IT’S NOT JUST TEA PARTIES! I was at Market Square for brunch today, and we saw a protest against TVA coal-fired power plants by United Mountain Defense and the local chapter of Earth First! A nice lady handed me a pamphlet and said “We’re against coal-fired power plants.” “So am I,” I replied. “They should all be replaced by nice, clean nukes!” This produced dumbfoundment. But, hey, burning coal is lousy. (And coal — and oil, and natural gas — should be saved for chemical feedstocks anyway). Nuclear plants are much better. And while they have issues, too, if we’re in a greenhouse crisis we should be prepared to depart from business as usual, right?

Anyway, in a shocking default I had forgotten my camera, but luckily I had my cellphone. So the pics aren’t Lumix-quality, but they’re acceptable.

I think there were about 40-50 people there, though it was hard to tell how many were protesters and how many were interested onlookers.

Although giant puppets are, of course, de rigeur at such events, it wasn’t obvious to me what they had to do with coal mining. The Insta-Wife thought that this one was supposed to be Barack Obama, but I’m not so sure. It kind of looks like Martin Luther King, but I don’t think he ever took a position on global warming or acid rain. Note the extremely white sandaled feet, which I thought a nice touch.

Anyway, more breaking-news coverage from InstaPundit, where there’s usually at least one backup camera somewhere. . . .

And if this interests you, here’s the website for United Mountain Defense. The request for protesters to wear “suits and ties” seems to have gone unheeded, though.

UPDATE: More giant puppets. Look like Sojourner Truth and Gandhi, maybe. Connection to coal-fired power plants still unclear. Clearly, however, the Tea Party crowd still faces a serious Giant Puppet Gap.