American Consequences - May 2019

to me that breathing isn’t like burning fossil fuels because breathing doesn’t involve “sequestered carbon.” But I’m as dumb as the next voter and don’t know sequester from Ryan Seacrest. Or, anyway, I’m as dumb as Elizabeth Warren who, when she introduces the federal law against breathing, will tell us that only the rich have to hold their breath.) Your possessions will go away. And, since “possession is nine-tenths of the law,” the rule of law goes with them. (That “nine-tenths” adage isn’t just about squatters’ rights or who has borrowed the car. The first purpose of law is to protect property, and foremost in protection comes that property most precious to you: your ownership of yourself as a free person. Without property, there is no freedom.) If rule of law goes away, so does representative democracy – the legal system of checks and balances that’s entrusted with both guidance by majorities and protection of individuals. When government takes ownership of everything, the result is either the terror of collectivism or the horror of crony capitalism or, as in China, both. The checks bounce, and the balances are weighted by the thumbs of special interests. Also, lacking civil liberties and property rights, representative democracy is left with nothing to represent except the will of the mob or – as it’s called these days – “activism.” We already live in a country where activists are snatching the role once played by duly elected and duly appointed officials. When Dr. Frankenstein is up to something in his castle, does modern America send the

I understand why people are bothered by climate change. It bothers me four times a year – arthritic winter, allergic spring, summertime bedroom A/C window unit falling out and smashing the patio furniture, and my Harris Tweed sport coat full of moth holes in the fall. But we’ve let our annoyance be turned into abject fear. I’m sure our Earthly home could use some tidying, climatologically. But when the house is a mess, you get out the mop and the broom... You don’t call 911. In our panic, we’ll demand strict government regulation to prevent carbon emissions. And most carbon emissions result from the exercise of property rights. Among the property that belongs to you is a pair of lungs. The Internet tells me (for free again) that those lungs emit 2.3 pounds of carbon dioxide a day. Multiply by world population, and that’s 17.25 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide, which is much more than the 209 billion pounds of carbon dioxide that burning fossil fuels emits daily. You can see where the regulatory direction is headed... Exhaling to be allowed by licensed permit only, and deep sighs forbidden under any circumstances. And, speaking of exercising your property rights, the lungs of long-distance joggers, gym rats, hot yoga practitioners, and others who engage in vigorous physical activity can emit as much as eight times the average amount of CO 2 . The police would run you down, except that would cause even more global warming, so they’ll shoot you from a distance. (Yes, yes, I know... The experts try to explain

American Consequences

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