Ben Boychuk writes elegantly about the despotic impulses that so often characterize the environmentally earnest--to say nothing of the insincere advocates of their earnestness who see in it an opening for grabbing more taxes. Nancy Pelosi's recent comments in China, where she announced that: "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility," are discussed. Also discussed is a recent exchange between our own Steve Hayward and David Shearman and Joseph Wayne Smith of the University of Adelaide in the most recent issue of The Claremont Review of Books.

But what may be most troubling, perhaps, to a good number of our readers is a trend developing in Merry Olde England. There, Britons are counseled by the the chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change, David Kennedy, that they need to change their diets in order to effectively combat carbon emissions. This is not, as you might suspect, an exhortation to eliminate the eating of beans so much as it is an effort to eliminate the production of foods and agricultural products that are deemed to produce too many greenhouse gases. Sheep are one of the culprits (along with cows) . . . but beware. Beer and Whiskey are also in the mix. Ben wonders whether there will also be a coming Whiskey Rebellion . . . If so, I think Washington would support this one!