Possumblog

I saw that, but it didn't bother me as much as another comment elsewhere on the Corner which reported Gore as saying "well, perhaps what we're showing isn't exactly what the data says, but that's OK, because we have to open up dialogue to discuss solutions (Full post in the Corner on Thursday, under the header "TCS Fact Check. I tried to link, but Mu thought the URL was unacceptable. Time to rein in those filters a bit, eh folks?)

So, it's acceptable to make things up, if it leads to a conversation you control, to create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist as you describe, probably causing us to waste time on meaningless, expensive programs.

Deceitful arrogance is what passes for "brilliant thought" in some circles. Imbeciles.

Exactly--there seems to be great stock placed in things that, while not true in the traditional sense, have a certain truthfulness about them (the buzzword "truthiness"), which are useful because they create the avenue for "dialogue."

Thus, although the Bush ANG memos were fake, they were accurate. Anti-American "war veteran" Jessie (Jesse) McBeth (MacBeth) is exposed as a fraud, but his supporters claim his stories have an essential truth in them, and even if they DON'T have an essential truth, they are still valuable for getting people to "think." And, of course, "speak truth to power."

Which to me is kinda funny to me, in that it leads to having people who deny the doctrine of absolute truth castigating other people for being liars.

The pious fraud business seems to have migrated from one type of religious zealotry to another.

I begin to think a lot of those who use that phrase "speak truth to power" are often meaning "our power will determine your truth."

And again, it would mean a bit more if they didn't think truth was such a malleable concept.

I blame Bush for all of it.

Unfortunately, the creeping moral relativism has been surpassed by the speeding relativism. When everything is up to the conscience and will of the individual, there is no truth anymore. Subjectivity rules over all.

The nice part of it all is, God has a way of reminding people sometimes that there is absolute truth, whatever the relativists may say or do.

There is no place for "passion" when discussing huge scientific issues with policy implications.

Nothing's worse than crying wolf in such situations. It piques the skepticism of rational people.

If Gore or anyone else wants to seriously engage people they need to stick to facts.

It wouldn't be quite so bad if the passion were devoted to helping people, rather than toward trying to use your passion to oust people from the stool you want to sit on.

Unfortunately, being easily swayed by demagoguery seems an endemic human flaw.