June 2, 2005

Well, How About That?
Everett

I entitle a piece "Vive La France", and I completely forget to actually put anything in the piece explaining it. My bad. Anyway, major kudos to France for voting down the European "Constitution". In theory, I have no problem with a European Union, but it's current manifestation is over-regualted, untransparent, and unaccountable. Furthermore, the European Union, as it is currently constructed fails to cope with underlying cultural and economic differences bewtween the member states, instead seeking to either ignore them or forcibly remove them irrespective of the desires of the peoples of the EU.

Now, as to anti-French sentiment, if the official position of France is to be anti-American, as has been claimed by Chirac's government (possibly by Chirac himself, though I can't recall for sure), then I see no problem with my being anti-French. Of course, my anti-French sentiment isn't terribly serious as I cannot bring myself to regard France as a serious country, even if it is mind-numbingly pretentious.

Annatar, your Suez rant (I'm not familiar enough with the situation to repsnd autoritatively.) reminded me of something that happened here in the States back when we were debating whether or not to give the Panama Canal to Panama. a debate was held between the eminent William F. Buckley Jr., founder of National Review, and the late, great Ronald Reagan. Buckley was for giving the canal to Panama, and Reagan against. Some time after the debate Reagan invited Buckley to his house for dinner. As Buckley was coming up Reagan's driveway, he saw a series of hand-painted signs reading "We built it." "We paid for it." "It's ours.".

I also have to admit that I fail to see the evil of gasoline, or fossil fuels in general. They're cheap and plentiful sources of energy. Sure they can be nasty, but the mess can be cleaned up/prevented at relatively low long term cost. Granted, this was not always the case, but when a country is well enough off materially, it can afford to look to environmental protection. There's a reason first world countries are the healthiest in the world: they can afford it. Ultiamtely, economic growth is the key to environmental health because growing economies spur innovation, and as an innovation ceases to be an innovation and becomes commonplace, the cost of production drops, supply increases, and the price drops. This is especailly true of energy-saving technologies. There is naturally a high demand for energy efficient technologies because energy costs money. However, the demand for an energy-saving technology is not realized until the money saved in energy costs is greater than the cost of the technology, and an efficiently operating market is the best way to ensure that these innovations become affordable and that more innovations are made. In the short-term, Keynesian meddling may be more effective in reducing energy use, but the free market will ultimately win out, as the Keynesian market will become dependant upon free market systems for their innovation.

As to ANWR, I say drill away. The particular part of Alaska they'll be drilling in is little more than a giant mud flat. Plus, it's very close to the facility at Prudhoe Bay, so there isn't much pipeline to build. If you're concerned about the caribou, don't worry. The caribou population at Prudhoe Bay has gone up five-fold since the facility was opened in 1980, and caribou have even been seen nestling up to machinery to keep warm. Concerning the "purity" of Alaska, I can only tell you to read Michael Crichton's "State of Fear". It's not one of his best, but it's a quick read and highly informative.

Now, what about the American obsession with things big? It proabably has to with the idea of American exceptionalism. If we're going to do something, we want to be the best at it. Whether it's our economy, our military, our sports' teams/leagues and atheletes, the Olympics, our technology, our Chinese food, our cars, our movies, or our crappy music it has to better than yours. Why? Well, if you're going to do something, you might as well be the best at it. Besides, a little competition makes everything more interesting. As Vince Lombardi famously said, "Winning isn't everything. It's the only thing."

Welcome, back Sirindu. Been awhile.

Finally, by my rough estimation, Montana is about 500 miles long. Not terribly precise, but hopefully it's close enough to let us read Faerlas' Montana story.