Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine…
An Inconvenient Truth?
One major side effect of climate change -- you may not have considered?
ISIS -- says one Democratic presidential hopeful.
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"One of the things that preceded the failure of the nation state of Syria, the rise of ISIS, was the effect of climate change and the mega drought that affected that region, wiped out farmers, drove people to cities, created a humanitarian crisis. It created the symptoms - or rather the conditions - of extreme poverty that lead now to the rise of ISIL.”
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The head of the Republican Party pounced-- quote -- "it's abundantly clear no one in the Democratic Party has the foreign policy vision to keep America safe."
Former chairman Michael Steele tweeted --quote-- "you mean if I drive a Prius ISIS goes away?
The Atlantic Magazine defends the former governor.
"O’Malley's comment isn't as weird as it might initially seem. There's an established body of work that draws a connection between drought, resource scarcity, and conflict in general."
But one Scientist says it would be more efficient to focus on other issues like poverty and corruption.
Quote --
"I'll put this in a crude way. No amount of climate change is going to cause civil violence in the state where I live -- Massachusetts. I sometimes have the feeling that some people only care about human suffering if it can be traced to climate change."
To Say or Not to Say
Your tax dollars are funding a war on words.
The Washington Free Beacon reports the government invested nearly $100,000 to bring Shakespeare to the stage--but without the bard’s actual words.
The artistic director for the Synetic Theater -- cites Charlie Chaplin as his inspiration.
One critic described it this way --quote --
"The fact that many Washingtonians consider silent Shakespeare an improvement rather than an oxymoron -- reflects unkindly on the capital's cultural pretensions."
In another case -- the government is spending $125,000 to study adjectives that could be perceived as sexist or racist.
The grant for the study will examine letters of recommendation because --quote--
“Good” for a woman may mean something objectively less good than “good” for a man.”
The lead investigator of the study said she plans to apply for additional funding in 2016.
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