Little Bits of News That I've Heard Today to Add to My Generally Pissy Mood...

Henry Waxman is trying to hold to his promise to pass this cap and trade Carbon Tax disaster by the end of day today and the Democrats are so desperate that they've maybe topped themselves. The Wall Street Journal reports that, due to the possibility that Republicans will require a formal reading of the 1,000+ page bill to slow its progress, the Democrats have a speed-reader waiting. So, now, apparently Evelyn Wood is now the most powerful force in government.

Our friends the Donks have also rejected an amendment that would stop the cap and trade tax if unemployment rises to 15% or gas reaches $5/gallon. I'm guessing that because there are still some of us left who haven't elected socialists to office to devastate our state economies, Congress has to make sure we're all equally punished and destroyed. One ring to rule them all and all that dreck.

I also heard a clip today where the infallible teleprompter of the Barackulous informed him that his Secretary of Defense is William Gates. Um, Mr. TOTUS, I think the man's name is Robert. William Gates would be one of the founders of Microsoft. Hmmm...maybe that was intentional after all.

Fuck Green, Go Red

Why red, you say? Simple. It’s diametrically opposed to green on the color wheel. It is also the color of blood, which I am growing ever closer to spilling. I have been getting increasingly annoyed with advertisements chanting “Go Green” like some kind of deranged meditation aid. It is automatically assumed that I should go green because every douchebag hippie this side of Al Gore has suddenly managed to get a job in an ad agency and is trying to push environmentalism down my throat. My final straw tonight was when one of my credit card companies, trying to pretend they give a damn about the planet, humanity, or anything other than generating user fees and interest payments, informed me that if I would go green by opting for electronic statements I could win some underpowered bastard offspring of a weedwhacker and a rechargeable power tool masquerading as an automobile.

Well, if ConglomCoBank of Delaware thinks I need to receive less paper to save the planet, maybe they need to quit sending me special offers, balance transfer checks, and additional offers of prescreened credit. A simple step on their part would cut out about half the junk mail I receive on a weekly basis. Instead, they would like me to quit receiving the paper trail that lets me know if they’ve managed to fuck my account up. In return, I might win a hybrid automobile that would be much less useful to me than my current full-sized pickup truck and which I’d have to pay taxes on. I guess since I already subsidize their piss-poor behavior by using their products, asking me to continue to do so by making further ridiculous demands seems only natural from their standpoint. Pointing out that they, with no help on my part, could save a few boxes of paper a year by voluntarily cutting down on their direct mail marketing probably makes me some kind of ingrate.

How about all these fucking people quit trying to tell me to go green because all the little environmentalists imagined themselves a secular religion that equates pollution with sin? Come up with a reason for me to care beyond the endlessly inaccurate doommongering the hippies and their retarded greenie offspring have been spewing my entire life. Want me to go green? Explain to me how it’s going to make my life better today. I don’t care about preventing some hypothetical disaster in 50 years. I don’t care about how it’s going to make Ngomo, Urdlich, and Chang have a better life in which ever portion of the third world they inhabit. I don’t care that somebody’s grandkids will be able to drink the pure water flowing through the Houston Ship Channel. I want to know what it’s going to do for me, right fucking now. Until you can do that, have a nice cup of STFU.

More Evidence, If More Was Needed

The astute and regular reader (yes, just the one) may have figured out by now that neither of the contributors here at YPS have a great deal of trust and faith in government or our fellow man. Government is a necessary evil, although just how necessary is a subject of occasional debate here at YPS Manor. People, on the other hand, are generally stupid, often insane, and sometimes both.

A shining example of stupidity and insanity can be found in an account of ManBearPig’s talk yesterday at GWU. If you are taking Al Gore and his accounts of the world seriously, you are either dumb as a post or non compos mentis. I have a copy of his earlier opus, Earth in the Balance, floating around somewhere and it’s as tepid a piece of warmed over b.s. as I’ve ever tried to read. He’s a dreadful writer, even if you discount the quality of his ideas. All that aside, I have recently come across an explanation for Gore acolytes: rational irrationality.

Rational irrationality is a theme of a recent book by Bryan Caplan, discussed here. It is an extension of the rational ignorance effect. Key concept is this:

This goes beyond the standard public choice concept of "rational ignorance" (where voters aren't educated on policy because it doesn't pay off personally for them to be so) to point out that, since people get some pleasure out of certain irrational beliefs, and in a voting process in which we have almost zero chance of affecting the outcome it doesn't particularly cost us anything to indulge them, people have economically sound reasons to not bother being rational when they vote. Indeed, they don't bother doing so, he maintains (with scads of evidence) in his book.

Aside from explaining the enduring popularity of a certain set of bad ideas in the public discourse and ManBearPig’s followers, this provides us with yet another reason to strictly limit the power of government at all levels. People are ignorant and crazy, and it is completely rational, from a cost-benefit analysis, for them to be so. So why on earth would you give them, even by proxy, any more power over you and your affairs than the absolute bare minimum? It is generally considered a bad idea to let the inmates run the asylum, no? Why is government any different? There is no evidence implying bureaucrats and politicians make decisions better than any other segment of the electorate. Why give them any more power than the absolute minimum? If I make a crappy decision, it doesn’t affect 299,999,000 other people. Some asshat in DC has a bad day, makes an ignorant, stupid decision, and we all suffer.

Battle of Hypocrisy

PETA is apparently mad at Al Gore. Y’see, in PETAworld, eating meat causes global warming because cow farts contribute more to global warming than cars. Of course, PETA cites a UN report as the basis for the cow farts are bad factoid, so I’m taking this with a shaker or 12 of salt. I know when I think objective and disinterested science, I think United Nations and PETA. Two great tastes that go great together! Much like shit and piss, I s’pose.

Anyhow, I can’t bring myself to care what PETA thinks about anything. Let’s examine the name, shall we? The big word we should be keying on is Ethical. Hell, what does PETA say about animals?

PETA believes that animals have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans.

Except when animals aren’t useful to PETA, PETA euthanizes them and throws them in dumpsters. So much for deserving to have their best interests taken into consideration, huh, guys? PETA is like most, if not all, hardcore ideologues. They’re interested in the theoretical welfare and treatment of animals in general. The actual welfare of any particular animal? Not really a big concern. In this respect, PETA is much like the communism of old. Communism was (and is) the classic example of bad thinking in this regard. Commies were always aiming at the utopian future when everything will be shiny and bright and didn't care what they had to do to get there, and if they had to drive the bus over you to get there, too damned bad for you. Your sacrifice is justified for the glorious future. Since all any of us have is the here and now, it's a bullshit approach. If you’re not making a positive difference in the short-term, maybe it’s time to rethink what you’re doing.

If PETA wanted to actually make a difference in actual animal welfare, they'd be running no-kill rescue operations. But that's hard work and involves dealing with animals that aren't fluffy and cuddly and photogenic and cute. The animals tend to be sick, grumpy, and in pain and need lots of care and attention that involves contact with copious amounts of bodily fluids. Let's face it, we all know that ain't fun especially when you're getting minimum wage or volunteering for it. It's a hell of a lot easier to jack the critters full of barbiturates, throw them in a dumpster, and justify it by saying, "Someday, we won't have to do this because we'll all be enlightened animal companions." The 20,000 or so house pets that ended up dead didn't mind giving their all so PETA had enough cash to run another ad campaign, did they? Of course, we can’t exactly ask what they thought, seeing as how dead critters tell no tales. Me, I’m a wee tad bit suspicious.

Of course, PETA is battling ManBearPig the ardent environmentalist. ManBearPig firmly believes that if he pays someone else to use less carbon, he can keep burning those fossil fuels willy-nilly. Since this approach fails spectacularly if everybody tries doing it, it’s hard to reconcile your desire for the big house and extravagant lifestyle with claims of environmentalism. After the news of his energy consumption, I could point out that if you ask everybody to cut back on their lifestyle, you should probably step up and be first. I’m sure the legions of fawning sycophants will have some half-assed claim as to why his behavior is justified and I should listen to his inane prattling. Remember kids, always think globally and act hypocritically. If you have wealthy parents, you can go far in life by doing so, even if you don’t have any real job skills.

I’m going to lump both PETA and ManBearPig in the class of ardent hypocrites and let the best hypocrite win. In the meantime, I’ll continue to feel free to ignore whatever asshat proclamations either comes up with about how to live my life.