November 11, 2024

Two types of Liberal Derangement

First off, I am not a fan of Michael Savage, but one of his books is titled Liberalism is a Mental Disorder and I think he hit that on the head.  To whit I will point out two items for your reading pleasure.

First, while driving to work this week I was listening to NPR and I heard an interesting story about two tribes of Kenyans who have been battling each other for centuries.  It was a sad tale that was designed to tug at the heartstrings of the listener and make them care for the plight of these two tribes, the Turkana and the Pokot.  You see they live a hard scrabble existence in the uplands of Kenya.  As far back as can be remembered these two tribes have lived in close proximity to each other and have raided each others livestock, fought long bloody feuds, and in general killed each other when the opportunity arises.  Now, you might think that a group that has been fighting and killing each other for so long doesn’t really require that much sympathy from us fat, dumb, and lazy westerners…but on that you would be wrong.  You see, these subsistence farmers (when they aren’t reaving) live right on the ragged edge and thus when…CLIMATE CHANGE comes along, they are hurt much worse.  Yes, CLIMATE CHANGE is causing the Turkana and the Pokot to kill each other, and YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.  And that is the lesson that we are supposed to take from this heart rending story complete with interpreters over the indigenous tribal language that lament the loss of cattle, goats, camels, and fellow tribesmen and women…we are responsible for their plight.  Forget that they have killed themselves since time immemorial and likely will kill themselves even if they lived in a land of milk and honey, the Church of Climate Change requires us to realize that unless we properly atone for the sin of our Carbon Footprint these poor African tribespeople will KILL EACH OTHER.  The only solution, according to the Church of Climate Change, is the we must pay for the sin of Carbon Footprint by purchasing indulgences in the form of Carbon Offsets.  Thus we much submit ourselves and our lifestyle to the mandates of the Church of Climate Change.

In the NPR article, it was assumed that it was Climate Change that was responsible for the droughts that have plagued the uplands of Kenya.  For evidence they simply state

The climate is changing — and not for the better. Turkana is mostly semi-arid to arid territory, and increasingly, there’s more dust than grass. The Pokots are better placed, but even they suffer. Drought and the unpredictability of rain over the years have made paupers of them all.

Well, that is definite proof that Climate Change is responsible.  I mean, if I lived in an arid to semi-arid land I would definitely think that westerners driving SUVs were responsible if the rains didn’t come.

Rainfall well above normal over the past several months has resulted in unprecedented flooding. Villagers say that rain comes when they don’t expect it. This year, they expected it to come in April, but instead, the rain fell heavily in June.

Darn that unpredictable weather.  I hate it when I was expecting it to rain and it didn’t.  And then when it does rain in an arid to semi-arid land…you get flooding.  Of course there is no mention if this is an annual occurrence.

The other type of Liberal Disorder is usually called Bush Derangement Syndrome, and can be found throughout the Internet, the Blogosphere, the Mainstream Media, and in many offices.  It runs the gamut from the Loose Change idiots, to the Kossaks.  One example of the nuttery of this group is the recent article by Kossack 3CCD.  It was entitled, Was Pat Tillman killed on Cheney’s or Rumsfeld’s orders?  I will give 3CCD some credit, they do manage avoid one of the primary pitfalls of BDS and that is the thought that President Bush is simultaneously completely and totally incompetent and brilliantly scheming to overthrow the American way of life.  This was brought to my attention by the blog of the writer that like John Scalzi (of whom I think his politics are thankfully not overtly apparent in his writing).  He wrote on his blog Whatever about the nutrootery claims that the coup is coming and that President Bush will suspend the Constitution and impose Martial Law and stay in office come 2008.

Practical reasons first. Assuming Bush did decide to declare martial law over the entire nation, how on Earth is he going to enforce it? The federal government, even at this late stage in the Bush administration, is not entirely composed of Regent University graduates; there aren’t enough people in the government itself who would be willing to follow Bush down that road. And even if there were, does anyone believe the sort of people the Bush administration appoints — folks who we know are picked for ideological purity over actual competence in their job — are going to be able to administer a coup of this magnitude? For God’s sake, it took them a week to find the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. It’s on maps. Does anyone really believe that this bunch could manage martial law — an infinitely more complex undertaking — any better?

At least in this case Mr. Scalzi manages to take the side that President Bush is completely incompetent (along with being an idiot) and thus even if he wanted to perform an coup (which he is silent on) he feels it would be impossible.  While I agree that it is basically impossible to have a military coup of the types that the nutroots claim is in the pipeline, its not because of the President’s incompetence.  Mr. Scalzi points out that to effect such a coup would require the military to be behind it 100%, and that is doubtful in the extreme.  It would also require the media to be behind it at least in large part because if every television station went off the air and new people came on the TV telling them something it would cause confusion at best.  While it is true that the majority of the people in the US are more concerned with the plight of Lindsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, and Brangelia then any issue of real importance…the media would have to be there in almost its current form to effect any kind of coup.  Thus it would be much easier for a coup to take place that the media was in favor of (thus the Church of Climate Change) then the opposite.

I am honestly looking forward to the day when President Bush is no longer in office.  Not because I disagree with him (though on some issues I do), but rather because I wonder what the nutroots of the looney left will latch onto next if someone like Rudy Guilliani, Mitt Romney, or Fred Thompson wins the White House.  Heck, they will likely be just as looney if a moderate Democrat were to win…but that isn’t likely to happen as there doesn’t appear to be one of those anyway.

dbroussa

I am a Consultant in the IT world and have been doing that for the past decade or so. My work has given me a passion for seeing problems and wanting to solve them (or at least suggest solutions). Politically, I fall on the Conservative +6.1, Authoritarian +1.6 scale using the PoliticalCompass.org test. I vote Republican and eschew the Libertarians mostly due to their lack of a realistic foreign policy.

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4 thoughts on “Two types of Liberal Derangement

  1. Good point. It will be amusing as hell to see what happens when Hillary keeps the troops in Iraq, assuming she wins, which she will. And she will keep the troops there, because keeping the pressure on the Islamists is necessary and because we owe the Iraqi people a civilization at least at the level of Saddam Hussein’s.

    There are so many more liberal delusions that it’s hard to choose. But see Rich Horton’s article here for an analysis of another left-wing hissy fit, this time in regard to bloggers who had the gall to attend a White House briefing about the use of executive privilege.

    One choice quote Rich dredged up from the mire that is Fire Dog Lake (a swamp utterly unworthy of a link):

    Not only do they happily report to the White House via conference call to get their weekly ration of talking points about How to Spin Questions of Executive Privilege, but then they go around and thump their chests around their even smaller-dicked buddies to brag about it. Think about that.

    “Hey, Chester, a bunch of Liberty University grads who work for a guy with a 29% approval rating just told me exactly what to say and think for the next week until they call me back! Oh, shit! I forgot to ask them how I’m supposed to wipe my ass!”

    Perhaps Right Wing bloggers are the last people in America addle-headed enough to take advice from the Bush Administration. Well, Righty bloggers and people who speak in tongues and bring snakes to church, but they don’t have computers and they can’t read anyway, so they don’t count.

    These are supposed to be the intellectuals?

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