Politics: November 2011

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Scientists Behaving Badly

"On second thought, maybe Lacey is being too harsh on Michael Mann. After all, he was cleared of any wrong doing by Penn State in an internal investigation. And we all know how well Penn State does internal investigations."

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/284137/scientists-behaving-badly-jim-lacey?pg=1

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Ron Paul

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjBoAQw7bgo&feature=related

Our spending Problem

From: Larry Trout

'The failure of the supercommittee marks a good time to highlight just how out of control our federal spending really is. To see the matter in a clearer light, let's leave aside all disputes over tax revenues for the time being, and focus purely on spending.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says that federal spending has increased from $2.73 trillion in fiscal year 2007 to $3.60 trillion in fiscal year 2011. That's a whopping 32 percent increase in just five years. (Americans should have been so lucky with their incomes.) That figure has nothing to do with diminishing tax revenues. It is strictly the amount by which federal outlays have increased.

Looking forward, the CBO projects (see table 1-1) that the federal government will spend $5.68 trillion in 2021. That's an increase of 58 percent over 2011, and 108 percent over 2007. In other words, on our current trajectory, annual federal spending will more than double over the 15-year span from 2007 through 2021.

Given this substantial level of projected growth in federal spending, it doesn't seem like it would have been very hard to cut $1.2 trillion off of that number — thereby cutting 2021 spending from $5.68 to $4.48 trillion. Even $4.48 trillion in spending in 2021 would be an increase of 64 percent versus 2007 spending.

But that's not what the deficit committee was charged with doing — it wasn't charged with cutting $1.2 trillion from fiscal year 2021 spending. Instead, it had a far, far easier task. It needed only to cut spending by that amount over the entire decade from 2012 to 2021.'

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/our-spending-problem_610029.html

Thursday, November 24, 2011

The 545 people responsible for all of America's Woes

http://jimebau.blogspot.com/2011/05/545-people-responsible-for-all-of.html

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Russia

From: larry.r.trout

'Would Russia Go To War Over The Trans-Caspian Pipeline?..

That seems unlikely, but it's a possibility that some Russian analysts have been discussing lately, as discussions between Turkmenistan and its would-be European partners over the pipeline have advanced….'

http://www.eurasianet.org/node/64568

Fwd: History

From: larry.r.trout

History
This article has a Fascinating history lesson…

'In the speech, Owen shared his dream of cooperative villages where workers would see their poverty alleviated and their spirits transformed. Inspired by the success of his New Lanark community in Scotland, where employees lived in hospitable conditions and the children of laborers received early childhood and primary education, Owen hoped to bring to America exquisitely planned spaces where a new, improved mankind would come into being. Owen thought his scientifically organized village would "lead to that state of virtue, intelligence, enjoyment, and happiness, in practice, which has been foretold by the sages of past times, and would at some distant period become the lot of the human race!" Utopia, according to Owen, was not confined to the printed page. Utopia could be realized.

The site of his American utopia would be New Harmony, on the Wabash River in southwest Indiana. Owen welcomed residents to his colony that April. "I am come to this country," he told them, "to introduce an entire new state of society, to change it from the ignorant, selfish system, to an enlightened social system which shall gradually unite all interests into one, and remove all cause for contests between individuals." There would be no 1 percent versus the 99 percent in New Harmony.

Things did not work as planned, however. Structuring a community along rational lines was extremely difficult. There weren't enough skilled laborers. Many of the residents were lazy. Shortages were commonplace. Central planning hampered the efficient allocation of meals. Factions split off from the main group. The community closely monitored the activities and beliefs of every member. Alcohol was banned. Children were separated from their parents; one later said she saw her "father and mother twice in two years." Owen expelled malcontents. Only his generous subsidies held New Harmony together.

And not for long. Owen's "new empire of peace and good will to man" fell apart within four years. But the socialist utopian impulse lives on to this day. America

in particular has a long and storied tradition of individuals coming together to create perfect societies. In these earthly utopias, competition is to be replaced by cooperation, private property is to dissolve into communal ownership, traditional family structures are to be transformed into the family of mankind, and religion is to be displaced by the spirit of scientific humanism. The names of these communities are familiar to any student of American history: Brook Farm, Oneida, the North American Phalanx. None of them lasted. None of them realized the ecstasy their founders desired.

Historian J.P. Talmon wrote in Political Messianism (1960) that the American and European utopians "all shared the totalitarian-democratic expectation of some pre-ordained, all-embracing, and exclusive scheme of things, which was presumed to represent the better selves, the true interests, the genuine will and the real freedom of men." The men and women behind the utopian movements drew inspiration from the French Revolution, which proclaimed the liberty, equality, and fraternity of all, and from the political philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who taught that individuals born free and equal were made subservient and estranged through the institutions of society and private property. Lost freedom could be recovered by dismantling the obstacles that prevent man from being true to himself. The reconstruction of society along rational lines would allow us to reclaim the state of natural bliss that had been lost.

Utopianism attracts goofballs as light attracts moths. The postrevolutionary thinker Charles Fourier was a classic example…'

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/anarchy-usa_609222.html?page=2

'When he looks at the world, the utopian is repelled by two things in particular. One is private property. "The civilized order," Fourier wrote, "is incapable of making a just distribution except in the case of capital," where your return on investment is a function of what you put in. Other than that, the market system is unjust…

The utopian's other great hatred is for middle-class or "bourgeois" culture. Monogamy, monotheism, self-control, prudence, cleanliness, fortitude, self-interested labor—these are the utopian's enemies. "Morality teaches man to be at war with himself," Fourier wrote, "to resist his passions, to repress them, to believe that God was incapable of organizing our souls, our passions wisely." What were called the bourgeois virtues had been designed to maintain unjust social relations and stop man from being true to himself…'

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/anarchy-usa_609222.html?page=3

Google Ends Effort To Make Cheap, Renewable Energy | Fox News

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/11/23/google-ends-effort-to-make-cheap-renewable-solar-energy/#ixzz1eY7XGkQR

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Fwd: dehydration

From: larry.r.trout

dehydration
'EU bans claim that water can prevent dehydration

Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can prevent dehydration.

EU officials concluded that, following a three-year investigation, there was no evidence to prove the previously undisputed fact.

Producers of bottled water are now forbidden by law from making the claim and will face a two-year jail sentence if they defy the edict, which comes into force in the UK next month.

Last night, critics claimed the EU was at odds with both science and common sense. Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said: "This is stupidity writ large.

"The euro is burning, the EU is falling apart and yet here they are: highly-paid, highly-pensioned officials worrying about the obvious qualities of water and trying to deny us the right to say what is patently true.

"If ever there were an episode which demonstrates the folly of the great European project then this is it."'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8897662/EU-bans-claim-that-water-can-prevent-dehydration.html