environment archive at LibertyGuys

Archive for the 'environment' Category

Aug

When Is Charity Not Charitable?

By libertyvini 1 Comment

Categories: Austrian Economics, Constitution, autarky, comedy, commentary, economics, education, energy independence, environment, fascism, liberty, mercantilism, monetary policy, politicians, politics, protectionism, reference, socialism and terrorism

Full of Something

“The Giving Pledge is the brainchild of billionaire businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. The two of them have teamed up to ask the world’s wealthiest people to donate at least 50% of their fortunes to charities. They believe that the richest people in the world can eradicate many of the world’s problems through philanthropy. The pledge is not a binding contract but more of a “moral commitment”. Individuals are free to donate money to whatever cause they would like. So, far about 40 billionaires have accepted the giving pledge challenge. That’s not a large number when you consider that there are nearly 1,000 billionaires in the world, according to Forbes. So, who hasn’t signed up and for what reason? “

Gates and Buffett will not give away ONE DIME.

Instead, they will put all of their billions into foundations they and their heirs control, to lobby for things THEY believe in, at everyone else’s expense.

Also, they are both HUGE proponents of letting the estate-tax cut expire, because then, when small businessmen die, their heirs will have to sell their companies, at a huge discount, to pay the estate tax.

And who will buy these companies at a huge discount?

Uh-huh, people like Buffett and Gates. Screw them.

Also, it is turning the concept of (Christian) charity on its head - proclaim your “giving” as loudly and ostentatiously as you can, and bullyrag others to do do likewise;

“Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Matt 6:5,Matt 6:16,Matt 23:5

Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. Luke 6:24

But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Jer 17:10, Matt 6:6, Matt 6:18″

(Thanks to my wife for bringing this to my attention)

Billionaires Who Havent Taken The Pledge.

Aug

Of Allah, and Moloch

By libertyvini 2 Comments

Categories: Constitution, US Constitution, comedy, commentary, economics, environment, fascism, liberty, mercantilism, police state, politicians, politics, protectionism, recommendations, reference, socialism, terrorism and war

Not The Only Bull-God Here

Isn’t there a rule against putting one church (the Muslim mosque) on the grounds of another (the Nationalist “Ground Zero”)? Seriously, when do “we”, meaning the public, let this ridiculous miasma of a grotesque nationalist mausoleum go, and let the people who live and work in this long-stricken area get their property rights and their lives back? Do our elites really plan to reserve their hideous ‘holy ground’ for a temple to Moloch, alone?

BTW, another of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse has arrived - the NJACLU is lauding NJ governor Chris Christie for defending Cordoba House (mass e-mailing, not that they could be bothered to post it on their site or anything).

And never mind that the area also contains restaurants, bars, offices, hotels, , Christian churches, and several, er, OTHER businesses.

Manhattan has been suffering from this statist deformity since way before 9/11/2001. I can’t find the contemporary (New Yorker?) article, but Wikipedia also mentions that acres of property were stolen, and a hundred residents evicted to make way for Nelson Rockefeller’s monstrous, diplopic, evidently flammable penis extension back in 1964;

I don’t need to remind you that this entire controversy is a classic PR-lying campaign, and that to the extent that ordinary America even knows about what is being proposed, it is through the distorted lens of said PR-lying campaign. Previously, the average American would either have had no opinion, or have just assumed that, it being NYC, a half-dozen mosques already existed in the area. Now, that most dangerous and muddle-headed species, Boobus Americanus, has had its consciousness ‘raised’ by its ‘betters’.

At any rate, the fact that 10 years later there is still relatively zero rebuilding progress is a sad testimony to the weakness of the elites, as is this pathetic ‘controversy’. Thank God.

(PHOTO: www.moloch.us)

Aug

Americas Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution

By libertyvini 3 Comments

Categories: Constitution, commentary, economics, education, energy independence, environment, fascism, liberty, mercantilism, monetary policy, police state, politicians, politics, protectionism, reference, socialism, technology and terrorism

The nut of this very long, but very worthwhile essay by Angelo Codevilla on our emergent ruling class;

“Its attitude is key to understanding our bipartisan ruling class. Its first tenet is that “we” are the best and brightest while the rest of Americans are retrograde, racist, and dysfunctional unless properly constrained. How did this replace the Founding generations paradigm that “all men are created equal”?”

via The American Spectator : Americas Ruling Class — And the Perils of Revolution.

Jul

Psychopathy Legitimized by Fred Reed

By libertyvini 0 Comments

Today, on LRC, Fred Reed ticks almost all the boxes (categories) with this one;

“Perhaps the US should recognize that it has a second-rate military at phenomenal cost – an enormous, largely useless national codpiece. It is embarrassing. The Pentagon’s preferred enemies are lightly armed, poorly equipped peasants, which makes for a long war and thus hundreds of billions of dollars in juicy contracts for military industries. Yet the greatest military in history (ask it) gets run out of Southeast Asia, blown up and run out of Lebanon, shot down and run out of Somalia, with Afghanistan a disaster in progress and Iraq claimed as an American victory rather than Shiite. Do the aircraft carriers intimidate North Korea? No. Iran? No. China? No. For this, a trillion dollars a year?”

via Psychopathy Legitimized by Fred Reed.

Jul

What Have We Done? (2005)

By libertyvini 0 Comments

Categories: Constitution, Philadelphia, US Constitution, autarky, commentary, economics, energy independence, environment, fascism, foreign oil, liberty, mercantilism, politicians, politics, protectionism, regulation, socialism, technology, terrorism and war

Still A Weapon Pork Barrel In Search Of A Mission

Or rather, what have our supposed representatives done? Among the thousands of anti-Constitutional things they have done this week, we highlight the following;

- passed a permanent extension of the USA PATRIOT Act

- passed a bill spending $30 billion on corrupt foreign dictatorships

- passed a bill combining various government and non-governmental aid workers into an “Active Response Corps“, an appalling name for a group that will subvert the democratic process in nations that we identify

- gave assent to a draft Iraqi constitution that guarantees no rights to anyone except to government and to the Mullahs (Iranian Mullahs)

Along with that, one of our local public servants, Rep Curt Weldon (R - Boeing Vertol) got orders placed by the government for the inherently unsafe, WAY over budget ($24 million $30 million $40 million $71 million $159 million EACH), and Marine-killing (30 so far and counting) V-22 Osprey Hybrid.

Quite a week, even for our normally diligent parasites!

Jun

Repeal The Oil Pollution Act of 1990

By libertyvini 5 Comments

Categories: Austrian Economics, Constitution, Ron Paul, US Constitution, autarky, commentary, economics, energy independence, environment, fascism, foreign oil, liberty, mercantilism, politicians, politics, protectionism, regulation, socialism and technology

Actually, THIS is the site of the worst environmental disaster in US History

From the Act;
“SEC. 1004. LIMITS ON LIABILITY.
(a) GENERAL RULE.—Except as otherwise provided in this section,
the total of the liability of a responsible party under section 1002 and any removal costs incurred by, or on behalf of, the responsible party, with respect to each incident shall not exceed—
(1) for a tank vessel, the greater of—
(A) $1,200 per gross ton; or
(B)(i) in the case of a vessel greater than 3,000 gross tons, $10,000,000;
(NOTE: This limit is missing from the current reg here)
or (ii) in the case of a vessel of 3,000 gross tons or less, $2,000,000;
(2) for any other vessel, $600 per gross ton or $500,000, whichever is greater;
(3) for an offshore facility except a deepwater port, the total
of all removal costs plus $75,000,000…”

So, let’s see, the federal government, in response to the (now) second-worst worst marine environmental disaster in US History, passed an act which limited any company’s total financial liability for anything bad that might happen to $85 million (completely destroying the property rights of millions of people), in effect subsidizing risky deep-water drilling, and leading directly to THE worst marine environmental disaster in US history.

Yeah, sounds about right.

Repeal section 1004 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.

(shout-out to Destination 360 - thanks for nothing, a$$hole$)

Jun

Bloomberg Doesn’t Want You To Know What’s In Your Air (1/2008)

By libertyvini 0 Comments

Categories: Constitution, US Constitution, Uncategorized, commentary, environment, fascism, liberty, mercantilism, police state, politicians, politics, regulation, socialism, terrorism and war

One of these in your basement? The Mayor would like to see you...

‘

(PHOTO: New Yorkers posess these by the thousands, the NYPD wants to make these people criminals)

UPDATE: Bloomberg is at it again;

The NYPD’s deputy commissioner for counterterrorism wants to ban private ownership of Geiger-Muller counters, air sampling pumps, and (SOME - ed) carbon monoxide detectors. The city ‘government’ of Bloombergia-On-The-Hudson, hot on the heels of forcing chain restaurants to list the calorie counts of their menu items directly on the menu (but not New York City-based restaurants), seems to believe that the time is right to take away the right to sample and monitor the air in the city without a city permit;

Dave Kotelchuck, deputy director of the New York/New Jersey Education and Research Center, pointed out the absurdity of having police regulate and permit research science. “Think about industrial-hygiene folks who are going from Boston to Atlanta to measure, and have atmospheric detectors,” he said. “They land in LaGuardia and JFK. As soon as they land, because possession is a misdemeanor, they’ve committed a misdemeanor. They’re not going to test in New York City; they’re just travelling through. But possession, which is the way the law has stated it, alone is a misdemeanor—not use. Not attempting to make measurements—just possession. That is just unwarranted.”

The ostensible reason for this extraordinary action is that unscrupulous vendors are selling defective detectors to the public, a ludicrous explanation. The real reason might be a bit more sinister;

Dave Newman, an industrial hygienist for the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, claimed that under this law, the West Virginia air-quality experts who tested the air after 9/11 would have been a bunch of criminals (emphasis mine.)

I should note that I am a Certified Industrial Hygienist, who, as well as having planned and worked on some of the biggest environmental cleanups in the city, has probably transported or posessed hundreds of such instruments on thousands of trips throughout the Five Boroughs, and while the idea of being a kind of righteous outlaw in the city is somewhat dashing and romantic on one level, it would quickly become a gigantic pain in the ass.

More seriously, this attempt at ass-covering on the part of the multiply culpable city government is both a local fascist power grab and a federally-encouraged experiment to find out if similar repugnant legislation could be fastened on to the American people at large;

There are currently no guidelines regulating the private acquisition of biological, chemical, and radiological detectors,” warned Falkenrath, adding that this law was suggested by officials within the Department of Homeland Security.

Nevermind professional people, for technical people, hobbyists, ordinary citizens, academics, and students who want to take basic measurements relating to environmental quality in the most polluted city in North America (and possibly soon, elsewhere,) this ordinance would be an unmitigated disaster, and a wholesale abrogation of rights.

Feb

Things Fall Apart

By libertyvini 0 Comments

Warming to the Idea

Temper the urge to gloat, or sulk, depending on your frame of reference;

“Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995″ - UK Daily Mail

Science, like any human endeavor, is imperfect. And humans do have positive as well as negative effects on the environment (in fact, I’m writing a book about exactly that.)

But global climate change was always about the politics, first and foremost, of some very special interests (nuke plant operators, carbon-credit traders).

In other words, as has been said of corrupt tools in another context, the policy came first, and the “facts were being fixed around the policy.”

I hope Dr. Jones has family and friends around him.

Dec

“Climategate” Reveals More About The Politics Than The Science

By libertyvini 0 Comments

Categories: Austrian Economics, Constitution, Uncategorized, autarky, commentary, economics, education, energy independence, environment, fascism, liberty, mercantilism, politicians, politics, protectionism, socialism and technology

Er, no.

I work for a full-service commercial laboratory. We are currently undergoing our fourth lab-wide audit in as many months, this time by a private accreditation organization. A team of uber lab geeks picks every nit, examines every tittle, and probes every jot of our practices and procedures to ensure that we do only that which is rigidly scientifically defensible. It’s the ultimate in peer-review - outsiders, some of whom work for our closest rivals, spending a week thumbing through our documents and grilling our staff, and we not only tolerate it, we relish it. Why?

Because it benefits us to pass such an independent examination, immeasurably increasing our ability to get and hold business. The imprimatur of the laboratory-accrediting organization is not only gratefully and graciously accepted, like a badge of courage (white, black, and teal, in this case) we wear it proudly on every marketing piece we do. While our proprietary data (and that of our customers) is kept in confidence, our procedures and policies are essentially on display for all to see.

So, if transparency is good enough for commercial laboratories, where there are very real risks to competitiveness at stake, why are the “scientists” who keep the data on global climate change so secretive? Why do they, when they think no one is looking, heap scorn on their critics, and plot to suppress or alter data which does not fit their political agenda? And most importantly, how can they claim that their work is “peer-reviewed”, when the small clique that runs the whole enterprise simply reviews each others’ massaged data, and that of others who scientifically and politically agree with them and their goals?

I’m too polite to say it.

F**K it, no I’m not. They’re crooks.

Dec

Thirty Thousand More Paid Killers For Afghanistan

By libertyvini 1 Comment

An Apt Symbol - An Empty, Bloody Hand

Surely there isn’t anyone out there who could not see this coming, right? My question is, where did President Obama receive his training in military strategy - the University of Chicago? Harvard? Seriously, exactly how does our peace prize-winning leader go from implicit accusations of insubordination over McChrystal’s insistance that many more troops were needed, to doing the sales pitch on prime-time TV?
More importantly, when is America going to wake up? It is past time for all of us, but particularly the left, to wake up and realize that, just like LBJ, Obama is holding out his empty promises of universal everything for everyone with blood-soaked fingers.

(image from headwrapping school)