Rothschild's Phoney Forum of Fakirs

A lot is being said around the County about the Carroll County Commissioner's Anti- PlanMaryland forum scheduled for Halloween day this month but this isn't really a Commissioner's forum, it's Richard Rothschild's Agenda 21 Forum.

Rothschild has convinced 4 other Carroll Commissioners to stand behind his one-man effort to put on a local Agenda 21 dog and pony show. It's s shame those commissioners have allowed him to goad them into putting up public funding behind his little show and tell but then it is also a good indicator of how asleep at they are at the wheel and how dysfunctional they as they hack their way through a painful term in office.

The 59th Board of Commissioners have been duped by a professional conspiracy theorist among them; unfortunately it is the citizens of Carroll County that are paying for it in many more ways than just the financial outer shell. Important County business has been laid aside while their attention is focused on fuzzy science and anti-planning rhetoric for the Phoney Fair and other distractions Rothschild has had them chase since their first week in office when he led them into his muck of Agenda 21 mumbo jumbo by holding up his hoop and having them jump through to terminatethe County's contacts with ICLEI, the international sustainability organization. They have been unwittingly been playing to his silly sheet music ever since.

More recently Rothschild has even gotten the others to go along with adopting his persoal pet puppy dog, media bungler Jim Simpson, and feeding his puppy more public funds to spew out propoganda under the guise of being a private contractor. Rothschild is truly the tail that wags the dog.

As for Simpson, county managers are going to have one hell of a time explainging to the IRS just how they can claim to be avoiding deducting payroll and Social Security taxes for someone they are pretending to be a private contractor but who in reality has only 1 client (us), a county office, a computer provided by the county and full use of the county telephone and internet communications system. Real self employed citizens may wish they had the same sweet deal.

Which leaves us with Rothschild's personal Festival of Fakirs on October 31st and a list of speakers that by no happenstance resembles the very same people he meets when he travels about on his fringe speaking engagements out of state. If Rongway wanted to have this forum of speakers that share his same flaky philosophies then he should have done it privately. To no one's complaint Rothschild could have and should have found donors from home, made the meeting arrangements, and contacted presenters with a volunteer cadre. Instead he's gotten the County to hire his pet poodle and the two of them have hunkered down in County offices with their sidekick, his county assigned staff assistant Kathy Fuller, and worked frantically putting together this palaplaooza of a show with public time and money - and then he's had the nerve to tell the same citizens paying for his extravaganza that they have to pay $25 to attend while others he selects will attend and get lunch for free. It takes a pair folks.

And so who do they hire to be their special, lead presenter? None other than the internationally renowned kook, the Earl of Sandwich himself, and 3rd Viscount of NoPlace on Earth "Lord" Christopher Monckton.

Well, he's really not an English Lord even though he insists on using the title. A visit to Wikipedia on this fellow will provide you with the information that the House of Lords actually went to the extraordinary length of publishing a letter they sent to Monckton telling him to stop using the title because he's not the Lord of Anything. Wikipedia does credit Monckton as being a qualified Day Skipper with the Royal Yachting Association and a Knight of Honour and Devotion of the Soverign Military Order of Malta. We Yanks are duly impressed by those honors and glad to know that he has taken skeptical views both opposing and agreeing on the very existance of Global Warming and has been veryforthright with his less-than-scientific view that all people with AIDS should be isolated to some
island so they can't spread the contamination. If you are notcareful when
debating the Lord of Nothing he will label you as a Nazi, as he recently did to
a profesor in Australia, eliciting a furor from Prime Minister Gilliard
herself. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Monckton,_3rd_Viscount_Monckton_of_Brenchley

And he's the star of our show! Their show! Rothschild's show!

Second Fiddle to the Earl of Sandwich is Wendell Cox, renouned anti-Smart Growth advocate.

Wikipedia again: "Cox has also emerged as an opponent of Smart Growth, especially urban growth boundaries,impact fees, and large lot zoning, claiming they have a tendency to raise housing prices artificially and suppress economic growth." I'm sure that Mr. Cox's appearance here will no doubt increase Ronway Rothschild's credibility among the incredulous and gain him renoun with the flaky Agenda 21 crowd he hangs with but it's not likely that Mr. Cox will have anything to say that convinces me, the Governor, Secretary Hall, or the Maryland legislature that we are living in a SmartGrowth State of Sin. I hope he too enjoys the free lunch the taxpayers of Carroll County are providing before he rushes off to cash the check Rothschild will be handing him for his speaking fee.

How long will Carroll Countians tolerate Rothschilds rants and diversions at their
expense? I believe we may soon find out.