The real scandal of Climategate is, once again, the Right's self-declared right to lie absolutely at will, without any obligation to truth or reality

"Farewell, Diomede, see you in a year!"

-- Michael Palin, as he began his circumnavigation of the Pacific Rim on Little Diomede island in the first episode of Full Circle

by Ken

I know the Right-Wing Noise Machine is in its famous full-screech mode over Climategate, the bogus scandal it has manufactured around a heap of e-mails stolen under extremely suspicious circumstances (oh, come on, we know they did it, don't we? on the Right stealing no longer even qualifies as an act worthy of comment, let alone a crime -- as long as they're doing the stealing, of course), which with their usual combination of basic gut-level dishonesty and all-consuming ignorance of anything relating to reality, facts, or truth, which they regard as their mortal enemy, as well they might. I gather that Rush and Sean and Glenn and all the others are crowing that they have proof that by-now-well-established theories of climate change -- whose reality is of course on public display in both the Arctic and Antarctic for all to see, except those who use every muscle in their bodies to squeeze their eyes shut as they screech, "You can't make me see nothin'!" -- is a cunning deception.

Of course, as usual they're lying with every breath they draw. Some of them undoubtedly know they're lying their foul heads, while the others are pathetic dim-witted bullies who have simply had their brains filled with shit, but I'm becoming less and less interested in the distinction. What they have in common is a psychotic hatred for truth and decency, and some way to combat their evil influence needs to be found.

I don't claim to be scientifically qualified to rebut their pack of lies, and of course since they insist on the right to maim anyone who challenges their right to lie, and since their ignorance of scientific inquiry in absolutely every aspect is total, there's no way of arguing with them, especially since their lies are perfectly tailored to the appetites of people who don't understand anything about science and resent it for being so far outside their understanding. So I've been stockpiling sources. The best I can offer at the moment is this updated compendium of resources compiled by Josh at EnviroKnow: "The SwiftHack Scandal: What You Need to Know." To give you an idea what you'll find there, at the top of his post, Josh provides this list of subject headings:

The scientific consensus on climate change remains strong.
The impacts of catastrophic climate change continue to rear their ugly head.
Hacking into private computer files is illegal.
All of the emails were taken out of context.
The story is being pushed by far-right conspiracy theorists.
Scientists are human beings and they talk frankly amongst themselves.
Statements from Scientists.
Statements from the Obama Administration.
Statements from Members of Congress.
Pieces of General Interest.

Instead I want to talk just a little about the Good Palin and the Bad Palin, and how they reflect the difference between a sincere desire to understand the world around us and an implacable insistence on obliterating any information that conflicts with the lies and bullshit a person hasallowed him/herself to have stuffed in his/her brain.

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about my pleasure in reencountering, via DVD, Michael Palin's Full Circle for the first time since it aired on PBS more than 30 years ago. I pointed out that even after all those years, the Full Circle images of American-owned Little Diomede island and its Russian-owned neighbor, Big Diomede, were clearly still lodged in my head at the time then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin -- the Evil Palin -- delivered her beyond-idiotic blitherings about her special insight into Russia because of Alaska's closeness to it, including the below-moronic raving that she could see it from her porch.

We learned soon enough in the course of the presidential campaign that Princess Sarah lies literally all the time -- or, perhaps more accurately, appears to have no idea what makes some statements true and others false. Just like the people who adore her, she seems to think that truth is what makes you feel good, and correspondingly if something makes you feel bad, it must be a liberal lie. Since her mind is a swamp of religious shibboleths and political propaganda, and at some point in her life she made a decision never to use her brain for anything but regurgitating the bullshit she filled it with, the odds are pretty overwhelming that almost everything that "resonates" with that morass of ignorance will be untrue.

When I last wrote about Full Circle, as I made my way through the splendid DVD Michael Palin Collection, starting with Michael's two Great Railway Journeys and his Around the World in 80 Days and Pole to Pole, I hadn't yet gotten to the final episodes of Full Circle, which in fact I had never seen. So I honestly didn't know that as a matter of fact, Michael Palin -- the Good Palin (as he was at pains to point out at the time his alarming namesake became a household name, they are not related) -- never did get back to Little Diomede, and so never quite completed the originally intended "full circle" of the countries of the Pacific Rim.

In the clip above, it looks as if the Bering Strait -- which separates the Western tip of mainland Alaska from the eastern tip of Siberia, and is where you will find the two Diomedes (what geologists assure us was once a land bridge between Asia and North America -- is the gentlest of ponds. Why, it looks as if you could swim from one island to the other.

However, in the final episode (and if you've never seen Full Circle, watch out -- what follows is a spoiler), it turns out that Michael and his crew never do make it back to Little Diomede. When they found themselves stranded on the Alaskan mainland, unable to find any way to get to the island because of the far more typical weather and sea conditions, he recalled that he'd been told at the time of his original visit how atypical those serene conditions were. Not even with the good offices of the U.S. Coast Guard, which took them aboard a cutter that happened to be in the area, were they able to be dropped on the island. Conditions were simply too dangerous for the captain to attempt it.

Now, I insist that already on that first visit to Little Diomede, simply by observing, by listening to the local people, and by doing fundamental research, all as a result of a basic curiosity to understand, Michael Palin understood more about at least the present-day existence of Native Americans in remote parts of Alaska, and about the physical as well as political relationship between Alaska and Russia, than Princess Sarah could ever learn, for the obvious reason that she has no interest in learning, only braying her prejudices louder than anyone within earshot.

And then, on the attempted return visit to Little Diomede learned more. Of course it was something he'd already been told, but that's often how human knowledge works: We don't necessarily get it on the first go-around. But as long as you remain open to and curious about more and better information, you stand a chance of improving the state of your understanding.

Rush & Co. don't work that way. They start with their prejudices and screaming points and, more or less like Alaska's gold-rush panners did, sift through mounds of useless raw data looking for anything that can be twisted into buttressing those prejudices. And now that they have declared their permission to lie at will, there really doesn't seem to be much to stop them. Facts don't seem to help.

#