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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

H.L. Mencken on Global Warming (and Cooling)

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

-H L Mencken

Global warming, the coming Ice Age, DDT, Alar...anybody see a pattern here?

H. L. Mencken quotes

Comments

Like the War on Terror!


Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

ManofFireandLight on March 8, 2007 at 10:53 pm

Like the War on Terror!

Terrorism is imaginary? Or is the War on Terror imaginary? Please explain your psychosis from which your comment springs. Inquiring minds want to know.

likwidshoe on March 8, 2007 at 11:12 pm

The war on terror, like the cold war before it acts on people fears of death and creates an ominous unknown threat. Yes, there are terrorists out there who mean us harm, but what can the average Joe do about it really, except worry or enlist? Imagination does have a lot to do with his (Joes) perception of the war on terror.


Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

ManofFireandLight on March 8, 2007 at 11:24 pm

Whether the hobgoblins are created by politicians or by al-qaeda, is arbitrary. They are hobgoblins nonetheless.


Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

ManofFireandLight on March 8, 2007 at 11:30 pm
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The war on terror, like the cold war before it acts on people fears…

Fears of things like...terrorists flying airplanes into skyscrapers? Strapping bombs on their bodies and detonating them on buses and in shopping malls?

Man of Damp Matches and Dim Bulbs: You need to be able to discern the difference between the real and the imaginary! Junk science is imaginary!



Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Proof on March 10, 2007 at 06:50 am

The war on terror, like the cold war before it acts on people fears…

Fears of things like...terrorists flying airplanes into skyscrapers? Strapping bombs on their bodies and detonating them on buses and in shopping malls?

The possibility of death was no less real with the cold war. Back then we feared being vapourised by a detonating nuclear missile or a slow, lingering death from radiation sickness.
Nothing ever happened with the cold war, though it did come close a few times. The war on terror is more real and more personal, but still for many people, it will always remain an imagined threat.

You need to be able to discern the difference between the real and the imaginary! Junk science is imaginary!

Just because alternatives to man-made climate change have not until recently been considered by the majority of the scientific community, it does not make all research up to that point null and void.


Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

ManofFireandLight on March 10, 2007 at 12:55 pm
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it does not make all research up to that point null and void.


Who said it did? (Nice straw man!)

The war on terror is more real and more personal, but still for many people, it will always remain an imagined threat.

“Imagined” -not imaginary! There’s a big difference! I can imagine myself getting hit by a bus and taking precautions so that doesn’t happen. I can also imagine myself slaying a pink dragon in Times Square, but the only harm that would come to me from that, is if I really believed it (or bought phony “dragon credits” from Al Gore) I might get locked in a rubber room somewhere!

The threats from Alar, the Coming Ice Age, and Manmade Global Warming were imaginary. They did not exist! The Cold War did. So does Islamic Terrorism.  Do I need to draw you a picture???



Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Proof on March 10, 2007 at 01:14 pm

I know the difference between imaginary and imagined. We know and accept (surely), that the climate is warming up and that CO2 levels are rising. Man-made global warming is a theory that explains this, as is Prof Ian Clarks’ explanation. The threats from man-made global warming are the same as those from natural global warming, therefore NOT imaginary. Of course we can say that a theory is imaginary, because it is essentially an idea, but by the same measure, evolution and relativity are imaginary.


Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.

ManofFireandLight on March 10, 2007 at 01:57 pm
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I know the difference between imaginary and imagined.

Coulda fooled me!



Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
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Proof on March 10, 2007 at 02:05 pm
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