The less frequently published side of the climate change debate

October 31, 2023

One of the hottest issues occurring these days is the debate over whether we are harming the planet and threatening human life by burning fossil fuels and adding dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

There are many people on each side of this debate, including scientists. The more frequently expressed point of view in the media is the climate catastrophe side. But to add a strong opinion to the other side of that argument, the following information from Patrick Moore is offered.

Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace, a Canadian environmentalist who previously served as president of Greenpeace Canada and director of Greenpeace International.

In a video produced by Prager University, he presented his position. “All life is carbon based. And the carbon for all that life originates from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

“All of the carbon in the fossil fuels we are burning for energy today was once in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide before it was consumed by plankton in the sea and plants on the land. Coal, oil and natural gas are the remains of those planktons and plants transformed by heat and pressure deep in the Earth’s crust. 

“In other words, fossil fuels are 100 percent organic, and were produced with solar energy. Sounds positively green. 

“If there were no carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, the Earth would be a dead planet. Period. Talk about catastrophic climate change. Take away CO2 and you’d have it. 

“And yet the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed this essential ingredient for life a pollutant. But how can something that makes life possible be bad?” 

He went on to say that “carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas which is an indispensable food for all living things. Can you have too much of it? In theory, yes. That’s what climate alarmists say is happening now: CO2 levels are getting too high.

“Are they right? Well, if we look at the big picture, we find something surprising. For most of the history of life on Earth, carbon dioxide has been present in the atmosphere at much higher levels than it is today.”

Continuing, Moore said that “From a big picture perspective, we’re actually living in a low carbon dioxide era. The optimum level of CO2 for plant growth, for example, is four to five times what is currently found in our atmosphere. That’s why greenhouse growers worldwide actually inject additional CO2 into their greenhouses.”

That certainly is not a common perspective on CO2 and the environment.

Ian Plimer is a geologist and professor emeritus at the University of Melbourne. He spoke at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Challenge, a conference for climate change deniers. According to The Australian newspaper, in closing his speech, Plimer stated that "They’ve got us outnumbered, but we’ve got them outgunned, and that’s with the truth." 

An online video produced after the conference shows Plimer saying, “No one has ever shown that human emissions of carbon dioxide drive global warming. Never been shown. 

“And if it could be shown, then you would have to show that the 97 percent of emissions which are natural do not drive global warming. Game over.

“We are dealing with a fraud. That’s a scientific fraud from day one. We hear the propaganda that increases of the gas of life, a trace gas in the atmosphere, will bring a disaster. And that we will have runaway global warming. 

“Sorry, folks. We’ve known for 200 years from chemistry that it’s the exact inverse. When we drill into ice we have chemical fingerprints that tell us what the temperature was, and we have little bits of trapped air [to examine]. And we can show that when we had natural warming, some 650 to 6,000 years later we had an increase in carbon dioxide. 

“It’s not carbon dioxide that drives temperature, it’s the exact inverse. Another fraud.”

Godfrey William Bloom is a former British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament. His position on the argument is one that often arises when governments attempt to do something that many disagree with.

“Isn’t this really just about the state being able to get its hands in ordinary people’s trouser pockets to still get more tax from them,” he asked. “Isn’t this all about political control? Isn’t all of this about politics and big business?

“The whole thing’s a sham, this bogus hypothesis, this ridiculous nonsense that manmade CO2 is causing global warming.  Enough, please, before we damage irrevocably the global economy.”

It is crucial to recognize the need for carbon dioxide to sustain life, and also that it is possible to have too much of many things. But, if it is possible to have too much carbon dioxide, how much is actually too much? And, are we really there, yet?

This argument is not going to be resolved anytime soon. Both sides of the issue have strongly held positions. And neither side seems ready to give in to the other.

But it is important to have as many different ideas about important topics as possible so that after considering all relevant points, good decisions can be made.

Hamas attacks Israel, and Republican infighting stops the House

October 24, 2023

At about 6.30 a.m. — about dawn in Israel — on Saturday, October 7, the Jewish high holiday of Simchat Torah, the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas fired a huge barrage of at least 2,500 rockets across southern Israel. This served as cover for an unprecedented multi-pronged infiltration of fighters, as Palestinian gunmen crossed into Israel.

Some 1,400 innocent civilians, and around 250 military personnel, lost their lives in this attack, an attack aimed at civilians, not the military. About 250 people died at an outdoor music show. Others died in the streets and in their homes. 

Some were shot, others stabbed, and still others burned to death. Men, women, children and the elderly were summarily slaughtered, with some children killed in front of their parents. Parents were killed in front of their children. Babies were beheaded as their parents watched in horror. Another roughly 200 people were taken hostage by Hamas.

Obviously, this brought on a well-deserved response by Israel.

During the Israeli response, Hamas announced that Israeli forces had targeted a Palestinian hospital, and up to 500 innocent people were killed. And the news media jumped on this horrific story:

Hospital Strike Kills Hundreds – The Washington Post
Blast at Gaza Hospital Kills Hundreds – The Wall Street Journal
Blast Kills Hundreds at Gaza Hospital – The New York Times

The message being communicated supported the accusation of Hamas, against Israel. It was readily received, and acted upon by thousands.

Following the allegation by Hamas, Israel answered, not by confirming the allegation, not by challenging it, but by saying it was investigating the allegation.

And the investigation by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the investigation by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency have determined that no, the hospital was not hit by an Israeli missile or bomb, but by the failure of a rocket aimed at Israel by the Islamic Jihad, a terrorist partner of Hamas. Rockets fired by these terrorist groups have 20 percent to 30 percent failure rates.

Furthermore, the rocket did not hit the hospital and did not kill 500 people. It landed in the parking lot and, yes, there were some casualties, but numbers are not available.

Despite this important revelation, there is an enormous anti-Israel mood in our country. Protests began when Israel responded to the attack, and continued after the investigations showed Israel did not attack the hospital. Israel is blamed for starting the war, even though no country on Earth would just sit back after being savagely attacked, as Israel was.

And, there are anti-Israel protests in other countries, as well. 

Why are so many in America gathering for anti-Israel demonstrations, given the realities of this fighting? A country is viciously attacked by inhuman savages intentionally targeting and murdering civilian men, women and children, and thousands blame Israel for fighting back.

A lie posited by the terrorist group that carried out the attack that Israel intentionally bombed a hospital, killing 500 civilians is proven false, and yet thousands still blame Israel for this war.

At least two elected House of Representatives members — Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. — have and are spreading anti-Israel propaganda, further riling people up. 

Omar, born in Somalia, calling for a ceasefire, tweeted that “the IDF reportedly blowing up” the hospital is “horrific.”

Palestinian-American Tlaib, tweeted that “Israel just bombed the Baptist Hospital killing 500 Palestinians,” blaming the Biden Administration for failing to “facilitate a ceasefire and help de-escalate.”

Both women jumped the gun and automatically accepted the Hamas allegation, lacking any proof, and neither had deleted their statements, as of last week.

Radical Muslims in Middle East nations have long vowed to eliminate Israel and every Jewish person on the planet. They also believe in the “death to America” idea.

On the other side of the political aisle, House Republicans are racking up thousands of negative points by keeping the House from getting anything done over the House Speaker debacle.

When Kevin McCarthy, R-CA, was elected Speaker, he agreed to a totally absurd measure: the idea that the Speaker could be removed from the position if only one of the 435 members of the House made the motion to vacate the chair, and a majority voted for the motion. In agreeing to this, McCarthy was trying to resolve the choice of a Speaker, which had gone through 16 unsuccessful votes.

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz stepped into that mudhole, making the motion to vacate the chair and McCarthy was removed with a vote that included eight Republicans. Eight Republicans constitute only about 3.6 percent of the Republican majority. But along with 100 percent of the Democrats McCarthy was removed, and chaos has ensued. 

Gaetz’ partners in crime are: Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Matt Rosendale of Montana.

The Gaetz Eight has shown the world that petty politics is more important to them than doing the job they were elected to do.

Israelis are being blamed for responding to the terrorist attack

October 17, 2023

Some of the reactions to the brutal terrorist attack on Israel last weekend are stunning. 

Rushing to the defense of the Palestinians who live in Gaza, people all over the world are condemning the Israelis for responding to these brutal attacks. They say that Israel started the war, and that the brutal attack against the Jewish people was warranted.

Quite a few Americans have taken that position, and many that hold that position are on college campuses. Given what goes on at many colleges and universities these days, maybe that isn’t so strange.

But, what exactly is Gaza? It is a Palestinian territory along the West Bank of Israel, which Israel gave up nearly two decades ago, and has been governed by the political and militant Islamist group Hamas. Since 2007, the area has been under blockade by both Israel and Egypt because of the presence of Hamas.

And many people accuse Israel of going after Palestinians in response to the attack. But Israel’s response isn’t against the Palestinian people, it is against Hamas terrorists, who are supported by Iran. The Palestinians in Gaza live with and are governed by Hamas.  

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank based in Washington, DC, polled Palestinians in East Jerusalem and in the Gaza Strip last summer. The results show that 64 percent of East Jerusalem Palestinians have at least a positive opinion of Hamas, as do 57 percent in the Gaza Strip.

News reports tell us that at least 1,300 people — including 265 soldiers — were killed in Israel in the terrorist attack, and more than 3,300 were injured. At least 29 Americans were killed, as were other non-Israelis, and an  unknown number of Americans may be hostages.

An estimated 260 innocent Israelis were murdered at a music festival by Hamas. And others were shot and burned in their homes and on the streets. Women, children and the elderly were murdered by the terrorists. These are not the legitimate victims of war. They were the deliberate targets of vicious barbarians, not normal human beings.

Students at several colleges and universities across the country held pro-Palestinian/anti-Israeli demonstrations following the beginning of the Israeli response to Saturday’s attack. There were also pro-Israeli factions present.

Lawrence Jones, a co-host of “Fox and Friends,” a weekday program on the Fox News Channel, spoke with pro-Palestinian protesters at Hunter College in New York City. He asked them how they could support the beheading of children and the raping of women in Israel by the Hamas terrorists. 

One of the female demonstrators responded, "I support decolonization and the liberation of Palestinian people and the end of a mass genocide in the Gaza Strip."

"Are you talking about the genocide of the kids being beheaded?" Jones asked. 

“That's false. That is actually false," she responded, claiming that "Israel is notorious for creating propaganda" so they can "massacre" Palestinians. The female protester then said, "I stand with the Palestinian people unequivocally." 

And when another female protester was asked about the brutality of Hamas, she answered, "That was already proven that didn't really happen," adding that "The U.S. military money that goes there, $4 billion a year should stop going to Israel to support their war crimes."

A male protester appeared unaware of the reports of Israeli children being slaughtered and women being raped and dragged through the streets. 

"The kids there were beheaded," Jones told him. "Wait, Jewish kids?" he responded.

Are these students completely denied news about what is going on, or do they avoid those news items in favor of their chosen narrative? Are they taught to be anti-Israel? They obviously not understand that by blaming Israel for starting the conflict that led to the brutal attack by Hamas, they are supporting terrorism, defending murder, rape, and unimaginable savagery.

Ben Shapiro, a conservative political commentator, who is Jewish, issued the following comment: “Every single part of the suffering occurring in Gaza is Hamas' fault. For those too slow to understand, I'll break it down into small words. Israel abandoned the Gaza Strip in 2005. It is now 2023. Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2006. 

“Hamas is in control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas is in control of its own civilians. Those civilians live under the rule of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Those civilians are Hamas' responsibility. 

“Hamas is holding hostages. It is a war crime to place civilians in front of military targets. It is a war crime to shield your rockets with children. It is a war crime to put hostages in a war zone to try to prevent bombings. 

“All of these are war crimes. Every ounce of blood that is spilled, every building that is taken down, and every ugly photo you see from Gaza is the fault of Hamas. It's that simple. There is no duality about this.”

For various reasons, many people dislike the Jewish people. And their hatred blinds them to reality in situations like this, and they fall for the false narrative put forth to shift blame to the Jews when conflicts arise.

The true story must be told, and be heard.

Coal has been and will be an important factor in our lives

 

October 10, 2023

Some of us remember the days of many years ago being in downtown Bluefield, West Virginia and looking at the then-Norfolk & Western railyard, and seeing dozens, perhaps hundreds of train cars filled with coal, waiting to be taken to market. We also saw dozens of empty cars waiting to be taken to the mines to be refilled.

Those were the days when Bluefield, southern West Virginia and southwest Virginia were bustling with businesses and higher populations, largely due to a vibrant coal industry. But, alas, things began to change, and Bluefield and the surrounding area are much different today as a result.

Changes to coal’s popularity and broad usage have had a big impact on our area and other coal-producing areas. Some of the change was due to normal evolution, as other fuels became more popular and took more of the market. 

But more recently it has been a deliberate effort to kill coal as a fuel, highlighted by President Joe Biden and his fellow “progressives” as they drive toward the goal of killing fossil fuels in the name of protecting the environment.

In addition to, or perhaps a part of that effort is the announcement by former New York City mayor and billionaire Michael Bloomberg of a $500 million commitment to expand the Beyond Carbon campaign. Its goal is to close the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants, to cut natural gas plant capacity in half, and stop any new gas plants from being opened within the next six years.

An email from the West Virginia Coal Association (WVCA) contains a statement from the president of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, Rachel Gleason. She commented that “It is an absolute attack on our state, our livelihoods, and our families. It is un-American that someone would use their wealth to destroy our state and nation’s industrial base and also seek to send a large segment of the 381,000 American workers in industry to the unemployment line while destabilizing electric reliability and security in America.” 

Likewise, our area will be further affected by this action. And Chris Hamilton, President of the West Virginia Coal Association, expressed his concerns about the future if this effort continues: “Energy experts agree that the U.S. will not have enough reliable energy production to meet demand, and Bloomberg’s efforts, if successful, may result in black- and brown-outs across the country. Bloomberg, the ultra-liberal national Democrat Party, and their environmental extremist group co-conspirators are marching America off an energy cliff and dooming American families to darker days.”  

This also concerns other coal-producing states. Wyoming’s Mining Association Executive Director, Travis Deti, also commented on this development. “It truly is astonishing to see an eccentric billionaire spend his fortune on cutting off people’s electricity. Bloomberg should be held accountable for his callous actions.”

In a communication from the WVCA, Hamilton tells about the coal industry today, and paints the dismal picture that West Virginia faces: “Remarkably, there’s been over $8 billion dollars in new investments in West Virginia mining operations over the past several years, including approximately $2 billion in 2022-2023. These investment dollars may not be of much value to those chasing shiny objects or, like President Biden, forcing a questionable transition away from fossil energy, but to 50,000-plus West Virginians who show up at a mine every day it is extremely important, and will serve to keep our state’s coal industry a vital part of West Virginia’s economy for decades to come.

“The impact the production of met coal alone has on West Virginia is significant, generating approximately $9.6 billion in total economic activity, supporting about 30,500 jobs, contributing nearly $554 million in tax revenue for US state and local governments, and producing about $2.5 billion in labor income in 2019. West Virginia is the leading producer of met coal nationally and we supplied nearly 63 percent of all the met coal distributed to U.S. coke plants.

“The coal industry also provides jobs in predominantly more rural areas of the state, allowing employees who choose to work in the sector the opportunity to stay in their communities.”

Whether the efforts of Biden and the others in the manic drive away from fossil fuels are built upon a true concern for the environment, or just one more effort to increase the level of control government has over the people it is designed to serve, is open to debate.

But if they were giving any value to the many scientists who say the war on CO2 is based upon faulty data, and that the country will not be able to function satisfactorily without a substantial amount of fossil fuel energy for many years in the future, they would not be so blindly determined to continue this war.

Some of the information presented comes from America's Coal Associations (ACA) which represent 381,000 American Workers and $261 billion in America’s economy. The ACA issued its statement on behalf of a dozen coal organizations across the country.

The problems of killing coal and the other fossil fuels are far from over.

Biden administration: gas cars are racist and a problem

October 3, 2023

Back in 2021 the Biden administration said that its proposed $2 trillion infrastructure program would expand mass transit and launch an era of green energy.  Adding another feature to that, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that it would also reverse the “racist” history of America’s highway system.

Buttigieg has now appointed 24 new members to the Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity. This is an Obama-era committee that former President Donald Trump shut down, and Buttigieg is reviving it.

This move harkens back to President Joe Biden’s executive order shortly after taking office that instructs federal agencies to "pursue a comprehensive approach to advancing equity for all." Agency heads are to conduct an “equity assessment” to identify policies that create "systemic barriers" in minority communities.

America’s once sensible and productive idea of people getting recognition or a position based on their earning it through performance is being challenged by the idea that everyone gets the good positions without regard to their abilities and performance. This began years ago when, so as to not make anyone in a group who didn’t win or place high feel bad, everyone started being given participation trophies, or ribbons, or something.

Two members of the Committee have made some interesting comments. Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, who has been identified as a "spatial policy scholar," said "all cars are bad" given that they cause "a myriad of environmental issues and conditions." The other member, Veronica Davis, is a self-described "transportation nerd," and said that cars perpetuate "systemic racism" and are therefore "the problem" in our transportation system.

Marpillero-Colomina said that she is not "advocating for a complete erasure" of cars but thinks America needs to end its reliance on private motor vehicles. She asked, "How can we reimagine streets to prioritize people instead of cars? How can we create streets that are inclusive of modes other than cars?"

Along the same line of thinking, Biden is set on getting rid of gas-powered cars in favor of electric ones. And there are now regulations in the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Safety Administration that require automakers to ensure that two-thirds of the new vehicles they sell by 2030 are electric vehicles.

It does not seem to matter to Biden and his fellow travelers that lots of people do not want electric vehicles, and lots of people cannot afford an electric vehicle. The batteries do not last forever, and cost thousands of dollars to replace.

It is also important to recognize that while driving EVs is far cleaner than driving gas and diesel vehicles, the production of the lithium-ion batteries for EVs is a process involving a huge amount of mining and the use of fossil fuels. It is very energy-intensive and is very damaging to the environment. This process may equal the pollution of driving conventional vehicles. 

When their lives are over EV batteries have to be dismantled to recycle the valuable contents. They also contain hazardous materials that must be handled with care. Further, only about 5 percent of batteries are able to be recycled. Some of the contents of batteries that are just thrown away are harmful to the environment. 

It also seems unimportant to those that champion EVs that by going overboard on EVs we are dependent upon China for much of the materials for batteries. 

The U.S. ranks 15th among the 25 nations producing lithium-ion battery metals like cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and nickel, according to BloombergNEF in 2021. And the U.S. is expected to only move up two places in that ranking by 2025.

Sources predict that Japan, now in 12th place, will move up four places as things progress, and that is a good thing. However, China will likely maintain its dominance for the foreseeable future.

And then there is the problem of being able to support the additional demand for electricity when two-thirds of new vehicles are EV by 2030. And remember, much of our electricity is still produced by burning fossil fuels.

While burning less gasoline, diesel fuel, coal, oil and natural gas is a good thing, the actual value of this reduction depends upon what is going on while changing from fossil fuels to wind, solar and EVs. And when you look at all of the information objectively, at this point in time we likely will be causing a lot of problems for people -- like higher prices for so many things and many items we like and need will no longer be available, thanks to administration regulations -- without really making much of a difference in the amount of CO2 that America produces. 

And in considering that tiny improvement in CO2 production, when you recognize that China, India and some other countries are not trying to lessen CO2 production, but are actually increasing it, and all this discomfort and increased expense on the American people is for naught.

Someday, when things naturally progress to that point, wind and solar power will be easily the best way to go, and perhaps EVs will also make sense. That day is a long way off.

Will the United States survive under a world government?

September 26, 2023

A one-world government has been the dream of many people across the globe for a long time. Some think of the United Nations as a world government, but it is not. It is, however, along with many others, favoring one.

This idea is called The Great Reset. This is not a new development. It has been around since at least 1992, and some say 1971 when the World Economic Forum, which was originally founded as the European Management Forum, came into existence.

And its critics say that if The Great Reset takes place, the American form of government of mostly free markets, personal freedoms and a somewhat-limited federal government with open elections will be replaced with a world body that does not support the conservative ideals of the United States, like private ownership of property, individual choice, and free enterprise. Its ballot box will provide only one choice. That system is commonly referred to as “communism.”

Supporters charge that criticisms are conspiracy theories that totally misrepresent the stated goals of The Great Reset. But those criticisms require a good, thoughtful look.

Two well-known people in the world have made public statements about a unique opportunity that recently presented itself.

In June 2020, “the Prince of Wales and the head of the annual Davos summit launched an initiative calling for the pandemic to be seen as a chance for what they called a Great Reset of the global economy,” the BBC network reported. In a video about this, the Prince of Wales — England’s former Prince Charles, and now King Charles — said the following: "We have an incredible opportunity to create entirely new sustainable industries. The time to act is now."

The BBC report then turned to the second well-known person. “The other founder of the initiative is Prof. Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum, which organizes an annual summit in a Swiss ski resort for some of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people.”

“He explained the idea behind the Great Reset in an article accompanying the launch: ‘The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future.’”

Now, neither of those statements actually contain details which would scare people away from The Great Reset. For as with all ideas up for sale, it is portrayed in very positive terms. 

But let’s not forget the message of 2010 regarding “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” a process that began with former President Barack Obama that is underway in the Biden administration, and has put the country in a seriously troubled condition.

In an article in Hillsdale College’s “Imprimis” publication — “What Is the Great Reset?” — author Michael Rectenwald, the Chief Academic Officer of the American Scholars organization, offers this description. “The Great Reset aims to usher in a bewildering economic amalgam — Schwab’s stakeholder capitalism — which I have called “corporate socialism” and Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben has called “communist capitalism.” 

“This is the ‘social justice’ aspect of the Great Reset,” Rectenwald wrote. “To comply with that, governments, banks, and asset managers use the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) index to squeeze non-woke corporations and businesses out of the market. The ESG index is essentially a social credit score that is used to drive ownership and control of production away from the non-woke or non-compliant.” 

In short, it will be a system where people and businesses are forced into compliance with a narrow set of “social justice” ideals, without the freedom to explore other ideas. Hence the references by Rectenwald and Agamben to “socialism” and “communism.”

In 2020, Schwab and author Thierry Malleret published a book called COVID-19: The Great Reset. In it, “Schwab and Malleret pit ‘stakeholder capitalism’ against ‘neoliberalism,’ defining the latter as ‘a corpus of ideas and policies . . . favouring competition over solidarity, creative destruction over government intervention, and economic growth over social welfare,’” Rectenwald wrote. 

“In other words,” he explains, “‘neoliberalism’ refers to the free enterprise system. In opposing that system, stakeholder capitalism entails corporate cooperation with the state and vastly increased government intervention in the economy.”

Tom DeWeese, President of the American Policy Center describes our future this way: “The rule of law in our Republic, designed to insure individual rights from intrusive government, is being replaced by an undefined term called social justice, which demands that the concerns of interest groups supersede the inherent rights of the individual.”

“Further, the interests of the United States of America now tend to take a back seat to those of something called the ‘Global Commons.’ National identities and individual religions are being morphed into non-descript and indistinguishable arrangements called global religion. 

“The teaching of history has become an exercise in group-promotion and political correctness,” DeWeese wrote, “with little regard for truth. Science has been reduced to nothing more than a convenient tool to promote political agendas. Self-determination is being replaced with group-think.”

This plan wouldn’t have much effect on some nations, and may be an improvement for some. But for others — most especially the United States of America — The Great Reset as it is described would be a catastrophe.

Increasing federal control reduces our constitutional freedoms

September 19, 2023

Actions by those in positions of authority to push the boundaries of that authority took a huge step recently when New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued a public health order outlining efforts to combat gun violence in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County. 

“I’m going to continue pushing to make sure that all of us are using every resource available to put an end to this public health emergency with the urgency it deserves,” she said. “I will not accept the status quo. Enough is enough.”

A provision of that public health order temporarily suspended both the open and concealed carrying of firearms in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo County by those who had been granted carry permits by the state government.

The violations would result in civil penalties, not criminal penalties, but the fines imposed could be up to $5,000 per violation.

This action attempted to suspend rights guaranteed to the people by the U.S. Constitution, and that action brought swift and harsh criticism from both sides of the political aisle, and resulted in law suits against the action.

In response, U.S. District Court Judge David Urias agreed with plaintiffs who pointed out the violation of constitutional rights. He granted a temporary restraining order to block the suspension of gun rights. The order will remain in place until an Oct. 3 court hearing.

The rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution cannot be suspended on the whim of a mere elected official, whether that official is the president, a governor, an attorney general or a mayor. Yet this woman believed she had that authority in order to combat a local problem, a problem that many of her constituents argue is really not that much of a problem.

Recently we have seen government mandates and restrictions on our freedoms during the Covid pandemic, and others ostensibly to save the planet from climate change due to too much CO2 in the atmosphere.

The actions taken during Covid, and currently to combat the climate change that many people believe in, may actually have been taken for the best of reasons. However, they also constitute restrictions on the personal freedoms that the United States is known for. And they frequently inconvenience people and raise prices on things they want and need.

We recently increased our level of energy independence, but it was wiped out almost as soon as President Joe Biden took office. That forced the purchasing of materials and fuels from other countries like China and Russia, raised fuel prices substantially, and put thousands out of work. 

And, by the way, American oil and natural gas are the cleanest in the world. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., noted recently that “If we replaced Russian natural gas in Europe [with American natural gas], for one year, just one year, that would lower 215 million tons of emissions because our natural gas is 41 percent cleaner than Russian natural gas.” Biden’s war on fossil fuels has negatively affected his goal of reducing CO2 emissions.

Biden’s efforts to kill fossil fuels now has him campaigning to do away with gas-burning stoves, furnaces, fireplace logs and grills; creating stricter specifications for common appliances like clothes washers and dryers, dishwashers, and others that will substantially increase the cost of those products.

There is the manic effort to decrease gas- and diesel-powered vehicles in favor of electric vehicles that cost much more, depend almost entirely upon China and other countries for the materials to build their batteries, and require fewer American employees to produce them than conventional vehicles. And then there is the needed enormous increase in our electric grid to be able to recharge these tens of thousands of EVs that Biden wants.

The Department of Justice not long ago involved itself in a local matter. When parents attended school board meetings to register their displeasure with some things that were going on in the school their children attended, the DOJ labeled them “domestic terrorists.” 

Even if the parents were behaving inappropriately, or even violently, it is not the job of the federal government to become involved in state or local matters. That is how our republic is designed.

This nation was formed by the several states that united for that purpose. They did not give up their right to control themselves in local matters by creating a federal government. The states still have a large degree of sovereignty that is protected by terms of the U.S. Constitution.

What we are seeing is an increasing effort by Democrats to empower the federal government to control virtually everything that goes on in our country. They are “fundamentally transforming” the country. 

That contradicts two of the primary goals of the Founders of the United States of America: a large degree of personal freedom, and a federal government limited in its power.

If this power-grab is allowed to continue, the once-great United States of America will some day in the future degenerate into just another Cuba or Venezuela, as the protections provided by the Constitution are gradually erased.  It will be a country whose citizens are at the mercy of autocrats who have complete control.

Democrats are working against principles of the United States

September 12, 2023

Big city Democrat mayors have brought attention to themselves through poor policy decisions. Folks like Chicago’s former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, D.C.’s Muriel Bowser, and New York City’s former Mayor Bill de Blasio, are among those who have distinguished themselves with dramatic failures.

After de Blasio’s horrible tenure as New York City’s mayor, many people thought that nearly anyone would be an improvement. And so, when the news that the person elected to succeed him was a former police captain with 20 years of service, many were encouraged. The possibility of another Rudy Giuliani was shining brightly.

Alas, Eric Adams has not lived up to those positive expectations. 

He has struggled with the difficult task of dealing with 110,000 illegal aliens in his city, and he has been openly critical of this nation-wide problem.

He has correctly said that this crisis may well destroy New York City. But he criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for sending some of the millions of illegals coming into Texas to other places, like New York City, calling him a “madman.”

Adams, you may remember, proudly supported the sanctuary city/state concept. Yes, he would welcome a few illegal “migrants,” while Texas and other border states have had to contend with millions of them. And now that he’s faced with a tiny fraction of what Texas has to deal with, he is outraged.

He went so far as to criticize former President Donald Trump for starting this influx. Trump, however, was the guy who was building a border wall to slow or stop the invasion of illegals, and started the “Remain in Mexico” idea, which kept asylum seekers in Mexico until their hearing date. These things Joe Biden cancelled when he became President.

Trump pushed for dramatic changes to the immigration system, but he faced opposition from Congress and the courts. The rush began after Trump left office, and Adams darned well knows that.

Why will Adams not correctly identify the real cause of this dangerous nationwide crisis? Could it be because he supported Joe Biden for President, and continues to support him?

And, why is it illegal for Texas to protect itself and its citizens from this invasion of millions of illegals by using buoys in the Rio Grande River to discourage illegal crossings? This is the responsibility of the federal government, but it refuses to secure the border, against the intent and instruction of the U.S. Constitution, and then sues the state for trying to do the federal government’s job and protect itself.

On another topic, Democrats in California’s State Assembly recently passed a bill that would require judges in child custody cases to consider whether a parent has affirmed a child’s “gender transition” by making “gender affirmation” an equal part of a child’s “health, safety, and welfare” under state law.

The bill, AB 957, passed the Assembly by a vote of 57-16 along party lines, and the state Senate also passed the bill along party lines by a 30-9 vote. And Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to sign the bill into law. 

The bill was written by a Suisan City Democrat Assembly member, Lori Wilson, whose child identifies as transgender, and was co-sponsored by State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco.

Parents could actually lose custody of their children if they refuse to participate in a child’s transgender efforts. Under the bill’s mandates, they will have failed to provide for the “health, safety, and welfare” of their child.

Somehow, in the minds of California Democrats, adults who are parents could run afoul of this bill if it becomes law for disagreeing with their elementary school, middle school, or high school child on whether they are mature enough to understand what is going on, and in opposing the child’s decision on what to do about it. 

And in their effort to protect their child from making a life-altering and potentially dangerous decision, they will be considered guilty of failing to provide for the child’s health, safety, and welfare. Do we have logic anymore?

Parents are responsible for their children’s lives, from the beginning until they go out on their own. Not the government, not the school system, not classroom teachers. Encouraging children to transition, and teachers, administrators and school boards hiding it from their parents, should be a felony.

Efforts by the left to replace parents and rule over the development and indoctrination of the youngest generation is un-American. But of course, the ultimate goal of the left is “to fundamentally transform the United States of America,” as then-presidential candidate Barack Obama said several years ago.

Fearing another term as president for Donald Trump, Democrats are trying to get everyone to believe that Trump is as evil as Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Hussein, Castro or Vlad the Impaler. 

Interestingly, to prevent Trump from running in 2024 the Democrats are employing the same tactics to put him in jail or otherwise keep him off the ballot as those tyrants they compare him to employed against their citizenry.

And isn’t it interesting that the crimes that Trump is accused of committing happened years ago, but no action was taken until the campaign began for the 2024 election?

Biden’s weak approach to China aggression must end

September 5, 2023

We hear and read many things about China and its aggression against America. Who can forget the recent spy balloon incident? But they are also buying up farm land near military bases; sending students to our universities to work their way into ground-breaking research projects; and stealing intellectual property from companies in America. 

On January 28, the Chinese balloon began floating over the United States, starting over Alaska and after crossing the country until it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina on February 4. That path took the balloon over several military bases. The route the balloon followed received attention from NBC News. 

“It was a troubling claim made by a key member of Congress with access to top secret information,” the NBC report said. “If you plotted the trajectory of the Chinese spy balloon, it’d mirror where the nation's most sensitive and powerful weapons are stored.”

“If you ask somebody to draw an X at every place where our sensitive missile defense sites, our nuclear weapons infrastructure, our nuclear weapon sites are, you would put them all along this path,” said Rep. Mike Turner, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The Chinese explanation was, of course, not an admission of guilt: It was a civilian (mainly meteorological) airship that had been blown off course, they said.

A Pew Research poll shows that Americans view China as our greatest threat. When asked which nation posed the greatest threat, 50 percent named China, 17 percent named Russia, and 2 percent named North Korea.

Last year, CBS News reported that “A new report by Boston-based cybersecurity firm, Cybereason, has unearthed a malicious campaign — dubbed Operation CuckooBees — exfiltrating hundreds of gigabytes of intellectual property and sensitive data, including blueprints, diagrams, formulas, and manufacturing-related proprietary data from multiple intrusions, spanning technology and manufacturing companies in North America, Europe, and Asia.

 “’We're talking about Blueprint diagrams of fighter jets, helicopters, and missiles,’ Cybereason CEO Lior Div told CBS News. “In pharmaceuticals, ‘we saw them stealing IP of drugs around diabetes, obesity, depression.’ The campaign has not yet been stopped.”

“Alarms went off in Washington when the Fufeng Group, a Chinese agricultural company, bought 300 acres of land and set up a milling plant last spring in Grand Forks, N.D,” the Wall Street Journal reported last September.

The plant is less than a half-hour drive from an important U.S. Air Force base. U.S. Senator John Hoeven, R-N.D., said that Grand Forks Air Force Base hosts a space mission that “will form the backbone of U.S. military communications across the globe.”

“The deal shouldn’t have taken the federal government by surprise. U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland leapt more than 20-fold in a decade, from $81 million in 2010 to $1.8 billion in 2020,” the Journal report said. 

“Beijing hasn’t outlined a strategy, but large-scale state backing for these investments indicates there is one. In 2013 the government-owned Bank of China loaned $4 billion to Hong Kong-headquartered WH Group, the world’s largest pork producer, to buy Virginia’s Smithfield Foods. WH now controls much of the U.S. pork supply and revenue because of the deal.”

American Military News added to this development that before the Fufeng Group purchased the Grand Fork property, “another Chinese firm had begun efforts to buy up around 140,000 acres of land located about 70 miles from Laughlin Air Force Base. That Chinese Firm, Guanghui Energy Co. Ltd, wanted to build a massive wind farm known as the Blue Hills Wind Project.” Laughlin AFB is located in Del Rio, Texas.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has made the following statement about China’s relationship with the U.S. “The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favorable to China.

“At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions. 

“China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response. The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat.”

“U.S. and allied policymakers are facing the most important foreign-policy challenge of the 21st century,” Foreign Policy magazine reported last October. “China’s power is peaking; so is the political position of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) domestic strength. In the long term, China’s likely decline after this peak is a good thing. But right now, it creates a decade of danger from a system that increasingly realizes it only has a short time to fulfill some of its most critical, long-held goals.”

The tactics implemented by the CCP against American interests are not new, and are continuing. As they continue and increase, China gets stronger while the U.S. becomes more vulnerable.

China’s post-Covid economic rebound is fizzling. The U.S. must cease activities that support its economy, reclaim Chinese land and other subversive purchases, and strongly oppose the CCP’s aggressions. The Biden administration’s weak approach to the China threat must end.

The introduction of wokeness into our military weakens it

August 29, 2023

Last July a retired U.S. Army general spoke to an audience on the state of the nation’s military forces. Thomas Spoehr attained the rank of Lt. General in his career spanning more than 36 years in uniform. During that time, he served in positions in the Pentagon, with the 82nd Airborne Division, the 1st Armored Division, and as Deputy Commanding General of U.S. Forces in Iraq.

Spoehr was concerned with some things that had transpired that worked against the efficiency and strength of our military, and shared his concerns with the audience at the AWC Family Foundation Lecture Series at Hillsdale College. Following are some of his concerns. 

In 2015, a U.S. Marine Corps study concluded that gender-integrated combat formations did not move as quickly or shoot as accurately, and that women were twice as likely as men to suffer combat injuries. The study was rejected by then-Secretary of the Navy, Ray Maybus.

Later, the Department of Defense under Secretary Ashton Carter opened all military combat jobs to women, committing to “gender-neutral standards” that ensured that female service members would meet the requirements. The Army began to put in place the gender-neutral test promised by Carter. 

However, after finding that women were not scoring as highly as men, the Army threw out the test. Now there is no test to determine whether any soldier can meet the fitness requirements for combat specialties.

Also, that year, President Barack Obama initiated a change to the Pentagon’s longstanding policy on transgender individuals in the military. But after he was elected President, Donald Trump put that change on hold. His Defense Secretary, James Mattis, had information showing, among other things, that transgender individuals suffering from gender dysphoria attempted suicide and experienced severe anxiety at nine times the rate of the general population.

The Trump administration then imposed restrictions on military service personnel suffering from gender dysphoria. However, as one of his first actions, newly elected President Joe Biden signed an executive order that cancelled those restrictions and allowed all transgender individuals to participate in our military services. Later, Biden’s administration allowed active duty military personnel to take time off from their duties to have sex-change surgery, related hormones and drugs, which would be paid for by taxpayers.

The Biden administration has also removed a policy that prohibited personnel with HIV from serving in combat zones, due to the need for special medications and the danger of transmission through shared blood. 

And in recent years, our military’s strenuous physical fitness standard has been weakened, with the goal of “leveling the playing field.” This allows people previously not up to the physical standard to now serve.

In July of last year, a drag queen story hour was scheduled at the base library of Ramstein Air Base in Germany. A drag queen was going to read to children of Air Force personnel stationed there. However, when this news reached lawmakers in the U.S., who complained to the Secretary of the Air Force, the event was cancelled.

Also, in 2021, the Navy released a video instructing Navy personnel that they need to create a “safe space for everybody.” This includes using “inclusive language,” such as saying “hey everybody,” instead of “hey guys.” Spoehr wondered what other “woke” changes might follow. 

Taking things a few steps further down the path, Biden required through an executive order that all organizations in the military services must create Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) offices, and to produce DEI plans and track the progress toward those goals. The purpose of this is to advance “equity for all.”

Spoehr also mentioned that Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the idea that capitalism is racist are also being used to indoctrinate personnel. The charge of CRT being used was denied by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, but Spoehr said much evidence contradicts Austin’s denial. 

Legislation introduced this year in Congress would halt the use of CRT, the creation of diversity offices, and the easing of physical requirements. Whether this legislation will pass is an open question.

In a write-up of Spoehr’s address printed in Hillsdale’s publication, “Imprimis,” is this: “Wokeness also comes in the form of conflating the mission of the military with environmental ideology. A year ago, President Biden told a group of overseas Air Force airmen that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had determined that the greatest threat facing America was global warming—a claim the Joint Chiefs had to walk back. 

“In the same vein, Biden signed an executive order imposing a massive regime of environmental goals and requirements for the Department of Defense. These goals included transitioning to all electric non-tactical vehicles by 2035, carbon-free electricity for military installations by that same year, and net zero emissions from those installations by 2050. As a result, the Pentagon recently announced it will devote over $3 billion of its already stretched-thin military budget to climate-related initiatives in 2023 alone.”

The job and responsibility of the U.S. military is to protect and defend the United States. Social experimentation and political ideology weaken its ability. The military must have at every position the best qualified and capable person possible, regardless of race or gender.

The fundamental transformation of the United States is well underway

August 22, 2023

Way back when Barack Obama was campaigning for President of the United States he famously said, “we are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

Years later, in an interview with then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly, then-President Obama somewhat walked back his statement. But looking at what has happened between Obama’s original statement and today, it is pretty obvious that the Democrats are indeed working to fundamentally transform the country.

Democrats are increasingly comfortable attacking foundational principles and elements of American governance. Here are some of the efforts now underway.

They want to enlarge the U.S. Supreme Court by adding Democrat appointees to it. Unhappy with recent rulings, they want to add more liberal justices to the Court. 

This idea ignores the reality that the judicially conservative justices they want to put in the minority make rulings based upon existing law and constitutional principles that are understood today as when they were enacted. They are “originalists.” 

Democrats prefer instead to change these principles using a liberal majority on the Court. They want to pack it with justices who will reinterpret laws, not support them as intended.

They favor doing away with the Electoral College. One point made to support this transformation is that in a democracy, the winner of the popular vote should be President. However, as has been said here and elsewhere before, the United States is not a pure democracy; it is a republic. Thus, by design, not all decisions are to be made by 50 percent-plus-one vote.

And, only four times in the election of 46 Presidents in over 240 years has the Electoral College been in conflict with the popular vote. 

However, without the balancing of the varied interests of Americans provided by the Electoral College, every Presidential election would be decided by the big states and big cities. The rest of the country would be at their mercy. It is not what the Founders believed was best, nor is it in the best interest of all Americans for Presidents to be forever selected by a few states.

“Democrats in the Senate have introduced legislation to make Washington, DC a state, and they’re seeing overwhelming support,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote in an email. More than 40 Senators support this idea, including Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, but not West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

“Democrats know they can’t win with standard tactics,” McCaarthy wrote, “so they’re making a power play by trying to flip the game board to their advantage!” 

But here is why it can’t happen: Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution provides explicitly for a national capital that would not be part of a state nor treated as a state. It is a neutral district where representatives of all the states can meet on an equal footing to conduct the nation’s business. DC as a state, or any state, would carry too much power.

Federal regulations — both existing and planned — are limiting Americans’ ability to choose items they want and need, and making many things more difficult and expensive to produce.

Gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles are discouraged in favor of electric vehicles. Many household appliances that work on natural gas or other fuels are targeted for replacement, as are incandescent lightbulbs.

The massive set of federal regulations tell Americans things they can no longer do, and things they can no longer purchase. 

All of this is done under the premise of making things better. But ultimately, they increase the control that the federal government, under Democrat control, will hold over the people, and reduce our freedoms.

Biden’s failure to adequately secure the southern border, as required by the Constitution and laws, has allowed a huge increase in illegals entering the country.

“According to Customs and Border Protection, since January 2021 when Biden took the oath of office, there have been 5,118,661 encounters with illegal immigrants along the southern border,” as reported by Townhall.com. “Add to that the number of known ‘gotaways,’” which are illegal immigrants who were not apprehended.

“Through the first half of Biden's term from January 2021 through January 2023, Customs and Border Protection reported 1.2 million ‘gotaways.’”

While most of these people may be good people looking for a better life, others carry disease, are criminals or drug or child traffickers. The negative effects of illegals on cities and states is enormous, and the number of drug deaths has climbed.

Further, these illegal “residents” may eventually be given citizen status by the Democrat administration, without earning it, as in the past. This is both foolish and dangerous.

The ideas of Democrats/liberals/socialists are unable to win among all Americans on their merit. So, they want to gain control over the rest of us, and will do nearly anything to gain that position, and fundamental transformation is their number one tool.

And in the pure democracy into which they want to transform America, on a vote to end all fossil fuel uses, ban guns, limit free speech, have abortion after birth, or any wild idea, all it will take is a 50 percent-plus-one vote to accomplish that, or a Supreme Court with “law makers” instead of “law interpreters.”

The problems associated with recycling plastics

August 15, 2023

The climate change faction, to which the Biden administration belongs, wants to do away with fossil fuels. But what they may not realize is that in addition to being fuel, some fossil fuels, like oil and natural gas, are basic elements in many things the American people need and want.

“Petrochemicals derived from oil and natural gas make the manufacturing of over 6,000 everyday products and high-tech devices possible,” Energy.gov tells us. 

“Major petrochemicals—including ethylene, propylene, acetylene, benzene, and toluene, as well as natural gas constituents like methane, propane, and ethane—are the feedstock chemicals for the production of many of the items we use and depend on every day. Modern life relies on the availability of these products that are made in the United States and across the globe.”

Energy.gov lists 161 of the 6,000 items that are made from oil and natural gas. The list includes: artificial limbs, asphalt, aspirin, awnings, backpacks, balloons, caulking, electric blankets, electrical tape, enamel, epoxy paint, eyeglasses, fan belts, faucet washers, fertilizers, hearing aids, heart valves, house paint, ink, insect repellent, insecticides, insulation, iPad/iPhone, petroleum jelly, pharmaceuticals, plastics, life jackets, light-weight aircraft, roofing, refrigerants, vinyl flooring, vitamin capsules, tires, tool boxes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, transparent tape, water pipes, wind turbine blades, and many more.

Many of those products are valuable and useful, so the mania to end fossil fuels carries with it a heavy price in terms of replacing these items.

One of those products is plastic. Take a guess at how many things that people use, want, and depend upon are made from or contain plastic?

Plastics, however, have a down side. So many plastic products are used once or a few times and discarded. Many people try to recycle them, but that is a non-existent entity, to a large degree.

An article on the National Public Radio (NPR) website addresses this. “The vast majority of plastic that people use, and in many cases put into blue recycling bins, is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S.”

The article cites a report that the amount of plastic actually recycled and used for new products has fallen to only about 5 percent, and is expected to fall even further in the future.

“Greenpeace found that no plastic — not even soda bottles, one of the most prolific items thrown into recycling bins — meets the threshold to be called "recyclable" according to standards set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy Initiative,” the article continued. “Plastic must have a recycling rate of 30 percent to reach that standard; no plastic has ever been recycled and reused close to that rate.”

The NPR article also explained that “Waste management experts say the problem with plastic is that it is expensive to collect and sort. There are now thousands of different types of plastic, and none of them can be melted down together. Plastic also degrades after one or two uses. Greenpeace found that the more plastic is reused the more toxic it becomes.

“New plastic, on the other hand, is cheap and easy to produce. The result is that plastic trash has few markets — a reality the public has not wanted to hear,” NPR wrote.

There are tons of these un-reusable plastic items that are not really needed. Things such as packaging materials, shopping bags, straws, bottles, cups and such things were made of paper or glass prior to plastic being implemented, and we can move back in that direction. Paper and glass are much easier to recycle or dispose of than these plastic items.

So, while we need to cut back on the production of plastic items that can be replaced with materials that can be reused, or really are not needed, there are still many plastic items that we must continue to produce.

On the former point, “Environmentalists and lawmakers in some states are now pushing for legislation that bans single use plastics, and for ‘bottle bills’ which pay customers to bring back their plastic bottles,” NPR said. “The bills have led to successful recycling rates for plastic bottles in places like Oregon and Michigan, but have faced steep resistance from plastic and oil industry lobbyists.”

"The real solution is to switch to systems of reuse and refill," Lisa Ramsden, senior plastic campaigner for Greenpeace USA, said. "We are at a decision point on plastic pollution. It is time for corporations to turn off the plastic tap."

Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics for the American Chemistry Council, criticized the Greenpeace view on plastics, and added that the industry is "on the cusp of a circularity revolution" regarding plastic recycling, and is "scaling up sortation, advanced recycling, and new partnerships that enable used plastic to be remade again and again."

Throwing used plastics in oceans and landfills has created a serious problem. It makes no sense to keep producing and then throwing away plastic items that are used once or a few times, like straws, wrappers, etc. Those items could be made from recyclable materials, or be made to be reused continuously.

Climate change is being blamed for wildfires in North America

August 8, 2023

The wild fires in Canada this year along with the warmer-than-normal temperatures in parts of the country have energized the pro-climate change voices.

An article on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Website noted the following: “Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States during the last two decades.”

Citing a 2016 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) study, the article added that, “climate change enhanced the drying of organic matter and doubled the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States. A 2021 study supported by NOAA concluded that climate change has been the main driver of the increase in fire in the western United States.”

This is a compelling scenario. Wildfires in the U.S. and Canada have certainly been a problem, particularly recently. But as Paul Harvey so wisely said in his radio broadcasts, “Now, the rest of the story.”

An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal last month, authored by Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, tells us that, “One of the most common tropes in our increasingly alarmist climate debate is that global warming has set the world on fire. But it hasn’t.”

Lomborg isn’t just some “climate denier,” he is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, and is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and visiting professor at Copenhagen Business School. He was listed as one of Time's “100 most influential people,” and Business Insider cited him as one of "The 10 Most-Respected Global Warming Skeptics."

The Copenhagen Consensus Center is the winner of Prospect magazine’s 2016 Think Tank of the Year award in the International Affairs category for think tanks based in the United States. 

Given his skepticism of the degree to which the fears of climate change have been expanded, his arguments against that mentality have been harshly received by those who promote that danger.

But he does not come to the fight unarmed, or with only words. In his column he wrote that, “For more than two decades, satellites have recorded fires across the planet’s surface. The data are unequivocal: Since the early 2000s, when 3 percent of the world’s land caught fire, the area burned annually has trended downward.” In support of that claim, there is a chart prepared by the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA).

“In 2022, the last year for which there are complete data,” Lomborg continues, “the world hit a new record-low of 2.2 percent burned area. Yet you’ll struggle to find that reported anywhere.”

The area burned has decreased by 0.8 percent, showing that there has been roughly 27 percent less area burned since 2000.

Lomborg’s point is that while looking at North America tells a particular story, broadening the focus to include the entire globe tells a very different story.

Leighton Steward, who passed away last year, was a geologist, environmentalist, author, and retired energy industry executive. He had served as Chairman of the Board of The Institute for the Study of Earth and Man at Southern Methodist University, was Chairman of the National Wetlands Coalition, and was twice Chairman of the Audubon Nature Institute. He had offered environmental advice that was accepted by both the EPA and the U. S. Corps of Engineers.

Years before his passing, U.S. News’ “Washington Whispers” discussed Steward’s perspective on climate change. Paul Bedard, who authored the article, outlined Steward’s views. “Much of the global warming debate has focused on reducing CO2 emissions because it is thought that the greenhouse gas produced mostly from fossil fuels is warming the planet. But Steward, who once believed CO2 caused global warming, is trying to fight that with a mountain of studies and scientific evidence that suggest CO2 is not the cause for warming. What's more, he says CO2 levels are so low that more, not less, is needed to sustain and expand plant growth.”

Furthermore, Steward believed that if CO2 levels are cut, food production will suffer because plants grown at higher CO2 levels make larger fruit and vegetables and also use less water. He also believed that higher CO2 levels are really not harmful to humans. 

Buying into the CO2 crisis, the Biden administration is rising to the occasion by planning to limit many things that Americans need and want. Things like gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles that are affordable and dependable. Incandescent bulbs to light our homes and businesses. Stoves, water heaters, furnaces, grills and other appliances powered by natural gas and propane. All of these desired devices will be banned in favor of electric devices that will be heavily regulated, very expensive, and will create more of a demand than the electric grid can supply.

And the federal government — which has evolved from the smaller and limited entity it was designed to be into a gargantuan, too-powerful body — now enforces these political desires with rules with the force of law that have not been approved by the Congress, the law-making body in our tripartite government.

Students’ objection to curriculum should not cause job loss

August 1, 2023

The old-timers among us look around and are stunned, shocked, and in disbelief at some of what they see going on.

One of those things is the “cancel culture,” where people who don’t like or are offended by something or someone proceed to “cancel” it or them. That means having statues torn down or the name of a building changed, or ruining the life or career of a person.

Quite often, the subject of the “cancelation” is someone or something about which the cancelers only know enough to be upset about it or them. And quite often, the cancelers don’t know the whole story behind the subject.

Another one is the idea that if someone is born a male or a female, and they are uncomfortable with that, they can indulge in chemical and/or surgical processes and try to change their gender to the other one.

These ideas did not exist several decades ago, or if they did, they weren’t talked about very much.

Today, the meaning of the idea of “gender” is very broad and fluid among some folks. And there has become a sort of underground rule that these ideas must be accepted by everyone, regardless of what people know or believe.

A recent news item tells the story of a biology professor, Dr. Johnson Varkey. He has been an adjunct professor of biology at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas for 19 years. And during that time, he has taught Human Anatomy and Physiology to some 1,500 students.

On November 28, 2022, four of Varkey's students walked out of his class when he stated that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes, just as he always had during his years teaching at the college. Shortly thereafter, he was fired.

However, the school allegedly fired him for teaching his students “that sex was determined by X and Y chromosomes and that reproduction must occur between a male and a female to continue the human species,” according to a report by Fox News Digital. “Despite the fact that Varkey taught from the school-approved and science-based curriculum, St. Philip's College claims his teaching was religious.”

In response to his being fired, Varkey wrote in a communiqué to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which he said, "I also explained that when a sperm (which has 23 chromosomes) joins with an egg (which also has 23 chromosomes), a zygote (which has 46 chromosomes) is formed, and it begins to divide, and after 38 weeks a baby is born. Because no information is added or deleted in those 38 weeks, life starts when the zygote begins to divide, not when the baby is born."

The Fox report noted that “in his notice of termination letter, St. Philip’s College said the complaint against him contained several reports of ‘religious preaching, discriminatory comments about homosexuals and transgender individuals, anti-abortion rhetoric, and misogynistic banter.’ The college claims he violated ‘the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity,’ but provided no explanation or reasoning for its accusation.”

"It saddens me that we have come to the place where, in an institution of higher learning, the feelings and opinions of the students are allowed to usurp the facts of science," Varkey told Fox. 

Is there a sensible explanation for why, after 19 years of teaching the same biology course based upon a long-approved curriculum, the college suddenly accepts the allegation of four students that Varkey’s presentation of the course material is religious, discriminatory against some students, anti-abortion and misogynistic? 

In opposing his firing, Varkey’s First Liberty Institute (FLI) attorneys have argued that his classroom work is based upon his biological education and experience, and also his religious beliefs. They also state that "throughout his employment, he never discussed with any student his personal views — religious or otherwise — on human gender or sexuality."

Are college professors and others now expected to adjust the presentation of their subjects so that they don’t offend their students, even if that means abandoning long-held and scientifically sound principles?

“No college professor should be fired for teaching factual concepts that a handful of students don’t want to hear," Keisha Russel, Counsel for FLI and the lead attorney on Varkey’s case, told Fox News Digital. "When public universities silence their own professors from teaching true concepts to students, education has been turned on its head."

The Alamo Colleges District, of which St. Philip’s College is a part, told Fox News Digital it does not comment on personnel issues. 

Science is a process of investigation. At some point, a theory gains acceptance as a general truth, as no different evidence has been presented for a long time. But there is always a chance that something will come along. Therefore, “settled science” is not always settled.

However, the science of gender has not been challenged by new scientific evidence, and two genders reign as the general truth. Colleges and universities ought to be substantially more thoughtful about when they endorse ideas that are significantly different than what is considered the correct scientific position.

And certainly, this situation ought not to have cost a long-time professor his job.