« ABC News Asks | Main | Don't Let the Door Hit You »

January 12, 2007

Gobschmacked

ALL these people are crazy with the heat...

Gore's 'Truth' restricted at schools

The school board in this suburb south of Seattle has restricted showings of Al Gore's movie on global warming, including requiring that it be balanced with an adequate opposing viewpoint.

..."Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who doesn't want the film shown at all.

..."The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is," Hardison told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD."


WTF?! Guess there shouldn't be discourse on shrinking polar bear gonads (the technical term), either. (I mean, they're not in the Bible, right? Polar bears, not gonads.) And of course someone named 'Frosty' doesn't like Al Gore! But I get her Gore/condom connection. Completely.

And, from the Gore-ites, a rousing endorsement of 'truth' as we know it...

..."I am shocked that a school district would come to this decision," the movie's co-producer, Laurie David, said in a prepared statement. "There is no opposing view to science, which is fact, and the facts are clear that global warming is here, now."

WOW, that is an ASTONISHING statement! Calling Tom Cruise ~ one of your aliens is loose!

I'll tell you what theory these two sterling examples of rational thought give lie to and it ain't 'global warming'.
Jeez Louise, primates. Chill out.
UPDATE: In the comment section with this article, someone was mentioned who caused me to go a Googling. Michael Crichton? Global Warming? Yes. And it's genius.

"Aliens Cause Global Warming"

...And so, in this elastic anything-goes world where science-or non-science-is the hand maiden of questionable public policy, we arrive at last at global warming. It is not my purpose here to rehash the details of this most magnificent of the demons haunting the world. I would just remind you of the now-familiar pattern by which these things are established. Evidentiary uncertainties are glossed over in the unseemly rush for an overarching policy, and for grants to support the policy by delivering findings that are desired by the patron. Next, the isolation of those scientists who won't get with the program, and the characterization of those scientists as outsiders and "skeptics" in quotation marks-suspect individuals with suspect motives, industry flunkies, reactionaries, or simply anti-environmental nutcases. In short order, debate ends, even though prominent scientists are uncomfortable about how things are being done.

When did "skeptic" become a dirty word in science? When did a skeptic require quotation marks around it?

To an outsider, the most significant innovation in the global warming controversy is the overt reliance that is being placed on models. Back in the days of nuclear winter, computer models were invoked to add weight to a conclusion: "These results are derived with the help of a computer model." But now large-scale computer models are seen as generating data in themselves. No longer are models judged by how well they reproduce data from the real world-increasingly, models provide the data. As if they were themselves a reality. And indeed they are, when we are projecting forward. There can be no observational data about the year 2100. There are only model runs.

This fascination with computer models is something I understand very well. Richard Feynmann called it a disease. I fear he is right. Because only if you spend a lot of time looking at a computer screen can you arrive at the complex point where the global warming debate now stands.

Nobody believes a weather prediction twelve hours ahead. Now we're asked to believe a prediction that goes out 100 years into the future? And make financial investments based on that prediction? Has everybody lost their minds?

Posted by tree hugging sister at January 12, 2007 01:03 PM

Comments

Had a big go-round with a friend a few months ago, she being absolutely convinced of man-caused global warmering. When I pointed out some of the contradicting info, I was informed that all REAL scientists say it's true, and any who disagreed were just politicians pretending to be scientists. And so on.

What made it worse was she kept sending to her daughter at some East Coast college(majoring in Ecological Science, of course) who was giving her information straight out of a Gore/Moveon.org talking list.

Posted by: Firehand at January 12, 2007 01:23 PM

Michael Crichton rocks.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at January 12, 2007 01:37 PM

Frosty Hardison??!!? When did Bond girls start becoming activists?

Posted by: Nightfly at January 12, 2007 02:15 PM

Maybe she was a Bond girl beFORE she had seven children and found the Lord, or vice versa.

People grow up.

Well...

Some do.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 12, 2007 02:19 PM

Hehehe, good one 'Fly.

However, if you've looked at any video of their rallies you'd know that there are no Bond Girls in those crowds...

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at January 12, 2007 02:38 PM

Frosty has a point when she says "...The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is...", although I wouldn't refer to the Bible as my counterpoint.

At least the school district is "...requiring that it [Algore's movie] be balanced with an adequate opposing viewpoint."

And I agree, Michael Crichton rocks!

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at January 12, 2007 02:41 PM

Call me a global warming skeptic. It seems to me that most stories in the MSM about global warming these days spend far more words on marketing the concept then on any actual scientific evidence. That tells me something right there. And a storm or a warm spell is no more evidence than the 4 above 0 temp this morning means the coming of the next Ice Age.

Posted by: Dave E. at January 12, 2007 04:34 PM

Guess I'm lucky, Dave, it was +8F this morning here......twice as warm! Science damn it!!!

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at January 12, 2007 05:21 PM

Global Warming makes the Enron scandal look like a round of Three Card Monte.

Posted by: Gunslinger at January 12, 2007 07:11 PM

1. Global warming will be catastrophic.
2. Global warming can occur naturally and unpredictably.
3. Craft legislation to create a society able to deal with a climate change (up or down). Turn a deaf ear to nature, blame man, tax Whitey.

Posted by: nobrainer at January 12, 2007 07:45 PM

Rats. The first sentence in #3 was supposed to be struck through.

Posted by: nobrainer at January 12, 2007 07:52 PM

Blame Bush, NB.

Or lint.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 12, 2007 10:38 PM

Blame Bush is pretty much a given,THS. And Jeff, you're not lucky, you're suffering the effects of global warming! Geesh, get with the program!

Posted by: Dave E. at January 12, 2007 11:46 PM

Well, I could do with some more global warming!

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at January 12, 2007 11:59 PM

Damn straight, Jeff. I think our not-so-distant ancestors used to call a warmer winter a blessing. Enjoy them while they last. Unless you are a snowmobiler or a skier. In which case...screw it. I don't care.

Posted by: Dave E. at January 13, 2007 02:06 AM

Oh, I mentioned Crichton's book State Of Fear and all the footnoted information in it; might as well have waved a cross at a vampire. Between her and her daughter's 'advice' I was informed that he was anything but a 'responsible' human, not a 'real' scientist, etc. It was kind of amazing to read.

Posted by: Firehand at January 13, 2007 10:30 AM

Well, I could do with some more global warming!

You whiny baby, learn to build a better insulated wall. I think Home Depot has Saturday classes for amateurs.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at January 13, 2007 10:40 AM