Category Archives: Media Criticism

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Climaquiddick 3.0

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The password has been released:

If someone is still wondering why anyone would take these risks, or sees only a breach of privacy here, a few words…

The first glimpses I got behind the scenes did little to garner my trust in the state of climate science — on the contrary. I found myself in front of a choice that just might have a global impact.

Briefly put, when I had to balance the interests of my own safety, privacy\career of a few scientists, and the well-being of billions of people living in the coming several decades, the first two weren’t the decisive concern.

It was me or nobody, now or never. Combination of several rather improbable prerequisites just wouldn’t occur again for anyone else in the foreseeable future. The circus was about to arrive in Copenhagen. Later on it could be too late.

Most would agree that climate science has already directed where humanity puts its capability, innovation, mental and material “might”. The scale will grow ever grander in the coming decades if things go according to script. We’re dealing with $trillions and potentially drastic influence on practically everyone.

Wealth of the surrounding society tends to draw the major brushstrokes of a newborn’s future life. It makes a huge difference whether humanity uses its assets to achieve progress, or whether it strives to stop and reverse it, essentially sacrificing the less fortunate to the climate gods.

We can’t pour trillions in this massive hole-digging-and-filling-up endeavor and pretend it’s not away from something and someone else.

If the economy of a region, a country, a city, etc. deteriorates, what happens among the poorest? Does that usually improve their prospects? No, they will take the hardest hit. No amount of magical climate thinking can turn this one upside-down.

It’s easy for many of us in the western world to accept a tiny green inconvenience and then wallow in that righteous feeling, surrounded by our “clean” technology and energy that is only slightly more expensive if adequately subsidized.

Those millions and billions already struggling with malnutrition, sickness, violence, illiteracy, etc. don’t have that luxury. The price of “climate protection” with its cumulative and collateral effects is bound to destroy and debilitate in great numbers, for decades and generations.

Conversely, a “game-changer” could have a beneficial effect encompassing a similar scope.

If I had a chance to accomplish even a fraction of that, I’d have to try. I couldn’t morally afford inaction. Even if I risked everything, would never get personal compensation, and could probably never talk about it with anyone.

Anthony has already found a couple amusing bashes of Mann by his colleagues:

No justification for regional reconstructions rather than what Mann et al did (I don’t think we can say we didn’t do Mann et al because we think it is crap!)

But we do, don’t we?

I hope that history will view this person as a world saver.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

More Piers Morgan Thoughts

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A screed from Lileks (scroll down):

Not “encourage.” Not “exalt.” Not “inspire by example.” MAKE. It’s always MAKE with these people. If you can’t make people do things, how are you going to get anything done? That Volga Canal isn’t going to dig itself, you know.

Piers should go back to Old Blighty, which will be more politically accommodating to his incipient fascism these days.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Mark Kelly Should Stop Lying

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“Yes, I planned all along to spend a thousand dollars on a gun that I was going to give away just to prove that an ex-astronaut with a sterling record could buy one.”

He bought the gun for exactly the same reason that everyone else buys one — it’s a great gun. Plus, he was probably concerned that he might not be able to do so in the future, if his campaign to take away the rights of the rest of us to do so is successful. And if his story is true, then he violated a federal gun law by signing a false statement when he purchased it.

Once he was caught, he had two choices. He could tell the truth, and be right with the law, or he could come up with this ridiculously implausible fairy tale, and be in violation of the law. So it’s apparently so important to him not to undermine his campaign to deprive us of our civil rights that he had to lie about it, and make himself a federal criminal (though of course, he won’t be prosecuted, because laws are for the little people).

Disgusting. He’s becoming this era’s Sarah Brady. And of course, accordingly, the media won’t give him the skepticism, even mockery, that he so richly deserves.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Watchdogs

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…that are just lapdogs when it comes to Democrats:

President Obama is no different. Whether it’s responding to Congress, media questions, or FOIA requests, this administration is no better than its predecessor. The big difference: Obama is a Democrat. And because he is a Democrat, he’s gotten a pass from many of the civil liberty and good-government groups who spent years watching President Bush’s every move like a hawk.

No one knows this better than John Kiriakou, the CIA agent who reported to federal prison two weeks ago for blowing the whistle on the agency’s use of torture. During an interview at an Arlington, Va., coffee shop, Kiriakou said the time has come for Washington watchdog groups—organizations like Public Citizen, Project on Government Oversight, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, and others—to admit that President Obama hasn’t come close to making good on his promise to make government more transparent and accountable.

“Dan Ellsberg. He called me again last night,” said Kiriakou, referring to the man who in 1971 leaked the Pentagon Papers and opened the world’s eyes to the United States’ long involvement in Vietnam. “We talk about this all the time. He keeps asking me, ‘Where is the outrage? If this were a Republican administration, people would be in the streets, right? We would be marching in the streets. But people cut Obama a break to the point of irrationality.’

Far beyond it, actually. Apparently, the only way we’ll ever get accountability in government is to put Republicans back in charge. It shouldn’t be that way.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

If You Can Fake Sincerity

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You’ve got it made in Washington:

Republicans, for their part, appear to be relishing the leaks out of the West Wing. Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck broadcast the remarks on his Twitter feed earlier today and mused, “I wonder if the president agrees w/his senior aide who tells National Journal the charm offensive is a ‘joke’ and only done for the media.”

If he does, he’ll never admit it.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

What Is A Mayor’s Job?

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Piers Morgan once again displays his idiocy:

As Mark Steyn pointed out during Sandy, New York has a mayor who thinks that how much soda New Yorkers can have in their cups is more important than how much seawater they’re allowed in their subways.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

My Corporate Dystopia

18 Comments

What the heck happened to it?

At its best, science fiction imagines a future that illuminates the present, but on the subject of the social role of the corporation, science fiction has long been backward-looking, out of touch with the reality it would analyze. The cultural imagination at large shares this error, though it is difficult to say how much this defect in science fiction is a result of the cultural error and how much it is the cause. But it would be difficult to overstate how deeply the specter of the villainous corporation shapes American political thought. The influence is more visible the farther to the left one moves along the political spectrum. Occupy Wall Street was probably at least as much influenced by science-fiction visions of corporate dystopias as it was by any kind of organized political thought. There were unmistakably Maoist elements to Occupy, but the sinister connotations of the very word “corporation” are by no means heard by only those ears attached to the addled heads of committed leftists.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was set in 1992, Blade Runner in 2019, yet here we are, well into the 21st century, and there is still no colossal Tyrel Corporation bestriding the globe, and nothing like the corporate sovereignties of Jennifer Government. As myth, the corporate dystopia remains undiminished in its power. But the function of myths is to illuminate reality, and the reality is that there is no Tyrel Corporation today, and none on the horizon. If you want to know what the corporation of tomorrow looks like, don’t think Cyberdyne — think Groupon.

…The fetishization of the political through regulator-heroes such as Jennifer Government relies on the point-counterpoint of corporation and state; without the threat of the monolithic, immortal, all-powerful corporation hovering silently in the cultural background, the rhetoric and philosophy of (for instance) Elizabeth Warren is faintly ridiculous. Which is not to say it is entirely indefensible in every particular — Senator Warren is right in demanding to know, say, why nobody at HSBC has been charged with a crime as a result of the bank’s money-laundering case, which involved such worrisome entities as Mexican cartels and Saudi financiers of terrorism. (Senator Warren might think about addressing some of her questions to the president rather than browbeating his underlings at a politically safe arm’s length.) But the overarching narrative — if not for the far-seeing, brave, and selfless heroes of the political class, we’d end up living in the world of Jennifer Government — is a fantasy, and a childish one at that.

I’ve never understood the “progressive” mindset that fears big corporations more than it fears big government.