LEAF + Green agenda = massive fail

All we hear about is how Detroit was left failing because they didn't offer fuel efficient cars and how they misjudged the wants and desires of the consumer. We've heard how people would eat up a new fuel efficient car, and that $4.00 per gallon gas was going to ensure that we all embraced mother earth by switching to tiny wind up cars.

The gov't was so sure that these cars were going to be a hit that they strong-armed GM (who they own!) into producing the Volt. They give generous subsidies to purchasers of these vehicles (courtesy you and me of course) - some subsidies amount to $12,000 per vehicle. They hype the fact that we should be green and concious and sustainable and on and on. Even Leo De Caprio drives a Pious. they even give them special roads to travel on!

So the times must be a changing right? Let's look at the figures.

Of the top 10 best selling vehicles in North America, 4 are full size SUVs or trucks, and only 2 can be called fuel efficient. The Leaf and the Volt combined have sold less than 2,000 units per year. The mighty Ford F-150 has sold over 600,000 units in the same time frame. The Smart Car sells about sells about 600 cars per month. Literally, the Ford F-150 does that before lunch time - every day. ( I don't know what is Smart about a car that is dangerous and uncomfortable, but then, I'm not hip.)

So what does the gov't do to force unwanted vehicles on us in order to satisfy their green agenda? They raise the efficiency requirements for vehicles, putting burdensome extra costs on the vehicles you and I want and can afford, and increase the subsidies on the vehicles that the greenie weenies want to buy. Talk about redistribution of wealth!

Even the current Smart Car (for dummies) would not meet the proposed 2015 EPA standards.

We are going to be told what to drive, where to drive, where to live and what to buy courtesy of the gov't. It is going to affect your standard of living, your personal wealth and could even take your life, and it all starts with keeping quiet when you should be shouting out.

The green agenda is based on dilution. When they make a mistake, their answer is to make many more mistakes so the effect of the prior ones is diluted. Population explosion? We were just kidding, look at air pollution? Don't buy that? How about global warming? That didn't pan out? How about global cooling? Climate change? For god's sake will anyone buy what we're selling?

Unless it is a Ford F-150, I ain't buyin' it.

The ban on DDT - why you and I are complicit in the deaths of 600 people today.

I hate to get off on a rant here, but I read something about DDT the other day that really ticked me off. For those of you too young to remember, DDT was used in the 60's to get rid of mosquitos and control all kinds of insect borne diseases like malaria, dengue and others. In 1972 the head of the EPA banned it for no reason other than to look good for greens - despite the recommendation by his own scientific panel that DDT posed no threat to humans, no threat to animals and properly used, no threat to the environment. Since that time - over 95 million people have died from instect borne disease, most of them African, most of them poor, and most of them women or children under the age of 5. When Sri Lanka, under pressure from the greenies banned DDT in 1964, malaria deaths went from 29 to 500,000 in five years.

Why does this sort of thing happen? Well, it happens because you and me want to be "cool" and "hip" and "relevant". We want to be like Leo and Paris and other plastic concoctions of the pop culture far left. Why if we're not like them - and don't think like them - we're nerds, or dorks or worse - conservatives.

HL Mencken once said, "the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence clamorous to be led to safety by menacing it with an endless series of scientific hobgoblins - all of them imaginary."

In fact - the United Nations has even taken a position that certain chemicals have to be considered harmful for the environment, not because they have been proven bad, but because they have only been measured as beneficial.

Not only does this smack of colonialism (we white folk know far better than you backward Africans what is good for you, so don't get all uppity now!)it is probably racism of the worst kind - the kind that makes people dead simply because of their race.

The ban on DDT has killed about 600 people since you started reading this.

Do you feel particularly green at the moment, or are you, like I, ashamed of allowing these types of things to get equal air time in our schools, businesses and churches? Why not take push back just a little when the next do-gooder tells you that you need to recycle your banana peels or wash out soda bottles.

Maybe we won't be such easy pushovers next time.

Ashes to ashes, a good cigar makes the day better.....

Anybody out there like cigars? I tell ya, a cigar has got to be the most pleasurable exercise any adult can pursue that doesn't result in a rash. Just the preparation and selection and carve out the time to quietly enjoy a great cigar is reward in and of itself. Total pleasure and serenity, I can see why politicians and movie stars light up in droves.

I have a couple of humidors that have about 50 sticks in em. Constantly checking the humidity,but its all good. My current favorite is the Camacho Triple Maduro. Can't afford 'em everyday, but with the economy tanking and democrats running for the hills, you have to stop and enjoy things before they take away even the simple pleasures!