Get It While It's Hot

Another couple of studies support those issued in the past month or so, concluding that global heating is underway, it will be consequential, and it cannot be stopped, possibly for a century.

At the risk of remaining too far ahead on this subject, I see a new political danger. Until now, the GOPers have refused the validity of the evidence, deny the climate crisis will happen, and refuse to take steps to control greenhouse gases, let alone convert to sustainable non-harmful energy.

But now scientists are beating the drum of an oncoming crisis that can't be stopped, but must be dealt with. The emphasis is on preparing, mitigating, preventing the most harmful consequences. This is a huge change of emphasis and a huge danger.

Of course this needs to be done, as I've written earlier. But the danger is that the efforts to control emissions and switch to sustainable energy will be abandoned, because they will only make things better beyond the end of this century.

As it stands now, things will be bad. If nothing is done to stop the source of harm, in the future things are likely to be much worse. A sane policy would be to do both, and I've outlined how to approach it. For example, here. But progressives better wake up to this rapidly changing situations before GOPers realize what an opportunity they've got.

Because right now, there is an enormous opportunity for Republicans to suddenly adopt a global heating crisis is here mentality, in order to fund dikes, pipelines, chemicals and other emergency and mitigation projects, which will require even more fossil fuel energy. They will give the job to their energy corporation buddies, along with Halliburton. In a war on climate change. And we can forget about the future, and the health benefits as well as many other benefits of clean sustainable energy.

At the moment, progressives and environmentalists are stuck wholly in the mode of Kyoto greenhouse gases treaties and warning of the crisis that is already here. It's much too tempting a situation for GOPers, especially if Democrats, still in denial, are caught flatfooted.

Global warming inevitable, stopping gas emission won?t help

Comedy is Too Easy

Jon Stewart is a smart and talented guy, but his job is way too easy. Make fun of the news? How do you avoid it?

For comedians every news day is a holiday, but some are more St. Patricks than others. Thursday gave us the 51-49 Senate vote in favor of drilling for oil in the Alaska wilderness preserve. Besides the expected gaggle of GOPers, the measure passed thanks to two Democrats: both Senators from that other state of wilderness and beauty and non-continguity: Hawaii. Can you even imagine the outrage of a proposal for off-shore drilling in Hawaii? But it might be worth it, just for those two guys.

It also gave us a provocative new study purporting to figure that all these obese kids aren't going to live so long, and therefore the U.S. life expectancy will decline for the first time since, maybe, Fox News. But the way that some papers slugged this story was as the solution to the Social Security crisis. Because people will die five years earlier, think of all the money Social Security will save. Oh happy day! (For a more balanced view, the link below.)

Jon?

Obesity will cut American life span by 2 to 5 years: report

In other New...

A review of Democracy and Populism by John Lukacs at Books in Heat.

"Heroes" behind Trek at Soul of Star Trek.

we're everywhere (peace sign at Antarctica)

Weekend for Peace

It's not too late to plan to attend--- or even to plan to hold---a peace vigil or demonstration next weekend, March 18-20, which marks the beginning of the third year of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, begun with an unprovoked bombing attack two years ago. (You can find information on scheduled events plus tips on how to organize your own vigil here:
Sojourners : Meet-ups.)

One of the more insidious attacks by the cynical right has been on the very concept of peace vigils or peaceful demonstrations for human rights, civil rights and racial justice. These rich and pretend- rich yuppie GOPers like to swill their cocktails in their Washington hotel lobbies and make fun of those liberal fools who "sit around in circles holding candles and singing Kumbaya." They've been pretty successful in making the Kumbaya line a standard part of their repertoire, to show how impractical and out of touch these dopey hippie liberals are, with the additional touch of insulting the feminine, African culture and the African American religious roots of the non-violent civil rights movement.

The idea is that these phony folk singing liberals are too soft and too wimpy, not like these steely warmongers who bravely send the sons and daughters of Latinos, American Indians, African Americans and poor people in general to fight and die for their simplistic self-serving theories and grand delusions. You'll never catch one of these chicken hawks at a peace demo, nor will you find one on the front lines in Iraq or Afghanistan. They do their fighting by intimidating voters here at home, or launching guerilla warfare on the truth.

But we can't let them intimidate us, and separate us from an important and powerful expression. The peace vigil is a strong statement, because it enacts in a symbolic way the peace that it advocates. The candles and the singing are part of that symbolism and a great part of that power.

Here in the midst of a growing Dark Age, each of us holding that sliver of light and warmth is an individual statement for the future. Singing together and marching together is our collective statement for the future.

The power of these acts may not be felt immediately, as they manifestly were not when millions upon millions of people around the world demonstrated for peace and against Bushwhacker aggression before the first bombs fell two years ago. No, the circles and the candles and the singing and the marching did not prevent those bombs from falling. It may be a long while before they do. That doesn't make it as useless gesture. It works on different levels, and in different ways at different historical moments.

Even if no one sees or hears or feels the power of these acts except the children who will come together and light these lights when we are gone, then we are doing our job. We stand together for all to see, for all to hear. At the very least, we're saying we're still here.

No, peace vigils alone will not change the world. But they can help, and they help change us. People who have participated in a peace vigil do not automatically create peace, nor do they even become automatically peaceful, but they are never the same. We all need to take more steps. But we must not abandon this one.

Don't let this cynical age stop you. Maybe some people did this sort of thing in the past because it was fashionable. People do all kinds of things for all kinds of crazy reasons. But that doesn't detract from the power in this ritual, in these symbols, that we share. They may laugh at us. But these are our lights, and our songs, and this our circle, and we believe in what it says.

In other new...

"Weather or Not" at This North Coast Place.

The Dan Rather Story

Dan Rather' s retirement from the big news show was a big news story. Part of the big news story was about the big news story he got wrong. But nearly all of those big news story about the big news story he got wrong were themselves wrong.

Bad news all around.

Dan Rather and CBS did not broadcast a false story about GW Bush's National Guard non-service. They made a technical error in one part of the story, by accepting the authenticity of a piece of paper. It was the wrong piece of paper, evidently. But what was written on the piece of paper, as far as it said anything about Bush's service, was correct and factual. The same woman who said she didn't type that particular piece of paper said she typed a piece of paper that said essentially the same thing.

The facts are correct. The story is not false. And so this become yet another politically motivated lie which the news media perpetuates until it becomes the conventional wisdom.

So the lie becomes the accepted truth. Really bad news.

Now the rightist liars have succeeded in creating contempt for the name of Dan Rather. I'm not a fan, I haven't watched the CBS Evening News for years, nor do I watch 60 Minutes. But I hope that when this subject comes up he insistently corrects the record.

Al Gore's name became a one liner of contempt, thanks to such often repeated lies as his claim that he invented the Internet. He did not ever make that claim. Have you ever seen a piece of tape of him saying it? Seen it in print? It doesn't exist. But such is politics today that even Gore jokes about this, as if he had made that claim. This is wrong. It is playing into the conscious strategy of the rabid right to create contempt for everyone and everything they oppose.

Stand your ground, Dan. Courage.