The Rampant, Irresponsible Political Thread

[Dr Maturin]

I think that high society in Mexico tends to use the "estadounidense" term more than the lower classes do. I've never heard anybody use it in person.

Something else that a bit of an annoyance. Mexicans will use "Americano" to describe a white person, while a black is always "negro," despite the fact that they, too, are American.

[Der Mike]

Forgot to post the link to one article that shows that the years I mentioned above have been the hottest in more than a century.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060123/warmestyear_pla.html

Even though some think it's more fun if you don't back up what you say I like to do it.

I could also mention that the article blames increased hurricanes on global warming, something nobody actually states is fact.

The facts are this:

1) The timeline of these measurements is very brief.
2) Even 20 years of ANYTHING on a planet SEVERAL HUNDRED MILLION YEARS OLD is not a "trend"
3) Why would only "just about every location" have higher temperatures? Why would even one place NOT have one? Global warming is, by definition, GLOBAL. Everybody should have the same problems.
4) That the Earth has always had warming and cooling periods is pretty well-known (the whole Ice Ages in the past thing and all). Some proof that HUMANS caused it would be quite beneficial.

And anytime a scientist says something is "Settled", they know their data is flimsy and wish to silence criticism.
-=Mike

[David Panzer]

What is considered scientific or not doesn't keep me up during the night.

[Dr Maturin]

Funny how we haven't really heard anything on the Ozone Layer front within the past ten years or so.

[AaronB]

I never pass up cheap jokes

Or Cheap beer

[David Panzer]

When I can't get my Sierra Nevada or Guinness, I admit to having some Miller High Life.

[Towelmaster]

Forgot to post the link to one article that shows that the years I mentioned above have been the hottest in more than a century.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20060123/warmestyear_pla.html

Even though some think it's more fun if you don't back up what you say I like to do it.

To add a snippet to that(and YES, I shall look up the link later); in an ominous imitation of 'The Day After Tomorrow', a chunk of ice of indeed the size of Rhode Island came away from(I believe it was the norht-) pole. This is not a normal natural ocurrence.

I personally think that if we have the choice of being too cautious and loading the problems onto the next generation, we should be overly cautious.

Oh, The Earth is considered to be 4,6 billion years old.http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html

--- Addendum --- I'm into Danish beer nowadays. As a protest against the Middle East trying to meddle with the freedom of speech in Denmark(and Europe of course). Carlsberg ain't so bad.

[AmyG]

I don't think there's a more perfect place here to post this.

I entered the Huffington Post's Contagious Festival with a political humor site that I designed. The festival is "a unique opportunity for talented designers, political activists of any persuasion, filmmakers and comics to reach millions of people with creative, viral online work. " While the contest is most heavily weighted toward the site the actually gets the most hits, there's also a panel of judges who will award jury prizes for what they judge to be outstanding work. Among the judges are Arianna Huffington, Nora Ephron, and John Cusack!

I'm in the February leg of the competition. My site will be up for the entire month, hopefully getting lots and lots and lots of visitors. That's where you come in. :-) Please visit the site when you have some free time:

NSA SETI @ Home: Scan Evildoers' Telephone Intercepts

And, if you think it's funny, please pass the link along to your friends and coworkers (probably a good idea to skip your conservative friends, though <g>). All those people who send you heartwarming stories with animated pictures of kittens attached? Send it to them. All the friends and family who send you the same jokes about getting old every year on your birthday? Send it to them. The people who send you virus hoaxes because they haven't first checked them out on snopes.com or symantec.com? Send it to them. Send it even if they're just going to click on the link - they don't have to actually read the text (but I promise they'll laugh if they do).

I don't really think I have a ghost of a chance to get the highest number of unique visitors to the site (which is how it's being judged), since I don't have a funny video or a catchy song...but it would be nice to get enough visitors that my humble little static site at least gets the attention of the judges, so I'll have a chance at one of the jury prizes.

Thanks very much! And...click on that link!

NSA SETI @ Home: Scan Evildoers' Telephone Intercepts

[Towelmaster]

Done...enjoy...

For the discussion, this was just released. I publish it here without a personal opinion attached to it. In this case that is not my point. It is interesting material. http://cqpolitics.com/cq.com/www.cq...._homeland.html

[Karachi Vyce]

Those illegals should be [edited].

[Edited three words suggesting violence which might be construed as an expression of hatred. --Jan]

Oh you have got to be shittin' me. You edited THAT?

Fine, then, if you want to construe that as some sort of racial animus on my part, let me rephrase my philosophy in words that would probably get my point across better. Anyone who knowingly attacks a law enforcement officer (regardless of the attacker's racial background), is asking to get shot. Doesn't matter if it's a border patrol officer, or Barney Fife down in Mayberry. The law enforcement officers do NOT screw around, nor should they have to. They have the right to respond with immediate lethal force if their lives are threatened. Since the subject of the day is immigration, that should apply to border patrol agents as well. If they're being attacked by an illegal, which is hardly a shocking proposition given the number of drug runners down along our southern borders, they shouldn't hesitate to defend themselves.

That's not hatred, that's common sense. If you're stupid enough to attack a cop, expect unpleasantness to follow.

BTW, Mike is correct in his legal analysis. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land (why are we even talking about the Declaration of Independence? It's significance in actual American jurisprudence is nonexistent), and America could kick out every single illegal immigrant tomorrow and not violate the Constitution at all. They would have to be illegal - obviously not the ones who have lawful visas, are in the process of naturalization, been granted aslyum, etc. (the usual exceptions). But they could be removed, and it's constitutionall permissible.

[Jan]

Oh you have got to be shittin' me. You edited THAT?

Sure did. That one sentence posted earlier was a *far* cry from you saying that law officers being attacked should defend themselves.

You can assume I'll usually err on the side of editing...or deleting.

Jan
Moderator

[Dr Maturin]

One time, a liberal tried to invoke the inscription on the Statue of Liberty as some kind of real policy to me.

[Der Mike]

Critiques of man-made global warming theory:

1) We had a cold spell on this planet end in 1850 (http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/..._ice_age.html). The temperature STARTED off low as of late simply due to the cold snap that began in 1850. Warming and cooling trends are well-known historically and we've been in a warming trend since the 1860's or thereabout.

2) There is little correlative evidence to indicate that global warming causes increased extreme weather. Since 1900, the number of times that hurricane hits have DROPPED from one decade to the next is 5 times. Or, roughly, half of the time, there are fewer hurricanes in one decade than in the prior decade.
Courtesy National Hurricane Center

3) There is no evidence that increased carbon dioxide can lead to crop failure. The Sahara has shrunk in size since 1980 (New Scientist 175, 9/21/02, pp 4-5).

4) We have no idea how many glaciers are melting. We have data on less than 100. There are, by most best guesses, more than 60,000 glaciers. It's hard to make any educated guesses as to if glaciers are melting on such a miniscule and not terribly scientifically random sample.

5) There is knowledge in the scientific community that there is underestimation of the impact of the "heat island effect" (the impact of glass and asphault on air temperature). We know that many weather stations that were once isolated are NOW in the middle of cities, which artificially increases temperature regardless.

6) The initial expectation of the impact of cities on temperature increases were significantly lower than they were in reality. The EXPECTATION was for a city to cause an increase in temperature of, roughly, .3 degrees celsius. Shanghai, in particular, increased 1 degree celsius. Houston increased .8. Manchester is 8 degrees hotter than the surrounding countryside.

7) Areas WITHOUT significant population increase have NOT seen increases in temperature since 1930. Courtesy: US Historical Climatology Network. And, NYC has seen a temperature increase of 5 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 180 years while Albany decreased half a degree over the last 180 years. ALSO from USHCN.

8) There is definite concern that science has OVERSTATED the magnitude of a greenhouse effect by artificially lowering the assumed impact of urbanization. (Progress in Physical Geography 27; pp.597-606)

9) There is little evidence of warming in Europe over the last 220 yrs. Courtesy: GISS

Nobody is saying that global warming DEFINITELY is not man made. Just that for a science that demands people dramatically change their lifestyle, more concrete evidence is required. There is more than a little touch of racism in global warming (there is no more efficient way to make sure Africa never develops economically than to pass "environment-friendly" regulations).
-=Mike

[Towelmaster]

From Global Warming to Guinness. Must be the most spectacular topic-drift I ever saw.

[phazedout]

From Global Warming to Guinness. Must be the most spectacular topic-drift I ever saw.

Hey, I did suggest we could hive off the alcohol sub-thread to it's own one, I just lack the powers on this board to do so. OK vaguely on-topic (and a bit of fun) - the picture of how america sees the world
Phaze
on the "I'm joking here people, but at least it's vaguely political" ID
edit - typos