Check out an interesting article in Scientific American with an author who just wrote a book about what would happen to the Earth if humans suddenly disappeared (hat tip to Bill at Candleblog for the link).
crossposted on Green Mountain Daily.
Those of you who live in the Northeast Kingdom of VT are indeed living in a beautiful place… lots of friendly people, beautiful scenery and other quintessential Vermont goodness. The one big drawback you have is that the newspaper is the Caledonian Record, whose rabid right-wing op-ed pages are, more often than not, so mind-numbingly short on logic, and chock full of double standards, compartmentalized thinking, xenophobia, false ‘patriotism’ and plain ol’ b.s. that they could pass for transcripts for right-wing talk radio…like this one I wrote about a while ago.
Anyways, an anonymous tipster led me to the revelation that not only are the editors of the C.R. op-ed severely intellectually challenged, they’re also incredibly lazy. You see, it seems like some of the material from their op-eds come from a rather unlikely source… those stupid right-wing spam emails that your crazy Republican uncle sends you. I’m not kidding. More below the fold…
Now, even though some of them are slowly catching on that they’re being played for suckers, for many of the Religious Right, Bush is still their anointed one. We’ve heard many things from them over the years about how the Sky Fairy chose Bush to lead America in this great battle against evil, yadda yadda, etc, pardon-me-while-I-puke. And as you all well know, fundies aren’t exactly known for their exemplary intellectual prowess and critical thinking skills. Even so, as I said before, some are waking up to the fact that Bush may even be even more moronic than many of their own. But have you ever heard Bush’s idiocy used as a justification for God punishing liberals? I laughed my ass off on Saturday when reading this letter from an enlightened deep thinker from Barre named D. Paul Wood. I don’t know how long the link will be accessible, so I’ll print it here in its entirety.
Who is letter writer Strat Douthat, and why does he feel it necessary to pour out his hatred of President Bush on this page every two or three weeks? He reminds me of the other critics and liberals who inundate this newspaper with their constant complaining and whining about the present administration in Washington.
The ironic part of all their huffing and puffing is that they are the ones responsible for putting the Bush presidency in the history books! You see, they “voted” him into office. Not by casting ballots, but rather through their liberal behavior and attitudes.
Our creator pronounces several curses upon his people for their disobedience and disrespect of his principles of correct living; and one of them is: “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.” (Isaiah 3:4) In other words, foolish and immature leaders are the result of our own insolence.
So … if you want better leaders in America, then all the anti-God nonsense that is taking place in our country needs to stop. If your hope is in a Democrat becoming president, without our people changing their behavior, you are grasping at wind.
Did you get that? The Bible prophesied that God would deliberately send us a moron for a leader as a punishment for turning against him. I guess that explains the rule of the GOP that ended last election day. We must have really screwed up bad to get 12 years of that. So is Mr. Wood saying that if we were good and righteous, God-fearing and willfully ignorant, we’d get a Democratic prez? Why did the GOP lose in ’06? Were we more religious? I can’t even begin to dissect all of this, help me out here, please.
I’ve always been intrigued by gays that work for far-right organizations and wingnuts like GOP Presidential hopeless Tom Tancredo:
Tyler Whitney, the immediate past chair of Western Michigan University YAF, the chair of the Michigan Teenage Republicans, or TARs, and the current webmaster for the Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado) for President website, has been telling other conservative activists for about a month of his coming out journey.
It’s almost like a tamer version of Jews working for Nazis, and it must require an incredible amount of self-loathing to work for a candidate or organization that despises a very core essence of one’s own being. I’d say it also requires a relentless sense of opportunism, but not in this case, because Tancredo has about as much chance of getting the GOP nomination as I do. But you know, many people (and regularly occuring revelations) seem to lend evidence to the idea that a lot of the most vocal opponents of homosexuality tend to be severely repressed homosexuals. How’s this for self-loathing? -
In addition to his ties to Tancredo, Whitney is closely associated with Kyle Bristow, the leader of the Young Americans for Freedom MSU chapter, now officially listed as a hate group. Bristow has opined that if he had a gay son he would kill him, and that homosexuals should be in prison.
Whitney is also pictured in a Nov. 20 protest holding a sign which reads “Go back in the closet.” The protest was against a proposed comprehensive human rights ordinance in the city of Lansing, an ordinance that was later adopted by a unanimous vote of the City Council.
Seriously, how does this guy sleep at night?
A few months ago, I wrote about “The Secret”, a best-selling New Age book that is based on the bogus premise of the “Law of Attraction”, a new age idea that similar things attract each other, so positive thoughts bring positive things and negative ones bring negative things. Sure. It’s complete bullshit, with no real “science” to speak of, even though its proponents like to tie it into quantum theory.,. Anyways, I stumbled across a nifty site, The Secret Lie, that takes on the premises of the bestselling book, as well as nails the mechanics of New Age trends and scams quite well:
Definition: Snake oil peddler; “a traveling”doctor” with dubious credentials, selling some medicine (such as snake oil) with boisterous marketing hype, often supported by pseudo-scientific evidence, typically bogus. To enhance sales, an accomplice in the crowd (a “shill”) would often “attest” the value of the product in an effort to provoke buying enthusiasm.
Does this sound familiar?
It should, because it’s the very same set of tactics used to promote and sell The Secret as well as dozens of other so called law of attraction products.
Basically, the strategy goes something like this:
1) Create a product that promises to show you how to get whatever you want by merely thinking and dreaming about it.
2) Label your product something along the lines of “The Secret”, “The Irrefutable Law of Attraction”, “The Science of Intentional Creationism”, “Wealth Beyond Comprehension”, “Attract a BMW by Tonight”, “Ask and It’s Yours Guaranteed”, “Feel Your Way to Riches” etc. and so forth.
3) Be sure to add in a healthy dose of the latest quantum physics research as well as some obscure “science” or long-lost ancient wisdom “proving” how easy it is to manipulate matter and the physical world. Mix in a few conspiracy theories or unverifiable salacious stories and you’re well on the way to a blockbuster hit.
There’s a few more steps to it. Have a look, it’s really too bad that people seem to fall for these things all of the time. Comfort is easier than truth, I guess. There’s also a blog and some links. And a good spoof of the Secret that aired on Saturday Night live a while ago, here. Funny stuff, check it out.
For those of you living in VT, I heartily recommend the Independence Day celebration in Montpelier on July 3rd. The town’s got a great buzz going on, lots of good vibes and food, and if you go this time, an added bonus… you can come hear the new funk project I’m in, called Lingo Mungo. I’ll be playing with some of central VT’s best musicians right after the fireworks (9:30-ish) at the Langdon St. Cafe in Montpelier. A splendid time is guaranteed for all, and if you saw this on the blog, make sure you say hi if you stop by (I’m the bassist, in case you were wondering).
Although I often open myself to criticism from some of the things I say on here, it’s never intentional. Until now. Fire away at me for being excited about a five hour documentary about the band Yes. And I am really excited.
As Bush becomes ever-more a dead-weight anchor to anyone with an (R) after their name, let’s travel back to a different time (courtesy of a ime Mag article from 1971), when the right-wingers started abandoning Nixon. We hear a lot of talk today about Bush losing support of his base (which, as far as I can tell, consists primarily of warmongerers, people who crapped their pants on 9-11 and are still crapping, the filthy-rich, and the theocrats). He’s especially losing support from the racists who are really pissed about the immigration bill and live in perpetual fear of a slightly browner America, which is a much bigger chunk than you’d hope. Back then, it was when Nixon had the audacity to conduct diplomacy with China:
“This newspaper considers President Nixon’s proposal to visit Communist China and the change in policy toward Red China to be immoral, indecent, insane and fraught with danger for the survival of the United States.”
…and a bunch of other criticisms couched in “being soft on communism”, kind of like today when the knuckledraggers view engaging in diplomacy with Syria and Iran as being “soft on terrorism” (not like Bush has any intentions of doing so, however – those people own him). Talking is not an option with these people, it’s much easier to behave like a small child, and have temper tantrums and to not waste time thinking critically about anything. Unfortunately, when a powerful nation behaves like a small child, lots of innocent people get killed, as we’re seeing today.
There’s a few other gems in the old Time article, kind of foreboding in that “if they only knew” kind of way:
The most likely candidate to lead a right-wing insurrection is California Governor Ronald Reagan. His following in conservative quarters is wide. At 60, he could conclude that next year is his last chance to run for the presidency, although he is more often mentioned for the vice presidency.
If only we were so lucky that 1972 would have been Reagan’s last shot at the presidency. And this one…
The hard-core right wingers have never been well organized nationally and are generally dismissed by politicians as fringe extremists.
If only they could see how powerful they would end up becoming, they woulda thought Goldwater was a pussycat. But thankfully, the tide is turning against them now and they are once again being seen as the “fringe extremists” they’ve always been.
BTW, I found the Nixon article through a great post by Paul at Alien and Sedition that asks the question, “Is Hillary Our Nixon?”. Like almost everything else over there, it provides some good food for thought. Check it out.
One of my minions informed me that the Contact Me page wasn’t working. It’s fixed now. Sorry for the low-content week.. it’s just too damn nice outside to be blogging right now.
My VT readers are probably well aware of the energy bill, H.250, and that it was vetoed by Governor Douglas a few days ago. The legislature is reconvening this summer in an attempt to override the veto. One of the more controversial aspects of the bill (and the one that prompted the veto) is a tax adjustment on Vermont Yankee, our nuclear power plant, that will essentially tax the plant at the same rate as a wind farm. There’s a great summary of the bill and details of the override attempt from VPIRG that you should have a look at, and you can also write a letter to your representative from there. The bill will:
1. Invests in renewable energy by requiring Vermont utilities to supply 25% of our power from clean local sources by 2012;
2. Makes it easier for businesses and individuals to invest in small renewable energy projects;
3. Improves efficiency by tightening building codes and expanding the mandate and funding of Efficiency Vermont so they can help us use less heating oil as well as electricity.
4. All this is paid for by making Vermont Yankee pay the same property tax rate as wind farms.
Also, at Green Mountain Daily, diarist Ed has given us a great analysis of the bill, as well as a guide to debunking the myths and half-truths about the bill that its opponents are saying. It’s a fact sheet, of sorts, so you can hopefully let others know about it as well.
Public pressure is mounting on this, and there’s a good chance that if it increases, the override would be a success, so be sure to contact your Senators and Representatives and ask them to support the override and help VT take the lead in energy policy.
