Continuing with our theme of "we will restore science to its rightful place," I would like to point readers to another Kimberley A. Strassel column. It is a dandy of a piece; Ms. Strassel has combined a rather decent string of hits of late, and this one's good for at least a couple of bases.
In "The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic," Ms. Strassel reports on the all too familiar tunes applauded by global warming alarmists, particularly those arias sung by the alarmists' favorite "Bush Administration" soloist, James Hansen. Mr. Hansen, as some of you know, is a NASA director who positioned himself as something of a martyr for true science; he claimed the Bush Administration was persecuting him for both non-conformity to the party line regarding global warming and for blowing the whistle on the administration's habit of cherry-picking scientific data. I mentioned here that such woes as described by Mr. Hansen were hard to reconcile with his 1,400 public appearances where he spoke his mind boldly without any interference from the White House. The man, as far as I can tell, was not suppressed or persecuted at all.
Ms. Strassel points this all out, but what she also highlights is something far more insidious: the Obama Administration CLEARLY IS SUPPRESSING non-conformity in its (foiled?) attempt to muzzle EPA analyst Alan Carlin; the Democrats really are cherry-picking the data. This should come as no surprise. After all, this is the party that supported the Patriot Act and then pretended to denounce it, with said denunciation simply a cover for their real ambitions, which was to use the Patriot Act and "illegal wire-tapping" for their own totalitarian goals once they gained power. This is the party that supported the war in Iraq, then denounced it as a failure doomed to civil war and that America needed to immediately withdraw its troops, only to announce that the troops should stay a little longer. This is the party that believed Gitmo was a threat to national security -- that it must be closed NOW! -- and then announced, as if it was something new, that certain enemy combatants at GITMO will be held indefinitely at the discretion of the president. But I digress. (See how easy it is to get carried away?)
Please take a few minutes to read Ms. Strassel's column. It IS illuminating, at least for those who care, and care to think.
©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
In "The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic," Ms. Strassel reports on the all too familiar tunes applauded by global warming alarmists, particularly those arias sung by the alarmists' favorite "Bush Administration" soloist, James Hansen. Mr. Hansen, as some of you know, is a NASA director who positioned himself as something of a martyr for true science; he claimed the Bush Administration was persecuting him for both non-conformity to the party line regarding global warming and for blowing the whistle on the administration's habit of cherry-picking scientific data. I mentioned here that such woes as described by Mr. Hansen were hard to reconcile with his 1,400 public appearances where he spoke his mind boldly without any interference from the White House. The man, as far as I can tell, was not suppressed or persecuted at all.
Ms. Strassel points this all out, but what she also highlights is something far more insidious: the Obama Administration CLEARLY IS SUPPRESSING non-conformity in its (foiled?) attempt to muzzle EPA analyst Alan Carlin; the Democrats really are cherry-picking the data. This should come as no surprise. After all, this is the party that supported the Patriot Act and then pretended to denounce it, with said denunciation simply a cover for their real ambitions, which was to use the Patriot Act and "illegal wire-tapping" for their own totalitarian goals once they gained power. This is the party that supported the war in Iraq, then denounced it as a failure doomed to civil war and that America needed to immediately withdraw its troops, only to announce that the troops should stay a little longer. This is the party that believed Gitmo was a threat to national security -- that it must be closed NOW! -- and then announced, as if it was something new, that certain enemy combatants at GITMO will be held indefinitely at the discretion of the president. But I digress. (See how easy it is to get carried away?)
Please take a few minutes to read Ms. Strassel's column. It IS illuminating, at least for those who care, and care to think.
©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
