An irrefutable argument from climate-change deniers
UPDATE: Under harsh criticism, the Heartland Institute has now decided to end its billboard program.
The Heartland Institute describes itself as “a leading source of science and economics questioning claims that man-made global warming is a crisis.” And it’s true, as far as such things go: In the universe of climate-change deniers, Heartland is as close to mainstream as the movement gets.
This is how Heartland has chosen to participate in the debate regarding “science and economics.”
According to Heartland, this is planned as part of a series of such billboards. Additional stars will be Charles Manson and perhaps Osama bin Laden. And if you want to know why Heartland has chosen to feature such people on its billboards, it has thoughtfully provided an answer:
“Because what these murderers and madmen have said differs very little from what spokespersons for the United Nations, journalists for the “mainstream” media, and liberal politicians say about global warming….”
Most scientists and 60 percent of the general public (in the U.S.) do not believe man-made global warming is a problem. The people who still believe in man-made global warming are mostly on the radical fringe of society. This is why the most prominent advocates of global warming aren’t scientists. They are murderers, tyrants, and madmen.”
If I may paraphrase Heartland’s argument, sane people shouldn’t want anything to do with people who have gone off the deep end, are truly nutty, have lost all sense of proportion and decency and say and do preposterous things.
I think they have a point.
– Jay Bookman
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334 comments Add your comment
They BOTH suck
May 4th, 2012
5:09 pm
“Just had a summer cold (spring cold?). Thing is I rarely get sick so I become a BIG baby when I do.”
I must admit……………. that is me for sure
I’m a pu$$ when I get sick…… rarely do, but one would thing I’m about to check out
josef
May 4th, 2012
5:10 pm
ZamVet
Just mauo, but one of the worst things to ever befall the educational system in this country was when we moved away from those two-room schools…
I'm a "con" and a vet. STOP SPITTING ON ME!!! (That Black Guy)
May 4th, 2012
5:12 pm
JamVet
May 4th, 2012
5:02 pm
tc, we did, but we also had an outhouse!
I went to a two room school until the seventh grade!
_________________________________________________________________________
If I said we had to use a porcelain pot in the winter because it was too cold to go to the outhouse, would that make me country, old, or both?
Towncrier
May 4th, 2012
5:13 pm
“I yearn to know truth deeper and deeper and I am too old, and have limited time left, to care to spend that time researching many politcal blog sites – of either the right or the left – simply to prove how objective and balanced I am in my analysis. Some may get at truths through mathematical statistics. And that is a valuable way to arrive at truth. But there are other ways of arriving at truths. That is why I blog here. I think I have something to offer that is unique.”
Mary, thanks for the lengthy response and for sharing your worldview. To answer your question somewhat, I am a full generation behind you in age. I, like you, do not spend an inordinate amount of time acquainting myself with all of the political arguments being made daily on both the left and right. And, like you, I am a seeker of truth. But I am guided in that search mostly by reason, evidence and principles. I believe in an objective reality and agree that most of us have a blurred vision of it more often that not. I like to say we are, all of us, idiot savants on this earth. Jesus likened us to sheep, which are very lovable animals but (embarrassingly) rather dumb as well. I desire to be humble but often am not. I am working on that. I would say I see things much more black and white than you do, but I know that the color spectrum has many, many hues that are divided up differently by different cultures. I think some things are right or wrong but many other things are neither – they have no moral component.
I look forward to reading more of your thoughts.
Old Goober
May 4th, 2012
5:16 pm
My all-time favorite blooper was one that appeared in the Rome (GA) News-Tribune about 30 years ago:
MAN SHOT AND KILLED THREE TIMES
Towncrier
May 4th, 2012
5:20 pm
“Hiding from each other in wheat fields, walking down the railroad tracks, looking for rattle snakes and horny toads, bailing hay and screaming down two lane highways in a kickass GTO listening to Grand Funk!”
It is easy to sometimes think those were the best times of our lives, huh JV? I remember Grand Funk – I really like their version of Gimme Shelter. And my father owned a 6 cylinder DOHC Lemans Sprint with a Holley 4 barrel carburetor on it sporting 230 HP and weighing only 3,000 lbs (it was called the little “goat”). I was too young to ever drive it, but would always enjoy getting my neck snapped back when the 4 barrel kicked it.
Towncrier
May 4th, 2012
5:22 pm
“If I said we had to use a porcelain pot in the winter because it was too cold to go to the outhouse, would that make me country, old, or both?”
I think it would make you candid
Towncrier
May 4th, 2012
5:25 pm
“My all-time favorite blooper was one that appeared in the Rome (GA) News-Tribune about 30 years ago: MAN SHOT AND KILLED THREE TIMES”
I heard they had a problem with zombies back then. Thanks for that.
Fred Flintstone
May 4th, 2012
5:25 pm
Frog 4:20
I asked the NPS that exact question
There is a plan
People get evacuated
Animals die
Then lots of praying that a nuclear winter doesn’t happen
Old Goober
May 4th, 2012
5:28 pm
Just mauo, but one of the worst things to ever befall the educational system in this country was when we moved away from those two-room schools…
Agree. My first six grades were in a converted WWII army barracks—1st & 2nd in one room with pot-belly stove, 3rd & 4th in a 2nd room with pot-belly stove, 5th & 6th in a 3rd room with pot-belly stove. Beyond that, the combined jr. high and high school had no class larger than 25. Every teacher knew your name, and every adult living in the area knew your name. There was a lot of learning going on there. My small graduating class of 17 eventually produced 3 PhDs, 1 MA, and 6 BA/BS degrees in addition.
I genuinely believe we’ve made a huge mistake by WalMarting our schools for the sake of a pathetically small tax savings.
Dr. Pangloss
May 4th, 2012
5:34 pm
Hitler wore socks. If you wear socks, you’re guilty of genocide.
Mary Elizabeth
May 4th, 2012
5:34 pm
Towncrier, 5:13
Thank you for your substantive and revealing response, Towncrier. I feel as if I know you with more depth now, too, and I look forward to future exchanges with you. Have a nice weekend.
Al Bore
May 4th, 2012
6:17 pm
Get ahead of the curve.
The new denier is any of us who doesn’t know that the vast majority of us are all former believers, AND liberal.
Pollution is real; death by CO2 was not so be happy a crisis was averted because it was exaggerated. Exaggeration is not a crime. Science gave us the pesticides that poisoned the planet in the first place. Climate change was a consultant’s wet dream come true. We don’t have to condemn our children anymore to a CO2 death.
Planet Lover
May 4th, 2012
6:18 pm
“Vote for us or your kids die in a CO2 he!!” Just who was the neocon here? We taught people to fear the planet, not love the planet.
Climate change was not about kids planting trees or energy or forests or…..it was a 26 year old “CO2 death threat” to the voter’s children and their children and we still expect voters to vote for us now? Climate change was a curse to the voter.
“global warming is the greatest threat to the planet” -Earth Hour / IPCC
Sure, keep condemning the voter’s children to the greenhouse gas ovens if you really want neocons to stay in power forever.
Planet Lover
May 4th, 2012
6:20 pm
Sure, keep condemning the voter’s children to the greenhouse gas ovens if you really want neocons to stay in power forever.
An irrefutable argument from climate-change deniers – Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) | Global Warming Defense
May 4th, 2012
6:57 pm
[...] Original Post By Google News Atlanta Journal Constitution (blog) [...]
Curtis Rivers
May 4th, 2012
8:26 pm
Interesting. In the same way all forms of willful ignorance are interesting. Denial of scientific evidence which is supported by over 95 % of all climate scientists across the world and nearly all major governments is willful ignorance, and some people just like to revel in the fact that they have chosen to be ignorant.
Maximum
May 4th, 2012
9:22 pm
The fool who self-identifies as “Ty Webb” (an insult to Caddyshack that implies he inherited his money and doesn’t work for a living) is gay for ignorance.
TGT
May 4th, 2012
10:51 pm
YES!! Let’s make global warming (along with same-sex marriage) an election issue! Only problem is, it continues to poll as the least pressing issue among the electorate (at least anytime there is an election looming).
For over three decades the left has beat this ridiculous drum, and more and more Americans (as well as those in the scientific community) are tuning them out. But by all means, keep it up!
TGT
May 4th, 2012
11:45 pm
Unlike liberals and the issue of man-made global warming, conservatives have made significant political progress (at the federal and state level) with abortion. Of course, it helps when one has legitimate (observable, repeatable) science and sound moral ground upon which to make ones case.
Maximum
May 5th, 2012
12:24 am
TGT thinks the so-called Right’s anti-science agenda is healthy for America’s future. Maybe you and the Pope can get together to discuss whether Galileo should be punished for his scientific observations about planetary orbits.
The Gov has no Money!
May 5th, 2012
7:50 am
So, what is the best temperature for the Earth? If anyone knows, then please gives us the number so we can get to it. Then this issue will go away.
Maximum
May 5th, 2012
8:24 am
If ignorance is bliss, Republicans must be deliriously happy.
Rockwell
May 5th, 2012
8:27 am
It is comments like this from libturds that make me laugh EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Almost all the world’s leading climatologists agree that we humans are mainly responsible for global warming. – carlosgvv
You turds are absolute nut jobs. Please provide proof. I can’t wait to see that. Libs don’t contribute much to society, but we need to keep them around just for the comedy they provide.
TGT
May 5th, 2012
8:40 am
The Right’s “anti-science agenda?!” HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Nothing in the scientific arena is as well documented as life in the womb. We can measure and observe virtually every event from conception until birth, yet, in their lust to keep abortion legal, liberals continue to ignore the plain reality (and morality) in this matter.
Real science does no favors for the homosexual movement either. Despite no real evidence, for nearly 20 years now we’ve been told that homosexuality is a genetic and unchangeable behavior—that people are born gay. What real science does reveal is that homosexuality is a rather unhealthy and quite dangerous lifestyle:
According to the CDC, gay and bisexual men account for more than 60 percent of all syphilis cases, and more than 82 percent of all known sexually-transmitted AIDS cases in 2006 were the result of male-to-male sexual contact. During its 2010 National STD Prevention Conference, the CDC revealed that the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women. Also, the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men and more than 71 times that of women.
According to Kevin Fenton, M.D., director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention, “While the heavy toll of HIV and syphilis among gay and bisexual men has been long recognized, this analysis shows just how stark the health disparities are between this and other populations.” In late 2010, a CDC study revealed that 1 in 5 gay men in U.S. cities has HIV.
Also occurring at a much higher rate among MSM are gonorrhea, various forms of hepatitis, and anal and genital warts. In 2007 the Los Angeles Times reported the frequency of methamphetamine use is 20 times greater among MSM than in the general population. What’s more, homosexuals have a twenty-five to thirty-year decrease in life expectancy and a much higher than usual incidence of suicide.
Yet the Right is “anti-science?!” Laughable.
TaxPayer
May 5th, 2012
9:29 am
Yes, the Right is “anti-science.” And yes, we laugh at them.
Angel Martin
May 5th, 2012
11:01 am
If the shoe fits . . .
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/05/03/has-the-crutem4-data-been-fiddled-with/#more-62667
Angel Martin
May 5th, 2012
11:08 am
Curtis my man -
The figure usually cited is “97% climate scientist consensus on AGW”, not 95%. But the statistic is b.s. No legitimate poll of climate scientists has ever been conducted, so we don’t actually know what percent of them buy into the AGW hypothesis.
http://climatequotes.com/2011/02/10/study-claiming-97-of-climate-scientists-agree-is-flawed/
Rockwell
May 5th, 2012
11:44 am
Curtis,
Denial of scientific evidence which is supported by over 95 % of all climate scientists across the world
And I am sure you have proof of that statement, correct. ‘Cause….if not, then that would just be pulling a number out of your arse.
datsneefa
May 5th, 2012
12:44 pm
Hey its their money
Is it? The heartland Institute is funded by 19 public companies, and also a bunch of Republican donators.
thing is when I go pay for a Pepsi, my Pfizer medication, my AT&T bill, my Time Warner Cable bill, those companies take a portion of my payment and use it to call me a terrorist?
the CEO’s of all these companies should be publicly flogged for supporting Heartland
TGT
May 5th, 2012
2:05 pm
Because you say so, right TaxPayer? (Were you laughing after the 2010 flogging the Democrats received?)
TGT
May 5th, 2012
5:05 pm
I see where Kyle has straightened out Bookman’s April 25th column (http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/2012/04/25/british-deploy-gops-economic-plan-return-to-recession/) on Britain (and the rest of Europe) when it comes to cuts vs. spending. Nice job Wingfield!
Joseph
May 5th, 2012
6:59 pm
Its hillarious that Bookman continues to spew about issues people don’t care about while ignoring the fact that we have a failed President….
Adam
May 7th, 2012
10:07 am
Rockwell: So you’re asking for proof of consensus? Or are you asking for proof that humans are the major cause? Because both are easy to prove, if you believe in evidence based criteria rather than “I have already made up my mind” criteria.