Archive for December 2nd, 2009
MAKE THIS VIRAL: NUTSHELL EXPLANATION OF CLIMATE HOAX SCANDAL
We implore you to spread this link far and wide to as many people as you can.
Remember that scene in Bye, Bye Birdie where the media and others want to keep something a secret, but the whole damn town gets on the phones, burning up the lines, telling everyone about the thing the media wants to keep secret?
Well, flashforward to today, in this moment, in 2009, at your computer.
The American MSM is working overtime to keep the Climate Hoax Scandal, Climategate, under wraps. This is a critical blow to Liberals. It’s the equivalent of some low-level hack leaving the Death Star plans lying around for some Bothan to find.
Great Merciful Zeus, you know something’s extra super squirrel important when we’re mixing our musical theater and SciFi references so casually.
What the MSM is counting on is for all of this too be too over the heads of most Americans. Liberals are hoping they find it “boring” and pay no attention to what’s happening, at lightning speed, around the world: the entire lunatic Cult of PaleoClimatology and “Virgin Gaia Worship” Al Gore and others cooked up as a giant Ponzi scheme is collapsing around them.
Indictments are coming worldwide.
Al Gore might ultimately go to prison himself.
Liberals are on the brink of suffering a cataclysmic, agenda-obliterating defeat.
The trick is getting regular people to wrap their heads around this. Via AceofSpades (www.Ace.Mu.Nu), here’s a quick explanation (by poster Iowahawk) of what’s going on that’s the best we have seen thus far.
PLEASE, share this far and wide:
For the benefit of true believers like Stewart, lemme see if I can squeeze this whole methodology thing into a nutshell:
Jones, Mann, et al., practice paleoclimatology; that is, the statistical reconstruction of historic climate records. Their approach works something like this –
let y = a time series of observed global temperature records.
Unfortunately reliable time series only go back 100-150 years or so, a blip on geological time scale. To figure out if there is any sort of significant millenial trend, the series needs to go much farther back, 1000 years or so. Great grampa Ogg was too busy avoiding plague infested rats to write down the temperature, so we need to deduce it out from “proxy variables,” like measurements on annually striated phenomena like tree rings, ice core samples and so on. so…
let x1 … xp = a time series array of proxy variables.
Great! Now them thar proxy variable records will get us back 1000 years. But they’re expressed in measures of tree ring width, band coloration, ice density, etc., not in temperature. And contrary to popular belief there isn’t a physical law or textbook formula that converts these proxy measures into temperature. To do this Mann, et al., use a statistical approach –
1. perform a Principle Components Analysis (PCA) of the proxy variables. PCA is a standard statistical technique for linearly transforming/ reducing a set of raw correlated variables (x1 … xp) into a set of variables called Principle Components (PC1 … PCp) which retain the information in the original data. The PCs are orthogonal (uncorrelated) with one another.
2. Next, Mann et al. regressed the 100 years or so of observed temperatures against the proxy variable principle components:
y = b0 + b1*PC1 + b2*PC2 + … + bp*PCp + error
the regression coefficients (b’s) estimated from recent data were then applied to the older proxy PCs to obtain retrospective “backcasts” or “hindcasts” of the temperatures in 1015, 1016,… 1850.
Voila! The Mann et al. statistical model resulted in the now infamous hockey stick, showing a radical increase in global temperatures in recent years versus the relatively flat milenial variation. This was in large part the basis for the IPCC report.
The initial controversy about this result was raised by MacIntyre and McKittrick (MM) who noted the backcasts of Mann’s reconstructed temperatures didn’t reproduce the amplitude of the Medieval “warm period” or the subsequent “little ice age” that previous research had estimated. That previous work suggested that the recent uptick in temperatures in no big whoop compare to previous decades in the past 1000 years, but Mann’s result showed it off the charts. They published a couple papers suggesting the flat reconstructed historical temperatures were artifacts of Mann’s selection of a time frame for extracting principle components (see step 1 above), which artificially suppressed the variation in the temperature backcasts. This is likely what the CRU emails were talking about when they referred to “Michael’s Nature trick.” This artifact explanation was largely confirmed by George Mason U statistician EJ Wegman (methods editor for JASA), who blistered Mann’s model in a 2006 report commissioned by the Congressional Energy & Commerce committee. Amusingly, Wegman showed that replacing Mann’s principle components estimates with repeated samples of random white noise continued to produce the same hockey stick shape.
Now here’s where the fun begins. MacIntyre and McKittrick wanted to follow up on their research, and asked Mann and Jones for their source data. This is where M&J started stonewalling to the point where M&M made FOIA requests, which were ignored. The emails give some sense of how desperately the CRU group wanted to avoid providing it. Why? Because, I suspect (and seems obvious from the “harry_read_me.txt” programmer’s notes), the basic observed temperature variables — the linchpin of truth in Mann’s model — are hopelessly, utterly corrupted.
Now, if you’ve been following this, Mann’s entire temperature reconstruction method rests on knowing (observing) recent periodic global temperatures, y. Quibbling about principle components aside, that’s the dependent variable in the backcasts. But as is now becoming increasingly plain, y was constructed from an undocumented process that took raw ground station data and ran it through a black box that included smoothing, filtering, inference, manipulation, baling wire, glue and the juice of one whole lemon. This is what the CRU people are calling “valued added homogenized data.” Or what normal people call “made up horseshit.” It’s also the temperature data that dozens, if not hundreds of AGW studies are based on.
In the last few days, the ECU has cynically offered to “share the data,” but what they are offering to share is this numerical sausage. What they won’t share is the source code for their computational raw data meatgrinder, which I suspect contains a treasure trove of numerical shenanigans.
Provocative Discussion Question of the Day: Why are gays considered more dangerous in the military than Muslims?
We’ve been thinking about this since Muslim terrorist Hasan killed so many of his fellow soldiers at Ft. Hood: but why does the military bar gays from openly serving in our armed forces, but allows Muslims to serve in uniform?
Can anyone identify an instance where a gay service member killed his fellows in arms, while shouting “Praise be Carol Channing!” or “I’m doing this for the love of Jake Gyllenhaal in a little Santa hat and red g-string!”.
The military, following the creed of political correctness, ignored persistent warning signs that Muslim Hasan was a danger to himself and others. He was allowed to openly talk about declaring war on the United States in the name of Allah, and attacking the US as reprisal for what he believed were affronts to Islam (“the religion of peace”…keep telling yourself that. Also, Jaws was “the shark of peace” and “amoebic dysentery is the diarrhea of peace”).
Yet, this man was given weapons, a uniform, and welcomed into our military.
Meanwhile, and we are dead serious about this, at least one of us here on this site would be a United States Marine, right now, today, if gays were allowed to openly serve. We love this country more than we could ever be able to express here. We’re also true to ourselves, who we are, so once out of the closet we are never, ever going back in (no matter how much people back in Cleveland or Pittsburgh would want that). So, it’s a deep and powerful regret we all share that this country does not allow us to suit up, train, and take our post alongside the rest of the volunteer service men and women.
Our gay friends in Switzerland, the UK, South Africa, and Australia are allowed to serve their country openly…but not us. And we would do a damn fine job of it if we had the chance, let us assure you.
We support our troops in other ways we’re allowed to: the USO, lobbying our elected officials to properly fund our military, and picking up the check for any uniformed men and women we run into at restaurants or otherwise doing whatever random act of appreciation we can for the WONDERFUL, brave, selfless people who CHOOSE willingly to enter the fray to keep us all safe on the homefront.
We have a valid question we want answered by our government: why are Muslims allowed to openly serve, and to openly express hatred of this country and a desire to see America suffer harm, while patriotic gay men who would fight and die to defend those stars and stripes and all those they fly above are unwelcome at the recruiting stations?
Who does the government trust more with a rifle?
Guys living in Boystown, loving America (while liking other guys) or Muslims bowing to Islam, listening to radical Imams talk about bringing this country to its knees.
We’re born gay. People choose religion…they choose radical beliefs.
Why is homophysical attraction held against a person, but Islam, and its endorsement of terrorism and violence against the West, is not?
What think you?
Where the logic went?
The President we wish Obama had been
Last night, we met up with a good friend of ours from years back whom we haven’t spoken to in a long while. She was Team Utopia in the primaries, and we were, are, and always will be Team Hillary. She is the only Utopian who was too good of a friend to lose during the campaign, though we will never be as close as we were before Utopia’s divisive, race-baiting, malicious primary strategy drove us apart.
She’s disillusioned with Dr. Utopia but won’t drop her support for him, largely, we believe (from knowing her for seven years), because she is someone who has a hard time admitting she is wrong.
We sat on her couch last night and listened to the fools on CNN talking about Dr. Utopia’s West Point address. If there really was such a thing as a heart attack ray, we’d love someone to point that at Roland Martin, that fat toad of a man CNN keeps putting on the air. As revolting as it is to see Donna Brazile still gainfully employed at the network, it’s stomach-turning to sit through Martin’s Kool-Aid laced regurgitations of White House talking points. On a panel where Campbell Brown is apparently the smartest person in the room, Martin and Brazile truly make this station completely unwatchable to us. But, every once in a while we like to drop in at someone else’s house and see what these clowns are up to…and they are just as stupid and delusional as they were during the primaries and general election.
We looked at our friend and she wasn’t saying much, so we asked her if Dr. Utopia was living up to her expectations, and she of course bristled. It’s a VERY touchy subject with her, as it is with all the Utopians we know, who really did believe they would get their own unicorns. But, months later, many of them have given up sitting on their stoops eating rainbow sherbet waiting for the hot UPS guy in his little brown shorts to bring their unicorns to them. Now, they’re just vaguely walking by their windows once in a while to see if they can see the truck somewhere in the distance. It feels like having a craptacular boyfriend who everyone in town knows forgets your birthday: and you keep hoping he proves them all wrong and comes through with the biggest birthday surprise ever (UNICORNS!) just to “show them all!”.
Only, it’s about 10pm, dark outside, and no redemptive surprise is in sight.
We keep saying all people like our friend need to abandon Dr. Utopia completely is someone else to blame for their bad decisions. We think that someone can be Oprah, or more nebulously the MSM at large. Instead of admitting you were foolish to believe all the Hope and Change messianic hooey, you can claim you were tricked by Oprah, Chris Matthews, that vile pig Tim Russert (who made us realize the usefullness of heart attack rays), the viler pig Keith Olbermann, and all the other Liberal talking lying heads on TV.
But, instead of having the same conversation with this woman that we always do, she asked us if there was anything Dr. Utopia could have done to earn our respect and turn us into supporters of his.
It’s a very good question we thought about all evening, and into today.
Here are the specific things Dr. Utopia could have done that would have — honest to goodness — made us drop eveything we hold against him and stand up for him as his strongest supporters. If he had done even one or two of the things below, the man would really be worthy of all the lavish praise and unearned awards the MSM and “international community” heap on him.
(1) First and foremost, Dr. Utopia should have, the moment he was declared the 2008 election winner, ended his cult of personality. In his Election Night address, he should have come out and say he went too far in winning this election, and let things get out of his control. He should have chided the media for making him into a messianic figure, at his own encouragement. He should have stood there, humbly, and asked the forgiveness of all women for the way his campaign used misogyny and sexism first against Hillary Clinton and then Sarah Palin. He should have stood before those millions of people and told everyone how wrong it was for his campaign surrogates like James Clyburne, John Lewis, Al Sharpton, and others to claim the Clintons are RAAACISTS. That right there should have been five minutes of mea culpa, listing all the things the Clintons have done for the black community. He should have then chided the black community itself for forgetting the 30+ years of service Bill and Hillary Clinton gave black people, and so quickly casting these two aside. He should have said, “Shame on you, shame on me, shame on Clyburne, Lewis, and Sharpton. I apology with all my soul to the people I wronged in this campaign, and I regret deeply that my supporters went out into the world with so much hate while operating under my name. I did everything I could to win this election, and I am ashamed of myself for going too far and losing sight of all decency in the process. Tonight, all of that is over, and I accept responsibility for the wickedness my campaign reveled in.”
(2) His Inaugural Address should have been titled, “Grow Up Black People”. Without naming them in the address itself, lest their names go down into history, Dr. Utopia should have called out all the race-baiters in this country and should have clearly stated that at twelve noon on January 20th, 2009 all race cards had now and forever expired. He should have looked at the largely black audience assembled to celebrate him and told all of them to cut their crap, get jobs, work hard, and make something of themselves without forever finding imaginary racism lurking around the corner or under a bridge holding them back. “Look where I am. Look who I am today. I am the President of the United States and, though biracial, I consider myself a black man. If I can do this, then so can you…and you can never again claim that anyone is holding you back or that racism is preventing you from getting anything you want. Get out of bed. Work hard all day. Save your money and stop wasting it on junk to impress the neighborhood. Dress appropriately, speak clearly, read newspapers and books by people who aren’t black authors, stop paying attention to the grievance-mongers and race-baiters. Turn off BET and put down Ebony and go out into the world and see it for the first time without your grievance glasses on.” From that point forward, when issues like Henry Gates’ tantrum happened, Dr. Utopia should have come out and called Gates the baby that he is. He should have spoken out against racial grievance-mongering and race-baiting at every opportunity. He should go to black schools and give the sort of speeches Bill Cosby gives, where he tells those kids they need to shape up, cut their crap, stop blaming their problems on others, and tune out the Spike Lees, Kanye Wests, and Jesse Jacksons out there. “Stop pretending you are victims. Stop acting obnoxious in public. Stop speaking in slang. Stop doing the absolute bare minimum you have to do to get by without being fired. Stop shouting RAAACISM! whenever you don’t get your way. Start being responsible men and women. Start taking care of your families. Start being good citizens. Start using manners when walking around in public. Start doing your homework. Start taking on extra assignments at work. Start CONTRIBUTING something instead of thinking society owes you or that you’re entitled to everything because Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson told you that you’re victims”.
If he had done this alone, we would have loved this man and gone to bat for him 24/7. We would be singing his praises from the tops of the mountains. Dr. Utopia alone could have solved all the racial problems in this country by single handedly destroying the Race Industry.
Think about that.
The first black identifying biracial president could have spoken to both sides of the issue: he could have voiced everything non-blacks feel about the Race Industry, at the same time chastizing those who grievance-monger and race-bait. He could have spoken directly to the black community and told it to grow up, work hard, and stop believing they are victims. It would be near impossible for Al Sharpton, Henry Gates, Jesse Jackson and the rest to continue their schtick if Dr. Utopia used his adoring media platform to rip the Race Industry to shreds.
And, the thing is, he would have lost ZERO political capital doing this.
The black community is the most racist voters in this country: they support Dr. Utopia 91%. They would support him, at bare minimum, 89% if he murdered someone live on TV. They would acquit him of all charges for doing so, too, OJ and Michael Jackson style. Dr. Utopia can never, and will never, lose black support. He will also never, ever lose the support of hardcore, urban elite, Liberals…those white, overeducated, career student, professionals who make it a point to tell everyone they meet how many black friends they have or how much they admire Malcom X. If this is his base, and it most certainly is, it’s the 20% of his supporters, at least, that he will never, ever lose.
By destroying the Race Industry, Dr. Utopia would have gained tens of millions of new supporters from the middle, and even, we believe, the conservative ranks too. It would be a Bullworth-worthy shakeup of the stale MSM race script we’ve all been dealing with for the last 30 years. It would be a clean, fresh start that only Dr. Utopia could have provided the leadership to deliver.
We believe Al Sharpton, Henry Gates, Jesse Jackson, Spike Lee, John Lewis, Eric Holder, James Clyburne, etc. perpetuate racial tension for personal profit.
We also believe more prominent blacks like Bill Cosby need to come forward and tell the black community to grow up, cut their crap, and stop rolling around on the ground playing victims.
The black community needs tough love. Dr. Utopia could have provided that.
He chose not to, even though there would have been no political capital lost in doing so. In fact, it would have GAINED him support.
But, he chose not to.
We hope history looks back on him unforgivingly for that…especially when the first Republican black president takes office one day and does exactly what we’ve outlined above. THAT will be momentous and historic and world-changing. THOSE will be words that should be etched onto mountains. SHE OR HE will be worthy of standing beside Dr. King, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, and the other great black figures from history.
(3) Just as Dr. Utopia should have stood up to the black community about its grievance mentality and Race Industry, he should have also stood up to the DNC, Congress, and Democrat Party at large. He should have reined in the spending, and used his nonstop media platform to publicly shame every member of Congress rolling around in pork. He should have, essentially, told Nancy Pelosi to shut the f*** up, step down, and let someone sensible take the gavel as Speaker. He should have asked Harry Reid to resign as well, since Congress desperately needs new leadership — people who do not intend, through malice or negligence, to run this country into the ground.
You want to change Washington? What better way to start than by changing the leadership of Congress?
You want to change the way Washington operates? Why not start with taking that phalanx of cameras with you to budget meetings and make every Cabinet Member SQUIRM on live TV as she or explains in painful detail all the ways her or his department is wasting tax money.
You want to boot lobbyists from the capital? Why not pull a West Wing inspired Jed Bartlett stunt and have the cameras follow you as you walk from the White House down to K Street and stand before the big lobbying firms and call on these people to pack up their s*** and get real jobs. “Misters Abramoff, shut down these offices!”, he could have shouted, and for the first time in his life actually seemed Reaganesque the way the MSM claims he supposedly is. Since he loves to be on TV so much, instead of talking about himself every day, he could have featured a different lobbying firm and talked about how the Justice Department, IRS, and other government agencies were going to go through their business practices with fine tooth combs to find any irregularities…and then issue the highest criminal penalties to everyone they can connect to them. Honestly, would anyone WANT to be a lobbyist if the full force of the federal goverment was levied against lobbying firms?
Most of the people working there are Brad and Trixies just out of grad school looking for quick $90,000 paydays where they can power punch and Iphone their friends to tell them who they get to meet that day. Summon storm clouds of indictment and investigation over these fair heads, and watch them bolt for a whole new line of work.
Great Merciful Zeus, if Dr. Utopia did things like this, we would volunteer, personally, to help carve him onto Mount Rushmore.
But, this is not who this man is.
This is why we do not think he is a good president, let alone a great one. He is an empty suit full of gas and vague promises. He’s a narcissist of the highest order with no appreciation for the missed opportunities his vanity causes, and no respect for the office he holds. He is an ally of the Race Industry, not the destroyer he should be. He is a spendthrift, radical, socialist when we need a tight-fisted, fiscally conservative, capitalist to get this country back on economic track.
As our friend, the Utopian supporter, sat and listened to us last night, she didn’t argue much back.
“You’re right, he could have done those things, but he didn’t. Maybe he will. I hope he will,” is all she said.
Then we switched over to some episodes of Glee she had on her TIVO, to change the subject…just the way she does when she’s dating someone bad for her that few of her friends likes, whom she knows is bad news, but she can’t bring herself to admit is a mistake to have in her life.
GLOBAL WARMING HOAX UNRAVELING FASTER THAN ICECAPS WERE SUPPOSEDLY MELTING
This is happening faster than we ever imagined was possible, and raises a lot of interesting questions we’d love your input on.
Here’s an article from James Delingpole of the UK Telegraph highlighting all the things the American MSM is refusing to report on the unraveling Global Warming Hoax. The gist of his notes is:
* Australia killed its own insane version of Liberals’ Cap & Tax, because it would have destroyed the Australian economy for no valid reason other than to further whatever demented scheme George Soros has cooked up. Australia is coal-dependent, like the economies of many American states (and not just Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, but Nevada and other surprising coal producers too).
* Australia’s politicians have woken up, quickly, to the reality they are pushing nonsensical, Alice in Wonderland, upside down legislation through against the will of the public — and the public will hold them accountable. We invite our Australian readers to chime in with more on your political situation, as we are not versed in Australian affairs. It sure feels like your version of Cap & Tax has sank the current Australian government, though.
* Did you know the whole carbon credit scheme was invented by KEN LAY…you know, Ken Lay of ENRON…the man who mysteriously died of a “heart attack” before he was to serve a prison sentence for fraud in the energy manipulation scandal (which, oddly, also produced one of the most memorable issues of Playgirl ever).
* For those unfamiliar, ManBearPig is a reference from Southpark’s episode on Al Gore — who, in the cartoon, has been traveling the world warning people about a fictitious monster called ManBearPig, which he dresses up like to scare people (shades of the M. Night Shalamlamalomanon crapfest “The Village”).
* Denmark has now been caught manipulating its carbon exchange credits, shortly before Copenhagen hosts the big ManBearPig Summit that has quickly turned into one of the biggest jokes we’ve seen in a while (and we’ve seen Oprah’s “boyfriend” Steadman in a Speedo, people).
* More of the crazy trolls behind this Global Warming Hoax are being dragged into the sunlight. One of the creepiest and most bizarre is Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, who has been waging a war in Britain, apparently, to force restaurants to stop serving ice with water. Here is a photo of this man, so you can see what sort of people were driving this madness:
Would you buy a used car from this man? Would you let him in your house to use your phone if he came to your door at midnight? If not, then why would we trust his word that we need to tank the West's economy to stop AGW?
* Criminal fraud charges are being pursued in Britain against these “climatologists” because they received state funds by twisting data, hiding the truth, manipulating numbers to gain further grants, etc.
Republicans need to get on this and launch criminal proceedings against the University of Pennsylvania, which has had a lot to do with the Anthropogenic Global Warming Hoax. All American Universities contributing to this fraud should lose their federal research funding to force them to clean house. The people behind this madness should go to jail…including, we firmly believe, Al Gore himself.
Gore is not a stupid man. He had to have known this AGW hoax was being perpetrated. He became the public face of this nonsense, and he should take the fall for it. We want to see Al Gore stand before the public with his power point presentations and explain how, exactly, he was duped into the whole ManBearPig fiasco, if that’s going to be his excuse.
The man made a fortune off AGW…and now lawsuit after lawsuit for the rest of his life should, rightly, take all that money away.
The other thing Republicans need to do is get ahead of this narrative and drive it to prove Democrats should not be trusted with anything important.
If, for years, Democrats have been promoting this AGW fraud, and fell for it so completely, then Democrats should not be trusted with healthcare reform, should not be trusted with holding Congress and the White House, and should not be listened to with regards to just about anything.
Liberals were all-in for AGW, but it’s up to Republicans to give the American people the narrative that Liberals lied to them about AGW, so therefore they are lying to them about how wonderful Utopiacare will be too. People won’t make that connection unless it is made for them.
Someone like Sarah Palin needs to stand up and say, “Look at the massive hoax unraveling that was set to destroy the West’s economy, but has been proven to be a colossal fraud. Liberals were behind this, and pushed governments to pass destructive legislation in a hurry because they claimed there was no time to stop and think about what we were doing. And now it’s been proven to be a giant hoax. So, why should we listen to Liberals that we need to rush through this Utopiacare legislation. Don’t you think if they were wrong about AGW, and lied to you about that, that they are also wrong and lying about Utopiacare?”
This could also all further erode the people’s confidence in the MSM, too. The American Obamedia has been a consistent and vocal proponent of AGW. The American public needs to see how blatantly the MSM has been lying to them — so that the public will stop believing in the MSM altogether and will demand some new entity to emerge to replace the corrupt and Liberal controlled propaganda machine we have now.
The AGW Hoax has the potential to bring down a lot more than just the scientists behind it if Republicans can successfully put out a narrative the public can easily wrap its head around.
Wednesday Open Thread: December 2nd, 2009
What’s on your mind this Wednesday?
Here’s some more Twisted Sister for Christmas! Love, love, love it!
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Best Buy has decided to promote Islamization of this country by celebrating Muslim holidays now. That’s Best Buy’s choice as a company. It is our choice as consumers to no longer shop at Best Buy.
We are also choosing to contact Best Buy every day for the next month and remind them of all the Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Olympian, and Flying Spaghetti Monster holidays they fail to acknowledge, promote, or celebrate while they are going out of their way to promote Islam.
Today’s Holidays:
St. Bibiana Day
St. Chromatius Day
Laos National Day
Best Buy Contact Information:
CEO Brian J. Dunn
Exec VP & CFO James L. Muehlbauer
CEO Best Buy International Robert A. Willett
SrVp Gen Counsel Joseph M. Joyce
Exec VP & CMO Barry J. Judge
Brian.Dunn@BestBuy.com, James.Muehlbauer@BestBuy.com, Robert.Willett@BestBuy.com, Joseph.Joyce@BestBuy.com, Barry.Judge@BestBuy.com
Best Buy Corporate HQ
7601 Penn Avenue S.
Richfield MN 55423
(612) 291-1000
What’s interesting about these little letter writing projects is that they are greater than the topic and assignment at hand.
Yes, it will be fun to teach Best Buy a lesson — and make them think twice about Islamization in the future. But more than that, it gets you in the habit of writing actual letters to people about something — which comes in handy when you are needed to do that to Senators and Congressmen.
If you see how easy it is to force change through this sort of activism, maybe you will recruit your friends and family to do it too…so that you all get this training…and then, slowly, we moderates, Independents, and conservatives suddenly have parity with the Left — who is normally the one excelling at this sort of activism.
There is no Al Sharpton/Henry Gates/Jesse Jackson screaming and wailing team on standby to protest and voice outrage over anything the Left does.
We need to create something like that and have it well-trained and ready to go at all times.
This Best Buy letter campaign is great exercise for that.
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Boystown Update:
So we still haven’t figured out if Pie Hole, our favorite pizza shop in Boystown, is going to reopen elsewhere now that its lease isn’t being renewed. BUT, we walked the neighborhood yesterday and saw a couple of interesting things, One, sadly, was that a new sandwich shop called Wally & Agador’s is already closed. It was a terrible sandwich shop, where everything was overpriced, but the menu had creatively named sandwiches and the people working there were nice most days. But, why pay $10 for a sandwich from them that’s not very good when you can grab something from Nookie’s just a block away that’s half the price and twice as good? Wally & Agador’s didn’t even last a full year. We think they opened before Pride this summer, and are already closed with the windows wrapped in paper by December 2nd. That’s record time for a closing in our experience…less than six months or so. Most restaurants fail in the first year, but this place didn’t last even that.
It’s a good lesson on the marketplace though, and how things should work. The Liberals in Congress would have just kept subsidizing this place, so that they could keep making sandwiches no one seemed to want, with all that food going to waste and the storefront taken up by a shop no one really wanted in the neighborhood (except maybe Wally and/or Agador themselves). But, the marketplace had better options for consumers, so consumers’ dollars went elsewhere, and this business failed because it could not compete. Economic Darwinism rules the day, as it honestly should.
Maybe Pie Hole can now take this space…which would be larger than its current location. For those who know the neighborhood, Wally & Agador’s is where, we believe, an art gallery used to be, in the block that’s between Buckingham and Aldine, across (sort of) from Yoshi’s and the random Sherwin Williams/Print Shop building that’s on the east side of Halsted.
The other very odd thing we saw this morning was what looked like gravedigging in the vacant lot next to the abandoned building to the side of Roscoe’s on Halsted. There were six men digging what looked like six graves, and they had a small earth moving machine with them too. We noticed the MiniBar staff has stopped parking in that lot, so maybe they are getting ready to build something. But, the graves weren’t deep enough to be for a building’s foundation…and if they were building a condo building here it would have a basement, so we’re stumped what’s going on there. Why would someone dig six holes, equidistant, in a dirt lot next to an abandoned building when the lot had been used as a parking lot for the last few years? Curious.
We joke about the grave digging, but this is Chicago after all. And Democrats will need those extra votes in 2010, for sure. No more reliable voters than dead ones in this town.
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