On The Right Side

by Tom Sears

  I don’t know if it made the news back here, but a man was actually thrown off a Qantas airplane for wearing a Bush-hating shirt that said, “World’s number 1 terrorist.” The airline didn’t care that the clown’s right to free speech was violated but instead cared about upsetting the other 200 or so passengers.

  Finally, there seems to be a company that is willing to stand up to these idiots.

  Hopefully, more companies and individuals will follow Qantas’ lead.

  On arrival in Los Angeles, I of course watched the President’s State of the Union address and the Democrat’s response.

  Why wasn’t there more coverage about Jim Webb’s (freshman Democrat

  senator) response?

  In addition to saying nothing constructive and shooting down the president’s proposals for energy and health-care initiatives, he actually said that the majority of U.S. troops don’t support the war! What a liar. It is typical of liberals to make such irresponsible statements with no basis in fact and the main stream media giving them a free pass.

  If he is an example of the Democrats’ efforts to reach across the aisle in a bipartisan way, it’s a strange start. Let’s see how much bipartisan action they actually initiate.

  It will be enjoyable to see the Democrats make an attempt to lead with ideas instead of offering nothing but the whining and nastiness of the last six years.

  At least the next two years will be interesting.

  Reader Reaction Makes Job Fun

  A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from one of my fans saying that I was the cause of the GOP downfall the last election.

  Wow! I didn’t think The Daily Star had that great a subscription base or that my column had that many readers and had such a powerful impact.

  Here’s some of what was said to me in the e-mail: “It’s gratifying to see how much your bellicose right wing ravings did to your beloved GOP in the last election. In fact I’d like to think that your brain dead vitriol and partisan propaganda are precisely why you backward conservatives took such a thumping….” See why I love writing this column so much.

  I guess it is necessary for me to say it yet one more time: Republicans lost their majorities simply because they strayed from their conservative voter base and conservative values.

  Many of the Democrats who won ran with conservative messages and platforms. The war was only a part of the reason for losing both houses. You just have to look at Joe Lieberman’s overwhelming victory and stop listening to CNN interpretations.

  All of the evidence points to the fact that conservatives are growing in number

  day after day. Let’s look at talk radio.

  Conservatives dominate. The top 5 talkers and their respective listening audience are conservatives, from No.1 Rush Limbaugh to No.5 Laura Ingraham.

  On the other hand, liberal talk show hosts fail miserably time after time. From Clinton to Cuomo and the latest failure, Al Franken, they just can’t even hold a small audience.

  Ever hear of Randi Rhodes or Thom Hartmann? Of course not. Their liberal listening base is probably 1,000 or fewer.

  While conservative radio is expanding rapidly, a whole liberal radio network, Air America, with its entire line up of liberal hosts, has had to file for bankruptcy. Quite an embarrassment wouldn’t you say?

  Come on liberals, show us conservatives how to start and maintain a successful talk show. I know you have all sorts of excuses for the above failures, and you are quite adept in ignoring hard core facts as a part of your arguments.

  Another area of liberal failings is cable TV. I was listening to Wolf Blitzer and CNN leading up to the president’s State of the Union speech while I was at the LA Airport.

  Blitzer had negative things to say even before the speech was made. He honestly thinks he is an unbiased reporter! His negative, partisan rantings are being listened to less and less.

  Once again, I must share the facts with you. Fox News Channel, considered a conservative leaning station but much more unbiased than our friend Wolf, recently became the most watched cable news station in the country.

  CNN, on the other hand, went from first to third and is now behind MSNBC. Which one is going in the right direction?

  How about newspapers? In 2004 the New York Post, a conservative newspaper, was the seventh largest newspaper in the country. In the 12 month period ending September 2006, it had risen to fifth, leaping over two liberal rags, the New York Daily News and The Washington Post.

  The Post is only 70,000 subscribers behind the Los Angeles Times and 380,000 behind The New York Times (as negative and biased a paper as I have ever read). I force myself to read the online versions of both just to get the wrong spin on political events.

  Also, the New York Post’s subscription base increased by 5.13 percent over the six month period that ended September 30 while the Washington Post, the L.A. Times and the N.Y. Times subscription base declined 3.31 percent, 8.02 percent and 3.50 percent respectively. In addition, the N.Y. Times share price has dropped 25 percent over recent times. Oops, there are those facts getting in the way again.

  Lastly, let’s look at conservative authors. Whenever conservative authors like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, and Michelle Malkin - all hated by the liberal left wing - come out with a new book, it automatically hits the best seller lists. I wonder why that is.

  So all in all conservatives - don’t despair. Two things will happen. First it will be shown that the Democrats are devoid of ideas and will have to settle for harassing committee hearings rather than leading the country in a positive direction.

  Secondly, I think the Republicans got the message and will realign themselves with their conservative base. The sad and dangerous fact is that it won’t take place until the 2008 elections.

  The best part is the Democrat’s failures are going to give me plenty of fodder for future columns. Also, my fans, like the one I mentioned above, will get even nastier as they become more and more frustrated with the facts.

  Did I mention how much I loved writing this column?

  Honor Military, Not Celebs

  I bet you thought this column was going to be about Anna Nicole Smith. My column was going to be about global warming, but that will have to wait for now.

  It isn’t going to be about Anna, but I do have a statement to make. Here is a person who has contributed absolutely nothing positive to humanity except for maybe the pocketbooks of a few plastic surgeons. She died, probably from drugs, on February 8, and there hasn’t been a day, or maybe even an hour, where her name has not popped up on one news station or another.

  The same fascination holds true for the likes of Paris Hilton and Brittany Spears (now there’s a responsible mother, don’t you think). You can make your own list of names, but it ends up long and disgusting.

  On the other hand, last Monday, President Bush presented the Medal of Honor to a Vietnam War helicopter pilot who made over 22 trips (some said 40) into heavy enemy fire, making sure the troops had the necessary ammunition to fight with, and then returned with the wounded soldiers, two or three at a time.

  His actions saved the lives of 71 men, and every flight was a grave risk to himself, a risk that few others would take. Know his name? I’ll bet you don’t. As a matter of fact I think you should look it up for yourself, or even try to find it.

  This individual got one-half hour live coverage in the early afternoon when the presentation was made by President Bush, received a brief mention on the evening news, and he was then forgotten about the very next day.

  Who do you think deserves the most recognition and respect? Only the most moronic would say Anna or Paris or Brittany or their ilk.

  Everyone should take the time to Google the Medal of Honor winners and read their brief biographies and their acts of heroism. What those men and women risked in the name of our country is beyond imagination.

  I hope the readings will give people a different perspective about whom we should be hearing every n
ight. And then, what about all the other thousands of men and women who have also performed acts of extreme valor (not including John Kerry of course, until he opens his military records) who have never received the recognition they so rightfully deserved?

  Instead, the media, in ignoring these individuals, would rather highlight the few despicable soldiers who perform shameful acts that are miniscule in number and isolated in occurance.

  It would take brave efforts for the news networks and print media to change all

  this, but don’t expect anything of the like to happen soon, if ever.

  They would rather demean and degrade our armed forces than bring the true picture of all the positive things happening in Iraq.

  At least the Daily Star has created a “Bright Side” article on a daily basis, giving recognition to positive things people are doing. I wish newspapers and TV/radio stations would do the same for our troops. Can you imagine the leftist rags such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, NBC and CBS doing such a thing? Don’t hold your breath.

  There are some really great quotes that I came across while reading about these medal winners. I’ll list just three of them here.

  “Heroes are people who do what has to be done, when it has to be done, when no one else will, regardless of the consequences.” – Author unknown.

  “There are two tangible symbols of selfless sacrifice. There are two symbols representing the ultimate offer of one’s life for others. One of these symbols is the Cross of Christ and the other is…..the Congressional Medal of Honor.” – Paul Harvey.

  And lastly, “Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure.” –

  President Abraham Lincoln.

  Don’t Get Hysterical About Global Warming

  Global Warming? Probably. Caused by man? Maybe a fraction. There are plenty of highly esteemed scientists who are presenting alternative explanations that refute the Chicken Little message of gloom and doom, and the “it’s America’s fault” group comprised of such esteemed scientific experts as Al Gore, Babs Streisand, Alec Baldwin, Melissa Etheridge and other environmental crazies.

  One only has to look back at an April 1975 article in Newsweek to show how much credibility some scientists should have. Thirty years ago, “expert” scientists were warning that the Earth’s end would be coming soon because of global COOLING.

  There was to be drastically reduced agricultural growing seasons resulting in the destruction of “the world’s food-producing system.” Huge famines and mass starvations were predicted. Political leaders were called upon to begin such measures of stockpiling massive amounts of food and to implement other drastic economic strategies so that the world could be saved! Another ice age was coming!

  Oops. If these environmental crazies of the 70’s were so wrong then, why is anyone supposed to give them any credibility now? Simply because they say we should? These “experts” didn’t even explain why they were so wrong back then or apologize to those who took them seriously.

  Thank heavens no action was taken then and very little should be taken now. Once again it is Mother Nature controlling the environment just as it has forever and will continue to do so in the future.

  The only truth that was stated was buried near the end of the article. “Our knowledge of the mechanisms of climatic change is at least as fragmentary as our data,” conceded the National Academy of Sciences’ report. “Not only are the basic scientific questions largely unanswered, but in many cases we do not yet know enough to pose the key questions.”

  You still don’t think these people are a little off? How about The Weather Channel’s climatologist, Dr. Heidi Cullen, who states that the American Meteorological Society should “strip their seal of approval from any TV weatherman expressing skepticism about the predictions of manmade global warming.”

  A CBS News “60 Minutes “reporter called the global warming skeptics “Holocaust deniers.” Other people have said that once we have finally woken up to the fact of global warming, and we are being hit with the results, we should have war crime trials, some sort of “climate Nuremberg” for the skeptics.

  I would laugh at these people and their off-the-wall statements, except they are actually serious. No, on second thought, I am still laughing at these people.

  You can also expect the same arrogance if you ever question their findings. It is easy to tell when people have a weak leg to stand on and want to stifle any alternative notions. They stoop to insults and other demeaning behavior to intimidate you rather than answer some very real concerns and other scientific evidence that disputes their claims. Don’t worry when this happens to you. It simply means that you are standing on much more solid ground. As in most if not all cases, common sense and calmness prevails over hysteria.

  I’ll probably have to continue with this column at another time. There is so much more yet to be said. For example, the U.S. Department of Energy has previously estimated that if we adhered to the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, gasoline prices would increase by 66 percent, electricity prices by 86 percent, and millions of American jobs would be lost. You could kiss our present standard of living goodbye.

  But have you noticed the proposed solutions coming from these environmentalists are almost as crazy as their dire warnings? We are to walk to work (after they realized that horses made dangerous methane emissions), grow our own food, live in the dark (no candles please). I guess they want us to wear loincloths and hunt with arrows.

  Rational options have already been repeatedly shot down by the fear mongers. Nuclear energy – too dangerous, wind energy – it causes environmental eyesores, bio- mass plants – too noisy or too dirty, ethanol production – people in Timbuktu will starve, and on and on and on. These extremists don’t want solutions; they just want to control everyone elses’ behavior. Live your life the best you can and ignore the rantings and ravings of these leftist radicals.

  In the meantime you have plenty of support behind you. The environmentalists can have Al Gore, even though he did invent the internet. I’ll take Richard Lindzen, a professor of meteorology at MIT or Richard Sherwood, a Nobel Laureate for atmospheric chemistry and his work concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone. Pretty impressive credentials and there are many more like them on your side.

  If you environmentalists want to slow down carbon-dioxide emissions, find a different way to breathe.

  Yes, There’s Warming, But It’s Not Man-made

  I’ll try to wrap up my thoughts about global warming before a future column gets into the inevitable military showdown with Iran.

  Have faith, common sense people. More and more responsible scientific experts, with distinguished credentials to back them up, are speaking out against the man-made global warming hoax being shoved down our throats.

  In addition, there are plenty of good books out on the market, two of which I found to be very informative.

  The first is “Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1500 Years,” by Fred Singer and Dennis Avery. The book includes some essays by those scientists who are not part of the group claiming to be the “entire scientific community.” They disagree with the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it groupies who attempt to stifle any debate to the contrary. The other is “Meltdown: The Predictable Distortion of Global Warming by

  Scientists, Politicians, and the Media,” by Patrick Michaels (too bad he didn’t add the Hollywoodites). This book presents tons of scientific evidence that debunks Al Gore’s sensationalism and fear mongering.

  Yes there is global warming. I said this in my previous column. No, it is not caused by man. There is plenty of research out there that shows solar activity as the possible main cause.

  Please remember that the sun is about the equivalent of 330,000 earths and emits heat at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Do we really believe that our miniscule output can in any way match the sun’s ability to warm or cool the global temperature?

  Other relevant factors include the tilt and inclination of the
Earth’s axis, ocean circulation and plate tectonic shifts. Darn, we can’t blame President Bush for these causes can we?

  The current warming trend lies within the range of normal, naturally caused variations. The media, however, wants and thrives on hysteria and alarmism and so do the politicians.

  Man causes pollution. But here again, it will be hard for the “hate America crowd” to lay the blame on the United States.

  China is expected to overtake the United States as the largest creator of greenhouse gasses sometime during 2008. But at the same time Gore wants us to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which applies only to the most advanced industrial nations (read the U.S.).

  Do you really think that Gore has considered the economic impact that will have on America? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that if the United States signed the Kyoto Treaty, it would end up costing us between $100 billion and $400 billion annually in lost Gross Domestic Product.

  Oh yes, I forgot to mention that the treaty doesn’t apply to the largest

  greenhouse gas emitters such as China, India and Brazil.

  Now let’s talk about the esteemed United Nations and its creation, the IPCC - The International Project on Climate Change. First of all, anything to do with the U.N. shouldn’t be taken seriously, and second of all, you can’t ignore the anti-United States bias evident everywhere within that organization.

  The original report claimed that over 2,000 of the world’s leading scientists had endorsed the report. However this claim included the names of scientists who did not agree with the commission’s conclusions. They neglected to mention this.

  As a matter of fact, there was one Professor Reiter who had to threaten a law suit to have his name removed from the report. Really makes you feel comfortable with the integrity of this group, doesn’t it? Its latest report is due to be out this May, but anyone can read an advanced summary on the Internet. It is 20 or so pages in length, but there is some significant pull back from its initial findings about the extent of man’s responsibility for global warming. Hmmmm.