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I interrupt this blog to bring you one of my periodic rants about the preposterous obstructionism of the Republicans, which is a pointless impediment to American progress and prosperity. If you find this subject upsetting and don’t want to hear it, come back in a few days. Thank you.

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Let’s be real about the beliefs of the American right wing.  

Conservatives have a history of being hidebound and fiercely orthodox, always indignant about this or that, usually lined up to oppose threats to the established order.

If their philosophy ever had value at all, it was to remind the rest of us that frugality can be a virtue. In truth, “frugal” to most conservatives means “stingy” and “heartless,” but it was a good reminder anyway.

That was then, this is now. Today’s conservatives make their predecessors seem almost rational by comparison.

Republicans have tacked so far to the extreme right that they’ve broken through into Crazytown. The best of them are mildly to moderately loony. The worst of them have kissed reality goodbye — proudly and arrogantly so.

Consider the facts — which, ironically, right-wingers do not.

It’s no secret that today’s GOP is an “against” party. Conservatives spend their energy being opposed to many things and in favor of very little.

Well, that’s not quite accurate. They’re in favor of war, guns, capital punishment, and unfettered capitalism, but you get my drift.

Ordinary conservatives, those who are not in it for the money, no doubt consider themselves to be decent, upstanding folks. I’m sure they are.

But some right-wing positions and beliefs are so mystifyingly wrong-headed that it calls into question the reasoning ability of the adherents.

You can oppose abortion, contraception, gay marriage, and maybe even sex education on moral grounds. It’s misguided, but still within the bounds of reason.

What is NOT reasonable is opposing better health care, opposing any restrictions whatsoever on guns, and opposing the environmental regulations of the EPA. Do conservatives miss smog? Do they miss syringes washing up on the Jersey Shore?

What is it about unions, the BLM, and the United Nations that so infuriates the Right?

Why do they believe being poor, sick, or addicted is a moral failing?

Worst of all, how can they ignore science — science! — as if any ignorant,  belligerent white person knows better, and can dismiss ACTUAL EVIDENCE painstakingly accumulated by humanity’s best brains over the millennia? Seriously?

When people espouse haywire beliefs, something is truly wrong — “wrong” in the sense that brain synapses seem to be misfiring and logic circuits are bypassed. Maybe that explains why facts mean nothing, and concepts like empathy and compassion do not exist.

Earlier this month, President Obama delivered the commencement address at the University of California-Irvine, and refreshingly, used the speech to present the facts about global warming.

Mind you, these are genuine scientific facts. The planet is undeniably getting warmer. But naturally, conservatives deny it anyway. “Climate change is a plot (mumble mumble) socialist dictatorship (mumble mumble) secret Muslim.”

Luckily, my synapses are still firing pretty well, and my reasoning ability is adequately functional, so I understand that Obama was relaying to us an important scientific consensus:

Humanity needs to stop burning fossil fuels at the current pace, because CO2 is really, really starting to build up in the atmosphere, and the planet is overheating, and we damn well better make changes ASAP, or our collective goose is cooked. Done to a literal turn.

We know this is true because science tells us it’s true.

Below are excerpts from Obama’s speech. It’s quite articulate. My hat is off to the speechwriter who banged it out.

Read it as a test to determine if your synapses are firing on all cylinders.

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Comments from commencement address by President Obama at the University of California-Irvine, June 14, 2014

I’m going to talk about one of the most significant long-term challenges that our country and our planet faces: the growing threat of a rapidly changing climate.

Now, this isn’t a policy speech. I understand it’s a commencement, and I already delivered a long climate address last summer […] And since this is a very educated group, you already know the science.

Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide traps heat. Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are higher than they’ve been in 800,000 years.

We know the trends. The 18 warmest years on record have all happened since you graduates were born. We know what we see with our own eyes. Out West, firefighters brave longer, harsher wildfire seasons; states have to budget for that.

Mountain towns worry about what smaller snowpacks mean for tourism. Farmers and families at the bottom worry about what it will mean for their water. In cities like Norfolk and Miami, streets now flood frequently at high tide.

So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science, accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades, has put that question to rest. The question is whether we have the will to act before it’s too late.

For if we fail to protect the world we leave not just to my children, but to your children and your children’s children, we will fail one of our primary reasons for being on this world in the first place. And that is to leave the world a little bit better for the next generation.

Now, the good is, you already know all this […] Here’s the challenge: We’ve got to do more. What we’re doing is not enough.

And that’s why, a couple weeks ago, America proposed new standards to limit the amount of harmful carbon pollution that power plants can dump into the air. And we also have to realize, as hundreds of scientists declared last month, that climate change is no longer a distant threat, but “has moved firmly into the present.” That’s a quote.

In some parts of the country, weather-related disasters like droughts, and fires, and storms, and floods are going to get harsher, and they’re going to get costlier.

So it’s a big problem. But progress, no matter how big the problem, is possible. That’s important to remember. Because no matter what you do in life, you’re going to run up against big problems — in your own personal life and in your communities and in your country.

Now, part of what’s unique about climate change is the nature of some of the opposition to action. It’s pretty rare that you’ll encounter somebody who says the problem you’re trying to solve simply doesn’t exist.

When President Kennedy set us on a course for the moon, there were a number of people who made a serious case that it wouldn’t be worth it; it was going to be too expensive, it was going to be too hard, it would take too long.

But nobody ignored the science. I don’t remember anybody saying that the moon wasn’t there or that it was made of cheese. (Laughter.)

And today’s Congress is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence about climate change. They will tell you it is a hoax, or a fad. One member of Congress actually says the world is cooling.

There was one member of Congress who mentioned a theory involving “dinosaur flatulence” —  which I won’t get into. (Laughter.)

Now, their view may be wrong — and a fairly serious threat to everybody’s future — but at least they have the brass to say what they actually think.

There are some who also duck the question. They say — when they’re asked about climate change, they say, “Hey, look, I’m not a scientist.”

And I’ll translate that for you. What that really means is, “I know that man-made climate change really is happening, but if I admit it, I’ll be run out of town by a radical fringe that thinks climate science is a liberal plot, so I’m not going to admit it.” (Applause.)

Now, I’m not a scientist either, but we’ve got some really good ones at NASA. I do know that the overwhelming majority of scientists who work on climate change, including some who once disputed the data, have put that debate to rest.

The writer Thomas Friedman recently put it to me this way. We were talking, and he says, “Your kid is sick. You consult 100 doctors. 97 of them tell you to do this, three tell you to do that. And you want to go with the three?”

The fact is, this should not be a partisan issue. After all, it was Republicans who used to lead the way on new ideas to protect our environment.

It was Teddy Roosevelt who first pushed for our magnificent national parks. It was Richard Nixon who signed the Clean Air Act and opened the EPA.

George H.W. Bush, a wonderful man who at 90 just jumped out of a plane in a parachute, (laughter) said that “human activities are changing the atmosphere in unexpected and unprecedented ways.”

John McCain and other Republicans publicly supported free market-based cap-and-trade bills to slow carbon pollution just a few years ago — before the Tea Party decided it was a massive threat to freedom and liberty.

These days, unfortunately, nothing is happening. Even minor energy efficiency bills are killed on the Senate floor. And the reason is because people are thinking about politics instead of thinking about what’s good for the next generation.

What’s the point of public office if you’re not going to use your power to help solve problems? (Applause.)

And part of the challenge is that the media doesn’t spend a lot of time covering climate change and letting average Americans know how it could impact our future.

The broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts spend just a few minutes a month covering climate issues. On cable, the debate is usually between political pundits, not scientists.

When we introduced those new anti-pollution standards a couple weeks ago, the instant reaction from the Washington’s political press wasn’t about what it would mean for our planet; it was what would it mean for an election six months from now. And that kind of misses the point.

Of course, they’re not scientists, either. (Laughter.)

And I want to tell you all this not to discourage you. I’m telling you all this because I want to light a fire under you. As the generation getting shortchanged by inaction on this issue, I want all of you to understand you cannot accept that this is the way it has to be.

The climate change deniers suggest there’s still a debate over the science. There is not.

The talking heads on cable news suggest public opinion is hopelessly deadlocked. It is not.

Seven in ten Americans say global warming is a serious problem. Seven in ten say the federal government should limit pollution from our power plants. And of all the issues in a recent poll asking Americans where we think we can make a difference, protecting the environment came out on top. (Applause.)

So we’ve got public opinion potentially on our side. We can do this. We can make a difference. You can make a difference. And the sooner you do, the better — not just for our climate, but for our economy.

Even when our political system is consumed by small things, we are a people called to do big things. And progress on climate change is a big thing.

Progress won’t always be flashy; it will be measured in disasters averted, and lives saved, and a planet preserved.

But can you imagine a more worthy goal — a more worthy legacy — than protecting the world we leave to our children?

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Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.

— Martin Luther King, Jr.