Senator: Use RICO Laws to Prosecute Global Warming Skeptics

That's right -- a sitting U.S. Senator is suggesting RICO laws should be applied to global warming skeptics.Top men like Sheldon Whitehouse can make sure we don't hear anything that we don't need to hear about scientific research and legally punish anyone who publicly disagrees. Otherwise, the natives get restless and start opposing whatever economic restrictions seem necessary to save us from ourselves. And as we all know, everything about the global warming debate is guided by altruism. No one's looking to get rich by artificially inflating the cost of fossil fuels and benefiting from green energy subsidies, right?  Of course, this isn't the first time someone has suggested prison for global warming deniers. Gawker's Adam Weinstein did that last year, because "First Amendment rights have never been absolute. You still can't yell 'fire' in a crowded theater. You shouldn't be able to yell 'balderdash' at 10,883 scientific journal articles a year, all saying the same thing: This is a problem, and we should take some preparations for when it becomes a bigger problem." Then Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. also joined the chorus last year. After saying he wants to jail climate deniers, he moderated his position by saying he merely wants to legally go after corporations and think tanks who disagree with climate science, noting that "Koch Industries and ExxonMobil have particularly distinguished themselves as candidates for corporate death." This is pretty rich coming from someone who's still insists vaccines cause autism, all scientific evidence to the contrary. And if we really want to compound the irony here, do note this headline at Think Progress last month: "Robert Kennedy Jr. Blasts Vaccine Science, Compares It To Tobacco Companies Denying Cancer Link." No doubt RICO charges are in order for vaccine makers. But those two men are effectively cranks. In February, Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., attempted a McCarthyite witch hunt against climate scientists he found disagreeable. And Sheldon Whitehouse is a sitting U.S. Senator. He's now publicly encouraging legal persecution of people who conduct scientific research and/or those that have opinions about it he disagrees with.

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