The Conservative Edge

Religion is a funny thing. It’s sort of like water—it has equal capacity to either sustain or kill any human being. Some people (a shrinking minority of individuals) can develop an acute sense of morality as a result of their particular religious beliefs. On the other hand, far too many people misuse their faith, seeking to control or rule other persons.

This desire to attain supreme authority is not limited to Bible-believing Christians or even jihadists who follow the Koran. Religion takes many shapes and forms, and there are certainly more gods who are worshiped besides the One who created the Earth. We must remember that religion is based on faith, not reality. Faith must also be expressed and preached by someone with enough charisma, skill, and determination so that his ideals might be accepted and, ultimately, never questioned.

I am particularly reminded of one fellow in the Bible, a man named Simon, mentioned in the Book of Acts. He claimed to be some great power of God, and asserted himself so effectively, that he completely controlled the minds and behaviors of the people who lived in his city. The only way his spell could be broken was by the revelation of a new religion that emphasized freedom and healing over mind control. Simon lost his following when the new religion swept through the town.

Alas, Simon still lives. He lives because faith can still be used in this 21st century to control, manipulate, and subdue. The deity worshiped today is Mother Earth, and her disciples are many. High priests like Al Gore demand that we accept his ideals on faith, not reason or careful consideration. Claims are made that a majority of experts agree with him, even though it is entirely possible that a majority can be wrong. We are urged to accept computer projections of earth’s warming instead of proven laboratory tests and concrete evidence. Just as Gore and other liberals might suggest that God cannot be real because He cannot be proven to exist, Gore’s own theory of global warming cannot be proven either.

It has been said that a tyrant’s stated desire to save the world only conceals his true desire to rule the world. The people who would benefit most from a re-engineering of American society are the high priests such as Gore who are already set to benefit from the energy industries they endorse. The citizens of America, meanwhile, will be left with growing energy bills, shrinking transportation freedom, higher unemployment, and a general stranglehold on pursuits of liberty, wealth and happiness.

In the Biblical story about Simon, it is obvious that there was no liberty, wealth or happiness in his town. Religion and faith had been used (misused, one might say) by Simon to achieve a dictatorship. The same thing will happen today if Gore and the other false disciples successfully subdue America in the name of Mother Earth.

Some time ago, I made some observations about the weather here in Ohio. We have had a very mild, temperate summer, with sufficient rain to keep the crops growing and the lawns green. I’ve been especially amazed at the corn crops in the southwestern part of the state. All of the farms I’ve seen looked very healthy, with lots of soybeans, and corn that reached 6 and 7 feet in height. I can’t remember when crops have looked this good.

Then, in the September 3 edition of the Dayton Daily News, I read a report from the Ohio State University Extension officials. The report stated that Ohio’s corn yield is projected to be 165 bushels per acre, which would break the record of 159 bushels per acre in 2006. The corn has benefited from unusually cool summer nights, in addition to milder daytime temperatures and ample rainfall. Furthermore, Ohio’s soybean and winter wheat crops are expected to tie previous yield records. So it looks like this state will again be able to compensate for lower yields that may occur in other parts of the country.

Don’t underestimate your powers of observation. With all of the impending doom predicted by the false prophets of global warming, one might think that we’re headed for imminent starvation and catastrophe. But a drive in the country might prove them wrong, at least for now.

I hate to see this summer end. Not because I have been doing anything exciting; it’s just that the weather has been wonderfully mild this year. I can only wish every summer could be like this.

Normally, the weather turns hot and humid by July 4, and stays that way until mid-September. I know there have been times that I wanted to attend some Fourth-of-July gala, but stayed home instead to avoid the dreadful heat and humidity. Furthermore, the lawn usually starts turning brown by August; the need for grass cutting practically goes away.

But this year, things are different. I’ve had to mow the lawn at least once a week since the end of May. Indeed, I just cut the grass twice this week, in August! There aren’t any brown spots in my yard. The grass is as green and lush as it was in April and May. The temperatures have been mild, in the low 80s at most, although this week has been pretty warm.

There are other unusual things happening. My walnut tree has been producing nuts for the last three weeks; the squirrels have been extremely busy. Walnuts generally mature in mid to late August, but they are definitely ahead of schedule this year. I’ve also noticed falling leaves from my magnolia tree, and a couple of oak trees elsewhere that have leaves changing colors already. I’ve driven past some farms, and some fields are bountiful with soybeans, while other fields have corn that is a good seven feet tall. It looks like some crops are ready to harvest. It’s absolutely incredible.

All over this area of the state, I see no evidence of global warming-related stress or other weather disruptions. Even the white-tailed deer have been active this summer. I’ve been contemplating making a prediction for an early fall, but there seems to be no need for that now. It’s obvious that autumn will arrive earlier than normal. As much as I love fall–is there a lovelier month than October?–I’m going to regret the passing of Summer 2009.

A few days ago, I took my wife to the bureau of motor vehicles (always a treat) so she could get her driver’s license renewed. Here in Ohio, drivers are required to renew their licenses every 4 years. So, my wife’s license is now valid until the year 2013. Of course, I reminded her that she won’t have to worry about any more renewals, because the world is going to end in the year 2012.

I suppose that’s the latest religious/spiritual/mystical hot idea. I was in a local bookstore recently, and I noticed that several books about the year 2012 were given prime spaces on the shelves. I believe there were 6 different books on the top shelf, right at eye level. These books were written by people who were emphasizing the accuracy and prophetic significance of the ancient Mayan calendar. The authors also seemed to be mixing in some other forms of mysticism and mythology.

This whole notion that the world will end in December of 2012 reminds me of other religious fads.  William Miller, in the 1830s, gained many followers by his seemingly irrefutable evidence that Jesus Christ would return on a specific date. Miller was wrong—twice—and left a lot of people disappointed. Just a few years ago, the book The Prayer of Jabez had many people believing that supernatural blessings would be realized by merely reciting the prayer. I would guess that the author reaped quite a blessing. I would also suppose that millions of dollars have been made by Dan Brown for perpetuating his theory of Christ’s mortality. The authors of the Left Behind series of religious books have also done quite well for themselves.

Like someone trying to get in on a hot stock, these people flood the market with material that will fan the flame of the newest revelation. And when one idea burns out, it seems that another one is ready to take its place. As a result, many people just go chasing these crazy ideas, never finding the simple truth needed to anchor their lives.

I remember the massive build up to the Y2K crisis. Ten years ago, we were told that the world was doomed to global catastrophe, as all of our computer systems would go berserk when the date changed from 1999 to 2000. All sorts of weird scenarios were described, such as planes falling from the skies, gas pumps and ATM machines not recognizing our bank cards, and massive blackouts and power failures. Then, as now, there were books, magazines, trade shows, television programs, and Internet sites that foretold of the coming crisis, and how we should prepare for it. And on New Year’s Eve, 1999, the world held its breath, and nothing happened.

So, not only are we being brainwashed with the flawed theory of global warming, we have to hear about the world ending in 2012. I think the best way to deal with these issues is to develop a significant amount of skepticism. We should learn to identify the crises that are designed to play on our emotions. With time, it becomes easier to separate the fads from the truth. As a certain Jewish carpenter once said, “Take heed that no man deceives you.” That’s good advice.

A few days ago, a column written by Nicholas Kristof appeared in my local newspaper, the Dayton Daily News. Mr. Kristof’s piece stated that Americans are unable to process the oncoming threat of global warming. He asserts that we have a cavalier attitude that prevents us from perceiving future dangers, even though we are alerted at more immediate ones.

I felt compelled to write a letter to the paper, pointing out that global warming is not presented in a factual, common-sense manner. Most global warming supporters use emotionally-based arguments and presentations to make their points.

If you’d like to see the letter, and accompanying responses, follow this link to the Dayton Daily News website. Feel free to post a response either here at this blog, or at the paper’s opinion page. You might be surprised at how many people are refusing to accept the dubious global warming theory.

That’s right—Al Gore thinks you’re a Nazi if you disagree with or refuse to accept the global warming theory. Here are some of his remarks, found on the science blog Watts Up With That? on July 7, 2009:

“Al Gore today compared the battle against climate change with the struggle against the Nazis. The former US Vice President said the world lacked the political will to act and invoked the spirit of Winston Churchill by encouraging leaders to unite their nations to fight climate change.

“He also accused politicians around the world of exploiting ignorance about the dangers of global warming to avoid difficult decisions.”

That last statement is quite amusing, because the global warming theory itself relies on a perceived ignorance in order to be accepted. However, there have been polls conducted which suggest that the more people discover about global warming, the less likely they are to accept it as fact.

That’s because global warming is presented primarily as an emotional argument. We hear that the ice caps are melting; the environment is in danger; the polar bears are becoming extinct; and now, one of the most emotionally-charged statements of all coming from the mouth of Al Gore, associating global warming resisters with the Nazis.

Demagogues such as Al Gore are forced to use emotion in their remarks because they have little else to go on. Facts and common sense contradict the global warming theory. There are scientists who believe that we need not rush into hasty and overzealous legislation to combat the buildup of “greenhouse gases.” The average American can easily grasp the notion that solar activity can account for as much as 68% of Earth’s temperature variation. That’s just common sense, since the sun is our primary source of heat. But that doesn’t make the same kind of headlines that Al Gore likes to make with his remarks about the Nazis.

In fact, one could make the case that it is Al Gore who is acting like a Nazi. When Hitler began gathering support and power, he first felt compelled to rid the German government of all Communists. However, since most of the Communists happened to be Jews, Hitler extended his persecution to the Jewish race. Hitler relentlessly blamed the Jews for Germany’s ills, making them scapegoats for everything. It’s downright spooky to see how Al Gore demonizes those who disagree with his gospel, just as Hitler did in the 1920s and 1930s.

The real danger of global warming is that it can be used to completely change and control our lives. It can limit our transportational freedoms, and dictate how we feed our families and heat our homes. We don’t need or deserve the level of domination and control that will envelop us if global warming legislation is fully implemented. That’s what Al Gore is really after—domination and control. He hates us, you know.

One of the liberals’ favorite mantras during the Bush administration was “Bush lied, people died.” The Democrats in Congress and in the media were obsessed with the idea that the Iraq war was accompanied by a massive cover-up of information. We supposedly went to war knowing that there were no WMDs in Iraq. All of the pied pipers in the media said that we had been misled and lied to, and that the government had suppressed vital intelligence information.

The Obama administration was going to be different. “Transparency” was a key word used to describe the truthfulness of the new presidency. But we’ve all been lied to since last November. Obama campaigned on putting Americans to work. He said that the economy was going to get a “quick jolt.” But, as Ohio’s own John Boehner recently asked, “Where are the jobs?”

The Obama administration is giving us a green version of deception and cover-up, with help from the Environmental Protection Agency. Research conducted by the EPA’s National Center for Environmental Economics challenges the prevailing notion that global warming is an increasing danger to the environment. But it seems that the report was intentionally suppressed in order to allow the EPA to support the administration’s efforts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

The June 29 edition of the Investor’s Business Daily notes that the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released the EPA study on its own website. Among the findings are interesting statements such as: “Given the downward trend in temperatures since 1998, there is no particular reason to rush into decisions based on a scientific hypothesis that does not appear to explain most of the available data.” And this one: “The idea that warming temperatures will cause Greenland to rapidly shed its ice has been greatly diminished by new results indicating little evidence for operations of such process.”

Apparently, the person responsible for producing the report at the EPA has been removed from all climate-related work. He has even been advised to hire an attorney. He is in hot water for suggesting that science is being ignored in the evaluation of CO2 as a pollutant.

If his research had been released before the House vote on the cap-and-trade bill, the outcome might have been different. It’s no wonder the Obama administration is moving so quickly on climate change legislation. They are intentionally suppressing information that would blow holes in the global warming theory, and allow millions of reasonable Americans to see what a farce the theory really is. Remember Y2K? It never happened.

You can read more of the IBD editorial here. I would also recommend a visit to a highly regarded science blog, Watts Up With That? You’ll find that not only are global warming dissenters being intentionally silenced, but that climate data is manipulated to produce desired results that support climate legislation.

Jobs? We don’t need them. The liberals are convinced that America needs more legislation and regulation. They are taking care of both with unprecedented speed and ruthlessness.

I noticed the results of an online survey this past week regarding the cost of gasoline. The survey leads me to believe (to continue to believe, I might say) that the elected officials in Washington aren’t listening to the people they supposedly represent. The liberals, especially, continue their sky-is-falling scare tactics about global warming, while doing nothing to alleviate Americans’ fears that gasoline costs will again rise in the near future.

The polling group Ipsos conducted an online survey from May 19 through May 25. Following are some of the results:

• When asked to choose between lower gas prices and reduced auto emissions, 66 percent of Americans said that lower gas prices was the more important issue.
• When asked whether the government should subsidize food crops or ethanol production, 82 percent felt that food subsidies were more important; 56 percent felt that ethanol production created higher food prices.
• When the survey asked whether energy independence or lower food prices was more important, 55 percent opted for energy independence.

So it seems that, generally, Americans desire lower gas prices, and then reduced food costs, ahead of any emission or greenhouse gas concerns. If the liberals in Washington were attentive to these issues, they could put more Americans to work producing more American energy, to the benefit of society. The American people aren’t necessarily as stupid as the liberals believe. People understand that energy dependence leads to higher energy costs. Most of us remember that the spike in oil prices (all the way to $147 a barrel) not only led to a rise in gas prices, but caused food prices to escalate as well. This vicious cycle will be repeated as long as the liberals keep their stranglehold on American society, and fail to heed the working class.

Feel free to send these survey results to your elected officials. They need to hear our voices. You can bet that they will soon attempt to impose higher gasoline taxes (just look at what they did to tobacco products). We can’t let that happen without a fight.

I’ve been giving some attention to the reaction of the local media to last week’s Tea Party here in Dayton, Ohio. Our newspaper, the Dayton Daily News, generally downplayed the event. There seemed to be too many ordinary people who were present, too many blue-collar conservative types. Oh, and let’s not forget–they were mostly white folks.

As I read various articles and blogs, I noticed that of the people who carried signs at the event, there seemed to be no predominant message, other than venting at big government in general. There were lots of people who gathered because of one big issue that troubled each of them. Some people, for instance, were irate about high taxes. Others were concerned about government spending. Still others questioned the bank bailouts. You get the idea.

But I wonder how many people can put all of those little pieces together in order to craft the big picture of what this present administration is really trying to do? And how many folks can look back just a few years ago, to see when and how all of these power grabs got started? The speed of legislative action and the enactment of liberal ideology since January of 2009 has been breathtaking. The dominos are falling rapidly. The closure of Guantanamo Bay; the blitz of tobacco taxes; the reshaping of the auto industry; and now the judgement of the EPA concerning greenhouse gases, are all indications that there is serious social re-engineering going on.

I wish that conservatives could put everything together. The religious right, for example, should get off the abortion soapbox. They think that if a potential congressional or presidential candidate doesn’t say exactly what they want to hear on the abortion issue, they can’t support him. When they withdraw their votes, the liberal fanatics get to fill the vacuum. If the abortion foes would just see the bigger picture, they could help expose the liberal hypocrisy. Namely, the liberals want to give women the right to do as they please with their own bodies (by having abortions), but those same liberals want to take away everyone else’s right to do as they please with their bodies by enjoying tobacco. And these liberals have tried to validate their seizure of the right to use tobacco by citing suspicious and questionable “research” done on the dangers of tobacco use, going all the way back to the 1970s.

They have also been hammering on the oil companies since the late ’70s. Remember Jimmy Carter’s efforts to hammer oil companies with a “windfall profit” tax? And didn’t the liberals raise the same idea last year? Instead of allowing more responsible use of American resources, they restricted further the exploration and production of American oil and gas. What would happen if the oil companies stopped pumping because of the crushing profit taxes? Fuel costs would likely spike even higher.

We all need to see that the liberals have been planning their moves for a long time. They now have the opportunity to implement the many items on their agenda. We need to understand the many issues that are jeopardizing our freedoms. To the world, our President is appearing to be thoughtful, cooperative, and non-threatening. At home, he and his Democratic cohorts are squeezing the last bits of freedom from American society. Can you see the big picture?

Not too long ago, I wrote a commentary titled “Why Liberals Hate Us.” I referred to a column written by Brock Yates, published years ago in Car and Driver magazine. In his column, Yates cited some other writers, who said that the automobile represented one of the last bastions of unregulated freedom. And that’s why liberals have always hated cars. They resent ordinary Americans who derive such pleasure from driving, collecting, restoring, and hot-rodding their favorite cars. Since the late ’60s and through the ’70s, the car haters sought to regulate the automobile and anything connected with the industry.

So, they made seat belts, air bags, ignition interlock switches and 5-MPH bumpers mandatory equipment on all autos sold in America. While countries such as Germany had brilliantly engineered autobahns, superior driver training, and high driving speeds, the liberals here decided we should crawl down the road at 55 miles per hour. We have also been taxed like the colonists were under King George. We pay more in gasoline taxes than the actual cost of the fuel. We have to pay sales tax every time we buy a used car, much less a new one. Every year, it seems like we pay more and more for our car registration fees and driving license fees. All of this is done because liberals hate us and our cars.

Now, in 2009, we have a President who is just as eager to dump on the auto industry as the rest of the liberals in Congress. With the perfect storm of high oil prices in 2008, a collapse of domestic car sales, and an economic crisis, the Obama administration gets what other Democrats before him could only dream of. He now has the opportunity to dictate to the car companies exactly what kind of cars they can make, and how to make them.

This is confirmed by a recent report made public by the Environmental Protection Agency. As reported by Yahoo!, the EPA has concluded that carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases are a major hazard to Americans’ health. “In both magnitude and probability, climate change is an enormous problem (and) the greenhouse gases that are responsible for it endanger public health and welfare,” said the EPA. It was the first time the federal government had said it was ready to use the Clean Air Act to require power plants, cars and trucks to curtail their release of climate-changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.

This opens the door very wide for Congress, especially the car-hating liberals, to regulate the automobile right out of our lives. Pay attention to the following quotes: It’s “a wake-up call for Congress” — deal with it directly through legislation or let the EPA regulate, said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate committee dealing with climate legislation. If Congress doesn’t move, Boxer said she would press EPA to take swift action. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., whose House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hopes to craft legislation in the coming weeks, called the EPA action “a game changer.” “It now changes the playing field with respect to legislation. It’s now no longer doing a bill or doing nothing. It is now a choice between regulation and legislation,” said Markey.

For years, the liberals have been trying to convince us how bad the automobile has been, and how we are guilty for loving such terrible contraptions. Never mind that cars sold in California, for example, have been practically emission-free for years. The liberals have been trying to stigmatize the automobile for a long time, the same way they demonize tobacco and firearms. They are getting set to take it all away.

The Investor’s Business Daily recently quoted Czech President Vaclav Klaus in an editorial piece. Klaus said “As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy, and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not communism.” Klaus told the Cato Institute that “environmentalism is a religion” that accepts global warming on faith and seeks to exploit it to reshape the world and economic social order.

I couldn’t agree more.