[asa] Environment & Feel-Good Foolishness

"Fool": A person lacking in judgement or prudence.

Feckless individuals can only be elected by a feckless majority.

~ Janice

Environment: Globe Touts Cambridge's Feel-Good Foolishness
NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein
Posted on 04/08/2007 7:20:15 AM EDT by governsleastgovernsbest
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1813928/posts

The great William F. Buckley, Jr. once famously said that he "would
rather be governed by the first 200 names in the Boston phone book,
than by the Harvard faculty." The National Review founder might well
feel the same about the elected officials of Harvard's home of
Cambridge, Massachusetts.

For as described in a Boston Globe editorial of this morning,
<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/04/08/how_green_was_my_city/>How
green was my city?, Cambridge's city earth mothers and fathers have
unveiled a nonsensical exercise in feel-good environmentalism.

A nonsensical exercise which, of course, the Boston Globe heartily applauds.

Beware government programs with slogans, particularly ones of the
breathtaking hubris inherent in "saving money and the planet" that
Cambridge has slapped on this project.

Yes, forget about our brave warriors confronting terrorism worldwide.

The true heroes are those professors of feminist studies and
purveyors of Marxism who screw in fluorescent light bulbs.

The essence of the program is the creation of a revolving $70 million
fund to pay for insulation and more efficient light bulbs and air
conditioners. The Globe assures us that "the program will need no
local or state tax money." So where will the money come from? "From
conservation fees on utility bills and from a statewide utility rate
increase."

I see. It's not a tax. It's a "fee."

And local residents will surely feel much better knowing that the
additional dollars they're being forced to spend aren't for taxes;
they're for higher statewide utility rates.

And of course, driving up utility rates should help drive more
businesses, jobs and people out of the Commonwealth, which should in
turn lead to less despoiling of the environment.

Talk about your win-win!

And what will be the global impact of the program? Will it stave off
by one milisecond AlGore's doomsday drowning of Wall Street?

Please.

Even if people accept that man is responsible for global warming, so
long as India and China continue to churn out CO2 unabated, what
happens in one smallish city on the banks of the Charles is less than
meaningless.

All of which is not to say that the program is worthless.

Far from it.

It will surely give those Prius-driving Harvard profs one more reason
to feel morally superior to their colleagues at institutions in
other, less-enlightened burgs.

Mark has an LL.M. from Harvard. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net

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Received on Sun Apr 8 21:42:38 2007