Big Sky Cairn

As someone who once wrote this:

To this day, I am apathetic toward the rebuilding of New Orleans. I certainly don’t plan on visiting there in the near future. The trouble is, the tremendous generosity of the American People was not appreciated. It was expected by an entitled population who felt that they could turn their noses up at the help because it wasn’t fast enough or comfortable enough. Thanks, but there are plenty of people who need more help and that’s where I’ll put my resources - emotional and financial.

Let me just ask… when did every hurricane that hits Louisiana suddenly become my problem? Why do they think that they should be asking me to help? It’s not like this has never happened before. Turns out, hurricanes are pretty common on the Gulf Coast. Long before climate change alarmism, that region was getting hammered by severe storms - with much larger body counts than Katrina:

August 10-12th, 1856: Hurricane strikes Isle Derniere, Last Island, a pleasure resort south- southwest of New Orleans. The highest points were under 5 feet of water. The resort hotel and surrounding gambling establishments were destroyed, over 200 people perished, and the island was left void of vegetation and split in half. Only one terrified cow survived on the Isle. Last Island is now only a haven for pelicans and other sea birds. The rain total at New Orleans reached 13.14″. Every house in the town of Abbeville was leveled, including the St. Mary Magdalen Church. Rains from the storm flooded the Mermentau River and destroyed crops along the bottom lands. Area rice fields in Plaquemines parish were under several feet of salt water. Nearly all rice was lost. Orange trees were stripped of their fruit. The steamer Nautilus foundered. The lone survivor cling to a bale of cotton and washed ashore sometime later.

If people want to live in a hurricane zone, they need to be held accountable for protecting themselves from the impacts of the hurricanes they chose live with. Same goes for earthquakes in California, flooding in the Mississippi flood plane and blizzards in the Rockies.

This pandering - from both sides of the aisle by the way - makes me so angry. It’s the worst kind of pandering politics. It’s time for Louisiana to step up and take some accountability for their own fate.

Kudos to John Driscoll for being the only major ticket Democrat to fill out a Project Vote Smart survey.  Shame on Baucus and Schweitzer for hiding their views.

But more important than actually taking the survey is what he says in it.  Western Word had this run-down in the days after the surprise Primary.   There’s enough there to set him back to pasture - including supporting a tax increase for anyone making more than $12,000/year.

Well Driscoll is at it again - this time taking a candidate survey from the sacred clergy from Scientists & Engineers for America.  I think Driscoll must really enjoy filling out these surveys; it’s about all he does.  Anyway, here are some quoteables:

I favor taxation to internalize the full costs of an end use [of energy] to the end user.

There you have it.   He actually wants to tax energy use with the goal of increasing prices.  Gutsy position to take in todays energy climate.

I’m not convinced that monetizing pollution, or the lack of it, will address the challenges we all face. Direct regulation, using the police powers of our various nations, may be quickest and most effective.

Carbon police.  Literally.

Require universal metering at every level of water use, including precise measurement for irrigation. Provide resources and education in support of water conservation. Discourage use of plant species that require water not available in the natural local environment.

Against irrigation.  Sorry Eastern Montana.

One continuously improving result should build on wellness approaches to human health such as “stop smoking” and “exercise a few minutes each day.”

Nanny state meets Orwellian control.  Sorry liberty.

Anyway, the more this guy puts out, the more out of touch he demonstrates himself to be.  What’s terrifying is that the army of Obama zealots that may turn out in November may also blindly vote down-ticket and by some freak lapse of judgment elect this guy.

Drive down a main drag in Missoula at 3 a.m. and you’ll see two cars.  One, parked on the street and the police car that pulled the first one over to administer a sobriety test.  Yes, drunk driving is bad, but the the trend toward lowering the legal limits to levels that would be tripped by a few sprays of Binacca is disturbing.  The police are better served if the people they are supposed to protect aren’t perpetually afraid of them.

And then I read something like this.

On a Monday morning last month, highway patrol officers visited 20 classrooms at El Camino High School to announce some horrible news: Several students had been killed in car wrecks over the weekend.

Classmates wept. Some became hysterical.

A few hours and many tears later, though, the pain turned to fury when the teenagers learned that it was all a hoax - a scared-straight exercise designed by school officials to dramatize the consequences of drinking and driving.

Too far?  I think so.