What keeps you up at night?

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Cult of Global Warming Is Losing Influence

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/cult_of_global_warming_is_losing_influence

A similar but more peaceable fate is befalling believers in what I think can be called the religion of the global warming alarmists.

They have an unshakeable faith that manmade carbon emissions will produce a hotter climate, causing multiple natural disasters. Their insistence that we can be absolutely certain this will come to pass is based not on science -- which is never fully settled, witness the recent experiments that may undermine Albert Einstein's theory of relativity -- but on something very much like religious faith.

All the trappings of religion are there. Original sin: Mankind is responsible for these prophesied disasters, especially those slobs who live on suburban cul-de-sacs and drive their SUVs to strip malls and tacky chain restaurants.

The need for atonement and repentance: We must impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system, which will increase the cost of everything and stunt economic growth.

Ritual, from the annual Earth Day to weekly recycling.

Indulgences, like those Martin Luther railed against: private jet-fliers like Al Gore and sitcom heiress Laurie David can buy carbon offsets to compensate for their carbon-emitting sins.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

American Autumn

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/279534/american-autumn-mark-steyn
...If you don’t like to think of Jobs as a corporate exec (and a famously demanding one at that), think of him as a guy who went to work, and worked hard. There’s no appetite for that among those “occupying” Zuccotti Park. In the old days, the tribunes of the masses demanded an honest wage for honest work. Today, the tribunes of America’s leisured varsity class demand a world that puts “people before profits.” If the specifics of their “program” are somewhat contradictory, the general vibe is consistent: They wish to enjoy an advanced Western lifestyle without earning an advanced Western living. The pampered, elderly children of a fin de civilisation overdeveloped world, they appear to regard life as an unending vacation whose bill never comes due.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

UC Muslim students get probation, fines

http://www.ocregister.com/news/speech-318635-students-defense.html
A jury Friday found 10 Muslim university students guilty of disrupting a speech by an Israeli diplomat at UC Irvine last year, in a case that focused on free speech.

Superior Court Judge Peter Wilson sentenced each student to three years of probation, which would be cut to a year if each completes 56 hours of community service by Jan. 31. He also ordered them to pay $270 in fines.

Wilson said jail time was not warranted because evidence showed the students were "motivated by their beliefs and did not disrupt for the sake of disrupting."

The jury of six men and six women deliberated about two days before finding the students guilty on one count each of misdemeanor disturbing a public meeting and conspiracy in connection with the Feb. 8, 2010, talk by Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the United States.

"We're delighted the jury saw this the same way we saw it," Assistant District Attorney Dan Wagner said.

Wagner argued the defendants used a "heckler's veto" to thwart the free-speech rights of the speaker, while the defense attorneys contended the protesters lawfully exercised their right to free speech.

The jury disagreed.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Watching A Green Fiction Unravel

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/583272/201108301816/Watching-A-Green-Fiction-Unravel.aspx
Experiments performed by a European nuclear research group indicate that the sun, not man, determines Earth's temperature. Somewhere, Al Gore just shuddered as an unseasonably cool breeze blows by.

The results from an experiment to mimic Earth's atmosphere by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, tell researchers that the sun has a significant effect on our planet's temperature. Its magnetic field acts as a gateway for cosmic rays, which play a large role in cloud formation.

Consequently, when the sun's magnetic field allows cosmic rays to seed cloud cover, temperatures are cooler. When it restricts cloud formation by deflecting cosmic rays away from Earth, temperatures go up.

Or, as the London Telegraph's James Delingpole delicately put it:

"It's the sun, stupid."

This new finding of 63 scientists from 17 European and U.S. institutes from an experiment that's been ongoing since 2009 is, if we may paraphrase Vice President Joe Biden, a big deal. Which is exactly why the mainstream media, with so much invested in global warming hysteria, is letting last week's announcement from CERN pass like a brief summer shower, ignoring it.


Sunday, August 28, 2011

Gore: Global warming skeptics are this generation’s racists

http://dailycaller.com/2011/08/28/gore-global-warming-skeptics-are-this-generations-racists/

One day climate change skeptics will be seen in the same negative light as racists, or so says former Vice President Al Gore.

In an interview with former advertising executive and Climate Reality Project collaborator Alex Bogusky broadcasted on UStream on Friday, Gore explained that in order for climate change alarmists to succeed, they must “win the conversation” against those who deny there is a crisis.

“I remember, again going back to my early years in the South, when the Civil Rights revolution was unfolding, there were two things that really made an impression on me,” Gore said. “My generation watched Bull Connor turning the hose on civil rights demonstrators and we went, ‘Whoa! How gross and evil is that?’ My generation asked old people, ‘Explain to me again why it is okay to discriminate against people because their skin color is different?’ And when they couldn’t really answer that question with integrity, the change really started.”

The former vice president recalled how society succeeded in marginalizing racists and said climate change skeptics must be defeated in the same manner.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Felonious Munk Presents: Stop It B! OBAMA PAY YOUR &*%$#% BILLS

Global Warming Link to Drowned Polar Bears Melts Under Searing Fed Probe

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45447
Polar bears drowning in an Alaskan sea because the ice packs are melting—it’s the iconic image of the global warming debate.

But the validity of the science behind the image—presented as an ignoble testament to our environment in peril by Al Gore in his film An Inconvenient Truth—is now part of a federal investigation that has the environmental community on edge.

Special agents from the Interior Department’s inspector general's office are questioning the two government scientists about the paper they wrote on drowned polar bears, suggesting mistakes were made in the math and as to how the bears actually died, and the department is eyeing another study currently underway on bear populations.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Oh, To Be a Teacher in Wisconsin

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703408604576164290717724956.html

The showdown in Wisconsin over fringe benefits for public employees boils down to one number: 74.2. That's how many cents the public pays Milwaukee public-school teachers and other employees for retirement and health benefits for every dollar they receive in salary. The corresponding rate for employees of private firms is 24.3 cents.

Gov. Scott Walker's proposal would bring public-employee benefits closer in line with those of workers in the private sector. And to prevent benefits from reaching sky-high levels in the future, he wants to restrict collective-bargaining rights.

The average Milwaukee public-school teacher salary is $56,500, but with benefits the total package is $100,005, according to the manager of financial planning for Milwaukee public schools. When I showed these figures to a friend, she asked me a simple question: "How can fringe benefits be nearly as much as salary?" The answers can be found by unpacking the numbers in the district's budget for this fiscal year...

Monday, January 10, 2011

Intensive logging created New England's rich wetlands

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927942.600-intensive-logging-created-new-englands-rich-wetlands.html

THOSE who enjoy the wetlands and seafood of New England's coastline may be surprised by who they have to thank: the loggers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In clearing vast tracts of land, those prolific loggers released so much sand and dirt that open-water bays turned into swamps.

While logging devastated the landscape, it had the opposite effect on the coast. The wetlands it boosted buffer the coastline from storms, stop pollutants in the ocean from reaching the shore, and shelter marine organisms. "No wetlands, no seafood," says Matthew Kirwan of the US Geological Survey in Laurel, Maryland.

For purists who favour returning New England to its natural state - and restoration is a multibillion-dollar endeavour - the theory presents a conundrum. Many New England marshes are much bigger than they were before the arrival of European settlers, says Kirwan, so restoring the environment to a "natural" state would mean losing much of the marshland and its benefits.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Boehner fires back at Dem senators with vow to push forward with repeal

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/135895-boehner-fires-back-at-dem-senators-with-vow-to-push-forward-with-repeal

Incoming House Speaker John Boehner's office (R-Ohio) pointedly vowed on Tuesday to push ahead with legislation repealing healthcare reform.

Boehner's office responded to a letter sent by the Senate's top five Democrats, vowing to block a House bill repealing healthcare reform, with a terse, 65-word note.

Boehner's office wrote:

Senators Reid, Durbin, Schumer, Murray and Stabenow:

Thank you for reminding us – and the American people – of the backroom deal that you struck behind closed doors with ‘Big Pharma,’ resulting in bigger profits for the drug companies, and higher prescription drug costs for 33 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Part D, at a cost to the taxpayers of $42.6 billion.

The House is going to pass legislation to repeal that now. You’re welcome.

- Speaker-Designate John Boehner’s Press Office