When I was young, we were told that muckrakers were journalists who scraped up muck on people and institutions in order to right wrongs. If a politician was dirty, the muckraker would expose his faults. If a business wasn’t following the law, the muckraker would explain exactly what was wrong with their business’ practices. Muckrakers did a lot of good work in correcting what ailed society.
Today’s muckrakers have a new name and, it isn’t much prettier than muckraker. It is computer hacker. Few people use it in a complimentary fashion. But, the good news is that, many times, hackers have exposed a politician’s lies or fraud in government. And isn’t it a good thing for all of us when corruption is laid bare and then corrected?
Well, maybe it is good for us, but risky for the hackers. The latest expose is alleged global warming. Hackers managed to reveal the skulduggery of scientists who promoted the concept of global warming even though they knew their “facts” were unfounded! The scare tactics of these pseudo scientists included omitting data, fudging numbers, and even suppressing contrary voices… actually, much like Congress is doing in their attempt to foist health care measures upon an unwilling American public.
So now, even knowing that the hackers discovered corruption in the global warming theory community, some want to punish them. Whether you agree with what the hackers did or not, there is absolutely no way you can deny what the hackers discovered. And, aren’t we glad that these false prophets of global warming have been shown to be liars? Well, it depends. If you’re on the losing side of the argument, as Barbara Boxer is, you want to punish those who made you look foolish. It’s the old, “Kill the messenger” attitude that has worked top well for the democrats in the past. Hence, she chooses to ignore the importance of the hackers’ revelations in favor of trying to punish them for exposing the untruths of global warming.
It sounds as though we should sic’ the hackers on good old Barbara! Let the muckraking begin.