Cave News

The Gingrich surge continues …

A national poll by Rasmussen Reports shows Gingrich 45%, Obama 43%.

The Newt Gingrich surge has moved him to the top of the polls in Iowa, big gains in New Hampshire and now a two-point edge over President Obama in a hypothetical general election match-up.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters finds Gingrich attracting 45% of the vote while President Obama earns support from 43%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Last week Gingrich trailed Obama by 6%. Two weeks ago he was down by 12%.

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Photo from London Cold Water Championships

Swimsuit? Check.
Towel? Check.
Swim cap? Check.
Cowboy hat? Check.
Cold Water Championship entrance ticket? Check.
Squirrel? Check.

A competitor sports a squirrel atop a cowboy hat during the bi-annual Cold Water Championships in London.

Barney Frank helped cause financial crisis

Despite recent reports in the liberal media trying to make retiring Congressman Barney Frank (pictured) into a saint the truth is he helped cause the financial crisis.

Formally reprimanded by a heavily Democratic House on a 408-to-18 vote in 1990 for ethics offenses regarding his financial relationship with a male prostitute, Frank has for decades been a fast-talking, acidic presence in House debates.

After 1996's welfare reform, liberals like Frank found other ways to redistribute wealth.

Yet even after the politicization of mortgages led to the financial crisis, last year's Dodd-Frank reform kept "too big to fail" and other defects in our federally mismanaged banking system.

The report says, after the Dodd-Frank bill, "every firm will take more risks, guaranteeing another crisis down the line, and more taxpayer bailouts."

Manhattan Institute scholar Nicole Gelinas warned before its passage that the Dodd-Frank bill would encourage wild risk-taking and penalize prudence by making well-run banks pay to bail out poorly run banks.

And this in an effort to spread the wealth by giving risky loans to applicants with poor, or no credit all, the while realizing that loan defaults would be inevitable.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - More from the report at the link below:

The media would have us believe this is the departure of a great statesman. But as the 17th House Democrat to announce his departure, Frank becomes just another liberal who realizes his party has little chance of winning in 2012 after the mess they've spent the economy into.

With Frank's district newly re-carved after the 2010 Census, Sean Bielat, the smart ex-Marine who gave him a run for his money in 2010, might just win this time.

Making sense of Barney Frank's departure isn't hard. A once-powerful liberal who loved to make congressional witnesses look dumb, he leaves a legacy of failure that, with time, makes him look dumber and dumber.

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Tebow is the king of comebacks this year

From an Associated Press report at the link below:

Since taking over as the Broncos’ starter a month and a half ago, Tebow has engineered three fourth-quarter comebacks, two of which set up overtime wins for Denver, and another win at Oakland in which he rallied the Broncos from a halftime deficit to win going away.

The photo shows Tim Tebow breaking away from San Diego outside linebacker Travis LaBoy on Sunday.

Tebow is 6-3 in his NFL career and four of those wins involved fourth-quarter comebacks.

The Broncos (6-5) are riding a four-game winning streak that includes triumphs on the road against each of their AFC West opponents, including the division-leading Raiders.

Tebow, who hasn’t completed more than half his passes in any game this season, still struggles mightily before coming through at crunch time.

The Broncos are winning games with more audacity than artistry.

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Octopus hat

A model displays a weird octopus fashion creation by Kute during Fashion Week in Moscow, Russia.

Who would wear it? Where would they wear it?

Report: The great global warming fizzle

From a report at the link below:

How do religions die? Generally they don't, which probably explains why there's so little literature on the subject.

Consider the case of global warming, another system of doomsaying prophecy and faith in things unseen.

As with religion, global warming is presided over by a caste of spectacularly unattractive people pretending to an obscure form of knowledge that promises to make the seas retreat and the winds abate.

As with some religions, it comes with an elaborate list of virtues, vices and indulgences.

As with religion, its claims are often non-falsifiable, hence the convenience of the term "climate change" when thermometers don't oblige the expected trend lines.

As with religion, it is harsh toward skeptics, heretics and other "deniers." And as with religion, it is susceptible to the earthly temptations of money, power, politics, arrogance and deceit.

This week, the conclave of global warming's cardinals are meeting in Durban, South Africa, for their 17th conference in as many years.

They plan to come up with a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire next year, and to require rich countries to pay up $100 billion a year to help poor countries cope with the alleged effects of climate change.

This is said to be essential because in 2017 global warming becomes "catastrophic and irreversible," according to a recent report by the International Energy Agency.

Yet a funny thing happened on the way to the climate apocalypse. Namely, the financial apocalypse.

The U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and the EU have all but confirmed they won't be signing on to a new Kyoto.

The Chinese and Indians won't make a move unless the West does.

The notion that rich (or formerly rich) countries are going to ship $100 billion every year to the Micronesias of the world is risible, especially after they've spent it all on Greece.

Cap and trade is a dead letter in the U.S. Even Europe is having second thoughts about carbon-reduction targets that are decimating the continent's heavy industries and cost an estimated $67 billion a year. "Green" technologies have all proved expensive, environmentally hazardous and wildly unpopular duds.

The global warming hoax is dying the same death that took down carbon trading via the so-called cap and trade scheme.

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Obama approval drops below Carter's

From a report at the link below:

President Obama's slow ride down Gallup's daily presidential job approval index has finally passed below Jimmy Carter, earning Obama the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history.

More here.

Christmas in November - Barney Frank retires

The title of this posting says it's Christmas in November referring to the retirement of Democrat Congressman Barney Frank (pictured).

At least that's what Howie Carr wrote in the Boston Herald today.

The video below gives a brief glimpse into the psyche of Barney Frank.

Democrat Barney Frank, the first openly gay Congressman, was loved by many liberals yet hated by others. Very few conservatives had much good to say about Mr. Frank.

It is widely believed that the reason for Congressman Frank's retirement is because of redistricting in his home state of Massachusetts, making his re-election more difficult.

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Gallup: Gingrich is ahead. Romney is at new positive intensity low

From a Gallup report at the link below:

Newt Gingrich's most recent Positive Intensity Score of 20 in Gallup tracking conducted Nov. 14-27 is the highest of any Republican candidate, while Mitt Romney's current score of 9 is his lowest of the year by one percentage point.

Gingrich's Positive Intensity Score is now well above that of any of his competitors for the Republican nomination.

Still, Gingrich's current score of 20 is below the high points for a number of other candidates earlier this year, suggesting that while he is in the lead on this measure, he is not yet engendering highly enthusiastic responses from his fellow Republicans.

This in turn suggests that the race for the GOP nomination is still far from being determined.

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How low can the New York Times sink?

A piece in Sunday’s New York Times book review section compared the Tea Party to the Ku Klux Klan claiming the Tea Party is a modern version of the racist white supremacist organization.

Such a comment is as incredible as it is unbelievable.

Several years ago the New York Times was considered by many to be the "newspaper of record" helping shape opinion in America.

Now the Times only helps shape opinion of the left-wing elite.

The New York Times should be combating dangerous stereotypes, not promoting them.

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