Undeterred by record cold temperatures worldwide for the winter of 2007-2008 and recent admissions by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization that global temperatures have been in decline for the past decade and will continue to drop through most of 2008, politicians at the local, state, and federal levels are continuing to push for more carbon dioxide emission controls.

The passage of two recent bills — by both the Senate and the House, and the signing of those bills into law by the president — provides an object lesson in the workings of the state, and full illustration of the type of logic that must necessarily govern the actions of that coercive body.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 (H.R. 4986), which Congress passed on January 22 and President Bush signed into law on January 28, contained language that effectively repealed revisions to the Posse Comitatus Act made in 2006. The 2006 language made it easier for a president to declare martial law.