At first, the problem was “acid rain,” and liberals used the fact that clouds crossed state lines to propose onerous federal regulation of the energy industry. The first President Bush outsmarted them in 1990 by implementing a free-market program that monetized a limited right to pollute, and acid rain became an issue of the past.

By the mid-1990s, the liberals had turned their attention to “global warming.” Problem: the theory of human-caused global warming is challenged by the fact, among others, that average temperatures were higher during the Medieval Warm Period a thousand years ago.

Never ones to let facts stand in their way, the liberals changed their slogan a few years ago to “climate change,” which had the advantage of being impossible to disprove. Hotter or colder today than yesterday? We are destroying the planet! Our kids will have no air to breathe, no water to drink! Call out the National Guard!

People quickly caught on to the slickness of “climate change,” and the left changed its spots again, now demanding an armada of new rules and regulations to control the size of each person’s “carbon footprint.” (Of course, wealthy liberals like Al Gore and John Edwards purchase questionable carbon offsets so as not to impinge upon their lavish lifestyles. Sacrifice is for the little people). Frankly, our personal liberties would be better off if we had let Al Gore continue in his fairy tale claim that he invented the internet. “An Inconvenient Chat Room” would have done much less to harm our wallets than the cult-like following the propaganda piece “An Inconvenient Truth” left in its wake.

Everything you do has a carbon footprint and could be regulated by the government. If the Democrats have their way, you could face new limits on what you eat for breakfast, the way you travel to work, the computer on which you read Townhall.com, the medicines you take, the clothes you wear, the DVDs you watch, everything – everything!

“Carbon footprint” is code for limitless government intrusion into every detail of your life. Nothing is beyond the reach of a government determined to reduce your carbon footprint in the name of the environment. To these people, nothing is sacred, nothing is private, nothing is truly yours.

Not even your thermostat.