Am I the only person in the world who wants to pound the living shit

[MADem]

out of the smartass children who didactically tell us how wonderful "clean coal energy" is?

Every time I see those commercials, I find myself, to my deep and profound horror, thinking about why our forebears found a certain utility in corporal punishment, to correct behavior instantly, without equivocation...I'm ready to grab a switch, a belt, or a well-aimed shoe and paddle their (smart)asses until they can't sit down for a week!

Now I KNOW this isn't nice, so no "how COULD you!" lectures please. I realize intellectually it isn't the best way to convince a child that they're spouting horseshit, but I have visceral problems with that ad campaign. It repulses me that they use these smarmy little know-it-all shits to push their unsavory point.

Of course, I should be angry at the craven bastards who put the words in their obnoxious little mouths--after all, they're just actors. But surely, they're being raised by Republicans, because no Democrat would let their kids spout that nonsensical bullshit.

Graphic heavy site, with obnoxious children at every click, here: http://www.learnaboutcoal.org/

[ceile]

1. You're not alone.

I can't stand them!
:grr:

[MADem]

4. Thank heavens!!!!

It's not just me, then!!!

[Rick Myers]

2. That kid burns my biscuits!!!!!

:grr:

[LSparkle]

3. I agree with you

You described it perfectly: SMARMY. That's how it feels, because those kids are just reading a script -- they don't REALLY believe in "clean coal." The cliche know-it-all child TALKING DOWN to an adult audience is usually used for comedic effect, but it feels like they're using it here to make the adult audience think, "gee if even a KID can get it, I must be really dumb about this." That's insulting and maddening to me.

[MADem]

12. You have to wonder what idiot thought it would be a good idea??

In comedy, the smartass kid is usually helping a lovable idiot or a charming loser with a low IQ. The viewers KNOW the adult isn't the brightest bulb on the tree. So essentially, these bastards producing these works of crap ARE putting us, the viewing audience, in the Don Knotts "adorable dunce" role.

Hardly the way to get people to join your team, when you think about it. Even poor Don Knotts used to look in the mirror and see, in his mind's eye, John Wayne, or some other heroic figure, who never got talked down to by a little kid!

[rhiannon55]

5. I HATE those commercials

When they come on, I almost break my fingers going for the mute button. I cannot believe the propaganda spewing forth from those little kids' mouths. Those mouths need to be washed out with soap, imo. And the POS adults behind these commercials should be arrested for child abuse. Paying kids to lie should be illegal. :mad:

[RufusEarl]

6. Clean coal, yea right!!

Your outrage is well placed!

[Botany]

7. not her fault .... she doen't know about acid rain, global warming,

mercury pollution, Mt. Top removal, or acid mine drainage .... she is
just reading lines.

Beat the crap out of the big coal $ people who make those commercials ...
also Sen. Voinovich of Ohio is owned by coal too.

[MADem]

8. There are annoying lads as well--they've a whole cadre of them! NT

[deaniac21]

9. I HATE the way it gets all over you when you have to shovel it.

[Strelnikov_]

10. And Considering The EROEI Of CTL Relative To Current Petroleum

derived liquid fuels, if they try to replace even current SUV go juice consumption with CTL, that 250 years supply they keep quoting goes to about, oh, forty years supply. And that is not even addressing the quality (EROEI) of the coal remaining (brown vs anthracite, etc.)

Guess they don't mind spending their golden years with no oil or coal as a backup energy supply.

One plus, they won't have to move to Florida from Duluth for year round tropical weather.

[qnr]

11. Those commercials drive me crazy too n/t

[AlCzervik]

13. yup, them and the kids that tell you you're a bad parent becasue you

didn't buy a gm with Onstar™

[spag68]

14. coal

I agree about the kids and commercials, however there are ways to mine and refine coal that are economically and environmentally friendly. Check out the gov of Montana and others in the science field before you go flaming a source of energy that can be used as a bridge to better ways.

[MADem]

19. I'm not having a problem with it as a bridge, but the push from these

bums is that it is a viable and long-term ALTERNATIVE. Which it should NOT be. And it ain't clean. And it's a long way to go before it will be not-as-filthy-as-now clean, and it will never be used without some level of environmental impact. And you have to rape the land to get it.

There's no talk of solar and wind, in fact, there's obstacles put in the way of these technologies. This, according to these putzy kids, is "the" solution.

I'd respect the entire construct more if the crux of the message was "We have this on the side, in case the oil shit hits the fan, while we work our asses off to develop reliable renewables."

Instead the message is this: Fuck it--you'll be dead!! And your kids and grandkids, too!!! Party on!!! We've got enough of this crap to last for more than two hundred years!!!"

[PA Democrat]

15. Perhaps those kids should talk to the kids who live in THIS town.

Seven floods have inundated the town of Bob White, W.Va., since mountaintop-removal mining started in 2000.

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/16/reece/

[jdlh8894]

23. Bob White WV ?

Lived and traveled the whole state and never heard of that place. Nothing on Google either. Could you tell me where it is located?

[PA Democrat]

25. Don't know. You could try contacting the magazine that published the

article. More on Bob White, WV here:



Chrystal J. Gunnoe, 11, Bob White, W.Va. Since 2000, the Gunnoe family's property on Big Branch Creek has been flooded five times. The worst was in June 2003. "I was at my friend's house. My mom came to get me; the water was at her knees. She picked me up in the truck and took me to the house. She wouldn't let me see. She told me to be ready to go up that hill. I didn't sleep that night."

http://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/02/16/caskey/

[MADem]

28. It's right here--zip code 25028 I found it on Google in ten seconds

http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Bob+White,+WV

[TahitiNut]

29. If you want to see something to turn your stomach, look at the 'hybrid'

... overview - map + satellite showing the utter devastation of the environment in that area. It's utterly appalling.

[MADem]

30. Good lord...look at those GASHES in the earth!! NT

[WI_DEM]

16. NO not the kids, maybe the PR firm

[SoCalDem]

17. Parents of 'acting' children like money..It's an acting gig..nothing more

That kid just learned some lines, and her parents deposited the check.. Thinking people know it's all a lie.. :) the ones who are non-thinkers, are probably watching Springer re-runs ..

[MADem]

31. Well, I'd say the Springer watchers have a better sense of fair play

The old "It ain't NICE to screw your mother's boyfriend" kind of justice. :evilgrin:

But gee, those "acting" parents should be ashamed of themselves. Guess they never got any roles in those "children learn what they live" commercials!!!

This is worse than "South Park cynical" IMO...it's getting children to cheerfully endorse a product that devastates when it is mined, and devastates when it is burned. It's like the old WW2 films, where Germany went to great lengths conning the little Hitler Youth kids to be happy little acolytes in an evil regime--you know they aren't, themselves, evil when you look at their images--they're just conned little kids eagerly pleasing their parents and elders, parroting the acceptable line of horseshit, and wearing a stupid little uniform--but you know what they'll grow up to be without a reality check....

[Ksec]

18. Our wonderful little village has plans to put one of those here

I can see my property values dropping as we speak.

If its so clean why doesnt anyone want one of those plants in their backyards?

[MADem]

21. My deepest sympathies, and it's not a good seller's market in any event NT

[never_get_over_it]

20. For counter balance

these kids you'll want to hug and this will give you a BIG SMILE

http://www.nedlamont.com/page/-/Daycare_Final.wmv

yes the coal kids make me crazy too.....actually I usually make some smart ass remark to the TV any time I see them...

[ComerPerro]

22. Nothing wrong with wanting to... And you are not alone...

[KoKo]

24. It's just the Corporate Whore Media working with Globalist Propagad fed

by the RW Repug Think Tanks. Why should this upset you? It's been going on for YEARS...it's only now ramping up and that there are folks like you and Me on DU and other sites who see it for what it is? :eyes:

[spanone]

26. They're just actors, it's the ad agencies & the coal industry using

kids in that way that pisses me off. Cheap sales gimmick.

[EstimatedProphet]

27. The campaign is about teaching children how to lie IMO