religious fundamentalism

Robert Murphy on Peter Gleick’s faked Heartland memo: “oozing absurdities.”

I am deeply envious of that phrase.

I rather badly want to have been the person who first came up with that phrase, in fact. I feel that I need to get this on the record.

Anyway, if you were looking for a recap on the entire didn’t-turn-out-as-intended climate alarmist attack on the Heartland Institute by – well, I suppose that it has not been proven in a court of law that Peter Gleick was responsible for the forged memo, so we’ll go with “person or persons unknown who could conceivably have the initials ‘P.G.'” and be done with it. Anyway, this is a pretty good recap: it describes the initial ‘data’ dump, identifies the central trouble with it (essentially, the central document is a farrago of nonsense and lies, and absent it the ‘supporting’ documents are thoroughly innocuous), notes the ghoulish zeal with which alarmist blogs treated the original ‘revelation’… and ruthlessly spotlights the petulant refusal of most of said alarmists to admit that the whole thing exploded in their face. Continue reading Robert Murphy on Peter Gleick’s faked Heartland memo: “oozing absurdities.”

#rsrh The Green Rhetorical Disconnect, Part 65 (NSFW)

Scenario: a six year old boy in Quebec is excluded from entering a drawing for a stuffed bear because his parents used a Ziploc bag to store his sandwich (Ziploc bags are apparently worse than Tupperware, theologically speaking). When the parents contacted the school, the teacher presumed to lecture them on the subject, presumably because said teacher felt it necessary to subject other people to her own religious views. Needless to say, at no point is it actually explained why the specific punishment for this ‘transgression’ was necessary for the child’s development; in fact, it is unclear that the teacher would have been able to explain the rationale behind the transgression in the first place*. Nonetheless, a message was made.

What the intent of the message was: It is very, very important to make sure that even the smallest act of heresy and Gaia-hatred be vigilantly defended against. It is regrettable that this must sometimes result in a small child crying in shame and confusion because he does not have the vocabulary to explain the rigorous rules of his school life to his parents, but that is a small price to pay for stopping the malignant spread of Ziploc bags.
What the actual message was: Greenies are assholes.

Via @CalebHowe.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh The Green Rhetorical Disconnect, Part 65 (NSFW)

#rsrh The Left’s War on Science, Part MMXVII.

The next time one of ’em wants to whine and moan to you about all those awful right-wingers out there and their literal belief in Genesis, look ’em in the eye and say “Young-Earth Creationism doesn’t kill kids*.”

Doctor Andrew Wakefield – anti-vaccination nut – killed kids. And elements of the progressive and radical Left ate that stuff up with a spoon. Which they will now pretend to have never done. So I don’t think that I’m particularly obliged to listen to the smug sneers of anybody who doesn’t want to face that particular unfortunate truth…

Moe Lane

*At some point during this post I’m expected to issue a pro forma disavowing of Genesis literalism, thus showing that I’m hip to the culture or something. You know something? Forget that: Young-Earth Creationists don’t put my kids at risk. I’ll worry about their religious beliefs when they start impacting on my actual daily life, thanks.

Big Wind looking for federal handout.

The wind ‘industry’ is apparently looking for more federal aid – actually, no, there’s nothing apparent about it. They want more federal aid, they want it permanently – and they want it specifically allocated to them, and not as part of a nebulous ‘alternate energy’ package. Otherwise, they’re afraid that they’ll go out of business. For the record: if your business plan requires – not benefits from; requires – an annual bailout from the federal government in order to function, then by definition you have a bad business plan. Mostly because you are not actually in business; you are a parasite pretending to be a business. I understand that this point has been obscured since the Democrats took Congress in 2007, but it bears repeating. A lot of repeating.

Now that we’ve got that lesson in Capitalism 090 out of the way, let’s clear something up. It may be that the 112th Congress may find it expedient to take into account the Left’s religious sensibilities on ‘green’ power. If so, however, a basic appreciation of this country’s secular ideals demands that the Left gives up blocking its favorite environmental devil figure. I refer, of course, to nuclear power generation. To put it very bluntly: if they want to get the angels of wind farms then they have to enthusiastically support the demons of nuclear power plants. Note ‘enthusiastically:’ they’re going to have to actively and effectively oppose the antinuke scientific illiterates alongside the rest of us. Because the USA is not going to reduce the amount of power that we generate every year if we don’t have to, and that is not negotiable. The more reasonable green types need to accept that reality.

And if they don’t want to do that: well. I guess that they don’t really love Mother Gaia all that much, after all.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Elizabeth Moon learns a valuable life lesson.

If you’re a Lefty, you have to be a Lefty all the way. You don’t get to be heretical* on things like the 9/11 Mosque and expect to keep your GoH status at a major feminist SF convention. You just don’t. And it doesn’t matter how much you qualify your statements**, either: once you’re past the heresy line, that’s it.

Well, live and learn, right? It’s not like many of those people read military science fiction, anyway.

Via Instapundit.

Moe Lane

*Although having to call that position ‘heretical’ is a insult to Giordano Bruno.

**Or going for crowd-pleasing by sneering at the Right. Notice which side’s more sympathetic to her on this? Yup, the Tea Partiers and the libertarians.

#rsrh The DOOOOOOOOOOM of Gaia.

Hey, who wants to drink some pain?

Sens. Reid and Kerry made it official today – the mostly dead climate bill is now extinct. It has passed on! It is is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-CLIMATE BILL!!

Yeah, I know: that sounds like something that I would write – only, the author of it is trying to laugh because otherwise he’d be weeping with despair. Tasty, marvelous, soul-destroying despair; the kind that’s smoky and textured in its flavor, with a lingering aftertaste that warms and supports without overwhelming the dish… where was I? Continue reading #rsrh The DOOOOOOOOOOM of Gaia.

VA AG Cuccinelli to invoke VATA over Climategate?

Elections have consequences for the other guy, too.

Could be, could be:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is invoking a state anti-fraud law to demand the University of Virginia turn over years worth of documents related to climate scientist Michael Mann, targeting about $500,000 in grants that funded Mann’s studies.

Cuccinelli, a Republican who is separately suing the federal government over regulation of carbon emissions, issued the school a civil subpoena late last month probing “possible violations” of the Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act by the former U.Va. professor. Mann, now a professor at Penn State, is famous for creating the controversial “hockey stick” graph charting a spike in global temperatures.

Continue reading VA AG Cuccinelli to invoke VATA over Climategate?