Power Line’s Climate Change Denial and Monty Python

The joke’s on Power Line
Environment • Views: 30,019

Lately, the right wing Power Line blog has been angling for a position as one of the prime sources of climate change denial in the blogosphere. They have a lot of competition, because denying the science of climate change is absolutely universal in the right wing blogosphere.

But today they make a credible effort at placing themselves among the dumbest of this exceedingly dim bunch, with a mocking article by Steven Hayward that simply dismisses all scientific evidence to insist that global warming is nothing but a joke on the “politicized science community:” Why Climate Change Has Become the “Dead Parrot Sketch” of American Politics.

There’s nothing to actually “refute” in Hayward’s post; it’s just the usual ignorant right wing jeering. But since he enlists the aid of Monty Python for this purpose, I thought I’d check to see what the star of the “dead parrot sketch,” John Cleese, thinks about climate change.

Here’s a video Cleese narrated for the Monterey Bay Aquarium that makes his position very clear:

Youtube Video

I’m pretty sure the Pythons would be unamused at Steven Hayward’s use of their work to promote wingnut falsehoods.

Jump to bottom

68 comments
1 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 9:53:41am

Poor wingnuts. All the artists and comedians they love hate them.

2 iossarian  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 9:54:35am

re: #1 Obdicut

Poor wingnuts. All the artists and comedians they love hate them.

Not Mel Gibson!

3 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 9:57:21am

I can’t imagine that the surviving Pythons will not comment on this once they get wind of it.

In fact, they may even hold an (puts on sunglasses) Argument Clinic.

YEEAHHH!!!!

4 shutdown  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:02:14am

Am I the only one having trouble with the video?

5 McSpiff  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:06:38am

Bonus points for evolution.

6 Killgore Trout  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:07:28am

Politicized lefty scientists are raping all the white women!


/oh, wait…I’m mixing up my wingnut memes.

7 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:08:11am

re: #3 mattand

I can’t imagine that the surviving Pythons will not comment on this once they get wind of it.

In fact, they may even hold an (puts on sunglasses) Argument Clinic.

YEEAHHH!!!

Heh. The Argument Clinic was still more rational than the wingnuts and AGW deniers:

8 Kronocide  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:10:30am

As with every other denier blowhard referencing a paper or study, it does not say what he thinks it says.

9 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:10:39am

re: #7 Lidane

No it isn’t.

10 iossarian  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:11:19am

re: #9 mattand

No it isn’t.

I see what you did there o_O

11 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:12:51am

re: #10 iossarian

Whew! I wasn’t sure if anyone would get that and just assume I was agreeing with the AGW crowd.

12 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:13:24am

re: #9 mattand

No it isn’t.

Sorry, time’s up. I’m not allowed to argue anymore. ;)

13 Four More Tears  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:14:46am

re: #11 mattand

Whew! I wasn’t sure if anyone would get that and just assume I was agreeing with the AGW crowd.

Truth be told you had me fooled. My hat’s off to you.

14 sattv4u2  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:15:01am

Climate change

THAT’S how the parrot died

15 engineer cat  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:15:10am

lack of climate change is unusually wet and warm in the bay area

16 engineer cat  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:16:00am

this is getting hit over the head lessons

arguments are down the hall…

17 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:19:02am

re: #13 JasonA

When handling weapons-grade comedy like Python, you always run the risk of it blowing up in your face.

18 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:22:34am

re: #14 sattv4u2

Climate change

THAT’S how the parrot died

[Video]

And in the meantime, Steven Hayward’s brain cells are pining for the fjords, trying to remember when he stopped using them and became a full wingnut.

21 makeitstop  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:30:58am

re: #19 JasonA

This is a good change, I think.

Obama Recognizing Military Suicides w/ Condolence Letters, Reversing a Longstanding Policy

I agree, but it’s inevitable that someone will find fault with it.

22 Ericus58  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:39:24am

re: #19 JasonA

This is a good change, I think.

Obama Recognizing Military Suicides w/ Condolence Letters, Reversing a Longstanding Policy

I didn’t know that the families of these service members up to now didn’t receive these letters.
Thank you, President Obama for the recognition and effort to include these families.

23 I Am Kreniigh!  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:48:27am

re: #20 Lidane

Wonkette:
Kentucky Tea Party Sells ‘Yup, I’m A Racist’ Fourth of July T-Shirts

Maybe they’re trying to ‘take back’ the word racist.

“You can’t call me a racist! Only other racists get to use that word!”

24 Killgore Trout  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:49:19am

Bank Plan Would Help Build Bridges, Boos Jobs

American has fallen to 23rd in infrastructure quality globally, according to the World Economic Forum. It will take about $2 trillion over the next five years to restore the country’s infrastructure, says the American Society of Civil Engineers.

The bank would receive a one time appropriation of $10 billion, which would be aimed at sparking a total of $320 to $640 billion in infrastructure investment over the course of 10 years, Kerry’s office says. They believe the bank could be self-sustaining in as little as three years.

According to the Department of Transportation’s 2008 numbers, every $1 billion invested in transportation infrastructure creates between 27,800 and 34,800 jobs.


Of course, the wingnuts Republicans want to kill this job creating investment to improve the country….
House GOP expected to ax transportation funds

The next flash point in the debate over the nation’s will to live within its means may emerge this week as House Republicans present a long-term transportation bill expected to cut funding for highways and mass transit by almost one third.

25 Killgore Trout  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:50:26am

re: #20 Lidane

Wonkette:
Kentucky Tea Party Sells ‘Yup, I’m A Racist’ Fourth of July T-Shirts

Wow, they did the same thing last year too.

26 Ericus58  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:50:31am

US ‘hate groups’ bolstered by Obama’s election

[Link: www.bbc.co.uk…]

from the article:
“The difficult truth for Spokane, for Washington State, for neighbouring Idaho and for all of the US, is that hate groups - anti-black, anti-Jew, neo-Nazi - are on the rise again.

And nearly everyone, including members of those groups, agrees that the election of Barack Obama has been a catalyst for the increase in support.

“I wouldn’t say it surprises me,” says Spokane’s mayor Mary Verner, “though it is alarming to me”.

“We are seeing a resurgence in hate groups because we are seeing democratic activity and empowered citizens who are not Anglo-Saxon Protestants.”“

27 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:50:51am

re: #24 Killgore Trout

Who needs to create jobs? Didn’t Obama already create 240 million of them?

///

28 BongCrodny  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:55:13am

Oh, I’m a denialist and that’s okay
I derp all night and I derp all day

29 Killgore Trout  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:56:22am

re: #27 Lidane

Who needs to create jobs? Didn’t Obama already create 240 million of them?

///

I just get so frustrated that we only have one political party that actually wants to help the country, It really pisses me off on some days.

30 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 10:59:19am

re: #29 Killgore Trout

I just get so frustrated that we only have one political party that actually wants to help the country, It really pisses me off on some days.

It would be nice if both of them actually wanted to be productive instead of having one as Wingnut Derp Central and the other as Passive Aggressive, Inc.

31 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:00:14am

re: #29 Killgore Trout

I just want the arguments to be sourced in reality. I can deal with libertarian whackjobs as long as they’re not, say, claiming that government spending had nothing to do with us getting out of the great depression, or that, somehow, only military spending works.

I just want a reality-based political sphere.

But propaganda has become more and more and more pervasive, and Citizens United really just took the lid off of it. I think there’s definite diminishing returns, but look how far they’ve moved the needle on acceptance of AGW.

Nihilists.

32 Randall Gross  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:04:31am

If you haven’t been to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium it is well worth the trip. The whole area is a pretty good visit.

33 Spocomptonite  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:04:44am

Is the scientific method biased toward a certain political agenda because it relies on objectivity and impartial evidence?
Since many religious right people rely on neither, I can see how they would think it is.

34 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:10:05am

re: #24 Killgore Trout

Of course, the wingnuts Republicans want to kill this job creating investment to improve the country…

This is exactly what the problem was here in NJ with the new train tunnel to NYC.

As much as I don’t like Christie, I’m actually okay with the project being halted if it was true that NJ was bearing an undue burden of the construction costs. However, canceling it outright was beyond stupid.

We’ve lost tens of thousands of jobs in the short term. In the long term, people who might have moved to NJ due to the tunnel making the NYC commute easier will look elsewhere. That’s all kinds of tax revenue, both sales and real estate, NJ will never realize.

In addition, NJ has one train tunnel to NYC that’s one freaking century old. I swear to God, I just don’t get the current Republican line of thinking, particularly in light of the article Kilgore linked to.

It’s like they’ve got a knife to Uncle Sam’s throat and have already opened up an artery. I don’t want to think like this, but it really does seem like the GOP is willing to destroy the economy to get what they want.

35 makeitstop  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:11:32am

re: #24 Killgore Trout

House GOP expected to ax transportation funds

More and more I’m wondering what Republicans think the benefit of all these budget cuts will be.

We’ll have unsafe bridges and tunnels, roads too busted up to drive on, buildings that will eventually start falling down.

On the other hand, if you couple the lack of infrastructure investment with the GOP’s desire to cut education spending to the bare bone, we’ll end up with a populace who is too stupid to give a crap.

And all the while they’ll no doubt talk about American Exceptionalism. It’s really sad to think about what they want to turn this country into.

36 darthstar  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:19:37am

re: #32 Thanos

If you haven’t been to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium it is well worth the trip. The whole area is a pretty good visit.

I’ve been there several times…the last two for private dining events…the place is kind of cool when it’s empty.

37 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:19:55am

re: #35 makeitstop

exceptionally shitty!

38 lawhawk  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:20:11am

re: #34 mattand

The ARC tunnel project was a misguided mess and put the burden of all cost overruns on NJ taxpayers, even though it was an interstate project with no contribution from NYC or NYS. Efforts to get the Feds to pick up cost overruns (that were conservatively estimated at anywhere from $1 to $5 billion - and were likely to be much higher as NJ Transit (which was overseeing the project) has not been able to engage in any manner of cost containment) were met with silence and rejected. Christie canned the project, and almost immediately Amtrak came up with a new proposal (Gateway) that actually mirrors the original intent of the ARC tunnel project to provide high speed rail on the NEC while giving NJ Transit additional slots for about the same cost. The ARC tunnel would not have improved NEC operations, since it would not have provided high speed rail into Manhattan, lacked space to store out of service trains, or connected with key portions of Penn Station in Manhattan.

There isn’t full funding for Gateway, and everyone’s still fighting and playing the blame game for the ARC tunnel cancellation. Problem is that other important NEC projects aren’t getting done either - like the Portal Bridge, which has somehow been rolled into the tunnel discussion even though it could and should be handled and financed separately (and is totally shovel ready).

A new rail tunnel is needed under the Hudson River, but the ARC was the wrong tunnel at the wrong price. Gateway is a much better proposal and it should hopefully get funding at some point.

But if you’re talking about criticism about infrastructure in NYC, consider the 2d Ave. Subway along the Upper East Side. The criticism by those living in and near the construction are complaining about all the noise, dust, and disruptions over building the long overdue tunnel, and there are reports that the MTA may not have the funds to get that 1st new segment built and running. Heck, the MTA stopped building the 2d Ave line in the 1970s when the money ran out. NYC can’t seem to find the money to get it done either. They’ve built an extension on the 7 Line, but it is missing a station at a key location because they couldn’t find the money, but they did find a way to rebuild the Fulton Street station for double the original cost (now $1.4 billion and years behind the original schedule). That project was originally going to be $700 million, which means that the MTA had to come up with $700 million more that it doesn’t have to spend on other projects - like the 2d Avenue line.

All that money adds up.

39 Killgore Trout  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:20:15am

re: #35 makeitstop

More and more I’m wondering what Republicans think the benefit of all these budget cuts will be.

We’ll have unsafe bridges and tunnels, roads too busted up to drive on, buildings that will eventually start falling down.

On the other hand, if you couple the lack of infrastructure investment with the GOP’s desire to cut education spending to the bare bone, we’ll end up with a populace who is too stupid to give a crap.

And all the while they’ll no doubt talk about American Exceptionalism. It’s really sad to think about what they want to turn this country into.

I think it basically boils down to wanting Obama to fail. They don’t want an economic recovery while Obama’s in office even if it means obviously trying to destabilize the economy. Hopefully voters will notice this.

40 Ericus58  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:24:08am

re: #35 makeitstop

More and more I’m wondering what Republicans think the benefit of all these budget cuts will be.

We’ll have unsafe bridges and tunnels, roads too busted up to drive on, buildings that will eventually start falling down.

On the other hand, if you couple the lack of infrastructure investment with the GOP’s desire to cut education spending to the bare bone, we’ll end up with a populace who is too stupid to give a crap.

And all the while they’ll no doubt talk about American Exceptionalism. It’s really sad to think about what they want to turn this country into.

Over the last week or so I’ve heard a radio spot on my early morning drive to work that has both Reagan and Clinton quoted by saying (in sound bites by both) the importance of investing in our infrastructure to economic prosperity. Reagan even said that maintaning our roads and rail systems was far better than tearing down and building from scratch due to neglect.

Guess that “progressive” thinking got lost in the history books…

41 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:24:11am

re: #39 Killgore Trout

I think it basically boils down to wanting Obama to fail. They don’t want an economic recovery while Obama’s in office even if it means obviously trying to destabilize the economy. Hopefully voters will notice this.

Yeah, this. They want Obama to fail so badly that they’re willing to threaten a default on our debt, thinking that it will somehow help them in 2012.

It’s the same sort of reckless idiocy that had the GOP shutting down the government and trying to humiliate Clinton in 1995 just to get him out of office, only on a much larger and more dangerous scale. It didn’t work then and hopefully it won’t work now.

42 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:25:31am

re: #40 Ericus58

Over the last week or so I’ve heard a radio spot on my early morning drive to work that has both Reagan and Clinton quoted by saying (in sound bites by both) the importance of investing in our infrastructure to economic prosperity. Reagan even said that maintaning our roads and rail systems was far better than tearing down and building from scratch due to neglect.

Guess that “progressive” thinking got lost in the history books…

See? More proof that Reagan’s an un-electable former librul and would never be taken seriously in today’s GOP.

/Duncan Hunter

43 Spocomptonite  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:26:56am

re: #24 Killgore Trout
Of course, the wingnuts Republicans want to kill this job creating investment to improve the country…
House GOP expected to ax transportation funds

When I went to China, I was very surprised by one thing above all others: despite the much more drastic range of poverty and wealth, all infrastructure (except utilities) is vastly superior to anything I’ve experienced in the U.S.
Republicans: We can’t stay ahead if we don’t keep moving forward. While other countries are building new Nice Things to be more competitive, you keep wanting to cut funding for the old Nice Things we already have. You are putting us well on our way to becoming a first-world backwater, and you have no one to blame but your own partisan ideology.

44 Velvet Elvis  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:27:10am
45 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:27:18am

Addendum to #34: technically, NJ has three sets of tunnels to NYC, but two are exclusively for the PATH trains, which is a much smaller system. The North River Tunnels is the set that carries Amtrak and NJT traffic, and is a constant bottleneck for commuters.

46 makeitstop  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:30:44am

re: #44 Conservative Moonbat

4th of July Parade in a Small Southern Town

Well, that’s pretty tasteless.

47 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:33:48am

re: #38 lawhawk

Thanks for the recap. Good info there. If Christie and other Republicans are serious about creating jobs and bolstering infrastructure, it seems like they should be behind the Gateway project.

48 lawhawk  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:34:09am

re: #40 Ericus58

It also runs into the problem that politicians love to be seen at groundbreaking for new projects, but routine maintenance (the lack of) is stuff that never gets the press until stuff breaks/falls apart/collapses/kills/injures people. So, politicians propose and fund new projects without doing anything to make sure that existing infrastructure maintenance is funded properly.

And it happens from the local level on up. There’s nothing glamorous about making sure bridges are properly painted or that tunnel equipment is maintained, except that both are critical to making sure that both last.

That all runs into the problem that a significant portion of the US infrastructure built during the building boom of the 1950s (the Interstate Highway System) is reaching the design life expectancy limits and needs to be replaced. Repairs on those structures are not cost-effective over the long run.

49 Lidane  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:34:38am

re: #44 Conservative Moonbat

4th of July Parade in a Small Southern Town

There were street preachers here in Austin that used to have banners with the WTC in flames and a caption asking where your soul would be if that happened to you. I found it incredibly tasteless.

50 sagehen  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:34:42am

re: #35 makeitstop

More and more I’m wondering what Republicans think the benefit of all these budget cuts will be.

We’ll have unsafe bridges and tunnels, roads too busted up to drive on, buildings that will eventually start falling down.

On the other hand, if you couple the lack of infrastructure investment with the GOP’s desire to cut education spending to the bare bone, we’ll end up with a populace who is too stupid to give a crap.

And all the while they’ll no doubt talk about American Exceptionalism. It’s really sad to think about what they want to turn this country into.

[Link: www.washingtonmonthly.com…]

As it happens, the willingness of the rich to defend their wealth from taxation to the point of national ruin is nothing new in world history, as Francis Fukuyama recounts in his magisterial new book The Origins of Political Order. The Han dynasty in China fell in the third century AD after aristocratic families with government connections became increasingly able to shield their ever-larger land holdings from taxation, which helped precipitate the bloody Yellow Turban peasant revolt. Nearly a millennium and a half later, the great Ming dynasty went into protracted decline in part for similar reasons: unable or unwilling to raise taxes on the landed gentry, the government couldn’t pay its soldiers and was overrun by Manchu invaders.

In the fifteenth century, the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus persuaded his reluctant nobles to accept higher taxes, with which he built a professional military that beat back the invading Ottomans. But after his death the resentful barons placed a weak foreign prince on the throne and got their taxes cut 70 to 80 percent. When their undisciplined army lost to Suleiman the Magnificent, Hungary lost its independence.

Similarly, the cash-strapped sixteenth-century Spanish monarchy sold municipal and state offices off to wealthy elites rather than raise their taxes—giving them the right to collect public revenues. The elites, in turn, raised taxes on commerce, immiserating peasants and artisans and putting Spain on a path of long-term economic decline. This same practice of exempting the wealthy from taxation and selling them government offices while transferring the tax burden onto the poor reached its apogee in ancien regime France and ended with the guillotine.

By contrast, in England during the same period, the nobility and gentry didn’t conspire with the crown to exempt themselves from taxation. Instead, thanks to a number of factors—greater social solidarity, a keener sense of foreign threats, reforms that made the government itself less corrupt, and the principle of taxation only with the consent of Parliament—the wealthy of England willingly accepted higher taxes on themselves. As a result, government spending in England rose from 11 percent of GDP in the late seventeenth century to 30 percent during some years in the eighteenth century. That’s higher than U.S. federal spending today. These higher taxes on the wealthy in England, Fukuyama notes, “did not, needless to say, stifle the capitalist revolution.”

51 darthstar  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:35:29am

[Link: askobama.twitter.com…]

He just took a question from Boehner…and pwned his orange ass.

52 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:36:43am

re: #50 sagehen

Good article. Spain is actually what I’m reminded of most in our current situation. That economic decline lasted literally centuries, and they were bolstered the entire time by the gold and silver mines they owned.

53 Killgore Trout  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:37:17am

re: #51 darthstar

[Link: askobama.twitter.com…]

He just took a question from Boehner…and pwned his orange ass.

Ah, thanks. I didn’t know that was being broadcast live.

54 lawhawk  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:41:15am

re: #47 mattand

They would, but it’s politics as usual; Christie was snubbed at the Gateway tunnel presser because he killed the ARC tunnel, which was a pet project of Democrats Lautenberg and Menendez.

It appears that they have no intention of working together to make sure that some infrastructure is done; even though some of the money for Gateway would go to replacing the Portal Bridge wholly within NJ (across the Hackensack River and a constant bottleneck on the NEC/NCL/Midtown Direct lines), and other improvements along the NEC.

BTW, you’re also forgetting the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, each of which is for vehicle traffic only (5 tunnels in total).

The larger point is this:
No new tunnels or bridges have crossed the Hudson below the Tappan Zee (which itself needs replacement and the costs are looking to be above $10 billion) since the Tappan Zee was finished in the 1950s.

The Port Authority isn’t about to build anything new - and they’re trying to find the money to finish the WTC, replace the obsolete Goethals bridge at the same time of thinking of raising the Bayonne bridge allowing for super Panamax shipping to the container ports in Elizabeth NJ. Lots of projects in the NYC metro area with billions of dollars in need - and no money to get them done in a reasonable time frame.

It’s one of the reasons I’m angry with how the ARRA of 2009 was pitched; it was supposed to be about infrastructure repair and replacement, and yet stuff that is sorely in need and which services hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis is ignored.

55 blueraven  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:41:58am

re: #29 Killgore Trout

I just get so frustrated that we only have one political party that actually wants to destroy Obama rather than help the country, It really pisses me off on some days.

There.

56 darthstar  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:43:00am

It’s easy to see why Republicans hate when President Obama speaks directly to the American people. He treats us like adults who can understand complex issues - and they want us to stay stupid and trust them to make the big decisions for us.

57 darthstar  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:49:43am

Young people aren’t going to go into teaching if they’re paid a poverty wage…that’s part of the reason I LEFT teaching 13 years ago.

58 makeitstop  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:50:46am

re: #56 darthstar

It’s easy to see why Republicans hate when President Obama speaks directly to the American people. He treats us like adults who can understand complex issues - and they want us to stay stupid and trust them to make the big decisions for us.

The ‘teleprompter’ jokers must be pissed watching this - it’s entirely off the cuff and he continues to make sense. He’s going to make them go to the fall-back - that he’s ‘lecturing’ us.

59 Gus  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:55:18am

Just in case anyone hasn’t seen this yet:

Average U.S. temperature increases by 0.5 degrees F
New 1981-2010 ‘normals’ to be released this week
June 29, 2011

According to the 1981-2010 normals to be released by NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) on July 1, temperatures across the United States were on average, approximately 0.5 degree F warmer than the 1971-2000 time period.

Normals serve as a 30 year baseline average of important climate variables that are used to understand average climate conditions at any location and serve as a consistent point of reference. The new normals update the 30-year averages of climatological variables, including average temperature and precipitation for more than 7,500 locations across the United States. This once-a-decade update will replace the current 1971–2000 normals.

In the continental United States, every state’s annual maximum and minimum temperature increased on average. “The climate of the 2000s is about 1.5 degree F warmer than the 1970s, so we would expect the updated 30-year normals to be warmer,” said Thomas R. Karl, L.H.D., NCDC director.

Using standards established by the World Meteorological Organization, the 30-year normals are used to compare current climate conditions with recent history. Local weathercasters traditionally use normals for comparisons with the day’s weather conditions.

Continues.

60 S'latch  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 11:58:59am

Climate change denial is a psychological defense mechanism. Our responsibility for harming our own environment is very painful to accept. This is especially true since climate change might be a byproduct of our most productive activities. It is a natural instinct to reject a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept, sometimes even when the fact is supported by overwhelming evidence.

61 Gus  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 12:02:44pm

re: #54 lawhawk

Amazing isn’t it? No new infrastructure since the 1950s. No future planning for rail tunnels into Manhattan. Yet, you have to pay well over 2,000 dollars just to get a tiny studio apartment in Manhattan. A city and area that generates billions in revenue from office to industrial uses.

62 lostlakehiker  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 12:11:56pm

re: #8 BigPapa

As with every other denier blowhard referencing a paper or study, it does not say what he thinks it says.

It does not say what he’d have you think it says. He, himself, knows that he hasn’t troubled himself to figure out what it really says. He’s a busy man and has no time to think about the science. Reading science stuff is hard going and busy men have to move on quickly.

63 lostlakehiker  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 12:21:41pm

re: #34 mattand

This is exactly what the problem was here in NJ with the new train tunnel to NYC.

As much as I don’t like Christie, I’m actually okay with the project being halted if it was true that NJ was bearing an undue burden of the construction costs. However, canceling it outright was beyond stupid.

We’ve lost tens of thousands of jobs in the short term. In the long term, people who might have moved to NJ due to the tunnel making the NYC commute easier will look elsewhere. That’s all kinds of tax revenue, both sales and real estate, NJ will never realize.

In addition, NJ has one train tunnel to NYC that’s one freaking century old. I swear to God, I just don’t get the current Republican line of thinking, particularly in light of the article Kilgore linked to.

It’s like they’ve got a knife to Uncle Sam’s throat and have already opened up an artery. I don’t want to think like this, but it really does seem like the GOP is willing to destroy the economy to get what they want.

If Republicans are trying to wreck the economy but Democrats make it better, how come we don’t see glorious burgeoning growth in states that Democrats rule, such as, oh, California? Or Massachusetts? Or Illinois?

And now, Obama runs on about corporate jets. OK, he’s right, but the point is, it’s irrelevant. The big money is middle class and lower upper class money, and the big expenses are entitlements for both those groups. The fabulously rich are too few for their taxes to be a major source of new funding for the government, and the poor, at least those not gaming the system, aren’t a good place to make cuts in expenditures.

We’re going to have to dial back benefits, starting with a fresh look at the recently passed health care “reform”, and moving on to social security.

And we’re going to have to raise taxes some on the broad upper-middle portion of the economy. The rich alone cannot cover the tab.

64 Spocomptonite  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 12:27:40pm

re: #63 lostlakehiker

If Republicans are trying to wreck the economy but Democrats make it better, how come we don’t see glorious burgeoning growth in states that Democrats rule, such as, oh, California? Or Massachusetts? Or Illinois?

And now, Obama runs on about corporate jets. OK, he’s right, but the point is, it’s irrelevant. The big money is middle class and lower upper class money, and the big expenses are entitlements for both those groups. The fabulously rich are too few for their taxes to be a major source of new funding for the government, and the poor, at least those not gaming the system, aren’t a good place to make cuts in expenditures.

We’re going to have to dial back benefits, starting with a fresh look at the recently passed health care “reform”, and moving on to social security.

And we’re going to have to raise taxes some on the broad upper-middle portion of the economy. The rich alone cannot cover the tab.

I’m curious, what income level do you consider the middle class?

65 Glenn Beck's Grand Unifying Theory of Obdicut  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 12:33:41pm

re: #63 lostlakehiker

Democrats do not “rule” California.

66 Gus  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 12:35:48pm

In the United States, public spending on infrastructure has varied between 2.3% and 3.6% of GDP since 1950.

Image: 19leonhardt_large.jpg

GDP was 14.12 trillion in 2010. Total spending on the high end of 3.6 percent equals 508.3 billion dollars a year. Range would be 324.8 to 508.3 billion per year.

67 Mattand  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 1:01:03pm

re: #63 lostlakehiker

If Republicans are trying to wreck the economy but Democrats make it better, how come we don’t see glorious burgeoning growth in states that Democrats rule, such as, oh, California? Or Massachusetts? Or Illinois?

And now, Obama runs on about corporate jets. OK, he’s right but the point is, it’s irrelevant. The big money is middle class and lower upper class money, and the big expenses are entitlements for both those groups. The fabulously rich are too few for their taxes to be a major source of new funding for the government, and the poor, at least those not gaming the system, aren’t a good place to make cuts in expenditures.

We’re going to have to dial back benefits, starting with a fresh look at the recently passed health care “reform”, and moving on to social security.

And we’re going to have to raise taxes some on the broad upper-middle portion of the economy. The rich alone cannot cover the tab.

You’re sort of making my point for me. Republicans are threatening to take their ball and go home unless all tax issues are off the table, including corporate jet ownership. As Kilgore in #24 pointed out, they’re threatening to cut funding for transportation infrastructure.

Do we need to cut spending? Absolutely. I’m sure there’s plenty of pork in the defense budget that could go. I’m also not saying Democrats have the answers. They can be just as beholden to special interest groups as the GOP.

However, we have one political party threatening to make the United States unable to meet its financial obligations unless they get what they want. I have serious reservations about how serious the GOP are when it comes to saving the economy.

68 WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.]  Wed, Jul 6, 2011 3:49:55pm

re: #63 lostlakehiker

If Republicans are trying to wreck the economy but Democrats make it better, how come we don’t see glorious burgeoning growth in states that Democrats rule, such as, oh, California? Or Massachusetts? Or Illinois?

And now, Obama runs on about corporate jets. OK, he’s right, but the point is, it’s irrelevant. The big money is middle class and lower upper class money, and the big expenses are entitlements for both those groups. The fabulously rich are too few for their taxes to be a major source of new funding for the government, and the poor, at least those not gaming the system, aren’t a good place to make cuts in expenditures.

We’re going to have to dial back benefits, starting with a fresh look at the recently passed health care “reform”, and moving on to social security.

And we’re going to have to raise taxes some on the broad upper-middle portion of the economy. The rich alone cannot cover the tab.

Wow, look at all those talking points


This article has been archived.
Comments are closed.

Jump to top

Create a PageThis is the LGF Pages posting bookmarklet. To use it, drag this button to your browser's bookmark bar, and title it 'LGF Pages' (or whatever you like). Then browse to a site you want to post, select some text on the page to use for a quote, click the bookmarklet, and the Pages posting window will appear with the title, text, and any embedded video or audio files already filled in, ready to go.
Or... you can just click this button to open the Pages posting window right away.
Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
LGF User's Guide RSS Feeds

Help support Little Green Footballs!

Subscribe now for ad-free access!Register and sign in to a free LGF account before subscribing, and your ad-free access will be automatically enabled.

Donate with
PayPal
Cash.app
Recent PagesClick to refresh
The Pandemic Cost 7 Million Lives, but Talks to Prevent a Repeat Stall In late 2021, as the world reeled from the arrival of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus, representatives of almost 200 countries met - some online, some in-person in Geneva - hoping to forestall a future worldwide ...
Cheechako
4 days ago
Views: 125 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 1
Texas County at Center of Border Fight Is Overwhelmed by Migrant Deaths EAGLE PASS, Tex. - The undertaker lighted a cigarette and held it between his latex-gloved fingers as he stood over the bloated body bag lying in the bed of his battered pickup truck. The woman had been fished out ...
Cheechako
2 weeks ago
Views: 288 • Comments: 0 • Rating: 1