Asinine is the New Ridiculous

I spent Sunday morning writing in a coffee shop, as I always do, but this weekend I ventured farther afield than usual in an effort to jolt my brain into bucking its ideas up. I hadn't considered the fact that this would also put me in very different neighborhood. With a very different population. With very different ideas. Like those expressed on the bumper sticker I saw in the parking lot:

Image belongs to the cafepress page where you can buy this design! Presumably so you can use it as kindling to build a fire with which you can personally melt a glacier out from under one of those "smug-ass polar bears".

Though I'll try (OH MY GOD I AM TRYING SO HARD) not to get too political, there is something very simple that needs to be understood here: the "green" movement is not an inherently un-American philosophy, as this bumper sticker would have you believe. I know a lot of people in this country don't especially like "liberals" or "eco-terrorists*" and fear that their almighty civil liberties will be tread upon by a bunch of dirty hippies who want to power everything with poop. I know there are questions and concerns about all the various ideas being floated as to how we can be better stewards of the planet, but surely we can agree that being "anti-environment" is just plain dumb. We NEED the environment. Because "environment" is just another word for "the one and only planet we've ever found that can support us". America is great and all, but it is also located on planet Earth. If planet Earth becomes uninhabitable, America will likewise be uninhabitable. Seriously. You can look it up.

So get that preposterous bumper sticker off your damn car. Or better yet, trade the whole thing in for a Prius, comrade.

*I'm not saying "eco-terrorists" don't exist, but come on. They account for *maybe* 0.05% of the pro-environment movement. Not everyone who recycles their beer cans and/or eats tofu is an eco-terrorist. Calm down.