Quick Roundup 102

Blogroll Additions

I've added some new links to the sidebar.

Victor Davis Hanson needs no introduction, but you may need to be reminded that his blog is named Works and Days.

Carl Svanberg writes in Swedish, which I do not know, but since he draws on lots of good English-language commentary, I plan to check his blog regularly. You may recall that he pointed me to a couple of good things yesterday.

Finally, my Objectivist readers will probably already know Joseph Kellard from his impressive body of work over at Capitalism Magazine. But did you know he also has a blog? I didn't -- or at least needed reminding -- until yesterday, when he stopped by here. So be sure to visit The American Individualist. And tell him I sent you.

One Small Flaw

On rereading Senator Inhofe's brick-by-brick dismantling of the entire global warming myth, I have to take issue with one point: He is wrong to blame the profit motive for poor reporting by the media on global warming.

We can certainly afford to cut the good Senator some slack, but if what he said were true, our war reporting would be far better than it is. Moslem atrocities would not be that hard to "sensationalize".

It is the dominant subjectivist-collectivist philosophy of journalists as a whole that is to blame for poor reporting on both global warming and the war.

Schwartzenegger: GOP Pragmatism in Action

The Republicans should be pressuring Schwartzenegger to get off the global warming bandwagon and opposing his various disastrous economic policies -- which they should do on principle anyway if they really do favor capitalism.

But they are not, and they look like they will pay big time down the road for this temporary ability to brag about holding the governorship of California. For one thing, Arnie isn't done attacking the Californian economy, in case they thought appeasement or evasion might work.

California's landmark effort to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions is just one step in a long-term strategy by the nation's most populous state to combat global climate change, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in an interview.

The governor said the state will push for further industrial reductions and initiatives such as placing greater emphasis on renewable energy and hydrogen-fueled cars. [bold added]

The bold refers, of course to reductions in emissions, but these will come through reductions in productivity through the expense of complying with new regulatory burdens.

This inevitable contraction in the economy will further lower the standard of living (i.e., raise the cost of living) in the Golden State, causing an acceleration of a trend of out-migration into neighboring "red" Western states as this recent editorial noted.

The trend is so pronounced that demographer William Frey says Arizona and Nevada "are essentially now becoming appendages of California." Nevada stands out in particular, with 18% of its residents (as of the 2000 census) having been born in California. In Arizona, the number is 8%. The other Mountain states post some impressive numbers too: 9% of Idaho, 7% of Utah, 6% of Colorado and 5% of Montana. In New Mexico, where Bush won in 2004 by about 6,000 votes, 79,000 ex-Californians lived there as of 2000.

So, who are these migrants?

People who can't afford to live in California anymore, Frey says, typically Generation-X types in search of jobs and affordable homes.

"A lot of them are from very blue parts of California," he told me. "My gut feeling," he said, is that migrant Californians "will hold on to their cultural ideas" even if their economic needs might change. Even "red" Californians leaving the state as part of "white flight" aren't likely to be anywhere near as socially conservative as voters from the South. [bold added]

So the Republicans, who clearly stand to lose badly as a result of today's decision to sacrifice capitalism to "power" (if "power" consists of holding an office only to enact policies to which one is opposed), really ought to consider opposing or disowning the Governator even if all they want is to continue holding power.

It is amazing to me that those obsessed with power so frequently pay so little attention to the power that principles have over our lives!

Anniversary of Rita

I thank Brendan "Mr. Hurricane" Loy for sending his readers over to my account of the Great Evacuation of '05.

-- CAV

Updates

Today: Added section on Brendan Loy.