Stupid, Stupid People

At some point, the people denying that global warming is a crisis will be viewed by history as morons, nay-sayers and stubborn idiots who made a bad problem worse through their actions and inactions.

So I guess I shouldn't be appalled, surprised or disappointed by this Op/Ed in the Washington Post, written by one Emily Yoffe. A quick Google search on Yoffe suggests she is making a living by being a conservative commentator for Slate, CNN and now the Washington Post. And if this is what passes for conservative critique, then bring it on.

Her Op/Ed, which I hope was meant as a light-hearted letter to the editor type article, has some of the following gems:

I, however, refuse to see the apocalypse in every balmy day. And I think it's wrong to let our children believe they'll be swept away before they get a chance to fret about college admissions. An article in The Post this spring described children anxious, sleepless and tearful about the end; one 9-year-old said she worried about global warming "because I don't want to die."

Now...sure, NOBODY wants small children lying awake in fear about anything. And I really wonder who has talked to their NINE YEAR OLD so thoroughly about global warming that they have enough information to be worried. But...here's the thing. I lay awake as a kid worrying about nuclear war. I was SURE that we'd get bombed by the Russians, either intentionally or by mistake, and it was just a matter of time. Everyone I know in my generation had the same fears, and to be sure, they were aided by films, TV and what we heard from President Reagan at the time. I seriously doubt whether Ms. Yoffe thinks that was a problem - to do otherwise would have been folly, yes? Made the problem worse, yes?

Of course, once I read the final paragraph, I realized what I was dealing with. Ms. Yoffe is obviously suffering from serious mental handicaps, and as such, this Op/Ed is a TRIUMPH, a victory over inadequate intelligence, and something our educational system should be proud of. Because only a mental midget would write:

In his new book, "The Assault on Reason," Gore denounces what he sees as today's politics of fear. Yet his own campaign of mass persuasion -- any such campaign -- is not amenable to contradiction and uncertainty. It's about fright and absolutes. But just because something can be plotted on an X and Y axis does not make it the whole truth.

Good lord.