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12/20/2004: "Rush and the Environment – A Psychological Profile"

Let’s pick apart Rush’s recent rant on the environment. Where to start? How about his direct linkage of environmentalism to communism? Anyone who studied the Soviets (like me, with my soviet studies/Russian language concentration at West Point) knows that Communists are history’s greatest polluters. There were parts of the Soviet Union that were so polluted that the air was virtually black. This was a basic feature of their system, a direct result of having responsibility for both exploiting resources and for protecting the environment in the same institution. This also happens to explain the Bush record on the environment. In his administration, like prior Dittohead administrations, those representing industry – the segment of society that exists to transform natural resources into goods – also call the shots in the regulatory agencies that exist to ensure that exploitation of resources is done in a sustainable manner. In other words, Con-munists employ the same approach to environmental regulation as Communists: non-regulation. How about Rush asserting that global couldn’t be happening because Florida is having colder than usual weather? That’s an easy one. It’s illogical to hold that global warming is baloney just because one day in one place is colder than average. That’s like saying that the Titanic wasn’t sinking because the stern was rising out of the water! Global warming is about long-term trends, and those trends are unequivocal for anyone not in denial. What about Rush’s attitude that we couldn’t change the environment even if we wanted to? History provides examples of environmental disasters that doomed entire societies. Pollution is not God’s plan for his creation. “God won’t allow us to hurt ourselves” has never worked as a strategy. God helps those who help themselves. Stewardship is closer to religious teaching than exploitation, which is essentially the same as greed. This leads us to the final question: why is Rush so worked up about the environment? Here is my list of possible explanations: 1) He’s had too much time on his hands since the collapse of his Soviet bogeyman 2) he got bit by his pet bunny and still has nightmares about it 3) he’s been taking those pills again! I’m thinking it’s probably all three.