Monday, June 23, 2008

Debating Tactics


James Hansen, a climate scientist who works for NASA, has discovered a new way to convince people that the Global Warming advocates have a compelling case; arrest everyone who doesnt agree.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/23/fossilfuels.climatechange

Using the pogrom against the tobacco companies as an example of what government can do when it sets its mind to it he called for the arrest and trial of the executives of companies like ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy (coal) for 'high crimes against humanity and nature'. He forgot to call for the arrest of Hu Jintao (president of the People's Republic Of China) or anyone in the Indian government even though both of these nations are building coal-fired power plants as fast as they can and subsidizing the price of gasoline so that more of their people can afford to buy cars. But then these Climate Zealots dont care where the actual Greenhouse Gases are coming from do they? Calls for police-state measures against people who disagree with the faith undermine their credibility as scientists. Einstein rejected the Hiesenberg Principle but I dont remember him calling for the arrest of its advocates during the debate. Even in the Holy War against tobacco the anti-tobacco advocates started with a really clear scientific case. They had charts and numbers and studies to prove that tobacco caused lung cancer, heart attacks and emphysema. Where the crusade went awry was 'second hand smoke' where the evidence was a lot more nebulous and uncertain and was backed up with skewed studies and innuendo pointing to a 'conspiracy' to murder people by those who didnt agree with the orthodox view. The political zealots declared it the truth and proceeded to outlaw smoking in all public buildings and now, increasingly, in outdoor public places as well.
The reason that 'scientists' like Hansen can call for a political purge against their opponents and be applauded for it is simple; they are serving the purposes of the people who want to completely alter this society. These people want to end the free economy and lower the standard of living drastically for the average person. They want to end the global consumer society and replace it by one regulated by a class of economic mandarins who will view all economic activity through the prism of whatever theory happens to be in vogue at the moment. The history of these utopian schemes, which have been tried in every conceivable form for the last two centuries (the first try being the French Revolution), is always the same. The outcome has always been poverty, oppression, murder and the death of millions of innocent people. We've already seen the increase in food prices caused by the bio-fuel boondoggle resulting in hunger and misery in poor countries. Those same poor counties are going to experience a lot more misery and mass death as the uber-socialist economic planning cripples agriculture and distribution in the formerly wealthy countries. That's already happening. All the nightmare scenarios predicted 'if we dont DO SOMETHING about Global warming' are happening as a result of what we are doing about Global Warming.
I'm not a scientist. I hope I'm scientifically literate enough to understand a decently made case one way or another. But I do know a little bit about politics and the political agenda of the people who push Global Warming is clear, a world economy completely under the control of government, an end to free enterprise and free trade and now, apparently, the arrest and imprisonment of anyone who doesnt agree. If their scientific case is so compelling why do the advocates avoid free debates and lose badly when they do get in one? Why do they use such devious and underhanded tactics against their opponents if this is a scientific debate and not a political one. Why do they refuse to acknowledge hard data, such as the decline in global temperatures since 1998?
None of this matters, in the end. If the predicted wave of a Democratic Party victory occurs this November all debate will cease as the Dems use 'Fairness Doctrine'-like regulations to close conservative media outlets and move to effectively nationalize the economy. The arrest of the energy company execs and their showtrials on national TV that the Good Doctor Hansen yearns for so avidly will take place on our telescreens in a radically 'Changed' America.

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