Opus 2025-600: Give Me Gas

Why are internal combustion engines so necessary to our society, our culture and our mental health?  Today is a good example.  I am able to go out and get in my car and drive 40 minutes to see my grandchildren.  If I had to hook up old Bessie to the carriage, it would probably take me all day to get there.  Now in modern times, with all the innovations of technology, I can drive down in about 40 minutes.  That is what I call a blessing.

If you want to go back to total organic and total green, that’s fine with me.  In a free country, you should be able to do that without trying to force me into the same handicap.  So turn in your car.  Buy a horse and buggy.  Learn to hook up all those straps.  Get some curry brushes, shovel and whatever else it takes to muck out the stalls and enjoy.

I for one am blessed by modern technology.

Merry Christmas

homo unius libri

Opus 2023-136: Click Bait: Hydrogen Engine

The title was too much to resist.  You Tube was claiming that Toyota had a hydrogen engine.  As is usually the case the title was a bit overstated, but the development is real.  It sounds like they are getting close to production.  I think it is a great possible development.  Toward the end they stated that the only thing that comes out of the exhaust is water.  Everyone breath a sigh of relief.  What a glorious moment.  Of course, if you listened carefully they also said there were other noxious gases but in lower amounts than a gas engine.  It still sounds good.

But wait a moment.  The green movement has not even started working on this.  They want to deny us mobility because we are easier to control if we can’t jump in our car and go looking for a new job or a new place to live.  They have not yet begun to fight on this one.  Remember that they have you afraid of toxic carbon dioxide, the main thing that comes out of a gas engine.  It is going to warm the planet and kill us all.  Actually carbon dioxide is also a harmless substance.  Every time you exhale you project carbon dioxide.  It is a nutrient for plants.  It is necessary for the plants the greens want us to eat to thrive.  They have still painted it as a toxin.  In reality if there is more carbon dioxide the plants around us will be stronger and grow faster.  

Yet it is evil.

They will do the same with water.  I don’t know what their hook will be.  It won’t make any sense.  It will be laughable to thinking people.  In spite of that they will have celebrities telling us how all this water is destroying the planet.  Perhaps all the water produced will raise the ocean levels even faster.  Water vapor will become the new cause of global warming/cooling.  You will hear it so often that you will wonder if you are the only one who notices that the King is naked.

So get ready.  There will be a special sweat tax because it contributes to the problem.  Perhaps we can be fitted with monitors that measure not only the carbon dioxide leaving our lungs but the water also.  We may be fitted with special pouches that will condense and collect our toxic excretions.  It will then be taken to a government facility for recycling.

I wish I knew I was joking.

homo unius libri

Opus 2021-088: Green Peace: Learning Curves

Have you talked about the weather lately?  It seems to be one of those topics that is used to break the ice or comfort those who can’t abide silence.  

I am a bit disappointed in the Texas weather.  I expected the hot.  I don’t necessarily like it but it was part of the package.  I did not expect the cold.  This is our fourth winter in Texas and the second one that has been “unusually” cold.  The previous exception it got down to 18 degrees and we found out that our geothermal system was not up to the challenge.  We learned that there is something called “auxiliary heating” that is supposed to kick in but the previous owner did not install it.  I would assume that in the years he lived here he never needed it.

This year we got down to 8 degrees.  Since we learn from our mistakes we had installed the auxiliary system so we were good to go.  I left faucets running and was ready for the worst, I thought but we still have one pipe that is not passing water.  Time will tell if it has burst somewhere in the foundation.  What we could not plan for is the reality that Texas was bitten by the green bug.  We are having “rolling black outs” because there is not enough electricity to heat the state at this arctic level.  My son mentioned that the power plants were not designed to operate in this cold.  What he missed was that it was “renewables” that were failing the test of reality.  The solar panels were covered with snow and the wind-mills were frozen.  Even a refugee from California knows that it is hard to generate electricity in those conditions.  

We learned and installed the auxiliary system.  The big question will be whether Texas will learn and reopen their coal powered plants.  It will be an uphill climb with the Biden administration but we need to remember that we were sold out during previous years.  We can’t blame this on Biden or OAC even though they are good with it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2017-052: Headlines: The Newest Green Victory

I don’t know if you have been following the potential disaster at the Oroville Dam.  When I Googled the topic I had three lead stories at the top of the page.  One was from the LA Times, another from The Mercury News.  These are two of the least dependable sources of information in the country.  The third was from an organization I had never heard of before.  I looked at the Times article anyway.  This is a complex issue.  We will never know all the fraud, corruption and political games that have gone on behind the scenes.  One thing that is obvious is the dam has not been maintained.  Something else we can depend on is that this will be a reason for the Greens and Progressives to advance the socialist state.  This from the Times,

“Crowfoot said officials should curtail Southern California’s reliance on water delivered from the northern reservoirs including Lake Oroville, reducing pressure on the state’s infrastructure by increasing water recycling or stormwater capture. Another step could be focusing on sending more water to underground aquifers, replenishing groundwater supplies.”

Sounds reasonable but each solution means to move more toward the reduction of productivity and the availability of water.  Notice “curtail” means cut the water.  An they want to force more water into the ground which means less for salad greens and showers.  All three concepts of the mantra of the greens is here:  Reduce, Recycle and recycle.  We see this a few paragraphs later.

“California has always grappled with cycles of drought and deluge — Gov. Leland Stanford used a rowboat to reach his inauguration in 1862 — but the problems are expected to be exacerbated by climate change.”

They admit that water is not a new problem.  The concede that California has always had a cycle of “drought and deluge” but then throw in the canard about climate change as if that was the reason for the cycle. 

Climate change is a socialist term for more government control.  What form it will take at this point I don’t know but it won’t be the old result of producing more water for a growing economy.  It will take the form of less water, used more wisely.  Who will determine what is wise?  Your local water commissioner.  You don’t have one?  You will.  Maybe they will call the position Aqua Czar.  Don’t worry it will be for your own good.  It is the nature of socialism.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-45: Green Piece: The Parched Earth Takes a Drink

The Drudge bait-line read “Now parched Earth IS SLOWING sea level rise”.  I had to read this.  When I noticed it was from Yahoo News I put on my baloney filters.  I was not being overcautious.

If you read with discernment you get a piece of the puzzle that had never occurred to me and is very useful if you are concerned about global warming.  The earth absorbs water.  Who would have thunk?  When it is pointed out it seems so obvious. 

I think the key quote is of J.T. Reager from JPL.  It just labels him as an author but I assume he is a scientist who should know something. 

"What we didn't realize until now is that over the past decade, changes in the global water cycle more than offset the losses that occurred from groundwater pumping, causing the land to act like a sponge -- at least temporarily."

I am surprised that this made it past the editors.  Maybe they will remove it in an update.  What is seems to be saying is that the earth is absorbing more water than those evil people are sucking out of it.  Isn’t that what “more than offset” means?

Again we see that it is the satellite information that is giving us more accurate information, just like it has done on global temperature.

“Just how much effect on sea level rise this kind of land storage would have has remained unknown until now because there are no land-based instruments that can measure such changes planet-wide.”

So just as objective satellite sensors tell us that the earth is not heating up like the PC, grant seeking researchers have said, it now tells us that the oceans are not going to rise as projected.  And that is even if the other data is correct, which is a political data point, not scientific.

I wonder if this kind of information has anything to do with the Obama administration cutting funding for the space program and assigning NASA the job of explaining all the contributions of Islam to science.

Of course the PC spin is still inserted by the mindless press.

“Researchers said the findings will help scientists better calculate sea level changes in the years ahead.”

All it is going to require is time for them to massage the data and slant their charts and graphs to show what they want politically.  Then the new calculations will give us more to fear and the government more reason to regulate away our freedom.

The problem with real science is that it doesn’t follow the Progressive agenda.

homo unius libri

Opus 2016-23: Green Piece: Analog Rocks

Digital is destroying the earth.

This is one of the random thoughts I had as I was weighing myself.  I needed something to distract me from the weight I had gained over the holidays.  I was thinking about the difference between my old spring driven scale and the shiny new digital model in the doctor’s office.  I  asked myself, “Why don’t I use a digital scale?”  Since my clinging to habit and unwillingness to spend the money didn’t sound too noble, I searched for a more politically correct answer.

Digital is part of the dumbing down process.  I have kids who cannot read an analog clock.  If you want them to know the time you need to put it digitally.  This is part of the process of dulling the thinking process that leads to excellence.  It perpetuates mediocrity because it allows people to be mentally lazy.

Digital requires electricity, usually batteries.  Modern batteries contain all kinds of metals like mercury and lithium.  They get discarded and most are not recycled.  This generates polution.  Electricity from the power grid is usually generated by coal or diesel fuel.  If you are an environmentalist you consider that dirty.  Mechanical analog is clean.

Remember when you could tune up your car by yourself.  You bought a set of points and some plugs and you were good to go.  It cost a few dollars.  Now you need to replace the entire computer module that does the job.  More waste.  More dependence on experts.  Less independence and challenge to do-it-yourself.

Do I like my computer?  Yes.  I hope I never need to go back to a typewriter or mechanical calculator again.  Does my car get better milage?  They tell me it does and the money I save on gas I put into expensive repairs.  Some trade offs are worth it, some aren’t. 

I rejoice in the freedom to make the choices and decide which are best for me.  The government regulators want to make that decision for me.

That I hate.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-249: Green Pieces: How about Reusable Toilet Paper?

Currently the Progressive Environmentalists are trying to drive you back to being peasants by taking away the things they consider gross polluters and wasters of natural resources.  They are already attacking you car, hot showers, flush toilets, green lawns, A/C and the soap that cleans your dishes, to name a few.

Where might they go in the future?  Paper products have been neglected.  Think about the many variations of wood pulp that are quiet parts of your life and you just throw them away:  facial tissue, toilet paper, paper towels, wet wipes, tooth picks.

My prophecy is that the Progressives will soon start expanding their concern about how the forests are being destroyed and the land fills are being filled.  The only solution will be to go to reusable resources.  Can you picture reusable toilet paper?  Why not, they already want to recycle the water from your throne.

After all, we must save the trees.  Everyone knows that the greedy capitalists are cutting down 5,000 year old redwoods to make your Kleenex, right? 

Does anyone notice what usually happens in a forest when you cut down the trees?  It isn’t the picture they always show you of gullies and waste land.  What happens is, drum roll please, they grow back.  Really.  In much of the country keeping the trees from growing is the problem.  My understanding is that there are more trees today than when the settlers arrived.  Of course, you won’t hear that.  You will be told that we need to cut back to save the earth.

It is not about saving the trees.  We all love trees when we don’t have to rake leaves.  It is about abridging your liberty.  That is the love of Progressives, abridging, not liberty.  Remember a Democrat can’t make an omelet without breaking someone else’s eggs.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-170: Green Piece: Solar Power Bait and Switch

I looked through an interesting article at a web site called Low-Tech Magazine.    How it can be “low-tech” and discussing solar power is beyond me, but I digress.  It was about the sustainability of PV Solar power.  I believe the day will come when solar power will join the adult leagues and actually be practical and cost effective.  I don’t think the day has arrived, but that isn’t what I want to lift out of this article.

If I read it correctly, and that is a big “if”, it seems that although the cost is coming down, the effect on what the environmental lobby likes to call “greenhouse gases” is making things worse.  What that means is that if you figure in the “pollution” emitted in the production of the solar panels and include it in the equation, PV solar panels contribute more greenhouse gases than the alternatives.  This is true whether the power generated is cheaper or more expensive.

If this is true, it means that solar panels are more damaging to the environment than traditional methods of generating electricity.  It also means that if the cost of solar power continues to come down it could end up “damaging” the environment more that other sources. 

Hopefully progress will continue.  I like the idea of being able to live off the grid and provide my own power.  We are not there yet.  If we can ever get past the coercive politics and massive government grants that the “unbiased” scientists are fighting for, we might get there quicker.

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-17: Green Pieces: Charlie Brown’s Globe Is Warming

Where is Charles Schultz when we need him?

Remember the classic series of cartoons with Lucy repeatedly talking Charlie Brown into kicking the football?  He kept falling for it in spite of the clear evidence that Lucy lied.  And lied.  And lied.  And lied.

Remember that when you read the headlines about 2014 being the hottest year and how the world is getting hotter.  They lie.  And lie.  And lie.  And lie.  And lie.

The best summary I have read is at Powerline.  It is relatively short and has clear charts.  It names names and give details.  If you are having a Charlie Brown Moment and are tempted to believe the Lucy will hold the ball this time, read the article.

And remember:  They lie.  And lie.  And lie.  And lie....

homo unius libri

Opus 2015-9: Green Piece: The Paperless Office

Remember the paperless office?  Neither do I, but I remember the promise.

One of the selling points of computers is that we can get away from using so much paper.  If you work you know it hasn’t happened that way.  At school we used to take role on scan trons and turn them in.  A lot of paper but it was quick.  Once through and we were done.  We had a secretary who put them through the machine as a minor part of her day.

Now they want us to do everything on the computer.  We are to take role, keep records of student work and figure our grades.  Sounds great but the computer has a strange way of making information disappear.  I am not good with that.  Maybe it is just a lack of trust.  So now I have to print my own role sheets if I want a record I can count on.  When they printed the role sheets they were able to make two sheets of paper work for a 19 week semester.  I require at least 24. 

The computer also makes a lot more work because the bureaucrats can make mindless demands.  One demand is that we have attendance in the computer in the first 10 minutes of class.  To someone who sits in an office with a secretary, that may sound reasonable but, with a steady stream of students coming in tardy it means repeated trips to the computer.  Oh, and they have it set up to bump you out of the attendance program if you wait too long.  That means more time entering passwords and such.  Then they print out the weekly attendance for all classes, send them to the teachers and require us to review it to verify the accuracy of the computer.  Not only does it require much more time from the teacher but requires almost a full time employee to track.

I would say that we are using much more paper now that we are “paperless.”

homo unius libri

Opus 2014-181: Green Piece: What Happens When You Cut Down a Tree?

Several years ago I read an article about the benefits of global warming.  I read it in print, lost the magazine and could never find it on line.  The point made was that climate change happens.  Warming, cooling, you name it, it happens.  The natural order of things involves change.  Change has its up side as well as its down side.  In other words there are advantages to warming and cooling.  Neither is a disaster or the end of the world as we know it.

Recently there was a link on Drudge to a report on the Amazon rain forest.  We are concerned about deforestation.  We assume that the forest was always there.  Not so, says this report.  There are a couple of points it makes.  One is that parts of the Rain forest were not there 2,000 years ago.  Another point is that the indigenous population may have already cut it down so they could be farmers.

If you are interested you can read for more details.  The key thing to keep in mind is that in spite of the wisdom of Al Gore that says the discussion is over, real science keeps asking questions, looking deeper and has an open mind.

Too bad we don’t have much real science any more.

homo unius libri

Opus 2013-83: Green Pieces: The Vast Myanmar Jungle

The Washington Time, National Weekly has a regular feature called “Inside China.”  I was reading about how the Chinese are getting involved in the politics of one of their neighbors, Myanmar.  (February 11, page 19)  It seems they have volunteered to act as referee in cease-fire discussions between the government of Myanmar and the Kachin Independence Army.  It seems they have been offering refuge for refugees from the conflict and are worried about the violence spilling over.

But their concern is more than that.  They want to keep on everyone’s good side because they are building an oil pipeline through that country.  What caught my eye was the statement that the pipeline went through “the vast Myanmar Jungle.” 

Okay, where is the rage of the green movement?  Why are we not seeing Greenpeace sending out demonstrators to throw their bodies in front of the earth-moving machinery?  Has their been an environmental impact statement?  Are we not concerned about the entire globe, after all we are a village.

Or could it be that the Green’s have an agenda more to weaken the United States and what is left of our free enterprise than to protect the environment?

Could it be?

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-206, Green Pieces: Levels of Environmentalists, Level 4, Gorites

Now we come to the people who believe that they should never let a crisis go to waste.  These are the ones who are from the government and are here to help you.  They know what is best for you even if you don’t want it.  For want of a better name lets call them the The Gorites.  These are the elites who want to tell you how to live, even if they do not want to live that way.

These are the environmentalist whacks.  They preach concern for the environment but are only really concerned about gaining power and taking away your liberty.  They tend to be rich and are able to buy carbon credits.  Do you really think that Al Gore or George Soros turn down their thermostats in the winter or up in the summer?  Really?  I bet you believe that the oceans has stopped rising since Obama was elected. 

One of the key doctrines of the Elite class is that rules are for other people.  You may not be aware of it but congress usually exempts themselves from the laws they pass limiting your freedom.

These are the people who have taken away your cheap, clean lightbulbs.  They have given you toilets that don’t flush well and showers that dribble.  They have changed the formula in the detergent that you use in your dishwasher.  They want to put smart meters on you home so they can control the amount of energy you use.  They stop the construction of nuclear power plants and tax you to subsidize wind turbines.  In the People’s Republik of Kalifornia they refuse to allow new refineries to be built.  How much do I need to add before your anesthesia wears off and you begin to feel the pain, to realize what life used to be like?

Pick you label.  Know where people stand.  Remind people of the danger of too much government.  In the central valley they used to have signs that said, “Food grows where water flows.”  We need one engraved on each voting booth that says, “Control grows where Federal money flows.”

November is coming.  Don’t vote for subsidies.  Vote for liberty.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-205, Green Pieces: Levels of Environmentalists, Level 3, The Naturals

I wanted to use the label “The Unwashed Naive” to go along with “The Unwashed Masses,” but I decided that would not be kind.  There are some people who are really into back-to-nature.  Often they don’t believe in deodorants or frequent bathing.  They aren’t dirty, just natural.  Part of their mantra is nature and living as close to nature as possible. 

These people are not violent or nasty.  Often they live as far away from the rest of us as possible.  They practice what they preach but don’t feel like they have the right to cram it down everyone’s throats.

I call them naive because the life they want to live is impossible without killing off the vast majority of humanity and would be violent and short for them if they did not have the resources of the society they reject. 

Take for instance organic food.  I laugh because it is hard to imagine inorganic vegetables.  Understand that this is a technical term, not a simple adjective.  It means food that has been raised and harvested without chemicals or artificial aids.  This is not a real problem in our culture if you have the money to pay for the special treatment, or shall we say, lack of special treatment.  There are some areas in which they have genuine insights and concerns because we don’t know what will happen in the long run as a result of chemicals and genetically modified hybrids.

As long as they are a small part of the population we can thrive with their input.  The problem would be if everyone had to live that way.  Unfortunately it is fertilizers and pesticides that make it possible to raise the large amounts of food that the population needs.  If everyone had to go back to the old days we would all need to move back to the farm and spend most of our day with a hoe in our hands.  The alternative would be to starve to death.

I was reading a blog of a family that had gone off grid.  That means that they are not dependent on society for anything.  They have no water bill because they have a well.  If they have electricity they generate it themselves.  They grow their own food, and so forth.  The interesting part was when they said they did not have cable but watched videos on the DVD in their lap top.  Last time I checked, lap tops were a product of our industrial culture.  In a sense they were still on the grid or the residual wealth of the grid.

It sounds wonderful.  It sounds romantic.  It sounds impossible.  We can’t all go back to nature.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-204, Green Pieces: Levels of Environmentalists, Level 2, The Bill Payers

Level 2 is where I think most bloggers fit.  They are the bill payers, the foundation of society.  They are the ones who keep things going.  They budget and save.  They consider the issues and positions when they vote.  There are not enough of them any more to control the direction of the country.

These people enjoy and love nature.  Every once in awhile they will stop and look at a sunset and be enraptured.  They believe 5,000 year old redwoods are to be admired, protected and enjoyed.  They recognize that the Grand Canyon is more than a big hole in the ground.  They don’t like seeing the mansions of the rich taking up the best coast line.  They recycled before it was called recycling. 

At the same time they believe that trees in general are to be harvested and used to make life better.  They prefer wood furniture to vinyl coated particle board.  They want their A/C but they look for the most economical model. 

Although they are not all Bible believers they accept a couple of standards given there.  First, one of the earliest commandments that God laid down.

(Genesis 1:28 KJV)  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Notice that it says to “replenish” as well as “subdue.”  Notice that human beings are to have “dominion” over the animals.

Second we have an example of how this works in a culture that used animals for work.

(Proverbs 12:10 KJV)  A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

In other words, treat your animals well.

(Deuteronomy 25:4 KJV)  Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

God designed the world just like He designed the human body.  It has the ability to heal itself.  Bacteria and oil slicks are an example.  Remember all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over the oil spills awhile back?  Remember how the President used it as an excuse to attack the oil companies and shut them down?  Have you heard about the natural (God’s) solution.  I didn’t think you had.  It seems that a bacteria appeared that started attacking and breaking down the oil and turning it into environmentally friendly substances.  In short, it ate the crude.  Who’d of thought?

God would.  It seems that the oceans are always leaking oil and these little creatures were put in the water to process this natural process.  Funny how that works.

So are oil spills good?  Of course not.  But they are not the end of the world.  They are no reason to stop drilling.  They are no reason to take away our cars.  They are not a legitimate reason for a freedom hating government to try to limit our access to mobility.

There are a lot of rational people doing the best they can to get along with nature.  We live in it too.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-203, Green Pieces: Levels of Environmentalists, Level 1, The Unwashed Masses

We need to admit something about life.  It is not a new insight.  It is the way it is.  Most people don’t have a clue.  The majority of people living in the Soviet Union during the days of Stalin probably got up, went to work, came home to dinner and went to bed.  They may have had complaints but that is normal.  They had no real opinions.  They had no society changing ambitions.  They were the sheep of the culture.  They were not hassled by the Communist government because they caused no problems and were no threat.

The majority of Americans and almost all Europeans fit into this category.  They have no sense of the long term.  If they can’t taste it, touch it or hear it, they don’t really care.  They have no real thoughts about the future.  I remember talking to man who was a third generation American.  His great grandparents came from Mexico.  He was a teacher and a great human being.  He had a comment about the families he served in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  He said they get a check.  The rent is due next week.  The utilities are due now.  They need groceries and school clothes.  What do they do?  They go to Disneyland.  That was what they wanted to do today.  Tomorrow they will complain because they don’t have any money.  Note this was his analysis, now mine.

Most people are this way about the environment.  They don’t even think about it.  It is not that they want to destroy it, but they are not tripping over trash now, so why not throw the cigarette out the window.  The kids I work with think nothing of brushing trash off their desk onto the floor, after all, that is what we have janitors for, right? 

This is where they are in life.  There is little in their entertainment and leisure that will change it.  The school is concerned about bullying and global warming.  The students are smart enough to roll their eyes and go back to texting.  They grow up and the behavior continues.  If they vote they will vote the way their parents did, usually on a straight party ticket.

You can tell them to recycle but they will still throw their empty cans out the window.  You can tell them to buy a Prius, they will still go for the horsepower and noise.  You can tell them, but they are not paying attention.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-202, Green Pieces: Levels of Environmentalists, Opening

Protecting the environment is a topic that has a lot of impact on our lives.  In one sense that is obvious.  If the environment is poisoned, we all die or at least live at a level that is ugly to contemplate.  So the environment is important.  No one who thinks will argue about that. 

After that we get into a lot of differing opinions and levels of concern.  At one end you have people who only know what they feel at the moment.  At the other extreme are people who consider human being pollution and don’t care if the species goes extinct as long as the Gaia feels good about herself.

Somewhere in between there must be a happy medium.  We should be able to recognize common sense, reasonable, affordable solutions to what are or could be real problems.  We should be able to discriminate between the “solutions” that are generated by people who stand to cash in or who have some other vested interest and those that actually make sense.

People fall into categories.  These categories need labels.  Why?  Because I find labels handy and they make better titles.

Just as all people have a philosophical position, all people have an environmental position.  They just don’t recognize it or don’t want to admit it.  Make that “won’t” as well as “don’t.”  Keep in mind that this is my current opinion.  I reserve the right to grow in my thinking.  The labels may overlap just like you have a few pro-life Democrats and too many pro-choice Republicans, life is complex.  There may be more levels.  I may not have been as complex in my thinking as you are in yours.  Also note, the order is not in level of importance but in level of intensity from the ignorant to the ignoble with most of us in between.

So what labels would I put on people in regard to the environment? 

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-154, Green Pieces and Plow and Crown: Cooking the Frog, Attacks on the Poor, Cash for Clunkers, Part 1 of 2

People are concerned about pollution.  It is a legitimate concern.  I was raised in Southern California before it became the People’s Repulik.  I can remember what the smog used to be like.  We used to drive through the San Fernando Valley and I never realized it had hills on both sides.  Things have really improved.  I understand that many lakes and rivers are also coming back to a healthy condition.  But many of the solutions are more political than environmental.  The solutions are not always best for the poor of the nation.  All they do is limit our liberty and allow the Control Freaks of the Elites to feel good about themselves. 

One “solution” has been to get the old cars off the road.  How do they take old cars off the road?  A recent attempt has been the Federal program called “Cash for Clunkers.”  People were given a check to help them buy a new car.  Let’s assume for a moment that this program did remove a lot of old cars from the road.  It was “successful,” whether you think that is good or not.  The plan was that the cars traded in would go to the wrecking yard as scrap.  They would be crushed and shipped to whatever country is now reclaiming metals from scrap.  There would be fewer old cars on the road.  Yay!

Now let’s look at the economics of a free market.  When the government takes your tax money to help wealthy people buy cars they could buy on their own if they really wanted them, they also take the old cars out of the loop.  That means there are fewer used cars on the market to be bought by the less affluent.  I am one of those.  I have never bought a new car.  Rarely have I even gone to a car lot to buy my used cars.  I usually buy them from people who park their old car in front of their house with a “For Sale” sign in the window.  It works for me.  Or it used to.  Since Cash for Clunkers there are fewer old, cheap cars available to buy.  This reduction in supply means an increase in demand.  This raises the cost.

So the well meaning Control Freaks of the Elites end up limiting my mobility and thus my freedom while they increase the cost of living.  They are rich enough it doesn’t hurt.  I am not.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-151, Green Pieces: Go Ahead, Cut Down the Tree

I was listening to the radio while driving between time share weeks and the conversation turned to the foolishness of the elites who want to control our lives by regulating our use of energy.  They commented on America’s riches in energy that we are not allowed to use.  We were called the Saudi Arabia of Coal.  We have vast reserves of oil but the environmentalists won’t let us drill.  And then they came to trees.  They pointed something out that I knew but put it in a way that I had not thought of before.

Trees are a renewable resource.

I have had this discussion with students at school.  They are always trying to tell me I am killing trees by making them get out paper and write.  I look at them with big eyes and ask in my most dramatic style, “Do you know what happens when you cut down a tree?”  What great dread they ask me, “What?”  I tell them, “It grows back!” 

So if they won’t let us drill for oil, maybe we need to bring back the Stanley Steamer and use wood to power our automobiles.  Of course so many of our children are raised in sterile metropolitan areas or the deserts of the Southwest.  They don’t realize that in areas where it rains the trees just keep growing.  You can’t stop them.  Of course people who have never driven across North Dakota still believe the world is overpopulated, too. 

I guess they need to get out more.  Maybe a nice long drive in a car driven by gasoline.

homo unius libri

Opus 2012-141, Green Pieces: Cooking the Frog, Attacks on the Poor, Oil Changes

The elites of the world do not understand the struggles of the working classes.  It might be more accurate to say they don’t really care.  The environmentalists who continue to try to regulate us would fit into this category.  They are in the exclusive club with Marie Antoinette who is reported to have said, “Then let them eat cake.”  They never take into consideration what their need to control does to the lives of the poor.

When I was a kid we used to change our own oil.  We would save up the used oil and, when we accumulated, enough, take it down and sell it to the recycler.  This private business man would clean it up, package it and sell it.  It was cheaper than new stuff.  When I was young and had no money I used to buy recycled oil.

This was a win, win, win.  Because I could get money for my used oil, I did not dump it.  I made money on the deal.  A local, small business hired people to process the oil.  Read this as jobs for people and profit for the entrepreneur.  He then sold it at a lower price and the oil was available to people with limited income.  This meant poor people could afford to buy and drive cars.  This allowed them more choices in work, education and recreation.  It made life better for them.

Compare this to the modern world.  I talked to the manager of a chain store that would change my oil for a price.  I asked if I could give him my oil.  Notice I knew he would not pay me for it but I assumed he could take it for reprocessing.  He said, “No.”  He had once been fined $10,000 because he took someone’s oil and it had an additive in it that the environmental people did not like.  So now instead of getting paid for my oil I pay someone else to change it and pay a fee to have it recycled.

What have we gained?  Under the old system everyone was better off.  Everyone could benefit financially.  The cost of freedom in transportation was lower.  The oil was recycled at a profit instead of under coercion. 

Of course, under the new system the Control Freaks of the Elites are happier.  I guess that is worth something.  I just wish the value did not come out of my wallet.

homo unius libri