Samuel Johnson had it wrong when he famously said that “patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels!”
“Global warming is the last refuge of scoundrels!”
(Or “climate change” or “extreme weather” or “bad storms” or whatever the euphemism du jour happens to be.)
Of course, the good doctor can be excused, opining as he did in the late 18th century, long before Al of Gore emerged from a massage parlor to warn of us of impending ecological doom if we didn’t mend our ways (and start some lucrative carbon offset funds that would net him millions, or is it billions, before they disappeared in a haze of corruption somewhere in the bowels of a Beijing bank, so help me Al Jazeera).
But never fear — climate change is back, this time on the back of our president, who has emerged not from a massage parlor but from the golf course — where else? — to guide us into the promised land of clean energy. According to — where else? — the New York Times:
The Obama administration is working to forge a sweeping international climate change agreement to compel nations to cut their planet-warming fossil fuel emissions, but without ratification from Congress.
Without ratification from Congress? No way! They wouldn’t do something like that, would they? This is a democratic republic. We have a Constitution. (Okay, kidding.)
And what’s wrong with cooking all this up on a golf course anyway, even if the sport is a bit iffy on the eco front? What’s a little extra water in Rancho Mirage between friends and future property owners? And perhaps all those conversations with Alonzo Mourning on the back nine have been about “ARCUS sea ice predictions” and the latest on “solar wind fluid” and not about whether Kobe can come back this year or whether he’ll end up on the JV (oops, bad reference). The president is informed, I say. He knows his science. Didn’t you see those great chemistry and physics grades he got at Occidental and Columbia? Oh, wait…
In reality, he probably doesn’t know much of anything about climate science except what people with agendas tell him — and most of them got it second hand. It’s all received wisdom of the dullest sort and most of it dated. Obama is about as educated on climate science, in the final analysis, as Nancy Pelosi is about Hamas.
And let’s be blunt: As of now, climate change may be the biggest single ripoff in the history of the world. It wasn’t bad enough it was a desecration of science to rival Lysenko, this time promulgated not on Stalin’s say-so but by the United Nations, the aforementioned Mr. Gore and a supposed 97% of scientists in the field (who turned out not be in the field or even in agreement). It’s grand theft of cosmic proportions, robbing most particularly those who can afford it least, the wretched of the Earth supposedly loved by liberals, the very poor whose energy bills will skyrocket if Obama gets his way with his latest self-aggrandizing pronouncement.
My guess is this time he won’t. It’s too absurd and the posturing too extreme (but you never know). Mostly, I’m sure he sees the “climate crisis” as a distraction from the countless failures of his administration, not to mention the current global collapse, and yet another sop to his base that makes Lenin’s “useful idiots” seem like the Caltech chess team.
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