Fractured Definition

Balderdash — a short race restricted to men who are more hirsute deficient

Little Bighorn

The Republican Party is holding a retreat on the shores of the scenic Chesapeake Bay … a meeting whose stated purpose is to solidify the Republican position on immigration.  It appears that the Republican leadership, as prodded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that Democratic Svengali, Chuck Schumer, and many in the old-guard Republican establishment, would very much like to pass an immigration reform bill this year.  

The stated objective for this immigration reform (read "concession") is that it will persuade many Hispanics to pull the voting lever for them in future elections.  Balderdash!  This would clearly be an unforced error … a Waterloo … a Donnybrook … a Little Bighorn … a Pickett’s Charge … a retreat retreat if you will.

Fortunately, as the GOP leadership is discovering in between bites of Maryland blue crab, that something like three-quarters of their House Republicans don’t buy this silly logic … and are pushing back.  I have in the past explained why I think that the Republican leaderships’ rationales are flawed … and I repeat them here from my Carrying Water in a Sieve blog.  These misconceptions are:

1)       Illegal immigrants will come forward to take advantage of this path to citizenship of whatever form it takes.  Think about it … why would you as an illegal immigrant … living in the shadows and getting many if not most of the benefits of citizenship, come forward and get your name entered in a database that would possibly take away some of these benefits and/or get the Internal Revenue Service on your trail to pay taxes and/or fines (see: The Daily Beast Story)? By staying in the shadows, it is also reasonable to assume that any onerous aspects of being “illegal” will be ameliorated by President Obama and any future Democrat administrations … witness the above-mentioned executive order last summer.  Thus, the status quo has a very attractive appeal to this class on non-citizen. With something like the Dream Act, they might even be required to learn English for heavens sake! 

2)       Illegal immigrants, as an indication of gratitude for their efforts, might vote in greater percentages for Republicans than such Hispanics and other immigrant groups now do. Why?  Survey after survey has shown that the reason such immigrants vote for Democrats is that they are for big-brother government and all the largess that such form of government returns to them (see: Huffington Post Opinion).  Besides, in many states (such as Nevada), many of these illegal immigrants vote Democrat already … goaded on by their conspiratorial unions (see: FrontPage Story).

Afterward: Small victory ... see: Breitbart Story.

Balderdash!

In the local Scott Brown/Elizabeth Warren debate last night (Massachusetts Senate race), Scott said that he thought that global warming was real, but that he wasn't sure to what degree that mankind was responsible.  Can this be?  Yes, I suppose that Scott's justifiably timid premise might be based upon the recent shrinking of the Arctic polar ice cap ... see: AP Story). However, what is less frequently mentioned by the cult of greenies is that the ice cap in Antarctica is growing. In fact it recently reach its largest size in 33 years! (See: Forbes Story).

Now I am sure that the Northern Hemisphere produces more carbon dioxide than the Southern Hemisphere (particularly since China is building about one coal-powered power plant per week), but I am also sure that the Southern Hemisphere produces more carbon dioxide than in past years.  Yet, its ice cap is growing!  Ergo, this means that the dynamics of global warming and global cooling is far more complicated than our covey of animated climate scientists are willing to admit.

I have previously stated in this blog and my Junkier Science blog that our earth's climate is clearly affected by numerous things, minute changes in the Earth's tilt, alterations in solar radiation levels, the dynamics of ocean current shifts, increased/decreased levels of atmospheric particulates from things like volcanoes, atmosphere chemistry changes (including CO2), and maybe even our Solar System's shifting position in the Milky Way.  Of all these independent variables, the only one that man might have any control over is CO2 levels.  To me, this seems to be too convenient a solution to our angst over what may (or may not) be happening to our climate.  One time a surgeon told me that, since he was good a wielding a hammer, every health problem looked to him like a nail.

I sincerely think that far too many scientists see CO2 as a climate-change "nail" because it is the only dial that mankind might twist to fix things.  Therefore, data is fudged and simulation models are "adjusted" so as to prove this singular point.  If these simulation models were multivariate instead of single variant, I might be more easily convinced.  But they are not, and, until they are ... BALDERDASH!