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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20577
[Environmental]
Date Posted:
4/27/2009
10:24:26 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 8,769
RSS: 28,240
Comments: 15
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Phil Valentine: Earth Day Boogeymen Depantsing Nation's Schoolchildren
Author: Caleb Hannan (Blog) Source: Nashville Scene (TN)
Title: PHIL VALENTINE: EARTH DAY BOOGEYMEN DEPANTSING NATION'S SCHOOLCHILDREN
Earth Day is a sham. There, we said it.
Maybe some of you think it's cool to celebrate a bunch of dirt and lava and tectonic plates. But last time we checked, false idols were still a smiteworthy offense. And there's nothing "cool" about a slow indoctrination into the neopagan cult that is Wicca. Unless you count the flowing robes. We've got nothing against those. But as we've said before, that's strictly a comfort thing.
Anyway. Our Anti Earth Day stance isn't shared by everyone. In fact, it's made us so unpopular we've found ourselves stranded on an ideological island.
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Community Thoughts: There are 15 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| If You Look Closely... | Apr 29th. at 5:36:48 am EDT
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Moonlight Wolf (Bradford, England) - Email Me
...you can see it is satire. If it was real then why on earth does he undermine all the arguments put forward?
First we have the arguments for Earth Day, about it being loving the Earth, loving our oxygen (pretty difficult to live without it) and loving the ground we walk on. What is the reason given for being against Earth Day? We're scaring the kiddies! (A pretty shallow one sentence argument to counter a much deeper argument for caring for Mama Gaia.)
Next we have the arguments about the heating of the Earth and about 'the strange trend of hot Springs' which kind of undermines the argument that the scientists haven't proven anything. (Now can anyone explain the string of wet Summers that we've been having? Or the strain of mostly mild Winters)
Following that we have the petition signed by psychologists and doctors, who aren't really qualified to make assessments on the state of the Earth, more like the state of an individual's body and mind.
Come on people, take a look at the article, look at how each argument against Earth Day is subtly undermined and the shallow dismissal of that undermining. That's one of the ways satire works.
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| Satire | Apr 28th. at 11:27:41 pm EDT
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nasionnaich (Stanchfield, Minnesota) - Email Me
The article -- or rather, the satirical article -- was not written by Phil Valentine. It was written by Caleb Hannan, and he is poking fun at Phil Valentine. It seems, though, that there are many people who are unable to differentiate between the author and the target of the author's satire.
That is why I said what I said in my previous response -- which appears to have been deleted. "Poe's Law" notwithstanding, a "smiley" is not always required for satirical content, especially when said content is so obviously satirical in nature. (the only "Poe" of any great stature that I am aware of is Edgar Allan Poe, and I seriously doubt he formulated any "law" dealing with internet writing and publishing...) If a "smiley" or "emoticon" is required to convey the actual intent of the written word -- yes, even on the internet -- then nothing of any real substance will ever be written, because those "emoticons" will take up all the page space!
It really isn't all that difficult to decipher the intent of the article, if you pay close attention to what is actually written. Oh, and it also helps to look at where the article is placed. It ain't on the "front page", and it ain't on the "editorial page".
No, the page the article is on is titled "pith in the wind". Caleb Hannan is very obviously "pithing" on Phil Valentine's lunacy.
--nasionnaich
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| It Is Satire | Apr 28th. at 11:27:22 am EDT
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T-Rex (Athens, Georgia) - Email Me
The Caleb Hannan article *is* satire. The article is making fun of Phil Valentine, the person who doesn't believe in global warming.
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| ... | Apr 28th. at 7:12:33 am EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
A Google search of the author will show that this was most certainly NOT satire. This is about as fact-challenged from a stereotypical pathological liar as Pat Robertson's cult.
Google search results for "Phil Valentine" posted below.
Find More info -- HERE
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| POE's LAW | Apr 28th. at 6:57:19 am EDT
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booley (Saint Louis, Missouri) - Email Me
For those that dont' know it it's the internet "law" that states "Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won't mistake for the real thing."
This principle works for any ideologues.
I used to have a boss who was a right wing christian fundlementalist that did say in all seriousness that his son learning about the ecology in school was the same as him being indoctrinated into Wicca.
Hence the problem with trying to parody crazy people. What you say in jest, they probably already beleive in earnest.
Find More info -- HERE
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| ... | Apr 27th. at 9:51:35 pm EDT
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
Another fact-challenged piece of s**t from yet another meth-head.
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| But One Thing Scares Me More | Apr 27th. at 8:03:36 pm EDT
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Aidan Odinson (Collingdale, Pennsylvania) - Email Me - Web
And that is that someone might take such an article seriously.
Look at all the uproar over Landover Baptist Church, after all.
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| It's Like Picking On The "Challenged" Kid... | Apr 27th. at 7:56:23 pm EDT
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Wild Huntsman (Toronto, Ontario) - Email Me
OK, I guess Caleb's send-up of Phil Valentine's "Opinion" is sort-of funny, but he doesn't do sarcasm very well at all. Phil's piece is, by itself, almost so ridiculous in itself that it would be funnier just to poke straight fun at it.
Read through the original post that he was sending up and it is the usual denial of truth by disingenuous facts and microfocus that we have come to expect from those who just don't want to admit that their lifestyle, their deepest-held belief in the greatness of their way of life is, in fact, utterly corrupt and destructive.
The American Dream (TM) used to be about having your own business or small farm (as contrasted against being a tenant farmer or serf) , being part of a strong democratic community, and working for the good of all. This has been corrupted into buying lots of stuff, more and more every year, which requires ever more resources and ever more energy, creates ever higher levels of debt, and produces increasing amounts of persistent toxins in the environment.
Earth Day has always been a protest against rampant consumerism and has always been global in its demands. How Phil manages to decide that it has anything to do with Wicca is a mystery to me, and I suspect disparate groups such as the Amish, or the Ontario Christian Farmer's Alliance, for example, might find themselves a tad miffed to be described as such.
This is a not-very successful piece of sarcasm aimed at poking fun at a typically ignorant reactionary attempt to get the Christian conservatives all riled up about some supposed new threat to their ideology.
We can expect much more, and increasingly desperate, anti-global warming claptrap from this camp given how Reality (TM) is now giving all their pet ideological political delusions about the rest of the world such a good and thorough bitch-slapping. As it is becoming grossly apparent that their economic beliefs are delusional, their arrogant assumption that the rest of the world being too cowed to fight back is becoming painfully impossibly to maintain, and the suburban dream with the detached McMansion and the SUV is turning into a polluting, toxic, and empty way of life.
I suppose it's only natural that they go on a witch hunt, it's all they've got left.
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| Don't Know What You've Got Till It's Gone... | Apr 27th. at 5:34:39 pm EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
I agree with the poster who stated that Earth is definitely not a false idol.
She however, has had the dubious honor of being a garbage bucket, a pantry and a latrine for some time now, a tertiary consideration for those in favor of seeking a bright shiny new world once they have destroyed everything they had no use for on the old one in the name of progress and\or religion.
While I see that much of the hype about Earth day is really window dressing, it is at least focusing on the fact that -so far, we have only one planet on which to live, and it really isn't the Earth who is in danger, but rather-our place on it which is tenuous at best. She will eventually change, but whether humanity can ride with it remains to be seen.
We who pride ourselves for being so resilient are likely to be tested very severely soon enough. And those who think that they are going to reap a ready made shiny new world--may find themselves stuck on the same old one after all, having to clean up after themselves anyway.
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| Oops | Apr 27th. at 2:12:51 pm EDT
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LD Wolverine (Edmonton, Alberta) - Email Me
Well the top of the article had Valentine's name so I thought it was his article. He's still a petty little man anyway, Valentine that is.
Peace.
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| It's Sarcasm | Apr 27th. at 1:08:51 pm EDT
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Raihana (Nashville, Tennessee) - Email Me
About the Phil Valentine stuff
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| Ermm... Have Another Look | Apr 27th. at 12:42:46 pm EDT
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WyndWoman (Contoocook, New Hampshire) - Email Me
The author of this column, Caleb Hannan, is ripping on Phil Valentine, a different blogger who actually believes this stuff.
If you look at the rest of the articles listed on that site, you'll see a whole lot of biting commentary against conservative viewpoints.
Valentine is the actual nutjob.
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| Deluded | Apr 27th. at 11:56:08 am EDT
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LD Wolverine (Edmonton, Alberta) - Email Me
Denile isnt just a river you know. I this this is a scared petty little man. Either that, or lazy as all get out.
Perhaps he see's the Earth as a temporary home for him, that when he dies he'll go to paradice and it wont matter what happens to the earth. Well, thats ok by me. I learned a LONG time ago that there is no amount of proof, argueing or debate that can change these a**holes minds. Its like being the big sister to a destructive younger siblings and your parents wont spank him. Eventually you get tired of talking till you're blue in the face and resign yourself to the fact you not only have to clean up after yourself, but him too, if your house is to stay liveable.
Thats what I have resigned myself to. I do everything I have the time and resources for in my own home...and then clean up the streets I walk along, and the parks I take my child to. Eventually I will be able to afford the lovely hybred cars...or maybe by the time I'm able to afford that, they would have come out with the Hydrogen ones I have been hearing talk about...I dont know much about it but it seems nice to think that I could drive, and only have Water left over. At least I think its the hydrogen car that does that.-
Its not much, but I think if we all did that, the world will be a cleaner place dispite the pigs that live in it.
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| Stranded On An Island | Apr 27th. at 11:44:29 am EDT
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Fiat Knox (Wrexham, Wales) - Email Me
The poster states "Anyway. Our Anti Earth Day stance isn't shared by everyone. In fact, it's made us so unpopular we've found ourselves stranded on an ideological island. "
Perhaps he should shut up, then, and learn to swim in the ocean with the rest of us. Or just plain old stop trolling. If the Earth's atmosphere burns up around us, he won't be any more immune than the rest of us, and we are all responsible for this tiny ball of rock and the life thereon, so people who think like this are the e equivalent of an idiot trying to set fire to the seats on the bus he's sitting on. He'll kill all the passengers and driver, destroy the bus, but he thinks he can just walk away from the inferno. How?
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