Free Republic

Wealth Does Not Equal Wisdom, Especially When it Comes to PhilanthropyWhat’s with these billionaires? Ted Turner donates hundreds of millions to the United Nations, which is well known for its incredible corruption. The UN oversaw the diversion of tens of billions in the Iraqi Oil for Food Scandal. This literally took away food, shelter, and clothing from its own men, women and children. The highest UN officials oversaw the multi billion dollar scams. The UN "peace keepers" traded food for sexual favors in Africa. After some 17 resolutions demanding to bring Iraq into compliance, the UN still chose to subvert...

DDT Saves Lives - November 8, 2005 It's horrifying enough that malaria -- a preventable and curable disease -- claims one million lives every year and that most victims are Africa's pregnant women and children under five. Compounding this tragedy, however, is the global lobbying effort against the most effective method of combating the mosquito-borne illness: spraying outdoors and inside houses with the insecticide DDT...

During the few minutes you spend reading this column, malaria will kill six Africans and sicken about 3,000 more, mostly children and pregnant women -- a rate of more than one million deaths and 500 million illnesses annually among the 2.2 billion people who live in malarial regions like Africa. There’s legislation moving through the Senate right now intended to reduce this tragic toll.U.S. taxpayers spend about $200 million annually on malaria control efforts. Ironically, almost none of this money is spent to kill or repel the mosquitoes that spread disease. The money is instead spent on anti-malarial drugs and...

In Dzumeri in Limpopo province, men in blue overalls are readying themselves for the malaria season. Armed for battle against one of Africa's deadly diseases, they brandish canisters filled with the deadly insecticide DDT. Despite the use of the chemical being banned in many countries over the damage it can cause to the environment and health concerns, South Africa says it has enabled it to drastically reduce malaria incidents in the past four years. When sprayed properly it can keep mosquitoes carrying malaria at bay for more than eight months. Donors shy away from interventions like indoor residual spraying Richard...

1. The Worst Crime of the 20th Century “Which kills more: ideology or religion?”1  asks author Andrew Kenney in the title of what is certainly one of the more startling pieces I’ve read in some time. For Kenney, however, it’s not the meat of that question that’s really up for debate, and it’s not his answer to the meat of it that’s startling; after all, a summary finger count shows that the man who favors the religious wars has his work cut out to match the math of the fascist and communist regimes that have dropped the metaphorical guillotine since...

August 15, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Communism and fascism, as horrifically bloody as their legacy has been, have a lesser death count attributed to them than the misguided worldwide ban on DDT enforced by the World Health Organization, international aid organizations and others. So reports John Jalsevac in the LifeSiteNews.com Special Report, Green Hands Dipped In Blood: The DDT Genocide.Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, decrying the supposedly great harm caused by all pesticides to the natural environment and humans was released in 1962 and eventually led to the ban on DDT, still the most effective, cheapest, and arguably the cleanest way...

Noisy Spring Avoiding the West Nile virus. By Henry I. Miller The six-year-old U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus is a significant threat to public health and shows no signs of abating. Last year, there were more than 2,500 serious cases and 100 deaths. Though still early in the West Nile virus season (there is a time lag during which animals are infected, mosquitoes convey the virus to humans, and the virus incubates until symptoms occur), this year the mosquito-borne virus has been found in animal hosts (primarily birds) in 39 states, and has caused more than a hundred serious...

It seems like ancient history now, but Oct. 4, 1957, was a day that changed the world: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, the world's first artificial satellite. The United States also had been working toward the launch of a satellite, but the Soviet breakthrough caught this country and the world by surprise. The Space Age had dawned -- and the Space Race was under way. The jokes were sometimes bitter. ("Their German rocket scientists are better than our German rocket scientists!") But in truth, the United States had been bested by what widely was believed to be inferior technology...

Which kills more: ideology or religion? Andrew Kenny The sun set on the 20th century more than four years ago but you can still see a blood-red glow on the horizon. The century that saw unprecedented technological progress also saw unprecedented slaughter. Previously, religion had served mankind’s deep needs for explanation, order, spiritual comfort and transcendental meaning. Now a new and hideous thing was summoned up to serve the same needs. The thing was ideology, and in a few decades it caused more bloodshed than millennia of religion. It was darker and more irrational, and contained within it something unknown...

IN A NURSING home where I once used to work during school holidays, there lay a barrel-chested man with a kind face and thick black hair. He was a Vietnam War veteran and had his own room, though he never seemed to have visitors. He was paralysed and I rarely did more than glimpse him through the door, except when called in to help with some gruesome task or other, such as a manual, which required a nurse with gloves to manually, or more accurately digitally, extract fecal matter from the poor man's backside. He also had malaria - legacy...

<p>IN THE PANTHEON of poisons, DDT occupies a special place. It's the only pesticide celebrated with a Nobel Prize: Swiss chemist Paul Mueller won in 1948 for having discovered its insecticidal properties. But it's also the only pesticide condemned in pop song lyrics - Joni Mitchell's famous "Hey, farmer, farmer put away your DDT now" - for damaging the environment. Banned in the United States more than 30 years ago, it remains America's best known toxic substance. Like some sort of rap star, it's known just by its initials; it's the Notorious B.I.G. of pesticides.</p>

Stopping Malaria In the wake of the tsunami, malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases may be the next tragedy to hit Southeast Asia. DDT can prevent this tragedy. The massive magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Southeast Asia unleashed a terrifying tsunami that has already claimed more than 200,000 lives. But as the rainy season approaches, a new disaster may be in the offing. Standing water left by the tsunami and turned brackish with the onset of monsoon rains may attract swarms of disease-bearing mosquitoes. These mosquitoes may infect thousands upon thousands, maybe even millions, of tsunami survivors with malaria. According to the Associated...

"Banned in the United States more than 30 years ago, it remains America's best known toxic substance. Like some sort of rap star, it's known just by its initials; it's the Notorious B.I.G. of pesticides. Now DDT is making headlines again. Many African governments are calling for access to the pesticide, believing that it's their best hope against malaria, a disease that infects more than 300 million people worldwide a year and kills at least 3 million, a large proportion of them children." . . . "What people aren't remembering about the history of DDT is that, in many places,...

The sun set on the 20th century more than four years ago but you can still see a blood-red glow on the horizon. The century that saw unprecedented technological progress also saw unprecedented slaughter. Previously, religion had served mankind’s deep needs for explanation, order, spiritual comfort and transcendental meaning. Now a new and hideous thing was summoned up to serve the same needs. The thing was ideology, and in a few decades it caused more bloodshed than millennia of religion. It was darker and more irrational, and contained within it something unknown to all the Religions of the Book: a...

Human rights issues continue to dominate the world stage. Ending "degrading treatment" of terrorists, the death penalty for murderers, family violence against women and policies against indigenous languages top the list at the UN Human Rights Commission, European Court of Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The Euro Court alone has 78,000 rights cases on its docket. This February, President Bush met with the heroic, real-life manager of "Hotel Rwanda." He later went to Latvia, to recall the millions who died in wars, concentration camps, killing fields and genocidal conflicts over the past 65 years. Meanwhile, the U.S....

The quaint bedtime saying "sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" has become a grim mission statement for even the finest hotels in the United States amid a resurgence of the tiny bloodsucking pests. Rising complaints about these unwelcome guests that bite in the night are leading to red faces at reception desks and an increase in the number of help calls, according to pest control firms and entomologists. Hotels battling infestations typically request discreet and immediate service, and for good reason. Even though they don't pose a health threat, bed bugs, which live off human blood, can take...

CAPE TOWN (AFP) - More provinces in South Africa, including prosperous Gauteng where Johannesburg and Pretoria, are located could become malaria zones by 2050 due to global warming, the environment minister said, quoting a new report. Plants and animal species are also at risk of being wiped out in South Africa due to climate change, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) said in a report on the impact of climate change on South Africa. "The research presented today by SANBI shows, for example, that climate change could lead to provinces like Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West, KwaZulu-Natal and even...

report released by the World Health Organization and the UN children's agency UNICEF claims that Malaria is causing 1 million deaths per year. According to the World Malaria Report up to 500 million people a year also catch the disease in some form in more than 100 countries. "At present malaria remains the infectious disease that takes more lives of children in Africa than any other - three times as many as HIV," said Ann Veneman, the executive director of UNICEF noting that "Much more must be done."

Pesticides, which undergo an Environmental Protection Agency registration process that can cost up to $50 million for a single new product, has seen many excellent products withdrawn from the market despite years of successful and effective use against a wide range of insect or rodent pests. There is little incentive to introduce new ones. Too many people remained convinced the pesticides will kill them, not the pests.

This month, the New Jersey Pest Management Association issued a news release to warn against the prospect of billions of mosquitoes and threat of West Nile Fever they pose. West Nile Fever arrived in New York City in 1999 and, within three years, it had spread to California. In Washington, an executive order was signed recently to insure that avian flu does not reach these shores and, when a single case of Mad Cow Disease was discovered, the border was shut to Canadian beef. When SAARS broke out in Red China a few years ago, it too was quickly quarantined....