As IF Times

link Pelosi: Dems have ‘very good chance’ of retaking House – On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election – USATODAY.com.

It seems there is an endless supply of Kool Aid.  The best way to characterize Ms. Pelosi is that she is the alter ego of Harold Camping, he of course from the ‘end of the world’ campaign.  While Camping  exhorts people to repent and be saved when the end finally comes, Ms. Pelosi essentially exhorts people to just carry on being idiots and then their gang will regain the House. 

Undeterred by the havoc that her reign in office caused to the American people, she blithely insists that the tidal wave of economic and social destruction swamping the nation is actually clearing the decks for a resumption of her party to a majority in government.  Ms. Pelosi seems to think that people will buy into the economic theory embraced by the liberal Democrats that if you spend enough money, all the bills will be paid off.  She shares the same delusional view as an eighty year old stripper about her job prospects.  Sure there’s optimism, but there’s also an annoying  thing called reality.   As stated before many times here, anyone is free to say what they want in a free society.  What is puzzling is the audience that these crazies capture.  It’s Lucy and Charlie Brown with the football played out in real life.  It dawns on me that a very large segment of society will  keep lunging for the football knowing full well they’re going to miss.   How is this any different from Harold Camping’s followers who, in the absence of any kind of evidence, buy into his version of reality?

Aha, so that’s the secret.  Tap into your particular constituency and market it in a big way.  No matter how far from the earth’s orbit your ideas may be, there will always be an audience that will embrace you as an omniscient savant.   If not for the fact that the kind of demagoguery that Pelosi practices is dangerous, it would be extremely farcical.  There’s great irony in a party which preaches togetherness and kumbaya, but then identifies and categorizes groups in society that are ‘more equal’ than others.  Theirs is the world of have versus have not, race versus race and us versus them.   As a pundit on a talk show recently commented, Pelosi and her ilk are fostering a society where “earning money doesn’t entitle you to it, but wanting it does”. Combine this with a media that is unable to determine where the line separating right from wrong or what constitutes truth versus lies and you have as a result, the cultural zeitgeist that we are in today. 

That Pelosi can still be considered a legitimate spokesman for the incumbents despite the calamitous last 3 years is truly a credit to her…I guess.  It’s as if she was shopping for wallpaper after the house has burned down.  But we should note that Harold Camping still has an audience too.

link Prince Charles urges British families to snub the bathtub | Mail Online.

Please somebody stop it!  It’s as if some aliens from another world spiked the water supply of the earth and caused massive stupidity to break out among humans.  How can we possibly explain the behavior of various societies, including the so called civilized first world when people listen to the rantings and exhortations of insane people?

A guy like our hero Charles has managed to live an anachronistic lifestyle partly because of some good warrior skills by his long ago ancestors and partly at the favor of the people he ‘rules’.  Really? Do people still need to be ruled?  Are people born with some innate ruling gene? Does the font of wisdom and power spout from their family basins? 

A hundred or so years ago, perhaps the answer would have been yes.  At this point in human history, with the kind of knowledge that’s widely available, you would think that if you were lucky enough to be born into a family that had laughable privileges over the rest of society, which you in no way earned, that you would just shut up and leave well alone.

But no, not our guy Chuck.  Not content to sit on the throne like a porcelain figurine to be admired by his subjects, he deigns to impress them with his sage wisdom.  Unfortunately for him, he’s missed his opportunity to issue Royal decrees by a few hundred years.  In the old days, if he ordered 5 minute showers, then 5 minute showers it was.  In our present time however, it may be more difficult to convince the dirty unwashed that HRH’s exhortations are any more than the usual ravings of an elitist windbag.  And come on, based on his personal history, shall we say his judgement is a bit lacking?

That’s not to pick on Charles, who I’m sure needs to have some worthy cause to champion in order to pass the long days doing nothing.  What ever happened to world hunger or world education?  Meanwhile, across the pond on this side of the Atlantic, North Americans also seem fond of the edicts and bleatings of their own versions of intellectual royalty; actors, musicians, lawyers and politicians.

Speaking of Al Gore, he’s at it again, telling his flock that more protests should be mounted in favour of global warming issues.  He’s a shining example of living a life of sustainability with his community center sized houses, his judicious use of personal jets and shrewd investments in green technology, which purely by coincidence benefit from his lobbying of the federal government.  Ascetic Al we’ll call him.

Is this how people want to exist?  To confer benefits and privileges to those who would deny that same lifestyle to those who pay for them? What is the point of evolution and the advancement of man and society if we don’t benefit from technology and science?  Who wants to wear clothing made of hemp and rope?  Who wants to ride a horse to the mall instead of taking the Toyota?  Why don’t actors and singers do village minstrel shows instead of using valuable resources to distribute music and film?  Why buy Ipods and TV’s when you can just have entertainment by story tellers in the village square?  Why have phones when you can just use smoke signals?  My guess is that you won’t find a lot of Greenies living in mud floor huts;  more likely in some comfortable suburban home with air conditioning and 3 bathrooms.

There are still societies that believe stoning people to death is a reasonable method of punishment.  I suppose that method is sustainable and doesn’t stress the environment, but why not also just bleed people when they’re ill instead of using modern medicine? Why even bother with research into medicine that can save lives? 

Again I don’t blame Ascetic Al or HRH, they are mere figureheads for the movements they represent.  It’s as if knowledge and common sense were at opposite ends of a fulcrum wherein ascent of one means the descent of the other.  I blame the aliens from outer space for infecting our water supply so that we listen and follow these loons like compliant lemmings.  I blame the aliens for making people think that 5 minute showers and green taxes will save the world.  Or maybe it’s not the water supply, maybe it’s kool-aid.