Where the heat went

People who make a living by pushing the idea that climate change (AKA global warming) is a fantasy are getting a bit of pushback from the data. (Darn that data. It's such a nuisance for wingnuts. Can't they just be left in peace with their fantasies?)

The story goes like this: the Pacific Ocean should be heating up because of climate change...but it's not. "See?" the idiots scream, "I tollja climate change was just a demonic illusion! Praise Jeebus, who will always protect us!"

Alas for the wingnuts, it seems that scientists will have the final say in this matter. Unlike religious fabulists, scientists look for real-life answers to real-life problems in, of all places, real-life data. They knew the heat that should be in the Pacific Ocean had to go somewhere, so they followed its trail. It turns out the heat traveled to the Indian Ocean, where it is waiting patiently for its day on the stage. Read the linked article to find out how it got there. To sum up: mystery solved. But as the article notes:

The finding by the team appears to be both good and bad news. The good news is that it adds credence to global warming theories—the bad news is that it means that it is possible that at some point in the future all that heat in the ocean could be released back into the atmosphere, creating a sudden temperature spike which would almost assuredly cause massive worldwide problems for those of us that caused the problem in the first place.

We are entering a very frightening era and we do not have rational, informed leaders to guide us through the coming crisis. It's not Satan that's coming, as so many gay-hating religious people fear, it's deadly heat. The times, they are a'changing...and we are so unprepared.

The finding by the team appears to be both good and bad news. The good news is that it adds credence to global warming theories—the bad news is that it means that it is possible that at some point in the future all that heat in the ocean could be released back into the atmosphere, creating a sudden temperature spike which would almost assuredly cause massive worldwide problems for those of us that caused the problem in the first place.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-05-global-captured-pacific-ocean-indian.html#jCp

Religion encourages this sort of thing

As loyal readers know, I'm trying to sell my house. What this means in a daily sense is that crowds of strangers have been walking through my home. Sheesh.

But rather than complain, today I want to share with you the strangeness of some of these visitors' thought processes.

One woman who came through told me she was going to put in an offer that very day. From speaking with her, I knew she had a husband, so I said, "I imagine you want your husband to view it too -- I mean, before you make the offer." After all, if a couple buys a house, surely both marriage partners want to see it beforehand. Makes sense, no?

She told me her husband had no need to see it because he respected her clairvoyant powers. You see, when she spied the house online she knew immediately that this was Her House. So there was no need for hubby to see it.

Another family came through and asked, haltingly, if the house was haunted. I mean, what do you say? My sister answered her as if this was a normal question. She assured the woman that we had been the only owners of this house, no one had died here, and the house was not haunted. It's probably a good thing that my sister didn't let me answer the question.

But really, why wouldn't nitwits believe in ghosts and paranormal powers? After all, their churches tell them there are demons and guardian angels and a Holy Spirit and a devil too. And of course, there's the god fellow Himself, who is the King of Ghosts. Once you let nonsense invade your brain and convince yourself that it makes sense, you are lost in the wilderness.

In a sense, I can't blame the idiots. This dreck is everpresent in American "culture". There are "ghost-hunting" shows on TV. And movies present clairvoyant characters as if they're a normal part of everyday reality. There are endless bible and Jesus shows, and there are ranting pastors (and Republican candidates for president) who reject reality in favor of their favorite fairytale. The idjits never had a chance.

I guess these visitors to my house are what passes for true Americans these days. And to think that we used to believe that humanity would grow up at some point and leave silly childhood games behind. Not. Gonna. Happen.

Unless we ditch the gods. Ditch yours today.

Bruni on Roman Catholicism and women

In this morning's NYT, Frank Bruni takes exception to the pope's statement that he is "outraged" by the inequality women face in the workplace. Uh, the all-male church thinks women should be equal? Rather than say "hahaha", which isn't Bruni's style, he takes aim and shoots.

Here's just one paragraph:

Pay isn’t the primary issue when the symbolism, rituals and vocabulary of an institution exalt men over women and when challenges to that imbalance are met with the insistence that what was must always be — that habit trumps enlightenment and good sense.

I really look forward to this guy's columns. He's such a talent. (And we really really needed someone to step up after Frank Rich hid himself in a magazine that no one reads.)

Bernie Sanders could bring huge, positive change to U.S.

Bernie Sanders, a kind and honest man who tells the truth, is in the primary race against the meaningless creature we refer to as "Hillary Clinton". In other words there is still hope.

I mean seriously, if it's Hillary v. Jeb, it will be a contest between an empty pants suit and an empty pants suit. Bernie, on the other hand, will tell it like it is. And finally, in an era of blatant income inequality, people may be able to hear his words and understand them.

This morning, I came across this at HuffPo. In the article, Bernie asks a question I've been waiting to hear for the past 20 years: what's wrong with the idea of making the United States look more like Scandinavia? In Norway, Sweden and Denmark, health care is a basic human right, guaranteed for all. And there is no charge for college or grad school. Doesn't that sound a tad better than what we've got here, where people can't afford their medications and where kids go into lifelong hock to obtain a college education?

He's a breath of fresh air, Bernie is. Let's hope the unthinkable occurs and this man can best Hillary in the primary. Jeb v. Bernie could be a lot of fun. In fact, it could wake the whole country up -- for good.

Who would know best?

AP's running this story today:

ROME — Pope Francis on Saturday praised the zeal of an 18th-century Franciscan missionary he will make a saint when he visits the United States this fall but whom Native Americans say brutally converted indigenous people to Christianity.

I've written about this before. Don't you find it odd that the pope -- who doesn't know a thing firsthand about this Junipero Serra person he's about to crown a saint -- would go forward, given the Native American storyline on Serra? I mean, who would know better whether Serra was a saint or a monster? The pope who never met him, or the descendants of the people Serra brutalized?

If he was a "saint", don't you think he'd have a better rep in the community where he was active? That the pope would move forward on this is bizarre. But then, Roman Catholicism is quite mad.

You can read my original post here. It provides all the lurid details. The guy was a genocidal monster. And as I said in the earlier post, he's about to become Saint Genocidal Monster. It's disgusting.

Still here

(Sorry I haven't posted lately. It's the craziness of moving -- a process that is taking forever. For today, all I've got is one mini-post. Here you go.)

The other night on the local news, a particularly dimwitted female anchor was reporting on the earthquake in Nepal. She said there had been an "avwalanche" which was caused by an "earthcake". The woman can't even read words, never mind understand them.

The next story was about Chipotle's new and highly idiotic move to ban GMO ingredients. Kids, everything, including you, is the result of GMOs. It's how evolution happens. There's no danger in eating this stuff. Yes, it's been genetically modified but that has absolutely no bearing on you. You're eating it, not getting genetic pointers from it. Anyway, this same anchor read the GMO story and then said, "That's so great! Because I love Chipotle's and now it's going to be even healthier".

Seriously, I know it's the local news but in this case "local" means NYC. I can remember when the the city's local news anchors were smart and well-informed -- which only means that I'm really, really old.

I'll always return to this blog and I'm sure there will be future periods when I blog like mad. However, that time is not now. Hang in.

The ineffable mystery of laundry

I have continued my foray into the the world of washing clothes. As I mentioned recently, All Radiant -- although it stinks of chemicals flowers -- will turn your white clothes white! Seriously, shockingly white. In that post I said I'd never use it again because of the stink bouquet...but I couldn't leave it there. There was one detail that haunted me.

It says on the label of All Radiant that it not only gets your whites white, it also brightens colors. I think there's something unholy about that. It's surely unethical. Yet the idea nagged at me. Had it really become possible (slaps face) to wash whites and colors together?! I had to learn if this was true.

So I took a new set of forest green flannel sheets and tossed them into the wash. Into the tub, I added just a bit of All Radiant and then a dose of detergent. And then (slaps face) I put a white kitchen towel in. (How that hurt!) And then pushed the button. Horrors! What had I done?

An hour later I got the miraculous answer to my question: although it was impossible, the white towel came out even whiter. Now I don't know about you, but I find this positively scandalous.

We cannot put whites and colors into the wash, willy nilly, and expect civilization to survive. This disgusting idea defies traditional Judeo-Christian values. Please take a moment to remember what Jesus Christ said atop Mount Everest on that Tuesday afternoon long, long ago:

"Thou shalt not mix whites and colors in the same wash."

That's authority enough for me, and I hope it is for you. All Radiant is obviously a demonic product, meant to seduce men's souls. It defies the natural order of god-directed laundry pursuits.

I reach out to you today for the good of the country. Don't mix your whites and colors. If you do, you'll ruin everyone's ability to do laundry. Suddenly people won't know which clothes to throw into which load. They'll freeze, dooming them to life as a statue. As a result, civilization will come to an abrupt halt -- and Nazis will rule once again.

I beg of you: do your laundry the way god planned it -- whites in one load, colors in another. Now, go with god, my children.