The Bogus Economist: Exhale only

For those of you who genuinely enjoy breathing or those who have just gotten in the habit of breathing and would like to continue, here's important news: The administration, in its continuing effort to represent the best interests of its most important constituency, has taken some giant steps to relax the rules governing air pollution by letting many of the nation's dirtiest coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities "claim more upgrades as 'routine maintenance' that don't require more emissions-cutting devices," according to a story in the Associated Press.

Other less objective sources have branded the move "a billion-dollar windfall to the energy industry," among other more colorful but unprintable criticisms. The general feeling is the new rules will increase the amount of pollution not only in the areas of the plants in question, but whatever places get prevailing winds. This means folks living in the great outdoors will soon be in the same boat as the guys in the back room shooting pool.

So who's putting these laws together? Well, none other than the Environmental Protection Agency. In his brilliant book, "1984," George Orwell imagined a world where people were controlled by "Doublespeak," or the ability to hold two completely opposite ideas at the same time and believe both of them. To put doublespeak into gear, all you need is an absolutely rotten idea on which you can slap a label claiming it's the best thing for the world since the Alamo. Doublespeak turns "Forest Protection" into cutting down lots more trees, "No Child Left Behind" into inventing a bunch of new rules and not providing any money for them and "The Patriot Act" into an invitation to open people's mail, listen to their phone calls, and now, apparently, torture them if you have to. The EPA, in adopting Doublespeak, is acting in its finest tradition.

The Bogus Economist, anxious to combat the illusion he is a "liberal," feels he's got to assure his readers that opposing suffocation is not the exclusive position of the Far Left. With scientists now saying the point of no return on Global Warming is much closer than we had thought and with the United States now one of the two greatest polluters on the planet, protecting the health of our children and grandchildren is not a partisan thing. <snip>

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2005/03/04/news/news17.txt