religious extremists

#rsrh Shorter Richard Dawkins.

“The question asked me was, Should Martin Gaskell have been discriminated against for his religious beliefs? Given that the answer is, unfortunately from my perspective, clearly “no” – it would have been very useful if Gaskell had been a young-Earth creationist, rather than a person who just sees the hand of God in the Big Bang – I will instead ignore the actual conditions of the case and instead construct reducto ad absurdiam straw man arguments about how flat-earthers should not teach geography and ‘stork theory’ medical doctors should not teach medicine. Yes, I made up a pseudo-scientific movement that has no known adherents just to make a theological rebuttal.

“And if I ever read this summation – highly unlikely, to be sure – I will be quite put out at the suggestion that I am as guilty of faith-based thinking as are my putative opponents.”

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Shorter Richard Dawkins.

Obama administration renews drilling ban. Of course it did.

Contra the Washington Post, the seven-year moratorium on new Atlantic, Pacific, and Eastern Gulf of Mexico oil drilling that will be announced today does not particularly mean that we’re going to allow new drilling in any of the other areas available to us, either*. It merely means that these were the bans that the administration had to get on with right now before an annoyed Republican-controlled House – and a deeply frightened Democrat-controlled Senate – started asking pointed questions. Well, one question, really: Why are we making suboptimal domestic policy decisions based on the belief structure of a very strange, and frankly not very pleasant, fringe religion?

Well, all right, we know the reason: it’s because the Greenies are always two short steps away from painting themselves with hallucinogenic moss and going out to firebomb a bulldozer for Mother Gaia. It’d still be nice to see a little more secularism in this administration, and a good deal less fuzzy thinking. But I shouldn’t complain: having gas prices go through the roof in 2012 will likely have a different, and much more satisfying, political result in 2012 than it did in 2008…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*The rest of the Gulf and the Arctic region.

#rsrh Lisa Heinzerling forced out of EPA?

Well, it’s not like what Donald Rumsfeld leaving SecDef after 2006 was for the Left, but watching a hard Greenie like Lisa Heinzerling leave her position in the wake of the Great Shellacking is pretty good:

Lisa Heinzerling, the head of EPA’s policy office, will return to her position as a Georgetown University law professor at the end of the year, said EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan.

Within EPA, Heinzerling is one of the more dogmatic proponents of regulating greenhouse gases to the maximum extent possible under the Clean Air Act.

Via Hot Air: Ed wonders whether Heinzerling left under her own power, or was pushed. I’m guessing pushed: hardcore religious fanatics like Heinzerling are typically uninterested in being team players. In a way, it’s a shame: watching her try to explain to an unsympathetic House investigation committee about why it’s suddenly necessary for the government to have regulatory power over our exhalations would have been fun to see. Which is probably why the administration made her position carbon-neutral, the cowards.

Moe Lane

Right-wing rag unloads on Obama over Copenhagen flop.

They’re not happy:

He came, he saw, he disappointed.

As President Barack Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Friday morning for the last day of the U.N. climate summit, all eyes were upon him. Only Obama, the argument went, had the power and prestige to break the deadlock at this summit, widely regarded as humanity’s last good chance to preserve a livable climate. But hopes that the president would bring something new to Copenhagen, that the U.S. position would move closer to what science says is required to avoid catastrophic climate change, were dashed by the president’s surprisingly lackluster remarks.

Oh, did I say ‘right-wing rag?’ I meant to type out ‘Vanity Fair.’ Must have been one of those automatic writing episodes that Victorian/Edwardian occultists so loved. Nonetheless, they’re still unhappy, unhappy, unhappy. Not to mention fearmongering, but what can you expect of such notorious theocrats?

No, that last epithet wasn’t sarcasm.

Moe Lane

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)