Christina’s Common Sense

My friends in the service have a saying: Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. If you can’t figure out what it means, Google it. It’s about the best thing I can think of to describe the latest shenanigans of the environmental movement.

There has perennially been a call to outlaw/ban incandescent light bulbs because of their supposed drain on the environment. Unfortunately for the likes of GreenPeace and Earth First!, too many people are sensitive to fluorescent light, the only viable alternative at this point, to make a ban on incandescent viable. Now we’ve got compact fluorescent bulbs, which are like a fluorescent bulb except smaller, hence the name. These bulbs burn 70% less energy and last much longer than incandescents. But they have one catch: they contain mercury.

Mercury, of course, is toxic. This isn’t really a big deal since there’s only a small amount of it sealed up in the light bulb anyway, right? That’s true—provided the light bulb doesn’t break. If it does, the room will resemble a CSI episode. According to health professinals (didn’t we used to call them doctors?) you should ventilate the room for 15 minutes, get everyone out of there, and clean it up with duct tape while wearing gloves. Then you should seal the offending toxic metals, along with your gloves and the tape, in a glass jar.

And of course, since mercury is toxic it is therefore HazMat, so you can’t just toss a compact fluorescent bulb should it burn out. You’ve either got to recycle it or wait for HazMat pickup days. And as that old and useless air conditioner still on my bedroom floor will attest, HazMat pickup days are few and far between.

Now, I like energy efficiency. I like being a good steward of my money and the environment. But I don’t think it’s right to put our families at risk in order to do so. Pregnant women and small children are warned to stay away from salmon because of possible mercury contamination. Doctors can’t even use mercury thermometers anymore. And we want to put light bulbs with this stuff in our houses and around our kids?

If this were anything but a light bulb, there would be a huge outcry over the dangers of mercury should the light break. But America’s become so sold out to the eco-freaks that we think it’s OK to put harmful materials in our homes if it might help the planet. The environmental movement is no longer pro-earth, it’s anti-human. The idea that we must sacrifice ourselves so the planet can live is a sad testament to just how far the loony environmentalists have led us, and how blindly we have followed them.

If you saw this picture on a billboard what would you think? You’d probably think Absolut Vodka was saying that a perfect world would be one in which a good chunk of America belonged to Mexico (and unofficially, they’ve got their wish). If you thought that, your humble blogger would agree with you. And although Absolut hasn’t stated that officially, it’s kind of hard to see what else they’re trying to say.

The ad, which ran in Mexico, has now been pulled because some Americans became indignant over the insinuation that their country would be better off run by a land whose main export is criminaliens to the United States. Some immigration hawks have started a movement to boycott Absolut products.

If you’re hopping aboard this bandwagon (and if I were a Vodka fan, I’d be right with you), don’t kid yourself—a boycott of Absolut won’t ruin the company. However, it could make them sweat. And it should. That ad encourages and endorses illegal activity against a country that probably represents a good deal of Absolut’s customer base. It also shows Absolut’s advertising department to be ignorant about their job. It’s a bad idea to insult your customers. Maybe next time they feel like turning their advertisements into a political statement, they’ll remember that.

After discussing Patton in my Two World Wars class last night, I stumbled across this on YouTube. It’s an overdub of the flag speech from Patton (which you should really see if you haven’t yet), and done very well. Hold out for the end!

And for those who wish to see the real thing, here it is:

As a piece of worthless information: Reagan got out of Hollywood because he lost the role of Patton to George C Scott. Can you imagine Reagan giving that speech?

Thanks to Katie for showing me how to embed :).

China has been causing much angst and consternation of late, with the whole Tibet fiasco and all. On top of all that, the summer Olympics will be held in Beijing this summer. Now, Hillary is calling for Pres. Bush to boycott the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies unless China shapes up and starts paying attention to human rights.

I can hardly think of a more limp-wristed, sissy-Mary way to show disapproval for China’s behavior. Not attend the opening ceremonies? What the heck is that going to accomplish? Nothing, that’s what it will accomplish. Not showing up to the opening ceremonies will have no impact on the Chinese. They lose nothing if our president does not attend the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We, however, lose a lot. If Pres. Bush stays home from the Olympics, it will only make America look like she doesn’t have the guts to really reprimand China.

If America wants to show its displeasure with China, she should do so in a manner that actually gets attention. Not by keeping her president at home for the opening ceremonies. If we think that’s going to change any behavior, we’re kidding ourselves. Besides, the Olympics is a time for the world to send its best of the best to compete on the biggest stage in the world, not a time to play politics. Is that too much to ask?

If you’ve never read anything by Thomas Sowell, you should. He is made of awesome. So is his book A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles.

In a subject where it’s easy to become bogged down in policy wonkery and partisanship, Sowell cuts through the horse hockey to the truth: there are two basic ideological visions that inform one’s political views. These are the constrained vision, in which men are as they are and there’s no changing it; and the unconstrained vision, in which human nature is a terrible tragedy that can–and must–be reengineered to perfection.

Whichever side of the aisle you’re on, you’ll doubtless be able to make connections to past and present situations as you read about the two visions’ ideas of man, politics, economics, knowledge, and justice. It is about the best explanation of the roots of political strife I’ve ever seen. And Sowell makes it so simple and easy to understand that (if you’re into this sort of thing, at least) it’s kind of fun to read.

I won’t spoil the rest of it for you, just know that this will not be going back to the bookstore and if you’re unfortunate enough to have me educate your young skull full of mush someday, you might just have to read it. So get a head start and read it now.

Also, the print is fairly large and the pages are small. This means the book isn’t as long as it looks. Always a bonus.

If you’re considering voting for B Hussein Obama, this is one reason (and a pretty compelling one, in my oh-so-humble opinion) to reconsider your vote. I could carry on about it, but I really couldn’t say anything my friend Col. Rutter hasn’t already said. So I’ll simply exhort you to read the article.

Thanks to Rush Limbaugh’s Operation Chaos, primaries in Ohio and Indiana have fallen under scrutiny of late. Ohio primary voters who crossed over to the Democrat side faced possible charges, but since what they did wasn’t illegal the charges were never pressed.

Now, the Indiana primary is the subject of media attention too. The Democrats fear that Republicans may use the state’s open primary law to “create mischief” and are calling out a “vast right-wing conspiracy” to steal the election. According to a Clintonite super-delegate, “If there are Republicans sincere in their intent to support our candidates, then we welcome them into our party. If their motives are only to play mischief, we’re not going to sit back and let this happen.”

Tough luck, Democrats! You’ve used the open primary process to “create mischief” in our primaries, and it worked! You made Juan McAmnesty our nominee. You can’t do stuff like that and then complain when it’s done to you. If you want us to follow the rules, I suggest you set the example yourself first.

It really must be painful for a man to have to saw in half all his boy toys, rendering them fairly useless. But apparently this Serbian fellow found it less painful than having to give half the quantity to his wife in their divorce settlement.

But if you think that’s strange, check out the guy who sawed his house in half after finalizing his divorce last year.

Just another reason not to get divorced in my book!

Think back to middle school history. Remember the Donner Party? The people who set out for the West, got stranded in California, and found themselves in such dire straits they had to eat each other?

Well, this election year, the Democrats are doing the same thing (metaphorically, of course). Their party is so bankrupt, their ideology so vacuous, and their candidates so utterly laughable that they’re out of resources. All they can do is consume each other.

John McCain may be the luckiest politician ever to live. His own party hates him and many of them will sooner stay home than vote for him. Not only that, but the Republicans should lose big this year. We’ve got an unpopular war, an economy in a minor recession, and the Republicans basically flushed their twelve years in power to the point that they were ousted in the midterm elections. They haven’t done themselves proud since. By all political analysis, the Republicans should fall on their faces this year.

But they may not. Hillary and Barack are so busy tearing into each other that they don’t have the resources to tear into McCain. The Democrats could easily make hay on pointing out McCain’s traitorous actions against his own party. But they can’t! They’re too busy shredding each other.

John McCain and the Republicans have no business winning a consolation prize, never mind an election, this year. But their opposition is so bad that they just might anyway. If the Republicans win a darn thing in November, they will truly have been blessed by their enemies.