Gender: Male
Status: In a Relationship
Age: 27
Sign: Gemini
City: Pinellas Park
State: Florida
Country: US
Signup Date: 11/9/2004
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Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:52 AM
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Category: News and Politics
My Political ViewsI am a right social libertarian Right: 3.81, Libertarian: 3.73  Political Spectrum QuizMy Foreign Policy ViewsScore: 1.08  Political Spectrum QuizMy Culture War StanceScore: 0.82  Political Spectrum Quiz
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Friday, July 24, 2009 5:27 PM
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Current mood:  thankful
Category: News and Politics
This article my cousin posted on her blog states my view of the situation perfectly. I have been
thinking that Gates had blown the incident into something much bigger
then it is. Gates was not charged with breaking and entering,
but with disorderly conduct. That wouldn't have happened if he wasn't
yelling and
accused Sgt. James Crowley of being racist and just showed the ID right
away instead of demanding why he was being asked in the first place.
It's procedure, they are doing their job to keep the area safe. Thank you for posting this Kelli. When the Cops Are Called In, Anger Is a Dangerous Weapon to Brandish By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
One of the common-sense rules of life can be summed up this way: Don't Mess With Cops. It
doesn't matter if you are right, wrong, at home or on the street, or if
you are white, black, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim or whatever. When an
armed law enforcement officer tells you to cease and desist, the wise
person (a) ceases and (b) desists. The End. Like Harvard professor
Henry Louis Gates Jr., I am interracially married, currently live in a
predominantly white neighborhood, have a healthy respect for armed men
wearing uniforms, and have had the police come to my house in a
confrontational manner, doing the job they're paid to do. It
happened when our house alarm went off at 2 a.m. a few months ago, on a
night the electricity was off and the neighborhood was dark as pitch.
WANH!! WANH!! WANH!! It sent my wife and me leaping out of bed. I
sprinted downstairs with a baseball bat, our Rottweiler and a
flashlight to confront any possible intruder. I checked all the windows
and doors, the dog yawned, and it quickly became apparent that there
was a short circuit from a rear door. My wife called the alarm company and gave them the code for a false alert. Then two cops showed up. The
first thing they did was ask me to step outside. The second thing they
did was to ask me for my identification, to prove that I lived there.
They were demanding and they were not friendly. They kept their
flashlights in my face. They did not take my word for it that it was my
house, though I was as white as they were. Once I showed
them my driver's license with the address, they asked if anyone else
was inside, and then they asked if they could look around the place. I
was irritable in that middle-of-the-night kind of way, but it did not
occur to me that they might be picking on us, the salt-and-pepper
couple on the block. What occurred to me was that they got a call about
a home alarm going off and they had to secure the premises before they
could leave. And I was thrilled to have them search the entire house,
because my wife's 9-year-old daughter was murdered in a home invasion
in Silver Spring six years ago. The police came running then, too, but
it was too late. So I told them about that, and they then
politely told my wife what they were doing, and they swept the house,
room-to-room and closet-to-closet, and then walked the back yard as
well. They came back to the front door, these young white cops, and
assured my African American wife that there were no bad men in the
house or on the property, and that we were safe. And then they left. I
tell that story to tell this one: The guy who owns the house across the
street, another white guy, rents out the place. One time when it was
empty, he went over there late one night to do some work on the
interior, turned on all the lights. A neighbor noticed the lights on in
the empty house and called the police, who pulled up a few minutes
later. He got angry at them for asking them to prove he
owned the place. Yelled. They yelled back. Threatened to arrest him.
Only the intervention of our next-door neighbor, vouching for the guy,
ended the situation. America can be a funny place, and it
can be mean and hard. Bad things happen to good people who are white,
black, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim or whatever, and some of those things
are caused by people breaking into houses. The police, when they show
up at a residence or a liquor store, don't know what's what or who's
who. The good cops are there to have people (a) cease and (b) desist.
The bad cops still have a badge, a gun and the legal authority to haul
your butt downtown. So you want to make friends, join the
glee club. You want to yell at people who are lousy at their jobs, go
to a Redskins game. But, all things considered, Don't Mess With Cops.
It usually works out better that way.
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:33 PM
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Current mood:Watchful
Category: News and Politics
President Obama's "science czar," John Holdren, once floated the
idea of forced abortions, "compulsory sterilization," and the creation
of a "Planetary Regime" that would oversee human population levels and
control all natural resources as a means of protecting the planet --
controversial ideas his critics say should have been brought up in his
Senate confirmation hearings. Holdren, who has degrees from MIT and Stanford and headed a science policy program at Harvard's Kennedy School
of Government for the past 13 years, won the unanimous approval of the Senate as the president's chief science adviser. He
was confirmed with little fanfare on March 19 as director of the White
House's Office of Science and Technology Policy, a 50-person
directorate that advises the president on scientific affairs, focusing
on energy independence and global warming. But
many of Holdren's radical ideas on population control were not brought
up at his confirmation hearings; it appears that the senators who
scrutinized him had no knowledge of the contents of a textbook he
co-authored in 1977, "Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment,"
a copy of which was obtained by FOXNews.com. The
1,000-page course book, which was co-written with environmental
activists Paul and Anne Ehrlich, discusses and in one passage seems to
advocate totalitarian measures to curb population growth, which it says
could cause an environmental catastrophe. The three authors summarize their guiding
principle in a single sentence: "To provide a high quality of life for all, there must be fewer people." As first reported
by FrontPage Magazine, Holdren and his co-authors spend
a portion of the book discussing possible government programs that could be used to lower birth rates. Those plans
include forcing single women to abort their babies or put them up for adoption; implanting sterilizing capsules in people
when they reach puberty; and spiking water reserves and staple foods with a chemical that would make people sterile. To
help achieve those goals, they formulate a "world government scheme"
they call the Planetary Regime, which would administer the world's
resources and human growth, and they discuss the development of an
"armed international organization, a global analogue of a police force"
to which nations would surrender part of their sovereignty. Holdren's office issued a statement
to FOXNews.com denying that the ecologist has ever backed any of the measures discussed in his book, and suggested reading
more recent works authored solely by Holdren for a view
to his beliefs. "Dr. Holdren has stated flatly that he does not now support and has never supported compulsory abortions,
compulsory sterilization, or other coercive approaches to limiting population growth," the statement said. "Straining
to conclude otherwise from passages treating controversies of the day
in a three-author, 30-year-old textbook is a mistake." But
the textbook itself appears to contradict that claim. Holdren
and the Ehrlichs offer ideas for "coercive," "involuntary fertility
control," including "a program of sterilizing women after their second
or third child," which doctors would be expected to do right after a
woman gives birth. "Unfortunately," they write, "such a program therefore is not practical for most
less developed countries," where doctors are not often present when a woman is in labor. While
Holdren and his co-authors don't openly endorse such measures on other
topics, in this case they announce their disappointment --
"unfortunately" -- that women in the third world cannot be sterilized
against their will, a procedure the International Criminal Court
considers a crime against humanity. "It's
very problematic that he said these things," said Ben Lieberman, a
senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation. Lieberman faulted
Holdren for using government as a solution to every problem and
advocating heavy-handed and invasive laws. But other members of the scientific community said accusations
against Holdren are wholly misplaced. "John Holdren has been one of the most well-respected and prominent scientific
voices urging the federal government to address global warming," wrote Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned
Scientists, in a statement. Holdren's co-authors, Paul and Anne Ehrlich, said in a statement that they were "shocked
at the serious mischaracterization of our views and those of John Holdren," caused by what they called misreadings of the
book. "We were not then, never have been, and are not now 'advocates' of the Draconian measures for population
limitation described -- but not recommended" in the book, they wrote. Still, William Yeatman, an energy policy analyst
at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, faulted the Senate for not screening Holdren more strenuously during his hearings
before confirming his nomination by unanimous consent both in committee and in the full Senate. Despite
"the litany of apocalyptic warnings that turned out to be incorrect, no
one was willing to stick his neck out" and vote no, Yeatman said. Some
of Holdren's views on population came under fire during the otherwise
quiet confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation, where Sen. David Vitter, R-La., asked him
to revisit his past statements about environmental catastrophes that
have never come to pass. "I was and
continue to be very critical of Dr. Holdren's positions -- specifically
his countless doomsday science publications and predictions that have
been near universally wrong," Vitter told FOXNews.com. "I
wish that the Commerce Committee had taken more time to evaluate his
record during his nomination hearing, but like with everything else in
this new Washington environment, the Democratic majority and the White
House were pushing to speed his nomination along," Vitter said. Vitter grilled Holdren during the hearing, asking him to clear up his 1986 prediction that global
warming was going to kill about 1 billion people by 2020. "You would still say," Vitter asked, "that 1 billion people
lost by 2020 is still a possibility?" "It is a possibility, and one we should work energetically to avoid," Holdren
replied. Sen. John Kerry, a leading Democrat on the committee, said the renewed scrutiny was essentially a Republican
smear on Holdren's good record. Kerry told FOXNews.com that senators already had "ample opportunity" to question Holdren,
who "made clear that he does not and never has supported coercive approaches, end of story. "The
Commerce Committee and the Senate then unanimously concluded what I
have long known -- that John Holdren is a leading voice in the
scientific community and we are fortunate to have him lead the fight to
restore the foundation of science to government and policymaking that
has been lacking for almost a decade." Holdren has
confronted a number of challenges during his four-decade scientific
career, including nuclear arms reduction, and was part of a group that
shared the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to diminish the
part played by nuclear arms in international politics," as the Nobel
Committee said. Now
his greatest focus is global warming, which he said in a recent
interview poses a threat akin to being "in a car with bad brakes
driving toward a cliff in the fog." Holdren told the Associated Press in April that the U.S. will consider all options to veer
away from that cliff, including an experimental
scheme to shoot pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays and cool the earth, a last resort
he hoped could be averted. "Dr. Holdren is working day and night for the Obama Administration and the American people,
helping to develop science and technology policies to make the country stronger, more secure, and more energy independent,
and to make Americans healthier and better educated," his office told FOXNews.com. Four
months after Holdren's confirmation, his critics are keeping a wary eye
on his work in the White House, where they assert that he has the
president's ear on scientific issues. "It is interesting that this 30-year-old book is finally coming to light," said Lieberman, of the Heritage Foundation. "The
people who are concerned about Holdren, quite frankly we didn't do enough homework."
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Wednesday, July 22, 2009 10:59 AM
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Current mood:  determined
Category: News and Politics
WASHINGTON
– Gun control and gun rights advocates are heading for another clash
with a Senate vote on a measure that would allow people with concealed
weapons permits to carry those hidden weapons into other states.
Backers, led by Sen. John Thune,
R-S.D., say truckers and others with concealed weapons permits should
be able to protect themselves when they cross into other states.
Opponents say the measure would force states with strict procedures for
getting permits to accept permits from states with more lax laws.
The Senate
has scheduled a vote Wednesday on the measure, which Thune offered as
an amendment to a major defense policy bill. Under an agreement reached
among Senate leaders, 60 votes will be needed to approve the amendment.
The
vote comes a day after the Senate completed what is probably the most
controversial issue connected to the defense bill, voting 58-40 to
eliminate $1.75 billion in the $680 billion bill that had been set
aside for building more F-22 fighters. President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates campaigned hard for removing the money, saying the Pentagon had enough F-22s and the money could be spent on more pressing defense needs.
The
gun proposal would make concealed weapons permits from one state valid
in other states as long as the person obeys the laws of other states,
such as weapons bans in certain localities. It does not establish
national standards for concealed weapons permits and would not allow
those with permits to carry weapons into Wisconsin and Illinois, the two states that do not have concealed weapons laws.
"Law-abiding South Dakotans should be able to exercise the right to bear arms
in states with similar regulations on concealed firearms," Thune said.
"My legislation enables citizens to protect themselves while respecting
individual state firearms laws."
National Rifle Association
chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox said the last two decades have shown a
strong shift toward gun rights laws. "We believe it's time for Congress
to acknowledge these changes and respect the right of self-defense, and
the right of self-defense does not stop at state lines," he said.
Gun control groups were strongly in opposition.
Concealed handgun permit holders killed at least seven police officers and 44 private citizens during a two-year period ending in April, according to a study by the Violence Policy Center.
"It is beyond irrational for Congress to vote to expand the reach of
these deadly laws," said the center's legislative director, Kristen
Rand.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would "incite a dangerous race to the bottom in our nation's gun laws." He said his own state, which has strict gun control laws, would have to accept concealed weapons permits from states such as Arizona,
which issues permits to people with drinking problems, or Alaska, where
people with violent misdemeanor convictions can get permits.
"Folks
in Minot, N.D., and New York are going to have different conceptions
about what's right for their locality," said Jim Kessler, vice
president for policy at Third Way, a centrist think tank that supports
gun rights. "In some states you have to show a real need" to get a
permit, he said. "In other states you have to show that you can stand
on two feet."
So far this year gun rights advocates have had the clear advantage in Congress. They managed to attach a provision to a credit card bill
signed into law that restores the right to carry loaded firearms in
national parks, and coupled a Senate vote giving the District of
Columbia a vote in the House with a provision effectively ending the
district's tough gun control laws.
House Democratic leaders,
unable to detach the two issues without losing the support of pro-gun
Democrats, abandoned attempts to pass the D.C. vote bill.
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Saturday, July 11, 2009 3:48 PM
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Current mood: nerdy
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/07/11/reynolds-greenlantern.html
Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds will be donning the costume in the role of the comic book hero the Green Lantern.
Production on the major motion picture, based on the DC Comics title, is slated to begin in January 2010, according to Hollywood trade paper Variety.
Reynolds — currently onscreen in the romantic comedy The Proposal starring Sandra Bullock — had been in the running along with actors Bradley Cooper and Jared Leto.
The 32-year-old Vancouverite has had a stellar year so far: The Proposal hit the $100-million box office mark this week, and Reynolds got a spinoff movie of his own after his turn as the assassin Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Reynolds's previous movies include Blade: Trinity, Smoking Aces, Adventureland and Definitely, Maybe.
The actor, who married actress Scarlett Johansson last year, has another movie coming out soon, Paper Man, which also stars Jeff Daniels.
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Friday, July 10, 2009 11:07 PM
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Current mood:  creative
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
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Saturday, July 04, 2009 4:06 PM
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Current mood:  thoughtful
Category: News and Politics
Independence Day celebrates the birthday of the United States of America. Founded July 4th 1776, with the signing of the Declaration of Independence, America is celebrating it's 233rd birthday this year (2009)  I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all These were the words of the original Pledge of Allegiance, written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy. - Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. ~Thomas Paine He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself. ~Thomas Paine This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~Elmer Davis The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation. ~Woodrow Wilson Liberty is always dangerous, but it is the safest thing we have. ~Harry Emerson Fosdick Let freedom never perish in your hands. ~Joseph Addison You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. ~Erma Bombeck Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed - else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. ~Dwight D. Eisenhower In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt A statistician made a few calculations and discovered that since the birth of our nation more lives had been lost in celebrating independence than in winning it. ~Curtis Billings Freedom's natal day is here. Fire the guns and shout for freedom, See the flag above unfurled! Hail the stars and stripes forever, Dearest flag in all the world. ~Florence A. Jones This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope. So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith. ~Lyndon B. Johnson For what avail the plough or sail, or land or life, if freedom fail? ~Ralph Waldo Emerson That which distinguishes this day from all others is that then both orators and artillerymen shoot blank cartridges. ~John Burroughs, Journal Those who won our independence believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty. ~Louis D. Brandeis Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better. ~Albert Camus It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Dick Cheney Liberty is the breath of life to nations. ~George Bernard Shaw America is much more than a geographical fact. It is a political and moral fact - the first community in which men set out in principle to institutionalize freedom, responsible government, and human equality. ~Adlai Stevenson May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country! ~Daniel Webster We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls. ~Robert J. McCracken If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth living for in time of peace. ~Hamilton Fish I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery. ~Author Unknown I love my freedom. I love my America. ~Jessi Lane Adams Without freedom, no one really has a name. ~Milton Acorda Where liberty dwells, there is my country. ~Benjamin Franklin All we have of freedom, all we use or know - This our fathers bought for us long and long ago. ~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899 Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it. ~George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman, "Maxims: Liberty and Equality," 1905 It is the love of country that has lighted and that keeps glowing the holy fire of patriotism. ~J. Horace McFarland The winds that blow through the wide sky in these mounts, the winds that sweep from Canada to Mexico, from the Pacific to the Atlantic - have always blown on free men. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt I wish that every human life might be pure transparent freedom. ~Simone de Beauvoir The United States is the only country with a known birthday. ~James G. Blaine Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. ~Thomas Macaulay Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall. ~John Dickinson We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it. ~William Faulkner My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on earth enjoy! ~Thomas Jefferson What is the essence of America? Finding and maintaining that perfect, delicate balance between freedom "to" and freedom "from." ~Marilyn vos Savant, in Parade How often we fail to realize our good fortune in living in a country where happiness is more than a lack of tragedy. ~Paul Sweeney From every mountain side Let Freedom ring. ~Samuel F. Smith, "America" We need an America with the wisdom of experience. But we must not let America grow old in spirit. ~Hubert H. Humphrey Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves. ~Abraham Lincoln Freedom is the oxygen of the soul. ~Moshe Dayan And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me. ~Lee Greenwood It is sweet to serve one's country by deeds, and it is not absurd to serve her by words. ~Sallust My patriotic heart beats red, white, and blue. ~Author Unknown Freedom is not enough. ~Lyndon B. Johnson We are free, truly free, when we don't need to rent our arms to anybody in order to be able to lift a piece of bread to our mouths. ~Ricardo Flores Magon, speech, 31 May 1914 Freedom is never free. ~Author Unknown There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. ~William J. Clinton
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:20 PM
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Current mood: thoughtful
Category: News and Politics
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20090624/pl_bloomberg/agu5lx16vtk8
Ryan Flinn and Todd Shields Ryan Flinn And Todd Shields Wed Jun 24, 11:40 am ET
June 24 (Bloomberg) -- David F. Wherley Jr., the head of the Washington National Guard who scrambled jets over the city during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, was among those killed in the worst commuter train crash in the city’s history, officials said.
Wherley’s wife, Ann, was also among the nine people killed when a train plowed into the rear of a stopped train during rush hour on June 22, Quintin Peterson, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police Department, said in a telephone interview. Both were 62 and lived in southeast Washington.
Wherley was commander of the 113th Fighter Wing at Andrews Air Force base in Maryland during the September 2001 terrorist attacks and sent up aircraft with orders to protect the White House and the Capitol, according to the 9/11 Commission report.
He commanded the District of Columbia National Guard from 2003 to 2008, the unit said in a statement.
“I had the opportunity to work with him as he commanded the troops here in D.C. and as he sent them off to war,” Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty said at a news conference yesterday. “He was as fine a public servant and as dedicated to the United States of America and everything that is great about this country as anyone I have ever met.”
The operator of the train, Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Virginia, was also killed, according to Angela Gates, a spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
Others Who Died
The others who died were Mary Doolittle, 59, of northwest Washington; Veronica Dubose, 29, of northwest Washington; Ana Fernandez, 40, of Hyattsville, Maryland; Dennis Hawkins, 64, of southeast Washington; Lavonda King, 23, of northeast Washington and Cameron Williams, 37, whose address wasn’t available, Peterson said.
Wherley established the D.C. National Guard’s Youth Challenge program, according to the guard’s statement. The residential program offers academic instruction, physical training and discipline to young people including high school dropouts, according to its Web site.
“General Wherley was not only the quintessential citizen soldier -- he also made valuable contributions to our community,” said Senator Mary Landrieu, a Democrat from Louisiana, according to the guard’s statement. Landrieu said the Youth Challenge program “has changed the lives of thousands of at-risk children in D.C. and around the country.”
>
Wherley flew T-38 training jets and F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom combat jets during a military career that began in 1969, according to the guard’s statement. It said he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Fordham University in New York City in 1969, and a master’s in business administration from the University of Maryland in 1977.
The Wherleys left a son, David, who is a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Army Golden Knights, a daughter, Betsy, and one grandchild, according to the guard.
To contact the reporters on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net or Todd Shields in Washington at tshields3@bloomberg.net
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:55 AM
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Current mood:  sleepy
Category: News and Politics
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090623/cm_csm/yhendrickson
By Mark W. Hendrickson Mark W. Hendrickson
Tue Jun 23, 5:00 am ET
Grove City, Pa. –
A few days before this year's Earth Day, America's ideological greens received a present they have been desiring for years: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) – responding to a 2007 US Supreme Court ruling – officially designated carbon dioxide (CO2) as a pollutant. That spurred Democrats in Congress to push a major climate change
bill. In the next 25 years, their massive cap-and-trade scheme would,
according to a Heritage Foundation study, inflict gross domestic
product losses of $9.4 trillion, raise an average family's energy bill
by $1,241, and destroy some 1,145,000 jobs. Democrats want it passed by
July 4.
Get ready for a veritable Pandora's box of complications.
A generation ago, it was considered great progress against pollution when catalytic converters were added to automobile engines to change poisonous carbon monoxide to benign carbon dioxide. Now, CO2 has been demoted.
The
EPA's characterization of CO2 as a pollutant brings into question the
natural order of things. By the EPA's logic, either God or Mother
Nature (whichever creator you believe in) seriously goofed. After all,
CO2 is the base of our food chain. "Pollutants" are supposed to be harmful to life, not helpful to it, aren't they?
Of
course, it is true (although environmentalists often ignore it when
trying to ban such useful chemicals as pesticides, insecticides, Alar,
PCBs, and others) that "the dose makes the poison." Too much oxygen,
for example, poses danger to human life. So what is the "right"
concentration of CO2 in our atmosphere? There is no right answer to
this question. The concentration of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere fluctuated greatly long before humans appeared on Earth, and that concentration has fluctuated since then, too.
The
current concentration is approximately 385 parts per million. Some
scientists maintain that 1,000 parts per million would provide an ideal
atmosphere for plant life, accelerating plant growth and multiplying
yields, thereby sustaining far more animal and human life than is
currently possible. Whatever standard the EPA selects will be arbitrary.
"Forget
about the plants," say the greens. "What we're trying to control is how
warm Earth's atmosphere gets." To which I reply, "With all due respect,
are you kidding me?"
As with a "right" concentration of CO2, what is the "right" average global temperature?
For 7,000 of the past 10,000 years, Earth was cooler than it is now;
mankind prospers more in warm climates than cold climates; and the
Antarctic icecap was significantly larger during the warmer
mid-Holocene period than it is today. Are you sure warmer is bad or
wrong?
And how do you propose to
regulate Earth's temperature when as much as three-quarters of the
variability is due to variations in solar activity, with the remaining
one-quarter due to changes in Earth's orbit, axis, and albedo
(reflectivity)? This truly is "mission impossible." Mankind can no more
regulate Earth's temperature than it can the tides.
Even if the "greenhouse effect" were greater than it actually is, the EPA and Congress would be powerless to alter it for several reasons:
1. Human activity accounts for less than 4 percent of global CO2 emissions.
2.
CO2 itself accounts for only 10 or 20 percent of the greenhouse effect.
This discloses the capricious nature of the EPA's decision to classify
CO2 as a pollutant, for if CO2 is a pollutant because it is a greenhouse gas, then the most common greenhouse gas of all – water vapor,
which accounts for more than three-quarters of the atmosphere's
greenhouse effect – should be regulated, too. The EPA isn't going after
water vapor, of course, because then everyone would realize how absurd
climate-control regulation really is.
3.
Even if Americans were to eliminate their CO2 emissions completely,
total human emissions of CO2 would still increase as billions of people
around the world continue to develop economically.
Clearly,
it is beyond the ken of mortals to answer the metaquestions about the
right concentration of CO2, or the optimal global average temperature,
or to control CO2 levels in the atmosphere. I feel sorry for the
professionals at the EPA who are now expected to come up with answers
for these unanswerable questions.
However, I do not feel sorry for the political appointees, like climate czar Carol Browner,
because it looks as if they are about to get what they evidently want –
the power to increase their power over Americans' lives and pocketbooks
via CO2 emission regulations.
From
higher energy bills to lost jobs, the impact of CO2 regulations will
hurt us far more than CO2 itself ever could. Let's nail shut the lid on
this Pandora's box before it swings wide open.
Mark W. Hendrickson is an adjunct faculty member, economist, and
contributing scholar with The Center for Vision & Values at Grove
City College, where this essay was first published.
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Friday, June 05, 2009 9:35 AM
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Current mood: sleepy
Category: Music
Grant Peeples sings his submission to the New State Song of Florida Contest. btw: he didn't win.
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