University Suckers

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Matthew Shepard and Individual Rights

-Gays don't deserve rights because they are gay. Whites do not deserve rights because they are white. Blacks don't deserve rights for being black...do you see the pattern? Judy Shepard doesn't.

-What happened to Matthew Shepard on October 7th, 1998 was an unforgivable act rooted in hate. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson murdered Matthew Shepard for being different...for being gay. This is where the conflict lies: The act of giving people seperate rights (i.e. "gay rights", "black rights", etc.) implies that those people are different and that they do deserve some kind of treatment on a preferential basis. Individual rights which give individuals power and freedom, not groups.

A Convenient Lie: A Brief Glimpse Into Al Gore's Picture Book Of Misanthrope

The hysteria surrounding global warming is gaining popularity by leaps and bounds due to Al Gore's recently published manual for tree-huggers called An Inconvenient Truth. Upon finishing this book, the truth was more than evident: global warming does not exist.

With Gore making such powerful statements like: "The atmosphere is thin enough that we are capable of changing its composition", "Also in 2004, the all-time record for tornadoes in the United States was broken", and "Almost 30% of the CO2 released into the atmosphere each year is a result of the burning of brushland for subsistence agriculture and wood fires used for cooking.", one would think that he would leave some kind of way to validate his ground-breaking claims. Not so: Gore's 325 page book has a grand total of 37 in-text citations. Thomas Sowell's book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals, has exactly 289 in-text citations within the first 63 pages alone; Gore's book has two. If global warming is such an eminent threat to the safety of all mankind and if it is as blatantly destructive as Gore says it is, why can't he - at least - provide a legitimate amount of references?

Beyond the book's weak credibility, An Inconvenient Truth relies heavily on appeals to authority: "What makes this kind of dishonesty intolerable is that there is so much at stake. On June 21, 2004 48 Nobel Prize-winning scientists accused President Bush and his administration of distorting science. By ignoring scientific consensus on critical issues such as global climate change, [President Bush and his administration] are threatening the Earth's future." Out of those 48 scientists' listed none were meteorologists, oceanographers, climatologists, or geologists. In fact; out of the 48 scientists that Gore names, none have any expertise involving the environment! Instead, Gore goes on to name his "authorities" as 12 chemists, 19 physicists, and for some unknown reason, 12 biomedical scientists. The "48 Nobel Prize-winning scientists" may seem like enough credibility; the only problem is that every one of his "authorities" are unqualified to make pronouncements about our atmosphere. Furthermore, 48 scientists (even if they are unqualified) is very small when it stands next to the 15,000 qualified scientists who signed a petition in 1997 against the signing of the Kyoto treaty because "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate."

The holes in Gore's reasoning do not stop with his appeals to authority; Gore goes on to make absurd appeals to emotion. He accomplishes this by dedicating 12 pages of An Inconvenient Truth to the devastation of hurricane Katrina. The most memorable segment of those 12 pages was a photograph showing a dead child face down in a large puddle. Surely, if human productiveness caused global warming then it must have, in turn, caused the hurricane which resulted in the death of that young adolescent. Gore's use of that picture as a rhetorical tool not only says an infinite amount about his character, but also demonstrates that he cannot prove his case with the only things that matter: facts and evidence. Instead of providing proof, Gore must resort to using heart wrenching photographs in an attempt persuade the public that global warming does exist and does pose an immediate threat. It appears that Gore is willing to do whatever it takes, misleading or not, to push the deceitful agenda of global warming.

Gore is serious enough about global warming to classify the dangers of it next to terrorism: "Is it possible that we should prepare for other serious threats in addition to terrorism? Maybe it's time to focus on other dangers as well." The very act of Al Gore appealing to fear, emotion and authority is rationally invalid and confirms his inability to legitimately make his case for the existence of global warming. What side of the global warming debate you are on is irrelevant; Gore resorts to using rhetorical babble instead of facts to persuade the public of his message.

Considering Gore's poor documentation and his illogical appeals to authority and emotion, one might expect that whatever evidence he provides will be suspect. One would be correct. For one of the examples Gore attempts to "prove" the existence of global warming's impact with a pair of pictures taken of Mt. Kilimanjaro. What Gore points out is how that the level of snow has drastically decreased from the first picture - taken in 1970 - to that of the second picture, taken in 2000. This may seem rationally cohesive to some, but there is one segment of vital information that is missing here - literally - from this picture: the time of the year that each picture was taken. Gore fails to notify the reader of whether the pictures are both taken during the winter or if one is taken in the summer, or for that matter, some other season. If the second picture was taken in any other season besides winter, less snow would have to be expected.

The two independent photographs of Mt. Kilimanjaro are just one of the countless deceptive examples Gore uses throughout his book in an attempt to persuade the reader that "The climate crisis is indeed, extremely dangerous. In fact is it a true planetary emergency."

After hundreds of years of driving ourselves out of a primitive, muddy, dirt-filled existence, Gore wants to push us - face first - back into it. After endless generations of senselessly praying for rain, Gore wants to force us to get back onto our knees. After years of successful production and human progress, Gore wants us to trade in our mansions and skyscrapers for cob huts and tree forts. An Inconvenient Truth is an attempt to make man feel guilty for all of his past successes and to strip man of any future accomplishments by advocating legal restrictions on the usage of the environment as a means of production. People everywhere need to know that the truth isn't as inconvenient as Gore would like it to be.

(Thanks: GVH & Victoria)

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Zombietime Is Real Time

-My friend David introduced me to this new wesbite that you can now find on my sidebar called Zombietime. It's about this former liberal who now attends all sorts of rallies/protests that he used to take seriously and now takes tons of pictures of their foolishness and absolute retardation. From an interview on a blog about it:
"The whole thing started on February 16, 2003. I had just bought my first digital camera the day before, and I had not yet used it. Coincidentally, I had intended to go to an anti-war rally that Saturday, and I thought to myself -- hey, why not bring the camera and test it out?

It seems a little hard to imagine in retrospect, but I was attending this anti-war rally in all sincerity, sympathizing with its goals. At least so I thought. I had been "left-wing" (for lack of a better term) all my life and had been to many protests of various sorts over the years. I was sort of going to this one out of habit. The Iraq War had not yet started -- the goal of the protest was to prevent it.

Yet somewhere in the back of my mind I was feeling ambivalent. The events of 9/11 had kindled new political feelings in me, but they still weren't completely formed, even over a year later. I was going for the purpose of protesting the war, but was that really how I felt? I was confused."

-The pictures and the funny commentary offered on the website are very informative and entertaining. I'll provide a few:


"Terrorist sympathizer at the April 10, 2004 rally."

"Young child holding a sign accusing Jews of stealing organs from dead Palestinians, at the Bus 19 anti-terror rally in Berkeley on January 16, 2005. "

"Cindy Sheehan and the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party at the "World Can't Wait" rally on November 2, 2005."

-The pictures I provided are tame considering some of the others (i.e old naked hippies practicing "...scrotal inflation at the Anarchist Bookfair on March 26, 2005"...it's no joke). I like to keep the blog at least semi clean.

-For the record, I searched the entire Zombietime website for contact information on asking him if I could reproduce these pictures; no such information was provided, so I assume it's alright considering I'm giving him more traffic. If it isn't O.K. with "zombie" consider these photos take down as soon as I hear it from him.

The Lie That Is Recycling

-Ever since Gus Van Horn posted that bit on recycling a while ago, I've been meaning to post this Penn & Teller video (be prepared for some adult language).



-These guys are awesome. The only disagreement I found in the video was when he said something to the like of: "We all fell for these lies about recycling." Not this guy.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Sifting Around The Web 7

-Through Student Of Objectivism I have discovered a very funny news story regarding the construction of a mosque. Youtube provides the video:

-It's the perfect way to approach this situation.

...

-Since I'm almost done with The Death Of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America, I'll go on to tell you all about how disappointed I was with the entire thing. Save your money, the book isn't worth it. The author, Philip K. Howard, blames the current legal situation in America on laws being "too rational", observe:
"Rationalism looms before us with more logic and reasons than we can possibly repsond to, demanding almost all our energy, but ultimately not making any sense. We must kill it again. This time, however, it will take no cold war or arms race: All we have to do is recognize it for what it is. "The era of absolutist reason is drawing to a close," Havel warned the Western democracies in 1992, and "it is high time to draw conclusions from that fact."

-Aside from sounding dangerous close to Hitler, what Howard fails to realize is that all of those laws which he talks about are not ridiculous because they are "too rational"; they are ridiculous because they are irrational. It is because of irrational facts like "Federal statutes and formal rules now total about 100 million words", which makes America legal system stink.

-"The era of absolutist reason is drawing to a close," Havel warned the Western democracies in 1992, and "it is high time to draw conclusions from that fact." I wonder how Havel came to that conclusion? Maybe through logic and rational thinking? That sentence alone is not only self-defeating but comical to say the least.

-There are only two reasons on why I insist on finishing this book. One of the reasons is because I like to finish what I start. The second reason, which is far more important, is because this book has wonderful facts about government spending that would even blow John Kerry's mind.
"...to the U.S. Department of Defense spending $2 billion on travel and $2.2 billion processing that paperwork for that travel..."

...ETC.

-Other than this book being a treasure chest of facts telling of government mismanagement and wastefulness, it doesn't offer much else.
...

-I'm ripping this off of Witch Doctor Repellent nasty, but this pisses me off SO much that I have to post it here.

-I'll also add that I am not suprised that people were clapping in the background; afterall it's all of our fault that slavery existed and that black people are 8.5 times more likely to go to prison than us white people.

-But then again, who am I? Just another "white man" trying to get you down, I'm sure. Do yourselves and America a favor and start educating each other instead of using the race card as a crutch.

...

-This is completely unbelievable.
"NEW YORK — More than 650 economists, including five winners of the Nobel Prize for economics, called Wednesday for an increase in the minimum wage, saying the value of the last increase, in 1997, has been "fully eroded."
Economists including Nobel prize winners Kenneth Arrow of Stanford University, Lawrence Klein of the University of Pennsylvania, Robert Solow of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia University and Clive Granger of the University of California-San Diego said in a statement released Wednesday that the real value of today's federal minimum wage is less than it has been at any time since 1951.
Federal minimum wage is $5.15 an hour. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have set their minimum wages above the federal level."[source:http://tinyurl.com/yep5oj]

-I'll tell you what; I am no Ivy-League economist but I do know that the rise in minimum wage is one of the dumbest ideas ever. Who are these people?!

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Jesus Christ

-By pure mistake, I have ran across the most annoying video on the face of this planet. Watch with discretion:

...hahahaha. It's not funny. I'll be back tomorrow with some political stuff. Until then.