Stop Recycling NOW

Earlier this month I did a post called "Recycling Is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong" because this dangerously silly woman in my hometown named "Siel" (above, blogging for The L.A. Times) was trying to goad the authorities into punishing anyone who wouldn't go along with that long-standing, but ridiculously harmful, garbage collecting scheme. My post featured a link to a highly-informative New York Times story, "Recycling Is Garbage", which outlined the history of recycling, and the many reasons that it is "the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources."

So I sent Siel a link to my post and she wrote back:

"Feel free to email me when you put up a post with reasons why you think recycling's wrong, in conjunctions with other people's links. I like to read, you know, actual content."

In other words, this snarky madwoman refused to even click on the New York Times article that proved she was wrong and acting like a Nazi - out to punish anyone who doesn't agree with her wrong-headed obsession - because I didn't personally write it. In other words, this so-called "smart" person willingly put her fingers in her ears and sang, "La-la-la-la-la", to ignore important facts she didn't like - as she's actively trying to bring the power of the State of California down upon innocent people's heads. Like I said, a fucking Nazi.

Now, today, The San Francisco Chronicle's C.W. Nevius (above) wrote an article about a nuisance recycling plant in my old Bay Area neighborhood, the Haight/Ashbury. This time I sent him the New York Times article, and this was the reaction:

"Huh. That's interesting. Thanks. CWN"

That's all he said: "That's interesting." Remember, we're talking about "the most wasteful activity in modern America" - billions of dollars of our tax money gone and nothing for helping "the planet" - and he merely finds the information "interesting".

But will he report on the "interesting" news that (in a misguided effort to "Save The Planet") we're actually doing the wrong thing to the earth and ourselves - and on a massive scale? I seriously doubt it.

Sure, these (so-called) "journalists" will go on and on about the worthless banning of plastic bags, and all the other counter-productive nonsense that's being proposed to nanny state us into a Third World country. But, for some reason, they refuse to write anything that admits the direction we're all being aggressively pushed into - the direction they themselves are pushing us toward - is factually just plain wrong. Why?

Well, as anyone who regularly reads this blog knows, I say it's because they're environmental cultists. Now, I know, many of you may not agree with the term but what do you call people, whose jobs it is to inform us of the wasteful uses of government and money, who refuse to do just that because it it makes them personally feel good to act like assholes while believing in this wrong-headed cause of blindly following Al Gore? I can't find another name for them. "Cultists" fits too well.

And, I swear, from where I sit, after all the betrayals these fascist NewAge idiots are putting society through, the WWII idea of one day shaving their heads, and marching them through the streets as examples to us all, is starting to look better and better,...

Knight Of The Living Dead

The normal-looking guy above is Jeff Knight, former husband of J.Z. Knight, the cult leader whose bullshit fuels the hit movies What The Bleep Do We Know? and What The Bleep Do We Know?: Down The Rabbit Hole. This is an interview he did in 1992, after his divorce and realization he had been involved in a cult.

Check out the crazy scene he paints for us: How he was told he and J.Z. were "soul mates" - by her then-current husband. ("Soul mates" is a cult phrase that's wound it's way into the larger culture's vocabulary.) How he actually believed she could channel "Ramtha" (or "Ram") a 35,000 year old space being who could predict events on earth. How she brainwashed him and took away his business. How she cheated on him, lied to him, divorced him, and then left him with nothing but her delusional ideas. How she, and Shirley MacLaine, talk of peace while viciously competing for followers. How, years later, he still couldn't "move on".

Check out the crazy scene he paints for us. And then ask yourself:

Why are filmmakers trying to spread J.Z. Knight's influence in What The Bleep Do We Know? and What The Bleep Do We Know?: Down The Rabbit Hole?

TMR Cult War Update: Anonymous (February 10th Action Announcement) And Now "Coil"

"Mailings of a suspicious white powder to 10 Church of Scientology addresses prompted the evacuation of dozens of people and the closure of a major thoroughfare Wednesday as hazmat teams were called to examine the packages.

The letters were sent via the Postal Service to Scientology properties in Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica, Glendale and Tustin. Police shut part of Glendale's busy Brand Boulevard for two hours before sounding the all-clear, while 60 people were cleared from buildings in Tustin, authorities said.

The incidents appeared to be part of a hoax. Preliminary tests showed the powder to be cornstarch and wheat germ."

- By John Spano and Andrew Blankstein of the Los Angeles Times.

The Oprah Winfrey Statue Cast In Bronze: As Warm (And As Fake) As Television's Real Thing

"I will not report on,...complementary and alternative medicine. This is a scientific term for 'something you heard about from your hairdresser, who thinks she saw it on Oprah' — a category that,...includes acupuncture, homeopathy, healing magnets and assorted herbs and supplements".

- Jerry Adler, writing in Newsweek

"There is a growing acceptance of the notion that some sort of mysterious "energy" (usually called chi) is at the root of pain, health, the economy, world history, and who knows what else. Media personalities like Oprah Winfrey and her medical mandarin, Dr. Mehmet Oz, are only too happy to spread the superstition across the land."

- Robert T. Carroll, writing in Skeptimedia, the commentary section of The Skeptic's Dictionary

"I like Oprah. OK, really, my wife likes Oprah,..the problem with that is when a single person is so influential, people may perceive them and those whom they anoint as experts…so it was with trepidation that I watched Oprah with my wife tonight—she brought out her “favorite gynecologist,"..the doctor,...rapidly turned down the path of crankery,..almost like she never went to medical school,...she talked about injecting chi into [your] clitoris—I shit you not,...Oprah has a great deal of influence, and so has a great deal of responsibility, whether she wants it or not. I hope she wields it more carefully in the future."

- The White Coat Underground

Please, everyone bow your heads, and pray with me:

Excuse me, Oh Great Oracle Oprah, but is homeopathy really good medicine? Why do you choose to promote it? Why do you promote so many other forms of quackery? Do you know what quackery is? Has pushing quackery on your fellow Americans been your plan all along?

Is Tom Cruise - a leader in what's called "the world's most dangerous cult" - someone Americans should admire? Or you should promote? Why do you promote so many cultists? Are you a cultist?

Why do you have so many NewAge (rhymes with "sewage") guests on your show? Are you a NewAger? Hitler was a NewAger. Are you a part of the NewAge "movement"? If so, do you think that's something you should make clear to your "followers"?

What about The Secret? Why did you give it two days on your program? Did it deserve two days? Why? Is the "Law Of Attraction" really a scientific law? Are you attracting me, to you, right now?

Do you give us all the facts on the topics you cover? Are you a journalist? Do you have journalistic integrity? Do you know what journalistic integrity is? Do you stand behind what you do/promote on your show?

Why do you give short-shrift to skeptics on the program? Why do you invite so few skeptics? Are you, a journalist, afraid of skeptics? Are you afraid of having your beliefs and advice challenged? Are you afraid of truth? Or does it make you upset? Are you afraid or upset at the idea of going broke if you're ever sued for leading the American people astray?

Why did you tell James Frey it was only about money? Is it only about money? What does money mean to you? Is it more important than truth? Do you bathe in your money?

Please, Oh Great and Powerful Oprah, answer me,...I'm waiting.

Yea, yea - once again - I got nothing.

Talk about your "Sacred Cows",....

Well, Homeopathy Has "Side Effects" After All,...

"People are starting to realise they are being conned by the whole complementary medicine establishment,..."

Michael Baum, professor emeritus of surgery at University College London, on the cutting of National Health Service funds for homeopathy, which he has described as "cheap and nasty medicine" and a "cruel deception" that causes "cultural and social damage".

As someone who lost his mother-in-law, his 20-year marriage, many friends, as well as his faith in other people generally - including a large portion of the medical establishment - all over a nonsensical belief that water can "heal", I'd say that's an understatement,...:

"Homeopathy, and those that practice it, sell it, believe in it - or are so "open-minded" as to even tolerate it's outrageously bug-eyed claims - create the conditions for Hell on earth", would be a much more accurate description of the magic water's "side effects" on society, if you ask me.

TMR's Political Opinion (Freshly Brewed)

"The new year’s twin resurrections of Bill Clinton and John McCain, should they not evaporate, at last give the G.O.P. a highly plausible route to victory."

- Frank Rich, finally getting a whiff of the coffee, in the New York Times

Yes, Siree, things are moving along swimmingly in the world of politics. In other words, just the way I always said they would. (It's like he's psychic! Or he's controlling us with his mind!?! No:)

See, if there's one thing I know, there is such a thing as The American Character and - when the facts are known - almost without fail, Americans can be counted on to "do the right thing" (as Spike Lee so eloquently stated). The problem is, despite the protests of the many New Age idiots indoctrinated on the coasts, it's they - not Middle America - who don't remember what "character" or "right" mean anymore; confusing them with the part an actor might play and the immediate lead-in to the word "wing".

Fortunately or unfortunately (depending on your perspective) it looks like it'll take Obama's embrace from pre-Flower Power Caroline Kennedy (director of the Legal and Education Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People - that would be "me") to remind all our dreamy-eyed space cadets of the current political reality embedded in the United Negro College Fund slogan, "A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste.":

It's John McCain in a walk, Folks.

TMR's Cult War Update: Anonymous, 5 - Scientology, 2 (The Battle Continues,...)

The Cult War took a turn today when, unbelievably, it was revealed that administrators of 711Chan.org (one of the sites Anonymous attacks have been launched from) decided to throw in the towel. Yep, just like that. So, after a spectacular beginning, it looks like Anonymous is already taking a few (well placed) hits - or made a few strategic mistakes.

Does this mean the battle is over? Doubtful. Just look at the support some people on the street received in Orlando, Florida, Scientology's "world headquarters":



Also, another (very short) Anonymous "Address To The People" was released, featuring the soundtrack from The Unfunny Truth About Scientology, one of the web pieces that probably inspired the whole thing:



Xenu.TV's Mark Bunker added his voice to the controversy, begging Anonymous to call the whole thing off - or at least try to act in a legal manner - against this world-wide cult for which the word "legal", obviously, means nothing. How effective that'll be will remain to be seen because, from what I've gathered, Anonymous is world-wide as well, and, like herding cats, getting everyone to cooperate (when, after years in the trenches, the best Bunker can promise them is "maybe" they'll be successful doing it his way) isn't likely. They might even be laughing at him. Here's his plea:



So what does it all mean? Well, like the Iraq War, or the larger War On Terror, it means that twists and turns, and even setbacks, are to be expected, and the final outcome won't be known until we get wherever that is. In the meantime, I'll keep you updated on developments, and report what I learn as it happens.

Love You, Too, Honey!!!

Like many men (and women) I almost blew coffee out of my nose when I read today's screed from the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Railing against Ted Kennedy's backing of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton, and screaming of abandonment and betrayal, this identity politics group - which openly encourages women to abandon their husbands if they feel "dissatisfied" with their lives, or to get an abortion if it inconveniences them (and to hell with the feelings of the fathers) - reminded me, mostly, of Glenn Close (above) in Fatal Attraction: Just plain fucking batshit crazy.

I know, I know, Close was betrayed by Michael Douglas in that movie, but, as a man who's been betrayed by a woman (with the total we'll-show-him backing of her girlfriends) I present these eight man-hating hit songs (from Cracked.com's Revenge Is A Bitch: 10 Most Bitter Female Rock Songs) and ask you how sympathetic you'd feel towards these women if you discovered it was actually they who had done a man wrong? If they were merely delusional? Defending a double-standard as the standard? Watch the videos - and think seriously about it - then write me back and I'll expound on this, and your answers, further:

The New Age: Clinton And Cruise

Time Out

I've got to take a break today, so I won't be posting until tonight. Leave me a comment (with all the visits I get, people rarely do, which I find bizarre. Most of you don't donate either, you bastards,....) I'll hit you back or comment publicly on what you're thinking out there this evening.

Big news on the war front, BTW. Startling. You won't believe it. Politics is getting hot and heavy too. I told you. (<--That's called a "link": Click it.)

See you later.

ANONYMOUS: Knowledge Is Free

I just found this new Anonymous video (whoever is doing these is good,...) and thought I should state, for the record, why attacking cults (as opposed to organized religions) is important:

1) Cultists get a free hand to do their dirty work. We all know about the crimes of the Catholic church, or what fundamentalist Christians are up to, but cults work insidiously, subversively, and unethically. Organized religions, at least, try to engender a sense of right from wrong.

2) Even the major religions hate cults. Some of the best work on New Age belief (which is the umbrella that cults function under) come from Christian groups. As I suffered, from my own cult exposure, the one group of people who didn't question what had happened to me has been Jews. (The Holocaust was a great primer, wouldn't you think?) Despite their vulnerability, organized religions are more afraid of what cults do than losing their own cache, that's for sure.

3) Undermine the belief in cultish thinking and religious belief loses it's footing as well. Xenu, Jesus, The Flying Spaghetti Monster - it's all the same stuff - but when you take on cults you re-establish more than reason but real, non-spiritual, norms within society. For instance, attacks on Homeopathy will allow doctors to re-establish their authority at the top of the medical food chain, not the quacks. This is important because, of course, the undermining of science hurts us all. (Go down to the comments section on that last link,...) The point is, even religious folks will have to resort to reason to fight this battle, and, in doing so, they will be forced - by their own hand - to challenge their own nonsensical beliefs.

I have more but you can click around the site to find it. Just know this:

I knew this was coming. I'm not jumping on anybody's bandwagon. Not even now. This is the third version of TMR I've done (the other two got dropped because of online harassment from cultists) but, like you, I won't be stopped. I don't have computer skills but my own (offline) plans are in the works.

DONATE MONEY. I'm just one black guy, in a cold back room, moving around a lot and eating a lot of ramen, but my passion is as great as Black Lightning's. And, I think, in the end, I'll be even more effective.

Take care,

CMC

The Cult War Continues: The Regime

"A new entity calling itself The Regime used keylogging to gain an administrator password to 711chan.org, a site popular with the open vigilante group "Anonymous" that has recently been attacking Scientology online.

As of 9:57 p.m. (eastern time) the site 711chan.org, has been replaced, allegedly by The Regime by the title Church of Scientology along with a statement on the home page stating "This website has been deleted due to copyright claims from the Church of Scientology." A search performed using Google, on 711chan has returned the number one result of the apparent hack. All that remains of 711chan.org is an apparent message to the members of the site to "run" and "hide."

"711chan is full of fucking fail for siding with Gaia. I'm out of here, faggots. Enjoy your Gaia," said the message.

The Regime's first attack went along with a message posted to 711chan's website saying that "This site has not been blessed by The Regime and is deemed lame", believing Anonymous to be self-proclaimed hackers (although this title was primarily used by the media). It also refers to Anonymous' attempt to bring down the Church of Scientology (named 'Operation Chanology'), saying that "chanology is lame, scientology is lame". It thereafter declared that the message board where "Anonymous" had been discussing Operation Chanology had been removed. Minutes later, 711chan stopped responding to queries."

- From Wikinews Reports

UPDATE: I don't know if it's related but Rick Ross's Cult News Network is down as well. This is nothing new (cults are always attacking the site, nice folks that they are) but the timing is weird,....and, BTW, The Regime's video is lame.

Who Are You? Who? Who? Who? Who?

"One of the qualities in Hillary Clinton that scares me most is her lack of a fixed sense of self. She has invented and re-invented her public persona dozens of times over the years,...But it hasn’t helped that this Clinton campaign has also reinvented itself almost weekly since January: We’ve had Falling to Pieces Week; Finding Our Voice Week; Unloading a Carton of Whupass Week; and then Heh, Heh, That Bill Is a Maniac Week. Is it just me, or is it true that when it comes to issues of character, you don’t necessarily want a candidate who seems to be testing out new ones for each new crisis?"

- The XX Factor's Dahlia Lithwick, writing in Slate.

Yea, "character", now that's something you don't hear a lot about these days,...and - Hey! - while we're at it, also from Slate:

"THE CLINTON FALLACY

Did Blacks Really Make Big Economic Gains During The '90s?

Hillary Clinton's campaign deployed President Bill Clinton in South Carolina for the specific purpose of delivering the black vote, aiming to remind African-Americans of the good times when Clinton was president. Which raises the question: Why do so many people think the Clinton years were good times for black America?


A hopeful African-American electorate was at the core of Bill Clinton's successful bids for the presidency. In many ways, the scandal-marred, deeply partisan years of the Clinton administration proved disappointing in the face of such early optimism. Welfare reform, the growth of black imprisonment, and the public abandonment of progressive African-Americans like Lani Guinier are some of the most memorable racial disappointments of those years. Even through these disappointments, African-Americans were among Clinton's strongest supporters because many believed Clinton's era was an economic boon.

But there is evidence that Clinton's unmatched popularity among blacks confused many about the true economic impact of his presidency. In a 2005 article I co-authored in the Journal of Black Studies, I analyzed five national surveys from 1984 through 2000. The data show that nearly a third of black Americans held false understandings of black economic conditions during the Clinton years. By the time Clinton left office, many African-Americans incorrectly believed that blacks were doing better economically than whites. In the '80s, barely 5 percent of blacks believed blacks were economically better off than whites. By 2000, nearly 30 percent of African-American respondents believed that blacks were doing better economically than whites. This belief is simply wrong.

There is no evidence to suggest that African-Americans were in a better economic position than whites at any time in American history, including during Clinton's presidency. In fact, striking gaps in income, employment, and wealth continue to distinguish black economic reality in the United States. Clinton's administration did keep inflation low and reduce unemployment. This was a rising tide that lifted many boats, including some black ones. But it strikes me as bizarre that nearly a third of blacks perceived a reversal in the deeply historically entrenched economic position of the races.

The hypnotic racial dance of cultural authenticity that Bill Clinton performed in office lulled many blacks into perceptual fog. Clinton actively cultivated a unique and intense relationship with black voters. He relished this bond and often acknowledged his honorary blackness. It is important to remember that the description of Clinton as black was prompted by his experience of personal, public humiliation at the hands of his political foes. It is not a claim about his racial heritage, but instead a reaction to his experience with and use of cultural markers that often stand for the denigrated elements of black life in America.

As Clinton performed blackness, real black people got poorer. The poorest African-Americans experienced an absolute decline in income, and they also became poorer relative to the poorest whites. The richest African-Americans saw an increase in income, but even the highest-earning blacks still considerably lagged their white counterparts. Furthermore, the '90s witnessed the continued growth of the significant gap between black and white median wealth.

My research shows that respondents who liked Clinton best were always most likely to mistake blacks as doing better than whites. These attitudes about Clinton are not neutral. Deep racial affection toward Bill Clinton contributed to many African-Americans' misunderstanding the continuing economic inequality faced by the race. Like the idea of Bill Clinton as a black president, these overblown ideas of the massive economic benefits accruing to African-Americans in the '90s were largely an illusion. It is hard to vote your interests if you can't judge your circumstances."

-- Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, writing on Slate.

Drink Up!

"It's completely nuts,...[It's like] if you want to get really drunk you dilute your beer in Lake Superior. Who could possibly believe that?"

- David Colquhoun, professor of pharmacology at University College London and a fellow of The Royal Society, on homeopathy.

You Don't Mess Around With Jim

Lots to report on the war today, starting with another "ANONYMOUS", this one making contact through Tom Kinsolving's Jonestown Apologists Alert site. "ANONYMOUS" writes (in part):

"Active cults are still the best place for psychopaths to dabble in their most evil and cruel tortures...Scientology high priest Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, who, shall we say, made more than a million clams...all behind a cloak of spiritual open-mindedness. A few apologists still singing the songs and making the bliss ninny noises thirty years after the thing was tragically shut down is just a curious side show. Not a thing of any consequence.

Some of those apologists lost daughters. Sisters. Nephews. They have paid. But they failed to learn what they ought to have learned. Now they teach about 'new religions.' They let the family members of the modern day recruits suffer the same fate that they suffered.

They've condemned others to suffer the same tragic loss.

Warm-and-Fuzzy Cultist Cruise: One good round of sofa boogie and he'll make things perfectly 'clear'.

Roosting on the families of all those concerned relatives connected with all the kids in all those groups currently being tracked by Rick Ross (above) and Steve Hassan.

The People's Temple criminal enterprise, and others like it, don't just grow up out of the ground. They are crafted and carefully orchestrated."

So true. And, like Scientology's hunters, this ANON ends by echoing my own thoughts as well:

"P.S. There is a very conscious reason why I post anonymously. I never wanted a cult in my life. I didn't want it. And when it came, I did not welcome it.

So I use the Internet and I use this forum to voice opposition.

But I don't want it in my life. I consciously choose to not do the brave thing that Les Kinsolving (above) did. I chose to stay in the background - fuming. But not making myself a target. These are nasty people, and they don't play nice. And I don't need it in my life.

So I come here, and I voice my opinion, and I speak my truth, and I don't leave my name, and the guy in the next cube doesn't even know I have an opinion. And that is exactly the way I want it. And frankly, I think my right to privacy is respected in our little Republic, and protected. So I'll sign off 'Anonymous' -- again."

I hear that. He's a brave soul, either way. Not everyone's cut out for direct confrontation with mind-benders and other assorted freaks.

O.K. - on to the "SPs" working for Cruise Control. There's two new videos worth noting, the first being a clarifying message of freedom for those still in Scientology:



Next is one that's meant for FOX News, which I find to be brilliant:



"We are what you, deep down inside, wish you could be, when your wife cheats on you,..."

Owned. Oh well, we all need our motivations, I guess,....anybody else notice the examples given are all of situations where men - exclusively - have lost control of their world? (Lost a sense of The Macho Response maybe?) And this too - wow - isn't making great art easy?

So how effective has ANONYMOUS been? There's news that Scientology had to move their domain in an attempt to stop DDoS attacks - which means ANONYMOUS is doing pretty well. I mean, when a so-called all powerful organization has to protect itself, you're doing something.

Kirstie Alley came out with her usual hoarse-voiced apologist bleating, regarding the Tom Cruise video that got all this going, (which I won't bother to repeat here, except to note how much she, like all cultists, seems to look down on the rest of humanity. How can they not? They've found the way,...) and there's a new book coming out on John Travolta (above, with his "wife", Kelly Preston) that sounds like a doozy.

Jenna Miscavige Hill's motivations seem pure enough. She's the niece of David Miscavige, the maybe-chief honcho at Scientology (There's disagreement if it's him or Tom Cruise) and she recently wrote a letter stating how the cult tore apart her - and many other people's - families.

It'll be interesting to see how the cult plays that one - or if the media will ever decide to really get in on this. (Are Will and Jada Smith (above) in or out? Entertainment Weekly - Hello!) Oh well, I've given them ample opportunity, and they seem to have missed the boat every time. I hate to admit it, because I love the news so much, but the enormity of the Cult War story makes it glaringly obvious to all with eyes to see:

The mainstream media sucks.

O.K. - I gotta go - you kids play nice. (Kidding.)

CULT WAR!!!

I am happy to report that, along with TMR and ANONYMOUS, there's been another call for a Cult War. Dr. R.W. Donnell writes:

"Although the rising chorus of voices against pseudoscientific medical education is encouraging the chorus is small, and the situation, from where I sit, is not good. At this late point nothing short of all out war on quackademic medicine will be effective. It can be done."

Indeed it can. I was treated as a mad man when I first proposed that war was the only answer to this problem but, now that skeptics are being attacked and doctors are waking up to the infiltration of hospitals, the fascistic tendencies of the cults are finally having the desired effect: Moving for a call to action.

And it's about time.

But what form should it take? We're talking about an enemy that's organized, years ahead of us, and, like Al Qaeda, fractured. So I think, like Anonymous, the Enlightenment's actions against the New Age should be multifaceted as well.

Many of the things that are necessary will not seem to make any more sense than what the enemy has proposed - like working with organized religion - but that's the nature of the beast: This is a war on a nonsensical enemy. And, as war, everyone must be prepared to do things that, on the surface, don't seem rational; that, maybe, go against their better natures - even their oaths as doctors. (It's unheard of, for instance, that surgeons would go on strike, but, since nurses do it - and nursing is part of the problem - it should seriously be considered.)

Obviously, NCCAM must be destroyed. And, yes, Bill and Hillary Clinton - as the two people who gave New Age credibility, and power, and as two of the chief purveyors of nonsense - must be defeated.

Clearly, Oprah's gotta go, too.

Health food stores, especially Whole Foods, yoga studios - they all must be directly challenged on what the hell they thought they were going to do to us. I know it sounds crazy but so is the enemy. And we gotta do what we gotta do:

Such people won't stop on their own.

Kill Them (Bad Art)

Those Dangerous Cultists Behind The Global Warming Fantasy Of Ever "Saving The Planet"

"While the world’s climate is on a warming trend, there is zero evidence that the rise in CO2 levels has anthropogenic origins. For daring to say this I have been treated as if I have committed intellectual blasphemy.

For reasons I find very hard to fathom, the environmental left movement has bought very heavily into the fantasy about anthropogenic global warming and the fantasy that humans can prevent or turn back the warming cycle.

This turn to climate catastrophism is tied into the decline of the left, and the decline of the left’s optimistic vision of altering the economic nature of things through a political programme. The left has bought into environmental catastrophism because it thinks that if it can persuade the world that there is indeed a catastrophe, then somehow the emergency response will lead to positive developments in terms of social and environmental justice.

This is a fantasy. In truth, environmental catastrophism will, in fact it already has, played into the hands of,...corporate interests.

Here in the West, the so-called ‘war on global warming’ is reminiscent of medieval madness.

In today’s political climate, it has become fairly dangerous,...to step up and say: ‘This is all nonsense.’ It is increasingly difficult to challenge the global warming consensus, on either a scientific or a political level,...I don’t think we should underestimate the impact that kind of informal pressure can have on people’s willingness to think thoroughly and speak openly.

Since I started writing essays challenging the global warming consensus, and seeking to put forward critical alternative arguments, I have felt almost witch-hunted. There has been an hysterical reaction. One individual, who was once on the board of the Sierra Club, has suggested I should be criminally prosecuted. I wrote a series of articles on climate change issues for the Nation, which elicited a level of hysterical outrage and affront that I found to be astounding - and I have a fairly thick skin, having been in the business of making unpopular arguments for many, many years.

There was a shocking intensity to their self-righteous fury, as if I had transgressed a moral as well as an intellectual boundary and committed blasphemy. I sometimes think to myself, ‘Boy, I’m glad I didn’t live in the 1450s’, because I would be out in the main square with a pile of wood around my ankles. I really feel that; it is remarkable how quickly the hysterical reaction takes hold and rains down upon those who question the consensus.

This experience has given me an understanding of what it must have been like in darker periods to be accused of being a blasphemer; of the summary and unpleasant consequences that can bring. There is a witch-hunting element in climate catastrophism. That is clear in the use of the word ‘denier’ to label those who question claims about anthropogenic climate change. ‘Climate change denier’ is, of course, meant to evoke the figure of the Holocaust denier. This was contrived to demonise sceptics. The past few years show clearly how mass moral panics and intellectual panics become engendered.

In my forthcoming book, A Short History of Fear, I explore the link between fearmongering and climate catastrophism,...It seems clear to me that climate catastrophism represents a new form of the politics of fear."

-- Alexander Cockburn, giving us a taste of the wonderful future ahead - science corrupted beyond all recognition - because you don't need science when you're "saving the planet" from Spiked!

The Stupid: It Burns (It Really, Really Burns)

"For anyone who still believes in the methodology of the Enlightenment, sitting around the table at a twenty-first century dinner party can be intellectual torture.

Your fellow guests tuck hungrily into a menu of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience, junk history and (above all) quack medicine. Yet they will also have the nerve to insist that they reject the ‘medieval superstition’ of religion."

- Damian Thompson, author of the excellent Counterknowledge, and writing in Spiked!

The Macho Response: Steven Wright

"One night I stayed up playing poker with Tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died."



"I’m addicted to placebos. I could quit, but it wouldn’t matter."

Just Like My Ex: Diana Selfishly Destroyed Her Life By Trusting Cultists, Nonsensical Cures, And Feeding Her NewAge Addiction For Psy-Kicks

Princess Diana (Shown with Scientologist John Travolta) was obsessed with clairvoyants - including one she dubbed "Fergie's witchwoman", the inquest into her death heard yesterday.

The princess's former private secretary said the Duchess of York's medium told Diana that Prince Charles would die in a crash. [Emphasis TMR's]

Patrick Jephson said the princess told him in 1990: "Fergie's witch-woman says my husband is going to be killed! She sees mountains and a helicopter!"

He said he tried to treat such predictions as a joke and added: "A little later on, I give my response to the princess as being, 'Yes, ma'am, any tips for the 3.30 at Kempton?'"

Mr Jephson said the "paranoid" princess fell for more and more outlandish claims toward the end of her life.

Questioning him, Jonathan Hough, the Diana inquest counsel, said: "She continued to heed her astrologer's predictions, the more dire the better, particularly where the prince was concerned.

"She was rewarded with regular forecasts of helicopter crashes, skiing accidents and other calamities that obstinately refused to befall him."

The identity of the "witch-woman" was not revealed in court. But it is likely to be either psychic Rita Rogers, who met Diana through the duchess and told her the brake cables of her car would be cut, or Madame Vasso, a Greek mystic who encouraged her clients to sit under a Perspex pyramid.

Mr Jephson, a former lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, worked for Diana between 1990 and 1996.

He said he was worried that she put so much faith in astrologers and soothsayers because this "fed the paranoia that never lurked far beneath the surface".

By the time of her Panorama interview in 1995, he said, Diana "saw plots everywhere", even claiming that someone had taken a "pot-shot" at her with a gun in Hyde Park.

"Needless to say, I had all the accusations checked out, but the threats were, as I had known all along, all in her imagination."

Mr Jephson said he agreed with Diana's description of herself in a 1992 Andrew Morton book that when it came to the Royal Family she was "like a lamb to the slaughter".

But he warned: "By attaching such importance to these allegations, she was playing into the hands of her critics in what she would call the royal establishment who . . . I knew were prepared to suggest that she was mentally fragile and in some way a liability."

Under cross-examination, Mr Jephson admitted that the princess's claims of being bugged "probably" had an element of truth.

From his experiences in the Royal Navy, he said he assumed the security services regularly monitored phone lines and, as a result, he warned Diana to be cautious.

Mr Jephson said Diana consulted a "bewildering cocktail" of alternative therapists, including astrologers, reflexologists, psychoanalysts and soothsayers as well as having treatments such as colonic irrigation and massage.

He said she was unrestrained in her appetite for such therapies, but that they "robbed her of her equilibrium at times of stress and dissipated her powers of concentration".