A Good Treatment for Utter Dispair

Schadenfreude...

I actually liked Hillary up until a few months ago. Other bloggers used to tell me that Joe and I were too nice to Hillary. People just assumed that we were endorsing her. Now I actually loathe her. She makes me yell at the TV like she's George Bush, and no one other than George Bush makes me yell at the TV - until now. I actually can't stand her or her husband any more. I defended her. I defended her husband. And now I'm actually wondering if the Republicans weren't right about them.

Bwahahahahahahaha!!!

Of course she scares me less than Obama, but I still get to laugh.

Shamelessly lifted from  Rand Simberg.

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Oh Dang...I Haven't Ragged on Huckabee in Months

The Anchoress however, has not been so neglectful.

Read the whole thing. In fairness, it concerns some of his more fanatical backers rather than Huckabee himself but it is a reminder (as if one was needed) that the Jackasses don't have a lock on creepy messianic political campaigns in their primaries this cycle...just the successful one.

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On the West Virginia Primary

Thoughtful analysis...with a Ghibli perspective.

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Rationality Expelled

I'm really busy studying for exams.
I would hate to get expelled.

However, with that in mind,something has come up that requires comment.

Fortunately Pixy is doing a fine job of it, as is Matoko San.

I have not seen the film so I have little to add except to say that ID is pernicuiously, malignantly wrong. It is not merely stupid and wrong, it is corrosively antiscience.

Yes the evangelical atheists are vile and obnoxious and bigoted...how did the producers decide to get that point across? By making  jerkwads like Dawkins look good.

Congratulations...you've cunningly picked an issue (I'm talking about IDiocy of course) where they are unequivocally right....BEULLLER!!!???

The filmakers allegedly make a point about left leaning influence of grants and political correctness.
Congratulations ein Stein....you've attached yourself to an issue where you are utterly wrong.



This film plays to the worst stereotypes that the left spreads about the right, empowers the condescending jackasses  like Obama and Dawkins and  it  is  immorally anti-science.

I've got morons on my team.

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If True, This Can't be Good...

China has reportedly renamed the former Russian Carrier Varyag, * the Shi Lang.

Shi Lang was the Chinese Admiral who captured Taiwan.

More Chicom CV rumors here.


Varyag was purchased unfinished with the stated intention of turning it into a floating hotel/casino/ entertainment center....but 'somehow' ended up at a naval base painted in P.L.A.N. Grey with naval technicians swarming over her.

* I can't find a primary source on this.But this thread and the Wikipedia entry list Janes AtWFS 2008.
 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:36 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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Two Different Perspectives

Admiral Fallon has resigned.

Fallon was the head of CENTCOM and by all accounts a decent, upstanding, and competent guy.

 Fallon is very widely respected by just about everybody. The idea that Fallon has left, either because he was forced out or had a serious disagreement is being taken by some as a signal of eminent war with Iran.

The generally reasonable Galhran sums up that view here.

....I really am stunned, I have never really believed the US was going to strike Iran until today.

And indeed, this does not make sense from a civilian political mindset which is what Gahlran's perspective is. I did not find the hyperbole of the Esquire piece particularly helpful especially since it seems to have been rewritten with extra added drama since the resignation.

CDR Salamander has a rather different take on this here. He makes some very good points that have escaped some other people.

  I'm a junior enlisted reservist in a different service. So take my stock disclaimer to heart  This is so far beyond my paygrade it boggles the mind.

 Still...I tend to agree with the Commander on this. The Esquire article was stupid hyperbolic divisive and damaging. I also think there are other things going on. I don't think this is the Rubicon, but pieces like it may lead our enemies to believe that is the case.

How well that works out depends on how our side plays it.

 

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Well, this is Awkward...

Kosovo has declared independence.

Ummm....good for them.

The US has immediately and enthusiastically recognized this development.  This seems ill considered to me.

I was against it when Clinton meddled in that powder keg and I'm against this now. There are a couple of implications here....most of them are bad.



The current government of Kosovo is not exactly an innocent party either. Although Clinton went to war ostensibly to protect Kosovar Albanians from oppression by Serbs the only mass graves in Kosovo found thus far have contained dead Serbs. (there were reportedly Serb atrocities elsewhere) The demography of the area did not shift benignly.

In the utterly lunatic scenario that we might want to take SIDES in a conflict in the Balkans...which is the border between Eastern Europe, Western Europe and Islam...we might give consideration to not taking the side of the aggressors.

We did not need to jump to recognize Kosovo so suddenly. If it maintains its independence then it is a fait acompli and  recognition will come, but to be one of the first to support this terrible humiliation of the Serbs is to rub salt in the wounds that Clinton opened with Russia.

This is, of course, only one of the reasons that Russia....which ought to be our ally right now given our common issues with Islamic extremist nutjobs has become so antiwestern over the last decade....but it is a big one.

WW1 started over less.

Then there is the little matter of precedent.
 Kosovo is breaking away from the rest of Serbia due to the fact that Albanians (muslims) have been streaming across a porous border and squatting in Serb territory. I would argue that we might not want to publicly support the right of a region that undergoes ethnic demographic shift to secede....no really.




Let's see....piss off Russia: check

Set pretty dangerous precedent regards our own challenges: check

Further insinuate into rather than extricate ourselves from one of the bloodiest most effed up strife-torn regions of Europe with no prospect whatsoever for a lessening in tensions. : check

OK Now for the good points.

...




Feel free to add any in the comments...all I got is crickets.

More thoughts here and here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Tomorrow is the day...

I made my case for McCain here, and here.
Like most conservatives I am put off by a few of his positions that are not in keeping with either liberty, limited government or common sense. These are, to be sure, nontrivial matters.  However, I still think he is better on Foreign Policy than his most formidable rival (Romney) who held many of the same positions until recently. McCain is at least consistent and honest in his views as much as I disagree with them.

As to those views, Bill Quick pretty much lays out the conservative case against McCain here.

Aside from the rumors of perfidy for which I can find no evidence other than hearsay and innuendo they are genuine and legitimate points of disagreement. They also don't hold a candle to the differences we all would have with a Clinton or even Obama administration.

  I can only suggest that Mr. Quick change his title picture to a dove, flowers, or a modified inverted Mercedes symbol because he obviously does not take the war seriously any more if he is going to actively suggest that we vote for Hillary or Obama instead of McCain.

The comment section there looks like a Democratic Underground thread. It is awfully dismaying.

I want to take this opportunity to thank RH Junior, (who has a store that sells stuff ) and who vehemently disagrees with me on this point for remaining civil.

Tomorrow is Super Tuesday.

This is therefore (hopefully) my last post on this divisive topic as by tomorrow evening this issue will likely be settled.

I have little to add but others who are not Z-list bloggers have some thoughts....



more...

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On the Current Direction of the GOP

In the comments to this post, webcomic master  RH Junior once again makes an impassioned and thoughtful case against voting for McCain, even if he is the nominee. Please check out his comment as I think it does bear reading.  I responded, but the comment went rather long so I went ahead and made a post of it.

Regards my pointing out that Bush failed to veto McCain-Feingold and has not been held accountable for this RH makes this argument....

No, there hasn't been an outcry to impeach Bush for signing McCain-Feingold. On the other hand, he didn't draft the thing, did he. He's not a legislator, or a Supreme Court justice. As Executive he only has the power to enforce the law, and his only interaction with the process of legislation is to offer suggestions, and delay or retard legislation being passed by way of a veto--- and that, not indefinitely. Refusing to sign would have only delayed the political freight train for a round or two and given the Democrats screaming about his presidential "illegitimacy" more ammo. That said, what did he have to lose by hoping the Supreme Court would do its proper job for once?

I disagree with this. The presidents job is to defend the constitution.. His primary weapons in this endeavor are the US military and the veto pen.

I do agree with many of your points aside from the characterization of McCain's actions as wicked. McCain, like Bush is what historically would have been considered a Truman Democrat. These are not evil creatures, merely wrong in the long term, for the unintended consequences of the actions of a  powerful central government ( in domestic matters) and socialistic spending tend to always lead to hell.

 In the short term they can be and often are extremely good to have, particularly on foreign policy matters....which is a great concern at this time.

Attempting to curtail corruption in politics is not an ignoble goal. Like the drug war though, its ramifications are often worse than the initial problem....especially if the people offering solutions are insulated from reality the day to day consequences by the 495 beltway (or the ivory tower of academia).

I have little doubt that McCain, as wrong as I feel he is on certain issues, is striving to be on the side of the angels. I have rather less doubt that Hillary will be far worse for the Republic.

I'm sorely tempted to write in Thompson too, but the result of enough people doing that would be President Hillary.

Some suggest that sitting that sitting this one out and inflicting Hillary upon the nation will finally wake up the Republican Party and get us back in touch with our core principals. The evidence for this is scant indeed given that the unexciting current crop of candidates is what was fielded AFTER they were "taught a lesson" in 2006. It is also akin to the wishes occasionally expressed on the DU site a few years back that a city would just please blow up in a mushroom cloud to teach the nation a lesson about having Republicans in control. Hillary is going to be far worse in all areas at a time we will be facing very real challenges, both fiscal, military and ethical.

RH junior is absolutely correct in pointing out that having a heroic war record does not in and of itself confer great leadership abilities upon one ( see Randy Cunningham). However, the particular actions (and inactions) that led to McCain's awards speak to a singular strength of character. Being an officer or even an NCO does involve  intangible leadership qualities that are not often appreciated. However, this skill set is of little consequence if not backed up by character and the equally intangible quality known as honor. McCain was tested rather more harshly than most and kept faith with his men, and his nation. THIS and not abstract medal's or wounds are what give me some confidence that McCain is worthy of the job and will execute his duties with diligence, competence and good faith.

I will likely tear  my remaining few strands of hair out over some of his decisions, though I've gone a long way towards that with our current president....who I nevertheless voted for twice....and I am still confident that he was the correct choice in both instances.

The much larger problem facing conservatives, namely the lack of appreciation (or often even comprehension) of basic federalist, individualist and limited government principles is not going to be solved by any one candidate.

Trying to fix this problem is a daunting task, as our views, however well borne out by history, are vehemently opposed by the vast majority of teachers, civil servants and the chattering classes. It is going to require mobilization of conservatives to arenas rather beyond the scope of the keyboard in order to make our case. Conservatives who care need to donate to and rally for those who we can enthusiastically support. It has been done before as the Goldwater/Reagan revolution demonstrated, but it will require work

Going home and pouting will only ensure our irrelevance. That was, you recall, the action of some of those closest to our views, the (big "L" Libertarians), who's full scale abandonment of the Republican party helped tip the GOP's internal argument regards the role and function of government towards the New Dealers who joined as many of the Libertarians bailed.

Like many of my fellows I'm tired of holding my nose and voting but we have before us (as President Bush did in 2001-2) a series of choices that are varying degrees of bad....however, voting for Fred Thompson, Ronald Reagan or Aragorn is only going to remove votes from the less bad of the alternatives.

UPDATE: Tangentially related thoughts here.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:43 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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McCain is not the Sum of all Evil

 In the previous post I expressed dismay at the current Republican field. I linked to Rusty Shackleford's thoughtful endorsement of Romney. I also mentioned that, nevertheless, it is McCain whom I'm (very tentatively) leaning towards.

In the comments to that post, the fantastically talented RH Junior makes his case against McCain.

 I would think McCain's track record as a living threat to the Constitution would count more.

"You signed a bill that makes it a crime to pay for a political ad around election time."

"But I fought in the WAR! Look, here's my scar...!"

Sorry, I want to elect a President, not a war wound.

Fair enough, though, I disagree. However, it is instructive to examine the (not unfounded) aversion to McCain that many thoughtful righties have.

McCain was a solid republican Senator for several years until he was involved in the Keating Savings and Loan scandal in the late '80s. The Keating 5 were rebuked more for an appearance of impropriety rather than any actual impropriety and it has been suggested that McCain's being on the list was primarily to allow the Democrats to present the scandal as "a bipartisan problem".

McCain's behavior in the Hanoi Hilton indicates he places a high importance on personal honor... and this besmirched his honor. He was forthright...perhaps self deprecating...in his admission of poor judgment (in doing what was pretty standard senatorial behavior at the time)  and worked to regain his image.

He worked rather too hard.

McCain became the darling of the press by doing the one thing sure to endear a Republican to the press....namely bashing his fellow Republicans.

This did NOT endear him to many conservatives, but McCain reaped considerable benefits in favorable press coverage.  McCain, very concious of his good name, particularly after how much he had suffered for it, seemed to become obsessed with the Keating blot on his record and determined to sweep it away.

In addition to the "straight talk"...(which sounded  a LOT like backstabbing to certain other Republicans) he engaged in a quest for campaign finance reform.

Now the history of campaign finance reform is remarkably similar to the evolution of drug resistant diseases....every attempt  has caused the financing to mutate and rejigger itself through some loophole so that in a few election cycles the graft is at pre-reform levels...but rather harder to trace.

The result of this test is that to many conservatives....myself included...the best finance reform is strictly enforced transparency. (This is especially true now given the potential of the Internet...money is a big factor but not AS big as it once was and that trend is likely to accelerate...if not stymied by "reform")

McCain went with a rather more spectacular idea.

The reform legislation was the McCain-Feingold law which combined perceived solutions to several pet peeves of the Republicans and Democrats into a Byzantine overarching mess that allows the US government to get involved in local first amendment issues....see here, here and here . The upshot is that speech leading up to an election is restricted quite odiously. This is not at all in keeping with the principles of a Republic.

Note that it DOES get worse (but only if you are not a Democrat). You see, the "Press" is exempt so there can be coverage, but only by the "Press"....who is the "Press"? Well, it is whoever the Federal Election commission decides it is. The MSM are, of course, grandfathered (natch). Given their general hostility to Republicans this is not a good thing for those of us on the right.

This, however, is merely a tactical concern, the real problem with this odious legislation is the insane idea that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT can determine if a car dealership can run ads or decide if a grass roots organization can run an ad during a certain part of the year.

This is what RH Junior means when he mentions a living threat to the constitution. It strikes at the heart of our republic and sets a precedent that is extremely unhealthy.

This is bad news.

That being said...

Bush (who many people unfriendly towards McCain like rather more) is the one who signed this legislative abortion into law...using the blinkered notion that he'd just rely on the Supreme Court to strike it down.

Option A: He is telling the truth and signed a law he felt was UNCONSTITUTIONAL into law...assuming the SCOTUS would do his job for him.

Option B: He really saw nothing wrong with it. (ew!)

Neither is good, but I don't hear calls for impeaching the POTUS from McCain's detractors on the right.  My own issues with the POTUS from before it was fashionable in my circles are here.

Of the remaining 3 viable candidates, McCain seems not terribly worse than the others on most issues, better on gun control, better on foreign policy by way of experience and he is absolutely committed to striving to win this long war. He is, of course worse on the particular issue of campaign finance and that should not be dismissed. However, if McCain Feingold is to be fixed, such fixing will come from the Congress, not the White House.

McCain is also a genuine war hero and it is on this that I take some umbrage to the last bit of the above quote.

McCain is not an obsequiously loyal Republican...but he held faith where it mattered. Wounded, tortured and offered early release, he did not betray those with whom he served. This shows a depth of character and a force of will that is important in a commander in chief.

I do not agree with a lot of McCain's positions...but I have no doubt whatsoever that his heart is in the right place, that he will strive to win the war, and that he is acting in good faith for the nation. In this he stands in stark contrast to his most likely opponent, Hillary. On most other issues, especially foreign policy, he is still better than his likable but long shot opponent (Obama) who is both inexperienced and, I firmly believe, wrong on the most vital  issues.

That is the rub...

...and it is why I feel that Shackleford's quote here is ill conceived....

 

McCain can beat Hillary. But McCain is, well, McCain.

Yes, but Hillary is Hillary and that is that.

Hillary's old guard top-down leftist policies are not going to be good for the economy, our personal freedoms or the war effort. Her disdain for our service members is well documented and her views on any number of issues are either alarmingly statist or have changed with the polls like a windsock in a tornado. A recovering economy needs stability and despite views many of us disagree on, no one can accuse him of being inconsistent. He is no leftie, as this voting assessment shows. (though it is rather weighted towards the social end)

Honor does count for something as does the character implied by taking the oath to serve ones country and die a bit if called upon.

I certainly don't believe this is the Alpha and Omega of political decisions (as my declaring for Fred should make clear), but it does count for a positive, especially given McCain's performance under extreme duress. It differentiates him in a positive way from the rest of a barren field that is entirely uninspiring to a conservative such as myself.

I can get behind Romney or, with trepidation, Gulianie...but for now, McCain is the one I consider the best and most electable of the lot.

_{UPDATE: While McCain may not be the sum of all evil, I am the Acme of poor typists....syntax and spelling typos corrected.}

_{UPDATE2: Oh ..yeah...I'd forgotten about that.... urp....}

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 07:08 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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No Luv for the Huckster...

I gave my reasons here on December 6th.
Now it appears I may have been too kind.

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Debate Blogging

I'm off this evening and despite what looks like a busy day of Coast Guarding tomorrow, I'm staying up and watching the debate.

As I suck at liveblogging, here are a couple of  links to those who don't.

Thompson is doing pretty good this evening...More of this please!

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The Debate

The Republican debate was the best thus far, much more substantive than past ones.

I still like Thompson the best by far.

I think he did very well in the debate despite (and in a way because of) the fact that he seemed to say the fewest words. He was to the point, direct and intelligent.

OTOH, Romney had his best night ever. He came off very well when the others pounced on him. Paul also gave his best performance yet though it served to underscored his problems on foreign policy.

Various other views here here and here.


I liked the bit at the end where the Dems and Republicans schmoozed for a bit.

Thus far the Dem debate seems to be rather less substantive

Note though that Edwards is doing the best by far (10:33pm) ...I disagree with him on most every substantive point but he is making the most substantive and specific arguments. Edwards is making the best populist arguments since the '30s. He most accurately and sincerely extols the vengeance and resentment based policies of the Democrats. He makes very good, often heartwrenching observations (IMHO judiciously avoiding any correct conclusions). He is quite likable.

Obama is likable, persuasive and seems to have large well hidden blank spots that are alarming.

Peron Clinton is still an amazing synthesis of rage, a sense of entitlement and disdain. She is no less an advocate of intrusive nannyism than Edwards but comes off as more elitist...imperious in her disdain for...pretty much all of us.


Richardson is the biggest disappointment of the lot. I'd thought he would be the most reasonable of the group.  He's pandering to the nutroots.
His comment about the Russian nukes being confirmed to be in terrorists hands is the bombshell (!) of the night if true.

It is ending as I type this...None of the Dems on stage was willing to admit the surge had had any beneficial effect. Reality based community my ass.

UPDATE:
Big roundup of links to roundups here.
UPDATE2: Rand Simberg has more here.

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Terrorists HAVE Nukes?!

So..I'm watching the debates and Richardson says that terrorists ALREADY have nukes?!!

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Brickmuppet Blog Declares For Fred...

Enough of who I'm dead set against....It's time to declare who I'm for.

That would be Fred Thompson.

Thompson is really the only Goldwater Republican in the race for the nomination.
Thompson's view of the role and function of government is closer to mine than any of the candidates aside from Congressman Paul, and I firmly believe Thompson is far better than that admirably Jeffersonian Congressman on dealing with current threats. Thompson's strong federalist stance is a welcome one to me as this is a vital aspect of a Republic.

    Starting with his early campaigning for Goldwater, Thompson has been politically active in various capacities for on and off for over 30 years. He has also been employed in private sector jobs ranging from the fields of law to entertainment during the aforementioned "off" periods. The private sector perspective is important for the elected representatives to have and it is all too lacking in todays political players. The founders intended that our representative serve for a time and go back to their jobs rather existing as professional entrenched rulers...Thus this is a bigger point for Thompson than is often appreciated.

His experience in public service has ranged from the Watergate hearings were he comported himself admirably to the service in both the US Senate and the State Department ( working for ISAB). In private life he helped bring down a corrupt governor and represented various citizens legal interests. He is also a character actor and while that may seem to be of limited relevance to the POTUS skillset, the skills honed there can have considerable application in both electability and in the all important presidential job of shouting and inspiring from the bully pulpit.

I certainly do not agree with Thompson on all issues, but it is apparent that he has given many of the issues facing the nation a good deal of thought beyond the sound bite.

No candidate is going to score 100% with the focus group of one that is Ken, but I am in agreement with Thompson more than I am with the current President (who I voted for twice) and I feel he has an excellent chance of uniting the party for the tough electoral battle ahead and a better than even chance of uniting our viscerally divided country against the many challenges it faces, challenges that range from the natural, to the man made and from men of ill intent.

Finally, Thompson possesses another important characteristic  that is lacking in much of todays discourse, an almost Reaganlike optimism.  This as important a quality as any in leadership.

Anyway, them's my reasons....

Go Fred!

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Overcoming the Dirigible Deficit

I kinda like Fred.

It seems that Pejman Yousefzadeh does too.  It is a long well thought out piece...I agree with a lot of it.

He needs a blimp though.

HT: the Blogfather

 

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 10:52 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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"He's Got a Blimp!!...COOL!"

I am not endorsing Ron Paul. For one thing, I think his stance on the war, (however principled) is catastrophically wrong. However, I do not think that his strict constitutionist views deserve the lampooning they get, particularly from my fellow Republicans. If not for the war, I could see supporting him.

Additionally, I have to give him a big golf clap for this.

           

He may not be in the top tier in the polls, but he has surged ahead of all his rivals in the Dirigible Department!

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Huckleberry Blogburst

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Why Conservatives Are Skeptical of The Global Warming Consensus

This came up in the comments to this post on Jim Frasier's excellent site.

The leftie narrative is fairly predictable, conservatives are reactionary pigs who are driven by greed and ignorance while the enlightened lefties motives are as pure as the driven snow.

Um...no.

It is true that the healthy skepticism the right has had for the global warming hysterics IS reactionary in a way.

The environmental movement was pretty much taken over by lefties, especially after the fall of the USSR.

Leftism has never worked, instead it has rendered millions of innocents dead, wrecked economies and left the most "successful" nations it was inflicted upon with weak economies and on a demographic death spiral. After, Robspierre, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, 130 million people dead, and at best malaise and general dispair you'd think there would be a re-examining of premises....

....but, like mid 19th century Christian apocalyptics trying to distract attention from the great disappointment, the lefties watchword has become "next time fer sure".

For a time after the end of the cold war however, this was a hard sell.

So to foist their utterly unworkable philosophy on the rest of us they embraced global warming as an excuse to force anti capitalist (and often anti American) policies through that would never pass political muster in this country.

The policies that the "greens" tend to advocate are the same old authoritarian, planned economy boondoggles that have been failing for 80 years.

Kyoto, (like many of their solutions)  is about hyperregulating the private sector. Additionally, given that treaties are binding for the US (but for Europe, not so much) Kyoto in particular is a way to hurt America and thereby give rather more socialistic Europe a leg up on us and perpetuate the lie that socialism is in any way competitive with a basically free market.

This has as much a political and idealogical bent as any on the conservative side.

Additionally, despite their claim to impartiality, academics are frequently left leaning by nature. Given the demonstrable, imperical non-workability of leftism in experiment after experiment from De Sade to Pol Pot this seems strange. However, on a spreadsheet or math equation it seems like a good idea...when divorced from the chaotic variables that are human nature. This left leaning bent is in part because academics tend to exist in a fairly Malthusian and state supported environment (they depend upon grants from a growth restricted limited budget that is frequently dependent upon public financing) and have limited interaction with the day to day operations of a capitalist economy.  This is conducive to focusing on certain types of research (for which there is often much rejoicing) but makes them very unsuited to performing the sort of cost benefit analysis the solution to this problem requires.

Conservatives can additionally be forgiven for skepticism when the boosters of global warming hysteria behave in ways that indicate they don't seem to believe in it themselves. The lefts approved approach is idiocy like Kyoto,which the Europeans who signed it are cheating on, and which ignored major polluters like China and India. (China recently surpassed the US in net CO2 emissions). The left has historically opposed nuclear power, OWWEOL*, supports unworkable boondoggles like ethanol,# and fly around the world lecturing about global warming....in  fricking jets.@

The Bush administration, for all its many, many faults has pushed fuel cells, nuclear power, as well as thermal depolymerization and other biodiesel projects. Significantly he has gotten a CO2 agreement that includes (albiet tentatively) China (and therefore is relevant...quite unlike Kyoto).

Bush has therefore done more practical good in this regard than those who are identified with this cause.

As I've pointed out before there are worse eco-problems than global warming.  Global warming is a perfect storm of solar heating of the whole solar system, coming out of an ice age and CO2 emissions...all at he same time. However, things like acid rain, mercury in the environment,the ecological collapse of the oceans and poisoning of groundwater supplies are almost entirely anthropogenic in nature and are IMHO both more pressing and more directly able to be influenced by human actions.

None of this means that conservatives like myself seriously believe that global warming is not real nor that we don't want to cut emissions.

I and many conservatives support fossil fuel carbon taxes as opposed to the carbon caps/ carbon credits that are just Ponzi scheme vaporware. We support nuclear power, and with the scads of cheap carbon free energy that can provide the thermal depolymerization plants and other biofuel processing plants it can make possible. The current administration is also looking at SSPS arrays for the first time since the early 80's. While I'm skeptical of this technology for several reasons it is not indicative of ignoring energy alternatives.

It is true that there are ignoramuses on the right who deny any anthropogenic component to this issue or even that warming itself is apochryphal. They are given a good deal more exposure than cranks would normally warrant in part because the media likes to use them to discredit the right.

More here, here and here.

*(OWWEOL= Offshore Windmills Within Eyesight of Lefties)

# Yes I know, conservatives do that too...we are most displeased.

@ Why don't they use blimps...blimps are cool! Hell they could use an actual Zeppelin !

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One Final Note on the Strike Thing

In the comments to the previous post on the writers strike, Pete Zactiev makes an analogy to computer engineers work on software like LINUX. Pointing out ( I think) that the writers are generally not the creators of these shows and are analogous to someone tweaking a computer OS the writers case by writing episodes.

I don't think this exactly follows. The writers are doing the actual creation of the shows, without them there is no marketable product. A software engineer is an engineer. He/she gets the program which is essentially a customizable machine or toolkit. The kit IS the finished product. The IT person then uses the kit/program to fit to the needs of their employer.  

However, his is an interesting analogy. It certainly follows certain recent trends and that bothers me.

Nations that don't have strong intellectual property protections CAN of course produce scads of stuff.

But they have, internally, serious disincentives to actually create anything beyond refinements of existing products. Despite some cursory enforcement China is piracy central and this is in no way limited to digital media.

This is potentially a huge issue. I firmly believe that one of the reasons the "West" leapfrogged everybody else was that those nations tended to have strong IP laws. Those nonwestern nations that adopted such ideas succeeded and those that didn't fell behind

 Invention and progress depend upon intellectual property law. The reason this nation prospered was because it was friendly to creators. The founding fathers, included several writers, Jefferson and others were inventors, Washington was a civil engineer and Franklin was all of the above. They were renaissance men. They made sure that the nation rewarded its creative individuals with royalties or somesuch. In fact the founders 14yr + 14yr copyright which is used to argue for not extending copyright must be taken in context with the 33 year average lifespan of the day. The founders were  sure enough that this was important and both Federalist and Republican governments built this up over the ensuing 20 years or so.

   This concept is largely responsible for the historic aberration that is the modern world.  Given the nature of digital media such concepts may be untenable, but we should tread lightly for we abandon them at our peril.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 05:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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