Speculation and implications

After much careful research, including but not limited to the invention and manipulation of data, I have succeeded in reconstructing a typical day in the life of an acolyte in the Temple of Climate Change. He begins early, rising with the sun, although not paying any particular attention to it, because, after all, the sun never changes, and he knows for a fact that nothing about the sun could possibly affect climatic conditions on Earth. He gathers with other devotees before the graven image of Mike Mann nailed to a hockey stick, and they spend an hour or so chanting, "The science is settled. The science is settled." After a meal of grass and rainwater (because he believes in "eating locally" and nothing else grows here at this time of year), he sits down at his computer and plays with temperature graphs, flattening bumps and raising dips with the fervour and conviction of an Old Testament prophet ("Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill made low"). Having coaxed all his raw data to resemble the Divine Hockey Stick, he then forwards it to a select group of cronies for that process of dedicated and thorough rubber-stamping known as "peer review," then it's off to the useful idiots of the mainstream media, who will unquestioningly publish it with headlines including such hot-button words as "crisis," "urgent," and "emergency." Should anyone have the temerity to challenge him on the validity of his work, or to suggest - horrors! - that it may be somewhat lacking in such minutiae as truth, fact, or reality, he simply calls them nasty names and reverts to chanting his mantra: "The science is settled," along with its variants: "The evidence is overwhelming" and "Thousands of scientists agree..." - knowing that scientific fact is, of course, established by consensus.

After a long day of such arduous toil, he can relax, watch the weather forecast ("record cold") and possibly toy with his latest grant proposal, although this is a mere formality, since the Temple clearly has the UN in its back pocket, along with such credulous nincompoops as the President of the United States, as well as the tinpot dictators of sub-Saharan Africa, who don't give a flying poop about the climate, or their people; they just want our money and this seems like a remarkably easy way to get it. (Is anyone gullible enough to believe that Mugabe, for instance, is going to spend money on infrastructure? Give me a break...)

What makes me laugh, albeit sadly, is that, having thrown out God and replaced Him with science, we then foolishly expect our new idols to exhibit the same integrity and righteousness as the God of the Bible. Why should scientists be any less fallible than politicians, CEOs, cult leaders, or used-car salesmen? We routinely expect lying and cheating from these others; why are we so shocked when scientists do it, too? What happens when the academic community, the repository of vast amounts of specialized knowledge which the rest of us lack, turns to forwarding a totalitarian ideology?

Afterthoughts

Now that the provincial election is over, and the Legislature once again reinvented in much the same configuration as before, and both interest and tempers have retreated from their peak of lukewarm, I feel safe injecting insight.

With regard to the Green party, it seems quite clear that their status as a "viable third option" is a figment of the media's imagination. The Green party is nothing more than a single-issue fringe group, with more candidates, but not more credibility, than the Sex party or the Marijuana party or others of that ilk. Toward the end of the campaign I was driving to work one morning and a downtown intersection was peppered with Green supporters, most with anachronistic amounts of facial hair, dancing around and carrying placards. "Gracious me," thought I, "the responsible and productive members of society are at, or on their way to, work at this hour, and here are these people with leisure to stand around and wave signs. Are they all independently wealthy?" We wonders, yes we wonders.

As for the NDP, they valiantly kept the wind blowing, but, having offered nothing, achieved nothing. Just as well. They're dandy in opposition but clueless in government.

And so we're in for another four years of business and bellyaching as usual...

Bara-a-ack

It should come as no surprise that the new administration in the US continues to pay lip-service to Christianity while opposing, in its policies, many of the most basic principles thereof. That kind of thing goes back at least as far as Constantine. What saddens me is that people are so easily taken in by it - "people" meaning genuine, sincere, well-meaning Christians who fail to do their homework with regard to Obama's positions and policies, and instead, allow themselves to be carried along and lulled by his impressive speeches. Because the man can speak. No doubt about it. He is a master of crowd manipulation. But then, so was Hitler. There's not much point in talking about human rights as long as we continue to rip apart, suck out, and incinerate the most helpless humans of all. There go your much-touted future generations, sir.

Those with eyes to see should consider carefully whether we are watching this scenario unfold: "...he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest....given power to take peace from the earth, and to make men slay each other...'A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages,and do not damage the oil and the wine!'...given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth." I don't think it's likely that Barack Obama is THE antichrist. But don't forget that the spirit of antichrist is already active in the world. And our job is what it has always been: pray for those in authority. Hold out the Word of life. Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

On the off chance that I'm being a little harsh (today is, after all, his second day on the job), I will say this in favour of Barack Obama: he has the best name EVER to burp to.