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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Paradigms and Demographics: Morning Edition

Times that Try Men’s Souls – "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right…" So wrote Thomas Paine in a pamphlet called Common Sense, which caused quite a stir back in 1775. It is widely believed that Thomas Paine's philosophy greatly aided the cause of American Independence with a logic and a passion that aroused public opinion to hot anger and a firm resolve to resist English tyranny. But please take note: Paine did not say that a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong madethat thing right. He said it gave it a superficial appearance of being right. The point here is that no matter how long you have been doing a wrong thing, it is still a wrong thing. Shouldn't we keep this in mind when we discuss the numerous and continuous ways that our various governments, at all levels, violate the moral law?....

Tony Abbott’s lousy economics and the menace of Keynesianism - I have been asked a number of times what the hell is wrong with Tony Abbott. The answer is simple: The same thing that is wrong with the Liberal Party. The Liberals are still largely governed by statist thinking and Keynesian economics. It is a party without a grasp of sound economic theory, any knowledge of the history of economic thought and thoroughly ignorant of economic history. James Guest, former Liberal MP, is a perfect and depressing example of this dangerous mixture of sanctimonious witlessness. Five years ago James Guest did the public a service by openly displaying his staggering ignorance of these subjects in an article he wrote for for Quadrant in which he attacked Steve Kates for rightly taking issue with the Labor Government’s reckless spending policy to counter the recession. (One can read Kates’ tepid response here). Guest’s supercilious response made it abundantly clear that he is no more qualified to write about economics than I am to perform brain surgery. To accuse Guest of merely having a shallow grasp of economics would be to flatter him. His criticisms of Steve Kates’ argument displayed a clear inability to follow sound economic reasoning. Kates had condemned government handouts and proposed massive expenditure on a broadband network. However, according to Guest:......

The Failure of our Pulpits to be Proclaimers of the Word - "If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discernment, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in Christianity, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it." Rev. Charles Finney

We are where we are because of the failure of our pulpits, and their lack of leading the sheep. Jeremiah 23:1 states, "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!" This is the LORD's declaration." We are not being led by the pastors to be the salt and light of truth, and this is why our country is failing in every venue. There are no choruses of Christians speaking truth, only a few who are drowned out by the enemies of same…. there is a conspiracy of silence among many Bible believers. Wolves in sheep's clothing are thus enabled to ravage the flock, thereby destroying many. Our pulpits are silent, and the congregations are not fed the meat of truth. Today's sheep don't eat meat, they just regurgitate the Pablum fed to them from the pulpits.

Obama's post-American world is taking shape with the rise of Iran - Anyone wanting to take the moral temperature of the post-American world President Obama wants to create only had to drop by the United Nations last Thursday afternoon. There he would have seen British prime minister David Cameron sitting down with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to ask — no, beg him to join the misbegotten coalition Obama has assembled against the Islamic State. Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry had already extended the invitation to Iran to join, and Iran had already refused. Now it was Cameron's turn. He may think this will burnish his image as a master diplomat after convincing the Scots not to demand independence. Instead, he’s only opened one more sordid chapter in the most remarkable story of how Iran, a vicious rogue nation and state sponsor of terrorism — not to mention beacon of anti-Semitism — has become the rising dominant power in the region, and is now being blatantly courted as an ally by the West.....

Banks spend 37 mil hours on paperwork - Three banking regulatory agencies require 36.7 million hours of paperwork annually, including some paperwork that cannot be completed electronically, according to a new report. In a study released Wednesday morning, the right-of-center American Action Forum reported that 50 items that banks are required to send the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — the three main agencies overseeing U.S. banks — cannot be submitted electronically. "So much of what we report to federal agencies is still done in paper format,” the study's author, AAF director of regulatory policy Sam Batkins, told the Washington Examiner. "When you’re talking about millions of hours wasted filling out forms, and hundreds of forms you can‘t submit online, it’s sort of shocking," Batkins said.

How camouflaged activists want to de-industrialize the West - A federal judge recently rejected a lawsuit filed by environmental groups to prevent the U.S. Bureau of Land Management from issuing oil and gas leases for parts of central Nevada. The case represents a small battle in protracted war to de-industrialize the West. The activists employ a familiar battle plan: Scope out an economic project, sue the government to block its approval, and sit back as legal costs mount. Recently, these groups have grown more litigious— “sue and settle” cases, where activists sue the government to negotiate settlements with often-friendly bureaucrats behind closed doors, more than doubled over the last few years.  But now a new tactic has emerged among some activists. In addition to filing more suits, more of them are using camouflage to disguise their true intentions. Take Trout Unlimited, a group founded as an association of fly fishermen. While TU’s local chapters promote angling and conservation, its national office peddles a radical left-wing agenda. In the last two years alone, Trout Unlimited has protested BLM oil and gas lease sales in Wyoming and Utah. Most recently, BLM deferred development on several parcels in Colorado after Trout Unlimited and other groups filed protest letters. You might ask: What interest do anglers have in blocking responsible energy development? To answer that question, follow the money...

Sierra Club Ordered to Pay $6.4 Million for “Frivolous”Lawsuit - The Sierra Club’s strategy of incessant lawsuits to advance its agenda is not only dangerous from a flawed policy agenda, it’s can also be dangerous to their bank account and reputation. It risks backlash from an American public increasingly fed up with dubious lawsuits that enrich trial lawyers and clog up the legal system. This negative public sentiment may be fueled by a federal judge’s ruling that the Club’s recent lawsuit against Texas power generator Luminant was “frivolous” and warranted the repayment of Luminant’s $6.4 million in legal fees. (The Club had been seeking $330 million in damages and $140 million in pollution control upgrades for – in its view – Luminant’s violation of the Clean Air Act.)

Russia Sponsors Leonardo DiCaprio Anti-American EnergyPropaganda Video - We’ve written extensively about hypocritical Hollywood environmentalists. The latest comes from Leonardo DiCaprio, who is out with a new fearmongering, anti-oil and gas video that appears to be partially supported by the Russian government.The video gives production credits to the Russian television network RT America (a.k.a. Russia Today), which receives funding from the Russian government. This isn’t a big surprise. Just like oil-producing countries in the Middle East, Russia has a vested interest in stopping the American energy revolution: Russia is the world’s largest exporter of natural gas. America’s domestic energy boom, made possibly by innovations in hydraulic fracturing, threatens Russia’s grip over European gas markets. The video was also written and presented by RT on-air personality and self-described “democratic socialist” Thom Hartmann, who recently published the alarmist tome, The Last Hours of Humanity: Warming the World to Extinction. And, the credits list contributions to the video from 16 other RT employees, including RT news director Misha Solodovnikov....

GAO says Obama administration can't bail out insurers without Congress - The Department of Health and Human Services cannot legally bail out the insurance industry for excessive losses through President Obama's health care law unless the U.S. Congress approves language allowing the administration to do so, according to a legal opinion released on Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office. The ruling could end up provoking a showdown between the White House and Congressional Republicans over Obamacare that has the potential to affect health insurance premiums. At issue is the "risk corridors" program, which aims to stabilize the insurance market on the new health insurance exchanges during the early years of Obamacare. Because the law requires insurers to offer coverage to those with pre-existing conditions and limits how much insurers can charge older and sicker patients, insurers who join the exchanges risk getting stuck with a disproportionate number of older and sicker beneficiaries, translating into losses that could discourage companies from participating.

Will theWest Defend Itself? - The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), sometimes called ISIS or IS, is a Sunni extremist group that follows al-Qaida's anti-West ideology and sees a holy war against the West as a religious duty. With regard to nonbelievers, the Quran commands, "And kill them wherever you find them, and turn them out from where they have turned you out." The Quran contains many other verses that call for Muslim violence against nonbelievers for the sake of Islamic rule. Contrast the words of the Quran with the statements of limp-wristed Western leaders such as this by President Barack Obama: "We have reaffirmed that the United States is not and never will be at war with Islam. Islam teaches peace." While reacting to ISIL's slaughter of British citizen David Haines, Prime Minister David Cameron said, "Islam is a religion of peace." Then there was the U.S. secretary of state's explanation: "The real face of Islam is a peaceful religion based on the dignity of all human beings." But John Kerry and other Western politicians calling Islam a religion of peace doesn't make it so.

Debt Demise Is Cooked Into Current Market Mania? - There is nothing in this world today that provides much comfort for a rational investor – in the long term. In the short term, as we have argued, this expanding Wall Street Party may provide a last chance for significant, individual investment gains. More on that below. We are told that economies are "recovering" – and this Telegraph article excerpt mentions that, but the main point here, one we agree with, is that sovereign debt continues to rise and has not been paid down. Eventually, the ....

Eric Holder’s Demonization of HonestElections[TTP has long maintained that voter fraud is a primary means by which Democrats win elections - which accounts for their fanatical opposition to Voter ID laws. Here, Ronald Reagan's Attorney General, together with the former Ohio Secretary of State, explain the fraud of Eric Holder's opposition. ---JW]

Attorney General Eric Holder, who announced his resignation last Thursday (9/25), leaves a dismal legacy at the Justice Department. Of all his legal innovations, one was especially pernicious: the demonizing of state attempts to ensure honest elections. As a former U.S. attorney general under President Reagan, and a former Ohio secretary of state, we would like to say something that might strike some as obvious:  Those who oppose photo voter-ID laws and other election-integrity reforms are intent on making it easier to commit vote fraud. That conclusion is inescapable, given the well-established evidence that voter-ID laws don't disenfranchise minorities or reduce minority voting, and in many instances enhance it, despite claims to the contrary by Mr. Holder and his allies. As more states adopt such laws, the left has railed against them with increasing fury, ascribing racial animus to people who are trying to safeguard democratic integrity. But there's something even worse than name-calling:


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