Maybe we can learn from Europe

The Germans have elected a conservative-free market government. The following Wall Street Journal article highlights some of the new government’s proposals:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574438884290190804.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Some of the highlights of the new policies:

• The Free Democrats campaigned on a €35 billion tax cut combined with a radical simplification of one of the most complex tax codes in the world. The current rates, which rise gradually from 14% to 45%, would be replaced with three brackets of 15%, 25% and 35%. The proposal has come to be known as the "beer-coaster reform"—as in, you could fit the whole tax return on a beer coaster. The reform would make Germany's tax code among the most competitive and transparent in the industrialized world.
  
• The FDP also wants to loosen the "Kündigungsschutz"—the country's strict dismissal rules, which make it so costly to lay off employees that it hinders hiring them in the first place.

FDP also proposes to cut the size of government and reform the government health-care system.

Combining the legendary German work ethic with these free market policies will create an economic miracle in the center of socialist Europe.

"Capitalism is the prime enemy of earth and the entire humanity"

The President of Bolivia is providing us with extraordinary insight into the environmental movement and the global warming agenda. In an interview today after his UN speech president, Evo Morales of Bolivia reiterated that “Capitalism is the prime enemy of earth and the entire humanity ‘‘.

In a press conference held in New York on the sideline of the UN special meeting on climate change, president, Morales said: “Climate change phenomenon is a product of capitalism that seeks to gain the greatest possible profit at others expense “.

The ultimate goal of the climate change agenda is the destruction of free markets and the installation of government control over your economic decisions. We are fortunate that there are members of this coalition like Mr. Morales who are willing to tell the truth.

Mystery of fish mercury levels solved

Another claim of a man made environmental disaster turns out to be false:

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20090922_Mystery_of_fish_mercury_levels_solved.html

Here are the facts as outlined in the above article:

• Kaneko said there is an assumption that mercury in open-ocean fish is directly related to atmospheric mercury emissions and pollution, but there is no evidence of that.
• Studies done in 1971 and again in 1998 on the amount of mercury in Hawaii yellowfin tuna showed no differences despite a 26 percent increase in atmospheric mercury emissions, he said.
• Mercury is a natural trace element in the environment that has never been associated with toxicity in Hawaii's ocean fish, said Kaneko, whose research focuses on public health.
• But methylmercury, an organic form of the mineral converted by bacteria, can be toxic if eaten at high levels by animals or people.
• Kaneko said there is substantial scientific evidence that high levels of selenium in ocean fish counteract toxic levels of mercury. Selenium, also a natural element, has antioxidant functions and is known to bind to mercury, he said. "When those two elements bind together, they're biologically inert.
• "What we're finding, in some research we're just finishing now, is it's the ratios of mercury to selenium that is more important than the amount of mercury in fish," Kaneko added.

Rising mercury levels in the ocean food chain is one of the arguments used against burning coal. This study debunks that argument. If this study had confirmed that man’s activities are raising the levels of mercury you would hear about it insistently in the media. I predict that this study will be buried by the media.

A subprime primer

In commemoration of the first anniversary of the Lehman Brothers Holdings' bankruptcy please enjoy the following Power Point presentation (a brief account of the technicalities behind the financial nonsense that helped to put us all in the poor house). Please note that there is some obscene language in this presentation.

http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0ATCcaHAnYX28ZDJtMnhqMl80YzdieDVtaGY&hl=en

How Wishful Thinkers Are Forced To Reconnect With Energy Reality

The following article was published on 9/10/09 on the Investors.com website:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=505738

This article lists several examples of governments saying one thing and then doing exactly the opposite when reality sets in. Here are a few of the best examples:

• One day Energy Secretary Ed Milliband sets out his proposed expansion of the U.K.'s wind power-led alternative energy revolution; the next day, Vestas, the U.K.'s largest wind turbine manufacturer, shuts down a big part of its British operations citing "low demand" and public opposition to onshore wind farms.
• In 2006, Germany's Angela Merkel was hailed as the "Green Chancellor" for promising to rid her country of coal and nuclear power in its bid to give a clean energy "world lead." Three years on and Merkel's government actively supports the construction of a new generation of 26 coal-fired power plants as well as keeping Germany's nuclear power stations open.
• "Capitalism and consumerism have brought the world to the brink of economic and environmental collapse," the U.K.'s Prince of Wales ruminates, adding that "the age of convenience is over." As international columnist Mark Steyn comments, "The Prince then got in his limo and was driven to his other palace."
• As we have seen, however, national leaders will ultimately refuse to impoverish their industries even to "save the planet." The still-"disconnected" flower-power generation and its idealistic offspring would do well to grasp that the energy future is not green. It is hydrocarbon, and will continue to be for another century at least.

Dead men tell no tales

Christopher Kelly, the person who knew the most damaging information about former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich is dead. The investigators have decided that his death was either murder or suicide.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-christopher-kelly-dead-13sep13,0,6335509,full.story

The facts of this case:

• Kelly's death ended a tumultuous year in his life. He twice pleaded guilty to federal charges. He was estranged from his wife. And he faced serious financial problems, partly due to gambling debts. But Kelly indicated he was not going to turn on Blagojevich despite pressure from prosecutors.
  
• The chief Blagojevich fundraiser -- who also was one of Blagojevich's closest advisers -- had been indicted three times by federal authorities in recent years, the last time in April in the sweeping conspiracy case against the ex-governor.
  
• The Cook County medical examiner's office said Stroger Hospital officials told them that Kelly apparently died of an overintoxication of salicylate, a drug used in anti-inflammatory and pain relief medications such as aspirin.Authorities said Kelly was in his 2007 Cadillac Escalade in the parking lot of a lumber yard at 173rd Street and Cicero Avenue in Country Club Hills -- a few miles from his Markham office -- Friday night when he began vomiting. Sources said a girlfriend of Kelly's drove him to nearby Oak Forest Hospital of Cook County.

In my opinion there are 2 possible explanations for Kelly’s death:

1. Kelly chooses to end his own life by taking an overdose of aspirin while in the company of his girlfriend in the parking lot of an abandoned lumberyard.

2. Kelly was poisoned and fell ill from the poison while in a clandestine encounter with a woman in the parking lot of an abandoned lumberyard.

I find scenario number 2 to be more realistic. This leads to the interesting question, who poisoned Kelly?

Kelly had intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Illinois and Chicago politics. This knowledge would give Kelly the ability to negotiate a reduction in jail time with the Justice Department. In return Kelly would have to testify against someone higher up in political office. If we can find who Kelly was about to testify against we will find the killer.

Sorry, Charlie

The National Legal and Policy Center has led the investigation into the financial misrepresentations by House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY). Today the NLPC has a new ally, The Washington Post. In an editorial dated 9/3/09 The Washington Post is calling for Charles Rangel to resign from the chairmanship:

http://www.nlpc.org/stories/2009/09/03/washington-post-calls-rangel-resign-ways-and-means-chairmanship

The Washington Post editorial:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/02/AR2009090203082.html?sub=AR

The NLPC makes an important point that resignation should not be the end of this investigation, there must be criminal prosecution:

• We welcome the Post editorial but it does not address an even more serious matter— whether Rangel will face criminal prosecution.
  
• The scale of Rangel’s omissions means they could have only been willful and deliberate.
  
• Yes, the Post is right. Rangel should resign. If he refuses, it is incumbent upon House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remove him. But that should not be the end of it. He should also be subject to criminal prosecution.

Scientifically Illiterate and Innumerate

The following article by Robert Bryce examines the question: why are Americans so easily swayed by politicians and others when it comes to energy matters?

http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm?aid=2210

The answer to this question is unsettling:

• A 2007 study by Michigan State University determined that just 28 percent of American adults could be considered scientifically literate.
  
• Indeed, while most moderately cultured people will be familiar with the Bard’s A Comedy of Errors or The Merchant of Venice, the laws of thermodynamics -- the rules that ruthlessly police the world of energy -- are considered by most people to be the domain of nerds and wonks. Thus, the first law of thermodynamics: energy is neither created nor destroyed; and the second law: energy tends to become more random and less available -- are relegated to the realm of too much information. For most people, basic physics is seen as nerdy, beyond their ken, too troublesome to learn.

We are quickly losing the ability to understand the physical world around us along with the technology that we employ each day to function in our modern society. Science and math are the pathways to future advancement. We must encourage our young students to study these fundamental fields.

Town Hall Meeting with U.S. Congressman Brian Baird

A friend of ours sent us the following video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRE5UK6NQU

There is little that anyone can add to these poignant town hall comments. I will only add the following reference material. In his comments the speaker David William Hedrick refers to the Marine Corps oath of enlistment and the US Congress oath of office. These 2 oaths are listed below for your reference.

Marine Corps
Oath of Enlistment:
I, ____________, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

US Congress
Oath of office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Note that our elected officials and our military personnel have only one responsibility and that is to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States”.

Cato Experts Dissect Obama's Health Care Town Hall Meeting

A friend of ours sent me the following video in which Michael Tanner and Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute analyze and refute President Obama’s health care claims:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-1ZfFBMf8s