We live in a time when intelligent people expend vital brain power concocting explanations for war that weigh drought as a more significant cause than . . . previous tyranny and warfare.
Yes, the President’s friends and acolytes defend the notion, in all seriousness, that it is unregulated capitalism leading to global warming and Levantine droughts that made Syrians all unruly. This explains everything!
Just blame Islamic State violence on the weather and not on . . . the murderous dictator willing to kill masses of his own people, the intoxicating ideology of jihad, and (definitely not!) on Barack Obama’s Mideast policies.
I emphasized the Syrian dictator’s acts last Sunday. But surely American foreign policy — going back to Bush, at least — destabilized the region, and constitutes a major cause of the violence.
A far greater cause than our car-driving addiction! And coal!
And flatulent cows . . .
Blame shifting is not just a foreign policy vice, though. My Townhall column began not with the nascent Caliphate’s droughts, but California’s. And there’s more than just a few syllables of pronunciation similarity. People are assigning the wrong causes in both regions.
When California’s government-run water system subsidizes almond growing in a near desert, of course there is going to be waste. And yet politicians focus on home water use, scolding folks for taking long showers.
Yet, who sets the price of the water homeowners buy? Who, then, is responsible for the incentives to which consumers react?
The State of California. Suffering no drought of disastrous dictates by politicians in over their heads.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
3 replies on “Caliph/f or Nyet”
Per NASA, there has been no detectable global warming for 23 years now. Before many of the rebels were born. So was this supposed to be the residual of the events of 23 years ago? So it’s Bush’s fault? (Herbert Walker)
As far as I can tell, climate change has occurred over the millenniums. Maybe greenhouse gas has exacerbated the problems, as well as thousands of satellites in the ozone. But you accurately pointed out the lunacy in correlating it with terrorism.
Now to your mention of the California drought. I believe the idiotic choices that Gov. Brown, as well as judges have made, have caused this drought. You mentioned the almond trees in the desert. Yes, stupidity to divert water to resource sucking trees that were planted in the desert. However, infrastructure is crumbling all over the state. Not a week goes by that a main doesn’t break somewhere, with thousands of gallons gushing down the streets & into the drains. But the greatest indignity was this: environmental activists convinced a federal judge five years ago that in order to save the Delta Smelt from extinction, the water designated for the Central Valley would have to be diverted.
In keeping with the federal court order, 3 million acre-feet of fresh water has been diverted — directly into the Pacific Ocean.
An acre-foot is 1’x66’x660′ of water.
The Delta Smelt is normally used by Californians as a bait-fish. This didn’t happen once, but 2x.
The inmates are running the asylum.
I can’t believe how naive you are, Paul!
Don’t you realize how easy it is to get something for nothing? We can have plenty of cheap water for almond growers and city dwellers too, if we just pass the right laws!