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To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint.

Sweet:

‘Eco-terrorism’: Arson v. satire

There's a lot of good stuff in Pat Morrison's op-ed on the overuse of the word "terrorism." Like this:

From the White House to the soccer pitch, "terrorist" has "cooties" and "your mother wears combat boots" flat beat as the top playground potty-mouth slur for the 21st century.

Who's surprised? The Bush administration has been scattering the word like ticker tape on a Manhattan parade. Old McDonald left the farm for the NSA, and now it's here a terrorist, there a terrorist, everywhere a terrorist.

I couldn't agree more about the politically driven cheapening of the word. But he also makes a good point about environmental activism:

Osama bin Laden has said that he fears mockery more than death. If eco-protesters want to do some real damage, they should give up arson and take up ridicule. Don't torch those SUVs; put a cardboard cutout of Bin Laden in the passenger seat of an H2, and one of Dubya in the driver's seat beside him, then alert the media.

Hm ... sounds like something I've heard before ...

(Some other good stuff on eco-terrorism from Renee Downing and Randy Serraglio.)

Newt and energy

Newt Gingrich is likely going to run for president in 2008. I hope and pray he wins the Republican nomination, as his defeat in the general would be all but a certainty, but it strikes me as unlikely.

Anyway, he describes his proposed energy policy on this page, and it includes a rather baffling misunderstanding that seems common in conservative circles:

The Bush administration's investment in developing hydrogen energy resources may be the biggest breakthrough of the next half-century. Hydrogen has the potential to provide energy that has no environmental downside. In one stroke a hydrogen economy would eliminate both air pollution and global warming concerns. Since hydrogen is abundant in the air and water around us, it eliminates both the national security and foreign exchange problems associated with petroleum.

Uh.

Offshore oil

The usual suspects in Congress are pushing hard for legislation that would end the ban on U.S. offshore drilling. It's the latest cause célèbre of the Fossil Fuels Forever crowd.

Over on Oil Drum, Dave (no relation) takes a long, close look at the claims made by proponents about available oil reserves. It's somewhat technical, as usual for OD, so if you want to skip to the end, here's the nut:

In conclusion, here in the United States we continue to fiddle as Rome burns.

Sigh.

Alternet for Gore

Alternet readers have voted Al Gore their favored presidential candidate. Between this and the Daily Kos poll, it looks like Gore has the coveted Online Lefty vote locked up, should he choose to enter the race.

Inhofe press flacks ‘worst people in the world’

The inimitable Keith Olberman named Marc Morano and Matt Dempsey, the press flacks for the Senate Environment Committee, as his "worst persons in the world" yesterday.

OK, they came in second -- got the silver medal -- but still.

Morano himself sent out a press release about it; perhaps in true hack fashion he thinks any publicity is good publicity.

(If you don't recall the background, the committee, chaired by Sen. Inhofe, has started sending out press releases filled with lies and ad hominem attacks about global warming, directed at newspaper articles and now TV specials. With your tax dollars.)

Chemical-safety bill moving oh-so-slowly through Congress

An attack on one of the many toxic chemical plants in the U.S. could endanger more than a million people. Environmentalists, security experts, and even the Army surgeon general have been raising the alarm about this threat since Sept. 11, 2001, but Congress has yet to do anything about it. Its latest efforts are being […]

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness — Well, One Out of Three Ain’t Bad

The happiest nations are not the high-consuming ones, survey says A new Happy Planet Index supports the cliché that money can’t buy happiness. The New Economics Foundation, a British think tank, looked at 178 countries’ consumption levels, life expectancy, and happiness, and concluded that people can live long, happy lives without sucking up large quantities […]

Beleaguered of Nations

Britain pledges to involve poor countries in fighting climate change Climate change ain’t gonna be pretty for any of us, but it will have an especially devastating impact on Africa: more extreme weather patterns will cause food insecurity, income loss, higher death rates, and more diseases. Calling the impacts of climate change on poor nations […]

We Hope the Russians Love Their Tube Worms Too

Russians plan to drill into untouched Antarctic lake The world’s seventh-largest freshwater lake is locked under a giant Antarctic ice sheet and has never been exposed to human contact — but Russian scientists have drilled within 425 feet of it, and, despite pleas from scientists and environmentalists, intend to drill in all the way over […]