Chicken Little According to Nathan Rott at NPR, we all owe Al Gore an apology because there has been severe flooding in Arkansas, and of course that must mean catastrophic climate change is true. After all, our intrepid reporter conducted a scientific poll of nearly two dozen people in Oklahoma and Arkansas (that's twenty-four, for those of you living in Alabama, Tennessee, or Rio Linda) and all of them said they agreed the climate is changing, so that makes it unanimous, right? The general gist of the story by Mr. Rott at NPR is that Al Gore has always been right, and anyone who doubted him about the reality of the threat from CO2 to our planet should be ashamed of themselves, and owes Mr. Gore an apology. Fat chance. There's a snowball's chance in hell Mr. Gore would ever get an apology from me for my past criticisms. His ego has surely been stroked by honorary doctorates, an onstage appearance at the Oscars, and even a little slice of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Yet none of his most dire predictions have come true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXinJIvpPOo There's a problem when a "journalist" tries to reshape facts to fit a certain narrative--other facts must be omitted. In his article, Mr. Rott tried to use emotional reactions and cherrypicked anecdotes instead of facts and statistics as the foundation for his argument. Why has it recently flooded in Arkansas? Could the floods have anything to do with record late snowfall this past spring? No one can look at images of destruction from floods, earthquakes, tornados, or other natural disasters and … [Read more...]
People who think they know everything
[FULL DISCLOSURE: Herman L. Mays, Jr. recently published a somewhat ruthless review of my book Counterargument for God, which may lead some readers to conclude this particular article has been written to gain some measure of revenge. However, after reading the rather vitriolic exchanges between academic/intellectual types such as Bart Ehrman and Richard Carrier, I'm convinced that hostile rhetoric is now a perfectly acceptable form of criticism. Therefore, I won't be mincing my words, either.] Professor Herman L. Mays, Jr. teaches at Marshall University, and he's probably a very nice guy (Anybody who can make me laugh out loud can't be all bad in my book). And when I read the following sentence his review of my book, I literally burst out laughing: To say Leonard's book should be taken with a grain of salt gives undue credit to the power of salt to ease the swallowing of the foulest of meals. I have to admit, that's a pretty clever zinger. Could his rhetoric be exaggerated? That's not for me to say. Because my brain often works in strange and unconventional ways, when I read his little quip my mind wandered back in time to revisit an old installment of the comic strip Bloom County, in which Opus the Penguin wrote a scathing review of the movie Benji Saves the Universe. He described the movie as achieving "new levels of badness" -- could I be as equally untalented a writer? Given his perspective as an academic who earns his paycheck teaching evolutionary biology, it shouldn't be terribly surprising that Professor Mays took exception to my criticisms of Darwin's … [Read more...]
Failure to communicate
I'm perfectly capable of having a polite yet spirited conversation with anyone about virtually any subject. I find the discussion tends to be far more interesting when two people seek common ground while exploring theoretical areas of disagreement. The potential to learn something new is far greater as ideas are freely exchanged, not banter dominated by memorized talking points that originated in some book written by somebody else. I write my own books. But it takes two to tango, as they say. Truly scintillating conversation ultimately depends on having a willing and worthy adversary for a vigorous debate. In any debate of interest both participants will clearly articulate their thoughts that have been steeped in logic and reason, without making appeals to emotion or resorting to regurgitated group-think. Both participants in an intellectual discussion must carefully listen to the opposition's point-of-view and make a serious attempt to understand it, if they hope to respond with cogent and effective rebuttal arguments. The problem is that in modern society, most people simply assume what another person thinks based on some preconceived label and would rather demonize and demagogue than persuade their opposition. Mere disagreement frequently inspires fits of apoplectic rage, and sometimes, even violence. Don't believe me? Just look at what's happened with the Berkeley riots. Interestingly, a college professor at Fresno State has also asserted that "college campuses are not free speech areas." The special snowflakes are encouraged to report their fellow students for … [Read more...]
Empowered idiots
I have a confession to make: I've enjoyed watching the movies of Harrison Ford as he pretended to be tough-as-nails archeologist Indiana Jones and rogue space smuggler Han Solo. He's a pretty good actor. Unfortunately, Mr. Ford has also been known to make headlines by saying words that were not scripted for him by a very talented writer. For example, he was recently quoted as saying the human race would soon become extinct unless some form of collective action wasn't immediately taken to "combat climate change." Please stick to your script in the future, Harrison. Now I am not the first writer that noticed a man who owns multiple airplanes -- a man who is completely unqualified to offer an informed opinion about the potential impact of "climate change" still felt free to lecture those of us who can't even afford to fly coach. This man is the same actor bragged to a magazine in 2010 that he would "often fly up the coast for a cheeseburger." Because he could. Apparently we should all pay higher taxes for energy and drive hybrid vehicles so Mr. Ford won't feel guilty about flying to Europe on his own private jet. But if we seriously believed his Chicken Little mentality, why shouldn't we force people like Mr. Ford to immediately give up their private jets in favor of (gasp) commercial air travel? This prima donna burns more gas on one flight to get a cheeseburger than I burn in my much more modest form of transportation over an entire year. Please get over yourself, Captain Solo. Sadly, Mr. Ford is hardly alone with his holier-than-thou attitude. The … [Read more...]
