Worth Reading June 14, 2022
Climate and Energy Policy
WDM is convinced that world oil prices would still be down around $75 per barrel if Biden had not stifled US production and transportation of oil and gas in an excess of zeal about climate change. Rather than repeating that analysis, he recommends some good reading about climate policy that has appeared recently.
A senior banking executive has put his career on the line by revealing that the only “climate risks” that investors need worry about are badly designed government policies and regulations. He is reported as stating “To put it bluntly, absent making guesses about some unexpectedly dramatic new move by government regulators or their proxies, there is, within the typical investment horizon, little or nothing to price in.” For this observation, he was suspended by his employer HSBC.
WDM thinks that Ted Nordhaus is only about 80% correct in his assessment of how Russia’s war against Ukraine will affect climate policy, but his is nonetheless a very sane perspective.
Biden’s invocation of the Defense Production Act strikes terror into WDM, it is the basic fascist way of running an economy. First causing a shortage of infant formula then using government powers to order fixes is truly perverse. Then invoking the same authority to promote EVs and order businesses to supply solar panels, for no other reason than to advance the climate agenda through backdoor means. This article takes the issue on with clarity.
Trying to find a link to the article cited above led WDM to google “Defense Production Act and solar panels.” With the exception of one NYPost and one Foxnews report, all the references he found celebrated the action as a breakthrough for clean energy. The National Review article never showed up — a little bias there?
And speaking of terrible policies, none would be worse in the short run than the Democrats’ flirtation with price controls on gasoline. WDM wrote a rather good analysis of the harm from such proposals, based on straightforward economics and his experience during the gasoline lines of the 1970s. So instead of trying to summarize himself, WDM recommends going to the source.
Abortion and LGBTQ+ Escalation
WDM agrees with this article, that urges men of Catholic churches to organize themselves now to secure and defend our churches. Robert Royal expands on WDM’s concerns about attacks on Catholic churches, as well as the failure to prosecute those who are threatening Supreme Court justices. Mainstream media that censor statements that might make a progressive “uncomfortable,” but they have not removed the threats against the Justices or instructions to potential assassins. As Royal points out, the assassination of a Supreme Court justice “would throw the country into a tailspin.” Imagine what this country would become if assassinations were the method used to give progressives back a majority of the Supreme Court. Afghanistan is a provides a playbook on assassinating judges.
As CS Lewis pointed out in That Hideous Strength, good and evil seem to be getting clearer and sharper. Anticipating the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade, abortion supporters are becoming more and more open and aggressive in finding ways to continue killing unborn infants. An article in National Review describes offerings of mail-order abortion pills to make it easier for residents of states limiting or banning abortion, on top of laws like those proposed here in Maryland legalizing murder even of living babies at the mother’s whim.So many threats to family, faith and country that Worth Reading is getting long.
Abigail Shrier makes the case for Gov. DeSantis’s order to Florida Child Protective Services to investigate families that take children to drag shows. WDM also observes that the use of government by LGBTQ+ and BLM/CRT extremists to harass those who oppose their agenda is not being stopped by arguments for “less government.” As Adrian Vermeule argues constantly, only by taking over those institutions and using them to promote truth and morality will the battle be won.
Along these lines, a “LGBTQ+ Pride Festival” will take place in Easton from June 17 to 19. Keep your children and grandchildren home and safe from this celebration of perverse behavior and grooming for gender change. An article very much worth reading makes the point that “Self-destructive hedonism, sexual grooming of children, and an intolerance that seeks to coerce opponents into subjection. These are the kinds of things that define the LGBTQI+ movement. It leads one to wonder: what’s there to be proud of?”
A Little Story About Our Guest Author
To end with a cheerful note, WDM cannot resist linking to an article from the nineties about how the author of this week’s feature article dealt with a teenager whose fascination with guns troubled her parents. Back in the days when there was occasionally something worth reading in the WaPo.