Posts Tagged ‘global warming’
Carbon Cap or Carbon Crap?

No doubt some of you have heard about the carbon cap legislation currently winging its way toward President Obama’s desk. If you’re not familiar with the carbon cap, allow me to inform you of how just effective this legislation will be.

The carbon cap legislation will reduce carbon emissions.

It will create jobs.

Now, just how many jobs or where, I really don’t know. And neither do the members of the carbon cap cult. But it will create jobs for someone…somewhere…probably at some point in the future.

So what bugs me about carbon caps? I’m glad you asked.

First, there’s the fact that except in mainstream media, where bias is synonymous with journalism, there’s no consensus on the global warming phenomenon.

Second, I’m seeing a lot of out right B.S. being promulgated by those who want this legislation passed at any cost…which begs the question: “What will be the price paid by people like you and I should this legislation pass in the senate?”

Before answering that question, I need to address the disingenuous manner in which the mouthpieces for carbon caps are presenting their case. In a nutshell, they’re not telling you the whole story. For example, there’s John Fetterman, Mayor of Braddock, PA. John has an interesting website entitled, thecapsolution.org, where he uses every trick in the political and ad agency (means the same thing) playbook to garner support for his cause.

He uses imagery, colors, music, and video, which are all combined to do one thing, manipulate you into supporting this crap, er, uh…I mean “cap” legislation. All this is done under the auspices of creating more jobs. That’s right; the latest morons running the country want you to believe that if they don’t pass their carbon agenda, we may not recover economically.

But getting back to Fetterman and his website. TheCapSolution.org is chock full of information telling you, the viewer, how much steel is in a wind turbine. It tells you how many jobs were lost in the steel industry inside Braddock, PA and uses that town as the poster child for every steel town in America. The entire thing is packaged in a manner meant to manipulate your emotions. Most of this is done via videos which feature Mayor Fetterman talking about the plight of his town and about how carbon cap legislation is going to revitalize not only his town, but every town in America whose bread-N-butter happens to be steel. The backdrop to Fetterman is an area of Braddock, which looks like a demilitarized zone. The spots are all shot in black and white and accompanied by the saddest, most melancholy music you’ve ever heard. The message is simple: “Carbon Cap legislation will help the economy by creating jobs for those of us out of work.” You know…much like the trillion dollar bailouts did. But I digress…

There are several problems with all this, but I prefer to zero in on the biggest one, especially, since Fetterman and his cronies never address it in any of the videos or anywhere on their website. That problem is the attendant cost to the working man. A good friend of mine sent me a very conservative estimate on the costs of this legislation for people who work for a living right here in Harrison County, Indiana. The numbers will vary from energy supplier to energy supplier, but here’s the gist. If you’re a residential user of electricity, expect at least a 31 percent increase in your electric bill. If you’re a small business owner like me, expect a 36 percent increase. If you own a large business, you’ll be paying 49 percent more. That’s just the first tier. If these carbon taxes go into effect at a rate of $50/ton, residential users are looking at a 63 percent increase in their energy bill, a 72 percent increase if you’re a small business owner, and a 98 percent increase if you own a large business.

That’s because, provided this legislation is passed, energy providers will be required to purchase carbon offsets from Al Gore Inc., after which the energy providers will be obliged to pass the cost of these offsets on to you. This is a huge omission by the carbon cap lobby. They know if Americans know the whole truth, they (Americans) will tell them (Carbon Cap Cult) where to stick their carbon cap….and with all the hot air being spewed by these knuckleheads, a carbon cap on the old wazoo would probably do more to reduce emissions than anything else.

Finally, I’d like to mention that there are no hard numbers on just how many jobs will be created. Also, there’s no promise that the steel jobs are going to go to Americans. The main reason we lost our steel industry is because corporate America found out it was cheaper to get their steel overseas. Will the carbon cap cult guarantee not only the number of jobs, but that those jobs will go to Americans? More importantly, what are they going to do in order to minimize the impact of the carbon cap on the pocketbooks of average Joes? Let’s face it, when people have to pay more for energy, their dollar buys less and in this economy, that’s just not an option.

 
Kilroy Says… the Earth Fairy left a tree under my pillow!

I planted a tree yesterday. In the cold wind and drizzling rain. Not because I wanted to. Because I had to.

I didn’t have to do it because I believe all this Earth Day nonsense. Nope, my kid brought the tree home from school. So nice of them to give those out during the week, rather than a Friday before the weekend when people have the time for such things.

So there I was, in the cold and rain, getting mud on my boots, picking a spot in our yard to plant our root-balled stick. My daughter had to watch from a window of the house, because it was just too cold and rainy for me to let her tromp around in the mud also.

The whole experience echoes my thoughts on Earth Day quite nicely.

Earth Day is a farce.

Not the idea behind it, the way people "celebrate" it.

Earth Day is supposed to be a day to "inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s environment." That appreciation bit is probably what inspires folks to try and make the Earth a better place. But like most things the left-leaning, tree-hugging, hippy crowd does, they’ve got it all messed up.

Pollution is probably the worst thing affecting the Earth’s environment today. It’s so bad that as Survivorman Les Stroud commented on an episode of his wonderful show, there’s almost nowhere left on the planet that you can’t find man’s garbage. I’m not harping about this because I believe in (manmade) Global Warming. I don’t like seeing garbage. I don’t like stepping in it, I don’t like having to walk around it.

Call me crazy, but when I go outside, I want to breathe fresh air, and see cleanliness. After all, weather is the Earth’s mechanism for cleaning itself.

But what do the hippies do on Earth Day? They plant trees. That’d be great if you could walk to the store to get those trees. But most people drive. They take an extra trip, belching out carbon monoxide that pollutes the air, so they can put a stick in the ground that won’t do much to contribute to fresh air for years.

If we really wanted to cut back on pollution in appreciation for the Earth, we’d all take the day off and sleep in. No school buses taking kids to school. No cars jammed on the expressway shuttling people to busy offices where they consume electricity that has to be generated primarily from coal-burning power plants. No television broadcasts, save for the news, thereby encouraging people to conserve electricity.

We could go a step further. We could skip baths, cutting back on the water that has to be treated from our sewers. We could all sleep in, reducing our own activities, thereby triggering a whole chain reaction of reductions in consumption and pollution.

But what would really help?

We could eat all the cows.

Cows are filthy animals. They fart out voluminous amounts of methane that the Global Warming Melting Cult would have us believe is responsible for a rise in world temperatures. If that were true, we would need to cut back on the cows. Now.

The problem is, cows aren’t going to get slaughtered if there’s no call for their meat. They’ll just be allowed to roam around, grazing, pooping and farting 'till their heart’s content. Getting plump and juicy.

If we really wanted to save the Earth, we’d all eat as much beef as possible on Earth Day. It’d be a Beeforama. Eggs and Steak for breakfast. Burgers for lunch. Steaks for dinner. This massive jump in beef consumption would clean out the supermarkets. The call would go out for replacement meat. More stinky cows would meet their end. In the slaughterhouse.

I know what some of you will say- that I’m creating pollution by cooking those cows. That my carbon footprint will grow to Sasquatchian proportions as I enjoy the savory flavor of some good barbecue. Will it? What about the fact I won’t be going anywhere but outback to the grill and picnic table? No carbon monoxide exhaust from the car. No electricity being used on air conditioning, lights, or TV. Just a day-long picnic of cheeseburgery goodness in the clean air of my backyard.

You want to save the Earth today? Fire up the charcoal grill and start making some burger and steaks. Invite over all your vegetarian friends and tell them it’s time they stopped shirking their duty and helped the planet. It’s time we take back our world from the bloated bovine hoard!

One bite at a time.

Editor's Note: You can read more pithy commentary on Earth Day by clicking here.

 
Cooling On Raising McCain

Today John McCain made his strongest statements yet about his intent to regulate the "global warming" scam.

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. McCain doesn't intend to regulate the scam, he plans to fully participate in it.

The one thing the senator and I agree on about this issue is that it's potentially the most serious one America faces.

Where we disagree is why.

McCain actually thinks that "greenhouse gases" play some role in something.

So do I – I think he's been breathing in too much CO2, for too long.

Consequently, I will not be voting for him.

He's by far the least of three evils.

But he's still very evil.

This is the first time in my adult life that i'm not proud of America.

Over the weekend, I was referred to a "carbon footprint test."

I took it.

Our "footprint" is under four tons – 3.7 to be exact

My wife and I agree we could easily reduce it further.

That makes us better than just about everyone.

If you disagree, you're worse than John McCain

But better than Barack and Hillary.

In all probability.

Now please, go help save energy – burn a cornfield.