Shut the hell up!

Seriously.

I don’t care if you want to “go green.” In fact, I encourage it. There’s nothing wrong with a little conservation here and there, and I certainly don’t advocate for pouring motor oil down the storm drain. Taking care of our home is a good thing.

But…

I don’t want to hear about it. In fact, I am going to go out on a limb here and draw an assumption that if you have to show off your “green credientials” or brag about how gree you are, you’re either a) not doing it at all, or b) only doing it because you think it makes you trendy and you really couldn’t care less about the environment.

I never thought that I would be out here defending legitimate “greenies,” but in general the people who are green because they care about the planet aren’t the ones out there rubbing everybody else’s nose in it and doing really, really stupid things. And once the government and political parties get into the fun, you know it’s nothing more than a show of “who can be more trendy with pop culture.”

I spent all morning on my way into work this morning listening the radio and all the talk of how the RNC and DNC conventions are working feverishly to out-green one another (as if there can be anything truly green about either convention short of NOT having them), and to be honest I had to hold back the nasty bile as it bubbled through my system. I mean, it’s nothing more than a game show to these folks!

As I said, the best advice I can give is to shut the hell up. I know it won’t be heeded because good plant stewardship is taking a distant back seat next to the drive to be hip and trendy right now, but that won’t change the fact that many of us (and by “us” I mean everyday people just trying to live their lives) are getting really sick and tired of this game.

Go green. By all means, live the greenest lifestyle you can! I don’t care what you do. Live in a mud hut and recycle your bathwater for all I care. Just don’t tell me about it. Don’t rub my nose in it. And most importantly, don’t use it in some sort of juvenile attempt to one-up me.

Is that too much to ask?

A Priceless Editorial

Pelosi’s Price

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY

Congress: Americans expect and need a Speaker of the House who offers common-sense leadership to direct bipartisan legislative action. Nancy Pelosi is not up to that task, and our nation is the loser.

It’s bad enough that Rep. Pelosi refuses to embrace reality, evaluate facts and oversee meaningful debate. But the hissy fits she throws against President Bush and the Republican minority are worse yet. This is a sad situation.

Pelosi’s reaction to Bush’s lifting of the ban on offshore drilling is a perfect example. She called the action a giveaway of “more public resources to the very same oil companies that are sitting on 68 million acres of federal lands they’ve already leased.”

The key phrase is “public” resources — not Democratic resources or Pelosi’s resources — and polls clearly show Americans are behind coastal drilling. The speaker knows that.

Her demonizing of Big Oil doesn’t make sense, either. The companies want to get oil out of the ground. Their exploratory technology is very effective, and they’re drilling extensively. But not all lease properties have oil that’s readily recoverable.

Pelosi says the president’s action is a “gift of more profits for the oil companies.” Does she prefer that foreign, and often hostile, nations make the profits? Well, they are. She knows that, too.

“The Bush plan is a hoax,” Pelosi charges, ignoring the fact that we know large reserves are located off our shores, in Western oil-shale deposits and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Bush says let’s get it as quickly as possible, drilling responsibly off our shores, in the West’s oil shale formations and on 2,000 acres of the 19 million acres in ANWR. Prudhoe Bay, North America’s largest oil field, has proved we can do so and not hurt the environment. It can be done, and America needs it. Pelosi also knows that.

Pelosi wonders that if congressional action is so important, “why didn’t the Republicans pass it when they were in control?” She seems to doubt the need for any debate on drilling. This is scary.

The two parties have bumped heads on this issue since the Carter years. Surely the speaker remembers 1995, when she voted against a GOP bill to drill in ANWR. It passed both the House and Senate only to be vetoed by President Clinton. She knows that as well.

Last weekend, Pelosi responded to Bush’s criticism of Congress by calling him “a total failure.” It was a telling interview, with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer pressing her on topics including offshore drilling. Each time she blamed everybody but Congress.

The real failure is Pelosi’s refusal to address reality and lead. The nation knows that.

Why I Love Al Gore

I know I have been rough on the big guy over the past few years. After all, the fat bastard is suffering from severe delusions of grandeur – something that I ordinarily don’t mind in and of itself, however Albert has taken it that next step by trying to jam his annoying opinions down our throats and pass it off as fact. That makes me mad.

But, Al Gore has proven to be useful in the sense that he excels at bringing out the only people on the planet worse than he is, thereby allowing us the opportunity to identify them as the complete wastes of carbon and water that they are.

For example, I did a news search for Al Gore this morning in an attempt to find a transcript of his bowel wrenching speech yesterday. While i didn’t immediately find a transcript to scrutinize, I did find something better… Christine Pelosi’s blog entry about it from Huffington. Yes, for those who don’t know, Christine is Nancy “I hate all of you Americans” Pelosi’s daughter, and perhaps one of the few people who makes her look like a decent human being by comparison.

Since Christine didn’t do much other than sum up the points Albert made, let’s take a look at what Little Pelosi jr. concluded about a speech that, for lack of any better way to put it, could possibly be the most outrageously insulting and delusional bit of trash to ever leave the lips of another human being…

Overall, a phenomenal call to service for a generation of Americans hungry for change. Gore’s speech ended to the U2 “Beautiful Day” soundtrack and an energized crowd ready for action.

Uh huh. But that’s not the best part. What makes this all worthwhile are the comments on her blog in response. I won’t repost all of them, but I will repost my favorites and let you bask in them for a while and gain an understanding as to why I say that Al Gore really brings out the finest stock of people…

If we grew Industrial Hemp on just 6% of our land mass of the lower 48 states we could run all of the energy for America now matter what it was used for including electricity….and it eats CO2 like crazy and spits out oxygen… — darthdarcy

Every time Gore speaks I am nearly brought to tears because he makes me recall all we could have accomplished and all we have lost in the last eight years. This issue above any other is the reason to vote for Obama. You may be rich and not want to get taxed, you may think we can succeed in making a lasting democracy in Iraq, you may think direct diplomacy in dealing with dictators is wrong, you may feel betrayed by Barack’s compromise on FISA, you may think that abortion is murder…but guess what? You cannot be pro-life and still cling to the “global-warming-is-hoax” argument. Barack Obama understands this as Gore does, and though McCain says he wants to tackle global climate change, his off-shore drilling position betrays this. The strict pro-lifers decided not to take their own advice by spearheading an immoral war based in cowardice and deep seeded fear of all things Middle Eastern, will the impending deaths of 6.5 billion force them to finally vote “liberal” (I still can’t believe the environment is a political issue)? I ask everyone with an open mind (and forcefully ask those that don’t) to truly examine who is the party that believes in preserving life. WE NEED TO ACT NOW! — luckynewman

The last eight years? Try the last thirty years, Carter tried to start getting America to realize the coming energy crisis. But Reagan and Cheney laughed him out of town. — liberal2

Yes, great speech. Omama should beg him to take the VP slot. — avraamjack

I was there. The announcement of the 10 year goal brought the house to its feet. Let’s do it. What could have been if he had been installed as president instead of whom we have now. — nickhp

There are others, of course, but you get the picture. As far as I can figure, these people are not living on planet Earth. I’m not sure where they live, but it isn’t here. But on the plus side, they’re good for a hearty laugh as well as serving as a reminder to us that the crazy people are getting more unhinged and are getting easier to pick out due to their wild-eyed fanatcism. With any luck, we’ll eventually start rounding them up and putting them into asylums – hopefully government-funded asylums since they seem to like socialized medicine so much – where they can get the labotomies and tranquilizers that they so desperately need.

P.S. As a closing note, McCain has once again proven that he is a dead fish and has no place amongst conservatives… he has also shown once again that no matter who wins this fall, we’re screwed:

“… there may be some aspects of climate change that he and I are in disagreement (on).” Of the goals Gore outlined Thursday for generating more electricity with solar and wind resources, McCain said, “If the vice president says it’s doable, I believe it’s doable.”

What is wrong with Eau Claire?

Having used my legal rights as a Wisconsin citizen, I have been investigating the links and relationships between Smoke Free Wisconsin and area local governments. While the ties and incestuous nature is not relevant yet, what is of interest is an individual I ran into who’s smugness prompted further investigation.

While I have been putting together the bizarre pieces of the tobacco puzzle, Joey went off to find out what she could about Eau Claire city council member, Brandon Buchanan.

Turns out the Brandon is a 26-year old commie with a serious chip on his shoulder. Ok, maybe commie is a bit harsh to the reds since this guy makes Stalin look like a swell pal.

This is from his page at RunforOffice.org, a young leftist recruitment center:

I ran for city council to deny the opposition another seat on this council. I also ran for council because I want to run for higher office some day. The right wing spends billions of dollars recruiting and funding local candidates to institute regressive policies at the local level and build up a farm-team of local candidates to run for higher office. We as progressives must do the same. That means candidate training and fund raising connections. Also, jobs for young elected officials so we can pay bills while working full time politically.

Yikes!

So it makes us wonder… Just what is wrong with the city of Eau Claire to have elected this guy to office?

I guess maybe it’s because of the promise of happiness and prosperity for all?

With a more progressive council, we could mandate employers guarantee paid sick leave to all their employees — even part time workers.

Uh huh. I shudder in my little right-wing boots when I read things like that. Land of the free indeed.

While I started out working on putting together the smoking ban pieces, I am starting to wonder if the people of Eau Claire simply get what they deserve by electing idealistic young “progressive” (read: commie) people like Brandon here.