The carnival in Rio de Janeiro from February 13 through the 17th was one heck of a party. It was celebrated by the locals, plus an estimated one million visitors, complete with fabulous parades, street parties and balls. Brazil is blessed with some great beaches, the most famous of which is Ipanema, thanks to the 1962 bossa nova classic “Girl from Ipanema”.
Brazil shares borders every other nation in South America except Ecuador and Chile, and has a range of geographic features from the Amazon rain forest to jungles, towering mountains, rivers and rolling plains. In 2016 Brazil will host the Summer Olympics.
I suspect that’s about the only knowledge of Brazil that most Americans have. Brazil is the largest nation in South America. Its most densely populated parts are in the south-central regions that include major cities like San Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The only Portuguese-speaking nation in both North and South America, it has enjoyed economic growth, but that has slowed.
A friend from Brazil shared news that was not likely to show up except on the business pages because U.S. media tend to ignore Brazil and South America unless its bad news. Brazil’s national oil company, Petrobras, has been caught up in a huge scandal that will lead to criminal proceedings. In early February, its CEO, Gracas Foster, and five other top executives resigned.
It’s a kickback scandal and what makes Brazil a place to watch is the fact that its president, Dilma Rousseff, served on Petrobras board of directors from 2003 to 2010 when the prosecutors allege that the kickbacks were occurring. Her political party is alleged to have received billions in money skimmed from the company.
In October 2014, she was reelected in what The Telegraph described as a “dramatic run-off and a tense campaign” which she won “by a whisker”, just 51.6% of the vote. She was the candidate of the Worker’s Party. The months leading up to the election included mass protests, the corruption scandal, and a stalling economy, slipping back into recession for the first time in five years.
Petrobras is the perfect example of why a government-run enterprise, socialism, is never a good idea. Worth $310 billion in 2008 and valued as the world’s fifth-largest company, today it is worth just $48 billion. There is a definite sense of crisis in Brazil as its government is posting record budget deficits after a collapse in prices for the soy, oil, and iron that the country exports. Its currency, the real, has seen a drop in value for the past six months.
One observer suggests a possible military intervention to remove the president and others involved in the Petrobras scandal.
All that is bad news, but on top of it San Paulo, Brazil’s commercial capital, is running out of water as the reservoirs that supply the nearly twenty million people in the metropolitan area are close to running dry. The water literally goes off around 1 PM until the next day for a few hours but the state water utility denies it is rationing it. The water problem is estimated to last for four to five more years.
America has a long history of isolationism. Early Americans came here to get away from the problems in their home countries, but those problems have ways of affecting our lives as we have seen with the turmoil of Islamic fascism in the Middle East.
We would be well advised to keep an eye on Brazil (and Argentina and Venezuela) and hope it can resolve its current problems, but we can also give thanks that the U.S. is enjoying a boom in energy reserves, particularly oil and natural gas, that protects us against potential upheaval elsewhere in the world.
If we replace the current U.S. administration with one that understands and supports the growth of our energy sector, we will be on our way to a brighter future.
So you made that New Year’s resolution with all good intentions. You know the one…I will lose weight and get in shape in 2015. Instead, those extra pounds you put on during the holidays are haunting you.
Want to feel more in control of your body? According to Dr. Susan Smith-Jones, author of some 27 books including “Walking on Air,” your goal should be to boost your metabolism. The control mechanism for obesity (or being overweight) is not diet, it’s muscle metabolism.
Your basal metabolic rate is the rate at which your body utilizes energy. It’s how efficiently your body burns calories. When your metabolism is higher, you burn more fat, and have an easier time losing weight (fat). She has some tips to supercharge your metabolism.
INCREASE YOUR MUSCLE MASS THROUGH STRENGTH (WEIGHT) TRAINING. For every 10 additional pounds of muscle you add to your body, you will burn approximately 500 more calories a day. Do strength training 2-3 times weekly 30-40 minutes. It will take about four months to add on 10 additional pounds of muscle, so be patient.
INCREASE YOUR AEROBIC EXERCISE. Aerobic exercise, which doesn’t make you out of breath, trains muscles to burn fat and increase metabolism. Make aerobic exercise part of your fitness program at least five days a week, if you want to lose fat. Walking is one of the best aerobic exercises.
GRAZE THROUGHOUT THE DAY. To boost your metabolism, strive to eat several small healthy meals a day…about every 3-4 hours…instead of eating 2-3 large meals.
KEEP YOUR BODY WELL-HYDRATED WITH PURIFIED WATER. Your metabolism abates whenever you’re even minimally dehydrated. Drinking 6-8 glasses of water daily supports fat loss. Keep in mind that alcohol, caffeinated teas, and colas all dehydrate the body. They are wet, but they are anti-water.
SLEEP YOUR WAY TO A HEALTHIER METABOLISM. Research shows that skimping on sleep interferes with your body’s ability to process carbohydrates, which can lead to elevated blood-sugar levels and an increased tendency to store calories as fat. When you’re sleep deprived, your body produces more of the stress hormone cortisol, which sets this chain reaction in motion. Get 7-8 hours nightly.
NOURISH YOUR SPIRIT. To maintain a healthy body, first nourish your spirit. Do those things daily that help you relax and feel positive about your body. When you learn to love yourself, love will come to you in forms of health, happiness, success, peace, and prosperity.
So the key here is not to beat yourself up. But do make up your mind to begin period! Stop looking at all those computer generated models and look to the best you can be. For over 35 years, Dr. Susan Smith-Jones has looked to a healthier you and she looks great! You can too.
Check out her website for great free information and monthly newsletter to encourage us all to be healthier and happier at www.SusanSmithJones.com.
No matter what your age, Susan incorporates her best-of-the-best health-enhancing secrets to reverse aging, achieve high-level wellness, and live with gusto! So go for that brass ring, grab on, and never let go! It’s your life!
Truth can be gleaned from an unlikely government source, the COT, if you do your homework.
"It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." ~ Henry Ford
I know people suffering in this economy, and others who have found it to be a catalyst for success. I have been trying to understand this new and very convoluted market unfolding, and the pyramid of complex relationships developing. Some countries are taking drastic measures to survive, as is seen this week in Switzerland, and new alliances are being formed like with Russia and Iran, where others seem to be on the cusp to devolve, like Greece.
There are mountains of financial essays out there, and most project their agenda, without regard for truth. I have to say that nothing has more immediate concern as a researcher then the concept of debenture capital, a system that seems emanate and poised to disintegrate like a house of cards... and yet, few have even heard of it...
"The financial markets generally are unpredictable. So that one has to have different scenarios... The idea that you can actually predict what's going to happen contradicts my way of looking at the market." -George Soros
My warning to those closest to me have not gone well because of one singular thought, I can find little viable solutions... When a person, or a company, is riding high, the last thing they want is a doomsayer telling them to be careful. “I don't know what to do about it,” I say, “What is happening is designed, and I do not have insider information, or a crystal ball. Seems that precious metals might be a key, especially if our Petro Dollar is displaced.
But surely there will be ciaos around the world if that happens, at least for a time, and WW3 seems to be looming too. No it can't be, another cold war with Russia? I know it sounds amazing, and a bit crazy to a moralist like myself, but no matter how bad it gets, some will make fortunes in the process.” and then my punch line is this, as they shake their heads: “I don't know what form the new World War will take, or what weapons will be used, but I know that most likely WW4 will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Lets throw a few bobbles on the table, and see if we can get a better picture of this world, and the motivations that inspire profit... Lets look at what is shaking and moving our world in 2015, from what looks to be a credible source... A source designed to give viable statistics.
The Commitments of Traders (COT) reports show futures traders' positions at the close of (usually) Tuesday's trading session.
The report is prepared by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a U.S. government body with the task of overseeing futures markets. The report's goal is to create transparency and fight market manipulation. Also, it is an excellent trading tool.
So if you want to learn about the market, to read it with more accuracy perhaps, this would be a good place to start. They have three different kinds of reports...
Legacy reports: the original COT reports, dating back for most futures contracts to the 1980’s. For trading purposes, these reports are the most useful, because of their long history and proven edge.
Disaggregated and Traders in Financial Futures (TIFF) reports: new reports introduced in 2009, with different trader categorizations. Since its history is short, meaningful statistical testing cannot yet be made to find out its usefulness.
Supplemental Commodity Index or CIT reports: has more history than the disaggregated reports, but still not enough, especially compared to the depth of the legacy reports. It was constructed to show the positions of commodity investment (commodity index tracking) funds.
Crude Oil (COT)
Nothing is more actively traded, or speculated, than the commodity is crude oil. Light Sweet Crude is delivered in Cushing, Oklahoma, which is also accessible to the international spot markets via pipelines. Because of their low sulfur content and relatively high yields of high-value products (such as heating oil, gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel), light, sweet crudes are preferred by refiners.
Note that the oil trying to make its way from Canada is a sub grade. Canada does not want refineries as they are dirty for the environment. They want to send it to Louisiana's cancer alley to be refined.
RBOB Gasoline (COT)
New York Harbor RBOB Gasoline conforms to industry standards for reformulated regular gasoline blendstock for blending with 10% denatured fuel ethanol (92% purity) as listed by the Colonial Pipeline for fungible F grade for sales in New York and New Jersey. RBOB is a wholesale non-oxygenated blendstock traded -at the New York Harbor barge market that is ready for the addition of 10% ethanol at the truck rack.
Heating Oil (COT)
Heating oil (also known as No. 2 fuel oil) accounts for about ¼ of the yield of a barrel of crude, the second largest "cut" after gasoline. Many companies in the energy industry, but also companies consuming a lot of energy products can use heating oil futures to hedge their price risk.
Natural Gas (COT)
Natural gas, accounting for almost a quarter of United States energy, is the second-highest volume futures contract in the world based on a physical commodity. Natural gas price is based on delivery at the Henry Hub in Louisiana.
Cheniere Energy will be up and running to export Natural Gas by the end of this year... and will be very lucrative.
Market manipulations can take a simple path, like Saudi Opening and shutting a valve. We want energy independence, and yet our oilfields are firing hands as we speak. It is traitorous. So they want to paint Russia in a corner? We are now 18.1 trillion in debt... The last time this was attempted our National debt was 6 trillion, 1983. We could just as well take a dive as they could, and sometimes it seems that is the plan...
Treasuries and Rates (TIFF)
FED Funds (TIFF)
Fed funds rate is the interest rate at which banks lend at their FED accounts to other banks, in order to meet reserve requirements. These future contracts are used to hedge changes in these rates.
Eurodollars (TIFF)
Eurodollar (U.S. dollars deposited in commercial banks located outside of the United States) deposits play a major role in the international capital market, and they have long served as a benchmark interest rate for corporate funding. The futures contracts on Eurodollar reflect the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) for a three-month, $1 million offshore deposit.
Eurodollar deposits are direct obligations of the commercial banks accepting the deposits and are not guaranteed by any government. In 1981, CME launched Eurodollar futures and since then these futures have evolved into one of the world’s most innovative and popular contracts—and are now the most actively traded futures contract in the world with open interest recently surpassing the four million mark.
2-year Treasury Note (TIFF)
This product is based on the benchmark 2-year note issued by the U.S. Treasury. It provides a way to hedge interest rate risk, express a view on the direction of interest rates at the short end of the yield curve, execute yield curve trades against other Treasury futures or spread trades against other CME Interest Rate products.
5-year Treasury Note (TIFF)
This product is based on the benchmark 5-year note issued by the U.S. Treasury. It provides a way to hedge interest rate risk, express a view on the direction of interest rates at the short end of the yield curve, execute yield curve trades against other Treasury futures or spread trades against other CME Interest Rate products.
10-year Treasury Note (TIFF)
In 1975 in response to a growing need for tools that could protect against sharp and frequent swings in the cost of money, Chicago Board of Trade introduced Interest rate futures. For investors worldwide, the U.S. 10 Year Treasury Notes and Thirty-Year Treasury Bond futures have grown to become fundamental risk management tools.
The Chicago Board of Trade, with the Treasury futures contracts, helps both institutional and individual investors to control the risk in holding fixed-income securities and optimize their performance.
30-year Treasury Bond (TIFF)
This product is based on the benchmark Treasury Bond, the longest maturity of any bond issued by the U.S. Treasury. Treasury Bond futures provide a way to hedge long-term interest rate risk, express a view on the direction of interest rates at the long end of the yield curve, execute yield curve trades against other Treasury futures or spread trades against other CME Interest Rate products.
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"Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite.” ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
As you know, the Obama administration completed its summit on countering violent extremism last week, and it didn’t take long for Islamic State to respond — you know, the group that’s not Islamic and doesn’t represent a religious pursuit.
As reported by Reuters, “Islamic State militants [i.e. terrorists/jihadists] have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday.
A Syrian Christian group representing several NGO’s inside and outside the country said it had verified at least 150 people missing, including women, children, and elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants [i.e. terrorists/jihadists].
“We have verified at least 150 people who have been adducted from sources on the ground,” Bassam Ishak, President of the Syriac National Council of Syria, whose family itself is from Hasaka, told Reuters from Amman.
Earlier the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 90 were abducted when the militants [i.e. terrorists/jihadists] carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.”
Now, how long will we continue this charade, trying to make ourselves believe that beheading Egyptian Coptic Christians and abducting Christians is not about religion or it is not about conducting a genocide, a purging.
How do we look at our own children and explain how this type of evil is allowed to exist in today’s world? And it’s not just one group. Another Nigerian girl – this one only seven years old — has been used as a suicide bomber by Boko Haram — affiliated with ISIS.
Yes, we do have reports about some minor successes against ISIS, such as Iraqi Army forces pushing against ISIS forces in the city of al-Baghdadi. And the Kurdish Peshmerga are making a solid stand, even without firm weapons support. However, we’ve also been watching the videos of ISIS parading caged Peshmerga fighters.
Reuters reports, “Many Assyrian Christians have emigrated in the nearly four-year-long conflict in which more than 200,000 have people have been killed. Before the arrival of Kurds and Arab nomadic tribes at the end of the 19th century, Christians formed the majority in Syria’s Jazeera area, which includes Hasaka. Sunday’s offensive by Kurdish YPG militia reached within five km (3 miles) of Tel Hamis, an Islamic State-controlled town southeast of Qamishli, the Observatory said. At least 14 IS fighters died in the offensive, in which Assyrians fought alongside Kurds, it added. Eight civilians were also killed in heavy shelling by the Kurdish side, which seized several Arab villages from Islamic State control.”
It is important to note the Assyrian Christian community is one of the world’s oldest — far predating the revelations of a murderous warlord named Mohammad. And this isn’t the first time the Assyrians have faced genocidal ambitions at the hands of Muslims. The last time was during the last Islamic caliphate, the Ottoman Empire circa 1914. Doggone, history just seems to repeat itself when we fail to acknowledge evil. But then again, I should get off my high horse.
Could it be that somehow, even without the dedicated support from the United States, this cacophony of groups may be finding success against the ISIS onslaught?
“Military experts said militants were trying to open a new front to relieve pressure on Islamic State after several losses since being driven from the Syrian town of Kobani near the border with Turkey. “Islamic State are losing in several areas so they want to wage an attack on a new area,” said retired Jordanian general Fayez Dwiri.
Since driving IS from Kobani, Kurdish forces, backed by other Syrian armed groups, have pursued the group’s fighters as far as their provincial stronghold of Raqqa. A resident of Hasaka, jointly held by the Syrian government and the Kurds, said hundreds of families had arrived in recent days from surrounding Christian villages and Arab Bedouins were arriving from areas along the border.”
The question is, can ISIS be defeated without overwhelming combat power from a true coalition? And I’m not just talking about Iraq-Syria, but rather an effort that strikes at ISIS wherever its black flag flies — it dies.
This isn’t about a “whack-a-mole” campaign but rather a coordinated and well orchestrated operational endeavor that precludes any maneuvering of the enemy or shifting from one area to another.
I’m recommending a series of hammer/anvil type operations that denies the repositioning of Islamic terrorists. The time has come when we do not just focus on this group or that, but rather the defeat of this cancerous ideology — find the head of the Medusa and cut it off.
This isn’t about grievances or hearts and minds. We have to find the heart of the hydra and cut it out. That means its support, financing, and motivation — while you are severing its multiple heads.
That is strategy, not telling the enemy what you are not going to do and for how long you’re not going to do it. And please, don’t give me the “all we are saying is give peace a chance” and “war is not the answer” lecture. If the grim reaper shows up at your door, you have two options — and my preference is to kill him before he gets out of the car.
We are bereft of a policy to contend with this enemy, despite their firm conviction to continue their barbaric savagery. We should not be reading reports about Christians — or anyone — being abducted, beheaded, raped, sold into slavery or any other archaic practice.
We should be reading about how many of the enemy we have destroyed.
The America that has existed from the days of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, when its sovereignty was acknowledged by a treaty with England 1783, and its founding in 1788 with the ratification of the Constitution is no more. The America for which thousands fought and gave their lives is no more.
That America ends on February 26 when the Federal Communications Commission, under intense pressure from the Obama White House and with the votes of its Democratic Party commissioners asserts government control over the Internet with a 332-page set of regulations, dubbed “Net Neutrality.”
Writing in the Feb 22nd Wall Street Journal, columnist L. Gordon Crovitz summed up what will occur saying “Obamanet promises to fix an Internet that isn’t broken…The permissionless Internet which allows anyone to introduce a website, app, or device without government review, ends this week.”
“The big politicization came when President Obama in November demanded that the supposedly independent FCC apply agency’s most extreme regulation to the Internet.” Of course Obama wants the Internet regulated and of course the Democratic Party will support this move to control who gets to put up a website or blog and, more importantly, who gets to say anything critical of the President.
The Democratic Party has been in everything but name the Communist Party in the United States for several decades. Obama was raised and mentored to be a Marxist. What we are witnessing is nothing less than tyranny replacing democracy.
Crovitz warned that “This week Mr. Obama’s bureaucrats will give him the regulated Internet he demands. Unless Congress or the courts block Obamanet, it will be the end of the Internet as we know it.”
Earlier this week, as reported by Giuseppe Macri in The Daily Caller the FCC’s two Republican commissioners, Ajit Pai and Michael O’Reilly, asked Chairman Tom Wheeler “to delay the vote and release his proposal to the public. ‘We respectfully request that FCC leadership immediately release the 332-page Internet regulation plan publicly and allow the American people a reasonable period of not less than 30 days to carefully study it.’”
There is some evil at work here because, as the Republican commissioners point out, “the plan in front of us right now is so drastically different than the proposal the FCC adopted and put out for public comment last May.”
Shades of ObamaCare! Even the Democrats who voted that monstrosity into law had not read it. Now neither Congress, nor the rest of America is being permitted to see regulations that will determine what can and cannot be posted to the Internet, the greatest instrument of free speech ever invented since the printing press.
Commissioner Pai says that the FCC is “adopting a solution that won’t work to a problem that doesn’t exist using legal authority we don’t have.” He estimates that the regulations will add up to $11 billion in new taxes on Internet access.
In a commentary, “Neutralize Obama’s Hijacking of the Internet”, Judi McLeod, the editor of the online CanadaFreePress, said “Forget NSA, the FBI, the CIA, and all warnings sent by Edward Snowden. They’ve got nothing on how Net Neutrality will silence you.”
“Someday in the near future when you type in the words “Islamic terrorists” in an Internet post, you will be knocked off the Net and find it all but impossible to climb back on again.”
Do I think the Congress will exercise its oversight responsibilities and stop this tyrannical power grab? No. Do I think our court system will do anything other than bow to precedent set by earlier FCC regulations? Yes.
As a nation founded on and devoted to freedom of speech, I think February 26, 2015 will go down in the history books as the day when that freedom came to an end in America.
Thanks to a National Security Agency we no longer have any privacy regarding anything we say using telephones, the Internet or any other form of communication.
If the Democrat-controlled FCC has its way, the Internet will slow your access and could eliminate access countless sites that provide news and express opinions the federal government finds offensive. That's what tyrannies do.
Something very unpleasant is occurring in America. Those who have a strong religious faith are being denied the right to say “no” based on its teachings and values.
This is particularly true these days as homosexuals, barely three percent of the population, demand that they be accommodated when their demand runs counter to thousands of years of what has been deemed moral behavior and, for many, still is.
When it comes to marriage. Gays insist they have a “right” to get married and call their union “marriage”, but there is absolutely nothing in the thousands of years of the Judeo-Christian ethic that defines same-sex unions as either moral or legal.
The most recent and egregious example of what can happen when someone obeys God rather than the state is Arlene’s Flowers, a small floral shop in Richland, Washington. Its owner, Barronelle Stuzman, declined to make flower arrangements for a gay couple’s wedding and, instead of finding a shop that would, they took their grievance to court. A judge ruled Ms. Stutzman violated the state’s anti-discrimination and consumer protection laws.
I find it odd that one cannot refuse to render a service or sell a product if that decision is based on one’s religious beliefs. Isn’t that a form of discrimination against religion? Yes, it is.
Commenting on these increasing cases filed by homosexuals, the noted conservative writer, Selwyn Duke, said “It is a new front in the war on faith, legitimate freedom and private property rights. Many point out that it constitutes an unprecedented trampling of religious liberty and this is true.”
America is a nation based on its Founder’s beliefs that the rights of its citizens came from God, not the state. Something is very wrong when judges ignore that fundamental truth.
Anti-discrimination laws have the intent of ensuring the right of people to be treated equally. Not all such laws are the same. Some permit exemptions based on religion or gender. The reality that women are different from men has seen some nations such as ours exclude them from serving in a frontline combat role or aboard submarines. This is a concession to reality.
Ms. Stuzman’s new reality, after forty years in business, is the loss of her business due to the fines that have been assessed, along with the cost of legal fees. “They want my home, they want my business, they want my personal finances as an example for other people to be quiet,” said Ms. Stuzman. The gay couple may love each other, but they have demonstrated their belief in their right to marry permits them to inflict an enormous harm on a 70-year-old florist. There is something truly obscene about that.
In August of last year, a same-sex couple from Newark requested the use of the Liberty Ridge Farm for their wedding ceremony and was denied. In order to comply with a court order that they make their farm available despite their religious convictions, Cynthia and Robert Gifford, the owners of the farm near Albany, N.Y., have decided to no longer host any wedding or other ceremonies.
It’s not like the New Testament isn’t quite clear regarding the issue of homosexuality:
Leviticus 18:22 You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our Go
Romans 1:26-28 “For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Under Islam, you can be put to death for homosexuality.
Here in America, it is not the homosexuals who are subject to restrictions. It is people of faith who are being told they must provide services and products to them in the context if they intend to marry or as a reflection of their gender preference.
Urloved Photography is a small business in Northern California specializing in wedding and event photograph. In response to a request from a gay couple, Urlove replied with an email that said “Thanks so much for contacting us and for your very kind words. We feel that photographing a gay wedding is not the best match for us, however we can refer you to a colleague who would make a great match. We wish you the very best!” In California, however, one cannot reject business on the basis of sexual orientation.
Some states are trying to extend a measure of legal protection against the demands of homosexuals. In Kansas, its Federal and State Affairs committee has passed a bill aimed at protecting individuals, groups and businesses that refuse for religious reasons to recognize same-sex marriages or provide benefits to gay couples. Kansas law already protects employees from being sanctioned based on religious beliefs.
Federal judges have recently struck down bans on gay marriage in Oklahoma and Utah. In Indiana legislation to protect residents with strong religious beliefs from having to provide services and products to same-sex weddings is under consideration. In October, however, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Indiana’s gay marriage ban.
Our states are sovereign republics in their own right. That should be respected.
We are witnessing the arrogance of the homosexual community pitting itself against millennia of tradition and spiritual belief. Can’t find a photographer, florist or baker who wants to provide services for your same-sex wedding? Find someone who will.
Instead, states are caving into homosexual demands and asking their residents to abandon the reality that marriage is intended solely for a man and a woman.
When the family moved to Dallas, just prior to my junior year of high school, my parents enrolled me in Highland Park High School, an uppity establishment proud that "disposable income" was its middle name.
Relatives of one of my classmates tried to corner the silver market. I’m friends with a guy who owns a private island. A female classmate was the granddaughter of the founders of 7/11.
And I think another acquaintance’s family financed the Kennedy assassination.
Professionally I've known people wealthy enough to start foundations that — in contrast to the Clinton foundation — give away their own money.
Yet in all that time not one of these plutocrats has seen fit to give me a $6500 watch or take my wife on a $15,000 shopping spree.
But then I've never been elected governor either.
New job, instant new friends.
What a dilemma.
Details on the problem and handy guidelines on how politicians can avoid jail are featured in the Shannon column at Newsmax.
Pundits are always talking about finding common issues where left and right can stand united. Now, I for one find the ridiculous politically-driven “War on Women” agenda to be unproductive, but I’d like to offer a topic where even Nancy Pelosi and I could find allegiance — FGM, or female genital mutilation.
In fact, I’d be thrilled to sit beside Rep. Pelosi in a PSA and denounce this practice. As the father of two girls, it is without a doubt one of the most reprehensible and archaic practices in our modern world.
This weekend I came across a story from February 6th on the subject on a blog called Unbound– sadly there were only 6 comments. The story is based on an interview with a Kenyan couple, Daniel and Sophia who have eight children – four girls and four boys. “Daniel speaks proudly of his cultural heritage and passing it along to his children.
There’s one tradition he and his wife won’t continue, though, in order to protect their daughters. Female genital mutilation — also referred to as FGM or female circumcision — is a difficult subject to talk about in their culture, but the Kenyan couple agreed to speak with Unbound about their views.
“FGM involves altering or injuring female genitalia for non-medical reasons. While it’s concentrated in 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East, it’s a universal problem, according to the U.N., and is practiced in some countries in Asia and Latin America and by immigrant populations in Western Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.”
The fact that we are in the 21st century and abhorrent practices such as beheadings and FGM are still being conducted is troubling — actually, embarrassing.
“I am from the Kenyan tribe called Samburu,” Daniel said. “My people are very traditional and they are true to their culture. As the rest of Kenya embraces Westernization, we still hold on to what we believe is real — our culture.” There’s much about Samburu culture that Daniel loves.
“I love the Samburu regalia and am so proud when I get to wear it,” he said. “It also makes me happy to see my family adorned in our traditional gear. Many tribes in Kenya have done away with their traditional gear, but we stand tall and beautiful with ours. It sets us apart.”
“However, this proud man does not embrace all of his traditional culture. “I chose to carry the culture that is good and do away with that which is harmful,” he said.
The practice of FGM harms girls and women. It can cause severe bleeding, infections, infertility, complications in childbirth and higher risk of newborn deaths, according to the U.N., which estimates that more than 140 million girls and women alive today have gone through some form of FGM.
According to Daniel, when a girl reaches puberty, she has to be initiated to womanhood,” he said. “Her ears are pierced, her two lower teeth removed and finally she has to face the knife. Female relatives (aunts and grandmothers) are the ones who perform this ritual on a girl. …
“If a girl refused to be part of this initiation, she is referred to as an outcast and she cannot find a man to marry her. … Immediately after circumcision, the girl is married off. Many girls are age 12 at the circumcision initiation.”
According to a 2012 review conducted by Unbound (a Catholic non-profit organization) in Kenya’s Meru area, FGM and early marriage were cited as the two main cultural barriers to education.
“These two factors are to a great extent interrelated in that most girls are married off immediately after undergoing FGM,” said the study authored by David Wamae of Unbound in Kenya. Economic pressures to marry off girls for a “bride price” contribute to the continuation of FGM and early marriage. Even if girls are not married immediately after FGM, they may believe they are no longer children and school is not for them.”
Where is the U.N.’s statement on this practice – I guess they’re too busy condemning Israel and supporting Hamas who uses children as human shields.
This disgusting practice must be ended and every country where it is allowed must be brought to the attention of us all. If we cannot unite to stand against this, what does it say about our character?
I think Rachel Maddow and Melissa Harris-Perry should join me in speaking out on this — maybe even Joy Behar would join with me along with Kirsten Powers and Julie Roginsky. There shouldn’t be a single daddy of daughters who should tolerate this practice — and folks, I’m not talking about some empty hashtag campaign.
I’d be more than willing to tour the globe with the first lady Michele Obama and denounce this heinous assault against the bodies and future of young girls. This is the REAL war on women and here is the true frontline in the battle for women’s reproductive rights — not the murder of babies that has been taken over by the progressive left.
How do we fight this clear and present danger of FGM and child marriage? We must bring forth the full weight of our diplomatic, informational, and economic strength to dissuade countries from accepting these practices.
And we should support organizations such as Unbound. “Sponsorship through Unbound helps relieve economic pressures on families by helping with educational costs and other needs. It also provides families with economic opportunities and a safe space to discuss issues such as FGM through support groups for mothers.
Local staff members also make families aware of the health risks of FGM. “It’s important for both men and women to understand the risks of FGM and protect girls from this dangerous practice,” said Dan Pearson, director of international programs for Unbound. “FGM has no benefits and only brings pain, trauma and a host of health risks to girls and women.”
“Regina Muburu, communications liaison for Unbound in Africa, said it is seen as a “rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood” in some cultures, and is done to “tame [a girl’s] feelings and prepare her for the duty of being a wife.” “This practice leaves a trail of destruction in the lives of girls,” Mburu said.
“They are robbed of an important part of their lives as women, not to mention the health complications that can arise from the practice, especially during childbirth.” While some cultures are known for upholding the practice, other communities continue it “mostly in hiding as the government has banned it,” Mburu said.”
As a dad, I believe the greatest rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood is a quality education that unlocks all the doors of opportunity — and it seems that Daniel and I, separated by thousands of miles, agree. “My dream is to see my children excel,” Daniel said. “… I want them to have a better life, and that can only be achieved through education. They will become pilots and so much more.”
According to the U.N.,the practice has persisted for more than a thousand years. Well, I say it is doggone time it ended. What say you, women of the progressive socialist left? Wanna lock shields and make this stand as one with me?
Dan Youra is one of the outstanding conservative cartoonists in the trade today who follows in the footsteps of the great political cartoon masters, whose quotes inspire a new generation of followers.
"Outside of basic intelligence, there is nothing more important to a good political cartoonist than ill will." ~ Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist.
"Too many of today's artists regard editorial cartooning as a trade instead of a profession. They try not to be too offensive. The hell with that. We need more stirrer-uppers." ~ Bill Mauldin.
Youra was one of the first recipients of a Fulbright Scholarship and worked in Latin America. He served as an editor of Current Thought on Peace and War at the United Nations in New York.
"As long as there are politicians who continue to try and fool the voters, there is no chance of ever running out of material to work with because they create it themselves and about themselves," says Dan Youra.
Dan is the small business owner and operator of the Youra Studios located in the State of Washington.
Some 200 nations may sign a “modest” Kyoto II climate treaty, say December 2014 media reports from Lima, Peru. But will developing nations agree to stop using coal to generate electricity? No. Curtail economic growth? No. Cease emitting carbon dioxide? Maybe, but only a little, sometime in the future, when it is more convenient to do so, without binding commitments. Then why would they sign a treaty?
Primarily because they expect to get free energy technology transfers, and billions of dollars a year in climate “mitigation, adaptation and reparation” money from Western nations that they blame (and which blame themselves) for the “dangerous climate change,” rising seas and “extreme weather” that they claim are “unprecedented” and due to carbon dioxide emissions during the 150 years since the Industrial Revolution began.
These FRCs (Formerly Rich Countries) have implemented low-carbon energy policies and penalties that have strangled their economies, dramatically increased energy prices and killed millions of jobs. But now poor developing countries demand that they also transfer $100 billion per year, for decades (with most of that probably going to their governing elites’ Swiss banks accounts).
Where is this likely taking us? President Obama has long promised to “fundamentally transform” the U.S. economy and ensure that electricity prices “necessarily skyrocket.” His edicts are doing precisely that. And now Christiana Figueres, the UN’s chief climate change official, has declared that her unelected bureaucrats are undertaking “probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the [global] economic development model.” [emphasis added] Her incredible admission underscores what another high-ranking IPCC official said several years ago: “Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection. The next world climate summit is actually an economy summit, during which the distribution of the world’s resources will be negotiated.”
Why would any sane families or nations consign their fates to such insane, perverse arrangements? The arrangements are being imposed on them, through force, fabrication and fraud.
Poor, middle and working class families will get little but more layoffs, further reductions in living standards and longer postponement of dreams. But meanwhile Climate Chaos, Inc. (Big Green, Big Government, alarmist scientists, crony corporatist “green” energy companies, and allied universities and scientific groups) will become richer, gain more control over our lives and livelihoods, and rarely be held accountable for the damage they cause. Retracting their “dangerous manmade climate change” tautologies would endanger their money, power and reputations.
That’s why their hypotheses, assertions, intentions and computer models always trump reality. It’s why they are increasingly vicious and relentless in vilifying realist scientists like Willie Soon who challenge their “97% consensus” and “manmade climate catastrophe” mantras – and in demanding that the news media ignore experts and analyses that do not toe the Climate Chaos line. They denigrate realists as “climate deniers” (deliberately suggesting Holocaust denial) and “oil industry shills” (while hiding their own suspect ethics, data “adjustments,” and Big Green billion-dollar Russian and other funding sources).
Realists get precious little (or no) oil money and constantly underscore the role of climate change throughout Earth and human history. What we contest is the notion that climate and weather fluctuations today are manmade, unprecedented and dangerous. Alarmists deny that Earth’s climate is often in flux, solar and other natural forces drive weather and climate, and atmospheric carbon dioxide plays only a minimal role. Real-world evidence demolishes virtually every alarmist claim.
The climate reality record is presented in a readable, thought-provoking new book, About Face: Why the world needs more CO2; The failed science of global warming, by late U.S. economist Arthur Hughes, Australian geologist Cliff Ollier and Canadian meteorologist Madhav Khandekar. Sea level is rising at only1.5 mm per year now (six inches per century), they note, and there is zero evidence that the rate is escalating or that coastal communities are at risk. Nor is “ocean acidification” a legitimate problem.
Alarmists use it to replace other disproven scares with a new panic. Earth’s oceans have never been acidic. They are mildly alkaline. Their enormous volumes of water cannot become acidic – that is, plummet from an 8.2 pH level 150 years ago and their current 8.1 pH into the acidic realm of 7.0 or lower, due to the tiny amount of atmospheric CO2 attributable to fossil fuel use, in less than five centuries, experts explain.
The tiny effect of rising CO2 levels on climate contrasts sharply with their enormous benefits to plant growth and agriculture. Not only is more CO2 “greening” deserts, forests and grasslands; it is increasing grain and food yields worldwide, and helping people in developing nations live longer, healthier lives.
Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are not in danger of collapsing, the About Face authors demonstrate; in fact, they are growing. Similarly, contrary to another scare, extreme weather events are not increasing.
No Category 3-5 hurricane has struck the United States for a record nine years, and Earth’s temperature has not budged for 18 years. Claims that 2014 was “the hottest year on record” are based on airport and urban measurements that are higher than rural locations and are always “adjusted” upward, with year-to-year differences expressed in hundredths of a degree.
Outside those areas, for most of the world – the 70% of Earth’s surface that is oceans and 85% of land area that is mountains, deserts, grasslands, tundra, and boreal or tropical rain forests – practically no data exist. So NASA and other alarmists falsely extrapolate from their manipulated urban data to fill in massive gaps for the other 95% of the Earth.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Northeast is suffering through record snows and its lowest winter temperatures in decades, and America’s East Coast air has been 25-30 degrees F below normal. England’s winter death rate is almost one-third higher than normal: nearly 29,000 deaths in a two-week period in January 2015, largely because people can no longer afford to heat their homes properly, due to UK climate policies.
What’s really going on? Our sun “has gone quiet again, during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century,” dating back to 1906, says Vencore weather analyst Paul Dorian.
Alarmists don’t want to talk about that – or about what is happening in Asia. BP’s Energy Outlook 2035 report forecasts that China’s oil, natural gas and coal use will increase by some 50% and its carbon dioxide emissions by 37% over the next 20 years. India’s energy production will soar 117% – with fossil fuels accounting for 87% of all demand in 2035. Its CO2 emissions will also skyrocket. So even if the USA and EU eliminated fossil fuels, atmospheric carbon dioxide would continue to climb.
Climate alarmists want the newspaper and television media to ignore this information and the “skeptics” who might present it. Bill Nye “the science guy” recently asked MSNBC to link all weather events to climate change. “Just say the words climate change” when you talk about this winter’s cold and snow,” he begged. A new study shows how widespread these repulsive practices have become.
Quoting one journalist, a George Mason University analysis found that U.S. media outlets “pretty much” agree that climate change “is real, it’s happening, and we’re responsible. That debate is over.” As a result, “critics are no longer being interviewed,” the study said. In the view of “mainstream” media outlets, seeking or presenting both sides on the climate issue is a “false balance.”
At least one news organization now has an explicit editorial policy “discouraging reporters from quoting climate change deniers in environment or science coverage,” the Washington Examiner noted.
Media reputations are at stake. They’ve been in bed so long with the Climate Chaos complex that acknowledging the critical role of natural forces, the expertise of climate realists, the debate that still rages, or the Grand Canyon between climate crisis claims and real-world evidence would destroy what little credibility the media still has. It would also start the collapse of the Climate Chaos house of cards.
But the real stakes are much higher. They are the businesses, jobs, families, living standards and liberties that will be increasingly threatened if President Obama, EPA, Big Green and the United Nations remain free to impose their climate and energy agenda. Responsible governors, state legislators and members of Congress must get involved, block these actions, and roll back the destructive policies.
Yes, believe it or not, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker actually spoke at some length at the dinner this past week where Rudy Giuliani charged that President Obama doesn’t love America.
All the hullabaloo went to Giuliani, but in terms of the Republican presidential race, a number of Scott Walker’s pointed comments about policy and politicians are not to be missed.
First a word about the dinner itself, which was generously backed by John Catsimatidis. It was the second event sponsored by the Committee to Unleash American Prosperity, a new group founded by Arthur Laffer, Steve Moore, Steve Forbes, and myself.
Just as the Committee on the Present Danger -- formed by Midge Decter, Norman Podhoretz, and Irving Kristol -- worried about the decline in American foreign policy in the late 1970s, we are worried about the decline in American economic growth over the past 15 years.
Our view is simple: To maximize growth, jobs, opportunity, and upward mobility, the U.S. must recapture the first principles of economic growth that were so successful in the 1960s, ’80s, and ’90s. Namely, pro-growth policies should seek a low-rate, broad-based flat tax, limited government spending, the lightest possible economic regulations, sound money, and free trade.
Since 2000, the U.S. economy has barely reached 2 percent growth per year. Over the prior 100 years, American growth averaged 3.4 percent annually. To get back to the long-run trend -- which epitomizes the most powerful engine of free-market capitalist prosperity in the history of history -- future growth over the next decade will have to average 4 percent annually.
To advance our policy goals, our committee (still in formation) will be interviewing all the Republican presidential candidates in the months ahead. A few weeks ago we had dinner with Texas governor Rick Perry. This week we welcomed Scott Walker.
In his opening, Governor Walker stressed growth, reform, and safety. During the question-and-answer period, he emphasized sweeping Reagan-like tax cuts. And he frequently referred to his successful efforts in Wisconsin to curb public-union power as a means of lowering tax burdens, increasing economic growth, and reducing unemployment.
Noteworthy, Walker argued that when Reagan fired the PATCO air-traffic controllers over their illegal strike, he was sending a message of toughness to Democrats and unions at home as well as our Soviet enemies abroad. Similarly, Walker believes his stance against unions in Wisconsin would be a signal of toughness to Islamic jihadists and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Walker was also highly critical of President Obama’s conduct in the war against radical Islamism, and said the U.S. must wage a stronger battle in the air and on the ground against ISIS.
He stressed the need for a positive Republican message in 2016, and bluntly criticized Mitt Romney for spending too much time on the pessimistic economic negatives emanating from Obama’s policy failures.
And in an unmistakable rip at both Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, he called for a new generation and fresh faces to turn America back in the right direction.
More specifics: When asked about a sound-money policy, Walker said he was willing to sit down and learn. And on free trade, he needs a much clearer message. But in response to a question about solving middle-class income declines, he insisted that sweeping economic-growth policies aimed at all groups and categories, not just the so-called middle class, is the answer. He also aggressively defended his controversial University of Wisconsin budget cuts, arguing that they would slow tuition hikes and force professors to teach more.
Why did he leave Marquette before graduation? He saw a more attractive position at the Red Cross and wanted to start a political career. Yes, he nearly flunked French. But many folks think that’s a political plus. And as National Review editor Rich Lowry has written, 68 percent of Americans do not have a college degree. And many of us believe the time has come for a president without Ivy League credentials.
Can Walker win? Arthur Laffer has known him for years and says he has matured enormously from his days as Milwaukee county executive. Others say he is the only Republican candidate with a record of winning many different elections, from local office, to state assemblyman, to three gubernatorial races in four years.
Walker is a superb retail politician, a trait that will serve him well in the early primaries. He has an uncanny knack of maintaining direct eye contact. At the dinner, rather than rushing out for an early-morning TV call, he insisted on talking to every person in the large crowd surrounding him.
The question now is whether he can develop from a tough state-union buster to a national politician who can modernize Reagan’s policies while maintaining the Gipper’s upbeat message of optimism and growth.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, attending a meeting of the National Governors Association, was asked by two Washington Post reporters whether President Obama is a Christian. "I don't know," Walker candidly replied. He has plenty of company.
During the president's reelection campaign in the summer of 2012, the Pew Research Center polled a national sample of registered voters: "Do you happen to know what Barack Obama's religion is?" More than one-third of the respondents — 36 percent — said they didn't know. Only 45 percent identified the president as a Christian; 16 percent said he's a Muslim.
That was the seventh time in a little over four years that Pew had measured public awareness of Obama's religion. The first poll, back in March 2008, had yielded almost identical results — 36 percent couldn't name then-Senator Obama's religion, while 47 percent said he was Christian and 12 percent answered Muslim.
Other pollsters have reached similar findings. In June 2012, for example, Gallup reported that 44 percent of Americans didn't know the president's religious faith. Those in the "Don't Know" camp spanned the political spectrum:
According to Gallup, 36 percent of Democrats, 46 percent of Independents, and 47 percent of Republicans couldn't identify Obama's religion. (In the 2012 polls, one-third or more of respondents said they didn't know Mitt Romney's religion, either.)
The Post didn't explain why its reporters thought it appropriate to ask Walker, a possible GOP contender for 2016, about Obama's religion. Nor did it give any reason for treating Walker's answer as if it were headline news. When one in three Americans is unsure of Obama's religious affiliation, why should the governor of Wisconsin be expected to weigh in on the matter? Why should any public figure be quizzed about an officeholder's spiritual beliefs?
It is to Walker's credit that he wouldn't venture a judgment on something he doesn't know enough about. "I've actually never talked about it," he responded when the Post pressed him to confirm Obama's Christian identity. "I've never asked him that."
Perhaps he should have reminded the reporters that in this country, the theological views of political leaders carry no constitutional weight. "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office," the Framers specified in Article VI.
Candidates for president need not be Christian, and it is not the business of any presidential hopeful to gauge the religious credentials of the current White House incumbent. Nor is it the business of journalists to try to goad them into doing so.
"Some figures on the right have consistently questioned Obama's faith, with some suggesting he is a Muslim," the Post story smarmily notes. Even if true, what does that have to do with Walker? Some figures on the left have insisted that Obama is an atheist — but reporters aren't buttonholing Democratic governors to ask whether the president believes in God.
As it happens, Obama's religious biography is confusing and convoluted, as he himself has sometimes readily acknowledged.
"I had a father who was born a Muslim but became an atheist, grandparents who were non-practicing Methodists and Baptists, and a mother who was skeptical of organized religion," Obama told attendees at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2009, two weeks after becoming president.
"I didn't become a Christian until … I moved to the South Side of Chicago after college." In his memoirs, Obama wrote that as a child in Indonesia, he "had spent two years at a Muslim school, two years at a Catholic school," recounting bits of youthful tomfoolery in both.
Over the years, the president has made numerous comments on religious topics, and his messages haven't always been consistent. It isn't hard to understand why a sizeable minority of Americans, to the extent that they think about Obama's religion at all, might be genuinely puzzled to put a label to it. Honest confusion isn't scandalous.
What is scandalous is when the media spring bogus questions on politicians in an attempt to extract an answer that can then be rushed into headlines dripping with insinuation. There are a thousand-and-one issues on which any national political figure can legitimately be expected to have an opinion.
The inner spiritual life of the president — any president — isn't one of them. By all accounts, Walker hasn't the slightest interest in exploiting Obama's faith, and has done nothing to suggest the contrary.
A shame that the Washington Post holds itself to a lower standard.
Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire. I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate. To say that for destruction ice is also great. And would suffice. ~ Robert Frost, American poet.
Robert W. Felix borrowed from the poet Robert Frost for the title of his book, “Not by Fire, But by Ice”, first published in 1997 and devoted to the science of magnetic reversals and the Earth’s ice ages. I read it first in 2010 and was absolutely floored because Felix makes a very strong case for a reversal that would lead to a widespread extinction of life at some point in the future. In the near, more predictable future, he said the Earth was heading into a new ice age.
“What would happen if a magnetic reversal occurred right here?” asked Felix. “The same things that happened in the past. Earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, giant snowstorms, rising land, plummeting sea levels—you name it—tectonic activity would go bonkers.” Don’t believe him? Think about the disappearance of the dinosaurs some 65.5 million years ago.
The Earth had been in a cooling cycle that began in 1996 when the sun entered a cycle of reduced radiation. Such cycles were well known and most dramatically tied to the mini-ice age that occurred between 1300 and 1850. Solar observers had noticed many centuries ago that when there were few sunspots—magnetic storms—on the surface of the Sun, the Earth got colder.
This has become especially dramatic because, on February 17th a post on Weather.com called for a discussion of the fact that “The Sun has gone quiet again during the weakest solar cycle in more than a century.” The post says, “If history is a guide, it is safe to say that weak solar activity for a prolonged period of time can have a negative impact on global temperatures in the troposphere which is the bottom-most layer of Earth’s atmosphere—and where we all live.”
“There have been two notable historical periods with decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The first is known as the ‘Maunder Minimum’, named after solar astronomer Edward Maunder, and it lasted from 1645 to 1715. The second one is referred to as the ‘Dalton Minimum’, named for the English meteorologist John Dalton and it lasted from 1780 to 1830.” Together they are referred to as the “Little Ice Age.”
There are quite a few scientists forecasting a new ice age. The last ice age began approximately 1.6 million years ago in the Pleistocene epoch. We are currently in the Holocene epoch that began about 11,000 years ago and is regarded as an interglacial period of general warmth.
In his book, “Dark Winter: How the Sun is Causing a 30-Year Cold Spell”, John L. Casey, a former White House national space policy advisor, says that whatever warming has occurred has ended as the result of “solar hibernation”, a term he applies to the reduction of energy output of the Sun. The “climate change” that is occurring is a long-term reduction in the Earth’s temperatures with, says Casey, “a high probability of increased earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.”
In “Cold Sun”, another book by Casey, his says that “The most likely outcome from this ‘solar hibernation’ will be widespread global loss of life and social, economic, and political disruption. You must prepare for this life-altering event now!”
In January 2012, Matt Ridley, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, noted that “The entire 10,000-year history of civilization has happened in an unusually warm interlude in the Earth’s recent history. Over the past million years, it has been as warm as this or warmer for less than 10% of the time, during 11 brief episodes known as interglacial periods.”
Those who kept warning of a “global warming” with dire results misinterpreted the climate. Ridley noted that “It’s striking that most inter-glacials begin with an abrupt warming, peak sharply, (and) then begin a gradual descent into cooler conditions.” That is what is occurring now.
None of this has anything to do with carbon dioxide, ozone, or any other element of the Earth’s atmosphere. It is entirely the result of the lower solar radiation of heat.
The United States should be taking steps to ensure a sufficient supply of electricity to cope with the lower temperatures, but has been wasting billions to support “renewable” energy, wind and solar, that is costly and ineffective. The U.S. Energy Department projects that solar power will make up 0.6 percent of total U.S. electricity generation in 2015. Wind power which is funded in part by taxpayer subsidies to stay in business has received $7.3 billion over the past seven years, but produces a minimal amount of electricity to justify its cost.
At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency’s “war on coal” has forced many plants providing electricity to close. A significant disruption of electricity over an extended period of time will cause many deaths due to the cold weather. It is inevitable.
At the same time, instead of providing a source of food, tons of corn are being turned into ethanol in the name of reducing carbon dioxide even though CO2 plays no role whatever in a “global warming” that is not happening.
It’s not just another typical winter. The U.S. and much of the northern hemisphere is experiencing increased cooling that is seen in record-breaking and record-setting new amounts of snow and ice. This is a trend tied to the Sun’s and the Earth’s cooling cycle.
That is of no concern to those who are using “global warming” and “climate change” in order to bring about a transformation in the global economic system from capitalism, the most effective creator of growth and wealth, to socialism, a pathetic, failed system of income redistribution controlled by a central government. Directed out of the United Nations, their absurd claims are supported by the media and many deluded politicians.
Is the U.S. government responding in a sensible way? No. When President Obama speaks of “climate change” he means “global warming.” The result over the past three decades has been the waste of billions for “research” and other schemes tied to this huge hoax.
Real climatologists, meteorologists, and scientists paying attention to both the past and to present events are forecasting more intense and longer winters ~ for now a Little Ice Age.
