The SOTU Obama just said
might send us to therapy pad.
I am but a peasant
but it was as pleasant
as if I endoscopy had.
Author: lenbilen
Retired engineer, graduated from Chalmers Technical University a long time ago with a degree in Technical Physics. Career in Aerospace, Analytical Chemistry, computer chip manufacturing and finally adjunct faculty at Pennsylvania State University, taught just one course in Computer Engineering, the Capstone Course.
More than 60% ice cover on the Great Lakes. And half the winter left!!!
The Great Lakes are freezing over at a rapid rate. These are the numbers for ice cover for Jan. 23:
Lake Superior 57.2062%
Lake Michigan 37.7962%
Lake Huron 75.7721%
Lake Erie 94.8880%
Lake Ontario 42.9223%, the weighted average 60.02%
The forecast from NOAA was for 58 to 62% maximum ice-cover for 2014. We are already there with half the winter yet to go. The average for the last 40 years is a max. of 51.4%. See fig:
Here is a picture of the ice cover for Jan 23. Brr, and a new, longer lasting arctic blast is under way!! It will take a long time to melt all this ice come spring. It takes 80 calories to melt one gram of ice, but only twenty to heat it from zero to 20 degrees C (68 F) so you can take a dip.
Right to life day. Trig and Tripp Palin.
The time goes all the way back to the surprise nomination of Sarah Palin
for Vice President. I got excited about it since I had read about how she cleaned up the corruption in the Government, stood up to the oil industry and that she had just successfully negotiated a contract for building a natural gas pipeline from Alaska to the lower 48 I watched with interest her debut on the national stage. And there she came, complete with a baby, prominently displayed front and center. Suddenly I saw before my eyes the quote from Isaiah 11:6 (NIV+ Septuagint)
The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion will feed together;
and a little child will lead them.
I searched the internet for the importance of this baby. It was already buzzing with information. One of the first quotes I came across was that “she refused proper prenatal care”. This was when I found out this baby had Down Syndrome. Since we are talking health care reform, are we going to force everybody to submit to “proper prenatal care”? I do not know much about this except that three people I know had tested positive for having a baby with Down syndrome. All three chose to carry the baby to term, and gave birth to perfectly normal babies. One of the babies is now in middle school, one is in college, and one, my niece, just graduated from Med School.
From Sarah Palin’s facebook came this report:
Today was the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. The fact that hundreds of thousands of peaceful activists turn up every year in the coldest month in D.C. – despite snowstorms and media indifference – is a testament to their commitment to building a culture of life.As Pope John Paul II taught us: “To be actively pro-life is to contribute to the renewal of society through the promotion of
the common good. It is impossible to further the common good without acknowledging and defending the right to life, upon which all the other inalienable rights of individuals are founded and from which they develop.”I am personally so appreciative of the Right to Life activists who planted that pro-life seed in me as a young girl observing their dedicated efforts to protect innocent life. To them, Trig and our entire family say, “thank you.”
Bristol thanks you, too. Here are our boys.
– Sarah Palin
The Fiscal condition of all 50 States.
The Mercatus Center of George Mason University has come out with a study of which states are most fiscally solvent. These are their rankings of all 50 states. The best fiscal status in enjoyed by states ruled by a Republican governor, Republican legislature. There are 24 of these with an average score of 1.02
1. Alaska 8.80
2. South Dakota 2.79
3. North Dakota 2.75
4. Nebraska 2.53
5. Wyoming 2.23
6. Florida 1.99
7. Ohio 1.71
8. Tennessee 1.71
10. Alabama 1.25
11. Utah 1.03
12. Oklahoma 0.93
13. Idaho 0.70
15. Indiana 0.53
17. Wisconsin 0.12
19. Mississippi −0.14
20. Texas −0.18
21. South Carolina −0.19
27. Kansas −0.40
28. Georgia −0.45
30. Michigan −0.51
31. Arizona −0.51
33. North Carolina −0.57
34. Louisiana −0.60
42. Pennsylvania −1.31
Next in line for fiscal responsibility is to have a Democrat Governor, Republican Legislature (4) Avg 0.38
9. Montana 1.66
14. Missouri 0.60
25. Virginia −0.28
29. Arkansas −0.47
Then comes a Republican Governor, Split Legislature. There is only one of those:
18. Iowa 0.09
Now we are getting into negative territory for fiscal solvency. That is to have a Republican Governor, Democrat Legislature. There are four of those with an average of -0.92
16. Nevada 0.49
26. New Mexico −0.34
36. Maine −1.00
50. New Jersey −2.81
Only slightly worse is to have a Democrat Governor, split Legislature. There are three of them with an average 0f -0.98
22. New Hampshire −0.21
40. Kentucky −1.26
43. Hawaii −1.46
And finally, worst of all is to have a Democrat Governor, Democrat Legislature. The fourteen of them have an average score of -1.31
23. Washington −0.23
24. Colorado −0.24
32. Oregon −0.57
35. Minnesota −0.87
37. Delaware −1.14
38. Vermont −1.17
39. Rhode Island −1.18
41. West Virginia −1.30
44. Maryland −1.59
45. New York −1.78
46. California −2.01
47. Massachusetts −2.23
48. Illinois −2.42
49. Connecticut −2.48
This helps to explain why Democrats want the Federal Government to handle everything for them since their states are hopelessly irresponsible with their states affairs, while Republicans as a rule tend to want to have every state handle their own affairs as they see best fit.
One further startling observation is that New Jersey under Governor Chris Christie came in dead last. This helps to explain the reluctance of the more conservative (or fiscally responsible states) to endorse him for President.
On the other hand, Alaska came in first, not in small part due to the heroic efforts of Sarah Palin during her 31.7 month reign as Governor, where she managed to get the Credit Rating for her state to go from AA to AA+ and then raised again to AAA shortly after her resignation. She accomplished more in this short time than most governors do in two terms.
This also helps in part to explain the irrational hatred for Sarah Palin. She did clean up the graft and corruption in Alaska, and they are afraid she would do the same on a national level should she become President.
IRS harassment. A Limerick.
The IRS targets Chuck Neath
And dogs as they are show their teeth.
But they did come up dry,
Though six times they did try.
Harassment the cause underneath.
Chuck Heath, Jr. wrote on Facebook that his father had never heard from the IRS before 2008. Since then, he said, the IRS has tried to “dig up something on him but he’s always operated above board.”
“Coincidence? You decide,” he wrote.
My father, who worked multiple jobs and faithfully and honestly paid his taxes for fifty years, had never heard a word from the IRS. In 2008, his daughter was tapped to run for vice president of the United States. Since that time, he has been, in his words “horribly harassed” six times by the agency. They’ve tried to dig up something on him but he’s always operated above board. Government and politics are ugly. Kudos to the few that are trying to clean it up.
Hmm. Let me see. There is less than one chance in 100 that you are “randomly” targeted for an audit. To be targeted six years in a row and still finding nothing the odds are less than 1 divided by 100x100x100x100x100x100 or less than 1 in a trillion that is was not on purpose.
My guess is that it was the people that used to sue Sarah Palin 20 times while she was Governor, losing every time, acting as informants, thereby triggering the audits. Or, it could have been IRS itself acting on order from the political wing of the government. (I don’t have the faintest idea who that may refer to, the corruption is endemic)
To add insult to injury, it was reported this week that the government has decided to sweep Obama’s IRS scandal under the rug. Move along, peasants, nothing to see here.
The Obama administration chose an Obama campaign donor to head the targeting investigation.
Hillary’s enemies list. A Limerick
She’s making a list, and is checking it twice
Of who has been naughty, and who has been nice
It’s an enemies list,
vintage Hillary’s twist.
’tis evil personified, – that will suffice.
In the 2008 campaign the Hillary Clinton campaign staff kept a spreadsheet, an 
enemies list if you will, where people were given points, from 1 to 7 where 7 were the most hated ones.
The list read like a who’s who among democrats. These ate the ten sevens:
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Ted Kennedy (D-Mass), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and Claire McCaskill(D –Mo.), as well as Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Baron Hill (D-Ind.) and Rob Andrews (D-N.J.).
A sign of God’s hand in the sky. A Limerick.
The heavens declare from on high
a sign of God’s hand in the sky.
When we ask for a sign
of His favor divine.
A wonder, I can’t explain why.
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
Isaiah 49:14-16
But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me,
And my Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.
Calamity in Antarctica. Global Warming alarmists get stuck in ice. A Limerick.
The passage to Commonwealth Bay:
A ship and its crew went that way;
But they ran out of luck,
In the ice they got stuck.
It’s still global warming, they say.
The environmental fear-mongers never cease to amaze me. In an effort to publicize the impending global catastrophe of rapidly melting ice caps a Russian “research vessel” AKADEMIK SHOKALSKIY
set out to recreate the British explorer Douglas Mawson’s travel to Commonwealth Bay in 1912. A film (now a U-tube video) has been found showing Mawson landing in ice free Commonwealth Bay where he landed Jan 8, 1912.
That was then, the movie showing an ice free Commonwealth Bay around New Year. Everybody knows the Ice-caps are melting, so BBC and Australian ABC, financed by tax-payers money set out to report the re-enactment of his journey to highlight the impending incredible melting of the ice caps. There were tourists on the ship also, paying their own way wanting to see a glimpse of the rapidly melting ice before it was all gone.
Things did not turn out exactly as planned. With the ship moving ahead at full speed the crew ignored all warning signals and plowed ahead through ice that seemed to be thicker than expected. “But this is mid-summer, so the ice must be rotten” they thought and continued full speed ahead anyway. Then the wind picked up, not unexpectedly, since Commonwealth Bay holds the distinction of being the windiest place on earth, even windier than the Aleutian Islands or Mount Washington, and soon the ice closed in on the ship and got it stuck in more than 6 feet of ice.
Three ice breaking vessels, a Chinese, a French and an Australian tried to come to the rescue, but their crews had the good judgment of turning back before they got stuck too. A helicopter from the Chinese ice breaker is now near the ship, but cannot evacuate the 52 passengers until the winds calm down.
Maybe they should have looked at the statistical data on ice in the Antarctic before risking their lives and the lives of others before taking on such a fools errand.
The Ice in the Antarctic is now 1.529 million square kilometer larger than the 30 year average for this time of the year, a 30% increase over the 30 year average, and obviously more than in 1912..
By comparison the North Atlantic ice cap is now only 4 % below average for this time of the year. We hear of the melting ice caps all the time. Why is not the fact that the Antarctic ice cap has set new absolute records since measurements started two years in a row reported? Are journalists afraid of the truth, being scared to be called a skeptic, even a denier, if they mention statistically relevant data? Until people face up to the truth calamities like this are bound to occur. Look at the data before you set sail!
So what are the “Scientists” reporting back to their sponsors? Here is a sample of what they are reporting:
ICE-STRANDED EXPLORERS’ MESSAGE:
A statement from the Australasian Antarctic Expedition:
We’re stuck in our own experiment. We came to Antarctica to study how one of the biggest icebergs in the world has altered the system by trapping ice. We followed Sir Douglas Mawson’s footsteps into Commonwealth Bay, and are now ourselves trapped by ice surrounding our ship.
Sea ice is disappearing due to climate change, but here ice is building up. We have found this has changed the system on many levels. The increase in sea ice has freshened the seawater below, so much so that you can almost drink it. This change will have impacts on the deep ocean circulation.
Underwater, forests of algae are dying as sea-ice blocks the light. Who can say what effects the regional circulation changes may have on the ice sheet of the Antarctic plateau, or whether the low number of seals suggests changes to their population.
Still not acknowledging the rise in the total amount of sea ice. A sad state for a scientist. He still believes in the failing models rather than observing and drawing conclusions from how nature really behaves.
Update:
An Icy Blast Of Scepticism Greets Climate Expedition
Rescuers in Antarctica have safely transferred all 52 passengers stranded on the ice-bound research vessel Akademik Shokalskiy. The Shokalskiy has been trapped since Christmas Eve. Its 22 crew are expected to remain on board to wait until the vessel becomes free. The ice-bound research vessel has been trapped since Christmas Eve. One of the aims is to track how quickly the Antarctic’s sea ice is disappearing. –BBC News, 2 January 2014
Update 2:
The Chinese icebreaker that supplied the helicopter for the rescue mission is now stuck in the ice too. How inconvenient.
Update 3, Jan 7 2014: Antarctic rescue operations complete.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority can confirm that the Akademik Shokalskiy and the Xue Long have broken free from the ice in Antarctica and are no longer in need of assistance.
How do we celebrate Christmas?
How do we celebrate Christmas?
My wife and I came to America many years ago. I came from Sweden, my wife came from Denmark.
The Swedes used to have lutfisk for Christmas Eve Supper, the Danes a pork roast with all the trimmings.
But we both liked to sing our Christmas songs, I sang my Swedish songs, she sang her Danish songs.
Coming to America we learned to love the traditional Christmas Carols, especially those with German, Welsh and Irish origins, not to mention the Negro Spirituals. Christmas music is so beautiful and inspiring. But we were not yet born again followers of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, we just sang them happily anyway walking around the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve after dinner, but before gift giving. Then we came to a vibrant and joyful faith and we started to go to church Christmas Eve where we always ended up singing “Silent Night” to live candles for everybody in the whole congregation. It started at 7 P.M. so we had to eat a little earlier. Our children had settled for Swedish Meatballs with Lingonsylt (Cranberries) and a fruit bowl in which there was one almond. The one who got the almond got the almond gift – usually a tree ornament. After we came to faith there was just one thing missing – Jesus birthday cake. You can see it for yourself here: (In the background is the Advent Candles, all lit with the center light also lit on Christmas Eve)
It is a normal cake bottom, usually in three layers with say vanilla cream in one layer and maybe apricot jelly in the other. Strawberries, raspberries, or whatever is fine too. It is overlaid with Marzipan and a Rose of Sharon is created on top into which is placed one birthday light. We light the light and sing Happy Birthday Lord Jesus after we come back from church, then we sing more carols around the Christmas tree. Las of all do we share our gifts.
There is no Santa in our Christmas. The Lord Jesus gets the honor. This is the way it should be, at least for us.
Snow and cold records in the U.S. and the Middle East. Baby, it’s cold outside.
Records are falling all over the place. Continental U.S. has had a week for the records
Low Temp: 606 + Low Max temp 1234 + Snowfall 385 = 2225 new cold records.
Compare with 98 high temperature records, and 141 high minimum temperature records.
Source: NOAA National Weather Service and HamWeather records center
But that is only here in parts of the U.S, right?
Not so.
Cairo is a city known for being hot and stuffy.
But as these incredible pictures show, things have changed.
The Egyptian capital has seen snowfall for the first time in 112 years.
As reported by Buzzfeed, Egyptians who had witnessed snow for the first time in their lives were left amazed – with the Arabic word for snow trending on Twitter.
Incredible pictures showing the normally sultry city were also posted on twitter.
A camel looks strangely out of place.
Even in swank uptown Cairo the snow is heavy.
Other countries including Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Israel also experienced widespread snow.
Temperatures have dropped so much that in Turkey they have been below the monthly average by almost 10C.
Still believe there is global warming?
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 