The Beatrice Fiddler

"This is the zealotry and intolerance of the auto-da-fé."

Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby weighs in with a good summary of the recent acts of extreme intolerance from the hard left on global warming:

This is the zealotry and intolerance of the auto-da-fé. The last place it belongs is in public-policy debate. The interesting and complicated phenomenon of climate change is still being figured out, and as much as those determined to turn it into a crusade of good vs. evil may insist otherwise, the issue of global warming isn't a closed book. Smearing those who buck the "scientific consensus" as traitors, toadies, or enemies of humankind may be emotionally satisfying and even professionally lucrative. It is also indefensible, hyperbolic bullying. That the bullies are sure they are doing the right thing is not a point in their defense.

The parts of Jacoby's column where he goes back to Newsweek from 1975--when they thought the Big Chill was coming down the pike and explain that the scientific consensus is completely behind that idea--are priceless.

Newsweek: Ugly

I'm not going to feel sorry for Newsweek after their disgusting display in this week's article about global warming.

But if I were going to feel sorry for them, I would consider it after Okieonthelam considered their "article" and then pounced.

That's gotta hurt.

De-humanizing people who don't agree with you

Newsbusters reports on Robert Kennedy Jr's outburst at Saturday's Live Earth concert. Kennedy says in his rant that the oil companies are actually traitors to the country:

This is treason and we need to start treating them now as traitors.

He also says:

I will see all of you on the barricades.

This is disgusting. If the discussion about global warming leads to this de-humanization and a call for basically criminalizing what other people think and say, there is something very, very wrong with the left in this country.