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Global Warming, College Legacy Admissions, and Disaster Bailouts

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Global Warming – This summer has been the mildest I can remember.  The past few August days, with nighttime temperatures in the 50’s and daytime temperatures in the 60’s, have felt like autumn weather, not the usual dog days of summer.  I am wondering whether Al Gore and his environmentalist friends will declare this summer to be an exception to the global warming trend they have been ranting about for the past several years, or whether they will now make an about-face and shift to a new theory about global cooling.  Of course, I still remember the old “global cooling” rants, which came before the recent “global warming” rants.  But the most important thing for us to remember is that we must be convinced that there is some kind of a man-made environmental crisis in order for Gore and his buddies to be able to step in and take charge of all our activities, from the type of car we can drive to the kinds of factories we can build.  I say it’s all rubbish!  But then that’s another environmental matter altogether. 

College Legacy Admissions – Reporters act as if they have caught President Bush in a contradiction, because he said colleges should admit students based on merit, not on “legacy” (whether their parents attended the same institution), and his admission to Yale apparently was at least partially based on legacy.  I don’t see any contradiction at all.  Government schools, being funded by taxpayers, should admit students based on academic merit in order to be as fair as possible to all the taxpayers.  They should not favor one student over another based on the color of his skin, his father’s connections, or other non-academic criteria.  On the other hand, private schools, being funded privately, without infusions of tax money, should admit based on any criteria they wish, including whether the student’s father or mother attended the school.  Don’t the reporters understand the huge difference between taxpayers’ forced funding of something and private, voluntary funding?  Or do they simply think the government should control everything?

And, while on the subject of college admissions, these same reporters are always trying to cast President Bush as a dummy, because he didn’t get a 4.0 average at Yale and because he pronounces “nuclear” as “nuc-u-lar”.  Having lived in Texas for many years, I can tell you that President Bush pronounces “nuclear” the same way most Texans pronounce it.  His pronunciation is proof that he is a Texan, not that he is a dummy.  And I wonder how the reporters judge the intelligence of other people, besides President Bush.  Do they ask about their university degrees and grade point averages, do they ask about their life experiences and achievements, or is the only real test of intellectual ability based on whether the person agrees with the reporter? 

Disaster bailouts –  I lived for many years near the Texas coast, and I remember tracking the hurricanes, boarding up the house, and preparing to evacuate.  It wasn’t fun, and I certainly sympathize with people who will be in a hurricane’s path this year, but I don’t think the American people should be forced to bail them out of their disasters.  People have the ability to choose where they will live, and they have the ability to buy insurance against unfortunate events such as fires, floods, and hurricanes.  A person who chooses to build a mansion on a beachfront in Florida should not be bailed out by truck drivers in Omaha and teachers in Tuscaloosa if his mansion is swept away by a hurricane (unless they choose to help him on a voluntary basis).  If a tree falls on your house, there will be no government bail-out.  You will have to rely on your homeowner’s insurance.  If a few houses in a Kentucky “holler” are flooded or swept away by a flash flood, they will not be rescued by a government bail-out.  Only if your misfortune is shared by a large number of people in the same area at the same time will you be bailed out by the government.  This is politics, not compassion.  It is not right, and we should not support it.

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