Winter's Coming - Pass the Sunscreen

I woke up this morning ready to watch some football. As is my wont, I stepped outside with a cup of coffee, and lo and behold, my feet got cold inside of five minutes. I checked the temperature. 10 degrees C. Hmmm. Where's all this global warming I've been hearing so much about?

Nietzsche
I remember reading Nietzsche some time ago, where he talked about crime and punishment. He had a theory that said as a people become more prosperous, so they become more complacent about crime. It is in third world and less prosperous countries that you find hands being hacked off for theft, stoning for adultery, beheading for murder, so forth. In prosperous countries you find words like parole, suspended sentence, no contest, rehabilitation, and community service.

Nietzsche likened it to a large beast regarding fleas. What are these fleas to me? I am large, successful, powerful.

The analogy can be used on a nation: what are these pesky criminals to me? They can't bring me down, they can't upset my balance of power. Nietzsche saw this complacency as our root for the ideals of what we call mercy.

I think he was on to something, and that it can be extrapolated. When countries become prosperous, so they become complacent about all things. It should be no surprise that Al Gore received a "Peace" award for talking about climate change. He is a Western fat cat, patted on the back by other Western fat cats. It does not matter how much pain and suffering is going on in the far flung reaches of the world. The West is fat and complacent. We have time to discuss the weather patterns of the Earth circa 2176 AD. The people in less prosperous countries do not have that kind of time. They're thinking about tomorrow's meal, or next week's bullet.

Roasting in June - Norway
Imagine Al Gore visiting Burma today and giving a speech on climate change and its impact on global conflict. If they weren't so polite, the monks would laugh him off the stage. Climate change? They're busy dodging bullets and knitting the bones that got broken in yesterday's crackdown.

Here's a news story about Dr. William Grey, a scientist that knows what's going on, both about the climate and the politics of the enviro boobs. His most telling line is,

"It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong. But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."

He's worth a read. By the way, don't forget to check out my daily Worrisome Warming Watch in the links bar. I've chosen a place in the continental US that will tell us how warm it is again this winter. I think the name of the town is apt.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I can't decide which is better: global warming, so the babes are in bikinis more often, or global cooling, so they want to spend more time in the hot tub. Whatever happens, we'll find a way to manage.