Merry Christmas 2008

See you on the flip-side--Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas--From Liberty On The Rocks

Sing along:
To the tune of Jingle Bells

Work day in day out
Barely makin’ due
Government asks for more,
But the bailout’s not for you!
Worked real hard this year,
But don’t expect to save
What congress wants to take from you
Why not just be their slave?

Oh Government, you steal our checks
From cradle until grave
You’ll prop up failing industries
The streets you’ll never pave.

Oh Government, you make things worse
Each time you try to help.
Regulations, tax increases
Stealing all our wealth!

Need to see the Doc?
Governments got your back,
You’ll be seen in nine months by
A government sponsored quack!

Special interests are your voice,
If you can pay to play,
But if you can’t then you’re just fu@@#d
Cause Ethics has no say

Oh Government, you steal our checks
From cradle until grave
You’ll prop up failing industries
The streets you’ll never pave.

Oh Government, you make things worse
Each time you try to help.
Regulations, tax increases
Stealing all our wealth!

How Bernanke Stole Christmas

By Julian Dunraven, J.D., M.P.A. (With Apologies to Dr. Seuss)
December 2008


Every Who Down in Who-ville Liked Christmas a lot
But Bernanke, who lived just north of Who-ville, thought it might be for naught.

Bernanke feared for Christmas, and the whole shopping season.
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be that interest rates weren’t adjusted just right.
It could be, perhaps, that banks were leveraged too tight.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that his brain was under Keynesian thrall.

But whichever of these reasons you may choose,
He stood there on Christmas Eve, fretting for Whos,
Staring down from the Fed with a sour, Bernanke frown,
At the warm lighted windows below in their town.
For he knew every Who down in Who-ville beneath,
Was busy now, hanging a mistletoe wreath.

“And they’re hanging their stockings! He snarled with a sneer,
“Tomorrow is Christmas! It’s practically here!”
Then he growled, with his Fed fingers nervously drumming,
“I MUST find some way to keep Christmas cash coming!”

For tomorrow, he knew, all the Who girls and boys,
Would wake bright and early and rush for their toys!
And finding none there—Oh the Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!
That’s one thing he hated! The Noise! Noise! Noise! Noise!

Then the Whos, young and old, would expect a great feast.
And they’d feast! And they’d feast!
And they’d feast! Feast! Feast! Feast!
But this year there would be no Who-pudding, and no rare Who-roast beast.
Which was a thought poor Bernanke couldn’t stand in the least!

And then they’d do something he liked least of all!
Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Would stand close together, with Christmas bells tinkling
They’d stand hand-in-hand. And the Whos would start thinking.

They’d march and they’d protest!
And they’d chant! Chant! Chant! Chant!
And the more Bernanke thought of this Who Christmas Chanting
The more Bernanke thought, “I must stop this Who ranting!
“Why for 45 years we’ve made fiat work now!
I Must keep Christmas cash flowing!
. . . But how?

Then he got an idea!
An awful idea!
Bernanke
Got a wonderful, awful idea!

“I know just what to do!” Bernanke laughed in his throat.
And he made a quick Santy Claus hat and a coat.
And he chuckled, and clucked, “What a great Fed-ish trick!
“With this coat and this hat, I’ll look just like Saint Nick!”

“All I need is a reindeer . . .”
Bernanke looked around.
But since reindeer are scarce, there was none to be found.
Did that stop old Ben?
No! Bernanke simply said,
“If I can’t find a reindeer, I’ll make one instead!”
So he called his friend Hank. Then he took some red thread
And he tied a big horn on top of his head.

Then he fired up the printing presses.
He had lots of money to make,
Loaded the sleigh with excesses
And he hitched up old Hank.

Then Bernanke said, “Giddyap!”
And the sleigh started down
Toward the homes where the Whos
Lay a-snooze in their town.

All their windows were dark. Quiet snow filled the air.
The Whos were all dreaming sweet dreams without care
When he came to the first failing bank in the square.
“This is stop number one,” The old Bernanke Claus hissed
And he climbed to the roof, bloated bags in his fist.

Then he slid down the chimney. It looked rather grimy.
But if Santa could do it, then so could Bernanke.
He got stuck only once, for a moment or two.
Then he stuck his head out of the fireplace flue
Where bad mortgage backed debt all sat in a row.
“These derivatives,” he grinned, “are the first things to go!”

Then he slithered and slunk, with a smile most like a snake,
Around the whole town, and financed each big bank’s mistakes.
Fannie and Freddie, Bear Sterns, and Citi
TARP, AIG, GE and more Citi.
To bad business he gave billions, oh very nimbly,
But as for good business, they didn’t get any.

To get the money flowing he was bound to inflate,
So he even brought treasuries down to negative interest rates.
Printing money by trillions he nearly doubled the cash.
Just think of Zimbabwe; it wouldn’t be rash.

Then he stuffed all the money down the chimneys with gusto
“And NOW!” grinned Bernanke, “I’ll fix up the Autos.”

And then Bernanke flew to Detroit, with more money to drop
When he heard a small sound say “The Senate said ‘Stop.’”
He turned around fast, and he saw to his gall
Congressman Ron Paul, who was ready to brawl.

Bernanke had been caught by this noble Who master
Who’d got out of bed to see what was the clatter.
He stared at Bernanke and said, “Santy Claus, why,
“Why are you devaluing our dollar and savings? Why?”

But, you know that Bernanke was so smart and so slick
He thought up a lie, and he thought it up quick!
“Inflation’s not bad,” the fake Santy Claus lied,
“It’s just that this level has never been tried.
“So I’ll inflate until we can create a new bubble.
“Then our economy will be back to boom on the double.”

But his fib fooled no one. Then he grabbed Paul by the head
And he trussed him and gagged him and tossed him back in bed.
And when Paul was disposed of, with his Constitution too,
He turned back to Detroit and forced the money through.

But inflation burned through the Whos’ savings like fire.
They were poorer, not richer, as he left, the old liar.
Working longer and harder before they could retire.

And the only speck of money
Left to the average Who house
Were accounts that were even too small to buy food for a mouse.

Then the same thing befell all the Whos’ houses
Leaving accounts much too small to feed the other Whos’ mouses.

It was a quarter past dawn . . .
All the Whos, still a-bed
All the Whos, still a-snooze
When he packed up his sled,
Packed it up with their final stimulus package! The checks! All indebting!
For the poor! And the Middle Class! For Change! What trappings!

80 trillion feet up! Up the side of Mount Debt-it,
He rode to overlook Who-ville, on their heads to dump it.
“Hal-loo to the Whos!” he was Fed-ishly humming.
“They’re finding out now that Christmas cash is coming!
“They’re just waking up! I know just what they’ll do!
“Their mouth will hang open a minute or two
“Then all the Whos down in Who-vill will all cry YOO-HOO!”

“That’s a noise,” grinned Bernanke,
“That I simply must hear!”
So he paused. And Bernanke put a hand to his ear.
And he did hear a sound rising over the snow.
It started in low. Then it started to grow . . .

But the sound wasn’t happy!
Why, this sound sounded angry!
It couldn’t be so!
But it WAS angry, VERY!

He stared down at Who-ville!
Bernanke popped his eyes!
Then he shook!
What he saw was a shocking surprise!

Every Who down in Who-ville, through distortions great and small,
Was chanting! Not one had any presents at all!
He HADN’T kept Christmas cash flowing!
IT FROZE
Somehow or other, it froze, though how, he did not know.

And Bernanke, with his Fed-feet ice-cold in the snow,
Stood puzzling and puzzling: “How could it be so?
“It froze despite nationalizing! It froze despite rate cutting!
“It froze despite bailouts, quantitative easing, and printing!”
And he puzzled for hours, ‘till his puzzler was sore.
Then Bernanke thought of something he hadn’t before!
“Maybe our economy,” he thought, “doesn’t come from just a store.
“Maybe the economy . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!”

And what happened then?
Well, in Who-ville they say
That Bernanke read von Misses and Hayek that day!
And the minute he saw true capitalism’s light,
He whizzed back to town to set all to right.
He stopped all the bailouts and ended fiat money!
And he, he himself, Bernanke, restored a land of milk and honey.

12 Days Of Funny

Signs Of The Season: Denver's Civic Center Lighting Ceremony

Brought the cameras and it started snowing, ever so lightly at first, and then proceeded to heavy, wet flakes that forced my Nikon back into it's bag, and out with the point-and-shoot.

We were wished Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, both appropriate and welcome for such an event. The featured acts heavily favored more religious carols--Silent Night, O Holy Night, Little Drummer Boy--and had a good mix of more secular songs as well.

Only criticism of the night--need a better sound system for a large public event such as this. I blame Mayor "Teflon" John Hickenlooper. And Barack Obama . . . where were his sound guys at?


The soft glow--courtesy of the first significant snowfall in Denver this season.


Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Peace on Earth, Happy 150 Years! (Denver)



And now for some fisheye:




I'm still fooling around with the fisheye lens, and had to put the camera away when the flakes really started to fly. Hopefully I can get back down to the Civic Center with a tripod and capture a good 180 shot from a closer range.

Denver Snow Cover Reaches Record Books For Second Straight Year

Although there was no mention of it until it had passed (all the global warmening that had to be covered, aside from record Christmas Day snowfall), Denver saw 32 consecutive days of snow cover for the second straight year, pushing into the top 10 once again:

Only a trace of snow was measured in Denver Wednesday, ending a 32-day streak with an inch or more of snow on the ground.

December's above average snowfall and cold temperatures kept measureable snow on the ground at the old Stapleton Airport for over a month straight. The streak of snow-covered days was long enough to secure 10th place for consecutive days of snow cover in Denver. At least an inch of snow was measured on the ground in Denver from December 8, 2007 to January 8, 2008.

Every morning observers at the old Stapleton Airport officially measure the amount of snow cover. In an area free of obstructions like trees and buildings, several measurements are taken and averaged to account for melting and drifting. If the average is an inch or greater, it is added to the count. Less than an inch is recorded as a trace amount.

The Denver snow-cover record was set at 63 days between November 26, 1983 and January 27, 1984. Last winter recorded a second-place finish with a 61 day stretch between December 21, 2006 and February 19, 2007.

This year, the 24 days in December and 8 days in January with snow cover came close to a ninth place finish. One more day would have tied the 33 day mark set in 1919.

This comes on top of the news that actually has been covered since late November worries pushed the state's global warming panickers into overdrive following a warm, dry month--the state's snowpack is now uniformly over 100% of the 30-year average in all 8 river basins, with two above 150%, and the state average of 127% overall.

Global warm-mongers routinely cherry-pick evidence to support their claims, and even go so far as to claim that all weather, even unseen-in-a-century snowfall in Baghdad is also evidence of global warming.

For the past two years, early season predictions for Denver and Colorado as a whole have not come to fruition. Before 2006's twin blizzards and subsequent months of frequent snow and cold, Denver was supposed to have three months--December through February--of above average temperatures and little snowfall. Oops.

Same thing has occurred this year. Heavy snowfall over the southwest portion of the state has necessitated Colorado's Division of Wildlife to bail out elk and deer herds without winter forage due to snow cover above 50 inches.

Once again, it is difficult to reconcile reality with global warming conspiracy theories (where all evidence is evidence of climate change, etc.) and the inability to make believable predictions that are correct not just decades or years but just months and days away. There is a reason people poke fun at meteorologists' predictive power (the only job to be correct less than half the time and still be employed!), based as it is on complex computer models that certainly give more advance warning, but can not definitively predict a storm's path or strength. Nature still remains beyond human beings' arrogant attempt to predict or control, making frivolous "doomsday" assertions of climate change catastrophe that much more unpalatable to anyone with a skeptical frame of mind.

The only thing certain about climate is its uncertainty, and our inability to do much about it.

XDA, another Colorado blog, has been following the science of climate change as well.

Christmas Day 2007

Merry Christmas!


Esteban Murillo, "Adoration of the Shepherds"

Daily Nativity 121107; Updated And Bumped

A little humor for Christmas Eve, bumped up from 12/11.

Now the moonbattery, courtesy of my school:

Dear University Community,

It is with the warmest greetings that I write to you this, my last Communiqué in 2007. The holiday season is upon us all and I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a restful season and peace in the New Year.

As I was reflecting on this season, I was struck by the arrival of another Winter Solstice. This year’s solstice – the year’s shortest day and longest night – will arrive on Dec. 22. As we all know, astronomically, the solstice is the instant when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the person observing. In broader terms, the Winter Solstice marks what many consider mid-winter and delineates the point at which our daylight hours will grow longer and the nights shorter.

While the astronomical significance of the solstice is clear, its importance as a symbolic moment in our year has captured my thoughts. Most cultures stretching back thousands of years have celebrated this event as a time to reflect on that most basic cycle of life, of birth, death, and rebirth. The lengthening days, for most ancient cultures, heralded their ability to continue their agrarian or nomadic way of life. It reminded them of the ordered march of the yearly seasonal cycle and the promise of rebirth at the end of the long winter months.

This event parallels the moment we find here at our university in many ways. During the course of this year, as in the life of any institution, we have faced many challenges. During these challenges, I know that each of us have also found moments that renewed our sense of purpose and deepened our pride in individual and collective accomplishments. It was novelist and playwright Albert Camus who wrote, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”

May the symbol of the Winter Solstice assist you in finding your “invincible summer” and may it remind all of us of the great potential that lies ahead for our individual work and this great institution. I want to thank each of you for your daily dedication to supporting and serving our university.

Happy Holidays,

M. Roy Wilson

Chancellor

Not a single mention of, you know, Christmas--and I received this "communique" today, no less. Just a little PC "holiday" cheer.

Via XDA, this little response to moonbats:

To all my friends on the left--Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to observe religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures.


And to all my Republican friends--Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Christmas Eve Sunset

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Hieronymous Bosch

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