David Horsey offers a practical take on whatever debate about climate change remains.
You have to be something of a Flat Earther to still deny climate change. The vast, vast majority of scientists who study climate have long accepted that it is changing and that we’re to blame. “Vast, vast majority” being over nearly everyone and “who study climate” added because there are a few scientists denying it but they turn out not to be in a field where their opinions carry any possible weight.
One response to argumentative people is to ask them to put money on it, and, in this case, you can point them to the insurance companies who are either raising rates significantly in climate-vulnerable areas or pulling out of them completely.
It’s not theoretical, political or philosophical. They rely on charts and numbers and objective analysis and their goal is to make money.
Their actions are a cold, hard affirmation that climate change is real.
We’ll stick with both David Horsey and fact-based decision-making for a sweeping condemnation of a Supreme Court majority with no respect for facts, truth and evidence.
Horsey notes that the “praying coach” from the Supreme Court case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District won his job back, SCOTUS having confirmed his right to pray at midfield of public school games.
However, he no longer lives in the State of Washington, didn’t want his job back and simply returned to coach one game before returning to his permanent, well-established actual home in Florida.
It turns out his entire case was built on blatant lies, except that there’s no “it turns out” about it, because the lies were uncovered in the course of testimony and formed a basis for Sonia Sotomayor’s stinging but futile dissent. She even included photos clearly demonstrating that, far from the private, personal prayer claimed, he gathered his players into a prayer circle.
This Slate article offers a great rant on the deliberate lies which the SCOTUS majority used to justify their decision to bring coercive sectarian prayer back into public schools, as well as the blatantly dishonest lies at the heart of 303 Creative v. Elenis, the case in which an alleged web designer lied about her phony business and claimed that she had been approached by a gay couple — who didn’t exist — for whom she refused to create a custom website.
Again, the facts didn’t emerge later. They were revealed in the course of the hearing.
Point being that it’s not simply a matter of having a conservative majority on the court, or whether two of the justices were ramrodded onto the court by a far-right Senate majority in defiance of fairness and precedence.
The problem is that we have a court willing to make partisan decisions based on blatant, deliberate, self-evident lies.
At least it seems like a problem to me.
Still on the topic of problems that some people don’t think are problems, Mike Thompson comments on Minnesota’s new law banning school mascots based on native people, noting that the state has a history of setting up residential schools in an attempt to wipe out actual native culture.
That linked article points out that the rule does not apply on reserves where students are predominantly native and also that schools can obtain waivers if they get the state’s 11 sovereign nations to sign off, both of which seem like fair and intelligent exceptions to the overarching point that native people are not animals and that Hollywood stereotypes are deeply offensive.
This is a relatively new concept. A half century ago, my alma mater called its teams “The Indians” and we thought nothing of it, just as we thought nothing of Sal Mineo playing a Lakota kid in “Tonka” or even Chuck Connors as a blue-eyed Geronimo.
Nor, as little folks, did we think there was anything wrong with slapping our mouths and shouting woo-woo-woo. Just like in the movies!
It took decades of pressure to get Washington’s NFL team to drop the clearly offensive term “redskin” from its name and people who do not have red skins continue to whine about that and to insist that it is supposed to honor native people.
And it’s not over. The “tomahawk chop” gesture and stereotypical injun-chant of Kansas City Chiefs fans are officially ginned up by the team’s loudspeakers and by having a huge drum to be pounded upon. The name “Chiefs” may be debatable, but the gesture and chant are clearly vestiges of ancient Hollywood.
But times really are changing, and Minnesota has not only addressed the foolish, offensive school mascot issue but the more serious matter of teaching about its active native population.
Good for them.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Lisa Benson points out that, while Biden has been able to make great strides in curbing inflation and addressing employment issues, our economy is still vulnerable to the decisions of other countries who cut fuel production at a rate which makes it hard for the administration to compensate by using our own reserves to keep prices low.
But Gary Varvel takes a more positive, optimistic view of the matter, noting that higher gas prices encourage people to pursue alternative transportation methods which are renewable and aid in fighting climate change.
At least, I think that’s surely what they mean.
After all, our gas prices are pretty middle of the pack compared to prices around the world. You’d have to be actively looking for things to complain about to get bent out of shape over that. (To get per-gallon prices, multiply per-liter prices by four)
Howsoever, everything I’ve written above, plus the fate of the nation and so forth, hinges on a thoughtful, intelligent population that, as Mike Smith (KFS) points out, seems largely nonexistent.
It doesn’t help, of course, that even the supposedly fair-minded media bombards us with headlines about how Biden’s age is an issue and how nobody accepts that the economy has improved.
How many times do you have to say that kids hate spinach before they agree to turn up their noses at the stuff?
Meanwhile, the not-so-fair-minded media explain loudly and often that the indictments are bogus and proof of a Biden Crime Family and a Deep State. That message also sinks in.
Mike-
What’s your take on your alma mater using a sterotype for it’s mascot?
I’m glad they switched to an eagle about 15 years ago. Assuming you mean my high school. My college alma mater still uses an offensive stereotype, but we’ll save that battle for March 17.
Thanks. I’ve always felt that Irish sterotypes was one of the few “aceptable” sterotypes left in our society.
Ethnic stereotypes tend to go from “offensive” to “stupid” when the ethnic group is no longer feeling oppressed. The jolly green leprechaun is stupid. The drunken Irishman remains offensive and naming a drink a “car bomb” when people were being killed by them was in grotesquely bad taste.
It’s regretful that my Minnesota Vikings keep their brutal, misogynistic mascot glorifying the Norse history of sacking, pillaging and bloodshed. A more authentic and less offensive substitute may be something like the Minnesota Wokesters. The following link is an interesting interview of a Native American group calling for the Washington Commanders to reinstate the Redskins name: https://wpde.com/news/nation-world/native-american-group-calls-for-washington-commanders-to-reinstate-redskins-name-washington-dc-native-american-guardians-association-racism-name-petition-warriors-braves-on-the-warpath
As noted, the law allows schools with a predominant native student body to retain a native-based name. Similarly, when an area has a dominant tradition of Scandinavian or Celtic origin, a name based on that background — particularly when given by the group itself — is rarely considered offensive.
Well, for years the Cleveland MLB team was definitely mis-named. It should have been called “The Cleveland Inept White Guys.”
Oh man, I almost forgot that SCOTUS ruled in favor of that web designer who had a completely made-up case against LGBT people.
Sadly, even if I live to be one hundred, not enough of these unqualified SCOTUS members will die in time to overturn these unconstitutional, flagrantly immoral decisions. But unless the six live forever, all of these decisions will be overturned, eventually.