George Rebane

* Second annual TechTest Survivor’s Breakfast
* Killing frost tonight on the Great Plains
* Gas prices, nationalizing oil industry, and ‘cap and trade’ in Congress
* Michelle Obama is a terminal racist

Last Friday Jo Ann and I had the pleasure of attending the second annual Survivor’s Breakfast for TechTest2008 sponsored by the Sierra Environmental Studies Foundation.  All of the attending students had scored ‘in the money’ on the grueling test given on 5 April.  These young men and women are definitely in the superior 1% of achievers that Bauerlein reports in his otherwise depressing The Dumbest Generation (not recommended reading for today’s hopeful parents).  During our brief ceremony I, as the foundation’s Director of Research, was again allowed to pontificate a little about the role and importance of technical careers to America.  A more complete report on the occasion is on the SESF website here, and you can download a copy of the test here.

Tonight there will be a killing frost on the northern Great Plains.  Before the latest global warming craze, scientists in the 1970s knew (and those in secure career positions still know) that Earth is overdue for another ice age.  The harbinger of this climate change has been widely acknowledged to be a June killing frost on the American Great Plains that wipes out the summer cereal crops.  Bloggers Russ Steele and Anthony Watts have been reporting the cooling trend that has been recorded and acknowledged by organizations like NASA and NOAA.  Reasoned reporting seldom penetrates the media frenzy generated by highly politicized organizations like the UN’s IPCC and promoted by Team Gore.  For the science perspective about climate change stay tuned to the non-professional weblogs like NC Media Watch.  For the hysteria component, pick up any newspaper or watch TV news – especially now as the Warner-Lieberman carbon ‘cap and trade’ bill starts its round of congressional hearings.  As for the real trend in global temperatures, Al Gore call your office.

And while we’re in the silly season, let’s review what causes prices to rise – especially oil and gasoline prices.  The two components are market forces and the government’s hidden tax on assets better known as inflation.  Market forces deal with an imbalance of supply and demand.  Demand for something going up with supply remaining constant will raise its price, which also happens when supply goes down and demand stays the same.  A real doozy hits when supply goes down and demand continues rising.  This is basically what we’re having now in the world’s oil supplies (e.g. read Twilight in the Desert by M.R. Simmons).  The socialist response to this was recently delivered by Rep. Maxine Water’s threat to nationalize the American oil industry (see the YouTube video) – talk about long lines at the pump and doing without.  Finally, inflation is a monetary phenomenon where the government taxes assets by printing money faster than the growth of goods and services in the economy.  My short attempt at waxing eloquently on this is found here.

And now for the Lucky Strike Extra.  Michelle Obama’s senior thesis from Princeton was released early – they were going to keep it under lock and key until after the election for some odd reason.  Well, not really an odd reason.  For, you see, the lady (nee Michelle LeVaughn Robinson) is a terminal racist and America hater, and no one wants you to know that – especially if the evidence is in her own words.  You may read the Snopes piece about it here, and the actual thesis can be downloaded here – Part1, Part2, Part3, Part4.  As many others, I am struck by how effective the nation’s affirmative action programs have been to award such academic credentials to an obvious underperformer.  Putting her racism and hatred of her homeland together with the long-term black separatist exposure of husband Barack paints an unbelievable portrait of our First Couple in-waiting.  Pay no attention to that pair behind the curtain manipulating their media machine. But what really amazes me is that ol’ Abe seems to have been wrong – today you can indeed fool all of the people that need to be fooled all of the time.