A variety of things

I wanted to start off with an update to my previous post on NBC and the Olympics. In case you couldn't stay up until midnight last night, NBC decided to poke fun at its own viewers who have been complaining about staying up late watching the olympics. Bob Costas provides a number of tips to help ward off the effects of staying up late, including "Stay Hydrated" and "Skip Work." Hey, I have a great idea- how about broadcasting it live on the West Coast!

I also want to point out that the link above goes to a blog on the Seattle Times where the writer points out the glaring differences between the highly superior CBC broadcasts (live across all of Canada) and NBC, which is tape delaying lots of things, some events as long as 15 hours.

Moving on, I would be remiss if I didn't point out this excellent column from the Washington Post wondering that while we are looking at a repeat of the 70s economy (inflation is increasing), are we also failing to abide by 5 policy failures from the Great Depression. The 5 failures from the Great Depression are 1)Giving in to protectionism; 2) Blaming the messenger; 3) Increasing taxes in a downturn; 4) Assuming bigger government will bring back growth; and 5) Ignoring the cost of inconsistency. The article presents some interesting comparisons between the actions of Congress in the 1920s/1930s and proposed action today and how many of today's proposed policies simply repeat these same mistakes that pushed the country further into the Great Depression. I'm reminded of Ben Stein's economic lecture in Ferris Bueller's Day Off- "In 1930, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, in an effort to alleviate the effects of the... Anyone? Anyone?... the Great Depression, passed the... Anyone? Anyone? The tariff bill? The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act? Which, anyone? Raised or lowered?... raised tariffs, in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression."

Anyway, enough of the dismal science for today.

Finally, and on a lighter note, there is this editorial from the Wall Street Journal. The gist of the editorial is this: "But now the environmental movement has morphed into the most authoritarian philosophy in America." While I think the editorial is a bit to extreme, the general point is one I tend to agree with: the use of the "environment" is becoming a club to bludgeon commerce and individual choices, all resulting in higher costs and prices that will achieve little on a worldwide scale. Instead, the better use of the money being spent on coming up with new ways to intrude in people's lives would be to spend it on countries that truly need the technology to lower emissions. Does it make sense to spend the several millions of dollars that California will be spending to make our residents even more efficient and drive out commerce when for the same amount of money we could drastically do more good by using that money in growing third and second world countries that want to have our lifestyle and prosperity, but not the technology or means to achieve it? Wouldn't more savings be realized by installing more efficient power plants and automobiles or even building an infrastructure to allow for the efficient movement of goods and operation of industry and agriculture result in far more emission savings than encouraging already efficient Californian's to go out and buy new efficient this-or-that's.

But, god forbid anyone question the costs of doing all of this, isn't that right Pastor Jones? See, a few weeks ago, the California State Senate held a hearing on how to cut emissions across the state, and Pastor Jones had the gall to remind the legislators that the costs of doing this will negatively impact low-income communities dis-porportionately since they will be unable to make the necessary changes to mitigate the increased costs. In making these concerns heard before the legislators, he got interrupted by State Senator Pat Wiggins who told Pastor Jones, "Excuse me, but I think your arguments are bullshit." Really. You can watch it here. Not even the poor and minority groups can stop progressives' march toward protecting the earth from humans, as these patrician politicans dictate to everyone else what's best for us.