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Nadir

Dept. of Injustice Punks Congress

Raw Story reports that House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers (D-MI) is “disappointed” that the US Justice Department failed to comply with a subpoena that the Congressman issued last week. The subpoena had requested documents about the firing of eight US attorneys.

According to Raw Story, Conyers has threatened that there will be “consequences” because of this failure to comply by Justice. Justice sent over a few documents last week, but they didn’t send everything that was requested, and much of the information was redacted even though the subpoena asked for complete versions.

The Bush administration has refused to comply with the rule of law before. Why would we suspect anything different now?

The real question is what will Conyers do about it?

911 Flight 97 Data Contradicts Official Story

A very interesting post from one of our favorite sites Playhata.com:

Pilots for 9/11 Truth, an ad-hock international organization of pilots and aviation professionals, petitioned the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) via the Freedom of Information Act to obtain their 2002 report, “Flight Path Study-American Airlines Flight 77″, consisting of a Comma Separated Value (CSV) file and Flight Path Animation, allegedly derived from Flight 77’s Flight Data Recorder (FDR). The 9/11 Commission relied heavily upon and frequently sited the NTSB Flight Path Study in their Final Report.In August, 2006, members of Pilots for 9/11 Truth received these documents from the NTSB and began a close analysis of the data they contain. After expert review and cross check, Pilots for 9/11 Truth has concluded that the information in these NTSB documents does not support, and in some instances factually contradicts, the official government position that American Airlines Flight 77 struck the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001.

  1. Altitude data from the FDR shows the aircraft on a different heading and at least 300 feet too high to have struck the light poles along Highway 37 moments before striking the Pentagon.
  2. The rate of descent data is in direct conflict with the aircraft being able to impact the light poles and be captured in the Dept of Defense “5 Frames” video of an aircraft traveling nearly parallel with the Pentagon lawn.
  3. The FDR record of data stops at least one second prior to official impact time, thus omitting crucial, final moment impact data.
  4. If data trends are continued from the last recorded, the aircraft altitude would have been at least 100 feet too high to have hit the Pentagon, even if it were on the correct path to also hit the light poles.

An excellent lecture, summery and slide presentation by Calum Douglas, an engineering student at Oxford Brookes University and member of pilotsfor911truth.org was just put up on google video.

This video presentation can be found by clicking HERE

So the pilots reading the 911 data say the flight data doesn’t add up. From my vantage point, the 911-Truth movement (negatively called “the conspiracy theorists’ movement”) has more scientific data and common sense on our side than the official government accounts. Polls show that most Americans believe as we do, that the true story hasn’t been told.

If a presidential candidate stood up and said, “I will initiate a real investigation into exactly what happened on the day of Sept. 11, 2001 and the cover-up that followed,” he or she would immediately be the frontrunner.

And then that candidate would probably be assassinated a week later.

Spring Cleaning Time

The most talked about news of the week has been that Don Imus was fired for racially insensitive remarks. Imus had a history of racism, sexism and just downright nastiness that stretched back for years.

His ouster reminds us that perhaps it’s time for a bit more spring cleaning. There are other public figures who should also get the boot for past and present deeds.

Huffington Post offered a few names, and I’d like to add some to the list.

Bill O’Reilly: This guy offends every night, and his flagship show at the Faux News channel has got to go. Besides his repeatedly racist rhetoric, he shouts down his guests and turns off their mics when they disagree with him, and he cannot debate them on a fair footing. This is not the news. What was the CBC thinking?

Rush Limbaugh: Rush told his listeners this week that they are coming for him next. And he is right to be worried. It’s only a matter of time before he maligns Black quarterbacks or insults everyone as he did when Survivor tried to play the race card.

Howard Stern: Stern may be safe for a while on the realm of satellite radio, but his sexist and racist rants are well known. What about his Aunt Jemima fantasy?

Paul Wolfowitz: This NeoCon poster boy is currently in hot water for helping his love interest get a raise at the World Bank. But he should be indicted, tried and convicted for his role in starting the Iraq War back when he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Alberto Gonzales: A recent poll says most Americans agree that “Gonzo” should resign for overseeing the politically motivated firings of several US prosecutors. But what about his history as the chief architect of US torture policy and facilitating war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Karl Rove: Bush’s Brain is always up to something. You know it. I know it. Congress knows it. The problem is he has an uncanny knack at legally covering his tracks. So now that four years Rove emails have come up missing, we have to wonder just what else this sinister villian has to hide?

Dick Cheney: We all know that Evil Dick is the mastermind behind much of the Bush administration’s misguided policies. From the Plame/Wilson affair to falsifying evidence to promote the invasion and occupation of Iraq, from his energy task force to shooting his buddy in the face, why can’t we find a reason to indict this guy? I still want to know about the live fly war games on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001… Impeach Dick Cheney NOW!!

George W. Bush: If there we are to maintain any faith in the rule of law and the US Constitution, the US House of Representatives has got to begin investigating President George Bush for impeachable offenses. He has admitted to breaking federal law by spying on US citizens. He has overstepped his authority by issuing hundreds of signing statements. By signing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and Public Law 109-364 (or as I like to call it “The Martial Law Act of 2006”) Bush has turned the office of the president into a defacto dictatorship.

Bush lied us into an illegal and immoral imperial invasion and occupation of Iraq, and his policies have caused the deaths of nearly 700,000 Iraqi civilians, far more than 3000 US soldiers and the wounding and maiming of tens of thousands of people. Now his determination to escalate the occupation in spite of the advice of leading generals, his own bipartisan Iraqi Study Group, Congressional and public protest, and basic common sense demonstrate not incompetence, but a desire to bog the US military down in an imperial conflict that will only lead to more deaths and continued looting of the US treasury. He must be stopped. We can’t wait another year. Impeach Bush NOW!

Nadir: I’m sure I’ll offend someone again soon. Probably at my show tonight. Maybe during this post. In my own defense, however, I have resigned from that blog where I used to argue and cuss at right-wing pundits, and I apologized for using racially descriptive language on LastChocolateCity.com. That’s gotta be worth something, right?

The Ramifications of Racial Remarks

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

The Imus/Rutgers insult and the furor that followed illustrate both the power of words, and the volatility of race as an issue in America and the world.

The remarks that he made have struck nerves on so many levels. The term “nappy headed” invokes Black hair politics; the reference to women as “hoes” is degradation; darker skinned Blacks are pitted against fairer skinned Blacks with the “jiggaboos vs. wannabes” comment; and all of it raises questions like Who has the right to call people names? Why is it okay that Blacks can use certain language while others can’t? How responsibile are Black people for the words that are used against us when we perpetuate the issue by continuing the use of those words?

On April 10 after the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team’s press conference, I submited a post titled, “Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch” on Last Chocolate City. The post pointed out that those beautiful women had responded to Don Imus’s comments with poise and grace. The title implied, though the article did not clarify, that none of the women had what most Black folks would consider, “nappy” hair. Unfortunately, some people were offended by my reference to the women’s hair.

I didn’t mean to offend anyone with that statement. I apologize personally, and on behalf of LastChocolateCity.com and The Michigan Citizen, Inc., I apologize as well.

Imus and his team had attacked the women for their physical appearance, and the women of Rutgers obviously did not fit the description of “nappy headed hoes” by any stretch of the imagination. My intention with my post was to emphasize the fact that Imus’s comments were not only hateful, but inaccurate. However, by stating that there wasn’t a nappy head in the bunch, I stirred up some deep seated animosities within the Black community.

For the record, I am a brother with waist length locs. My hair is nothing if not nappy. The comment I made was intended to be a humorous remark directed with love for my sisters on that team and for my people. But by making comments that were offensive to someone else, my intentions (and my hair) were not scrutinized. What mattered was the perception and that another human being was hurt by my words.

The politics of hair is still a sticky subject especially among Black women. I have heard sisters criticized for having natural hair and for having perms, for having weaves and for being bald headed.

Blacks have been struggling with the language we use to describe ourselves and our people for many years now. Our choice to continue using the derogoatory terms that are used to insult us is coming back to bite us.

African culture has always been adapted by the dominant culture in the US. Why would we not believe that as Black culture becomes mainstream, that others would not mimic our speech? They always do. This has been the case from “goobers” and “yams” to “cool” and “chillin’”. So when Imus uses our own language to demean our women, we shouldn’t be surprised.

But the question is also, are we not offended when Blacks refer to each other using words that start with the letter “N”, the letter “H” or the letter “B”? Maybe all this talk of banishing “the N-word” is working. I cringe every time I hear someone use it. I get a knot in my stomach when I reflexively use it myself.

Natural African hair is still viewed by some as a curse or as a negative aspect of our appearance. Yet white kids work very hard to lock their hair. Japanese kids pay hundreds of dollars to have their hair “dreaded”. The frequent sightings of afros, cornrows and locs in public let us know that nappiness no longer has the negative conotations that it once did.

But when a white man calls a group of sisters “nappy headed hoes”, and then a Black man says, “No, they aren’t nappy,” emotions flair.

Is it time to remove all racially identifiable language from our speech altogether?

Spring Cleaning Time

The most talked about news of the week has been that Don Imus was fired for racially insensitive remarks. Imus had a history of racism, sexism and just downright nastiness that stretched back for years.

His ouster reminds us that perhaps it’s time for a bit more spring cleaning. There are other public figures who should also get the boot for past and present deeds.

Huffington Post offered a few names, and I’d like to add some to the list.

Bill O’Reilly: This guy offends every night, and his flagship show at the Faux News channel has got to go. Besides his repeatedly racist rhetoric, he shouts down his guests and turns off their mics when they disagree with him, and he cannot debate them on a fair footing. This is not the news. What was the CBC thinking?

Rush Limbaugh: Rush told his listeners this week that they are coming for him next. And he is right to be worried. It’s only a matter of time before he maligns Black quarterbacks or insults everyone as he did when Survivor tried to play the race card.

Howard Stern: Stern may be safe for a while on the realm of satellite radio, but his sexist and racist rants are well known. What about his Aunt Jemima fantasy?

Paul Wolfowitz: This NeoCon poster boy is currently in hot water for helping his love interest get a raise at the World Bank. But he should be indicted, tried and convicted for his role in starting the Iraq War back when he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Alberto Gonzales: A recent poll says most Americans agree that “Gonzo” should resign for overseeing the politically motivated firings of several US prosecutors. But what about his history as the chief architect of US torture policy and facilitating war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Karl Rove: Bush’s Brain is always up to something. You know it. I know it. Congress knows it. The problem is he has an uncanny knack at legally covering his tracks. So now that four years Rove emails have come up missing, we have to wonder just what else this sinister villian has to hide?

Dick Cheney: We all know that Evil Dick is the mastermind behind much of the Bush administration’s misguided policies. From the Plame/Wilson affair to falsifying evidence to promote the invasion and occupation of Iraq, from his energy task force to shooting his buddy in the face, why can’t we find a reason to indict this guy? I still want to know about the live fly war games on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001… Impeach Dick Cheney NOW!!

George W. Bush: If there we are to maintain any faith in the rule of law and the US Constitution, the US House of Representatives has got to begin investigating President George Bush for impeachable offenses. He has admitted to breaking federal law by spying on US citizens. He has overstepped his authority by issuing hundreds of signing statements. By signing the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and Public Law 109-364 (or as I like to call it “The Martial Law Act of 2006“) Bush has turned the office of the president into a defacto dictatorship.

Bush lied us into an illegal and immoral imperial invasion and occupation of Iraq, and his policies have caused the deaths of nearly 700,000 Iraqi civilians, far more than 3000 US soldiers and the wounding and maiming of tens of thousands of people. Now his determination to escalate the occupation in spite of the advice of leading generals, his own bipartisan Iraqi Study Group, Congressional and public protest, and basic common sense demonstrate not incompetence, but a desire to bog the US military down in an imperial conflict that will only lead to more deaths and continued looting of the US treasury. He must be stopped. We can’t wait another year. Impeach Bush NOW!

Nadir: I’m sure I’ll offend someone again soon. Probably at my show tonight. Maybe during this post. In my own defense, however, I have resigned from that blog where I used to argue and cuss at right-wing pundits, and I apologized for using racially descriptive language on LastChocolateCity.com. That’s gotta be worth something, right?

The Ramifications of Racial Remarks

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

The Imus/Rutgers insult and the furor that followed illustrate both the power of words, and the volatility of race as an issue in America and the world.

The remarks that he made have struck nerves on so many levels. The term “nappy headed” invokes Black hair politics; the reference to women as “hoes” is degradation; darker skinned Blacks are pitted against fairer skinned Blacks with the “jiggaboos vs. wannabes” comment; and all of it raises questions like Who has the right to call people names? Why is it okay that Blacks can use certain language while others can’t? How responsibile are Black people for the words that are used against us when we perpetuate the issue by continuing the use of those words?

On April 10 after the Rutgers Women’s Basketball team’s press conference, I submited a post titled, “Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch” on Last Chocolate City. The post pointed out that those beautiful women had responded to Don Imus’s comments with poise and grace. The title implied, though the article did not clarify, that none of the women had what most Black folks would consider, “nappy” hair. Unfortunately, some people were offended by my reference to the women’s hair.

I didn’t mean to offend anyone with that statement. I apologize personally, and on behalf of LastChocolateCity.com and The Michigan Citizen, Inc., I apologize as well.

Imus and his team had attacked the women for their physical appearance, and the women of Rutgers obviously did not fit the description of “nappy headed hoes” by any stretch of the imagination. My intention with my post was to emphasize the fact that Imus’s comments were not only hateful, but inaccurate. However, by stating that there wasn’t a nappy head in the bunch, I stirred up some deep seated animosities within the Black community.

For the record, I am a brother with waist length locs. My hair is nothing if not nappy. The comment I made was intended to be a humorous remark directed with love for my sisters on that team and for my people. But by making comments that were offensive to someone else, my intentions (and my hair) were not scrutinized. What mattered was the perception and that another human being was hurt by my words.

The politics of hair is still a sticky subject especially among Black women. I have heard sisters criticized for having natural hair and for having perms, for having weaves and for being bald headed.

Blacks have been struggling with the language we use to describe ourselves and our people for many years now. Our choice to continue using the derogoatory terms that are used to insult us is coming back to bite us.

African culture has always been adapted by the dominant culture in the US. Why would we not believe that as Black culture becomes mainstream, that others would not mimic our speech? They always do. This has been the case from “goobers” and “yams” to “cool” and “chillin’”. So when Imus uses our own language to demean our women, we shouldn’t be surprised.

But the question is also, are we not offended when Blacks refer to each other using words that start with the letter “N”, the letter “H” or the letter “B”? Maybe all this talk of banishing “the N-word” is working. I cringe every time I hear someone use it. I get a knot in my stomach when I reflexively use it myself.

Natural African hair is still viewed by some as a curse or as a negative aspect of our appearance. Yet white kids work very hard to lock their hair. Japanese kids pay hundreds of dollars to have their hair “dreaded”. The frequent sightings of afros, cornrows and locs in public let us know that nappiness no longer has the negative conotations that it once did.

But when a white man calls a group of sisters “nappy headed hoes”, and then a Black man says, “No, they aren’t nappy,” emotions flair.

Is it time to remove all racially identifiable language from our speech altogether?

Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

The Rutgers Women’s Basketball team responded with class and poise to racist comments from Don Imus’s Imus in the Morning show at a press conference on Tuesday.

The radio/television host and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, referred to the Big East champions as “nappy-headed hoes” and “jiggaboos” last week after their loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Women’s National Championship game. Imus will serve a two-week suspension beginning on Monday, April 16.

Rutgers team members refused to comment on the severity of the punishment or on whether they thought it was just. The university used the opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of the group this season and to focus on their intellectual prowess. Rutgers has tough academic standards, and according to Coach C. Vivian Stringer

“These young ladies before you are valedictorians, future doctors, musical prodigies… these young ladies are the best this nation has to offer and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate. They are gifted.”

The team has agreed to meet with Imus to discuss his comments at an undisclosed location.

According to a transcript of the segment (from MediaBistro), Imus and McGuirk compared the game between Rutgers and Tennessee to “the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes” from Spike Lee’s School Daze (misidentified by the show’s co-host as Do The Right Thing).

DON IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final.

SID ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night — seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and –

BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough –

CHARLES McCORD: Do The Right Thing.

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

This isn’t the first time Imus’s crew has been guilty of “racially insensitive remarks”. In 2001, sports guy Rosenburg said Venus and Serena Williams would have a better chance at appearing in National Geographic than in Playboy. And Imus called the New York Knicks a bunch of “chest-thumping pimps.”

Many, including Rev. Al Sharpton, who hosted Imus’s formal apology to the African American community on his talk show, believe Imus should be fired for his remarks. Sharpton told Matt Lauer on Tuesday’s Today Show that suspension was, “not nearly enough. I think it is too little, too late.”

There is a chance that Imus will emerge from his suspension unscathed. Perhaps these comments aren’t as incendiary as Michael Richards’ racist tirade or Mel Gibson’s Jew-hating rant, but the Imus show is simulcast on national radio and television. He must adhere to a higher standard than Richards in a comedy club or a drunken Gibson in a bar.

What message does this send if Imus gets a two-week slap on the wrist for yet another racist joke?

And why doesn’t the suspension begin immediately? Imus is supposed to host a telethon for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and his networks don’t want the charity to lose money because of Imus’s absence. His very presence may have the same unfortunate effect.

The most frustrating aspect of this incident is that rednecks like Imus and his team can steal thunder from these powerful, intelligent and yes, beautiful women with racist remarks and bad jokes. This was their time to celebrate a magnificent season, not defend their womanhood, beauty and race from idiots like the Imus crew.

As additional pennance, Imus and his entire team should each donate a month’s salary to the Rutgers general scholarship fund and Imus’s radio station WFAN and MSNBC should match the number. That might start to undo the damage they have done.

Not a Nappy Head in the Bunch

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

The Rutgers Women’s Basketball team responded with class and poise to racist comments from Don Imus’s Imus in the Morning show at a press conference on Tuesday.

The radio/television host and his producer, Bernard McGuirk, referred to the Big East champions as “nappy-headed hoes” and “jiggaboos” last week after their loss to Tennessee in the NCAA Women’s National Championship game. Imus will serve a two-week suspension beginning on Monday, April 16.

Rutgers team members refused to comment on the severity of the punishment or on whether they thought it was just. The university used the opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of the group this season and to focus on their intellectual prowess. Rutgers has tough academic standards, and according to Coach C. Vivian Stringer

“These young ladies before you are valedictorians, future doctors, musical prodigies… these young ladies are the best this nation has to offer and we are so very fortunate to have them at Rutgers. They are young ladies of class, distinction. They are articulate. They are gifted.”

The team has agreed to meet with Imus to discuss his comments at an undisclosed location.

According to a transcript of the segment (from MediaBistro), Imus and McGuirk compared the game between Rutgers and Tennessee to “the Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes” from Spike Lee’s School Daze (misidentified by the show’s co-host as Do The Right Thing).

DON IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between — a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women’s final.

SID ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night — seventh championship for [Tennessee coach] Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That’s some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and –

BERNARD McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That’s some nappy-headed hos there. I’m gonna tell you that now, man, that’s some — woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like — kinda like — I don’t know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes — that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough –

CHARLES McCORD: Do The Right Thing.

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don’t know if I’d have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

This isn’t the first time Imus’s crew has been guilty of “racially insensitive remarks”. In 2001, sports guy Rosenburg said Venus and Serena Williams would have a better chance at appearing in National Geographic than in Playboy. And Imus called the New York Knicks a bunch of “chest-thumping pimps.”

Many, including Rev. Al Sharpton, who hosted Imus’s formal apology to the African American community on his talk show, believe Imus should be fired for his remarks. Sharpton told Matt Lauer on Tuesday’s Today Show that suspension was, “not nearly enough. I think it is too little, too late.”

There is a chance that Imus will emerge from his suspension unscathed. Perhaps these comments aren’t as incendiary as Michael Richards’ racist tirade or Mel Gibson’s Jew-hating rant, but the Imus show is simulcast on national radio and television. He must adhere to a higher standard than Richards in a comedy club or a drunken Gibson in a bar.

What message does this send if Imus gets a two-week slap on the wrist for yet another racist joke?

And why doesn’t the suspension begin immediately? Imus is supposed to host a telethon for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and his networks don’t want the charity to lose money because of Imus’s absence. His very presence may have the same unfortunate effect.

The most frustrating aspect of this incident is that rednecks like Imus and his team can steal thunder from these powerful, intelligent and yes, beautiful women with racist remarks and bad jokes. This was their time to celebrate a magnificent season, not defend their womanhood, beauty and race from idiots like the Imus crew.

As additional pennance, Imus and his entire team should each donate a month’s salary to the Rutgers general scholarship fund and Imus’s radio station WFAN and MSNBC should match the number. That might start to undo the damage they have done.

Sometimes It Snows in April

Sometimes it snows in April. That’s what Prince said anyway.

And that’s what happened this Easter weekend. After most of the US experienced a warmer than normal December, a colder than normal February, an early spring in late March, we now get a cold snap in the beginning of April.

Akanke and I thought we’d escape the cold in Michigan with a weekend trip to my hometown of Elizabethton, Tennessee. When we got here there was snow on the ground.

Snow in Texas. Sleet in Louisiana. What’s going on? What about global warming, Mr. Gore?

On the blog Reformed Leftist & Friends we’ve been debating the global warming phenomenon like many others. Reformed leftists (i.e. right-wingers) Paul Hue and SixStringSlinger argue that the current consensus of scientists around the world should be called into question. They feel that human contributions to global warming are minimal at best, and that economic interests should not be hampered when the science is shaky.

I side with the scientists. It’s obvious to me that man made greenhouse gases affect the environment.

Yes, the Earth has always undergone periods of climate change, even prior to the Industrial Revolution. Many believe the great flood that engulfed the planet in antiquity was an example.

So mounting evidence that the sun and other planets in the solar system are warming right along with Earth doesn’t come as a surprise or as refutation of manmade warming theories. Neither does snow in April. If anything it confirms that weather and life on our little rock are going to become more irregular.

Scientists compare man’s effect on the climate to loading dice. Myles Allen, director of the Climate Dynamics Group at Oxford University explained it like this to National Geographic

“What you can say is, global warming can increase the chance of a heat wave occurring, and a good analogy is loading the dice.”

Loaded dice increase the odds of rolling a specific number. For example, by replacing the three on a die with a six, the odds of rolling a six are doubled. The odds of rolling two sixes in a row are quadrupled.

But when the die is rolled many times and six shows on a third of the rolls, the loading effect is clear.

Even if the dice are loaded, they won’t roll six every time. So as Al Gore pointed out in An Inconvenient Truth, the weather will become more unpredictable.

That means warming and cooling trends that don’t fit traditional models. Which could mean super hot summers, super cold winters or cold summers and warm autumns.

And yes, sometimes it may snow in April.

Sometimes It Snows in April

Sometimes it snows in April. That’s what Prince said anyway.

And that’s what happened this Easter weekend. After most of the US experienced a warmer than normal December, a colder than normal February, an early spring in late March, we now get a cold snap in the beginning of April.

Akanke and I thought we’d escape the cold in Michigan with a weekend trip to my hometown of Elizabethton, Tennessee. When we got here there was snow on the ground.

Snow in Texas. Sleet in Louisiana. What’s going on? What about global warming, Mr. Gore?

On the blog Reformed Leftist & Friends we’ve been debating the global warming phenomenon like many others. Reformed leftists (i.e. right-wingers) Paul Hue and SixStringSlinger argue that the current consensus of scientists around the world should be called into question. They feel that human contributions to global warming are minimal at best, and that economic interests should not be hampered when the science is shaky.

I side with the scientists. It’s obvious to me that man made greenhouse gases affect the environment.

Yes, the Earth has always undergone periods of climate change, even prior to the Industrial Revolution. Many believe the great flood that engulfed the planet in antiquity was an example.

So mounting evidence that the sun and other planets in the solar system are warming right along with Earth doesn’t come as a surprise or as refutation of manmade warming theories. Neither does snow in April. If anything it confirms that weather and life on our little rock are going to become more irregular.

Scientists compare man’s effect on the climate to loading dice. Myles Allen, director of the Climate Dynamics Group at Oxford University explained it like this to National Geographic

“What you can say is, global warming can increase the chance of a heat wave occurring, and a good analogy is loading the dice.”

Loaded dice increase the odds of rolling a specific number. For example, by replacing the three on a die with a six, the odds of rolling a six are doubled. The odds of rolling two sixes in a row are quadrupled.

But when the die is rolled many times and six shows on a third of the rolls, the loading effect is clear.

Even if the dice are loaded, they won’t roll six every time. So as Al Gore pointed out in An Inconvenient Truth, the weather will become more unpredictable.

That means warming and cooling trends that don’t fit traditional models. Which could mean super hot summers, super cold winters or cold summers and warm autumns.

And yes, sometimes it may snow in April.

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© Nadir Omowale