Penna Dexter
It’s December: time for another UN climate confab. Global socialists who see a climate emergency in every heat wave are meeting in Dubai for the 28th annual Conference of the Parties. Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot says, “COP 28 is shaping up to be a doubling down on the green agenda despite the massive failure on a grand global scale.”  
These conferences have no effect on climate. They have sparked little significant change in energy consumption. People who have to live with these agendas are starting to push back. Three thousand U.S. auto dealers are asking President Biden to let up on his aggressive electric vehicle push. EV’s are piling up on dealers’ lots. They’re losing money on every EV sold.
Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker observes God’s “wicked sense of humor” in that, on their way to the summit, “members of the planetary emergency rescue elite” ran into the early arrival of winter — a facet of the climate they could not control. They were stranded in Munich, where a snowstorm dumped 17 inches on the ground and forced cancellation of most outbound flights.
The private jets and snowbound adventures of attendees is just the beginning of their hypocrisy.
That so much time and money is spent on these conferences would be laughable if the climate mandates were not so damaging.
The Hill points out that U.S. climate envoy John Kerry has said, “There shouldn’t be any more coal power plants permitted anywhere in the world.” And yet he’s pushing what Gerard Baker describes as “some grand new partnership with China, which ”is becoming one giant coal-fired power station.”
A Bloomberg report predicts that “developed nations will be told to curb their excessive appetite for meat.” A UN report for mayors recommended a limit of three new clothing items per person per year by 2030 to fight climate change.
Apparently, climate bureaucrats are not content with the destruction of the American auto industry. 

Kerby Anderson
The attacks on Western civilization have been coming from liberals on university campuses for decades. Therefore, it was encouraging to see a liberal atheist remind us of the value of our civilization.
On his TV program, Bill Maher complained about “progressives and academics who refer to Israel as an outpost of Western civilization, like it’s a bad thing.” He then added: “Western civilization is what gave the world pretty much every liberal precept that liberals are supposed to adore. Individual liberty, scientific inquiry, rule of law, religious freedom, women’s rights, human rights, democracy, trial by jury, freedom of speech.”
I was encouraged to hear him say that, but I was concerned about some of the people he credited for these advances. I was not alone. Jerry Newcombe (D. James Kennedy Ministries) also expressed his concern in his column.
For example, Bill Maher gave credit to Rousseau, Voltaire, and Locke for giving the world the foundational principles for human rights. The first two did not. But don’t take my word for it, read Rousseau’s The Social Contract or Voltaire’s Candide, and you find their writings became the justification for the French Revolution.
But he was correct by mentioning John Locke, who is best known for his Second Treatise of Government. That book was influential to the founders of this country. He references the Bible in many places (some say 22 times, others say 121 times).
We should also add the writings of William Blackstone, Samuel Rutherford, and Baron de Montesquieu. But the most important book Bill Maher failed to mention was the Bible.
I give Bill Maher credit for defending Western civilization, even though he left out some important influences.