35 mph is the standard

Congress passed a bill this week and President Bush has agreed to sign it, which starts to bring America into alignment with whats right instead of a-lining their pockets with lobbiests. The bill stats that the average mpg of American brand automobiles must be 35 mpg by 2020 along with several other increases in levels of sustainable, renewable energy sources used by the public.

I personally think it should be sooner than 2020 but overall, its a step in the right direction. I recently reviewed a report in a magazine for the mpg's of the most popular auto's sold and doing a comparison by foreign or domestic brand, foreign vehicles average significantly higher than American though not at the 35 mpg standard either. I believe the American standard in the report was 17 mpg with only two non-hybrid vehicles being over 20 mpg.

Detractors claim the boost in mpg will increase the cost of vehicles by about $7,000 and could be the end of the muscle car.

First, anyone who thinks car prices couldn't go up $7,000 naturally between now and 2020 is an idiot. Look at the increase in car prices in just the last ten years. Now project forward a dozen. Plus most people buy cars on what they can afford to pay each month and what gives them status not the overall cost of the item. For example, a Prius, the uber-enviro car can cost up over $50,000 and most hybrids are mid-$30,000.

Second, much like the oil crunch of the 1970's that brought us the Mustang 2, muscles cars will probably take a hit. But the key word in the legislation is 'average'. Dodge could easily push their new vehicles into the 35 mpg zone and then hybrid their current models out and still cover a few 9 mpg hemi's.

Plus, look at what you drive today. Could you possibly imagine driving the same car you did twelve years ago? Of course not. And your car today is probably more reliable with better emission control, its progress. You can't project your today vehicle on 2020 standards either. Heck in 2020 I'll be fifty and would love to have a 'space age' car that does it all for me.

Or a rocket pack. I always wanted to own a rocket pack. Think they'll have those by then?

Santa lite

A prominent London newspaper has announced that Santa will not be allowed in some malls because he is a fatty. Santa needs to go on a diet. Gadzooks.

Do you really think children look at Santa with the same critical eye as they do Aunt Jane? Santa has been round like a bowl full of jelly for hundreds of years. Meanwhile the same youth watched Aunt Jane gain 80 pounds over the course of five years.

Yes the human race has an extreme problem with eating to much and not exercising enough. That being said, Santa is an icon known for his size. And by the way, according to the official historical records, (that being Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer), Santa has to be force fed in the last few days to gain the 'Santa' weight, which would mean once Christmas is over he loses the weight, which is more than can be said for Aunt Jane.

This is another case of aging baby boomers putting their adult contraptions on children. Santa is a pure spirit, not some overeating diabetic relative.

Transpose this with Halloween where 50 is the new 12. The reason teenage girls can only find costumes prefixed with 'Hot', 'slutty' or 'naughty' is because Halloween is no longer a night for children its a night for adults to think they are still children.

Whats next neutering the Easter Bunny?

How do you have a treaty with yourself?

A senate committee today voted to send a resolution to the full senate to reduce greenhouse emissions with credit incentives for those that cut and credit penalties for those that don't. Those most affected by this decision are utility, manufacturing and transportation businesses. Which in the end means the consumer and user. Thats you and me.

A vote most along party lines to progress the bill was claimed to help the children. Senator Barbara Boxer claims, "We are facing a crisis that will hit our children and our grandchildren the hardest if we do not act now. Not to act would be wrong, cowardly, and irresponsible."

Oh its going to hit our children alright. Higher taxes and consumption costs. The bill seeks to force companies to reduce greenhouse gases or carbon dioxide emissions much like the much ballyhooed Kyoto Protocols which have done absolutely nothing for those that elected to follow it since the mid 90's.

This time its just us. The good ole' US of A. The thought amongst the mostly liberal backing of this plan is that by America taking steps to control global warming other industrial states like China and India will follow suite. This is highly unlikely since China is a communist state only concerned about its own internal interests and India while a democracy is more concerned about becoming the China-alternative to leadership in Asia.

If this bill is ratified, it would surely increase the taxes the average American family would be required to pay. A Washington Times Article on November 11th, estimated that the burden for these caps would be about five trillion dollars over 40 years with no evidence of appreciable change in global warming patterns.

Sure that is a bit of alarmist mentality. Scaring people into radical conclusions seems to be the norm these days.

Turn out that lightbut keep your tv on

Sunday football has drunk the environmental kool aid. Over the last weekend while NBC (owned by General Electric) was doing a pre-game show, they turned off the lights in the commentary booth and began describing its mission statement of doing its part to help global warming.

So, what NBC is essentially saying is, "Watch your big screen plasma in the dark." I thought I wasn't supposed to watch tv in the dark. Isn't it supposed to ruin my eyes? I know I was told not to sit to close to television sets because that would ruin my eyes. Thats why I traded in my knob operated 13 inch black and white rabbit eared tv for my 60" HD DLP Flat screen with 1080i.

What's a fan to do?

What if I already converted my lighting to the horrendous glow of energy saving bulbs? Do I still need to turn them off even though I am only running 15 watts for a 100 watt bulb? Isn't it enough that I have to subject myself to the awful output of color by these bulbs? Conversely my wife tells me she would rather sit in a dark room with the tv off as along as she didn't have to watch or listen to football on Sundays.

Interesting.

I suppose the logical conclusion to this, using the main steam media model of, "tell a lie long enough and it becomes truth," global warming is going to shift all football games to morning and afternoons and only on days that are sunny and in stadiums that have retractable roofs or no roofs at all. "It's better for our environment to to not have stadium lights on during a night game," is the logical reason.

In the end, the NFL could care less about global warming. In fact most cold weather teams look forward to late season games in their home (cold air) stadiums because its a detriment to the visitors. The NFL cares about cash. The ones who get hurt are not the fans who are in a kajillion watt lit stadium getting their information from a billion watt speaker system and a jumbo tron, its us 'little' people who have to put up dorks trying to save a species one light bulb at a time.

BTW, do you think I have to take the bulb out of my microwave too? Microwaved pizza just doesn't taste the same unless I can see the cheese melting just right?

Conservatism vs. Consumerism

I have a ceiling fan hanging in the middle of my family room. It has a light kit underneath, nothing special about that. The photo is a representation of it, not the actual unit.

Over the course of a last week two of the three lights stopped working. In a matter of good conscious I decided to replace all three with CFL energy efficient bulbs. Again.

The first time I did this a year ago, yes before Al Gore's movie, the color emitted from them was a ghastly yellow green. Our family attempted to get used to the lighting but after a few days it was apparent we would rather sit in the dark than turn on the lights. Maybe thats how we are supposed to save money?

So they went away.

Sunday I replaced all the lights in the ceiling fan with CFL's. The lights this time are a perfect white light. I simply matched up the converted wattage of the CFL's to the normal bulbs but ended up with a much brighter room and a serious contrast to the lightening in the rest of the downstairs. Not to be deterred we decided next week we will buy more environmentally friendly bulbs at $3.88 a piece at a lower wattage to tone down the family room and move the brighter lights to the outside lights.

New problem.

Since Sunday I couldn't figure out why my tv remote was taking so many 'clicks' to react to a command. When I replaced the lights I also upgraded some wires on my entertainment systems' components. I figured I moved the cable box out of alignment with our seating. So I moved my arm up and down and stretched it left and right and sat in different spots always aiming the remote at the cable box. I changed the battery's. In all cases after several clicks the command would be accepted to change the volume or channel or whatever.

The next day, after a long day of work, sitting in front of my gigantic flat screen DLP HD tv, in my ultra bright family room, I started to get frustrated flipping between programs. And when I get frustrated I get inspired. So I asked my wife who was walking by to flick off the lights.

Immediately the tv began accepting my commands. Could it be?

Yes! After a few minutes of flicking the lights on and off and quite a few "Oh My Goshes", it was confirmed that three 100 watt CFL bulbs 8 feet up can disrupt the commands sent from a tv remote to a cable box, a distance of about ten feet apart.

There's some moral decision here. First, I could stop watching television in a well lit room out of frustration of pushing a button five times for one command. Two, I could go out to the garage and tap the stockpile evil incandescent bulbs and zone out stress free in beautiful soft white light.

Yeah. I know. The garage.

This week was the 515th anniversary of Columbus reaching the New World. I have a feeling that well before we even get to the 200th anniversary of Thomas Edison inventing the light bulb he will be subjected to the same outrage. Thomas Edison the destructor of the environment for creating the light bulb! Well I say how dare people tell me I have to use energy efficient light bulbs when that means I waste energy switching channels. Where is the savings in that?

Seasons over

Tonto National Park is closing Canyon Lake later this month to work on the dam that sits on its western shores. The water level will drop about 50 feet. I love this lake and swim in it twice a week from essentially Valentines Day through Thanksgiving. Most people would kill for open water swimming for that long each year. Of course at the beginning and end of the seasons we are in full wet suits and neoprene caps and gloves.

On the last swim of the year, usually the weekend before or after Thanksgiving, those of us brave enough to last the 50 degree water hold a small BBQ on the beach. This year however with the lake closing in September we decided to hold the event this weekend.

What does this have to do with being a green conservative?

In thinking about my year up at Canyon Lake, since February, I have pulled out at least 200 pounds of others peoples trash. That is a lot of beer bottles, cans, caps, boxes, batteries, broken glass, fishing containers, diapers, napkins, wipes, plastic bags, used utensils and deflated inflatable pool toys. Mostly beer containers though.

Littering frustrates me. Its such a lack of respect to not pack out your own garbage, especially when the person or group is not tidy in how they spend their time there to begin with. It would be great to just have to pack out already bagged trash, but when it's just strewn about with no care or thought it really chaps me.

I still hope to go up to Canyon Lake the rest of the year, if for no other reason than to do some running and cycling among the deserted highway in solitude. I'd like to see what the landscape looks like under all the hundreds of miles of swimming I have done there.

The Tonto Park Rangers are woefully understaffed in maintaining the cleanliness of the parks around the lake. It's to bad really. Every time I am there, I see them working hard at just keeping the trash cans empty and the bathrooms maintained. They do what they can with the litter and am sure they are on top of it much better than I give them credit for. I have run through the beach area's on early mornings after holiday weekends and it is smelly and atrocious.

So long Canyon Lake swimming. Till next year.

Little things

I may be the only person I know who has kept a New Year's Resolution for more than six months. I have kept it for five years and never change it. I return shopping carts to there proper place in parking lots so the car slots are not clogged with carts. I know its a pretty small thing but people with little care for others generally just leave carts strewn about parking lots make the place a mess.

I have also taken to not using plastic grocery bags or paper bags when I can at the grocery store. I bought a nylon sack, a total copy of a plastic shopping bag except that it has a built in sack and d-ring to store the bag when not in use. Some stores will give a credit for those that use their own bags, which is really not an incentive to buy a nylon sack since it would take many uses to break even, but again its a small thing I can do.

I also realized that with my lifestyle of running shorts and wanting to be a hands-free guy, I carry a backpack or drawstring bag with me pretty much everywhere I go and can put lots of what I purchase in it, saving on bags. I do get some looks and confusion from cashiers but for the most part they notice I am trying to save bags.

For those that also feel they want to do good with their plastic bags, here are some ideas. First they can obviously be re-used for grocery shopping. When retail stores use ones that are unique consider using them for sorting your items when you travel. Bright blue can be your pants, red for shirts. By compartmentalizing your clothes it becomes easier to pack. Keep a couple in your car for picking up litter at places you frequent like parks and water areas.

Just a few ideas. Little things

Hugging Trees

A friend of mine said to me the other day, "Have you seen the movie Happy Feet? No. Don't. Its got a lot of environmental stuff in it."

My response I could tell was a bit shocking to her, "You would be surprised at how I view the environment."

Just because my political beliefs point firmly to the right doesn't mean I, or other concerned and informed conservatives, don't have opinions that when viewed from the right seem out of phase with the GOP. It seems far to often that when you are pigeon holed as being republican or democrat, that all your opinions are in agreement with either Rush Limbaugh or Rosie O'Donnell. My thoughts on the environment are not based on my belief in business or from what I hear from talk radio. Nor is it based on 'An Inconvenient Truth' and Greenpeace or lately Outside Magazine.

My thoughts on the environment come from a life lived outdoors; fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, 4x4ing, trail running and traveling. I worked as a National Park Service Ranger. It comes from a father who I have no clue if he's a democrat or republican but retired as a Colonel in the National Guard and worked as both a Fish and Wildlife agent and a EPA criminal investigator. I have cut down a few trees and planted a few more than I have cut down.

In regards to open spaces, our wilderness is a precious commodity and the word that comes to my mind is stewardship. The environmentalist mentality cloaked in socialism and bolstered by most liberals in congress is a Leave It All Alone mentality. They would prefer to fence it all off, fine anyone inside it and let it do its thing.

I will certainly not stop any movement to conserve our open lands but I have a serious problem with not doing anything in it. It is not enough to protect these lands from elements who would do harm to it, but it must be protected from itself.

Think of city park. In the proto-typical environmentalist mentality the park will be fenced off and only walkers will be allowed inside. There are no garbage cans because users must follow a personal code of Leave No Trace Behind. In time the park will be in disrepair because there is no maintenance crew to trim the trees, pick up trash or maintain pathways. In time no one will go to the park because it is ugly or forgotten. Someone starts a fire and because of overgrowth the park burns unmolested and threatens a nearby apartment complex.

In the context of federally protected land areas, these parks need to be cleared of low lying brush so forest fires will not have the capacity to reach hundreds of thousands of acres and threaten homes and families. Back burning is necessary to create fire breaks and protect communities. Fire roads need to be created, not only for access to remote areas but act as a 'rally point' for hikers.

A rally point, or similar term such as handrail or protective line, is used to describe the direction of travel if lost. When your hiking in the backcountry it is good to have an agreed upon place to meet if someone from the group is lost. As not everyone carries a map but everyone should have a compass, cardinal directions are best. Based on where you are at on your trip, having a pre-determined grid coordinate to meet at is unrealistic whereas knowing anyone considered lost will travel east to a logging road or a lake is realistic.

The crux is this, as a green conservative, it is incumbent upon me to ensure our lands are protected for not only our future enjoyment but our future industries. It is one thing to protect our lands but another to realize it can improve the lives of those living around it or that a portion of those lands can limit our dependency on foreign imports. Business is not always bad for wilderness. Hunting is not bad for wilderness. Forestry projects are not bad for wilderness. Leaving wilderness to itself can be bad for for our economy in terms of forest fires, increased federal spending on fighting those fires; lost homes and lives, increased insurance payouts based on those loses; not to mention decreased ability to discover and sustain natural resources that can benefit our countries well being.

Take one (bag) for the team

On Sunday, I was the only person to show up for an open water swim practice that my triathlon team does a few times per week. Everyone was sleeping in or racing out of town. It gave me an opportunity to enjoy the beauty of our wilderness on my own...and pick up all the trash that people leave at our little spot.

Its unavoidable especially at close areas like Tonto National Forest that people who have low regard for nature will leave their trash, smash their bottles and scrawl graffiti on US Forest Service buildings. Just in the last month there is over a dozen new tags in the rest room I occasionally hit before swimming.

The spot we swim at is outside the beach/boat areas but still sees a fair amount of people who fish and perhaps engage in gazing and drinking alcohol. Littered around the area was ripped up Styrofoam coolers, broken liqueur bottles, soda cans, used napkins and other detritus. I filled a large garbage bag from my car and wished I had another. I took it to the dumpsters within the beach area.

Some of this trash is packed down into some of the rock crevasses or tucked under prickly trees or cactus. Later in the day while grocery shopping I picked up some more trash bags and one of those reaching grabby things called Trash Tongs to pick up the broken glass shards and hard to reach stuff.

I wish people would take better care of their personal trash outdoors. When I was in the military and later in my civilian business I was instilled with the habit of leaving a place cleaner than I found it; I even wipe down counters in movie theater bathrooms and at restaurants that still have paper towels.

After my short swim I hiked up into the canyon to find the Lost Dutchman's goldmine. Well I was more taken by the scenery than looking for caves but legend has it the unfound mine and many others are in the area. It made for a good day of training and my team mates will hopefully find a cleaner spot the next time they go to drop their towels for a swim.

Your the expert

There was a time when the term rugged individual or renaissance man meant someone who was a free thinker, someone who developed a variety of skills, a person who relied on themselves to make it through the world.

Today it seems that we are only to believe in experts, authors and people introduced as authorities who know whats best for us. We are not to question these people. Rationale discourse is not tolerated. There is only the story, the facts can be manipulated. Do you know what an expert is? An expert is someone who knows a lot about a little.

The worst part about listening to these people is that they usually make you feel like crap; your a bad parent, a particular political or social situation will never get better because if it did you wouldn't listen to me, if you were victimized at some point in your life you'll be screwed up unless you do what I say. All this does is make you dependent on someone else whose only goal is to subvert confidence in yourself or society.

You are your own best expert in your life. All your personal problems can be solved if you do some very simple things; some of which are to own up to your mistakes and listen to your heart. Have a problem with drugs, sex, adultery, video games, gambling? There is a moment, a heartbeat before every thing you do that tells you its a good thing or bad thing. Sometimes this can be the same feeling but generally this beat in time is an eternity of conflict and debate that you either overcome or it overcomes you. But you have the choice to quit, get help or get out.

When you are having a matter of conscious on social issues do your own research. Have you heard there is debate on the issue of how to stop global warming. Maybe saw a movie on it. What have you done to come to your own conclusions? You don't need to be Einstein to be find your answers but you do need to be open to look at the other side. Not sure how you feel about abortion or taxes or gun control. Perhaps these social issues affect you directly and you have an emotional response to it. Does that make your decision any more valid than someone else who came to their own conclusion.

By relying on others to tell you what is right or wrong is not the long term solution because you eventually lose the ability to make decisions for yourself. Solving things by committee though sometimes necessary for the group, seldom benefit every person. That means you need to learn how to solve things for yourself by surrounding yourself with like minded people or reinventing yourself in a new view.

Our county was founded by free thinkers who were religious but created a government based on laws, not theology. They knew that to be as free as they wished they needed a higher power to guide most, but laws to guide all. That higher power would provide a map for personal inventory, accountability, honesty and generosity.

Be your own expert. Listen to your heart like our founding fathers did theirs. Even when you want to create your world in your own image be careful that that image isn't based on what someone else is telling you it should be.

MayDay, May Day

May Day or May 1st, is internationally known as the remembrance of labor parties or Labour parties that have and still do progress the movement of better work environments and wages for employees. In the US its a federal holiday celebrated at the end of May.

For quite some time May 1st was seen as a reference to the socialist party and their desire for government to control and distribute wealth within the country. Think May Day and you would think of Russia or USSR or communism. Generally the day would be celebrated by some small rally's and radical speeches but otherwise tame.

In the last decade of the 20th century, May Day became the day that anarchists would pronounce destruction of the New World Order and denounce the world bank and capitalism and commercialism. Anarchist do not rally or protest as much as gang together in a city center and become a disgruntled mob that seeks damage and destruction and then when the police are forced to use non-lethal forms of civil obedience to quell the riot, the media shows the anarchists being attached by tear gas and batons and their only defense is bandannas around their faces as if the police are the ones who are breaking up a legal protest.

In the South West, the Pro-Illegal Immigration groups have occupied May 1st as their day to rally and protest and proclaim that all of America would fail if illegal aliens failed to show up for work the next day. These are for the most part non-violent protests and in the recent past have brought tens of thousand if not hundreds of thousands of people together for their activities. These groups have well meaning intentions for their cause but generally speaking are terribly ineffective at getting their point across or creating a memorable event.

One rally in Phoenix had over 100,000 people attend. However even the media could not get behind the rally cry of 'No Borders' and 'Ce se puede' (Yes we can!) when the majority of flags at the event where Mexican and not American. Instead of looking sympathetic they came across as arrogant and demanding. Each year these leaders get more savy, but less energized. This year less than 10,000 people are expected at the rallys in Phoenix.

May 1st, May Day, Labor Day, Labour Day, has been known as a day of rest and introspection at the advancement of employee rights. In the future it may well be turned into a focal point of immigration status and rights of illegal aliens. I look forward to a day when we can say that on May 1st, a national crackdown on businesses that employee illegals takes place, much like the DUI task forces on holidays. I look forward to the news reports on May Day that don't show mass rally's of forced rights but mass introduction of people becoming American citizens akin to the news we see on July 4th.

However you spend the day, at the beginning of the month or the end and every day in between, be thankful for what you have.

Optimisticaly Pesimistic

I was told the other day there is no difference between conservatives and liberals, republicans and democrats. Were all the same piece of filth.

People who don't have the ability to make a decision outside of a committee love to expose that there is no difference between a liberal democrat and a conservative republican. These are people whose hardest personal decision of the day is the size and type of beverage they want at Starbucks and still haven't decided after staring at the menu for five minutes.

Liberals look at the world in terms of pessimism, fueled by their desire to take every freedom you have and doling it back as if you have earned something special. Wrap it up in a shiny box with a big red bow and high taxes still equate to wealth redistribution. A liberal can't enjoy life when there is social inequity and the cure is increasing your taxes and decreasing the bar to get a piece of it.

Conservatives look at the world a bit more optimistically. A conservative mentality is not that they need a piece of some else's pie but there is a lot of pies out there, they just need to find theirs. Generally speaking conservatives are not concerned about the past but how to make their future better. It one thing to realize that life is not fair, its another to accept it and make the best way you can in life so it's better. Conservatives are not as much concerned with personal victimization as liberating the oppressed.

I am told that the media is more republican than democrat, ya know Fox News and all. But it astounds me at the deluge of negativity portrayed by local news. Bad news is not the currency of the right. For the first six months of my sons life, my wife cried every time the news was on wondering how we could have brought such a blessing into such bad times. Good luck finding anything positive about the Global War On Terror in any 'legitimate' news source. It used to be that the last refuge of anything positive in the newspaper was Sports or Lifestyles and now even those editions are riddled with bad news.

Liberals want to constantly remind you of where you are at in life and how someone took something from you. They generally are not concerned in your personal well being inasmuch as they want large groups to be dependent on them for support. Conservatives want to show you a path to reaching your dreams and tell you it will be a hard road with sacrifice and disappointment but with faith in yourself and personal growth anything is possible.

Lets use the example of The Underdog. Everyone loves the Underdog. Liberals because its an opportunity to entrap him in welfare and food stamps, forcing business to pay him a 'living wage' even though the Underdog is 24, has a family of three and no education. All the time telling him that life is dire and he's a victim of whatever can be checked off the list. Conservatives love the Underdog because its a chance to overcome the odds and persevere in the face of adversity. Becoming the best the Underdog can be and become a value to society and a contributor of the community. The Underdog story for the conservative is not a trailer park to mansion story but a Horatio Alger tale.

The bottom line is that only the non-thinking believe people that the right and left are the same. Believe in one side or the other, makes no difference to me. Its how our country works. But for the love of God or your higher power don't be so dense as to think we are all the same.

Now make your Starbuck order already, I'm just getting the black coffee straight up.

Stem Cells

I think there is great benefit to stem cell research. If inside each of us is tissue that when properly presented can become identical to a different organism in our body, well thats divine genius. Tissue taken from my brain or my neck or somewhere else inside my body or from stored umbilical cord blood that can become a new liver or a new cartilage for my knee or repair a damaged spinal cord is a testament to applied science.

The ethical debate on whether this course of study should be applied to fertilized eggs from inside a woman has completely complicated this fascinating program. I am whatever you want to call me, anti-abortion as bitrh control mostly. Stem cell research to me is not so much about my thoughts on abortion as it is my thoughts on courses of actions and real movement in the area.

The pro-fertilized egg crowd has done absolutely nothing to progress real results in the stem cell scientific community. They end up being portrayed as feminists and activists wanting more rights over reproduction. If a woman wants to abstain from sex, go through the two month fertility treatments and painful shots to harvest and sell her dozen or two fertilized eggs for a couple grand, that will be nurtured until life in created in those eggs and then those eggs will be destroyed and dissected. That is a choice those people are willing to live with.

President George W. Bush's ability to withhold federal funding for scientific study in this specific stem cell foray has only whipped that rabid mob into a frenzy. But he said he used his religious beliefs and unquestioned legal authority to maintain his personal moral's and convictions while in office. Thats his right, much as a liberal president would want to increase my taxes.

People against him can call him hypocritical but the claims goes both ways. People in the middle get lost in the muck, is it an activist issue or religious conviction.

I heard all the plea's at the democrat presidential convention. I listened to Ron Reagan Jr. rally the crowd about how embryonic stem cell research could have saved his father the late President Ronald Reagan from Alzheimer's disease. I saw the commercials after Christopher "Superman" Reeves died from complication of being a quadriplegic saying his condition could have been treatable only if this research was allowed to continue. Michael J. Fox did PSA's on this as well for Parkinson's disease. These where pandering idealistic platitudes based on the near future models of the embryonic program.

Look at me. I have had several sever brain injury's; subdural hematomas, fractured skull, swelling of the brain, amnesia, about a dozen concussions with more than half of those involving unconsciousness. Its understood that one more knock to my head and I could be a vegetable. I am really interested in any science that can help me out just in case I could become a carrot.

The problem with all this debate is that its not open. Liberals demand they have higher ground in that embryonic stem cell research is the future of stem cell discovery but they refuse to acknowledge that its not one hill that this fight is fought on, its a ridge with multiple peaks and honestly what their refusing to admit is that their little hill is in the shadow of some much bigger and older mountains in this venue. What they refuse to listen to is that the most promising forms of stem cell research is from adult stem cells which have been funded continuously by the federal government for thirty years. Yet even now with all the things they have succeed in doing with it, they haven't come close to curing Parkinson's or Alzheimer's and it's questionable but optimistic about spinal injuries. The Bush position was not to make embroynic stem cell research illegal, in fact public donations care well excepted at major universities around the country. The state of California passed a $6 billion tax plan for this research.

The best way for an individual to protect themselves is for parents to store their child's umbilical cord which holds more viable stem cells than anything available currently and are a perfect match for DNA. But individual responsibility is not really a buzz word in liberal circles. Liberals and bleeding hearts would rather make you feel a certain way rather than have you see a certain way.

The liberal flagpole of irrefutable scientific research in egg cell research has been destroyed not by lack of federal funds but by sabotage by the very scientists leading the studies. The first case and the most important in the egg stem cell debate was by a South Korean, Hwang Woo Suk, who completely falsified his own results with doctored charts and photos. Now another significant study done at the University of Minnesota by Catherine Verfaillie has been completely misleading with photoshopped pictures and false claims of study.

But it seems that people who push the embryonic stem cell debate are so indoctrinated in their own cause that they can't seem to have an intellectual conversion when confronted with overwhelming contrary evidence to their theory or at least admit a divergent avenue of success is even more possible. Adult stem cells have the most research and the most promise for radical changes in patient treatment in the 21st century and beyond. While the debate on federally funding embryonic research is on hold at least until the next presidency in 2008, millions are spent federally on adult stem cell research and private money and state money can cover the gap. Lets not also forget that as other countries devote their resources in this research we can simply outbid those scientists salaries in other countries and bring them to America with citizenship in hand once another president decided a change in the Bush policy is needed.

The term grows

I did not create the term green conservative. I just am one. I first heard the term from radio talk show host Michael Medved discussing his own environmentalism. Former presidential candidate John F. Kerry and possible candidate Newt Gringrich met for a debate on global warming and during one exchange Newt says this,

Gingrich didn't hesitate. "My message," he said, "is that the evidence is sufficient that we should move towards the most effective possible steps to reduce carbon loading of the atmosphere." The pro-Kerry crowd applauded.

"And do it urgently?" the senator pressed.

"And do it urgently, yeah," the former speaker replied. "I think there has to be, if you will, a green conservatism," he added

I did not see this debate, I wish I had. It would be interesting to watch super liberal Kerry squirm at losing his moral high ground and partisan bashing to super conservative Gingrich giving a personal testimony to environmentalism and not support President Bush's failures in this area. . But the one thing Newt is, is a visionary thinker who is more concerned with how to fix a problem rather than support a false one.. He To read the entire article click HERE

Offset Off Your Ass

This term Carbon Offset is such a dodge from real and personal work towards a 'greener' world. Only rich people who have money but no inclination to make personal sacrifices for conservation use this term.

Carbon offseting is the process of paying a company to not do something that damages the environment. So if you feel like your car is a gas guzzler, go ahead and pay a company to upgrade its greenhouse gas emission technology and feel good about yourself. While in the past it was novel to plant your own tree, you can now pay someone to do it for you.

But how do you know that that tree you paid for wasn't also paid for by one or ten or one hundred other people? You don't. Its a racket. And those that are filthy rich like former and current presidential hopefuls, well they feel very comfortable using twenty times the national average of home electricity and then buying offsets from companies that they own. So really carbon offsetting becomes a lucrative deal for them. They don't turn off one more light in their house but pay themselves to have someone turn off theirs. Perfect.

It used to be that people made voluntary reductions in their own power usage. Ed Begley Jr. decades ago made his own legitimate sacrifices for the sake of the the environment and his home is completely solar powered and all his local transportation is done with hybrid vehicles recently but normally with public transportation and cycling.

Carbon offsetting and now the de jour of Carbon neutral are such baloney. Haven't public schools shown that you can't throw money at a problem and then alibi personal responsibility in teaching children? Well you also can't live your life by preaching everyone else has to cut back and make sacrifices in energy consumption while you don't.

Green Feelings

One of the issues that Green Conservatives have to deal with people in their own party looking down on them. As if they are not 100% on board with the GOP or they are really a RhINO (Republican In Name Only). This is quite incorrect.

In fact I think one of the problems with the republican party, (and the democrat party also) is that they become educated only by visceral reaction. "Well if a liberal is against Big Oil, I must be for it." "If environmentalists are tree huggers, and tree huggers are liberal and I am a conservative, then I am not a tree hugger, I am anti environment." This societal Venn Diagram way of thinking is harmful to the personal pursuit of your political foundation.

It's okay to be conservative and want to protect the environment. It's okay to want cleaner water and healthier air and higher gas mileage in cars and still support business in general and the economy as a whole.

I don't care that a CEO got a big bonus or lucrative pay deal, he or she negotiated a great pay plan. Good for them. The fallout from that plan lays on the share holders to fix, its none of your business or mine, if we have no stake in the company. However that doesn't change my belief that that business should be trying to work towards lowering its emissions that are harmful to the environment and pay huge fines when found non-compliant.

As a green conservative you are not expected to chain yourself to trees or sabotage logging equipment. Try picking up trash in places you go to around your house or neighborhood. I go to Tonto State park once or twice a week for working out usually pull out trash with me, cans and paper and such. Plant a tree. Support local grower's by shopping farmers markets. Its amazing how much cheaper and fresher the produce usually is.

Once again the defining difference between a liberal and conservative is that conservatives believe in you taking care of yourself and those around you through work and charity. Liberals will not recognize any charity unless its government funded and would rather cloak environmentalism in pagan mysticism and global corporate greed rather than open dialog regarding the preservation of our wilderness lands and habitats.

The myth of the 40 mpg car

I have owned my share of muscle cars. I have owned three Ford mustangs, though that 1988 model with the 4-cylinder automatic may not qualify as such. As of this writing, I drive a Dodge Charger, but its not the hemi. I wanted the hemi. I talked myself into paying the extra $100 a month car payment and $100 a month increase in my auto insurance, over the base model. Yeah, I was really into buying the hemi version until I realized it got 9 mile per gallon on a 15 gallon tank. They don't really put that in the literature. I got the base model but feel okay about that. My truck only got 13 miles a gallon and my new charger gets about 18.5 mpg overall.

Even at 18.5 mpg I look at that and wince. I mean really, why can't an American car that has halfway decent power and styling, carry four adults and some personal items, get more than 20 miles per gallon. A quick glance at these statistics and finding any American brand vehicle over 20 mpg is difficult. It is absolutely boggling to me that American cars today have the same gas mileage they did 20 years ago.

The fact of the matter is that European and Asian car manufacturers are kicking our collective American asses when it comes to gas mileage and they do it with style. I don't find flaw in the niche American cars that gets 300 horsepower or weighs 2+ tons, but why can't even the mid-size sedans at 200 horsepower and a half ton lighter have substantial parity with our competition.

As a green conservative I don't much like 'Big Oil', and their attempts to stifle creation of their demise (alternative fuels), but for the most part they can claim that cheap and widely useable alternatives are still in the development and proliferation stages. I mean no one has a viable hydrogen fuel cell or brought hybrid fuel to am/pm gas stations. But the car manufacturers have the technology, have the ability, have the infrastructure to turn out engines that get 40+ miles per gallon on fossil fuels in vehicles that appeal to a broad audience. I am willing to bet that 80% of American model cars regardless of size or horsepower can be configured immediately to a engine with 40+ mpg profiles.

Please don't give me the Prius option. For every owner with a Prius in the garage, I will show you the minivan, SUV, or sports car in their driveway for a second vehicle. Most hybrid options are so antithetical to everyday use anyway, forgoing grocery space in the trunk for batteries or not allowing for the fact that a commuter may need to travel with a child seat(s), gym bag, work bag, might need to buy something at Home Depot, they may actually carpool or ride with friends. Its insulting to look at the options available to people who might actually want to use a hybrid for something more than a glorified self contained motorcycle, or single passenger car.

The time is here to demand a balance between increased fuel economy of American made engines and to demand that those cars are actually practical for daily use.

Light Rail

It used to be that social security was called the third rail of national politics. Well now light rail is the third rail of local politics. Light rail is coming to Phoenix. Its coming to other places like Seattle too. Its in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago, of course New York and many other fine cities. So why is it such a complete money pit? The answer is simple, nobody rides it. But liberals love it because it satisfy's two of their agendas. I will get to that later.

In two separate studies forecasting their system participation , one in Phoenix and one in Seattle, best estimates in both are that light rail will be used by 2% of the metro population. Wow. Be still my bleeding heart. Meanwhile each city will spend over forty billion dollars to build light rail.

When I lived in Seattle, my wife and I only had one car. Only needed one. The bus system there was superb. The wife took the bus to and from work every day. Worked out great. When we moved to Phoenix, I don't think I saw a bus for four months. I see more now than when we moved here ten years ago but the Valley of the Sun has a horrible, terrible bus transit system for being the 5th largest city in the nation.

But instead of stregthening the metro system they invest in light rail. Why? Light rail has never, ever been a viable (read: profitable) mode of transportation for any city, excluding the subway system of downtown New York. Phoenix is certainly not NYC. The population per square mile in New York County is 66,940 people. In Maricopa County where Phoenix and its suburbs are located has 333 people per square mile. A lot more people benefit from light rail there than here.

Light rail has not even been finished in Phoenix and already there is strain on the traffic system. To fund light rail they siphoned off half of the money from taxes that went to highway building and repair. Well now they can't fill the potholes and have had to extend the time lines on completing much needed freeway systems in the outlaying areas. To combat this problem one local representative thought we could turn the carpool lanes into toll roads and that money would help fix and finish the roads.

The Phoenix project already admits it needs more funding because the architects failed to develop any substantial parking areas for those that will commute with light rail and those few areas they do have don't have any overhead cover. Have you every got into a car after it's sat in the 115 degree sun of desert summer? Its a 140 degrees in there. On top of that do you really think there is an action plan to dismantle light rail if its not able to support itself? Of course not. As the system gets older costs will go up to maintain the equipment and as urban sprawl becomes greater, even less people will available to use the system.

Why would anyone want to use light rail when its a fixed system and a slow one at that. Of course they can't go faster than 30 mph lest some poor pedestrian misses all the curbs, rails and signs and gets hit by a moving train. The average 20 minute commute by car now becomes twice that when factoring waiting for the train to arrive and its slow progress through its stops. Don't forget that with urban sprawl you have to drive your car to get to the rail station.

The real crux is that liberals can accomplish two things with light rail. First, it makes them feel that they are making a real difference helping the less fortunate travel around town and perhaps get some of those fortunate enough to drive gas guzzler to give up their personal freedom for public transportation. When they drive by those light rail trains in their BMW's they can feel just a little bit better about themselves because they are good people.

Secondly, light rail means more taxes for things like expansion, improvement, maintenance and study. What is a grandiose unprofitable Utopian public works project without the inherent oversight committee that makes the failure look like a positive in the media?

What Phoenix really needs is more buses and a finished highway program. Lets bust out to 24 lane highways as was proposed a year after light rail was passed because even liberal law makers agree, light rail won't make a dent at all in traffic congestion. But they feel better about themselves. Why not, they got your money for light rail and they'll get your money when your frustrated about being stuck in traffic as the almost empty rail train crawls by.

For $40 billion they could buy every resident driver of Maricopa county a new 40 mpg hybrid car. Now that would really drop carbon emissions and make a dent in traffic congestion. Those cars are so small you can fit twice as many into a daily traffic jam.

Power Plays

I don't understand how Liberals want to move to alternate fuel sources but won't allow business or government to build a stronger energy infrastructure at all. Its fairly common knowledge that this country has an outdated energy grid. In 2003, NYC along with several states and part of Canada were plunged into blackout because a transmission line in Ohio tripped off. Why in 2007 should close to 20% of our population be affected by one transmission problem?

Liberals bemoan the conservatives calling for new oil refinery's or *GASP* nuclear reactors rallying instead behind solar power, hydroelectricity and wind power. First I have looked into solar power for my house. Living in the desert south west, the costs involved (roughly $15,000 for a residential home) would take me approximately 20 years to recoup my hardware investment in solar power offsets. I don't mind delayed gratification but please. Hydro-electric power is played out in America. We have a great program here and by most estimates are at 85% capacity. Good Job!

That leaves wind turbine generation, the new de jour of alternative power grids. I have driven through Palm Springs. those monster towers are everywhere. For those that don't understand these are not Dutch windmills or like the one on Grandma's farm were talking about here. These are upwards of 500 feet tall with blades 150 feet long in groups of thousands. Thousands. California has 95% of the country's onshore wind power facilities, which all goes to their states power supply. All those generators contributed to 1.5% of the states power. Meanwhile the 5 nuclear plants in California generated over 12% of its state wide power.

While popular in rhetoric, when it comes down to legislating wind power development you can't even get liberal leaders to vote for it. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) used his considerable power in DC to withhold plans for an off shore wind plant off Marthas Vineyard and Cape Cod. I don't know why he would do so when it could not be seen from land and his nephew Robert Kennedy Jr. is such a proponent of alternative power; but suspicion has long held its because the site was on prime Kennedy sailing grounds. I think his original argument once it became public, was that the blades would endanger the birds and seagulls. Nice.

What it really comes down to is this. Right now alternative energy sources are not cheap. Individuals who want to do their part with home solar power lose money. People in regions that invest in wind power pay twice as much and sometimes more than for other power options. What environmentalists and global warming advocates are afraid to tell you is that alternative fuels equal higher taxes. They use gimmicky terms like 'caps' and 'offsets' but really what their avoiding is that if you will take the bait by hearing the sizzle, when see the fat on the bacon, its too late, you might as well eat it. If the global-warming-end-of-days people instead said "we will have to raise your taxes...a lot, for this to work" they would get a good chunk of people to say to themselves, "Hmmm, let me look at those studies again. How bad is this and just how much better can it get."

Whether its wind or solar or nuclear, lets all just try to get the damn national power system updated. Lets get it set up today to be more efficient and prepare it for tomorrow when better options present themselves and can be incorporated. It just seems so absurd. If you live in a big city you know every year you will hear the warning bells on the local news that there could be rolling brown outs because of spikes in power. In Phoenix a few years back a power station transformer blew up because it was so damn hot that summer and people were cranking the air conditioning. It turns out it took two weeks to get a used replacement because new units are cost prohibitive to have laying around the warehouse and they are shipped by slow-truck. It takes months for one to get built and put on site.

This is not to mention the absurdly lop sided cost to benefit ratio current solar or wind power projects will have on our country's power system. Litigation on water rights, protection of wildlife habitats, fights with shale coal development and our lack of gas/oil refineries all contribute to a decline in our power grid.

Something has to give on both sides. Our power grid infrastructure must be updated for the 21st century. Alternative systems need to be created and made affordable while we strengthen our current power technology programs. I see no problem with building an oil refinery today only to have it close down in 20, 50 or 100 years when it becomes obsolete. Let the conservatives cheer now and the liberals cheer later. What better way to put Big Oil out of business that to suck the resource dry.

Compass Points Right

Far to often we fine normal upstanding citizens of a wonderful country simply sleepwalk through its daily progression. Our perception becomes reliant on 30 second sound bytes and video feeds from sources biased at best and uninformed at worst designed to make you feel a prescribed way instead of giving rationale intellectual discourse. Far to often its easier to adopt someone else's opinion instead of making your own.

Some people consider conservativism a cope out. That we think only about ourselves and our greedy little nest eggs instead of being empathetic of the down trodden and less fortunate. That business is the king of our lives. Being 'carbon neutral' is not as important as being filthy rich. In some conservative leaders that is true. in some forms of media it makes that point of view counter to all other facts.

The heart of the conservative party is not the far right fringe, nor is it the moderate center. Its a thriving class of people who want to more of the money they earned and less of the interference from people who think they know whats best to do with that money. Its people who want an American car that gets over 40 miles per gallon city but has enough room to sit a family and carry their grocery's and sports gear. Its people who want to find the environmental medium between building an oil refinery anywhere in this country and maintaining habitats and hiking trails at the same time. Its people who think a nation founded on God but ruled by law has become over run with lawyers trying to rule by law and dismiss God.

I have a compass, several actually. But only two are most valuable to me; the physical one in my hand leading me to my destination through the the beautiful environment I care so deeply about and the moral own that guides my head and my heart through many interesting observations.

My compass points right.