Something Feral

Digging up the flower-beds.


Friday, June 26, 2009

The predictability of powermongers and the idiots that follow them

A succinct and scathing examination of the utter idiocy behind HR 2454:
Before the last few years, scholars used to say that we couldn't get a depression today because policymakers wouldn't make mistakes as bad as the ones they made in the 1930s. Though we've made some great moves in the last year — increasing the money supply and guaranteeing money markets funds — we're also repeating many of the same mistakes as Hoover and FDR (propping up failing industries; raising taxes; wasting money on unneeded public works projects; corruption; expensive new anti-business government programs).

Certainly, the Smoot-Hawley bill of 1930 was dumb; it imposed huge tariffs on foreign goods imported into this country, which backfired when those countries raised their tariffs too. In a sense, cap-and-trade looked like it would be even dumber; it seemed that it might impose a tariff on our own US manufactured goods, but not on foreign goods. But the House realized this and decided to require the administration to impose tariffs on goods imported from countries that don't restrict their own emissions to the same extent as the US (tip to Maguire and OandO. This 21st century version of Smoot-Hawley will probably take years before the tariffs will be imposed.

The cap-and-trade bill, if passed by the Senate and actually implemented over the next few decades, would do more damage to the country than any economic legislation passed in at least 100 years. It would eventually send most American manufacturing jobs overseas, reduce American competitiveness, and make Americans much poorer than they would have been without it.
In other news, America still has manufacturing jobs.

The commentary regarding the smug, self-satisfied masturbatory group-think regarding carbon-footprints, offsets, credits, et al from Matt and Trey in the South Park episode "Smug Alert" is both devastatingly funny (although, as one might expect, not safe for work) and tragically accurate; much to the misfortune of the nation, the Bay Area has already demonstrated that not only does it produce power-hungry fascists with questionable mental stability, it can bring the rest of its party to heel with its lunacy.

We are long overdue for a second discussion regarding the voluntary association of "these United States".

8 comments:

Mike said...

California is actually a free rider in all of this. Their environmental "progress" has been bought by having other states increase their energy capacity so that California's utilities can continue to service their customers by buying electricity from other states. If the neighboring states stopped that, California would quickly spiral out of control on its environmental policies.

Something Feral said...

I wonder how the bill might end up if the probability of nation-wide "rolling black-outs" were entertained...

You are correct, of course: this kind of idiocy is a form of parasitism, which is not surprising, considering the attitude and behavior of the urban areas of the PRK towards the rural watershed in the northern parts of the state. If only forced to supply their own water, both LA and San Francisco would dry up and blow away.

(I'm going to savor that thought for a minute.)

Elusive Wapiti said...

I'm glad for the PRK's outsourcing of energy requirements. It's made Wyo and ND two of the states with the lowest unemployment rates in the nation right now.

I say, let em keep on keepin on.

Something Feral said...

Well, HR 2454 just passed the House, and I think you may be getting more of our business soon enough.

At least until the PRK financially implodes, that is.

Doom said...

I am not sure what the problem is here in Iowa, but we go through times where the electricity blinks out, momentary brown outs, and the electricity is 'dirty'. I am guessing that they are adding wind mills at a faster pace than the grid can really handle, and the interface for a secure and regular electric grid is not only old and tired already, but the vital upgrades for the wind energy are about in pace with all the other necessary upgrades, a decade behind or more.

I wonder if Iowa, too, is selling as much as it can, leaving just enough to barely cover consumption here. I think they have mandated 5 or 10 or 15 percent renewable energy by 2011, or 2015, or something. They are behind their projection but way ahead of infrastructure. That is my guess. Liberals should get nowhere near the halls of power.

I think some states are just insane. They have to know the problems, they can't say they have been told. Maybe they like the crashes and problems. Perhaps they really would like to see us go back to the stone age.

At least you are aware of what is coming, and seem to be planning for the worst. I am simply moving, and then looking at what you and some others are doing. Even a regional SHTF deal will be nasty, if more temporary. Well, I best get packing. A week and a wake-up, give or take.

Something Feral said...

I would like to be prepared for the worst and moving, preferably somewhere with low population density, tolerable weather and a long growing season.

Unfortunately, Californians have a reputation that precedes them, and many natives have a knee-jerk reaction to the prospect of refugees moving in (not that I blame them), so it's yet another battle to "win hearts and minds" for the libertarian-minded among us.

Geographically speaking, the whole state isn't brain-dead, but the Bay Area, Sacramento and Los Angeles are causing problems for the rest of us, as usual. (On tangent: What the hell, New Hampshire? What happened to the Free-Staters?)

Whatever. I'm going back to doing a sketch-up for my secret Bond-villain undersea base.

Something Feral said...

Sure, it's big enough, but something with legs for overland travel would be nice, like Howl's Moving Castle, but with lasers.

The biplane can stay.

Kawaika said...

I still like the amusement park/warmachine/fortress in Steamboy.