IT'S THE RAPTURE, STUPID

Great read -- a speech by Bill Moyer warning of the dangers to the environment by apocalyptic theology and its adherents.

One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusional is no longer marginal. It has come in from the fringe, to sit in the seat of power in the oval office and in Congress. For the first time in our history, ideology and theology hold a monopoly of power in Washington. Theology asserts propositions that cannot be proven true; ideologues hold stoutly to a world view despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality. When ideology and theology couple, their offspring are not always bad but they are always blind. And there is the danger: voters and politicians alike, oblivious to the facts...So what does this mean for public policy and the environment?

UPDATE: Don't miss this other Bill Moyers story. Like another distinguished media retiree, Walter Cronkite, Moyers isn't silencing himself just because he's signing off PBS' Now. "I'm going out telling the story that I think is the biggest story of our time: how the right-wing media has become a partisan propaganda arm of the Republican National Committee," says Moyers. "We have an ideological press that's interested in the election of Republicans, and a mainstream press that's interested in the bottom line. Therefore, we don't have a vigilant, independent press whose interest is the American people."