Thank You Tree-Huggers

[Dr. Shane]

When I was in the Army and one person made a mistake, everyone paid for it. If we were doing push ups and someone didn't do them right, we all had to do more. The drill sergant would tell us why and if it was because of Private Brown, we would all be told to thank him. All together we would say, "Thank you, Private Brown."

Well now we should all say together, "Thank you, tree-hugging evironmentalist wackos." Level-headed environmentalist do a lot to keep our water and air clean. They also do a lot to prevent soil erosion and encourage recycling of materials made out of limited resources. Yet there are groups that go beyond common sense environmentalism.

For years environmental extreamists have prevented oil companies from drilling off the California, Florida and East coast as well as parts of Alaska. They have also prevented refrineries from being built in these areas. As a result the Gulf of Mexico has been one of the only areas oil companies can do business. That means our fuel supply has become very suseptible to tropical storms. "Thank you, tree-hugging evironmentalist wackos."

Americans need to start demanding Congress do something.

• Open up more areas for drilling
• Authorize oil companies to build referies in more locations
• Require auto makers to make more cars that use alternative fuels - like E85
• Provide incentives for trucking companies and school districts to use biodesiel.
• Convert the US postal service fleet over to alternative fuel vehicles.

If China's economy continues to grow at its current rate, in 5 years it will be consuming as much oil as the entire world now consumes! I think it is time to wake up.

[Dr. Shane]

Not to be accused of being partisan... Governor Job Bush is one that has prevented drilling off the coast of Florida.

[Bravus]

On the other hand, apparently the degradation of the barrier islands and wetlands off Louisiana for development made the effects of Katrina on New Orleans much worse than they would otherwise have been... so if the environmentalists had had their way there...

I do find it intriguing that the cure for these hurricanes is apparently perfectly aligned with the federal Republican platform - more oil drilling in sensitive areas, more tax cuts, repealing minimum wage laws, and cutting funding to education and other programs they dislike. Reminds me of another disaster about 4 years ago.

[Neil D]

I have to thank those same "tree-hugging evironmentalist wackos" as you call them, Shane, because if it weren't for them calling attention to thier cause [living 24/7/365 in the trees, chaining themselves to the trees, laying down in front of tractors ect], I would never have have known the damage that they are causing. It was those same "tree-hugging evironmentalist wackos" who got a 50 foot "do not log" near stream beds that saved some fishing in streams. If they hadn't those same fishing area, would have been silted over and the result would have been NO fish at all, if the stream hadn't been obliterated.

If it hadn't been for those people, then you would not be aware of the problems as logging companies doing thier appointed work don't get front page news.

And while I detest the enviormental terroist, that is, the person who spikes trees with nails such that it will hurt or kill the logger, I can also sypmathize with thier cause.

But those type of people can go to jail.

[Dr. Shane]

The idea of building on barrior islands is about as crazy as building below sea level. Nature itself moves barrior islands in and out from the coast line. However once man stops flooding and dams the rivers, he must then pump sand from the sea bottom in order to maintain the barrier islands.

However if we broke all the dams and stopped all flood-control programs, hundreds would lose their homes and a few their lives each year. Fact is that man has always settled along the sea, rivers and other bodies of water and floods have always destroyed cities and taken lives. So only an environmental extreamist would want to blow up the dams and let nature take its course, flooding where it will.

The key in sound environmentalism is government oversight and regulation. Drilling in "forbidden" areas should be allowed but regulated. Modern technology allows such drilling to be done with minimum impact on the environment around it. Where I live, there is an oil drilling rig in one of Target's parking lots and another in the parking lot of one of Cinemark's theaters.

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the cure for these hurricanes is... more oil drilling in sensitive areas, more tax cuts, repealing minimum wage laws, and cutting funding to education

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I haven't heard anyone advocating cutting education funding or repealing minimum wage. The only tax cuts associated with hurricanes I have heard about are those to be used to entice industry to rebuild in New Orleans. President Bush, of course, passed the most expensive education bill in the history of the US and favors increasing the earned income tax credit in leiu of incresing minimum wage.

[Dr. Shane]

Groups like Pheasants Forever and Ducks Unlimited do a great job at conservation without becoming fanatical wackos. A group doesn't have to go off the deep end to draw attention to a cause. In fact, the more reasonable groups get more done because legelistlators actually listen to them when they lobby and testify in legislative halls.

[Bravus]

I'm with you on that one, Shane - one of the few opinions I share with Ted Nugent is that hunters take great care of the environment, and in many ways do even more than environmentalists.

As to the cutting education funding comment, it came from here: http://johnshadegg.house.gov/rsc/RSC_Budget_Options_2005.pdf

Highlights:

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The Republicans would freeze funding for the Peace Corps, the Global AIDS Initiative, U.N. peacekeeping operations and a wide variety of third-world development programs; eliminate the EnergyStar program, eliminate grants to states and local communities for energy conservation, reduce federal subsidies for Amtrak, eliminate funding for new light-rail programs and cancel the president's hydrogen fuel initiative; eliminate state grants for safe and drug-free schools because "studies show that schools are among the safest places in the country and relatively drug free"; and eliminate the teen funding portion of Title X, which provides "free and reduced-price contraceptives, including the IUD, the injection drug Depo-Provera, and the morning-after pill" to poor teenagers.

Along the way, they'd find a way to punish -- or simply eliminate -- some of their enemies, real and imagined. They'd cut funding for the District of Columbia, eliminate funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, eliminate subsidized student loans for graduate students, terminate the Legal Services Corporation, eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and kill the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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(wording is from Salon.com, but specific facts are from the House Republicans)

[Michelle]

Shane--I think the key is environmentalists vs. conservationists. There is a big difference between the two.

M

[Dr. Shane]

The quote from Salon.com contains a lot of spin. If one reads through the list of options from the link to the RSC they will see that. It is simply a list of options, I would like to see the Democrats list - if they have one. This is long overdue if anyone asks me.

There are a number of the items I wouldn't want to decrease, many I wouldn't mind freezing and a few I think are good to be cut. These committees come up with suggestions and then they might be put on the agenda at a congressional subcommittee and some of them may actually be passed at some time in the future.

I have to say Salon.com speaks as harshly about conservative's motives as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity do about liberals. Some of the folks at Salon.com should be locked in a room with Rush and Sean and sell it on pay-per-view. Makes me feel good about being in the middle.