Thanks for putting this so well!

geesussfreek, i downvoted this video for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the alarmist rhetoric of monsieur paul, who does indeed exacerbate the already violent feelings about obama by whackos. and lets remember that monsieur paul (albeit involuntarily) spawned what is today known as the tea party.

i also felt compelled to downvote this video because of your caption about the need to get more guns and ammo. i think this is an unreasonable reaction, especially since, as volumptuous reminds us, OBAMA is actually trying to bring these things more out into the open.

>> ^volumptuous:
Wait. What American citizen has Obama assassinated?
And if I remember correctly, not only has Obama signed documents over a year ago to close GITMO, but he's also pushing for criminal trials of terrorists. But, it's the congress that is holding this shit up, not Obama.
So, maybe Dr.Paul here needs to have a R3VOLUTION to push these things forward. Not just give a fucking speech on an empty house floor.

winston , no there has not been a period since we have been able to measure it , or in ANY historical sample that has carbon ppm as high as it is now . That's in 400,000 years.

Go back further. This is one of the key problems with the many flawed "global warming" models that people are trying to pass off as science. Why only look 400,000 years back? If you are going to do a comprehensive analysis then you have to look at the entire record. Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic... In the past, atmosphereic C02 levels have been as high as 4,000+ PPM. TEN TIMES the current measley 380 PPM. When you look at the whole record, our current C02 levels are at a very low point.

Now - the way global warming alarmists discuss C02 you would think that at 10X the C02 levels our planet would be a wasteland of acidified oceans, baking deserts, and inhospitable wastes. Pht. Those periods of time were points where earth had far greater variety in plant and animal life and far more of earth's surface could sustain life. So why are global warming alarmists so all-fired paranoid about the relatively tiny increase from the LOW point of 280 PPM to a miniscule 390 PPM?

The only thing that is political in this movement is that studied observation may lead the way to better governance

The carbon taxes they want to impose would amount to one of the largest (if not THE largest) transfers of wealth to government in all of human history. Literally trillions of unaccountable dollars will be pouring into world governments all supposedly to 'fix' global warming. And you are trying to say that this isn't political? This is a cash grab, and they are getting useful idiots to play along by making the scientific community their little dancing monkeys in a game of modern-day patronage. When you follow the money trail, all these so-called 'climate studies' are bought and paid for by governments who winnow the results to get the scary headlines they need to spook the slow-witted and gullible into happily giving up their freedoms.

And government doesn't have to do squat except rake in the free money. They can't influence C02 levels any more than they can stop the sun, but they'll take your trillions of dollars - thanks. It is simple matter of Return on Investment. Is there ANY possibility that trillions of dollars going into government will in any way move the dial? There is no evidence that it will do a blessed thing. Therefore, why should we give up trillions to accomplish nothing except make paranoid people feel better about themselves? If you want to feel better about yourself then just go plant a tree and keep out of everyone's wallet.

>> ^Winstonfield_Pennypacker:
"Awww - our alarmist message was just a hoax... Sure wish it was REAL..."


The point is that the words on the page were scientific based facts.

The hoax was that a shitty sensational rag like the Post would publish something rational and founded in scientific research.

I was disappointed to see it was a hoax to be honest.

This pretty perfectly describes the environmental movement. "Awww - our alarmist message was just a hoax... Sure wish it was REAL..."

Prudence is advised

Yes - and as usual with most neolib movements - the 'prudence' must take the form of massive government spending, taxes, and restrictions on personal freedom. All to address a problem that hasn't actually happened, may never happen, and that can't be solved by government spending anyway.

I watched this last night. Incredible camera work. Devastating case for climate change. But at the same time not alarmist. See it in its entirety at http://www.youtube.com/user/homeproject.

syncron, you might be right about that. Still, I applaud Google's efforts to cause international incidents with their crazy alarmist translations.

http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&tl=en#zh-CN|en|%E5%A4%96%E5%9C%8B%E7%99%BC%E7%8F%BE%E4%B8%8D%E6%98%8E%E6%81%90%E6%80%96%E7%94%9
F%E7%89%A9%E9%AB%94%2C%E7%96%91%E7%82%BA%E8%AE%8A%E7%95%B0%E6%89%80%E8%87%B4%0A

This is my favorite summation of Atlas Shrugged:

deleted dialogue

Roarke: You put balconies on my design?

Keating: I had to, besides, the tennants wanted them.

Roarke: The tenants?? Fuck the tenants, this is about me.

*****

It's been years since I read it, and I liked it at the time (the only book of hers I've ever read), but I remember looking it over again and seeing how alarmist and ultimately selfish it really was.

Continue by interrupting peop----

----Oh, there's climate change, all right. It's just not caused by kite flying or whatever new excuse the alarmists come up with every week.

By the way, are we on the 5th or 6th "point of no return" for the "climate crisis"?

And here's your quarter.

All the panicy plague outbreaks I can remember. Ebola, Lhasa Fever, BSE, the list goes on. And the media stance always is "We don't want to scare anybody but BOOGIEBOOGIEBOO!". The outbreaks are clearly tragic for the people involved and the public should be informed but lets keep the alarmist panicmongering to a realistic minimum please?

Yeah, we were alarmist about George W. Bush.

And we were fucking right about it, too.

Is anyone actually scared of Fox News and Glenn Beck? I don't want to sound like an alarmist but I'm actually beginning to feel that way. A bunch of angry and armed people kind of frightens me.

I dunno I just feel happy I don't have any Obama Bumper Stickers right now. I have a bad feeling it won't be long before people start shooting people for something like that.

I understand what both of you are saying. I think you are speaking a bit at cross purposes.

Fearmongering means selling via fear. That's it, and I am pretty sure we all agree that this PSA does that. What there is disagreement about is if the fear is factual, justified, and benevolent. I think Blankfist is saying two things: it is selling via fear, and it is alarmist. I think what the other people are saying is that whether or not it is selling via fear, it is realistic.

I don't know the answer to whether or not it is realistic, but I suspect the British Ad Council equivalent wouldn't waste money on it if it weren't a problem.

(I didn't' wear a safety belt until I was in my twenties, and I was never hurt in an auto accident, but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous. Hell, I've never been hurt by a drunk driver, but statistics say it is still an important social problem.)

I don't see how this can be called extremist/alarmist...

He's dead on the money though, people don't think this will happen because they don't want it to happen.

Some atheists (not all) are the 'gun control' freaks of the philosophical world. Religion is too dangerous. Some people do too much harm with it. Therefore to prevent the harms, they want to remove religion from people. Supposedly that'll fix it, right?

Some individuals misuse religion. This is true. But such persons would misuse any tool or philosophy. Confining the argument to religon is a biased position to take when there are countless other political, social, financial, or other organizations that also influence people negatively.

The 'ban religion' proponents also damage thier credibility by grossly exaggerating the perceived 'harms' of religions, while studiously ignoring the many good things. Religions teach people to behave better, feel remorse, repent, change thier lives, treat others with charity, and improve the world. To ignore substantive 'good' and focus only on the 'bad' is the hallmark of a lazy argument borne out of ignorance, fear, prejudice, or hatred - and makes some atheists come across as alarmist demagogues rather than serious advocates.

And finally the entire 'take the bad away and you solve the problem' argument is a non-sequiter. Take the religion from people and human beings will still harm, maim, kill, butcher, oppress, be intolerant, and otherwise be jerks to thier fellow men. It isn't the religion. It is the PEOPLE. Take away the religion, and the jerks in the population will find some other avenue, excuse, motive, or organization to nurture their jerkiness.

Anti religion zealots are fighting the wrong battle. Instead of banning religions, you should join with them to encourage thier positive aspects and minimize the negatives. Working WITH religions and teaching more people to magnify thier positive aspects is far more likely to improve the world than any attempt to 'ban' a philosophy you personally dislike. You may feel religious motivation to do good is superstitious, outmoded, anachronistic humbuggery, but if your ultimate goal is 'better people' the trappings of religious creeds should be irrelevant to you.

If your goal is NOT 'better people' but 'I wanna wipe out religion cuz IhateitIhateitIhateit!' then that is another matter entirely...

First, did I just upvote a QM comment?

Second, I don't think legalization will happen any time soon across all states. The police and DEA have too much funding created fighting the war on drugs and sustains alot of people, these are the same people who happen to be in government and they wouldn't be too happy losing their jobs over what they will claim will just make our children high, destroy society and instigate more crime. The usual alarmist bullshit.

But you know. Know hope.