Enviroweb

George Will: Global Warming

2009-02-27T19:42:00.005-05:00

Well the Right Wing Nut Bag Pundits are on the loose again and it’s no other than George Will. Will’s latest rant in the Washington Post misuses and misinterprets data about Global Warming. This isn’t Will’s first foray into this area however, because he’s been preaching this bullshit for years. Like the late Michael Crichton Will and friends are determined to prove to the public they know something about science.

There have been other idiots to spill their guts about such scientific misgivings in recent days such as Camille Pagela. Now let’s see Pagela has a PhD in what? I think it’s something to do with literature ( English)? And George Will? I believe his is in Politics! Well that should really cover it. I guess you would go to a guy with PhD in Politics if you wanted to know something scientific about Environmental Climate Change!

It always amazes me that these political pundits think that they are a scientists. Yet most of these people who have degrees have them in fields that are as far from science as possible. I might as well bend a few more people out of shape with this little essay, so here it goes! The two easiest degrees to get in college as far as I am concerned are Law and Political Science (Politics, Government whatever they are calling it these days with English not far behind).

If these people wanted to be scientists why didn’t they go through the rigors of getting such degrees? Well, could it be that they aren’t smart enough? Or could it be they didn’t want to put in the time? Well let’s give Will and all these other pretenders to the scientific throne a break and take door number two….they didn’t want to put in the time!

Close to 98% of all the true environmental climate experts believe in Global Warming and believe that humans are having a major impact on it. Yet what I find most interesting is that I don’t see scientists writing on literature and politics (except for me because I like to jerk everyone’s chain) and proposing that 98% of the experts are wrong in these disciplines!

The George Will’s and the Rush Limbaugh’s of the world are dangerous. Not because they know anything but because they do not! It’s the fact that they have a stage to infect gullible unsuspecting people with their disinformation that makes them dangerous. As I said the USA is a semiliterate nation and it’s also scientifically illiterate. People think in sound bites because they lack serious analytical and critical thinking skills, and people like Will, Limbaugh’s and others cater to this mentality.

The sad part is that the Washington Post and other newspapers publish this nonsense and you wonder why the American Print Media is in trouble and going bankrupt!!!!!!!!!

Clean Coal: The Myth of Morons and Preached by Idiots: Politicians

2009-02-13T22:49:00.002-05:00

There is no such thing as CLEAN COAL! There never was and there never will be! It was a scam from the start and the myth of morons enhanced and preached by idiot politicians to a media that has the scientific intelligence of an earthworm! Even the new President,-- Obama……thinks there is such a thing! And the idiot that he appointed to head the Interior Department Salazar is in the pocket of the mining industry. In fact, Salazar thought that Gale Norton, the former criminal head of the Interior appointed by Bush was a good pick!

The mountain top removal in West Virginia is the first step in the process of “clean coal.” It is environmental destruction at its worst. The toxic waste of this wonderful idea is then dumped into the rivers, valleys, and over the hill sides to produces a poisonous mess that is beyond description. It literally wipes everything out in most streams (that is if there is a stream left; in some areas the streams are just covered up) including the aquatic life of streams. It produces everything from acid mine drainage to mercury and arsenic poisoning and massive amounts of heavy metals.

The people living down stream of this mess are subject to a massive amount of health issues from all the perturbations and not to mention their land and water being destroyed. One of the things I find most amusing as an aquatic scientist is the fact that somehow you can dump a mountain top of poison into a stream and not violate the Clean Water Act! On December 22, 2008 in the wonderful environmental state of Tennessee, a coal plant let loose with over 500 million into the Tennessee River. The pollution headed downstream to the residents of Alabama and Kentucky. But for the most part the geniuses in the media missed most of the consequences of this even though long term effects of this mess could be a nightmare of health problems for the residents of those states.

It’s just lie after lie from the media spin of the coal and mining industry in America and it never changes. I won’t even waste your time with the other nonsense and the amount of money spent trying to burn or liquefy clean coal except to tell you that coal produces twice the CO2 admissions that a gallon of oil does.

I recently saw some idiot from one of these coal companies on a news program trying to convince people that after they throw the spoils in a pile and rebuild some mountains they seed it and it’s just basically the same as before! Well Holy Shit….let’s see now you destroy an Eastern Temperate Forest which has a biodiversity just below that of the Amazon and you mix up all these toxic chemical heaps and try to grow a few shrubs like a tree farm and it’s just as good as before!

What did I tell you: Clean Coal: The Myth of Morons and Preached by Idiots: Politicians! What a wonderful world it is!!!!!!!!!!!!

Solving the Evolution Problem in Texas

2009-01-22T22:14:00.003-05:00

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Hippocrates

It’s starting all over again in the Idiot State of Texas. Creationism with the support of the scientifically illiterate Governor Rick Perry is once again rearing its ugly head. Of course, in case you haven’t guessed Perry is a Republican. Dr. Don McCleroy, dentist, and chairman of the state board does not believe in evolution and thinks the earth is not billions of year old but only a few thousand years old.

The board wants certain lines and phrases in textbooks on evolution changed to meet the insane demands of the creationists on the school board who are demanding that evolution be described as a “weak theory” that doesn’t hold water. The same techniques that creationists and the masquerading of creationism in “intelligent design” have argued for years. These so called weaknesses have of course been destroyed in the science community but the scientific illiterates will never give up. The problem is that text book publishers are not going to make different versions of the same biology text books for different states and Texas is one of the largest text books purchasers in the country.

The thing I find most amusing is that scientists should demand that they are allowed to speak in the fundamentalist churches and talk about the weaknesses in their God Theory of the Universe!

The fight to include religious beliefs and to destroy science will never end in Texas and some other southern states. These lunatics with the aid of Republican Party want a theocracy. However there is a method to stop it on at least one front. It’s rather simple if a Texas student wants to go to college and they have not had a proper biology class with evolution being taught as the driving force, or they have had one of these “Mickey Mouse” biology courses watered down with creationism….guess what…. NO HIGH SCHOOL CREDIT!!!!!

That’s right if you want to go to college you must then go and take an approved biology course taught under the guidelines of evolution not creationism!!!!!!!! If colleges and universities would take this stand it would put a partial end to this theocratic insanity in Texas and other southern states. Then the religious fanatics could go to court and fight this case too, but they would lose just like they have lost in other federal cases over evolution. A college or university has a right to require certain courses to their satisfaction for entrance to their higher education programs whether they are math or BIOLOGY!!!!

Considering the idiots in Texas is it any wonder it produced one of the greatest morons, criminals and losers in history….George Bush!

Florida: Evolution and The Dark Ages!

2008-02-19T23:05:00.003-05:00

The Dark Ages continue to make a comeback in America. Today in Florida the State Board of education proved that stupidity, mythology, and religion trump science when they voted 4-3 to only teach Evolution as a “Theory.” The Religious Fanatics continue to attack science on all fronts in this country as we fall into another hole of religious mysticism. These attacks have been widespread with major events taking place in Pennsylvania and Kansas.

These religious fanatics continue to make it onto school boards where they have an agenda to turn public schools in this country into religious indoctrination centers of mythological and mystical misinformation. These religious fanatics are bankrolled by extremists who want a Theocracy in America. Of course, the media are afraid of these religious idiots and seldom go after these people. Witness the recent theocratic statements of Republican Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee who wanted to replace the Constitution with the Ten Commandments.

What did the media do with this idea? They were basically afraid to touch it. The same thing happened when the late Jerry Falwell of the Religious Right said similar stupid statements. And he said such things over and over again along with his cohort in religious insanity Pat Robertson. Remember when he said that the 911 attacks were God paying us back for our liberal behavior!

The founding fathers of this country Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin must be rolling over in their graves for these attacks on the democracy that they fought for. They wanted a separation of church and state. The rest of the world must sit and wonder what is happening to this place called America.

Every university or college outside and including the state of Florida should not give credit for this water downed biology class. In fact, no student should be allowed to enter college from a Florida high school unless they make up the biology class with evolution taught as it is supposed to be: the driving force of biology.

It is literally unbelievable what is occurring from the religious lunatics and the hold they now have on America from education to the war, to privacy rights. These people and the politicians like Bush are destroying every single aspect of freedom of thought and democracy as we move towards a complete Police State run by Religious Mystics waiting for the Rapture and Armageddon.

I leave you with this quote which says it better than I can:

Those who seek consolation in existing churches often pay for their peace of mind with a tacit agreement to ignore a great deal of what is known about the way the world works.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,

I

Pennsylvania's Susquehanna River is Dying!

2008-02-06T17:18:00.000-05:00

At one time it may have been the greatest smallmouth bass river in America. But those days may be over forever. Contrary to the myth engendered by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission this is much more than a bump in the road. The Susquehanna is a dying ecosystem. The neglect of one of the great rivers in the country by the state of Pennsylvania is no mystery. Pennsylvania is number one in water pollution and number one in pollution overall, and this rating is based on analysis from their own state's data! Pennsylvania issues more NPDES permits each year than any other state (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System).

Nature has few solutions to pollution. But a river can only do so many things. Rivers survive by diluting the pollutants that enter the system through the air, water, and land. When rivers like the Susquehanna go through extended periods of drought this dramatically concentrates the pollutants in the lower, warmer volumes of water and causes a complete disruption of the biogeochemical pathways of the system.

These disruptions can cause a myriad of problems to occur including diseased fish, algal blooms which use up oxygen, and increases in perturbations like endocrine disrupters which play havoc with fishes' hormonal balance. These endocrine disrupters come from a variety of pollutants including pesticides, flame-retardant chemicals, personal-care products, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural products. Many products dumped into our streams often mimic or act like estrogen compounds in the water. Examples of Substances Known or Suspected to be Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs)

Pesticides: atrazine, 2,4-D, DDE, DDT, diazinon,

diuron, endosulfan, fenthrothion, glyphosate, lindane,

linuron, parathion, permethrin, simazine, TBT,

trifluralin, vinclozolin.

Industrial chemicals or breakdown products:

bisphenol A, dioxins, nonylphenol, PCBs, some phthalates.

Industrial chemicals or breakdown products:

bisphenol A, dioxins, nonylphenol, PCBs, some

phthalates.

Now just consider the chemical soup that the Susquehanna River must endure. This chemical soup has cumulative and synergistic reactions that change normal pathways of the aquatic life. I have put more nets and have done more studies of the waters in Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna River System than anyone in the DEP or PFBC and those tributaries and waters are not getting better. They are getting worst. I should know because I was one of the biologists who closed the hatchery on Big Spring in Newville PA. This stream was destroyed by the pollutants from the state fish hatchery and PFBC tried to cover it up. The DEP in this case failed to properly monitor the stream and the EPA's wavier on NPDES permits for the states resulted in such a fiasco. Now that stream has returned to being one of the great spring creeks in America. But this will not happen with the Susquehanna River because there is no way to turn off the faucet of pollution into the river.

I invite anyone who believes that I am picking on the PFBC and DEP to simply read through the 303 D list of impaired waters and other waters in the state of Pennsylvania (http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/watermgt/Wqp/WQStandards/303d-Report.htm#List). Judge for yourself which streams enter the Susquehanna and what's in them. Then ask yourself what are we protecting? It's not the rivers...it's industry, government and corporations.

There is some form of madness in this country and this state. And it has gotten worst the last 7 years where the EPA has been totally destroyed. So all those pollutants don't matter. That's what we are told by the politicians, government, and corporations. Unfortunately, they do matter and the idea that they are in too small a quantity to amount to anything is just that ....a myth. The cumulative and synergistic effects of the chemical soup we are throwing into our rivers (and our own bodies too) is now coming to fruition.

A system is a system. A river is a flowing ecosystem; you are a walking ecosystem. You both have an immune system. When your immune system is stressed, damaged etc. you get sick or diseased. The same thing happens to a river. The Susquehanna's immune system is overload and damaged. It won't get better easily and considering what's coming out of the air, waters, and land emptying into the river it may never really return to it's former self because it is constantly getting impacted by so many types of pollutants it's biogeochemical pathways are overwhelmed.

Both the PFBC and DEP should share equally in the blame of this destruction because they reflect the unfortunate lack of good scientific benchmarking, baselining, and biomonitoring that is needed to protect our waters. The DEP fails to understand the cumulative and synergistic effects of all the NPDES permits that they issue in this state.

Oh, by the way in case anyone forgot including the geniuses at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation....this water will eventually get to the Bay! Did I mention,....that the Potomac is on its way to the same condition as the Susquehanna!

We have all failed. We have a government that doesn't care and is run by corporations, and we have too many anglers that take everything for granted and don't wish to get involved. The economic interest of all the people who make their money off this river is hardly considered. The loss is staggering from guiding, fishing, tourism, the food industry and even gas stations. But no one seems to get it. This is one of the great environmental fiascos along with the Bay and it just happens to occur in the state with the most pollution. Anymore questions!

However, if a few of you are actually interested (including organizatons) in doing something and have some time and some resources...you know where I can be reached. Perhaps we need a full court press approach like we used on Big Spring rather than the politically correct "no one is to blame game" now going on!

Give Them Texas: Solving America's Problems!

2007-12-17T16:58:00.000-05:00

Well I have a solution to many problems facing the United States from immigration to the teaching of science in America.....that’s right! Just GIVE THEM TEXAS! Texas which is basically Southwest of nowhere doesn’t help this nation except in destroying it. There are so many possibilities here I just don’t know where to start.

First we will give Texas back to Mexico (or force them to take it if they refuse). Then all illegal immigrants will be granted complete immunity to live in Texas and get all the benefits that Americans have been working for without doing anything. Furthermore, we will give them a piece of the land in Texas to make their very own including parts of George Bush’s Crawford Texas ranch. They will get sixty days to get there and will receive a free $10,000 bonus in US money (sorry they can’t get it in foreign currency because the foreign currencies are worth so much more than our dollar).

Next, all those born-again psycho Evangelicals who think God is coming soon including the likes of the current lunatics like John Hagee and his merry band of doomsayers. They will also receive $10,000 bonus as incentive. Now all the Neocons many who are closeted homosexuals can live there free of charge but they must leave for Texas now so they can gain access to the best gay bars and hideouts.

Finally all the Creationists and the so called Intelligent Design morphodites who reject science and evolution. Recently The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will hear the petitions of the Creation Research Institute to teach science education in the schools. You remember these genuses don’t you? Well in case you don’t here’s few points from the Dallas Morning News of what they really believe in:

SOME TENETS OF SCIENTIFIC CREATIONISM

•The physical universe "was supernaturally created by a transcendent personal Creator who alone has existed from eternity."

•Life "was specially and supernaturally created by the Creator."

•All plants and animals were "created functionally complete from the beginning and did not evolve from some other kind of organism."

•Evolution since creation is "limited to 'horizontal' changes (variations) within the kinds, or 'downward' changes (e.g., harmful mutations, extinctions).

•Humans "were specially created in fully human form from the start."

SOME TENETS OF BIBLICAL CREATIONISM

•The creator of the universe is a triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

•The universe was created "in the six literal days of the Creation Week" described in Genesis.

•All human beings descended from Adam and Eve.

To put it in a nut shell these people believe that the Flintstones are history rather than a cartoon. That’s right Dinosaurs roamed the earth with man and the earth is less than 6000 years old.

Well just consider what we accomplished with this transfer. Just think of the boom to our economy now that all the externalization of cost is put into Texas which is now owned by Mexico! What about the oil in Texas? Let them have it. It’s a small price to pay for the rest of our country. Considering the list of idiots that have come out of Texas to screw up and destroy America with the likes of the Bush Crime Family and the Tom Delay’s of the world it’s a great investment. Furthermore, once everyone gets there with their completely anti scientific stances they will all pollute themselves to death in one giant clusterfuck! And the world will be a better place for the rest of us! Is there nothing worth saving in Texas? Well on second thought, let’s get those Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders out before we give it back to Mexico because I’m feeling so Christian today!

Mining Industry Owns America and Congress

2007-08-14T23:28:00.000-04:00

Six miners may have perished in Utah and the blood is on the hands of everyone from the owner of the mine, Bob Murray, Congress and the whores in the Whitehouse- Cheney and Bush. The mining industry basically owns America. They have destroyed and wrecked havoc on the environment for over a hundred years. Their political influence is second to none and what happened in Utah is symbolic of what is done across America. In Pennsylvania the mining industry basically runs portions of the Department of Environmental Protection and they are actually treated like clients by the state while people who object to the permits are treated like enemies.

Pennsylvania has more miles of damaged streams due to mining than any other state in the nation. The state issues permits to mine that third world nations would not allow. The number of world class trout streams that have been destroyed my AMD (acid mine drainage) is beyond anyone’s wildest nightmares

I should know because I work in many of those streams and few live again no matter what treatment is used and these treatments are unbelievably expensive. But the environment is the least of the mining industries worries. They don’t even care about the lives of their workers. The mining industry basically owns the government agencies at both the state and federal level. They are so brazen about it that they threaten the people from the federal government who are supposed to oversee them.

Murray is a prime example of such intimidation. The following is taken from

West Virginia Public Radio Broadcast Notes. The reporter’s names are cited below:

(http://www.wvpubcast.org/radio/newsroom/Murray0808.pdf)

Utah operator’s mines, politics have attracted attention before - 08/08/07

By Greg Collard and Scott Finn

The owner of the Utah coal mine where six men are trapped went on the defensive yesterday.

Bob Murray is upset at media reports that question his company’s safety record, and whether and earthquake is responsible for the miners being trapped. Murray singled out the Associated Press and Fox News for the sources they used, including

Davitt McAtteer of Shepherdstown.

Murray has been the subject of media scrutiny before for how he runs his mines, his political

contributions and his threats to use his political influence to retaliate against mine safety inspectors.

In 2003, WV Public Radio aired a series of reports on mine safety, some of which included

Murray. Greg Collard reports.

Greg Collard: In 2001, a belt foreman named Tom Ciszewski had his arm ripped off by a conveyor belt at

Ohio Valley Coal’s Powhatan No. 6 mine in Belmont County, Ohio. He bled to death.

Later, a belt repairman testified that Robert Murray pressured miners not to shut down the belt,“unless there’s a man it,” and that he would fire them on the spot.

A judge ruled the company was not negligent.

But problems at the mine continued.

Eventually, MSHA ordered the mine to shut down after repeated violations.

Murray had enough.

He was upset at MSHA’s action, and met with Tim Thompson, then the head of MSHA’s District 3 office that covers a portion of Ohio and northern West Virginia.

Back in 2003, Jeff Young of West Virginia Public Broadcasting obtained the notes from the meeting:

Jeff Young 2003 report: Those notes show Murray repeatedly threatening to have MSHA employees fired. ‘I will have your jobs. They are gone. The clock is ticking,” Murray said at various points. And he stressed his political influence with the agency, saying, “I talked to Laresky (former MSHA
director) personally,” and again, quoting, “Mitch McConnell calls me one of the five finest men in America, and last I checked he was sleeping with your boss.’

Sen. McConnell of KY is married to Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who oversees MSHA.

Collard: Notes from another meeting show Murray bragged about getting two inspectors in Pennsylvania demoted, and promised to do the same in the agency’s District 3 office.

Jeff Young 2003 report: The notes show Murray warned that an inspector in that district would “be riding a desk somewhere, like that guy in Pennsylvania,” and again quoting, “If Thompson doesn’t get his ass in gear, I’ll put him in my sites, too.”

Collard: Tim Thompson was removed as head of District 3 a few months later. MSHA officials said Thompson’s reassignment had nothing to do with Murray. But Murray’s strong financial ties to republicans in Congress and the Bush Administration raised questions at the time. Those financial ties have continued to grow. Murray, his son and his company’s political action committees have contributed more than $600,000 to Pres. Bush and mostly Republican candidates for Congress in the last decade.

Bob Murray at press conference: “Quite obviously in reporting your stories, your producers and you journalists attempt to seek out individuals…

Collard: On Tuesday, Murray lashed out at reports on the higher death rates associated with retreat mining, the type of mine used at the Crandall Canyon mine in Utah.

Murray: “Specifically, I’m referring to statements that you have sought out from Mr. J. Davitt McAteer, Tony Oppegard, Dennis O’Dell, and President Cecil Roberts – the last two of the United Mine Workers. Collard: McAteer is a former head of MSHA who was Governor Manchin’s special investigator into the Sago and Aracoma mine disasters. Both McAtteer and the UMWA declined to comment on Murray’s

comments, saying the focus needs to be on rescuing the miners.

But Ellen Smith, the publisher of Mine Safety and Health News, says Murray’s comments were unfair to McAteer.

Ellen Smith: “I think Davitt McAteer has been very fair to Mr. Murray in this case. I mean even Mr. McAteer said that that mine in his book wasn’t overly unsafe, or it didn’t raise red flags to him.”

Collard: Smith says she agrees the Crandall Canyon mine appears to have a decent safety record, but some of Murray’s mines do not. Smith: “It’s quite the coincidence in our July 30th issue, we reported on a mine called the Galatia mine in Illinois, and it raised red flags because of the amount of fines that this company has had since the beginning of the year, and it’s accumulated over $1 million in MSHA civil penalties just since April 30th. I don’t quite recall ever seeing something quite so high in my career.”

Collard: Smith also says that Murray’s Powhatan mine in Belmont County, Ohio, continues to have serious safety problems. In the last three years, the mine has racked up more than 900 serious and substantial safety violations, according to the MSHA Web site. This is the same mine where Tom Ciszewski died.

For West Virginia Public Broadcasting, I’m Greg Collard, in Charleston.

What occurred here is typical of how powerful the mining industry is, and the simple fact that they do not fear any recourse for their unsafe mines and destructive environmental damage. They already own whores like Senator Mitch McConnell and his wife the Secretary of Labor. This whoredom goes all the way to the Whitehouse. Tomorrow will be another day and the mining industry will operate just like it always has. The environment will be raped and somewhere more miners are working under unsafe conditions which could kill them but no one will care and no one will stop the mining industry from doing just as they please.

Bush Adminstration: Latest Environmental Insanity

2007-07-31T15:24:00.000-04:00

The latest environmental insanity delivered right to your door:

The state of Indiana is allowing BP (British Petroleum) a permit for the dumping of Mercury into Lake Michigan. The plant has already released 3 pounds of Mercury a poisonous neurotoxin during the 2002 -2005. The federal standard has a limit of 1.3 ounces per year. The permit gives BP until the year 2012 to meet the standards. BP complained that no one could meet the federal standards to clean up Lake Michigan. Of course, the idiots in Indiana and the federal government fail to understand the cumulative effects of these pollutants over time in the food chain and biogeochemical pathways but of course it doesn’t really matter under this administration now does it! Therefore, with all honors and glories we give the environmental rapist awards to British Petroleum and the State of Indian because they were too tough.
Dick “I’ll Fuck the World UP” Cheney failed to show up today for an environmental hearing in the House about the Bush Administration’s interference with Science. The hearing is the result of Dick “The Earth Rapist Cheney’s” interference and forcing of federal government to cut water to the Klamath River in Oregon which caused the death of over 60,000 salmon including Coho which resulted in wiping out the commercial salmon industry of the Northwest!
Henry Waxman of California (D) is leading another investigation into the Bush Administration’s censoring and changing a global health report put out by the previous Surgeon General Carmona because the science didn’t agree with the administration’s politics. One of the interesting things that were cut from the Carmona’s study was the declaration that health is a human right. Well this fits right into the Bush Plan…fucking humans have no rights under this fucking dictator.

Now doesn’t all this good fucking news just want to make you stand up and fucking cheer! Is this great or what? What a beautiful fucking country! You don’t even have the right to KNOW! Why don’t just go out and ingest some good old fucking Mercury! And if you ingest just a little you’ll be just as fucking crazy as the people running this country. Maybe that’s their plan after all!!!!!!!!!!!

Dr. Gupta pulls a Dnish D'Souza on Us!

2007-07-12T16:05:00.001-04:00

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is he the Dnish D’Souza of CNN? I have no problem with Dr Sanjay Gupta as a neurosurgeon and a healer. However, his performance versus Michael Moore over his movie “Sicko” did more than show that the emperor has no clothes. It showed the bias Dr Gupta has as a physician against not for profit medicine in bold colors. Was it this bias that allowed Gupta to screw up the data? In fact, when you are talking “ball park figures” from WHO or the US government there isn’t enough of a difference to make it significant yet Gupta accused Moore of “fudging the numbers.”

It’s too bad CNN didn’t have the balls to accuse George Bush and his Neofascist contingent for “fudging the number “about this insane war. But Moore prevailed destroying Wolf Blitzer about CNN’s previous attack on Fahrenheit 911. In the news media today they try to give balance even though there is no balance between certain studies or reports. They had to attack Moore because he is an easily attackable guy to protect some aspect of the health care industry and corporations that Gupta and CNN is part of. Gupta can say he is objective but he is not. His bias and CNN’s were exposed for all to see. Giving equal time to the Creationists versus Science is another ploy by networks which tries to give balance about myth versus science and seriously screws up the truth. This interview about Moore was not about truth but about downplaying the overall theme of “Sicko” for corporate America by trying to nitpick something statistically to make it appear less scientific but unfortunately for Gupta, CNN and Blitzer it failed!

It’s hard to believe that Dr. Gupta would argue such mundane and unimportant stuff when the real point was that we spend more on health care individually in this country and are getting less than other nations. How can you argue that it’s a great system when we have 45 million uninsured citizens and most people barely surviving to pay their health insurance? How can you argue for a system that closes the door to moving from another job or working for yourself because no one can afford decent health care? There is no defense for Gupta’s stupidity and bias in this event. But like the Dnish D’Sousza, the Simpleton from the Right, Gupta falls into the same category by never biting the hand that feeds him….Corporate America. Gupta like D’Sousza parrots the Corporate mantra. It’s too bad because Dr. Gupta could have been a hero to this country by stating that for the most part Michael Moore’s film does a good job of exposing some of the major problems and demanding reforms as a physician of the American Health System! Instead….he pulled a D’Sousza on us and forevermore he will be less trusted by the public.

Republican Party Rejects Evolution!

2007-06-11T17:08:00.000-04:00

A recent Gallop poll showed that upwards of 68% of Republicans do not believe in evolution. But this comes as no surprise to me. Most of these people believe in the relative mythology of the bible and creationist teachings and that the earth is no more than 10,000 years old. It doesn’t matter that this flies in the face of basic science and perhaps it flies in the face of common sense. But when did anyone in this so called Republican Party have any idea what reality or common sense was.

America is a semi-literate nation. America is a scientifically illiterate nation. The world is rapidly moving through many scientific and technological cycles and America is stuck in the Dark Ages. The world is crashing in on us but under the leadership of the Neofascists in the White House and Congress this country continues to cling to mythological beliefs that rational human beings reject.

But the Republicans have many Gods. These include the money gods, the economist and the corporatist. They reject all science and use the treacherous power of fear, and guilt to maintain control over the public. The late Jerry Falwell was part of such a group. Falwell and Pat Robertson and the rest of these charlatans used every trick in the book to accumulate vast quantities of wealth in the name of God while rejecting the very fabric of scientific thought. In fact, they played upon such mythological beliefs of the uneducated public to get even more money from the American public.

The Republican Party rejects science because science is a search for truth. Objective methods of analysis are the last thing the Republican Party wants anyone to use to evaluate what is going on in the world because they want the public to respond only to their fear mongering and threats. They are the antithesis of rational and scientific thought. It’s the year 2007 and the Republican Party proves to be as scientifically and culturally illiterate as people were over 600 years ago! And you wonder why we our government has fucked up the world so much! You need look no further than this poll because it says it all!

Bush: Scientific Interference and Control

2007-03-27T14:32:00.000-04:00

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Paul Valery (1871 - 1945), Tel Quel 2 (1943)

The nonprofit watchdog group Government Accountability found that the Bush Administration in hundreds of instances interfered with government scientists on reporting global warming reseach findings to the public. The watchdog group reviewed thousands of emails, memos and reports received through Freedom of Information Act. They also conducted interviews with scientist, staff, and
reporters ( http://www.whistleblower.org/doc/A/Atmosphere-of-Pressure.pdf).
The report will be release on march 28th before House Senate Committee.

The report further states that scientific evidence was deliberately kept from the public. Well it's the same old story now isn't it! The right to know as determined by the Neofascists in the White House. Control....Control....Control They wish to control every aspect and every detail. Does this sound familiar? From Orwell's 1984:

"Down in the street the wind flapped the torn poster to and fro, and the word INGSOC fitfully appeared and vanished. Ingsoc. The sacred principles of Ingsoc. Newspeak, doublethink, the mutability of the past. He felt as though he were wandering in the forests of the sea bottom, lost in a monstrous world where he himself was the monster. He was alone. The past was dead, the future was unimaginable. What certainty had he that a single human creature now living was on his side? And what way of knowing that the dominion of the Party would not endure for ever? Like an answer, the three slogans on the white face of the Ministry of Truth came back to him:

WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

He took a twenty-five cent piece out of his pocket. There, too, in tiny clear lettering, the same slogans were inscribed, and on the other face of the coin the head of Big Brother. Even from the coin the eyes pursued you. On coins, on stamps, on the covers of books, on banners, on posters, and on the wrappings of a cigarette Packet -- everywhere. Always the eyes watching you and the voice enveloping you. Asleep or awake, working or eating, indoors or out of doors, in the bath or in bed -- no escape. Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull."

What will it take to save this country from the vermin who now control it? How much longer can we take this? Every day, more and more revelations! Everyday more lies and the destruction of our Bill of Rights and Constitution. When will we wake up!

Harvard Chooses Woman President But Did They Blow It!

2007-02-11T19:12:00.000-05:00

Nothing Shocks Me--I'm a Scientist

Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones

Harvard has chosen Dr. Drew Gilpin Faust as their first woman president. Drew replaces the embattled Larry Summers who upset everyone with the way he treated the faculty and remarks he made concerning women.

The selection of Faust is surprising not because she is a woman but because her background is not in science. She is a historian. It is more surprising since Harvard is now undergoing an expansion of scientific research and that a scientist was not chosen is a mystery to many faculty members.

At first glance this seems to be an overreaction to Larry Summers. Summers’ stormy five years were wrought with arguments and wrangles with the faculty. His infamous war with Dr. Cornell West who left Harvard and went to Princeton in 2002 ended up being played out in the media

The truth is that Summers is an overbearing bully. He does not have the temperament for dealing with faculty members. His arrogance is partially derived from his PhD in Economics which he believes gives him some intellectual superiority over some other faculty members. Nothing could be further from the truth. PhDs in Economics are easy to get and couldn’t hold a candle to the sciences or math doctorates. It’s this lack of respect that Summers embodied that started the mess at Harvard.

But the powder keg blew up when Summers made some comments about the differences between men and women and how it may be the cause of who seeks what degree. The academic world exploded because Summers implied that there might be innate differences in how the brain functions in men and women. The problem with what he said was that it’s at least partially true but not politically correct.

There are many studies, MRI scans and research that now show that men and women have different brains and that they function differently. Furthermore, areas of the brain in men show a spatial advantage which would allow them better understanding in certain fields of science, math, and engineering. On the other hand women’s brains are more efficient and have better communication skills. Now does this mean that women can’t be scientists or men can’t be good writers? Absolutely not! What it means is that these things are hard wired in our brains and affect what we like, our behavior, and what we do. But it might show why women prefer communicative work rather than the loneliness of many scientific and engineering fields.

Now if Dr. Faust doesn’t believe in such scientific studies and is a politically correct animal which she appears to be, perhaps she will be less controversial than Summers but may be worst in the long run. Once again science is under attack because it doesn’t show the politically correct results that politically correct people want to see. Men and women are different and these differences manifest themselves in variety of ways including academia whether Dr. Faust or the people who have chosen her believe it or not!

National Science Teachers Association Caught with Their Hand in The Corporate Cookie Jar!

2006-12-08T16:00:00.000-05:00

The National Science Teachers Association has been caught red handed with their hands in the “corporate cookie jar.” A breaking story about their refusal to accept 50,000 free DVDs on Global Warming from Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth while having their hands in the oil company bank vaults including Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, and the Petroleum Institute will probably destroy their credibility for all time. (Op-ed: Laurie David Washington Post: htp://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article
/2006/11/24/AR2006112400789.html). According to
Ms. David NSTA has taken at least 6 million dollars from Exxon since 1996.

The same NSTA distributed over 20,000 videos in 2003 (10 part series) funded by those great environmentalist: ConocoPhillips! Now it gets worst as NSTA website is trying to purge articles and deny relationships with certain industry according to Laurie David (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurie-david
/crooked-curriculum-oil-c_b_35829.html). Evidently, the intellectuals at NSTA don’t understand how the web works and that people can still get what they had on their website even if they take it down! I guess that should tell you something about the intelligence of the people running the NSTA. Why would a true Science Association take money from a company like Exxon that spends millions of dollars on disinformation that Global Warming and other pollution problems are a myth? I’ll let you decide that one for yourself because I’m laughing too hard!

But there is a much bigger story here and that is this: The Complete Takeover of Society by Corporate Interests. As a scientist and the executive director of a new nonprofit on environmental stewardship (The Last River and Gamekeeper www.riverandgamekeeper.org) I have watched this process in every form. I have seen good science and good environmental organizations compromised. In my own experience my pro bono work in the state of Pennsylvania (worth hundreds of thousands of dollars) caused me to lose more than that amount in my personal consulting practice (www.eugenemacri.com) because firms and groups were told not to hire me by certain state agencies because my pro bono work closed their polluting fish hatchery and focused attention on their incompetence. It didn’t matter that the work helped save and restore one of the greatest brook trout spring creeks in the world (www.bigspring-pa.org). For example, watershed groups in most states are totally ineffective because of the bureaucracy that is created by the state to get grants and is further inhibited in fund raising unless they say nothing about industry.

Even organizations like Trout Unlimited have had their principles compromised in the past because of industry influences and connections. Industry knows that all of these groups need money but that check seldom comes without strings attached. However, in the case of NSTA this is paramount to a complete and total sell-out of science in America. Over the years some scientists have told me that they couldn’t comment or write about certain matters because they were afraid of losing their grants from industry for the university they worked for. Their job performance, continued employment, and advancement were based on their grant getting abilities from industry. Very few scientists in the US will speak out on many subjects if it threatens their job. If you don’t believe me just look around! How many scientists from America do you see on television or in the media compared to other countries like Great Britain? Not many! Universities in America are nothing than corporations run by industry. Breaking News: I have just learned that the UK newspaper The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story
/0,,1967385,00.html) is reporting that the famed cancer scientist, the late Sir Richard Doll was on the payroll of the Monsanto Corporation. In certain time frames he received as much as $1500.00 per day as a consultant for them. This is a major black eye to science and to the memory of this great scientist because Doll stated that Agent Orange made by Monsanto did not cause cancer. There is nothing wrong with being a consultant to industry as long as the scientist makes it public. But in this case there appears to be a real conflict of interest which compromised Doll and may be dangerous in understanding the effects of Agent Orange on those exposed to it. This story obviously makes my point that Corporate Powers can perhaps corrupt the best people including world renowned scientists.

I believe the NSTA fiasco is the tip of the iceberg and represents a serious and fundamental flaw in our democracy and that is that anything can be bought and paid for. But when it’s science—we are in real trouble because that may be our only chance to search for truth, and when it’s compromised we have nothing left as a society!

EPA Wants To Remove Lead From Toxins List

2006-12-07T16:13:00.000-05:00

In its continuing process to become nothing more than a spokesman for industry the EPA is considering removing lead from a list of toxins. Because lead concentrations have declined in the last decade was the excuse given by the EPA. This change is needed because someone in the battery industry appears to once again have compromised the scientific integrity of the EPA.

Lead comes from a variety of sources including lead based paint, contaminated soil, water, and dust. Lead can and will affect most body systems. It is especially dangerous to children and including developing fetuses. Lead causes problems with mental and physical development including IQ and the ability to learn. Other complications depending upon the concentration and exposure include damage to the nervous system, kidneys and blood cells.

Lead may have been a major problem and responsible in some way for the fall of the great Roman Empire because it was used so extensively in drinking vessels and pipes. Dr. Needham of the University of Pittsburgh believes that lead in developing children affects neural mechanisms responsible for the regulation of impulses and is the cause of antisocial and criminal behavior (makes you wonder about the use of lead in Rome doesn’t it). In the 70’s Dr. Needham was one of the first to understand the relationship and causes of low levels of lead in cognitive problems with children. Unfortunately many of these adverse health affects are forever.

So now in their infinite wisdom the EPA wants to remove lead from the toxins list. It’s hard to believe we live in the so called richest nation of the world because one would think we would have an educated populace. Perhaps too many of them have also been lead poisoned including this administration and the EPA. Find out who your Congressman and Senators are and write a damn letter demanding that such insanity by the whores at the EPA be short circuited. If you don’t care about yourself that’s fine but do it for the kids. It’s hard enough to bring up a child in America today without the threat of damaging children and fetuses due to lead poisoning. Kids deserve better but this administration thinks otherwise. You know it makes you wonder about the morality of the so called religious freaks who scream about abortion but don’t give a damn about the health of a developing fetus or a child!

Bush Releases Nuclear Secrets Commits Treason!

2006-11-05T13:03:00.000-05:00

George Bush and his administration over the objections of intelligence agencies posted nuclear secrets on a government website committing treason. The Bush administration posted documents from the original Gulf War (1990) in an insane attempt to try and prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction

Many of the documents were a “how to guide” on "how to get from point A to point B" said an intelligence official who wished to remain anonymous. The documents included actual engineering diagrams and short cuts getting around problems in designing nuclear weapons. According to expert weapons inspector Dr. David Kay, Iraq has long ago given up on their nuclear program.

Never in the history of this country has this amount of secret weapons information by any agency or citizen been given to the enemy except by the so called administration who is fighting terror. The Bush Regime is so crazy in efforts to justify an illegal war that they have given the enemies of the United States a blue print for succeeding. Never in the history of this nation has any administration been so wreck less in its disregard for the protection of it citizens and the safety of the nation by trying a political stunt of releasing classified information such as these.

This is the same administration that threatened the NY Times for exposing the data base data mining and claimed it would hurt National Security. Never in the history of this country has any population been so lied to under the guise of protection. The United States is being run by a Sociopath President Bush, a Psychopath Vice President Cheney, and a Delusional Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld with a group of Republican and some Democrats in Congress who have destroyed the Constitution and the Bill of Rights under the guise of protecting us from terrorism.

Bush and his administration should be charged with treason for crimes against the citizens of this country and the Constitution in destroying this great nation. LET THE TRIALS BEGIN OR LET THEM FINISH DESTROYING DEMOCRACY!

Laura Bush: Michael J. Fox is Manipulating the Media; Try Looking in the Mirror Mrs. Bush!

2006-11-01T00:21:00.000-05:00

The First Lady, Laura Bush accused Michael J. Fox of manipulating the media because of his condition of Parkinson’s disease. Mrs. Bush stated that it was wrong for Fox to tell people that increased support for embryonic stem cell research and funding could lead to cures for diseases.

Laura Bush like her husband can only be described as one of the true “lightweights” to inhabit the oval office during my life time. Laura Bush and her husband together would have a hard time passing a 7th grade science test let alone understand what they are talking about when it comes to stem cell research. Their arguments on stem cell research are based on some ideological religious belief that makes little sense scientifically but that’s what ideologues do: they force reality into their limited concept of the universe that fits into their little box. But that’s not the point…the point is her accusation that Michael J. Fox was manipulating the media because of his illness.

Mrs. Bush was a pothead when she was in college according to people who went to school with her. Her husband, the president also had some substance abuse problems with alcohol and perhaps other drugs. Perhaps they are both good examples of short term memory loss due to drugs.

Where has Laura Bush been the last six year while her husband’s administration has tried to manipulate and misinform the public and the world on everything from terrorism, the Iraq War, weapons of mass destruction to evolution and global warming? This is the administration that was paying people in the media to proliferate their views on everything from education to the war!

This is the administration that has bankrolled hundreds of millions of dollars so the Pentagon can get their “so called view” of the Iraq War in print because it can longer dupe everyone in the world at the same time. This is the administration that has changed scientific studies and reports as well as threatened scientists to follow Bush’s administration of “pseudoscience” policy or lose their jobs.

This is the administration that doesn’t want the caskets of slain servicemen shown or photographed. This is the administration that says we are winning the war! This is the administration that denies saying, “Stay the Course in Iraq.”

And now the lovely First Lady a complete scientific illiterate like her husband has the nerve to attack a young man who has a lovely family, and who is fighting for his life and perhaps the future of other people in need of some future medical discovery and call it media manipulation! These people have no soul as far as I am concerned and the God they speak of does not exist except in their sick minds. I wonder if their daughters were dying would they still be so hateful and lacking in compassion?

Next time you want to talk about manipulating the media Mrs. Bush, grab your husband and look in the damn MIRROR!

Huffington Post Censorship: Arianna Can't Have It Both Ways!

2006-10-24T12:07:00.000-04:00

It appears that the Huffington Post is censoring what people post if it looks badly on their website. Recently, I made a post in the comment section concerning Deepak Chopka’s article on genes

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/the-trouble-with-genes-p_b_31618.html).

Deepak has a MD but reverts to mysticism in writing about science. He is considered a joke in the scientific community. I didn’t use foul language and I didn’t attack him personally. What I said was that he proves you should be required to get a PhD in Biology before you go for a MD.

I also stated that other writers in the column section including Robert Kennedy Jr. have also made misstatements about science and that both of these people reflect poorly on the credibility of the website. Huffington Post has been caught in this trap before and appears not ready for prime time when it comes to criticisms. I posted another comment about a recent column Chopka wrote but I won’t hold my breath waiting to see it on the website.

Arianna Huffington likes to complain about the Bush Administration on all fronts especially the lack of science in the running of the country but the door swings both ways. Chopka is a standing joke and when she gives him space to write his destructive column as an excuse for science, she is no better than the Bush Administration. The sad part is that it appears that no one overseeing the website ever reads these columns before posting them to check for accuracy. And that’s the problem because in the political arena you can say anything you want and get away with it but in the scientific community accuracy and validity are prerequisites,

To put it bluntly the columns by Chopka serve as disinformation whether Arianna knows it or not. They don’t educate the public they confuse it. The United States is a semi-literate nation. We are a scientifically illiterate nation and Chopka and Arianna are contributing to that sad state of affairs rather than helping to fix the problem.

The Death of The EPA and Science Under Bush

2006-10-11T14:02:00.000-04:00

The death of the EPA and the destruction of science by the Bush administration could have been predicted. But few in the scientific community and in this country could have predicted the depth of its destruction. The EPA is DEAD! Scientists are afraid to speak the truth for fear of losing their jobs. Data, studies and reports are changed and reworded to meet the belief system of the antiscientific crazies who are now running this country.

From Global Warming to Water and Air Quality it is a sad time for this country. Some of the damage may be permanent. Bush and friends have done this without basically a whimper from the main stream press. Bush has used political appointees rather than scientists in many administrative positions which control research and to doctor data and reports. Citizens especially children are drinking, breathing and eating contaminants that will shorten and lessen the quality of their life. The long term effects of this anti scientific approach will be devastating.

Some scientists have quit, others have retired early. Those that are left are totally dismayed at what has occurred during these six years. As far as I am concerned the EPA didn’t do much under the Clinton administration. Clinton and Gore talked a good game about the environment but failed to deliver. Compared to the present occupants in the White House however, they look pretty good.

The disgrace started when Christine Whitman, the head of EPA lied to the workers at the 911 sites of the twin towers about the contaminated air. The air was laced with a variety of chemicals, asbestos and other particles. The EPA lied and all most all of those workers have serious medical problems. They told them the air was safe to breathe. I told everyone they were lying. They didn’t care about people’s lives how do you think they care about the environment. To these people God is coming and we should just rape everything. Whitman should be tried for murder and all of the people who participated in this scam as far as I am concerned because they sent those workers to certain death.

There is no sanity left in this nation. The people in charge are sociopaths. They lie about war. They lie about science. They lie about everything. The long term environmental damage and degradation done by this administration will haunt future generations and those bastards in the media sat by once again and said little or nothing.

The FBI and The Anthrax Scares: Another Intelligence Failure!

2006-09-26T14:17:00.000-04:00

The anthrax scares of 2001 and persecution of a government scientist (Steven J. Hatfill) once again show the incompetence of the Bush Regime and the FBI under this administration. The widely circulated view that this was “weapons grade” anthrax and that it had to have come from certain strains at Fort Detrick or a similar batch were nothing but spin by this Orwellian Rhetoric Machine of the Bush Administration. I stated in 2001 to a number of people and publicly that this was nonsense but to no avail…the government had all of the experts..Right!

The FBI now admits that there is NO SIGNIFICANT SIGNATURE in the anthrax that was used in the attacks in 2001. This means that all this time the FBI was going in circles (does this sound similar to the Iraq War story; is this a trend of this administration?). The chemical signature is basically a determiner through certain molecular analysis of where the anthrax came from. There were no additives to this anthrax. It was not finely powdered. It was common stuff. What this now means is that the anthrax could have come from ANYWHERE!

Furthermore, the geniuses at the FBI now admit that variations of the Ames strain of anthrax are found all over the world, especially in the Soviet Union. The FBI now says that this was just a VERY PURE STRAIN made from spores! Did I miss something in Microbiology Class? That’s what you are trained to do: to culture as pure a strain as possible! The better you are, the better your grade! ANY COMPETENT MICROBIOLOGIST IN THE WORLD COULD HAVE MADE THIS ANTHRAX AND PROBABLY A FEW INCOMPETENT ONES AS WELL!

The amount of equipment needed is not a massive laboratory but you could do it out of your basement with stuff bought at government sales or on Ebay! There are a host of considerations that are possible here and this could lead to millions of dead ends in the further investigation of these scares. It was said that when the Soviet Union crashed that there was an intelligence report or talk of hiring all the unemployed scientists in certain disciplines (especially Microbiology) to give them something to do rather than be hired by some terrorist organization or rogue state. But that idea was dumped quickly. I wonder who these people are working for and what they are doing now!

There are lessons to be learned from this but the media will never figure them out. First, we are not safe and no one can make us completely safe as long as evil can lurk in the mind of men. Second, the arrogance of this administration and FBI is part of the problem of why we are not safer than we are. These people believe that they are smarter than everyone else. They believe they are smarter than the terrorists and that no one can tell them anything that they do not already know. The sad part is that this administration has sold the American public on their record and yet their record is the opposite of what they say it is. The arrogance, incompetence and fear mongering of this administration may doom us all because somewhere in the world right now in someone’s little laboratory some rogue scientist may be concocting a special blend that the FBI, and this administration believe is impossible when it’s nothing more than elementary microbiology!

Wolf Blitzer of CNN: Environmental Dickhead of the Week

2006-09-15T14:53:00.000-04:00

Wolf Blitzer of CNN has once again allowed the Global Warming Skeptics a stage for their rhetoric. Recently, he allowed Dr. Gray of Colorado to counter a paper by Tom Wigley and others at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. It's not that Dr. Gray is not a respected scientist because he is. Gray is not a climate scientist , however. His meteorological analysis does not hold water (no pun intended). He cannot explain his convictions. His analysis is extremely limited in terms of all the data available. And he is not considered an expert on Global Warming. It's that 97 to 99% of the scientists who work on true climate research agree that man is at least partially responsible and is increasing Global Warming. So Dr. Gray and a few other scientists make up less than 3%.

Now consider this: around 15 to 18% of astronomers, astrophysicists and related scientist probably believe in UFO's (some people in academia tell me it may be higher but these people just don't want the criticisms that come with these beliefs if they were made public). If you talk to pilots you might get around 20% or more who believe in UFOs. Now when was the last time you saw these people on prime time news discussing their beliefs. These people when they do get some publicity are relegated to the SciFi Channel or a UFO show on the History Channel, and usually late at night! Yet, they make up a greater number of scientists compared to the few that are skeptical of Global Warming!

This is the same nonsense that goes on in the evolution debate. People from the Discovery Institute, and the likes of Coulter, and other lunatics get a platform to disavow evolution. The media gives them equal footing even though the courts have not! The public sees this and thus a certain percentage believes that there must be something to this (as a side note: In America more people believe in ET and UFOs than believe in Evolution).

When Ted Turner lost control of CNN it spelled the doom of this once proud news organization. Blitzer and friends are nothing more than mindless media pumps that serve garbage to the masses and try to gift wrap it and call it something else. But it's still garbage no matter how you spin it.

For this episode on Global Warming, The Enviroweb Awards

Wolf Blitzer of CNN

Environmental Dickhead of The Week

and all the honors that go with it!

National Review: Robbins Another Lunatic!

2006-08-17T17:57:00.000-04:00

Welcome to another great piece of scientific literature in the Dark Ages of America. The genius editor of the National Review, James S. Robbins thinks that Global Warming will be just great: (http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZTJmNWI4N2Y2NTBmY2E3ZTIzZjcxM2IzM2ZjNjRkYWI=)

Personally, I don’t know what all the shouting is about. Global warming is great. Granted, maybe it isn’t really happening, and if it is there are strong reasons to doubt that humans have anything to do with it. But if the world is warming, I say “bravo.”

Robbins goes on to say that it will be fine and that you’ll be able to surf off the coast of Newfoundland. Robbins like many right wing sick bastards sees opportunity. He decides it will only be a minor nuisance and the world will be a better place for it.

The sickness of this bastard is beyond the comprehension of most people but not mine. I know how the minds of these sick fairies work. These people actually believe their own insane reality. I’ve watched them over the years in industry and their sickness is spreading like a cancer throughout this nation from intelligent design to their ideas that no pollution level can harm us.

Robbins is so stupid that when he talks about how great it will be in Canada he doesn’t realize the US could be a desert! He doesn’t acknowledge the complete economic chaos over time and the number of lives lost and the wars that might be fought over mineral reserves and land. No, Robbins thinks everyone will be surfing.

When someone writes a true history of what has occurred during this decade future citizens may wonder how a country could completely abandon science for mysticism and insanity. But they won’t realize the crazies like Robbins who actually believed this nonsense and led the charge for all those golden opportunities!

For this we award James Robbins

Environmental Dickhead of the Week!

An Award that I believe his magazine will receive more than once during his tenure with such insightful scientific writing.

John Stossel and Joe the Idiot Scarborough Strike Again

2006-06-28T21:25:00.000-04:00

When you think they can't get any crazier at MSNBC Scarbough invites John "the whore" Stossel as a climate expert. Stossel continues his nonsense that there is no global warming or that man is not contributing to it. Stossel continues to cite the nonsense of the Right Wing Republicans and the CATO Institute. Joe then kisses his ass by telling him how great his stupid book is doing on Amazon.

Stossel then starts his rampage that anyone that believes in global warming and wants to do something about it is against capitalism! Stossel is given a free ride by the media because he is one of them. Stossel knows about as much science as the people in the White House. These clowns continue to take advantage of the scientific illiteracy of the American Public. They know they can poison the water and cause confusion and they do just that. ( I invite everyone to go through Yahoo or Google and get the facts on Global Warming and compare it to the right wing sites and their repeated mantra).

This is the game against science in America and Stossel is part of it. Stossel is just a light version of Ann Coulter. Both of them are just dickheads...pure and simple! The attack on science in America is at an all time high as we continue down the path of mysticism and crony capitalism otherwise known as Neofascism.

Canada: Thank You For Letting The USA Destroy Your Environment!

2006-05-31T14:57:00.000-04:00

In places like Alberta Canada the price of American’s insane appetite for oil has alarming consequences. Once pristine rivers and forests are now being destroyed in the name of our gas guzzling vehicles and wastefulness. Massive strip mines dig deeply into the oil sands. Because of so called new technologies and the high price of oil these areas in Canada has now become profitable to mine.

The environmental degradation however is beyond belief to get the oil. One barrel of oil equals usually 2 to 5 barrels of water (which ends up polluted) and up to 4 tons of oil sand! That’s right! That’s what it costs to get. We won’t even go into the processing of the oil and those contaminants….it’s just too mind boggling. The rise in carbon dioxide in these regions in Canada is also contributing greatly to global warming.

The energy companies are saying that they will come up with technologies to reduce the pollution and reclaim land and water. God, I’ve heard that since I was a kid growing up in Pennsylvania for all the mining there, technology is going save and restore. Absolute nonsense….it will never happen!

Meanwhile, many environmental groups in Canada want the mining permits stopped but the Canadian Government is pressing for more areas to be mined. The Washington Post and some newspapers in Canada have reported a rise in cancer in many of the natives living near the mines but that won’t matter to the governments of Canada and the US. For the most part these people are just collateral damage.

And you wonder why the world seems to hate us. We are the gluttons of the world and everyone else must pay the price for our misuse, overuse, and just pure arrogance about everything. All parts of the world and cultures of people must suffer so that we can maintain our insane life style. A life style based on constant destruction of the world’s systems but don’t worry technology will save us and if that doesn’t work….God will, because he is on our side and wants us to use everything on earth…including Canada!

Fox News Analyst: Hoenig: Environmental Dickhead of the Week

2006-05-30T10:33:00.000-04:00

Well the Fox News idiots are at it again. Fox News which is the most scientifically illiterate of all the major news companies continues their assault on science with this village idiot analysis on Global Warming by none other than Jonathan Hoenig. This is the same jerk that believes that the oil companies aren't gouging Americans.

Hoenig's recent out burst of stupidity includes the following:

There is no scientific proof that global warming even exists. To be honest, it's a bogus consensus dreamed up by Greens because they hate industry. They hate advancement. They hate technology Greens will lead us back to the stone ages.

This is the unfortunate mentality of the business community in this country. These rape and plunder bastards are just as bad as Bush and Cheney. They see the world through rose colored glasses and refuse to deal with the world of science.

But Hoenig is right on one thing: the people on the other side do hate things. No, we don't hate industry! No, we don't hate technology! No, we don't hate advancement! What we hate are stupid scientific illiterate jerks like yourself. Therefore,

The Environmental Dickhead of the Week
is Awarded to
Jonathan Hoenig of Fox News

For his contributions in scientific illiteracy and all the honors that go with it!

Nazi Senators From New Jersey will Stop You from Photographing!

2006-05-14T21:29:00.000-04:00

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Charles De Gaulle

State Senator Stephen Sweeney, D-3 of West Deptford and Senator Fred Madden of D-4 Turnersville New Jersey and some other morons believe that citizens should not be able to photograph or video tape sewage treatment plants, nuclear power plants, water treatment, storage facilities etc…. all of this in the name of National Security.

Of course, this would destroy citizens’ rights to monitor and protect their environment and homes by watch dogging these installations. In fact, Gestapo Sweeney and friends want to make it a crime punishable up to 18 months in prison and confiscation of equipment. Their arguments are that they are just protecting the public. Gee,,,didn’t King Bush just say that about NSA’s illegal spying and wire taps? We are just trying to protect you.

Senator Madden further stated "Quite frankly, this bill is long overdue," Madden said. "The intent is to identify those individuals during the planning stages and apprehend them before the attack takes place.” Here’s the complete story:
(http://www.nj.com/news/sunbeam/index.ssf?/base/news-
1/1147335696312460.xml&coll=9)

Really! This is beyond belief. And of course industry would just love this since no one would be able to monitor what’s going on and get the photo or video evidence. These two senators should be removed from office and they should be forced to live at the prison in Abu Grab. Now just think about it for one minute. If someone really wants to get some good photos or video of one of these installations do you think anyone can really stop them? With all the technological stuff out there not to mention satellite imagery and miniature cameras, do you believe they can’t get the photos? Yet, the citizen walking by with his camera or camcorder is going to be made into a terrorist because he wants to keep an eye on his environment.

Once again the mental midgets have attacked; the New Jersey Nazi Senators will protect you. The problem is who in a sane society will protect us from these idiots!!!!!!!

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

Ernest Benn

Why the English are Healthier than Americans!

2006-05-02T17:12:00.000-04:00

A recent study shows that the English are healthier than Americans. In fact, even the rich in this country are only as healthy as the less well effluent in England. This includes over all health as well as cancer, diabetes, lung cancer etc. U.S. scientists are at a loss because the English tend to smoke just as much and drink more.

Of course, the data is even more upsetting because the U.S. spends twice as much per citizen on health care than England. Adjustments for minorities and other data still show the same results. Similar data of the U.S. versus other countries in Europe in recent years makes the latest data no surprise to me and other environmental scientists.

Unfortunately, most of the media which has been brainwashed and intimidated by the U.S. government can't understand the data either. They continue to tout what a great land and what a great place America is to live. Really? One item that is noted in the study is that people in England (and most of Europe) are making more money than they did a decade or more ago while Americans' incomes have become stagnant! The English also have a basic safety net of social mechanisms lacking in America.

Studies have shown that the American Dream has become a myth. Upward mobility in America is lacking according to data in the last twenty years. You have a better chance of succeeding and getting rich in countries like Canada than you do in the U.S. People spend more time with their families and do more social things in England and Europe. In the U.S. people don't appear to have time to breathe while most work two and sometimes three jobs to survive.

There are two reasons why we are less healthy than other countries who spend less on health care and they are simply: 1) STRESS and 2) ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION. You don't need a PhD to figure out why. In any ecosystem organisms that are under constant stress like Americans are less healthy. Trout in a stream under constant stress show similar results. Now add the influx of total environmental degradation which is cumulative and synergistic and you get sicker organisms. We can do this in a laboratory or we can watch it in nature but medical scientists for some reasons believe the immune systems of humans don't function that way. They should think again!

The U.S. can continue to spend more money but it won't make any difference. The system needs changed and fast! If it doesn't most Americans will continue these patterns of damaged immune systems due to the constant stress and environmental toxins. Welcome to the America of stress and pollution brought to you by both the Republicans and Democrats. The few extra cents you make chasing the American Dream......won't buy you good health no matter what you do! And those bloody Brits are smoking more and drinking more and are healthier than you! Ain't fair is it...cowboy!

Bush and Cheney Manipulate the Oil Crisis!

2006-04-25T14:43:00.000-04:00

There is no doubt in my mind that this energy fiasco is a result of Cheney, Bush and the oil companies planning this a long time ago. The so called meeting between Cheney and the energy group from which the minutes are not being released is where this plot starts. By making people suffer and manipulating the marketplace they can blame the "environmentalists" for causing this. They believe they can force the people to abandon any form of conservation by hurting them. I warned of these tricks decades ago but to no avail. No one believed me because they wouldn't do something like that! Right! And these people wouldn't manipulate intelligence to start a war either.

Americans are the dumbest suckers out there. They have been led to their own slaughter like sheep. This is all part of a master plan by these lunatics who believe in an Apocalyptic end to the earth. We might as well as just destroy everything right now. The so called investigation into the oil companies on price gouging is nothing more than a public relations ploy. Bush and Cheney are the two most immoral excuses of humanity to ever inhabit the White House. Bush is nothing more than burn out from years of alcohol and other drug abuse who now has a delusional religious bent. Cheney is just a complete fucking liar that has no use for anyone but himself and his low life friends.

The sad part is that America hasn't knocked down the gates and rushed the White House demanding the resignation of these pieces of trash. But it won't matter because they have everything in place to continue to make people suffer and the onslaught of environmental degradation. These are the worst times for America, and I fear it is over for this country as a great nation.

Bush and Cheney have destroyed this country and have set into motion series of world wide problems that may end society as we know it. And we have let them get away with it.

Our Apologies: Problems with Blogger.com

2006-04-03T15:46:00.000-04:00

We apologize because of the lack of recent posts. We and many others are having problems with Blogger.com. They could be under attack from spammers etc. We are trying our best to work around these problems. Hopefully, they will figure out what the best approach is.

We thank them for this space and will continue our posts the best we can.

thanks

gene macri

George Will: Global Warming Expert or Mental Midget?

2006-04-03T14:59:00.000-04:00

I maintain there is much more wonder in science than in pseudoscience. And in addition, to whatever measure this term has any meaning, science has the additional virtue, and it is not an inconsiderable one, of being true.

Carl Sagan (1934-1996)

Once upon a time there were people who couldn’t become scientists. Why? Perhaps they weren’t smart enough or maybe they just didn’t wish to go through the rigors of a scientific curriculum. So these people made up their own science format and called it: Political Science! Among the modern day practitioners of this witchcraft is none other than Dr. George “the pundit” Will. Of course, I am being a bit tongue and cheek here but political scientists are anything but scientists (there are a few exceptions including Dr. Howard Ernst of the Naval Academy who did a fine job on the book, Chesapeake Bay Blues).

Will’s anti-environmental bent has been around for years. Recently it manifested itself in the Jewish World Review (http://jewishworldreview.com/cols/will040306.asp) in the article, Let cooler heads prevail: The media heat up over global warming. Will sites data from the 70’s claiming that scientists then were predicting a coming ice age. His explanation basically is that the earth is either warming or cooling and that it’s the journalists who are fueling this debate, and so what if the earth is warming.

Yes, this man does have a PhD in PolySci as we used to call it, and so much for his critical thinking skills. I wonder if George realizes that in 30 years since 1975 the knowledge of environmental scientists and climatologists has changed dramatically. Computers have advanced and models have improved in the last 30 years would be an understatement. Almost all legitimate climatologists and environmental scientists accept the present Global Warming analysis with the exception of those who are funded by the coal or oil industry. Unfortunately, the media contrary to what Will has stated have actually given more press to the nonbelievers of Global Warming then to the actual science of it. This is because no matter how crazy an idea is on the right (or sometimes the left) the media assumes that they are on equal footing scientifically. The recent debate over evolution versus intelligent design is a perfect example of this.

Will’s knowledge of science is limited of course and his understanding of it warped by his political philosophy. He is right on a couple of things that China, and other nations must also be included any protocols and that Clinton knew this too. But he is a witchdoctor among many in this nation in the world of political science (which is an oxymoron). His simplistic and “absolute analysis of science” from the 70’s is typical of the rhetoric of the right. I call this the sound bite or bumper sticker mentality and it has no place in the halls of science.

We are in deep trouble scientifically in this country. We are a scientifically illiterate nation. Will fuels such stupidity and the people believe it. Like Robert Kennedy Jr. on the left and Michael Crichton on the right Will is one of the pundits who are not scientists, have little scientific knowledge but are eager to write and spread such nonsense. As I have mentioned before if these people wanted to be scientists why didn’t they go to the universities to become one (Crichton does have MD thank God he never practiced)? When I was an undergraduate majoring in biology we used try and get into PolySci courses to improve our overall grade point average. Since these courses didn’t seem to require too many IQ points or critical thinking skills.

To put it bluntly, Will’s take on Global Warming should win him the Mental Midget of the Week Award with all due honors, Congratulations ----Dr. Will.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.

Hippocrates (460- 377 BC)

Republican Whoredom Goes After Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge

2006-03-15T16:21:00.001-05:00

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

H.L.Mencken

The Republican Whoredom is at it again. They will be slipping in another amendment to the budget process for drilling in ANWR (Alaska National Wildlife Refuge). It cannot be filibustered. These scum balls will not be satisfied until they have destroyed every single piece of this earth. These f….n idiots are such f…. whores of the petroleum industry that they should literally be paid by Exxon, Mobil, Shell etc., not the U.S. tax payer. In fact, they should wear the coveralls in the Senate and House with their little symbols of Exxon and other companies just like the gas station attendant!

This time they are trying to put it in the budget projections for leases by oil companies. The gutless Democrats have allowed this to happen because they stand for nothing and are afraid of the white house and flag waving neocons. They have never stood up to Bush yet and can hold nothing over this administration's head. So now, it’s basically too late. When the Bush whores are done with the environment there will be little left to save, and they will have put this society on an endless and irreversible path of destruction.

When you drink the water, remember the spring.

chinese proverb

The Dark Ages: Evolution and Idiot America

2006-03-13T16:41:00.000-05:00

The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.

Oscar Wilde

Well it comes to no surprise to this scientist that another recent poll showed most Americans don’t believe in evolution. These polls vary greatly but it’s usually something to the effect that 55 to 75% believe the biblical story of creation. Usually anywhere from 20 to 30% believe in evolution and natural selection. The other mixed percentage believe God directed evolution.

It’s 2006 in America and more people believe in extra terrestrials and UFOs than evolution! And you wonder why we are such a screwed up nation. In 2006 we are still fighting Galileo’s battles (separation of church and state), and Darwin’s battles (evolution and natural selection). America is a semi-literate nation and a scientifically illiterate nation, and we don’t give a damn!

I went to a Catholic school and was taught evolution by nuns!!!!! The fundamentalist religious right revels in such poll numbers because it’s part of their plan for taking over this nation. These people have a great amount of time, money, and run for school boards, and play the game by trying to get people at every step elected who will attack science at every turn.

The strange thing about America is that most people don’t want religion, creationism, or intelligent design taught in science class. Most Americans and the great Bush Kingdom couldn’t pass a basic science test. They have no idea about fundamental concepts of science and how it affects their daily lives.

There are a number of reasons for this including this nation’s anti-intellectual and anti-educational temperament. This started during the time of the robber barons in this country who had distrust for the educated man and continues in the Bush entourage and many politicians who go to college not to get educated but to make connections for future business ventures. The religious right is the most anti-intellectual group in the country. Just recently Falwell made another great scientific statement claiming scientists who believe in global warming are in the minority and are part of the government. Too bad for Jerry it’s the exact opposite. Probably 95% of climate experts believe in global warming and the few that do not usually work for the oil industry. They often claim that colleges and universities are nothing more than liberal bastions and wish to destroy America with “their crazy educational ideas.” It’s kind of amazing that they somehow survived this indoctrination. Colleges, universities, and education in general are constantly attacked by these groups as well as the religious right who wish to control the population through mysticism, guilt, and fear. I have outlined this before but let’s do it again just to get the full brunt of this attack.

Part of the problem lies in the college and university system itself. For some reason in science departments of America’s colleges and universities the only thing that matters is that you publish. This is a rather strange phenomenon which may not exist in the rest of the world. In fact, American scientists who go on television, or even in the print media are looked down upon. Sometimes this is due to deans, and chairmen of the schools not wanting anything said that would jeopardize their grants from industry and government.

There are other reasons including that many scientist don’t feel comfortable speaking to the public in such venues because of the “sound bite” mechanism allowed for by the media. They really can’t answer the question in thirty seconds or less. The simplification doctrine of the media precludes any truly scientific discussion and analysis that is required for understanding. Also, some scientists unfortunately have disdain for talking to the public…perhaps a snob approach but it’s there.

Have you ever noticed just how many scientist from places like the Discovery Channel, National Geographic and other educational stations tend to be British or foreign? At one time scientists actually carried and expressed their work to the public but if this is done today, many in the scientific community would consider it grandstanding and don’t believe that it’s the role of the scientist to do this!

So scientists in America have created their own problem and we will all pay the price for it. We have few people going into science compared to many other nations. The first reason for this which no one wants to buy is because science is a much more difficult discipline. Most Americans aren’t smart enough to get through such a rigorous curriculum. Scientific thinking requires a great amount comprehension and analysis. Watch television and tell me when was the last time you saw anything discussed with those two attributes.

The second reason is that science is not one of the glamour positions such as political science, media, business and other related disciplines and usually has less financial rewards. Consider Congress, the majority of people who have degrees in both the House and the Senate come from two fields: political science and law. Of course, this angers many people who believe otherwise but the science degrees at any level requires the most effort as well as knowledge and intelligence. That’s not to say that other degrees don't require intelligence…but there just is no comparison to getting a Phd in political science and one in biology. Scientists have failed in educating the public and science including evolution is not embraced by Americans.

So now you know why we are such a screwed up nation. Most people in America think commencement means to end something…like their high school experience. Our populace grows more scientifically illiterate each day. The world is passing them by and they can only understand things that are over simplified and put into a thirty second sound bite. We stand on the edge of the Dark Ages in America and the media just sucks it in and fails to understand why this is so important. Everything from our jobs, survival as species, and our culture probably depends on having an educated populace but it doesn't seem to matter. Evolution and natural selection have become the punching bag for the religious right, most Republicans, and some Democrats who don’t have the guts to stand up to the mysticism, and the anti-intellectual climate of the Dark Ages in America. Therefore, science will not prosper and neither will we.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Steven Weinberg

Michael Crichton and George Bush: Real Science, Global Warming and the Environment!

2006-02-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

President Bush is a fan of Michael Crichton. Bush evidently spent a long time with Crichton discussing global warming and perhaps his fictional account of ecoterrorism, State of Fear. This is the president who can’t pass a seventh grade science test. But it doesn’t matter because once again it’s the same mode of operation for this administration…..denial!

Crichton can only be described as incompetent as a scientist. The sad part is that he has a MD from Harvard. Thank god he never decided to practice medicine. But don’t let that MD from Harvard fool you. I’ve pissed off enough people over the years in my comments that MDs should be required to get a PhD in biology or related areas before getting an MD. Over the years I’ve found most MDs limited in a basic understanding of environmental science, risk assessment, and nutrition just to mention a few.

Crichton has similar views on DDT and distorts the evidence on these fronts also. He is the golden boy of the right just as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is the favorite of the left. Both appear to lack scientific understandings on major issues and bend it to suit their political dialogue no matter what. Crichton’s book, State of Fear, has been destroyed by scientific peer review. I will not go into an analysis of the fraud presented in Crichton’s book because others have already done that (try www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu).

It has now reached the point of total insanity in this country in terms of science. Bush’s era is part of The Dark Ages of American Science. There are a number of reasons for this change including 1) America is a semi-literate and scientifically illiterate nation 2) scientists just don’t wish to get involved in the politics of their own science just look at the fiasco in evolution. 3) many scientists fear their grants will be affected 4) some universities do not want any problems and know the consequences of professors speaking out against this administration in any form 5) many scientists have a disdain for talking to the American public 6) most scientists are not good at speaking especially in the format as presented by the media….the sound bite and 7) science is no longer taken to the people as it was hundreds of years ago.

I never thought I would see this in the scientific community. When Michael Crichton is considered someone with knowledge of climate change we are in serious trouble. As stated in one of my previous post, Everyone is a Scientist in America. But Crichton’s type of fraudulent rhetoric fits perfectly on something like Rush Limbaugh’s show or Fox news. There is no critical analysis…just that quick sound bite charged with emotion to push the button of the person who cannot understand climate change or will never take the time to research it. This is how everything is done in America and some media sluts like Ann Coulter have made a fortune after perfecting this right wing rhapsody.

But Crichton is part of the bigger problem and that’s number one on my list: America is a semi-literate and scientifically illiterate nation! More Americans believe in extra terrestrials and UFOs than in evolution. It’s 2006 but not in America! This group of theocratic fascists led by Bush and Cheney have plunged America into a backward slide that we may never recover from and that’s why Crichton’s book of fiction is considered science! Instead of science we look to myth, religion and rulers who talk to the spirits for our salvation and to solve our problems.

Perhaps H.L. Mencken said it best, “You will never go broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

The Art and Science of Hunting with Dick Cheney: Arm Chair Outdoorsman or Sportsman?

2006-02-14T12:08:00.000-05:00

The recent hunting accident of Vice-President Dick Cheney is sad in a number of ways. For the gentleman who was shot by the Vice-President and for hunting and sportsmen nationwide. The anti-hunting crowd will have a field day with this. As an environmental scientist, fisherman, hunter, and all around outdoorsman I can already hear the argument that will be made by the crazies who want to ban all guns and hunting in general. If not for hunters there would be no wildlife left in America contrary to what these people think. Hunting fees and associated costs pay for the wildlife in this country not the crazies who want to ban it.

There are a number of disturbing questions with the story put out by the White House in this accident. The first problem is the idea that the hunter who was shot was to blame. There is a basic law of hunting and that is always safety first. The second problem is that hunters especially bird hunters should always know where every hunter is. With that in mind one wonders about the truth in this incident.

How many people were hunting? Three people hunting quail together in the same area is very unusual. Most of the time two hunters, one on each side (right and left of the intended area) are fanning out. Next they were hunting by car. Really! This is interesting to say the least. Did they have dogs? Why was Mr. Whittington getting his own birds? They were hunting at around 5 p.m... I wonder why most quail hunters usually hunt in the morning when it's easiest to see the little creatures but not Dick Cheney! Mr. Whittington was 30 yards away when he was supposedly "peppered." A 28 gauge shotgun with this type of bird shot used by the Vice-President usually has about 350 to 400 pellets in it. If shot in the air at 30 yards (which is nearly one-third of a football field) I question the pattern that would have hit Mr. Wittington.

It’s more likely that Mr. Whittington was 10 to 15 yards away. Furthermore, it's possible that the quail may have been shot not in the air but on or near the ground! There is no way of knowing the real story because none of us were there. However, contrary to what has been said about Cheney's expertise with a shotgun he supposedly had a similar problem on the Eastern Shore of Maryland duck hunting a few years back when he peppered a few people but none were injured.

But there is another problem with all of this and that's the way Cheney hunts. Cheney took heat over a pheasant hunt in Pennsylvania when the place he hunted released birds from nets so they could be shot. Cheney and friends killed a huge number of pheasants that day. This is not sporting. This is the equivalent of fishing inside the trout hatchery but not in the stream. There is a difference among a shooter, a hunter and a sportsman. Because Cheney is a good shot does not make him either. Most hunters would not consider it sporting to shoot game with methods used by Cheney. To put it bluntly the Vice-President is a slob hunter.

He lacks the true call of the outdoors and nobility of being a sportsman. Hunting quail from the car! Who were flushing the quail, ---the secret service? You go quail hunting to watch the dogs work as much as you go to hunt. Cheney is what many in this business now call "the armchair outdoorsman." There are a lot of these people around in both the hunting and fishing world. Some even pass themselves off as outdoor writers. Please do not misunderstand what I am saying here. This is not about private hunting areas which have been around for hundreds of years especially in Europe. I really don't have a problem with them. Most of these people are top notch sportsmen in both hunting and fishing but quite a few are not, and Cheney is one of them. Cheney is the darling of the NRA of which I am a member. The NRA should realize that because you own a gun and support the NRA does not make you a sportsman. Cheney is not a sportsman and he should not be the cover boy for the NRA. Cheney is a slob…a hunting slob. He is a disgrace for any hunter that respects the sport and nature.

There is a lot of money in the outdoor business and many places now cater to these types of people. Most of these people are despised by true sportsmen but many of these types have the money to do whatever they want. Money talks! I've seen the same types on trout streams too and some days you would like to drown them. But there appears to be a darker side to all of this and that's Cheney's lack of reverence for nature or for that matter the safety of hunting and the nobility of the sport. Does Dick Cheney think it makes him macho to kill so many pheasants that had just been released into the air? Perhaps it does to an "armchair outdoorsman" or the hunting slob that he is. The same Cheney got five deferments for the Viet Nam war. I guess he wasn't feeling so macho then. The real problems are that we have two "armchair warriors" in the Whitehouse, Cheney and Bush who do the same thing with war! Is this a metaphor for how they run everything and the excuses they make afterwards! We have seen what condition the world is in now because of these two who never really served in the military or know anything about it. They are the great pretenders whether quail hunting or hunting terrorists, they can't seem to separate what to destroy and what not to destroy including our constitution. They prove that money can never by class or what they really want to be a sportsman or a warrior because they are neither.

Everyone Wants to Be A Scientist!: Part 1

2006-02-12T15:29:00.000-05:00

Everyone wants to be a scientist, or that's the way it appears these days. These would-be scientists include a great cast of unlikely characters including Rush Limbaugh, Ron Bailey, Jonathan Adler, Michael Crichton, and from the left Robert Kennedy Jr. Part one will explore one of these so called scientific geniuses, in this case Robert Kennedy Jr. I have personal experience with RFK Jr. because he, Riverkeeper Inc., and Waterkeeper Alliance filed a federal law suit against me and my start-up nonprofit The Last Riverkeeper (www.lastriverkeeper.org). RFK Jr. is the darling of the left and most of the media. The problem is that he spouts out as much misinformation as some of the people on the right. Unfortunately, the media who are scientifically illiterate seldom properly question him or anyone else on his rants.

Kennedy Jr., Riverkeeper Inc., and Waterkeeper Alliance filed a lawsuit against me over trademark infringement over the generic noun river keeper (or riverkeeper). Kennedy Jr. basically took over Riverkeeper Inc. when Robert Boyle the founder and most of the board quit after a dispute with Kennedy Jr.. It appears RFK Jr. hired a convicted environmental felon as one of their chief scientists! Boyle who did most of the original work on the Hudson River along with the fishermen in the area is still bitter to this day. Kennedy Jr. appears to take credit for most of what Boyle and others started. The organization once had a scientific bent but appears to be more interested in litigation and fundraising than using science to protect the river since many scientific organizations now do most of the studies and funding for these studies on the Hudson. Kennedy Jr., Riverkeeper Inc., and Waterkeeper Alliance have over 120 so called franchises of their so called Riverkeeper Inc. Some of them do some good but I would ask for a complete inspection of their lack of scientific work in many of areas, and I wonder what they actually do in benchmarking and protecting their waters. I have no problem with some of the work Kennedy Jr., his lawyers and even some of the Riverkeeper Inc. franchises have done but it appears Riverkeeper Inc. and Waterkeeper Alliance overall maybe more interested in being a platform for speaking engagements (which RFK Jr. is highly paid) and other political functions. Kennedy Jr. and crew hired tobacco lawyers and tried to sue corporate hog farms in the South under the RICO act. They got blown out. Perhaps using scientific studies would have gone a long way to fighting these conglomerates instead of legal sleight of hand.

To show you just how sad this is, type these word individually into google or yahoo search: riverkeeper, river keeper, the riverkeeper etc. How many hits did you get! River keeper (riverkeeper) is a generic noun! It's part of the fly fishing tradition of Europe. It was brought to America before these people were even born. The word has been around for hundreds of years. Boyle first trademarked the word in around 1982. Most of the fly fishing community just yawned because Boyle was respected enough no one thought it would come to this. Boyle got the name riverkeeper off of the late, great fly fisherman and writer Dr. Ernie Schwiebert. Schwiebert popularized the term again in 1980 when he wrote the book Death of a Riverkeeper. Schwiebert told Boyle then, it was a generic noun and anyone could use it. Schwiebert who was a friend of mine passed away unexpectedly in December. He was a great angler and a great person. A more learned man you would have never met. He wanted me to fight this to the end, and I am trying my best. Schwiebert was ready to testify and was extremely upset that the word riverkeeper would be hijacked! (For the complete story of this mess go to: www.lastriverkeeper.org.)

Some of you may be thinking why these people would sue a scientist and a nonprofit. Yes, that is the question but the answer is right in front of you. And it's not probably about the trademark Riverkeeper which is I believe without merit. Follow this train of thought. First of all, no one is going to confuse Riverkeeper Inc. with The Last Riverkeeper. Kennedy Jr. and his lawyers believe everyone knows who Riverkeeper Inc. is! Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people even in the environmental movement don't know who Riverkeeper Inc. is! There are two reasons for this: 1) they are not widely known compared National Wildlife etc. because they tend to be localized on the limited 120 franchise they have. Some people who belong to these franchises didn't even know they were affiliated with Riverkeeper Inc. 2) the damn word is so generic it is not brandable! There is no intellectual property in stealing a generic noun and saying you invented it and now owns it. Furthermore, once a generic noun...always a generic noun! Everyone in marketing knows if you are going to trademark something you don't choose something generic! You pick a novel or made up name and then you brand it to stop it from becoming generic! The word riverkeeper or river keeper is part of the fishing and fly fishing heritage of the world. Only a bunch of lunatics like Kennedy Jr. and his Waterkeeper Alliance would believe that once this common generic word was trademarked it became unique!

But I don't think this is about the trademark as much as the sound coming from the word riverkeeper. RFK Jr. and his organizations want the center stage for fundraising and for speaking etc. They don't want anyone speaking or telling the truth especially in these areas because someone might ask, "Is Kennedy Jr. misinforming everyone!"

As an example, remember when Katrina hit. Kennedy Jr. went on one of his rants and stated that if the Kyoto Protocols would have been in effect this basically wouldn't have happened. Here's the link on the Huffington Post(www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr). The problem is that whether the protocols were in effect or not would not have made any difference. The reason for this is Kennedy Jr.'s lack of understanding of science. Whenever someone presents you with data (especially mounds of data as in global warming) ask yourself three questions: 1) who gathered the data 2) what instruments or models did they use and were they calibrated properly 3) did governments or someone else control the way the data were gathered or measured? I've worked in the environmental area over 30 years and I can tell you that these three questions must always be tested. To put it bluntly remember Macri's Rule of Data: In Most Cases Environmental Data are overly Optimistic! It's human nature to do that! Furthermore, most of the protocols were watered down from the original models. Also, China, India and all other nations must be included for any of this to have a chance of working.

Today you are seeing a growing number of climate scientists saying exactly that, and we must act quickly in a more aggressive manner than the protocols. Few media outlets challenged Kennedy Jr. on this misinformation. But he was fodder for the right-wing bloggers who wait for this kind of stuff. It reminded me of when the same RFK Jr. stated on one of his ventures to the Midwest that corporate hog farms were more of a threat than Osama Bin Laden! I may be able to understand in some small way what Kennedy Jr. meant by this statement (I don't have time to go into it now) but do you think the average American who hears this, then writes Kennedy off and anyone who speaks on the environment as nuts!

But the hypocrisy of RFK Jr. is legendary including his beating on everyone who drives an SUV or a pick-up truck while he flies in private jets (an SUV in the sky)! Or perhaps the money he makes from his family's oil stocks while attacking the oil industry (they need to be attacked but one would think you wouldn't be investing in them)! Or how about his work against the windmills off the coast of Cape Cod (it seems his family owns property there) so much for alternative energy as long as it's not in my back yard!

Robert Kennedy Jr. is not a scientist. He constantly misinforms the public on a variety of topics to engender his political bent. He is doing more damage than good. He has polarized many groups including those that we need (such as sportsmen's group who should be on the side of clean water, land and air). He wants only one sound coming from the word riverkeeper and that is his own voice but when only one voice his heard no voices and no truth are heard. If he wanted to be a scientist he should have gone to the university to be one, instead he pretends he's one, and the media and others have let him get away with it. He's a lawyer? There are lots of lawyers and many claiming to be environmental lawyers. I know a few who actually are. Some people refer to him as an Eco-Activist? What the hell does that mean? That's not a scientist. Anyone with an IQ over 12 should realize as a species we should all be Eco-Activists or we will perish. It's about time scientists started to speak out. I have had enough of boy Kennedy and maybe some you have too.

Many people and even some scientists may be enamored by the Kennedy mystique. I am not. Kennedy Jr. and his groups want to control their image and their message to control what the public thinks. In my opinion they are no better than the idiots in the White House. They are all cut from the same cloth. Little rich boys who want to control the world. As someone once said, "War is too important to be left to the Generals." And environmental science is too important to be left to the rich who want to misinform and control, whether they are on the right or the left!

Eugene Macri