Folicalism as Racism? Inside the Mind of a Climateer

Ever since I appeared at a conference on climate change in the Midwest about four years ago with Professor Michael Schlesinger of the University of Illinois I’ve been on the good professor’s email distribution list, usually receiving several communications a day. They are usually links to news stories and journal articles about climate alarm, but occasionally copies of his own indignant missives. The good professor is a “goes-to-11” global warming alarmist with a definite Malthusian overlay (he thinks we all have too many children and consume too much).  And he thinks very well of himself, as can be seen in the signoff to his personal communications, where he reminds everyone that he is “An IPCC recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize,” along with, what, something like 5,000 other people who are part of that circus?

Two years ago I shared an email Schlesinger had sent to Andy Revkin, the New York Times chief climate change reporter, wherein Schlesinger was perhaps a bit too candid about Revkin’s deviationism from the Party Line:

The vibe that I am getting from here, there and everywhere is that your reportage is very worrisome to most climate scientists. 
Of course, your blog is your blog. 
But, I sense that you are about to experience the “Big Cutoff” from those of us who believe we can no longer trust you, me included.

Well, the good professor has outdone himself. Here’s the copy of the email he sent last night to Chris Matthews (of MSNBC fame). It seems an excellent specimen of the logical reasoning, not to mention grasp of reality, of the leading lights of the climate campaign:

Chris:

I am shocked to hear you say on tonight’s (12/28/11) program that “anybody with a crewcut is no lefty”.

This is a bigoted, wrong-headed statement, equivalent to saying that anybody with black skin is not intelligent enough to be allowed to vote.

I thought we were beyond characterizing people by how they look.

Apparently you are not.

I am ashamed of you, and for you.

I wonder what your children think of you for your terrible comment tonight.

I had a young lady in my Climate & Global Change class last term with Cerebral Palsy.

She is confined to a wheelchair which has two headrests for her head and toggle switches for her fingers so she can maneuver her chair across campus and into my classroom.

Using your reasoning, she should not have been allowed in my class because she was different from all the rest — she could not stand up.

Yet therein she got an A — she was one of the best.

I ask that you apologize to America for your bigoted and ignorant comment.

I will now rethink my continuing to watch your programs.

I thought you were a good person.

Michael Schlesinger

Professor & Head of the Climate Research Group
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, MC 223
University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign
An IPCC recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Member of Academia Europea: The Academy of Europe
Member of the Illinois Climate Change Advisory Group
Senior editor of “Human-induced Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary Assessment

Need I mention that Schlesinger has a crew cut? (Sort of; looks like something left over from Happy Days. But them I’m a folical bigot, or a hirsute-hater, I guess. Definitely folically-challenged.)

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