James Inhofe is an even more dangerous idiot than I thought

November 17, 2006

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings

Sen. James Inhofe — thankfully the outgoing chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — on FOX & Friends this morning:

Now look, God’s still up there. We still have these natural changes, and this is what’s going on right now. New science comes out…

If the northern hemisphere is warming up, it’s not due to manmade gases. And that’s what these people all come to the conclusion. And yet the other side, the far left, the George Soros, the Hollywood elitists, the far left environmentalists on the committee that I chair — all of them want us to believe the science is settled and it’s not.

By the way, there’s all kinds of new things. Gretchen, you’ll enjoy this. Get your violin out and get ready. They came out with a great discovery just a few weeks ago. And this came from the geophysical research letters and you know what they said? Hold on now! They said the warming is due to the sun. Isn’t that remarkable?

Come on, FOX, tell us. It’s remarkable, right? It’s true, right?

GRETCHEN: Wow.

BRIAN: That’s a Fox News alert.

GRETCHEN: That is a Fox News alert.

That’s how it went. I kid you not. Think Progress has the video and the transcript along with a reminder that pretty much every serious climatological scientist thinks that human activity has been a major cause of global warming.

Inhofe thinks it’s all a hoax. But the joke — and the tragedy — will be on all of us.

…the other side (does that mean those who have passed on?), the far left, the George Soros, the Hollywood elitists, the far left environmentalists…Inhofe managed to hit most of the accepted boogeymen, but he forgot the gays (surely far left environmentalism is part of THEIR agenda), the intellectual East Coast elitists (elitism doesn’t just rule in Hollywood, y’know)–and what about the anti-war commie tree-hugging hippies that got us into this global warming mess in the first place?

I’m sure the next talking point bulletin will rectify his omissions.

  • Now look, God’s still up there.

    Yes indeedy. And He’s looking down on cretins like you and checking the blue-print to see what the hell went wrong. But I’m not surprised cretins like Inhofe don’t like the idea of restrictions on man-made gasses. He emits more hot, polluted air than a fleet of Hummers. Still, I can’t wait till he and his ilk are relegated to the Flat Earth/Creationist “Science” corner of the room.

  • Funny how faith-based right-wingers like Inhofe believe God will save our asses when it comes to things like climate change, but why is it when dealing with al Quaeda types God won’t save us and we have to kick ass on our own? Where in the bible is it stipulated the conditions that God will and won’t ride to our rescue? Or does Inhofe not have enough faith in God to help us through this terror deal?

  • This suggests Winston Churchill may have been too optimistic when he observed that America had gone from barbarism to decadence without the usual interlude of civilization.

    (Further proof is the carnage following the debut of the new Nintendo.)

    And completely off-topic, is just me, or do other people’s computers take forever to open The Carpetbagger Report?

  • My advice is to not watch Fox News: they have a niche market and its not directed toward you and me. I don’t care. The American lifestyle centers around cheap energy. Nothing going to change until will get some 9/11 environmental event that shakes people up. Otherwise its fill up my SUV and mimivan with cheap gas and drive 300 miles round trip to work.

  • Carpetbagger Report opens slowly for me, sometimes not at all. I thought it was my damned connection.

    I don’t watch Fox – it helps their numbers and I want them to crash from inattention.

    As for Inhofe, who is running against him in the next election? I’ll donate.

  • The problem is that so many people do watch FOX. Which means they’re getting their information about global warming directly from people like Inhofe, and the idiot hosts who have them on their shows.

  • #4 Alibubba America had gone from barbarism to decadence without the usual interlude of civilization.

    Great Churchill quote, although a modicum of thought leads to mitigating factors leading to the aberration. America was handed an unparalelled circumstance historically. geographically, politically, and in terms of resources. Throw in a modern media, relentlessly promoting consumption and the result seems inevitable.

  • I like what petrado #3 said.

    Why can Repubs claim to see long-term patterns in world terror and predict them and they can’t believe that the climate has patterns that are even more reliable indicators?

    Did y’all notice that Inhofe referenced politicians on the left rather than scientists. He thinks it’s all a political ploy. Maybe God plays politics with the weather even if he doesn’t play dice with the universe.

  • They said the warming is due to the sun. Isn’t that remarkable?

    No fucking shit genius. What exactly is the point he’s trying to make here? Everytime I see him talk it makes me more angry. Aggressive stupidity, proudly displayed, does that to me.

  • A clip of Inhofe’s comments should be preserved in a time capsule built for the eons, so the folly of our extinct human race can be preserved for the amusement of alien archeologists.

  • Yeah, now Warner wants his spot. Frying pan to fire, anyone?

    In other matters, I am really getting tired of having to explain to supposedly more intelligent and better-educated liberals as to why I say that the South will never rise again until it rises above its own stubborn racism, a racism that was vividly delineated by the last election.

    So here’re my last words on the subject. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to do battle with Blogger and the little asswipe who keeps siccing them on me.

    If you’re a southerner and are liberal and reasonably well-educated, then please exempt yourself from the present company. But I am NOT apologizing nor backing off from views that I’ve justifiably held for years after living in the deep south for portions of four decades.

  • Meanwhile, Jerry Falwell weighs in:
    From: Jerry Falwell

    Date: November 17, 2006

    Evangelicals and Global Warming

    There is a developing cultural divide occurring within the evangelical community over an unlikely subject: global warming.

    On one side, we have Southern Baptist-in-name-only Al Gore touting the potential ruin of the planet in his film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Joining with him, somewhat surprisingly, has been the upstart Evangelical Climate Initiative (ECI), which has called for sweeping reform to combat global warming in what it terms a Bible-based response to the issue.

    Curiously, the ECI, which includes 86 prominent church leaders, has linked with abortion-on-demand and population control organizations that are touting global warming as genuine science.

    The ECI’s decision to join the global warming wars compelled two conservative evangelical think tanks — the Institute on Religion & Democracy and the Action Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty — to suggest the ECI has been “exploited” by the abortion-rights community. They note that this strange union could actually “give anti-Christian ideologies unmerited moral and theological cover.”

    Indeed, it could.

    On the other hand, a position from which I am writing, there are those who believe that, while the earth appears to have slightly warmed in recent years, there is legitimate question as to whether this has been caused by human activity or by natural cycles.

    So, a group of evangelicals has united to counter the efforts of the ECI. This group, the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance (ISA), is a gathering of scholars and pastors (yes, they can coexist) who believe that “evangelicals should be wary of the politicization and bad science of global warming alarmism.”

    The problem is that when evangelicals jump on board with liberal groups that are advancing climate alarmism, the so-called major media is there to trumpet their action.  As such, when the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance’s released its “Call to Truth, Prudence and Protection of the Poor,” which contains a “detailed biblical and scientific response to the much-heralded Evangelical Climate Initiative,” it was virtually ignored by the media.

    Another frequently ignored element in the global warming debate is the fact that so-called solutions to the problem will damage the American economy.

    Bill Saunders, director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Human Life and Bioethics and Human Rights Council, recently wrote: “If the effects of global warming are real and, in the future, humans face hotter summers and higher sea levels, the solution is not restricting energy access and limiting economic growth. That is quite unlikely to solve the problem.  It is certain to lead to economic recession in developed countries, invariably keeping undeveloped countries in poverty as their growth is dependent on the strength of developed nations.”

    So we must address any real climate changes with legitimate solutions that do not hinder economic development in our nation. The world will certainly suffer if America is monetarily punished.

    Nevertheless, the United Nations is touting global warming as an issue as problematic as terrorism.

    This week, Sen. James Inhofe dismissed a U.N. meeting on climate change as “a brainwashing session,” proclaiming that “The idea that the science (on global warming) is settled is altogether wrong.”

    He’ll certainly be pilloried by those who believe we should not question the facts of global warming.

    I thank God that we have reasonable men like Sen. Inhofe (R-Okla.) who are willing to take a stand.

    Finally, I think it’s interesting that, according to the NOAA National Climatic Data Center, the last two months in the continental U.S. have been cooler than average.

    The organization reported: “The combination of a cooler-than-average September and October dropped the year-to-date national temperature from record warmest to third warmest for the January through October 2006 period. The record warmest January through October occurred in 1934.”

    I imagine if the scientists of 1934 had the technology we enjoy today, they would have been predicting global warming in their era, as well. The only problem would have been that their fellow scientists in the 1970s would be predicting a massive global freeze in the near future. Of course, that didn’t happen.

    In other words, cooler heads must prevail in this global warming debate, especially in the evangelical community.

  • They said the warming is due to the sun. Isn’t that remarkable?

    You know what this means, right? We’re invading the sun! Or at least bombing the shit out of it. The good news is, the problem of global warming will be solved. Unless, of course, the Democrats want to cut and run…

  • “Another frequently ignored element in the global warming debate is the fact that so-called solutions to the problem will damage the American economy.” – Martin

    And Global Warming is damaging American Wealth. When your house has burned down, again, from a wild fire do you care so much that you have a great job? When you house is washed away by a storm surge, again, is it so very important that the Dow has again hit a record high? When you crop land is blowing away in a drought, are you happy that trade has hit record highs?

    Eventually you have to remember that income without wealth means MASSIVE inflation. Let’s try to avoid that, okay?

  • Lance: Just to be clear, I just posted a letter from Jerry Falwell as an FYI. I don’t endorse that crap.

  • Yeah, Martin, your post was so long I forgot it was Falwell talking too, and wondered what the hell you were thinking.

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