Poltics
In which Ms. Steinem redeems herself
That "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs" bit is pure gold :
Selecting Sarah Palin, who was touted all summer by Rush Limbaugh, is no way to attract most women, including die-hard Clinton supporters. Palin shares nothing but a chromosome with Clinton. Her down-home, divisive and deceptive speech did nothing to cosmeticize a Republican convention that has more than twice as many male delegates as female, a presidential candidate who is owned and operated by the right wing and a platform that opposes pretty much everything Clinton's candidacy stood for -- and that Barack Obama's still does. To vote in protest for McCain/Palin would be like saying, "Somebody stole my shoes, so I'll amputate my legs."
Y'all know how pissed off I got after La Steinem wrote that horrid anti-Obama Op/Ed for the New York Times and that my beef with her is just not new. This time around she serves her purpose well for, indeed, all what Palin and Clinton share is nothing but a chromosome. Yet Ms. Steinem needs to go further.
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Climate Change / Language ethics
From: Mike Hulme
Director, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Source for full statement: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6115644.stm
Partial quote:
cont....
But over the last few years a new environmental phenomenon has been constructed in this country - the phenomenon of "catastrophic" climate change.
It seems that mere "climate change" was not going to be bad enough, and so now it must be "catastrophic" to be worthy of attention.
The increasing use of this pejorative term - and its bedfellow qualifiers "chaotic", "irreversible", "rapid" - has altered the public discourse around climate change.
This discourse is now characterised by phrases such as "climate change is worse than we thought", that we are approaching "irreversible tipping in the Earth's climate", and that we are "at the point of no return".
It seems that we, the professional climate scientists, who are now the (catastrophe) sceptics
I have found myself increasingly chastised by climate change campaigners when my public statements and lectures on climate change have not satisfied their thirst for environmental drama and exaggerated rhetoric.
cont....
End quote.
Mike Hulme is Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, and Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
