Mother Jones on heavily subsidized biofuels:
Food prices have risen 130% since 2002. The World Bank estimates that up to 75% of the increase is due to demand for biofuels.
Clearing grasslands to plant biofuel crops releases 93 times as much greenhouse gas as will be saved by the fuels grown on the land each year. Destroying Indonesian peat bogs releases 420 times as much.
There were food riots in at least 30 countries in the past 2 years. More than 40 people were killed when Cameroonians protested rising prices.
The US government spent $9.2 billion on ethanol subsidies in 2008. It spent $1.5 billion on food aid.
But now we've got better people and won't destroy the environment and cause food riots this time! Right?
Will Wilkinson 
These comments scare the hell out of me. Normal people can’t really think this way. If you think that the only thing standing in the way of effective big government is the people who dessent, you need to have your head examine. I now understand why 150 million people were killed during the last century. I guess our education system has succeeded.
Will,
Great post. This line of argument always reminds of alleged psychics who explain their inability to bend spoons or reads minds in front of a witness by saying that their mystical powers don’t work when a skeptic is present because of all the negative vibes his disbelief puts out.
Joe Max,
“If your basic political philosophy is that a big government is at best a necessary evil, why would you bother to try to make it actually work and thereby invalidate your own beliefs?”
Should we also assume, then, that liberal/leftist attempts to regulate the private sector are actually intended to cause economic chaos and destruction? I suppose that would actually explain an awful lot.