Who is the Walrus?

It dawned on me this morning, while flipping channels from a "network" news show to the indomitable Fox News, that "we" are in some deep doodoo.  The network news show was featuring a story of how some 20,000 walruses are bunched together on a beach on the northwest coast of Alaska.  Why are they there?  Because there is no ice for them to swim to.  Why is there no ice?  Because the earth is getting hotter!  Flash to Fox News and the feature story in the same moment was a women in South Carolina who bagged (that's hunter-talk for slaughtered) a 1,000 pound gator.  Why did she do it?  Was the gator some threat?  No, she just wanted a trophy of a stuffed gator in her living room....and for Fox News, that was newsworthy.  Right after that came some Texas politician heading a movement to save the traditional incandescent light bulb.  The one threatened to be replaced by CFL bulbs that are much more energy efficient.  His reasoning?  Well the government shouldn't be in the business of telling us what kind of light bulbs to use, for starters.  And, second, the CFL bulbs contain a smidgen of mercury and if they begin breaking in homes around the country we are bound to see hospitals jammed with poisoned victims.  What is really going on here?  In my opinion we are witnessing a so-called "conservative" (although what they are trying to actually "conserve" is a bit beyond me) movement that is a serious threat to people and planet.  All that seems to matter is that some notion of "traditional American values" be restored.  That the country is on the wrong track and the proof is in the increasing size of government and the decreasing size of bank accounts.  All to often, it seems to me, "traditional American values" is just a code-word for unconstrained capitalism...what I have often decried in my other blog as "capitalism run amok."  I truly believe that this brand of conservatism breeds a view of capitalism as if it were ordained by god himself and if you're not worshipping at that alter, well then you're just a heretic worthy of being burned at the stake.  I prefer to cling to this heretical belief that there are some things in this life more important than money and material.  The relentless pursuit of those things appears to have gotten us all in a lot of trouble.  So why does this movement and its unfair and out of balance forum seem to be gaining so much traction these days?  I am not so sure that it is.  Maybe it's just a Fox News illusion (wishful thinking).  Or, maybe folks who are drawn to it are kinda like the walruses....they just don't seem to be able to find anything else to swim to.  And, just like the walruses, the slightest jolt might send them into a panic in which they stampede over the rest of us....that's what has me a bit alarmed.