that all legislation will be posted online for a full five days before he signs it. Yes, he has broken that promise at almost every opportunity.


Is there anyone out there who 1) doesn't work for government, or 2) who is not a mainstream media hack, or 3) can read without moving his lips - who has a good reason for continuing to support this den of thieves?


Here's the reason no one has time to read what they're voting for (or against) any longer:
At the last possible minute, Pork is shovled into legislation with draglines, backhoes, front-end loaders, and illegal immigrants with shovels. Our futures are in the hands of Chicago machine politicians who are larding out favors to their buddies as quickly as possible before the citizenry awakes. Since most of the citizenry have been promised that they won't have to pay for any of this mess, the citizenry is going to remain asleep for a long, long time.


I've noticed that a lot of my friends from work, the Tarrant LP, church, guitar pickin's, or elsewhere think that I'm a rabid anti-tax nut.
Not really.
I'm in favor of everyone in the U.S. paying for all of this crap within 20 years.
I think everyone should have to write a check every month, with no witholding by employers.
Graduated scale. Streetpeople pay $1.00 per month. Bill Gates pays up to 50% of his income. Everyone else pays between 35 - 49% until we're out of debt.


If that were to happen, in the words of my friend Stephen Smith, the hardware stores would already be sold out of torches and pitchforks.


WAKE UP !

Picture of the Archie McPhee "Angry Mob Playset" came from here.

The Burning Hell, Part Seven, Dr. Bob Gray Edition

This is a picture of Dr. Bob Gray, who died in prison shortly before his pedophilia trial was scheduled to begin.

We'll get to Dr. Bob in just a moment, because another Sunday morning is here and it's time to visit the Mississippi Baptist Hell of Reverend Estus Pirkle.

Filmed in the early 1970's with the help of B-movie kings Ron and Tim Ormond, Pirkle's "The Burning Hell" scared the daylights out of every church youth group that saw it. I'm posting excerpts from the film each week because I saw the movie when I was twelve or thirteen, believed every minute of it, built a lot of my life around it, and therefore suffered extreme mental, spiritual, psychic, and emotional harm.

Now I'm getting even by parsing it every Sunday morning. This is cheaper than a psychotherapist, and causes less long-term harm to the community than climbing into a tower with an assault rifle.

To recap the previous episodes.... Two hippies, Ken and Tim, have a discussion with Brother Pirkle about the reality of hell. Their preacher has taught them that hell is only a metaphor. Pirkle disagrees. Pirkle vividly paints a picture of non-believers burning for eternity in a massive field of mud and slop. Ken and Tim object to Pirkle's reasoning and leave the church on their motorcycles.
Ken has an accident, and is decapitated.
Rather than wait around for the police or an ambulance, Tim decides to go to church.
You can hit the Pirkle label at the bottom of this post to see each episode in its entirety. Even if you're in a hurry, you've GOT to see episode #4 with the worms.
At the end of last week's clip, Pirkle was telling the biblical story of Dives and Lazarus. Lazarus was a good man who died poor. Dives had refused to give Lazarus any money, died suddenly, and woke up in hell. In the middle of last week's episode, Father Abraham, who has an unlikely "just south of Memphis" accent, was explaining to Dives why he wouldn't be able to warn Dives' family about hell. (Luke 16:19).

If you find my commentary helpful, it continues after the clip.




:00 Father Abraham, on loan from his job as a Memphis Mall Santa Claus, finishes his explanation about why warning Dives' family about hell just wouldn't be fair.

:08 The undead live and walk among us.

:50 Think about it. Let's assume there was a wealthy ruler named Dives. According to fundamentalists, Dives is STILL being Bar-B-Qued without a break for things that happened 2,000 years ago. This puts Stalin, Mao, Saddam and Hitler into perspective, doesn't it?

2:20 Pirkle: "Neither words nor pictures can describe all of (Hell's) terrors". Including that tie.

2:35 The timeline begins. Hundreds, Thousands, Billions, and Millions of years. Then comes the chart. Everyone who saw this movie remembers the decapitation, the worms, and this chart.

3:00 The chart. That's a lot of zeros.

3:40 Now we have a word from Dr. Bob Gray. (Pirkle likes to have guest preachers popping in and out of his movies.) While researching one of the previous guest speakers, Dr. Jack Hyles, I found that Dr. Hyles had been involved in some sex scandals.
What are the odds against Pirkle selecting two preachers with the same problem for one movie?

To read about Dr. Bob Gray dying in prison before his pedophilia trial could get underway, go here. (Gray pled the 5th amendment 150 times during questioning.)

To read about the fifteen women who came forward saying that Gray sexually abused them as children, go here.

To read about the church kinda knowing it had been going on for a long time, go here.

To read the best single page summary of the whole sordid mess this Witch Doctor created, go here.

Unbelieveable.

4:40 In an outbreak of Christian compassion, Pirkle tells Tim that Ken is roasting in Hell, and will be there forever.

5:00 Pirkle digs deep into the Book Of Revelation to find some of the creatures called Locusts that inhabit hell. They have the body of a horse, an iron breastplate, hair like a woman, a tail like a scorpion, and teeth from the Wal-Mart Halloween aisle.

5:50 Scenes of horror as the Mississippi Drama League portray Biblical and contemporary sinners of all ages being tortured forever. Why? Because they didn't, wouldn't, or couldn't agree that Jesus (1/3rd of a single supernatural being) was born to a virgin mother somewhere in Palestine 2,000 years ago and was killed by the Roman army in order to satisfy an obscure requirement in Jewish rituals about animal (blood) sacrifices being required for the forgiveness of sins.

6:45 The story of Cain and Abel.

7:24 Back to Dives, resting with his souvenir from Burger King.

I started posting clips from this movie as a joke, more or less. This thing really did have an impact on me when I was a kid. The more I look into it, 35 years later, the more perverse satisfaction I'm getting from learning that clowns like Jack Hyles and Bob Gray had no more spiritual or moral authority than anyone else.

Never, ever trust authority.

Proud to be there.

There's a new Libertarian blog called Mindarchy. They only have one post at this point. I have no idea if they'll be any good or not.
But look at the blogroll.

Agoraphilia
Aldente Blog
Althouse Blog
Andrew Sullivan
Cafe Hayek
Cato @ Liberty
Lew Rockwell
Libertarian Anarchy
Ordinary Gentlemen
Reason: Hit and Run
Samizdata
The Whited Sepulchure
Volokh Conspiracy

There's the lowly Whited Sepulchre blog, stuck in the middle of all those libertarian heavy hitters like Reason, Samizdata, Volokh, Sullivan, etc. It looks like one of the easier "Which One Doesn't Fit?" questions on the ACT or the SAT.
Good luck, Mindarchy, whoever you are.

The Fair Labor Standards Act

Here's the Coyote Blog on the upcoming "Fair Labor Standards Act", one of the best Orwellian Newspeak names to adorn any legislation since the "Employee Free Choice Act.

"She (Ann Althouse) goes on to describe her voyage of discovery as to why so irrational-sounding a policy might exist, but I alredy knew. To furlough exempt (meaning exempt from hourly bookkeeping) workers, they must become non-exempt. And non-exempt workers have to be paid for time worked, even if the time worked was not ordered by the employer and even if the time worked was against the wishes of the employer.

Hit both links to read the complete posts. Fellow lovers of economic rationalism, please bookmark both sites to read daily.

Here's a little ad that the goombahs are trying to keep off the air. Enjoy.



Here's something I found via Facebook, just a few minutes after posting this. It's an interactive game.
My favorite line, which I've heard uttered by at least two YRC Worldwide drivers when describing sign-up tactics: "That's a really nice car you've got in the parking lot. I'd hate to see anything happen to it."

"Zeal For Truth" on the minimum wage

Colin at Zeal For Truth on the minimum wage:

I wasn’t surprised to see that Oregon’s unemployment numbers have steadily risen over the past five years. I’m even less surprised that it has reached a whopping 12.4% and is second in the country.

A lot of people will point to the recession as the chief culprit for high unemployment - not merely in Oregon, but around the world. And while it is true that businesses closing puts immediate pressure on unemployment figures, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

The state of Oregon, for example, decided to tie the minimum wage to rising prices in 2004. This was put to the voters as a way to “lift all boats” in a rising tide of wage-increase and general prosperity. It was argued that the poorest would benefit as employers were forced to pay them more and that the increased wages would stimulate the economy.

Oregon now has the second highest minimum wage and the second highest unemployment rate (behind Michigan). These two statistics are directly correlated. The minimum wage is not a rising tide that lifts all boats - rather it is a barrier over which one has to jump to get a job. Raising the minimum wage does not force employers to pay their employees more - rather, it forces them to fire anyone who is not productive enough to earn for them at least their worth in the new minimum wage....

Go here to read the rest of the piece. I like these folks.
Go here to read about the ridiculously high levels of teenage unemployment and why government is to blame.
Go here to read a series of predictions that this would happen. Not that I like it or anything.

What kind of LIbertarian are you?

A guy named Peter Suderman has an interesting post up at the Reason magazine site....

Tyler Cowen reads Tom Palmer's new book on libertarianism and identifies five primary strands:

1. Cato-influenced (for lack of a better word). There is an orthodox reading of what "being libertarian" means, defined by the troika of free markets, non-interventionism, and civil liberties. It is based on individual rights but does not insist on anarchism. A ruling principle is that libertarians should not endorse state interventions. I read Palmer's book as belonging to this tradition, broadly speaking.

2. Rothbardian anarchism. Free-market protection agencies will replace government-as-we-know-it. War is evil and the problems of anarchy pale in comparison. David Friedman offered a more utilitarian-sounding version of this approach, shorn of Misesian influence.

3. Mises Institute nationalism. Gold standard, a priori reasoning, monetary apocalypse, and suspicious of immigration because maybe private landowners would not have let those people into their living rooms.

4. Jeff Friedman and Critical Review: Everything is up for grabs, let's be consequentialists and focus on the welfare state because that's where the action is. Marx is dead. The case for some version of libertarianism ultimately rests upon voter ignorance and, dare I say it, voter irrationality.

5. "Hayek libertarianism." All or most of the great libertarian thinkers are ultimately compatible with each other and we have a big tent of all sorts of classical liberal ideas. Hayek and Friedman are the chosen "public faces" of this approach. "There's a classical liberal tradition and classical liberal values and we can be fuzzy on a lot of other things."

These people at Zeal For Truth have added a few more:

Left-libertarian - sceptical of capitalism and corporatism, and possibly even private property.

6. Ron Paul bots - these guys are “libertarians” in that in their support of Ron Paul - probably because he was against the war - has blossomed into a general hate of the federal reserve. These are big on the constitution and “patriotism” and can be seen yelling at rallies or harrasing border guards.

7. Fake libertarians - Guys like Larry Elder and Ronald Regan. Anyone who calls themself a “republitarian.” Conservatives who happen to be a little more “free market” than your standard compassionate religious nut.

8. Libertarians who don’t know it or won’t admit it - People from the left and right who don’t to be associated with libertarians because of one of these groups, but hold a lot of libertarian beliefs.

9. Objectivists - Generally pro-war, radically atheist. Argues for “objective” standards of value (rather than subjective as in the Austrian school). Big on selfishness and a sceptical of utilitarianism.

10. Penn and Teller libertarians - Slightly left-ish, cynical and embracing libertarianism at least, in part, for it’s hedonistic/rebellious appeal. This is who conservatives think of when they realise we don’t like the war on drugs.

I like to think that I'm from the Hayek/Friedman wing. Am looking forward to seeing how TLG, Browncoat and others define themselves.

Paul Coelho - The Witch of Portobello

"As a historian, I attempt to collate all the data and analyze this confrontation between the freedom to worship and the duty to obey, between the God who controls the world and the Goddess who is part of the world, between people who join together in groups where celebration is a spontaneous affair and those who close ranks and learn only what they should and should not do."

"If God is mother, then we need only gather together with other people and adore her through rituals intended to satisfy the female soul, rituals involving dance, fire, water, air, earth, songs, music, flowers, and beauty. This has been a growing trend over the last few years. We may be witnessing a very important moment in the history of the world, when the Spirit finally emerges with the Material, and the two are united and transformed. At the same time, I imagine that there will be a very violent reaction from organized religious institutions, which are beginning to lose their followers. There will be a rise in fundamentalism."

"Anyone who believes they have failed will always fail. Anyone who has decided that they cannot behave any differently will be destroyed by routine. Anyone who has decided to block all changes will be transformed into dust. Cursed be those who do not dance and who prevent others from dancing."

- Paul Coelho, The Witch of Portobello

Caption Contest - Family Photo Edition

I need a caption for this family portrait.

The good people at Southeastern Freight (great rates to every state that seceded !) won last week's contest.

The Libertarian Party Of Texas And Toll Roads

From my new friend Robert Butler, the Executive Director of the Texas Libertarian Party:

Libertarians Put the Brakes on Toll Road Transportation Bill

Twitter and Facebook Play a Role

AUSTIN, TEXAS - July 2, 2009 - The Texas Legislature left a controversial new toll road bill pending in committee today and Libertarians are claiming a major victory in stopping a billion dollar scheme to use taxes and pension funds to pay for private monopolies and foreign management of Texas toll roads.

I don't have a problem with foreign management of anything. The best factories in China sometimes have Taiwanese management. I recently had to go to the Tarrant County Department Of Motor Vehicles, and that place could've been better managed with 1970's Soviet-influenced Bulgarian Bureaucrats. Sheesh. Someone remind me to do a post about the DOMV Chair Nazi.

But if outsiders can do the job for less, bring 'em on. Unless, of course, there's a monopoly.

Oh, wait....there's a monopoly.

Libertarians worked together with TURF, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, and Texans for Accountable Government (TAG), to stop what some have dubbed the largest tax increase in Texas history.

Robert is new to us, and is still learning our ways and our habits. The largest tax increase in Texas history hasn't been formally legislated. It's coming in the form of printing money to pay government expenses, and will show up in your neighborhood soon. But I'm quibbling here.

I like those TURF and TAG acronyms. Someone should start a group called "Never Open -Super Highways In Texas".

On Wednesday morning, Libertarians from across the state converged at the Texas Capitol, emailed, and called their state representatives to demand that public-private partnerships funded with Texas tax dollars and pension funds be stopped.

According to many Fundamentalist, Foot-Washing, Snake-Handling, Speaking-In-Tongues Libertarians, toll roads are a fundamentally good thing. It's when Austin takes your money and gives it to Company X for the development of toll roads that toll roads become a problem. If they are such a good idea, let Company X use their own money.

"We used our extensive email lists, Twitter, and Facebook accounts to activate thousands of freedom-loving Texans," said LPT Executive Director Robert Butler. "Our people called, emailed, and personally visited every member of the House and Senate. Our press conference and grassroots effort had a major impact in potentially killing this bill. We have to continue our public awareness campaign until the special session officially ends."

"Credit goes to the work of our staff and volunteers for discovering the ugly details behind this legislation," said Libertarian State Chair Patrick Dixon. "For an organization with just over $100k in revenue, we certainly do have an impact on policy."

A word about Patrick Dixon: Patrick is probably the most efficient human in the state of Texas. Watching him run a meeting is a delight (for the first three hours, anyway). I'd like to see Patrick and Kathy Madeja do a Parliamentary Procedure steel cage deathmatch smackdown.

And speaking of organizations with just over $100K in revenue....if you're worried about the way Owebama is spending money, but can't quite find a way to get behind the Republicans? Send us some money. We need it. There aren't a lot of us, but we make a lot of noise.

"Toll roads cost up to twice as much to build as non-tolled expressways," said LPT Executive Director Robert Butler. "The toll roads aren't a free market privatization plan. You're granting monopoly rights to private operators. The bonds backing these toll roads have clauses that prevent competition and are guaranteed with tax dollars."

To hell with anything that prevents competition, and that's an official position statement.

In 2005, the State of Texas entered a 50-year agreement with a Spanish company named Cintra to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor, a 4,000-mile network up to 1,200 feet wide to carry parallel links of tollways, rails, and utility lines. Cintra's parent company, Grupo Ferrovial, S.A, was a major collaborator with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and depends upon its political connections to secure toll road contracts around the world.

Does the state of Texas already own this land? Nope. Texas would have had to take it via Eminent Domain. Not good. Property rights are something that distinguish the U.S. from governments like, well, Francisco Franco's.

In 2007, by a combined vote of 169-5, the Texas Legislature passed a moratorium on private toll contracts, called comprehensive development agreements (or CDAs) that privatize and sell Texas highways to the highest bidder. That moratorium ends August 31, 2009, and CDAs, except for approximately a dozen projects that were exempted, sunset with it. CDAs are the primary financial vehicle used to construct the Trans Texas Corridor.

Will Texas taxpayers get a check in the mail if a highway is ever sold? Will we get to set a "minimum bid"?

"I want to cut taxes and spending," declared Libertarian activist Wes Benedict. "They have refused to approve low-cost road improvements claiming they don't have the funds, then propose rail and toll roads which cost up to ten times more than buses and non-tolled roads per passenger mile of added capacity. Light rail and toll roads cost too much and do too little."
"We Libertarians and our friends at TURF and TAG have shown that an educated voter can change the course of legislation." noted Butler. "This bill will be a litmus test in the 2010 elections, we'll make sure of that.

And let's hope the people at TURF and TAG don't forget their allies at "Never Open Super Highways In Texas".

For Liberty,

Robert Butler
Executive Director
Libertarian Party of Texas
http://lptexas.org/

P.S. - Robert, I do this kind of thing a lot. You'll get used to it. Great job, sir ! ! !

Dallas and Tarrant Libertarian Party at the Vans Warped Tour

The Tarrant and Dallas County Libertarians joined forces to staff a booth at this year's Vans Warped tour. (Previous headliners at Vans Warped include No Doubt, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Rancid, Blink-182, Eminem, Good Charlotte, and well, you get the idea.)

Here's some video by John Jay Myers, the Dallas LP chair. Big Daddy John Spivey, the Tarrant LP chair (and "Tarrant Liberty Guy" on these pages) is in the red shirt.



Why, you ask, would the Libertarians spend a day peddling T-shirts, bumperstickers, and handing out political alignment questionnaires to a bunch of kids?

Because the kids are the ones who will eventually have to pay for the mess created by their parents, and the parents have already been co-opted by the system, and therefore are beyond hope. The sooner these little Mall Rats figure out the Hope 'n' Change scam, the better off they'll be.

And The Lion Shall Lie Down With The Lamb

In which Dr. Ralph and I hang out at a 4th of July parade....
Faces have been changed as a part of The Dr's witness protection program agreement.

The Burning Hell, Part Six, Songs For Children edition

Another Sunday is upon us. That means it's time to visit the wonderful world of Reverend Estus Pirkle.
Back in the early 1970's, Pirkle's "The Burning Hell" terrified the crap out of every church youth group in the southeast. I'm posting excerpts from the film each week because I saw the movie when I was twelve or thirteen, believed every minute of it, built a lot of my life around it, and therefore suffered extreme mental, spiritual, psychic, and emotional harm.

Now I'm getting even by ripping the lid off of it every Sunday morning. This is cheaper than a psychotherapist.

To recap the previous episodes.... Two hippies, Ken and Tim, have a discussion with Brother Pirkle about the reality of hell. Their preacher has taught them that hell is only a metaphor. Pirkle disagrees. Pirkle vividly paints a picture of non-believers burning for eternity in a massive field of mud and slop. Ken and Tim object to Pirkle's reasoning and leave the church on their motorcycles.
Ken has an accident, and is decapitated.
Rather than wait around for the police or an ambulance, Tim decides to go to church.
You can hit the Pirkle label at the bottom of this post to see each episode in its entirety. Even if you're in a hurry, you've GOT to see episode #4 with the worms.
At the end of last week's clip, Pirkle was telling the biblical story of Dives and Lazarus (Luke 16:19).
If you find my commentary helpful, it continues after the clip.




:01 Wild debauchery, as conceived and filmed in a 1973 Myrtle Mississippi Baptist fellowship hall. The candlesticks have appeared in two generations of wedding photos. Check out Mrs. Dives at the :12 mark - her tiara betrays her as an Ole Miss Tri-Delta pledge.

1:45 The screenplay of Pirkle, the directing of B-movie king Ron Ormond, the acting of The Mississippi thespians, and the music of Handel. Which one doesn't fit?

2:10 Lazarus discovers that in the next life, everyone gets a pre-resurrection shave.

3:05 The Santa Claus beard is pressed back into service, and this time Abraham is wearing it. The shots of heaven were filmed in whichever Magnolia State property got "Yard Of The Month" during production.

4:29 Proof that at least two trips were made to Burger King.

4:40 The Roman soldier has a Pavolovian response to the wine. Priceless editing.

5:15 The Dives Funeral - "Mr. Dives was a personal friend of mine...." "and while he was not faithful to attend many of the services...." "I'm sure that God understands that he was a busy man" All of these are straw men that Pirkle is about to kick over. Plus, how many kings are addressed as "Mr" ????

5:50 Dives in hell. "Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame".
This doesn't sound like a typical Jesus parable, does it? The folks at The Jesus Seminar, my go-to guys for biblical scholarship, are divided on whether it's authentic. The doctrine of salvation through faith hadn't yet been developed by Paul, and John 3:16 wouldn't be written down for another 60 years after the death of Jesus. So who knows?

The story did inspire a catchy African-American spiritual called "Poor Man Lazrus". The lyrics are as follows:

Poor man Lazrus sick and disabled. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, 'cause I'm tormented in the flame. He had to eat crumbs from the rich man's table. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, ‘cause I'm tormented in the flame.

Chorus:
I'm tormented in the flame. I'm tormented in the flame.
Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue,
'cause I'm tormented in the flame.

Rich man Divies he lived so well. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, 'cause I'm tormented in the flame. And when he died he went straight to hell. Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, 'cause I'm tormented in the flame. (Chorus)

I love to shout, I love to sing! Dip your finger in the water, come and, cool my tongue, 'cause I'm tormented in the flame.

Jester Hairston, the great choral composer, did the best arrangement of the song. Here's the Asbury College Men's Glee Club singing in the college chapel service. Kinda like singing an upbeat ditty about Abu Ghraib.

6:30 Tim remains in the congregation listening to Pirkle explain why it is that who goes where in the next life.

6:40 Dives asks for another chance, just to warn his family about the dangers of THE BURNING HELL.

7:00 Abraham shoots him down. In full Faulkner/Tennessee Williams mode, the father of his race says "They hayuv Moses 'n' thuh prophets. Let theyum hear theyum. If they heer not Moses 'n' thuh prophets,,,,

To hear what other words of comfort Father Abraham said to the burning Dives, come back next Sunday.