Global warming and the Know-Nothings
I am totally baffled as to why some conservatives are so hell-bent on denying the fact of global warming,.or climate warming as it is called in some parts.
For instance, in April of this year one of their leading lights, Jerry Falwell, published a two-page article in his National Liberty Journal "newspaper for conservative Christians," saying that global warming is a hoax being inflicted on the country by liberals and the like, and that it is all just a bunch of foolishness. He accused liberals of wanting to use the warnings to inflict major economic damage on the U.S. He added that the whole thing is an attempt to change the subject from what should be the main effort in America, and that is improving moral values. The global warming outcry, said Falwell, is Satan's work, in his attempt "redirect" the work of the church.
Unfortunately, just weeks after this article appeared, Jerry Falwell was obliged to board the spaceship that takes us all on the Eternal Journey out of Earth's warm embrace, and that allowed him to evade answering for all this fiddle-faddle, while the island nation of Tuvalu continues to be gradually covered over by the sea, and while more of the Arctic ice cap melts away to the point that the fabled Northwest Passage, the site of so much frustration to mariners trying to break through its ice in centuries past, is now such an easy jaunt that suddenly Canada has a long channel through its north that unexpectedly it has to line with a lot of expensive security forces, and while so much ice has fallen into the sea off of Antartica that thousands of miles away, outside London, that marvel of engineering called the Thames Barrier, instead of being used once every few years, as was envisioned, now has to be raised several times a year.
Falwell argued , and I assume his parishioners swallowed the nonsense whole, that it would take 550 trillion dollars to do what that the global warming "alarmists" are urging.
What? Correct me if I'm wrong but there isn't that much money in the whole world and never has been!
As to what Christians should be doing instead of trying to correct human effects on the atmosphere, he recited 1 Corinthians, 2:2, which reads:"For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
This seems not only to hark back to another notorious bunch of regressives, the Know-Nothing party of the American 19th century, but also it brings to mind the year 1588 when Philip 2 of Spain was unleashing his armada on Queen Elizabeth 1 and England, and one of his admirals asked how were they also going to prepare for the weather in the often stormy English Channel, and the King replied that since they were servants of God, God would take care of that. Yet the gigantic, proud fleet had barely gotten clear of the Spanish coast when a storm forced them to scurry back into port with some damage, and thereby they suffered a fatal loss of time.
I got the idea from reading the context of that verse that Paul was speaking only of what he meant to do in his sermon to the Corinthians that day, since it was so close to Easter, and not instead prescribing that worship and the like should be the sum total of Christian action.
Can it be that conservatives and other regressives leave all common sense behind and instead take their stands on global warming and many other matters in crazy and harmful wayspurely because people that they despise, like Al Gore, have opposite views?
I think so, and I think that is one of the main reasons why the Bush terms in office have been so disastrous. The Republicans don't examine issues with regard to whether they're worthwhile or not, or moral or immoral, or needed or unneeded, or whether it's good for the country and for the planet and all its inhabitants, sapiens or not. Instead they check out what the Democrats are saying and then decide that the exact opposite is the way to go, and all their lemming supporters swarm blindly behind them, leaving the rest of the country -- that is, the sectors that are not sleep-walking -- to struggle not to be dragged by the multitudes of the Unthinking too close to the edge of a lot of towering cliffs..
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For instance, in April of this year one of their leading lights, Jerry Falwell, published a two-page article in his National Liberty Journal "newspaper for conservative Christians," saying that global warming is a hoax being inflicted on the country by liberals and the like, and that it is all just a bunch of foolishness. He accused liberals of wanting to use the warnings to inflict major economic damage on the U.S. He added that the whole thing is an attempt to change the subject from what should be the main effort in America, and that is improving moral values. The global warming outcry, said Falwell, is Satan's work, in his attempt "redirect" the work of the church.
Unfortunately, just weeks after this article appeared, Jerry Falwell was obliged to board the spaceship that takes us all on the Eternal Journey out of Earth's warm embrace, and that allowed him to evade answering for all this fiddle-faddle, while the island nation of Tuvalu continues to be gradually covered over by the sea, and while more of the Arctic ice cap melts away to the point that the fabled Northwest Passage, the site of so much frustration to mariners trying to break through its ice in centuries past, is now such an easy jaunt that suddenly Canada has a long channel through its north that unexpectedly it has to line with a lot of expensive security forces, and while so much ice has fallen into the sea off of Antartica that thousands of miles away, outside London, that marvel of engineering called the Thames Barrier, instead of being used once every few years, as was envisioned, now has to be raised several times a year.
Falwell argued , and I assume his parishioners swallowed the nonsense whole, that it would take 550 trillion dollars to do what that the global warming "alarmists" are urging.
What? Correct me if I'm wrong but there isn't that much money in the whole world and never has been!
As to what Christians should be doing instead of trying to correct human effects on the atmosphere, he recited 1 Corinthians, 2:2, which reads:"For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
This seems not only to hark back to another notorious bunch of regressives, the Know-Nothing party of the American 19th century, but also it brings to mind the year 1588 when Philip 2 of Spain was unleashing his armada on Queen Elizabeth 1 and England, and one of his admirals asked how were they also going to prepare for the weather in the often stormy English Channel, and the King replied that since they were servants of God, God would take care of that. Yet the gigantic, proud fleet had barely gotten clear of the Spanish coast when a storm forced them to scurry back into port with some damage, and thereby they suffered a fatal loss of time.
I got the idea from reading the context of that verse that Paul was speaking only of what he meant to do in his sermon to the Corinthians that day, since it was so close to Easter, and not instead prescribing that worship and the like should be the sum total of Christian action.
Can it be that conservatives and other regressives leave all common sense behind and instead take their stands on global warming and many other matters in crazy and harmful wayspurely because people that they despise, like Al Gore, have opposite views?
I think so, and I think that is one of the main reasons why the Bush terms in office have been so disastrous. The Republicans don't examine issues with regard to whether they're worthwhile or not, or moral or immoral, or needed or unneeded, or whether it's good for the country and for the planet and all its inhabitants, sapiens or not. Instead they check out what the Democrats are saying and then decide that the exact opposite is the way to go, and all their lemming supporters swarm blindly behind them, leaving the rest of the country -- that is, the sectors that are not sleep-walking -- to struggle not to be dragged by the multitudes of the Unthinking too close to the edge of a lot of towering cliffs..
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posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 5:59 PM
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