May 09

Venezuela Continues Downward Spiral

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There has never been a famine in a capitalist country; famines and massive die-offs from starvation only occur in socialist countries.

Here is a detailed Bloomberg News Service report about the economic collapse of socialist Venezuela. “Catastrophe is the new normal.”

Amazingly, Venezuela has THE WORLD’S LARGEST OIL RESERVES. Yet the country is plagued by massive electrical outages.

(Of course, if the power of the private sector were unleashed, the electrical problems would end within a week; but the impoverished people of Venezuela are ruled by a fanatical socialist philosophy.)

May 09

Yellowstone County Court Clerk Criticizes Corrupt Judges; Billings Gazette Calls for her Defeat

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Today’s ‘mainstream’ newspapers are dying a slow death; their content overwhelmingly supports the empowerment of government.

It is probable that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of newspaper stories published in America’s daily newspapers over the past decades have simply been rewritten government press releases.

The Billings Gazette, a relentless pro-government newspaper covering eastern and central Montana, has recently published stories noting that current Yellowstone County (Billings) Clerk of Court Kristie Boelter has posted on Facebook that some judges are corrupt.

As if on cue, the Gazette now says the County needs a new clerk of court. See here. (The Gazette also alleges that the Clerk’s office has lost court files and misplaced papers.)

May 08

Egyptian teenager arrested for street satire

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Egyptian government officials have arrested a teenage comedian who criticized government. See here.

May 07

Egyptian court sentences journalists to death

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Journalism in favor of government has always been one of the safest occupations in the world.

Journalism disfavored by government has always been one of the world’s most dangerous occupations.

Now there is news that an Egyptian court has sentenced three journalists to death for supposedly reporting facts that undermined Egypt’s “national security.”

Thankfully, the journalists are in hiding outside Egypt. They were tried, convicted and sentenced in absentia.

May 07

Government slave plantation health care generating more ‘group doctor visits’

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Every government program designed to help poor people get health care produces the opposite effect: Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare all subsidize artificial demand, causing prices to rise.

If government withdrew its evil tentacles from health care, medical prices would quickly adjust downward and quality would quickly adjust upward.

Markets always win.

Now the New York Times has published a story about the growth of ‘group doctor visits’ in which one doctor meets with and treats numerous patients at once.

Of course, such group doctor treatments violate doctor-patient privilege and fundamental rules of medical privacy and confidentiality; but such innovations are one way that markets are working to function in spite of the government’s massive regulatory obstacles.

May 05

Tennessee requires 300 hours of government training to shampoo hair

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The poor in today’s America are getting poorer all the time, relative to the rest of American society.

The reason is government regulation, which keeps poor people from being free to pursue rewarding careers or to otherwise be productive.

Many states require licenses for people to enter even the simplest professions such as barbering, managing a hot dog cart or arranging flowers.

Here is a story about the State of Tennessee, which requires cosmetologists to take 300 hours of government-sanctioned training (at a cost of thousands of dollars) to offer shampoo services.

Those who wash hair without a license face up to six months in prison and a $500 criminal fine, or a $1,000 civil penalty.

May 05

Update: Glacier Park’s ‘Gone by 2030’ Web Pages are Still Up; They Are Sticking to their Guns

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by Roger I. Roots

Yesterday, May 5, 2016, I posted and promoted a story indicating that the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) appears to be removing webpages claiming that all glaciers will melt away from Glacier National Park by the year 2030–just 14 years from now.

I have since been informed that the USGS has recently relocated their climate-change-oriented sites, and that this relocation occurred recently enough that search engines were not finding them.

My brother Alex Roots notified me that the USGS site contains a blurb indicating the Agency is updating its websites. The government’s repeat photography project (which shows old photos of glaciers–taken at undisclosed calendar dates in past decades–juxtaposed against more recent photos of the glaciers taken in the first or second weeks of September) is still available and is linked to a page indicating the project has become a ‘museum’ type site. See here.

My post from yesterday circulated widely (as I sent it to Anthony Watts of the world’s highest-traffic climate website https://wattsupwiththat.com/. The story ultimately found its way to USGS inboxes.

This morning I received a friendly email from Suzanna C. Soileau, Physical Scientist at USGS-NOROCK in Bozeman, Montana. She assures me that the USGS is not hiding its previous climate change web pages. Soileau alerted me to the following USGS sites which focus on climate change.

Climate Change in Mountain Ecosystem (CCME) program: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/climate-change-mountain-ecosystems-ccme

Retreat of Glacier in Glacier NP: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/retreat-glaciers-glacier-national-park

Repeat Photography Project: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/repeat-photography-project

It appears that catastrophic climate change will continue to be a major focus of GNP’s visitor promotion.

Stay tuned!
(I’m still waiting for someone to take me up on my $5,000 bet that glaciers will still exist at GNP in 2030.) See here.

May 04

We are having an impact: the government has already begun removing links to its ‘Glacier Park glaciers disappearing’ sites

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

Roger Roots, J.D., Ph.D.

by Dr. Roger Roots, founder of Lysander Spooner University.

In the fall of 2015 I offered a bet of $5,000 if the glaciers at Glacier National Park disappear by 2030 (as predicted in all GNP signage, pamphlets, films and publications). See here. As of yet, no one has taken me up on my bet.

The Park’s glaciers were melting rapidly throughout the 1990s, as the catastrophic-manmade-global-warming-by-CO2 movement was riding high. Bills were introduced in Congress for “cap and trade” programs, carbon taxes and other reforms.

The National Park Service, and the U.S. Geological Survey published websites showing photos of the Park’s glaciers taken in prior decades next to more recent photos of the same glaciers. This ‘repeat photography’ showed massive decreases in the size of the GNP glaciers.

(I have often pointed out that the government’s photos from prior decades tended to not specify calendar dates. Because glaciers tend to build up in winter and then melt all summer long, the specificity of calendar dates is quite important.)

On January 8 of this year, I posted a prediction that the government would soon alter its GNP-glaciers-gone-by-2030 claims. See here. I asked, “What is the government going to do as 2030 approaches and it becomes clear that their preposterous claims are untrue?”

“I have no doubt,” I wrote then, “that the government will begin modifying these claims by 2025, if not sooner.” I began saving screenshots of government websites which make the claim that manmade-global-warming will melt the GNP glaciers by 2030.

It turns out I didn’t need to wait very long at all. Today, on May 4, 2016, I started looking for the government’s ‘repeat photography’ sites.

IT APPEARS THEY HAVE DISAPPEARED.

Today when you google “repeat photography” and “Glacier National Park,” you are redirected to general-info USGS sites with pictures of hikers in the mountains.

Fortunately, I have screenshots of the prior government projections.

Perhaps the webmasters at USGS are in the process of updating the ‘repeat photography’ sites.

Or perhaps Lysander Spooner University is already having an impact.

SIDE NOTE:

One can still find remnants of the government’s claims on some of its sites. For example, the USGS published a detailed numerical chart (see here) with data columns showing extensive melting between 1966 and 2005. The chart contains an astounding claim: “This table reflects area measurements analyzed from aerial photographs taken in 1966 and 2005. More recent suitable aerial photography on a parkwide scale has not been acquired to update this table due to seasonal conditions and financial constraints for contracted flights.”

This claim is astounding because research money intended to produce evidence for global warming has been pouring out over the past decade.

“Financial constraints”? Why do I suspect the USGS has chosen not to seek funds for new aerial photography because such photography will show that GNP’s glaciers have GROWN SINCE 2005.

May 04

6 starving Venezuelan soldiers arrested for stealing goats

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Socialism is a curse that one should wish on a hated enemy. Perhaps the easiest way to weaken and destroy a society is to impose socialism on that society.

Over the weekend, six members of the Venezuelan military were detained by local authorities for stealing goats for food. See here.

May 03

Medical Industry Becomes More Dangerous as it Becomes More Regulated: Medical Errors are now Third Leading Cause of Death

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Never before in world history has an industry fallen under so much regulation as the current U.S. Medical Industry, an industry gorged on government money.

Yet medical mistakes are now the third leading cause of death in America. See here.

Only heart disease and cancer claim more lives. Indeed, “medical errors” in hospitals and other health care facilities are claiming 251,000 lives every year, more than respiratory disease, accidents, stroke and Alzheimer’s.

Note that firearm deaths are now fewer than 30,000 annually–and more than half of those are suicides.