Two new studies show climate affected by geological forces 

Two new studies show climate affected by geological forces

Written by James Edward Kamis, guest post on 28 January 2016. 

After ten years of research the Plate Climatology Theory was formally introduced on October 7^th, 2014 in a previous Climate Change Dispatch (CCD) post. Recently the theory was presented at the American Meteorological Society Annual convention in New Orleans on January 13, 2016, (refer here) thereby marking it “published” by a major and well recognized scientific organization.
Figure 1. Geological heat flow from earth’s mantle is here shown breaking through earth’s outer crust thereby altering earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and climate.
Now two recently published peer-reviewed studies, one from Harvard and the other from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, show the basic tenets of Plate Climatology Theory essentially correct. (see end for references)
Geological Forces play a major role in influencing climate and climate related events!
These studies both confirm that periods of active volcanism, tectonism (earthquake faulting), and associated chemically charged heat and fluid flow from earth’s major upper crustal continental drift plate boundaries directly affects Earth’s climate in a dramatic fashion, most notably by starting and stopping ancient glacial ice periods (Ice Ages).
This is a monumental step forward for Plate Climatology Theory.
This is because when the conclusions of the two above-mentioned studies is considered in context with a broad list of other ways geological forces influence or in some cases drive climate trends and climate related events:

• Generate all El Niños / La Niñas events
• Melting of selected Antarctic Glaciers located atop the giant West Antarctic Rift / Fault System
• Melting of the base of the Arctic Sea Ice
• Slowing down the Gulf Stream ocean current
• Emitting significant amounts of methane and CO2 into the atmosphere
• Acting like deep ocean "forest fires" to diversify and spread coral reefs
• Significantly influence plankton blooms which largely control earth's atmospheric oxygen content
• Significantly influence the temperature and chemistry of the oceans
• Act in concert with normal atmospheric processes to control earth's climate

Numerous CCD posts during the last two years provide the reader with additional details that document the validity of the above bullets. An overview of the theory is:
The Sun, quite obviously, is the first order driver of earth’s climate, but a much neglected second order driver can contribute significantly to natural variations. The overall theory contends that periods of active earth tectonics and volcanism can be correlated to periods of active climate change and climate related events. To describe this new theory, the term Plate Climatology is designated.
In general, increased tectonic activity, either locally or globally, equates to more faulting and volcanic activity which leads to more heat and chemically charged fluid (air or liquid phase) release from these active geological features into both the oceans and atmosphere.
Altered heat and fluid input equate to climate change.
This effect has been largely hidden from scientific investigation because the heat and fluid release is primarily from two under explored/under monitored regions. First, earth’s Deep Oceans which contain major geological features such as Divergent Plate Boundaries (tectonic plate pull-apart boundaries), Transform Plate Boundaries (tectonic plate side sliding boundaries), Convergent Plate Boundaries (Subduction and Abduction Zones), and High Heat Flow Volcanic regions. The associated heat and fluid release from these geological features acts to alter ocean temperatures, densities, and chemical compositions. The “Altered Oceans” then influence or drive climate changes and climate related events.
Secondly, earth’s Polar Ice Caps which contain major geological features such as: Divergent (tectonic plate pull-apart boundaries), Transform Plate Boundaries (tectonic plate side sliding boundaries), and High Heat Flow Volcanic regions. The associated heat and fluid release from these geological features acts to alter sub-ice sheet temperatures. The altered Sub-Glacial Ice Sheets then influence or drive climate changes and climate related events.
Many connections between Geology and Climate are explored and explained in this theory.
Validation of the Plate Climatology Theory marks the beginning of a new era concerning how we move forward with research of, and more importantly reshape our views of what influences earth’s climate. It is now obvious that the study of climate must include many varying but interconnected aspects; atmospheric, oceanic, biologic, astronomical, and yes geologic.
It has always made common sense that if major geological plate boundary geological phenomenon have the power to move continents 2-3 centimeters per year, frequently create large tsunamis that mix thousands of feet of ocean column, support vast chemosynthetic communities, and contain 90% of the planets known active volcanoes that they can certainly/easily influence our climate and climate related events in a dramatic fashion. However it is no longer necessary to rely on just common sense when judging the validity of the Plate Climatology Theory (PCT). An absolutely mountain of compelling, diverse, and mainstream research now proves that the PCT is correct.
Not yet convinced? Check with scientists from Lamont Doherty and Harvard.
Note from author: Special thanks to the folks at Climate Change Dispatch for believing in, editing, and posting a theory from an unknown, non-university, and non-governmental geologist. CCD provided me with a vehicle to get my theory out to the public when other more mainstream outlets locked me out. It is important to note that in the now two years of association with CCD they never once asked me to alter / “sugar coat” any of the facts. To the contrary, whenever they found a technical error or misstatement in one of my articles they asked that I correct it, no matter the consequences. CCD is an excellent example of how the American Free Press System and the process of freelance journalism should work.

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James Edward Kamis is a working Professional Geologist with an MS in Geology and AAPG member of 42 years who has always been fascinated by the connection between Geology and Climate. Years of research / observation starting in year 2005 have convinced him that the Earth’s Heat Flow Engine, which drives the outer crustal plates, is also an important driver of the Earth’s climate. References:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL063015/full
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120130131509.htm
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/seafloor-volcano-pulses-may-alter-climate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6SQ933WCJo

Carbon and Carbonate

Carbon and Carbonate

Willis Eschenbach January 30, 2016

Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
I’ve spent a good chunk of my life around, on, and under the ocean. I worked seasonally for many years as a commercial fisherman off of the western coast of the US. I’ve frozen off my begonias setting nets in driving sleet up in the Bering Sea. I’m also a blue-water sailor with a Pacific crossing under my belt, and a surfer, and both a sport and a commercial diver.
Plus I’m eternally curious, so I have read about and studied the ocean all my life.
Based on both my experience and my knowledge, I have written a number of posts regarding what I see as the astounding responsiveness and adaptability of the creatures that live in the ocean (links below). I’ve said repeatedly that the minor neutralization of the oceans due to more atmospheric CO2 was meaningless, that the oceanic creatures would not be bothered by such a change.
So I laughed out loud when I saw the latest study in Science magazine, which involves coccolithophores. These are calcifying plants, which form the most delicate and intricate skeletons out of calcium carbonate which they precipitate from the seawater.

Coccolithophore. Image Source

Puts me in mind of the old song, “A wheel in a wheel, way up in the middle of the air”. Beautiful.
The study says that coccolithophore abundance in the North Atlantic has increased by about ten-fold in recent years. In other words, instead of finding coccolithophores in ~ 2% of their plankton trawls, they now find them in about 20% of the trawls. They did a multi-variable analysis, and their conclusion was that increases in CO2 are a main cause of the increase in coccolithophore abundance. The study is entitled “Multidecadal increase in North Atlantic coccolithophores and the potential role of rising CO2”, paywalled here.
This study is important because the state of the ocean is one of the latest targets of the serially failed climate doomcasters. The alarmists’ claim is that the slight neutralization of the ocean will make it harder for calcifying organisms to form their calcium shells, substrates, and skeletons. However, the study shows that for coccolithophores, this is not the case. From the magazine:

Passing an acid test
Calcifying marine organisms will generally find it harder to make and maintain their carbonate skeletons as increasing concentrations of atmospheric CO2 acidify the oceans. Nevertheless, some types of organisms will be damaged more than others, and some may even benefit from higher CO2 levels. Coccolithophores are a case in point, because their photosynthetic ability is strongly carbon-limited. Rivero-Calle et al. show that the abundance of coccolithophores in the North Atlantic has increased by up to 20% or more in the past 50 years (see the Perspective by Vogt). Thus, this major phytoplankton functional group may be able to adapt to a future with higher CO2 concentrations.
Science, this issue p. 1533; see also p. 1466
Abstract
As anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions acidify the oceans, calcifiers generally are expected to be negatively affected. However, using data from the Continuous Plankton Recorder, we show that coccolithophore occurrence in the North Atlantic increased from ~2 to more than 20% from 1965 through 2010. We used random forest models to examine more than 20 possible environmental drivers of this change, finding that CO2 and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation were the best predictors, leading us to hypothesize that higher CO2 levels might be encouraging growth. A compilation of 41 independent laboratory studies supports our hypothesis. Our study shows a long-term basin-scale increase in coccolithophores and suggests that increasing CO2 and temperature have accelerated the growth of a phytoplankton group that is important for carbon cycling.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Regarding the ocean I have a rule of thumb;

In the ocean, chemistry doesn’t rule life—instead, life rules chemistry

And this rule of thumb has a corollary:

Life is sneaky and will find a way to grow through stone

This is a perfect example. Life has a habit of making chemical reactions go in unexpected directions and at speeds unseen anywhere outside of living creatures. Despite the chemical reality of increased CO2 making the precipitation of CaCO3 slightly harder, the coccolithophores pay little attention to how steep the energetic hill is. They just keep cranking, and in this case, even speed up.
I find this very important because according to the study, coccolithophores are estimated to be responsible for about half of all precipitation of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the ocean. Half. That’s a lot.
And following that chain of effects to its next logical step, the rate at which CO2 is precipitated from the ocean as CaCO3 has an effect on the amount of neutralization of the ocean due to increased atmospheric CO2.
Paraphrasing Mark Twain, my conclusion is that the rumors of the oceans’ death from increased CO2 are greatly exaggerated.

Pacifica, California’s Natural Coastal Erosion and the Lust for Climate Catastrophes 

Pacifica, California’s Natural Coastal Erosion and the Lust for Climate Catastrophes

Guest essay by Jim Steele
Director emeritus Sierra Nevada Field Campus, San Francisco State University
For 25 years I’ve lived in the beautiful town of Pacifica, California situated about 15 miles south of San Francisco. It was a wonderful place to raise a family. Its great expanse of green space is a delight for an ecologist. My daily hikes vary from coastal bluffs to watch feeding Humpback Whales or migrating Gray Whales, to inland mountain trails with abundant deer, coyotes and bobcats. Oddly this past week I received emails from friends around the country asking if I was “all right”, thinking my little slice of heaven was falling into the sea. Not to disrespect their concern, I had to belly laugh. The news of a few houses, foolishly built on fragile land too near the sea bluffs’ edge, were indeed falling into the ocean and were now providing great photo-ops for news outlets around the world. See a video here. It is fascinating how such an isolated event covering 0.5% of the town of Pacifica would suggest to friends that the whole town was endangered.
But it was more bizarre that this dot on the map could be extrapolated into an icon of CO2 climate change. I could only laugh as ridiculous CO2 alarmists who metamorphosed a local disaster, brought about by ignorance of natural coastal changes, into a global warming “crystal ball”. NBC news reported the Pacifica event as “a brief window into what the future holds as sea levels rise from global warming, a sort of a crystal ball for climate change.” The SF Chronicle suggested “increased global warming and rising sea levels due to climate change would double the frequency of those severe weather events across the Pacific basin.” The result would be “more occurrences of devastating weather events and more frequent swings of opposite extremes from one year to the next, with profound socio-economic consequences.”

Such apocryphal stories fueled a menagerie of bizarre blogging alarmists. I was recently interviewed by James Corbett, which incurred the wrath of a few internet snipers trying to denigrate my scientific background. Not knowing I also live in Pacifica, bd6951, a skeptic‑bashing poster, linked to a video of threatened apartments in Pacifica and commented, “What we are observing is run away climate change/planetary warming. This is just a guess but, the architecture of these apartment buildings suggest they are at least 20 years old. That means the people who built these units had determined the site was suitable for construction. They clearly were not thinking that an increasingly warming Pacific Ocean would cause their buildings to crash into the ocean 50 or more feet below. Oops. So I want to hear how the climate change denier crowd is going to explain this phenomenon.”
But like so many other alarmists, bd6951 blindly believes every unusual event must be due to rising CO2. Because the media rarely tries to educate the public about natural changes, paranoids like bd6951 perceive every weather event as supporting evidence for their doomsday beliefs, despite a mountain of evidence that it is all natural. Sadly when you try to educate them about documented natural change, paranoids feel you are “disarming them and exposing them to even greater dangers of rising CO2. But anyone familiar with Pacifica’s history understands this coastal erosion hotspot has nothing to do with global warming, and everything to do with the local geology and the natural El Nino oscillation.
So let’s put California’s eroding coastline into both a long term and recent framework. About 72% of California’s coastline consists of steep mountains slopes or raised marine terraces that are being relentlessly chipped away by Pacific Ocean waves. However the geology of the coast is complex due to varied depositional events, colliding plate tectonics and earthquake faults. At one extreme are erosion-resistant metamorphosed submarine basalts, greenstones, formed over 100 million years ago during the age of dinosaurs, and often forming headlands that defy the battering waves. Similarly the granites of the Monterrey Peninsula endure with very little erosion. On the other extreme are unconsolidated sandstones that were deposited during the past 12,000 years of the Holocene. Due to vastly different resistances to erosion, California’s presents a majestically steep and undulating coastline. The Pacifica locale has eroded more rapidly because the sea cliffs consist mostly of weakly or moderately cemented marine sediments from the more recent Pleistocene and Holocene. And because Pacifica has long been known as a hot spot of coastal erosion, it has been studied for over 100 years. For a more detailed geology read a 2007 USGS report Processes of coastal bluff erosion in weakly lithified sands, Pacifica, California, USA . As always, before we can blame catastrophic CO2 climate change, we must understand the local setting and the effects of natural change.

Since the end of the Last Glacial Maximum sea levels have risen about 120 meters. During the past 18,000 years most of California’s coast retreated 10 to 20 kilometers eastward at rates of 50 to 150 centimeters per year. The San Francisco/Pacifica region was much more susceptible to erosion and retreated about 50 km. After the Holocene Optimum ended about 5,000 years ago and sea level rise slowed, and California’s current rate of coastal erosion decreased to about 10 to 30 cm/year. Undoubtedly rising sea levels have driven coastal erosion. But based on San Francisco Bay Area’s sea level change posted at the PSMSL, since the end of the Little Ice Age this region has undergone a steady rise in sea level of less about 2 mm/year and counter-intuitively, the rate of sea level rise has slowed the past few decades as seen in the graph. Sea level rise varies most between El Nino and La Nina events.
Assuming a 150-year rate of local coastal erosion of 30 cm/year, any structure built within 20 meters of the sea bluffs’ edge in 1950, was doomed to fall into the ocean by 2015. But homebuyers that were new to the region were typically naïve about the natural geology and climate. Fortunately when I was shopping for Pacifica homes in 1982, my background allowed me to recognize that developers had ignored all the signs of natural climate change. They unwisely built homes too near the cliffs’ edge to ensure a spectacular view, or they had built in the flood plains and filled tidal marshes. Awareness of the power of El Niño’s is critical. Sea cliffs crumble and flood plains flood during El Nino events. Indeed during the 1982 El Nino, Pacifica’s Linda Mar lowlands flooded as heavy precipitation filled the banks of San Pedro Creek and high tides resisted the creek’s flow to the ocean. Inspecting Linda Mar’s homes, we could still smell the dampness in every house located in those lowlands. Along the bluffs of Esplanade Drive we likewise saw a evidence of coastal retreat during the 1982 El Nino, but not enough to undermine homes and apartments. That did not happen until the El Nino of 1997/98. Wisely we bought our home further inland on a solid ridge. As seen in the picture below from a USGS report, homes in the Esplanade area still had backyards until the 1997/98 El Nino struck. Residents were well aware of the imminent threat as revealed by the boulders, or riprap, placed at the base of the crumbling cliffs to discourage erosion, but those remedies were no match for the ensuing El Nino storm surge.
Unfortunately scientific measurements of coastal erosion did not begin until the 1960s led by Scripps Institute of Oceanography. So early developers had to guess how far back to set their homes from the bluffs’ edge. Due to recent research we now know that those cliffs had “retreated episodically at an average rate of 0.5 to 0.6 meter (1.5 to 2 feet) per year over the past 146 years.” But lacking geologic backgrounds and unaware of natural weather cycles, developers’ ability to estimate a “safe distance” was hampered by the episodic nature of coastal erosion that could lull people into believing erosion was minimal.
Minimal erosion may happen for decades when La Ninas divert the storm tracks northward, during which time naïve homebuyers and builders are not alerted to inevitable future threats. Those mild periods are soon followed by rapid losses during El Nino events. Thus ill informed in 1949, developers constructed several homes at the top of a 20-meter sea cliff along Esplanade Drive in the city of Pacifica. During the heavy winter storms of the 1997/1998 El Niño, 10 meters of local coastline were rapidly eroded, eliminating the last vestiges of the backyards that had survived the 1982 El Nino (see pre-1997 photograph below). In 1997/98, seven homes were undermined and three others threatened. All ten homes were eventually condemned and demolished.

Nonetheless early developers should have been more cautious and alerted by past catastrophes. Early entrepreneurs in California were eager to develop its vast potential. The Ocean Shore Railroad was built, hoping to link San Francisco to Santa Cruz and entice more immigration into the area, as well as to transport lumber and agricultural products. Where the terrain was too daunting to go up and over, they chiseled out ledges that circumscribed the coastal cliffs. Scheduled to open in 1907, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake disrupted those plans. Pacifica lies just south of the San Andreas Fault, and its movement dropped a length of 4000+ feet of right-of-way along Pacifica’s fragile sea cliffs into the sea along with all their railroad building equipment. The surviving railroad ledges can still be seen today.
If you spend enough time walking along Pacifica’s beaches, you would recognize an annual pattern of beach erosion. Heavy winter storms carry the smaller grains of sand offshore restructuring a sandy beach into a bed of rocky cobble. The gentler waves during the summer return the sands to the beach and bury the cobble. The currents will also carry some displaced sand down the coast, while those same currents also carry sands from further upstream. When not enough sand is delivered to replenish a beach, it undergoes rapid erosion. So in addition to natural changes, the damming of rivers that halt the seaward supply of sediments can starve a beach and promote erosion. Likewise when naturally eroding cliffs are armored at their base by boulders, the lack of local erosion can starve adjacent beaches of needed replenishing sediments. Because of that possible impact on neighbors, the California Coastal Commission now requires a permitting process before any seawall can be built. Finally jetties that are built to protect harbors often block the transport sand along the coast, starving beaches down stream from the jetty and causing amplified erosion. In many locations, governments dredge regions of sediment build-up, and dump those sediments where beaches are now starving, such as being done by San Francisco just north of Pacifica.
This region’s coastal erosion is episodic for well-understood reasons. When a cliff face collapses it leaves a pile of rubble at the cliff’s base, sometimes called the “toe”, which raises the beach and acts to naturally buffer the cliff face from further erosion. After several years, waves and currents carry the buffering toe away, and eventually exposes the cliff to another “bite” from the ocean.
Furthermore the Pacific Decadal Oscillation is expressed as a 20 to 30 year negative phase with more frequent La Nina’s alternating with a positive phase with more frequent El Nino’s. The relatively stationary high-pressure systems prominent during La Nina’s, forces storm tracks to the north of California. Fewer storms mean less coastal erosion, but also result in more California droughts. The current return of El Nino now allows storm tracks to attack the California coast. Snow is currently above average in the Sierra Nevada and reservoirs are filling, but simultaneously coastlines are more heavily eroded.
In addition, the effect of higher rates of precipitation associated with El Nino also cause greater slippage between geologic layers that differ in their ability to handle subsurface water flows. Heavier precipitation caused episodic collapses of coastal Highway 1 at Devil’s Side at the south end of Pacifica. A tunnel was just built to re-route the highway away from that geologically unstable area.
For millennia El Nino cycles have caused these natural extreme swings that alternate between droughts and floods and episodic coastal erosion. Changing your carbon footprint will never stop the process. But knowledge of these natural processes will keep people out of harms way. One of the greatest sins of the politics of the climate wars is that people are not being educated about natural climate change. They are not being taught how to be wary of natural danger zones. Instead every flood and every drought, every heat wave or snowstorm is now being hyped as a function of global warming. After every catastrophic natural weather event, yellow journalists like the Washington Post’s Chris Mooney or APs Seth Bornstein, seek out CO2 alarmist scientists like Kevin Trenberth or Michael Mann, to make totally unsubstantiated pronouncements that the event was 50% or so due to global warming. After centuries of scientific progress, Trenberth and his ilk have devolved climate science to the pre-Copernican days so that humans are once again at the center of the universe, and our carbon sins are responsible for every problem caused by an ever-changing natural world.
You can recognize those misleading journalists and scientists who are either totally ignorant of natural climate change, or who are politically wedded to a belief in catastrophic CO2 warming, when they falsely argue, as NBC news did, that “frequent swings of opposite extremes” are due to global warming. El Nino’s naturally bring these extremes every 3 to 7 years, as well as the 20 to 30 years swings of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. These swings have occurred for centuries and millennia! The same storms that bring much needed rains will also batter the coast and increase episodic erosion. But by ignoring natural change, climate fear mongers delude the public into believing La Nina-caused droughts of the past few years were due to CO2 warming. And now as El Nino returns the rains to California, those same climate fear mongers want us to believe CO2 warming is causing an abrupt swing to heavy rains and coastal erosion. One needs only look at the historical records to find Pacifica’s coastal erosion was much greater around the 1900’s, and that El Ninos have caused natural extreme swings for millennia.
Honest science, useful science, must educate people about our natural hazards and natural climate oscillations; so that people do not build too close to fragile cliff edges or build in the middle of a flood plain. It is not just the coast of California that is eroding. The politicization of climate change is eroding the very integrity of environmental sciences. Reducing your carbon footprint will never save foolishly placed buildings in Pacifica or stop the extreme swings in weather induced by El Nino’s and La Nina’s. It was the end of the Ice Age that initiated dramatic coastal erosion and only a return to those frozen years will stop it. Pacifica’ eroding bluffs are simply evidence that most of California has still not reached an equilibrium with the changes that began 18,000 years ago. Pacifica is truly an icon of natural climate change.
But the ranks of climate alarmists are filled with legions of scientific ignoranti who blindly see such coastal erosion as another “proof” of impending CO2-caused climate hell. This group lusts for climate catastrophes to prove they are not blindly paranoid. Other self-loathing CO2 alarmists simply lust for climate catastrophes that will deal humans their final “come-uppance.” So they too lust for climate catastrophes. Only a solid of understanding of natural climate change can prevent this climate insanity and pave the way to truly scientifically based adaptive measures.

FBI: Middle Eastern Men Intimidating U.S. Military Families In Colorado and Wyoming...

FBI: Middle Eastern Men Intimidating U.S. Military Families In Colorado and Wyoming... 

FBI: Middle Eastern Men Intimidating U.S. Military Families In Colorado and Wyoming...

August 4, 2015

 

DENVER (CBS4) – An alert has been issued by the FBI to all law enforcement agencies in Colorado and Wyoming involving U.S. military families and concerns about who may be watching them.
The alert says Middle Eastern men are approaching families of U.S. military members at their homes in Colorado and Wyoming. It mentions Greeley and Cheyenne, Wyoming as the specific areas.

In one case last May the wife of a military member was approached in front of her home by two Middle Eastern males. The men stated that she was the wife of a U.S. interrogator. When she denied their claims the men laughed. The two men left the area in a dark-colored, four-door sedan with two other Middle Eastern males in the vehicle.
“The woman had observed the vehicle in the neighborhood on previous occasions,” the alert states.
Similar incidents in Wyoming have been reported to the FBI throughout June 2015.
“On numerous occasions family members of military personnel were confronted by Middle Eastern males in front of their homes.”
The FBI’s alert says Middle Eastern men attempted to gain personal information about military members and family members through intimidation. Those family members reported feeling scared.
The alert says the men haven’t been identified and the FBI isn’t sure if the incidents all involve the same men.

While the FBI won’t comment on the alert to CBS4, Colorado’s Department of Homeland Security says it’s aware of it and says military families are encouraged to report any suspicious behavior to the FBI.

The alert says people in Colorado who are approached should contact the FBI Fort Collins Resident Agency at (970) 663-1028. In Wyoming contact the FBI Cheyenne Resident Agency at (307) 632-6224.

Watch Ted Cruz Get Ambushed By Angry Iowa Farmer, Then Turn Him Around

Only 7.9% of NOAA temperature stations are accurate to less than 1C Yet NOAA claims precision of global temperature estimate to 0.01C. New paper in process, see details here NOTE: Surfacestations.org gallery server has received heavy traffic and some attacks in the last 24hrs. The online image database aka gallery server site has been put into safe mode to secure backups and make it more secure. After months of work, our paper has been accepted, read summaries on the paper at these locations: Dr. Roger Pielke Senior's website here Dr. John Neilsen-Gammon's website here Anthony Watts website here Media Resource - download PDF here Link to the paper (final print quality), Fall et al 2011 here (updated) Fall et all 2011 supplementary information here Surfacestations project reaches 82.5% of the network surveyed. 1007 of 1221 stations have been examined in the USHCN network. The Google Earth map below shows current coverage. Reference for site ratings: NOAA's Climate Reference Network Site Handbook Section 2.2.1 Sincere thanks to Gary Boden and Barry Wise for this contribution! Mid term census report of the Surface Stations Project: Is the U.S. Surface Temperature Record Reliable? - click cover image at left to download a PDF document. Now at 80%, and with a majority sample that is spatially well distributed, a full analysis will be coming in the next few months. We will however continue to survey stations in the hope of locating more CRN1 and CRN2 stations due to their rarity. The upcoming papers will feature statistical analysis of the nationwide USHCN network in the context of siting. Direct link to PDF of the report is here HELP NEEDED FOR SURVEYS IN THE FOLLOWING STATES: Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, North Dakota, Idaho, South Dakota, Texas. Excerpt graphics from the report are below:   Station quality ratings obtained from NOAA/NCDC via this source: Climate Reference Network Rating Guide - adopted from NCDC Climate Reference Network Handbook, 2002, specifications for siting (section 2.2.1) of NOAA's new Climate Reference Network: Class 1 (CRN1)- Flat and horizontal ground surrounded by a clear surface with a slope below 1/3 (<19deg). Grass/low vegetation ground cover <10 centimeters high. Sensors located at least 100 meters from artificial heating or reflecting surfaces, such as buildings, concrete surfaces, and parking lots. Far from large bodies of water, except if it is representative of the area, and then located at least 100 meters away. No shading when the sun elevation >3 degrees. Class 2 (CRN2) - Same as Class 1 with the following differences. Surrounding Vegetation <25 centimeters. No artificial heating sources within 30m. No shading for a sun elevation >5deg. Class 3 (CRN3) (error >=1C) - Same as Class 2, except no artificial heating sources within 10 meters. Class 4 (CRN4) (error >= 2C) - Artificial heating sources <10 meters. Class 5 (CRN5) (error >= 5C) - Temperature sensor located next to/above an artificial heating source, such a building, roof top, parking lot, or concrete surface."   MMTS Thermometer Specifications/Guide has been posted in resources Latest updates feature added - see newest stations here	Get Involved! help us document weather stations in the USA and the world. Odd and irregular observing Sites looking at some of these observing sites you have to wonder: "what were they thinking"? Resources links to useful and pertinent documents, images, drawings, specifications, and web sites. Visit the blog to see highlighted examples of poorly sited stations in the "How Not to measure Temperature" series. Site launched on 06/04/07 Progress as of 07/30/2012 USHCN Sites surveyed so far: 1068 USHCN Sites rated so far: 1007 USHCN Sites remaining: 214  "This is a very important need for the climate science community, and you are encouraged to obtain this photographic documentation if you can, and also share with the new website under development by Anthony Watts" - Roger Pielke Sr., University of Colorado, June 1st, 2007 Other news: Florida Completed! Nevada USHCN surveys completed California USHCN surveys completed! See all California stations here Louisiana has only three stations left, Franklin, Lafayette, and Plain Dealing Any takers? A look at how changes in paint on Stevenson Screens may have affected temperature measurement. Now Online: Conference presentation given at CIRES/UCAR on 8/29/07 describing this project and the methods used to assign station site quality ratings, along with examples of many site issues seen thus far. Click to view slideshow Special recognition to five volunteers; Bob Thompson, Eric Gamberg, Russ Steele, David Smith, and Don Kostuch, who turned summer travels into survey expeditions. Don Kostuch has surveyed more stations, and covered a broader geographic area than any other surveyor. Thanks to all!
Here is a well maintained and well sited USHCN station:   Graph is from NASA GISS - see it full size
Click pictures for complete site surveys of these stations
Here is a not-so-well maintained or well sited USHCN station: Graph is from NASA GISS - see it full size This site in Marysville, CA has been around for about the same amount of time, but has been encroached upon by growth in a most serious way by micro-site effects.

Why Sharia Is Incompatible with American Values

Why Sharia Is Incompatible with American Values

By James Arlandson

 

You and I don't like sharia, while hundreds of millions love it.  Chillingly, it's still making inroads in American society.
Who's right?  Are we stuck in relativism?  Worse, is the side with the strongest military right?
How do we break the deadlock?  Any objective – timeless and transcultural – moral truths out there?
It's time to go deeper and figure out what's happening in us that makes us recoil at it.
ISIS and many Islamic nations believe, because original Islam teaches, the following:

• Mosque and state are not separate.
• Apostasy, or leaving Islam, is outlawed up to the penalty of death.
• Speaking against Islam is outlawed up to the penalty of death.
• Jihad or qital (military war only) to force conversions or submit to a tax is allowed.
• Having sex with female prisoners of war is allowed.
• Drinkers and gamblers may be flogged.
• Adulterers and fornicators may be flogged (and adulterers may be stoned to death).
• Bearing false witness about sexual sin (a "crime" in Islam) can incur flogging.
• Homosexuals may be flogged or executed.
• A woman inherits half of what a man does.
• Domestic violence is allowed.
• A woman's testimony counts as half of a man's testimony.
• A man may divorce his wife by pronouncing three times "you are divorced" outside a court of law, and the divorce is legal and final.

It should be pointed out that sharia has laws that look like those of any other system (e.g., don't murder, steal, or traffic drugs).
And it is true that in seventeenth-century American society, the punishments were harsh, but we have worked hard to move away from the past.
America has improved on that list and the whole tone of sharia, like head coverings for women.
Specifically, our Constitution by itself eliminates most of those sharia laws.  The First Amendment offers freedom of religion, without government intrusion, and free speech.  The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
Our state laws also eliminate them.  Domestic violence, for example, is illegal.  A woman can inherit as much as a woman can, if the last will and testament says so.  Her testimony counts equally to a man's.  Divorce, though lax in some states, has to be done through a court.
Our military does not allow an army to attack people to "strongly encourage" conversion or impose a second-class citizen tax if the conquered foes don't convert.
Once again, I would still like to go a little deeper than these written laws to the uncodified moral law, or perhaps just to universal values.
The Declaration of Independence proclaims:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Let's put it in a simple (but not simplistic) formula, the arrow meaning "leads to" or "produces":

Life + Liberty → Pursuit of Happiness

Self-evident means America didn't invent those universal and timeless values; she only discovered them.
Happiness at first glance appears completely subjective, but it is actually confined within limits, because it's different from pleasure.
Aristotle rightly teaches that happiness is achieved by living life in balance and in excellence.  Extreme behavior like licentiousness on the one side and apathy on the other is a vice; temperance is in the middle or the Golden Mean between the two vices is a virtue.  One lives in excellence when one has temperance (is not a party animal), and excellence leads to happiness.
That's for the individual.
Socially, life and liberty lead to happiness.  You get to live in freedom, and now you can create your own version of happiness.  But it must be done within individual limits – and individuals make up a nation.
On the Islamic side, religious law that suppresses liberty does not permit a life to develop, and thus, happiness is denied.  This religious, legal system denies the freedom of conscience and movement and viewpoints, for example, and is oppressive.
Here is a variation on the formula, the arrows again meaning "leads to" or "produces."
To me, Islamic law and society look like this:

<a href="http://cdn.firstimpression.io/delivery/ck.php?oaparams=2__bannerid=2346__zoneid=99336__cb=f2b7e7c738__oadest=http%3A%2F%2Fus-ads.openx.net%2Fw%2F1.0%2Frc%3Fcs%3Ddcfd1c5109%26cb%3DINSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE" target="_blank"><img src="http://us-ads.openx.net/w/1.0/ai?auid=537731066&cs=dcfd1c5109&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE" border="0" alt=""></a>

Extreme religious laws → Control → Oppression → Misery The more restrictive and extreme Islamic laws are, the more controlling and oppressive they are, which leads to personal and social unhappiness.
It is difficult for Islamic clerics and legal scholars to see that their laws are extreme and therefore oppressive because they believe that the laws came down from Allah himself; if only humanity would follow them, it would be submissive to him and eventually be happy (if happiness is even a goal for them, so let's instead say "social harmony").  But they don't have a broad enough perspective.
Americans do.
How?
By comparison, it is believed that the Law of Moses came down from God with its harsh punishments and severe restrictions, but the New Testament wrestles with religious law.  The wisdom of the New Testament, which is also revealed by God (as Christians believe), teaches a new path that goes higher than the Law of Moses (go here, here, and here for the theology).
Suffice it to say, the New Covenant moves away from excessive religious law and toward freedom.
Nearly all of the eighteenth-century Founders were Protestants, so they were steeped, willingly or not, in the freedom of New Testament theology.  They believed, for example, that people should have the freedom to worship one God, twenty gods, or no god.  Let persuasion, not threats or coercion, bring them over to your point of view
Of course, Islam's defenders say online that America wallows in licentiousness, and this is true in some ways.  However, we have also learned to let moral law take care of private behavior that does not seep out into public and disturb the peace.  Written law should deal with unruly citizens.
So now let's figure out where we should live between these two extremes:

Sharia ----------------------------------X------------- Anarchy

It's hard to know how far we can get away from sharia without lurching over to anarchy, but if I can't figure it out precisely, I go right of center.  And for sure I don't want a state-imposed mixture of religious and civil law.
The point: Liberty and the highest quality of life leading to happiness do not entail lawlessness or anarchy.  We don't need the extremes to enjoy social harmony.
Where would you put the X?
Islam imposes extremely religious and oppressive laws that degrade society and hinder improvement in society and make people miserable, whether they realize it or not or are qualified to say so or not.
By contrast, it's those universal values embedded in us that make us recoil instinctively at sharia.
And I believe that those values are embedded deeply in all humans, even Muslims, but they just don't have the experience with liberty.  If they did experience it, their quality of life and the happiness that naturally ensues would improve.
In any case, we have moved on from state-imposed, old, harsh religious laws mixed with civil law.
Life, liberty, and happiness are intrinsically better than sharia.

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Nature Abhors a Vacuum and Trump is Filling It

Nature Abhors a Vacuum and Trump is Filling It

By Brian C. Joondeph

 

Aristotle once postulated, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” Meaning that any empty space must be filled with something, even if that something is hot air. Donald Trump, with his pronouncements, promises, and pomp, is filling the vacuum created by the Republican Party.
Creating a vacuum requires two conditions. First is an active process of creating the vacuum and second is the lack of anything filling the empty space. Barack Obama created the vacuum and the GOP did nothing to fill it, or at least replace it with something of substance.
How did Obama create the vacuum? Easy. His left wing radicalism emptied the country of traditional American values and hope, leaving a vacuum of angst and despair. Two thirds of Americans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.  Obamacare with its false promises and resulting chaos and costs. Open borders bringing the third world into our world, and making the dwindling American work force pay for it all through higher taxes. The Middle East in turmoil with radical jihadists inching closer and closer to America and Iran poised to get nuclear weapons. A thriving grievance industry based on identity group politics. And a culture of political correctness shutting down any criticism or legitimate discussion of these issues.
The IRS, the most powerful and feared regulatory agency in the country, is targeting political enemies of the Obama administration, specifically the Tea Party. No one has been held to account, no one fired, no one indicted or jailed. Meaningless Congressional hearings with lots of huffing and puffing, but no accountability. No Congressional oversight. If the political parties were reversed, this would have been a much bigger scandal than Watergate. Instead it was a lot of nothing.
Where was the GOP during these past seven years? Two landslide midterm elections gave Republicans control of the House and the Senate. They campaigned promising to stop the Obama agenda, or at least offer substantive opposition to the Democrats. Instead we hear whining and excuses of why they couldn’t fulfill any of their campaign promises.
Obamacare is still in place, funding intact. The borders are open with refugee migration programs fully funded. Abhorrent Planned Parenthood, selling aborted fetal tissues for profit remains fully funded. Far left judges are readily confirmed by a Republican controlled Senate. Budget deals are passed further increasing the national debt. In turn, debt limits are raised to accommodate the budget deals. No Republican opposition, despite being the majority party in Congress.
Where is the GOP’s bully pulpit? No effort to rally the support of the millions of voters who gave the GOP large Congressional majorities. Instead the GOP happily signs on to the Obama agenda. The agenda of the left marches merrily along, as if Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid were still running Congress.
Along comes Donald Trump, promising to close the borders, build a wall, repeal Obamacare, stop the flood of unverifiable immigrants, with a pithy but resonating promise to “Make America Great Again.”
If Republicans were doing what they promised, offering principled opposition to the Democrat agenda, there wouldn’t be a need for a Donald Trump. Or a Ted Cruz. Instead the GOP establishment is directing far more vitriol and pushback to Trump and Cruz then they ever threw at Obama, Reid, or Pelosi. Fox News, a supposed right leaning news network, is at war with Trump. Even many good conservatives at the National Review Online are piling on The Donald.
If the Republicans functioned as an opposition party rather than an enabling party, the Obama presidency would have merely nudged the country leftward, rather than turning the country in a far left direction. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, or John Kasich would be perfectly positioned to take over and nudge the country back to the right. The establishments of both parties would be happy as the status quo would be maintained. Only a small course correction would be needed, not the total turnaround currently necessary. Much as Bill Clinton nudging the country left after George HW Bush, followed by George W Bush nudging the country right after the Clinton presidency.
This is the void that Donald Trump is filling. Opposition to the leftist agenda of Barack Obama and his allies in Congress, the judiciary, regulatory agencies, Hollywood, academia, and the media. It didn’t have to be Trump. Actually this revolt is bigger than Trump. He just happens to be well positioned and willing to fill this void.
Which is why his supporters don’t care what he says about migrants, or John McCain, or Megyn Kelly. Or whether he was pro choice once upon a time, or invited Bill and Hillary Clinton to his wedding.
It’s about the leftist agenda driving full speed ahead, fundamentally transforming America into a country most Americans don’t recognize or want. The GOP was elected in two landslides to stop or slow the damage and the GOP did nothing. That’s the void that Donald Trump is filling. If the GOP wonders why Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are leading in the polls, all they have to do is look in the mirror.

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Islam and the First Amendment

Islam and the First Amendment

By David Deming

 

Donald Trump created a media firestorm when he called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration to the US. Trump was denounced as a xenophobic racist -- as if Islam was not a religion, but a race (go figure). Trump's announcement was apparently prompted by a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, where two Islamic terrorists killed fourteen people. The San Bernardino incident followed in the wake of a coordinated strike by ISIS in November that slaughtered 130 people in Paris, France.
It's an absurd but deadly circus. Time after time, Islamic terrorists murder innocent people, and leftists immediately fall all over themselves to embrace Muslims and declare Islam to be a "religion of peace." In my home state, the director of the Oklahoma chapter of CAIR denounced anti-Muslim rhetoric and warned, "hateful words too often lead to violence." Listening to this sort of propaganda one might obtain the impression that Christian Crusaders were massacring innocent Muslims. The reality is that Islamic terrorists worldwide are intent not just on the genocide of Christians but the replacement of Western Civilization by a universal caliphate. If any people doubt this, I would invite them to watch the Frontline documentary, The Rise of Isis.
A group called the Islamic Circle of North America has been putting up billboards in major cities in the US. The billboards read "Muhammad believed in peace, social justice, and women's rights." Of course he did. Muhammad's idea of peace and social justice was killing anyone who refused to accept his religion. And it is true that women have certain rights in Islam. So did African slaves in the antebellum South. Southern States enacted Slave Codes that detailed and protected these rights. It's easy to completely deceive people with half-truths.
Michael Moore scaled the heights of stupidity by standing outside the Trump Tower in New York City holding up a sign that read, "we are all Muslim." Moore knows we're not literally all Muslims, so presumably his message was that we're all capable of being victims of religious discrimination. President Obama has steadfastly refused to even acknowledge the existence of Islamic terrorism. The message we're supposed to take from this is that Islam is just another religion, like Buddhism, Hinduism, or Presbyterianism.
In 1997, a left-wing think tank in the UK, the Runnymede Trust, coined the neologism "Islamophobia." "Islamophobia" is now defined in a lengthy Wikipedia article as "prejudice against, hatred towards, or fear of the religion of Islam or Muslims." A phobia is an irrational fear. Thus the term by its very existence presumes what necessarily must be demonstrated: that dislike of Islam is irrational.
We're repeatedly assured that Islamic terrorists are not Islamic, that Islam is a religion of peace, and we should wholeheartedly embrace our peaceful Muslim brothers and open our borders to them. We're supposed to accept all of this while we're being slaughtered like sheep. What makes the promulgation of this nonsense possible and acceptable to a large segment of our society is simple ignorance. According to a recent Pew Poll, most Americans "know little or nothing about Islam."
I know something about Islam, and I'm writing to tell you that it's worse than you think. When Donald Trump suggested a cessation to Muslim immigration he didn't go far enough. We need a Constitutional Amendment to exclude Islam from the protections of the First Amendment. I hesitate to suggest such a radical idea, but will explain myself at length.
There was a time when I would have wholeheartedly embraced the extension of religious toleration to Islam. The idea that Islamic terrorism is promulgated by a tiny, radical minority that does not represent the heart of the faith is certainly a plausible proposition for anyone who has not studied the history of Islam. It is precisely because I know something about Islam and its history that I am led to the conclusion that our Constitution must be amended.
My views on Islam are informed by the research I did when writing the second volume of my history of science, Early Christianity, the Rise of Islam and the Middle Ages. Prior to studying the history of Islam, I would have assumed that it is just another religion. Views of religion held by most people in the US have been strongly influenced by the historical dominance of Christianity in Western Civilization. We tend to view religion as a matter of individual conscience. Different denominations may have different views on obscure matters of doctrine, but all religions are seen as promoting peace, justice, love, and mercy. Ignorant of the true nature of Islam, most Americans implicitly see it as a nothing more than a quaint variant of Christianity.
Islam is nothing like Christianity. For that matter, it's unlike every other religion on earth. Islam is not just a religion -- it's a vicious totalitarian system that governs every aspect of human behavior. Islam is not based on concepts of love or mercy. It's based on tyranny, killing, and suppression. Islam is utterly antithetical to the Western ideal of individual freedom. The very word "Islam" means "submission." William Muir (1819-1905) was perhaps the most perspicacious and knowledgeable Western scholar who ever studied Islam. The first one-hundred and five pages of his monumental Life of Mahomet is devoted to a discussion and evaluation of primary and original sources. Muir concluded "the sword of Mahomet, and the Koran, are the most fatal enemies of civilization, liberty, and truth, which the world has yet known."
Islam began with Muhammad, an illiterate merchant who resided in the city of Mecca during the seventh century. Around the year AD 610, Muhammad purportedly began to receive revelations from the god, Allah, through the angel Gabriel. The gist of these messages was that he was to preach a new, monotheistic religion designed to replace the animistic and polytheistic faiths of the Meccans. Unlike Jesus Christ, who readily attracted a multitude of followers (Matthew 15.30), Muhammad failed to spread his message by proselytizing. After ten years of preaching, he had only a handful of converts. During his final three or four years of residency in Mecca, Muhammad was unable to obtain a single new convert. Having failed in Mecca, Muhammad tried his luck in the nearby city of Taif. The town's inhabitants endured Muhammad for ten days. Then they beat him and summarily expelled the would-be prophet from their city.
In 622 AD Muhammad emigrated to the Arabian city of Yathrib, subsequently renamed Medina, the City of the Prophet. The move to Medina is known as the Hegira. This date marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Islam under Muhammad now took a new direction. Having failed to spread Islam by peaceful means, Muhammad resolved to initiate holy war, a jihad. The proliferation of Islam by violence continues to the present day. It is not an anomaly. Jihad was initiated by the founder of Islam and it will continue so long as Islam endures on earth. The Koran (Sura 61) asserts that Allah loves "those who...do battle for his cause," and that conflict must continue until Islam is "victorious over every other religion."
Seven months after his arrival at Medina, Muhammad and his followers began to support themselves through brigandry. They raided mercantile caravans that traveled back-and-forth from Mecca. Initially, the Muslim raids failed. The caravan leaders had centuries of experience in evading and defending themselves from thieves. So Muhammad resolved to commit yet another crime. He decided to make a raid during the holy month of Rajab. During the raid, one of the Meccan traders was killed. This initiated full-scale warfare between the Muslims and Meccans.
The Meccans were not the only victims of Muhammad. In the seventh century, Arabia contained a number of thriving Jewish communities. They're not there any longer because Muhammad and his followers began a process of ethnic cleansing that resulted in the removal of all Jews from the Arabian Peninsula. In 627 AD Muhammad besieged the Jewish tribe of the Coreitza. After fourteen days the Jews surrendered. Muhammad ordered long, narrow trenches to be dug. He then led the Jewish men out of their enclave in small groups with their hands bound behind their backs. Seven-hundred Jews were made to kneel by the side of the trenches and decapitated. All the men were killed. The women and children were taken as slaves. When it came to the genocidal murder of Jews, Muhammad made Adolf Hitler look like a piker. If this seems like an unnecessarily inflammatory statement to you, you have to understand -- I'm just giving you the unvarnished truth. There is no controversy about the historical reality of the massacre of the Coreitzan Jews. The account is found in the eighth-century biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, a primary source.
Eventually Muhammad won his wars with the Meccans. He rode into Mecca, removed all idolatrous images from the Kaaba, and established Islam as the dominant religion in the Arabian Peninsula. After Muhammad's death in 632 AD, Islam continued to be spread by warfare. Muslims conquered the Middle East and North Africa. They crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and were stopped from overrunning Europe at the Battle of Tours in 732 AD. Muslims remained in Spain and Sicily until Europeans finally expelled them during the High Middle Ages.
Christianity and Islam are diametric opposites. Jesus Christ preached mercy (Matthew 5.7) and advised people to love their enemies (Luke 6.27). Muhammad killed his enemies. Furthermore, he exulted and reveled in bloodshed. He gave Muslims permission to "kill any Jew that falls into your power." At the Battle of Badr in AD 624, one of his followers brought Muhammad the severed head of an enemy. The prophet was overjoyed. He pronounced the gift as "more acceptable to me than the choicest camel in all Arabia."
But there is another, more ominous difference between Christianity and Islam. From the beginning, there has been a basis for separating the religious and the secular in Christianity. Asked if it was proper for a Jew to pay Roman taxes, Jesus Christ replied "render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22.21). Jesus also professed, "my kingdom is not of this world" (John 18.36).
Unlike Christianity, there is no basis in Islam for separating church and state. Islamic countries are necessarily theocracies. Islam is not just a matter of individual conscience. Islam is a totalitarian system designed to instruct and govern nearly every aspect of human life. William Muir explained "scattered throughout...[the Koran are]...the archives of a theocratic government in all its departments...the elements of a code both criminal and civil are...introduced.  Punishments for certain offences are specified, and a mass of legislation laid down for the tutelage of orphans, for marriage, divorce, sales, bargains, wills, evidence, usury and similar concerns."
The implementation of the Islamic religious law is known as Sharia. Sharia Law governs not just religion, but a Muslim's "political, social, domestic, and private life." The Western tradition is that laws are implemented by men to establish just societies, however people living in different times and places may construe justice. But Sharia Law is based on the Koran. Muslims regard the Koran to be the literal word of Allah, a god they consider to be God. It cannot be amended, modified or reformed. It is an absolute. Since at least the advent of Greek democracy in the fifth century BC, this is a concept utterly foreign to the Western experience and tradition. Observant Muslims cannot conscientiously participate in democratic governments. They will go along with them until they reach the point at which they can implement Sharia Law by force.
Islamic countries are among the most backward and technologically primitive in the world. Lacking the technical means of conquering Western countries they have hit upon a far simpler method: reproduction and immigration. According to the Pew Poll, "Muslims have more children than members of other religious groups." Muslim women have, on average, 3.1 children. This is nearly twice the European fertility rate of 1.6. Unless it is stopped, the Muslim surge into Europe will erase twenty-five hundred years of Western achievements in science, technology, art, and literature. Libraries will be emptied. Every book that is not a copy of the Koran will be burnt. Michelangelo's David will be smashed with a hammer. The Mona Lisa will be incinerated. If you think I'm exaggerating, take a look at how ISIS is currently destroying art and antiquities.
I want to anticipate and rebut some of the arguments that are made in favor of the toleration of Islam. One of these is that most Muslims are peaceful people who have no intention of committing acts of violence or desire to force people of different faiths to convert to their religion. I concede this to be true, but it does not change my conclusions. The Pew Poll found that 86 percent of Muslims in the US agree that terrorism, in the form of violence against civilians for the purpose of promoting Islam, is "rarely or never justified." This statistic is not reassuring, but troubling. Muslims constitute 0.9 percent of the current US population of 322 million. That means we have 405,720 Muslims in the US who will not renounce terrorism. Pew furthermore found that a full seven percent of US Muslims (202,860 people) "say suicide bombings are sometimes justified."
Whether they are personally involved or not, every person who identifies as Muslim supports Islam and therefore implicitly supports jihad, the propagation of terror and violence, and the complete eradication of our freedoms. Based on election results from the early 1930s, about one-third to one-half of the German people supported the Nazi Party. The vast majority of Nazi supporters were not personally involved in rounding up Jews and herding them into railroad cars for trips to death camps. Rather, it was their implicit support that made the implementation of Nazi policies possible.
I often hear the argument that Christianity is as bad as Islam. It's denounced as being intolerant and having a history of violence. Frequently this claim is made by individuals resentful of the fact that traditional Christian morality condemns their lifestyle. I will concede that the history of Christianity is blemished. I cannot and will not defend the Spanish Inquisition, the Witch Mania, or the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. For hundreds of years in Europe, Catholics persecuted Protestants and the Protestant sects fought among themselves. It took a long time before people learned to tolerate those of different faiths.
Accepting, however, that the history of Christianity is riddled with violent persecution, let's turn the thesis around. If human nature is so corruptible that it allows men to persecute, maim, and kill in the name of a religion that teaches us to love our enemies, what are human beings capable of when empowered by a direct message of hate and violence? If Christianity, a religion based on love, mercy, and universal brotherhood, has produced violence, what may be expected of Islam, a faith based on violence, hatred, and death? Is it any surprise that ISIS revels in some of the most inhumane atrocities in human history?
Some people have argued that Islam can be reformed and metamorphose into a faith that can coexist peacefully with other religions. Good luck with that. Revealed religions in general tend to be extremely conservative. In all the major Abrahamic faiths, the age of prophecy is closed. There is no Jew or Christian who will entertain the idea of adding new chapters to the Torah or the Bible. Islam is even more conservative. The Bible and the Torah are considered to be the inspired word of God. Christian and Jewish theologians accept that their scriptures were written by men. For example, Moses is traditionally considered to be the author of the first five books of the Bible. Because the Bible was written by a human being, it is more subject to interpretation than the Koran. Muslims believe the Koran to be the literal word of Allah. It is profound heresy in Islam to attribute authorship of the Koran to Muhammad. Muhammad is regarded as the mouthpiece, repeating words given to him by Allah through Gabriel. Because the Koran is considered to be the literal word of Allah, it cannot be revised, and its text is less subject to vagaries of interpretation than the Bible or the Torah. Muslims view the Koran as infallible, absolute, and final. Thus reformation of Islam is impossible.
The preceding considerations lead me to a point that most conservatives and libertarians will be initially reluctant to consider:  amending the Constitution to exclude Islam from the protections of the First Amendment. Specifically, what I have in mind is an Amendment that not only excludes Islam from the First Amendment but also grants Congress and the States the power to tax and regulate it.
To justify such a drastic step, I will review the historical underpinnings of the First Amendment. The modern concept of religious toleration developed among Protestant sects in seventeenth-century Europe. In A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), John Locke (1632-1704) argued for religious toleration and the separation of church and state. "The toleration of those that differ from others in matter of religion," Locke argued, "is so agreeable to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to the genuine reason of mankind, that it seems monstrous for men to be so blind, as not to perceive the necessity and advantage of it, in so clear a light."
That same year (1689), England enacted a Toleration Act that guaranteed freedom of worship to differing Protestant sects. However Catholics and Unitarians were excluded. John Locke went further, arguing that toleration should also be extended to Jews, Muslims, and pagans. Locke excluded only atheists. He believed they had no place in civil society because "promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of humane society, can have no hold upon an atheist."
The most fervent advocate of religious toleration was Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), an exiled Huguenot residing in Holland. Largely forgotten today, Bayle has been called "the father of modern toleration." His greatest work, the Historical and Critical Dictionary, is commonly referred to as the "arsenal of the Enlightenment," reflecting the fact that later Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire derived most of their arguments and ideas from Bayle's Dictionary.
Bayle advocated toleration of all faiths. He went beyond Locke and argued that everyone should enjoy complete freedom of religion because "religion is a matter of conscience subject to no control." Bayle pointed out the absurdity of trying to change a man's conscience through force. "Is falsehood to be overcome by any other arms than those of truth? Is not attacking errors with a cudgel, the same absurdity as attacking bastions with syllogism and harangue?" Bayle pushed for complete freedom and toleration in religion. "There can be no solid reason for tolerating any one sect, which does not equally hold for every other."
However even Pierre Bayle had his limits. He deliberately made an explicit exception to what was an otherwise universal policy of toleration. No civil society was under any obligation to tolerate a sect that preached lawlessness and violence. "Any sect, which strikes at the foundation of human society, and bursts the bounds of the public peace and amity, by exciting seditions, by preaching up rapine, murder, calumny, perjury, deserves to be immediately cut off by the sword of the magistrate."
And this is exactly why Islam must be excluded from the First Amendment. Unlike every other religion on earth, Islam is not just a matter of individual conscience. Islam is a totalitarian system dedicated to the complete eradication of every other faith and the erasure of every freedom. Muslims believe they are commanded by their god to make war on anyone who is not a Muslim. This warfare must continue until everyone on earth is Muslim. That is why Islam must be excluded from the First Amendment. Not because it is offensive, illiberal, or wrong. Everyone has the right to be wrong. No, an exception must be made for Islam because its continuing inclusion under the umbrella of the First Amendment would ultimately lead to the destruction of that law and all the freedoms it was designed to protect.
Once Islam has been excluded from constitutional protections we can begin the processing of curbing its growth. This must be done lawfully and peacefully. The simplest way to stop the spread of Islam in the US would be to tax Muslims and their institutions. This is exactly what Muslims do to non-Muslims. The jizya is a tax levied upon non-Muslims residing in Islamic countries. Taxation will exert a gradual but persistent pressure that will discourage immigration while simultaneously encouraging emigration and conversion. Imagine, for example, a tax that begins at ten percent a year and is mandated to increase five percent every year thereafter until it reaches a maximum of ninety-percent. Even the introduction and discussion of a constitutional amendment would immediately dampen Muslim immigration.
What about the slippery slope of intolerance? I concede that the action I am proposing opens the door to excluding other faiths. If Buddhists, Taoists, and Hindus start walking into cafes and theaters and shooting people with Kalashnikov rifles simply because they refuse to convert to their faith, they can be excluded also. Until that time, Islam remains the only religion that has a thirteen-hundred year record of violence, intolerance, and totalitarianism. Excluding Muslims from our society will ensure that everyone else is able to live in peace and practice the beliefs dictated by their conscience.
Why do liberal Democrats love Islam? The Democratic Party in the US purports to be a fervid advocate of women's rights. They talk about an imaginary Republican "war on women" while turning a blind eye to the way women are treated in Islamic countries. Islam is infamous for treating women like dogs. The Koran (Sura 4) states plainly that "men are superior to women." A virtuous wife is instructed to be "obedient" and her husband is advised to "scourge" an insubordinate spouse. The Democratic Party is also an advocate of gay rights, yet remains silent when ISIS summarily executes gay men by dropping them off the tops of buildings, head first. The answer to this apparent quandary is found in the Pew Poll. According to Pew, a full 70 percent of American Muslims identify as Democrats versus only 11 percent as Republicans. No wonder the Democratic Party wants to flood the US with Muslim immigrants! It's not about ideology; it's about obtaining power. The Democrats’ obsession with outlawing guns is another symptom of this lust for power and control.
What can average people do to save their country and preserve Western Civilization? First, educate ourselves. We need to understand not only the true nature of the Islamic threat but also be able to articulate the virtues of Western Civilization and how it differs from the Islamic totalitarian system. Second, have the courage to speak freely without fear of being criticized. In the last few months, one man, Donald Trump, has almost single-handedly broken the shackles of political correctness by refusing to back down or surrender the moral high ground. Cast off the guilt and shame that the enemies of this country have tried to hang around our necks! Our ancestors bought our freedoms with blood in the snow. The longer we wait to act, the greater the chances our children will have to repeat their sacrifices.
Dr. Deming is professor of arts and sciences at the University of Oklahoma, and the author of Science and Technology in World History (McFarland, 2010, 2012).

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