Subject: Re: Environmentalist: All Out for March 4

From: [email-masked] (Perry E. Metzger)
Date: 05 Mar 1995 20:52:34 GMT

[email-masked] (Self avowed communists) write:

>                Press Advisory

>Environmental Researcher Calls For Concerned People to
>Mobilize for March 4 Cooper Union Rally in New York City

>March 4 Rally Will Oppose "Contract with America"

So, do you oppose term limits? A balanced budget?

>DeCarlo states: "The Contract with America threatens to
>dismantle the environmental work of the last 25 years.
>The contract would create 22 new analytical exercises
>that the Environmental Protection Agency would have to go
>through before it could take any actions. This would
>grind environmental protection to a halt.

And after all, its far better to throw hundreds of people out of jobs
so that bureaucrats can get their petty and utterly inane way.

The joy of the environmental protection activity is how much of it is
simply an excuse for increasing human misery. I once worked for a
fairly wealthy man who decided to do something for the environment by
buying a ruined swamp in his native North Carolina and having all the
garbage and other stuff removed from it so that it could be turned
into a wildlife preserve for waterfowl. However, not realizing that it
is evil to try to help the environment unless you are a bureaucrat, he
foolishly proceeded with his plan. He was arrested for "performing
construction on federally protected wetlands" -- for you see, his men
had temporarily built a dirt road to bring in the equipment they were
using to remove the junk from the swamp, and the removal of the
garbage also turned out to be illegal under our wonderous system.

He was, however, let off easy -- he was fined only one million dollars
and permitted to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Had he tried to fight
it, he might have ended up in jail for many years.

Paul nearly had tears in his eyes as he announced the settlement to
his employees. He'd been born poor, worked hard, and tried to do
something for the world. Unfortunately, he thought he was living in
America. In fact, he's living in a nightmare.

When you decide that you'd like to do something for the environment --
a laudable goal -- ask yourself if your actions are actually going to
help your cause. Supporting the Environmental Protection Agency is not
a way to help keep the world green. Intentions do not count -- only
reality counts.

--
Perry Metzger		[email-masked]
--
So, why am I "selfish" for not wanting to pay high taxes to fund silly
government programs, but the people getting the money aren't "selfish"?

---

From: "Perry E. Metzger" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 11:57:28 GMT

Kieran Roe says:
>
> Maybe the fellow in your anecdote did it the wrong way.  Maybe he intended
> to help the environment, but really made it worse.

And maybe I've made you so uncomfortable that you would prefer not to
think about the case of that fellow. His name, by the way, is Paul
T. Jones; he's a real person. Go and look up the details of his case
-- they are, after all, public record.

This individual isn't the only one. Federal wetlands legislation is
among the most thoroughly abused bits of regulation out there, but
there are others. What the EPA achieves, largely, is human misery.

> But I believe they are an awful lot of landowners out there who left to their
> own devices, would wittingly or unwittingly exacerbate environmental problems

The question is, does the EPA, left to its own devices, wittingly or
unwittingly make the U.S. a worse place, overall, to live. The answer, I
believe, is "yes".

.pm
Re: Environmentalist: All Out for March 4                                    R