Tom Friedman, Snark Does Not Become You

The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman says he's been trying to understand the Tea Party.

Um, Tom, you have a bit more work to do.

His understanding of Tea Partiers leaves much to be desired. He thinks the movement should Go Green. He thinks we need an energy manifesto that he has so graciously offered to supply us.

How nice.

It's really sad when someone who isn't well versed on a subject attempts to write cute little things about it. Friedman advances the notion of a "Patriot Fee" of $10 dollars per barrel of imported oil.

If we put a Patriot Fee on all of those imported barrels, we would use less, cease enriching bad regimes, strengthen our own dollar, make the air cleaner and the climate more stable, foster the exploitation of domestic and renewable energy sources, promote electric vehicles, help bring down the global price of oil (which hurts Iran and helps poor Africa), and we could use the revenue to shrink the deficit. It’s win, win, win, win, win, win ...

Really? Is this what passes for intelligence within the halls of the Grey Lady, or has someone spiked the water cooler with hallucinogens again? Does not common sense tell him that our modern mode of living involves energy? And that a growing population requires ever-increasing amounts of energy to make and maintain that lifestyle?

Tom, try this as a solution: Free the market to explore and refine oil. You know, let energy companies do their jobs. It's what they do best, unlike politicians. Think of the jobs that would be created. Think of the tax money that could be made instead of spent. Think of the low energy prices we could have and how that would be reflected in our national cost of doing business with other countries in this global economy

He then goes on to tout the benefits of the job-killing Cap-and-Trade legislation that was supposed to be introduced today, but has been shelved due to the withdrawal of one of it's key sponsors, Lindsey Graham.

Friedman thinks the Tea Party should be all about supporting yet another multi-trillion dollar bill that would do nothing to improve our energy development. He quotes Joe Romm, author of "Straigh Up";

The reason a Green Tea Party should coalesce to support this bill, argued Romm, is because it will set a price on carbon pollution and help foster commercialization of clean technologies — like hybrids, batteries and solar — at sufficient scale to enable the U.S. to rapidly ramp up when the seriousness of climate change becomes inescapably obvious to all.

In other words, both Friedman and Romm support the government imposition of massive taxes in order to force the development of technology that doesn't yet exist, unless you count nuclear and hydro-electric power, which have been resisted tooth and nail by radical environmentalists for over thirty years. This misguided bill will only reult in the loss of capital and American jobs to other countries who have far less restrictive regulations, thus defeating the stated purpose of the bill.

Ask yourself if anything the Obama administration has implemented worked as advertised. Cash for Clunkers, anyone? We're only now finding out the true costs and real-world effects of the Obamacare bill. What we're discovering isn't good, and certainly not what was promised by its supporters in Congress.

Also lost on these two is the news that the theory of man-caused climate change has been thoroughly disproven. Yet they persist in continuing as though climate change was real.

Sorry, Tom.

As for your next column, please try to keep up with current events and write about something you know. Your condescention towards your fellow countrymen is costing your company a great deal of money.