Observations From the Back Row: 7-27-11

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“De Omnibus Dubitandum”
Everthing we are told should bear some resemblance to what we see going on in reality!

Talent of the Day - Time to Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman and Andreas Bucelli

The New Green Economy Is Bleeding A Great Deal Of Greenbacks
The New Green Economy goes “thump.” That thumping noise is the sound of countless failed companies, temporarily and hopelessly propped up with mountains of other people’s money, hitting the ground and imploding as the foreseeable result of government claiming it is smarter than its citizens.
Salinas, Calif.-based Green Vehicles is the latest proud symbol of the New Green Economy to financially implode, leaving taxpayers high and dry after eagerly soaking up taxpayer money before failing to produce any marketable product. The City of Salinas had invested over $500,000 dollars in the company, which intended to manufacture electric plug-in vehicles, claiming Green Vehicles would simultaneously save the environment and bring economic prosperity to the city. Not to be outdone, the cash-strapped state government had given the company nearly $3 million.

Green Vehicles promised to create 70 jobs and pay $700,000 in taxes each year to the City of Salinas. City officials rushed to take credit for having the vision to invest taxpayer dollars in a company that curiously couldn’t attract private investors. Green Vehicles, city and state officials claimed, was the face of America’s new economic and environmental future.

Sadly, they may be right….. America became the great and prosperous nation it is by not infringing upon people’s rights to decide for themselves how and where to invest their money. There is nothing “noble” about turning us into a Green version of Venezuela.

My Take – Since this “let’s go green” mentality became an insane obsession I have been saying all along that we have lost our minds. Everywhere in the world at least 2.2 jobs are lost for every so-called green job that is created. And that is if you are generous as to how you count green jobs. In pest control I hear companies are going green. Baloney! There is no such thing as green pest control. Using different products doesn’t make pest control green, no matter the source of the finished product. It is still a chemical….and one that has probably not been tested anywhere as definitively as atrazine. Using techniques that emphasize exclusion is still just pest control that is nothing more than a choice in the practice of pest control. In order for anything to exist it has to have a logical foundation. Otherwise it is mere philosophy; and one that may not last as long as the latest ladies fashions. In every other field “green” dies on the vine as soon as government tax breaks and grant money disappear.

In agriculture Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is based on threshold limits. At some point a certain about of pests will do a certain amount of damage. When that damage is over the threshold cost of pesticide applications you make those applications. That has a logical foundation that is clear and concise. What is the logical foundation for IPM in structural pest control? There is none. Ultimately it ends up being defined by how much more paper work it generates. The same is true of “green pest control”! No matter what anyone says…there is no logical foundation for what constitutes “green pest control”. Green pest control and IPM simply don’t exist in structural pest control. I don’t care what you are using, I don’t’ care what you refuse to use; I don’t care what techniques you are using or choose not to use….it is just pest control. Everything else is advertising, promotions, public relations and propaganda.

The reality is this: If “all natural” and “green” was so great why did everyone give it up in the first place? Think about it; why would everyone abandon something touted as being fabulous? If those who have lived “green” and “natural” didn’t think it was so great….why should we? I will say this once again. There are going to be penalties to be paid for “going green” and unfortunately it will be society that will have to pay them….not the promoters of this irrational and misanthropic pseudo-pagan philosophy. Green is not an investment; it is a religion.

Tea Party Republicans Who Challenge Green Policies Rile the New York Times
Republican Lawmakers are standing up to green pressure groups at the state level and The New York Times is getting nervous. The action in Maine, Florida and North Carolina has attracted media scrutiny because it demonstrates that Tea Party activists are exerting influence in an area that was previously dominated by leftists. Property owners and business owners who have been back on their heels fighting environmentalists have allies in government for the first time in recent memory…… In Maine, Tea Party-backed Republican governor Paul LePage is rolling back environmental regulations with support from new Republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature. He faces a “green iron triangle” that is deeply entrenched, lavishly funded and closely aligned with state and federal government agencies…… The influence and reach of green pressure groups has gone unchecked and unchallenged far too long, crushing private citizens and business owners nationwide. The Iron Triangle, as I describe it in Maine, shows rank collusion between the Maine Audubon Society and the DEP [Dept. of Environmental Protection], jointly concocting false ‘science’ to justify catastrophic regulations.”…… “Budgets are on everyone’s minds these days,” Edwards noted. “The Tea Party has become a growing force and there is no reason for us to play defense.”

Environmentalists Want Pesticides Banned on Private Property
Towns and cities in Connecticut may be able to ban pesticide use on private properties if environmental activists in Connecticut can convince state legislators. The environmentalists would like to see a reversal of a 1983 law that prohibits municipalities from passing stricter lawn-care pesticide regulations than the state government has. .... Nancy Alderman, president of Environments and Human Health. She led a meeting of like-minded environmentalists on Wednesday at Yale University to decide what the anti-pesticide agenda should be for the next legislative session. State Rep. Richard Roy, D-Milford, and state Sen. Ed Meyer, D-Guilford, who co-chair the Environment Committee, were at the meeting, as well as state Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport. .... according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Some pesticides may affect the nervous system, while others may affect hormone production, the agency says. Some pesticides may be carcinogenic.

My Take – “May” affect the nervous system; “may” affect hormone production; “may” cause cancer.....If you were to eliminate the weasel words out of all that these people spew out there would be nothing left for them to say because they have no valid peer reviewed evidence that any of this is true. Speculation and scare mongering! Another reason to get rid of the EPA!

h, what the heck. Another good reason to defund Yale also! And while we are at it, let’s stop grant money to all the universities, which has become a hot bed for irrational social thought at taxpayer expense. We may wish to look at the value of insisting that everyone ‘deserves’ a university degree at government expense or through student loans. The price of college tuition has gone up way beyond the value for many. Each time more money is given to students the price goes up. Like pigs feeding at the trough.  Let's defund all of this and let them compete on the open market place, just like all other businesses.  And universities and colleges are businesses!   

I often wonder why someone would borrow $100,000 to get a degree in something that will not get them jobs that pay enough for them to pay off their loans. One manager of a restaurant told me he has too kinds of applicants in food service. The kind that that can barely read and write and college graduates!

"The time has come," the Walrus said,

"To talk of many things:

Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax -

Of cabbages and kings,

And why the sea is boiling hot,

And whether pigs have wings."

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