ROTORWASH -
Yes sir Tar Heel - you've got it all nailed down - the Earth is flat, the planet is cooling, the sky is falling, and all is cakes and ale with Mother Nature! Thank God for smart people like you who know for a fact that it is all in our minds! That is, after all, the way that Dear Old Neville once thought as well!
Never claimed to be a genius, far from it in fact. But the last history teacher out of the Old North State (my wife's home) that I encountered, once gave my son a grade on a history test that was almost perfect, save for one question that this teacher said he erred on!
My son answered that Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers first flew, was in North Carolina. To wit, this eminent sage, another well-educated history instructor I believe, blustered and insisted that this historic site was in South Carolina! "Now am I to understand that they moved Kitty Hawk in the last 103 years?"
Well, far be it from me to correct an educated man, not being (as you so eloquently put it) - A GENIUS! As a matter of fact, when I went to a "Father and Son Day" at my son's school just outside of Charlotte, away back when, I had one local kid ask how long it took me to get by boat from California to North Carolina?
Yet another young scholar insisted that Portugal, part of my distant ancestry, was situated just south of Mexico - and this he claimed while in the presence of his educator, a gent who whole-heartedly agreed with the kid's geographic deduction!
While you are entitled to your opinions on climate changes and their ultimate causes, and where they may lead, I am also entitled to believe that which I feel to be correct as well, without attempting to be cute in the process!
Besides, and as you so aptly put it about "Getting a Grip" - In my employment capacity in my younger days, I also worked in New Mexico (Silver City and Raton, among others, to be exact) - "The Site of Your Hypothetical Giant Out House!"
While there, I found it hard enough to maintain a grip upon body parts while urinating at mining sites during a few of the near white-out blizzards that occur in this region! Nor do I possess your all-encompassing and infallible grasp of Geology, Meteorology, and Climatology, my most eminent History professor!
Granted, one would think that the world is in a cooling trend (I saw the movie The Day After Tomorrow too), but some scientist claim, believe it or not, that the polar ice caps are retreating, and not advancing, and this due to global warming (Greenhouse Effect) and other factors?
Now if this is true, and I will bow to your "Infinite, Old Dominion Wisdom" on the subject, and without resorting to smart ass academic remarks I might add - retreating polar ice is hardly a sign of a coming ice age or a world-wide cooling trend in my humble opinion - one of several such glaciated eras that have occurred in the Earth's history thus far I believe!
Does not the melting of vast quantities of ice into surrounding far warmer sea water, after all, point to (not only) rising sea levels, but a warming climate as well? And was this not what occurred during the Pennsylvanian Era? "Now do correct me if I am wrong, and I am sure that you will!!"
And all of these hurricanes of late, storms that feed upon and build in intensity while traveling across warmer water - are they too also figments of my imagination (Cooling indeed) newby! The only thing that may be in a deep freeze here, are ideas that were not open to discussion or interpretation. But then, my education was only geared toward the sciences, and not the liberal arts!
But again, I stand humbled in the presence of true greatness and vast intellect! As such, please do accept my apology - for tis not me, but rather thee and thine, who are cut from "TRUE GENIUS!!"
And by the by, didn't General Joseph Eggleston Johnston once say something akin to this, just before the events of 26 April 1865, near Durhan Station, if you get my point? "Now ask me if I really give a damn?"
And before we both become offensive, as I said, my wife is originally from Albermarle (your State I believe), and I had a relative or two who fought for the South out of Louisiana. Alas, however, one also fought for the North with a Rhode Island unit that claimed to be the first at Vicksburg I believe! This is probably yet another reason for my being so damned thick I suppose!!
"Thank you again - I stand corrected and eternally grateful for your sarcasm! I am sure that it serves you well at school?"
VERITAS