Thomas Jefferson once wrote that “to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical.” A similar principle is rooted in the First Amendment, which generally prohibits the government from forcing people to pay for speech with which they disagree.

Federal law nevertheless permits states to impose “agency shop” arrangements under which every employee in a unionized workplace, even though not a union member, must pay to the union, as…

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Keeping the holiday theme going, we now turn to the perennial Halloween boogieman, the anonymous candy poisoner. For decades, parents have been warned to check their kids’ candy carefully, lest a cyanide-laced Sugar Daddy make in into junior’s mouth. As Iain has taught us, however, the record books are mighty slim when it comes to any children actually being harmed by psychos intent on taking advantage of the candy-giving season:

Every year, newspapers and television programs warn parents about the “threat’…

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If you haven’t read it already, treat yourself to a radically reasonable op-ed by Prof. Richard Lindzen of MIT on why global warming is the last thing that you should be scared of this Halloween season:

Yes, there does appear to be warming, but the amount is hardly certain or indisputable. And the amount found does not appear that alarming.

The alarm, I would suppose, comes from the notoriously inadequate climate models.

As the primary “consensus” document, the Scientific Assessment of the UN’s Intergovernmental…

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It turns out that Monsanto, the occasionally controversial biotech company, is hard at work on more than just wheat and maize. They’re also experimenting with how to improve other crops like…pumpkins:

[Monsanto scientist Bill] Johnson said customers want deep orange colors and dark green stems that don’t snap off when you use them to carry the pumpkin. His job is to breed varieties with those qualities with other strains that are resistant to certain viruses or the dreaded powdery mildew.

Monsanto has…

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When a journalist publicly declares he doesn’t believe in balance on a particular issue, you know things are really bad. When I was a journalist, I had it beat into me to get both or however many sides of the story there might be. Well, ABC News’ Bill Blakemore (a network reporter!) told an audience at the recent Society of Environmental Journalists conference that he doesn’t “like the word ‘balance’ much at all” in global warming coverage. Blakemore was debating…

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CEI’s Sam Kazman had the quote of the day. It happened during a debate on CNBC’s Morning Call over whether NYC should ban restaurants from using artificial trans-fats. His opponent showed a 25-year-old cupcake as proof that trans-fats are bad for us. Sam’s classic response? Press play to find out!

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Or in a hundred year’s time, for that matter. Today’s Stern Review from the British government has been marketed as saying global warming means economic catastrophe if we do not decarbonize our economy now and is therefore being used to justify green taxes in the near future.

Well, let’s take a look at what the Review actually says. I applauded the announcement of the review because it was obvious that the economic assumptions on which global warming models are based needs to…

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Judith Burns of Dow Jones’ MarketWatch reports on the latest shareholder activism from our friends Steve Milloy and Tom Borelli over at the Free Enterprise Action Fund:

Goldman [Sachs'] donation of 680,000 acres of remote Chilean forest in 2004 continues to chafe the pro-business Free Enterprise Action Fund, which says the gift hasn’t benefited Chile or Goldman shareholders. Fund managers, who raised concerns about the deal at Goldman’s 2006 meeting, petitioned the Wall Street investment bank on Friday to have its board…

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George Monbiot — the green activist whose perceived wackiness inspired the label “Moonbat” — is at it again. This time he says sport is killing the planet. In this respect, surely Monbiot should give America some credit. After all, we always hear how no-one outside America is interested in Football, Baseball or Hockey. It’s soccer, cricket and rugby that involve the most international travel, to say nothing of Track and Field and Formula One. If more countries played only their…

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The international media is in a tizz this morning (afternoon in the UK) over the release of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change. The British government commissioned advisor Sir Nicholas Stern to assess the economic impact of global warming and boy, did they get their money’s worth. According to his projections, disruptions from a changing climate could end up consuming as much as 20% of global GDP. That’s serious.

Except that maybe it’s not. We sent out a statement earlier today…

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It’s been a popular visitor and resident in many American front yards for decades, but there is now the very real chance that the pink flamingo may be going the way of the dodo. AP business writer Mark Jewell reports that the Massachusetts company which has manufactured the iconic plastic lawn ornaments since the 1950s may be going out of business:

[T]he original version of the plastic flamingo may be singing its swan song after inspiring countless pranks — and being alternately celebrated…

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According to The Wall Street Journal this morning, Al Gore and his take on global warming have become all the rage in…Belgium. It’s seems the Belgian Prime Minister was so taken with Mr. Gore’s recent visit promoting An Inconvenient Truth that he invoked the former VP’s name when introducing a package of new “enviromentally friendly” taxes. This package has been dubbed “the Gore tax,” which I can only assume pleases him mightily.

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The American Financial Services Association is holding its 90th annual meeting here in Washington this week, and attendees are tackling a number of challenges including the threat of identity theft to customers, the multiple levels of regulatory control over member companies and calls for the industry to “do good” in addition to doing good business.

A lot of these are issues CEI has worked on as well. For more, see Wayne and Brooke’s paper on identity theft, Wayne’s latest installment of 10,000…

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We’ve known that Marc Morano was a brave man for some time, but he proved it again last night at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference here in Burlington. He was the lone critic on a panel about the media and global warming entitled “And Now a Word from Our Critics…” Not only was he the only critic of the mainstream reportage of climate change on the five-member panel, but I seemed to be one of the only people in the…

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There was yet more cool action from the Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference this afternoon as Amy Gahran and Adam Glenn explained what Gahran called “open source journalism.” She and Glenn encouraged their audience to become more involved blogging (and commenting online) on issues that they cover, both for professional development and to begin turning their readership into an extended community. Both of those goals, of course, come with significant personal rewards.

A journalist who blogs, they explained, will reap the rewards of the…

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Vietnam passed a final hurdle in its quest for membership in the World Trade Organization. According to the WTO, the “finishing touches to Vietnam’s membership package” are complete, and the documents now go before the General Council, scheduled to meet November 7 for the vote.

Vietnam’s accession would bring the WTO membership to 150 member countries.

On May 31, 2006, the U.S. and Vietnam signed a bilateral market access agreement that was needed as a critical step on Vietnam’s road to WTO accession. The…

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As CEI’s presence at the 16th annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists continues, I’ve noticed that the event’s blogosphere presence has grown dramatically since last year. Former SEJ president Jim Bruggers of the Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) is posting about the conference on his own blog, Watchdog Earth, and there’s an entire group blog just about the conference itself, SEJ2006. There’s even a blog post about a panel about blogging and citizen journalsim (which starts in about half an hour). Other…

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Energy companies, both new and old, are crowded into the Society of Environmental Journalists conference here in Burlington, Vermont, all playing up the environmental profile of their products. Most are represented by their trade and marketing associations.

First up, we have the diesel lovers. Make that clean diesel lovers. They’re very insistent on that modifier. It seems diesel fuel is getting cleaner all the time, suggesting it might be possible for such vehicles to be sold more widely in the U.S.

Just…

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Republicans have long been accused of being the party of Wall Street, a campaign charge that’s again being leveled in this election. But on the issue of Sarbanes-Oxley, the Elephants have moved very slowly for fear of being allied with big business and the corporate scandals that prompted the 2002 law, which was largely crafted by the then-Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.

The irony of Republican inaction is that it has given leading Democrats the opportunity to outflank the GOP in advocating regulatory…

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The Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference this week is in full swing, with panels and exhibits on everything from sustainable forestry to avian flu. One of the big draws is the auto industry presence and their test drive offers.

DaimlerChrysler is also present, with their “F-Cell” vehicle. According to PR Manager Nick Cappa, expect to see one at your local dealership in about 10 years. Nick also mentioned that the only thing that comes out of the F-Cell’s tailpipe is water vapor.…

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