It’s not supposed to be this warm so consistently in January, not even in Florida. But Algore is fat or something, so there will be no serious discussion of the climate change issue, not until the water rises over our noses, rendering further conversation impossible.
Sharing a country with the 27% reminds me of a line from “The Birdcage” — It’s like riding a psychotic horse towards a burning barn.
Open thread.
Pincher
Al Jazeera. AL JAZEERA!
Emma
My friends in Chicago tell me they’re expecting 50s by Friday. It is NOT amusing when a local friend and I joke that if global warming continues, we will have island property (our houses sit on a rise of the Miami Ridge about a 15 minute drive from the marina)
JPL
Is it time to plant my garden? Our temps are going to be in the high sixties to low seventies.
jayboat
Thanks for the reminder from a very funny movie- the houseboy who couldn’t walk in shoes was, and is, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Weatherwise- can’t beat southwest Florida for boating in this stuff.
I know, selfish…
Did a helo shoot last Saturday-
boating run from Sanibel to Marco Island.
Tigertail Beach
gene108
I like Global Warming.
It makes the winters milder and that helps reduce the impact of my Seasonal Affective Disorder, i.e. I don’t get as depressed in the winter, which is good for me.
Shrillhouse
Up here in SoshulizedMedicineStan, it should be about minus 20 (that’s Celsius, mind you) this time of year.
It’s been warm all week, and the high on Sunday is supposed to 11. That’s only 30 degrees hotter than normal, so yeah, Al Gore is definitely fat and getting fatter.
Raven
Frickin skeeters, tics and fire ants love this shit!
Beth
@gene108: I thought SDA was all about the hours of daylight, not the temps. Also what about the damn acidification of the oceans from increased CO2??
R-Jud
The frost this morning here in Blighty was the first one we’ve had in five weeks. I was running in shorts yesterday.
Betty Cracker
@jayboat: Did you see any burrowing owls when you were on the ground? I love those damned critters. About the size of a beer can, and FULL of hissy attitude!
PS: Lovely photos!
JPL
@Raven: Stink bugs…
WereBear
Just a reminder… I’m holding over:
the Way of Cats Holiday Blog Drive
So if anyone is so inclined, thanks so much!
PeakVT
2012 was the warmest on record in the lower US.
Beth in VA
Just hours ago my dream had an extraordinary high tide in it. Weird but true.
Also it’s crazy warm for Virginia in January.
And Australia’s been having highs well over 100 degrees for way too long a stretch.
Re Gene’s SDA comment– thought that was related to length of daylight, not temps? And I’m happy for you but sad for marine life dealing with increased acid in oceans as CO2 dissolves calcium carbonate shells and such.
Linda Featheringill
Feels like April in PA.
The Red Pen
@Emma: Yeah, I’m going to Chicago on Friday and I might not even bring a jacket.
The worst thing is that it’s had practically no snow all winter. This is bad for a lot of reasons.
On another topic, Freepers are daily calling for armed revolution. When pressed for details one self-avowed revolutionary offered this preview of the coming uprising:
Reality isn’t a movie! WOLVERINES!
FlyingToaster
At least this year we got one good snow and a freeze, so the black ants will not be invading every house on our block again.
It’s supposed to be in the 50s in Boston as well this weekend. Where is our snow? Warrior Girl loved sledding over vacation, and wants to go again. GRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Raven
@JPL: Those are Kudzu bugs. The really made a difference in the plot behind our house. I wasn’t nearly as aggressive this year. The drought helped too.
Cassidy
I’m just sick of the damn fleas. We’re having to bathe our dogs way too much. We’ve won the battle indoors, but it’s like a zombie apocalypse of fleas outside. No dog is safe.
The Red Pen
@gene108:
Climate change won’t be all bad for everybody.
America’s prized corn belt may move to Canada, while Ohio becomes home to orange groves. People may finally move to Montana.
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Linda Featheringill:
I’m in Philly for 45 minutes on the way home. Connecticut was frosty at 4:30 am but the days were sunny. Overcast skies are the worst part of MI winters for me. Gloomy.
Cassidy
@The Red Pen: They seem to forget we have a military with ten years experience of fighting an insurgency. These people really are stupid.
WereBear
Climate-wise, we are having ANOTHER lousy, too-warm-winter melting what snow we do get. Since this is supposed to be a tourism Winter Wonderland, it’s serious.
Raven
@jayboat: Damn man! I reconnected on FB with a guy that I knew years ago who is in the big ass boat building business in Miami. It was kind of fun checking these huge things out on his page until he wrote a post about being ashamed of Illinois for some new gun restriction legislation.
Schlemizel
@PeakVT:
Broke the old record by a whole degree – scientists were shocked that it would be that much
Comrade Bob
Algore has lost a lot of weight so it is time to cease and desist of that particular demeaning line. Perhaps Al has found a receptacle that is willing to receive his chakra and is now getting lots of exercise.
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
My dad’s a climate change denier. Claims temp rise is due to the end of the Little Ice Age. Maybe, but the rate of rise is far higher the last century. Doesn’t compute.
Dad also has a colossal carbon footprint with his 1 MPG boat & driving a car 30K mi/year. And he watches Fox.
Schlemizel
@The Red Pen:
Water. The temp in Point Barrow might be kind for corn but the crop needs an unbelievable amount of water. They are killing Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska trying to grow that shit in places it does not belong.
Then there is the problem of corn not standing up to the super storms the hotter climate will bring
Cassidy
Was reading a sports op-ed and thought this was funny:
Raven
@Cassidy: Wasn’t close my fucking ass. Five yards.
Linda Featheringill
@Cassidy:
Fleas: Nematodes. I don’t know if it’s possible to get rid of all the outside fleas but you can really reduce the population.
Linda Featheringill
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
Be sure to wave as you go by. :-)
Raven
@Linda Featheringill: I wonder about all that. People swear you need freezes to keep the skeeters down but they have hellacious ones in Alaska.
Emma
@The Red Pen: There will be no Waco standoffs. What there will be is coast-to-coast bands of folks hunting random gun grabbing legislators and litigators. Lather, rinse, repeat until they leave us alone.
It isn’t going to be a “stand up fight”. There will be no Civil War type armies marching around in uniform. There will be no massive National militia movement call up that will march on Washington with banners flying…
Sorry jerks.
No. It’ll be the FBI, the Homeland Security people, the State patrols and guard, and the county and city police hunting you. There’s ll be 24-hour coverage with your faces on the papers and tv until even one-year-olds can identify you. There’ll be people cheering from the sidelines until you botch one of your raids and kill some kids or other innocents, and everyone is pissed off, then they’ll thump their chests as they turn you in or slink away and mumble about how you don’t represent their revolution. And they will either catch you and throw your sorry ass in jail or they will kill you.
tinare
@The Red Pen:
Yeah, I’m in Western PA and we joke that at least we’ll be closer to the beach.
Feudalism Now!
I would be one of the beneficiaries of global warming, here in Upstate New York. Lord knows I wouldn’t mind surrendering the snow total king to Kingston, Ontario or something. The southeast is boned though.
The next week will be temps in the upper 40s, so I won’t need to shovel the roof. Too bad about the increased swinginess of the weather and severity of weather. Forest fires and droughts are killer. Tornadoes and hurricanes are uncomfortable too. Thank goodness algore is fat, or else the world might be headed for some trouble.
Linda Featheringill
@Comrade Bob: #24
You’ve just won the euphemism award for the morning!
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
Why do they board Coach passengers from the front first. Makes more sense to fill the back of the plane first. Less blocking aisles.
4th flight in 60 hours & I’m getting testy.
Jerzy Russian
@The Red Pen: Do you have some kind of covering that blocks the stupid rays coming out of those sites you are reading? I don’t think I could last more than a few minutes without some kind of protection.
It has actually been a little bit chilly here in southern California. The overnight temperatures are in the 40s, with highs in the 60s and 70s. A cold front this weekend will result in temperatures 10 to 15 degrees below average.
quannlace
I know I’m supposed to be concerned about climate change, and I sure don’t appreciate hotter Summer heatwaves…..But two years ago we had a winter with what seemed one blizzard after another, followed by ice storms that sealed everything like iron.
Color me content.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I did bootcamp in Orlando in Jan-Mar of 92. I remember stretches where one day we would have to wear a coat to get around, and then a couple of days later not being allowed to run because it was too hot.
Punchy
KC to see low 60s on Friday. In mid-Jan. Yikes.
greennotGreen
Just watched Jon Stewart’s gun control opponents rant which prompted me to look at the “more people are killed by hammers every year than rifles or shotguns (from the FBI.)” Okay, but how many people are killed every year by ball peen hammers? How many are killed by tack hammers? Let’s compare apples and apples, people! All hammers and clubs:496. All guns:almost 30,000 a year.
Betty Cracker
@Cassidy: Hahaha!
Jerzy Russian
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
At least he acknowledges that the temperatures are rising? That is some kind of progress, I suppose.
Raven
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): They actually made you RUN in the Navy! Wow!
Raven
“To tackle an ever-worsening obesity problem in the U.K., policymakers in the London area of Westminster are currently mulling over a controversial plan that could see some overweight Britons losing welfare benefits if they fail to follow doctors’ advice to exercise.”
Off your ass
and on your feet
out of the shade
ans into the heat!
Raven
@Betty Cracker: I was shooting the shit with a neighbor yesterday and learned that his son is a track coach for the Gators!
Schlemizel
@RossinDetroit:
The used to load from the back but now that people pay extra to sit up front they get on first. Yes it is stupid – you can thank St. Ronald for this too as he is the one who led the fight to deregulate the airlines. What followed has been 40 years of decreasing service, reliability, safety, comfort, access and enjoyment. But our masters have made many billions.
The Red Pen
@Jerzy Russian:
It’s not too bad if you get the tumors removed before they metastasize.
You stole our cold!
@Schlemizel:
Yeah, so there are two problems in the US corn belt. The first is that corn stops growing when its roots get too hot. Corn root start above ground, so they’re not really deep. The other problem is drought. Iowa, which has been the worlds best climate for corn, may soon not have the water either.
RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
@Schlemizel:
Yeah, i’m on the plane now. A deregulation race to the bottom.
I travel constantly & have many beefs. I’ll avoid American Airlines as much as possible. Incompetence. Oops. Moving…
Schlemizel
@Jerzy Russian:
We are actually in stage II/III of the denial fest. Look how they handled tobacco for presidence.
First you deny it happens. Then when that stops working you claim it is a good thing (stage II) or that it is not caused by what every actual scientist studying the problem says it is caused by (stage III). The wingnuts passed stage I a long time ago & have given up claiming that snow in Minnesota in January is proof there is no climate change.
Now they are going to say it is not man made and/or it really is a good thing. All joking aside, if we warm the oceans up another degree there will be millions of deaths directly from the change & millions more from the social upheaval that follows. If we can hit 2 degrees warmer we can do a pretty decent job of eliminating most of the human life and much of the flora and fauna we depend on from the Earth. So you enjoy those snow free winters while they last.
Cassidy
Another one.
I’m not interested in or trying to start a college football flame war. I’ve been checking out the sports sites and reading the mea culpa’s from the pundits. A week ago, these guys were all writing a completely different tune and it reminds me of that movie The Great White Hype with all the build-up untilt he ending ass-kicking. But, this too shall pass and one day the Big 10 or 12 will have a streak of dominance.
Lee
Whocodanode
Gun nut found dead. Shot in the head
Yep guns make your safer!
Schlemizel
@RossinDetroit:
Thank Pasta I no longer travel for my work. Used to put on 100k a year in busy years, 50 – 100 in normal ones.
My first work flying was in the late 70s and it was really a joy. Comfortable seats, leg room, pleasant employees. Gradually I saw all that go away. Today Grayhound is more comfortable, more pleasant and a lot more relaxing than any airline. Adding on TSA was just the turd cherry on this sewage sundae.
japa21
Actually, Chicago will be close tyo 60 this weekend. And we still haven’t had, in total, an inch of snow. We just set the record for latest measurable snow, longest period between measurable snows and are about to hit the record for latest 1″ snowfall, assuming we even get one this year.
Rain really doesn’t help the farmers at this time of year. They count a lot on snow melt. And the Mississippi is in big trouble.
fidelio
@Cassidy: No, no, the troops will be on their side, because they are the True, Real America.
Cassidy
@Lee: If only he’d been armed…
Paul in KY
@jayboat: Wouldn’t mind sitting out at Blind Pass today, drink in hand, watching the world go by…
Robert Paehlke
I live in Ontario, Canada in what was once a bit of a snow belt. We barely managed a dusting for Xmas and what there is now will be rained away over the next few days. It will be in the 50s on Saturday. In 40plus years here I have never seen anything like this, not even in 2007 when there were a couple of golf days in some places in December. That seemed to be a fluke, this seems to be a new reality.
I am glad I am old and won’t be around when we are invaded by millions of thirsty, slightly crispy gun-slinging Texans.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Raven: Requirements to graduate from Navy bootcamp, at least in 92:
50 push ups
60 situps
1.5 miles in 8:10
Paul in KY
@The Red Pen: Maybe I can move up to Madison then.
Paul in KY
@Raven: He should have purpously dropped that pass. Probably QB’s fault, as he should have told them before snap that if they get the pass & they aren’t in end zone or bout to be, they need to drop it.
The Pale Scot
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist: You could point out to your dad that if he’s using that metric we should be sliding into another ice age by now.
Older_Wiser
We haven’t had a good snow in this southwest foothills county in NC in 10 yrs, or an ice storm, either. Even the mountains haven’t gotten much snow lately (and, of course, they have to manufacture more of it at the ski resorts). But more tornado warnings here than I’ve seen in 12 yrs.
It’s more like Miami when I was a kid there in the 1950s. Yes, it did get cold there once in a while, but we shrugged it off and put on a light jacket. Do they have to do that now?
Hoodie
@Cassidy: Yeah, they’re just singing the same tune in different pitch by lionizing the Tide so their hype of ND doesn’t look as stupid as it really was. ND looked like a high school JV team in that game, and having ND in the top 4 in each of the final AP and USA Today rankings is a joke. The only legit top 5 or 6 team they played during the regular season was Stanford, and that was a 3-point overtime win at home. They barely beat BYU, Pitt and Purdue at home, for chrissakes. There were probably at least four or five teams that could have given Bama more of a run for their money (Oregon, A&M, UGA, Stanford, Florida, South Carolina, etc.). Saban should be thankful he didn’t have play A&M again.
Jade Jordan
I know Al Gore is very popular in the progressive community, but does he really care about global warming?
It always seemed like his advisors told him he had to pick a pet issue so he closed his eyes and picked global warming.
Ed Begley seems passionate about global warming. Gore seems professorial on demand.
We might get more traction and support if we don’t tie global warming discussions to Al Gore.
I know all the Gorebot heads will explode, however, we have to be a big tent and allow for diversity of opinion, unlike the teabaggers.
Paul in KY
@Linda Featheringill: With DDT, locating them one by one & killing them?
Please elucidate.
Edit: I guess you were talking about a hard freeze.
Cassidy
This is the last one I was reading and towards the end he goes into suome punditing about why the SEC is better. It got me thinking about what someone pointed out in one of the BCS threads is that the 2nd and 3rd string players are just as good as the 1st and it’s that level of play that grinds teams down. That level of play doens’t come just from being in college, it’s recruited and it makes sense; HS football is a big deal in Florida. If only we’d put that much emphasis on our schools and academics.
Paul in KY
@Raven: We had to roll around on our chairs in the USAF. Then we would retire to the O Club for a lime rickey.
Raven
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): I was kiddin
balconesfault
@The Red Pen:
The Ogalalla was drying up anyway.
Raven
@Paul in KY: Yea, they had a lot of time too shoot the shit and explore all possible scenarios. Maybe looked for Miss Alabama in the stands too.
catclub
@Beth: I was going to say the same thing to Gene, but the point he makes is important.
Some areas may well do better with ACW.
The fact that many of the ones that will do worse have lots of poor people is why we SHOULD be acting sooner, but is actually the reason we are not acting much at all.
Anya
Is there anything Sen. Charles Schumer is committed to more than Israel and the financial industry? I hate that his comments will be a fodder for Chuck Todd and the frivolous pundits.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Comrade Bob: Maybe he’s just Choji all grown up.
Cassidy
@Hoodie:
That’s a hard one to predict. A&M was coming off a bye week and (two weeks to prep) and Alabama had played LSU the week before and those tend to be grinders. They still might have one, but I don’t think the first game would be a good predictor of anything. Same kind of thing happenned with LSU the year before. but, I’m one of those unabashed SEC fans and I know to enjoy it while I can. I don’t think the PAC-10 will ever catch up in speed+size. They have the speed, but won’t win in that arms race. The Big 10 and 12 are going to close the gap at some point. I’m not sure the Big 10 will ever produce the same kind of speed, but the Big 12 will. I expect that the Big 12 will be the ones to break the streak and then hold onto the NC for a few years.
Feudalism Now!
The warming will not be stopped until there are major climate shifts and catastrophes. I will enjoy less snowy winters while they last. The desertification of flyover country, rising food prices, famine, drought and strong wild weather from increased atmospheric energy and moisture not so much. The window for slowing, let alone arresting anthropogenic global warming is almost gone. Another 5 -10 years and there will be a slim chance to make any difference. There is no consensus or will among the world populace to address or accept climate change mediation. Our best bet is to push for infrastructure stimulus to address the effects of climate change. Hurricane Sandy and our tornado-eyist year ever have pushed people to react to symptoms at least, if not the causes.
catclub
@Cassidy: Somebody (you?)
posted in Alabama about paying for quality being worth it with Saban, and maybe with other aspects of education that do not include football. Humorous, outside the box, idea.
Cassidy
@catclub: That wasn’t me, but I did read an op-ed yesterday about that, same basic premise: Saban started at 3 mil and made 5 mil this year and is looking at a raise. We (the South) pay for football success, so if we would start out that paying our teachers is worth the money and go from there, who knows what would happen! Of course, we know what would happen, but it kills me that this is considered a novel idea.
Bob h
It’s not normal for green shoots (daffodils) to be appearing at this time in Northern NJ
Todd
@Feudalism Now!:
That fat bucket of shit Lord HawHaw was on the radio yesterday, continuing to get the rubes to deny the existence of climate change.
It all fits, when you think about it – the people who deny climate change are the same people pushing for default, are the same people who pushed against saving the automotive industry, are the same people who wanting the entire financial world to collapse.
They’re fucking lazy, and in their laziness, they would touch off catastrophe while going “hoocoodanode?”
Gex
@Beth: If it is sunnier due to less cloud cover, that will make a difference in the UV you receive in a day, even on shorter days.
jayjaybear
@Raven: Well, it was the Navy, not the Air Force…
Paul in KY
@Raven: Agree not too much time left, but if I was thinking about that at time (clock stops on incomplete & penalty & TD, & run out of bounds, but nothing else), the QB & coach should have been thinking about it too (IMO).
The Red Pen
@Jade Jordan:
I have seen Al Gore speak on global warming in person with a subsequent Q&A and he seemed pretty into it.
I don’t think so. Al Gore has more “gravitas” than someone like Ed Begley Jr. and it’s not like Algore is the only thing wingnuts ever attack on AGW.
Ted & Hellen
But what is awesome is how President Obama has been RELENTLESSLY pushing Global Warming/Climate Change as an absolutely top national priority and scientific FACT on which we must act NOW, ever since he took office four years ago.
His leadership and brave advocacy in the face of the powerful fossil fuels industry and their lackeys in government has been nothing short of stunning.
His proposal for a new Global Warming Manhattan project with every bit as much urgency as the first, proves him to be a Rushmorian president, made of Lincoln log-like timber…
…oh, wait.
Nevermind…
donnah
Here in SW Ohio we had a couple of inches of snow after Christmas, and it stayed cold until this week. Now the temps are rising, it’s raining, and by the end of the week, it will be up into the mid sixties. After this, presumably more cold weather.
Result of such fluctuations? busted water lines and a bumper crop of potholes.
Maude
@Anya:
75
Yes, a camera or microphone.
Cassidy
Shorter: Blame the Nig(clang) like I do.
Ted & Hellen
@Cassidy:
Weird that you always are so eager to refer to the president as an Nig(clang). Why don’t you just go ahead and use the word, wimp?
Surely you wouldn’t be trying to deflect criticism from a legitimate issue such as his non-leadership on dealing with global warming…
RSA
@The Red Pen:
How is it that people who write such stuff don’t recognize that it sounds like an entry in the private journal of a mass murderer?
Grumpy Code Monkey
Or, in the case of places like Texas, until there’s no more water to be had. The summer of 2011 was fucking scary. I don’t live that far from Bastrop, and could see the smoke from the fires from our house. Austin sucked down half of Lake Travis, and that was just one bad season. Even though it’s rained a little more last year (and is coming down in buckets today), we’re still way behind where we should be.
I’m hoping against hope that what we’re experiencing is merely a multi-year drought like what we had in the 1950s, and not a permanent change in the local climate. Because if it is permanent…woof. Say goodbye to cotton, say goodbye to ranching, and watch the Piney Woods go up in flames.
Ohio Mom
I used to think the midwestern corn and wheat belts could just move to Canada as the climate changed but then I went to this really neat exhibit in the Chicago Natural History on life underground (it costs extra but it was worth it).
I found out that it takes eons and eons to get a good layer of topsoil going — basically, centuries and centuries of plants growing and dieing and decomposing — and since most of Canada hasn’t been especially lush, it hasn’t had enough dead vegetation decomposing over time to have built up the kind of soil you need for successful farming.
Top soil is an ecosystem, full of all sorts of micro-organisms and insects and other little critters. It’s like water and air, only so much of it on this planet and we misuse it at our peril.
Schlemizel
@Belafon:
My kid went into the Army in ’99. Before boot camp they were put into a casual company & kept busy for a few days (police for butts etc). In order to go TO boot camp you had to be able to do 10 pushups, 10 situps and get your paperwork approved by the Col. whos office was in the barracks they stayed in.
When moving day came there were several recruits left on the curb (some in tears I was told) because they could not do one or more of those 3 things. They were not allowed leave & this time did not count against their enlistment. Many should never have been allowed to enlist but numbers must be made!
Raven
@Schlemizel: hahahahahaha
pat
Don’t worry too much about the Oglalla Aquifer drying up. After the Keystone pipeline leaks a few million gallons into it, it will be pretty useless anyway.
I’ve lived all my life in Minnesota and now in Wisconsin, and damn it, I MISS WINTER!!! I want a big snow storm right now, rather than sun and blue skies and temps headed into the 40’s.
Sigh.
Schlemizel
@Jade Jordan:
YEah, after he was no longer interested in public office he gathered all that information, made that movie and gave all those lectures on the advice of his advisers – he totally has no interest in the subject.
Watch Fox News much?
Cassidy
@Ted & Hellen: I’m sorry pedobear, I’m not a bigot like you. If you’re too stupid to realize it, I’m attributing that kind of language to you. Don’t you have a fire to die in or a pedophile to defend somewhere?
Raven
@Ted & Hellen: Your mommy wake you up?
Schlemizel
@Cassidy:
Oh christ – douche & bag are back?
can’t we all agree they would eventually go away if we just ignored them? right now they are furiously whacking off because they got someone to take the bait.
Raven
@Schlemizel: Ya think she could do 10 pushups?
Schlemizel
@Raven:
Aint so funny when that is the quality of people you are stuck in a firefight in the Swat Valley.
The actual reason the boy went into SF was because he was afraid of having to count on some fat moron when it went down.
Gex
@Gex: And trust me, as a Minnesotan, I can vouch for how big a difference a sunny, warmish day can have on your mood in the winter.
Cassidy
@Schlemizel: I’m not very good at ignoring. I’m working on it.
It just got changed back to “normal”, but during the various surges and whatnot, Soldiers dind’t even have to pass the PT test to get out of Basic, just show improvement. They had to pass by the end of AIT, but we were getting kids who couldn’t or barely pass a PT test. It sucked. OTOH, we also seemed to get a lot of kids that were just in really good shape. It was weird.
Schlemizel
@Raven:
Hell at 60+ my cancer ridden body can still do 20 (not good ones but hey!). I can’t imagine trying to run a boot camp with 18 YOs unable to do 11.
Ted & Hellen
Australia is burning, and hotter than its been in recorded history.
When will the leaders of industrialized/polluting nations, President Obama among them, begin to fucking lead and do something?
Ever?
And when will Obots quit making excuses and deflecting from his complete spinelessness on this issue?
Never? Oh…
WTF?
Jay C
@RossinDetroit, Rational Subjectivist:
It’s a “fossil” behavior pattern from past generations of airline practice. As most airport gates have only a single jetway ramp, and it’s way easier to taxi an airliner into the gate nose-first and push it out, the practice of boarding the whole plane from the front left-hand door has become standard. And of course, it’s cheaper not to have to build extra jetways: passenger convenience/comfort is always the most dispensable factor in airline operations….
Schlemizel
@Cassidy:
My kid ran track, cross-country & XC sking in HS. I suspect the Army gets a good number of kids like that who are in some sort of shape. Then they get a good number of kids whos only regular workout is with their thumbs and occasionally with their right fist. Probably not a lot in between.
One of the kids DIs was a distance runner & the two of them ended up racing a lot when they ran. That guy said a lot of nice things about the kid at graduation & I think he might have cut the kid some slack in basic because of it.
Schlemizel
@Jay C:
FOllowed by maintenance and safety
Bubblegum Tate
@Schlemizel:
The wingnuts I know have been saying those things for a while now. This might be the first time they’ve ever been ahead of the talking points curve.
Ash Can
@The Red Pen:
Uh, no:
@Ohio Mom: This. People don’t realize that, through a combination of drought and unsuitable soil conditions, agriculture isn’t going to move, it’s going to be wiped out. We’re talking famine, mass starvation, population collapses, and wars over basic resources such as water and arable land.
The thing about climate change is this: Earth will be fine. Many kinds of living things will survive (they may not be our favorite plants and animals, but they’ll survive). Human beings, though, not so much. Now, if you’re a misanthrope, the idea of the collapse of Earth’s human population may not seem like such a bad thing. But don’t forget that it will entail an awful lot of innocent and powerless people, including children, suffering and dying, and that the collapse won’t happen without humanity taking a whole hell of a lot of plant and animal species out with it.
Cassidy
@Schlemizel: It was interesting. We had a number of wrestlers , I think due to the popularity of MMA, and soccer and/or cross country. Now the girls, holy shit, the new generations of females are some fucking fitness fanatics. Usually, every duty station, I was between 3-5 as fastest in my platoons, but my last unit (first support unit) had a bunch of new females and the top 5 were all girls. We’d do AGR’s and I’d be the only guy.
Violet
@Jade Jordan:
Is there such a thing as a Gorebot?
Cassidy
@Ash Can: You can’t convince them with that argument. They hoard weapons for the day society fails and imagine themselves as some sort of superhuman protector paving the way to a new society. It never occurs to them that they’ll be killed by the better armed and more ruthless or that the teeming hordes of hungry will overtake them and take their guns and food from their cold, dead hands.
jayboat
@Raven:
Yeah- the ratio is ridiculous- literally 200/1 on most boating sites I frequent. A good number of them are part of the real 1%. They don’t scare me. And since I’ve been hanging around this group I am much better prepared to slice and dice those fools. Ok, most are pretty cool people with fucked up political views. 8-]
Emma
@Violet: that’s the moment I realized the comment wasn’t worth reading.
Chris
Even in Florida, huh? I was wondering what a normal winter down here is supposed to look like (first one for me).
WaterGirl
@Beth: I wondered the same thing when I read his comment, but then I wondered… Maybe if it’s warmer you tend to get outside more, which would result in getting more sunlight.
Gindy51
@Bob h: It’s also not normal to have baby spiders hatching and mommy spiders on the snow in SE IN. I have also seen flying bugs and ants. We are going up to 58 on Saturday and it is playing havoc with the wildlife. I have one gold finch who is sporting mating plumage already!!! They aren’t supposed to even start that shit until May.
I do feeder watching for Cornell and I checked my past 15 years worth of data. Every other year this weekend has been freezing or very close to it, with some snow or ice. Not this year…
jayboat
@Betty Cracker:
Thanks Betty- haven’t seen any of those little critters but I know they have habitat all around here. I think I remember reading how the iguanas on sanibel are threatening them because they eat the eggs.
One of the very cool things about living so close to the everglades is the variety of birds here. Love to see a flock of a couple hundred white ibis working their way through the yards on the block, or a huge heron outside the kitchen door eyeing the geckos for breakfast.
A couple years ago, this magnificent creature took up residence in the neighborhood with her mate and a youngster. Every day around 5pm for several months they would set up in 3 different trees and hoot at each other. The photo was taken just outside my front door.
Which I would note, is about 200 yds from the closest boat docks. My house is maybe 3 feet above sea level at high tide.
Violet
@Emma: Yep. Made me laugh though. I mean, seriously, is there such a thing as a Gorebot? I can’t even imagine.
Steve M.
Mid-50s in NYC this weekend. I’d call it a January thaw, but there’s no snow on the ground to thaw.
Steeplejack
@Jay C:
I don’t think Ross was referring to the door so much as the order in which passengers are boarded: rows 1-10, then 11-20, etc. It would make more sense to board the last rows first and then fill to the front. You wouldn’t have people trying to clamber to their rows past previously boarded people still futzing around with the overhead bins, etc.
Steeplejack
@Cassidy:
Or that they will run out of ammunition and their rifle will become an expensive stick.
ruemara
@Ted & Hellen: You really adore Obama, don’t you? It’s just amazing how he always turns up in your posts. I’d say it was deep passion. On your part.
@Ohio Mom: This sounds like you’re predicting the death of corn chips and corn bread. I think we’ve found the issue right wingers will understand. NO MORE CORNDOGS AND CHILI TAILGATE!
The Red Pen
@Ash Can:
Ultimately, it depends on where the water moves. If it moves to “not here,” yeah, we’re screwed, but increasing temperature also increases atmospheric moisture content.
The real answer is we don’t know where it will settle, but it will be painful whatever the case.
Paul in KY
@Violet: He didn’t have enough of them back in 2000.
Anya
@Maude: haha! Funny but true.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@The Red Pen: That is hilarious. What he’s describing is a “gang”, and he seems to not be aware that every damn police force in the entire country has had specific training in hunting down and arresting gang members for several decades now, and they’ve gotten pretty fucking good at it.
And that’s just guys dealing drugs and tagging streetlights. I guarantee you, if your local gang went and capped a legislator, they’d be caught by the next morning and on death row by next year.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Hey, I saw your comment (belatedly) on the other thread Sunday and would like the information you offered on a cat tree, if you can find it.
handsmile
Bill McKibben.
Read him (Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet; The Global Warming Reader), listen to him, and get to know his organization, 350.org. At its website, there are multiple links to its projects and to McKibben’s public addresses.
http://350.org/en/node/5600
McKibben is the leading American environmental activist and 350.org is setting the pace for effective advocacy and action on global climate change. For one example, its coordinated efforts and large-scale protests in Washington in 2011-12 directly led to the Obama administration’s review of the Keystone pipeline project.
McKibben is an inspiring and deeply knowledgable speaker, with formidable media skills. He should be one of the most prominent voices in America today; grimly, I expect he will be soon.
Butch
Here in the UP (the part of Michigan that’s attached to Wisconsin) we have yet to have any sub-zero weather and it’s in the high 30s today. This weather is definitely not normal.
Forum Transmitted Disease
As to the climate, well, here in SoCal my hummingbirds are scouting nests already – this normally shouldn’t happen until March/April – and we haven’t had rainfall of any consequence since 2006.
ruemara
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_the_Obama_administration
A snippet of the Green Energy policies as of 20120.
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/11/obama_addresses_5.html
An address to the governor’s conference on global warming.
Yutsano
@jayboat: PRETTY BIRD!! Although I love just about any kind of owl.
Ted & Hellen
@ruemara:
Maybe it escaped your attention that he is the most powerful person in the world. Hard not to notice.
ruemara
@Ted & Hellen: Maybe it escaped your attention that he’s actually invested more into sustainability than anyone else in this position.
celticdragonchick
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
That depends on how big the “gang” is.
I would not want underestimate how many radicalized gun owners may be willing to actually start an insurgency, and our law enforcement is not designed to handle an armed insurgency, particularly one that could operate in independent cells across the West, Midwest and Dixie.
The military is, certainly, but if we have to start military combat operations on American soil it will almost certainly have a recruitment effect for the other side as the inevitable atrocities and accidents pile up, and the rest of us are stuck with rapidly diminishing civil liberties. Also, some degree of of desertion from the military would be expected since the military (the army especially) is conservative, Southern and tends to like firearms. You can bet that these folks and their weapons and knowledge would find their way to the insurgents.
I am not going to be laughing at these calls for civil war. We have already had one that people at the time were laughing at prior to Bull Run. Nobody was laughing 4 years later.
Raven
@jayboat: What bugs me is that this dude was a stone hippie back in the day.
AxelFoley
@Hoodie:
Well said.
AxelFoley
@Cassidy:
Ethered.
Comrade Mary
Holy shit, Betty, for a moment I thought that was another weather report from Australia where 68C would be Not Good At All.
Meanwhile, after a cold week or two we’re well above freezing in Toronto and are looking at 11C (low 50sF) on the weekend.
Yutsano
@Comrade Mary: I have a friend coming into town next weekend and we’re going to Vancouver for the day. I promised her snow up there but that doesn’t look likely now. Although Seattle is supposed to get some Saturday, but it’s been a weird winter here too.
Comrade Mary
@Yutsano: Vancouver used up all its snow for the 2010 Olympics. Sorry.
Geoduck
@Yutsano:
Tho not nearly as bad as a lot of places. We’re getting steady amounts of rain, at least. That endless sunny autumn we went through was a lot more atypical.
Jade Jordan
@Schlemizel:
Fox News is V-Chipped at my house so no one can watch it. Global warming was his 2000 campaign issue when he had plenty of advisors.
Then he built a huge energy guzzler house with no alternative energy sources, etc.
Jade Jordan
@Violet:
Yes, they are easily identified if they start all sentences about Gore stating he is fat (in reaction to the re-thugs mentioning his weight gain as a way to discredit him).
trollhattan
@Jade Jordan:
Cite, of course, and then share some relevance of where he lives with regards to his prominent role in keeping the topic alive versus the vast resources being squandered against doing anything at all to get us off carbon.
I read he flies in airplanes, also, too.
Paul in KY
@celticdragonchick: I know that as a law abiding citizen, if I saw someone committing mayhem & the police weren’t around, I’d just have to shoot them myself. I’m sure there are others who would help apprehend these dangerous criminals.
trollhattan
@PeakVT:
Frankly, it’s scary as shit and if these unusual years hit with more frequency the wheels fall off the whole agricultural industry.
Then, what?
Paul in KY
@Jade Jordan: And FDR lived in mansions & spoke about the greed of the rich. I guess he was just FOS?
trollhattan
@Geoduck:
Things are looking pretty good in California wrt snowpack so far this winter, unlike last year when folks were ice skating at Tioga Pass (elev: 9,943 ft) in Yosemite on New Year (a road typically closed by yards of snow from October/November to May/June).
It’s a “La Nada” in the Pacific at prsent, which gives little guidance to climate forecasters on how the year will proceed.
Pinkamena Panic
So, “Jade”, how much are you being paid to do this?
klem
@Emma: @Pincher:
It will be an island, in several thousand years.
Heliopause
I live in Washington State. We are almost literally the only place in America not being visited by Yahweh’s climate wrath . Might I suggest the rest of you legalize gay marriage and pot? Your luck just might improve.
Ted & Hellen
@ruemara:
Is there another person in another office of the President of the United States of whom I’m unaware?
Ruemara, none of what we discuss and bitch about here should be about Barack Obama’s personal qualities, career, and one’s level of loyalty to the same. Yet that is ALL you and your buddies ever want to make it about.
I spent eight years hating on George W. Bush. In your warped universe that makes me anti-white and prejudiced against the mentally disabled, and not sufficiently supportive of W’s political aspirations.
Get off it already.
Ted & Hellen
@trollhattan:
This is why I am so grateful Mr. Obama’s GOT THIS.
Also too: You need to MAKE HIM DO IT.
Because, apparently, he doesn’t WANT TO DO IT or some such…
trollhattan
@Ted & Hellen:
Huh?
Betty Cracker
@trollhattan: The comments sections in my local newspaper’s website are infested with scads of wingnut trolls who will use an article on virtually ANY topic to post fiery anti-Obama screeds. Doesn’t matter what the article is about — school board meetings, high school football scores, art museum exhibit announcements, gardening tips, tide tables, etc. — whatever.
Even if the topic under which these comments appear happens to be somewhat relevant, the comments will quickly veer into non-sequitur territory. That’s because they aren’t meant to be responsive to anything anyone actually says but rather satisfy some weird exhibitionist impulse.
I suspect we’re dealing with something similar here. Probably the best thing to do is either ignore it or just marvel at the scale of OCD necessary to prompt such odd behavior.
Cassidy
@Betty Cracker: It’s Obama’s fault the Gators lost.
Ted & Hellen
@Betty Cracker:
Look, Betty, the dumb act doesn’t play well on you, since you are obviously not dumb.
Obama has done next to nothing on climate change, and talked about it almost not at all since he’s been in office, which is ENTIRELY relevant to your post.
Rosie Outlook
I don’t know about Florida, but in Ohio a week to ten days of unusually warm weather can be expected every January. We call it the January thaw.
I’d be more inclined to attribute our weather last summer to global warming or climate change or whatever the term du jour is. Triple-digit heat for weeks, unusually violent storms; the January thaw is normal but a June derecho is not.
Julia Grey
You think that’s the way to make them leave you alone?
Criminal gangs hunting down civilian legislators and grabbing them off the streets. Daylight executions, Valentine’s Day Massacres, etc. Riiiiight.
Somehow, I don’t think there will be enough desertions from police SWAT teams or the National Guard to make a difference when it comes to putting an end to American murder squads of that nature.
Did someone forget to tell this fella that police organizations tend to be FOR gun control?
klem
@Rosie Outlook:
In Canada we have the same thing happen every January, and we call it “January thaw’. Coincidence? I think not!!