As we move through the third month of Barack Obama's administration, I find myself consistently disappointed by his continued failure to deliver even a tiny, incremental amount of change you, I, or anybody can believe in. I should be less hard on him. Look what he is up against!
This video is of Rep. John Shimkus (R - Illinois) speaking at the US House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment last week. He is informing us why, in his opinion, global warming is either not real, or is real but poses no threat. How can he be so sure? The same way that anybody who says absurd things with absolute certainty is sure: because of a strictly literal interpretation of the Bible.
The Bible, which is the absolute and infallible word of God, says that the world will not end in a flood, nor by an act of man. Therefore, global warming poses no threat. PHEW I AM GLAD WE SETTLED THAT JOHN SHIMKUS.
Here is another video of John Shimkus speaking with a man (with an authoritative-sounding British accent, no less!) about something that is at least vaguely science related.
The authoritative British man and Rep. John Shimkus agree: reducing carbon dioxide emissions would starve plants. TO DEATH.
But in truth, John Shimkus does not care for this scientific argument anymore than he cares for the mountains of scientific data testifying to the reality and danger of global warming. Instead, he has found a man with a theory to prove that which he already unfailingly believes: that the world shall not end in a flood, because the Bible says so.
Such certainty makes change impossible, at least for John Shimkus. And as long as Obama must work with the John Shimkuses of the world, change will be much slower in coming than the rest of us would like.
