A Few Random Musings #4

It's been a while since I put up this type of post, here are a few comments about things going on, and whatever else might have popped into my mind:
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It seems that environmentalists have always been fond of trees.  I can't really blame them, since trees are pretty and do indeed take CO₂ from the atmosphere.  But the ability to absorb CO₂ is not unique to trees.  Every other plant, including grasses and crops, does the same thing.  Yet, I can't recall any environmentalist showing the same concern for corn, wheat or bluegrass that they seem to show for trees.

The term "green energy" is commonly used to denote energy sources that do not produce CO₂, implying that this feature would be good for the environment.  (See here, for example.)  This is ironic because without CO₂, the environment would not include any life forms that are naturally green.

I wonder how many people who wear a T-shirt depicting Che Guevara oppose the death penalty, while being blissfully unaware that he was an executioner.

You know things are getting scary when high school students wanted a communism-themed prom (which theme was later withdrawn, thankfully), while college students vote to forbid displaying the American flag (which likewise was later rescinded).

When it comes to dealing with the Muslim world, President Obama and his administration apparently think that the Benghazi fiasco, which happened several years ago, is no longer relevant, but the Crusades, on the other hand, which took place over 800 years ago, are still relevant.

Every once in while, when someone points out how Islam treats women and gays, someone else will respond by saying that we shouldn't judge Muslims by our culture.  On the other hand, Muslims judging non-Muslims by their culture, such as by demanding anti-blasphemy laws, doesn't seem to raise such concerns.

When a Muslim commits act of violence, we are just about always told that Islam had nothing to do with it, no matter how many times the perpetrators shout "Allahu akbar!" and no matter how many Koranic verses they cite.  But when three Muslims were murdered in North Carolina, thus becoming the victims of a violent act, their faith is considered relevant, at least to some extent, to the killer's possible motivation.

Some have cited the fact that most of the victims of violence by ISIS are Muslims to justify saying that ISIS (a.k.a. ISIL) is not Islamic.  If I'm not mistaken, most of the victims of the Inquisition were Christian, so maybe we can also say that the Inquisition itself was not really a Christian operation.

In football, only certain positions are called "skill positions".  I find this puzzling and a bit unfair, because all football positions require some sort of skill.  If you're an offensive lineman, most of what you do is to push opposing defenders away from whoever on your team has the ball.  This is known as "blocking", and it is indeed a skill.  On defense, everyone is expected tackle whoever has the ball, which is also a skill.

Speaking of "fairness", I'm sure that if you put X number of politicians in a room, you'll get at least X+1 definitions of "fairness".  Unfortunately, too many politicians seem to think that the purpose of government is to make life fair, something that sensible people realize is impossible.

The recent decrease in gasoline prices, resulting from the increased supply of crude oil due to fracking, would indicate that "drill, baby, drill" was the right thing to do.  Better yet, with all that fracking going on in the Dakotas, we can pretty much leave ANWR alone.  The main drawback, as many have noticed, is that the decreased prices make fracking less profitable, since the process itself is costly.  On the other hand, some say that lower prices won't harm the industry all that much.

So many politicians seem to be in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens these days.  I'll bet that just about all of them live in homes surrounded by fences, with at least some of those homes also protected by electronic security systems, or even armed guards.  You can bet that their attitudes toward people illegally present on their own private property are quite different from their attitudes toward people illegally present in the country.

To recognize racism only when the racist is white is itself racist.  To recognize sexism only when the sexist is male is sexist.

The United States has often been accused of "imperialism", both by foreign politicians and by Americans back home.  But if you look at the areas controlled by the United States, other than the states themselves, they're all islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific, most of them being pretty small.  If that's an empire, it seems to be a pretty modest one.

If a member of the Bush cabinet had used a private email account, based on a server located in that person's home, for their official business, the resulting screams from the left would have been so loud that we'd still be hearing their echos.

For anyone who has a problem with Senate Republicans holding up the confirmation of Loretta Lynch, I have two words for you:  Miguel Estrada.

How soon before most people forget that "app" is short for "application"?  Or has it happened already?

I've always been skeptical about predictions that the world will come to an end at some specific time.  So far, every one has been wrong.

I believe in giving everyone the respect they are due - whether they like it or not.