The Contest between Evil and Stupid

has finally concluded. And the winner is: Evil. We may get lucky and find that evil is a more than just a little bit stupid. But I wouldn’t count on it.

Great leap backward…

postponed. The Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2008, also known by its more descriptive name hereabouts as the American Impoverishment Act, has been frozen for the time being by a filibuster threat.

S.3036
Title: A bill to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to establish a program to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases, and for other purposes.

I shudder to think what those “other purposes” might be. As if kneecapping the American economy were not enough. If you’re looking for a few hours of amusement, you can read the entire text of the proposed legislation here.

Lieberman scolds, “While the Senate fiddles, the globe warms.”

Here’s to more fiddling. And to partisanship. Partisanship and fiddling might be all that stands now between us and tyranny. A thin line of defense, to be sure, but “never say die while there’s a shot in the locker.”

I’ve always wanted an oil well in my backyard

Now this is cool: capitalism at work. Drill your own oil well. Wonder what the envy ron mentalists are thinking about this, knowing how they detest capitalism.

It occurs to me that part of our problem is that the gub mint owns over 28% of the land in America. It owns even greater percentages of resource-rich states such as Alaska, Nevada, Wyoming and Utah but less than 2% of Texas, which is ranked at the top for number of oil and gas wells.

Here comes Mighty Mouse

(that would be our intrepid slawmakers) to save the day. Not.

A Senate panel wants answers to their questions on whether

institutional investors and hedge funds are contributing to food and energy price inflation.

No word on whether they intend to ask themselves what government’s role in such inflation could conceivably be.

I know this is complex and difficult to understand but prices rise when demand outstrips supply at a given price. So, if you want lower prices for gas and food (and anything else, for that matter) you can do either or both of the following:

1. Increase supply (drill more, refine more, regulate less, tax less);
2. Decrease demand (end subsidies and other assorted boondoggles, such as ethanol mandates).

Of course, if you’re a politician, those are not likely to interest you. Instead, therefore, your options will be:

1. Find a scapegoat (that would be anyone who has not yet achieved the coveted status of “victim”, preferably successful capitalists and their businesses);
2. Tax and regulate (because that’s how you justify your existence, maintain your elite power status and keep those kickbacks er, campaign contributions coming in).

Naturally, trusting our elected officials to do the right thing (by them), we can expect more of the latter. Much more. Especially when the socialists are voted in, which is a given, since no capitalists are running.

UPDATE 5/21: The little critters do not disappoint — they remain clueless, but never miss an opportunity to pander to wealth envy while blaming someone else. Congress grills oil execs on record pump prices but turns a deaf ear to logic: “As repetitive and uninteresting as it may sound, the fundamental laws of supply and demand are at work,” said John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Company.

Who dun it?

No mystery remains as to who killed the Republicrats, a party with no principles, no vision, no ideas. Just like Demolicans. Except R’s have no prayer in November.

As Pogo intoned for the first “Earth Day” foolishness back in 1970, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Way to go, Newt. Good job. Well done. Bravo.

So. Unbelievably. Lame.