What Happens in Vegas: Climate Change Deniers Hold Conference

Here's something odd. On KXNT--the Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity station here in Las Vegas--I heard an ad for a conference taking place here. It sounded, at first, like a meeting of climate change scientists. But as the ad went on, it became clear that it was a gathering of climate change deniers. Makes sense, given the station I was listening to, even though it's more of a straight news channel in the early morning. Still, I thought, that's just weird. That they can gather enough scientists and "experts," to make up enough people for such an event.

I suspect that the bulk of the attendees are climate change deniers of the internet commando type, with the experts making up merely the panel of speakers. Finding out is difficult though. Because outside of the commercial I heard, I can't find much of anything on the conference except on arch-right-wing sites. What I did find is fairly thin on information. So, unless it's a rip-roaring success, don't expect to hear much about it outside of those sources, even after it's over.

Now, on a side note, I'd like to say that I don't understand climate change skeptics, and I don't understand how something rooted in science has become so overtly political. How can it be that if you're liberal, you believe the science, if you're conservative, you disbelieve it? I mean, I know that conservatives often disregard science in favor of ideology, but that doesn't mean I understand it. For one thing, I can't figure out what the motive would be, or how someone would accomplish lassoing virtually all climatologists (and related science professionals), and getting them all to agree to go along with a hoax.

One of the few bonuses of climate change is that Rush Limbaugh
lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. Image from  Big Think.

It smacks of the ridiculous notion of a "gay agenda," where 97% of gay people somehow agreed to make up a "lie" that being gay is not a choice. How? When? Who was the ringleader? How do they keep everyone in line? Maybe it helps that so many conservatives are fundamentalist Christians, who routinely go along without asking too many questions? I don't know. But beyond all that, I find it insane that people don't think that a couple hundred years of spewing pollution into the air and water couldn't possibly cause a problem. Anyone remember Lake Erie on fire? Have they seen the smog in china? Acid rain? And on and on. To dismiss that mankind could cause damage to the way the Earth operates is just short-sighted and bullheaded.

[Excerpt]

Climate change denial: skeptics gather in Las Vegas
 
As the Heartland Institute gets ready to organize a conference on climate change in Las Vegas from July 7 to 9 the focus once again has shifted to the fact whether the issue is a fact of a theory. Dubbed by many as “the biggest gathering of global warming skeptics in the world” all eyes are on the ninth International Conference on Climate Change. Moreover it has come in the background of the public opinion in America that strongly feels about the subject. . .

Read more at: Northern Voices Online

Rachel Maddow: It's Time to Pop the Conservative Bubble

Fans of Rachel Maddow know that one of her biggest strengths is in her narrative-driven, educational storytelling. She manages to get several points across in a fact-rich, easy to understand way. She's Glenn Beck without the crazy, or the tears or the. . .well, everything else.

But the drawback in Rachel's style is in sharing her nuggets of wisdom. The clip below is more than 16 minutes long! So, while the whole thing is good--great in fact--you should know that at just about 9 minutes in, there's a terrific composite of FOX "News" and their disbelief at the election results. At just over 12 minutes, there is a must-see deconstruction of the conservative bubble, how it led to to utter shock when Mitt Romney lost, and how the bubble needs to be popped in order for America to properly function as a democracy.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I have an alternate plan. I'm hoping that when conservatives get past shock, anger, denial, bargaining and acceptance, that they take their tea party into an official Tea Party Party. I want their purity test into a viable Tea Party candidate. I want the bubble to be moved around that party, and for the Republicans to soldier on with the reasonable, non-crazy Republicans. This way, everybody's happy, we no longer have a two-party system. . .and Democrats win for at least the next several cycles. 

Captain Obvious: Republicans are in Denial

The headline of this piece is perhaps not as clear as I'd like it to be. Especially since I've put it under the heading of Captain Obvious. But what I'm getting at, is that Republicans are denialists. Or perhaps, they are deep into the weeds of conspiracy theories. Why do I say this? Because they deny all manner of experts, or they claim that those experts are being controlled by liberals/socialists/Marxists/Maoists/communists/statists (there, I said it!). Here is a list of experts that many conservatives discount or are deeply suspicious of:

- Climate Scientists: Hoaxers or are in cahoots with Democratic politicians. Invented phony Global Warming/Climate Change. Falsely believe that 100+ years of spewing waste into the environment could possibly have any effect on it.

- Psychologists/Psychiatrists: Falsely claim that gay people are born that way. Wrongly purport that "praying away the gay" is harmful.

- Economists: Lie when they say that government should be spending during a recession. Lie again when they say cutting government spending will hurt the economy. Only if they are supply side/trickle down economists are they to be believed.

- Archaeologists/Anthropologists/Geologists/Biologists: Falsely tout the "theory" of evolution. Falsely date the earth at (far) more than 6,000 years old.

That was just a short list, hitting the bullet points. The breakdown is basically that no matter what experts say, or how many of them say it, if their findings go against Republican policy goals, the experts are wrong. Period.

In short, Republican/conservative ideology has morphed from a political philosophy into a religion. It's a new New Testament, welded onto the (usually) evangelical Christian religion. And like all religions, it is immune to empirical facts, immune to reason, immune to argument. So:

- Global warming is a hoax, or at least is just cyclical, and not man-made.
- Gay people choose to be that way, and deserve no rights or legal recognition.
- Cutting taxes, especially for the rich, and cutting regulations will spur growth and create jobs. Even though it hasn't for the last ten years that we've tried it.
- The earth, man and all life was created, not evolved. It's all too complex to have "just happened," or have always existed. However, this does not contradict the fact that God--who is infinitely more complex than the universe--has always existed, and didn't require a creator.


And that's just a short list off the top of my head. Obviously.

It Isn't Just Conservatives Who Don't Believe in Evolution

There are certain things that are either known to be real, or so nearly so that dismissing them, disbelief in them, or disagreement with them seems ridiculous. I think this whenever I hear someone say they "disagree" with homosexuality. Gay people exist whether you "agree" with them or not. Ridiculous. It is much the same with evolution. Evolution--if Darwin hadn't spelled it out--would likely have been "discovered" by someone else shortly after. It's logical. It makes a ton of sense. And lots of other science hinges upon it.

On Friday Night's Real Time with Bill Maher, Georgia Republican Jack Kingston (who is good looking, but kind of douchey, creating conflict for me) flatly stated that he doesn't believe in evolution. That didn't surprise me. D.L. Hughley, the liberal actor/comedian stated the same. That surprised me. Basically, it looks to me like it is a strong belief in religion--something with far less evidence than evolution--that creates this disbelief. It's curious. They can accept the whoppers in the bible, but can't swallow The Origin of Species.

[Excerpt]


Jack Kingston wants to see man-fish-newt





On Real Time with Bill Maher, Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA) apparently wants to see some kind of manfishnewt before he will accept evolution (For Southpark fans, that would be half-man, half-fish, and half-newt). Which, if ever found, would utterly destroy our understanding of human evolution along with a giant chunk of vertebrate biology. . .


Read more at: DailyKOS

And if you want a site that refutes Kinston's and Hughley's opinion, check this out for some quick debunking: Top 10 Myths About Evolution

What Counts as Sex?

Have you ever had sex? Don't be so sure! Because by some peoples' measure, you may still be a virgin! Of course I find this all ludicrous. They don't call it oral sex and anal sex for nothing. Either is sex. But do we know what the definition of is is? Hmmm. . . Maybe Bill Clinton was on to something after all.

[Excerpt]

11 Sexual Activities That People Don't Count As 'Having Sex'

Researchers at Indiana surveyed hundreds of heterosexual adults, male and female, from age 18 all the way up to 96, and asked them if different sexual activities constituted "having sex."

And the results... were amazing. At least the results I saw. As usual, the Liberal Media only published enough of the findings to give us a taste, but not a complete picture.

Fortunately, the good people at The Kinsey Institute at IU were kind enough to provide me with the full results of their study. Good people over at that Kinsey Institute. Totally worth getting it on with one of them, even if you get the feeling they're just doing it for research purposes. . .

Read more at: 11points

FOX "News" Can't Believe that Al Franken is a Senator

Poor babies. . .