Crush Liberalism

Educrat wants Big Government to save him from himself

A pointy-headed pseudo-intellectual college professor likes his carbon-spewing power tools and Hummers, and a carbon tax isn’t enough to stop him.  His solution?  Predictably, he wants the imperial federal government to ban these products so he won’t be tempted to use them.  From the Washington comPost:

UPS delivered my hedge trimmer a few weeks ago. Actually, it is not just a hedge trimmer but has interchangeable heads so that it can trim grass, mow down brush and cut small tree limbs. The whole thing was a steal: $359. As I powered it up, I felt mild pangs of guilt — the two-cycle contraption uses a mixture of oil and gas to cool the engine as well as fuel it, which makes it not just copiously smelly but also a behemoth when it comes to producing carbon dioxide.

If you think that is bad, so do I — especially since I could have bought a slightly more expensive four-cycle model that does not require mixing the oil and gas. And I know better. But my knowledge did not translate into action. I knew I was doing wrong. I even agonized about doing wrong. But it did not stop me….

On and on it goes. I spend most of my waking hours worrying about how to reduce my output of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Yet my behavior seems to march to a different drummer. I need to get the best deal. For me, not the world. When it comes to what counts as the best deal, my values don’t get incorporated into the calculation. I am attuned only to price. And I don’t think I am alone in this.
…
But there is another problem. I like Hummers. Not the really big Hummer I, but the more demure Hummer II. I like its boxy design and its commanding presence on the road. I secretly desire to command the road. Here I am not irrational, just retrograde when it comes to my preferences. And if my preferences are strong enough and my wallet is large enough, no tax is going to make me give up my Hummer for a Prius.

I am not alone in loving Hummers. An effective tax will have to take into account all variety of Hummer lovers, the strength of their preferences and the size of their wallets.

I say: Better not to tempt me in the first place. Take the Hummers away. Don’t clutter my world with things I should not have. Don’t dangle them in front of me, creating desire, only to then try to have me renounce them. Just ban the damn two-cycle hedge trimmer and let me be done with the matter. 

Yep, one’s willpower (or lack thereof) is apparently the federal government’s responsibility.  Sometimes, moonbattery just leaves me speechless.

January 4, 2008 - Posted by crushliberalism | big government, global warming, hypocrisy, moonbats