To spray or not to spray (it's up to the osprey)
Here's an interesting story about bed bugs, which you never would have expected me to link to from this blog. "What does this have to do with politics," you are probably asking. Well, I'll tell you.
Bad policy results in people being inconvenienced, losing money, and even being hurt or killed. When it's government policy gone bad, the consequences can be national or even international. Look at paragraphs 6 and 7 of the story for the real reason there's a surge in bed bug populations: that's right, environmental protection policy. U.S., Australian, British, and European governments have "led the way" in protecting our environment from the very things that protect us from the environment (i.e. bed bugs). It's one thing for an American or Australian to get bitten by a bed bug, contract a blood disease, go to the hospital and get treated, and maybe lose a lot of money, and sue the hotel where he stayed. It's quite another when self-righteous environmental crusaders get the U.N. to ban DDT, the only affordable substance that can stop the spread of malaria in poor, third-world countries.
It's not hard to see why banning DDT was so easy in America: nobody dies of malaria in America. DDT probably causes a thinning of the eggshells of raptors (not the dinosaurs, the birds of prey), so they have a harder time surviving. These birds are among the most photogenic and popular in nature (the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the postal stamp-commemorated American kestrel). Thus the need to ban DDT. But malaria kills 1.5-3 million people outside the U.S. and Europe every year, and DDT is undoubtedly the cheapest, most effective way to stop it. "What to do," moan the American left. If we repeal the ban on DDT, the birds might die, maybe even become extinct. But if we don't, we really are everything we accuse conservatives of being: racist white elitists who don't care about the poor. Well, the American (and European) left has decided to do what it always does with a serious problem: ignore it and hope it goes away. But malaria is not going away, not unless we can bring back DDT in Africa.
As for the bed bugs, I'm willing to patronize an establishment that sprays, heck with the environment. You can feel free to boycott them, though. I won't mind.
SRS
Bad policy results in people being inconvenienced, losing money, and even being hurt or killed. When it's government policy gone bad, the consequences can be national or even international. Look at paragraphs 6 and 7 of the story for the real reason there's a surge in bed bug populations: that's right, environmental protection policy. U.S., Australian, British, and European governments have "led the way" in protecting our environment from the very things that protect us from the environment (i.e. bed bugs). It's one thing for an American or Australian to get bitten by a bed bug, contract a blood disease, go to the hospital and get treated, and maybe lose a lot of money, and sue the hotel where he stayed. It's quite another when self-righteous environmental crusaders get the U.N. to ban DDT, the only affordable substance that can stop the spread of malaria in poor, third-world countries.
It's not hard to see why banning DDT was so easy in America: nobody dies of malaria in America. DDT probably causes a thinning of the eggshells of raptors (not the dinosaurs, the birds of prey), so they have a harder time surviving. These birds are among the most photogenic and popular in nature (the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon, the golden eagle, the postal stamp-commemorated American kestrel). Thus the need to ban DDT. But malaria kills 1.5-3 million people outside the U.S. and Europe every year, and DDT is undoubtedly the cheapest, most effective way to stop it. "What to do," moan the American left. If we repeal the ban on DDT, the birds might die, maybe even become extinct. But if we don't, we really are everything we accuse conservatives of being: racist white elitists who don't care about the poor. Well, the American (and European) left has decided to do what it always does with a serious problem: ignore it and hope it goes away. But malaria is not going away, not unless we can bring back DDT in Africa.
As for the bed bugs, I'm willing to patronize an establishment that sprays, heck with the environment. You can feel free to boycott them, though. I won't mind.
SRS
posted by weblogbob83 at 7:32 PM
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