The Politico and Roger Simon (who is in Copenhagen) depict a scene of chaos and division that the management can do little to hide. Politico hints that some politicians are beginning to sense that the heretofore unsinkable ship is down by bow and foundering and are, with stealthy tread, making for the First-Class lifeboats.
in a surprise move that captured growing uncertainty over conference — Denmark’s climate minister, Connie Hedegaard, stepped aside as president of the conference, handing the gavel to Rasmussen, as head of the host country.
Outside, Danish police — who have been accused of heavy-handedness by human rights groups — clashed with thousands of environmental activists who descended on the complex from a nearby train station and demanded entry to the Bella Center.
BBC video showed truncheon-bearing Danish police shoving the crowd backward as protesters gasped and covered their faces to avoid breathing tear gas.
Inside the building, U.N. officials revoked the credentials of about 100 accredited members of the green group Friends of the Earth for staging a series of small protests on Tuesday.
The dynamics of this crisis may be simple. A series of events, notably the Climategate revelations to which the cold snap in Britain has added psychological credence, has shifted a significant amount of public opinion to skepticism. But the real damage is being inflicted by the environmental left. They had been bought off by political promises which were barely capable of fulfillment when the tide of public opinion had not yet been turned. With the public increasingly skeptical, the environmental Left rightly sees that it has no chance of getting what it wants. Whenever the Left doesn’t get what it wants it does what comes naturally: it becomes more militant. Roger Simon relates a telling anecdote of streets crowded by hangers-on and empty power lunches. Oops, did I say power?
Basically, it’s a combination of a trade fair for eco products that are being flogged everywhere (I’m staying in a CO2 neutral hotel – you can see it on PJTV), third world operators looking for hand-outs (a couple of African scientists admitted to one of the skeptic scientists they knew AGW was a schuck, but it was a great oppo to get some cash) and leftover, re-upped hippies doing what they do — demonstrate and carry-on….
Last night I headed out with some folks to an event that was supposed to be for ClimateSpark.org, supposedly a party/meet-and-greet with “industry” movers and shakers, some of whom reputedly knew AL GORE. (Gore’s name is thrown around here like Tom Cruise’s in Hollywood.) Unfortunately, very few showed, and yours truly high-tailed it in a matter of minutes.
And speaking of power, the curve has shifted to the “developing countries” like China who see in what Reuters calls the “flagging” talks an opportunity to be bought off in order to lend their support to a face-saving agreement. “COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – A draft climate pact unveiled on Friday revived hopes that U.N. talks might be able to pin down an international deal to fight global warming, but developing nations said they needed more cash from the rich.”
A European Union offer of 7.3 billion euros ($10.8 billion) of climate aid over the next three years was welcomed by the United Nations and the Danish hosts of the December 7-18 talks in Copenhagen.
“Things are progressing,” said Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister who presides at the negotiations.
The first four days of talks moved so slowly that European Commission delegate Karl Falkenberg joked on Friday that progress was only visible under a magnifying glass. …
China, now the world’s largest emitter, said rich nations needed to provide long-term cash if they wanted the developing world to agree long-term emissions goals.
“I doubt the sincerity of developed countries in their commitment. Why are they not talking about a commitment of providing funds through 2050? That will make them credible when they are asking for an emissions reduction by 2050,” said Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei.
African nations said they were still considering the draft, but were also unhappy about financing.
It’s about money, money and more money. For a conference which was ostensibly about the soft songs of nature, the cooing sound of the whales and the primitive charms of nature piping in through a paneless window it sure got down to the nitty-gritty real fast. The translation from Chinese is approximately thus: “Quit the stalling Asgaard, or whatever your name is. Show me the money. Cash on the nail. If your wallet don’t talk, then start to walk.”
Copenhagen is shaking itself to pieces. Whatever the climate change movement may turn out to be, criminal conspiracies are typically held together by the prospect of dividing the loot. Up until the heist is consummated, a kind of brotherhood holds the perps together. But once the loot is in hand, but more especially if the loot comes up short, then the sidelong glances begin. Is this happening in Copenhagen? And as for the Left, why it’s about money too. The sound you hear in the streets isn’t necessarily about demonstrators bewailing the fate of the earth. It might also be the sound of environmentalists lamenting the fate of their jobs or people worrying about their carbon business. But don’t worry, they’ll get something — at the Western taxpayer’s expense. Some things need no translation.
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Whenever the Left doesn’t get what it wants it does what comes naturally: it becomes more militant.
Well, yes. It sells salvation politics based on moral certainty. Over the last 150 years, the dominant Left position on all sorts of things has changed, sometimes quite drastically. The one thing that does not change is the moral certainty with which whatever is the current position is pushed: as the unchanging element, that is what is really being sold.
And anyone who opposes whatever is the current manifestation of moral certainty for saving the world is an enemy of salvation. So displaying the unyielding righteous of one’s position (and cathartic hate to said “enemies of salvation”) becomes itself a moral act.
There is a clear logic to it. Unfortunately, that same moral certainty is a form of cognitive blockage that makes error much more likely, since it turns contrary evidence (and contrary human experience and preferences) into moral affront, and a collective moral affront at that. Hence the use of debate-forbidding terms such as ‘the science is settled’.
http://lorenzo-thinkingoutaloud.blogspot.com/2009/12/hayekian-ignorance-as-cognitive-affront.html
Hippies of the world UNTIE !!!
(as in unravel…)
I never liked the circus, especially clowns. Clowns really frighten me. But what sheer delight can be found watching the elephants, clowns, hucksters and jugglers stampede as this circus tent begins to unravel, sway, luff and collapse… It is a sweet thing to see! If the opposition could grow a pair, correction, if there were an opposition, this would be the opportunity of a lifetime to relentlessly scuttle the entire global socialist scheme.
In recent days I have begun to comprehend that Obama and his crew are actually not concerned in the slightest with governing America, per se. They are greedy for the opportunity to utilize the staggering wealth, prestige and power of the USA, a thing which was constructed without any help from their kind, to usher in their new order of transnational aristocracy. Obama & Co., like their cancerous EU and UN counterparts, intend to spread the cells of their schemes and boondoggles to basically do a complete end run around the edifice (obstacle) of the USA gin order to create an unaccountable imperial transnational court. The EU has almost accomplished it. The UN is working on it. Never before have we been so close, and in such short order too.
Except for our Civil War, I don’t think the essential nature of our nation has ever been in more peril. But even the Civil War embodied two essentially American polarities, and it could be argued that either sides’ victory would have continued an essentially American trajectory for the nation into the future. This transnational (mostly) Leftist/Socialist cabal is utterly un-American in its essence.
I have a great title for a book about Obama’s Presidency:
Obama:
UNAMERICAN
Heavy-handed? Is there ever any other kind of cop? When they start discouraging people from smashing plate glass, defecating in the streets, and deliberately being as obnoxious as possible the police are always “heavy-handed”. They’re the guilty ones.
(Sigh)
So the question is no longer “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?”. It is now “What is the carbon footprint of a tear-gas grenade?”
RE”Whatever the climate change movement may turn out to be, criminal conspiracies are typically held together by the prospect of dividing the loot. Up until the heist is consummated, a kind of brotherhood holds the perps together. But once the loot is in hand, but more especially if the loot comes up short, then the sidelong glances begin”. This is why I love your blog, Wretchard. Thanks.
The biggest loser here is the environmental movement. Sometimes you see kids holding out little cups to collect donations to save the earth. They’re doing it for Captain Planet. They’re doing it because their teachers told them it was a good thing to do. They’re doing it with the all the innocence and goodwill in the world. And it is a good thing to do, if you can rid environmentalism of the hucksterism and scamistry that have infested it.
I grew up in the Third World and old habits have made me, involuntarily, the paragon of a low impact person. No airconditioning, no big house. Walk a lot. Cycle a lot — for transportation too. Can’t stand to throw away food. Heck I recycle gasoline that’s I’ve used to clean parts. But it’s out of a sense of prudence, not ideology. I’ll do anything and buy anything for a reason. There’s no contradiction between walking to the airport and taking a jet plane. I’d buy a 40 room mansion — supposing I could afford it — for a reason. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, provided there’s a reason. And for me, at least, there’s no reason.
So I think the first thing to do is to free the prudent child to exercise it’s innocent faith. In order to achieve this, environmentalism has to get rid of these clowns in the same way any religion has to ruthlessly ditch the phoneys, pedophiles, predators and scamsters in their midst. Otherwise you can’t take it seriously. I think the worst thing the Left has done is transform our best instincts into power-grabs. There’s nothing they haven’t turned into a racket. And I think the world should want its best instincts back. They should grab it; take it from those who’ve made the best into the worst.
“I’m staying in a CO2 neutral hotel”
As in, doesn’t use energy? Hardly. What they mean of course is that they’ve purchased a eagon-load of Fr. Al Tetzel’s Carbon Indulgences, and wiped their sins away….
We are about to recollect the elegant utility of pikes lining the public ways…
“Pour encourager les autres?”
We are about to recollect the eloquent utility of pikes lining the public ways…
“Pour encourager les autres?”
The legacy of the greens is that ALL environmentalism will look like a huckster’s con. ALL OF IT. People don’t do subtle. That innocent child will realize it was all a scam and grow up to say “kill the Polar bears.”
@Wretchard #6:
Judaism was a parochial religion, centered on the Temple’s politics, until a fellow from Nazareth cast out the money changers and birthed a religion fit for an empire.
Who shall humble the Carbon Pharisees?
Talnik,
“Tear gas” is not really a technical term. I’m sure the Danish police are socially-conscious enough to use fair-trade pepper gas. Hey, it’s natural! So is cobra venom, but you know…
Wretchard,
The reason the environmental movement is standing to lose is because of the huge amount of chips they’ve pushed out on this bet. They act like the environmental-disaster films of Roland Emmerich are actually documentaries, and then expect the rest of us to open our wallets to the tune of trillions because they have a computer model that “proves” what they believe? They are wedged into the vending machine to the shoulder trying to grab candy on this one, and if they expect me to help them they are sadly mistaken. They have pushed too far and too hard, and the push-back will be brutal, at least to the issue of AGW. Good luck getting Cap & Trade through the Senate. The environmental movement worked much better and achieved more when they were the patient conscience, the Prophet of Doom/Taxman schtick is not as effective.
Events have continually outpaced them, it’s as if they have no OODA loop at all. Just about the time they get the attention of the nation that the planet is warming, the warming stops. Then they get people interested in conserving energy (which has worked, BTW) and point to the crushing burden of gasoline prices…which collapse following the economic shocks of 2008. Along with the oil price decline, the utilization of petroleum has dropped, and with it our CO2 emissions. D’oh!
And finally, just about the point at which they might have gotten someone to listen about the dangers of leveraging our economy on the petroleum and goodwill of countries that support terrorism, an avatar of the liberal left takes over the WH and the Democrats get both houses of Congress. They spend so much that the real threat to our sovereignty as a nation becomes not our appetite for oil, but the world’s appetite for our burgeoning debt instruments. Holding us hostage with oil is a knife to the brachial artery. If the world stops buying our debt, that’s a knife to the carotid. The point at which we have reduced our appetite for fossil fuels is the point that they decide they need something that is more precious: our money.
I hope the holder of the IP rights to the Keystone Kops has a good lawyer, because the defamation lawsuit of being libelously compared with the AGW movement will prove to be a good case.
I guess from this perspective it makes some sense for AGW agitators to continually move the goalposts. From their perspective, they’re trying to put the original goalposts back but events outpace them at every turn.
I hope we will have a conservative President and Congress in the near future. And I hope the person who leaked the East Anglia CRU emails will win both the Presidential and Congressional Medals of Freedom.
The protesters outside play a perfectly symbiotic role with the delegates inside. “The People demand change NOW!” strolls hand in hand with “We must deliver change NOW, The People demand it.”
I don’t think this is usually the case with left-wing protests, usually they have a substantive difference with the business being conducted inside. But for 150 years or so the “burn the system down” crowd have worked very well with the “let’s reform the system for the benefit of The People” crowd. The bad cop scares you, but the good cop still leads you in handcuffs to a cell, where you will spend a very long time.
I think the internet age has strained this relationship though. For a long time the outside crowd has accepted the deal made by the inside crowd, if only as a starting point for their next round of demands. But they can get together online now and have a greater sense of their own power, and seem to have lost the understanding of the tag team approach. We have seen more prominent figures now like Howard Dean- obviously outside crowd, and Barack Obama- outside crowd but does a plausible imitation of an insider for the rubes.
My faint hope is this protends the crack-up of the whole rotten racket, but even at Christmas it’s pretty weak.
Here’s what I find most galling about the ‘developing nation’ issue and designation:
China and India are considered ‘developing’ nations for these purposes.
Chinese now buy more cars than Americans. India has the world’s largest middle class.
I want to puke, and I want to throw something. Just how far can stupidity and cupidity be ratcheted up? What is the threshold before the fall?
I’ve been in the nuclear industry for thirty years and I consider myself a real environmentalist, as opposed to the tree-hugging neo-luddite pseudo-environmentalists who infest the marquee-name “Environmentalist Groups”. I wore an Ecology Ring and had hair down to my shoulders when I was a teenager but I never gave in to “the dark side” that has corrupted groups like Greenpeace.
That’s why, whenever I hear a story about an animal rights activist getting savaged by a polar bear, or an Al Gore fund raiser that gets cancelled due to blizzard conditions it restores my faith in the Universe.
I have a high Karma footprint!
I grew up in the Third World and old habits have made me, involuntarily, the paragon of a low impact person. No airconditioning, no big house. Walk a lot. Cycle a lot — for transportation too. Can’t stand to throw away food. Heck I recycle gasoline that’s I’ve used to clean parts. But it’s out of a sense of prudence, not ideology. I’ll do anything and buy anything for a reason. There’s no contradiction between walking to the airport and taking a jet plane. I’d buy a 40 room mansion — supposing I could afford it — for a reason. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, provided there’s a reason. And for me, at least, there’s no reason.
Wretchard:
There are probably other ‘carbon misers’ among the regular posters here, and with similar philosophies on the issue as yourself. I gave up my old clunker to charity a while back, and routinely walk 25-28 miles a week (a marathon’s worth) as part of my ‘transportation’ to and from the subway and other, more local destinations. I live in a small dwelling, and have modest needs that are within my means. I do these things because it suits my temperament and my requirements. A whole lot of us can be ‘agnostic’ environmentalists, if you will, because it’s cheap, and sustainable in a practical, matter-of-fact way. When I need a car a few times a year, I rent one.
“I grew up in the Third World and old habits have made me, involuntarily, the paragon of a low impact person.”
If you knew the generation of Americans who grew up during the great depression (my parents generation) they were almost all the same way. It is the boomers and their progeny who have made waste and conpicuous consumption commonplace.
“environmentalism has to get rid of these clowns in the same way any religion has to ruthlessly ditch the phoneys, pedophiles, predators and scamsters in their midst.”
The problem with this model, and this solution, is that in this case it is the very core of the “religion” that is the most corrupt, the most venal. The current structure cannot be “reformed”; all institutions which espouse it must be destroyed and the current environmental establishment figuratively burned to the ground. Only *then* can some more rational form arise from the ashes.
Therefore, due to my commitment to true environmentalism, I hereby swear that it is my highest duty to Earth and to Man to pursue the destruction of the current environmental movement and everything it espouses in any way that I can, and to this end I dedicate my efforts in this area.
The greatest playwright in the genre of the confidence man comedic drama, Ben Jonson, showed us one thing: the greatest fool is the con man who believes his own con.
Remember the 2-minute scene in the movie “The Grifters.” Young grifter checks up with old teacher. The old teacher says, “let me show you something. Give me a twenty-dollar bill.” The young grifter gives him the twenty-dollar bill. The old grifter takes the bill, puts it in his wallet and walks away, saying something to the tune of “never trust a grifter.” (Specific details of this movie scene subject to correction: haven’t seen this movie for several years.)
What’s happening in Copenhagen is a convention of grifters who thought they could make something out of a convention of grifters.
“I think the worst thing the Left has done is transform our best instincts into power-grabs.”
What a distillation of the whole lefty movement! I don’t like having to be skeptical and cynical about every issue that comes up, but I’ve seen too many flakes and radicals take over women’s rights, civil rights, human rights, peace, and even cultural studies. They offer us a choice of bowing before them or self-flagellation, and I reject these options.
The reason the environmental movement is standing to lose is because of the huge amount of chips they’ve pushed out on this bet.
The problem is that those chips cost the enviros absolutely nothing except accessories for the holy pose they assumed, to collect donations from wealthy but uncritical do-gooders. They’ve staked nothing of their own in this battle, and will lose nothing except a few years of unrealized hopes.
I’d like ante to be raised, to deter such gamesmanship, but don’t see how to accomplish that – except perhaps to overturn the current political class and replace it with more practical humans.
It’s to laugh:
New Scientist becomes Non Scientist:
http://joannenova.com.au/2009/12/new-scientist-becomes-non-scientist/
Sort of OT, but another window into the lefty/statist mindset:
WHITES TO BECOME A MINORITY IN U.S. BY 2050
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jO8jbAnwaP-wLfs93UGI-l_-llMgD9CKGBS00
Nonsense. Absolute nonsense, and here’s why: It’s a perfect example of bureaucrat-speak linear statistical ‘analysis.’ The ‘study’ assumes that the Hispanic population will grow dramatically, when, in fact, Hispanic birthrates are down to the U.S. norm — in Mexico! Apparently, fed statisticians are ‘hiding the decline’ in Hispanic birthrates. Of course, part of the assumption is continued unchecked immigration. More nonsense.
FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE:
More on Climategate. Incomplete Russian data used by CRU in its models:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100020126/climategate-goes-serial-now-the-russians-confirm-that-uk-climate-scientists-manipulated-data-to-exaggerate-global-warming/
“A man’s got to believe in something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.” W.C. Fields
And there was some big Hollywood gathering the other day, all the stars turning out for … Unicef. Hey, when I was a little kid, I was going door to door at Halloween begging for pennies. But that’s when the UN was respectable. I think.
So, I guess it’s not soooo bad if kiddies are collecting pennies for Captain Planet. But I have rather low expectations for people and establishments. Rather, I have high expectations, or at least hopes, but I know better than to expect straight-line movement towards the good. Even Hegel (and his trained chimp Marx) said it’s a zig-zag of dialectic.
But of course I agree, we should try, always try, that’s what makes it a dialectic, eh?
Don @ 21: Even away from climate, about five percent of New Scientist articles are howlingly bad science. Funny thing is the ninety-five percent are pretty good, I read them all the time. But they have drunk the kool-aid on AGW. I think I posted here their article rebutting 50 of the 100 claimed reasons why there is/isn’t AGW. The claims were sloppy, but NS’s responses were just about as bad. Depressing show, overall.
Doesn’t anybody here know how to play this game?
“But the real damage is being inflicted by the environmental left.
They had been bought off by political promises which were barely capable of fulfillment when the tide of public opinion had not yet been turned.
With the public increasingly skeptical, the environmental Left rightly sees that it has no chance of getting what it wants.
Whenever the Left doesn’t get what it wants it does what comes naturally: it becomes more militant.”
—
The same dynamics are driving “Healthcare” into oblivion.
Socialists Bernie Sanders, Southerner Hating Anti-Semite Howie Dean, and Nancy Pelosi turn out to be our best Spokespeople!
“PELOSI: NO HEALTH CARE DEAL THIS YEAR ”
At this rate, we won’t have a vote on Amnesty until after the Dem Supermajorities are devastated.
I’m writing thank-you notes to Coburn and DeMint for having these monstrosities read in their entirety.
Is C-Span covering that?
If so, I’m gonna record it, then play it back at a slower speed so I can follow it, and pick out some of the real gems these Freedom Haters have spawned.
—
It’s about money, money and more money.
From those who claim to represent the frail, downtrodden, powerless victims.
Not to mention,
THE CHILDREN!
(And, of course…
POWER and CONTROL!)
Nancy Pelosi in ‘campaign mode’
Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted Wednesday that job creation and deficit reduction will be the central Democratic themes for the coming year – and that public support for health care reform will rebound once a bill has been sent to President Barack Obama.
Nancy in the Sky with Diamonds
It is kind of weird. The stars align and we end up with enemy combatants in charge of the US government. The stars shift and it is starting to look like the AGW crowd was so busy mangling the data they just might have missed a global cooling crisis. Winter started about a month early were I live. It snowed in some Australian mountains and it is Summer there. Commodity prices for temperate climate crops are going up everywhere due to bad weather. “We in essence didn’t have a Summer here in Wisconsin.” The AGW crowd is claiming sun spot production and solar output have nothing to do with earth’s climate. But since they’ve already been caught in the lie, who is going to listen to them?
I’ve foreseen this day coming for years. The global warming con game would taint all who embraced it.
That’s why I’ve long argued within the US nuclear power industry circles to NOT make an argument FOR more nukes based on greenhouse gases. The industry lobbying group went ahead anyway, in part because the CEOs of the largest nuclear utilities (Exelon for example) got bought off by the liberals on cap and trade. Exelon, for example expected to make billions off their carbon allowances until proposed legislation.
Progress at the Global Warming Conference has been glacial.
I would not count on cophenhagen “imploding”. There will be terrible deals come out of it. This really wil not stop until there are lawsuits.
the GOP needs to be out their screaming, But instead we have Aaarhhnold S. out their carrying their water.
(I do wish that Palin was not a climate “moderate”. This does not help matters.)
So far, the establishment Right has been little better than the Moonbats.
We are hardly through the woods on this business. Let us not get complacent.
The fact that their is no scientific evidence and te whole business is irrational should not lead us to believe it is over. Just Look at Affirmative Action, if you want to see damaging, decades long irrationality.
Seriously, the only way to stop the lot of them is to defund them all and force them to go out an work for a living, and that applies to the MSM as well.
wws @ 17
Right. Those habits from the 1930s persist. I still turn off the lights in one room as I go into another. My wife and I discard almost no food–what is left from one meal becomes part of a future meal. And I still think of all the things I want to take out of the refrigerator (still ‘ice box’ in my mind) before I open the door so that the door will be open for as short a time as possible (and the ice won’t melt!).
Another thought, regarding Al Gore’s justification of his high use of energy on the grounds of making use of carbon credits: “A man who hires another to fast so he can feast is still a glutton.” [Not original with me--from my son.]
Best wishes
Jim
Toad,
These graphs show how unusually warm the Earth has been for us to thrive for thousands of years.
Over the longer haul, we’d be busy finding/inventing/building shelter from the cold!
Putting The “Great Warming” Into Perspective
Nothing is so much sought after by the scammer as the appearance of virtue. Therefore real virtue is so precious that it should never be without the bodyguard of plain common sense. Once things start getting too fancy or abstract and reliant on long-winded explanations for their quality to become evident, they are not very evident at all. The pea in plain sight is best. Once it goes under a shell, hold on to your wallet.
We have traditionally held that “man is made in the image and likeness of God”; that is to say humanity shares enough in common with the truth to recognize it. This is the basis of the idea of the wisdom of crowds. People aren’t that stupid. But if they are constantly told they are or purposely moronized by a diet of celebrity news, then eventually they come to believe that they can’t see anything for themselves. And then they become vulnerable to arguments from authority. Michael Mann said thus. Al Gore will be at this meeting. And the crowds go to catch a glimpse of the mansion-abiding prophet. “My House has many mansions. And all of them are carbon-neutral. I go to prepare a carbon certificate for you.” This is where the low-life man begins to feel edgy. He’s heard this line of patter before, probably at a sideshow in a carnival. But for the unwary and those who lost confidence in themselves, well yeah. How many carbon certificates are you selling?
31. jim Nicholas:
Many (esp on the right) complain about compact florescents, and reject them.
We have used them exclusively for over ten years.
Our “secret” is to buy them only from COSTCO, which has quality standards such that we have had only one bummer bulb in all that time.
The Mercury Problem is overblown, I think.
(not sure of that)
it’s a booffons opera
The environmental movement capitalizes on the rejection of religious faith by the West. With the loss of eternity, lesser magnitudes are adopted as surrogates; Earth’s biosphere is an icon for a vital order greater than ourselves and outlasting our national selves.
Religious faith may be ultimately about not tolerating any limits to one’s national preservation. In its absence we have to explain our future; and with no special reason to exempt ourselves from national extinction, we have to explain why we have no future.
That’s the distinction, to me. *Of course* it is prudent not to foul our own nest; but the doom preached by hard greens is not about what our actions may bring. It is a prophecy that seeks to explain an implicit doom.
How did the radical left become so powerful? When did the people of the United States cede to a small group of radical left wing activists the right to decide what we ate, what we smoked, what kind of cars we drove, how much we weighed, or what we should think? How did the radical left get to decide that we should not drill for oil within our own borders but should remain enslaved to the Middle East? When did we give them the right to tell us we could not have electricity from nuclear power plants? What sort of society would allow a radical homosexual group to decide that kindergarten children should be introduced to the joys of homosexuality? Why have we allowed every tiny interest group that forms itself to tell our textbook publishers what they can and cannot say in their textbooks? Our entire lives, and the lives of our children and grandchildren, are governed by the wishes and desires of the radical left, who wish nothing but ill for the United States. The universities are filled with people of the radical left; the mainstream media is the mouthpiece of the radical left; the once great Democratic party, the party of Truman and JFK and Scoop Jackson and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, is now the captured love child of the radical left. I grieve for the country I knew, a country that is no more.
The day is gone when Country stood
For God and truth and honor
But now we’re ruled by those who would
Bring harm and hurt upon her
I miss the day when free men ruled
Without three dozen czars
I miss the day when no one fooled
With stripes and field and stars
How did it come a tiny fish
Could cause the water flow
To farmers fields a distant wish
As whackos shouted No
How did it come we have the oil
To make our factories hum
But envirowhackos’ ceaseless toil
Keeps drilling rigs so mum
I know the good old days were not
As good as I remember
I just don’t like the ones we’ve got
And can’t wait for November
We’ve got to take our country back
The country we once knew
Turn in the lefty whacko claque
For the old red, white and blue
Either a righteous, or wicked world.
Hot or cold. An indifferent attitude just won’t do.
Build it and He will come.
33. wretchard:
“Nothing is so much sought after by the scammer as the appearance of virtue. Therefore real virtue is so precious that it should never be without the bodyguard of plain common sense.”
I picked up the ref. to Churchill’s famous statement that “In war-time, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies,” the source of the best book on WWII I’ve ever read, Anthony Cave Brown’s “Bodyguard of Lies” re: the fabulous fictions invented by the allies to hide their real plans.
I suggest that in the present instance, the exact reverse has occurred: the AGW lie has been treated by its acolytes as so precious that it must be guarded by a vast body-guard of apparent (scientific) truths.
What is so peculiar here in the liberal press is that they have explicitly treated the game-playing instanced in the hacked emails as “merely politics” and not science, a notion that that they treated as proving that the science itself has not in the least been compromised.
They of course miss the fundamental notion that once the credibility of the scientists’ own intellectual and professional integrity has been breached, everything they say must, can, and will be treated ever after with suspicion. It’s like losing virginity.
No more “body-guard” of truth, and even when they speak the truth these people will not be believed.
W@33:
That might be one of the very best things I’ve seen written. “The bodyguard of plain common sense.” Just excellent.
“I think the worst thing the Left has done is transform our best instincts into power-grabs. There’s nothing they haven’t turned into a racket.”
It is fascinating to talk with older people about how institutions have changed within their lifetimes. The declining stature of the BBC, the Anglican Church, the universities, even the local library. All of them taken over by Lefties. All turning to dust in their hands. King Midas in reverse.
Under Leftie guidance, planet-respecting conservation has become human-hating environmentalism. And Moore has been ejected from the very Greenpeace he founded.
The analogy may be with alcoholism. It won’t stop until the practitioner hits rock bottom and acknowledges his own self-destructive behavior. Are we there yet? Or is there a long way still to fall? Some alcoholics do drink themselves into their graves.
One of our Danish supporters wrote a short but amusing post for us on the effective treatment doled out to the Trustafarians by the Danish police.
For reasons that are obvious, he calls it “The Copenhagen Choo Choo”
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2009/12/copenhagen-choo-choo.html
If other police departments used this tactic, I do think we’d have fewer anachists out destroying small businesses and generally damaging whatever piece of property they happen to land on.
I wrote a parody song based on “Chattanooga Choo-Choo” to go with Kepiblanc’s observations at the scene (in Denmark, the “kepi blanc” — white hat — is a member of their special forces).
Doug, you’d enjoy this.
G77 does not need to accept anything yet. They should just watch the Western nations commit mass suicide. Anyway according to a self-loathing leftists, all the ills of the world caused by western greed. Just drink the kool-aid and faster, please.
Copenhagen is nothing more than a small setback for the left. Everyday the public schools train their growing army while government institutions of every type provide vast logistical support. Complete victory is only a matter of time.
41. what da ya mean, its too hot?:
It could end up a lot worse, like a gen X art movie, where everyone is dead or dying, everything and everyone is messed up and all of it for no reason other than it seemed like the thing to do.
The environmental movement strikes me as being filthy, sadistic, and pointless like such art films. Of course the point is to make money off of drama. Just as with the too big to fail banks, same too, with Health Care. Who stands to gain from all of this? Rich Democrats and tyrants. The poor dems get table scraps in sick symbiotic arrangement.
Wadeusaf
Money is all it EVER was about—at first, money in the form of research grants, now it’s really big money to reinvent whole economies.
The 3rd World contries, mostly tropical, should be the ones most concerned about AGW, but all they care about is $$$. Which, of course, tells you how afraid they are of AGW.
Am I bad for wishing a 9.6 earthquake on Copenhagen while they’re all still there?
I can’t find the site now, but I looked at a series of graphs that a guy did on Greenland Ice core samples that covered about 5,000 years of temperature changes. What was interesting was he started from the 1850 to present day graph and then started changing the scale stepping back in time. It showed a early middle ages warming period and then the mini-cool down of the late middle ages. As the graphs started covering a larger and larger time period the recorded history to present day part was just a bit of noise at the top of a graph that showed a leveling out period dating from a climb going back 5000 to perhaps 8000 years. On top of that there is the report about a known cycle of alternating growth and shrinkage of the polar ice caps that follows a 60-70 year cycle. Quite often one shrinks as the other expands. Which could explain the honking big ice berg heading for Australia. If the cycle changes and the Arctic ice cap starts a shrink phase and the present expanded polar bear population starts shrinking because it gets too cold for them, what will the AGW crowd advocate to save the bears.
Toad @ 42:
See Doug @ 32. He links to the graph series you are talking about.
48: Gerry P:
Oops, my bad, thankee for the source post.
Doug’s source included the Greenland ice core study that I was vaguely familiar with and has a narration. It is interesting that the Antarctic cores seem to verify the ones from Greenland.
In addition to the trustifarions at the Kopenhaging, I wonder how many of the rent-a-mob types that do it for wages showed up.
The Mexico City University riot and massacre.
http://www.ronaldecker.com/massacre.htm
One of the things not mentioned often in the accounts of this riot are the roles played by the “professional” students, people who were in there 30s who had been going to the University since they were teenagers. They were often married and had children. They had been gaming the system for some time. When the Mexican Army hosed them with the .50 calibers, more than a few citizens were happy to see the “parasites” get killed.
Doug @34: Mercury problem is surely overblown. Break a whole bunch of great big floodlights in a small room and then fail to air it out is how you could get dangerous levels.
However, I just do not like the silly-looking curlicues. Am fond of LEDs though just because of their incredible life-spans.
What really irks me are the claims of how different bulbs will reduce emissions. Beg your pardon. Generators emit, bulbs do not. And if every household practiced maximum electrical conservation, there would be NO
reduction in generation.
That is because your electric company has to generate all the juice that MIGHT be used at any given moment. This is several times the amount actually consumed. The problem is that we lack adequate means of storing electricity. Cure that problem and the quantities of fuel consumed will drop like a stone. And electrical ground transportation becomes a reality and we can even fly fan-driven airplanes with the new batteries.
Can you say “Shipstone”?
Dave,
My dad had a drugstore, and he’d give us liquid mercury to play with!
Unfortunately, I’ve got only myself to prove that does not make you mad as a hatter, and I refuse to represent myself in the matter!
Can you say “Shipstone”?
Super- or ultra-capacitors. Could be the first really interesting product of nano-technology. Would make regenerative breaking efficient – today it’s like 5% efficient. These little crank-operated LED flashlights use super-capacitors instead of batteries. Hey, it’s a start!
Outside, Danish police — who have been accused of heavy-handedness by human rights groups — clashed with thousands of environmental activists who descended on the complex from a nearby train station and demanded entry to the Bella Center.
Never any hint that protestors, environmental activists, anti-globalists or Greens might be “heavy handed”, is there?
Environmentalists see collectivism as the answer to save the planet; but refuse to acknowledge that without the wealth created by capitalism their “Endangered Species” list quickly reverts to a menu for the starving masses.
And now the Russian government is officially saying that the Climategate revelations means that its own data do not prove AGW.
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/BOMBSHELL.pdf
Wake up people, the ground is shifting.
Pelosi: Copenhagen trip really about jobs
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may be headed to the climate conference in Copenhagen, but the focus of the trip has shifted away from global warming and on to job creation.
Pelosi is headed to Denmark with 20 other House lawmakers, including six Republicans, to join in talks aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
But Pelosi insists the trip is really about lowering the unemployment rate, which is threatening to put a serious dent in the Democratic majority in the 2010 election.
According to Pelosi, the group will meet with representatives from countries involved in the climate talks as well as business leaders and advocacy groups, “to discuss job creation.”
…you just can’t beat these folks, mendacity-wise!
Nancy is taking at least two, and rumored possibly up to 5 Air Force Jets!
Neptune’s bones dissolve.
Lifeof Retches.
“The analogy may be with alcoholism. It won’t stop until the practitioner hits rock bottom and acknowledges his own self-destructive behavior. Are we there yet? Or is there a long way still to fall? Some alcoholics do drink themselves into their graves.”
The last part is probably more common than you think; many times the alcoholic ends up wrapped around an oak tree, or worse takes others with him.
In the current case, I think the enviroholics are about to race head-on into the Mack Truck of reality. (Reality has a way of doing that, you know)
As far as Nancy Pelosi – wow, after a year of ignoring it she’s finally started to realize that jobs are important? Those polls must REALLY be bad. But now – this morning Hillary promised $100 billion or something to “developing” countries to sign this agreement. Okay, Nancy, tell me – how does passing out $100 billion to 3rd world countries create american jobs? I’m a little fuzzy on how that’s going to work out.
U.S. Ready to Join Climate-Aid Fund
Hillary Clinton proposed that major economies including the U.S. come up with $100 billion a year over the next decade for developing nations to fight climate change.
(and create jobs, of course!)
A lot of your “Homeless” alcoholics and druggies are using the stuff to self-medicate their “bi-polar” mental conditions. They go off the prescribed stuff because of the side effects, their bodies have adapted to the prescribed drugs, or the effect of the prescribed stuff is too weak. So you end up with people who have an addiction on top of a mental condition. Of course I blame a lot of this stuff on the closing down of the mental institutions for the “outpatient treatment” theory and the “crazies have civil rights also” movements. Meanwhile these homeless also have STDs, hepatitis,and a host of other problems. This is why you have a glove carrier on you duty belt, A compact CPR tube, and hope your hepatitis shot is working. Even then you initiate conversation from as far away as practical. Some of them can gargle with pepper spray, and you’ll end up in the Kimchee if you baton them. I always felt kind of bad about chasing them out of the dumpsters when they were hunting for food, but lawyers and lawsuits wouldn’t allow it.
I don’t want to think about the analogies that can be drawn from them.
(I do wish that Palin was not a climate “moderate”. This does not help matters.)
Mongoose, Mrs. Palin has played her hand on AGW pretty smart given the current political realities of the issue, IMHO. She has carefully staked out a position in the middle with one foot on the “deniers” side. When the time comes she will be able to point to the fraud that is AGW and champion with even more vigor her signature issue: development of the nation’s own energy resources. She won’t have use the excuse, “I was duped” and made to look like a utter fool as will the other politicians who were champions of the AGW hoax. She is looking smarter and smarter with every passing day, playing her “cards” like a master poker player.
BTW. She pretty much b*tch slapped Arnold, just like she did Al Gore:
Greener Than Thou?
Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation’s only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can’t primarily blame man’s activities for those changes. And while I did look for practical responses to those changes, what I didn’t do was hamstring Alaska’s job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act “greener than thou” when talking to reporters.
- Sarah Palin
It is being reported that Senior Chavez received a standing ovation for using 20 of his allotted 5 minutes to quote Marx and denounce capitalism. Morales and Mugabe were also big hits. I hope the tear gas there is tinted green! Fear not Team 44 is on the way to CopHopeandChangin….the seas shall recede and the earth heal more than they ever did in Denver.
Regarding California’s Governor Schwarzenegger, it must be remembered that he is married to a Kennedy. I suspect a lot of his “environmentalism” is the result of being pw’ed on these issues at home by his wife.
Thugs In The Center Ring Of The Copenhagen Circus
Dave Horowitz
The United Nations-sponsored global warming circus in Copenhagen saved its biggest round of applause for one of the world’s biggest emitters of hot air – Hugo Chavez.
Here is what this thuggish clown told his audience, revealing what the conference’s ideological agenda is really all about:
capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.
Not ot be outdone, one of the world’s leading human rights abusers, Zimbabwe’s dictator Robert Mugabe , complained:
“When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it’s we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die.”
And who comes along on cue to defend the Copenhagen circus on “The O’Reilly Factor” and endorse the transfer of hundreds of billions of dollars from the West to the ‘developing sphere?’ None other than O’Reilly’s resident radical Left clown, Marc Lamont Hill. That should be no surprise since Hill’s radical ideology attracts him to such socialist stalwarts as Fidel Castro.
I have a better idea for O’Reilly’s use of Hill than as a commentator on issues of which he knows nothing about. Since Hill’s real expertise is hip-hop culture, Hill should hop right over to Copenhagen on O’Reilly’s dime and put together a hip-hop concert to entertain the conference protestors and attendees alike. That could turn out to be the only real accomplishment of the two-week circus.
Hillary Clinton proposed that major economies including the U.S. come up with $100 billion a year over the next decade for developing nations to fight climate change.
(and create jobs, of course!)
Ha. We already come up with $100b a year, we send it to developing nations like Saudi Arabia, and create tons of jobs in China.
Next.
capitalism is the road to hell….let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.
The global warming watermelon.
Green on the outside, red on the inside.
Any questions?
66. cfbleachers…
It’s all based on peer reviewed science.
A Global Consensus on Global Climate Change.
Politics has nothing to do with it.
Nor does money.
61. Tarnsman…
Palin’s Climate-gate
Robinson: Her skepticism is an about-face from the actions she took as governor.
She should assert that Climategate changed everything.
Dan 56, I think that Russia is all about figuring out how to maximize oil revenues. It’s all they have economically.
Their support of creating Iran as their local Persian Gulf pit bull probably adds min $10-20/bbl to the structural price of oil, so its worth the investment.
However, they are seeing the momentum building around energy conservation and what its potential impact on motor fuels and thus oil price and they’re worried.
Maybe the Lefties might try throwing their criticism at Russia/Iran/Saudi, who produce roughly 50% of global oil production, instead of at the nasty major oil companies who produce a small fraction of global oil (XOM largest at less than 5%, and falling).
Copenhagen Bathroom Talk
Doug @ 67
I believe you.
No, really…I really do.
Honestly.
LOL.
I would love to see an economist’s explanation of how it will work for the USA to be funding the self-mutilation of China’s industrial development, and the denial of refrigerators, color TVs, air conditioners, and french fries to the Chinese population, by giving dollars to China which we only have in our purse because China loaned’em to the USA in the first place.
I’m sorry, but this is the last straw. I’m off the Guilt Trip Express and I don’t care who the engineer is, KC Jones or Van Jones or Mother Jones.
If Hugo Chavez and Robert Mugabe are your voices of “reason”, you have bigger problems than climate change, you have moral compass problems of epic proportions. And, if that keeps me from being invited to Sean Penn’s or Martin Sheen’s next “let’s trash America” soiree, or from being nominated for an Oscar, Pulitzer or Nobel prize…I’ll pass anyway.
This train has left the station and all sense of proportion, integrity and credibility behind. When these screeching “one worlders” attempt yet another robbery from the Guilt Trip Express’ usual victims, nobody with a modicum of sense would be aboard to be fleeced yet again.
And, I’m pretty weary of hearing the canard, “wealth redistribution” as the alibi for having my pockets emptied, yet again.
Wealth redistribution is nothing more than one worlders, using third worlders as a cover, in order to create bagman jobs for themselves as keepers of the second world.
Wealth redistribution is the long con. The short con, currently…are 65 year old hippie dippy weathermen, making up fantasies about ruling the world through the destruction of the free market….by any means necessary.
The Guilt Trip Express is running out of steam. And since they won’t burn coal or wood, I think leaving them stranded alone with their own den of thieves would be just desserts.
Wealth redistribution is a charitable event. Not at the end of a bayonet, however. Then, it is theft. Not going to be held up by the Cole-Younger gang, or the Warming-Older gang any longer.
Wretchard
Reading that you use gasoline to clean parts reminds me of when my piano teacher said the round mark of the back of his fingernail came from the drill press in his garage.
Teachers should not be allowed to touch dangerous solvents or power tools!
68. Doug
She may have developed a method of dealing with GW, but I doubt if she said it was man made, as the AGW enthusiasts do. She’s find without making any ‘correcting statements’.
Steeple – #69
The real hit on oil consumption will not come from voluntary energy conservation efforts but from economic recession. A decline in gross global product is closely predictive of decline in oil and energy consumption.
Doug @ whatever:
You quote Eugene Robinson? Whaaa? You take that guy seriously then you are not functioning with all your mental capacity. You have an ID-10T error in your software.
I dub you BC’s resident “Sir Hope’N Changeytude Troll Meister”.
{Yeah, I just called you stupid.] See cfbleachers comments above.
Whitehall, no doubt, great point and we’re living that. Road diesel demand is still down over 10% year on year even with whatever economic recovery is going on. So the correlation appears to be non-linear in more extreme economic conditions such as during the boom of 1H2008 vs. the current recessionary conditions.
Gasoline is a great all purpose cleaner for those who can’t get better. When I used to clean out my carb back in the day I’d walk over to the gas station and get an 8 oz glass Coke bottle filled with gasoline (a few centavos worth). I’d talk the guy at the pump into trickling some into the bottle.
Then you needed a regular toothbrush with bristles trimmed short and an empty ceramic or metal container. After you took apart the carb, you’d leave the parts soaking in gasoline in the ceramic or metal container. Caution: do this only in the outdoors because the gas evaporates and can be noxious in enclosed circumstances. Then brush all parts carefully and watch the black residue stain the gasoline. Reassemble until you find there are no parts left over. Store the old gasoline. When the gasoline is too fouled to continue cleaning anything, find someone who is burning something (and in the Third World someone is always burning something) and give him the gasoline to help things along.
The other indispensible item in the Third World are thin strips of inner tire tubing which can be used to stop leaks, serve as bushing, and provide motive power to the handmade pana or dart gun, constructed from sharpened coat hanger wire and steel parts that were the staple of street gangsters too poor to buy a gun.
Speaking of guns, the paltik or zip-gun was a great favorite. You just needed some stout water pipe, a straight nail, some inner tire tubing (to act as the spring) an arrangement of hooks and grooves and baling wire to step out on the town. Of course, if you crossed the wrong guys, then you might fight an 8 oz Coke bottle filled with gasoline and a lighted rag stuffed in it coming your way. But only after the carburator was cleaned.
wretchard, trade out those inner tube strips for duct tape and you’ve got Redmeck engineering nailed! There ain’t nothing that duct tape won’t fix, although here you’d probably use a bungee for any elastic requirements.
and the zip gun is more deadly, but for fun you can’t beat the potato gun. Gasoline powered, of course! Actually the potato gun is pretty damn dangerous too, since the projectile usually ends up hitting the operator (or his best friend) at point blank range sooner or later.
famous last words of a good ol’ boy: “Hey y’all, watch this!!!”
wretchard said:
“Gasoline is a great all purpose cleaner for those who can’t get better…. Then you needed a regular toothbrush with bristles trimmed short and an empty ceramic or metal container. After you took apart the carb, you’d leave the parts soaking in gasoline in the ceramic or metal container. Caution: do this only in the outdoors because the gas evaporates and can be noxious in enclosed circumstances. Then brush all parts carefully and watch the black residue stain the gasoline. Reassemble until you find there are no parts left over.”
The key phrase is: “for those who can’t get better”.
Wretchard’s description works fine if one is trying to rebuild a carburetor on the cheap. However the problem with using gasoline as a solvent is many of the lacquers contaminating the carburetor were put there by gasoline (typically the passages inside the carburetor are clogged). When rebuilding a carburetor it’s better to use a strong solvent like methylene chloride. One should always blow out the carburetor’s passages with compressed air immediately after pulling the carburetor out of the solvent. Also, it’s money well spent to buy a carburetor kit (about $20) and replace all of the wearing components and gaskets (don’t reinstall the original components).
Wretchard mentioned only doing this indoors. A good way to blow up your garage is to clean car parts with gasoline. Gasoline fumes are heavier than air, so they slowly accumulate from the ground up. If you have a hot water heater in your garage then eventually the fumes will reach the pilot flame and Kaboom!
Finally if you use a proper carburetor cleaning solvent, make sure you wear some neoprene gloves. When I was young-and-stupid, I washed a carburetor in solvent with my bare hands. While doing so, the skin on my hands began to tingle and the following thoughts went through my head:
Carburetor solvent works by dissolving complex hydrocarbons.
My hands are made out of complex hydrocarbons.
What is the solvent doing to my hands?
The Pres. takes 1 747 plus two or three other planes to bring his cars and toys
The Sec. of State brings at least one other plane 757??
The asshat Pelosi brings 2-5 planes. G 5′s or larger.
These morons worry about my carbon foot print? I think I’ll go burn some tires in the yard.
Almost all medical research takes place in Europe of the US. How many carbon credits do 3rd world countries give back for the use of the medicine??
Josh, oh Josh! Regarding your number 53;
I presume you meant “regenerative braking”.
It seems to me that “breaking” would be closer to degenerative than to regenerative.
(ahem)
I seem to recall the Old Man mentioning using the brakes to recharge the Shipstone.
(Cat That Walks Through Walls or To Sail Beyond The Sunset).
Have read of a few developments that move in the right direction. John McCain proposed a whopping $300 million dollar prize for whoever could come through. Did not follow up with it of course. Sum seems a bit excessive at first, BUT that kind of money, coupled with some consolation prizes as well would sure get the ball rolling—–and financed.
Perhaps President Palin can be persuaded to make up for lost time.
wws@81: I read somewhere a while back that duct tape is like The Force (as in Star Wars). It has a dark side and it holds the universe together. Sounds about right to me.
Right after the leak of the “Danish Text” I mentioned to my wife and adult son that Copenhagen was looking like a heist movie where they’re about to rob the bank but each member of the gang is already positioning himself to cheat on the split.
I remember the first time I cleaned my carb. Didn’t really need to, the car ran fine, but I thought it was cool to know how to do it. I was meticulous about taking the carb apart, cleaning it and putting it all back together just right. Quite proud of myself. Until the car wouldn’t start. Carb kept flooding. Turns out one of the floats had a hole in it that had been plugged with gunk. Gunk that I dilligently cleaned out, so now the float didn’t float…
Lesson learned.