Wild claim from University of East Anglia

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

No mays, coulds, or mights here in this press release headline from UEA. They say "will".  As usual, they assume nature so poorly equipped her creations that they can't adapt. That's some ballsy certainty.

Climate change will cause widespread global-scale loss of common plants and animals

More than half of common plants and one third of the animals could see a dramatic decline this century due to climate change – according to research from the University of East Anglia.

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Yet more predictions of doom, Doom, DOOM!! from the climate alarmist crowd. I'm willing to bet these will be as accurate as all the prior "Climate Astrology" predictions -- not at all.

Lomborg: Californians are paying ridiculous subsidies for electric cars

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

 Guest post by Bjørn Lomborg

I've said electric cars get subsidized too much. Turns out I was wrong.

In California, they are subsidized ridiculously too much.

Tesla gets $45,000 for each car it sells in state and federal subsidies. The Tesla S starts at $69,000, so about 40% of its total cost is subsidies (Tesla isn’t making any big profits).

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Yet another "Green scam." Makers of fossil-fueled cars are forced to buy, in essence, "carbon credits" from Tesla to meet California's "zero emission" standards. You can bet those costs are passed along to the consumer.

Going Galt: More Americans Vote with their Feet against Obama

Reblogged from International Liberty:

I've written many times about how investors, entrepreneurs, small business owners and other successful people migrate from high-tax states to low-tax states.

Well, the same thing happens internationally, as France's greedy politicians are now learning.

It's a lot harder for Americans to escape our tax system, though, in part because of reprehensible exit taxes that are disturbingly reminiscent of some of the awful policies…

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Taxes here are getting so bad, Americans are abandoning their passports.

Unexpected Praise for Australia's Private Social Security System

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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As part of my "Question of the Week" series, I said that Australia probably would be the best option if the United States suffered some sort of Greek-style fiscal meltdown that led to a societal collapse.*

One reason I'm so bullish on Australia is that the nation has a privatized Social Security system called "Superannuation," with workers setting aside 9 percent of their income in personal retirement accounts (rising to 12 percent by 2020).

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Articles like this one are sometimes so frustrating; there are far better national pension systems than the one we have. In addition to Australia, discussed in Mitchell's article, Chile has a very good, very effective set up. But the statists in this country fight tooth and nail against any sensible reform, as if allowing people to keep their own money, build wealth, and live independently is some sort of horrific crime.

The Spirit of Reagan Is Still With Us: The Gipper Crushes Obama in Hypothetical Matchup

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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Barack Obama has stated that he wants to be like Reagan, at least in the sense of wanting to be a transformational figure.

But almost certainly he has failed.

Yes, Obama has increased the burden of government spending, raised tax rates, and created more dependency, but there's nothing particularly special about Obama's tenure that makes him different from other statist Presidents such as…

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Now, if only we could find a necromancer to bring Reagan back.... (Or, for science fiction fans, cloning.) Regardless, his current successor makes me realize how starkly better a president the Gipper was.

Why Are Young Americans Supportive of Obama When His Policies Are So Bad for Them?

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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Young people voted for Obama in overwhelming numbers, but the question is why?

As I explain in this interview for Blaze TV, they are being hurt by his policies.

It's not just that youth unemployment is high. Obama's policies also are hurting those who found jobs. Simply stated, these "lucky" folks are getting below-average pay.

I specifically explain that academics have determined that those entering the labor market in a weak economy will suffer a long-run loss of income.

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Ya got me. Talk about voting against one's own interest. Click through to see interesting analysis of how entering the job market in a bad economy sets a young person on an underperforming path for a long time to come.

Ranking the States for Economic and Personal Freedom

Reblogged from International Liberty:

Sometimes I myopically focus on fiscal policy, implying that the key to prosperity is small government.

But I'll freely admit that growth is maximized when you have small government AND free markets.

That being said, our goal should be to expand freedom, not merely to have the largest possible GDP.

Which is why the Freedom Index is a good complement to…

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This is a very interesting study. I'm sorry to say my beloved California comes in only at second place in "most un-free" states, behind New York. Come on, Sacramento! I'm sure you can do more to screw this place up! I have faith in you.

Obama By-Passes Gas

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

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Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach

President Obama continues his Global War on Cheap Energy™, this time under the guise of avoiding "spikes" in gasoline (petrol) prices.  He wants to pass gas without regrets and move post-haste to electricity and biofuels, although both are more expensive than gasoline and diesel for road and rail transport. According to the Associated Press, in a speech at the Argonne National Laboratories Obama said:

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This administration's energy policy is giving me gas, but not the right kind. It amazes me that so many voted for him, when his policies are so clearly harmful. Such is the power of wishful thinking, I guess.

Three Cheers for Governor Bobby Jindal's Plan to Abolish the Income Tax

Reblogged from International Liberty:

Two months ago exactly, I appeared on TV to talk about the concept of eliminating the personal and corporate income tax in Louisiana.

Now Governor Jindal has unveiled a specific proposal.

The plan will eliminate two major tax types: personal income tax and corporate income and franchise tax. Eliminating income taxes in a revenue-neutral manner and improving sales tax administration will dramatically simplify Louisiana’s tax system and reduce administrative problems for families and small businesses.

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An illustration of why Jindal is my front-running choice for POTUS in 2016.

Inequality, Redistribution, and Class Warfare

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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I've spent a lot of time debunking class-warfare tax policy, and I've certainly explained 'til I'm blue in the face that big government facilitates a pernicious form of corruption that enriches powerful and well-connected insiders.

But I haven't spent much time addressing the topic of income inequality, which is connected to those two other issues.

U.S. News & World Report…

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Try as I might, I just cannot get some of my liberal friends to understand that punishing productive behavior with higher taxes is just bad policy. They just fall back behind their magic word, "fairness." Sigh.

Keystone pipeline passes environmental review - 'little impact on climate' - ecos outraged

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

From Tom Nelson: Keystone pipeline passes environmental review: It's the end of the world as the Sierra Club knows it, and I feel fine

Keystone XL pipeline would have little impact on climate change, State Department analysis says - The Washington Post

The State Department released a draft environmental impact assessment of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline Friday afternoon, suggesting the project would have little impact on climate change.

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That sound you hear in the distance are screams of outrage and fear from the temples of the Green Cult, for the Demon Keystone XL is one step closer to.... creating a lot of good jobs, which they'll never understand.

Let's Shed a Tear for those Under-Appreciated Bureaucrats Who Get Lavish Pensions and Live in $700K Homes

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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When I first read this story in the Washington Post about supposedly under-appreciated federal bureaucrats, I was tempted to focus on the sentence referring to "the sledgehammer of budget cuts scheduled to hit today."

Is the Washington Post so biased and/or clueless that reporters really think that a 1.2 percent reduction in overall spending for the current fiscal year (which means the…

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The horror. I weep for our poor, oppressed bureaucratic mandarins.

Study suggests 'snowball Earth' was real and was reversed by 'An ultra-high carbon dioxide atmosphere'

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

It makes you wonder what created all that CO2 millions of years ago.

From Louisiana State University

LSU researchers find new information about 'Snowball Earth' period

It is rather difficult to imagine, but approximately 635 million years ago, ice may have covered a vast portion of our planet in an event called "Snowball Earth." According to the Snowball Earth hypothesis, the massive ice age that occurred before animal life appeared, when Earth's landmasses were most likely clustered near the equator, precipitated relatively rapid changes in atmospheric conditions and a subsequent greenhouse heat wave.

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Such is the power of Global Warming, that it can send CO2 millions of years into the past! (Look, you know someone among the cult will think of it.)

Al Gore's Reality Drop - Climate Change to Destroy Music?

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

Gosh, is there anything it can't do?

People send me stuff. I would not have believed this unless I saw it from Al Gore's Climate Reality Project, where I constantly wonder what sort of reality those people inhabit. See the yellow highlight.

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Gives a whole new (and loony) meaning to "The Day the Music Died."

A Warning from Ronald Reagan

Reblogged from International Liberty:

If you want some inspiration from Ronald Reagan, these brief remarks reveal his understanding of both economics of history (especially with regards to the other great president of the 20th century).

And this short video excerpt also gets me fired up to fight big government.

But maybe it's also time to share a warning from the Gipper. Here's a quote (which…

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Spot. On. And while I don't think the administration is Socialist (though I'm convinced Obama himself is), their nanny-state progressivism is different only by degree. And the same can be said for New York and California.

Which Nation Has the Most Per-Capita Government Spending on Healthcare: France, Italy, the United States, Sweden, Canada, Greece, or the United Kingdom?

Reblogged from International Liberty:

What government spends the most on health care?

• Is it Canada or the United Kingdom, which are famous (or, if these stories are any indication, infamous would be a better description) for single-payer healthcare systems?
• Is it Sweden, the home of the cradle-to-grave welfare state?
• Or France, the land of the world's most statist people?
• How about Italy…

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And we're going in very much the wrong and harmful direction.

Another Hypocritical Leftist Caught with His Hand in the Tax-Haven Cookie Jar

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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I'm a huge fan of so-called tax havens. I've been working for more than 10 years to protect and promote the values of tax competition, fiscal sovereignty, and financial privacy.

The bureaucrats at the OECD even threatened to have me tossed in a Mexican jail because I was advising representatives of low-tax jurisdictions on how best to resist fiscal imperialism.

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An example of something pointed out years ago by Peter Schweizer: When conservatives betray their professed principles, they hurt themselves; when the left betrays their principles, they benefit.

Leftists Propose Plan to Reduce So-Called Global Warming by Deliberately Lowering American Living Standards

Reblogged from International Liberty:

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Regular readers may remember last year when I shared some remarkably silly data from the "Happy Planet Index," which supposedly showed the United States ranked below very poor nations such as Cuba, Albania, and Venezuela.

It turns out that nations got lower grades based on their energy consumption. And since energy usage is one of the key indicators of prosperity, that explains why the United States also trailed such global garden spots as Pakistan, Palestine, Iraq, Moldova, and Tajikistan.

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So, let's make ourselves poor in order to fight a problem that does not exist. Right. If you look at it, this "idea" is at its heart misanthropic.

NPR finally gets it - does this signal an end to the polar bear as poster bear for global warming?

Reblogged from Watts Up With That?:

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From NPR: The Inconvenient Truth About Polar Bears

In 2008, reports of polar bears' inevitable march toward extinction gripped headlines. Stories of thinning Arctic ice and even polar bear cannibalism combined to make these predators into a powerful symbol in the debate about climate change.

The headlines caught Zac Unger's attention, and he decided to write a book about the bears.

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And another cherished bit of global-warming dogma pops like a bubble: there are more polar bears than there were 60 years ago.

Rather than Helping the Poor, Higher Tax Rates Redistribute Rich People

Reblogged from International Liberty:

Daniel Hannan is a member of the European Parliament from England. He is one of the few economically sensible people in that body, as demonstrated in these short clips of him speaking about tax competition and deriding the European Commission's corrupt racket.

And as you can see from his latest article in the UK-based Telegraph, he's also very wise on issues of…

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Rather than come up with sensible tax policy, the progressive politician's answer to people relocating to more tax-friendly climates is likely to be something desperate and clutching -- such as an "exit tax." You laugh, but some activists in California have already tried.