Burn a Tree; Save the Planet

It's a beautiful sight ...

... In more ways than one. A new study shows that in order to save the planet, we should let our forests burn:

Quenching forest fires leads to more carbon in the air, says new research carried out in Californian forests. The discovery suggests that forests spared from fire may release more of the greenhouse gas into the air than they absorb.

Decades of suppressing natural fires has increased the number of surviving trees in California's forests. But this growth has been at the expense of larger trees, which are less resilient to drought and other stresses than smaller, younger trees, resulting in a decline in the total amount of carbon stored in these forests.

Who's the Idiot

Leftists, "progressives", and Liberals, love to repeat over and over and over again that George W. Bush is an idiot. From greeting cards lampooning "Chimp" to vulgar internet cartoons, they've had a blast.

Yet, when one compares the seasoned common sense wisdom of Hitler-Chimp-Bush, with the naive "progressive" utopianism of Barrack Obama, one must ask ... who is the idiot?

Bush ~ "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Translation - Thugs can never be talked to unless they come to the table cap-in-hand.

Barrack ~ "It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power -- including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Translation - Hug-a-thug and they'll see it your way ... "tough, principled, and direct diplomacy" ... what the hell is that supposed to mean?

A Glimmer of Sanity

The first rumblings of a UK return to sanity can be heard from across the big pond. There'll have to be a lot more though, before the inexorable tide of Islam in Britain is stopped:

West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution Service have apologised for accusing the makers of a Channel 4 documentary of distortion.

The apology and the promise of £100,000 were made at the High Court on Thursday.

It follows comments made about a Dispatches programme, Undercover Mosque, which tackled claims of Islamic extremism in the West Midlands.

Dedicated to the Anti-Garths

Canucks, destroying Afghanistan, one village at time:

Garth Turner on Canadian Military Brutes

According to the honorable Garth Turner, Canadian soldiers are destroying Afghanistan, one village at a time:

"These are contradictory times," said Turner at the conclusion of the meeting. "We don't have funding for youth centres but we do have $150,000 for every shell bought for the sole purpose of destroying a village in Afghanistan. We could buy each Afghan a condominium with that money," he added.

What an Ass!

That Wonderful Global Community

"Progressive" dreams usually involve lavishly funded projects, government departments, or NGOs, charged with bringing utopia to the world. "Progressive" realities, involve lavishly funded projects, government departments, or NGOs, which deliver little change ... least of all the utopia that "progressive" ideology is built on:

First there was the Burmese cyclone, now we have the Chinese earthquake. What do these events have in common? Yes, they are likely to result in many deaths and no, we are not going to know how many for a long time, if ever. But that is something they share with the far greater disaster of the tsunami two and a half years ago.There is something else they have in common - the sight of the international community standing by helplessly, wringing its hands and being unable to help. We are witnessing hysterical outbursts from Oxfam and a certain amount of temporary smugness from the Red Cross.

More, from The Broom:

Last week France suggested invoking a U.N. responsibility to protect clause to deliver aid directly to cyclone-hit Burma without waiting for approval from the Burmese government and Canada looks to be following their lead to force aid to the Burmese people:

[...]

It sounds like a great move but sadly it may only be just symbolic. The responsibility to protect has been 'invoked' in Burma (also in Darfur) a number of times before in response to human rights violations and nothing has ever been done.

Your "Progressive" Future

The hopes of the "progressive" class now rest on the shoulders of one man; the chosen one, the one who will bring the audacity of hope to those who believe that "they can".

Only problem is, there are those in the world who don't wish for a "progressive" future and yearn instead for a world a trite more barbaric:

William Butler Yeats said it best: "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere, The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst , Are full of passionate intensity."

The "best" are often too innocent indeed, sunk in constant self-criticism, persuading themselves they must atone for having done too much in the past by doing nothing in the present, trying to convince the other side of their niceness and sensitivity. Their priority is to ensure no one will accuse them of being imperialistic. And to prove it they will let another country fall into the enemy camp.

The Lebanese logjam has broken at last as Hizballah seized west Beirut and inflicted a big defeat on the pro-government side.

While Iran and Syria provide guns and strong backing to their friends, the West responds with words backed by nothing. Who can blame Hizballah and Damascus and Tehran for laughing with contempt, believing they are the tide of the future, assuming their "passionate intensity" will inevitably triumph over the weak-willed West?

The historic great powers act as pitiful, helpless giants but their enemies will take no pity on them. In short, Hizballah is pulling a two-stage version of Hamas's Gaza strategy in Lebanon and no one does anything effective about that either.

What Spain was in 1936; Lebanon is today.

Izzy Tax

For socialists and "progressives" it's always about control. Seldom, if ever, their plans for a better society involve less taxes, less control, and fewer bureaucrats.

So it is, that the latest greatest "fix" for society being perpetrated by "progressive" governments and NGOs is the Carbon Tax.

"We'll fix things for you ... and the planet," they say, "just give us your money!" :

Stephane Dion is again musing about a carbon tax. During his bid for the Liberal leadership in 2006, he called it "bad policy." Then, last spring, he suggested a carbon tax was a good policy, but not so good that the Liberals should adopt it. Now, Mr. Dion appears to be saying that a carbon tax may be the right policy for the Liberals after all. His most recent flip flop could not come at a better time for the Conservatives. With high gas prices already enraging consumers, Mr. Dion's idea will be suicidal at the polls.

More Chaiten

Chaiten volcano has offered up some spectacular photographs.

Here are my favorite so far:

Perlito

Fire belched from its riven summit.
The skies burst into thunder seared with lightning.
Down like lashing whips fell a torrent of black rain.
~ Lord of the Rings

Emotions are for Ethnic People

America's Prestige Under Bush

Liberals would have us think that America's prestige under the Bush administration has suffered grievously. One would be tempted to, in fact, believe this blanket statement, especially if using Western media and "progressive" punditry as a guide.

But, if one casts an eye Eastward, one may find that the "progressive" view of geopolitics is not necessarily based in reality:

More generally, in a world supposedly awash in anti-US sentiment, pro-American leaders keep winning elections. Germany's Angela Merkel is certainly more pro-American than Gerhard Schroeder, whom she replaced. The same is true of France's Nicolas Sarkozy.

More importantly in terms of Green's analysis, the same is also true of South Korea's new President. Lee Myung-bak, elected in a landslide in December, is vastly more pro-American than his predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun.

Even in majority Islamic societies, their populations allegedly radicalised and polarised by Bush's campaign in Iraq and the global war on terror more generally, election results don't show any evidence of these trends. In the most recent local elections in Indonesia, and in national elections in Pakistan, the Islamist parties with anti-American rhetoric fared very poorly. Similarly Kevin Rudd was elected as a very pro-American Labor leader, unlike Mark Latham, with his traces of anti-Americanism, who was heavily defeated.

Even with China, the Iraq campaign was not a serious negative for the US. Beijing was far more worried by the earlier US-led NATO intervention into Kosovo because it was based purely on notions of human rights in Kosovo. Such notions could theoretically be used to justify action (not necessarily military action) against China over Taiwan and Tibet. Iraq, on the other hand, was justified on the basis of weapons of mass destruction, a justification with which the Chinese were much more comfortable.

The Liberal claim that G. W. Bush is the most hated American president of all time is, in fact, true ... if only "progressives", Islamic Fascists, Europhiles, Communists, and Tyrants are polled. In the mean time, the good people of this world seem to think he's doing just fine.

Your "Progressive" Future

... is here, when United Nations bureaucrats can tell you whether or not you may build a bridge:

UNESCO chief Francesco Bandarin has urged politicians in Dresden to stop building a controversial bridge that could cost the city’s Elbe River Valley its coveted World Heritage status and to hold a new referendum on the issue.

[...]

In an interview with the Sächsische Zeitung on Saturday, Bandarin said a 2005 poll, in which a majority of Dresdeners voted in favor of the bridge, was flawed because it wasn’t made clear to people what exactly was at stake. The UNESCO boss said the Dresdeners should have been made aware of the fact that the building of the bridge would endanger the Elbe River Valley’s World Heritage status.

Possibly the Funniest YouTube Ever

Language Warning:

ht

Chaiten

Now that's a footprint:

The 1940's Just Got Warmer

Little by little, the notion that the last decade was some sort of "hot" exception, falls apart:

Considering the totality of their findings, the UK and Australian researchers concluded, in the broadest of terms, that “current ‘warm era conditions’ do not eclipse prior ‘warm’ conditions during the instrumental record,” which sounds an awful lot like what we have concluded, over and over, in our U.S. Temperature Record of the Week feature, i.e., that during the period of most significant greenhouse gas buildup over the past century (1930 and onward) there has been little to no net increase in mean near-surface air temperature throughout the United States. Now the same appears to also have been true throughout a large sector of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Greenery Gone Mad

Making a living off of "green" lunacy seems to be getting easier, what with fartless cow grass coming to the fore:

Scientists are now working to create a new “tootless” grass for bovine enjoyment which will help cut methane emissions from the bovine tailpipes. What next? A moratorium on baked beans at BBQs? Editing out that scene from Blazing Saddles so that school kids don’t get bad ideas that might harm the earth?

An Ode to Men With Guns

Five hundred years from now, who will be lionized:

"We sleep peaceably in our beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on our behalf." (George Orwell)

It has always been so. Civilization and the ability to inflict violence go together, are inseparable. Our pampered elites cannot understand this and have no ability to understand this. They look upon men with guns like apes gaping at The Last Supper.

Our venerable history books speak of Western Civilization as beginning with the Greeks somewhere around 700 BC. Not so. It began with the Hebrews pushing into what they called ‘the Promised Land' 500 years before. We forget that the most influential book in Western Civilization had its origins in the violence spread by the Israelite commander Joshua and his successors. The poetry of Solomon, the beauty of the Psalms, all rest upon the shoulders of Israelites with swords.

The National Nightmare is Over

Finally, a good change we've been waiting for is about to come true:

Well, it looks like it's the end of the road for Hillary. Time for her to pack up her pantsuits and go back to ... wherever it is she's pretending to be living these days. Now we just have to get rid of the other two. Perhaps if I endorse Obama ...

This week, Bill Clinton lost his second presidential election for a protege.

... keep reading.

The Dainty Danish

Some Europeans aren't afraid to mix it up: