Do We Need Atheists in Congress to Save the Planet?

We might need some atheists in Congress to save the planet.  Certainly we need people who have a higher IQ than Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, and the soon-to-be head of the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Senator Inhofe may be the world's biggest skeptic when it comes to climate change.  In 2012 he even wrote a book, The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future.  Inhofe claims the U.N. created the global warming hoax.  No, I'm not kidding. 

Apparently it's a hoax 97% of the world's scientists have been fooled by.  Go figure!  Who'da thunk Senator Inhofe would be so much smarter than all those scientists, their fancy degrees, and years of research?  Isn't he amazing, though.

Why is Inhofe so sure global warming is a hoax?  Because God.  Yep, here's a quote from an appearance Inhofe had on a Christian radio program in 2012 while hawking his ridiculous book:

...the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.

Source: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change

So, see?  God's on it!  People can't be creating climate change because that would be God's job!  Just like wars, and world hunger, and the recession.  We mere humans are not important enough to do something like create global warming, therefore, there is no global warming.  It's all a hoax.

Whew.  And here I was so worried about shrinking ice caps, the disappearance of glaciers, the rising of the oceans, and the polluted atmosphere.  We can all relax and let Jesus take the wheel.

What in the hell are Oklahomans thinking voting for this idiot?

It's not okay to use religion to set public policy.  It's not okay to legislate your religious beliefs.  Period.  Never.  Especially not when you use religion to deny what is clearly true, and what will be devastating to the future of this planet, and every living thing on it.

Unfortunately, Senator Inhofe will shortly have the power to do untold damage because even though he's clearly clueless about science, he will have a lot of power in Congress.  I hope he's still alive to see Manhattan go underwater because of rising sea levels, or see wars start over food.  I doubt even if he did he'd realize how wrong he is now.

:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change#sthash.qWHiIh5T.dpuf

the Genesis 8:22 that I use in there is that ‘as long as the earth remains there will be seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, day and night,’ my point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous. - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change#sthash.qWHiIh5T.dpuf

We know there are atheists already in Congress; they just can't "come out" of the religious closet.  Maybe what we need are more of us... people who realize that destroying the planet for the sake of getting reelected is immoral.  People who understand that clean air and clean water are worth fighting for.  We don't need an imaginary deity to tell us that.  It's a moral thing.

The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change#sthash.qWHiIh5T.dpuf

The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future - See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/james-inhofe-says-bible-refutes-climate-change#sthash.qWHiIh5T.dpuf

Election 2014 - The Issues Not Considered

To me the biggest issues that should decide Election 2014 (and hence, who controls the Senate) are not being talked about.  At all.  Which is inexplicable to me.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a gathering of hundreds of scientists from over 80 countries.  And here is their warning to the humans of planet Earth: there's a 95% certainty that climate change is causing "irreversible and dangerous impacts" and that human activity is to blame.

There will be wars in some countries, in the not too distant future, over food.  There already are devastating storms and wild weather changes, and at some point insurance companies will be unable to cover losses when flooding and other environmental devastation becomes too much for them to bear. Property damage will be horrible, but what about the resulting loss of life?  Human life, wildlife, plant life... climate change literally has a scorched earth policy.

But apparently that's not what voters are worried about.  In 2014 voters are worried about... Ebola.  Yep, a disease while, albeit awful and even life-threatening to those who have contracted it, still affected in this country fewer people than you have fingers on one hand.

Apparently there are people who think Democrats are to blame.  Personally, I blame CNN (and other media outlets like it), where it's all Ebola, all the time, for spreading panic when there are numerous other things they should be reporting on.  Like the 300,000+ people who marched in New York City this past September to call attention to climate change.  Bet you didn't hear butkus about that in the media!  If they had given that topic one-tenth of the coverage they've given Ebola, some people might actually start to get it.  Instead, Fox News and other right-wing media outlets continue their anti-environmental nonsense with impunity.

And then there's the women's vote.  Never mind that Republicans are still not willing to vote for a bill that simply says women should be paid the same as men for the same work.  But hang on, men from our country aren't the only ones who want women to be undervalued and underpaid!  Click here for an article on Evan Thornley, Australian co-founder of LookSmart, who admits that women aren't paid equally to men, and proved it with a presentation including a slide titled "Women: Like Men, Only Cheaper."  I wish I were kidding about that one.

How about abortion and birth control rights?  That has largely disappeared from discussion this election cycle.  The Republicans, meanwhile, aren't backing off from their view that women shouldn't concern their pretty little heads with such things.  Men (many of whom don't know how birth control or a woman's body parts work in the first place) will tell us what to do with our bodies, even in cases of life-threatening conditions such as ectopic pregnancies, while they continue to get Viagra, penile implants and penis pumps paid for by Medicare.

Why a woman would vote for a Republican is simply beyond my comprehension, but that party is inexplicably making headway with my gender.  Any woman who would vote for someone who doesn't want women treated the same as a man in the workplace, and who wants to control what she does with her body, is a traitor to her gender in my opinion.  It's time for women to wake up and realize that for all their talk of "family values," the party that values them and their opinions the most is not the GOP.

New Rule

This post is going to be short and sweet.  I have a New Rule (forgive me for borrowing a little from Bill Maher).

If men -- and you know who I'm talking about -- want to discuss any of the following subjects: birth control for women, vaginal probes, libido, abortion, rape, or anything along those lines, here's the new rule: they must give equal time to discussing Viagra, vasectomies, penile implants and penis pumps.

Funny how some men want to limit women's access to birth control and abortion, and in particular don't want insurers to include these things in their health care coverage for women, but the same men have said nothing about Viagra, vasectomies or any of the other sex or birth control-related male equivalents that are covered by their health care.  And they say there's no "war on women."  I don't know what else you'd call it.

If they want to discuss taking birth control and abortion coverage out of health care plans for women, but don't want to discuss also taking things like Viagra and vasectomies out as well, then I don't want to hear jack from them about what's covered for us.

Ladies, we need to get men out of office who have no respect for us or our ability to make our own health care decisions, especially while displaying such blatant sexism.  You know what to do this November - vote them out.