Can the Greens Take a Joke?

Is it my imagination or is there an increasing trend to view the greenies and their fears as chicken littles, whiners, and basically nuts? It has become a standard bit of pop culture dialog to refer to some over-the-top alarmist statement as an “Al Gore moment,” and jokes about global warming are common. But now that trend has penetrated even the comic strips. The Sunday Tank McNamara strip (December 17, 2006) has the basketball commissioner brushing off criticisms of the switch to “synthetic” from “leather” balls. The Commissioner says that switch has “got the animal rights loonies off my back.” But, then, the last panel shows a group of protesters holding up a banner protesting the use of synthetics too.

The banner reads: “People for the Ethical Treatment of Hydrocarbons” with the subtitle — “Drilling Desecrates the Sacred Resting Places of our Ancestral Organisms!”

Tank grasps, what so many businessmen do not: feeding the crocodile your leg doesn’t make him a vegetarian!