On 12/29/2013 8:44 AM, authfri...@yahoo.com wrote:
I think she's wildly overrated as an intellect. I think she picks her
positions (perhaps unconsciously) based on their outrageousness
quotient and then figures out how to support them. She impresses more
because of her skill with words and her contrariness than the quality
of her thinking.
So, I wonder how Camille Paglia compares to Kevin Drum, commenting on
the ethanol subsidies?
"A few years ago I called subsidies for corn ethanol "catastrophically
idiotic." And why not? Corn ethanol, it turns out, is actively worse for
the environment than even gasoline, farmers responded to the subsidies
by reducing the amount of farmland used for food production, and this
drove up the price of staple food worldwide."
'Ethanol Subsidies: Not Gone, Just Hidden a Little Better'
by Kevin Drum
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/ethanol-subsidies/
"Having mandated huge volumes of a fuel that has little willing market,
the ethanol lobby is bullying auto makers to warranty cars that use
damaging E15, pushing legislation to require more flex-fuel vehicles,
and now using the threat of investigation to force the oil industry into
selling a rival product. All this for a fuel that raises gas and food
prices and has no anti-pollution benefits."
'The Ethanol Enforcers'
by Camille Paglia:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/ethanol_enforcers
<http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324665604579079422906545590>
