Right Wing Professor's Blog

Drunk with ambition	Just plain drunk

As predicted, Dennis Byars and his soul-mate, 'Jerkwater' Ernie Chambers, filed for re-election today , thus setting up a court challenge to the term limits amendment to Nebraska's constitution. It's hard to see how this is going to work, since even the US Constitution sets term limits for the President, and the US Supreme Court has refused to overturn state term limits in California.

More on the World Vision NGO, written up so glowingly in today's Lincoln Journal Star.

Analysis of World Vision International’s website also reflects the clear political agenda, with little attention to entirely legitimate Israeli security concerns, as well as a total disregard for the effects of Palestinian terrorism on the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Thus, World Vision’s activities in the region reflect a strong political bias, with a high level of misunderstanding and negative attitudes displayed towards Israel, while encouraging or at least condoning terrorism and incitement. This agenda is entirely inconsistent with the claimed emphasis on “economic development and promotion of justice”.

Don Walton today continues another nasty Nebraska tradition: the vicious war of hatefulness against Israel that Ruth Thone waged for so many years. Walton quotes, without comment and with apparent acquiescence, antisemitic NGO boss Tom Getman as follows:

“I do believe there’s a Mandela in an Israeli prison housing Palestinians,” he says, “and an emerging De Klerk on the Israeli side.”

So a small country surrounded by hostile, racist neighbors intent on eliminating it and its people is the moral equivalent of the apartheid regime. Lovely.
Wouldn't a fair-minded. responsible columnist at least have mentioned Getman's long history of anti-Israel activism?

RWP's very own state senator, Dennis Byars, is going to court today to preserve his job.

The RWP is no particular fan of term limits. They're a blunt instrument. True, they get rid of time servers and outright kooks; but the voter should be paying enough attention to do that democratically. In Nebraska's case, their prime target was State Senator Ernie Chambers. Notwithstanding the love Nebraska liberals have for Chambers -- he's black and far left, what's not to like? -- Chambers is a vindictive racist who does not belong in a legislative body. However, he does have an IQ significantly above room temperature, and therefore has been able to run legislative rings around the root vegetables that make up about 4/5 of the State Senate, tying up legislation, bartering for racial entitlements, and engaging in massive ego-trips. He is, however, just one man, and the Senate could have put an end to the Ernie clown show years ago by judiciously changing the rules.

Electoral karma eventually got them, as the voters vented their frustration at Chambers, and also at the unicameral for failing to act, by throwing all the bums out - we passed term limits, and they go into effect this year. There will be a little collateral damage; RWP will miss Senator Mike Foley - a great conservative and a good guy - and from the other side of the spectrum Chris Beutler, who, while decidedly too leftist for his taste, is a competent, thoughtful and principled legislator. But Dennis Byars is precisely the kind of legislator that makes one see the positive side of term-limits. He was appointed to fill the seat, and then ran for re-election as an incumbent. He's been the worst kind of RINO in office, unwilling to do anything at all to contain out-of-control Medicaid expenditures, while simultaneously working to expand the program. He's voted frequently with liberals, and is ranked 'Very Pro-Gay' by homosexual activists.

His most likely replacement, Tony Ojeda, is a reliable conservative. So why does Byars, now 65, want to stay on?

Byars said he has an “inalienable” right to run for re-election.

In other words, it's all about me me me.

Time to step aside for a better man, Dennis!

Count done at our home in Sprague, NE and neighboring Bluestem lake.

Nothing very spectacular, I'm afraid.

• American goldfinch, approx. 40
• House sparrow, approx 8
• Blue Jay, 5
• White-bellied nuthatch, 2
• House finch, 3 (2 male)
• Red bellied woodpecker, male + female
• Junco, 6, one pink-sided, the others slate colored
• Northern cardinal, 3 pairs
• Greater scaup on Bluestem Lake
• Rock dove, 2
• American crow, 6
• Flicker, 1

Weather was 31 F, winds gusting to 25 m.p.h from the north, bright sunshine.

Don Walton, the Lincoln Journal-Star's resident Democrat hack political columnist, today in an article on the avian flu, writes of the Bush administration and Congress belatedly begin(ning) to confront the possibility of the next pandemic. Alas for Don, if he'd simply typed 'avian flu 2005' into google, he'd have discovered the CDC has been working on contingency plans for an avian flu outbreak at least since March.

Of course, for Don and his ilk, the first purpose of news analysis is to provide material to attack Republicans; any resemblance to the truth is entirely coincidental.

An article in today's Sunday Telegraph (London) reports disquietingly that the Darwin Exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York failed to find a single corporate sponsor.

The failure of American companies to back what until recently would have been considered a mainstream educational exhibition reflects the growing influence of fundamentalist Christians, who are among President George W Bush's most vocal supporters, over all walks of life in the United States.

Apparently major corporations were afraid of fundamentalist Christian backlash, and so the exhibition was funded by wealthy individual donors and foundations. The Telegraph was unable to find out which companies had been approached and had declined to sponsor -- a pity, because I'd hate to give them any business.

I suppose the next best thing is to find the names of corporations who sponsor fundamentalist causes, and introduce them to Captain Boycott.

The puzzling absence of waterfowl in Nebraska continues. Bluestem Lake, which this time of year usually supports a small flock of mixed duck, this afternoon featured one male mallard, a pair of green-winged teal, a coot, and a small flock of Canada Geese -- certainly nothing worth venturing out in drizzle and 40 degree temperatures for. Are they still up north? Have they bypassed us, as fortune has bypassed the football team?

A letter in today's Lincoln Journal Star from a former UNL student confirms what all but the most blinkered left-wing ideologues admit - that there is pervasive liberal bias at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. While one hesitates to draw conclusions based on only one side of the story, several of the instances cited appear to involve a disturbing infringement of the student's academic freedom.

This debate was of course precipitated by a newspaper column signed by 20 faculty in our English department, who took umbrage at a Cal Thomas column which referred to a conference at Howard University as 'kook fringe'. This was the conference at which racist nutjob and adjunct NC State Afro-American studies professor Kamau Kambon called for the extermination of the white race.

'Kook fringe' was a lot milder term than any I'd use. And I have some prime epithets for leftist apologists for racism, too.

11 F (-10 C) last night.

Well, sure enough, we had 'weather' yesterday, and when I came home, I discovered the power had been out long enough to run down my UPS, and the quantum chemistry calculations I was running on my home computer had bombed. Various members of the local intelligentsia assure us that Nebraskans are 'proud' of our publicly owned electricity utilities. I can't say I've ever noticed any pride; my own opinion is that they suck, big time. If there's any 'weather' within 25 miles of Sprague, Nebraska - be it snow, thunderstorms, heavy rain, or even (in one case) fog, you can count on Norris Public Power to arrange a power outage. We've had at least four this year. And if you plan to use TV or the internet to track whether there are any tornados in the vicinity, better get UPS or a generator, because you can count on there being no power by the time the tornado warning is issued.

Their online bill-paying website sucks, too. Half the time it's off line, and the rest it's mind-numbingly slow. In fact, the one thing they don't screw up is production of self-congratulatory glossy magazines, which they put in our mailboxes (at our expense) to tell us what a great job they're doing. Not!

Meanwhile, another Nebraska public power utility runs the nuclear plant with the the worst safety record in the United States.

I have one word for Norris PPD - PRIVATIZE!

We had our first snowfall of the year yesterday - two inches of wet sloppy stuff - which apparently was precipitated by the arrival of Harris sparrows from the Canadian tundra last weekend. I've included a picture of the biggest and handsomest of the North American sparrows, for the benefit of the unfortunates on the east and west coasts who haven't had occasion to visit the south-central Great Plains in the winter and have therefore never seen this fine fowl. The picture, by the way, is of a first year bird.

Harris sparrows seem to be getting commoner every year, and are now by far the most abundant of the Zonotrichia sparrows in SW Lancaster County, Nebraska. The books claim Nebraska is on the northern edge of the winter range, and the birds are commonest in Oklahoma and North Texas. My theory is that with the warming of the climate, they're wintering further and further north every year.

They usually arrive in November and stay clear into June; on the one hand, I don't blame them for not wanting to rush back to the Arctic: on the other, if you were going to fly south for the winter, would you stop in Nebraska?

Coldest night of the season last night - 19 F, or - 7 C.

Meanwhile, in the fields of Elysium...

God the Father : Me damn and blast it!

St. Peter : What's up, big guy?

GtF: That doltish Junior sub-Prophet 3rd Class Robertson has shot his damn mouth off again!

St. P: Where has he been calling down Divine Vengeance now?

GtF: Dover, Pennsylvania. Over there near the right edge of the triangular continent. Said I was going to abandon them, over some lousy School Board vote. Like the Creator of the Universe has time for School Board elections!

St. P : So, just ignore him. Better yet, give him some horrible skin lesions, so the faithful will know we've written him off.

GtF: Can't do that. You saw the last poll numbers. Our credibility's at stake. Less than 10% of Europeans believe we'll smite the wicked, and even the American numbers are down.

The Prophet Mohammed : My people are holding up well.

GtF : Your people are too enthusiastic. Sure, automobiles were invented by the other team, but we've gotten past that. If you don't like them, be like the Amish, just don't use them. You don't have to burn them.

OK, what have We got available for smiting. Too late for hurricane season...no suitable earthquake fault in South-east Pennsylvania...how about a tornado?

St. P: Can't do it boss. The Tornadic Angel has taken to his bed, after smiting the wrong end of Indiana last week. He meant to hit those liberal Papists in South Bend, but got North and South confused. Poor guy, he's lost all sense of direction since you got rid of the four corners of the earth. He used to steer by them.

GtF: The Ghost and His stupid Greek philosophy. The Sphere is a Divine Form, He says. Well, that's fine, but I designed the Earth as a rectangle, and rewriting the entire system on the fly was a royal pain. Plus, the poor turtles haven't eaten properly since We laid them off. Where is the Ghost, anyway? I haven't seen Him for twenty years.

St. P: I heard Him say He was going to the library. He said something about 'learning string theory'.

GtF: Aw crap. I can see another OS revision in Our future. Does He think I can just pull another seven dimensions out of My ass?... Anyway, how about floods?

St. P: Hate to use floods right now. The Fountains of the Great Deep are down to a trickle, what with all the hurricanes this year, and those rainstorms in the North East.

GtF: Well, it'll have to be avian flu, then. What's the current release date?

St. P: The Intelligent Design team says March '06, but that's wishful thinking, in my opinion. You know designers.

GtF: March '06? 18 months to redesign a simple virus? What is with these people? It would have been quicker to use mutation and natural selection!

All: Ha ha ha!

St. P: Good one, Boss!

Mohammed: The other team are having design problems too. Last I heard, Longhorn had been pushed back to 2007.

GtF: Serves them right. Gates hasn't been on his game for a decade. If I've said it once, I'll say it 100 times, I don't care how good the prospect looks, 56 billion smackeroos is just too much to lay out for a human soul. And then throwing in a wife! I know the enticement of women works for your suicide bombers, Prophet M., but you do not give a woman to a nerd. It totally distracts them.

Mark my words, guys, when history is written, drafting Jobs over Gates will be seen as the greatest of Divine moves ever! Sure Gates looked flashy at the beginning, but you've got to look at longevity. We got the video iPod, and all they could come up with in reply is some lousy porno downloads. Looooo-sers!

St. P. Uh yeah, sure, boss. Anyway, back to Dover. We do the first flu release there?

GtF: Whatever. And send a message from my Divine Self to Junior sub-Prophet Third Class Robertson. Tell him to shut it for a while.

St. P. I'll try, but his receiver is on the fritz. Last time we sent him a message to lay off Hugo Chavez, all he got was 'Off Hugo Chavez'.

Now about the 2009 San Andreas operationÉshould we arrange for the housing bubble to burst first, so we can get even more sodomites to move to San Fran., or should we just smack Miami again?...

Fade to white...