Living In The Age of Subreption

For the lazy and the crazy, burned-over politics is the mode. The illusion of revival, maybe not an uniquely American susceptibility, but one that is less fettered in the “free market,” seeks authoritative sanction. Any. The more desperate, the more absurd. Tertium Quids, Virginia’s self-styled NPR falls to such temptation.

If you haven’t tuned into Freedom and Prosperity Radio (FPR), you might be surprised by the usually reasoned tone. The hosts and guests generally do not come across as over-the-top ideologues and don’t fall in lock-step with Republicans. But to conclude that these fellows don’t choose a position and do their best to support it (let the facts be damned) would be fallacious as evinced in the post “Eugenics by another name”. There are 720 years of video added to the intertubes every day, so you have your choice of sources. Here is the best Norman Leahy could find:

James Corbett on the East Anglia E-mail scandal:

Many were only introduced to the scandal through commentary in the blogosphere and many more came to know about it only weeks later, after the establishment media had a chance to assess the damage and fine tune the spin that would help allay their audience’s concern that something important had just happened.

A few of Corbett’s arguments:
• Parliament did not call climate change skeptics to testify on the East Anglia scandal.
• There has been “A catastrophic meltdown of the supposedly united front of scientific opinion that man-made CO2 is causing catastrophic global warming.”
• Industrialized nations are allowing the first world to emit twice the amount of carbon per person as the third word – widely seen as implementation of a eugenical austerity program under a green cover.
• Rich westerners would offset their carbon footprints by implementing programs to stop black people from breeding.

Admit nothing, deny everything, and make counter accusations.

Just the same, claims of environmentalists are derided by Mr. Corbett for the unsubstantial use of internet sources to support them. And then he sites a study that claims previous periods of warming resulted in rapid and distinct increases in plant diversity and origination rates, so that, you should suppose, even if there is global warming, that may not be a bad thing after all. Then he uses a report he had written on his own blog as a basis for support of another argument.

Freedom & Prosperity Radio is an informative, controversial, and humorous talk radio show focused on state and national politics from a Virginia perspective. We talk about the political maneuvering, the pork, and the behind-the-scenes happenings in government. We also present positive, free market solutions for issues that are important to you — solutions for better schools, better roads, lower taxes, and smaller government. – FPR website

Mr. Corbett apparently has difficulty with the distinction between and evolution from hypothesis to theory/theorem to law. If it is not law, it is immediately without merit. And he has concluded that all scientists are involved in a conspiracy with Phil Jones and James Hansen; cooking the climate books. Further, credentials matter when the antagonists don’t have them (note the CATO Institute’s criticism of Rajendra Pauchari as “climatologically untrained head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) but for Norman and his counterparts at FPR that the seemingly unaccomplished Mr. Corbett has a website is sufficient to establish him as an expert.

Mr. Corbett’s concern about the eugenics conspiracy comes off as a pitifully weak shield against criticism as a reactionary colonialist tool. But it is the return to the use of the United Nations stalking horse that conclusively gives up the ghost. Whoever he is, there is a little hint of the fantasy world in which he resides when he closes his report: “For Climategate.tv, this is James Corbett in Western Japan.” Can’t say if he was in “Western Japan” or not (that term isn’t commonly used by the Japanese), but the phone number on his website is in the Austin, Texas area. And there is this little hint of paranoia in the footnote beside the “Send” button on his site: “Your IP is being logged ().”

But maybe in the world of Norman Leahy, all these are dismissible idiosyncrasies so long as the general sense of the source’s argument stokes the fears and fires up the believers. After all, he is fighting the “truly twisted aims and policies of hard-core eco-mentalists.” And on that journey, any port will do. Today’s port looks like someone’s mother’s basement.