WW2 Survivor's Account Draws Chilling Similarities between Nazism and Liberalism...

WW2 Survivor's Account Draws Chilling Similarities between Nazism and Liberalism... » Louder With Crowder:
Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it. 
Why? 
Because for the majority of human history, human beings have lived in bondage, in poverty, under despotic leaders, with little to no freedom. 
But there’s a reason human beings have time and again voted for their own oppression: freedom is hard. 
It is not easy to be the governor of your own life. 
It involves struggle, toil, hard work, and it isn’t easy. 
Contrast personal freedom with the promise of collective “safety” and “security,” ambiguous terms sold by political charlatans in order to secure their power.

World War II survivor and Austrian Kitty Werthmann is a lesson in history. 
Her tale of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power is one we should all watch. 
It’s chilling, it’s terrifying, but worst of all, it sounds familiar. 
Watch:

Highlights:
Hitler gave everyone a free radio.
He was a great orator.
And then he nationalized the radio.
Citizens were warned if they listened to anything other than Nazi radio, they would be put to death.
The only voice they had was the government radio station and the government controlled newspaper.
Hitler gave Austrian equal rights for everyone.
Also, everybody getting a guaranteed income from the government.
The equal rights amendment was designed in two components, equality, economics and social. Economics was designed to equalize the countries wealth because everyone was entitled to equal income.
To achieve that, they had to raise taxes to 70%.
People got fuel stamps, heating fuel.
The government equalized the countries wealth by taxing us. 

Called socialism.
On the socialism, everyone has to be on the work force. 

Moms stayed home, raised their families. 

But in socialism, if you didn’t work, you were called a parasite. 

Moms had to go to work and leave the kids to where? 

A daycare center. 

The longer you left your child with the schools and daycare, the better the government liked it. 

These caretakers were from the government, trained in psychology, to mold the children.
Education was then nationalized. 

We had a good education system before Hitler.
Seriously, this account is chilling. 

The longer you’ll listen to this full account (about 30 minutes) the more your skin will crawl.
But did you notice how Hitler did it? 

Incrementally. 

Not over night, not in a day, not in a week.

Slowly, over time, one area of life and then another. 

Do it the Nazi way, it’s the better way. 

You can’t trust the media, you have to listen to the national media. 

You cannot trust private institutions, you have to trust the government institutions. 

And you moms who want to stay at home with your children to raise them right? 

No, get out of the home, work, and do the right thing by putting your children through our state school...."

You Won't Believe What's Happened Since Friday...

You Won't Believe What's Happened Since Friday...:

Since Friday a string of attacks and other outrages has taken place around the world. The following list isn’t even everything that has taken place since Friday, but it’s a snapshot of the daily crimes wrought by Islamist extremism.

• At least 86 people were killed in Nigeria by Boko Haram. A survivor hidden in a tree told reporters he heard the screams of children burning to death.
• At least 71 people were killed in Syria in a bombing by the Islamic State at a Shiite shrine south of Damascus.
• The Islamic State kidnapped 30 children from school in Mosul and is thought to have forcibly drafted them into its army.
• News broke that a Jewish volunteer at a refugee center was spat on and insulted when she identified herself as Jewish.
• A Stockholm, Sweden man was sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing his wife 66 times and cutting off her nose and lip in an alleged honor killing.
• News broke that the European Commission has denied any link between the Cologne, Germany attacks and the recent influx of migrants.
• Religious scholars in Afghanistan have issued a fatwa against peace negotiations.
• A Somali migrant in the UK has been sentenced to nine years in prison for joining al-Shabaab.

More and more outrages like the ones listed here are perpetrated every day in the name of Islamist extremism.

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Lunch video-----Hillary Supporters Endorse KARL MARX as Her Pick for Vice President!

Noon-toon

BREAKING: Iran Naval Cmdr. Admits Truth About Captured Sailors... Obama Scrambles

BREAKING: Iran Naval Cmdr. Admits Truth About Captured Sailors... Obama Scrambles:

"The Obama administration, with Secretary of State John Kerry at the helm, has greatly downplayed Iran’s capture of 10 U.S. sailors. However, unwelcome facts, quotes and speculations continue to surface, revealing that there may be much more to this incident than the general public has been made aware of."

With Zika, Time to Bring Back DDT

With Zika, Time to Bring Back DDT | Economics21:
The Zika virus is spreading by mosquitos northward through Latin America, possibly correlated with birth defects such as microcephaly in infants.
 Stories and photos of their abnormally small skulls are making headlines.
The World Health Organization reports that four million people could be infected by the end of 2016.
On Monday, the WHO is meeting to decide how to address the crisis.
The international body should recommend that the ban on DDT should be reversed, in order to kill the mosquitoes that carry Zika and malaria, a protistan parasite that has no cure.
Zika is in the news, but it is dwarfed by malaria. 
About 300 million to 600 million people suffer each year from malaria, and it kills about 1 million annually, 90 percent in sub-Saharan Africa.  
We have the means to reduce Zika and malaria—and we are not using it.
Under the Global Malaria Eradication Program, which started in 1955, DDT was used to kill the mosquitoes that carried the parasite, and malaria was practically eliminated.
Some countries such as Sri Lanka, which started using DDT in the late 1940s, saw profound improvements. Reported cases fell from nearly 3 million a year to just 17 cases in 1963.
In Venezuela, cases fell from over 8 million in 1943 to 800 in 1958.
India saw a dramatic drop from 75 million cases a year to 75,000 in 1961.
This changed with the publication of Rachel Carson’s 1962 book, Silent Spring, which claimed that DDT was hazardous.
After lengthy hearings between August 1971 and March 1972, Judge Edmund Sweeney, the EPA hearing examiner, decided that there was insufficient evidence to ban DDT and that its benefits outweighed any adverse effects.
Yet, two months afterwards, then-EPA Administrator William D. Ruckelshaus overruled him and banned DDT effective December 31, 1972.
...Even though nothing is as cheap and effective as DDT, it is not a cure-all for malaria. 
But a study by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences concluded that spraying huts in Africa with DDT reduces the number of mosquitoes by 97 percent compared with huts sprayed with an alternative pesticide.  
Those mosquitoes that do enter the huts are less likely to bite.
By forbidding DDT and relying on more expensive, less effective methods of prevention, we are causing immense hardship.
Small environmental losses are inferior to saving thousands of human lives and potentially increasing economic growth in developing nations.
We do not yet have data on the economic effects of the Zika virus, but we know that countries with a high incidence of malaria can suffer a 1.3 percent annual loss of economic growth.
According to a Harvard/WHO study, sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP could be $100 billion greater if malaria had been eliminated 35 years ago.
Rachel Carson died in 1964, but the legacy of Silent Spring and its recommended ban on DDT live with us today.   
Millions are suffering from malaria and countless others are contracting the Zika virus as a result of the DDT ban. 
They were never given the choice of living with DDT or dying without it.
The World Health Organization should recognize that DDT has benefits, and encourage its use in combating today’s diseases.

Scientist ruthlessly debunks NOAA climate claim

Scientist ruthlessly debunks NOAA climate claim:
In face of intense criticism from alarmist scientists, Dr. John Christy went to great lengths in a Tuesday congressional hearing to detail why satellite-derived temperatures are much more reliable indicators of warming than surface thermometers.
“That’s where the real mass of the climate system exists in terms of the atmosphere,” Christy, a climate scientist at the University of Alabama and Alabama’s state climatologist, said in a Wednesday hearing before the House science committee.
“When a theory contradicts the facts” you need to change the theory, Christy said.
“The real world is not going along with rapid warming. The models need to go back to the drawing board.”
“One of my many climate interests is the way surface temperatures are measured and how surface temperatures, especially over land, are affected by their surroundings,” Christy wrote in his prepared testimony.
The study found most of NOAA’s 1,218 thermometers were sited near artificial surfaces and heat sources like concrete, asphalt, and air conditioner exhausts that were causing more warming to show in the U.S. temperature record than was present at weather stations that were well-sited.
...“I closely examined individual stations in different regions and have come to the conclusion that the magnitude of the relatively small signal we seek in human-induced climate change is easily convoluted by the growth of infrastructure around the thermometer stations and the variety of changes these stations undergo through time, as well as the variability of the natural ups and downs of climate,” Christy noted in his testimony.
...But that’s why Christy argues satellite-derived temperatures are a better way to look at how greenhouse gases are impacting the Earth’s climate.
“The bulk atmospheric temperature is where the signal is the largest,” Christy said in the hearing, referring to the greenhouse gas effect. “We have measurements for that — it doesn’t match up with the models.”
Satellite-derived temperatures have come under fire recently by scientists more alarmist about global warming than Christy, but the Alabama climatologist addressed those criticisms.
“Because this result challenges the current theory of greenhouse warming in relatively straightforward fashion, there have been several well-funded attacks on those of us who build and use such datasets and on the datasets themselves,” Christy said.
Climate models for the bulk atmosphere (where satellites measure temperature) show 2.5 times as much warming as has been observed by satellites and weather balloons.
“It is a bold strategy in my view to actively promote the output of theoretical climate models while attacking the multiple lines of evidence from observations,” Christy wrote.
“Note that none of the observational datasets are perfect and continued scrutiny is healthy, but when multiple, independent groups generate the datasets and then when the results for two completely independent systems (balloons and satellites) agree closely with each other and disagree with the model output, one is left scratching one’s head at the decision to launch an offensive against the data.”

Government Now FORCING Health Insurance To Cover Transgender Surgeries...

Government Now FORCING Health Insurance To Cover Transgender Surgeries... » Louder With Crowder:
Have you been wanting a new nose?
Face lift?
Liposuction?
Just waltz into the courts and threaten to kill yourself if you don’t get it.
Apparently all that you need to qualify is mental instability.
And if at first you don’t succeed, just sue until you get the answer you want.
It worked for this transgender woman.
A U.S. government panel has ruled that a privately run Medicare plan must cover sex reassignment surgery for a Texas transgender woman, a decision her attorney said was the first of its kind.
Nano the cat-woman must be excited that it’s only a matter of time before she can get her species reassignment surgery for free too.
Until May 2014, Medicare excluded all sex reassignment surgery.
Since that ban was lifted, coverage decisions for surgery and other transgender health services under Medicare have been made on a case-by-case basis.
It must be tough deciphering who really needs to get new genitals.
Maybe the courts have a cross dressing face-off to decide who’s tranny enough.
According to Young, many transgender patients have been unable to get coverage for sex reassignment surgery because insurers or contractors hired by Medicare to make such determinations have decided the procedure is cosmetic, or not medically necessary, among other reasons.
But it is cosmetic.
The whole transgender “struggle” is centered on not looking the way you want to.
There’s no reason why switching your girl parts into boy parts is medically necessary.
Having a fake penis is never going to be critical to someone’s health.
And unless the Christmas special includes a magical change in your DNA, it’ll never physically make a woman into a man.
Leftists have decided reality is optional, which is nothing new.
But the issue here is that repercussions of leftist ideology include government mandated social approval (Read: In NYC, Using Biological Pronouns Is Illegal). “Advancements” like this court case only serve to spur on a movement that subjects everyone to an unfounded idea. If you don’t adhere to the new, very specific set of social do’s and dont’s, you’re just not open-minded enough. You must be silenced.
Think I’m crazy?
Just watch the video below.
No, it’s not a joke.

Louis DeBroux: This Is YUGE!

Louis DeBroux: This Is YUGE! — The Patriot Post:
Last night’s losers:

Donald Trump — with 76% of Iowans voting for someone other than Trump after months of nonstop media coverage, his aura of invincibility has been damaged, and if he doesn’t get a decisive win in New Hampshire, that will only get worse. Trump’s popularity stems, in large part, from his image as a take-no-prisoners winner. Without the consistently conservative (or even moderate) background of Cruz and Rubio, and now without a decisive win when it was expected, Trump risks becoming just another blustery blowhard, the GOP’s version of Howard “The Scream” Dean.

The GOP Establishment — they’re throwing everything they have at Cruz, and he is gaining momentum. Is there anything right now that can do more to raise a candidate’s stock among the base than to be hated by the party’s leadership and establishment?...

Hillary Clinton — she narrowly beat out socialist Bernie Sanders, although that came after six precincts were tied and decided by a coin toss, all of which went to Hillary. Sanders is likely to win New Hampshire, putting the Crown Princess of Progressivism in a very uncomfortable position. But she will still likely win the Democrat nomination because it’s hard to see how the DNC allows a kook like Sanders, who is not even officially a Democrat, to take Hillary’s rightful place as the standard-bearer of their party.

REVEALED: The Sinister Cost Of Obama's Presidency Just Came Out, And It's Not Pretty

REVEALED: The Sinister Cost Of Obama's Presidency Just Came Out, And It's Not Pretty:

"The record GOP turnout in Monday’s caucuses in Iowa is a clear sign of the enthusiasm with which Republicans are approaching the 2016 presidential election. GOP voters have an unmistakable sense of the need to keep another Democrat far away from the Oval Office — an urgency underscored by a new study just released on the threat to the American dream under Barack Obama’s leadership.

While Obama has repeatedly touted his economic record during his tenure as president, a survey measuring countries on their level of economic liberty shows that America’s score has once again tumbled."

Whoa… Doctor Links ADHD Diagnoses to Poor Parenting

Whoa… Doctor Links ADHD Diagnoses to Poor Parenting | Intellectual Takeout:
Startling comments which go against conventional parenting tips.

Dr. Leonard Sax has been making waves lately with his latest book, The Collapse of Parenting. 

The book’s basic premise is that American parents have failed to realize that they are their child’s authority, not their friend. 

In an interview with NPR over the weekend, Dr. Sax again made some startling comments that go against conventional wisdom in today’s parenting, particularly in the realm of hyperactivity and anxiety disorders such as ADHD.

Although Dr. Sax believes that there are legitimate cases of ADHD, he also believes there are a number of false diagnoses. 

These diagnoses stem from:

1. Lack of respect for parents and over-reliance on friends.
2. Overindulgent parents who fail to establish appropriate limitations.

Dr. Sax explains further:

“So many kids today care so much more about the opinions of other kids than they do about their parents'. And that's really harmful because the regard of your peers, if you're an 8-year-old or 14-year-old, that can change overnight. So if you're concerned first and foremost about what your peers think, you're gonna be anxious. And we've seen a 400 percent explosion in anxiety among American kids in the United States over the last 30 years. An American kid in the United States is now 14 times more likely to be on medication for ADD compared to a kid in the United Kingdom.

…

Here's a typical story: This boy tells his parents that he's having trouble concentrating and focusing and they take him to a board-certified child psychiatrist. And the child psychiatrist says, ‘Ah, sounds like maybe ADHD, let's try Adderall or Vyvanse and see if it helps.’ And oh my gosh, what a difference — medication helps enormously. The child, the teacher, the parent and even the prescribing physician saying, ‘Hey this medication was prescribed for ADD, it's clearly been helpful, therefore this kid must have ADD.’ But he doesn't.

The parents bring him to me for a second opinion and I ask some questions like, ‘What do you do in the evening?’ and the parents have no idea, he's in his bedroom with the door closed so his parents don't know what's going on and they think he's asleep but he's not. He's staying up 'til 1 or 2 in the morning playing video games night after night. He's sleep-deprived. And if you're sleep-deprived you're not gonna be able to pay attention and all the standard questionnaires, Conners Scales, etc. cannot distinguish whether you're not paying attention because you're sleep-deprived or because you truly have ADD.”

Based on Dr. Sax’s comments and observations, is it possible that we could reduce the prevalence of ADHD if more parents returned to good ol’ fashioned, common-sense parenting?"

AM Fruitcake

History for February 3

History for February 3 - On-This-Day.com:
Norman Rockwell 1894, Pretty Boy Floyd (Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd) 1904 - Bank robber, James A. Michener 1907 


Blythe Danner 1943, Morgan Fairchild 1950, Nathan Lane 1956 


1815 - The world's first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland. 


1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax. 






1941 - In Vichy, France, the Nazis used force to restore Pierre Laval to office. 


1951 - Dick Button won the U.S. figure skating title for the sixth time. 


1966 - The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX. 


1969 - At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO. 






1998 - Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. She was the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1984. 


2009 - Eric Holder was sworn in as attorney general. He was the first African-American to hold the post. 

National Debt Surpasses $19 Trillion for First Time in U.S. History | TheBlaze.com

National Debt Surpasses $19 Trillion for First Time in U.S. History | TheBlaze.com:

"For the first time ever, the United States’ national debt surpassed $19 trillion, coming in at approximately $19.012 trillion Friday.

After $18 trillion on Dec. 15, 2014, it took a 13 months for the debt to reach the new threshold, which is a slightly quicker climb in debt from years passed. It took about 14 months for the debt to reach $16, $17 and $18 trillion."

Poll: 91% Of Americans Aren’t Worried About Global Warming

Poll: 91% Of Americans Aren’t Worried About Global Warming | The Daily Caller
As Iowans prepare to vote for presidential candidates, a new poll has surfaced showing once again the vast majority of Americans don’t rank global warming as the most serious issue facing the country.
A YouGov poll of 18,000 people in 17 countries found only 9.2 percent of Americans rank global warming as their biggest concern.
Only Saudi Arabians were less concerned about global warming at 5.7 percent. 
The biggest concern for Americans was global terrorism — 28 percent of Americans polled listed this as their top issue.
Despite a big PR push by President Barack Obama to tout his administration’s global warming agenda, most Americans have been unconvinced it’s the country’s most pressing issue.
A Fox News poll from November found only 3 percent of Americans list global warming as their top concern.
The Fox poll came out just before Obama met other world leaders in Paris to kick off another round of negotiations for an international treaty to cut carbon dioxide emissions..."

Chicago records 51 homicides in January, highest toll since 2000

Chicago records 51 homicides in January, highest toll since 2000:
"CHICAGO — The nation's third largest city recorded 51 homicides in January, the highest toll for the month since at least 2000.
Gang conflicts and retaliatory violence drove the "unacceptable" increase in homicides, the police department said in a statement.
But the rise in violence also notably comes as the Chicago Police Department faces increased scrutiny following the court-ordered release of a police video showing a white police officer fatally shooting a black teenager 16 times, and as the department implements changes in how it monitors street stops by officers.
Chicago routinely records more homicides annually than any other American city, but the grim January violence toll marks a shocking spike in violence in a city that recorded 29 murders for the month of January last year and 20 murders for the month in 2014.
In addition to the jump in killings, police department said that it recorded 241 shooting incidents for the month, more than double the 119 incidents recorded last January.
The rise in violence comes after the Chicago Police Department reported 468 murders in 2015, a 12.5% increase from the year before.
There were also 2,900 shootings, 13% more than the year prior, according to police department records..."

Another Top Islamic State Leader Reportedly Killed as Terrorists Live in Fear of Mystery Sniper Known as the ‘Daesh Hunter’ | TheBlaze.com

Another Top Islamic State Leader Reportedly Killed as Terrorists Live in Fear of Mystery Sniper Known as the ‘Daesh Hunter’ | TheBlaze.com:

"Reports of a mysterious sniper taking out Islamic State leaders gained national attention over the weekend. As of Monday, another prominent Islamic State recruiter has reportedly been killed."

What passes for microaggressions at Columbia: White male professors, 'stressful situations'

What passes for microaggressions at Columbia: White male professors, 'stressful situations' - The College Fix:
A conversation with a self-described queer, multiracial, mentally ill sexual-assault survivor

As she describes herself, Avegail Muñoz is facing a stacked deck. The Columbia University student is a “queer, multiracial woman of color” as well as a “low-income, first-generation student.” 

She suffers from “multiple mental illnesses” and is a “survival of sexual assault.”

And she’s mad that people are telling her to stop being so politically correct, as Muñoz wrote in an op-ed for the Columbia Daily Spectator last month.

Muñoz made several troubling allegations about how Columbia treats students like her, so I reached out to her on Facebook for more details about her experiences. 

In the end, she provided only three examples of attacks on students like herself: vandalism of a pro-transgender bulletin board, too many white professors and the stress of college.
While admitting that she is “privileged” to be attending a school of Columbia’s caliber, Muñoz wrote that the university is not the bastion of “inclusivity” that it claims to be. 

Students with “marginalized identities” are constantly told by the larger culture that they are “nitpicking” and being “too politically correct” when they complain about the microaggressions directed at them, she wrote, citing a microaggression-mocking column inThe Guardian..."

Read on and think twice about hiring an Ivy League grad.

The Most Popular Liberal/Socialist Meme on the Internet Just got DESTROYED...

The Most Popular Liberal/Socialist Meme on the Internet Just got DESTROYED...:
There’s been a meme about Denmark and it’s “free education and healthcare” system that’s been making waves across the Internet, touted by liberal socialists who lack a fundamental understanding of basic economics.

Here’s the meme in question via The Federalist Papers:

Well, I hate to burst the bubble here — actually I rather enjoy it — but the facts and statistics pretty much rip this bad boy to itty-bitty pieces.

I mean, come on guys, you didn’t actually think this stuff was going to be “free” did you?

Denmark has some of the highest, if not THE highest, taxes in the world. On top of having extremely high income taxes they also have a 25% sales tax.

So all the ‘free stuff’ they are talking about in the meme, isn’t actually free. The people who actually work (it’s a huge welfare state as well) are the ones paying for everything. Imagine working most of the week to pay for government programs, getting your pay check to realize they took more than HALF of YOUR hard-earned income to redistribute elsewhere?

Here’s a little more from Business Insider:

No tuition fees and generous grants give young Danes an opportunity that would make most green with envy — a university education without a massive debt yoke.

But many, in both industry and politics, feel it’s become a free lunch that’s giving indigestion to Scandinavia’s already weakest economy.

Too many pursue “fulfilment” and too few the science and engineering degrees needed in well-paid growth sectors critical for the nation’s future, they say.

With one of the highest tax rates in the world — at 56 percent for top earners — big salaries mean mostly bigger taxes to sustain the welfare state. Many young Danes just don’t see the point of putting in years of effort into studying for a bigger salary eaten up by taxes.

You see, Mr. Socialist College Student? There’s no such thing as a “free lunch.” Someone, somewhere is paying for your education, sweating and working hard for you to get ahead.

Someone is sticking their hands in the pockets of citizens and stealing their private property — money — all so you can get a free checkup and a college degree.

If liberals were really concerned with income inequality, they’d stop taxing people to death to provide ridiculously expensive welfare programs that zap a person’s initiative to govern themselves.

You want a college education? Work for it."

Lunch video-----DC Matic: The Hillary-Approved Email Server!

Noon-toon

Obama's Paris Global Warming Treaty Will Cost $12.1 Trillion

Obama's Paris Global Warming Treaty Will Cost $12.1 Trillion | The Daily Caller
The United Nations Paris agreement to stop dangerous global warming could cost $12.1 trillion over the next 25 years, according to calculations performed by environmental activists.
“The required expenditure averages about $484 billion a year over the period,” calculated Bloomberg New Energy Finance with the assistance of the environmentalist nonprofit Ceres.
That’s almost as much money the U.S. federal government spent on defense in 2015, according to 2015 spending numbers from the bipartisan Committee For Responsible Federal Budget.
The required annual spending is almost 3.7 times more than the $131.57 billion China spent on its military in 2014.
Bloomberg’s estimates are likely low, as they exclude costly energy efficiency measures. 
The amount spent to meet global carbon dioxide emissions reduction goals could be as high as $16.5 trillion between now and 2030, when energy efficiency measures are included, according to projections from the  International Energy Agency.
To put these numbers in perspective, the U.S. government is just under $19 trillion in debt and only produced $17.4 trillion in gross domestic product in 2014.
American taxpayers spend an average of $39 billion a year financially supporting solar energy, according to a report by the Taxpayer Protection Alliance.
The same report shows President Barack Obama’s 2009 stimulus package contained $51 billion in spending for green energy projects, including funding for failed solar energy companies such as Solyndra and Abound Solar.
Solyndra was given a $535 million loan guarantee by the Obama administration before filing for bankruptcy in 2011. Abound Solar got a $400 million federal loan guarantee, but filed for bankruptcy in 2012 after making faulty panels that routinely caught fire.
Despite relatively high levels of taxpayer support, in 2014 solar and wind power accounted for only 0.4 and 4.4 percent of electricity generated in the U.S., respectively, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Ironically, solar and wind power have not done much to reduce America’s carbon dioxide emissions. Studies show solar power is responsible for one percent of the decline in U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions, while natural gas is responsible for almost 20 percent.
For every ton of carbon dioxide cut by solar power, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas cut 13 tons..."

Why Did the World’s Greatest Chef Just Kill Himself?

Why Did the World’s Greatest Chef Just Kill Himself? - The Daily Beast

By all appearances, Benoît Violier, at 44, was on top of his profession and on top of the world. And then he pulled the trigger.

NICE, France — Why kill yourself with a shotgun one month after you’re voted the best chef in the world?

That’s the mystery that’s taken hold around the famed Restaurant de l’Hôtel de Ville in the picturesque Swiss village of Cressier, where 44-year-old chef Benoît Violier apparently committed suicide at home on Sunday.

He loved hunting and published just last year a book on cooking “feathered game.” (The prestigious daily Le Monde waxed ecstatic over his snow partridge in a wine reduction with tiny Roscoff onions.) The gun that he appears to have used to kill himself reportedly was one of those he used for game. 

Swiss police have opened an investigation into the case.

Violier’s restaurant was named the best out of 1,000 restaurants in 48 countries in December by France’s La Liste. Such was the prestige surrounding the award, it was presented at the French foreign ministry.

The chef was in the prime of his life. Handsome, charismatic, said to be calmer in temperament than most world-class cooks, he was married to a beautiful woman, Brigitte, who left her job in cosmetics to work at his side at their highly sought after, three-star restaurant near Lausanne that was normally booked up four months in advance. The couple had a 12-year-old son and an equally photogenic dog, Mac Queen.

So why did the French-born Violier, who achieved what most would consider the pinnacle of professional and personal success in this world, apparently take a gun and shoot himself on Sunday, blowing to bits a self-made universe that was the envy of all who knew him?

So far, no one has any idea. ”Late in the afternoon, police went to Cressier where they discovered at his home the body of Mr. Benoît Violier,” Swiss police said in a cryptic statement.

Violier, who obtained Swiss citizenship two years ago, had been expected in Paris on Monday for the unveiling of the latest Michelin guide where, as expected, his restaurant retained its three stars, or, as the French call them, its three macarons.

Even when he talked about his childhood, Violier gave no hint of unhappiness. In an interview with the Swiss website Illustre in September 2015, Violiet described his idyllic upbringing near the seaside city of La Rochelle in France, and how his mother encouraged her kids to stay away from the TV and enjoy nature. Violiet didn't even take his first train ride until he was 17..."