If It Feels Good, Believe It

Something disturbing is happening. Somehow, a significant percentage of Americans have decided to celebrate ignorance. It's been going on for some time, but it's really seemed to come to a head recently. In the 2008 presidential campaign, for example, Sarah Palin was presented as "aw shucks" know-nothing. And we were supposed to believe that this was preferable to Barack Obama, who as a Harvard graduate and one-time law lecturer, was an ivory tower intellectual and a fancy-pants elitist. A big chunk of the McCain/Palin campaign strategy can be summed up as "Shut up, Poindexter!"

This worked with a percentage of Americans. Don't bother us with facts, they say, we feel stuff -- truth isn't about facts, it's about the stuff you believe with all your little heart. Liberals and intellectuals and scientists with their facts and knowledge have just made the world worse. Bacon cheeseburgers are bad for you now, because "they" invented cholesterol. They invented evolution, which turned us all into stinking monkeys. And now they've invented global warming. Science just brings bad things, so we should stop listening to scientists.

Or, even better, find some sort of counter-science we can appeal to. We can build an entire belief system that revolves around the stuff we feel is true. The things that we know in our hearts is right, because we believe it so strongly. And we can use that to pull the smartypants out of their ivory towers, so we get to eat bacon cheeseburgers again. Huzzah for made-up belief!

New York Times:

Critics of the teaching of evolution in the nation’s classrooms are gaining ground in some states by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both scientific subjects should be taught in public schools.

In Kentucky, a bill recently introduced in the Legislature would encourage teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories,” including “evolution, the origins of life, global warming and human cloning.”

[...]

Last year, the Texas Board of Education adopted language requiring that teachers present all sides of the evidence on evolution and global warming.

Of course, if I were a teacher in one of these situations, my response to these laws would be to obey them. But I'd add the caveat, "OK kids, I'm required by law to lie to you for a while. Go ahead and read comic books if you want." Besides, the language is idiotic. Presenting "all sides" of the evolution v. creationism question would take you the rest of your life. You'd have to teach every creation story from every known religion and culture that ever existed, from Aztec to Zulu. But this isn't about what is or isn't a good idea, it's about what feels like a good idea. So "all sides" is evolution vs. the Magic Christian Ghost Living in the Sky Who Grants Wishes theory.

Don't like evolution? Then it's not true! Global warming too scary? Then it's a hoax! It's all up to you; reality conforms to your personal beliefs if you just wish hard enough and believe. We used to call this "magical thinking," now we're supposed to believe it's common sense.

If you want to see how frightening it is, let's look at what global warming's doing right now.

University of Alaska Fairbanks:

A section of the Arctic Ocean seafloor that holds vast stores of frozen methane is showing signs of instability and widespread venting of the powerful greenhouse gas, according to the findings of an international research team led by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists Natalia Shakhova and Igor Semiletov.

The research results, published in the March 5 edition of the journal Science, show that the permafrost under the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, long thought to be an impermeable barrier sealing in methane, is perforated and is leaking large amounts of methane into the atmosphere. Release of even a fraction of the methane stored in the shelf could trigger abrupt climate warming.

“The amount of methane currently coming out of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf is comparable to the amount coming out of the entire world’s oceans,” said Shakhova, a researcher at UAF’s International Arctic Research Center. “Subsea permafrost is losing its ability to be an impermeable cap.”

This may be the tipping point -- the point at which warming has progressed so far it can't be reversed. If we're thinking about getting around to doing something about climate change, now would be an excellent time to get started. "Methane is a greenhouse gas more than 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide," the report tells us.

But that's why we should hate scientists. It's bad news. We don't like bad news. We like good news. So there's no such thing as global warming. Just ignore all that methane. It's not going to do anything. Maybe it's not even happening. In any case, if things get too bad, Jesus will come and save us. He's like Superman that way.

Just don't make us feel bad. If you do, we'll make up something that makes us feel good and believe that. It's the new American way.

-Wisco


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Sen. Grassley's McCarthyism

In 2008, Michael Gabelman successfully ran a campaign to unseat judge Louis Butler from the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Gabelman's campaign was so slimy, so dishonest, that it gained national attention. That campaign can be summed up with one ad:

The ad was compared to the infamous "Willie Horton" ad run by then Vice President George HW Bush against Michael Dukakis. But this was actually worse -- it misrepresented Butler's role in the case of Reuben Lee Mitchell, a child molester.

FactCheck.org:

Some of the ad's statements are true. But the conclusion a viewer would naturally draw from the construction of the ad – that Mitchell was freed as a result of Butler's legal finagling (or maybe a decision he made since he became a judge), and used that freedom to commit more crimes – is not.

Butler was a public defender for part of his career. His job as a defense lawyer was to protect the rights of the accused. His job now as a judge is different. To say he "worked to put criminals on the street" while showing him in a judge's robes hoodwinks the viewer on two counts.

So Butler was being faulted for doing what he was constitutionally required to do as a public defender. In my opinion, anyone who would so mischaracterize the way the criminal justice system is supposed to -- hell, designed to -- work has no business in any courtroom, let alone a state's highest court. Any judge who would portray public defenders as inherently evil can't possibly be a good one. And, so long as Michael Gableman sits on Wisconsin's Supreme Court, any rational observer should question every finding that court hands down. It is now a court without credibility.

So what do you care about some Wisconsin election some slimeball won? Pretty much the same thing is happening again, on a national scale:

Washington Post:

Conservatives who are unhappy with the decision to close the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have trained their fire on an unusual target: political appointees in the Obama Justice Department who represented detainees earlier in their careers.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has been demanding for months the names of nine appointees who previously advocated for or represented detainees in their private law practices. Grassley has argued that the lawyers' backgrounds could pose "conflicts of interest" and complained that the department had been "nonresponsive" to his requests.

The rhetoric reached new levels this week when Keep America Safe, a group affiliated with Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of former vice president Richard B. Cheney, released a YouTube video that featured the headline "DOJ: Department of Jihad?" and asked, "Who are these government officials? . . . Whose values do they share?"

Here's that video:

So, to make a long story short, Chuck Grassley and Liz Cheney are slime on the scale of Michael Gableman. People in Gitmo are entitled attorneys -- even the Bush administration agreed with that -- but Cheney would have you believe that the right to an attorney is some legal loophole only criminal sympathizers would fill. The charge is not only plain wrong, but immoral and contrary to the Constitution. Constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald:

This slander encompasses scores of American military lawyers, who have vigorously, passionately and often successfully defended numerous Guantanamo detainees, including those accused of being Al Qaeda operatives. Adam Serwer and Spencer Ackerman both have excellent pieces on this ad, featuring quotes from several military officers who have defended accused Terrorists, including retired Col. Morris Davis, who was once a lead prosecutor in Guantanamo's military commissions only to became a vocal critic of that system. Watching as their integrity and character are smeared by the likes of Dick Cheney's daughter and Bill Kristol is really revolting.

This is McCarthyism, pure and simple. There is no other word for it. And it's the lowest, most useless, most despicable form of politics. That Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney would engage in this is no surprise -- they're both worthless pieces of crap, fearmongers and cowards of the very worst kind. But that a sitting senator would join in should give us pause. We've been down this road before and we know where it leads.

At long last, Senator Grassley, have you no decency?

-Wisco


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Jim Bunning's Just a Dick

After the 1998 congressional elections, [Bill] Clinton bemoaned the fact that GOP Rep. Jim Bunning had narrowly won a Senate seat in Kentucky. [Taylor] Branch writes, "He said Bunning, a former baseball player, was so mean-spirited that he repulsed even his fellow know-nothings. 'I tried to work with him a couple times,' said Clinton, 'and he just sent shivers up my spine....I know you're a baseball fan and everything, and you don't like to hear it, but this guy is beyond the pale.'"
-David Corn, Mother Jones, 2009

Last night, Jon Stewart opened his show with a clip of Sen. Jim Bunning refusing to talk to reporters in the rudest, most imperious way possible. Was Bunning's hold on unemployed Americans benefits a protest of the budget deficit, Stewart wondered? Was it a principled stand for fiscal conservatism? Stewart had an answer for his audience; "Turns out, he's just a dick!"

Normally, that'd be an opinion. Maybe you don't like someone, but plenty of other people do. It may be your opinion that "he's just a dick," but that doesn't make it true. This isn't the case with Sen. Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky -- he is demonstrably a dick. In fact, he's such an insufferable ass that he's currently in the process of being fired from the Republican Party. It's a de facto firing -- they didn't support his reelection, handing him a guaranteed loss -- but a firing nonetheless. If you're too big of a jerk for the Republican Party, then call Guinness. You might be able to claim some sort of record.





By January of 2009, Bunning was the most vulnerable senator in the nation. First elected to the Senate in 1999, Bunning basically coasted on the fact that he was a Republican in a red state. Bunning could do or say anything he wanted, because he'd always wind up against an unelectable Democrat. Or so he thought.

By September of 2008, he'd raised $175,000 for his reelection campaign -- a pittance. By April of 2009, his approval rating was a Cheneyesque 28%. Rumblings began to be heard that the GOP wouldn't support his reelection. Bunning's response was to get pissy about it. He threatened to sue the National Republican Senatorial Committee if they didn't support him (it was bluster, he had no case). Finally, Jim Bunning dropped out, blaming Republicans for his poor fundraising.

So Bunning blocking a bill that would've extended unemployment benefits for 1.1 million people is widely seen as just being pissy again. Republicans won't support him, because Democrats were trying to steal a seat he thought he was entitled to. As Stewart pointed out, Bunning is just a dick. Republicans tried -- for about a minute -- to blame Bunning on Democrats, but quickly gave that up. Jim Bunning may be a dick on the way out, but he's their dick.

Mike Madden, Salon:

Bunning's relationship with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, also from Kentucky, is extremely hostile. A senior Senate GOP source tells Salon Bunning gave Republicans no advance warning before he launched his stunt last week. McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., had already agreed on how to move forward with temporary legislation extending unemployment benefits (and other federal spending), but Bunning -- taking advantage of the Senate's sometimes preposterous rules -- objected, blocking the whole thing. The GOP, though, says Reid should have been able to avert the problem in the first place. Instead of passing a tourism bill last week, Republicans say Reid should have filed for cloture on the unemployment extension; that way, Bunning's delay wouldn't have pushed the bill past Monday, and no deadlines would have been missed.

"All these problems could have been avoided with better management on the leadership side," the GOP aide said. "They all blame it on Bunning, but they could have got around Bunning. They could have made Bunning moot, but they didn't do it." It's all Harry Reid's fault for not assuming some rogue Republican would grandstand on the issue to punish all of America for slighting him. It wasn't the best argument.

Of course, Bunning finally relented. But not before he became the most hated man in America. His office was flooded with calls, faxs, letters, and emails. One Bunning-supporting blog (yes, there is one) reports that the senator received death threats -- I can't say I approve of that, but it's hard to believe that Bunning's not used to it by now.

A lot of people on the left have been using this as an example of Republican obstructionism and, as much as I hate to say it, that's unfair. Reid and McConnell were going to work together to get this done, they thought they had a deal to do it, but Jim Bunning suckerpunched them both. Because he's a dick. Technically speaking, it is Republican obstructionism -- Bunning's a Republican who was obstructing -- but it wasn't strategic on the GOP's part. In fact, it very well may have hurt them.

It was just one man being a dick about it.

-Wisco


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Sitting Out a Global Economic Shift

For the sake of argument, let's say I've become convinced that global warming is a bunch of crap. After all, it snowed this winter, which I guess is supposed to prove something. And it turns out that scientists haven't been conducting their research to non-scientists' liking. Of course, the facts don't really back up the "bunch of hooey" scenario. In 1960, the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere was less than 320 parts per billion. Today, that number is nearly 390. We're literally changing the chemical makeup of our atmosphere and some are seriously arguing that we can do that without consequence. Ice sheets are melting at an alarming rate, sea levels are rising, and we just lived through the hottest decade in recorded history. If these facts aren't good enough for you, then you're just uneducable - either because you're incapable of appreciating reality or because you've chosen not to.

Now, let's say I'm one of the fools; maybe I fell down the stairs and suffered a head injury. Maybe I lost my mind and decided to reject reality. Maybe I've started putting whiskey on my corn flakes. Whatever, I'm now totally convinced that everything's fine. There is no such thing as human caused climate change.

I'm saying we ought to play along with the dopes who believe it. Let's face it, the only places that this is even an argument are the US and UK -- the vast majority of the people on the planet believe it. And they're going to do something about it. That means they're going to buy stuff. They're going to buy solar panels and wind generators. They're going to buy trains and batteries. They're going to buy insulation and hybrid cars. Now, they can buy them from the US or we can stand on the sidelines, say global warming is a bunch of crap, and laugh at nations developing new technologies and new markets. We can sit this one out, cut ourselves off from this new green economy, let all that money and all those jobs go to other countries -- because we're so much smarter than all those other chumps and climate change is a hoax.





Does that sound like a good idea to you? If it does, then I'd say you weren't very bright. If global warming is big lie, who cares? So what? The world's going to change anyway and we can either lead, follow, or get out of the way. Will it be bad for some industries? Probably. Not burning stuff is bad for industries that sell stuff to burn, but so what? Go back and show me the time in history when we gave a crap what happened to the obsolete technology. CDs had to put a lot of vinyl presses out of business -- did that mean we should've stopped making CDs or did that mean the people who press records needed to catch up? Again, name the time we've ever cared about this before. You can't.

So if Exxon can't see that it's time to start researching batteries, then so long Exxon. Who cares? Companies will rise up to fill the void. And, if they're American companies, that industry will come complete with new jobs, offsetting the loss of the dinosaur industry. But only if we play along with this global warming scam. Necessary or not, the world is going to change. We can either change with it or let it pass us by.

The truth is that this is going to happen with or without us. If you think climate change is horsecrap, fine. So what? Does that mean that, when the world is clamoring to buy all this fancy-pants green stuff, we're going to refuse to make it or sell it? For what reason -- principle? At this point, it would be hard to tell principle from stubborn idiocy.

Of course, I suppose that we could be the one nation that doesn't change. Then we could be a sort of Heritage Village of a nation, where tourists come to see what it's like to have to churn your own butter and spin your own yarn. Doesn't seem like there's a lot of money in that, though. Somehow, a Hummer has less rustic charm than a horse and buggy.

But if you don't want to get in one this climate thing, then what's your plan? How does a coal-black nation compete in a green global economy? Tell us how you see this thing panning out in our favor.

Because it isn't so obvious when you think about it.

-Wisco


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