My Commentary         

 

Are Associate Certified Entomologists Real Entomologists? - I recently participated in a conversation where it was asked if there would be any effort to certify any Associate Certified Entomologist's.  During the discussion it became apparent the consensus feeling was ACE's weren't "really" entomologists, and I think - based on what was said - that's a consensus view even among ACE's.  However, it was also agreed it was a good PR program and an upgrade for the industry.  The big knock on this was - they shouldn't be called entomologists. No alternatives were offered.  It was also noted the group certifying them was making a bunch of money. Okay, and that's bad why?

I think this kind of thinking is wrong headed, and I think it's counter productive with a bit of cognitive dissonance thrown in. Let's analyze this........

 

          Clean Air Standards         

 

Safe and healthy (not pristine) air - Federal air quality rules must be based on science – not used to stifle energy and industry.  It’s called the Clean Air Act, but it was never intended to ensure pure, pristine air. Congress wanted America to have safe, healthy air, and regulations based on solid scientific and medical studies.   The law says costs cannot be considered where human health and safety are actually at stake. But legislators also understood that efforts to bring emissions to zero are unnecessary, technologically impossible, extremely expensive, harmful to electricity generation, factory output, job creation and retention, and living standards – and thus likely to reduce human health, wellbeing and longevity......

 

          Endocrine Disruptors        

 

Do Endocrine Disruptors Really Cost Us Hundreds Of Billions? - On Monday, a paper published by the UK medical journal The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology made waves claiming that endocrine-disrupting chemicals cost the U.S. $340 billion - over two percent of our GDP. In other words, the U.S. is losing the equivalent of half the federal defense budget in health care costs and lost wages due to low-level exposure to chemicals in everyday items, such as plastics or lined metal food cans.  Researchers theorize that these chemicals can cause health problems by interfering with our endocrine system, which produces hormones in our bodies. But it’s not just manmade chemicals that can interact with the endocrine system—these........

 

          EPA        

 

Pruitt heads EPA: More leftist slavery ended  - Leftists' hysteria and vitriol in response to Trump winning the presidency are escalating.  Enraged, they vow to stop Trump at any cost.  It occurred to me that what has really driven the left insane, enraged and quaking in fear, is Americans free to live their lives.  Over the past eight years, Obama transformed government agencies such as the EPA into his personal hit squads.  Using these agencies, Obama incrementally repealed our constitutional and God-given freedoms, while criminalizing and silencing dissenting voices.  Leftists arrogantly assumed that Hillary would win to take Obama's slavery of Americans to unprecedented irreversible levels.........Editor's note:  See more below. RK

Pruitt vs. the EPA - Follow the mainstream media (especially the New York Times), and one concludes that all of Donald Trump’s cabinet picks are straight out of Central Casting of villainy for the MSM narratives of Republicans. Jeff Sessions, for example, supposedly is a racist segregationist who would love to join the Ku Klux Klan -- but holds back because some Klansmen smoke pot. And Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma attorney general and Trump’s nominee for EPA administrator, wants us to die horrible deaths on a polluted, overheated planet. An NYT headline last December 7 read, “Trump Picks Scott Pruitt, Climate Change Denialist, to Lead E.P.A.” In modern political speak, a “climate change denialist” is like a Holocaust denier. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, along with 17 Democratic state attorneys general, demands criminal prosecution of oil executives and scientists that do not acknowledge the view of climate change as outlined in the Democratic Party platform. According to the Times........ Editor's note:  See more below. RK

Conservatives Must Rally Behind Scott Pruitt for EPA - Environmental groups have declared war against Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Don’t be surprised if Mr. Pruitt’s nomination hearing this week degenerates into a three-ring circus of obnoxious and disruptive Big Green antics, the new M.O. of the left these days.

Pruitt’s nomination and the case brought against him by the Sierra Club and others have little to do with Mr. Pruitt — whose qualifications for the job having served as two state attorney general in Oklahoma are virtually unchallengeable. What is going on here is the clashing of two opposite philosophies of left and right on how best to safeguard our air and water and our federal lands and what the greens now call “the climate.” .......Editor's note:  See more below. RK

EPA Nominee: ‘I Do Not Believe That Climate Change Is a Hoax’ - Environmental Protection Agency nominee Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt said Wednesday that he does not believe climate change is a hoax.  “I do not believe that climate change is a hoax,” Pruitt said under questioning from Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.).........Similarly, Interior Secretary nominee Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday that he did not believe climate change was “a hoax.”.....

My Take - I've been told by someone who personally knows the two guys who have headed up the EPA and Energy Dept. transition teams and he assured me their views are in total harmony with mine.  I wonder how this happened, and I really wonder how anyone can believe climate change isn't a hoax.  I'm beginning to wonder what other stupid things these people believe.  It might end up business as usual.  This is really disappointing.

 

Judge Gives EPA Until July to Identify Job Losses from Regulations - A federal judge in West Virginia has given the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) less than seven months to review whether its Obama-era policies directly led to job losses in the coal industry, according to an order issued Wednesday.  As The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register reported, U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey rebuked the agency for failing to perform such reporting requirements in the past:"EPA can recommend amendments to Congress if it feels strongly enough, but EPA's clear reticence to comply, coupled with eight years of refusal to comply — even in the face of congressional and public pressure — with the Clean Air Act, justifies an injunction detailed enough to ensure compliance.""It is time for the EPA to recognize that Congress makes the law, and EPA must not only enforce the law, it must obey it," he continued........
 

 

         Global Warming        

 

 

The Global Warming Smoking Gun - To err is human, but to really foul up you need a computer. The global warming narrative is straightforward. Carbon dioxide, (CO2), released by burning coal, oil and natural gas, is increasing in the atmosphere. The increased concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere will cause the globe to warm. The warming will create numerous bad effects. Therefore, we must reduce the emissions of CO2 by switching to green energy such as windmills, solar power and crops that can be burned for energy........

 

Trump Meets With Princeton Physicist Who Says CO2 Is Good For Us - William Happer: The Truth About Greenhouse Gases ......

 

          Logical Fallacy of the Week        

 

Over the course of our lives we will engage in discussions where we know we're right but can't prove why the other person's argument is wrong.  Usually that's because their argument is based on one or more logical fallacies. 

 

"A logical fallacy is an incorrect argument in logic and rhetoric which undermines an argument's logical validity or more generally an argument's logical soundness.  These are commonly used styles of argument in convincing people, where the focus is on communication and results rather than the correctness of the logic, and may be used whether the point being advanced is correct or not."

 

There are about 140 logical fallacies and a great many of them are incomprehensible.  In truth there are only about twenty five to fifty or so worth paying attention to.  Each week we will feature these fallacies.  It's important to know what to think factually, but it's more important to know how to think.  This week's logical fallacy is:  "Appeal to the stone (argumentum ad lapidem) – dismissing a claim as absurd without demonstrating proof for its absurdity."

 

          Scientific Integrity is an Oxymoron        

 

Piltdown Man evolution hoax reminds us about danger of confirmation bias - Rivalry, jealously, con artistry, practical jokes, grand scale bias, and patriotism compounded by World War I era geopolitics. we’re not talking about an episode of the PBS drama Downton Abbey, a daily soap opera or even a classic old film–this is the background story about the discovery of Piltdown Man, perhaps the most notorious hoax in the history of modern science. It was a dark event, and has been relegated to the footnotes of history books. But occasionally the story surfaces, as it did last year when DNA extracted from bones revealed new information on how the hoax was orchestrated.........