Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Crap and Trade


Janschwalde Power Station, Wiki Commons

By Tony Vega

Update: H. R. 2454 can be found here , thanks Independent Voice

With the birth of an Obamanation the second amendment becomes an even more attractive target, health care is close to being socialized and Cap & Trade is a euphemism for oppressive taxation.

A quick look at the numbers for this Cap & Trade fiasco will reveal that your average American will get hosed at the gas pump, may want to read their electric bill with the lights out and watch their jobs sail away to overseas corporations. Oh, let's not forget about the polar bears or the planet, no help there either.

There are many credible organizations, such as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the Brookings Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) and even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that detail the cost and ineffectiveness of Cap & Trade. I implore the folks to turn the pages for themselves and asses by fact.

How about our European neighbors, how has Cap & Trade been working for them?

According to an investigative report by the London Bureau of BusinessWeek, Europe's CO2 output actually rose 1.1%. An in depth analysis published in the Washington Post delves into Europe's issues with Cap & Trade. Let's take a look:

Business

Kollo Holding's factory in the Netherlands is a silicon carbide maker that calls itself the greenest such plant in the world, but now can't afford to run full-time. Europe's program has driven electricity prices so high that the facility routinely shuts down for part of the day to save money on power.

Although demand for its products is strong, the plant has laid off 40 of its 130 employees and trimmed production. Two customers have turned to cheaper imports from China, which is not covered by Europe's costly regulations.

French cement workers may lose jobs to Morocco, which doesn't have to meet the European guidelines. Four-hundred cement workers protested a license for a rival company that plans to take advantage of Europe's system for controlling greenhouse gases by circumventing it. The rival wants to import material from Morocco, where factories don't have to pay to emit carbon gas.

Residents

German homeowners pay 25 percent more for electricity, even as their utility companies earn record profits.

[Landlords will pass increased heating and electric costs to tenants. Workers across the continent face the prospect of losing their jobs to foreign facilities that aren't required to follow Cap & Trade standards. When the price of electricity, gas, and operating costs rise everyone will feel the hit, from heating your homes, driving to work, or paying for transportation to get to work and/or play.]

Environment

[In addition to Europe's CO2 output rising by 1.1%] Europe's cap-and-trade system has done little to reduce output at such places as the Janschwalde coal plant, [located near the village of Janschwalde in Brandenburg on the German-Polish border] Europe's third-biggest carbon dioxide emitter. Each year, it spews more than 25 million tons of carbon dioxide; half of its output can power all of Berlin.

Remember that cement plant in Dannes, France and the prospect of them losing their jobs to a Moroccan plant?

The Moroccan plant may produce even more carbon dioxide than the one in Dannes. "This is going the wrong way from an environmental point of view," Vincent Bichet, Director General, Dannes.

Back in the U.S., Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi and other Obama elites are pushing for similar Crap & Trade policies. Rest assured it will be like chum to the sharks, the lobbyists and enviro-arsonists are already circling.

It is my firm belief that we should all be good shepherds of the earth. The current Cap & Trade system will do nothing for the planet and is only green in the sense that it will remove the green from your wallet and plant it into the accounts of the fat-cats.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The UK Gun Ban




By Tony Vega

"An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life." - Robert A. Heinlein, American novelist and former liberal

The English are perceived to be the leaders of etiquette and masters of a polite society. Quite often, too often, it is American chic to consider our neighbors in the UK a model to emulate. Perhaps, to the American ear the English tone represents a higher intellect.

This is not to denigrate our UK neighbors, but rather to encourage our American citizens to assess by fact and not by fad. The trail blazing UK held the distinction of having the toughest firearm restrictions of any democracy and their 1997 handgun ban became the "gold standard" of gun control.

How has that UK gun ban been working?

  • In the four years from 1997 to 2001, the rate of violent crime more than doubled.
  • Your chances of being mugged in London are now six times greater than in New York.
  • England's rates of assault, robbery, and burglary are far higher than America's.
  • 53 percent of English burglaries occur while occupants are at home, compared with 13 percent in the U.S., where burglars admit to fearing armed homeowners more than the police.
In a [2002] United Nations study of crime in 18 developed nations, England and Wales led the Western world's crime league, with nearly 55 crimes per 100 people. [1]

Gun crime in London is increasing so rapidly that police fear they may not have the resources to cope. In a 2001 BBC report, officers stated there had been a 100% increase in firearms-related crime in the capital. [2]

"When Seconds Count, the police are minutes away."- Viral Internet quote

Northern Ireland [home of the IRA] is the only part of the British Isles where significant numbers of civilians are granted permits to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. According to the International Crime Victim Survey released in August ’01, Northern Ireland had one of the lowest levels of victimization of any of the 15 industrialized countries studied and England had the highest. [3]

To be fair to our English neighbors, 2007 crime stats show a leveling off of overall gun crimes, despite an increase in homicide. [4] Publicizing gun crimes, however, is becoming a bone of contention among UK officials.

After a high profile shooting death of an 11-year old boy, the UK Shadow Home Secretary, noted the huge increase in gun crimes since the ban and claimed the ministers were putting out "misleading and inaccurate figures." [5]

Jack Straw, the UK Justice Secretary, admitted the increase in gun-related incidents, but cited an overall drop in crime crediting the government's efforts. David Cameron, Tory leader, accused Mr. Straw of "self satisfied comments" and "complacency." Cameron also accused ministers of spinning statistics. [5]

With the exception of gun-related deaths, 2008 UK crime stats show a significant rise in gun crimes, the biggest since 2004. [6] The overall picture since the UK gun ban clearly shows that gun control is not crime control and only serves to empower the criminal and inhibit the liberty of her people.

A Church of England vicar had this to say, "It seems as if we have slipped into some bizarre parallel universe where the basic rules about the way human beings communicate have been suspended. What can we say or do? We feel so powerless. "We need to ask hard questions about a kind of society that makes possible such a callous disregard of human life." [5]

By adopting a radical gun ban, the UK abandoned the principles of their own 1689 Bill of Rights calling for the citizenry to "have arms for their defence." The abandoning of such principles is not a practice that a Freedom loving nation desiring the safety, pursuit of happiness, liberty, and justice for all should emulate.

Remember folks, it is the law abiding that abides the law. The bad guys will not comply with gun laws and will remain armed. So what is the purpose of any nation stripping her people from the right of self-defense?

"No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government"- Thomas Jefferson

What my dear Freemen and women are you willing to give up in the name of progressive ideology?

Resources:

1. Gun Control's Twisted Outcome: Restricting firearms has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S. - Reason Magazine
2. BBC News | UK | Police fears over rising gun crime
3. http://dvc.org.uk/dunblane/dbpolicy.pdf
4. BBC NEWS | UK | Analysis: UK gun crime figures
5. Another arrest as Croxteth pays tribute to Rhys | UK news | The Guardian
6. 28 gun crimes committed in UK every day - Telegraph