Insanity Continued

Earlier I posted on the refusal of our national leaders to see that continuing the denial fpr any form of energy exploration in the US can only cause continued dependence on foreign energy. Here is an example of the convoluted reasoning that leads to this situation. Southern Californians are very aware of the decades-long effort to restore the condor to its historic place in the skies. They aren't very beautiful birds, particularly up close, but they are big and endangered. Now with a proposal to drill for oil in a tiny portion of the Los Padres National Forrest, we learn that the red legged frog, the steel head trout and the beloved condor may be affected. Therefore we should do nothing to make that oil available. And so it goes everywhere drilling is proposed. No matter how small the area affected, no matter how trivial the threat, we hear that this drilling must be stopped. From the LA Weekly, an example of how our energy policy is foiled by well-meaning people who understand threats to nature but not to their future.

The Definition of Insanity

..is doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. In yet another example of the insanity of our elected leadership, let's look at our energy dependence. What should we be doing? Actually using oil and gas we know exists in the US might seem obvious.

Pierre DuPont calls it an adiction to regulation.

So expanding America's energy production is the obvious priority. Common sense would suggest that we should begin tapping into the estimated 102 billion barrels of oil sitting under America's Outer Continental Shelf and in Alaska. That domestic supply could replace America's importation of foreign oil for some 25 years.

But what we see from Congress is a continuation of the past 25 years blocking any new drilling.

But our country's political establishment, from Congress to the press and the presidency, has worked for a quarter century to prevent increases in our energy supply.

And they are not about to stop now even though these policies take us farther and raather away from energy indepence.

Technorati Tag Congress energy

Who Watches Soccer in the US?

It's apparently the American intellectual.

Soccer has become a favorite pastime of the American intellectual. "Many people would say that soccer is the latte or the Subaru of the sporting spectrum," says Matt Weiland, who, with Sean Wilsey, is co-editor of The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup, a new compilation that reads like a roll call of the soccer intelligentsia.

And Laer thinks he know why.

Yeah, all well and good, but if you as me (and since you're reading this, I guess you have) it's really just the intellectual elites' herd mentality. They won't admit to it, of course, but they are social wildebeasts, thundering along in tight packs of each other, swinging this way and that with remarkable unity. Today, they're hoofing for the World Cup.

Haircut courtesy of The Manolo

Technorati Tag world cup style

Bad News for Lincoln?

From the Providence Journal June 17:

More than 14,500 Rhode Island Democrats have switched their voter affiliations within the past six months to participate in the Sept. 12 Republican primary, a figure that experts say will probably help incumbent Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee in his campaign against Cranston Mayor Stephen P. Laffey.

Anchor Rising has more.

Technorati Tag lincoln chaffee RINO

Lincoln Chaffee - Primary Update

Rhode Island bloggers sense desperation in the Chafee Republican primary campaign for reelection to his Senate seat. Chaffee is the quinessential RINO, opposing Republican posistions andjudicial nominations with impunity from Republican leadership and receiving money from the Senate Republican Committee while making a mockery of the Republican platform. Anchor Rising notes the lies that Chaffee is using in his campain against Steve Laffey for the Republican nomination. And check out the comments.

Technorati Tag lincoln chaffee RINO

Airbus Loses Altitude

Airbus is undoubtedly losing altitude while Boeing is gaining. In the past 18 months, for example, Boeing has been winning more new orders in the long-haul market. It is the success of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner that is forcing Airbus to move to an all-new design for its A350 passenger jet.

Meanwhile the 380 is requiring major overhauls at airports it will service. Read about it at the Financial Times.

Home Schooling Under Siege

Brussells Journal editor threatened with prosecution over homeschooling his child. It seems the Belgians regard homeschooling as parental neglect.

A chilling quote from his wife's post.

The fact that a growing group of children seems to be escaping from the government’s influence clearly bothers the authorities. Three years ago a new school bill was introduced. The new bill refers to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and it obliges homeschooling parents to fill out a questionaire and sign an official "declaration of homeschooling" in which they agree to school their children "respecting the respect [sic] for the fundamental human rights and the cultural values of the child itself and of others."

Technorati Tag home schooling

Up With Whole Foods

For years I avoided Whole Foods Market. I refuse to pay more for ugly organic produce and am repulsed by eco-freaks. One trip to Whole Foods, however, turned me around. The organic produce wasn't ugly. They have great fish - most markets fish is marginal- and gorgeous meats. They have bakery goods and prepared meals to take out and the stores are beautiful. So I shoped at Whole Foods until I moved 25 miles away from the only store in Sacramento. I never felt good about shopping there because I did not want to provide funds for crazy people. I refuse to eat Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream even though I know that the two lefties who started it sold out. Well now I feel better about Whole Foods.

On May 13, 2004, John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, spoke at FreedomFest in Las Vegas. He defended business and explained his path from lefty to the dark side.

Were we profitable? Not at first. Safer Way managed to lose half of its capital in the first year — $23,000. Despite the loss, we were still accused of exploiting our customers with high prices and our employees with low wages. The investors weren't making a profit and we had no money to donate. Plus, with our losses, we paid no taxes. I had somehow joined the "dark side" — I was now one of the bad guys. According to the perspective of the Left, I had become a greedy and selfish businessman. At this point, I rationally chose to abandon the leftist philosophy of my youth, because it no longer adequately explained how the world really worked.

Read the whole thing and head right over to Whole Foods.

HT Right Wing News

The Legalistic Left

Jay Tea has some thoughts about the left's dependence on the legal system for it's victories. He concludes with this comment about viewing the war through legal glasses:

the legalistic model for the war on terror is a comforting one. It is reassuring to think that no matter what happens, justice will prevail. That there is always a calm, reasoned, civilized venue for the settling of grievances. That the law is supreme, and that all men and women are equal before the bench.

Congress is Mad

Not angy mad but insane mad. They dither and rant about energy dependency on foreign oil and refuse to drill for the oil we know is here. No other country in the world is this crazy. Paul Dreissen compiles the insanity.

Canada is drilling in the Great Lakes. China and Cuba are planning to drill 45 miles off the Florida coast. In 60 years of drilling off our shores, there has only been one accident where significant oil reached shore (1969 off Santa Barbara). We cle
arly need the oil and gas. And yet Congress won’t budge.

But the governor of Oregon has the solution. It's the CAFE standards. All we have to do is legislate them higher and then nobody can buy anything but econoboxes

Losing WW IV

Shrinkwrapped looks at what it would mean to lose the war.

In the short to medium term, losing does not necessarily mean that Shariah law is instituted in the United States, though that would certainly be incontrovertible evidence that we have lost. I think we can lose in many other ways, smaller but in the long run just as deadly; in the next 5-10 years, losing the war would include any of these possibilities:

1) Europe descends into chaos or surrenders to Shariah.

2) Tel Aviv is destroyed by a nuclear weapon and/or the state of Israel is effectively destroyed.

3) Western nations descend into chronic recession and depression because the price of oil reaches unbearable heights.

4) The United States surrenders to isolationism and abandons Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

5) The worst case scenario is one in which the United States ceases to be a functioning Democratic Republic after a series of attacks which kill enough and terrify enough.

Now possibly these seem like extreme possibilities to you but consider that there are many who believe that:

The United States economy, as currently constituted, cannot maintain itself without an international enemy. The defeat of one enemy, Soviet Communism, did not result in a "peace dividend." Instead it led to a desperate search for a new enemy to justify a continuation of the Military-Industrial-(Political-Academic-Media) complex. Then Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda and "Islamo-Fascism" – George Bush’s “Axis of Evil” – obligingly stepped forward to fill this role. And so we continue to build multi-billion dollar aircraft carriers and submarines, and an unworkable missile defense system, and we have reinvigorated our atomic weapons program, to fight the new enemy: fanatics armed with box-cutters, and armed brigands hiding in the caves of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

So long as self-defence is regarded as unnecessary, we are in serious danger. Read Shrinkwrapped here and the moonbat here.