The irony of the green shrine

Michael Coffman is probably the antithesis of what you'd call a "greenie." He's a veteran of the property-rights wars in the woods, perhaps most notable for his role in killing the U.S. ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity in the 1990s. On the Redding Tea Party's Sunday radio show, "We The People," Coffman talked about how the modern environmental movement is based more on an almost religious adherence than it is on sound science.

So I had to get a kick out of the announced venue for his keynote speech Thursday at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference's kickoff breakfast -- the uber-eco-conscious Gaia Hotel and Spa in Anderson. For those who don't know, Gaia in Greek mythology was the goddess of the earth. So chances are, Coffman may well wax poetic about the perceived idiosyncracies of the environmental religion -- at a shrine to the goddess of the earth. It'll be sort of like an atheist giving a lecture on the errors of Catholicism in the sanctuary of Sacred Heart Catholic Church.

Hey, I'm not criticizing the logging conference for booking the Gaia. For one thing, it's one of the few venues in the area that's big enough to accommodate a large crowd, as last year's kickoff breakfast at the Holiday Inn was a little cramped. And it lets the conference keep its ties with Anderson, which hosted the conference for many years before it moved to the Redding Convention Center last year.

I just thought it was funny, in an ironic sort of way.