Sam Seder: Libertarian Caller: "Global Warming is Bullshit," Epic Debate Ensues

[WhoIsNumberNone]

Libertarian caller 'James from the South' calls in to debate a number of libertarian talking points and throws in one we don't believe we've had from a Libertarian caller before..."global warming is bullshit"...

[Plucketeer]

1. I don't think our schools are failing us

as much as our gene pool.

[freedom fighter jh]

2. James is so bad he's good.

He's a perfect straw man, bouncing up over and over for Sam to knock him down again.

[Jack Rabbit]

3. A good wake-up piece

The young man could have presented his case better. For example, in his rant about taxation, he could have said "I have a problem with the Sixteenth Amendment," which did change the federal system from the way the Founding Fathers designed and was the way James from the South thought was ideal.

James also had a firm belief that private property is part of the individual who owns it, like the individual's body. However, I (speaking for myself only) believe that there is a difference between saying that an individual has the right to own private property and that the individual is identical to his private property. Private property is, after all, something that can be bought and sold and thus is something separate from the individual. Moreover, I, Jack Rabbit, also believe that there is no natural right or eternal right or whatever kind of right one wishes to call it to own private property. If there were a natural right to own private property, then it would grow out of the fact that private property exists in a state of nature, which it does not. The ownership of private property is therefore a social right granted by members of the society at large (society being something that actually grows out of a human nature, but that's another concept) in the time and place where the society exists and may be terminated by a consensus of the members of society when it becomes evident that the right is dysfunctional. That decision to terminate such a right should not be made lightly, as it often precipitates a great deal of social strife.

[kimbutgar]

4. I got a headache listening to this guy twisting himself into a pretzel

Everytime Sam pointed out his inconsistencies. It's a sign of stupidity when you're young and think you
Know everything. The one thing I learned as I get older I don't know jack shit.

My husband has a nephew who's 28 and thinks he is brilliant ( barely graduated from high school) raised on a heavy dose of rush growing up. I always say he went to the university of dumbfuckinstan sounds like James went to same university. I always trip the nephew up by asking him questions like if social security is a ponzu scheme then your grandma is ripping you off. Do you want them to take away grandma's social security? He gets loud like James and changes the subject.

I hope there is a small minority of James out there in the US otherwise we are screwed.

[JDPriestly]

5. The caller was a racist. The minute he started talking states' rights, he revealed his real

motives. What a hoot!

If he doesn't believe in global warming or that it is caused by human activities, I invite him to look at the temperatures this year in Los Angeles and compare them to those of prior years.

"But here’s the surprise: on a historical and national level, it hasn’t actually been all that cold. With data from Weather Underground, I calculated the average high daily temperature from Jan. 1 through Jan. 22 for the 10 largest cities in the U.S. The results make this winter look surprisingly average:

Jan. 2014 Average High Historical Average High
New York: 38 F (3.3 C) 36 F (2.2 C)
Los Angeles: 76 F (24.4 C) 68 F (20 C)
Chicago: 27 F (-2.7 C) 32 F (0 C)
Houston: 64 F (17.8 C) 63 F (17.2 C)
Philadelphia: 40 F (4.4 C) 41 F (5 C)
Phoenix: 73 F (22. 8 C) 67 F (19.4 C)
San Antonio: 66 F (18.9 C) 63 F (17.2 C)
San Diego: 72 F (22.2 C) 65 F (18.3 C)
Dallas: 58 F (14.4 C) 57 F (13.9 C)
San Jose: 66 F (18.9 C) 58 F (14.4 C)

. . . .

What do we learn from this? Well for one thing, there’s an East Coast bias in news coverage, at least of the weather. But while it truly has been historically cold on average for much of the Midwest, for most of the rest of the country the average temperatures have been around normal, or even a little above. And the West Coast is experiencing an unusually hot winter (one that has compounded the record drought in California). Average high temperatures have been further above normal in Los Angeles and San Jose than they’ve been below average in Chicago. Anchorage has been positively balmy—by Alaskan standards—with average daily highs that are 11 F (6.1 C) greater than the historical average for January.

So why has this month felt so unusually cold for so many Americans? Probably because it has been—at least compared to recent history. An Associated Press analysis found that from 1900 on, cold extremes happened about once every four years. But when the average temperature in the U.S. dropped below 18 F on Jan. 6, it was the first time the country had been that cold on average in 17 years. And that day was only the 55th coldest day in recorded U.S. history, much warmer than the 12 F average recorded on Christmas Eve 1983."

http://science.time.com/2014/01/22/average-temperatures-in-january-warm-despite-cold/

I remember the cold, cold Iowa winters in the 1940s. That was cold.

Here is a chart showing climate change measured in temperatures:

http://www.wunderground.com/climate/