As I understand the term, hubris means "nerve" or "gall". I'm pretty sure you can all come up with a term that suits your vocabulary.
Haiti. Japan (where my Marine grand daughter is stationed). Chile. What do these places have in common? Recent earth quakes. A very powerful trio of earth quakes! The death tolls and damages have varied, depending on the population, location and preparedness of the people. Warnings and evacuations are taking place all over the Pacific, with tsunami alerts as far away as California. Wow! "Mother Nature" (aka God) can sure get our attention, huh?
Do the few remaining Glo-bull Warming/Cooling/ Climate Change crazies think that anything mankind could do would cause such earth quakes? Oh, probably. People dumb enough to believe that we control the climate will believe any ridiculous lie that comes along. Maybe it's because they're so empty inside that they need something to believe in... Too bad they can't come to terms with the fact that God is all-powerful and mankind isn't...
So tell me, someone, who ordered the hard winter? Or the massive snowfalls? Or those pesky earth quakes? Was it Algore? Bobby Kennedy Jr.? Who? Come on, if mankind can really control a whole planet (and somehow cause warming conditions on other planets as well), shouldn't someone be stepping up to take credit for it? And then prove it??
Atom bomb testing and even the detonations at Nagasaki and Hiroshima only had a temporary (and localized) effect. Earth quakes, tsunamis, and volcanoes effect the whole world. The hand of impotent (but conceited) mankind vs. the power and majesty of Almighty God... hmmm... which one is more impressive... boy, that's a tough one, huh?
All we can do is pray and prepare, folks. In earth quake zones we can build more wisely. We can refuse to build coastal cities below sea level ( like New Orleans). We can have supplies and generators available for power failures and other natural disasters. There is no way, whatsoever that we can control our environment! We are stewards of the earth, not masters of it. God is the Master and we are the subjects.
Did you see Glenn Beck at the CPAC tonight? He was the keynote speaker. For a full hour, he spoke to the audience. On a sheet of paper, he had some figures for his famous blackboard, but otherwise he spoke completely off the cuff.
Something I've learned over the years, having given my fair share of speeches and having written more than a few. When you speak from the heart, about a subject you know and understand, teleprompters are unnecessary. Minute details like exact percentages or dates may need to be written down to avoid errors, but the speech doesn't have to be tightly scripted.
What a difference, watching Glenn Beck, speaking with passion and sincerity after seeing B.O. (B.S.) unable to pronounce common terms without a guide, or reading someone else's part of the greetings from his teleprompter! How about Obiden, speaking off the cuff and saying brilliant things like how we'll be the leading economy in the TWENTIETH Century! Glenn Beck doesn't require a teleprompter when addressing school children, either.
Of course, if B.O. (B.S.) didn't have his precious teleprompter every time he opens his mouth, his feet would fit much better. Maybe someday someone will feed the mighty teleprompter something like "It is with a heavy heart that I resign as your president. I'm retiring to Cuba, effective tomorrow morning and I'm pleased to announce that both Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi will be moving with me." I wonder how far "His Eloquence" would get before he realized what he was saying?
My husband had to change cell phone service companies last week. The old company didn't cover all the places he goes and the roaming minutes apparently got to be too much for them. So I called around to find another provider that covers more places and maybe costs less. After a good deal of time, I realized that nothing local would work for his needs. So I called AT&T and it was a nightmare.
After waiting for an inordinate amount of time, I finally got an English-impaired operator. She didn't quite understand what I wanted, so I patiently explained it to her... several times. All I wanted to know was if AT&T had towers in the states he drives through regularly. She told me I had to have zip codes! Right, I'll just give her all the zip codes for ten different states. No problem! So I asked her to check and see if they had service coverage, generally, in those states. Then I got to list them. Kansas... after a long pause, she said "Yes." Iowa... she asked how to spell it. I O W A ... she asked what state Iowa was in. That's how it went, but almost an hour later, it was determined that he would have coverage. But I couldn't get it for him because AT&T doesn't recognize my home zip code! Ultimately, I was connected with an American operator and got everything straightened out. He'll have to find one of their stores, but it's half the price of Sprint.
When everyone is griping like crazy about our lack of jobs, why don't we stop this "outsourcing" insanity and give the work to people who at least speak the language and know that Iowa is a state? It isn't rocket science or brain surgery for crying out loud. It's a minimum wage job. What, we can't afford to pay our own people minimum wage?
Here's an "outsourcing" situation that works! There's a company, based in Panama who hires people from the countries in question to provide virtual paralegal services. The paralegals actually speak the same language as their clients, know the local, state and federal laws, and get paid in American money. The money, of course, is both earned and spent in the USA. Novel approach, isn't it? The company is called Summit LegalWeb you can learn more about them at www.summitlegalweb.com
Speaking of jobs and money, I watched Huckabee tonight. His guest was Michelle Obama. She's all excited about her new crusade to get kids healthier. She said it was the job of parents, schools, counselors and congress to make sure our kids eat right. Congress? Does anyone else hear a warning bell going off?
She's getting 400 million dollars to get supermarkets to move to places where there are none. Aren't stores in business to make a profit? If there was a demand for fresh produce, etc. in an area, wouldn't Safeway or Raley's or someone have put a market there? So she wants to dump 400 MILLION DOLLARS to build stores and "employ locals" to run them. Really? How about if the areas in question were business friendly and charged lower taxes? That wouldn't cost a penny and would encourage successful companies to move in and conduct their business to everybody's benefit.
I don't know about you, folks, but I'd have to ask why there are no stores there now. Is it a high crime area? Is there a long history of robberies, shop-lifting and vandalism? Are there not enough buyers to keep a store going? But, instead, we'll just pour 400 MILLION DOLLARS into stores that may or may not survive. There's some job creation for ya! Shouldn't cost much more than a million or so per employee. If the government decides to run them it'll cost more, take longer and accomplish nothing but a few feel-good moments for the goons in Washington.
Another Orbler was talking about how we need government and everything liberals have done for us. We'd been going back and forth for quite some time when he said something so outrageously stupid, I was speechless. He actually said that without the Dep't of Education and Teachers Union we wouldn't be able to educate our children! Apparently he wasn't aware that both are recent creations, that the quality of education has dropped since their inception, or that those of us who went to school before the feds took over were educated very well. He also suggested that the government is responsible for collecting garbage! O.K. so some politicians qualify as garbage. Most government entitlements qualify as garbage. And certainly some activists qualify as garbage. But we're talking about the type of trash that you dump into a container and a truck collects it. Now, I don't know were he lives, but the government doesn't collect my garbage. A local company does it. The residents pay the trash removal company for the service and we call that "private enterprise".
Let's use some common sense to repair our domestic problems, shall we? Make places business-friendly, bring jobs home, and stop pretending that the government is the solution to every problem!