From "carbon forestry" to embryo farming: Connecting the dot.coms

By Curtis Dahlgren

"The people who were first in line to promote the sexual 'revolution' of the 60s and 70s ['stay out of our bedroom'] are the same people who are now acting like fascists and thought police on selected issues [from light bulbs to seat belts]." — C.D. [from paragraph 4, my very first column — September 9, 2003]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? UNCLE SAM NOW OWNS G.M. (and he just fired the CEO of the company). Chevrolet is now as American as the folks-wagon — Hitler's Volkswagen (and a Chevy will probably soon resemble one), so let's take a hard look at where we're at, "at this point in time."

The John Stuart Mill column-of-the-week is "How you can be greater than the prophets" by Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: http://jewishworldreview.com/twerski/Sun_Will_Shine_Again.php3

"The great physician, Sir William Osler, said the words that helped him lead a life free of worry were, 'Our main business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.' Actually, the Talmud had stated this many years before Sir William: 'A wise man is superior to a prophet' (Bava Basra 12a). That is, a prophet views the future, whereas a wise man deals with the present.

"This does not mean that one should not plan for the future. However, when one experiences an adversity such as has resulted from the current economic crisis, one may be so overwhelmed by what the future holds that he may not deal effectively with the present. We should remember that our ancestors in the wilderness were the recipients of the manna, a food allotment that was sufficient for only one day, to teach them not to worry about whether there would be manna tomorrow.

"We've already mentioned that in a state of panic, one may do outlandish things. But even when one does not panic, the depressed mood alone can distort his perception." [unquote]

WHILE THE POWERS-THAT-BE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS DISTORTION, let's get a clearer perception of the "present" by looking at some of the crazy headlines-of-the-week:

- "Bitter cold slows rise of swollen Red River; I-94 and I-80 closed by blizzards; baseball-sized hail in Southeast" [at the height of global warming]

- "Big squishy blobs may fill key tracks in evolutionary timeline" [settles that!]

- "Kansas City airport closed by snow; 17 inches of rain in the South" [eh?]

- "Europe awaits visit from Michelle and her husband" [big townhall meeting]

- "Gun kills 8 people at NC nursing home" [stopped by a cop with a gun]

- "Shootings, murder-suicides linked to recession?" [whatever]

General Douglas MacArthur clearly perceived that our problems are basically "theological," and that the Solution "must be of the Spirit." That statement may not "compute" for our younger generations, but let's put it this way:

During the Great Depression, there was no upsurge in crime — because American culture was still mostly morality-based — spiritual.

The 1930s decade (which incidentally was the hottest decade of the 20th century) was a dichotomy: Famous radio preachers tried to take the nation in one direction, while President FDR tried to sell us on the notion that government was the only way to "salvation."

The former, it is said, were opportunistically taking advantage of social upheaval, while Roosevelt was heroically saving capitalism from itself.

The former were saying "We told you so" — that the Roaring 20s would have undesirable consequences. FDR was saying, "there is nothing to fear" if you just "trust us." As Rabbi Twerski says:

"We've already mentioned that in a state of panic, one may do outlandish things" [and government "can" do outlandish things not otherwise possible]!

UNCLE SAM HAS DONE SEVERAL OUTLANDISH THINGS IN A FEW SHORT WEEKS (in the name of the Environment, in the name of "science," and in the name of government-defined "fairness"). But "reparations" by any other name still stink, and "green" paganism takes advantage of the ignorant and corrupts the whole culture.

When Uncle Sam talks about eliminating "lobbyists," he means eliminating the middle-man, and going straight to direct bribery from auto unions, teachers' unions, and the environmentalists (and as I said in my previous column, there are Big Big Bucks in the latter field). SO:

FROM "CARBON FORESTRY" TO EMBRYO FARMING -

The July/August 2008 issue of "Fast Company" magazine had a cover story entitled "Tree Huggers Corner a $1 Trillion Market." Speaking of Camille Rebelo, a typical Yale forestry grad these days, she "has joined an elite for-profit field that barely existed eight months ago: carbon forestry . . .

"They are exerting tremendous influence over the brand-new market in greenhouse gas credits, which is projected to reach $1 trillion in the United States alone" [thank to Ivy League lawyers practicing extortion and blackmail on U.S. corporations, I might add].

One young Yale grad says, "There aren't nearly as many communists in the forestry school as there were 20 years ago" [i.e., they have cloaked themselves in a new mantle with the same old spots]. The article says:

"Under a cap-and-trade system, pioneered in the United States for acid rain, a government sets a national ceiling on emissions (the cap), which lowers annually [indefinitely].

"A clever CEO will, in principle, figure out a way to reduce her company's emissions to below her allotment. By carefully measuring how much carbon dioxide she's saving, she can sell the difference to someone who is unable or unwilling to meet his own goal (the trade)." [my emphasis]

The number of assumptions in that one paragraph alone stagger the mind. Everything from the government-set "ceilings" to the amount of CO2 being saved is subjective (as in "it all depends on what is IS!"). The author, Yalie Anya Kamenetz writes:

"It should be cause for concern that not a single person interviewed for this article, on either the investment or the carbon-project side, would assert with confidence that the rules currently being written for a U.S. cap-and-trade market will actually reduce overall carbon emissions. When it comes to carbon-forestry especially, the simple economics just may not work out. 'People are suddenly starting to see that carbon forestry is not the silver bullet,' Rebelo says."

Bo White, a business partner of hers, says, "I haven't seen meta-analysis that says, 'Yes, this is working.' I think it's really important to find ways of determining if these markets are actually helping the problem or just transferring money from here to there."

Kamenetz concludes:

"The long-term impact of a market in carbon is impossible to predict. Yet that seems to be the only course offered by our national leaders.

"[Thus] the smart money is anticipating a legal carbon cap and thus a formal U.S. offset market not long after 2010 . . . Here's hoping the kids at the core of this new green market, from Yale and elsewhere, figure out how to make it work."

Indeed. When totalitarian governments first come to power, they always give lip-service to "choice," but after the head-fake, they go quickly in the opposite direction. That reminds me of a joke:

This "flight attendant" asks a passenger if he would like lunch. He says, "What are my choices?" and the "stewardess" says:

"YES or NO."

Uncle Sam is talking the talk of choice, while walking the walk of fascism. On the word "fascism," John Ayto says:

"The early 20th-century Italian fascisti, under Benito Mussolini, took their name from Italian "fascio" [meaning] literally 'bundle' but figuratively 'group' or 'association."

The word has evolved from "bundle of sticks" to "bundle of earmarks" in a stimulus bill, to "bundles of cash" doled out selectively by the Treasury Department, the "auto czar," and a White House that has practically promised to bankrupt industries such as coal and power companies, while — with much public relations aplomb — "saving" certain bankers and union friends.

The primary election strategy of "running to the center of the road" has been abandoned in favor of "running to the Left as fast as possible" (and by that I do mean that Mussolini's state-business "partnership" was almost as far Left as Communism (it certainly had nothing to do with "conservatism").

Among the most prominent "business partners" of the White House, in addition to carbon-offset traders, are abortion providers and those who engage in Nazi-style "medical research."

FREEDOM FROM RELIGION? OR JUST BACK TO PAGANISM?

In the previous column -http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/dahlgren/090325 — I documented the creepy similarity of the post-Christian "green"movement to the ancient worship of the pagan goddess Sybele or Gaia. The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edition, says:

"In all her aspects, Roman, Greek and Oriental, the Great Mother was characterized by essentially the same qualities. Most prominent among them was her universal motherhood. She was the great parent of gods and men, as well as of the lower orders of creation . . .

"She was known as the All-begetter, the All-nourisher, the Mother of all the Blest.

"She was the great, fruitful, kindly earth itself . . . Her special affinity to wild nature was manifested by the orgiastic character of her worship. Her attendants . . were wild, half demonic beings. Her priests, the Galli, were eunuchs attired in female garb, with long hair fragrant with ointment . . . Self-emasculation sometimes accompanied this delirium of worship on the part of candidates for the priesthood."

[Quoted from University of Wisconsin Bulletin No. 43 (1901), by Grant Showerman]

"The main public event in the worship of the Great Mother was the annual festival, which took place originally on the 4th of April, and was followed on the 5th by the Megalesia ['games' in her honor] . . .

"Under the Empire, from Claudius on, the Megalesia lasted six days, April 4-10, and the original one day of the religious festival became an annual cycle of festivals extending from the 15th to the 27th of March . . " [ibid]

CONCLUSIONS?

Beware the Ides of March, etc., etc. In these modern "scientific" times, we don't have self-emasculation (except figuratively) — or sacrifices to any specifically named goddesses — but we do have "Gay Pride" parades, the Mardi Gras, etc., etc.

And the "green lobby's" affinity for "wild nature" fits perfectly, both literally and figuratively, with the Great Mother of the Gods ["mother nature" and wild critters always trump the needs of the human race; in fact, the adherents of the New Age paganism would like to see the population of humans reduced on earth].

Sadly, very sadly, too many people who profess Christianity have fallen for the shell-game, the flim-flam "environmentalist" game playing fast-and-loose with the facts, AND WINNING. This too, fits in with the history of the Roman Republic. The Britannica (1910) testifies:

"By the end of the Republic it [Sybele/Gaia worship] had attained prominence, and under the Empire it became one of the three most important cults in the Roman world, the other two being those of Mithras and Isis . . . [Mithraism was a mixture of various religions and philosophies and involved worship of the sun instead of the earth].

"Her importance in the history of religion is very great. Together with Isis and Mithras, she was a great enemy, and yet a great aid to Christianity.* The gorgeous rites of her worship, its mystic doctrine of communion with the divine through enthusiasm, its promise of regeneration through baptism of blood in the taurobolium, were features which attracted the masses of the people and made it a strong rival of Christianity; and its resemblance to the new religion, however superficial, made it, in spite of the scandalous practices which grew up around it, a stepping-stone to Christianity when the tide set it against paganism."

* We have both atheists and so-called "christians" today who believe that Nature-worship can be made compatible with the Old and New Testaments — and with New Age paganism at the same time!

This is clearly Double-speak, but that's what you get when the language and culture is deconstructed, and political "spin" becomes both the placebo and the poison pill of society.

The Ides of March, remember, and beware!

As for crazy headlines-of-the-week, more to come next week, that's for sure!

P.S. I just looked out the window, and a mixture of snow, sleet, and rain is falling on the last day of March. I can remember when farmers used to plant oats before the end of March, but around here, it's going to be more like the end of April, if that. It's almost time for the baseball season to start, but I think that on opening day I'm going to go skiing. The low temperature this morning was in the teens. I heard that the mountains of Utah have five feet of fresh snow. I can't go that far, but we still have plenty of snow in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Thank you, Alfred E. Gore!

© Curtis Dahlgren