The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Tempers Run Hot

5.15.08 @ 12:01AM

NO DISAGREEMENT
Re: Larry Thornberry's Green Gasbag:

I disagree. McCain is stupid.
-- Stephen Goth

Speaking as a writer myself (yes, a real one that gets paid to do it, like you), I must say your recent column "Green Gasbag" was as hilarious as it was accurate.

Please keep up the good work!
-- Eric Mylonas

Had I been living under a rock somewhere, I would have thought that Larry Thornberry was writing some mis-begotten humor about purported utterances by Sen. John McCain about global warming, etc. But no, I haven't been doing such a thing and have even heard those words as spoken by the good Senator and Republican nominee for POTUS. Perhaps Senator Obama is correct -- McCain has "lost his marbles" or words to that extent.

I sent in a contribution to McCain's campaign a month or so ago. I wonder if there's any way I can get it back. I'm REALLY beginning to worry at this point.
-- Jim Bjaloncik
Stow, Ohio

As a conservative who has mainly voted Republican throughout my life, I am finally quitting. Try as I have to hold my nose and support John McCain, I cannot. Currently, I agree with him only on abortion. The speech he gave on global warming, though, overrides even that.

My problem is that I believe in God. Therefore, I believe he created the earth, then plants and animals, then us. For years, I have thought it utter foolishness to believe man could destroy God's creation. And, of course, I'm right. Man cannot destroy God's creation.

However, an alarming array of evangelical pastors, the Pope, and supposedly "right-leaning" politicians have jumped on the environmental apocalypse bandwagon. It's too much for me. Because of my faith in God, it really doesn't matter who calls the White House home from January 2009 to 2013. It just doesn't. There's not enough difference among the three remaining contestants because each apparently, and mistakenly, believes man to be more powerful than God.

So, it is goodbye, McCain 2008. I won't be voting for Hillary or Obama, either. I'll simply burn my voter's registration card as a sign of protest against with arrogance and stupidity of the candidates we've been offered.
-- Kevin Cozort
P.S. -- And, don't anyone pipe up with the ridiculous "Ron Paul is still running" malarkey. He's as crazy as a road lizard in his belief that America should only defend itself if some foreign country's army's boot heels touch American soil. Paul is as out of the realm of reality as the three remaining viable candidates. Someone please tell him about intercontinental ballistic missiles and their ability to carry nuclear payloads. If there were a ballot with only two names, Ron Paul and Foghorn Leghorn, I'd throw the switch for Foghorn. He's got, I say, he's got twice as much on the ball as Mr. Paul!

Since global temperatures have been increasing and decreasing over the years, it's obvious that the current global crisis must be rethought in order to ensure that we address the true issues confronting our fragile planet, especially since our expert class has been unable to form a consensus about the problem that lasts more than a generation (in the 1970s, global cooling was the concern). Since both cooler and hotter temperatures have consequences, we must come up with a paradigm that encompasses all temperature trends and permits us to use the new paradigm to advance a free-market agenda, just as the Greens have used global warming to advance socialism.

The new paradigm is global lukewarming.

Naturally, as the creator of this concept, I will expect a modest royalty for the use of the term and all subsequent applications of the theory, the bulk of which I promise will be applied to maintaining global equilibrium. Towards this end, I would like to announce the formation of the Goldilocks Institute of global climate control. Our motto: "This part of the planet is too hot, that part is too cold. It must be juuuuuuuuuuuust right." The institute will work tirelessly for the maintenance of global equilibrium. For example, those who insist on purchasing carbon credits to prevent global warming will now also purchase an equal number of carbon debits in order to prevent global cooling. Since carbon credits are made by planting trees, carbon debits will come from logging those trees. Obviously, planting and then uprooting trees is a pointless expenditure of limited resources, but I have come up with a brilliant (if I say so myself) solution. As the first entrepreneur to address the carbon equilibrium credit/debit issue, I will be glad to take money in return for not planting trees that I then don't have to harvest. The model for this program has been tried to great effect through our farm subsidy programs, and I anticipate that I should do at least as much for the environment as those farmers who received subsidies for not planting crops, like Sam Donaldson.

Don't thank me, I'm a humanitarian. While a Nobel Prize is always a nice paperweight, I'll settle for the knowledge that I have made the world a better place for our children. Just make sure that the checks don't bounce.
-- Mike Harris

After reading Mr. McCain's speech on environmental issues and his idiotic approach to solving the problem, his quest for amnesty for illegals, his past performance on tax cuts and campaign reform makes me wonder if I can in all good conscience vote for him. But, on the other hand, what the choice between Hillary or Obama makes me want to cry. Then we get to the Democrat led congress leading the spineless Republicans around by the nose makes my pace maker over heat. Now I have to go out and buy gasoline at nearly $4 a gallon when we have millions of barrels of crude oil lying just off shore but even if we were able to extract it, where in the hell could we refine it since we haven't built a new refinery since the early 1970s.

Letter to the Editor

topics:
John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mainstream Media, Economics, Business, Religion, Catholicism, Islam, Abortion, Environment, Global Warming, Constitution, Law, NATO, Africa, North Korea, Socialism, Oil