HALF-FULL REPORT 12/26/08

The best news this week is that with this issue of the HFR, we get to raise a tin cup of moonshine and say adios to 2008.  Come what may in 2009, it is such an incredible relief to get this sucker over with.

It is, of course, not good news that during Christmas, millions of Americans have been stranded in airports and train stations due to massive winter storms all across the country.  Yet being stranded gives one time to think – and hopefully one thought that will occur to them is that global warming is laughably ridiculous.

Even the New York Times is figuring out the "alternative energy" scam.  In cold weather (when we need heat and energy the most), it notes that:

"Wind turbine blades ice up, biodiesel congeals in tanks and solar panels produce less power because there is not as much sun. And perhaps most irritating to the people who own them, the panels become covered with snow, rendering them useless even in bright winter sunshine."

It’s not snowing and freezing  in Oz (Australia) because it’s summer down under, but the torrent of data (e.g. from NASA satellites) that the world is cooling rather than warming seems to be driving Aussie glowarmers crack-a-fruity.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s just announced plan to only partially ruin Oz’s economy by reducing CO2 emissions 15% by 2020 (Oz produces an almost immeasurably small fraction of total manmade CO2 worldwide) is causing a wave of environut protests.  They are so outraged that Rudd won’t commit to entirely ruin Oz’s economy with a 50% or more reduction that they have taken to throwing shoes at him.

Even more starkers is Aussie mad scientist Dr. Glenn Platt, who denounces Christmas tree or decoration lights as "bad for the planet."  You can’t make this stuff up.

By the way, out of every 100,000 molecules of air, how many do you suppose are molecules of CO2, the evil gas environuts say causes global warming?  39.  How many are man-made molecules of CO2?  1.  If "man-made greenhouse gas emissions" continue unabated, ignoring all efforts by environuts to curtail them over the next 5 to 10 years, how many more CO2 molecules will there be per 100,000 of air? 1 more. 

In other words, if we pay absolutely no attention to the environuts and keep pumping CO2 in the air around the world as much as we are now, in 10 years the man-made CO2 content of the atmosphere will increase from one-onehundrendthousandth to two-onehundredthousandths.  Man-made greenhouse gas emissions are irrelevant to the world’s weather.

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Haven’t you been enjoying the freak-out of rage by homosexual "activists" over Zero’s choosing Pastor Rick Warren to give his inaugural invocation?  I’m particularly gratified by the umbrage publicly expressed by Barney Frank (D-MA), once referred to by then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey in the greatest Freudian slip of modern politics as "Barney Fag."

Armey claimed it was a "slip of the tongue."  But when he was later interviewed by humorist Dave Barry, who asked him, "Are you really Dick Armey?", he answered, "Yes, I am Dick Armey.  And if there was a dick army, Barney Frank would want to join up."

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Almost as funny a joke was the Obamanistas’ issuing a "report" on their "internal investigation" this week claiming – surprise! – there was "nothing inappropriate" in all the discussions they had with Blago and his staffers.

At the center of the controversy are all the talks one Obamanista had in particular, foul-mouthed fascist Rahm Emmanuel.  How convenient that just as the report is issued, he splits with his family for a "long-planned" vacation in Africa where he is "unavailable" to the press.

So now Blago is going to subpoena Zero’s chief of staff.  Watching this scandal unfold is almost as much fun as seeing Princess Caroline Kennedy’s assumed royal prerogative of being anointed US Senator from New York crashing and burning.

Her brainlessness was on short display during a tour of upstate New York, but it was enough.  Her press conference in Syracuse lasted 30 seconds, in Buffalo two minutes.  Reporters were flabbergasted, with one of them calling out as she was hustled away by handlers, "You’re not going to answer any questions at all?"

The political backlash among New York Dems is building to a crescendo.  Say goodnight, Caroline.

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As long as we’re reveling in political failures, let’s note that Venezuelan crude ( a lower, heavier grade than benchmark crudes) fell to $27.10 this week.  Production is down 12.4%, 168,000 bpd (barrels per day) over last year.  Selling lots less for lots less is not a winning business plan.  We won’t have Hugo Chavez to laugh at for much longer.

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Now let’s focus on what is truly good and uplifting news this week.  For the first time ever, Christmas was celebrated as an official holiday in Iraq. 

Of course, Christmas was celebrated for centuries in Mesopotamia until Arab Moslems conquered the region in the mid-7^th century and imposed their religion upon its inhabitants.  The descendants of the conquered Christians, such as the Chaldeans, secretly maintained their hidden faith.  Now, thanks to George Bush’s liberation of Iraq, they are more free than they have been for 13½ centuries.

It was an extraordinary scene at the Mar Yusif Chaldean Catholic Church in Baghdad on Christmas Eve.  Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly performed Christmas Mass for the worshippers – and attending nearby was one of Iraq’s most senior clerics of Shiite Islam, Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim.

"We came here to bring a message of love, respect and gratitude to our Christian brothers," the Sayyed told journalists.

"I thank the visitors here and ask them to share happiness and love with their brothers on Christmas; by this they will build a glorious Iraq," said Cardinal Delly.

We can be grateful that Christians now have the freedom of Christmas in Iraq, and can be hopeful that they will someday have the same freedom where they do not, as in China.

Nonetheless, Christmas was celebrated however covertly by tens of millions of Chinese.  Christianity is growing so fast in China that there are more Christians – some 80 million at a minimum – than Communist Party members.  The London Economist recently reported that the number may be as high as 130 million, and that there may be "more active Christians in China than in any other country" on earth.

So let’s close this last HFR of 2008 with this heartwarming thought.  Christmas yesterday was celebrated by more people in more places on all seven continents (even scientists in Antarctica) – by far – than any other celebration of any kind, religious or otherwise, in the world.

Christianity dwarfs all other world religions.  There are a billion more Christians than Moslems (2.2 vs. 1.2).  Christianity may be dying in secular Old Europe (not Young, Eastern Europe), but it is exploding in South America, Africa, and Asia.  It is leaving Islam in the dust.

And despite the ACLU’s war against it, Christmas and Christianity continues to thrive in America. 

Thus the HFR is happy to raise a crystal cup of Christmas cheer to you – and to all those billions of people around the world who said to each other in love and brotherhood, "Merry Christmas!"