Jeff Jacoby writes an article in the Globe claiming that global warming doesn't exist. It's one of many; he posts the same crap every few months.
Jacoby's article mentions a Heartland Institute convention and calls them "a Chicago-based think-tank." He's absolutely right, but is taking advantage of public misconception about the groups and doesn't disclose what they're really about. The short of it: their board is stuffed with executives from oil, car, and tobacco companies. They feel that global warming and secondhand smoke are both a sham, and they use a small handful of skeptics to wage a war against decades of climate research.
Jeff also regularly mentions Richard Lindzen in his columns. Guess where his interests lie? (hint: getting money from the oil industry, claiming global warming doesn't exist, and claiming that secondhand smoke isn't harmful, despite no medical background whatsoever.) As far back as 2004, Jacoby has mentioned both climate change and second-hand smoke as issues we apparently care too much about and spend too much time and money on.
Jeff Jacoby repeats the canard about Sarah Palin that "she pulled the plug on her state's notorious $400 million 'bridge to nowhere.'" A few minutes of web research would have revealed that Palin was a big proponent and only reluctantly "pulled the plug" on state funding when it was clear the federal pork wasn't coming through.
Of course, now she's saying:
I championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. In fact, I told Congress — I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that bridge to nowhere. If our state wanted a bridge, I said we'd build it ourselves.
That doesn't make her a maverick. That makes her a liar.
Jacoby concludes his column today: "That government is best that governs least." Aaron Weber wonders:
I hope this means that he's headed immediately for Somalia, where nongovernance has turned the nation into a libertarian paradise.
He adds:
If the Globe is so hard up for cash, why not drop the waste of space and put the savings into articles on items of actual local interest by decent writers with worthwhile opinions, like Joel Brown?
Actually, that's the nicest thing Elias says about Jeff Jacoby.
First it was Ted Kennedy and the made-up story about the college student and Homeland Security. Now Lis and Dan team up to suggest that a recent Jeff Jacoby column included a bogus story about a black Maryland Republican allegedly pelted with Oreos.
Disclosure? I got yer disclosure right here!
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