Is Health Care A Fundamental Human Right or a Service?

How many Americans believe that health care is a fundamental human right? How many Americans believe that it is just a service that must be paid for just like any other service? Good doctors and nurses who train a long time and invest a lot of money in their education expect to be paid well for their expertise and unique skills.

Respectable hospitals cannot operate on the basis of a “fundamental human right,” invented by “progressives,” somebody must pay for health care. Life-saving medical equipment and drugs are expensive.

There is a reason why the best medical care, equipment, drugs, and doctors in the world exist in capitalism and not in socialist countries. Individual thinking, creativity, and entrepreneurship rewarded by profit have improved our lives and our health. Collectivism resulted in the death of 100 million individuals. Developing each drug cost at least $950 million and researchers and investors expect to be paid for their financial risks, research, and ideas.

Americans have always supported the development of life-saving expensive drugs which were then sold to other nations for much less than we paid at home or were given away for free. Americans have thus subsidized the medical treatment of citizens of many nations.

Hospitals have charged patients with insurance more to cover expenses for those who did not, could not pay their bills, or had no insurance, such as illegal aliens. Quite a few smaller hospitals have closed their doors for that reason alone.

It is true, some people who get sick and have no health care can die. It is also true that without food people also die. Is food then a “fundamental human right?” Someone must toil so that somebody else eats for free?

If you ask “progressives,” everything should be free and nobody should make a profit because profit is “obscene and socially unjust.” Yet taxation from capitalist profit and from income earned supports able-bodied Americans and illegal aliens who choose not to work, work undocumented, or cannot find a job thanks to the current depressed economy. At some point the golden goose is going to run out of golden eggs. As Margaret Thatcher said, the problem with socialism is that you run out of other people’s money.

Public Citizen, in a recent fund raising memo asking potential donors for $5, says that Obamacare’s problem is not the broken website (the obscene development cost of $693 million, all the lies and misrepresentations of premium costs, keeping your doctors, keeping your insurance, lower premiums, etc.), the problem is that “we spend more on health care per person, by far, than any other developed country, yet millions and millions of our citizens are left without insurance, leading to 45,000 preventable deaths every year.”

The statement is not exactly accurate. A study of 9,005 individuals who answered questions about race, ethnicity, income, and household size was reported in December 2009 in the American Journal of Public Health. These respondents self-evaluated their health and were examined by doctors. The study “oversampled several groups, including Black persons, Mexican Americans, the very young (aged 2 months to 5 years) and those aged older than 65 years.”

Based on sound scientific research, the study contains numerous biases and is hardly a representative sampling of the uninsured U.S. population.

The study concludes, “Lack of health insurance is associated with as many as 44,789 deaths per year in the United States, more than those caused by kidney disease.” Notice the use of the word “associated with,” it does not say “caused” death. There is a significant difference. http://www.pnhp.org/excessdeaths/health-insurance-and-mortality-in-US-adults.pdf

The very idea that medical insurance guarantees prompt, timely, excellent medical care, health, and a good outcome (life), is preposterous.

The fact that socialized medicine does cause severe shortages and forces rationing to reduce costs, thus causing patient deaths by neglect and denial of services seems to escape those who are so eager to institute socialized medicine in this country.

The CDC does say that 200,000 deaths per year from heart disease and stroke are preventable.

http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/heartdisease-stroke/index.html

The NIH says that preventable causes of death in the U.S. are associated with diet, lifestyle, and metabolic rate. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19399161

Obamacare has already left millions of formerly insured Americans uninsured because the law mandates many more services that insurance companies cannot cover without raising premiums or dropping those already insured. It is simple economics, something that liberals must have slept through in high school and college.  

At the end of the full implementation of Obamacare more Americans will be left without insurance coverage or dependent on Medicaid than the initial 15 percent who were uninsured before Obamacare was passed.

Most Americans were satisfied with their excellent health care, the envy of the rest of the world, and their insurance. About 15 percent were uninsured, young people who chose to play insurance roulette based on age, good health, a sense of immortality, and those unfortunate Americans who could not afford the higher premiums based on their low incomes, pre-existing conditions, and those who were canceled by their insurance.

A cheaper solution would have been to offer federally subsidized insurance to those 15 percent who were uninsured. It would have been much cheaper than Obamacare.

Public Citizen considers the situation outrageous that capitalism “still permits the for-profit health insurance industry to decide who can or cannot see a doctor and to commodify a fundamental human right.” 

Who should then decide? The federal government, of course, because they do everything else so precisely. Government care worked really well in Cuba, Venezuela, and Eastern Europe where socialist/communist governments decided who got medical care, what type, how much training doctors had, how much they could earn, where they could practice medicine, how much rationing occurred, who lived and died, and how well the communist elites were treated in their private hospitals.

Public Citizen is telling the low information voters that “Our citizens need – and morality demands – a single-payer, Medicare-for-All system.” Who knew that morality demanded health care? And who decides the definition of morality? Is it the government or the enlightened “progressives”?

Obamacare was never about insuring the 15 percent uninsured, it was about control over our bodies, about impoverishing and making dependent on government those already insured, bankrupting the insurance companies, and establishing one national single-payer system run by the IRS and HHS. What can possibly go wrong with such a plan?

“Helping people when they are sick or injured should not be an industry, like manufacturing lint rollers or windshields,” says Public Citizen. Yet the national health care system in the U.K. is the largest employer. It seems to me that it is an industry, an industry that is run very badly, in which severe rationing occurs and procedural waiting time for ER admissions, tests, hospitalizations, and surgeries is very long. The survivability rate from all forms of cancer is much lower than in the U.S.

Nationalized health care works well for sniffles but not for serious problems, expensive procedures, and surgery. One-payer system is very expensive and requires much higher taxes than Americans currently pay.

Public Citizen promises its $5 donors that “it will derail attempts to cut Medicare.” That will be interesting to see especially since the Obama administration is cutting $719 billion from Medicare in the next 10 years in order to fund Obamacare.

Public Citizen is working with Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, and Representative John Conyers to “boost legislative momentum for single-payer reform.” The plan is called “Medicare-for-All.” It will ensure every American’s basic right to health care, saving 45,000 lives every year” and “saving our country $350 billion or more annually.” I am not sure how they arrived at this figure but it does not matter, low information voters are easy to convince.

Unless single-payer Medicare-for-All happens, said the President of Public Citizen, our society cannot “progress out of this dark chapter in our national story where we allow 120 of our fellow citizens to die every day so that for-profit insurance industry can perpetuate its profiteering.”

I wonder how many people will die once the full implementation of Obamacare happens and the 15-member death panel is in full force. How many people will be denied procedures based on their age, usefulness to society, disability, political affiliation, ethnicity, religion, and race?

According to Heritage Foundation, Obamcare’s new exchanges actually offer very limited choices, premiums are more expensive for Americans in at least 42 states, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that 7 million people with employer-sponsored coverage will lose their insurance due to Obamacare.

“Obamacare undermines American values by discouraging marriage and work.” Worse yet, Obamacare prioritizes illegal aliens over American citizens and able-bodied adults over the disabled. Legal, non-citizen residents qualify for federally subsidized insurance with more and better coverage options than American citizens. (Morning Bell, The Heritage Foundation, November 27, 2013)

States that expanded Medicaid programs will automatically enroll in Medicaid Americans with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level.  But non-citizens will have better options via federal subsidies to purchase coverage in the Obamacare exchanges. 

To make matters worse, in some states, when a person who received lengthy medical treatment under Medicaid dies, the state goes after the remaining spouse’s assets in order to reimburse Medicaid.

States that did not expand Medicaid programs will offer non-citizens the option to purchase subsidized insurance in the exchanges, while American citizens below 100 percent of the poverty level will likely not qualify for subsidized coverage. (Morning Bell, The Heritage Foundation, November 27, 2013)

Obamacare will spend $700 billion on Medicaid expansion in order to cover able-bodied individuals, millions of unemployed and underemployed, threatening coverage for disabled Americans, and creating a permanent class that has no financial incentive to work.

These people will become permanently dependent on government for every need. The sad truth is that what government gives generously, it can certainly take away. All we have to do is look at the sad state of Greece. Many citizens must depend on charities for serious medical treatment or face death.

 

 

 

 

 

Do Young Americans Understand Thanksgiving?

 “Sure I wave the American flag. Do you know a better flag to wave? Sure I love my country with all her faults. I'm not ashamed of that, never have been, never will be." - John Wayne

While on errands today, I overheard shopkeepers telling customers happy holidays. One young woman who handled my purchase wished me Happy Thanksgiving. I was surprised and asked her why Happy Thanksgiving instead of happy holidays. Her answer disappointed me but it was not unexpected – we live in Washington, D.C. where the state-sanctioned religion is atheism.

Everyone displays their tolerance towards other faiths with COEXIST bumper stickers, but when it comes to Christianity, they make strong exceptions. She told me in a very confident voice that Thanksgiving is not a religious holiday and thus she would not be offending anyone with her wishes. It is just another holiday that everyone celebrates. I did not have the patience to tell her how wrong and ignorant she was.

According to Stanley Yavneh Klos, the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation Presidents issued National Thanksgiving Day Proclamations in 1776, 1777, 1779, 1780, 1781, and 1782. The first presidential proclamation was issued by John Hancock as President of the United Colonies Continental Congress on March 16, 1776. (Historic.us)

President George Washington, the first president of the United States under the Constitution of 1787 released his proclamation on October 3, 1789 in New York City.  Both Houses of Congress requested the President to “recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer, formally declared November 26 to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”

Praising the “civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed,” President George Washington assigned Thursday, the 26^th day of November, as a day in which “we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions.”

President George Washington wished that through our prayers God would “enable us all,… to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue…” (www.heritage.org/initiatives/first.../washingtons-thanksgiving-proclamation)

Abraham Lincoln, our 16^th President (1861-1865) issued Proclamation 106 – Thanksgiving Day, 1863 on October 3, 1863. It begins:

“The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the every-watching providence of the Almighty God.”

President Lincoln described the wealth, the strength, the bounty, the population increase in spite of the civil war losses, the plows that have enlarged the borders and the settlements, have grown the crops,  the “large increase in freedom,” the mines of coal, iron, and precious metals that have enlarged their abundant production. “The laws have been respected and obeyed; harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.”

President Lincoln, a man of God, recognized that “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.”

In the last paragraph, President Lincoln pronounced that the American people should “solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledge, as with one heart and one voice,” these “gracious gifts of the Most High God.”

“I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

Americans, he said, should not just be thankful for their blessings, but also humbly penitent for “our national perverseness and disobedience.” Widows, orphans, mourners, and sufferers should be commended to God’s tender care, he said. …” In the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, … fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.” (The American Presidency Project, www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=69900)

The Thanksgiving holiday that we continue to celebrate today was established by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and was made law by Congress in 1941. It was rooted in religion and God. The fact that Americans, particularly young Americans, do not know our country’s history, is a sad reflection on our “progressive” education system that teaches revisionist history or none at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everybody Loves to Hate Home Owner Associations

My plane landed safely at Reagan National Airport. We were deplaned on the tarmac in the dark, away from the gate, to find our black suitcases by the jet way in the lightless, windy, and below 20 degrees Fahrenheit night. After much confusion and shivering, we were loaded onto buses and delivered to the terminal.  

I am not sure it was the airline offering us third world jet service or the airport’s poor planning, but I was glad to be home. My trip to Nashville revisited the past, the present, and the future of home ownership within the context of HOA.

I wanted to see for myself the gated Hampton Reserve, a very affluent subdivision nestled between Crockett Road and Concord Road in Brentwood. The stately brick homes form a lovely community divided into 92 lots, all dues-paying members of the Home Owners Association.

In my former life in a communist country, we were herded into 5-story apartment complexes made of concrete blocks and reinforced steel after our former homes were confiscated by the government. We had nowhere else to go; therefore we were a very captive audience.

Once renters in these 300 square feet tiny apartments, we were forced to form a Home Owners Association, paying dues for all the repairs to the building, plumbing, roof, grounds and stairwell maintenance. We were not really owners of the building or of the apartments, we paid subsidized rent to the communist government, but we were responsible for any kind of repairs the building or individual apartments needed. Each family had to pay an equal amount of monthly dues which varied from year to year. And if that was not bad enough, we had to take turns to sweep and mop the hallways, maintain the common areas outside, mow the grass, weed, and plant trees and bushes.

I am not sure if the HOAs in this country were modeled after the communist HOA or vice versa. What I am sure is that a handful of people got to dictate policies for the majority whether they agreed to it in principle or not. Obviously, if you wanted to rent an apartment under communism, you had to sign the rental contract that included the participation in the HOA.

If you want to buy a house in certain urban areas in this country, you have to sign an HOA contract dictated and formulated by a small group of busybodies with vested interests or who like to control and tell other people what to do with their properties under the guise that it keeps uniformity of code and maintains property values without the display of pink flamingoes. HOA manuals can be quite thick and include many asinine provisions that infringe on our liberties as homeowners.

In the case of Hampton Reserve, Susan DeCuyper sued three former HOA board members, alleging that “they tried to obtain neighborhood common land.” As she was quoted in the Tennessean on November 24, 2013, “At its core this is a case about greed, abuse of authority and what a handful of rogue individuals are willing to do to their fellow neighbors.”

The allegations include attempts by former board members to “conspire” in order to “modify the subdivision’s original covenants and restrictions to permit the transfer of special portions of neighborhood common land to a select few residents at no cost to them.” (Quint Qualls, the Tennessean, November 24, 2013)

The subdivision has 13 acres of common land and some of the board members attempted to acquire part of the common land in order to build private swimming pools. The HOA had failed to build a community center and swimming pool as promised. Other homeowners had objected to the free acquisition of common land but their community emails were allegedly intercepted and blocked which is against the law – the Tennessee Wiretap Act penalizes such violations with $10,000 per person. The lawsuit asks for damages in excess of $1 million.

According to the Tennessean, the three defendants “have resigned their positions on the HOA board and have stopped their attempts to gain portions of the common land.”

Scott Johannessen, a resident of Hampton Reserve and Susan DeCuyper’s attorney, wrote a message on his Facebook page which reflects the predicament of urban homeowners around the country who belong to an HOA that controls privacy and rights to use their property freely.

“Our freedom is founded on the individual’s rights to property and privacy. No self-interested group or person should ever be permitted to obstruct or unilaterally take away another’s fundamental liberties, whether such interference or confiscation encompasses the expanse of our national boundaries or is restricted to the confines of our own neighborhood. The right thing to do always transcends locality. Even those who disparage this fundamental truth should want nothing less.” https://www.facebook.com/scott.johannessen?fref=ts

The outcome of the lawsuit is of interest to homeowners around the country who find themselves in conflict with HOAs over flying the American flag, having a garden or fruit trees in the back yard, Christmas lights and ornaments, Easter decorations, satellite dishes on the roof, children visitors, pets, yard sales, vans parked in the driveway, unapproved patios, pools, decks, or landscaping.

Butler on Business, November 20, 2013

My chat with Alan Butler on various topics of the day. I come on at the 43 minute mark.
http://host1.cyberears.com//22903.mp3

Prairies, Wind Turbines, Solar Panels, and Fried Birds

Image: Stuart McMahon

The green energy policy in the United States which requires blending gasoline with ethanol produced from corn has expanded the corn fields to the detriment of prairies. According to AP, more than 1.2 million acres of grassland were lost to the federal requirement of blending gas with 10 percent ethanol, soon to be 15 percent ethanol. These former prairies are now planted with corn and soybeans.

The unintended consequence of this green energy policy is the release of more carbon dioxide naturally locked in the soil when the virgin grasslands are plowed, the sky rocketing of corn prices, the scarcity of corn in countries where it is the main staple, food riots and famine resulting from such shortage in third world countries. Moving to 15 percent ethanol will clog and destroy car engines.

South Dakota lost “370,000 acres of grassland in addition to the 5 million acres of farmland set aside for conservation.” This is more acreage, said Brokaw and Gillum, than “Yellowstone, Everglades, and Yosemite National Parks combined that have vanished since Obama took office.”

“Scientists warned that America’s corn-for-ethanol policy would fail as an anti-global warming strategy if too many farmers plowed over virgin land.” (Chet Brokaw and Jack Gillum, November 13, 2013, AP)

These are some of the hidden costs of green energy. Thousands of birds, some protected species, even the Bald Eagle, are killed by wind turbine farms. A rare species, white-throated needletail that had not been seen in twenty-two years was tracked by bird watchers in Britain when, to their horror, the bird flew into turbine blades and was chopped up. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2350267/Rare-bird-white-throated-needletail-killed-wind-turbine-crowd-twitchers.html

Solar panels in California either singe/fry the birds from the strong reflections or when birds dive directly into the panels thinking that they are glittering water. Lex Berko noted that many of California’s solar plants are located in the pathway of “four major north-to-south trajectories for migratory birds, called the Pacific Flyway.” www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/12/Oops-Solar-Energy-Plants-are-Killing-Rare-birds

Powerful winds send wind turbine engines up in flames with firemen unable to put out the fires; some wind turbines are 100 meters tall.  A turbine in Ardrossan, Scotland burned its engine out due to high winds, according to the Telegraph. A second turbine fell over completely. Each turbine cost 2 million pounds, approximately $3.1 million.

According to Lawrence E. Miller from Gerrardstown, WV, and engineer with over 40 years’ experience with large power train machinery associated with Navy ships, wind turbines require large amounts of electricity to operate and use electricity from the grid. This electricity use is not metered or accounted for in their output figures. The manufacturers of wind turbines such as Vestas, GE, and NEG Micon do not include electricity consumption in the specifications provided.

There are many parts of a wind turbine that use electricity: yaw mechanism, the turbine housing and blades, blade-pitch control, lights, controllers, communication, sensors, metering, data collection, heating the blades, heating and dehumidifying the turbine housing, oil heater, pump, cooler, and filtering system in gear box, hydraulic brakes to lock blades in high wind, etc.

It is estimated that “at times a turbine consumes more than 50 percent of its rated capacity in its own operation. The 25 percent rated capacity means that a “turbine would then use (for free) twice as much electricity as it produces and sells.”

“Energy consumption in wind facilities” concludes that “industrial wind power could turn out to be a laundering scheme: ‘Dirty energy goes in, ‘clean’ energy comes out.” http://www.aweo.org/windconsumption.html

Blades must rotate even in the absence of wind otherwise they bow under the tremendous weight. In addition to bowing and warping, the gears rust in place if turbines are located near water. “The wind farm operator has to keep sensitive equipment, the drive, hubs, and rotor blades in constant motion.” (The Automatic Earth, Oct. 27, 2012)

RenewableUK reported in 2011 1,500 accidents/incidents involving wind turbines, some of which resulted in serious injuries and deaths. NGup Rotor Blades, a Dutch company, said “Rotor blade lightning damage is a common problem.”

http://www.windbyte.co.uk/safety.html

Residents of King’s Dyke, Whittlesey, were showered for four hours with potentially deadly chunks of ice, some as long as 2 ft. from an 80 meter wind turbine nearby. (PeterboroughToday.co.uk, December 2, 2008)

A major road was blocked for 5 days by a rotor transport that crashed and overturned in Raylees, UK. Some transporters lodge at turns on narrow roads.

Because of the propensity to catch fire, discharge loose blades or broken parts of a blade, throw dangerous ice chunks at high speed, and the potential catastrophic blade failure followed by a tower collapse, these wind turbines must be placed at a safe distance from people, homes, and highways. According to a report by Windtech International in August 4, 2008, 60 percent of wind turbines were behind in maintenance.

Renewable energy is generating so many tax surcharges that Germans can no longer keep up – there is a surcharge to finance the power grids, and collateral damage charges from energy surplus and deficit, depending on the weather and the time of the day.

In winter time, when the wind stops blowing, the coal and oil power plants are fired up to provide electricity, releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the maligned carbon dioxide that is so necessary for plant life to thrive.

Wind turbines are turned off if there is too much electricity coming from the grid but consumers have to pay for the “phantom electricity” the turbines are theoretically generating.

On numerous occasions, Germany pays fees to dump already subsidized green energy. Experts call this “negative electricity prices.”

Plants, like ArcelorMittal steel in Hamburg that use up a lot of energy, are asked to shut down production if there is an electricity shortage in order to protect the smart grid. Ordinary electricity customers “are expected to pay to compensate these businesses for lost profits.”

According to Spiegel Online International, Germans were forced to pay the highest electricity rates in Europe causing “energy poverty” among the German underprivileged when “electricity became a luxury good.” Welfare and pension checks were not adjusted to accommodate for higher prices. Over 300,000 Germans a year have their electricity cut off because they cannot afford to pay their electric bills. “Two-thirds of the price increase is due to new government fees, surcharges and taxes.” http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/58140

Renewable energy is the dirty and expensive little secret liberals would like to keep hidden.

Now It's "Biotic" and "Fossil" Carbon

Global warming/climate change proponents are a hardy, determined, one-track mind group. They were brainwashed by the elitist powers that, unless we fundamentally alter our way of life and de-develop to subsistence level economies of the Middle Ages, the planet will perish. “We can’t keep developing infinitely on a finite world,” said one of the organizers of a recent protest in Canada.

A group of 50 anti-oil pipeline and oil sands activists showed up in Calgary in a snow storm to protest man-made global warming.  I love it when God sends a snow or ice storm every time these scare mongers gather. One of the participants was quoted as saying, “We’re seeing the effects of global warming and we can’t keep denying it because obviously something is happening.” (Renato Gandia, Calgary Sun, November 16, 2013)

I agree that something is happening; our climate is changing every day and has been changing for millions of years alternating between seasons, mini ice ages, severe ice ages, and very warm periods. And it had nothing to do with human activity on the planet.

The sun flares and oceanic currents are important variables accountable for seasonal or unusual weather events but are conveniently left out from the alarmists’ talking points.

Global warming alarmists even use dead people to propagandize climate change. The journal Nature printed an article, “Did climate change cause typhoon Haiyan?” while at the same time indicating in a sub-heading that “there is limited evidence that warming oceans could make super storms more likely.”

The global warming crowd, particularly those who gain financially from advancing this notion, tried to blame hurricane Sandy on global warming even though it was caused by “a clash of three separate weather systems over a heavily populated area.” (Lord Monckton, Exploiting the dead to hype climate change, November 2013)

IPCC’s 2012 “Special Report on Extreme Weather,” which found scarce connection between warmer weather and worsening storms, stated that there were “no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over past century.” http://www.wnd.com/2013/11/exploiting-the-dead-to-hype-clcimate-change/#Eojk87AOVrWz9C6.99

The sad truth is that most scientific findings are well within the range of normal variability of climate. Yet it did not stop the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to release for review a 29-page summary to member governments.

Chris Field, co-chair of the group writing the report said, “We see a wide range of impacts that have already occurred… on people, ecosystems and economies. Looking into the future, we see increasing risks that are more pervasive and more severe with greater amounts of climate change.”

IPCC sees a planet in peril due to buildup of greenhouse gases, the nutrient for plant life, and glaciers shrinking; plants and animals will be extinct; marine life will move to the poles; seawater will be more acidic; by 2100 hundreds of millions of people in coastal areas will be flooded and displaced by rising sea levels; arid subtropics will have less fresh water; the global food supply will be at risk; wheat, corn, rice reduced by as much as 2 percent; and extreme heat waves, deadly in urban areas.

If we look at the gloom and doom predictions of the last 50 years, we should have already been flooded, frozen, or burned to death, depending on which “scientific” prediction you read.  Never mind that genetically modified organisms and the use of crops for biofuels as dictated by government agencies will affect our food supply more in the future.

It does not matter to the global warming crowd that the ice surface at the polar caps has grown this year by 60 percent. It does not matter that temperatures have cooled for the last 16 years around the globe. These are people who cannot accurately predict weather from day to day much less climate 100 years from now. http://www.ecnmag.com/blogs/2013/09/has-global-cooling-begun-arctic-ice-caps-grow-60-year

Reuters reported on November 11, 2013 that IPCC revised their numbers on greenhouse gas emissions. IPCC said the world “emitted half of the estimated 1 trillion tons of carbon seen as the maximum allowed to keep temperatures within safe limits.” It did not say how the author made such gross miscalculations. (Alister Doyle)

Meanwhile, the Global Climate and Health Alliance held its 2013 Climate and Health Summit in Warsaw, Poland on November 16. Some of the topics presented included:

-          Expanding renewable electricity via the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for “climate finance flows from industrialized to developing countries” because many developing countries do not have Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariffs (REFIT). This is of course, more redistribution of wealth from the west to the rest of the world in order to satisfy the environmentalist agenda.

-          An environmentalist from Ecuador introduced the notion of “biotic carbon” from living things and “fossil carbon” from things which have died. “Carbon from biotic pools is acceptable because carbon dioxide emanating from the forest or other ecosystem destruction can be compensated by planting trees but carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels is not acceptable. Really? Trees and plants can actually discern where the CO2 is coming from and thus only use CO2 released by living things?

-          World leaders should have “commodified carbon” because “the on-going Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) indicated anthropogenic climate change is as good as irrefutable,” said Felix von Geyer, sustainable development journalist.  I had no idea that “as good as irrefutable” constituted proper scientific evidence of global warming.

-          Non-profits believe GDP to be a poor measure of economic well-being; instead Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) should be used, accounting for social factors and environmental costs. Apparently, “our ecological footprint began in 1978 to exceed the capacity to produce resources and absorb waste.” How the non-profit author arrived at this pronouncement is not clear. She suggested the phasing out of energy sources such as fossil fuels and radioactive fuels and replacing them with renewable energy.

-          Micro-hydro installations in Africa to provide energy when connection to the grid is not feasible

-          The burning of coal causes climate change and it pollutes the air we breathe, affecting hearts and lungs

-          IPCC found that “the burning of fossil fuels is the main reason behind a 40 percent increase in CO2 concentration since the industrial revolution.” It is unclear how they determined this with such definite accuracy.

-          The fact that the public and private sectors, from national to local governments, from companies and business associations to communities have jumped on the global warming/climate change bandwagon to adopt widespread policies and implement plans to adapt to climate change is NOT convincing evidence that climate change is man-made – it is just evidence that lobbying with taxpayer dollars and dollars from rich donors, fooling low information people into believing false narratives has been quite aggressive.

-          “Rapidly growing slums could be the key to sustainable urban energy system transformation,” said Mukesh Gupta.

-          The youth non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were indoctrinated into the UN Agenda 21’s “intergenerational equity,” socialist redistributive wealth under the guise of protecting the planet from man-made destruction. http://www.stakeholderforum.org/sf/outreach/index.php/component/content/article/184-cop-19-day-2/1560-reflection-from-cop-19-monday-11th-november

 

 

Butler on Business, November 13, 2013

My radio chat with Alan Butler on Common Core and the Donald Trump development in Virginia, entangled with environmentalists and why.
http://host1.cyberears.com//22742.mp3

1989 A Bittersweet Year

I watched recently the video of a speech given by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to an adoring crowd of communist useful idiots a few days before the dictator was arrested in December 1989. Ceausescu, a megalomaniac who appointed himself the Father of the Country, was touting the slave wages he had ordered raised for his unlucky proletariat from 700 lei per month to 800 lei.

At the time, the pegged exchange rate was 12 lei to a dollar, making the proletariat’s wage of $58 per month go up to $67. What could we buy with this money? Sixty-seven dollars per month bought us subsidized teacup-sized concrete block apartments, occasional heat, some electricity, daily scheduled hot or cold water, subsidized weekly bus fares, one pair of shoes per year, one outfit, and enough food to keep us from starving to death. Most of us were underweight and malnourished, in dire need of vitamins which were impossible to find on the empty pharmacy shelves.

“To each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” said Karl Marx’s popular slogan, “Jeder nach seinen Fähigkeiten, jedem nach seinen Bedürfnissen. “  Ceausescu and his wife and the communist party elites had been the deciders of our needs since March 22, 1965 until December 25, 1989.

The year 1989 was a painful, bittersweet period in my life and in the history of my people. It was a year filled with death, life, grief, anguish, freedom, physical pain, and the struggle for power.

My father passed away on May 12 in excruciating pain, denied drugs, IV nourishment, and any kind of medical treatment, a 60-pound shadow of his former self. My Dad was a sturdy and healthy 200 pound man full of life and joie de vivre.

An outspoken critic of the president, Dad was always detained at his place of employment for his views, his lack of membership in the communist party, and his not-so-secret desire to have another president replace Ceausescu in his lifetime.

Dad had just turned 61 when he was beaten one last time and languished three weeks before his death in a hospital ward, tended by his loving sister who kept him alive with teaspoons of water and broth. My Dad was one of thousands of victims, killed by communists in their quest for power and control. His honesty, his integrity, his freedom of speech, and his desire to be free sentenced him to an early demise.

Dad passed away one day before my doctoral graduation. He was so proud that his only child could accomplish something he had dreamed of – the opportunity to excel in a free country. I dedicated my degree to my Dad, to his unwavering support for my education. My mortarboard read “4 Dad” but it was little consolation for the visceral pain and inconsolable loss I felt.  

President George Bush Sr. handed me my diploma, shook my hand, and later wrote a very touching letter about my father. It was a bittersweet accomplishment. While I knew my Dad was in Heaven, smiling upon my shoulders with every ray of sunshine, I was angry that an innocent, sweet man was taken from this Earth before his time by the evil forces of communism.

Daddy had died holding a crumpled photograph of me and his two granddaughters in our finest Easter dresses. It was the only possession he was allowed to keep.

Dad’s nemesis did not live much longer. Ceausescu and his Harpy wife Elena were sentenced to death and executed on Christmas 1989, ending their 24 year reign of terror. It was the first time during the communist regime that Christmas carolers and the mid-night Christmas service were televised from the Patriarch’s Cathedral. The Orthodox Christians could finally worship freely without fear of reprisals.

Caught in the town of Tirgoviste while trying to flee by helicopter, the husband and wife team who had terrorized an entire nation for 24 years, bringing its people to their knees and to utter desperation, were now facing a military tribunal tasked with judging and sentencing them.

Refusing to answer questions based on the Constitution that he wrote, the dictator Nicolae repeated that he would only answer to the Grand National Assembly, not to the assembled military court. After a speedy, improvised, and bizarre trial that lasted one hour, during which the couple refused to cooperate, did not answer most questions, or gave canned propaganda answers, they were sentenced to death and their wealth confiscated.

The mercenaries Ceausescu had hired shot and killed, by some estimates, thousands of innocent Romanians who had gathered to protest peacefully the oppressive communist regime at the palace in Bucharest. The secret police executed many innocents in surprise raids, including hospitals. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1665&dat=19891222&id=eEgaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=1iQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4888,6167293

The Romanian Army finally had had enough and joined civilians to fight against the communist tyranny.

“Why did you starve the people to death?” “I will not answer that question,” the deposed President said.

How can you make two narcissists, blinded by communist ideology, by absolute power and control, who made themselves wealthy beyond anybody’s imagination at the expense of the misery of the proletariat they so pretended to care about, understand the crimes they’ve committed against the Romanian people? As the prosecution said, it was “genocide through famine, lack of heat, lack of light, but the worst crime of all, the crime of imprisoning the Romanian spirit.”

I wished my Dad had lived to witness the joy the Romanian people experienced when the dictator was finally executed. Watching a soldier tie the wrists of the humiliated couple with plain rope and their outrage and claim that he cannot do that to “the Mother and Father of the Country” was vindication for the many times my Dad had suffered indignities, beatings, and arrests for his political views.

One individual commented that the Romanian people should have been allowed to be part of the trial and of the final punishment in the streets. But everyone was eager to get rid of the scourge of communism and of those who forced such dehumanizing ideology on an entire nation.

 The fight for power ensued; the communists changed their stripes, became wealthier, joined the EU, while their overt leaders went underground. Communists resurfaced with a vengeance in recent years, aided by European Fabian socialists and communists flush with money.

I Can't Believe This is Happening in America

My “I Can’t Believe This is Happening to America” list is growing larger by the day. It is so vast now, I can write a book. Would my book have an audience? Judging by the eagerness with which most Americans have embraced the transformational hope and change of our country to communist utopia, the answer is no.

I can’t believe New Yorkers have elected a blatant Marxist as their mayor. I can’t believe Terry McAuliffe is the governor of Virginia. The American men who fought in the Revolutionary War must be turning in their graves knowing that the hallowed ground in Virginia they defended against the British tyranny is now run by Marxist Democrats.

I voted last Tuesday, I took with me to the precinct a piece of toilet paper I found on my last trip to Romania, a “former” communist country where the apparatchiks went underground for a while and are  now resurfacing with a vengeance. Twenty-four years later, the commies have not perfected the intricate art of making toilet paper – it was covered with splinters within the layers. On the bright side, this time toilet paper was available and I did not have to fight hundreds of people in line for three hours in order to purchase one roll. I showed my strip of toilet paper to the people who were checking I.D.s asking them if this was the kind of country they wanted. Most laughed, did not realize that I carried this over 7,000 miles with me, and turned back to their duties to make sure all the low information and illegal citizens voted. Why bother? It won’t happen here, we have everything, and we live in the land of abundance – for now.

It was a cruel joke to pretend that poll watchers were making sure voting was legitimate.  All illegal aliens in my county have driver licenses. There is no place on the driver’s license that says, illegal or non-citizen, you cannot vote. Dead people voted early and repeatedly. The 2010 Census said that our county’s population grew by 40 percent in the last ten years and most of that growth came from the illegal alien population. They are not hiding in the shadows as progressives/Marxists say, they are living around us with no fear or deportation or shame of criminality.

I can’t believe our government would make 12 ads portraying young people, Millennials, as promiscuous individuals whose only goal in life is to hook up and engage in dangerous sexual activities with strangers and in life-altering practices for self-gratification. This is America, they should not have to control themselves, they have the freedom to be immoral – if it feels right, do it. But not to worry, if they enroll in Obamacare, the government will pay for all their mistakes, STDs, unwanted children, and all other purposeful missteps in life that have serious consequences.

I can’t believe that government would take control over our bodies, over every facet of our lives, break so many laws in such a short period of time that I’ve lost count, with nobody protesting, impeaching, or sending the offenders to prison.

I can’t believe our stellar medical care that is beneficial to Americans and people around the world is in such a state of chaos that quality and quantity may be gone in just a few short months. Doctors must be invited to participate in Obamacare in order for patients to keep their doctors in the exchanges and the selection process is secret.

I can’t believe our faith has been attacked to the point that Christians are cowering under the fear of government. Priests and men of cloth are beginning to preach communism every Sunday and support Islam.

I can’t believe the number of mosques that are mushrooming around the country literally overnight. But then we are tolerant in America to the point of foolishness while most Muslim countries do not tolerate Christianity except until recently, Egypt.

Hollywood does not make much fuss over the killing of Christians in Egypt and elsewhere. I wonder what keeps them from saving Tibet. I’ve seen “save Tibet” and “coexist” bumper stickers for decades now; Tibet is not saved, Darfur is still an awful place for non-Muslims and the only people willing to coexist are the Christians, not the Marxists or the Muslims.

I can’t believe our military is being destroyed and TSA goons with unreasonable power are in charge of our flying “safety.”

I can’t believe police is everywhere, cavity searching, car searching, and home searching, with or without probable cause, with or without warrants. I can’t believe most judges are now communist activists litigating from the bench the rules of Marxist utopia.

I can’t believe NSA is listening in, gathering data, and recording everything we do in the same vein that the Stasi in East Germany were spying on, listening in, and keeping detailed written records of the “Lives of Others.”

I can’t believe border patrols are told not to watch our borders. I can’t believe the illegal aliens’ blatant disregard for our laws and the gall to demand equal rights with Americans at the National Mall in D.C. while our veterans were denied access to the same mall where their memorials were erected.

I can’t believe Islam has infiltrated our country so deeply that imams are now demanding and succeeding in some parts of the country in installing Sharia Law as part of our legal system in violation of our Constitution.

I can’t believe our schools in many states are now bowing down to Islam while forbidding our Christian traditions, national anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, and our flag.

I can’t believe our doctors, medical care, and medical life and death decisions are now residing with 16,000 IRS agents who work with numbers but will decide and approve the necessity of our medical procedures.

I can’t believe people with rap sheets of criminality are now “navigators,” tasked to enroll Americans in Obamacare, and trusted with personal information, inviting massive fraud.

I can’t believe our military has turned into a compliant army of the administration, where sensitivity training towards gays and transgenders trumps our national security.

I can’t believe we are turning our food supply, preparation, and delivery to the Chinese and a few very large corporations.

I can’t believe we are turning into a welfare nation supported by part-time workers who cannot find jobs because they’ve been shipped overseas in the quest for cheap labor or because of the expensive cost of Obamacare that employers must partially bear.

I can’t believe our property rights, zoning, and water usage, passage, mineral and fossil fuel exploration rights will be turned over to the United Nations.

I can’t believe that our small arms will be confiscated eventually under the guise of the Small Arms Treaty.

I can’t believe most Americans are so gullible to believe the global warming hoax and the manufactured “consensus” paraded as faux science in the face of real scientific evidence to the contrary.

I can’t believe our currency has been so debased through the work of the Federal Reserve System which has been buying $85 billion worth of bonds each month, propping up Wall Street, not Main Street.

I can’t believe that 29 progressives wrote Common Core education standards, using $178 million in funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with the intent of turning our children into good little communist subjects, yet Americans think that is good for the country. I can’t believe that the curriculum was not scrutinized by those in charge from the 45 states that adopted Common Core indoctrination.

I can’t believe that our education will be further dumbed down towards the collective mindset where American exceptionalism that gave us all the technological developments in the last 150 years will be relegated to the dust bin of history.

I can’t believe that we lost our country to Marxists and everybody seems to be preoccupied by the latest episode of their favorite reality show, sports team, vampire show, and witch show.

The Romans were dulled and bought with “pane et circenses,” bread and circuses, and their end came at the hands of the invading hoards who refused to learn Latin and wanted to have what the Romans had, instant prosperity, property, and power.

My list of “I Can’t Believe This is Happening in America” grows each day. At what point my country is no longer America remains to be seen.

 

 

Environmental Conservation Easements Trump-ing Property Rights

A new battle is waging in Virginia involving the restriction of land use in rural areas. The protagonists are the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) with its “comprehensive planning” of Virginia’s rural areas and Donald Trump with his proposed Trump National Golf Club in Albemarle County near Charlottesville, Virginia.

Trump Virginia Acquisitions, LLC, bought Patricia Kluge’s Estate Winery and Vineyard in 2011, a 1,200-acre property with a dormant nine-hole golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. Trump’s proposed golf course, expanded to 18-holes, will take up 480 acres, 216 which were placed under “conservation easement” by Patricia Kluge in 2006.

A “conservation easement” imposes certain restrictions on the homeowner’s use of their property in exchange for tax breaks. Dr. Cohen said that “golf courses with conservation easements are common throughout the United States, including on courses owned by Donald Trump.

The project proposes that 25 percent of the 216 acres in question be used for tees, fairways, and greens, while the rest would be set aside for “farmland and grassland bird habitat.”

PEC considers the project “inconsistent with the rural and agricultural character of the area,” citing “the large scale venue and thousands of potential visitors to the golf course and the negative impact on the surrounding properties and the rural landscape that is such an iconic part of Albemarle County.”

“In addition to the traffic and noise impacts, we also have concerns about the water use, run-off, and septic issues,” said PEC.

According to Bonner Cohen, Patricia Kluge’s conservation easement involves use for “temporary or seasonal outdoors activities” not “permanently alter the physical appearance of the property.” Golf in Virginia is a seasonal outdoor activity since winters are too cold to allow golfers playtime on a daily basis.

“Traffic and noise” are questionable objections since Albemarle County already has seven public and private golf courses. Three of these courses are located in rural areas.

Anybody who lives in the rural vicinity of a university is familiar with the seasonal traffic and outdoor activities involving football fans driving to home games and having tailgate parties. In the 762-square-mile Albemarle County, football fans drive through to the University of Virginia games in Charlottesville, Virginia, with little disturbance to the environment. It is highly improbable that 61,500 individuals (the capacity of the UV’s Scott Stadium) would drive to Trump’s proposed golf course to play at the same time.

Trump Virginia Acquisitions, LLC, has applied for a special use permit (SUP) from the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors (BOS). A hearing will be set in the near future. In the meantime, opponents and proponents of Trump’s project are voicing their opinions to the BOS.

The Board of Supervisors (BOS) may approve or deny the project or pass the decision making on to the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) a body that oversees conservation easements.

Scott York, chairman of the Loudon County BOS, praised the Trump National Washington, D.C. Golf Course, “They have invested millions, contributed to job growth, and helped raise real estate values in the area they are located.”

The Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), based in Warrenton, Virginia, was successful in blocking Disney from opening a theme park in Prince William County, Virginia twenty years ago. They have a specific land-use vision for rural Virginia and land owners must follow their dictates or suffer expensive fines. Their vision coincides with UN Agenda 21 “visioning” zoning plans passed around the country with the help of Local Governments for Sustainability, formerly known as ICLEI.

Martha Boneta has a conservation easement with PEC in Fauquier County, Virginia. She uses tires on her property to “help hollow fields for plowing, train animals to move in a certain direction, and assist in planting. PEC sued Boneta, saying the tires violated her agricultural conservation easement, and she was forced to store them in an enclosure.” http://www.cfact.org/2013/11/05/trumping-a-golf-course-over-pec-adillos-in-northern-virginia/#sthash.o7uksdQG.dpuf

But when Donald Trump made disparaging remarks over tires strewn on a dilapidated farm near the construction site of a golf course in Aberdeen, Scotland, he was criticized in the “documentary” You’ve Been Trumped as “insensitive to rural ways.” Are tires useful then when they suit the environmentalist agenda and harmful when they do not?

Dr. Cohen quoted the PEC President Chris Miller who commented that “comprehensive planning” in rural areas should extend to “farms near or adjacent to properties with conservation easements and should be under a similar level of scrutiny in land-use-related decisions.”

Check the rural “comprehensive planning” in your area and see how much of your property rights have already been taken away by conservation easements and through zoning laws passed by BOS without your knowledge, approval, or opportunity to vote.