June 03, 2006

FROM ELVIRA:



OBEY THIS OLD WITCH! WITH THOSE KNOCKERS SHE KNOWS A LITTLE ABOUT "GLOBAL WARMING"!

Dear Everyone....

I just came home from seeing the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" and am still reeling from it. The impact it had on me was mind-numbing. I actually trembled during most of the film. My teeth chattered loud enough that I was afraid I was disturbing the people next to me.

I'm urging, no - begging, you to see this movie right away if you havn't already. It may not be around that long and it may not be that easy to find outside of larger cities, but whatever you have to do - PLEASE GO.

Everyone should see this movie, but if you're a parent or hope to be one someday, it's absolutely your duty to see this movie.

If you have trouble finding it, go to www.climatecrisis.net to find out where it's playing in your area. Seeing it this week is important as it will have an impact on how long it stays in theatres.

I know this letter may sound overly dramatic, (I'm an actress, after all) but after you see it, I think you'll feel the same way.

--Cassandra


UH, SINCE WHEN IS SHE AN ACTRESS? IS THIS A RECENT DEVELOPMENT?




Then someone on Cassandra's cc list hit REPLY ALL and I got this email:

Cassandra,

I was at the Cannes Film Festival and was involved with some of the hype for the film. I’m looking forward to seeing an inconvenient truth.

But I also read Michael Crichton’s State Of Fear where he makes a compelling case for the overuse of pseudoscience presented as fact. I suggest you read it as a balance to Al Gore’s POV.

Author's Message from State of Fear:

A novel such as State of Fear, in which so many divergent views are expressed, may lead the reader to wonder where, exactly, the author stands on these issues. I have bee reading environmental texts for three years, in itself a hazardous undertaking. But I have had an opportunity to look at a lot of data, and to consider many points of view. I conclude:

• We know astonishingly little about every aspect of the environment, from its past history, to its present state, to how to conserve and protect it. In every debate, all sides overstate the extent of existing knowledge and its degree of certainty.
• Atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing, and human activity is the probable cause.
• We are also in the midst of a natural warming trend that began about 1850, as we emerged from a four-hundred-year old cold spell known as the "Little Ice Age."
• Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be a natural phenomenon.
• Nobody knows how much of the present warming trend might be man-made.
• Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century. The computer models vary by 400 percent, de facto proof that nobody knows. But if I had to guess --- the only thing anyone is doing, really --- I would guess the increase will be 0.812436 degrees C. There is no evidence that my guess about the state of the world one hundred years from now is any better or worse than anyone else's. (We can't "assess" the future, nor can we "predict" it. These are euphemisms. We can only guess. And informed guess is just a guess.)
• I suspect that part of the observed surface warming will ultimately be attributable to human activity. I suspect that the principal human effect will come from land use, and that the atmospheric component will be minor.
• Before making expensive policy decisions on the basis of climate models, I think it is reasonable to require that those models predict future temperatures accurately for a period of ten years. Twenty would be better.
• I think for anyone to believe in impending resource scarcity, after two hundred years of such false alarms, is kind of weird. I don't know whether such a belief today is best ascribed to ignorance of history, sclerotic dogmatism, unhealthy love of Malthus, or simple pigheadedness, but it is evidently a hardly perennial in human calculation.
• There are many reasons to shift away from fossil fuels, and we will do so in the next century without legislation, financial incentives, carbon-conservation programs, or the interminable yammering of fearmongers. So far as I know, nobody had to ban horse transportation in the early twentieth century.
• I suspect the people of 2100 will be much richer than we are, consume more energy, have a smaller global population, and enjoy more wilderness than we have today. I don't think we have to worry about them.
• The current near-hysterical preoccupation with safety is at best a waste of resources and a crimp on the human spirit, and at worst an invitation to totalitarianism. Public education is desperately needed.
• I conclude that most environmental "principles" (such as sustainable development or the precautionary principle) have the effect of preserving the economic advantages of the West and thus constitute modern imperialism toward the developing world. It is a nice way of saying, "We got ours and we don't want you to get yours, because you'll cause too much pollution."
• I believe people are will intentioned. But I have great respect for the corrosive influence of bias, systematic distortions of thought, the power of rationalization, the guises of self-interest, and the inevitability of unintended consequences.
• I have more respect for people who change their views after acquiring new information than for those who cling to views they held thirty years ago. The world changes, Ideologues and zealots don't.
• In the thirty-five-odd years since the environmental movement came into existence, science has undergone a major revolution. This revolution has brought new understanding of nonlinear dynamics, complex systems, chaos theory, catastrophe theory. It has transformed the way we think about evolution and ecology. Yet these no-longer-new ideas have hardly penetrated the thinking of environmental activists, which seems oddly fixed in the concepts and rhetoric of the 1970's.
• We haven't the foggiest notion how to preserve what we term "wilderness," and we had better study it in the field and learn how to do so. I see no evidence that we are conducting such research in a humble, rational and systematic way. I therefore hold little hope for wilderness management in the twenty-first century. I blame environmental organizations every bit as much as developers and strip miners. There is no difference in outcomes between greed and incompetence.
• We need a new environmental movement, with new goals and new organizations. We need more people working in the field, in the actual environment, and fewer people behind computer screens. We need more scientists and many fewer lawyers.
• We cannot hope to manage a complex system such as the environment through litigation. We can only change its state temporarily --- usually by preventing something --- with eventual results that we cannot predict and ultimately cannot control.
• Nothing is more inherently political than our shared physical environment, and nothing is more ill served by allegiance to a single political party. Precisely because the environment is shared it cannot be managed by one faction according to its own economic or aesthetic preferences. Sooner or later, the opposing faction will take power, and previous policies will be reversed. Stable management of the environment requires recognition that all preferences have their place: snowmobilers and fly fisherman, dirt bikers and hikers, developers and preservationists. These preferences are at odds, and their incompatibility cannot be avoided. But resolving incompatible goals is a true function of politics.
• We desperately need a nonpartisan, blinded funding mechanism to conduct research to determine appropriate policy. Scientists are only too aware whom they are working for. Those who fund research --- whether a drug company, a government agency, or an environmental organization --- always have a particular outcome in mind. Research funding is almost never open-ended or open-minded. Scientists know that continued funding depends on delivering the results the funders desire. As a result, environmental organization "studies" are every bit as biased and suspect as industry "studies." Government "studies" are similarly biased according to who is running the department or administration at the time. No faction should be given a free pass.
• I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
• I personally experience a profound pleasure being in nature. My happiest days each year are those I spend in wilderness. I wish natural environments to be preserved for future generations. I am not satisfied they will be preserved in sufficient quantities, or with sufficient skill. I conclude that the "exploiters of the environment" include environmental organizations, government organizations, and big business. All have equally dismal track records.
• Everybody has an agenda. Except me.

7 Comments:

Blogger ayeM8y said...

Elvira is indeed an actress! She has appeared in more than twenty films, starting with a Fellini flick. According to her website,

http://www.elvira.com

Cassandra Peterson’s desire to emulate Ann-Margret led her to Vegas where, at the age of 17, she became the youngest showgirl in Las Vegas history. Elvis Presley, who saw her perform, encouraged her to pursue a singing career. Off to Europe, Cassandra toured extensively as lead singer for an Italian rock band. Eventually settling in Rome, where she became fluent in Italian, Cassandra met renowned director, Federico Fellini, who cast her in his classic film, "Fellini's Roma".

1:10 PM  
Blogger Lady Bunny said...

Honey, thanks for the trivia--I didn't know about her early years--but I'm totally kidding. I worship that witch! --B

1:14 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Whats Elvira got to worry about? When the floods come, she ain't gonna sink with them tits, and neither is Lady bun, no, none of those 'big boned' gals will do anything but bob with the swells.

2:29 PM  
Blogger TRAYB said...

Bunny: Thanks for posting this!
I had the chance to meet Elvira a few years back, when she was opening one of her haunted houses in suburban Atlanta. Now, no judgments, but let's just say the Mistress of the Dark was wearing more make up than I've ever seen on any single person living or dead — and this includes years of suffering through bad drag shows in backwoods Southern towns. Which is to say, she looked stunning!
She was such a portrait of grace and managed to be polite even to the hordes of zit-faced teenagers pawing at her bosom, firing off self-effacing jokes like a trooper.
Seriously, she's one of the unsung talents of schlock comedy. It's time for a comeback.

9:28 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I agree it is time for Elvira to “Return from the dead” and entertain us with her corny style camp. I read a bio of Cassandra Peterson that said as a child she pulled a pot off the stove and was scalded over a large part of her body. Once I read that, I re-watched her movie “Elvira Mistress of the Dark” and realized although her clothing is revealing she was keeping the majority of her flesh covered up. I suspect that ,no judgments, the heavy make-up serves several purposes, concealing her scars, concealing her age, and making her flash camera worthy. Heavy stage make-up photographs really well but doesn‘t always look so good up close, especially when drag rot sets in, so the more the better. In fact, I want her to do my make-up when I’m in the casket headed for my grave......

8:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you look at the film "Roma" by Fellini, where is Elvira in it?? I was thinking she might have been the sultry brunette Roman girl who's up on her balcony and her angry boyfriend, who's wearing a hairnet or "do-rag", is yellin at her to come down to the piazza. Does anyone know what scene in that film she is in???

3:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That's great to know about elvira and her acting abilities especially about cassandra's comments after watching the film "The inconvenient Truth" surely tells about the impact of the film on her.

with thanks

Acne Scar Removal News & Discussion

11:42 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Blog Home