Tonight I will fight with Bill O’Reilly about “what must be done” in response to the shooting in Arizona. O’Reilly says, “new laws that provide greater safety for public officials should be considered.  We simply cannot have chaos at this level.” But we don’t have “chaos.” America is safer than ever.  Crime is down.  Political assassinations are rare.  They were once much more common.  Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy were murdered.  So were Senators James Hinds, Huey Long, Robert Kennedy and Rep. Leo Ryan... continue reading »

I enjoy a drink from time to time.  Alcohol, that is.  Afterwards, I often like to wake up with some coffee.  I’ve done this my whole life.  So what?  Many people drink mixtures of caffeine and alcohol, like rum and Coke.  Again, so what? Last year, many college kids began drinking alcoholic energy drinks like Four Loko and Moonshot ’69.  Some got sick and landed in the hospital.   Out came the hysterical TV reporters.  Of course, as I write in this week’s continue reading »

UN delegates have been in Cancun, Mexico over the last two weeks obsessing passionately about climate change and preparing for the next Kyoto-style climate treaty at this year's Climate Change Conference -- the COP16... continue reading »

Chemicals are everywhere! Farmers spray their crops with pesticides, fungicides, weed killers -- and some of that residue still lingers on the food when we eat it. fear of those pesticides has helped Organic food become a big business, because organic food is supposed to be "clean" and free of pesticides... continue reading »

"Natural" food sounds so pure. Tampering with nature feels wrong.  So it’s easy to believe that things like chemical pesticides and genetically modified food are unhealthy.  It’s intuitive to believe that they harm the planet. But as so often happens, what we know just isn't so... continue reading »

For years, I reported on every scare someone brought me.  Dangerous chemicals ... nuclear threats ... food additives ... But eventually I got to the point where I said, "Wait!  My TV show hypes everything.  Every night we say 'watch out, this could kill you.'  Shouldn't part of our job be to put risk in perspective?  Some things are much more likely to hurt us than others.” So I spent a year researching what *is* most likely to kill us... continue reading »

This Halloween, who needs ghouls and goblins to scare us when we already have … the Media! We journalists often say "if it bleeds, it leads."  That's a joke ... but it's also pretty accurate, because fear sells.   Scare stories, justified or not, bring higher ratings. For years, I've reported on hundreds of scares.  Dangerous chemicals in the grass ... nuclear threats ... food additives... continue reading »

We in the media love to scare you, because if you're scared ... we know you'll watch our programs. On my Fox Business show tonight (9pm ET), I'll cover some of these bogus scare stories, including one that made the news last month: Canada announced that it will ban the chemical "bisphenol A" -- known as BPA -- which is used to make plastic bottles. The problem is ... BPA isn't toxic... continue reading »

Last week, Canada announced it will ban the chemical “BPA” – a chemical used to make plastic bottles and canned goods. Environmental activists, like the head of the Canadian “Evironmental Defence”, were thrilled:

Kudos to the federal government… We look forward to seeing BPA legally designated as 'toxic' as soon as possible." ... continue reading »

This week, the FDA decides whether to allow genetically-modified (GM) salmon in our food supply. A biotech company engineered salmon genes to create a version of the fish that grows twice as fast. This will help the world fight overfishing and starvation.  Sounds great to me! But “natural” foods activists like Ben & Jerry’s CEO Josten Solheim are horrified... continue reading »