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Charles Battig
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June 27, 2020
A Winning Trifecta for Climate Science and RationalityFirst there was Michael Moore’s Planet of the Humans, then came Bjorn Lomborg’s False Alarm, and now Michael Schellenberger’s Apocalypse Never. All three authors sound the common theme that the hyper-green environmental ...
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June 3, 2020
Fear: The Best Tool of the Ruling ClassSocial and political responses to the fears of the Corona-19 virus pandemic are news headlines, but do they deserve headlines? Of course, they are news, but they are not really new news. We have been repeatedly warned about the destructiv...
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May 20, 2020
Clean Energy Via Legislative DiktatFor those enamored by the clean electric-car, smoke-and-mirrors "emission elsewhere scheme" comes the recently enacted "Virginia Clean Economy Act", which includes one of the largest energy storage targets in the count...
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April 6, 2019
The very rich are differentWealthy parents buying admission for their children to elite universities. A prominent actor excused from trial in spite of damning police and grand jury evidence. Perceived preferential or deferential trea...
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January 15, 2019
Sweden as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's socialist role modelThe much maligned Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might have been on to something, although possibly inadvertently, in her interview January 6, 2019 with Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes. During that interview, she said she wants to "model her ...
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January 13, 2019
This 'Green New Deal' looks awfully familiarOrganized by the Sunrise Movement, over 200 youth activists supported by then-representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took over House minority leader Nancy Pelosi's office the morning of November 13, 2018, lobbying Democrats to act decisive...
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December 2, 2018
Macron the macaron: The French cookie on climate changeSometimes a Macron is just a macaron. French president Emmanuel Macron is all smooth and sweet on the outside but air-filled inside. His crusty distain for the French equivalents of our "deplorables" evidences his haug...
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November 24, 2018
How much do you really want artificial intelligence running your life?Artificial intelligence (A.I.) is the current hot item in "tomorrow world," as techies see it as the next new thing to take over outmoded human brains, some of which actually do possess a modicum of native intelligence. A.I. algo...
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August 13, 2018
Chariots of Death and IndecisionThe collective eco-political swoon over the concept of electric cars and their self-driving capabilities is hitting a few unnerving speed bumps on the way to the promised land of an accident-free and nonpolluting transportation nirvana. Repl...
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May 14, 2018
Hippocratic Oath vs. 'Hypocritic' Oath?The National Institutes of Health website defines the Hippocratic Oath as "perhaps the most widely known of Greek medical texts. It requires a new physician to swear upon a number of healing gods that he will uphold a number...
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April 29, 2018
Too Big to FailRecognition of and concern with the growth of the bureaucratic state within the traditional tripartite framework our founding fathers established is examined in detail in two recent books. Joseph Postell's Bureaucracy in America...
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March 26, 2018
Beware the digital tree of knowledgeAlong with Genesis – "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die" – there was Greek mythology and Pandora's box. In both ca...
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November 7, 2017
Corn husks, failed fodder for a power plantThe Washington Examiner reports yet another renewable energy project gone broke. Reporter Timothy Carney documents the short, two-year life of this corn lobby and political boondoggle. Two years ago, Gov. Terry Branstad and...
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October 20, 2017
Democracy and the InfowaveEach day, the financial press seems to have yet another report of companies such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook buying a competitor or broadening their reach into new technology areas by acquiring complementary technology enterprises. Bit by b...
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October 11, 2017
Maybe Hollywood doesn't produce great scientistsAs the furor over Hollywood kingpin Harvey Weinstein's sexual exploits floods the media, I say it is time to let those dust balls of deviancy provide another lesson in the foolishness of celebrity worship. Mr. Weinstein is rapidly losing hi...
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June 27, 2017
Russia as Media Manipulator: Nothing NewAs the self-aggrieved losing party, the Democratic Party (but that is redundant) has retreated to the dark arts of doubt and deception in efforts to discredit the election of President Trump and hobble the agenda upon which he was elected. A pr...
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February 22, 2017
There's no god in the climate change machineSome say "God" might reside in a computer...the Deus ex Machina. Among those individuals are those divining climate with computer-based general circulation models. This has generated a belief system to the effect that all variab...
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January 14, 2017
Scare Pollution: A ReviewSteve Milloy is one persistent gentleman. Combining his legal and statistical education, he has spent most of his years ferreting out the false use of statistical techniques in the field of epidemiology. He continues the same quest in his latest book...
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January 4, 2017
Dr. Judith Curry, a climate science championIn January 1961, President Eisenhower delivered his farewell address to the nation. His insightful comments included the following: The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, an...
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December 28, 2016
Progressivism as a mental illnessAs we ponder the temper tantrums by current progressives and offer analyses of the driving force behind blatantly bad behavior, we might consider the studies by psychiatrist Lyle Rossiter, M.D. in his 2011 book, The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Ca...
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December 23, 2016
The next great sucking soundPresident-Elect Trump has pierced the veils surrounding the holy of holies wherein reside the eco-dogmatists of the EPA and the U.N. and promises the rightful return of respect to the essence of scientific research…skepticism. In 17...
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April 4, 2016
Suing into submissionSeveral state attorneys general have joined in a campaign to prosecute energy companies for “misleading investors” on global warming. These A.G.s claim a conspiracy, implying that investors are unaware that climate changes may impact i...
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February 16, 2016
Following the piper's tuneWhile political pundits ponder the reasons for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s success with his socialist message among younger voters, they might also consider the “power of myth” as evidenced by human behavior. Hi...
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December 18, 2015
May the farce be with youAs millions await the the latest Star Wars movie, the House Republicans have released their show of farce. What had been hoped for as a show of force under new House leadership was to be a reining in of out-of-control spending, regulatory agenc...
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December 3, 2015
Clowns on paradeIt is unfortunate that Charles Mackay is no longer alive to add yet another chapter or two to his insightful book of human follies, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. First published in 1841, his book chronicles in sixte...
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October 18, 2015
The 'Queen of de Nial' is barely keeping afloatThe original Queen of the Nile was Cleopatra. Barely twenty, she became ruler of the eastern Mediterranean lands. Leading a life blending sex, power, and politics, and ending with the bite of an asp, according to legend, hers is an enduri...
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October 4, 2015
New Climate Regulations Will Save Lots of Imaginary PeopleNow I can finally relax, take a deep breath, and breathe easier. The Environmental Protection Agency, an aggressive arm of the nanny government, has just issued new air quality standards that mandate that the new "safe" level of ozone...
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August 4, 2015
Imagery and hypocrisyMike Huckabee’s recent comment about President Obama, “He would trust the Iranians and he would take the Israelis and basically march them to the door of the oven,” produced much shock, indignation, and verbal condemnation from the ...
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June 7, 2015
Bespoke science on the riseA flurry of recent publication activity on the health impacts of carbon dioxide by the catastrophic climate change community is evidence that it has now moved beyond post-normal science. That was the philosophical answer to traditional science ...
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May 12, 2015
NY Times puts green lipstick on a pigColumnist Thomas Friedman has won three Pulitzer Prizes. His editorial skills are in full display in his May 6, 2015 New York Times article "Germany, the Green Superpower." He seems anxious to share his Nobel Prize experiences b...
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April 1, 2015
Climate Sensitivity: the Victimization GameClimate sensitivity continues to be a crucial factor in science-based attempts to predict the warming or cooling of the atmosphere in response to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Eighteen plus years of real world data indicate a much lower leve...
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March 9, 2015
A big week for VoltaireMarch 4 and 5, 2015 were banner days for Voltaire in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) opinion pages. The French philosopher and anti-establishment role model eventually brought the wrath of the ruling elite down upon himself for his numerous witti...
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February 19, 2015
Fawlty Towers and Ivory TowersJohn Cleese’s 1970’s “Fawlty Towers” of BBC fame provided a satirical view of an inept hotel manager in his dealings with potential guests, “who is tortured by ‘that annoying section of the general public who insis...
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February 2, 2015
No separation between church and state on climate changePope Francis’s recent pronouncements on climate change and his forthcoming papal encyclical on the environment are taking the Church into scientific matters reminiscent of Pope Urban VIII and Galileo some four centuries ago. Galileo ...
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January 24, 2015
Global Warming and Government WorkThe origins of the epithet, “Good enough for government work,” are not precisely known, but it is definitely a part of the American vernacular. It serves as a diminishing, if not downright demeaning, label for the perhaps adequate, but no...
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December 2, 2014
Give Gruber a BreakJonathan Gruber has been roundly reprimanded in the press, blogging sites, and everywhere in between for his candid comments regarding “the stupidity of the American voter” being his assumed premise for the passage of the Affordable Care ...
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October 10, 2014
50,000 dot comLet’s start a new carbon dioxide (CO2) website. Let’s forget unimaginative and puny sites anchored in the mid 300’s. How about “50,000 dot com”? 50,000ppm to be exact... That is a really big number in view of claims t...
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September 1, 2014
Napoleon's Thoughts on PoliticiansNapoleon Bonaparte’s accomplishments extend beyond that of statesman and military commander. He had a bit of philosopher within him, and authored a number of quips. Like most notable observations, they survive because the author has accurately ...
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August 26, 2014
Sustainability: The Universal Solvent of Private Property RightsThe alchemists of old were diligently ambitious in their goals. These antecedents of modern chemistry were not hindered by a lack of knowledge of atomic structure and physical chemistry when it came to setting priorities. Lacking a nuclea...
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August 7, 2014
The Billionaire Boys ClubA July 30, 2014 U.S. Senate report has a segment featuring my home town of Charlottesville, Virginia, although it might not be immediately evident. The U. S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works issued its Minority Staff Report: “Th...
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July 7, 2014
Climate Change Hysteria and the Madness of CrowdsShakespeare’s Hamlet pondered the eternal conundrum of competing choices. His “Aye, there’s the rub” nicely summarizes the conflicts inherent in the present socio/political/scientific arena of climate discussions. Years of ...
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June 18, 2014
Mr. President, quit Fiddling AroundNero supposedly fiddled while Rome burned, and President Obama is reported playing golf as the Mideast ramps up its self-destruction in the current resumption of ancient religious factional warfare. Pundits galore masticate the presumptive causes and...
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June 9, 2014
Beware of False ProphetsPositive public perception of the scientist has long been powerful. The public has the tendency to defer to scientists, as it does to authority in general. It is part of the educational and socialization process inherent in societies....
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May 27, 2014
Freedom From Information Act (FFIA)No, that is not a mistake. FFIA is the unofficial, but real operative world of bureaucracy, which has its own interpretation of the official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). For those who have wished to probe the nooks and crannies of g...
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May 11, 2014
That Old Time Religion; That Old Time ScienceSeparation of church and state has long been a fundamental part of the U.S. Constitution, as it prohibits the imposition of a federal religion. Various interpretations of this principle as stated in the First Amendment to the Constitution have ...
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April 19, 2014
'EPA Caught!'PBS recently ran a retrospective of the Dave Clark 5. While enjoying a trip back to another era of music and culture, I became fascinated by one tune, “Catch us if You Can.” In the current era of governmental policy seemingly driven...
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March 28, 2014
The Denier Mantle Moves OnBy their consistent refusal to acknowledge the accumulated facts of climate history, the mantle of “climate denier” has rightfully passed on to those who continue to promote misinformation and the unwarranted fear of manmade climate chang...
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March 24, 2014
The UN Renounces BiofuelsI had to check to be sure that it was not yet April Fools Day. Surely our friends in the UK would not be so unkind as to mislead their unrepentant ex-colonists over here, would they? The March 23, 2014 Telegraph carried this article stating tha...
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March 12, 2014
The Dead Parrot of Man-Made Climate Change“Monty Python” did not foresee the current, catastrophic man-made global warming/climate change hoax. The group did, however, have a firm grasp of everyday absurdities. Their 1969 “Dead Parrot Sketch” depicts two c...
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February 18, 2014
Mass Destruction of SciencePerhaps given the chance to avert public eyes from his lackluster results with containing the deteriorating situation in Syria, nuclear talks with Iran, and the Middle East peace process, Secretary of State Kerry has chosen to flaunt his lack of scie...
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November 2, 2013
Al Gore Still StrandedHow fortunate Mr. Gore and Generation Investment Management (GIM) were able to secure a half-page "opinion" piece in the October 30, 2013 Wall Street Journal. Readers should be grateful that GIM is so concerned for their financial well-being tha...
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January 13, 2013
The Spoiled-Brat SyndromeThe "spoiled brat syndrome" is my way of describing the current endpoint of decades of various forms of progressive thinking in the molding of current culture. Some of this behavior can be detected in the recent fiscal-cliff-stand-off theater. In the...
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September 8, 2012
ObamaCare and Laptop MedicineThe era of laptop medicine is now upon us. Rather, make that laptop-computer medicine. Visit your physician, and odds are that he will enter the examining room with his shiny new laptop in hand. The push for electronic records in the name...
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June 15, 2012
Virginia Is SinkingVirginia has attracted much attention recently not only because of its status as a swing state, but also as a sinking state. Within the same week, two remarkably similar articles were published featuring the nexus between political belief syste...
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May 6, 2012
The Death of Privacy by Bits and Bytes"The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them" is attributed to V. Lenin. Fast-forward to the "digital everything" age, and the 21st-century equivalent is coming to us via the "smart meter" and "smart grid" of your electrical en...