The Weekly Enlightenment

Another slow week, and to be honest I have been a little detached since the Thanksgiving break. No worries it will be better next week.

MUST READ
* Henry Waxman saying that government will need to help shape US media. This should worry everyone out there. The talk right now is just about bailing out newspapers, but when have you known government to stop at anything, especially the federal government? I know Waxman knows about the new media emerging on the internet, and people like him just simply don't like it.
* Howard Dean declares the debate between capitalism and socialism is over. Seems to be a common theme among Democrats calling the debate over.
* The science of climate change is not settled.
* Every Minnesotan should be outraged by this. Deciding who should be teachers, not on how well they teach, but how well they adopt leftist principles.
* Peer-reviewed studies. Some are saying that if their is fraud in the climate change research, peer-reviewed research will expose it. Except that, in this case, from the leaked emails, it was clear the peer-review process had been manipulated by them.

What Health Care Problem?
* Notice a couple things with this article. First, the article talks about the Senate approving "free" mammograms for women. Does that mean that it now doesn't cost anything? Of course not. Insurance companies will have to raise rates on other procedures. Do it enough, and you will see fewer and fewer insurance companies in business. Second, last week didn't we hear HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius downplay the mammogram at age 50? Now we see the Senate using that as a hammer to try to enforce policy. Imagine what will happen when we are all in the government plan.

Global Warming Hoax
* A defense of the incandescent light bulb, also possibly exposing some myths about claims made regarding the compact fluorescent.
* Remember all the ethanol that Congress mandated on gasoline refiners? Turns out, it won't be used. As the authors point out, if they could get that wrong, how easy would it be for them to get something big wrong on health care? Or any subject? Note the underlying problem here. When not in a free market, special interests win out, not what is in the best interest of the country or the people. Not to worry though. When more cars fail because of this, government will step in to prop up a "failing business model".
* The IPCC head, on one hand saying the leaked emails will do no harm, and on the other saying we need to tax unsustainable lifestyles. A truer tyrant one cannot find. Except perhaps Al Gore.
* Take into account the previous article about the climate debate not being over, and then witness more and more hysteria about how many people will die due to it. According to climate scientists, is there any disaster that cannot be contributed to climate change?

Can't Win a War This Way
* Navy SEALS, putting their lives on the line, being charged for punching a terrorist in the face. We have decided we will NOT pull out all stops when waging this war while the enemy uses our own system against us.

A Bit of Humor
* Wow. Environmentalists pound nails into trees to prevent a little logging (possibly), resulting in all of the trees being cut down for safety concerns.

Notice a Pattern?

Anyone else notice a pattern with Obama of consistently setting goals for himself and the country that are completely unmeasurable?

First it was the "create or save" jobs. Everyone admitted there was no way this could possibly be counted. What counts as a saved job?

Next it was the stimulus money, much of which isn't even stimulus. How do we decide that it has done good? So far the only standard is those in favor it saying that it would have been worse without it.

Now Obama has agreed with other G-8 leaders to reduce global warming by 3 degrees over the next...probably 100 years. Again, how is this to be measured? If the temperature does rise by 3 degrees it will be said then it would have raised 6 degrees (i.e. they underestimated how bad it was).

Finally, there is a debate about a second stimulus. Warren Buffett is apparently calling for one as well. Put aside where the money comes from (either taxpayers or you print the money), but how will we measure if it works or not?

Of course, I have already alluded to it, but the common thread among these is the answer is always that it would have been much worse had we not done anything. Obviously this makes sense from a political standpoint, as you cannot be accused of doing nothing, but I thought we were going to get a big dose of hope and change.

The Weekly Enlightenment

Happy 4th of July! Iraq and Afghanistan have taken the backseat as of late, given the domestic policies Obama is pushing, but we should always remember those who fight for us. Many have given the ultimate sacrifice and deserve our utmost gratitude and support as they continue to fight for us. Many times it seems we only honor them on holidays, which is very unfortunate. May God watch over them, and may God continue to bless the United States.

This week seemed a bit slower as far as news was concerned. My favorite comment of the entire week came from Rush Limbaugh. He said the two most meaningless words in the Obama administration are "Obama said". They do seem to be pretty unreliable. Even now, though Obama said the unemployment rate wouldn't creep beyond 8% if we passed the stimulus, the unemployment rate is 9.5%. Instead of making one think perhaps their policies aren't working, Biden came out saying they underestimated how bad the economic situation was. Seems like another veiled attempt at blaming Bush.

Health Care
* Obama pretends that costs have been rising for no good reason. Of course there is a lot more advancement, especially in technology, which is expensive. It is also funny when they say the free market has failed, when government intervention has never been worse. Let's reform it!
* Massachusetts is not a good model to copy.
* A great article about the horrors of Canadian and British health care.

Silly Liberals
* No surprise, but Obama's townhalls are staged. Worse yet, one of the participants was given a pass from the White House. Is there no level Obama won't stoop to?
* 50 reasons to stop the Waxman-Markey bill.

What Global Warming?
* The EPA tried to suppress a skeptical report regarding the science of global warming. Strange. I thought Obama was going to be a friend to science. And naturally, the U.S. media ignores it.
* Remember that the plan from Democrats has always been higher prices.
* Remember this when Al Gore and the like claim a consensus.

Iraq
* Well, the Iraqi military is taking over major cities. Naturally Obama is trying to take credit for it, as are many Democrats, though they opposed Bush every step of the way.

Around the World
* It was Zelaya, not the military, that was attempting a coup. Too bad our media won't report the details.