Liberals Tripping Over Each Other

Among today's progressives no designation warrants more self-righteousness than "advocate" (though "green" is gaining ground).

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "If you would lift me up you must be on higher ground." That truism certainly isn't lost on today's progressives.

Riding the gravy train of dispersed costs and concentrated benefits, advocates have found themselves wielding a surprising amount of power and influence. So what happens when progressive advocates' interests collide?

Two recent stories give us a preview of things to come as one area of advocacy (environmentalism) splinters into smaller sects with bigger illusions of self-importance.

In California it's the tree-huggers versus the solar power advocates. Here in Wisconsin it's the wind power advocates versus the Audobon Society.

This story from the left coast tells of a conundrum where a hybrid driving environmentalist is being forced to cut down his long established trees because they'll block 15% of the sun to his neighbor's proposed solar panels.

Apparently California was already so nutty back in 1978 that they put a law on the books saying solar panels trump trees.

Back here in Wisconsin super clean wind farms are meeting harsh opposition because they claim the lives of too many birds. It's unlikely that the birds will win this one though as global warming concerns supercede all others ("You're just helping some birds while I'm saving the world.")

Who knows, maybe if the global warming fanatics step on enough toes we'll see a backlash of critical analysis of the costs and the facts. We can only hope.