Humans! Get Over Yourself! ... by Alan Caruba

Humans! Get Over Yourself!

By Alan Caruba

The greatest absurdity has been the belief that human beings have any influence over the planet on which they live. The Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest of the Solar System’s four terrestrial planets. It is the only planet that sustains life as we know it and humans came late to the party.

The Earth is dated to be 4.5 billion years old in a universe that is increasingly believed to have always existed, despite the Big Bang theory. Such evidence as exists suggests it is the only planet that has given rise to the evolution of life from self-replicating molecules, starting around 4 billion years ago.

Scientists have given names to the various periods of time of the Earth’s existence. These include the oldest, the Devonian, followed by the Silurian, Ordovician, Cambrian, Paleocene, Cretaceous, Jurassic, and Permian among others.

Robert W. Felix, in his book, “Magnetic Reversals and Evolutionary Leaps”, notes that “For all intents and purposes, though, life on Earth began about 580 million years ago at the beginning of the Cambrian Period, when new life suddenly exploded across the Earth.” “A dizzying burst of shelled forms took place, and virtually all major forms of animal life.” This is known as the Cambrian explosion and Felix notes there was an “abrupt change from simple life forms to more advanced. No one knows how or why it happened. What we do know is that the pattern has always been the same—sudden—always sudden.”

What we do know is that mass extinctions have marked every period since the Earth’s beginning. Following the Cambrian explosion around 535 million years ago there have been at least five major mass extinctions, all pre-dated the existence of mankind. Indeed, mankind didn’t begin to gain traction as a species until the end of the last continental glaciation—ice age—about 10,000 years ago.

The Archaic Homo sapiens, anatomically human, date back about 500,000 years, but what we regard as modern humans did not make an appearance until 200,000 years ago and the earliest indicators of anything resembling Homo sapien sapiens, humanity, date back a mere 35,000 years ago.

Civilization is defined in a variety of ways, but is usually dated to the development of agriculture and the organization of human life around villages and cities. The Jews date their history back 3,500 years, but some date their arrival to 5,000 years ago. The last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago, so humans as we know ourselves didn’t begin until well after that event.

We are now 11,500 years since the last ice age and the next one is due any day now. The Earth has been in one of its cyclical cooling periods for a decade, the result of less solar activity, also a cyclical event.

Humans, you need to stop worrying about “controlling” carbon dioxide and stop passing laws to reduce its emissions. CO2 is 3.618% and man-made CO2 is even more miniscule, only 0.117%. Without CO2 we and everything else dies.

As the late Dixie Lee Ray, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, noted, “Such increases (of CO2) have occurred in the past without any help from us at all, and this time is probably no different. Most likely, the causes were and still are colossal cosmic forces quite outside human ability to control.”

The Earth’s atmosphere is composed primarily of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. Water vapor is being constantly recycled from the atmosphere to the Earth and absent the atmosphere no life would exist on Earth.

The other major factor affecting our lives is the Earth’s magnetic fields. The magnetic poles drift and periodically reverse. The magnetosphere deflects particles in the solar wind. The collision between the magnetic field and the solar winds forms the Van Allen radiation belts that protect the Earth.

The most recent magnetic reversal occurred approximately 700,000 years ago and reversals appear to occur in sync with ice ages and with the procession of the equinoxes.

We just experienced a winter solstice, one of the equinoxes marking the seasons as the Earth hurtles through space, circumnavigating the Sun, completely indifferent to human beings and all other life. In the southern hemisphere, they had a summer solstice.

As the human race continues to grow in numbers; it reached 6,803,000,000 by the end of 2007 and is projected to reach seven billion by 2013, it is worth keeping in mind that only 13.3% of the Earth surface is arable; which is to say is available for growing crops that in turn feed us and the livestock we grow.

Only about one-eighth of the Earth’s surface is suitable for humans to live on. Three-quarters is covered by oceans, while half of the land area is either desert (14%), high mountains (27%) or unsuitable unless you are an Eskimo or Bedouin. Most of us live in or near cities.

The relatively short history of humans demonstrates a capacity for violence documented in myths, the Bible, and recorded documentation of wars without end.

There is little evidence that murder, individual and organized, for any reason or no reason will end. The primary change of the last century was the development of nuclear weapons to destroy humans in numbers that defy the imagination.

So, humans, get over yourself!

You do not control the biosphere of life on Earth. You do not control its natural calamities. Your attempts at governance are fought with conflict, conquest, and oppression.

After the next magnetic reversal, the survivors—if there are any—will likely learn nothing from the experience.

Alan Caruba
****************
© Alan Caruba, 2011

Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" his popular blog and thereafter on dozens of other websites and blogs. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. To visit his Facebook page, click here For information on his professional skills, Caruba.com is the place to visit.

America’s Coming War With China

America’s Coming War With China
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

Is America prepared for a “shooting war” with China? Well, that WAS a rhetorical question. Of course, the answer is an emphatic NO!

It seems important (at least to me), these days, with news that China has deployed a new anti-ship ballistic missile made especially to take out aircraft carriers.

With America’s aircraft carriers regularly plying the ocean waters, in and around the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea, one would have to conclude the Chinese developed this particular missile for the mission of taking out, or rendering useless, America’s ocean going pride, her aircraft carriers.

The new Chinese missile is the "D" version of China's DF-21 medium-range missile. It involves firing the mobile missile into space, returning it into the atmosphere and then maneuvering it to its target.

Military officials consider using ballistic missiles against ships at sea to be a difficult task that requires a variety of air, sea and space sensors, navigation systems and precision guidance technology - capabilities not typical of other Chinese missiles. (From the Washington Times HERE)

With North Korea kicking up it’s heels… again, with America’s treaty with Taiwan (to come to it’s aid if China decides to re-attach it) and with Japan, another country we have promised to assist in the event it is attacked… by anyone … this should be of enormous interest for America and a source of considerable concern for the White House. All these countries lie near China and American aircraft carriers in waters near those countries present convenient targets for China’s new ship-killing missile. And we haven’t mentioned the Philippines, Vietnam, and much, if not all of Southeast Asia.

Obama’s foreign policy has been an abysmal failure for America. In fact, it is worse than a failure. As an example, the recent “SALT” treaty with Russia leaves the US naked against a missile attack.

I suppose the Obama Regime believes we owe China so much money they would not dare attack us. WRONG!

As bad as the Obama Regime is at managing domestic problems, it is even worse at handling foreign problems.

The article in the Washington Times goes on to say the following: “Richard Fisher, a China military-affairs specialist, said the new ASBM is only one part of a series of new Chinese weapons that threaten the region.” "When we add the ASBM to the PLA's [People's Liberation Army's] growing anti-satellite capabilities, growing numbers of submarines, and quite soon, its fifth-generation fighter, we are seeing the erection of a new Chinese wall in the western Pacific, for which the Obama administration has offered almost nothing in defensive response," Mr. Fisher said.”

The article quotes Mr. Fisher as having said: “"Clearly, China's communist leadership is not impressed by the administration's ending of F-22 production, its retirement of the Navy's nuclear cruise missile, START Treaty reductions in U.S. missile warheads, and its refusal to consider U.S. space warfare capabilities. Such weakness is the surest way to invite military adventurism from China," he added.”

Yes, America has problems at home. But we cannot slacken our defenses abroad. Even now the US government is considering “cut-backs” in defense. This kind of thinking is a godsend to our enemies, of which China is, in my opinion, “numero uno.”

It has been my contention for many decades now that, eventually, America and China will ultimately clash in a world war. China has interests around the globe now, so any war with China will, of necessity, be a global war.

If history has taught us anything it is that a weak US President invites trouble from America’s enemies. Obama is such a weak President.

Leftist and liberal presidents usually are weak in defending America. It appears they are embarrassed for being an American citizen, and they jump at every chance to apologize to the world for what THEY consider America’s mistakes. Such weakness only emboldens America’s enemies and makes a laughing stock of America’s President. More importantly, it places the people of the United States in danger.

One more apology is required of Obama -- an apology to the American people for his lack of interest in their defense.

That is one apology I don’t expect we will ever hear.

J. D. Longstreet

Conservative Americans and a Conservative Political Party

Conservative Americans and a Conservative Political Party
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet


I am pounding a drum, upon which, I have beat a rather consistent rhythm over the past few years -- the need for a third political party for America –and this time a truly conservative political party.

I am not convinced the Tea Party is in the fight for the long haul. I suspect the Republican Party feels the same way. I expect we will see a flurry of activity, when the new congress opens this week, orchestrated by the GOP and designed to give the impression that they (the GOP) does intend to comply with the demands of the Tea Party. But, I am afraid – it is only another façade and not intended to last very long.

Washington’s power has a beguiling effect upon new comers. For the first time in their lives many f them will know REAL power and they will find it compelling and addictive. Soon they will fall in line with all the other power brokers in Washington and, for all intents and purposes, become useless to the conservative cause in America. The GOP is counting on that and so is the Democratic Party.

Don’t misunderstand. The Tea Party was a grand idea and it produced a firestorm of much need patriotism in America. It was the force that brought a near purge of the Congress of those wishy-washy, limp-wristed politicians who had nearly brought America to her knees.

As the new Congress goes to work this week, Tea Party members and supporters, myself among them, are concerned that the Tea Party will not press home its advantage and make an effective effort to rescue America from the socialist agenda of the Obama Regime and liberal-socialists in Congress.

So, I am stating what I believe to be a fact: Conservatives need a political party of their own in order to have the wherewithal, and the power, to make a difference in the Congress, itself.

The new Presidential Campaign has already begun. Frankly, as of today, I see no way we conservatives can beat Obama in November of 2012 -- without an organized political party with all the tools needed to get the job done.

There is also the specter hovering over the GOP of another slate of impotent candidates for president that conservative voters will not support -- ensuring the defeat of the GOP in its run for the Oval Office.

For instance, there is absolutely no way we conservatives will vote for someone who doesn’t represent a drastic change from the current policies of spend, spend, borrow some more -- and spend it, too!

And another thing: I am tired of "big tent political parties.” I'm tired of being told I must share the GOP tent with liberal Republicans, and moderate Republicans, and the hosts of special interest groups who feel it is in their best interests to be under that tent. I want a party I can point to with pride and say, that’s my party -- a CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL PARTY!

Yes, I AM convinced that we can have such a political party. It will take work, determination, and the ability to ignore the naysayers who insist that a third party will not work.

I must tell you… as I have before … that I have a great deal of difficulty supporting a Republican Party, which does not represent me. And I repeat: I will leave the Republican Party, which has been my home since I registered to vote the first time, on my 21st birthday, in South Carolina... as soon as I have a political party, which actually represents me, as an alternative.

As I wrote two years ago: “We desperately need a Conservative Party. Someone in this formerly great country must step up to fight the rampant socialism the current crop of Congresspersons and Senators and even the President are “locking-in” in the minds of the those voters not equipped to think for themselves and not in possession of all the material they need to make an informed decision in the voting booth. They won in 2008 because they bought Obama’s message of socialism. It was a sparkling victory for ignorance in the USA.
If we conservatives want to change that, then we are going to have to do it ourselves and stop relying on the Republican Party to do it for us. That means we MUST have a viable Third Party… and the sooner the better!”

Some readers will think, I suspect, that I am jumping the gun – again. That’s OK. Maybe I am. But I must tell you; I have this gut-wrenching feeling that we conservatives are about to be snookered again.

I am expecting the current GOP leaders to make a great show of complying with the wishes of the Tea Party conservatives early on and then slip right back in to their “democrat-lite” mode while the country flounders on the verge of sinking beneath the waves of history for ever.
I am convinced that America needs a third political party – a conservative political party -- and I will revisit this issue in the future.

J. D. Longstreet

EPA’s Texas power grab ... by Paul Driessen and Willie Soon

EPA’s Texas power grab
Hollywood climate monsters are a lousy basis for energy and economic policy
Paul Driessen and Willie Soon

Any Texas granddaddy will tell you he’s seen it all, when it comes to weather and climate extremes. Tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves, blizzards, droughts, flash floods, and storms that bring unique combinations of wind, dust, thunder and hail.

Any Lone Star citizen will point out that Texas is America’s leading producer of crude oil, natural gas and (heavily subsidized) wind-based energy. It has the second largest workforce and gross state product in the USA, produces more electricity than any other state, and refines one-fourth of our petroleum – for a country that is 85% dependent on fossil fuels.

Mess with Texas, and the damages will reverberate throughout our nation.

So why is the US Environmental Protection Agency sending federal agents to Texas – to arrest the state’s economy for the “crime” of emitting carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4)? Texas is also challenging EPA over other arbitrary new air pollution standards, but that’s another article.

Cowboys and cowgirls recognize CO2 as the plant-fertilizing “gas of life” and CH4 as natural gas and cow farts. Scientists will tell you carbon dioxide is 0.0387% of Earth’s atmosphere and methane is 0.000179 percent. Anyone with an eighth grade economics education or ounce of common sense knows CO2 is what results when CH4 heats homes, generates electricity, fuels cars and factories, and makes our health, welfare and living standards possible.

But EPA says they are “greenhouse gases” that cause “runaway global warming.” So the ideologues who run this agency are telling Texas to start regulating its power plants and refineries into bankruptcy or oblivion – or EPA goons will take over its air quality programs and economy.

Since few cowboys and cowgirls – or even college grads or most PhDs – are experts on “greenhouse” gases and radiation physics, let’s take a quick look at what’s behind these EPA claims.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says her agency’s actions will “protect human health and welfare” and “ensure environmental justice,” which are “threatened” by rising temperatures and “global climate disruption.” Let EPA regulate these evil greenhouse gases, she promises, and the climate will remain “stable” and average global temperatures will never be more than 2 degrees higher than now. Bunk.

Ms. Jackson willfully ignores the immense harm that driving up energy prices will have on jobs, state revenues, people’s health and welfare, and even human lives. But her views are supported by scientists like Dr. Richard Alley, Michael Mann’s colleague at Pennsylvania State University, all handsomely paid by EPA and other federal agencies for raising alarms about global warming.
Alley was recently extolled in the New York Times (which no real, red-blooded Texans reads) as a “major voice of climate science.” He says that under a true worst-case scenario of doubling the concentration of CO2 and methane, our planet will fry due to 18 to 20 degrees F of global warming.

This much gas of life and cow farts, the great professor insists, would result in “an addition of heat so radical that it would render the planet unrecognizable to its present-day inhabitants.” He bases this horrifying prediction on computer models that assume human CO2 and CH4 control our climate – not the sun and dozens of powerful, complex, interacting natural forces.

The fact is, mankind has been emitting gas of life and cow farts since time immemorial. However, according to MIT’s Dr. Richard Lindzen, we are still only 80% of the way toward doubling the greenhouse gas levels found in our atmosphere at the start of the Industrial Revolution (0.0280%). But taking Dr. Alley’s computer models and doomsday predictions at their word, 80% of the way should mean temperatures in the great state of Texas should have warmed some 14 to 16 degrees between 1860 and 2010.

Hooo-weee … is that HOT, or what?

Something doesn’t seem quite right here. National Climate Data Center studies show Texas’ annual mean temperature fluctuates from year to year – but has generally been 65 to 71 degrees F, from 1895 through 2010. (We don’t have reliable data before 1895.) From the rear view of flatulent Texas longhorns, that’s a change of just 6 degrees, up or down, with no two years of identical weather, for 116 years!

Where in tarnation are those extra 10 to 12 degrees of warming that Professor Alley (in his generous spirit of “worst-case scenarios”) assures us are happening? Did the Grinch steal them? Or are those missing degrees just lurking out there, waiting to surprise us the instant CO2 levels hit 560 ppm (0.0560% of the atmosphere)? Does nature actually work that way: no response, no response – then, bam!?!? Disaster!

He and Professor Mann and Penn State sure did get a lot of millions from us taxpayers, to cook up all these disaster scenarios. So there must be something to them. (One of their buddies got a pile of taxpayer cash for saying dinosaur farts “may have contributed to global warming” 70 million years ago!)

But farmers and ranchers in Texas just cannot find that missing “heat” in their cows or plants or wild grasses. No one can find that “heat” in hurricane, tornado, hail or dust storm records, either. In fact, NOAA tells us, strong tornadoes, among top-three ranks in wind and damage scales, have been occurring less and less since record intensities during 1950s and 1960s.

That’s just the opposite of what the good professor, his sidekick Al Gore and their Climate Doomsday Gang say will happen. But isn’t that good news for Texas?

In fact, using their logic, we could argue that, since CO2 has been rising while tornado intensity is falling, maybe we should increase carbon dioxide even more, to eventually turn tornadoes into dust devils. Or say decreasing CO2 emissions could cause stronger tornadoes and damage to ramp up again.

Somehow, we don’t think carbon dioxide or methane has quite this power. We suspect there are a lot of other, far stronger, natural forces at work – causing all kinds of cyclical climate patterns. Ms. Jackson and Dr. Alley’s computer-created monsters might have a role in Frankenstein, raptor and blood-lusting alien movies. They should play no role in dictating Texas energy use and economic decisions.

So now the alarmists from the Climate Doomsday Gang have a new scare. Global warming from rising CO2 is going to cause more vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever and West Nile Virus. Are you a-trembling in your bull-doodoo -covered boots now?

If Texas didn’t have decent history books in its classrooms, people might actually buy this scary story. But as those books show, malaria was eradicated in Texas and the USA during the 1950s, thanks to DDT, window screens and medical advances – not because the state’s climate got too hot or cold, wet or dry for anopheles mosquitoes.

Moreover, from 1980 to 1999 there were 62,514 cases of dengue fever (from mosquito bites) in northeastern Mexico. Meanwhile, just across the border, only 64 cases of dengue were counted in Texas. The disparate disease rates are clearly not due to the climate, but to differences in housing, medical care, wealth and technology.

The alarmists need to get their computer models, scenarios, scare stories and climate cops out of Texas. If they don’t, Governor Perry and his Texas Rangers should arrest them for violating Lone Star rights to energy, jobs, health and the American Dream.
______________
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality. Willie Soon is an independent climate scientist and solar physicist. Both are pro-Texas climate rationalists, who rely on evidence-based science and don’t get spooked by GIGO computer scenarios and Hollywood monsters.

Veteran Book Reviewer Protests ALA Youth Media Award for Books Advocating Homosexuality

Veteran Book Reviewer Protests American Library Association
Youth Media Award for Books Advocating Homosexuality
Bookviews Editor, Alan Caruba, Says Genre is Harmful to Society

A charter member of the National Book Critics Circle and editor of Bookviews, a monthly Internet report about new fiction and non-fiction, Alan Caruba has issued a protest of the forthcoming American Library Association Youth Media Award called The Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award for books that focus on homosexuality and bisexuality.

In the January edition of the Bookviews section devoted to books for children and young adult readers, Caruba includes a protest of the awards, the winners of which will be announced on January 10th.

Caruba took issue with the ALA statement that said, “The demand for quality gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender (GLBT) children’s books continues to grow as the nation becomes more diverse and the ALA will be awarding a young adult book that brings these issues to the forefront.”

“I would argue that the nation is not becoming ‘more diverse’ when it comes to fundamental moral values,” said Caruba, adding that “I regard this award as harmful to a society being harangued to accept homosexuality as ‘normal’.”

Caruba went on to say, “I long have had a problem with books claiming unscientifically and falsely that the Earth is either experiencing “global warming” or will be. This hoax was discredited in 2009”, said Caruba, referring to the release of emails between key scientists who are alleged to have manipulated climate data.

“Like environmentalism, much of whose claims are baseless,” said Caruba, “homosexuality is being pushed on children as an acceptable, alternative lifestyle. I do not believe most parents want their children to be exposed to such advocacy.”

The ALA is well known for its nearly twenty annual awards that include the Randolph Caldecott, John Newbery, and Coretta Scott King awards. “I was frankly unaware of the Stonewall Award,” said Caruba.

When the National Book Critics Circle was founded in April 1974, Caruba was among the first reviewers to be invited to join. He is also a longtime member of the American Society of Journalists and Author, formerly the Society of Magazine Writers. Since 1979 he has been a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and has been a longtime member of the National Association of Science Writers as well.

“I believe there is something particularly insidious concerning books for children about homosexual and other aberrant lifestyles. It is, as often as not, advocacy, not of so-called ‘diversity’, but of a critical choice a child might make regarding his or her own sexual orientation,” says Caruba.

“It is a subject that should be entirely the decision and under the control of parents, not teachers, and not librarians.”

Caruba has been writing Bookviews in one form or another for more than forty years since his days as a journalist when he syndicated it as a column. Later Bookviews became a newsletter and, with the advent of the Internet, it became a site that was later converted to a blog.

He resides at the Gaslight Commons in South Orange, N.J. These days he is best known as a daily commentator on headline issues that include politics, science, national security, energy and others. Drawn frp, his blog, “Warning Signs”, he is a daily contributor to CanadaFreePress.com and his commentaries are widely disseminated on many leading news and opinion websites and blogs.

--END--

http://bookviewsbyalancaruba.blogspot.com/2010/12/bookviews-january-2011.html
also http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/


The text of the ALA news release below

ALA adds GLBT youth literature award to prestigious
Youth Media Award announcements

CHICAGO – As the publishing industry prepares for the announcement of the American Library Association’s (ALA) Youth Media Awards, authors and illustrators of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) literature for youth will have their fingers crossed in hopes of receiving the coveted Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award.

The Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award joins the ALA Youth Media Award announcements, which include such prominent literary prizes as the Coretta Scott King Book Award, John Newbery Medal, Michael Printz Award, Randolph Caldecott Medal, Schneider Family Book Awards and 13 other distinguished awards for youth literature.

The award is administered by the ALA’s Stonewall Book Awards Committee of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Round Table and is awarded annually to English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience.

“Children’s books regarding the GLBT experience are critical tools in teaching tolerance, acceptance and the importance of diversity,” said ALA President Roberta Stevens. “Our nation is one of diverse cultures and lifestyles and it is important for parents, educators and librarians to have access to quality children’s books that represent a spectrum of cultures.”

The demand for quality GLBT children’s books continues to grow as the nation becomes more diverse. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services an estimated 14 million children have a gay or lesbian parent, and the most current U.S. Census data shows that one-third of female partner households and one-fifth of male partner households contain children.

Recognized worldwide for the high quality they represent, the ALA Youth Media Awards guide parents, educators, librarians and others in selecting the best materials for youth. Selected by committees composed of librarians and other literature and media experts, the awards encourage original and creative work in the field of children’s and young adult literature and media. The members of the 2011 Stonewall

Book Awards Committee are: Chair Lisa Johnston, Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar, Va..; W. Stephen Breedlove, Connelly Library, La Salle University, Philadelphia; Amanda Clay, Lakeview Elementary School, Norman, Okla.; Dave Combe, Ventura County Library, Ventura, Calif.; Lewis Day, Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; Sharon Flesher-Duffy, Nashua High School Media Center, Nashua, N.H.; Roland Hansen, Columbia College Library, Chicago.; Analisa Ornelas, Innovative Interfaces, San Francisco; Stephen Patrick, Jonesborough, Tenn.; Jason Phillips, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.; Roseann Szalkowski, Skokie Public Library, Skokie, Ill.; Gypsey Teague, Clemson University, Clemson, S.C.; Corwin Watts, Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln, Neb.; and Rose Yndigoyen, St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn, N.Y.

For information on the Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award and other ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/yma.