Gay marriage: The right to disagree

Following up on news that Los Angeles District Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is lobbying state authorities to prevent any county employees with religious objections from being able to opt-out of officiating at gay marriage ceremonies, San Diego County Clerk Gregory Smith is going to bat for religious conscience.

According to Newsmax:

Smith said that his 115 employees will not be forced to comply with homosexuals’ requests if they have moral or religious objections. Although this could mean extra work for Smith, he says it’s worth it to “show dignity and respect to his staff.”

Dignity and respect. Isn’t that what the gay rights movement demands? Seems like it should go two ways.

Naturally, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who more than any one person instigated the recent California Supreme Court case that led to overturning the will of a majority of California voters, disagrees:

“I was pretty shocked about all that, candidly, and pretty outraged. This is a civil marriage that civil servants have a responsibility to provide… If that is their job and they are going to be able to pick and choose based on their morality, then… they are not doing their jobs… and maybe [they] should get a new job. Talk about a slippery slope, Mr. County Clerk down in San Diego.”

Of course, picking and choosing based on his morality is just what Newsom did in 2004 when he defied the law and ordered city employees to begin issuing gay marriage licenses. …

Perhaps future events will clarify if the gay rights movement is really about mutual respect for everybody’s dignity or if it’s really about forcing an agenda down the throats of those who might disagree with the gay lifestyle.

Global warming ‘consensus’: 31,000 scientists disagree

Al Gore and global warm-mongers have won many converts with their claim that 2,500 scientific reviewers of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s report constitutes a “consensus” among scientists that man-made warming is destroying Earth.

UPDATE 09-03-08: Liberals have been spinning this story like crazy. See my take on their efforts.
Click here.

Not only have many of those reviewers made it known that they disagree with the U.N. conclusions, but now there is a petition circulated by Dr. Arthur Robinson, director of the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine, signed by more than 31,000 scientists who dispute the theory of man-made global warming. The petition states, in part:

There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gasses is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.

The 31,000 signers all hold scientific credentials; approximately 9,000 of them hold scientific Ph.D.s.

Robinson held a press conference earlier this month. Although members of the media and Congress were invited, attendance was light.

Robinson points out that over the past 150 years, scientists have found that global temperatures have been predicted with 79 percent accuracy by the sunspot index, which precedes climate changes by about 10 years. CO2, by comparison, has been only 22 percent accurate, and that number has rapidly declined in the past decade as temperatures have dipped and CO2 has continued to rise.

In fact, 70 percent of the Earth’s warming in the past hundred years occurred before 1940, while nearly all of humanity’s industrial emissions have occurred after that date. Since 1940, the climate has only risen 0.2 Celsius.

Robinson notes that the U.N. has never produced any direct evidence that mankind is causing warming, but that the IPCC report is only a summary, written by a handful of authors, of discussions among scientists invited to a U.N. conference.

Moonbase McCain: Unloading the ‘pastor problem’

Updating yesterday’s blog about the Barack Obama camp’s attempts to manufacture a “pastor problem” for Sen. John McCain to divert attention from Obama’s problem with Jeremiah Wright:

Sen. McCain on Thursday came out and repudiated pastor John Hagee’s statements about Hitler being a tool for God to get the Jews back to Israel, rejecting Hagee’s endorsement at the same time.

McCain’s statement said: “Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee’s endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well.”

But McCain also threw a zinger at the Obamites, who have been trying to fan Hagee’s out-of-context statements into a fire:

“I have said I do not believe Senator Obama shares Reverend Wright’s extreme views. But let me also be clear, Reverend Hagee was not and is not my pastor or spiritual adviser, and I did not attend his church for 20 years.”

And that makes all the difference politically.

For his part, Hagee also withdrew his endorsement of McCain on Thursday, saying he was tired of being mischaracterized and falsely accused. Unlike Jeremiah Wright’s statements, such as “God d— America,” which are impossible to take out of context, Hagee’s statements actually were mischaracterized by the Obamites who fed them to the media.

Hagee’s sermon, from the 1990s (again unlike Wright’s multiple racist sermons, which stretched over 20 years), was actually about prophecy in the Bible. Whether one agrees with the theological point Hagee was making, the idea that things, even bad things, ultimately work to God’s purpose is hardly a radical idea and is held by many people. And to call Hagee, who is widely known for his support of Israel, an anti-Semite really strains credulity.

Nonetheless, the political damage was done, and McCain really had no choice but to publicly toss Hagee under the bus. On Thursday, McCain also felt compelled to head off another tempest in a teapot and reject the endorsement of pastor Rod Parsley of the World Harvest Church of Columbus, Ohio.

Parsley’s media sin was calling Islam a false religion and generally being opposed to the Islamic blood cult that is leading fascist Muslims to murder people around the world. This is wrong according to liberals because 9/11 — if it happened — was America’s fault and Islam is a religion of peace. And all religions are the same thing, just with different robes. (We’re not at war. Good is bad. Freedom is slavery, etc. You get the idea.)

I understand why McCain felt compelled to toss these two men off the boat, because the senator is appealing to liberals to help him win, and liberals have a hard time with fine distinctions. But a real leader would not have done so.

Gay marriage: Trampling on religious rights already

I’ve been taken to task for suggesting that the California State Supreme Court’s recent overturning of a state ban on homosexual “marriage” would essentially allow the state to legally violate people’s religious beliefs.

Well, here we go: Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo on Monday asked the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to order Acting Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Dean Logan not to allow employees opposed to gay marriages due to religious beliefs to “opt out” of officiating at such ceremonies.

According to the L.A. Times, Delgadillo wrote to Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite-Burke:

“Mr. Logan has no legal standing to grant county employees the authority or ability to choose which marriages they wish to officiate at based upon personal views regarding an applicant’s sexual orientation. I urge you to immediately order Mr. Logan to . . . require every county employee generally tasked with officiating at marriage proceedings to do so, regardless of any personal beliefs or biases.”

Delgadillo added that if the registrar does not comply, “you should lead your colleagues in calling for Mr. Logan’s resignation.”

Logan, now under threat of losing his job, says there was never an opt-out “proposal” per se, but it had only been a “concern” raised by one department manager as a “possible” issue, and that no one ever urged him to adopt an opt-out policy. Earlier, Logan had been reported by the Times as saying several managers had raised the issue and recommended creating a policy. Either the reporter had wax in his ears, or Logan is doing the Bureaucratic Butt-Save Hustle.

Regardless, Logan has now issued a strict, no-opting-out policy, and Delgadillo has said he will contact Secretary of State Debra Bowen and urge her to make sure no county registrars in the state allow any opting out.

According to the chastened Logan, “Discrimination of or substandard service of any kind is unacceptable and will not be tolerated.”

That is, unless you happen to have religious objections.

Moonbase McCain: Manufacturing a ‘pastor problem’

In their desperation to divert attention from their candidate’s serious flaws, the Barack Obama camp has been stalking the stages at news talk shows this week, trying to play up Sen. John McCain’s “pastor problem.”

This goes back, of course, to Obama’s 20-year friendship with the anti-American, racist, hate-mongering Jeremiah Wright, pastor of Obama’s church, who presided at the candidate’s wedding, baptized his children and inspired an entire book written by Mr. Obama.

Now Obama’s cronies are pointing at any pastor they can find who supports McCain and who may have said something that someone, somewhere may find offensive.

Mostly, they’ve focused on John Hagee, who called the Catholic Church “the great whore,” but has since apologized; and Rod Parsley, who has referred to Islam as a “false religion,” which is an utterly shocking thing that a Christian would never say, according to Obamites, whose role model for Christianity is known for cursing from the pulpit.

When these sordid details didn’t get near the traction that Jeremiah Wright did, Obama supporters resorted to their candidate’s most powerful weapon: whining. “McCain got a bit of a pass on that,” Democratic strategist Bob Beckel moaned on Fox News.

Of course, anyone with two functioning brain cells can spot the difference between getting the campaign support of some random pastor who rubs liberals the wrong way, and having a close, personal 20-year relationship with a raving lunatic who shouts things like “God d— America” from the pulpit, then pretending you had no idea that was going on in your own church.

McCain — who was raised Episcopalian, but whose home church is North Phoenix Baptist Church, pastored by the Rev. Daniel J. Yeary — has been pretty clear about his feelings toward ultraconservative Christianity’s excesses, calling Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson “agents of intolerance” and snubbing James Dobson. In fact, if I recall correctly, the McCain camp was eager to shore up its conservative credentials because of the egg on its face after the Dobson smackdown with McCain. It’s just the senator’s bad luck Hagee broke the media surface first.

Speaking as a Catholic, Hagee’s anti-Catholicism is just what I’ve come to expect from certain sects of Protestantism, some of which still apparently teach children that Catholic churches don’t even use the Bible. McCain has no relationship with this guy — I think it would be reasonable to demand McCain repudiate Hagee on the same day Obama ‘fesses up and repudiates Louis Farrakhan. Nothing Hagee has said comes even close in my estimate to the stuff Jeremiah Wright was selling on DVD out of the church gift shop.

Then there’s Parsley, who we’re supposed to condemn because he condemns Islam as a false religion. Here’s a news flash: We’re at war with radical Islam because some of their representatives murdered 3,000 people for no reason. Does anybody in this country still remember that?

There are plenty of people for whom all religions are equivalent, and they may find it shocking that a pastor may deem Islam “false,” but Parsley is not the first person to realize there is a world of difference between Islam, which was founded by a warlord, and other religions, and he won’t be the last. Just like the supposed Christians who burned witches in Salem, Muslims who use their religion as their excuse to terrorize, maim and kill are “false,” and the roots of this problem can be found in the Quran.

To quote President John Quincy Adams, “… he [Muhammad] declared undistinguishing and exterminating war, as a part of his religion, against all the rest of mankind. … The precept of the Koran is, perpetual war against all who deny, that Mahomet is the prophet of God.”

So on that point, at least, Parsley’s got it right, and I suspect even Moonbase McCain knows it.

Naturally, the left, oblivious to rational distinctions, is trying to turn this into a campaign “issue” to counteract Obama’s character flaws. All I can say is good luck with that, guys. You’ll need it.

Global warming: Bay Area businesses targeted

With little fanfare, the Bay Area Air Quality Management district voted Wednesday to punish all San Francisco Bay Area businesses that emit “greenhouse gases” by passing a tax on emissions, becoming the first local agency to do so.

Described as a “modest fee,” the tax will still add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars annually for some big industries.

District Board of Directors chairman and San Mateo County Supervisor Jerry Hill, who is running for state Assembly, called the board’s effort to screw businesses, which passed 15-1, “a perfect example of think globally … act locally,” according to Bay City News.

Hill insisted the charge of 4.4 cents per metric ton of air pollution will avert “serious” pollution and health costs in the future: “It is vitally important that we do this.”

The impetus for this nonsense, aside from global warm-mongers’ incessant need to roll back the Industrial Revolution and control everyone else’s lives, is California’s incredibly wrong-headed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which requires the state to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Reality check time:

1. Charging for emissions won’t stave off anything, least of all “serious” environmental or health problems.
2. Corporations don’t pay taxes, they pass along “costs.”
3. There has never been a “modest fee” in the history of government that has not gone up.
4. As the tax increases, the cost will be passed to consumers, raising the price of goods, services and energy, further destroying the state economy. If “greenhouse gas” taxes rise enough, industries will be forced out of the Bay Area and eventually the state, taking jobs, opportunities, property values and tax revenues with them.
5. This is a setup for the much-anticipated “cap-and-trade” carbon emissions scheme Al Gore and other warm-mongers have invested in and promoted. As the economy and average families suffer, Gore and other select individuals will become rich.
6. There was no reason for the Bay Area AQMD to act before the state. Place your bets Hill will be touting his “leadership” on this issue during his race for the Assembly. Expect hordes of gullible people to vote for this guy.

As the presidential elections draw nearer, and Democrats feel more confident they will win the White House and strengthen their stranglehold on Congress, we are entering Phase II of the global warmers’ plan, in which they will begin enacting seemingly benign “reasonable” restrictions that will slowly but surely choke our economy in the name of saving us all from the phantom menace.

Global warming: Good for polar bears

Following the recent listing of the polar bear as a “threatened” species, due to the alleged melting of its habitat, I did a little more research and found some interesting numbers. This isn’t news, just news to me, but it’s worth sharing.

While we don’t know exactly how many polar bears exist in the world, according to the Department of the Interior, the global estimated polar bear population has grown from about 5,000 in the 1960s to about 25,000 today, partly due to hunting restrictions, and despite the alleged warming, melting ice, rising sea levels, etc. in recent decades.

There are 19 recognized polar bear subpopulations. Thirteen of these are in the North American Arctic and thus studied more than others. Out of these 13 groups, two populations (in Hudson and Baffin bays) are declining, nine are stable, and two are growing.

While global warming is blamed for the decline of polar bears in Hudson Bay, Baffin Bay is actually cooling, and satellite data show the ice coverage of the area has been increasing in recent years. Some people blame Inuit hunters for the declining bear population in Baffin Bay, but the Inuits deny this, and listing polar bears as threatened won’t stop Inuits, who are exempt from the law, from hunting anyway.

It’s also worth noting that polar bears survived the 1930s, when temperatures were about the same as they are now.

File this away as further evidence for Al Gore’s future fraud trial that listing the polar bear as threatened is just one more political maneuver by environmentalists to hamper this country’s energy industry and raise prices for you and me.

Moonbase McCain: Which way did he go?

Sen. John McCain, formerly the GOP presidential nominee, continues to impress Democratic voters with his verbal gifts of candy and flowers.

Global warming, rebuking state GOP groups, refusing to meet with conservative Christians, weak borders, appearing on Saturday Night Live … it’s all very endearing to the middle-to-left voters McCain thinks will take him to the White House.

Believing his own press about his “maverick” status, McCain is busy with his ongoing project to personally redefine the Republican Party, and that’s likely what he’ll do, redefine the Republicans into third-party status.

While he’s lying low for the moment, sounding like a Republican as he criticizes Barack Obama’s appalling foreign policy plans, McCain is scheduled to speak in July to La Raza, the racist, anti-American, seditionist, illegal-immigration group.

Unless he’s planning to tear La Raza a new orifice, that speech could be a stake through the heart of McCain’s White House ambitions.

Just last week, we had to put up with endless bickering about Obama’s plans to “appease” terrorists and enemies of the United States, and this week, McCain is picking up on that theme. Why not just wear a neon sign that says “hypocrite here”? …

Hello? …

John? …

Ground control to Space Station John? …

Global warming, hurricanes not connected, study finds

Tom Knutson, a respected meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fluid dynamics lab in Princeton, N.J., released a study Sunday that finds global warming is NOT connected to an increase in the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.

Knutson, who had previously expressed acceptance of the Algorite party line that hurricanes would increase because of global warming, has changed his position on the subject, finding that warmer temperatures should actually decrease the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic and making landfall.

The study published in Nature Geoscience predicts, based on a computer model, that by the end of the century the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic will fall by 18 percent and the number making landfall in the U.S. will fall by 30 percent. On the other hand, Knutson’s model predicts rainfall within 30 miles of a hurricane may jump by 37 percent and wind strength may increase slightly, about 2 percent.

The study was faulted by several scientists who say Knutson’s model doesn’t accurately replicate storms. Knutson acknowledged his model isn’t perfected but says it does provide a coarse overview of storm trends.

NOAA hurricane meteorologist Chris Landsea, who wasn’t involved in the study, defended his colleague’s findings as “very consistent with what’s being said all along.”

“I think global warming is a big concern, but when it comes to hurricanes the evidence for changes is pretty darn tiny,” Landsea told the Associated Press.

Al Gore’s scare campaign has always rested on the dubious claims that global warming would cause all sorts of horrible catastrophes. But if warming would actually lead to fewer hurricanes, that takes some of the sting out of the bee.

Gore’s scientific “consensus” looks to be losing a few more members. …

Obama nation: Cheese with that whine?

The latest complaint from the presumptive Democratic front-runner, Barack Obama, is about the Tennessee Republican Party creating an ad showing Michelle Obama’s infamous comment, “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country,” and contrasting it with Tennesseeans explaining how proud they are and have always been of America, and why.

The senator complained today that the ad is “low class” and warned the GOP to “lay off my wife.”

Considering how much garbage other politicians have put up with, particularly the current resident of the White House since even before he was the nominee, and how even the meekest presidential spouses have taken it on the chin historically, it’s hard to take Obama seriously.

At a time when Hillary Clinton is taking more needles from her own party than a voodoo doll and still forging ahead, Obama’s obvious sense that he is somehow entitled to special treatment is just embarrassing.

But Obama has always had a thin skin. Long before the campaign even got under way, he made headlines with his sulking because New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd hurt his feelings when she said he had big ears.

Last week, President Bush had made a remark about terrorist “appeasers” that made no mention of Obama, but the senator and his gnomish henchmen nonetheless hit the talk trail complaining about their treatment by the administration. (Memo to Obama: When someone doesn’t mention you, isn’t implying anything about you, but you nonetheless assume they are saying negative things specifically about you, there’s a word for that … GUILT! … And it speaks volumes.)

While these online polls are never scientifically reliable, an AOL poll at the time of this writing had found 63 percent of Net users believed the Tennessee GOP ad was fair.

Meanwhile, with every day she suffers the slings and arrows of her own party and stays in the race, Hillary is proving she would be a far better choice for the Democrats than the crybaby from Chicago.