Recently I e-mailed some friends a link to a story in The Telegraph
(London, England) by a fellow named Christopher Booker:
Man-made Global Warming Disproved in 2008
One of my friends replied:
Utter nonsense. Christopher Booker has no scientific
credentials whatsoever:
Denialists scraping the bottom
Here is my response (with a few edits and corrections since I first sent it off). What do you think? (more…)
From the British newspaper – The Times of London.
This article analyzes the potential effects (miniscule)
and costs (enormous) of the current world-wide
plans to reduce global warming.
Why cut .0003 degree in Global Warming?
(Bjorn Lomberg is the author of The Skeptical Environmentalist.)
Hi folks –
We all know how great it is to be Americans, with our
core values and the Bill of Rights built into our Constituion.
But over the past 10- 20 years, there has been a steady
drumbeat of people who think we should try to more
closely emulate the example of our European friends,
and their counterparts in Canada.
Unfortunately, these trends seem to have had some unintended
consequences (as do so many well-intentioned gov’t interventions).
In Canada and Europe, they have completely degraded and in some
cases even eliminated the freedoms we cherish so deeply here
in the USA – freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in
some cases the freedom of religion as well.
In Canada, the author Mark Steyn has been brought up on
charges by provincial “Human Rights Commisions” because
some Muslims took offense at passages from his book
“America Alone” that was published in the US.
Mark Steyn’s Kangaroo Court prosecution
In another case, Ezra Levant, the publisher of the Weekly
Standard, was put through almost three years of hell
because he decided to reprint the Danish cartoons on
Muhammed in his Canadian newspaper as newsworthy –
to show what was causing all the brouhaha in Denmark:
Weekly Standard prosecution by Human Rights tribunal
And in Canada again, there is the case of the Rev. Stephen
Boisson, a youth pastor, who wrote a letter to the “Red Deer
Advocate” speaking out against the homosexual lifestyle. He’s
been persecuted for years by a human rights commission,
fined, and told he can not speak or write about the topic of
homosexuality ever again, and they ordered him to publish a
letter in the paper renouncing his religious views:
Rev. Stephen Boissoin case – Alberta Human Rights
In fact, before Mark Steyn’s highly publicized case, every
person brought up on “hate speech” charges before these
Human Rights tribunals was convicted – often in a process that
took years and was not subject to normal rules of evidence or
law. Kangaroo courts is too kindly a way to describe them.
In this link, you may have to scroll down to Ezra Levants remarks.
Ezra Levants remarks – I am a major crime scene!
And then there is Europe, where the Muslims have been burning
cars and buses in France for years, but the press is only
allowed to call them “unhappy youths” and is not permitted to
mention that they are immigrants or Muslims.
Frank vanHecke and Vlaams Belang party persecuted
Things have been bad in Holland for a while, but they have
gone completely insane in Belgium. You need to read about
how they now use the charge of “racism”:
Bart Debie – former police officer – City councilman
It is unbelievable.- and this form of Euro political correctness
is spreading and gaining currency.
So when Barack Obama spoke before a throng of over 50,000
in Berlin, and speaks approvingly of going in the same direction
and getting on the same page as our friends in Europe, I get
worried.
Our freedomos were very hard-won, but they can be very quickly
eroded, eaten away by the scourge of political correctness and
the temptation to say that no one should ever be “offended”.
I think that the risk of being offended is the price you pay to
live in a free society. Once the government starts to limit what
you can or can’t say (other than crying “Fire!” in a theater or
inciting to riot), then we have reached the point where we are
no longer free, “1984” has arrived, and we have to worry not only
about what we say, but what we write, and maybe even what
we think. Can the “thought police” be far behind?
Pat Acer
November 3, 2008
Pat Acer's Blog 