Follow the money

Private property rights are important to conservatives.  For many conservatives, private property rights ought to supersede environmental regulations and zoning laws.  If a property owner cuts down all of his trees or keeps junked cars in the front lawn, that’s nobody’s else’s business.

I naturally assumed that our conservative legislators and local political groups would be aghast that the proposed PennEast Pipeline company could force private property owners to accept a pipeline slicing through their land.  If the property owners resist selling an easement, they can be compelled to do so, since private for-profit pipeline companies will be granted eminent domain rights. 

Imagine my surprise when I heard that the local 9/12 group favored the PennEast Pipeline.  Why would that group put a pipeline company above private property interests?

Then I remembered that last year the “Americans for Prosperity,” a front group for the Koch Brothers, sent representatives to speak at a 9/12 meeting.  I will even speculate that the Koch Brothers may help to fund the 9/12 group, although they don’t open their books to public scrutiny, so there is no way to tell for sure.  The Koch Brothers, of course, are heavily involved in the petroleum industry and are major supporters of Keystone XL.

I am hoping that our local 9/12ers will realize that private property rights are worth defending, and that if a pipeline company can overrule property rights, other corporations won’t be far behind.

Critical thinking

One requirement to graduate from San Jose State University was that students had to take a “critical thinking” class.  Students were supposed to learn how to reason, how to think logically, how not to be stupid.  

The Political Science Department course that satisfied the requirement was entitled “Controversial Legal Issues.”  I taught it a number of times, and we discussed such topics as abortion, gun control, the death penalty, and affirmative action.  

Students learned how to recognize and avoid fallacies in argument and how to examine emotional issues dispassionately.  

I thought about that course on Friday, when I read the following letter in the Morning Call.  I will quote the entire letter, but I won’t include the author’s name--why embarrass him further?  

The Islamic State burns a Jordanian pilot alive to death in a cage.

But President Obama says waterboarding is cruel and unusual punishment!

I can’t wait until 2017.

A non sequitur is an argument in which the conclusion does not follow from its premises.  That letter, my friends, is a perfect example.

NIMBY

A number of people have told me that I oppose the PennEast pipeline because it goes through our farm, creating a potential danger, lowering property values, and decreasing crop production.  They say my opposition is simply a case of “not in my back yard.”

Let me explain something.  I oppose the Keystone XL pipeline.  I don’t own any land or farms along its route.  I am in no danger if it explodes.  My fields won’t be affected.  

I oppose Keystone and PennEast pipelines because they are carrying petroleum products that are produced from processes that are incredibly harmful to the environment and increase global climate change.  I oppose those pipelines because the damage they do is external to the cost of the product, to be borne by the taxpayers.  I oppose them because they are not in the public interest, but rather in the interests of petroleum companies and their stockholders.

If the PennEast pipeline is moved five miles east or west from our farm, it won’t be in my back yard, but it will be in someone else’s, and I will continue to oppose it.  NIABBY!

Sen. Casey, Toomey Clone?

Senator Casey recently voted with Sen. Toomey to exempt waste coal plants from clean air standards.  (It failed.)  Then he voted with Toomey to repeal the medical device tax.  And he voted for the Keystone Pipeline.

Why would he do that?  Campaign contributions?  Inherent conservatism?  Lack of courage?  Pandering to the right?  

I don’t know the reason, but Casey is a disappointment. 

Ron Paul and measles

When I was living in Santa Clara County, California, an amazing courtroom drama took place.  A family refused medical treatment for their child for religious reasons.  The child, present, in the courtroom, was dying.  The judge, whose name I wish I could remember, ruled against the parents and accompanied the car carrying the child to the Stanford Medical Center in case the police had any questions about why the car was speeding.  The child lived.

Contrast that with Rand Paul, so-called libertarian, who was quoted in today’s Times saying the right to refuse to vaccinate one’s child was a matter of “freedom.”  Mr. Paul said, “The state doesn’t own your children.  Parents own the children.”

Actually, Mr. Paul, they don’t.  Parents can’t sexually exploit their children.  They can’t send them off to work 16 hours a day.  They can’t refuse to give their children life-saving blood transfusions.  They can’t beat their children to death.

Children are part of our community, and we can demand that they get vaccinated for measles so they--and our own children--don’t die.

Carbon County Agriculture

In 2012, the last year for which figures are available, total value of agricultural sales in Carbon County was $9,339,000.  That figure came from a county-by-county breakdown in the latest issue of the Center For Rural Pennsylvania Newsletter.  The largest commodity group for Carbon was nursery and greenhouse, which surprised me, since I wasn’t aware of all that many nurseries and greenhouses.

The figure for Monroe County to our east was $10,974,000 with the largest commodity being grains.  Lancaster County, of course, was first and the only county over a billion:  $1,474,954,000.  The main commodity was poultry and eggs.

Superbowl #49

The game is on now while I’m writing this.  I love that companies spend millions of dollars for Superbowl ads, and I don’t watch them.  Of course, I’m really not the demographic category at which the ads are aimed.  

As you can see from the previous sentence, I’m of the generation that was taught not to end a sentence with a preposition.  The people for whom the ads are produced don’t know what a preposition is.

How did I ever get so old and cranky?