Forest for the Trees

Anne Coulter wrote a book called Godless I saw this picture and thought of her book.

The Department of Defense is setting up new housekeeping. They are justifying it under the mantle of greenness.
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http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=475&sid=2381254
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I couldn’t help but see the image of a cross. Intended or not it seemed apropos to me.

Getting to the point of this blog, the Billions that are being spent and more to the point the way it is being spent seems to be anti energy efficient.

Like most things involving current environmental bureaucracy, their product seems counterproductive, at the least counter intuitive. The process is so detail driven that the big picture becomes lost in those details and actually may be acting against it.

The bureaucrats in their cubicle seem more interested in their cubicle and its environs than the actual world which they are supposed to be protecting through such extravagant parsimony.

In other words they have lost sight of the forest because the trees are obstructing their view. I couldn’t find a “before” picture but from looking at this after picture I’m sure the “before” picture would have been a lot greener.

I’m talking here about a systemic problem in all government, indeed this problem has been known since the early Greeks. Power begets power; our Founders knew that, and that is why our Constitution was written; not to enshrine government but to put a fence around it and limit its powers.
1. George Washington said of government. “"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force, and like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
While they knew government was necessary, they treated it for the dangerous wild animal it was. That whole argument I believe comes down to the ability of “We the People” to influence how the Constitution is interpreted by how we vote.
1. After the Constitutional Convention ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin,
"Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded,
"A republic, if you can keep it."
Note how he said, “If you can keep it.” I posit he meant you as meaning “We the People”.

Below is a good article about the “enumerated powers”. I found some good stuff for both sides of the big/little government issue.

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http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2009/02/25/the-constitution-or-liberty/
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I however don’t want to lose sight of the forest for the trees either; so I’ll simply state the obvious. Power will use any pretext to enhance itself. By simply looking at the continuing increase in the size of government it seems obvious government will do whatever it is allowed to keep their growth --??-- growing; even at the detriment of its original purpose.

While I accept the idea that being careful with our resources is vital, I feel pretty sure that the atrium pictured is a waste of those resources and a sacrifice on the altar of “Environmentalism and Big Government”.

As the Raptor funding was slashed and the Manned Space Program was slashed, (the actual tools we use to “provide for the common defense”), seemingly to be able to build these “eco friendly” buildings; I wonder if we and DOD have lost sight of the forest for the trees?