July 14, 2014 7:23 AM

Today's "WTF???" moment: The "Surely they can't be that stupid...can they?" edition

(Thanks to David Flanders for this gem)

As you [Energy & Environment Cabinet official] sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and our constituents and stuff behind us. I won’t get into the debate about climate change but I’ll simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of.

Today on “SCIENCE!!,” we present Kentucky state Sen. Brandon Smith (R), who, like so many Republicans, has never met a fact he can’t mangle, manipulate, or ignore altogether. Either that, or he really is JUST. THAT. STUPID.

While speaking against the Obama Administrations new carbon emission rules, Smith- who by way of sheer coincidence happens to own a mining company- decided he had the facts on his side, and so decided to advocate for dismantling the rules. You can do this when you’re making up facts on the fly. Except that Smith really doesn’t have science on his side; anyone with a smart phone could have refuted his argument in about 45 seconds.

Instead of crafting an argument based on available scientific facts- you know, things demonstrably and provably true- Smith went with the time-honored Republican tactic of basing an argument on information he pulled fresh from his backside. And- quell surprise- he’s wrong. WAY Wrong.

According to NASA, the average temperature on Earth is 57 degrees Fahrenheit — 138 degrees above Mars’ average of -81 degrees.

Although the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet has stated that the new EPA rules will not cause Kentucky to shut down any additional coal-fired power plants, state lawmakers Thursday blamed federal environmental regulations for shuttering the state’s coal mines.

Wow…two shameless lies for the price of one. Who needs facts? And what do scientists know about the real world, anyway?? All they do is deal with numbers and experiments and weird chemicals.

Of course, this being Kentucky, the stupid was in full flower, as Republican (and sadly, a few Democratic) climate-change deniers held forth about issues they know little if anything about.

State Rep. Kevin Sinnette (D) dismissed the threat of man-made global warming by pointing out that dinosaurs survived climate change.

“The dinosaurs died, and we don’t know why, but the world adjusted,” Sinnette said. “And to say that this is what’s going to cause detriment to people, I just don’t think it’s out there.”

State Rep. Stan Lee (R) claimed that climate-warming trends caused by human activities — a phenomenon backed by 97 percent of climate scientists — are nothing more than calculated scare tactics.

“All this stems, this carbon capture, all this other stuff, it stems back to a scare, generated years ago about global warming,” the Fayette County lawmaker said on Thursday. “Finally it turned out there hasn’t been global warming in 15 or 20 years, then they changed the name to climate change.”

If you drove up to a bridge, and you knew that 97% of engineers surveyed agree that it’ll collapse if you attempt to drive over it…would you proceed? Or would you ignore that consensus and rely on the 3% who- for reasons known only to themselves and their conscience- dismiss the evidence and have proclaimed the bridge to be perfectly safe?

I don’t know about you, but the choice seems clear…at least to me. Those who deny the preponderance of evidence and overwhelming consensus about the reality of global climate change ignore the greater than 32-1 plurality because the truth doesn’t dovetail with their ideology.

“I know what the scientists say. I just don’t believe it.” Sounds like the “debate” over the non-existent connection between vaccinations and autism, doesn’t it? People believe what they believe with a rock-solid certainty…and no amount of empirical evidence can change a man that’s slammed shut. The truth can be so…inconvenient.

Despite what Sen. Smith would have us believe, that average Earth temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit is NOT the same as Mars’ average temperature of -81 degrees. Perhaps he’s unable (or unwilling) to do the math, but that’s a difference of 138 degrees, which would seem to argue against his equivalency argument. A difference of 138 degrees is NOT the same as equivalence…unless you’re doing Tea Party math.

I haven’t spent a lot of time in Kentucky (if you discount going through Basic Training at Ft. Knox), but I have a difficult time accepting that such epic, willful ignorance is pervasive. Surely, the Commonwealth has many good, intelligent people who call it home…but I really have to wonder sometimes. The seemingly collective predilection for ignoring empirical and the demonstrable fact is based on the “If I didn’t learn it in Sunday School, it’s just a theory” school of thought. Yet the voices of those who oppose such lunacy are nowhere to be heard, and because of this, Kentucky is ruled by stupid.

Truly, our new idiocracy is upon us.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Technorati

Technorati search

» Blogs that link here

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on July 14, 2014 7:23 AM.

Yeah...Mondays suck was the previous entry in this blog.

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, only then will we know peace is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Contact Me

Powered by Movable Type 6.0.2