When people accuse me of just believing what I read, I’m always amused. My brain doesn’t work that way. I’m naturally sceptical. In fact, I was even sceptical of most of the stuff I read from the Skeptics society.

So, with the climate change “debate”, I’d be more than happy with someone challenging the hypothesis on which the theory of climate change is based, providing they were actually using scientific methodology to do it. Merely asserting that carbon dioxide is necessary to life and therefore harmless makes about as much sense as saying don’t worry about the river rising, water is essential to life so the idea that we can have a flood is just those greenies trying to scare you.

But I’m nothing if not fair. And as someone mentioned the Heartland Institute, the other day, I thought that I’d look them up. The first thing I discovered was:

“The Heartland Institute is a national nonprofit research and education organization, tax exempt under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code, headquartered in Chicago, and founded in 1984. It is not affiliated with any political party, business, or foundation.

“Heartland’s mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. Such solutions include parental choice in education, choice and personal responsibility in health care, market-based approaches to environmental protection, privatization of public services, and deregulation in areas where property rights and markets do a better job than government bureaucracies.”

And as an ardent supporter of free speech, I thought I’d share some of their wisdom.

In an article they share called, “The Unceasing Political Thuggery of Obama’s Gangster Government”. I learnt that: “Never in the history of this country have we seen such a broad and coordinated abuse of the government’s power to threaten criminal prosecution and ruin the lives and livelihoods of people the president and his party see as political “enemies.” Mm, perhaps some would argue that Watergate might run a close second, but I guess they’d be your usually communist agitators.

On radiation, I found:

“Time to Rethink Policy
It is essential to revert to the ICRP standard of 1934 and the tolerance dose concept for radiation protection. This standard was wisely based on 30 years of observations and experience which has been further confirmed in the decades since. This change would remove many constraints on the use of x-rays, CT-scans, and nuclear medicine techniques for the diagnosis of many illnesses. It would also pave the way for clinical studies on many potential applications for low radiation to treat very important diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, by up-regulating adaptive protection systems.”

On Education, I discovered an opposition to Common Core Standards:

“Why should centrally controlled, taxpayer-funded, unaccountable-to-the-public committees have
the power to define what nearly every U.S. school child will learn?
The most important thing to understand about education standards is that research has demonstrated they have no effect on student achievement.”

I also found that the Heartland Institute

“We favor policies that reduce the size and power of government and expand choice and freedom for citizens. We oppose government programs and tax regimes that favor some at the expense of others.”

Mm, now I would have thought that any government program would have to favour some at the expense of others. For example, programs to decrease homelessness would benefit those without a home more than those who have one.  Or perhaps I should have just read that as “We oppose government programs! We also oppose tax regimes that favor some at the expense of others.” Don’t all tax regimes do that in one way or another?

But I’m not here to offer a critique, or to question. Just to give you the facts. Like this one from the Heartland Institute:

“The Environmental Protection Agency has been in a full assault on the U.S. economy since the 1980s when the global warming hoax was initiated. It has been assisted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA.

“To put it in other terms, our own government has engaged in lying to Americans and the result has been the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars on something that was not happening and is not happening.”

And I discovered that there’s a link between the Als. Al Gore and Al Jazeera. Gee, Gore must be middle-Eastern too. Come to think of it, we’ve never seen his birth certificate. Why is it that the left are so reluctant to show their birth certificates. It took Obama ages to produce his – and even then it was a fake. I’m sure that Andrew Bolt would be more than happy to show his!

“Montanans Support Energy Production Despite Gore/Al Jazeera Claims”

It also gave me a link to what I presume is a scientific endorsement because it doesn’t say it’s an ad. But I’m limited in what I can say, because – in the fine print – it says that reproduction is prohibitied.

I Don’t Want to Sell You a XXX …
…I Want to Provide You with a Solution

Yep, that’s all about. Finding solutions! And getting the government out of the way!