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The Green Juggernaut As the news poured forth about the devastation wrought the first week of February by a huge storm that swept across central Florida, I wondered to myself how anyone with any common sense could think that humans are responsible for the weather? Responsible? We have zero control over these events. And yet…
The government, from the White House to the Congress, appears ready to vastly impact our lives and the nation’s economy by passing legislation based on a massive campaign marked by deception that began in the 1980s. Global Warming has become totally politicized. Even in the halls of Congress science cannot be evoked to debunk it. Those who cite science are to be threatened with decertification, denied access to the public by the mainstream media, ridiculed or subjected to isolation within their profession. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a candidate for the presidency, has said that "Global warming is an international problem requiring international effort," but he knows full well that neither China or India are signatories to the U.N. Kyoto Protocol to control greenhouse gas emissions and, for that matter, neither is the United States.
"This is a problem whose time has come," said Sen. Hillary R. Clinton, yet another presidential candidate. No, it is an even bigger problem if carbon emission caps are applied nationwide. It would appear that former Vice President Al Gore has won his insane effort to save the world from the internal combustion engine thanks to one of the most flawed and deceitful documentaries in recent times. Americans simply have not grasped how environmentalists have put them and others around the world at risk for their lives by, for example, removing from use some of the most beneficial pesticides ever invented. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards imposed in 1975 to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and gasoline consumption have had similar consequences. In order to improve fuel standards, auto manufacturers have looked for ways to lighten cars. The National Highway Safety Administration concluded that, between model years 1996 and 1999, this translated to 13,608 traffic fatalities for light cars, 10,884 for heavier cars, and 14,705 for light trucks. Since CAFE went into effect, crash data from 1975 calculates out to 7,700 deaths for every mile per gallon gained in fuel economy. The mandate to require gasoline blends with ethanol in ever increasing amounts has driven the cost of corn to a ten-year high. This in turn is driving up the cost of all the food products, including the feed for livestock and poultry, derived in whole or part from corn. There are already food riots in Mexico because of it. The list of indictments of the environmental movement is too long for this short examination of the Green juggernaut. It is not saving the Earth, but intends to render it devoid of humanity. Americans, while they still have a voice in the affairs of this nation, must demand that Congress vote against the "climate control" legislation that power-crazed politicians of both parties are advancing. The National Anxiety Center is looking for a few good men and woman with the financial means to sponsor our work. Since 1990, we have struggled to maintain our communications program and the issues of our times require a more vigorous response. Quite purposefully, we have avoided seeking grants from foundations or corporations in order to maintain our independence. We are forever grateful for the donations received. We are, therefore, seeking a broader financial footing. We’re New Jersey! We’re Number One! For the rest of the nation, New Jersey is an exotic place, home to the Sopranos, proving grounds for Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen, the place where the misnamed New York Giants actually play football, and where Atlantic City may have lost the Miss America contest, but has retained the daily busloads of senior citizens who gamble away their life savings. Despite the heavy competition from California, far greater in size and population, I am prepared to make the case that New Jersey is the worst run state in the nation. Being born and bred here, I am prepared to take on all others who might protest and point proudly to their own state like Louisiana or any other home to copious Democrats, sundry liberals, socialists, and otherwise impaired folks. Let’s start with the fact that New Jersey is the only state whose gay Governor, James McGreevey, resigned before the heat of investigations shown too brightly on his various machinations. We had a reputedly Republican Governor, Christie Whitman, who quit mid-term to become possibly the most inept administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency before being strongly urged to leave before she could do more damage to the Bush administration than the President.
I argue that New Jersey is second to none in its passion for collecting taxes from one group and giving it to a usually less deserving one. Hard work and success in New Jersey entitles you to watch your taxes go to the destitute and drug-addicted of our cities. The suburbs, by comparison, receive little. The tax problem is so desperate that Bloomberg News recently reported, "New Jersey towns have figured out a way to sidestep the highest property taxes in the U.S. Keep children out." Simply put, the state is in the death grip of its teacher’s union and the union representing civil servants. Who is their greatest cheerleader? "Governor Norma Rae" as Corzine is increasingly called these days. The state debt by November 2006 had reached a record $33 billion. Taxpayers are being asked to cover the $2.9 billion in loan payments during the budget year beginning in July. Not the worst run state? An additional $11 billion in debt has been authorized for highway construction and school building. The debt total includes more than $8.5 billion borrowed to cover revenue shortfalls in annual budgets reaching back for the past decade. Only five years ago, the state debt was half what it is today. Oh, you may brag that your state has even more debt, but I say our legislators can run ours up faster than your legislators any day. As for those highways for which New Jersey is justly famous, our Parkway and Turnpike, one of the notions floating around Trenton is to sell off one or both to raise some money. Meanwhile, New Jersey is number one for the highest auto insurance bills in the nation. Premiums average $1,221 per vehicle, making them about 46 percent higher than the national average of $838. New Jerseyeans pay an astonishing $16,000 per student to educate nearly 1.4 million youngsters, bringing the annual bill for public education to $22 billion a year when you include salaries as well as health and pension benefits. Since 1969, the cost of education in New Jersey has increased 182 percent! So, let’s see, the highest property taxes, the highest auto insurance costs, an obscene amount of money to educate the kids. Can it possibly get worse? Of course, it can. New Jersey has instituted a "Highlands Act" that destroys the value of thousands of acres of property owned by homeowners, farmers and anyone else in a vast designated area in the northern part of the State. It also sets up the means to take their property away at rock bottom prices, all the time making any improvement or development nearly impossible. Indeed, the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment protection against the taking of private property "for public use" without just compensation has been lost thanks to a New Jersey Supreme Court decision saying it is okay for towns to use eminent domain to seize property from developers and set it aside for "open space." Would you want to gamble millions as a developer in New Jersey? Didn’t think so. Therefore, I fearlessly maintain that New Jersey is the worst run state of these great United States. New Jersey is still chockablock with all manner of cultural attractions, some world-class restaurants, picture postcard suburban communities, and my family and friends—all of whom have apparently moved to Florida—are eager to hear the latest news of the Garden State. We’re number one for the worst run in the nation, but at least we’re number one for something.
©
2007 Alan Caruba. |
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Those of us who have written extensively on the vast hoax that Global Warming represents must wonder if the Big Lie has triumphed? What can be done when a kind of mass insanity or willing and deliberate ignorance replaces both science and rationality?
These days, bored with life in the Senate, our multimillionaire Governor, Jon Corzine, is proving that a life on Wall Street is not necessary adequate preparation for solving the problems of the state’s main streets. He managed to bring the state government to a standstill in a confrontation with what passes for a legislature and many New Jerseyeans thought that was an improvement until they learned he had foisted an increase in the state sales tax on them.