An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Archive for 2 August 2012
Chicken Takes the Gold!
Disenfranchising the Living
ZoNation – Racism, Abortion, Guns and Democrats
Hear Why Russell Simmons is the Worst of the 1%
On This Day In History….
Oh…I have been dreading this. sigh… On 2 August 1992, my very first granddaughter, aka Jr, was born. Lord, she was a funny looking thing. And one HUGE surprise as I was NO WHERE near old enough to be a grandmother. Thanks Brat! 
Now, she is a whopping 20 years old, and a mother herself. Both myself, and Brat have already cursed her with the infamous ‘mother’s curse’. Heh.
I am sitting here, thinking back to when she was just a little tyke…sweet as they come, with a ready smile, and laughter. I don’t know what happened, but they do change sometimes, don’t they. 
She was so literal! When I’d tell her to pick up her feet when she was walking….she did! She reached down and picked up her feet. I know I shouldn’t have laughed when she landed on her hind end, but ya know….some things, ya just can’t help. Then, there was that time she decided she wanted to put on makeup, just like I did. Well, she didn’t have any, obviously, since she was all of 3 or 4. So, she found a black magic marker. Oh, I wish I could find that picture!!!! I know I have it somewhere, but… sigh… Think clown….without the extra colors.
I’m sure I could come up with a few more embarrassing stories, but let’s leave it at that. 
And on that note, I think I’ll crawl back in bed, cover my head, and forget that the older SHE gets….the older I get. sigh…
Tennessee State Primary…..TODAY!
Ok people…if you live in Tennessee, and you didn’t do early voting….get your hind ends to the polls today! There are some important races going on…. Like in our area….one of my favorite people, and state rep, Vance Dennis has a primary opponent. Now, I’m not going to say anything bad about Shirley, but for the life of me, I can’t imagine why that little old lady thinks she could do a better job than good conservative like Vance. This one has quite a few people scratching their heads.
Then, there is the U.S. senator, up for re-election, Bob Corker. Now, Corker is a nice guy, and says, mostly, the right things, but his conservative rating is pretty pathetic. Freedom Works rates him at 63, which is lower than Linsay Graham, and we KNOW he’s not a conservative. That’s My Congress has rated him at 55 in the conservative column, and 17 in the “progressive”. I’d prefer to have a Senator who got a ZERO in that one, but hey..can’t have everything. There is a young fellow, no one has heard much about named Zack, who I think would do a fine job in the Senate, as long as he doesn’t allow the establishment RINOs to influence him. That seems to happen WAY too much. The “that’s the way things are done around here” types have GOT to go!
And, even though I’m not in that district (TN 9th), if I could, I’d be voting for Charlotte Bergmann today. But I’m not a dem, so I won’t cheat! Getting rid of extreme leftist Steve Cohen would be the best thing that could ever happen to the Memphis area!
Also, in the state races (TN 6th district), Lou Ann Zelenick is hoping to unseat what seems to be a big disappointment, Dianne Black.
So, do your civic duty! THINK before you cast your vote, and decide who best represents YOUR values. Then vote your values! Not your ‘party’, or how your daddy voted. Use your brain!
Trying To Pull Heads Out Of Hinders
fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air,
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Now, I don’t know for sure, since I wasn’t there, but it appears to me that God gave man dominion over the earth, to use the resources available to improve his lot in life. Did man make a mess of things? Oh sure…as most ignorant, and self centered human beings will do. However, we learned that dumping poisons in the rivers was not such a good idea, and have cleaned up the mess, and today, our country is pretty much one of the cleanest on the planet.
Sadly, that doesn’t seem good enough for some bureaucratic types, with no REAL knowledge of how things actually work. When I first heard about regulating, and controlling the output of CO2, first, my chin dropped, then I had one hell of a belly laugh….at THEIR expense. And these are the people we’re suppose to trust with our environment? Whatcha wanna bet a whole slew of ‘em live in areas that are mostly made up of concrete and steel….like NYC? Chicago? Los Angeles? And we’re suppose to stop breathing because they’re so stupid, they believe living like ants is a good thing? Sad….very sad. Someone might want to inform them of what I learned in elementary school…..that plants DEPEND on our CO2, and we depend on their oxygen. Dolts!
We actually have a great many resources at our disposal, and would still be a prosperous nation if we didn’t have morons at the helm. Organizations like the EPA have done more harm to the country, and the planet, than anyone thought possible. But you know that demented liberal mindset….they’re right, reality is wrong, and all must suffer for their decisions.
Just a personal aside: Meat is for eating, and fur and leather is for wearing!
Can Conservatives Be Environmentalists?
The Foundry
Efforts to protect the environment in America have ignored the most powerful force for improving the environment: free people. The results of these misguided policies have been higher energy prices, lower incomes, less access to resources, and technological stagnation—often failing to produce tangible environmental benefits.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The Heritage Foundation, in collaboration with fellow experts on the environment, has published a new benchmark for progress: the American Conservation Ethic.
The Ethic reflects every American’s aspiration to make the environment cleaner, healthier, and safer for future generations. It is based on eight basic principles that were first published in 1996 and provides a roadmap to environmentally sound prosperity.
Much of the policy that has come to guide American actions on the environment is not based on scientific integrity. Heritage’s Dr. David Kreutzer and Dr. Roy Spencer, a climatologist formerly with NASA who is a research scientist at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, examine this in a chapter on carbon dioxide:
Any discussion of carbon dioxide regulation must begin by noting two facts: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and anthropogenic (man-made) CO2 emissions have likely contributed to the observed warming of the past 50 years. The calls for CO2 regulation, however, are not based on these facts; rather, the current regulatory hysteria is the result of misinformation regarding the projected future levels of warming, as well as exaggerations over how much any future warming could be attributed to anthropogenic CO2. In addition, extreme weather events are increasingly attributed to anthropogenic CO2 emissions, despite a lack of evidence for any long-term change in these events.
Each chapter analyzes the effectiveness of the policies the U.S. has been pursuing and makes recommendations for moving forward with smart solutions that fix the problems of years past, protect and bolster individual property rights, and provide real benefits. The American Conservation Ethic addresses these major issues:
- Expansion of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The current EPA is on an unprecedented regulatory spree that jeopardizes electric reliability, jobs, U.S. competitiveness, and state economies. How can we reform it?
- Regulating carbon dioxide. Though it is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and critical to photosynthesis, carbon dioxide (CO2) has been rebranded as a pollutant harmful to human health. This transformation—based on exaggeration and misinformation—is now fueling misguided calls for CO2 regulation.
- Property ownership and land management. The federal government owns nearly one-third of the United States, and it continues to take more through regulatory takings of private property. There is no way the government can manage that amount of land with good stewardship. Recent Supreme Court decisions have undermined individual property rights, pointing to a need for Congress to act to protect what the Framers of the Constitution called “the guardian of every other right.”
- Effectiveness of environmental legislation. The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and Endangered Species Act have been governing much of environmental policy for the last few decades. This has given experts time to assess the consequences—both intended and unintended—of these laws. The authors address ways that these laws are now out of sync with the environmental, political, social, and economic realities of today, and what should be done about it.
- Thinking globally, acting locally. How does the United Nations affect environmental policy here in America? The authors address the need for local and regional management of environmental issues so that those closest to the resources are responsible for managing them.
What is the point of environmental policy? The Ethic states that:
Environmental policies should inspire people to be good stewards. Through human creativity, we develop new sources of needed materials, more efficient means of collecting them, or substitutes for them—as well as the technology necessary to do so.
Economic growth is positively correlated with life expectancy, which is one of the most critical measurements of environmental policies—are people better off? There is a direct and positive relationship between free-market economies and a clean, healthy, and safe environment. Ownership inspires stewardship. To put this to work for our Earth and our people, we must work to decouple conservation policies from government regulation.
Go to the American Conservation Ethic
Daily Read – August 2
