Having a Tea Party in Reality Land

So, some people are having a tea party in Washington D.C. this weekend. It's very much like the tea party in Alice in Wonderland. There are many participants who seem to share genes with the Mad Hatter. Unlike with Alice's tea party, though, the surreal absurdity on display isn't harmless. In tough economic times, the potential rise of a far-right political movement---especially one based on lies and on simplifications---is cause for concern. It shifts the consensus reality just a little farther toward the conditions whereby a free state (albeit one beset by corporate lobbyists and other constraints against being a true democracy) becomes a truly totalitarian state.So, I'm having a little tea party of my own here today. Here are a few of the planks in its platform.---The sky is generally blue except when it's cloudy.---Global warming is real, and a threat to national security (and everything else).---Electricity is real, not magic, and so is science.---The federal government isn't bad; stupid or greedy people in any system are bad.---Gravity also exists, except when it comes to national politics.---Religious freedom includes everybody, even (gasp!) atheists.---Immigrants are people just like me and you (in fact, exactly like me and you).---Evolution exists and functions even without your belief in it. In fact, it could care less about your belief or lack of belief.---Our own quality of life is inextricably tied to the quality of our environment.---Barack Obama is indeed a citizen of the United States of America.---People who don't believe in facts have quite literally gone insane and should not be trusted.Well, those are just a few of the things we're talking about at our little tea party today here in Reality Land. It would be nice to be able to talk about more complex issues, but for the moment, as Reality Land becomes so eroded that it's almost an island now, almost falling into the sea now, it's enough to shore up the sand bags a little by shoving them into place over the windbags.