Its the end of the world. Seriously guys, we mean it this time.
0 Comments Published by Ryan on 4/09/2007 at 3:18 PM.
A shocking display of intellectual honesty from Newsweek:
You have to admit, it really takes an astonishing level of hubris to faithfully stand by weather forecasts for the year 2040 and beyond, given the industry's notorious unreliability of past weather predictions.
Wasn't last year supposed to be one of the most active hurricane seasons on record? Yes it was, except that when the hurricanes failed to form, the industry quietly issued a press release and a "refinement due to better data," which has become industry-standard slang for "our past models were complete bullshit, but now we've added new data and created new models, which we assure you are no longer bullshit." Repeat ad nauseum.
The central issue in this debate isn't whether the Earth is warming - clearly it is. Rather, the issue is what role we humans, with our gas guzzling SUVs and our private jets, are playing in the Earth's recent warming trend.
Putting the environmentalists' apocolyptic rhetoric aside, if one has at least a shred of intellectual honesty left in this debate, you have to consider the possibility that this latest global warming trend is nothing more than a short-term fluctuation.
In the 1970s, environmentalists warned of a pending ice age - which never came. In the '80s - acid rain was the doomsday du jour. In fact, environmentalists, with the support of the media, have alternated between at least four separate global cooling and warming scares since the late 1800s. Each time these climate scares eventually faded away, and new projections along with new doomsday scenarios were issued, due to "refinements due to better data."
What most commentators—and many scientists—seem to miss is that the only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes. The earth is always warming or cooling by as much as a few tenths of a degree a year; periods of constant average temperatures are rare. Looking back on the earth's climate history, it's apparent that there's no such thing as an optimal temperature—a climate at which everything is just right. The current alarm rests on the false assumption not only that we live in a perfect world, temperaturewise, but also that our warming forecasts for the year 2040 are somehow more reliable than the weatherman's forecast for next week.
You have to admit, it really takes an astonishing level of hubris to faithfully stand by weather forecasts for the year 2040 and beyond, given the industry's notorious unreliability of past weather predictions.
Wasn't last year supposed to be one of the most active hurricane seasons on record? Yes it was, except that when the hurricanes failed to form, the industry quietly issued a press release and a "refinement due to better data," which has become industry-standard slang for "our past models were complete bullshit, but now we've added new data and created new models, which we assure you are no longer bullshit." Repeat ad nauseum.
The central issue in this debate isn't whether the Earth is warming - clearly it is. Rather, the issue is what role we humans, with our gas guzzling SUVs and our private jets, are playing in the Earth's recent warming trend.
Putting the environmentalists' apocolyptic rhetoric aside, if one has at least a shred of intellectual honesty left in this debate, you have to consider the possibility that this latest global warming trend is nothing more than a short-term fluctuation.
In the 1970s, environmentalists warned of a pending ice age - which never came. In the '80s - acid rain was the doomsday du jour. In fact, environmentalists, with the support of the media, have alternated between at least four separate global cooling and warming scares since the late 1800s. Each time these climate scares eventually faded away, and new projections along with new doomsday scenarios were issued, due to "refinements due to better data."
The world is going crazy, part II (of what will surely be a long running series)
0 Comments Published by Ryan on 4/08/2007 at 3:17 PM.
Michigan state congressman Andy Dillon take the term "tax-and spend" democrat to a whole new level:
I'm intrigued.
Will the free mp3 players come loaded with music? What kind of music? What about those children living at or below poverty who can't afford to pay for mp3 downloads? Will Michigan democrats provide a free limited number of downloads?
I need to know these things.
And what the hell does the "make better downtowns" pledge mean? Please tell me that wasn't a direct quote.
If I were a Michigan resident, I'd be livid, and slightly terrified that these idiots are holding the purse strings.
Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.
No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to "invest" in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.
The Democrats, led by their increasingly erratic speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township, also pledge $100 million to make better downtowns.
I'm intrigued.
Will the free mp3 players come loaded with music? What kind of music? What about those children living at or below poverty who can't afford to pay for mp3 downloads? Will Michigan democrats provide a free limited number of downloads?
I need to know these things.
And what the hell does the "make better downtowns" pledge mean? Please tell me that wasn't a direct quote.
If I were a Michigan resident, I'd be livid, and slightly terrified that these idiots are holding the purse strings.
The Whole World has lost its god-damned mind. Part I
2 Comments Published by Ryan on 4/07/2007 at 5:44 PM.
I don't intend to reproduce, but if I did, I'd have serious concerns for the future of my offspring.
The whole freakin world is turning into a bunch of pansies. A better word would be "pu%%ies," but the thought of Gloria Steinem, Amanda Marcotte, and the rest of their feminist ilk burning bras and protesting outside my office might be more than I can bear.
This "pussification" of the world has never been more apparent than over the last two weeks, when - much like the schoolyard bully who steals your lunch money and then dangles it in front of your face - the Iranian military kidnapped 15 British sailors, all in an effort to subjugate and emasculate the Western world.
The Iranians knew that the British, much like the rest of Europe, could never stomach the idea of a military response to Iran's act of war. In today's postmodern, mulicultural Europe, once you resort to violence, you are ipso facto "in the wrong" - even when that violence is brought in self-defense. You see, responding tit-for-tat makes you no better than your aggressor, regardless of who was the instigator. We are instead lectured about "ending the cycle of violence" or "violence only brings more violence," or some other liberal excuse to act like a total pu@@y.
The simple truth is that liberal/postmodern Europe couldn't even man-up enough to threaten the use of force.
Its pathetic. And embarrassing. And even worse, it will prove extremely costly to Europe's citizens. Make no mistake, the Iranians knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew damn well that they had better not mistakenly kidnap American soldiers.
Why? Because putting his mutilation of the English language aside, there is one thing that George Walker Bush is not - and that is a pu@@y. The Iranians knew full well that Bush would have given Iran a simple ultimatim, and then would have proceeded to start kicking ass.
Look, the schoolyard bully doesn't steal lunch money from the kid with the crazy look in his eye - he takes it from the guy with the glasses who's wearing the cardigan and khakis.
Unfortunately, that's modern day Europe in a nutshell. They've prided themselves on being the sophisticated bunch who are above and beyond the need to resort to violence. For too long the U.S. has provided blanket security for all of Europe - so much so that instead of building and maintaning their own defense, Europe has built lavish, and now unmaintainable social programs.
Fortunately, what happened over the last two weeks was only a minor scuffle. Beside a few bruises to the collective European ego, everyone walked away pretty much unscathed. Pres. Ahmadinejad walked away as victor in all this. How could he not. His military entered into Iraqi waters and kidnapped British citizens. And Ahmadinejad then has the balls to pardon the hostages and later boast of his own clemency and compassion. Are you f&#king kidding me?
Things are going to get worse for Europe. Islamic fundies know that they can bully the hell out of Europe, and all they'll get in return is a bitchy little whine pleading for them to play nice.
The whole freakin world is turning into a bunch of pansies. A better word would be "pu%%ies," but the thought of Gloria Steinem, Amanda Marcotte, and the rest of their feminist ilk burning bras and protesting outside my office might be more than I can bear.
This "pussification" of the world has never been more apparent than over the last two weeks, when - much like the schoolyard bully who steals your lunch money and then dangles it in front of your face - the Iranian military kidnapped 15 British sailors, all in an effort to subjugate and emasculate the Western world.
The Iranians knew that the British, much like the rest of Europe, could never stomach the idea of a military response to Iran's act of war. In today's postmodern, mulicultural Europe, once you resort to violence, you are ipso facto "in the wrong" - even when that violence is brought in self-defense. You see, responding tit-for-tat makes you no better than your aggressor, regardless of who was the instigator. We are instead lectured about "ending the cycle of violence" or "violence only brings more violence," or some other liberal excuse to act like a total pu@@y.
The simple truth is that liberal/postmodern Europe couldn't even man-up enough to threaten the use of force.
Its pathetic. And embarrassing. And even worse, it will prove extremely costly to Europe's citizens. Make no mistake, the Iranians knew exactly what they were doing, and they knew damn well that they had better not mistakenly kidnap American soldiers.
Why? Because putting his mutilation of the English language aside, there is one thing that George Walker Bush is not - and that is a pu@@y. The Iranians knew full well that Bush would have given Iran a simple ultimatim, and then would have proceeded to start kicking ass.
Look, the schoolyard bully doesn't steal lunch money from the kid with the crazy look in his eye - he takes it from the guy with the glasses who's wearing the cardigan and khakis.
Unfortunately, that's modern day Europe in a nutshell. They've prided themselves on being the sophisticated bunch who are above and beyond the need to resort to violence. For too long the U.S. has provided blanket security for all of Europe - so much so that instead of building and maintaning their own defense, Europe has built lavish, and now unmaintainable social programs.
Fortunately, what happened over the last two weeks was only a minor scuffle. Beside a few bruises to the collective European ego, everyone walked away pretty much unscathed. Pres. Ahmadinejad walked away as victor in all this. How could he not. His military entered into Iraqi waters and kidnapped British citizens. And Ahmadinejad then has the balls to pardon the hostages and later boast of his own clemency and compassion. Are you f&#king kidding me?
Things are going to get worse for Europe. Islamic fundies know that they can bully the hell out of Europe, and all they'll get in return is a bitchy little whine pleading for them to play nice.
Oliver Willis makes the following observation regarding campaign blogs:
This is because, unlike Willis, most Republican voters actually have real jobs, and they neither have the desire nor the spare time to dick around on the internet and bitch about politics. Republican candidates know this, hence the lack of blogs.
I remember a post on LGF a while back that noted that the Kos Kidz candidates went something like 0-14 in the last congressional election. The "nut-roots" just can't seem to comprehend that while they may comprise a substantial majority of internet bloggers/activists, in comparision to the electorate at large, they're really just a small group of whiny children.
Presidential Blogging: Dos & Don'ts
How not to do it: Joe Biden's blog is press release land. It's all about the nitty gritty mechanics that get people inside D.C. excited but nobody in the real world.
How to do it: Barack Obama's blog recently added Nation writer Sam Graham-Felsen and it's the first blog of the '08 season that reads like what we loved so much about the Dean blog. Real stories from real people and an actual back-and-forth exchange of content.
Room for improvement: Sen. Clinton's blog is trying to be personal but still comes off too antiseptic, while the Edwards blog is quite literally all over the place. Focus, people.
Strangely none of the "top tier" Republican candidates have blogs.
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH Biden is putting Youtube to good use.
(emphasis mine.)
This is because, unlike Willis, most Republican voters actually have real jobs, and they neither have the desire nor the spare time to dick around on the internet and bitch about politics. Republican candidates know this, hence the lack of blogs.
I remember a post on LGF a while back that noted that the Kos Kidz candidates went something like 0-14 in the last congressional election. The "nut-roots" just can't seem to comprehend that while they may comprise a substantial majority of internet bloggers/activists, in comparision to the electorate at large, they're really just a small group of whiny children.
You know what I hate about old people?
Geriatric drivers scare the living hell out of me - so much so that I will swerve across multiple lanes of traffic in order to avoid having grandma/grandpa directly behind me. Or in front of me. Or next to me, for that matter.
In fact, I think I'd rather see some 13 year old joyriding punk in my rearview than a white-knuckled grandma/grandpa. At least the kid has some videogame/go-cart experience to fall back on.
A woman leaving a Department of Motor Vehicles office where she went for a state-ordered driver's license retest accidentally plowed her car into the building Wednesday, slightly injuring several people, the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Therese Smith, 80, of Boca Raton, was easing out of a parking spot in front of the office at 100 S. Military Trail about 4:30 p.m. when she stepped on the gas too hard, propelling her 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis over a concrete parking block, onto the sidewalk, through a metal parking sign and into the windows of the DMV office, said Sgt. Mark Wysocky, FHP spokesman.
FHP officials didn't know why Smith had been ordered to be re-examined for her driver's license, but they said they would be looking into it. Although Smith couldn't complete the re-test Wednesday because the passenger-side door of her car was broken and could not be opened for a DMV staffer, Smith's license remains valid, Wysocky said.
Geriatric drivers scare the living hell out of me - so much so that I will swerve across multiple lanes of traffic in order to avoid having grandma/grandpa directly behind me. Or in front of me. Or next to me, for that matter.
In fact, I think I'd rather see some 13 year old joyriding punk in my rearview than a white-knuckled grandma/grandpa. At least the kid has some videogame/go-cart experience to fall back on.
