This was quite real, but it could just as easily have been comedy material for NBC-TV's Saturday Night Live. Or maybe not, because most of every SNL show in recent years is neither funny nor particularly witty. Still. . .
Exhibiting sheer TV viewing agony this week, I expected to worsen my condition by tuning in to PBS-TV news, an almost always superior emetic. Instead, I stumbled upon what should have been labeled pure comedy. Yet, this was obviously serious stuff -- no, it was stuff that took itself seriously -- dragged directly from the bowels of the hysterical GW/CC (global warming/climate change) crowd.
My wildest thoughts rarely, never, involve Iceland, but there it was, stone-cold and, as one might expect, rather icy in appearance. The occasion? A gaggle of, I don't know, scientists or lunatics, maybe a combo, explained to drooling TV cameras their process for turning CO2 into rocks. Taking a tip from volcanic activity, which itself turns CO2 into rocky substances (I think basalt and other substances come into play, but my ancient bachelor's degree concentrated neither on deep science nor lunacy, so I can't be confirmative here), these enthusiastic Icelander science folk provided a guided tour of their equipment, designed not to turn lead into gold, but to transform CO2 gases into rocks, and once one eliminates the somehow troublesome CO2 "problem," rocks are buried deep in the Earth. Or somewhere.
Dedicated they are, apparently hoping one day to cover the planet in CO2 rocks. As usual, however,I'm a tad confused. Don't trees and plants require CO2 to provide oxygen? Don't we require oxygen derived from trees and plants to survive? Isn't CO2 what gives our soft drinks a fizz? Isn't CO2 a part of our lives and naturally occurring about the planet long, long before we showed up? And if it's so bad, how come we humans and other life forms even exist? Should we be taxed by the state for breathing, since the mere act of unforgivable respirations creates CO2 gases?
Of more importance, can a soft drink company bottle syrup and CO2 rocks in the same container and through vigorous shaking produce a fizzy beverage?
Let's not be confused here -- we're not talking about cow farts or other sources of flatulence, including your uncle Harry, where methane enters the discussion. Nope, this concerns pure CO2, and loony Icelandic scientists and their crazily salivating colleagues around the world have some inner demons demanding that they "do something" about it. Me, I wonder what gas or established element they'll pursue once they dispense with CO2 and, as mentioned, methane.
Nevertheless, as I watched the PBS interview, mesmerized as one is mesmerized by the sight of goose poop on one's shoes, I found myself shouting at the TV: "Lunatics!" I yelled. More science based upon questionable computer projections and incomplete science.
May I suggest that CO2 is not the enemy? Lunatic scientists, either desperate for grant money or, perhaps more than we know, attempting to justify their inner need to "do something" about X, Y or Z are the enemy. And when we're told, often, that the-science-is-in, allowing fanatical access to changing our lives or environment "for the better," that is just nuts. Beware, beware, beware, 'cause it's we who receive the inevitable invoice demanding payment for expensive frivolities.
Today's Racism Corner: "Good Morning America" host Amy Robach apologized on the air for saying colored people instead of people of color. An apology? See how much trouble we're in, thanks especially to word-police maniacs of the left? I, in turn, shall henceforth demand that my white privilege be called privilege of white. There, that settles that.
