To Be or To Do: Which Way Will You Go?

By Rich Kozlovich 

This morning I watched the news on NBC….my wife likes them….reporting on the trial of Jerry Sandusky and his attorney's claim that they are going to appeal. Then the report made it known that the authorities weren’t done with this mess, and that others may be charged as more evidence of what occurred comes out. There is the head of the athletic department and a vice president at the university that have been charged or may be charged with lying under oath or covering up the child abuse perpetrated by Sandusky.

I know this may seem like a strange question, but does anyone see a glimmer of enlightenment over all of this?

The glimmer of enlightenment is this; there is a difference between managers and leaders. A good leader can hire a good manager when the leader is in charge. A person with good management skills but no leadership skills can’t hire a good leader since they're in charge.  What’s the difference?

Through the course of my life I discovered that being a good leader means standing up and saying:

 Hold it! This is all wrong and we’re going to change!

Never confuse real leaders with those with titles or rank.  Whether it is in academia, the military, government or in business a real leaders means being the rock in the current, a quality that had to have been there for most of their life. 

Let’s face it, heterodoxy isn’t for the faint of heart, and for the most part is a personal trait, which means this quality was part and parcel of who and what they are, making it easy to be seen for what they are, often disliked, ridiculed and rejected.  However it can be learned and practiced, if one has vision and courage.

As for the go along to get along guys who are perceived as 'good leaders':  They may in reality only be ‘good managers’ who were chosen to merely organize the direction everyone decided to go! They’re easy to deal with, easy to get along with and would never in a million years stir up the manure.

Take for example two arenas where this is so obvious I shouldn’t have to explain it, but most don’t get it because people believe they represent the highest standards for leadership. Military career officers and PhD’s!  Let me tell you about Col. John Boyd. (What appears below is from a site that no longer exists.)

"Forty-Second" Boyd, the man remembered for defeating every opponent in aerial combat at the Air Force's premier dog-fighting academy in two-thirds of a minute, helped found the Fort Myer get-togethers at the end of his Air Force career”…..however this doesn’t demonstrate the “long and often painful saga of a man who, as a full colonel, went toe to toe, time after time, with a phalanx of two-and three-star generals for the good of the country, winning most of his battles and surviving long enough to help provide secretary of defense Richard Cheney the ideas needed for swift and decisive victory in the Persian Gulf War. 

("Keep it simple — so that the generals will understand it,") Boyd frequently told his small band of fellow guerrillas, known collectively as "The Acolytes." Boyd was…..a Pentagon "Whiz Kid"— one of the rare few who were "defined by the courts-martial and investigations they faced." He was also "the most important unknown man of his time and the most remarkable unsung hero in American military history."….. Loud and profane, Boyd's intellectual achievements were matched by his relentless guerrilla warfare against hidebound "careerists" then running the Air Force…… The tenets of this speech reflected both his spirit and values:

"One day you will come to a fork in the road. And you're going to have to make a decision about what direction you want to go." [Boyd] raised his hand and pointed. "If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments." Then Boyd raised the other hand and pointed another direction. "Or you can go that way and you can do something — something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference."

He paused and stared. "To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?"

The only reason he ever was promoted to Colonel was because Reagan became president, but he would never be allowed to wear stars. This pattern plays out in the universities also. Show me a graduate student who, while attempting to get his PhD.,  told the PhD.s evaluating him that their ideas were all wet…. and worse yet …..proved it, and I will show you someone who is stuck with a Masters degree.

They learn early on that to get along you must go along.

When that happens it becomes a way of life and as they rise in the ranks they will only tolerate those that are just like them. To do otherwise would be a personal admission of failure. Eventually the ranks of “leadership” are filled with those who don’t have the courage to stand up against all odds for what's right.

Within the scientific community it has been made abundantly clear that the holy grail of science isn’t ‘truth’; its government grant money. The fraud perpetrated on the world by ‘scientists’ regarding Anthropogenic Global Warming has been exposed and now the world is aware this has been going on for decades.

The world is now aware that what appears as leadership within the scientific community is no real leadership at all; only hucksters, con artists and cowards. The only leadership in science is from those that are attacked and smeared as ‘skeptics’, even to the point of being called ‘Flat Earthers’ and compared to those who perpetrated the holocaust during WWII. Those who are real leaders, those who have the courage to stand against the tide, those who are prepared to lose everything for that which is right are always called….. unreasonable. My answer to that?  I would like for someone to show me any insurmountable obstacle that was overcome by being reasonable!

Being unreasonable in pursuit of a goal takes a clear vision and understanding, it takes courage, it takes fortitude, it requires the ability to stand outside the comfort and support of the group. But I would be willing to bet the children Sandusky abused would have loved to have seen someone who was "unreasonable" in the universities ranks of ‘leadership’! Unfortunately there was no one!  Including a much beloved football coach who should have been in the forefront defending these kids.

I wonder how many of this cast of characters now regret their cowardice?   Whether it is in the government, military, academia or business this is something we need to learn, repeat, retain and practice:

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

EPA: Tooth Fairy Dreams

By Rich Kozlovich

There was an interesting article regarding the insane demands of regulators at the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is being blasted for requiring oil refiners to add type of fuel that doesn’t exist…except in the insane minds of the green movement and their lackeys at EPA.

The article didn’t go nearly far enough to show just how unscientific, fact deprived and insane the EPA really is. These are people who went to college and into government. The decision makers never worked in energy production, energy research, energy discovery, energy delivery, or for that matter, it is unlikely that the vast majority of them ever worked in any real job. Most never owned a company, started a company, never had to meet a payroll, or a bank payment to keep a company in existence. They also never had to skip their own paychecks in order to make sure the company’s employees were paid.  If they had they wouldn't be doing so many of the things they do.  They are not business people, and the decision makers are not scientists; although there are many real scientists working there; they don't outnumber the ideologues and they don’t make the decisions...we do need to get that!

Federal regulations can be maddening, but what could be more maddening to energy producers that demands that they sell “millions of gallons of a substance, cellulosic ethanol, that does not exist”.

"As ludicrous as that sounds, it's fact," says Charles Drevna, who represents refiners. "If it weren't so frustrating and infuriating, it would be comical." And Tom Pyle of the Institute of Energy Research says, "the cellulosic biofuel program is the embodiment of government gone wild."…. Drevna of the refiners association says they had no other choice left since EPA insisted they still had to blend some of the nonexistent cellulosic ethanol. "We've had to go to the courts and litigate this thing is because they just turned a blind eye to us," Drevna said. So the refiners are now suing the EPA, in part because the mandate gets larger and larger-- 500 million gallons this year, 3 billion in 2015 and 16 billion in 2022.”

“And still, not a gallon of cellulosic ethanol in sight.”

The really fascinating part of this that it takes more energy to produce a gallon of cellulosic ethanol that a gallon of cellulosic ethanol delivers. Only the greenies and their lackeys at the EPA, and green pandering political leaders could be for this.

In his book, Gusher of Lies, Robert Bryce notes that cellulosic ethanol, which is made from things like grass, wood, and straw has no commercial viability. He says that “cellulosic ethanol is like the tooth fairy, an entity that many people believe in but no one ever actually sees.” That was in 2008, and nothing has changed! He also notes that even if there were a technological breakthrough it would take decades to produce any real amount of ethanol.

However, in order to really understand why this is “Mission Impossible” with any technology in existence today or any technology that can be envisioned, we need to understand some basis science. He goes on to say; “The energy business is ruthlessly policed by the immutable laws of thermodynamics. The first is… that energy is neither created or destroyed” and the second is that “energy tends to become more random and less available.”

Turning sugar, sunlight or kinetic energy as in wind into a more concentrated form of energy is “an uphill climb." And the more diffused the energy source, the more difficult it is to concentrate into usable economically viable products. It takes a lot of energy to turn a corn field into ethanol. Which explains why so-called fossil fuels are so attractive; because they are so energy dense and require little energy to gather per ratio to the energy that can be extracted in usable forms.

“Crude oil contains about 18,400 Btus per pound and coal contains about 12,400 Btus per pound. “Corn contains 7,000 Btus and switchgrass…… contains just 6,400 Btus per pound.”

Then there is the conversion and transportation energy requirements. Every “natural” form of energy must be converted, unlike oil, into liquid form, “both corn and switchgrass must be mixed with large quantities of water, fermented, and then distilled into a usable liquid form before they can be utilized. And each of those steps takes energy”

Bryce calls cellulosic ethanol “vaporware” because it is an “idea that gets promoted and promised over and over, but it’s never actually delivered. No other fuel in modern American history has gotten more hype while providing fewer actual Btus than cellulosic ethanol.”

The belief in cellulosic ethanol is more on the order of religious faith that scientific reality and it infects people at all levels of society…seemingly those at the top more than normal people. As an example;

Cellulosic ethanol would be “a huge new source of energy, particularly for the transportation sector. You’re going to see it all over the place. You’re going to see a lot more flex-fuel vehicles. You’re going to see new processes that utilize waste as a source of energy, so there’s no petroleum consumed in the process.” – Al Gore

“These things are not expensive. We have this kind of biomass to make cellulosic ethanol all over America. It would increase income in rural America. It would increase income in rural California. It would stabilize the environment and improve our national security” – Bill Clinton

Cellulosic ethanol “has the potential to substantially reduce our consumption of gasoline. A technological breakthrough could lead to wide spread use of cellulosic ethanol to fuel our vehicles” - John Kerry

“It’s an interesting time, isn’t it, when you’re able to say, we’re on the verge of some breakthrough that will enable a pile of wood chips to become the raw materials for fuels that will run your car” – George W. Bush

Is it possible that people at this level with the resources they have at their disposal can be that unrealistic? Yes, and what is worse it appears that all those around them that should be explaining the science to them are as equally enamored with tooth fairy energy schemes as they are.

Here is the reality of ethanol. Grain alcohol is produced form a mixture of water and grain called ‘mash’. Just like the moonshiners. About 15 to 20 percent of that ‘mash’ will be turned into alcohol, which was produced from the sugar in the corn. Cellulose is a much tougher nut to crack since it takes a lot to break it down and only has a return or about 5%. Wood and weeds don’t have much sugar in their cells in the first place. Furthermore it took a lot more energy to strip the ethanol from the cellulose than it does for grains because cellulose is so much tougher than grain.

The reality is that for every 1 Btu of energy invested in all aspects of cellulosic production it would only produce .05 Btu by way of return. Study after study has demonstrated that cellulosic ethanol production is prohibitively expensive on a large scale, as a result no one is producing it! That appears to be basic common sense.

So now we know why the distillers can’t sell a product that doesn't exist; irrespective of the stupid regulations from the EPA. Perhaps it really is a good time to disband the EPA. Anyone that dumb can easily have their responsibilities turned over to the state EPA's without any concern that mistakes will be made. It is unlikely they could possibly be any dumber....or corrupt.


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Random Thoughts on Liberalism, Leftism, Progressivism, Socialism...Take Your Pick!

By Rich Kozlovich

It turns out that liberals, socialists (communists and fascists), progressives, and leftists (whichever term pleases you; they're largely interchangeable.) are in a quandary. There is not enough money to throw at everyone and their traditional allies have eaten up so much of the public’s finances that they are in a position to bankrupt all the local and state governments in the nation, especially the teachers unions. Remember...they can't print money as can the federal government in order to hide their bankruptcy!

Now we have Democratic mayors fighting the very people they catered to; public and teachers unions which they signed super sweetheart contracts with to gain their political support; because the local people have had it with all of these insane deals.

We have the racial issues that have been the backbone of the Democratic Party ever since the Republicans passed all the civil rights laws that the Democrats fought against and now claim credit for as their own.

Illegal immigration is a jobs issue. Blacks will have to compete with these illegals and they don’t like it; and the illegals, especially Hispanics, want ever more latitude regarding what is legal….and of course everyone is ignoring the decent, patient and honest immigrants trying to get in through legal channels that can’t come into the country because there are so many illegal’s taking their place.

The Jews have traditionally been liberal supporters for almost 100 years and has been a rock hard foundation for them. However, that is changing. The leaders of the liberal movement (no matter the party) have turned anti-Semitic and anti-Israel to the point that Jews worldwide, including Europe, are being openly persecuted and they are scared. Rightly so! Although the story is still fascinating because New York Jews will still be voting liberal...although that is changing.

The two groups that have absolutely been foundational to liberalism are Big Labor and Big Green. Now they have to turn on Big Labor to appease Big Green, i.e., the XL pipeline, and they will have to turn on Big Green to appease Big Labor. Both of whom are coming under attack from the public.

As we review this situation the question that one has to ask is this. What reason do they have to exist at all?

They exist to have power. That is all the more reason to reject their views, their actions, their philosophy and them personally. I keep hearing that the left isn't evil, just wrong.

Wrong!

Leftists, including the fascist and communist monsters of the 20th century killed over 100 million people in the twentieth century.  Environmentalists, have killed up to100 million people in the last 75 years as a result of the ban on DDT.  And if you count all the other disasters they've created with their policies, it wouldn't surprise me if that number skyrocketed.  However, the left is easily responsible for the deaths of over 200 hundred million people.  And the greenies are still at it. Anyone who supports them shares in the blame for the evil they have wrought.

Education Watch

Traditional wisdom has stood the test of time, while conventional wisdom is merely what everyone believes at the moment, which is nothing more than the latest philosophical flavor of the day and may not last as long as the latest ladies fashions. Paraphrasing Thomas Sowell.

Education Watch will be a regularly updated feature and I will

 be posting them on the Pages section at the top right of this blog.

Sacramento "Teacher of the Year" Laid Off; Who is to Blame?
I have a great deal of sympathy for Michelle Apperson, the Sacramento "Teacher of the Year" who was laid off. Assuming she deserved the award, she should not have been laid off……Teachers' unions are 100% to blame for this mess. Unions protect the under-performers at the expense of those like Apperson. Unions even protect repeated sexual predator teachers……In one case, a male teacher in Manhattan was accused of inappropriately touching a female student in 2010, but the arbitrator imposed only a suspension without pay. And now — after more disturbing episodes — we’ve filed charges against this individual for a third time. As it stands, public school teachers accused of sexual misconduct enjoy protections that no other city employee has. That puts children in danger, and we cannot allow it to continue. …….Here is a Google search of Teachers Paid to Sit if you want more examples. Now factor in incompetent teachers and poor teachers. The union protects them too…….An overhaul is indeed needed. It's time to get rid of collective bargaining of public unions, and it's time for merit pay for teachers…..Union mentality is also to blame for inability of school districts to get rid of sexual predators and grossly incompetent teachers.

Mayors back parents seizing control of schools
By Stephanie Simon
Mon Jun 18, 2012

(Reuters) - Hundreds of mayors from across the United States this weekend called for new laws letting parents seize control of low-performing public schools and fire the teachers, oust the administrators or turn the schools over to private management.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors, meeting in Orlando, Florida, on Saturday unanimously endorsed "parent trigger" laws aimed at bypassing elected school boards and giving parents at the worst public schools the opportunity to band together and force immediate change. Such laws are fiercely opposed by teachers' unions, which stand to lose members in school takeovers. Union leaders say there is no proof such upheaval will improve learning. And they argue that public investment in struggling communities, rather than private management of struggling schools, is the key to boosting student achievement. But in a sign of the unions' diminishing clout, their traditional political allies, the Democrats, abandoned them in droves during the Orlando vote.

Teachers Union Rides First Class on Philadelphia Schools’ Gravy Train
Every pay period, the Philadelphia school district puts $155 per union member into a special fund that helps educators pay their personal legal bills, which includes everything from routine legal advice to estate planning. That single perk, nestled deep within the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ union contract, cost taxpayers $2.6 million during the 2010-11 school year. It also contributed to the district’s financial woes, which led to 2,200 teachers being laid off last year. The “PFT Legal Services Fund” is just one example of Philadelphia public schools’ extravagant spending practices, which are the focus of EAGnews.org’s latest investigative report, “Sucking the Life Out of America’s Public Schools: The Expense of Teachers Union Contracts.”


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Observations From the Back Row

By Rich Kozlovich

Environmentalism, ignorant to criticism, has thus developed inside an insular, self-regarding bubble. Perhaps only someone from within it could prick that bubble, revealing to its members what those outside it have been telling them for decades. Ben Pile

Admit it: environmentalism was an ugly experiment
Ben Pile

Mark Lynas has converted from being an eco-alarmist to a pro-growth rationalist. But he still doesn’t get the problem with green thinking.
Since becoming an advocate of genetic modification (GM) and nuclear power, Mark Lynas has drawn increasingly hostile criticism from his erstwhile comrades in the green movement. In turn, he has sharpened his criticism of environmentalists for their hostility to technological and economic development. In his new book, The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age of Humans, he attempts to reformulate environmentalism to overcome the excesses that have so far prevented it from saving the planet. This book will no doubt provoke debate, but what is this transformation really about, and is it really based on new ideas or merely the revision of old ones?

Last November, Channel 4 aired What the Green Movement Got Wrong, which featured prominent environmentalists, including Lynas, reflecting on the failures of environmentalism. The film claimed that environmentalists’ opposition to technologies that offered environmentally benign methods of energy and crop production had impeded their aim of creating an ecologically sustainable society. Since then, the debate between pro- and anti-nuclear environmentalists has deepened, exposing the many divisions that exist within the green camp…..

Science held hostage in climate debate
Garth Paltridge
The broad theory of man-made global warming is acceptable in the purely qualitative sense. If humans continue to fill the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, there can be little doubt that the average temperature of the world will increase above what it would have been otherwise. The argument about the science is, and always has been, whether the increase would be big enough to be noticed among all the other natural variations of climate. The economic and social argument is whether the increase, even if it were noticeable, would change the overall welfare of mankind for the worse.

Attempts to resolve the arguments are plagued with problems, a lot of which are inherently insoluble. There are many aspects of the behaviour of the natural climate system and of human society that are unpredictable in principle, let alone in practice. But perhaps the biggest of the underlying problems, and it is common to both arguments since it inevitably exists when there is large unpredictability and uncertainty, is the presence of strong forces encouraging public overstatement and a belief in worst-case scenarios.

EXCLUSIVE: Godfather of Global Green Thinking Steps Out of Shadows at Rio+20
Maurice Strong, the godfather of global environmentalism and organizer of the United Nations’ 1992 Rio environmental Earth Summit, is making a quiet comeback to the limelight on the eve of that meeting’s successor, the Rio + 20 summit on “sustainable development,” which starts June 20 in Brazil.

My Take – I will be running a series of articles and one will be dealing with Maurice Strong. He has an interesting history that everyone should have known right along….along with the real history of Nelson Rockefeller. If old John D. Rockefeller could see what his descendants have done with his fortune and the corresponding influence that brings; funding and promoting the most irrational, misanthropic and radical environmental groups on the planet…. he would roll over in his grave.

Britain 'kills off 130,000 elderly every year'
Treatment on average brings patient to death in 33 hours

NHS doctors are prematurely ending the lives of thousands of elderly hospital patients because they are difficult to manage or to free up beds, a senior consultant claimed yesterday. Professor Patrick Pullicino said doctors had turned the use of a controversial ‘death pathway’ into the equivalent of euthanasia of the elderly. He claimed there was often a lack of clear evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway, a method of looking after terminally ill patients that is used in hospitals across the country. It is designed to come into force when doctors believe it is impossible for a patient to recover and death is imminent.

The Trouble with Multiculturism
Cliff May

Back in the day, when I was a newspaper columnist in Denver, representatives of the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League paid a visit. Over coffee, they told the opinion editor and me that they had a program, “A World of Difference,” that “celebrates America’s diversity.” They asked for our editorial support. The editor and I had the same reaction: Would it not be better to celebrate all the things we have in common, all the things that unite Americans of whatever ethnic or religious backgrounds? Our friends left the meeting mightily miffed…..I later realized this was part of a larger campaign to promote multiculturalism – which seemed like a fairly harmless attempt to encourage appreciation of varying styles of art, dress and cuisine by pretending that all are of equal merit……Only years later did I come to realize: Multiculturalism is an ideology with far-reaching – and damaging -- consequences…..it empowers new citizens “to demand that their host country adapt” to their cultural requirements while relieving them of any responsibility to weave themselves and their children into the cultural fabric of their adopted homeland. In this and other ways, multiculturalism is a “slippery slope” that “imperils” liberal democracies…..But the big trap of multiculturalism is simply this: If all cultures are equal, why defend your own? The culture that replaces it will be just as good, won’t it?

My Take – The thing that I find amazing is that those who are the most vociferous about this are from countries that are the most intolerant of others, especially regarding their lack of respect of other’s religious views. In Muslim countries they can’t even tolerate those who profess to follow a form of Islam that is different than the majority Islamic sect in the nation. Is it any wonder that Muslims are always killing each other as much as they kill others that they also consider infidels? Any religion that requires its members to kill in the name of that religion is not a religion as we understand it in the West and should not be given status as a religion. It is in effect a criminal organization masquerading as a religion. Why is that so hard to understand?

World leaders' Rio accord is epic failure, says Greenpeace

NEGOTIATORS in Rio de Janeiro have claimed success after finalising a statement to be issued by more than 100 world leaders who arrive in the Brazilian city over the next few days.

But many observers said the "success" at the United Nations conference was possible only after the agreement was watered down so far it became meaningless. "Rio has turned into an epic failure..”….Mr Naidoo said Greenpeace would have to give up on international negotiations and move to a campaign of civil disobedience to try to overcome the state parochialism that was stopping any progress in multilateral talks to address environmental problems.

Senate kills effort to block EPA regulations on coal-powered plants

Legislation to defeat an EPA emissions rule that critics say would kill thousands of jobs and raise electricity rates for consumers was killed in the Senate Wednesday. A handful of Republicans sided with Democrats to block the measure on a procedural vote of 46 yeas to 53 nays, including Sens. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine. Democrats who crossed over to vote with Republicans included Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Mark Warner and Jim Webb of Virginia.

Regulating Political Speech
John Stossel

It's presidential season, so again pundits are indignant that money is spent on politics. Spent by corporations! And rich people! Because the Supreme Court allowed that, "2012 will be a miserable year," says The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne.....2012 may be miserable -- but if it is, it won't be because corporations spend on politics. And anyway, they have a right to spend. In politics, money is speech. The very first amendment that the Founders chose to add to the Constitution couldn't be more clear: "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech ... ."Yet most people support laws against political speech -- when they don't like the speakers……It is shameful that leftists let their hatred of corporations lead them to throw free speech under the bus. There is a smarter way to get corporate money out of politics: Shrink the state. If government has fewer favors to sell, citizens will spend less money trying to win them.


$11 Billion in Green Grants Produces Few Jobs, House Report Says
By Fred Lucas

An Obama administration green jobs grant program that spent $11 billion lacks a verifiable job-counting system and likely created only a fraction of the jobs it claims, according to a staff report by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

How Obama Bureaucrats Fueled Western Wildfires
By Michelle Malkin

The Obama administration's neglect of the federal government's aerial tanker fleet raises acrid questions about its core public safety priorities. Bipartisan complaints goaded the White House into signing a Band-Aid fix last week. But it smacks more of election-year gesture politics: Too little, too late, too fake……Imagine if Obama's Forest Service had been a private company. White House eco-radicals would be rushing to place their "boots on the necks" of the bureaucrats who made the fateful decision to put an experienced aerial tanker firm out of business as wildfires raged and the available rescue fleet shrunk…..Where there's smoke swirling over Team Obama there are usually flames of incompetence, cronyism and ideological zealotry at the source. The ultimate rescue mission? Evacuating Obama's wrecking crew from the White House permanently. November can't come soon enough.

Racial Double Standards
Walter E. Williams

Back in 2009, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said we were "a nation of cowards" on matters of race. Permit me to be brave and run a few assertions by you just to see whether we're on the same page. There should be two standards for civilized conduct: one for whites, which is higher, and another for blacks, which is lower. In other words, in the name of justice and fair play, blacks should not be held accountable to the same standards that whites are and should not be criticized for conduct that we'd deem disgusting and racist if said or done by whites………..

Similar episodes of unprovoked violence by black thugs against white people…..have occurred in Philadelphia, New York, Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington, Los Angeles and other cities. Most of the time, the race of the attackers, euphemistically called flash mobs, is not reported, even though media leftists and their allies are experts in reporting racial disparities in prison sentencing and the alleged injustice of the criminal justice system.

Racial double standards are not restricted to the political arena and crime reporting; we see it on college campuses and in the workplace. Black people ought to be offended by the idea that we are held accountable to lower standards of conduct and achievement. White people ought to be ashamed for permitting and fostering racial double standards that have effects that are in some ways worse than the cruel racism of yesteryear.

Four teens, 20-year-old charged in connection with delivery driver's murder

Five people, including four teens, are charged in connection with the murder of a Chinese restaurant delivery driver in Wilmington. Zhen Bo Liu, 60, was found dead in a car near 13th and Queen Streets June 14. He was on duty when he was killed. I spoke with a few of Liu's coworkers at the China King on S. 17th St., who were rocked by their friend's cold-blooded murder. The restaurant has stopped delivering because of it.

Police say Liu was shot and killed over a $48 meal.

My Take - When I saw the headline on one of the other sites I visit I wondered if they were black. If the article didn’t have these kids pictures on it you would have never know this was a black (group killing) on non-black crime. Should it matter? Since the media plays the game in the other direction so hard….yes it does matter; especially since the numbers are so out of balance, and the crimes are so serious! 

The media is a corrupt leftist mouth piece. At least under Stalin in the old Soviet Union they had an excuse.... it was mandatory on pain of…..well….you can guess. It is a voluntary and conscious decision on the part of the main stream media (which is getting smaller all the time, and for good reason) to wallow in the corrupt thinking of leftism. 

It's hard to believe that so many with so many information sources at their disposal are so incredibly stupid.  Being ignorant is universal.  It merely means that we don't know; and since there is so much information on so many subjects we are all ignorant of more things than we can imagine.  That's normal.  However, when we refuse to become aware that is no longer ignorance; it's stupidity....and in this case the media is stupid by choice!

Islamic Taliban Guns Down Popular Female Singer in Pakistan

A popular female singing icon has been gunned down in Pakistan and the Taliban may be to blame, but don't worry, the country isn't harboring terrorists. Well-known Pashto singer Ghazala Javed and her father were shot and killed by unidentified men in Peshawar city of northwest Pakistan, police said. The men fired indiscriminately at Javed and her father Mohammad Javed while she was leaving a beauty parlour at the busy Mohallah Nau in Dabgari Bazar last night, the singer's relatives told police. In recent years, several singers and musicians in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province have been gunned down by the local Taliban, who have declared music "un-Islamic"……Religion of peace, right? She was either murdered by Islamists for daring to embrace western culture or killed by her husband for getting away from him.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood is leading riots in Egypt again.

Pipeline Death By a Thousand Studies
By Phil Kerpen

There has never been a more "shovel ready" project in history than the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been exhaustively engineered, studied, reviewed, and re-reviewed as Obama tries to kill the project without admitting that's what he's doing. At stake are about 20,000 immediate jobs, a secure supply of North American oil, billions in private investment, and the global efficiency benefits of connecting a major crude source to the world's most efficient refining center. The latest news is that rather than simply say "yes," Obama is conducting yet another open-ended study.



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It Really is About the Basics!

By Rich Kozlovich

As those who work in highly regulated industries can tell you....the bureaucrats are all about the process....not the outcome....and that process is maddening.  The higher you go with any bureaucratic structure; the more maddening it becomes. Why? Because those at the very top are completely unaware about how the businesses they are regulating work.  They have never worked in those businesses; they have never run those businesses; they have never asked what those who actuallly know about those businesses think about their rules and whether they are worthwhile or not.

In the pest control industry we have state regulators that are far more intimate about the details of our work than those at EPA making the rules.  They make rules seem almost irrational.  For example; recently the EPA changed the rules regarding the use of pyrethroids in structural pest control. They are limiting the amount of material and how it is to be applied to a structure in order to make sure there is as little run off as possible.

On the surface that may seem reasonable, except those same regulations allow me to treat a home two feet up and ten feet out from the foundation in a continuous band. And they are worried some small amount of material that will come off the house when it rains! Where is it going to go? Right into the area treated around the house......where I was already allowed to treat up to ten feet away and two feet up from the foundation...in a continuous band.

We have to understand....we have now turned over all authority and power to the Fourth Branch of Government.....the bureaucracy. An unaccountable absolute authority that is filled the people who went to college and into government and believe that government is the be all and end all.   Mussolini stated that "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State", and the world ultimately went to war because of it. Mussolini won! Below are some examples of the folly of big government, big budgets, big taxes and stupid political leaders and their lackeys.

• French Taxing, Italian Regulating, Greek Mooching, and IMF Economic Illiteracy - Daniel J. Mitchell - Every day brings more and more evidence that Obamanomics is failing in Europe. I wrote some “Observations on the European Farce” last week, but the news this morning is even more surreal. Compared to his foolishness on tax policy, Hollande is a genius when it comes to determining what time it is. Let’s start with France, where I endorsed the explicit socialist over the implicit socialist precisely because of a morbid desire to see a nation commit faster economic suicide. Well, Monsieur Hollande isn’t disappointing me. Let’s look at some of his new initiatives, as reported by Tax-News.com.
• Supposedly Bankrupt Greek Government to Reward Pedophiles with Disability Payments (January 2010) - By Dan Mitchell - I don’t know whether to laugh or cry when I write about insanely stupid government policies. But I know I get more motivated to fight big government. How can anyone want to give more money and power to politicians, for instance, after reading these comparisons of dumb government policy in the United States and United Kingdom? Or how can anyone think it’s a good idea to expand the public sector after reading these examples of bureaucratic incompetence?
• I Always Suspected Greek Bureaucrats Were Useless Pieces of S**t, but even I’m Surprised to Learn that They’re Actually Collecting the Stuff - February 24, 2012 by Dan Mitchell - I’ve been having fun in recent months by comparing some of the foolish decisions of politicians and bureaucrats in the United States and United Kingdom. Here’s part of what I wrote in early January………But I think I understated the problem. Brainless policy choices are probably the inevitable result of having so many bureaucrats that they resort to asking for stool samples to justify their pointless and empty lives.

Wheeler’s Half-Full Report for June 22, 2012

 By Dr. Jack Wheeler

Some articles on his site are free and others require a subscription.  Either way, the work is insightful and presented in a common sense manner.  The world isn’t as it appears and it certainly isn’t as the media makes it appear.  One the things that always come to the fore when reading his work is – “everything is the basics”.  If the actions of people defy basic realities they are ultimately going to fail….no matter what the spin may be from their acolytes in the media.  The concern is how much damage they will do before they are finished.  RK

We're going to go global before we get to the ever-unfolding disaster of Zero - and we'll start with a headline this morning that split my face in half with a smile: Gazprom Biggest Loser As Shale Gas Upends World Markets.

The Russians are fracked. The news has been full of Putin the Punk pushing his dinky weight around - trying to send combat helicopters to Syria (only to be cleverly blocked by Britain), backing Iran getting nukes (as long as the nukes are "peaceful"), extorting Europe with sky-high gas prices.

Gazprom, the Russkie oil monopoly, is Putin's cash cow. Yet while its sales are collapsing due to US and Chinese fracking, Gazprom continues "to take a ‘head in the sands' position on shale gas," the story above reports. Russia doesn't have the technology, the expertise, nor legal protection for investors to frack in Siberia at anywhere near a competitive extraction cost.

Goodnight, Gazprom. That's good news for the world. And good news for the US is Zero's desperation this week.

Yesterday (6/21), John Boehner gave a press conference in which he denounced Zero's invoking Executive Privilege to prevent Congress from access to Fast & Furious documents as "an admission that White House officials were involved in decisions that misled the Congress and have covered up the truth." "What," he asked, "is the Obama Administration hiding in Fast & Furious?"

Boehner knows just what they are hiding. So does everybody else in town. Read more ...

THE DEMOCRATS ARE FRACKED

Dr. Jack Wheeler

Behind The Lines

Thursday, 21 June 2012

It's not just that the Dems are going to lose the White House in November. Control of the Oval Office regularly flips back and forth between them and the Pubs over the years.

It's not just that the Dems are going to lose big ("rrreally big, rrreally big" as Ed Sullivan would say) in November. Zero will be lucky to carry 10 states in a Romney Landslide, while the Pubs will take the Senate and gain seats in the House. Yet the Reagan Landslides of 1980/1984 were far greater than anything Romney can hope for - and the Dems were back in the White House saddle four years after the Gipper.

No, what is going on is much - as in much - bigger than mere electoral loss. What the Dems are going to lose in November is about as big as it gets. They are going to lose their raison d'être - their "reason to be," the basic justification for their existence.

This is why they are panicking, why most everything they do now is doltish, for panic makes you stupid. This is why Zero is making moves of ever-increasing desperation - Amnesty EO's, Executive Privilege merely to protect his corrupt AG. This is why the Moonbat Media is in a state of foaming hysteria. For all of them, their fear and fury is existential. Read more ...

PRESIDENT COVERUP

Jack Kelly

Kelly's Panorama

Thursday, 21 June 2012

There must be something really, really bad in the documents his attorney general is trying to conceal from Congress. If not, President Barack Hussein Obama has lost his mind.

With the honorable exceptions of Sharyl Atkisson of CBS and Richard Serrano of the Los Angeles Times, the major media have ignored for more than a year one of the biggest scandals in American history. Now that the president has claimed executive privilege, they can ignore it no longer.

Since there's been so little reporting of it, most Americans are learning of the scandal for the first time. Here's a recap:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) let more than 2,000 deadly weapons -- including .50 caliber Barrett sniper rifles -- "walk" across the border to Mexican drug cartels in an operation known by the code name "Fast and Furious." Another code name for the operation was "Gunwalker."

Its purpose, Justice said, was to trace the guns from the straw buyers to cartel bigwigs, so they could be arrested. This wasn't true, three ATF whistleblowers told the House Oversight Committee last July, because no effort was made to trace the guns once they crossed the border, and Mexican authorities hadn't been informed of the operation. Read more ...

AMERICA NO LONGER HAS A PRESIDENT

Jack Kelly

Kelly's Panorama

Thursday, 21 June 2012

The clearest indication yet he thinks of himself more as the Emperor Barack I than as the president of a constitutional republic came last week (6/15) when Mr. Obama declared he would no longer enforce immigration law for illegals under age 30.

The president does not have the right to decide which laws he'll enforce and which he'll ignore, Mr. Obama acknowledged when he spoke at a Univision forum in March of last year.

"The notion that I can just suspend deportations through executive order, that's just not the case," Mr. Obama said then. "There are laws on the books that Congress has passed... The executive branch's job is to enforce and implement those laws."

But desperate people do desperate things. Mr. Obama's imperial decree came a day after his much ballyhooed speech on the economy bombed, two weeks after Republican Gov. Scott Walker won a smashing victory in the recall election in Wisconsin.

By arrogating to himself a power the Constitution gave to Congress, Mr. Obama hopes to accomplish three things: Read more ...

SERVANTS, NOT CHARLATANS

Richard Rahn Rahn on Econ101

 Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Barack Hussein Obama has been loudly proclaiming that he is not responsible as president for the big increase in spending because it was already "baked in the cake." He could have been more accurate by noting that under the Constitution, Congress is responsible for spending.

In fact, Congress -- both Democrats and Republicans -- has been by nearly unanimous votes rejecting his proposed budgets, but only because they were not willing to spend as much as he was.

As can be seen in the table below, the big surge in spending began after the Democrats took control of Congress in the 2006 election. Members of the new Congress took office in January 2007, when the fiscal year was already a quarter complete. The first budget the new Congress was responsible for was the 2008 budget.

When Mr. Obama was a member of Congress, he voted for the big increases in spending. He also was the one who proposed, and got, a nearly trillion-dollar increase in spending as part of his "stimulus" program in early 2009 after he took office as president. So, for the president to argue that he is not at all responsible for the big increase in spending is, to put it politely, a bit much. Read more ...

THE LOGISTICS OF CRUDE

Kermit Hoffpauir

Guest Authors

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Last week in Part 1 of this series, The Dynamics of Crude, we discussed refineries and products. Now we move to Logistics of Crude Oil and Refinery Products.

Although Ayn Rand's 1957 novel "Atlas Shrugged" portrayed rail as important, especially for Wyatt's Refinery, rail was on its way out by the end of WWII. Today's major transportation methods are via pipeline and water (barge & ship). The reason is quite simple: loading and receiving infrastructure.

Here is a great description of both crude oil and refined product pipelines from 2001: How Pipelines Make the Oil Market Work.

I have read lots of supposedly learned pundits wailing away how Warren Buffett and BNSF Railroad are going transport all that Canadian crude oil when Obama announced that he was blocking the Keystone XL's construction. This is impossibly dumb -so dumb that Jack Wheeler is convinced it isn't dumb at all, that it's a crony capitalist payoff to Buffett for his supporting Zero. Buffett bought BNSF for $34 billion in 2009, counting on graft from Zero to provide his ROI. Read more ...

NO RISK, NO FUN, NO FREEDOM

Dr. Joel Wade

The Virtue of Happiness

 Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Those of us over about 30 can remember the days before America was a Nanny State.

Some friends of ours just got back from a mission trip to Tijuana, Mexico. They brought their kids to a park there to play, and saw all the equipment that is no longer allowed on American playgrounds - teeter totters, tire swings, carousels. That equipment had been given or sold to Mexico because it is now deemed to be too dangerous for use by kids in America (or at least in California).

There's a pattern here that extends deep into our behavior and our psyches, and I don't like what I see.

Disneyland is a safe and wonderful place. I like Disneyland. I'm always impressed with the spirit and charm that is created there. But at Disneyland you can go on the scariest ride - you can go on it many times in a row - and you won't get that same feeling of true adventure.

It's like comparing Disneyland's Jungle River Cruise with one of Jack Wheeler's expeditions to Africa. The former is the world we are making for ourselves. Yes, life is too precious to take stupid risks - but life is also too precious to take no risks at all. Read more ...  

AN HONEST MISTAKE

To The Point News

Humor File

Friday, 22 June 2012

I told her she had three beautiful children.

My mistake.

She didn't have to fly into a rage, call me an infidel, and threaten me with a bomb. It was just an honest mistake.  Read more for free...

Being Green

I don't know who originated this because it was sent to me by a friend who received it from a friend, who probably and it sent to them from some friend….and so on. No matter...I like it and thought it worth posting. As an old person….I especially liked the part about how it doesn’t take much to tick old people off. Enjoy! RK

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags, that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana . In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart aleck young person...

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to tick us off.


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It's For the Children! Baloney!

By Rich Kozlovich

Whenever you hear the statement, "It's for the children", you had better start looking a lot deeper into the subject because that is an emotional trigger that is used to hide something. For decades I have heard that teachers are so grossly underpaid that we need to give them all raises; substantial raises! We are told they are so over worked that we need to reduce class sizes substantially. We are told that teachers gave up wonderful careers in business to teach our children, so they deserve so much more; which of course is a logical fallacy because they have no clue as to whether they would have even been able to hold down a job, let alone have a wonderfully successful career in business.

Whether they are lacking in getting the appropriate appreciation financially for the work they do needs debating, but one of the things that teachers don’t lack in is brass.

In an article by Tim Gantert entitled “Teacher upset she can’t retire at 47” he outlines how a teacher by the name of Terri List from Saginaw Township, Michigan “says she would tell her students not to become a teacher in Michigan.” Why? Because she is outraged that she won’t be able to retire at age 47 and earn $60,000 a year....for doing nothing. Furthermore that figure “would increase 3 percent a year and she would get health benefits when she retired at age 60”. It might be worth noting that with the three percent increases in her retirement package (assuming that percent of increase never changes) she will be receiving $85,545.65 a year and benefits...for doing nothing by age 60.

However, we need to understand the miracle of compound interest, of which the negotiators of these contracts were clearly totally and unforgivably ignorant. How much will she be receiving by age 80? This of course is presuming that she lives that long, and today that isn’t an unreasonable expectation. That $85,545.65 would skyrocket to $133,277.34 a year….plus benefits..... for doing nothing.

(Note: I calculated all the figures at $45.000, $60,000 and $90,000 since the higher figure was an earning expectation and the lower figure was a reasonable assumption of initial earnings based on what was stated, although that intital figure may have been even smaller making this whole scenario even worse, and the middle figure is what was stated as to what she would earn retired in her first year at age 47.)

Currently she earns (as an English teacher……you know....they ones who are supposed to teach our kids to read and write) “between $70,000 and $80,000 a year depending upon her level of education and it’s likely List would make more than $90,000 with 3% pay increases over the next 15 years. I think we can reasonable to assume she didn’t start out at this salary, and she probably didn’t start teaching until after college, or around the age of 22. If she were to retire at 47 she would have worked for the Saginaw Township system for 25 years. If she lives to be 80 she will collect from the system for 33 years. If she started out at 45,000 a year; (I chose $45,000 a year based on her statement that they could hire two teachers to replace her and save money) and worked her way to 90,000 a year, and the raises averaged around three percent that means she would have earned around $1,689.000,000 during her entire working career for the system.

If she lives to 80 she would be out of the system for 33 years and received 2,641,000.00, and benefits ….for doing nothing. She will receive a million dollars more out of the system retired than she earned working in the system. Would someone explain to me how that makes sense? I am almost 66 and yet I'm still working; I find that incredible.

To add insult to injury the article went on to say “that it is likely that List bought “years of service” because she said she would have 43 years of service by age 60. Van Beek said that practice is basically extinct in the private sector.” This is absolutely insane.

Once again; aren’t these the same people who have claimed for decades they are over worked, underpaid and unappreciated? I don’t know how everyone feels, but eventually earning ninety thousand dollars a year for nine months work seems like a darn good pay. Amazing!

For years we have been told that the reason schools were failing in their task of turning out kids that could read, write and do basic math problems is that the teachers were underpaid and the classes were too large. So what can we glean from that? We probably should assume that they are deliberately failing to do the job we are paying them to do. However; Americans bought into that because they want kids to have the tools to do well in life and were willing to pay for it. What happened? It got worse!

Apparently they weren’t deliberately failing to do the work they have been hired to do. They are incapable of doing that work they were hired to do. After all getting more money, which was their solution, turned out not to solve the problem we wanted solved after all. We wanted kids who could read, write and do basic math.

However, it did solve the “problem” they were really concerned about; more money, less work, better benefits with less accountability for how they act and what they do. They wanted tenure, then the wanted unions, and then they wanted to be protected from their failures. Now they blame the system, the parents and anyone else who wouldn’t buy into the propaganda they have been spewing out for decades for the failure of our educational systems. So now what do we have? They are failing our children for a whole lot more money and still we are told that they are grossly underpaid and horribly overworked because and the classrooms are still too large.

It still comes down to this. Children are still being turned out into society who can’t read, can’t write, can’t spell, have no idea where anything is in the world, and are clueless when it comes to profoundly important historical characters and events. However, they absolutely know that Rachel Carson was an environmental saint and global warming is going to kill everyone if we don’t turn all power over to the United Nations….or Al Gore at the very least.

Apparently the teachers are capable of teaching them something....it is unfortunate that the something they are teaching them is nothing but radical socialism, multiculturalism and environmentalist propaganda that is sure to do nothing but destroy western advanced societies. Let’s face the facts. If these people were turning out nuts and bolts instead of supposedly educated children the purchasers would refuse them as defective.

The only fix to that is to start with the basics one step at a time. Let’s start with firing bad teachers. Let’s start with pay decreases for poor work and increases for good work. Let’s start with the elimination of tenure. Let’s start with an outline of what they are expected to teach. Most importantly; let’s start with local control; absolute total local control, starting with vouchers and help for those who wish to home school. When that happens the education system will start paying attention and start performing. After all, no one is more concerned about how the children are taught and what they are taught than the parents.

But most importantly; we have to understand that none of that can happen unless we start at the root of the problem. Ending union involvement in education! They represent the teachers and themselves, not the children. It has not now, nor has it ever been “For the Children”. We really do need to get that.


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Dubbed as 'Clash of The Titans'!

In Praise of the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act (Bill C-38)

By William Walter Kay

The Harper government’s confrontation with the opposition parties over Bill C-38 was the parliamentary manifestation of an epic clash between two titanic constituencies. In one camp are resource extraction entrepreneurs seeking less fettered access to the treasures of Western and Northern Canada. They look to Asia for investors and customers. The rival camp are rentiers from Central and Atlantic Canada who are economically and ideologically aligned with their counterparts in Western Europe and the US Northeast. They want to preserve the wealth within their realm. They favour neo-corporatist and quasi-autarkist policies.

In the May 2, 2011 election Prime Minister Harper and his Conservatives capped 5 years of leading minority governments by winning a majority of House of Commons seats. In the next 10 months they:

• pulled Canada out of the Kyoto Protocol on climate change;

• delivered notices of impending redundancy to 3,500 civil servants employed in 3 bastions of state enviro-activism (Parks Canada, Environment Canada, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada);

• slashed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s budget by 43%;

• cut 10% from the budget of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (the principal propaganda organ of Canadian environmentalists);

• discontinued funding for the EcoENERGY retro-fit and renewable energy programs

• publically denounced Canadian environmentalists for: (a) hijacking consultation processes, (b) accepting funding from foreign radicals, and (c) laundering political money behind a curtain of charitable activity;

• allocated $8 million to the Canada Revenue Agency to investigate the improper use of charitable donations (a move aimed at environmental non-profit societies);

• eliminated the $547,000-a-year stipend for the 34-year-old Canadian Environmental Network (a pivotal non-profit within the Canadian green movement);

• eliminated funding for sacred green cows like the Experimental Lakes Area, Prairie Shelterbelt, etc.

• These salvos onto the environmentalists’ camp are of trifling consequence compared to the Harper government’s Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act (Bill C-38)…

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Rio+20 is Greatest Threat to Biodiversity

Paul Driessen

Editor's Note: This column was co-authored by David Rothbard

I would like to thank Mr. Driessen for allowing me to reprint his works. Paul 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, a book that I heartily recommend. I have given at least 30 copies of this book to people including members of Congress.

The UN Conference on Sustainable Development is underway in Rio de Janeiro. This time, 20 years after the original 1992 Rio “Earth Summit,” thousands of politicians, bureaucrats and environmental activists are toning down references to “dangerous man-made climate change,” to avoid repeating the acrimony and failures that characterized its recent climate conferences in Copenhagen, Cancun and Durban.

Instead, “Rio+20” is trying to shift attention to “biodiversity” and alleged threats to plant and animal species, as the new “greatest threat” facing Planet Earth. This rebranding is “by design,” according to conference organizers, who say sustainable development and biodiversity is an “easier sell” these days than climate change: a simpler path to advance the same radical goals.

Those goals include expanded powers and budgets for the United Nations, UN Environment Programme, US Environmental Protection Agency and other government agencies, and their allied Green pressure groups; new taxes on international financial transactions (to ensure perpetual independent funding for the UN and UNEP); and more mandates and money for “clean, green, renewable” energy.

Their wish list also includes myriad opportunities to delay, prevent and control energy and economic development, hydrocarbon use, logging, farming, family size, and the right of individual countries, states, communities and families to make and regulate their own development and economic decisions.

Aside from not giving increased power to unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats and activists, there are two major reasons for stopping this attempted biodiversity-based power grab.

1)There is no scientific basis for claims that hundreds or thousands of species are at risk.

Up to half of all species could go extinct by 2100, asserts astronomer and global warming alarmist James Hansen, because of climate change, “unsustainable” hydrocarbon use, human population growth and economic development. At Rio+20 activists are trumpeting these hysterical claims in reports, speeches and press releases. Fortunately, there is no factual basis for them.

Of 191 bird and mammal species recorded as having gone extinct since 1500, 95% were on islands, where humans and human-introduced predators and diseases wrought the destruction, notes ecology researcher Dr. Craig Loehle. On continents, only six birds and three mammals were driven to extinction, and no bird or mammal species in recorded history is known to have gone extinct due to climate change.

The massive species losses claimed by Hansen, Greenpeace, WWF and others are based on extrapolations from the island extinction rates. Some are just wild guesses or rank fear-mongering, with nothing remotely approximating scientific analysis. Other extrapolations are based on unfounded presumptions about species susceptibility to long or short term climate shifts – fed into clumsy, simplistic, non-validated virtual reality computer models that assume rising carbon dioxide levels will raise planetary temperatures so high that plants, habitats, and thus birds, reptiles and animals will somehow be exterminated. There is no evidence to support any of these extinction scenarios.

Indeed, there is no empirical evidence to support claims that average global temperatures have risen since 1998, or that we face any of the manmade global warming or climate change cataclysms proclaimed by Hansen, Gore and others.

2) The greatest threats to species are the very policies and programs being advocated in Rio.

Those policies would ban fossil fuels, greatly increase renewable energy use, reduce jobs and living standards in rich nations, and perpetuate poverty, disease, death and desperation in poor countries.

Today, over 1.5 billion people still do not have electricity, or have it only a few hours each day or week. Almost 2.5 billion people live on less than $2 a day. Millions die every year from diseases that would be largely eradicated by access to reliable, affordable electricity for cooking and refrigeration, clinics and hospitals, clean water, sanitation, and businesses and industries that generate jobs, prosperity and health.

Opposition to large-scale electricity generation forces people to rely on open fires for cooking and heating – perpetuating lung diseases and premature death, from breathing smoke and pollutants. It also destroys gorilla and other wildlife habitats, as people cut trees and brush for firewood and charcoal.

Wind turbines slice up birds and collapse bat lungs, exacting an unsustainable toll on eagles, hawks, falcons, and other rare, threatened and endangered flying creatures.

Turbine and solar arrays cover and disrupt millions of acres of farmland and wildlife habitat, to provide expensive, intermittent power for urban areas. They require backup generators and long transmission lines, and consume millions of tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass, polymers and rare earth minerals – extracted from the Earth, often in countries whose pollution control regulations and technologies are substantially below US, Canadian, European and Australian standards.

Corn-based ethanol requires tens of millions of acres, billions of gallons of water, millions of tons of fertilizer and insecticides, and enormous quantities of hydrocarbon fuels.

And yet, President Obama told Ghanaians in 2010 that poor, electricity-deprived, malnourished Africans should rely on biofuel, wind and solar power – and not build even gas-fired power plants.

Hunting, subsistence living and poverty are among the greatest risks to species. Denying poor families access to reliable, affordable electricity is a crime against humanity.

The Rio+20 biodiversity and sustainability agenda means artificially reduced energy and economic development. It means rationed resources, sustained poverty and disease, and unsustainable inequality, resentment, conflict, and pressure on wildlife and their habitats.

Simply put, 99% of humans and wild kingdom species are being ill served by the 0.1% UN and environmentalist elites gathered in Brazil, and purporting to speak for mankind and planet.

Our Creator has endowed us with a world rich in resources, and even richer in intelligent, hard-working, creative people who yearn to improve their lives and be better stewards of our lands, resources and wildlife. The primary obstacles to achieving these dreams are the false ideologies, anti-development agendas and suffocating regulations being promoted at the Rio+20 Summit.

If we can eliminate those obstacles, the world will enjoy a rebirth of freedom and opportunity, voluntarily stable populations, and vastly improved health, welfare and justice for billions. We will also bring far greater security to Earth’s wondrous multitudes of wild and scenic areas, and plant and animal species.

That would be an enormous gain for our planet and people.

Endangered Species Act

By Rich Kozlovich

One of the things we need to understand is that when this was first proposed and voted on by the Congress there was little discussion and few negative attitudes about ESA. Most had 'romantic' species such as elk, buffalo and the bald eagle in mind. However the stories about the deliberate decimation of the buffalo and the passenger pigeon were clearly on their minds and they wanted to stop people from deliberately destroying species. They never had a clue what was really behind the ESA. The greenies did.

Please review my articles, ESA Outrages, Part 1, ESA Outrages, Part 2 and ESA Outrages, Part 3.

If this is to be fixed the ESA must be repealed and they have to start over again. Amendments to this act is like putting a coat of paint on a rotten house and expecting it to be fixed.

Endangered Species Act a federal land grab?

Calling the Endangered Species Act abused by activists and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS), Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, in testimony to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources this week, warned that such abuse threatens the economy and the rights of rural land holders.

The committee is holding an oversight hearing, titled “Taxpayer-Funded Litigation: Benefitting Lawyers and Harming Species, Jobs and Schools,” which is examining how litigious groups use the Endangered Species Act and other federal laws to hinder species recovery, jobs and education.

“It is clear the ESA has been used to accomplish the goals of radicals and those seeking to expand the reach of government,” Staples communicated to the Committee in a prepared statement of testimony. “Congress needs to step in to end this game of ‘endangered chicken’ once and for all. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is recklessly driving the taxpayers’ truck on a collision course with our economy, food producers, true species steward landowners and taxpayers. Let’s hope Congress takes the keys away before more damage is done.”

Habitat for Salamanders, and Texans,
By Cong. John Carter

Texas Insider Report: AUSTIN, Texas – When Congress created the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, it was with noble goals in mind. We wanted to save and restore our populations of eagles, bison & other species that were in danger of extinction. But in recent years we have seen the ESA hijacked by special-interest groups using the courts to impose a radical anti-development, preservationist agenda on the nation.

This agenda is not about saving species. It is about gradually blocking future economic development and suburban growth, and using the ESA to effectively seize control of private land.

In May 2011 USFWS signed a settlement agreement to a lawsuit filed by a group called WildEarth Guardians which forces USFWS to make endangered species determinations on at least 251 species over the next six years.

Texas Comptroller Urges Amendment to the Federal Endangered Species Act

Texas Comptroller Susan Combs today urged a federal committee on Natural Resources to amend the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and she provided recommendations to make the process more science-based, cost effective and transparent. In comments submitted to the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Oversight Hearing, Combs said excessive ESA litigation can increase regulatory uncertainty for many entities such as private landowners and businesses. In this economy, putting jobs at risk without science is irresponsible, Combs said.

“We continue to reiterate that sound peer-reviewed science must be used in all listing decisions, and conservation efforts should be implemented, if necessary, in close coordination with impacted stakeholders,” Combs said to the oversight hearing which was titled, “Taxpayer-Funded Litigation: Benefitting Lawyers and Harming Species, Jobs and Schools.”


Press Release

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo) is scheduled to testify before the House Natural Resources Committee, Tuesday, during the panel’s hearing entitled, “Taxpayer-Funded Litigation: Benefiting Lawyers and Harming Species, Jobs and Schools” The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is supposed to be the nation’s preeminent law for the conservation and protection of threatened plant and animal species. Unfortunately, over its lifetime, the ESA has had only a 1% success rate. Tuesday’s hearing is to analyze the extent to which litigation has helped or hindered the success of ESA.

Rep. Lummis will lend her expertise, gained through research for her legislation the Government Litigation and Savings Act (GLSA), to Tuesday’s panel. GLSA, which passed the House Judiciary Committee this past November, closes a loop hole in the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA). Originally intended as a social safety net program that allows for the reimbursement of attorney’s fees to seniors, veterans and small businesses when wronged by the federal government, in recent years litigious environmental groups have accessed tax-payer funded EAJA payments despite the clear intent of Congress.

GLSA closes this loophole, and strengthens EAJA reimbursements to the seniors, veterans and small business owners it was always intended to serve. “Both the ESA and EAJA were created for the right reasons but both have gone wrong over time,” Rep. Lummis said. “I am grateful that the Chairman Hastings is taking on the monumental task, and am eager to be helpful in modernizing the ESA while ensuring that EAJA is restored to its original intent.”

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Just Say No to Rio

Global-warming bureaucrats shouldn’t get their hands on American cash

The private jets are on the tarmac fueling up in time for the Wednesday kickoff of the Rio+20 Earth Summit. Pampered United Nations busybodies are gathering at this event whose slogan is “The future we want.” A more accurate motto for the confab would be, “The money we want.”

As many as 50,000 attendees are expected in the Brazilian resort city of Rio de Janeiro, including 130 heads of state. U.N. globalists hope to recapture the spirit of the first earth conference 20 years ago by returning to its original site. The movement that began as a philosophical argument for a “greener” planet has whiffed three times in recent years - in Copenhagen, Cancun and Durban - in trying to convince countries to back their hot air with cool cash.

busybodies are gathering at this event whose slogan is “The future we want.” A more accurate motto for the confab would be, “The money we want.".....Global-warming fear mongering failed to open purse strings in the past, so organizers have revised the theme into a larger hodgepodge of: “A green economy in the context of sustainable development poverty eradication.” A mixed-up wish list of specific priorities includes “decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness."......“Sustainability” is a generic, inoffensive term being used to mask the redistribution of wealth. If U.N. big spenders move forward, it should be without any U.S. taxpayer funds. Just say no to Rio.

CEOs pledge sustainability, urge 'green revolution'

RIO DE JANEIRO: Business leaders gathered at a Rio+20 conference Monday pledged sustainable policies and joined a call for world leaders to usher in "a green industrial revolution" to save the planet.
Two days before a UN summit on sustainable development opens here, 1,200 CEOs wrapped up a four-day meeting with more than 150 voluntary commitments to greater energy efficiency, reforestation and a lower carbon footprint and other green policies.

My Take-As you read this article see if you can understand the nuances. Sustainable Development and providing food and clean water to the world's population are two different things to the greenies.  I have often wondered how anyone could become a CEO of a large corporation and be so stupid.

A mighty wind blows in Rio

I have bad news and good news about this week’s Rio+20 summit on sustainable development, which has been billed as the biggest United Nations conference of all time. The bad news is that it will accomplish nothing. The good news is that it will accomplish … nothing. That is a relief, since what the summit is demanding would be bad for poor people.

Although everybody knows that Rio will accomplish nothing, there will be lots of news coverage about it. That’s because about 130 world leaders are expected to show up, as well as 50,000 delegates, observers, NGO types, indigenous people and protesters. Like the G20, Rio is a pointless event that’s too big to ignore. Like all its predecessors, it will propose hopelessly unworkable solutions to intractable problems, accompanied by dire warnings that we’re doomed if we don’t implement them.

Twenty years ago, the first Rio summit put the phrase “sustainable development” on the map. Its mastermind was Canadian businessman Maurice Strong. According to him, our consumption-based economic model is driving us toward oblivion and the only way to save the planet is to let the UN run the world economy. (Why the UN would be able to run the world economy any better than the Europeans can run the European economy is a question worth pondering.)…… The poor people of the world do not need more organic farming and electric cars. They need more technology and human ingenuity…...

China bests Canada in tackling climate change, Strong says

China is outpacing Canada in determination to tackle climate change and rein in greenhouse gas emissions, says Maurice Strong, a long-time environmentalist and secretary-general of the first global Earth Summit 20 years ago.

My Take – I will be running a series of articles soon dealing with Maurice Strong, Sustainable Development and a host of other characters promoting this stuff and and the 'real' definitions of the terms they use to mislead the public. I believe that if I can understand the history of any issue we will have the answer. It is imperative that we know who these people are; what they have done; who has influenced them; what their real vision for the world is. It is also imperative that we understand what these terms (such as Sustainable Development) really mean. I will also be clarifying that in these articles. One thing we must come to understand. Nothing these people have done; are doing now; or what they will be doing in the future; is as it appears. RK

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