Now the Microwaves!

The disaster of ignoring sound science and setting policy based on political science has brought the American people one disaster after another.  The majority of engineers and scientists have concluded that there is no such thing as man caused global warming or climate change.  Yes, there is climate change and it goes on continuously.  Roughly 500 years ago, Greenland (and the rest of the world) experienced rather dramatic climate change.  The little ice age began in the late 1500s or early 1600s.  The earth became significantly cooler.  An example of the seriousness of this cooling can be seen from what happened in Greenland.  Prior to the little ice age, much more of Greenland was used for agriculture than after the climate change that occurred.  We know from records and observation that entire communities were destroyed and the people in them because they could not escape.  Temperatures dropped radically and the people froze to death.  There were no helicopters or Red Cross to rescue them.

What was the cause of the little ice age and of climate change in general?  Most non-compromised scientists believe that it is the sun that causes climate change.  A new study by the European Organization for Nuclear Research has again pointed to the conclusion that the sun’s cosmic rays, and their role in cloud formation, rather than man-made emissions, are responsible for the Earth’s changing temperatures.  This study by real scientists is just one of many around the globe that have come to a similar conclusion, it’s not man that has caused the climate to change, it is the sun.

Real scientists and engineers reject theoretical climate change based on computer models that do not meet the standard of the Scientific Method.  They are theories and just that.  We now know from the Climategate scandal that the so-called “hockey stick” graph of temperature change was based on falsified data.  The only “scientists” still clinging to catastrophic climate change are those whose integrity has been compromised by their receipt of government funds for the purpose of promoting this hoax.

Nevertheless, this has not stopped governments and bureaucrats the world over from imposing truly catastrophic regulations and restrictions on their citizens in the hope of averting man caused climate change.  The cost has been enormous and it continues to grow.  Billions and even trillions of dollars have been and are being wasted in pursuit of a carbon free planet.  No thought whatsoever is given to the heavy burden that these regulations, treaties, and policies are having on people around the globe.  When governments take the hard earned dollars of taxpayers, and flush them down the global warming rat hole, they are diminishing the standard of living of each and every citizen. 

As in all liberal schemes, those at the bottom of the economic ladder get hurt the worst.  And, in this case, treaties that ban or limit the use of carbon based energy permanently condemn third world nations to poverty.  According to the left, the poor be damned, we have to stop climate change.  Access to cheap and abundant energy is the key to ending poverty, yet the left seeks to keep third world nations from building oil, gas and coal fired electric generating plants.  Thankfully, China and India have refused to sign onto this madness because they know it would kill off their economic growth.

Here in the United States the poor are punished the most by these misguided policies.  If you are a poor person living in the US, a higher proportion of your income goes for energy than it does for someone in the middle income category.  Thus, when huge taxes are levied on gasoline and the price of heating fuel is artificially high due to government regulations and restrictions on the production of oil, the spendable income of a poor person is dramatically reduced.  The fact is that poor people statistically drive father to work than do those who live in the suburbs.  Thus, such misguided policies that artificially raise the price of gasoline hurt the poor disproportionately.  They make it much more difficult for a poor person to extricate himself from poverty and climb the ladder of economic success. 

But, everyone suffers from foolish policies based on the unscientific myth of man caused global warming, well, almost everyone.  It is true that Al Gore and integrity compromised “scientists” who either promote or go along with this false concept have gotten rich.  In fact, Al Gore is now worth approximately $250 million thanks to his Elmer Gantry promotion of man caused climate change.  It all began many years ago.

On February 6, 1992, then Senator Albert Gore (D-TN) delivered an alarming message about ozone depletion.  He asked his colleagues to add an amendment to a Senate bill addressing the need to reduce energy dependence. He wanted to urge the President to advance the date for phasing out CFC production to the end of 1995, instead of the end of the year 2000 as originally planned.

Using scare tactics, Senator Gore warned of "the ozone hole over Antarctica," and that our nation faces "not only a long-term, critical threat to the global environment, but also an immediate, acute emergency threat."  In typical, over-the-top, Gore rhetoric, he fulminated about "blind rabbits and blind salmon in the areas under the edge of the ozone hole in the Southern hemisphere," and claimed that there would be "an additional 300,000 deaths from skin cancer in the United States as a result of ozone depletion over the next few decades."  He also linked ozone depletion to "extra cases of cataracts and blindness due to cataracts," and to "damage to the human immune system...."  It was bizarre, but he triumphed.

The full Senate passed the Gore-Chafee amendment by a vote of 96-0.  No senator, Republican or Democrat, took the floor to question or oppose this nonsense peddled by Gore and his allies.  And nonsense is exactly what it turned out to be.  Subsequently, but too late, all of Gore’s claims were proven false, but no matter, it still became law and that is why the most efficient means of cooling a refrigerator or a home, Freon™, was banned in the US.  Air conditioning was a miracle that vastly improved the economic condition of millions of Americans.  It literally transformed the South in the 1960s.  Without AC, the South would not be the economic powerhouse that it is today, and millions of Americans would continue to suffer from extreme heat.  But, no matter to Senator Gore and his misguided and unscientific minions, Freon was banned.

This was just the beginning of government lowering the standard of living of all Americans.  Freon was replaced by something called Refrigerant 410A.  Because Refrigerant 410A is only about 60% as efficient as Freon, it takes more than one and one half times the electrical power to cool the same amount of space.  This is a continuing cost that all Americans must bear due to the elimination of the more efficient Freon.

Nothing was beyond the eye of government preparing for nonexistent global warming.  Cars were downsized and altered to meet arbitrary fuel economy standards, but these mandated changes raised the price of automobiles dramatically.  Once again, the standard of living of all Americans suffered.

Washing machines were changed by government to make them more environmentally friendly.  Of course, there were two predictable side effects.  They were more expensive and the clothes did not get as clean.  The result is a continuing economic burden on each and every American who now lives with a reduced their standard of living.

Dish washing machines did not escape the watchful eye government meddlers.  They too were altered, to become less efficient, less effective and more costly. 

And, who can ignore the dangerous, weak, and expensive curly light bulbs that require you to call a hazmat unit if you break one?

Let’s not forget the toilets that no longer flush what needs to be flushed.  The world is not running out of water, but it is running out of common sense.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has just announced new microwave oven standards.  DOE claims that the new standards will reduce carbon emissions and save consumers $3 billion on their energy bills through 2030.  What the news release did not say is that all this savings will be accomplished by reducing the power of your microwave.  Nor did it mention that the cost of this new microwave oven will undoubtedly be much higher than current microwaves.  Great, you and I are going to be forced to use a Rube Goldberg microwave that will satisfy bureaucrats, but will not pop your popcorn.  Once again, you will find that your standard of living has been lowered in pursuit of solving an imaginary climate change crisis.

Where will it end?  Nanny government seeks to tell us what we should eat, what kind of car we should drive, where we should live, what kind of light we can read by, what kind of washing machine we can purchase, what kind of commode we use, what kind of health care we will receive, what kind of dish washer we can use, how powerful our microwave will be, and then sends us the bill for all this nonsense.

Al Gore, and the mind numbed robots that follow him, have wreaked havoc on our nation and on our freedom.  The idea of freedom is that you decide what kind of car to drive, what kind of house to live in, how you will light your home, where you will live, how powerful your microwave will be, how efficient your AC will be, what kind of dishwasher or washing machine you will purchase, who your doctor will be, how much you will spend on your health care, and how well your commode will flush. 

If you want a car that only gets 10 miles to the gallon, then buy it!  That should be your prerogative.  If you want a car with a big V8 engine that will go 150 MPH, then that should be your choice.  If you want to raise a family with 10 children, you should not be chastised by government.  If you want to leave all the lights on in your home 24/7 and you can pay for it, that’s your right, and if you want a powerful microwave that really works, you should have the right to buy it. 

Greed, envy and the lust for power is the driving force behind the bureaucrats and politicians in Washington.  And, sadly, crony capitalists like my favorite whipping boy, Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, are only too willing to go along to make a buck.  Such men are as corrupt as the bureaucrats and politicians in Washington, DC.

The fact is that there is no end in sight unless you and I take back the government and shrink it down to a very limited scope that cannot interfere in the lives of American citizens.  That was the far-sighted dream of the Founders.  They would not be surprised at all by what has transpired in our nation.  This is exactly what they feared and tried their best to avoid.  The Founders understood the corrupt nature of man and his tendency to seek power over others.  They knew that power brings out the very worst in men and women.  It makes no difference as to their Party or their place of origin or their good intentions.  Power corrupts and the more power someone has the more corrupt they become.

In the very near future, you and I will decide what kind of a nation our children and our grandchildren will live in.  Some believe that we have already passed the point of no return, but I do not believe that.  The current occupant of the White House has little or no commitment to freedom and certainly no understanding of the foundational principles established by the Founders to preserve freedom.  Barack Obama may have good intentions, but he is a clear example of someone with authoritarian instincts.  He wants government to do things for people, but when government attempts to do things for people, it always makes things worse for everyone, except, of course, the rulers.

Right now our nation is teetering on the brink of tyranny.  It’s not a galloping tyranny, it’s a creeping tyranny.  The appetite of the politicians and the bureaucrats for your freedom and for your money is limitless.  The end result is always the same—permanent misery for all people.  Socialism, and all other forms of tyranny, steal the soul of a nation, and bring out the worst in people.  On the other hand, freedom, combined with faith, brings out the best in people.  It is through freedom that people prosper and become self-reliant.  It is through faith that men exercise self-restraint and show compassion to those in need.  And, it is through faith that harmony and unity exists and is sustained.

We must not be the generation that lets our nation slide into tyranny.  We must return to Constitutional government and traditional moral values if our children and grandchildren are to enjoy the freedom and opportunity that we experienced.  Let’s begin on our knees and then stand on our feet to repel and defeat those who would enslave us.