A PROVEN APPROACH to cleaning up the environment:

While the modern environmental movement often portrays capitalist industrial societies as the world’s biggest pollution problem, Forbes notes something interesting about the top-25 cleanest cities in the world: Most of them are in wealthy industrialized democracies. Turns out, all that industrialization created wealth which, in turn, buys the things (mass transit, especially) and pays for the policies that create a cleaner environment.

Yep. The good things in life generally come from wealthy, industrialized democracies.

FROM AUSTRALIA: “The US Congress’ vote to push for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq was wrong and will bring comfort to Al-Qaeda insurgents, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Friday.”

From Iraq: “I am an Iraqi. To me the possible consequences of this vote are terrifying. Just as we began to see signs of progress in my country the Democrats come and say, ‘Well, it’s not worth it.Time to leave’.”

UPDATE: A look at the effect of timetables in Basra: “Now that the Brits and Danes have given the people of Basra a drop-dead date for their withdrawal, they have set in motion a fight for power that will only amplify as the withdrawal date approaches. Instead of throwing in with the central government, the flight of the Coalition has convinced Iraqis in that area that they have to find the strongest warlord for protection. We can expect this across the country if the US withdraws precipitately from Iraq. A pullout will embolden the violent and frighten the law-abiding, and the end result will be a completely failed state. Regardless of whether one supported the invasion or not, it is obviously not in the American interest to leave behind a collapsed Iraq where the boldest and most vicious terrorists rise to power in fiefdoms small and large.”

Some people don’t care, though, if it might give them a leg-up in the next election.

CARBON TRADING — not just a scam, but a government-encouraged scam:

The government department spearheading Britain’s effort to reduce carbon output is driving companies and individuals towards paying under a European Union system for emissions cuts that do not take place.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has also channelled more than half of £215m paid out under a pilot UK greenhouse gas trading scheme to just four companies which spent considerably less than they received on emissions cuts.

The first charge against Defra is that, under a new code of practice, it has been advising businesses and consumers wishing to offset their emissions to buy carbon credits through the EU or a separate UN carbon trading scheme. However, phase one of the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) has been discredited for giving companies so many carbon credits – effectively permits to pollute – that no overall reduction in emissions took place.

Why am I not surprised?

GENERALS IN IRAQ: In response to yesterday’s post on the subject, a reader in Iraq who asks for anonymity emails:

Boot has a point about Generals.

They don’t control much on the ground and the tactical decisions, but they have a huge say in asset allocation and priorities. (They know, but don’t control.)

To see all the assets that have been arrayed on huge bases like Balaad, Al Asad, TQ, Victory Baghdad, then compare them to say PB 548 north of Habbaniyah, you see the priorities for asset allocation were inside the wire for a few years.

That is just now starting to switch.

Petraeus is fighting a battle not only against the enemy, but the military’s bureaucratic machine. A machine built up over years in garrison without combat and now turning major bases in Iraq into garrison.

I heard a second hand story last night about a female soldier who was not complying with certain rules on a major base. The rules were because it was a ‘combat zone.’ Her defense? The base she was stationed on was not a combat zone.

I think I would have acquitted her.

Troops in big bases are a lot less likely to get killed, and casualties generate bad press. On the other hand, troops outside the wire can do a lot more, but at the cost of higher casualties.

A LOOK AT SEX AND GRADES in adolescence.

FORMER STATE SEN. JOHN FORD has been convicted of bribery. More here. The good news for Harold Ford, Jr. is that this will be old news by the time he runs for office again.

BEE UPDATE: MICKEY KAUS posts a report from the field: “My mother says her garden is ‘absolutely buzzing’ with bees. So they haven’t all disappeared.”

Meanwhile, although the cellphone theory got a lot of attention, the finger of suspicion is now pointing at a fungus.

CRIMINALIZING THE CONSUMER: The Economist writes on where DRM went wrong.

I think that the adversary relationship with their customers that record companies have fostered will do more to harm them than piracy, over time. In fact, I think it already has.

JAMES WEBB GUN UPDATE:

Authorities dropped charges Friday against an aide to Virginia Sen. Jim Webb who carried a loaded gun into the U.S. Capitol complex.

“After reviewing and analyzing all of the evidence in the case, we do not believe the essential elements of the crime of carrying a pistol without a license can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” U.S. Attorney Jeff Taylor, top prosecutor in the District of Columbia, said in a short statement.

Webb senior aide Phillip Thompson, 45, was arrested on March 26 after Capitol Police spotted the loaded pistol and two other loaded magazines in a briefcase being scanned by an X-ray machine at the entrance of the Russell Senate office building.

Stlll no news on who the gun belonged to, though. I think this was the right outcome, as there wasn’t any evidence that Thompson knew he had a gun in the bag. I just hope that others will get similar treatment. People don’t always get off as easily in these circumstances. (Via Volokh).

UPDATE: Reader Patrick Gigliotti emails:

Webb is in Virginia, yes? Va. Tech is in Virginia, yes? If Senator Webb were a Republican we would be swamped with stories in the media about how his gun obsession influenced the minds of the youth in his state. The normal story line of “what message does this send to our children” did not appear. Gun control nutters have not mentioned his name. Curious.

Good point.

MIKE GRAVEL, superstar.

WELL, THIS IS NICE: “The al-Qaeda leader who is thought to have devised the plan for the July 7 suicide bombings in London and an array of terrorist plots against Britain has been captured by the Americans. Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, a former major in Saddam Hussein’s army, was apprehended as he tried to enter Iraq from Iran and was transferred this week to the ‘high-value detainee programme’ at Guantanamo Bay.”

Hey, wait — an “al-Qaeda leader” who’s also a “former major in Saddam Hussein’s army”? But I thought there was no connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda. Or between Al Qaeda and Iran . . . .

UPDATE: Don Surber: London bombings? What London bombings?

The U.S. announced on Friday that it captured the mastermind behind the 7/7/2005 bombings in London.

But you would not know it by reading the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Associated Press.

None of them mentioned the London bombings in reporting on the capture of the man who organized that attack, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi (aka, Abu Abdallah).

Instead, reporters concentrated on where this major player in the war on terrorism was held after his capture. Incredible.

I don’t know. It doesn’t surprise me.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey comments: “All of these papers had hours after the Times of London report to get the London bombings into the story. The Times goes to bed at 7 pm ET and hits the feeds and wire services. None of the American media bothered to check on Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi. Readers should ask themselves whether that comes from a lack of intellectual curiosity, or whether it comes from a bias that puts the circumstances of the detention of a terrorist at a higher priority than the terrorism itself.”

Either way, they’re doing a crappy job. But if he’d had a connection to Jack Abramoff, you can bet they’d have mentioned it!

EMAIL OF THE DAY:

Subject: Comments Sectino

To: pundit

So, did you eliminate the comments section because you were tired of having us Libs hand you your anti-intellectual ass, or were you just trying to hide the fact that your fans are drooling mouth-breathers?

Given that I’ve never had a comment section — or even a “comments sectino” — I have no idea what provokes emails like this. But they certainly don’t encourage me to add one, if this is the kind of person who’s, er, drooling at the prospect of posting on my site.

REPUBLICANS VS. HILLARY: Interesting.

THE NORTH CAROLINA ATTORNEY GENERAL has released the report on the Duke Lacrosse prosecutorial debacle. The report’s here. Excerpt:

The re-investigation led to the conclusion that there was no credible evidence to support the allegation that the crimes occurred. The new investigation revealed additional weaknesses in the State’s cases based on the case files that had already been developed.

The State’s cases rested primarily on a witness whose recollection of the facts of the allegations was imprecise and contradictory. This alone would have made it difficult for a prosecutor to prove the allegations. However with additional evidence uncovered in the new investigation, it was clear that there was no credible evidence that these crimes occurred at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in Durham that night.

Naturally, K.C. Johnson is all over this. The Durham Police Department is coming off badly, too.

A CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY IN KANSAS, as the legislature overrides a veto of liberalized carry laws by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

A CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY IN KANSAS, as the legislature overrides a veto of liberalized carry laws by Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

UPDATE: It’s certainly better than this approach. Jeez.

FIGHT! FIGHT! It’s Lou Dobbs vs. Gavin Newsom.

Time to weigh in on this important topic:

But will someone please explain to all concerned that Hermann Goering was not the Nazis’ propagandist-in-chief? That’s Joseph Goebbels. If you’re going to go all Godwin on this stuff, you need to at least know your Nazis. What has American politics come to?

UPDATE: Yes, of course it’s a dumb poll. As befits its subject. And subjects.

JOHN MCCAIN DID A BLOGGER CONFERENCE CALL: I wasn’t on it, but Ann Althouse and Ryan Sager were, and report some news. McCain’s against civil unions, too. Not winning any points with me either.

GIULIANI COMES OUT AGAINST CIVIL UNIONS, which seems like something of a flipflop to me. At any rate, it’s not winning any points as far as I’m concerned.

HOW TO DO GUN CONTROL: “Special squads of police. No notice searches. Fines. Imprisonment.”

UPDATE: Eugene Volokh observes: “It does seem to me that a War on Guns, with unannounced random searches on streets and in homes, should be highly unappealing to anyone who has even some reservations about the War on Drugs, and questionable even to those who support the War on Drugs.”

I can certainly see a downside. And as Volokh notes, proposals like this do illustrate the dishonesty of claims that “No one is trying to take away your guns,” and that claims to the contrary are just a “gun lobby bogeyman.”

COMPACT FLUORESCENTS AND MERCURY: Steven Milloy has a piece on compact fluorescents and mercury that a lot of people are writing about. Milloy tells the horrifying story of a woman in Ellsworth, Maine who broke a compact fluorescent bulb and wound up stuck with a $2000 hazmat cleanup bill.

The story may be true, but she could have saved herself some money by googling “compact fluorescent mercury.” That would have brought her information like this:

The government’s Energy Star program says the amount of mercury in a compact fluorescent bulb is so small that there’s no immediate health risk if it’s cleaned up properly.

The program’s advice is to sweep up the pieces – don’t vacuum them – and put them into a sealed plastic bag. Wipe the area with a damp paper towel to pick up the fine shards and particles, and put the towel into the plastic bag as well. If weather permits, open the windows to ventilate the room. Treat the bag and its contents as hazardous waste, and recycle appropriately.

Or this:

Is it true that compact fluorescent light bulbs contain harmful mercury?

Compact fluorescent lights contain a very small amount of mercury, significantly less than those in fever thermometers. This small amount of mercury slowly bonds with the phosphor coating on the lamp interior as the lamp ages, prohibiting its entry into the atmosphere. Even breaking a fluorescent bulb is not a significant health risk because the amount of mercury vapor released is so small that it dissipates into the air with a minimal chance of inhalation.

What is the proper way to dispose of burned-out compact fluorescent light bulbs?

Though compact fluorescent light bulbs are exempt from Environmental Protection Agency and State of Washington regulations, Tacoma Power recommends that you dispose of burned-out bulbs as you would batteries, motor oil or oil-based paint. City of Tacoma and Pierce County residents can dispose of household hazardous waste, including burned-out compact fluorescent light bulbs, at the City of Tacoma Landfill Household Hazardous Waste Collection Site.

Doesn’t sound so scary to me. What about the overall environmental effects? Well, there’s this:

Ironically, compact fluorescent bulbs are responsible for less mercury contamination than the incandescent bulbs they replaced, even though incandescents don’t contain any mercury. The highest source of mercury in America’s air and water results from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, at utilities that supply electricity. Since a compact fluorescent bulb uses 75 percent less energy than an incandescent bulb, and lasts at least six times longer, it is responsible for far less mercury pollution in the long run. A coal-burning power plant will emit four times more mercury to produce the electricity for an incandescent bulb than for a compact fluorescent.

Or this: “The very small amount of mercury in a CFL — about 5 milligrams, compared to an old-fashioned home thermometer, which had about 500 milligrams — is safe while the bulb is in operation and poses little risk even if it breaks, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.”

I’d be interested in seeing more on this topic, but if CFLs were as deadly as Milloy suggests, I wouldn’t expect big companies to sell them for fear that the trial lawyers would take them to the cleaners. I kind of think that Milloy is just having a bit of fun turning enviro-scare tactics back upon themselves, but I don’t think there’s much foundation to these worries.

MARC DANZIGER ON VIRGINIA TECH: “The students didn’t fail to act correctly by not attacking their attacker. The doctrine they were operating under — the one we have trained them in all their lives — failed them.”

IN THE MAIL: Matt Margolis and Mark Noonan’s Caucus of Corruption: The Truth about the New Democratic Majority.

Meet the new caucus. Same as the old caucus.

JOHN MCWHORTER:

It is reasonable to surmise that Barack Obama will be the next President.

Mr Obama has a once-in-a-lifetime charisma that Hillary Clinton could never approximate, and she also suffers from the handicap of not being black. For all of his other plusses, part of Mr Obama’s appeal lies in the fact that many whites feel that voting for a black presidential candidate would be Doing the Right Thing. Leon Wieseltier has been explicit about this; he is not unique.

Read the whole thing.

HAS BUSH TAKEN THE WRONG LESSONS FROM VIETNAM? Read this interview with Max Boot.

UPDATE: A failure of the generals? “America’s generals have failed to prepare our armed forces for war and advise civilian authorities on the application of force to achieve the aims of policy.” Hmm. I’m not so sure, but read this and see what you think.