Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus

By William Teach December 25, 2020 – 8:29 am

Every Christmas, once everyone is up, Christmas greetings were made, hugs were exchanged, the presents were opened, and breakfast was being made, I would read this first in the paper (ye olde parental units get an actual paper, and they live in NJ). It is a Christmas classic that has always touched my soul. While some people outside of the Tri-State area have heard of it, rarely do papers outside of the NY-NJ-Conn area see it in print, and I always direct them to read it online. I humbly bring it to you, and hope it touches you as much as it touches me:

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Editorial Page, New York Sun, 1897

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of The Sun:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!

And a Merry Christmas from deep down in my heart to all my friends and visitors out there.

If you would like to know the background on the letter, you can go to the 2004 posting of this.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

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That’s What Christmas Is All About, Charlie Brown

By William Teach December 24, 2020 – 7:00 pm

Luke2: 8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field , keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo , the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid .
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold , I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes , lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying ,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

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New Hotness: It Could Take 90% Getting Vaccine For Herd Immunity

By William Teach December 24, 2020 – 3:48 pm

Hey, remember the good old days (like a couple weeks ago) when we needed 70-75% of Americans to get the vaccine and/or have the antibodies from having had Wuhanflu? Good times, good times

Fauci says herd immunity could require nearly 90% to get coronavirus vaccine

Herd immunity against the novel coronavirus could require vaccination rates approaching as high as 90%, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most prominent U.S. infectious disease expert, said in an interview published on Thursday in The New York Times.

More than 1 million Americans have received a first dose of a vaccine since Dec. 14, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, or only about 0.3% of the population.

Fauci, who is advising both President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden on the pandemic, acknowledged that he had increased his estimates from earlier in the year, when he tended to say only 60% to 70% would need to be inoculated for herd immunity to be reached.

“We need to have some humility here,” Fauci told The New York Times. “We really don’t know what the real number is. I think the real range is somewhere between 70 to 90 percent. But, I’m not going to say 90 percent.”

The Elites are going to be running out of ways to keep the People compliant.

“When polls said only about half of all Americans would take a vaccine, I was saying herd immunity would take 70 to 75 percent,” Fauci, who turned 80 on Thursday, told the Times.

“Then, when newer surveys said 60 percent or more would take it, I thought, ‘I can nudge this up a bit,’ so I went to 80, 85.'”

What’s your guess as to how they keep stretching this out? Oh, wait

Decades.

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 24, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…is an angry ocean from carbon pollution caused extreme weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Bunkerville, with a post on a Democrat asking the House to overturn election she lost.

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Who’s Up For Cooking Christmas Dinner In The Microwave To Stop ‘Climate Change’?

By William Teach December 24, 2020 – 10:30 am

Who wants to bet that the climate cultists pushing this climainsanity will be cooking with their ovens?

Microwave your Christmas dinners before using the oven to save the planet, scientists warn

People have been urged to microwave their Christmas dinners before using the oven, as scientists reveal cooking’s contribution to greenhouse gasses.

Scientists are warning that “small changes” to what we eat and how we cook it could help reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the holidays.

Researchers, who have published their findings in the online journal, Nature Food, have revealed that around 60 per cent of food-related greenhouse gases (GHG) come from home cooking methods.

Many people source food locally to try and prevent producing the unnecessary carbon emissions that are incurred from buying food from miles away – but then cook their dinner in a very environmentally unfriendly way.

Producing and consuming just one kilogram of meat protein emits more GHG than flying from London to New York. As a result, scientists say that swapping out certain meat products, reducing food waste and limiting oven-times could help save the planet this Christmas.

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Surprise: GHGs Dropped Under Trump, Warmists Are Still Not Happy

By William Teach December 24, 2020 – 8:44 am

Warmists are never happy, though. They always have something to complain about, because it really is a doomsday cult, and that requires constant scaremongering, which makes them angry, sad, unhinged. Plus, if it happened under President Trump, that climate anxiety is going to go through the roof

US greenhouse gas emissions drop under Trump, but climate experts aren’t celebrating

As President Donald Trump prepares to leave office, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are plunging to levels not seen in decades.

“Our regulations are meaningful. We’re seeing reductions in greenhouse gases. And, you know, should we go further? We’re going to the extent that the law allows us to go with the agency,” said outgoing Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler in an interview with ABC News Live on his agency’s four-year track record.

The U.S. is projected to generate 5.9 billion metric tons of emissions in 2020 — down more than 9% from 2019 and about the same level as in 1983, according to a BloombergNEF study.

That should be good, right? Warmists are always yammering on about getting to below the 1980 average

Climatologists and environmental advocates say the rosy headline masks a sobering reality: the decline in emissions isn’t happening nearly fast enough to stave off catastrophic impacts of a rapidly warming planet.

“In 2020, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions will be substantially lower than they were in 2019, but that’s not because of progress that the Trump administration has made in reducing emissions,” said Trevor Houser, an energy and climate analyst with the Rhodium Group, a nonpartisan research organization. “That’s because we had the largest economic recession in a generation. So that’s not exactly cause for celebration.”

Last year, U.S. carbon pollution slid to the lowest level since 1992, according to EPA.

Well, here’s an idea (I bet you know where I’m going): all Warmists should act like it’s lockdown and travel nowhere, do not use fossil fuels, do not buy stuff.

“Let’s be clear. We need to bring carbon emissions down to net zero within a couple of decades, and we need to bring them halfway there within the next decade,” said Michael Mann, Penn State University climatologist and geophysicist and author of “The New Climate War.” “That requires massive action on our part and on the part of every other country in the world.”

Practice what you preach.

“COVID-19 is a big problem for the country; the economic situation. But the climate really is right up there beyond any lip service given,” said Aji Piper, 20, the Washington state climate activist who is one of nearly two dozen young Americans who have been suing the federal government since 2015 for contributing to climate change.

After four years of Trump’s hands-off approach to climate, Piper said the harms to his family are only getting worse.

“My mom has some pretty serious lung issues. And so wildfire smoke and the increased wildfire seasons just put her health at risk in jeopardy, which is personally distressing for me,” Piper said. “You don’t want to see your parents suffering like that.”

Let me get this straight: because Trump didn’t really do anything but keep things the same as Obama, Doom for parents? I’m just wondering if Piper and cohorts have stopped using their smartphones for more than texting and calling, because all that streaming and high use of the Internet is Bad for ‘climate change.’

Anyhow, lots more whining in the article, but, strangely, not one Warmist says they’ve forgone the use of fossil fuels and made their own lives Net Zero.

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China Joe Is Good With $600 For You, Wants Lots More For Migrants

By William Teach December 24, 2020 – 8:30 am

We can’t quite call them illegal aliens yet, as they are waiting on the other side of the border, but, Joe is prioritizing them over Americans

Joe Biden to Get Aid for Foreigners, Settles for $600 Checks for Americans

President-Elect Joe Biden is looking to provide foreign nationals in Mexico with better housing and coronavirus tests as they await their asylum hearings in the United States.

As Biden suggested he is satisfied with Congress allocating just $600 stimulus checks for each American out of a $900 billion coronavirus relief package, his advisers said he will push to fund better housing and coronavirus tests for foreign nationals in Mexico.

Biden said, “Congress did its job this week” in reference to the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate passing the package. President Trump, on the other hand, has demanded the package be reworked to include $2,000 stimulus checks for each American.

On a call with reporters this week, Biden transition team officials said, “they plan on providing funding to improve shelter and humanitarian assistance to immigrants waiting in northern Mexico, as well as provide COVID-19 testing to ensure people presenting at POE have a negative test before being processed,” according to a Buzzfeed News report.

The move, as noted by Center for Immigration Studies Director of Policy Jessica Vaughan, would mean that foreign nationals who have yet to prove their asylum case in U.S. hearings would be provided with American taxpayer-funded aid.

Who’s surprised? In fairness, China Joe did say that the current hideous COVID relief package is just a “down payment“, but, when will he recommend something that actually help? If Congress is going to do something, why not do it now? Why wait? Why put together another package at some time later in the Winter or Spring? Oh, right, because Democrats will attempt to again add all sorts of giveaways for Dem Party run cities and states that when loony tunes with lockdowns and are also really bad with their money.

(Fox News) House Democrats and Republicans are set to make dueling “unanimous consent” requests on Thursday based on grievances President Trump aired Tuesday night to the massive coronavirus stimulus and government funding package lawmakers sent to his desk — exchanging political barbs as it’s still unclear whether Trump will veto the original piece of legislation.

Trump on Tuesday night released a scathing video in which he called panned $600 stimulus checks for Americans as too small, saying the number should instead be $2,000.

He also demanded that “wasteful and unnecessary” spending – Trump specifically listed foreign aid to several countries, along with a few other line-items – be cut from the year-end spending package which lawmakers married to the coronavirus aid so it could all be passed in one vote.

Congress should have split the funding and COVID bills, but, as usual, they think they can get away with jamming stuff through, and know that for all the uproar the People of the United States have no power to do a damned thing.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., swiftly announced plans to bring a stand-alone piece of legislation to the House floor Thursday, when the body is set to meet at 9 a.m. EST in a pro forma session, to boost the stimulus checks to $2,000. By asking for unanimous consent to pass it she will essentially be daring House Republicans to object — which they will, Fox News is told.

“Mr. President, sign the bill to keep government open! Urge McConnell and McCarthy to agree with the Democratic unanimous consent request for $2,000 direct payments! This can be done by noon on Christmas Eve!” Pelosi tweeted Wednesday.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Wednesday evening responded by announcing Republicans would put forward their own unanimous consent request to address the other part of Trump’s twofold grievances — foreign aid.

This could get interesting.

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Sea Level Could Be Worse Than Prognosticated Or Something

By William Teach December 23, 2020 – 3:00 pm

Yeah, it’s a doomsday cult, and the scientists who proscribe to this have to constantly trot out more and more doom to keep the funding flowing

Sea-level rise from climate change could be worse than projected

Of the many threats from climate change, sea-level rise will most certainly be among the most impactful, making hundreds of thousands of square miles of coastline uninhabitable and potentially displacing over 100 million people worldwide by the end of the century. This threat is a top concern for national security experts because forced migration poses significant risks to international security and stability.

The magnitude of this threat depends heavily on how much the oceans rise in the coming decades. But because of the complex dynamics of massive ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, exact estimates remain elusive, ranging from just over a foot to several feet above current levels. That disparity is the difference between tens of millions of people forced from their homes or a much more unmanageable hundreds of millions displaced.

Now, a new paper published in the past week warns that if global warming continues at the current pace — reaching high-end warming projections for 2100 — then sea-level rise will probably surpass those projections.

Since the late 1800s, sea level has risen an average of about 10 inches globally, but the amount varies from region to region. Last century the largest contributor to the rise of the oceans was thermal expansion; simply put, warmer water expands. But now the melting of ice sheets, mainly from Greenland and Antarctica, constitutes a greater proportion, and that fraction will only grow.

Again, 10 inches would be exactly average for the Holocene. One would expect much more during a warm period

In fact, there is enough ice locked up in Greenland and Antarctica such that if all the ice melted it would cause a sea-level rise of 210 feet, a little taller than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. No scientist is expecting anything even close to that this century, but after the Earth surpasses a certain level of warming, ice sheets become less stable and less predictable, with potential tipping points coming into play.

Not expecting it, yet, let’s trot it out

While scientists and scientific periodicals tend to be conservative in their public projections of sea-level rise, scientists will often remark that they are concerned it may be much worse. When CBS News asked Englander what he thinks is a “realistic range” of sea-level rise by 2100, he said, “With the current global temperature level and rate of temperature increase I believe that we could get 5 to 10 feet before the end of this century.”

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If All You See…

By William Teach December 23, 2020 – 1:00 pm

…are evil plastic bottles of water and cans of soda, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Other McCain, with a post recommending to be patient.

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NY Times: Travel Restrictions Are Nice, But, We Really Need To Surveille All You People

By William Teach December 23, 2020 – 10:30 am

If you remember, the NY Times wasn’t particularly enthused about President Trump’s travel bans, first on China then on Europe. Just like the rest of their Democratic Party Comrades. Now? The editorial board has Ideas

The Coronavirus Is Mutating, and America’s Leaders Are Flying Blind

A new and potentially more contagious variant of the coronavirus has been detected in Britain and elsewhere. With the Trump administration continuing to do little to address the pandemic, state and local leaders have, again, been left to deal with this problem on their own.

To that end, on Monday Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York persuaded major airlines to require people traveling from Britain to New York to first clear a coronavirus test. Mr. Cuomo’s willingness to act quickly and decisively here is commendable — refreshing in a year rife with failures to do exactly that — and the move seems reasonable in the face of federal inaction and many unknowns.

It wasn’t so commendable when Trump did this, eh? It’s also sorta beyond Cuomo’s actual Constitutional, federal and state, powers.

Genomic surveillance is also one of the few ways officials can determine whether, where and how to put travel restrictions in place. Without this data, even the fastest-acting, best-intentioned leaders — like Mr. Cuomo, in this case — are flying blind. They have no way to know which countries such measures should focus on, or whether such an effort would be worth the political blowback. For instance, it may not be worth it if the variant in question is already circulating widely in the United States, or if only a tiny amount of spread is being driven by overseas cases.

Well, sure, looking at the genomes of those who have COVID could be worthwhile. But, is that really, really what the NYTEB is pushing?

But to truly solve this problem, federal officials need to increase the nation’s disease surveillance efforts, and in particular its genomic surveillance. Until they do that, Americans everywhere will be stuck in the same place we’ve been for the better part of this year: making often brutal sacrifices to try to slow the spread of the virus ourselves.

Yeah, not just genome, but, surveillance on everyone, in order to track everyone. Where they go, who they see. Like states try and do with your smartphones. How soon till some Dem party run states start requiring this, rather than asking? As for sacrifices, what sacrifices have politicians and the news media made? They’re still getting paychecks. They aren’t going out of business

It’s unfair that individuals and small businesses have borne so much of that pain. But right now, it’s the only way to squelch this mutant — and any other that has yet to be detected.

You peons will just have to suffer more. It’s easy for people who aren’t being hit with loss of money, etc, who really do not have skin in the game.

Van’s tweet is mostly aimed at the Irish government, but, he’s utterly correct. It’s easy for news outlets to call for draconian measures, when they do not have to pay the penalties.

Read: NY Times: Travel Restrictions Are Nice, But, We Really Need To Surveille All You People »

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