Tea Party folks are really all about arguing about people. Even when they are against children receiving health care (but not understanding that Medicare/Medicaid is a government program), they are actually arguing about people, specifically Obama and the Kennedys. So you get things like "It's what that communist Obama is doing to put us all in death camps" and other such leaps of, well, I won't insult the term "logic."

Having lost the health care "debate" (AKA "Obama is a communist. See we said it, therefore it is true.") They've now turned their collective attention to Al Gore. See, Al Gore is a wealthy man. He comes from a wealthy family. He talks about climate change and Global Warming all the time. To complete the syllogism: he must be profiting from the "lie" that is global warming.

I've instituted a couple of rules when talking with various friends and relatives who think this political movement is actually has intellectual underpinnings as opposed to pyloric bases: If you want to talk about global warming, you first have to submit an 8"x11" white sheet of paper containing a diagram of the global carbon budget with key elements labeled and be able to discuss those labeled elements. You don't have to possess a PhD in an environmental science. That's an unfair standard. It is exclusionary, and undemocratic. Still, we have to be able to talk about the issue and it is important to have starting points. Second, you have to promise to talk about the issues not the foci of your hatred. In other words, if I say, "There are times now when certain inhabited Pacific atolls are awash under rising oceans," you can dispute whether or not glaciers are melting and contributing to rising sea levels. You may not say things like "That Al Gore, he has a jet." or "Robert Hansen is a well-known liar."

Video below of people under direct threat from rising sea levels, based upon their geographic position, not being terribly cogent in their, um, positions:

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