(Not) A Big Suprise.

Written by Wesley Pruden for The Washinton Times:

Turn up the heat, somebody. The globe is freezing. Even Al Gore is looking for an extra blanket. Winter has barely come to the northern latitudes and already we've got bigger goosebumps than usual. So far the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports 63 record snowfalls in the United States, 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month. Only 44 Octobers over the past 114 years have been cooler than this last one.

The polar ice is accumulating faster than usual, and some of the experts now concede that the globe hasn't warmed since 1995. You may have noticed, in fact, that Al and his pals, having given up on the sun, no longer even warn of global warming. Now it's "climate change." The marketing men enlisted by Al and the doom criers to come up with a flexible "brand" took a cue from the country philosopher who observed, correctly, that "if you've got one foot in the fire and the other in a bucket of ice, on average you're warm." On average, "climate change" covers every possibility.

This is similar to the science practiced by Dr. James Hansen at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the source of much of the voodoo that Al Gore has been peddling since the doctor showed up at a Senate hearing in 1988 and told ghost stories that Al swallowed whole. Only last month Dr. Hansen's institute announced that October was the hottest on record, and then said "uh, never mind." The London Daily Telegraph calls this "a surreal blunder [that] raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming."

In this account, the institute had to make the humiliating climb-down after two leading skeptics of the global-warming scam, Anthony Watts, an American meteorologist, and Steve McIntyre, a Canadian computer analyst, discovered that temperature readings from September had been carried over and repeated for October.

We should sigh, shrug and give the scientists at NASA the benefit of the doubt that this was a mistake and not a deliberate howl at the moon. A spokesman for the institute explains that readings borrowed from Russia, which had been described as 10 degrees higher than normal for October, distorted the figures but, after all, the data had been obtained from others. So we should blame someone else.

This is the science we're expected to take on faith. The false figures - we must be generous and not say "faked" - were supplied by the United Nations International Panel on Climate Change. These are the most widely quoted readings, and consistently show higher temperatures than other "data sets." Would the United Nations lie? (No giggling, please.)

This sets a new standard for hubris, arrogance and haughty self-importance. Skeptics of the global-warming scam, even those with unquestioned academic and real-world credentials, are treated as ignorant pariahs by pundits, presidential candidates and other politicians who know better, or ought to.

This is not the first time, writes Christopher Booker in the Daily Telegraph, that Dr. Hansen's methodology has been sharply questioned. Two years ago, Messrs. Watts and McIntyre, the bloggers who caught the October fiasco, forced him to withdraw his published findings on surface temperatures in the United States, to correct his claim that the hottest decade of the 20th century was the 1990s. It was the 1930s, when the much-maligned sport utility vehicle was still a truck and Detroit made economical cars everybody wanted.

Man's notion that his science can realign the stars, adjust the orbit of planets and reorganize the universe leads him to say silly things and assert goofy claims. Saying silly things and asserting goofy claims is usually harmless as entertainment, so long as the claims are subjected to rigorous analysis and debate. But contrarian arguments about global warming, climate change and freezing heat are not tolerated by the scientists with an uneasy grip on the research money.
It's clear now that the earth has been cooling for the past decade, to the sorrow of the special pleaders and despite everything Al can do about it. The solar cycle peaked, the sun is quieter, the sunspots have faded and everybody but Al is cooling off.

Even the United Nations says so. The director of the U.N.'s panel on climate change concedes that nature has overwhelmed everything man can do and it might even be another decade before man can rally and the warming resumes. Until then, like it or not, nature rules the cosmos.

Writing

Around ten o’clock the other night, I began mentally gearing myself up for the challenge that lay ahead of me. I was stuck on this one essay, that was already late, and I had several other essays I needed to get cracking on, but I was just so tired and brain-fried from being sick that I quailed at the prospect of writing again that night. I almost despaired at the challenge of slogging it out with that paper again for even the thought of returning to my computer and once again to forcing my brain to form the knowledge and ideas in my head into correctly spelled words that would make up make complete sentences, coherent paragraphs, and a cohesive essay was exhausting. Then whilst thinking about what hard work writing could be and how difficult and perhaps even begrudging it can be even for one like myself who loves to write, indeed cannot keep from writing a thought struck me that allowed me to set to work undaunted.
I was suddenly reminded again of one of the weird qualities of my craft, one of the strange aspects of writing, one of the paradoxes of art itself: it may be easiest to write when I am inspired, the words well up inside me like the tide and come pouring out through my fingers with an unstoppable energy, and that may well be some of my best work ever, yet some of my best work on my stories has come during the times were I felt like I was getting nowhere, when I felt like slamming my head against the computer screen, when I had to fight for every word. There is a certain sense of awe and wonder and joy that comes when the words and ink fly but without a doubt that there is nothing quite like the pride that comes from having wrangled your brain eight ways from Sunday, having twisted and stretched and slammed your brain against the mat hour after hour until you have forged the words into something beautiful, just as there is nothing like the satisfaction that comes from standing bone-tired tired looking upon all you have accomplished in a day’s work.

The Obama Birth Certificate Scandal

A friend recently posted an article on Facebook about the recent court case brought by attorney Philip J. Berg (who is a life long Democrat and former Democratic Party County Chair) involving the court investigation of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama's American Citizenship. A debate ensued between a friend of hers and myself.

He posted this:

"Why hasn't Obama provided anything to the court? Probably because the case was dismissed for lack of subject matter on October 24. Meaning, Berg didn't have enough burden of proof to warrant the obvious damage the allegations would cause if they ended up being false.

http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/pennsylvania/paedce/2:2008cv04083/281573/

It's still pending appeal, so anything can happen I guess."

This was my answer:

"First: That the case was dropped "for lack of subject matter" is false. According the the article you cited, but evidently didn't read, Judge Surrick dropped the case because he felt "that Berg lacked standing to bring the suit because he did not face direct harm even if the allegations were true."

That ridiculously sad excuse of a technicality doesn't even hold water! Anytime the Constitution is violated by anyone in a government office and it is ignored, or worse yet encouraged, every American suffers. The judge should have his license revoked for hindering the public outcry for reassurance that our Constitution is not being trampled with such a terrible distortion of justice!

On the other hand, if, as you and several other articles say, the judge dismissed the case because it was potentially too damaging to Sen. Obama that also is a terrible slap in the face of the law and the American people.

Sen. Obama, and anyone who has ever run for the Office of President, knew going in that every aspect of the life, from birth to present, is up for investigation by the media, individuals, and the law. He knowingly opened himself up to such questions and attacks and should be ready and willing to face them with hard facts and good answers, not avoid the searing light of truth by exploiting weak legal technicalities.

Second: The whole point is that it's potentially damaging! To say that the case is potentially too damaging, is to say that Sen. Obama's feelings and reputation are more important than upholding justice and the rights of the American people. We deserve to know the truth!

The only reason for Sen. Obabma to fight this investigation is if he truly has something to hide! If he is a true American citizen he as nothing to hide: all he has to do is release his certificate to the court and he gets exonerated, and Mr. Berg looks like an idiot. That's a win-win situation for him!

By hiding from the inquiries like a coward he has only further damaged his reputation by giving people just cause to be suspicious of him."

Am I the only one who finds it highly suspicious that there are two differing and equally sketching looking copies of Sen. Obama's birth certificate to be found on supposedly dependable websites (including his own official site) yet he refused to vindicate his name by simply showing the hard copy to a judge?

Am I the only one who feels indignant that some judge decided tha I and the rest of the decent, law abiding, tax paying citizen's of this nation don't deserve to know the truth? That some random judge decided it doesn't matter if Senator Obama may not be an eligible candidate for President because we might damage his reputation by even investigating that fact?

Am I the only one incredulous that the major media has completely ignored this issue? That all of the high and mighty journalist out there who pride themselves on bringing the people the truth don't give a flying fig that it's two days till Election Day and we still have reasonable doubt as to the popular candidates eligibility of the job?

Sometimes I wonder what this nation is coming to. If in a few weeks or months Mr. Berg's appeal does go through, I'm going to laugh in bitter irony and shame as America becomes the laughing stock of the world for having not made sure our President was even eligible before we elected him.

Of course this it investigation probably never will be reopened because if you begin to consider the two absurdly flimsy reasons for this law suit's dismissal one has to start wondering who paid off the judge...

Humbled Anew

I often wonder,
I so often muse,
After I blunder
And my way thus lose,
Or "My will!" thunder
And Thy love abuse,
How Thou doth show me
Exactly where and
How I so failed Thee:
A touch from Thy hand
Bends my stubborn knee,
Shows me chilish, and
Doth wholly suffice
To melt my hard heart
And make me realize
Just how great Thou art.

© Andrew J. Goggans 2008

Spring is Coming

I apologize to whatever readers I have for my dreadful lack of writing lately. Life circumstances have conspired against me to leave me with little time for writing and this means that though I have been writing there has been little visible fruit. I have been working on some of my stories (they aren’t ready for the light of day yet) and a rather lengthy blog entry on the course of my relationship with Melanie to share some of the lessons I have learned, blessings I have received, and to answer all of the questions people have had about our betrothal. So despite whatever craziness or daily drudgery I may face in the next few weeks I promise the new post, and perhaps eventually the stories, will be presented for you.

I must say though that my life has been quite good of late. I had a good summer, an amazing trip to spend time with my girl and her family in Slovakia, I have my money for school, I have a good job I can work half time during the semester, I have housemates, and I have good friends and family. God is good.

On the other hand my immediate and extended family could use a lot of prayer right now. I shan’t go into all the details now but your spiritual support will be felt and greatly appreciated because sometimes in life you have no idea what is going on, sometimes you have absolutely no clue what God is doing or why. At times like these I often fall back on one simple phrase.


“Aslan is On the Move!”


It is repeated amongst my family and friends as an encouragement, a rally cry, a prayer and a benediction, almost as if it were a magic spell. This simple set of five paltry words, never fails to inspire in my body and soul a profound effect, but rather than trying to explain it to you myself I shall give you the words of the one who coined the phrase.

‘Here the Beaver’s voice sank into silence and (…) it added in a low whisper- “They say Aslan is on the move (…) the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don’t understand but in the dream it feels as if it had some enormous meaning—either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning to lovely to put into words, that makes the dream so beautiful you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now (…) At the name of Aslan each one of the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feel you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer.’

So when the world looks bleak, and hope seems dim, take up the cry “Aslan is on the move!” Remind yourself and all around not to lose heart because: “It’s no good, Son of Adam, (…) no good your trying, of all people. But now that Aslan is on the move (…) He’ll settle (things) all right (…)

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,
At the sound of His roar, sorrows will be no more,
When He bares His teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring
again!

“You’ll understand when you see Him.”

To the King!