Paradigms and Demographics: Morning Edition

Posted By Rich Kozlovich

 

I'm going to start today's Morning Edition with this article about feminism and the disaster it has caused to western cultures who have abandoned Judiac/Christian principles.  One more thing.  Don't blame the leftist alone.  This could have never happened if "Christian" religious leaders hadn't been a party to it.  The question everyone must ask is this - Why were they are party to it all and why have they been largely silent - or even supportive of these actions after history has clearly shown the devastation leftism brings? When you see the world's major religions taking positions that are clearly un-Biblical you can only conclude their thoughts and views are un-Biblical.  That makes them "ravenous wolves" and "workers of lawlessness."  With 225 years of history -ever since the French Revolution - the left has unendingly offered godless utopia.  It has continually failed to deliver anything but godless dystopia. 

This is an article that touches the heart. Please enjoy......

Marxist Feminism’s Ruined Lives, September 2, 2014 by Mallory Millett 7 Comments

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy; its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” Winston Churchill wrote this over a century ago. During my junior year in high school, the nuns asked about our plans for after we graduated. When I said I was going to attend State University, I noticed their disappointment. I asked my favorite nun, “Why?” She answered, “That means you’ll leave four years later a communist and an atheist!” What a giggle we girls had over that. “How ridiculously unsophisticated these nuns are,” we thought. Then I went to the university and four years later walked out a communist and an atheist, just as my sister Katie had six years before me…… I’ve known women who fell for this creed in their youth who now, in their fifties and sixties, cry themselves to sleep decades of countless nights grieving for the children they’ll never have and the ones they coldly murdered because they were protecting the empty loveless futures they now live with no way of going back. “Where are my children? Where are my grandchildren?” they cry to me.……So much grace, femininity and beauty lost. So many ruined lives…..To Read More….

Energy

Finally, a way to get energy from Wind Turbines. Burn them, make cement! Joanne Nova

Blades being chopped for transport. | Global Cement Magazine It’s the new alternative fuel — decommissioned turbines. There are 21,000 wind turbines in Germany alone at the moment. With 15,000 tons a year of old blades expected to be dumped by 2019, it’s a real problem to get rid of them. The EU says they can’t be dumped in landfill. Here’s the perfect solution. Chop them, shred them, then deliver the fibreglass reinforced plastic to the local cement plant. The resins hold 15MJ per kilo. “One tonne of resin saves 600 kg of coal at the cement plant!”It’s a win-win all round. Resid... more »

 

Global Warming

UN/WMO Propaganda Stunt: climate fantasy forecasts of hell on Earth from the future, Eric Worrall

The UN has launched a climate propaganda campaign, consisting of two weeks of “weather forecasts from the future”, intended to give people a taste of what our children will endure, if we don’t do what we’re told. According to The Guardian, a major green newspaper in Britain, highlights from the fantasy forecasts...

Sierra Nevada freshwater runoff could drop 26 percent by 2100, tree growth due to improved climate blamed, Anthony Watts

From the University of California – Irvine and the “Environmentalists are never happy”department comes this amusing quandary. The cause? Increased high-elevation plant growth fueled by climate warming Irvine, Calif. — Freshwater runoff from the Sierra Nevada may decrease by as much as one-quarter by 2100 due to climate warming on the high slopes, according…

 

New paper on ‘the pause’ says it is 19 years at surface and 16-26 years at the lower troposphere, Anthony Watts

Marcel Crok tips me via Twitter that a new analysis of‘the pause’ by Dr. Ross McKittrick has given some new numbers for the different temperature datasets. It was published in the Open Journal of Statistics The RSS satellite dataset says: The paper: McKitrick, R. (2014) HAC-Robust Measurement of the Duration of a Trendless Subsample…

 

Pitman says BOM don’t “fiddle” with data — it’s magical science by Elite Centres of Excellence, Joanne Nova

What is striking about Andy Pitman and Lisa Alexander’s response to the articles in The Australian, on The Conversation, is how intellectually weak it is, and how little content they have after we remove the logical fallacies. It’s argument from authority, circular reasoning, and strawmen. Hail the Gods (and don’t look over there)! They don’t question Jennifer Marohasy’s remarkable figures, they don’t even mention them at all, nor use the names “Rutherglen”, “Amberley” or “Bourke” –how revealing. And these are the points at issue. Long cooling trends at supposedly excellent sites ...

Great moments in climate prediction: ‘World will warm faster than predicted in next five years, study warns’, Anthony Watts
That now failed headline is from Duncan Clark in the Guardian. And, for good measure he added: New estimate based on the forthcoming upturn in solar activity and El Niño southern oscillation cycles is expected to silence global warming sceptics Just a few small problems there: Climategate gave skeptics a worldwide voice and stage..

Alarmism Warning – Preliminary Monthly Global Sea Surface Temperatures at Record High Levels, Bob Tisdale

Preliminary Note: An “alarmism warning” indicates alarmism is imminent. On the other hand, an “alarmism watch” indicates alarmism might occur, but that’s all the time. We’re not just talking a record high for the month of August…we’re talking a record high for any month during the satellite era. I suspect…

 

Monday Mirthiness – ‘Adrift – living on an iceberg for a year’ guy Alex Bellini drives an SUV to highlight his ‘concern about climate change’, Anthony Watts

You really can’t make this stuff up. The guy actually uses an SUV to advertise this climate stunt. See the photo below. The Guardian reported in 2003: “We want the SUV to epitomise greed, waste and global climate change. We feel that if we galvanise a movement and keep a discussion going, if we make…

 

Islam

 

Moderate Islam Is Multiculturalism Misspelled, Daniel Greenfield
Why liberals are the real moderate Muslims.

Is Jihad Un-Islamic?, Fjordman
Wishing something doesn't make it true.

The FBI’s Islamic Terrorism Denial, Robert Spencer
But it’s on alert against…Puerto Rican nationalists.

 

Media

 

So much Conversation, so little evidence, Jennifer Marohasy

I’VE never meet Jo Nova in person. But she can write a good headline, and she cares about the truth. Her blog has never received any government funding, but it includes a lot of interesting facts and evidence on science-related topics. Meanwhile ‘The Conversation’ is a government-funded blog for university researchers that got $6 million…..

 

Obama in Review

 

Witnessing a Failed Presidency, Alan Caruba

When we elect someone—anyone—to the office of President, it is only natural that we attribute great political skills, intellect, and judgment to that man. We want to believe we have selected someone with the ability to do what must be done in a dangerous and very complex world. This may explain why Presidents who have presided in times of war are more highly regarded than those that have not. Washington brought the nation into being by patiently pursuing a war with Great Britain, Lincoln saw the Civil War to a successful conclusion, preserving the Union The last ce... more »

 

The president who is uninterested in other people, By Michael Barone

The ability to read other people comes harder or not at all if you're transfixed with your image of yourself.  Which seems to be the case with Barack Obama.

Amid crises, Obama's busy social schedule means double duty for Air Force One, By Byron York

In the past two weeks, President Obama has twice interrupted vacation and fundraising trips to take presidential planes to Washington for a brief period, only to turn around and fly back to his earlier location - once after just a few hours in the White House.
 

Obama's foreign policy under fire: Is it in 'freefall'?, By Rebecca Berg

The reviews of the president's foreign policy strategy are in and they're not positive.

Politics

The world melts down as the fall election season begins, By Hugh Hewitt

Some future Thucydides will surely point to the Aug. 28, 2014 declaration by President Obama that, "We don't have a strategy yet," as some sort of significant point in the long war of the West against Islamist extremism.

How Democrats came to like Charlie Crist, By Sean Lengell

Democrats haven't won the governor's mansion in twenty years, but the DNC believes that Charlie Crist can change that.

At a town hall, a Democrat faces some heat but no fire, By Rebecca Berg

Some vulnerable Democrats running for re-election have calculated that, in this election cycle, the risks of the unscripted format outweigh the benefits.

 

Taxes

Hypocrite Warren Buffett Uses Canada as a Tax Shelter, Ronn Torossian

Taking advantage of tax loopholes while promoting tax hikes on those beneath him. My Take – Why is the left so obsessed with Burger King and ignores Buffet? Interesting …. don’t you think?

 

Unions

Minnesota union victory reflects the sorry state of organized labor in America, By Washington Examiner

SEIU may have won a round, but worker awareness and further court challenges could, one hopes, turn these unseemly benefit-skimming operations into a thing of the past.

 

United Nations

United Nations agency exposed as a tool for Hamas, By Asaf Romirowsky and Nicole Brackman

Clearly, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has done nothing to prevent its schools or facilities from providing shelter and bases for weapons, rocket launches, and terrorist command personnel.

Top five myths about genetic modification

Richard Richards, Chief Research Scientist Plant Industry at CSIRO, 8 September 2011
The Conversation asked CSIRO scientist, Richard Richards, to look at the top five myths about genetic modification (GM), and correct the public record.
Myth one: GM is just haphazard, imprecise cross-breeding

In genetic engineering, scientists can very precisely select genes and introduce them into their target species. For example, genes that produce insulin for medical use have been introduced into bacteria. Genes from bacteria have been introduced into corn or cotton to dramatically reduce insect damage. In fact, the most dramatic genetic modifications to our crops occurred naturally thousands of years ago when chance events resulted in hybrids of different species. Some of these events have resulted in some of our most important crops such as wheat, sugar cane, canola and cotton.  The wheat we consume today, for example, is a natural hybrid of three different wild species. This has resulted in bringing tens of thousands of genes together in several independent events. It is responsible for wheat being such an important crop.....T0 Read More....

Obama AWOL again – on energy terrorism

The president fails to prepare for anything, except vacation, golf and climate change

 Paul Driessen

Four news stories in four days sum up the Obama presidency and help explain why the world and U.S. economy are in such a mess. President Obama just returned from his two-week beach and golf vacation at Martha’s Vineyard. It took him a month from the time special forces located journalist James Foley to approve a rescue mission – by which time Foley had been moved (and was subsequently beheaded).

Mr. Obama may pursue a sweeping international climate change deal that bypasses Congress. But on dealing with ISIS terrorist butchers months after they swept through Iraq, “We don’t have a strategy yet.”

President Obama has ordered limited air strikes to “contain” (but not defeat) Islamic State terrorists who have shot, crucified and beheaded thousands of men, women and children in Iraq and Syria. However, he still has no plans for protecting the United States from the energy terrorism that jihadists are planning.

The president’s failure to “connect the dots,” to see and prepare for potentially devastating attacks on U.S. and global citizens and energy supplies, is an inexcusable threat to our security. Preparations for massive energy terrorist attacks around the world are increasingly open and obvious. Now that Mr. Obama is back in the White House for a few days, hopefully to deal with real crises literally exploding around the world (from the Middle East to Afghanistan to Nigeria and beyond), let me connect some dots for him.

With Iraqi and other oil fields in jihadist hands, petroleum has become the mother’s milk of Islamic terrorism. Along with drug trafficking and bank robbery, it provides financing to arm, feed, train and pay terrorists on a scale that makes Leonardo DiCaprio’s Blood Diamond loot look like chump change.

Islamic State butchers are raking in an estimated $2 million or more every day by selling oil on the black market, from wells they have seized in Iraq and Syria. “This could fetch them more than $730 million a year, enough to sustain operations far beyond Iraq,” Iraq Energy Institute Director Luay al-Khatteeb told CNN in late August. More captured Syrian oil fields could raise ISIS oil revenue to $1.2 billion a year, says Theodore Karasik, research director at the think tank INEGMA in Dubai. Or worse.

ISIS conquest of Iraqi Kurdistan’s Kirkuk area could boost the terrorists’ oil production from 30,000 barrels a day now to as much as 1 million barrels a day: $11 billion a year, if they can peddle their oil at (say) a way-below-market $30 per barrel to countries that are naïve, support terror or ignore human rights.

That could buy unfathomable terrorism – on levels portended by a laptop computer that moderate Syrian forces found in an ISIS hideout. Amid some 34,000 files, it includes manuals on car theft, disguises and bomb making, documents on how to develop biological weapons and “weaponize” bubonic plague, and a radical Muslim cleric’s fatwa justifying weapons of mass destruction, “even if it wipes them and their descendants off the face of the Earth.” Detonate the bio-bombs in malls, air conditioning intakes and similar places, the manuals advise. With laboratories in Mosul, Iraq and Raqqa, Syria now in ISIS hands, these neo-SS lunatics could well turn their caliphate dreams into Western World nightmares.

Even just a few such attacks would shut down commerce, the way 9/11 and the DC sniper did.

Should the Islamic State conquer the rest of Iraq and other Arab and Muslim lands, it could also cause major oil price increases that would cripple economies worldwide. By then vastly wealthier than Genghis Khan, such an empowered Islamic State could even decide to impose an oil embargo on the U.S. and other nations – as Arab oil exporters did for six months in 1973 and 1974, with devastating effects.

Other terrorist groups are fighting to control oil and natural gas supplies elsewhere. And Qatar – whose oil and gas have made it the richest country in the world, on a per capita basis – is acting as the terrorists’ ATM, bankrolling their activities, while playing the “good-guy” host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

So what can America do to prepare? First, recognize the threat and develop a strategy – not just to contain ISIS, but to eliminate its threats. Mr. Obama has already missed several opportunities, but the U.S. has the necessary capabilities. He needs to use them, and find some leadership skills to rally and recruit allies.

Second, secure our southern border. A friendly border control agent chatted me up ten days ago about the $10 poster I was bringing back from Canada. His attentiveness to the Quebec-NY border was gratifying. But meanwhile thousands are still streaming across our Mexican border, with minimal safeguards, despite reports of Korans, prayer rugs and English-Arabic dictionaries being found on these “immigrant” trails. (As to offending Hispanics, they don’t want to get blown up or murdered with bubonic plague, either.)

Third, develop more U.S. oil and natural gas – and persuade Europe to start fracking. The United States consumed 18.6 million barrels of oil a day in 2013, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says. Better vehicle fuel mileage, other energy conservation efforts and the Obama economy have reduced oil imports from 12.6 million barrels per day in 2005 to 7.5 million this year. But even though America’s oil (and natural gas) production continues to climb, we still import about one-third of our oil.

Reducing foreign oil dependence can be accomplished via continued energy conservation, switching to natural gas, building more nuclear and coal power to generate electricity for hybrid and electric cars, and brewing more ethanol and biodiesel (while ignoring their food, economic and environmental costs). But these will barely make a dent, compared to more drilling and fracking on onshore and offshore federal, state and private lands – and pipelining more oil from our stable neighbor and longtime ally, Canada.

Unfortunately, President Obama has thus far been loath to do any of this. Yes, domestic oil and gas production has risen under his watch. However, the increase has come from state and private lands, while production has fallen significantly on lands under federal government control.

President Obama and many Democrats in Congress and state governments continue to oppose drilling for oil off our East and West Coasts, and in Alaska and our Western states. They oppose construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which could safely transport 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada (plus Montana and North Dakota oil) to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries, thereby reducing risks of more rail accidents. Many of these same Democrats also oppose hydraulic fracturing, which could greatly increase U.S. oil and gas production for many decades to come.

Tapping into our nation’s vast oil and natural gas supplies would even allow us to export oil, natural gas and refined products. That would help our allies and trading partners become less dependent on terror-sponsoring oil producers and Russian “oiligarch” blackmailers – until they can get their act together on fracking. Such sales would also reduce our trade deficit and create much-needed American jobs.

History shows that even today’s friendly oil producers can become tomorrow’s adversaries. We were importing 554,000 barrels of oil a day from Iran, at the peak in 1978, before Islamic extremists took the country over and held our diplomats hostage. Our imports from Persia have been zero ever since.

Too many “environmentalists” reflexively oppose all oil and natural gas production, all the time. They refuse to admit that we cannot slash our reliance on these two fuels from 64% today to zero in a few years – and cannot bring new oil and gas supplies online in just a few years, in the midst of a crisis.

Khalid A. Al-Falih, CEO of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producing company, recently told an energy conference in Norway that even without terrorist threats the world will need to produce 40 million more barrels of oil a day within the next 20 years – just to replace what we are depleting. Finding enough to supply billions of people striving to rise up out of abject poverty will take far more than that.

Instead of waiting for an energy 9/11 to hit, President Obama and members of Congress are duty-bound to act now on all these steps, and more, to protect America’s national security. They must stop ignoring the imminent and growing threats of energy and energy-funded terrorism that America and the world face – before we run out of time to prepare for and prevent the potential onslaughts.

The president, Secretary of State John Kerry, EPA and too many politicians are too focused on overblown dangers from climate change. They need to wake up to the terrorist train that is raging toward us.

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.

Passing thoughts on wages and the fallacy behind union bargaining

Gerard Jackson,01 Sep 2014

My post on the minimum wage got me involved in a couple of exchanges regarding the determination of wages rates in the market place, hence this post. Now free market economists are perfectly correct in pointing out that unions justify their existence on the basis of the alleged “imbalance of bargaining power” that lies with employers. According to union apologists, particularly in the media and the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, employees must combine if they are to get a fair wage. Unfortunately, these economists rarely attempt to explain why the “imbalance of power” concept is another dangerous fallacy. This is a particularly egregious failing on their part considering that union apologists have sometimes even drawn on the writing of Adam Smith in support of their actions. In fact, one could even argue that it was Adam Smith who fathered the “imbalance of power” idea. According to Smith:

It is not,however, difficult to foresee which of the two parties must, upon all ordinary occasions, have the advantage in the dispute, and force the other into compliance with their terms*.
 

.......however……Smith admitted that you cannot permanently keep wage rates below their market clearing levels: no matter how hard you try they will always rise. This is something an uncomprehending crown discovered in England after the Black Death struck in 1348. This, of course, tells us nothing about the economic forces at work…..To Read More…. 

False Ideology

Posted by Anita Folsom, September 1, 2014

Seventy-five years ago today, Germany invaded Poland, plunging the world into war.

In the wee hours of September 1, 1939, Nazi soldiers brought convicts from German prisons – grimly referred to as “canned goods” – to the German-Polish border. The convicts were made to put on Polish army uniforms and then killed on the border. Their dead bodies were “evidence” to the world that Poland had attacked Germany, giving Hitler a pretext for invading Poland. Germans also took over a Polish radio station and, pretending to be Polish, briefly broadcast a threatening message to Germany to complete the deadly hoax. As the sun rose on September 1, German troops rolled into Poland across a wide front.
I just finished reading an excellent book about the German army in eastern Europe and Russia: In Deadly Combat: A German Soldier’s Memoir of the Eastern Front, by Gottlob Bidermann.....To Read More...

Buckeye Institute News Alert

For 25 years, The Buckeye Institute has argued tirelessly that lower taxes spur economic growth. Accordingly, Buckeye's President and CEO Robert Alt penned an open letter to Sherrod Brown responding to the Ohio Senator's recent call for a boycott of Burger King. You'll be pleased to know that Robert helps Brown understand the basic economic truth that higher taxes lead to boycotts--boycotts of the U.S., that is.

"Dear Senator Brown,

...You are late to the boycott game: Burger King is only the most recent U.S. company to boycott the failed, punitive corporate tax policies that you and your colleagues in Washington have imposed on American businesses for decades." ......

To read the rest of Robert's letter, which was published by National Review this afternoon, click here.

Don't forget to support Buckeye in our daily battle against higher taxes and bigger government. Your contributions enable all of us to win huge victories for freedom!

Mr. President, what about a campaign-style push to talk up America?

By Marita Noon

One of the unique roles of the executive is to be a cheerleader for his/her individual state—or in the case of the President, for his country.

This is, perhaps, best exemplified by Texas Governor Rick Perry who, as ABC News puts it: “has made a campaign-style push in states like California, Illinois and Missouri by hosting business meetings and appearing on TV and radio shows to promise low taxes and incentives for any businesses with an itch to relocate.” In June, Perry was in New York and Connecticut “to woo firearm manufacturers and other companies.” He launched a $1 million ad campaign in New York touting low-tax Texas, with a variety of Texans praising their paradise.

Imagine if President Obama had done this—instead of an apology tour.

He’d air ads in Germany encouraging them to buy American coal—after all, ours is cleaner burning than theirs (and Germany is very concerned about the environment); we have plenty of it (especially since we won’t be using so much after his policies shut down coal-fueled power plants); the price has dropped (while natural gas has gone up); they can get it from a friendly supplier (unlike the natural gas and coal Germany gets from Russia); and most importantly, Germany needs it (and apparently, he thinks we don’t).

Thanks to Obama’s policies, we are prematurely shutting down our coal-fueled electricity generation—with the idea that we can replace it with wind and solar. Germany is prematurely shutting down its nuclear-powered fleet. It has already tried to go with wind and solar—with a goal of producing 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2050—but it is not working out so well. Since 2011, when Chancellor Angela Merkel launched the energy revolution, or Energiewende, designed to wean the country off of nuclear and fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions have gone up; the average price of electricity for companies has (according to the Wall Street Journal’s [WSJ] August 26 report) “jumped 60%” and are now more than double those in the U.S.; and, as nuclear plants are closed, they are being replaced with coal as “intermittent renewables alone” can’t “replace nuclear power and provide round-the-clock supply.”

Germany’s story is a shock to many who see it as the model of “green.”

On August 27, Jochen Homann, President of the Federal Network Agency, Germany’s energy regulator, told an industry conference: “Those who call for an end to coal power generation don’t have much interest in a reliable energy policy.” Reuters reports: “Germany will continue to need coal-fired power plants.” In Germany, and other EU countries, utilities are looking for “payment schemes” to reimburse them for keeping gas- and coal-fueled power plants on standby to ensure a secure power supply as their inconsistent use make them unprofitable to maintain.

Instead of a Perry-esque campaign to encourage countries like Germany to buy American coal—rather than coal from a country like Colombia that has lower labor costs, lax environmental policies, and, therefore, a less expensive product—Obama, once again, has gone around Congress and, as U.S. News reports: “charges ahead on climate change policy.” His plan is to seek a “non-binding international accord” at next year’s United Nations climate summit in Paris—which “may be the most the U.S. can deliver.” The Democratically controlled Senate will not ratify a treaty now, and if the Republicans take the Senate in November, there is no chance a Koyoto-type deal will get through.

According to U.S. News, Steve Cohen, director of Columbia University’s Earth Institute in New York, says: for “China and India, which are growing rapidly, there’s no way they’re going to accept limitations on their carbon emissions and, by extension, their economic growth. …Economic development is now political development for China and India because their people, because of the Internet and global communications, see how the West lives. The mass of the people of these countries want this and it’s creating a political force that is irresistible. So the way the governing elite in India, China, some of Africa and Latin America hold power, they get energy any way they can.” And that way is going to be coal. Why not have it be American coal that creates American jobs?

It is bad enough that American policies hurt American workers, but why not encourage countries that are going to buy coal anyway, to buy from the U.S.?

Worse, the U.S. is importing coal and killing American jobs when we have the largest coal reserves in the world.

I am a believer in free markets and if utilities in the U.S. Southeast can access coal from Colombia more affordably than that from the U.S., that means lower electricity rates for consumers—which I applaud. However, in other cases, the U.S. government supports industries, through “loans and import restrictions” that have seen competition from “cheap supplies” and, therefore, a “glut” has “sent prices plunging.”

Cheaper supplies, a glut, and plunging prices—all terms that could apply to the U.S. coal industry. The WSJ, on August 13, reported: “Power plants reap benefits from cheap Colombian shipments as mines in Appalachia begin to close.” While coal imports make up only a tiny fraction of coal used in the U.S., the WSJ states: “Coal imports surged…during the first six months of 2014.” At the same time, Alpha Natural Resources—which has been unprofitable since 2010—“may close 11 West Virginia mines and lay off 1,100 workers.” Yet, the coal industry enjoys no “import restrictions.”

Once again, I support free markets, but a free market doesn’t prop up one industry while penalizing another.

“If you are a laid-off Kentucky coal miner, one of more than 7,000 laid off coal miners since January 1, 2012,” Bill Bissett, President of the Kentucky Coal Association, told me, “the idea of using coal from another country is pretty much a slap in the face. We understand that our public utilities should use the lowest-cost fuel source, but we need to be asking what the Obama Administration has done to make the mining of coal more difficult, which also makes it more expensive.”

What industry does get the “import restrictions” and potential new import duties, as high as 17.01%, imposed by the Commerce Department because said industry is having difficulty competing with cheap imports? Sugar. Yes, I said, sugar—another carbon product. For the fifth straight year in a row, “world sugar production is expected to exceed demand” and “prices have tumbled.” According to the WSJ, the “glut” has sent “U.S. prices plunging, sparking loan defaults …costing the U.S. government more than $250 million.” Mexican sugar is (like Colombian coal), apparently, cheaper—and it is flooding the U.S. market. The government solution? A tariff or an import cap—because the cheap imports are “harming America’s sugar producers and workers.”

Hummm… Do you think cheap imports of Colombian coal are harming America’s coal producers and workers? I’m thinking so.

The August 13 WSJ story cites one of the reasons, other than labor costs and a “global coal glut,” that Colombian coal is cheaper for utilities in the Southeast than coal from Appalachia. The article states: “it’s much more cost effective to move coal by ship… than by train.” It goes on to explain: “The problem with shipping U.S. coal by rail is supply. U.S. demand for rail transport to ship crude oil, grain and other products has soared, limiting the number of rail cars available to ship coal to power plants.” The piece continues with details about rail operators’ plans to add locomotives and cars to allow more coal to be shipped—but this will take years.

Steve Piper, an analyst from research firm SNL Energy, states: “Low prices for international shipping have given Colombian coal an edge over high-priced coal from Appalachian mines.”

While it is unlikely that the coal industry will get import caps, as the sugar industry is pushing for, it could benefit from some simple sound energy policy: approve the Keystone pipeline—which would free up rail space, make shipping coal within the U.S. more competitive, create jobs, and boost America’s energy security.

Our chief executive, our President, has the power of the bully pulpit. He should learn from Perry’s efforts and use it to promote America.

While California Governor Jerry Brown mocked Perry’s efforts to lure California companies to Texas by calling the campaign: a “burp, barely a fart” and, according to Bloomberg BusinessWeek: “labeled Perry’s trip a political stunt,” it worked. In April, Toyota shocked California officials by announcing it was pulling up stakes in California and moving 3000 jobs to Texas. While Brown scoffed at Perry’s attempt, he’s apparently learned something from the big-talking Texas governor. On August 29, the Los Angeles Times reported on California’s major new effort to woo businesses: “Now California is firing back. In the state’s first tax credit awards in June, more than 40% of the $29-million package went to companies that have gotten similar offers from Texas: Samsung, Petco and Amazon.”

Mr. President, could you just try to use the bully pulpit to talk up America? This really is a great place. We have more developed natural resources than any other country. Could we please expand them, promote them, and sell them? Like Perry’s plan, “a campaign-style push” in countries like Germany might just work—and save American jobs and reduce the trade deficit in the process.

The author of Energy Freedom, Marita Noon serves as the executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the companion educational organization, the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy (CARE). Together they work to educate the public and influence policy makers regarding energy, its role in freedom, and the American way of life. Combining energy, news, politics, and, the environment through public events, speaking engagements, and media, the organizations’ combined efforts serve as America’s voice for energy.

Paradigms and Demographics: Morning Edition - AGW in Perspective

Posted By Rich Kozlovich

Today's Morning Edition will deal exclusively with the fraudulent claims regarding Anthropogenic Climate Change - formerly known as Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) before it stopped getting warmer.

 

You really gotta love the leftists and greenies for their religious conviction. However - is this really a matter of faith or is it a matter of mysticism? Faith, according the apostle Paul, “is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists.”  What's that mean? It means there’s sufficient historical background and foundation to justify believability in predictions about the future. Mysticism means….well…. pretty much anything you want it to mean because mysticism is based on emotion, not facts, logic, reason and history, otherwise no rational person could be involved in the left/green movement.  They’re history is “filled” with mystical claims for achieving utopia - but “fulfilled” with the realities of dystopia.

I want to start this day’s editorials with what I consider the most important event regarding this mystic faith surrounding AGW this past week – the expose of Michael Mann’s Hockey Stick Graph data, and how he arrived at it.  The information he still refuses to turn over, including to the court in British Columbia, where he sued Dr. TimBall.

 

“The fact Mann refused to disclose his ‘hockey stick’ graph metadata in the British Columbia Supreme Court, as he is required to do under Canadian civil rules of procedure, constituted a fatal omission to comply, rendering his lawsuit unwinnable.

As such, Dr Ball, by default, has substantiated his now famous assertion that Mann belongs "in the state pen, not Penn. State." In short, Mann failed to show he did not fake his tree ring proxy data for the past 1,000 years, so Ball’s assessment stands as fair comment. Moreover, many hundreds of papers in the field of paleoclimate temperature reconstructions that cite Mann’s work are likewise tainted, heaping more misery on the discredited UN’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) which has a knack of relying on such subprime science.”

 

Since the Canadian Court has found against him he is now open to a massive counter suit. He also stated another SLAPP suit an American journalist, Mark Steyn, who apparently is also planning a counter suit for millions. Apparently Mann never understood that lawsuits are like riding tigers. You can’t just get off and say….I was just kidding.

Michael Mann’s special purpose Hockey Stick filter has been exposed, Anthony Watts
Jean S writes at Climate Audit: As most readers are aware, and stated in my post few hours after (ClimateGate) CG broke out, Mike’s Nature trick was first uncovered by UC here. He was able to replicate (visually perfectly) the smooths of MBH9x thereby....

Claim: Antarctic sea-level rising faster than global rate, but a ‘pause’ and other studies suggest ice melt isn’t the only factor, Anthony Watts
From the University of Southampton A new study of satellite data from the last 19 years reveals that fresh water from melting glaciers has caused the sea-level around the coast of Antarctica to rise by 2cm more than the global average of 6cm. Researchers at the University of Southampton detected the rapid rise in sea-level…

more » Untitled JR at GREENIE WATCH

*Warmists invent magic ice* *It melts and gets thicker at the same time, apparently. There are lots of findings that Antarctic ice is increasing -- e.g. here -- but the galoots below say it has been increasingly melting* Sea levels around Antarctica have been rising a third faster than the global average, a clear sign of high meltwater runoff from the continent's ice sheet, scientists said on Sunday. Satellite data from 1992 to 2011 found the sea surface around Antarctica's coast rose by around eight centimetres (3.2 inches) in total compared to a rise of six cm for the average of... more »

more » Climate Cycles, Climate Mechanisms and Determining Accurate Dates, Guest opinion: Dr. Tim Ball | When Did It Occur? Lack of information is a major problem in reconstructing and understanding climate and climate mechanisms. H.H.Lamb gave it as his reason for creating the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). “…it was clear that the first and greatest need was to establish the facts of the past…

more » National Geographic’s Warming Warning – 10 Years Later, Anthony Watts

Geoff Sherrington writes: National Geographic Magazine had a Global Warming issue in September 2004. New instruments have given new data. By planning now, NatGeo can make a revised issue 10 years later, in September 2014. The 2014 edition should aim to correct what is now known to be wrong or questionable in the 2004 edition.…

more » ‘The Arctic sea ice spiral of death seems to have reversed’, Anthony Watts

The headline is a quote by Dr. Judith Curry from a David Rose article in the Sunday Mail: Stunning satellite images show summer ice cap is thicker and covers 1.7million square kilometres MORE than 2 years ago…despite Al Gore’s prediction it would be ICE-FREE by now. The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was…

more » Renewable Energy in perspective: Solar and Wind power, Guest essay by Ed Hoskins

Data for the USA, Germany and the UK since the year 2000. These notes quantify the progress and achievement of the massive movement to install renewable energy solutions for electricity generation in Western Nations. They only concern the two most significant new renewable energy sources ie. Solar and Wind-power.…

Resource Wars: Coming to a Border Near You?, Dan McGroarty

The coming resource wars will not be a Malthusian fight for finite resources, where the Cassandras of peak oil give way to fear-mongering about "peak everything." Technology itself -- a resource demand-driver -- will also illuminate new ways to extract resources more efficiently, cleanly and economically. more »

Weatherman’s records detail heat that ‘didn’t happen’: Graham Lloyd, Jennifer Marohasy

THE famous Australian poet Henry Lawson wrote, “If you know Bourke you know Australia.” For me Henry Lawson was alluding to the vastness of the landscape, the extremes of climate, and also the can-do attitude of its people. But the technocrats would like to change some of this, and pretend that Australia’s climate was once [...]

more » more » Problems with Statistical Tests of Pre-1958 Atmospheric CO2 Concentration Data, James McCown

A number of climatologists and economists have run statistical tests of the annual time series of greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations and global average temperatures in order to determine if there is a relation between the variables. This is done in order to confirm or discredit the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) theory that… more » more »

more » Climate craziness of the week: Man to live on melting iceberg for one year to highlight climate change, Anthony Watts

By the way, the iceberg shown in the background of the photo from his video is a fake – done by CGI. That’s not a good way to start in my opinion. The man is Alex Bellini, a “professional adventurer and motivational speaker” who plans to live alone on a melting iceberg off the coast…

World Bank: Rich nations have moral duty to help ‘sinking’ island nations, Eric WorrallRachel Kyte, the World Bank’s special envoy for climate change, claims that rich nations have a moral duty to help island nations survive climate change. According to Ms Kyte; “For some of the islands, we’re really talking about the extreme effects of climate change now, which are going to put their entire…

Claim: Antarctic sea-level rising faster than global rate, but a ‘pause’ and other studies suggest ice melt isn’t the only factor, Anthony Watts

From the University of Southampton A new study of satellite data from the last 19 years reveals that fresh water from melting glaciers has caused the sea-level around the coast of Antarctica to rise by 2cm more than the global average of 6cm. Researchers at the University of Southampton detected the rapid rise in sea-level… more »

Climate Cycles, Climate Mechanisms and Determining Accurate Dates, Dr. Tim Ball

When Did It Occur? Lack of information is a major problem in reconstructing and understanding climate and climate mechanisms. H.H.Lamb gave it as his reason for creating the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). “…it was clear that the first and greatest need was to establish the facts of the past…

National Geographic’s Warming Warning – 10 Years Later, Geoff Sherrington

National Geographic Magazine had a Global Warming issue in September 2004. New instruments have given new data. By planning now, NatGeo can make a revised issue 10 years later, in September 2014. The 2014 edition should aim to correct what is now known to be wrong or questionable in the 2004 edition.…

Arctic Ice and the AMO, Paul Homewood

David Rose’s piece in the Mail on Sunday has already been picked by WUWT and Bishop Hill, amongst others. But I want to concentrate on one aspect, that of cycles. The Mail report: However, Dr Hawkins added that the decline seen in recent years was not caused only by global warming.… more »

Does Antarctic Sea Ice Growth Negate Global Warming Theory?, Anthony Watts

LA Times making frantic excuses Eric Worrall writes: The LA Times has published an article which asks whether the faithful should worry about the rapid growth of Antarctic sea ice, an observation which sharply contradicts model predictions that the ice should all be melting away. Naturally the article concludes that their readers should not be…

From Jon Ray at Greenie Watch

Myth of Arctic meltdown: Stunning satellite images show summer ice cap is thicker and covers 1.7million square kilometres MORE than 2 years ago...despite Al Gore's prediction it would be ICE-FREE by now* *Another stupid prophecy bites the dust* The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change. But seven years ... more »

Scientists-of-PR jump the shark, assign “climate blame” percentage for each event, Joanne Nova

Here’s the new desperate meme about to turn your weather report into an advertisement for carbon trading. The people are not scared enough. Say hello to scientismic marketing. It sure isn’t science. The generators of Climate Fear start with broken models that we know don’t predict global temperatures, upper tropospheric humidity, Antarctic sea ice, and ocean heat (or much of anything else). They then use these to model the chances of individual storms, or floods — something they were not designed to do. Then they run these mistakes 5 million times with and without the magic CO2 f... more »

World Bank: Rich nations have moral duty to help ‘sinking’ island nations, Eric WorrallRachel Kyte, the World Bank’s special envoy for climate change, claims that rich nations have a moral duty to help island nations survive climate change. According to Ms Kyte; “For some of the islands, we’re really talking about the extreme effects of climate change now, which are going to put their entire…

Claim: Antarctic sea-level rising faster than global rate, but a ‘pause’ and other studies suggest ice melt isn’t the only factor, Anthony Watts

From the University of Southampton A new study of satellite data from the last 19 years reveals that fresh water from melting glaciers has caused the sea-level around the coast of Antarctica to rise by 2cm more than the global average of 6cm. Researchers at the University of Southampton detected the rapid rise in sea-level… more »

Climate Cycles, Climate Mechanisms and Determining Accurate Dates, Dr. Tim Ball

When Did It Occur? Lack of information is a major problem in reconstructing and understanding climate and climate mechanisms. H.H.Lamb gave it as his reason for creating the Climatic Research Unit (CRU). “…it was clear that the first and greatest need was to establish the facts of the past…

National Geographic’s Warming Warning – 10 Years Later, Geoff Sherrington

National Geographic Magazine had a Global Warming issue in September 2004. New instruments have given new data. By planning now, NatGeo can make a revised issue 10 years later, in September 2014. The 2014 edition should aim to correct what is now known to be wrong or questionable in the 2004 edition.…

Arctic Ice and the AMO, Paul Homewood

David Rose’s piece in the Mail on Sunday has already been picked by WUWT and Bishop Hill, amongst others. But I want to concentrate on one aspect, that of cycles. The Mail report: However, Dr Hawkins added that the decline seen in recent years was not caused only by global warming.… more »

Does Antarctic Sea Ice Growth Negate Global Warming Theory?, Anthony Watts

LA Times making frantic excuses Eric Worrall writes: The LA Times has published an article which asks whether the faithful should worry about the rapid growth of Antarctic sea ice, an observation which sharply contradicts model predictions that the ice should all be melting away. Naturally the article concludes that their readers should not be…

From Jon Ray at Greenie Watch

Myth of Arctic meltdown: Stunning satellite images show summer ice cap is thicker and covers 1.7million square kilometres MORE than 2 years ago...despite Al Gore's prediction it would be ICE-FREE by now* *Another stupid prophecy bites the dust* The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change. But seven years ... more »

Scientists-of-PR jump the shark, assign “climate blame” percentage for each event, Joanne Nova

Here’s the new desperate meme about to turn your weather report into an advertisement for carbon trading. The people are not scared enough. Say hello to scientismic marketing. It sure isn’t science. The generators of Climate Fear start with broken models that we know don’t predict global temperatures, upper tropospheric humidity, Antarctic sea ice, and ocean heat (or much of anything else). They then use these to model the chances of individual storms, or floods — something they were not designed to do. Then they run these mistakes 5 million times with and without the magic CO2 f... more »

From Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Foundation

The Trouble With Obama's Non-Binding UN Climate Plan?

It has already been tried, and it failed

The Obama administration is signaling that there will be not be a new climate treaty. According to a report in Wednesday’s New York Times, the path to a treaty has come to an end, 14 months before the Paris talks scheduled for next year. Instead, the best deal on offer is a non-binding accord. There is a big problem with this. It has already been tried, and it failed. --Rupert Darwall, National Review Online, 29 August 2014

President Obama’s election-year plan to win a new international climate change accord is making vulnerable Democrats nervous. The administration is in talks at the United Nations about a deal that would seek to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by “naming and shaming” governments that fail to take significant action. One Democratic strategist said the proposal would put swing-state candidates who are critical to the party keeping its Senate majority “in front of the firing squad.” “You're ... making it more difficult for them to win and certainty putting them in a position to lose,” the strategist said. --Timothy Cama, The Hill, 27 August 2014

A vulnerable House Democrat is slamming President Obama's reported effort to launch an international summit to address climate change without congressional input. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) says Obama's plans to get a "politically binding" international climate agreement endorsed by the United Nations next year is "fruitless" for a president whose popularity is lagging even at home. "It is fruitless for this Administration — or any Administration — to negotiate agreements with the rest of the world when it cannot even muster the support of the American people," Rahall said Wednesday in a statement. --Mike Lillis, The Hill, 27 August 2014

Secretary of State John Kerry said during his January 2013 confirmation hearings that he would be a “passionate advocate” on climate-change issues, and he’s living up to that promise. In a speech this month in Hawaii, Mr. Kerry called climate change “the biggest challenge of all that we face right now.” Not 10, 20 or 100 years from now—right now. If only Mr. Kerry were right. Unfortunately, America faces much bigger immediate challenges and threats than climate change. Our enemies around the world are intent on harming us—right now. America’s secretary of state should worry more about them and less about the Earth’s temperature decades from now. --John Barrasso, The Wall Street Journal, 29 August 2014

Virtually all of the research reports on polar bears over the last few years have contained good news. Who then is to blame for hyping the “polar bears are dying” meme? It’s easy to blame reporters for fanning the flames of hysteria – some of their copy on polar bears is truly over the top. Many news articles lack the application of common sense or even a modicum of fact checking. In a lot of cases, however, what’s happening is that science writers simply take everything that polar bear biologists and their co-authors say as gospel and reprint press releases word for word. --Susan Crockford, The Global Warming Policy Foundation, 28 August 2014