What I’ve Noticed

Temperatures are expected to be a bit cooler in the next decade due to natural cycles, but after that, the current too-fast rate of warming will continue.  Hopefully people pay attention to articles like this instead of saying “well it’s been really cold the last few years so global warming can’t be a problem.”

Some scary things have happened on the supreme court in the past few years.  Do something about it.

Nuclear power has some serious problems.  Like nuclear waste.  Also, it’s got a wicked high carbon cost.

The new poll tax.

Dave Neiwert on Obama, Jeremiah Wright, and things Americans don’t like to talk about:

It’s human, of course, to want to think of yourself as a good person, and your country as a good country. Which is why it’s human of white Americans — the descendants and beneficiaries of the people who perpetrated these atrocities — to want to forget that these things happened. And they want to believe that because these events were in the past, and they took some initial steps toward reconciliation 40 years ago, the issues should have gone away, and if they haven’t, well, it’s the victims’ fault.

Choosing to buy bottled water may lead to having to buy bottled water as our municipal water supplies go bad.  So don’t buy bottled water.

This is definitely what those crazy churches’ retreats are like.  It’s terrifying that there are so many people who’ve been taught not to think.

And in the same vein, religion is child abuse.

Good science education is important for everyone.  An English TA comments on a student paper: “I personally have lots of reservations regarding evolution (even scientifically).” This is appalling.  As one scientist put it

“Imagine a teaching assistant writing, ‘I personally have lots of reservations regarding the fact the Earth is round.’”

You may have heard Ben Stein recently claiming that “science leads to killing,” specifically that it led to the Holocaust.  A powerful refutation of his nonsense.

My period might save your life.

Someone needs to tell the Swiss government that plants could care less about their dignity.

Compassionate conservative Douglas Bruce calls immigrants “illiterate peasants.”

Obama and Clinton tap into anti-intellectual sentiment.

In Britain, donkeys get more government support than women.