Arguing Against Gravity

I was reading a book last night (Dreadnought: Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War, a fascinating book for any history buffs out there.) and I came upon a chapter on the 1906 British election between the Unionist Party (A hodgepodge of Liberal and mostly Conservative MPs united by opposition to Irish home rule advocated by famous Liberal leader William Gladstone) and the remnants of the Liberal party. Not to get into too large of a history lesson, but the Unionist member of the Cabinet who was originally responsible for the split from Gladstone was Joseph Chamberlain. (Father of future idiot Neville Chamberlain.) What I found fascinating was a tidbit about a Liberal MP excitedly showing his wife a newspaper article detailing Chamberlain's new found desire for a tariff which flew in the face of traditional British belief in free trade. The Liberal MP excitedly exclaimed that arguing against the free market was like arguing against gravity and the Laws of Physics. (For any confused American readers, the term "liberal" in late 19th and turn of the century Europe didn't carry the same meaning as it does in our country today. It was more akin to "libertarian" or "classical liberal".)

I must say, it made me a bit nostalgic for an age I've only read about, especially after watching pundits and world leaders proclaim the death of capitalism over the past few weeks. There was once a time, before citizens began voting themselves a share of the national treasury, that elected leaders and the public at large had rational beliefs about economics and complete faith in capitalism. Of course World War I and the ascendancy of Keynesian economics changed that in Britain, and I'm certain that we'll never get to that ideal during my lifetime. (See the Keynesian government bailout approved by both parties and signed by our "conservative" President.) Still, if people and governments were rational once, they can be rational again. After all, arguing against the free market is like arguing against the Laws of Physics.

The Green Movement isn't Pro Growth?

Reuters yesterday:

"A slowdown in the world economy may give the planet a breather from the excessively high carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions responsible for climate change, a Nobel Prize winning scientist said on Tuesday.

Slower economic growth worldwide could help slow growth of carbon dioxide emissions and trigger more careful use of energy resources, though the global economic turmoil may also divert focus from efforts to counter climate change, said Crutzen, winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the depletion of the ozone layer.

'It's a cruel thing to say ... but if we are looking at a slowdown in the economy, there will be less fossil fuels burning, so for the climate it could be an advantage,' Crutzen told Reuters in an interview."

Wait, so slowing economic growth is linked to a decrease in CO2 levels? These issues are related? Do environmentalists know this? Do they know that the easiest way to lower CO2 in the atmosphere is to slow, stop, or even reverse economic growth? Thank goodness they don't have questionable motives. Imagine if someone's goal was to slow economic growth because they were say. . . a marxist who hated capitalism. They could use global warming as a decoy issue in order to destroy a pro growth, capitalist economy. Thank goodness there are none of those nefarious characters around.

Why I'll Vote For McCain (Drunk)

French President (supposed conservative, for France I guess) Nicolas Sarkozy:

"We want a new world to come out of this. . . We want to set up the basis for a capitalism of entrepreneurs, not speculators.''

By "capitalism" he means "heavy regulation of the private sector by an intrusive central government with little knowledge of economics or understanding of the 'invisible hand'", guided by "questionable --socialistic-- political motives"

McCain might (please God) balk at this new order the Europeans desire. Obama will embrace it, as well as the rest of their statist ideologies.