Also, "psikhushka" (психушка) is the preferred nomenclature

(DANGER: NIGHTMARE FUEL AHEAD)

'If you don't believe in climate change you must be sick': Oregon professor likens skepticism to racism

Racism, check. Backhanded reference to the South, check. Superiority of urban-living to rural lifestyles, check. Call for awareness, check... Man, she was this close to getting that moonbat bingo-card filled out, too.

Worse yet, they want to live closer to you (somewhere near Innsmouth, judging from her photograph). Until you're shipped off for re-education, that is... It's for the greater good.

Tired clichés aside, I'll let John Aziz field this one(via ZeroHedge):

... [W]hat about my position that a ultra-complex (and arguably stochastic) system like the climate is not meaningfully modellable, and therefore that climate certainty is impossible? While it seems to make sense that higher levels of atmospheric CO2 will produce higher temperatures, and while there are a myriad of simplified models out there that seem to suggest the same thing, there is no substitute for long-term empirical evidence, of which we have very little. In a system as complex as the Earth’s climate, there could be a whole swathe of effects that we have not yet identified that could drastically change the outcome (for better, or for worse). For Norgaard, does an understanding of the limitations of probabilistic modelling constitute a mental illness? Should I be committed to treatment to “cure” me of my beliefs?

Because that is what Norgaard’s words lead me to believe. And that sounds worryingly like Neo-Stalinism.

As Vox is also fond of pointing out, bedecking politics with the trappings of Science! doesn't make the politics scientific, it makes the science* political (much in the same way that a gallon of ice cream and a gallon of sewage doesn't make two gallons of ice cream).

Care for an ice cream cone?

*Actual scientific content may vary

The predictability of powermongers and the idiots that follow them

A succinct and scathing examination of the utter idiocy behind HR 2454:

Before the last few years, scholars used to say that we couldn't get a depression today because policymakers wouldn't make mistakes as bad as the ones they made in the 1930s. Though we've made some great moves in the last year — increasing the money supply and guaranteeing money markets funds — we're also repeating many of the same mistakes as Hoover and FDR (propping up failing industries; raising taxes; wasting money on unneeded public works projects; corruption; expensive new anti-business government programs).

Certainly, the Smoot-Hawley bill of 1930 was dumb; it imposed huge tariffs on foreign goods imported into this country, which backfired when those countries raised their tariffs too. In a sense, cap-and-trade looked like it would be even dumber; it seemed that it might impose a tariff on our own US manufactured goods, but not on foreign goods. But the House realized this and decided to require the administration to impose tariffs on goods imported from countries that don't restrict their own emissions to the same extent as the US (tip to Maguire and OandO. This 21st century version of Smoot-Hawley will probably take years before the tariffs will be imposed.

The cap-and-trade bill, if passed by the Senate and actually implemented over the next few decades, would do more damage to the country than any economic legislation passed in at least 100 years. It would eventually send most American manufacturing jobs overseas, reduce American competitiveness, and make Americans much poorer than they would have been without it.

In other news, America still has manufacturing jobs.

The commentary regarding the smug, self-satisfied masturbatory group-think regarding carbon-footprints, offsets, credits, et al from Matt and Trey in the South Park episode "Smug Alert" is both devastatingly funny (although, as one might expect, not safe for work) and tragically accurate; much to the misfortune of the nation, the Bay Area has already demonstrated that not only does it produce power-hungry fascists with questionable mental stability, it can bring the rest of its party to heel with its lunacy.

We are long overdue for a second discussion regarding the voluntary association of "these United States".

Putting the child back in "Schild und Schwert"

Little Brother and Little Sister are watching you:

Luton Borough Council's Street Seen scheme encourages its 650 volunteers to report 'environmental concerns'. It is also recruiting 'Junior Street Champions', aged between seven and 11.

Primary schools could also be involved within two years.

Similarly, Islington Council in north London has recruited 1,200 'Islington Eyes' to report crime hotspots, fly-tipping and excess noise from DIY.

Volunteers are given a list of things to do when confronted with fly-tippers, including taking photos 'without being seen'.

Considering that even a modest council-budget could outfit a legion of these snot-nosed lice with equipment that would have made the actual STASI wet their pants in excitement, this should prove to be a profitable venture for the micro-tyrants of the United Kingdom's various townships.

A spokesman for the Local Government Association said: 'Environment volunteers are people who care passionately about their local area and want to protect it from vandals, graffitists and fly-tippers.

'These community-spirited residents are not snoopers.

'They help councils cut crime and make places cleaner, greener and safer.'

Wasn't this the plot-line for Hot Fuzz?

What a sad spectacle this nation has become.

When in doubt, empty the clip

- "There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice." - Baron de Montesquieu, 1742

- When seconds count, the police are only 48 minutes away.

- Canadian law-enforcement moves away from Taser use; United States maintains that they are working as intended, despite that the combined deaths from Taser-related incidents has risen to 400 since 2001.

- Dam shame: saps at loggerheads with vandals; local police branch roots out culprits, leaf amused.

- A refreshing perspective on the prestigious nature of the banking industry.

Ask not for whom the road tolls

It tolls for thee:

This, however, is the same type of arrangement called for in the Infrastructure Bank Act that is a key part of the agenda of President-elect Barack Obama (D). Obama hopes to establish the bank to provide $60 billion for infrastructure projects with "a preference for projects which leverage private financing, including public-private partnerships" (view details). Moreover, Senator Obama in March endorsed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's idea to charge a $9 toll on cars and a $22 toll for trucks that enter downtown Manhattan during working hours.

"I think Mayor Bloomberg's proposal for congestion pricing is a thoughtful and innovative approach to the problem," Obama told WNYC radio in March. "The basic notion that we should do what we can to reduce congestion, to reduce pollution, to reduce consumption of foreign oil and to then to reinvest dollars into our infrastructure in mass transit."

Excellent. Less than twenty-fours hours after the fact, the conversation drifts to taxation.

It's nice to have another Roads Scholar in the White House.

Utterly incompatible mindsets

Another mile-post on the long march to Hell:

Councils are recruiting 'citizen snoopers' to report litter louts, dog foulers and even people who fail to sort out their rubbish properly.

The 'environment volunteers' will also be responsible for encouraging neighbours to cut down on waste.

The Eco-Stasi is already making inroads with this despicable tactic in California; San Francisco Sodom of the West is already enacting a policy that can fine the plebians up to $1000 for not sorting their trash. While the cry of j'accuse! is not subsidized (yet), it's almost worse that one's neighbors, in the mindset that we must all be Good Germans, are doing this without bribe.

Expect to see similar policies enacted across Amerika; while I maintain the position that I am for having clean air and clean water, it can be done in such a way that is market-driven, not state-mandated. We owe it to ourselves to be good stewards of this planet, but not in such a way that cripples our personal liberties or destroys our ability to generate wealth.

Furthermore, in a consumption-based society, these competing ideologies are going to clash in such a way that the average suburban slob, mindlessly chanting a mantra laced with "freedom", "hope", "change" and "duty", is going to suffer greatly for. I can think of no more greatly injurious act to freedom than making the slave pay for his own chains, and leading him to believe that he is happier and healthier for the privilege.

Lastly, a thought from one of my favorite authors regarding the subject material:

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

- C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man