Society's ChildS


Blue Planet

Environmental playacting: The hypocritical virtue-signaling of young green activists

Heather Mac Donald
City Journal
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 13:35 UTC
environmental activists
Youth will save the planet, according to the elite narrative about global warming. It was young voters who were "asking the tough questions" and holding "Democrats' feet to the fire" at last week's Democratic climate-change pontificon, reported the New York Times. A high school student challenged Julian Castro about his previous support for fracking and demanded to know why "should we trust you . . . to transition our economy to renewables?" Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar was grilled by a Columbia University student about her possible fealty to the beef and dairy industries. A Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University berated Joe Biden for allowing a natural gas company executive to host a fundraiser for him; fossil-fuel companies are committing "crimes against humanity," announced this shoo-in for a prestigious professorship.

The claim about youth's transformative commitment to radical environmental change is — based on informal observation — bunk. The cardinal rule when it comes to environmental virtue-signaling is that people give up what they're willing to give up. Young people are no different. If being environmentally sound required sacrificing anything that a self-described environmental warrior actually valued, the conversation would quickly change to a different topic. One's own habits are necessary; it's everyone else's that need to change.

This always-unreached threshold for environmental sacrifice is particularly notable on the part of celebrity Greens, with their fortress-like SUVs, multiple residences, and massive carbon footprints — whether it's the cavalcade of yachts and private jets that brought such luminaries as Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Zuckerberg, and Katy Perry to Google's three-day climate-change summit in Sicily this July; environmental crusaders Prince Harry and Meghan Markle jetting off to Elton John's French estate; or Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter's "quick day trip" to Los Angeles from New York just ahead of the CNN climate-change debate. A police caravan drives New York City mayor Bill de Blasio 11 miles from his mayoral mansion in Manhattan to his favorite gym in Brooklyn. "Everyone in their own life has to change their own habits to start protecting the earth," he has intoned, but taking the subway is not one of those changes appropriate for him.
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Airplane

Why 9/11 matters in 2019

Catte Black
OffGuardian
Wed, 11 Sep 2019 00:01 UTC
9/11 memorial
On 9/11 2001 three steel-framed high-rise buildings collapsed completely at near free-fall speed allegedly due to fires - which, if true, makes them the only steel-framed high-rises in construction history to have ever done this. Only two of these buildings had been struck by planes.

The official explanation for this event is that Moslem terrorists somehow confounded all the usual security procedures and 'attacked America' because they 'hated our freedoms.'

This version of the meaning behind 9/11 was the catalyst for the perpetual war currently being waged, the ultimate fail-safe irrefutable argument to silence criticism of the Patriot Act, Guantanamo and the creeping emergence of fascism in the Western world.

Comment: See also:

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Syringe

Gallup: Big Pharma sinks to the bottom of US industry rankings

Justin McCarthy
Gallup
Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:01 UTC
syringe medicine
The pharmaceutical industry is now the most poorly regarded industry in Americans' eyes, ranking last on a list of 25 industries that Gallup tests annually. Americans are more than twice as likely to rate the pharmaceutical industry negatively (58%) as positively (27%), giving it a net-positive score of -31. The restaurant industry is rated most positively.

These data are from Gallup's annual Work and Education poll, conducted Aug. 1-14.

The pharmaceutical industry has unseated the federal government as the lowest-rated industry this year, in terms of its net-positive score; the government has been last or tied for last from 2011 through 2018. The healthcare industry's negative ratings also exceed its positive ratings by double digits, while the advertising and public relations industry's net rating is barely negative.

Comment: Perhaps, if Big Pharma really care to turn their image around, they could cut their ties with Satan himself and try working for good instead of evil. In the past, such moves have been good for public perception, on the rare instances they've been tried.

See also:

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Sherlock

2 more people go missing in Hawaii in less than a month

Shawn Nottingham
Mercury News
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 08:12 UTC
missing hawaii
California woman is one of two hikers missing in Hawaii Khiara Henry was last seen renting a car, which was later found near the beach

A California woman is the subject of a search on Maui, and a second person has been missing in Hawaii for a little more than a week.

Khiara Henry, 23, of San Diego, was last seen on July 21 when she rented a car in Kahului, according to a news release from August 5 from the Maui Police Department. She missed her July 29 flight home.

Her vehicle was found at the Waianapanapa Park area, the release said. Her daypack, phone and car key were not in it.

Comment: More on the missing persons:
"Nobody actually has seen Kyle since they saw him at the bathroom overlook on Friday morning going down into the valley. There's hundreds of people in the valley if not more because it's a three day weekend and people hiking and camping and everything and nobody has seen him. So everybody's baffled," Kyle's father, Steve Brittain, wrote in a Facebook post.

"I get a lot of questions about who Kyle is," he added. "Kyle is a healer. Kyle knows what love is. Kyle will help you when you're down. Kyle doesn't understand anger and resentment. Since he was born, people have said that Kyle has an old soul. They are right."

Search teams and dozens of volunteers have been scouring the valley for more than a week to find Kyle. Helicopters and search dogs are involved in the efforts, KHON reported. Rescuers who helped find yoga teacher Amanda Eller earlier this year have joined the search, according to KHON. A Facebook page called Find Kyle Brittain shows searchers in the valley, and Steve shared a Facebook photo of a bright green shirt that read "BRING KYLE HOME."

"Trying to sleep, knowing that he's out there, is killing me," Steve told NBC News on Sunday. "I was up at 3:30 this morning looking at the stars, praying that we can find him today."

Police are asking anyone with information to call the Honokaʻa Police Station at (808) 775-7533.
See also: Hawaii woman missing for 2 weeks found alive in forest, spotted from helicopter

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Health

RFK Jr mic-dropping speech marks birth of a new civil rights movement vis-à-vis the rise of the medical police state

Sayer Ji
GreenMedInfo
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 07:45 UTC
new civil rights protest
© AP/Rich Pedroncelli
While California's tragic fall into what might rightly be described as a Medical Police State has many up in arms, RFK Jr's spontaneously delivered speech outside Gov. Newsom's office helped transform the anger and grief experienced by thousands of shaken onlookers into inspiration and hope, no doubt contributing to catalyzing further what is clearly becoming this country's next, truly grassroots civil (and human) rights movement.

Following immediately after the California Senate passed SB 276 in Sacramento on Monday, which effectively removes medical exemptions in the state (even for those with previous life-threatening reactions to vaccines), a protest erupted at the state capital in front of Gov. Newsom's office, who would sign the bill later that day. Earlier, five protestors were arrested for exercising their First Amendment right of peaceful protest — a painful irony, considering that the removal of religious exemptions also violates the First Amendment rights, which is why they were protesting in the first place.

Comment: See also:

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Info

University of Michigan under fire for requiring students to cross-examine each other in campus rape cases

Ethan Berman
The College Fix
Wed, 11 Sep 2019 09:46 UTC
University of Michigan
When an appeals court told the University of Michigan last year that it must allow cross-examination in sexual-misconduct proceedings, the judges gave the taxpayer-funded institution two options.

It could let the student parties cross-examine each other, which would be cheaper but could subject students to "further harm or harassment." Or it could let their "agents" handle cross-examination, most likely lawyers, and either pay for representation itself or let students hire their own lawyers.

The university chose the cheaper option.

UMich is facing blowback from both pro-accuser and due-process advocates for implementing an interim policy that is considered even worse than the process struck down by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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Cardboard Box

The unseen costs of 'climate crisis' alarmism are paid for by the global poor

Laura Williams
Foundation For Economic Freedom
Mon, 09 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
global poor
We should celebrate young people's desire to do good and to change the world. We should also be aware of the disastrous impacts of "just doing something" when no one can foresee how the doing — or our own undoing — may unfold.

Young people are often heralded for their good intentions and their love of social causes. What we're less experienced with, like all humans, is multiple-stage planning — the kind of forethought it takes to anticipate not just what to do, but the unintended consequences of doing it.

The issues we're most passionate about — or afraid of — are the hardest to see clearly. For example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was dismissive of those who point out "the costs" of combating climate change.

Her certainty that anticipated problems years down the road necessitate immediate sacrifice ignores the principle of unseen consequences. It feels good to advocate for immediate, sweeping change, but the costs — the trade-offs — of implementing long-term climate plans would be near-term tragedy for millions around the world.

Comment: The author has a point - even if she sometimes uses bad examples (like the use of cancer-causing pesticides) to make it. Without objective data and a perspective that isn't motivated by the feel-good emotions of "doing good", or a power and profit motive that lies behind many of those advocating for sweeping economic and environmental policies, people are quite likely to make quality of life worse for many.

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Heart - Black

Parkland father uncovers how district enabled deranged student-turned-shooter

Max Eden and Andrew Pollack
New York Post
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:48 UTC
Why Meadow Died
After the deadly Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., national media focused largely on a handful of student activists, leaving it to victims' parents to unravel why the slaughter happened. Andrew Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, was one of the 17 killed, conducted his own investigation to uncover the roots of what he calls the most avoidable mass murder in American history. He and Max Eden are co-authors of "Why Meadow Died: The People and Policies that Created the Parkland Shooter and Endanger America's Students." This adapted excerpt, based on never-before-released educational records of the shooter, Nikolas Cruz, shows the Broward County school district knew full well about his obsession with guns and murder — and then let him practice shooting at school.
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Star of David

Haaretz editor's true opinion: 'For the Palestinians murder is a type of sport, perhaps a substitute for erotica'

Sivan Tal
Mondoweiss
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:50 UTC
Benny Ziffer editor haaretz bigot zionist
© YouTube/HaaretzHaaretz editor Benny Ziffer outs himself as a murderous Zionist bigot
This is what the editor of Haaretz's Culture and Literature supplement, Benny Ziffer, wrote on his Facebook page upon returning from paying a condolence call in the settlement of Ofra:
"En route I looked at the Palestinian villages alongside the Jewish communities, and I thought of how for the Palestinians murder is a type of sport or enjoyment, perhaps a substitute for erotica. From that perspective we will never have anything culturally in common with them."
And if that weren't enough, Ziffer also wrote, "Regarding this evil and undignified people living among us, we can only yearn for the land to vomit it out, because it isn't worthy of this land, which is full of Jewish blood that it has spilled."

Now, let's leave alone for a moment the fact that much more Palestinian blood was spilled in this land than Jewish blood in any given year since Zionism came to power in Palestine about 100 years ago. Gideon Levy's article in Haaretz elaborated on that fallacy in Ziffer's post, stating that If There's Such a Thing as a Murderous Culture, Then It Exists in Israel.

Comment: At least Ziffer has outed himself with his vile statements. Rational people will now know to keep an eye on him.

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Dollars

'Woke' banking? Michigan approves first credit union for LGBTQ community

Monica Drake
The Oakland Press
Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:23 UTC
Superbia Credit Union
© Superbia Credit UnionSen. Jeremy Moss (from left), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and DIFS Director Anita G. Fox approved the formation of Superbia Credit Union. They are pictured with Linda Bodie and Myles Meyers of Superbia.
The State of Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services approved the formation of Superbia Credit Union, the first ever not-for-profit credit union by and for the LGBTQ community.

Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), said, "State law doesn't protect Michigan's LGBTQ community from discrimination in the workplace and public accommodations. ... It's burdensome that gay and trans Michiganders must depend on private businesses to take it upon themselves to provide equal treatment to employees and consumers."
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