The most terrifying graph you will see all year. Or century, for that matter.

See that 5 degrees Celsius we're projected to hit by 2050? That's 9 degrees Fahrenheit. That means the end of human civilization, and possibly of the human race itself. Within our lifetimes.

The Science Pope blog makes clear exactly what this all means:

Your brain will fight it, even with the numbers on the page staring back at you, because the collapse of civilization is simply beyond human comprehension. To really internalize this information means you would need to accept things like:

- You are among the last people that will ever walk the Earth
- Your children won’t survive to middle age
- All of the beauty, culture, and scientific discoveries we’ve unlocked will return to the ether from whence they came.

Forgive my French, but that is some heavy shit. Yet our ability to understand and feel threatened by this information is hindered by the fact that things don’t seem that bad right now. Sure things feel a little “off”, but how can we be so close to oblivion when life is (generally speaking) so good, modern and happy?



The answer is exponentials. Climate change does not follow a linear path (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc…), it follow an exponential path (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc…). Global temperature is increasing exponentially, fueled by humanity’s exponential rise in energy use, population, and economic growth. As you can see from the chart, exponential functions look like a hockey stick: they stay low for a long time, and then rise very suddenly and rapidly once they turn the corner. Everyone has some experience with exponential growth in their daily lives…any bank account with compounded interest will follow this curve, and exponentials are the reason that sickness spreads so rapidly through your child’s school.

http://science-pope.com/2013/02/i-bet-you-didnt-know/

Ali Soufan (Former Special Agent): "Zero Dark Thirty" As a movie-I enjoyed it - As history-it’s bunk

Torture, Lies and Hollywood

By
ALI H. SOUFAN

Published: February 22, 2013

I WATCHED “Zero Dark Thirty” not as a former F.B.I. special agent who
spent a decade chasing, interrogating and prosecuting top members of Al
Qaeda but as someone who enjoys Hollywood movies. As a movie, I enjoyed
it. As history, it’s bunk.


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/opinion/sunday/torture-lies-and-hollywood.html?hp&_r=0

BSA

FBI Declares War on The Scooter Store

Ok, So Carville Gets It Right, Every Once In A While...

A BAD IDEA GETS WORSE BY Charles P. Pierce (brilliant take-down of the drone program)

FEB 21, 2013
A Bad Idea Gets Worse
By Charles P. Pierce
at 12:30am




Read more: A Bad Idea Gets Worse - Esquire http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Outlaw_In_The_Oval#ixzz2LeLwsRwx



First, we have the ongoing charade of "transparency" as regards the president's assumed right to kill Americans anywhere in the world including, absent a clear statement from this administration, which has not been forthcoming, within the borders of the United States. Then we have the drone program itself, which is a constitutional abomination no matter how effective you presume it is. Then, we have another attempt to reach a kind of bipartisan consensus with the various vandals and predatory fauna in the other party. And then, last, as part of the attempt at bipartisan consensus, a deal is struck in which the president's hit list is kept in a vault while more fuel is fed into the Benghazi!, BENGHAZI!, BENGHAZI!!!!!!!111!!! infernal machine just as it was so sputtering to a halt that even John McCain was calling a cab to pick him up by the side of the road. I swear, if this deal goes through, Lindsey Graham is going to have a woody you could see from space.

This is what happens when you elect someone -- anyone -- to the presidency as that office is presently constituted. Of all the various Washington mystery cults, the one at that end of Pennsylvania Avenue is the most impenetrable. This is why the argument many liberals are making -- that the drone program is acceptable both morally and as a matter of practical politics because of the faith you have in the guy who happens to be presiding over it at the moment -- is criminally naive, intellectually empty, and as false as blue money to the future. The powers we have allowed to leach away from their constitutional points of origin into that office have created in the presidency a foul strain of outlawry that (worse) is now seen as the proper order of things. If that is the case, and I believe it is, then the very nature of the presidency of the United States at its core has become the vehicle for permanently unlawful behavior. Every four years, we elect a new criminal because that's become the precise job description.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Outlaw_In_The_Oval

VICTORY! --- AP stylebook entry recognizes gay marriages.

Hallelujah! The Associated Press has corrected its incorrect assertion that legally-wed gay couples should generally not be referred to in the same manner as legally-wed straight couples.

About time. And the right thing to do.
http://americablog.com/2013/02/victory-new-ap-stylebook-entry-recognizes-gay-marriages.html



New entry in the AP Stylebook: husband, wife
Feb. 21, 2013


The following entry was added today to the AP Stylebook Online and also will appear in the new print edition and Stylebook Mobile, published in the spring:

Reality and the Republican Party is the difference between information and disinformation.

There’s actually a new excuse! #6 –

(STUPIDITY) 6. One of the new John Boehner sequestration talking points is that Republicans couldn’t possibly accept any new revenue, even the revenue he was publicly offering two months ago, because there are still wasteful government programs. As Boehner wrote Wednesday, “no one should be talking about raising taxes when the government is still paying people to play videogames, giving folks free cellphones, and buying $47,000 cigarette-smoking machines.”

PELOSI re: 2014: “Just keep it simple. We want to raise the minimum wage, and you don’t. Why Not?

In an interview with me, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/02/22/pelosi-to-gop-you-oppose-minimum-wage-hike-at-your-peril/ Nancy Pelosi summed up the message Dems used against Republicans in 2006, and will again use in 2014: “Just keep it simple. We want to raise the minimum wage, and you don’t. Why not?”

.......................................

“If people really want to address the deficit and reduce government spending, they should address the issue that some spending on the safety net is subsidizing minimal pay in this country,” Pelosi said. “When taxpayers are subsidizing low wages, people should be aware of that. We’re subsidizing an economy. We’re not subsidizing people. They are doing a hard day’s work. When we’re not rewarding work actively, there’s something wrong with the system.”

Pelosi also linked the minimum wage to Keynesian economics: “Our economy is best served by rewarding work, by having those workers be stronger consumers, providing for their families, spending money, and injecting demand into the economy. You cannot deny that putting money into the hands of working people at that level is the best way to grow the economy.”

Pelosi also questioned whether voters would believe Republicans are opposing the minimum wage hike for the good of low wage workers — after all, they opposed tax hikes on the rich on behalf of small businesses, and have held to this line even as the public has grown more convinced that GOP policies favor the rich.

“I don’t think they have any credibility in this regard — none,” she said. “There are certain things people believe about us — that we’re there for working families. There are certain things people believe about them — they’re there for the wealthy and special
interests.”

Well, okay then.

Sue Swayze, the legislative director of Indiana Right to Life, told local radio station WBAA that that goal of the bill is to protect women’s safety and hold abortion clinics to higher health standards. She said she does not understand why it would be a problem to mandate transvaginal ultrasounds. “I got pregnant vaginally,” she said. “Something else could come in my vagina for a medical test that wouldn’t be that intrusive to me. So I find that argument a little ridiculous.”


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/21/double-ultrasound-bill-indiana_n_2734658.html?utm_hp_ref=politics