Observations From the Back Row

Posted by Rich Kozlovich

Education

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

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

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


Green Notes

ESA Today

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

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

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

Global Warming…or any anthropogenic whatever you would like.

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

Organic versus Modern Farming. GMO’s and Pesticides

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

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

Sustainability

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

Media

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

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

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

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

Religion

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

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

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

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

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


Socialism

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

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

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

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

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

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

By James A. Marusek

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No forecast is made of the year 2013.

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

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DDT - Lets Have Another 10,000 Studies!

By Rich Kozlovich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nope: Peregrines not saved by DDT ban, either

By Steve Milloy Posted on December 27, 2011

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Bald Eagle-DDT Myth Still Flying High

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why was banning DDT so important to environmentalists?

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

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

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

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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. I would also recommend reading his last book, Right Answers.

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

Alan Caruba

Alan's Weekly Cartoon Round Up

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

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

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

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

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

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Christopher Hitchens!

By Rich Kozlovich

I can’t end this year without commenting on the death of Christopher Hitchens. There have been a great many articles written about him that attempt to paint a nicer picture than I believe existed.

David Horowitz, who was, along with Hitchens, at the apex of leftism in the 60’s was an old friend and wrote openly, honestly and warmly about him. (I recommend reading the whole article...it is worth it.  If for no other reason than the article speaks so well of David Horowitz for his affectionate loyalty to their friendship.RK)

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

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

He once said, talking about Che Guevara, "His death meant a lot to me, and countless like me, at the time. He was a role model." To normal people Guevara’s life and actions shown that he was a psychopathic murderous monster and a coward. And that was his role model? And at his death all his monstrous acts of murder and his final act of cowardice came out about this godling of the left, and yet this still was his role model!

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

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

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

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

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

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

After having said all of that I feel that I cannot leave out the very touching piece his brother Peter wrote, in which he says; “Much of civilisation rests on the proper response to death, simple unalloyed kindness, the desire to show sympathy for irrecoverable loss, the understanding that a unique and irreplaceable something has been lost to us. If we ceased to care, we wouldn’t be properly human.”

Peter Hitchens is a believer who abandoned leftism at a very young age. He also abandoned the hate that is all encompassing with those who worship at the altar of Leftism.
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American Council on Science and Health, 2011: Week 50

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

ADHD

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

CANCER

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

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

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

DIET

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

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

HEMOPHILIA

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

PHARMA

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

PREGNANCY

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

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

TB

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

TOBACCO

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

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

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

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

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

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This Week With Steve Milloy

By Rich Kozlovich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Observations From the Back Row

By Rich Kozlovich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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Observations From the Back Row

By Rich Kozlovich

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

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

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

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

__________________________________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greenism: The Science of Smoke and Mirrors

By Rich Kozlovich

As I have said, my primary theme for this week is the idea that environmentalism has made scientific integrity an oxymoron!  The goal of the green movement is to get their 'truth' out.   No matter how many lies they have to tell.  The link would not work to the information below, but the video does.  RK

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



."...Of course when you're endeavoring to pull off a multi-billion dollar legal heist in a banana republic you don't stop at just inventing damages; you stack the deck on the judicial side as well, since that just requires a little "donation."'

"What Chevron has been able to show from the out takes and records obtained is the Maest and her firm drafted substantial portions of the report of the independent expert, Richard Cabrera, who they allege Donziger was instrumental in getting appointed to do the court order study of the alleged environmental damage. Sounds like a criminal enterprise to extort, right? That's what Chevron thinks, and it's why they're suing under RICO."

 

Observations From the Back Row

By Rich Kozlovich

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

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

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


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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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Scandal and Insanity at Penn State

By Paul Driessen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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