Yes, Ethanol really is evil.

Speaking of Ezra, he has a nice piece about how our Biofuel subsidies are responsible for about 1/3 of the current global food crisis.

I've said this before.

Seriously.  This has reached ridiculous levels.  I understand that no one that works in the agriculture industry will agree with me (i.e. the ones that benefit from the $8.9 billion that our government put directly in the pockets of large agra firms last year), but the rest of you, COME ON.

Write your congressman/woman.  Tell him/her that you get it.  You know they saw "An Inconvenient Truth".  You know they watched Al Gore get the Nobel Prize.  You know they are really worried about being perceived as doing something about global warming.  And you need to tell them, RIGHT NOW, that:

a) You will still vote for them even if they don't pass every damn energy efficiency bill or alternative fuel source bill that comes within ten miles of their freaking desk.  Quantity is not Quality.

a) You WON'T vote for them if they keep placing politics above smart decision making.  Unintended Consequences really freaking matter.  PEOPLE ARE DYING HERE.  This isn't a joke, and this isn't harmless pandering to some green-earth hippies.

I am genuinely worried about global warming, really.  And I am all about reducing greenhouse gases.  I'm in favor of the Pigou Club (I think the $1/gallon proposal of the Pigou Club is too cheap, actually), tolls on freeways, an end to coal-powered electricity, etc.  I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is, and in a way that isn't popular;  pay the price at the gas pump every week and you feel it.  But if the government just gives your money away in farm subsidies it feels "free" to you.

But get real here.  We (yes, we, as in YOU and I) are starving our brothers and sisters.  One hundred million people are going to move from "poor" to "absolute poverty" in the coming year.  Not "food stamp" poverty.  "Death, Starvation, Famine, Disease" poverty.    ONE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE.  This must stop!  Write your senators and congressmen/women now!

One last addendum.

Good People of Iowa.  I understand that much of your economy is dependent on corn (but probably not nearly as much as YOU think it is).  But you seriously need to tell Sen. Charles Grassley that shit like this is so not OK:

"If part of our problem is that the Chinese are going to eat meat and you've got to have corn and soybeans to feed the Chinese their meat, then why isn't it just as legitimate for the Chinese to go back and eat rice as it is for us to change our policy on corn to ethanol?" Grassley asked in a conference call with reporters.

Are you ****ing kidding me?  Write your representative now.