See him invent a new form of prejudice

Lately this little anti-anti-PRT war has been heating up, and the last couple days I've gotten really excited about it. Not only has Daily Kos been the scene of a whopping 50+ comment thread of funny, but yesterday Kenmore hinted at yet more hilarity to come:

I can always tell when something really embarrassing has occurred for the PRT guys when Mr. Gow tries to distract me with his silly comment spam.

Stay tuned.

by K*n A***** on Mon May 04, 2009 at 09:45:43 AM PDT

I had no idea what he could be fantasizing about. And today we found out: the Masdar PRT "is a joke" because torture occurs in Abu Dhabi.:

It turns out the PRT system is a joke... but what do expect from a country where a prominent royal family member tortures people [ellipsis in original]
Source

You can read for yourself* the really excellent comments by environmentalists who tore Kenwood a new asshole, so I won't do a recap here.

I do want to highlight a particularly distasteful -- yet amusing -- gaffe by Kennel Ration:

Don't believe greenwashing hype... there is no way that Masdar can be "sustainable"... it's in a desert. [ellipses in original]
Source

He's saying people of desert nations can't live in sustainable conditions. As I wrote in response, "the Mideast had desert cities long before Western colonialism, by their very existence they were sustainable."

Wow. You can't have a sustainable city "in a desert." What do you call that kind of prejudice: "Biome-centric"?

Update: we have achieved today's "whatever"!

Read the whole shebang at Daily Kos.

* I did, it was great to start the day with a big laff. Be sure not to miss:

• He gets Dubai mixed up with Abu Dhabi/Masdar
• Maybe to him they all look alike? Thermidor confuses Sheikh Issa ("BOOO! HISS!!!") bin Zayed Al Nahyan with Sheikh Mohammed ("YAY!!!") bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

gPRT
Ken Avidor OF ARABIA!

The brightly colored non-fine print

The Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist is hard at work on Daily Kos again, spewing out another long-winded chain of suspicion ("carbon credit flim-flam"!), old talking points (robots!), Resmuglican cooties (Dave Pelton -- who?), and guilt by association (Sleepy Thompson!).

The smoking gun for him is a Resmuglican enviromintylist's project web page (Pelton's -- again, who?) that displays SkyTran PRT. It's "one of Carbon Angel's projects," Ovendoor says in his opening paragraph.

But you can stop reading his post at that point, because the rest of it is undercut by one, simple basic mistake he's made: at the top of that Carbon Angel page is displayed -- in large, friendly letters -- the words "Projects Under Review." It would appear, therefore, that SkyTran is not a Carbon Angel project; it is a CANDIDATE to become a project.

Maybe Kenmore can use Google Maps to prove the selection was/has/will be made already/in the future.



gPRT
Ken Avidor is sealed in a mayonnaise jar on Funk & Wagnall's porch

"Christmas is Bogus - Dump Santa," advises skeptic

A Minnesota anti-holiday activist and skeptic of childlike wonder today issued a warning about the annual 'Christmas' holiday. Ben Bloviador of Minneapolis says that the winter holiday and its iconographic spokesperson, 'Santa Claus,' is a stalking horse for the retail industry and the Republican Party.

Conservative connections

"Basically, Santa Claus is a stalking horse for the retail industry and the Republican Party," said Bloviador.

"All you have to do is look at the symbology. Santa is dressed mostly in red, the color of the right wing. A real progressive would be dressed in blue," Bloviador said.

Bloviador's most compelling evidence is that Santa's red suit with white trim are the same colors as Target Stores, the Minnesota-based retail chain. "I have video taken in a local Target, of Republican state representative Mark Olson doing his Christmas shopping -- including items for a 'care package' for imprisoned former city councilman Dean Zimmermann."

"I don't think you need any more evidence than that to prove what a silly, bogus holiday Christmas is," said Bloviador.

Greenwashing

Bloviador said that Santa's transport, a sleigh, is unproven and infeasible technology. "We're supposed to believe an open sleigh can travel the entire world in one night?" he asked. The purpose, he said, was to create the illusion that Christmas is eco-friendly. "Look at all the green," said Bloviador, "Green holly, green wreathes, green trees. But a sleigh powered only by reindeer on hay is wacky; it would have to be a hybrid to power all those systems and achieve high speed."

"It removes the idea that sleighs are non-polluting," he said, adding that a real liberal would deliver presents with a light rail train.

A long quest

Bloviador said he first became suspicious of Christmas in 1962. "My family was having a Hannukah dinner, when this Santa Claus came down the chimney, uninvited, and disrupted the evening. He stomped through the house screaming 'Ho, ho, ho,' and ordering us to have a 'Merry Christmas.' He gave me coal," Bloviador recalled.

"That's when I began investigating Christmas, and now I am perhaps the leading skeptic of this bogus right-wing scam."

Peace On Earth and Good Will Even to Ken Avidor

Talking Point gets "terminal" diagnosis

I'm sorry, Mrs. PRT is Greenwashing Heathrow Airport Expansion, but you have a case of Development of Green Jet Fuel-a-noma.

Update (10/6/2009) Masdar Institute and Honeywell to study low-carbon biofuels for Boeing

gPRT
Give me Ham on five and hold the Ken Avidor

Still waiting

Ben Humidor the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist has asked whether the ULTra personal rapid transit system is greenwashing for the Terminal 5 expansion at Heathrow Airport. Then he answers his own question.

For my part, I'm still waiting for him to explain why ULTra is greenwashing, but train service to T5 by at least three rail lines (and a shiny new station) is not greenwashing.



gPRT
Lead danger prompts Ken Avidor recall by Mattel

Sanitized (of relevancy) for your protection

Apparently, the Minnesota anti-PRT propagandist has never before heard of a private company (of any type) trying to keep protesters (of any type) off of its facilities. No, I guess PRT invented that too.

Using Kenmore's logic, if a company is pro-environment, it ought to allow environmental protesters to gather and possibly disrupt its operations. If not (and especially if it also has a PRT program), then the company must be anti-environment. Who cares if the EU and Swedes see PRT as a tool for urban mobility and reducing oil dependence -- that's an inconvenient truth Mr. L'Avitory flushes down his memory hole.

What we really need to know is what's the Mark "Slappy" Olson connection? Has Olson ever flown into or out of Heathrow? We need the facts!

Also today: Heathrow's new Terminal 5 will be served by surface rail and the London Underground -- obviously, trains must be part of the Airport Expansion Conspiracy too.

Update: the Propagandist singles out PRT as 'greenwashing' (9/4)

Dec. 17 -- BAA's Heathrow Corporate Responsibility Report cites multiple modes and methods in its surface transport strategy:

Paddington-Heathrow local train
Piccadilly express train extension
Heathrow Express extension
Heathrow-Staines "AirTrack" rail link
Public transport interchange
PRT
Improved bus and coach service
Employee car trip reduction
Employee public transport commute discount
No change in parking strategy
Limit construction worker car trips

I challenge the Propagandist to be consistent, and denounce all of these as greenwashing!

gPRT
Ken Avidor is a stalking horse for Garry Trudeau haters