Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Noonan III
Peggy Noonan hits it out of the park yet again. She’s much more willing to accept the word of the elitist academics about MMGW (this blog’s acronym for “Man Made Global Warming”), but in mid-swallow she feels something getting stuck in her throat.
During the past week’s heat wave–it hit 100 degrees in New York City Monday–I got thinking, again, of how sad and frustrating it is that the world’s greatest scientists cannot gather, discuss the question of global warming, pore over all the data from every angle, study meteorological patterns and temperature histories, and come to a believable conclusion on these questions: Is global warming real or not? If it is real, is it necessarily dangerous? What exactly are the dangers? Is global warming as dangerous as, say, global cooling would be? Are we better off with an Earth that is getting hotter or, what with the modern realities of heating homes and offices, and the world energy crisis, and the need to conserve, does global heating have, in fact, some potential side benefits, and can those benefits be broadened and deepened? Also, if global warning is real, what must–must–the inhabitants of the Earth do to meet its challenges? And then what should they do to meet them?
You would think the world’s greatest scientists could do this, in good faith and with complete honesty and a rigorous desire to discover the truth. And yet they can’t. Because science too, like other great institutions, is poisoned by politics. Scientists have ideologies. They are politicized.
All too many of them could be expected to enter this work not as seekers for truth but agents for a point of view who are eager to use whatever data can be agreed upon to buttress their point of view.
And so, in the end, every report from every group of scientists is treated as a political document. And no one knows what to believe. So no consensus on what to do can emerge.
If global warming is real, and if it is new, and if it is caused not by nature and her cycles but man and his rapacity, and if it in fact endangers mankind, scientists will probably one day blame The People for doing nothing.
But I think The People will have a greater claim to blame the scientists, for refusing to be honest, for operating in cliques and holding to ideologies. For failing to be trustworthy.
I have nothing to add to this. Or, it’s more precise to state that I do have a few things to add, but if I were to start doing so, I wouldn’t finish by lunchtime. And I happen to like eating.
Well, I do have one thing I think I can slice off from my giant mountain of skepticism, and stick on to this subject in the form of a modest molehill. Among the seemingly-endless list of things people are doing, that they wouldn’t be doing if they really believed in MMGW…and the things people are not doing, that they would be doing if they believed…are the things dealing with cows. I’ve commented before on the methane that comes out of both ends of the cow.
Did you know methane is twenty-five times more harmful to our climate than carbon dioxide? Did you know a cow gives off 280 liters of methane each day, more if there are issues involving the low quality of said cow’s diet? Did you know that as of the year 2000, there were estimated to be about 1.3 billion cows on this planet, and the number is growing steadily?
Environmentally, they’re filthy, disgusting animals. Like I said before, they are burping, farting whores, and we should be trying to get rid of them. Thinning the herd. Thinking up new ways to get along without them. Goat cheese. Veggie burgers. Shrimp tacos. Soy milk. Government-funded transition programs to get those cattle ranchers breeding rabbits, or chickens, or maybe planting some corn and potatoes. And if you really, really, honest-to-gosh need to have that sirloin barbeque to celebrate the arrival of a relaxing weekend…thirty-five dollars an ounce for low-grade chuck. Let’s just see how much you want it.
Seriously, why aren’t we doing that, or something like that? This is supposed to be a real threat, you know. How come I can buy a cheeseburger for the light-side-of a buck, anytime I have a mind to do so? Isn’t our planet supposed to be in jeopardy? The welfare of our children and our children’s children? How ’bout it?
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