There's no such thing as a new idea. My dad tried to tell me that in 1984 when as a senior in college I had the nerve to say "Gary Hart may really be onto something." (Sorry Fritz, I only wavered once.)

My dad, who was a key writer of the original Clean Water Act as well as numerous public safety laws concerning automobile, drug and pesticide use, had PLENTY to say about that. But all these years later what I remember most is his telling me - "don't let 'em fool you, El. There's really no such thing as a new idea. It's almost always an old idea with a new spin. Truly new ideas are rare and are usually rejected as heresy at the time and the idea-haver is thrown in prison, exiled or killed, depending on what country and century you're talking about." I can still hear his voice, loud and clear, when I think back to that conversation. And I remember too his encouraging me to never give up in finding my own new idea and to be very sure that I never find myself in the mob condemning someone else who may have found their true new idea. But I digress.

When will they stop touting "sound science" as a new idea? It was old when I covered it as an environmental reporter in 1994. It's an old policy trick to make the masses think that you're doing something for their good. It's hooey. So we'll prevent more wildfires with "sound science" but we won't give the Forest Service the money it needs to cover the cost of...fighting wildfires. Classic Washington.

The House Agriculture Committee passed the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR1904) yesterday. The bill is intended to protect the nation's forests from wildfire by speeding up the removal of floor growth, an act which has supposedly been hampered by legal challenges to federal forest thinning projects. Challenges that have declined steadily since 1998, according to research done by No. Arizona University's Ecological Restoration Institute. Challenges that are filed by those leftist, commie liberal environmentalists (of which I'm obviously one).

My favorite factoid in all this is that the bill only applies to public land. Approximately 85 percent of wildfire-risky land in this country is in private hands. So this bill will do almost NOTHING to save forest, homes or lives. It could, however, make it easier for logging companies to move into federally-owned forests. And let's not forget that of the major wildfire disasters of 2002, particularly in Colorado, the fires were INTENTIONALLY set by human beings. Time to cut through the bullshit. I was going to say it's time to see the forest for the trees, but my favorite creative writing teacher once told me "Avoid cliches. Like the plague." I always try to remember that little piece of advice too.