Representative Markey Decides to Insult US Atheists Because of Climate Change Stance of Poor Nations

It appears that the poor nations of the world are not inclined to engage in lots of happy face talk about being 70% renewable by 2050.



Personally, I have always felt as an ethical and practical imperative the matter of climate change should not be the province of a bunch of poorly educated distracted trust fund brats who join Greenpeace and engage in big talk about hydrogen hypercar SUV's. I have always thought that poor people around the world - who may wonder why Americans are allowed to live like Americans while they are not allowed to gave a single lamp at night - are the most important segment to engage on climate change.

Rather than address this serious concern, Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) decided that it would be easier to talk about this subject by changing the subject to insulting atheists by suggesting that we're Bushlike.



I am usually loathe to criticize Democrats, but this asshole comment by Markey goes way too far.

First of all, climate change is not a matter of faith, it's a matter of fucking science. It's a measurable effect that is traceable from first scientific principles.

Got it Representative Markey?

Secondly, the American Atheist Community has been forced to live in the closet, has had its citizenship threatened, it's ethics besmirched by a bunch of religious bigots who couldn't care less about the most important moral issue, climate change, about which the Bush family - religious inflexible dogmatists all - couldn't care less, and its rights threatened.

Generally I have a sense of humor, but this remark is on the level of something one might hear from Tom Delay, Bill Frist or Dennis Hassert.

Maybe Markey things climate change is a stupid joke, I don't know.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070926/ap_on_go_ot/global_warming

Washington doesn't believe in climate change,yet it is hosting a climate change summit.

Again, this is not about faith or belief.

It's about science and data.

This is a DUMB and INSULTING choice of words. There were about 50 brazillion ways to make the point that the Bushies couldn't care less about climate change.

NNadir attacks anyone who questions the nuclear industry.
We'll see more of this swift-boating from him as things heat up.

http://markey.house.gov/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=3093&Itemid=125

SEPT. 24, 2007 - NUCLEAR REACTOR DECISIONS TO BE MADE BY PRIVATE CONTRACTORS?
Rep. Markey Demands Explanation for NRC Move to Outsource Nuclear Permit Process

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Edward J. Markey (D-MA), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and co-chair of the Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, demanded an explanation from Chairman Dale E. Klein of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) over reports that the NRC has outsourced the job of review applications for nuclear reactor construction, despite serious concerns that allowing a private contractors to perform such critical analyses could result in conflicts of interest and a degradation of nuclear safety.

“If Congress had intended to turn oversight of the extraordinarily sensitive nuclear sector over to private companies, we would not have established the NRC. The responsibility to thoroughly and fairly review applications for nuclear reactor construction is a central duty of the NRC, and I am shocked that they would be willing to farm out such a vital function,” Rep. Markey said.

Prompted by the NRC’s decision to award a $34 million contract to Information Systems Laboratories to review applications for nuclear reactor construction, Rep. Markey’s letter also questions whether the contract would be illegal under the Federal Activities Inventory Reform (FAIR) Act of 1998, which prohibits the outsourcing of “inherently governmental” functions.

“It’s clear to me that assuring the safety of nuclear power plants falls well within the definition of an ‘inherently governmental’ function. I am therefore alarmed that this contract may violate the law and, as a consequence, result in a danger to public health and safety,” added Rep. Markey.

Rep. Markey's letter to the NRC available here.

Sure, he could have put it better, but the idea is that convincing Bush to do something concerning global warming is as difficult than to convince an atheist to believe in god.

I find the image a little bit stupid, and obviously missing the point, but Markey is a good guy, who guenuinely cares about global warming, but is pretty bad at making jokes.

It does not offend me at all.

I think it's apt and I think it'd actually take effort to take offense at it.

There's no insult there.

I can't believe you can't see how insulting this is.

How about I put it like this: "Bush is acting just like Cali."

:shrug:

I am not inclined to split hairs on this issue.

The remark is ignorant and dumb. I note that it is especially ignorant and dumb because it portrays climate change as a matter of faith.

It has nothing to do with faith. The absorption spectrum of carbon dioxide - and I'm sure that many religious people find this mysterious - doesn't depend on whether a Hindu or a Moslem or a Jew is reading it. It is a function of physics. Representative Markey's remark is triply stupid because it ignores this basic insight.

I seriously doubt if the guy cares what YOU believe. It's not always about you.

a better analogy would be: "It's like Cali hosting a meeting of the snowmobile club"- something I dislike and I'm not good at.

And I was an atheist for years- before I became a Buddhist atheist.

You don't seem to get it.

Maybe you think I should be you. Most religious people on learning that I'm an atheist - and mostly I was open about it before I had children - think I should be them.

I find the remark extremely offensive, extremely ignorant and rhetorically weak.

Maybe in your religion you find these things charming.

Markey's comment is similar to using the word "gay" to denote something stupid or lame. And so many people miss the point. They say, "it was just a joke" without realizing that the disparaging use of the term is itself an insult.

but about having the opposite belief of all those who come to the conference. I'ts about opposites.

That's all it was. It's simple. And he was not treating climate change as a joke.

how you must feel at times.

You have no idea of how many times in my business life I have had to listen to people malign atheists while assuming that I believe in God.

or a lack thereof. It was about having cake and ice cream with someone who does not believe they exist. Get it?

eitred 4 speeling

Maybe you don't get it because you don't follow the "debate" about climate change.

There are very few scientists who say I don't <em>believe</em> in climate change, as if it were the same as "believing" in Jesus.

There are fundementalists who also claim that one should not "believe" in evolution.

And now that we are talking about belief, I can't believe how clueless you are about this both as rhetoric and as bigotry.

You decided that the use of the term atheist was some sort of personal attack, when it's not.

FYI, I do "follow the debate" as you put it, about climate change.

The idea that the host does not believe the reasons given for climate change exist is what the comment was about, not whether you believe in god. Get over yourself already.

He should smarten up in that regard.

saying Bush is as bad as us, it uses the deniers frame of reference.

I don't get why you're upset at all.

He didn't insult Atheists. He insulted *!!

He used an analogy. Big deal.

He's a good guy.

climate change and religion. The only insulting thing in the OP is your cranky, ranting lack of comprehension.

Vegans meeting in a BBQ restaurant. Work better for you?

Yeah, I'm an atheist. Yeah, I'm well aware of our sorry standing in a largely dismissive society. But I'm not going to pretzel myself into outrage over a hamfisted analogy. I'm also trying to recall some of your crabbed posts where you didn't splatter swaths of people with insults -- "poorly educated distracted trust fund brats"? You'll have to excuse me if I stand aside while others point and laugh.