From NewsBusters, we learn:
In a stunning rebuke of the Obama administration, NASA's James
Hansen, one of the world's foremost climate alarmists, called the
American Clean Energy and Security Act, the anti-global warming bill
that recently passed the House, "less than worthless."
Not only that, he referred to it as a "counterfeit climate bill" that employs a "Ponzi-like 'cap-and-trade' scheme" setting the nation on a "disaster course" as a result of the 219 members of Congress he accused of voting for it without reading it.
As
you might have already deduced, Hansen's complaint is that the bill
doesn't go far enough to solve what he believes is a looming cataclysm.
But, who cares? It's fun watching the alarmists eat their own ...
The source.
Politics, in the conception of it that we are being spoon-fed every second, is based on the idea that mankind survives and thrives by recognising and acting on momentous exceptions to the outdated institution of durable rules and principles, that by the same logic are secondary and insignificant considering the dire need of their constant waving by "philosopher kings," who live by the insight that man is evil, unless he forms a powerful government.
Hansen is frustrated by the fact that his totalitarian scheme is not sitting in the driver's seat, while Obananas has been more successful at capitalising on a powerful confusion that has recently changed its name form "global warming" to "climate change." The confusion and the fear, that are supposed to bring us to heel, persist, only that the intimidating noise has been renamed to be even less specific, more open to whatever you care to be panicked about: if the climate does what it is all about - i.e. change - we are in danger and require urgent government action - of the sort Hansen envisages, thinks Hansen.
O(we-are-going)bananas(yes-we-can) and Hansen have us back to bygone times: the sun (a negligible factor compared to man's impact according to climate alarmism) is revolving around the human world, the mechanism of world weather, being much simpler than, and therefore tractable by, the complex, all-encompassing foresight of Comrade President Obananas, and his Central Committee, or an even better circle of sages. This being so, it is of the utmost importance to determine: what pick of appropriately empowered sages will lead us out of jeopardy and into enlightenment and bliss. Hansen endorses Hansen. Who do you support? Let us go vote.
In my post The Dismal Social Sciences, I quoted Arnold Kling, who suggests:
The main science of political economy is the science of
obtaining and retaining power. As far as expertise goes, the pollster,
the fundraiser, and the media expert are all fundamental to the
operation. The public policy expert is for decoration. If you want to
be an economic policy adviser when you grow up, then my advice is to
learn to rationalize the methods used by leading politicians to obtain
power.
- Is health care reform about health care? No, it is about seizing and
retaining power. Was the stimulus about stimulus? No, was about seizing
and retaining power. Is cap and trade about global warming? No, it is
about seizing and retaining power. Was TARP about saving the financial
system? No, it was about seizing and retaining power.
The social scientist's role in the political process is to say, "X
is a problem. Government must solve X. Here are some solutions." The
solutions that rationalize seizing and retaining power will bubble to
the top.
[Emphasis added, G.T.]
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