Davidson Woods

Sounds a little like Mom and Dad's and our upbringing: Ron Paul
Patty submitted on January 14, 1970
The Ron Paul I Know by Carol Paul DIGG THIS The story of our family would have to start with the man Ron Paul, who saw the American Dream and decided that it could be his – and now he wants it to be yours if you so choose.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThe Ron Paul I Know by Carol Paul DIGG THIS The story of our family would have to start with the man Ron Paul, who saw the American Dream and decided that it could be his – and now he wants it to be yours if you so choose. Ron's grandfather came from Germany at the age of 14 with his father. After just six months in this country, his father died and he had to make his way in a new country with a new language. He became a truck farmer in a small town in Pennsylvania. He eventually married, and had four sons and one daughter. The second son was Howard Paul, Ron's father. Howard Paul, along with two of his brothers, continued to run the dairy that his father started from the basement garage of their home. They had horse-drawn delivery wagons. Howard was able, with an 8th-grade education, to build a dairy with 20 refrigerated trucks and a modern dairy building. Ron's mother kept the books and raised five sons, who were all born within seven years during the 1930's. Ron was the third son of Howard and Margaret Paul, and was brought up with the ethic that you worked six days a week and went to church on the seventh. Ron's first job at age 5 was to watch his uncle wash the bottles and put them on a conveyer belt. He got a penny for every dirty bottle that he found. He was serious about his job and was very proud that he could help. Ron delivered newspapers in grade school early in the morning. He had to put the newspapers inside the screen doors and not just throw them in the yard. And speaking of yards, he mowed a lot of lawns, and he didn't have a self-propelled lawnmower. He paid for his first year of college with newspaper and lawn-mowing money. During high school, Ron worked in a drug store – his brothers said he worked there so he could eat ice cream whenever he wanted it – but he learned a lot about business and pharmacy that helped in years to come. He also had a part-time job painting the school in the summer and delivering furniture for a local store. In college, he delivered laundry, and he even delivered mail during the Christmas holidays. I came into the picture about 1952 when Ron was my escort to my 16th birthday party. Don't tell anyone – but I asked him... actually my birthday is February 29th and it was a Sadie Hawkins-type party where the girls asked the boys... and I asked him. Ron was a track star in high school, winning state as a junior in the 220-yard dash and in the 440. He ran the 100 in 9.8, and that was pretty fast for the early 1950s. He was also on the wrestling team. He was president of the student council and an honor student while working and participating in sports. A serious knee injury took him out of major track (he beat one young man who went to the Olympics), but he added swimming for therapy and soon became a member of the college swim team. He was offered a full college scholarship to run track but did not accept it, feeling he might not be able to regain his speed. To this day he exercises with bicycle riding, walking, and swimming, and feels lucky that he can do these sports. We went away to college (different colleges in different states), but always kept in touch. On February 1, 1957, we married in a beautiful ceremony with the bridesmaids carrying armloads of red roses. The flower girl wore a white dress and sprinkled rose petals down the aisle. A fraternity brother of Ron's sang "The Wedding Prayer" and the "Lord's Prayer." Of course, both are very special to us today. We spent his last semester in college married, and living on the third floor of an old home in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. I worked as secretary to the faculty and attended some evening classes with Ron. For one year Ron was manager of the college coffee shop called "The Bullet Hole." He worked as steward and house manager for his fraternity, and had a small scholastic scholarship to help finance his way through college. After college, we headed to Durham, North Carolina, where Ron attended Duke University School of Medicine. I worked as a medical secretary, and our first two children were born at Duke. We had a tiny little blue frame house that my grandmother called the "Doll House." We thought it was wonderful. We were able to buy a registered collie for our big backyard, and she helped raise our first two children. Actually, she got us home one Thanksgiving because she had a litter of puppies – and we were able to sell one for $35, which gave us enough money for gas to drive home so the family could see our two beautiful children. After medical school, we lived in Detroit, Michigan, where Ron did an internship and one year of an Internal Medicine Residency. I ran a dancing school in the basement of our home and taught ballet and tap dancing and baton twirling. Just to tell you what kind of budget we were on, the dancing school paid for the newspaper and for extra expenses we had when a month had five weeks! When the Cuban Crisis came, Ron answered his country's call and became a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force. We received orders to move to San Antonio, Texas. On our way to Texas, we stopped in Pennsylvania long enough to have our third child delivered. Then we gathered up our kids and dogs and took off for Texas. Arriving with three children from ages 4 to 3 weeks old, we loved Texas immediately. Finding out we didn't have to bother with snowsuits, mittens, and boots was an extra gift. Even when Ron was in the military, we kept working. I learned to cake decorate, which I have put to good use over the past years. And Ron learned to fly a plane, and he worked extra emergency-room duty. They were fun-filled years. We spent Ron's tour of duty in San Antonio. When his tour was up, he completed his OB/GYN medical training, but he did stay in the Air National Guard for several years. He always believed that America should be ready to defend her borders. Then in 1968, on July 3rd we arrived in Brazoria County, Texas, and that has been our home since that day. Ron has delivered more than 4,000 babies, and we have been married for more than 50 years. We've raised a family of five children, and they have given us eighteen beautiful grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. We have friends all over the State of Texas as well as friends throughout the United States who believe in limited government. That in itself is a testimony to a great and humble man. So the American Dream came true for a boy who delivered newspapers, a teen-ager who mowed lawns, delivered milk, delivered furniture, delivered laundry, and delivered mail, and for a man who then delivered babies. Now that dream continues with a man who is trying to deliver the message that freedom works and that true patriotism must not grow weak in the hearts of Americans, so that we can hang on to our Republic, for which the Founders gave their last, full measure of devotion. December 14, 2007 Carol Paul [send her mail] is the wife of one, the mother of five, the grandmother of 18, and the great grandmother of one. Copyright © 2007 LewRockwell.com Back to LewRockwell.com Home Page
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Inspirational Stories
Patty submitted on January 14, 1970
Two Great Stories--Truly Great [Michael Ledeen] Another inspirational email going around. Fabulous. STORY NUMBER ONE Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago .. Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie." He was Capone's lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTTwo Great Stories--Truly Great [Michael Ledeen] Another inspirational email going around. Fabulous. STORY NUMBER ONE Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago .. Capone wasn't famous for anything heroic. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Capone had a lawyer nicknamed "Easy Eddie." He was Capone's lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good! In fact, Eddie's skill at legal maneuvering kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but also, Eddie got special dividends. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie did have one soft spot, however. He had a son that he loved dearly. Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach him right from wrong. Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. Yet, with all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn't give his son; he couldn't pass on a good name or a good example. One day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. Easy Eddie wanted to rectify wrongs he had done. He decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al "Scarface" Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the cost would be great. So, he testified. Within the year, Easy Eddie's life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read: The clock of life is wound but once, And no man has the power To tell just when the hands will stop At late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still. STORY NUMBER TWO World War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O'Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realized that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet. As he was returning to the mother ship he saw something that turned his blood cold: a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn't reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 caliber's blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible and rendering them unfit to fly. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction. Deeply relieved, Butch O'Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch's daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft. This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy's first Ace of W.W.II, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WW II hero to fade, and today, O'Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man. So, the next time you find yourself at O'Hare International, give some thought to visiting Butch's memorial displaying his statue and his Medal of Honor. It's located between Terminals 1 and 2. SO WHAT DO THESE TWO STORIES HAVE TO DO WITH EACH OTHER? Butch O'Hare was "Easy Eddie's" son.
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Huckabee
MarkD submitted on January 14, 1970
Here's a parody relating to Mike's campaign that some of you may find funny.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTHere's a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuWUdUDUIDQ">parody</a> relating to Mike's campaign that some of you may find funny.
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Some Christmas Lighthouse Cheer
MarkD submitted on January 14, 1970
Thought these showed how creative CapeCodders can be.Thought these showed how creative CapeCodders can be.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThought these showed how creative CapeCodders can be.
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Christmas Tree
Norb submitted on January 14, 1970
If any of you are in NYC be sure to check out the Rockerfeller Center Christmas Tree. The lights are new this year. They're Liquid Crystal so they save energy.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTIf any of you are in NYC be sure to check out the Rockerfeller Center Christmas Tree. The lights are new this year. They're Liquid Crystal so they save energy.
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Citing Statistics, Giuliani Misses Time and Again
MarkD submitted on January 14, 1970
By MICHAEL COOPER (NY Times November 30, 2007) In almost every appearance as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudolph W. Giuliani cites a fusillade of statistics and facts to make his arguments about his successes in running New York City and the merits of his views.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTBy MICHAEL COOPER (NY Times November 30, 2007) In almost every appearance as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudolph W. Giuliani cites a fusillade of statistics and facts to make his arguments about his successes in running New York City and the merits of his views. Discussing his crime-fighting success as mayor, Mr. Giuliani told a television interviewer that New York was “the only city in America that has reduced crime every single year since 1994.” In New Hampshire this week, he told a public forum that when he became mayor in 1994, New York “had been averaging like 1,800, 1,900 murders for almost 30 years.” When a recent Republican debate turned to the question of fiscal responsibility, he boasted that “under me, spending went down by 7 percent.” All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong. And while, to be sure, all candidates use misleading statistics from time to time, Mr. Giuliani has made statistics a central part of his candidacy as he campaigns on his record. For instance, another major American city claims to have reduced crime every year since 1994: Chicago. New York averaged 1,514 murders a year during the three decades before Mr. Giuliani took office; it did not record more than 1,800 homicides until 1980. And Mr. Giuliani’s own memoir states that spending grew an average of 3.7 percent for most of his tenure; an aide said Mr. Giuliani had meant to say that he had proposed a 7 percent reduction in per capita spending during his time as mayor. Facts and figures are often the striking centerpieces of Mr. Giuliani’s arguments. He has always had a penchant for statistics — his anticrime strategy as mayor was built around a system known as Compstat that closely tracked crimes to focus law enforcement efforts. On the campaign trail he often wields data, without notes, with prosecutorial zeal to hammer home his points. But in recent days, both Mr. Giuliani’s Republican rival Mitt Romney and Democrats have accused him of a pattern of misleading figures and have begun to use the issue to try to undercut his credibility. An examination of many of his statements by The New York Times, other news organizations and independent groups have turned up a variety of misstatements, virtually all of which cast Mr. Giuliani or his arguments in a better light. “He’s given us a lot of work up until now,” said Brooks Jackson, the director of Annenberg Political Fact Check, which is part of Factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania that has corrected statements by candidates in both parties. Aides to Mr. Giuliani dismiss questions about his use of statistics as nitpicking, arguing that no one can dispute the big points he makes by using the statistics: that crime dropped significantly during his tenure, say, or that he worked to restrain spending in New York. “The mayor likes detail, and uses it frequently on the campaign trail in ways the other candidates don’t,” said Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Mr. Giuliani. “And at the end of the day, he is making points that are true.” Mr. Giuliani is not alone in citing statistics in a questionable way. Last month, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, said that financing for the National Institutes of Health had decreased under President Bush; it has increased. Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, said the national debt had doubled under President Bush; it has not. But with Mr. Giuliani running so strongly on his record, statistics have taken on a central role in his campaign. In recent days, Mr. Giuliani seems to be taking greater care to be precise. At the Republican debate on Wednesday night, he was careful when referring to crime statistics in Massachusetts during Mr. Romney’s term as governor, which had been the subject of a debate over the weekend. And at a “Politics and Eggs” breakfast on Monday in Bedford, N.H., he took greater care to describe his record on cutting taxes. Last weekend, speaking about his belief in supply-side economics, Mr. Giuliani said, “I lowered, argued for lowering, and got the hotel occupancy tax lowered by 33 percent. And I was collecting $200 million more from the lower tax than the city had been collecting from before I was mayor from the higher tax.” In fact, the increase in revenues from the hotel occupancy tax was just over a quarter of what Mr. Giuliani asserted — the city’s hotel tax revenues grew by roughly $58 million during his term, according to the city’s Independent Budget Office — and a booming economy, as well as the reduction in crime Mr. Giuliani helped produce, probably played a part. Factcheck.org has reported that the Giuliani campaign exaggerated when it boasted on its Web site that “Mayor Giuliani increased the police force from 28,000 to 40,000,” noting that most of that increase came from his merger of the Transit and Housing Police Departments with the New York Police Department, a transfer of more than 7,000 existing officers to the department. The campaign argues that giving housing and transit police officers jurisdiction beyond the city’s public housing and subways gave the city more flexibility to fight crime. It said that it usually notes the effects of the merger when describing the size of the police force, and said it would change a post on its Web site to mention the merger when citing the increase. And the group also found that Mr. Giuliani erred at a Republican debate when, while calling for tort reform, he said that 2.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product “is spent on all these frivolous lawsuits.” That statistic, the group reported, came from a study that pegged the cost of all civil claims at 2.2 percent of the G.D.P., without judging whether the cases had merit or not. Even some people who support Mr. Giuliani’s proposals say he risks undercutting his own arguments when he relies on imprecise or questionable statistics. In a recent radio advertisement by the campaign about his health care proposal, Mr. Giuliani repeated another false statement that he had been using on the campaign trail. In the advertisement Mr. Giuliani, who has had prostate cancer, asserted that his chances of surviving prostate cancer in the United States were 82 percent, while his chance of surviving in England would have been only 44 percent. His point was that the American health care system is far superior to England’s government-run system, which he refers to as “socialized medicine.” The figure came from an article written by one of Mr. Giuliani’s health care advisers, but was soon discredited: the source of the research that was used to derive the statistic said that its data had been misused. The Office for National Statistics in Britain said that the true five-year survival rate was 74.4 percent — still lower than in the United States, but by a much smaller margin. Mr. Giuliani stood by the statistic, however, and kept using the advertisement, though it has since gone off the air. Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor at National Review magazine, said Mr. Giuliani’s plan “may be the best of the Republican health care plans.” “The trouble is that the exact statistic he used was misleading,” Mr. Ponnuru said in a recent interview, elaborating on a blog post he wrote. “It became an argument about the statistics, and he dug in and defended it when he was wrong.” Another radio advertisement that Mr. Giuliani ran over the summer stated that as mayor he “turned a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus.” That was also misleading. According to independent fiscal monitors, Mr. Giuliani did have to close a $2.3 billion deficit in his first budget, and did accumulate a multibillion-dollar surplus during his tenure. But by Mr. Giuliani’s last full fiscal year in office, the city was spending more than it was taking in in revenues, and Mr. Giuliani ended up spending almost all of the surplus to balance his final budget. Last weekend, questions about Mr. Giuliani’s use of facts moved front and center in the campaign. Mr. Giuliani charged that “violent crime and murder went up” in Massachusetts while Mr. Romney was governor. The number of reported killings did go up in those years, but the state’s overall rate of violent crime went down, according to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Mr. Romney accused Mr. Giuliani of having “a real problem with facts,” and aides circulated a statement calling Mr. Giuliani’s crime statistics “about as accurate as his prostate cancer survival numbers for England.” “He has now done this time and again, making up facts that just happen to be wrong, and facts are stubborn things,” Mr. Romney said. Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist who once worked for Mr. Giuliani, said he doubted that the issue would hurt him politically. “When he talks about New York, people see it,” Mr. Luntz said of Mr. Giuliani, “and they feel it, and if a number isn’t quite right, or is off by a small amount, nobody will care, because it rings true to them.”
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YouTube debates--Peggy Noonan
Tom submitted on January 14, 1970
From Peggy Noonan's column in the WSJ today: I will never forget that breathtaking moment when, in the CNN/YouTube debate earlier this fall, the woman from Ohio held up a picture and said, "Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards, this is a human fetus. Given a few more months, it will be a baby you could hold in your arms. You all say you're 'for the children.' I would ask you to look America in the eye and tell us how you can support laws to end this life. Thank you."
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTFrom Peggy Noonan's column in the WSJ today: I will never forget that breathtaking moment when, in the CNN/YouTube debate earlier this fall, the woman from Ohio held up a picture and said, "Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. Edwards, this is a human fetus. Given a few more months, it will be a baby you could hold in your arms. You all say you're 'for the children.' I would ask you to look America in the eye and tell us how you can support laws to end this life. Thank you." They were momentarily nonplussed, then awkwardly struggled to answer, to regain lost high ground. One of them, John Edwards I think, finally criticizing the woman for being "manipulative," using "hot images" and indulging in "the politics of personal destruction." The woman then stood in the audience for her follow up. "I beg your pardon, but the literal politics of personal destruction--of destroying a person--is what you stand for." Oh, I wish I weren't about to say, "Wait, that didn't happen." For of course it did not. Who of our media masters would allow a question so piercing on such a painful and politically incorrect subject? I thought of this the other night when citizens who turned out to be partisans for Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards asked the Republicans, in debate, would Jesus support the death penalty, do you believe every word of the Bible, and what does the Confederate flag mean to you? It was a good debate, feisty and revealing. It's not bad that the questions had a certain spin, and played on stereotypes of the GOP. It's just bad that it doesn't quite happen at Democratic debates. Somehow, there, an obscure restraint sets in on the part of news producers. Too bad. Running for most powerful person in the world is, among other things, an act of startling presumption. They all should be grilled, everyone, both sides. Winter voting approaches; may many chestnuts be roasted on an open fire.
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stem cell breakthroughs and pro-science pro-lifers
Tom submitted on January 14, 1970
From "First Things" blog: Embryonic Stem Cells and Those Pro-Science Pro-Lifers By Joseph Bottum Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 7:22 AM If the news of major breakthroughs in cell research should turn out to be correct, we are about to witness something like victory in the fight over embryonic stem cells.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTFrom "First Things" blog: Embryonic Stem Cells and Those Pro-Science Pro-Lifers By Joseph Bottum Tuesday, November 20, 2007, 7:22 AM If the news of major breakthroughs in cell research should turn out to be correct, we are about to witness something like victory in the fight over embryonic stem cells. And that will open a nest of interesting questions, beginning with this one: All those editorialists and columnists who have, over the past ten years, howled and howled about Luddites and religious fanatics thwarting science and frustrating medicine—were they really interested in technology and health, or were they just using all that as a handy stick with which to whack their political opponents? The news actually broke this summer, when Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka announced that he had found a technique to transform cultured mouse skin cells into cells nearly identical to embryonic stem cells. As Nature magazine, pointed out, if something similar works in humans, a simple skin biopsy could be used to create embryonic stem cell equivalents “without using embryos or even eggs.” But the topic has bubbled up again with the report from the Daily Telegraph that Ian Wilmut, the cloner of Dolly the sheep and the world’s most famous biological researcher, is abandoning cloning. Instead, he’s chosen to follow Yamanaka’s lead: “a way,” as the Telegraph explained, “to create human embryo stem cells without the need for human eggs, which are in extremely short supply, and without the need to create and destroy human cloned embryos, which is bitterly opposed by the prolife movement.” Yamanaka’s research has received at least one confirmation from an American team, and though the technical details of his “de-differentiation” method are not yet completely clear, the first reports are very promising. Certainly more promising than cloning. A report in Nature last week—much-ballyhooed by the press—announced the confirmation by an Australian team of the successful cloning of monkey embryos for the creation of embryonic stem cells. But the reported success rate was just 0.07 percent, and the Japanese technique for de-differentiating fully formed adult cells back down to embryonic stem cells has already shown itself to work at a much, much higher rate. In other words, scientists may now be able to have the embryonic stem cells we’ve been told they need for research—without creating and destroying embryos to get them. If so, the argument is over. Or, maybe, the argument is just beginning, for this news turns on its head everything in what the nation’s newspapers have delivered to us as a story of blinkered pro-lifers vs. courageous scientists. The people who turn out actually to have believed in the power of science are the pro-lifers—the ones who said that a moral roadblock is not, in point of fact, an outrageous hindrance, for scientists will always find another, less-objectionable way to achieve their goals. President Bush’s refusal of federal funding for new embryonic stem cell lines didn’t halt major stem-cell advances, any more than the prohibition against life-threatening research on human subjects, such as the infamous Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, stopped the advance of medical treatments. For those who attacked the pro-lifers in the name of science, however, things look a little different. As Maureen L. Condic explained to First Things readers this year in her careful survey, “What We Know About Embryonic Stem Cells,” the promises of medical breakthroughs were massively overblown by the media. But there were reasons for all the hype. I have long suspected that science, in the context of the editorial page of the New York Times, was simply a stalking-horse for something else. In fact, for two something-elses: a chance to discredit America’s religious believers and an opportunity to put yet another hedge around the legalization of abortion. After all, if our very health depends on the death of embryos, and we live in a culture that routinely destroys early human life in the laboratory, no grounds could exist for objecting to abortion. With these purposes now severed by the Japanese de-differentiation technique, which way will it break? The answer is, quite possibly, toward a rejection of science by the mainstream press. Since the 1960s, abortion has skewed American politics in strange and unnatural ways, and the cloning debates are no exception. This morning in the New York Times, John Tierney has a long article called “Are Scientists Playing God? It Depends on Your Religion.” It’s a little unfortunately timed, given the news from England about Wilmut’s change of heart, but the theme is that American Christians and European post-Christians are unlike the Chinese, Koreans, and other Easterners with no history of opposition to science. The whole idea seems more than a little peculiar, when one reflects on the birthplaces of modern science. And yet, Tierney sees something that is, from his perspective, genuinely hard to explain: the left in America and Europe supports destructive embryonic research, while it increasingly rejects genetically modified “Frankenfoods.” Oh, he admits, there have been some “unlikely alliances.” As he notes, “When conservative intellectuals like Francis Fukuyama campaigned for Congress to ban embryo cloning, some environmental activists like Jeremy Rifkin joined them. A Green Party leader in Germany, Voker Beck, referred to cloned embryonic stem-cell research as ‘veiled cannibalism.’” But he can’t quite see how his description of these alliances as “unlikely” undermines his thesis that there’s something philosophical that unites the Christian right with the post-Christian left, and makes them both different from the all-accepting Buddhist philosophies of the Far East. Shake loose from the narrative of antiscience fundamentalists and pro-science liberals, however, and a different story starts to be visible. Abortion skewed the political discussion of all this, pinning the left to a defense of science it doesn’t actually hold. The more natural line is agitation against Frankenfoods and all genetic modification, particularly given the environmentalism to which the campaign against global warming is tying the left. Narratives about positions on public policy are like enormous steamships: It takes a long time to turn them around. But if the news of stem-cell breakthroughs prove accurate, we may well see over the next few years a gradual reversal in news stories and editorials. Watch for it, now that abortion is out of the equation: Much less hype about all the miracle cures that stem cells will bring us, more suspicion about the cancers and genetic pollution that may result, and just about the same amount of bashing of religious believers—this time for their ignorant support of science.
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IPCC Report: Urgent Action On Climate Change Needed, Or Else
Kara submitted on January 14, 1970
The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its fourth report (video, audio, and slides here) saying that worldwide carbon emissions must stop increasing within seven years and greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 50 to 85 percent in about four decades, The Washington Post reports. If not, as many as 25 percent of the planet’s species will be killed from global warming.
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTThe United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued its fourth report (video, audio, and slides here) saying that worldwide carbon emissions must stop increasing within seven years and greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced by 50 to 85 percent in about four decades, The Washington Post reports. If not, as many as 25 percent of the planet’s species will be killed from global warming. Reaching the goals would require a drastic reworking of construction, industry, transportation, and agricultural practices. By 2050, stabilizing emissions would slow the average annual global economic growth by less than 0.12 percent, AP reports. Global warming is “unequivocal,” according to the study, as reported by AP. Temperatures have risen 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 100 years. Eleven of the last 12 years are among the warmest since 1850. Sea levels have gone up by an average seven-hundredths of an inch per year since 1961. The report also finds that human activity is largely responsible for warming. Global emissions of greenhouse gases grew 70 percent from 1970 to 2004. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is far higher than the natural range over the last 650,000 years. Current emissions already are nearing the limit required in 2015 to limit the warming to 2 degrees Celsius, but even at that threshold, the seas will continue to swell for centuries from thermal expansion and meltwater from ice caps and glaciers; the oceans will turn more acidic; most coral reefs will become lifeless expanses; floods and storms will increase; and millions of people will be short of the water they need, the WaPo article says. If the world misses that target and does not stabilize carbon dioxide emissions until 2030, for example, the planet’s temperature will increase by as much as 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit above 2000 temperatures. “This is a wake up call for the whole world. Britain has led the way, the first climate change bill in history, now the rest of the world must follow,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said from London, according to Voice of America. “And at Bali in the next few weeks we need a climate change agreement that is global, that is comprehensive, that is radical and meets our ambitions that we have a 50 percent cut in carbon emissions around the world and we will do even better than that.” The IPCC does not recommend specific policies, but an early Guardian story based on a draft summary says that report introduces an “effective carbon price signal.” It says a carbon price of between $20-$80 per tonne by 2030 should be enough to limit the expected temperature rise. The latest report will form the basis for policy makers when they meet next month in Bali, Indonesia. This IPCC final report summarizes and integrates the most significant findings of three sections of a climate-science review that were released between January and April, The New York Times reports. Because the data had not previously been reviewed as a whole, scientists said the synthesized report was more explicit, creating new emphasis and alarm. The first section of the report had covered climate trends; the second, the world’s ability to adapt to a warming planet; the third, strategies for reducing carbon emissions. The Guardian has a graphic (PDF) illustrating how the earth might heat up by 2099. --- Link here: http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/11/18/ipcc-report-urgent-action-on-climate-change-needed-or-else/
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Governors and regional leaders pick up the slack left behind by the federal government...
Kara submitted on January 14, 1970
Article about regional efforts to cap carbon emissions and to establish themselves as leaders in the new clean energy economy. This is a huge economic opportunity for the United States! We have the ability to create several strong manufacturing and energy industries within our borders that will lead to millions of new jobs! ----
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BLOG TITLEBLOG CONTENTArticle about regional efforts to cap carbon emissions and to establish themselves as leaders in the new clean energy economy. This is a huge economic opportunity for the United States! We have the ability to create several strong manufacturing and energy industries within our borders that will lead to millions of new jobs! ---- WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 — Frustrated with the slow progress of legislation in Washington on energy and global warming, the nation’s governors have created regional agreements to cap greenhouse gases and are engaged in a concerted lobbying effort to prod Congress to act. Beginning Monday, three Western governors will appear in a nationwide television advertising campaign sponsored by an environmental group trying to generate public and political support for climate change legislation now before the Senate. The 30-second ad features Arnold Schwarzenegger, Republican of California; Jon Huntsman Jr., Republican of Utah; and Brian Schweitzer, Democrat of Montana, standing in casual clothes in scenic spots talking about the threat posed by greenhouse gas emissions. The nation’s governors are acting, but Congress is not, they say. “Now it’s their turn,” Mr. Schwarzenegger says. Separately, in Milwaukee on Wednesday, nine Midwestern governors and the premier of Manitoba signed an agreement to reduce carbon emissions and set up a trading system to meet the reduction targets. The Midwestern accord is modeled on similar regional carbon-reduction and energy-saving arrangements among Northeastern, Southwestern and West Coast states. The advertising campaign is underwritten by Environmental Defense, an advocacy group that is pressing for quick action on a climate change proposal sponsored by Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia. The Lieberman-Warner legislation would cap carbon emissions at 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and set up a system for polluting industries to trade emissions credits to meet the goals. Like other such bills before Congress, it would provide incentives for research on capturing and storing carbon dioxide from power plants and subsidies to help the poor handle the higher costs of electricity in a carbon-constrained economy. The bill is now before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The committee’s chairwoman, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, said she hoped to bring the bill to a vote of the full committee by Dec. 6. There is no schedule for action after that, however. The governors, who did not receive a fee for appearing in the advertisement, say state leaders are moving to reduce climate-affecting emissions, while the current Congress has so far failed to pass any significant legislation on climate change or energy. “In state after state, we’re taking action,” the governors say, taking turns speaking. “Now it’s time for Congress to act by capping greenhouse gas pollution.” In an interview, Governor Huntsman said, “With just weeks left in the legislative calendar, there has been no vote yet dealing realistically with greenhouse gas pollution. We in the West are already wrestling with it and setting ambitious targets.” He said action on the national level, in the form of the Lieberman-Warner legislation or a similar economywide carbon cap-and-trade scheme, was preferable to the patchwork system that state governments were putting in place. Governor Schweitzer said dealing with global warming was the “greatest imperative” of this and future generations. “We need to find a sustainable, renewable American energy supply so we will not commit the next generation to fight another oil war,” he said. Mr. Schweitzer added: “Here’s a novel concept for Congress. Do something. Anything. Move.” Environmental Defense is spending $3 million to broadcast the advertisement, which will appear in 17 markets in 11 states over the next few weeks, said the group’s president, Fred Krupp. The ad will also appear during the Sunday morning talk shows on Nov. 25. The Midwestern governors expressed similar impatience with the slow pace in Washington on global warming and energy issues. They have banded together to set up a regional emissions control program, to expand production of biofuels and to cooperate on environmental and energy infrastructure projects, like an interstate pipeline for moving carbon emissions from power plants to underground storage vaults. Gov. James E. Doyle of Wisconsin, a Democrat who is chairman of the Midwestern Governors Association, said that the individual states in his region were all moving independently toward greater energy efficiency and planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and that it made sense to work in concert. “In the absence of a federal plan we have to move forward,” Mr. Doyle said, speaking from Milwaukee, where he was the chairman of an energy summit meeting of the Midwestern governors. “On top of that, this recognizes that, federal plan or no federal plan, the Midwest is uniquely positioned to be a major force in the developing new energy world.” He predicted that sooner or later Washington would adopt a national cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, but he was not optimistic that it would act before President Bush leaves office. “I suspect it will require a new administration to come in,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to be done to prepare for it. If there comes a national cap-and-trade system, we will have done a lot of the work. If not, we will have one in the Midwestern region on a scale that can work.” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/15/washington/15climate.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin
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