Agenda 21, Rio Declaration Mandate Use of Junk Science

In 1992 the first Bush Administration signed Agenda 21. The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development was one of the outcomes of the Rio conference. It is posted on the UN's website.   According to the Declaration, junk science must be used as a basis for national policy (see principle 15).  The principles seem to use ordinary language, but a lawyer could easily subvert or invert their meaning. The Waxman-Markey Cap and Trade bill already has done this.  "Cap and Trade" originally referred to a mechanism whereby manufacturers could sell pollution rights. The Cap and Trade bill proposed in 2009 would have established punitive regulations on homes and required retrofitting of home insulation at large financial cost to occupants.  The first Bush administration should not have been a party to the Rio Declaration because it is a totalitarian Pandora's box. Another example is the highly elastic term "sustainability." The vacuous term could be used to say that anyone who uses any resource is failing to be "sustainable."  The US needs to revoke its agreement to the Rio Declaration. As well, the Declaration states that women, youth and "indigenous peoples" play a special role in the implementing the provisions.  Some of the provisions are:

 ...

Principle 3

    The right to development must be fulfilled 

so as to equitably meet developmental and 

environmental needs of present and future 

generations.

Principle 8

    To achieve sustainable development and a 

higher quality of life for all people, 

States should reduce and eliminate unsustainable 

patterns of production and consumption and 

promote appropriate demographic policies.

Principle 11

    States shall enact effective environmental 

legislation. Environmental standards, management 

objectives and priorities should reflect the 

environmental and developmental context to which 

they apply.  Standards applied by some countries 

may be inappropriate and of unwarranted economic 

and social cost to other countries, in particular 

developing countries.
 

Principle 13

    States shall develop national law regarding 

liability and compensation for the victims of 

pollution and other environmental damage.  States 

shall also cooperate in an expeditious and more 

determined manner to develop further international 

law regarding liability and compensation for adverse 

effects of environmental damage caused by activities 

within their jurisdiction or control
to areas beyond their jurisdiction.

Principle 15

    In order to protect the environment, the 

precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States 

according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of 

serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific 

certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-

effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. 

Kate Smith Introduces God Bless America

Sharad Karkhanis just sent me this e-mail. Note: the expression "it's not over until the fat lady sings" may but probably does not refer to Kate Smith.  The expression's origins are unknown, but it may be derived from an old Southern expression. 

The link below will take you to a video showing the very first public singing of “GOD BLESS AMERICA.” But before you watch, you should also know the story of the song. The time was 1940. America was still in a terrible economic depression. Hitler was taking over Europe and Americans were afraid we’d have to go to war. It was a time of hardship and worry for most Americans.
This was the era just before TV, when radio shows were HUGE, and American families sat around their radios in the evenings, listening to their favorite entertainers – and no entertainer of that era was bigger than Kate Smith. Kate was also large in size, and the popular phrase still used today is in deference to her, “It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.” Kate Smith might not have made it big in the age of TV, but with her voice coming over the radio, she was the biggest star of her time.
Kate was also very patriotic. It hurt her to see Americans so depressed and afraid of what the next day would bring. She had hope for America, and faith in her fellow Americans. She wanted to do something to cheer them up, so she went to the famous American song-writer, Irving Berlin (also wrote “White Christmas”) and asked him to write a song that would make Americans feel good again about their country. When she described what she was looking for, he said he had just the song for her. He went to his files and found a song that he had written, but never published, 22 years before - way back in 1917. He gave it to Kate Smith and she worked on it with her studio orchestra. She and Irving Berlin were not sure how the song would be received by the public, but both agreed they would not take any profits from “God Bless America” – any profits would go to the Boy Scouts of America. Over
the years, the Boy Scouts have received millions of dollars in royalties from this song.
This video starts out with Kate Smith coming into the radio studio with the orchestra and an audience. She introduces the new song for the very first time, and starts singing. After the first couple versus, with her voice in the background still singing, scenes are shown from the 1940 movie, “You’re In The Army Now.” At the 4:20 mark
of the video you see a young actor in the movie, sitting in an office, reading a paper – it’s Ronald Reagan. Frank Sinatra considered Kate Smith the best singer of her time, and said when he and a million other guys first heard her sing “God Bless America” on the radio, they all pretended to have “dust in their eyes” as they wiped away a tear
or two…
To this day, “God Bless America” stirs our patriotic feelings and pride in our country. Back in 1940, When Kate Smith went looking for a song to raise the spirits of her fellow Americans, I doubt she realized just how successful the results would be – for her fellow Americans during those years of hardship and worry, and for many generations of Americans to follow… Now that you know the story of the song, I hope you will enjoy it and treasure it even more. God Bless America!
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/31462?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4d078e57bb39ba8d,0

The Stock Market's Curious Decline

The Wall Street Journal reports that stocks fell dramatically today. The S&P 500, an index of large stocks, fell by 2.56%, or $32.89. In the same issue, The Journal reports Obama's signing of the bill to increase the already massively distended debt ceiling.  The Journal writes:

President Barack Obama on Tuesday signed into law a bill raising the nation's debt ceiling, capping what he called an "unsettling" debate for the economy and helping the U.S. avoid default just 10 hours before the government would have run out of money to pay its bills.The move came after the Senate voted 74-26 to approve the legislation to raise the country's $14.29 trillion debt ceiling and cut the budget deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the next decade, a major victory for Republicans who have long battled to shrink the size of the U.S. government.

The market had fallen last week and yesterday. Now, after the signing, the market fell even further.  This presents an interesting hypothesis:  The stock market does not reflect the well being of the economy. Rather, it reflects the short-term profitability of listed firms, many of whose existence harm the economy by keeping out smaller, more entrepreneurial firms that can outperform them. They do this through big government and regulation.  In other words, the market fell because the debt ceiling bill reduced the amount of government waste and overspending that goes to big business. An increasing stock market and America's welfare are at odds.

Americans need to rethink their love affair with Wall Street.  The average American's wage has been stagnant for 40 years while Wall Street has dramatically expanded. Might this latest evidence of a conflict between the nation's economic health and the stock market give one pause about the confusion between the two?

Correction on Police Battering Incident

Town of Ulster Supervisor Jim Quigley called me and told me that the Town of Ulster has done an investigation that revealed that NO POLICE OFFICER from the Town of Ulster was present at the Birchez event where a police officer battered me. I am planning to contact the City of Kingston to determine if the officer was from Kingston and out of their jurisdiction.