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Atheism is one of the most brainless religions I know of. And it is particularly sad when it has a hold of an otherwise courageous and principled person, such as, in this case, one of Britain's few admirable journalists, Nick Cohen. I have a lot of time for this man, but unfortunately, having inherited atheism from two generations of revolutionary forebears, he is completely incapable of being rational whenever he sees a member of any opposing religion. And so, to my complete disbelief, he has just published an article basically treating Climategate as a right-wing ramp. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/dec/06/nick-cohen-global-warming-conservative-backlash What is terrible about this is that Cohen is an honourable man who has time and again gone against his own party for the sake of his principles. But in this case principles curdle into blinding obsessions and simply prevent him from even taking a look at the evidence. It has been tainted by the unholy hands of Sarah Palin and Tony Abbott, and so, by definition, it is beyond the pale and no decent man can read it without being corrupted! Heart-breaking.
I detested everything I knew about Senator Barbara Boxer from California, starting of course with her unflinching support for abortion; but now I can seriously tell that, to use English parliamentary language, she is the Member for airheads. After all, California has a few of those, and one supposes they deserve representation. Certainly Senator Boxer is doing her best: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100018688/senator-barbara-boxers-new-name-for-climategate/. God Almigthy in Heaven, is it even conceivable that after getting on for three weeks of collapse, investigations in two universities, threats of criminal proceedings in Britain, this late in the day, this woman should try and resurrect a canard that even the BBC has abandoned? This is not partisanship; it is sheer, brute, howling stupidity. It is absence of any political sense, of any sense of tactics and strategy, of when to talk and when to shut up and what to talk about and what not to bring up - something that every normal human being exercises every day of the week at work and at home, with friends, colleagues, competitors, strangers, enemies. How has this woman got to where she is, if she is not even aware that the time when even the establishment media are brought kicking and screaming into recognizing climategate - yesterday both the BBC and Channel 4 featured it prominently - is emphatically not the time for smug and self-important denial? Personally, I would rather my opponents were intelligent (that is one reason why I rate President Obama); it may make life harder, but it does not insult our own intelligence.
