Climate change is more complex than global warming--Willful ignorance aside.

There's a good reason why all the climate change deniers refuse to see human-made climatic change as real..instead they prefer to focus on "global warming" as their whipping boy.

By focusing on one extreme (global warming), it's easier to discount the impact human activity has on the climate as a whole.  Rather than seeing the entire weather system as a whole and see the impact on climatic variability as the real issue, their cherry-picking of anthropogenic global warming becomes the easier straw man to tear down.

I've recently been in an argument with a bunch of deniers who, instead of examining the premise of increasing climatic variability (which is the real issue...) they prefer to couch their arguments in terms of global warming ONLY.  Why would they do that instead of examining all the evidence?

As anyone who studies vast complex systems will attest:  You cannot ignore the resiliency of the system, nor can you over-simplify the system and still have the capacity to understand it to the degree necessary to talk about it intelligently.

Climate is one of the most complicated systems we know of.  Reducing it to one aspect (global warming) while specifically ignoring the other aspects (variability and climatic swing intensification) is to deliberately and willfully violate Occam's Razor--which means these idiots are distorting the facts for some agenda. 

Why else would they choose to ignore ALL the evidence and ALL the facts and focus on only one area of climate research--to the exclusion of the entire body of work--UNLESS they cannot face the facts or cannot offer anything substantive against ALL the evidence?

I'm reminded of Benjamin Franklin's quote: "We are all born ignorant, but we must work really hard to remain stupid."

These characters remind me of Ron White's quote: "You can't argue with stupid."

Texas seeks to advance the educational interests of the nation's children at the expense of their own. That's big of them!

I am very excited about the prospect that the Texas Board of Education will get it's way in re-writing textbooks for that state's children.

I don't agree with the revisionism nor the content changes the conservatives on the Board are pushing to "balance" what they perceive as liberal slant to history.

However, I get fairly jubilant at the social darwinian experiment  these conservative idiots are attempting to perform on the large number of students in their state.  

If these bozos weren't so ignorant of survival of the fittest as a mechanism for advancement, they would realize the severe handicap they are imposing on the children of Texas--all in the name of their political agendas.  It's brains in action! 

The upside?

The rest of the country's children gain an extreme advantage over those of Texas-educated children when it comes to college and real-world information.

It's great that Texas is willing to handicap their children for the purpose of advancing a political agenda.  

The mere fact that such a bone-headed move will inure to the educational achievements of all children outside the state only adds to the hilarity. 

Kudos to Texas for giving the children of non-Texans a boost at the expense on their own children

That's what I call Texas hospitality.

When Good Faith meets Bad.

I've watched the Health Care fracas stunned by the ignorance, stupidity, and partisanship on display.

The Democrats, like they usually do, checked their spines at the doors of the Capitol and allowed themselves to be fooled into thinking the Republicans would actually exercise good faith.

The Democrats are fools for expecting the most extreme Republicans this country has seen in decades to act within the bounds of decency.

As a group, the Republicans have shown their complete dearth of intellectual integrity.  They follow the lead of their demagogue-in-chief, Rush Limbaugh, and misrepresent facts (golly, a politician lying?!); they prey upon the fears of the elderly and rile up the stupid.  

And for what?

Partisan advantage.  

By their actions, the Republicans manifest their desire for victory over any sort of fiscal responsibility.  Health Care reform will bankrupt us unless we make dramatic changes, but these bozos don't care.  Their agenda is more important than the future of the country.


What about the President?

He's made the mistake of pushing for good faith bipartisanship--but with a group lacking any desire to participate.

He's been a chump.

The President is smarter than this.  It's time for him to man-up and  push the agenda WITHOUT Republican support. 


You can't expect morons and partisans to act with reason and mutual regard for the country's best interest.  It's not in their nature to compromise nor even to understand the complexities of the issue.  

They've deliberately planted their flag on the dunghill over-simplification to rouse the nincompoops to their ramparts.


I knew that failing to pass the Health Care bill prior to the August recess was a mistake.  You give a mouthy and trenchant minority an inch, they will take a mile.  Stupid mistake.

Now, we have people crying "socialism" and other such nonsense.  Those calling Health Care reform "socialism" when in fact it is the moral and fiscally responsible thing to do don't deserve a response. They clearly wear blinders to the failings of capitalism--failings that threatens to ruin us.

Does that make me a socialist?  Not hardly.

Ignoring the failings of the private market or glossing over them doesn't make us immune to the impending collapse of our economic well-being brought on by the booms, busts, and fiscal failures created by completely unregulated markets.

I got a message for all the free-market, kool-aid, addicts out there:  Free-markets don't always correct, free-markets don't always fix things.  Don't believe me?  Look at the most recent banking debacle.


I'm sick to death of idiots spouting ideologies adopted as a short-cut to certainty--all because they lack critical thinking skills and an inability to logically and effectively evaluate issues separate from a talking points memo. 


It's time for the adults to show up and take charge of this mess and for the morons on the right and in the Republican party to sit down and learn something from us thinking folks.  

I would like to see the President do his damn job and make the right thing happen, in spite of the Republicans.  The Republicans lack the  intent to engage in constructive bipartisanship.  So quit trying to "play nice." 

In the long run it will be better for the country if we don't allow a bunch of radicalized windbags and their fiscally idiotic constituents to run the table.


Disagree?  Look to your history.  The economy always does better under Democratic presidents.  That's a fact.  It's time the President give the minority party a bloody nose and push this through.

150% investment return still isn't good enough for Congressional Replublicans--I'll take it!

I have a thought experiment for you. Better yet, let's call it an investment game.

I offer you a chance to make an investment. Say I provide you good, strong figures from a reputable expert on the investment that says for every $1 you invest, you will get $2.50 in return.

Simply put: If I offered you an investment opportunity where you could make 150% return and you trusted a third-party expert who said as much, would you take the bet?

Would you?

I know I would.

If you make 10% return on a typical investment that's pretty good in this climate, but 150%?

Sounds too good to be true doesn't it?

Well, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that for every $1 invested in stimulating the economy, the return will be $2.50 to the economy as a whole.

What I don't get is this: The CBO is non-partisan and has the resources to make this determination. In fact, they are legally obligated to tell the truth based on their best evidence.

With that being said, why is it that Republicans ignore such good investment advice by voting against the economic stimulus?

Maybe they're stuck in the same stupidity loop that got us into this mess in the first place. There's medication for those who continue to believe things contrary to reality; it's called Thorizine. A good dose of therapy couldn't hurt either--let's call it minority status.

If the economy doesn't improve in the next two years, I'll eat my words. I'll own up to being wrong, but until then, more of the same won't get us out of this mess.