Science

00Publius Contributor - Family - News - Science - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

What is Faith?

August 20, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. (Romans 4:13)

Rev. Josh Hanson preached Sunday’s sermon at Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut).

Using the familiar story of Noah building the ark, Rev. Hanson emphasized that Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6:22) This is why Genesis 6:9 states that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Continue reading “What is Faith?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Family - Immigration/Immigrants - Media Bias - News - Race - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Science Daily: Linking Depression With ‘Americanization’ of Latinas

August 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Another day another “study” of dubious worth. This time it is Science Daily letting us know that “Latinas” in the United States have high rates of depression because of that dreaded “Americanization” they apparently unfairly face. So now, just the gall-darn, odiousness of becoming “Americanized” is enough to send “Latinas” to the funny farm, I guess. But, it seems to me that this “study” tends to say that it is single motherhood and out of wedlock pregnancies causing the depression not the fact that they are “Latinas” that have become acculturated to American ways.

Just look how horrible it is for Latinas to become Americans:

A study of 439 U.S. and Mexican-born Latinas seeking pregnancy and postpartum services at public health clinics in San Antonio uncovered elevated levels of depression among the more “Americanized” women, report researchers from The University of Texas School of Public Health and The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

First of all, I have to say that the term “Latina” is ridiculous in the first place, just as is the word “Latino.” The term Latino covers far too many cultures, nationalities, races and languages to be a useful term. A Haitian person has a different culture than does a Mexican and those “Latinas” actually born in the United States (women such as appear in this study) have absolutely no cultural connection to a Bolivian… yet they are all supposedly “Latino.” The term Latino is completely unacceptable for its imprecision to be used as a category in any serious study.

Continue reading “Science Daily: Linking Depression With ‘Americanization’ of Latinas”

00Publius Contributor - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

A Great Lakes Eco ‘Catastrophe’ That ISN’T

July 31, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Tribune posted a story in the July 30 edition that highlights the often absurd hyperbole all too common in the language of environmentalists and eco-watchers. The story detailed the findings of scientists studying Lake Michigan and the ecology of the Great Lakes, one of them saying it is in “catastrophic” shape. Native fish and vegetation are being crowded out by new species and the “Great Lakes are at a tipping point” the Trib warns. It’s all presented as some major disaster that should alarm us all, as if Mother Nature is being ruined, presumably by man.

But a closer reading of the story proves that Mother Nature is doing just fine. It is only that our conception of what sort of ecology the Great Lakes should have that is taking a “catastrophic” turn.

The Trib report details the massively changing ecology of Lake Michigan as new species — like the zebra mussel, the guagga mussel and the round gobie, etc. — are remaking the ecology of the Great Lakes into something completely new in relation to what it once was. Scientists have found native fish species changing in their eating habits or beginning to disappear with new species adding a new aspect to the chain of life there.

It seems somehow to be alarming scientists.
Continue reading “A Great Lakes Eco ‘Catastrophe’ That ISN’T”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Media Bias - News - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

The Panacea of the Oil Free Economy

July 23, 2008 by 6 Comments

-By Dan Scott

The one thing we can credit liberals for is their very creative minds. They have this ability to imagine whimsically how the world can be refashioned to suite their various constituencies and accompanying agendas. In all of these lofty goals liberals are extremely adept at selling a goal by glossing over the negative consequences of their advocacy. In glossing over the negatives, they sell the goal as having magical abilities to solve all kinds of problems, in the real world we call this a panacea. Panaceas are born of wishful thinking by people who lack the ability, knowledge, skill or education to come up with practical solutions. One such liberal panacea is the oil free economy advocated by the environmentalists.

Environmentalists these days are people who see any human impact upon nature as a despoiling of it. They tend also to believe they, being the stewards of the planet’s ecology, have the right to dictate, according to their knowledge, what is good or bad. More often than not, this knowledge is more of a display of their ignorance of nature, not the wisdom of understanding. Knowledge and wisdom are not the same, nor does it automatically follow with the accumulation of knowledge that wisdom results. Knowledge without wisdom is ignorance and when combined with self-righteousness results in arrogance. One of the foremost points of ignorance by environmentalists is that nature is static, that is what we see today is what nature intends to be there tomorrow, next year, the next decade, a hundred years from now and has always been so in the past. Nature demonstrates via weather it is constantly changing, climate likewise is not static in nature. Any cursory research of climate for the last 100,000 years reveals that it does CHANGE quite dramatically from the ice age to warm periods (interglacials) such as we now enjoy. This is also true of the ocean level where at the end of the last ice age it was some 450 feet lower than it was today. How many wildlife habitats were drowned by the rising of the oceans? It seems nature is all about CHANGE and destructive at that.
Continue reading “The Panacea of the Oil Free Economy”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Morals/Sex - News - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Big Government: Now Better Than Mother Nature

July 15, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Teddy Roosevelt impressed the nation with his focus on conservation and while he was president was responsible for pushing to conserve our nation’s wilderness in the form of sundry national parks, mostly in the western U.S. This was a worthy enterprise, few can deny. But what is the true purpose of these conservatories but to set aside tracts of land away from developers so that nature can prevail? Is it not a given that these lands should be governed by nature and but set aside by government?

So, we all agree that government may take the unspoiled wilderness and save aside a portion of it to be left to the machinations of Mother Nature so that future generations might see what our landscape looked like untouched by man’s industry. Well and good.

But, what if Mother Nature isn’t so kind as Uncle Sam? We have here a perfect example of what happens when government gets involved in anything and it’s what the military calls mission creep.

Continue reading “Big Government: Now Better Than Mother Nature”

00Publius Contributor - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Science - Society/Culture

Reader Poll: James Hansen calls for trials of energy executives, what next?

June 25, 2008 by

-By Dan Scott

This poll will gauge reader perception to the issue that Dr. Hansen of NASA has recently raised that I cover in my post here. One vote per computer, and please spread this permalink to the poll far and wide to get a good mix of input across the blogosphere.

CLICK HERE to proceed to the poll.
Continue reading “Reader Poll: James Hansen calls for trials of energy executives, what next?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - News - Science - Warner Todd Huston

Environmentalists Want us Cast Into Stone Ages

June 19, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The talk of the country is the high cost of gasoline, we all know. At over $4 a gallon, the cost of gas is severely affecting the finances of every single American. From the costs of just getting around to the costs of food, the high cost of gas is reaching deep into all of our pockets.

The solution to many, of course, is to drill our own substantial oil reserves that we have not touched in decades. If we are so stuck on foreign oil, if we are so reliant on nations that despise us, why not drill our own oil? We have plenty of it, after all.

So, drilling our own has become the prevailing opinion in American’s minds. We drill our own and eventually it will ease our reliance on our enemies for energy and we just might be able to bring the costs of our gasoline down, to boot. Who could be against it? Who doesn’t want us to save money, become more self-sufficient, and continue to grow and improve our country?

Environmentalists, that’s who.

These envirowackos are trying to stop drilling in Pinedale, Wyoming at the same time as the national debate is beginning to turn, at long last, to increasing the drilling for oil in our own country. They claim that the drilling now going on has negatively affected the environment there.

In a day when Americans are struggling financially. When food is climbing to prices that will cause some Americans to find they cannot afford to eat. In a day when we are forced to kow tow to foreign enemies because we are reliant on their oil. In a day when the need for that oil causes us to involve ourselves in unsavory alliances… with all these thing happening to us, the environazis are trying make it worse by trying to make it harder at every turn for our own sources of energy to be developed.

These people wish us to be returned to the stone ages, there can be little doubt. They want to stop human advancement, destroy our economy, kill people by the millions through hunger, and destroy modernity.

First of all, humanity is not a “plague” on the earth. In case some may have forgotten, humanity is just as natural to the earth as the animals are. Secondly, it is a fact that every human on earth could be gathered in the state of Texas and still have 1,000 feet of living space. I point this out to show how little space we really do cover on this planet. The environment is not being threatened by humanity, especially considering the fact that man has realized his folly and made great strides in protecting that environment.

These environinnies are dangerous. And this newest anti-American effort by environmentalists in Wyoming is yet more proof that they stand against humanity.

Continue reading “Environmentalists Want us Cast Into Stone Ages”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Media Bias - News - Science - Warner Todd Huston

Gore-ging on Energy, 1 Year Later Gore’s Home Energy Use Climbs 10%

June 17, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In February of 2007 a small group named the Tennessee Center for Policy Research published an interesting little story that made Al Gore, the king of global warming alarmism, look a tad foolish. The report that TCPR sent out showed that Al Gore’s own home was an energy hog. The TCPR report revealed that Al Gore’s Tennessee mansion used more energy each month than the average American household uses in an entire year. In a response to this report, Gore claimed that he was diligently working to make his home more green, but now it looks like Gore is being gored again because a year down the line his energy use hasn’t gone down. It hasn’t even stayed level. It actually increased by 10%. How will the media handle this bloated increase despite Gore’s claims of trying to improve?

In 2007, to a sensational reception the TCPR noted that the Gore family burned through energy at an amazing rate saying, “Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh — guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore’s average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.”

Not long after, Gore answered his critics on the website of Think Progress, an extreme website run by the Center for American Progress and funded by left-winger George Soros.

Vice President Gore’s office told ThinkProgress:

1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.

2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:

What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring their footprint down to zero.

The most telling aspect of the 2007 report about Gore’s energy use is that he never disputed the facts. He admitted that he used that much energy, but claimed that he was trying to bring that usage down.

Well, we have waited a year to see the evidence of the Gore family’s efforts to bring that carbon footprint down to zero. And, with a follow up report, the TCPR decided to look into Al Gore’s usage of energy to see how well he did in improving his high energy use.

Unfortunately for the king of global warming, he didn’t do so well.

Continue reading “Gore-ging on Energy, 1 Year Later Gore’s Home Energy Use Climbs 10%”

Democrats/Leftists - News - Science - Society/Culture - Technology

Testing the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming

June 13, 2008 by

-By Professor R. M. Carter
James Cook University, Townsville

Throughout the world, media news outlets have uncritically adopted the IPCC’s climate alarmism in their reporting and editorial stances. For example, a typical, egregiously untrue newspaper statement is that “every credible piece of scientific advice we now have, including that of Australia’s peak scientific body, the CSIRO, tells us climate change is accelerating faster than previously feared” (Melbourne Sun Herald, Jan., 2008). One sense of the word “science” is that it is “the state or fact of knowing” (OED, definition 1), which state of grace is obviously assumed by both the CSIRO and the Sun Herald’s reporter. Another more widely accepted view of science is that it comprises a body of facts and general laws that are arrived at by “trustworthy methods for the discovery of new truth” (OED, definition 2); these methods include observation, experiment and logical analysis – all towards the end of testing hypotheses that are put forward to account for known facts.

The hypothesis of the day is that human-caused CO2 emissions will result in dangerous global warming.

Continue reading “Testing the hypothesis of dangerous human-caused global warming”

00Publius Contributor - Budget - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Science - Security/Safety - Warner Todd Huston

Hostile Government Take-Over Bid

June 12, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The just-stalled Senate bill to reduce greenhouse gas emissions reflects a basic doctrine of the socialist religion: government bureaucrats are smarter and more effective managers than businessmen and should be empowered to set the rules for running private business.

The attitudes and energies underlying the proposed Senate legislation to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases accord with the basic conception of the first organized synthesizer of socialist doctrine, Henri de Saint-Simon. Emile Durkheim, the founder of sociology in France, wrote that the basis of Saint-Simon’s entire theory of the socialist religion was that science should exercise hegemony over mankind.

Saint-Simon’s presumption was that private businessmen and individuals lacked competence to understand and to apply scientific principles to socialized (i.e., controlled by government for the public benefit) management of business. Only trained bureaucrats, either in government bureaus or placed in charge of business management, had the required knowledge to make business fully efficient and therefore productive of the greatest degree of benefit to the socialized political society.
Continue reading “Hostile Government Take-Over Bid”

00Publius Contributor - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

For Benefit of Glorious Court of Global Warming

June 3, 2008 by

For Benefit of Glorious Court of Global Warming
-By Warner Todd Huston

Welcome to glorious international court of global warming, court with most power in all the land. Global warming Czar welcomes you and says that you are not to worry about silly things like “sovereignty” and “democracy.” Glorious leader has taken this burden from you for betterment of world. You act upset at having modern life taken from you, but be happy. Your sacrifice is for all. Hail all powerful court of global warming and thank supreme leader, Mary Christina Wood. Bow to her and thank her that world is safe. Don’t look her in the eye, though. You are worm to her.

That about sums up a brand new theory of international law. It’s called the “atmospheric trust doctrine” and it is a quaint idea that the “atmosphere” is “held in trust” by the government. That’s right folks, government owns the air. Not just the space through which airplanes travel, the actual air itself. It makes one wonder how long will it be be after such an idiotic concept is cemented in law before we truly are taxed by the breath? After all, every single thing government claims it owns is regulated, taxed or assessed fees.

A penny per breath? A dollar? Let the global warming court decide.

Still, that aside, the concept that even the very air we breathe is owned by government is bad enough, but Mary Wood doesn’t envision just individual government’s owning the atmosphere above their various countries, but that an international tribunal will determine how that “air” will be governed. In other words, she sees no input in the governance of that “air” being the jurisdiction of the people who breathe it. No, this will be a law without borders, a law that has power over the entire Earth.

Like many who wish to oppress, this woman hides her rhetoric behind the concept of “patriotism.” Only it is not any traditional patriotism as applied to a country or a people. It is a new concept in patriotism that does away with the nation state, democracy, and self rule all at the same time. It is being called “The Dawn of Planetary Patriotism,” but it is nothing less than a global power grab that makes the United Nation’s efforts look childish by comparison. If you are looking for a conspiracy of a one-world government, look no farther because this is as pure an example as you’ll find.

It comes back to the “we are all just humans” nonsense that humanists always peddle. Of course, standing in front of a Chinese tank yelling “we are all just humans” will do just as much to stop that tank as will throwing a mustard seed at the lumbering behemoth… but I digress.

But who is our would be glorious leader scheming to usurp the rightful powers of the people? Who is this junior Stalin in the making? Who is the one who wants to be the global warming Czar of the world? Well, maybe Czarina is closer to it. Her name is Mary Wood and she sees herself as the savior of the planet.

Just what we need. Another self-professed savior “doing good” for us despite our wishes.

“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their consciences.”
—C.S. Lewis

Mary Wood is a University of Oregon law professor who has an extensive background in natural resources and property law. Her legal history seems to heavily favor the side of government acquiring land, eliminating private property rights, so that the all powerful, all-knowing, all caring government might be our loving, but stern, “trustee” over the land.

What is the old saying? The scariest words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Wood is peddling what some are calling a novel concept. In an interview with the Corvallis Gazette-Times, Wood displayed her misplaced compassion.

“The main problem with climate is that no government is taking responsibility for it and our government is sitting idle while this catastrophe is unfolding,” Wood said.

“There’s no other body of law that requires the government to act. But a trustee has to act to protect the body of the trust.”

In another interview, Wood went further:

I characterize the atmosphere as an asset that the people own in common. The government is a trustee of that asset. This approach has a basis in our environmental law. You can even think of it as an attribute of sovereignty … that is, the duty of government to protect our natural resources. The atmosphere is one of those natural resources. In fact, it’s the most crucial resource in our trust, because it holds everything else together.

And the fearmonger begins to open her bag of tricks to scare the people into casting away the Constitution, turning away from sovereignty, giving up property rights, and forgetting about freedom because of the “dire emergency” we face. After all, regardless of her claims, these rights will have to be cast aside so that her laws and rules will have the power of coercion. There is no room for anything less than the total supplication to Mary Wood and her legal stranglehold lest her efforts lack the teeth to “work.”

This harlot of the bar imagines the court to rule over all saying, “a judge can order an accounting against any level of government.” It doesn’t matter what the Constitution says, what the people vote on. The judges shall control it all. ALL power in the hands of an unelected elite, all guided by the Czarina of global warming herself.

Continue reading “For Benefit of Glorious Court of Global Warming”

00Publius Contributor - Budget - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Wanna ‘Save the Earth,’ Illinois? Well PAY UP!

May 28, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Senate’s most influential global warming bill is the Lieberman-Warner global climate change bill, a bill that claims to combat so-called global warming. Well, it won’t do much for global warming (in fact, nothing man can do can either cause or stop climate change) but it WILL cost each and every person in the country more money in higher energy bills, lost productivity and jobs as well as higher regulatory costs.

So, Illinois, let’s say you have been bamboozled by this global warming hysteria. You say that you want Lieberman-Warner to pass so that we can “do something” about your mythical global catastrophe you are so sure is coming. Well, open up you wallets and pay up, because it’s gonna cost you.

Let’s start with your energy costs. By 2025 the Lieberman-Warner bill will add $263 dollars a year top your electric costs. Natural gas prices will be artificially forced up $178 and gasoline an additional $324 dollars a year. Now this will be ON TOP of all the other price increases that will be naturally added to the costs of these products. (The costs are based on current prices)

Worse will be the loss of jobs. By 2030 over 100,000 jobs will be lost to the state of Illinois because of Lieberman-Warner. Personal income will fall statewide by over 5 MILLION dollars.

And this is just Illinois. There are similar numbers of the loss in every state n the Union. Some states take an even bigger hit than Illinois.

So, if you want to “save the earth,” expect to be living in grass huts because the so-called cure will send us all back to the dark ages.

Continue reading “Wanna ‘Save the Earth,’ Illinois? Well PAY UP!”

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - President - Race - Religion - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

A Nation in Crisis

May 28, 2008 by

-By Frank Salvato

People, the news media and pundits like to throw around the word “crisis.” The mainstream media and their ilk tell us that we are currently experiencing a crisis in the sub-prime mortgage market, an economic crisis, a crisis with the environment, a crisis in race relations and with oil prices. There is a crisis with the polar bears, the environmentalists tell us, as they taut their questionable consensus on the global warming crisis, this even as 31,000 scientists rebuke their “consensus.” Educators tell us there is a crisis in public education. We even have a steroid crisis in the sports industry. I won’t be opining about any of these “crisis” today.

We in the United States are experiencing a crisis of epidemic proportions. It is a crisis that threatens to end the great experiment in democracy that is our country. It is a crisis that involves apathy and arrogance, ignorance and a lack of fundamental prioritization. It is a crisis that centers on the loathsome practice of self-aggrandizement at the expense of others and that feeds on the “I’ve got mine, to hell with you” attitude possessed by the self-absorbed so prevalent in today’s American society.

We the People have a crisis of purpose.

Continue reading “A Nation in Crisis”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - History - Media Bias - News - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

Dehumanizing Humanity

May 25, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Darwinian evolutionary doctrine and its concomitant faith in the godless political state as the savior of mankind ironically, in practice, reduce human existence to the law of the jungle: survival of the fittest.

Darwinian natural selection has been used repeatedly since 1859 to justify strong-arm political tactics leading to dictatorial tyranny. In National Socialist Germany, for example, Jews were declared unfit to survive, and that declaration was rationalized on the basis of Darwinian “science” and its offshoot, eugenics.

As G. K. Chesterton noted: when men cease to believe in God, they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything. In that regard, read Lawrence Auster’s HOW DARWIN’S BELIEF IN NATURAL SELECTION CHANGED HIS EXPERIENCE OF LIFE.
Continue reading “Dehumanizing Humanity”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Religion - Science - Vince Johnson

An Open Letter to Einstein

May 21, 2008 by

-By Vince Johnson

The media has reported that Einstein wrote a letter containing the following quote:

“The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.”
(The word “god” was not capitalized in the article.)

The comment is from a letter he wrote in 1954 to a German philosopher known as Eric Gutkind. Einstein was 75 when he wrote the letter, so it is very likely his conclusion was based upon a lifetime of serious consideration. (Einstein died in 1955.)

I don’t know if this quote is factual, but if Einstein had written that letter to me, here is how I would have responded:
Continue reading “An Open Letter to Einstein”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - GOP - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes - Warner Todd Huston

Who Is Really Responsible For The High Prices You Pay For Gasoline?

May 12, 2008 by

Investor’s Business Daily has a great piece on why gas is so high these days. I need to pass it to all of you.

*******

For the last 28 years, Democrats in Congress and a few Republicans have again and again opposed our drilling for oil in Alaska’s ANWR area when we knew it contained at least 10 billion barrels of oil we could be using now.

IBD Series: Breaking The Back Of High Oil

  • For the past 31 years, Congress repeatedly prevented us from building any new oil refineries that we now badly need.
  • More recently, congressional Democrats defeated and discouraged any bill that would let us drill in the deep sea 100 miles out. However, it’s somehow OK for China to drill there.
  • As a further indictment of our Congress, since the 1980s it has continually stopped all building of nuclear power plants while France, Germany and, yes, Japan, plus 12 other major nations, did build plants and now get 20% to 80% of their energy from their wise and safe nuclear plant investments.
  • From 1990 to 2000, U.S. crude oil demand rapidly accelerated by 7.41 quadrillion BTUs, according to Department of Energy data. And our rate of foreign oil dependency dramatically increased while our domestic oil production steadily declined.

Under the eight Clinton years alone, U.S. oil production declined 1,349,000 barrels per day, or 19%, while our foreign imports increased 3,574,000 barrels per day, or 45%.

During this time, President Clinton vetoed ANWR drilling bills that would have clearly made Alaska our No. 1 state in the production of our own vitally needed oil supply, not only for all Americans but also for national defense emergencies.

So were Democrats and members of Congress together merely short-sighted, with only a few having any real business experience?
Continue reading “Who Is Really Responsible For The High Prices You Pay For Gasoline?”

Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - President - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

ABC Calls Myanmar Cyclone ‘Asia’s Katrina’

May 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In today’s report on the disastrous cyclone that swept through the small Asian country of Myanmar (formerly Burma) it looks like ABC News is trying to start a new meme: The cyclone “was Asia’s answer to Hurricane Katrina.” How long do you think it will be before the idea takes hold and all manner of comparisons will be made between Katrina and the cyclone in Myanmar? If this idea takes hold it won’t be long before the media’s Bush Derangement Syndrome starts claiming that the military junta that is preventing relief supplies from reaching the Myanmarian people are just like Bush and FEMA’s failures in New Orleans.

It was Asia’s answer to Hurricane Katrina. Packing winds upwards of 120 mph, Cyclone Nargis became one of Asia’s deadliest storms by hitting land at one of the lowest points in Myanmar and setting off a storm surge that reached 25 miles inland.

“When we saw the (storm) track, I said, ‘Uh oh, this is not going to be good,” said Mark Lander, a meteorology professor at the University of Guam. “It would create a big storm surge. It was like Katrina going into New Orleans.”

But, in truth, cyclone Nargis was much, much stronger and more deadly than Katrina and any comparisons is superficial at best. Winds during Nargis, for instance, got up to 135 mph upon landfall and may have killed up to 100,000 people — already ranked as the 8th deadliest cyclone in recorded history. (Katrina’s winds were measured at 125 mph at landfall and killed about 1,836 people)

Naturally, it’s all because of global warming, too.

Continue reading “ABC Calls Myanmar Cyclone ‘Asia’s Katrina’”

00Publius Contributor - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - GOP - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Corn on the Cob, NOT Corn on the Car

May 9, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, here is the rub, you think you’re saving the planet and, therefore the human race, by proposing that we grow our gasoline in our corn crops instead of using those eeeevil fossil fuel, right? You say let’s make ethanol from our corn and all will be in balance? You feel really, really good about yourself — after all “feelings” are what counts, not results.

But, the next thing you know, they are starving in Haiti and rioting over the 40% rise in basic food costs because of you and your neato ethanol idea.

Now how do you feel? Are you saving people now?

Well Representatives Jeff Flake (R, Arizona James Sensenbrenner (R, Wisconsin) have introduced HR 5911, the Remove Incentives to Produce Ethanol Act of 2008 (RIPE Act) to curb this foolish over indulgence in ethanol production.

Flake laments the unintended consequences that the do-gooders in the envirowacko extreme caused with this absurd emphasis on ethanol production.

“This is a classic case of the law of unintended consequences. Congress surely did not intend to raise food prices by incentivizing ethanol, but that’s precisely what’s happened. A jump in food prices is the last thing our economy needs right now.”

And Sensenbrenner reminds us that all the supposed benefits of ethanol were never really proved out in reality.

“I have always been opposed to reformulated gasoline (RFG) because it doesn’t reduce the pollution it was supposed to, and in fact, increases other kinds of pollution,” said Sensenbrenner.

“Fuel mixed with ethanol is less efficient, and results in fewer miles per gallon for consumers,” Sensenbrenner continued. “Moreover, it’s extremely expensive, even in the Midwest, where although corn is abundant, the cost of converting it to ethanol, and the difficulties associated with transporting it, has made it more expensive than traditional gasoline. As a result, we are seeing dramatic price increases in corn, which is hitting families hard considering the prevalence of corn in food production and in animal feed.”

“The fact is, the ethanol industry has been subsidized for twenty-seven years and claims to still need the subsidies to survive,” Sensenbrenner added. “If an industry cannot survive without government support after twenty-seven years, there are more serious problems in place.”

With 25% of our corn crop suddenly going to ethanol production, the cost of foodstuff has seen a big inflation in costs, not just here in the US but all across the world. After all, if corn is to be subsidized by the government, farmers will gravitate to the crop that pays them the most. And since the US really does feed the world, less (corn) is not more (food) in this case.

Call your representative and tell them to support HR 5911.

Continue reading “Corn on the Cob, NOT Corn on the Car”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - GOP - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

New Study: Conservatives are Happier Because They Hate Everyone

May 8, 2008 by 3 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a news report starting to make the rounds amongst the MSM on a study that claims to have discovered why conservatives tend to be happier than liberals and it is just the sort of bilge that the MSM loves to promulgate. We may see more of it over the next several days because, while it is titled “Conservatives Happier Than Liberals,” it is basically saying that the reason conservatives are happier is because they just don’t care about other people. This purported research claims to pinpoint the reason conservatives are happier and it is because they have theirs and they don’t care if everyone else is poor and downtrodden. In contrast they claim liberals are less happy because they care more about people and are all heartbroken that people suffer “inequalities.”

Yes, they are telling us that if you’re a happy conservative, it’s because you are a hateful, meanie. Thank you New York University.

The two “researchers,” John Jost and Jaime Napier of New York University, claim an interest in understanding why religious extremism is connected to conservatives. Both have interests in “political conservatism and religious fundamentalism” wherein they seem to assume that conservatives are but fascists in deed if not name. On her webpage, for instance, Napier says that she is interested to “explore the relationship of political conservatism to ‘system justifying’ ideologies, such as opposition to equality, fair market ideology, economic system justification, and right-wing authoritarianism.” Why are conservatives fascists? Jamie wants to know.

Obviously these two researchers have predetermined that conservatism is an evil, oppressive ideology and they have set out to prove their thesis. With this in mind we can turn to the results of their recent “research” that claims that conservatives are happy because they hate everyone else.

Continue reading “New Study: Conservatives are Happier Because They Hate Everyone”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Congress - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture

When the cure is worse than the disease

April 30, 2008 by 3 Comments

-By Dan Scott

In my last article I ended with mentioning that there will be increased Ethanol mandates on top of the absurdity of the failed government policy on electric generation. The current run up in food prices is devastating to the world’s poor. How else does one explain the food riots in Haiti, Egypt and Bangladesh? Are they so far away that it is easy for us to ignore, play ignorant or the part we played in it? We are looking at the beginning of a huge humanitarian crisis of epic proportions if ethanol mandates and subsidies are not immediately suspended.

Low global wheat stocks, coupled with the emergence of a virulent crop disease, are threatening the world’s food supply, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Edward Schafer told food aid groups Wednesday.

“We have never been less secure about the near-term future of wheat,” he said. “Here in the United States it is our most basic crop with a farm gate value of $16 billion (€10 billion). Global wheat stocks are at an unprecedented historic 30-year low, and U.S. wheat stocks are at unprecedented 60-year low.”
Continue reading “When the cure is worse than the disease”

00Publius Contributor - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture

AGW insanity has reached new heights of absurdity

April 26, 2008 by

-By Dan Scott

Recently, President Bush has seemly signed onto the AGW bandwagon by giving it legitimacy. While his approach in elevating nuclear power as the solution to this non problem is rational from the energy independence, national security, foreign policy and balance of trade perspectives, no AGW promoter will sign on to such a solution. Not Al Gore, not Nancy Pelosi, not Harry Reid. There is a reason why no nuclear power plant has been built in the US since the Three Mile Island incident, which by the way no one was killed. The idea of nuclear power generation is dead in the US, even if the NRC grants the permits to build the power plants, the environmental lobby supported by their allies in the Democrat Party will tie up such permits with ceaseless litigation as they tried with the border fence. Department of Homeland Security played it’s trump card of the national security waiver to stop the environmental excuses. The result will be a minimum of 10 years (2018) before the first power plant comes on line if the power companies have deep enough pockets to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in litigation costs.

Given the recent actions of State Power Commissions blocking numerous coal fired electric plants, the country will be faced with the harsh reality of soaring electric rates and soaring natural gas prices. Why soaring natural gas prices? The only alternative to nuclear and coal is the natural gas. Electrical power generation by natural gas is in direct competition with residential use for cooking, laundry and heating (space & water) in addition to general industry. The competition for this limited resource will spark price hikes just as in the 1970s since we are importing natural gas. This one – two punch on the consumer will condemn the economy to anemic growth rates indefinitely. The cost of electricity under this scenario will go up 5 fold by 2025. Take your current electric bill and multiply by 5, can you afford AGW?
Continue reading “AGW insanity has reached new heights of absurdity”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Nancy Salvato - News - Science - Society/Culture

Promoting Alternative Energy for the Right Reasons

April 25, 2008 by

-By Nancy Salvato

Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich are featured together in a television commercial which focuses on how conservatives and liberals can come together to find solutions for problems caused by climate change. Mr. Gingrich’s explanation for joining this $300 million dollar advertising campaign is to force conservatives into debating liberals about the ways our country should best promote alternative energy sources. This in itself is a fine idea because I don’t know any person who wants our country to continue relying on oil for fuel. Most would agree that cleaner sources of energy are preferable.

While there should be robust debate about how best to pursue alternative energy, I believe this ad is misleading because it presents these two political adversaries as working together to find solutions to the problem of climate change in and of itself, as if there is a scientific consensus that climate change truly poses the problems outlined in Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Speaking of Al Gore, he is the person who is funding this effort and hired the advertising agency known for their caveman and talking lizard/Geico ads to produce these commercials.

Certainly, Gore has become a master of hyperbole in order to draw attention to his cause. While becoming a great promoter, he has done a great disservice to true science. The global warming argument is based on two assumptions. The first is that it’s caused by man and that we can stop it. While we may contribute to global warming, it is difficult to conclude that our activities can substantially affect the changes in temperature. The second assumption is that global warming is inherently bad. We cannot ignore dramatic climate shifts that have occurred in the past and declare that all climate changes are due to human activity and bad.
Continue reading “Promoting Alternative Energy for the Right Reasons”

00Publius Contributor - Dan Scott - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Energy - News - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture

AGW insanity has reached new heights of absurdity

April 24, 2008 by 6 Comments

-By Dan Scott

Recently, President Bush has seemly signed onto the AGW bandwagon by giving it legitimacy. While his approach in elevating nuclear power as the solution to this non problem is rational from the energy independence, national security, foreign policy and balance of trade perspectives, no AGW promoter will sign on to such a solution. Not Al Gore, not Nancy Pelosi, not Harry Reid. There is a reason why no nuclear power plant has been built in the US since the Three Mile Island incident, which by the way no one was killed. The idea of nuclear power generation is dead in the US, even if the NRC grants the permits to build the power plants, the environmental lobby supported by their allies in the Democrat Party will tie up such permits with ceaseless litigation as they tried with the border fence. Department of Homeland Security played its trump card of the national security waiver to stop the environmental excuses. The result will be a minimum of 10 years (2018) before the first power plant comes on line if the power companies have deep enough pockets to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in litigation costs.

Given the recent actions of State Power Commissions blocking numerous coal fired electric plants, the country will be faced with the harsh reality of soaring electric rates and soaring natural gas prices. Why soaring natural gas prices? The only alternative to nuclear and coal is the natural gas. Electrical power generation by natural gas is in direct competition with residential use for cooking, laundry and heating (space & water) in addition to general industry. The competition for this limited resource will spark price hikes just as in the 1970s since we are importing natural gas. This one – two punch on the consumer will condemn the economy to anemic growth rates indefinitely. The cost of electricity under this scenario will go up 5 fold by 2025. Take your current electric bill and multiply by 5, can you afford AGW?
Continue reading “AGW insanity has reached new heights of absurdity”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton

Counterproductive Liberal-Progressivism

April 18, 2008 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Liberal-progressive environmentalists are starving the world’s poor.

Liberal-progressives are enthralled with imposing collectivist regulation to satisfy their religion’s “feel-good” agendas.

But the cost of liberal-progressive worship of collectivist abstractions is great. Diverting limited economic resources into less important or less effective uses, inherent in the straitjacket of government regulation, impoverishes the world with lower output. It also results in the loss of innovation inherent in the liberty of millions of individuals to experiment and discover the most effective and least costly ways to solve problems. Liberal-progressive-socialism’s claim that government bureaucrats are better at administering the economy than “greedy” individual workers and private businessmen is repeatedly belied by experience.
Continue reading “Counterproductive Liberal-Progressivism”

00Publius Contributor - Business - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture

Green collar jobs to the rescue?

March 31, 2008 by

-By Michael M. Bates

It’s the latest. It’s the greatest. Green collar jobs are going to help turn around the economy if Democrats have their way.

Senator Barack Obama last month promised the government would spend $150 billion to create 5 million such jobs. At $30,000 a pop, that’s placing a great deal of faith in federal job training.

Even your typical white person has hopped on the green bandwagon. Also last month, Senator Hillary Clinton argued in a debate: “We can create at least five million new jobs. . . I helped to pass legislation to begin a training program for green collar jobs. I want to see people. . . trained to do the work that will put solar panels on roofs, install wind turbines, do geothermal, take advantage of biofuels.”

In all the excitement and all the campaign promises, it’s painless for them to overlook, if they ever knew, that federal job training programs have been less than a rousing triumph for many years.

Franklin Roosevelt initiated the Work Progress Administration to ease the mass unemployment of the Great Depression. My Mom lived through that era and said that WPA ended up standing for We Piddle Along to some Americans.

Another observer noted that the WPA gave a bad name to leaning on a shovel.
Continue reading “Green collar jobs to the rescue?”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Nancy Morgan - News - Science - Society/Culture

The Enviros Are Winning… Big Time

February 15, 2008 by

-By Nancy Morgan

Last week as the nation’s attention was focused on all politics, all the time, the environmentalists made major headway. Significant headway. Right under our noses.

Politicians, celebrities, businesses, scientists, bureaucrats, farmers, cities, the UN, our own government and even religious orders are accepting and validating the largely unproven concept of man-made global warming.

Corporations are jumping on board as they roll out credit cards designed to cash in on people’s worry about global warming. Allstate now cites global warming as the reason they hiked their rates by a whopping 42%.

Even farmers are cashing in by selling carbon credits to large corporations. Easy money. Cash for a ‘promise’ to cut down on ‘carbon footprints’. Environmentalists are using the threat of global warming (for the first time in history) to list species on the Endangered Species list. Cities are starting to get in on this act, by increasingly advocating a federal ‘carbon tax’.

And lets not forget politicians. “Politicians using tragedy to advance an agenda is a tried and true strategy. Paint the idea green and a natural crisis becomes political fodder.” Just last week, Sen. Kerry blamed the tornadoes that recently caused 55 deaths, on global warming.
Continue reading “The Enviros Are Winning… Big Time”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Global Warming Killed The Loch Ness Monster? Say It Ain’t So!

February 14, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Well, now we’ve heard everything in connection with what global warming has “caused.” Now global warming is so vicious that it is responsible for killing mythological creatures. That mean, bad ol’ global warming bully! Someone should do something.

The Daily Record gives us the tale of veteran monster hunter Robert Rines who has been in search of Nessie for 37 years. The 85-year-old hunter — if 37 years without a catch makes one a “hunter” — says he’s giving up his search. While reporting that Mr. Rines is hanging up his fishin’ pole for good, the Daily Record slips in this interesting reason why Nessie has been so mysteriously out of view these last few years. What with sightings non-existent lately, Rines thinks he has the answer. (my emphasis)

Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has since gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.

Of COURSE! Why didn’t we think of that? It isn’t that no one has seen Nessie because it doesn’t exist in the first place, it’s that global warming must’ve killed him.

Here’s a thought, maybe we can’t find Big Foot because global warming has made all his fur fall off? After all, Biggie could be hiding in plain site. With no fur, who’d be looking for a naked Big Foot? Maybe the unicorns died from global warming? Maybe the gargoyles, the Smurfs and all the jackalopes have gone belly up because of that darned global warming, too?

It’s a catastrophe in the land of mythological creatures, I’ll tell you what.

I just hope that the gryphons, wurms and elves are OK. Could someone check on them for me?

Continue reading “Global Warming Killed The Loch Ness Monster? Say It Ain’t So!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Military - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Baby Dolphin Murders Blamed on US Military… Culprit OTHER Dolphins!

January 26, 2008 by 5 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

So, scientists find the dead bodies of dozens of dolphins and baby porpoises near Miami, Florida and across the pond along Scotland’s East Coast. These aquatic mammals where literally beaten to death with multiple internal injuries, lacerations, contusions and the like. Back in 1997 the whole C.S.I. treatment was given these animals and guess who these scientists first blamed? You guessed it, the United States Military. It turns out, however, that scientists have now realized that it is the “smartest” fishie on earth that is responsible. Yes, they were surprised to discover that dolphins are outright murderers. So much for a “smarter” more “peaceful” ocean, eh?

The Telegraph gives us the tale of the dolphins gone wild.

New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind.

So, when are we going to see an episode of cops where a dolphin gets led into a cell with a coat over its head?

Scientists first came across their watery mystery in 1997.

The first clues to solving the riddle came in 1997 when, by coincidence, marine biologists in Virginia were finding young, dead dolphins with horrific internal injuries at the same time as young porpoises were washing up on Scotland’s north-east coast with identical causes of death. The body count was growing in both locations.

The Telegraph slips this one by to explain scientists original failed theory.

The two groups of biologists pooled information and, at first, it was believed the mammals had died through ‘blast trauma’. In American cases, this was supposedly from exercises by the US Navy, and in Scotland from air guns used by oil rig technicians to detect undersea caverns.

Naturally, the very first thing to blame was the U.S. Government in general and those evil fish murderers in the U.S. Military. No proof needed, see, they just assumed that it must be so. After all, isn’t that the job of the U.S. Military? Further, don’t they enjoy roaming about the planet and pointlessly murdering the most beloved mammals of the oceans? Why, gosh, all mighty… it HAS to be those rotten S.O.B.’s in the U.S. Military, right?

Well, on second thought…

This theory was dismissed after further examination of the mammals’ bodies revealed the injuries – broken ribs, imploding lungs, damaged livers and massive internal bleeding – could only have come from prolonged, focused attacks.

Any apology for falsely accusing the U.S. Military, I wonder? Probably shouldn’t hold our collective breath, eh? The Telegraph spends no more time to worry about past slights to our nation and Military.

So, it turns out it was the stinkin’ dolphins what done it! Yes, the most “peaceful,” “normally placid,” “smartest” fishy on earth that is responsible for these senseless murders!

Continue reading “Baby Dolphin Murders Blamed on US Military… Culprit OTHER Dolphins!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

Global Warming’s Communist Underpinnings

January 17, 2008 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

If you need any more proof that the concept of Global Warming is less “science” and is more just a replacement for the kind of failed concepts of communism and socialism that is increasingly being rejected by the world, two recent stories helps clarify the point.

The first is a recent article by one Kellie Hastings, a writer who claims that her “research is thorough” and her “articles are written with style and intellect.” In a piece titled “Deadly Ozone From Drive-Thru Mania,” our Miss Hastings pours out her considerable “intellect” into the theory that drive thru windows are destroying the planet and making us a bunch of fatties.

These drive-thru window services contribute to smog, emissions, noise pollution, air pollution, pollution within the store itself as employees at the window are constantly breathing in exhaust fumes. They add to our obesity problem creating a lazy society. They congest the parking lots creating line ups adding to even more idling vehicles.

Wow, that is quite a list, a result of her “thorough research,” no doubt.

And what does all this evil come down to as far as Miss. Hastings is concerned?

And all this is for what, convenience sake, money, success?

Is the human species evolving or are we becoming selfish to our never ending needs, our services rendered mind set? Or is it because we cannot turn back the clock and change the structured society we all love so much?

Maybe we have misled ourselves in regards to the meaning of purpose. Materialistically speaking, is it our destiny or purpose to acquire as much as possible? Is our evolutionary success based on our technologically convenient lifestyle? Or are we here to serve the almighty dollar?

Yeah, it’s all because of … you guessed it… capitalism. Her solution, of course, is to put an end to all this capitalism stuff like all good communists aim to do.

Continue reading “Global Warming’s Communist Underpinnings”