Comics I Don’t Understand

Now that much of the country is having unseasonably warm weather…

Cidu Bill on Mar 18th 2010

… will the “look at all this snow, I guess that disproves global warming” crowd change their minds?

Filed in Bill Bickel, global warming | 31 responses so far

31 Responses to “Now that much of the country is having unseasonably warm weather…”

George P Mar 18th 2010 at 05:18 pm 1

If they acknowledge it at all, it will be something like “if this is global warming, then give me more of it!”
Skaloop Mar 18th 2010 at 05:27 pm 2

Probably not, since saying that unseasonably warm weather proves global warming would be just as incorrect as saying that unseasonably cold weather disproves it.
S.P. Charles Mar 18th 2010 at 05:33 pm 3

But Skaloop, they were perfectly willing to be incorrect a couple of weeks ago when the snow was falling: either long-term climate change can be proven or dsiproven based on one week’s weather, or it can’t.
Skaloop Mar 18th 2010 at 05:47 pm 4

That’s sort of my point, S.P. To them, it’s not about what actually is, it’s about what they want to be. They deny global warming, and one erroneous attribution of unseasonable weather supports their position. They’re not going to move to another erroneous attribution of unseasonable weather that doesn’t support their position.

That’s why we need to get this named switched over to climate change. Then both erroneous attributions of unseasonable weather will be correct!
src666 Mar 18th 2010 at 07:46 pm 5

No, because every cold front that dips the temperature by 5 degrees for a couple of days will be further proof that there is no warming.
Mark M Mar 18th 2010 at 08:50 pm 6

Or maybe they are just comics and we shouldn’t just assume that every global warming joke is a political statement.
Cidu Bill Mar 18th 2010 at 09:01 pm 7

Mark, I wasn’t referring to the comics, but rather to the climate change deniers.
John Bledsoe Mar 18th 2010 at 09:04 pm 8

Weather returns back to normal next week where I live. Just a momentary warm spell. Nothing to worry about, you tree huggers
Mark M Mar 19th 2010 at 12:59 am 9

Fair enough Bill. But to my defense, I don’t think most of the real climate change deniers think that a cold spell counts as an argument against global warming. I have only seen that kind of humor in the comics. Maybe I just live in an area that doesn’t fly by the seat of their pants.
Cidu Bill Mar 19th 2010 at 01:24 am 10

You know, Mark, a year ago, I think the only people I heard saying “I guess this proved global warming is a myth” were people who thought they were being funny (and original). Lately, though, this seems to have transcended “humor.” Maybe it’s the growing pervasiveness of “Well, the so-called experts can believe what they want to believe, and I’ll believe what I want to believe,” in which one “opinion” is as valid as another.
1415dr Mar 19th 2010 at 05:47 am 11

No, because now we can fall back on the argument that you used in the Winter- that weather and climate are not the same thing.

Just like how Democrats viciously attacked the Patriot act when a Republican was in charge, but now think a Democrat with wiretapping authority is hunky-dory. The merry-go-round doesn’t end here buddy!
Nicole Mar 19th 2010 at 08:20 am 12

For the record … this liberal thinks wire tapping is wrong whoever does it.
Karen Mar 19th 2010 at 09:46 am 13

We’re having temps in the low 60s here in Southern Ohio, which is typical for March. Sometimes the weather turns cold and blustery in April; once, on my son’s birthday, we had snow. In late April. So I don’t see the weather as a constant; it’s a constantly changing system. Anybody who expects the weather to be consistently predictable might as well live under a bio-dome.
Daniel J. Drazen Mar 19th 2010 at 09:58 am 14

Nah … since when has that crowd ever relied on factual information?
Lola Mar 19th 2010 at 10:08 am 15

So when does the Patriot Act come up for renewal? I’ll lose all respect for this administration if they don’t incinerate it.
ShireNomad Mar 19th 2010 at 11:42 am 16

We’re doomed.
Xenocles Mar 19th 2010 at 04:55 pm 17

You’re kidding, right, Lola?

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/obama-backs-expiring-patriot-act-spy-provisions/
Chakolate Mar 19th 2010 at 06:02 pm 18

At least all those provisions call for internal spying to be done under the auspices of the FISA court.

Look at me, clutching at straws.

But I’ve already lost all respect for this administration.
Cidu Bill Mar 19th 2010 at 06:08 pm 19

Chakolate, I really do believe Obama was sincere about everything he said — but when an idealist takes office, the first thing that happens is he’s slapped in the face with a big, wet fish labeled REALITY.

(think of this as a political cartoon by somebody who can’t draw)
Elyrest Mar 19th 2010 at 06:55 pm 20

I’ve become what an idealist almost has to (sanity wise) when hit with reality - a pragmatist. I change what I can and don’t beat myself, or others, when change is impossible. I think this happens to many politicians.
Nicole Mar 20th 2010 at 10:41 am 21

Chakolate #18

I’ll probably get lynched for saying this, but I see this as one of the differences between the left and the right ….. in very general terms … the left calls their politicians to ask when they feel they are screwing up … the right just goes right along.

As I said …. this is a generality and there are certainly examples of the right getting all over Bush and the left just going along with the Obama administration. However I think that there are many more examples of the left taking Obama to task. I know that Rachel Maddow and Keith Obermann have already called him out on a number of topics, I don’t think the same could be said of Hannity and Limbaugh about Bush.

Of course this is all MHO and I could be just blowing smoke.
Cidu Bill Mar 20th 2010 at 01:56 pm 22

Nicole, I don’t know about Hannity, but Limbaugh certainly did criticize Bush when he thought he was being too… moderate.
Chakolate Mar 20th 2010 at 03:57 pm 23

Nicole #21, It seems to me that you’re right about that, but since I don’t keep stats, I hesitate to affirm it.

I’ve always thought it was the true strength of the Democratic Party that it was made up of very diverse, mostly headstrong people. When they embrace their liberality instead of trying to bury it, they do better. The Republicans keep people following the party line better, though.

Again though, as you say, these are rank generalities and don’t necessarily apply to any individual people.
The Bad Seed Mar 21st 2010 at 07:26 am 24

It was very disconcerting to be working outside near Princeton, NJ, on most weekdays since March 3 this year. This field project began with me slogging through 6-8 inches of packed, dense, melted and refrozen snow (wrapped up in heavy cold weather clothes with just eyes, nose, and mouth exposed), and ended last Friday with me finally stripped down to a t-shirt and jeans (and still sweating). It was like watching a time-lapse film of spring in only slightly-slower motion and, despite my primary emotion being delight at the beautiful weather, I couldn’t shake a pretty strong feeling of foreboding. Maybe if this quick spring turns out to be a harbinger of a summer of primarily 100-degrees-plus misery, people might start to come around. Maybe.
The Bad Seed Mar 21st 2010 at 07:45 am 25

Nicole (#21) - When my dad turned 72 he told me he felt he needed to take a stand on something important, and he chose to totally embrace the Republican Party. He’d always registered Republican anyway, but he decided to learn more about everything the party (all branches) stood for, and he ended up blindly embracing all of it as his own and donating a lot of money to every portion of it that called or wrote to ask him for a donation.

It was disconcerting to, on the one hand, talk to Dad and know his deep-felt opinions hadn’t changed, yet in the next minute hear him spout verbatim party rhetoric that was diametrically opposed to how I knew he really felt. But the voting strength that kind of devotion gives the Republican Party is astounding! The Democratic Party doesn’t seem to be able to inspire that same kind of cohesiveness (probably by definition), and that is evidenced by the Democratic legislators who seem willing to scuttle the health care bill just because they think it doesn’t go far enough. The party who can inspire blind voting obedience to the party line has the strength, and the party where everyone will quibble about each little part they don’t totally agree with is throwing away their power.
Xenocles Mar 21st 2010 at 08:20 am 26

TBS: I’m from Massachusetts. Ted Kennedy had exactly that kind of stranglehold on the state’s politics; he inspired cohesiveness with just the strength of his personality. The blind loyalty you describe happens in any large group. To deny it seems to be almost willful blindness; some of you sound a bit like certain people in 1972 who couldn’t believe Nixon won because they didn’t know anyone who voted for him. Self-deception is rarely helpful.
London Derriere Mar 21st 2010 at 09:27 am 27

Bad Seed, some of the Democrats playing that game (like Dennis Rhymes-with-spinach) have evidently been doing exactly that, trying to run a bluff. But not finally willing to sink the whole ship.
Winter Wallaby Mar 23rd 2010 at 02:41 am 28

the left calls their politicians to ask when they feel they are screwing up - the right just goes right along.

In what meaningful way has the left called their politicians to task? Obama has, by and large, continued and affirmed virtually all of the gross violations of the rule of law started under Bush, such as holding prisoners indefinitely with trial, and many of the same lefties that were (correctly) yelling that this was grossly unconstitutional, are now claiming that it’s perfectly reasonable. It’s become clear that that lack of a public option in the health care plan is by Obama’s design, rather than an unfortunate point he was forced to reluctantly concede, and I can’t see it likely that Obama’s going to suffer any political consequences for this.

Some progressives are complaining about such things, but if they’re not willing to actually punish Obama politically for it (and they’re not), then that’s not holding anyone to task, it’s just complaining. And I’m talking about myself here, too. I’m a progressive, who will most likely vote for Obama in 2012 on the grounds that he’s marginally better than his opponent, so I’m not likely to hold him to task either.
Nicole Mar 23rd 2010 at 08:26 am 29

Winter Wallaby #28

I agree … the left does not hold the Obama administration accountable in the sense that you have laid out. But I wonder what that would look like, do we vote him out — and then who would we vote in in his place ?

I stand by my statement that finding critisism of Obama from the mainstream left is easy to find, whereas finding similar critisism of Bush from the mainstream right was almost unheard of.
DPWally Mar 23rd 2010 at 11:23 am 30

Answering the original question:

The dopey wing of the climate change deniers will quiet down. The dopey end of climate change panickers will replace them “it’s hot, it’s global warming, we’re all going to melt!” That doesn’t lend itself to as many comics, but you should have a few to keep the global warming files active until winter.
Winter Wallaby Mar 23rd 2010 at 12:13 pm 31

No idea, Nicole. If I knew I wouldn’t have just admitted that I’ll probably vote for Kodos in 2012.