I've recently been watching the wonderful John Adams series, compliments of a friend's DVD recorder.  So I thought about the theory behind "bleeding" patients when I read Holman W. Jenkin's Jr.'s Wall Street Journal editorial on McCain and global warming.

Until the late 19th century, it was an accepted medical practice to "bleed" patients with fevers and illnesses in order to get the bad blood out of their system.  In John Adams, Adams develops a serious illness and is very nearly bled to death by people interested in helping him.

Imagine their logic:  Surely, it can't hurt to bleed the patient a little more? 

Jenkins on McCain:

"He who sees "corruption" behind every campaign check goes all compliant when GE, DuPont and Ford chant that climate policy "will create more economic opportunities than risks for the U.S. economy."

Mr. McCain argues that green energy mandates will leave us better off whether or not man-made global warming is real. This is an error that Mr. Romney wouldn't make – and one Al Gore makes all the time. Yes, hole-digging can be profitable if government subsidizes hole-digging. For society, however, there is only cost – measured in the labor and resources diverted to hole-digging from activities that actually fulfill the wants and needs of people."