The A-list Boneheads

Myron usually signs off his "Cooler Heads" newsletters (actually no more than a set of random press cuttings) with the list of his "Cool Heads Coalition" of front groups that support him in the promulgation of lies. This is quite useful because it saves the bother of checking out the Disinfopedia to separate the grass-roots movements from the corporate sponsored Astroturf, since no one with any brains would have anything to do with Myron Ebell. In theory this list will be populated -- without exception -- by corporate lobby groups as brain dead as a rusty grenade, and by nutty one-man bands who believe that Ayn Rand is Jesus Christ's twin sister. Anyone else who found themselves on his list could quite rightly sue for defamation.

Let's just check it out, starting with the A's. Whenever there's a low volume month I'll move onto the next range of letters.

The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution website has one mention of Global Warming in a whinging article about environmental legislation in 2000, so they've probably long forgotten they'd given Myron Ebell permission to trade on their reputation. Their current project is lying about how Open Source software will be the end of all software development (the clue is in the question). I'm fascinated by their angle: since most Open Source software was written in spare time by programmers who work(ed) for large companies, what they created should morally belong to those companies since, as we all know, programmers never have any spare time. I agree. If you work for a corporation, you can never be free.

Their previous triumphs have been in the battle to prove that cigarette smoke is not harmful and does not kill people, which has been celebrated by tobacco documents online and some of the largest punitive court settlements of all time. Some of the usual suspects, such as S Fred Singer were involved in this fine illustration of the difficult relation between big business, the truth, and human life. Don't miss the daft link on their website which translates everything into pseudo-french using babelfish, which is in keeping with their psuedo-scientific idiocy.

Americans for Tax Reform is a large slice of Republican Party soft money. I have information that Americans would like to have tax accountability before any more of those taxcutsfortherich reforms. Nevertheless, ATR does not mention "Global Warming" or "Cooler Heads" anywhere on their website, so they too have probably forgotten that Myron Ebell is using them in his campaign.

The American Legislative Exchange Council is a body that drafts complex laws that are riddled with loopholes to help their paymasters get away with things they shouldn't, which thenget proposed in Congress and state legislatures by Republicans who are in favour of that sort of thing because they are evil. Google can find no mention of the "Cooler Heads Coalition" on their website that Myron claims they are part of, but they do have articles about how they are endeavouring to clamp down efforts to deal with Global Warming in state and local legislatures among whom the oil-and-lies lobbies are spread more thinly than they are in Washington. They also can't make webpages that load under FireFox.

The American Policy Centre looks like a one-man band with a webpage where the phrase "Cooler Heads" also doesn't show up. There are rants about the UN and how Global Warming is a complete lie dreamt up by NASA scientists to justify the building of new weather satellites. Not even Myron strays this far from the facts since he's in this game for the long run. Myron has enough sense to limit himself to misrepresenting the facts in his own writing, and quoting from sources where he knows the facts are misstated.

The Association of Concerned Taxpayers has been down in memory of The Gipper, a senile old fart they call Ronald Reagan who could only be called "intelligent" compared to the current incumbant of the presidency. This outfit, if it still exists, does mention the "Cool Heads Coalition", but you have to use Google to link to it behind the front page because I'm not going to give it.

So that's it. Five down and twenty to go. It's a tedious job, but someone's got to wash Myron's socks for him. He doesn't do it because he doesn't care to clean out the garbage. It's all garbage, really, the whole "Cool Heads Coalition" thing, and that's the truth of it.