Free Republic

Get rid of hippies, save the planetThe Green movement needs to rethink its philosophy from the ground-up. That's according to Peter Kareiva, a leading conservation expert and chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy, the world's biggest environmental group.It must abandon the idea that nature is "feminine" and in particular that it's "fragile", he said, because not only is this artificial, it's wrong, and so many bad ideas follow.When people believe that a fragile "Mother Nature" is harmed by anything humans do, it's actually the humans who suffer, Kareiva argues in the co-written essay Conservation in the Anthropocene. It's little wonder...

Appearing on HBO's Bill Maher Show Obama's former green job czar Van Jones attacks Supreme Court Justice Scalia over his questioning in the Obamacare SCOTUS arguments.

Interview with James Delingpole, from the Uncommon Knowledge series at the Hoover Institute. 48 minutes. Variety of topics covered include the Euro, Climategate, the UK riots, etc.

British Lord Christopher Monckton parachuting into Durban, South Africa, to challenge UN climate crisis claims, brought numerous journalists and onlookers to the beaches where he landed. A 20-foot banner across our press conference table gave the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow further opportunities to present realistic perspectives on the science and economics of climate change. CFACT played by the rules, obtained the necessary permits beforehand, and ensured that its message was heard throughout the seventeenth annual climate conference (COP-17). Greenpeace, on the other hand, got no permits before staging an Occupy Durban protest in the hallway outside the plenary session...

Progressive TV and radio star Thom Hartmann took time off from covering Van Jones and his “Rebuild the Dream” movement on Wednesday to briefly talk to this columnist about his relationship with the Vladimir Putin regime of Russia. The conversation quickly went sour when Hartmann objected to questions about how much he is being paid by Moscow. He grabbed my video camera, covering the lens briefly in the process, and stomped away, objecting to “gotcha” questions.The entire spectacle was captured on camera and posted on YouTube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9Rz9fKXXdE During another embarrassing incident, Van Jones refused to sign a copy of his...

Here’s a real WTF moment I had earlier this week: As I went to park in a synagogue parking lot I noticed the two closest spots to the building (other than the handicap spots) had been newly designated with green line paint and a sign. According to this sign, provided by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the spots were reserved for flex-fuel or hybrid cars that get 30+ MPG. It then said in smaller letters at the bottom: “Reduce America’s Dependence on Foreign Oil.”Sure enough, when I got home later that day, I did a search on-line and lo and...

Former President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that the success of the alternative energy movement is hampered by a lack of financing. His comments came as world leaders attending his annual philanthropic conference expressed fears about rising seas. The ex-president's three-day Clinton Global Initiative for VIPs with deep pockets began Tuesday with a frank discussion about addressing global climate challenges, co-hosted by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and South African President Jacob Zuma.

Media Matters, a nonprofit watchdog group, has documented a Fox News report proclaiming that the costs of green jobs exceed the benefits. A recent New York Times article, pointing to lackluster programs in California, concluded that “public efforts to stimulate creation of green jobs have largely failed.” A column by David Brooks in The New York Times was pointedly titled “Where the Jobs Aren’t.” In reaching for bipartisan support in his jobs speech on Thursday, President Obama avoided the word “green” altogether. But green jobs still hold considerable promise. While it’s not hard to find examples of programs that haven’t...

Flanked by a cadre of local political leaders, Mayor Chuck Reed of San Jose used a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a solar power company last week to talk up the promise of the green economy. Mr. Reed called the opening of the new headquarters of SolFocus, which produces large, free-standing solar panels, an “enormously important” development for the city’s economy. “Clean technology is the next wave of innovation that Silicon Valley needs to capture,” the mayor said, noting that the San Jose City Council had committed to increasing the number of “green jobs” in the city to 25,000 by 2022. San...

Today, many question the role that Americans should play in the future of Iran. It is generally accepted that it is in Americans' best interests not to support the resistance there through war or sanctions, but rather to educate the Iranian people. After all, supporters of the established tyrannical regime are mostly old, uneducated, or poor. Islamic volunteer vigilantes are imported via bus and provided with food, housing, and funds to support the government.

Iran’s opposition looks very different than the opposition within Egypt; it's important that we optimize the speed of our diplomatic engine, and help tip yet another revolution during this opportune moment in history. The acronym RPM, or revolutions per minute, typically refers to the speed in which an automotive engine rotates. RPMs play a role in how much gasoline is consumed by your car. Today, that acronym may have an even more important impact on oil consumption. Revolutions are rapidly gaining speed across the Muslim world. The world has watched Tunisia and Egypt oust their dictators in the revolutionary wave...

Opposition websites said security services rounded up protesters in several locations in the capital and were helped by police in plain clothes. Another 40 people were said to have been detained in the city of Isfahan. Opposition groups had called for rallies over the reported imprisonment of their leaders - Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi. The two men had been placed under house arrest several weeks ago as authorities cracked down on protests staged in solidarity with the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere. Their families say that on Monday they were taken to prison, although the government denies...

Yes it is true, not exactly as any one source has been reporting, but the two top leaders of the Green Movement, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, were kidnapped on Thursday night — when the streets of Tehran were full of armed men.  It was a typical Mafia-style snatch.  The two men — already under house arrest — were beaten and bloodied, and then were led out of their homes in blindfolds and handcuffs, stuffed in the trunks of their captors from the Revolutionary Guards and, along with their wives, taken to a location in Tehran, then, on Friday,...

The children of Iranian opposition leaders have issued separate letters expressing grave concerns regarding the well-being of their parents. The daughters of Zahra Rahnavard and MirHosein Mousavi have not seen their parents in two weeks, and their last contact with them was February 14. In the letter published on Iranian opposition websites, they write that they have attempted to visit their parents several times, but the security forces have aggressively turned them away and prevented them from entering their home. They say they have often remained in the vicinity until late into the evening and noticed that after dark no...

For a second time in a week, Iran's opposition drew tens of thousands of supporters to the streets across the nation on Sunday calling for the end to the Islamic Republic's rule. In response, the government unleashed what witnesses said was an extraordinary number of security forces to violently battle the crowds. Witnesses said mobs of anti-riot police and plainclothes Basij militia lined the streets and on several occasions fired directly into the crowd and beat protesters with steel batons. In one neighborhood, the Basij took over a commercial building and dropped tear gas canisters from the roof onto the...

Iranian security forces have arrested a son of opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi, his website reported on Tuesday, one week after his supporters took to the streets in their first demonstrations in more than a year. "Last night security forces entered the house of Ali Karoubi and arrested him and his wife, Nafiseh Panahi" Sahamnews website said. Panahi was later released but there was no further news of Ali Karoubi, it said. Sahamnews said there were concerns for Mehdi Karoubi himself after security forces raided his house on Monday night and confiscated documents and books. "After last night's incident and despite...

Police and basij militia locked down the centre of Tehran on Sunday night after crowds of anti-regime demonstrators tried to converge on central squares from across the city. The daughter of the powerful former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Hashemi, was arrested briefly, accused of "provocative behaviour", though she was later released.

-Excerpt- The Iranian opposition consists of a wide variety of parties and groups with different ideologies and goals. Messrs. Khatami, Mousavi and Karroubi miss few opportunities to declare that they are not seeking regime change but change within the regime. They claim that Mr. Ahmadinejad has abandoned "the true teachings" of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic in 1979. The trio are often labelled "reformists" although they have not indicated a single reform they plan to introduce. Their main threat is that, unless they are allowed to form political parties, they will boycott the coming Majlis elections...

TEHRAN — Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main Iran opposition leader whose rebellion against the government has rocked the Islamic republic, is now completely cut off from the outside world, his website reported Friday. Kaleme.com reported that Mousavi's previous guards have been replaced by new ones and that a van containing masked men was parked at the entrance to the street in Tehran where his house is located. "The house arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard (his wife) which began on 25th of Bahman (February 14) is fully effective as of 27 Bahman (February 16)," Kaleme.com reported. "With the...

A main leader of Iran’s opposition was reported missing on Thursday and both the opposition “green movement” and Iran’s hardliners issued calls for street rallies, escalating tensions after the reemergence of street protests and their brutal suppression on Monday. The daughters of the missing opposition leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, told an opposition Web site that they had had no word from either of their parents since Tuesday and feared they had been detained. Security forces have surrounded their home, and all communications have been cut. On Wednesday, the Web site of another opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, reported that the house...