Althouse: "[R]eferences to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

March 5, 2012

"[R]eferences to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

According to a book co-authored by John P. Holdren, the White House science adviser to President Barack Obama.

(Via I Hate the Media.)

ADDED: I see I already had a tag for Holdren. Back in 2009, he wrote: "A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States." I said "So... should we relax and enjoy the recession?"... which, in light of Holdren's newer nuttiness sounds more sexual than I think I intended at the time.

CORRECTION: I should say that back in 2009, I wrote about that passage, linking to an article about Holdren being asked about the quote, which he'd written back in 1973. I can see that the item I picked up today is from the same site CNS news that I'd linked to in '09. (And that the link had gone dead. I've replaced it with a similar link from 2010.)

Clicking around at CNS, I see that old book also said: "The fetus, given the opportunity to develop properly before birth, and given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being."

Oh, it's just an old book.

70 comments:

David said...: Fuck him (I say directly).; 3/5/12, 12:07 PM
SGT Ted said...: Ah yes, another attack on free speech from a lefty. How ordinary.; 3/5/12, 12:08 PM
Saint Croix said...: in light of Holdren's newer nuttiness

Althouse, you have no idea.; 3/5/12, 12:10 PM
Lou Skeezik said...: Corinthian Leather?

Anyone?

Bueller?; 3/5/12, 12:10 PM
Carnifex said...: The most dangerous man in America continues to toy with our freedoms, and still. people support him. If we don't save ourselves this election we don't deserve to be saved.

Ps. AG Eric Holder, in an interview last week said, that racial preferences should continue indefinitely because he has yet to see any advancement by black people.

I don't think they know how stupid they look sometimes. Or they just don't care. I think it's the later myself. Beans, bullets, and God.; 3/5/12, 12:14 PM
Jacques Cuze said...: He wrote that in 1973 Professor, your post gives the impression he wrote it yesterday.

How have you changed in 40 years?; 3/5/12, 12:19 PM
chuck said...: Well, at least the Obama administration has collected a large fraction of the crackpots in one place. It makes it much easier to keep track of them.; 3/5/12, 12:22 PM
MadisonMan said...: He wrote that in 1973

That is an important point to consider.

I'm picturing him yelling at kids to stay off his lawn.; 3/5/12, 12:23 PM
Rabel said...: The new Ford Flaccid is due out in 2013.

Competitors:
Subaru Softie.
Lincoln Limp.
Volvo Vulva.; 3/5/12, 12:24 PM
traditionalguy said...: The Dems are masters of PR spinning an alternate reality of "clean energy" when all energy is as clean as any other.

Sex Sells is the motto of all PR firms. So gasoline powered vehicles are now being forbidden to use sex selling PR against the Eco-government's clean vehicles mandates from their EPA Gestapo.; 3/5/12, 12:24 PM
SteveR said...: WTH. Science advisor?; 3/5/12, 12:27 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Where do they find the time to come up with these nutty ideas? Doesn't he have any real work to do?; 3/5/12, 12:29 PM
Saint Croix said...: He wrote that in 1973 Professor

Yeah, but he wss really fucking insane in the 1970's. His Ecoscience is beyond insanity. It's utterly fascist.

That's one thing feminism has done really well, pitched abortion as libertarian. But there has always been a socialist agenda underneath it.; 3/5/12, 12:30 PM
chickelit said...: This is the sort of advice our President is beholdren to thanks to support from the far left environmentalists.; 3/5/12, 12:31 PM
FleetUSA said...: Aldous Huxley foretold all this.; 3/5/12, 12:32 PM
edutcher said...: PC and the whole "hate speech" thing have always been a method to control the dialog, so this surprises us, how?

Ann Althouse said...

I said "So... should we relax and enjoy the recession?"

Like the old advice about rape - lay back and enjoy it.; 3/5/12, 12:33 PM
DADvocate said...: My next vehicles going to be a crotch rocket.; 3/5/12, 12:44 PM
Chip S. said...: So I suppose any mention of a straight-6 or V-8 would be completely out of bounds?; 3/5/12, 12:51 PM
William said...: Have there been any studies comparing the penis sizes and frequency of intercourse of Escalade vs. Volt owners? There might be a useful advertising campaign for someone there.; 3/5/12, 12:55 PM
Lou Skeezik said...: Pontiac Asstek?; 3/5/12, 12:55 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: You must put scary pictures on cigarettes you must not use sexy images to promote automobiles. Experts on imagery and thought-desire manipulation, that's just plain good solid governance.

I didn't vote for him but he's turning out great. I want four more years of this, Czars all over the place doing all kinds of splendid and wonderful things and just bypassing that whole silly two house congress thing. Boom. Gone. Just like that. No more of that greatest deliberative body in the world crap LOL now finally we can really get things done around here.; 3/5/12, 1:02 PM
traditionalguy said...: No Bonnevilles allowed. That is home of the salt flats used to set world land speed records in Phallic shaped vehicles.

And no more talk about Ford Model A's called the "two bangers."; 3/5/12, 1:10 PM
cubanbob said...: Typical of Obama to appoint astrologers and alchemists as science advisors.; 3/5/12, 1:11 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: Really, Ann? You are dredging up a 40 year old book? Do you believe everything YOU wrote 40 years ago? Not that Holdren even believes this, he uses the word "COULD." Do you know what that word means, mendacious one?

You tag this as "Obama environmental policies," which is an outright lie. Where does Obama endorse this? And what's the context of this? Was he talking about his views or someone else's or a possible turn of events or what? (You probably don't know and have no regard for the accuracy of your "nutty" attacks).

What an asinine and dishonest and nutty attack.; 3/5/12, 1:13 PM
Henry said...: Um ... size and power are engineering specifics.

How about wheels. Will references to wheels be allowed?

Speaking of wheels, can we ban Michelin from using babies?; 3/5/12, 1:16 PM
Henry said...: @AlphaLiberal -- Yours would be a good point, except to the extent that global warming fanaticism has sucked in all those old discredited views of the 70s and pumped them out again in clown colors.; 3/5/12, 1:20 PM
chickelit said...: I think the whole concept of internal combustion sets these wackos off: pistons, cylinders, cam shafts, lube, intake valves, etc.

They'd much rather talk the lingo of plug-in hybrids, AC/DC technology & battery-powered playthings of the wealthy.; 3/5/12, 1:21 PM
Amartel said...: Awfully WORRIED for a guy whose boss scampers around the planet in a big blue flying hard on.; 3/5/12, 1:24 PM
Paddy O said...: "[R]eferences to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

What a puritan!; 3/5/12, 1:25 PM
chickelit said...: AlphaLiberal said...
Really, Ann? You are dredging up a 40 year old book? Do you believe everything YOU wrote 40 years ago? Not that Holdren even believes this, he uses the word "COULD." Do you know what that word means, mendacious one?

A lesson on mendacity from AlphaLiberal!

Forth the record, I do believe that people can still believe what they wrote and said 40 years ago. Case in point: Bill Ayers.; 3/5/12, 1:26 PM
MadisonMan said...: I do believe that people can still believe what they wrote and said 40 years ago

I believe most people can't remember what they wrote and said 40 years ago :); 3/5/12, 1:30 PM
coketown said...: I want to see a Dodge Ram commercial in which a 30-second montage of pistons firing slowly through cylinders is paired with a soundtrack of eight women having orgasms.

And, honestly, I think car commercials directed toward women should be of more concern to the writers of that book. Those commercials show how easy and fun it can be to corral and manage a large litter of carbon-spewing children. Remember the Volkswagen Routan campaign with a bunch of women running out to get pregnant so they'd have an excuse to buy that minivan?

The Fiat 500/Jennifer Lopez commercial was the antidote to that, and was probably EPA-approved. "See, dumb women? Who needs children and minivans when you can be single, childless, attractive, and the center of attention?"

It's amusing that commercials for men play off how men want to see themselves while commercials for women play off how women want others to see them.; 3/5/12, 1:34 PM
coketown said...: And concerning Alpha Liberal's point that the ideas discussed in this book are 40 years old: That's considered fresh by modern liberal standards. The Left hasn't had a new idea since Medicare--and look how well that's going.; 3/5/12, 1:37 PM
Amartel said...: Paddy O: "what a puritan"

Puritainism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be happy (HL Mencken)

I suspect that IS the driving (pedaling) motivation of the entire Obama Administration.; 3/5/12, 1:39 PM
dhagood said...: @chip s: in my stable of automobiles one can find a v8, a turbo straight 5, a flat 4, a v6, and my personal favorite, an air-cooled flat 6.

diversity!; 3/5/12, 1:44 PM
Chip S. said...: @lewsar--I'm guessing the air-cooled flat 6 is your favorite b/c it's housed in a classic 911.; 3/5/12, 1:50 PM
SteveR said...: I believe most people can't remember what they wrote and said 40 years ago :)

Publishing is a bitch like that. Just think of all the stuff on line that people will be held to account for in forty years.; 3/5/12, 1:53 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: Bookmarked I Hate Media.

The whole site is interesting. Nice layout. Noticed no java interference. Smart ass contributors. All pluses.; 3/5/12, 1:55 PM
rhhardin said...: I have a Dodge Colt, undriven for a while.

Made by the makers of the Japanese Zero, who you'd assume is now President of Japan.; 3/5/12, 1:56 PM
Rob said...: Well, the age of the book is a point well taken. However, his co-authors, the Ehrlichs are most famous for being wrong, very wrong. See this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon%E2%80%93Ehrlich_wager; 3/5/12, 2:00 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Most 60 year-old libs have not changed their minds or opinions in 40 years.; 3/5/12, 2:01 PM
Sofa King said...: He wrote that in 1973 Professor, your post gives the impression he wrote it yesterday.

By all means, link to any more recent statements that counterindicate. Otherwise, it's an idiotic assumption that, he simply must not believe that anymore, simply because time has elapsed.; 3/5/12, 2:08 PM
John said...: Beta Liberal is in his full comic hackish glory today.

First, maybe he missed it but Paul Ehrlich was a pretty big deal back in the day. Publishing a book with him is not something that one is likely to forget.

Second, when you take the time to publish a book, you own the views in that book. Unless you can show me where Holden ever repudiated these views, we can only assume he still holds them.

Third, there is nothing out of context about these quotes. Anyone who is even remotely familiar with Ehrlich and 1970s Neo Malthusian thinking knows the quotes are exactly what was being pushed back then. So stop with the taken out of context BS you dishonest little turd.

Third, some statements are nasty and vile that they really do haunt you for the rest of your life. These quotes talk about destroying the American way of life and creating an authoritarian state to forcibly control population. If he were from the right and were found to be supporting segregation in 1973, you would not be as forgiving.; 3/5/12, 2:15 PM
richard mcenroe said...: "[R]eferences to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

And Barack Obama has built just the car to do it!; 3/5/12, 2:17 PM
dhagood said...: @chip s: well, "classic 911" can mean different things to different people. to me, it means what is called a short hood 911, which are the pre-1974 cars. my car is an 84 carrera targa which i've had for 18 years now.

driving an older sports car provides a useful benchmark for current automotive performance levels.

the first new car i ever owned was an 81 vw jetta, which luxuriated in an awesome 75 or so horsepower from its 1.7 liter 4 cylinder engine.

by contrast, my 911, with its 207 horsepower, is an absolute rocket.

today however, things are a little different. my 911 is still faster, as defined by top speed, than most cars by a fair margin. as far as acceleration goes however, while my 911 is still usually quicker than pickup trucks and minivans, there is not a lot of difference in some cases.

the newer 911s are so quick as to be ridiculous. driving my car at anything close to the vehicle's potential will rightly land you in jail. half throttle applied for any length of time in a newer 911 will result in speeds approaching triple digits.

if i were to get another 911 (my 84 will be part of my estate) i'd want one from 69 through 74 at the latest. now if i could just scrape together 30K or so, i'd start looking.; 3/5/12, 2:19 PM
John said...: Lewswer

We are living in a golden age of automotive performance. My baby Mercedez Benz would leave all but the fastest muscle cars and sports cars of the 1970s for dead on the track. A mid 80s Ferrari super car was lucky to break six seconds from zero to sixty. I could buy a Golf GTI and eat a mid 80s 308 for lunch. It is just amazing how fast even affordable cars are these days.

And if you are going for 35K, why not go for an old 356? You can pick one of those up for around 30 to 40. And the real old school Porsche people tell me that four cylinder air cooled is the only real Porsche.; 3/5/12, 2:27 PM
chickelit said...: "[R]eferences to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

This diktat is return to the 1950's and 60s when curves, fins, headlights and the "she's a beaut" styling ruled. The hourglass proportions of the 60's Corvette epitomized this aesthetic.

Then came the blocky, muscular lines of the SUV and the pick-up truck. No coincidence that that styling will become passe' in the future.

What Holdren wants us to embrace is the irresistible feminine styling of the FIAT ABARF; 3/5/12, 2:34 PM
Sigivald said...: If we took the Commerce Clause seriously as a very limited grant of power to Congress to regulate the actual transfer of goods between the states with the goal of preventing trade wars, we'd be much better off.

Less Federal government is the best kind.; 3/5/12, 2:43 PM
John said...: Chicken Little,

The Fiat 500 is oddly compelling. The top end one has a turbo charged 165 horsepower engine. It must be like driving a go cart.; 3/5/12, 2:45 PM
CWJ said...: What's amazing about these 40 year old quotes is how closely they still track to current progressive cant. The fetus quote is particularly chilling in light of today's "post-birth abortion." So I'm not so sure that our hostess should be pilloried for bringing them up AL. However, the truly telling thing is that none of the doomsday scenarios that were so confidently predicted by this '70s bunch have come to pass. Food for thought when contemplating our current crop of alarmists.; 3/5/12, 2:57 PM
Gene said...: Scratch a liberal and their totalitarian yearnings come flying out like killer bees. Still, there is nothing wrong with yearning for a small world population. It's too bad most liberal politicians would rather bite off their toes than talk about the dangers of overpopulation.

Al Gore did a whole movie (An Inconvenient Truth) about the dangers of global warming without mentioning over-population even once. I know why too. They're scared to death someone will accuse them of hating illegal immigrants.; 3/5/12, 3:22 PM
Saint Croix said...: So the future science czar writes:

"Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control."

And I start saying, "Estrogen! Estrogen!" in a really high voice.; 3/5/12, 3:43 PM
chickelit said...: "Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control."

And I start saying, "Estrogen! Estrogen!" in a really high voice.

Are those two ideas related or is it just a fluke?

Even Ritmo used to worry about estrogens in the water supply, IIRC.; 3/5/12, 3:52 PM
damikesc said...: I guess after the "Free Speech" movement of the 1960's, the Lefty's love affair with freedom needed some time off.; 3/5/12, 3:56 PM
Chip S. said...: "Gattaca! Gattaca!"; 3/5/12, 4:06 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: John said...

Chicken Little,

The Fiat 500 is oddly compelling. The top end one has a turbo charged 165 horsepower engine. It must be like driving a go cart.

Yes. Until just before you die in it.; 3/5/12, 4:11 PM
Hagar said...: Saw a photo of a FIAT 500 that someone had equipeed with a Carrera 2 engine once. Looked like a box turtle with a tarantulaon its back.; 3/5/12, 4:12 PM
Pastafarian said...: Gosh, you're right, AlphaLiberal. We have no way of knowing the full context of his words. Maybe Holdren was criticizing this notion, lampooning it as lunacy. If only we had some sort of way of finding strings of text on the internet, some sort of "engine" that would allow us to search them out.

"Advertising now functions in large part to keep the economy growing by creating demand for a wide variety of often useless, dangerous or environmentally destructive products. Its most dangerous abuses might be halted immediately by legislative action. For instance, it could be made illegal for any utility to advertise in such a way as to promote greater demand for power. Also, references to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

Huh. Looks to me as though Holdren is suggesting this as a policy. That's weird. You know what? I bet this was planted into Holdren's text. Probably by the Jews, I'd guess. Or the Bilderbergers. Or Jewish Bilderbergers.; 3/5/12, 4:15 PM
Methadras said...: Leftards write themselves. They are truly truly dangerous people. How can anyone defend the utter attack on liberty, freedom, and prosperity in this way. I've been hammering how dangerous these people are and yet nothing is done. Their ideas are nihilistic in nature. Their goals are tyrannical in execution. Why are we entertaining any of this? It's anathema to the founding of this country. Even Thomas Paine is double epic facepalming at this.; 3/5/12, 4:19 PM
Gene said...: John: The Fiat 500 is oddly compelling. The top end one has a turbo charged 165 horsepower engine. It must be like driving a go cart."

My dad won a (used) Fiat 500 in a sportman's bar in 1963, which, as I was a college student, he promptly gave to me. It didn't have much in the way of an engine (top speed was 67 mph) but it compensated with such great mileage (50 mpg) that I could drive from Pittsburgh, PA, to New York city for $2.65 in that car. Two bucks went for eight gallons of gas (25 cents per gallon). I spent another 15 cents for the bridge at Easton, PA, and 50 cents for the George Washington Bridge.

I can barely drive around the block for $2.65 these days.; 3/5/12, 4:23 PM
bgates said...: He wrote that in 1973 Professor

It's impossible to get even a hint of what an individual human being might think today based only on words he deliberated over, wrote down, and had published thirty nine years ago.

On the other hand, we can be absolutely certain we know what the temperature of the entire surface of the earth will be fifty or 100 years from now, so it turns out we need to eliminate attractive cars anyway.; 3/5/12, 4:25 PM
Chip S. said...: Here's something I'm reasonably certain of:

If Holdren had ever published a repudiation of his long-ago views we'd already have heard about it.; 3/5/12, 4:30 PM
Michelle Dulak Thomson said...: Saint Croix,

"Adding a sterilant to drinking water or staple foods is a suggestion that seems to horrify people more than most proposals for involuntary fertility control."

Yeah, that was the quotation from your first link that stood out for me, too. I mean, let's untangle the strands here:

(1) He's interested in "involuntary fertility control."

(2) He's been sussing out which varieties of "involuntary fertility control" people find nastier vs. less nasty.

(3) He discovers that the one where the government slips "sterilants" into your drinking water, for some reason, weirds people out even more than does the one where you're forcibly implanted with subdermal hormone dispensers.

Thinking like this makes the fluoridation paranoids of the 50s sound strangely sane. (I would not be surprised if that's where the idea came from, at that.)

No one who has ever thought like this should be allowed anywhere near political power absent a complete recantation. No one.; 3/5/12, 5:12 PM
Saint Croix said...: Thinking like this makes the fluoridation paranoids of the 50s sound strangely sane.

Yeah! I start saying, "Ripper was right!" in a very high voice.

My precious bodily fluids. Oh no.

They add chemicals to our drinking water to improve our teeth. And then they go, "That worked! Now how do we improve society?"

Gene says, "There is nothing wrong with yearning for a small world population."

That's when my really high voice comes back. "Oh fuck! Oh fuck!"; 3/5/12, 7:44 PM
DADvocate said...: "[R]eferences to size, power or sexual potency (direct or implied) could be banned from automobile advertising."

Wouldn't it be a violation of my civil rights to forbid me from advertising cars simply because who and what I am?; 3/5/12, 7:47 PM
Anonymous said...: This is the book where he also stated that forced abortions could be construed as within the bounds of the Constitution.

!
word verification: oldiful, being old and beautiful at the same time.; 3/5/12, 8:25 PM
Synova said...: Cars, sure!

But what about drain cleaner commercials?

http://minx.cc/?post=327244; 3/5/12, 8:45 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Leave us alone!; 3/5/12, 11:19 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/5/12, 11:55 PM
TheThinMan said...: "...given the essential early socializing experiences and sufficient nourishing food during the crucial early years after birth, will ultimately develop into a human being."

Too bad it didn't work on Holdren.; 3/6/12, 10:33 AM