He has made a public appearance and man he does not look pretty. Check this out.
Compared to…
North Korea is changing. Not the most interesting topic but how the US government handles North Korea is going to adjust. How much depends on the next leader. Is North Korea still hell bent on taking South Korea for their own or are they willing to compete economically? For the sake of the people of the North Korea, I hope it is the latter.
This article in the Wall Street Journal is the must read. I do not want to give much away but to summarize: Barack Obama’s domestic economic policies have been tried in 3 states, California, New York, and New Jersey, 3 states who 10 years ago were among the most prosperous in the nation. Everyone knows California’s problems with the budget. You can safely put New York and New Jersey in a similar position.
One of the things I have enjoyed bringing to the forefront on this blog is stories that do not make the front page but give a deal of insight into our society. I have been shown to be quite critical of the government, particularly the objectives of the Obama administration in the past few months. One of those areas of critique is climate change.
I am a firm believer that the earth is more than capable of taking almost anything we could dish out at her and recover quite nicely. The earth has shown herself to be quite resilient. Many environmental activists decry the availability of nuclear weapons. Take a look at Hiroshima, the first city to be attack with a nuclear weapon. It has a population of 1.1 million and is doing quite well with its Mazda factory accounting for a large percentage of its GDP.
So then can the earth handle pollution? Fossil fuels (natural resources, not artificial)? She seems to be doing quite well considering as CO2 emissions go up temperatures have gone down worldwide. Can man really do much to damage the environment? If a meteorite really wiped out the dinosaurs the earth must have recovered because we are standing here today.
So what then is the motivation for limiting carbon emissions? Do Congress and the President really want to protect the environment or is there more at play here? There has to be more at play and I think there are two things. The first has to do with political power. Notice that the vast majority of environmentalists are affiliated with the Democratic party. In an effort to satisfy that constituency and maintain power the Democratic party is making and effort to pass this legislation. Without this movement and the power, particularly in money, that they bring to the political table climate change would be a non issue in American politics.
The second is personal power. Our representatives in Congress do a handful of things for us. They help make policy and spend our money. And we all know they are spenders. Further taxation only increases their power and cap-and-trade is a fantastic example. By further taxing companies more extensively through cap-and-trade and its increased regulation and taxes they draw more power to themselves.
If our representatives were interested in protecting the environment reports such as this would not be suppressed by the Obama EPA.
I planned on skipping Michael Jackson’s death because everyone and their grandmother knows he died but this requires some comment. Grief Turns to Anger for Jackson Fans. This quote in particular: “He shouldn’t have died so young. It’s so sad. I’m just hysterical,” said Deborah Canton as she sobbed inconsolably near the late 50-year-old pop singer’s star.
She is hysterical because her pop idol just died? Ladies and gentlemen the older and wiser I get (I am 21) I am constantly recognizing how utterly pathetic our society is. Michael Jackson, the singer, died. He sang! This is not Mother Theresa, George Washington, Winston Churchill, or Jesus. At what point did he do anything inherently constructive for society? Mother Theresa changed lives for the better. Michael Jackson is the butt of pedophile jokes and is an incredible dancer, nothing more. Why are we worshipping a celebrity, especially one with a poor track record of late?*
The rest of the article is full of similar stuff, with mourners blaming doctors, anyone but Michael Jackson, for his death. The doctors were just using Michael Jackson for his money. And dude, he had a bunch. If I was heartless I would include a line about Jesse Jackson right now.
*This question is inherently rhetorical. I know the answer. The real question is how we go about fixing it.
