Science

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

State of Ill. Sponsoring Kids Global Warming Poster Contest

January 2, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here is the sort of garbage your State EPA is foisting on your children, Illinois. The State EPA is instituting a Statewide Poster And Poetry/Prose Exhibit: “Global Warming – What Can We Do?” for the kiddies to help the Democrat controlled state EPA office to further their globaloney propaganda. Nothing like forcing our kids to toe the line of political propaganda, eh? Of course, it matches right up with our school children being forced to read that “Heather has two Mommies” and being handed condoms for their sexual escapades, doesn’t it? Apparently, we don’t need to be bothering our children with those ridiculous things like history, math and real science when there are so many political agendas that need to be pushed!

The state EPA is making global warming political propaganda fun, though.

We invite your students to participate in the annual Environmental Pathways statewide poster and poetry/prose exhibit. The theme of the 2008 event will be “Global Warming – What Can We Do?” focusing on the importance of clean air and protecting our environment.

Loads of fun for all the kiddies.

Here is the thing, though. The state EPA is propagating an idea that is no way settled scientifically. This is not a “scientific” or factual based endeavor, but a political one.

And, get a load of this liberal, emotion-speak from the state EPA website:

Continue reading “State of Ill. Sponsoring Kids Global Warming Poster Contest”

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

PBS Make ‘Documentary’ Full of Lies

December 31, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Not long ago, I wrote a piece on how our PBS stations have been foisting a so-called documentary on the wife of thinker Albert Einstein and how she supposedly had a large hand in his famous scientific theories. It’s all bunk, of course, but PBS is foisting this piece of junk biography on the public, none-the-less. Worse, our tax dollars are going to help pay for these lies.

In that piece from August, I introduced you all to the exhaustive work of one Allen Esterson who has tirelessly been trying to get PBS to pull their support for this flawed “documentary.” Since that time, Mr. Esterson has not ceased his efforts and saw fit to give me an update that I thought I’d share you all of you.

Dear Mr Huston,

I thought you might be interested in the latest developments re PBS and “Einstein’s Wife”. In regard to the film, David Davis, VP National Production OPB, has informed me that the broadcasting rights have expired. However, on the “Einstein’s Wife” website PBS is continuing to promote the grossly misleading and dishonest film, and the DVD is still being sold by PBS.

As I anticipated when I (indirectly) heard that the writer Andrea Gabor had been commissioned to rewrite the website material, the revised web pages (posted in late September) continue to propagate false and misleading contentions. While no longer claiming that Mileva Maric co-authored the celebrated 1905 papers, Gabor contends that during their marriage Maric took part in “longstanding give-and-take” discussions of physics, which “almost certainly yielded some help with mathematical proofs”. The facts are that there is not a single known document in which Maric expresses any ideas, or even views, of her own on physics, nor a single specific report of any such ideas, nor any hint in letters to her closest friend over three decades of any such discussions. As to her giving help with mathematical proofs, even her Zurich Polytechnic entrance exam average grade in mathematics was mediocre, and her final diploma mathematics grade was a dismal 2.5 on a scale 1-6. In contrast, Einstein was precociously gifted in mathematics, and mastered the basics of differential and integral calculus by the time he was 15. In his Ph.D. thesis submitted to Zurich University in 1905 the mathematics was so difficult that the relevant sections were given to a math specialist to assess, and he reported that “the manner of treatment demonstrates *a thorough command of the mathematical methods involved*” (emphasis in original).
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Science - Selwyn Duke - Uncategorized

Al Gore Opens Mouth, Increases Carbon Footprint

December 22, 2007 by

By Selwyn Duke

Speaking today to COOL-IT (Communists for Only Onerous and Lofty Industrial Taxation) in Nome, Alaska, former vice-president Al Gore criticized the United States’ failure to adequately address climate change. Mr. Gore warned of future consequences of inaction while emphasizing that we have already felt the effects of a lamentably low suicide rate. Gore mentioned the extinction of species, the melting of the polar ice caps, and his loss of Florida in the 2000 presidential election. Said Gore,

“Florida is a very hot state – even in November. And members of lower-income socio-economic groups – who are most likely to vote Democrat – often can’t afford air-conditioning. Now, if you’re sitting around in a pool of your own sweat drinking Thunderbird, what are the chances you’ll be motivated to vote on election day?”

Mr. Gore then became especially passionate, asserting that this accords with Republicans’ general disregard for the environment. Pounding his fist on the finely-crafted mahogany and teak podium, he continued,

“The Republicans know well about vote suppression through climate manipulation. It is a fact that for every degree the temperature rises, voter turnout decreases by 3 percent.”

As evidence, Mr. Gore cited a volume of studies and research papers showing that the temperature in Democrat stronghold Miami-Dade County was higher than in the more Republican panhandle on election day. “This cannot be coincidence,” Gore insisted.

Sharpening his rhetoric, Gore invoked race. Alluding to his belief that most of the disenfranchised voters were minorities, he accused white Republicans of engaging in “. . . a systematic, apocalyptic climate war against blacks.”

He called this plan “Helter Swelter.”
Continue reading “Al Gore Opens Mouth, Increases Carbon Footprint”

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

Newsweek’s Hirsch Pleads for Al Gore in ‘08

December 18, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

I wasn’t aware that Michael Hirsh of Newsweek magazine was a writer of such biting satire but after reading his latest titled, “Why Isn’t Al Gore Running?,” I found myself marveling at his wit… or sad for his intellectual incuriosity should he be serious for an Al Gore candidacy for president in 2008. Unfortunately, my hope that he was displaying a Swiftian penchant for satire is easily overcome by the impression he is, indeed, seriously touting another Gore run for the White House. You Lilliputians be damned because Hirsh’s Goreliver stands astride the country — nay the world — like a colossus of Brobdingnagian proportions. And that is really, really big you should know. Not bad on Goreliver’s part for a drop out of divinity school, eh?

No, sadly I do believe that Newsweek’s Hirsh was completely serious when he imagines that Gore would make the ideal 2008 candidate. After all, according to Hirsh, Al Gore is saving the planet no less and what better way than to do it from the Oval Office? So, I’ll have to settle for ridiculing Hirsh’s efforts as opposed to saluting him for his biting wit and perspicacity.

To show Hirsh’s complete inability to grasp what qualifies a person as a great leader, the very first few words of his sycophantic puff piece seems to say that because Gore was seen in the company of two Hollywierd celebs, that must really mean something important.

There he was again on the world stage–in Oslo this time–celebrating his Nobel Peace Prize with singer Melissa Etheridge and actress Uma Thurman, the Hollywood hottie who called him “adorable” and said listening to him talk was “like watching a beautiful racehorse run.”

So, because Gore has the admiration of one B level actress and one aged songstress who hasn’t had a number one hit for 10 years (and even then it was in Canada — 14 years for a Hit in the US), we are supposed to be overawed with his star power? I’m not sure if Hirsh realizes it, but William Hung put out a big selling album once. If Gore sidled up to that warbler are we any better assured that Gore’s scientific acumen puts him the the Einstein club?

But wait, all may not be well. Hirsh scolds his idol for forsaking his duty to cure America and the world of its ills by not wanting to run for office.

Continue reading “Newsweek’s Hirsch Pleads for Al Gore in ‘08”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Nancy Morgan - News - Science - UN - Uncategorized

Saving The World

December 14, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Nancy Morgan

Over 15,000 bureaucrats, politicians, officials, and assorted do-gooders from 187 nations descended on the tropical island of Bali last week for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.Their goal? To make a last ditch effort to save the world from the ravages of global warming. The aim is to require industrial nations to limit their emission of C02 to 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. This is necessary, they proclaim, in order to head off rising oceans, drought, famine, dying species, and, well, just plain catastrophe.

These noble shepherds of the earth are willing to have others make any sacrifice necessary to achieve their laudable goal. They are even willing to make some sacrifices themselves. Starting with the 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions caused by all the private jets used to ferry them to the conference. Not to worry…

Indonesia plans to plant 79 million trees to ‘offset’ the entire conference’s emissions. The European Union has assured us that they will be buying carbon credits on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. And the UK? Well, their 40-person team will have their emissions neutralised through a central government fund. Whew..

It looks like this conference is being held just in the nick of time. Reports on the damage man is doing to the environment have been making headlines all week. AP environmental writer Michael Casey describes the havoc global warming is wreaking on nature: “More than 3,000 flying foxes dropped dead, falling from trees in Australia. Butterflies have gone extinct in the Alps, and giant squid… ” You get the drift.

Global warming is truly a crisis. By consensus. Peoples across the world are actively promoting their own solutions, hoping against hope that rational people will see the error of their ways and join this selfless crusade:
Continue reading “Saving The World”

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

Island Shrinking by Global Warming… But for Over 100 Years?

December 8, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Global warming acolytes have a favorite image, that of Al Gore’s fabulist tale of 20 foot waves engulfing our coast lines. Invoking that awesome image, the L.A. Times published a story last month that is supposed to be just another global warming scare piece. Still, even the Times couldn’t lie through its teeth in every instance because, while the island of Kivalina, Alaska really has been shrinking, even the Times admits its been doing so for well over 100 years.

It’s a bit hard to pin that all on “global warming,” though, since few claim that the phenomenon has been going on for over 100 years. After all, globaloney scaremongers pin global warming on CFCs and rising CO2 levels none of which were started until after the turn of the century from 1800s to the 1900s. So, why blame global warming when normal erosion has been at work on the island for hundreds of years? Ah, because it makes a better story to fit your ideological position, of course!

But, despite the use of common sense, the Times waxes despondent over the erosion of this rather stark and unattractive Alaskan island and the dissension that loss is sowing amongst the 400 residents there. And in doing so they miss a larger and much more interesting story.

“As global warming erodes their world, the residents of Kivalina battle the elements — and now one another.”

Oh, how worrisome… or is that wearisome?

But, even as the Times tries their darndest to pin the shrinking island’s fate on global warming, the Times can’t ignore the real truth here.

“Kivalina is disappearing, the victim of a warming world and a steady natural erosion that probably began long before the Eskimos settled here 100 years ago. “

Wait a minute. The island has been shrinking for more than 100 years? So, um, how can it be all caused by global warming? After all, the globaloney crowd says it’s man’s fault with all of his industry, cars and decadent lifestyles, right? Well, there wasn’t much of that a’ goin’ on in the 1890s and before!

Continue reading “Island Shrinking by Global Warming… But for Over 100 Years?”

00Publius Contributor - Book Reviews - Democrats/Leftists - Frederick Meekins - Media Bias - News - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

A Review Of Saucer by Stepehn Coonts

November 16, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

In most science fiction stories, extraterrestrial technology is unveiled to the world when it is piloted to earth by proverbial little green men or bug eyed monsters. However, in Saucer, Stephen Coonts presents a scenario where man’s initial exposure to a civilization from beyond the earth does not occur overhead but rather from beneath our feet.

In Saucer, Coonts details the account of a spacecraft unearthed in the Sahara desert and the international intrigue that results as various nations conspire to acquire the vehicle from an egomaniacal Australian industrialist.

Though the novel focuses primarily on the actions of the factions jockeying to acquire the saucer, Coonts brings up a number of intriguing questions that he raises even if he does not answer them directly.

Scattered throughout the novel are a number of comments examining the philosophical ramifications of evidence suggesting life beyond this earth.
Continue reading “A Review Of Saucer by Stepehn Coonts”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Elections - Media Bias - Science - Society/Culture - Taxes - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

SanFran Chronicle: Only The ‘Informed’ Believe in Global Warming

November 13, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The San Francisco Chronicle decided to pat Californians on the back last week for how much “better informed” Golden Staters are on the supposed dire threat of global warming. With their headline joyously proclaiming, “Californians better informed on global warming threat, poll finds,” the SF Chron handed out the party hats, blew their celebratory horns and lined up little Al Gore statuettes to hand out at the awards banquet. And how is it that their poll “found” this startling fact? Why it’s because our friends in California believe, man! It’s not because Californians are any better informed, that they know all the facts, it’s just that they accept Al Gore’s claim that the “debate is over” despite any evidence or lack thereof. They really, really believe man.

Californians are more likely than the rest of the nation to see global warming as a threat, but also are more optimistic that greenhouse gases can be cut while creating jobs and expanding the economy, according to a Field Poll released Friday.

See, they are “better informed” because they are “more likely” to see global warming “as a threat.” It’s not because they have any more facts or science backing up this “informed” position. It’s cuz they “get it,” baby.

The SFChron goes on with their elation:

State residents are more likely than other Americans to back efforts to address climate change, with large majorities favoring government regulations, tax incentives and other efforts by industry and individuals to curb their emissions, the poll showed.

Ah, I see. It isn’t because our friends on the left coast have memorized Al Gore’s movie and independently verified the facts. It’s because they are “more likely” than the rest of us dolts to “back efforts to address climate change.” It’s not that they actually know anything, but because they are more easily duped into allowing extremist global warming advocates to glom onto piles of their tax dollars and more likely to acquiesce to their politicians’ demagoguery and pledges to “do something” about global warming.
Continue reading “SanFran Chronicle: Only The ‘Informed’ Believe in Global Warming”

00Publius Contributor - Crime - Democrats/Leftists - Family - News - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

For Sake of Science They Abused These Girls

November 8, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

“Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” –Albert Einstein

Secularists today love to frame the religion vs. science debate as one of “superstitions” against fact as if theistic truth, morality and the spiritual aspect of humanity is meaningless fluff not to intersect with the hard fact and incontestability of science. But, as I quoted Einstein, the patron saint of scienceists, there is a part of science that dangerously crosses over into religion’s realm of morality even as secularists try to deny that fact. And here is a story that does, indeed, show scientists crossing over into the realm of evil to satisfy scientific curiosity. It is an evil not as bad as that of a Doctor Mengele to be sure, but one that rises to a level of evil that few would expect in today’s modern age.

Imagine taking twin baby girls and purposefully splitting them up merely as an experiment to observe their lives as they grew up keeping them from knowing of the existence of each other? Would you find justified this dispassionate decision, this coldly scientific decision, to take away a lifetime of sisterhood just to satisfy a scientific curiosity? Apparently Doctor Peter Neubauer, an internationally renowned child psychiatrist, found no struggle with his conscience over such a scientific experiment because that is exactly what he did to identical twins, Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein, when they were infants. In 1968 Doctor Neubauer used the twin girls for a bizarre and immoral social experiment splitting them away from each other in order to observe how they would progress. They grew up neither knowing that they had an identical twin sister out there.

Nature versus nurture has been a nagging question for scientists for generations. Are we the result of our genes or of our environment goes the raging debate. Apparently, Doctor Neubauer decided to use the lives of these two girls to satisfy his curiosity over the ages old question. And evidently he knew what he was doing would be considered wrong because he ordered that the results of his study be locked in a Yale archive, not to be opened until 2066, long after all concerned should be deceased.

He didn’t have the spine to own up to the consequences of his actions, obviously.
Continue reading “For Sake of Science They Abused These Girls”

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

Is Pedophilia a Mental Disorder?

November 5, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

The website ScienceDaily.com posted a short story claiming that researchers may have discovered that there is a correlation between a man’s height — or rather his lack thereof — and a predisposition toward pedophilia. Now, the science of this is not the issue that immediately popped into my mind when I read this. No, what struck me as interesting was the social aspect of this study when contrasted with the newfound favorability that homosexuality has seen since the 1970s. After reading this report on pedophilia, I found myself wondering how long it would be before pedophiles would protest this characterization of their predilection as as a mental disorder? I wondered how long it would be before their condition was deemed a “natural” one by someone and I wondered how long before they would advocate for the determination that they had some sort of mental defect to be reversed mirroring the same success homosexuality had in getting that mental disorder sanctioned as “normal” by the mental health profession?

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a series of teaching and research facilities in Toronto, Canada, has apparently found that pedophilic males are shorter than average, non-pedolhilic males. Their study was recently published in Sexual Abuse: A Journal of Research and Treatment and suggested that pedophiles may have been “exposed to pre-birth conditions that affected their physical development.” The study observed this difference by analyzing the files of over 1,000 men in Toronto who were assessed for pedophilia or other sexual disorders between 1995 and 2006.

“A difference in average height is a trait found in other illnesses with biological links. The average difference in height was two centimeters, which is similar to the shorter height associated with schizophrenia or Alzheimer’s disease,” says the report on ScienceDaily.com. The report also suggests that pedophilia might, then, be caused by biological factors and if that’s true, “the discovery of biological markers for pedophilia has important implications for future study and possibly treatment.”

That’s not all. The study also found that pedophiles seem to have lower IQs, are three times more likely to be left-handed, have repeatedly failed grades in school, and strangely, had more head injuries as children.

Naturally, they claim that more study is required to solidify these findings.

But, here is the question that struck me: if pedophilia is found to have “biological” causes and might be treatable should these “markers” be discovered, what does that say about homosexuality? Why should homosexuality be considered “normal” and not open for treatment while pedophilia should be considered a treatable mental disorder? What is the difference between the two conditions? After all, they are both considered aberrant behavior by most people even today, and they both certainly have been considered “sick” behavior throughout history.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Energy - IER - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Technology - Uncategorized

Closed-door Energy Taxes Will Harm US Competitiveness

October 18, 2007 by

IER Press Release

Pelosi rushes backdoor bill, neglects pro-growth solutions in favor of failed policies

WASHINGTON- Today, The Institute for Energy Research (IER) cautioned that Congress’ proposed $15 billion tax hike on the U.S. oil industry will raise consumer prices and put domestic companies at a competitive disadvantage. At the same time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is avoiding public scrutiny by refusing to review the bill in a bipartisan conference committee, rather than allowing open debate of the details of this misguided energy policy. This closed-door approach to reconciling the energy bill only underscores its shortcomings: less energy and higher prices.

Yesterday, a panel of experts from energy policy and economics organizations discussed the harmful effects of this proposed legislation. Robert Murphy, economist for the Institute for Energy Research (IER); Ben Lieberman, senior policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation; and Margo Thorning, senior vice president and chief economist with the American Council for Capital Formation explained possible unintended consequences for consumers and businesses of higher taxes on the oil and gas industry. For example, the Windfall Profits Tax of the 1980s resulted in lower domestic oil production, higher oil imports, and a depressed U.S. oil industry with reduced profits that limited the development of technologies for obtaining oil in deeper off shore and on shore wells.

“This proposed tax hike would generate only $15 billion, whereas opening exploration in the Alaskan National Wildlife Reserve [ANWR] would generate $75 billion in revenue,” Lieberman explained. This type of pro-growth strategy, he added, would preserve American goals of increased supply and energy security, whereas taxes undermine them. Lieberman characterized the current proposal as “raising taxes on energies that work in order to subsidize energy sources that don’t work,” referring to the economic inefficiency of biofuel and wind energy.
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00Publius Contributor - Media Bias - News - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Weather Stations Giving Bad Global Warming Data, A Problem Ignored

October 3, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few months ago, the blogosphere and talk radio were abuzz with the story of how the nation’s various weather stations and temperature reading devices have been improperly located or badly constructed and how the data received from these improper devices must be suspected as inaccurate. Since global warming research often uses this suspect data that is gotten from these failed stations, it must therefore call into question the accuracy of the entire theory as its conclusions are derived from likely false data. Still, even as the blogosphere and talk radio blasted the news, the MSM ignores this explosive story.

But, it is evident that the so-called scientific community has also ignored the arguments in this story as there has yet to be a weather station moved or its location and/or construction reevaluated.

Anthony Watts has a great website detailing the problems with some of these weather stations, but there are far more out there than the ones that Mr. Watts details. He cannot be expected to catch them all, naturally. So, this report details another problematic station. This one is situated in the Bandelier National Monument Park in New Mexico.

The Bandelier National Monument is a place of great natural beauty with a rich American history going back into prehistoric times. It is 32,000 some acres of amazing nature with indigenous Indian archeological sites like the Anasazi cliff dwellings, numerous petroglyphs to see and caves to visit. The natural awesomeness of the Pajarito Plateau easily impresses with its red earth and cliffs and sporting miles of backpacking trails and picknicking areas. It’s a wonderful place and a great natural, American resource.

As it so happens, Bandelier National Monument also sports a weather station. Off the trail (and therefore not legally approachable I’m told) sits a weather station right up against the red cliffs of the Monument.

The placement of this station is most likely a major problem with the data that might be had from the weather devices there, however. The cliffs may be fun to explore, they may be beautiful and they are certainly a great and wondrous place for historical sightseeing but any area right up against the cliffs is a horrible place for a station that measures temperatures.

Consider this: during a hot summer day have you ever walked up next to the solid brick wall of a building exposed to direct sunlight? Have you ever had cause to place your hand on those bricks exposed to the blazing summer sun? If you ever have, you’ll have noticed that heat simply radiates in waves from those bricks. In fact, for hours after the sun goes down that brick facade will radiate heat.

This radiation of heat occurs because materials such as brick and rock absorbs heat and holds it for quite a while radiating it back out into the air through the day. In fact, Indian peoples throughout history have used these New Mexico cliffs to keep warm by snuggling up to the great rock edifice to soak up the heat it radiates.

And this heat daily radiating from the cliffs is just the problem here. Looking at the photo of the weather station will show how close this station is to those massive rocks. So, this raises the question: wouldn’t the heat constantly radiating from the cliff face cause the temperature devices to measure unduly high temperatures? Might not this temperature data be consistently higher to some degree than it otherwise might be should the station had been placed, say, in the near by meadow which is away from the cliffs?

These are the sorts of questions that need answering about our entire weather station system. The common sense of the construction and placement of these stations needs to be reviewed so that we might be able to assure proper accumulation of weather data.

Of course, a big question must be asked due to the failure to address the situation. Do the researchers who turn this inaccurate data into justifications for global warming theories really want to have proper data? That is the big question, indeed.

But, whatever the case, this particular weather station in the Bandelier National Monument Park needs to be reevaluated for its effectiveness, as do so many others.

What we end up with from the many revelations of the inadequate weather stations across the country is a failure to trust the entire system of weather collecting devices, yet the MSM and the scientific community has failed to highlight this story. Wouldn’t it seem a natural story for the MSM to tackle? It has drama, it has shocking consequences and it has a theme of failure; all things the MSM normally love to explore.

Yet, even as this story broke wide open in the blogosphere months ago, we see no grand stories on a story that cries out for it, no “investigative journalism” from the MSM.

Shouldn’t we be asking why that is?
Continue reading “Weather Stations Giving Bad Global Warming Data, A Problem Ignored”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - News - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Darwinian Evolution: the Foundation of Liberal-Socialism

October 2, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

A reader believes that characterization is completely absurd.

Commenting on Scientific Snake-Oil, ryan wrote:

“Darwinian evolution [was] concocted originally to discredit the Bible and to support the philosophical materialism of the socialist religion.”

This statement is completely absurd. Can you supply any facts whatsoever to support this claim?

My answer:

There is abundant evidence that Charles Darwin was, as early as his voyage on the Beagle, interested in some hypothesis, any hypothesis other than that offered in the Bible, to explain the fantastic varieties of animal and plant life. Darwin’s works, the outgrowth of similar studies in geology by Charles Lyell, were rebuttals aimed directly at Judeo-Christian doctrine found in the Bible.

Darwin, by the time of his voyage on the Beagle, had become a convinced agnostic. In one of his manuscripts regarding his abandonment of Christianity, Darwin wrote: Thus disbelief crept over me at a very slow rate, but was at last complete. As Gertrude Himmelfarb notes (Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution):

The progress of his disbelief must have been sufficiently advanced by 1838, when he became engaged to be married, to provoke his father’s warning about the advisability of concealing one’s doubts from one’s wife.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Wooly Mammoth Dung Speeds Global Warming… Give me a Break!

September 19, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now, you’re gonna read that headline and laugh imagining that I must surely be employing the best hyperbole. Reuters can’t possibly be touting a story that says wooly mammoth dung could be making global warming worse… could they? I am sad to say that they are, indeed, making this claim in a story on the crackpot theories of a Russian “scientist.”

I know, I know. It seems like an entry from “The Onion” news satire website, but it isn’t. Reuters gives us the pooper scoop in “Mammoth dung, prehistoric goo may speed warming,” posted on the 16th.

Sounding like a bad copy of an old Cheech and Chong skit, “scientist” Sergei Zimov grabs some wooly mammoth dung, puts it to his face and proclaims, “It smells like mammoth dung.” Reuters gives him the space to revel in his crappy theory that this millions-year-old, melted mammoth dung is speeding globaloney.

But Zimov, a scientist who for almost 30 years has studied climate change in Russia’s Arctic, believes that as this organic matter becomes exposed to the air it will accelerate global warming faster than even some of the most pessimistic forecasts.

“This will lead to a type of global warming which will be impossible to stop,” he said.

Falling back on the “cow flatulence” theory of globaloney causes, this Russian theorist imagines that “methane gas” will be released by the melting of the ice and the returning to the air of wooly mammoth dung that was once seemingly forever frozen in the permafrost.

Why all that darn poop didn’t cause global warming THEN but will NOW doesn’t seem to come up in the story, but there ya go… or there the mammoth went… er sumpthin.
Continue reading “Wooly Mammoth Dung Speeds Global Warming… Give me a Break!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Family - Media Bias - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Indoctrinating Children With Global Warming TV Shows, Movies and Books

September 7, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here are chilling words for any parent to hear: “Hollywood recruits kids to fight climate change.” It isn’t every day that someone admits that they are basically out to indoctrinate children with an ideological position, but Helen Andrews of Politico.com reports to us just such an admission from the globaloney forces in Hollywood. Not only do they intend to brainwash our children (and already are, for that matter) with their anti-capitalist, anti-growth ideas using fuzzy animals and cartoonish figures, but they are presenting it as a “moral” issue and, just as badly, trying to convince our children that humans aren’t any more special than the animals — because, you see, kids are “an animal,” too. Naturally, these globaloney pushers imagine there isn’t a thing wrong with their actions despite that they are trying to inculcate political positions on unsuspecting children, undercutting their parent’s ideologies, and undermining the American way of life.

Citing the success of such films as “Happy Feet” and even “Bambi,” Andrews brings us the ruminations of several folks who imagine that children are ripe for indoctrination with globaloney hysteria.

A significant amount of “moral learning” happens during the formative ages — generally beyond pre-school, Anderson explained. Kids roughly 7 and older begin to understand, remember and reflect on serious topics like death — including the Earth’s death. Elementary school students even start becoming interested in political positions.

So the “earth’s death” is a “moral” position, now?

Instead of teaching children about the American way of life and our Christian mores, these “experts” want that supplanted with global warming hysteria. Many feel that doing so with movies and TV is the perfect solution and the key to it all is fuzzy animals, the best way to grab little one’s attention and hold it. The 1940s debut of the forest fire prevention campaign with “Smokey Bear” is used in Andrews’ piece to illustrate the success of appealing to the young. Dave Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, who fondly recalls his love for “Smokey Bear,” believes that the global warming crew can easily use the forest fire prevention campaign as a template for their own agenda.
Continue reading “Indoctrinating Children With Global Warming TV Shows, Movies and Books”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Entertainment - History - Media Bias - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

PBS: Lies Paid for by Your Taxes

August 18, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

Is PBS still making money off a discredited documentary that they know is filled with untruths, misquotes, and lies? It would seem so.

In 2003 PBS aired a show titled “Einstein’s Wife” that attempted to prove that Albert Einstein’s world changing theories of physics were a result of a hidden collaboration with his first wife, Mileva Maric. This documentary claimed that Maric’s work on the theory of relativity was lied about and hidden away all these years by Einstein, his biographies and history. Imagine the implications if the work of what must be the smartest woman on earth was hidden by those evil, greedy men who don’t want to share credit with a woman. It’s a feminist’s dream story promulgated by PBS.

Unfortunately it isn’t true. Not only is it not true, but also so many historians have since complained to PBS that they surely know the real truth by now, even if their original airing was a result of their honestly just not knowing the truth then. Yet, this faux documentary still has a PBS sponsored webpage and was recently aired by Australian broadcasters. PBS is also still selling DVDs and attempting to make money off a film hat has been discredited by dozens of historians and even attacked by the scientists in the film who were misquoted and misrepresented by the film’s producers.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Religion - Science - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

The Land of Must-Have-Been

August 15, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Breaking news about the religion of Darwinian evolution.

Recent news stories about the inconvenient truth of fossil discoveries in Africa illustrate the hypothetical guesswork in Darwinian evolution that passes for science. Extracts from coverage by the New York Times, hardly an unfriendly voice for atheistic materialism, are representative:

Fossils in Kenya Challenge Linear Evolution
By John Noble Wilford

August 9, 2007

New York Times

Two fossils found in Kenya have shaken the human family tree, possibly rearranging major branches thought to be in a straight ancestral line to Homo sapiens. Scientists who dated and analyzed the specimens — a 1.44-million-year-old Homo habilis and a 1.55-million-year-old Homo erectus found in 2000 — said their findings challenged the conventional view that these species evolved one after the other. Instead, they apparently lived side by side in eastern Africa for almost half a million years…

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00Publius Contributor - Economy/Finances - Education - Frank Salvato - Media Bias - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Setting Aside Political Differences for Common Goals

August 14, 2007 by

-By Frank Salvato

American politics has become so caustic that many engaged in the process have become blind to the fact that there are many common goals that exist between the two factions that currently hold good government hostage. Clear thinking Americans – those not slavishly beholden to opinion polls and special interest groups – understand that the overwhelming majority of us have more in common than not. To this point it will be the wise politico that will take advantage of harnessing the energy of polar opposite groups to achieve common goals.

Let’s take two issues that have a common goal but that also have supporters firmly planted on the opposite ends of the political spectrum: alternative energy sources and energy independence.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Paper Uses Global Warming Activist’s Press Release as News Story

August 9, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Palm Beach Post was caught in a bit of deception by one of its readers over the weekend. At issue was another globaloney alarmist story the paper printed on July 25th, titled “This century hotter than last, group finds,” supposedly by Post writer Dara Kam. Unfortunately for the reputation of Dara Kam and that of the paper, this “article” was merely a rewording of the press release of an environmentalist group calling themselves, Environment Florida. An alert reader who wrote in calling them on it also exposed several other papers across the country that did the very same thing.

Naturally, the article by Kam was all worried about how the summers are getting hotter and informing the reader of new globaloney legislation pending in the Florida state house in Tallahassee. It all seemed rather like our intrepid writer had done a whole bunch of research for this attempt at writing a “science” article.

But Post reader Gary Bokelmann wondered how this “article” could be nearly a word for word rehash of a press release put out by the environmental group and still be claimed an honest news article? And not only did the Palm Beach Post merely rephrase a press release, so did several other papers, Bokelmann found.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Frederick Meekins - Science - Uncategorized

Unprepared For Bioenhancement Nightmares

July 13, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

Just Because You Don’t Understand Doesn’t Mean Its Not Real: Most Epistemologically Unprepared For Bioenhancement Nightmares

An old adage posits that what you don’t know can’t hurt you. Whoever came up with that one obviously had little imagination to foresee the horrors about to be set loose upon the earth in the years and decades to come.

In my column “Scientists Suggest Bestiality”, I wrote about findings by MIT and Harvard researchers suggesting that millions of years ago ancient humans and chimpanzees engaged in interspecies liaisons resulting in fecund offspring, bolstering the claims by a growing number of geneticists and the like that the boundaries between the species might not be as set in stone (or at least DNA) as at one time thought. It is deplorable enough some would interpret the data in this fashion (as frankly there aren’t that many interspecies pornos dating back that far to serve as irrefutable evidence) to further undermine the uniqueness of man in their attempt to bolster the Darwinian hypothesis that one form of life is essentially no better than any other. However, things grow even more disturbing when one realizes that there are adherents of this particular worldview that believe that it is not enough that all species are the same morally but that they must all be merged into the same species ontologically.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

A Classic Bad Republican/Good Environmentalist Story – Despite Facts

May 27, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Reuters wants us to know that Republican Senators who block honors for “environmentalist pioneers” are bad but they don’t want to just come right out and say so, of course. So, they write a story that presents the environut in question as akin to a saint and the Republican Senator as somehow “arbitrary” and mean. This particular story from Reuters is a classic example of advocacy on the sly by presenting the “wrong” side of the issue as the uninformed or mean protagonist to the innocent and well meaning good guys.

In question is an honorific for what many imagine is the Godmother of the environut movement, Rachel Carson, the woman responsible for destroying the reputation of DDT, a life-saving insecticide that once helped control a killer called malaria all over the world. A resolution to honor Carson’s 100th birthday was to be introduced by Maryland’s Democrat Senator Ben Cardin, but Cardin put the brakes on his plans when it became clear that Senator Tom Coburn (R, OK) would use Senate rules to oppose the effort.

Reuters sets the subtle tone of chastisement for the Republican Senator with the title of their piece: Senator blocks honor for environmental pioneer. Eeeevil, mean Senator! Bad, bad man. And attacking a nice “pioneer”, yet!

The first two paragraphs present Senator Coburn as some lone man (obviously a nut, eh?) who “believes” that Rachel Carson was wrong in her “pioneering” environmentalist work.
Continue reading “A Classic Bad Republican/Good Environmentalist Story – Despite Facts”

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

Why Did Dental Students Cheat on Exam? It’s All Bush’s Fault!

May 10, 2007 by 2 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Bush derangement syndrome strikes again, this time in Indianapolis, Indiana where the Indianapolis Star reports that students of the U of Indiana’s Dentistry class have been caught in a massive cheating scandal. Naturally, it’s all Bush’s fault according to one of the so-called experts the paper interviewed for their article.

Apparently 16 students were suspended because they hacked their school computer system to get passwords that would open electronic teaching materials that contained the answers to upcoming tests. An additional 21 were given letters of reprimand for knowing of the cheating and not saying anything to school officials, a breach of the school’s code of professional conduct.

So how is this all Bush’s fault?

Because there are no WMDs in Iraq says Dr. Anne Koerber, an associate professor of dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Continue reading “Why Did Dental Students Cheat on Exam? It’s All Bush’s Fault!”

00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - Religion - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Gore As Religious Figure

May 9, 2007 by 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

I can understand the appeal of the global Warming religion, I really can. For those who have disavowed conventional religion and have decided that man is the ultimate power — by which they mean themselves in particular, not just humanity in general — the thought that they alone can save the planet is heady stuff, indeed.

Who needs a god when they have placed themselves at that pinnacle? But merely accepting the fact and moving on with life is a dull proposition. There is no fun in that, for sure. It’s a dull, boring existence without some transcendent thing in which to believe, without some crusade to which they can flock to satisfy the need to congregate, proselytize for, and sacrifice for.

Enviroists have been gestating their religious fervor for a decade or more but it lacked a central, savior-like figure who they could all worship together. I think it is safe to say, though, that they have found their Christ redux.

For Al Gore has come.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - R. A. Hawkins - Science - Uncategorized

Human Nature (Humans vs. Nature)

April 18, 2007 by

By R. A. Hawkins

It has been interesting to read the numerous articles and commentaries regarding the vanishing bees. The newest theories have to do with mobile phone technology running them out of their hives. It is a fact that, according to the article link referenced at the end of this commentary, if a cell phone is placed near a beehive the bees will not return to that hive. My first suggestion would be for people not to leave their cell phones near beehives. I know I’ve certainly quit that habit. However, if this is true it does say something that we would be wise to heed. We need bees to pollinate our crops. If the bees aren’t pollinating the crops, we’ll have to get a new breed of migrant worker that runs around with little Q-tips touching all of the flowers. The cost of food might go up a tad, but we’ll still have our phones so that we can impress everyone with how much everyone wants to converse with us for hours on meaningless garbage.

But before we decide to automatically blame cell phones for this new dilemma here are a few other things to ponder: Bee keepers are now more likely to take their hives cross-country to new places where they can earn money pollinating crops. This places stress on the bees and can at times cause them to move to less mobile, and therefore stress free, environs. At times that has been considered a factor in the great bee vanishing act.

Remember the killer bee scare? That leads to another one of the possibilities. Since bees are used to pollinate, there is a tendency for some scientists to try to create an uber race of bees that do more pollinating and less honey making. The killer bees were created by accident in this special search for the master race of bees. There is a fatal flaw built into this concept however. Yes, it’s nice that the bees did more pollinating than usual, but what if they didn’t do for themselves what they should have? That thing they need to do for themselves is store up honey so they can survive the winter. If they don’t store up enough honey for the winter, they will have died by spring. That might be part of the problem right there.
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00Publius Contributor - Congress - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Science - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Vince Johnson

An Oddity About GW

April 13, 2007 by

Vacationus interruptus…
-By Vince Johnson

It is now fashionable to take sides on the GW (Global Warming) issue. As far as I can tell there are six basic viewpoints regarding GW:

1.Those who are certain GW will destroy life as we know it no matter what we do, nor when we do it.

2.Those who are certain GW is taking place, but not certain it will destroy life as we know it even if we never change our lifestyle.

3.Those who are not certain GW is taking place, but realize other disasters could destroy life as we know it regardless of when we change our lifestyle. (Germ warfare. Pandemics. Giant Meteorites. Atomic bombs. Huge volcanic eruptions. Federal bankruptcy. Etc.)

4.Those who don’t have the slightest idea one way or the other, but have found making radical comments about GW can put them in the media spotlight even if they only pretend to know what they are talking about.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Education - Frederick Meekins - Media Bias - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized

Eco-Celebrities Spew Ideological Toxins

April 11, 2007 by

-By Frederick Meekins

One thing about the various threats conspiring to undermine human liberty is that, even if they fall out of public view for a while, it won’t be long until they resurface with a renewed ferocity to bend the people of the United States to the will of the elites. With the threats of immigration and the war on terror (both from foreign heathen fanatics as well as those within our own government out to use these efforts to protect the innocent from such violence as an excuse to implement measures that will do very little to actually protect the nation but only make it less free) it has been a while since most concerned Americans have given much thought to the subversive machinations of those claiming to make ecology their primary focus of ethical concern. However, in light of statements made by those straddling that ghoul-filled spectrum between politician and entertainer regarding their environmental visions, freedom lovers would do well to once again expose the dangers that result from those with a sense of guilt for having acquired exorbitant fortunes in a less-than productive manner wanting to control your life in an attempt to assuage their own consciences.

During the 1990’s, Al Gore carved out a niche for himself in the American political landscape as a proponent of a revolutionary environmentalism that went beyond being a good steward of the earth by taking your trash with you after a picnic at the beach so that a sea turtles don’t end up ingesting plastic bags thinking they are jelly fish but rather to embrace the notion that the entire basis of our civilization had to be reconstructed from the ground up including religious, political, and family structures as detailed in “Earth In The Balance” . Distracted by more important things such as having to invent the Internet, rehashing the 2000 election ad nauseam, and deciding whether or not to grow a beard, Gore seemed to stray from his original focus for a while.

However, this errant apostle of Mother Earth has come back to his true faith with the release of his documentary about global warming titled “An Inconvenient Truth”. In it, Gore once again ascends the pulpit warning us ignorant slobs how we must repent of our industrialized ways or face ecological judgment.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Economy/Finances - Media Bias - Science - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - Uncategorized - Warner Todd Huston

Absurd Claims: 50 Million People to Lose Homes to Global Warming

April 10, 2007 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Agence Presse France has published a whopper about Global Warming, titled “Climate refugees — the growing army without a name”, in which we get the claims of a UN Climate Committee that “50 million” will be homeless because of Global Warming “by 2010”. But the report is so filled with could be’s, might be’s and the ever popular “some experts say” that it is hard to take the claims seriously. It is, in fact, downright impossible to believe a word in the report unless you suspend all faculties of disbelief and merely accept as a matter of faith that they “could be” right. Of course, that is the nub of the Globaloney debate in the first place; the willing suspension of disbelief.

The first paragraph of this report sets a dichotomy that the rest of the report tries hard to refute with their “expert” testimony.

Global warming could create tens of millions of climate refugees, although numbers are hard to predict with accuracy and the definition itself is open to debate, experts say.

“Experts say”, do they? Yet, even as the claims that our mean ‘ol Globaloney could create all these refugees the report admits it is “hard to predict with accuracy”. Then how do we take them seriously? Could our “experts” be any more disingenuous?
Continue reading “Absurd Claims: 50 Million People to Lose Homes to Global Warming”

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

San Francisco’s Plastic Bag Ban as stupid as it sounds…

April 3, 2007 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another case of leftist hubris and stupidity, San Francisco is patting itself on the back for being sooooo environmentally conscious. In their latest paean to Greenists everywhere they have banned plastic grocery bags, forcing paper to become the norm in the left coast’s most leftist city.

Have they done the environmentally right thing? Should they be congratulated as the most green of the Greens? Have they saved the planet?

Um, no.

It seems that, as bad as plastic bags are, the paper ones are even worse.
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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Education - Science - Society/Culture - Thomas Brewton - Uncategorized

Rational Evolutionary Hypothesis?

March 1, 2007 by

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Evolutionists make truly wild assumptions to fill the gaps in their hypotheses. Check out Richard Dawkins’s thesis that DNA originated spontaneously in inorganic mud crystals.

Richard Dawkins is one of today’s most widely known defenders of Darwinian evolution. Professor Dawkins goes beyond defending evolution, using extravagant language to attack the personal qualifications of anyone who questions Darwinian evolution. Of such people, he opined, It is absolutely safe to say that, if you meet someone who claims not to believe in evolution, that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I’d rather not consider that).

Needless to say, as a believer in evolution, professor Dawkins regards himself as not ignorant and not stupid. Yet, some of his speculations, to a non-believer in evolution, appear to be a few cards short of a full deck.
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