W.O.W.

War to End All Wars

Recent news has brought up evidence of a conspiracy against mortuaries amounting to a war against that industry. Everyone has heard the old saw that the funeral business is one that people are dying to get into but certain activities by state and federal governments are proving to be detrimental to those employed by this industry. The Association of Mortuaries allege that campaigns to make automobiles safer and efforts by the National Institute of Health to combat deaths by cancer are cutting into their profits and forcing some to close their doors. This has the unfortunate result of eliminating competition thereby driving up costs to the consumer. The Association of Mortuaries demand that those governments cease their efforts to wage war on their industry and the American people. After all, there are thousands of jobs at stake here.

Well, that was just stupid wasn't it? I'm so darned sick of this war and that war. Seems like we've been shouting about some war all of my life. Korea, Vietnam, various little wars in Somalia, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan. The war on drugs, the war on poverty, the war on obesity and who knows how many things we have elevated to the status of war. I just don't get it.

Now that Senator McConnell has elevated the attempts by the EPA to regulate the amount of toxins that the coal industry can generate to the status of a War On Coal we have a war that we can call our own and not have to share it with everyone in the world. Of course, the coal barons and their henchmen believe that people just don't understand and are out to get them. Those Ivy League pointy headed scientists who try to link the carbon dioxide emissions to climate change are just some Henny Pennys running about shouting that the sky is falling. Heaven knows it does no harm to shove a mountain top over into a hollow burying a stream in the process. Just because the water is yellow and the fish are all dead doesn't mean they are destroying the habitat for humans and who cares about some funny named fish anyway. Are they more important than jobs and keeping the lights on?

Kentucky consistently ranks near the bottom of the states in things like poverty, heart disease, cancer, obesity and life span. We do enjoy some of the lowest electrical rates in the nation due to our almost complete reliance on coal for generation purposes. The reason that coal is so cheap to use is that we don't factor in all of the costs of using coal when we set the purchase price. We don't factor in health care from the toxins emitted by coal burning plants, the habitat and water destroyed by the removal of the mineral from the earth or the cost of not being able to eat the product of our own waters without fear of mercury contamination. Whether one believes it or not the science is clear. Our planet is heating at a more rapid rate than has ever been discovered. Through various means we can chart the global rise dating from the beginning of the industrial revolution until now. How do we factor in the cost of ports and cities lost from rising sea waters? How do we factor in the weather changes that result in more extreme events? If we did this coal would be one of the most expensive fuels we could use.

We know from ice core samples and rock samples that there was a time in Earth's history when carbon dioxide was much more plentiful in our atmosphere. That was great for plants, not so much for creatures. Fortunately, the plants and seas gradually absorbed the carbon dioxide, decayed and entombed it in the ground all the while spewing out oxygen which is good for creatures. Creatures like animals and other people. Now we think we can dig all that carbon up and burn it returning the carbon dioxide to our atmosphere and not have the same result. Hmmmm.

I have noticed that now when some industry is called out for some negative behavior the first thing it does is make it known that its destructive behavior creates jobs and unless it is allowed to continue destroying whatever then people will lose their jobs. Now California is removing chocolate and other flavored milks from their menus and the dairy industry wants kids to go on being fat so those dairy people can keep their jobs believing the kids won't drink milk if it doesn't have sugar in it. Let's call it the War on Cows. Same thing goes for the coal industry and every other industry that is asked to change its way of doing things. Whatever happened to people just being willing to help out if it was for the general good? Nothing stays the same forever.

How about we just declare war on war. We can use the acronym WOW! Pretty catchy, huh? Just remember, you heard it here first.

My take on war, which I don't like in the first place.