March, 2016, Bonus Post, I Am A Global Warming Doubter and A Believer In Science

Every month we have enough material to return to a continuing theme in this blog, namely that “I am a global warming doubter AND a believer in science.” This became of interest because of people like Al Gore who fanatically and verbosely claimed that you had to be an idiot to not believe in manmade global warming. It has been my life belief that anyone that is that loud and that obnoxious is hiding something, that rather than argue facts and reality it is better to beat down and insult anyone who disagrees.

As we have dove into the whole issue of manmade global warming, or its new rebranded title of climate change, we found that Al Gore and people like him were guilty of a number of things:

• Ignoring science and realities that did not support their opinions and positions.
• Rather than have an adult conversation about climate, these types of advocates like Gore sank to the level of insulting those who dared look at ALL science by calling them a variety of names including racists, homophobes, terrorists, flat earth believers, and other slanderous names.
• Continuing to insist that politicians step up their intrusions into our lives with higher taxes, more regulations, and more control of our freedoms and standards of living based on a shaky theory at best.

To see the past posts and the multitude of evidence that we have compiled that showed it is perfectly okay to be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, enter the phrase "global warming doubter” in the search box above or go through the monthly historical posts listed on the right side of this page. The first post on global warming doubting for this month can be accessed at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-2016-part-1-i-am-global-warming.html

Thus, let’s see the latest facts and science that prove you can be a global warming doubter and a believer in science, regardless of what Al Gore proclaims:

1) One of the concerns of people that are global warming doubters and believers in science is that some scientists see the whole global warming/climate change issue as a money making, grant getting opportunity. And when this happens, as we have examined in past posts under this theme, the science takes a back seat to getting additional industry and government grants since if global warming was indeed proven to be a myth, there would no longer be any grant money to be found.

According to a March 23, 2016 article by Kevin Mooney, writing for the Heritage Foundation, that may have been the case relative to a George Mason University professor:

• According to the article, the National Science Foundation (NSF) is “seriously” interested in reviewing how millions and millions of taxpayer dollars were spent after they had been awarded to that George Mason University professor. 
• The NSF inspector general is possibly going to examine how professor Jagadish Shukla spent all of those millions.
• This is the same professor who signed a letter with nineteen other other global warming advocates who wanted the President to arrest and prosecute anyone who had a different opinion than them relative to global warming/climate change, you know, rip up the First Amendment rights of innocent Americans.
• One reason for the the potential abuse of taxpayer funds comes from the article’s assertion that: “The federal government is awash in guidelines governing the conduct of recipients of the billions of dollars in grants doled out by Washington every year. But these regulations are loosely enforced, both by government bureaucrats and by the institutions receiving the money.”
• An audit by George Mason University seems to imply that the professor misused tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, not millions, tens of millions of dollars, by “double dipping” in Federal and state funds in violation of university guidelines and rules.
• Professor Shukla is not only a university professor but he also operates the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES), a relationship that a Congressional committee has also been investigating.
• Part of the obscenity of the whole deal is that it is possible that Shulka paid himself and his wife a total of $5.6 million in taxpayer funding in connection with his research, an obscene amount no matter how you cut it, using the IGES as a cover story.
• Besides being obscene, it probably violated the conditions of the NSA funding which sets limits on the amount of taxpayer money that can be used for salaries.
• A representative of the the National Center for Public Policy Research stated the obvious in the article: “The longstanding cozy relationship between grant-makers and grantees makes them blind to even the most obvious conflict of interest or incidence of double dipping. And when the government is driving the scientific research to reach a predetermined conclusion, as is the case with climate change, then no one is going to rock the boat…..the system is thoroughly corrupt." 

There you have it from at least one research source. Some, a few, who knows how many are using the global warming story to abort and contort real science to get an answer that they want and that their political benefactors want. Those are the ones abusing science, not global warming doubters who still believe in the purity of science and research.

2) Rick Moran writing for the American Thinker website, described how former Democratic candidate for President, Martin O'Malley, had this great theory, based on nothing, that it was global warming who created the terror group ISIS. Not maybe created it, not maybe created it with other factors involved - like thousands of years of war and animosity between different versions of Islam - or the brutal dictatorship of the Assad family, nope global warming did it all by itself.

Global warming and only global warming created ISIS: "One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather the conditions of extreme poverty — that has now led to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence.” 

I guess the Middle East has NEVER had a drought before. If it had, ISIS would have formed centuries ago. His statement is based on no research, no scientific findings, just political hogwash. Consider what real scientists have to say about this nonsense: “It is not until you dig pretty deep into the technical scientific literature, that you find out that the anthropogenic climate change impact on drought conditions in the Fertile Crescent is extremely minimal and tenuous—so much so that it is debatable as to whether it is detectable at all,” according to Chip Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, climate scientists at the libertarian Cato Institute.

It gets so tiring when politicians like O’Malley, Gore, Obama, and others use and abuse science, data, and reality for their own political gains. 

3) Michael Bastasch, writing for the Daily Caller website in early February, described some more real science when it comes to reducing the carbon footprint of the U.S.:

• The Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) recently published their annual energy factbook.
• Their major finding was that inexpensive natural gas, as a resulting of fracking, has been a major driver in reducing overall U.S. carbon emissions over the recent past: “Unprecedented levels of natural gas supply pushed down power prices, putting the country in a more internationally competitive position while also prompting coal-to-gas switching that slashed US carbon emissions,” the group’s report reads.
• Furthermore, “U.S. power sector CO2 emissions fell to their lowest annual level since the mid-1990s,” according to the report.
• The report went on to state that they found while green energy sources and improving energy efficiency performance helps, those efforts were near non-existent relative to what natural gas has done to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.
• This latest study is in agreement with a similar study done by the Manhattan Institute done in 2015 which also concluded that fracking caused the lion’s share of carbon emissions reductions since 2008.
• The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also conceded that fracking was a primary reason for falling emissions as opposed to green energy policies.

The key point here is that science has created an energy source that is less expensive, less dirty, less carbon heavy, and supports the goal of global warming advocates. Everyone is happy when science is used as it should be like it was in this fracking experience.

That will do it for this quick update to the them, “I am a global warming doubter and a believer in science.”

Science being abused by politicians and those with serious financial stakes in misusing science to prove a preconceived theory, and science being used (fracking) to make life wonderful. When will we have have an adult, mature conversation in this country when ALL of the science is included in the conversation and not just the science that aligns with politicians’ political aims and corruption?

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

August, 2015, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Failing Political Hotel In Baltimore, Heartless Politican In Illinois,and Wage Increase Implosion In Seattle

At the beginning of each month we take a week or so to review the latest insanity from the American political class. Insanity from them includes a wide range of very depressing actions which can include wasteful spending, idiotic quotes, an inefficient and ineffective government bureaucracy, failed economic policies, etc. Every month we continue to prove that we are being served by the worst set of politicians ever.

And as you will see, this month’s review and discussions do nothing to prove that this thesis is wrong in any way:

1) In 2008, Martin O’Malley, then the mayor of Baltimore, a former governor of Maryland and current Presidential candidate, decided it would be a good idea to spend $305 million of taxpayer money to build a hotel, the Baltimore Hilton, in downtown Baltimore. I assume he thought it would be a good idea, would generate tourism traffic and revenue, and what the heck, it was only taxpayer money, not his.

His project resulted in the following results seven years later:

• After seven years, the hotel has never posted an annual profit.
• In the BEST year of operation, the hotel lost $2.9 million.
• According to Maryland state senator, James Brochin: “It’s the biggest boondoggle ever. It’s hemorrhaging money every year and has less-than-stellar performance.” 
• In case you wondering if this is partisan politics talking, O’Malley and Brochin are both Democrats.
• The hotel was originally supposed to attract revenue from a theoretical untapped convention market in Baltimore, but most conventions passed on Baltimore, and this hotel, for other locations such as nearby Washington, D.C.
• Even the heavily Democratic Baltimore city council opposed the project with only three out of fifteen supporting the project.“In my district, I can’t get funding to fix vacant houses,” Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke told The Baltimore Sun in 2005. “I’m worried about the financing and the kind of precedent this is setting.”
• “The government shouldn’t be in the business of owning businesses. It was a catastrophic economical mistake by O’Malley, and the whole thing is ridiculous,” said Brochin.
• O’Malley claimed back before the project was approved that the hotel venture would be “risk free.” Missed that forecast by a little bit, didn’t we?
• How bad was this concept? Although it was located next to Camden Yards, the home of the Baltimore Orioles, a team that drew 2.4 million fans to home games in 2014, the hotel still managed to lose $5.6 million that year.

Don’t you think that professionals within the hotel industry would have built a hotel there on their own without taxpayer support if it was a good idea? What made O’Malley think that he knew something that the professionals in the hotel industry did not know? Just more insanity from the American political class, butting their noses and taxpayer dollars into things they no nothing about and wasting time and money in the process. For Baltimore citizens, hundreds of millions of dollars wasted away with nothing to show in return except for annula hotel operasting deficits.

And the real insanity? This man wants to bring this type of defective financial expertise to the White House.

2) Most of the time when a politician puts his or her foot in their mouth it is silly, stupid, or inane. Sometimes, though, it is heartless, cruel, and pathetic. Such was the recent case when an Illinois Congressman, Luis Gutierrez, should have just shut up. Gutierrez is a big fan of illegal immigration and thus, is a big fan of so-called ”sanctuary cities.” 

Sanctuary cities have openly declared that illegal immigrants are welcome within their city borders and that local governments will disobey Federal immigration laws concerning the arrest, detaining, and deportation of illegal immigrants. Unfortunately, a young American citizen, Kate Steinle, was murdered in a sanctuary city, San Francisco, by an illegal immigrant who had been convicted of seven felonies and had been deported five times. 

This failure to execute Federal law resulted in this unnecessary death of a young American citizen, of which the Congressman had the following reaction: “Every time a little thing like this happens, they use the most extreme example to say [sanctuary cities] must be eliminated." Someone’s unnecessary death is a “little thing” to this cold hearted political bastard. I am sure that her murder was not a “little thing” to her parents, her brother, her boyfriend and her friends and other family members. 

I am sure it would not be a “little thing” if it was his daughter who had been gunned down for no reason. This is how low the American political class has sunk, an American’s death is a “little thing” compared to their political plans and ambitions. Pathetic.

3) We have often lamented the sad lack of understanding and usually total ignorance politicians have when it comes to economic theory and consequences. They are like that Holiday Inn Express commercial campaign, they have no economic training or experience but think they can dictate rationale economic policy because they stayed in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Nowhere is this ignorance been more prevalent lately than in the Seattle area where their political class recently voted to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The selling point these politicians tried to make is that a $15 hourly wage would lift these workers out of poverty. But as always when politicians play economists, there are unintended bad consequences:

• Many of the Seattle workers that will now get higher wages are pleading with their employers to give them LESS working hours since their higher wages and same working hours will leave them above the income line that makes them eligible for government welfare, food, and other assistance.
• Of course, this was the whole purpose of those who advocated for higher wages, to get these workers off of the reliance and addiction to government handouts and welfare, lift them out of poverty.
• But as is often the case, a political action has resulted in the exact OPPOSITE of what was intended.
• For example, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti claimed recently that LA’s $15 minimum wage would lift 6000,000 people out of poverty, which is unlikely to happen if LA workers want to stay poor, work less hours, have a higher wage level, AND receive welfare.
• Seattle’s KIRO-TV recently interviewed a nursing nonprofit organization and found that some workers are trying to cut hours and earn less to avoid losing government assistance. In another case, a local radio station has been talking about the story: “If they cut down their hours to stay on those subsidies because the $15 per hour minimum wage didn’t actually help get them out of poverty, all you’ve done is put a burden on the business and given false hope to a lot of people,” said KIRO-FM’s Jason Rantz said.
• Restaurants in Seattle, the industry most affected by the $15 minimum wage level because of their tight operating margins, are either adding a hefty surcharge to their prices to cover the increased labor costs, closing down, or moving in order to stay in business.
• Some Seattle restaurants who have closed down pointed out that the higher wage levels put their labor costs over 50% of their total operating costs, making their business unprofitable.
• Other restaurants have started making employees pay for the food they eat at their place of business, which used to be free, in order to save costs. 
• Other businesses have taken away perks that used to be free but now cost employees since their employers have to cut costs to cover the higher labor costs. So the net/net of higher wages but fewer perks is a wash for employees, something those in favor of the higher wages never foresaw, likely because they are ignorant of basic economic theory and realities.

Thus, the minimum wage increases in certain cities are functioning much like the failed Obama Care legislation: much disruption in the lives of citizens and business owners, higher operating costs, fewer jobs, business closures, and ending up exactly where we started before the political class intervened in the marketplace. Sounds about right, insanity for no societal benefit.

More insanity for the next week or so in all kinds of areas, none of which makes any of our lives any better or less expensive.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 1: Politicians Say The Darndest Things

Ever so often we run a series of posts under the theme, “Politicians say the darndest things.” It is a parody of an old television show, “House Party,” where host Art Linkletter would ask simple questions of young kids and wait for their often funny responses. This segment of his show was called “Kids Say The Darndest Things.” 

Unfortunately when kids say silly or dumb things, it is funny. When politicians say silly or dumb things, there are usually serious ramifications across the land that often involve stupid laws, wasteful spending, self delusion of a politician’s intelligence or abilities, or a continued lack of faith that today’s politicians are smart enough to get anything right.

So let’s take a look at the latest darndest things that American politicians are saying today:

1) Most often politicians say the darndest things in an asinine view, proving that they often do not have a concept or reality or what they are talking about. However, we start today with a politician’s quote that is just down right mean, uncaring, and pathetic. Katie Steinle was recently killed on the streets of San Francisco by an illegal immigrant that had seven felony convictions and who had been deported five times. Obviously, a serious criminal element.

When he reentered the country, he headed for San Francisco since that city is a so-called “sanctuary city,” a term that means that city has unilaterally decided to disobey standing immigration law and not aggressively, or not at all, seek to send illegal immigrants back to their home country. As a result, a young American lady, Kate Steinle, is dead because of this law breaking and the continued presence of this illegal immigrant on the streets of America. 

This is a tragedy in so many ways, not the least of which the grief and mourning that has been caused to rain down on Ms. Steinle’s friends and family. A young lady cut down in the prime of her life because of the illegal doings of the national and local political class. But that sadness is only compounded by a quote from a Hispanic Illinois Congressman, one who has been in the forefront of making life easy for illegal immigrants, Luis Gutierrez: “Every time a little thing like this happens, they use the most extreme example to say it must be eliminated.”

A woman’s murder is a “little thing” to this heartless bastard of a politician. I bet it is not a “little thing” to her parents, her brother, her boyfriend, and other her family members and friends. I dare this low life to say this in front of those that have been grieving and will be affected for the rest of their lives by this tragedy. How would he feel if his daughter had been shot on the street by someone who should have been in jail or shipped out of the country permanently, would it still be a “little thing?” Yes, sometimes politicians say the darndest things and this case, they say the most heartless, uncaring, and ignorant things. 

The politicians have denigrated themselves so much that human life is now secondary to their political ambitions and goals. To hear the actual quote out of the politician’s mouth go to:

http://joeforamerica.com/2015/07/angry-racist-democrat-illinois-senator-calls-murder-white-girl-illegal-little-thing/

2) Martin O’Malley used to be the Governor of Maryland and now thinks he is worthy of being the Democratic Party nominee for President in 2016. Consider his latest darndest quote, as reported by Bloomberg News: “One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation-state of Syria and the rise of ISIS was the effect of climate change and the mega-drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis that created the symptoms — or rather the conditions of extreme poverty — that has now led to the rise of ISIL and this extreme violence” 

Ah, climate change/global warming, the cause of every problem in the world. As we have said countless times in response to Al Gore-type climate hysteria, correlation is not causation. Just because a weather or climate event happened, it does not mean it caused other events to happen that seem to occur at about the same time. 

I am sure that throughout time, the Middle East and Syria have suffered through mega droughts long before the concept of man made climate change was even a thought. I am also pretty sure that those previous meg droughts did not give rise to the deadliest terrorist group of all time.

Rather than use faulty correlation/causation logic and political hysteria, let’s take a look some real analysis and do a reality check based on facts. According to the George C.Marshall website: “The George C. Marshall Institute was established in 1984 as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation to conduct technical assessments of scientific issues with an impact on public policy.

In every area of public policy, from national defense, to the environment, to the economy, decisions are shaped by developments in and arguments about science and technology. The need for accurate and impartial technical assessments has never been greater. However, even purely scientific appraisals are often politicized and misused by interest groups.

The Marshall Institute seeks to counter this trend by providing policymakers with rigorous, clearly written and unbiased technical analyses on a range of public policy issues. Through briefings to the press, publication programs, speaking tours and public forums, the Institute seeks to preserve the integrity of science and promote scientific literacy.”

So, here is a 31 year old science based organization, indicating that they have a long track record of doing what they say they do. They must be doing something right to be around for so long. They might be a good place to check in to see if O’Malley’s assertion has any validity: “In summary, the climate-security argument is dangerously overstated and designed to serve a domestic political purpose more than filling a void in strategic thinking,” writes Marshall Institute president Jeff Kueter, the author of the study.

Wow, strategic thinkers think O’Malley’s assertion is basically unfounded garbage. How about another strategic analysis firm, the Cato Institute: “It is not until you dig pretty deep into the technical scientific literature, that you find out that the anthropogenic climate change impact on drought conditions in the Fertile Crescent is extremely minimal and tenuous—so much so that it is debatable as to whether it is detectable at all,” according to Chip Knappenberger and Patrick Michaels, climate scientists at the libertarian Cato Institute in a writing of theirs from March 5, 2015.

Now, some readers might claim that these two organizations are not liberal enough in their views and their science is skewed. Fair enough, but until these readers or O’Malley can produce contrary evidence, science-based evidence, to support his point, something he has not done, we will assume that O’Malley is just saying the darndest thing without any valid science supporting his politically biased and likely incorrect position.

3) Sometimes people talking about politicians say the darndest things and we include those quotes also in this series. The one we are using today is from a cable news person operating out of San Diego, Tomi Lahren. In a closing segment recently on her show, she took the President to task relative to the recent murder of four U.S. Marines in Tennessee by a homegrown terrorist. She minces no words and probably shows more courage, honesty, and insight to a real world problem than any politician in Washington, up to and especially including the President has shown, on the whole Middle East/Islamic terrorist crisis:

“Four United States Marines are now dead. Climate change didn’t kill them. Lack of free community college didn’t kill them. The income gap, wage inequality — nope, not those things either. Gay marriage? Nope. Oh, white racism? Not that either. So what did?” Lahren asks before addressing the president. “President Obama, if you won’t say it, I will: Radical Islam.”

One of the darndest and insightful political statements made recently and made by a non-politician. The video of her quotes and excellent lesson in reality can be seen at:

http://www.teaparty.org/newswoman-sweeps-internet-with-blistering-viral-slap-down-of-obama-2-minutes-of-wow-108794/#sthash.32deJPK5.dpuf

That will do it for today’s darndest political quotes. A Washington politician that has no compassion and basically no heart relative to a murdered innocent young American, a politician whose spouts off a theory without any basis in reality, and a brave young newsperson who says more truth in two minutes than most Washington politicians say in a lifetime.

We will continue this update tomorrow, focusing on some recent Obama quotes which show just how out of touch he is with reality, a bad reality that was almost all of his doing with a little help from others in Washington.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w