Biochar: A better start to rain forest restoration

““An indigenous farming technique that’s been around for thousands of years provides the basis for restoring rain forests stripped clear of trees by gold mining and other threats.

A carbon-based soil amendment called biochar is a cheap and effective way to support tree seedling survival during reforestation efforts in the Amazon rain forest, according to new research from Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA).

Restoring and recovering rain forests has become increasingly important for combatting climate change, since these wide swaths of trees can absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide each year. The problem is particularly acute in areas mined for alluvial gold deposits, which devastate not only rain forest trees but also soils. High costs can be a huge barrier to replanting, fertilizing and nurturing trees to replace those lost in the rain forest.

The scientists found that using biochar combined with fertilizer significantly improved height and diameter growth of tree seedlings while also increasing the number of leaves the seedlings developed. The experiment, based in a Peruvian Amazon region called Madre de Dios, the heart of illegal gold mining trade in that country, used two tropical tree species: the fast-growing Guazuma crinita and Terminalia amazonia, a late successional tree often used as timber.””
     — Alicia Roberts

Tags: clipping ∙ guest content ∙ Alicia Roberts ∙ Alicia Roberts ∙ biochar ∙ ecology ∙ CINCIA ∙ rain forest ∙ Amazon ∙ Wake Forest University ∙ cross posted ∙ Technopagan Yearnings

Let's start with the baseline.

Earth is approximately four and a half billion years old. The approximate span of human history is about ten thousand years. Recorded history is only about six thousand years or so.

That makes human history .0002% or so of the life of the planet.

Let's be generous and say that humans have been producing significant carbon emissions for about three hundred years. That's about three percent of human history and an amazingly minute speck of planetary history.

So no more "ten year deadlines," especially since the deadline is always ten years out.

Before we start examining what humans are pumping into the atmosphere, we need to measure what is happening to our temperature. It turns out that we can see that temperatures changes on Mars match some of the temperature changes on Earth. That means that Mars and Earth have to share the same modifier in at least some instances. The obvious candidate is the Sun.

The Earth's climate has shifted radically before, even before there were humans. We don't entirely understand what caused those shifts, which means we can't eliminate those reasons from our projections.

While increased carbon dioxide has been linked to temperature increases, we don't know if the temperature increases caused the carbon dioxide or if the carbon dioxide cause the temperature change. We do know that the carbon dioxide cascade effect used in some climate models has never been observed or proven in a laboratory. There is no "magic threshold" between acceptable carbon dioxide and unacceptable carbon dioxide. Based on what has been observed, if there is a causal relationship between carbon dioxide and temperature increase, it is probably linear and not logarithmic.

We do know that in the past there has been higher carbon dioxide without any long term effects except increased plant growth.

We don't know what causes climate change.

This is not an "all or nothing" situation. We can care for the World without placing control in the hands of politics and technocrats. We can reduce our waste. We can use water wisely. We can build to work with the Earth and climate instead of imposing our control.

It's our choice.

From what we've seen, we dare not trust government to care for the planet.

Tags: carbon cycle ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ climate change ∙ Earth ∙ Mars ∙ Sun ∙ waste ∙ water

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ PragerU ∙ green new deal ∙ Alex Epstein ∙ abundance ∙ energy ∙ clean planet

I'm tired of being lectured to. So here's my challenge.

I pick any thirteen cities in the United States. You pick any month in one caledar year. You predict the exact temperature of each and every day from five separate locations within the city. But each location must be used only once, and can be no closer than seven blocks from any other location. That means somewhere between 140 and 155 temperature sites per city. Any given day is going to have 65 separate temperature readings for the country.

We're not even getting into the impact of climate change here. We're just seeing if human knowledge of climate is accurate enough to predict actual temperature. Not a range, but an actual temperature. Let's simplify and say that if any three readings on a given day match, that is the "official" reading for that city.

Because if you can't do that, and if the readings in a city vary, and if the readings across a country vary, there is no way you can say that an increased "average" temperature is the result of human activity. Especially if your predictions are in hundredths of a degree.

More importantly, change in one location doesn't mean change in another location.

This is a really reduced model. Let's expand a bit and use every month and every city. Same restrictions. Each location must be used only once per month, and can be no closer than seven blocks from any other location.

We're not adjusting for "climate change" yet, we're just trying to see how accurate the baseline is. Until you can show you can predict existing behavior, you can't model what is actually happening. And if you can't model the actual, there is no way you can model the theoretical.

Tags: environment ∙ climate change crisis

Ocasio-Cortez’s Chief of Staff: Green New Deal About Changing Economy

““Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff for New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D.), said that the Green New Deal was not about the climate, but rather about tearing down the economy and building a new one, according to a report from The Washington Post.

"The interesting thing about the Green New Deal is it wasn't originally a climate thing at all," Chakrabarti said, according to the Post. "Do you guys think of it as a climate thing? Because we really think of it as a how-do-you-change-the-entire-economy thing."

Chakrabarti made the comments during a meeting with Sam Ricketts, the climate director for presidential candidate Jay Inslee.””
     — Graham Piro

Tags: clipping ∙ guest content ∙ Graham Piro ∙ Mark Mills ∙ green new deal ∙ Nature ∙ Saikat Chakrabarti ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ Sam Ricketts ∙ Jay Inslee ∙ economy ∙ climate change

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ Manhattan Institute ∙ solar power ∙ renewable ∙ nuclear power ∙ Mark Mills ∙ green new deal ∙ Nature

Physics of energy generation makes Polis’ 100 percent renewables goal unlikely

““Electric grids are complex networks and interconnections that rely on a steady supply of electricity, but that also must maintain extremely close control of the frequency of the alternating current.

America operates on 60 cycles per second, or 60 Hz. That grid frequency can vary only about 2 Hz in either direction, says Griffey. “These are small variations, but if it drops below that you start kicking off loads,” he said. “Bad things happen and your system crashes.”

The grid is so sensitive to these variations that power producers must provide both reserve capacity to deal with sudden load increases and “grid inertia” to keep the frequency stable.

“You have to have inertia on the system that helps buffer load changes, and inertia is provided by turbines that spin. Renewables don’t have inertia,” said Griffey.

Without the electrical inertia available from fuel-powered, constantly-spinning generators, the entire grid can crash unexpectedly if the wind stops blowing while the sun isn’t shining.

This means that renewables like wind and solar will always require backup generators to provide both inertia and reliable power to take up unexpected loads.

And how much backup is required increases with the amount of renewables in the system.

“The more intermittent capacity you have, or the more unreliable capacity you have, you actually have to increase that reserve margin to carry more backup,” Griffey said.

“In the case of an all-wind system you’re going to be carrying 90 percent, give or take, to back it up because [windmills] only provide 5 to 15% of equivalent capacity,” said Griffey.

By equivalent capacity Griffey means that the advertised theoretical capacity of a wind farm of say 30 megawatts, called the “nameplate capacity,” only ever actually produces a fraction of that amount, called the “efficiency factor.”

Other sources place the efficiency factor of wind generators between 25% and 40%.””
     — Scott Weiser

Tags: Scott Weiser ∙ clipping ∙ Charles Griffey ∙ electric grid ∙ alternating current ∙ 60 Hz ∙ reserve capacity ∙ renewable ∙ wind power ∙ solar power

Cross posted at www.teknopagan.com/files/Thorium190619.html

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ ColdFusion ∙ thorium ∙ nuclear power ∙ cross posted

❝❝I'm a pagan who is not part of the climate crisis crowd. Two of the biggest reasons are the climate changes on Mars during roughly the same period and the fact that the models haven't been accurate yet (and had an 18 year gap). Long story short, we don't know enough about the climate to even say what the baseline is, much less fiddling with the thermostat.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ pagan ∙ Mars ∙ climate change crowd ∙ climate crisis ∙ model

❝❝Since ethanol is heavily subsidized in the United States, the price at the pump does not reflect the actual cost to produce. Extra costs are buried in taxes and the Federal general fund. These costs include collecting the tax, administering the tax, administrating the production and distribution of ethanol, and actual subsidies. It's nearly impossible to accurately calculate these costs, much less contain them.

Even with substantial subsidies, the technology doesn't exist to make ethanol economically from anything except food crops. Theoretically, almost any plant material can be used. Practically we haven't reached that point yet.

Government mandates and artificial demands for ethanol raise global food costs. The more crops required for ethanol, the bigger demand on food crops. The more ethanol that is required by law, the less food the poor can afford.

Mixing ethanol with gasoline makes fuel with less energy. More fuel must be used to move the same distance. There is ever growing political pressure to increase the ethanol and decrease the gasoline in the mix, which means even more fuel is needed.

Ethanol does not burn "cleaner" than gasoline. Ethanol does produce fewer greenhouse gases, but science hasn't yet found significant evidence that human-caused greenhouse gases significantly change the climate.

Ethanol is much more chemically reactive. Special (expensive) measures must be taken to transport and store ethanol. It doesn't "keep" as well as gasoline.

Farming crops to produce a gallon of ethanol takes more than a gallon of gasoline, especially considering the soil additives needed.❞❞

 ethanol 

Tags: maxims ∙ ethanol ∙ United States ∙ price ∙ costs ∙ tax ∙ subsidies ∙ mandates ∙ food crops ∙ cleaner ∙ greenhouse gases ∙ climate ∙ chemically reactive ∙ gasoline

““We are trying to save the people of the planet from the people ‘saving the planet.'””

— Caleb Rossiter, Skeptical scientist hijacks AOC Congressional climate hearing

Tags: Caleb Rossiter ∙ people ∙ of the planet ∙ saving the planet

““The whole climate crisis is not only fake news, it’s fake science. There is no climate crisis, there’s weather and climate all around the world, and in fact carbon dioxide is the main building block of all life.””

— Patrick Moore, co-founder of Greenpeace. Yes, he really was a co-founder of Greenpeace

Tags: Patrick Moore ∙ Greenpeace ∙ climate crisis ∙ fake news ∙ fake science ∙ weather ∙ climate ∙ carbon dioxide

❝❝Science doesn't work by consensus. Science works by explaining existing phenomena AND accurately predicting what happens next. Scientists are people too and they can see where the money and power are coming from. Very few want to speak against that. Sometimes the ones who have disputed the consensus have been attacked and discredited without the argument ever being addressed.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ science ∙ consensus ∙ explaining ∙ phenomena ∙ predictions ∙ money ∙ power ∙ discredited ∙ argument

❝❝For the Official Record, I didn't dispute that climate change is occurring. I disputed the measured changes were significant, if they were unusual, and if they were human caused. There's also the questions if the changes are bad, if humans can stop or reverse it, and if we should mess with a climate system that we have yet to understand.

For these reasons I dispute the climate change crisis.❞❞

— NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ climate change ∙ significant ∙ unusual ∙ human caused ∙ climate change crisis

What we do know is that there are loud politicos who want to take freedom, power, and money from people "for the greater good."

Tags: climate change ∙ climate models ∙ predictions ∙ climate alarmist ∙ politicos ∙ celebrity ∙ global cooling ∙ global warming ∙ climate science ∙ Intervene ∙ natural process ∙ freedom ∙ power ∙ money

❝❝I think that for the politicos it was never about saving humans or the planet, it was always the justification for shifting massive amounts of power and cash without accountability.

Ocasio-Cortez is an idiot and a very noisy distraction.

What is going to hit next is The Compromise®. There will be some very well respected and high profile Democrats who will publicly proclaim that of course the Green New Deal goes too far. But maybe we should consider some of the proposals. Carefully. After all, people are scared.

And if the "reasonable" Democrats don't get The Compromise®, they can always throw their weight behind Ocasio-Cortez.

I suspect that "no planes" means no air travel unless it's Absolutely Necessary. With the Democrats deciding what is and is not necessary. Look for that in all the new proposals. That will be part of The Compromise® and how it will be sold to the public.❞❞

Tags: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ green new deal ∙ environmental crusade ∙ Democrats ∙ The Compromise® ∙ it's Absolutely Necessary ∙ exceptions

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Women's March ∙ global warming ∙ life expectancy ∙ SOTUA ∙ Donald Trump ∙ deficit ∙ national debt ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ green new deal ∙ Bolivarian Revolution ∙ incompetence ∙ corruption ∙ irresponsibility ∙ truth ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ special counsel ∙ Justice Department ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ home security ∙ cameras ∙ data mining ∙ privacy ∙ Venezuela ∙ Cuba ∙ interventionism ∙ prostitution ∙ New Hampshire ∙ legalization ∙ prohibition ∙ Maggie McNeil ∙ fake news ∙ campaign ∙ lies ∙ political parties

“The Nature of Sex”

Tags: guest content ∙ video ∙ PragerU ∙ Richard Lindzen ∙ climate change alarmists

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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It’s Negative 24 Degrees and the Wind Isn’t Blowing. This is Why We Need Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power, Not Renewables

South Bend Mayor and Possible Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg Decries "Endless War"

Bill Nye’s Latest Climate Warning: The Us Will Have To Grow Its Food In Canada

Florida Gov. DeSantis signs executive order scrapping Common Core

The 16th Amendment: How the U.S. Federal Income Tax Became D.C.'s Favorite Political Weapon

Whatever Mueller Finds, Gag-Orders and No-Knock Raids Should Appall EVERYONE.

What the Press Missed About Vanguard Founder's Fortune

Venezuela Finds Out The Hard Way That Only Bitcoin Is Unconfiscatable

VA announces new rules giving veterans access to private providers

Primetime CNN, MSNBC Ignore Virginia Dems Supporting Late, Post-Term Abortions

PRESIDENT PELOSI? House Speaker holds public bill signings — to compete with Trump?

Noncitizens registered to vote in Pennsylvania and Texas show vote fraud is real

Dems Are Shocked, Shocked To Learn That 'Medicare For All' Outlaws Private Insurance

No-Knock Warrant for Deadly Drug Raid Describes Heroin and a Gun Cops Didn't Find

Yoho’s ‘Zero-for-Zero’ Sugar Plan To Curb Foreign Subsidies Returns

Water From the Air and Power From Trash

Politico: Liberals Developing New Phraseology to Hype 'Climate Change'

Europe 'coming apart before our eyes', say 30 top intellectuals

South Carolina Police Hauled in $17 Million Through Civil Asset Forfeiture Over Three Years

France’s Red Scarves: Ready-Made Counter-Protest and New Media Darlings

Howard Schultz Shoots Down Liz Warren Attack With Passionate Defense of the American Dream

An American Nightmare

Don't Expect The EU To Cave On May's Brexit Deal Until The Very Last Minute

Chaos has reportedly erupted inside Facebook as employees find themselves unable to open the company's apps on their iPhones

After 4 Cops Shot in Houston, Police Promise to Go After and ‘Track’ Those Who Criticize Police

‘I’m Not Going to Enforce That’: Sheriffs Disobey New Anti-Gun Laws—Refuse to Disarm Citizens

When 'Former' Spies Run Wild, Bad Things Happen

84% of 18-24 year olds don’t know how to change a light bulb… but they think they can run the economy?

Entrepreneurship Lifts Cambodia from the Clutches of Extreme Poverty in a Single Generation

NANCY? Pelosi botches words, suffers face spasms, confuses Dems, GOP while vowing no border wall funding

Roger Stone faces a gag order. He has a plan to resist it.

The Unseen Costs of Humanitarian Intervention

Rep. Ilhan Omar calls for sharp tax increases on the wealthy: 'We've had it as high as 90 percent'

Tags: humanitarian ∙ interventionism ∙ Cambodia ∙ entrepreneurship ∙ spies ∙ gun control ∙ Houston ∙ police ∙ Facebook ∙ iPhone ∙ Apple ∙ EU ∙ Brexit ∙ Theresa May ∙ FBI ∙ Roger Stone ∙ Howard Schultz ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ France ∙ red scarves ∙ theft ∙ South Carolina ∙ civil asset forfeiture ∙ Europe ∙ climate change ∙ water ∙ power ∙ trash ∙ sugar ∙ subsidies ∙ Ted Yoho ∙ Democrats ∙ Medicare ∙ vote fraud ∙ Pennsylvania ∙ Texas ∙ Nancy Pelosi ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Virgina ∙ late term ∙ abortion ∙ VA ∙ private providers ∙ Venezuela ∙ bitcoin ∙ currency ∙ John Bogle ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ gag order ∙ no-knock raids ∙ 16th Amendment ∙ income tax ∙ Ron DeSantis ∙ Florida ∙ Common Core ∙ Pete Buttigieg ∙ South Bend ∙ endless war ∙ Bill Nye ∙ cIimate panic ∙ renewable ∙ fossil fuels ∙ nuclear power ∙ severe winter

NAU researchers combine satellite data and modeling to predict climate change

❝❝The discussion reveals that the grazing, predation and movement (among other activities) performed by animals of all types have important effects on the ecological nutrient movement and should therefore be included in ecosystem studies.

“Such zoogeochemical effects are not measured by current remote sensing, nor are they included in carbon cycle models. … This currently limits our ability to accurately calculate carbon budgets and predict future climate change,” the team wrote.

The discussion also suggests that the integration of animal spatial ecology, ecosystem modeling and remote sensing are needed to improve carbon cycle research. This methodology can also be used to predict how animals will react to changing climates and provide methods to preserve biodiversity.❞❞
     — Kaitlin Olson

Tags: guest content ∙ Kaitlin Olson ∙ clipping ∙ animals ∙ ecosytem ∙ carbon cycle ∙ biodiversity ∙ climate change

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: e-books ∙ Independent bookstores ∙ AT&T ∙ deception ∙ fraud ∙ measles ∙ Europe ∙ TSA ∙ security theater ∙ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ∙ Federal government ∙ Federal Reserve

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: feminism ∙ dependency ∙ Title IX ∙ James Comey ∙ Arizona ∙ lettuce ∙ medical care ∙ Texas ∙ bullion depository ∙ deficit ∙ government spending ∙ Russia ∙ election ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Donald Trump ∙ climate change ∙ government ∙ California ∙ company ∙ economy ∙ Facebook

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: clipping ∙ guest content ∙ Russell McLendon ∙ redwood ∙ trees ∙ clones ∙ Presidio ∙ San Francisco ∙ Archangel Ancient Tree Archive ∙ cross posted

❝❝Critics have also noted that much of the science doesn't hold up and that the ten year deadlines keep getting moved.

---

Pardon, but that is not true. It's a very small minority of critics have publicly claimed the science doesn't hold up. As for the "vast majority of the world's scientists," that's not true either.

This is one area where what little science there is has been buried under layers and layers of politics. It has become heresy to criticize the "conclusions." And the reactions to those who do ask questions are exactly like those historical reactions to those who questioned Islam or Christianity in a less enlightened age. We should be asking why it is necessary to crush dissent. We should also be asking if (notoriously unreliable) politicos are really on the side of Earth and Nature, or if they have their own agenda.

Then we get to the science which really isn't science. It's computer models built on a unproven assumptions, including a carbon dioxide cascade effect that has never been observed either in the laboratory or in the field. The models also minimize other known strong climate influences such as solar variations and atmospheric water, probably because those can't be blamed on human activity. But no, the science is settled and Must Not Be Questioned.

Those of us who follow Earth-centered paths want to believe that we are uniquely qualified to help. Part and parcel of that is the belief that we are uniquely qualified to hurt as well. While there are ecological problems that are human caused like pollution and water table damage and overharvesting the seas and rainforests, Nature adapts. If all humans disappeared tomorrow morning at 7:13 AM Eastern Standard Time, life would go on.

We need to find actual changes that make the World a little better. That doesn't include handing over massive funding and political power to politicos and technocrats who have no understanding of Nature and haven't the slightest idea how to solve the "problem."

---

As a rule, I don't think either/or solutions apply. It's not save the planet OR consume everything.

Are there solutions? Yes, and a lot of them are beyond our reach for now. When we get nanotech going (and we will), I expect one of the first large scale applications will be vat-grown exotic hardwoods that are virtually indistinguishable from the "real thing" other than cost and availability. Vat-grown stone will follow. Already vat-grown meat shows promise.
And that is just short to medium term.

We can make it better without the need for noble sacrifice.

We also need to address capitalistic solutions that may work. The American bison population is growing because some herds are privately owned and managed. There's evidence that works with African elephants as well. People take care of what they own.

---

"Eppur si muove."

This is public science we are talking about. Public science means telling the politicos what they want to hear. In living memory, public science has flip flopped on things like forest management, eugenics, recommended diet, humans have only five senses, and the role of sodium in human biology. When discussing public science, we should always ask "who profits?"

I focus on the political of climate science because unlike almost any other field of science, dissent is not allowed. It's not merely a matter of dismissing results, it's discrediting the researchers who don't toe the line.

For most of the 20th Century, we humans have treated Science as the new god. We forget we know much less than we think we know. We forget that science is a process and not an absolute. I just keep remembering a commercial I heard on an old-time radio recording. "Eight out of ten doctors recommend Lucky Strikes for their patients who smoke."

I'd probably ignore the whole mess except governments are demanding tremendous power to Act Now despite having no real solutions. And of course, it's too urgent for debate or to submit to public vote.

---

I am not anti-science.

I really don't want to turn this into a long debate on climate science or government power.

What I'd like is for people to ask more questions. Why the goalposts for action keep moving. Just what is supposed to be done and how much of an effect it should have. What will be done if the predictions fail to predict.

While Why neopagans of all people are treating this as an Absolute Revelation when we know that the World does things we don't expect.

Why we can't start with simple things like planting more trees.

I think asking these questions is important.

---

It's the political aspect that worries me. I won't kid you, the extreme climate change crowd are a major inspiration for what I call the True Believer™.

I think the science could work itself out, but partial conclusions and unproven techniques have been placed front and center of an agenda that has very little to do with saving the planet.

---

““The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.””

— H. L. Mencken

---

*shrugs*

Like I said, if it wasn't for the politician's rush to do something now, and incidentally completely remake every social structure and institution, I'd be content to sit this one out.

I've done more than a little research on this subject over the years. I've written about it quite a bit. I'm notorious in some circles for being the pagan that doesn't embrace the climate change panic.

But more and more I see this as political. It's not the scientists who are making the noise. It's not the scientists who are calling for massive financial and social changes. And it's not the scientists who want to punish "climate deniers."

---

I've no problem with bottom up changes providing better alternatives.

I've every problem with unquestioned top down solutions imposed by force.

I firmly believe that there are two phrases which have done more to shape humanity and human history than anything else.

The first is Let me help.

The second is I can do better than that!

---

Can you name another topic where "science" is defined by consensus rather than it's ability to predict?

---

Science isn't neutral. Science is a process. As a process, it shouldn't be treated as a conclusion.

The Brontosaurus was, wasn't, and then was again. Our perspective changed, our acceptance changed, but those old bones didn't.

No one is measuring the value of plate tectonics by how many people agree with it. Validity is measured by how well the theory explains observed phenomena and predicts what will happen.

Yet when it comes to climate change, there is always an overwhelming percentage of consent consensus cited, as if this measures validity.❞❞

Tags: climate change ∙ critics ∙ science ∙ islam ∙ Christianity ∙ heresy ∙ dissent ∙ politicos ∙ Earth ∙ Nature ∙ agenda ∙ computer models ∙ cascade effect ∙ science is settled ∙ Earth-centered religion ∙ adaptation ∙ either/or ∙ nanotech ∙ noble sacrifice ∙ capitalism ∙ government power ∙ true believers ∙ H.L. Mencken ∙ consensus ∙ process ∙ Brontosaurus

Monument Valley closed due to ‘cult activity'

Tags: Mitch McConnell ∙ sentencing reform ∙ Austrailia ∙ Minneapolis ∙ housing ∙ reform ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Emmanuel Macron ∙ climate summit ∙ social media ∙ energy independence ∙ Facebook ∙ privacy ∙ beavers ∙ Italy ∙ Harvard ∙ gender gap ∙ CDC

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: China ∙ business ∙ excecutive ∙ gas taxes ∙ poor people ∙ France ∙ climate change alarmists ∙ nonviolence ∙ Clinton Foundation ∙ whistleblower ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ campaign contributions

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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The Amazon Deal Shows Why We Must End Corporate Welfare

Top Ecuadorian Diplomat Destroys Guardian's Claim That Manafort Visited Assange

Migrant caravan hits tourism

Will Dems Protest Clintons, Too?

Macron Looks to Tax Measures to Curb

Truth Is What We Hide, Self-Serving Cover Stories Are What We Sell

Will Paris Riots Scuttle Climate Accord?

Revealed: Marriott's 500 Million Hack Came After A String Of Security Breaches

Paris protests reveal fracture between France’s haves and have-nots

Miseducated or Stupid?

I quit Instagram and Facebook and it made me a lot happier — and that's a big problem for social media companies

Is the FBI Raiding Whistleblowers' Homes to Protect Robert Mueller?

I deleted my Twitter account. It's a breeding ground for thoughtlessness and contempt.

Tags: Twitter ∙ FBI ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Facebook ∙ Instagram ∙ social media ∙ Marriott ∙ data breech ∙ taxes ∙ Paris ∙ riots ∙ Paris Climate Agreement ∙ Democrats ∙ Bill Clinton ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ migrants ∙ caravan ∙ tourism ∙ Amazon ∙ corporatism ∙ Ecuador ∙ Guardian ∙ Julian Assange ∙ Paul Manafort

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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Minneapolis' Healthy Foods Mandate Screws Over Ethnic Grocers

Buried? Feds to release major climate report day after Thanksgiving

Mises Predicted the "Red Meat Tax"

Why A Revote Is Necessary After Brenda Snipes Resigns Amid Florida’s Midterm Insanity

Even California Cannot Defy Nature Forever

QE Created Dangerous Financial Dependence, Italy Hooked, Withdrawal Next, ECB Warns

Information Attacks against Democracies

Roberts, Trump spar in extraordinary scrap over judges

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Headlines that don't merit their own entry

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In Democratic circles, anti-Semitism is becoming normal

The ACLU Condemns DeVos's Title IX Reforms, Says These Due Process Safeguards 'Inappropriately Favor the Accused'

Household debt hit a record high of $13.5 trillion last quarter

A Warm-Up For 2020: Arizona’s Maricopa County Just Stole The Senate Election

GOP Audits Elections Office In County That Swung To Democrats

Hanging On: Republican Congresswoman Mia Love Is Now Favored To Prevail In Tight Re-Election Bid

Stacey Abrams Acknowledges Loss In Georgia Governor's Race

Is an ‘Internet of Ears’ the next big thing for smart homes?

SAF, NRA File Federal Lawsuit Challenging Initiative 1639

Kansas City Health Department pours bleach on food meant for homeless people

Debra Messing Joins Alyssa Milano, Condemns Anti-Semitic Women's March Leaders

Gridlocked, in Fair Weather and Foul

Bubble Trouble: Seattle-Bellevue Metro Housing Market Goes South

Democrats’ Way Back: Is the Resistance rooted in reality?

Identity Politics and American anti-Semitism

Brenda Snipes submits resignation as Broward elections supervisor

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Liberal Scorned: The Media Turns on Facebook and Google

Trump backs sentencing reform bill he says will give ex-inmates 'a second chance at life'

The Institutionalization of Social Justice

There's a Good Reason Many Women Make Less Than Men

Loggers support Trump's claim that wildfires caused by 'poor forest management'

Global warming alarmists pissed off by Canadian gov’t report that nukes their narrative about polar bears

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ women ∙ Rick Scott ∙ Florida ∙ Senate ∙ global warming ∙ polar bears ∙ climate change alarmists ∙ loggers ∙ wildfires ∙ forest management ∙ wages ∙ social justice ∙ sentencing reform ∙ Democrats ∙ anti-Semitism ∙ Broward County ∙ media ∙ Facebook ∙ Google ∙ Brenda Snipes ∙ Betsy DeVos ∙ Title IX ∙ ACLU ∙ debt ∙ Arizona ∙ election ∙ Maricopa County ∙ Utah ∙ Mia Love ∙ Stacey Abrams ∙ Georgia ∙ internet of ears ∙ smart house ∙ Second Amendment Foundation ∙ SAF ∙ NRA ∙ National Rifle Association ∙ lawsuit ∙ Washington state ∙ Debra Messing ∙ New York ∙ snow ∙ housing market ∙ bubble ∙ Seattle ∙ identity politics

Batkid saved San Francisco five years ago, and his cancer's been in remission ever since

Tags: Backpage ∙ scandal ∙ James Larkin ∙ Michael Lacey ∙ witch hunt ∙ election ∙ Maine ∙ ranked-choice ∙ San Francisco ∙ homes ∙ overpriced ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ email ∙ Rutgers University ∙ blasphemy ∙ merit ∙ therapist ∙ Rust Belt ∙ Jim Acosta ∙ climate optimism ∙ meat eaters

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: caravan ∙ Gallup ∙ Central America ∙ U.S. ∙ Republicans ∙ ballot box ∙ House of Representatives ∙ Gab ∙ Pennsylvania ∙ subpoena ∙ DNS provider ∙ Women's March ∙ anti-Semitism ∙ DNC ∙ Democrats ∙ health care ∙ Barack Obama ∙ energy independence ∙ Facebook ∙ George Soros ∙ Donald Trump ∙ inmate ∙ justice reform ∙ Nancy Pelosi ∙ Speaker of the House ∙ Federal Reserve ∙ Jerome Powell ∙ Amazon ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ conservatives ∙ universities ∙ climate alarmist

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Amazon ∙ crony capitalism ∙ tax credits ∙ New York ∙ Virginia ∙ Title IX ∙ USC ∙ FOIA ∙ Nancy Pelosi ∙ libertarian ∙ democracy ∙ dictatorship ∙ FBI ∙ hate crime ∙ sunspots ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ climate ∙ weather ∙ scam ∙ police ∙ shooting ∙ security guard ∙ alcohol ∙ farm bill ∙ hypocrites ∙ Kyrsten Sinema ∙ Arizona ∙ Nazis ∙ Germany ∙ history ∙ identity politics ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ farmers ∙ trade war ∙ China ∙ U.S. ∙ RVs ∙ nomads

❝❝There's also climate change. Some treat it very much as a religious issue, right down to attacking dissenters as heretics. Using the law to compel belief is wrong.

After all, if it is Divine Will, how can mere humans dare question it? Which gives non serviam some very interesting implications. By some interpretations, the absolute demands of monotheism may be less about the Divine and more about the political power of princes, potentates, and priests.

It's easy to laugh at those crazy monotheists until you see some demands of the RadFems, the trans activists, the environmental groups, the redistributionists, and anti-hate speech types. Always, Always, ALWAYS there is a Grand Cause that demands total submission and absolutely no denial "for the greater good."

Anytime you see "thou shalt not dissent," it should be a flashing red strobe and a triple siren.

---

Kosher certification for restaurants is one private alternative for food safety that has worked. One author, L. Neil Smith, suggested in one of his novels that insurance companies would do a better job with driver's licenses because they are liable if something happens. Obviously these are not the only possibilities. But with government, we end up with only one Official Solution® allowed.

Personally I prefer the free market and competition. And by free market, I mean no government to pick winners or losers, and no government to give advantages over others. Just voluntary exchanges between consenting adults. Many companies especially international ones owe their competitive advantages to special privileges from governments and/or government regulation and control.

The only times I think government should intervene is to protect life, liberty, and property. Beyond that, the only role I see for government is enforcing contracts and agreements, but even that could be done privately.

But that is just me.

I do believe that Meddling in Other's Lives For Their Own Good is one of the great evils unleashed on humanity.❞❞

Tags: climate change ∙ religious ∙ beliefs ∙ dissent ∙ Divine Will ∙ non serviam ∙ mere unbelievers ∙ monotheism ∙ absolute ∙ princes ∙ potentates ∙ priests ∙ RadFem ∙ trans activists ∙ environmental crusade ∙ redistribute wealth ∙ thou shalt not dissent ∙ kosher ceritificaiton ∙ insurance companies ∙ driver's license ∙ food safety ∙ competition ∙ government ∙ winners or losers ∙ voluntary exchange ∙ consenting adults ∙ special privileges ∙ government regulation ∙ life ∙ liberty ∙ property ∙ enforce contracts ∙ meddle ∙ for your own good

It's going to be tight.

Tags: caravan ∙ George Soros ∙ wind farms ∙ buzzards ∙ hawks ∙ kites ∙ libertarian ∙ Jordan Peterson ∙ NRA ∙ NRA boycott ∙ New York ∙ Justin Amash ∙ election ∙ Thomas Massie ∙ Congress ∙ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ∙ marijuana ∙ Michigan ∙ Utah ∙ climate change ∙ Adam Schiff ∙ RussiaGate

Changing the Rules

Why Is Social Media So Toxic?

Have we really wiped out half of all animals?

If Dems win the House, ‘climate committee’ will return – seeking energy taxes

Napolitano Teaches Basic Civics to Desperate ‘Fox & Friends’ Hosts

We Need a #MeToo Movement for Political Consent

How Trump Is Winning The Midterm Elections

Pakistan acquits Christian woman on death row

Surveillance Cameras Can Identify Anyone by “Talking to Their Cellphones”

Everything you need to know about economics you can learn in the pet food aisle

'Stalked within your own home': Woman says abusive ex used smart home technology against her

If You Liked 'Axis of Evil,' You're Gonna Love 'Troika of Tyranny'

Foxconn: Failure & Fraud

Tags: internet ∙ social media ∙ animals ∙ election ∙ Democrats ∙ climate committee ∙ energy taxes ∙ Andrew Napolitano ∙ Constitution ∙ Donald Trump ∙ political consent ∙ Pakistan ∙ Christian ∙ surveillance cameras ∙ economics ∙ pet food ∙ smart house ∙ tech abuse ∙ Cuba ∙ Venezuela ∙ Nicaragua ∙ Foxconn ∙ failure ∙ fraud

Civility 101: James Cromwell Says ‘There Will Be Blood’ if Dems Lose Midterms

State-Backed Digital Currency Offers Nothing for Canadians

Is This Worse Than '68?

Moving The Goalposts: IPCC Secretly Redefines what ‘Climate’ means

Bolsonaro is not a fascist

Dad at McDonald's with kids shoots and kills masked gunman who opened fire

Why Halloween Is America’s Most Neighborhood-Nurturing Holiday

Hillary Clinton Drops Super Racist Comment During Event

The Misguided Rabbis of Twitter

Election predictions

Feds Order Google To Hand Over A Load Of Innocent Americans' Locations

New Research Confirms We Got Cholesterol All Wrong

Warmists and Skeptics Should Agree That This is The Real Scandal in Climate Science

Tags: midterm ∙ election ∙ James Cromwell ∙ cryptocurrencies ∙ Canada ∙ 1968 ∙ IPCC ∙ climate ∙ Jair Bolsonaro ∙ fascist ∙ Dad ∙ McDonald's ∙ self defense ∙ gun ∙ Halloween ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ racist ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Jews ∙ polls ∙ privacy ∙ Google ∙ cholesterol ∙ food ∙ government

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Pittsburgh ∙ activists ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Muslim groups ∙ synagogue ∙ victims ∙ psilocybin ∙ FDA ∙ psychedelic ∙ medicine ∙ Human trafficking ∙ gangbangers ∙ Guatemala ∙ caravan ∙ tariffs ∙ protectionism ∙ Gab ∙ shooting ∙ excuse ∙ reason ∙ Brett Kavanaugh ∙ cannabis ∙ property values ∙ capitalism ∙ birthright citizenship

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ 1000Frolly ∙ psudeoscience ∙ Ivar Giaever ∙ global warming ∙ Barack Obama ∙ 2012

Report: 3,000 SNAP Retailers Used Social Security Numbers of Dead People During Obama Administration

China Targets Control Over Internet of Things for Spying, Business

Once Again, NBC Sits On Story Related to Sexual Misconduct Until After It Matters

Corporate Speech Police Are Not the Answer to Online Hate

'#WalkAway' movement renouncing liberalism marches through nation's capital

One of the Best Arguments Against Blocking Speech on Social Media....

Defensible Space

Deficits Do Matter: Debt Payments Will Consume Trillions of Dollars in Coming Years

U.S.-bound migrants enter Guatemala, others clash at border

Is Orwell’s Big Brother Here? Bezos & Amazon Team up With Defense, CIA & ICE

Murder in Pittsburgh and the Targeting of Alternative Social Media

Voters in Oregon Have the Opportunity to Create 10 “Gun Sanctuary” Counties

New Hampshire Privacy Amendment on the Ballot

Google’s smart city dream is turning into a privacy nightmare

Mexico offers caravan migrants benefits to stay; thousands refuse

Virtue-signaling and derangement in the wake of a massacre

Tags: SNAP ∙ Social Security ∙ dead people ∙ Obama Administration ∙ Guatemala ∙ China ∙ internet of things ∙ NBC ∙ sexual misconduct ∙ censorship ∙ speech police ∙ online hate ∙ #WalkAway ∙ liberalism ∙ megafires ∙ Pacific Northwest ∙ deficit ∙ trillions ∙ debt ∙ caravan ∙ Big Brother ∙ Amazon ∙ DoD ∙ ICE ∙ CIA ∙ Pittsburgh ∙ murder ∙ Oregon ∙ gun sanctuary ∙ New Hampshire ∙ privacy ∙ Google ∙ Mexico ∙ benefits ∙ massacre ∙ virtue signaling

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

An exclusive look at Cory Booker’s plan to fight wealth inequality: give poor kids money

A Law Intended to Protect Crime Victims Is Being Used to Shield the Identities of Police Officers

Dear Resistance, listen to my lived totalitarian experience – you have no effing idea what you’re talking about

Politico Report Says Russiagaters Should Prepare To Kiss My Ass

Methods and Tricks Used to Create and Perpetuate the Human-caused Global Warming Deception

Divided Democrats struggle to answer Trump's claims on migrant caravan

Watching a Country Make a Fool of Itself

Saudi dissidents fear 'long arm' of state after Khashoggi murder

A Texas Police Officer Is Charged After Mishandling 130 Sex Crime Cases

Georgia Mayor Has Plan To Round Up Town's Sex Offenders on Halloween

California company that hires protesters is accused of extortion

Previously Deported Illegal Aliens Join Caravan: ‘It’s Time for Me to Go Back’

Judge bars New Hampshire proof of residency requirement for new voters

Tags: Cory Booker ∙ wealth inequality ∙ police ∙ shield ∙ unintended consequences ∙ authority ∙ resistance ∙ RussiaGate ∙ global warming ∙ deception ∙ Democrats ∙ caravan ∙ Brexit ∙ Georgia ∙ sex offenders ∙ Halloween ∙ protesters

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

The truth about electric cars

When a DNA Test Reveals Your Daughter Is Not Your Biological Child

Will U.S. Success In Cutting Greenhouse Gases Kill The Paris Climate Deal?

Honduras's paid caravan 'refugees' exposed as frauds by Venezuela's real refugees

Emails Show Obama FDIC Struggled With Legal Basis For Operation Choke Point

Texas Democrats Caught Mailing Pre-Filled Voter Registrations To Non-Citizens

Elizabeth Warren's Other Cherokee Scandal: Her Fight Against Tribal Sovereignty

Khashoggi misinformation highlights a growing number of fake fact-checkers

Migrant caravan clashes with Mexican police, waits on bridge at Guatemalan-Mexican border

Black Trump Supporters Declare Their Independence From The Democratic Party

Tags: electric cars ∙ DNA test ∙ greenhouse gases ∙ Paris Climate Agreement ∙ Venezuela ∙ Honduras ∙ refugee ∙ Obama Administration ∙ FDIC ∙ Operation Choke Point ∙ email ∙ Democrats ∙ voter fraud ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ Cherokee ∙ tribal sovereignty ∙ caravan ∙ Mexico

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Robert Mueller ∙ investigate ∙ Trump campaign ∙ Russia ∙ Democrats ∙ Backpage ∙ lawyers ∙ Amazon ∙ minimum wage ∙ bonus ∙ climate change ∙ yard signs ∙ Ted Cruz ∙ bubble ∙ debt ∙ International borders ∙ no rights ∙ Mexico ∙ riot police ∙ caravan ∙ Brexit ∙ Germany ∙ Heidi Heitkamp ∙ sexual assault ∙ survivors ∙ doxing

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Elizabeth Warren’s DNA Test Is ‘Useless,’ ‘Inappropriate And Wrong’ Cherokee Nation Official Says

U.S. Has 3.5 Million More Registered Voters Than Live Adults — A Red Flag For Electoral Fraud

Saudis said ready to concede writer was slain in botched interrogation

A White Woman Falsely Accused a Black 9-Year-Old Boy of Groping Her

How An Amateur Rap Crew Stole Surveillance Tech That Tracks Almost Every American

The Next Generation Of Democratic Leaders Wants To Move Up, But The Baby Boomers Are In The Way

Washington Post: “Double or Triple” Fuel Prices to Solve the Climate Crisis

‘60 Minutes’ Was Outmatched by Trump (Column)

The FBI Doesn’t Want Users To Know Who Hacked Facebook

On Eve of Harvard Bias Trial, Dueling Rallies Show Rifts Among Asian-Americans

More Entrepreneurship Would Help Progressive Causes, But Progressives Do Not Understand It At All

Facebook Slams Independent Voices With Latest Political Purge

Understanding "Brazil’s Donald Trump"

Tags: Cherokee ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ DNA test ∙ registered voter ∙ electoral fraud ∙ Saudi Arabia ∙ interrogation ∙ false charges ∙ surveillance ∙ Democrat party ∙ Millennial ∙ Baby Boomers ∙ gas taxes ∙ climate change ∙ 60 Minutes ∙ Donald Trump ∙ FBI ∙ Facebook ∙ hack ∙ Harvard ∙ rally ∙ entrepreneurship ∙ independent ∙ purged ∙ Brazil

The down side to wind power

““As the world begins its large-scale transition toward low-carbon energy sources, it is vital that the pros and cons of each type are well understood and the environmental impacts of renewable energy, small as they may be in comparison to coal and gas, are considered.

In two papers — published today in the journals Environmental Research Letters and Joule — Harvard University researchers find that the transition to wind or solar power in the U.S. would require five to 20 times more land than previously thought, and, if such large-scale wind farms were built, would warm average surface temperatures over the continental U.S. by 0.24 degrees Celsius.””
     — Leah Burrows

Tags: clipping ∙ Leah Burrows ∙ renewable ∙ coal power ∙ gas power ∙ Harvard

❝❝Carbon neutrality is a fallacy cooked up so that developing nations would not have to face the same "standards" as industrialized nations and to create a parasite market based on a fictional commodity.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ carbon neutrality ∙ developing nations ∙ ndustrialized nations ∙ parasite market ∙ ictional commodity

❝❝Just because it cloaks itself in science doesn't make it science. There is very little that is provable or scientific about human caused climate change.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ science ∙ anthropogenic climate change

❝❝I'm telling you as a Genuine Tree Hugging Pagan that anthropogenic climate change is a scam designed to seize money and political power.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ pagan ∙ scam ∙ money ∙ power

❝❝*sigh*

Pardon, but global climate change is a scam designed to take political power and money away from people. The figures are not accurate, the goalposts keep getting moved, and the solutions always seem to boil down to "give us money and don't ask questions."

I've done the research. Short of reducing the number of people or removing access to energy, there is not a lot that can be done. At present, there are exactly two off-the-shelf technologies that can meet power needs without adding to the "carbon footprint." Those are hydroelectric and nuclear plants. There are a limited number of rivers that can be dammed up to produce power. There are very few alternatives to high-pressure fission plants. Nobody wants either close to their homes.

Despite what you've been told, most "green" technologies are anything but. Ethanol can't be produced economically without subsidies. It's much more chemically unstable, making it harder to store, transport, and use in engines. Electric cars don't mass as much, making them more dangerous in an accident. Manufacturing and maintaining electric car batteries has a bigger impact on the environment. Solar and wind require parallel systems to meet peak demand. The cost of solar is prohibitive. Wind power attracts and kills birds. It may also contribute to local warming.

This is a big mess, and it's not going to be fixed by a top down legal solution.

Given the games that have been played over the years, we don't know what contributes to global climate change. We don't even know if there is human caused climate change. Climate changes, it happened before humans were here, and it will continue long after our descendant's descendants have turned to dust.

Meanwhile, we're still pumping water into swimming pools and golf courses. We still have waste plastics and trash piling up. We're destroying the rainforests and wiping out species.

But that doesn't matter because we're going to fix global warming. Eventually.

---

Pardon, but I didn't say that nuclear or dams are an acceptable solution. I said that they were the only existing off-the-shelf solutions that could meet demand and not add to the "carbon footprint."

As far as the predictions being short of reality, well, no. Back in the 1970s, the fear was about global cooling. In 1990, the IPCC predicted that temperatures would rise by 1ºC by 2025. As of the end of 2017, the actual change has been between .3ºC and .5ºC, depending on which database you use. Wildfires were supposed to increase, they declined. Snow was supposed to become a rare event, it stayed about the same. The Arctic Ocean was supposed to become ice free, but there's been no measurable decline. The sea level was supposed to rise four feet by now, it's been three or four inches. In 2005, there were supposed to be 50 million "climate refugees" by 2015.

This is the problem. Someone will proclaim disaster, but they are never held accountable for previous predictions. The goalposts keep moving.

---

What I'd like to see is the ecological issues separated from the climate change claims. There is a tremendous amount of power and money at stake without any accountability.

That is what I meant by a scam. People want to help. Pagans and Earth-centered faiths especially want to help the planet. Somebody is profiting without actually "saving the planet." If it were anything else, we'd call them out. But because it's climate change, we accept the outrageousness.

---

I agree with you about the dams. They aren't a good solution. They are one of the very few proven technologies that can deliver the energy.

Pardon, I wasn't clear. Electric vehicles devote most of their mass to batteries. There have been some impact studies that do not show electrics in a good light.

I don't advocate reducing the population. But it is one of the solutions that is "on the table." Oddly enough, it's focused mainly on highly industrialized nations.

---

Pardon, but it is not about "deepening our understanding."

Somebody predicted something, it did not happen, and rather than owning their mistake, they predict more disaster just around the corner.

We don't know what makes climate work. I wouldn't trust anyone who claims to know what the temperature "should be."

I do know that we don't have big enough baselines. They talk about "the worst weather in a century." But the planet is more than four and a half billion years old. That's about .0000022% more or less.

---

If I told you that your favorite relative was coming in a red car, wouldn't you notice more red cars?

If the news was telling you that there were more storms, wouldn't you notice more storms?

You should ask IF there are actually more natural disasters or if someone wants more viewers/readers.

I'm not disputing that there are ecological problems. In my first post on this thread I mentioned water and waste disposal. What I am disputing is if global climate change is human caused or even a problem.

Electric cars have always had the battery problem. Add to that generating the electricity in the first place. Both have a huge environmental and economic impact.

Solar and wind are cheap, but converting them into something we can use is not. I live in Arizona, one of the sun shiniest states in the union. But that won't produce electricity at night or during a storm. The sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow.

Don't underestimate the power of profit and the free market. It's why we have things like grocery stores and comfortable shoes. Not to mention dirt cheap ballpoint pins, cheap computers, clean water, and affordable eyeglasses. See, the thing about the free market is that you have to offer as good as your competition or you lose business. If the competition makes it better or cheaper, you have to match them just to stay afloat.

And that brings us back to solar. In a world where practically anything can be sold at a profit at WalMart, don't you think that if cheap, durable, efficient solar cells could be made they would be?

I'm not asking for predictions to be one hundred percent accurate. But I do think the accuracy should be better than chance. Especially if the people doing the predictions want scads of money and tremendous political power to fix the "problem."

---

You're using solar supplementally. That's good.

Let me make it clear that I do not oppose solar. I just do not think it's practical or affordable as a primary source on a mass scale as it has been sold. I'm a big fan of decentralization. I also think that much of our architecture doesn't support the wise use of energy.

I'm not sure that solar is practical as a primary electrical supply, even on a small scale. Aside from AC, there are things like freezers, refrigerators, hot water heaters, washers, and dryers. These appliances are designed for a constant flow of power.

Ideally I think there should be earth houses or something along the lines of the works of the late Malcolm Wells.

---

The weather isn't the same every year. My high desert is having a very dry year on top of several others. Lake Powell and Lake Mead are at very low although not record low levels. It's enough to trigger the restrictions on the water treaties though, which means that Arizona and Nevada won't be getting their full allotment from the Colorado.

There was one year when I was a kid that there was snow every two or three days. Not a lot of snow, but very unusual for a desert and unheard of.

Even a human lifetime is not enough to establish a baseline. What is weather in a century when the planet is billions of years old? The planet has had several ice ages, which means there were warm periods too.

I want to stress that I am not dismissing environmental issues like clean water. When I first saw the PBS series based on Cadillac Desert I was horrified. That made me take a hard look at what was happening with water in the Southwest.

No, my issue is with anthropogenic climate change. From what I can tell, there are alarmists but no evidence. And a lot of failed predictions.❞❞

Tags: climate change ∙ scam ∙ money ∙ hydroelectric ∙ nuclear power ∙ green energy ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ water ∙ swimming pools ∙ golf courses ∙ plastic ∙ rainforests ∙ species ∙ global warming

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: divided America ∙ wind farms ∙ unintended consequences ∙ DNC ∙ FBI ∙ RussiaGate ∙ surveillance warrant ∙ prison slavery ∙ EPA ∙ deregulate ∙ Seymour Hersh ∙ journalism ∙ Ted Koppel ∙ CNN ∙ MSNBC ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Presidential Alert ∙ Los Angeles ∙ gas taxes ∙ grievance studies

People tend to repeat behavior that has been successful or will bring them an emotional high.

Tags: Bosnia ∙ politicos ∙ banks ∙ gunmakers ∙ Presidential Alert ∙ New Zealand ∙ privacy ∙ veteran ∙ Tim Cook ∙ Apple ∙ data ∙ JCPenny ∙ Sears ∙ Brookstone ∙ Maldives ∙ climate change ∙ Christine Blasey Ford ∙ polygraph ∙ Mike Pompeo ∙ North Korea ∙ Kim Jong Un ∙ NATO ∙ missiles

❝❝The problem with making the personal political is that you drag everyone around you into politics, whether they want to be or not.

The environment is a hugely complex topic. Where do we start? Water rights? Ethanol eradication? GMO seeds? Climate change? I'm willing to bet that no one here is going to agree on all of those.

Likewise the "religious right." Obviously we need to take a stand against people like Roy Moore. It took me twenty-plus years to get on speaking terms some of my relatives younger than me, I'd rather not throw that away. Not all of the religious right is a monolithic block, any more than all pagans. Individual relationships work better than shunning everyone with the wrong label.

---

Pardon, but I've found environmental issues particularly troubling, to the point where I'd rather discuss ecology rather than environmentalism. There are some in the climate change crowd who are just as absolutist as any hard core evangelical Christian. As another example, when I call for the eradication of ethanol because it is subsidized, requires food crops, consumes more than a gallon of gas to produce one gallon of ethanol, and is harder to store and transport than gasoline, I'm attacked because I am "in the pocket of big oil."

Perhaps it's that absolutist quality that is the real problem. There's more than one answer and one answer doesn't fit all. I'd say there is more than one problem too, but most don't want to deal with that.❞❞

Tags: environment ∙ personal ∙ water rights ∙ ethanol ∙ GMOs ∙ climate alarmist ∙ religious right ∙ Christian ∙ Roy Moore ∙ pagans ∙ absolutist ∙ answer

When government is "responsible" for something, regular people stop paying attention.

Tags: cross posted ∙ power with vs power over ∙ Somebody Else's Problem ∙ Douglas Adams ∙ EPA ∙ Obama Administration ∙ Silent Spring ∙ Superfund

Tags: sports ∙ viewers ∙ FBI ∙ Attorney General ∙ Jeff Sessions ∙ FOSTA ∙ prostitution ∙ crimminal probe ∙ sucession ∙ Elizabeth Warren ∙ CFPB ∙ Southern Poverty Law Center ∙ conservative ∙ Congress ∙ budget deficits ∙ free range kids ∙ RussiaGate ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Donald Trump ∙ special counsel ∙ labels ∙ pronouns ∙ power over speech ∙ Google ∙ Amazon ∙ EU ∙ Facebook ∙ NOAA ∙ climate change ∙ adjusted temperatures ∙ lawsuit ∙ David Hogg ∙ speech wars ∙ digitalships ∙ double standards ∙ diversity ∙ public safety ∙ Florida ∙ Palm Beach County

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: public schools ∙ discpline ∙ nerve agent ∙ racism ∙ Facebook ∙ STEM ∙ New Zealand ∙ Bernie Sanders ∙ gun control ∙ California ∙ gender wage parity ∙ discrimination ∙ Al Gore ∙ predictions ∙ Baker Act ∙ bad cops ∙ abaya robe ∙ Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School ∙ school shooting ∙ Trump administration ∙ Obama Administration ∙ David Hogg ∙ FBI ∙ James Comey ∙ Andrew McCabe ∙ John O. Brennan ∙ Barack Obama ∙ corruption ∙ Paul Ryan ∙ Congress ∙ sex harassment

“Oren Cass joins John Stossel to discuss the Paris Climate Agreement and how climate “catastrophists” are harming the debate over ways to adapt to changing global climate. The epithet “climate denier” has been used for years by activists to tastelessly smear critics of the Left’s preferred environmental policies. Cass argues that climate activists have drawn drastic policy implications unwarranted by current climate science.”

Tags: Manhattan Institute ∙ video ∙ climate change ∙ Oren Cass ∙ John Stossel ∙ Paris Climate Agreement ∙ Paris accord

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: San Francisco ∙ vagrancy ∙ Amazon ∙ censorship ∙ War on Drugs ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ consumerism ∙ Novichok ∙ Russia ∙ penguins ∙ climate alarmist ∙ student ∙ walkout ∙ aIrlines ∙ competition ∙ Florida ∙ cops ∙ gun seizure ∙ due process ∙ 2nd Amendment ∙ New Orleans ∙ pre-crime ∙ Donald Trump ∙ wuss ∙ New York Times ∙ Iran ∙ war ∙ distillary ∙ Native American ∙ land

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Hillary Clinton ∙ election ∙ Broward County ∙ sheriffs ∙ banking ∙ free checking ∙ goverment ∙ Amazon ∙ Civil War ∙ Trump campaign ∙ Republicans ∙ Democrats ∙ progressivism ∙ geoengineering ∙ climate control ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Rod Rosenstein ∙ human progress ∙ newspapers ∙ machine learning ∙ markets

Tags: Texas ∙ judge ∙ tabloid ∙ electric shock ∙ CIA ∙ lawsuit ∙ climate change ∙ big oil ∙ South Africa ∙ gay ∙ healthcare ∙ Medicare ∙ robot ∙ fast food ∙ Democrat ∙ Russian disinformation ∙ land confiscation ∙ water shortage ∙ journalists ∙ FOIA ∙ computers ∙ Geek Squad ∙ FBI ∙ Best Buy ∙ propaganda ∙ California ∙ FedGovs ∙ immigration ∙ Congress ∙ Tenth Amendment ∙ North Korea

Tags: school shooting ∙ gun rights ∙ South Africa ∙ Zimbabwe ∙ confiscates ∙ disaster ∙ redistributes ∙ global warming ∙ pollution ∙ Broward County ∙ sheriffs ∙ David Hogg ∙ crisis actor ∙ Houston ∙ Brandon Minoff ∙ elites ∙ Munich ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Nicholas Garaufis ∙ immigration

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: public schools ∙ Disney ∙ Robert Mueller ∙ Radio Free Europe ∙ Indictment ∙ gun control ∙ 2nd Amendment ∙ Treasury Department ∙ shortfall ∙ imports ∙ climate change ∙ hurricanes ∙ dissent ∙ transgender ∙ election ∙ custody ∙ Chicago ∙ professors ∙ Michael Flynn ∙ Federal abuses ∙ Federal corruption ∙ Russian disinformation ∙ paper ballots ∙ Syrian war ∙ Title IX ∙ Ruth Bader Ginsburg ∙ ICE ∙ security ∙ Border Patrol ∙ Medicaid ∙ Medicare ∙ healthcare ∙ prices ∙ surveillance ∙ Saginaw

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ John Stossel ∙ climate change ∙ climate alarmist

Tags: video ∙ guest content ∙ PragerU ∙ global warming ∙ climate models ∙ Will Happer

Ah, "anthropogenic global warming/cooling/drastic weather." In a word, unproven.

Tags: global cooling ∙ global warming ∙ weather ∙ pagan ∙ climate change ∙ earthquake ∙ weather station ∙ satellite

❝❝If we can't question the science, then will we be allowed to question the new regulations, taxes, and fees?❞❞
     — NeoWayland, from crux № 12 — climate change

Tags: maxims ∙ climate change ∙ science ∙ regulations ∙ taxes ∙ fees ∙ question ∙ allowed

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: false claims ∙ craft beer ∙ Margaret Atwood ∙ social media ∙ Mexico ∙ professor ∙ algebra ∙ geometry ∙ judicial nominees ∙ studen athelete ∙ California ∙ water shortage ∙ pollution ∙ global warming ∙ sexual assault

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Crux Files ∙ climate change ∙ plant trees ∙ grow a garden ∙ climate alarmist ∙ profit ∙ foreign policy ∙ government ∙ Somebody Else's Problem ∙ Christians ∙ nuclear power ∙ Earth Day ∙ climate gap ∙ UNFCCC ∙ EPA ∙ political coup ∙ prestige ∙ truth ∙ heretic ∙ science is settled ∙ power ∙ money ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ scientists ∙ cascade effect ∙ spreadsheets ∙ consensus ∙ advertising ∙ thou shalt not dissent ∙ science ∙ Earth-centered religion ∙ human influence ∙ volcanos ∙ pollution ∙ water shortage ∙ mass produced architecture ∙ back seat ∙ climate models ∙ suberted ∙ industrial chemicals ∙ greenhouse gases ∙ raccoon population explosion ∙ polar bears ∙ environmental movement ∙ human activity ∙ climatology

Tags: California ∙ poverty ∙ cannabis ∙ Jeff Sessions ∙ Coachella ∙ corruption ∙ Congressional servers ∙ Catherine Deneuve ∙ global warming ∙ Wells Fargo ∙ computer glitch ∙ Donald Trump ∙ mainstream media ∙ 48 hour rule

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: rent control ∙ Stanford ∙ San Francisco ∙ Joe Arpaio ∙ Senate ∙ Arizona ∙ asset forfeiture ∙ Oklahoma ∙ Alan Dershowitz ∙ climate alarmist ∙ solar power ∙ censorship ∙ Rhode Island ∙ Jeff Flake ∙ surveillance

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Oregon ∙ progressive ∙ Amtrack ∙ derailment ∙ minimum wage ∙ Christmas tree ∙ predictions ∙ Iran ∙ unrest

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Donald Trump ∙ Iran ∙ corporatist ∙ milirarist ∙ coup ∙ global warming ∙ police misconduct ∙ freedom ∙ Washington D.C. ∙ establishment ∙ voters

Older headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Republicans ∙ Democrats ∙ Donald Trump ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ looted ∙ Antifa ∙ Samantha Power ∙ unmasking ∙ Princeton ∙ campus newspaper ∙ editorial board ∙ dissent ∙ climate change ∙ Florida ∙ solar power ∙ crony capitalism ∙ Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ∙ slush fund ∙ Congress ∙ President ∙ taxpayers ∙ Jeff Sessions ∙ fearmongering ∙ stingray ∙ warrant ∙ rental ∙ vacancy ∙ Elizabeth Warren

❝❝I'm notorious in online pagan groups for denying global warming and saying that environmentalism is a failed cause that should be replaced with ecology.

I'm rather proud of that.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: global warming ∙ maxims

❝❝Ecology studies how living systems interact and interconnect with each other. Environmentalism is about teaching and compelling behavior. These words are not synonyms. As both a pagan and a libertarian, I can not support environmentalism.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ ecology ∙ environment

Never slaves & never Nazis

Tags: clipping ∙ Michael Reilly ∙ thorium ∙ Dave Mosher

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: speech wars ∙ webmaster ∙ smart phone ∙ security ∙ Antifa ∙ AfDI ∙ PayPal ∙ Pamela Geller ∙ climate change ∙ competition ∙ healthcare ∙ Venezuela ∙ Russia ∙ oil assets

In ‘Momentous Milestone’, Pakistan Plants One Billion Trees Ahead of Schedule

““Pakistan’s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhaw (KPK), has planted an unprecedented 1 billion trees in just more than two years and surpassed an international commitment of restoring 350,000 hectares of forests and degraded land.

The massive effort aims to turn the tide on land degradation and loss in the mountainous, formerly forested KPK, which lies in the Hindu Kush mountain range.

Imran Khan, head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party governing the province, launched the reforestation campaign, dubbed “Billion Tree Tsunami,” in 2015.

The cricket-star-turned politician revealed to VOA that the goal of adding 1 billion trees by planting and natural regeneration has been achieved this month, well ahead of the original deadline of December 2017.

He says his party plans to organize a special event in Islamabad in late August to celebrate the successful completion of the project, and experts as well as foreign diplomats will be invited.

“We will show them by coordinates, on Google map you can go and see where these trees have been planted, 1 billion trees, this is now the model for the rest of Pakistan,” Khan said.””
     — Ayaz Gul

Tags: Ayaz Gul ∙ Pakistan ∙ Hindu Kush mountain range ∙ Imran Khan ∙ Billion Tree Tsunami ∙ clipping

Tags: Obamacare ∙ health insurance ∙ transgender ∙ Coast Guard ∙ Donald Trump ∙ FBI ∙ social media ∙ 2016 election ∙ fake news ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Venezuela ∙ Australia's Bureau of Meteorology ∙ immigration ∙ social engineers ∙ Republican shadow campaign ∙ New York Times ∙ Dunkirk ∙ job growth ∙ Barack Obama

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Obamacare ∙ climate change ∙ Venezuela ∙ geoengineering ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ VPN ∙ China ∙ government ∙ internet ∙ Kid Rock ∙ immigration ∙ Jeff Flake ∙ Senator ∙ Arizona ∙ North Carolina ∙ speech wars ∙ Goldwater Instittuie

“Commentary: Can the NOAA, NASA, EPA, Met Office, and British academia all be wrong about climate change?”

Tags: clipping ∙ Graham H. Seibert ∙ adjusted ∙ model ∙ climate change

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: John McCain ∙ brain tumor ∙ government ∙ Left ∙ words ∙ medical autonomy ∙ rights ∙ Muslim ∙ Jeff Flake ∙ Clinton campaign ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Democrats ∙ Republicans ∙ 2016 election ∙ Russ Roberts ∙ George Soros ∙ climate change ∙ campaign finance reform ∙ ICO ∙ Initial Coin Offerings

❝❝I've seen the arguments in enough other contexts to distrust anyone who claims rationality prevents any opposing view. Even more so when they dismiss any other possibility unheard because they have the Ultimate Truth That Must Not Be Questioned.❞❞
     — NeoWayland

Tags: maxims ∙ humor ∙ Crux Files ∙ Christianity ∙ Christians ∙ climate change ∙ global warming ∙ distrust ∙ rationality prevents any opposing view ∙ Ultimate Truth That Must Not Be Questioned ∙ government approved line ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ The Science Is Settled ∙ criticism ∙ obedience ∙ dogma ∙ government ∙ science ∙ condemn ∙ Science as a Higher Authority ∙ Must Not Be Questioned ∙ advocate ∙ scientific ∙ human rights ∙ gay ∙ woman ∙ Navajo ∙ disabled ∙ politicos ∙ religious freedom ∙ Jewish ∙ Catholic ∙ Muslim ∙ Protestant ∙ Buddhist ∙ atheist ∙ moral relativity ∙ conservative ∙ liberal ∙ homosexuality ∙ religion ∙ guns ∙ virtues ∙ Pagan ∙ thou shalt not dissent ∙ Truth Out ∙ criminal corporations ∙ Republican ∙ no virtue or vice in the label ∙ That's the excuse, not the reason. ∙ race ∙ pedophilia ∙ religious oppression ∙ racist ∙ choice ∙ threat ∙ moral morass ∙ Satanists ∙ totalitarianism ∙ purged ∙ moral superiority ∙ Bible ∙ Pharisee ∙ scripture ∙ Divine

❝❝There's a very real question why there should be any government grants, but I will leave that for another time.

Assume for a moment that you ran a bookstore. Should you be required by law to carry the Bible even though you were not Christian and did not believe Christianity was a valid faith? What if someone complained because you didn't have it?

Should a vegan restaurant be required to sell pulled pork BBQ?

Should a health food store be required to sell pipe tobacco?

---

Except we know that government does mandate that some products and services be sold or provided.

Let's take another example or two, shall we?

Imagine you are a lawyer or accountant. You know a specific businessman is crooked and can't be trusted. Should you be required to provided services?

Imagine you are an employer. Should you be required to verify the immigration status of each of your employees?

Most importantly, why should prior marginalization get a higher priority when it comes to the rule of law? Doesn't that lead to abuse of it's own when the formerly victimized class games the system?

---

Ah, so you are going to stick to "class of people." That's the problem. People aren't their labels. Or at least they shouldn't be.

Someone doesn't have higher moral authority because their group has been marginalized in the past.

And just in case you hadn't noticed, "American identity politics" is all about oppressing everyone else. All of which is predicated on the guilt of the former oppressor.

---

Black Lives Matter. All too ready to go after "white" cops, but doesn't want to address the problem of "black on black" crime. Nor does it want to address the major underlying problem, single parent families. Something that was encouraged by government, effectively relegating inner city families to poverty. Nor do they accept any criticism of their movement.

Much of third and fourth wave feminism. Apparently feminism is no longer about equality, it's about forcing men to sit down and shut up. And if a man complains, he's accused of rape.

The recent kerfuffle over the "redesigned" rainbow flag that put black and brown stripes at the top so that "people of color" had "representation." Literally "my victimhood is more important than your victimhood."

Identity politics is built on a carefully maintained hierarchy of victimhood. You're not allowed to speak unless you rank high enough with your victimhood or have demonstrated sufficient "compassion," usually by drawing attention to the "problem." But never actually solving anything.

And you are not allowed to question the victimhood.

---

Stop.

Step back. You are excusing their behavior.

Look at what has been done, not at the justifications.

Look at what is allowed within the groups.

Your enabling is just one example of what has locked people into their victimhood.

---

What you've given is excuses why people can't be held accountable.

Black Lives Matter is pushing a narrative that all police interactions with minorities but especially with "blacks" are racist. That's not true. And as I said, they overlook "black" on "black" crime that does not fit with the narrative.

It's victimhood I don't like, especially when perpetuated by bad government policy and "community outreach" that exploits the victims by keeping them victims.

---

And the courts were wrong.

Not because interracial marriages were wrong (they aren't). But because government can't be trusted to make individual moral decisions for you.

If you didn't choose your morality and if you do not commit to your morality, is it really yours?

Or did it just get sacrificed for the greater good?

---

Remember, most of the complaints against the current President are because he is doing the wrong moral things. Or at least, according to some people. Such as pulling out of the Paris accord.

Frankly there are people I want to discriminate against. There are evangelical Christians I want nothing to do with. There are radical feminists that I also don't want anything to do with. My list also includes some of the climate alarmists, the man-boy love crowd, anyone associated with a child beauty pageant, the extra-devout followers of Silver Ravenwolf, pretty much any organized political party, and a few dozen others.

Should government protect those people from my discrimination?

---

Actually we don't know that pulling out of the Paris accord is dangerous for the planet.

Here's what we do know. The "debate" about climate change has been heavily weighed on one side. A recent study has some of the most prominent climate alarmists admitting that the predictions didn't match the reality. President Obama committed the US, but the G20 and Obama didn't call it a treaty so it wouldn't have to go to the US Senate for approval. These aren't exactly moral actions.

Commerce is based on voluntary economic transactions between consenting adults. There's no “public service” about it. A company improves it's product or service (and lowers the price) because it wants to keep business from the competition. The "moral good" is based on pure greed. Nothing government demands from a business won't impose greater costs on the customer. Government relies on force. When government acts against people, it distorts the economy and morality.

It's not about public service, and commerce shouldn't answer to corrupt politicos.

---

The data was fudged. The people who fudged it knew it. The people who sought to make it a political issue beyond the control of any single government knew it.

If it's not about "saving the planet," then you have to ask what it is about. Especially when there is an everchanging deadline and No One Is Allowed To Question the failed predictions.

The entire movement is built on computer models, not science. I can't emphasize that enough. Models, not science. If the models have bad assumptions and/or if the data has been changed, the models aren't accurate.

But, "the science is settled." So you aren't allowed to dissent. You wouldn't accept that from a Creationist, why accept it from people who benefit financially and politically from forcing their agenda?

---

That wasn't what I said.

The models haven't been accurate in more than a dozen years. Even before that, the models had to be "goosed" to show a link between the past and the present.

I've said before that I can create a spreadsheet that makes me a millionaire in a week. That doesn't mean that the spreadsheet is accurate. And it sure doesn't mean I should wave cash around.

If the model isn't accurate, if we know it's not accurate, and if the people pushing the model hardest know that it's not accurate, don't you think it's time to ask why we should use the model?

---

No, that is what you have been told that the model is.

I strongly urge you to take a closer look. And I would remind you that there is no science in history that has ever been considered holy writ and beyond criticism.

For example, if I wanted to know the average global temperature right now this very minute, I'd have to accept that most land based measuring stations are in developed areas, many in highly urban areas that influence the readings. Satillite measurements are better, but don't go back further than about sixty years. And most of the ocean is a mystery below a mile deep.

So what exactly is the global average temperature?

---

I'm not shy about it. I don't approve of their life choices. I especially don't approve when *insert group name here* demands that it is not enough for to acknowledge their words and actions, it must be celebrated as the only accepted truth.

I don't want them on the ballot. I don't want to do business with them. I don't want them in my town.

And I think they are corrupting society.

Again, should government protect them from my discrimination?

---

I may not be a pure libertarian when it comes to the Zero Aggression Principle, but I don't usually initiate force. It's sloppy and takes too much energy.

“How many NAMBLA neighbors do you have, anyway?”

One.

Once.

---

I've been a corporate VP and I've run my own business.

Can you point to the spot in the Constitution where it defines the powers of the Federal government to control who I can and can't do business with? How about the spot where it defines that I must do business with everyone who wants to do business with me? Because under the Tenth Amendment, there isn't one.

If government isn't defending my ability to choose as long as I accept the consequences, then government has failed.

Even if my neighbors don't approve of my choice.

Especially if my neighbors don't approve of my choice.

If I am not free to discriminate as I choose, then government is discriminating against me. And that is what we see now. Some choices are more equal than others.

---

Not really.

That clause is the most abused in the Constitution, largely because it does not place significant restrictions on the Federal government. By some interpretations, the government can do what it wants when it wants and despite what people want. When you consider that everything from FDA approval to requiring transgender bathrooms is shoved through that loophole, it's a wonder that there is anything left of the rest of the Constitution.

Even in your flawed interpretation, public accommodation only applies in certain cases. Some are more victimized than others, remember?

---

Volumes have also been written against it. For generations in fact, right back to to the Anti-Federalist Papers

And then there is always the practical common sense approach. Here's the clause straight from Article 1 Section 8.

“To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;”

I can tell you know many Diné, Hopi, Havasupai, and White Mountain Apache who think that "Great White Father speaks with forked tongue." Just look at what the Interior Department did when it came to mineral rights.

You've tried to tell me what the consensus says, but you haven't disputed my conclusions. The commerce clause has been used to expand Federal power far beyond the scope of the rest of the Constitution. The only other comparable Federal power grab in American history has been the USA PATRIOT Act and the open-ended declaration of hostilities that happened after 9-11.

---

Or we could just stop handing out government grants and do something radically different like lower taxes, reduce government spending, and let people decide what to do with their own money.

---

Church playgrounds aren't national religious issues unless government is funding them.

The First Amendment is very clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Neither help nor hinder. It's the only way to win this particular battle. Otherwise you have things like a Faith Based Initiative (for certain faiths approved by law) and school prayer.

---

I think we do. And it's right there in the First Amendment.

Don't.

If there is one thing worse than a politico wrapping themselves in the flag, it's a politico standing on religion wrapping themselves in a flag.❞❞

Tags: maxims ∙ government ∙ grants ∙ religion ∙ business ∙ bookstore ∙ Bible ∙ vegan ∙ pulled pork BBQ ∙ health food store ∙ pipe tobacco ∙ government mandate ∙ immigration ∙ marginalization ∙ rule of law ∙ moral authority ∙ Black Lives Matter ∙ third wave feminism ∙ fourth wave feminism ∙ equality ∙ rape ∙ rainbow flag ∙ victimhood ∙ victim hierarchy ∙ identity politics ∙ compassion ∙ interracial marriages ∙ moral decisions ∙ greater good ∙ Paris accord ∙ Christians ∙ RadFem ∙ climate alarmist ∙ man-boy love ∙ beauty pageant ∙ Silver Ravenwolf ∙ discrimination ∙ G20 ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Senate ∙ commerce ∙ commerce clause ∙ improves ∙ competition ∙ voluntary economic transactions between consenting adults ∙ computer models ∙ global temperature ∙ climate change ∙ Zero Agression Principle ∙ NAMBLA ∙ neighbors

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Democrats ∙ Trump campaign ∙ Russia ∙ Hillary Clinton ∙ Barack Obama ∙ New York Times ∙ lLibya ∙ terrorism ∙ Arizona ∙ hospital ∙ levy ∙ taxes ∙ superfoods ∙ Donald Trump Jr ∙ climate alarmist ∙ Michael Mann ∙ Bruce Raune ∙ Michael Frerichs

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: clipping ∙ City Journal ∙ Oren Cass ∙ The Atlantic ∙ Robinson Meyer ∙ Mashable ∙ Andrew Freedman ∙ David Wallace-Wells ∙ New York magazine

“July 4, 2017 : Coldest July Temperature Ever Recorded In The Northern Hemisphere”

“Study Finds Temperature Adjustments Account For ‘Nearly All Of The Warming’ In Climate Data”

“Groups see climate science review as chance to undercut regulation”

“Since 2014, 400 Scientific Papers Affirm A Strong Sun-Climate Link”

“New Insights on the Physical Nature of the Atmospheric Greenhouse Effect Deduced from an Empirical Planetary Temperature Model”

Tags: clipping ∙ Valerie Volcovici ∙ Micheal Bastach ∙ climate ∙ climate change ∙ global surface temperature ∙ NASA ∙ NOAA ∙ UK’s Met Office ∙ skeptics ∙ warming trend ∙ EPA ∙ Myron Ebell ∙ Competitive Enterprise Institute ∙ Supreme Court ∙ Clean Air Act ∙ greenhouse gases ∙ Scott Pruitt ∙ Ned Nikolova ∙ Karl Zellerb

Which raises the question why should care be publicly funded?

Tags: clipping ∙ Kerry Jackson ∙ global warming ∙ climate alarmist ∙ Nature Geoscience ∙ Michael Mann ∙ Benjamin Santer ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ Michael Bastasch ∙ Ryan Maue ∙ Watts Up With That ∙ crisis

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Sierra Club ∙ clipping ∙ Andrew Follet ∙ Nikhil Swaminathan ∙ people of color ∙ Grist ∙ Aaron Mair

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Miss USA ∙ healthcare ∙ DNC ∙ low pay ∙ no overtime ∙ Theresa May ∙ internet ∙ Islamophobic ∙ Donald Trump ∙ climate change ∙ sexual assault ∙ Sweden ∙ racist ∙ media bias ∙ Harvard ∙ freedom ∙ black lives matter ∙ Barack Obama ∙ Cuba ∙ intelligence agencies

For length reasons, this entry appears on it's own page.

“The law should be limited to punishing direct, measurable harm.”

Tags: consenting adults ∙ don't mess with kids ∙ atheist ∙ church ∙ sex positive ∙ honoring promises ∙ child labor ∙ women's vote ∙ pickup scene ∙ sex ∙ measurable harm ∙ theft ∙ murder ∙ vandalism ∙ Indecent exposure ∙ prostitution ∙ beer ∙ gay ∙ polyamory ∙ companion ∙ libertarian ∙ professional sports ∙ faith ∙ global warming ∙ pagan ∙ immoral ∙ truth ∙ monogamy ∙ adultery ∙ ideal ∙ Islamists ∙ Sharia ∙ toxic feminist ∙ Satanist ∙ Golden Rule ∙ Mormon ∙ vegetarian ∙ Navajo

Ice Age Britain: River Thames will freeze over on 'this date' – and could kill millions

❝❝Experts told Daily Star Online planet Earth is on course for a “Little Age Ice” within the next three years thanks to a cocktail of climate change and low solar activity.

Research shows a natural cooling cycle that occurs every 230 years began in 2014 and will send temperatures plummeting even further by 2019.

Scientists are also expecting a “huge reduction” in solar activity for 33 years between 2020 and 2053 that will cause thermometers to crash.

Both cycles suggest Earth is entering a global cooling cycle that could have devastating consequences for global economy, human life and society as we know it.❞❞
     — Joshua Nevett

Tags: Joshua Nevett ∙ global cooling ∙ Little Age Ice ∙ climate change ∙ solar activity

“Climate is changing Because it's HUMANITY'S FAULT and WE'RE SCREWING UP THE PLANET!!!!!"

Tags: global warming ∙ conversation ∙ science ∙ faith ∙ doctrine ∙ dogma ∙ consensus ∙ law of gravity ∙ High Council of Scientists ∙ 97% ∙ Kendall Zimmerman ∙ Cook study ∙ money ∙ power ∙ Energy Transitions Commission ∙ Al Gore ∙ scaremonger ∙ shaming ∙ climate models ∙ article of faith ∙ Christians ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ historical evidence ∙ sunspots ∙ solar activity ∙ CO2 ∙ trees ∙ Bret Stephens ∙ thou shalt not dissent

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: Chris Perez ∙ clipping ∙ Bret Stephens ∙ climate skeptic ∙ science

““Claiming total certainty about the science traduces the spirit of science and creates openings for doubt whenever a climate claim proves wrong. Demanding abrupt and expensive changes in public policy raises fair questions about ideological intentions. Censoriously asserting one’s moral superiority and treating skeptics as imbeciles and deplorables wins few converts.””
     — Bret Stephens, Climate of Complete Certainty

Tags: Bret Stephens ∙ climate change ∙ science

Climate of Complete Certainty

❝❝Well, not entirely. As Andrew Revkin wrote last year about his storied career as an environmental reporter at The Times, “I saw a widening gap between what scientists had been learning about global warming and what advocates were claiming as they pushed ever harder to pass climate legislation.” The science was generally scrupulous. The boosters who claimed its authority weren’t.

Anyone who has read the 2014 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change knows that, while the modest (0.85 degrees Celsius, or about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) warming of the Northern Hemisphere since 1880 is indisputable, as is the human influence on that warming, much else that passes as accepted fact is really a matter of probabilities. That’s especially true of the sophisticated but fallible models and simulations by which scientists attempt to peer into the climate future. To say this isn’t to deny science. It’s to acknowledge it honestly.

By now I can almost hear the heads exploding. They shouldn’t, because there’s another lesson here — this one for anyone who wants to advance the cause of good climate policy. As Revkin wisely noted, hyperbole about climate “not only didn’t fit the science at the time but could even be counterproductive if the hope was to engage a distracted public.”

Let me put it another way. Claiming total certainty about the science traduces the spirit of science and creates openings for doubt whenever a climate claim proves wrong. Demanding abrupt and expensive changes in public policy raises fair questions about ideological intentions. Censoriously asserting one’s moral superiority and treating skeptics as imbeciles and deplorables wins few converts.❞❞
     — Bret Stephens

Tags: Bret Stephens ∙ clipping ∙ climate change ∙ climate models ∙ Andrew Revkin ∙ IPCC ∙ science

And this would be a bad thing how?

Tags: Mary Kay Linge ∙ climate ∙ climate models ∙ EPA ∙ science ∙ propaganda ∙ clipping

“DaddyOFive Faking It? + Berkeley Lies!”

Tags: calendars ∙ credit union ∙ bank ∙ New York Times ∙ football ∙ fact-checked ∙ Department of Defense ∙ John Deere ∙ copyright ∙ license ∙ property rights ∙ belief codes ∙ heathen ∙ Asatru ∙ druid ∙ mainstream media ∙ cannabis ∙ Arbor Day ∙ FEC ∙ drug resistant ∙ malaria ∙ illegal search ∙ public schools ∙ prisons ∙ climate change ∙ Al Gore

Solar and wind power are not practical. The sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow.

Tags: solar power ∙ wind power

We know that most climate models use a “carbon cascade effect" that has never been measublurb or even observed.

Tags: CO2 ∙ lizard ∙ raven ∙ atmospheric CO2 ∙ weather ∙ climate ∙ water ∙ atmosphere ∙ climate models

Headlines that don't merit their own entry

Tags: ethanol ∙ Congress ∙ gasoline ∙ cellulose ∙ food crops ∙ subsidies ∙ food prices ∙ good intentions ∙ bad law

“Democrats Ask Teachers To Destroy Books Written By ‘Climate Deniers’”

Tags: Andrew Follett ∙ Daily Caller ∙ Heartland Institute ∙ thou shalt not dissent ∙ Democrats ∙ Bobby Scott ∙ Raúl M. Grijalva ∙ Eddie Bernice Johnson ∙ trash the book ∙ Craig D. Idso ∙ Robert M. Carter ∙ Fred Singer ∙ clipping

J Scott Armstrong: Fewer Than 1 Percent Of Papers in Scientific Journals Follow Scientific Method

❝❝According to Armstrong, very little of the forecasting in climate change debate adheres to these criteria. “For example, for disclosure, we were working on polar bear [population] forecasts, and we were asked to review the government’s polar bear forecast. We asked, ‘could you send us the data’ and they said ‘No’… So we had to do it without knowing what the data were.”

According to Armstrong, forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) violate all eight criteria.

“Why is this all happening? Nobody asks them!” said Armstrong, who says that people who submit papers to journals are not required to follow the scientific method. “You send something to a journal and they don’t tell you what you have to do. They don’t say ‘here’s what science is, here’s how to do it.'”

Digging deeper into their motivations, Armstrong pointed to the wealth of incentives for publishing papers with politically convenient rather than scientific conclusions.

“They’re rewarded for doing non-scientific research. One of my favourite examples is testing statistical significance – that’s invalid. It’s been over 100 years we’ve been fighting the fight against that. Even its inventor thought it wasn’t going to amount to anything. You can be rewarded then, for following an invalid [method].”

“They cheat. If you don’t get statistically significant results, then you throw out variables, add variables, [and] eventually you get what you want.”

“My big thing is advocacy. People are asked to come up with certain answers, and in our whole field that’s been a general movement ever since I’ve been here, and it just gets worse every year. And the reason is funded research.”❞❞
     — Allum Bokhari

Tags: skimmed ∙ clipping ∙ J. Scott Armstrong ∙ Allum Bokhari ∙ climate change ∙ forecast ∙ scientific method ∙ incentives ∙ politically convenient ∙ non-scientific research

“Scott and Shackleton logbooks prove Antarctic sea ice is not shrinking… ”

Tags: environmental crusade ∙ global warming ∙ Anartic ice ∙ skimmed ∙ clipping

“The Real War on Science”

Tags: short ∙ global warming ∙ trees

“Wind Farms Cause Sleep Loss, Stress and Anxiety, Government Review Finds”

Tags: skimmed ∙ wind farms ∙ turbine ∙ clipping

I suspect that sexual orientation is not as hard wiblurb as some believe, but that is still individual choice.

Tags: shaming ∙ groups ∙ Christianity ∙ priests ∙ generals ∙ emperors ∙ justification ∙ religion ∙ property ∙ wealth ∙ power ∙ poverty ∙ unemployment ∙ Pagan ∙ victimhood ∙ Utah ∙ Navajo Nation ∙ Mexico ∙ racism

Freedom loving YouTube channel

Tags: betrayal ∙ Ute ∙ Navajo ∙ skimmed ∙ Utah ∙ H.R.5780 ∙ Rob Bishop ∙ Jason Chaffetz ∙ Mike Lee ∙ Shaun Chapoose ∙ Utah Navajo Trust Fund ∙ Davis Filfred ∙ Republic ∙ clipping

Large companies shift power and responsibility away from local operations

Tags: thou shalt not dissent ∙ environmental crusade ∙ skimmed ∙ blasphemy ∙ attorney general ∙ subpoena ∙ clipping

The climate change movement is destroying the environmental movement

Tags: Navajo Generating Station ∙ Navajo Nation ∙ Diné ∙ Department of the Interior ∙ coal power ∙ poverty ∙ unemployment ∙ Imperious Leader ∙ environmental crusade

He's one of those people you should have read about in school

Tags: Gallup ∙ commenting ∙ environmental crusade ∙ ethanol ∙ subsidized electrical ∙ subsidized water ∙ climate change ∙ drought ∙ waste disposale ∙ industrial chemicals ∙ factory farming ∙ CFL bulbs ∙ wind farms ∙ landfills ∙ global warming ∙ True Belief® ∙ American Southwest ∙ pollution ∙ architecture ∙ thou shalt not dissent

No reason except political expediency

Tags: Earth Day

Why should they feel shame?

Tags: climate change

❝❝First, not all feminists. And not all lesbians.

Now with that out of the way, these particular females (I will not dignify them as ladies) do have a big problem.

It's all about the guilt. If the guys don't feel guilt, there is no way these females will get their way. I for one am tired of it. I've been lectured to about the need for keeping silent when the RadFems are speaking. I've been lectured for pointing out that environmentalism makes no sense while ecology does. I've been lectured for saying #AllLivesMatter. And I have been lectured to when I refused to change my lifestyle because it is not acceptable to feminism.

KYFHO.

I make the same stand against them that I make against some of the conservative Christians. My life is my own. My choices are my own. My responsibility is my own.

---

Unfortunately, that's not enough for some conservative Christians.

They want to meddle. For the greater good, of course.

And that means taking lives and responsibility away from other people.

---

If you bother to read my comments, you'll find I don't try to hide what I am saying. After all, I am a pagan libertarian posting openly on a conservative mostly Christian board.

If you had asked me about the "culture wars," I'd tell you that war is the wrong way to think about it. War is backed by force. If you can't convince someone that your way is right without resorting to force, you're doing it wrong.

What you believe isn't important to me. Your freedom to choose what to believe, that is vital. That is what I will defend.❞ class="ghoster">❞

NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.

❝❝I'm not speaking for the pagan community. Much of the justification for "establishing" a Greater Pagan Community® is so that certain individuals can get the adoration and deference they believe they deserve.

I believe in ecology but I'm against environmentalism.

I believe individual freedom and personal responsibility works ever so much better than collectivism.

I think that what Christians call the Golden Rule is one of the most important roots of civilization. But I prefer another version, "Be excellent to each other. And party on, dudes!"

Now is that enough of a test, or do I have to give the Super Secret Handshake™ too?❞ class="ghoster">❞

NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.

I realize the man is trying desperately to make his mark.

Tags: climate change ∙ Prince Charles ∙ parity test ∙ Middle East

The green movement and the climate change crowd can’t stand dissent

Tags: Patrick Moore ∙ PragerU ∙ Greenpeace ∙ GMOs ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ trees ∙ climate change ∙ video ∙ guest content

They attack the person and avoid discussing the ideas.

Tags: George Takei ∙ Justice Thomas ∙ dissent

Nope.

Tags: climate change ∙ Zed Shaw ∙ Twitter ∙ blog by soundbite

And it was all based on a lie.

Tags: connections ∙ trade-offs ∙ dropping water tables ∙ Philip Lloyd ∙ waste disposal ∙ technocrats ∙ politicos ∙ pollution ∙ alternate energy ∙ environmental crusade ∙ wildfires ∙ capitalism ∙ anthropogenic climate change ∙ free market ∙ wildlife management

Thorium is much, much, much more abundant than uranium.

Tags: Stewart Brand ∙ thorium ∙ molten salt reactors

There are deserts here that have been deserts for ten thousand years.

Tags: anthropogenic global warming ∙ climate change ∙ discredited

You should read it all, it’s very good.

Tags: climate change ∙ science ∙ skimmed ∙ Patrick Moore ∙ Greenpeace ∙ Vikings ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ Greenland ∙ Little Ice Age ∙ Medieval Warm Period ∙ Newfoundland ∙ Roman times ∙ fossil fuels ∙ civilization

Nothing to do with morality and everything to do with vote pandering

Tags: California ∙ water

Fudging the numbers again

Tags: fudging temperatures ∙ moon shot ∙ climate change ∙ food pyramid ∙ global warming ∙ nuclear weapons

It only takes a simple program and a scientific calculator to show the holes in the climate change models

Tags: global warming ∙ climate change ∙ science

Bookworm is looking for scapegoats

Tags: personal freedom ∙ commenting ∙ personal responsiblity ∙ Bookworm ∙ Christianity ∙ parity test ∙ progressive ∙ goal is freedom ∙ modern liberal ∙ freely chosen

Power to control

Tags: informed choice ∙ public science ∙ good intentions ∙ for your own good ∙ economic freedom ∙ global warming

Expanding civilizations, religions, and faith

Except for a few central issues, I really try not to tread on people's beliefs. I don't have time for one thing.

But every once in a while, something comes up that is just too silly.

David Warren was writing about the Gulf oil mess and rules and regulations. He made some great points about the limits of government ability. But then he tossed in this tidbit.

❝❝I like to dwell on the wisdom of our ancestors. It took us millennia to emerge from the primitive notion that a malignant agency must lie behind every unfortunate experience. Indeed, the Catholic Church spent centuries fighting folk pagan beliefs in things like evil fairies, and the whole notion the Devil can compel any person to act against his will -- only to watch an explosion of witch-hunting and related popular hysterias at the time of the Reformation.

In so many ways, the trend of post-Christian society today is back to pagan superstitions: to the belief that malice lies behind every misfortune, and to the related idea that various, essentially pagan charms can be used to ward off that to which all flesh is heir. The belief that, for instance, laws can be passed, that change the entire order of nature, is among the most irrational of these.❞❞

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the "triumph" of Christianity actually cost European civilization science, wealth, and much of what made life good.

This has nothing to do with the merits of Paganism or the faults of Christianity.

That's important. Read it again.

And yes, I know that paganism wasn't Paganism as we recognize it today. That's not the point. Nor is it important which had better beliefs or more superstitions.

It's one of my working theories. Cultures and civilizations expand when they have trade, immigration, and tolerance. Without trade, immigration, and tolerance, cultures contract and become more insular.

It's a generally accepted flexibility of thought that makes trade, immigration, and tolerance possible. The more trade, immigration, and tolerance there is, the more vibrant and interesting the culture becomes. You never know what will cross pollinate or what will take root where.

Thanks to Constantine, Christianity went from several competing groups to one ruled by a Church and an Emperor. Dissent was ruthlessly suppressed. Variations from the cultural norms were destroyed. This isn't inherent in Christianity, but it was inherent in the Christian belief system that the Council of Nicea propagated.

Believe me, there are forms of paganism that are just as intolerant. And oddly enough, those also retreated into themselves.

How we treat the Other may well be the defining characteristic of a great human civilization.

And then we get Stephen Hawking. Yes, that Stephen Hawking.

❝❝There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.❞❞

Two tiny little problems there. Religion does work for many people, but not necessarily because of authority. Faith works for many more, and not necessarily because of authority.

And the other problem. Well, it's hardly worth mentioning, but science is the bastard child of magick.

Oops! I revealed an untold truth!!

Religion, faith, and the desire to control or at least predict the universe led to science. In many ways, they still intertwine.

Just something for you to think about on this Wednesday.

Posted: Wed - June 9, 2010 at 02:02 PM  Morality & Modern Life

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ too silly ∙ Gulf oil mess ∙ trade-immigration-tolerance ∙ culture ∙ Constantine ∙ Christianity ∙ Pagan ∙ The Other ∙ Stephen Hawking ∙ religion ∙ authority ∙ bastard child of magick ∙ science

Comments

Cashing in on people's fear

Tags: global warming ∙ Gore ∙ crony capitalism ∙ mercantilism ∙ Original Vigil ∙ corporatism

Sacrificing rationality to sound vaguely important

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ classic ∙ anthropogenic global warming ∙ scientific illiteracy ∙ psudeoscience ∙ KYFHO ∙ MYOB ∙ live & let live

The accusation becomes more important than the crime.

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ corn ∙ sugar cane ∙ biofuels ∙ soy ∙ Jörn Scharlemann ∙ William Laurance ∙ Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute ∙ Rainer Zah ∙ Empa Research Institute ∙ biodiversity ∙ forests ∙ farmland ∙ corn ethanol ∙ sugar cane ethanol ∙ soy diesel ∙ palm-oil diesel ∙ environmental impact ∙ clipping ∙ guest content

Killing off 90 percent of humans

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ MPG standards ∙ incandescent bulb ∙ trade-offs ∙ compact florescent bulbs ∙ environmental impact ∙ global warming ∙ politicos ∙ black market

Will getting rid of incandescent bulbs really save that much energy?

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ clipping ∙ ethanol ∙ corn ∙ hunger ∙ guest content

The costs that the global warming alarmists don't want you to know about

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ clipping ∙ ethanol ∙ gasoline ∙ corn ∙ subsidies ∙ USDA ∙ Earth Policy Institute ∙ government screw-up ∙ guest content

Were the genocidal remarks misinterpreted?

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ trade-offs ∙ compact florescent bulbs ∙ CFL bulbs ∙ mercury ∙ environmental crusade ∙ clipping ∙ guest content

Just the FAQs about my Vigil

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ favorites ∙ global warming ∙ classic ∙ climate change ∙ public science ∙ four questions

The EPA says that cap-and-trade helped make it possible

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ global warming ∙ carbon dioxide ∙ computer models

Because of the G8 summit, here are a few of my thoughts on global warming

Tags: Original Vigil ∙ global warming ∙ classic ∙ climate change ∙ four questions ∙ public science ∙ favorites