The American Spectator

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Coolist Collaboration

5.19.05 @ 12:01AM

COLD MINDS
Re: Tom Bethell's The False Alert of Global Warming:

As a former weather forecaster for the Air Force, and an avid reader of European History I have known for years of the late medieval warming period. For the last few decades some historians have even speculated that the Roman Empire fell not only because of foreign invasions, but also because of a rapid cooling across Europe. The shorter growing seasons meant less food. The great Roman cities could no longer support large populations. Over a period of time, Europe became agrarian, feudal, and barbaric -- hence the Dark Ages.

Of course, this is speculation; however, when a person considers what occurred between 1100 and 1400 -- a sharp spike in temperatures across Europe -- and the ensuing Renaissance, it doesn't appear so implausible. In the past I could at least discuss this phenomena with other people who were interested in climate change. Yet, within the last few years, my speculation has been treated as heresy. A person would think I was questioning the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. People now say there was no warm period a millennia ago, and if there was, it was minuscule. They have all used the hockey stick as their source. When I persist in questioning such a dubious single source, their reaction becomes heated: how could I, an amateur, question the professionals. End of Story. Debate Over. Go Home.

I think Stalin was on to something when he obliterated the biographies of public people he murdered. It wasn't enough for him to kill them; Stalin had their names removed from newspapers, history books, and journals. This same thing is occurring in the climate field. No longer is it polite to even bring up something that historians, anthropologists, and geologists all know. If 2+2=4 became a political issue we could expect a tenured math professor to publish a paper stating that the sum isn't 4, but 5.
-- J.P. Koch

After the enviros have scared the world about man-made carbon dioxide, man-made water is next. There are two products of any combustion reaction -- water and carbon dioxide. When all the scares about CO2 have subsided, someone will find that the extra water dumped into the atmosphere by combustion is doing something bad to the earth.

-- Steve Black
Charlotte, North Carolina

If the enviro-wackos are warmists, are those of us who don't subscribe to the scare of global warming coolists?

Whatever, it's worth remembering the greens said at the Dec. 2004 U.N. Conference in Buenos Aires that the Kyoto Protocol would do nothing to stop the impending catastrophe accruing from global warming. Too, let's not forget the U.N.'s hidden agenda in all this, as well as the universal religion aspect, albeit secular, to the global-warming hysteria.

The enviro-wackos' next cause celebre? Who knows? But it's a safe bet it'll be full of junk science, emotional, distortion and untruths. Even violence and terror, too?
-- C. Kenna Amos Jr.
Princeton, West Virginia

I enjoyed Tom's article. However, I am always stumped by my inability to see any hard data on carbon emissions from all, natural and man-made sources. I think the conclusion is that there is a small net outflow of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, but this small net outflow is the difference between two very large carbon outflow and absorption numbers.

I wonder where such data can be found??
-- Harry David

LONG MEMORY
Re: Jay D. Homnick's Naming Names:

The arguments about the constitutionality of the various "Megan's Laws," both federal and state versions, are, to me, a waste of time. I am convinced that the framers of the Constitution never expected anyone found guilty of such a crime to live long enough to be released into society. Therefore, they didn't waste their precious time on such matters.

As far as the case of the man who killed himself, back when European armies cared more about honor than not hurting anyone's feelings, an officer who shamed his regiment often came into his quarters to find a pistol on his bed. The message was clear, and often acted upon by the officer in question. It seems that the Claxton case is a 21st-century civilian version of this.
-- Vincent Mohan

With respect to Jay Homnick's article on child predators, I think we're all in agreement that a society that wishes to survive and flourish needs to protect its most valuable asset, its children. Given that child predators have one of the highest recidivist rates of all criminals, and are considered the "lowest of the low" in the prison pecking order, the concern for maximum protection of children is very real. The approach on the part of the Chicago Jewish community in policing its own is admirable and reflects the proper concern. However, the rest of society, with its ever increasing transient nature of both good and bad people, attempts to find solutions in dealing with the same problem legally in ways that suits them. Regarding active notification of the citizenry may seem extreme, however, given the nature of the criminal and his crime, may warrant it. I suspect that the damage done to a child, assuming the child isn't murdered, affects that child, and their family, for life. To maximize the prevention by active notification, which obviously disturbs the comfort level of the convicted predator, seems scant in comparison. Just a thought ; it may seem brutal by today's standard, but the old practice of banishment seems to make sense with certain criminal types; why cause heightened levels of anxiety to society by having this type of deviant pariah in its midst, when you can concentrate them in their own society away from their most innocent victims? I believe rapists, terrorists and other violent criminals would be fitting candidates also, but I digress.
-- David P. Bennett
Chicago, Illinois

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