Freedom to be Free of liberal ideas that threaten Freedom!

RBLP rouses itself from a long sleep to bitch about a guy named Russ Harding (pic below) from the Mackinac Center in Michigan, who is on an anti-environment roll recently.

First comes an editorial from Mr. Harding claiming that "The biggest threat to freedom in America is from within — the modern day green movement." Say what? Yes, that damned green movement, supporting things like CAFE (gas mileage) standards for cars and — gasp! — regulations on soap phosphates going into the water supply.

What dastardly affronts to freedom are these? More important than a sustainable, livable planet are "motorists' preferences of safety, convenience or personal choice," writes Harding. And who cares what dishwasher soap does to water supplies, "if it does a poor job of cleaning"?

Oh, those bastards in state and national government, actually regulating and legislating things that cause planetary destruction! "Liberty is seldom lost in one fell swoop," Harding warns. "In America, freedom is dying a death by a thousand green cuts."

"Freedom." Interesting word. Freedom, as in freedom from poisoned water and air? Freedom from killing heat waves and homicidal weather? Freedom from a society brought to its knees by a lack of oil that would come even sooner if CAFE standards didn't exist?

No. "Freedom" as in what businesses should have — freedom from government "intrusion" on corporate decisions that determine profit margins. Because, you know, as the Good Book says, all rich men get to take their riches with them when they die, so that just proves how making lots and lots of money in this life is more important than leaving a survivable planet to those whose lives haven't yet been created.

Giddy over having written that exercise in amoral capitalist logic, Harding followed the very next day by claiming that "Global Warming Fears [Are] a Threat to National Security." Never mind that if the waters dry up and the weather goes insane, there won't be a nation to secure. Harding's argument holds that if government attempts any environmental innovation or improvement now, it will somehow lead to... er, China having all of the material to make cell phones, or something. You read it; see if you can figure it out.

The Mackinac Center claims to be apolitical and ideology-free, but that's a laugh. The place and its crew of writers are as apolitical as Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity over at Fox Noise — fair and balanced on the side of far right, pro-business, anti-government, anti-progressive "stewards of the earth," while clinging fast to the Bibles That Built This Country (and gave us the whole "stewards" idea, but never mind.)

Oh, and by the way: according to the good people at the Mackinac Center, turns out that the Great Depression really wasn't caused by bad banking practices or greedy stockbrokers, as today's liberal hippie douchebag teachers make it out to be, either! No, it was — as you can guess — all the fault of government rules and regulations.

FREEDOM would have kept the Great Depression from happening, probably. Just as it prevented the Great Foreclosure Disaster of 2008... oh wait, that one happened because of no regulation at all. So, Mr. Harding, it appears that your conspiracy theory about a "green threat" is just a bunch of steadily warming air.
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Waterworld, update.

The Aral Sea has lost 90% of its water. The Mekong River has dried up to a crisis point, not deep enough to allow shipping or fishing boats to travel on it. Las Vegas could be completely out of water by 2013. Across the United States, 36 states will have water shortages by 2015. They'll likely try to start draining the Great Lakes, but those are drying up, too.

Springtime, and the first 70-degree day of it, arrived at the end of March this year in Michigan, a state that used to reasonably expect cold and even snow through the end of April. And everyone is happy, because the flowers and trees are blooming.

But those need water, just as people do.