“Our species does these amazing things, but we’re not very good at governing ourselves,” says acclaimed science writer Charles Mann, who is author most recently of 1491: NEW REVELATIONS OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE COLUMBUS. “Every time I feel really optimistic I look at something the government has done and I want to shoot myself.”
Mann joined the New York Times’ John Tierney for a wide-ranging discussion of government, human ingenuity, energy, agriculture, history, and the environment at an event hosted by the Reason Foundation at New York City’s Museum of Sex, which was held on April 24, 2013.
Tierney and Mann discussed why the industrial revolution wouldn’t have happened without imported rubber (1:40); why the locavore movement (of which Mann counts himself a member) is a fraud (3:58); how China screwed up its agriculture (8:30); Mann’s debate with best-selling writer and agricultural determinist Jared Diamond(16:20); why humans won’t exhaust all resources necessary for their survival (as a zebra mussel might) (21:20); how new methods for extracting methane hydrates, which are natural gas molecules trapped under the seafloor, could double existing energy reserves (23:00); and whether he’s concerned about the environmental impact of hydraulic fracking (54:33).
Congressional Record–Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman’s request, I include in the RECORD, under unanimous consent, the following “Current Communist Goals,” which she identifies as an excerpt from “The Naked Communist,” by Cleon Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev’s promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the “common man.”
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the “big picture.” Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture–education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.
Wait! Aren’t we told that “New World Order” is conspiracy theorist” claptrap?
Vice President Joe Biden calls for the creation of a “new world order” at the Export Import Bank conference in Washington on April 5, 2013. He also said the U.S. jobs figures for March are “disappointing.”
Cody R Wilson has figured out how to print a semi-automatic rifle from the comfort of his own home. Now hes putting all the information online so that others will join him.–This is a story about the rapid evolution of a technology that has forced the American legal system to play catch up. Cody Wilson, a 25 year old University of Texas Law student, is an advocate for the open source production of firearms using 3D printing technology. This makes him a highly controversial figure on both sides of the gun control issue. MOTHERBOARD sat down with Cody in Austin, Texas to talk about the constitution, the legal system, and to watch him make and test-fire a 3D-printed gun.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to “eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms.”
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. “Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art.”
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them “censorship” and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as “normal, natural, healthy.”
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with “social” religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a “religious crutch.”
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of “separation of church and state.”
Obama says he will do the same thing to other industries he did to the auto industry. So taxpayers will get fleeced, bondholders will get screwed and unions will get paid off. Oh joy, the communist Chinese model is coming to America!
Washington, D.C. “is basically a parasitic economy,” says author and Weekly Standard Senior Editor Andrew Ferguson. “It sucks up the money from the rest of the country and puts people to work here.”In a recent Time magazine article titled “Bubble on the Potomac,” Ferguson argues that D.C.-area residents are growing ever richer at the expense of the rest of the country, which has created a cultural disconnect that results in bad laws.Ferguson sat down with ReasonTV Correspondent Kennedy to discuss his article, and the various ways in which D.C.’s riches are hurting the nation.Ferguson is also the author of Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College and Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe’s America. For more on those books and the author, visit http://www.andrewfergusonbooks.com/.
How informed do you think the average American is about President Obama’s past? Pamela Geller, American blogger, author, political activist, and commentator: “The American people are the object of a campaign of disinformation and there’s a war in the information battle space, in the war of ideas. They’re painfully and abysmally unaware. My book ‘The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America,’ honestly the majority of that book was written late 2007/ 2008. It was all out there and here we are four years later, the warnings were all there and we’re witnessing the poisonous fruit of his egregious both domestic and foreign policy and there’s a reason. So we have to give major kudos to Sean Hannity because really he’s been singular in this in exposing the subversive and dangerous allegiances and alliances Obama has. And it’s breaking every day.”
FOX News Insider: Why do you think it’s important right now for Americans to take a closer look at the revelations in the book? Pamela Geller, American blogger, author, political activist, and commentator: “Because we’re losing the greatest nation that ever was in the history of mankind. The first moral government, the very first government in human history based on individual rights and everything noble and magnificent that we achieved was a logical fidelity to that principle. We have a collectivist in the White House, we have a statist in the White House … people are throwing away with both hands the greatest gift in the history of man. That’s why people should care.”
It has become obvious to even the casual observer that it is really about filling the trough for the PIGS (people in government (dis)Service)
Bill Whittle tells you why this is the greatest sentence ever written: “The love of theory is the root of all evil.” Whittle looks at the difference between fact and theory, and shows you the effects misguided theories have had on everything from warfare to climate science. Can Bill Whittle disprove global warming? What about Einstein’s theory of relativity? Find out.
