As IF Times

link Big UN environmental summit opens in Rio – CBS News.

“Honey, this year, we’ll be doing our climate conference shtick in Rio!”

“Why that’s wonderful dear!  Wow, getting that job as a UN diplomat was a brilliant move on your part 20 years ago!  We’ve seen the world in opulent luxury, have never spent a dime for any of it and in fact got paid millions of tax free dollars to do so!  Let’s see, where have we been recently, Copenhagen, Kyoto, Durban, Cancun and now Rio.  You are a genius!”

“Aw shucks honey, it was just luck that’s all.  Who would have thought that 20 years after this whole climate charade started that it would still be going on today.  We’re like the Rolling Stones’ final tour.  We’ll just milk it until the idiots figure it out.  When they do, we’ll find some other world ending cause.”

“But how can they not have caught on by now? Didn’t you all say that it was all going to end badly from the outset 20 years ago, that time was running out?”

“Yes, but no one remembers those things.  Besides, every year some new poster child for the consequence of human negligence pops up.  If not spotted owls, it’s penguins, polar bears, or whales or worms or bees.  There’s always somebody missing.   Now, you don’t even have to count missing animals, just tell ’em that ice is disappearing…ICE!”

“Won’t the masses find out one day?  I mean, what actually is the date for final extinction?”

“Shhh!  There isn’t one!  We just keep telling them that the end is near and that way, they’ll keep paying us to tell them it’s soon!  Come to think of it, you’re right, it IS sheer genius!  Now don’t bother me honey, go shopping for a new swimsuit or something.  I have to practice my speech in that Morgan Freeman voice that people fall for.  Actually, let’s both go bauble shopping, I’ll just dust off an old speech, no one will know the difference.”

link Janeane Garofalo: Racist Republicans Support Herman Cain | RealClearPolitics.

The perpetuation of drivel from entertainment personalities continues.  At this time of year, while most people are critically assessing the new crop of TV shows for the fall season, the best reality show going on is the battle for the public’s mind concerning the upcoming 2012 presidential elections.

For the average person, it’s a big snooze-fest, as exciting as watching infomercials on late night TV.  For those with an interest in human nature and a stake in the future of the country, it’s enormously entertaining.  Just as TV has descended from  programming offering compelling dramas and witty comedy to now showcasing contrived cartoons and base humor, political discourse has also pushed to new levels of coarseness.  Despite characterizations to the contrary by most media outlets, it is the ongoing opinions of the left that are the most amusing and wildly entertaining if not for the seriousness of the topics.

For most people, determining who is sane and who isn’t sane is relatively easy.  You observe what they say and compare it to reality.  If there’s a significant and consistent divergence, then questioning sanity is valid.  Good examples of the latter would be Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore and as evidenced by the linked article, Janeane Garofalo.  An interesting give-away of insanity is the apportment of the hipster horn-rimmed glasses in which they are often photographed.  Rather than create an image of intelligence however, it instead conveys a look of crazed fanaticism with the only missing element being foam at the mouth.  Some may notice that from time to time, in an effort to look intelligent, Rachel Maddow and Matt Damon also wear these types of frames. 

The opinions of acting and entertainment personalities are frequently employed in the media to push a particular point of view, typically the so-called liberal or progressive perspective.  We assume this is done, not to just display the obvious nuttiness of the messenger, but to curry influence with the target audience of the TV network or newspaper.  After all, these people are paid entertainers who ACT for a living; in essence, they are  like hand puppets , tools used to convey a message.  For that vast number of people who don’t have their own formed opinions, this tactic will work.  For most people over the age of 12 with a modest exposure to real life, it won’t or shouldn’t. 

In the recent bleat by Garofalo, obviously important enough to be publicized by media outlets, she joins another actor, Morgan Freeman of assigning racism as the root of the troubles that befall Americans today.  Freeman recently opined that the troubles of Obama center on his race and not the record of ineptitude that has marked his time in office.  For Garofalo’ s part, she thinks that a Republican presidential contender, Herman Cain, is merely a ruse and a cover for the racist base of the Tea Party movement.   Cain is about as wholesome and apple pie as you can get, but this is moot.  In other words, it doesn’t matter how valid a person is, if they are playing for the other team, they are dismissed as being irrelevant.  No racism there. 

It’s impossible to satisfy their ideological biases.   They are unwilling to accept that in a free society, people can have opinions that differ from theirs.  Global warming is a fact, if you don’t believe it, you are a denier of truth.  When someone has a cup of coffee from Starbucks, they are contributing to the massive “military, industrial complex enslaving indigenous people and depleting resources”.  Or, they may just be having a cup of coffee.  If current political policies are not working well, it may not be because of racism.  It may be just that they’re stupid.

It’s great to watch the ongoing melodrama of political sparring,  it makes for great TV.   I only wish the dialogue from the left gets better…or they get credible actors.