Thursday, December 6, 2007

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

The Ever-Uniting Topic of Global Warming

What a great way to end my semester in International Relations. We talked about global warming and the Kyoto Protocol, which thankfully the US has not signed. So, as my second installment of correcting poor political positions, I will write on the topic of environmentalism and the role it should play in government. The fact is, regardless of what CNN and NBC and CBS and Al Gore might tell you is that global warming is a debatable theory. Yes, ice is melting off of Antarctica ... in one isolated area! What pro-global warming activists won't tell you, or might not even know, is that much of Antarctica is actually GAINING ice. It's not like the entire continent is about to melt. Also, in an Inconvenient Truth by the NOBEL PRIZE winner Al Gore (are you kidding me?) he quotes a study saying that a valley of, I believe, California is going to be under water in the future. However, he fails to say that the study says that there is an equally probable chance that that valley could be a desert at that same time in the future. Thus, my point is that you can't trust these pro-global warming activists-->they will never give you the full truth. Also, the founder of THE WEATHER CHANNEL, John Coleman published a blog for ICECAP (http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/comments_about_global_warming/) saying: "It is the greatest scam in history. I am amazed, appalled and highly offended by it. Global Warming; It is a SCAM. Some dastardly scientists with environmental and political motives manipulated long term scientific data to create an illusion of rapid global warming. Other scientists of the same environmental whacko type jumped into the circle to support and broaden the “research” to further enhance the totally slanted, bogus global warming claims. Their friends in government steered huge research grants their way to keep the movement going. Soon they claimed to be a consensus." Need I say more? I'm not sure about you, but I'm going to trust John Coleman over Al Gore. Coleman has no stake in whether global warming is occurring, Al Gore has a nice chunk of change invested in this idea. I'd urge any of you who are still avid proponents of global warming to check into some more conservative sources than CNN and the national news outlets. Get a fair and balanced view. Finally, I'd just like to say America has bigger things to worry about than this issue. Because it is such an unproven idea, the federal government needs to be worrying about a war, economy, healthcare, national debt, etc. Those are the things the government should worry about. It shouldn't sign the Kyoto Protocol which costs America billions and billions of dollars each year and only makes 36 countries make significant changes. It is an unfair resolution. The point I'd like to leave with you is that whatever environmental issues are serious, those are up to you and me individually. Recycle when you can. Use fluorescent lights. Don't buy gas-guzzling vehicles. Be green individually. Don't complain that the government doesn't have a comprehensive "green" policy. Clean the world up individually.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Political Cheap Shots in Good Movies

One of my favorite movies is V for Vendetta. The plot is compelling. The score is great. The theme resonates with viewers. The acting is above average. It's based in London (I love movies set in England). The writing is spectacular. Everything about it makes it a fantastic movie that I would recommend to any movie fan. However, this makes it all the more frustrating that it is smeared throughout with political jabs at President Bush and conservative values. It takes only the tiniest of brains to realize that Adam Sutler, the dictator, is supposed to be an exaggerated Bush and his government is the result of what could happen if we give him too much power because we are afraid of the outside world. His logo is even somewhat similar to a swastika. It's frightening to think the movie might be comparing Bush to Hitler. One ironic bit in the movie is that there is a national television station (the only viewable station for citizens) that resembles CNN, but it is portrayed as propaganda for the conservative party. Funny, though, that CNN is JUST THE OPPOSITE in real life. It is the station one would turn to if they only want to hear one side of an issue. Another anti-conservative theme is that the dictator has all homosexuals taken from their homes and put into one of Creedy's black bags (which means they will eventually die. This is what happens to all of those who revolt against the dictator.) The hero of the movie, because she inspired V, is a lesbian who was black-bagged for being homosexual. I'm not saying we should throw homosexuals in prison, but it seems like this movie is trying to say that Bush's anti-gay-marriage policy will lead to killing gays because it is not tolerant. The problem is that liberals like to say being tolerant means that you have to agree with them. That's actually an intolerant idea. Real tolerance is allowing someone to have a differing view from yourself and agreeing to disagree. Not necessarily agreeing. All in all, this is a great movie in a theatrical sense. I just hope that as you watch it you can filter out the repeated political potshots.

Monday, December 3, 2007

Chavez's Proposal Fails

Big news out of South America. Hugo Chavez's addendum to Venezuela's 1999 constitution did NOT pass due to a 51-49 vote by the people. One of the possible amendments was that the president would be able to be re-elected an infinitely. There would be no two-term limit. Hopefully this result is an accurate view of how Venezuelans feel about the socialist leader Chavez. This guy is in the loon clique along with Castro, Ahmadinejad, and bin Laden. Thankfully he will not be an infinite dictator like Castro. We already have the problem of crazy leaders in four different regions of the world at the moment. It is comforting that at least one of these four leaders will be out of power in four years.

BCS needs to be ammended or eliminated

Missouri beats Illinois in St. Louis. Missouri beats Kansas in Kansas City (with a 60/40 fan split in favor of KU). Missouri is ranked higher in BCS than the Jayhawks and Illini. Kansas goes to Orange Bowl. Illinois goes to Rose Bowl. Missouri? The Tigers get the Cotton Bowl. This doesn't make sense at all. Let the only BCS bowl be the championship game if this kind of result happens. BCS is only here for a 1/2 matchup. That's why it was instituted. To have rules governing four other bowls is silly. It only makes for unnecessary controversy. Or college football could go to a playoff system. Each BCS conference gets one team in the bracket. Top two ranked teams get a bye. Fight for the championship. If you can't win your conference, you don't deserve a shot at the National Title. But ALL conference champs should get a shot. The only hitch in this argument is what to do with a Hawai'i or Boise State. Possibly then, any non-BCS conference champion that is ranked higher than the lowest of BCS conference champions gets into the playoff. If this causes the bracket to be uneven, one at-large bid will be given to the highest ranked team not currently in the playoff. Wow, that sounds WAY more fair than the current BCS system.