A religion without borders

Friday, August 22, 2008

A religion without borders

They were banned in the European Union in 2005 and now it is the turn of California to do the deadly deed.

We are referring to lead weights used for balancing car wheels and, according to the LA Times, they are to be phased out in California by end of 2009.

Such is the grip of the greenies that it is going further even than the arch-sponsor of scares, the EPA. Since it has not actually banning them - instead, the agency is sponsoring a "voluntary" initiative to reduce their use – the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health took a law suit against Chrysler and the three largest makers of lead wheel weights for the US market.

In settlement, the makers agreed to a phase out, after the group had contended that discarded weights threatened drinking water. "Wheel weights have been identified as the largest new route of lead releases into the environment," says Michael Green, executive director of the Center for Environmental Health. "By moving the industry away from leaded wheel weights, we are helping to keep the lead out of our kids' drinking water."

To add to this legend, the paper helpfully tells us that, "lead is a highly toxic metal that can cause brain damage and other nervous-system disorders, especially in young children."

It has been used to make wheel weights for decades because it is cheap and heavy, allowing mechanics to use relatively small weights when balancing tyres – to say nothing of being malleable and soft, making it easy to trim and fit – but such is of no consequence to the greenies.

As in the EU, they will enforce weights made of steel or zinc alloy, which are larger and cost 20-30 percent more. But, since they are cheap enough, no-one is really that concerned and the greenies get their way yet again.

What is terrifying though is the way that what starts in the EU ends up in the USA – and vice versa - from whence the contagion spreads across the globe. It truly is a religion without borders.

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

That loathsome media

Readers might have noticed that we are not particularly impressed with the fourth estate – although there are a few journalists worthy of their hire.

However, the very worst of the breed is exemplified by the political correspondent, one such being Jo Coburn who works for the equally repulsive Beeb.

She recently accompanied the prime minister on his trip to Afghanistan and then filed a report on her experiences on the BBC website.

Despite having an opportunity that most of us would welcome – for the chance to get information directly from the "horses' mouths" on the Afghan campaign, which looks to be entering a worrying phase – no such trivial issues detained Mz Coburn or her colleagues for very long.

Having been driven to Kabul and the presidential palace under "incredibly tight" security, a press conference was then arranged for these loathsome creatures.

But, writes la Coburn, "if Gordon Brown had thought he would be asked about the future cooperation between the two countries then he was sorely disappointed." She drools on:

All of us wanted to press him on the future of his leadership. Did he accept his strategy up until now had been wrong? What were his relations like with his foreign secretary, David Miliband, amid tales of political plotting?

There is something particularly despicable about these shrivelled, etiolated creatures that render them beyond contempt. That the likes of Coburn cannot even see that she is wrong to the extent that she quite happily parades her foul trade on the net really says all you need to know about her and her ilk.

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