Today once again brings dire predictions regarding Global Warming, the melting icecaps, the destruction of the environment, and the usual “the sky is falling” hysteria. An examination of even elementary geology will disclose that the Earth is subject to radical change. Marine fossils are found in the Himalayas – unless you are one of those people who think these were put there by Satan I think we can conclude that at one time those mountains were under the sea. Considering the current height of the Himalayas we can also conclude that there has been considerable change in that area regarding climate and activity. But this isn’t just true of the Himalayas, we find fossils across the globe that indicate that the area where they were found was once sea bed, open plain, forest, prairie or whatever. One only has to look around today to discover that the weather associated with coastlines is different than that associated with deserts. The fact is that the Earth is constantly changing and the weather changes with it. The idea that these changes are the result of activity by mankind is slightly egotistical and certainly not borne out by any facts.
Beginning in the 1960’s and continuing into the 1980’s there was considerable concern voiced by the usual gaggle of academics over “global cooling” and the possibility of a coming ice age. This hysteria was duly reported by the media but as the cycle shifted from cooler to warmer these same eco-terrorists and anti-technology greenies shifted to global warming. In both cases this same group of people blamed the cooling/warming trends on industrialized society. This army of anti-technologists is largely led by the academic community and the extreme political left – not the Democratic Party per se, but the real extreme-- left who are characteristically anarchists, Marxists, and Progressives (generally a pseudonym for communist). The fact is that weather records show that a warming trend began in about 1890 and continued steadily until about 1945 when the trend reversed and a cooling trend began.
The fact is that weather trends develop and continue for very extended periods of time and possibly even a thousand years is insufficient to actually determine any significant trend or deviation. Geologic changes – mountain building, tectonics, subsidence, etc, take very long periods of time and climatological changes follow these same long range trends because they are closely tied to the geological changes. Of course the argument mounted by the eco-terrorists is that industry (those evil capitalistic business types) are interfering with nature and accelerating these natural processes. The only solution to this is to immediately set in motion regulations (like the Kyoto Treaty) that will control industry, penalize industrial nations, and thereby restore the planet. Of course these actions only apply to the Industrialized nations and are in fact simply an indirect way of achieving the larger goal of wealth redistribution.
Bear in mind that these same eco-hysterics cited cold weather, increased snow falls, storms, hurricanes, poverty, earthquakes, headaches, and hang nails as examples of evidence of Global Cooling and the forthcoming end to our “inter-glacial” period. When the cycle reversed these same examples were used by the same people as evidence to support their assertion that we were killing the planet through Global Warming. Of course the media is comprised of Journalism Majors who were trained in Universities by Progressive or at the very least – liberal—professors so their inclination is to attribute all evil to capitalism. Few if any of these “journalists” have any scientific training and certainly have not demonstrated any critical thinking. Then these wild and unsubstantiated assertions are supported by people like Vice President Al Gore and scientists (Stephen Schneider, Crispin Tickell, Paul Erlich). The alarm was sounded by Newsweek Magazine in 1975.
There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production– with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas – parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia – where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon.
The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it. In England, farmers have seen their growing season decline by about two weeks since 1950, with a resultant overall loss in grain production estimated at up to 100,000 tons annually. During the same time, the average temperature around the equator has risen by a fraction of a degree – a fraction that in some areas can mean drought and desolation. Last April, in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars' worth of damage in 13 U.S. states. (Newsweek April 28, 1975)
A more recent opinion was published in the “India Times”
Greens say, rightly, that the best scientific assessment today is that global warming is occurring. Yet never in history have scientists accurately predicted what will happen 100 years later. A century ago no scientists predicted the internet, microwave ovens, TV, nuclear explosions or antibiotics. It is impossible, even stupid, to predict the distant future. That scientific truth is rarely mentioned. Why? Because the global warming movement has now become a multi-billion dollar enterprise with thousands of jobs and millions in funding for NGOs and think-tanks, top jobs and prizes for scientists, and huge media coverage for predictions of disaster.
This appears to be closer to the truth but it fails to address the political underpinnings of the issue. The fact is that Global Warming / Cooling is simply a veiled attempt to further the extreme left’s agenda to redistribute wealth and to destroy any vestige of capitalism. The reality is that climate changes have occurred through out the history of the Earth and will continue to do so.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
On The War On Terror
The number of US casualties in Iraq is approaching 2000 so the usual anti-war, anti-Bush crowd are beating their breasts once again and demanding a withdrawal or at the very least a time table for a withdrawal. Then we have the extreme left who call the entire operation an invasion and occupation of a “peaceful” country. Peaceful apparently meaning one that has not attacked the United States or at least not attacked us in a manner that can be directly traced to them. The potential for attack and the probability that they have already attacked us doesn’t count. The murder of hundreds of thousands of innocent and unarmed people doesn’t count. These are the lineal descendants of those same people in the 1930’s who were convinced that if no one bothered Hitler he wouldn’t bother them. Austria didn’t matter – it was mostly German anyway. Czechoslovakia didn’t matter because it was largely German – or at least Hitler claimed it was. Of course Poland was a little different but then the Poles did take some land that once belonged to Germany so they just got what they deserved. Murdering Jews – well who knows if that was actually happening – besides the Jews were persecuted for generations so what else was new? The bottom line for the “peace at any price” crowd was “don’t do anything and Hitler will let us alone”. Of course he simply invaded Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Holland, even though they protested they were neutral. To people like Hitler there was no such thing as neutrality and the same is true today of the war on terror. The Muslims do not have a nation state so they cannot be attacked but they strike at the West from shelters protected by “neutral” or certainly “non-belligerent” nation states – like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and Syria. Yet the current crop of “pacifiers” are treading the same old path of do nothing, concede, give in, pacify, and above all “understand” their position and they will stop.
Niccolo Machiavelli addressed this issue of avoiding war and I offer these two observations:
“..there is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others”
“...one must never allow disorder to continue so as to escape a war. Anyhow one does not escape; the war is merely postponed to one’s disadvantage.”
Every opportunity to actually stop Hitler was thwarted by the idea that war could be avoided by concessions and understanding. The same is true of the current war on terror. We are treated almost daily to the left (especially from the universities) who are insisting that the War of Terror is nothing other than a power grab for oil and was initiated solely for that purpose. That the Muslims have every right to attack the United States for our “arrogance” and “cultural destruction”. Although many of these people are highly educated they seem to lack any true grasp of history or foundation for the current situation.
Following the death of Mohammed Islam spread very rapidly – mostly through conquest and very quickly Islam dominated all of North Africa, Spain, all of the Middle East, Albania, Armenia, and all of southern Russia, much of India, and Mongolia. Of course this was not one vast political entity but it certainly was a loosely knit empire. Then the Crusaders came and their brutality helped to unify the fragments into an Empire under Saladin. This Empire existed under the Ottomans until 1917 when it was broken up by the French and British who in their inimical colonial was proceeded to divide the spoils and create these fake nation states that now dot Africa and the Middle East.
This European Arrogance gave birth to the Muslim Brotherhood which came into existence in the 1920’s as a militant secret society. The Brotherhood isn’t quite as secret as it once was but it still exists and it has been directly responsible for much of the unrest and terrorism. It was the Brotherhood who assassinated Anwar Sadat as well as other “moderate” Muslim leaders. While this group started as a political movement it has evolved into a militant religious movement bent on restoring the Muslim Empire and destroying the West in the process.
This is a real war and it is the worst kind because it is a religious war on one side and not even recognized as a war on the other much less a religious war. This war has been in process for almost a hundred years and has the probability of going on for another fifty years. This war can only be shortened by taking direct and forceful action which is what the current administration is doing. To stop this and to attempt to go back to a policy of concession and understanding will not stop the war, it will simply prolong it. Machiavelli has been proved right over and over again and it is time some of these people who think any armed force is uncivilized wake up before it is too late.
Niccolo Machiavelli addressed this issue of avoiding war and I offer these two observations:
“..there is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others”
“...one must never allow disorder to continue so as to escape a war. Anyhow one does not escape; the war is merely postponed to one’s disadvantage.”
Every opportunity to actually stop Hitler was thwarted by the idea that war could be avoided by concessions and understanding. The same is true of the current war on terror. We are treated almost daily to the left (especially from the universities) who are insisting that the War of Terror is nothing other than a power grab for oil and was initiated solely for that purpose. That the Muslims have every right to attack the United States for our “arrogance” and “cultural destruction”. Although many of these people are highly educated they seem to lack any true grasp of history or foundation for the current situation.
Following the death of Mohammed Islam spread very rapidly – mostly through conquest and very quickly Islam dominated all of North Africa, Spain, all of the Middle East, Albania, Armenia, and all of southern Russia, much of India, and Mongolia. Of course this was not one vast political entity but it certainly was a loosely knit empire. Then the Crusaders came and their brutality helped to unify the fragments into an Empire under Saladin. This Empire existed under the Ottomans until 1917 when it was broken up by the French and British who in their inimical colonial was proceeded to divide the spoils and create these fake nation states that now dot Africa and the Middle East.
This European Arrogance gave birth to the Muslim Brotherhood which came into existence in the 1920’s as a militant secret society. The Brotherhood isn’t quite as secret as it once was but it still exists and it has been directly responsible for much of the unrest and terrorism. It was the Brotherhood who assassinated Anwar Sadat as well as other “moderate” Muslim leaders. While this group started as a political movement it has evolved into a militant religious movement bent on restoring the Muslim Empire and destroying the West in the process.
This is a real war and it is the worst kind because it is a religious war on one side and not even recognized as a war on the other much less a religious war. This war has been in process for almost a hundred years and has the probability of going on for another fifty years. This war can only be shortened by taking direct and forceful action which is what the current administration is doing. To stop this and to attempt to go back to a policy of concession and understanding will not stop the war, it will simply prolong it. Machiavelli has been proved right over and over again and it is time some of these people who think any armed force is uncivilized wake up before it is too late.
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