1 Happy St

Let me reply if I may to one part of Brian's previous post. He mentioned global warming. According to a report every other day, the world is nearing the so-called "tipping point" of global warming. I guess this means that if we don't mind our Ps and Qs (not to mention our CFC's) its gonna start getting toasty.

I'm not a scientist so I'm not going to get into the facts surrounding it. But let me just say that it seems to me that we've been hearing the same points for about 30 years now. The ice caps are still there and Chicago isn't ocean front property yet.

Maybe the reason all these "environmental experts" like Al Gore feel like its getting warmer is from the friction caused by all their collective hand-wringing?

I'm reminded of the old George Carlin bit where he says that when we talk about saving the Earth, really all we're saying is that we're trying to save ourselves.

"The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?"

Am I advocating that we all go out tonight and burn tires and styrofoam and flush the plastic things that hold 6-packs together down the toilet? No, of course not. But have the facts of global warming ever been open to debate? There are REAL scientists around today who are unwilling to discuss it in the open forum because they'll be immediate ostracized by scientific community because of the faction of advocates that have hijacked the debate.

I do think that as a whole, American society is about as environmental as we're ever going to get. We carpool, we recycle, and when we see freaks on the street, we never stare, but we're also careful not to look away because we want the freaks to feel comfortable.

Anyway, I just don't think that the threat of "global warming" is scary enough to most people. Most Americans live in cold weather climates. Tell Steve Van Der Hoeffen from Fargo that he won't have to shovel 4 feet of snow in a couple years and I doubt ol' Steve will rush out to buy a Prius.