I must commend Ned Harper for his well-written and civil response to my Maggies Drawers column. His civility is in stark contrast to the current state of our presidential candidates race. He cited his sources and his disagreement was directed at my positions rather than at me personally. In response I could regurgitate my laundry list of past facts and columns but instead will just touch on a few points.
I agree that global warming has been occurring, except for the past 10 years. During this period the earths average temperature has been dropping. Perhaps we will enter a new Ice Age, as was predicted by the climate scientists in the 1970s! Our planet has been going through climatic cycles for at least 100 million years or more. When the dinosaurs waddled through the Colorado landscape 60 million years ago the temperature was at least 20 degrees warmer, and Cortez resembled Tampa, Florida. In more recent time (by geological terms) there was the Medieval Warm Period, ca. 900 1100 AD, followed by the Little Ice Age, ca. 1300 1900 AD. During these times temperatures were fluctuating much more than the supposed climate experts are claiming for our horrendous man-made global catastrophe.
Then Harper incorrectly stated that the American people turned to the government and adopted Social Security, unemployment insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, critical infrastructure construction, and other social programs because the market failed. In my study of the periods during which these Progressive programs were initiated i.e. Woodrow Wilson, 19131921; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945, and Lyndon Johnson, 1963-1969 I could not find a record of the American people voting for their implementation. These were government programs of the government, for the government, by the government. Ill explain that phrase shortly.
Harper then moves on to the mortgage meltdown. He adroitly sidesteps the Community Reinvestment Act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, and the review and strengthening of the CRA in 1992 which required banks to provide loans to the poor.
Fannie and Freddie are not latecomers as Harper claims. Fannie debuted in 1938 and Freddie in 1968. Together they own or guarantee 40 percent of U.S. home mortgages.
My earlier phrase, of the government, by the government, and for the government, was an intentional rephrasing of Lincolns Famous Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg Battlefield.
The last sentence says ... that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Our struggle today is as titanic as the Civil War. That battle was fought for the rights of men and we are engaged in just such a struggle today. The slow erosion of our freedoms has been ongoing since Woodrow Wilsons presidency. It has always been cloaked with good intentions: more wages for the workingman, health care for all, rights to unionize for the worker, and doing it for the children, all goals that are laudable. Unfortunately good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes. And I have grave doubts about the real intentions of the elites. Some of the incursions are so subtle that you dont realize what youve lost till its gone; others are blatant and have an in your face attitude! The abortion and contraception battle is the most recent. While the administration packages the dispute as a womans right to birth control, at the core it is religious freedom and the governments right to override a principle of Christian belief. If the government can tell a religious community it must violate their tenets and pay for abortions, what else can they force us to do? Big money can be boycotted and defeated but how do you stop a government that wants total control?
Larry Tradlener lives down McElmo Canyon.