I wanted to give an illustration of why sometimes conservatives can be so frustrated about the way that government works or doesn’t work.

So, about a year ago, a little more than a year ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service, a federal agency launched what it called Operation Pow Wow.  It was to investigate American Indian tribes for using eagle feathers in their religious ceremonies.  As a result, the Fish and Wildlife Service confiscated eagle feathers Lipan Apache Tribe in Texas.

The short story is that after arbitration and making nice, the Fish and Wildlife Service returned the Lipan Apache people.

This year, that very same Fish and Wildlife Service is insisting that the wind farm industry be issued permits to kill 4,200 bald eagles a year for the next 30 years.

Now, if I am not mistaken, an individual can do jail time for killing a bald eagle and yet my taxes go to subsidize wind farms.

In 2011, that same Fish and Wildlife Service convinced the Justice Department to issue criminal indictments against three oil companies for killing 6 ducks in the frozen tundra of North Dakota.

Now, if you think there is nothing incongruent, inconsistent, or even absurd about all of this, then congratulations.  You may be a progressive.

But, these are the things that drive conservatives batty.  But, wind power is coming to North Carolina so we should probably ask ourselves how many bald eagles should we sacrifice to what we call clean, wind energy?

Will we even ask the question?

 

— Alan Culton

 

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