religious fools

RELIGION

The chief characteristics of religion throughout history are (1)belief in a deity, (2)a doctrine of salvation, (3)a code of conduct (4)the use of sacred texts and (5)religious rituals. Also religion requires a leap of faith to explain some things that are not explained by science or are in contradiction to science. The Global Warming Religion fits this bill, a branch of the commi-enviro religions. Practitioners believe in the earth, pre-civilization, unmolested by humans as the supreme deity. Their doctrine of salvation is to take humanity back to the time before industrialisation. To do this, all sins against the earth must be recanted such as - so called -polluting CO2 greenhouse gasses (water vapor is also a greenhouse gas, btw). Recycling and energy reduction also weigh heavily in their code of conduct, as well as keeping developing nations undeveloped. Their sacred texts are many but the most authoritative would be the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. Their rituals include advocating policies of human sacrifice of technological progress, by abandoning hydro-carbons, and all human activities that change the earth. Followers of this religion may be know as Greens or EcoFreinds, and follow their prophet Al Gore. They label as heretics any Global Warming Religion deniers, and excommunicate scientist from the climate change community if they worship false idols or are skeptical of the computer models (enlightenment advances such as the scientific method have not caught on yet with the Debate is Over Crowd). The leap of faith they take is that man-made CO2 causes global warming and that global warming will make life on earth less habitable. With the great prophet predicting only ten years to act, it should not be too long before a giant pitcher of Kool-Aid is mixed up at Davos.

western imposition

HISTORY OF VALUES

Ok, slavery has existed across all cultures and all times until the present. It is not a fundamental characteristic unique to the west. The same with colonialism and conquering so called native peoples and taking their land. In antiquity, when new successful civilizations expanded, they displaced or absorbed less successful ones. The original native Americans were displaced many times by new groups of asian/pacific peoples from the pacific islands or across the Bering strait long before Columbus showed up. And the borders among the various tribes of native Americans were always in flux, with the stronger conquering the weaker before the Spanish, British and French warred over the new world. Europeans gave the west "indians" small pox, they gave Europe tobacco (organic and not grown by multi-nationals though) and maybe syphilis. The only thing unique about western culture is that it ended slavery world-wide, even against the protestation of African tribal kings who greatly profited from capturing rival African tribes and selling them into slavery. The Barbary pirates may have enslaved more Europeans into Africa than the number of Africans taken to the new world, yet this was ended by western society (with their evil western tradition and moral vanity). It is also the present western culture that dominates the international system with rules regarding the static freezing of national borders. Colonialism brought many advances into the third world that would not have been achieved otherwise (including the excuse of colonialism to explain ones present backwardness). The concept of a nation state with fixed borders was more advanced than many primitive people had yet discovered and this is why most of the worlds national borders were drawn by the west. The concept of the individual with natural rights and equality under the rule of law are western in origin. These concepts have been forced on the benighted mostly against their will. This is not an argument that colonialism or slavery are justified by the results. But it reminds me of that scene in Life of Brian, where the Palestinians are making a decree against Roman tyranny but have to exempt all the good things the Romans brought such as: law and order, the aqueduct, roads ect., ect. We should pay reparations to the real victims here: Neanderthals.

aren't they dreamy

INTERNATIONS

It would appear that there are a lot of lonely politicians in the world - that they would love to talk and have more summits if only they were not so shy. Many dictators and tyrants are isolated and marginalized on the international scene, not getting the high level meetings they crave and need for their own good health and legitimacy. Also many in the media and ant-west faction of politics absolutely adore these types of totalitarian rulers - either admiring their economic (disasters) or anti-Bush rhetoric. Still others of a more compassionate bent believe with the proper dialogue they can be changed - like the hopeless (fatherfigureless) girl trying to save her bad-boy boyfriend. Well a good remedy would be an international pen pal / conversation partner program that could be administered by the U.N. It would match international thugs with bleeding heart modern liberals based on skills and needs. Imagine in addition to Nancy Pelosi/Bashar al-Assad there could be Barbra Boxer/Fidel Castro, Dianne Feinstein/Kim Jong Il, Hillary Clinton/Robert Mugabe, Katie Couric/Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, John Edwards/Hugo Chavez, all in the Madlin Albright/Yessir Arafat tradition. It could be chicken soup soul therapy for all involved.

the cure at last

PUBLIC HEALTH

After millions of dollars were raised by walking millions of miles and passing out millions of ribbons and wrist bands, the cure was finally found. What a triumph of medical science, and proof positive that if a goal is set, no matter how lofty, if one follows their dreams, their dreams may just come true. Of course the government played a big role so the accolades were spread around plenty. Especially the employees at the official statistics of health were celebrating with much celebratory vigor. But after all the gala's and parties and self congratulation, something bazaar was discovered and quite counterintuitive. Micheal Knight, the supervisor of the programme that monitors death statistics noticed that after the cure was found less people died of that disease, but all other disease rates increased. He knew it probably had to do with global warming or McDonalds yet he was having trouble formulating a proper theory. Before testifying before the government legislative committee for health he rehearsed his talking points. "Yes we have found the cure but so much more needs to be done, other diseases are increasing. Government needs to raise taxes to provide more funding to find other cures. The overall death rate for humans still seems to be 100%!" Micheal Knight, with the help of a talking wrist watch, took great pride in his official duties insuring that government programs had a beginning a middle but never an end.

nevermind

POP CULTURE

Grunge only comes around during an economic downturn. Large teams of unemployed young people start wearing torn up clothes, sloppy hair, and an anti-consumerism attitude. Curt Cobain was the anti-Guns and Roses just as The Clash were the anti-Pink Floyd. Although grunge is always present, it cannot be sustained on a large scale once economic prosperity takes hold. Stagflation punks were defeated by the Regan/Volcker boom. Seattle's band battalion was defeated in silicon valley by the tech boom. Luckily the post 911 slump lasted only two quarters and spawned only a short lived Ozborns rebirth and Ashley Simpson (In her original punk incarnation pushing Kelly out of the picture). Watching Linklater's Slackers is downright painful. I'll take Paris Hilton to London Calling any day - the economic prosperity that is.

correlation causality casualty

CLIMATE CHANGE

Jethro awoke one morning to the crowing of a rooster, before the sun was up, but yet it was mildly light out. He popped out of bed and over to the window. The rooster crowed again, and just then the sun first crested over the horizon in Beverly Hills. He recollecting observing a similar phenomenon back in the hills where he grew up, so he knew it could not be a coincidence. He went running downstairs where Granny was wrestling up some breakfast. "Granny, Granny! That old rooster is what makes the sun come up!" Granny only glanced up for a second and said, "Boy I thought you had a sixth grade education?" Jethro retorted "I do Granny, I do!" So that evening Jethro decided since he was so smart he would go to the library to read some scientific books. He came across one book on climate change and found a graph with carbon dioxide and earths temperature plotted over the years. He noticed that when CO2 was high so was temperature. He shouted out in the middle of the library "Hot diggity dog! I got here a correlation!" He wrote it down so he would not forget: increasing CO2 concentration increases global temperature. He was so proud of himself and the correlation not realising that a correlation is not the same as causality - that concept was way beyond his sixth grade education, as it is today for many, even highly educated people. But so it is for a religious devotion sometimes

an inconvenient dogma

GLOBAL WARMING

What if it doesn't happen - what if the globe stays the same temperature? It seems pretty high and mighty of the new comi-enviros to assume that humans are powerful enough to alter climate on a permanent basis. Yes over a millenia but unlikely over a century. What, first the decree that we are no more than advanced chimpanzees then we are extra special earth wreckers. Can't they make up their mind? Are we or are we not part of earths natural system. Is or is not what we do natural or are we supra natural. The earth is always changing, sulfuric volcanoes atmosphere was replaced by bacteria, fungi, plant and later animal atmosphere. Are we Gods who have to maintain the present (statist) balance or can we rely on natures designer, who probably built in mechanisms that would counteract rapid climate change. Of all the greenhouse gasses CO2 is but one. Of all the systems that regulate earths climate, the greenhouse effect is but one. Yet Al Gore has determined that the debate is over and that earthlings have but ten years to act or else kaput.

dc corrected

JUDICIAL ACTIVISM

See one can apply rhetoric to imply a perceived wrongdoing, and it always helps ones cause if it is pointed out the fallacy in ones opponents previous position. But a close reexamination of the supposed fallacy usually determines a misdefinition in an attempt at logic. Such is the case in the DC gun ban being overturned by the courts. Traditionally conservatives decry judicial activism which may mean different things to different conservatives depending on the sophistication of their understanding of the term. Modern liberals are decrying the ruling saying its a case of judicial activism overturned a local elected bodies laws. Well judicial activism properly defined is overstepping the courts delegated powers to decide the intent of the lawmakers who passed a law - and staying within constitutional bounds. In this case the court properly struck down a legislative bodies laws regarding gun ownership properly citing the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution which prevents government from banning guns. Judicial activism is not defending the Constitution as it was written and properly amended - justices take an oath to do that.

jelly rubiks

PEOPLE

An interesting thought is to image people as the aura that surrounds them and how that interacts with the world. Some people would have a very soft spherical essence, with many feelers floating out to guide them through the obstacle course, like a jelly fish turned inside out. They could float onto mass transit with their feelers gripping the grab poles, wind their way through second hand book stores, and on to the protest rally - the main orgy - a big cesspool of jelly. Everyone would be oozing out of their feelers, all entangled, many aura's then becoming one entity. The new entity would send out pulsing waves and just sort of chill their (there?) vibrating but not quite shivering. When the deed was complete, the one entity would mist back into several jelly creatures upon leaving - slimming their way back home leaving trails of excrement like slugs or snails. Other peoples aura would resemble a Rubiks Cube with legs. They would hop into their sports cars down to the country club - to exchange the banal networking talk. Some of the cubes would be completed - each of the six sides a solid color. The more immature ones would be in different stages of completion with the baby rubiks being all random, each of the nine squares out of sequence. With each new connection the sequence becomes more in order. With their hard exterior they would rely on brute strength to power through brick walls like the Kool-Aid pitcher "OH YEAH!!"

gerrymand government

POLARIZATION

Why is bitter partisanship viewed as a bad thing? Is not grid lock the best case scenario? (Good government George Will and David Broder be damned). Congress in a bind means a lack of over governance - well one can wish anyway. Congress could easily take a decade off and life would go on pretty much unfettered (most spending is defacto automatically renewed anyway - big issues that need to be addressed are not touched). Dick Armey called bipartisanship date-rape when he was in the minority. A consensus is something that offends no one and nobody believes in fully. Convictions are a true sign of character - not watered down "can't we all get along". Better to wait for a title wave like '80 or '94 to get a mandate than crafting one out of twigs, pebbles and twine. A big deal is made of the polarization of the country into the mislabeled red and blue states (I thought commies were red - and blue is the Torrie colour). Well really, politicians are not more partisan but the parties are. The parties were more a social class vehicle than an ideological soul mate fraternity. Goldwater, bless his soul, changed that with a truly ideological campaign, not a coalition crazy glue contraption, and presently the parties are aligned along political lines which is more proper. The fact that most house districts are uncompetitive is not a sin in and of its self. It makes sense that the districts are created to reflect our segregated living arrangements - progressives in the inner core and conservatives in the exurbs - they are more accurately represented by one party leaning districts so long as the overall composition is not overly distorted. Good government types abhor this arrangement but they are missing the true travesty - a lack of term limits - true limited government. And now with incumbent protection reform (McCain Finegold) the chance to unseat a big porker is very remote. The constitution reads "We the people.." but that has become "We the few lifetime office holders..."

indian alliance

INDIA

The most important alliance of the 21st century is the fledgling Indo-American. India has recently shed its Fabian cocoon and is now developing, ready to join the anglosphere as the first non West member (Anglosphere as defined by having English language and common law traditions). Fused together by technology and islamic militants, this alliance will be the force of the foreseeable future. Witness the nuclear fuel deal, and f-16's to Pakistan can be rectified with f-15's or f35's to India. China may be a manufacturing mule force but India has greater high technology potential as long as they don't slip back into Fabianism. With their English tradition intellectual property rights will be enforced unlike copy fanatic China. There are no name brands in China - they will have to purchase western re-treads. With over a billion people India should give up on any egalitarian pipe dreams - because no matter what there will always be human suffering - its a precondition of human life. The cycle is stopped by achievement of Moksha.

invasion of brown people

IMMIGRATION

A popular theme in fictional storytelling, is of the poor benighted but happy tribal village, isolated from civilization. This village of brown people suddenly becomes exploited by some evil white people and unable to free themselves, have to be saved by a different group of benevolent white people. After many overly cliche remarks, the brown people continue in idyllic bliss about their brown ways with their white saviors becoming honorary tribe members. The white people evidently love this but not enough to stay there permanently - they go back to their sophisticated less pure and unhappy lives but always remember the lessons from the tribe. The tribe people never get tired of living in squalor nor leave for better opportunities. That's why its fiction. The non-fiction reality is people living in lowered states of living standardly immigrate to more sophisticated societal beacons. The U.S. is being invaded by brown people from the world over. Presumably they came into this society to benefit from a systemic wealth generating nation devised by dead white males. They should be welcomed into our pluralistic state of white enlightenment - but progressives and multiculturalist try to hold them back to their brown ways. They wish to recreate the fiction even when denied by truth.