Myths Debunked

MYTHS vs FACTS

Politics - Religion - Health - Law

The following is not offered for the purpose of changing anyone's beliefs that may be founded upon ignorance. If nothing else, history proves that most ignorant people are ignorant by choice, and the facts will not change their minds.

Instead, this is presented for the benefit of those who already know, or suspect, the truth, and would like "ammunition" to use in case they are caught up in a debate on any of these subjects.

MYTH: Republicans stood for banning stem cell research
FACT: Republicans were not for banning the research - they simply refused to allow taxpayer money to be used to fund something that many taxpayers found morally unacceptable. There is no reason to use taxpayer money to fund private research that would financially benefit private corporations. The corporations could do their own funding, or take contributions from supporters, just like every other business.

MYTH: Santa Claus has no place in a religious holiday.
FACT: Santa Claus, an Americanized mispronunciation of Saint Nicholas, has a very real place. St Nicholas epitomized the teachings of Christ, by giving without expectation of receiving. He chose to repeat the gracious and unselfish acts of the Wise Men, by bringing gifts to children on Christmas Eve. Certainly, many people have commercialized it too much, but the concept is relevant to Christmas and its meaning. As a side note: All religions must teach their children, if the religion is to survive. Use of entertaining characters to win the undivided attention of children gives us the opportunity to teach our children about the religion. This is precisely why Christ spoke in parables - entertaining stories with morals. He knew that in order to teach them, He must first hold their attention. And to that end, Santa and the Easter Bunny have a very valuable place in that teaching.

MYTH: Sarah Palin said she could see Russia from her house.
FACT: Sarah Palin never made that statement - it was created by Saturday Night Live for a satirical skit by Tina Fey

MYTH: Butter and eggs are bad for you.
FACT: Real butter actually has nutrients necessary for good health, and the butter fat is a relatively healthy fat. Eating healthy fats does not CAUSE fat - your body creates fat from unused carbohydrates and protein, not from fat. And margarine is only one molecule away from being plastic - even flies will not touch it. The chemicals used to make it are toxic. As for eggs, the cholesterol in eggs will NOT become cholesterol in your body. Like fats, your body makes cholesterol from other sources. Eggs have high protein, low carbs, and very essential Omega 3 fatty acids that most Americans do not get nearly enough of. It is also a natural source of rare trace minerals, such as vanadium, that our bodies need and are unlikely to get elsewhere.

MYTH: Republicans are responsible for doubling the deficit with the 700 billion dollar bailout.
FACT: The bailout bill was rewritten and passed by a Congress that is Democrat controlled. 72% of Democrats voted for the bill; only 37% of Republicans voted for it. The Democrat Congress is now writing another 825 billion dollar stimulus bill that will effectively triple the deficit.

MYTH: There is a consensus that global warming is real
FACT: Not true - at a global warming conference in Manhattan last year, over 200 climatologists, scientists and researchers disagreed with the GW theory. Since that conference, more than 600 additional scientists have changed their position on global warming and now express their doubts. And every year since 1995 the Earth has actually been cooler than normal.

MYTH: Ethanol is a viable option for controlling greenhouse gases
FACT: It requires 1.7 gallons of fossil fuels to reap 1 gallon of ethanol (tilling, planting, irrigating, hilling, harvesting, transport to processing, processing). Also, the use of our food supply to create the ethanol has caused a shortage of foods, and higher prices

MYTH: The new flourescent lightbulbs are "green" - environmentally superior.
FACT: It requires twice as much glass to produce a flourescent bulb, and twice as much fossil fuel to produce that glass. The bulbs incorporate mercury, which is toxic, and must be disposed as hazardous waste - not exactly "environmentally friendly". And most Americans live at least 20 miles from a hazardous waste site - that's two gallons of gasoline required to dispose of one light bulb.

MYTH: Al Gore really won Florida in 2000.
FACT: All studies and recounts - including the one by the anti-Bush New York Times - proved that Bush really did win Florida in 2000.

MYTH: Carbon Dioxide is a dangerous pollutant that must be reduced
FACT: CO2 is not a pollutant - it is a natural gas necessary for life to exist on Earth. All plants "breathe" CO2. Reducing CO2 reduces the amount of vegetation the Earth can grow. And there is no substantive proof the CO2 has any effect whatever on any "global warming" trends. Environmentalists want to use plants to make ethanol to reduce carbon dioxide, without realizing that those same plants NEED carbon dioxide in order to live.

MYTH: President-elect Obama is a black American
FACT: Mr. Obama is only 12.5% negro. The balance of his bloodline is 37.5% Arab and 50% white.

MYTH: Religion is to blame for the world's ills
FACT: People are to blame. The fact that they abuse religion to serve their own personal agendas is not the fault of any religion. Also, claiming to be religious, and actually living as a religious person are two completely different things. A person can call themselves a Christian, or Jew. But that does not make them so. What makes them so is living according to the tenets of their religion. For example, anyone calling themselves a Christian who commits adultery is not a Christian, unless he repents. In truth, religion provides our only source of morality and laws.

MYTH: Gay Marriage is a right
FACT: No one has a right to marriage - it is a privilege. Any church may decline to marry any couple they find unsuited according to their beliefs. People may still marry outside the church, but it requires a license. And rights cannot be licensed.

MYTH: Christianity says we should hate gays.
FACT: Christianity clearly states we should love everyone, even sinners. It is the sin, not the sinner, that is an abomination. Love the sinner, but hate the sin.

MYTH: President Bush is responsible for the Katrina debacle.
FACT: The federal government cannot intervene in state or local affairs without permission. The Mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana did not request federal assistance until after the fact. The federal government had provided funds to update the levees years before, but the state of Louisiana did not use the funds allocated.

MYTH: Republicans are responsible for the current financial crisis.
FACT: While both parties bear some of the blame, the vast majority can be handed to the Democrats. Fannie Mae was created in 1937 by FDR (D), and was privatized in 1967 by LBJ (D). In 1977 Carter (D) passed CRA which required banks to make risky loans. In 1999, Clinton (D) signed the Bliley Bill that expanded CRA. In 2004 and 2005, republicans pushed measures to regulate the financial sector, particularly Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Chuck Schumer (D) and Barney Frank (D) blocked those measures, stating that the financial institutions were sound and able to regulate themselves. And in 2007 it was a Democrat Congress that rewrote and passed the bailout bill, thereby doubling our deficit overnight.

MYTH: The current unemployment rate of about 7.5% is the greatest in history.
FACT: Not even close. There have been many instances of unemployment rates of 9-10% or more. America enjoyed some of the lowest unemployment rates during the Bush presidency - the highest was during the Reagan administration. 7 of the 10 highest unemployment rates occured during Democrat presidencies.

MYTH: Taxing the rich will help the poor.
FACT: Actually, the reverse is true. When you tax the rich, or corporations, they simply pass those "expenses" onto consumers - the poor - in the form of higher prices for the products and services. Furthermore, taxing the rich leaves less profits, resulting in layoffs and/or reduced benefits, such as health insurance or 401K's. This, in turn, reduces GDP, which can cause recession. None of these things benefit the poor, even if you give them those tax dollars. That is because only 5% of the folks are wealthy - so for every dollar you take, even if spread out without any administration costs, would result in each poor person receiving about one penny. But that rich person must now up the costs of his products services by at least a penny, or more. It is simple math.

MYTH: Higher taxes means better services.
FACT: In every nation where socialism has incurred highest taxes, the services provided are the worst. It turns out that when services are cheapened by government subsidies, more people use and abuse them, and the demand for the services far outstrip the nation's ability to provide them. Maine has the second highest taxes, per capita, in the nation. Yet, it has some of the worst roads; poor, overcrowded schools; high unempoloyment and little growth. The state next door, New Hampshire, has one of the lowest tax burdens in the nation, yet has good roads, better schools, and higher growth.

MYTH: All Democrats are liberals.
FACT: Only about one in three Democrats is actually far enough to the left to be considered a liberal. In fact, another one in three is Democrat in name only - they actually believe in conservative values. They only consider themselves Democrats because of just one or two issues, such as entitlements and abortion. If not for those two issues, one in three Democrats would be likely be Republican. All polls and statistics on the issues show that 84% of all Americans have roughly the same conservative values. The remaining 16% have liberal values, and of the 84% that have primarily conservative values, the issue of abortion or entitlements keeps about 30% of them from siding with Republicans when voting. The reason Republicans often lose: known as the "silent majority", many do not show up to vote. Conservatism tends to breed complacency. Think of it like the old AVIS Car Rental commercial - #2 must try harder. And they do.

MYTH: "This recession could have been avoided if..."
FACT: Recessions cannot be avoided no matter what we do. The economy, like everything else, works in cycles. "What goes up MUST come down." Recessions are made worse by trying to avoid them, as the "bubble" continues to build pressure. The higher the balloon rises, the farther you fall when it bursts. Greenspan made a horrible mistake by bouying up the economy artificially for so long. And Bernanke followed suit.

MYTH: This "warming spell" referred to as "global warming" is a recent phenomenon.
FACT: During the several hundred years prior to the 1100's, the Earth's temperature was actually warmer than it is today. In the 12th Century, a phenomenon known by science as the Mini Ice Age began, and lasted until the mid 19th century. This mini Ice Age was responsible for entire civilizations to suffer plagues, famine and other natural disasters, and some cultures even disappeared. It was the driving force behind the Viking invasion of the British Isles to the south. Since the mid 1800's, the Earth has been warming, to get back to "normal". A similar, but more devastating climate change occured around 4000 BC - geology teaches us the Sahara at that time was a green, fertile plain. A "warm spell" occured that changed all that. Many scientists have evidenced that our sun "flares" - it throbs, so to speak. Some periods it grows hotter, while other periods it cools a bit. Look at any flame and you will see what happens. Also, our orbit around the sun is not static - sometimes we are farther away than others, often for long periods.

MYTH: Bottled water is healthier than tap water
FACT: That depends. Most bottled water is nothing more than tap water that comes in expensive plastic containers that fill landfills and cost a lot of fossil fuels to make. Tap water from public sources may have toxic chemicals like flouride added, in which case bottled water is far better for you. But if your water supply has not been doused with chemicals, your tap water is the best source available.

MYTH: All "ionic" air purifiers are healthy
FACT: Not quite. There are two types of ions - negative and positive. Positive ions are harmful to health. Negative ions are good for you. Negative ions have a very specific, "cool and clean" odor that is easily recognized.

MYTH: The Bible says the Earth was created in 6 days.
FACT: The ancient Hebrew word used in the original texts of the Bible use the Hebrew word "yom", not "day". The word "yom" can literally mean any span of time - a day, year, era, millenia, epoch, age. When King James translated the Bible into English, he arbitrarily translated yom to mean "day", in a medieval effort to make God appear even more omnipotent. In all likelihood, the word "yom" was probably meant to mean "time" - that God created the Earth in 6 times. A "time" could be millions of years. This would allow for both Creationism and evolution, and would allow the rift between science and religion to be erased - a rift created by King James by the mistranslation of a single word.

MYTH: Evolution is a proven scientific fact.
FACT: Actually, evolution is still just scientific theory, as yet unproven. Despite more than 150 years of trying to come up with solid evidence, absolutely no substantive proof has ever been found. Creationism, on the other hand, does offer certain hard evidence as to its truth, although it has also never been proven scientifically. There are many scientists who now believe that the two are not mutually exclusive - that creation could have occured, and evolution is "built in" as a means for a species to adapt to changes. See above.

MYTH: The ancients in the Bible, such as Noah, lived hundreds of years, even a thousand.
MORE LIKELY THEORY: Most likely another mistranslation. If you were to change the word "year" to "moon" (a month), Noah would have had a lifespan of roughly 80 years instead of 950 - not much different from today. Bear in mind - the Hebrew language often did not differentiate between periods of time. One should always remember that the Bible they read is merely a loose translation, made by mere mortals, subject to errors. The Bible is likely true - much scientific evidence has piled up to that effect. But it may still be interlaced with mistranslations that provide different presumptions. Did Noah Live? Probably. Did he live 950 years? Probably not.

MYTH: Adam was the first Man.
MORE LIKELY THEORY: According to Genesis, he was not. But he was the first Man with the ability to recognize "self", and see a difference between good and evil. He was the first of his specific kind, but not the first human. Genesis states that, upon being exiled for killing Abel, Cain went to the land of Nod and took a wife. If Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel were the only people, where did the wife come from? It would appear that, as is now understood through science, the tree of human ancestry had many branches - neanderthal, cro-magnon etc. Adam was simply the new, improved model. And perhaps the reason we are not as perfect is because Adam's offspring were forced to mate with those lesser humans.

MYTH: Most African Americans are Democrat because Democrats pushed for civil rights.
FACT: Republicans also pushed for civil rights - and the first Republican president - Abe Lincoln - freed the slaves. No, the reason most minorities vote Democrat appears to be more basic - Democrats provide the entitlements that many minority people came to depend upon, because they were impoverished. Welfare is like any drug - once you have it, you do not want to give it up. You become "institutionalized", as they say. African Americans and other minorties know if they vote Republican, welfare and other entitlements will likely be cut in favor of pushing those people into more productive lives, as was done in the '90's. By voting Democrat, their next "fix" of welfare is assured. But this much is true - it was both republicans and democrats that kept minorities impoverished in the first place. The only difference is that Democrats threw them a bone, and Republicans chose instead to ignore the problem. Had the Republicans of the '60's tried to uplift (without welfare) the minorities as they did in the '90's, it would be a far different story today.

MYTH: The Constitution states that there must be a separation of church and state
FACT: No such thing exists in the Constitution. The Constitution states that "Congress may make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or the free practice thereof." In short, the government could not establish a state religion, and could not interfere in religion. But there was nothing that said the government must be devoid of religion. The "wall of separation" often spoken of was written by Thomas Jefferson, who was not one of the founders who wrote the Constitution. And he later stated that the wall should be one-way, that the government must stay out of religion, but religion should not stay out of government. It was the liberal Supreme Court of the '60's that arbitrarily decided to insert Jefferson's first words into the meaning of the Constitution, while ignoring his follow-up.

MYTH: Allowing all immigrants to come here freely, and become citizens is the right, compassionate thing to do.
FACT: The resources of every country are limited. Ours are already being stretched. Of the 6 billion people on Earth, at least half are impoverished and would gladly come here. Imagine adding even one billion - or even 350 million, which would double our population. We would have to double the number and size of schools, double the roads and traffic jams, double factories and stores, and residential areas. Double the demand for health care, jobs, and so on. Almost overnight, America would become a third-world nation as more and more people would be fighting over the available, dwindling resources. It is a far better solution to help teach other cultures and nations how to prosper more from their own resources. Mexico, for example, has thousands of miles of the best beaches in the world. It is rich in minerals and certain gemstones. They could and should be doing much better than they are. And Afghanistan has some of the richest gemstone mines anywhere on Earth. Help them to maximize what they have.

MYTH: It is wrong to deport illegal aliens when they break our laws, as it breaks up families.
FACT: If that were true, then it would be just as wrong to send an American citizen to jail for breaking the law, because it would break up HIS family. No, the mere fact that a person is illegal and that families may be separated is not the issue. The issue is whether or not lawbreakers should be punished. The answer, of course, is "yes". The separation of families is the price for breaking the law - citizen or not.

MYTH: Voting ballots should be printed in different languages, to accommodate non-English speaking citizens.
FACT: There are no non-English speaking citizens. One requirement for citizenship is the ability to communicate in English. Ballots printed in other languages is a poorly disguised attempt to help non-citizens to vote in our elections, and sway the results - voter fraud.

MYTH: The people elect the President.
FACT: The popular vote means nothing. The President is chosen by a few hundred Electoral votes cast by people who were APPOINTED by either a state's legislators or the state's governor. They may vote however they wish. And in many states, the electoral votes cannot be cast according to popular vote - if 40% of the folks vote for one party and 60% vote for the other, ALL electoral votes go to the winner, not just the 60% that the candidate earned. In short, the votes of the other 40% are taken away and cast for the opponent. Your vote for one candidate may be given to the other candidate. Your Republican vote would be given to the Democrat, or vice versa.

MYTH: The government prints our money.
FACT: The Constitution specifically states that only the government may print the money. However, that was changed, illegally, in 1913 with the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. The Federal Reserve is federal in name only. It is actually a group of independent members (originally 13 wealthy families, among them JP Morgan, Goldman, Sachs, Rockefeller etc.) each of whom owns a share of the Federal Reserve. The Constitution was never amended to permit this.

MYTH: Our money is backed by gold and silver.
FACT: Not since the 1930's, when FDR put a stop to that and sold off our gold reserves to other countries. Ever since then, our money has been backed by nothing more than an I.O.U. It is, in reality, fiat money that is not backed by anything at all. All bills are now "Federal Reserve Notes" - IOU's issued by the federal reserve.

MYTH: Buying up new gold coins & bullion will protect you from financial ruin.
FACT: The government may, at any time, make it illegal to own any gold coins minted after 1936, or gold bullion. They may buy them from you at FACE VALUE - a $20 coin would get you $20 in fiat paper money, even though you may have paid $800 for it, and even though the current value is $800. And you would be REQUIRED to turn it in. The exception: gold coins officially minted prior to 1936. The government does not have any legal right to illegalize the owning of such coins, and cannot legally force you to turn them in. They are better for protecting you, and as old coins, their value tends to be far greater due to collector value and scarcity.

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