I recently came across a little melodrama going on in the ongoing battle over Global Warming (ht-Small Dead Animals). First a fellow named Marlo Lewis (a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute) wrote this article about economics and Global Warming hysteria. The piece isn't particularly vitriolic and makes a lot of salient and reasoned points about economic growth, warming hysteria, and social development.
However, not everyone decided to simply agree or disagree with the article or its premises. One person, Michael T. Eckhart, the President of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) decided that the article required some sort of Ivy League style vendetta.
Take a look at this e-mail sent by Eckhart to Lewis:
But that's not what this little post is about. This is about the Leftist Mind and Comrade Eckhart is the perfect example of it.
First he traditionally opens the message with an insult.
Then he makes a broad declaration about Lewis and his work.
The Leftist will believe anything declared by their leaders as long as it fits their prejudice (otherwise known as the meta-narrative) of Judeo-Christian capitalist democratic culture (AKA The Western Way) being the font of all evil in the world, from terrorism to crappy weather.
Debate leads to people discovering that the Western Way is not a force for evil, but an often fumbling, but usually positive force in the world.
Debate must be crushed.
To crush debate you must use threats.
They believe that anyone who does not blindly obey their leaders is more than just wrong, they are evil. Now their belief in evil doesn't extend to the sort of people who set off car bombs in crowded markets or blow up schools, they are just misunderstood products of Judeo-Christians.
To the Leftist the only evil that really exists is anyone who doesn't blindly accept the edicts and declarations of the high priests of Leftism and that evil must be destroyed.
And they make threats like this...
And folks wonder why a lot of academics are scared to criticize the Leftists. While the Right is a pretty diverse group with many facets and internal disagreements, the Left has morphed into a monolithic slab of ideology that threatens to crush anyone who asks it a question.
And then they bring out the Left's favourite bogeyman...
The Left's all-purpose villain!
The question I would like to ask the Leftists is why is "Corporate America" considered so evil while most Leftist organizations are funded by a small clique of rich hedge fund billionaires who profit, not by producing and marketing goods or services, but by creating and exploiting economic and social chaos from Eastern Europe, to South America, and even the Bank of England.
Do they honestly think that these people have the best interests of the common man at heart?
They have to because these billionaires, like Al Qaida terrorists, tell them that their prejudices are right. And being told that you are right, is more important than actually being right.
Then the Leftist usually wraps up with yet another declaration, usually something along the lines of "Mine's bigger than yours."
How does one defeat the Leftist?
You will never convince a Leftist that they are wrong. Their prejudices are essential to their existence, and if they have to give them up, they have to develop an identity as an individual, and that's too much work.
The best bet of reasonable people is to educate the people in what Vox Poplar calls the "militant middle" about the importance of debate and discussion, and the ultimately positive influence of the Western Way.
I wonder how many long rambling combinations of insults, threats, and broad, often prejudiced, declarations will clog my pleas box.
That's all for now, keep watching the skies, because we're watching you.
UPDATE: Thanks to our lovely and fragrant commenters, namely Commander0 and B.C. I've learned that not only is Michael T. Eckhart a poor excuse for an enviro-bully, he also is reported as having considerable financial interests in maintaining the level of hysteria over global warming. And he accuses Marlo Lewis of being a slave to Corporate America. Hello Kettle, I got Pot on the phone, he wants to call you something.
I would also like to thank B.C. of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller for the nice plug on their blog, which has brought us more visitors than the usual crowd who stumble on us after mistaking the name Xran with X-Rated.
Thanks. You will probably not be enslaved when my hordes conquer your puny little wretch of a world.
However, not everyone decided to simply agree or disagree with the article or its premises. One person, Michael T. Eckhart, the President of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE) decided that the article required some sort of Ivy League style vendetta.
Take a look at this e-mail sent by Eckhart to Lewis:
Marlo –Thank you Michael T. Eckhart, you have convinced me that the Church of Global Warming is a complete and total scam.
You are so full of crap.
You have been proven wrong. The entire world has proven you wrong. You are the last guy on Earth to get it. Take this warning from me, Marlo. It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar. If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on.
Mike
Michael T. Eckhart
President
American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE)
But that's not what this little post is about. This is about the Leftist Mind and Comrade Eckhart is the perfect example of it.
First he traditionally opens the message with an insult.
You are so full of crap.Note, he does not present any evidence of the particular kind of crap that Marlo Lewis is full of, because the beauty of name calling is that you don't have to justify it.
Then he makes a broad declaration about Lewis and his work.
You have been proven wrong. The entire world has proven you wrong. You are the last guy on Earth to get it.Please note that he declares Lewis as wrong, but presents no evidence of how Lewis is wrong. Because the Leftist Mind knows that presenting evidence is an invitation to debate. Debate is the last thing the Leftist wants, because it causes people to ask questions, and questions inevitably lead to the Leftist being proven wrong.
The Leftist will believe anything declared by their leaders as long as it fits their prejudice (otherwise known as the meta-narrative) of Judeo-Christian capitalist democratic culture (AKA The Western Way) being the font of all evil in the world, from terrorism to crappy weather.
Debate leads to people discovering that the Western Way is not a force for evil, but an often fumbling, but usually positive force in the world.
Debate must be crushed.
To crush debate you must use threats.
Take this warning from me, Marlo. It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar.Gee, whatever happened to agreeing to disagree on an issue. A reasonable person would present facts and evidence to prove their point, but the Leftist isn't reasonable.
They believe that anyone who does not blindly obey their leaders is more than just wrong, they are evil. Now their belief in evil doesn't extend to the sort of people who set off car bombs in crowded markets or blow up schools, they are just misunderstood products of Judeo-Christians.
To the Leftist the only evil that really exists is anyone who doesn't blindly accept the edicts and declarations of the high priests of Leftism and that evil must be destroyed.
And they make threats like this...
If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community of which you and I are members.Loosely translated, practice your right to free speech and the Leftists will socially ostracize and destroy you for your crime of disobedience.
And folks wonder why a lot of academics are scared to criticize the Leftists. While the Right is a pretty diverse group with many facets and internal disagreements, the Left has morphed into a monolithic slab of ideology that threatens to crush anyone who asks it a question.
And then they bring out the Left's favourite bogeyman...
I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America.Oooh! Corporate America!
The Left's all-purpose villain!
The question I would like to ask the Leftists is why is "Corporate America" considered so evil while most Leftist organizations are funded by a small clique of rich hedge fund billionaires who profit, not by producing and marketing goods or services, but by creating and exploiting economic and social chaos from Eastern Europe, to South America, and even the Bank of England.
Do they honestly think that these people have the best interests of the common man at heart?
They have to because these billionaires, like Al Qaida terrorists, tell them that their prejudices are right. And being told that you are right, is more important than actually being right.
Then the Leftist usually wraps up with yet another declaration, usually something along the lines of "Mine's bigger than yours."
Go ahead, guy. Take me on.You see Eckhart really doesn't want anyone to take him on. He's hoping that his combination of insults, broad declarations, and threats will cow the insolent rebel, namely Marlo Lewis, into quiet submission.
How does one defeat the Leftist?
You will never convince a Leftist that they are wrong. Their prejudices are essential to their existence, and if they have to give them up, they have to develop an identity as an individual, and that's too much work.
The best bet of reasonable people is to educate the people in what Vox Poplar calls the "militant middle" about the importance of debate and discussion, and the ultimately positive influence of the Western Way.
I wonder how many long rambling combinations of insults, threats, and broad, often prejudiced, declarations will clog my pleas box.
That's all for now, keep watching the skies, because we're watching you.
______________________________
UPDATE: Thanks to our lovely and fragrant commenters, namely Commander0 and B.C. I've learned that not only is Michael T. Eckhart a poor excuse for an enviro-bully, he also is reported as having considerable financial interests in maintaining the level of hysteria over global warming. And he accuses Marlo Lewis of being a slave to Corporate America. Hello Kettle, I got Pot on the phone, he wants to call you something.
I would also like to thank B.C. of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller for the nice plug on their blog, which has brought us more visitors than the usual crowd who stumble on us after mistaking the name Xran with X-Rated.
Thanks. You will probably not be enslaved when my hordes conquer your puny little wretch of a world.
20 comments:
Fantastic piece and dead on right!
Thank you for your voice in the blogosphere!
Komrade Eckhart doesn't know how much shi'ite he just stepped in. Someone should take a video camera, follow the assmonkey around and produce one of those Southwest Airlines "Wanna Get Away"® commercials over the next few weeks.
This was a most excellent Fisking, Remulak. Keep up the good work.
"They believe that anyone who does not blindly obey their leaders is more than just wrong, they are evil."
This is why they won't accept anyone disagreeing with them. It results in a failure to act civilized and rational. A loss for us all.
What a complete asshat. "Harvard community?" His derivative diatribe mimics a dung beetle grub snouting a ball of jackass dung.
Excellent retort Remulak.
Commander0 here. I checked the mung's bio and found this:
Michael T. Eckhart
Michael T. Eckhart is President of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE), a member of the Chairmen's Committee of the World Council On Renewable Energy (WCRE), and President of Solar International Management, Inc. He has over 25 years of experience in power generation, high technology, and renewable energy, and is widely recognized for his recent work in the development of innovative financing strategies for solar energy in the U.S., Europe, Japan,
Seems to me that he has quite the financial interest in hysteria mongering. The whore.
CommanderO said: "Seems to me that he has quite the financial interest in hysteria mongering. The whore."
Not just a whore, but a hypocrite of the worst kind.
Not only does he falsely (libelously?) accuse Mr. Lewis of being a "corporate shill", but he blithely omits HIS OWN "corporate interests/financial ties" and potential monetary gains from The Great GlowBull Worming Scam™.
Quoth'd Mr. Kettle to Mr. Pot: "I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America."
"Hypocrisy, thy name is Komrade Asshat Eckhart.
As a wise man (so to speak) once said, "What a maroon!"
And a freakin' Maoist to boot! All Lewis said was, "Hey, maybe even if we take as a given anthropogenic global warming, it may not be such a bad thing when you take global economic growth into account." So what happens when he publishes this? Some Eckhart clown has to go crap in Lewis's inbox with insults and vague threats.
Whatever happened to reasoned debate?
Thanks for the extra info on Mr. Eckhart Commander0 and B.C.. I'll have to update the posting.
Well done, Remulak.. I am new to your site, directed here by the Rott. Being a Rottie, I enjoyed your blog and plan to keep reading it. Especially updates regarding this matter.
I'm very sceptical about politics of all kinds ...
... just passing through my friend ... you are officially the Next Blog after mine on the giant Blogger's "roll" ...
come by some time!
I'm at
http://gledwood2.blogspot.com
see yer later hopefully!
all the very best 2u
from
Gledwood
"vol 2" ...
I stumbled in here because someone used a link here to get to my blog LOVED the article I will bookmark this post. ;-)
Particularly since some of the language I have been getting slammed with on an international forum where I have been striding the guantlet with one lonely supporter in global warming debatge with a passel of Europeans and American Progressives.
Shoot I figure when they sputter spew and start calling you names you have won, LOL
Oh I think you of all people will get a kick out of this someone from the netherlands just did a
google.nl search for
carbon offsets big business
and ended up reading a post where I put forth that hunters deserve carbon offset credits because deer emit methane breath carbon dioxide and eat plants which reduce CO2 levels I called it
The Bambi Carbon Offset ;-)
gotta go check to see if they left a comment
This is such crap. Why did I bother reading?
Because deep down, you know your alien overlords are right about everything.
Anony-troll, I was expecting a big cut & paste 500 word post on how the Goracle is so right and we're all killing the planet and global wormening is real.
But just one insult.
Are you well?
Great article!
It amazes me people actually buy into Gorebal warming when we are observing the same thing happening on Mars.
Apparently observation and empirical evidence are no longer needed to prove a theory. :)
To All Readers of this Blog:
The correspondence between Marlo Lewis and Mike Eckhart should be taken in context. Below for your background information is the original response posted by Mr. Eckhart on July 15th on the ACORE blog.
Thank you for reading this background material.
Jim Pierobon & The ACORE Communications Staff
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To All:
The Competitive Enterprise Institute has made public a July 13, 2007 email that I sent to Dr. Marlo Lewis, CEI’s chief analyst on climate change. This private communication to Dr. Lewis is part of a two-year series of communications between us about CEI’s campaign to stop public policy on global warming. The campaign is led by Fred Smith, CEI’s President, and Dr. Lewis.
I apologize to all in the public who were offended by the email, because it was not intended for public display. You could not be aware of the two-year context of it, nor the choice of words in it – words that were only significant to Dr. Lewis and myself. Now that it is in the public, however, everyone deserves to understand the context.
Summary
I believe that global warming is occurring. The evidence is overwhelming and persuasive both from a statistical as well as anecdotal basis. Last year, the President of the National Wildlife Federation told the story about how a multi-billion duck hunting industry in Arkansas has disappeared – the ducks only fly south to Illinois any more.
Recently, we have learned about the acidification of the oceans and the attendant accelerated loss of coral and other marine life.
This week, credible scientific organizations will predict that the North Pole will no longer have ice in the summer, beginning just ten years from now. Glaciers are melting. If the ice bank on Greenland melts, the seas could rise as much as 20 feet. This is serious business, affecting all.
In my opinion, CEI, and especially Dr. Lewis, has been presenting a false prosecution — a knowingly false prosecution — of the global warming issue, to the detriment of society and the billions of people who will be affected by climate change. This should offend all who believe in integrity and honesty in public affairs.
Dr. Lewis admitted to me two years ago that he does not necessarily believe that global warming is not happening – he is pursuing it for another reason: his philosophical opposition to big government. He has hijacked our issue to further his philosophical ideas about government. I respectfully object.
My email to Dr. Lewis was in the context of personal combat and jousting that has been going on in the background — using his own words, as described below, to prod him out this false prosecution of global warming.
Background
The interchange and jousting began two years ago when Dr. Lewis and I were invited to debate the issue on E&E TV, and we had 20 minutes to talk beforehand in the green room. It was a 20-minute monologue by Dr. Lewis.
He informed us that he is a trained professional debater from Harvard University with a PhD in Philosophy, but that he came out of the experience with the opposite philosophy of most Harvard graduates who believe that government is the solution to society’s problems. He said that he believes that it is excessive government that is the root of most problems in modern society, and that big government must be stopped. He said that one of his life’s goals is to show the Harvard crowd that they are wrong.
He went on the say that environmentalists are, in his view, “just full of cr*p” and that they are falsely using the threat of climate change to gain control of the power of government. He said that he has a permanent dedication to destroy their careers, hence my use of the same phrases. His method, based on his training in philosophical argument, is not to attack them, but to attack their underlying assumptions, in this case the technical arguments that global warming is happening.
I asked him, then: “so your argument against global warming is just a tactic in a larger battle you are waging against big government?” He said: “Yes, correct.”
Dr. Lewis went on to say that he might just as easily make the argument that global warming IS happening, and that, actually, he is a bit concerned about it, but he could not let that sidetrack him from his life’s work to stop big government.
I then asked if there was any possibility that we could talk him into joining the climate change movement and take the lead on developing non-government solutions, since he is against government solutions. He said that this was an intriguing idea, but, no, he couldn’t do it. He said that his job is not to be a consultant on solutions; his mission is to stop big government.
We were called into the studio and I concluded by saying that I had never met such a brilliant mind that was, in my opinion, so off track on intellectual honesty, and asked if he thought it would consider it fair play if I tried to stop him as much as he is trying to stop us. He said: “fair is fair” and we went into the televised debate.
A member of my staff was with us in the Green Room. You will see Dr. Lewis’ own words in my July 13 email.
Subsequent Communications
Since that first event, Dr. Lewis and Fred Smith and I have discussed on several occasions the honesty or dishonesty of hijacking the global warming issue to further their philosophy about making government smaller. I confronted Fred Smith on this in May 2006. There have been several exchanges. For example:
On September 22, 2006, Dr. Lewis sent a campaign email saying: “I attach for your reading pleasure the latest version of my Skeptic’s Guide to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.”
In reply, on September 25, I wrote to Fred Smith and Marlo Lewis: “I am writing to say that I am very unhappy to see this continuing false analysis coming out of CEI, seeking to refute the issue of global warming. What concerns me is that you are credible and persuasive, hence your voice and that of CEI are having the effect of delaying a US response to the crisis. The only explanation that I can see is that you are doing this because you are paid by ExxonMobil and other clients to do so. I find this outrageous, that my children will have a lesser life because you are being paid by oil companies to spread a false story.”
On September 26, Dr. Lewis wrote back to me: “Talk about an inconvenient truth! How inconvenient for some people that fossil fuels played an indispensable role in ending slavery and serfdom, extending human lifespan, etc.”
This was clearly going no where, and it rested for a while.
Turning the Corner on the Acceptance of Global Warming
Coincidently, however, I was informed that ExxonMobil ended its many years of funding CEI’s anti-climate campaign the following month, at the time of a speech by ExxonMobil’s CEO Rex W. Tillerson to the Boston CEO Club on November 30, 2006, in which he said:
“While the scientific community continues this study, we should pursue public policies that start gradually and learn along the way with full recognition of the economic consequences of certain actions and we should bring all countries into the effort…We should start on a path to reduce the likelihood of the worst outcomes… and understand the context of managing carbon emissions among other developing world priorities, such as economic development, poverty eradication and public health. Consistent with this approach, we should take steps now to reduce emissions in effective and meaningful ways.”
The most conservative companies in the oil industry are turning the corner on the global warming issue in a thoughtful and honest way. We also are seeing the electric utility industry study the matter carefully, recognizing that the future is a carbon-constrained world and they must find practical ways of working in it. And many serious people from industry, finance, the professions, academia, commerce, the nonprofit sector and government have looked at this and concluded that we as a society must take action now, for the sake of society as we know it, and for the sake of the generations who come after us.
The Issue Today
In the face of this came another analysis by Dr. Lewis this past week on July 12, undermining the inconvenient and now compelling truth about global warming, and I said: ‘enough is enough.” I challenged Dr. Lewis using his own words from that Green Room conversation two years ago, and challenged him to take me on, to resolve this issue. I have challenged him to debate this out, but he refuses, instead leaking my jousting email to him.
As to the email, there can be no excuse for it in the public’s eye, or out of the context of years of communications in the background. I apologize to all who have read it.
To CEI, however, there can be no apology. Quite the opposite. It is time to end CEI’s disingenuous undermining of worldwide concern about global warming. To resolve this, I again challenge Dr. Lewis to a series of personal debates on global warming that would go on for a month, with daily exchanges. There would be a running public vote. We would agree to accept the vote of the American people on the debate.
We must begin a nonpartisan, bi-partisan, and universal move forward to manage carbon in society and implement solutions in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy, other non/low-carbon energy, and the management of oceans, biodiversity and forestation.
I believe that a cleaner world will be a more productive world with more security, longer lives, broader equity, more peace, more prosperity, and greater freedom than the status quo can possibly offer. It will not be big government delivering a solution, but the entire complex of government, the private sector and civil society adapting to a better path.
I believe that an open debate on these issues will reveal the truth of the matter. I call Dr. Lewis out of his analytic hideaway at CEI.
I will be happy to debate this out with Dr. Lewis and seek an answer, and again apologize to everyone for having the private email communication leaked to the press, distracting everyone from the serious matters at hand.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael T. Eckhart
July 15, 2007
Posted by Michael Eckhart on July 15, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Filed under General Renewable Energy
Great article!! I am so happy I am not the only one who thinks "global warming" is CRAP! By the way, I just got my F250 filled up and I'm headed to the butcher shop to pick up a side of beef. RAVE ON GORE!!
Yea to jetman! another sane person. I also just filled my truck and I'm headed out to pick up a trailer load of firewood for the winter. You see I burn trees AND add smoke to the air. How do you like that Eckhart?
To get an idea of how insane this issue is, check out the 1,752-word comment -- which I later turned into a stand-alone post -- received from Eckhart's communications folks regarding a post on my blog about his spat/threat against Dr. Marlo Lewis.
Click on my name as it appears above this comment to read the post. -- Bob
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