That is a good question. Politicians generally are not admired. Many
believe that politics is "evil" and that politicians are the propagandists of this evil. One way to get elected is to announce
that you are not a politician. You are a man or woman of the people and you live "outside the beltway" as if all wisdom comes
from any other place but where politicians roam.
I do not believe this. Politics is an honorable avocation and politicians
are necessary, even crucial, in a democracy. True, there are bad people who are politicians and the results of politics sometimes
create evil results.
Politics and politicians keep us from heading for the streets to settle
disputes. Just look to dictatorships where the are no politicians, save one, and politics is not necessary. The trains may
run on time as in Fascist Italy under Mussolini, but the people have no say except to revolt.
That is not our way. We go to the polls. We vote for politicians.
Politicians listen to the people or they won’t get elected. Politicians debate. Politicians pass laws. People follow
them. This makes for an orderly society and a good society - the best society.
So please, please don’t tear down politics or politicians. If
you don’t like the politicians you have, support another politician, or God willing become one yourself.
Getting Elected
by Dan England
Step 1 - Decide if you really want to run.You
may have dreamed of running for mayor of your city or maybe even for the state legislature. However, there are a few things
you should consider before you toss your hat in the ring.
Do you really want to do the work that may be involved? Attend the
meetings that you will attend. Speak to incumbents and find out what they do.
Have you considered what the impact will be on your personal life?
Check with your significant other on how they feel about you running for office. Consider how being an officeholder will have
an impact on your activities. Will there be conflicts in scheduling?
Realistically determine if you have a change of winning. Is there
an incumbent in the office now? Do you have the resources to run a campaign?
Dem Candidates Take Private Jets - Global Warming Alert!
All four Dem Senators who are presidential candidates flew
from Washington, DC to South Carolina yesterday for the first presidential debate - each in their own private jet. No one
took a commercial flight. Read the story about it here.
Hold on - Global Warming Alert!
Environmentalists
say that private jet flights have a big "carbon footprint", and that taking commercial flights is a better option. Remember
the flap over Prince Charles' planned flight to the the USA by private jet? There was such an uproar that the good Prince
turned green and flew commercial instead.
Since Dems are so worried about Bush's Global Warming, it's surprising that they made such a big
faux
pas. Maybe they need to take the "pledge" and watch Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth again.
Global Warming alarmists
will not like a report that was just released this week. It found that Northern Hemisphere forests could actually cause Global
Warming. Read about it here.
Planting trees may have the opposite effect of what is desired.
Belgium Tax on Barbecuing Made to Reduce Global Warming
Following is a story I first heard about on Rush's radio show.
Local
news reports that Wallonia,
Belgium will charge a 20 euro (around 26 U.S. dollars)
tax on barbecuing starting June 2007 for each grilling session.
The
report says local powers will snoop on burning grills from above in helicopters equipped
with thermal sensors.
The reason? What else - global warming. Read the story about it here.
If Al Gore hears about this, we may soon have black helicopters
hovering over our neighborhoods too. I used to think that this sort of thing only happened in movies.
Cold Weather at the North Pole Ends Global Warming Expedition
A global warming expedition to the North Pole ended when one
of the explorers got frostbite. Outside temperatures dropped at times to more than 100 degrees below zero.
Ann Atwood,
one of the trip organizers, explained that "They were experiencing temperatures that weren't expected with global warming,"
But
Atwood, obviously a true believer in Global Warming, was quick to add: "But one of the things we see with global warming
is unpredictability."
Interesting logic: If it's too cold, it's because it's too hot.
Al Gore is being attacked by PETA. The animal rights organization
wants Al to stop eating meat. They base their rationale on a recent UN report titled "Livestock’s Long Shadow—Environmental
Issues and Options".
According to PETA, the "United Nations determined that raising animals for food generates
more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined."
In case you are "Green" and are thinking about moving North
to avoid "Global Warming", check out the post titled "Follow
That Armadillo!" here in Power Line about the fear in the 70's of a coming "Ice Age".
As icebergs
melt and oceans rise, could the political fortunes of former
VP Al Gore be rising also?
Those in the know are saying that Al Gore may win an Oscar for his role in the Global Warming
documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth". Other speculation is that as his Hollywood star is shining the brightest, Al may grab
it and announce that he is running for President - again.
Read the CNN story titled "Could Gore's road to
the Oval Office begin in Hollywood?" here.
Republicans can only hope that as Senators Clinton and Obama
duke it out, the Global Warming Guru will snatch away the Dem nomination.
If he does, my bet is that voters outside
of Hollywood will not warm, but will chill, to the idea of a promotion for big Al.
One of my readers sent me a very long email, letting me know
how misguided I was because I was skeptical about Global Warming. It included lots of facts and conclusions from the "think
tanks".
I found one of my old posts about Global Warming and sent it on as my reply. After I read it again, I liked
it so much that I decided to repost it. So here it is:
I remember in the 60's during my college years that many prominent scientists had us believing that the
earth was doomed. Dr. Paul Ehrlich, a Sanford University professor and entomologist who specializes in butterflies, was one
of the most well known voices predicting environmental disaster. Said the good professor:
"The battle to feed humanity
is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines . . . hundreds of millions of people (including Americans) are going
to starve to death." (1968)
"Smog disasters" in 1973 might kill 200,000 people in New York and Los Angeles.
(1969)
"I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000." (1969)
Wrong... Wrong...
Wrong.
Read the article about this titled "Doomsayer Paul Ehrlich Strikes Out Again" here.
Enter stage left, very left, is the latest "expert" crying "we're doomed". It's the one and only Al
Gore, the "almost president" and inventor of the internet. He would have us trembling, or I should say sweating, at the thought
of global warming turning New York City into a swamp.
Says the ex-VP:"We are witnessing a collision between our
civilization and the Earth."
Read the full tale of doom ala Al in an article titled "Warning from Gore on future
Global warming called an emergency" on SFGate.com here.
I think a quote in a lecture in 2003 by Michael Crichton titled "Aliens Cause Global Warming" hits the nail on
the head:
"Let's think back to people in 1900 in, say, New York. If they worried about people in 2000, what would
they worry about? Probably: Where would people get enough horses? And what would they do about all the horse---t? Horse pollution
was bad in 1900, think how much worse it would be a century later, with so many more people riding horses?"
Read
the complete lecture by Crichton on his website here.
Is Al a true believer? Color me skeptical. I think Al is hoping to ride the gloom and doom wave to another
run at the presidency. My prediction: "wipe out".
For a real eye opening article on Global Warming, read "Climate
Change's Carnival Atmosphere" on FoxNews.comhere by Steven Milloy.
Another interesting article on this is "Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?" on CanadaFreePress.com by Timothy Ball. Read it here.
A very relevant side note - The temperature was 38 below zero today in Hallock, Minnesota. Read
about the big chill throughout much of the USA in the story titled "Below-Zero Temps Close Schools" here. The chill is ironic in light of the recent dire warnings from "experts" about Global Warming. Brrrr.
Hysteria continues over the latest liberal New Age religion,
Global Warming. Read the story about this titled "Global warming: Gloom, doom, room for action"here.
As I sit in my family room shivering with outside temperatures hovering around zero, I say "bull". Read
my previous posts about this here and here.
The "experts" can't seem to make up their collective minds if we are coming out of or going into an
ice age. For those of you old enough, you will remember in the 70's when "Global Cooling" was all the rage. Read the story
about this titled "Remember Global Cooling? Why scientists find climate change so hard to predict"here.
But no matter the direction the weather goes, one thing is certain, as far as liberals are concerned:
Republicans are to blame.
This is idiotic if you consider that millions of years ago, before Bush, ice ages came and
ice ages left (excuse the pun) long before politicians (or humans) were invented. That is, unless you believe that conservative
dinosaurs were to blame. But this also can't be true because today the "dinosaurs" are all Democrats.
Al Gore and liberal Dems have been blaming global warming
on George Bush and Republicans. But now we know that this is all bull. According to the U.N.'s "Livestock's Long Shadow" report,
the world's big cattle herds give off more bad greenhouse gases that raise climate heat than all the "cars, planes and
other forms of transport put together."
The cause: bovine belching and flatulence. Read about it here.
However, I am sure that the big bad Republican drug companies are now in gear trying to find a bovine
anti-gas solution.
Karen Armstrong, Monday July 31, 2006, in The Guardian foolishly attempted to link George Bush's Christian beliefs and his faith with the many problems at home and
overseas. Read her article titled "Bush's fondness for fundamentalism is courting disaster at home and abroad" here.
Armstrong sees a major part of the problem as a struggle between faith and science. She points to Thomas
H Huxley, an advocate for the Origin of Species who concluded :
"One or the other (faith or science) would
have to succumb after a struggle of unknown duration."
As to the Bible believing Christians wanting Intelligent
Design taught in schools, Armstrong exclaims, like Huxley:
"The issue splits the nation down the middle: fundamentalists
want to win a battle for God; liberals and secularists are fighting for truth and rationality."
(As
Jesus said: "What is truth?")
Armstrong sees George Bush's Christian views "courting disaster" in the
world.
She attacks the President for banning federal funding of stem cell research:
Bush: "This bill
would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others... It crosses a moral boundary
that our decent society needs to respect."
Armstrong even charges the President is ignoring civilian
deaths in Lebanon because of his belief in the "end times" and Bible eschatology. She argues that fundamentalist Christians,
like Bush believe: "Christ cannot return, however, unless, in fulfillment of biblical prophecy, the Jews are in possession
of the Holy Land. (Does Armstrong know that Jesus said that no one knows the time when He will return?)
Her ramblings
on George Bush's faith go on and on to even include his failure to sign the Kyoto treaty. Armstrong argues: why would Bush
care about global warming "If the world is about to end?" (How about if Bush signs it, the US economy suffers? How
about, many scientists don't believe in global warming?)
Liberals and secularists, like Armstrong, have a
worldview that lacks faith. So sad - and irrational. Isn't it irrational to believe that our world could come into existence
and be so beautiful through mere chance? Their lack of knowledge of the Bible also feeds their irrationality.
I know.
After accepting Christ I saw things very differently. Call me a fundamental Christian if you wish, but I call myself a Christian
who believes the Bible and Jesus.
The truth is that George Bush, his faith or his politics will never be understood
by the secularists until they stop being secularists. I will pray for Ms. Armstrong and other secularists.
In addition, I have a blog, Getting Elected Blogline which is about politics and current issues, but I blog about most
anything that interests me. Check it out.
This site includes articles and essays mostly about politics and getting
elected as well as posts from my blog.
