WIP

Seems like the spin cycle in the climate denial laundryroom is working at high speed these days.

Even the other points you mentioned about the decline into fundamentalism in much of the Muslim World cannot be separated from the effects of Western occupation and continued economic colonization. On the cultural front, the retreat into fundamentalism cannot be separated from prurient aspects of western capitalism -- they are subjected to the same tactics advertisers use over here to turn us into impulsive, neurotic consumers by using images of sex and danger to motivate us to buy. But, they make no distinction between us and our corporate class that use the mind manipulators on Madison Avenue to screw us up. It's all lumped together in the category of western, foreign degenerates. But, I have heard and read from a number of Islamic scholars who point out that today's Salafists, Wahabbis and similar movements to turn the clock back to the golden age when their prophet walked the Earth, are also going back to a myth that never existed, just like today's fundamentalist Christians have created a new kind of Christianity that did not exist in the 1st century.....or until about 150 years ago for that matter! I think there is a new mythological interpretation of history being created now, based on the idea that The Enlightenment ushered in a golden age for humanity and freed us from religious oppression of the past. Even if we go back to the inquisitions and purges of Jews in Europe, and the wars between the Catholics and new protestant religions that started, we can see that the motivations were not all based on religious creed. Why did it take until the time of Martin Luther before Germans in the Holy Roman Empire felt the need to burn down all of the synagogues and expel the Jews from Europe? If you're going to blame Christianity for the Nazis and the Klan, how do you feel about fundamentalist apologists like Dennis Prager or William Lane Craig blaming the genocides of Stalin and Mao on being atheists? Atheist apologists like Christopher Hitchens used to argue up and down that they weren't motivated by their atheism; so how does the argument that the religious tyrant committed genocide because of his religion actually work? Seems like he has created his own religion apparently!

Look at the recent data, like Jeff Masters has in the most recent post on Sandy at Weather Underground, and there's no case to argue that Sandy is not so unusual that it is a harbinger of a more difficult and dangerous future lying ahead of us. As he points out, this hurricane occurred so late in the season, and the waters in the Atlantic were so warm for this late in the year, that a hurricane was able to maintain its force and combine with what is essentially an early winter storm. And that blocking front coming off the North Atlantic is also a sign of things to come in a world where the Arctic Ocean is melting away. Seems like a lot of Republicans (like Chris Christie) have changed their tune now on that one! Reagan, the great salesman, was able to sell selfishness as a virtue by using tropes like that one. Everyone in America at the time knew that his real target was white resentment in middle class, mostly immigrant white factory workers (The Reagan Democrats) who did not see themselves as benefiting from government programs, and among themselves, weren't shy about stating that their taxes were going to support lazy blacks. What happened over the last 30 or so years, is that the Reagan Democrats reaped a field of thorns for their greed and animosity, and ended up(or their children ended up) being dumped out of the middle class when Reagan's other great ideas like union-busting and free trade agreements to enable the outsourcing of industry, started to take effect! I guess karma is a bitch! Because there are so many examples where people follow the siren calls of greed, fear and resentment when making political choices end up making their own lives much worse!

For the record, most gay men do not prey on children or teenage boys, but mostly pair up with men in their own age group....similar to most straight guys do not prey on 16 year old girls. The core problem is the high expectations put on priests - where they are commanded to live sexless lives whether they are gay or straight. My guess would be that while sexual offender-priests might be the minority, the number of priests who have actually followed that vow of life without sex are probably even a smaller minority of the priesthood. The number one problem for the Catholic Church and other patriarchal religions is they want the wrong kind of person for the job in the first place! If you consider that, aside from the Sunday services, most of the priest or minister's work during the week could be described as social work; it is a role that....based on the odds is better performed by a woman or a large number of gay men, but NOT very many typical, average men. So, the Catholic Church is looking for masculine, heterosexual men who are willing to live the rest of their lives as eunuchs! Any wonder why there is a shortage of priests?

The numbers are complete bullshit when the Obama Administration sets a guideline that any male - 16 and over who is killed in a drone attack, is classified as a combatant, not a civilian! Why not just bomb whole cities and say that there were no civilian casualties? But, maybe they're already heading in that direction, and it's not good to give them any ideas.

Some atheists, not all! I for one, will continue to refuse to take the bait from religious fanatics like Mr. Nationalist, and join his little rally against the Muslims. If anything, I will extend to them greater benefit of doubt than I do for his brand of Christian theocrats because I can clearly see that our homegrown religious extremists are far more powerful, and have greater access to power, than the other competing brand over there...mostly in third world countries that we try to control through proxy dictators and extract their oil and other natural resources.....any chance that could be the wellspring of angry, anti-Western Islamic fundamentalists? Do you have any evidence....for any of this?? Seems like you are putting too much credence in agency of ideas and concepts as the sole motivating factors. The recent phenomena of Muslim suicide bombers is just that - a recent manifestation! The first instances of suicide attacks started with Tamil rebels against the Sinhalese Buddhist majority in Sri Lanka....not Hamas or Al Qaeda etc. I've heard a few psychologists offer up the observation that the desire to commit suicide attacks is motivated by personal desires for revenge combined with feelings of powerlessness....sort of like the suicide attacker feels their own personal lives have been destroyed and their futures obliterated, so a final act of revenge looks extremely enticing.....check out the "Black Widows" - the Chechnyan women who lost their husbands when the Russians slaughtered whatever all of the resistance forces that were fighting a guerilla war against Russian Occupation. And if I can learn about this, why the hell can't Sam Harris figure it out? Since he has his doctorate in neuroscience now. Instead, he makes stupid statements connecting Muslims with desiring death, and almost half of all Christians in America looking forward to an atomic bomb going off in the Holy Land, because he read a poll that 44% of Americans believe Jesus's 2nd Coming will occur in the near future.

I guess you're right there! Evolution has nothing to do with beliefs in a designer of the Universe, or life-after-death concepts. We could go back to the Brain In A Vat example that everything we see, hear, touch and feel is an illusion generated to fool the senses; but what is the point of that....or the modern day version - The Matrix? Since there are patterns in nature, and phenomena that can have reliably predicted results, I would rather categorize what is likely true from what is highly unlikely.....and I can't think of anything more highly unlikely than some creationist theory explaining the fossil record or the correlations in DNA found by comparing human and animal genomes. Heaven and hell depend on us having an inner essence that is the real source of our mental experiences and lives on after we die. The growing body of knowledge on brain function leaves no room for a soul to function or to be necessary, regardless of some who claim to have left their bodies (which is actually an illusion created when visual and touch senses provide conflicting information), so that is highly unlikely. When it comes to living in a designed universe: I haven't seen anything beyond appeals to the mysteries and gaps in our present knowledge....so I have doubt. Whereas those who believe in God of some sort, do not have anything conclusive to show me as objective evidence, but they still believe anyway....so they have faith. My objection is to the use of this issue as some sort of litmus test by the religionists to judge the moral character of unbelievers, and those trying to create a secular religion based on humanism for judging the intellectual capabilities of the believers. So, we don't have anything conclusive to determine what this universe is, how many other universes exist, how they come into existence, and that ultimate decision which way to lean on the God question is a personal question based on faith or doubt. That doesn't seem like something that should be used for a dividing line....but many people use whatever they think will be useful.

Exactly how many secret trade deals are Harper and his fellow plutocrat-enablers working on right now? It wasn't that long ago that I first learned that secret talks were going on with the TransPacific Partnership(where only approved political apparatchiks and corporate spokesmen are allowed), and now we have the same thing going on in a bilateral deal with China! Since the public has been ignored and disregarded once again by the Harper Regime, the only avenue left to voice opposition to the sellout of Canadian resources is to add your name to the petition here: http://leadnow.ca/ca...t-for-sale?t=hp

I've posted on this topic off and on, but I haven't even attempted to keep track of 77 pages so far. It just strikes me as ironic, considering the superstorm that has blasted through the eastern U.S. and done billions of dollars worth of damage, that this thread is titled "Climate scientists keep getting it wrong." Whatever they've got wrong, it doesn't compare to what the oil lobby and their political hacks have gotten wrong! Mitten's speech at the Republican Convention, mocking Obama for showing even a tepid concern for rising sea levels looks like words he may be eating on election day! Right now he and his budget expert - Paul Ryan, are busy trying to explain how their proposed cuts to FEMA would not compromise the kind of relief efforts that will be needed for some time in New York, New Jersey and other affected states.

Considering the foibles of human reasoning abilities that we are learning - thanks to neuroscience and cognitive psychology - are even worse than previously suspected, why should it be expected....even as a hypothetical, that everyone on Earth should share the same "correct" metaphysical answers to all the big questions? Many evangelical atheists advance a theory that everyone will be more satisfied with life, the more accurate their beliefs are....but there is no evidence to provide for support of this claim! While on the other side, today's Christian fundamentalists fully embrace historically anti-Christian thinking like their social darwinist economic theories, and American fundies in particular, added the extreme nationalist concept called "American Exceptionalism" where the creator of the Universe has supposedly favoured their nation (and Israel also according to Christian Zionists). And yet, if I open the Bible, I can find books such as the one later named "Matthew," which informs Christians that their salvation depends on what they do, not what they believe.....at least if we use the parable of the sheep and goats found in Matthew 25 as the litmus test for salvation: 34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ 37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ 41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ 46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Hmmmm, so where do all the good social darwinist Christians like Paul Ryan go?

No; and I'm suspecting your board is not compatible with the latest edition of Firefox updates......old topics I posted on more than six months and a year ago show up, but the recent tabs - one month and more recent, are blank. The net result is I am going to lose track of a lot of topics I've posted to since I don't really want to change browsers! I'm comfortable with Firefox...totally hate I.E., and never got comfortable with Google Chrome....and I really don't want to give Google one more tool to use me to add to their billions!

You have just informed us as to why there are so many gay priests who take great interest in young teenage boys! I'm just glad that most Catholics are not walking, talking automatons who regurgitate every stupid idea that the Vatican hands down from on high! All of your finger pointing at Muslims shows that you condemn their religion for the same behaviour as Christian fundamentalists. Didn't Jesus have a parable or something about the hypocrisy of pointing out faults in others without considering one's own faults? I'll have to check my bible again....I'm sure it's there somewhere.

I concur that this thread could have started with a more current example that connects increasingly unstable and hazardous weather with climate change. Right now, I'm sure everyone who has been online over the last 48 hours has heard of Hurricane Sandy barreling up the eastern seaboard of the United States. Most climate model forecasts project a landfall somewhere between Virginia and Massachusetts, sometime early Tuesday morning. Andrew Freeman's entry at Climate Central and Jeff Master's just posted an update a half hour ago at Weather Underground. All those who think climate change is not important....or at least not as important as sucking the last drops of oil out of the ground take note! Every other meteorologist I have heard talk about the coming storm over the last day or so are also in agreement that this storm would have just drifted out to sea towards the mid-Atlantic, and only been a threat to shipping if it wasn't for this Northeastern blocking front coming from Greenland and the Arctic. For every idiot who says....the Arctic Ocean has been ice free in the past, and there will be more benefits than costs with open sea lanes and exploitation of resources....here's a big, unforeseen reason why melting the Arctic Ocean wasn't a good idea! After this year's record ice melt, all that open water up there was able to absorb more energy from the Sun, and it should come as no surprise that this is the strongest of these blocking fronts so far....which have been becoming more common as the Arctic Ocean has progressively declined over the last 40 years. Typically, such a jet stream setup would help sweep a tropical storm or hurricane out to sea before it could threaten the U.S. However, in this case, the weather pattern across the Atlantic is boxing Sandy in as if it were facing a giant sea of bumper cars. A massive dome of high pressure near the Canadian Maritimes and Greenland, along with a storm in the Central Atlantic, are likely to combine to deflect Sandy back toward the U.S., according to most computer-model simulations run during the past 24 hours. Recent studies have shown that blocking patterns have appeared with greater frequency and intensity in recent years, which some scientists think may be related to the loss of Arctic sea ice as a result of global warming. The 2012 sea ice melt season, which just ended one month ago, was extreme, with sea ice extent, volume, and other measures all hitting record lows. The loss of sea ice opens large expanses of open water, which absorbs more of the incoming solar radiation and adds heat and moisture to the atmosphere, thereby helping to alter weather patterns. Exactly how weather patterns are changing as a result, however, is a subject of active research. While it is not unusual to have a high pressure area near Greenland, its intensity is striking for this time of year. As Jason Samenow of the Capital Weather Gang wrote on Wednesday, the North Atlantic Oscillation, which helps measure this blocking flow, "is forecast to be three standard deviations from the average — meaning this is an exceptional situation." Hurricane Sandy may be an example of what can happen when a blocking pattern that may have been supercharged by sea ice loss occurs at just the wrong time — when a hurricane happens to be moving up the Eastern Seaboard. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/east-coast-facing-major-threat-from-hurricane-sandy-15157 So far, Jeff Masters is putting the odds...based on the latest GFS model, that there is a 20% chance that the predicted maximum 8 ft. storm surge will breach the five foot barriers protecting lower Manhattan. If New York dodges another bullet this time....like last year, how much longer will it be before the ticking timebomb goes off? Enjoy your climate change denial!: Sandy's storm surge may flood New York City's subway system, costing billions Sandy is expected to have tropical storm-force winds that extend out more than 400 miles from the center, which will drive a much larger storm surge than its peak winds would ordinarily suggest. The full moon is on Monday, which means astronomical tides will be among the highest of the month, increasing potential storm surge flooding. Fortunately, Sandy is now predicted to make a fairly rapid approach to the coast, meaning that the storm surge will not affect the coast for multiple high tide cycles. If Sandy hits near New York City, as the GFS model predicts, the storm surge will be capable of overtopping the flood walls in Manhattan, which are only five feet above mean sea level. On August 28, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene brought a storm surge of 4.13' to Battery Park on the south side of Manhattan. The waters poured over the flood walls into Lower Manhattan, but came 8 - 12" shy of being able to flood the New York City subway system. However, the town of Lindenhurst (population 28,000), on the south side of Long Island, was mostly under water due to the storm surge, and fresh water run-off from Irene's torrential rains, riding on top of a 3 to 4-foot storm surge, allowed the swollen East and Hudson Rivers to overflow at the edges of Manhattan. New York was not as lucky on December 12, 1992, when a 990 mb Nor'easter drove an 8-foot storm surge into Battery Park, flooding the NYC subway and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) train systems in Hoboken New Jersey. FDR Drive in lower Manhattan was flooded with 4 feet of water, which stranded more than 50 cars and required scuba divers to rescue some of the drivers. Mass transit between New Jersey and New York was down for ten days, and the storm did hundreds of millions in damage to the city. The highest water level recorded at the Battery in the past century came in September 1960 during Hurricane Donna, which brought a storm surge of 8.36 feet to the Battery and flooded lower Manhattan to West and Cortland Streets. According to the latest storm surge forecast for NYC from the experimental Extratropical Storm Surge model, run by NOAA"s Meteorological Development Laboratory, Sandy's storm surge may be higher than Irene's, and has the potential to flood New York City's subway system (Figure 4.) The amount of water will depend critically upon whether or not the peak storm surge arrives at high tide or not. If the peak surge arrives near Monday evening's high tide near 9 pm EDT, a portion of New York City's subway system could flood, resulting in billions of dollars in damage. I give a 20% chance that Sandy's storm surge will end up flooding a portion of the New York City subway system. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html

I agree, and from my own pov as a naturalist, I do not care much about what various religious believers profess to believe, as much as I am interested in how they act on those beliefs. So, nothing could make me happier than if all the people who claim to be 'Bible-believing-Christians' actually acted like they apply their spiritual beliefs in everyday life!

I haven't looked it up recently, but the last time I heard, I believe it was 7 times. And, unlike average Americans, Trump was able to use the rules of corporate personhood to protect his own personal estate from ending up in bankruptcy sale. The point I made earlier regarding the controversy surrounding his real net worth is that many former investors were brought into some of his real estate, hotel and casino deals in handshake deals between friends, just under the presumption that Trump was a billionaire and had a real knowledge of business that went beyond bluster and bullshit. Considering that Trump was another one of those trust fund baby billionaires, who were born into a life of wealth and privilege, and used money they already had to make more money. It's possible that Trump has a net worth today that's actually less than what he inherited.

Did you get anything? The point is that nothing shows up under New Content from my computer.

Considering all the work Republicans are doing at the state and local levels to disenfranchise blacks, latinos, students, and other demographics who vote Democrat, what is the real margin of support Obama and many senators will need to actually win in the polling booth against a Republican? Especially if they are voting with a machine made by the company that was recently bought out by Mitt's son - Taggert!

Harper also claimed to support cap and trade four years ago.....or is that okay because everyone...friend and foe knew a Harper Government represents oil before all else! The fact that Jack Layton used this issue as a political chit to attack the Liberals and propose a slightly different cap and trade scheme than Harper made me realize that all the major parties considered the environment just one more issue to play political games with. As soon as the election was over, and Stephan Dion was dumped by the Liberals for the saviour-of-the-day - Michael Ignatieff, the Libs never mentioned a carbon tax again! So, whatever Stephan Dion did or did not do in his political career, he goes down in my book on that very small list of politicians who planted their flag on principle, and refused to back off because of the backlash from the oil-sponsored lobbyists and supporters.

I'm not sure when this issue started, since I don't check in here every day; but, for the last several days I get: "Sorry, no new content found." under every tab. Yet I can get a list of latest threads that have been posted if I'm not logged on! Is this happening to others, or just my account?

It was a good comeback, but you realize this is coming from someone with no sense of humor; so it had to be written for him by a joke-writer. At least Obama can deliver the joke better than Dubya.

And the bishops also demonstrate why totalitarian government leads to complete corruption! Did you notice that they are all over issues related to sexual purity and shaming women who have sex, but when it comes to the social gospel issues, they never make them the litmus test for who Catholics should vote for! So, should Catholics vote for Paul Ryan? A man who demands that his staff read Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and considered the old hag selfish atheist philosopher to be the most important individual in formulating his own political philosophy! I'm surprised that the bishops even pretend to be concerned about the poor any more! They have demonstrated through their persecution of American nuns, that their chief concern is controlling women, not alleviating any suffering they are aware of.....otherwise they would divest themselves of a portion of the billions of dollars worth of real estate and other wealth gained over the ages!

Yeah, he's a billionaire if you can believe his friends at Forbes! I haven't looked that the controversy about Trump's financial dealings in about a year or so, so to refresh my memory, I first went to his Wiki page - which estimates his net worth between 2.9 and 7 billion. That sounds like a lot of money, but why such a large gap in estimated wealth? Maybe they are just taking his word at it....which as I recall was the same mistake made by many Trump investors who lost their shirts each time the Donald had a big financial scam go bankrupt! Over at The Smoking Gun, they have a story that says Trump is the most miserly billionaire....but they are basing his paltry charitable contributions on the assumption that he is actually a billionaire, and the numbers come from the Trump Foundation. What if he's been lying and misrepresenting his real net worth over the last 20 years and is actually more generous than the numbers would indicate! The Atlantic Wire actually put a reporter on the story to do a little factfinding....and discovered numbers all over the ball park from 1988 to last year. For example: March 1988: The New York Times says Trump is worth $3 billion when he buys the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan for $390 million. October 1988: Trump estimated to be worth $1 billion by Forbes magazine. July 1989: Trump's net worth estimated to be $1.5 billion--and increase of $500 million in 10 months. He makes Forbes' World Billionaires list for the first time. June 1990: Under the headline "As A Laughingstock, Donald Trump Is Paying Big Dividends," The Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Trump had had a very bad year marked by marital and financial fiasco, including the sting of ex-wife "Ivana's charge that her estranged hubby is not a billionaire but worth a mere $400 million to $600 million." July 1990: Trump was dropped from dropped from Forbes' list of the world's billionaires after the value of his real estate business plummeted. Forbes estimated he was worth about $500 million that year. Others guessed less. March 2005: Just after the first season of The Apprentice, Forbes put Trump's worth $2.6 billion, ranking him in a 15-way tie for 228th richest person in the world. October 2005: Timothy O'Brien's book TrumpNation charges that Trump is worth just $150 million to $250 million. Trump sued for defamation, and lost. 2005: Documents from the defamation suit revealed that as it was underwriting a $640 million loan to Trump to build in Chicago, Deutsche Bank estimated Trump's evaluated his net worth was $788 million. Trump disputed the number. I guess he had enough brains to let it go that time and not threaten another lawsuit! March 2011: "What's the difference between Donald Trump's hair and a wet raccoon? A wet raccoon doesn't have seven billion fucking dollars in the bank." -- Donald Trump at his Comedy Central roast. Wow, at least we know where his Wikipedia page got the 7 billion estimate from! April 2011: "If and when Donald Trump announces his decision to run for the office of the presidency, he will be filing financial disclosure statements that will show his net worth is in excess of $7 billion with more than $250 million of cash, and very little debt. He is very, very liquid, said a source with knowledge of Trump's financial holdings" -- Politico Yeah, if Politico says it, it must be true! Any chance that Trump didn't run for president,because for the first time in 25 years, the public would know what he was actually worth? But, I say the last word on Trump's bullshit....I mean financial net worth should go to Lawrence O'Donnell, because he called out Trump on being a fake billionaire....Trump threatened to sue....O'Donnell doubled down and said 'go ahead, I have the evidence to back up my claim' and Trump folded and pretended nothing happened! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPX5EIVOTs

Is there something wrong with your reading skills? I provided the link back to the existing "what is a Christian?" thread, so there's no need to invent a new one. What I want from fundamentalist rightwing Christians, is for them to justify their social darwinist economic theories when they swoon over creeps like Trump or Paul Ryan.

With the recent passing of George McGovern, we were reminded again that the era when a populist maverick can steamroll the party establishment and become the presidential contender for either the Republican or Democratic Party's is long since gone. In large part it's because, unless the candidate is already a billionaire, he needs the backing of the billionaires to keep playing the game and win the nomination. The only difference I can see between Republican and Democrat today is that one party represents the rich, and makes no apologies for it, because they have enough idiots who fantasize about becoming billionaires themselves or will vote for them as long as they ban abortion and gay marriage; while the other party is full of faux populists, who say one thing to the rank and file, and do another when in office to please their real bosses. In actual fact, Obama and Romney represent almost the same billionaires. The only rivalry going on today in American politics is that some of the new hedge fund billionaires like Paul Singer and John Paulson are clashing with the interests of the established banking and oil billionaires, who are afraid that they will wreck the system.....aside from that, the plutocrats win if Obama is re-elected, and they win if Romney is in the White House. Aside from a few social issues and a little window dressing, nothing will change....and I really wonder how long that will satisfy the majority of Americans in the future?