Shades of the Old Soviet Union - "Red" Wolf Acolytes of a Dying Ideology

Jim Beers 7 January 2017

At the end of this short article you will find a “news” item from Arkansas State University. To say that I found it simultaneously sad and reprehensible would be an understatement. As someone that attended high school in the 1950’s it brought back memories about how the Soviet Union was taking children from their parents and indoctrinating them in radical ideas.

The fact that there were incidents after incidents reported of the children “turning in” their parents for simply listening to the radio or even just to make the child look good to his or her “government” parents deeply impressed us kids as we were mostly from happy families with loving parents. I look at that introductory photo below and a real chill goes down my spine as I see what those “happy” Soviet children must have looked like.

But, I am a man of the Twenty-First Century, a wildlife writer and a recovering bureaucrat: and this article is about (the imaginary “red”) wolves as simple youth propagandizing tools.

First, a quick list of comments about the (my) underlined items in the article in sequential order:

1. Nestbox “Collective” – While someone might say Israel has “collectives and so what?” The very clear inference from the article is the Soviet model wherein only those that toe the state line in everything (climate change anyone?) are allowed in society or in this case the University “family”. The ruthlessness of the ideology shown in the article of forcible government intervention to impose their Draconian wishes on others is simply masked here by the “happy” children much like other articles on the imposition of government wolves is often introduced by young women in government uniforms cradling a wolf puppy like a newborn child in her arms.

2. A “panel discussion featuring” “prominent voices in the red wolf survival movement”. –   Just as in the Old Soviet Union (or in “scientific” climate change circles) “prominent” = those that agree: all others are “deniers” and “anti-government’ “enemies of the state” or in this case enemies of the University and “science”. Here we have a State University, funded by everyone, sponsoring one-sided propagandizing by utilizing only supporters of a very controversial matter while again masking it as “happy” students being “led” by “scientists” on the government payroll and no recognition of any credible alternative view. Ah, but they say, “ranchers, hunters, dog owners, and rural residents stage similar publicity stunts”. Whether you call it propaganda or publicity to state your views and influence public opinion: when government or the schools or the lobby groups do so with public funds that is WRONG and like it or not, in the USA under our Constitution it is the right of citizens and not government employees or citizens accessing public money to advocate for policies, laws and programs – especially those that harm other citizens for the imagining of Soviet-style radicals.

3. "Red wolves are the only large carnivore species that is solely native to the United States -- truly 'Made in the U.S.A.” Like old Soviet caricatures of “capitalists” as a propaganda tool, these “comrades” use this imaginary biology as a tool in their propagandizing for a host of other agendas. “Red” wolves are no more a species than Basset Hounds. Why “red” wolves mate with and have puppies with coyotes, dogs, “timber” wolves’, “mexican” wolves, “gray” wolves, Asian wolves, European wolves and even Australian dingoes and jackals when and if the opportunity presents itself. What is a “Specie” comrades? To describe one subgroup of the list I just presented as akin to a giraffe or a rhinoceros is a travesty of common sense as well as, like so many of the Soviet “Directives” a rich source of humor for the keen wit of the Oppressed Soviet citizenry. The “truly Made in the USA” descriptor is such a weak and tawdry appeal to the non-existent patriotism of this movement or the patriotism of their antagonists as to defy comment.

4. The reference” Wildlife Ecology Club at Arkansas State visited’ “because A-State's mascot is the "Red Wolves" is a childish observation that one would expect on a grade school letter to Mom and Dad about an upcoming “field trip” but then like in so many other ways college students are morphing into children from once being young adults preparing to burst forth into the world. Note also the word “Ecology” which, like “Conservation” and “Preservation” appear throughout the article. Nowhere are found “management” or “control” and that is because, again like the old Soviet Union humans are simply the fodder for any governmental whim. In this case we “Preserve” et al and do not “Manage” et al because the human element is not important when in conflict with the animal (“red” wolf in this case) or other government program to enhance bureaucrats, politicians or favored organizations coffers or power.

5. Our erstwhile students and their “teachers” would “like to "bring them (i.e. ‘red’ wolves) back to the wilds of Missouri and Arkansas in the near future," said Regina Mossotti, director of animal care and conservation. So they failed in S. Carolina and Virginia; they are failing in N. Carolina and these folks want to actually spread (i.e. forcibly-impose with ruthless government power) them to TN, MS, AL, LA, AK, MO, KY, IN, OH, IL, TX. This nonsense about MO and AR is right out of the government playbook to “introduce” wolves with millions of stolen dollars stolen from state Excise Taxes and state wildlife programs by federal bureaucrats “into Yellowstone National Park”. Ask the rural residents of WY, MT, ID, UT, OR, WA, and CA how that’s working out for them. One is reminded of Soviet hegemony over the “freed” people of Eastern Europe. When my wife and drove around Rural Hungary for a week years ago; the scariest memory is the abandoned barracks in barbed wire enclosures for Soviet Troop occupiers about every 15 or 20 miles no matter where you travelled. Hungarians had no say in their governance from far away Moscow just like these worthies envision states that have no say in their governance from far away Washington.

6. “Panelists include Ashley Rearden, red wolf species survival plan education advisor, and Pete Benjamin, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and red wolf recovery program supervisor. This is like a Soviet “panel” to discuss the place of capitalism in a communist society: which is to say there is NO such place and if even lip service is given to the topic it is only by a skilled propagandist fooling the public (except the witty ones that make it into jokes in the privacy of their government “apartments” (actually crowded government rooms).

7. “Students majoring in wildlife, fisheries, and conservation; see # 4.

8. “The rarest animals on earth”? That was probably lifted from the same propaganda writer’s handbook that described the Gulag as “re-education” opportunities for those with anti-Soviet viewpoints. “Red” wolves are about as rare as coyotes and dogs whose DNA in significant amounts courses through their (the “red” wolve’s) bodies.

9. The film director sat down with landowners, writers, scientists, nature centers and concerned citizens to examine the cultural landscape. Does anyone see who’s missing or hear the dog whistle? Where are the landowners? Where are the dog owners? Where are the cattle and sheep owners? Where are the hunters? Where are the rural residents strongly opposed to being saddled with wolves of any color despite cutesy-tootsie names like “flower pack” or “OR-1 the intrepid explorer” etc.? Like Eastern European puppets they are conspicuous in their absence at Soviet soirees. Does examining “the cultural landscape” send a chill up your spine? It should because like the old Soviet model cultural landscape = a people or area where attitudes must be changed no matter what it takes. Welcome to George Orwell’s version of 2017.

10. Note the picture of the “red” wolf at the end. Isn’t that a coyote? Is it a cross between a wolf and a coyote? Isn’t that a dog: look at those legs and that gait, look at those ears, etc.? Actually it is all three BUT if you are a hunter, or an animal control person, or someone with a dog being attacked by it, or someone with cattle or sheep being attacked by it, or a kid at a school bus stop as it approaches you, or an elderly lady walking out to the mailbox, or someone trying to sell a home near where a wolf has attacked someone CAN YOU KILL IT? People that have killed such an animal from Missouri; N, E and W; have been subjected to criminal investigation and charges DEPENDENT ON DNA TEST RESULTS FROM GOVERNMENT SCIENTIST. While digesting that, consider that the same ones conducting this charade are the same bureaucrats and “conservation” organization that were quiet as church mice for 30+ years as power windmills killed millions of songbirds, waterfowl and eagles and now that thousands of these “PROTECTED”-Bird-Killing-Machines are strategically located (in wind/bird-migration-corridors) simply grant a “Kill As Many As You Like” 30-year Permit while prosecuting some schlub for killing one of these dogs or picking up an eagle feather!

11. Last but certainly not least is the cryptic plug, “The Endangered Wolf Center is an Association of Zoos and Aquariums”. There are wolf propaganda centers all over. Next to federal government grants, ex-bureaucrats can be found employed all over in these nature centers and “give the bureaucrats more money and power” disinformation centers. This AZA one is a truly classic case in point. When Clinton was President, the USFWS bureaucrat and formerly unemployed Congressional staffer in charge of the $45 to 60 Million stolen from the Excise Taxes and State Wildlife Programs and used to force wolves into the Upper Rockies and to open a new government office in California (each of which Congress had refused to authorize or fund) was kept on as a “career employee” after a GAO Audit had confirmed the misuse of the money. For whatever reason Bush kept him on. When Obama was elected that person then became Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Consider the last eight years. When Trump was elected all such appointees submitted their resignations and must leave by 20 January in two weeks. Many announce their new positions; this fellow announced he would be the Grand Pooh-Ba of none other than the AZA we see here in the conclusion of this article. With his “connections”, just like the Director under Clinton that oversaw the misuse of the funds and put the wolves in Yellowstone and with Bush’s election went on to glory to a big job at the National Wildlife Federation and then to become the Grand Pooh-Ba-ess of the “Defrenders” of Wildlife whom she had placed in charge of wolf damage “compensation” as Director: he is expected to still “stay in the game”.

Thus, like Soviet rulers, our government bureaucrats and anti-American-values-organizations see how to absorb all power and rule the rest of us with the cooperation of ruling cliques preserving their own power bases. Again like the Soviets, indoctrinating the young and marginalizing dissidents is a key part of this. Ruling adults that think and act like children has always been something tyrants strived for. When men stand up to tyrants, as in the Kurosawa movie Seven Samurai and it’s American 1960’s movie copy The Magnificent Seven, this subject is highlighted in brilliant detail. When men submit like children to tyrants they are treated like someone else’s children by the despot. When men act like adult men they expose the real intent of dictators from time immemorial. When Yul Brynner and his 6 colleagues get the drop on the bandit chief set to conduct his annual ravage of the village, the bandit chief asks quizzically, “why do men like you defend these villagers?” When he is told to, “just move on”, the bandit chief leans over and says quietly, “If God did not want them shorn, he would not have made them sheep.”

Questions: are we men or sheep? Are they our children or wards of the state? The way we answer these gives us a glimpse of our future.

Here is the news article mentioned in the first paragraph! Students and Community Invited to See 'Red Wolf Revival'

If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others. Thanks.

Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades. Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting.  

You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to: jimbeers7@comcast.net

Reality-based climate forecasting

Continuing to focus on carbon dioxide as the driving force will just bring more bogus predictions

 

Paul Driessen

 

These days, even shipwreck museums showcase evidence of climate change.
 

After diving recently among Key West’s fabled ship-destroying barrier reefs, I immersed myself in exhibits from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, the fabled Spanish galleon that foundered during a ferocious hurricane in 1622. The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum now houses many of the gold, silver, emeralds and artifacts that Mel and Deo Fisher’s archeological team recovered after finding the wreck in 1985.

 

Also featured prominently in the museum is the wreck of a British slave ship, the Henrietta Marie. It sank in a hurricane off Key West in 1700, after leaving 190 Africans in Jamaica, to be sold as slaves.
 

As Fisher divers excavated the Henrietta wreck, at 40 feet below the sea surface they found – not just leg shackles and other grim artifacts from that horrific era – but charred tree branches, pine cones and other remnants from a forest fire 8,400 years ago!

The still resinous smelling fragments demonstrate that this area (like all other coastal regions worldwide) was well above sea level, before the last ice age ended and melting glaciers slowly raised oceans to their current level: 400 feet higher than during the frigid Pleistocene, when an enormous portion of Earth’s seawater was locked up in glaciers.
 

Climate change has clearly been “real” throughout earth and human history. The question is, exactly how and how much do today’s human activities affect local, regional or global climate and weather?
 

Unfortunately, politicized climate change researchers continue to advance claims that complex, powerful, interconnected natural forces have been replaced by manmade fossil fuel emissions, especially carbon dioxide; that any future changes will be catastrophic; and that humanity can control climate and weather by controlling its appetite for oil, gas, coal and modern living standards.
 

If you like your climate, you can keep it, they suggest. If you don’t, we can make you a better one.
 

Not surprisingly, climate chaos scientists who’ve relied on the multi-billion-dollar government gravy train are distraught over the prospect that President Donald Trump will slash their budgets or terminate their CO2-centric research. Desperate to survive, they are replacing the term “climate change” with “global change” or “weather” in grant proposals, and going on offense with op-ed articles and media interviews.

 

“This is what the coming attack on science could look like,” Penn State modeler and hockey stick creator Michael Mann lamented in a Washington Post column. “I fear what may happen under Trump. The fate of the planet hangs in the balance.” (Actually, it’s his million-dollar grants that hang in the balance.)

A “skeptic” scientist has warmed to the idea that a major Greenland ice shelf may be shrinking because of climate change, a front-page piece in the Post claimed. Perhaps so. But is it manmade warming? Does it portend planetary cataclysm, even as Greenland’s interior and Antarctica show record ice growth? Or are warm ocean currents weakening an ice shelf that is fragile because it rests on ocean water, not land?
 

The fundamental problem remains. If it was substandard science and modeling under Obama era terminology, it will be substandard under survivalist jargon. The notion that manmade carbon dioxide now drives climate and weather – and we can predict climate and weather by looking only at plant-fertilizing CO2 and other “greenhouse gases” – is just as absurd now as before.
 

Their predictions will be as invalid and unscientific as divining future Super Bowl winners by modeling who plays left guard for each team – or World Cup victors by looking at center backs.
 

As climate realists take the reins at EPA and other federal and state agencies, the Trump Administration should ensure that tax dollars are not squandered on more alarmist science that is employed to justify locking up more fossil fuels, expanding renewable energy and “carbon capture” schemes, reducing US living standards, and telling poor countries what living standards they will be “permitted” to have.
 

Reliable forecasts, as far in advance as possible, would clearly benefit humanity. For that to happen, however, research must examine all natural and manmade factors, and not merely toe the pretend-consensus line that carbon dioxide now governs climate change.
 

That means government grants must not go preferentially to researchers who seek to further CO2-centrism, but rather to those who are committed to a broader scope of solid, dispassionate research that examines both natural and manmade factors. Grant recipients must also agree to engage in robust discussion and debate, to post, explain and defend their data, methodologies, analyses and conclusions.
 

They must devote far more attention to improving our understanding of all the forces that drive climate fluctuations, the roles they play, and the complex interactions among them. Important factors include cyclical variations in the sun’s energy and cosmic ray output, winds high in Earth’s atmosphere, and decadal and century-scale circulation changes in the deep oceans, which are very difficult to measure and are not yet well enough understood to predict or be realistically included in climate models.
 

Another is the anomalous warm water areas that develop from time to time in the Pacific Ocean and then are driven by winds and currents northward into the Arctic, affecting US, Canadian, European and Asian temperatures and precipitation. The process of cloud formation is also important, because clouds help retain planetary warmth, reflect the sun’s heat, and provide cooling precipitation.
 

Many scientists have tried to inject these factors into climate discussions. However, the highly politicized nature of US, IPCC and global climate change funding, research, regulatory and treaty-making activities has caused CO2-focused factions to discount, dismiss or ignore the roles these natural forces play.
 

The political situation has also meant that most research and models have focused on carbon dioxide and other assumed human contributions to climate change. Politics, insufficient data and inadequate knowledge also cause models to reflect unrealistic physics theories, use overly simplified and inadequate numerical techniques, and fail to account adequately for deep-ocean circulation cycles and the enormity and complexity of natural forces and their constant, intricate interplay in driving climate fluctuations.
 

Speedier, more powerful computers simply make any “garbage in-garbage out” calculations, analyses and predictions occur much more quickly – facilitating faster faulty forecasts … and policy recommendations.
 

The desire to secure research funding from Obama grantor agencies also perpetuated a tendency to use El Niño warming spikes, and cherry-pick the end of cooling cycles as the starting point for trend lines that allegedly “prove” fossil fuels are causing “unprecedented” temperature spikes and planetary calamity. 
 

Finally, the tens of billions of dollars given annually in recent years to “keep it in the ground” anti-fossil fuel campaigners, national and international regulators, and renewable energy companies have given these vested interests enormous incentives to support IPCC/EPA pseudo-science – and vilify and silence climate realists who do not accept “catastrophic manmade climate change” precepts. 
 

The Trump Administration and 115th Congress have a unique opportunity to change these dynamics, and ensure that future research generates useful information, improved understanding of Earth’s complex climate system, and forecasts that are increasingly accurate. In addition to the above, they should:

• Reexamine and reduce (or even eliminate) the role that climate model “projections” (predictions) play in influencing federal policies, laws and regulations – until modeling capabilities are vastly and demonstrably improved, in line with the preceding observations.
• Revise the Clean Air Act to remove EPA’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide – or compel EPA to reexamine its “endangerment” finding, to reflect the previous bullet, information and commentary.
• Significantly reduce funding for climate research, the IPCC and EPA, and science in general.

Funding should be more broadly based, not monopolistic, especially when the monopoly is inevitably politicized.

 

This is not an “attack on science.” It is a reaffirmation of what real science is supposed to be and do.

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

 

Camelot Really is a Myth!

By Rich Kozlovich

Spring is a few months away and pest control will take off and there will be little time for reflection as there is in the winter time.  Actually, I love weekends with really bad weather in the winter months. I can surf the web, read books, write articles, research information that interests me, watch movies; and no one bothers me. I love watching movies, especially the old movies.

A friend of mine wrote about this some time back, which made me think back to my youth and my love for the old movies. I loved everything that was a part of the old movie scene, especially the great old movie theaters that we had in Cleveland.  Even in the small town in which I grew up the theater was special. The stars were special then too; John Wayne, Clark Gable, Gary Cooper, and the greatest swashbuckler of them all….Errol Flynn.

The lights would dim and finally darken, creating that wonderful anticipation that comes when you know that the movie was about to start at last. Even the previews of coming attractions were great. At the end of the movie people actually applauded. I always thought that was a little stupid when I was a kid, after all…the actors couldn’t hear it….why bother? It’s funny, I still wouldn’t applaud today, and for the same reason, but I miss it.

Yes, people actually applauded when the movies started and when they finished. And when the cartoons came on we kids cheered, and nothing could get a rise out of a bunch of kids quite as much as seeing Roy Rogers riding headlong into the screen atop Trigger followed by his friends chasing the bad guys. An uncle took me to one of those Saturday matinee Roy Rogers cowboy movies and swore that he would never make that mistake again. I always loved the movie, “They Died With Their Boots On”, with Errol Flynn. Talk about fantasy! That is so far afield from the truth about Custer that someone should have been slapped for it….and yet….I still love it!

Some of the old theaters were real palaces. Cleveland has a number of them that were slated for demolition but were refurbished instead, which pleases me for a number of reasons.  First, because of that decision, we have the second largest theater district in the country.  Secondly, they were magnificent like the Palace…and it really was then, and is now……a palace! And third,  because so much of what was great is torn down and replaced by buildings that are so forgettable, like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Somehow the words Rock and Roll and Hall of Fame shouldn’t be in the same sentence, but that is another story. Lastly, because they made me feel great when I was there, and I get those feelings every time I go back.

The men would wear suits and ties and the women wore dresses with hats, and matching gloves and purses and high heels. The children were dressed in their Sunday best, because going downtown to the movies was a big deal. It was a big deal and everyone acted that way.   The ladies of that era were in my opinion the most attractive ever because they had style, grace and class. 

They must have had revivals of older movies even back in the 1940’s, because in my mind’s eye I can still see the original Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O’Sullivan. They were originally made between 1932 and 1948. I was only 2 when Johnny Weissmuller made his last Tarzan movie. I must have been about five when I saw the original 1932 movie in a neighborhood theater and I never forgot the scene where the pigmies throw everyone down into the pit to be killed by a gorilla that is later shot full of arrows.

Hopalong Cassidy was my ultimate hero though. I was even called Hoppy by my childhood friends in those early years, at least until I moved to the farm. Those years were a large part of my wonder years. I lived in Cleveland and there were a lot of kids in the neighborhood. We were out and about all day every day.

Even now, as I look back on those years, being as young as we were, I marvel at the immense freedom we had to wander up and down the streets, play baseball at the playground and best of all…the dump. There was always a potential treasure to be found in the dump. The world was very different then. I didn’t realize it then nor did I realize it for many years, but we were all very much like the “Little Rascals”. There's no Captain Penny presenting those old Little Rascal movies every afternoon, so I doubt that younger people even know what I am talking about.

The world has changed. A lot! We don’t dare let our children roam to far, or too often, because there are so many unsavory and violent people out there. We don’t dare leave our doors unlocked…even when we are home. In my youth people actually left their keys in their parked cars with the windows open while they shopped. Unbelievable today I know. Good manners were not affectations; they were expected.  Saying please and thank you were expected, and most felt perfectly content to do so.

Then it all changed. Since I am 70 I must confess that I was a part of that change. They claim the Baby Boomer Generation started in June of 1946. I was born in July of that year. I was the beginning of the Baby Boomers. I remember that I disgustedly thought that it was really stupid to applaud movies and I said so. The older members of the family gave me a disgusted look or just shrugged, as if to say….I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. 

Although I did get dressed up for some occasions, I didn’t want to get dressed up to go anywhere, least of all the movies. A tee shirt, tennis shoes and blue jeans were good enough for me and if it wasn’t good enough for everyone else…well that was just tough! As if all of those goody-goody two shoes manners really mattered. After all……that was just being a phony. A cover up for how people really felt.

I didn’t realize it then, but all those “phony” manners and descent attire are an important part of what allows for civilized behavior.

What had happened? Everything changed! One of the reasons was that this was the first time in human history the young population became so large that the adult population couldn’t properly absorb them; and we created our own little sub-culture. After all; we teenagers knew that our 16 or so years experience in life was worth far more than the decades of experience in life of all the adults combined.

As this population trend continued this sub-culturing trend continued, and every few years we had another downward spiral of values, until the American culture was altered almost beyond recognition. Clearly beyond the recognition of America’s founding fathers. The most successful culture the world has ever known was now awash with irrational paradigms that are clearly destructive to all of humanity. 

This irrationality extends into every facet of our business and personal lives. The Green Movement, which became the most irrational movement of them all, was born in this crucible and has now become one of the most corrupting dominant forces of thought and action in the world today.

Fortunately I grew up. I also cringe at many of the things I said, things I did and laugh at thoughts I thought in my youth. I always wonder at these famous people who on their death beds claim they “have no regrets”. Well…..I have a lot of regrets. I hope it is because I grew up enough to recognize my failings and made a determination to correct them and to avoid repeating them. Part of that process is being able to see that which is real versus that which is shadow over substance. If we are capable of seeing ourselves as we really are, then we will have a lot less difficulty in seeing the rest of the world as it really is.

Everything we are told in the newspapers and the electronic news media is a lie. These aren’t necessarily lies of commission, (although they are guilty of that also) they are mostly lies of omission. Even many of our history books can’t be called anything less than propaganda in order to promote some view or other.

Read two different history books on the same subject from two different people for two different philosophical paradigms and you wonder if they are reporting about the same events. Everything we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality. Mostly we are lied to. Virtually everything we are told by the greenies is a lie. If you have a problem with that then get over it! Because those are the facts and we need to start recognizing the greenies for whom and what they are.

Recently I bought a CD of the original Broadway cast of Camelot and I still love it. I first saw the original traveling cast of the Broadway musical Camelot with Kathryn Grayson as Guinevere in 1962 at the Palace; and I walked out feeling just great. I loved Camelot and it is still my favorite Broadway production, and I think the greatest Broadway musical ever produced. I can still sing some of the songs…at least parts of them. I saw it again with, Robert Goulet as King Arthur this time. This was thirty years later, and I walked out feeling just as great as I did after and having seen the original traveling cast, although I knew it wasn’t anywhere near as big or as good a production as the original.

Being insatiably curious is its own reward and its own punishment. I know nothing can ever be the same once we are grown. When we get old it really becomes clear that nothing was a good as we thought it was, and nothing else can ever be that great again. It wasn’t just the movies that I loved…it was the time, and it was a golden time.

But Camelot really is a myth, and although coming to that realization takes some of the pleasure out of life - but once we can accept that - it frees us from the shadow of illusion and allows us to see the light of reality.

This is the reward and this is the punishment.

Green/Left Double Standard

By John Jay Ray @ Greenie Watch

Dr. Susan Crockford (email: scrock@uvic.ca) has written a well-informed and approachable book about polar bears.  She has no time for the usual Warmist scare about the bears being "endangered". The book has only just been released but the Warmists are already on the case.  A review by someone called "Eli" on Amazon reads:

"Caveat emptor: the author's vague self-description as "a professional zoologist who has studied polar bear ecology and evolution for more than 20 years" appears intended to mask the facts that her PhD and professional work are in the field of canine archaeology, and that she has no formal training or expertise in polar bear science. Up to you to decide whether she's the best source of information for you and your kids on polar bear facts and myths."

I would love to know who Eli is.  I want to ask him whether tobacco-grower Al Gore's speeches about global warming should be disregarded because Al's qualifications are in divinity and social science. 

Shall Every Knee Bow?

By Rich Kozlovich

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas it is presumed our thoughts turn to issues of faith, so for the last few years between Thanksgiving and Christmas I have published this article, and will continue to do so most years, with additions expanding on the logic and factual foundation.  RK

Recently I read an article where a science commentator stated - with great confidence - the Theory of Evolution was now bullet proof.  Really?  My personal motto is De Omnibus Dubitandum - Question Everything, and I think this is worth questioning.  So, let's do that together!

There was an article I came across entitled, “Many atheist scientists take their kids to church”! The article went on to say; “about one in five atheist scientists with children involve their families with religious institutions even if they do not agree with the teachings, according to a study done by Rice University and the University at Buffalo.” The article pointed out “The findings surrounding atheists shouldn't be too surprising, since the Pew Forum Religious Survey taken back in 2008 that showed 21 percent of self-described atheists responded that they believe in God.”

Does everyone really find this to be all that extraordinary? Anthropologists have noted that in every culture in the world, and in all of human history, religion has played an important role in people’s lives. There was one prominent atheist, Antony Flew, who claimed at the end of his life he was now a believer. Why? Is it true‘ there are no atheists in foxholes’? Of course the explanation was that he had lost his mind; yet even Albert Einstein,who was not a religious person in any sense, absolutely rejected the idea of a personal God, but also rejected the idea of atheism.

For the believers among my readers the explanation is simple; we are designed to believe. For the unbelievers among my readers the explanation is simple also. There is no other logical explanation!

The other thing that triggered this effort was a political debate on television where the moderator asked the Republican candidate, running for some office or other, if he believed in the Theory of Evolution. The candidate looked foolish because he was obviously flustered by the question, which clearly was the moderator’s goal. The first thought from everyone should have been; why can’t any reasonably intelligent person answer this question intelligently? Yet many of those who profess to be believers would be equally flustered to provide a rational intellectual response in that situation. So let me help everyone! Here is the answer and the correct response.

“I wish to state categorically that I believe in the Theory of Evolution because that theory presents clear and incontrovertible scientific evidence there must be an Intelligent Designer!” Wow! I’m willing to bet that’s a shocker for many – on either side of the aisle -so let’s explore this?

For years I’ve been saying; “everything is the basics”. What does that mean? It means that in order to understand anything we must explore the foundational thinking of what it is we’re trying to understand. If the foundation is flawed, then the entire structure of thinking that it’s built on is a false premise, and will collapse under scrutiny from its own weight; that is if we wish to really see the truth. And that is the crux of the matter isn’t it?

Believing takes on many forms. For some it has to do with a higher power. For others it can take on the worship of oneself, for others it can take on the worship of some philosophy or other; but humanity has the desire to look to some higher explanation for existence, and human existence in particular. But one thing seems clear; ‘believing’is inherent to our genetic code. Otherwise how can anyone explain why so many have believed so much over so long a time of human history, and in so many different cultures? Of course, the problem for the unbelievers among my readers with this explanation is that they would then have to explain how that genetic code was designed in that manner - or designed at all for that matter - if there is no higher power.

I do find it fascinating how some can believe that Intelligent Design is “a pig that won’t fly”! The design is so complicated that it defies explanation as to how infinitely small mutations over millions of years could bring us (and all else in the universe) to what now exists. Whether one disagrees or agrees with evolution, I question how anyone can say that there is no designer. Some feel that an intelligent designer used evolution. Some feel evolution is a mistake constantly making more mistakes and changing everything all the time all by accident. I wonder how anyone can explain how this can happen by accident and develop successful organisms since "geneticists estimate that 99 out of 100 mutations are harmful, and about 20 out of the 99 are lethal."

Then there are those who [chap. 14] state there is so much “statistical data that they were at last able to confirm what they had suspected all along: Mutations were not 99 percent harmful to the DNA and the organism; they were 100 percent harmful! It was discovered that in EVERY instance, mutations caused some kind of damage—always! Out of it all, the researchers learned that DNA coding in the genes simply will not tolerate much change. More than just the slightest amount will ruin the code and the organism will be greatly weakened.”

According to the Theory of Evolution life started when electricity, in some form such as lightening, charged some molecules existing in a chemical rich ocean soup and thus became cellular life. There is absolutely no evidence that this ever occurred, and there is no evidence that it can occur since no one has been able to duplicate this mythical event in a lab - ever. They have been able to get molecules to group together, but it isn’t life, especially since no one has ever been able to generate more than four of the twenty amino acids needed for life. These “cells” are all lacking in all the things that make life possible, including a DNA molecule which can’t form without a preexisting protein. Protein molecules are amazingly complex, and are absolutely necessary for life. Furthermore, in order for a cell to function it takes 2000 protein enzymes. If life started in the ocean in some chemical rich soup, through some accidental electrical discharge; how did that cell, or group of cells, survive long enough to replicate themselves? That's foundational!

Evolutionally thought would require millions of years of mutations before the next step to propagation would come into being. If that’s so - how did they replicate? If we are to believe what proponents of evolutionary theory claim, then we have to recognize that these mythical cells would have died within seconds, minutes or days; but they would have ceased to exist long before they could have reproduced. How do I know that?

Let's go back to the foundational question once again!

If life could only advance from active cells in the ocean in some chemical rich soup, which came into being as a result of some accidental electrical discharge; how did that cell, or group of cells, replicate themselves to become what we are all now through a series of mutations occurring over millions of years?

As we explore this we must realize there is a very serious crack in the foundation of their theory - and logic. When you think this out correctly the very foundation for the explanation propounded by scientists gets even more complicated and incomprehensible. If such an event really did take place, the first order of business would not be propagation; the first order of business would be survival!

Survival means that this mythical cell, or cells, would have already had an advanced biological system in place allowing them to recognize the need for nutrition. In order for any of this to occur the cells would have to be self aware to some extent, no matter to how small a degree, which in itself would require some sort of advanced design. Which leads to the next obvious question;“How does matter become conscious of itself?”

Then it would not only have to be able recognize the need for nutrition, it would also have to be able to recognize what was nutritional and what was not. These mythical cells would then need a system for absorption, i.e., some way to eat! That would then require a digestive system, which would require an internal biological mechanism allowing the organism to recognize and separate that which was nutritional from what would become waste during the absorption process. Then the cells would require an energy storage and utilization system, and finally, all of that would require a system for waste elimination. Then and only then would propagation come into play!

What organism could possibly survive long enough without these advanced fundamental functions that would allow it to live long enough to propagate. If that were true, then it seems to me these cells would actually have to be entirely complex organisms with multiple advanced chemical and biological systems already in place - each being absolutely dependent on the other for this whole scheme to work. Does it seem rational this could possibly occur if it takes millions of years of tiny mutations to create a next step in the developmental process as scientists claim? And -once again - we are expected to believe this came about as an accident after an electrical discharge of some sort.

Okay, let’s say, for the sake of argument, it did happen - it still means the organism had to have some seriously advanced biological functions to survive past a very short time. If that’s the case, then doesn’t that imply planning and design? Doesn’t planning and design require intelligence? Do we really think these advanced systems could come into existence at once without some predetermined design?

Which brings me back to the beginning!

Evolutionally thought requires millions of years of mutations before any of these absolutely necessary biological systems would come into being before the organism could advance to the next step of propagation. So assuming these organism’s survived, we have to wonder how any organism could know which tiny mutations were beneficial, or even needed, over a million years or so, and decide to save them for a next step, which presumably was another accidentally mutation. The complexity of that kind of design would require some kind of organizational planning and implementation. With the rate of detrimental versus beneficial mutations it could not be accidental and still be beneficial!

Now let’s take a look at propagation!

Take a woman’s monthly cycle. It is amazingly complex! The right amount of chemicals, hormones and enzymes would have to come into play in exactly the right sequence of time in order to finish the cycle. However, if a woman becomes pregnant during the cycle another whole set of chemical conditions would come into play. How could any organism know how to plan for two diametrically opposing end results? Remembering that there are untold numbers of species in the world that have cycles unique unto themselves, that means that this would have to be done an incalculable number of times in an incalculable number of organisms and all be beneficial. One negative mutation would seemingly doom the organism. Yet, we are to believe that this happens through a series of positive accidents that would overcome all of these deadly accidents! Isn't that a form of belief, i.e. faith? It does seem to defy logic...or science as it were!

How would any organism know what chemicals to develop over millions of years? How did the organism know that hormones and enzymes were needed along with other chemicals? How would the organism know how to organize them? How did the organism know which chemicals would work harmoniously together and in conjunction with enzymes and hormones? How would these organisms know how to ‘create’ them? And finally, how did the organism know what end result would follow without some sort of plan?

However, even with a design - how could incredibly small mutations be of value during the whole process of millions of years? In point of fact, it seems reasonable that these mutations would hinder continued existence, not enhance it. But even if you accept the idea of small changes over millions of years the question still remains; how could all of that come into being without intelligence behind it? How could so many complex systems come into being all at once without some sort of design and an application of the design? Wouldn’t the presumption be that these cells already had an amazingly complex chemical make-up that would create an end result? If so; doesn’t that imply planning and design? Doesn’t planning and design require intelligence? And if these events actually did happen, and cells came into existence with all these complicated biological systems in place; what would you call it? Creation?

Dennis Prager wrote an article on June 18, 2013 titled, “Why Some Scientists Embrace the'Multiverse'”.where-in he cites views held by prominent scientists regarding this universal complexity and just how fragile it is.

He quotes “Michael Turner, astrophysicist at the University of Chicago and Fermilab: "The precision is as if one could throw a dart across the entire universe and hit a bulls eye one millimeter in diameter on the other side."

"The really amazing thing is not that life on Earth is balanced on a knife-edge, but that the entire universe is balanced on a knife-edge and would be total chaos if any of the natural 'constants' were off even slightly." Paul Davies, professor of theoretical physics at Adelaide University

Steven Weinberg, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics, and an anti-religious agnostic, notes that "the existence of life of any kind seems to require a cancellation between different contributions to the vacuum energy, accurate to about 120 decimal places. This means that if the energies of the Big Bang were, in arbitrary units, not: 1 followed by 118 zeros…but instead: 1 followed by 118 zeros and a 1, there would be no life of any sort in the entire universe."

Dennis goes on to say; “Unless one is a closed-minded atheist (there are open-minded atheists), it is not valid on a purely scientific basis to deny that the universe is improbably fine-tuned to create life, let alone intelligent life. Additionally, it is atheistic dogma, not science, to dismiss design as unscientific. The argument that science cannot suggest that intelligence comes from intelligence or design from an intelligent designer is simply a tautology. It is dogma masquerading as science.”

The universe is far more massive and complex than previously thought.  The observable universe boasts at least 10 times as many galaxies as originally estimated......This means that the cosmic census of galaxies, which has been conventionally pegged at around 100 to 200 billion, may be closer to a whopping two trillion individual galactic systems."....... “It boggles the mind that over 90 percent of the galaxies in the universe have yet to be studied". 

Are we to believe all that massive complexity is also an accident? 

I can understand anyone’s reason for not subscribing to any religious group. The sanguinary history of the world’s religions has not done much to inspire confidence over the course of human history. So I can understand someone being un-religious, and I can understand why someone would believe that there may be a higher power that doesn’t interfere in the lives of humanity. I can understand why people might not be sure and proclaim to be agnostic - although I consider that to be pragmatic atheism.

What I can’t understand is how anyone cannot believe that there must be a planner behind this phenomenally complex reality we call - existence! And that's why I say that I believe in the Theory of Evolution. Because it scientifically proves that there must be an Intelligent Designer! A Creator!

I will leave it to you to decide for yourself if there is a benevolent God. But there must be a creator. That’s foundational! That’s “the basics”!

Nature editorial ‘exploits public anxiety’ on endocrine disruptors

Geoffrey Kabat | Genetic Literacy Project

In December 2016, the European Union member states will vote on proposed legislation that would mandate an ambitious program to identify and regulate “endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in the environment. On November 22, the journal Nature carried an editorial entitled “Stand firm on hormone disruptors” by NYU pediatrician Leonardo Trasande. Rather than laying out the scientific issues relevant to consideration of the problem of chemicals in the environment and their effects on the general population, the editorial indulges in far-reaching speculation.

In his second sentence, referring to EDCs, Trasande writes, “These chemicals are everywhere – in food, personal-care products, electronics and furniture – and are widely detected in human blood and urine at levels known to affect health.”  He then goes on to state that the proposed regulation resulting in “removal of these pesticides could prevent autism and loss of cognition, which have been linked to exposure in utero.” And he claims that the annual costs associated with health effects from exposure to EDCs are in the hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. and Europe.

What is the evidence for Trasande’s and other advocates’ claim that EDCs are having detectable and widespread effects on public health from maladies of unknown etiology?  Rather than engaging in speculation, a number of crucial points need to be made.......To Read More....

If peer review were a drug, it would never get on the market

Geoffrey Kabat | November 24, 2015 | Forbes

Hundreds of thousands of papers are published each year in the medical literature, and each year the number of papers published continues to grow. Publication in a “peer-review” journal is a core requirement for advancement in one’s career as a scientist, and since quality is often hard to judge, quantity (i.e., number of papers published) is a widely used metric.

The peer review system is supposed to winnow out work that is not suitable for publication. The system relies on “peers,” or experts, to examine a paper prior to publication, critique it, and offer a recommendation either for or against publication. In the scientific community, it is widely recognized that, like any system that depends on human beings, the peer review system is not perfect. Reviewers are expected to donate their time, and it can take several hours to critically evaluate a paper.....To Read More.....

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

By Rich Kozlovich

Originally published June 25, 2012, updated January 18, 2016

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

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

The glimmer of enlightenment is this: There's a difference between managers and leaders. A good leader can hire a good manager, but a good manager can't hire a good leader. 

Through the course of my life I discovered that being a good leader means standing up and saying: ‘Hold it! This is all wrong and we’re going to change!’ Whether it is in government or in business that means having the willingness to be  the rock in the current, often a life long quality.   But let’s face it -  heterodoxy isn’t for the faint of heart. Who wants to be disliked, ridiculed and rejected? 

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

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

"Forty-Second" Boyd, the man remembered for defeating every opponent in aerial combat at the Air Force's premier dog-fighting academy in two-thirds of a minute, helped found the Fort Myer get-togethers at the end of his Air Force career”…..however this doesn’t demonstrate the “long and often painful saga of a man who, as a full colonel, went toe to toe, time after time, with a phalanx of two-and three-star generals for the good of the country, winning most of his battles and surviving long enough to help provide secretary of defense Richard Cheney the ideas needed for swift and decisive victory in the Persian Gulf War. ("Keep it simple — so that the generals will understand it," Boyd frequently told his small band of fellow guerrillas, known collectively as "The Acolytes." Boyd was…..a Pentagon "Whiz Kid"— one of the rare few who were "defined by the courts-martial and investigations they faced." He was also "the most important unknown man of his time and the most remarkable unsung hero in American military history."….. Loud and profane, Boyd's intellectual achievements were matched by his relentless guerrilla warfare against hidebound "careerists" then running the Air Force…… The tenets of this speech reflected both his spirit and values:

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

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

You show me a lower ranking officer in the military who tells his superiors they're all wrong and proves it - and I will show you an officer who have better find another career.  Boyd "is credited for largely developing the strategy for the invasion of Iraq in the Gulf War of 1991." "In a letter to the editor of Inside the Pentagon, former Commandant of the Marine Corps General Charles C. Krulak is quoted as saying "The Iraqi army collapsed morally and intellectually under the onslaught of American and Coalition forces. John Boyd was an architect of that victory as surely as if he'd commanded a fighter wing or a maneuver division in the desert."

The only reason Boyd ever was promoted to Colonel was because Reagan became president, but he would never be allowed to wear stars.

This pattern plays out in the universities also. Show me a graduate student who, while attempting to get his PhD. told the PhD.s evaluating him their ideas were all wet…. and worse yet …..proved it - and I will show you someone who is stuck with a Masters degree.

They both learn early on that to get along you must go along. When that happens it becomes a way of life and as they rise in the ranks they will only tolerate those just like themselves. To do otherwise would be a personal admission of failure. Eventually the ranks of “leadership” are filled with those who don’t have the courage to stand up against all odds for what is right.

Within the scientific community it has been made abundantly clear the holy grail of science isn’t ‘truth’ - its government grant money. The fraud perpetrated on the world by ‘scientists’ regarding Anthropogenic Global Warming has been exposed and now the world is aware that this has been going on for decades. The world is now aware that what appears as leadership within the scientific community is no real leadership at all - only hucksters, con artists and cowards. The only courageous leadership in science is from those that are attacked and smeared as ‘skeptics’, even to the point of being called ‘Flat Earthers’ and compared to those who perpetrated the holocaust during WWII. Those who are real leaders - those who have the courage to stand against the tide - those who are prepared to lose everything for that which is right are always called….. unreasonable.

My answer to that? I would like for someone to show me any insurmountable obstacle that was ever overcome by being reasonable!  Being unreasonable in pursuit of a noble goal takes clarity.  But the problem must be properly defined - that's what leads to clarity, which leads to understanding.  From that a vision is developed.   But a vision is valueless without courage, fortitude, and the ability to stand outside the comfort and support of the group. 

That's a view many will ridicule and being unreasonable or irrational, but I would be willing to bet the children Sandusky abused would have loved to have seen someone come forward who was courageous enough to be "unreasonable" within the universities ranks of ‘leadership’! Unfortunately there was no one - including a much beloved football coach whose legacy and reputation is now irreparably destroyed.  A coach who should have been in the forefront defending these kids. I wonder how many of that cast of characters now regret their cowardice?

Whether it's in government, military, academia or industry, this is something we need to learn, repeat, retain and practice: "To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?"

The $3.5 Trillion Fracking Economy Is About To Get A Lot Bigger

OPEC’s Nightmare Scenario:

U.S. Frackers Are Winning The Oil War

 

Brought to you by Benny Peiser's Global Warming Policy Forum

Hydraulic fracturing generated $3.5 trillion in new wealth between 2012 and 2014 in spite of falling oil prices, according to a new study, but today’s rising prices could be even better for the U.S. economy. From 2012 to 2014, the shale oil industry generated 4.6 million new jobs due to an energy boom and the resulting low gas prices, according to a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). “What’s often overlooked is the impact that the shale revolution has had throughout the economy,” Chris Warren, a spokesperson for the pro-industry Institute for Energy Research (IER), told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Lower energy prices mean people have more money to save or spend on other day-to-day necessities. More energy production leads to job creation in other sectors of the economy, whether it’s manufacturing, healthcare, education, etc.” --Andrew Follett, The Daily Caller, 17 December 2016

If you listen closely, you can hear the cursing of OPEC’s (and Russia’s, for that matter) oil ministers bursting forth from their beleaguered petrostates as America’s oil producers add to their collective count of active rigs for the seventh straight week. We’re headed towards the worst-case scenario for the world’s petrostates, where they agree to cede market share to gain higher oil prices, only to see American companies jump on the opportunity and take that share of the market for themselves while simultaneously blunting the rebound. Hence the wailing and gnashing of teeth from all those oil ministers. --The American Interest, 18 December 2016

A two-year battle for global oil supremacy that pit Saudi Arabia, the de facto leader of OPEC, against upstart U.S. shale producers left them both badly wounded but with each side claiming victory. For U.S. shale companies, it was two years of shrinking profits and mass layoffs as dozens of producers scaled back output or sought bankruptcy protection. But the survivors became much more efficient and are now eager to grab market share at their foreign competitors’ expense. “Definitely, the U.S. is going to win the next two years because OPEC is cutting and U.S. shale is taking off,” said Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources Co., a U.S. producer that is already ramping up drilling in West Texas’ Permian Basin. --Benoit Faucon, Alison Sider and Georgi Kantchev, The Wall Street Journal, 15 December 2016

President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate former Texas Governor Rick Perry to head the Department of Energy opens the door to U.S. energy independence in the near future — not to mention a growing economy, fueled by private-sector investment and high-paying jobs. The U.S. is now the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world, but we still import about 25% of the crude we need. Opening up more federal lands and offshore production will allow us to fill that gap. Increased production will also allow the U.S. to export more crude oil and natural gas to our allies, many of whom rely on Russia for their energy needs. For example, the European Union depends on Russia for about a third of its energy and would love to have an affordable alternative. Moving the U.S. from oil importer to oil exporter will also dramatically reduce our trade deficit, another Trump goal. --Merrill Matthews, Investor’s Business Daily, 16 December 2016

The Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) is the single most important tool in evaluating the effectiveness of climate change mitigation policies, such as subsidies to renewables. However, the UK government has quietly ceased to use this measurement, almost certainly because after a decade of subsidy the policy cost per tonne saved is still greatly in excess of even higher estimates of SCC. The ‘solution’ is worse than the problem. The Trump administration is likely to focus on the Social Cost of Carbon in its reforms, probably introducing more reasonable and lower estimates, increasing pressure on the UK government amongst others to re-examine their climate policies. --John Constable, Global Warming Policy Forum, 17 December 2016

All energy subsidies should be ended. The shale revolution shows that businesses and markets can generate major innovations and progress with their own resources. Investors and major corporations have stepped up to the plate and pumped billions of dollars into alternative energy technologies. The U.S. energy sector is vast, dynamic, and entrepreneurial, and it does not need subsidies to thrive. --Chris Edwards, Downsizing the Federal Government, 15 December 2016

How Can Pesticides Be Safe?

Dr. Steve Savage Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Many people may find it difficult to imagine how a pesticide could ever be safe. To understand how that is possible, it is helpful to make the comparison with something more familiar: electricity. It is hard to envision modern life without electricity. As much as we enjoy and need this source of energy, it involves some hazards. Electricity can, and sometimes does, cause injury or death. 

Yet overall, we think of using electricity as a reasonably safe aspect of our lives. Safety can’t be precisely defined. What we perceive as safe is something where the benefits more than offset the minimal risks. We can enjoy electricity’s benefits with little risk through two main strategies: 1) using low-hazard forms of electricity and 2) keeping ourselves from being exposed to hazardous forms of electricity......To Read More......

Green Notes

Cancer Scares and Reality

Will US cut off support for WHO’s IARC over pilloried glyphosate cancer report? Every day, it seems, I read an article from an activist-captured media source that quotes the International Agency for Reasearch on Cancer’s (IARC) glyphosate position and ignores the negative reactions from other scientific institutions like European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), WHO-FAO, the America’s Environmental Protection Agency, the New Zealand and Canadian authorities, and the undiplomatic outrage of most of the scientific community. It is quite clear that the science defending glyphosate is not the problem; IARC’s intransigence, political bias, and bad scientific methodology is the problem.  How can we fix IARC?.............To Read More.....

Epigenetics

 

How does genetics explain non-identical identical twins? - Newspapers recently went wild with a story about identical twin sisters with a difference: they weren’t identical. Like all identical twins, Amelia and Jasmine arose from a single fertilised egg so have identical DNA, but somehow look different from each other.   One child has dark skin, black hair and brown eyes while the other has fair skin, light-brown hair and blue eyes.  How is this possible?   Have the doctors or scientists got it wrong? No one has got it wrong. They really are identical twins. ......To Read More...

 

Explainer: how epigenetics is providing insight into cancer -DNA provides the instructions to make us how we look and contributes to our life expectancy. Identical twins have exactly the same DNA, so why are slightly different in many ways? The answer is epigenetics........Epigenetic factors are chemical tags on the DNA or on proteins called histones. These chemical tags attach to the DNA and are responsible for providing the DNA-packing signals inside cells. There are lots of different epigenetic factors and the number of new chemical tags discovered are increasing......To Read More...

GMOS

There's a totally new way to genetically modify our food - Few topics in science are as hotly debated as that of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.  These are foods — usually plants, though we're starting to see animals too — whose DNA has been modified to include genes from other organisms to produce a particular trait, such as disease or pesticide resistance..............These include the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, which works like a biological find-and-replace function to cut out genes and splice in new ones. In the last few years this technique and others have really taken off, and are already being used to develop potential treatments for genetic diseases.............But some people are already voicing their opposition to the new gene-editing technologies. Earth Open Source, a European NGO funded by the Maharishi cult, recently attacked the claim that CRISPR was more accurate than previous genetic engineering tools........To Read More.....

My Take - Why are these "anti's" against everything that makes human survival better?  Because they hate humanity.  We have to get this once and for all.  The green movement is a secular neo-pagan death cult that borders on mysticism.   If you look at everything they disapprove of and those things they approve of you will find the same pattern.  A movement designed to eliminate between four and five billion people from the planet....and that's the moderate wing of the movement.  The "radicals" want to eliminate humanity. 

2016 Presidential Race: Clinton, Trump, Stein and Johnson on Food, Farming and GMOs - As part of a multi-part Genetic Literacy Project series on the candidates’ view on genetics and biotechnology—in medicine and agriculture. In this article, we examine how Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Libertarian Gary Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein address issues on food, farming, and crop genetic modification......To Read More.....

‘Crimes Against Humanity’? Who is behind the International Monsanto Tribunal circus? From October 14-16, 2016, a group of environmental activists will host a faux tribunal in The Hague to pretend to prosecute Monsanto for crimes against humanity. The Missouri-based company sells both genetically engineered seeds and pesticides, which makes them Enemy No. 1 of the anti-technology activists who lead the global environmental movement.  The International Monsanto Tribunal is being spearheaded by some of the most notable anti-GMO activists in the world, including Vandana Shiva, a philosopher and author who makes $40,000 a speech telling phony stories about Indian farmers committing suicide because they planted genetically modified seeds. The stunt (held in a small school in The Hague, not the International Criminal Court) will “hold Monsanto accountable for human-rights violations, for crimes against humanity, and for ecocide.".......To Read More.....

 

 

Buzz Kill: How the Sierra Club uses scare tactics about bee health and twists the science to raise money

Andrew Porterfield & Jon Entine | October 25, 2016 | Genetic Literacy Project

The Sierra Club, founded by John Muir in 1892 to support wilderness outings and conservation in the American west, is now on a different campaign: scaring the bejeebies out of people to raise money. The once venerable organization, once known for its eco-pragmatism, is twisting the science about bees and pesticides. Literally hundreds of thousands of people who have supported one green organization or event in recent years opened their mailboxes in the past few months to find a scare letter of epic proportions written by Sierra’s executive director Michael Brune:........In a recent series of letters sent out this fall as part of this ongoing multi-year fund-raising effort, Brune makes the case that neonics are behind Colony Collapse Disorder and responsible for a 44 percent decline in bee populations:........Deconstructing Sierra Club’s claims..........To Read More.....