A good Climate year

"2022 has been a good year in terms of climate, and it also reaffirms the positive trends toward a reduction in the intensity of climate change in many of the main indicators: temperature, Arctic sea-ice extent, sea level, and extreme phenomena. Let us not be fooled by those supported by our taxes. We have nothing to fear from climate change now or in the foreseeable future. Richard Feynman, one of the best physicists of the 20th century, said in 1966 that “science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts”, and Stuart Firestein teaches us that ignorance is the fuel that makes science advance. Those who believe they know what is wrong with the climate, who refuse to accept their ignorance, are not advancing science, but hindering its progress by slowing it down. They do not deserve to be called scientists because they do not serve the cause of science, which is to increase knowledge. They are only trying to line their pockets by defending an orthodoxy of clear political interest. It is clear why the climate panel is called “intergovernmental.” https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/01/07/2022-seventh-warmest-year-warming-slows-down/

I'm no scientist, but then neither are a lot of those who claim the title. Here's my take as a retired librarian; when there's drought in California, they whine climate change, and when it rains too much, they cry climate change, and when they have no plan to keep the reservoirs full, they blame climate change. It keeps the bureaucrats fat and the professors published.

Why you can’t reason with ignorance

I contribute to Huffington Post political FB page. I don’t call people names, slander the president or make biased statements.  I just contribute sourced statements.  Like this one about why the food stamp program is expanding as unemployment drops and so mean old Republicans want poor people to starve by cutting back. All you have to do is check a reasonable source like the USDA or a non-profit that works with the poor—left or right—and you see that recruiting of low income people was expanded with ARRA money--the money that was going to get people back to work in 2009 was used in part to add more people to SNAP (the new name for food stamps).  I even pointed out that the N in SNAP stands for nutrition, and that EBT cards can be used at fast food restaurants.  For that easily researched information I was told I was stupid and uninformed.  My posts are always researched and reasonable, and the left calls me a troll, stupid, tea bagger, racist, homophobe, etc.  That’s the level of political discourse.

Our fading heritage

Remember to vote Tuesday, but be informed--all politics is local as the saying goes. If there's anything distressing to me about our being in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is that Bush took us into war believing they deserved democracy, and meanwhile we are destroying it in our own country through desire for entitlements, redistribution of our wealth and property in the name of marxist "social justice," and corrupt, power hungry politicians on both sides of the aisle.

“How about a few civics questions? Name the three branches of government. If you answered the executive, legislative and judicial, you are more informed than 50 percent of Americans. The Delaware-based Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) recently released the results of their national survey titled "Our Fading Heritage: Americans Fail a Basic Test on Their History and Institutions." The survey questions were not rocket science.

Only 21 percent of survey respondents knew that the phrase "government of the people, by the people, for the people." comes from President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Almost 40 percent incorrectly believe the Constitution gives the president the power to declare war. Only 27 percent know the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits establishing an official religion for the United States. Remarkably, close to 25 percent of Americans believe that Congress shares its foreign policy powers with the United Nations.

Among the total of 33 questions asked, others included: "Who is the commander in chief of the U S. military?” "Name two countries that were our enemies during World War II." "Under our Constitution, some powers belong to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government?" Of the 2,508 nationwide samples of Americans taking ISI's civic literacy test, 71 percent failed; the average score on the test was 49 percent.

More at Walter E. Williams.

Counting on igorance

Dan Kennedy in Dumb and Dumber by Choice begins by pointing out that reading is down 20% in the last 25 years and that 40 million Americans don't read, can't read or won't read, and that most of the people who voted for Obama didn't read his books in which he outlined his socialist beliefs and anti-American plans. Nor does Congress read it's own legislation before it votes.

"This past week, some clowns in Congress proposed a tax credit of up to $3,500 a year for pet owners. It was reported as something amusing by the media. But is it funny – or frightening? Doesn’t it speak to the confidence our Royalty in Washington has about the ignorance and stupidity of the peons they rule? As does Obama’s proposed $250.00 bribe to seniors, the asinine contention that they will magically take $500-billion from Medicare without cutting the benefits it delivers, the even more asinine assertion that the near trillion dollar costs of the new socialized medicine plan will be offset by savings from stopping fraud and waste in the already existent, smaller socialized health care plan. These are all the very same kind of insults to intelligence.

All these insults display the same run-amok arrogance. The same power mad abuse of authority. The same contempt for you and me. They have decided that more than enough of us are ignorant idiots, easily pacified with empty promises and a piece of candy, happy to be done with all responsibility to think, busied with funny videos on YouTube and 146-character Tweets and X-Box and ordering complicated drinks at Starbucks. They know that five times as many people watch the climactic episodes of “American Idol” than watch TV news programs, let alone read a newspaper and news magazines. They know that more people participate in fantasy football leagues on one Sunday than watch “Meet the Press” in a year of Sundays. They are certain of – and rely on – the growing ignorance of the American public."