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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Welcome to The John Boyd Legion of Honor!

By Rich Kozlovich

Over the years I've developed a list of personal heroes.  Norman Borlaug is at the top of the list as he was the greatest man to have lived in the 20th century, and since he died in the 21st century, he just might be the greatest man to have lived in two centuries.  Why? Because he is directly responsible for saving the lives of a billion people from starvation.  If that's the standard for greatness, and I think it is, then I think it's unlikely anyone will top that.

Another of my personal heroes is Col. John Boyd:

Known as "Forty-Second" Boyd......defeating every opponent in aerial combat at the Air Force's premier dog-fighting academy in two-thirds of a minute.........however this doesn’t demonstrate the “long and often painful saga of a man who, as a full colonel, went toe to toe, time after time, with a phalanx of two-and three-star generals for the good of the country, winning most of his battles and surviving long enough to help provide secretary of defense Richard Cheney the ideas needed for swift and decisive victory in the Persian Gulf War....... "defined by the courts-martial and investigations".......... Boyd's intellectual achievements were matched by his relentless guerrilla warfare against hidebound "careerists" then running the Air Force……

I'm a great admirer of those who deliberately make themselves rocks in the current, rowing against the tide being prepared to stand and defend all that's right and true against all comers.  That was John Boyd.  Whether it is in the government, military, academia or business this was his view, and is something we need to learn, repeat, retain and practice:

"To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?" - Col. John Boyd

So, I've created the John Boyd Legion of Honor and I will install those I think are worthy.  My choices will not be based on they're positions in life or prominence .  My choices won't just be from, or about, science.  My choices will be their positions on issues, their courage, determination, and willingness to row against the tide in pursuit of truth, justice, all that's right and true, and those choices will be not be open to debate and are immutable.  

Since I've been publishing P&D all these years I have a backlog of candidates who I will be adding, so none of my choices are going to be in chronological order, and some may have already passed.  With the exception of Norman Borlaug, who is first on the list, the order in which they appear will have nothing to do with categorizing them by importance.  They will be placed in alphabetical order.  Some will be well known publicly, some will partially known publicly, and some will have no public attention.   Past heroes will be added along with new heroes. 

So, let's start with:

Norman Borlaug -  "After thousands of crossing of wheat, Borlaug managed to come up with a high-yield hybrid that was parasite resistant and wasn’t sensitive to daylight hours, so it could be grown in varying climates. Importantly it was a dwarf variety, since tall wheat expended a lot of energy growing inedible stalks and collapsed when it grew too quickly. The new wheat was quickly introduced all over Mexico."  It's unfortunate history adds an appendage such as "The Great" onto the names of those who've managed to kill a lot of people through wars of conquest, such as Alexander the Great.   If there ever was anyone that truly earned the right to have the appendage "The Great" after their name, it's Norman Borlaug.

Bruce Ames -  One of the reasons we no longer hear the screams by environmentalist about how chemicals are killing humanity with cancer is because of Bruce Ames' development of what's commonly called the Ames test.  By the way, he never patented in order to make it widely available.  This test is literally textbook science that is taught to students all over the world.  The Ames test is brilliant in its simplicity. It was designed to assess how mutagenic (and therefore, potentially carcinogenic) a chemical might be  What he discovered was a whole lot of stuff, including the foods we eat, coffee being high on the list for naturally occurring chemicals that test carcinogenic. Here is my

Tim Ball - I never met Tim, but I did have an e-mail exchange with him many years ago, and he was one of my personal heroes.  While he was a mild tempered and an unfailingly polite man, he had plenty of backbone and guts to spare.  Never mistake amiability for weakness.  When sued him, he fought, and he won, and he used what in Canada is called the truth defense, AKA, the scorched earth defense.  Here is my file, and my

Tucker Carlson -Tucker Carlson's Greatest Gift? He Prevents Other People From Being Talked About Some time back I wrote a piece noting that Tucker Carlson was now the nation's premiere political analyst, and now he's far more.  I never particularly liked him before he started his show, and often wondered how and why he was on so many political talk shows.  After he started his show I was a lot more impressed, yet there were times I really disagreed with him.  However, I loved the fact he was totally unintimidated by the prominent and powerful.  He was really great at spotting the logical fallacies these politicians, activists, and bureaucrats spewed out, and called them on it.  I really liked the way he was willing to cut his way through the jungle to get to the truth, and would "boldly go where no journalist had gone before".   And, I think this is really important: he was unfailingly polite to people I considered to be stupid and corrupt, so many of whom were like all the Biden nominees to federal jobs and the federal court. Here is my file.

Alan Caruba - Alan was one of the first writers to allow me to publish his work, and was an unending encouragement to me to keep going and expanding my focus.  My friend Alan passed in 2015, but as I said,  he'd given me permission to publish his work many years ago, and I've republished many of them because one thing about Alan's articles is true.  They're pretty much timeless.  The characters many change but the underlying facts and logic remain.    Here's my Alan Caruba file. 

Paul Driessen - I first became aware of Paul when Dr. D. Rutledge Taylor was working on his documentary defending DDT and the fight against Malaria, especially in Africa, 3Billion and counting.  Paul was another who allowed me early on to publish his work and he still regularly send pieces I can publish.  I read his book Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death.  This is a book that is very readable for the general public and yet has the ability to capture the interest of those who are knowledgeable about scientific and environmental issues. It is a small publication and can be read in a short time. It should also be read more than once. I have just reread this book and I feel compelled to promote it to those who read this blog. In spite of ad hominem attacks and unfounded claims that his book is “unscientific” or that he is a corporate puppet, there are a host of well thought of individuals who have showered praise on this book because of the logic of his arguments and the facts presented. These are listed below. It can be ordered here.  Here is my Paul Driessen file. 

Mary Grabar  -  Mary Grabar was born in Slovenia when it was still part of the Communist Yugoslavia and grew up in Rochester, New York. She earned her Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia in 2002 and taught at a number of colleges and universities in Georgia until 2013.  While teaching, she wrote widely on political, cultural, and educational topics, and founded the Dissident Prof Education Project, a nonprofit reform initiative.  In 2014, she moved to Clinton, New York, and became a resident fellow at The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization.  Mary has challenged the conventional wisdom (lies and folly) of the 1619 Project, and the corruption of history by Howard Zinn, which a corrupt academia finds disturbing.  Fighting 'The 1619 Project' Fake History: Lessons from Howard Zinn’s Fake History.  Here's my Mary Grabar file.

Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America was published by Regnery on August 20, 2019.

William Walter Kay - William Walter Kay managed a web site, ecofascism.com, which appears to no longer exist, but for some time he regularly sent me his work, especially his book reviews, which were absolutely amazing.  Kay challenged all forms of junk science, and presented an in depth analysis of green initiatives.  He was devastating in making the connection between environmentalism and fascism and the groups that support those views.   Here are my William Walter Kay files.

Jay Lehr -  How many people can say the White House called them to say the President decided to take their advice on some issue?  That's what happened with President Trump and his decision to end the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.  Jay was a personal friend who I had the privilege of knowing and partnered with writing articles.  He also allowed me to publish all his many other articles.   Jay was a professor of Hydrogeology at The Ohio State University in the 1960’s and adjunct for many more years.  Jay was one of the original founders of the EPA and said they haven't done anything worthwhile since 1980 and needs to be abolished and put together a brilliant five year plan to do so.  He spent 25 years as the Executive Director of the National Ground Water Association. He then spent 25 years as Senior Scientist for The Heartland Institute. Most recently, Jay was Senior Scientist for the International Climate Science Coalition. Jay was passionate about educating others on the science behind the fallacy of man-made climate change.  Jay was active if the fight against junk science right up until the day he passed at 86.  Jay said as long as he was alive, he wanted to live, and didn't stop jumping out of airplanes for fun until he was 85. 

James A. Marusek - James A. Marusek is a retired nuclear physicist who worked for the U.S. Navy, and who allowed me to publish is work for many years. While he wrote about other science related issues he really focused on anthropogenic global warming and solar cycles, especially dealing with solar minimums, which no one hears about from the media as well as the science community.  His work I've published has been hit extensively over the years.  Here's my James A. Marusek file. 

Stephen McIntyre - McIntyre became interested in 2002 regarding the claims of climate scientists because of the what he felt were discrepancies in that science, including that by Michal Mann and others, especially invoking Mann's' Hockey Stick Graph.  While the powers the be claimed the work done by McIntyre and Mckitrick didn't matter, time has shown otherwise, as it's been made clear Mann worked to eliminate the Medieval warm period.  As for the claims 97% of scientists agree, here was my analysis of that blatantly false claim, How Many Constitute 97%? In spite of the myriad of criticisms of both McIntyre and McKitrick, mostly based on surface temperature claims time has been on their side as it's been shown temperature readings are seriously flawed for a number of reasons, and aren't in harmony with satellite readings.  

Ross McKitrick I have been probing the arguments for global warming for well over a decade. In collaboration with a lot of excellent coauthors I have consistently found that when the layers get peeled back, what lies at the core is either flawed, misleading or simply non-existent. - Ross McKitrick

McIntyre and McKitrick could be one link because of their work, however I didn't think that was fair as they're careers are totally separate.  McKitrick is an economist specializing in environmental economics, and along with McIntyre refuted the Hockey Stick Graph and other claims by global warming devotees.  The patterns of life repeat over and over again, so in order to present a pattern, here are some of my old posts regarding Michal Mann called, The Mann Chronicles.  And here are the later Mann Chronicles.

Marc Morano - Marc along with Craig Rucker and the rest of the CFACT team have been on top of the actual science regarding climate change right from the beginning, and have been hugely successful in refuting those claims.  Ten years ago the climate dogmatists were dominant and had the world believing we're doomed....doomed I tell you.  Now, polls claim the number of people who put climate at the top of their concerns has shrunk significantly, and as all their predictions and prophesies keep failing, that number will shrink even more.  Here's my

Steve Milloy -  I became aware of Steve when the ban on DDT turned 30.  While most in my industry considered DDT a dead issue, I considered it the only issue since that ban gave financial and emotional impetus for all environmental issues that followed.  Steve published Junkscience.com and posted this piece, 100 Things You Should Know About DDT.  Steve was also one of the early writers who allowed my to publish his work.  Here's my

Lord Monckton  - We shall lose the West unless we can restore the use of reason to preeminence in our institutions of what was once learning. It was the age of reason that built the West and made it prosperous and free. The age of reason gave you your great Constitution of liberty. It is the power of reason, the second of the three great powers of the soul in Christian theology, that marks our species out from the rest of the visible creation, and makes us closest to the image and likeness of our Creator. I cannot stand by and let the forces of darkness drive us unprotesting into a new Dark Age.” - Lord Monckton.

I have been following Lord Monckton's adventures in the global warming debate for so long that I can't even remember when I first discovered him, but he has truly been magnificent. ‘The angrier and more indignant they are, the more he seems to like it.”   Here is my  

Craig Rucker -  Craig Rucker is the co-founder and executive director of the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which was founded in 1985 to “promote a positive voice on environment and development issues.”  Rucker’s strong belief in the “power of the market combined with the applications of safe technologies,” to “offer humanity practical solutions to many of the world’s pressing concerns,” resulted in “a number of leading scientists, academics, and policy leaders” joining Rucker in his CFACT efforts.  His stand against the false claims regarding climate change has been powerful.   Here is my

Thomas Sowell is Ph.D. American economist, author, and social commentator who is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and in my  opinion one of the finest, if not the finest, thinkers in the world today.  He may be an economist but his commentaries and commons sense offerings on a host of issues are the epitome of wisdom.  Sowell clearly understands wisdom is the application of knowledge and understanding, and has been capable making extremely complicated issues understandable by almost everyone.  That kind of thinking and approach has actually been foundational to my work which is based on the fact everything is "the basics".   Make it simple stupid is "the basics".  His Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene, are brilliant.  Here is my Thomas Sowell file. 

D. Rutledge Taylor - Rutledge is famous for his documentary Many years ago I became aware of a web site created by Dr. D. Rutledge Taylor, who was making a feature documentary film debunking the lies about DDT, and makes clear once and for all the devastation America’s ban on DDT caused worldwide.  I posted a lot of comments on his site, and I must have made a small but worthy contribution, as I was invited to the world premiere in New York City on September 17th, 2010, and I was pleased to find that I was listed separately in the credits as the Pest Control Consultant.  The “stars” in the film included: Doctors Elizabeth Whelan and Gill Ross of the American Council on Science and Health; Dr. Paul Driessen, author of, “Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death;” Richard Treo, a Director of Africa Fighting Malaria and co-author of, “The Excellent Powder: DDT’s Political and Scientific History;” Dr. Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute; Roy Innes and a number of his associates from C.O.R.E.  All participants outline the real story about the devastation caused by the unscientific ban on DDT.   His defense of who was the great voice standing against all the junk science Rachel Carson spewed out about DDT in her junk science fiction book , is excellent.  

Jay Valentine -  Jay Valentine, CEO of ContingencySales, collected data and analysis to mathematically prove the 2020 election was stolen via voter fraud.  "Valentine and a team of high-tech criminal profiling experts traveled to Dallas to meet with election fraud investigators. The investigators canceled at the last minute, so Valentine and his team of experts conducted their own research......... It appears our stolen 2020 election was of such magnitude that it qualifies as a Sovereign Crime of Industrial Scale. Sovereign Crime means your government was a participant, active or passive, enabling this evil against our United States"  Here's my Jay Valentine file.

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