Are we to blame for everything?
I have to laugh, Ha Ha, at those professional worriers who claimed not long ago that our spate of hurricanes, culminating in the New Orleans Biggie, sure enough must have been caused by global warming. Trouble is, the Northern Hemisphere now is witnessing the least hurricane activity in 30 years.
Now the furrowed professorial brows, of course, rush to change the subject and fret greatly that global warming sure enough must have caused the California wildfires this fall.
But wait a minute. What does today’s hurricane drought mean? Perhaps nothing at all, just as meaningless as that earlier spate of them had been.
The same thing goes for the wildfires and even our own local drought.(Remember, it’s the one that lingered until those three days this October when six inches of rain came to the rescue in Stafford.) All of them, along with that awful Asian tsunami earlier, are unexplainable, except to say knowingly, after a long pause for dramatic effect, that things after all do change. Yes, Lord.
“Global warming” isn’t even the catch-all explanation in vogue anymore for whatever goes wrong. Hadn’t you noticed? Even Al Gore’s disciples have discarded the term, especially since the records show the globe hasn’t (ahem) gotten any warmer in the past several years.
So now, in trying to get governments to grab even more control than ever over us taxpayers, they have changed the term to—“climate change.” Brilliant! Thus, whether it gets hotter or colder from now on, we polluting souls are to blame and must give up our SUVS for the common good, use ethanol to enrich corn farmers and pick up doggie doo to save the Chesapeake Bay.
But before you begin feeling terrible over what we mortals are doing to our fragile old planet, consider. Please have a seat, pop open a cool one, and, as younger folks would put it, chill.
To wit: You’re nobody ‘til somebody loves you, I still remember that line in the song, which went on to proclaim, “The world’s just the same, you’ll never change it.”
Truer words were never, uh, sung. We should work that sentiment into our National Anthem, which is almost unrecognizable nowadays in most contemporary renditions.
In any event, the world, not the song, will surely still be here after we’re long gone. The dinosaurs must have also had a sense of déjà vu before they expired, undoubtedly worrying that their slothfulness and gigantic environmental footprints produced too much of the methane that doubtless caused global warming, until here came the meteors.
Yes, things change. Happily, we humans have done a pretty good job during our brief stay here. At least, those of us around here have never been better off. We live longer lives and stay healthier and probably happier than ever. Food is abundant and our land is increasingly bountiful. But this makes some people very uneasy.
Namely, our politicians. Without having something meaningful to manage and change and stir up trouble, what will our ruling class be able to do “for the good of the country?” Chill, perhaps?
No way. We must have change and by golly we will. Thanks to the election returns, we’ll be getting some more political changes, probably to no net benefit. Politicians engage in too much nonsense to accomplish much of consequence.
Example: "Hillary tried to get a million dollars [in senatorial earmarks] for the Woodstock museum. I understand it was a major cultural and pharmaceutical event. I couldn't attend. I was tied up at the time." ---Sen. John McCain
Something as nonsensical as those earmarks, designed legally to bribe an elected official’s constituents with tax money earned by others, thrive in Congress despite vigorous efforts to kill them and make our representatives be honest for a change. They don’t want to.
You don’t believe it? Watch how quickly “earmarks,” like “global warming,” disappear from the parlance of politics. It won’t take long to discard that now-disreputable label and call it something else, besides “pork” of course.
However, hereby let me acknowledge a good political deed by a guy I really don’t care for, that smart-aleck junior U.S. Senator of yours and mine, Jim Webb. Turns out, he was one of only five Democrats to help Republicans block Hillary’s daffy Woodstock earmark. Like McCain, Webb was in Vietnam during Woodstock.
And oh yes, while we’re on the subject of politicians, here’s one of my scarce attaboys to the most local of them, our community’s elected board of directors. Despite smirks and bad jokes, they recently established Aquia Harbour’s first Bark Park. Its debut last month was a smash hit. Turns out, according to the Washington Post, more people in Arlington County use their dog parks than their soccer fields.
Kids leave, pets stay.
Now the furrowed professorial brows, of course, rush to change the subject and fret greatly that global warming sure enough must have caused the California wildfires this fall.
But wait a minute. What does today’s hurricane drought mean? Perhaps nothing at all, just as meaningless as that earlier spate of them had been.
The same thing goes for the wildfires and even our own local drought.(Remember, it’s the one that lingered until those three days this October when six inches of rain came to the rescue in Stafford.) All of them, along with that awful Asian tsunami earlier, are unexplainable, except to say knowingly, after a long pause for dramatic effect, that things after all do change. Yes, Lord.
“Global warming” isn’t even the catch-all explanation in vogue anymore for whatever goes wrong. Hadn’t you noticed? Even Al Gore’s disciples have discarded the term, especially since the records show the globe hasn’t (ahem) gotten any warmer in the past several years.
So now, in trying to get governments to grab even more control than ever over us taxpayers, they have changed the term to—“climate change.” Brilliant! Thus, whether it gets hotter or colder from now on, we polluting souls are to blame and must give up our SUVS for the common good, use ethanol to enrich corn farmers and pick up doggie doo to save the Chesapeake Bay.
But before you begin feeling terrible over what we mortals are doing to our fragile old planet, consider. Please have a seat, pop open a cool one, and, as younger folks would put it, chill.
To wit: You’re nobody ‘til somebody loves you, I still remember that line in the song, which went on to proclaim, “The world’s just the same, you’ll never change it.”
Truer words were never, uh, sung. We should work that sentiment into our National Anthem, which is almost unrecognizable nowadays in most contemporary renditions.
In any event, the world, not the song, will surely still be here after we’re long gone. The dinosaurs must have also had a sense of déjà vu before they expired, undoubtedly worrying that their slothfulness and gigantic environmental footprints produced too much of the methane that doubtless caused global warming, until here came the meteors.
Yes, things change. Happily, we humans have done a pretty good job during our brief stay here. At least, those of us around here have never been better off. We live longer lives and stay healthier and probably happier than ever. Food is abundant and our land is increasingly bountiful. But this makes some people very uneasy.
Namely, our politicians. Without having something meaningful to manage and change and stir up trouble, what will our ruling class be able to do “for the good of the country?” Chill, perhaps?
No way. We must have change and by golly we will. Thanks to the election returns, we’ll be getting some more political changes, probably to no net benefit. Politicians engage in too much nonsense to accomplish much of consequence.
Example: "Hillary tried to get a million dollars [in senatorial earmarks] for the Woodstock museum. I understand it was a major cultural and pharmaceutical event. I couldn't attend. I was tied up at the time." ---Sen. John McCain
Something as nonsensical as those earmarks, designed legally to bribe an elected official’s constituents with tax money earned by others, thrive in Congress despite vigorous efforts to kill them and make our representatives be honest for a change. They don’t want to.
You don’t believe it? Watch how quickly “earmarks,” like “global warming,” disappear from the parlance of politics. It won’t take long to discard that now-disreputable label and call it something else, besides “pork” of course.
However, hereby let me acknowledge a good political deed by a guy I really don’t care for, that smart-aleck junior U.S. Senator of yours and mine, Jim Webb. Turns out, he was one of only five Democrats to help Republicans block Hillary’s daffy Woodstock earmark. Like McCain, Webb was in Vietnam during Woodstock.
And oh yes, while we’re on the subject of politicians, here’s one of my scarce attaboys to the most local of them, our community’s elected board of directors. Despite smirks and bad jokes, they recently established Aquia Harbour’s first Bark Park. Its debut last month was a smash hit. Turns out, according to the Washington Post, more people in Arlington County use their dog parks than their soccer fields.
Kids leave, pets stay.
posted by Ben Blankenship at
11:54 AM
