Left Side of the Aisle #53 - Part 3

Outrage of the Week: Three right-wing idiots

For the Outrage of the Week we consider recent nonsense from a troika of turnip-brains.

First up is Rep. Allen West, Republican of Looney Tunes. He told constituents at a recent town hall event that he's "heard" that around 80 Democrats in the House of Representatives are members of the Communist Party.

It turned out that the people he was referring to are the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. According to West's office, "The Communist Party has publicly referred to the Progressive Caucus as its allies."

The best response came from the Communist Party itself, which replied that it agreed with the Caucus on some things but that hardly makes them commies. In fact, they went on to say, the CP supports public parks and they assume West does, too - which by his own logic makes him a communist. The only shortcoming in that response is that I'm not sure Allen West does support public parks.

Next we have Newt Grinch. He was speaking to the NRA convention last week and he told those assembled they had been "too timid" - yes, that the NRA had been "too timid" - in promoting gun rights. He said the US should push the United Nations to adopt a treaty giving everyone on the planet the right to bear firearms.

Leaving aside the bizarre notion of Newt Grinch and the NRA pushing for UN action, Cenk Uygur had the best response: "We've already tried that. It's called Somalia."

Finally, we have Senator James "Rocks in his head" Inhofe. This one is a bit old but it fits here.

Not long ago he was on a Christian radio program during which he argued that human-driven climate change is impossible because “God’s still up there.” He cited Genesis 8:22, which in the King James version reads “while the earth remaineth seed time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease."

Now, no one says that global warming will cause day and night or summer or winter or whatever to cease, but rather that it will make life very unpleasant for a very large number of us. So what is the relevance of the quote? It doesn't even say that the climate can't change.

So I have no clue why Inhofe says this proves humans can't change the climate - unless, that it, he believes the climate can't change, period, not even through natural processes. In which case, does James Inhofe believe in ice ages?

By the way, he also quoted Romans 1:25 to criticize people who accept the scientific reality of climate change as "worshiping the creation instead of the creator." The unseen connection is again assumed.

These people are idiots - and they are, collectively, the Outrage of the Week.

Sources:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/allen-west-democrats-communist-party_n_1417279.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/11/barney-frank-allen-west_n_1418537.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/13/newt-gingrich-nra_n_1424782.html
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article30799.htm