Category: Poli-Sci

Same-Sex Matters (Race and Gender in Marriage) ~ Re-Posted Due To Currant Events

I wanted to share here some conversation and further thinking on a topic that was discussed vigorously amongst friends while partaking in choice hops this past Halloween weekend. The below is written in conversation style (almost all my posts are like this) for friends. So it... Read More
All Religious and Moral Thinkers in History Rejected/Never Endorsed Same-Sex Marriages (Challenged with Buddhism)

A point Dennis Prager makes is that this is the first time in human history where a “liberal elite” thinks it knows better than all previous religious, political, and moral thinkers before them. I have been challenged on this point and so I enter here a response to... Read More
Was Jesus Black? (Conversation Series) ~ UPDATED

I have, for some reason unknown to me, many run-ins with Black Hebrew Israelites. God, either through my personality or bringing these people to my cyber door step, allows prolonged conversation with these very earnest people. This is one guy I like, he is witty, funny, and... Read More
The Incoherence of the Cultural Relativist Making Moral Pronouncements ~ Conversation Series

Here is a great conversation that stemmed from another story — as debated on FaceBook. I commented on a story someone posted on their FaceBook about an Iraqi woman who was killed in her home, and whoever murdered her left a note calling her a terrorist and they (the... Read More
A Starbucks Encounter with Michael Berryman

I love to go to Starbucks, grab a cup of coffee, and read/study my favorite topics in book form. Once and a while I will bump into people well known in pop-culture. Michael Berryman was recently one of those people. Of course, he is best known to me from an 80′s classic,... Read More
An Ironman Supplement ~ Thin Nothing I

I thought I would post a few items for the average man to engage someone lightly about Genesis. Here I want to focus on larger, easier to defend positions and will also throw in some minutia for the person who is curious about the issue as well. I will give a short reply and... Read More
Reason and Faith (From An Old Debate-Updated)

Certain words can mean very different things to different people. For instance, if I say to an atheist, “I have faith in God,” the atheist assumes I mean that my belief in God has nothing to do with evidence. But this isn’t what I mean by faith at all. When I... Read More
The Shallow, Self-refuting, Incoherent, and Illogical Thinking of `Agnositc` ~ Vincent Bugliosi

I was surprised in listening to Vincent Bugliosi in an interview about his book, Divinity of Doubt: The God Question. Surprised because considering his book on debunking pretty much every JFK conspiracy known to man, I would expect him to realize his fundamental mistake that... Read More

No Labels in fact labeled

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 14 2010 / in Poli-Sci, Pundits & Personalities / No Comments »

The good stuff starts at about 4:40:

The event featured appearances by a number of Democratic politicians: Villaraigosa, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, and retiring Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh. For some reason, most of the Republicans who showed up were recently defeated officeholders: South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis, Delaware Rep. Mike Castle, and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. God knows why a group devoted to principle above politics would invite the opportunistic Crist to speak, but No Labels did.

The events were moderated by MSNBC personalities Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski, Dylan Ratigan, and Michael Smerconish. If Fox News seemed to be associated with the Tea Party, then No Labels was an MSNBC affair….

Marooned in Marin picked up this story as well, and here I post some commentary by Marin:

But when you look at the people involved in No Labels, all you have to do is say “liberal.” Michael Bloomberg, Kristen Gillibrand, Charlie Crist, Mike Castle. All joined by alleged conservatives like David Brooks, Joe Scarboring and the contemptable David Frum.

Nice Deb even compares the mission statements of No Labels with the failed Coffee Party.

So what is No Labels? It is liberalism trying to reinvent itself. And wouldn’t you know? The cries about “hyperpartisanship” always happen when conservatism (via the Tea Party) is on the rise and stands up against liberalism.

I’m not fooled for a minute.

This is the real driver of Climate Change

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Global Warming/Climate Change, Nature, Science, Sciences / No Comments »

(full size video can be seen here)

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2010)

On August 1, 2010, an entire hemisphere of the sun erupted. Filaments of magnetism snapped and exploded, shock waves raced across the stellar surface, billion-ton clouds of hot gas billowed into space. Astronomers knew they had witnessed something big.

It was so big, it may have shattered old ideas about solar activity.

“The August 1st event really opened our eyes,” says Karel Schrijver of Lockheed Martin’s Solar and Astrophysics Lab in Palo Alto, CA. “We see that solar storms can be global events, playing out on scales we scarcely imagined before.”

For the past three months, Schrijver has been working with fellow Lockheed-Martin solar physicist Alan Title to understand what happened during the “Great Eruption.” They had plenty of data: The event was recorded in unprecedented detail by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory and twin STEREO spacecraft. With several colleagues present to offer commentary, they outlined their findings at a recent press conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

[....]

“Not all eruptions are going to be global,” notes Guhathakurta. “But the global character of solar activity can no longer be ignored.”

Again, Science Daily makes this point in another article entitled, “Sun and Volcanic Eruptions Pace North Atlantic Climate Swings“:

When the scientists include actual changes in the solar forcing and the climate effect of volcanic eruptions in their model, they find a strong causal link between these external factors and variations in the Atlantic surface temperature. In particular, the study highlights volcanic eruptions as important for long-term variations in the Atlantic climate both through their strong cooling effect, but also through their direct impact on atmosphere and ocean circulation.

Affirmative Action Bake Sale-John Stossel

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Education, John Stossel, Race/Racism / 1 Comment »

I do want to say you can see the outcome of a student led one on this documentary, Indoctrinate U:

Neil Cavuto Tears Chris Matthews a New One-Rightly So

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Pundits & Personalities / No Comments »

NewsBusters:

Michael Medved (after talking to President Bush) Talks About Bush Being Redeemed By the Two Most Unlikely People

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Conservative Republicanism, Democratic Progressivism, Taxes / No Comments »

BREAKING NEWS!! Health Care Fails Smell Test (awesome news!)

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Health, News Story / No Comments »

HOTAIR BREAKING NEWS:

CNN has a breaking alert on a ruling by a federal judge in Virginia that rejects ObamaCare as unconstitutional:

A federal judge in Virginia has ruled parts of the sweeping health care reform effort led by President Obama to be unconstitutional. This is the first federal court to strike down the law, contradicting other recent rulings the law was permissible. The key issue of contention was the “individual mandate” requirement that most Americans purchase health insurance by 2014.

This case (Virginia v Sebelius) was the lawsuit brought by the states against ObamaCare. This is the test case that had the best chance of overturning the law, and the states have apparently won an important finding in the district court.

According to Dan Foster at NRO, the judge ruled that Congress “exceeded its authority” by imposing an individual mandate to purchase insurance.

Update: Actually, this suit was brought by Virginia alone. The other case brought by 20 other states in one suit is still pending.

…(READ ALL THE UPDATES!)…

The Wall Street Journal has some info on this as well:

….Judge Hudson, of the Eastern District of Virginia, said the individual mandate “would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers.”

He added: “At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance—or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage—it’s about an individual’s right to choose to participate.”

Separately, federal Judge Roger Vinson in Pensacola, Fla., will hear arguments Thursday in a challenge brought by officials in 20 states, and he could offer the clearest indication yet of how he will rule.

If Gas Prices Were W`s Fault When He Was Pres-Does That Mean Obama Is To Blame Now?

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Business, Monetary Policy / No Comments »

Here is a great story from BigJournalism on the hypocrisy in the media about the blame game:

Take those pesky little ol gas prices that have now skyrocketed to more than $3.00 a gallon. For months the media had just omitted the story altogether like they hadn’t even noticed, while during the Bush administration they couldn’t stop doing stories on “Pain At The Pump” and they worked overtime to point the nozzle directly at the White House.

Here are a couple of examples, there are many others.

This story from 2006 on MSNBC blasts Bush for doing little to stop the rising gas prices.

This story from 2008 talks about how Bush and Evil Big Oil were conspiring against us all to raise prices and how Dear Leader Obama was going to come in and save us all from high gas prices and our dependence on foreign oil.

Whoops.

The media has finally figured out that gas prices are going up, but most stories in 2010 that deal with Pain At The Pump ignore Obama like they don’t even know he’s president. Mr. Teflon can’t be touched by this messy little inflation thing going on right now (of course, it’s not just gas prices either.)

When Obama entered the White House gas prices averaged $1.81 per gallon. Evil Bush/Oil must’ve done something to make those prices fall – but there’s no time in the 10 hours a day that local TV stations do in their newscasts to mention this little fact. They’re out of space in the New York Times to provide context for this story.

Of course, Obama’s reaction has been to close off-shore drilling and restrict more US land to drilling. The Bush actions of allowing more drilling and increasing US independence led to those low prices of 2008. Yes, policies in the White House can make a difference and are making a difference today to the rising prices.

Gas prices have nearly doubled under Barack Obama, meanwhile the media watches from the sidelines and complains without pointing out where this problem lies.

…(read more)…

I had to explain to people so often that gas prices are based on the dollar, policies in opening or closing up areas to drill our own resources, taxes, and environmental mixes of gasoline. I finally would link to an article in all these kinds of stories. In fact, this topic made me join and upload my first video at YouTube. The point is is that when President Bush was in office, all my Democrat friends would incessantly bitch about gas prices as being Bush’s fault somehow. I think I will bitch about Obama and the gas prices… even though I know he really has nothing to do with it… except the Democrats typically do not want to use our own resources but would rather strip other countries of theirs (← turning the tables on their thinking).

I Love Our Men and Women in Uniform-Merry Christmas

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Holiday, Military / No Comments »

BigPeace h/t:

Ernest Istook Dices Up Ed Schultz and Joe Madisons Bumper Sticker Mantras

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Media, Pundits & Personalities / No Comments »

George Bush Has Won

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Pundits & Personalities, Taxes / No Comments »

NewsBusters:

Media makes an ass of itself AGAIN!

By PapaGiorgio / Dec 13 2010 / in Media, Pundits & Personalities / No Comments »

Gateway Pundit has this example of media bias, Marooned in Marin likewise reports on how the AP reported Sarah Palin’s Haiti visit this weekend, bringing her hair stylist:

As reported by Kristinn at FreeRepublic.

The Associated Press transmitted a photo from Haiti of Palin captioned, “Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, center, has her hair done during a visit to a cholera treatment center set up by the NGO Samaritan’s Purse in Cabaret, Haiti, Saturday Dec. 11, 2010. Palin arrived Saturday in Haiti as part of a brief humanitarian mission. Dieu Nalio Chery / AP”

That photo and caption set off rabid attacks on Palin from the Huffington Post, the U.K.’s Daily Mail and, of course, Palingates.

The photo does indeed show Sarah Palin standing with her husband Todd as a woman whose face is obscured uses two hands to fix the hair on the right side of Palin’s head.

However, one can observe that the woman is white, with her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing a white shirt with a bulky scarf and dark pants.

In other photos from Saturday, Todd and Sarah Palin’s white, brunette, eldest daughter Bristol, who accompanied her parents on the trip to Haiti, is wearing the exact same clothing and ponytail as the “hair stylist” in the AP photo.

That’s right, what the Palin-hating AP and others fail to report is that the “hair stylist” is Bristol Palin.

The AP photographer who sent the caption would have known that it was Bristol Palin, but by not mentioning her the AP was able to do a media hit on Palin but still be able to claim they told the “truth” with the caption.

…To reiterate, a daughter helps fix a loose strand of her mother’s hair, and it becomes an international scandal. Amazing.

…(read more)…

About us

About Papa Giorgio @ RPT:

Biased: I have my own interests and personal beliefs in mind when talking to others, spiritually or politically (Prov 21:2; Matt 15:19), because... I am Fallen: I am a sinner and tend towards ~ naturally ~ what is not best for me or others. In other words, I will probably let you down (Rom 3:10; Rom 3:23; Lam 5:16); Sentenced: since I tend towards rebellion and selfishness, I am judged accordingly and righteously (Rom 5:12; Rom 6:23a; Job 36:6); Forgiven: I am justified before God NOT through works but by faith (Eph 2:8-10; Gal 2:16; Rom 6:23b; PS 86:5); Relational: mercy is not getting what you deserve. And grace is getting what you absolutely do not deserve (Heb 4:16; Eph 1:5; Jer 15:19a). (FYI ~ all graphics below are click-able)