If you haven't heard, "global warming" has been abruptly canceled. Details follow.
But first I want to talk about Dox. Sometime back we really got into it about "global warming." He's totally bought it, and he even started a group devoted to the worship of it. I say 'worship" because how better to describe something you have to take on faith because there is nothing that is reliable that supports it? And like any religion, that which you take on faith often requires irrational defense, not that Dox intends to be irrational, he just is because he doesn't know any better.
And that was never more apparent that yesterday.
But I'm going to delay explaining that as well and give you a little background frst. See, I joined Dox's group because I thought he wanted to hear both sides, and during our major disagreement, like Timothy, but not anywhere near as bad as that jackass, Dox blocked me from his further participation in his group.
To his credit, Dox immediately thought better of it and did the right thing. I, in turn, told him that I would no longer be participating because he had the right to conduct his pro-warming group any way he wanted, and I would always be a thorn in his side... because he was simply wrong.
So we parted our warming ways and remained on good terms. Dox and I shared similar views on politics, so it wasn't like he was Snowy or anything.
It was only relatively recently that I re-added him to my neighborhood because we were both McCain backers and Palin backers, and I felt that he'd probably matured, so I wanted to read what he had to say. All went reasonably well until yesterday when he posted the single stupidest entry about "global warming" that I've ever seen - to wit:
(approximate) "If the sun causes global warming, then why worry about what man puts in the atmosphere?"
I was going to respond, but you know how some things are just so idiotic that by responding, you elevate them? Therefore, I did the next best thing - I de-neighborized Dox.
When I venture out, I expect to read intelligent, coherent commentary. Dox's opening question was so illogical and disjointed that it showed he's learned nothing. Thus I fully expect John to agree with him. And by the way, Dox, if you're reading this, please feel free to respond here - and expect the worst.
Now about what precipitated all this...
I wasn't going to say anything about Dox. What's the point? but then Drudge posted something this afternoon that made Dox relevant. It turns out that the 'warmest October on record"... isn't. In fact, it's so far from the warmest that about two thirds of the Octobers since they've been keeping records were warmer.
And that's not the half of it. Bloggers uncovered the fraud that Jimmy Hansen was trying to put over on the world, and when they did, Hansen, like Dems in Minnesota, suddenly found new stuff in his trunk to support his case.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Jimmy, he heads NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), he's Al Gore's surrogate, and he's totally bought and paid for by George Soros. And his agency is one of the primary ones whose data the UN relied on for their fraudulent climate report. GISS is always putting out the warmest data of all of the four agencies the UN uses.
So it's even more significant that not only was Jimmy wrong about October, but he's admitted that it's not even NASA's own data - he uses (cherry-picks) unverified data from other sources to make his claims. That's compounding the felony - that Dox believes in.
So to be clear, now there's not only no reliable data to support "global warming," but what these disciples had relied on is a FRAUD! Far worse than nothing at all, wouldn't you say?
When I first read that October was supposedly the worst on record, I was aware of the record lows and snowfalls that had been reported during the month, and so I did what I do about all warming stories now, I don't read them. I'm looking for truth, and "global warming" stories are more biased than the media was for Obama. What I mean by that is simply that your own common sense will tell you otherwise when you read one.
But don't think "global warming" is going away. That's because it never has to. People like Dox still believe it despite this latest debunking, and despite the fact that they now have far less data than they did yesterday. They will still make their claims as usual. They will still be as irrational as they have been. That's because they're 'scientists" - they're peer reviewed.
And by the way, this fraud was disclosed by a British paper. Wanna bet you never see it from AP?
]]>
It all came to a head for me today when I awoke to find that fifteen days in jail for a woman who named a stuffed bear "Muhammad" wasn't enough for the tiny minds of the world, and I remembered what I used to say when I encountered far lesser things of this nature in the past, but which (I don't know why) I stopped saying... "These are adults?" It's long past time to ask that question again.. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again... Whether you believe in evolution or not, everyone agrees that we should be evolving... mentally, spiritually, philosophically, intellectually... But we're not. We're not even standing still. We're regressing. Is another dark Ages in the offing? My guess is that we're a whole lot closer to that than we are to runaway warming, and this time, we're using science to get back to the future. Have you seen the nonsense we're being bombarded with daily now about warming and its consequences? I archive the stuff, but I can't keep up, because each new one is more preposterous than the last. Case in point (And since I started to write this, I have come upon a new example that's several magnitudes more ridiculous): Canadians have just been warned that their beer coolers are adding to global warming. I'm not kidding, look it up. And you thought that measures to curb CO2 would be general and even abstract, and add only pennies to your tax bill? And you thought this despite my telling you that this was going to affect everything you do right down to your barbecue? Now, are you an adult or not? Because "they" aren't. THEY are a nanny pyramid scheme, and you'll be on their bottom tier. And it's long past time to tell them to put up or shut up. Not with obscure and inaccurate facts and figures, but with real, observable, and incontrovertible evidence. Don't give me probability statistics - on the probability that warming is real, and don't Perot me to death with charts. If you're so worried about warming, get some Valium and let the rest of us deal with any consequences in the marketplace as they happen... because you're in no condition to do it. We don't let imbeciles lead. OK, that's not true - we've got a whole government full of imbeciles leading us - to oblivion, and warming measures are the shortest shortcut to getting there. And we've apparently got a scientific community cheering them on. So where are the adults? Well, one guy in Florida seems to be one. He wants to sue the fools who predict hurricanes. I doubt he has a case, legally speaking, but it's a slam dunk in the intellectual sense. Harris Rosen, a Florida hotel owner wants compensation for lost business due to irresponsible "forecasting" (and btw, if you're an adult, you wonder what could be more irresponsible than forecasting a hundred years in the future?). Mr. Rosen's point is both obvious and narrow, because God only knows how many businesses and areas have already been affected by the hysterical warmists. If he can't win, at least he can make a contribution by making it expensive to the clowns to continue their sham. There's an accompanying poll that shows 52% of respondents feel forecasters should be held responsible. 42% believe they should not. I myself am undecided - as to whether they should be shot.or flayed.
The raging, ongoing debate over global warming is what prompted the following... and the amazing, stupidity and incredible smallness of someone named Dox.
When I started participating in EZboard forums the place was literally crawling with conservatives who seemed, at first glance, to be almost as rational as I wished people could be. In other words, I thought I'd found a group of people just like me. If that sounds like I'm full of myself, let me provide some background.
In Catholic grade school, we were all in one class, and I didn't feel as if I was smarter or more aware than anyone - except for John.
My eighth grade nun made it abundantly clear that she regarded John as the smartest one in the class... and so did everyone else - even me - until the first test. John did great on that test, but when the grades came back, one person knew that John was not as smart as he appeared - Guess who?!?
How did I know that when the nun and the rest of the class continued to think John was the next Einstein? Well, I sat in the first seat in the first row near the door - and John sat behind me. And all through the test, John kept prodding me for answers... which I grudgingly gave him.
In retrospect, I chalk it up to the fact that John was also very popular, whereas I was shy and unsure of myself. This was a chance to be one of the in-crowd. But I didn't get any answers from John in return. It's not that I wouldn't have accepted them. I was just much more vulnerable to being caught, so I didn't try. And a strange thing happened.
No, I didn't get better grades than John... but I got ones that were nearly as good, and then midway through the school year, the roof fell in - on John. That's when we had to take a test, a mini version of the SAT, that was used by area Catholic High schools to determine eligibility and placement.
I was both shocked and yet not a bit surprised when we were all discussing out scores and John did better than the others... and I did much better than John. This came just on the heals of the best athlete in the school having asked my mother why I had such an inferiority complex - because he felt I was very good.
WOW, Tony thought - I - was good? You know what? I instantly was... in my mind, and then I rose from obscurity to where I started getting the recognition Tony felt I deserved.
So we all went off to high school and it was very interesting. See, back when, there was no doubt about who was smarter than whom - the high school told you by the learning level to which you were assigned.
John ended up in the big middle. I don't remember what label the school gave that level, I only remember what they called the level I landed in - the honors class. there were less than 50 of us in a class of 450.
For better or worse, my friendship, association, or what-have-you with John quickly faded though we still got together regularly for pickup basketball games. Interestingly, I found it's a myth that the dumber guys are better at sports. In my all-boys Catholic high school, the smart guys were, on average, much better athletes too, and lest you think I went to an obscure nothing of a school, we were a powerhouse in the great State of Ohio.
But being in the honors class carried some heavy responsibilities, and the one that was to affect me the most - all my life - was...
You didn't get into an argument with people if you couldn't support your position. You just didn't open your mouth. Because if you inflicted your "opinion" on others, and you couldn't make your case logically and factually... you got shredded.
And if that happened, it would be a very long time before anyone, including YOURSELF could take you seriously again. And yes, that happened to me. I said something in an unguarded moment without having thoroughly thought it through, and believe me, once you experience the aftermath of such a slip-up, you never want to repeat it.
By the way, those not in the honors class never engaged in debate with honors students. I never saw it once. It wasn't that we were snobs, it was like they knew implicitly that they were ill-equipped. Quite a contrast with today where everyone thinks he has a valid opinion, even though, if anything, the "average guys" are a lot dumber now than thirty-odd years ago.
And unfortunately, it's intelligent people who have to cope with the awful consequences. Idiots have been liberated!
Forums are populated mostly by those regular guys who now can voice their opinions without fear or repercussions. That's why, after a short time, I realized that conservatives were no smarter than liberals and that the same 90-10 ratio applied as it did in high school. Better make that 99-1, since now I had to deal with public school grads as well.
That's why I couldn't take anymore after a few years and turned to blogging. This experience, generally speaking, has been a lot better than forums, but it has big ups and downs - as when idiots don't know or care with whom they are dealing and feel compelled to demonstrate to me just how moronic they can be.
Just today, a friend said he was glad to see I was still writing. I told him that wasn't the hard part. That the hard part is coming to my own blog and dreading the abject stupidity I might have to encounter. I told him that I'd considered approving submissions before I allowed them to be posted, but the trouble with that is - I'd still have to read them.
There simply are no safeguards short of not allowing comments at all. Since there are no 'levels" today and probably not even any reliable grades given in school, a whole lot of people don't even know how stunningly stupid they are. And seeing someone who thinks more logically and writes far better than they do doesn't give them a clue either. In fact, what happens is, they think you're the dumb one because they can't understand what you're saying. A study even proves that.
So all that leaves are insults which, thankfully, I'm quite good at, but here's the long and short of it - Don Imus used to say, "Don't call here. I don't care what you think. I talk and YOU listen. That's the way it works"
And that's how I'd prefer it. I like hearing people say that they read what I write. I enjoy far less often those who feel compelled to comment on the subject matter. So do us both a favor, huh, think long and hard before you post here. I advise that you carefully organize your thoughts, write them out, rewrite them as needed, check for grammar and spelling, then consider the whole thing again, and once you think you have it just right, delete it and move on to something else.
We;ll both probably be glad you did - and we won't even know it!
]]>
I wouldn't be surprised to see a college course - Creating Disasters 101 as the first step toward an eventual doctorate program. Did you see the headline today? "Rising Seas Threaten 21 Mega-Cities" Oh... my... GOD! SAY IT AIN'T SO!?! OK, I will - it ain't so. In fact, I'm not even the one saying it - the article said it. Or rather, it said NOTHING! I'm not kidding, it literally was an article about what a group of warmalarmists say -will- happen. In other words, while the headline gives one the impression that rising seas are threatening cities RIGHT NOW, in fact, this was just an attempt to scare idiots of the sort who have been dropping in here lately into an even greater frenzy. Is that even possible? There are literally no facts in the article that pertain to global warming - or even rising sea levels. None whatsoever. We've come to expect this sort of garbage with respect to the war in Iraq, conservatives, and other subjects the media decides to gang-rape, and with this, it is abundantly clear that facts don't matter in the warmalarmist argument - in fact, it's science fiction - whatever scare you can dream up, sell it as if it were real. The truth is, current levels are nowhere near their all-time highs, and while not denying that rising seas would be problematic for some cities, and that they could even be catastrophic, this is really just an effort to foist blame on human activities and subsequently tax and control people - all in the interest of power, nothing more. The very idea - the arrogance - that allows someone to think we can do anything to control sea levels should be fodder for comedians, not not another nail in the coffin of freedom.
Everyday, I'm bombarded with stupidity, and I just can't address it all as completely as it so richly deserves. Some recent examples: 1) Cigarette smoking may inhibit Parkinson's. First it was weight loss, now we have another benefit of lung cancer... 2) It's possible that we may finally be making some progress in Iraq, so now both sides want to cut and run. 3) A study suggests humor comprehension decreases with age. That may be true. I mean, I certainly don't see anything funny in the current clump of comedian hacks - Silverman, Gaffington et al, and I think that demands a study to determine if the younger you are, the more likely you'll laugh at things that aren't funny. I mean, you could probably kill the dog and get a baby to bust a gut at that, right? Anyway, there's so much of this out there that I tend to dismiss the stupidity I encounter right here. But each new month brings another moron... Which brings me to Marmalade who's been menacing me with his witless repartee of late. It seems I offended him with a reference to Muslims when I was merely trying to compliment Malaysia as being rather unique in its position in the Muslim milieu because it employs an intricate and time consuming device in settling Islamic religious disputes - the civil court system, rather than relying on facile and simple beheadings and stonings that are so common elsewhere in the Wonderful World of Islam. And speaking of simple, Ole Mar finds some irony in this. Now I could be coy, but I know that he, like every single other liberal idiot on the planet, thinks it's ironic that I see Muslims as violent when it's really that Americans admire them because we're itching to blow ourselves up, slice off parts of people, and take no prisoners in imposing freedom on the world. To that end, he probably hasn't even heard about those Christian doctors who tried and failed to detonate an explosives-packed Mercedes in London and destroy a good portion of the Glasgow airport because reports of those incidents were drowned out by the Islamophobic hysteria surrounding their Muslim counterparts having committed a copycat crime at the same exact moment. I keep forgetting that it's feelings, not facts, that matter to the likes English dogs and madmen, because if you feel something strongly enough, it's either real, or you can make it so, and neither sleet nor hail nor weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Muslim fanatics can stop Shangri-la from happening.
You are if you had the good sense to run away after (make that during) the first episode of...
What seemed promising in concept, turned out to be depressing and even infuriating. I watched the premiere episode of Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader on Fox, then stayed around because of Jeff Foxworthy. Not only is my neck red, my face is redder. Foxworthy is the show, but the show it not Foxworty, if you know what I'm sayin'.
A review I'd read led me to believe the program wouldn't be what one might have thought, but I never expected that what I hadn't expected would be so unexpected..
Host Jeff Foxworthy started slowly, but he actually turned out to be the one small highlight of the show, and the kids were, in fact, exactly what I'd hoped they'd be - bright and polite (I was worried beforehand that they might be smug and small brats).
Things dragged right from the start. Adults don't play against the kids, the kids are actually helpers, so I don't know what they get for participating, lollipops? I mean, at least the mob gets to keep what the contestant loses on 1vs100, which makes that a pretty entertaining show despite being slow yet ten times faster than "5th Grader."
And it seemed there were so many ways the kids could help that I expected the first guy, decently dressed and seemingly of at least average intelligence, would be playing for the top prize in no time.
Man, am I a bad judge of people. the dope didn't know the answer to a any of the first four questions, and I think at least two came from preschool coloring books. But he still got them right because the kids bailed him out. Then came question five with our hero now out of kids (I don't know why, that's just the way it is). The question was: Who was the first President to be impeached?
"Oh...so easy," I muttered to the wife. And it was. Foxworthy announced that every single kid correctly answered it. Then Joe Contestant pondered aloud, "The only one I can think of is........ John Quincy Adams," but he couldn't be sure, so he finally had to quit.
To get the few grand he'd accumulated - or rather that the kids had accumulated for him, he had to tell the world that he was not as smart as a fifth grader, something he proclaimed far too proudly to suit me. Yeah, and his mother wore combat boots.
But there's even a kicker to all this: our boy, the loser, mentioned that he'd even graduated from UCLA - - - - with a major in American history. It's too bad they didn't give Foxworthy the option to John Wilkes Booth his behind.
So there went a guy who's probably making a good living at something, hopefully not related to his major or national security, and he knows virtually nothing about anything.
He was followed by a woman, and I was amazed that, everything considered, the two of them were the least mature of all the people on the stage.
Now it's one thing to laugh at the street corner rabble Jay Leno accosts on the street but never destroys with his simple questions. After all, they are just a fringe element we tell ourselves, or, "C'mon, they live in LA, what do you expect?" But this game demonstrated that American stupidity runs deep, and that it's not that funny.
]]>