Climate Change Nay-Sayers In Denial

Have you heard Burger King’s latest Whopper? They deny climate change.

If you follow discussions regarding climate change (or the code word for those who deny the phenomena, “global warming”) you constantly come across those who say that it hasn’t been proven and that there are scientists who dispute the human impact on what is happening.

Fair enough. There may be scientists, respected and well-published, who are not persuaded. Too often, those who deny the impact humans are having, say they do so because they believe those who question our impact on the weather.

However, as in a criminal trial, the preponderance of the evidence indicates our culpability. The outcome of a trial may not establish the truth of that which was tried, merely that the preponderance of the evidence leads to but one conclusion. So it is with climate change.

What disturbs me most, though, is the feeling that those who most vigorously deny the evidence do so because they are unwilling to accept responsibility for their actions, “their” being that humans are contributing to a global problem.

In past climate change events, volcanoes or asteroids, events beyond the control of those inhabiting the planet, caused the change. This time it is different. We are the proximate cause, and we can change the course of events; if we want. Unfortunately, we don’t seem to want to face this inconvenient truth.

We are in this mess, I think, because of that peculiarity of Judeo-Christianity that sees mankind as being put here to have mastery over the earth. This hubris is uncharacteristic of most faiths, and will cause our extinction or degradation unless we move swiftly.

If The Metaphor Fits . . .

Strange creatures, Republicans. Unwilling to see things as they are, they all but pathologically see government through self-serving lenses. At times, government must act more like a business – as when it comes to workers. Now, government must be more like a family – except when the family dictates behavior; then it becomes big brother.

Businesses invest for growth; and investments come at a price, often with a lot of borrowing. Oh, that is inconvenient, so let’s compare government to a family on a budget. But families, too, borrow to invest for the future – mortgages and school loans for example.

Republicans: are they like the man who mistook his wife for a hat; or are they merely changing definitions as their states of denial change?

If the metaphor fits, wear it; in this case it does not.

Irresponsible Capitalism?

"It has often been said that the owner of a horse is responsible. If the horse lives, he must feed it. If the horse dies, he must bury it. No such responsibility attaches to a share of stock. The owner is practically powerless through his own efforts to affect the underlying property. The spiritual values that formerly went with ownership have been separated from it…. [T]he responsibility and the substance which have been an integral part of ownership in the past are being transferred to a separate group in whose hands lie control."

Adolf Berle, 1932

Out here, we have the ongoing rants from the "personal responsibility" crowd who associate all ills with liberals who fail to practice responsibility. We need the strong father. We don't need government, we need to stand up and accept responsibility.

Vacuous.

Free market Neanderthals tell us that what the market does is by definition rational as it reflects the collective wisdom of all investors - who by definition are, I guess, incapable of making bad decisions. Any decision that increses one's wealth is good.

The problem, as Berle pointed out in the 30's is that stock decisions are like the horse. If it dies, they have no responsibility, and the rest of us have to either endure the stench, or bury it.

Roots of Crisis; Roots of Change

The world we face today results from the rise of religious fundamentalism coinciding with our industrial decline coupled with the departure from the Democratic Party of Southern evangelicals and Northern industrial workers.

I think this occurred because of the spread of the ideology of small government. The November election represents a tectonic shift in how we think.

The charge that this shift somehow represents the emergence of "socialism" is an appeal at a crude emotional level. We are in a mess because of the aggregate concepts that distill into the expressions "small" government and "cutting taxes."

Obama's Crispian's Day Speech

And if we do - if we come together and lift this nation from the depths of this crisis; if we put our people back to work and restart the engine of our prosperity; if we confront without fear the challenges of our time and summon that enduring spirit of an America that does not quit, then someday years from now our children can tell their children that this was the time when we performed, in the words that are carved into this very chamber, "something worthy to be remembered." Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.

Barack Obama, 24th February, 2009

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 

And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

He that shall live this day, and see old age, 

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 

And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.' 

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, 

And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.' 

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, 

But he'll remember, with advantages, 

What feats he did that day.

***

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, 

This day shall gentle his condition; 

And gentlemen in England now-a-bed 

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, 

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Henry V, Act IV, Scene 3

Obama's

Nor Ready to Make Nice

The Dixie Chicks sang:

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

The Senate should reject the compromises and go back to the original House stimulus package (though I know that is not possible). Why should we lard the bill with the failed nostrums of the Bush and Reagan years? The bill smacks of "What Would Ron Do" or "What would George Do" (WWRD/WWGD). Trickle down tax cuts don't work.

Democrats should spend more time listening to Paul Krugman than to be held hostage by the Republicans. Pass what you know is necessary and let the Republicans filibuster.

Three hundred dollars for Social Security recipients? Why not use the money for repairing schools - that results in hiring workers who will spend their money in their communities.

A tax credit for home buyers? When you can't get a mortgage?

A tax credit for car buyers? How does that help Detroit?

We don't need trickle down, we need a fire hose up.

The President talks of this as being one part of a stool; well this package has two legs of that stool: it provides for infrastructure construction (JOBS) and those jobs result in income, income that is spent and which stimulates the economy in a far more effective manner. Instead of trickle down we need to focus on multiplier effects.

Believe me, if we let the R's filibuster, you can be sure the good citizens of Elkhart and Fort Meyer (good Republican counties) will be on the horn to their Republican Senators.

Bipartisanship? Well, we know the R's don't want to change. The President erred in not realizing this soon enough. I listen to them spout Rush's lines and realize they must have slept through Econ 201.

We're not facing another 30's Depression; we're facing somehting like the 30 year depression of the 1870's.