Something's up when the Boston Globe publishes articles two days in a row that mock the dogmas of the Green religion. On Sunday, automobile writer Clifford Atiyeh writes in "The crusade against cars" that "in this green age, automobile lovers are under siege. But demonizing people for enjoying a little luxury is a tough road to navigate."
Atiyeh describes social responsibility as "the latest feel-good narcissism" and goes on to question global warming:
While the debate over who or what is warming the earth is far from won, cars - among many carbon indulgences in the Western world - have already been declared the losers, the major agitators of an environmental apocalypse.
Apparently he didn't get the memo about the science being settled. Atiyeh concludes: "vilifying drivers for enjoying what they can afford isn't the answer." This is truly counter-revolutionary stuff for the Boston Globe.
On Monday, the heresy continued with an op-ed by Steve Moore titled "Farmstand Yes! (but spare me the organics)" that pokes fun at the irreproachable Whole Foods Market: I asked a young lady - with purple hair and hardware pinned to her face, as natural as you could be - where I might find a regular daikon radish, not organic. She pointed to a cramped section of the store and then watched me as if I were some illegal antediluvian alien...
Organics devotees tend to be evangelical, pursuing a greener-than-thou grail that may or may not exist.
Moore relates this amusing anecdote about a party he attended in Vermont:
A party-goer picked up a tongful of asparagus and then paused as if shot. How was this poached?, she demanded of no one in particular. I said helpfully that it was done in dairy-free water and, reassured, she went back to her jeremiads.
To paraphrase Lyndon Johnson's line about Walter Cronkite, if the greens have lost the Boston Globe, they have lost America.
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