David Huntwork

You're to Blame for Everything
Preparedness: Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst
Wikileaks War
The Rise of the Tea Party
Why I Signed The Manhattan Declaration
Boycott The One
Into a Twisted Future with Gary Wolf
We Shall Not Go Quietly Into The Night
Dancing Under the Ugandan Skies - A Book Review
The 99 Most Memorable, Interesting and Outrageous Political Quotes of 2008
Obama's Natural Born Problem
The Giggle Monster Lost His Giggle (A children's story)
Victory at any Price
The History of the Huntwork Clan
Palin and those "scary" Christians
Our "Little Barracuda"
Civility at Saddleback
The Top Ten Reasons Obama Should Not Be President
The Coming Fascist State
You're to Blame for Everything
Hillary's Close Call
The Jerry Springer Party
Christianity, Obama, Identity Politics and Liberation Theology
Tis the Season to be PC
I Am NOT An Animal
The Sad Saga of Amanda Marcotte
The Left attempts to define Political Correctness
In Defense of Blackwater and the Modern Day Merc
Some Thoughts on the Senate Sleepover and the Iraq War
The Salt Lake Shooter and Sudden Jihad Syndrome
Successes and Setbacks in the "Long War"
The Rise of the Anti-Jihadists
The Little Boy and the Magic Snowman (A Children's Story)
Exploiting Children in the Name of Climate Change
Workshop of the Second Self: A Book Review
The Mystery of 9-11, Dr. Graham and Jamal Khan
2996: A tribute to the victims of 9-11
Myths (and Truths) of the Illegal Immigration Invasion
Out of Control Teacher Reinstated after Anti-US Rant
Alternating Worlds: A Book Review
Defending Christmas
The Execution of Terri Schiavo
The Saga of SpongeBob SquarePants
Civility at Saddleback
Embedded Reporters: A Bad Idea
Death of a Monster: Yasser Arafat
Immigrations Unarmed Invasion
Post 47 and RAthERGATE
September 11th: Lives Lost and Lessons Learned
An Alliance of Evil
The Holy Land - A Book Review
The Nature of the Enemy
The Embracer: A Book Review
Final Battle of the Culture Wars
They Say Trevor Made a Mockery of MLK Day
Did You Lie to Your Kids at Christmas?
The Twists and Turns of the Jessica Lynch Story
Valley of the Dry Bones
Rush and Race
What's Wrong with the Caucasion Club?
The Seductive Temptress
A Just War
Living the Bill of Rights
The Institutionalism of Liberalism
Triumph of the Bush Doctrine
New Alliances for a New Century
The Real Reason for the Iraq War
The Family Historian
There Once Was A Little Brown Bug (A Children's Story)
Happy Birthday Ronald Reagan
The U.N. Agenda
Powell the Pacifist

It is interesting how wealthy liberals are continually blaming the American middle class for global warming, terrorism, and pretty much all of the world’s problems. Simply put, it is all your fault.

What's Your Consumption Factor?

People in the third world are aware of this difference in per capita consumption, although most of them couldn’t specify that it’s by a factor of 32. When they believe their chances of catching up to be hopeless, they sometimes get frustrated and angry, and some become terrorists, or tolerate or support terrorists. Since Sept. 11, 2001, it has become clear that the oceans that once protected the United States no longer do so. There will be more terrorist attacks against us and Europe, and perhaps against Japan and Australia, as long as that factorial difference of 32 in consumption rates persists.

And if the guilt and emotional blackmail over melting glaciers and shrinking polar bear genitalia wasn’t enough, now the fact that all of the world does not share our lifestyle (or conversely, we are not as poverty stricken as they are) is cause for serious self-examination and self-blame. I don’t think I can bear it. After staggering for years under the ‘white man’s burden’ for 2,000 years of colonization and exploitation of those of a darker hue, now I must shoulder the burden for causing Islamic terrorism and the devastating changes to our planet that will quickly lead to the extinction of the human race.

All because my children have clean water to drink and live in a heated home while their father drives a vehicle to work and buys his socks, toothpaste and corn flakes at a big box store. Even worse is the fact that their mother washes their clothes in a machine instead of scrubbing them clean on the rocks in the river and has the audacity to make them pop tarts once in awhile.

For that, we are to blame for the impoverishment of Kenyans, the envy of those less fortunate, the actions of fanatical suicide bombers and the waste and consumption of the world’s resources by those seeking to attain the lifestyle of the average American.

Yet such hand wringing and finger pointing essays never mention the percentage of the world’s wealth, innovation, food, and scientific and medical advances that should be rightly credited to those greedy consumers of natural resources and unfair users of electricity and air conditioning. If it wasn’t for the technological and medical breakthroughs originating in the West, there would be far fewer than 30 million Kenyans. Consumption is directly related to productivity. Those who don’t produce, don’t consume.

The ’solutions’ offered to solve this grave problem of Western over-consumption is always little more than authoritarian socialism and forced reallocation of wealth. It may be disguised as higher fuel taxes, carbon taxes, luxury or consumption taxes or be little more than manipulation of regulations to control or inhibit industry, refineries, manufacturing and drilling under the guise of environmentalism but the goal to sharply reduce the lifestyle of the average American (and Westerner) has been laid out in clear and unapologetic terms. It used to be that the goal was to raise the lifestyle and condition of the impoverished and disadvantaged. The wealthy West as spent countless billions in an attempt to improve the condition of other peoples, with very little gratitude to show for it. And now the focus has shifted away from helping those unfortunates have access to clean water, rudimentary medical care, or not be butchered or starved for political purposes, but towards attacking those in the West for daring to have a computer to blog with while corrupt governments continue to allow their citizens to dwell in dirty, crime ridden shantytowns.

So, with my eyes newly opened to the plight of those other dwellers of planet earth, I decided to take stock of what I now feel guilty for having or providing for myself, my wife, and my three young daughters. This is by no means an exhaustive list.

-Electricity for lighting my home and powering appliances (my Christmas lights were definitely unnecessary).
-Running water
-Refrigerator and deep freeze for preserving food for later use.
-Washer and dryer
-DVD players
-Stereo.
-A couple of computers.
-TV’s
-Toaster
-Dishwasher
-Stove
-Microwave
-Hot water heater
-Two cars. (My work requires one as a condition of employment, so that might be excusable).
-Store bought clothes made from synthetic fibers, undoubtedly manufactured by oppressed peoples in Sri Lanka, Mexico or China.
-And I won’t even begin to detail the unnecessary trips for a big gulp, a burger and fries or those wasteful stops at the dollar store.

My wife and I have worked very hard to achieve a semblance of a middle class lifestyle and to provide a decent and comfortable standard of living, education and medical attention for ourselves and our children. I refuse to feel guilty for managing to owning a toaster or for watching a football game once in awhile. Yet that is what we are, in effect, told to feel.

There are far greater solutions for helping to alleviate the all too true sufferings of far too great a number of the world’s population. For starters, the formation of governments that are not unbelievably corrupt, inefficient, brutal, exploitative and backwards would be a start. The reevaluation of foreign aid (by the evil West), who it is distributed to, and what it is used to purchase should be completely overhauled. Innovation will go a long ways in bringing in everything from tourist dollars to foreign investment. Responsible stewardship of funds, natural resources and the elimination of corruption would do far more to improve the lot of the 3rd world than any policies fueled by guilt or jealousy of the lifestyle and modern technological advances we have managed to achieve in the First world.

Only the village idiots truly believe that if an American threw away his television it would help a Kenyan, or that not buying some DVDs would help ease the apparent insatiable envy of the Chinese. If you really want to take a brave step towards reducing waste and eliminating something completely useless in the West, I humbly suggest you start by eliminating the New York Times and cut off Jared Diamond’s access to his computer. That would be a great start.

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

- President Ronald Reagan

 ”I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my power, as I see fit. I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth. That is a program of sorts, is it not? It is certainly program enough to keep conservatives busy, and Liberals at bay. And the nation free.”

—William F. Buckley Jr.

"Liberals want to regulate just about everything: where we live, what fuels we use, what car we drive, whether we can drive or be forced to use government mass transit, where we send our kids to school, what doctor we see, and even to what extent we express our approval or disapproval of others’ lifestyles. It’s hard to find something liberals don’t want to regulate. Is that a world you want to live in?” 
 

"At such a time in history, we who are free must proclaim anew our faith. This faith is the abiding creed of our fathers. It is our faith in the deathless dignity of man, governed by eternal moral and natural laws. This faith defines our full view of life. It establishes, beyond debate, those gifts of the Creator that are man’s inalienable rights, and that make all men equal in His sight. "

Dwight D. Eisenhower

"And if we elect a government that subverts or weakens or ends our war against terrorism, we can count on this: We will soon face enemies that will make 9/11 look like stubbing our toe, and they will attack us with the confidence and determination that come from knowing that we don’t have the will to sustain a war all the way to the end."

- Orson Scott Card

"In response to skyrocketing gas prices, liberals say, practically in unison, 'We can’t drill our way out of this crisis.”' What does that mean? This is like telling a starving man, 'You can’t eat your way out of being hungry!'  'You can’t water your way out of drought!' 'You can’t sleep your way out of tiredness!' 'You can’t drink yourself out of dehydration!' Seriously, what does it mean? Finding more oil isn’t going to increase the supply of oil? It is the typical Democratic strategy to babble meaningless slogans, as if they have a plan. Their plan is: the permanent twilight of the human race. "

-Ann Coulter

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
 
-Samuel Adams