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July 13, 2009
Apocalypse Now and Then
Nothing to worry about here. Just another culture expressing its timeless values.
When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, there was this guy who used to climb up on one of the benches on Ocean Parkway and Avenue N where he would rant and rave, warning us that the end of the world was near. He predicted that the seas would rise and swallow cities, great fires would turn entire countries into glowing embers, food would become scarce and people would turn into cannibals.
My buddies and I cracked up: “That's not kosher!”
At first we kids who played in the streets were a bit scared of this disheveled and odorous lunatic. But after a while we realized he was just a harmless nut job.
Well, now the nut jobs are in power.
If the Senate doesn't pass a bill to cut global warming, Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer says, there will be dire results: droughts, floods, fires, loss of species, damage to agriculture, worsening air pollution and more.
I don't think it's a coincidence that global warming hysteria—oh wait, they deleted the term global warming because, well, it's so obviously not.
Now, the correct terminology is climate change.
Y'know, out of the box phenomena like: rain, sunshine, snow, hail, wind.
The weather.
Pesky stuff.
It's not a coincidence that such fashionable hysteria has taken hold of the chattering classes at this point in history.
The Islamist world has declared war on Western civilization, but, liberals tells us, the real threat is the weather.
In this way, sophisticates avoid confronting militant Islam.
They take a pass on fighting evil.
It's the inevitable outcome of multicultural indoctrination and fanaticism.
And it fits quite nicely into the Marxist model, still alive and well among the, ahem, well educated.
Much more comfortable to make war on American corporations for having the chutzpah to create wealth and higher standards of living.
Anyway, my buddies and I once challenged Marty—we were on a first name basis with Brooklyn's Prophet of Doom:
“Hey, Marty, how do you know all this stuff?”
“Because, children, I am blessed!”
Which, in retrospect, seems like a much saner and more credible explanation than the junk science used by today's prophets of doom.
Posted by Robert J. Avrech at July 13, 2009 08:28 AM
Comments
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"When I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn, there was this guy who used to climb up on a bench on Ocean Parkway and Avenue N where he would warn us that the end of the world was coming."
Seems to me that any kid who could cross Ocean Parkway safely is not going to be afraid of a little thing like the end of the world.
Posted by: Jake at July 13, 2009 10:06 AM
3 words:
Religion of piece!
Posted by: Ari Miller at July 13, 2009 12:48 PM
Do the alarmists realize what is now New York City was once buried under 1,000 feet of ice? Has Al Gore ever seen the Great Lakes and understood how they were created? Do these idiots know that not one SUV was responsible for those receding glaciers?
Is it just a coincidence that that the big push for doing something about global warming started about the same time as the Soviet Union died? The dream of one enlightened government body composed of the really smart elites will never die. Of course the last group of the "best and the brightest" gave us over 50,000 deaths in that nasty war in SE Asia.
Posted by: Johnny at July 13, 2009 03:50 PM
Jake:
I remember the first time I was allowed to cross Ocean Parkway all by myself. Big day in my life.
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.seraphicpress.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 13, 2009 04:31 PM
Johnny:
At the end of the 14th century, the Little Ice Age ended. I'll bet everyone was like: “Huh, look at that it's getting all warm and sunny. Gotta get rid of our horses because their carbon footprints are way too big.”
Posted by: Robert J. Avrech at July 13, 2009 04:34 PM
Robert:
I think they all said we've got to build some SUVs and Hummers to make sure it stays warm. Bill Gates' great great great great great great great great great great great great great great grandfather drew the first climate change model in the dirt and proved that if they could just build enough of those darn internal combustion engines they would never be cold again.
Al Gore's forefather laughed and said the science was settled and the only way to live longer was to let a little more blood.
Posted by: Johnny at July 13, 2009 07:59 PM
Forget the Ice Age - I wonder if all these climate chicken littles have heard of the dust bowl of the 1930s...
Posted by: Bill Brandt at July 13, 2009 11:04 PM
Dear Jake: You're right about Ocean Parkway. Eastern Parkway is just as bad and Queens Boulevard is the worst.
Does it ever occur to any of the climate change alarmists that there were no horrible, evil Republicans, riding around in their horrible, evil SUVs, when the historical event, AND IT WAS A HISTORICAL EVENT, happened that found its way into the Bible as the Noah story and into Greek mythology as the Deucalion story? Even if a MASSIVE climate change IS coming, we may not be causing it and there may not be anything we can do about it!
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at July 13, 2009 11:27 PM
For me it was the Grand Concourse !! My mother watched from the kitchen window.
Posted by: Norm Gersman at July 14, 2009 12:21 AM
"I remember the first time I was allowed to cross Ocean Parkway all by myself. Big day in my life."
My mom says she'll let me cross Ocean Parkway on my 40th birthday... IF I'm good.
I also used to live on Queens Blvd., and I was regularly amused, (but also frightened), by the daily duel between the pedestrians and drivers. Make no mistake, no one side is blameless in this battle. The pedestrians dart into the street from between parked cars, ignore the "don't walk" flashing signs and do all sorts of other crazy things. The driver go about 20-30 mph. over the speed limit, mostly to have the privilege of getting to the next red light.
Good times.
Posted by: Jake at July 14, 2009 04:20 AM
Dear Jake: So far as I can remember, I never crossed Queens Boulevard except at a crosswalk or via the 63rd Drive subway stop.
Posted by: Miranda Rose Smith at July 14, 2009 06:06 AM
Global warming is real (The IPCC executive summary is pretty conservative). The mass hysteria and dire consequences are overblown. These people are hurting their cause.
Posted by: Davo at July 15, 2009 07:53 AM