WILL CHEVRON FINALLY RUN OUT OF GAS?
The Chevron Doctrine is a rule adopted by the Supreme Court in 1984. It says that when the language of a statute is ambiguous, a court must defer to the regulatory agency's interpretation and may not substitute its own judgment. That is why it is also known as Chevron Deference.
Chevron has come under mounting attack in recent years as agencies have learned to game the system and to leverage any scintilla of ambiguity into a wholesale assertion of authority.
The Supreme Court has begun saying "enough" and has developed some caveats to check this game. For example, the newly articulated "major questions doctrine" is essentially the anti-Chevron: if an issue is big enough, then ambiguity dictates that the agency not receive deference.
But the Court has been ambivalent, sometimes applying the doctrine, sometimes finding that the relevant law is not ambiguous, and sometimes not mentioning it. (See here, pp. 24-26.)
Now the Supreme Court has agreed to address directly the issue of whether Chevron should be overruled – much like Roe v Wade. Here’s the story.
MYSTERY LAKES OF THE GOBI
The southernmost portion of the Gobi Desert is called the Alashan in Inner Mongolia. Traversed by Marco Polo in 1273 on his way to meet the Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan, he said it contained a “mystery.”
For in the hidden center of the Alashan is an area known as Badain Jaran, “Mystery Lakes” in Mongolian. There are some 140 of these small lakes surrounded by enormous sand dunes. The photo you see is of one of these lakes, taken in late afternoon on a windless day, with the giant dunes above reflected on the water.
We explored the Badain Jaran on our 2017 Inner Mongolia Expedition. It is just as magically and mysteriously entrancing now as it was for Polo. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #32 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
CLIMATE CHANGE OBSESSION IS A REAL MENTAL DISORDER
The media wants you to know it’s hot outside. “‘Heat health emergency’: Nearly half the US at risk,” CNN proclaimed last week as temperatures climbed above 90 degrees in much of the country.
If heat waves were as deadly as the press proclaims, Homo sapiens couldn’t have survived thousands of years without air conditioning. Yet here we are. Humans have shown remarkable resilience and adaptation—at least until modern times, when half of society lost its cool over climate change.
“Extreme Temperatures Are Hurting Our Mental Health,” a recent Bloomberg headline warns. Apparently, every social problem under the sun is now attributable to climate change. However, these anxieties are no more rational than the threats from climate change are existential.
A more apt term for such fear is climate hypochondria.
HUNGA TONGA – GLOBAL WARMING LIKE YOU NEVER IMAGINED
Surely you’ve seen all the climate hysteria lately, such as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: “The era of global warming has ended. The era of global boiling has arrived.”
But there are some things they haven’t been telling us, that are in themselves complete explanations for any increased world temperatures we might be living through this summer. It’s not carbon dioxide as the eco-crazies (or the head of the UN) think. Let’s meet the historic, record-shattering Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption of 2022, which you may well have never heard of.
You never heard about it since it was underwater and nobody died. But the erupting lava instantly vaporized fantastic, unimaginable amounts of sea water, which billowed into the atmosphere, changing the water composition of Earth’s atmosphere and heating it up for years. In only a few days, the superheated water from the Hunga Tonga eruption blanketed the globe, Pole to Pole, East to West. Here’s the story.
IMPRESSIONISM’S ISLAND
Bangaram Atoll, Laccadive Islands, India. The “Lacquered” islands or Laccadives are legendary for the glossiness of the Indian Ocean surrounding them. There are three dozen of these coral atolls over 150 miles off the coast of southwest India – but moorkh Indian bureaucrats insist on calling them “Lakshadweep,” Sanskrit for “100,000. Go figure.
Paintings of the French Impressionists of the 19th century merged dreams and reality. Here that is for real. The beauty in the Laccadives can be so astonishing that it seems surreal – like when the ocean and sky merge into one in a palette of pastels straight from the brush of Monet. Come to Bangaram and you’ll find yourself living inside a painting. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #172 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TERRORISM AND TINY ZIBBS
[This Monday’s Archive was originally published on September 23, 2003. I’ll be quite interested in knowing how you think it applies to today. For it could be reinterpreted as “Trannies and Tiny Zibbs.” What kind of man gets his jollies winning awards by easily defeating women in sports, afraid to compete against other actual men? In 2003, we knew that women’s rights in the Islamic world were the key to ending Islamic terrorism. Now that this terrorism is on the upsurge again, is it just a coincidence that women’s rights in our woke culture are being trashed by tranny-worship? Your thoughts?]
TTP, September 24, 2003
This extraordinary photo is of the two Finance Coordinators of the 2003 meeting of the governing boards for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, held this week in Dubai.
Geetha Ezhuvath is on the left. She is not a Moslem. Sara Al Kaabi on the right, most obviously is.
Ms. Ezhuvath is also not from the West. She is from India. Sara Al Kaabi is from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), generally considered to be one of the least repressive Moslem states. Yet she remains sequestered in the 7th Century.
What this picture so clearly says is that men in India are much less afraid of women than in traditional Moslem countries. It is fear that forces women to hide themselves. Which raises the question Moslems are afraid to ask: Why are Moslem men so afraid of women?
THE HANI RICE TERRACES
The Hani people in the mountains of Yunnan have been carving out rice terraces on dozens of steep mountainsides for over a dozen centuries. After the late fall harvest, in winter they flood the terraces in preparation for spring planting. At sunrise and sunset, the light reflecting off them creates a scene of phantasmagorical surrealism. Unknowingly, the Hani have created one of humanity’s most magnificent works of natural art the world has ever seen. What you see here is only one of hundreds of terraced areas. It is a sight beyond belief. Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #156 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – CLIMBING MOUNT OLYMPUS
August, 1971. Here is where the Ancient Greeks believed their 12 Olympian Gods lived, on the summit of the highest peak of Olympus – Mytikas at 9,571ft/2,918m. There are 52 jagged prominences of Olympus, but if you want to commune with Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena and the rest, this is where you go.
It takes just two days: morning drive from Athens (4 hrs) to Litochoro, then the roadhead at Priona (2,500ft). Afternoon hike of some 3 hours through pretty pine forests to the comfortable Spilios Agapitos refuge (6,700ft) for dinner and a bunk bed overnight. You’re up at dawn for a strenuous but not technical climb up to Skala peak at 9,400ft. In my photo, you’re looking at Mytikas from Skala. It’s a Class B rock scramble – no ropes or gear, but this shouldn’t be your first mountain rodeo. Be careful!
I was by myself at the Mytikas summit and no selfies in those days, so I said my greetings to the gods, and I was back down at the refuge by lunchtime. You’ll be back at the Plaka below the Acropolis in Athens for ouzo and dinner. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #45 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WONDER WHY
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/28/23
You’ve seen this morning’s (7/28) headline: Special Counsel Jack Smith Adds New Charges Against Donald Trump, which includes indicting his Mar-a-Lago janitor with “destroying classified documents” – which PDJT had the fully legal right to do.
This is getting 100% lunatic ridiculous – obviously spun up as a Look, a squirrel! attention-diversion away from Hunter Plea Collapse-Biden Crime Family headlines.
It’s about time any presidential candidate of moral decency – not just of GOP but also RFK, Jr. -- to promise on Day One of his/her presidency to issue a presidential pardon for any and all corrupt Biden DOJ charges against DJT, request a bill from Congress on the Resolute Desk to sign expunging his two impeachments, release all J6 political prisoners from jail (note they’re in cages above), and appoint a special prosecutor to examine the high crimes and treason of the Biden family.
First one out of the gate on this gets a huge bump in the polls. A return to a one-tier system of judicial integrity starts here, and an end to the two-tier totally corrupt system the Dems enjoy now.
Okay, here we go. Hang on to your hats for a great HFR ride!