Merry Christmas!

I hope you and your family have a safe and Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

The Real Price of Kyoto

There was an interesting article in the UK Daily Mail online recently.  The article is about Canada’s decision to leave the famous Kyoto Protocol.  I think this decision is very significant for a number of reasons.

First, a little background.  If you aren’t familiar with it, the Kyoto Protocol is a regulatory framework set up by the United Nations.  In the agreement, nations commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emission by a set amount by certain target years.  If they don’t, then they are fined.  The reduction from Kyoto has been shown to be on the order of .19 degree Centigrade. While this isn’t likely to significantly impact global warming, supporters of Kyoto say its an important first step in combating man-made global warming.  Global Warming skeptics argue that the cost of compliance is to great for the nominal reduction that Kyoto might grant us.

The story in the UK Mail discusses Canda’s recent decision to leave the Kyoto protocol. While it’s unusual for a country to withdraw from the agreement, Canada took an unprecedented step:  they publicly renounced the Kyoto agreement. They are the first nation to do this.  Canada won’t meet the reductions for next year and stands to be fined $14 Billion.  In renouncing Kyoto, the Canadian environmental minister said:

‘To meet the targets under Kyoto for 2012 would be the equivalent of either removing every car, truck, ATV, tractor, ambulance, police car and vehicle of every kind from Canadian roads or closing down the entire farming and agriculture sector and cutting heat to every home, office, hospital, factory and building in Canada.’

This is the problem with Kyoto, and with most solutions proposed for man-made global warming.  Despite what you may read, the science behind global warming is far from settled.  However global warming believers would wreck economies around the world for the possibility of a minor reduction in temp.  A reduction that isn’t likely to change temperatures 100 years from now.

Pearl Harbor – December 7, 1941

Seventy years ago today, our nation was rocked by an attack by Japan on our navy at Pearl Harbor.  In two hours, the Japanese fleet had killed 2,400 Americans and seriously damaged our own fleet.  The attack on the U.S.S. Arizona has become somewhat symbolic of that day.  When the munitions magazine was hit and exploded, 1,100 Americans died.  The U.S.S. Arizona was one of only two Battleships damaged from the attack that never returned to service (the other being the U.S.S. Utah).

The attack shocked and outraged our nation.  The America First committee was a political group devoted to staying out of international wars.  It has been referred to as the largest anti-war political group in American history.  This includes those that would appear during the Vietnam War and during the Iraq war.  The America First committee dissolved  itself the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This anchor was recovered from the Arizona and now rests at the National Park in Pearl.  Much like the attacks on September 11th, we promised we would never forget.  I hope that we can keep this promise for the next 70 years.

America the Beautiful Day 31: Voter Involvement

For the final installment in America the Beautiful, I thought I would cover something most of us take for granted: our ability to be involved in our government through open elections.  In our republic, we are free to get as involved in our government, or stay as uninvolved as we see fit.

Personally, I believe we have a duty to stay as involved in our government as we can.  You should be actively engaged with the issues of the day, and what your representatives are doing.  You do have a certain amount of power you can exercise over the government.  The Tea Party movement has illustrated that an actively engaged public can tremendously affect both elections and the national discussion on very important issues.  However, this only happens if you spend time staying up to date on the current issues and what your representatives are doing.  You don’t need to turn this into a full time job.  There are websites around such as Mega Vote that will report to you how your representatives vote. Other sites, such as Real Clear Politics and The Week work hard to present the best political writing from both sides of the aisle.  You have to exercise your own judgement on exactly how much weight to give these opinions.

Finally, I have found that discussion with other individuals who stay up to date on the issues is the best way to learn.  I have had to learn a lot about a wide range of topics to have the confidence to post them here for anyone and everyone to take apart.  You don’t need to start your own blog if you don’t wish too.  There are sites across the political spectrum that are always looking for more people to voice their opinion.  And you are always welcome to comment, or even write a guest post, here.

America the Beautiful Day 30: The National Guard

This series will end before the 375th birthday of the National Guard.  I thought today would be a good day to celebrate the Guard.

The National Guard recognizes December 13, 1636 as it’s birthday, which makes it the oldest branch of our nations military.  According to the National Guard website:

[The Guard] started in 1636 when the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which functioned as the colony’s legislature, ordered existing militia companies from the towns surrounding Boston to form into three regiments: North, South and East

Today, the Guard has been used in a number of different roles. The National Guard looks at it’s history in “generations”. Each generation is a 20 year enlistment, with the current troops serving in the 19th Generation.  The Guard lists some of the milestones different generations have had to face:

• Generation seven rallied to battle the British at Lexington and Concord.
• Generation 12 faced off, brother against brother, in the Civil War.
• Generation 14 “Remembered the Maine” during the Spanish-American War.
• Generation 16 was already on duty when Pearl Harbor was attacked.
• Generation 19 will never forget and is still responding to 9/11.

I have met a lot of guardsmen (and women) in my workplace and in my wife’s.  I am somewhat humbled by these citizen soldiers.  They enlist in the military to defend our country, and our state, from its enemies.  They also stand ready to help their neighbors during natural disasters.  And they do all of this while working at another full time job, and being someones wife, brother, sister, mother, father, or husband.

Happy early birthday to the National Guard.  Thank you for all you have done over the last 19 generations.