Paradigms and Demographics

Zone of Reality: Occupy Wall Street Movement

2012-01-27T06:07:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

No organizational structure, no outline of objectives, no discernable philosophy, no common goals, no obvious goals, no leadership, no solutions, no money and no desire to attain any of these....at least through their own efforts; and the the talking heads in the Lame Stream Media can’t even begin to comprehend how they have been able to “unite” with no discernable philosophy and no organization? First of all .....they aren't united! Just like the homeless street people they emulate......they're just being oboxious while squatting together. The LSM have supported and promoted a group of irrational left wing crazies, bums and losers,; presenting them as a major force for political and social change.

The protestors are no more united than an amoeba that keeps splitting and increasing with no discernable goal other than to consume and increase. They are all losers who now have a cause; a cause that requires nothing of them other than to shoot off their mouths, take up space, be obnoxious filthy jerks while consuming and increasing at no cost to themselves! At least the amoeba will go about their affairs silently through their own efforts. Get over these idiots. They don’t want jobs, they won’t work at jobs and if hired they would fail at those jobs while creating havoc while there! We need to get that! You just can’t fix stupid...or the media.....same thing!

There is one thing they have in common. They hate traditional values and stable civilized activity, and they have nothing to offer except complaints. Does anyone really think that represents a movement that is in any way sane? So...if the media is promoting them can we assume that it is possible the media is also insane? Could be!

The futility and hypocrisy of the Occupy stragglers
Kanaska Carter is 26...a former hairdresser from Canada who came to the US to protest on the 10th anniversary of September 11 but got caught up in Occupy Wall Street….now there’s the Google wars, another natural fit for a…young protestor0attention. They don’t have a discernable message. They don’t want a leader. They don’t even agree with each other. But they’re going to the White House anyway... “I felt I’ve been waiting my whole life for this kind of activism.”

One Final Note: If anyone has any doubt that the Left Wing Media is anything less than irrational as they attempt to create facts in place of reality please read Alan Caruba's article, Liberal Lunacy. The Wall Street Movement truly is the reality of "The Left".

Zone of Reality: Human Rights

2012-01-26T06:50:00.001-05:00

Europe’s Own Human Rights Crisis To many friends of human rights in Europe, the Arab Spring has been the most thrilling period since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Judging from their soaring rhetoric about yearning for freedom among Arab peoples, European Union leaders share that enthusiasm. Today there is an opportunity, the optimists proclaim, to have an arc of human rights-respecting countries around much of the Mediterranean rim. (My Take – Interesting commentary regarding forced integration and loss of cultural identity and cohesion. The Roma mentioned in the article are better known as gypsies. However, I do like the exposure of Euro hypocrisy of their unending finger pointing at others. RK)

Europe in Demographic Denial
An even bigger form of denial than about the causes of Europe's financial collapse. If there is one word that captures many Europeans' response to the continent's financial crisis, it is denial. Witness the description by the editors of France's newspaper-of-record, Le Monde, of France's S&P credit-downgrade on January 13 as "un non-événement financier." The fact that this "non-event" will increase France's borrowing-costs (not to mention those of the EU's own bailout fund) at a time when France's government is already struggling to contain spending apparently escaped Le Monde's attention……….These developments translate into more old people, fewer young people, and, eventually, shrinking populations. But it also shifts what's called "the dependency ratio": the ratio of retirees per member of the labor force. On some estimates, Italy, Spain and Germany will have very high dependency ratios by 2050: every two workers will be supporting one retiree. Those working will also have to pay either greater contributions or higher taxes to fund existing pension systems.

Deadly Confrontation Spreads in Tibetan Region of China
Deadly showdowns between Chinese security forces and Tibetans in a restive region of western China spread to a second town on Tuesday, outside advocacy groups reported. At least two and perhaps as many as five Tibetans were killed by gunfire and many more wounded, the groups said, in what appeared to be the most violent outbreak in the region in nearly four years.

Blast From the Past - Paul Driessen: Three Billion and Counting

2012-01-25T04:25:00.000-05:00

Editor's Note: An article appeared on Steve Milloy's Junkscience.com blog regarding the brown pelican and DDT, entitled "Times-Picayune celebrates DDT myth as history”. I saw this earlier and just didn't have the heart to do another article about this. I really felt the frustration and thought I understand why people just give up. This stuff is ubiquitous so it must really be frustrating for people like Milloy who have been fighting the battle for decades. But Steve just won’t give up. Please follow the above link. As a result I felt this article by Paul Driessen really was worth another run this week. Paul wrote the book Eco-Imperialism, Green Power, Black Death. It is an easy to read small book that will have a major impact on your mind and heart. I have purchased 25 or more to give away over the years. Enjoy!

Paul Driessen: Three Billion and Counting
By Paul Driessen

This article first appeared at here at Townhall.com. RK

We will eradicate malaria by 2010, stricken families were promised a few years ago. Well, 2010 is almost gone and, instead of eradication, we have more malaria than before, and a new target date: 2015.
Unless malaria control policies change, that date too will come and go. Billions will still be at risk of getting malaria. Hundreds of millions will continue getting the disease. Millions will die or become permanently brain-damaged. And poverty and misery will continue ravaging Third World communities.

For years, malaria strategies have been dominated by insectici War II, and completely eradicate malaria in the United States, Canada and Europe. It was then enlisted in an effort to rid the entire world of malaria. After initial successes, DDT ran into an unexpected roadblock in 1969.

As physician Rutledge Taylor chronicles in his pull-no-punches new film, “3 Billion and Counting,” Sierra Club, Audubon Society and Environmental Defense Fund enlisted DDT in their own campaign, to get it banned. They said the chemical posed unacceptable risks to people, wildlife and the environment – and used pseudo-scientific cancer and ecological horror stories, like those in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, to spook people, politicians and bureaucrats.

Along with Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Pesticide Action Network and other eco activists, they portrayed themselves as white knight planetary guardians. Their true motives were far less virtuous. “If the environmentalists win on DDT,” EDF scientist Charles Wurster told the Seattle Times, “they will achieve a level of authority they have never had before.”

In short, the war on DDT was never about protecting people or birds. It was, and is, about power, control, money and ideology – regardless of the resultant human misery, disease and death.

For the new Environmental Protection Agency, it was about power and politics. As the greens’ campaign to ban DDT intensified, EPA Administrator William Ruckelshaus convened a scientific panel, which held six months of hearings, compiled 9,312 pages of studies and testimony, and concluded that DDT was safe and effective and should not be banned.

Nevertheless, without attending a single hour of hearings or reading a page of the report, Ruckelshaus banned US production and use of DDT in 1972 – at a time when over 80% of the chemical was being exported for disease control. He later said his decision had nothing to do with cancer. He had a political problem, he said, and he fixed it.

Carcinogenic? The International Agency for Research on Cancer lists DDT as “possibly carcinogenic” – right up there with coffee and pickles. Among products that “definitely” cause cancer, it includes birth control pills and ethanol. Mice fed DDT got 26% fewer cancers than control mice. Another study found that DDT actually cured malignant brain tumors in rabbits. Millions of war survivors were sprayed directly on their bodies; none ever contracted cancer as a result.

Bird eggshells? The original Bitman DDT studies involved diets that were 80% deficient in calcium; when the birds were fed proper diets, there was no thinning. Audubon Society annual Christmas bird counts recorded that bald eagle populations rose from 197 in 1941 to 891 in 1960, while robins increased from 19,616 in 1941 to 928,639 in 1960 – all when DDT use in America was at its historic high.

Resistance? Mosquitoes have never become resistant to DDT’s life-saving repellency properties, but they are developing resistance to the pyrethroids used in agriculture – and bed nets.

Poisonous? People have tried to kill themselves with DDT – and failed. It’s most common replacement, parathion, killed hundreds of people, who safety experts said were too used to handling DDT. But as Dr. Wurster pointed out, it “only kills farm workers and most of them are Mexicans and Negroes.”

This modern, eco-style eugenics has since been broadened to the impoverished developing world, where DDT could reduce the agony, brain damage, lost work hours, poverty and death – if it weren’t so frequently banished due to green ideologues like Wurster and the Club of Rome’s Alexander King, who worried more about over-population than human rights.

Thus the vicious cycle continues. Infected people are too sick to work, too poor to afford sprays or nets or get proper treatment. Ugandan activist Fiona Kobusingye lost her son, two sisters and four cousins to malaria. Former Black Panther Patrick O’Neal says every household in his Tanzanian village has lost at least one member of its extended family to malaria. On Sumba Island, Indonesia, one-third of all women have lost at least one child to malaria.

EDF and EPA lied. Millions of children died. How convenient, then, that UN Environment Program’s Nick Nutter can deadpan, “when someone here dies from malaria, they say God has taken them” – not baby-killing policies. How convenient that Al Gore can blame malaria on manmade global warming.
This is environmental justice? The kind championed by President Obama and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson? Eco activist groups get billions. The world’s poor get disease and death. And EPA and the greens want to be put in charge of our energy, economy, jobs, living standards and lives.

How inconvenient for them when folks like Dr. Rutledge raise questions they really don’t want to address. No wonder Ruckelshaus, Pesticide Action Network, USAID and EPA refused to grant him interviews. Stephanie from Pesticide Action did want to know who was funding the film. But when Dr. Rutledge said he was, she ended the conversation, without mentioning who funds PAN. (The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Foundation, among others.)

Three billion humans dead so far from malaria … and counting. And green ideologues work tirelessly to ensure that the callous, needless global death toll continues to rise.

See this film. Tell your friends about it. Bring it to your college, club and local theater. It will make your blood boil, and change your perspectives forever about DDT and the radical environmental movement

###

Zone of Reality: Keystone Oil Pipeline

2012-01-24T06:05:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

I often wonder what goes on in the minds of people. This whole anti Keystone XL project is in reality an anti-oil drive that isn't what it seems. This pipeline delay is an expose of something that goes farther, deeper and wider than is obvious to the casual observer. Those who have been reading, watching and writing about this issue find that there is nothing new here. The average person would find it hard to believe. But, it is all true.

Abundant, inexpensive energy is foundational to a modern industrialized society. Are we really expected to believe they don't really understand that? Is there any doubt why so many question their motives? Is that any reason to wonder why so many question their sanity?

Keystone Kops halt US-Canada pipeline
White House, environmentalists and U.S foundations seek to block all oil sands development. Some little known information about the huge financial investment that US anti-hydrocarbon environmentalist foundations have in this battle.

Oilfield workers in Alberta, refinery workers in Texas and countless factory workers just learned that the White House will not allow construction of an oil pipeline that would bring over half a million barrels of oil a day from Canada’s Alberta Province and North Dakota’s Bakken Field to refineries in Texas and Louisiana. The job-killing decision was a victory for radical environmentalists and well-heeled U.S. foundations that have long battled Canadian oil sands companies and the U.S. oil and gas industry.

President Obama says Congress gave him insufficient time to examine environmental issues. TransCanada Keystone Pipeline LP can reapply, he added, if it reroutes the pipeline around Nebraska’s Oglala Aquifer and Sand Hills area and addresses other concerns. In the meantime, the Administration insists, the project “would not serve the national interest.”

Oil Drilling Off the South Florida Coast: The Bahamas and Cuba Stake Their ClaimsThey didn't have much reason to do it before, but the Bahamas and Cuba have defined an international boundary in the waters off the coast of Florida. Now, the reason is clear: Both countries are poised to start drilling for oil from floating rigs....We finish with a useful quotation from Lt. Col. Allen West: "You know, someone's going to do the drilling... Wouldn't it be a shame if down the road we're going to China or Cuba or someone else for our energy resources that we allow to be taken from right under our noses?"

###

Zone of Reality: Crime and Consquences

2012-01-23T06:27:00.002-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

At 65 I have had the time and opportunity to observe many things that have become accepted as "truth" because of the leftward swing of the media, political leaders and our educational system. Crime control is one such issue. We are told all sorts of things that will fix criminal behavior that is all touchy feely and politically correct. Has it all worked? It doesn’t seem so since criminal behavior seems to increase. We abandon traditional values and crime increases. We adopt secular socialism and crime increases. Is there a connection there?

I think this is a good start for a discussion of "Crime"; its causes, consequences and how society should deal with those people who just can't seem to live without any regard for the rights, property and safety of others.

CRIME

Tens of thousands of criminals in Britain commit a new crime within a month of receiving a caution
Tens of thousands of criminals go on to reoffend within days of being let off with a caution. In one year, 21,000 offenders – including 6,000 teenagers – broke the law within a month of being given what is effectively a ‘slap on the wrist’. It means that every day almost 60 criminals – a third of them youths – offend again less than four weeks after being let off for crimes from theft to violence. The figures are yet another illustration of Britain’s soft justice system and will raise further fears over the ‘caution culture’.

Dodgy British crime statistics again
The riots that left whole neighbourhoods up and down the country in a state of ruin last August were the worst civil disturbances for a generation. But reading crime figures released yesterday, it is almost as if the five days of widespread looting and violence never took place. Nearly half of the areas worst-affected by the riots saw crime fall during that month, according to Home Office statistics.

###

Blast From the Past: Crimes Against Humanity

2012-01-22T12:21:00.006-05:00

Every so often I will find that someone will hit an article that goes back a ways. I often wonder how much effort it took for them to find it and why that particular article interested them. At any rate, some of those articles required a lot of work and I am just a bit proud of them, this is one such article, so when that happens I like to rerun the article. Here is one such article that I am particularly proud of. You may wish to read the comment in the original, which is typical of many of the diatribes I get...and ignore! I hope everyone will find this latest provocation challenging. RK, 1/22/12

What Constitutes A Crime Against Humanity?

By Rich Kozlovich

This article has weighed on my mind ever since I started in on Friday (August 14, 2010). This is Monday and it is the third time I have updated it, and as time goes by I will probably do it again. RK
This has been updated on 2/11/11.
This has been updated on 2/24/11
This has been updated on 3/21/11

Recently I had an interesting conversation with one of my customers who turned out to be an atheist. The conversation started out about how Islam is not a religion of peace (and I don’t care what these idiots in politics say) since their religion requires them not to be moderate. They can kill, rape, steal, lie and do whatever else they like in the name of Islam and its ok. That led to a discussion on the Crusades and the Inquisition. Eventually we came to atheists.

Being an atheist she proclaimed that at least they don’t go around killing people. I looked at her with a smile of incredulity and said…I’m sorry…except for the environmentalists atheists have killed more people than anyone in modern history.

Although under no circumstances should it be construed that I am justifying the atrocities of the Crusades and Inquisition; but Lenin, Stalin, Hitler and Mao were atheists and killed far more than all of those combined, and with the exception of Hitler, those they killed were all their own people. Mao deliberately starved thirty six million to death because he needed cash to buy armament. How did he get it?  He sold the food these people needed to survive. He said that this may only be the beginning and far more may have to die for him to attain his goals. So much for the “people’s revolution”!

These people committed some of the greatest crimes against humanity every recorded in history, yet Hitler is mostly singled out for that distinction. Why? Not that he didn’t deserve it mind you; but that is the rub isn’t it? Who decides what constitutes a crime against humanity?

Hitler proved that killing 6 million Jews is a crime against humanity because his henchmen were charged, found guilty, and many were executed for carrying out his orders. Joseph Stalin killed fifty million of his own people with the help of (among a host of others) Leonid Brezhnev, who became the leader of the USSR from 1964 till 1982. Neither of which were smeared with the epithet of ‘mass murderer’ or charged with crimes aginst humanity by any sitting official of any kind anywhere. In point of fact, neither Nixon, Ford or Jimmy Carter seemed to have any problem at all dealing with this mass murderer.

Then we have the modern Stalin apologists who claim that no one killed all those millions of people in Russia, and if millions did die; it wasn't Stalin's fault. But if millions did die, and Stalin did order those deaths; it was because he was trying to save millions more from the maniacs within his government.   Accordingly, Stalin and Baria, his chief of the secret police, were in reality the heros, not the villians, and that all the evidence to the contrary constitutes a conspiracy of lies.

Walter Duranty even received a Pulitzer Prize for writing articles that claimed that Stalin wasn't killing anyone; and everyone in journalism working in Russia knew his work was nothing but lies. A Pulitzer Prize that the New York Times refuses to return ; a Pulitzer Prize the Pulitzer Prize committee, in spite of the fact that it has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that Duranty was a fraud, refuses to revoke.

Mao Tse Tung killed even more people yet Richard Nixon along with Henry Kissinger sat around like old buddies with Mao and his partner in mass murder Chou En-lai. Apparently you have to lose a war to be a mass murderer; perhaps that explains why no one in the environmental movement has ever been charged with any crime against humanity. The media and the political element will only stand up for what is right when the agenda fits their needs or view of reality - facts notwithstanding. Thomas Sowell made a worthwhile observation regarding the media and this mass murderer saying; "The mainstream media never expressed half the outrage about Mao Zedong as they did about Ronald Reagan. Yet, when it came to killing millions of innocent civilians, even Hitler was an amateur compared to Mao."

Then let's not forget Hollywood's favorite atheist and mass murderer, Fidel Castro. "According to the Cuba Archive Project, the Castro regime – with firing squads, forced-labor camps and drownings at sea – has caused an estimated 102,000 Cuban deaths. Cuba was a nation of 6.5 million people in 1960. Put your calculator to it and you’ll see that—per-capita wise--Castro and Che were close on the heels of their heroes and mentors Stain and Mao." These men slaughter men, children and even pregnant women; and yet prominent people today, who should know better, have this to  say;

1. Viva Fidel! Viva Che! Castro is the most honest and courageous politician I've ever met." Jesse Jackson
2. Meeting Fidel Castro were the eight most important hours of my life." Steven Spielberg.
3. "Very selfless and moral. One of the world's wisest men." Oliver Stone
4. Cuba's Elvis." Dan Rather
5. "A Dream come true." Supermodel Naomi Campbell
6. "Socialism works. I think Cuba can prove that." Chevy Chase
7. "Castro is an extraordinary man. He is warm and understanding and seems extremely humane." Gina Lollobrigida

In 1996 when Castro visited NYC he was called the “The Toast of Manhattan” by Time magazine. Newsweek called him “The Hottest Ticket in Manhattan” discussing the social swirl he had caused. Humberto Fontova wrote an article about this called, Happy Thanksgiving! (From Fidel and Che) about how Fidel is embraced by people that should know better. We are aghast of the 9/11 destruction of the Twin Towers, yet Fidel Castro and Che had planned something just as heinous, if not more so, in 1962.

“Cuban agents had targeted Macy’s, Gimbel’s, Bloomingdales, and Manhattan’s Grand Central Station with a dozen incendiary devices and 500 kilos of TNT. The holocaust was set for detonation the following week, on the day after Thanksgiving…. the year’s biggest shopping day, for good measure. Thousands of New Yorkers, probably mostly women and children, were to be incinerated and entombed.”

Was he treated as a murderous maniac?

First there was “a luncheon at the Council on Foreign Relations. After holding court there for a rapt David Rockefeller, along with Robert McNamara, Dwayne Andreas, and Random House’s Harold Evans, Castro flashed over to Mort Zuckerman’s Fifth Avenue pad, where a throng of Beltway glitterati, including Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Tina Brown, Bernard Shaw, and Barbara Walters, all jostled for a photo op, and stood in line for Castro’s autograph. Diane Sawyer was so overcome in the mass-murderer’s presence that she rushed up, broke into a toothy smile, wrapped her arms around Castro, and smooched him warmly on the cheek.”

“God Bless you, Fidel,” boomed Pastor Calvin Butts of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church while introducing Castro on another New York visit four years later. The People’s Weekly World described Castro’s visit as such: “The audience which included New York Democratic representatives Charles Rangel enthusiastically greeted the Communist leader with a ten minute standing ovation. Chants of ‘FIDEL!-FIDEL! VIVA-FIDEL!’ resounded from the rafters.”

“Then with Congressperson Maxine Waters looking on in rapture, a beaming Charlie Rangel waddled up to the podium beside the terrorist (and racist) Castro and engulfed him in a mighty bear hug. Castro had to catch his breath, but he smiled and returned the rotund senator’s passionate abrazo.”

In March of 2011 Humberto Fontova wrote and article entitled, "Women’s History Month and Castro’s Female Victims" wherein he outlines the media's complete contempt for truth, reality and the poor innocents who suffered at his hands. He states; "When Barbara Walters sat quivering alongside Fidel Castro in 1977 cooing: “Fidel Castro has brought very high literacy and great health-care to his country. His personal magnetism is powerful.” dozens of Cuban suffragettes suffered in torture chambers within walking distance of the hyperventilating Ms. Walters." He went on to say; "I also apologize for singling out Barbara Walters. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell also had praise for the tryant: “Fidel Castro is old-fashioned, courtly–even paternal, a thoroughly fascinating figure!”

And what was Casto's reaction to all of this adoration? “You people are the cream of the crop!” beamed the Stalinist/terrorist to the smiling throng he’d come within a hair of nuking in 1962.

“Hear, hear!” chirped the delighted guests, while tinkling their wine glasses in honor of the smirking agent of their near vaporization." There really isn't any cure for stupid! Then again, perhaps it is just that this doesn't fit the media-political paradigm of the day? Either way.....there really isn't any cure for stupid.

What if one person is deliberately murdered for philosophical reasons, is that a crime against humanity? We know for sure that it takes somewhere between one death and six million deaths to constitute a crime against humanity and it must fit the media-political pagadigm of the day. What if tens of millions have been killed as a result of policies pursued by the environmental movement and implemented by governmental authorities? Surely that must be considered a crime against humanity? Perhaps this doesn't fit the media-political paradigm of the day?

For those who continue to say there are provisions which allows for DDT use in emergency situations and that DDT wasn’t banned in many areas of Africa; baloney, it is all wall paper.

“Yet African states are still put under pressure to avoid using DDT. This year the EU warned of possible agricultural sanctions against Uganda, Kenya and other countries that defiantly use DDT and vow to continue doing so. An EU official warned the Ugandan authorities that if indoor spraying of DDT meant there was ‘a risk of contamination of the food chain’, then while ‘[it] would not automatically lead to a ban of food products…it will mean that that particular consignment cannot be sent to Europe’ (5). ‘The EU should be saying that DDT is safe and poses no threat to EU consumers’, says Innis. ‘Instead they make either direct or oblique threats about possible trade sanctions. What they’re really saying is, “We’ve benefited from DDT and gotten rid of malaria but you people in Africa cannot do the same”.’

As for those countries that did ban DDT;

“Almost two decades after the country banned the use of DDT, the Government is under pressure to lift the ban as one of the effective ways of controlling the spread of malaria. At the same time, there is pressure on the Government not to lift the ban on the insecticide, which remains banned in many countries in the world. The pressure comes in the wake of the heads of state conference in Abuja, which passed a resolution to put emphasis on and promote the use of indoor residual spraying to help fight the malaria vector.”

The outside pressure is tremendous on these leaders from the green movement.

We now know that by not using DDT millions have died unnecessarily and yet the greenies, the EU, United Nations authorities and the Environmental Protection Agency continue to stand against its use. It would appear to me that someone is guilty of crimes against humanity. The world court is hot to try people for all sorts of things, but why is it that no one with the authority to charge greenies with these crimes has noticed that a crime against humanity has been committed? Perhaps this doesn't fit the media political-paradigm of the day!

Depending on who you read, the number that have died from malaria alone runs between fifty and one hundred million since 1972. That doesn’t count the many other mosquito borne diseases that are transmitted to an unprotected population.   Since all of this is a direct result of greenie activities; is this not a crime against humanity? Perhaps this doesn't fit the media-political paradigm of the day!

They stand against a genetically modified food called Golden Rice, which would prevent five hundred thousand children from going blind each year in Southeast Asia. In Africa they convinced leaders not to let their starving people eat genetically modified corn because it would cause cancer in their people. Untold numbers died. Thousands died and tens of thousands were sickened in South America when they convinced leaders there to eliminate chlorine in the water supplies because they claimed it caused cancer. Since all of this is a direct result of greenie activities; is this not a crime against humanity? Perhaps this doesn't fit the media-political paradigm of the day!

There are those who arrogantly and smugly scoff at the very idea that anything the green movement does can be considered a crime; and if this was sixty, fifty, forty or even thirty years ago society would have agreed with them. Very few actually knew what was really going on and no one listened. We simply didn't know any better because the media kept the truth from society. But we now have the internet, and that has allowed the evidence of time and science to be made known. We now know that the positions they had taken were not only wrong but evil. Evil because the environmental stands that they have taken have been tested by time; and people are still dying and suffering needlessly because of them, and they know it.   Why has no one been charged with crimes aginst humanity? Perhaps this doesn't fit the media-political paradigm of the day!

They know it! At the heart of the environmental movement they believe that humanity is the planet's greatest disease and must be eliminated.   Prince Phillip once said that he would like to be reincarnated as a virus for that purpose. Apparently being detached from reality is a requirement to be a Royal and a greenie. For someone to be aware that they are taking a position that they know will kill untold numbers has to be criminal. Yet they continue to insist on standing their ground on all of their misanthropic postions. How can this not be crimes against humanity? Perhaps this doesn't fit the media -political paradigm of the day!

If you don’t want to call these events crimes against humanity, could we at least agree that this certainly represents depraved indifference? That is a crime also, and yet these are the people deciding what pesticides (if any) should be allowed, if genetically modified foods can be grown and sold, if chlorine and fluoride should be allowed in our water supplies, whether we can use fertilizers and herbicides on our fields, what foods we should eat, whether hydroelectric dams can be built and whether oil should be or will be drilled and where.

Does anyone feel any more confident now? Perhaps we can just get a copy of the New York Times to find out how we should feel.

Zone of Reality: Green Jobs

2012-01-22T09:43:00.004-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

The Zone of Reality will be devoted to exposing those things that everyone "knows" to be true, irrespective of the facts. These posts will be devoted to the concept that everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality.

We will explore the logic and rationale of those promoting certain agendas. Some of them will be factual and true and some of them will not. It is good to know which is which. There is so much spin on any given subject that I find it hard to believe what people say publically.

Geraldo Rivera is a classic example. His ability to keep talking to prevent anyone from disputing him while he subtly changes the focus of the subject is a classic. He makes arguments filled with logical fallacies, and I have watched him do this over and over again. His ability to slightly shift the focus of the conversation is almost brilliant. I saw him on Fox News with the morning crowd (It did seem that Gretchen Carlson understood what he was doing, but he wouldn’t stop talking and she was too polite to really go after him in that setting) dealing with the issue of Newt’s ex-wife. He dazzled them with his repartee by changing the subject from the charges by Newt’s ex wife to the fact that Newt has lead an adulterous life while promoting family values, i.e. he is a hypocrite. That wasn’t the question they asked him!

Why is this so difficult to overcome? Because it is true….he led the life of a hypocrite and it is easy to change the subject accordingly. I had a conversation about this very thing with a lobbyist friend of mine in Washington, who is quite the liberal I might add, and he said that Newt’s extramarital relationship with Callista was the worst kept secret in Washington, and that it was going on during the Clinton impeachment hearings. As in all these arguments about this …it wasn’t Clinton’s adulteries he was being impeached for. It was for lying under oath. Of course that was at a time when lying under oath was considered a serious crime by everyone. It wasn't about Newt's hypocracies! Personally I wouldn't believe him if he told me that day was light and that night was dark because he might change his mind tomorrow and sound just as convincing as he was the day before.

Does everyone get the point though? All of these arguments are logical fallacies, primarily known as red herring fallacies. The Zone of Reality will attempt to point out where the real issue lies. Where the facts and conventional wisdom diverge. Where the arguments are outright lies or just lies being disguised by logical fallacies.

I have a job that interferes with my life so I can't really devote the time to all the things in which I am interested. Having said that….please feel free to send me anything that falls within the parameters I have outlined here. I may explore only one issue or I may explore more with each posting. However, I do not wish to explore too many per posting. For those who have sent things I didn’t use…please understand that it wasn’t because I didn’t appreciate your efforts. Remember….I still have a job that interferes with my life.

Where will we start? Since energy is at the heart of a stable and energized economy; and one of the imaginary truths is that 'green' is the only answer we will start with:

The Reality of Green Economics

Obama’s Misleading Green-Jobs Ad: Taking Credit for Imaginary Jobs.
There are only 140,000 jobs in the whole renewable-energy sector, but in a new ad, Obama is taking credit for a “clean energy industry” that has “2.7 million jobs.” Obama inflated the number of “clean-energy” jobs by adding people who have nothing to do with clean-energy, like “trash collectors” and bureaucrats. By inflating the total, Obama was able to paper over his complete failure to live up to his utterly unrealistic campaign promise “to create 5 million new green jobs.” Most of America’s existing green jobs predate the Obama Administration, which did not create them: “from 2003-2010, the rate of growth for clean jobs was 3.4 percent.” Indeed, the Obama Administration used federal green-jobs money to outsource American jobs to countries like China: Despite all the talk of green jobs, the overwhelming majority of stimulus money spent on wind power has gone to foreign companies, according to a new report by the Investigative Reporting Workshop” at American University. “79 percent” of all green-jobs funding “went to companies based overseas,” with the largest payment going to a bankrupt Australian company. “Most of the jobs are going overseas,” said Russ Choma at the Investigative Reporting Workshop. (Please go to the original for more links. RK)

###

Observations From the Back Row

2012-01-21T19:13:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

This week’s top ten readers came from the United States, Russia, Slovenia, Germany, Bulgaria, Ukraine, France, Canada, Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Thank you for your interest. Here are my picks for the week. I hope you will find my latest provocation worth your time. Let's begin with;

CRIME

One Mexican State Bordering The US Was Deadlier Than All of Afghanistan Last Year
Organized crime-related deaths in one Mexican border state during the first nine months of 2011 exceed the number of Afghan civilians killed in roughly the same period in all of war-torn Afghanistan. According to the Mexican government, from January through September 2011 2,276 deaths were recorded in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico.

EASTERN EUROPE

Eastern Europe Swings Right (Actually all that they are describing is a lurch back to the left. RK)
Hungary is almost broke and has lurched to the right so sharply that the EU has launched legal action in defense of democracy. But the problem is far more widespread: Nationalists and populists are gaining ground across Eastern Europe. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only needed a few years. In that short time he managed to turn his country inside out. Civil liberties and press freedoms were reined in, the democratic separation of powers annulled, and a constitution……Orbán himself, formerly a much-admired politician, now seems like a dubious mix of Vladimir Putin and Hugo Chávez...Orbán's Hungary represent a political movement that is sweeping across central and southern Europe… central and southern European societies also lack political and social stability. These regions have two decades of uninterrupted reforms and tough austerity policies behind them. Many people there are exhausted, and democracy fatigue, euroskepticism, and aversion towards the once deified West are on the rise……"The danger of this is that entire social classes or regions like those in eastern Poland, Slovakia and Hungary fall victim to hopelessness and extremism."

ENERGY

Obama Nixes Job-Creating Pipeline 11 Months After Launching Plan With Canada to Boost Growth on Both Sides of Border
After three years of environmental review and a 60-day congressional deadline for a decision, the Obama administration on Wednesday nixed the Keystone XL pipeline project that would bring tar sand oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. The decision drew strong reaction from business and energy groups. Environmental groups oppose the pipeline, fearing the possibility of an oil spill. In a statement, the State Department said it had recommended to President Obama that the permit be denied and that, “at this time,” the pipeline project “be determined not to serve the national interest.

GREEN versus THE CONSTITUTION

Mark Levin: You Cannot Have This EPA and a Constitution
Mark Levin says America cannot at the same time have a Constitution and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that is doing what the EPA is doing today. Levin made the observation in an interview with CNSNews.com about his new book, “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America.” Modern American liberals, who are Utopias, Levin said, aim to erode the separation of powers built into the U.S. Constitution so that a “relative handful of masterminds” can tell everybody else what to do. “This erosion has been going on for about a hundred years,” said Levin. “It’s at a much faster pace right now and there’s a reason for this--because you can’t have constitutionalism and utopianism.”

“You cannot have an EPA and a Constitution at the same time doing what this EPA is doing,” “You cannot have an NLRB deciding who gets to work where, how, and when, and at the same time follow the Constitution,” “You cannot have a tax code that serves basically the purpose of redistributing wealth, which is one of the things that Marx was pushing for so strongly, and at the same time be arguing about limited government and constitutionalism,” “The utopians reject history. Everything begins today,” said Levin. “The models they want to put in place begin today. So why anybody thinks they’re going to respect the Constitution when they don’t respect the rest of history is beyond me.”

JUDICIARY

Court Ruling Broadening Americans with Disabilities Act Will Harm Taxicab Safety and Cost Hundreds of Millions
A federal judge last month barred New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission from issuing permits for taxicabs unless they’re accessible to people who use wheelchairs,” citing the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).Â The judge effectively rewrote the ADA to cover taxi cabs, even though “the ADA specifically exempts automobile-type vehicles, including most taxicabs, from the requirement to be wheelchair accessible.”….The court’s unduly expansive interpretation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is backed by the Obama Justice Department, which filed a brief supporting the lawsuit.

MIDDLE EAST

Afghan Taliban Say Recruited Soldier Who Kill French Troops
The Afghan Taliban said on Saturday they had recruited an Afghan soldier who shot dead four French soldiers in the country's east a day earlier, prompting France to threaten an early pullout from the NATO-led war.

The ‘Arab Spring’ as Winter Descends
The movement had many causes, and democracy is not the only solution. Honest reflection on the past twelve months of discontent, as manifested in various forms of revolutionary zeal, rhetoric, and violence, exposes a solitary thread weaving through all the demonstrations and “rebel” and “opposition” movements that cycloned through the Middle East and North Africa: In each case, local issues were the engines of public mobilization. Whether discussing Mohammed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia, the tribal swaggering in Yemen, or demonstrators’ exploitation of opportunity (and Iranian money) in Bahrain, it is clear that the “Arab Spring” is a haphazard series of disconnected local events, united in time but varying greatly in motivation.

A new generation of political Islamists steps forward
Olivier Roy is a professor at the European University Institute in Florence and the author of “Holy Ignorance.” Everywhere, the Muslim Brotherhood is benefiting from a democratization it did not trigger. There is a political vacuum because the liberal vanguard that initiated the Arab Spring did not try, and did not want, to take power. This was a revolution without revolutionaries. Yet the Muslim Brothers are the only organized political force. They are rooted in society, and decades of opposition against authoritarian regimes gave them experience, legitimacy and respect. Their conservative agenda fits a conservative society, which may welcome democracy but did not turn liberal.

My Take – Is there anyone out there that thinks this guy is as delusional as I do? RK

RACE

Ron Paul’s Black Execution Claim Debunked
In the Republican presidential candidates’ debate on Jan. 7, Congressman Ron Paul said: “I’m the only one up here … that understands true racism in this country is in the judicial system.” He said this racism has to do with “enforcing the drug laws” and then added: “They (blacks) get the death penalty way disproportionately.”……

SOCIALIZED MEDICINE

Obama Administration to People Needing A Bone Marrow Transplants: Drop Dead
In December, a federal appeals court ruled in Flynn vs Holder that the National Organ Transplant Act of 1984 (NOTA) does not forbid compensation for the majority of “bone marrow donors.” That was great news for patients needing bone marrow transplants: As CEI’s Greg Conko noted earlier, the court’s ruling clarified that it is legal for approximately 70 percent of donors to be paid for their life-saving contribution, compensation that is essential because as many as 3,000 people still die every year in the United States alone waiting for a marrow transplant because an appropriate match cannot be found. Only compensation provides an incentive for additional donors to come forward and contribute their life-saving cells.

Rule Four of The Rules

4. What does it take to be the smartest person in the world? You have to understand six things.

•First, everything is the basics.
•Second, some things really are right and some things really are wrong.
•Third, there really is such a thing as good and evil in the world.
•Fourth, everything has an historical context.
•Fifth, everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality.
•Sixth, you need the balancing effect of other people’s personalities in your life.

###

This Week With Alan Caruba

2012-01-21T18:23:00.002-05:00

There has been an unspoken redefining of journalism from objective reporting to active participation, deliberately shaping public opinion whether the core of the content offered is true or not.-

Alan Caruba

Alan’s Cartoon Roundup

Destroying America by Denying Access to Energy
It is the crime of the century that America, home to some of the world’s greatest reserves of coal, natural gas and oil, is being deliberately destroyed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior as they do everything in their power to restrict access and drive energy producers out of business.

Whatever Happened to...?
In the run-up to the South Carolina primary election on Saturday, it strikes me that the overwhelming coverage of the campaign process has shoved some important stories to the sidelines. There is noticeably little coverage of the nation’s obscene unemployment problem; one that is comparable to the Great Depression.

Obama's Keystone Debacle
Future historians may conclude that President Obama’s decision to reject a permit for the building of the XL Keystone pipeline was a key factor in his defeat for a second term in 2012. One can only hope that, in the course of the campaign, Republicans will focus public attention on the deliberate “no energy” policies of the Obama administration that have thwarted the creation of jobs, the generation of electrical power for homes and businesses, as well as fueling our transportation needs. The Obama administration policies also meant that billions in tax revenue have been lost. Tapping U.S. energy reserves of coal, natural gas, and oil would also be a major step toward greater national security, freeing the nation from dependence on foreign oil.

New Jersey's Conservative Renaissance
It was quite a sight. The Republican Governor of New Jersey strode into the cavernous legislative chamber in the Trenton statehouse, filled mostly with Democrats, and proceeded to receive one round of applause after another. Chris Christie is rotund in a way that suggests you wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark ally. Before becoming Governor in 2011, as the U.S. District Attorney he had amassed an impressive record of putting bribe-taking legislators in jail, along with a long list of other criminals.

The U.S. is on a Suicide Watch
In 1991, the Soviet Union, arguably the greatest experiment in Communism, collapsed. After Mao Zedong died in 1976, his successors moved to shift its Communist economy to one that embraced Capitalism while retaining centralized government control. Following World War Two, the recovering nations of Europe were rescued from Communism by the Marshall Plan, but adopted Communism-Light in the form of Socialism. The U.S. was already headed in that direction, creating programs that we now call “entitlements.” For most of the nation’s history, such “entitlements” did not exist.

Obama's "Fairness" is Pure Communism
It is clear that Barack Obama’s main campaign theme is going to be about “fairness.” This is one of those words like “hope” and “change” that can mean many different things to different people. No one can ever accuse Obama of clarity. He is a consummate sloganeer, but the results of those slogans hardly represent anything resembling fairness. Or success. The one incontrovertible fact about life is that it is not fair. Some are born into wealth and some into moderate means and some into poverty. Moreover, some are born with inherent gifts and talents, while others are not. Some are born into “dysfunctional” families where a parent or

Obama has Failed African Americans

January 16, 2012 – Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

It is always a difficult endeavor for a White man to write about the African American—Black—population. The suspicion of prejudice always lingers, but it must also be said that many White people, particularly those who voted for Barack Obama in 2008, are seriously disappointed with him and, not surprisingly, so are many Blacks.

EPA With Steve Milloy

2012-01-20T18:40:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

As the years have progressed it has become obvious to many of us that the EPA is out of control, unscientific, irrational - and ultimately - misanthropic, by intention and by action. We know that the bed bug plague afflicting the nation is a direct result of actions by the EPA. They have twisted the rules, warped and made up science and completely embraced the precautionary principle in all of their actions. They do not work on the idea that the science determines the action. They want action irrespective of the science. The Food Quality Protection Act is one such example. Now almost the only category of pesticide left to us, pyrethroids, is under attack because the chemical companies have "voluntarily" (all the chemical companies) agreed to change all their labels regarding exterior pesticide applications as they go through re-registration. The primary scheme the EPA uses to destroy pesticide use by creating unnecessary costs; thus making it financially undesirable to jump through their hoops.

For anyone to be able to utter the insane comments you will see below is beyond incredible. If anyone ever had any doubt that the EPA leadership and their allies aren’t insane this should be a good start at eliminating such wrong headedness.

EPA chief: Global warming promotes terrorism
Environmental ills such as pollution and climate change can help foster anti-Americanism and terrorism in underdeveloped nations, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and other Obama administration officials said Friday. “Factors like poverty and resource shortages can lead to instability,” Jackson said at the National Council for Science and the Environment’s National Conference on Environment and Security. She noted that commerce, transportation and recreation now affect the rapidly filling planet, which has limited natural resources.

EPA accused of ‘sue and settle’ to expand regulatory reach
“It is time to end this mission creep and restore the EPA’s intended role as described by the Clean Water Act,”says Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio). Congressional Republicans are raising questions about what they call a recent pattern of U.S. EPA settlements being used by the agency to justify an overextension of regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act.

EPA hits on new way to attack fracking: Water use
Water contamination is not panning out as a means of stopping fracking. So the EPA is working on a new plan. A top adviser to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is ranking the agency’s core environmental concerns related to hydraulic fracturing, with strains on water supply as a top issue. But EPA’s senior policy counsel Robert Sussman is warning that a lack of strong scientific conclusions about actual impacts could hamper the agency’s ability to promulgate policies to protect against potential adverse impacts where state regulations fall short.

Arrogance: EPA’s McCarthy says power companies can make mercury deadline
I often wonder how people who have never held real jobs are so expert in so many fields of industry and business. I guess it is “because EPA and McCarthy have so much experience generating and transmitting electricity?”

EPA pushed State Dept. to consider tar sands CO2 emissions for Keystone XL decision
A rational that could be used to shutdown any fossil fuel development project.

GOP seeks legislative fix to EPA, reliability conundrum
Now that utilities and Congressional Republicans have failed to protect our electricity supply against EPA overreach, there’s a conspiracy afoot to protect the utilities from their own failure. This must be opposed.

Court rejects EPA IG report as evidence in greenhouse gas litigation
Another reason why judicial review of EPA rules needs revamping.

Surber: Drill, baby, drill works
“We must fight the EPA and return it to working on actual pollution and not made up crap.”

New Greenhouse Regs for Power Plants: Will EPA Go to Extremes?
Greenwire (subscription required) reports that EPA has sent its proposed regulation establishing greenhouse gas (GHG) New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for new and modified power plants to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review

GAO Report Shows that Flawed Scientific Process at EPA Continues
Sens. Jim Inhofe and David Vitter today today said that a report by the GAO confirms that EPA’s IRIS program is flawed and that the agency is not basing its decisions on the best available science. The release and links are below.

EPA to rig ‘independent’ review of fracking report
The EPA has already been caught cheating on this report. No doubt the agency will load up the “independent” panel with toadies for a whitewash.

Greenhouse Gas Wars to Restart in Texas
Next month, a federal court hears oral arguments in lawsuits that Texas has filed to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency

Obama set to ban new coal plants?
Obama may make good on his 2008 promise to bankrupt anyone who wants to build a coal plant.

###

Logical Fallacy of the Week, Week 21: Argument From Silence

2012-01-20T14:35:00.000-05:00

...

Argument from silence (argumentum e silentio) – where the conclusion is based on silence of opponent, failing to give proof, based on "lack of evidence" - The argument from silence (also called argumentum e silentio in Latin) is generally a conclusion based on silence of opponent, failing to give evidence.

In the field of classical studies, it often refers to the deduction from the lack of references to a subject in the available writings of an author to the conclusion that he was ignorant of it. When used as a logical proof in pure reasoning, the argument is classed among the fallacies, but an argument from silence can be a convincing form of abductive reasoning.

Examples:

Bobby: I know where Mary lives.
Billy: Where?
Bobby: I'm not telling you!
Billy: You're just saying that because you don't know!

Billy's conclusion may not be justified: perhaps Bobby doesn't want to tell him. Consider, however, the following type of argument:

John: Do you know any Spanish?
Jack: Of course. I speak it like a native.
John: That's good, because I need to know the Spanish phrase for "Happy Birthday".
Jack: Sorry, I don't have time for that right now. Maybe tomorrow. Bye.

Afterwards, Jack continually refuses to give John the Spanish translation, either by ignoring John or by giving excuses. John then concludes, by argument from silence, that Jack does not in fact know Spanish or does not know it well. In other words, John believes that Jack's ignorance is the most plausible explanation for his silence. Use of argument from silence in this situation is reasonable given that the alternatives, that Jack either doesn't want or is afraid to translate, would be unreasonable without more information.......

Fraking With Steve Milloy

2012-01-19T20:07:00.002-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

As you go through the articles you will notice that I have listed the pros and cons on this issue; and I did so for two reasons. To show what is rational and what is not.

We have ministers with Ph.D.s in theology asting as if they know what they are talking about. Pretending that this is a theological issue. Quite frankly, even if there were I doubt it they could identify it.

We have pandering politicians and governments that must be insane for refusing to enjoy this wonderful resource. Is it so hard to realize that the world's economies cannot produce the economic viability they claim to desire so badly without abundant inexpensive energy?

We have 'scientists' that are equally irresponsible as the global warming scaremongering frauds promoting more irrational scares as in the methane case.

Then the best. The arguments are all based on the idea that we must adopt alternative energy because we are running out of oil, natural gas and coal. We aren't! Then the irrational and misanthropic claims by global warming frauds that fossil fuels are going to cause the world to burn up. Both turned out to be wrong.

Let's not lose sight of reality. If we drill for the oil that really is there; if we drill for the natural gas that really is there; if we mine the coal that really is there....we don't need alternative fuels and there expensive and ineffective schemes will disappear. Furthermore, won't have to listen to these misanthropic greenies and their foolish supporters lie to us about how we should energize our homes and businesses. The bigger hope is that this will help to convince reasonable and intelligent people, who haven’t had their minds warped by the fever swamps of environmentalism, that everything the greenies say is a lie.

Let us inject facts into ‘Seismicity’
What’s unfortunate is that some folks are attempting to use [recent seismic events in Ohio] as a justification for stopping oil and natural gas development in Ohio — kind of like trying to argue that the auto industry should be shut down just because a scrap tire dump caught fire somewhere.”

Poll: Ohioans Want Benefits of Fracking for Gas Without Earthquakes
Some risk is part of life. Why allow an occasional minor earth rumble to stop jobs and economic growth?

New York state RINO embraces class warfare in introducing fracking moratorium
Because “…it’s the billionaires and the gazillionaires that have all the access.”

Ohio Drilling Is ‘Godsend’
By 2015, industry officials believe oil and natural gas producers will spend $34 billion for exploration and development across Ohio. “I think this is going to be a godsend for this part of the state,” said Terry Fleming, executive director of the Ohio Petroleum Council, during the Tuesday oil and gas forum at Bridgeport High School. “No one spends this kind of money unless they expect a return.”

Pastors: ‘Where would Jesus frack?’
Two local pastors are taking part in a rally today in Harrisburg to voice their concerns about the impact the Marcellus Shale industry could have on the health and environment in Central Pennsylvania. The Rev. Ricky Phillips, of Mazeppa Union Church and St. John’s Church of Dry Valley in Winfield, and the Rev. Leah Schade, of United in Christ Lutheran Church near West Milton, recently joined forces to form the Interfaith Sacred Earth Coalition of the Susquehanna Valley….“I’m a Ph.D. candidate at the Lutheran seminary in Philadelphia,” Schade noted. “My research is on preaching and ecological theology… I approach this issue of the Marcellus Shale from a theological perspective.” (Is it any wonder why the churches are empty? RK)

‘Bomb Waiting To Go Off’: CDC-ATSDR blames methane in Ohio drinking water on fracking
“That news contradicts repeated statements from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources on the connection between the drilling and problems at the two houses…”

Muddying the Marcellus Debate With Science
The notion that we need to scratch our heads about the science is bogus. No matter what happens with the Marcellus, debates about energy will not be over. If shale gas drilling is permitted, we will have no choice but to work together — both those who have been for and those who have been against drilling — toward effective planning and regulation to produce the best possible outcome. If drilling is subject to continued moratoria, most of us will still be using fossil fuels, even as we begin to think (as some already are) about what could replace them.

Cornell research group defends gas-drilling study
They claim that shale gas has twice the carbon footprint of coal over the short-term.

NY village to consider moratorium on fracking
Fracking is falling victim to mob-ocracy.

New Fracking Technology to Bring Huge Supplies of Oil and Gas to the Market
Petroleum reservoir fracturing is set for a major improvement with new technologies going to work miles down from the surface and then out horizontally

North Dakota Drillers Need More Fracking Crews, State Says
crews-state-says/#more-9784Energy companies exploring North Dakota’s Bakken shale formation for oil need more field crews amid a labor shortage that left hundreds of wells awaiting hydraulic fracturing, a state official said

Abundant supply of real energy could hamper pretend alternatives and really stupid ideas
Or, to restate that headline in greenspeak: “A new economic study raises concern that the abundant new resource could delay development of renewable energy and carbon capture technologies”

America’s hidden 60 million barrel a day industry
Misleading Reuters headline, about half is a resource used for enhanced oil and gas recovery with most of the rest pumped into disposal formations – only about 0.6% goes to onshore containment ponds for treatment

###

A Thoughtful Warrior

2012-01-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

TO TERRY WITT: A TRULY GREAT GUY, A THOUGHTFUL WARRIOR FOR WHAT'S RIGHT,

Terry Witt will be missed. He is a uniquely sophisticated thinker, dedicated to the promotion of truth, life quality advancement and human betterment/improvement. We can think of few other folks who embody his talents, kindness and commitment to always trying to do what is both best and right for his supporters, friends and family.

When you think about Terry and his efforts for just a bit, high praise of him is not only fully deserved but totally earned. Terry came to Oregon and Oregonians for Food and Shelter (OFS) at a time of turmoil. He left a good company with a secure position to undertake critical issue battles in a whole new, different, and largely unknown setting, with mostly unmet people. Succeeding in that kind of tumultuous change, having that type of dedication to duty is the essence of who and what is - Terry Witt!

Now, fortunately for "our" side and the "good folks" interests, Terry was able to undertake these hard challenges with some very good assets. He started this transition with, not only his grand family's support, but with the ardent backing of his soon to be "former" employer.

Once in Oregon, excellent resources awaited; Paulette Pyle, the OFS Grassroots Director, who has smarts, working knowledge, enthusiasm, vibrancy and energy! Paulette has the ability to advocate what's desired, whats needed, whats correct, and what is important.

Terry then arranged OFS headquarters and staff support of unequalled quality; meaning he found and retained Sandi Schukar; truly a gem who is not only organized and a great organizer, but is a paper/electronic wonder, which is key in today's ever more burgeoning, harried, and intense IT age.

He found this wonderful support was backed by an OFS Board and organization, dedicated to doing what is best and right for themselves, supporters, the people, our State and Country and the earth/environment. By energizing and further organizing the existing and new assets and people, Terry Witt brought intelligence, energy and power to the battles for pesticide, chemical and use truth, helping maintain the production and safety tools desperately needed today to promote life, our environment, profit, health, and life/living quality.

Terry Witt, the good warrior, has succeeded by law, by rule and by logic. Terry's win is our victory, too, and we thank him ... very much!

Dave Deitz

Observations From the Back Row

2012-01-16T20:11:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

I received an e-mail from Sandra Wirtz, Director of Research and Staff Blogger for the American Resources Policy Network alerting me to an energy issue that I have listed below. However, in doing so she has brought two web sites to my attention that is filled with infomation that I wish to share with you. The American Resouces Policy Network has articles that clearly demonstrate that industry can only function as long as it has access to raw materials, such as this article, Germany jumps into the race for rare earths. She also alerted me to an article, Nuclear Disarmament in the Resource Wars, which isn't about bombs, but energy and the long term consequences of "Sec. of Interior Ken Salazar’s decision to impose a 20-year mining ban in a million-acre buffer area around Grand Canyon National park from last week". This article appears at RealWorld.com which is filled with tons of article links worth exploring. I have added both to my favorites.

This is a short list today as so much is going on, but I will continue to address the fraking issue along with all the other issues that are worth exposing. We need to be concerned with one thing and one thing only; the facts, and we must be prepared to follow them wherever they may lead. Ideology has no place in this search unless the ideology and the facts converge.

There are two paths that we must choose from. Is it going to be the path where ideology creates the facts, or will it be the path were facts create the ideology? Thomas Sowell once observed that some things seem so reasonable that they can fail nine times out of nine and everyone will try them a tenth. Other things can succeed nine times out of nine and yet seem so unreasonable that everyone will refuse to try it the tenth. That is why we must follow the facts, especially historical facts. Tell me the hisory and I will give you the answer.

That is the difference between socialism and capitalism. One is an ideology in search of facts and the other is an ideology created by facts. Capitalism has lifted more people out of misery, squalor and suffering than any system that has ever existed. Socialism has driven more people into dystopia than any system in human history. Dystopia follows socialism like Sancho Panza followed Don Quixote…a madman.

Going Green

Deadly cantaloupe listeria outbreak blamed on non-chlorinated wash
Irrational Greenie hatred of "chemicals" kills people - The enviro war against chlorine claims more victims. From the House Energy and Commerce report about the 2011 outbreak of listeria in cantaloupe:… According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 146 people in 28 states have been infected, 30 people have died, and*n Sturmabteilung, both of which used physical coercion and intimidation to halt the democratic process.

Welcome to Islam

Terror in Tampa
According to the FBI’s criminal complaint, Osmakac, a naturalized American citizen, had been planning a massive terror attack targeting everything from businesses to nightclubs and bridges with the aim of killing and injuring as many people as possible........No sooner was Osmakac in handcuffs than CAIR spokesman Hassan Shibly suggested that the FBI was more culpable in the case than the jihadist in their custody. “The weapons and explosives were provided by the government. Was he just a troubled individual, or did he pose a real threat?” .......Osmakac’s clearly expressed conviction that Allah required him to commit terrorism points up another emerging and equally misguided assessment of the case – namely, that religion had nothing to do with Osmakac’s motives. “I don’t think his Islamic religion has anything to do with what’s going on,” claimed Dr. Barbara DeGeorge, identified by local Florida media as an “Islamic studies expert,” following the arrest. Even the FBI made a concession to political correctness, with the head of the agency’s Tampa Bay division assuring the press that Osmakac’s case “is not about the Muslim religion.” (Editor's Note: You may wish to listen to the “Voices of Palestine: Nabil Shaath” RK)

When Muslim Moms Kill
Front Page Editor’s note: A mother accused of murdering three of her daughters and her husband’s first wife in an honor killing recently testified in an Ontario court in Canada. Tooba Mohammad Yahya, 41, is accused of conspiring with her husband, Mohammad Shafia, 58, and their eldest son, Hamed, 21, of running one of their family cars into a canal with their four relatives inside. See Pamela Geller’s coverage of the trial here.

In these tragic and disturbing circumstances, the editors of Frontpage felt it timely and relevant to run the video of Frontpage editor Jamie Glazov’s speech in March 2011 to the San Fernando Chapter Valley Chapter for “Act! for America,” in which he brought attention to the victims of Islamic honor killings and shed light on why the Left is in league with the Muslim murderers and turns a callous blind eye to the Muslim female victims. The phenomenon crystallizes the Left’s contemporary unholy alliance with radical Islam. Below are the four parts of the 4-part speech:

Medicine

Totally drug-resistant TB at large in IndiaA strain of tuberculosis that is resistant to all existing TB drugs has emerged in Mumbai, India. "We currently have 12 confirmed cases, of which three are dead," says Zarir Udwadia of the Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre in Mumbai, and head of the team whose diagnoses of four cases has just been published……The worry is that if it continues spreading, TB will become incurable again and patients will have to rely on their immune system, rather than medical intervention, to overcome the illness – a scenario last seen a century ago… the drugs can cost between $2000 and $12,000 per patient. Treating conventional TB costs just $20 per patient……"We must wake up the politicians," says McNerney. "Do we wait until it starts to come to the UK and the US on airplanes, or do we act now?"

This Week With Alan Caruba

2012-01-15T20:21:00.002-05:00

Alan Caruba

Alan’s Weekly Cartoon Round-up

Did You Know Homeland Security is Monitoring the Internet?
One of the lessons one learns in military basic training is “situational awareness”, a term that reflects the importance of watchfulness in combat. It can mean the difference between life and death. Police practice this as well, looking for people who seem out of place in a neighborhood

Election Year Reality and Insanity
There is something about an election year that seems to bring out the worst in a lot of people. Having settled on a candidate, they defame the opponents and the motives of those that support them. This is greatly aided by the charges that fly backward and forward among the primary candidates themselves. It’s not pretty, but it is the way a democracy works.

Ice Age "News" is Wrong--It's Coming Sooner Than Later
When you consider the millions of words published as “news” about global warming, a massive hoax based on the theory that an increase in the Earth’s levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), a minor atmospheric gas (0.0380%), it boggles the mind that reporters for a respected newswire, Reuters, would still be writing utter rubbish about it.

Republicans! Stop Looking for a Messiah!
In 2008 the voters gave the Oval Office to a man who Rush Limbaugh and others mockingly called “the messiah” for his grandiose rhetoric and promises of change. If the first two primaries are any indication, Republican Party voters seem to be looking for their own messiah, a perfect candidate, and no such person exists.

America's Dark Mood
It is possible for an entire nation to suffer depression? Not the financial, but the emotional kind. I have not spoken to anyone, however, that has expressed any optimism about the state of the nation and the air is full of conspiracy theories regarding what new action Barack Obama might take. The most popular of these is that he will declare “a national emergency” in order to assert powers that would put him in control of the nation without reference or consultation with Congress.

Obama's War on U.S. Energy
The Iowa caucuses tell us that the campaign season is now upon us. While we focus on the Republican candidates, there will likely only be one Democratic candidate for president. If you still need a reason to defeat Obama in 2012 consider his administration’s intense effort to deprive America of the energy it needs to function and compete in the world.

###

Chuck Norris: Fighter of Evil?

2012-01-15T07:26:00.004-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

This last week Chuck Norris - yes that Chuck Norris - penned an article that featured this headline: “Americans drinking pesticide for breakfast - Chuck Norris explains how imported fruit is poisoning U.S. food supply”

In the article he discusses a self reporting company that found “low levels of an unauthorized fungicide in its own products, as well as orange juice and concentrate made by competitors” called carbendazim. But what is the real story.

First of all, it was only trace amounts discovered in this orange juice and carbendazim has been lawfully used for many years in Brazil and other countries, but this isn’t considered a lawful application in the U.S. In the U.S. the only approved use “is to treat nonfood items such as ornamental trees, textiles and paints.”

He goes on to parrot the typical greenie suspicions and speculations by saying; “As with electromagnetic fields, low levels of pesticides tested in individual imported citrus may be considered harmless by the FDA; but we must consider the cumulative amounts of trace pesticides being poured into us from a host of products lining our grocery, from coffee and corn to sugars and syrups. The omen in orange juice, indeed the sign in citrus, is that carbendazim is only one illegal pesticide being allowed within our borders and bodies.” He asks us to consider the accumulative effects…. OK, tell me….. what are those accumulative effects?

If you were to do blood tests to see what is actually in our bodies you will find over 200 synthetic chemicals. Yet, as we look around us we see people living longer healthier lives than ever in human history. I guess the accumulative effects are beneficial. After all, everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality! Trace amounts of many things appear in our blood and at some level will be toxic because the does makes the poison. But since we can test lower that parts per quadrillion does it matter if there are incredibly small amounts of these trace elements in our bodies? No! The threshold level of any substance is the key. If the molecular load is too small the cell will not react to it. That is science and not these emotional declarations about the discovery of ‘trace’ elements.

Then he brings up another red herring; Colony Collapse Disorder! In the article he claims that pesticides are a seriously implicated in this problem. The fact of the matter is we now know that it isn’t pesticides, particularly neonicotinoids, it isn’t magnetic waves, it isn’t cell phones and it isn’t a conspiracy by Islamic terrorists to destroy American agriculture and it isn’t a conspiracy by the bees themselves. It is in reality an “all natural” problem, i.e. pathogens and parasites and the parasites exacerbate the pathogen problem.

He states that “Researchers are saying there are many other inadvertent negatives of the onslaught of so many pesticides, including the catastrophic declines in honeybee populations, termed “colony collapse disorder.” Bee pollination is a lucrative business and a critical constituent to high-value crops – including apples, cherries, almonds, pumpkins, cranberries, blueberries and watermelons – but what would be the long-term effects if bee colonies were to be wiped out by pesticides?” Furthermore he quotes a Dr. Jim Frazier, professor of entomology at Penn State University saying “The threats facing pollinators should raise concerns, as sub-lethal impacts on bees are more serious than we had initially thought.”

Blatant nonsense, there is no verifiable evidence that pesticides are causing this at all. Will pesticides kill some bees? Yes! Will the amount matter? NO! Furthermore, most our plants are not pollinated by animals of any kind. And even if bees were wiped out tomorrow there are plenty of other pollinators out there. Remember that honey bees are an imported insect. How did plants get pollinated in the America’s before European settlers brought them here? Colony Collapse Disorder is ‘all natural’ and we need to get that! (Please follow this link to get the real answer! RK)

Chuck Norris was never a great actor, but no one cared because he was an action figure; and most importantly he was an action figure that worked to eradicate evil in the world. I wish he would work on that in his articles. Those who stand against pesticides are unwitting supporters of the evil perpetrated by the green movement; a step child of leftism; and based on the amount of people they have killed, tortured, bankrupted, tormented and left in dystopia over the last 100 years; they represent the most evil movement of modern history. Actually; I don’t know any movement in all of human history that has done more damage to humanity or the planet. “The Left Isn’t Just Wrong: It Really is Evil.”

Maggie: Her Real Legacy!

2012-01-14T18:34:00.001-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

Recently Hollywood released a movie about Margaret Thatcher that some have felt was demeaning to her. Since I haven't seen it and I won't see it I will take their word for it. Especially since they are talking about Hollywood. However I think we might wish to review the real "Maggie" because when the left writes history it is worse than propaganda.

Borlaug: We Need to Remember What Greatness Really Is!

2012-01-14T10:14:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

This is a compilation of work by a number of authors. Please follow the links to see the originals. RK

“Today, famines—whether in Zimbabwe, Darfur or North Korea—are politically induced events, not true natural disasters.”

Once again; tonight, drink a toast to one of the great benefactors of the poorest people in the world, Borlaug the Great. Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution died at age 95. Ron Bailey calls him “the man who saved more human lives than anyone else in history.”

By saving millions of people from starvation, green-revolution father Norman Borlaug arguably has done more for humanity than has any other human being of the past century (”Norman Borlaug, 95, Dies; Led Green Revolution,” Sept. 13). Yet unlike Sen. Kennedy’s, his death will go relatively unnoticed. He’ll certainly not be canonized in the popular mind. Don Boudreaux

Just think of the people who have gone down in history as “the Great“: Alexander the Great, Catherine the Great, Charles the Great (Charlemagne), Frederick the Great, Peter the Great — despots and warmongers. Just once it would be nice to see the actual benefactors of humanity designated as “the Great”: Galileo the Great, Gutenberg the Great, Samuel Morse the Great, Alan Turing the Great.

On the day Norman Borlaug was awarded its Peace Prize for 1970, the Nobel Committee observed of the Iowa-born plant scientist that "more than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world." The committee might have added that more than any other single person Borlaug showed that nature is no match for human ingenuity in setting the real limits to growth. Borlaug, who died Saturday at 95, came of age in the Great Depression, the last period of widespread hunger in U.S. history. The Depression was over by the time Borlaug began his famous experiments, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, with wheat varieties in Mexico in the 1940s. But the specter of global starvation loomed even larger, as advances in medicine and hygiene contributed to population growth without corresponding increases in the means of feeding so many. Borlaug solved that challenge by developing genetically unique strains of "semidwarf" wheat, and later rice that raised food yields as much as six fold. The result was that a country like India was able to feed its own people as its population grew from 500 million in the mid-1960s, when Borlaug's "Green Revolution" began to take effect, to the current 1.16 billion. Today, famines—whether in Zimbabwe, Darfur or North Korea—are politically induced events, not true natural disasters.

While rice is normally thought of as the grain of the far east, wheat is also a major grain product. “Around the time Dr Borlaug arrived on the scene in the mid-1960s, the specter of famine, shortages, and starvation hung over the sub-continent. India was importing huge quantities of food grains from the US…to feed its growing millions in a manner that was famously described as "ship-to-mouth" sustenance. Enter Norman Borlaug, a strapping, self-made, sun-burnt American from the farmland of Iowa, who had spent more a decade by then in Mexico after hard-earned doctorate in Depression-era US. What he had pulled off in experiments in Mexico was a miracle, that if successfully applied in India, would fill its granaries to overflow - as it eventually did. By cranking up a wheat strain containing an unusual gene, Borlaug created the so-called ''semi-dwarf'' plant variety -- a shorter, stubbier, compact stalk that supported an enormous head of grain without falling over from the weight. This curious principle of shrinking the plant to increase the output on the plant from the same acreage resulted in Indian farmers eventually quadrupling their wheat -- and later, rice -- production. It heralded the Green Revolution.” Josette Sheeran, the head of the World Food Program, [said] "His total devotion to ending famine and hunger revolutionized food security for millions of people and for many nations."

Dr. Borlaug’s advances in plant breeding led to spectacular success in increasing food production in Latin America and Asia and brought him international acclaim. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He was widely described as the father of the broad agricultural movement called the Green Revolution, though decidedly reluctant to accept the title. “A miserable term,” he said, characteristically shrugging off any air of self-importance. Yet his work had a far-reaching impact on the lives of millions of people in developing countries. His breeding of high-yielding crop varieties helped to avert mass famines that were widely predicted in the 1960s, altering the course of history. Largely because of his work, countries that had been food deficient, like Mexico and India, became self-sufficient in producing cereal grains. “More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world…..Dr. Borlaug, vigorous and slender at 56, was working in a wheat field outside Mexico City when his wife, Margaret, drove up to tell him the news. “Someone’s pulling your leg,” he replied, according to one of his biographers, Leon Hesser. Assured that it was true, he kept on working, saying he would celebrate later.

Borlaug ….recognized the vital importance of new technologies to increase agricultural yields and feed the world - millions of people are alive today thanks to his work, which amounted to a practical and courageous challenge to the Malthusian doomsayers. As a great scientist Borlaug also defended DDT for malaria control - and we salute him.

Ronnie Coffman of the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) notes that "we have a lot of complaints about the green revolution, but those who complain have little awareness of the alternatives ... because stem rust is a global disease, it's not a national disease. We have to hang together on this thing or we will all hang separately, because you cannot defend yourself alone." "Coffman met a frail Borlaug, and this humble American hero gave a last, stark warning: "Don't relax. Rust never sleeps."

During the 1960’s and 70’s people like Paul Ehrlich and Obama’s Science Czar, John Holdren, made” apocalyptic forecasts of global famine”, which like so much greenie scare mongering proved to be “dramatically wrong”.

“In the 40 years from 1963, the world population doubled, and the number of chronically malnourished people (essentially a problem of poverty and infrastructure rather than overall food availability) hardly changed. Over 3 billion more people were fed from essentially the same total area of farmland.”

The green movement claims that the undeveloped world should not make the same “mistakes” the develop world make. Apparently they feel that feeding their people was a mistake! Fix starvation first and then everything else can be looked at. “Norman Borlaug did not want to deny developing countries the opportunity to do the same, and neither should we.”

“Borlaug was well aware that if we are to protect our planet's biodiversity, while also feeding its increasing number of human residents, it will be impossible to bring more land under cultivation. We need every tool available to us to make the land that is already farmed more productive -- including, as Borlaug put it, "proper use of genetic engineering and biotechnology". According to Borlaug, “agriculture is by its nature an unnatural practice, and its goal has always been to create plentiful crops that "no-one eats but us". We manage farmland in such a way as to minimize loss to weeds, birds and insects, while seeking to improve its yields with manure, artificial fertilizer and irrigation. GM crops create an opportunity to take that process a stage further, so that our species is increasingly the only one that eats the crops we sow in our fields.”

"He was a bright, affirming flame in the midst of a sea of despair then prevailing." This was how M.S. Swaminathan described Norman Borlaug, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, who died in Dallas on Saturday night. "He was a man of extraordinary humanism, commitment to a hunger-free world and knew no nationality. He is the only person to have so far won a Nobel for agriculture." Norman Borlaug's association with India began in the late 1960s. India was then importing 10 million tonnes of wheat and "we lived a ship-to-mouth" existence. The introduction of the dwarf variety of wheat developed by him in Mexico was a turning point in India's food production pattern.

For all the links please go the Borlaug the Great!

###

"Feeding the World: Why Pesticides are a Critical Part of the Solution"

2012-01-14T07:27:00.003-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

This announcement was sent on January 13th, 2011 by the American Council on Science and Health. It would appear that someone on Capitol Hill realizes that everything everyone "knows" about pesticides is more urban myth than science.

On Tuesday, January 17, 2012, at 2:00 P.M. the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) will host a Capitol Hill briefing in Washington, DC, on the role pesticides play in protecting our food supply and public health.

Dr. Allan Felsot, Professor of Entomology and Environmental Toxicology at Washington State University and author of the American Council’s new report, "Pesticides and Health: Myths vs. Realities" will be the featured speaker at 1300 Longworth House Office Building (Independence Avenue and South Capitol Street) in Washington, DC.

“The world’s population is expected to reach 9 billion people by 2050, and one of the biggest concerns is whether there will be enough food for everyone.” We need to come to the correct understanding about pesticides and the role they have played in making life healthier and better fed than ever in human history. The important role Pesticides play in the general health and economic well being of society is little understood nor is it appreciated by the public. Why? The answer is actually simple; “The public has been misled by an unholy alliance of environmental scaremongers, funds-seeking academics, sensation-seeking media, vote-seeking politicians and profit-seeking vested interests.” This quote by Viv Forbes says it all!

The "Great" Norman Borlaug , father of the Green Revolution, has often pointed out that you cannot build peace and security on the back of a starving world. It is ironic that this man, who probably saved more lives than any human being in history, is hardly known by the general public while Rachel Carson, who as a result of her writings has been responsible for the modern environmental movement, which since 1972 has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions and the suffering and misery of billions, has schools named after her.

I hope many in decision making positions will avail themselves of this opportunity.

###

Steve Milloy On Fraking

2012-01-12T06:27:00.001-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

I have been watching this thing play out for some time and had intended to do a piece on it sooner. I didn't realize just how many articles Steve linked over this last weeks. My interest really peaked with all the articles dealing with fraking in Ohio. I happen to know that legislators in Ohio aren't impressed with the emotional squeaking of the green movement. As one legislator informed the Ohio Professional Applicators for Responsible Regulations board of directors that a lot of things are said in these public forums that simply have no science behind them, but these people aren't sworn in. He did make it clear that they know how to sift through the information.

Here are a few of the articles that I particularly think are worthwhile for a number of reasons. One is because it is so important to Ohio and two because I wish to demonstrate how corrupt the green movement is and how that corruption can spread. Even using the CDC and the Lung Association, whose credibility has come under fire in recent months.

Treachery: Lung Association Attacks Fracking
We predicted this backstabbing. We exposed fracking giant Chesapeake Energy’s paying the American Lung Association to attack the coal industry here and here.

Fracking seismophobia spreads to Indiana
“It’s a new and unknown method of extraction that could have devastating results for us.”
The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette editorializes, A scientific investigation concluding that fracking operations led to recent earthquakes in northeast Ohio should also cause rumbles at the Indiana Statehouse. The research should garner strong support for Rep. Win Moses’ bill to add minimal regulations on fracking operations in Indiana…

Quaking Over Fracking: Ohio gets earthquake preparedness plan
Seismophobia gains ground. KDKA (Pittsburgh) reports - There were 11 earthquakes in eastern Ohio in 2011. Most of them were not very powerful and caused little damage, but some people are asking about emergency plans if a major quake hits the area.

More Brown Jobs
Now foreign investors are betting on America’s shale boom - From the Wall Street Journal - Try as government usually does, it’s hard to keep the U.S. economy down. That’s the message of yesterday’s announcement of some $4.8 billion in new foreign investment in America’s booming shale oil and gas industry.

Ohio Mayor buys earthquake insurance for fracking; Seeks moratorium
Fracking hysteria hits Ohio.

Ohio earthquake was not a natural event, expert says
expert-says/#more-8766 “We know the depth (of the quake on Saturday) is two miles and that is different from a natural earthquake.”

Owens: Feds impeding energy industry
“[E]nvironmentalists who had supported natural gas as a “bridge fuel” to kill coal were caught flat-footed. Of course, they are starting to turn against gas now that it appears to be abundant.”

The Greenest Propaganda Grows in New York
“Human Rights” assessment of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas? The Greenest Propaganda Grows in New York -Earthworks’s Oil and Gas Accountability Project has recently commissioned a report on behalf of anti-drilling special interests, and delivered it to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, donning the title: “A Human Rights Assessment of Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas.” This flagrant instrument of green propaganda alleges that the “environmental damage” created by hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), the contentious natural gas extraction process that involves blasting a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals underground, poses “a new threat to human rights.” The basis of this accusation rests upon a citation of a recent United Nations Resolution that states, “environmental damage can have negative implications, both direct and indirect, for the effective enjoyment of human rights.” Again, the archetypal environmentalist assumes the posture of the humanitarian do-gooder, when in reality, their green agenda with the “at-all-costs” underpinnings will ravage the already depressed economies of those areas in upstate New York where natural gas development offers hope for impoverished people.

Report: CDC to medicalize fracking
Fracking is not a public health issue; but the Obama administration wants to turn it into one. One of the government’s top scientists says much more research is needed to determine the possible impacts of shale gas drilling on human health and the environment.

Ohio 4.0 earthquake blamed on fracking (sort of)
Officials said Saturday they believe the latest earthquake activity in northeast Ohio is related to the injection of wastewater into the ground near a fault line, creating enough pressure to cause seismic activity. The brine wastewater comes from drilling operations that use the so-called fracking process to extract gas from underground shale. But Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director Jim Zehringer said during a news teleconference that fracking is not causing the quakes. “The seismic events are not a direct result of fracking,” he said.

EPA omitted embarrassing data from fracking report
More lyin’ and cheatin’ from the Obama EPA.

Ohio Treasurer: Washington Targets Ohio Shale Gas
In the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Republic Steel to add 450 jobs to Lorain as oil and gas exploration booms.” This story reported Republic Steel’s announcement of new jobs in one of Ohio’s hardest-hit counties, to manufacture products in support of the state’s growing oil and gas industry.

Steve Milloy's website Junkscience.com has a page that links all the fraking articles. Please go here to see them all. The amount of work he and his staff put into finding, reading, posting and then organizing this information for future reference is remarkable. If there is a greenie question you are interested in he has the answer. I would also like to recommend perusing his site, Debunkosaurus.com. This one is really great. Almost EVERYTHING is there! It is unlikely there is another site in the world that lists so many green issues with the intellectual response to their unscientific, emotional and irrational claims.

###

We Get What We Ask For!

2012-01-11T19:05:00.002-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

Paradigms and Demographics was created to disseminate information that defends the pesticide applications industries, especially if that information that isn’t being disseminated by the information deliverers of our industry.

Many of those in leadership positions are completely aware of this kind of information. It isn’t that our leaders are ignorant, it is just they are not crusaders. This is true of the trade journals, it is true of our state and national associations, and it is certainly true of the Ph.D.’s who are part and parcel of our industry. Why? First and foremost, heterodoxy isn’t for the faint of heart. No one likes being the rock in the current. Secondly, they don’t perceive this as part of their job description. Thirdly….and this is by far the most important reason of all….we don’t insist that they do it. Our leaders and information deliverers give us what we want. If we are not willing to demand more from them, and then in turn stand up with them and be prepared to be counted then the fault is ours and ours alone! Why should they take shots for us if we don't care?

On August 12, 2011, an article appeared on the American Council on Science and Health web site entitled, “A real scientific study crosses everything off EWG’s list”. The Environmental Working Group (See also the link to the article, Environmental Working Group: Peddlers of Fear.) has been an constant source of misinformation and scare mongering about pesticides since its inception in 1989 (formally incorporated in 1993). If we are to believe all that they say then everyone should have cancer, brain damage, endocrine disruption problems and …..well….just add any old affliction that pleases you and I am sure they will claim that there is evidence that pesticides cause it.

This brings me to the most important kind of science that everyone needs to use in order to understand all of these claims. The science of observation, i.e., “Everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality!” I have used this basic concept since I first started researching all these claims of the green movement. Initially I had a favorable, although erroneous view of environmentalism; whose claims I found to be emotionally charged and unscientific. Very quickly I realized that they spew out lies of omission, lies of commission, misdirection, emotionally charged scaremongering, supposition, junk science studies that are full of weasel words and logical fallacies as the basis for all that they say and do.

The article published by ASCH goes on to say;

“A new study published in the Journal of Toxicology lays to rest any claims about “toxic pesticide residues” that the Environmental Working Group (EWG) publicized with their annual “Dirty Dozen” list. This compilation of “tainted” fruits and vegetables would have everyone scared to touch the majority of produce in the average grocery store. We are pleased, then, that this study, from the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis, looked at the dietary exposure of consumers to pesticides found in twelve products at the top of the EWG’s “Dirty Dozen” list and found…little to worry about.”

The article continues saying;

“To be more precise, the researchers, led by ACSH advisor Dr. Carl Winter, found that all pesticide exposures were well below established chronic reference doses. Dr. Winter concluded that, not only does exposure to these pesticides pose negligible risk to consumers at the levels they are present, but also, substituting organic forms for conventionally grown ones does not result in any appreciable reduction of risk. And, finally, the researchers write: “the methodology used by the environmental advocacy group to rank commodities with respect to pesticide risks lacks scientific credibility.” In other words, the EWG’s claims are empty.”

The chemistry lesson for parents? The "dirty dozen is down to zero".

One of the favorite lines from the green movement, and their acolytes in government when they wish to pass legislation that will seriously restrict pesticides (or any chemical for that matter) is, “it’s for the children”. Unfortunately most of what they are doing ends up being “to the children” versus “for the children”.

We have to start thinking critically about these things. As we look all around the world we see that dystopia (misery, squalor, disease, suffering and death) is rampant where green policies are implemented. They stand against modern food production, pesticides, power production of every type (many in the green movement are now against ethanol, solar and wind energy production as well as oil, natural gas, and nuclear energy), roads, bridges, dams and even the chlorination of drinking water, which is one of the greatest advances in public health ever. They are against everything that makes people live longer and healthier lives. So if dystopia is what results everywhere else the world where their principles are adopted, why would we think it would be different here? Dystopia follows the green movement like the plague follows rats.

We, the pesticide applicators of the world, are the defenders of public health; we are the food providers for the people of the world; we are the true defenders of humanity; we save lives. As one author who was very familiar with exterminators noted; they "are the hunters that keep the tribe healthy".We are part of that thin gray line that stands on the wall and says to society, "no on will harm you on my watch"; and we had better start believing and acting on that fact.

###

Leftism: A Symptom of Madness!

2012-01-11T19:00:00.002-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

This Thought for the Day - inspired by an article by Dennis Prager.

There was going to be a vote in San Francisco to determine if parents will be allowed to circumcise their children because there is some pain involved, which no child has ever in the history of the world remembered, nor is it a painful as many of the things that will occur in their future lives.

This is a city that has “already existing bans on toys in Happy Meals, on soda in city-owned places and on plastic bags, and the city's proposed ban on the sale of pets, even goldfish.” “PETA arguing that there is no moral difference between barbecuing chickens and cremating Jews.”

This is from a people who would happily terminate a child’s life at any time before it was born under the auspices of freedom of choice.

It would have been interesting to see Americans being arrested by San Francisco officials for the “crime” of circumcision. A tradition practiced for 3600 years. The left will embrace any new and exciting “Philosophical Flavor of the Day” as long as it is in opposition to the traditional values that has stood the test of time.

I keep being amazed at their actions. I keep thinking that they must be insane. They certainly have gone past all moral boundaries. It is interesting how they keep changing themselves into angels of light, when in reality their depth of darkness is obvious to anyone who looks. Even if people can't see it for themselves, they could at least look at the history of leftists who demanded change for the good of the common man. Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao Tse Tung, Castro, Pot Poll....all showed what being a man of the left really is. History has shown that dystopia follows leftists (and greenies) like the plague follows rats and is even more deadly. The plague will eventually stop. The left is unending in its quest to dominate, decimate and corrupt humanity. The left is a true angel of darkness.

###

Resistance is the Question

2012-01-11T18:56:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

This article appeared entitled, Resistant Tuberculosis Sweeps Across Europe at ‘Alarming Rate’ which naturally started me thinking about bedbugs and how they have become a plague due to pesticide resistance, and why we are having this problem. The answer is the same in both cases; government interference.

Let’s start with the problem with TB. There are a number of strains of TB that are resistant to very resistant to normal antibiotic treatments. The current answer is to blast them with a battery of drugs that have to be taken over a long period of time and in the right sequence.

To understand why this is becoming a major problem, even beyond the problem with TB, we have to understand a number of things about pharmaceuticals, bacteria, cost analysis and criticism of drug companies. First, let’s start with the fact that bacteria are really tough little devils. They have developed ways of defeating or deactivating antibiotics in ways that have researchers stumped. That is an expensive obstacle to overcome, and the drug companies won't start working on things that may cost a billion dollars to develop and then told they have to sell their drugs at cost or even give them away. This has been done, especially involving HIV/AIDS drugs.

In an article from the American Enterprise Institute they outline the problem in a much broader way than most of the information you read. There is a lot of criticism of the pharmaceutical companies that is in my opinion completely accurate. They spend a lot of money on ‘me too’ drugs, they spend a lot on advertising and promotion (part of which is giving drugs to doctors), and they spend a lot on administration. Probably all true, but so what…it is their money, it is their company and it should be their choice. This whole argument is a logical fallacy because their critics are mixing their sense of morality and social responsibility with a company’s right to run their business as they see fit, which is based on profitability. Who has the right to decide which direction a company should go, or how socially responsible a person or a company has to be?

These companies are in business to make money, not to do charity. How can you force someone to turn his company into a charitable institution? You can’t if you want them to continue producing new pharmaceuticals. If a company chooses to go the route of social responsibility as outlined by the activists I don’t have a problem with that because they have to right to do so. If they choose a path of social responsibility based on profitability, I not only don’t have a problem with that, I applaud them. Because they will be around producing life saving products long after those who give their products away (if they really exist) Furthermore, no matter how convoluted the problems over patent rights and patent extensions become, eventually these products will go out of patent and become public domain, and will be allowed to be produced by anyone, provided that they are developed in the first place; but then, that is the rub isn’t it? If there are no patent rights that are honored there will be no profits; and then there will be no drugs to become generic.

Of course we could have the government pay them or force them to follow the politically popular path, but his must not be the answer. Most of the rest of the world has socialists systems in place that allows the government to set all sorts of standards regarding medical care and medicines. They are also the ones telling U.S. pharmaceutical companies to give them the products at reduced prices, or give it to them outright and even demanding patent privileges. Let’s face it; if that system worked they would be developing the new and most effective products themselves, and the world would be beating a path to their doors. Drug companies are criticized for all sorts of things, and I think most of those criticisms are true, but these are red herring attacks, it still doesn’t change the fact that they are in business to make money and have the right to follow a course of action that is the most profitable, and they need to be applauded for it. This is a case of enlightened self interest, although many or even most will categorize it as greed. If that is what it takes to save lives I don’t have a problem with it. What all businesses require in order to give life to and possibly expand their companies are profits. If they can’t recoup their costs and make money (and I'm not talking wage money here) they will not produce the life saving products that mankind needs. This is a clear cut case of capitalism versus socialism; individual initiative versus central planning. This brings me back to bed bugs.

When the boys came back from WWII bed bugs were ubiquitous; Why? Because they were here when they left! Bed bugs have been with humanity for eternity. So how did the United States become the first country in the history of the world to eliminate bed bugs? We produced DDT and allowed the public to buy and use it. The answer in 1945 was inexpensive, easy to use chemistry that was available to everyone, i.e. DDT. When they became resistant to DDT we switched to malation and other organophosphates, and long with carbamates we finished off bed bugs. They have only returned because of the EPA's insane hate of pesticides and the unscientific regulations they impose. Remember...they don't ban anything any longer. They created hurdles that work even better because banning requires science. These hurdles only required corruption of thought and science... or lack thereof!

###

Colony Collapse Disorder: Cause - All Natural!

2012-01-10T19:54:00.010-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

Starting in 2007 the world became inundated with articles about something called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). Every newspaper in the country had headlines such as, “Are GM Crops Killing Bees?”; “As Bees Go Missing”; “Why the Honey Bee Decline?”; “Who Killed the Honey Bees?”; “Bees Vanish, and Scientists Race for Reasons!”

What was worse was the rhetoric used in these articles such as; “If the tireless apian workers didn't fly from one flower to the next, depositing pollen grains so that fruit trees can bloom, America could well be asking where its next meal would come from.” Then there were articles quoting Einstein as saying; “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left.” While it is true that Einstein was a brilliant physicist, he turned out to be a zero as an entomologist. We have to understand that the European honey bee is an introduced species. How did all the plants, fruits, vegetables and grain crops get fertilized in the America’s before that?

This became an issue in 2007, but CCD was already going on for some time and it appears that we aren’t all dead. I will admit that I haven’t been feeling well lately, but since my wife insists that I get up and go to work every day, I think that clearly settles it…I’m definitely alive and so are seven billion other people on the planet. I don’t want to be hasty mind you, but I would really like to take a speculative stab at this and say; these claims of agriculture disasters are being promoted by greenie scaremongers and scientific fraudsters, and might be ……just might be……a bit premature!

The ‘theory’ I liked best was from the Devic Kingdom. Never heard of that? Here, let me fill you in. There was this lady who was capable of channeling “intuitive information on the microcosm and the macrocosm [regarding] world events, natural disasters, public figures…..and more”; and she was in direct psychic communication with the Devic Kingdom of bees. She says; “What is necessary to sustain the life of the bees is recognition of their role and appreciation of their work and the necessary factors to support their life.”

She went on to say that the bees are in “trauma due to the mistreatment of their species”; explaining that all of these missing bees is a result of a revolt by the bees in “protest they are being captured and made to work for humans”, “and the bees are angry’ and ‘will not remain where they are being mistreated in so many different ways.’”

She reports that they are also upset about Genetically Modified plants and pesticides and will not return to their hives until these “injustices” are fixed, and only those who “support organic, natural and gentle methods will be allowed visits from the bees”. Furthermore, we must appeal “to the angelic rulers of [their] kingdom; the Devic forces who control the comings and goings of various species on this planet. And [they] must have strong assurance that immediate changes are forthcoming.” Isn’t it fortunate that they speak English too?

I also thought it interesting that they were going to stay away from their colonies until they got what they wanted. Isn’t that sort of ….well…..suicidal on their part? So, according to this woman it appears their plan for straightening everyone out is to eliminate themselves from the planet? Wow…..good plan! Now we know who is molding the thinking of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Angels from the Devic Kingdom!

I would imagine that some might think that she might be a bit of a loon, but how can someone question this woman who claims to be in psychic communication with the Delvic Kingdom any more than one questions the sanity of the entire green movement? When you read the greenies demands as to how we need to become one with the biosphere and abandon all that has made our modern well fed lives possible you have to admit; they both are saying the same kind of insane things, only one of them disguises it better.

Colony Collapse Disorder is the official nomenclature for something that is going on in honey bee colonies in many parts of the world; and at the beginning there was a great deal of speculation, but no consistent or verifiable scientific explanation for this.

What was causing bees to simple start dying or disappearing from their colonies? First of all we have to understand that CCD isn’t anything new or unusual. We have had regular occurrences of this forever. This may have been the worst, but it still isn’t unique and there are some common descriptions as to what happens.

Initially the finger of blame was pointed at things being done by and created by…..people! As one “expert” panel stated; this was “The faltering dance between honeybees and trees is symptomatic of industrial disease.”

The reality? This was entirely speculative, and even those who attempted to be open minded on this couldn’t help but throw in the idea that pesticides were a component. After all….we can’t leave those evil pesticides out of any finger pointing. As an example;

“German government researchers have concluded that a bestselling Bayer pesticide is responsible for the recent massive die-off of honeybees across the country's Baden-Württemberg region. In response, the government has banned an entire family of pesticides, fueling accusations that pesticides may be responsible for the current worldwide epidemic of honeybee die-offs.”

Yet in areas of the world where these products were banned the die-offs continued. One ‘expert’ jokingly said;

“My favorite theory, which I throw out, is that the bees are out there creating their own crop circles, working very hard, physically pushing the crops down with their little legs. It fits. It explains the loss of bees and crop circles at the same time. At taxpayers' expense. I want credit for it."

He was joking, but his joke wasn’t much dumber than some things stated seriously by ‘scientists’ and others; including the theory that this was a “plot by Osama bin Laden to destroy American agriculture”. However he went on to say;

“We're the ultimate cause in that we've changed the planet to suit our needs. We're running it to suit our needs and not to the benefit of all the organisms around us.”

I wonder if he has been in contact with the Devic Kingdom also?

We need to get this. Every species that lives and thrives changes the environment around them. The only difference is that when mankind makes changes he can choose the changes; and he can correct any of those changes if necessary; and that is the problem. Who decides what needs changed? My personal view is that we need to give that choice over to the land owners. People who own land and property try to maintain it because it is theirs, and overall they will make the right decisions. This ownership of the commons mentality has always been disastrous.

There were genetically modified food scares, cell phone scares, immune response deficiencies, emotional madness, transportation stress, poor diet causing starvation, global warming and climate change (all attributed to mankind of course), pathogens and parasites. All of these except pathogens and parasites eventually proved to be nonsense as a cause of CCD, but it was all reported as serious “potentials” in various news sources.

This bring us to pathogens and parasites. The wild bee population was suffering as badly as the domestic populations from Varroa mites and tracheal mites. As for pathogens; it was reported “that analysis of honeybee samples collected between 2002 to 2007 showed that the virus, Israeli acute paralysis virus, had been circulating in the US for at least five years.” And in fact one researcher found two kinds of viruses that transformed the shape of wings or caused a disease only affecting queen bee larvae.

“First, it is not true that there has been a mysterious worldwide collapse in honey bee populations. In fact managed hives (which contain the bees which do the vast majority of our pollinating) have increased by a remarkable 45 per cent over the last five years. Lawrence D. Harder from the department of biology at the University of Calgary and Marcelo Aizen from Buenos Aires set about pinning down a couple of myths…….The bee disaster scenario is dependent upon data which is far too regional to take seriously and ‘not representative of global trends’. The truth is that there are more bees in the world than ever. They go on to say; ‘It is a myth that humanity would starve without bees.’ While some 70 per cent of our most productive crops are animal-pollinated (by bees, hoverflies and the like), very few indeed rely on animal pollination completely. Furthermore, most staple foods — wheat, rice and corn — do not depend on animal pollination at all. They are wind-pollinated, or self-pollinating. If all the bees in the world dropped dead tomorrow afternoon, it would reduce our food production by only between 4 and 6 per cent..... ‘Overall we must conclude that claims of a global crisis in agricultural production are untrue.’

It appears that in spite of the fact that bees have probably been to most intensely studied insect in the history of mankind someone just happened to notice that a phorid fly, Apocephalus borealis, was parasitizing bees causing them to become disoriented and abandon the hives; a primary symptom of CCD.

“Three years ago, [a]biology professor looked for something to feed a praying mantis. He found some bees outside his classroom, placed them in a vial and forgot about them. When he looked at the vial a week later, he found dead bees surrounded by small fly pupae. A parasitic fly was feeding on the bees and had killed them.”

This fly places its eggs into the bee’s abdomen. Later as the larvae grow inside the bees and they begin to lose control of their ability to “think and walk….. exhibiting zombie-like behavior by walking around in circles with no apparent sense of direction. Bees will leave “the hive at night flying blindly toward light…..It eventually dies and the fly larvae emerge.”

One research team"found evidence of the fly in 77 percent of the hives they sampled in the Bay Area of California, as well as in some hives in the state’s agricultural Central Valley and in South Dakota”.

It is clear that CCD has been going of forever. It is clear that pesticides can kill some bees, but that number is insignificant and cannot possibly explain the symptoms displayed by honey bee colonies suffering from this disorder. It is clear that fungi and disease are playing a major role. It is now clear that parasites are the number one major component in their demise, and they exacerbate the disease problem.

In conclusion it is clear that most of the scare tactics used are meaningless; we won’t starve; pesticides are our friend; the bees will return; the cause is most assuredly ‘all natural’ and the scaremongers will look for another reason to condemn humanity. I just hope we will have the good sense to ignore them.

The Media's Lies of Omission!

2012-01-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

As I watched the news the last few days I became fully aware of how many talking heads on television really are just that….talking heads. With all smiles and a hail fellow well met attitude they announced the latest piece of propaganda that the current rate of unemployment was now only 8.5%; and this was on Fox News. Happy Days Are Here Again!

That really is “Pious Baloney”!

These are the people at the center of information. How can they fail to analyze this stuff based on reality? Does anyone over there ever read a history book? In the Roosevelt administration they had bumps in unemployment also, but the massive amount of government interference from both Hoover and Roosevelt kept knocking the economy back into depression. Unemployment peaked at about 25% during the Roosevelt administration and averaged about 15% until 1942 when WWII broke out.

So what? This is important because many of the same kind of policies are being carried out as were done during the Wilson, Hoover and Roosevelt administrations. Obama wasn’t the first to decide that he had the power to overturn the U.S. Constitution and throw people into prison on his say so….Wilson oversaw the modern world’s first fascist government during WWI, and did throw people into prison without charge or trial.

The similarities are striking to anyone who reads a history book occasionally! But back to the unemployment rate! I knew this was a false statistic just because of the similarities between this ‘recession’ and the stuff that went on during the Great Depression.

In an article entitled, Lies, Damned lies, and Statistics the author outlines “The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, reported on January 6, 2012 that employment rose by 200,000 in December, indicating a decline by 0.6% since August to current unemployment rate of 8.5%.” by saying; ‘Ahh, but not so fast…let’s look at how these figures are being reported, and dig into the Labor Force Participation Rate:” As he outlines why this 8.5% figure is wrong he notes that to get the real rate of unemployment we need to address the real number of unemployed by 7,304,000 more!

So what does that actually mean to the true unemployment rate? When you take into consideration the U-6 unemployment rate, “or alternative unemployment rate that includes “total unemployed, plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all persons marginally attached to the labor force” ...."the U-6 unemployment rate adjusted for the historical 67% Labor Force Participation Rate would come in at 19.9%.”

Everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. I recently drove through Chesterland, Ohio which is in one of Ohio’s richest counties and was booming for years because of the income level of the people living there. I was stunned at the number of businesses that were closed and how many buildings that were empty and for sale. I have long known the unemployment rate was higher than reported because I knew about this U-6 system and had estimated on my own that the rate had to be between 15 and 20 percent.

So if a bug man knows this I have to ask; why don’t the talking heads know this? And if they know it why don’t they say it? I think this all qualifies as “lies of omission”. Don’t you think?

The Left Isn't Just Wrong: It Really Is Evil!

2012-01-07T19:53:00.003-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

As I watched the results of all of these Republican debates I couldn’t help but wonder how can anyone be fooled by these people? Every little error is magnified beyond belief and their personal and public history becomes evening news and breakfast conversation. I wonder what kind of ego someone has to possess for anyone with their personal and public histories to jump into such a meat grinder. And I find it interesting that those who are the most upright in their dealings aren’t interesting or capable of really competing in that arena. Go figure!

At any rate I then began to ask myself; why are people so easily fooled by the lefties and the greenies? The answer is basic; because people mostly want to be nice to others. It is called a sense of decency. It is a genetic paradigm. Did you ever notice how everyone loves to say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Easter, etc? Why? Because people really like connecting with their fellow man, and at these times of the year they can extend themselves warmly and no one will think they are weird. Is it any wonder people love holidays? Religion may be the basis for it, but in reality it is about the personal connections with their fellow human beings. It is a sense of decency that is part and parcel of the human genetic paradigm.

Lefties use that sense of decency to promote what they call equality or a sense of fairness. What they promote isn’t an equal right to compete to the best of our abilities. To be given a fair shot to play the game with the best of our abilities. In reality it is the equality of outcomes is what they want. And they will decide what that outcome will be. That is the very foundation of leftism. Everyone should have less as long as there is one who has nothing and they will manage that process. That is insane and we need to start saying so. And that is the problem. The very same media that crossed every ‘t” and dotted every “i” on these candidates turns a blind eye to every wart, mole, flaw, scar and destructive misdirection of the left.

In a society such as ours the more wealthy people there are the more those at the bottom of the economic spectrum will also have. Poor in America is luxury in most places in the world because we have so many with so much, and that abundance at the top creates ‘trickle down’ economics. The poor in America have toilets, televisions, radios, watches, regular meals, descent clothes and medical care….even when they can’t afford any of this. Even if they refuse to work! How terrible a system can that be?

However, do we really have equality of competition? They used to publish the names of the top 25 richest people in the nation every year in the newspaper; and every year the same families were among the bottom 12 or 13 and many were old money. There was one family that held three of those slots and then eventually dropped off entirely. Why? Because inherited money isn’t the same as made money! Inherited money dissipates among a growing number of generational heirs. But the top 12 or 13 were always self made people such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and others. In no other country in the world is that possible. I haven’t seen that list for a number of years, but I have no doubt that the pattern remains the same.

As for the greenies; it is easy to surmise that everyone wants clean air, land and water. The trick is to scare them into believing that everything humanity is doing is contaminating those planetary components to the detriment of all human and animal life beyond repair.

We need to get this! Their goal isn’t a sound environment. Their goal is for all of humanity to willingly turn power over to them to control the lives of everyone on the planet; truth notwithstanding. What bothers me are those in the leadership positions in education, religion, politics and science who know better, or at least should know better because they are at the center of information in their fields, who go along with this insanity. They have misled us for their own gain and a corrupt media is the handmaiden to all of this.

Everything we see on the news and everything we read in the newspaper is a lie. Mostly lies of omission, but they are clearly guilty of lies of commission also. The most disturbing part of all of this is the fact that most people don’t mind. People don’t want to have turmoil in their lives, and if they face the truth as to what is going on they then become uncomfortable, then they become responsible and worse yet; they may have to do something. They would rather just be in ignorant bliss, and the left knows that.

That is why when you look around the country at the professional business associations there is always a small fraction of the membership doing all the work, especially if that work is pro bono. That small fraction is then divided into those who are willing to serve and those who are capable of serving, which is a really small number. And those who serve pay a financial penalty for their dedication. None of that will ever change because it is all part and parcel of what it means to be human….it is a genetic paradigm….and we need to accept it. Once we can do that we now have a firm grasp on reality. Once we have a firm hold on reality we can plan and organize to do those things that are necessary to ward of the evil being done. And I do not agree with Dennis Prager when he says the “people on the left aren’t evil, they’re just wrong!” Wrong Dennis!

If a person dies, even accidently, during the commission of a crime everyone that was part of the crime is guilty of murder, even if the person who dies was one of the perpetrators; and they are all charged accordingly. That is a basic ‘common law’ principle! Leftism, in all of its manifestations, has murdered, impoverished and abused more people than any other movement in the history of mankind, and I am talking per ratio. I’m sorry Dennis, I love your work, but leftism and its stepchild, environmentalism, is wrong and evil because evil is as evil does, and anyone who shares in the promotion of it shares the community guilt of those movements.

That is a basic ‘common law’ principle.

###

Observations From the Back Row

2012-01-06T16:12:00.006-05:00

Posted by Rich Kozlovich

LEAD STORY

Feds Propose Allowing Wind Farm Developer to Kill Golden
The federal government is proposing to grant a first-of-its-kind permit that would allow the developer of a central Oregon wind-power project to legally kill golden eagles, a regulatory move being closely watched by conservationists. The Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday released a draft environmental assessment that would allow West Butte Wind Power LLC to kill as many as three protected golden eagles over five years if the company fulfills its conservation commitments.

My Take - We have lost our minds. The greenies ranted tht DDT had to be eliminated to save the world....including the golden eagle, and they rend their garments over some stupid beetle that an oil line from Canada my upset...but now there is going to be a pass on some stupid green energy project that will never be profitable without subsidies, tax breaks or both. We have lost out minds. Why do we listen to these people? RK

SOCIAL SWIRL

An Imperial Sham
[In] 2007…..Leader Reid…resorted to the extraordinary tactic of keeping the Senate in pro-forma session so as to prevent the imperial Bush from doing an end-run around the confirmation process. The move was celebrated by liberal commentators as a brave and necessary assertion of congressional power and was supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama…..Fast-forward to this week. The Senate has once again been in pro-forma session in order to keep President Obama from making recess appointments. Reid….arguing [now] that the maneuver is nothing more than a gimmick…..Reid immediately endorsed the president's decision, accepting the logic that calls a maneuver he invented a sham.

The agency has the power to regulate any practices it deems "unfair" -- primarily the practices of institutions and businesses that had nothing whatsoever to do with the financial crisis.

Indeed, it has blank-check power to write the rules it wants to enforce. Worse, it cannot be reined in by Congress, because Dodd-Frank gave it a self-funding mechanism. It can simply take up to 12 percent of the Federal Reserve's operating expenses to do whatever it wants. The power of Congress is ultimately the power of the purse. But in their finite wisdom, Democratic lawmakers gelded themselves. They also insulated the rogue agency from the courts, requiring that judges defer to the CFPB's legal theories.

Good News: Pelosi "Proud" of Obama for Ignoring Constitution

My Take -Please follow the claims and the counterclaims in this link, including Pelosi's irrational proclamations. It does amaze me at the statements made by these people. I can’t help but wonder if they are insane. There are a number of things that are clear that drawS me to a final conclusion.

1. So much of what they say is blatantly false
2. Those who attempt to tell the truth are eviscerated by the media.
3. This must be deliberate because;

   (a) They clearly aren't stupid, at least as far as IQ goes.
   (b) We clearly know that they have access to all the facts.
   (c) Therefore they must know the truth.

Final conclusion. They really are insane!

Here is an interesting conversation with talk radio host Mark Levine on managed health care….remember…..managed health care is a pseudonym for Socialized Medicine…. with all the terrible consequences that implies. RK

Obama Embraces Signing Statements After Knocking Bush for Using Them
As a candidate in 2008, Barack Obama promised that if he was elected president he would not issue obscure declarations known as signing statements that thwart the intent of laws passed by Congress. But [now] on at least 20 occasions Obama has embraced the same tactic [his] most recent signing [was]when he autographed a 13-paragraph memorandum declaring he did not intend to follow several sections of the National Defense Authorization Act that funded the military for 2012. The president said his lawyers had concluded the provisions interfered with his constitutional duties to carry out foreign policy. The signing statement essentially declares Obama’s intention to ignore requirements in the law, including restrictions on data transfers to Russia, new authorities to detain suspected members of al Qaeda, and sanctions against the central bank of Iran. The move has alienated members of Congress who claim the White House reneged on promises it made during backroom negotiations to get the long-stalled legislation passed just before lawmakers left for the holidays.

SOCIALISM

Russia’s Democratic Winter
This is not how the New Year was supposed to begin for Vladimir Putin. The official script was clear enough. After presiding over his United Russia party’s now-routine rigging of the December 4th parliamentary elections, Putin was supposed to sail to victory in the coming March presidential race, resuming the office that he never truly relinquished to his longtime deputy, Dmitry Medvedev, while a passive Russian public looked on. But that script, so familiar in recent years, has been rejected by an unlikely source: a fed-up and suddenly politically conscious Russian middle class.

ESA TODAY

More of State’s Species May Be Endangered
Near a glade of blackened pines, a Ph.D. student at Texas State University used microchip technology to search for an endangered Houston toad. Her device beeped as she held it over a carpet of pine needles, and after a bit of digging, a live toad emerged, half-buried in dirt.If the toad becomes extinct, Texas will lose a creature with a unique call, Dr. Forstner said, and it will also be a worrying indicator of the health of the piney ecosystem. ....“Losing the toad is losing a native Texan,” Dr. Forstner said.

My Take - This is what happens when we begin to embrace pseudo-pagan concepts that animals are equal to people. Primitive peoples believed that they had spirits and they had to be careful not to offend them. The tools are different, but the style is the same. These people are modern Druids with their own sacred tenets, language and actions. I am fast coming to the conclusion that Ph.D. is another term for high priest. RK

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Announces Finding on Status of Broad-snouted Caiman
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announced a 12-month finding on a petition and a proposed rule to reclassify the broad-snouted caiman population in Argentina from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). This will also constitute a five-year review for the species.

Breeding program for endangered Sonoran pronghorn begins in southwestern Arizona
Endangered Sonoran pronghorn are now living in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Arizona. It's the first time in more than 100 years the black-horned animal has been found in the refuge's King Valley. The Sonoran pronghorn have been protected under the Endangered Species Act since 1967. The U.S. population of the Sonoran pronghorn was on the brink of extinction in 2002 because of human disturbance, loss of food and water sources, and drought, among other reasons.

Sacramento group vows suit over endangered beetle
The legal foundation on Wednesday delivered a 60-day notice of intent to sue the Fish and Wildlife Service, a prerequisite under the Endangered Species Act. "We didn't want to have to file this" said Brandon Middleton, an attorney for the legal group. ...

Salazar pushes for coordination on Rio Grande
Questions were raised about whether using mechanisms under the Endangered Species Act would make the best foundation for solving wide-ranging management and conservation issues along the Middle Rio Grande. The discussion will be difficult because so ...

Lawsuit Filed to Protect Endangered Woodpecker From Excessive Logging on ...
The Endangered Species Act requires agencies to re-consult on plans where new information reveals impacts to an endangered species that were not previously considered. Despite the steady decline of this very rare woodpecker since completion of the 2004 ...

WELCOME TO ISLAM

A Day in the Life of Sharia
In December 2011, Sahar Gul, a 15-year-old Afghan girl and underage bride, was freed by Afghan police after having been severely tortured for six months by her in-laws in an attempt to force her into prostitution. During her captivity, Sahar had been kept locked in a basement, tortured with hot irons, her fingers broken and fingernails ripped out….Afghanistan still remains one of the world’s most dangerous places for women. According to the UN’s Gender Inequality Index, Afghanistan ranks as the world’s sixth-worst country for women due to violence — including domestic abuse — sexual harassment, poverty and lack of healthcare. Editor’s Note: This story get worse. Please read the whole article! RK

Muslim Persecution of Christians: The Christmas Edition
The Nigerian church bombings, wherein the Islamic group Boko Haram killed over 40 people celebrating Christmas mass, is just the most obvious example of anti-Christian sentiment in December. Elsewhere around the Muslim world, Christmas time for Christians is a time of increased threats, harassment, and fear, which is not surprising, considering Muslim clerics maintain that “saying Merry Christmas is worse than fornication or killing someone.” A few examples:

The Arab Spring: An Obituary
Thirteen months after a Tunisian street-vendor immolated himself and sparked the revolutions in the Middle East dubbed the “Arab Spring,” the bipartisan celebrations that attended those events last year appear premature, if not delusional. Now that Islamist parties are consolidating their power in the wake of the regime changes in those countries, President Obama’s claim that Egyptians merely wanted “a government that is fair and just and responsive,” or Senator John McCain’s assertions that Libyans were aiming for “lasting peace, dignity, and justice,” or Senator Joseph Lieberman’s article in Foreign Affairs that summarized the Arab Spring as a struggle for “democracy, dignity, economic opportunity, and involvement in the modern world” each reflects dangerous wishful thinking rather than sober analysis.

My Take – I never cease to be amazed at the level of stupidity of those who are at the center of information. In every case where Islamic societies had the opportunity to vote in their leadership they chose hard line Islamists. After that they didn’t have to worry about any difficult decisions about voting any more. Why would anyone think it would be different now? Islam is a secular religious movement. As a result it becomes heresy to demand new leadership. This is a cultural paradigm! It has always been a cultural paradigm, and as long as they are Islamists it will always be a cultural paradigm. So why would Obama, McCain and Lieberman think this would be any different? They gotta be dumb as dirt! RK

###

EPA’s Killer MACT

2012-01-06T07:02:00.000-05:00

By Alan Caruba

I would like to thank Alan for sending this to me and allowing me to republish this article. RK

To understand how the Environmental Protection Agency operates, one must first understand that it lies all the time. Its “estimates” are bogus. Its claims of lives saved are bogus.

It thrives on scare-mongering to a public that is science-challenged, but the science remains and the EPA must be challenged to save the nation from the loss of the energy it needs to function. It must be challenged to unleash the huge economic benefits of energy resources—coal, oil, and natural gas—that can reverse our present economic decline.

The latest outrage is the MACT rule—an acronym for “maximum achievable control technology” intended to reduce mercury emissions and other trace gases. The rule is 1,117 pages long. Its purpose is to shut down coal-fired power plants that generate over fifty percent of all the electricity used daily in the United States of America.

The value of the total benefits asserted by the EPA is alleged to be $6 million. Not billion, but million. The MACT rule would force 14.7 gigawatts—enough power for more than eleven million households—to be “retired” from the power grip in the 2014-15 period when the rules take effect.

Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works says, “The economic analysis of the Obama EPA’s MACT paints a bleak picture for economic recovery as it will cost $11 billion to implement, increase electricity rates for every American, and, along with the Cross-State rule, destroy nearly 1.4 million jobs.”

MACT is all about mercury in the environment of the nation. On May 25, 2011, the Wall Street Journal published a brief opinion piece by Willie Soon, a natural scientist at Harvard, co-authored by Paul Driessen, a senior policy advisor for the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow. It was titled “The Myth of Killer Mercury.”

Here are a few of the facts it offered.

“Mercury has always existed naturally in the Earth’s environment. A 2009 study found mercury deposits in Antarctic ice across 650,000 years.”

“Mercury is found in air, water, rocks, soil and trees, which absorb it from the environment.”

There is “200,000,000 tons of mercury naturally present in seawater” that “has never posed a danger to any living thing.”

“U.S. forest fires emit at least 44 tons (of mercury) per year; cremation of human remains discharges 26 tons; Chinese power plants eject 400 tons; and volcanoes, subsea vents, geysers and other sources spew out 9,000-10,000 additional tons per year.”

“Since our power plants account for less than 0.5% of all the mercury in the air we breathe, eliminating every milligram of it will do nothing about the other 99.5% in our atmosphere.”

This is the same EPA “logic” that insists on reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere when all life on Earth depends on it as plant food for all vegetation. More CO2 mean more crops for humans and livestock, healthier forests and jungles, and food for the Earth’s wildlife population.

In a foreword to “Regulators Gone Wild: How the EPA is Ruining American Industry”, Dr. Jay Lehr, the Science Director of The Heartland Institute, wrote, “This administration is pushing an unprecedented radical environmental agenda.”

The EPA, along with major environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and others, have engaged for decades in a massive propaganda effort to convince Americans they are imperiled by the nation’s air and water. It is a lie. As the author of “Regulators Gone Wild”, Rich Trzupeck notes, “Though our world is actually cleaner than ever, most Americans are convinced it is dirtier.”

“Toxicity,” wrote Trzupeck, “is a matter of dose, as sober scientists have observed since ancient times. A particular compound may kill you if you drink it, but a few parts per billion of the same compound can have no effect at all…one can find toxic air pollutants in the parts-per-billion level in human breath.”

The EPA’s latest rule, which will no doubt be subject to lawsuits, is a killer MACT. It is not about mercury or other trace gases. It is about deliberately depriving the nation of energy which in turn means less jobs, less growth, and a third world lifestyle being imposed on Americans by the radical environmentalists inside the Obama administration.

Remember that when you are in the election booth on November 6, 2012.

© Alan Caruba, 2012

DDT - Some Just Won't Drink the Kool-Aid

2012-01-05T06:58:00.000-05:00

This appeared on Steve Milloy's Junkscience.com here. RK

Kudos to Wayne Michaelchuck (Gibbstown, NJ) for this terrific letter-to-the-editor of the Gloucester County Times.

In response to “Bald eagles make a comeback in New Jersey” and its erroneous crediting of the DDT ban for the rebound in eagle populations, Mr. Michaelchuck wrote:

To the Editor:

The Dec. 25 article on the local comeback of the bald eagle population continues to reinforce the “myth” that DDT caused all egg-shell thinning in birds of prey.

This is being propagated not only in biology classes, but in advanced placement environmental science classes throughout this country, despite some scientific evidence to the contrary.
The core environmental movement has become politicized by anti-progress and anti-capitalist statists. Liberals write and choose the textbooks.

Egg-shell thinning predates the use of DDT (an insecticide that was banned in the United States in 1972). There are many other causes, such as Newcastles’s disease, high nocturnal temperatures, and bird diets low in calcium and vitamin D. The Audubon Society was reporting eggshell thinning the 1890s.

In some experiments to prove the harmful effects of DDT, birds were fed 6,000 to 20,000 times than found in their natural environment. No increases in egg shell thinning or toxic effects were found.

What is not being taught in our government schools is the fact that DDT has been responsible for saving millions of lives. When blankets were treated with DDT in World War II, not one soldier died of typhus fever. More soldiers in World War I died from typhus fever than from enemy bullets.

Claims that DDT is carcinogenic were refuted in experiments where volunteers were fed 35 milligrams of DDT for periods of 21 and 27 months with no ill effects then, or for 30 years since. Malaria was almost eradicated in Sri Lanka. In 1948, there were 2.8 million cases. DDT dropped that number to 17 in 1963. Today there are more than 2.5 million.

Six years after the United States banned DDT, there were 800 million cases of malaria worldwide and 8.2 million deaths a year. Despite mountains of evidence against environmental claims, William Ruckleshaus, then the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, banned DDT. Years later, Ruckelshaus admitted that decisions by the government involving use of toxic substances are political.

Decisions based on “junk science” can have deadly consequences, as in the case of DDT. DDT is only one example of the dangers of ignoring scientific evidence to advance a political agenda. Almost every environmental claim, from ozone depletion to claims that man is causing global warming, can be refuted.

Anyone can come up with a “the sky is falling” theory,” but that theory has to be supported by evidence. As a high school chemistry teacher, I witnessed first hand the indoctrination of our students by mostly liberal teachers. I always included many lessons on the dangers of environmental extremism and adherence to the scientific method. In science, only evidence matters.

Wayne L. Michaelchuck
Gibbstown

Great job, Wayne!

Bald eagles still not saved by DDT ban

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Steve Milloy…no matter how many times the myth is repeated.

Today’s hapless echo of the DDT-bald eagle myth is reporter Scott Richardson of Bloomington, IL’s Pantagraph.com, who wrote:

Bald eagle numbers were plummeting when I was growing up not far from Starved Rock State Park.

The birds were listed as endangered until after the feds banned DDT. The agri-chemical had found its way into the food chain, first into the fish, then into the eagles that ate them. Egg shells were weakened so much they broke when mature eagles tried to keep them warm.

Today, the birds have rebounded. It’s a joy to see them wintering on the eagle refuge on Plum Island across from Starved Rock State Park. Many can be found there during the cold months when they are forced southward from Wisconsin, Michigan and Canada to find open water to feed. The colder the winter, the more eagles turn up there…

But as JunkScience.com readers know from “100 Things You Should Know About DDT“, DDT had nothing to do with the near demise of the bald eagle, and DDT’s ban had nothing to do with the rebound in bald eagle population:

66. Bald eagles were reportedly threatened with extinction in 1921 — 25 years before widespread use of DDT. [Van Name, WG. 1921. Ecology 2:76]

67. Alaska paid over $100,000 in bounties for 115,000 bald eagles between 1917 and 1942. [Anon. Science News Letter, July 3, 1943]

68. The bald eagle had vanished from New England by 1937. [Bent, AC. 1937. Raptorial Birds of America. US National Museum Bull 167:321-349]

69. After 15 years of heavy and widespread usage of DDT, Audubon Society ornithologists counted 25 percent more eagles per observer in 1960 than during the pre-DDT 1941 bird census. [Marvin, PH. 1964 Birds on the rise. Bull Entomol Soc Amer 10(3):184-186; Wurster, CF. 1969 Congressional Record S4599, May 5, 1969; Anon. 1942. The 42nd Annual Christmas Bird Census. Audubon Magazine 44:1-75 (Jan/Feb 1942; Cruickshank, AD (Editor). 1961. The 61st Annual Christmas Bird Census. Audubon Field Notes 15(2):84-300; White-Stevens, R.. 1972. Statistical analyses of Audubon Christmas Bird censuses. Letter to New York Times, August 15, 1972]

70. No significant correlation between DDE residues and shell thickness was reported in a large series of bald eagle eggs. [Postupalsky, S. 1971. (DDE residues and shell thickness). Canadian Wildlife Service manuscript, April 8, 1971]

71. Thickness of eggshells from Florida, Maine and Wisconsin was found to not be correlated with DDT residues.

See original post for the chart that appears here.

72. U.S. Forest Service studies reported an increase in nesting bald eagle productivity (51 in 1964 to 107 in 1970). [U.S. Forest Service (Milwaukee, WI). 1970. Annual Report on Bald Eagle Status]

73. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists fed large doses of DDT to captive bald eagles for 112 days and concluded that “DDT residues encountered by eagles in the environment would not adversely affect eagles or their eggs.” [Stickel, L. 1966. Bald eagle-pesticide relationships. Trans 31st N Amer Wildlife Conference, pp.190-200]

74. Wildlife authorities attributed bald eagle population reductions to a “widespread loss of suitable habitat”, but noted that “illegal shooting continues to be the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles.” [Anon.. 1978. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Endangered Species Tech Bull 3:8-9]

75. Every bald eagle found dead in the U.S., between 1961-1977 (266 birds) was analyzed by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists who reported no adverse effects caused by DDT or its residues. [Reichel, WL. 1969. (Pesticide residues in 45 bald eagles found dad in the U.S. 1964-1965). Pesticides Monitoring J 3(3)142-144; Belisle, AA. 1972. (Pesticide residues and PCBs and mercury, in bald eagles found dead in the U.S. 1969-1970). Pesticides Monitoring J 6(3): 133-138; Cromartie, E. 1974. (Organochlorine pesticides and PCBs in 37 bald eagles found dead in the U.S. 1971-1972). Pesticides Monitoring J 9:11-14; Coon, NC. 1970. (Causes of bald eagle mortality in the US 1960-1065). Journal of Wildlife Diseases 6:72-76]

76. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists linked high intake of mercury from contaminated fish with eagle reproductive problems. [Spann, JW, RG Heath, JF Kreitzer, LN Locke. 1972. (Lethal and reproductive effects of mercury on birds) Science 175:328- 331]

77. Shooting, power line electrocution, collisions in flight and poisoning from eating ducks containing lead shot were ranked by the National Wildlife Federation as late as 1984 as the leading causes of eagle deaths. [Anon. 1984. National Wildlife Federation publication. (Eagle deaths)]

Observations From the Back Row

2012-01-04T09:52:00.000-05:00

Posted by Rich Kozlovich

High-School Diploma Violates Disability Act
…..The “informal discussion letter” from the EEOC said an employer’s requirement of a high school diploma, long a standard criterion for screening potential employees, must be “job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.” The letter was posted on the commission’s website on Dec. 2. Employers could run afoul of the ADA if their requirement of a high school diploma “‘screens out’ an individual who is unable to graduate because of a learning disability that meets the ADA’s definition of ‘disability,’” the EEOC explained.

Court: Both lesbian moms have parental rights
1 served as egg donor, other carried child to term before splitting up - They fell in love, moved in together in a house in central Florida and had a baby girl. Now they are fighting over who should raise the child. But unlike most couples, they are two women. One donated the egg. The other had it implanted into her womb and carried the child to term. So which one is the mother? The woman who bore the child says it is she and she alone.

The Media and the Religion of Peace – The Communion of Calmness -The Creed of Calm and The Cult of Tranquility
If I wanted to murder my family or destroy a historic university and yet not give my faith a bad name in the press, I would convert to the Religion of Peace.

Yep, if you belong to that lovely creed, you can snap on Christmas and execute your entire clan or burn down a famous college, and the media won’t say shizzle about your faith or your motivation for mayhem. Sa-weet, eh, mass murderers?...... Case in point. Aziz Yazdanpanah, known only as the “Santa Killer,” was a follower of this “amazing faith” who slaughtered his family on Christmas Day after his wife dumped him and his 19-year-old daughter wouldn’t stop dating a non-Religion of Peacer. The adherents of said faith refer to this act as an “honor killing,” and when it occurs police and the press reckon it unworthy of unearthing and condemning publicly…..[The media] called Aziz the “Santa Killer” who was down on his financial and relational luck whom his neighbors regarded as a decent gent who loved his family and liked to do yard work. In others words, he was a Mr. Rogers with a tan who had a bad day.

Fury of Moscow over bid to call Estonian SS soldiers 'freedom
fighters'Estonia has caused outrage with plans to honour hundreds of Nazi collaborators. The EU country is expected to give official ‘freedom fighter’ status to veterans of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division. Several hundred who fought in the Estonian SS gather annually to commemorate their role in battles against Soviet forces. 'We hope that in this case common sense, conscience and a feeling of responsibility will prevail.'…… Johan Backman, of World without Nazism, said: ‘The Estonian SS legionaries did not fight for Estonia. They fought for Hitler.’…..The Russian embassy in Tallinn claimed legislation to name them 'freedom fighters' was a bid to 'cover the atrocities committed by Estonian Nazi collaborators'. This was 'blasphemous and unacceptable' and should be abandoned, said Moscow.

My Take: For unknown reasons it is largely unknown in this country that there were a large number of countries that could have been (and some absolutely should have been) listed as Nazi collaborators during WWII. Actually…. I know the reason. We don’t read history, we don’t teach history and so we don’t know history….and the media is full of lying propaganda ministers who tell….well ….lies. Lies of commission and lies of omission.

The reason I posted this is because there is so many layers to this story; just because there is so much spin. Here we have people who were abused by a communist country fighting for the country that lost only to be re-occupied by the country that abused them in the first place and that country, noted for killing 50 million of its own people, is outraged Because this Baltic country's “volunteers” possibly may have committed civilian atrocities. I don't know if they did, but the Wafen SS, who had an amazing war record, also had an amazing appetite for committing atrocities.

Then again, I find it amazing how a country that notoriously murdered 8000 Polish officers, in what is known as the Katyn Forest massacre, along with 6000 police officers and Polish intelligencia, landowners, factory owners, lawyers, officials and priests", can be so thin skinned!.

Amazing twist for all parties! The Nazi’s, the Soviets and the collaborating countries all committed civilian atrocities. All want to point the finger of moral outrage at the others. I would think that any sense of moral decency would demand that everyone should just be ashamed of these actions; but they all want some sort of sanctification.

There is another aspect to this story. These atrocities have been repeated by every culture in the world for the entire history of the world during some time period. You would think it would end by now. But the porblem is always the same. People will always be people! And people don't seem to be able to 'guide their own steps'.

All of these accounts have been linked for one reason. They all show the cost to society for the loss of traditional values. That is the problem when so many in the world have rationalized, random and alternating moral foundations for their views. Ben Franklin once said that the nice thing about being rational is that you could rationalize so easily. History bears this out.

###

Observations From the Back Row

2012-01-03T16:35:00.003-05:00

Posted by Rich Kozlovich

DDT Today

Living Sanibel: Brown Pelicans
Widespread use of DDT to control the Florida mosquito population altered the calcium metabolism in pelicans and other birds, causing them to produce eggs with shells too thin to support the embryo to maturity. In nearby Louisiana (where, ironically, the pelican is the state bird) the population completely collapsed because of the overuse of these pesticides. Louisiana had to import Florida pelicans through the 1980s to help rebuild its decimated flocks. Today, they are once again rebounding from yet another manmade disaster, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Brown pelicans not harmed by DDT either
By Steve Milloy

Thanks to Florida journalist Charles Sobczak for the opportunity to debunk another DDT myth. The Sanibel-Captive Island Leader reports, …Widespread use of DDT to control the Florida mosquito population altered the calcium metabolism in pelicans and other birds, causing them to produce eggs with shells too thin to support the embryo to maturity. In nearby Louisiana (where, ironically, the pelican is the state bird) the population completely collapsed because of the overuse of these pesticides. Louisiana had to import Florida pelicans through the 1980s to help rebuild its decimated flocks. Today, they are once again rebounding from yet another manmade disaster, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill…

But check out the following from JunkScience.com’s “100 Things You Should Know About DDT“:

92. Brown pelicans declined in Texas from a high of 5,000 birds in 1918 to a low of 200 in 1941, three years before the presence of DDT. [Pearson TG. 1919. Review of reviews. Pp. 509-511 (May 1919); Pearson TG. 1934. Adventures in Bird Protection, Appleton- Century Co., p. 332; Pearson TG. 1934 (Discussion of 1918 survey) National Geographic pp. 299-302 (March 1934); Allen RG. 1935. Auk 52: p.199;]

93. Disappearance of the brown pelicans from Texas was attributed to fisherman and hunters. Gustafson AF. 1939. Conservation in the United States, Comstock Publ. Co., Ithaca, NY. (Repeated in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Report No. 1, 1970)]

94. Brown pelicans experienced no difficulty in reproducing during the DDT years. [See Banks, RC. 1966. Trans San Diego Soc Nat Hist 14:173-188; and Schreiber RW and RL DeLong. 1969. Audubon Field Notes 23:57-59]

95. Brown pelicans did suffer reproductive problems following the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Oil on eggs is a known cause of embryo death. [See e.g., National Wildlife Federation . 1979. Embryonic mortality from oil on feathers of adult birds. Conservation News, pp. 6-10 (October 15, 1979); Hartung, R. 1965. (Oil on eggs reduces hatch ability by 68 percent). J Wildlife Management 29: 872-874; King, KA 1979. (Oil a probable cause of pelican mortality for six weeks after spill). Bull Environ Contam. Toxicol 23:800-805; and Dieter, MP. 1977. (5 micro liters of oil on fertile egg kills 76 percent to 98 percent of embryos within. Interagency Energy-Environment Research and Development Program Report, pp 35-42]

96. Among brown pelican egg shells examined (72 percent), there was no correlation between DDT residue and shell thickness. [Switzer, B. 1972. Consolidated EPA hearings, Transcript pp. 8212-8336; and Hazeltine, WE. 1972. Why pelican eggshells are thin. Nature 239: 410-412]

97. An epidemic of Newcastle disease resulted in millions of birds put to death to eradicate the disease. [United Press International. "Newcastle disease epidemic in California (April 1972)] The epidemic among U.S. birds was caused by the migration of sick pelicans along the Mexican coast. [Hofstad MC. 1972. Diseases of Poultry. Iowa State Univ. Press]

Christmas Bird Count Illuminates an Old Fable
The National Audubon Society is in the midst of its annual "Christmas Bird Count," which is mostly an unscientific "bird feeder" bird count done when those birds which are at greatest risk of decline (i.e. neo-tropical migrants including most grassland birds) are actually down south in Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. In short, this is the wrong time of year to count birds that are truly at risk!

That said, the 111-years worth of data collected by the "Christmas Bird Count" does have some use, if for no other reason than to prove that one of the biggest fables about Bald Eagles and Osprey is more than a small lie. What's the story? Simple: that Bald Eagles and Osprey were pushed to the edge of extinction by DDT. Not True.

Editor’s Note: I posted this link for two reasons. This person actually was involved in bird counting data and I want to recommend reading the comments! Although he is an anti-DDT guy this exchange clearly shows the intellectual dishonesty of those who have a constant drumbeat against DDT. They are nothing more than time wasters as this author points out. I might add that he is mistaken that the elimination of DDT was beneficial for birds. During the DDT years the bird population increased many times and the robin, which according to Rachel Carson was going to be destroyed by DDT, was probably the most populace bird in North America. RK

ESA Today

Feds are warned of lawsuit over wood stork's "endangered" listing
Attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation today formally warned federal officials that they will be sued if they do not immediately drop the unjustified listing of the wood stork as "endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. In a letter mailed today to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), PLF attorneys point out that the federal government's own scientific findings concluded that the "endangered" classification for the wood stork is no longer warranted.

Biodiversity: New bluefin tuna fishing rule challenged
Recreational anglers clean a haul of tuna at a marina in Venice, Louisiana. Conservation advocates say increase take will speed demise of rare fish —Conservation advocates are challenging a new fisheries rule that increases the take of rare Atlantic bluefin tuna, a species already under pressure from overfishing and illegal commerce driven in part by Japan’s nearly insatiable demand for sushi-grade tuna

###

Observations From the Back Row

2012-01-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

Posted by Rich Kozlovich

Education

Is the West Doomed?
In 2007, a study of Swedish young people by a group called Information about Communism revealed that ninety percent of Swedes between the ages of fifteen and twenty didn’t know which foreign capital is closest to Stockholm, and most didn’t know which countries border on their own…… Just the other day the Daily Mail ran an article in which Dominic Sandbrook recalled a survey conducted in Britain about a decade ago. Who, it asked, were the most important people in British history? Princess Diana came in third, John Lennon seventh. “Recent polls,” noted Sandbrook, “show that nine out of ten adults [in Britain] can name all David Beckham’s children, yet one in three thinks Churchill was a fictional character and one in four believes Hadrian’s Wall was built to keep out the French.”

Yes, that’s right: one in three British people thinks Winston Churchill was a fictional character.

Catholic student 'bullied, humiliated' by teacher
Instructor 'promoted' homosexuality rather than economics class material - A teacher's decision to promote homosexuality in class rather than teach the approved economics curriculum – and the school district's endorsement of that – soon will be hitting the court docket, as a complaint has been filed by a student subjected to the instructor's "bullying."

Green Notes

ESA Today

Public Hearing for Conservation of Turtles
Proposed regulations aimed at maintaining healthy populations of Georgia’s freshwater turtles will be the focus of a public hearing next month near Macon…..If approved, the regulations will, among other things, establish definitions for commercial enterprise, export, farming and sale of freshwater turtles, specify unlawful activities, establish permit requirements, set turtle harvest limits, provide for the acquisition of turtles, and set specifications for turtle farms.

Biodiversity: Sierra red fox considered for endangered
A rare fox living in a couple of isolated pockets in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California may get Endangered Species Act protection after The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced last week that it will take a hard ...

It's up to Mich. now to find right balance in wolf protections
They had been trapped, shot and hunted out of existence here, but -- with the protection gained from being listed under the Endangered Species Act -- gradually spread east from Minnesota, where a remnant population remained. Now Michigan has nearly 700 ...

Global Warming…or any anthropogenic whatever you would like.

How Columbus Caused the Little Ice Age, by Dennis T. Avery
Share|In a remarkable example of human-centeredness, Stanford University geochemist Richard Nevle blames Christopher Columbus for a sharp reduction in atmospheric CO2 during the 16th and 17th centuries. It seems that man-made warming believers never tire of telling us how powerful humans are, usually for the worse, in our ability to change nature....Nevle claims that the deaths of American Indians, due to the sudden spread of European diseases after Columbus landed, would have stopped the Indians from burning so many forests to enhance their hunting....If Dr. Nevle can “read” the deaths of the American Indians in the Antarctic ice record, has he checked for the impact of the Black Death in Europe and the Near East during the 14th century? Roughly half the population of Europe died then, along with vast numbers of people across the Near East.

Organic versus Modern Farming. GMO’s and Pesticides

A New Strategy to Feed the World, by Dennis T. Avery
Can we successfully grow more plants per acre as a future strategy for increasing our crop yields and food production? Sixty thousand corn plants per acre—twice Iowa’s current average—could be one route to higher productivity. The world will need twice …

Washington Post Converts to Conservation, by Dennis T. Avery
Washington Post has praised organic foods—while I warned that low-yield organic farming posed a threat to the world’s wildlife. I estimated that Norman Borlaug’s Green Revolution not only saved billions of people from starvation, but at the same time saved 7 million square miles of wildlife habitat that would otherwise have been plowed down for more low-yielding crops. Seven million square miles is the land area of South America. That’s “high-yield conservation.”

Sustainability

Nothing is Sustainable
People have this idea that sailing is cheap, because of the low fuel costs. But blue-water sailors have a saying that goes like this: The wind is free … but everything else costs money. Reading the various pronouncements from the partygoers at the Durban climate-related Conference of Parties, I was struck by the many uses of the words “sustainable development” and “sustainability”. It’s pretty confusing. Apparently, paying high long-term subsidies for uneconomic energy sources is sustainable … who knew?

Media

Unfit to Print
The other day I took note here of a recent New York Times feature in which several prominent figures from the worlds of law and religion were invited to answer the question: Is religious freedom in America under threat? I focused on one of the responses, entitled “A Campaign Against Patriotic Muslims,” in which Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, maintained that when it came to his coreligionists, the answer was a definite yes. Al-Marayati painted a picture of an America awash in “anti-Islam groups” and “Muslim haters” who make life difficult for American Muslims, whom he depicted as overwhelmingly peaceful, freedom-loving, and terrorism-hating. It didn’t seem to matter to the Times that Al-Marayati himself is a longtime associate of and apologist for terrorists.

Norman Lear’s Left-Wing Paranoia About ‘The Right’
They’re coming for your children! They’re coming for the womenfolk! Then they’re coming after you! Norman Lear, the famous television show producer, offered this hysterically paranoid assessment of the allegedly growing and presumably insidious power of “the right”: “I want to suggest that we lefties start laying claim to what we see as ‘sacred’ and serve it up proudly to the religious right — to the James Dobson, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Karl Rove … hatemongers, sheathed in sanctity, and to the Koch brothers, the types that fund them and use them so effectively for their own political power-grabbing purposes. Over the past several decades, the power-grabbing right has built a powerful infrastructure — radio and TV stations and networks. They’ve built think tanks, colleges and law schools.”

2012: A Year of Media Savagery
For those Republican presidential candidates who eventually conclude there is no path to the nomination, there is consolation in the notion that they won't be the ones to face the brutal onslaught being prepared for the GOP king-of-the-mountain by team Obama and its army of "objective" media allies. This time around, the Obama machine cannot run on the fairy dust of hope and change. It cannot suggest after four years of dreadful executive-branch performance, that the promised one is on the horizon. Its only path to victory is the one that finds its opponents even more disliked. So it can be guaranteed that whoever wins the Republican contest will face one of the most scorching personal assaults the country has ever witnessed.

The Latest Joint CBS-Castro Production
Last week’s 60 Minutes featured another in its long line of joint CBS-Castro productions. This time Anderson Cooper and his production crew partnered with the Stalinist regime’s Centro de Investigaciones Marinas for a propaganda piece on the marvels of Cuban coral reef conservation. The co-host of the CBS show and conduit for this fruitful Communist infomercial was Dr. David Guggenheim, senior fellow at the Ocean Foundation in Washington, D.C. who chairs its Cuba Marine Research and Conservation Program. Dr. Guggenheim toasts himself as a “Cubaphile” and toasts Castro’s fiefdom (which he has visited over 40 times in recent years) as a “magical place.”……. There’s just something about running a KGB-tutored Stalinist regime that jailed political prisoners at a higher rate than Stalin’s, murdered more of them than pre-war Hitler’s, and outlaws dissent that encourages this type of instant and gung-ho parliamentarian team-playing. Many among the tens of thousands of Castro’s prison, torture and firing squad victims were his former comrades, onetime regime officials. Unlike food, clothing, shelter, feminine napkins and toilet paper, one thing there’s never any shortage of in Stalinist Cuba is rubber stamps.

Religion

Obama liberals' hatred for religious freedom
There is little doubt that the Obama White House was behind the attempt to defund and shut down the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The USCIRF is an embarrassment to an administration, which wants to pretend that Shariah law, which permits honor killings, is no different than English Common Law. The bleak reports from the USCIRF on religious persecution in many of the Islamic nations favored by President Obama moved his administration to shut down the USCIRF using a back door in the budget process. His point man, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., is from Obama's home state. Durbin was Obama's former colleague in the Senate and is now the majority whip, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.

The Anglican priest who thought Stalin was a saint
BOOK REVIEW: Charles Moore reviews 'The Red Dean' by John Butler (Scala)
As Canterbury Cathedral this week marks the anniversary of the death of its most famous “turbulent priest”, Thomas Becket, it is a good moment to study the life of its second-most famous one. Hewlett Johnson became the Dean of Canterbury in 1931, when he was already getting on for 60, and clung on to the post, despite numerous attempts to get him out, until 1964. Over those 33 years, Johnson devoted the bulk of his astonishing energy to proving that Soviet Communism, especially as practised by Stalin, was heaven on earth: “While we’re waiting for God, Russia is doing it.” In his bestseller The Socialist Sixth of the World, which was published not long after Stalin’s most extensive programme of mass murder, he wrote: “Nothing strikes the visitor to the Soviet Union more forcibly than the complete absence of fear.”

State Department 'Panders' to Islamists on Free Speech
…The OIC (previously called the Organization of the Islamic Conference) has pushed for a universal blasphemy law for more than a decade. Since the November 2004 murder of filmmaker Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands and the 2006 riots protesting cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammad, the group has pressured Western European nations to implement speech codes punishing criticism of Islam…….Shea believes that this "politically correct" approach to Islamism has disturbing implications for U.S. national security. In the case of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who massacred 13 of his fellow servicemen at Fort Hood in 2009, co-workers emphasized that they were deeply troubled by his jihadist ravings regarded him as a radical Muslim "but didn't report it for fear of being labeled "Islamophobes,'" she noted. Similarly, a Senate committee issued a report documenting a culture of timidity at the Pentagon on the subject of Islam. Shea said the Fort Hood massacre is a "perfect example" of the danger posed by the U.S. government's failure to address the danger Islamism poses to our liberties.

Muslim Terror for Christmas
Two years ago as two-hundred eighty-nine people sat on a Christmas Day flight from Amsterdam to Detroit studying their watches, flipping through their Kindles and hoping they would make it home in time, among them sat a devout Muslim with a packet of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate sewn into his underwear. At his trial Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab said,“In late 2009, in fulfillment of a religious obligation, I decided to participate in jihad against the United States. The Koran obliges every able Muslim to participate in jihad and fight in the way of Allah, those who fight you, and kill them wherever you find them.”……While fathers lifted up their children on their shoulders and music filled the air, Mohamud was smiling for a different reason. “You know what I like, what makes me happy?” he had told undercover agents. “You know, what I like to see? Is when I see the enemy of Allah, then you know their bodies are torn everywhere.” As American families were enjoying the moment, Mohamud was picturing their bodies ripped to shreds by his bomb…….On Rosh Hashana 2003, a knock came on the door of a Jewish family at a holiday dinner. On the other side was another Islamic Jihad terrorist. The father of the house opened the door and was shot, but managed to close the door and keep him out before dying. The terrorist nevertheless managed to murder a seven month old baby on her swing before he was shot and killed.

The Persecution of Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff, a free speech activist who was charged last year in Austria with “denigration of religious beliefs of a legally recognized religion” for asserting that “Mohammed had a thing for little girls.” In February of this year she was convicted, and will have to pay a fine of up to €480. Just recently, on December 20, 2011, her conviction was upheld by the higher court. If she refuses to pay the fine, she may spend a maximum of two months in jail. She grew up and lived in Muslim countries and experienced Islam first-hand.

Socialism

Top Ten Ways Obama Socialists are Like National Socialists.
I’m very disappointed in Congressman Allen West, who last week observed that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels would be “truly proud” of the Democratic Party’s “lies and deceit.” While correct, Congressman West neglects the other striking similarities between National Socialists and Obama Socialists. This is not to say that the DNC wants to recreate the Holocaust (though its president could do so inadvertently, with his tender-on-Tehran policy) or that the Messiah in Chief will begin giving 4-hour speeches in German. (Where would he find a German teleprompter?) But, like the pigs and men at the end of “Animal Farm,” it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell brownshirts and the party which would literally take the shirts off our backs apart. Here are the Top 10 Ways Democrats Are Like Nazis:

Is Liberalism a Religion?
When people make statements that are completely at variance with reality and they continue to repeat them and you know they are not crazy, it’s only natural to wonder, what’s going on? I’ve concluded that for some people on the left, political beliefs are like a false religion in which the parishioners become unable to distinguish myth from reality.

How else can you explain the statements of Donald Berwick, President Obama’s recess appointee to run Medicare and Medicaid, on his way out of office the other day? For starters, he claimed that the Affordable Care Act (what some people call ObamaCare) “is making health care a basic human right.” Then he went on to say that because of the new law, “we are a nation headed for justice, for fairness and justice in access to care.”

Gullible Americans, by Walter E. Williams
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Deborah Hersman has called for states to mandate a total ban on cellphone usage while driving. She has also encouraged electronics manufacturers -- via recommendations to the CTIA-The Wireless Association and the Consumer Electronics Association -- to develop features that "disable the functions of portable electronic devices within reach of the driver when a vehicle is in motion." That means she wants to be able to turn off your cellphone while you're driving.........Another camel's nose in the tent lie that's threatening the economic collapse of our country is the Medicare lie. At its beginning, in 1966, Medicare cost $3 billion. The House Ways and Means Committee, along with President Lyndon Johnson, estimated that Medicare would cost an inflation-adjusted $12 billion by 1990. In 1990, Medicare topped $107 billion. That's nine times Congress' prediction. Today's Medicare tab comes to $523 billion and shows no signs of leveling off. The 2009 Medicare trustees report put the unfunded Medicare liability at $89 trillion. The 1966 Medicare cost estimate was simply a congressional and White House lie to get the American people to buy into their agenda. But not to worry; the real Medicare crisis won't hit the nation until today's beneficiaries and political supporters are dead. It's today's children who'll bear the burden of our profligacy.

Leftism poisons everything it influences -- from journalism to the arts to universities to religion to government to male-female relations. And ultimately leftism poisons character. - Dennis Prager

Extreme Weather Forecast for the 2012 and 2014 Hurricane and Tornado Seasons

2012-01-02T14:54:00.001-05:00

By James A. Marusek

Accurate long-range predictions of the intensity of upcoming hurricane and tornado seasons have eluded forecasters for many decades. These types of storms, by their very nature, are raw chaos unfolding.

In 2006, a relationship between major (Saffir/Simpson category 3-4-5) Atlantic hurricanes and major (Fujita scale F4-F5) U. S. tornadoes was studied. A strong natural short-term cycle was observed overlaying the long-term multi-decadal cycles of hurricane and tornado activity. This research was presented in a paper titled "The Art of Forecasting Extreme Weather Events" at the Second International Conference on Global Warming and the Next Ice Age sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory in July 2006.

From this research, a forecasting tool was developed called the storminess model.

A forecasting tool is only as good as its ability to generate accurate predictions. The best way to test the tool's accuracy is to generate a forecast. To date, the storminess tool has made a total of three forecast and these subsequently were shown to be completely accurate. This is a long-range tool and the last two forecast were made over a year in advance of the targeted seasons.

The tool will now be used to forecast two seasons (2012 and 2014) at once.

The years 2010/2011 were a double-peak producing a total of 8 major Atlantic hurricanes and 36 major U. S. tornadoes. Because this was a double-peak, storminess levels will fall very dramatically in 2012. The year 2012 will not produce an extreme in either the number of major Atlantic hurricanes (Category 3 or greater) or in the number of major U. S. tornadoes (EF4 or EF5). The forecast is that the year 2012 will produce a maximum of 2 major Atlantic hurricanes and a maximum of 10 major U. S. tornadoes.

This fall of storminess levels in 2012 will cause the storminess index to drop below the lower threshold, which will set the stage for another extreme year in the future. It is very likely (83 percent probability) that the year 2014, will be another extreme weather year. Storminess in 2014 will produce either a minimum of five major Atlantic hurricanes or a minimum of 23 major U. S. tornadoes.

No forecast is made of the year 2013.

As always I am pleased to publish Jim's work. James Marusek is a retired U.S. Department of the Navy nuclear physicist and engineer. He has presented some of the best work on the sun's cycles I have seen and is now working on "the Weather Chronology". He sent me an e-mail recently saying; "I has added over 200 more pages to it. Most of those are U.S. weather events. It is now up to 802 pages and is a 12 megabyte file, so it might take a little time to download." it is still at the same location RK

###

DDT - Lets Have Another 10,000 Studies!

2011-12-30T07:54:00.003-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

Every time you turn around you will see that the government is funding another study to find out if ______________(fill in the blank) happens! Funding studies and forming committees to ‘study’ issues is a great way for so-called leaders to defer decisions that could be politically uncomfortable. Then there are the studies that are actually nothing more than conclusions in search of data. Those of us who have been around for a while have now had the opportunity to observe the realities and outcomes of what was, and in many cases still is, conventional wisdom.

There have been thousands of studies regarding the effects of DDT on the environment, people and wildlife, and most of them were junk science…..conclusions in search of data. A number of years ago (although an outsider) I had the opportunity and privilege of being a part of a group formed by Dr. Rutledge Taylor that produced a film documentary about DDT called 3Billion and Counting. My contributions were mostly via phone calls and e-mail, however the Doc added me to the credits so I think that my small offerings were of some value.

At one point he had received almost 100 studies from one of the anti-DDT groups that claimed all sorts of things. He sent them to me and asked me to look them over. Since I am not formally trained, and for the most part I am an autodidact, I really didn’t feel qualified and told him so. He asked if I would at least try. Very reluctantly I agreed.

That was one of the best and most enlightening things that ever happened to me.

As I went through the first ten, very carefully outlining and taking notes on what was clearly wrong with those studies, I found out that they were filled with claptrap; speculation, weasel words, logical fallacies and weak associations. I went through the next ten just as carefully, without taking notes this time, and found the exact same pattern in all of them. I skipped to every fifth study only to find the same pattern over and over again. In short, these studies were nothing more than “academic welfare”! You know what welfare is; pay without work; work being the operative word for producing something of value. And in these cases the ‘academic welfare’ produced preconceived conclusions. Conclusions in search of data! And everyone one of these studies was produced after DDT was banned! Why?

Why has millions been spent on DDT studies after it was banned if the science was clear in the first place? What is this overwhelming need to continue demeaning a product that has been banned? Why do they keep attempting to convince everyone that DDT caused all the things the Rachel Carson claimed they did in her book? Why? Because Carson’s book was filled with lies, speculation, incorrect conclusions and little of no references to some of her health claims. And over the years there have been a great many respected scientists who have said so. The issue never goes away because those who know the truth refuse to be quiet, and they have made headway with a great many people, especially the decision makers in countries with serious malaria problems. So then….what is this all about.

It is about the worth of studies and their effect on people’s thinking. Just because it is a “study” doesn’t make it factual!

In the book Fluoride Wars by R. Allan Freeze and friend Dr. Jay Lehr, outline the value of studies. There have been THOUSANDS of studies on fluoride because of it being added to our water supplies to ward off tooth decay. At one point someone decided that they needed a standard to determine which studies really had any scientific worth. On page 194 they state:

“The question of experimental design deserves further mention. You may recall that many methodological flaws identified by critics of the original fluoridation trial. Those who designed these early studies were taken to task for failing to keep track of the oral health history of their subjects, failing to control for confounding factors such as socioeconomic status of dental hygiene practices, and falling to use examiners who were blind to the exposure status of each subject. Many of the same problems crop up on many of the studies that were put under review by the various review teams listed in Table 7.5. (You will have to get the book to see Table 7.5) The Ontario and York University reviewers were the only ones who tried to establish a minimum acceptable set of standards for the inclusion of a study in their assessments. Both sets of acceptance criteria were based on establishing a hierarchy of studies, giving greater weight to those with the most careful controls. Those that took care to eliminate examiner bias received greater weight than those that didn’t. Those that tracked individual subjects longitudinally through time received greater weight than those that sampled the population statistically without tagging individual subjects. Those that recorded careful histories for their subjects and used them to control for confounding factors received greater weight than those that did not. It is instructive to note that the York University review found only 214 studies out of the thousands that have appeared in print during the period 1951-1999 that met their acceptance criteria, and of these, only 26 provided a defensible analysis of the direct impact of fluoridation on dental caries.”

Normal people would think that this was a noble effort. After all - once again - isn’t the search for “truth” the real purpose behind doing studies? No; not to the activists! The goal of the activist movements is to only have “their” truth appear, and they don’t care how many lies it takes to do it!

So, what was the reaction to this study from the anti-fluoride activists? Some went ballistic and one even wrote most demeaningly by saying:

“I guess the York study wasn’t actually a study as studies go”….."because this study didn’t study animals or people, it simply studied studies. Although this was touted to be the study to end all studies, almost immediately both the Green Party and the Fluoride Action Network published their studies of the York study. These were then studies of the study that studied studies. The studies of the study that studied the studies pointed out that this study that studied the studies had left some 3000 studies unstudied, and they called for further study of the study of the studies as this study and done.”

What should have drawn “kudos for their careful selection process…..all they got were brickbats for their ‘unstudied studies’” and a call for more studies.

So why do scientists tolerate this? Because money has turned science into politics! The “holy grail” of science is no longer truth, but grant money, and the universities and scientific communities are addicted to it. As for those scientists who refuse to bend to this corruption; they are shuttled aside by those bringing in the money to these research institutions, even those who held prestigious positions within the scientific community. As for the younger scientists with no credentials and no accomplishments; they will become part of the system or they will be out. Western science has turned into a Lysenkoian cesspool, starting with DDT and continuing with Global Warming.

Over the years I have had people demand that I produce studies to prove my views about DDT. I don’t bother to do so, or for that matter to even answer them any longer. Why? For two reasons! One, the information is now available to everyone who wants to know the truth and two, because it doesn’t matter what I say, what I do or what I produce they will cling to their fallacies no matter what…..they are nothing more than intellectually dishonest “time wasters”.

The studies that show that DDT was one of the greatest discoveries in mankind’s history isn’t from a study group or a lab. It is in ……reality. Everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. In ‘reality’ untold millions of lives were saved because of DDT and untold hundreds of millions were prevented from being sickened because of DDT. Those who were the most heavily exposed worldwide to DDT didn’t show effects they attempt to show in so many of these “studies”. It didn't wipe out whole eco-systems, it didn't cause egg shell thinning, it didn't do any of the things they claim. The claims by Carson and her acolytes, including these modern day Lysenkoians, about the evils of DDT just aren’t true.

We really need to get this. The green movement is irrational and misanthropic. Once that is understood everything else falls into place. DDT was the green movements bridge to money and power and they will never give up on their claims because DDT is foundational to their existence. If DDT’s ban can be overturned then everything they stand for must be questioned.

If someone cannot, or refuse to get that, then they have become lost in the fever swamps of environmentalism, and I don’t care what they think.

###

Nope: Peregrines not saved by DDT ban, either

2011-12-27T17:57:00.001-05:00

By Steve Milloy
Posted on December 27, 2011

I would like to thank Steve for allowing me to republish his works. RK

Dr. William Hornaday of the New York Zoological Society referred to [peregrine falcons] as birds that “deserve death, but are so rare that we need not take them into account” — in 1913.

In a story about the annual Audubon Society Christmas bird count, the Sacramento Bee writes,

...Even more incredible is the story of the falcon’s recovery from near-extinction, a story the Christmas Bird Count has helped document.

Decimated in the 1960s by the pesticide DDT, the peregrine was put on the endangered species list in 1973.

Harper, who has participated in the Christmas Bird Count for four decades, said one year in the 1970s created a stir when a counter thought she saw the first peregrine to return to the area. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a ceramic rendering.

After DDT was banned, the peregrine began a slow recovery. It was removed from Endangered Species Act protection in 1999, and now there are more than 2,000 known nesting sites across the nation…

Except as pointed out in “100 Things You Should Know About DDT“:

78. The decline in the U.S. peregrine falcon population occurred long before the DDT years. [Hickey JJ. 1942. (Only 170 pairs of peregrines in eastern U.S. in 1940) Auk 59:176; Hickey JJ. 1971 Testimony at DDT hearings before EPA hearing examiner. (350 pre-DDT peregrines claimed in eastern U.S., with 28 of the females sterile); and Beebe FL. 1971. The Myth of the Vanishing Peregrine Falcon: A study in manipulation of public and official attitudes. Canadian Raptor Society Publication, 31 pages]

79. Peregrine falcons were deemed undesirable in the early 20th century. Dr. William Hornaday of the New York Zoological Society referred to them as birds that “deserve death, but are so rare that we need not take them into account.” [Hornaday, WT. 1913. Our Vanishing Wild Life. New York Zoological Society, p. 226]

80. Oologists amassed great collections of falcon eggs. [Peterson, RT. 1948. Birds Over American, Dodd Mead & Co., NY, pp 135-151; Rice, JN. 1969. In Peregrine Falcon Populations, Univ. Of Wisconsin Press, pp 155-164; Berger, DD. 1969. In Peregrine Falcon Populations, Univ. Of Wisconsin Press, pp 165-173]

81. The decline in falcons along the Hudson River was attributed to falconers, egg collectors, pigeon fanciers and disturbance by construction workers and others. [Herbert, RA and KG Herbert. 1969. In Peregrine Falcon Populations, Univ. Of Wisconsin Press, pp 133- 154. (Also in Auk 82: 62-94)]

82. The 1950′s and 1960′s saw continuing harassment trapping brooding birds in their nests, removing fat samples for analysis and operating time-lapse cameras beside the nests for extended periods of time), predation and habitat destruction. [Hazeltine, WE. 1972. Statement before Secretary of State's Advisory Committee on United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, March 16, 1972; Enderson, JH and DD Berger. 1968. (Chlorinated hydrocarbons in peregrines from Northern Canada). Condor 70:149-153; Enderson, JH.. 1972. (Time lapse photography in

peregrine nests) Living Bird 11: 113- 128; Risebrough, RW. 1970. (Organochlorines in peregrines and merlins migrating through Wisconsin). Canadian Field-Naturalist 84:247-253]

83. Changes in climate (higher temperatures and decreasing precipitation) were blamed for the gradual disappearance of peregrines from the Rocky Mountains. [Nelson, MW. 1969. Peregrine Falcon Populations, pp 61-72]

84. Falconers were blamed for decimating western populations. [Herman, S. 1969. Peregrine Falcon Populations, University of Wisconsin Press]

85. During the 1960′s, peregrines in northern Canada were “reproducing normally,” even though they contained 30 times more DDT, DDD, and DDE than the midwestern peregrines that were allegedly extirpated by those chemicals. [Enderson, JH and DD Berger. 1968. (Chlorinated hydrocarbons in peregrines from Northern Canada) Condor 70:170-178]

86. There was no decline in peregrine falcon pairs in Canada and Alaska between 1950 and 1967 despite the presence of DDT and DDE. [Fyfe, RW. 1959. Peregrine Falcon Populations, pp 101-114; and Fyfe, RW. 1968. Auk 85: 383-384]

87. The peregrine with the very highest DDT residue (2,435 parts per million) was found feeding three healthy young. [Enderson, JH. 1968. (Pesticide residues in Alaska and Yukon Territory) Auk 85: 683]

88. Shooting, egg collecting, falconry and disruption of nesting birds along the Yukon River and Colville River were reported to be the cause of the decline in peregrine falcon population.

[Beebe, FL. 1971. The Myth of the Vanishing Peregrine Falcon: A study in manipulation of public and official attitudes. Canadian Raptor Society Publication, 31 pages; and Beebe, FL. 1975. Brit Columbia Provincial Museum Occas. Paper No. 17, pages 126-144]

89. The decline in British peregrine falcons ended by 1966, though DDT was as abundant as ever. The Federal Advisory Committee on Pesticides concluded “There is no close correlation between the declines in populations of predatory birds, particularly the peregrine falcon and the sparrow hawk, and the use of DDT.” [Wilson report. 1969. Review of Organochlorine pesticides in Britain. Report by the Advisory Committee on toxic chemicals. Department of Education and Science]

90. During 1940-1945, the British Air Ministry shot about 600 peregrines (half the pre-1939 level) to protect carrier pigeons.

91. Peregrine falcon and sparrow hawk egg shells thinned in Britain prior to the use of DDT. [Redcliff, DH. 1967. Nature 215: 208-210; Redcliff, DH. 1970 J Applied Biology 7:67; and Redcliff, DH. 1967. Nature 215: 208-210

Read JunkScience.com’s “100 Things You Should Know About DDT.”

###

Bald Eagle-DDT Myth Still Flying High

2011-12-27T17:47:00.000-05:00

Posted on July 6, 2006 by Steve Milloy
July 6, 2006, FoxNews.com

I would like to thank Steve for giving me permission to republish his works. RK

Pennsylvania officials just announced success with their program to re-establish the state’s bald eagle population. But it’s a shame that such welcome news is being tainted by oft-repeated myths about the great bird’s near extinction.

In its July 4 article reporting that the number of bald eagle pairs in Pennsylvania had increased from 3 in 1983 to 100 for the first time in over a century, the Associated Press reached into its file of bald eagle folklore and reported, “DDT poisoned the birds, killing some adults and making the eggs of those that survived thin. The thin eggs dramatically reduced the chances of eaglets surviving to adulthood. DDT was banned in 1972. The next year, the Endangered Species Act passed and the bald eagles began their dramatic recovery.”

While the AP acknowledged the fact that bald eagle populations “were considered a nuisance and routinely shot by hunters, farmers and fishermen” – spurring a 1940 federal law protecting bald eagles – the AP underplayed the significance of hunting and human encroachment and erroneously blamed DDT for the eagles’ near demise.

As early as 1921, the journal Ecology reported that bald eagles were threatened with extinction – 22 years before DDT production even began. According to a report in the National Museum Bulletin, the bald eagle reportedly had vanished from New England by 1937 – 10 years before widespread use of the pesticide.

But by 1960 – 20 years after the Bald Eagle Protection Act and at the peak of DDT use – the Audubon Society reported counting 25 percent more eagles than in its pre-1941 census. U.S. Forest Service studies reported an increase in nesting bald eagle productivity from 51 in 1964 to 107 in 1970, according to the 1970 Annual Report on Bald Eagle Status.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service attributed bald eagle population reductions to a “widespread loss of suitable habitat,” but noted that “illegal shooting continues to be the leading cause of direct mortality in both adult and immature bald eagles,” according to a 1978 report in the Endangered Species Tech Bulletin.

A 1984 National Wildlife Federation publication listed hunting, power line electrocution, collisions in flight and poisoning from eating ducks containing lead shot as the leading causes of eagle deaths.

In addition to these reports, numerous scientific studies and experiments vindicate DDT.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists fed large doses of DDT to captive bald eagles for 112 days and concluded that “DDT residues encountered by eagles in the environment would not adversely affect eagles or their eggs,” according to a 1966 report published in the “Transcripts of 31st North America Wildlife Conference.”

The USFWS examined every bald eagle found dead in the U.S. between 1961-1977 (266 birds) and reported no adverse effects caused by DDT or its residues.

One of the most notorious DDT “factoids” is that it thinned bird egg shells. But a 1970 study published in Pesticides Monitoring Journal reported that DDT residues in bird egg shells were not correlated with thinning. Numerous other feeding studies on caged birds indicate that DDT isn’t associated with egg shell thinning.

In the few studies claiming to implicate DDT as the cause of thinning, the birds were fed diets that were either low in calcium, included other known egg shell-thinning substances, or that contained levels of DDT far in excess of levels that would be found in the environment – and even then, the massive doses produced much less thinning than what had been found in egg shells in the wild.

So what causes thin bird egg shells? The potential culprits are many. Some that have been reported in the scientific literature include: oil; lead; mercury; stress from noise, fear, excitement or disease; age; bird size (larger birds produce thicker shells); dehydration; temperature; decreased light; human and predator intrusion; restraint and nutrient deficiencies.

Most of this evidence was available to the Environmental Protection Agency administrative judge who presided over the 1971-1972 hearings about whether DDT should be banned. No doubt it’s why he ruled that, “The use of DDT under the regulations involved here does not have a deleterious effect on freshwater fish, estuarine organisms, wild birds or other wildlife.”

Yet it’s the myths, not the facts that endure. Why? The answer is endless repetition. The environmentalists who wanted DDT banned have constantly repeated the myths over the last 40 years, while most of DDT’s defenders lost interest after the miracle chemical was summarily banned in 1972 by EPA administrator William Ruckleshaus.

Why was banning DDT so important to environmentalists?

Charles Wurster, a senior scientist for the Environmental Defense Fund – the activist group that led the charge against DDT – told the Seattle Times (Oct. 5, 1969) that, “If the environmentalists win on DDT, they will achieve a level of authority they have never had before. In a sense, much more is at stake than DDT.”

Banning DDT wasn’t about birds. It was about power. The sooner the record on DDT is set straight, the sooner the environmentalists’ ill-gotten “authority” will be seen for what it is.

Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and CSRWatch.com. He is a junk science expert, an advocate of free enterprise and an adjunct scholar at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

###

Hiatus

2011-12-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

This will be my last post for the remainder of 2011. Since I have a job that interferes with my life, and we are coming down to end of year, I have some busy time I need to set aside. I have also undertaken a couple of projects for the associations in which I am a member that are going to be time consuming. Please explore my older offerings, especially The Rules under the side bar called Access to a New World of Information. I think you will find one or two of the rules there that will be of some use out of the one hundred and ninety nine. Also within that side bar there is information on cancer and asthma.

I originally intended to expand this area into afflictions such as ADHD, infertility, autism and the whole host of other maladies that pesticides and chemicals are blamed for causing. I never finished that…and until now I hadn’t realized my failure. That is something I intend to fix next year by having a side bar for that issue exclusively, along with a slightly different way of presenting information. I will have daily information from The American Council on Science and Health rather than a weekly one. I also intend to have a daily update on the Endangered Species Act and DDT. Each of these will appear in my Observations From the Back Row.

As the coming year progresses I hope the format will be much more similar to my old Green Notes newsletter. The information will be organized topically under the appropriate categories. As example; in the case of environmental Issues they will be organized topically as in “Energy” with subtopics as Solar Energy, Wind Energy, etc. This will be completely biased in favor of facts, truth and clarity.

I will follow all the social issues including "Religion", "Homosexuality", "Evolution versus Intelligent Design", “Abortion”, "Marriage and Divorce", and whatever new Philosophical Flavor of the Day may come down the pike. This part will be "absolutely" biased in favor of traditional wisdom versus conventional wisdom. I have been told that doesn’t seem fair. So? Since my goal is clarity and I already know the right answer; why would I want to confuse everyone with information that undermines clarity? I know….I know …. I’m right and the rest of the world is wrong. Yes! See…we already have more clarity than we had a minute ago!

Having said all of that I will confess that I am not optimistic about the near future economically and socially. I have serious misgivings because I believe there is a feeling among the world’s leaders that they really don’t have an answer to all of this. I fear an economic collapse that will make 1929 seem childish. I fear a Balkanization of the entire world. I fear all the encompassing violence that such an event would generate. I fear massive rioting. I fear the corruption in government will only get worse. I fear that the debt load is becoming so great that governments will impose dictatorships everywhere to control society, including the world’s bastion of individual freedom, the United States. I fear that the socialists will then be in charge and will work to turn power over the most corrupt organization the world has ever known; The United Nations. I worry that if all of his should occur the lack of social structure will cause starvation and the rapid and uncontrollable spread of disease.

Seems farfetched I know, but that is exactly what is happening in many parts of Europe, much of Africa and all over the Middle East. Can the rest of the world with the same economic issues be far behind? I hope not, but I am not optimistic.

Well...that was a really stinko negative thought process, so please allow me to throw a little perfume on it. I wish both my regular readers and my occasional readers from all over the world well. This week’s top ten in readership came from the United States, Germany, Russia, France, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Japan, Australia and China; and “no” I don’t know why I am being read from so far away with such different cultural and political structures; and “yes” I am surprised, but I am also very pleased to have their readership. Pretty good for a bug man…don’t you think?

For those among my readers celebrating holidays I wish you joy, happiness and family unity; and for those who are not I wish you and yours the very best.

###

This Week With Alan Caruba

2011-12-17T16:00:00.001-05:00

There has been an unspoken redefining of journalism from objective reporting to active participation, deliberately shaping public opinion whether the core of the content offered is true or not.-

Alan Caruba

Alan's Weekly Cartoon Round Up

Christmas and Old Age
The older I get, the less I like Christmas. It’s definitely an age thing. I have sweet memories of waking early on Christmas day, tip-toeing passed my parent’s and older brother’s bedrooms, and down the stairs to see what bounty awaited in front of the fireplace. There were separate stockings, jammed with candies and collectibles, but it was the boxes, clearly marked for myself and my brother that held treasure.

The Original Tea Party - December 16, 1773
The modern-day Tea Party is a loose amalgamation of people who came together in March 2009 to protest against passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare. There was a large gathering in Washington, D.C. with estimates of several hundred thousand to a million participants

Defining Journalism Downward
New technologies drive out old ones, either eliminating, altering, or reducing their use. The traditional world of print journalism has felt this rather dramatically as subscriptions have fallen off, though often replaced by either free or paid access to their content.

The Wind Power Pipe Dream
Imagine if you will America’s mountain ranges topped by row upon row of wind turbines and America’s deserts and plains covered by solar panels. How ugly is that? A recent Wall Street Journal article, “Wildlife Slows Wind Power”, took note of the slaughter of birds and bats by these Cuisinarts of the countryside. The problem has reached such proportions that “New federal rules on how wind-power operators must manage threats to wildlife could create another challenge for the fast-growing industry as it seeks more footholds in the U.S. energy landscape.”

WAPO Slanders U.S. Military in Iraq
I rarely read The New York Times or Washington Post because the reporting is so biased it sickens me. Pick any topic, from politics to science, these and other liberal mainstream newspapers are divorced from the most basic standards of honesty and accuracy.

###

Christopher Hitchens!

2011-12-17T15:55:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

I can’t end this year without commenting on the death of Christopher Hitchens. There have been a great many articles written about him that attempt to paint a nicer picture than I believe existed. David Horowitz, who was, along with Hitchens, at the apex of leftism in the 60’s was an old friend and wrote openly, honestly and warmly about him. (I recommend reading the whole article...it is worth it. If for no other reason than the article speaks so well of David Horowitz for his affectionate loyalty to their friendship. RK)

He wrote: “I did my mourning for Christopher when he was given his death sentence last July and appeared in public as a punished shell of his former self. For those of us who knew him, it was hard to watch and painful to think about. Christopher was a great entertainer and everyone will miss him for that. He was also an outspoken if inconsistent moralist, and a fearless champion of the right to think and speak one’s mind, and he will be remembered gratefully for that.”

I read one of his books (one was enough) and found that he had a quality that is usually totally lacking in leftists; consistency! He was just as virulent on anyone on the left as he would be to someone on the right who offended his sense of moral justice. Having said that, he was at best a leaky vessel when it came to moralizing against anyone. While railing against man’s inhumanity against man he actively supported a philosophy that is blatantly misanthropic. Dystopia follows leftism just as sure as Sancho Panza followed Don Quixote.

He claimed to be an atheist, but in reality he worshiped at the altar of Leftism and himself. His claims of atheism and his lifestyle suggest that atheism was as good a way as any of justifying his lack of any real moral foundation. As one person said; if you don’t believe in any ultimate moral authority then everything is morally acceptable. However, since Hitchens rejected higher moral authority and yet moralized unendingly he apparently decided that he would be the ultimate moral authority. Hitchens would now be the arbiter of right and wrong. Hitchens would now be his own god.

Horowitz also pointed out that “Christopher had a dark, mean side, which was not so likeable, and whose bile was directed at religious people and select conservatives like Ronald Reagan, and for some reason celebrities like Lady Di. But his wit and verbal bravura were irresistible and helped many to forgive him his transgressions.” So, because he was brilliant his virulence was acceptable? Please forgive me for speaking so ill of the dead, but brilliance wasted on fools is still waste.

Jon Ray, a man of many views and blogs wrote in Dissecting Leftism an article entitled, “De mortuis nil nisi bonum?” He writes:

“I am afraid I am going to disregard that bit of Roman wisdom. The recently deceased Christopher Hitchens has been rather eulogized in the press and elsewhere so I think the other side needs to be put.

His virulent outpouring of hate towards Christians deprives him of any right to respect in my view. If I were a Christian, I think I would see the hand of the Lord in moving him prematurely to his final destination. (For the record, I don’t agree with this last sentence. RK)

Since I am an atheist, however, I note that his death from esophageal cancer was almost certainly the result of his lifelong heavy drinking and smoking. And if he had had the comfort of religion he might not have needed such props to his mood.”

After having said all of that I feel that I cannot leave out the very touching piece his brother Peter wrote, in which he says;
“Much of civilisation rests on the proper response to death, simple unalloyed kindness, the desire to show sympathy for irrecoverable loss, the understanding that a unique and irreplaceable something has been lost to us. If we ceased to care, we wouldn’t be properly human.”
Peter Hitchens is a believer who abandoned leftism at a very young age. He also abandoned the hate that is all encompassing with those who worship at the altar of Leftism. Please read his eulogy to his brother.

###

American Council on Science and Health, 2011: Week 50

2011-12-17T03:59:00.000-05:00

The presence of linked articles here are merely a way of showing what is going on, whether I agree or disagree with the positions presented. Rich Kozlovich

ADHD

Pay attention: ADHD meds not risky for adult hearts either
Although there was some concern that taking medications, such as Ritalin, for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) might increase cardiovascular risks for adults, the results of a new study should help to allay these fears.

CANCER

Unexpected benefit for bone drug in breast cancer patients
The serendipitous result of a clinical trial shows that a drug given to breast cancer patients to maintain their bone density actually increased their survival rate.

Hodgkin's patients live longer without radiotherapy
Less may be more in the case of treating early stage Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Side effects impair compliance with breast cancer drugs
A surprising number of women are stopping their breast cancer treatments early, but it's not because they are fully cured. Instead, the side effects are too much for them to bear, reports a recent study presented this week at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

DIET

Few people have an eye for nutrition labels
Even though many people claim they pay attention to food nutrition labels, few actually read the fine print.

Prevent childhood obesity with more exercise
As the fight to curb the obesity epidemic wears on, a new meta-analysis finds that child obesity prevention strategies, such as those that emphasize more physical activity, can effectively help kids lose weight, especially among children between the ages of six and 12.

HEMOPHILIA

Bleed no more
Medical researchers in England and the U.S. have just reported their successful treatment of six hemophilia-B patients using gene therapy - a major breakthrough in the treatment of the disease.

PHARMA

Aspirin helps prevent blood clot reoccurence
Aspirin may help reduce the risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) following the cessation of anticoagulant therapy, reports a new study.

PREGNANCY

Promising prevention of preterm labor
The authors of two recent studies related to stillbirth note that such devastating losses are associated with an increasingly high incidence of preterm labor and premature births. The results of another study - this one in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology - are, then, especially good news...

Some stillbirth risks and causes come to light
Globally, three to four million pregnancies end in stillbirth, which is defined as a fetus that dies during or after the 20th week of gestation. Yet despite the devastating consequences, the causes have long been unclear. Now, two separate studies have uncovered more about these causes as well as the risk factors for stillbirth - and the good news is that some of them are avoidable.

TB

Making short work of TB
Twelve pills instead of 270. Once a week instead of once a day. Three months instead of nine. These are the promising new guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to treat tuberculosis.

TOBACCO

A cigarette in cigar’s clothing?
The good news is that, in many states across the country, fewer teenagers are smoking cigarettes - but the bad news is that many of them have begun to smoke flavored cigars instead.

More hurdles for tobacco harm reduction
We were disappointed to learn that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has taken an unfavorable stance toward modified risk tobacco products (MRTPs), advising the FDA to set high hurdles for the manufacturers of such products before they can market them as less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.

The story that should have made headlines: Teenagers smoking less
The results of a survey on substance use among U.S. teenagers were released yesterday.

EU considers coming to its senses about snus
The executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission is, once again, considering an end to its ban on the export of Swedish snus to other EU countries.

If there is a health scare today, the American Council on Science and Health will most likely have the answer by tomorrow; and for members it will appear in your e-mail. No effort on your part, except to read the answer. All that the ACSH is interested in are the facts and they are prepared to follow them wherever they lead. Who can ask for more? Please Donate Now!

###

This Week With Steve Milloy

2011-12-17T03:32:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

The problem with posting article links from Steve's website is that there is so much stuff there that it is impossible to link it all. So I pick a few that really interest me. If you really want to get a flavor of what he has accomplished please go to his site....Junkscience.com!

House GOP wastes year: No significant EPA riders in budget omnibus
We’ve failed. Congrats to Lisa Jackson. The House GOP get an “F-” for effort in reining in the EPA. As Steve Milloy worried about earlier this week in his Washington Times op-ed, House Republicans have squandered an entire year. Politico reports.....

Light bulb ban NOT repealed
There has been no repeal of the light bulb ban. The deal agreed to in Congress merely deprives the Department oF Energy the funds to enforce the ban for 2012. The ban is still on the books — so the DOE may very well get the money next year or the year after or who knows when. Moreover as the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy points out,

… Five manufacturers are now producing and selling efficient incandescent bulbs that meet the standards. With the new budget provision, the law is still in effect, but the Department of Energy cannot spend money to enforce it. Law-abiding companies will follow the law. Less scrupulous companies will take advantage of the lack of enforcement, selling products that waste energy and increase energy costs for consumers….

It is not at all clear whether light bulb manufacturers and sellers will be willing to break the law simply because there is no money to enforce it.

Climategate Bombshell: Did U.S. Gov’t Help Hide Climate Data?
Are your tax dollars helping hide global warming data from the public? Internal emails leaked as part of “Climategate 2.0” indicate the answer may be “Yes.” The original Climategate emails — correspondence stolen from servers at a research facility in the U.K. and released on the Internet in late 2009 — shook up the field of climate research.

UN says Canada can’t quit Kyoto
Welcome to the UN’s Hotel Kyoto. Lorne Gunter writes in the National Post. After federal Environment Minister Peter Kent announced Monday that Canada would be withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on carbon emissions, the head of the UN agency that administers the protocol said she would not permit Ottawa to do so.

Who blew up the ‘bridge to the future’?
Environmentalists are not playing it straight on natural gas. Until recently, they have been amongst its most aggressive promoters, even coining the phrase “bridge to the future.”

The Real Story of Air Pollution
Indur Goklany argues that the United States’ economic gains improved not only their wealth, but also their environment, and primarily without government intervention.

Goklany: The Real Story of Air Pollution –
The real engines for progress on the urban smoke problem in the United States as well as in England were economics and technological change—forces that began in the late 19thcentury and have continued, for one reason or another, to the present day. New, cleaner energy sources such as natural gas, oil, and electricity became increasingly available as substitutes for coal and wood in homes, businesses, and industries. Urbanization, while responsible for many environmental woes, accelerated the process of substitution because higher population densities reduced access to wood and increased cost-effectiveness and economics of distribution systems for natural gas and electricity. (Cooler Heads)

###

Logical Fallacy of the Week, Week 20: Argument From Repetition

2011-12-17T03:28:00.001-05:00

There are some things about logical fallacies that you should have realized by now. Many of them are duplicates or partial duplicates. My assumption has been that similar fallacies were recognized at different times in different locations by different people and then published. Then there are those that are so difficult to understand that they are meaningless to most people, and some of them are so incomprehensible they have little practical value.

There are around 140 that will be discussed here, but I would be willing to bet that if you dumped those that are virtually incomprehensible, and those duplicates that could be merged, you would end up with about 50 that are worth all of the effort put into this stuff. There will be one discussed later that is so incomprehensible that even the originator can't explain it properly himself.

Ad nauseam (Redirected from Argument from repetition)
Ad nauseam is a Latin term used to describe an argument which has been continuing "to [the point of] nausea". For example, the sentence, "This topic has been discussed ad nauseam", signifies that the topic in question has been discussed extensively, and that those involved in the discussion have grown tired of it…..This term is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as:

"Argumentum ad nauseam or argument from repetition or argumentum ad infinitum is an argument made repeatedly (possibly by different people) until nobody cares to discuss it any more. This may sometimes, but not always, be a form of proof by assertion".

Observations From the Back Row

2011-12-16T04:49:00.002-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

We have the tendency to think that our views are the views shared by everyone else, so when we read some accounts that should normally outrage our sense of justice we have the tendency to pass these outrages off and think; “Come on; who would do such things?” I truly think that is the problem with a society that doesn’t teach history….and what we are doing in our schools isn’t history. At one time you could at least get the correct understanding in the universities ---at one time--- but that time isn’t now!

I started this as an anti-green blog; and I intend that it should be a “green issues only” blog. I started it because I had become 'outraged' when I realized that everything the greenies were spouting about pesticides was a lie, and I wanted to set the record straight for our industry. I wanted to make sure there was at least one place where all pest controllers could go to gather information to defend us against these scurrilous attacks against pesticides and pesticide users.

It soon became obvious that it was impossible to maintain a “green issues only” blog because green isn’t about the environment, no matter what they claim. It is about world domination and green was the tip of the spear point for that movement! That made me realize that in order to properly address the green issues I would have to take on all issues promoted by the leftists of this world. I really hate that because there is no end to it, and I have a real job that really interferes with my life. Whoda thunk it?

What really convinced me that I had to expand my coverage into “all things” was the fact that so many in the pesticide manufacturing, distribution and applications industries had started drinking the Kool-Aid. This was not the industry that I started in thirty years ago. It had become infested with pseudo-greenies from the universities that demonstrated all the symptoms of the Stockholm Syndrome. They were now finding common ground with enemies whose goal was our destruction and the destruction of humanity. The last part was the defining realization for me.

At any rate I needed some sort of emotional, psychological and logical foundation to justify all of the work this was going to take. I did struggle with that for a nano-second and then I had another one of those SHAZAM moments. I do so love SHAZAM moments!

Did you ever have a SHAZAM moment? All of a sudden you get this flash of insight -- SHAZAM -- and all of a sudden we understand something that we have been working on mentally for some time, maybe even years. As I grow older I find that this happens much more often than in years gone by. How does that happen? I can tell you that age makes up a part of it, because clearly the brain’s abilities change as we grow older. I read James A. Michener’s book “The Source” when I was 19 and enjoyed it. I read it again when I was 30 and understood it.

The brain is designed to find patterns. The ability to draw correct conclusions from incomplete data is a work of the brain that is a wonderful gift, but there still has to be a foundation for it. Everyone has this ability in varying degrees, but are we capable of training our minds to do it better? I believe so! I believe that this is done by absorbing a great deal of information and thinking a great deal about a great many small things. All of this is being filed and correlated by the brain without any conscious effort on our part. Eventually we will have a brain full of seemingly disparate and useless information that will come together into some cohesive form. A bit here, a bit there and all of a sudden –SHAZAM-- you have the whole story with the informational gaps filled in automatically.

I realized that Paradigms and Demographics isn’t an anti-green blog and it isn’t an anti-leftist blog. Paradigms and Demographics is a pro-humanity blog! In order to be pro-humanity you must be against environmentalism and leftism; both being irrational and misanthropic secular religions.

Everything that I post will attempt to dig deeper into the issues than what is shown on the news or appears in the newspapers….both of which are lies of omission. Because everything is “the basics”! What is "the basics"? It is the embrace of traditional wisdom versus the latest philosophical flavor of the day; commonly known as conventional wisdom!

Traditional wisdom appeals to the intellect and conventional wisdom appeals to the emotions. Traditional wisdom has faced the test of time, and that time is called history. History leaves a trail that can be followed and used to develop factual logical foundations that will naturally create the intellectual responses to the emotional speculative ravings of the left. Conventional wisdom often leaves dystopia behind.

My hope is to clarify …………. everything!

Lord Monckton to pursue fraud charges against Climategate scientists:
Will present to police the case for 'numerous specific instances of scientific or economic fraud' Visit Site - 'I have begun drafting a memorandum for prosecuting authorities...to establish...the existence of numerous specific instances of scientific or economic fraud in relation to the official 'global warming' storyline...they will act, for that is what the law requires them to do'………In the United Kingdom, the Fraud Act 2006 has given fraud a very detailed, statutory definition, which may be summarized as the obtaining of a temporary or permanent gain (whether by keeping what one has or by getting what one does not have) or the infliction upon another of a temporary or permanent loss (whether by not getting what one might get or by parting with what one has), the gain or loss being in money or other real or personal property (including things in action or other intangible property), with the intent either of obtaining a gain for the offender or for another or of causing loss to another or of exposing another to a risk of loss, whether by dishonestly making an untrue or misleading express or implied representation that the offender knows is or may be untrue or misleading; or by dishonestly failing to disclose to another person information which the offender is under a legal duty to disclose; or by dishonestly (by act or omission) abusing a position in which he is expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interest of another person.

In some jurisdictions, “serious fraud” is defined as a fraud that either involves offenders in a position of public trust or very substantial sums of money or both. The connected frauds revealed in the Climategate emails involve both.

My Take - The people who perpetrated this fraud; the people who supported this fraud; and the people who have profited from this fraud have a lot more to answer for than mere fraud. They are guilty of crimes against humanity! Here are two articles from earlier in the year

Armed Troops Burn Down Homes, Kill Children To Evict Ugandans In Name Of Global Warming
Neo-colonial land grabs carried out on behalf of World Bank-backed British company - Armed troops acting on behalf of a British carbon trading company backed by the World Bank burned houses to the ground and killed children to evict Ugandans from their homes in the name of seizing land to protect against “global warming,” a shocking illustration of how the climate change con is a barbarian form of neo-colonialism.

Kenya's Samburu people 'violently evicted' after US charities buy land
Around 2,000 Samburu families have stayed squatting on edge of disputed territory, says NGO Survival International - Members of the Samburu people in Kenya have been abused, beaten and raped by police after the land they lived on for two decades was sold to two US-based…. charities, the Nature Conservancyand the African Wildlife Foundation.….. At least three people are said to have died during the row, including a child who was eaten….The groups subsequently gifted the land to Kenya for a national park, to be called Laikipia National Park….the pastoralist Samburu had reported constant harassment from police with women allegedly raped, animals seized and an elder shot as recently as last month. "There has been an ongoing, constant level of fear, intimidation and violence towards the community, which has been devastating," …."The situation has been really bad for a long time," he said. "[The Samburu] have nothing. Things like bedding and utensils were burned."…"In one incident, a Samburu elder was shot dead by paramilitaries," the group said in its letter to the UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination, dated 7 December….."The displaced community has nothing but their livestock, thousands of which were impounded – with no reason given – on 25 November 2011. This is an urgent and serious violation of the rights of this community, which has been left squatting beside its land with no amenities," Survival's letter said.

IPCC Scientist Responsible For Bogus Antarctica Warming Study Suppresses His Critics' Research
IPCC 'lead author' Josefino Comiso suppresses peer-reviewed research that completely discredited his previous "Antarctica is warming" study. The IPCC is continuing its tradition of fraudulent climate science for the 2013 climate report by utilizing Climategate-style scientists that excel in global warming fabrication and suppressing research that challenges the blatant fabrication.

The wind turbine syndrome has become pandemic
Yesterday, the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) and the North American Platform against Windpower (NA-PAW) served notice to the government of Denmark. They warned of the consequences of their health-threatening manipulations of measurements of sounds and infrasounds emitted by wind turbines. The government of Australia was also warned about the health hazards associated with their windfarm policy. More governments will be served notice in the coming weeks, as well as the wind industry. We reproduce below the letter that was sent to the Danish government.

Ministers won't back cross-ban Christians: Ex-archbishop condemns 'illiberal' assault on faith
The [British] Government was slammed last night for refusing to support a group of Christians fighting for their rights in the European courts. Four individuals who have been disciplined at work or lost their jobs after refusing to remove crosses or to conform to gay rights laws are attempting to overturn the decisions of British courts and tribunal. They had hoped for support from Ministers after a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, appealed to Prime Minister David Cameron on their behalf. But the Government told the European Court of Human Rights that it backed the British judges and does not accept that the Christians have suffered discrimination.

Muslim Cleric Allegedly Bans Women From Touching Bananas & Cucumbers…Because They’re Too Sexual
An Islamic cleric in Europe has reportedly ruled women should be forbidden from touching — or even being near — bananas and cucumbers because their oblong shapes can make women think of sex……The report comes just days after Saudi Arabian academics claimed there would be no more virgins if women in the country were allowed to drive.

Soft sentencing makes Victoria's law an ass
EVEN a convicted drug dealer thinks our justice system is too soft.....Victorian Supreme Court Justice Lex Lasry ordered the sentence be served concurrently with the 13-year sentence Johnson is already serving for armed robbery. In other words, you can subtract 13 years from 32 years, which amounts to a sort of discount for bad behaviour. It is just another perplexing anomaly from our courts......judges are out of touch and too soft on violent crime. This indicates a crisis of public confidence in our judiciary.

Take, for example, a recent case in the NSW District Court in which Justice Leonie Flannery acquitted a terror suspect who shot a police officer while being arrested. The man, who was under ASIO surveillance, was carrying two loaded guns, had acquired chemicals in preparation for a terrorist act, and had possession of jihadi extremist material and 11 mobile phones he had purchased on eBay. But Judge Flannery claimed an environment of anti-Muslim feeling, which engendered in the Muslim community a high sense of paranoia, had made the man panic when police came to arrest him near a western Sydney mosque in 2005. "He was concerned for his safety, and (in) the climate of anti-Muslim feeling in the community at the time, he believed that he might be harmed by the police."

She concluded the suspect had not intended to shoot the policeman and therefore found him not guilty.

###

Observations From the Back Row

2011-12-15T02:38:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

Once again.....Please read Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm!

Internet piracy bill: A free speech 'kill switch'
What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic “kill switch” on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas. Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers – a positively Orwellian power grab that would permit the U.S. Justice Department to shut down any internet site it doesn’t like (and cut off its sources of income) on nothing more than a whim.

Under the so-called “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) the federal government – which is prohibited constitutionally from abridging free speech or depriving its citizens of their property without due process – would engage in both practices on an unprecedented scale. And in establishing the precursor to a taxpayer-funded “thought police,” it would dramatically curtail technology investment and innovation – wreaking havoc on our economy.

Big Government Scares More Americans
Gallup just released a poll asking Americans who they fear most: big government, big business or big labor. Government terrifies more Americans than the other two combined, by a two-to-one margin.

__________________________________________________

Next are three articles and a speech. It is amazing that so many know so much about every aspect of this man’s life...whether glorious or vainglorious...depending on your views, and yet people don't really know this man. He is a greenie first and foremost. And he is everything else that is said about him in these three articles. One absolutely negative, one absolutely positive and one that attempts to outline the realities. How can one man be all of these things and all of these things be absolutely true!

At the end, you will see one thing. When he focuses on foundational historical precedence for his views he gives a remarkable speech. No one....and I mean no one could overcome that in a debate. RK

Newt: Speak Bombastically and Carry a Tiny Stick
If all you want is to lob rhetorical bombs at Obama and then lose, Newt Gingrich -- like recent favorite Donald Trump -- is your candidate. But if you want to save the country, Newt's not your guy.

Newt Versus the Ruling Class
The media elite and the Republican ruling class are remarkably similar in their political projection for the coming year. Journalists spent the entire year savaging every fast-rising challenger to Mitt Romney. The GOPs power pundits became equally agitated at the sniff of a conservative anywhere near the top of the GOP pack. It's the odor of extremism that both the elites in the media and the GOP have detested -- always.

Newtzilla to the Rescue
"How do we stop Newt?" I've now been asked that question by a lot of conservatives. It's not that I'm the go-to guy for that sort of question. Rather, one gets the sense that many "establishment" conservatives are asking everybody that question -- in staff meetings, at the chiropodist, even at the McDonald's drive-thru. ("I'll have two happy meals, two chocolate milks and -- by the way -- do you have any idea how to stop Newt?")

What it will take to win. Speech by Newt Gengrich at David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend.

Greenism: The Science of Smoke and Mirrors

2011-12-15T02:37:00.000-05:00

As I have said, my primary theme for this week is the idea that environmentalism has made scientific integrity an oxymoron! The goal of the green movement is to get their 'truth' out. No matter how many lies they have to tell. RK

Enviromental Scientist Caught On Video Faking Data - Dr. Ann Maest is a managing scientist at Straus Consulting, and she's the go to expert on all things groundwater. In the press release announcing her reappointment to the National Academy of Sciences, they mention that she is focused on the environmental effects of mining and petroleum extraction and production, and, more recently, on the effects of climate change on water quality. Maest is in high demand as an expert for those looking to stop oil and mineral exploration. She's also heavily used by the federal government, even though after new details about her past work are coming to light as a result of a lawsuit......... As part of their lawsuit, Chevron obtained through discovery, outtakes from a documentary called "Crude" that show Donziger and Maest colluding ignore their own findings and make up some new unsubstantiated claims. Watch this:

....Of course when you're endeavoring to pull off a multi-billion dollar legal heist in a banana republic you don't stop at just inventing damages; you stack the deck on the judicial side as well, since that just requires a little "donation." What Chevron has been able to show from the out takes and records obtained is the Maest and her firm drafted substantial portions of the report of the independent expert, Richard Cabrera, who they allege Donziger was instrumental in getting appointed to do the court order study of the alleged environmental damage. Sounds like a criminal enterprise to extort, right? That's what Chevron thinks, and it's why they're suing under RICO.

For some reason my computer keeps telling me that it can't acquire the link to the original article, which has links to follow. You will have to find it on your own for the complete story. RK

###

Observations From the Back Row

2011-12-14T06:48:00.001-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

My primary theme for this week has been "scientific integrity is an oxymoron". There has always been a certain amount of fraud in science, and that must be expected because scientists have one thing in common with all other people....they're people, and people all have all the same wants, needs and desires that all other people have. A priest once said; "if you can find the perfect organization join it. But remember the minute you have joined it is now become somewhat less than perfect."

Scientists were once thought of so highly that they almost became omniscient in the eyes of the average man. That has changed because they may be smart people, but they are still people, and being people they got carried away with their own image of grandeur. What is the mechanism that caused this? The need to publish to survive and garner government grant money turned integrity on its head and science into a carnival show with all the hucksters, tricksters and disreputable characters. However, I don't think anything could have exposed this problem as well as "global warming.

There are a great many scientists out there that wouldn't trade their integrity for all the grant money in the world. Global Warming has brought these courageous men and women to the fore also, and they have paid a penalty for their integrity. I also think they represent the majority, albeit a ‘silent majority’. Most scientists are not rocks in the current type people. Having said that, I also believe that scientific fraud has become so common place that the phrase "scientific integrity is an oxymoron" is totally valid. "Life's tough... it's even tougher if you're stupid" - John Wayne

Statisticians can prove almost anything, a new study finds
Catchy headlines about the latest counter-intuitive discovery in human psychology have a special place in journalism, offering a quirky distraction from the horrors of war and crime, the tedium of politics and the drudgery of economics. But even as readers smirk over the latest gee whizzery about human nature, it is generally assumed that behind the headlines, in the peer-reviewed pages of academia, most scientists are engaged in sober analysis of rigorously gathered data, and that this leads them reliably to the truth.

Not so, says a new report in the journal Psychological Science, which claims to show “how unacceptably easy it is to accumulate (and report) statistically significant evidence for a false hypothesis.”…….. Under their proposed guidelines, though not under current accepted scientific practices, the authors would have been required to disclose that they in fact asked participants many other questions, and did not decide in advance when to stop collecting data, which can skew results. They also would have been obliged to disclose that, without controlling for father’s age, there was no significant effect, and the experiment was more or less a bust. “Our goal as scientists is not to publish as many articles as we can, but to discover and disseminate truth,” they write. “We should embrace these [proposed rules about disclosing research methods] as if the credibility of our profession depended on them. Because it does.”

EPA gives $25,000 grant to dance troupe to teach kids about air pollutionRep. Rob Bishop is a fan of the Repertory Dance Theater in downtown Salt Lake City, and the Utah Republican has attended many of the group’s performances over the years. But he can’t applaud a decision this week by U.S. EPA to give the group $25,000 to help produce an artistic program designed to teach school children about the dangers of air pollution.

My Take – The EPA ends grants to the lead agency in Ohio who has the primary responsibility to make sure pesticide applicators are properly trained, but gives all of this money to a dance school….for propaganda purposes. It is clear these idiots are incapable of handling the people’s money. Then again….Lenin and Hitler would have loved the concept. Socialists have always wanted to own the children. So when they claim something is for the children…..you really have to start looking closely at it because it is not usually for the children, it’s usually to the children...

WSJ: The Cellulosic Ethanol Debacle
“Congress mandated purchase of 250 million gallons in 2011. Actual production: 6.6 million.”

The Wall Street Journal editorializes -‘We’ll fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol, not just from corn but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.”………

Junk science comment - To recap: Congress subsidized a product that didn’t exist, mandated its purchase though it still didn’t exist, is punishing oil companies for not buying the product that doesn’t exist, and is now doubling down on the subsidies in the hope that someday it might exist. We’d call this the march of folly, but that’s unfair to fools.

My Take – Please read the whole account….this is insane and obscene!

Sierra Club at the Metropolitan Club
My dirty secret is that I'm a member of the Sierra Club. I joined at the $15 rate for retired senior citizens and received a bonus shoulder bag. The Sierra Club idolizes nature and demonizes man. It glorifies economic parasitism and practices junk science. I joined because I am investigating the environmentalist movement, and I wanted to get their e-mails….. With junk science, it is easy to scare people. There are many things that are bad for us that are present at low levels in the environment -- for example, mercury, lead, radiation, or tobacco smoke. The junk science approach to trace toxins is to claim that if a high level of the bad thing would cause X people to get sick, then a level 10,000 times smaller must cause 1/10,000 as many people to get sick. Given 300 million people in the country, this math can give you thousands of people getting sick from low levels of mercury, lead, radiation, or secondhand tobacco smoke. This approach is known as the linear no threshold hypothesis…… From the bureaucratic point of view, the linear no threshold hypothesis is wonderful because it means that problems are never solved and there is always a need for more bureaucratic activity.

##

Scandal and Insanity at Penn State

2011-12-14T06:47:00.000-05:00

By Paul Driessen

I would like to thank Paul for allowing me to publish his works. RK

In a repeat of Copenhagen, on the eve of the Durban climate change gabfest, someone released another horde of emails from alarmist climate researchers, including Dr. Michael Mann, whose infamous “hockey stick” was headlined in the 2001 IPCC report to justify the Kyoto agreement and demands that nations slash fossil fuel use and economic growth.

Meanwhile, back on Dr. Mann’s campus, Pennsylvania State University was confronting the sordid Jerry Sandusky affair. Sports Illustrated summarized the Augean Stables task in an article titled “Missteps at every turn: Efforts to clean up Penn State reveal how deep the institutional problems lie.”

As SI noted, a key judge in the case, Pennsylvania’s governor, Penn State’s new athletic director and even the attorney appointed to head up a “full and complete” internal investigation all have deep and longstanding ties to the university and/or its big-money football team. Noting these and other “blatant conflicts of interest,” the magazine quoted new PSU president Rodney Erickson as saying, “Penn State is committed to transparency to the fullest extent possible” [emphasis added] – in view of relevant financial, personal and other considerations, and special exemptions that Penn State enjoys from disclosure laws.

SI ended the article by asking, “Is Penn State cleaning house? Or simply rearranging the furniture?”

The same question applies to Dr. Mann. In the wake of Climategate 2009, Penn State hurriedly exonerated him and his department of any wrongdoing, as did NOAA and the National Science Foundation. The blatant whitewashes reflect the desperation of organizations intent on preserving their money train and perpetuating the Hollywood façade of manmade catastrophic climate change.

All three organizations are at the forefront of climate alarmism and its agenda of “radically transforming” the energy and economic foundations of modern nations. As IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri has said, climate change is “just a part of” the effort “to bring about major structural changes” in “unsustainable” economic growth, development and lifestyles.

The agenda involves slashing carbon dioxide levels to 80% below 1990 levels. That would carry the United States back to emission levels last seen during the American Civil War – devastating the economy.

Together these institutions receive billions of dollars in annual government grants that foster one line of thinking on “global climate disruption” – another term concocted to spin weather and climate events as unprecedented disasters resulting from hydrocarbon energy use. Delegates from all three institutions get to attend annual climate confabs at exotic 5-star resorts, to promote “the cause” of ending mankind’s “addiction” to fossil fuels and establishing “global governance” under UN auspices.

For all these institutions, full-blown independent investigations – with adverse witnesses, cross-examination, and access to data and records denied to previous investigators – could result in lost income, prestige, and power over public policy decisions. Honest, replicable, truly peer-reviewed, robustly debated science into the causes, effects and extent of climate change would do likewise.

For Penn State, the global warming treasure chest may well exceed the Nittany Lions football cash cow. As meteorologist Art Horn has noted, the university received a whopping $470,000,000 in federal grants and contracts between 2010 and 2011. Neither Mann nor Penn State is saying how much went to climate research. But since the US government spent over $106 billion on climate research money between 2003 and 2010, PSU undoubtedly received a hefty portion for promoting the official alarmist viewpoint.

No wonder they refused to turn over raw data and computer codes to other scientists, IPCC reviewers and even investigators – claiming these were private property, even though taxpayers paid for them and the results generated are being used to justify endless energy, job and economy-killing public policies.

At the tip of the policy iceberg are EPA’s (postponed) CO2 “endangerment” regulations, its boiler and refinery rules, its reams of restrictions on coal-fired power plants, the agency’s opposition to hydraulic shale fracturing and the Keystone XL pipeline, and its new automobile mileage rules, which will raise the cost of cars, reduce crash-worthiness and result in thousands of additional deaths in accidents. Mann’s deceptive models and hockey sticks are also being used to justify a $100-billion-a-year “climate change reparation and mitigation” fund for poor nations, to be financed directly by FRCs (formerly rich countries) or via “climate taxes” imposed on international air travel and imported and exported products.

Also benefitting from the corrupt Climate Armageddon research machine are crony capitalists and climate profiteers too numerous to count: the renewable energy and carbon trading firms that depend on climate scares to maintain renewable energy, “green job,” carbon trading, and similar mandates and schemes.

As Competitive Enterprise Institute analyst Bill Frezza has observed, the US Department of Energy invested $529 million in taxpayer-subsidized loan guarantees to build North America’s largest lithium ion automotive battery plant … to supply a Finnish electric car manufacturer backed by Al Gore’s venture capital fund … to ship 40 (!) cars to the USA to date … so that they can be purchased by “environment-motivated” millionaires like Leonardo DeCaprio, who receive $7,500 tax credits for buying the cars.

Add in billions for wind turbines and solar panels … billions to persuade the poorest nations on Planet Earth to endure “sustainable” lifestyles, rather than modernize through reliable, affordable and, yes, hydrocarbon energy … and billions for IPCC and other UN bureaucrats, who insist that drought and flood, cold and heat, storm and sea level events are no longer due to natural forces, but to mankind’s use of fossil fuels – and we’re talking serious money.

Global warming alarmism could ultimately cause the global economy trillions of dollars.

Meanwhile, what about average workers and families? They get none of these perks, sinecures, subsidies and handouts. Instead, they get to pay taxes to support the bureaucrats, pseudo scientists and activists. They get to pay soaring energy bills that subsidize wind, solar and climate schemes, while driving families into fuel poverty. They get to lose their jobs, as companies faced with skyrocketing energy bills lay people off, close their doors or ship jobs off to overseas factories that have cheap energy and cheap labor, because China, India, et cetera do not and will not operate under Kyoto-style restrictions.

What about families in destitute African countries, where 90% of the people still don’t have electricity – because radical environmentalists, World Bank operatives and Obama Administration bureaucrats collude to delay or prevent the construction of coal and even gas-fired power plants?

It’s maybe possible that we face a genuine manmade climate crisis. It’s highly likely that mankind will continue to confront natural climate changes that compel adaptation through ingenuity and technology.

However, Climategate 1 and 2, The Delinquent Teenager and other exposés make it clear that the climate crisis cabal deliberately altered data, misrepresented and withheld crucial information, squelched inquiry and debate, and presented a one-sided narrative, so as to protect their revenues and reputations, and drive an anti-hydrocarbon agenda. Until truly convincing evidence is presented, vetted and fully debated – that fossil fuels are causing significant warming and climate disruption – Kyoto and its proposed successors should be terminated, and the frenzied rush to renewable energy should be ended.

Penn State needs to conduct a real investigation, by honest independent analysts who have no ties to the university or the climate crisis consortium. Its trustees took bold, decisive action on the Sandusky scandal. They need to do the same thing with Professor Mann, his department and colleagues.

Far too much is at stake – for the university, United States and world at large – to permit Penn State (or the IPCC or White House) to merely rearrange the furniture.

Paul Driessen is senior policy adviser for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT), which is sponsoring the All Pain No Gain petition against global-warming hype. He also is a senior policy adviser to the Congress of Racial Equality and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power - Black Death. Be the first to read Paul Driessen's column. Sign up today and receive Townhall.com delivered each morning to your inbox.

Green charities: way more evil and dangerous than Exxon or the Koch Brothers

2011-12-13T18:59:00.000-05:00

James Delingpole

James Delingpole is a writer, journalist and broadcaster who is right about everything. He is the author of numerous fantastically entertaining books including 365 Ways to Drive a Liberal Crazy, Welcome To Obamaland: I've Seen Your Future And It Doesn't Work, How To Be Right, and the Coward series of WWII adventure novels. His website is www.jamesdelingpole.com. I would like to thank James for allowing me to publish his works. RK

Your glorious green future!

Sorry, I find Europe so paralysingly depressing I can't possibly blog about it. Instead, here's a piece of investigative journalism to gladden the heart from Norman Rogers – a physicist and senior advisor at the Heartland Institute.

It describes how he cunningly infiltrated his way into the belly of the Green Beast – aka the America's oldest environmental organisation, the Sierra Club – using the brilliantly clever device of paying for membership. Like Greenpeace, like the WWF, the Sierra Club would love you to imagine that it is a plucky little David battling the Goliaths of Big Carbon, Big Industry, Big Pollution, Big Corporate Greed, Big Koch, and so on. In fact – again like Greenpeace, like the WWF – it is enormously well-funded with an $84 million annual budget and 1.4 million members. This would be nice if it didn't use all that money and influence promoting such terrible causes.

As Rogers notes in American Thinker:

The Sierra Club idolizes nature and demonizes man. It glorifies economic parasitism and practices junk science.

The article's fascinating and well worth reading in full, especially for the bit where the Sierra Club's green panelists start squirming over the issue of all the birds that are killed by wind farms. The Sierra Club, of course, is a huge advocate of wind farms.

But the bit that interested me most was Rogers's description of the "linear no threshold hypothesis." It sounds to me rather similar to the "Precautionary Principle" – another of those flimsy, superficially plausible excuses trotted out by the green movement to justify banning pretty much anything that smacks of capitalism, commonsense or scientific progress.

The Sierra Club campaign against coal is motivated by a desire to reduce CO2 emissions to prevent global warming. But since global warming skepticism and global warming fatigue are widespread, the club has opted for a junk science approach to reach its goals. The club tells people that their babies will die, or at least get asthma, if coal plants continue to operate. Although the cause of asthma is not known, it is suspected that it is related to the high levels of cleanliness in advanced countries that denies children and their immune systems exposure to the dirt and filth found in primitive places. This is known as the hygiene hypothesis. The incidence of asthma is about 50 times higher in developed countries compared to rural Africa. For all the Sierra Club knows, coal plants may prevent asthma. Given the hygiene hypothesis, that seems plausible.

With junk science, it is easy to scare people. There are many things that are bad for us that are present at low levels in the environment — for example, mercury, lead, radiation, or tobacco smoke. The junk science approach to trace toxins is to claim that if a high level of the bad thing would cause X people to get sick, then a level 10,000 times smaller must cause 1/10,000 as many people to get sick. Given 300 million people in the country, this math can give you thousands of people getting sick from low levels of mercury, lead, radiation, or secondhand tobacco smoke. This approach is known as the linear no threshold hypothesis.

The Sierra Club and its ally, the Environmental Protection Agency, lean on the small emissions of mercury from burning coal to work up a calculation of deaths from coal. They minimize the fact that much of the mercury falling on the U.S. comes from China, volcanoes, or even from burning dead bodies with mercury-based fillings in their teeth. Mercury pollution becomes an excuse to get rid of coal. Arguing the science behind such claims often degenerates into a paper chase about statistics and what studies are good or bad. From the bureaucratic point of view, the linear no threshold hypothesis is wonderful because it means that problems are never solved and there is always a need for more bureaucratic activity.

I think that of all the things I discovered while researching my book Watermelons, this was the one that shocked me most: the outrageous power wielded by democratically unaccountable environmental NGOs, with the budgets of big corporations and the political philosophy of Marxists. As Donna Laframboise describes in her brilliant book The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken For The World's Top Climate Expert they've heavily infiltrated the IPCC. And as this terrifying video featuring Friends of the Earth green activist turned Labour peer Bryony Worthington shows, they've also had a grotesquely disproportionate influence on British government policy. Meanwhile we learn from FOIAs by Chris Horner that NASA's chief activist-scientist James Hansen was paid (on top of his federal salary) $250 an hour by a Canadian law firm to testify in a campaign against an Alberta oil sand company.

Worth thinking about, next time you hear a green charity bleating about the evils of all those climate deniers out there lavishly funded by Big Oil. God, I so picked the wrong side to be on: if I'd chosen to join the junk science, eco-fascist climate scam, I wouldn't be so worried about what's happening to the global economy. A) because I'd be so rich it wouldn't matter. And B) because I'd probably be quite pleased it was going down the toilet. After all isn't deindustrialisation, the preservation of "scarce resources" and a return to the bracing, back-breaking misery of the Agrarian age what the Watermelons of Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, the WWF, NASA and Friends of the Earth been campaigning for all along?

###

Resistance is the Symptom, Not the Problem!

2011-12-13T18:51:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

Alex Avery of the Hudson Institute, Center for Global Food Issues, posted a comment to my article, Research is Dandy but Silver Bullets are Handy. I think his comments are worth exploring. He asked;

“why do we care about the concerns over “herbicide resistance" from folks who never want us to use herbicides to begin with (Greenpeace, etc.)?

For those, like Avery, who have been researching and writing about these issues for years, the logical fallacies from the green movement are obvious. The very people who use this argument about resistance are in the forefront of those attempting to ban pesticides. So any argument that is used saying that we shouldn't use certain products because it will hasten resistance is simply a red herring fallacy. What are we saving these products for? The assumption must be that we are saving them for some time when they are necessary. Well then, why isn't this the necessary time? Herbicides are considered a pesticide for those who aren’t aware, as weeds are considered a pest in agricultural or landscaping professions. He went on to ask;

“don't we have enough different active ingredients in pesticides to manage the resistance problem, and if not, don't we need MORE different modes of action, rather than less? Why are we banning pesticides if resistance is a main problem?”

Again he points out what should have been obvious to the most casual observer; resistance is only a problem when we stop producing new chemistry or ban chemistry that works. The resistance argument has been the red herring fallacy from the greenies for years, justifying claims that DDT should not be returned in any way because of resistance. That is an illogical argument, especially since they work so hard at banning products that have little or no resistant problems. These people wish to ban pestiicdes and they are willing to use any argument, no matter now illogical, that will work to that end. So then, what is their solution? They propound a whole bunch of public relations stunts and Integrated Pest Mangement, along with larger, more intrusive and expensive layers of bureaucracy that will not kill bed bugs. In short, they have none, and this plague of bed bugs is evidence of that. We are just fortunate that bed bugs aren't believed to be vectors of disease.

When DDT was first developed we thought we had the final solution to pest problems. What we didn’t know was we had fallen into nature’s pattern of resistance. Trees and plants are chemical factories. The only way they can protect themselves from disease or insect attack is through chemistry that kills, sickens or repels their attackers. As soon as they develop resistance to one chemical; plants will develop another. The only plants that are lost are those that cannot produce new chemistry that will work against what is attacking it. The Dutch elm disease is one example.

This brings us to the primary point. Why are we banning pesticides when it is clear that we need more chemistry with different modes of action; not less? If resistance to a product becomes so great that it won’t work, then no one, including me, will use the product. If products cease to work they disappear from the market place due to lack of efficacy, not by forced removal through junk science claims that promote inappropriate regulations.

We want these products back because they work in ways that other products don’t. They are inexpensive, they are easy to use, and they save lives by preventing diseases, or seriously aid in the production of food necessary to feed the world’s hungry billions.

Who cares about hastening resistance if we are never to use them now when we need them? What are we saving them for? Especially since those who make this argument want them banned anyway? And who cares about resistance if we refuse to allow the development of new products with regulations that are so onerous and expensive that we aren’t successfully developing the new chemistry we need?

Bacteria have developed resistance to many of the antibiotics that we are currently using, and there are some staph infections that are almost uncontrollable. Does that mean we shouldn't use those that still work because it will hasten the level of resistance? If that happened people would die. That would be considered insane! Why then would we use any logic that would be considered insane in another arena as rational in pest control?

Resistance is part of nature, whether it is in plants or bacteria. Elm trees died because they couldn’t defeat the disease attacking it with new chemistry. The difference between humanity and elm trees is that we have the chemistry; we just keep refusing to use it. Elm trees became biologically incompetent. We have chosen incompetence.

###

MILLOY: Time to leash Obama’s EPA

2011-12-13T05:12:00.000-05:00

Budget cutting isn’t enough — GOP must stop outlaw agency now.

By Steve Milloy
December 13, 2011, Washington Times

Will House Republicans squander an entire year of effort to rein in the Environmental Protection Agency?

Since the 112th Congress began, House Republicans have talked tough about EPA overregulation. They’ve held a multitude of hearings. They’ve passed a number of bills to rein in EPA regulatory excesses, from the TRAIN Act imposing cost-benefit analysis on the agency to the REINS Act requiring congressional approval of regulatory actions costing more than $100 million to votes blocking the EPA from over-regulating coal-fired power plants, industrial boilers and farm dust.

They’ve even sliced a modest amount off the EPA’s operating budget.
But none of these measures have stopped or slowed down the eco-fundamentalist EPA from its campaign to destroy the fossil fuel industry and gain control over the entire American economy.

Sure, President Obama delayed the EPA from further tightening the ground-level ozone standard, but that was a result of pressure from a broad coalition of businesses, political advisers and the looming 2012 elections, not necessarily because of the House GOP.

So here we are in the last throes of the first session of the 112th Congress, and House Republicans have little to show except effort. As Winston Churchill said, “Sometimes doing your best is not good enough. Sometimes you must do what is required.”

Fortunately, there is still time.

Among other legislation, Congress is looking to pass an appropriations bill this week, and then go home for the Christmas recess. A bill must pass, which means that Democrats must vote up or down on the bill, and President Obama must sign or veto it. No passes allowed – unless House Republicans allow it.

The House GOP has three options: First, they could allow Democrats to get off scot-free by passing an appropriations bill that does nothing but reduce EPA’s funding. As the Obama EPA has shrugged off earlier budget cuts, there is no reason to give congressional Democrats a free pass.

Next, the House GOP could skirt the issue by doing what it has in the past to avoid a showdown with Democrats – pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for another month or so, thereby putting off the battle until the 2012 election year. Sometimes procrastination is good political strategy, but not when the American economy is withering on the vine.

Finally, the House could accomplish what it has worked hard to do all year: Take a firm stand to rein in the job-killing EPA.

Beyond hampering economic recovery and growth, the EPA is actually for the first time in history threatening electricity reliability – so much so that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency responsible for electricity transmission and reliability – is concerned about this.

What this means is next summer, when there’s a heat wave that requires the electric-utility industry to operate at peak capacity, there is a likelihood that Obama EPA actions to put coal-fired power plants out of business will reduce the availability of air conditioning.

Even the EPA recognizes on its website and in its literature that the No. 1 way to avoid death and sickness during a heat wave is air conditioning. That point was driven home during the 2003 heat wave in Europe, which killed more than 50,000 persons.

The point here is the House GOP has some pretty compelling political arguments for drawing a line in the sand on the EPA.

Aside from jobs and the economy, Senate Democrats like Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Robert P. Casey Jr. of Pennsylvania, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia – all of whom are up for re-election in 2012 – might not want to roll the dice on whether there will be a killer heat wave next summer.

The fight to rein in the EPA now will be ugly. It may run into Christmas. The left-wing media, green groups, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Mr. Obama will falsely attack Republicans as picking polluters over asthmatic children. Their New York Times poll ratings will fall.

Nevertheless, House GOP members were elected to a huge majority in 2010 in order to take such difficult stands.

Steve Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and is author of “Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them” (Regnery, 2009).

I would like to thank Steve for allowing me to republish his work. RK

###

Observations From the Back Row

2011-12-13T04:10:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

It isn't always possible, but I try to have a theme for my "Observations" posts. Today it was easy! My theme is "Welcome to Oceania"!

It has been years since I read George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984, and I have repeatedly asked if everyone else has. Oceania is where "newspeak" was the official language and non-consensus thinking is considered a thought crime, where the ruling doctrine is Ingsoc, the newspeak term for English Socialism, "I don't think the vast majority of people have read either one of these books, in spite of the fact that what he wrote about is being played out right now. More subtly perhaps --but nonetheless --it is happening.

The Orwellian American Left
As I heard Barack Obama and his propaganda minister, Jay Carney, endorsing tax cuts as a vehicle for economic growth, I was reminded, again, of George Orwell's "1984" and the striking similarities between his Oceania and the American left's vision for America.
Oceania's Big Brother regime had "four Ministries between which the entire apparatus of government was divided," the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love and the Ministry of Plenty. Each department was dedicated to the opposite principle suggested by its title. "Truth" disseminated lies. "Peace" promoted war. "Love" enforced uniformity of thought. And "Plenty" manipulated the economy to impoverish the people while enriching the ruling class. God was expelled and absolute truth abolished, while "doublespeak" was promoted...

Some things Obama left out of his speech
In 2007, then-Sen. Barack Obama insisted that the coming presidential primary and general election campaigns "shouldn't be about making each other look bad, they should be about figuring out how we can all do some good for this precious country of ours. That's our mission." "And in this mission," he continued, "our rivals won't be one another, and I would assert it won't even be the other party. It's going to be cynicism that we're fighting against." I guess I missed the moment when Obama hung his "Mission Accomplished" banner. Because from where I'm sitting, it looks more like the president not only lost his battle against cynicism, he defected to the other side.

USPS' Cost-Cutting Plan Shows Need for Privatization
The Postal Service has announced how it plans to fight increased competition for First Class mail — by providing worse service. If the USPS doesn't want to deliver the mail, Congress should let others give it a try…….On the one hand, it's weighed down by unions that control 85% of its workforce, impeding reasonable efficiency improvements. Example: In just the first six months of this year, the Postal Service spent $4.3 million paying postal workers to do literally nothing, thanks to labor agreements that require the service to keep workers on the payroll even when mail volume is low or machinery breaks down.......A Cato Institute report finds the consistent result abroad has been improved productivity and lower costs, without a decline in quality. Selling anything less than privatization as the solution to the Postal Service's problems would constitute mail fraud.

Top 10 Inconvenient Truths about Global Warming
Global warming alarmists are getting a chilly reception these days as the public is starting to catch on to something that we have been yelling about for years: The whole thing is a scam. And here are the reasons why: The Top 10 Inconvenient Truths about Global Warming.

1. Climategate, Part 2:
2. Evidence of natural causes:
3. Skeptical scientists:
4. Flat temperatures:
5. False predictions:
6. Ground station scandal: .
7. Economic impact:
8. Benefits of warmth:
9. Public support drops:
10. Hypocrisy:

Crusade for Fewer People on the Earth Seeks Volunteers
On Oct. 31, the United Nations announced the birth of Planet Earth’s 7 billionth human. Later that day, the United Nations admitted that “no one can know the exact number of people on the globe,” noting that perhaps the 7 billionth human might be born sometime during the next four months. …... 73 members of the U.S. Congress…..signed a letter on Dec. 10, 2009, urging the White House to spend $1 billion on “slowing the [human] population’s rapid growth”…..“one in four Britons…..would like to see the [human] population reduced by up to a third.” ……. If you are a human who believes that there should be fewer human beings on Planet Earth: Fine, you go first.

Pearl Harbor Was FDR’s Back Door to War
Given that today is the anniversary date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we’ll no doubt be treated to standard interventionist articles stating what a great thing World War II was…… What a sick and deadly joke that turned out to be. Only 15 years later, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis had assumed power in Germany, and within only a few more years, World War II had broken out. And guess what the major factor was in the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. You guessed it: U.S. intervention in World War I, which led to the total defeat of Germany, rather than a negotiated peace, followed by the vindictive Treaty of Versailles……The American people were overwhelmingly opposed to entry into World War II. That’s not surprising given the consequences of World War I. There was absolutely no reason for the United States to intervene in that war. …… There was one big problem, however: Roosevelt was lying — knowingly, deliberately, and intentionally lying. In actuality, he had every intention of sending America’s boys into foreign wars. He just had to figure out a way to do so.

Hillary to U.N.: No religion trumps 'gay' rights
Says biblical objections to homosexuality like 'justification for honor killings' - In a speech designed to convince the world that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said religious objections to homosexuality should not stand in the way of vigorous United Nations action to promote the homosexual rights agenda......Wilson cited her comments as one of several examples that has convinced some observers the Obama administration is waging a “war on religion.”

4th-graders brainwashed with Occupy 'propaganda'
Student's dad complains to Scholastic News publisher - A Connecticut dad has accused an industry giant in education, Scholastic, of delivering Occupy Wall Street propaganda to his 4th grade daughter in her school classroom. The company's response? "We truly appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns with us and I made sure that staff in our corporate headquarters will see your comments. Again, thank you. We truly appreciate your support of Scholastic Book Clubs." The father, Edward, whose last name is being withheld so his daughter is not identified, told WND it was the standard, "We don't care about your opinion" response that he expected…… But he said he grew up in the old Soviet Union, and recalls when an official media there would print the "news," from only one perspective. "When I see something like this it just boggles my mind," he said.

###

Observations From the Back Row!

2011-12-12T06:11:00.000-05:00

These are my picks for the day. There is some background links to the last post that you may wish to follow. You may be interested to know that the top ten countries to hit Paradigms and Demographics this past week was was the United States, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, France, United Kingdom, Canada, Netherlands, South Korea and Brazil. Thank you for you interest and I hope you will enjoy this week's posts.

A history of scientific alarms
There is a long and dismal history of alarming forecasts that were literally too bad to be true. But many people believed these predictions that human actions would harm the environment and thereby cause disaster for people…..The alarms were based on forecasts, but not ones from proper scientific forecasting methods… The media are culpable in promulgating these false alarms… Rational skeptical responses require time and effort to assemble, and don't have the same emotional urgency……Alarmists are often rewarded for their efforts. They typically ask government to ‘do something'…… government research funds and recognition tends to flow to alarmists.

Here then, in brief, is a Top 20 of environmentalist alarms and their outcomes. Please, let's learn from them by not being so gullible! 20 environmentalist alarms:

Population growth and famine, 1798
Timber famine economic threat, 1865
Soil erosion agricultural production threat, 1934
Fluoride in drinking water health effects, 1945
DDT and cancer, 1962
Population growth and famine (Ehrlich), 1968
Global cooling, 1970
Population growth and famine (Meadows), 1972
Industrial production, acid rain and forests, 1974
Electrical wiring and cancer, etc, 1979
CFCs, the ozone hole, and skin cancer etc, 1985
Listeria in cheese, 1985
Radon in homes and lung cancer, 1985
Salmonella in eggs, 1988
Environmental toxins and breat cancer,1990
Mad cow disease (BSE), 1996
Dioxin in Belgian poultry,1999.
Mercury in fish's effect on nervous system development, 2004
Mercury in childhood inoculations and autism, 2005
Mobile phone towers and cancer, 2008

Court: Process more important than EPA health claims
So EPA can’t cheat in the name of public health. On Friday the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered the Obama EPA to reconsider its rulemaking for emissions from cement kilns (Portland Cement Association v. EPA).

EPA defended rushing through the rulemaking without defining a key term on the basis of air quality and public health. The court dismissed this argument as follows:

… EPA asserts it could not delay finalizing the NESHAP rule until after it promulgated a definition of solid waste. EPA insists such a delay would have been harmful to air quality and health. Perhaps. But reasoned decisionmaking is not a dispensable part of the administrative machine that can be blithely discarded even in pursuit of a laudable regulatory goal. “The importance of reasoned decisionmaking in an agency action cannot be over- emphasized. When an agency . . . is vested with discretion to impose restrictions on an entity’s freedom to conduct its business, the agency must exercise that discretion in a well- reasoned, consistent, and evenhanded manner.”

This noteworthy dicta from the D.C. Circuit may very well reflect a court newly skeptical of EPA — a circumstance that may bode well for other ongoing litigation involving the agency, including the greenhouse gas and cross-state air pollution

Six Questions for EPA on Pavillion
Draft report from EPA in Denver produces lots more questions than answers; EID poses a few of its own - Call it a sign of the “Times,” let’s say, that less than 24 hours removed from the release of EPA Region 8’s report on groundwater sampling near Pavillion, Wyo., nearly a thousand different news stories have been generated — in 12 different countries, and best we can tell, four different languages. But set aside the breathless headlines for a moment and the triumphant quotes from a small segment of folks committed to ending the responsible development of natural gas, and one’s left with a pretty straightforward question: Is EPA right? And if so, what exactly does that mean moving forward?

Of course, before you can answer the second question, it’d be helpful if you had a good answer for the first. And the truth is, as we sit here today, less than 20 hours A.P. (After Pavillion), we simply don’t. What we do know, however, even at these early stages, is that several of the assertions put forth in EPA’s report yesterday don’t quite square with the facts as they actually exist on the ground out there. Because of that, a number of folks are starting to ask some pretty basic questions about what the agency found and how it went about finding it. Below, a few of the most obvious:

I Just Bet My House on the Outcome of Science Trial of the Century
No truer headline will you read. Yesterday this author literally wagered his home, life savings, and all his possessions on the outcome of a crucial global warming lawsuit currently ongoing in Canada. So what is it that drove me to such apparent recklessness endangering not only my own well-being but that of my family?

Well, to me this pivotal lawsuit encapsulates the archetypal 'good versus evil' battle no conscientious parent can ignore. Facing each other is Plaintiff, Dr. Michael Mann (he of ‘hockey stick’ graph infamy) representing so-called UN ‘consensus’ climate science. Mann claims his work proves humans are dangerously warming the planet. Defendant, retired Canadian climatologist, Dr. Timothy Ball believes Mann was a key player in the Climategate scandal and has hidden his dodgy tree-ring data for over 13 years to cover up fakery in the numbers. Mann and his ilk are not only responsible for scaring the bejesus out of our kids but are being used as part of a bigger plot involving population control and wealth re-distribution; none of which is good for your family or mine.......Without experts as principled as Dr. Ball it is very unlikely the general public would be any the wiser about the grotesque billion-dollar fraud called man-made global warming. So please donate what money you can and become part of this force for good.

My Take - I have been following this suit since the beginning and I still wonder what is wrong with Mann's mind. Does he really believe in the work he has pushed onto the public, even after it has been destroyed by other scientists? This trial is going to be in Canada so perhaps they don't have 'discovery' there, but in America 'discovery' means that you have to turn everything over to the other side, including all of those e-mails he has refused to turn over to Atorney General Cuccinelli. I do think this is a bit strange on his part!

However, as I said, I have been following this thing from the beginning and here is the information I posted on the March 28th Observations From the Back Row. You will have to scroll down a bit!

###

This Week With Alan Caruba

2011-12-10T17:46:00.000-05:00

Let’s Start With Alan’s Cartoon Round-up

America's Communist President
In his extraordinary book, “Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century”, the historian, Dr. Paul Kengor, stated in his introduction that “We now know that American Communists and their masters in Moscow were acutely aware that they could never gain the popular support they needed to enlist the support of a much wider coalition that could help them push their private agenda.”

It's Bear and Deer Hunt Season in New Jersey
The last time there was an effort to suspend a bear hunt in New Jersey, Jon Corzine was Governor and Lisa Jackson, the director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, was the head of the State’s Department of Environmental Protection. They both opposed the hunt. Corzine served from 2006 to 2010. It was a bad idea because the bear population had surged and became an even larger problem for folks in the northern counties. Gov. Chris Christie had promised to reinstate the bear hunt when he ran for office. Previously there had been bear hunts in 2003 and 2005. A legal challenge thwarted a hunt in 2007.

Looking to the Dollar, Gold, and "Mutti" to Save the World
The most formidable couple in the world during the 1980s was Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Thatcher, a conservative and a woman of iron will, must be looking across the Channel with some amusement to see how her German counterpart, Chancellor Angela Merkel, is literally the only person keeping the European economy from collapsing and, it must be said, taking England and America with it.

"What Were They Thinking?"
The thing I fear most right now is having to write a column about the Republican Party in late November 2012 with the title, “What Were They Thinking?” Let’s put it this way. No incumbent President since Jimmy Carter has had worse polling numbers than Barack Hussein Obama. The question—the fear—on the minds of most Republicans these days is whether the Party intends to commit political suicide by choosing the wrong candidate to run against Obama and to add to their present agony, it has a litter of candidates who run the gamut from charisma-challenged to scarily brilliant. Let’s review the choices.

One Final Thought - This Never Happened at a Tea Party

Logical Fallacy of the Week: Week 19, Argument From Ignorance

2011-12-10T17:18:00.000-05:00

.

Argument from ignorance,also known as argumentum ad ignorantiam or "appeal to ignorance" (where "ignorance" stands for: "lack of evidence to the contrary"), is a fallacy in informal logic. It asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false, it is "generally accepted" (or vice versa). This represents a type of false dichotomy in that it excludes a third option, which is that there is insufficient investigation and therefore insufficient information to prove the proposition satisfactorily to be either true or false. Nor does it allow the admission that the choices may in fact not be two (true or false), but may be as many as four, (1) true, (2) false, (3) unknown between true or false, and (4) being unknowable (among the first three).[1] In debates, appeals to ignorance are sometimes used to shift the burden of proof....

Please follow the link. This is an interesting fallacy and the explanation is longer than most. RK

Shall Every Knee Bow?

2011-12-10T13:10:00.004-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

There was an article that I came across today that states, “Many atheist scientists take their kids to church”! The article went on to say that; “about one in five atheist scientists with children involve their families with religious institutions even if they do not agree with the teachings, according to a study done by Rice University and the University at Buffalo.” The article pointed out that “The findings surrounding atheists shouldn't be too surprising, since the Pew Forum Religious Survey taken back in 2008 that showed 21 percent of self-described atheists responded that they believe in God.”

Does everyone really find this to be extraordinary? Anthropologists have noted that in every culture in the world, and in all of human history, religion has played an important role in people’s lives. There was one prominent atheist, Antony Flew who claimed at the end of his life that he was now a believer. Why? Is it true ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’? Of course the explanation was the he had lost his mind. Even Albert Einstein, who was not a religious person in any sense and absolutely rejected the idea of a personal God, rejected the idea of atheism.

For the believers among my readers the explanation is simple; we are designed to believe. For the unbelievers among my readers the explanation is simple also. There is no other logical explanation!

Believing takes on many forms. For some it has to do with a higher power. For others it can take on the worship of oneself and for others it can take on the worship of some philosophy or other; but we all seem to have the desire to look to some higher explanation for existence and human existence in particular. But one thing seems clear; ‘believing’ is inherent to our genetic code. Otherwise how can anyone explain why so many have believed so much over so long a time of human history in so many different cultures? Of course, the problem for the unbelievers among my readers with this explanation is that they would then have to explain how that genetic code was designed in that manner…or designed at all for that matter…. if there is no higher power.

I do find it fascinating how some can believe that Intelligent Design is “a pig that won’t fly”! The design is so complicated that it defies explanation how infinitely small mutations over millions or billions of years could bring us to what we are now. Whether one disagrees or agrees with evolution, I question how anyone can say that there is no designer. Some feel that an intelligent designer used evolution. Some feel evolution is a mistake constantly making more mistakes and changing everything all the time all by accident. I wonder how anyone can explain how this can happen by accident and develop successful organisms since "geneticists estimate that 99 out of 100 mutations are harmful, and about 20 out of the 99 are lethal."

I also have to wonder how any organism could “know” which mutations were beneficial over a million years or so since the complexity of the design would require some kind of organizational planning. Take a woman’s monthly cycle. It is amazingly complex! The right amount of chemicals, hormones and enzymes would have to come into play in exactly the right sequence of time in order to finish the cycle. However, if a woman becomes pregnant during the cycle another whole set of chemical conditions would come into play. How could any organism "know" how to plan for two diametrically opposing end results? Remembering that there are untold species in the world that have cycles unique to themselves. That means that this would have to be done an incalculable number of times in an incalculable number of organisms. We are to believe that this happens through a series of positive accidents that would overcome all of these deadly accidents! Isn't that a form of belief, i.e. faith? It does seem to defy logic...or science as it were!

How would an organism know what chemicals to develop over millions of years? How did the organism know that hormones and enzymes were needed and how did the organism know how to organize them? How did the organism know which chemicals would work harmoniously together and how did the organism know what the conclusion would be afterward without some sort of plan?

Which brings me back to the beginning! If life started in the ocean in some chemical rich soup, through some accidental electrical discharge, how did that cell, or group of cells replicate themselves? Evolutionally thought would require millions of years of mutations before the next step to propagation would come into being. If that is so; how did they replicate? Wouldn’t the presumption be that these cells already had an amazingly complex chemical make-up that would create an end result? If so; doesn’t that imply planning and design? Doesn’t planning and design require intelligence?

I find it interesting that many of the people I respect, communicate with and read regularly are atheists. Funny thing is that I find I enjoy their commentaries. They have a keen understanding science and are only interested in the truth and are willing to follow it wherever it leads. Why is it that so many really bright and courageous people are unwilling to believe?

I can understand anyone’s reason for not subscribing to any religious group. The sanguinary history of the world’s religions has not done much to inspire confidence over human history. So I can understand someone being un-religious, and I can understand why someone would believe that there may be a higher power that doesn’t interfere in the lives of humanity. I can understand why people might not be sure and proclaim to be agnostic…although I consider that to be pragmatic atheism. What I can’t understand is how anyone cannot believe that there must be a planner behind this phenomenally complex reality we call....existence!

###

American Council on Science and Health, 2011: Week 49

2011-12-10T10:52:00.003-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich.

The presence of linked articles here are merely a way of showing what is going on, whether I agree or disagree with the positions presented. I have found this week's offerings to be particularly worthwhile in disabusing everyone of the junk science behind most of the claims by the greenies. I have highlighted those that I am most fond of. Please pay particular attention to those. In dealing with the greenies you will notice a common pattern. Demand more studies and reject anything that doesn’t fit with that bulwark of junk science and their primary article of faith; the Precautionary Principle.

We must come to understand that everything we are being told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. In the real world we are exposed to more synthetic chemicals than ever before in human history. Yet, in spite of their claims of human health disasters, people in the real world people are living longer healthier lives than ever before in human history. They make every negative health claim that they can, with little or no evidence, that everything that makes modern life possible is killing us. The reality is that everything they offer as utopia ends up creating dystopia all over the world. We need to get this…..they are irrational and misanthropic. The least insane among them want to rid the world of a mere four or five billion people and the most insane wants mankind eliminated. I would think that it should be obvious to the most casual observer that everything they work toward is a goal of ridding the Earth of humanity; not to preserve and promote humanity.

Their technological alternatives are all failures and the philosophical alternatives would put mankind back into the stone ages with an average lifespan of about 30 years. If that is what they subscribe to why would we think that they really care about our health and longevity? Why don’t we all… and I mean all …..get that? What is so complicated? All that we have to do is use their own actions and words to get that?

ADHD

Evidence of ADHD’s genetic origin, in some
And while Dr. Landrigan may believe that environmental "toxins" are the cause of several neurological disorders, a new study published in Nature Genetics supports the more likely theory that genetics play a much bigger role - specifically for patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

AIDS

HIV immune test cost-effective, but there’s still a price to pay
Viral load tests - which essentially count the number of HIV particles in a patient's circulation - are routinely used to assess the status of an HIV patient.

CANCER

Chemo’s life-saving cred quantified for breast cancer patients
Older chemotherapy drugs from the 1980s reduced breast cancer mortality by nearly a quarter.

Dueling stories in USA Today — but only the science-based one is ight
Environmental chemicals might or might not pose a significant risk to women's breast health, depending on which of two bizarrely conflicting USA Today articles you believe.

Combo therapy for advanced HER-2 breast cancer leads to slower progression
HER-2 positive breast cancer, accounting for approximately 25 to 30 percent of breast cancer patients, is considered to be a more aggressive form of cancer, often associated with poorer outcomes.

DIET

New study tips the scale in favor of weight loss for obese pregnant women
Though some women may use pregnancy as an excuse to indulge a little, some health experts caution that obese pregnant women should be more mindful of their eating habits and perhaps actually strive to lose some extra pounds.

Low HDL a sign, maybe not a cause, of CVD
Contrary to conventional wisdom, lower levels of "good" cholesterol may not actually increase a person's risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD).

Calcium good in bones, bad in hearts
There may be tests beyond a blood pressure reading - beyond even considering standard risk factors such as LDL and HDL cholesterol - that could help assess a patient's risk of cardiovascular disease, suggests a new study. By measuring the burden of calcium in the coronary arteries, say German researchers, it is possible to distinguish between people who have different cardiovascular risk levels - even among those who have similar blood pressure readings.

Feds crack down on crackpot diet product
This past spring, we discussed the dangerously cracked logic of a weight-loss fad centered on the hormone human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG).

Doctor, doctor, give me the news
Although about one third of U.S. children are overweight, less than a quarter of these children's parents could recall their doctors telling them that their children were overweight, according to the results of a recent survey.

Let’s get physical to fight obesity
The results of a new nationwide survey reveal conditions that aren't favorable to improving the health of overweight children.

HEART

New reports on omega-3 fatty acids: Not much “there” there
Salmon, mackerel, cod, herring. Younger women can cut their risk of cardiovascular disease in half by eating fish like these that are high in omega-3 fatty acids, Danish researchers have reported.

INTERESTING TWIST!

FDA’s Plan B policy gets an F from HHS’s Sebelius
In an unprecedented move, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has overruled a decision by the FDA to allow emergency contraception - the "morning-after pill" - to be sold over-the-counter to teenagers under 17.

PESTICIDES

Pesticides and Healh in D.C.
ACSH's trip to Capitol Hill in D.C. was a big success, report Executive Director Dr. Gilbert Ross and Director of Development and Media Jody Manley.

PHARMA

Two cheers for Drs. Bloom and Ross
In an article for Science Careers, a supplement to the journal Science, reporter Elisabeth Pain interviewed ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom about his take on the crises in the pharmaceutical sector.

Stop your bellyaching — a new vaccine may be on the way
Norovirus, the cause of the so-called "stomach flu," or "cruise ship virus," is the second most common illness in the U.S. (the common cold is the first), and it's also the leading cause of foodborne illness.

SCARES AND CONSEQUENCES

FearsHospital, heal thyself
Leave it to Dr. Philip J. Landrigan, director of the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai, to once again needlessly scare the American public.

FDA to re-examine BPA: A win-win despite NRDC’s exultation
Activists at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) are patting themselves on the back now that the FDA has agreed to respond to their petition demanding a ruling on bisphenol A's (BPA) health risks - or lack thereof.

Something’s rotten in Louisiana, but it’s not the fish
In Louisiana, two U.S. Senators are pushing back against the NRDC's relentless efforts to promote their usual irresponsible, unscientific claims.

SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY

Say goodbye to a Wolfe in sheep’s clothing
While experts are frequently excluded from health and science panels due to "conflicts of interest" that result from concerns about industry funding, the FDA has made an unusual decision: to eject a panel member because of an "intellectual conflict of interest."

My Take - I give all credit to this because of global warming! All of the exposure of fraud in the “science” of climate change has made it abundantly clear that these loons with Ph.D.'s are still loons who cannot be convinced of anything other than their own particular greenie views. Views that can only be categorized as articles of faith to a neo-pseudo-pagan religion! No amount of valid science can disabuse them of their positions, so why bother? This is long overdue and needs to be expanded all throughout government, science and universities. A good start in making that happen is to eliminate government grant money! Since grant money is now the holy grail of science...not truth!.

STROKE

Treating prehypertension reduces risk of stroke
As research in cardiovascular health evolves, experts have carved out a new category for patients who have a blood pressure reading that falls into the gray area between normal and hypertensive.

VACCINATIONS

Delta skids off the runway with anti-vaccine video
Intentionally or not, Delta Airlines has put itself in league with anti-vaccine activists, airing an in-flight video segment that encourages viewers to avoid the flu vaccine.

Delta flies right again
Yesterday we criticized Delta Airlines for airing an in-flight anti-vaccine video.

Shots for everyone: Celebrate National Influenza Vaccination Week
It's National Influenza Vaccination Week

If there is a health scare today, the American Council on Science and Health will most likely have the answer by tomorrow; and for members it will appear in your e-mail. No effort on your part, except to read the answer. All that the ACSH is interested in are the facts and they are prepared to follow them wherever they lead. Who can ask for more? Please Donate Now!

###

Do All the Bugs Die in the Winter?

2011-12-08T06:17:00.001-05:00

Quite a few do, but trillions do not!

“Like the Terminator, the message from pest insects during the winter is ‘I’ll be back’”, says Leonard Douglen, the Executive Director of the New Jersey Pest Management Association.

“One of the most common questions pest management professionals hear as the weather turns cold,” says Douglen, “is where to all the insects go? Many do die, but nature has equipped many pest insect and other species with the capacity to survive. For homeowners, termite colonies that have often been there unnoticed for years survive quite well both inside and outside.”

“Termites weather the winter by huddling together. Homes provide the same heat to their indoor colonies as it does to humans,” says Douglen. Those in outdoor colonies, just like ants, huddle together for warmth, usually below the frost line where they have stored food until springtime. Though a colony may have thousands of individual members, they function as a single organism.”

“Homeowners and others are often surprised to find cluster flies on a mild winter day,” says Douglen. “That’s because they sometime hide in the nooks and crannies of a warm house. There are literally thousands of places in a home that provide a place for insects to over-winter and this is true as well for rodents, mice and rats, who move indoors for the same reason.”

Not all pest species survive the winter alive. Mosquitoes, says Douglen, lay their eggs in the summer and the adults die off. The eggs, however, survive throughout the fall and winter months and can even survive freezing. In the spring, the eggs thaw and hatch.

“One way of surviving winter for many insect species is called ‘diapause’ and it affects eggs and pupae. It is a form of hibernation,” says Douglen. “It is a period of little or no activity.”

Near the Artic Circle, some species do the same in a process called torpor. Others, like flightless crickets, can freeze solid and resume activity when they defrost. Other insect species prepare for the cold by making their own antifreeze. During the fall, they produce glycerol that gives the insect’s body “super cooling” ability that allows their body fluids to drop below freezing points without causing ice damage. In the spring, their glycerol levels drop.

Like reptiles, insects are cold-blooded so their body temperature is determined by the weather. “Some insect species migrate to warmer areas,” says Douglen. “The most famous migration is that of Monarch butterflies, but other butterfly species as well as moths, dragonflies, and locusts also migrate.”

“Bed bugs, a widespread pest problem, can live for long periods after taking a blood meal and, since they live off of humans,” says Douglen, “that means they enjoy the same habitat, over-wintering without any problem at all.”

“The lesson,” says Douglen, “is that Mother Nature equips pest insect species will the ability to survive no matter how cold winter may become. Come spring, many homeowners will see the first indication they have a thriving termite colony when winged members take flight to establish new colonies. What they may not also know is that their home also has a carpenter ant colony.”

“These species have been here long before humans, so even if we do not see them during the winter months, you can be sure they will return in the spring.”

Founded in 1941, the New Jersey Pest Management Association celebrated its 70th year in 2011. The Association maintains a website at www.njpma.com.

Contact: Leonard Douglen @ (800) 524-9942

NJPCAssoc@aol.com

Disseminated by The Caruba Organization

Alan Caruba @ (973-763-6392

acaruba@aol.com

To My Readers

2011-12-04T09:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Readers,

I will be at a continuing education conference until Wednesday so I will not be posting until then. Please feel free to explore this site if you have not already done so.

Best wishes to all,

Rich K

American Council on Science and Health, 2011: Week 48

2011-12-04T07:07:00.000-05:00

The presence of linked articles here are merely a way of showing what is going on, whether I agree or disagree with the positions presented. Rich Kozlovich

TOP STORY

Dr. Ross on The Hill
The U.S. Senate is currently considering a call for further tightening of our country's already restrictive - and effective - chemical safety laws. In an op-ed for The Hill, ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross explains how the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), one of the key lobbyists for this unnecessary measure, has based its campaign on misinformation fueled by fear.

CANCER

Family link to breast cancer is questioned
In what comes as a surprise to both scientific thought and conventional wisdom, a recent study suggests that, for women ages 40 to 49, a family history of breast cancer makes no difference in their rates of invasive disease.

DDT

Progress against malaria
Malaria is still one of the leading causes of death in sub-Saharan Africa, but great progress is being made.

DIET

B alert for stealth vitamin deficiency
A deficiency of the vitamin B12 can cause a host of problems, from fatigue to poor memory, that can be misdiagnosed simply as symptoms of aging. Jane Brody's column in The New York Times reports this week on the importance of recognizing how frequently a B12 deficiency can develop as people age, as well as the importance of detecting and treating this problem before it progresses, since B12-deficiency nerve damage can be irreversible.

Americans thinking bigger, getting bigger
Americans are not only heavier than they were two decades ago, but their perceptions of their ideal weight have ballooned as well.

Big Brother for big kids?
Does a severely obese child qualify as a case of parental abuse and neglect? County caseworkers in Ohio say yes.

SCARES AND CONSEQUENCES

One bad apple juice don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl
We thought the arsenic in apple juice scare had ended up in the unfounded scares graveyard, but headlines in today’s news took us by surprise. In a revival of this juice scare, Consumer Reports has announced that about 10 percent of the samples of apple and grape juice that they tested had levels of arsenic exceeding federal standards for drinking water.

This follows on the heels of a widely discredited piece by Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of The Dr. Oz Show, who claimed in September that some apple juice contained excessive levels of arsenic. Scientists quickly pointed out that Dr. Oz had not distinguished between organic and inorganic arsenic — an important distinction, because organic arsenic is considered to be non-toxic. The FDA responded with a statement explaining that most of the arsenic in apple juice comes in the harmless organic form; the agency and other experts called Dr. Oz’s report “irresponsible and misleading” for creating hype and fear around a perfectly safe product…….Dr. Elizabeth Whelan is concerned that the FDA’s sudden reversal may set off needless anxiety among parents; she questions the agency's decision to reverse its initial stance on the basis of what she considers a dubious study.

ACSH’s Dr. Ruth Kava agrees that this small study, which has not been peer-reviewed, has been taken out of context. “They are jumping to a conclusion that will affect millions of people, all based on one non-peer-reviewed study,” she says. As ACSH advisor Dr. Allison Muller points out, “Further analyses of these data are needed before we can say that the amount of inorganic arsenic found in these foods is enough to cause any of the supposed health risks.”

My Take – I have felt for a long time that Dr. Oz is a loon. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t presenting some valid information. However, just because there is something of value there doesn’t give them a pass on stuff in which he has no expertise and being a doctor doesn’t make anyone an expert on everything. All of that is what I call the “He made the trains run on time” fallacy. An old German guy used to tell me that Hitler was a great man because he made the trains run on time. Just because Hitler made the trains run on time didn’t give him a pass on the rest of life. And as far as I am concerned that applies to these TV doctors who can only stay on the air and make all of that lovely, lovely money by maintaining an audience. That means they have to entertain as well as inform. Part of being entertaining is being outrageous, and then they lend themselves to outrageous scare mongering.

SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY

Back pain compounded by wallet pain
In a small but concerning study, researchers report that doctors may not always make MRI recommendations with their patient's best interests in mind. According to the study, presented at the Radiological Society of North America meeting in Chicago, doctors who own an MRI scanner may be more likely to recommend an unnecessary back scan than if they had no financial interest in the procedure.

Don’t drill, baby, drill
New technology in dentistry might seem like an unquestionably good thing. But as dentists are using these technologies more and more often to detect and treat problems that may not need to be treated, patients - and some dentists - are becoming concerned.

PHARMA

For Tylenol, dose and overdose aren’t that different
It's not widely known, but acetaminophen (Tylenol and others) is a significant cause of liver damage when the recommended dosage is exceeded.

A few powerful meds can cause big problems
Four common medications are responsible for the majority of adverse drug reactions in older Americans, a study just published in The New England Journal of Medicine has found.

Pfizer is nursing a fat lip(itor)
Pfizer's exclusive right to sell the blockbuster drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) ended yesterday. With the expiration of Pfizer's patent, the door is now open for generics to enter the market. Given that Lipitor earned $13 billion at its peak, and that 3 million Americans currently take the cholesterol-lowering drug, that market is enormous.

My Take – When I was in NYC for the premiere of 3Billion and Counting I met a number of people there involved in third world health issues. Naturally I had views that I just had to share with them….surprise! My comments started by saying that in this case greed is good. I think that surprised them so much that it gave me time to lay foundation for my views.

One of the things that I discussed was this whole business about patents on life saving pharmaceuticals. There is a big push all around the world to change how things are done in this manner by taking some patent protections away in some areas and not giving patent protections in others. My view was that if patent protections were weakened or eliminated then humanity would suffer far more than now. In point of fact if there is no patent protection; if there is no profit; then there is no product.

Pharmaceutical companies are in business to make money….lots of money, and they need to make tons of money just to build financial reserves for new research. They also want to make a lot of money for themselves….and as a result they devote themselves to discovering new drugs….so….greed is good.

I then went on to point out that the primary reason for patents wasn’t to offer exclusive protection for a limited time in order to get companies to make money. That was a secondary purpose; the primary purpose was to put new products in the market place, whether it was drugs, chemicals or mechanical devices of every kind. Why? Because once out there they would improve life and help create a better economy. Eventually those products would become public domain and everyone and anyone could produce them. That would help create an even bigger economy. In short….what I called greed is in reality enlightened self interest….and that is a good thing all around. It is also why we here in the U.S. produce most of the new pharmacueticals that save so many lives over a broad specturm of afflictions. It isn’t perfect, but in this world the best we can hope for is the best possible imperfection.

TOBACCO

For stopping smoking, practice (plus lozenges) does not make perfect
We're always eager to hear the results of smoking cessation trials, hoping for some rare good news on this subject. But the latest trial of nicotine therapy has us baffled.

VACCINCES

Get your booster vaccine: Whooping cough spreads across Long Island
Today's breaking news is not good: An outbreak of whooping cough (pertussis) that began in one Long Island town in June has spread to more than a dozen districts in Suffolk County.

Don’t play chicken
The chickenpox vaccine doesn't protect only the inoculated child; it also protects infants who are too young to be vaccinated but for whom the disease is especially dangerous.

Doctor knows best and should tell parents so
Speaking of getting your children vaccinated on schedule, a disconcerting trend in some pediatric practices has been reported in a new study: Over half of pediatricians surveyed report that they are willing to alter a child's immunization schedule at a parent's request.

###

Observations From the Back Row

2011-12-03T20:47:00.000-05:00

By Rich Kozlovich

There are some things that no matter what we see on the news or read in the newspapers simply aren't so. For those who aren't sure at what I mean....let me outline a few.

Those who advocate green issues, lie. The journalists, who promote green issues, lie. The big corporations, who support them in order to cash in on various green schemes, lie. The bureaucrats, who are their cat’s paws, lie. The politicians who write legislation the greenies support, lie. Everything you read in the newspapers, see on the news is a lie. Not necessarily lies of commission, although they are blatantly guilty of that also, but it is mostly lies of omission. All of these lies build up until we are faced with disasters that should have been perfectly predictable to everyone, and they would have been if everyone had been told the truth.

However, here are some things you can be sure are absolutely true. Green is a neo-pagan secular religion and to be green is to be irrational and misanthropic! We really do need to get that!

I will be keeping Steve Milloy's outline of the e-mails of the global warming "scientists" in the Observations From the Back Row posts since he regularly updates that link as new e-mails come out. As you read them ask yourself...does the word "lie" come to mind?

Here are my picks for the day. Enjoy!

Radical feminists seem to assume that men are hostile to women. But what would they say to the fact that most of the women on the Titanic were saved, and most of the men perished -- due to rules written by men and enforced by men on the sinking ship? Thomas Sowell

Climategate 2.0 is here! (Last updated at 12:10 pm on 12-02)
by Steve Milloy More devastating Climategate e-mails were released today. We’ve covered juicy ones in the posts listed below. More on the way. Read ‘em all. They validate EVERYTHING the skeptics have been saying. Viva les sceptiques

The Problem With China Envy

In 2008, I wrote a book called "Liberal Fascism." That title came from H.G. Wells, one of the most important socialist writers in the English language. He believed, as did his fellow Fabian socialists, that Western democratic capitalism had outlived its usefulness.

Russia afraid shale gas will dent their market

Too late. The US now has abundant domestic supplies, freeing liquified nat gas cargoes onto the international market where they compete with Russian supplies.

Disasters Keep Hitting Clean Energy Scam

It’s hard to keep up with all the disasters plaguing “clean” technology. We’ve highlighted some of them in previous columns, but now find ourselves overwhelmed with bad news for the green-at-any-cost crowd. So periodically we’ll provide a “renewable roundup,” reading and deconstructing the latest developments so you don’t have to.

• Running on Empty: Electric Cars
• Tilting at Windmills: Subsidized Failure
• Dimming Solar Prospects
• Global Warming Burn Out

Senate Republicans to Obama: Get Out of Keystone XL Pipeline's Way

Senate Republicans yesterday told President Obama to release his partisan stranglehold on the Keystone XL Pipeline project, and backed up their demands with new legislation to force quick action…….The permitting and approval process has dragged on for three years, and TransCanada has already agreed to 57 special conditions imposed by the State Department, said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Ohio Treasurer: Washington Targets Ohio Shale Gas
“Job-killers win, American workers lose.” Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel writes in the Wall Street Journal:

In the Cleveland Plain Dealer: “Republic Steel to add 450 jobs to Lorain as oil and gas exploration booms.” This story reported Republic Steel’s announcement of new jobs in one of Ohio’s hardest-hit counties, to manufacture products in support of the state’s growing oil and gas industry. In the Marion Star: “Ohio national forest halts sale of drilling rights.” This story reported the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to suspend the auction of leases for oil and gas drilling on more than 3,000 acres of federal land in the most economically depressed region of Ohio.

###

This Week With Alan Caruba

2011-12-03T20:22:00.000-05:00

Alan’s work has a sense of timelessness about it, so anyone perusing these articles in the future will find them equally insightful as they were when originally written. Alan posts daily on his blog, Warning Signs. The right side of this blog is a section called Caruba's Corner: Green Myths and Other Lies where I have been posting links to Alan's articles by topic. For his past works go to The National Anxiety Center. I would also recommend reading his last book, Right Answers.

Let's Start With Alan's ----- Cartoon Round Up

Spending More has Never Worked!
Ask any financial advisor what to do when you are drowning in debt and they will tell you to spend less and pay down your debt. This is just common sense. However, if you ask politicians what to do, they will advise that the nation spend more and borrow more.

Eco-Absurdity
There are no lengths and no depths to which Greens—environmentalists—will not go to advance the greatest hoax of the modern era. It used to be called “global warming”, but when that was exposed as based on falsified computer models put out by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the term “climate change” was adopted to mask it.

Paper Money, Real Debt, and Spendthrift Nations.
As the citizens of the United States and the seventeen member-nations of the European Union look on, a great drama regarding the future of the EU and its currency, the Euro, is occurring. The essential problem is that both the U.S. dollar and the Euro are just so much paper, despite the promises and guarantees that they will be honored as real money. The trick has been to keep everyone believing there are sufficient real assets to back up those promises.

Desperate Middle East Regimes
The world hasn’t seen this much turmoil since the years leading up to World War II. By contrast even the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991 did not cause this much uncertainty. The Middle East currently holds the greatest prospect for a hot war as Iran and its close ally, Syria, struggle to maintain control over their populations. Iran’s proxies in Syria and Lebanon, Hezbollah, and, in the Gaza, Hamas, are being told to get ready for a war on Israel. Meanwhile, the Arab League has turned on Syria and is hostile to Iran. Turkey is stationing troops on its border with Syria.

Pity the Democratic Party
I actually pity the Democratic Party these days even though I think it has brought the nation to ruin because, as Joseph Curl recently noted in a Washington Times commentary, “Democrats must spend, spend, spend, and spend. It’s in their DNA.” It got blown away in 1994 after forty years of control of the U.S. Congress when Newt Gingrich saved the nation from forty more. At the very least then-President Clinton had the political savvy to move to the center, earning a second term for himself…..This is not the case with President Obama who is running against a “do nothing” Congress to which he outsourced the writing of Obamacare, the stimulus programs, the budget, and, the most recent failure, the Super Committee which had been preceded by a blue ribbon commission whose recommendations he ignored.

###