Sierra Rayne

Winters in the United States Are Getting Colder

The Huffington Post is unhappy about how CNN Crossfire covered the latest National Climate Assessment (NCA) during a debate between Bill Nye and S.E. Cupp. Of course, the Post wanted more hysteria, but at least they acknowledged that "'Crossfire' had everything you don't want in a climate change segment. The use of Bill Nye, who has no background in climate science, as the 'climate change is real' participant? Check."

Climate Models Fail on California

Back in February, there was a public dust-up between the Obama administration and the climate science community. Obama blamed the current California drought on climate change -- let's be precise, on anthropogenic climate change -- while the climate scientists generally pushed back and said California's current drought is likely due to natural climate variability.

Global Cooling Underway

With global temperature data now available for the first three months of 2014, an interesting trend has clearly emerged: global cooling. No longer is it just a hypothesis. For the first quarter of each calendar year since 2002, it is effectively a fact at reasonably strong statistical significance. Here is the data.

Canada's National Temperature and Precipitation Farce

Despite their huffing and puffing over private sector environmental activists since 2006, the one "environmental activist" group the Conservative Party of Canada has entirely failed to correct is its own government agency: Environment Canada.

Extreme Heat Hysteria Fail

In its latest entry on "health repercussions for Canadians of a changing climate" in the Globe and Mail newspaper, Karen McColl raises the alarm bells on "substantial increases in occurrences of extremely hot seasons" in Canada.

Lyme Disease and Climate Alarmism

Tough Questions for Canada-US Oil Relations

With the latest delay in the Keystone XL pipeline saga by the Obama administration, incoherent desperation is setting in among some Canadian oil industry experts.

Under Pressure from the Drug Cartels, Puerto Rico is Collapsing

In July 2010, an investigation by the US-DEA and the Puerto Rico Police Department resulted in a federal grand jury indictment for 158 people on heroin, crack, cocaine, and marijuana drug trafficking charges, as well as firearms related offences. It was the largest ever federal law enforcement operation in the American territory.

Bolivia and the Drug Cartels

Since 2006, Evo Morales has been the president of Bolivia. As an active campaigner against the war on drugs, a coca grower himself, and an admirer of Che Guevara, controversy has swirled about his administration.

Backdoor Carbon Taxation in Saskatchewan

In an interview with Theo Caldwell published in The Daily Caller, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall expressed his pride for the carbon capture project at the Boundary Dam coal-fired power station in the southeastern portion of the province. This is most unfortunate, although he might just be trying to make the best political situation out of a bad policy foisted on him by the supposedly "conservative" federal government.

The Drug Cartels Long March on El Salvador

More than two decades after the civil war in El Salvador ended, the nation remains fractured -- a situation being worsened by increasing drug cartel presence and influence. In its recent presidential election, Salvador Sanchez Ceren of the governing left-wing Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) barely defeated Norman Quijano of the right-wing National Republican Alliance (Arena). With more than three million votes cast, the margin of Ceren's victory was only 6,364 votes, or 51.1 to 49.9 percent.

Belize Falling Under the Drug Cartel Influence

In 2011, Belize was added to the USA's "blacklist" of nations considered to be major producers or transit routes for illegal drugs as it became further enmeshed in the cocaine pipeline from South America up to Mexico and the United States.

Southern Alberta's 2013 Floods and Climate Change

During late June 2013, many areas of southern Alberta experienced severe flooding following heavy regional rainstorms.

March Data Show Denver's Post-Pot Legalization Crime Rate Still High

With the Denver Police Department's release of its crime statistics for March 2014, the higher post-pot legalization crime rates in the Mile-High City roll on.

Costa Rica and the Drug Cartels

Costa Rica is under threat. Despite recent claims that "no terrorist groups or drug cartels lurk in the nation's mountains and rain forests," the evidence is quite the contrary.

ObamaCare fail: Health expenditures in the United States are still rising

With the latest release of its international health expenditure dataset, the World Bank's 2012 database reveals that total health care spending in the United States under ObamaCare is exploding. Total health expenditures in 2012 increased to 17.91% of GDP, up from 17.68% in 2011, and are – of course – the highest level in American history. In 2008 before Obama came to office, total health expenditures comprised “only” 16.54% of GDP.

Pot Legalization and Crime Rates in Denver, Colorado

Over at Ezra Klein's new site, Vox.com, German Lopez has an article claiming to show that Colorado's recent marijuana legalization experiment hasn't increased crime rates in Denver. In contrast, when we actually look at the raw data Lopez uses, the message isn't so clear. In fact, using Lopez's own methods, we might conclude pot legalization has dramatically increased crime in Denver.

The Continuing Problem of Mexico's Crime Statistics

With the latest release of Mexico's supposedly official crime rate statistics, which include full data for 2013 as well as the first couple months of 2014, security experts need to -- once again -- be cautioned in the use of this information for drawing any conclusions about crime in Mexico.

Big Government and Lower Economic Growth: An American History

Between 1800 and 1916, total government expenditures in the United States generally ranged between 2% and 3% of GDP. There were higher peaks for the War of 1812 (5.1%) and the Civil War (13.8%), but in both cases pre-war government spending levels were re-established within about a decade after the end of the conflict. Even after WWI, the wartime peak of government spending (24.2% of GDP) declined rapidly to a slightly higher than historical spending base (3%) by the mid-1920s.

No Evidence Legalizing Ecstasy Would Save Lives

With the news that two people died from taking the illicit drug ecstasy at the Electric Zoo festival in New York City on Labor Day weekend, it is a good time to take a critical look at calls for ecstasy legalization. We have seen recent propositions to legalize ecstasy in Canada, Australia and Colombia, often calling for the drug to be sold in pure form like alcohol. This represents part of a long string of bizarre policy advocations being made by the medical establishment in western democracies over the past decade, and which has also led to the predictable outpouring of support from the drug legalization lobby.