A Prediction For the Future: Congratulations Mrs. President

Geez, I figured that I was safe on the Friday before the 4th, but the world conspired to bombshells on all of us. Well, not the world but Governor Sarah Palin. She announced to the world that she was resigning from her governor's position and not running for re-election. I know, quite shocking. Of course, this announcement cleared the news desks of everything else.
I guess the first question is this: Why did Sarah do it? She is a beautiful, smart and ambitious person, who electrified the country and her state of Alaska since her announcement of being McCain's running mate. She figures strongly in the dreams of many red-blooded Americans, both male and female. This is not a complaint or meant to be disparaging. Sarah Palin is the dream candidate for many, and for others just a dream. However, with great power comes those who are jealous and threatened. Those who oppose her lashed out with vicious attacks, the likes of which had not been seen for most of American history. There were endless frivolous ethical complaints, sexist commentary, jokes about her teenage daughter's rape and people who honestly thought she should abort her Down Syndrome child because...yeah there is no good reason for that one. You can often tell how dangerous someone is by listening to their enemies. If you base their threat on the nature of the attacks directed against her, it would be akin to the demons of hell talking about the Second Coming.
It was these attacks that lead Governor Palin towards this bombshell. In her own words, these attacks were costing irreplaceable resources of her family and her state, which in turn would not allow her to fulfill her role as Governor as she wanted. Sarah demonstrated something little seen in American politics today, an act of selflessness. She gave up her title to make things easier for her family and her constituents. Yeah, you could say she quit when the going got tough, but really do you believe that? Does Sarah look like a fragile woman, who was on the verge of crying? I don't think so.
Sarah has come to mean a lot of things to a lot of people. She still draws crowds like a rock star, the media drops everything when she speaks, and almost everyone has an opinion on her. She stands for the people next door, since she is the lady who lives at the end of the street who does the pastries for the town bake sale. Sarah is one of us, and that is why America loves her, and will continue to do so. Her words laid it out perfectly, which even the balanced Fox News had trouble grasping. There is nothing hidden about Sarah, she is plain-spoken and honest. She told us why she did what she did, and that is all there is to it.
The next question would be why do I use her first name? Isn't that a bit rude? Well, since Sarah is just like us, no better and no worse, she doesn't need fancy titles to be someone. She demonstrated that today. When I first heard about her announcement, I was indeed shocked, but I know deep inside that America has not seen the last of her yet, since we have no seen the last of ourselves.
Well, you spoke of a prediction. What is that? Well McCain announced Sarah as his running mate, I rejoiced. They had nailed in the last nail of Obama's coffin, and would win. However, I did not see the way McCain bumbled the end of the campaign. My next thought was that we were looking at the first female president of the United States. I still hold this view, one that I would be glad to help come about. After the dust settles from this bomb, the American people will see Sarah's action as she does, selfless and brave. Americans respect integrity, and after four years of our Dear Leader will be ready for it once again. Her enemies will of course use this against her, but she will come out on top, as she always as done. They will call her a quitter, a loser, and out of touch. They will make fun of her kids, and say sexist things. But what they wont do is realize that by doing so they hurt themselves. People see through these things.
We might not see Sarah as president in 2012, but within my lifetime she will be sitting in the Oval Office, leading us towards freedom and progress. She ain't perfect, but she is ours. That, and will make the best pastries of any leader in the world. You can take that to the bank.

Daddy, Where Does the Red Brick Road Go?

I was flipping through the stations yesterday, and came upon TCM that was showing the Wizard of Oz. Now, even though it was made in 1939, which was the golden year of Hollywood, may people today might consider the Wizard to be childish, and surpassed by later movies. This is categorically not true. When I first saw the movie, it scared the bejeezus out of me, and today I find that the movie still works, showing a magical place full of places to explore, evil witches to dowse and flying monkeys to play with.
There is one question that I have never had satisfactorily answered though about The Wizard of Oz. I have always wondered, where does the red brick road go? Now, IMDB states that it goes to the mayor's house of Munchkinville, but that just doesn't seem right. We all know that the yellow brick road leads you to where you want to go, for Dorothy it leads to the wizard. What does the red brick road symbolize?
Now, I am sure that this question might be answered in the other eleven or so books about the land of Oz. I have not read them. So I will take a leap into the unknown, and decide for myself what the red brick road is all about. I have always been interested in those paths not taken, the road that I pass that I don't take, and other choices that I don't make. The red brick road is all of these things. It is not to say that the road is of regret, as often times later I return to the crossroads just to find out what is down that dark path that I passed before. The red brick road is what you could become, but not what you are.
Most people don't think about these things, wanting only the Emerald City, bright and shiny and full of promise. They follow the yellow brick road until they get there, and damn what other things that could come about. For most people, the yellow brick road is ok, and all they really need is the Emerald City. For me, I want that peek behind the curtain.
What is my red brick road? There have been some choices that I could have taken that would have dramatically changed my life. One would have been to go to the other college that I had been accepted too. I would have studied something different, met different people, and God knows what else would be different. The next big change would have been to get a job right after graduation instead of graduate school. I might live elsewhere, be married or even have children by this time. I would know different people, and perhaps not even be writing this very thing.
I am sure that there are other choices I could have made that would have changed things, either for good or ill. Do I regret these things? No. Honestly how things have turned out so far haven't been too bad. Of course things could be better, but who can't say that. The events and people in my life have made me what I am now, and I am not disappointed.
Sure, sometimes I wonder though. Could things be different? They could be. Might they be better? Definitely. But I did not take the red brick road. I would sometimes like to go back to the beginning, and choose a different path. But then I would not be who I am today. I would not have met the same people and done the same things that I have done on my yellow brick road. The good thing is that I have not yet reached my Emerald City. I can always do something different if I choose, but cannot change the road that I have taken thus far. Maybe someday I will find a new road, and just take a peek on what might have been.

A New Declaration of Independence: No You Can't

I am boiling mad right now. Our Dear Leader is continuing his path of destruction through our great nation, while petty thugs and dictators rejoice around the world. Our brave soldiers retreat not because of our enemies, but because sheer stupidity and incompetence (I hope but know better) back in Washington force them to. Our great nation is being dismantled by leaps and bounds, by a tyrant duly elected by my fellow citizens. Those who fight against this tide of stupidity are maligned, silenced and condemned. The bones of the Founding Fathers are rolling in their graves, while the First Family maintains their date nights at our expense. The supposed guardians of our freedom drool over each picture of our Dear Leader, and call him a god. It is all too much.
We as citizens do not deserve this, nor should we stand for it. We in a unified voice must shout NO, YOU CAN'T, when they say yes we can. It is time to take back our nation from those who actively and intently wish to destroy our great nation. There can be no other explanation for what they are doing. Sheer incompetence can't explain it. We face the greatest domestic enemy that we have ever seen, whose mission is to humble the Great United States of America because in their minds we are a evil nation, one who does not deserve the providence that Almighty God has bestowed upon us. That being said, I hereby draft a new Declaration, one that states in our righteous anger that we have had enough, and we are not going to take it anymore. It should be ratified by you, the citizens of the greatest nation that our good earth has ever seen just in time for our nation's birthday, a date that the free world holds dear as the day in which the light of freedom was ignited over our world, never to be extinguished.
This declaration reads:

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve their outrageous government, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These rights and only these rights that in which we have created an imperfect but just union, one whose very nature we find under assault. The government created to secure these rights, has become the very tyranny that we fought to eradicate more than two hundred years ago. It has supplanted our Creator as the creator of rights, and no longer requires the consent of the governed in its machinations. It has become destructive in these ends. That whenever any form of government has done so, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. Prudence demands in our case to take this moral step, because the transgressions that we suffer are neither light or transient, but heavy with burden and permanent. When a long train of abuses and usurpations, as such we have suffered and will suffer, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these United States; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their current systems of government. The history of the present President of the United States is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has called for the defeat of our militaries, and commands them with incompetence and motivation for their defeat.
His government has suppressed the dissemination of vital knowledge to the public debate, and the organs of this government operate outside their constitutionally proscribed duties.
He has passed laws to destabilize and destroy the economy and lifeblood of the citizens of the United States, and used these laws to enrich his servants, noted lawbreakers and felons.
His government and party have disgraced themselves repeatedly, passing laws not desired or needed by the great people of the United States in pursuit of their rights granted not by him, but by our Creator, the god of the Jews and Christians.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither new swarms of officers not necessary for good government.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
The use of foreign law to make law underneath our sacred Constitution, bypassing its structure.
The use of suspect ideas, to suppress our liberties under the auspices of global good, in which our holy freedom is thrown away to protect us from nonexistent devils.
The confiscation of our personal wealth and property, to be distributed as he sees fit, to those who have no right to it, either by the sweat of their brow or claims of grievance and mistreatment.
The abdication of our laws, when it concerns a member of his government.
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments and societies that we hold dear.
For making our own legislatures null and void through federal power, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
For forcing our elected officials through the power of the purse to accept his changes to our federal system, and thus burdening them with unjust expenses, that in turn rob the citizenry of our liberty and denying our pursuit of happiness.
For the suppression of the American ideal, the apology of our goodness, and the support in our name that is given to the vile and evil heads of state that continue to hold those yearning for freedom under iron yokes, all in pursuit of denying rights granted to all peoples by the Lord, our God.
He is at this time moving to confiscate massive amounts of our precious freedom and worth to complete the works of subjugation, reconstruction and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our fellow citizens who are taken in by this tyrant. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our distress and loss of freedom. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the citizens of the United States of America, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these states, solemnly publish and declare, that these United States are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the President of the United States, and that all political connection between them and the federal government, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to allow our citizens the pursuit of which our Creator granted us, full and free of interference from dictatorship in Washington and to do all other acts and things which citizens embodied with the concept of freedom are entitled to do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

With these words, I express the disgust that we hold our abhorrent government, and the things that it does in our name. We do not give our consent to its actions, and desire that it ceases those actions or be replaced by those who will follow the will of the governed. To those who remain with us, your support will be remembered, and rewarded when this government is brought to heel by our righteous anger. To those who oppose us, we will remember you as well, and thus you will join the failed experiments of the past, regulated to a sorry landmark in history as an example of the power of a determined citizenry, and its recourse to those who seek to remove its freedoms and liberties.

She Bangs, She Bangs: Or Why William Hung Rules The World

I was watching VH1's I Love The New Millennium, a worthwhile use of an hour, a few days ago. For those of you who are unaware, VH1 has a number of shows like this that detail culture and other fun little tidbits over the last few decades, starting with the 1970's. They have a number of comedians and nostalgic celebrities (some that only loosely fit that description) that make fun of how people lived during that time and what they found to be cool. And for a short period of time during in the middle of the Aught's, William Hung was cool. He appeared on American Idol, a show that I have never watched, and displayed a complete lack of talent that still astounds the public. He did not advance in the show, but gained much more than a cult following and had a record deal. There are somethings that anyone will buy.
What does this say about people though? Well, people bought the record. The vast majority probably did it as a joke, since Hung was a national joke, but I assume that some did it because they truly liked what they heard. Now, these people probably will not admit it, to anyone other than their confessor, but they do exist. What this says that the old adage beauty is in the eye of the beholder really is true. William Hung shows us that there is someone for everyone, no matter how talentless or ugly the rest of us view them.
How can I say this? I am sure that there was some women out their who found William Hung desirable, which is beyond any logic that I can reach. But, to be fair, there are people that I find attractive that my immediate group of friends would heartily disagree with. Desirability is not a logical process, and we like what we like. That being said, for each person out there, there is someone who finds them desirable, since even someone like Hung was desired. I am not trying to put down Hung, since I am sure he is a decent and nice person, but he is so far out of the modern definition of beautiful and desirable that it is almost laughable.
People often don't see this about themselves. Depending on what day you ask them, they may see themselves as a movie star, and on the next day lower than the scum at the bottom of your shoe. We often see the worst in ourselves. I have often been my harshest critic, seeing all that was wrong or bad about me, and ignoring or not seeing what other people saw as the good. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago, when a friend of mine who I will call Carrie and I talked. We met back in college, and she had to put it lightly a rough road. She made many wrong decisions, often putting her life in jeopardy with drug use and doing quite poorly in school. I tried to be a friend to her, and was there for her when she needed the most help. We lost touch a number of years ago. Recently, I saw that she was online in Facebook, and we chatted for a while. I learned that she had gotten her life together, and she told me that I had been right all those years ago and that she had taken my advice. Now she is truly happy, and things are looking up.
Hearing this made me realize that what I had done was truly good, and in turn made me feel good. Even with all of the things that I had found wrong with me, there was this one thing that weighed heavily towards good, and probably how people actually saw me. How people actually saw me was a much better picture than how I saw myself. This principle applies to desirability as well. My head realizes that there are women out there who would love to be with me, even though I might not have found them yet. My heart tells me that this idea is stupid, but I try not to listen to it. Some days it works, some days it doesn't.
William Hung is a beacon of hope (he never imagined anyone calling him that) for those who can see past the joke and realize that everyone has someone. It might seem like a stretch to see this, but it all makes sense. Don't get me wrong, he still can't sing or dance, and to me has a face that only a mother could love, but that is only my opinion. Simon Cowell ain't objective truth, and there is someone there over the rainbow that dreams of He Bangs, He Bangs each and every day.

The Ants Are Marching, But This Time They Got Tanks and Nukes

While the world has been distracted by the death of Michael Jackson, there has been a lot going on that makes me think that MJ was lucky now that he doesn't have to worry about it. Not that he did. I could spend all of ten minutes talking about Michael Jackson, but really, in the grand scheme of things he was not very important, just tragic. The actual important events have been going on outside the borders of the United States, in places that many of its people couldn't find on a map.
The first is the home of our Dear Leader's inspiration, The Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il's North Korea. It seems that North Korea is planning nuclear annihilation of the world if the eeevil United States attacks it in any way, or even if a bald eagle farts in its general direction. What are we doing about this? Absolutely nothing. It seems that President Obama is afraid of the pot bellied Dear Leader, and really thinks that he has the keys to shut off the world's internal core sitting next to his Scarface VHS tape. When the brilliant Vice President Joe Biden said that the world would test Obama, and that it would not look like he knew what to do (because he doesn't), we would just have to trust him. Well, my trust is gone. The pot-bellied Dear Leader will continue to rattle sabers, and could at any time start an invasion of South Korea, or nuke Japan, China, Hawaii or the continental United States. The correct response to this lunacy, lance this boil once and for all. The Korean War technically never ended, and North Korea a few years ago repudiated the cease-fire, so we are at war with them. Lets show them what war really is. Bomb his military forces, sink his navy, send black ops to take him out. Make North Korea an example to the rest of the dictators of the world that there is a point that we will not tolerate any more bad behavior. I really think that it should have been about three years ago, but better late than never. Re-unify the peninsula, and liberate the starving and enslaved people of the North. Even if North Korea launches nukes, they have so few (and those are not accurate or powerful) that in the long run it will have been worth the price that we pay today. That price however increases each year as North Korea gets stronger.
The next is the continuing struggle in Iran over the fake elections held there a little over two weeks ago. The Iranian Government has "certified" the election, and stated that the chosen candidate has won by even a larger margin than the 2 to 1 margin shown in the original election. How quaint. It don't find it at all suspicious that in an autocratic police state run by clerics that there is after a "recount" that the candidate chosen by the clerics won by a larger margin. No, it has to be true, since the state-run media has reported this and has clearly moved on to more pressing things like cap and trade (another time my pretties). There is still violence on the streets of Tehran, and people's blood is washed away each morning. When are we going to support them? I would be even willing to concede that the "election" was fair, and the ballots were not switched, destroyed or just plain shredded in the ballot box. We lose credibility in the world if we don't work to undermine the Iranian regime, and help those people it oppresses. This is a perfect opportunity to rid ourselves of Iran's terrorist government, and we do nothing. If nothing is done and Tehran's streets become quiet, our Dear Leader will have failed miserably on the greatest step on bringing Middle East peace, the collapse of Iran. And we will have to thank ourselves for his incompetence.
The third major thing concerns the coup in Honduras, and our commendation of it. Again, our Dear Leader makes the wrong call. The former president of the Central America country had attempted to pull a Chavez, and turn the democracy into a lifetime dictatorship, when their Supreme Court called his actions illegal and the military removed him from power. He ran with his tail between his legs to Chavez and vows to return. Unlike Douglas MacArthur, the people of Honduras won't appreciate it, as he will not be liberating them but destroying all that they have accomplished over the last thirty years. Our Dear Leader has condemned this removal of the president, and other leftist governments in Latin America are going to help force the government and people of Honduras "change their mind". What should be our response to all of this? Well, our support should go out to the lawful government, and even though we don't agree with a military coup in general, this action stopped the corrupt president and we should push that the military allows democratic elections as soon as possible to set things back to normal. But, the likely happening is that our Dear Leader will help this future dictator resume control over his country, and condemn the people of Honduras.
Why are these things important, at least more important than the death of the King of Pop? The world is a dangerous place, and things that happen on the other side of the world can have major effects here. September 11 is a good example of what happens when things are ignored outside our borders, and our Dear Leader appears to have not learned this lesson. We are not pushing for democracy abroad, and are neglecting our duties as the Shining City on the Hill to make the world a better place. In fact, the Obama policy appears to be to replace democracy with socialist dictatorships, which should curdle the blood of any real American. The march of dictatorship is picking up steam, gathering tanks and nukes with each passing week. What we really need to do is to smash the ants, and save the picnic for everyone else.

Sir Florian and the Patient Dragon

Perhaps it is better this way. The age of the knight is long dead, and the old medieval customs of romantic love and shining knights charging across the battlefield are long over, where ladies were pure and men were stout of heart. But the cold hard reality was that ladies were never pure, and many of those knights were bloodthirsty killers. Hard cold reality has crushed our nostalgia once again, and thoughts of better days past were just some fantasy that can never been realized.
Of course, it is all bull honky. Why I say this is because even with the cold poison of reality, fantasies do come true, even with the problems of making them so. Happiness is achievable, which involves some level of fantasy for people. Everyone has them, how things should go perfectly worked out in the ivory tower of our minds. When things don't go perfectly to plan, we become despondent, sinking into despair.
Why then do we still hold onto fantasy as possible reality? Are we all just hopeless romantics, wanting for a better time and place, seeking to escape the dreariness of our lives? My philosophy is that when it comes to finding and keeping someone, the fantasy does exist, and perhaps it truly is indeed worth it. How can I say this? Quite simply because I think most people have their head so far up their posterior most of the time (and this includes me) that they don't see the magic in their own lives. We all want to find, at some level, the perfect person that completes us. The problem with that is while people are searching for the Can't Hardly Wait moment, they miss the possibilities of Sweet Home Alabama. What do I mean by this?
In searching for our perfect person, we often miss opportunities that come along that very well could lead to our very own fairy tale. When I ask someone just what their fantasy is, I am often described a scene out of a romantic comedy, or sometimes a pornographic movie. The real problem is that people put themselves into what they are watching, and don't realize that they in all likelihood miscast themselves, mostly liking even on the wrong movie set. Even if you got the right fantasy, you could be Jon Cryer's Duckie instead of Andrew McCarthy. But on another set, you are cast as McDreamy, playing a nerd cutting the grass (yeah I used Patrick Dempsey's new nickname, only because if you watch his early movies he is nothing like that) who pays the hottest girl in school to date him, and guess what, hijinks ensue and they fall in love.
Why do people miscast themselves? It is often because they see what great things happen to those people in the movie, and want exactly what they have. The trick is to not put yourself into the movie. This is harder that it sounds, as our modern bards Hollywood with all of it faults still knows how to make an engrossing story.
How have I prepared myself for this? Instead of forcing myself into roles, I found the ones that fit me because they are similar to who I am. And if one watches enough movies, who can find a happy fantasy ending for almost every type of character. I am the bumbling Sir Florian, the bumbling mostly drunk knight who no one roots for, because he is not pretty and most think him a fool. But underneath that stained steel, a good heart beats and Sir Florian truly loves his princess, and protects her when she needs it the most. He does the knightly bit, helps the princess escape the evil castle, but tragically dies. Florian is a patient man, and his oafness was only an act. At the moment of her greatest need, Florian makes his move, and his hearts desire is realized. He undergoes terrible treatment and abuse from the evil king, but saves his princess from her personal hell. The truly terrible thing is that the princess sees all of this, and she cannot stop any of it. She doesn't love Florian at first, but after his sacrifice she holds him in a special place in her heart.
Depressing, isn't it? Well, perhaps I need to keep searching then, because for most people Florian's end is not happy. I would beg to disagree, but that is a discussion for another time. In that case, I will just be Preston, who has hair and wears t-shirts, some of the time. You can fight a dragon in that can't you?

Ahoy Mateys, Captain Conundrum is at the Helm of the Earth Ship

I guess I feel a little nostalgia today. My mind was brought back to my youth, and the cartoons that I remember that took up my time after school. One such cartoon was Captain Planet, which detailed a group of kids saving the planet from eeevil capitalist polluters. Not knowing much about Ted Turner at the time, I remember rooting for the villains almost everytime even though the show made them out to be despicable. I think that I at an early age resisted indoctrination of the inherent "goodness" of the environmental movement, and thus my shouting at the television rooting for Captain Pollution (an early villain of Captain Planet) was how I fought back.
There was a lot to be afraid of at the time. There was war in the Middle East, the Soviet Union still existed, and magazines and television were replete with environmental disasters and problems that would make our world uninhabitable. I remember one specific story about a young boy who lived in a garbage dump because the entire surface of the earth was covered in garbage. Even though my head got past it, such early fear mongering about the environment still lingers, corrupting my heart. Oh, and if one did not realize, the overflow of garbage scare was a bit overblown, as nearly twenty years later I still don't live in a garbage dump, no matter what my apartment looks like.
The environmental movement is full of these scare tactics, absurd predictions and blatant hypocrisy. We have heard that the oceans would boil, freeze, flood our cities and dry up. The ozone hole was going to disappear and we would all fry. Our water would turn to acid and our food would become irradiated. Not to mention the mutant animals that would come from polluted areas, like mutated frogs with six legs, all of which appear broken. We have been told that we must fix this now, or die. Scary stuff for a grown man, not to mention a young child. And that is just the purpose of why these things are said. The environmental movement relies on fear. They tell you that the world will end, and the only way to stop it is to believe them. Powerful stuff eh?
The truth is quite simple. In every case, those who support the environment are wrong, and only out for power. It is a little known secret that environmentalism is the new home for ex-Communists after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Communists for those with a public school education are the true villains of humanity, seeking to enslave people in order to make everyone equal. Of course, this mass of enslaved humanity needs leaders, and this is the place that the Communists have put themselves. Environmentalism follows this same course. They want to remove the modern life, which liberates people from the drudgery and danger of the past, and replace it with a low impact life. Now, they aren't themselves going to do this, but will lord it over everyone else who is required to do so. But, to figure out that the environmentalists are wrong can be done another way. A case-by-case basis can debunk each of their causes, with little effort.
One of the first environmental crisis was overpopulation. Tracing its roots from Johnathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, this idea was that the carrying capacity of the Earth was limited, and that humans would ruin the Earth by outstripping the land of production. Modern agriculture proved this wrong, as we stand today. There is plenty of food for the foreseeable future, with no end in sight. Famine does exist in places on Earth, but their causes are political (wars, forced starvation) rather than there being no food period for the people. Related to this is the availability of other resources, such as oil. It is a common misconception that oil will soon run out. While oil is produced by the Earth very slowly, the vast majority of it remains undisturbed. Many places are untapped, for a number of reasons. The shortest estimates of the world wide supply of oil give our supply at about 200 years, if no more deposits are discovered (which have a tendency to being found at a rate of about every three to five years). The only problems that prevent our claiming of these resources are technological, economic and political. Oil extraction is a safe process, with modern technological progress.
Another recent environmental scares have been the destruction of the land, with acid rain, the ozone hole and garbage dumps. Acid rain was to make our lakes uninhabitable. A simple technology (scrubbers) ended that scare. The ozone hole scare also faded away, when scientists discovered that it was a natural phenomenon, and was cyclical. It seems that over the poles the ozone is naturally thinner, and the extreme cold over the poles during the winter months makes it more so. During the summer months the hole disappears. Banning CFC's had little effect on this natural process. CFC's, an extremely useful compound, only made this effect more pronounced, but did not cause it. The scare over garbage was simply ludicrous, as again modern technology and good ole fashioned capitalism rendered the garbage planet a thing of bad science fiction. If you doubt me, go and find out how much money there is in garbage (salvage). Salvage yard owners are often the richest people around, and the old axiom one man's trash is another man's treasure is especially true here.
A special mention here is Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, probably the bloodiest book of the twentieth century. This book was responsible for banning DDT, and launching the environmental movement. Because of the hysteria in the book (and it is hysteria, I have read the book) DDT manufacture was banned in the United States, and malaria deaths skyrocketed around the world, especially in Africa. There is little direct danger to people from DDT, as several people have literally bathed in it with no effects. The other major problem presented by the book were the effects of birds that DDT supposedly had. Even if these were true, more careful applications of this beneficial chemical would lessen the risk. But environmentalists pushed to ban, and thus the primary producer of DDT ceased production. DDT works to remove malaria, and with proper application can reduce the death rate by multitude of orders.
Before we get the big one, there is another environmental concern that bears mentioning. Environmentalists have been on a crusade against nuclear power since its inception, and the benefits that this clean, unlimited power provide. Nuclear power is safe, as the record proves. Nuclear accidents today are unheard of, while our biggest "accident" at Three Mile Island in retrospect in fact had little short or long term impact on the surrounding community. The largest accident in world history happened at Chernobyl. Faulty Soviet safety systems are responsible for the disaster. Reactors in the United States can never meltdown like Chernobyl. The only problem with nuclear power is the disposal of the waste products, which becomes a political issue as the Yucca Mountain facility has been designed to do just that.
Now the for granddaddy - global climate change. A bigger hoax that Y2K, global cooling, global warming and global climate change have been the evolutions of this monster. For those of you who did not take high school biology, the villain is carbon dioxide, which will heat our planet and make it lifeless. Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring compound, which plants use for food. It is not the primary greenhouse gas (water vapor is) nor is it a major component of the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by plants, and the oceans which serve as a sink for it. There are several major problems with the global climate change theory. The first is that climate is not stationary, and changes over time, often in a cyclical fashion. This is driven by solar output (which produces the heat), not the gases in our atmosphere. In fact, carbon dioxide has been shown to follow temperature changes, not as a precursor. Related to this issue is the fact that warmer temperatures at the poles will actually moderate global temperatures. Warmer temperatures globally make storms less likely, and those that do happen are less severe. The planet has been warmer even in human history, as wine had been produced in England in the medieval period (grapes require warmer weather, and England today doesn't have it). This changed with the Little Ice Age, which was a period of colder temperatures and more powerful storms (such as the one that destroyed the Spanish Armada). The depths of this period are evidenced in the Year Without A Summer (1816). Part of the reason of this event are an actual factor in climate change, volcanic eruptions.
The next large problem is determining a global mean temperature. This is far more difficult that it would appear, as just the methodology to do so is up for debate. Most environmentalists when asked could not tell you what the average temperature for the Earth for one day is, much less an entire week. This lack of a foundation is compounded by climate models, which inaccurately forecast future climate. At present, the limit of our knowledge states that over thirty factors effect climate, while the best models use seven to determine forecasts. Therefore, it is nearly mathematically certain that these forecasts would be wrong, as any variation in the variables would produce dramatically different results as the model progressed through time. Climate models are guesses, and not very good ones at that.
Finally, the last major problem with global climate change is determining how much impact humans can have on the environment itself. Even at our most destructive, we pale in comparison to what nature can do. Our greatest destructive device - the Tsar Bomba - had little effect on the global climate. Its explosive power was dwarfed by the eruption of Mount Krakatoa and Pinatubo, which actually had some effect on global climate for a short period of years after. Volcanic eruptions put out far more gas and "pollutants" each decade than humans do in the same period of time. Our miraculous planet finds a way to repair the damage done quite quickly, and does the exact same with our relatively lower amounts of emissions. Our release of carbon dioxide (which is the same carbon dioxide that was in the atmosphere long ago) if it were to have any effect, it would be the greening of the planet, as the Earth produces more plant material to remove the excess gas.
Don't get me wrong. I am not for the destruction of the world, and neither is anyone else. Those who fight against the environmentalists do so because we value human freedom, and believe with good reason that our modern way of life helps the planet. Humanity is not apart from nature, but an integral part of it. As any other creature changes its environment to suit itself, we do the same. We aren't cowed by the fear used by the environmentalists, who as ex-Commies seek world domination. This point is made obvious as to what the target of the environmentalist movement truly is, the United States. Here we have some of the most clean and safe environments, while former and current Communist governments like the old Soviet Union and Communist China are dirty, heavily polluted areas. The environmentalist's true aim is control, not protection, and they are not above propagandizing young and impressionable people into supporting them. They are pirates, seeking control over the ship of Earth. For our future generations, we must not allow them to succeed.