OPINION/COMMENTARY

PETA Wants Constitutional Amendment For Fish

Sorry, crustaceans and reptiles. You didn't make People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals' list of animals that deserve protection under their proposed constitutional amendment, which declares "all mammals, birds, and fish will, henceforth, be defined as 'persons' in the eyes of the law." Of course, PETA's idea of protecting animals would strip us of everything from our leather shoes to the milk in our breakfast cereal (not to mention bacon and eggs).

PETA president Ingrid Newkirk has called human beings the "biggest blight on the face of the earth." Why would PETA want to degrade animals to our status?

Laws establishing rights for animals may seem like a joke, but in 2002 Florida approved an amendment to its state constitution that extends rights to pregnant pigs. PETA crowed that the Florida measure "could lead to similar ... campaigns in other states."....

Ninth Circuit Grants Pilgrim Family’s Appeal: Precedent-Setting Case Asks Court to Affirm the Rights of Alaskans to Access Federal Lands

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today granted the appeal brought by Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of the Pilgrim family, the 17-member Alaska wilderness family that has been locked in a high-profile battle with the National Park Service for nearly a year. Last April, the Park Service closed the only viable road to the Pilgrims’ property a few days after the family’s home was destroyed by fire. The road closure has made it impossible for the Pilgrims to bring in heavy materials to rebuild their home. As a result, the Pilgrims and their 15 children have been forced to live in an uninsulated mine building in Alaskan winter temperatures for months.

“We’re pleased the Ninth Circuit is willing to hear the appeal and we are confident that the faulty district court decision will be overturned,” said PLF attorney Russ Brooks. “We look forward to the day when the Pilgrims will have reasonable access to their home and this whole unnecessary mess can be brought to an end.”....

Americans are Using Water More Efficiently

Despite an increasing population, greater electricity production and higher agricultural output, Americans are using less water than they did 30 years ago, says a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey.

The agency examined 50 years of water use through 2000. Among its findings:

--Consumption is largely unchanged since 1985 and is 25 percent less than its peak in the 1970s.
--Americans consume 408 billion gallons a day of fresh and saline water -- of which 11 percent goes to homes and most businesses, while nearly half (48 percent) goes to power plants, more than a third (34 percent) to agriculture; and 7 percent for such uses as mining, livestock and individual domestic wells.
--Powerplants account for 96 percent of saline water withdrawals.

How has water been conserved?

--Electric utilities, which once needed huge amounts of water to cool electrical generating plants, now conserve water by closed loop recirculation.
--Other industries have conserved by using water-saving technology -- driven by energy-saving and environmental-protection laws passed in the 1970s.
--Irrigation remains the largest use of freshwater, and more of it is groundwater -- rising from 23 percent in 1950 to 43 percent in 2000.
--And, interestingly, low-flow bathroom fixtures and water-saving appliances ordered by a 1992 federal law -- the bane of millions of consumers -- have had little impact.

In contrast to the record of industry, Amy Vickers, author of "Handbook of Water Use and Conservation," says 15 percent to 20 percent of municipal water is lost to leaky pipelines and other unmeasured waste.

Source: Patrick O'Driscoll, "Americans using less water, report says," USA Today, March 12, 2004; based on Susan S. Hutson et al., "Estimated Use of Water in the United States in 2000," March 2004, U.S. Geological Survey.

PLF Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Take Action in Three Key Wetland Cases

Deaton v. U.S. On January 26, PLF filed its third brief since December asking the U.S. Supreme Court to tell the federal government to stop their unlawful power grab over intrastate waters under the guise of the Clean Water Act.

In December, PLF filed a petition for review with the High Court on behalf of its client, John Rapanos, in a case that has the potential to effect sweeping changes to national policy regarding wetlands regulation (Rapanos v. U.S.). Similarly, PLF filed an amicus brief in Newdunn Associates v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

In all three of these cases, PLF is asking the Supreme Court to reaffirm its landmark 2001 decision, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S., which restricts federal authority over “isolated wetlands” under the Clean Water Act.

Food Fights

On March 10, Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson launched public service announcements depicting dismembered body parts of fat people -- double chins, stomachs, buttocks, and thighs -- caught in grocery cart wheels, found by children along the beach and tripped over by mall shoppers. They're part of Thompson's efforts to educate Americans about obesity and persuade them to change their eating habits by showing fat people what they should "lose."1

Yes, eating is becoming political. Our government is increasingly adopting the false science of a special interest group intent on making sure we all eat what they think we should -- and look and behave acceptably, too. If we're not careful, this new eugenics will see to it we're no longer free to eat what we want and we'll pay more for the privilege. If this sounds overly dramatic, look at what's already happened....

New hybrid car runs on gas, feelgood environmental BS

Fueling the recent craze over hybrid cars, Toyota Motor Corp. unveiled on Wednesday its newest model, the Gaia.

Powered by a hybrid engine that uses both unleaded gas and feelgood, self-important environmental crackpot bullshit, the sedan averages about 65 miles per gallon--and up to 80 MPG if you really, truly believe in the power of a single person to change the world.

"The Gaia brings together drivability and half-assed pocketbook environmentalism in one car," said Toyota's U.S. vice president of marketing, Jim Hebbern. "Using both gas and a patented process in which electricity, hydrogen fuel, solar and geothermal power magically fuse together and solve all the world's problems, the Gaia is the conscientious consumer's choice for driving."....