I just got off a segment on Bernie Thompson’s radio show, blasting out of northwest Florida — where global warming cheerleading by rent-seekers such as the utility FPL has left the ratepayers worrying about the “wind gap.”

That is the phenomenon raised by a questioner on that odious Earth Day panel I mentioned last week, about how a national renewable-energy standard — pushed so hard by (surprise!) windmill and solar-panel companies that would not now exist had there not been government subsidies, mandates, and of course taxes to bring them about — would disadvantage rather windless states like Florida. In response to which the American Wind Energy Association representative casually remarked that it’s no problem, Floridians can pay for wind energy from as close as “eight states away.”

How easily that tolls off the tongue when it’s other peoples’ money you’re talking about (and trying to get the federal government to turn into your money). Whereas the idea of leaving such decisions to states that actually find it beneficial — as opposed to an inefficent, financial drain — is simply unacceptable.

So, in addition to the “wind gap,” Bernie let me in on other delightful turns of the phrase on the matter:

“We have to break our addiction to foreign wind,” and “How I learned to stop worrying and love the wind.”