Striking Back

The Leftist state Attorneys General who formed “AGs United for Clean Power” are being challenged for their unprincipled attacks on The First Amendment Rights to dissent. The national push to silence dissent to AGW "science" was implemented by this coterie of state Attorneys General, who placed a subpoena onto dissenting organizations. These organizations are banding together under the CEI, Competitive Enterprise Institute, and are requesting the punishment of these AGs by the court for having violated their civil right to free speech. And they placed a full page color ad in the NYT outlining their case.

CEI Runs “Abuse of Power” Ad In New York Times
43 signers join open letter defending free speech

"Today the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) placed a full page color advertisement in The New York Times defending every American’s right to free speech. The advertisement, which is an open letter from 43 signers--organizations, legal experts, and individuals—is a response to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Claude Walker, and a coalition of other “AGs United for Clean Power” investigating more than 100 businesses, nonprofits, and private individuals who question their positions on climate change.

“Attempts to intimidate CEI and our allies and silence our policy research are unconstitutional," said CEI president Kent Lassman, whose nonprofit organized and sponsored the advertisement. "The First Amendment protects us and everyone has a duty to respect it -- even state attorneys general. CEI will continue to fight for all Americans to support the causes in which they believe."

On April 7, 2016, CEI received a subpoena from AG Walker of the U.S. Virgin Islands that attempts to unearth a decade of the organization’s materials and work on climate change policy. This is the latest effort in an intimidation campaign to criminalize speech and research on the climate debate. On April 20, CEI filed an objection to the subpoena calling it "offensive," "un-American," and "unlawful." On May 16, CEI asked the court to fine AG Walker for violating CEI’s First Amendment rights. The full text of the ad is below and can be found here. "

The Left's war on Free Speech, specifically on dissenting speech which is contrary to their necessary narratives, has intensified radically in the past few years. If they are allowed to, they will actually persecute their ideological enemies into bankruptcy, and possibly prison, using their state government positions to do so. I expect this to occur for abortion dissent if these Leftists are not stopped here, at the gate of AGW pretentions to science.

When science is non-empirical and requires the force of government to protect it from dissent, it's a good bet that the "science" is speculative, politically charged and supported, and very likely false due to its inability to defend itself on its own merits. This is the case for AGW, evolution, and to lesser extents, psychology/psychiatry and anthropology. Anthropology at least had sufficient integrity to eliminate its claim to being a science. Neurological brain science fits in there somewhere, too.

But we easily notice that molecular biology, for example, stands quite well on its grounding in empirical procedures, and quite independent of evolution hypotheses as well. It is the premiere science of the 21st century, so far.