Cortez Hill may soon be the next new mine in Nevada. The environmental documents for the mine have just been approved . Barrick plans to move fast to early production. As always, there is a disgruntled Indian tribe threatening to delay things.
There is nothing new about a new mine in Nevada or about Indian opposition. The very ordinariness of this event is what causes me to pause and reflect.
But first a bit of personal background. (That is what distinguishes a blog from a opinion column in the conventional press.) Right now I am in Alexandria, Virginia with my son who is in the Pentagon. Today we went by the mass transit system to the Kennedy Center 
to scout around so that I can find my way around when I go tomorrow and Wednesday to two new operas at this fabled place.
We talked in the mass-transit train about the attitude of the top Navy brass to the change of president and to continued war on too many fronts. My son spent the week compiling a position paper on future things that may or may not be relevant to future things. Or which may interest those about to take the reigns of power. Regardless of the details, there is indeed change in the air, in the Navy, in the military, in politics, and in the world.
I revel in the news of a new mine in Nevada. My opinion is that there are only certain parts of the world where we should mine. One of them is Nevada. I back this up with an investment portfolio that reflects my views. I speak from a position of intense prejudice.
Let me explain. At the expense of being branded a heretic, I believe there are certain parts of the world where we should not mine. Those sacred places, which I place off limits to mining, are varied and subjectively categorized. I can try to list the criteria that put a place in the no-mining-here category: beautiful, awesome, sensitive, populated, wet & wild, primitive & special, peculiar, corrupt.
The funny thing is that many of these adjectives apply to Nevada. And yet I believe in Nevada mining and have long recommended investment in Nevada mining. It just feels right, and has proven so, at least for me. There is something about those vast vistas and lonely landscapes that make the place feel the right place to mine.
Conversely, I feel that a mine in a fertile valley in XYZ is just not right and will not invest in the proposed mine. In some instances I have written that XYZ is the wrong place to put a mine. And I believe I am right. I view those who seek to develop that mine as venial and crass. They should be stopped by a powerful NGO. And I am glad when the NGO prevails.
I ask myself, is there anything cock-eyed about this supposedly contradictory perspective. My liberal Vancouver lady friend says it is because I am a closet socialist. She says that, given half a chance, I would make some parts of the world mining preserves, or worse, sacrifice zones, and other parts of the world environmentalists’ preserves for those grown rich on the spoils of mining. She should know! She says I would melt into an opera-loving fiend grown sentimental on Faust.
I do not care what you say, it is just stupid to think that every County and every State needs its own uranium mine. It is stupid to claim that every uranium deposit must be developed just because it is there. There are places where it is just stupid to even begin to mine uranium. And the fact that people do, represents an extreme pathology of free-will. The pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness does not include the right of every-man to mess-up the commons and to own your own uranium mine.
I acknowledge that the problem with the views expressed above are that they are those of a philosopher-king, a kind of Socratic upper-class perspective. But even America is not an individual-level democracy. It is at best a representative democracy, i.e., one where an elected representative acts in accordance with his own dictates. The will of the commons can backfire and be nasty and cruel as we see in California. I simply do not believe in the unedited will of the majority. Too often it has lead to masses in fervid worship of Hitler or some other religious leader, and the death of others who are different. (I have two Jewish grandchildren, so am particularly vocal in this regard. And with eleven grandchildren who knows how the goddess of love will smile.) I see that that nasty priest from Saddleback is pushing a book on the meaning of Christmas, while pushing his followers to break up lawful marriages. How can you be so un-Christian—I cannot believe that is what Jesus would do. In spite of that smarmy smile and pronouncement “we respectfully disagree.”
But back to Nevada mining. Good wishes to Barrick with their new mine and good action to the Indians who oppose them. For if you can prove this mine need not come into being or that it is the wrong thing at the wrong time, so be it: never open it, and let this be a testament to the power of logic, science, and economics. I would prefer you let us proceed in Nevada and bring jobs and benefits and profits from the right place, at the right time, to those who need it.
