Free Republic

Is Meg Whitman too green for the conservative core of the Republican Party? Wednesday the San Jose Mercury News released the news that eMeg has offered $200,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund from her charitable foundation, $100,000 more than what was first thought. Then there is Steve Poizner’s Charitable Foundation accounting numbers. While all of the attention is on Meg’s gifts to environmental causes, nobody has asked the obvious question: “Why does Steve Poizner’s charitable foundation only have $7,000 as its balance?” How can a millionaire have such a small amount of cash in his (and his wife’s) charitable foundation?...

A Canadian study shows that people who buy green products tend to lie and steal more than those who don't: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Toronto, October 6, 2009 -Those lyin', cheatin' green consumers. Just being around green products can make us behave more altruistically, a new study to be published in a forthcoming issue of Psychological Science has found. But buying those same products can have the opposite effect. Researchers found that buying green can lead people into less altruistic behaviour, and even make them more likely to steal and lie than after buying conventional products. Buying products that claim to be made...

I want to know how the situation covered on Hannity today is not cause enough for armed insurrection by the people of California against the tyranny of Washington DC. I want to know how governor Schwarzenegger has not called out the national guard and by force of arms turned the water on. I want to know how any rational human being can look at the starving of an area, the destroyed landscape, the human misery caused by artificially starving an area of a natural resource and defend it. I want to know if our government would accept such actions committed...

EPA will also pursue a ban on the manufacture and distribution of lead tire weights in response to a 2009 petition from the Ecology Center, the Sierra Club and other NGOs requesting that the agency establish regulations prohibiting the manufacture, processing, and distribution of lead tire weights.

San Joaquin Valley farms are laying off workers and letting fields lie fallow as their water ration falls. Reporting from Mendota, Calif. -- Water built the semi-arid San Joaquin Valley into an agricultural powerhouse. Drought and irrigation battles now threaten to turn huge swaths of it into a dust bowl. Farmers have idled half a million acres of once-productive ground and are laying off legions of farmhands. That's sending joblessness soaring in a region already plagued by chronic poverty. [snip] This year has been even drier after a federal court ordered that pumps moving water through the system be turned...

OK, this is clearly a vanity post and not that earth-shattering, but I thought I would share it in light of the recent cap-and-trade news. We are currently in the process of buying a home from some liberal Obama devotees. We don't know them at all, but it is abundantly clear from their bumper stickers, buttons, Obama inaugural pens, books etc. Anyway, in the home inspection process of the negotiations, we discovered that the home has high levels of radon which need to be mitigated. The sellers refuse to pay for this correction which would be, roughly, $900. Now this...

Is the right responsible for inspiring murder, such as that of late-term abortionist George Tiller by Kansas native Scott Roeder?  Some certainly seem to think so.  For instance, the Friday before last Bill O'Reilly had as a guest on his show Joan Walsh, the editor of leftist news site Salon.com.  She appeared because she had criticized O'Reilly for engaging in what she called a "jihad" against Tiller.  Her thesis is that O'Reilly and, presumably, the rest of us who are passionately pro-life are culpable Tiller's death. Of course, this isn't a novel idea among the left.  If there is any...

The Green Left must be thrilled with the new Obama/Pelosi/Reid (OPR) troika in charge of the federal government. Three times already, the troika has blocked the development of domestic oil resources. During his first week in office, President Obama rescinded his predecessor's executive order permitting drilling on the continental shelf and in the Green River Formation. Both areas contain abundant oil-especially Green River (under Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah), which has recoverable shale-oil reserves three times the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia. Several weeks later, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar unilaterally canceled 77 oil and gas leases in Utah, on...

For me, purchasing shrimp is a moral dilemma. I have to have conversations with a pantheon of deities in order to just put a package of shrimp in my shopping cart. Why would something as simple and tummy-rubbing as shrimp do this to my already fragile psyche? Because the methods used to get it to my grocer’s seafood case are environmentally detrimental. Both wild-caught shrimp and farm-raised pose problems that just make me squirm. When I was younger I was Mr. Environmentalist. My school reports were always about natural power sources (that was before it was called “alternative energy” or...

A state law prevents new nuclear power plants from being built in Minnesota, and some say that means nuclear can't even be part of a discussion about the state's future energy needs. An effort to change that suffered a setback Thursday, when members of a House energy committee voted down a bill that would lift the ban. The 9-12 vote came after two days of hearings in which lawmakers heard testimony from more than two dozen people, including national experts, environmentalists, the nuclear industry and people who live near Minnesota's two existing nuclear plants. While the measure still could be...

JERUSALEM (Map, News) - An American demonstrator was critically wounded Friday in a clash between protesters and Israeli troops over Israel's West Bank separation barrier. Peace activists with the International Solidarity Movement said Tristan Anderson, of the Oakland, Calif., area, was struck in the head with a tear gas canister fired by Israeli troops. The military and the Tel Aviv hospital where Anderson was taken had no details on how he was hurt. "He's in critical condition, anesthetized and on a ventilator and undergoing imaging tests," said Orly Levi, a spokeswoman at the Tel Hashomer hospital. She described Anderson's condition...

Don’t Drink the Water by: Heather Latham, February 25, 2009 Is your bottled water unsafe? Are you just as well off drinking tap water as bottled water? According to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the answer to these questions may be yes. In 1999, the NRDC did a study “of more than 1000 bottles of 103 types of bottled water from many parts of the country.” The study was done on bottled water from California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas. They found that “according to government and industry estimates, about one fourth of bottled...

While everyone is distracted with the Pelosi Reid Obama artery–choking, cardiac arrest, Pork Barrel Spending Bill, congress is sneaking-ly trying to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Left-wing environmentalists are behind this bill to purposely undercut current progress toward affordable domestic energy. Essentially they will be stealing 300 million barrels of proven oil and 8.8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from any future use.

Environmental activist Lloyd Carter resigned from the California Water Impact Network late Monday afternoon -- after more than 100 people showed up outside Fresno City Hall to rally against his comments last week that disparaged farm workers.

From the school of thought that brought us such blockbuster idiocies as "No DDT Means Malaria" and "Blood For Owl: Move It Lumber" comes a new thriller with all the intrigue that only moronic environmentalists can evoke.Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the salty tale of "Pass The Salt - The Puget Sound Chronicles."Floyd and Mary Beth Brown at Townhall.com tell the story: Snow and ice cause an increase in car crashes. Car tires have little or no traction on these surfaces. We learn these basic facts in Driver's Ed 101. However, officials in Seattle, Wash. disregard these physics laws...

Green With Envy: Prius Owners Smile as Neighbors Fume Monday , August 25, 2008 By Meg Shannon Every morning, as Lynn Schmidt walks out of her Long Island, N.Y., home, opens the door to her baby-blue Prius, waves to her grumbling neighbor and pulls out of the driveway, she has every reason to smile. It's not just the 45 miles per gallon her gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle is getting. And it's not only that she can go three weeks without a fill-up. It's also because that through her choice of automobile, Lynn is doing what she considers her share of being...

James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, will today call for the chief executives of large fossil fuel companies to be put on trial for high crimes against humanity and nature, accusing them of actively spreading doubt about global warming in the same way that tobacco companies blurred the links between smoking and cancer. Hansen will use the symbolically charged 20th anniversary of his groundbreaking speech to the US Congress - in which he was among the first to sound the alarm over the reality of global warming - to argue that radical steps need to be taken...

Recent crises have reenergized the population control movement. Worried about food shortages? Reduce the number of babies born, its advocates argue. Concerned about global warming? Contracept or sterilize more women. Want to bring down gas prices? Promote abortion around the globe. As "Going Green" columnist Bryan Walsh puts it in the latest issue of Time magazine (June 2, 2008), "Population is the essential multiplier for any number of human ills." Not so long ago, the population controllers would have been embarrassed to openly promote such ideas. After all, they have cried wolf so many times that most sensible people have...

Ojai, California has an environmental activist that might be too liberal for even this liberal-leaning city of 8,000. Ojai is the home of Jennifer Moss, “The Pastie Lady”. Clad only in a G-string and flower shaped pasties, Moss pedals her bicycle around Ojai in her attention-grabbing get-up and campaigns for what she considers good causes. Jennifer might be labeled an “environmental exhibitionist”. In the year that “social artist” Moss has been “performing” for the environment, on Ojai’s main drag, she’s been arrested twice–and repeatedly ticketed for obstructing traffic. Irate parents have asked the City Council to force Moss to put...

With athletic grace, Ojai's "Pastie Lady," a self-described social artist and environmental activist... Moss may face a misdemeanor charge for taking off her clothes, down to pasties and G-string, outside the city's Catholic church on Easter Sunday, as parishioners were leaving morning Mass. "She took that opportunity to make her statement, and she appeared nude to most people," said Ojai Police Chief Bruce Norris. "We got several calls." Moss now says that going to the church was "poor judgment on my behalf." She chose Easter Mass, she said, because "there are so many bad people who are hurting and destroying...

Do you like paying Sky High Gas Prices? Thank A Democrat. Of all the campaign issues that the candidates are not talking about, gas prices lead the list. On the heels of the worst housing slump since WWII our economy faces an even bigger threat; Loss of mobility. This is obvious to anyone who needs to fill up their transportation yet the elite, those who create the environmental dictates American’s must contend with couldn’t care less. They refuse to even engage the subject as they attempt to lie their way into the White House. Where are the new refineries, nuclear...

A radical environmentalist was sentenced Thursday to one year and one day in federal prison for speaking publicly about how to make a homemade Molotov cocktail. Rodney Coronado apologized for his past use of violent tactics in the name of animal rights and the environment, and said he had cut his ties to groups, including the Earth Liberation Front. "I have done things in my past that I now regret," Coronado told U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey Miller. He said he wanted to serve his sentence and then get on with his life in Tucson, Ariz. The 41-year-old activist pleaded...

A major airline is under fire from environmentalists for flying an aircraft across the Atlantic with only five passengers on board. The flight from Chicago to London meant that the plane, a Boeing 777, used 22,000 gallons of fuel. It led to American Airlines being accused of reckless behaviour by green lobby groups. The latest "eco- scandal" flight took place on February 9 after American was forced to cancel one of its four daily services from Chicago to London. While it was able to find places for nearly all the passengers on the fully-booked flight, five still had to be...

Humor alert: if you have no sense for this sort of thing, please hit your ‘Back’ button now, else you risk a bad case of indignation. “Johnny! Open the door this instant!” “Leave me alone, ma!” “If you don’t open this door, I’m going to get your father! What are you doing in there so long anyway?” What is Johnny doing in there? Not what you think.

SAN DIEGO A radical environmentalist pleaded guilty Friday to distributing information on firebombs while giving a speech. The plea by Rodney Coronado, 41, came after his trial on the charge ended in September with a hung jury. His lawyers argued his innocence under the First Amendment. As part of the plea agreement, Coronado won't be prosecuted in other incidents, according to Gerald Singleton, his lawyer. "He really wants to give them a minimal pound of flesh and move on," Singleton said. Coronado is scheduled to be sentenced March 27. He could face up to 20 years in prison under post-Sept....

PALOMINAS — U.S. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva toured the ongoing border fence construction project at the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area on Monday to raise awareness for his proposed Borderlands Conservation and Security Act. Grijalva, representing Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, and fellow Democrat Gabrielle Giffords of the 8th District are the only two of Arizona’s eight U.S. representatives whose districts abut the U.S.-Mexico border. Giffords’ district includes all of Cochise County. Grijalva observed portions of the border fence and listened to concerns voiced by host Bill Odle, a nearby landowner who is opposed to the construction because it will...

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A superb article in the Australian popular science magazine Cosmos debunks the organic food and farming craze. On claims that organic is more nutritious, the article notes: A comprehensive review of some 400 scientific papers on the health impacts of organic foods, published by Faidon Magkos and colleagues in 2006 in the journal Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, concluded there was no evidence that eating organic food was healthier. Even if it can't be proved that eating organic is healthier, advocates claim it is nutritionally superior. Some studies, especially those reported by the organic farming advocate group, the...

A few hours after a $50 million condo project burned down, apparently in an eco-terror attack, Earth Liberation Front spokesman Rod Coronado stood in front of a San Diego audience and explained how to build a homemade Molotov cocktail. Now, Coronado is going to trial in federal court on a single count of distributing information on explosives, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction with the intent that his listeners commit illegal acts of violence, a charge that could land him in prison for up to 20 years under post-Sept. 11 legislation. Prosecutors say Coronado, a longtime environmental activist renowned...

You know those self-righteous, college-going hippies who smugly inform you that they purchase Noam Chomsky books and Che Guevara T-shirts as a form of rebellion against commerce and American consumption? This video provides some insight into that mentality.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007 A radical environmentalist from Canada was sentenced Tuesday to 37 months in federal prison, along with a judge’s admonishment that he consider taking a class on America’s system of democracy. Darren Todd Thurston, 37, was the fourth of 10 Operation Backfire defendants to be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Eugene — and the first to avoid being labeled a “terrorist” under federal terrorism law. He plead guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of arson in connection with damage done to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse Facility in Litchfield, Calif.,...

It might be the end of the world's most phallically sad SUV. But has the damage been done? The late Rev. Jerry Falwell? He was exactly like a Hummer H2. Oh yes he was. Bloated, arrogant, offensive to millions and deeply wrong in a thousand ways and yet blindly worshipped by a shockingly large and happily uninformed throng of devout minions for no other reason than he was, well, bloated, arrogant and wrong. Is that too harsh? Lacking in prudent subtlety? I'm completely OK with that. See, it is time for much rejoicing. It is time for an upraising of...

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton Wednesday demanded a probe into recent maintenance closures of several U.S. refineries, and questioned whether oil firms were guilty of price gouging. As anger mounts in the Congress over hikes in gasoline prices ahead of the key summer holiday season, the New York senator argued oil firms should not pass the cost of temporary shortages onto motorists. "Consumers simply cannot continue to absorb the crippling cost of these rising gas prices," Clinton said. "I am very concerned that oil companies are not being held responsible for their own infrastructure and are being allowed...

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said on Wednesday that fighting global warming has turned into a a 'religion' that replaced the ideology of communism and threatens to clip basic freedoms. The right-wing president, a free-market champion, wrote to the U.S. Congress that adopting tough environmental policies to fight climate change would have destructive impact on national economies. 'Communism has been replaced by the threat of an ambitious environmentalism,' Klaus wrote in response to questions from the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce. The U.S. House Subcommittee for Energy and Air Quality was due to hold a hearing on...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is proving once again that the Democrat label of “party of the people” is simply that: a label. Now, the San Francisco liberal is complaining about the size of the House speaker’s jet and requesting one much larger than Republican Dennis Hastert was provided. As noted in a FOX News story, following the attacks of September 11, 2001, “the Pentagon agreed to provide the House speaker, who is second in the line of presidential succession, with a military plane for added security during trips back home.” C-20 twin-engine aircraft Republican Dennis Hastert was the first speaker...

Las Vegas artist Melissa Henry dreams of a new community that lives in harmony with Mother Nature, a place where the world's greatest thinkers can ponder the world's greatest problems, a model for the city of future. Henry unveiled her dream, and a plea for the money necessary to realize it, Thursday at a fundraising event for Nova Town and Sage Era Resort and Community, a 24-acre community envisioned for the middle of the desert near Jean, about 30 miles south of Las Vegas. About 50 people attended the dinner at the Stirling Club at Turnberry Place to see the...

All species of wild seafood will collapse within 50 years, according to a new study by an international team of ecologists and economists. Writing in the Nov. 3 issue of the journal Science, the researchers conclude that the loss of marine biodiversity worldwide is profoundly reducing the ocean's ability to produce seafood, resist diseases, filter pollutants and rebound from stresses, such as climate change and overfishing. "Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together as working ecosystems, then this century is the last century of wild seafood," said study co-author Stephen Palumbi, professor of biological...

New evidence from unmanned underwater cameras has proved that dolphins are only pretending to be friendly to humans and that the moment that our backs are turned, a sour and indignant expression returns to their faces. The discovery, which will traumatise animal lovers the world over, was made when Californian marine biologist Mike Varney sensed that the smiling, chattering manner of dolphins and porpoises was somehow a little insincere. He set up a series of remote controlled underwater cameras to record ceteceans interacting with swimmers and divers and then filmed the same dolphins as they left their human companions. ‘It’s...

While this new world of corporate governance/ lobbyists/ privatization of the commons etc; seems difficult to understand (disguised as it is with buzz words – and meaningless jibberish), it’s really not as complex as one might think. After you learn how to ignore the superficial banalities, and get to the meat (if there is any) of the message being given. Most times you’ll hear just fluff and nutter talk – sounds important but isn’t. While we naturally focus upon local issues and concerns such as community development, roads, tons of garbage, forest access, tourism, sportsmen’s rights, lack of snow, no...

The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the mountains of Alaska for some sight-seeing. He was cruising along the campground in the Pope mobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods. A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a "Save the Whales" hat, and a "Bush Lied - People Died" T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically, thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10 foot grizzly. As the Pope watched, horrified, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a .44 magnum into the bear's...

The Mexican people aren't the only ones who realize that the "country" known as Mexico is no longer a civilized nation. Thousands of animals are leaving the 3rd world cesspool that should be an oil rich world superpower. El Cujo, a miniature Chihuahua who recently crossed the border complained about Mexico's poor health conditions. "I may eat crap, nibble my butt, and look like a rat with acromegaly, but I don't want to live in a country that has to send ambulances to another country for emergency healthcare. El Cujo also knows that US doctors don’t extort families of foreigners...

I want to know who the Head Salamander is. I want to know the name of The Big Lizard. I want to know who is giving the big bucks to the Save Our Springs Alliance to stop development in the Barton Springs watershed. But I may never find out, because of an interesting little gem of irony that I find particularly amusing. The Save Our Springs folks — the same frog-fondlers pushing an amendment that would make the city post all information online in real time in the name of freedom of information — won't release the names of their...

The summer movie season starts around Memorial Day, and movie companies are striving to turn around their box office woes of last year by putting out what they feel to be high quality films like “Mission: Impossible III,” “X-Men 3,” and “Debbie Does Everyone and Everything In Sight 26.” (But let me tell you, you almost have to see “Debbie Does Everyone and Everything in Sight 25” to get the full impact of the sequel.) Among the films vying for your ticket dollar is “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary by Al Gore addressing, surprise surprise, global warming. It hasn’t even...

"Al Gore is Willy Loman on acid" I love to read the New Yorker, especially the dog eared copies found in the dentist’s office, just before the boys in the white shirts with the buttons across the shoulders begin to bang away on a recalcitrant molar or make the KaVo high-speed drill sing deep within a shattered bicuspid. But I really got a kick out of perusing the latest hagiographical send up to that madcap and topsy-turvy traveling bard of global warming, Mr. Al Gore, by Mr. David Remnick, an exalted wordsmith far above my small mean station in life....

Teaching of environmental subjects has apperently led to an increasing number of students suffering from anxiety disorders. (Woodland, Vermont) Psychologists, psychiatrists, and public school counselors are reporting an increasing number of cases of anxiety disorders in students that are taught environmental subjects. The problem seems to be the most prevalent in kindergarten through 6th grade, when students are at ages where impressionable minds accept new information authoritatively. Complaints of generalized anxiety, school phobia, nightmares, and insomnia are the most common. Some teachers that cover environmental materials even report incidents of fights in the classroom. "The altercations usually end up with...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging an environmental activist with teaching others how to start an arson fire during a 2003 lecture in San Diego, where the costliest act of ecoterrorism in U.S. history had just occurred. Prosecutors said Rodney A. Coronado gave the lecture 15 hours after a $50 million fire destroyed a massive apartment complex in a north San Diego neighborhood. The indictment, however, does not link Coronado to that fire. Coronado, 39, was arrested Wednesday in Tucson, Ariz., on a charge of distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices and...

TURIN, Italy - The Olympic flame continued burning at full force Thursday as organizers ignored a request from environmentalists that it be turned down in honor of the first anniversary of a key global warming treaty. The cauldron, which is nearly 200 feet high, consumes 1,500 cubic meters of natural gas per hour. Organizers said the flame could go out if they reduce the gas flow. "If you reduce it too little then there's no visible change, if you reduce it too much you risk extinguishing it," Giuseppe Gattino, spokesman for the Turin organizing committee, said. "It's not the same...

When Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, people predicted a life-threatening “toxic soup.” It never formed. They expected Lake Ponchartrain to suffer or even die as contaminated water from New Orleans was pumped into it. That didn’t occur. Then they waited for returning residents to pack emergency rooms with lung ailments from the toxic dust, contaminated soil and mold. That hasn’t happened yet. So far, state Epidemiologist Dr. Raoult Ratard said, nothing appears out of the ordinary with illness in the New Orleans area. While Hurricane Katrina caused massive destruction, many dire environmental predictions failed to materialize, state officials say. Initial...

Water, water everywhere and we are duped into buying it bottled. Consumers spend a collective $100 billion every year on bottled water in the belief--often mistaken, as it happens--that this is better for us than what flows from our taps, according to environmental think tank the Earth Policy Institute (EPI). For a fraction of that sum, everyone on the planet could have safe drinking water and proper sanitation, the Washington, D.C.-based organization said this week.

Given to environmentalist lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose fight for "green" energy apparently stops as soon as the results might spoil his view. Kennedy penned an irate New York Times op-ed in December, condemning the proposed building of wind turbines around the Nantucket Sound. While Kennedy criss-crosses the country in his jet-fuel-burning private plane stumping for alternative energy sources, he wants an exception for his own backyard. Greenpeace spokesman Chris Miller was not pleased, saying: "It's about a vision for healthy oceans, not the view from the Kennedy compound."