We once used DDT to control pests, but this miracle chemical was banned by progressives with an agenda. Due to the ban, bed bugs are making a come back in NY City and deseases spread by mosquitoes are making a comeback.
In Florida:
Dengue fever has infected a handful of people in Central Florida, health officials said.“This is not a regular flu virus that you get, you feel a lot worse,” said Dr. Todd Husty.“You get a real great fever, a horrible fever; it’s called ‘break bone fever.’ You feel like your bones are breaking, but it’s really joint pain,” Husty said.Health officials said more than a dozen people have picked up the virus from Mosquitoes in the Keys.
A bedbug epidemic has exploded in every corner of New York City – striking even upper East Side luxury apartments owned by Gov. Spitzer’s father, the Daily News has learned.
The World Health Organization today announced a major policy change. It’s actively backing the controversial pesticide DDT as a way to control malaria. Malaria kills about 1 million people a year, mainly children, and mainly in Africa, despite a decades-long effort to eradicate it.
The WHO previously approved DDT for dealing with malaria, but didn’t actively support it. While DDT repels or kills mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite, it doesn’t get much good press. In 1962, environmentalist Rachel Carson wrote a book, Silent Spring, about how it persists in the environment and affects not just insects but the whole food chain.
I don’t underestimate that the progressives that banned DDT knew that it would hurt people in the 3rd world the most. It is no coincidence that these are the same people who warned that the world was over populated. From my perspective, these progressives were either uncaring boobs or evil control freaks. Take your pick. Either way is scary considering a progressive no sits in the Oval Office.
Ortiz, a 17-year-old high-schooler, had no such help. Instead, he spent the better part of two years tied to his iPhone, skimming Craigslist and carefully picking out trades he knew he could benefit from…Starting with an old cell phone that was given to him for free by a friend, Steven used the “barter” section of Craigslist to move up to a better phone. He then traded the phone for an iPod Touch, the iPod Touch for a dirtbike — which was turned around several times for other, better dirtbikes — and then a MacBook Pro arrived, which opened the door to vehicles.
I’m glad for him and he sounds like a smart and determined kid. It does make me wonder. If he spent the “better part of two years” working, not only could he buy the $2000 Porsche, but he would have resume-quality work experience as well.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Common Sense on July 22nd, 2010
About half of Democrats feel the country is heading in the right direction, but 90% of Republicans and 75% of voters not affiliated with either major party believe the country is heading down the wrong track.
There is a huge scandal brewing and no one but Fox News and bloggers are covering it…AGAIN.
The journolist was created as a forum for journalist and other assorted left wingers to have frank conversations. These conversations are being slowly leaked by the Daily Caller and what they reveal is that journalist are actively engaging in left wing politics. This comes as no surprise to most, but it is evidence that ALL campaign finance laws need to be repealed.
“Journalists” used their special privledges granted to the media to control the narrative in the last election and to sweep a radical President into office.
This is huge. So how is ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN cover it? They aren’t.
If you are reading this blog, you are engaged. You are seeking answers. You don’t trust the media to give you the truth. You understand. It is our duty to let the unengaged know about this scandal.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Liberal Bias on July 22nd, 2010
The Daily Caller has released “journalist” discussing Sarah Palin around the time that she was picked as John McCain’s running mate. What is striking to me is that the discussions sounds like something that happens on the campaign trail. They are simply looking for a way to discredit her in their efforts to elect Obama.
If you don’t know what the Journolist is, you should. It was a forum for journalist, professors and Democratic strategists to coordinate a message. They discussed politics and how the news should cover it in very frank ways. When I spoke of the listserv over the July 4th holiday, no one in my family had heard about it…nor did they seem that outraged by it when I described it. Will they (and the American people) hear now?
Here is what Joe Klein of Time Magazine wrote shortly after the Palin pick.
Time’s Joe Klein then linked to his own piece, parts of which he acknowledged came from strategy sessions on Journolist. “Here’s my attempt to incorporate the accumulated wisdom of this august list-serve community,” he wrote.
Joe Klein was very much influenced by the servlist.
This is a huge deal. The media has special privileges. Journalist (unlike you and me) are not bound by campaign finance laws. If they are using their outlets for campaigning then they need to be held to the same standard. Don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating campaign laws for journalist. I want everyone to have the same rights that journalist enjoy…rights that are guaranteed in the Constitution and should never have been abridged in the first place.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Liberal Bias on July 22nd, 2010
From the “Journolist” (a forum for liberal journalist)
According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn’t about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people.”
“Richard Kim got this right above: ‘a horrible glimpse of general election press strategy.’ He’s dead on,” Tomasky continued. “We need to throw chairs now, try as hard as we can to get the call next time. Otherwise the questions in October will be exactly like this. This is just a disease.”
(In an interview Monday, Tomasky defended his position, calling the ABC debate an example of shoddy journalism.)
Thomas Schaller, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun as well as a political science professor, upped the ante from there. In a post with the subject header, “why don’t we use the power of this list to do something about the debate?” Schaller proposed coordinating a “smart statement expressing disgust” at the questions Gibson and Stephanopoulos had posed to Obama.
“It would create quite a stir, I bet, and be a warning against future behavior of the sort,” Schaller wrote.
Tomasky approved. “YES. A thousand times yes,” he exclaimed.
We have a racist government calling our citizens racist because they dare to speak out against their leftist policies. It seems like everything is ass-backwards these days.
Update 7/21/2010: It turns out the above video was taken out of context, but she still plays the race card. My point still stands. Obama is anything but post racial.
Barack Obama has taken all the wrong lessons from history. Michael Barrone has an excellent article that I highly recommend.
But the fact is that we are once again, as in the days of the early republic and not in the heyday of the Progressives and the New Dealers, a republic of property owners. Most Americans have accumulated—or will, during the course of their working years, accumulate— significant amounts of wealth. And that is why, I believe, American voters seem to be rejecting the policies of the Obama Democrats. Those policies, rooted in the Progressive and New Deal tradition, are designed to encourage a culture of dependence. It is the “soft despotism” of which Tocqueville warned us 175 years ago. The American people, the property-owning majority, even in this time of economic distress, seem to be embracing instead a culture of independence, a culture as old as the republic itself.
One of the things that makes American society strong is that we are a nation of rules. For the most part, people obey the law and follow the law. Knowing this gives people and business comfort when they move forward with new ideas. You can make the most of your efforts as long as you stay within the law and bounds of decent behavior.
The rule of law is so much a part of our society that many people take it for granted. Only those who deal with foreigners realize that our society is unique…not the norm. Corruption and the failure to obey laws is what holds many countries down.
Over the years, we have struggled in the United States with ridiculous law suits. I often complain that these law suits are a by product of laws that are ambiguous and judges who feel “empathy” instead of following the laws. Many law suits are attempted because any dumb logic may win millions of dollars. We have devolved to a state where logic and common sense are scarce in American court rooms.
To add to our strive, laws are written to be ambiguous or contradictory. This is a horrible situation for business. Business constantly weighs the risks and rewards of actions. When laws are too difficult to figure out, we often find ourselves unsure. I like to call it “analysis paralysis”. Did you try reading the health care bill? That thing is an instant head ache. Business will be struggling with that monstrosity for years.
Empathetic judges (judicial) and ambiguous laws (legislative) have been hurting our society for years. It has been a slow drip, but it is an ever increasing problem. To make matters worse…we now have an executive branch that is compounding the problem. The Obama administration is giving a wink to “sanctuary cities”. This comes on the heels of suing Arizona for taking up the slack where the federal government has failed to protect the border. This is not the first such failure to follow the law. Obama ignored bankruptcy laws when he stole the car companies from the investors and gave it to the unions. He dismissed a blatant case of voter intimidation. He ignores the obvious misdeeds of ACORN and SEIU. The message they are sending is clear. The law does not matter. Politics is king.
We are turning from a “Nation of Laws” to a “Nation of Men”. It took all of human history to move away from nations ruled by men to place of equality were rules were supreme, but we have voted for change. That change has taken us backward…back toward a time when kings and queens did as they pleased and the little people feared their masters.
This will come as no surprise. We have a lot of debt.Here’s another one. Social Security is going to make it worse.
In the coming month, I believe the Democrats will try to alter Social Security. The system, was suppose to be a insurance. You pay in during your younger years and then you get your money back when you get older. This Ponzi scheme is about to collapse, so the Democrats will try to change it to a wealth redistribution plan. The typical class rhetoric will be used. You know how it goes. The rich must pay their “fair share”. We must all “sacrifice” in these difficult times. It’s fair for the rich to pay for the poor. But don’t call it welfare!
What really pisses me off is that I have been told by liberals in the past that we must have Social Security because some people just wont save from themselves. They convinced themselves that this plan was about taking care of people who weren’t quite as smart as they were. But the system is killing us because our federal government has an insatiable appetite. The truth of the matter is that people will save for a rainy day. It is the government that needs to learn something about saving for the future.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Economics on July 12th, 2010
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