Filed under: Bureaucracy, Domestic Policy, Education, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Junk Science, Progressivism, Science/Technology | Tags: 18 Wrong Predictions, Earth Day, The Outdoors is too Risky
Yesterday was “Earth Day” which I take no notice of. Penn State University, however marked the day by announcing that they would refuse to allow a near-century old recreation club— The Penn State Outing Club founded in 1920—to organize the outdoor, student-led trips of camping and hiking . It seems they judge the activities to be too risky. Two other outdoor recreation clubs — the Nittany Grotto Caving Club and the Nittany Divers SCUBA Club have been directed to end trip offerings.
Mark J. Perry Ph.D. a professor of economics at the University of Michigan Flint, writing for the American Enterprise Institute, posted a spectacular list of 18 examples of the spectacularly wrong predictions made around the first “Earth Day” in 1970.
1. Harvard biologist George Wald estimated that “civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind.”
2. “We are in an environmental crisis which threatens the survival of this nation, and of the world as a suitable place of human habitation,” wrote Washington University biologist Barry Commoner in the Earth Day issue of the scholarly journal Environment.
3. The day after the first Earth Day, the New York Times editorial page warned, “Man must stop pollution and conserve his resources, not merely to enhance existence but to save the race from intolerable deterioration and possible extinction.”
4. “Population will inevitably and completely outstrip whatever small increases in food supplies we make,” Paul Ehrlich confidently declared in the April 1970 issue of Mademoiselle. “The death rate will increase until at least 100-200 million people per year will be starving to death during the next ten years.”
Here are the other fourteen: The true believers heard this news, swallowed it
whole, and attributed any suggestion that they were not true to the “deniers.”
A good many of the most hysterical anti-Trump crowd are in despair or fright because he withdrew from the Paris Climate Accords, which would have accomplished nothing, nothing at all for the climate. An amount too small to be measured, the scientists said.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Education, Energy, Free Speech, History, Immigration, Junk Science, Media Bias, Politics, Regulation, Science/Technology, The United States | Tags: Do You Trust the FBI?, The Administrative State, Things Not As They Seem
Do any of you have the sort of unsettled feeling that things are not quite as they are being portrayed? News made of too little information, asking the wrong people, not exactly President Trump’s “fake news”— but just an instinctive feeling that something is wrong out there. Here’s a post from Real Clear Investigations:
Broward County, Fla., school officials portray as a great success their Obama administration-inspired program offering counseling to students who break the law, instead of having them arrested or expelled. They insist that it played no role in February’s school massacre by Nikolas Cruz. They also claim that in fact juvenile recidivism rates are down and school safety is up, thanks to the program.
The evidence tells a far different story.
Broward County juvenile justice division records, federal studies of Broward school district safety and the district’s own internal reporting show that years of “intensive” counseling didn’t just fail to reform repeat offender Cruz, who allegedly went on to shoot and kill 17 people at his high school. Records show such policies have failed to curtail other campus violence and its effects now on the rise in district schools — including fighting, weapons use, bullying and related suicides.
Meanwhile, murders, armed robberies and other violent felonies committed by children outside of schools have hit record levels, and some see a connection with what’s happening on school grounds. Since the relaxing of discipline, Broward youths have not only brazenly punched out their teachers, but terrorized Broward neighborhoods with drive-by shootings, gang rapes, home invasions and carjackings.
Do read the whole thing. Things are not as they seem. We have entered an era when everything is being analyzed for its proportionality. There seemed to be a significant number of young students of color being sent to prison for commission of crimes. If the number of young people of color in prison for committing crimes was out of proportion to the general percentages of young people of color in society, clearly school teachers were cracking down on troublesome students because they were racially prejudiced. The “school to prison pipeline.” The Obama administration cracked down. Schools sending too many young people to prison would have to answer for their racism, and they would receive a visit from the feds.
This is apparently what happened with Nikolas Cruz, of Hispanic descent. His threats were recognized by the school officials, but because he was Hispanic and the federal government had said to ignore it, the school did not take the actions that they might have taken had there been no federal interference. The school had issued instructions that Cruz was not to be allowed to enter campus if he was wearing a backpack. And in their response to the killings, the school demanded that all students carry transparent backpacks so the contents could be seen. That does make it fairly clear, doesn’t it?
Tom Steyer continues to travel around the country urging college students to vote Democrat and to work for impeaching President Trump, thus aligning himself with Maxine Waters who is also demanding that President Trump be impeached. Neither one seems to have any particular high crime or misdemeanor for which they want him impeached—they just hate him. I suspect that Steyer is having fits over the useless environmental regulations being discarded, and perhaps the useless Paris Climate Accords.
Steyer is very green, and apparently a true believer that the Earth is dying without our immediate action to…? There are a remarkable number of people who appear at the front of any climate march in polar bear suits, though the polar bears are doing just fine according to the Canadian zoologist, Susan Crockford, who has become the world expert on all things polar bear and who issues a report each year on their progress. Their numbers are increasing comfortably, they are well fed and healthy.
When you hear or read something that seems, if not immediately wrong, at least questionable, do you plan to study up a little to see if it is indeed true, or do you just take the word of whatever article you read? Look at all the Lefties who insist that we would be far better off if we just kept all the petroleum products in the ground, where they belong. Wind and solar, their favored energy sources, deliver about 4% of our energy needs. How are their favored electric cars supposed to charge their batteries? How do our cars and trucks run? How does the food get delivered to our grocery stores? Starving to death is not a nice way to go.
Why do they keep circulating what Hollywood celebrities have to say, as if they know anything, or have any authority to speak out beyond the fact that we might recognize their names or faces?
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Capitalism, Domestic Policy, Economy, Education, Environment, Foreign Policy, Free Markets, Free Speech, Freedom, Health Care, Humor, Immigration, National Security, Politics, Regulation, Taxes, The United States, Unemployment | Tags: Dennis Prager, The Top Ten Ways, Why Are Liberals so...
Here is a speech by Dennis Prager, given a few years ago, in which he summarizes, or explains the Left. Do you find yourself wondering a lot— why are they doing this? Why are they saying this? What is the matter with these people?
Not much has changed in the past seven years. The Left is still Left, searching for more power so they can get rid of those pesky Conservatives who are so annoying, and so wrong about everything.
Oh, new terminology pops up now and then, but they continue to regard us as uneducated racists from flyover country. They seem unable to consider or recognize consequences. Life is full of miseries, but if we just let them be in charge, they would all be fixed.
In spite of all evidence to the contrary, they remain sure that if only they don’t have to be bothered with the dissent from us, they will create a brave new world where everyone is equal and there are no more wars and everything and everyone is properly diverse, and no one will be poor or needy and…
It’s a 40 minute video, so watch it tonight if you must, but it’s really worth your time.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Crime, Democrat Corruption, Domestic Policy, Education, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Law, Media Bias, Police, Progressivism, The Constitution, The United States | Tags: Anti-War Adults, Not Teenagers, Not the Voice of the Future
The Left is very fond of “marches”— it feels really good, I guess, to be out being an activist for a cause your really believe in, as much as you believe in much of anything. That’s what the few studies that have been done seem to indicate—that they promote activism, but don’t have much of any effect on legislation. Lots of fellow feeling.
The “March for Our Lives” was, as is usual, not what it was cracked up to be. It wasn’t the voice of a new generation, the voice of the future, but the same middle-aged women from the Women’s March with some photogenic teenagers out front for the cameras. The Women’s March was 85 percent women. The March for Our Lives was 70% women. Only about 10% of the crowd were under 18. The average age of the adults was just under age 49. Only 12 percent of the people who were new to protesting said they were motivated to join the march because of the gun-control issue, though 60 percent of the experienced protesters were. The new protesters were motivated by peace (56 percent) and Trump (42 percent). Anti-War protesters are the most regular protesters. Lefty protests don’t really care about gun control, they hate Trump, the Right, and want the “U.S. Out of Everywhere” and the “Jews Out of Palestine.”
Daniel Greenfield did a marvelous job of digging out just who were the organizers and sponsors, and who directed the March. The kids who participated did not raid their piggy banks to get to the march. There were millions behind the funds. The March for Our Lives Action Fund was overseen by six directors and incorporated in Delaware. Everytown for Gun Safety was formed out of two other groups: Moms Demand Action and Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Both of which are front groups for Michael Bloomberg, the lefty billionaire, and the group is really New York City. Lots of long-time activist professionals to direct the events, from Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington D.C. Florida was notably absent from the supporters. Lots of the usual Hollywood crowd.
Do read the whole thing to get an understanding of how these things work. It has very little to do with Parkland. The mass shooting by Nikolas Cruz, which was badly fumbled and should have been prevented by the FBI. the Sheriff’s Office, the School District officials, or the school itself, who should be held responsible. Most of the participants have little idea of what actually went on. They shout about assault rifles, with no idea that there is no such thing, just ordinary rifles dressed up with some extra accessories to make them look sexier. The NRA is not some evil organization that sells guns. They support the second amendment and the shooting sports. Where I came from, people counted on hunting to fill the freezer for the winter. Others hunt ducks, or wild boar, or skeet.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Domestic Policy, Education, Free Speech, Freedom, History, Media Bias, News, Politics, The United States | Tags: Bias and Partisanship, Journalism, The News Real or Fake?
If you forced every website that presents the news to remove any pieces that are simply what some celebrity said, would there be anything left? How many “journalists” would lose their jobs? In the age of Twitter and Facebook, it can hardly be called ‘work”— you just follow them and whenever they say something, er, interesting, there’s your piece. But that can hardly be called “news” either. If you eliminated all the inane comments, would there be anything left?
Could we try it? Pretty please?
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Domestic Policy, Education, History, Politics, Progressivism, The United States | Tags: American Universities, Victor Davis Hanson, Why We Need History
Just a short 12 minutes, but Dr. Hanson thoroughly eviscerates the university in particular, and the Left as well. Great fun.
Filed under: Bureaucracy, Education, Environment, Global Warming, Junk Science, News, Science/Technology, Technology | Tags: Earth Hour, Golden Bananas, Golden Rice
Oh dear, O dear! I believe this was the evening when we were, all across the world, at precisely Eight o’clock — supposed to turn off all our lights and sit in the dark for an hour to save the earth, or show our empathy for those who are deeply concerned about the climate and the earth and the future. I usually see enough reminders to remember to turn on all my lights to demonstrate my skepticism.
I grew up in Idaho, in what you might call the foothills of the Rockies, mostly outside, winter or summer. Winter was for sledding, and we had a splendid sledding hill, or building snow forts, but let me not drift off into reminiscing. Some winters we had little snow, not much more than 3 feet on the level. Other years, 5 or 6 feet. Some years we could skate on the river, others not. Been snowed in. When it gets down to 20° below, all the hairs in your nose freeze. The climate has warmed over the last century, somewhere around one degree. The Paris Climate Agreement would not have prevented any measurable amount of warming.
The Paul Erlich’s of the world have always believed in overpopulation and consequent hunger and starvation. Yet what has happened is that the very small amount of increased CO2 in the atmosphere has meant the greening of the planet, less famine and more food.
Most packaged goods in the grocery store will carry the admonition somewhere on the label that there are no GMO ingredients (genetically modified organisms) in their offering, yet I just saw the notice today that another country (in this case Canada) has approved “golden rice”, a strain of rice to which a carotene-producing gene is added.
In many areas of Asia, vitamin A is devastatingly rare in the diet of many children, causing blindness and altered immunity. Since rice is the dietary staple, adding it to rice can save children from the deficiency. Nearly 500 million children are said to be deficient. Yet the usual suspects (the anti-GM foods nuts at Greenpeace) have fits claiming all sorts of disasters from the golden rice. The link is to a story from ASCH which also explains the Gates Foundation’s work in fortifying bananas with beta-carotene for the highlands of East Africa where the dietary staple is bananas. There is another banana in Papua New Guinea that contains so much beta carotene that they are orange, and they can simply transplant the gene that produces it into Africa’s cooking banana.
I wandered a bit all over the planet with this post, which started with telling you that I forgot to turn on all the lights to celebrate President Trump’s exit from the Paris Climate Agreement, the loonies who flunked high school biology and chemistry and are terrified of science, and the advances of science in preventing blindness and death in the children of some areas of Asia. ASCH — the American Council on Science and Health is a dandy website for understanding what’s going on in this part of the world. You can sign up for a free subscription, and they’ll send a brief note to your mailbox with the latest news. The Little Black Book of Junk Science by Alec Berezow is newly available and is just what the title implies.
