An ill winde that bloweth no man to good.
- John Heywood, Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. ix.
So they've done it.
From David A. Fahrenthold (Washington Post, House Panel Passes Limit on Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, May 22, 2009):
A bill to create the first national limit on greenhouse-gas emissions was approved by a House committee yesterday after a week of late-night debates that cemented the shift of climate change from rhetorical jousting to a subject of serious, if messy, Washington policymaking.
[H/t Instapundit.]
The Senate has to consider the matter and come up with their own version, but it would appear there is no stopping this... or anything else for that matter.
We shouldn't be surprised. We should not be surprised by anything this Administration and Congress has done or will do, but I can't help thinking that I'm not the only one who hoped that for once they'd listen to the citizens, think of our national interests (just a tiny bit) before their own, and avoid taking us down this road to ruin.
In just 4 months they've shredded the Constitution so many times it is hard to keep an accurate count. For many of us it takes on the emotional equivalent of being repeatedly raped, eventually becoming immune to the pain, and tuning out the horrors that are occurring again and again and again.
We face the morning news in a constant state of shell shock, unable to handle the reality of what is going on around us.
Unfortunately, what government does takes a while to trickle down. From changing fiscal policy, nationalizing industry, putting a cap and trade on our prosperity, befriending our enemies and ignoring our allies, to taxing us and spending into deficit oblivion, the citizens have not cried out in unison and en masse against these horrors, because their effects are slow in coming. They're packaged as being the solution, rather than making our problems worse, or creating a problem where none actually existed... and nothing but misery will come of it. Once the effects are realized it will be too late, so all we are able to do is steel ourselves for the coming blow.
Calpurnia
Caesar, I never stood on ceremonies,
Yet now they fright me. There is one within,
Besides the things that we have heard and seen,
Recounts most horrid sights seen by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the streets;
And graves have yawn'd, and yielded up their dead;
Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds,
In ranks and squadrons and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the Capitol;
The noise of battle hurtled in the air,
Horses did neigh, and dying men did groan,
And ghosts did shriek and squeal about the streets.
O Caesar! these things are beyond all use,
And I do fear them.Caesar
What can be avoided
Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods?
Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions
Are to the world in general as to Caesar.Calpurnia
When beggars die, there are no comets seen;
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.Caesar
Cowards die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.
Of all the wonders that I yet have heard.
It seems to me most strange that men should fear;
Seeing that death, a necessary end,
Will come when it will come.- William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene I
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