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The GOP's Stranded Footsoldiers

Contributed by: Ralph Dosser on 6/2/2008

Those poor holdout soldiers - nobody told them the war is over. They're clutching tight to their rusted, useless rifles, proudly waving tattered flags and swearing never to surrender islands that nobody's fighting for anymore.

Our own local holdout is Richard Yale - a prolific contributor to this site. His latest diatribe: 35 Inconvenient Truths & Efficacy of Indulgences - is a classic outing in global climate change denialism. The core of his article seems to be this: climate change is a lie because Al Gore refuses to debate someone from "Science and Public Policy," an Exxon-funded "think tank." Mr. Yale's link to the group's website is broken, but you can see their Gore criticism here.

Mr. Yale's article illustrates a very real problem the GOP has created for itself. They don't mind the fact that the scientific community is in overwhelming consensus that climate change is real, man-made and a problem: they can always find some hungry scientist who's willing to recite contrary sound bites. No, the problem for the GOP is that the public has caught on, and climate change denialism is now a big political loser.

So here they are, the wiser ones among them trying somehow to back down from a position that has been at the core of their brand. How do you do that? Very slowly, very carefully, and very subtly. You certainly don't have a press conference saying "we were wrong."

But as the party leadership starts to abandon the trenches and slip like ghosts up into the hills, they're leaving behind a lot of loud, proud spokesmen who didn't get the memo. Poor souls like Mr. Yale, who (among others) is reduced to citing a British court decision, of all things, to make his point.

Mr. Yale engages in amazing hyperbole. He compares the idea of carbon credits to the infamous "indulgences" the medieval Roman Catholic Church sold to sinners looking to buy their way into heaven. And he declares the denialist website to be the equivalent of Martin Luther's 95 Theses (which he charmingly calls the "95 Thesis"). He calls efforts to confront climate change the result of " hysteria and paranoia instead of reason and the scientific method."

When someone believes deeply that the bulk of the scientific community is involved in a conspiracy to undermine the world economy, perhaps he should think carefully before using the term "paranoia."


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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
Submitted By: Paul Tiger
posted on 6/4/2008 @ 6:02:46 PM
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The word most used these days to dumb down the general public is "science". Richard Feynman spent the better part of his career (when not doing theoretical physics) explaining to lay persons what "science" is. I invite you to read "What is Science" which is a lecture that he gave to educators in the 60s. You cam find it in 'The Pleasure of Finding Things Out", or "The Meaning of it All". Few people in our present society have any sort of grasp on what "science" means. IMHO, we don't have good science and bad science, we have either no science or science. Mostly, where government is involved, we have no science. Neither Gore or Bush have a clue. Dr. Mengele was a scientist, and employed by government. When our leaders don't hear the answers that they like, they hire a mouthpiece to make it all sound smart and scientific. Make it up and get someone else to speak it. Mengele Environmentalism!
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Submitted By: Will Stevens
posted on 6/4/2008 @ 1:41:54 PM
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I'm no fan of Gore or anything, and I'm glad he stopped running for public office. But that 31,000 signatures thing was kind of a hoax, and I hate to see folks taking that up. It began as a phony 1998 "petition" from a political activism group that called themselves Oregon Institute. They weren't actually an institute with teachers, classes, or a research facility. Just six guys with some PAC slush money that put together political materials like "The dangers of socialism in schools." Sourcewatch has a couple of good graphs on their history, and the history of this particular "petition" here, for folks who like to do their research and all. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Oregon_Institute_of_Science_and_Medicine
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Submitted By: Ralph Dosser
posted on 6/4/2008 @ 12:17:11 PM
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Mr. Yale, I'm not sure what you're arguing here, you've got a couple of tangled threads. Carbon credits are a TACTIC used to combat global climate change. Their effectiveness is in doubt, so we re-evaluate and change ore even abandon the tactic if it's warranted. As for the SCIENCE - the nature and scale of the threat is not in any serious dispute.
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Submitted By: Richard Yale
posted on 6/3/2008 @ 10:08:55 PM
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Mr. Dosser, if you have any doubts that you and the political class you advocate for are divorced from the real world, as well as the rest of us, read http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/2008%20May.htm#face “The unacceptable face of socialism” On Carbon Credits, Tim Yeo, Member of British Parliament for Suffolk South: "It's more progressive than taxation, it tends to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor; it's transparent; it's easy for everyone to understand, you all get the same carbon ration." What could be more disingenuous than your argumentum ad hominem to put your political cause above atmospheric science and the good of the Country? Both sides of the global-warming question must be examined and discussed openly." My question is, how willing are we to allow bogus science to be used in the pursuit of other public policy agendas, such as restrictions on economic growth, in the name of fighting global warming?
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Submitted By: Ralph Dosser
posted on 6/3/2008 @ 12:56:09 PM
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Mr. Yale, you yourself can send in a postcard and be counted as American scientist number 31,073 who opposes global warming. The petition drive is a sham. Please, sir, try to calm down. Oh, and I think your "caps lock" key is stuck.
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Submitted By: Richard Yale
posted on 6/3/2008 @ 11:22:19 AM
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An incredible 31,072 Americans with university degrees in science, including 9,021 Ph.D.s, have signed a petition that flatly denies Al Gore’s claims that human-caused global warming is a settled scientific fact. As is his intolerant technique Dosser obfuscates the truth with ancient truth avoidance techniques proven by tyrants of history to hold mankind in the chains of slavery. The battle against intolerance and scientific ignorance is eternal by enlightened men and women. There is still no Sign Al Gore Will Pickup The Debate Challenge: TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW CREEPS IN THIS PETTY PACE FROM DAY TO DAY, TO THE LAST SYLLABLE OF RECORDED TIME; AND ALL OUR YESTERDAYS HAVE LIGHTED FOOLS THE WAY TO DUSTY DEATH. OUT, OUT BRIEF CANDLE! LIFE'S BUT A WALKING SHADOW, A POOR PLAYER THAT STRUTS AND FRETS HIS HOUR UPON THE STAGE AND THEN IS HEARD NO MORE: IT IS A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT, FULL OF SOUND AND FURY, SIGNIFYING NOTHING. -- MACBETH, ACT 5, SCENE 5
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Showing 1-6 of 6 comments
CONTRIBUTOR INFORMATION

Ralph Dosser

Longmont , CO

Ralph Dosser has posted 33 stories and 206 comments since joining on 5/16/2007. Ralph Dosser 's average story rating is 2.5.
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