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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

The Insanity of Protecting Rats

By Alan Caruba



Going back to the 1980s I have worked professionally with elements of the pest control industry providing public relations services The process of educating the public is necessary because new generations must be informed of the threats pests pose to health and property.

Back when it was still known as the National Pest Control Association, I even received a beautiful certificate of appreciation that hangs in my office. At some point several years ago, it and state organizations changed their name to “Pest Management” presumably to divest themselves of the image of actually killing the creatures that annually spread disease and do millions in property damage.

In past years environmental organizations devoted a lot of time and money to convince the public that the real problem was the pest controllers, not the pests. If they all changed their profession next Monday, the entire nation would be totally over-run with roaches, termites, rats and mice in a month. The work is not glamorous, but it is utterly essential to society.

A case in point is bed bugs that have emerged in a few short years into a full-fledged pest problem from coast to coast. Thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency, the lack of pesticides registered to exterminate them has facilitated this new plague. There is, I believe, only one.

I have watched as the EPA has, since its founding, insanely strip pest control professionals and consumers of access to pesticides that formerly had protected their parents and grandparents, as well as their homes and businesses.

When you take away the pesticides, all you have left are the pests.

The modern pest control industry had its beginnings in the Middle Ages with the emergence of “rat catchers”, men who had developed a variety of poisons to rid homes and other properties of the ubiquitous rodent. Even the kings and queens of England had a royal rat catcher.

They were such a part of life in those times that the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin has been passed down to us. It was, of course, the combination of rats and fleas that spread the Black Plague in the Middle Ages, killing a third or more of the population of Europe.

So why, one must ask, have the burgers of Washington, D.C., responsible for passing the laws, passed the truly insane one titled the “Wildlife Protection Act” that requires pest control operators to not only capture rats in a fashion that does not harm them in any way, but to transport them twenty-five miles away to be set free?

As Dr. Don Boys noted in a recent Canada Free Press article, “Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia’s Attorney General, said D.C.’s new rat law is ‘crazier than fiction’ because it requires vermin not be killed but rather captured, preferably in "families", and transferred to a ‘wildlife rehabilitator’”, presumably living in Virginia!

Here are a few facts about rats:
# Rats have a life span of approximately nine months.

# Rats are ready to breed within three months. Their gestation period is 22 days and they have an average little of eight. An average female rat will provide 20 offspring.

# A single pair of rats has the potential, mathematically, of producing 359 million descendents in three year’s time.

# The average overall length of a rat is l6 inches, with a body measuring 9 inches and a tail of 7 inches. The average weight of a rat is l ¼ pounds. Their color can range from reddish brown to black.

# A rat’s sense of smell is excellent, as is its sense of taste. They are particularly suspicious of food. This results often in “bait shyness.” Rats will leave a poisoned bait untouched for almost a week. Other members of the pack will avoid food not eaten by other members and often warn other rats away by sprinkling it with their urine or feces.

# Rats can gain access to virtually any structure. They can climb 15 feet up a rough, surfaced vertical wall. They can jump vertically one foot from a flat surface and they can easily traverse telephone wires and ropes. They are, in addition, good swimmers.
Virginia and other states contiguous to Washington, D.C. do not want the District’s rats. They have plenty of their own. They also have a complete host of other rodents and wildlife that require the ministrations of pest control professionals.

There are a host of very good reasons why every American city and town has extensive laws regarding the control of insect and rodent pests, as well as wildlife that, in my home state of New Jersey, includes raccoons, opossum, squirrels, turkeys, coyotes, deer, and bears!

Anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that rats must be killed to protect people and property, but not the idiots on the Washington, D.C. city council who were more intent on protecting the rats than their constituents.

A lot of Americans have concluded they need protection from Washington, D.C. and its incessant and insane production of laws and regulations that pose the greatest threat of all to our personal freedoms and to the nation’s economy, security, and future.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Zone of Reality - Public Employee Benefits

By Rich Kozlovich

Everyone knows pension funds are really supported by those paying into them. Really? There is no way that the public sector working employees could even begin to pay for the benefits of their retired members with the current retirement plans of those unions.

Ohio has five public pension systems. All of them will go broke as it stands right now. All of them are unsustainable. All of them have huge unfunded responsibilities that will fall on the taxpayers. Currently they are unfunded by 67% and are on the brink of collapse. These are unfunded responsibilities that will not ….and cannot….. be paid.

How much is that in dollars and cents right now? Sixty Six Billion dollars! That is $66,000,000,000. Right now that is a cost to every Ohioan (not just working Ohioans) of $5726. Remember; this liability will fall on the heads of the taxpayers! All public expenses fall on the head of the taxpayers; we need to get that.

The government has no money. It produces nothing! The only source of money for any government is that which it can extort from its citizens. Extort is a strong word, but I use that word for a reason. The money is not the governments, and that money is extracted by force, i.e. if we don’t pay our property is confiscated or even worse, we go to jail. That makes it extortion.

Albeit this is a legal form of extortion, and it a necessary form of extortion to maintain a stable and civil society; it is nonetheless extortion. This liability doesn’t belong to the state. Remember...the state is not real. Only people are real. The state is merely a legal instrument that functions as the practical application of the people's needs. How practical is of course debatable, especially when you read about people like Governor Jerry "Moonbean" Brown and this dealings with the public employee unions. But after all is said and done there is one absolute incontrovertible truth that we need to get. This liability belongs to the state’s taxpayers.

I am also amazed at those I have talked to over the years who are completely conservative in their philosophy. Except when it came to Issue 5 in Ohio! Because they had family members that would be effected they made a complete turn about. I guess it really does depend on whose ox is being gored. We need to stop being foolish and see this clearly.

Below are two articles that deal with this issue. The first deals with Ohio. You need to read the whole thing and view the charts. If that doesn’t cause some serious level of concern to you…. well then …..you need help.

The second article is to show that this pattern is replaying all over the country….actually the world. It is even worse in the Euro countries because everyone is getting, or expecting to get, these unsustainable benefits from the socialists that rule there.

HANGING BY A THREAD Big Payouts and Promises Leave Ohio Pension Plans on the Brink of Collapse—
A deep fiscal hole is engulfing Ohio taxpayers. No one disputes that a fulfilling and financially stable retirement is something that every Ohioan should be able to enjoy. Ohioans in the public and private sectors alike should expect a level of retirement that allows them to comfortably live their remaining years without fear of financial hardship. But guaranteeing that public employees receive a level of retirement far beyond that of private-sector employees, especially when financed by taxpayers, is unfair and has proven fiscally unsustainable.

If every Ohioan received a pension similar to the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System (OPERS) career pension of $39,780, it would cost current workers over $123 billion per year, which equates to 25 percent of Ohio’s Gross Domestic Product ($483 billion).On a per capita basis, it would cost working Ohioans $26,851 per year to fund the pensions of retired Ohioans. Such a cost would crush Ohio’s economy. If changes are not made to public pensions, the required tax hikes to bail them out would be equally crushing.

Ohio’s five public-pension systems are tasked with providing retirement benefits to Ohio’s public employees at a reasonable cost to taxpayers. But as time has shown, Ohio’s pension systems have produced retirement benefit levels that frequently exceed those of private-sector Ohioans. And to finance these generous benefits, Ohio’s pension funds have run up unthinkable amounts of unfunded liabilities for which, in the end, taxpayers are legally responsible.

Local Governments Face Bankruptcy Quandary, San Francisco Examine
Bankruptcy is the boogeyman haunting governments across America. It’s not a question of whether more cities will file for bankruptcy, but how many. The culprit is a decade of over-spending by governments, especially on pension guarantees, and an economic slowdown that refused to flip into a robust recovery. The money just isn’t there. And it’s not going to be there even if local governments raise taxes while cutting employees and services to the bone. Things are just going to get worse for municipal finance. Most states, counties, cities and school districts have spent their cash reserves down to the legal minimum. And they have not made contingency plans for another 15 percent decline in revenue in the next year. Consequently, there is the potential for thousands of defaults in the 50,000 municipal bond issuers in the United States. Most cities can cut spending, but they cannot cut principal and interest payments without default and bankruptcy.


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Sunday, January 29, 2012

This Week With Alan Caruba

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.

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







Liberal Lunacy
Conservative commentators read what liberals have to say if only to get a glimpse into their current memes on various topics. It is always daunting because one cannot do this without coming away convinced that they are lunatics, devoid of any sense of history or reality, both of which they routinely invent to defend their opinions.  A recent case in point is New York Times columnist, Maureen Dowd, whose January 22nd, Sunday commentary was titled “Showtime at the Apollo.” Ms. Dowd has been disappointed with Barack Obama for a long time, but she still struggles to find something laudatory while at the same time revealing just how defective he is.

The New American Elite
The only constant in the life of individuals and nations is change. Since the beginning of the last century, the process or rate of change has accelerated with the invention and availability of a myriad of machines, technologies that have altered the lifestyle of Americans as well as of millions around the world.

Working Into the Grave
Believe it or not, there was a time when, if you turned 65 and retired, you could expect to live in reasonable comfort. Social Security covered a portion of your expenses; your savings account yielded a modest amount of interest, and, if you had made investments, stock dividends provided a safety cushion. Not so anymore.

Auschwitz: Ignoring History, Predicting the Future
The late Israeli scholar and diplomat, Abba Eban, (1915-2002) said, “History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.” Similarly, Winston Churchill said, “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they have tried everything else.” In Churchill’s case, he was referring to the U.S. reluctance to become involved in another war in Europe, but the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 changed that overnight. By 1945, along with our allies, the wars in Europe and Asia were over.

Does Obama Want to Lose? Yes!
It seems like a bizarre notion, but does Barack Obama want to lose the election in November? I think he does! One is struck by the way Obama has visibly aged in the job. He may well have grown weary being POTUS. By any rational standard, one would say he wants a second term, but Obama has always operated in a fantasy world where mere words are supposed to translate into reality. And he has repeatedly talked about being a one-term president. He is, after all, his own invention; the author of two memoirs of a life that had little achievement to point to other than getting elected first to the Illinois legislature and then to the Senate where he lingered a bare two years before running for president.

Stupid Voters
It’s a comment I hear all the time these days. “The voters are stupid.” I am not sure that those saying it mean literally that the voters have a low level of intellect or academic achievement, but rather that they mean voters seem prone to making their choices based more on emotion than on a serious examination of the candidate’s qualifications and character.

How to Listen to Obama's State of the Union Speech
The Tuesday morning post of the Heritage Foundation’s “Morning Bell” is worth sharing in part. You can read the whole post here.   “Tonight, Americans who tune in to the State of the Union will watch the work of a rhetorical master with a flair for illusion,” says Mike Brownfield. “President Barack Obama will take the to the floor of the Capitol in hopes of laying the groundwork for a political debate on his terms—one where he stands on emotional appeals, populism, and class warfare, not the shaky ground of his crumbling record.”


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Saturday, January 28, 2012

The XYZ Factor of Organizations

By Rich Kozlovich

This week I was sitting and thinking about an article by Alan Caruba entitled, Liberal Lunacy. Alan starts out by saying “Conservative commentators read what liberals have to say if only to get a glimpse into their current memes on various topics. It is always daunting because one cannot do this without coming away convinced that they are lunatics, devoid of any sense of history or reality, both of which they routinely invent to defend their opinions.”

For whatever reason I suddenly realized that no matter what kind of organization people belong to, either religious or secular, that there is a constantly repeating pattern. As I thought about it I expanded my thinking to include organizations of the Right, the Left, the secular and the religious, and I found that it fits all of them…well almost….we will go there later! At any rate, I call it the XYZ Factor of organizations.
The philosophy of the organization is represented by (X).
The group makeup is represented by (Y).
The practices of that group are represented by (Z).
Let’s start with (X). This is the purest form of the organizational structure, and outlines the philosophy that will determine their actions. The U.S. Constitution in conjunction with the Declaration of Independence would be an example. This outlines, for the first time in human history, the idea that the people don’t belong to the ruling authority; that in point of fact the ruling authority exists because that is the desire of the people. This became the first bottom up governmental structure in history that made it clear that the government had no rights, but was being granted rights by the people. Furthermore, those rights had been “endowed” by a creator, not the government that those people created. In short, power and privilege flows up, not down, and can be taken away just as readily.

Secondly we examine (Y). Diversity of the groups within the structure is represented by (Y); whether it is racial, ethnic, geographic, religious or generational. The United States of America became the most diverse culture in the world. The people of this country are the people of the world. Every culture, every religion, every philosophy represented anywhere else in the world has some component of it here. In spite of whatever problems that may exist among these groups; for the most part they get along because of the concepts and principles outlined in (X).

Finally, as we examine (Z). We have to realize that (Z) represents the practical application of what is the purest philosophical understanding of their structure. This is the paradigm of values, and the practical application of those values based on their personal views, or the views generated by the upbringing and culture in which they thrived before becoming part of some organization. All being done while presumably attempting to stay within the frame work of their stated philosophy.

On the right;

On the Right (X) is defined as; less government in all of its forms; less taxes, less intrusion in our private lives, less regulations, more attention to personal rights, especially property rights, while still maintaining a civil organization that can protect society from the criminals and those who would attack the nation, foreign and domestic.

On the Right, (Y) is represented by a wide diversity of those groups mentioned. However, they are united in their philosophy, especially involving traditional and conservative values, and act accordingly. Perhaps not in all the details, which must be expected in any organized group, but philosophically they are united irrespective of all of the divergent groups listed. As a group they preach and live conservative, traditional lives and preach those values to others! They represent and promote a civil and stable society. The Tea Party is a clear representation of the Right, who is largely religious in their personal view of the universe, and believes that if there is no God there is no purpose.

On the Right (Z) is the easiest thing to understand among them. They have either been raised with traditional conservative values, or have adopted them through observation. The Right’s divergent groups come together as a marriage of commitment and affection for the values they share, values they will loyally defend, and will practice that which promotes those values.

Recap - On the right their philosophy is solidly outlined, the groups are diverse yet solidly united in their values, and they work diligently to loyally practice what they believe.




On the Left;

Defining (X) among the left isn’t easy. It is impossible!  It isn’t even defined by leftists. Even in the 1930’s Will Rogers noted; “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” The real problem is that since they really have no philosophy other than whatever populist view works at the time; they are completely willing to turn 180 degrees on an issue if it means gaining power. Margaret Sanger is a perfect example of the shifting values of the left. Sanger was the founder of the American Birth Control League, now Planned Parenthood. She was as one of the most famous promoters of eugenics of her day; eugenics being a concept that promotes the elimination of the “unfit” from society to prevent deterioration of the species by preventing the breeding of lesser human beings with those of higher quality.

She even had a major impact on Hitler’s thinking before WWII regarding eugenics. Although she personally was against abortion and execution of those she considered unfit, i.e. the “colored” races, the imbeciles and those born defective, she did want to rid the world of blacks though forced sterilization. She also favored strict immigration to prevent the “unfit” from entering the country. She also favored the use of religious leaders to disguise and promote her true intentions. At the beginning of the 20th century the “Progressive” movement’s binding force was religion.

Now the left has turned completely around claiming credit for the anti discriminatory laws passed by those who are part of the right today, condemning them as racists because they won't support their destructive liberal policies and demanding almost complete open immigration.

Structurally, the left is more representative by the complete disorganization of the Occupy Wall Street Movement because it has no sturcture; it is irrational, disloyal, disorganized, no stable philosophy, no workable solutions, selfish, self serving, jealous, envious, hateful, violent, destructive of a stable society, distrustful of their own and typically atheistic or agnostic in its view of the universe.

Diversity among the Left is no greater or less than the Right. Yet those represented by the (Y) factor on the left have nothing in common except the need to promote their own needs and the desire to make laws that destroy those they hate and give them power to control everyone else’s life. These are the only things the leftist groups have in common. There is no marriage of commitment on the left. It is only a marriage of convenience.

On the left they have no loyalty to (X) because they cannot agree on the concept of “truth”. There is no truth to them because they don’t believe there is any real ‘truth’; there is no absolute right and wrong. As a result the diversity represented by (Y) remains completely divided with no sense of loyalty to a common commitment.

Defining (Z) on the left is easy. Since they don’t have a thing in common with each other except for their hate and contempt of a stable society, their actions bear no resemblance to any defined philosophy because they have none. Since the left is based on selfishness, hate and jealousy, all of their actions will be nonspecific to any philosophy. They will abandon anyone or anything for political gain. They have no sense of loyalty to anything except their own desires and their need for power.

It is impossible for the Left to act with any restraint within any philosophical framework because the left has no value system in which it will remain loyal. The actions of left represents unending disharmony.

The Left isn’t an organization; it is a nightmarish mob of destructive self promoters that would destroy everything to gain nothing. They were called anarchists in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The Wall Street Movement truly is a true representation of "The Left”; misery, squalor and violence, ignorance and disharmony.

All throughout history the Left screamed about the imperfections of those they opposed in order to gain power. Once they overthrew the opposition they performed atrocities  beyond belief.  They represent instability over stability. They represent destruction over creation. They represent insanity over sanity. They represent irrationality over logic and facts. Any group, whether secular or religious, that promotes these things are representations of the anti-humanity Left.

To Recap - We really need to get this! The Left has no solid philosophy. They only have transient philosophies that they will promptly abandon as soon as it seems prudent to do so. Loyalty, just as historical facts and consistency of logic, are totally alien concepts to them. Their diverse groups have no affection for each other or anyone else since there is no binding philosophy to guide their practices, which are disingenuous and self serving. They would as happily turn and rend one of their own as they would anyone on the right.

They demand utopia! They impose dystopia!

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Friday, January 27, 2012

Zone of Reality: Occupy Wall Street Movement

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 protestors attention. 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". 

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Zone of Reality: Human Rights

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.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

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

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


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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Zone of Reality: Keystone Oil Pipeline

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?"


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Monday, January 23, 2012

Zone of Reality: Crime and Consequences

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.

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Sunday, January 22, 2012

Blast From the Past: Crimes Against Humanity

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

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)

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Observations From the Back Row

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;


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). 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.

Friday, January 20, 2012

EPA With Steve Milloy

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.

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

...

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.......

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Fraking With Steve Milloy

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 acting 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


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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A Thoughtful Warrior

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, what’s needed, what’s 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

Monday, January 16, 2012

Observations From the Back Row

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?"