BY BECKY FENGER | FEBRUARY 1, 2012
Hoaxes and rip offs
All you global-warming alarmists can call off the sirens now. A sizeable gaggle of distinguished scientists from around the world authored a letter published in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 27 which asserts that no drastic action is required to address global warming. Politicians, take note.
In fact, new temperature data reported from Britain shows that the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years (despite the presence of Sophia Vergara). We could be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that had the Thames River freezing over again as it did in the 17th Century, according to NASA scientists who can never be accused of being global warming skeptics.
Leading climate scientists this month stated that the sun is now heading towards a "grand minimum" in its output, threatening cold summers, bitter winters and a shortening of the season available for growing food. Should we ask Al Gore to go on tour to encourage folks to drive bigger cars, keep farting, and return to Freon? Naw, since that never had a measurable effect in the past.
Dr. Nicola Scafetta of Duke University argues that, if the models used by the alarmists had been correct, there should have been steady warming from 2000 until the present. That has not happened. "If temperatures continue to stay flat or start to cool again, the divergence between the models and recorded data will eventually become so great that the whole scientific community will question the current theories," Dr. Scafetta said. Halleluiah!
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From my friend Paul Jacob comes this story of a stunning pension rip-off in Illinois. You've got to hand it to lobbyist Steven Preckwinkle, political director of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, who spiked his pension benefits by perhaps a million dollars over the course of his lifetime by working as a substitute teacher for one single day. One day!
Preckwinkle earned only $93 that day, but snagged a more lucrative lifetime teacher's pension, yet based on his pay as a lobbyist, which doubled the average teacher's take.
That's not all. Illinois has a program, rightly controversial, that allows legislators to hand out a couple of college scholarships to constituents each year. Yep. Two of Preckwinkle's children and a nephew got their college costs covered. Some people just live right, I guess.
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Here's another downer. Valencia College economics professor Jack Chambless asked his students (mostly sophomores) on the first day of class to write a 10-minute essay on what the American Dream means to them. Then he had them write specifically what they wanted the American government to do to help them achieve that dream.
About 10 percent of the students wrote that they wanted the government to leave them alone, not tax them too much, and let them regulate their own lives. Are you ready for this? About 80 percent of the students, however, said they wanted the government to give them these things: Free tuition; free health care; jobs; money for a house; money for retirement and money for me.
Many of them said they wanted the government to tax wealthier individuals so that they would have a better life. Here's an excerpt from one of the essays: "As human beings, we are not really responsible for our own acts, and so we need government to control those who don't care about others."
Dr. Chambless thinks the students probably got their sense of entitlement from public schools who seldom, if ever, teach the principles of self responsibility as espoused by Adam Smith or Friedrich Hayek.
Using the American government to plunder people to support our American dream is morally and constitutionally wrong, the good professor opines. Bless you, Chambless.
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Quoteworthy:
"The biggest emitter of toxic emissions is the mouth of Senator Barbara Boxer."
~ Steve Forbes
