traveler255’s Recent Comments

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  The hypocrisy of the religious right

  Let's be clear. This an exception. Most people of the religious right have this attitude:
  God created man to dominate the earth.
  This means they can exploit nature as long as they want, no matter how big the damage is.
  E.g. Global Warming for them is a hoax because the godless liberals "invented" it. And the earth is of course 6,000 years only. Ridiculous
  And the Repugs support this war on nature and science:
  --The Republican War on Science

  Science, we imagine, is the realm of objective disinterested geniuses reporting back the findings from their expensive equipment, telling us truths about the world. Politics, on the other hand, is seen as the place for sleazy and corrupt jerks who lie to us in everything they do and try to make everything fit their existing worldviews. So is it any surprise that when the two things meet we're in for a show?

  Journalist Chris Mooney has made a name for himself by writing magazine articles that make this intersection, especially under the Bush administration, entertaining. He's recently released his first book, The Republican War on Science, which tries to combine the various individual stories into a damning case of science politicization. The book tackles a variety of subjects, including:

  global warming
  nutrition guidelines
  fishing regulations
  evolution
  embryonic stem cells
  safe sex
  Each one gets a chapter written in the style of a magazine article (indeed, many have been published as magazine articles), opening with an interesting person or event and expanding to show how a group of Bush backers (drawn from major industry and the religious right) have concocted their own psuedoscience in an attempt to spread confusion about the truth, with a particular focus on its effects in Washington, where Mooney is based. Mooney bookends these stories with some more general thoughts about the relations of conservatives and science.

  The book has been something of a surprise success, recently making it onto the New York Times bestseller list, and Mooney has been busy doing a book tour for it. I went to see him when he spoke just down the street at Porter Square(hotels) Books and talked to him a bit afterwards as he signed my copy. The audience was interested and engaged. I suspect a lot of it was typical anger at the Bush administration (or "the neocon radicals up in Washington and the media" as the angry sort who call in to radio shows and so on always seem to put it), but I think this particular issue strikes at the heart of people's dislike for the administration: the administration refuses to go along with reality, even in its most pure form.

  The book itself is a respectable and highly readable (I went through it in a day's free time) piece of work, although I could not help but feel a little disappointed. In an apparent attempt to gain respectability, Mooney adopts a detached journalistic -- almost legalistic -- style. While Mooney doesn't pull any punches factually -- he will call a lie a lie and refuses to be pulled into the trap of equating conservative science abuses with liberal ones -- such a style lacks the verve of Mooney's more strident online writing, such as when he wrote about Michael Crichton's global warming denialist novel State of Fear:--

  more
  http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/gopwar

  Never stop using your brain!

  On The book of green posted 10 months, 2 weeks ago 5 Responses

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  Billions for our future

  I think our environment and our health are worth the billions that have to be spend. The industry can afford this anyway.

  Never stop using your brain!

  On Stiffer regulation of coal ash would cost the industry billions posted 10 months, 3 weeks ago 8 Responses

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  Gas guzzler hits poor woman

  You can spin that story even more. A rich fat guy leaving one of these great hotels in Manhattan where he had some business talks with rich Arabians, gets in his big gas guzzler and a car that terrorists love and drives recklessly through New York City and hits a 9/11 survivor.
  C'mon guys, this irrelevant story just shows the daily insanity on our streets. You make a mountain out of a molehill.

  Never stop using your brain!

  On Reflections on death by SUV posted 1 year, 9 months ago 25 Responses

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  Bush sells weapons to main sponsor of terrorism

  This is just another sad example that the moron in chief has learned NOTHING from his faults. He keeps on making bad decisions like a bull running against the wall over and over again. Because the Saudis profit from the high gas prices in the US they are building luxury and quality hotels for their fanatic friends all over the world and finance worldwide terrorism at the expense of our bucks.
  And Bush doesn't quit calling the Saudis his friends and our allies. I would laugh about this theater of the absurd if it wasn't that serious.
  The next president will inherit a very heavy burden, whoever that president will be.On President Bush asks OPEC to boost oil production posted 1 year, 10 months ago 5 Responses

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  Mitt Romney, professional flip flopper

  So Mitt pretends belonging to the Global Warming sceptics who don't believe in the power of the government but in Exxon & Co which should rule our country together with all the other greedy companies that don't give a damn about the life of the single worker and jobber.
  Gosh, this guy is so fake like Pamela Anderson's boobs although I would rather put her in the Oval Office than political whore Romney.
  I can't believe that anyone with one brain cell left over would vote for this fraud.On Romney wins Michigan GOP primary after bashing McCain on fuel economy posted 1 year, 10 months ago 6 Responses