The SoapBoxers

At this very moment, a gunman – alleged to be a man by the name of James Lee – is holding hostages at the headquarters of The Discovery Channel.  Yes, of all the networks in the world to target, he picks The Discovery Channel.  I’ll admit that I don’t watch much of The Discovery Channel (most of my TV watching is sports or forensics shows), but this seems to be a network dedicated to education.  Why on earth would someone pick on them?  Many other networks are much more controversial.

It turns out that we do not have to look very far to find the answer to that.  According to CNN, Mr. Lee has a bit of a history with The Discovery Channel.  He is an environmental protestor who has been very critical of the network on his website.  Lee considers mankind to be “filth” and his manifesto demands that The Discovery Channel “stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants.”

We all know how this story is going to end.  There is no “good” ending.  The best possible solution – the one that everyone is hoping for – is Lee being dragged away in cuffs and traumatized hostages heading home to spend time with their loved ones.

But surely the publicity Lee gets from this terrorist action will bring publicity to his cause, and make the country think more seriously about the effect mankind has on the environment, right?  Before long, everyone will be making a concerted effort to cut pollution, and the world will be a better place …

Of course not.  Lee’s action’s will actually create a backlash against all environmentalists – both extreme and moderate.  His actions will be counterproductive and will serve to stymie the efforts of those organizations attempting to pursue policy changes in a more civilized manner.  I agree with Lee’s broad viewpoint that it would be good if people were to reduce pollution – but I vehemently oppose his tactics.

You may be able to brandish a gun and force your hostages to do what you want them to, but the gun will not force a civilized society to place any more weight on your words.  In fact, much the opposite.  Not only is the pen mightier than the sword, it is also mightier than the gun.  The strong are those who can convince others that their opinions are current simply by speaking or writing about them.  Only the weak have the need to reinforce rhetoric with violence.  The rule of law trumps the rule of violence.  We have elections in this country, not duels.

As the saying goes, “you are only as strong as your weakest link.”  Those who use violence to push their agenda do more to undermine it than those who simply oppose the rhetoric with words.  We see this sort of pointless violence far too often in the world today.  Instead of inflicting violence on those who oppose us, let us instead beat our swords into plowshares.  Let use make the conference table the first choice of battlefield, rather than the last resort – and let us push the extremist elements to the sidelines.

Editor’s note – I’d like to welcome the visitors from The Centsible Life.  If you want to get a good feel for what The Soap Boxers is all about, check out the archives.  We have more than 600 articles to choose from, on a wide range of topics.  Thanks for visiting.  Now, I’ll turn over the show to Squeaky, one of our political writers.  ~Kosmo

Barack Obama was elected as US President on November 4, 2008.  He was inaugurated on January 20, 2009.  For many people, that is a day that few will forget.  For many it’s as significant as the day that Reagan was shot, the day that the space shuttle Challenger exploded, the day we invaded Iraq and the day Saddam Hussein was captured.

For me, I keep thinking of the dates November 6, 2012 and January 20, 2013.  I hope that those dates will be equally as significant for me.  Why do I think of those dates?  November 6^th is the date of the next presidential election and January 20^th is the date that the next president will be inaugurated.  As a Libertarian/Conservative, I’m in political exile right now.  I don’t even know who will be running in the next election, but I hope for nearly anyone other than BO.  Would I like Hillary in the seat of President?  No, but she couldn’t do as much damage as BO. 

On January 25, 2010 Diane Sawyer’s interview with BO aired.  Here is a quote from BO:

“You know, I — I would say that when I — the one thing I’m clear about is that I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president. And I — and I believe that.”

I would tend to agree with BO.  I’d rather see him be a good one-term president too.  Hell, I’d just be happy if he were a good president.  Here are some of the items he has done that have rubbed me wrong:

1.  Healthcare reform.  It seems more like dismantling what is existing and putting the rest of it under his own thumb….more power, more pork, more government.
2. Cap and Trade.  Push the oil jobs out of the US; raise the price of electricity by forcing them off of coal burning.  We are experiencing a large electricity price increase already in Colorado because of this.  Two of my neighbors working in the oil/gas industry have moved to Canada to keep their jobs.
3. Employee Free Choice Act – Union garbage (IMO of course).  This takes away the anonymous vote on whether to unionize or not.  No pressure from the unions.
4. Auto maker bailout.  I should say government buy out of the auto makers.  After the last year I will buy a Ford as my next vehicle just because they were sustainable on their own.
5. FSA changes.  January 2011 over the counter (OTC) meds will no longer be able to be claimed on your FSA/HSA if you have one.  This will now be for prescription drugs only.
6. Tax increases.  No one making under $200,000/year will not pay a dime more in Federal Taxes. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation (part of Congress), that is a lie.
   • Breath Tax –  If you breath you MUST have medical insurance
   • Tax on Medical Devices – Medical devices will become a tax windfall for Obama’s money vats creating an additional $20 Billion in tax revenue.
   • Brand name drugs – prices will go up on these due to a new tax on non-generic drugs.  You thought those ADHD meds were expensive before, just wait.
   • Tax bases – The tax base for EVERY income range will increase at least 3%. (10% goes to 15%, 25% to 28%, 28% to 31%, 33% to 36% and 35% to 39.6%).
   • The marriage penalty tax is coming back.  A married couple making $75,000 will pay more in taxes than a single person making $75,000.
   • Capital Gains taxes increase from 15% to 20% and Dividends will increase from 15% to 39.6%.
   • Education – The deduction for tuition and fees is being eliminated.  Student loan interest is also not going to be deductible.
7. Love for the Unions.  On August 4, 2010 Obama thanked “all my brothers and sisters in the AFL-CIO” who have worked so hard to help get America’s economy back on track. (http://bit.ly/9PKmv1)  I understand American Pride and Made In the USA.  I don’t understand the need for unions though.  They have truly outlasted their usefulness and only do two things:  1. Increase the cost of producing items by inflating wages to the point of being ridiculous and 2. Encouraging mediocrity. That is what happens when every single worker gets the same pay raise regardless of performance. I prefer to stand on my own feet and let my work product determine what kind of pay increase I will receive.
8. Amnesty for illegal immigrants.  Maybe it’s the cold-hearted police officer in me, but how can we simply let 11-18 MILLION people that are here ILLEGALLY stay?  I was raised to obey the laws and not intentionally break them.  If I broke the laws or the rules I would pay the price.  There was not a simple, “That’s ok Squeaky, let’s reward you for hitting your sister by giving you ice cream”.  That is exactly what we’re preparing to do with the talk of amnesty.  The difference is that the ice cream will become free health care, college tuition, unemployment, etc.  I work with several people that moved here from India.  They have invested a great deal of time and money to become LEGAL citizens.  L-E-G-A-L.  I’m very proud of them for that and I’m happy to call them my friends.  Those that are illegal have no sympathy from me.

I could go on forever, but my soap box isn’t that comfortable.  For now, I keep hoping and praying that Obama will make some non-liberal decisions; but I’m not holding my breath.  I don’t know Obama so I can’t say that he is a good man or a bad man.  The only thing I have to judge him on are his political ideals.  He and I are polar opposites in that regard and for that reason I will probably never appreciate his work.  Like some of you, I’ll keep waiting for “change” on January 20, 2013.  For others, you will be hoping for a successful reelection bid for Obama.  Regardless, on November 6, 2012 I’ll be clinging to my religion, my family and my guns.  On that day I will vote my conservative, Christian, family values and that will NOT include a vote for Obama.

Squeaky…

Image source: http://iusbvision.wordpress.com/2010/05/25/voted-obama-embarrassed-yet-street-signs/

I may be considered “The Crunchy Conservative” but I also consider myself a feminist. NOT a femi-nazi, but a feminist. I believe in what is best for women and we should be treated equally. That being said, I believe in what is best for ALL women, born and in utero. I guess that’s where the conservative part comes in (and being raised and a practicing Catholic). I believe the feminist movement allows women to make their own decisions (unless it hinders the life of another, like in the case of abortion). If a woman chooses to work outside of the home, great. If she chooses to stay at home and raise the children, that’s great too.

I intended this column to be about the mosque mess, but the reason I bring this up is it’s been 90 years since women were given the right to vote. 90 years. And we have yet to have a female President or even Vice President. That’s a shame. However, I recall in second grade telling my teacher I wanted to be someone that “even the dumb kid in the back of the class got right on a history test.” The first female President. I had dreams … and maybe it could still come true. After all, Sarah Palin was a work at home mom for years … she wasn’t an attorney or corporation owner. Crunchy Conservative for President in 2020?

Anyway, the mosque mess. Our great country was founded on freedom of religion. A freedom to believe and practice wherever one pleases. However, I do believe it is distasteful to build a mosque next to Ground Zero. VERY distasteful. Do they have the right to build it there? Sure. Should they? No. That ground is sacred to the family members in the planes, in the towers and the firefighters who gave their lives saving others. Building a mosque, the religion that the terrorists “were following” right next to Ground Zero would only cause more issues.

I’ve never been to New York but I know New Yorkers. They’ll take it upon themselves to make sure this doesn’t happen. If it does, it won’t last long. New Yorkers won’t stand for it. And neither should other Americans. We all recall how we felt on September 11th. The terrorists took our towers from us but they should not build a mosque next to Ground Zero. Worship where you will, but not on sacred land.

Our country has been involved in quite a few wars in the last 100 years.  World War I seemed to be more or less justified, although some can claim that we timed things just right to place ourselves as the heroes riding in to save the day.  Diplomatic mistakes and overbearing surrender conditions created the perfect conditions for Hitler’s rise to power.  That lead us to World War II.  World War II was certainly justified.  Regardless of the overwhelming public sentiment in 1939 to remain neutral, the atrocities of the Nazis had to be stopped and probably wouldn’t have been stopped without American intervention. 

I won’t argue the pros and cons of the two biggst post-WWII wars, Vietnam and Korea here but it is hard to argue against the statement that they weren’t as “justified” as World War II.  During WWII, the massive industrial effort of the United States combined with the near absolute destruction of the German and Japanese industrial infrastructure set up the US to be a dominant industrial power for at least the next few decades.  American cars rolled off the lines.  American military products became the rage in nearly every country to field an army.  American companies were on a roll from the post-war boom.  A new industry practically exploded in size – defense contractors. 

War is a huge industry.  It can be easily argued that World War II was precisely what this country needed to get us out of the great depression.  World War II quickly blended into the cold war which saw active conflicts such as the Korean War, The Vietnam War, The invasion of Grenada, the invasion of Panama and many other smaller military actions.  Except for a few years in the 70’s and the 2000s (when the George W. Bush administration didn’t include the 2 wars on the budget) the percentage of US discretionary spending on military matters has been over 50%.  We have bridges falling, a sub-par electrical infrastructure, and weak public transit compared to nearly every other industrialized nation on the planet and yet we’re spending half our optional money on the military.  Diseases still run unchecked, half our population is overweight, and yet we currently have a navy that’s bigger than the next 13 navies combined – and 11 of those 13 are considered allies.  Consider that the US Navy has dramatically decreased in size since the 80’s, too.

What’s a bigger threat to the US – a massive, coordinated attack on our information infrastructure or a massive, coordinated attack by troops, planes, and ships?  War should always be the last possible option, yet major political decisions are made every day to spend money on war before spending money on citizens.

The F22 program is a perfect example of how the defense industry has a stranglehold on US politics.  Originally designed as a successor to the aging F15 fighter, the F22 won a competition between two massive teams of defense contractors.  In addition, the final product is a joint venture between dozens of different companies, with major components designed and manufactured in dozens of different states and countries.  When it was proven that the F22 was far too expensive for the results it produced, this “shotgun” style approach to manufacturing almost gave it a too-big-to-fail style argument against killing it.  The defense industry didn’t even need lobbyists in this case; almost every politician with a stake in the program argued to keep it active, despite the massive bill it was ringing up with proven flaws and extra expenses.

It might be a painful transition, but it’s time to start thinking about better peacetime expenditures.  F22s, aircraft carriers, and tanks are not going to stop terrorists.  A healthy, smart, well-equipped population with transparency in defense lobbying will be the best deterrent of all as we move forward in this new century.

$862,000,000,000.  That is what $862 billion looks like.  That happens to be the amount of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.  We’ve all been concerned as we heard stories about where the money was going.  I did a little poking around and I found these items below:

• $233 million to UC at San Diego to study why Africans vote.
• $2 million to build fire station in Nevada but the county couldn’t afford the wages.
• $550,000 to replace windows in a Washington (state) visitor’s center that had closed in 2007.
• $1.9 million the California Academy of Sciences to study ants.
• $800,000 for a Georgia Tech assistant professor to study improved music by “jamming” with world renowned musicians.
• North Carolina schools received $4.4 million to hire math & literacy coaches FOR THE TEACHERS.
• $24 million to a contractor currently on trial for bribery
• $15 million to Boeing which was fined for polluting a creek—they were asked to monitor water quality.
• $650 million for digital TV coupons
• $600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
• $400 million to local governments to purchase hybrid vehicles
• $9 million to Harvard University to research and assemble robotic bee
• $428,000 to design better video games for senior citizens

There are so many more reckless and foolish expenditures that I had to quite typing.  I stated to feel carpel tunnel and I was starting scream like the Angry Squirrel.

Pork, pork, pork.

Have you seen those highway signs on your way to work?  You know, the ones that read: “Funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” and “Putting America Back to Work”?  I have seen a few of them.  I drive past one on I-25 every morning and every night.  I had no idea that they cost so much though.  ABC News recently reported that Pennsylvania spent $157,000 for 70 of those signs.  That averages $2,242.86 per sign.  I heard an earlier news report that was even higher but I was unable to locate it now.  I also heard a news report that documented a large amount of money was spent to study the mating habits of bees.  However, I was not able to find the particulars.

I’m glad that we have a president that will not sign any bill into law that contains pork.  This is truly the kind of hope and change that people were voting for.

Squeaky…

The summer is getting into full force of triple digit temps and the political landscape is soon to start to boil over once again as elections start to near. However, this month I really couldn’t find a topic that has not been rehashed over and over by now to draw my interest to encompass a whole article so instead this month is kind of a hodge podge of different things.

Over the past few weeks on Facebook I had noticed one of the little ads that op up for something called the Coffee Party. At first I thought it was just some parody, but in fact it is an actual movement trying to get underway to counter the Tea Party movement. They can be found at http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/.

Heck they even have their own pseudo-political party thing already going on with their own convention to be held in September. I wish them all the luck as I fully support their mission, but I think it will never pick up the steam of the Tea party as hate is always an easier message to draw the masses to than cooperation. Be a “real” American, choose coffee over tea.

Speaking of the Tea Party, the congresswoman from my district and Tea Party caucus member Lynn Jenkins (R-KS 2nd) faces a “challenge” from her right in State Senator Dennis Pyle. Pyle’s main assertion is that Jenkins is a moderate and that element of the Republican Party is at fault for their demise.

The assertion that Jenkins is a moderate would have been true prior to her election in 2008, but there is nothing moderate about the tea party movement and those who have to follow their political game. Jenkins is one of only three women in the newly minted House Tea Party Caucus. So I don’t see much of a threat to her in the primary, but it is funny how the Tea Party always feels the need to prove they are more nuts than the other. Sadly the primary challenge will be the only real challenge for Jenkins in what usually is a competitive district, allowing Jenkins to continue her search for “a great white hope” to beat Obama in 2012 from inside the beltway and not send her packing home.

More amusing is that her reelection will make her the senior house member from Kansas as the two other Republicans are in the state’s most heated political show in another “I am more Tea Party than you!” battle between Congressmen Todd Tihart and Jim Moran. The lone Democrat from Kansas, Dennis Moore, a house member since 1990, is not seeking reelection and his wife is running instead.

An amusing side note is that tea partier Tihart’s 4th disrict seat has a decent chance of going to the Democrat this year and probably to the chagrin of the tea partiers it is the minority candidate Raj Goyle that has the best shot.

Shifting just to the west of Kansas, Colorado is getting ready once again to have a “personhood” amendment on the ballot this year. That is not the interesting thing though, it’s been something they have been doing on the ballot for a while now. However this time they have brought in Alan Keyes to do ads portraying a slave and correlating the relationship of fetuses and abortion in this country to slavery and seeking to be free.

It’s another laughable thing from the right, although it is better to take note these days as the nutjob right is more the mainstream right than the fringe. However the question I pose to them is if you are going to start declaring personhood begins at conception then that is where citizenship would also begin, right? So I guess we’ll have to start determining exactly where conception took place and if you don’t have proper documentation you are not a citizen?

And to conclude this month’s post it appears that U.S. District Court judge Susan Bolton will be the next in line of “activist judges” to be slammed by the right for going against the right’s political choice in her blocking of the provisions of Arizona SB1070 from going into effect for now. Too bad activism from the bench only counts when it is going against the grain of “conservative” thought and not to everything in general – for example the Citizens United ruling in the Supreme Court. Anyways that is all I have for this month. That’s all I have for this month on the 100th day of the gulf oil spill and until next time keep looking for those bad nuts out there. [Editor’s note: today is the 101st day of the oil spill, but The Angry Squirrel submitted the article yesterday.]

Shirley Sherrod made comments at an NAACP event that were “taken out of context”. She was fired, sorry, asked to resign,wait…fired, from her position at the USDA by the Secretary of Ag (and Iowa’s (my) former Governor) Tom Vilsack. Now, she’s been given a “unique” rehire opportunity back at the USDA. Really? So are we making up jobs now? Is she the “assistant to the regional manager”? Fans of The Office can feel free to chuckle.

The White House claims it didn’t know all of the facts when it acted, requesting that she be canned. Come on, now. We’re supposed to believe that? This coming from the same White House that waited how many days to make a statement regarding the oil rig explosion and spill? So we can wait to comment on something we can see, but have a knee jerk reaction to something else? Not buying it, Gibbs.

What amuses me is the media reaction to all of this. First of all, the story comes out and they all jump on it. Then, when it’s discovered that the entire video was not released, the Tea Party and Fox News is to blame. Rachel Maddow (not quite sure why I even watch her as she always makes my blood pressure go up) claimed that Fox News was to blame for “poor reporting”. Um, sure. That’s why they cream you in the ratings week after week after week. Because they are poor reporters. Rachel also made comments about the “fake ACORN scandal” that Fox News reported on. Hey, Rachel, it’s not fake. Now who is the poor reporter here?

It has been reported that Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl Cook called Sherrod on Monday and asked her to resign for FEAR that Glenn Beck might go after her. FEAR of Glenn Beck. Wow. Those “poor reporters” sure have zero influence.

And I’m sure that all of this media hullabaloo has nothing to do with the fact that the NAACP recently passed a resolution urging the Tea Party to disassociate themselves with racism. I don’t consider myself a member of the Tea Party, but I think I know their intent well enough to know the Party is not based on race.

The President, Ben Jealous, of the NAACP criticized Sherrod for her comments and has since apologized for that. But here’s the kicker. HE WAS AT THE EVENT. HE WAS THERE WHEN HER COMMENTS WERE RECORDED. So wouldn’t he know if they were taken out of context? I understand how it is at events. Some speakers you listen to and sometimes you’re busy visiting with others etc. But if you’re going to publicly criticize someone for comments made at your event, I would be sure to “go to the tape” and re-watch the entire speech BEFORE going to the media.

I apologize if this rant doesn’t make sense as I gave birth to a healthy white male two weeks ago. I intend on raising him in my “crunchy conservative” manner. So I guess that makes me part of the problem, doesn’t it Rachel?

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Those 31 words are filled with both patriotism and controversy.  I’m sure that when the Pledge of Allegiance was originally written by Francis Bellamy (a preacher) he would never have thought so much controversy would surround his passage.  Interestingly enough, the “controversial” words (under God) were not added until 1954.  (The original writing was completed in 1892)

The argument stems from the concept of separation of church and state.  The Constitution in the 1^st Amendment reads:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

The religion portion of the 1^st Amendment has become known to us as the separation of church and state.  When I closely read the Amendment, I have a different opinion than what I did ten minutes ago.  It doesn’t say anything about not being able to mention God which was a big portion of what our founding fathers based our ideals on.  It doesn’t say that we shouldn’t display any historical items that relate back to our patriotic history.  It certainly doesn’t say that Christians (or Jews, or whatever religion) are barred from expressing their religion publicly.  In fact, I tend to believe that it means just the opposite.

The last couple of weeks I’ve read a lot about a Massachusetts school banning the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.  The principal indicated that it was because they have a diverse group of students and he wanted to be respectful of that.  Rather than allowing the majority of the students to uphold an American tradition, Mr. Skidmore is catering to a small minority of his students by taking away the rights of the majority.  Why not just tell the few that may choose not to participate to NOT PARTICIPATE?  There were over 700 students that signed a petition asking that the Pledge of Allegiance be allowed in this school.  The school also received letters of support for the Pledge of Allegiance from Senator John Kerry and Senator Joe Liebermann.  (Neither of these Senators has a Republican R behind their name FYI).

On March 11, 2010 the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals made a ruling about the phrase “In God We Trust” as printed on our currency. (http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/03/11/06-16344.pdf)

 This court has two locations, one in San Francisco, CA and the other in Pasadena, CA.  This court is located in the heart of the land of fruits and nuts—“Liberal Land, USA”.  However, this court can even see the common sense and returned an opinion that said two things:

1. The plaintiff (a US citizen that happens to be an atheist) has no standing to sue the government over the phrase.
2. The phrase “In God We Trust” is not a violation of the Constitution because it is a “National Motto”.  The ruling had previously been made in Aronow vs. United States (Aronow v. United States,” 432 F.2d 242 (1970)) that read: “It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage and currency (In God We Trust) has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of a religion.  Its use is of patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise.”

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/03/11/06-16344.pdf

My opinion is much simpler.  If you don’t like what is printed on US money, don’t use it.  If you don’t want to say the Pledge, don’t say it.  However, we’ve become a country of wimps more concerned with the feelings of the minority.  Rather than offend the few we take away rights of the many.  Why?  All in the name of being PC. 

However, we can’t forget our heritage or where we came from.  Why would we give up the values that our country was built on?  We may not have the perfect country, but we’re by far the best one that exists.  Why do liberals keep trying to give up our traditions and values for those from other countries?  Our ancestors came here to get away from other country’s values.  We can keep our values and traditions while allowing others to live here.  I don’t think that if we moved to France, Australia or Afghanistan they would stop flying their flag, stop singing their national anthem or make any religious changes to accommodate our believes and traditions.  Be proud and be an American—a patriotic flag loving American. 

We are still:

•  “one nation under God” and
• “in God we trust”

Squeaky…

For someone who likes to speak as much as he does, one would think that a tragedy such as this could define his Presidency and he would jump at the opportunity. However, it took 58 days for Obama to meet with BP. It took 9 days after the incident for Obama to say a word. He didn’t give a hoot until his poll ratings started to suffer and the people in the Gulf started asking questions. And without his teleprompter, he’s been heard saying he is going “kick someone’s ass” and “make BP pay”. Obama please, you’re no Tony Soprano.

I recall when Katrina hit; there was outcry that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”

Well, how about this. Barack Obama doesn’t care about white fisherman. The BP CEO just needs to stop talking to the media all together. His “little people” comment was quite unnecessary. And they wonder why our ancestors left their country.

People were outraged that Bush didn’t do enough. I’m pretty sure if he could have talked to the CEO of hurricanes, it wouldn’t have taken him 58 days to do it. Even James Carville has had enough…and he’s a Democratic strategist!

We are witnessing the demise of both the gulf coast and Obama’s presidency. What this crisis demands, what this country needs is LEADERSHIP. The time for action was last month—or two months ago.

Obama is just as qualified to stop this oil gusher as he is to be president of the United States. The job of President of the United States really shouldn’t have been left to someone who needed “on the job training”.

November cannot come soon enough. And I think a bumper sticker I saw last week was accurately correct. It read “Obama = Carter 2.0”. Maybe we can hope for a one termer come 2012.

How’s that “Drill, Baby, Drill” thing working out for you now?

In the popular 1984 movie Ghostbusters, there’s a scene where the mayor of New York City is trying to decide if he should trust the Ghostbusters or not. On one hand he has a bunch of popular whackos who claim to be able to deal with the rampant, bizarre paranormal events plaguing his metropolis. On the other hand, he has his adviser from the EPA saying the Ghostbusters are con artists and should go to jail. He asks Bill Murray what happens if he’s wrong, and Murray replies, “If I’m wrong, nothing happens! We go to jail – peacefully, quietly. We’ll enjoy it! But if I’m *right*, and we *can* stop this thing… Lenny, you will have saved the lives of millions of registered voters.”

I have the same sort of feelings about climate change. Despite an overwhelming number of credible scientists (over 80%) believing that both global warming is real and human actions have caused it, there is still rampant doubt in political circles that it exists. Fox News commentators were often heard muttering that if global warming is true, how could there be such prolific blizzards this past winter? (Fox News commentators are invited to read about the first law of thermodynamics) Let’s look at this from a skeptic’s point of view. If they’re right, and global warming is just a big scientific error or big liberal hoax, we should ignore efforts to curb fossil fuels and not worry about that South American rainforest. Exxon-Mobile, BP, Haliburton, and other major corporations involved in oil have a vested interest to be able to find and sell as much oil as possible. Strange that such large, powerful corporations would need to spend so much on lobbying when they already receive such massive tax breaks from the US government.

What about the flip side, though? What if environmentalists are wrong? If they’re wrong and climate change doesn’t exist, we’re spending lots of money to find alternative energy sources, specifically focusing on natural gas, solar and wind power as well as electric cars. We’ve already spent over a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq – had we used that money to fund research in alternative fuel, would we even need the middle east? Let’s face it, we didn’t really go into Iraq to find weapons of mass destruction. When it was revealed that those weapons never existed, the Cheney administration changed its tune and said we went in there to topple a horrible dictator and bring democracy to the region. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, but we have no more right to do that than Russia does to come and make this a fascist nation. We went into Iraq to gain money and oil, and at what cost? Thousands of US lives, tens of thousands of other lives are gone. Many more people horrible wounded and crippled for life, all for what? Oil. If the environmentalists are wrong, we’ll be spending less money and probably no lives than the Iraqi war to come up with new technology that may help ween us off our dependence for oil, and a lot of scientists will go down in history as having been wrong.

But if environmentalists are right, and climate change is real and we ignore it, what’s at stake? Predictions are pretty widespread on this. The amount of polar ice melting from just a few degrees of overall planetary atmospheric warming is enough to raise ocean levels by anywhere from a few inches to a few feet. A few feet would leave many of the most highly populated areas of the Earth under water. 634 million people live in coastal areas within 30 feet of sea level. About two thirds of the world’s cities with over five million people are located in these low-lying coastal areas. You think crowding is bad now? Let’s sink the bulk of Florida and see how bad it gets.

Despite recent examples of what happens when our addiction for fossil fuels goes bad, notably the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, party lines have for the most part not changed. Louisiana is right now, as I type this, having hundreds of miles of coastline covered in oil and sludge and thousands of animals are dead. Thousands more will die. The entire fishing industry in the Gulf of Mexico is at risk of collapsing. You’d think that the governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal (R), would be outspoken against this. Not with oil and gas industries as his 2nd biggest contributor. He’s already called for President Obama to reconsider the ban on deep water drilling, yet every day thousands of more gallons of crude oil pour out of the broken well and pollute the water. Sarah Palin continues to speak across the country that this is an example of why we should drill more with more safety regulations, not less. The Exxon Valdez disaster happened in her home state of Alaska, and is still having an impact on Prince William Sound, over 20 years after the event. Conservative activist judges have multiple times reduced the fine Exxon received after the event to the point where Exxon has paid less than 1/10th of the original court ruling. BP still hasn’t capped the spill, do you really think they’re going to do the right thing and pay for all the cleanup and all the damage this spill has caused and will cause?

There is a Native American saying that goes, “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” Despite this, there is a widespread mindset that this current trend of climate change is just a rare but not unexpected anomaly in the history of the planet. If that line of thinking is right, we don’t have anything to worry about, right? Our children will simply have to work harder to live comfortably because they just happen to be in the wrong time. But what if this isn’t just part of the long-term trend? Do you really want to be leaving your kids a trashed-up planet because you wanted $2.50 a gallon gas for your huge SUV? Do you really want your kids grandchildren asking them, “what was Florida like when you were young?”

An OPEC exec once said, “The stone age didn’t end because we ran out of stone and the oil age won’t end because we run out of oil.” I’m praying he’s right and it ends because we pull our heads out of our collective butts and find a better alternative to fossil fuels.