I'm sure we've all heard both liberals and conservatives take the moral high ground on many issues. I want to talk about one of those issues in this post, that being the moral justification for the governmental control of the economy to ensure that there is "economic justice." I think this issue is especially important right now, given the state of the economy and Obama's' plans for our future.
First, ask yourself a question: is it moral to help the poor? Is it a good thing to help those in need? Of course it is! Nearly everyone would agree on that one. Christians in particular would most likely agree whole-heartedly with helping the needy, since it is something plainly commanded by Jesus Christ. It coincides completely with loving and helping one's neighbor.
Conservatives are often accused of being cold and indifferent to the poor...this happens mostly because we oppose the government's grand social programs aimed to redistribute wealth. That is, taking massive amounts of money from the richer citizens of the country and giving it to the poorer citizens. Because we oppose this institutionalized governmental helping of the poor, we are accused of being uncaring and of violating the Christian principles we purport to stand on. We are accused of only looking out for the rich and not caring about the little guy, while Socialism and Communism (governmental redistribution of wealth) are touted to be moral and just.
Things are not as they appear, though. Of course we conservatives want to help the less fortunate! The difference is that we don't want the government stepping in to control the economy and redistribute wealth. We understand human nature; we know that supplementing income to the poor can lead to dependence on the government, thus destroying the incentive to work and to realize one's full potential. At the same time, money is taken away from people that have rightly earned it. Whether or not you agree with how much money a person makes is irrelevant...no one, especially not a corrupted government, should have the right to tell someone how rich he or she can be. When you take money from people who have busted their butts and taken big risks to make it, you are going to destroy for everyone the incentive to take risks and pursue success. You incentivize mediocrity and punish success, thus setting the stage for the gradual decay of the economy and society as a whole.
For example, one thing that happens is that a person sees that he will not be much better off to better himself and try to become more successful by expanding his business...he sees that the potential monetary benefit, due to heavy taxes, is too small and not worth the risk of expanding, and he chooses to stick with the size of business that he already has. Now what has just happened? He could have expanded his business and been able to have higher profits and employ more people, but he chose not to. If this happens on a large scale, there is no economic growth and the economy is stagnant, which, as the population grows, leads to higher unemployment. A strong and growing economy is good for everyone; jobs are created, more goods and services are provided, and quality of life increases. Yes, some people become insanely rich, but others benefit as well. No one benefits from a stagnant economy.
Greed, or, more lightly said, the desire to make more money, definitely appears to be necessary for the growth of an economy. And although I, like most Christians, do not think highly of greed, I understand that it is inherent in humans. And I, like most conservatives, believe that a person has a right to be "greedy" and pursue a higher income if he wishes. The government has no right to step in and take away a monstrous portion of a person's money because he is deemed to be greedy or because his business is too big. The only way to control greed is to control human nature, which obviously must involve limiting personal freedom.
And think about this: When people become rich, everyone benefits; it truly does trickle down. We can demonize the rich all we want, faulting them for living in luxury while others are starving and living in boxes, but the fact is that everything that a rich person buys helps others. The mansion a rich person lives in had to be built by someone...you can bet that helped put food on all the worker's tables. As a person grows richer, he is able to partake of more and more goods and services, thus creating demand that someone has to supply, demand that creates business for someone else. Then that other person has more money to spend on something he needs, which creates demand for something that someone else is selling, and the process goes on and on. The money put by the rich into the banks gives the banks more money to loan out to others who need help. Or if it's put into the stock market, it helps those organizations in which it is invested. And the more money a person has, the more he or she can give to charities and causes, those that the person himself deems worthy of support...not the programs and services that are deemed important by the politics of government. The bottom line is that rich people's money isn't simply hid under a mattress...it trickles down to help many others.
We conservatives believe that a person should be able to spend earned money in whatever way he or she deems desirable. We believe in caring for the poor, but not through governmental programs that breed dependence and take money away from those who have rightly earned it. Rather, a person should be free to choose how to donate his or her time and money to helping the poor. This ensures the greatest amount of freedom for everyone. I personally would like to see more money and time given to charities, but it's really none of my nor anyone else's business to dictate that sort of thing.
Should there be some sort of governmental assistance to the poor and unemployed? Of course. But it should not be to the extent that it creates the incentive to not work. And should taxes be progressive, meaning that the tax rate should increase as a person's income increases? Sure, I think so. ..as long as the taxes aren't so burdening that it takes away the incentive to make more money. Redistribution of wealth is inevitable, and we conservatives understand that it must be done very carefully. It's easy for a person to let his emotions dictate his or her stance on these issues, but we have to be practical and use common sense here.
I hope this makes sense. I feel like it's very scattered, but I think it's a good discussion starter at least.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Friday, August 29, 2008
Global Warming? I'm not so sure about that.
Hello again,
First I would like to say thanks to everyone who has showed interest in this blog. I apologize for not writing sooner, but I've been extremely busy with the first week of college. I hope everyone is doing well, and I look forward to discussing this topic and many others with you all.
So as you can tell, our topic here is "Global Warming." I'm sure everyone has heard this phrase before, and most have probably heard that we are currently in a "climate crisis" and that our climate is drastically changing because of our Carbon emissions. Global Warming advocates argue that the carbon dioxide produced by our vehicles is causing the Earth to warm, the ice caps to melt, and so on. This is what is called "the greenhouse effect." They argue that since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is able to trap heat, its increased levels are the cause of the recent warming. I'm here to tell you that we have been terribly misinformed. We've not been totally misled...we simply haven't been told the whole story. I'll try to keep this as short and interesting as possible.
The Overall Picture
One can't deny that the Earth has warmed up over the last few hundred years...it certainly has. Most of us have seen a graph showing the temp increase since the start of the 20th Century. It probably appeared as if the temp has sky-rocketed...this is due to misleading graphs. Most graphs I've seen have misleading scales, which can fool the eye if you're not paying attention. So, when you boil it down and actually look at the data, you can see that the temp went up only about .6 degrees C in the 20th Century, which is about 1 degree F. Now that's what I call "drastic!" But yes, the temperature has indeed gone up. But it has also gone down. (We will discuss this cool-off later.) Global warming activists argue that the Industrialization of the world and the introduction of the automobile are the cause for this increase, since they have led to more CO2 in the atmosphere.
But did you know that there is no factual evidence to prove this link? Yes, CO2 is able to trap heat emitted by the Earth, but it is a rather small and weak component of a more complex and necessary system of gases that traps this heat (our atmosphere!). Water vapor is much more effective and accounts for 95% of the trapping of heat, with Carbon dioxide accounting for a mere 3% of the trapping. Of the total volume of the atmosphere, CO2 accounts for only 385 parts per million. That means about .04% of the atmosphere. How could that small portion of the atmosphere cause drastic changes in the climate? It just doesn't make sense. The bottom line is that there is no evidence that directly links CO2 with the warm-up...there is only speculation. There are many factors that must be taken into account when you talk about the global temperature, and greenhouse gases are only one of them. It's sad that the theory of human-induced Global Warming is being taught in textbooks and classrooms when it hasn't even been proven and when there is so much evidence to the contrary.
The Earth has always gone through cycles of warming up and cooling down. The global temp of 1,000 years ago was about 1 degree Celsius warmer than it is today, just as it was about 1 degree Celsius cooler than today 1700 years ago. There was "The Middle Age Warm-Up" and "the little Ice Age." Were there automobiles emitting CO2 thousands of years ago? Of course not. No one knows exactly what has caused these rises and falls in temperature...because there are so many factors to consider and we have so little understanding of the majority of them. And that is the bottom line here. We can't simply blame the Earth's small rise in temperature on one simple and rather miniscule factor, especially a factor that there is no factual evidence for! Now let's look at some of the specific things that Global Warming activists don't want you to know.
A. Global Cooling
If Global Warming is indeed occurring because we are constantly putting more and more CO2 into the atmosphere, then why has the global temperature not steadily gone up as we emit more CO2 every minute of every day? Why have there been periods of time in the last century when the Earth has cooled off drastically or has maintained a constant temp? In the 1970's there was widespread panic about a potential oncoming Ice Age! And did you know that the overall global temperature has gone down 8 years in a row? In 2007, the overall temp went down .63 deg. C, which was enough of a cooldown to virtually erase all the warming that occurred during the last century. Have you heard that this last winter was the coldest in China in 100 years? Or that Baghdad had its first recorded snowfall? North America just had its snowiest winter in 50 years. Many scientists have predicted the Earth to cool for the next 20 years. I doubt Al Gore and his friends in the mainstream media would want you to know any of this. By the way, Gore is making millions from the Global Warming frenzy with his Carbon Credits program. Look it up if you don't believe me.
B. Misleading information about Arctic and Antarctic Ice
I'm sure we've all heard the hype about how all the Arctic/Antarctic Ice is melting and how sea levels are subsequently going to rise and flood coastal regions within the next few decades. News headlines say frightening things like "Arctic Ice levels at lowest point on record" or "Arctic Ice may completely vanish." What you don't hear is that the satellite imaging that provides these ice records has only existed since 1979...not even 30 years. So when a record is broken, it's not much of a record. And what is further misleading is that the media will make such announcements right in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere's summer (in the case of Arctic ice), when the ice will clearly be most susceptible to melting. In the case of Antarctic ice, it surpassed it's record high levels last October (the most ice since 1979).
C. Sunspots and Solar Activity
The activity of the sun is the most important factor in determining global temperature...without it, there is no heat energy to trap. Studies have shown that the amount and strength of sunspots (patches on the sun's surface that contain more energy) have a relationship with global temperature change...when there are more sunspots, the Earth receives more energy and, thus, heats up more. Solar flares from outer space have also been shown to have a relationship with temperatures by influencing cloud formation. During the 1980's and 90's, as the Earth warmed, there were many sunspots and solar flares which gave the Earth more incoming energy. Since 1998, sunspots have all but vanished, and as a result we have had cooler temperatures. The information on sunspots is the very reason that scientists have predicted a cooldown in the next 20 years...because it is expected that there will be very little solar activity that will provide us with extra energy. Could this be the dominant cause in determining global temperature? Many believe so.
Why is this important?
Okay..so you may be wondering why I would even bother to write about this. Why not play it safe and jump on the carbon-dioxide-free bandwagon that almost everyone else has jumped on? Even if these people are wrong, it can't hurt to cut Carbon emissions, right? Wrong.
The problem with this whole situation is that it is drastically hurting our economy...most notably, gas prices. That's right...our recent $4.00 per gallon gas is linked to the chaos created by Global Warming. Most, if not all, liberal Democrats have bought into or helped produce this whole scheme of man-made global warming...as a result, they have turned themselves and most of the public into environmental nuts. They won't let us drill right here at home in Anwar or off the coasts because they're afraid that we're going to turn the Earth into a sauna. Liberal Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't even let the bill that proposes new drilling be voted on! A bill that would stimulate our economy, lessen our dependence on foreign oil (we wouldn't be giving as much money to countries in the Middle East which, in turn, give our oil money to terrorist organizations), and lower gas prices by creating a greater supply of oil. (I will eventually dedicate a blog post to better explaining this bill and why it must be passed). If these Global Warming advocates had their way, anything that emits CO2 would be banned ASAP. That includes me and you. Don't forget...we all exhale a lot of CO2 every day. Okay, so maybe they wouldn't ban everything...but they would definitely try to rid the Earth of gas engines. We can't let this unproven theory dictate our economy. Oil is the life-blood of our economy, and it must be available at a reasonable price for the economy to function properly. I'm all for alternative sources of energy, but you can't just throw oil out the window. Until another source as dependable as oil is developed, oil is the only way to ensure the survival of our economy. It's not our enemy..it's our amigo.
So, what now?
Just stick with the facts, and leave the speculation alone. It is obvious that there are two sides to the Global Warming story, and we should definitely look at both sides. I encourage you to do your own research about the situation, so you can form your own opinion. Here are some links:
http://www.libertyunbound.com/archive/2008_09/contoski-warming.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/19842304.html
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1977496/posts
Thanks for reading. I hope I haven't bored you. Please feel free to say anything you want or to correct me wherever you see fit. Catch you next time.
First I would like to say thanks to everyone who has showed interest in this blog. I apologize for not writing sooner, but I've been extremely busy with the first week of college. I hope everyone is doing well, and I look forward to discussing this topic and many others with you all.
So as you can tell, our topic here is "Global Warming." I'm sure everyone has heard this phrase before, and most have probably heard that we are currently in a "climate crisis" and that our climate is drastically changing because of our Carbon emissions. Global Warming advocates argue that the carbon dioxide produced by our vehicles is causing the Earth to warm, the ice caps to melt, and so on. This is what is called "the greenhouse effect." They argue that since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that is able to trap heat, its increased levels are the cause of the recent warming. I'm here to tell you that we have been terribly misinformed. We've not been totally misled...we simply haven't been told the whole story. I'll try to keep this as short and interesting as possible.
The Overall Picture
One can't deny that the Earth has warmed up over the last few hundred years...it certainly has. Most of us have seen a graph showing the temp increase since the start of the 20th Century. It probably appeared as if the temp has sky-rocketed...this is due to misleading graphs. Most graphs I've seen have misleading scales, which can fool the eye if you're not paying attention. So, when you boil it down and actually look at the data, you can see that the temp went up only about .6 degrees C in the 20th Century, which is about 1 degree F. Now that's what I call "drastic!" But yes, the temperature has indeed gone up. But it has also gone down. (We will discuss this cool-off later.) Global warming activists argue that the Industrialization of the world and the introduction of the automobile are the cause for this increase, since they have led to more CO2 in the atmosphere.
But did you know that there is no factual evidence to prove this link? Yes, CO2 is able to trap heat emitted by the Earth, but it is a rather small and weak component of a more complex and necessary system of gases that traps this heat (our atmosphere!). Water vapor is much more effective and accounts for 95% of the trapping of heat, with Carbon dioxide accounting for a mere 3% of the trapping. Of the total volume of the atmosphere, CO2 accounts for only 385 parts per million. That means about .04% of the atmosphere. How could that small portion of the atmosphere cause drastic changes in the climate? It just doesn't make sense. The bottom line is that there is no evidence that directly links CO2 with the warm-up...there is only speculation. There are many factors that must be taken into account when you talk about the global temperature, and greenhouse gases are only one of them. It's sad that the theory of human-induced Global Warming is being taught in textbooks and classrooms when it hasn't even been proven and when there is so much evidence to the contrary.
The Earth has always gone through cycles of warming up and cooling down. The global temp of 1,000 years ago was about 1 degree Celsius warmer than it is today, just as it was about 1 degree Celsius cooler than today 1700 years ago. There was "The Middle Age Warm-Up" and "the little Ice Age." Were there automobiles emitting CO2 thousands of years ago? Of course not. No one knows exactly what has caused these rises and falls in temperature...because there are so many factors to consider and we have so little understanding of the majority of them. And that is the bottom line here. We can't simply blame the Earth's small rise in temperature on one simple and rather miniscule factor, especially a factor that there is no factual evidence for! Now let's look at some of the specific things that Global Warming activists don't want you to know.
A. Global Cooling
If Global Warming is indeed occurring because we are constantly putting more and more CO2 into the atmosphere, then why has the global temperature not steadily gone up as we emit more CO2 every minute of every day? Why have there been periods of time in the last century when the Earth has cooled off drastically or has maintained a constant temp? In the 1970's there was widespread panic about a potential oncoming Ice Age! And did you know that the overall global temperature has gone down 8 years in a row? In 2007, the overall temp went down .63 deg. C, which was enough of a cooldown to virtually erase all the warming that occurred during the last century. Have you heard that this last winter was the coldest in China in 100 years? Or that Baghdad had its first recorded snowfall? North America just had its snowiest winter in 50 years. Many scientists have predicted the Earth to cool for the next 20 years. I doubt Al Gore and his friends in the mainstream media would want you to know any of this. By the way, Gore is making millions from the Global Warming frenzy with his Carbon Credits program. Look it up if you don't believe me.
B. Misleading information about Arctic and Antarctic Ice
I'm sure we've all heard the hype about how all the Arctic/Antarctic Ice is melting and how sea levels are subsequently going to rise and flood coastal regions within the next few decades. News headlines say frightening things like "Arctic Ice levels at lowest point on record" or "Arctic Ice may completely vanish." What you don't hear is that the satellite imaging that provides these ice records has only existed since 1979...not even 30 years. So when a record is broken, it's not much of a record. And what is further misleading is that the media will make such announcements right in the middle of the Northern Hemisphere's summer (in the case of Arctic ice), when the ice will clearly be most susceptible to melting. In the case of Antarctic ice, it surpassed it's record high levels last October (the most ice since 1979).
C. Sunspots and Solar Activity
The activity of the sun is the most important factor in determining global temperature...without it, there is no heat energy to trap. Studies have shown that the amount and strength of sunspots (patches on the sun's surface that contain more energy) have a relationship with global temperature change...when there are more sunspots, the Earth receives more energy and, thus, heats up more. Solar flares from outer space have also been shown to have a relationship with temperatures by influencing cloud formation. During the 1980's and 90's, as the Earth warmed, there were many sunspots and solar flares which gave the Earth more incoming energy. Since 1998, sunspots have all but vanished, and as a result we have had cooler temperatures. The information on sunspots is the very reason that scientists have predicted a cooldown in the next 20 years...because it is expected that there will be very little solar activity that will provide us with extra energy. Could this be the dominant cause in determining global temperature? Many believe so.
Why is this important?
Okay..so you may be wondering why I would even bother to write about this. Why not play it safe and jump on the carbon-dioxide-free bandwagon that almost everyone else has jumped on? Even if these people are wrong, it can't hurt to cut Carbon emissions, right? Wrong.
The problem with this whole situation is that it is drastically hurting our economy...most notably, gas prices. That's right...our recent $4.00 per gallon gas is linked to the chaos created by Global Warming. Most, if not all, liberal Democrats have bought into or helped produce this whole scheme of man-made global warming...as a result, they have turned themselves and most of the public into environmental nuts. They won't let us drill right here at home in Anwar or off the coasts because they're afraid that we're going to turn the Earth into a sauna. Liberal Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi won't even let the bill that proposes new drilling be voted on! A bill that would stimulate our economy, lessen our dependence on foreign oil (we wouldn't be giving as much money to countries in the Middle East which, in turn, give our oil money to terrorist organizations), and lower gas prices by creating a greater supply of oil. (I will eventually dedicate a blog post to better explaining this bill and why it must be passed). If these Global Warming advocates had their way, anything that emits CO2 would be banned ASAP. That includes me and you. Don't forget...we all exhale a lot of CO2 every day. Okay, so maybe they wouldn't ban everything...but they would definitely try to rid the Earth of gas engines. We can't let this unproven theory dictate our economy. Oil is the life-blood of our economy, and it must be available at a reasonable price for the economy to function properly. I'm all for alternative sources of energy, but you can't just throw oil out the window. Until another source as dependable as oil is developed, oil is the only way to ensure the survival of our economy. It's not our enemy..it's our amigo.
So, what now?
Just stick with the facts, and leave the speculation alone. It is obvious that there are two sides to the Global Warming story, and we should definitely look at both sides. I encourage you to do your own research about the situation, so you can form your own opinion. Here are some links:
http://www.libertyunbound.com/archive/2008_09/contoski-warming.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming
http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/19842304.html
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1977496/posts
Thanks for reading. I hope I haven't bored you. Please feel free to say anything you want or to correct me wherever you see fit. Catch you next time.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Hello everyone
Hey guys,
For those of you who don't know, I'm Paul. I'm a very conservative person, and I'm very proud of my country and the principles it stands for.
I felt compelled to create this blog because I see the need to inform my friends, those around me and whoever might be interested about important information that they might not know about. For example, I believe that the threat of Islamic terrorism and the ideals of Islam are poorly understood by most people, and I think that I can help people better understand these threats by writing in this blog and pointing them to certain people, books, websites, and events that deal with terrorism.
I have no experience in journalism, blogging, politics, or anything of that nature, but I feel like I should at least try to do something to help spread the information that can't easily be found. I start college next Monday, so I probably won't have a lot of time to spend on this, but I will do my best to relay the information that I feel every American should know. You might be wondering how I can claim to have an inside scoop on things...the truth is that I don't. The problem is that the mainstream media is extremely misleading and leaves out a lot of things that deserve coverage. Any information or links that I will post will be things that I have found by reading books, searching the web, listening to talk radio, etc. I know I'm not good at this but I'm going to do my best to inform you about what you need to know because our country is in dire need of informed citizens who can make a difference and have their voices heard. The upcoming election is a great chance to have your voice heard, but there are other things that you can do as well...these will be dicsussed later.
I hope you come back to read my blog...if not, at least do some research of your own. Inform yourself about what is happening in your country and in the world! Believe it or not, there are many many things going on that could potentially affect you...you need to know about them. Those of us who live in the free world and who have the right to participate in government must take hold of that and do what we can not only for ourselves and our own country, but around the world as well. We are living in perilous times, and we must be aware of what's going on. I'm so wound up that I wish I could delve into some of the topics right now, but those are for later blogs. Thanks for your time, I hope to talk to you soon.
For those of you who don't know, I'm Paul. I'm a very conservative person, and I'm very proud of my country and the principles it stands for.
I felt compelled to create this blog because I see the need to inform my friends, those around me and whoever might be interested about important information that they might not know about. For example, I believe that the threat of Islamic terrorism and the ideals of Islam are poorly understood by most people, and I think that I can help people better understand these threats by writing in this blog and pointing them to certain people, books, websites, and events that deal with terrorism.
I have no experience in journalism, blogging, politics, or anything of that nature, but I feel like I should at least try to do something to help spread the information that can't easily be found. I start college next Monday, so I probably won't have a lot of time to spend on this, but I will do my best to relay the information that I feel every American should know. You might be wondering how I can claim to have an inside scoop on things...the truth is that I don't. The problem is that the mainstream media is extremely misleading and leaves out a lot of things that deserve coverage. Any information or links that I will post will be things that I have found by reading books, searching the web, listening to talk radio, etc. I know I'm not good at this but I'm going to do my best to inform you about what you need to know because our country is in dire need of informed citizens who can make a difference and have their voices heard. The upcoming election is a great chance to have your voice heard, but there are other things that you can do as well...these will be dicsussed later.
I hope you come back to read my blog...if not, at least do some research of your own. Inform yourself about what is happening in your country and in the world! Believe it or not, there are many many things going on that could potentially affect you...you need to know about them. Those of us who live in the free world and who have the right to participate in government must take hold of that and do what we can not only for ourselves and our own country, but around the world as well. We are living in perilous times, and we must be aware of what's going on. I'm so wound up that I wish I could delve into some of the topics right now, but those are for later blogs. Thanks for your time, I hope to talk to you soon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
