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Bad climate bill belongs in limbo

By PATRICK J. MICHAELS

alt Will a lame duck Congress pass cap-and-trade? Judging from recent news, it might try. But, more likely, all the sound and fury will end up signifying its usual nothing. And it leaves the preferred option, where Congress punts the problem to the EPA, very much alive.

On Aug. 10, the House of Representatives blocked a resolution from Tom Price, R-Ga., that would have prohibited the House from convening a lame duck session after November's election unless there was a national emergency.

Climate Czarina Carol Browner recently suggested that such a bill could "potentially" be passed before the 112th Congress opens for business in January. In the new Congress, the House may very well be under Republican control. Hence the need for a lame duck climate bill.

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The passing of E-6

By THOMAS SOWELL

alt Most people have no idea what "E-6" is. To avid baseball fans, E-6 is the way to record an error by a shortstop on your scorecard. But there is another E-6, in photography. This E-6 is the developer in which color slides are processed.

Recently, I received an e-mail from Chromatics, a photo lab used by professional photographers in Nashville, that they will be discontinuing the developing of color slides and color transparencies in general, after Sept. 9. This was sent to me as an old customer of theirs.

The passing of E-6 is the passing of an era, because it means that so few professional photographers are using color slides and transparencies these days, in this era of digital photography, that a major photo lab does not get enough of this kind of film to develop to make it worthwhile to stock the chemical that is used.

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Something for nothing

By WALTER E. WILLIAMS

alt Perhaps the most difficult economic lesson is that we live in a world of scarcity and everything has a cost. Scarcity exists whenever human wants exceed the means to satisfy those wants.

For example, Rolls-Royce produces less than 4,000 cars a year but it's a safe bet that more than 4,000 of the Earth's 6.5 billion people want a Rolls-Royce. That means Rolls-Royces are scarce. But it's not just Rolls-Royces that are scarce. It's clothing, food, land and most anything a human would want. There's not enough to meet every, single want.

Scarcity means there's no free lunch. Having more of one thing requires having less of another. You might say, "Williams, that's where you're wrong. Someone gave me this newspaper and I'm reading your column for free!" Not true. If you weren't spending time reading my column, you might have spent the time reading something else, chatting with your wife or children, or going out for a jog. You're reading my column for a zero price but you're not doing so at zero cost. You have to sacrifice something. There are zero-price services such as "free libraries," "free public schools," "free transportation" and free whatever. It doesn't mean that costs are not being borne by somebody.

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Joe Miller not paranoid; just crazy

By PAUL JENKINS

alt Joe Miller is not paranoid, no matter what anybody says. Honest. He is the victim of a terrible plot.

It is time to come clean. I confess to being a National Republican Senatorial Committee elections plant sent here as a mole to steal an election; this one, it turns out. There are a host of GOP lawyers working for me and the goal is to ensure Joe Miller becomes Joe Who?

I didn’t want any part of this, but they have pictures of my dog mating outside her breed. They said they would put them on the Internet. They said nobody would sell me dog food. So, I went to work. Slanting this; lying about that. Pocketing fat envelops stuffed with cash and stashing boxes of Krispy Kreme jelly-filled doughnuts. Just waiting for instructions.