According to Richard Cohen of the Post, George W. Bush is a liberal, to wit, he favors big government, big spending (just look what has happened to federal spending during the Bush years), the federal over state governments (see No Child Left Behind), and Wilsonian nation building (Iraq). No real conservative would support these things.
Unlike Lynn Scarlett, I can’t wax rhapsodic about Rachel Carson’s “poetry.” For sake of argument, I can agree that Rachel Carson meant well when she wrote Silent Spring, but her legacy has helped lead to the deaths of millions of people from DDT. For more on that see this article Katherine Magu-Ward, this post by Ron Bailey, and this op-ed by some folks from CEI. Here’s a little sample from Ron Bailey:
In Silent Spring, Rachel Carson asked, “Who has decided—who has the right to decide—for the countless legions of people who were not consulted that the supreme value is a world without insects, even though it be also a sterile world ungraced by the curving wing of a bird in flight? The decision is that of the authoritarian temporarily entrusted with power.”
Banning DDT saved thousands of raptors over the past 30 years, but outright bans and misguided fears about the pesticide cost the lives of millions of people who died of insect-borne diseases like malaria. The 500 million people who come down with malaria every year might well wonder what authoritarian made that decision.
Why are we still in Iraq? According to Andrew J. Bacevich in Sunday’s Washington Post, “wealthy individuals and institutions.” Here’s some context in the op-ed:
The November 2006 midterm elections signified an unambiguous repudiation of the policies that landed us in our present predicament. But half a year later, the war continues, with no end in sight. Indeed, by sending more troops to Iraq (and by extending the tours of those, like my son, who were already there), Bush has signaled his complete disregard for what was once quaintly referred to as “the will of the people.”To be fair, responsibility for the war’s continuation now rests no less with the Democrats who control Congress than with the president and his party. After my son’s death, my state’s senators, Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry, telephoned to express their condolences. Stephen F. Lynch, our congressman, attended my son’s wake. Kerry was present for the funeral Mass. My family and I greatly appreciated such gestures. But when I suggested to each of them the necessity of ending the war, I got the brushoff. More accurately, after ever so briefly pretending to listen, each treated me to a convoluted explanation that said in essence: Don’t blame me.
To whom do Kennedy, Kerry and Lynch listen? We know the answer: to the same people who have the ear of George W. Bush and Karl Rove — namely, wealthy individuals and institutions.
Money buys access and influence. Money greases the process that will yield us a new president in 2008. When it comes to Iraq, money ensures that the concerns of big business, big oil, bellicose evangelicals and Middle East allies gain a hearing. By comparison, the lives of U.S. soldiers figure as an afterthought.
So let me get this straight, Senators Kerry and Kennedy are not working harder to get us out of Iraq because of “wealthy individuals and institutions.” Give me a break. I don’t like Kennedy or Kerry, but this is a silly argument. The reason we are still in Iraq is simple–no one knows how to get out of Iraq in a decent way. It’s that simple. It isn’t because wealthy people are conspiring to keep up there.
Two years ago I read Going Postal by Terry Pratchett for the first time. Last week I read it again. It is a great book. If you want to read an fun, amusing book, it doesn’t get much better than this.
Here’s the first few pages:
They say that the prospect of being hanged in the morning concentrates a man
Here are the two most interesting observations from Trust But Verify (which provides the best coverage of Floyd Landis’ hearings):
Most people, including me, did not get the importance of the methodological peak identification problems that Brenna nearly perjured himself to try to bury. LNDD has a designed-in mistake in their SOP for IRMS that is common among all tests they have ever run. They don’t run a calibration mix that includes the 5a, 5b, and pdiols, so they can’t identify peaks in the IRMS correctly, or in conformance with the ISL IDCR — creating an ISL violation on any AAF they have ever declared on 5a or 5b – pdiol. This is a disaster for LNDD and whoever has said their procedure was correct — including Brenna, Ayotte, Catlin, Aquilera, and Botre.
Lemond should never have been allowed to testify, and his testimony was probably allowed in to punish Landis for the Will-provoked circus. There are hanging legal issues to be explored whether Lemond’s refusal to answer Armstrong questions was proper.
The Left has a problem–they hate President Bush and Dick Cheney too much. This hatred is so powerful, it clouds their thinking. Here’s a good example. Amnesty International asks who has the worst humans rights record, Darth Vader, Hobgoblin, or Dick Cheney. Why doesn’t Amnesty International want to be taken seriously?
The Left has a number of valid complaints against the President, but they take valid complaints too far and alienate people who could be on their side. Their hatred of BushCo
clouds their judgment. Here’s another example of someone on the left whose hatred clouds his thinking.
I know what I’m talking about. I lose some rationality when I get too ticked off. But in a way I like these unhinged Bush-hating rants. I don’t know how Bush does it, but couldn’t make the Left more angry. I suspect part of the Left’s problem with Bush a problem with themselves–they can’t figure out how they managed to run two losers like Gore and Kerry against Bush instead of good candidates.
1. Let’s start with the Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. He says that regardless of the outcome of the Arbitration hearing currently ocurring about whether or not Floyd Landis doped during last year’s Tour, Landis’ name will be removed from the list of Tour de France winners. This is just stupid if true. If they can’t prove that he doped, they have to recognize him as the Tour’s winner.
2. Dick Pound, and the organization he runs, the World Anti-Doping Association are evil. It seems that their job isn’t to be fair with athletes, but once Dick Pound starts talk to tow the party line.
3. The US Anti Doping Association offered Landis a very small short if he would turn on Lance Armstrong. This makes you wonder if the USADA even though very much about the science at issue in the Landis case or if they wanted to charge Landis in an effort to gets Armstrong. This is silly.
I can’t figure out why the NY Times employs Paul Krugman. The man isn’t very intelligent–that or he just appeals to people who don’t think. In his latest installment he argues that Milton Friedman causes e. coli outbreaks. I’m not kidding.
The shine is off corn ethanol, and oh, what a comedown it has been. It was only in January that President Bush was calling for a yet a bijillion more gallons of the wonder-stuff in his State of the Union address, and Iowa’s Chuck Grassley was practically doing the Macarena in his seat. And why shouldn’t Mr. Grassley and fellow ethanol handmaidens have boogied? They’d forced their first mandate through Congress, corn farmers were rolling in dough, billions in taxpayer dollars were spurring dozens of new ethanol plants–and here was the commander-in-chief calling for yet more yellow dollars. All in the name of national security, too!Corn ethanol seemed unstoppable, but a remarkable thing happened on the road from Des Moines. Just as the smart people warned, the government’s decision to play energy market God and forcibly divert huge amounts of corn stocks into ethanol has played havoc with key sectors of the economy. Corn prices have nearly doubled, which means livestock owners can’t afford to feed their animals, and food and drink manufacturers are struggling to buy corn and corn syrup. Environmentalists are sour over new stresses on farmland; international aid groups are moaning that the U.S. is cutting back its charitable food giving, and many of these folks are taking out their anger on Congress.
Today, Laura and I are haning out on the beach and snorkling at Anse Chastenet.
