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Green is Greed

Save the earth.  Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.  Reduce your carbon “footprint”.  Buy a hybrid vehicle, or better yet an electric vehicle.  Use recycled plastic bags at the supermarket.  Better yet, use cloth bags.  All of this makes perfect sense.  It’s common sense.  It’s all good… Or is it?

This whole recycle thing started about 20 years ago or so.  I remember as a teenager that the town required us to separate our garbage.  We had a bin for each color of glass – brown, green and clear.  I had to bundle newspapers – we were not allowed to place them in a paper bag.  I also had to bundle cardboard.  I don’t think we were recycling plastic in the 80′s, but it came later in the early 90′s.  And then, there were certain types of plastic that we couldn’t recycle.  What a pain.  Throwing away garbage was like sorting mail at the post office.  But we all need to do our part to save the planet.

The US Government makes laws to reduce the amount of carbon emissions from automobiles.  This is great, the air really is so much cleaner, at least it seems so.  And we are encouraged to buy energy-efficient appliances to save electricity, which in return reduces the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.  Replace your inefficient incandescent light bulbs with ultra-efficient fluorescent light bulbs.  At the same time, we will save money on electricity.

In my opinion, we are being deceived.  I have a couple of key points that need to be pointed out.  Before you scream that it’s all BS, just sit back and think about it for a bit.  It took me years to figure out what’s going on, and I have gone back and forth on the issue, but I think I finally get it.

1. We are saving the environment

This is the emotional propaganda that is used to sell this to you.  Today, I went to Lowe’s to replace one of my ultra-efficient fluorescent light bulbs (yes, most of my house has these).  First off, the replacement bulb for the bathroom was $5!  But I’m doing my part to save the earth.  Umm, until I look on the light bulb and it states CONTAINS MERCURY.  Hmmm, now that doesn’t sound so eco-cool, does it?  Mercury is so incredibly toxic, why would we now start putting this into lightbulbs?  We took it out of thermometers because it was so toxic.  All of these “green” bulbs are going to wind up in a landfill, and will ultimately contribute to poisoned groundwater. And since the US Congress has outlawed incandescent bulbs as of 2014, you will have no choice but to use these mercury-laced bulbs.

A similar thing can be said for batteries for electric cars, but I would expect there would be a lot more control over this.  I do not think all of those electric batteries will wind up in a junk yard.  Time will tell how that plays out.  I see a lot of toxic batteries in our future, and I cannot see how this can be managed on a grand scale.  The verdict is still out on that.

We are buying energy-efficient Energy Star rated appliances!  We are saving on our electric bill and reducing our carbon footprint!  WOW!  Wait a second…  Read my next point.

2. We are saving money on our electric bill

I only wish this was true.  It may be true in the short-term, but that’s not the electric company’s goal.  Why would they want us to pay them less?  This makes no sense whatsoever.  The truth is that in this digital age, the electric infrastructure is being taxed like never before.  The need for electricity is great, so the utilities need us to reduce our usage while they upgrade the power grid.  Nuclear energy could easily solve this problem, but that’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Electricity service is being deregulated in PA in early 2010.  And guess what?  Our rates are increasing by 34%!  Deregulation is happening in states across the country.  Now that we are all brainwashed into reducing our carbon footprint and saving energy and lowering our bills, they go ahead and raise our bill by one-third!

3. We are reducing our carbon footprint

It’s baaaaad for the environment.  It causes cancer.  In fact, the government wants to tax you if you use too much of it.  The government likes to tax things that they know people are going to use (even though they shouldn’t).  Think of alcohol and tobacco.  They do not outlaw it, they over-tax it.  You can expect taxes to increase on petroleum products.  Count on it.  But what scares me is a carbon tax.  They want to tax you if you buy something that has a high “carbon footprint”.  Do you understand what this means?  If you buy a TV that does not meet certain environmental “standards”, they will tax you.  They are not going to force these TVs not to be made, that would be too easy.  They want your tax money.

4. And the TRUTH of the reality is…

Green has nothing to do with saving the earth.  The entire movement, while possibly founded by the hippies and tree-huggers, has been hijacked by the government and has ulterior motives.  While not necessarily bad, Green is greed.  I just wish they would tell us the truth.  Here are the reasons that we are hell-bent on green:

a) GREEN equals something for nothing – “Give” your recyclables to your town who can sell the resources in bulk to suppliers and make money.  Sounds fine, but most towns have ordinances that require you to do so.  Personally, I should be free to sell my recyclables to the highest bidder.  The only recyclable that really has any true value is aluminum due to the market value of the metal itself.  Furthermore, the recycle process actually is a money-loser, while at the same time creating a huge “carbon footprint” to be green and recycle.  And more than half of recycled materials wind up in a landfill anyway.  The entire recycle process is a contradiction of the green initiative itself.

Remember paper bags at the grocery store?  Those were green.   There was no harm to the environment.  Paper is a renewable resource.  You can plant more trees.  We were forced to use plastic bags because it was more eco-friendly.  Huh?  Plastic bags made from oil that wind up in our landfills?  And what about all of those metal cans we used to have?  Remember Hawaiian Punch and the like?  Now it’s all plastic.  Plastic from oil.  Why?  It is cheaper.  Now they sell cloth bags at the supermarket, because we are all realizing that the switch to plastic was never really a good idea to start with.

It all comes down to money.  Plastic is cheaper than paper or metal.  That’s the truth.  And the only way not to destroy the environment when using these materials is to recycle.  We were fine the way it was before.  It comes down to corporate profit.  They just play on the emotions of people.  It’s all a scam.

b) GREEN equals the switch to more ELECTRIC power. This is the same electric power that is now being deregulated and increasing in cost.  This is all being done for a reason, and it has nothing to do with reducing our carbon footprint.  Not a thing.  So what could it be?  I know what you are thinking.  This is happening all over the world, not just in the USA.  And you are correct.  The reason is so obvious and simple.  Too simple.  But the connection between green and the truth is never communicated.  It all comes down to the goal of energy independence from the middle east, which in turn will take the money out of their hands and place it into the world’s leading governments.  Electricity is the new oil.

In order to make electricity the new oil, you must make people not want to use oil.  Make them feel guilty for destroying the environment.  But tax the hell out of them in the process.  What you are now seeing is a carefully planned strategy to shift the power from the middle east to the world’s leading nations.

Now you can speculate on your own, but one thing is for sure.  It all comes down to money and power.  Let me say it again: money and power.  Your government doesn’t care about the manatee or the fish or the trees or the carbon in the air.  They care about the money and power (and tax dollars).

I am for saving the manatee and fish.  (Sorry, trees are a renewable resource that should be used.) But I happen to be a fan of common sense and truth at the same time.

While all of this green seems great, it’s a huge lie in the process.  They are generating all kinds of harmful waste and toxic chemicals and materials in the ongoing quest to go green.  The idea of green sounds nice, but so do unicorns and rainbows.  I’m not sure true green is possible.

I’m all for saving the earth and stuff, but I don’t like deception.

You can still fly on an airline if you "lost" your photo id

A while back, I wrote a blog post “You Do NOT Have to Show ID in Order to Fly on an Airline!“, which carefully outlined some of the unknown facts about flying without an ID, which you can still do.  However, in my blog post, I indicated that you shouldn’t simply refuse to show ID and invoke your right to freedom of movement as allowed by the U.S. Constitution.  Regardless of the fact that this is true, and that as an American, you have the right not to have to show “your papers” to any government official upon demand (think Soviet Union or cold war Germany), doing so at an airport is not a good idea.  It’s time that we reflect on exactly what our Constitution says and why we must protect it.

And as of Saturday June 21, 2008, refusing to show ID at an airport will most likely cause you grief at the airport.  The new TSA regulation states:

Beginning Saturday, June 21, 2008 passengers that willfully refuse to provide identification at security checkpoint will be denied access to the secure area of airports. This change will apply exclusively to individuals that simply refuse to provide any identification or assist transportation security officers in ascertaining their identity.”

This new procedure will not affect passengers that may have misplaced, lost or otherwise do not have ID but are cooperative with officers. Cooperative passengers without ID may be subjected to additional screening protocols, including enhanced physical screening, enhanced carry-on and/or checked baggage screening, interviews with behavior detection or law enforcement officers and other measures.

Under the law that created TSA, the Aviation and Transportation Security Act, the TSA administrator is responsible for overseeing aviation security (P.L. 107-71) and has the authority to establish security procedures at airports (49 C.F.R. § 1540.107). Passengers that fail to comply with security procedures may be prohibited from entering the secure area of airports to catch their flight (49 C.F.R. § 1540.105(a)(2).

Remember, this is a TSA “regulation”, not a law that has been passed by your elected officials in Washington, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.   Note that the text states that “passengers that fail to comply with security procedures may be prohibited from entering the secure area of airports to catch their flight“.  “May” be prohibited, not “will be” prohibited.  The TSA is walking on some shaky Constitutional issues, and this verbage clearly acknowledges this.  I am all for safery, but let’s face it folks, ID can easily be faked by criminals.  They’ve done it for years, they will continue to do it.  It will only infringe upon the regular, law-abiding citizens of America.

Oh, and by the way, the 9/11 terrorists did not have fake ID.

Obama’s Health Plan – An email debate

A friend of mine went back and forth the other day through email debating Barack Obama’s proposed national health plan. I figured that it was a good example of a healthy political debate between two people with opposing views (read my previous blog about political discussions). While I am 100% against a national health insurance system of any kind, I enjoyed discussing the issue back and forth.

Continue Reading…

Shhhh!! Don't talk about politics!

“Shhhh!! Don’t talk about politics!”, my wife says… We’ve all heard the expression before… Don’t talk about sex, religion, or politics. Why not? Because I might “offend” somebody because my belief may be different than theirs? I should keep my viewpoints to myself because what I strongly believe in does not perfectly mesh with your world? This is sad folks, and it’s no way to live.

The idea of keeping my ideals and thoughts sheltered to only those who agree with me is never going to happen. What’s the point of existing if you have to keep those very things that define your person to yourself? The three viewpoints of sex, religion and politics are the key ingredients in who we are as people, and as a friend of mine, aren’t you the least bit interested in how I feel? You see, I am interested in how you feel. Would you rather us talk about the Dr. Phil and Britney Spears controversy? Perhaps another meaningless conversation about who won last night’s football game? Or who got fired on the Apprentice last night? All of those things are fine, but don’t expect me to stop being who I am.

I respect other people’s viewpoints. And everything certainly does not need to be a debate. In fact, I like to hear people’s viewpoints. Every time I see my cousin Angela’s husband Sean, we always seem to have a nice discussion about politics. And, we don’t agree on many things. But I enjoy talking about the things that mean a lot to me. I like to understand how other people feel about the issues. Discussions such as these have opened my eyes to things that I would have never considered before. Over the years, I have learned a lot from people who I did not agree with. In fact, some of my viewpoints have changed over time – largely due to conversations I’ve had with others with whom I disagreed with.

You Do NOT Have to Show ID in Order to Fly on an Airline!

Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to show ID to fly any domestic flight, even in a post-9/11 world. I have always wondered what would happen if I was on vacation and lost my wallet – how would I get home? It is not the law to show ID to board a domestic flight, rather it is a TSA Security Directive. This Security Directive cannot and will not be disclosed to you because it is classified as “Sensitive Security Information” or SSI. So there is some law that we are being held to without knowing exactly what that law is. This is tyranny. However, the TSA itself has documented that this is not required [PDF].

However, what is known is that you have a choice of showing identification or alternatively using the “selectee” option. The “selectee” option requires the person to walk through a magnetometer screening device, being subjected to a handheld magnetometer scan, having a light body patdown, removing his shoes, and having his bags hand searched and put through a CAT-scan machine. Some may consider the patdown and bag searches a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights, but the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed this as being a violation in Gilmore vs. Alberto Gonzales, et al [PDF].

When you go to check in and the airline asks you for your ID, don’t simply “refuse”. Instead, ask for the “selectee” option lieu of identification or simply state that you lost your ID. When your boarding pass is printed, it will be printed with “SSSS” on the boarding pass. This will let the TSA know that you will be subject to additional screening in lieu of showing ID. Do not use a kiosk to print your boarding pass.

Before you go off and test this, let me finish. You have the right not to show ID to any government official, however as a matter of policy, the airline itself may require it.

Here is a list of how some major airlines handle this:

• Southwest – Will quickly and efficiently (no questions asked) print you out a new boarding pass with “SSSS” or mark “No ID” with a stamp and some numbers on your boarding pass if you tell them you want to fly without ID as a selectee. As per their policy, they have the right to require ID, but not the obligation.

• Continental – Absolutely requires some form of ID (library cards, student ids, proof of auto insrurance or credit cards). Present this at the check in counter.

• Northwest – Will quite happily give you a special, machine-printed SSSS pass if you tell them you have forgotten ID.

• Delta – As per their Refusal To Transport rule, you have a choice: submit to a search or produce proper identification .

If you read the airline policies, it seems clear that they may enforce their right to require ID if you refuse to furnish ID. So, it is best to say that you lost your ID to the airline, then you may refuse it to the TSA or any government official. By that time, you will already have “SSSS” printed on your ticket, so it won’t even matter.

Sources and Links:
Skip to the front of the airport security line
How to Fly Without ID
The Great No-ID Airport Challenge
Travelers Test Rules on Flying Without Identification