Down with Greenpeace hypocrisy!

(Originally Posted on Saturday, Oct 4, 2008, 06:30 PM)

For my one lone reader (Hi Mom!), sorry for skipping last weekend. I think I was on political - and personal - overload. Just couldn't make anything I wrote sound cohesive. I was definitely blathering.
So I found this article, originally courtesy of Lucianne.com. But since I couldn't comment on either site, by golly, I'll comment right here!
So, first. WTF, Obamaniacs are hitting up our beloved spectators?? Back off, you Acorn freaks!! Of course, now that I've written that, undoubtedly the Republicans has some folks there too (which let me tell you, it takes some serious guts to be conservative in this state). But that (surprise!!) didn't get reported by the MSM, so I'm limiting my opinion to the "facts" at hand.
Second, while I'm... pleased... that Ms. Bryan (Ms. Montoya? Ms. Montoya Bryan? Pick a name already, sheesh.) states that the Greenpeace balloon was "Across town", I do not feel she clearly stated, for the record, that Greenpeace was not flying as an official participant of the Fiesta. To be clear, the reason they weren't an official participant is because they failed to file their application before the deadline, which you can read about for yourself here. Short and succinct, like a good news article should be. Of course, Greenpeace didn't like that, and hit up ACLU, King Bill, and Jester Marty. The last of those, of course, was a terrible waste of time, as the King's good Jester is fervently attempting to push Fiesta out of Albuquerque despite the incredible revenue it generates. But that's a rant for another time.
Anyway, so Greenpeace's "earth" balloon has a slogan (and reportedly, a name of the same) of "Stop Global Warming, Save the Climate".... so... a little lesson in hot air balloons:
According to Wikipedia.com (don't knock my source, I'm feeling lazy, and I have enough ballooning experience of my own to know this is correct), the envelope is made of Nylon, which is a "generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers known generically as polyamides and first produced on February 28, 1935 by Wallace Carothers at DuPont. Nylon is one of the most commonly used polymers." (All links in that quote courtesy of the article on Wikipedia regarding Nylon itself, which you can read here.) That's right, Greenpeace. Your flying environmental message was born of the sweat and tears of an evil (and apparently mentally unstable, which should sound familiar to you) scientist and mass-produced by evil corporate businessmen. And probably also produced in Chinese sweat shops.
The basket is made of wicker, which again according to Wikipedia, is "made of material of plant origin, but nowadays plastic fibers are also used", which means it (1) is originating from some poor helpless rainforest tree, murdered for its beauty and/or (2) is reinforced with more Evil Scientist product that I'm willing to bet renders the whole thing not biodegradable.
And for my final kick to the Greenpeace shin, I present exhibit C - Wikipedia's entire definition of a hot air balloon's construction: "A hot air balloon for manned flight uses a single-layered, fabric gas bag (lifting "envelope"), with an opening at the bottom called the mouth or throat. Attached to the envelope is a basket, or gondola, for carrying the passengers. Mounted above the basket and centered in the mouth is the "burner" which injects a flame into the envelope, heating the air within. The heater or burner is fueled by propane, a liquefied gas {insert: "LPG is usually derived from fossil fuel sources, being manufactured during the refining of crude oil, or extracted from oil or gas streams as they emerge from the ground."} stored in pressure vessels, similar to high pressure forklift cylinders." Yup. Propane. Propane = liquefied gas. Liquefied gas = fossil fuel. Fossil fuel = not Greenpeace approved.
Everybody now: "SAVE THE CLIMATE!!" **hit the burner**
I'm sure, quite sure, that hot air balloons will never lead to the demise of our environment as we know it. Heck, I doubt they even make an accountable hit on it (disclaimer: personal opinion, not to be construed as learned fact). Actually, a friend is in the process of educating me on fossil fuel and all that good stuff, for which he deserves this mention, as teaching me about anything I haven't read about for myself requires monumental patience and personal restraint. But my point is simply that I think Greenpeace could choose another, more environmentally correct, method of regurgitating their climate concerned message.