Climate Change, Nasa And Sketchy Astronauts

April 11th, 2012

HT to Oliver Willis

This morning over at NRO, Jonah Goldberg is hyping a Washington Examiner (yeah, they're not biased) article which opens as follows:

"In an unprecedented slap at NASA's endorsement of global warming science, nearly 50 former astronauts and scientists--including the ex-boss of the Johnson Space Center--claim the agency is on the wrong side of science and must change course or ruin the reputation of the world’s top space agency.

Challenging statements from NASA that man is causing climate change, the former NASA executives demanded in a letter to Administrator Charles Bolden that he and the agency "refrain from including unproven remarks" supporting global warming in the media."

Okay, it sounds big and dramatic. In fact, it's as breathless as print propaganda gets. It's still certifiable horseshit. Who is behind this effort? This is who:

"Former Apollo astronauts Walter Cunningham and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt are listed as the main contacts for the letter, and their past advocacy against climate change science calls into question the scientific validity of the petition.

In 2009 Schmitt appeared on the talk show of 9/11 conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and said that he believed that the environmental movement was a front for Communism.

"I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union. Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement," Schmitt said." EMPHASIS MINE

Uh huh. 

What's the real latest information on this critical issue? Well, there's this...

And then there is THIS and THIS and THIS (which is especially depressing) and THIS.

But let's be honest. We really have no time for provable, empirical climate science when we are hot on the trail of the far bigger threat... the vast and insidious global Communist conspiracy.

WTF?

The Holy GOP

Sept 13th, 2011

Image from "The Response" via

In light of last night's astoundingly tasteless GOP "Tea Party Debate," with it's emphasis on ritual over ideas, I found something Andrew Sullivan wrote yesterday to be particularly on the mark. We are no longer dealing with a political party.

We are dealing with a new denomination. Sullivan writes:

"That's how I explain the current GOP. It can only think in doctrines, because the alternative is living in a complicated, global, modern world they both do not understand and also despise. Taxes are therefore always bad. Government is never good. Foreign enemies must be pre-emptively attacked. Islam is not a religion. Climate change is an elite conspiracy to impoverish America. Terror suspects are terrorists. When Americans torture, it is not torture. When Christians murder, they are not Christians. And if you change your mind on any of these issues, you are a liberal, an apostate, and will be attacked." EMPHASES HIS

There is a real danger in continuing to treat this new fundamentalism in the manner we used to treat other political movements. First, it legitimizes their detachment from reality. Second, frankly, it wastes our time. The far left and others disappointed in the current President would be wise to recognize this and turn their attention exclusively to the defeat of this new Holy GOP. This isn't pragmatism. It's survival.

We are not dealing with an opponent in any democratic sense. We are dealing with an enemy who thinks they are on a mission from God. What's more, they are making up their gospels as they go.

Thanks, Tea Party!

Aug 10th, 2011

Not really, of course. This is one of the funniest voice-overs I have ever heard.