Noble Cause Corruption and Greenmail

I smell another great documentary in the making.  Phellim McAleer writes in the New York Post that Chevron is taking the Eco-nuts behind the movie 'Crude' to court for civil-racketeering.  It's been called "greenmail".

Apparently Chevron secured a court order for some 500 hours of cutting room footage from this movie.  The filmmakers have been caught boasting about intimidating and humiliating judges.  They are also seen complaining about the lack of pollution and devising schemes to exaggerate the extent of pollution in Ecuador. 

The environmentalists are also accused of forging signatures on false reports, paying experts to allow them to ghost write reports, and bribing judges outright. 

James Delingpole is also writing about the green extortion racket surrounding this movie.  He touches on the fascinating topic of what he calls Noble Cause Corruption.  It is the answer to the question of why so many people sacrifice their own integrity in telling environmental lies.  They tell themselves that their cause is 'The Greatest Threat Known To Mankind' thus excusing them from telling the truth and any other ethical or moral considerations. 

I've noticed this myself, though I called it Social Engineering License.  Its like poetic license.  They have special permission due to the importance of their cause to bend and stretch the truth.  The rest of us just aren't smart enough to see the danger so its ok for them make up whatever kind of fire and brimstone story that all the dummies will understand. 

It even works on some of those dummies.  They can't conceive that an environmentalist would lie to them.  Somehow these eco-nuts are pure and incorruptible.  Enviro-activists are supposedly free of the human frailties that have corrupted police, teachers, politicians, clergy, scout leaders, judges, hockey coaches, you name it.  All of these have had tragic episodes of misplaced trust, and yet its unbelievable that eco-nuts would do something as 'harmless' as lie about the 'enemies of all life?'

Here now we have an example of just that.  In the same spirit as Climategate and Gasland we have another eco-fraud to the tune of $19 billion.  I'm going to enjoy this case.

Not so bad: Redford champions the Oil Sands in Washington

Yesterday Alison Redford spoke to the Brookings Institute on the Keystone XL pipeline.  You can watch the whole thing here and the text is here.

I'm going to cut the wildly unpopular Premier of Alberta some slack on this one.  She did good.  I think that somebody initially opposed to the pipeline might change their mind on Keystone if they were listening and reasonable.  Canada needs that and so does Obama.

Of course that doesn't excuse her lousy government's dismal record on the purposefully obscured budget deficit and broken promises.  It's just that the Oil Sands and its vital arteries like Keystone are central to Canada's economy and our National Interest.  Partisanship is not appropriate on this key issue.

Thomas Mulcair, being a foreign citizen and leader of a communist/separatist NDP unsurprisingly doesn't see it this way.  When his MPs aren't bashing Canada's victorious dead, they are defecting to the Bloc.  In his spare time Mulcair is himself bashing the Oil Sands in the east with phony Dutch Disease and bashing it in the South with similar tales.  The NDP is the party of division and disaster.

The NDP segment of society; the self styled "progressives" showed up to Alison's discussion too.  Out of the 2 hours they spoke for, these morons disrupted only about a minutes and a half of it.  I've compiled the interruptions into this short video.  Let's take a look.  It's always fun.



Idiot #1:  "They want to sell out the future of life on our planet! Lets get more creative!  Create Green Jobs!  It's easy.  We just need a little more subsidies and we create green jobs!"

Who's a sell out?  A little more subsidies to create green jobs and "the future of life on our planet," isn't so important anymore.  Nobody but the eco-nuts think Keystone threatens the future of life on earth.  Well.  I don't even think they believe it.  They just say it, and then they get their money.  Sell outs.

Idiot #2:  "You all are responsible for all these pipelines in the United States and for oil proliferation throughout our country."  (Idiot#2 then runs in the wrong direction, towards the stage, where he is tackled and led away)

Where to begin with this one.  First.  Plaid shirt.  Trucker Hat.  Obviously he's trying to look like a regular Joe.  What did they think this guy came for?  Perhaps Washington has a new form of parasite akin to squeegee kids.  One that drifts through Washington from think tank event to think tank event to keep warm and scavenge food.

Kid, those people on the stage did not build any pipelines nor will they.  Real people who actually like to wear plaid shirts and trucker hats built all those pipelines.  These are pipelines that you happen to use on a daily basis and have done since the day you were born.  Also Google oil history to find out why you sound so incredibly stupid.

Idiot # 3:  "Climate Change means mass casualty flooding, mass casualty famines, mass casualty droughts."
Is that what Climate Change means this week?  A couple of weeks ago we learned Climate Change causes gun crimes in Chicago.  Yesterday I read Climate Change will cause turbulence on your flight.  Climate change is a new God.  It causes all things that people don't like.  It might even have caused itself to go away for the last 20 years and also caused all the progressives not to notice.

Idiot # 4: "That's why were doing something about it," said Alison Redford.  One thing you can't do it is talk sense into these idiots.  Look at his face.  He practices that look in the mirror I bet.  You've also just pleaded  guilty multiple mass manslaughter.  All in a days work for a prog politician.  Guess who caused the next flood, drought and famine?  Alison Redford.  Good thing she is doing something about it.

If that is what it takes to get this thing built, then plead away.

Of Pipelines and Trains

One of the most glaring examples of environmental foolishness comes from the Keystone XL question. Because the pipeline is stalled for political reasons, oil from the Oil Sands has had to be shipped by train.

I do not consider myself a genius yet people who don't intuitively understand that pipelines are more reliable than cars on a rail make me feel like one. I say 'intuitive' because many people just take one look at a pipeline and know that its better than a train without any need to comment on it or explain it. Too often the mistake of reasonably intelligent people is to assume that other people are also reasonably intelligent.

It should be obvious to any but the severely miseducated among the left that pipelines are:

1. safer
2. cheaper
3. cleaner

Pipelines are Safer

The simplest way to put it is that there are fewer moving parts and therefore fewer things that can go wrong. The pipe is installed, tested, inspected on a regular basis and thats it you've got a pipeline. Anything that can go wrong with a pipeline can also go wrong with a rail line. Mud slides, Earthquakes, sabotage, the risks are all the same.

Tanker cars add another level of complexity to the system. Now you have to worry about mechanical failure of the car at a number of points. The wheels, the axles, brakes, taps, hatches, battens, the scheduling that keeps rails cars from colliding, all of that adds to the risk of potential failure of the system as a whole.

Plenty of people ride trains every single day. Its hard to drive this message home since people have complete trust in trains just as they should. People spills are much worse than oil spills yet they do happen. Since people are discreet units they simply can't be transported by pipe. (duh -but if you could move people by pipe you know it would be superior to rail)

Forgive me if this is a "no brainer" to you but some people really need it spelled out for them. People who can understand the world at a glance just don't become eco-nuts. Let me try to put it differently for their sake.

Most people live in a house with plumbing. You are probably surrounded by pipelines right now. You have pipes for hot water, cold water, rain water, gas, sewage, central air, central vac, even the cables for your electricity are bundled into conduit pipes. Now try to imagine that instead of hot water running through pipes to your shower head in the morning you have a model train in your walls bringing you hot water by the tank.

How well do you suppose that would work? Think it can be done cheaper and as hassle free as your existing network of plumbing? How about your little poop train running under the floors? Are you going to clean it and inspect it constantly, because one mishap means you've got a load of poop where you don't want it.

The Model Railroad Toilet

Pipelines are Cheaper

Pipelines don't require high maintenance for the cars and the tracks and the locomotives. Not to mention the people needed to drive the locomotives, run the rail system and load and unload the liquid cargo. They all need large paychecks and benefits or they will shut the system down on us. Tank cars also crowd the rail system adding even more to the cost of all goods moved by rail.

Don't kid yourself.  They will charge what they have to charge and you are the one who ends up paying.

Fuel costs money and locomotives burn much more fuel than a pump houses. Pump houses are static structures so they can be connected right into the grid.

Pipelines are Cleaner

Along with the cost of fuel mentioned above come the "environmental costs." Its all bullcrap of course. Carbon is not pollution. There is much more rock solid evidence that CO2 is plant food than there is this about this cult of carbon doom that consistently misses its own doomsday predictions. I include this only to show that eco-nuts are internally inconsistent in their eco-nuttery.

The opposition to Keystone is supposed to be about the evil carbon intensity of the Oil Sands. Why would eco-nuts force the necessary transport of oil through a mode of transportation that is more carbon intensive? I haven't even spoken about the increased risk of a spill from all those extra points of contact. It makes no sense.

These people don't know anything about anything. They are easily duped walking talking bags of pure emotion. Reason is a dirty word to these people. They dimly understand that Reason leads to losing the argument so they instinctively will shout, scream, wave silly signs and do anything to avoid discussion.

Approving Keystone

The other day Obama gave his SOTU speech. He spoke about attracting investments in infrastructure, in a so-called "Partnership to Rebuild America." (so what happened to the last push for infrastructure? Didn't get it done?) The Keystone XL pipeline defiantly falls into the infrastructure category. He also claimed to support "modern pipelines to withstand a storm." One hopes this includes storms of eco-bullcrap that have twice wrecked the KXL pipeline already.

Even today Eco-nuts are holding a Blackout Rally in Washington. 5,000 mindless blades of astro-turf were bused in completely unaware of the miracle of affordable internal combustion that made it possible.

Encouragingly media coverage of the event seems sparse. We've seen this movie already. The "legitimate" media as Biden calls it, is firmly in the tank for Obama. The President who can do no wrong shall not be criticized from the right or the left or anywhere. It sets the stage for an approval of KXL because the leftist media complex excels at nothing more than political theater. Even they sorely need the economic good news that approving KXL will bring for the news itself rather than the economic good for its own sake.

UPDATE: Reliable sources on the ground dispute the size of the astro-turf.  Huffpo pegged it at 40,000 but the actuall number is 5,000 shivering morons.  Post has been updated to reflect reality.

Agenda 21 and Anthem

Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke have written an excellent book called Agenda 21.  Its about a dystopian future where UN Agenda 21 has taken over every aspect of life in the name of saving the planet. 

I'm loving it so far.  It reminds me a lot of Ayn Rand's Anthem.

Anthem was written in 1937 after Ayn Rand escaped from communist Russia.  Anthem is short enough to read in one or two sittings and available entirely free at the above link. 

Agenda 21 could easily be described as the prequel to Anthem since the characters in Agenda 21 still remember how it used to be in our civilization.  The character's in Anthem are generations removed from all history and science and as ignorant and primitive as Iron Age slaves. 

Both are pertinent timely reads in a world going nuts.

My First Encounter With A Progressive

A couple of weeks ago I was scandalized but not surprised to read about a Quebec child that was punished because his parents put his lunch in a plastic ziplock bag.  It’s the expected result of the eco-religion’s ascension but no less frightening and appalling for being so easily predicted.  Hysteria coupled with righteous zeal is not new after all.  We’ve seen it again and again, from dogmatic institutionalization and oppression all the way to rejection and rebellion.

It reminded me of my own experiences with progressives growing up in a Catholic school in Ontario.  None of it was earth shattering or newsworthy, but it stands out to me like a first kiss.  It was my first encounter with progressive social engineering.  

I was your average kid.  I loved taking books out of the school library.  There was a book about volcanoes that I must have taken out six times.  It had some amazing pictures of billowing smoke and fire.  Most of them were picture books with at most a paragraph of explanation on each page.  It was a kids library after all and I was in the first grade.  

It was the time of the “save the whales” craze.  I used to wake up at dawn on Saturday mornings to watch Oceans Alive.  I can still hum the theme song and I knew all about whales.  Killer Whales especially.  They were on par with sharks being fearsome, deadly and impressive.
 

One day we were talking about saving the whales in class.  We listed off all the whales and I was jumping out of my seat to say my favourite one.  Finally it was my turn.  “Killer Whales,” I shouted, being very pleased that I had also found a way to shout killer in class.  

That was not going to fly in Mrs. Progressive’s Grade 1 class.  There was no such thing as a Killer Whale. 

I was dumbfounded.  Teachers know everything.  How could my teacher not know about Killer Whales?  I had been to MarineLand.  I watch Oceans Alive.  I’ve read the books in the library of this very school!  Now the ‘smart’ (obedient) girls are shaking their heads at me while I describe a Killer Whale.

“That’s an Orca,” Mrs. Progressive corrected, feigning ignorance.  

No it isn’t and I said so.  I refused to accept it.  I told her she was wrong and I would prove it.

I went to the library at recess and found the appropriate book all about Killer Whales.  That might have been the title of the book in fact: Killer Whales.  I brought it back to show her and she wouldn’t look at it.  She would not accept the animal’s name.  She told me the book was wrong.

I knew better, but I stopped thinking about Killer Whales.  I tried to figure out Mrs. Progressive instead and I think I got it.  She really liked whales.  She wanted to save them and didn’t want to think they were mean killers.  She was trying to change the truth so that I would act differently. 

This blew my mind.  My dad thought it was funny.  She told the whole class a lie to save whales.  She tried to trick us into saving the whales when we would have all been happy to save them, even the killing ones (they all kill).  

That was my first encounter with a progressive.  I didn’t know what they were back then and she probably didn’t either.  She probably would have been offended.  I also remember the day Brian Mulroney was elected.  She sat us in a circle and announced it as if the Pope had passed on.  That was also the first time I’d ever heard of elections and I asked if that was a good or bad thing that Mulroney had won.  She wouldn’t say, which meant she thought it was bad.  She would have said it was good if she thought so.

How many years have we lived with people like this?  -People who lie for their interpretation of the greater good.  –People who work their way into the bureaucracy and into public office so that they can shepherd us poor dummies around and look after us.  We can’t be trusted with our own money or we’ll spend it on beer and popcorn and end up homeless.  The facts?  Oh no.  We can’t have those because we’ll make the wrong conclusions.  

They constantly think they are smarter than the free market, that billions of minds processing their micro-economic decisions in parallel are less efficient than just a few powerful elites.  What arrogance.  What ignorance.    What great folly is the progressive worldview.  Progressivism is an enabling fallacy, a delusion, that allows people to pretend they are smarter than the masses and necessarily rule over them and overrule their dreams and hopes.

The good news is that the truth eventually gets out, especially the truth about nature and culture.  The Killer Whale incident kindled the flame of skepticism in me.  I knew from then on that some people will lie to themselves and everyone else to try and make a delusion real.  The poor kid whose parents committed an eco-sin, will remember that forever.  So will countless kids who don’t make the newspapers.  Nowhere is the green brainwashing stronger than in the schools.  They will all grow up ashamed of killing the world and they will rebel.  One fine sunny day they will cast aside the false guilt and fear.  They will laugh at the hysteria of their elders because it really is hysterical.  They will be free.