If we don't stop climate change in the next 10 minutes, it's all over

Barmy Prince Charlie says about climate change, "The world has only seven years before we lose the levers of control." British Prime Minister pro tem Gordon Brown was quoted about 49 days ago as saying in connection with climate change, "We have 50 days to change the world."

Mr Brown spoke of a looming 'catastrophe' which, if not dealt with, 'would be greater than the impact of both World Wars and the Great Depression combined'.

The sheer complacency of these gentlemen is beyond belief, a testament to leaders' unwillingness to face the inconvenient truth. And ordinary, salt-of-Gaia folks are no better. They're worried about trivia like Obama's spending binges, the morphing of republics into state directorates, and the West being colonized by the Third World at the urging of western governments.

Let's see, when did I start writing this? About nine minutes ago, was it? Or earlier? Anyway, I'd just like to add one more

The sea cat

Let's face it: reading blogs, like reading newspapers or watching TV news, can be pretty depressing. The news is mainly about bad stuff ("If it bleeds, it leads"). Bloggers are most inspired — well, most energetic — when they're angry, critical, viewing with alarm. Too much of it can bring down the blogger or the blogged.

So here's a story that's both remarkable and heartening. From the Daily Mail:

A pet cat who went missing when let out for a night-time stroll has been reunited with his owners - after hopping on a ferry and enjoying a 1,400 mile round-trip to Spain.

Ginger tom Sandi was discovered by stunned ferry staff under a lorry as they prepared to unload the Pride of Bilbao, which had travelled from Portsmouth, Hampshire.

Crewmembers took Sandi to a veterinarian, who identified him from an embedded microchip. His owners in England were located, and he received a return trip courtesy of the carrier, P & O Lines. Not only that: on the way back, Sandi got the red carpet treatment.

For the return journey he was fed a special menu of salmon, chicken and milk and had an ensuite cabin with sea view, which usually costs up to £266. Crew members paid hourly visits to his room during the 36 hour sailing to give him a stroke and to ensure he remained comfortable.

They gave him his own pillow and donated one of their warm jackets. And the ship's captain, Alastair McFadyen, even found time to visit the stowaway.

So Sandi is back home after an adventure, a happy ending.

Yes, I expect the P & O public relations office jumped at the chance for favorable publicity and arranged the de luxe accommodations. Who cares? Everyone involved in this did what was right for the cat, and more than they had to.

At their best, humans are a Grade A species.

The brink

Paul Volcker administered strong medicine to the U.S. economy when he was the Fed Chairman in 1979, driving interest rates to 20 percent to slay the dragon of inflation. Today, he thinks, banks still have their golden parachutes and regulators are doing nothing to prevent the next debacle. (Tip of the hat: P.W. Bailey's What Is That Whistling Sound?)

Paul A. Volcker visited nine cities in five countries in the past eight weeks to warn that bankers and regulators “have not come anywhere close to responding with necessary vigor” to the worst economic crisis in 70 years. …

Two years after the start of the deepest recession since the 1930s, no U.S. or European authority has put in force a single measure that would transform the financial system, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. No rule- or law-making body is actively considering the automatic dismantling of banks that Volcker told Congress are sheltered by access to an implicit safety net.

Bailey comments:

After being brought in as an advisor to the Obama administration, Paul Volcker has discovered his appointment was for appearance only. Volcker's warnings have been repeatedly dismissed and ignored by policy makers in the US and Europe. Volcker understands the risks to the system that are building threaten to disrupt the global economic system. Economic heavyweights Joseph Stiglitz and Simon Johnson of MIT have thrown their support behind his proposed reforms. The issue is a lack of political will to do "the right thing".

If the high level of leverage remains in the system, with banks and financial institutions failing to build adequate reserves and increase Tier 1 capital, a major crisis is inevitable. The path governments and central banks are on that, to quote Volcker, "brought us to the brink of a great depression", pushes us past the brink, and into the abyss.

But it's doubtful that just passing more laws and creating another layer of bureaucratic oversight will help the U.S.S. Titanic dodge the iceberg. Much more important is what he told a college audience, that "we need to produce more, spend less." It should be obvious by now that you can't endlessly base an economy on credit, people borrowing to buy things, the government borrowing from foreign countries to finance its own debt.

Far from learning anything from the past two years, the Obama Gang has been determined to rebuild the house of cards. Whether out of ignorance, short-term political advantage, or a deep if perhaps unconscious desire to destroy a country he is alienated from, our spender-in-chief is ignoring the economic facts of life.

The only real path to prosperity is to create wealth by producing goods and services that can be sold at a profit. The process can't be short-circuited by creating yet more debt, and it certainly can't work by squeezing "the rich" (however that is defined) and the middle class and redistributing the proceeds through various welfare state programs.

Leaving to one side the moral aspects of government larceny, the very rich won't put up with it — they'll simply find ways to keep their money outside the system or the country. The middle class can be bled white, but at the cost of destroying the nation's economic backbone.

Before long, there'll be no wealth to spread around. It's happened elsewhere often enough, mostly in countries with Marxist governments. We have no special mandate from Heaven to protect us from radical leftist politicians.

To return to fiscal sanity, we shouldn't be thinking about what to do. We should be thinking about what not to do. More specifically, what not to spend (borrowed) money on.

We need to recognize that subsidies and programs that might — or might not — be good in themselves are collectively dragging us down. We need to curb our appetite for all kinds of spending, even when it's "useful" to some part of the population. The U.S. needs to go on an appropriation crash diet.

Strong medicine: Put many federal agencies out of business. Cut the number of federal employees by half. Take the central government's dead hand out of education. Use the armed forces for the purpose they were designed for, national defense, not refereeing fights between Muslim death squads in Kulawiznistan.

Quit taxing the American citizens to pay for illegal immigrant women ejecting their anchor babies. Stop giving out green cards and HB-1 visas for foreigners to replace U.S. workers.

We can think of hundreds more things to not spend money we don't have on. But that means we have to think. And stand up to the Washington vote-buying machine.



12.17 Karl Denninger, the fire-breathing economics blogger, is thinking along the same lines. (I had not seen his post before I wrote mine, above.) He tells Congress:

I stand impressed that you got away with this for as long as you did, but I also stand behind the view I expressed in 2007 - that the root problem is an excessive level of debt in the system at all levels, a level of debt that exceeds capacity to pay, and as a consequence any and all attempts to restart the credit-driven consumption economy would fail, and if pressed too far the government will fail.

The evidence strongly suggests that you are getting awfully close to your last chance to stop being stupid before the market hands you a lesson that has the potential to destroy both our economy and government.

Denninger is something of a sensationalist, so don't fall on your sword yet. But his posting is worth considering.

Behold, a mystery

Behold, I show you a mystery;
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.

— 1st Corinthians 15

I do my best to stay out of stores and, particularly, malls in Christmas shopping season. Online shopping sites are a godsend for buying presents while running out the clock until it is safe again.

It's not only because of the crowds, which drive me spare, but also because of cliché Christmas music meant to put you in a buying mood. Yet it's unavoidable; it pours out in Safeway, CVS, radio stations highbrow and lowbrow, and probably from those terrible gas pumps that play commercials while you fill your car's tank.

This year I've noticed something, although it may have been a trend for some time that never registered on me. The Christmas tunes, in line with the best PC orthodoxy, have been scoured of religious content. No "Come, all ye faithful … " that I've noticed. (Come to think of it, no "White Christmas," either!) Instead, lots of insipid jingle bells, dashing through the snow.

But the song I believe I've heard the most this year is "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Not only the original Brenda Lee version — unfortunately, almost the only thing that considerably talented young lady is remembered for today — but two or three other "updated" recordings as well, which suggests that it fills a felt need in the merchandising world.

Now this is not going to be another of those pieces decrying the commercialization of Christmas. We live in a commercial culture and, if stores must make the most of it to stay in business, nothing anyone says is going to make a dime's difference.

But we, as individuals and families, still have a choice in how we relate to the holiday.

For most people, it's an occasion for decorating, family gatherings, and partying. Nothing wrong with that. But Christmas, like all holidays that are tied (however frayed the connection) with religions or ancient traditions, gains in worth when it reminds us of the mysteries of our existence.

This has nothing to do with any particular creed or interpretation. Our long-ago ancestors were poorer and worse off in many ways than we are, but they partook of one source of inspiration that we have nearly lost. Their world was full of things, dead to us, that were of the greatest psychological and spiritual meaning.

The sun and moon weren't bodies of fire and ash, they represented different aspects of the psyche. The wind came from Boreas or Zephyros, not a pressure differential or something (those of us who aren't meteorologists aren't quite sure). Shakespeare's Duke in As You Like It found "tongues in trees, books in the running brooks/Sermons in stones, and good in everything."

Once in a while, such feelings drill through the routine and scientific materialism of our modern world. Not many people can observe the bud exploding into a flower or leaf in spring without an inkling that they have witnessed a mystery, though the botanists can explain it in purely scientific language.

Such language is useful, for scientists and often for laymen as well, on one level. But it doesn't get to the heart of things, for all its endless detail. Why are you seated in your chair, rather than floating around the room (unless you are reading this in a space station)? Gravity. What's that? It's a word etymologically derived from heaviness. Why are you heavy? The force of gravity. You're heavy because you're heavy. To my knowledge, no scientist has explained why objects are attracted to one another in specific ways, exquisitely balanced by the tendency to fly apart through centripetal force.

Let us use this ancient festival of Christmas to remind ourselves that behind the phenomena of life are the numina — or if that's too fancy a word, meanings that hide from us most of the time.

How can there be billions and billions of snowflakes, no two of them identical?

Where do words go after they're spoken?

How do the young become the old?

I haven't the answers, and even if I did, they wouldn't be answers for you, unless you found them. Only behold, I show you a mystery.

New stimulus: unemployment compensation for rejected jihadis?

Five American Muslims arrested in Pakistan tried to join al-Qaeda but were rejected because they had no references from trusted militants, according to police. Police said the men, ranging in age from 19 to 25, wanted to join militants in Pakistan's tribal area before crossing into Afghanistan and had met two banned military organisations. … One of the men, Ramy Zamzam, is a dental student at Washington's Howard University.

— The Scotsman, December 11

Welcome, brother! Sit down please, Ramy.

Thank you, my brother.

I have been looking over your résumé. Your grades in dental school are very promising. However, it appears you wish to change careers. Is dental work no longer a promising field?

It is not satisfying, my brother. Even the occasional opportunity to yank an infidel's tooth from his head is not enough to meet my aspirations.

And your aspiration is …

Death to those who do not follow the Prophet (pbuh)!

That is very commendable, Ramy. However, I must tell you that our organization has been overwhelmed lately with those who have been impelled to jihad. I am afraid that many do not have the skill set we need. As the Prophet's predecessor said, many are called but few are chosen.

But brother, I am prepared to martyr myself for the cause.

Ramy, please do not take this amiss. But we have martyrdom volunteers surplus to requirements. We must keep self-immolation to a reasonable schedule. At a ratio of 72:1, the virgins in Paradise will go on strike if we lumber them with too many warriors in too limited a time.

(Heatedly) My brother, how can you make such a jest?

Salam, Ramy, calm down. I have been at this insurgency business for years. It can be grim at times. The Prophet does not look askance at a little humor.

Now, I am not saying we do not have a stand-by list for martyrdom. You could, if selected, work your way to the head of the queue one fine day. But you must be qualified and thoroughly vetted. We are not an equal opportunity employer. We have no affirmative action suicide bombers. It is my duty to determine your ideological fitness.

Now, your résumé lists as references Felix Pullquote, DDS, and Marionette Carpool, DDS. These are not Arabic names, my brother. Are they converts?

Er, no, I am afraid not, sir. Dar al-Islam has not yet penetrated the Dental School.

Ramy, I have a suggestion. Why don't you join the U.S. Army? They are panting for what they call "diversity," and would welcome you. Get some experience with weapons and explosives. Thank you for stopping by. Give me a call in five years.

Even the dead aren't safe in Europe

The Belgian web site Le Soir asks: Taboo on crosses in cemeteries?

Supposedly it's about separation of church and state. Actually it's about separation of body and soul. The Belgian bureaucratic elite want their subjects to have no God other than the state.

The deck under the headline says (my translation):

The Senate Commission of Institutional Affairs [could there be a more pompous title?] on Thursday will open consideration of a law proposed by Senator Philippe Mahoux on strict application of the separation between church and state. The text is aimed at official solemnities like the annual Te Deum. The neutrality should also be expressed in cemeteries …

According to the proposed law

The communal parts of cemeteries [where people of different religions are interred?] would have to strictly respect the principle of neutrality, which would mean for example a ban on placing crosses in these communal parts.

How does a cross on a tombstone violate separation of church and state? What does it have to do with the state's "neutrality" in religious matters? Apparently, that individuals — even when all that was mortal of them is placed in the ground — must be "neutral" as well.

Has anyone complained about the crosses? Unlikely. Even scientific materialists aren't so fanatical as to want to deprive the faithful of their practices. Probably Senator Mahoux and his ilk are bothered about Muslims being offended. But Muslims are hardly going to share a graveyard with infidels, and if they're offended by seeing crosses, sod them.

For all the European mandarins' attempts to efface traditional Christianity, crosses, some hundreds of years old, remain in cemeteries. Will the law require all existing crosses to be removed from tombs, or will those from earlier times be allowed via — wordplay coming — a "grandfather" clause?

Political issues aside, one of the plagues of contemporary government is utopian abstraction. In one form, it means taking a reasonable, even beneficent, idea such as separation of church and state and pushing it to a ludicrous extreme. There can be no exceptions, however time-honored or innocent. The law must have its pound of flesh. The principle becomes absolute, the human consequences irrelevant.

The absolutists now dominate in Europe. All that differentiates them from the absolute monarchs of the 16th century is that the power over the lives of their subjects has been distributed a little, shared by an oligarchic class.



12.12. A further thought, perhaps the true explanation of this state-sponsored vandalism, popped into my head without advance notice. Such a twisted concept of the separation of church and state arises in the pseudo-country of Belgium, where the E.U. headquarters is located, because the political elite have their own definition of the state.

To wit: the state is not a government limited to specific powers, as many people (but few politicians) in the United States still believe. Rather, in the soft totalitarianism of the U.K. and the E.U., individual preferences are permitted only insofar as they are acceptable to the state. The state is embarrassed by crosses in a graveyard because they do not fit with the universalism and homogeneity demanded by cultural Marxism.

The cross represents, at least ideally, a personal spiritual choice, made not in offices and meeting chambers in Brussels, but in the mysterious depths of the human heart. It is not a place that those who worship the state visit often, or ever.