Pubdate: Sun, 16 Mar 2014
Source: Daily Press (Victorville, CA)
Copyright: 2014 Freedom Communications, Inc.
Contact: http://www.vvdailypress.com/sections/contactus/
Website: http://www.vvdailypress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1061
Author: Richard Reeb
Note: Richard Reeb lives in Helendale.

DEMOCRATS PICK LAUGHING GAS OVER FRACKING

Doubtless the writer of the article from the Los Angeles Times in a 
recent Daily Press was not trying to be funny, but that report on the 
recent convention of the California Democrats certainly gave that 
impression. "Democrats call for marijuana legalization, fracking 
ban," was the headline for the piece.

But what a laugh. Nobody needs marijuana except a tiny handful of ill 
people, but everybody not wanting to live in a third-world country 
needs natural gas. Yet California Democrats unanimously "support the 
legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana, in a manner 
similar to that of tobacco or alcohol," and an immediate ban on 
fracking (a method of extracting natural gas), according to the 
party's platform.

As to marijuana, what is "similar" about it to tobacco and alcohol? 
Long before the latter came under government control, they were 
widely used and abused, culminating in campaigns to restrain their 
use or even to convince people to give them up altogether. A couple 
of generations ago, hardly anybody smoked marijuana, but the pied 
pipers of the hallucinogenic world charmed many onto the primrose 
path. Where are the equivalent campaigns today to "just say no" or 
"if you blow, don't go"?

One doesn't have to be a psychic to figure out that the campaign is 
actually to treat marijuana in a manner decidedly dissimilar to 
alcohol and tobacco. The motivation is actually libertarian (read: 
libertine), not the public good. Even Gov. Jerry (Moonbeam) Brown 
recently wondered out loud how good citizenship is possible if more 
people are "stoned." Already, there are signs that the legalization 
of marijuana in Washington and Colorado is degrading the public mind 
and sound policy.

Rather than being a curse, as Democrats evidently believe, oil and 
natural gas obtained by fracking is a blessing. Almost overnight, our 
country and state have been freed from the tyranny of Middle Eastern 
oil states. It also makes it possible for us to export these natural 
resources to our friends abroad, most notably the Ukrainians fighting 
for their freedom from Russian domination.

According to the Times, our governor took some grief on this issue, 
as "protesters (kept) interrupting (his) speech to the convention 
Saturday, unhappy that he has not moved to ban the controversial 
practice, which involves injecting chemicals, sand and water deep 
into the ground to release oil and gas." But there is no evidence 
that fracking causes environmental damage, as corporations have 
minimized the effects on soil and water almost to zero.

The real agenda of fracking's enemies is to reduce our dependence on 
misnamed "fossil fuels" and boost the far more expensive and less 
efficient "green" energy schemes of solar, wind and geothermal. And 
that in turn is part of the left's animus against free markets, which 
they unfairly blame for all pollution and which they mean to stifle, 
if not destroy.

I don't know if the enemies of fracking smoke marijuana, but if they 
do it would certainly keep them from thinking clearly and enslave 
them to their passions. After all, on both proposals (amid cheering) 
no debate was held and only a voice vote was taken, like Communist 
Party congresses in the days of Soviet rule in Russia and its 
conquered provinces.

This "soft despotism" that simultaneously encourages bread and 
circuses and stifles enterprise will not long remain soft as 
muddle-headed citizens are brought into "hard" despotism that has no 
tolerance for people still in their senses.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom