Tibet - Torture, hunger, mobile sterilisation units ... the brutal reality

Torture, hunger, mobile sterilisation units ... the brutal reality of Tibet 2008 | the Daily Mail: British filmmakers have emerged from three months undercover in Tibet to release a terrifying portrayal of Chinese repression, including shootings, torture and the brutal sterilisation of women left maimed by crude operations. Their film, to be shown tomorrow night as part of Channel 4's Dispatches series, was made before the recent outbreak of anti-Chinese rioting in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. But with hundreds of jailed Tibetan protesters now in fear for their lives, the harrowing footage will add to the storm of condemnation gathering ahead of the Beijing Olympics this year. The documentary's investigation began with the notorious 2006 shootings on the Nangpa La pass, when unarmed Tibetans trying to leave the country were gunned down by Chinese border guards. Two Tibetans were killed and 32 detained, interrogated and then sent to a labour camp 150 miles from Lhasa. The experiences of one of those held, Jamyang Samten, now 16, gives a clue to the fate of Tibetan protesters now in the hands of the Chinese police. He told the programme makers he was given electric shocks with a cattle prod, chained to a wall and hit in the stomach by a guard wearing a metal glove. If he made a minor mistake in his interrogation, he would be beaten with a chain. "The way the Chinese tortured was terrifying," he said. "They beat us using their full strength. Sometimes they forced us to take off our clothes. We were locked up in a room with our arms and legs handcuffed and they beat us. The chain injured the surface but not the inside of the body. "If they hit us with the electric baton, our entire body trembled and gradually we were unable to speak." Jamyang was eventually released and finally made it over the border to Kathmandu in Nepal after paying a guide the equivalent of £210.

Albert Gore, Jr. vs. Reality

Thick ice hinders controversial seal hunt - Yahoo! News:

CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island (Reuters) - Canada's annual seal hunt, which the government promised would be more humane this year, cranked up slowly on Friday because of thick ice. The government is allowing hunters to kill up to 275,000 young harp seals on the ice floes off Eastern Canada, but only three had been reported killed on the first morning of the hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. "It's a very slow start," said Phil Jenkins, spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, noting that sealing boats were finding it difficult to get to the herds because of thick ice.

MEANWHILE: Albert Gore, Jr. is getting so overheated he can only see his personal reality. If you show scientific data that counters him he calls you names. CBS 60 Minutes

Self-avowed "P.R. agent for the planet" Al Gore says those who still doubt that global warming is caused by man - among them, Vice President Dick Cheney - are acting like the fringe groups who think the 1969 moon landing never really happened, or who once believed the world is flat. The former vice president and former presidential candidate talks to 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl in an interview to be broadcast this Sunday, March 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Confronted by Stahl with the fact some prominent people, including the nation’s vice president, are not convinced that global warming is man-made, Gore responds: "You're talking about Dick Cheney. I think that those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat,” says Gore. "That demeans them a little bit, but it's not that far off," he tells Stahl.

Cooling - no Vermont sugar yet

It's a cold Spring. Global warming? Burlington Free Press.com | Top Stories Count northern Vermont's sugar maples among those wallowing in the winter blahs. Sugaring season across the state is dawdling, because continuous cold temperatures are keeping the sap from flowing out of maple trees and into the evaporators Vermont's sugar makers use to create syrup. Friday through Sunday is Vermont Maple Open House Weekend, when the public is invited to visit sugarhouses to see how syrup is made and sample the products. Despite the cold, there will be enough syrup to go around. Still, farmers wish the sap flow from maples would pick up the pace. "It's just barely dripping, if that. It's off to a very slow start in our bush," said Virginia Fleury of Fleury's Maple Hill Farm in Berkshire. Like most syrup producers, Fleury is far from ready to write off the season. "We can make quite a bit in April if the weather comes off right. The problem is, in past years it warmed up rather quickly. The minute it hits 60 or 65 degrees, you might as well forget it," she said.

Bush's Africa legacy

President Bush has been a man of his word and of action on Africa. He promised huge aid for AIDS a few years ago; he delivered in full. Bush's Africa legacy - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper: President Bush showed the world that it isn't words, but actions, that truly make a difference. Millions throughout Africa would agree. Mr. Bush recently completed a historic visit to the African continent; a trip he described as "the most exciting, exhilarating, uplifting trip" of his presidency. During his visit, we saw pictures of the president dancing, celebrating and attending ceremonies with heads of state. But the real story is not about just this one trip; it is about the commitment the president made to Africa and what the United States has been quietly accomplishing throughout the continent over the past eight years under Mr. Bush's leadership.

Lava Lovers Live With Danger

We saw new homes built on recent lava flows on Hawaii's Big Island in early February - last month. We were astonished because we traveled there in March and June, 1990 when lava from Kilauea was destroying the village of Kalapana - over 100 homes, a church and the only store. "Why would anyone build on a lava flow less than 20 years old?" we asked pilot Mark of Island Hoppers. "They don't know how long they have, but the land is cheap and there is plenty of warning when the lava comes to burn up your house!" Now they are watching the lava come close again. It has again cut a path through a nearby former neighborhood. Royal Gardens is closer to the lava source and was obliterated and cut off by flows in the 1980s. Since it is inaccessible only two people live there and a few other abandoned structures survived the fiery lave. It's hard to imagine wanting to live there, but people do. Lava Lovers Live With Danger - Examiner.com:

KALAPANA, Hawaii (Map, News) - As fiery lava pours down Kilauea volcano toward Jean Olson's lonely wooden house, incinerating everything in its path, there's no place she'd rather be. "Why would I live here if I didn't like it? I have the best view of anyone in town," said Olson, who lives just over a mile from fountains of glowing lava spewing into the ocean. "Either she comes or she doesn't. If she comes, we'll pick up and leave." Thousands of visitors a day come to nearby Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to watch Kilauea erupt, something it has been doing for a quarter-century. But some residents live with the boiling lava every day and revel in the notion that their homes and lives are subject to the whims of earth's awesome underground forces. The danger has become clearer in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a two-block-wide swath of lava burned through abandoned homes and reached the ocean. And the first gas explosion at Kilauea's peak since 1924 scattered gravel onto a tourist lookout, road and trail before daybreak last week, injuring no one but spreading fear.

Climate facts - cooling!

Global warming has peaked, despite increases of greenhouse gasses. There has been cooling since 1998. The scientists know it. Do the activists listen to the scientists? Climate facts to warm to | The Australian:

Last Monday - on ABC Radio National, of all places - there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril. Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?" She replied: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years." Duffy: "Is this a matter of any controversy?" Marohasy: "Actually, no. The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in temperatures so far this century. So he recognises that in this century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued ... This is not what you'd expect, as I said, because if carbon dioxide is driving temperature then you'd expect that, given carbon dioxide levels have been continuing to increase, temperatures should be going up ... So (it's) very unexpected, not something that's being discussed. It should be being discussed, though, because it's very significant." Duffy: "It's not only that it's not discussed. We never hear it, do we?

The Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq War - Success

There is a lot of good news to report in Iraq. But the big media forgot to report it. Iraq is today a growing economy again. From 2002 [before our invasion] through 2006, the most recent year for which data are available, per capita GDP in dollars jumped 110%. Before the war, there were some 833,000 people with telephones. Today, there's 9.8 million. Fewer than 5,000 people were on the Internet during Saddam's rein of terror; today, it's a quarter million. There were no private TV stations under Saddam; today Iraq has more than 50. There are at least 260 independent newspapers and magazines in Iraq, vs. none under Saddam. Just 1.5 million cars were registered before the war; by 2005, that had hit 3.1 million. In short, by almost any objective measure one might choose, Iraqis are today much better off than they were under Saddam. Those that deny this are, frankly, deluded. Better still, Saddam's jackbooted minions no longer pull people screaming out of their homes for torture sessions and murder. By some estimates, an average of 50,000 people died each year from Saddam's campaigns of genocide, ethnic cleansing and political murder. Last year, the peak of the surge, there were 18,000 civilian deaths — mostly by terrorists. Today, Iraq's nascent democracy, though imperfect, seems solid. A recent look at the Index of Political Freedom shows Iraq ranking as the fourth-freest country in the Mideast, out of 20. Those who term the war a "failure" need to define that term. Investors Business Daily "But we didn't find the WMD, the weapons of mass destruction." No, we found a lot of them.

On the contrary, U.S. troops found more than 500 weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. True, we didn't find an operational nuclear weapon, but U.N. inspectors found lots of equipment and plans clearly showing that Iraq had been working on one — and intended to do so again.

Why President Bush doesn't mention Hussein's nuclear plans baffles me! Why not defend your own policies? Is the world a better place now? Yes. Great things happened in the Middle East region.

We achieved many concrete benefits from taking Saddam out — none of them, by the way, related to "blood for oil," the libelous and patently false phrase used by the left to tarnish the U.S. war effort. For instance, Libya's Muammar Qaddafi gave up his nuclear weapons just weeks after the U.S. deposed Saddam. Coincidence? Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon, a country it bullied for decades. Elections followed. Iraq and Afghanistan had free and fair elections, while Saudi Arabia, Egypt and even Syria recognized democratic movements. North Korea suddenly decided to talk.

Since the surge began a year ago, nearly every indicator of violence in the country is down, and down sharply: civilian fatalities, off 80% from the peak; enemy attacks, off 40%; bombings, off 81%. Yes, U.S. fatalities are nearing 4,000. And every death of every brave soldier is a tragedy. But we lost more soldiers on D-Day. And we didn't ask to be attacked by the Muslim extremists. Via ¡No Pasarán!: Strange, How Few Pundits and MSM Outlets Commemorated the Fifth Anniversary of the Iraq War:

The New Dhimmi Times

The New York Times has sunk lower and lower. Frank Gaffney reports: FrontPage Magazine: The New York Times marked a deplorable new milestone this weekend, however – a true nadir in collaborating with the enemy in the War of Ideas. Its Sunday magazine featured an article by Harvard law professor Noah Feldman entitled “Why Shariah? Millions of Muslims think Shariah means the rule of law. Could they be right?” According to the Times’ Mr. Feldman, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” The disinforming character of this essay is evident to the trained eye from the opening paragraph. Feldman depicts sympathetically the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who “gave a nuanced, scholarly lecture” recently in London. Dr. Williams we are told offered “the tentative suggestion…that, subject to the agreement of all parties and the strict requirement of protecting equal rights for women, it might be a good idea to consider allowing Islamic and Orthodox Jewish courts to handle marriage and divorce.” Then, it seems through no fault of his own, “all hell broke loose” on the poor, thoughtful clergyman. Actually, what the head of the Church of England declared on the BBC was that it was “unavoidable” that Shariah law – a theo-political-legal code that the Islamofascists seek to impose on Muslims and non-Muslims alike in all of its barbaric, intolerant, totalitarian and misogynistic glory – will be observed in the United Kingdom. The man now derided as “the Grand Mufti of Canterbury” was exhibiting the classic symptoms of an unbeliever who chooses to submit to the rule of Islam, rather than accept the other choice under Shariah, namely being put to death. The former is known as a dhimmi. See Dhimmi Watch for analysis and news of dhimmitude.

What can go wrong if Florida holds another primary - Everything!

Enjoy the chaos. The state that brought us the 3-week recount and the comical Florida Supreme Court has another chance to make a difference. What can go wrong in the 're-do'? Only everything - MiamiHerald.com: Ten most-asked questions about a possible re-do of the Florida Democratic Primary. 1. This whole thing is just a gag, right? Somebody's lame idea of a joke? If only it were. Acting with unfathomable haste and stupidity, the National Democratic Party stripped Florida of its convention delegates when the state decided to move up the date of its presidential primary. About 1.7 million loyal Democrats showed up on Jan. 29 and voted anyway, though they were basically tinkling into the wind. As fate would have it, the race between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama is now so tight that Florida's delegates could be crucial in deciding the nominee. That's why some party leaders wanted to ''re-do'' the primary by mail, a long-shot idea that terrifies supporters of both candidates. 2. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Florida could conduct postal balloting without a major screw-up or scandal? Heavens, no! The whole country is keenly aware that our state is a sump hole of incompetence and corruption. Submitting fraudulent hand-written ballots has always been a favored method of rigging elections here, and there's no reason to think the tradition wouldn't continue. ... 7. If a new primary is held, how can I be sure my primary vote would count? Pack up and move to Pennsylvania, fast. Just kidding! By now, most Floridians know the election-day drill: For every ballot that doesn't get counted, another ballot will accidentally be counted twice.

Alberta nuclear power plant(s) seeking permission

Reduce greenhouse gases, if you really want to. While allowing economic growth, if you want to. Nuclear power helps with both. But if the greens just want to stop growth, they will fight this. Edmontonsun.com - An Ontario-based company that operates Canada’s first private nuclear electricity generating plant has announced it’s one step closer to building Western Canada’s first nuclear facility. Bruce Power says in a news release it’s been successful in acquiring the assets of Energy Alberta Corp. and has filed an application with the Nuclear Safety Commission to build a power plant in northwestern Alberta. The company says it’s considering construction of up to four reactors, which could produce 4,000 megawatts of electricity — enough power to supply roughly two million homes. It says it’s been estimated that the province’s red-hot economy will create a demand for an additional 5,000 megawatts of supply by 2017, when the first unit of the project could be ready to come online. Duncan Hawthorne, chief executive of Bruce Power, says while the approval process could take about three years, the company is ready to do technical studies and consultations with local residents and aboriginal communities.

They're attacking me because I'm white

The Democrat Party's identity politics take another step down. Geraldine Ferraro makes a racial comment about Barack Hussein Obama. But she knows that no one can attack her over it, because she is a woman. But her words blow back in her face. CNN.com: Geraldine Ferraro defended her controversial comment that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign was successful because he was black, telling an interviewer Tuesday that she was being attacked because she was white. "Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says, 'Let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world,' you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," she told the Daily Breeze of Torrance, California. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?"

Hey, Big Spender! :: Evergreen Freedom Foundation

Hey, Big Spender Hey, Big Spender! :: Evergreen Freedom Foundation: How much will your legislator cost you? Updated as of: March 9, 2008 Using data and projections compiled by the Office of Financial Management, we have aggregated bills introduced in the 2008 legislative session to determine the total increased taxes and fees proposed by each individual legislator, as primary or co-sponsor, would bring to taxpayers over a ten year period. This chart will be updated weekly until all OFM financial projections have been released and finalized.

Legislator Total Tax & Fee Increase Rank

Kohl-Welles Jeanne D-36 SEN $214,327,749,698 1 Keiser Karen D-33 SEN $146,963,345,323 2 Hasegawa Bob D-11 REP $69,861,215,969 3

Hunt Sam D-22 REP $69,835,437,700 4

Fraser Karen D-22 SEN $61,936,239,930 5 Conway Steve D-29 REP $61,400,379,740 6 Fairley Darlene D-32 SEN $61,358,348,976 7

Gaffney - Pentagon's dirty secret of foreign suppliers to military

To one of the US's top journalists in military affairs Frank Gaffney: Frank Gaffney at Townhall The Pentagon has had a dirty little secret for years now: Foreign suppliers are an increasingly important part of the industrial base upon which the U.S. military relies for everything from key components of its weapon systems to the software that runs its logistics. With the Air Force February 29 decision to turn over to a European-led consortium the manufacture and support of its tanker fleet – arguably one of the most important determinants of America’s ability to project power around the world – the folly of this self-inflicted vulnerability may finally get the attention it deserves from Congress and the public. The implications of such dependencies were made clear back in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm. In the course of that short but intense operation, American officials had to plead with the government of Japan to intervene with a Japanese manufacturer to obtain replacement parts for equipment then being used to expel Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait. The obvious lesson of that experience seemingly has been lost on the Pentagon. In the nearly two decades that have followed, it has sought to cut costs and acquisition timelines by increasingly utilizing commercial, off-the-shelf (or COTS) technology. Under the logic of “globalization,” COTS often means foreign-supplied, particularly with respect to advanced computer chips and other electronic gear. Such a posture raises obvious questions about the availability of such equipment should the United States have to wage a war that is unpopular with the government or employees of the supplier. Then there is the problem of built-in defects such as computer code “trap doors” that may not become obvious until the proverbial “balloon goes up” and disabling of U.S. military capabilities becomes a strategic priority to foreign adversaries, or those sympathetic with them. Even the Pentagon and intelligence community recognized that this sort of train-wreck was in prospect had Huawei, a company with longstanding ties to the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army, been allowed to buy 3Com. The latter’s “intrusion prevention” technology is widely used by the U.S. government to provide computer security in the face of relentless cyber attacks from, among others, Communist China. Now, unfortunately, the Air Force has set in motion what might be called a “plane-wreck.” Opposition is intensifying on Capitol Hill, on the presidential hustings and across America to the service’s decision to make the European Aerospace, Defense and Space (EADS) consortium the principal supplier of its aerial refueling capabilities for the next fifty years. There appear to be a number of questions about the process whereby the decision was made to reject the alternative offered by the Nation’s historic supplier of tanker aircraft – the Boeing Company. These questions (for example, concerning the ability to operate on relatively short and austere runways) seem likely to result in that corporation protesting the source-selection of a much larger Airbus aircraft over Boeing’s modified 767. Even more telling, however, may be other considerations that argue powerfully against a reliance on the EADS-dominated offering. A number of these were identified in a paper issued by the Center for Security Policy in April 2007 and re-released last week but were evidently not taken into account by the Air Force: * One of the owners of EADS, the government of France, has long engaged in: corporate other acts of espionage against the U.S. and its companies; bribery and other corrupt practices; and diplomatic actions generally at cross-purposes with America’s national interests. * The Russian state-owned Development Bank (Vneshtorgbank) is reportedly the largest non-European shareholder in EADS with at least a 5% stake. It is hard to imagine that, at a moment when Vladimir Putin and his cronies are becoming ever more aggressive in their anti-Americanism and efforts to intimidate Europe, we could safely entrust such vital national security capabilities as the manufacture and long-term support of our tanker fleet to a company in which the Kremlin is involved. * The enormous U.S. taxpayer-financed cash infusion into EADS will probably not only translate into more money for the slush funds the company has historically used to bribe customers into buying Airbus planes rather than Boeing’s. It will also help subsidize the Europeans’ space launch activities – again at the expense of American launch services. * EADS has been at the forefront of European efforts to arm – over adamant U.S. objections – Communist China, Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela and Iran. * As the Center for Security Policy paper points out: “Through its aircraft production division, EADS is a huge jobs program for anti-American labor unions that form the backbones of some of Europe’s most powerful socialist parties. By purchasing products that employ these workers, we will be feeding those who would rather bite our hand than shake it.” These and other aspects of the selection of the Airbus tanker (notably, preposterous claims about the number of American jobs that will be created by contracting out our tanker fleet to the Europeans – ) seem to assure that this decision will indeed be a political plane-wreck. The tragedy is that the replacement of our obsolescent aerial refueling fleet has already been unduly delayed. The further deferral that now seems inevitable may mean that we wind up literally sacrificing aircraft and their crews, or at least the national power-projection capability we need while this mess is sorted out.

Shovelling 'global warming' in Toronto

Global warming comes down in white flakes this winter. Is this the trend? Don't know. But every warm temperature is evidence of global warming, we are told repeatedly. TorontoSun.com - Lorrie Goldstein - Shovelling 'global warming':

If your neighbour is a charter member of the Al Gore Nation, today would probably be a bad time to ask him how he's been enjoying shovelling all that "global warming" out of his driveway this winter. Trust me, climate hysterics (anyone who accuses others of being "climate deniers") do not like being mocked.

Lava enters ocean again in Hawaii

The eruption of Kilauea on Hawaii's Big Island has been continuous since 1983. Much of this time lava has flowed down 4,000 feet and entered the ocean, making the island larger. The flow to the ocean stopped last June, but the flow continued, just in a different direction. We were there in early February, 2008. Seeing lava flow is a nowhere-else-in-the-world opportunity, so we wouldn't miss it. Usually you can walk to see the flow; in 1999 we hiked 3 miles each way over rough lava to see it. But this year it was not possible. So we took a flight from Hilo. We saw it. Being daylight it was harder to see, but with a close look we could the red hot lava. And, being a flight, after one circle we had to move on. The active flow we saw was about 4 miles from the Pacific and about 2,000 feet up. This week there is good news on two fronts. The lava front turned and moved very quickly, advancing the 4 miles in a month, so it is again flowing into the ocean. One advantage of flow into the ocean is you can see the steam from miles away, so far more people get some experience of the lava's location and high heat, not just those who hike there. See the map. Viewing - Hawaii County was proactive and extended a road and a trail to allow access to a view point to see the lava flow. Honolulu Star-Bulletin When we were there with our kids in 1990, you couldn't get within a mile, maybe more. The emphasis was on safety. But there was another consideration. The flow was destroying a neighborhood - Kalapana; people's homes were going up in flames. So it was sensitive to them to keep us sightseer/scientiests out. But now everyone can see.

Whistler's dirty laundry - trash

Ron Judd discovered a big secret at Whistler-Blackcomb, the mountain resort in British Columbia. They export their trash. Seattle Times Northwest Weekend

It's a little-known fact. When the world comes to the chic, environmentally conscious resort hamlet of Whistler-Blackcomb, which it will do increasingly for the 2010 Winter Olympics two years from now, it leaves quite a bit of stuff behind — some 18,000 metric tons of trash every year. But not a scrap of that garbage finds its final resting place in Whistler. Nor does it just go down the hill to Squamish. Nor anywhere else in the Sea to Sky corridor. Whistler's trash comes to Washington state. All of it. It has since 2005, when Whistler's small landfill, just outside of town, was filled and capped off, making way for the Olympic Athlete's Village now being constructed on top. With bulldozers humming there, Whistler has opened a new transfer station in the Callaghan Valley, not far from the Olympic venue for cross-country skiing. There, trash is packed into sealed shipping containers to be hauled by truck to Surrey. The containers are stacked two-high on trains and hauled down the Interstate 5 corridor, up the Columbia River Gorge, to the massive Rabanco landfill at Roosevelt, east of Goldendale.

Goldendale, Washington - just east of the Columbia Gorge!

Hello, Marysville - Middle School students protest lax rules

Marysville, Washington, schools need adult supervision. The students are demanding some discipline. HeraldNet: Totem Middle School students protest lax rules:

MARYSVILLE -- The tension built. For a week, Totem Middle School students met after class in the library, posted messages on MySpace and whispered conversations in the hall. They made signs, painted T-shirts and circulated petitions. When the clock hit 10:40 a.m. Wednesday, they were ready. They walked out. Around 200 students risked suspension and broke school rules to demand more discipline. Claiming they're sometimes afraid to go to class, they asked administrators to dole out tougher and more equitable punishments for things such as fighting, bringing alcohol to school and smoking marijuana. "The students that have been committing these offenses have been doing them multiple times and the most they get is a two- or three-day suspension," said eighth-grader Farrah Wolgamott, who helped organized the protest. "We don't really feel safe because they don't get expelled. We think people are going to bring it to the next level and bring guns and knives to school." Gail Miller, assistant superintendent of the Marysville School District, said she can't remember another time when students asked for more discipline.

More on NY Climate Conference

Here is more on the climate conference just concluded in NYC. American Thinker: NY Climate Conference: Journey to the Center of Warming Sanity:

Granting a long overdue forum to noted dissenting scientists, economists and policy experts from around the world, the Heartland Institute-sponsored symposium at the Marriott Marquis offered welcomed reasoned analysis as alternative to last December's hysterical circus which was Bali. It also served as the perfect launch point for a long-awaited un-IPCC report -- Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate: Summary for Policymakers of the Report of the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change [PDF]. Compiling the work of over 20 prominent fellow researchers, editor Fred Singer's NIPCC report distinguishes itself from the recent IPCC Fourth Assessment (AR4) and its predecessors in that it was not pre-programmed to "support the hypotheses of anthropogenic warming (AGW) and the control of greenhouse gases." Instead, the nearly 50 page document is a non-political authoritative rebuttal to the multi-government controlled IPCC's "errors and outright falsehoods" regarding warming's measurement, likely drivers, and overall impact. And its ultimate conclusion of "natural causes and a moderate warming trend with beneficial effects for humanity and wildlife" set the perfect framework for speakers and panelists - many of whom contributed to the NIPCC -- to elaborate on the summit's "Global warming is not a crisis" theme. While Mainstream Media Ignored, Alarmist Propaganda Machine Attacked Even before the first mention was made of activists and media misrepresenting current climate science while completely ignoring the serious inaccuracies in virtually all IPCC documents at Sunday's opening dinner, alarmist groups were busy marginalizing the event. Treehugger.com, DeSmogBlog.com and Greenpeace's Kert Davies -- who actually attended -- dubbed it "Denial-a-Palooza," and painted it as a desperate "final battle" in a war that's been long won by their side. Gloating over pending carbon regulations and collaborating GOP politicians, alarm-leader Davies asks:

Reuters covers global warming conference today

Heartland Institute is holding their international conference on the truth of global warming through today in New York City. Reuters covered it. Did the LS media carry the story? No, just The Star in the UK and The Times in India. Climate skeptics roast Al Gore on global warming NEW YORK (Reuters) - Al Gore, who won the Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his environmental advocacy, was the main target on Monday at a conference of dissident scientists skeptical of his views on global warming. Several speakers at the conference on climate change whose theme was "Global warming is not a crisis," took pot-shots at the ex-vice president and his film, "An Inconvenient Truth," which won last year's Academy Award for best documentary. "Whether we like it or not, it was extremely effective propaganda," said Timothy Ball, an environmental consultant and former climatology professor at the University of Winnipeg. "It was appropriate that he got an Oscar from the land of make-believe," he joked.

Tea might reduce diabetes

Ingredients in black tea mimic insulin to fight deadly disease IT IS the world's most popular drink, enjoyed everywhere from building sites to The Ritz. But now scientists have discovered that the great British cuppa holds the potential to fight one of the nation's biggest life-threatening diseases. Groundbreaking research by scientists at Dundee University has revealed that ordinary tea may have the potential to help combat type 2 diabetes, which affects around 200,000 Scots. The scientists have discovered ingredients in black tea mimic the action of the hormone insulin, which is deficient in people with diabetes. They say the next step is to establish whether drinking more tea could help treat diabetes or even prevent it occurring in the first place. Scotsman

Dhimmitude at Harvard

Harvard is submitting to Islam making the rules. Islamist students demanded Harvard follow Islamic law and provide women's only gymnasium time. Harvard submitted. What is next? Men getting a divorce by demanding it, but women being denied divorce? Capital punishment for crimes against Islam? "Dhimmitude" is defined at Dhimmi Watch:

Dhimmitude is the status that Islamic law, the Sharia, mandates for non-Muslims, primarily Jews and Christians. Dhimmis, "protected people," are free to practice their religion in a Sharia regime, but are made subject to a number of humiliating regulations designed to enforce the Qur'an's command that they "feel themselves subdued" (Sura 9:29). This denial of equality of rights and dignity remains part of the Sharia, and, as such, is part of the law that global jihadists are laboring to impose everywhere, ultimately on the entire human race.

FOXNews.com

In response to a request by female Muslim students, Harvard University has created women-only workout hours at one of its campus gyms. The decision has angered some students at the Ivy League university. Since Jan. 28, the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center has been open only to women from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays. The change was prompted by a request from the Harvard College Women's Center, which was approached by six female Muslim students, said Robert Mitchell, communications director of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. "It was done for religious purposes, but it's not closed to other women who may want to participate," he said. Ola Aljawhary, a student and a member of the Harvard Islamic Society, said the women-only gym is needed. "These hours are necessary because there is a segment of the Harvard female population that is not found in gyms, not because they don't want to work out, but because for them working out in a co-ed gym is uncomfortable, awkward or problematic in some way," she told Boston University's Daily Free Press.

It's bad enough to be forced into the status of the dhimmi - to be forced into sumission. But Harvard is voluntarily accepting humiliation. The Muslims know it; kind spokesman Robert Mitchell must not.