We Went Into Iraq for the Oil –

- is one of the great liberal lies. We have not taken one drop of oil out of Iraq. This is in line with the standard liberal cant: The US is evil, and anyone else is just an innocent victim.

Oil is one of the greatest liberal victories of all time. They must be very proud of themselves. Thank a liberal when you faint at the pump. Notice I don’t say Democrat. McCain is just as bad as any liberal where the subject of oil is concerned.

The predicament that we are in is really rather simple. We no longer allow any exploration or drilling in this country, even though there is plenty of oil. We even know generally where it is. We have the technology to extract it with minimal disturbance. We have built no refineries in the last 20 years or so. If we developed our own oil and built sufficient refineries we would see the price of oil drop by half or better quite quickly.

The oil companies that the liberals like to beat up on are captives of foreign interests, thanks to the very same liberals. They do not develop any more in the Middle East because the governments of the Middle East do not allow foreign ownership of oil resources. Even if our own companies did the developing, the Saudis or whoever would own the oil and sell it at whatever price to whomever they choose.

The repercussions of the libs strangling us over oil are far reaching. We cannot decide the price that is fair, we have no control over that. We cannot pursue foreign policy that is in our own best interests. The Saudis (home of Wahabi Islam) dictate much of our foreign policy. Foreign companies and countries own large portions of our major companies and maintain a huge network of lobbyists to pressure our politicians. Never mind McCain-Feingold, many of our politicians are so beholden to Moslem oil counties that they are merely puppets.

Never mind Afghanistan, we were determined to stop them after 9/11 and they were also a bit of an uncontrollable thorn to the Saudis. But consider that the only country we have taken out was run by a secular madman and the Saudis were quite happy for us to remove him. However, Iran is a much larger threat and we well know that they spend millions of their oil revenues to attack us and Israel. Consider that we sided against the Christian Serbs, who had a good bit of right on their side, to support the Moslems, who were invaders. These policies come from Saudi Arabia, not from our own interests.

Our foreign policy is dictated by those who hate us deeply.

As for me, I fully realize that if we pull our troops out of Iraq, the immediate consequence will be that the Iranians will own the country in less that a year. We can either abandon the people to tyranny, as we did to the South Vietnamese, or we can keep a military presence there for many years. Before you listen to the libs scream too loudly, remember that we are still a presence in Japan and Germany 60 years later.

I am of the opinion that we should take oil out of Iraq equal to the cost of this war. And enough every year to pay for the necessary support for their safety.

We keep hearing alternative this, that, and the other. Fine. Let’s start by developing enough nuclear power plants to replace all oil and gas fired plants immediately. In the long term, we also need to develop enough to replace coal fired plants as well. By the way, the coal fired plants are not nearly as dirty as the libs claim. As a general rule, whenever a lib speaks, make him prove any allegations with hard scientific data and keep a firm grip on your wallet. The libs lie like dogs and want to put us all into poverty so that we are government dependants rather than free citizens. I will believe that they are compassionate when the Kennedy’s, Kerry’s, Clintons, Obama’s, Feinstein’s, etc. etc. give some of their millions to charity. Like something higher than 1%, Many give less. And I do mean to charity, not to their own self-aggrandizing tax dodging foundations.

If you check the facts, you will see that conservatives, in general give significantly more to charity than do liberals. George Bush gives over 10% of his income to charity. Ted Kennedy, Obama, Clintons, etc. give mostly less than 1%. I will not trust a bunch who want to use the force of government to do to me what they do not willingly do themselves. Betcha Ted Kennedy pays a smaller percentage of total worth to taxes than I do.

After we have stabilized sufficient energy to keep going, I say well and good, go after alternatives. But - prove the science before jumping. We are doing entirely too many things stupidly just because we think that it is the feel-good politically expedient thing to do. I am all for alternatives that genuinely work to improve our lives and leave things clean. But only when they are proven better.

Pithy Comments -

Pacifists:

A pacifist is a coward. It depends on the individual whether it is physical cowardice or moral cowardice - or both. It is most certainly intellectual cowardice. The pacifist enjoys all the benefits of group membership without any of the responsibilities.

I find it of interest that the majority of the American pacifist groups are of the extremely aggressive terrorist mentality. “I will kill you if you do not give up your violent ways” seems to be the ideology that they espouse. I also find it of interest that they are willing to commit all kinds of indignities upon our people to keep us from defending ourselves. They do not seem willing to get in the way of those who attack us. If they were honest in their goals they would work to stop aggressors, not defenders. It is one thing to do their protesting where the force of law protects their lunatic behavior. It would be quite another thing to protest in the Middle East. Like I said - cowards.

The pacifists of the past used their cowardice to exempt themselves from the responsibilities and dangers of protecting themselves and their loved ones in time of danger. The current crop seems to not only dislike themselves - an excellent judgment - but they seem to hate this country enough to want no one to be able to protect himself or his family. Not only cowards but traitors as well. Know a leopard by his spots.

Morals:

We’ve lost any concept of morality. I’m not just talking about the lack of judgment in screwing anyone, anywhere, anytime, such that half the populous has HPV or some other form of venereal disease. I’m talking about any sense of personal integrity. People no longer seem to understand that lying diminishes their personal worth. They do not seem to base their lives on anything but expediency of the moment and the currently accepted ideas of the herd. Having warm, fuzzy concern for polar bears seems to be more important than forming a firm set of personal mores built on intense self-examination and careful thought. I’m not talking about kowtowing to Mrs. Grundy, but a careful evaluation and thoughtful formation of the standards guiding one’s conduct is a requisite for any rational human.

Politics:

Political positions should be formed after careful examination of the issues and people involved. If the people that line up with your particular prejudices seem to be good and moral people you are probably on the right track. It the people who align with your beliefs seem to be bums, criminals, adulterers, thieves and so forth, it might be a good idea to re-examine your position. You are judged by the company you keep.

Opinions:

Form opinions after careful examination of the facts. Not some nutcase group’s personal blowhard bogus information. Search out the facts. It is ok to take an expert’s evaluation in a field that you do not understand. But if it is a matter that you can comprehend with a little skull sweat, then you have the obligation to learn. Currently people argue from emotion and bias and tend to make up bogus facts and statistics to bolster their precious biases. Do not be swayed by emotional arguments. Get the facts. Be like Sgt. Friday - “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts”.

Low self-esteem:

This is one of the biggest crocks there ever was. If you do not think much of yourself then it is not up to me to give you worth. It is up to you to become a functional and useful member of society. I can provide you with the opportunity to improve yourself, but I cannot do it for you. Don’t worry about how you feel about yourself, worry about developing some useful skills. Worry about treating others with courtesy and consideration. Worry about becoming useful. Others will recognize your worth. You will then have a decent opinion of yourself. Low self-esteem will not be part of your life. Liberals like to attack symptoms. Low self-esteem is a symptom. Don’t tackle the symptom. It may be that you are not worth much. Attack the cause. Become a worthwhile human. Cure the cause and the symptom will go away.

Respect:

I do not “give” you respect. You earn it. I acknowledge the respect that you have earned. This does not mean that you should feel free to affront the dignity of those who have not earned your respect.

Manners:

Manners are not an unnecessary phoniness. Manners are the little things that enable us to live together without unnecessarily causing anger and offense. Manners enable us to help make each other feel appreciated and good. This does not mean that we should be phony in our daily relationships. Not at all, but courtesy and consideration of others will go a long way toward making your daily life and the lives of those around you pleasant.

Life:

We cannot always control external events. We can control our reactions to those external events. 90% of how we are treated is determined by how we treat others. The golden rule is alive and well. It is a jim-dandy life rule whether you are a Christian or something else. If you are uncomfortable with a Christian concept then what goes around comes around or karma will do just about as well.

You have to respect other’s beliefs:

Nonsense. If someone chooses to believe that the earth is flat, the sun circles the earth, or the moon is made of green cheese it is crap. I don’t have to respect that. I will state that anyone is free to believe any preposterous crap that they like. But I don’t have to respect stupidity. Rosie may believe that the Twin Towers were brought down by our own government if she likes. But that is a really stupid position and I will say so. If someone wants to believe that the earth is supported on the back of a giant turtle, then that’s what they believe, but I don’t have to treat it with any degree of seriousness. I don’t have to ridicule it either. If someone is a Hindu with umpteen-eleven gods, fine. But don’t ask me to act as though that were some kind of truth. Neither will I denigrate them for that belief. Looks like we’ve got a couple of different cases here. There is reasonable religious belief, which, unless it is harmful, we must allow and not denigrate. If someone believes that anyone not of his faith will go to hell, fine. If the belief is that he should send anyone who does not share his faith to hell himself, there is a problem here. Then there are secular and/or political beliefs, which I feel totally comfortable ridiculing. Conspiracy theory, UFO nuts, or some of the wackier cults come to mind.

Environment:

You should keep your house clean. The same goes for the world that we live in. Responsible stewardship is good. This means sensible use of resources. Just as you should not throw your money down a cesspool so you should be frugal in the use of the earth’s resources. This means you should not trash the environment. Stewardship also means that it is perfectly fine to use the resources for our own reasonable uses. Contrary to some of the wilder-eyed nuts, the earth is not a goddess. The earth is our home and the home of future generations. We should use sensibly and pass it on to the next generations in good shape. A good steward passes things on in better shape than when he began.

Children:

Children are not miniature adults. They are incomplete adults. They require care, feeding, love, training, and discipline before they can become successful human beings. Discipline is just as important as any of the other factors. I’m not talking about beating a child. However, some children will require the occasional spanking. Some do not. You must carefully judge what each individual child needs at the time - and your responsibility is to provide what the child needs. Food, shelter, clothes, love, hugs, talking, spanking, medical, whatever. If you do not feed your child you are guilty of child abuse. If you beat your child you are guilty of child abuse. If you do not correctly (and dispassionately) discipline your child you are guilty of child abuse. That includes spanking where indicated and necessary. If you do not love and hug your child you are guilty of child abuse. If you do not impart a system of moral behavior to your child you are guilty of child abuse. If you do not teach your child how to function and earn a living you are guilty of child abuse. It is almost impossible to become a self-disciplined adult if discipline is not part of the growing and learning process.

I do favor spanking where needed. Discipline should be swift, dispassionate (don’t discipline when you are angry), and over quickly. The child’s mind does not work the same way as the adult. Prolonged punishment is not good. I’m always saddened when adults are afraid to discipline their children and let anger and resentment build up to a prolonged time. “You are grounded for a week” is crueler than a quick swat on the butt. A spanking will get the child’s attention, show the disapproval, and unless it is way too harsh, be over in a few minutes. At that time a loving hug can be beneficial. If you do elect to use spanking, be sure that when the discipline is over that the lectures and blame are over. If you are going to drag the emotional blackmail out then don’t use spanking, it is not fair to the child. You also cannot use spanking if there has been a significant period of time between the crime and the punishment. Spanking must be immediate to be of any use.

There are people who do not believe in spanking. That is also ok - if their children are disciplined in some other appropriate way. My observation is that the majority of those who do not believe in spanking raise self-centered, undisciplined brats. Not spanking should not be equated with not disciplining. Not spanking might well be considered child abuse in these circumstances.

Incidentally - giving the child what is needed is NOT giving what is wanted. Denying material junk may be what is best. It is not necessary for a child to have $150.00 shoes. It may, in fact, be quite detrimental to character development. Giving a kid a car on the 16^th birthday may be the worst possible thing. Or it may be necessary. Personalities and circumstances determine the correct move at every turn. You gotta’ be smart to be a good parent. Smart and intelligent are not always the same thing. Sitting a kid in front of a TV or a computer may keep him quiet and be quite bad for him. Taking the time to have a family Monopoly game may be more beneficial. Reading to the kid may take some of your valuable time and energy. But it is worth it.

If you are not responsible enough to think all this through you should not procreate. If you are not willing to give the child anything needed - including your precious time and attention when the child needs it, not when it is convenient for you - then you should not procreate. If you cannot sacrifice 20+ years of your life to grow a successful human then you should not procreate. If you are not smart enough and tough enough to be your child’s parent, not his friend, then you should not procreate.

Farts and Mother Earth -

It seems that the latest craze amongst the leftier environazis is the call to eliminate cows. After all, cows make farts, which have methane gas, which - horrors - destroys mother earth. Humans are bad - humans eat cows - therefore humans need to eat less meat, reducing the cows and the cow farts.Where to start? I don’t know about you, but I find that this is more hot air than facts. First off, don’t the nuts realize that cow farts are a natural product? We had somewhere around 70 million buffalo on the prairies before the hunters wiped them out. I submit that if 70 million buffalo farts didn’t cause mother earth to overheat, our modern food and dairy animals won’t.

Secondly, if we don’t eat red meat, we have to eat a rather complex veggie diet to make up the nutrients. This is ok for adults, but there are some nutrients that can only be gotten by eating meat and it is child abuse to not give them to the kiddies. You can pull it off if the kid is kept on mother’s milk for a looong time. But you can’t just whip a baby into a vegan diet. They don’t grow well. Back to a veggie diet. To get a complete protein from a veggie diet you must eat a fair amount of bean and grain combo stuff. Has anyone here spent any time in a vegan community? I have. The after dinner farts in a vegan community sound like the campfire scene from Blazing Saddles. Thunderous doesn’t even cover it. How then have methane emissions been eliminated? Sounds like the environutzies are just on another dictatorial kick - “for your own good” - of course.

Third - shouldn’t we therefore be logically thinking about eliminating the vast herds of grazing animals that are still on the African plains? Millions of Wildebeests are still pumping farts into the air of Africa. Not to mention the antelope, gazelles, and so on.

California has succeeded in running Interstate Bakeries out of business in Southern California. Reasons cited are high union labor, excessive state mandated employee benefits, and the impossibility of meeting state mandated CO2 emissions limits. Fact is, yeast makes CO2 as part of the metabolic cycle of making bread rise (yeast farts). All the legislation that California is putting into place will just about make baking impossible by 2020. PI is still 22/7, not 3.0 no matter what stupid legislation is passed.

California cities are also beginning to legislate how many fast food joints are allowed in a given area instead of letting the market decide. Looks like the legislators think that people are too stupid to vote with their wallets and must be protected from the consequences of their own decisions. “For your own good” is usually the excuse of the worst kind of tyranny.

The bellwether libs of California seem to be more interested in getting rid of cows, bread, burger joints, etc. than they are in ridding themselves of gangs, murderers, illegals, and drunk celebrity drivers. Lets you know where their real priorities lie. Actually, bellwether is a good term for Californians. Comes from Middle English. A bell was tied around the neck of a castrated ram (wether), which would then lead a flock of sheep wherever the shepherd directed. Draw your own parallel.

The Plains Indians and the early settlers did use dried buffalo patties for fires. They weren’t dumb. If, instead of trying silly ideas, some smart lefty (contradiction of terms) were to think up a way to capture cow farts and process same, he just might have a good alternative fuel. Methane burns nicely and could contribute to energy independence. Renewable resource, don’t you know. Course that might take work and thinking, both processes being foreign to environazis.

And, of course, solar activity has absolutely no effect on the environment, Only human activity. Oh yeah, sorry. It is only the American activity that pollutes the earth and leads to global warming. Africa, India, China, Europe, and all the rest don’t matter, even when they do the same or worse than we do. Only Americans are bad, irresponsible and greedy. Only Americans are causing global warming. Only by punishing Americans can the world heal itself. No wonder the America hating left does not want to defend us against the current Jihad. When the Americans are ruled by a Taliban, there will only be a fraction of the people left to pollute mother earth, for the rest will be dead and so will modern technology. And free thought, and the Internet, and ….

Holy Grails and other Illusional Myths –

People can get delusions. This applies to groups and even whole cultures as well as individuals. One of the older myths was the “Holy Grail”. People got all wound up about looking for it. There are still fringies who think they just might find it. Relatively harmless delusion and nice hobby. Nowadays there is another popular and persistent myth: that of high payback for “alternative energy sources”. The main problem here is a whole bunch of people, some burnt out old hippies, some great unwashed, and some otherwise mainstream, are whoopee-hollering without the faintest clue that their dearest dream is a myth. The problem is that we are getting politicians who are buying this. Not just lefties, either. Politicos are prostitutes, whether they tilt left or right.

Now, lets get a little historical perspective here. We used whale oil among other animal oil derivatives extensively until it was replaced by petroleum. This change was not for any great altruistic motives, but because the whales were getting scarce and the petroleum was cheaper and more plentiful.

Now, we can sit here all day and argue about whether oil is getting scarce or not. The flakier left-wingers insist that we are going to run out just any minute now. The flakier right says that we will never run out. (There seems to be some evidence that mama earth is still making petroleum). The truth is most likely somewhere in the middle. Anwar hasn’t been touched yet, and preliminary exploration shows that there is probably a 300 year supply at current consumption rates. There is lots more out in the Gulf that hasn’t been tapped yet. The current real problem is not oil, it is getting the derivatives. We don’t have enough refineries and with all the red tape is takes about 20 years to get a refinery out of the ground and producing and amortized. We generally won’t wait 20 years to see our profits. Right now, it is not the imported oil that’s killing us at the pump – it’s the gasoline that we are importing. Our clean air standards make our gasoline a lot harder to refine. That equals more money on imported gasoline, for sure.

We can also argue over other fossil sources of energy – are they going to last or whatever. Coal, oil, gas are all burned to produce heat to produce steam to drive a turbine to make electricity. Not terribly efficient, but it works and is affordable.

Ah yes, nukes. The French have been using nukes for years. They don’t seem to have too much of a problem with it. We had a relatively mild problem ourselves. But the Russkies – oh my! Available data indicate we haven’t heard the last of that one. It may get nastier. We may have to give up nukes or really improve them. The current state is a bit too chancy – and expensive. (It all comes back to moola).

Hydro – good source. But. There’s always a but isn’t there? It takes a boatload of time, money, materials and enough red tape to strangle all the elephants in the world. For starters, you gotta build one whopping big dam. Damn dams are not so easy to locate. You’ve got to find a reliable river. You’re going to flood a whole heap of land. The inhabitants may object. If there are no inhabitants of the homo sap variety, the EPA will object on the part of the non-sap dwellers. If there’s a really humongous waterfall handy, you can use one of those. We seem to have already tied up the good ones. Further, the things are kind of expensive toys. Higher cost per KW than fossil plants. We probably aren’t going to do a whole lot more of those.

Now the current idea that we can get free energy from solar, wind, heat taps or what have you – well – TANSTAAFL applies here. TANSTAAFL? Well – around 1870 of thereabouts, bars used to offer “free lunch” to draw in the patrons. The lunch was, of course, not really free. You had to be buying drinks. The bars did very well, thank you. Now good old RAH (that’s Heinlein!) who wrote on just about every topic in the world, popularized this in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. If you haven’t read it your education is sadly lacking. Anyway – TANSTAAFL – There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. The watchword for just about anything in the universe. The laws are pretty absolute. Otherwise we could have perpetual motion machines. Now – anyone who has ever even looked at a physics book knows – there is no such animal and can’t be in this universe. This does not stop sophomoric idiots from devoting more time to dreaming on this than studying the real stuff. Like the laws governing entropy. P.T. Barnum said it well – “There’s one born every minute”.

Back to the topic at hand. The flakes and nuts are convinced that these energy for nothing dreams will work. Not so. Now it is quite true that we can get good energy from solar. The problem is that you must radically alter your lifestyle to get full benefit. And, of course, there’s the initial equipment cost. Now looky-here, when a power plant is built and distribution wiring is run to your little rose covered cottage, the initial investment is handled by a whole bunch of greedy capitalists, who damn well will get profit on their money. But there’s a bunch of them, and the cost gets spread really thin. Now, yes, you do pay your share, but it is spread waaaay out over a lot of years. Contrariwise, when you go off into the woods to do the solar thingy, you bear ALL the setup costs. It’s really samey-samey over a long period of time. But your pocketbook notices that big bite rather more than the slow bleed.

Mostly what people mean by solar is just some collectors to get hot water – a proverbial drop in you little bucket of consumption (and a loooong payback). You want to talk some serious dinero, try setting up your very own personal solar arrays and Rankin cycle engine for the real independence. The solar to get you totally energy independent will cost you about 50 years all at once – gulp!

Now I’ve got it! Lets do windmills! Okey-dokey. Not a bad source. Let’s see we need lots of open land with fairly constant wind. Like a good shoreline? Mr. Lean-left enviro-fiendly Kennedy (who owns oil companies!) said he didn’t want those damn things near his neighborhood, they blocked the view. This is rather the view of most people near good land for windmills. See, tain’t just a matter of one or two of the ungainly things, it takes a whole bunch to do any serious energy generation.

Now, does this mean that we should stop looking for alternative sources? Not at all! But, in the name of all that’s dear, don’t start legislating. We ain’t there yet. I don’t know if a cheaper and more efficient and cleaner way of sucking up energy is out there or not (we cannot create energy, just modify and channel it). I’ll bet that it is. But we need innovative thinking and greasy knuckled people looking into it. Not people who think that pi can be 3.00. Good, hard-headed engineering types. What I would say to the wilder-eyed is that some research funding is needed. So – contribute! But don’t rob me to do it.

When the real deal is figured out, said figurer is going to be very popular. And very rich. And it won’t just be the politically correct who ditch high dollar energy. When the economics is right, everyone will get energy friendly.

Liberal Hypocrisy –

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is a convicted felon and heroin junkie. He has stated that anyone who disagrees with his extremist environazi position is a traitor. If someone on the right stated that anyone who disagreed with them was a traitor the liberal press would crucify them. For days. Look how long they howled for Don Imus’s blood. The Duke Lacrosse case got tons of press when they were after the player’s hides. I noticed a whole lot less coverage of their clearing and the crazy DA’s indictment. Bobby, Jr. won’t have this. He is a liberal, and so is the press. They like him.

Dianne Feinstein is guilty of using her senatorial committee position to steer military contracts to her husband’s arms firm. You don’t see that one in the press. They like her.

Edward Kennedy is a drunk. He is either a murderer or guilty of drunken incompetence while leaving Mary Jo Kopekne to die a horrible death. The press likes him.

John Kerry is a liar and a giver of aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States while in a condition of war. He met, as a private citizen, with the representatives of the North Vietnamese government while shooting was still going on. This is a matter of public record. It is also recorded at the North Vietnamese museum, with Kerry shown as one of their heroes. It is also against the law, and can carry the death penalty. This is beside the issue of whether or not he has lied about his service in Vietnam. His stories have been inconsistent and the Swiftboat Veterans were there. The press wasn’t. But they like him.

Joe Kennedy made his money as the banker for the mob. Edward owns lots of oil company stock. (So does Michael Moore).

And so on. Not that the Republicans are any better, but the press does crucify them. If they blow their noses wrong. Whether there is a real story or not.

I see that the Kerry’s have several limousines and SUV’s. I don’t see them with any hybrid cars. I don’t see them with ethanol, which doesn’t work. Corn has to be subsidized to make ethanol from corn even vaguely affordable. When corn is used for ethanol, the price of staples goes up. Taxes go up. The price of fuel goes up. The poor are the ones that suffer most. Some compassion. But wait – Brazil makes it work nicely! Well yes. They do. They use sugar cane for ethanol, not corn. Corn is a lousy energy hog. It takes more energy to grow it than it yields. Sugar cane is pretty efficient. We don’t have enough land that is available for sugar cane to amount to beans where fuel is concerned. Anyway, where was I. Oh yeah, the Kerrys are not called to task. The liberals like them.

I see private jets used by all these rich, environmentally conscious liberals. When (rarely) anyone in the press has the temerity to question the use of private jets, the rationale is that “emission reduction credits” are used.

Let’s see. Emission Reduction Credits. ERCs. That’s where you don’t reduce your own pollution, you buy these credits from someone who has reduced pollution below the mandated levels and can therefore sell their credits.

So, the conclusion here is that if you are rich enough, you can buy the credits to maintain any lifestyle you damn well please. Kind of like the indulgences that the Medieval Western Church was selling. Rape, murder, adultery, whatever. Just buy your way out. Of maybe it was more like the draft in the Civil War. You could buy your way out of the draft. If you had $300 you could avoid service by paying someone else to pay the final price. I don’t see a whole lot of difference.

I don’t know that I have a lot of beef with people who honestly believe that we should reduce environmental impact. That is a worthy goal that should be everyone’s. We might disagree on how to get there. That’s ok. What does really bite is the worship of these lying hypocrites that lead the libs. If Republicans act anywhere near like these people, the outcry from the press and the mass of libs is loud and long. I only ask that the playing field be level. Hold these lying slimeballs to the same standards. Hate speech is hate speech, whether by RFK, Jr. or some wild-eyed ethnic hater.

It is popular on the left to characterize the Nazis as right wing. Not so, totalitarianism is the last thing a conservative can embrace. A conservative is interested in individual freedom. For everyone. Any group that would use the power of government – read armed force – to force a particular view and behavior on the populous is to be in the same bed with the Nazis. Whether the goal is power for the sake of power, or to eradicate some hated group, or to force the use of certain light bulbs, or to force some type of salvation on everyone else. Including environmental purity. Using the force of law to effect social change is always tricky and highly dangerous. What is started with the best of intentions (the road to Hell is paved with) will almost always be hijacked by extremists if there is any force involved at all.

If we really have a climate change problem – and the final scientific proof does not seem to be here yet, but there does seem to be anecdotal evidence – then instead of panicking about a light bulb or using one piece of tissue paper, or expecting cars to go away, we had better figure out the consequences. We had a climate change back in 535-536 AD. (And have had others throughout recorded history). We didn’t have any industry to blame, but the consequences were rather severe. Including famine. Do we need to think about preparing for a famine? Even the back-to-the-earthers are going to be in a hurt if crops won’t grow. I submit that if we are having climate change, then coping with the consequences and good scientific examination of the causes and possible cures are more important than trying to base public policy on a populist movement. If we waste our effort in going the wrong direction, we may feel warm and fuzzy and virtuous, but people could die if we are wrong. Lots of people. If it is within out power – doubtful, but possible – and we are to achieve any significant cure then this must be a coordinated worldwide effort. This will take people and nations all working together. Not trying to grind the ax of blaming the US for everything. Not exempting the Chinese and Africa. (Both pollute more than the US now. Both have worse human rights records than the US ever did). Everyone. Together. Rationally. No more killing because someone’s religion is different. How are you going to persuade them to stop?

Fact, not Truth –

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade:

“Archaeology is the search for fact… not truth. If it’s truth you’re looking for, Dr. Tyree’s philosophy class is right down the hall.”

I’m sure nearly everyone on the planet has heard that one by now. This applies to all fields of science. Now the left is busy having hernias over the “global warming” thing. Also firmly insisting that it is all America’s greedy fault. But I don’t see the libs voluntarily going to a subsistence level of living. Kennedy’s and Kerry’s give up their SUVs yet?

On the other paw – the conservatives are just as busy insisting “there ain’t no such thing, and if there were, we couldn’t do it.” Kind of like a kid in denial.

I find both positions sort of puzzling. Now, we surely don’t need people getting hysterical without facts. We don’t need lib politicians trying to silence any meteorologist who disagrees with the unproven (but politically correct) thing. Nor do we need to be running around passing laws to require cars to get a zillion miles per gallon, or light bulbs that are more hazardous waste.

Contrariwise, we don’t need to be insisting there couldn’t possibly be climate change headed our way. Sometime those crazy libs are right.

How ‘bout something unusual, like getting the facts:

Is there climate change going on?

1. If so, which direction? Good? Bad?

a. If bad, how is it going to affect the food supply?
b. Should we stockpile or take other precautions?

2. If so, what is causing it?

a. Can we do anything to ameliorate or rectify? Should we?

Let’s break this down. First question: is there a climate change?

If no, roll back over and snooze a little more and quit wasting my time and money.

If yes, then which direction is it going? Warmer, cooler? Is it perhaps overall positive for the planet? Is it going to really goof up the food supply? This translates as famine. People die. Can we stockpile enough supplies to ride this out? Do we need to take other precautions?

If yes, can we positively determine the cause? Is the sun simply going through a normal cycle? Is it something that we can address prophylacticly?

Now, lefties, I hope that you guys can see a couple of things here. One is that you can be wrong. Yes, it can happen. On the other hand, you could be right, that there is a climate change taking place. If this is true then you are only muddying the water with your hysterical calls for silly things like: use a single piece of toilet paper, change your light bulbs, ride a bicycle, and so on. If this is really true, then it is probably way beyond our ability to influence it. We should be worrying about surviving famine and pestilence and such like. Quit wasting our time with silliness and get in line to get serious science by appropriate disciplines.

Conservatives – aren’t you the guys who like to run around saying “where there’s smoke there’s fire”? Fine. There seems to be a boatload of smoke here. (Could be just hot air – but we don’t know). Quit procrastinating and fund some real research. I agree that the libs can be awfully shrill, irritating, and painfully smug. But really, guys, don’t let your dislike of these critters deter you from saving your collective butts. And those of your children. If you get facts that prove the pinheads wrong, great, beat them over the head with those facts and never let them forget they were wrong. But – we could get enough warning to survive. Not a bad idea.

See, right now the whole global warming thing is really a religious stance. The true believers on the left that have seen the light seem to think that they’ve got proof. That’s kind of like trying to prove God exists by quoting scripture. Works for true believers, but doesn’t work at all on the unbelievers. So you’d better get real climatologists, etc. to do the research. On the other hand the atheist position – “I just don’t believe it!” – of the right is just as religious. Not going to believe until bit on the butt with facts. Great. Now let’s get both sides together on getting the facts. See libs, us that don’t believe find your constant harping about as appetizing as you find having a fundamentalist preaching in your face. And you are both true believers in your causes.

Husband of the earth –

There is a movement among the leftier liberals. The participants thereof are frequently referred to as “tree-hugger” or “environazis”. Not terribly inaccurate, actually. These people are against any use of the earth’s resources. It is almost as though the earth were a goddess and we merely a nasty infection. I disagree with this proposition.

There is, as usual in human interactions, an opposite view. Clear cut, strip mine or whatever else serves the purpose. Dump the products of industry wherever it suits. These people used to be called “robber barons”. Also not terribly inaccurate. There are probably some viler epithets that can be used. They can’t be vile enough. These creatures steal not only from us, but also for our descendants. I also disagree with this proposition, even more strongly.

Now, in Genesis it is recorded that God gave Man dominion over the earth. You can get all kinds of explanation of that basic little statement. The anti-Christian crowd seems to think that this means Christians (and Jews) are supposed to trample the earth. This is a silly and ridiculous statement. The Greek of the Septuagint makes it abundantly clear that the concept is stewardship or husbanding. Among the meanings of husband is the original Norse meaning: Head of the household. Also the familiar: Mate of a woman. Now here’s the real article at hand: To use carefully, to conserve.

I submit that it perfectly all right to use the resources of this good earth. Carefully. The animals that are worshipped by the more radical left use the resources as they damn well please with no regard for the consequences. We must be more respectful. You don’t shit in your living room if you are civilized and housebroken. BTW – you lefties ever seen a wood after beavers have used it? Looks as bad as any clear cut I ever saw. Maybe worse. However, back to business. It is ok to harvest trees. But don’t strip the woods. Do replant properly. Take care that the animals that use the wood will be able to thrive. Mama earth is a wonderful survival machine. God gave it to us. You don’t throw gifts into a cesspool, do you? Strip mining. Actually this can be a total disaster or not. Depending. The removed material can be replaced and planted. Costs a little bit, but less costly in the long run than loosing part of the earth. And you do have to reasonable about when to use this technique. I’m afraid this does have to be covered by legislation, much as I hate extra laws. Mankind can be remarkably shortsighted. And corporations (see an earlier rant) have no conscience except profit.

Now, if you are a housebroken, responsible, and civilized person, and you borrow something from a neighbor, how do you return it? Let’s say a saw. Do you return it broken and dulled? No. You do not. You return it sharp, well oiled, and clean. If it breaks while you are using it, don’t you get it repaired or replace it at your own expense? How then, if we are borrowing God’s creation, should we not be at least as careful and considerate? For, no matter what the deeds to our land say, we don’t own it. We are only borrowing it for a time.

I love it when people miss the whole concept of manhood. Anyone with an I.Q. larger than a rock knows that women nurture. Men, well, most people don’t seem to know what men do. They work jobs, they put food on the table, they have affairs. They plot bad things all day and into the night. Whoa. Put on the brakes. If that was what men were we would have died out a long time ago. What a real man does is husbanding. Yes, he’s head of a household (or a member thereof). But wait – there’s more. For if he does not nurture his family and husband their resources responsibly the family probably won’t survive. At least in the past. Now they may survive physically, but the mind, soul, and spirit will be damaged if the guy does not properly husband his family. Extend it a bit – we must also husband our neighbors, our community, our nation, and our planet. If we fail in this, we as a society will fail and be replaced by a stronger people. If we as the human race fail, we will die in the filth we have made of God’s precious gift to us. Free will, another great gift comes into play here. We also get the consequences of our actions.

Hey — you women don’t get off scott-free, either. You must nurture and respect this earth and its resources, too. I talk more to the guys because they need it more. Women are smarter than men, frequently. You still get all the same responsibilities. O well, welcome to humanity. We’re all in the same boat!