Paradigms and Demographics: Morning Edition

Courageous Pregnant Mom With Cancer Refuses Cancer Treatment and Abortion - A pregnant mom in Rhode Island knows what sacrifice means. She served her country by serving in the military and now she is willing to sacrifice her own life not just for her country but for her own unborn child. Andrea Ryder served two tours of duty in the marines and undoubtedly showed admirable bravery during the line of duty. Now she is showing bravery of a different kind as she has been told months into her pregnancy that she has cancer. Doctors suggested she consider having an abortion as a result. But Ryder says that was not an option. Here’s more on her courageous decision:…..

Greenpeace claims GM technology eclipsed by ‘safer’ genetic techniques, renews Golden Rice attack - Greenpeace is set to launch a series of attacks against crop biotechnology this week. It has scheduled a news conference for Friday titled “Ecological Agriculture, A Climate Resilient Model of Agriculture: The Way Forward,” which purportedly makes its case against vitamin-enhanced Golden Rice. According to the Greenpeace news release, the panel of speakers will address what it calls “Ecological Agriculture,” which Greenpeace says is a model of farming better adapted to deal with climate change. Janet Cotter, a Greenpeace scientist, will lead a parade of speakers including activist groups from the Philippines and Thailand and a farmer’s testimonial experience and opposition to GMOs. The anti-GMO advocacy groups claims that GMOs have been an expensive failure, citing among other examples vitamin-enhanced Golden Rice, which has been slow to develop and gain approval–in part because of protests by Greenpeace and other campaigning groups……..

Democrats Join The Ferguson Lynch Mob Right As The CaseAgainst Officer Wilson Collapses - Everyone who hasn’t drunk the progressive Kool-Aid is aware that during elections Democrats resort to the race card to scare African Americans, for whose intelligence they have limitless contempt, into voting for them. If Republicans are elected, their propaganda claims, “black churches will burn” or the racial clock will be turned back to the era of segregation, an era that Democrats happen to have been directly responsible for. This year it’s the mythical threat white policeman allegedly pose to black youth, as Democrats and their media enablers encourage a “lynch mob” mentality — as Howard Kurtz put it recently — in a desperate attempt to pocket black votes……..

How Many Elections Will Democrats Steal Next Week? - How extensive is voter-fraud, especially among non-citizens? Just bring up the question, or suggest we need to have voter-ID at the polls like every other advanced democracy, and the answer will be instantly supplied: You’re a racist. But as Dan McLaughlin points out over at The Federalist, Democrats seem to win a suspiciously high number of close elections, well beyond what a random statistical trial would suggest.  There’s a bombshell academic study out on this issue right now that the media is mostly ignoring (the only exception being the Washington Post’s very fine wonky MonkeyCage blog), in part because it appears in an obscure academic journal, Electoral Studies, that is behind an expensive subscription paywall, and in part because any reporter who does a story about it will be called a racist. Since I’m an academic these days, I’ve got access to the article, “Do Non-Citizens Vote in U.S. Elections?”, by Jesse T. Richman and Gulshan A. Chattha of Old Dominion University and David C. Earnest of George Mason University.

The conclusion of the abstract alone ought to set off alarm bells:........

Minimum wage, maximum damage - There are few policies more popular than increasing the federal minimum wage. In a 2013 Gallup poll, 76 percent of respondents approved of the idea. It seems to make economic and moral sense on an intuitive level. President Obama reflected this sentiment in his Oct. 11 weekly radio address, saying, “We believe that in America, nobody who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty. … America deserves a raise right now.” Yet most economists oppose the concept of a minimum wage at all, and data back them up. In fact, the minimum wage harms those it is intended to help….

My Take – Quite frankly for me the real issue is this – It’s not the government’s job to determine what prices are charged or salaries to be paid and them impose them on society. Let’s try to remember they’re supposed to be our servants, not our masters.

From Benny Peiser’s

Global Warming Policy Foundation

Europe’s Green Suicide
Heavy Industry Moves Investment Abroad

“We shift investment money from Europe into the U.S. as a consequence of the less competitive environment in Europe,” Harald Schwager, a senior member of BASF’s executive board, said in an interview. “Many European companies which are energy-intensive are finding out that the benefits of shifting investment from Europe to the U.S. are significant.” --Stanley Reed and Melissa Eddy, The New York Times, 25 October 2014

BASF executives say that German and European Union policies toward industry, particularly when it comes to energy, are forcing big companies to look elsewhere as they seek to expand. Especially in Germany, energy prices have jumped as a result of the government’s big push for renewable energy sources — a policy that the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel has labeled the Energiewende, or energy transition. And nearly a quarter of all companies in heavy industry are considering reducing production in Germany, according to a survey by the German Chambers of Commerce. --Stanley Reed and Melissa Eddy, The New York Times, 25 October 2014

Last week’s European summit on climate change failed to address the hard reality that current policies are not working. The EU’s energy policy was grounded on the broad acceptance of four cornerstone propositions, which over time have turned to dust. The inconvenient truth is that none of these beliefs have proved to be true. Small wonder, then, that the political consensus that enabled the 2008 policy to go ahead has broken. Beyond accepting failure, it is important now to start again and to put in place a set of policies that have a better chance of working. --Nick Butler, Financial Times, 27 October 2014

With a 2015 deadline looming large for a global pact on curbing climate change, six days of UN talks closed in Bonn on Saturday with delegates and observers deflated over a lack of progress. Rifts over responsibilities for galloping emissions of Earth-warming fossil fuels remain deeply entrenched, they said, preventing detailed negotiations on a new agreement. Many said the Bonn meeting merely restated well-known country positions on how responsibility for climate action must be shared, instead of discussing details like funding to help poor countries shift to less polluting fuels and adapt to change that can no longer be avoided. --Mariette Le Roux, AFP, 25 October 2014

Investigations by the Mail on Sunday reveal the Green Blob is not just an abstract concept. We have found that innocuous-sounding bodies such as the Dutch National Postcode Lottery, the American William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Swiss Oak Foundation are channelling tens of millions of pounds each year to climate change lobbyists in Britain, including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. According to leading energy analyst Peter Atherton of Liberum Capital, current UK energy policies shaped by the Green Blob will cost between £360 billion and £400 billion to implement by 2030. He said this will see bills rise by at least a third in real terms – on top of the increases already seen over the past ten years. --David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 26 October 2014

Meanwhile, it is clear that the sheer scale of this lavishly funded lobbying effort dwarfs that of its opponents. The Global Warming Policy Forum in London, Europe’s only think-tank which is sceptical about climate science and energy policy, has an annual budget of £300,000 and employs just three people. Its director, Dr Benny Peiser, said yesterday: ‘At the end of the day, someone will have to be held accountable for us committing economic suicide. We are the only organisation that does what we do – against hundreds on the other side, all saying the same thing.’ --David Rose, Mail on Sunday, 26 October 2014

Public Health:  From the American Council on Science and Health

A very good Ebola debate - and a shoutout to Forbes' Matthew Herper -The fact that much of the impact of Ebola on the US remains unknown virtually guarantees there will be differing opinions. Forbes' Matthew Herper presented two very different opinions. Both make sense. Read more.

Organic Industry, not consumers, benefits from GMO fears - The Nov. ballot in Maui County, Hawaii will include an initiative that would ban growing GM crops. Oregon and Colorado will soon vote on GMO labeling laws. A Wall Street Journal op-ed explains why banning and labeling GMOs won't benefit consumers. Read more.

Study links flavanols found in chocolate to improvements in memory - Not so fast - Halloween is approaching and we're sure you're thinking about costumes and candy. If you need justification to eat chocolate, we suggest you find a better reason than the new research supposedly linking chocolate-flavanols to improvements in memory. Read more.