In a condemnatory speech last week against the Obama administration’s new Environmental Protection Agency carbon emission regulations, Kentucky state Sen. Brandon Smith (R) claimed that man-made climate change is scientifically implausible because Mars and Earth share “exactly” the same temperature.
Smith, the owner of a mining company called Mohawk Energy, argued that despite the fact that the red planet doesn’t have any coal mines, Mars and Earth share a temperature. Therefore, Smith reasoned, coal companies on Earth should be exempt from emission regulations.
During a Natural Resources and Environment Committee meeting Thursday, Smith, the Senate majority whip, said:
"As you [Energy & Environment Cabinet official] sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and our constituents and stuff behind us. I won’t get into the debate about climate change but I’ll simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of."
According to NASA, the average temperature on Earth is 57 degrees Fahrenheit -- 138 degrees above Mars' average of -81 degrees.
I am beginning to think there should be a mandatory entrance exam covering the functions of government, how science works, and economics that every potential candidate for local or national office must pass before being allowed to waste the voter's time.
I mean come on, this is getting ridiculous!
Why does anyone even put an R after the names of members of the GOP anymore? If insane bullshit is emanating from their mouths--we already know what party they come from.
ReplyDeleteIt should be Brandon Smith (I) for insane party.
Sorry Independents--you all will have to come up with
another designation.
Doesn't it worry you that there are life forms in Kentucky that voted for him and would probably vote for him as President?
ReplyDeleteHow can you tell if a Repugnant pol is lying? Her/his lips are moving!
ReplyDeleteOr at the very least, the entire boxed set of Schoolhouse Rock. Sounds like he got his science info from his child's Christian school textbook.
ReplyDeleteReally?
ReplyDeleteOh well. I guess it's time to call it like it is: What an ultra-mroon! (Thanks Bugs!)
Well, NASA might say that the average temperatures of Earth and Mars are different but this guy thinks that the scientists at NASA are lying. They work for the federal government, don't they. And, of course, someone who owns a coal mine in Kentucky would never lie about climate change, would he? Especially if he's a Republican. First of all, how dumb are the people of Kentucky to elect a coal mine owner to the state legislature? They're putting the fox in the middle of the chicken coop. Of course, he probably a fundamentalist pseudo-Christian. That would have made him a suitable candidate there. This guy should be put in a room with ten NASA scientists for 12 hours and then a visit from Neil deGrasse Tyson. Maybe he'd learn a thing or two.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
It used to be you consulted experts and books on subjects you weren't familiar with, bone up on the facts.
DeleteThere is so little trust across party lines, both civilians and politicians that nothing is to be believed unless it came from their own party.
Texts books, teachers, science experts, even media, everything could have a political agenda to them. Some actually do these days. We're lost.
Anon at 5:01 am. There are a lot of textbooks and experts out there who simply care about facts and reality. Unfortunately for the GOP, neither facts nor reality matter. Don't blame everyone for the GOP's inadequacy. And don't create false equivalencies when they do not exits: climate change is real.
DeleteBeaglemom
6:10, what I meant (5:01) was that THEY believe that the books, teachers etc all have an agenda-- unless it fits their own beliefs or suits them in some way. Sorry for not being to clear there!
DeleteThey could be locked in a room with every scientist from NASA, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, and the entire faculty from every university graduate science department in the country, and they STILL wouldn't believe a word any of them said.
DeleteLike the climate change deniers who dismiss the 99.9% of scientists who know that climate change is real and already seriously affecting people on our planet, these yahoos will only listen to the .1% who preach what their oil company benefactors tell them to.
No amount of information, proof, documentation, or experimentation will change their minds.
In the classic Who's on First, Sen Smith was known as Dumbfuck, the Bull Pen Catcher.
ReplyDeleteIts hard to believe anymore when you read articles like this that this is 2014.....WTF? Where do these ignorant people come from and how do they get elected? If the campaign finance bullshit was finally changed I wonder what the current crop would look like....would we get intelligent, knowledgeable candidates? This guy is beyond the pale.
ReplyDeleteOff topic....this crisis at the border has again, shown the true colors of the current GOP. Heartless, evil, mean...we need a new word for hypocrisy. I have only heard a few times by commentators about the MILLIONS of refuges in the worn torn middle east we ask Jordon & Turkey to absorb...we send money there to help FFS....why are we so special?
Seeing that asshole Rick Perry & Hannity looking all gangster with their guns in that boat on the Rio Grande is so beyond disgusting. So we are what...shooting women & children? I wish we would hear from all the other countries disgusted with this GOP display....shame upon shame. That judge in Dallas is a true Christian and he is shining a huge light on what has become yet another disgrace. I simply don't know how Obama keeps his spirits so high....this entire country needs to vote in Nov and wipe the entire GOP out once & for all.
Here is another example.
ReplyDelete"MN Republican bases economic agenda on theory that sperm enzymes in anus causes AIDS"
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/10/mn-republican-bases-economic-agenda-on-theory-that-sprm-enzymes-in-ans-causes-aids/
"A Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives repeated a false theory this week that AIDS was caused by sperm enzymes entering the anus of another male.
Bob Frey, who cites his work in helping Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to defeat a “profiles in learning” education program as a major accomplishment, told the MinnPost that his opposition to the “gay agenda” was about the “financial impact of that agenda.”
“It’s more about sodomy than about pigeonholing a lifestyle,” he explained. “When you have egg and sperm that meet in conception, there’s an enzyme in the front that burns through the egg. The enzyme burns through so the DNA can enter the egg.”
But Frey said that it was a different story when the “sperm is deposited anally” because “it’s the enzyme that causes the immune system to fail.”
“That’s why the term is AIDS – acquired immunodeficiency syndrome,” he opined.
SHOCKING DEVELOPMENT!!! THE ARTICLE CONTINUES WITH THIS OBSERVATION
"It’s important to point out that Frey is completely wrong."
After all, "Republican" and "helping Michele Bachann" and anything concerning education adds up to at least three strikes.
Next week: "Anus running for office, does this lead to more of the same shit?"
And HOW does that explain how children, infants and celibate people get it???
DeleteSometimes I wonder how these people managed to get through elementary school, no less get elected to office. And the people who elected them should beg for forgiveness from the rest of us who are hurt by the legislation these idiots try to pass.
" ...a mandatory entrance exam covering the functions of government..."
ReplyDeleteNope, Gryph. Nope nope nope.
Stupid people get to vote for stupid people in this country.
Just like religious maniacs can vote for religious maniacs.
It says so right in the Constitution:
Article somethin, Verse somethin: "...don't matter none if you're stupid or believe in religious nonsense, you still get to run for office if you want to. Otherwise the politicians get to decide who's smart and who isn't"
...imagine if McCain and Palin had been elected and got to decide who's "smart"...
...imagine if McCain and Palin had been elected and got to decide who's "smart"...
Delete----------------------------------------------
True, maybe we should just educate better, integrate and appreciate all races and ethnic societies better, and keep religion out of our governing. It would be a start anyway
imagine electing Obama and having him determine who is "smart." oops, we did that.
DeleteLet's not doubt this little fella so fast. Obviously, he's from Mars so he should know the temp up there better than most. It's like Palin thinking she's hot just cause she's from Hell.
ReplyDeleteThat quote is saner than most of the excuses libs come up with.
ReplyDeletehaha, how'd you sneak in here? I thought we locked the doors.....
DeleteScientific illiteracy is inexcusable.................last time I checked,this is the 21st Century......yes?
ReplyDeleteHe's not there to discuss climate change, just to point out the lie that the temperature on Earth is the same as on Mars, and there are no people on Mars to cause climate change.
ReplyDeleteShrug
Who needs "Facts" with "logic" like that?
What makes me go "hmmmmm" is how the hell did this guy lie through school and get to own an energy company?
If the temperature ranges, atmospheric composition, etc. on Mars are so different than that found on Earth, then please explain how Bugs Bunny was able to defeat his Martian combatant so easily while on the red planet?
ReplyDelete