Gov. Rick Perry took the Republican field by storm when he announced his candidacy in August. As a matter of fact, he seemed unbeatable. He did this by bringing in something the rest of the field was desperately lacking – swagger. He was a gun totting cowboy who was unapologetic about his pro-life, pro-marriage, pro-Christian roots. And when he talked, citizens in the heartland heard the voice of someone who loved America as much as they did.

However, since those first weeks following his entrance into the race Perry has lost traction and appeared at times as weak as he once did strong. But as of late, he seems to have found himself and especially this week, has come out swinging at business as usual in Washington, Obama’s failures in intelligence gathering and border security, and the ongoing saga of Fast and Furious.

Of the business as usual crowd in DC, Perry spent time in Iowa talking about “creating a part-time Congress, ending lifetime appointments for federal judges and shuttering dysfunctional agencies.” These things are in perfect harmony with what Perry was telling Americans back in August, when he could do no wrong, and when he promised to make Washington as inconsequential in our lives as possible.

The Texas Gov. has also been right on the mark in his criticism of Obama.

Regarding Obama’s refusal to allow our military and special agents (covert and otherwise) to interrogate captured terrorists in way that gets results—in a way similar to those allowed for a time by President George W. Bush—Perry said:

We’ve really failed … in our ability to collect intelligence around the world. This administration in particular has been an absolute failure when it comes to expending the dollars and supporting the CIA and the military intelligence around the world to be able to draw in that intelligence that is going to be truly able to allow us to keep the next terrorist attack from happening on American soil.

This is a crucial point. Since Obama took office, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Bush have all born witness to the success of the enhanced interrogation techniques that Obama refuses to employ for fear of offending our enemy. Perry is right on when he says that we are missing crucial intelligence at this point in time.

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Today, oddly, is the biggest shopping day of the year. Yeah, we don’t understand it either.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

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My six year-old, parroting her teacher, proclaimed, “If we don’t fix Climate Change, we’re all gonna die!” At that moment, I decided to write YOU’VE BEEN GORED, the book that lampoons Al Gore and his hypocritical “ALpostles.”

The environment has become the hottest political issue of our time. And when anything is politicized, falsehood flourishes. The volume of lies, disinformation, propaganda, hypocrisy and exaggeration far exceeds the quantity of material pollutants – and is more hazardous.

Green has become the convenient, safe, lucrative cause for politicians, corporate weasels, celebrity eco-frauds, power-hungry government agencies and fast-buck swindlers hustling everything from gas-to-water engine conversion plans to carbon offset credits.

There’s a combination gold-rush/Armageddon’s a-comin’ zeitgeist that’s very troubling. It’s like watching the panicked crowd flee from Godzilla. Their mindless fear is more dangerous than the monster.

Statistics of doom are conjured and accepted without vetting. Idiotic “solutions” are clutched in desperation. Most terrifying of all, leaders are anointed and followed — without scrutiny.

There’s more mass hysteria in the air than particulate matter. And that hysteria is stoked by people with ulterior motives – money and power.

Green rhetoric has morphed into dogma. Totalitarian semantics force an agenda on those less educated or wary. One who disagrees is labeled a denier – a pejorative term that invalidates an opinion since only “truth” can be denied.

With Bolshevik fervor they scream for the heads of non-believers. Jobs are lost, professional credentials are revoked, jail time will be served. Non-compliance is not tolerated. Mere tolerance is not tolerated. One must embrace the new creed.

It’s time to step back, set up the bullshit filter (make sure it’s on full screen), and carefully evaluate the message. And even more carefully, examine the messengers.

Over the next several weeks, BigGovernment.com will serialize portions of YOU’VE BEEN GORED.

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This year, with our new film The Gift Of Life in the forefront of my mind, I have been thinking about how thankful I am for life.  The film, hosted by the great advocate for life Governor Mike Huckabee, profiles some remarkable people with powerful pro-life stories and I am so grateful for their lives and the opportunity to share them with you.

The Gift Of Life features an incredible cast and I am thankful for each and every one of them.

I am thankful for pro-life leaders like Marjorie Dannenfelser, Kristan Hawkins, Carol Tobias, and Charmaine Yoest.  Groups like the Susan B. Anthony List, Student for Life of America, the National Right to Life Committee, and Americans United for Life are essential to educate, activate, and mobilize those of us on the side of life.

I am thankful that Carol Everett and Dr. Anthony Levatino, who were both responsible for the deaths of thousands of unborn babies, have seen the light and now use their incredible testimonies to change the minds of others.

I am thankful for Sandra Cano, the “Mary Doe” in Doe v. Bolton, for speaking out about the lies and deceptions of that Supreme Court decision and its companion case, Roe v. Wade.  Sandra tells us the truth about her pro-life beliefs and the way her case was manipulated.

I am thankful that Rebecca Kiessling and James Robison are both alive today after being conceived in rape, single parenthood, and adversity.  Their mothers were very close to choosing abortion but their lives were spared at the last moment.

I am thankful Chet McDoniel survived his delivery doctor’s attempt to let him die, by placing him in the corner of the room with minimal care.  Chet’s lack of arms and shortened legs have not held him back at all and he is living proof that no one has the right to judge the value of another’s life.

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I love Thanksgiving.  It is uniquely American and uniquely right.  We celebrate God and Country and enjoy family time absent the stress and distraction of the more commercialized holidays.  There is no need to deconstruct “Jesus Clause” or explain to our children that our Lord and Savior rising from the grave has nothing to do with eggs and bunnies.  Who came up with that bunny laying egg thing anyway?

Recently, I visited with a man from Mexico who is in the U.S. legally, on a work assignment for a large corporation.  He was telling me how much he was looking forward to his first American Thanksgiving.  He will celebrate with friends either at their home or the others’.  I asked about the menu.  “Roast turkey with all of the trimmings” he quickly replied with a contagious enthusiasm.  This, from a man whose favorite staple is tamales.  He has never tasted a real roasted turkey, the American way.  I was going to ask about deep frying it…next year, I thought.

His simple menu selection and his use of the word “trimmings” flooded my mind instantly with thoughts about that unique dish, roasted Turkey.  We have celebrated Thanksgiving and that fine tryptophane laden meat at different times, with friends from Germany and friends from Russia.  It is always great to talk about the other traditions that are uniquely American, and more than just food.

I remember water skiing with friends from Europe on the amazing Lake of the Ozarks.  We rented a boat, filled a cooler with all kinds of libations, and enjoyed the heck out of a sunny July day.  As we sat quietly taking a break from the action and taking note of all the beautiful lakefront homes, they began lamenting how this would never be allowed in Europe.

In Europe, if you tried to put a motorized boat on a lake, the environmentalists would decry the degredation to the environment and pass laws to stop you.  If you tried to build a house on a lake, the communists would insist that the land belonged to all of the people and no one privately.  They went on, but the point should be clear.  In America, we are defined by putting individual rights first, starting with the Pilgrim’s quest for a place in which religious worship was every man’s exclusive domain.  These rights extend far beyond that to include the individual’s right to own land and be secure in that land and enjoy it for his or her own use.  Our uniquely American Government is designed on “negative rights”, or the right to be free FROM government, as opposed to the positive rights the socialists pursuit as to be given BY government.

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Chillin' at the ice hotel

As serious scientists pull back from the alarmist predictions of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and from the extreme policy pronouncements of left-wing lobby groups, the complex reality of climate is starting to emerge.

AFP reports today, “Global warming rate less than feared: study”:

High levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may have less of an impact on the rate of global warming than feared, a study said Thursday.

The authors of the study funded by the US National Science Foundation stressed that global warming is real, and that increases in atmospheric CO2, which has doubled from pre-industrial standards, will have multiple serious impacts.

But the more severe estimates, such as those put forth by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are unlikely, the researchers found in their study published in the journal Science…. (more…)

Please read Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Contrary to recent media reports, the Brazilian Blowout hair treatment is safe for use.

Today I’ll present contrasting studies on the product, to show the difference between a properly performed study and a botched one — and how the media reports on each.   A reminder on what we’re looking at: The controversy regarding Brazilian Blowout centers around the amount of formaldehyde allegedly released during a treatment.  A harmless alcohol known as methylene glycol is in every bottle of Brazilian Blowout solution.  During a treatment, methylene glycol can be converted to formaldehyde in tiny amounts when it reacts with water.

OSHA has two important safety limits: The Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL – an 8-hour time-weighted average) and Short-Term Exposure Limit (STEL – a 15 minute exposure measurement).  Both are measured in parts per million (ppm).

First, we look at the correctly performed study, and the media’s coverage of it.

Do It Right

Dr. James Haw is the director of Environmental Studies Program and the Ray R. Irani, Chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp., Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California. His work has been published 170 times in peer-reviewed journals.  he’s been lecturing all over the world for 30 years.  He’s been the recipient of 45 grants over the same time period, including one from the E.P.A.  His credentials are impeccable.

He recently visited two Los Angeles salons and conducted fully documented, rigorous scientific testing using the same methodology as OSHA.  The results of the study yielded formaldehyde exposure levels to be almost non-existent.

“The least advantageous way to use my data to estimate the stylist’s 15 min STEL is to imagine that the entire dose of formaldehyde measured over 35 min. was actually delivered in a single15-minute exposure.  This worst-case interpretation results in a value of 0.054 ppm, well below the OSHA limit of 2 ppm.  …The worst possible 8 hour time-weighted average exposure from these data…leads to an 8-hr. time-weighted exposure value of 0.026 ppm , well below the OSHA PEL of 0.75 ppm”.

For the second salon, the STEL was measured at 0.160ppm, well below OSHA’s limit of 2 ppm.  The PEL was measured at 0.052 ppm, well below the OSHA limit of 0.75ppm.  The entire study has been posted on the company’s website.

Here’s the media coverage of Dr. Haw’s study:

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When Ronald Reagan was elected the 40th President of the United States the competition between nation states was defined along the political terms of communism, democracy, and fascism. But Reagan sought to redefine nation state competition in terms of the market. This capitalist worldview was powered by Reagan’s own American experience of upward mobility of the middle class. As President, Reagan pursued policies that reflected his personal belief in individual freedom, economic independence, and reduction of people’s reliance upon government. Reagan’s “market states” competition is broken down into America as the laissez-faire state, Europe as the managerial state, Japan as the mercantile state, and China a combination of the three. The Obama Administration sought to move America to embrace a post-Reagan managerial state. But with the U.S. credit downgrade and Europe facing financial collapse; the U.S. has no option other than a hard turn back to the laissez-faire market state.

The European advocates of the managerial state argue the core idea of government in a democracy is to provide services to the public through professional and political bureaucracies. The managerial state rationalizes that ethics demands only government can allocate society’s wealth to fund socially beneficial ends. The managerial state acknowledges that scientific management and efficiencies of the laissez-faire state maximize supply and growth; but they see these capitalist tools as leading to adverse outcomes of intense materialism and inequality of income. The managerial state demands control of healthcare: where death and pain cannot be priced without creating some very unhealthy social consequences and control of infrastructure where markets do not think in decades or would not properly price environmental damage as core state functions. University intellectuals are expected to embed therapeutic criteria to achieve right reasoning through public education.

Problems with these concepts according to Paul Gottfried of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, is that the managerial state will use its professional and political bureaucracies to sponsor a “series of social programs based on vague egalitarian spirit”. If anyone criticizes the bureaucracy’s lack of scientific management and efficient use of resources; they are attacked as unethical. If government loses popular democratic support for their policies, elites simply resort to ridicule, regulations, and litigation to maintain their monopolies.

C.S. Lewis remarked that every increase in man’s power over nature can turn out to mean an increase in the power of some men over others, with nature as its instrument. He stated:

“Given technological progress, we need to fight hard to retain our clarity about the nature and rights of human beings. We hear of human “autonomy” and of man’s “control of his own destiny.” But the autonomy is enjoyed by a select (or self-selected) few, and the control is exercised by a shrinking elite.”

Three years into America’s managerial state experiment, the middle class is in revolt over loss of upward mobility.

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Politico writes today that both parties have much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving holiday.

For Democrats: Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, Ohio’s SB 5 referendum, Operation Neptune Spear (which killed Osama bin Laden), Kentucky governor Steve Beshear, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

(Letting Democrats take credit for the bin Laden mission is like letting the Pilgrims take credit for Indian corn. And arguably, Republicans should also be thankful for Pelosi and Warren…)

For Republicans: American Crossroads, Rep. Bob Turner (NY-9), Solyndra, Marco Rubio, and… Andrew Breitbart:

No one played a higher-profile role in taking down Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner than Breitbart, the 42-year-old conservative media entrepreneur who posted a series of sexually charged electronic photos the disgraced former congressmen sent to women. And Breitbart, the founder of the popular conservative site Big Government wasn’t shy about claiming credit: On the day Weiner acknowledged his wrongdoing in a news conference, Breitbart actually beat the Democrat to the podium, from which he boasted of his success in front of rolling cameras.

Breitbart is no garden-variety provocateur. Media-savvy and eminently quotable, he revels in skewering liberals — and conservatives love him for it. Just a year earlier, Breitbart came under fierce criticism for taking out of context Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod’s remarks, in an attempt to claim an administration scalp, but the Weiner episode proved he’s still a force to be reckoned with.

Republicans are thankful he’s back and eagerly await his 2012 adventures.

Why only Republicans?

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Looking at the Atlantic Ocean off the Virginia Beach coast, I occasionally see US Navy ships on the horizon, F-18 Hornets flying in formation, the Coast Guard helicopter overhead, and porpoise darting in and out of the waves; it’s just a part of the scenery. Having lived in Glenview, Illinois, in the years prior to the naval base closing, and outside Annapolis, Maryland, for a year, I’m very used to seeing our men and women in uniform and experiencing a military presence where I reside. What changes for me is a deeper appreciation for the job our military performs and for the freedom we cannot take for granted.

Most of the time I can go about my life following a routine that includes working on the Constitutional Literacy curriculum for our BasicsProject.org website, writing articles about the relevance of our Fundamental Law, taking my daily constitutional along the beach, and performing the chores that demand my attention, but never far from these distractions is the daily reminder that there are men and women who have dedicated themselves to our security; who have placed their lives in harm’s way to protect this absolutely ordinary life I am privileged to lead.

Perhaps the best way to really understand this reality is to contrast it with another. Around the world there are people who live in countries where citizens have never experienced the freedoms that our government was instituted to protect, who will never have the opportunities afforded to Americans to innovate, lead, and maintain the lifestyle to which we are accustomed. It is almost obscene to think that in some countries, children are subject to diseases long eradicated in our own country, hungry because there is never enough food to satisfy their appetites, and whose safety is at risk because fighting factions are unconcerned about the accidental loss of life during skirmishes and all out war between groups vying for power.

Every four years we experience an election in this country in which power of office is transferred peacefully from one person to another. How many Americans have endured a coup, war between an enemy power and our troops on native soil, or lived with the uncertainty which can stem from a majority faction taking power and changing the laws under which we operate. This is because our written Constitution was designed to preserve our rights while providing the stability to grow stronger and wealthier as a nation.
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Thanksgiving is a time for reuniting with family and friends, but Uncle Sam will be joining you again this year in the form of taxes.  So say Jacob Feldman and Mattie Corrao of Americans for Tax Reform, who have determined the government tax bite for several aspects of your Thanksgiving weekend.

Many of these items are subject to the costs of income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, and other taxes on business activity. Government then includes additional fees and excise taxes that further increase the cost of providing specific items or services.

Your travel:  The average $376 Thanksgiving flight consists of $43.57 in taxes. If you are driving, 45.3% of your fill-up goes to taxes.

Once you arrive, you just might wish to unwind with your relatives (or cope with your in-laws) by opening a bottle of your favorite wine. Uncle Sam gets 32.8% of the purchase price in taxes.

The average cost of a Thanksgiving meal for ten is just under $50.  As you enjoy your bountiful meal, try to be thankful that the government gobbles up “only” $13.68 of that total.

Now that you’re done feasting and the tryptophan is kicking in, it’s time to repair to the couch for some football. As you send your cousin Eddie out on a beer run, let him know the government tax bite on a case of beer is 44.3%.

Overall, of the $10 billion in overall spending that occurs during Thanksgiving weekend on gas and plane tickets, wine and beer, and the meal itself, government taxation consists of 35.9% of those expenses—approximately $3.6 billion.

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In spite of everything in the headlines, we are all blessed. Enjoy your time with your family.

In a time of 9 percent unemployment, a faltering global economy, toxic levels of political rancor, and the release of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, is there anything left to be thankful for?

Reason offers a message of hope, redemption, and dada.

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Not that this should be surprising since Marxists have been behind and involved with in the #OccupyWallSt movement since Day One when the September protests began, but the Neo-Coms in the unionized #OWS movement are now getting more formal advice from their philosophical mentors, the Communist Party USA.

In a lengthy post about the importance of the 2012 on the Communist Party USA’s website, Connecticut Communist leader—and friend of Rep. Rosa DeLauro [D-CT]—Joelle Fishman spends the bulk of her time bashing Republicans, the “right wing” and the Tea Party while going into some detail about the CPUSA’s strong ties to the union movement in Connecticut.

Below are excerpts, not in specific order, of  the Communist leader’s lengthy post.

The doors are wide open in every community for 2012 with nationally coordinated grass roots work by labor and by the American Dream movement as a whole.

This election will be decided by the number of doors knocked on, the number of conversations held, the number of voters who are inspired to become a part of this movement and make a difference.

Where we have clubs that are focused on a neighborhood, door to door election work is made to order as a way to bring out the vote and build a club base. In the example I mentioned, we coordinated our participation through the labor movement. It all started with door knocking to find out what the concerns of the voters were in that ward, and it went from there. And don’t forget to bring voter registration cards along! (more…)

From the Associated Press:

Berwick’s fate was sealed early this year when 42 GOP senators—more than enough to derail his confirmation—asked Obama to withdraw his nomination. His resignation takes effect Dec. 2.

Berwick’s statements as an academic praising Britain’s government-run health care had become a source of controversy in politically polarized Washington. Although he later told Congress that “the American system needs its own solution” and Britain’s shouldn’t be copied here, his critics were not swayed.

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If I were living in Mexico I would do everything in my power to get myself and my wife across the border to America, and that would include breaking immigration laws. There’s no way I could live with myself if I didn’t do everything a husband should to get his wife out of the poverty, corruption and hopelessness that represents too much of Latin America. Knowing this about myself makes it hard for me to condemn others who actually  are in that situation and have decided to do the same.

Though he’s taken it back enough times for me to believe him, Governor Rick Perry was wrong to question the “hearts” of those who disagreed with his decision to offer in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants, and he was even more wrong to create a magnet that uses taxpayer dollars to incentivize even more illegal to cross the border and burden our system.

But Newt Gingrich is absolutely right that of the 11 or 12 million illegals currently living in this country, many have lived here for years and are a part of a community and a part of a family that deportation would tear apart.

Are we really prepared to do that?

Talk radio host Dennis Prager once made a point about this issue that’s worth repeating: Every day throughout Southern California thousands of illegals gather outside Home Depots everywhere (this is a fact) looking for someone to pick them up and give them day labor. Every day, who knows how many housewives pick up these illegals and take them home alone to do that day labor. And yet you never hear about a rape or robbery or murder in these circumstances. Never.

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From OccupyWallSt:

This year’s Black Friday will be the first campaign of the holiday season where we set the tone for a new type of holiday culminating with #OCCUPYXMAS. As the global protests of the 99% against corporate greed and casino capitalism continues, lets take the opportunity to hit the empire where it really hurts…the wallet.

On Nov 25/26th we escape the mayhem and unease of the biggest shopping day in North America and put the breaks on rabid consumerism for 24 hours. Flash mobs, consumer fasts, mall sit-ins, community events, credit card-ups, whirly-marts and jams, jams, jams! We don’t camp on the sidewalk for a reduced price tag on a flat screen TV or psycho-killer video game. Instead, we occupy the very paradigm that is fueling our eco, social and political decline.

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Is it possible to be pro-immigration in this country and still support the principles of the State of Alabama’s immigration laws, dubbed some of the strictest in the nation? Absolutely. Sound paradoxical?

Not at all.

Being pro-immigration shouldn’t mean that you are an advocate of illegal immigration. It just means that you are sympathetic to the needs, dreams, and goals of those who come to our country to make better lives for themselves and their families. Try looking at it from their perspective; imagine if all you were trying to do was make a better life for you and your family. You too would do whatever it takes to make that a reality, and that’s all they wish to achieve. People can have these dreams and come into our country the right way, coming up with solutions to stop or slow the influx of illegal’s will help allay the belief that illegal immigrants are stealing American jobs and degrading our society.

Yes, the state’s laws are tough, and in some cases, questionable, as in one provision that requires students to document their immigration status before enrolling in school. The fact that less than 10% of Hispanics failed to do so in recent weeks shouldn’t come as any surprise, if you believe that close to 10% of Alabama’s Hispanic population is here illegally. I don’t know the exact number in the state, but it’s not as if no one of Hispanic origin showed up to school that day.

I hate to continue laying America’s toughest social problems – the economy, moral compass, immigration, etc. – at the feet of this President and Congress, but it’s ultimately their fault. (more…)