Tag Archives: Scandal

News

Der Spiegel reports that just 42% of Germans believe in global warming

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Fox News reports. (H/T Dad)

Excerpt:

Germans citizens are rapidly losing faith in global warming following the Climate-gate scandals, according to a new report in Der Spiegel.

The report indicates that just 42 percent of Germans are worried about global warming, down substantially from the 62 percent that expressed concern with the state of the environment in 2006.

German news site The Local analyzed the results from the poll, conducted by polling company Infratest for the German newsmagazine. Many people have little faith in the information and prognosis of climate researchers, The Local explained, with a third questioned in the survey not giving them much credence.

This is thought to be largely due to mistakes and exaggerations recently discovered in a report of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the site.

Der Spiegel is the New York Times of Germany, except further to the left, if that’s possible.

Meanwhile, the left-wing Guardian reports. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

Humans are too stupid to prevent climate change from radically impacting on our lives over the coming decades. This is the stark conclusion of James Lovelock, the globally respected environmental thinker and independent scientist who developed the Gaia theory.

It follows a tumultuous few months in which public opinion on efforts to tackle climate change has been undermined by events such as the climate scientists’ emails leaked from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the failure of the Copenhagen climate summit.

“I don’t think we’re yet evolved to the point where we’re clever enough to handle a complex a situation as climate change,” said Lovelock in his first in-depth interview since the theft of the UEA emails last November. “The inertia of humans is so huge that you can’t really do anything meaningful.”

One of the main obstructions to meaningful action is “modern democracy”, he added. “Even the best democracies agree that when a major war approaches, democracy must be put on hold for the time being. I have a feeling that climate change may be an issue as severe as a war. It may be necessary to put democracy on hold for a while.”

It’s all about controlling other people.

News

Nancy Pelosi refuses to ask Charlie Rangel to resign after ethics probe

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Here’s a re-cap of the story of his ethics probe:

And this story from CNS News is the latest.

Excerpt:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted on Friday that she is running the most ethical and honest Congress in history. At the same time, however, she indicated she will not ask House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D.-N.Y.) to resign his chairmanship—at least for now.

Rangel was admonished this week by the ethics committee for taking corporate-funded trips to the Caribbean.

Pelosi noted that the ethics committee is looking into other issues involving Rangel, and made it clear that she was interested in seeing the outcome of these investigations soon.

The committee, for example, is looking at Rangel’s failure to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets that should have been listed on his congressional financial disclosure reports.

[…]When a reporter prefaced a question about Rangel by noting that Pelosi had promised to run the “most ethical and honest Congress in history” she interrupted him to say: “And we are.”

Here’s a video of Pelosi:

Does she seem accountable to you?

Commentary

10% of US students are subject to sexual misconduct by school staff

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Story from Big Journalism. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

In 2004, Hofstra University professor Dr. Carol Shakeshaft published a report for the United States Department of Education titled “Educator Sexual Misconduct: A Synthesis of Existing Literature.” It was presented to Congress as part of the No Child Left Behind Act. In it, Shakeshaft stated:

As a group, these studies present a wide range of estimates of the percentage of U.S. students subject to sexual misconduct by school staff and vary from 3.7 to 50.3 percent. Because of its carefully drawn sample and survey methodology, the AAUW report that nearly 9.6 percent of students are targets of educator sexual misconduct sometime during their school career presents the most accurate data available at this time.

According to a study she did of abuse complaints against Catholic priests over a five decade period she concluded that “…the physical sexual abuse of students in schools is likely more than 100 times the abuse by priests.”

[…]But this story, involving mainly public schools, silently went away. The government, not wanting the legal nightmare that would follow, let the whole matter drop.

A story like this should have been huge, but the press had a vested interest in protecting academia. Public schools might get complained about in terms that would motivate politicians to pour more tax dollars into them. But any story that would inspire parents to pull their kids out en masse is spiked. The public institutions that statists love so much, despite their many failings, are protected. The progressive agenda trumped what should have been the story of the year.

One more reason why I oppose public schools and teacher unions. I hope you all watched the recent video I posted on school choice!