The Liberal claim that G. W. Bush is the most hated American president of all time is, in fact, true … if only “progressives”, Islamic Fascists, Europhiles, Communists, and Tyrants are polled. In the mean time, the good people of this world seem to think he’s doing just fine:

More generally, in a world supposedly awash in anti-US sentiment, pro-American leaders keep winning elections. Germany’s Angela Merkel is certainly more pro-American than Gerhard Schroeder, whom she replaced. The same is true of France’s Nicolas Sarkozy.
More importantly in terms of Green’s analysis, the same is also true of South Korea’s new President. Lee Myung-bak, elected in a landslide in December, is vastly more pro-American than his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun.
Even in majority Islamic societies, their populations allegedly radicalised and polarised by Bush’s campaign in Iraq and the global war on terror more generally, election results don’t show any evidence of these trends. In the most recent local elections in Indonesia, and in national elections in Pakistan, the Islamist parties with anti-American rhetoric fared very poorly. Similarly Kevin Rudd was elected as a very pro-American Labor leader, unlike Mark Latham, with his traces of anti-Americanism, who was heavily defeated.
Even with China, the Iraq campaign was not a serious negative for the US. Beijing was far more worried by the earlier US-led NATO intervention into Kosovo because it was based purely on notions of human rights in Kosovo. Such notions could theoretically be used to justify action (not necessarily military action) against China over Taiwan and Tibet. Iraq, on the other hand, was justified on the basis of weapons of mass destruction, a justification with which the Chinese were much more comfortable.

cross posted @ Celestial Junk
More Reading:
VDH takes a delicious shot at some of the world’s chief Bush-haters … the Europhiles.

How do all these diverse narratives and agendas add up? The vaunted European multicultural, multilateral, utopian and pacifist worldview is now on its own and thus will get hammered as never before in the unrelenting forge of history. Very soon there will be no more George W. Bush to dump on, hide behind, and blame for the widening cracks in the Atlantic alliance. Instead Europeans may well have to call on the old pro, Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, to lead them in negotiating sessions with jihadists, Iran, and Russia.

What’s that you say?

Why is it then that so many Americans – and foreigners who come here – feel that the place is so, well, safe?
A British man I met in Colorado recently told me he used to live in Kent but he moved to the American state of New Jersey and will not go home because it is, as he put it, “a gentler environment for bringing the kids up.”
This is New Jersey. Home of the Sopranos.
Brits arriving in New York, hoping to avoid being slaughtered on day one of their shopping mission to Manhattan are, by day two, beginning to wonder what all the fuss was about. By day three they have had had the scales lifted from their eyes.
I have met incredulous British tourists who have been shocked to the core by the peacefulness of the place, the lack of the violent undercurrent so ubiquitous in British cities, even British market towns.
“It seems so nice here,” they quaver.
Well, it is!

Who would write such drivel?

I still have tears in my eyes and sore sides (big profanity warning):
click

… in our history books. We’re not making this up:

“We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf.” (George Orwell)

It has always been so. Civilization and the ability to inflict violence go together, are inseparable. Our pampered elites cannot understand this and have no ability to understand this. They look upon men with guns like apes gaping at The Last Supper.
Our venerable history books speak of Western Civilization as beginning with the Greeks somewhere around 700 BC. Not so. It began with the Hebrews pushing into what they called ‘the Promised Land’ 500 years before. We forget that the most influential book in Western Civilization had its origins in the violence spread by the Israelite commander Joshua and his successors. The poetry of Solomon, the beauty of the Psalms, all rest upon the shoulders of Israelites with swords.

Throw them in here please, another busy day on the ‘to-do’ list.

I’ll take your footprint and raise you one:

TG:

Not so much a question of crude shortage but rather the numerous ways to Pump up the prices of refined petro-products.
First Big Oil covers the market in automated pumps that require you to use your time, your credit card and your liability to fill your gas tank.
Then, to get the capital costs for the expensive automated equipment covered there are wars and conflicts in oil basins like the ME, Venezuela, Columbia and Mexico.
There are Iranian gunboat Squirmishes in the Gulf of Hormuz and Al Gore, Suzooki.
For many very wealthy people it is a golden goose system. = TG

Take this post to be a “reader tips”, of a different sort.
What are your investment tips, picks, tricks, and truisms? What’s your “Golden Goose System”? What’s your advise for those without a lot to spend?

There was a time, not that long ago, that we were led to believe that the world’s oil supply was about to run out. “Alternative energy sources” entered our cultural consciousness and ever since, there’s been a burning desire by “some”, to find alternate energy sources. After all, fossil fuels were finite and the survival of civilization depended on new energy sources.
Who’d have thought back then, that our good little planet was awash in the stuff. No wonder the “oil-phobes” had to invent Global Warming:

All this should make one thing amply clear – there is enough oil to go around for a very long time. Even on conservative assumptions – accelerating consumption and few new discoveries – earth’s oil supplies should last for at least a century.
This, however, is the worst case scenario. We can be reasonably certain that new exploration and advancing technologies will in coming years greatly add to the quantities of available oil. So much so that Morris Adelman, Professor Emeritus in Economics at Harvard, has argued that the ‘amount of oil available to the market over the next 25 to 50 years is for all intents and purposes infinite.’
The notion that this planet is running out of oil is one of the great misnomers of our age. There is more oil available today than there was a hundred, fifty or ten years ago. And there is every indication that this trend will continue into the future. Instead of lamenting that we are running out of it, it would be far more accurate to say that we are constantly bumping into new oil. This is why two years ago the Economist headlined an article on the topic The Bottomless Beer Mug.

cross posted @ Celestial Junk

Yoink!
h/t Stan

Carl Sagan used to say, that when there are a number of equally compelling theories, start with the simplest one, because it usually proves to be true:

That is why, despite hugely different environmental conditions in the past, including far higher CO2 levels, there has never been a ‘tipping’ point that changed the pattern of glaciations and interglacials that have occurred with clockwork precision based on astronomical movements throughout the historical record.
Nor need we fear any man made addition to solar warming because the proportion of the warming which we would be responsible for would be insignificant against the scale of the solar induced portion.
In any event, since cooling is worse than warming for humanity and most life on the planet, our production of CO2, however large in our puny terms, would be wholly beneficial for life on Earth.

Here is a paraphrased version of the Carl Sagan bunkometer taken from Demon Haunted World:

1. Whenever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts”
2. Encourage substantive debate on the “evidence” by knowledgable proponents of all points of view.
3. Arguments from authority carry little weight as “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that there are no authorities; at most; there are “experts”.
4. Spin a variety of hypotheses. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each. The ones that survive are the ones to do in depth study on.
5.Do not become attached to any hypothesis just because it’s yours. Find reasons for rejecting all, including your own, hypothesis.
6. Quantify. If whatever you are explaining has a measure, quantify it so that measurement is more possible. Vague hypothesis, or those difficult to quantify will be the most difficult to prove or disprove. Ie: There is a Sasquatch.
7. If there is a chain argument, then each and every link must work, including the premise.
8. Use Occam’s Razor; which is to choose the hypothesis that explains the data in the simplest terms.
9. Ask: is the Hypothesis testable and falsifiable. Hypothesis that are not testable are not worth much. Could you duplicate accurately, at least theoretically, the hypothesis?

Related post @ Celestial Junk

CP and CTV looked at the Auditor General’s report “Support for Overseas Deployments – National Defence” (pdf) and came up with this headline: “Supply lines to Afghanistan rife with problems: AG.”
I looked at the same report at The Torch, and found that on Page 1 of the document, the AG specifically gave the following pat on the back to DND support staff:

National Defence has been able to deliver to troops its equipment and supplies that they need to do the job in Afghanistan. While we did note that commanders have expressed concerns over some supply chain shortcomings, we found no reports of supply chain problems that had significantly affected operations. This is largely because the high level of dedication and hard work of Canadian Forces personnel enabled them to deliver the needed support.

For those who don’t speak governmental bureaucratese, that’s pretty high praise for the men and women on the ground doing the grunt work of getting people and materiel into the hands of the troops at the tip of the spear.
If you’re interested in the never-ending military logistics balance between improving the system, and going outside of it in situations that require “effects-based initiative”, you can read the rest of my analysis here.

It’s Friday, a Friday in May . . . the weekend is coming. So, given that, I’d like you to think about:
The pond that needs to be removed, the fence that needs to be built, the shingles that need replacing, the fire-pit that needs to be moved, the Saskatoon’s that need to be replanted, the groceries that need to be bought…sigh, the hockey that needs to be watched?
and don’t what-ever you do, don’t think about our favourite friend¹,
ensuring a Liberal defeat,
or worrying about old school reactionaries who aren’t happy unless everyone toes their line. As an aside, there is a difference between “editorial”, “journalism”, and “reporting”.
Please bear w/ me, I’m not nearly as diligent as Kate when it comes to checking scheduled (meaning written in advance and published at a time in the future) posts. Apparently, they have to be rebuilt before accepting comments. Many of you are in time-zones that really don’t jive with mine (hello, computer geek!). Don’t be surprised if you have issues commenting on this post until 9 or so CST.
¹ I’ve been deleting comments related to that person as per Kate’s ban. I don’t know enough about MT to set up a more elegant system. Please refrain from responding to that person until I can viciously and gleefully “restrict his right to free speech”. (That would be lance at catprint dot ca, Mr. Johnny DownInTheDumps.)
Cheers,
lance

The following vid is utterly ridiculous … but I just couldn’t resist.
And yes, I know … I know … Godwin’s Law and all … but a target rich environment is just too juicy to pass up:

Strange, don’t you think, that it took an American to once and for all put an end to Ontario’s dominance of the federation:

A few years ago, a Billings petroleum geologist by the name of Dick Findley was working out of his basement – searching for oil in an area that had been barren for over 20 years. Things were rough and he was struggling to get by.
He even flirted with the idea of getting a second job as a restaurant cook. On a diet of nothing but Ramen noodles and hard-boiled eggs – how could you blame the guy?
But one thing kept Dick going – an unprecedented suspicion that this area, known as the Bakken Basin, contained more oil than Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran combined.
The Bakken Basin, located in Montana, North Dakota and Saskatchewan – was at one point coined “one of the largest disappointments in the oil industry.”
During this period, technology lacked the efficiency to make drilling worthwhile. And when oil hit all time lows in the late 90’s – the Bakken Basin was basically abandoned.
But Findley kept digging around.
And through sheer luck, he and his partner stumbled upon a porous layer of dolomite, 9000 feet below the ground of a ranch just outside Sidney, Montana.
This stumble turned out to be the largest on-shore oil discovery in decades. Little did he know, but Findley discovered enough oil to fuel the U.S. for 41 years.

Sure … it’s a promo, but the flood of oil money pouring into South Eastern Saskatchewan isn’t a fantasy.
Update: From Spike 1 in the comments:

“Progressives” are apparently all about helping the down-trodden of this world … yet, for the life of them, they can’t grasp the nobility of what our Canadian men and women in uniform are doing in Afghanistan. “Progressives” can’t move themselves to feel pride … least of all gratitude, for our soldiers. They spew shameful rhetoric, like, “I support our troops … so bring’em home”, without ever considering that our soldiers WANT to be there and they WANT to hold back the barbarins. The mere thought of such heroism, is beyond the “progressive” mind.

… Keep Reading.

For those who love Deano … an old standard:

The road to hell is paved with lawyers’ invoices, and liberal intentions.

… all in a day’s work:

Produced by Cjunk.
YouTube

“… than I can my white grandmother*.”

Speaking before an audience that included Marion Barry, Cornel West, Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party and Nation of Islam official Jamil Muhammad, Wright praised Louis Farrakhan, defended the view that Zionism is racism, accused the United States of terrorism, repeated his view that the government created the AIDS virus to cause the genocide of racial minorities, stood by other past remarks (“God damn America”) and held himself out as a spokesman for the black church in America.
In front of 30 television cameras, Wright’s audience cheered him on as the minister mocked the media and, at one point, did a little victory dance on the podium. It seemed as if Wright, jokingly offering himself as Obama’s vice president, was actually trying to doom Obama; a member of the head table, American Urban Radio’s April Ryan, confirmed that Wright’s security was provided by bodyguards from Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

A roundup of reaction.

If you read milblogs, you get to hear regularly from U.S. servicemen and women about the improving situation in Iraq.
Far more rare is a Canadian officer’s ground-level perspective on the effort there. Meet LCol Darryl Mills, a CF officer on exchange as Deputy Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division currently operating in Baghdad:

LTC Mills seems to believe that the section of Iraq under 3ID’s responsibility has hit a tipping point, though he didn’t use that phrase. As security improves, “markets pop up everywhere, providing local economy stimulation and security, which creates a Circle of Life in some ways.” Coalition forces are “no longer worrying about the crisis of the day. The Iraqi government and military are stronger each day, exercise their power more each day.” As things get better and better, LTC Mills reports they become self-reinforcing. “Once you get to a certain point there is no going back. Each day government, economy and military get stronger and it’s harder for the terrorists to come back.”
***
He’s also adamant about the growth he’s seeing in Iraqi capabilities. “I’m here on the ground, so I see the change day-to-day, he reports. I see a government that is standing up.”
Because of his optimism and the upward trajectory of conditions in the AO, LTC Mills almost sounded disappointed when he spoke of GEN Petreaus’ Tuesday testimony on Capitol Hill. “I get his comments about ‘guarded optimism,’” he said. And he agreed with GEN Petraeus’ message of “let’s not rush,” but LTC Mills is obviously very optimistic and excited about the future. He acknowledged that improvements are uneven across Iraq, “[But] in our area, there has been a lot of progress… it has been quite substantial.”
I suspect it would not surprise many readers that one of the bigger challenges 3ID is facing right now has to do with the homefront. As Deputy Chief of Staff, LTC Mills doesn’t usually interact directly with VIPs who visit from the U.S., but he hears about the visits and has definite opinions about them. “We respect [visitors who are informed and] can speak about the before and after… who tend not to come in with an agenda. Not all are like that, sadly.”

As the cool kids say, RTWT.