Dear Curt:
When I first joined the American Physical Society sixty-seven years ago it was much smaller, much gentler, and as yet uncorrupted by the money flood (a threat against which Dwight Eisenhower warned a half-century ago). Indeed, the choice of physics as a profession was then a guarantor of a life of poverty and abstinence—it was World War II that changed all that. The prospect of worldly gain drove few physicists. As recently as thirty-five years ago, when I chaired the first APS study of a contentious social/scientific issue, The Reactor Safety Study, though there were zealots aplenty on the outside there was no hint of inordinate pressure on us as physicists. We were therefore able to produce what I believe was and is an honest appraisal of the situation at that time. We were further enabled by the presence of an oversight committee consisting of Pief Panofsky, Vicki Weisskopf, and Hans Bethe, all towering physicists beyond reproach. I was proud of what we did in a charged atmosphere. In the end the oversight committee, in its report to the APS President, noted the complete independence in which we did the job, and predicted that the report would be attacked from both sides. What greater tribute could there be?

How different it is now. The giants no longer walk the earth, and the money flood has become the raison d’être of much physics research, the vital sustenance of much more, and it provides the support for untold numbers of professional jobs. For reasons that will soon become clear my former pride at being an APS Fellow all these years has been turned into shame, and I am forced, with no pleasure at all, to offer you my resignation from the Society.

It is of course, the global warming scam, with the (literally) trillions of dollars driving it, that has corrupted so many scientists, and has carried APS before it like a rogue wave. It is the greatest and most successful pseudoscientific fraud I have seen in my long life as a physicist. Anyone who has the faintest doubt that this is so should force himself to read the ClimateGate documents, which lay it bare. (Montford’s book organizes the facts very well.) I don’t believe that any real physicist, nay scientist, can read that stuff without revulsion. I would almost make that revulsion a definition of the word scientist.

So what has the APS, as an organization, done in the face of this challenge? It has accepted the corruption as the norm, and gone along with it. For example:

1. About a year ago a few of us sent an e-mail on the subject to a fraction of the membership. APS ignored the issues, but the then President immediately launched a hostile investigation of where we got the e-mail addresses. In its better days, APS used to encourage discussion of important issues, and indeed the Constitution cites that as its principal purpose. No more. Everything that has been done in the last year has been designed to silence debate

2. The appallingly tendentious APS statement on Climate Change was apparently written in a hurry by a few people over lunch, and is certainly not representative of the talents of APS members as I have long known them. So a few of us petitioned the Council to reconsider it. One of the outstanding marks of (in)distinction in the Statement was the poison word incontrovertible, which describes few items in physics, certainly not this one. In response APS appointed a secret committee that never met, never troubled to speak to any skeptics, yet endorsed the Statement in its entirety. (They did admit that the tone was a bit strong, but amazingly kept the poison word incontrovertible to describe the evidence, a position supported by no one.) In the end, the Council kept the original statement, word for word, but approved a far longer “explanatory” screed, admitting that there were uncertainties, but brushing them aside to give blanket approval to the original. The original Statement, which still stands as the APS position, also contains what I consider pompous and asinine advice to all world governments, as if the APS were master of the universe. It is not, and I am embarrassed that our leaders seem to think it is. This is not fun and games, these are serious matters involving vast fractions of our national substance, and the reputation of the Society as a scientific society is at stake.

3. In the interim the ClimateGate scandal broke into the news, and the machinations of the principal alarmists were revealed to the world. It was a fraud on a scale I have never seen, and I lack the words to describe its enormity. Effect on the APS position: none. None at all. This is not science; other forces are at work.

4. So a few of us tried to bring science into the act (that is, after all, the alleged and historic purpose of APS), and collected the necessary 200+ signatures to bring to the Council a proposal for a Topical Group on Climate Science, thinking that open discussion of the scientific issues, in the best tradition of physics, would be beneficial to all, and also a contribution to the nation. I might note that it was not easy to collect the signatures, since you denied us the use of the APS membership list. We conformed in every way with the requirements of the APS Constitution, and described in great detail what we had in mind—simply to bring the subject into the open.<

5. To our amazement, Constitution be damned, you declined to accept our petition, but instead used your own control of the mailing list to run a poll on the members’ interest in a TG on Climate and the Environment. You did ask the members if they would sign a petition to form a TG on your yet-to-be-defined subject, but provided no petition, and got lots of affirmative responses. (If you had asked about sex you would have gotten more expressions of interest.) There was of course no such petition or proposal, and you have now dropped the Environment part, so the whole matter is moot. (Any lawyer will tell you that you cannot collect signatures on a vague petition, and then fill in whatever you like.) The entire purpose of this exercise was to avoid your constitutional responsibility to take our petition to the Council.

6. As of now you have formed still another secret and stacked committee to organize your own TG, simply ignoring our lawful petition.

APS management has gamed the problem from the beginning, to suppress serious conversation about the merits of the climate change claims. Do you wonder that I have lost confidence in the organization?

I do feel the need to add one note, and this is conjecture, since it is always risky to discuss other people’s motives. This scheming at APS HQ is so bizarre that there cannot be a simple explanation for it. Some have held that the physicists of today are not as smart as they used to be, but I don’t think that is an issue. I think it is the money, exactly what Eisenhower warned about a half-century ago. There are indeed trillions of dollars involved, to say nothing of the fame and glory (and frequent trips to exotic islands) that go with being a member of the club. Your own Physics Department (of which you are chairman) would lose millions a year if the global warming bubble burst. When Penn State absolved Mike Mann of wrongdoing, and the University of East Anglia did the same for Phil Jones, they cannot have been unaware of the financial penalty for doing otherwise. As the old saying goes, you don’t have to be a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing. Since I am no philosopher, I’m not going to explore at just which point enlightened self-interest crosses the line into corruption, but a careful reading of the ClimateGate releases makes it clear that this is not an academic question.

I want no part of it, so please accept my resignation. APS no longer represents me, but I hope we are still friends.
Hal

No further comment from me is necessary.

While visiting a guy in Illinois who had, literally, a house full of junk, one of the “pickers” commented through a series of voice-over narrations about how the United States didn’t manufacture things anymore. He was nostalgic about the old washing machines, bicycles, lawnmowers etc. that the United States no longer made and complained that our economy was too “consumer based.”

While it’s true that the United States’ economy is largely consumer based, we’ve been the world’s top manufacturer since World War II. According to the most recent data I can find by doing a Google search, in 2007 the US still held the top spot for manufacturing. Some believe that China has now surpassed us, which may be the case, but even if that’s true the US is still number two. That’s not too bad is it?

On Tuesday, White House adviser Paul Volcker said that we might need to adopt a European-style value added tax and a carbon or other energy tax. He said we might have to do this to get entitlement cost and the U.S. budget deficit under control. 

Here’s a crazy idea: STOP SPENDING OUR F***ING MONEY! How about we try that as a way to get our budget deficit under control. Maybe we could reform our entitlement system so that we can ween people off of it and eventually abolish it instead of creating new entitlements, i.e. healthcare. Oh wait, the Democrats run everything so those aren’t options, failure is the only option.

“If you voted for Obama … seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your healthcare begin right now, not in four years.” 

The doctor insists that he is only trying to make a point and that he has not, and would not turn away anyone based on their political beliefs. However, he does say,  ”if they read the sign and turn the other way, so be it.” 

The Sentinel interviewed an “expert” on bioethics about the matter but it’s just a bunch of unnecessary blah, blah, blah. They also got a comment from Congressman Alan Grayson (D-Orlando,FL) who had this to say:

“Maybe he thinks the Hippocratic Oath says, ‘Do no good.’ If this is the face of the right-wing in America, it’s the face of cruelty. … Why don’t they change the name of the Republican Party to the Sore Loser Party?”    

LOL! What a clever guy! The ‘sore loser’ party that’s great. It’s too bad that when it comes to Obamacare the sore losers are the American people. Obamacare may have already cost American corporations $14 billion in profit and will cost the American people tons of cash in the form of higher taxes. In short, Less profit=less jobs. Higher taxes=less consumer spending=less growth=less jobs.    

FYI, Rep. Grayson is a top contender for the Liberty Market Douchebag of the year award.  

“What we believe,” Dr. Frost told ecoEnquirer, “is that a new paradigm is needed in scientific thought. Since mutually exclusive sets of scientific results usually are published in respected scientific publications, we suggest that they are both true. There is a higher level of physical understanding that must be developed, one where the Yin and Yang of scientific findings are reconciled, better understood, and appreciated.”

When asked about whether or not sea levels would rise or fall Dr. Frost said:

“That is quite simple. The predicted result is that sea levels will both rise and fall, depending, of course, upon the perspective of the observer.”

While this explanation might seem absurd I think it makes total sense. Today it seems that scientist in general are less interested in finding “scientific truth,” and more interested in keeping their grant money flowing. Therefore, a scientist is more likely to come up with a conclusion that is in line with the agenda of the person or organization(s) funding their research. Ask yourself this, if you were a climatologist, and Al Gore was funding your research, what conclusion would you be more likely to come up with: one that contradicts Mr. Gore or one that validates his cataclysmic claims? 

Just something to think about.

The prohibition of marijuana has failed. It has created a dangerous black market for a natural plant that can grow just about anywhere. The government has wasted billions of dollars in law enforcement and our jails and prisons are filled with non-violent drug users.

Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman explained how the government prohibition of drugs has created more problems than it has solved. His argument is very compelling.

Judge Andrew Napolitano I think sums up the argument in favor of legalization very nicely:

Just in case you’ve forgotten….  

After the attacks on September 11, 2001 the government quickly took advantage of the situation and passed the Patriot Act which, for all intents and purposes, took away our 4th Amendment rights by allowing the government to conduct warrantless wiretaps on any telephone they wanted. The Department of Homeland Security was created which gave us the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) which have turned our country’s airports into locations fascist have wet dreams over. You can’t carry liquid in any container over 3 ounces in size, you have to put you liquids in a clear plastic bag, and you can forget about bringing a bottle of water in from the outside. You have to go through multiple security “checkpoints” where you either have to walk through a naked body scanner or be groped by a TSA agent and while your bags are on the conveyor belts going down the x-ray machine they belong to the TSA. All of these ridiculous measures have done NOTHING to make our airports safer and amount to little more than security theatre.   

 This is America today, let’s talk about America in the coming months….  

 On this season of the hit Fox TV show 24 the fictitious CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) has the ability to use “drones” (unmanned aircraft with cameras on them) for surveillance. They can control these drones from a central location to provide surveillance for any location in New York City. Drones like this do exist and our military has been using them in the Middle East to fight the War on Terror. The drones in Iraq and Afghanistan not only have the ability to spy from the sky, but they also have advanced weapons systems on them capable of blowing up buildings.

So far, these drones haven’t been used in the United States. However, that is about to change.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the government may start using drones in West Texas and along the coast in an effort to beef up border security. Governor Rick Perry requested the use of these drones a few weeks ago and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Bill White is on board as well. This request was made because Perry doesn’t feel the Feds are doing enough to help with border security in regards to illegal immigration and the recent drug violence in border towns. While the drones haven’t started flying yet, it’s only a matter of time before they are spying on Texans. Who’s to say that they won’t have weapons systems on them?   

So today in America, the supposed land of the free, our phones can be tapped (and now tracked) with out our knowledge, naked images of our bodies can be scanned at the airport, drones can spy on us thousands of feet in the air, and we won’t be able to get jobs with out a biometric ID card. All in the name of “security.”

Didn’t Ben Franklin say something about people willing to give up liberty for security?

According to the New York Times:

At Broadway Elementary School here, there is no more sitting around after lunch. No more goofing off with friends. No more doing nothing.

Instead there is Brandi Parker, a $14-an-hour recess coach with a whistle around her neck, corralling children behind bright orange cones to play organized games. There she was the other day, breaking up a renegade game of hopscotch and overruling stragglers’ lame excuses.

“I don’t like to play,” protested Esmeilyn Almendarez, 11.

“Why do I have to go through this every day with you?” replied Ms. Parker, waving her back in line. “There’s no choice.”

What is this world coming to? RENEGADE HOPSCOTCH GAMES! Thank God Brandi Parker is there to blow her whistle at the these renegade hopscotchers. I can almost hear her now: ”Get Back in Line Slave! There’s No Choice!”

Ms. Parker was hired by Playworks, a communist non-profit organization that has its hopes of  indoctrinating  spreading its philosophy to children all over the country. The Playworks Coaches are “not required to have a teaching credential” and most of them only have experience working “within after-school programs, youth leagues and summer camps, or within other youth service agencies in the non-profit sector.” Don’t let that bother you though, they’re all “energetic, fun, and consistent.”

What is the Playworks philosophy? “Our experience is that diminishing opportunities for unsupervised play in our society have left kids with a very thin understanding of how to manage their own play and that it is important to have grown-ups introduce some basic rules to make play work.”

Basically, since there is so little opportunity for kids to have unsupervised play they have become stupid and can’t be trusted with recess freedom so they need a recess coach to tell them what to do to “make play work” because letting them think for themselves leads to hurt feelings, nose-bleeds, and a possible tendency to challenge authority. “Shut up Slave! Get back in line! You need to make play work!”

Dr. Romina M. Barros, an assistant clinical professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, is someone who has actually done objective research and has no political agenda. She did a study published last year in the journal “Pediatrics” which came to the conclusion that “children still benefit most from recess when they are let alone to daydream, solve problems, use their imagination to invent their own games and be free to do what they choose to do.” According to Dr. Barros, “Structured recess simply transplants the rules of the classroom to the playground. You still have to pay attention. You still have to follow rules. You don’t have that time for your brain to relax.”

But who cares what a Medical Doctor says. The Executive director for Playworks in the Newark area, Adeola Whitney, says “we’re teaching children how to play if they can’t go to the park because it’s drug-infested, or their parents can’t afford to send them to activities.” This is a typical liberal class envy double-bluff technique. When presented with information that completely disproves their philosophy they recite sob stories of how poor people have terrible lives and if you disagree with them then you are a non-compassionate person. “Screw your facts slave!” 

This is the scariest part about the philosophy of Playworks:

Playworks incorporates competitive activities into its programming, but strives to do it in a developmentally appropriate way.  One amazing thing about play is this: kids’ desire to keep the activity going will motivate them to take actions that are actually in the best interest of the larger group.  Most often this manifests as self-handicapping: switching players, adapting the rules, etc. to keep some balance and ensure that everyone is having enough fun to continue playing.  Our belief is that appropriately structured play represents an important opportunity for learning to deal with both winning and losing with grace. (emphasis mine)

They are brainwashing our children to do things that are in the best interest of the group and not in their own self-interest. This is a dangerous philosophy that creates people who are nothing more than sheep who follow orders. This is the goal of these liberal do-gooders, to turn children into mind numb robots who follow orders without question and love Big Brother.

The natural tendency of government is to get bigger, no matter which party is in charge. This is the natural way of things just like the sun rising in the east. Will this health care bill increase the size of government and take liberty from us? Probably, but no more than the Federal Reserve, the IRS, the Social Security system, Medicare, Medicaid, and countless other unconstitutional government programs already have. The politicians and pundits on the right have been ranting and raving about how this health care bill will destroy our country and our liberty, but our liberty is long gone. We are all slaves to the debt. Our debt didn’t just happen overnight or under one President, but we are doing nothing to stop it. If you think the Republicans taking over Congress will solve our debt problem, you are fooling yourself.

It’s easy to see what will happen to us if we keep going down this road. Just look at Greece. The only way to solve our debt problem is to drastically reduce the size of government. A 50% reduction would be great, but that would be only a start. A limited government with a responsible citizenry is the only way out of the mess. I know it’s a lot to ask for but with liberty comes sacrifice and responsibility.

First, we need to dismantle our empire. Our military occupies land in over 150 countries or territories. Why? What are we gaining from this? We need to bring our military back home to their families. We need to remove ourselves from the UN and stop giving them money. We need to remove our embassies from other countries. Our founders gave us a republic, not an empire.  Anything other than a republic is unconstitutional.

Next, we need to abolish our entitlement programs. All of them. We can no longer allow people to think that the government can or will be their “safety net.” We all need to learn to weave our own safety nets of personal responsibility. Asking for help from your family, neighbors, community or religious institution is fine, but you shouldn’t be able to ask the government.

Dismantling our empire and abolishing our entitlement programs would be the first of many steps we need to take to solve our debt problem and limit the size of government back to what the Constitution demands, and they couldn’t happen overnight, but they need to start happening soon if we want to remove from our necks the yoke of debt we have burdened ourselves with. Will the Republicans or Democrats start to make this happen? No, they won’t. They are too busy arguing about federal funding of abortion.

Am I happy about the health care bill? No. Am I happy about anything government does? Not really. Even if this health care bill were repealed, don’t fool yourself, it wouldn’t be a great victory for liberty. To have the liberty our founders wanted would require much more that repealing this health care bill. It is well worth fighting for, but no one in government from either party except Ron Paul is truly fighting for liberty right now. As much as I love Dr. Paul, he cannot lead us to the promised land. We will have to lead ourselves there, one individual at a time, rising up for liberty. I see hope in the Tea Parties, but they must fight from being overtaken by the Republican party or people like Sarah Palin. But that is a topic for another post.

The natural tendency of government is to get bigger and more powerful. It is the natural way of things, just like the sun rising in the east.

 This:  

 Steve Dubov, an Austin-based “sculptor” is the man responsible for this work of “art” nicknamed the “Barton Barriers.” Dubov says that there is “no deep meaning” to this work. An understatement if there ever was one.  

 In all fairness, Mr. Dubov and his team contributed thousands of dollars of their own money to construct the Barton Barriers. However, $4,300 was taken from Austin’s hotel-motel tax. According to Vincent Kitch, the cultural arts program manager for the city of Austin, “it’s not local tax money that’s being spent … it’s the visitors who help pay for this public art.” So if you come and visit Austin a portion of your hotel-motel tax pays for things like the Barton Barriers. Doesn’t that make you want to come and visit?  

When you look closer though, it cost taxpayers more than just $4,300. According to Mr. Dubov, in addition to the $4,300 from the Austin hotel-motel tax, he received grants from the Texas Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He did not say how much he received from these groups but since those groups receive most of their money from taxpayers it is inaccurate to say that the Barton Barriers only cost $4,300 of taxpayer money.  

I’m going to be completely honest here, I think every dime in taxpayer money that was given to this project is a total waste. This is not art. Any dude with a truck, some beer, and a couple of buddies could construct something like this. It irritates me to no end that taxpayer money was contributed to this project. If Mr. Dubov had paid for the entire thing himself I’d have no problem with it, but the fact that taxpayer money was used for this project should outrage everyone here in Liberty Market Nation.

I am completely against taxpayer money being used to fund art and I think the National Endowment for the Arts should be abolished. The NEA has given taxpayer money to projects like this and propaganda like this. What’s ironic is that the motto of the NEA is “A Great Country Deserves Great Art.” 

Would you consider the Barton Barriers great art?     

If you’re an artist and your art is good then people will buy it or pay money to see it in a gallery or museum. Artist are not special and don’t deserve any taxpayer to fund their stupid projects. Our country is over $12 trillion in debt. Institutions like the NEA are doing nothing but adding more to the debt and driving us further down the road to bankruptcy. So I guess that as taxpayers we need to ask ourselves, is funding projects like the Barton Barriers worth going bankrupt over?