Mailed Fist Environmentalism
The time for wimpy, squishy, liberal environmentalism is past. The crisis is so deep that it’s time to take more, shall we say, “serious” steps. So seems to be the attitude of one apparently committed environmentalist DownUnder.
A man has been charged with murder in Australia after an elderly man who was watering his garden was bashed to death in an apparent case of suburban water-rage.
Australia is in its sixth year of severe drought and most towns and cities have imposed strict limits on household water use, prompting a rise in suburban arguments and neighbors informing authorities about those who waste water.
In the latest incident, police said 66-year-old Ken Proctor was using a hose to water the front lawn of his suburban Sydney home when a man walking past made a remark about water waste.
Proctor then turned the hose on the passer by, prompting a fight. He was knocked the ground and was punched and kicked. He was treated by ambulance officers, but died later in hospital.
Authorities said Proctor was not in breach of water restrictions, as he was using a hand-held hose and was watering his lawn on his allocated day. A 36-year-old man charged with Proctor’s murder appeared briefly in a Sydney court on Thursday. He was denied bail and will remain in jail until his next court appearance on November 15.
It hasn’t come to that in America–yet. But in the U.S. people do get tossed in jail for violating “wetlands” by putting fill dirt on dry land and demonized for suggesting that the case for runaway, horrific, disastrous global warming has yet to be proved. It’s critical that we never forget the fact that we live in a free society, and defending that basic freedom which is essential to moral, happy, and productive human existence is our most important political duty.