Guardian: “We Need A New Moral Order To Cope With Climate Change”

Silly me, I thought the answer was for people who Believe to practice what they preach. Anyhow, it looks like yet another warmist, Andrew Brown, wants to position globull warming as a religion. After a long preamble we get

(Guardian) Underlying all this confusion is the problem that we don’t have a way of ranking rationalities, so that the word means something more to a moral agent than it does to an economist. There may be ways of fixing that and averting catastrophic global warming that don’t make use of religious resources, but I can’t think of any.

It’s important to this argument to understand that religious resources need not be theistic. All they need do is make manifest a higher rationality than self-interest.

There’s a reason we refer to AGW as the Church/Cult Of Gore.

What religious thought – and ritual – can supply is the two things absent from normative consumer liberalism. The first is a belief that the choice between ends is not arbitrary or wholly personal: that there are moral facts of the matter; that saving as much of humanity as possible is an obligation on all of us, and that this is actually true, and not just a matter of preference.

The second is the kind of conformism, reinforced by all kinds of social ritual, large and small, which will enforce the social discipline needed to carry societies through some pretty ghastly changes. Let’s face it, any adjustment to an ecologically sustainable standard of living is going to be a lot nastier than anything Greece is going through now. It will need considerable determination and solidarity.

Generally, those who are religious practice, or at least attempt to practice, their beliefs. Not so much with the Gaia cultists.

Read: Guardian: “We Need A New Moral Order To Cope With Climate Change” »

If All You See…

…is awesome non-fossil fueled transportation which should be mandated by law, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Weasel Zippers, with a post about a man being arrested for having a dog. At a Muslim rally

Read: If All You See… »

OK, Time For Todd Akin To Go

The other day I took the contrariwise position that the GOP should have circles the wagons around Akin. Alas, then we get this

AKIN: You know, Dr. Willke has just released a statement and part of his letter, I think he just stated it very clearly. He said, of course Akin never used the word legitimate to refer to the rapist, but to false claims like those made in Roe v. Wade and I think that simplifies it….. There isn’t any legitimate rapist…. [I was] making the point that there were people who use false claims, like those that basically created Roe v. Wade.

Making a really, really dumb statement is forgivable, especially since he apologized: following it up with another dumbass, bat guano insane statement is inexcusable. A long term politician should know better than to clarify. You just move on. Time to go, Todd.

That said, I stand by one of my main points about circling the wagons instead of immediately running the person over with a steamroller. Consider what happened with Larry Craig.

When that issue popped up the big shiny bus peeled out, aiming right for him. Exactly what did he do wrong? Soliciting consensual gay sex with no money involved isn’t a crime in a sane world (if that was what he was actually doing). Instead of supporting Craig in his personal life and attacking the Dems for gay bashing, Craig was assaulted by the GOP, I guess because they were embarrassed or something.

Just hours after Christine O’Donnell won the GOP primary, the NRSC said the6 would help her out with money, advice, and training….oh, wait, they said she’d get no money and was on her own. Why? Cause she was a bit wacky? Then Republicans started denigrating her. Do we want robots or something?

There was no real support for Sharon Angle or Linda McMahon. And others have had the same thing happen. Some went after Joe Wilson after he said “You Lie!”

Maybe instead of saying Akin had to go originally the GOP could have denounced him and then told him STFU, let’s move on and win this race. Too late.

Of course, the follow up is still on Akin, and he needs to go

Read: OK, Time For Todd Akin To Go »

GOP Adopts Arizona Style Immigration Platform

I’m positive the Typical Liberal Useful Idiots will proclaim this as “hate” and being mean and raaaaacist and bigoted, though they won’t be able to explain why once you force them past the talking points

(The Hill) The Republican Party has officially endorsed its backing for Arizona-style state immigration laws, adding into its platform language that such laws should be “encouraged, not attacked” and calling for the federal government to drop its lawsuits against the laws.

That language and other provisions were widely approved by the party after being introduced by the co-author of the Arizona law, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R).

The official party position now reads that “State efforts to reduce illegal immigration must be encouraged, not attacked,” and says the Department of Justice should immediately drop its lawsuits against controversial state immigration laws in Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah.

Kobach’s amendment, which is now official party policy, also includes calls to withhold federal funding for any universities that provide in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants as well as “sanctuary cities” that refuse to enforce state and federal laws on immigration, and calls for the government to complete construction of a fence along the Mexican border that Congress authorized in 2006.

Another amendment he backed that was included in the party platform strengthens the GOP’s previous support of a national “E-Verify” system.

Listen, I’m personally not against welcoming people who come to our country and want to make something of themselves, to be a part of the American Dream (which has been destroyed by Obama/Democrat policies, incidentally) . I know this may not be popular, but I mostly agree with Marco Rubio’s version of the DREAM act. It should be done legislatively, though, not by executive fiat. But, we shouldn’t allow most illegal aliens to just come to our country with no penalties. Especially those who have over-stayed their visas.

Again, personally, I wish that the GOP would leave social issues like gay marriage and abortion out of their platforms. Let’s deal with fiscal issues, of which illegal immigration is one.

Read: GOP Adopts Arizona Style Immigration Platform »

Cheapskates At DNC Refuse To Reimburse Town For Obama Visit

This is becoming a pattern. It’s happened many, many times. I find it rather interesting that the DNC doesn’t care that much about the fiscal soundness of the towns Obama visits and are unwilling to spread their own wealth around

(Fox News) The Democratic National Committee has informed a Connecticut town it will not be reimbursed for the thousands of dollars the city spent on costs for President Obama’s fundraising visit earlier this month.

Gordon Joseloff, the first selectman of Westport, says he was informed this week the town’s request to have the DNC and Obama for America cover the $14,812 the city paid in police and fire overtime was denied.

The president traveled to Sherwood Island State Park on Aug. 6 to attend a fundraiser in Stamford and a $35,800 per person dinner at the Westport home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein.

Obama raised about $2 million during that fundraiser, one in which he breezed in and breezed out without bothering to really visit the town itself. But, then, in Obama’s World, everyone else is here to serve him.

I’m sure liberals will argue that the money is no big deal, it’s not that much, but, if it was their own money, I’d bet their tune would change. I’m sure they’ll have no problem with the $495,000 in Stimulus money the Obama admin. wasted to push “green” jobs by advertising on a network which few watch and which created zero jobs.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Cheapskates At DNC Refuse To Reimburse Town For Obama Visit »

TOTUS Takes The Stand

Reuters has been caught photoshopping many a time, but, this isn’t one of them (via Ace)

Oops, guess that is a photosphop……ah, here’s the real one

Hmm, not sure which one’s funnier. The second one is a bit more poignant, though, eh?

Read: TOTUS Takes The Stand »

GOP Convention Theme “We Built This!”

They should keep the theme going the entire convention

(Fox News) The GOP is turning what some see as a presidential slight aimed at business owners and entrepreneurs into a theme for a night of the Republican National Convention next week, titling Tuesday night’s session “We Built This!”

Speeches from a trio of swing-state headliners will be on the agenda as Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio and Gov. Bob McDonnell, R-Va. take the convention stage.

An RNC official tells FOX News Tuesday’s schedule also includes a speech by Sher Valenzeula, a Latina candidate for Lieutenant Governor in Delaware. Her campaign website notes she and her husband started an upholstery business that makes padding for baseball umpires and military vests worn by members of the Israeli military.

Tuesday is the second night of the convention. You can bet that Obama’s “you didn’t build this” will be featured during many speeches on other nights, too.

Read: GOP Convention Theme “We Built This!” »

If All You See…

…is an evil fossil fueled motor vehicle, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is And So It Goes In Shreveport, with a post featuring the lemonade stand metaphor

Read: If All You See… »

So, How Awesome Is Renewable Energy?

Jo Nova explains

In June this year the UNEP report announced that Global Renewable Energy investment reached $257 Billion in  2011. It’s so large it rivals the $302 billion invested in fossil fuel power. But how much electricity do we get for all that money? When the details are pulled from the fog, a quarter of a trillion dollars appears to produce only about 3% of all our global electricity, and even less of our global energy. All that money, so few gigawatts.

She then goes through many of the tricks to make alternatives appear to be working better than they really are, including adding hydro-power into the mix. Remember, enviroweenies want hydro-electric damns torn down for a variety of reasons.

I’m not against alternative energy methods: I just want to see them done in a way that makes sense, and provide electricity at a low cost. Furthermore, we shouldn’t be limiting our current power with old school “dirty” methods till they can be replaced sensibly.

Read: So, How Awesome Is Renewable Energy? »

Vet Detained On Psych Hold For Facebook Posts

Big brother is watching

(Fox News) A former Marine involuntarily detained for psychiatric evaluation for posting strident anti-government messages on Facebook has received an outpouring of support from people who say authorities are trampling on his First Amendment rights.

Brandon J. Raub, 26, has been in custody since FBI, Secret Service agents and police in Virginia’s Chesterfield County questioned him Thursday evening about what they said were ominous posts talking about a coming revolution. In one message earlier this month according to authorities, Raub wrote: “Sharpen my axe; I’m here to sever heads.”

Police — acting under a state law that allows emergency, temporary psychiatric commitments upon the recommendation of a mental health professional — took Raub to the John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell. He was not charged with any crime.

Raub is a little nutty, being a big 9/11 Truther and talking about arresting government officials. He’s way, way, way out there libertarian, and wrote a bunch of stuff along those lines. But, apparently his Facebook site was closed to the general public

A Virginia-based civil liberties group, The Rutherford Institute, dispatched one of its attorneys to the hospital to represent Raub at a hearing Monday. A judge ordered Raub detained for another month, Rutherford executive director John Whitehead said.

“For government officials to not only arrest Brandon Raub for doing nothing more than exercising his First Amendment rights but to actually force him to undergo psychological evaluations and detain him against his will goes against every constitutional principle this country was founded upon,” Whitehead said.

If it could happen to Raub, it could happen to anyone.

The big concern, Whitehead said, is whether government officials are monitoring citizens’ private Facebook pages and detaining people with whom they disagree.

As mentioned, his Facebook page was private. Supposedly, people made complaints to Los Federales. Raub is on a 30 day hold for a psychiatric evaluation. For what are apparently thought crimes against the government.

I don’t agree with his views, but, no one should be detained for simply expressing an opinion like this.

Read: Vet Detained On Psych Hold For Facebook Posts »

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