2008-01-28
Softball Team: Roster, Gameday, Name
Ok so with Faye's comment the roster so far is:
Wayne
Austin
EJ
Annette
Faye
Jade
Jason
Brian
Vanessa says she's out. Still no word about whether or not Darryll is going to be able to join.
As for game days, Lindsey has a preference that we play either under Friday night lights or Sunday day games. However, Annette did express a desire not to play on Sundays. Seeing that Annette would be a full-time player, I guess that means Sundays are out. Anyone else have a preference as to which days to play?
As for softball team names, the only suggestion we have thus far is Team Slug which is really unfortunate. So keep trying to come up with something.
Let us continue investing in advanced battery technology and renewable fuels to power the cars and trucks of the future. Let us create a new international clean technology fund, which will help developing nations like India and China make greater use of clean energy sources. And let us complete an international agreement that has the potential to slow, stop, and eventually reverse the growth of greenhouse gases. This agreement will be effective only if it includes commitments by every major economy and gives none a free ride.
Why is that a bad thing?
There are so many things wrong with that statement that it's hard to know where to begin. First of all, whenever I hear the government use the word "invest" my alarm bells go off. Just how is the government going to pay for this investment? I thought the government "must trust people with their own money and empower them to grow our economy," and "With all the other pressures on their finances, American families should not have to worry about the Federal Government taking a bigger bite out of their paychecks."
Besides, why not let the free market make those investments? With Warren Buffet and Bill Gates so eager to pay more taxes they are more than welcomed to make those investments themselves or perhaps they alone could finance the government investment as President Bush said, "Others have said they would personally be happy to pay higher taxes. I welcome their enthusiasm, and I am pleased to report that the IRS accepts both checks and money orders." So let those so willing to part with their money fund these projects instead of forcibly taking money away from the people to yet again finance another wasteful government program.
As for this greenhouse gases thing, let me just make a quick quote,
We do not know the extent to which human activity caused this. The activity is economic growth, the wealth-creation that makes possible improved well-being—better nutrition, medicine, education, etc. How much reduction of such social goods are we willing to accept by slowing economic activity in order to (try to) regulate the planet's climate?
We do not know how much we must change our economic activity to produce a particular reduction of warming. And we do not know whether warming is necessarily dangerous. Over the millennia, the planet has warmed and cooled for reasons that are unclear but clearly were unrelated to SUVs. Was life better when ice a mile thick covered Chicago? Was it worse when Greenland was so warm that Vikings farmed there? Are we sure the climate at this particular moment is exactly right, and that it must be preserved, no matter the cost?
It could cost tens of trillions (in expenditures and foregone economic growth, here and in less-favored parts of the planet) to try to fine-tune the planet's temperature. We cannot know if these trillions would purchase benefits commensurate with the benefits that would have come from social wealth that was not produced.
So there you have it.
By the way, why is this in the softball post?