Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Federal Judge rules Fish Study That Turned The San Joaquin Valley Into A Desert Was Based On Junk-Science

From Gateway Pundit:

9:58 PM (2 hours ago)Federal Judge Rules Liberal Fish Study That Forced Officials to Cut Off California Water Was Based on Junk Sciencefrom Gateway Pundit by Jim HoftIn December 2008, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued what is known as a “biological opinion” imposing water reductions on the San Joaquin Valley and environs to safeguard the federally protected hypomesus transpacificus, a.k.a., the delta smelt. As a result, tens of billions of gallons of water from mountains east and north of Sacramento was channelled away from farmers and into the ocean, leaving hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land fallow or scorched.





 
Democrats created a dust bowl based on junk science.




A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the liberal study that forced California officials to cutback on water to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta was based on faulty science.

SFGate reported:



A federal judge has ruled that a landmark 2008 environmental study laying the groundwork for controversial water cutbacks from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta relied on faulty science.



In his much-anticipated decision released Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-examine and rewrite its plan for the threatened delta smelt.



The agency’s solution for shoring up the collapsing species – namely cutting water exports to California cities and farms – is “arbitrary” and “capricious,” the Fresno judge wrote in his 225-page decision…



…Wanger’s ruling upheld the evidence showing that the delta pumps do indeed trap and kill many delta smelt – a consolation for environmental groups that had fought for pumping cutbacks. However, the judge found fundamental flaws in the scientific analysis on the benefits of trimming water supplies to urban and rural areas and said the federal agency failed to examine the economic impacts of such a policy.



happy

Agricultural water districts, plaintiffs in the case and the most vocal critic of the 2008 Fish and Wildlife Service report – officially termed a “biological opinion”- were delighted with Tuesday’s decision.



“With the economy struggling and unemployment still soaring, it is welcome to see a judge refusing to rubber-stamp extreme, destructive and unjustified environmental regulations,” said Damien Schiff, attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which backed several farmers in a lawsuit against the federal government. “Bottom line: The people win; junk science loses.”



Add starLikeShareShare with noteEmailKeep unreadAdd tags9:50 PM (2 hours ago)Exhibitionfrom The Slab by noreply@blogger.com (The Slabber)

















Add starLikeShareShare with noteEmailKeep unreadAdd tags9:50 PM (2 hours ago)Dadaismfrom The Slab by noreply@blogger.com (The Slabber)













Add starLikeShareShare with noteEmailKeep unreadAdd tags9:46 PM (3 hours ago)Crash the White House/Medicare czar closed-door meetingfrom Michelle Malkin by Michelle Malkin



Let’s briefly review the Obama administration’s unprecedented transparency record:



*Loophole-ridden, special interest-pandering DISCLOSE Act



*Backdoor kickbacks



*Secret Big Labor deals



*C-SPAN camera evasion



*Disclosure-ducking coffeehouse meetings



*Sunlight-shirking holiday and midnight floor votes



*Behind-the-scenes recess appointments



That’s for starters. And now, the White House is set to hold a new round of backdoor meetings with recess appointee Donald Berwick, the Medicare/Medicaid czar, on the besieged Obamacare mandate.



The Hill reports:



The White House has invited stakeholders to discuss the healthcare law with the administration’s controversial appointee to head Medicare.



According to a memo obtained by The Hill, the event on Friday with Medicare Administrator Donald Berwick at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House will be the first of several meetings on healthcare’s implementation to be hosted by administration officials.



The invitation from administration health policy adviser Zeke Emanuel, former Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s brother, marks a renewed outreach to industry stakeholders from a White House that had initially promised to keep lobbyists at arm’s length. The invitations for Friday’s kick-off meeting were sent to specialty medical societies, which have a lobbying component, according to several sources.



“We are kicking off a series of White House meetings between senior administration officials and healthcare providers to exchange ideas on areas in need of attention,” Emanuel wrote in the invitation. “We invite you (or a representative) and your organization to join us.”



I hope Tea Party activists and Health Care Town Hall protesters in the D.C. area can get to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on Friday and crash this meeting.



Let the sun shine in.



Demand answers from cut-and-run Don Berwick.



And bring your “Dude, Where’s My Waiver” signs!



Add starLikeShareShare with noteEmailKeep unreadAdd tags9:46 PM (3 hours ago)“60 Minutes” Profiles Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones; Romo and Austin Sound Off on Jones – Video 12/12/10from Freedom's Lighthouse by Brian



Here is an outstanding profile done by 60 Minutes on the owner of the Dallas Cowboys – Jerry Jones. Reporter Scott Pelley follows Jones through the “season from hell” for the Cowboys, who have a dismal 4-9 record so far, after being expected to contend for the Super Bowl. The report gives a real inside look at what makes Jones tick, and provides a good look a just how much Jones wants to win.



Interestingly, the report points out that even though there are 32 NFL Teams, the Dallas Cowboys rake in 25% of NFL memorabilia that is sold. The Cowboys are also ranked as the most valuable sports franchise just ahead of the New York Yankees.



Below is a clip of Cowboys Quarterback Tony Romo and Wide Receiver Miles Austin giving their thoughts on Owner Jerry Jones:















Add starLikeShareShare with noteEmailKeep unreadAdd tags9:37 PM (3 hours ago)Philosophy Word of the Day – Naturalistic Fallacyfrom Cloud of Witnesses by fleance7“The relation between is/ought, fact/value, objectivity/normativity, and science/ethics all touch on the notion of the naturalistic fallacy. In general terms, this notion is an expression of the philosophical argument that one cannot infer from the one to the other; one cannot infer from is to ought, nor can one make an inference from scientific observations to ethical arguments. Any such attempt means committing the naturalistic fallacy. Historically, David Hume (1711–1776) and G. E. Moore (1873–1958) were the primary advocates of the invalidity of a moral argument based on such an inference.



“. . . The term naturalistic fallacy goes back to G. E. Moore, who in Principia Ethica (1903) argued that the notion of the good could not be based by reference to nonmoral entities. The good is a simple, indefinable concept, not composed by other nonmoral parts. This is precisely the problem of the naturalistic fallacy, which points to nature or to some other nonmoral entity and argues that this serves as the basis of moral normativity. Thereby the difference between these parts is ignored, as is the invalidity of inferring from one to the other. By committing the naturalistic fallacy, one would substitute “good” with a nonmoral property.” (continue article)



— Ulrik B. Nissen in Encyclopedia of Science and Religion



* It would seem that Sam Harris’s latest book, The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, largely falls into the category of the naturalistic fallacy.





Tagged: David Hume, ethics, fact/value, G. E. Moore, inference, Is–ought problem, morality, Naturalistic fallacy, normativity, Philosophy, philosophy word of the day, Principia Ethica, property, Sam Harris, Science, The Moral Landscape Add starLikeShareShare with noteEmailKeep unreadAdd tagsYou have no more items.But wait! We have recommended items waiting for you to read.Sweet! Show me my recommendations

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