Welcome to the Hades Ice Rink
1. A black man is the going to be the Democratic nominee for President and, most likely, be elected in November.
2. I am ever so slightly rooting for the Celtics against the Lakers. (20 years ago, if you had asked me which of these two items would happen first, I would have gone with President Jesse Jackson.)
3. And I just read and agreed with a Charles Krauthammer column.
There will be more: I predict that gay marriage will reach its sell-by date as a political wedge a month or so after the California Supreme Court ruling takes effect.
Something is going on out there.
2. I am ever so slightly rooting for the Celtics against the Lakers. (20 years ago, if you had asked me which of these two items would happen first, I would have gone with President Jesse Jackson.)
3. And I just read and agreed with a Charles Krauthammer column.
There will be more: I predict that gay marriage will reach its sell-by date as a political wedge a month or so after the California Supreme Court ruling takes effect.
Something is going on out there.
posted by bluememe at 6/06/2008
5 Comments:
Regarding #3 I agree with Krauthammer as well. But it remind me of my beef with many environmentalists. While I support the goal of a better environment the pushing of CAFE standards instead of a fuel tax was misguided. Instead of raising the price and letting people make their own choice many environmentalists seem to prefer telling everyone what car to drive, some kind of environmental Puritanism.
I don't have direct knowledge, but I suspect that you have trouble finding an environmentalist (well, a smart one) who doesn't agree that the best answer is higher gas prices. CAFE standards ARE stupid, but in the environment of the last 20 years, advocating any form of tax increase has been suicidal. And so CAFE standards have been the equivalent of deficit spending in the sense that people try to get benefits without paying for them.
So the first choice is some form of gas or carbon tax, but there is no political will to go there. What's your second choice? Lead times for new car designs are very long -- at least five years for truly new products. So if manufacturers wait for price shocks like the current situation to adapt, they will be dead meat. (Adieu, GM.)
Thank you for the reply, but I'm sticking with my story. It is my view that environmentalist are often wrong-headed and arrogant. I should also mention I am a regular reader and I enjoy reading your blog.
Me again, I though about your remarks some more and I see you point, and it is a very good one, I hadn't really thought of that Sometime it is better to aim low and accomplish something instead of setting unachievable goals and getting nothing.
On Gay Marriage- I think it still has legs in most places. I always think about the smoking bans and how the rest of the country viewed us. But eventually it caught on pretty much everywhere. I think there's 5 or 6 years left on that one.
On #3 - I think most Libertarians are naive in their free market beliefs. Human nature may be good in general, but all it takes is one bad apple and everything falls apart. But I have to admit, they are right on this one in the real world. An Inconvenient Truth didn't do it, wicked weather patterns didn't do it, ridiculous traffic didn't do it (so much for the time value of money), but $4 per gallon gas has finally made Americans change their unsustainable habits.
Post a Comment
<< Home