2014 Meeting Items

Discussion List—December 4th, 2014

Gun Rights vs. Property Rights
http://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/buffalo-police-confiscate-firearms-deceased/ (1.3 min video)
http://www.libertybriefing.com/articles/gun-rights-vs-property-rights/320

Buffalo, New York Police To Confiscate Firearms From Deceased
The police in Buffalo are planning to pay a visit to the estates of people who die. But this will only apply to a certain class of citizens - pistol permit holders.
"We're sending people out to collect the guns... so they don't end up in the wrong hands."
Families only have 15 days to transfer the guns to a dealer or another permit holder.
This should concern everyone - even those who have no interest in owning a gun. This is a complete violation of property rights. If someone owns a gun, they should be able to pass it down to their heirs, just like any other item. It doesn't matter if it is a television, a diamond ring, or a gun. It is owned property, and as an owner, you have the right to pass that on to others.

What is Social Justice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtBvQj2k6xo (5.5 min video)

Jonah Goldberg of the American Enterprise Institute exposes the not-so-hidden agenda of those who use the term "Social Justice."
It sounds so caring and noble, but it is very different.
A United Nations report on Social Justice says: "Social Justice may be broadly understood as the fair and compassionate distribution of the fruits of economic growth. Social Justice is not possible without strong and coherent redistributive policies conceived and implemented by public agencies."
[This means a powerful government is necessary so it can take from some and give to others.]
The same United Nations report also says: "Present-day believers in an absolute truth identified with virtue and justice are neither willing nor desirable companions for the defenders of Social Justice."
[This means anyone who believes in the true meaning of justice is the enemy.]
Compassion (Social Justice) is when the government takes your money and gives it to someone else. Greed, is when you want to keep it.
[So Social Justice relies on redefining terms--calling bad things good, and good things bad.]

Social Justice and UN Agenda 21
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/ -- Rosa Koire
http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom194.htm -- Tom DeWeese

U.N. Agenda 21 cites the affluence of Americans as being a major problem which needs to be corrected. It calls for lowering the standard of living for Americans so that the people in poorer countries will have more, a redistribution of wealth. Although people around the world aspire to achieve the levels of prosperity we have in our country, and will risk their lives to get here, Americans are cast in a very negative light and need to be taken down to a condition closer to average in the world. Only then, they say, will there be social justice which is a cornerstone of the U.N. Agenda 21 plan.
Social justice is described as the right and opportunity of all people "to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment." Redistribution of wealth. Private property is a social injustice since not everyone can build wealth from it. National sovereignty is a social injustice... [However, universal] health care is a social justice. All part of Agenda 21 policy.

Environmental Justice
http://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/
http://eelink.net/EJ/whatis.html

[From EPA web site] Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. EPA has this goal for all communities and persons across this Nation. It will be achieved when everyone enjoys the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards and equal access to the decision-making process to have a healthy environment in which to live, learn, and work.
[From web site of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan]
Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.
Environmental justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.
Environmental justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced and responsible uses of land and renewable resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.
Environmental justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.
Environmental justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self-determination of all peoples.
Environmental justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.
Environmental justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision-making including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.
Environmental justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment, without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.
Environmental justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.
Environmental justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the United Nations Convention on Genocide.
Environmental justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.
Environmental justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and providing fair access for all to the full range of resources.
Environmental justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.
Environmental justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.
Environmental justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.
Environmental justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.
Environmental justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth's resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to insure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

UN Pushes For "Indelible" Global Warming Pact in Peru
http://www.cfact.org/2014/12/02/un-pushes-for-indelible-global-warming-pact-in-peru/

Monday was the beginning of the United Nations international climate summit in Peru.
The U.S. brought the largest delegation to the summit and rolling out the big guns - Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio are there.
In order to favor the developing nations, the Obama administration is waging war on American energy. Coal plants are shutting down and energy prices are heading way up. The President is expected to sign a climate agreement that avoids the word "treaty" and to try to use this as an excuse to bypass ratification by the Senate.
Meanwhile, China and India are increasing their emissions as fast as they possibly can.
In her opening remarks UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres called for the Peru talks to blaze a path towards an "indelible" climate pact and set four goals:
Create a draft of a "universal climate change agreement" to serve as the basis for a final text at the UN talks in Paris in 2015.
Spend more money on "adaptation to achieve political parity with mitigation," which translated from UN speak means roughly send billions to developing nations for infrastructure projects instead of just windmills and solar panels in the west.
"Enhance delivery of finance, in particular to the most vulnerable." Which means plow billions into the "Green Climate Fund" for redistribution.
Scale up everything and speed up the process. Which in part means get this climate pact written and signed before Obama leaves office, or your may never get it.
[UNFCCC stands for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change]
With both his foreign and domestic policies in tatters, Obama, joined by Kerry and Gore, see giving in and signing onto a global warming agreement as their last shot at a legacy.

Army Corps Flouts Law--Attempting To Expand Its Control Of Private Property
http://www.pacificlegal.org/Case/Army-Corps-flouts-law-in-attempt-to-expand-its-control-of-private-property

PLF is representing Kent Recycling Services (in Louisiana) in their battle with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
For almost two decades the Army Corps of Engineers has exempted from Clean Water Act jurisdiction all wetlands that had been converted to agricultural use prior to 1985, no matter how the "prior converted croplands" are used today. Prior converted croplands could lose their exemption only if they are abandoned for a number of years and the land regains its wetland characteristics.
But now, pursuant to a "policy pronouncement," the Corps has adopted a new standard that withdraws the prior converted croplands exemption upon a change in use. This could have a drastic effect on land use, which Kent Recycling has discovered firsthand.
According to the Corps, there are over 53-million acres of "prior converted croplands" throughout the country. That's the equivalent of half the land mass of the State of California. And among those 53-million acres sits the property Kent Recycling is purchasing.
Kent Recycling, is purchasing "prior converted croplands" in Louisiana that the company intends to convert to a waste disposal site. Because of the change in use, the Corps issued a Jurisdictional Determination stating that the land is not subject to the exemption under the Corps' "policy pronouncement." The property seller and Kent Recycling originally challenged the Jurisdictional Determination in an administrative proceeding and then in federal district court, but the courts erroneously ruled that they had to go through a pointless, lengthy, and expensive permitting process with the agency (based on the flawed Jurisdictional Determination itself) before the courts could intervene.
Kent Recycling is challenging this denial of federal court access in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Jurisdictional Determination is a final agency action subject to judicial review pursuant to Sackett v. EPA.
In Sackett, the Supreme Court agreed with Pacific Legal Foundation and held that landowners have a right to direct, meaningful judicial review if the government (in that case, the EPA) seizes control of their property by declaring it to be "wetlands."
Despite the reasonably clear applicability of Sackett to the Kent Recycling case, the lower courts have refused to apply it, and held instead that Kent Recycling must either: 1) abandon the planned use of the land; 2) submit to a costly, 2-year permitting process; or 3) go forward and risk fines of up to $37,500 a day and imprisonment for proceeding without a permit.
PLF believes that this decision of the Corps is presently unreviewable, and believes the Supreme Court will, as well.

Discussion List—November 6th, 2014

CATO Discussion--Intellectual Privilege
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/events/intellectual-privilege (84 min video)

Taking Halloween Candy From Children
http://youtu.be/1NDkVx9AzSY (4.1 min video)

Inside the Mind Of Karl Marx

The Enduring Power of Story
http://m.nationalreview.com/article/391047/enduring-power-story-jonah-goldberg

Predator Re-Introductions--Rewilding the World
http://www.ted.com/talks/george_monbiot_for_more_wonder_rewild_the_world (15.2 min video -- 3:20 to 6:42) George Monbiot

Why George Monbiot Is Wrong: Grazing Livestock Can Save the World
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_30707.cfm

We were wrong about peak oil: there's enough in the ground to deep-fry the planet.
http://www.monbiot.com/2012/07/02/false-summit/

Stevens County -- Wolf Reintroduction
http://www.capitalpress.com/content/mw-Wolves-071713

Rewilding With Dinos?
http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/screencrush.com/files/2013/03/Jurassic-Park.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nz8YrCC9X8 (1:48 to 1:59) -- Could vs Should

Better Bred than Dead
http://perc.org/blog/better-bred-dead

The War on Humans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWcEYYj_-rg (31 min video)
http://www.waronhumans.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Attenborough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Pianka

Resources Coalition
http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b0f881291f31212d243207271&id=4c78179539&e=7d7ab236e6

Ecology Provides Flawed Documentation for Spokane In Stream Flow Rule
http://proprights.org/wordpress/ecology-provides-flawed-documentation-spokane-stream-flow-rule/

Water as property and habitat under the Takings Clause
http://blog.pacificlegal.org/2014/water-property-habitat-takings-clause/

Join CAPR, the Mining Community and Others to Comment!
http://proprights.org/wordpress/join-capr-mining-community-others-comment/

----- Break for Main Program -----

'Beyond Cozy' Relationship Between Green Group and EPA
http://dailysignal.com/2014/10/14/senator-emails-reveal-epa-green-group-in-beyond-cozy-relationship/

How to Fulfill the Promise of the Endangered Species Act
http://reason.org/news/show/endangered-species-act-promise
http://reason.org/files/endangered_species_act_reform.pdf

Small Town Deploys SWAT to Collect 75-Year-Old's Fines
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/10/27/small-town-deploys-military-style-maneuvers-to-collect-75-year-old-mans-debt/
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/24-cops-armored-vehicle-collect-fines-argumentative-75-year/
http://goo.gl/dedw2d (Street View)

Discussion List—October 2nd, 2014

Ducks, Guns, and "Pay to Play" Financing of Public Lands
http://perc.org/articles/why-ducks-quack-obama

Bill Whittle--Tie-Dyed Tyranny in Washington State
http://www.truthrevolt.org/videos/bill-whittle-tie-dyed-tyranny (6.9 min video)

----- Break for Main Program -----

George Gilder -- What Creates Wealth?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661TPEvCCTU
http://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00APDG0PG/

Schumpeter -- Gales of Creative Destruction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_destruction

Discussion of Property and Wealth--What is Property?

Intellectual Property -- 2 Perspectives
https://mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf
http://mises.org/books/capitalism.pdf

Inside the Mind Of Karl Marx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm

Discussion List—September 4th, 2014

Humans Need Not Apply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU (15 min video -- 0 - 5:33)

Online Trojan Heron Shirts
http://www.cafepress.com/eco_faux

How vs Why in the Human Brain
http://www.academia.edu/959150/Dissociable_Neural_Systems_Support_Retrieval_of_How_and_Why_Action_Knowledge

The MacGuffin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBRZ6GEFjG4 (Video -- 0 to 1:35)

MacGuffins in Politics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxu_de1BeeI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto
http://environmentblog.ncpa.org/environmentalists-against-humans-green-is-the-color-of-misanthropy/

Discussion List—August 7th, 2014

Smart Meters
http://www.takebackyourpower.net/ (2.5 min documentary)

Minimum Wage

Fight over rental restrictions heads to MN Supreme Court
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3168107/posts
http://www.americanexperiment.org/blog/201405/fight-over-rental-restrictions-heads-to-mn-supreme-court
http://www.ij.org/mn-rental-caps-background

Oregon Man Serving Prison Sentence For Catching Rainwater On His Own Property
http://www.rightwingnews.com/uncategorized/man-sentenced-to-30-days-for-catching-rain-water-on-own-property-enters-jail/
http://www.naturalnews.com/046359_oregon_rainwater_collection_big_governemnt.html

EPA's "Struggle to Combat Pollution"
http://www.propublica.org/article/under-water-the-epas-struggle-to-combat-pollution

Feds seize 1985 Land Rover in EPA Emission-Control Crackdown
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/1/feds-raid-sc-home-to-seize-land-rover-in-epa-emiss/

Discussion List—July 3rd, 2014

Foundation for Economic Education (FEE)
http://www.fee.org/
http://www.fee.org/library/detail/intellectual-property-versus-real-property

Hernando de Soto -- The Power of the Poor
http://www.freetochoose.tv/program.php?id=power_of_poor

Peter Diamandis: Abundance is our future
http:// http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BltRufe5kkI (16.25 min video)

Discussion List—June 5th, 2014

Discussion List—May 1st, 2014

Mudslide--Before and After Photos
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-26/washington-mudslide/5346460

April 17th Hearing--State Senators Exposing DOE Abuse
http://myfreedomfoundation.com/blog/liberty-live/detail/state-senators-hold-hearing-exposing-does-abuse-of-citizenry-and-local-government

Federal Lands Maps
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341bfae553ef014e87f3e653970d-800wi (Shows Areas)
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/federal-land-map.jpg (Shows percentages)

Give Us Our Land Back
http://giveusourlandback.org/

American Steward of Liberty
https://americanstewards.us/
http://www.americanstewards.us/board-of-directors/25-directors/465-margaret-byfield

Wayne N Hage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6mTN1uSh0 (16.75 min video)
http://www.americanstewards.us/hage-v-us
http://smile.amazon.com/Storm-over-Rangelands-Private-Federal/dp/0939571153

200+ "Militarized" Federal Police Surround Peaceful Rancher in Nevada
http://conservativetribune.com/armed-feds-surround-rancher/

What Is Senator Harry Reid's Connection?
http://personalliberty.com/senator-harry-reids-involvement-government-assault-nevada-ranch/
http://www.westernjournalism.com/reid-bundy-ranch-connection-bit-stretch/

Why The Land Belongs To Bundy
http://www.wnd.com/2014/04/why-the-land-belongs-to-bundy/

Judge Napolitano On Bundy Ranch vs Federal Agents
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m59-GVCQ0oM (5.2 min video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BAzdy2sOl8 (10 min video -- 3:00 to 6:13)
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2014/04/23/napolitano-blasts-feds%E2%80%99-%E2%80%98massive-stalinistic-use-force%E2%80%99-nevada-ranch-standoff (10:36 min video)

A Peaceable Solution for the Range War Over Grazing Rights
http://perc.org/articles/peaceable-solution-range-war-over-grazing-rights

Ranchers Harassed Off Their Land
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304518704579522022773686390

Discussion List—April 3rd, 2014

Oklahoma House votes to nullify Agenda 21, 66-26
http://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2014/03/oklahoma-house-votes-to-nullify-agenda-21-66-26

EPA and Army Corps of Engineers Clarify Protection for Nation's Streams and Wetlands: Agriculture's Exemptions and Exclusions from Clean Water Act Expanded by Proposal
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/3881d73f4d4aaa0b85257359003f5348/ae90dedd9595a02485257ca600557e30

White House Looks To Regulate Cow Flatulence As Part Of Climate Agenda
http://www.glennbeck.com/2014/03/31/obama-administration-to-regulate-cow-flatulence/
http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/03/29/white-house-looks-regulate-cow-flatulence-part-climate-agenda

Discussion List—March 6th, 2014

Abundance vs. Scarcity
http://www.diamandis.com/abundance/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BltRufe5kkI (16.2 min video)

Julian Simon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLQoa_FA_zo (1 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSQw4X5ET-o (2 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKrmtxTclfo (3 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zn6zo8MOuwQ (4 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7P6QLQiSBI (5 of 6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdNMzcgTaY (6 of 6)

Matt Ridley - The Rational Optimist
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v86K5awl_s (36 min video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLHh9E5ilZ4 (16.6 min video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuCAsUBL0wI (31.1 min video)

Sue and Settle
http://shar.es/R0h08

Behind My Back
http://www.behindmyback.org/

Discussion List—February 6th, 2014

Gov SWAT Teams Target "Rugged Individuals" Who Grow Their Own Food, Produce Their Own Electricity
http://www.shtfplan.com/headline-news/gov-swat-teams-target-rugged-individuals-who-grow-their-own-food-produce-their-own-electricity_01032014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw3RiMdS7sE (9.9 min video)

Senate Government Operations Committee--GMA
http://tvw.org/index.php?option=com_tvwplayer&eventID=2014010057
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/

Global Warming--A Back Door To Socialism, And Now Even The UN Admits It
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/011614-686713-climate-change-a-back-door-to-communism-and-the-united-nations-admits-it.htm

Frans de Waal: Moral Behavior in Animals
http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals.html (17 min video)

Discussion List—January 2nd, 2014

HB 1164--Prohibiting the Use of International Law to Infringe on Property Rights
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1164

HB 1167--Repealing Growth Management Planning Requirements in RCW.
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1167

SB 5011--Prohibiting Policies That Infringe Property Rights Without Due Process
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5011

Wetlands Expert Sees Huge Flaw In Eminent Domain Case
http://watchdogwire.com/northwest/2013/12/11/wetlands-expert-flaw-eminent-domain/

Amazon Smile
http://smile.amazon.com/about

Center for Self Governance
http://www.tncsg.org/about/
http://www.tncsg.org/overview-of-classes/

Global Cooling--Ships Trapped in Ice
http://www.cfact.org/2013/09/19/gullible-green-sailors-trapped-in-the-arctic/
http://www.cfact.org/2013/12/28/antarctic-ice-blocks-ice-breaker-sent-to-rescue-climate-researchers-trapped-in-ice/
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304591604579292611684898656
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/antarctic.sea.ice.interactive.html
http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/arctic.sea.ice.interactive.html

Tom W. Bell, author of the book, Intellectual Privilege, and Chapman University law professor.
Christopher Newman, Associate Professor of Law at George Mason University.
1. No one had to tell these children that taking their candy was unfair.
2. People instinctively understand the value of property rights and when their rights have been abused.
3. Some of them accepted it without complaint. Is that good?
1. Article by Jonah Goldberg
2. The clash of conflicting narratives about America is what's tearing us apart.
3. There is an enormous amount of whining these days about our ideological debates. This gets the problem wrong. Ideological debates are fought over ideas, but politics is more often about competing stories...
4. Victor Hugo declared, "There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come."
5. ... but the only reason an idea's time ever arrives is that some story gives it birth.
6. Odds are that every lesson you ever learned came at the end of a story, either one you lived or one you watched unfold.
7. We evolved to learn through stories. We may as well be called homo relator, or storytelling man.
8. Ideas are surprisingly easy to let go of, if pried loose by the right story. Stories, meanwhile, are shockingly difficult to let go of, even if they convey a bad idea.
9. The story about the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.
10. The story about the rise of the Islamic State, fueled by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
11. The story about modern-day environmentalism is full of talk about data and "settled science." But science is never settled, because science is the craft of unsettling what we know at any given moment. If science could settle, man would never learn to fly or read by electric light. Meanwhile, inconvenient data is left on the cutting-room floor as an ancient story is retold in modern terms.
12. Michael Crichton observed, If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs...
13. Preindustrial times are our Edenic past, when man and nature were in balance...
1. In a different article Monbiot had criticized Allan Savory's findings that grazing cattle have a positive effect on the environment.
2. This article explains why Monbiot was wrong.
1. The facts have changed, now we must change too. For the past ten years an unlikely coalition of geologists, oil drillers, bankers, military strategists and environmentalists has been warning that peak oil - the decline of global supplies - is just around the corner. We had some strong reasons for doing so: production had slowed, the price had risen sharply, depletion was widespread and appeared to be escalating. The first of the great resource crunches seemed about to strike.
2. Among environmentalists it was never clear, even to ourselves, whether or not we wanted it to happen. It had the potential both to shock the world into economic transformation, averting future catastrophes, and to generate catastrophes of its own, including a shift into even more damaging technologies, such as biofuels and petrol made from coal. Even so, peak oil was a powerful lever. Governments, businesses and voters who seemed impervious to the moral case for cutting the use of fossil fuels might, we hoped, respond to the economic case...
1. A northeast Washington cattle rancher says wolves killed a three-day-old calf from his operation last week.
2. Len McIrvin is owner of the Diamond M Ranch in Laurier, Wash. That's the ranch where Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife officials in September 2012 killed six wolves from the Wedge Pack. The wolves had killed at least 17 cattle from the ranch.
3. Stephanie Simek, WDFW wildlife conflict section manager, said this case was unconfirmed as a wolf kill because there were signs of coyotes in the area. But the department may not want to officially confirm more wolf kills, because that determination that could lead to killing the predators.
4. McIrvin refuses to take compensation from the state. He said, "We are not in the business of raising cattle to feed wolves. We're in the business of raising cattle to be a cow ranch,"
1. What amazing benefits would Monbiot claim from dinosaur reintroduction?
2. BTW, what would happen if we really could restore extinct species?
1. To what extent is breeding intervention a legitimate wildlife conservation tool?
2. Are wildlife breeders interfering with nature and to what extent is this justified?
3. To what extent can we condone modern techniques of genetic manipulation and even potential de-extinction of species using emergent DNA technologies?
4. All these issues revolve around questions of 'wildness' and traditional views of conservation...
1. "Saving the planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding more disgusting babies..." --Eco-terrorist James Lee
2. "Humans are a plague on the Earth that need to be controlled by limiting population." Sir David Attenborough
3. "Instead of controlling the environment for the benefit of the population, perhaps it's time we control the population to allow the survival of the environment." Sir David Attenborough
4. [Some anti-human activists do not openly endorse human extermination, but feel the underlying need to reduce the population is so obvious they freely speak about it in positive terms.]
5. Forrest Mims, vice-chair of the Texas Academy of Science, reported on an award acceptance speech by Dr. Eric Pianka, in which Pianka had "endorsed the elimination of 95 percent of the human population" through a disease such as an airborne strain of the Ebola virus. Mims claimed that Pianka said the Earth would not survive unless its population was reduced by 95% suggesting that the planet would be "better off" if the human population were reduced and that a mutant strain of Ebola would be the most efficient means.
6. Pianka felt he should defend himself from Mim's public disclosure, so in response to that statement he said, "I believe it is only a matter of time until microbes once again assert control over our population, since we are unwilling to control it ourselves.... I do not bear any ill will toward people. However, I am convinced that the world, including all humanity, WOULD clearly be much better off without so many of us."
7. [Read the comments by Youtube viewers below this video. Some of them deny the view that an anti-human bias exists, while others clearly show it's already deep-seated in our culture.]
1. Lawmakers say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enjoys a "beyond cozy" relationship with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) -- a liberal environmental action group that seeks to reshape national energy policies in ways that would hurt American businesses and families.
2. Their role was described as "absolutely inappropriate" in drafting the EPA's new carbon emissions plan.
3. "The EPA has been one of the least transparent agencies I have ever seen, but it's become apparent that their lack of transparency is to hide the influence that an organization so heavily focused on undermining U.S. businesses and families has at EPA,"
4. A Heritage Foundation economist calls the Obama administration's new carbon rules "nothing short of an attack on affordable, reliable energy."
5. Information in recently disclosed emails force the question: Who is working for whom?
6. The organization, founded in 1978, has received $1.9 million in EPA grants since January 2009.
7. Actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Lisa Kudlow are among celebrities who support the Natural Resources Defense Council. DiCaprio sits on the organization's board.
8. The difference between most organizations and NRDC is that most organizations are actually trying to create jobs and provide opportunity for their fellow Americans. This particular organization has advocated relentlessly to harm our energy and manufacturing sector, and EPA providing this organization an outsized role in the regulatory process is incredibly unfair to American families that rely on a healthy economy to sustain their livelihoods.
1. Reason Foundation study proposes the Endangered Species Reserve Program
2. The ESA causes considerable harm to the species it's supposed to protect by motivating three types of negative actions: - Habitat destruction and degradation through overt action and benign neglect. - Landowners denying access to their property. - Direct persecution (shoot, shovel, and shut-up)
3. [The existing ESA also adds another threat. It gives the false and politically correct sense that something positive being done, and therefore anyone opposed to it must not care about preserving species.]
4. The Endangered Species Reserve Program would remove counterproductive penalties and replace them with a voluntary system where landowners are compensated for investing in habitat and species conservation.
5. Instead of taking value from property owners, by requiring them to preserve species at their expense, this program creates a competitive market in preservation.
6. It changes endangered species from liabilities into assets.
1. Marathon County, Wisconsin dispatched a swat team to collect fines due for clutter in a 75 year old's yard.
2. The tiny town of Stettin, Wisconsin has fewer than 3,000 residents, one of whom is 75-year-old Roger Hoeppner.
3. Hoeppner runs a tractor- and pallet-repair business. For years the town has been trying to get him to clean up the parts and pallets strewn across his property.
4. Hoeppner was arrested without any physical resistance, and was escorted to a bank where he was forced to withdraw $80,000 and hand it over to police.
1. PERC Article, --"Why Ducks Quack for Obama"
2. Gun policies supported by the president have caused gun and ammunition sales to skyrocket.
3. Some taxes on guns are earmarked for wildlife restoration.
4. Since 1937 the Pittman-Robertson Act has generated over $12 billion via taxes on the sale of guns, ammunition, shooting gear and archery equipment.
5. The fund generated $310 million in 2008 but $760 million in 2014.
6. Ed Boggess of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says it's "a huge boon to wildlife programs." Minnesota received $23 million from Pittman-Robertson this year alone.
7. Pittman-Robertson funds are credited for bringing white-tailed deer, wild turkeys and wood ducks back from the brink of extinction.
8. However, gun sales are subsidizing use of public lands by others, so PERC suggests expanding the user-pay principle to apply to others who use public lands.
9. Expanding the "pay to play" model is a way to connect users and suppliers, in much the same way markets do. Just as hunters get more game to shoot, recreationists and environmentalists could get more of the amenities they want. NRA and environmentalists, unite!
1. Bill relates what he learned from Glen Morgan during a two-hour drive from Sea-Tac airport to Bellingham.
1. Book -- Knowledge and Power
2. New knowledge always comes as a surprise.
3. Innovations are inherently unpredictable.
4. Innovation can't be planned, because it involves dislocation.
5. Innovation always points to the future.
6. Innovation creates wealth.
7. More freedom, more knowledge, and more innovation leads to more economic growth.
8. Less freedom, less knowledge, and less innovation leads to less economic growth.
9. Dynamic Growth occurs because of new knowledge.
10. Collectivists try to eliminate "surprise" through bigger government and more regulations.
1. Innovation destroys the old economic structure, when it is replaced by a new one.
2. For example, the invention of cars took away from the value of buggy whips.
3. And the value of non-smart cell phones decreased with the advent of smart phones.
1. Wealth creation is the result of changing the subjective valuation of property.
2. From John Locke -- Acorns in a basket are no longer acorns on the ground. Labor is added to property in the common stock.
3. Acorns in the marketplace no longer need to be gathered in from the wild.
4. The product--the property--has changed by the addition of labor, but it isn't the labor that's important, but the change which made that item better suited toward satisfying wants or needs.
5. Some property emerges from nothing by the addition of labor--intellectual property.
6. Property is a reflection of the effort expended to satisfy wants or needs.
7. Raw, unowned land is subject to ownership by conquest. Thus, the value of land is limited by the lack of legitimate ownership, to secure it from conquest.
8. Land which is identified in a legally-supported system of definition is no longer the same land. It is protected by the labor of those who designed and implemented the system for platting and legal ownership. Also systems for enforcement and courts to protect it from conquest.
9. The "cost" of labor is not always equal to the increase in value.
10. The land surveyor and property clerk who register land are paid a salary, but the secure definition of land increases the value by far more than their labor.
11. The genius who designed the land-system has also contributed to it's value.
12. Wealth is created when the value contributed by labor increases the market value of a product.
13. When the cost is less than the new value, new wealth is created.
14. Property ownership is central to the creation of wealth.
1. Against Intellectual Property By N. Stephan Kinsella
2. Capitalism, A Treatise on Economics By George Reisman
1. Why would we want to get inside the mind of Karl Marx?
2. From the Communist Manifesto: "the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property."
3. Marx created an interpretation of history and the underlying motivations of both capitalists and workers, which has now resonated with people for more than 150 years.
4. His impact has been severe -- Hundreds of millions have died in the effort to realize his vision of central planning.
5. We need to understand the human vulnerabilities toward believing Marx's interpretation of history and somehow reverse it.
1. The economy grows and the standard of living increases as we develop more automation.
2. But automation now is changing, because of general purpose machines and computers.
3. One human can oversee many machines.
4. This applies to minimum wage issues as well as transportation.
1. Beware of trojan herons. It's not really herons you have to watch out for, it's the sucker punch from the folks who use eco-symbols to lower your guard. Don't turn your back on the beak!
2. The Mayans may not end the world in 2012, but the CAO's will.
3. My IMAGINARY wetlands are protected from IMAGINARY pollutants by REAL laws. Only you can prevent Eco-Faux-Nee-Ism.
4. If gardens are outlawed, only outlaws will have gardens.
1. Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the neural systems that support "how" and "why" action knowledge.
2. Consistently different parts of the brains addressed How and Why actions.
1. A plot device -- some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist pursues.
2. Motivation is necessary to tell a convincing story of conflict.
3. Meaning what the characters want, or
4. For a story to be believable the audience must see a plausible source of motivation--what they want or why they want it. But it doesn't matter what that motivation is.
5. True motivators are not interchangeable, MacGuffins are interchangeable.
1. Karl Marx, "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." The proletariat vs the bourgeoisie.
2. Zoning is needed to prevent incompatible uses. Solution, more government.
3. Zoning has caused urban sprawl. Solution, more government--adopt smart growth and growth management.
4. Human-created pollution will cause a global ice age, which will destroy the planet.
5. Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) will destroy the planet.
6. Man-made Climate Change will destroy the planet.
7. Mankind is a virus on the planet.
8. Sustainability--Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
9. Changing reasons for more government, Racism, War on Women, Gun Control
1. Discussion
1. Initiative to the Legislature 664 -- Discussion
1. In 2006 Winona Minnesota instituted across-the-board rental restrictions on property owners.
2. Only 30% of the property owners can rent their homes to others, while 70% cannot.
3. The city controls this by issuing permits.
4. At least three more Minnesota cities have passed rental caps on homeowners - Mankato, Northfield and West St. Paul.
5. The Minnesota Supreme Court will take up the 3-year-old property rights case.
6. Case is being handled by Institute for Justice.
1. An Oregon landowner has been subjected to a 30-day prison sentence for collecting rainwater on his own property.
2. Gary Harrington was convicted of nine misdemeanors and sentenced to 30 days in prison, as well as a $1,500 fine, for diverting snow runoff and rainwater into three reservoirs on his property.
3. The reservoirs hold 13 million gallons of water, for his own personal use.
4. One of the reservoirs he stocked with largemouth bass.
1. Article from the perspective of the EPA.
2. For years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been frustrated in its efforts to pursue hundreds of cases of water pollution - repeatedly tied up in legal fights about exactly what bodies of water it has the authority to monitor and protect.
3. Mentions opposition by American Farm Bureau Federation, Glenn Beck, and Environmental Justice.
4. Quotes from a former "administrator of environmental justice" at the EPA, who is currently at Earthjustice, an environmental non-profit organization.
5. Also quotes from a senior director of regulatory relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation.
6. He said, "The EPA is reaching into areas that Congress clearly didn't want the EPA to regulate."
1. Department of Homeland Security raided a South Carolinian's home to confiscate a 1985 Land Rover.
2. Jennifer Brinkley said she saw a line of law enforcement vehicles approaching her home and wondered what was wrong. Homeland Security agents then went to her Land Rover Defender and lifted the hood.
3. "They popped up the hood and looked at the Vehicle Identification Number and compared it with a piece of paper and then took the car with them," she said, WBTV reported.
4. She told Fox News that she was told the agents seized the vehicle because they thought it violated the Clean Air Act - though at the time, they weren't completely sure. She also said her vehicle was just one of 40 that feds seized in various locations that same day for the same reason.
5. Ms. Brinkley told Fox News that she has no idea where the vehicle is now and that feds won't tell her.
6. She had invested more than $60,000 in to the vehicle, which she bought online last year.
7. The feds are confiscating based on VINs only, not testing emissions.
8. Ms. Brinkley said she had spent considerable money ensuring her vehicle would pass inspection laws and that it was in compliance with emission rules.
1. Think of it as a lottery with a 30 percent chance of winning.
2. The prize? A city permit authorizing people to be among the lucky property owners on their block allowed to rent their house.
3. For 70 percent of their neighbors, well, that's just too bad.
4. That's how it works in Winona, a southeastern Minnesota college community that in 2006 instituted an across-the-board rental restrictions on property owners.
5. "It's basic freedom, it's your house, it's your property. And here's another case of the government coming in blindly saying you don't have those rights anymore because we're the Winona City Council," said Ethan Dean, one of four property owners suing the city.
6. At least three more Minnesota cities have passed rental caps on homeowners - Mankato, Northfield and West St. Paul.
7. The Minnesota Supreme Court will take up the 3-year-old property rights case.
8. Case is being handled by Institute for Justice.
1. Do IP laws protect legitimately ownable things?
1. Contrast between Peru and Switzerland
2. Switzerland codified existing informal rules, making them defensible and enforcible.
3. Importance of legitimacy (29:20 - 31.30)
4. Risk of exclusion (39:42 - 45:10)
1. Moore's law--price to performance doubles every 12 to 24 months.
2. Our challenge is not scarcity, but accessibility.
3. Our planet is bathed in 5000 times more energy than we use in a year. Every 88 minutes 16 terawatts of solar energy hits the planet.
4. Solar is increasing in efficiency every year.
5. 70% of our planet is covered by water.
6. Technology is coming on line to convert sea water to drinking water.
7. In 2013 we hit 70% penetration of cell phones worldwide.
8. By 2020 3 billion new minds will be online, who never had online connection before.
1. Nevada -- 84.5%
2. Alaska -- 69.1%
3. Utah -- 57.4%
4. Oregon -- 53.1%
5. "Excludes Trust Properties"
6. What about State-owned land? State Parks?
7. What about County and City property, parks and property owned by other governmental entities?
1. We are a citizens' coalition petitioning the US Congress to return title and jurisdiction over Federal lands in Oregon to the Counties of Oregon.
2. We are residents of Oregon (and other states), and we are respectfully requesting that our Sister States, through the U.S. Congress, return ownership of Federal lands within Oregon to the Counties of Oregon.
3. The Federal Government is trustee of 53% of the landbase of Oregon, and they have violated that trust exceedingly.
4. The Federal Government has denied the rights of Oregonians to care for and steward our own forests, watersheds and rangelands; imposed fees and duties on us for use of our own public lands; erected locked gates and refused entry to the People of Oregon into our own public lands; burned vast tracts, incinerating the wealth of Oregon; destroyed our wildlife; polluted our air and water; fouled our streams; introduced exotic pests -- and in so doing our homes, businesses and communities have become bankrupted, our schools, roads and public safety have been threatened, and our economy has been crippled.
5. The best stewardship arises from local ownership and jurisdiction. We residents of Oregon know our environment, appreciate and understand our watersheds, forests, and rangelands, and wish to assume responsibility for our own environment -- which is our birthright, heritage, and legacy to future generations.
6. Oregon is not a colony. We are a state with the same rights, responsibilities, and equal footing with every other state in the Union. We swear allegiance to the United States and our representative and republican form of government, founded on the principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
7. We suffer directly the effects of Federal mismanagement of our own watersheds, and we no longer consent to such, or to the abrogation of our unalienable rights as free people.
8. In order to rectify this untenable situation, we have prepared a petition to the U.S. Congress, respectfully requesting redress of our grievances by returning ownership of our public lands to the Counties of Oregon.
1. Margaret Byfield, Executive Director, Daughter of Wayne and Jean Hage.
2. Margaret spoke at our CAPR workshops in March 2013.
1. Story of Wayne Hage and his family's battle over property rights for grazing.
2. Wayne and Jean Hage purchased Pine Creek Ranch in 1978, a large cow-calf operation in Central Nevada comprised of 7,000 private deeded acres and 752,000 acres of federal grazing lands. They owned all the water on the ranch for livestock grazing. Immediately after purchasing the property, their ranching operation became a target of the federal agencies.
3. Their type or range grazing land requires 320 acres to raise one cow for one year.
4. In 1989 Wayne Hage published a book titled Storm over Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands. Afterward the government stepped-up their opposition to Hage.
5. In 1990 the Feds suspended his grazing rights over portions of the property, claiming environmental harm, but the line was indistinct. There was 21 miles of unfenced boundary between the licensed areas and forbidden areas, but the forest service themselves couldn't even tell Hage where the diving line was. And cows didn't know the difference and periodically ended-up on the other side of an imaginary line.
6. In 1991 the U.S. Forest Service (armed with semi-automatic weapons) confiscated over 100 head of the Hage's cattle and sold them at auction. Then they sent Hage a bill for the difference between the price sold, and the cost of the confiscation.
7. The Hage family finally had enough and took their case to the United States Court of Federal Claims alleging the taking of their property under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
8. Four months later, Wayne Hage Sr. cleared debris from the ditch providing water to his property and was arrested for "destroying government property." He was charged, tried and convicted.
9. The 9th circuit threw-out the criminal case against Hage.
10. By the mid 1990s they had lost all their grazing permits and most of their cattle. The mother and father had to find other jobs to feed their family.
11. Jean Hage died in 1996 with their lawsuit against the government still unresolved.
12. In 2002 that the Court issued the first truly landmark ruling in the case. The Court determined that despite the government's argument that the Hage's had no "property rights" in the federal lands, the Court found they owned the water on the federal lands that flowed to their private lands, they owned the ditch rights-of-way that transported that water (and 50 feet on either side), and the range improvements.
13. Wayne died in 2006 knowing he and Jean had won big for western ranchers, but still without seeing any of the awards.
14. Wayne Hage Jr. took over the ranch and the legal battles. Wayne Jr. became an attorney himself, because he couldn't afford attorneys any longer.
15. In 2008, the Claims Court issued a second landmark ruling by finding that the actions of the government agencies to prevent the Hage's from using their property was a taking under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Ultimately, they were awarded $14.4 million, plus attorney fees.
16. In the judges statement he said the actions taken by the government against the Hage family, "Shocked the conscience of the court."
17. The Hage family was fined $165.88 for allowing cattle to wander onto Federal Lands.
18. In the interim, the government brought trespass charges against Wayne Hage, Jr. and the Estate of Wayne and Jean Hage for having cattle on the federal allotments. The dispute ended up in District Court, separate and apart from the Takings case. This court issued the third historic ruling in the Hage saga, ordering the federal agencies to reinstate the Hage's grazing permit. In making this decision the court admonished the federal agencies for using the power of the federal government to target and attempt to destroy what was left of the Hage's livestock operation.
19. Then the federal government challenged the award of compensation in the Appellate Court and managed to erode the Claims Courts decision. In 2012, they successfully overturned the compensation award based primarily on the ripeness of the claim and failure to apply for a special use permit to maintain the ditches. Their arguments did not take on any of the major issues in the case, such as whether their regulatory actions went too far and caused a taking, but relied on minor elements. The result was the Appellate court awarded no costs.
20. The case is still ongoing, but it appears the Estate of Wayne and Jean Hage will receive NO compensation.
21. Nevertheless, as a result of Hage v. United States, western ranchers "own" their water and right's-of-way on the federal lands. Determining what will trigger a compensation claim for these rights under the Fifth Amendment is still unanswered.
1. Unknown, more facts are needed, but it's possible there's a connection.
1. Ilana Mercer explains rancher's prescriptive rights via natural law
1. Judge Napolitano was on "Hannity" show discussed the Nevada ranch standoff, eminent domain, and the percentage of land owned by the federal government.
2. This is an overly harsh enforcement of a court order. Using militaristic tactics and stealing personal property, when it is not necessary.
3. Napolitano said that the government should file a judgment against Cliven Bundy, and when he passes away or sells his property, the government will get the judgment plus interest.
4. Judge Napolitano said, "The Constitution simply does not authorize the federal government to own any of this land. All of it is being held unconstitutionally and all of it should be returned to the private property owners from which it was taken or to the states whose borders it exists, period,"
1. Free-market environmentalism offers a better approach. Since 2002 the National Wildlife Federation has secured more than half a million acres of federal grazing land outside Yellowstone National Park to provide habitat for bison, grizzly bears and wolves.
2. The group negotiates voluntary buyouts with ranchers and pays for the federal grazing permits with its own money.
1. The Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service have worked closely with environmental pressure groups for decades to drive ranchers off federal lands throughout the West.
2. Environmental groups file legal challenges to federal grazing permits in a BLM District or National Forest on the grounds that livestock are harming the environment, most typically by degrading the habitat of an endangered species.
3. The federal agency responds by changing the conditions of the permits in ways that raise costs and reduce production. For example, a permit for grazing 400 head of cattle for four months will be reduced to 200 head for three months. Then a few weeks before grazing season is scheduled to begin the agency will announce that it must be delayed this year by a month.
4. These are only the most obvious of the numerous techniques that have been developed to harass and eventually bankrupt federal land ranchers. Banks start calling in loans when they see that their collateral is becoming worthless. Nor will another rancher buy a ranch that will soon be worthless. The only alternative left for a grazing permittee is to sell his permit (and usually his private ranch property as well) to a land trust or other environmental pressure group for a fraction of its worth before the antigrazing campaign begins in that area. The new nonprofit owner of the ranch typically doesn't pay property taxes to the county and removes all or most of the cattle from the federal range. Results include depopulation of the rural West, reduced economic activity and major revenue shortfalls in sparsely populated counties.
5. Mr. Regan writes that allowing the sale of grazing permits to land trusts and environmental pressure groups is an example of free-market environmentalism. It is not; rather, it is rural cleansing accomplished through market socialist means.
1. A bill that would nullify Agenda 21 in Oklahoma passed through the state house on Mar. 4, 2014
2. HB2807, the "Oklahoma Community Protection Act," would prohibit any state agency or political subdivision from adopting or implementing "policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe upon or restrict private property rights without due process." It also would void any previous commitments which may have been made under Agenda 21 or a similar program. It reads, "any debt or commitment to an international or federal entity whereby the citizens did not have the ability to exercise their constitutional rights shall be considered null and void."
3. The bill passed by a vote of 66-26.
4. It protects private property from being acquired by eminent domain, without a public vote or public hearing.
5. HB2805 now moves to the state senate committee.
1. Release Date: 03/25/2014
2. WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) today jointly released a proposed rule to clarify protection under the Clean Water Act for streams and wetlands that form the foundation of the nation's water resources. The proposed rule will benefit businesses by increasing efficiency in determining coverage of the Clean Water Act. The agencies are launching a robust outreach effort over the next 90 days, holding discussions around the country and gathering input needed to shape a final rule.
1. The White House has vowed to regulate cow flatulence as part of its climate agenda.
2. As part of its plan to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Obama Administration is targeting the dairy industry to reduce methane emissions in their operations.
3. Forget about the fact that methane emissions are at all time lows, we need to spend time and resources targeting gassy cows.
1. Our minds preferentially pay more attention to bad news than good.
2. The news media reacts to this preference and over-exaggerates crisis.
3. Naturally, people think the world is getting worse.
4. However, even the poor today live like kings... We have redefined poverty.
5. Resources are not limited by scarcity, but accessibility.
6. Technology is rapidly solving accessibility problems.
7. Technological advance is following Moore's law--doubling every 12 to 18 months.
8. Three billion new people are joining the economy because of smart phone accessibility.
9. With Freedom, abundance is the natural state of the world, not scarcity.
1. Most of our beliefs driven by the popular media are incorrect.
2. Raw materials and energy are getting less scarce.
3. The world's food supply is improving.
4. Pollution in the United States is decreasing.
5. Population growth has long-term benefits.
1. Today's prosperity and freedom exceed everything that has gone before, but nothing like what we will have in the future.
1. The Ninth Circuit has significantly narrowed plaintiffs' and federal agency defendants' ability to "sue and settle" their way to permanent rule changes through consent decrees.
2. Consent decree cannot circumvent the statutory public review process to change federal management plans.
1. WOW--War on Wild, topic for April 2014 meeting.
1. Hundreds of residents living on the outskirts of Los Angeles are being driven off their land.
2. Many have been living there for decades. They've built their own homes, planted their own fruits and vegetables, and generate their own power using solar panels and miniature wind farms.
3. Recently, agents of the Los Angeles county started paying visits to these rugged individualists. They claimed they were "here to help," as one resident puts it, but it was exactly the opposite.
4. The county began performing unannounced inspections.
5. They told one resident he could keep his land, but would not be allowed to live on it.
6. "I said, for what? My closest neighbor is half a mile away. We're not living in Beverly Hills here, this is my home. All of sudden you got police at my front door - bullet proof vests, guns, and then they surrounded the place."
7. "Code enforcement agents for the county showed up in droves. But they didn't come alone. Along with them came heavily armed "Nuisance Abatement Teams" who raided the homes and land of these peaceful residents as they would those of a terrorist."
1. Senator Pam Roach Chair, Senate Government Operations Committee
2. GMA Discussion begins at 28 minutes, Speakers include:
  -- Karen Skoog, Pend Oreille County Commissioner (36:46)
  -- Randal O'Toole, Senior Fellow, Cato Institute (52:05)
  -- Ed Kilduff, Licensed Hydrogeologist & Engineering Geologist (59:40)
  -- Kelly Emerson, Island County Commissioner (1:07.15)
  -- Larry Costello, Resident of North Bend (1:21:20)
  -- Jan Shabro, Pierce County Council, resident of Lake Tapps (1:26:56)
  -- Roger Almskaar, Land use Consultant, Whatcom County CAPR (1:35:41)
  -- Charlie Connor, Home Builder (1:46:00)
  -- Glenn Morgan, Property Rights Director, Freedom Foundation (1:52:12)
  -- Chris Shardleman, Citizen of Kitsap County (1:59:34)
  -- Patrick Connor, Small Business Representative (2:01:55)
1. Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said that Democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming. The really good model is communist China. Why?
2. She said this despite the fact that environmental disasters in China far exceed anything in Western free-market countries. Again, why?
3. Czech President Václav Klaus--"They want to restrict our freedom because they themselves believe they know what is good for us. They are not interested in climate. They misuse the climate in their goal to restrict our freedom. Therefore, what is in danger is freedom, not the climate."
1. (Play from 12:45 to 16:49)
2. Fairness test with Capuchins monkeys
1. AN ACT Relating to prohibiting the use of international law to infringe on property rights.
2. The legislature finds that for more than forty years international interests have worked to systematically erode the property rights of our citizens. Among the most egregious examples of this can be seen in the material and documents produced through the 1971 Ramsar treaty on wetlands, the 1972 earth summit, the 1973 convention on international trade in endangered species, the 1973 united nations environment program, the 1975 Belgrade charter, the 1976 conference on human settlements, the 1982 world charter for nature, the 1983 world commission on environment and development, the 1988 global forum on human survival, the 1990 international council for environmental initiatives, the 1992 united nations commission on sustainable development, the 1994 united nations conference on population and development, the 1995 commission on sustainable development, the 1996 conference on human settlements, and approval of the earth charter in 2000.
3. Many of these forums produced documents which called for the government to control population according to resources, government control of land use in order to achieve equitable distribution of resources, government control of land use through zoning and planning, government control of excessive profits from land use, government control of urban and rural land through public land ownership, and government authorities holding development rights using taxpayers' dollars. The legislature finds implementation of many of these international accords result in the physical and regulatory taking of private property and constitutes a violation of the natural rights of citizens to own and enjoy private property.
4. It is the policy of the state of Washington to prohibit the adoption, development, or implementation of community development policies based on international accords that infringe or restrict private property rights. The expenditure of public funds in furtherance of any international accords that endanger a citizen's private property rights is prohibited.
1. The legislature finds that the growth management planning requirements established in chapter 36.70A RCW, the growth management act, create compliance costs that are a significant burden to taxpayers and inappropriate redirection of limited financial resources away from essential local government functions. The legislature finds also that the growth management act creates unfunded mandates for counties and cities facing numerous fiscal challenges.
2. The legislature further finds that local governments have sufficient expertise and ability to make thoughtful land use and planning decisions that are consistent with local needs and preferences, and that a state-directed approach to land use and planning disregards the insight and responsiveness that can only be accessed through local decision makers. The legislature, therefore, intends to repeal chapter 36.70A RCW, the growth management act.
1. AN ACT Relating to prohibiting the state of Washington and its political subdivisions from adopting and developing environmental and developmental policies that infringe or restrict private property rights without due process.
2. The state of Washington and all political subdivisions may not adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe or restrict private property rights without due process as may be required by policy recommendations originating in or traceable to Agenda 21, adopted by the United Nations in 1992 at its conference on environment and development, or any other international law or ancillary plan of action that contravenes the Constitution of the United States or the Constitution of the state of Washington.
3. Since the United Nations has accredited and enlisted numerous nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations to assist in the implementation of its policies relative to Agenda 21 around the world, the state of Washington and all political subdivisions may not enter into any agreement, expend any sum of money, or receive funds contracting services or giving financial aid to or from the nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations defined in Agenda 21.
1. Snohomish County seized Kay Kohler's property through eminent domain and then sued her to get the money back, leaving Kay Kohler without her land, nor any compensation for it. They designated her property as a wetland.
2. Hydrogeologist Ed Kilduff is interviewed in this article about what the County did wrong.
1. AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you.
2. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you'll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization.
3. You can choose from nearly one million organizations to support. (Including the Citizens Alliance For Property Rights Legal Fund)
1. Mission: To help Tennesseans rediscover, own, and preserve their civic authority.
2. Originally named The Tennessee Center for Self-Governance
3. Recently renamed to Center for Self-Governance
4. Classes are being held in Washington State, as well as other states.
1. In September 2013 Arctic Sea Ice trapped vessels attempting to cross the Northwest passage. Contrary to predictions about it being "ice free" it had expanded 60% after the coldest summer in modern record.
2. More than a dozen boats were trapped and Canadian icebreakers unable to rescue them.
3. In December 2013 the Antarctic Sea Ice trapped a large Russian ship conducting research into global warming. They sent both Chinese and Australian ice-breakers to the rescue, but they couldn't get through. A Chinese helicopter rescued them today (January 2nd, 2014).
4. [However, everything is becoming clear now and the confusion is understandable. We all thought they were saying "Global Warming" but they were actually saying "GOREBULL WARNING" which really means global cooling. So we should have known all along.]

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King County's blog

January 1, 2014

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