First up: Kossack: “Karl Rove Made Me An Asshole!”
Next…
Last year as arctic sea ice melted to record levels, panic set in for many. But then, as the sea ice rebounded and froze again quickly in the 2007/2008 winter, making up for that record loss and reaching heights not seen for several years, many exclaimed that even though the ice areal extent had recovered, this new ice was “thin” and would likely melt again quickly. There were also many news stories about how the Northwest Passage was ice free for the first time “ever”. For example, Backpacker Magazine ran a story saying “The ice is so low that the photos clearly show a viable northwest passage sea route along the coasts of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska.”
O RLY? Arctic Sea Ice Traps Climate Tour Icebreaker
“…I find myself completely intolerant of my friends who share the viewpoints of the Republican Party, and barely tolerant of siblings who do the same.”
Yeah, but what this guy fails to get is this is not an attribute, it’s a weakness.
We all need to take “breaks” from buddies, relatives, in-laws, etc., when we can’t abide the shit they’re spewing. That’s natural, and even a good thing. I have a friend who has a bar, and he’d have to give all of us “time outs” (I’m not kidding) for a while after 9/11, because it was coming to blows, and even after the allowances each side would make for each other.
But, realize that the left and the right set different litmus tests for political, social, and moral compatibility. This is why I say most conservatives are full of shit position-wise, but there’s much easier to get on with personally than your garden-variety “hyper-progressive”.
That’s because, on the left, you can’t deviate from the party line ONE BIT. You gotta take it all, or hit the road. You can agree with them on 90% of politics, philosophy, world issues, etc., but cross them on, say immigration, or global warming, and they’ll throw your ass under the bus in a hot minute (Ed Koch was a pol you’d know, who perpetually suffered from this attitude).
The conservative side is more slavish to ideological purity WITHIN an individual issue, and twitchy on anything deemed unpatriotic, but, by and large, are much more reasonable on understanding that you can disagree on this, that, or the other thing, and still be a standup guy.
Anyway, that’s my humble opinion.
Oh, and Kos is still an asswipe.
…And because my friends cannot or will not see what I see, I cannot abide them any longer as friends.
“….Last year as arctic sea ice melted to record levels…”
My very simplistic opinion on this (which manages to piss virtually everyone else off) is that we shouldn’t jump on any bandwagons yet, until further research is done, the issue fades from the media circus, and we get a lot more info under our belts.
I think energy is a bigger deal right now, and we need to do EVERYTHING.
Yes, we should drill on ANWR (gasp), yes, we should drill on the Continental Shelf, etc., etc., but none of that is a solution and we need to go to nukes ASAP.
And, Al, yes, we appreciate your vigilance in bringing the climate change issue to awareness, but it is now time for you to fade from the limelight, allow the debates to continue, free and unfettered, and you need to find a new cause, because you created a global warming industry out of this for yourself and followed exactly the blueprint guaranteed to alienate me and trust your credibility.
If I was a caribou or a polar bear in Alaska and they ran a pipeline through my backyard, I’d be digging it. So, let’s not overdo the rhetoric on both sides, okay?
Common sense, please.