This post over at cmblake’s led me inadvertently to discover the reason for global warming.

Ice Ages and Hot Spells

The Earth is going through menopause. Think about it. How old is it now? S’about time, I’d say. (Hey, it’s got to be funny sometimes, otherwise we’d all just slit our wrists.)

Hit the link for another link to actual information instead of just my idiotic ramblings.

I like this comment from Mitchieville. Go read it all.

At first they just came for the light bulbs and I did not speak out.
Because these days, I like to hide out in the darkness of my nice warm basement.

Then they came for the plastic bags and I did not speak out.
Because I was already using the replacement bag they had issued to me as per the minimum consumption laws made of 100% Polyester (imitation weave no less).

…

Then they came for the BBQ and I did not speak out.
Because it doesn’t matter what the F*&% you do to a vegetarian hotdog, it still tastes like $hit.

An excellent post over at Westsound Modern on the all too human nature of our politics.

In the words of the late Carl Sagan we live in a demon haunted world, with emotion and superstition playing a still leading role in determining issues which rightly belong in the realm of reason and logic.

With all our technology and science, we are still tribes dancing around fires to keep the dark at bay.  And as such, we are susceptible to those who will prey on our secret fearful cores in order to advance their agenda for power.

but it’s nice to have it confirmed.

We all knew that Hollywood was actively working against any message that goes against the religion of global warming. Hie ye hither and read of a movie struggling to find translators so it can be distributed and provide an opposing view point to the “consensus.”

At first she blamed her European translators.

“Your content looks like it is refuting many assertions made by Al Gore and Europe is pro Al Gore… and I am pretty sure they will refuse to participate…we deal with really classy people in Germany and anything attacking Al Gore they will refuse.“

Speaking on the phone Ms Reager said that in the email she was “just being nice” to us because we were Europeans and that she was worried that the film might be like some of the “Republican shit” that gets released in the US.

It’s all been cemented as nothing more than Republican ravings. Nothing will ever convince these converts to the church of High Holy Al Gore that there might be information contrary to their dogma. That might even cast significant doubt on it. Doubt is not allowed in the flock. Even if confronted with absolute proof in front of their eyes, I’m pretty convinced that they would still say it was all a Republican plot. Gad but Republicans suck at PR.

Via Big Hollywood

Although spiked with twaddle here and there, there’s a mostly decent article at TNR about the Green Bubble. Been saying for a long time that this desire to end modernization is horribly self-serving and arrogant. The same people who loudly champion the noble poor want to do everything they can to keep those folks poor so they themselves don’t have to give up anything of significance.

Nonetheless, it has become an article of faith among many greens that the global poor are happier with less and must be shielded from the horrors of overconsumption and economic development–never mind the realities of infant mortality, treatable disease, short life expectancies, and grinding agrarian poverty. The convenient and ancient view among elites that the poor are actually spiritually rich, and the exaggeration of insignificant gestures like recycling and buying new lightbulbs, are both motivated by the cognitive dissonance created by simultaneously believing that not all seven billion humans on earth can “live like we live” and, consciously or unconsciously, knowing that we are unwilling to give up our high standard of living.

A great book on this is State of Fear by Michael Crichton.

One Amazon reviewer sums up the overall theme of the book as: “Popular opinions are almost always wrong.” That’s pretty good. It isn’t so much that you should read this and take it all to heart as immutable fact. It’s more a warning against taking anything as truth until you get the facts for yourself whenever possible, not through a third party.

UPDATE

More on the hypocrisy and selfishness of environmentalism over at Big Hollywood as Bono throws in the towel:

Environmentalists come from wealthy societies and families who cut down forests and burned coal and oil to make their families and societies healthy and prosperous. But, nowadays, for the poor in Africa and Asia and even middle America their path out of poverty must be “sustainable.” No fossil fuels or factories for them. But what this really means is sustainable poverty. It is a system that condemns people to a lifetime of drudgery and subsistence farming because modernity and industrialisation is “unsustainable.”