So with Lent being over, I went over to Birther Report and made some comments, on their Michael Shrimpton article. Even Jerome Corsi doesn’t take Shrimpton all that seriously, but some of the commenters there were all over some massive conspiracy involving the UK and Shrimpton, corrupt government officials and who knows what else.
The whole thing was so extremely silly that I made a suggestion that what I was reading was some kind of role playing fantasy game of “Evil Obama.” In reply, I got this from Martha Trowbridge:
No Patriot is playing; we are warring. … Obama and his co-conspirators are, de facto, evil.
The other thing that set me off was a title over at Orly Taitz’ site:
Report: Fracking Has Reduced CO2 More Than All the Solar Panels & Wind Turbines in the World
That counterintuitive statement refers to an article that refers to an article at Fox News by John Stossel. Stossel’s article doesn’t even hint at how fracking reduces CO2 emissions, by the way. A Fox News internal memorandum from Bill Sammon, managing editor of the Washington bureau of Fox News said:
We should refrain from the assertion that the planet has warmed (or cooled) in any given period of time without immediately pointing out that such theories are based upon data that critics have called into question. (“The Loudest Voice in the Room” by Gabriel Sherman, p. 322)
In fairness to Stossel, fracking is reducing greenhouse gasses because it creates more natural gas, which in turn has led power plant operators to switch from coal to natural gas; however, petroleum industry claims of the amount of reduction seem exaggerated, attributing all the gains to this switch while ignoring the reduced demand for heating due to climate warming, and the increasing efficiency of the US automobile fleet. Further, natural gas production may actually increase global warming due to issues with its production.
I guess my point is that extremely polarized positions about energy policy founded on biased or manipulated numbers are not much different from polarized political positions in Congress. The public debate should be based on the best science. To put the future of the planet in a secondary position to an agenda is unpatriotic.
I don’t find Fox News’ policy very patriotic, any more than the Birther Report commenter knee-jerk belief in everything bad about Obama.
It seems that the Congress (at least the Republican half and perhaps the other side) is playing a game to annihilate the other party rather than move the country along. I can’t see how the right-wing secessionist factions can honestly pledge allegiance to the flag (“One nation under God, indivisible”). It seems that extremists on both sides virtually loathe America.
So where are the real patriots these days?
I think our armed forces are filled with patriotic Americans. The folks who obey the law and pay their taxes, the informed voters, the people who volunteer in civic activities to help children and the disabled—these are patriotic Americans.
Great point, Doc.
You’ve summoned one of my favorite rhetorical clubs: the fact that during Republican presidencies, every day there were thousands and thousands of military, law enforcement, and intelligence personnel doing their jobs, serving under a man they would never vote for in a million years, and perhaps even despised. And under Democratic presidents, same thing. They all, thousands strong, served under a Commander-in-Chief chosen buy the People in a lawful, Constitutional election, even though at any given time about half of them were on the opposite side politically.
THEY were Real Americans. Mature. Loyal. Patriotic. Responsible.
But today we have, darn near all on one side, folks who would call these men and women Cowards. Enablers. Traitors. Because they “keep the usurper in power.” And worse, they suffer under the delusion that some day the aforementioned loyal Americans will join them in rebellion.
It nauseates me, and I don’t sicken easily.
You’ve got more stomach for their garbage than me. Reading a lot of their comments reminds me of an old Ron White joke that has as a part of it…
“Those big old New York bouncers that think that bouncing is cool. They hang out with other bouncers, talking about bouncing. They go home at night and watch ‘Road House’ and fondle themselves.”
For the life of me I can’t get it out of my mind the birthers at home in their mother’s basements, sitting naked in front of their computers fondling themselves as they come up with and read wilder and wilder imaginations about the President, his family, and their sex lives. UGH! MORE BRAIN BLEACH!!!
This article has been updated with more on fracking and greenhouse gasses.
I question that “natural gas” reduces the emission of greenhouse gasses:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/is-natural-gas-clean/
(with a lot of links)
That was an interesting article, making the point that the intentional release of methane during natural gas production potentially offsets gains in CO2 by switching to natural gas.
I guess my point is that extreme positions on either side based on biased or manipulated numbers are not much different from polarized political positions in Congress. The public debate should be based on the best science.
“Report: Fracking Has Reduced CO2 More Than All the Solar Panels & Wind Turbines in the World”
OK, let’s play Rhetoric. This argument is a doggone Mobius strip.
By arguing that fracking has reduced CO2, the assumption is that reducing CO2 is a good thing. But the inference intended is that Solar and Wind are stupid and/or unimportant. But if reducing CO2 is in fact a good thing, one would think that adopting ALL technologies that do so is the smart choice.
Round and round and round. One more example from the Queen of Fractal Wrongness.
de facto, evil?
“We are good. We hate them. Therefore, they’re evil.”
Wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.
The WND is now proposing … well, it’s sort of hard to figure out what it is proposing.
Originally, that Obama was born in Africa. Now that he was born in Indonesia and is only pretending to have any African ancestry (frankly, I think any Indonesian inheritance would be Very Hard to disguise as Afro-American) — and this masquerade is part of some huge conspiracy that goes back to before his birth in 1961. Or maybe that he is of German ancestry by way of a middling East German official who was already middle-aged when Obama was born. What conspirators in 1961 would plot some trickery in anticipation (in 1961) that a half-century in the future the voters would elect someone of either African or Indonesian extraction?? What couldn’t this conspiracy come up with an Anglo-Saxon type?? Jeez, this is a screwy conspiracy!
Yeah, I asked Trowbridge:
and she replied:
I don’t know if she knows what “de facto” means, or not.
The “de facto” thing struck me too — it’s clearly not what she meant, but it leaves me wondering what she does mean. Maybe “axiomatic”? Or maybe she just meant to say that it is an established fact.
If I were to put words in her mouth, I would say “a priori,” also not what she intended.
What, did you think we were evil de jure?
I think she meant “[President] Obama and his co-conspirators are, in fact, evil”
The silliest tour through the birther asylum is definitely the one charting the change of narrative in the “he looks exactly like …, so … must be his father” meme which took some time to move from Frank Marshall Davis to Malcolm X, then some years to move to the Subud cult founder and now only a couple of weeks to move to Markus Wolf of Stasi fame. (Who knew that “he’s got a temple vein just like…” is stronger paternity evidence than “he looks exactly like…”? ;))
Maybe they will add a meta-claim of the sort “Obama looks like so many people, that’s proof he isn’t who he says he is, nobody has so many potential fathers!”.
Doc, congratulations on sticking to your Lenten promise.
I am still of the group who doesn’t see how anyone, at least with a functioning cortex, could take Shrimpton or anything he says or does seriously. Even among British eccentrics, the man is stark staring barmy, to the point he almost makes Monkton look sane and coherent, and I didn’t think that was possible. Corsi I can almost understand, he is a parasite and a hanger on, and is always looking for something or someone to coopt to keep himself to the forefront. This time, I think he came a cropper as they say. If he attaches to Shrimpy it will destroy what shred of credibility he may still possess, which by this point can’t be much. And you’re quite right, it does read like an RPG of the poorest caliber.
And then of course, you got Mad Martha who just had to add her bent four farthing to the game. I’m amazed that she hasn’t somehow managed to insert herself into the game as she has everything else that seems to have happened the last what is 20-40 years???? Since no actual real patriots are actually involved, then what does that say?
I doubt seriously if Mad Martha actually knows the difference or even knows what de facto means. Actually, I doubt there is a great deal that she doesn’t know or comprehend, as continues to proves regularly.
That’s when semiliterate attention whores prove that David Dunning and Justin Kruger are correct.
If you’re willing to believe in Jesus no matter what, you’ll also believe anyone claiming he saw him rise from the dead.
It’s a quasi-religious issue, both technically and medically.
The belief in “magic words” tends to be strong among nutjobs. Using them means having power, even if you’re using them wrong.
We are warring, this we know
For the Zullups tells us so
If you doubt that this is true
Martha Trowbridge says so too
Yes, we are warring
Yes, we are warring
Yes, we are warring
The Zullups tells us so
Oh, that ship has sailed: I think some of them have “his whore mother” on a macro key.
Definitely an improvement upon the original hymn but now I have that awful tune in my head.