…Stupid:
He…proceeded to relay a conversation he had with a local chemical company regarding their 2010 capital expenditure budget. When asked what the company intended to invest in 2010, the response was ‘nothing,’ not due to a paucity of good opportunities, but because it was impossible for the company to calculate a rate of return given all the uncertainty over cost of labor, energy prices, regulatory mandates and the like.
These people are completely clueless about how an economy works.
So say the American people. They prefer a piecemeal response to this “comprehensive” disaster.
Of course, who are they to have an opinion? The (misnamed) Democrats know what’s best for them.
Acknowledging doubt about climate change:
A former head of the IPCC, the British scientist Robert Watson, notes, “The mistakes all appear to have gone in the direction of making it seem like climate change is more serious by overstating the impact.”
Too many of the creators and guardians of the “consensus” desperately wanted to believe in it. As self-proclaimed defenders of science, they should have brushed up on their Enlightenment. “Doubt is not a pleasant mental state,” said Voltaire, “but certainty is a ridiculous one.” The latest revelations don’t disprove the warming of the 20th century or mean that carbon emissions played no role. But by highlighting the uncertainty of the paleoclimatic data and the models on which alarmism has been built, they constitute a shattering blow to the case for radical, immediate action.
And not a moment too soon, though fortunately, it coincided with an appropriate collapse of confidence in Washington wisdom in general. Unfortunately, it’s clear that many still desperately want to believe. That’s how religions work.
Some examples.
Space transportation is not immune to this phenomenon, in either theory or history, which is why Ares I would likely have cost even more than current projections, which have already grown since it was first proposed.
…And Rubber Chicken.
Some thoughts on the new policy from the Chair Force Engineer.
Glenn Reynolds has some thoughts on what we should do in the wake of the collapse of the Warm Mongers:
…what should we do?
Nothing. At least, in my opinion, we should continue to try to minimize the use of fossil fuels regardless. Burning coal and oil is filthy, and they’re more valuable as chemical feedstocks anyway. We should be building nuclear plants and pursuing efficiencies in the shorter term, while working on better solar (including orbital solar), wind, etc. power supplies for the longer term. That doesn’t mean “hairshirt” environmentalism, where the goal is for neo-puritans to denounce people for immorality and trumpet their own superiority. It just means good sense.
I think some elaboration is required. Starting with (to use a politically incorrect phrase from the old Lone Ranger joke), what do you mean “we,” white man?
That is, who should decide?
I have a weird concept. How about letting the market do it?
For example, overhaul Price-Anderson to deindemnify the nuclear industry to make them more responsible for plant safety, in exchange for removing many of the design restrictions imposed by an anti-innovation Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Eliminate the bans on drilling, both on and off shore, to reduce energy costs in the near term (and cut the income of those making war on us and the West in general) and provide wealth to invest in the technologies that will eventually replace fossil fuels. Stop trying to pick technological winners (something government is notoriously bad at) and distorting the market with tax credits. Put some federal money into R&D, but eliminate government mandates (such as ethanol) whose purpose is more for political payoffs than environmentalism, and let the market sort out what makes sense.
This should be one of the planks of any new Contract With America — let the energy market work.
[Update late morning]
Three major corporations have pulled out of Climate Action Partnership:
Oil giants BP PLC and ConocoPhillips along with Caterpillar, Inc., the Peoria, Ill., heavy-equipment maker, have decided against renewing their membership in the organization, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.
Red Cavaney, ConocoPhillips senior vice president for government affairs, said USCAP was focused on getting a climate-change bill passed, whereas Conoco is increasingly concerned with what the details of such a bill would be.
“USCAP was starting to do more and more on trying to get a bill out without trying to work as much on the substance of it,” Mr. Cavaney said.
Gee, sounds like health care. I expect this to be the beginning of a corporate stampede that will finally put a wooden stake through the heart of this monster. Business is starting to sense the blood of the ecofascists in the water. I’m still wondering if the Audi ad was part of that.
In a comment thread about Joe Fragola, the Michael Mann of spaceflight safety, is provided a list of the CE&R reports that Mike Griffin ignored when he came in to do Apollo on Geritol. I hope that people in charge of the new direction are reading them — there’s a lot of good stuff there.
…strikes back. I suspect they’re going to strike back a lot harder in November.
In this new war against the kulaks, I think that the kulaks are going to win. At least they won’t be starved out without a fight.
[Update a few minutes later]
And then there’s this:
“Welcome to Obamaville: Our business is no business, like no business you know.”
Intermixed with the song and dance, I suggest tea partiers call on Howdy Doody, a.k.a., Robert Gibbs, to explain why one signal effect of the President’s intervention into the economy has been to drastically increase the government payroll. Why is it that Washington, D.C., is boomtown while Main Street is bust?
This is a question that should be repeated early and often.
The President talks about stimulating the economy. But why does he not employ the one elixir that time and experience has shown really does stimulate the economy: i.e., tax cuts? Why is he planning to raise taxes, and drastically, on nearly every productive citizen and every successful business? Why?
It’s what socialists do.
The first usage of Hooverville in the press was in 1930, less than a year after the Crash. We’re overdue to start talking about Obamavilles.
Overpaid schoolteachers are fired for refusing to work an additional half hour a day. Too bad they can’t be fired for incompetence.