Its what Halloween was originally about, ya know? Ultimately…

Then I saw another angel rising where the sun rises, carrying the seal of the living God; he called in a powerful voice to the four angels whose duty was to devastate land and sea, ‘Wait before you do any damage on land or at sea or to the trees, until we have put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.’ And I heard how many had been sealed: a hundred and forty-four thousand, out of all the tribes of Israel.

After that I saw that there was a huge number, impossible for anyone to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language; they were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palms in their hands. They shouted in a loud voice, ‘Salvation to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’

And all the angels who were standing in a circle round the throne, surrounding the elders and the four living creatures, prostrated themselves before the throne, and touched the ground with their foreheads, worshipping God with these words: Amen. Praise and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.

One of the elders then spoke and asked me, ‘Who are these people, dressed in white robes, and where have they come from?’ I answered him, ‘You can tell me, sir.’ Then he said, ‘These are the people who have been through the great trial; they have washed their robes white again in the blood of the Lamb. – Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14

Unfortunately, Halloween has been taken over by extreme creepiness – which is why I don’t tend to do much with it, other than pass out some candy to the kids. Its a shame, really – it should be a time when we reflect on those who have passed the test of this life, and how we may do so, as well.

…for China:

Clean tech has seen a boost as the U.S. pours government funding into renewable energy, and China looks set to reap much of the benefits. Latest example: a Chinese wind-turbine company has just become the exclusive supplier for one of the largest wind-farm developments in the U.S.

The Shenyang Power Group has signed on to supply 240 of its massive 2.5-megawatt wind turbines to a 36,000-acre development in West Texas. The Wall Street Journal reports that the wind farm is also slated to receive $1.5 billion in financing from the Export-Import Bank of China.

Why is this happening? Because we’re outsourcing our manufacturing plant. Why are we doing this? Because environmental regulation, NIMBYism and corporate idiocy have combined to make it just much easier for everyone (other than the people and the nation, as a whole, of course). When will we stop doing this? When we get rid of the power structure in Washington.

And still two months left to go:

10/31/2009-Federal regulators seized 9 banks, most of which were located in the Western US, bringing the total of 2009 failed banks to 115. The FDIC has reportedly closed down California National Bank of Los Angeles as well as eight other smaller banks as the weak economy continues to take its toll on regional banks.

But Obama is on the job…making up fake jobs and working ’round the clock to fool us in to thinking that everything’s swell!

Writing about Harry Reid, naturally, as my first entry.

With the most recent polls showing a dead heat between Hoffman and Owens, I really don’t know how this will play out:

Republican Dede Scozzafava has suspended her bid in next Tuesday’s NY 23 special election, a huge development that dramatically shakes up the race. She did not endorse either of her two opponents — Conservative party candidate Doug Hoffman or Democrat Bill Owens.

Scozzafava has “probably made her last campaign appearance between now and Election Day,” spokesman Matt Burns told POLITICO. “She’s releasing her support to the two other candidates.”

“I had a discussion with her last night, and we made the decision after I spoke with her. We talked about it, what this came down to was spending. It came down to the ability to defend herself from the get-go. And that’s the reality. She was unable to define herself where the people didn’t know her.”

Will Scozzafava’s support go to Hoffman or Owens? Are her supporters just plain, old “broken glass” Republicans who will just pull the “R” lever no matter what, and are thus more likely to switch to Hoffman? Or, are her supporters RINOs who only vote GOP as long as they can have someone wishy-washy? Only time will tell…

Excellent article in the WSJ about Israel’s increasing acceptance of the need for some sort of decisive action against Iran. Reading it, I got this question in my head: would Israel use nuclear weapons in a first strike?

Keep in mind that in 1967, Israel struck first at those who were gathering to strike Israel. It was a defensive war, but it opened with an Israeli offensive. And it was good that Israel took the step – the enemy wasn’t ready, got severely knocked off balance and the resultant Israeli land captures provided the tactical cushion Israel needed when the enemy tried again in 1973. The trouble is that with Iran, there is not much that conventional Israeli forces can do.

To be sure, the IDF can strike some mighty hard blows at both Iran’s nuclear program and Iran’s ability to hit Israel. But it can’t eliminate the threat, not hit hard enough to convince the Iranian leadership to give up the quest for Israel’s destruction. But the stakes are just as high as they were in 1967 – what is gathering is an existential threat to Israel’s existence. What is gathering is the threat of a second Holocaust.

Two or three nuclear weapons exploded over Israel at the right altitude would pretty much destroy the whole nation (its a very tiny place) and leave the survivors defenseless against Islamist incursions from Lebanon, Syria and Gaza. And don’t think that Israel can just settle down to a mini-Cold War of Mutually Assured Destruction…the leaders of Iran are not rational beings as the leaders of the old USSR were. We could rely upon the Soviets to want to survive – Israel can rely on no such thing from the Iranian leadership.

It could be decided that the only way to be sure is by the nuclear destruction of not just the nuke sites, but of Tehran and Qum as well – taking out the civil, religious and military leadership of Iran at a blow, while also destroying the nuclear program which is the ultimate threat.

Impossible? If our nation’s life was faced with utter destruction at the hands of an irrational, hate-filled enemy and our only means were nuclear, what would you do?

Just try to do the right thing and you’ll really change the world:

…I have no notion at all of propounding a new ideal. There is no new ideal imaginable by the madness of modern sophists, which will be anything like so startling as fulfilling any one of the old ones. On the day that any copybook maxim is carried out there will be something like an earthquake on the earth. There is only one thing new that can be done under the sun; and that is to look at the sun. If you attempt it on a blue day in June, you will know why men do not look straight at their ideals. There is only one really startling thing to be done with the ideal, and that is to do it. It is to face the flaming logical fact, and its frightful consequences. Christ knew that it would be a more stunning thunderbolt to fulfil the law than to destroy it … The pagans had always adored purity: Athena, Artemis, Vesta. It was when the virgin martyrs began defiantly to practice purity that they rent them with wild beasts, and rolled them on red-hot coals. The world had always loved the notion of the poor man uppermost; it can be proved by every legend from Cinderella to Whittington, by every poem from the Magnificat to the Marseillaise. The kings went mad against France not because she idealized this ideal, but because she realized it. Joseph of Austria and Catherine of Russia quite agreed that the people should rule; what horrified them was that the people did. The French Revolution, therefore, is the type of all true revolutions, because its ideal is as old as the Old Adam, but its fulfilment almost as fresh, as miraculous, and as new as the New Jerusalem.

But in the modern world we are primarily confronted with the extraordinary spectacle of people turning to new ideals because they have not tried the old. Men have not got tired of Christianity; they have never found enough Christianity to get tired of. Men have never wearied of political justice; they have wearied of waiting for it. – G. K. Chesterton

Down to the wire, indeed:

Republican Chris Christie continues to hold a three-point advantage over incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine in New Jersey’s down-to-the-wire race for governor.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state, conducted Thursday night, shows Christie with 46% of the vote and Corzine with 43%. Those numbers are unchanged from earlier in the week and little changed from polling conducted the week before.

The last four Rasmussen Reports polls have shown Christie with a very slight advantage ranging from two to four percentage points each time.

If Christie does manage 46% of the vote to Corzine’s 43% on Tuesday, then he’ll have won it – that is too much of a gap for the normal run of Democrat voter fraud to overcome…if its 44/44 with only a few thousand to a few hundred votes, then Corzine will win by the simple, Democrat expedient of stealing close elections. Right now, I expect Christie to actually approach 50% in his election day totals – but New Jersey is very hard to predict, and we’ll have to see how it goes. Heck, even if Corzine manages to win by stealing, it’s still a huge setback given Obama’s vote total just a year ago in New Jersey.

From Mish’s:

Thanksgiving came early this year. It was yesterday, Thursday October 29, 2009. The reason we know this is the after Thanksgiving shopfest known as Black Friday started today.

No doubt some of you who forgot to stuff yourselves with turkey and pumpkin pie yesterday are demanding proof of this occurrence. I can certainly oblige.

Please consider

Sears Starts Black Friday NOW! Promotion Today

Every week between now and Black Friday, Sears.com will have several doorbusters from their Black Friday ad available only for just a few hours. This week’s sale runs from 5pm this afternoon until noon tomorrow (central time). Here are the doorbusters available this week:

Its a desperation move – an attempt to just get people in to the stores by any means possible in hopes that the total sales from now until December 25th won’t be a complete disaster. I think they will be – check around with your friends and family and see if you know anyone who is planning on a major spending spree this Christmas. Me, personally: I don’t know anyone who is. Those who are out of work will, naturally, spend as little as they can; those who have work are at least somewhat concerned about job losses and/or pay cuts. Its just not the time to spend like there’s no tomorrow…and even if you were planning on charging up the credit cards, you’ll find that the major credit card issuers are dropping credit lines and raising interest rates.

As I’ve said since Obama got in to office – his plans and programs might allow us to tap dance around disaster for some time. It might put the brakes on the slide. It might burnish the numbers on this or that. But the fundamental problem remains – our dollar has lost 99% of its value since approximately 1913; we’re in debt up to our eyeballs; the banks are largely insolvent; our assets are still way over-valued; our manufacturing, farming and mining base is way too small; our government has many tens of trillions of dollars of unfunded mandates. This cannot be sustained.

Only balancing the budget, lowering taxes (which means some very, very large budget cuts will be necessary – without in any way adversely affecting national defense, law enforcement or the elderly on social security) and getting ourselves back to work making, mining and growing things will get us out of this mess. We’re broke – we have to admit it, pay off our debts and get back to work.

There’s no other way – play the fantasy of Obama and the bankers, and it’ll just get worse and worse…and harder and harder to get out of.

K Street Whores Demand Apology From Congressman Grayson