Ridicule is a useful tool


And Federal Way is feeling its sting right now.

i-ae99e5ec439b5f1f816ea14dbc9c8dc4-fed_way.jpg

The kooks who promote foolish ideas are one target for ridicule, and this Frosty Hardison character is a prime example. He’s got a reply to the Seattle PI article that exposed him; it’s a MS Word file that doesn’t help his case. It starts off with a collection of bogus complaints about climate science, and just gets weirder and weirder. Here are a few choice bits.

It’s people like Al Gore, in both the Democratic and Republican parties and any other person on earth (no matter their political affiliation) that continue supporting the liberal biased politicians and judges legislating from the bench – that endorse gay marriage, kick Jesus Christ out of public schools and say Happy Holidays rather than Merry Christmas – that are speeding the curse and effect along. (did you see the play on words there? Cause and effect — curse and effect?)

I love the War on Christmas. It’s this easy signifier that you’re dealing with a ranting, raving, freaked-out kook. When said kook is so inordinately proud of his little “play on words” that he has to point it out to you…priceless.

It was also the point in his manifesto where the little voices in his head started telling him what to write, and it got really interesting.

The thing people should really be on the watch for instead of global warming, is a red celestial body (comet or asteroid) that will appear as a cross in the sky. That event will happen long before global warming makes a serious and noticeable impact into the lives of people on earth. People en mass do not want to hear of such things though, as they do not wish to be held accountable for the things they do here.

Hang on, though, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. He offers us two solutions to global warming:

  • Baptize everyone on the planet within two years. Onward, Christian soldiers!

  • Build giant nuclear-powered refrigerators at the north and south pole. Nuclear power plants, of course, do not produce any heat.

Just as I have heard in the arguments for global warming “Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away” My position is that many people do not believe in the prophecies of the Holy Bible either, but once again Ignoring His Truth won’t make it go away . Just because your science can’t touch, feel, measure or produce evidence in God or you do not believe in God and the miracle that is His Son Jesus Christ, doesn’t make them or the History documented in the Bible any less real. The Bible has said for 3500 years that the end days would see global warming because the earth is under a curse because of mankind turning away from the one true God. Like it or not, It’s going to happen and like it or not the people CAN NOT change it. I say that they cannot change it for two reasons, first If it gets changed, it will be by God’s will and that will only happen if the whole planet got baptized in the Holy Spirit and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior within the next 2 years. Second being a man of God I always try to present solutions and not just complain about things. So I present this potential solution: One way this WORLD could make a dent in what has already transpired, would be to build several huge nuclear power plants in the polar regions and install several freezer coils at the edges of the polar glaciers to begin expanding the size of the ice and begin making more ice. What are the odds of that happening? There is your “INCONVENIENT TRUTH”.

I think we can agree that the man is a nut and needs help. He also needs to be discredited and ridiculed, because the real problem is illustrated in the cartoon up above: we have officials on school boards and other arms of government who take these loons seriously. Hardison is a fringe element who can babble all he wants on the internet and in his home; the real problem is school board members like David Larson, who thinks the existence of an opinionated kook in his district is a justification for compromising the education of the kids of every family in that school district.

And ultimately, I predict, the root of that crime lies in religion. Nothing is as potent in justifying a kook’s ravings as the cloak of the dominant religious belief—I guarantee you that if this clown hadn’t mentioned Jesus Christ in his argument, he would have been shooed out the door long before this became national news.

Work your way up the chain: ridicule Hardison, then Larson, and don’t spare the ridicule of Christianity, either.

Comments

  1. says

    How appalling; this guy doesn’t know a lick of science. I like his nuclear-powered refrigerator idea though. He’s probably the kind of guy who’d turn his air conditioner off in the summer and just open up the door to his refrigerator.

  2. Matt M says

    Where does the heat from the nuclear power plants go? Where does the exhaust heat from the giant refrigerator go?

  3. Robin Levett says

    As I commented earlier, “Frosty” really ought to learn Healey’s first law of holes.

    He does have a point, however; the PI did misrepresent him. They had him coming across as far more reasonable than he apparently actually is.

  4. Caledonian says

    Now, now, we have to be respectful of all viewpoints, lest we alienate the undecided middle-grounders with our rudeness and lack of courtesy. Ridicule is only for immature and unsophisticated people not properly educated in academic tolerance of alternate views.

  5. Thinker says

    Of course, this cartoon can be easily dismissed because of its glaring factual error – everyone knows Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden 6,000 years ago, not 14,000 years!

    (Or is this an attempt from the cartoonist at accomodating both sides a little and getting it completely wrong…?)

  6. Dave Hone says

    I’d like to see him build a power station at the North Pole. Can someone give him a shovel and some cement and ask him to dig the foundations. Tell him to go deep….

  7. says

    So I present this potential solution: One way this WORLD could make a dent in what has already transpired, would be to build several huge nuclear power plants in the polar regions and install several freezer coils at the edges of the polar glaciers to begin expanding the size of the ice and begin making more ice. What are the odds of that happening? There is your “INCONVENIENT TRUTH”.

    His name is Frosty isn’t it? Perhaps he could just talk to the Heat Miser and have him stop being such an ass with all the warming stuff.

  8. Gary says

    I see Frosty’s manifesto included a slap at the United Nations. For those of you not following these nut jobs, they despise the UN because they’re sure the planet is on a course towards a “one world government”. There is no reasoning with them. What bothers me most is that one stupendously ignorant school board member shuts the whole project down because of one insane citizen. Couldn’t they have just let the kid sit out the class that day?

  9. Mark Borok says

    “The Bible has said for 3500 years that the end days would see global warming because the earth is under a curse because of mankind turning away from the one true God”

    For such a religious person he doesn’t seem to know his Bible very well either. At the end of the story of Noah and the flood God states that he will ever again curse the earth on account of Man’s sins.

  10. says

    Yes. Consider the entire statement in his .doc file but replacing all references to “Jesus” with, say, “My Dog” and all references to “God” with, say, “The aliens that abducted me” and so on.

    The ranting would actually make more sense.

    And THIS is the problem with the middle ground so often spoken about in this forum. Protection of the middle ground of mainstream religion also must be extended to protect the destructive, mean spirited and insane ravings of a fringe lunatic.

    What needs to happen is that the middle ground has to turn its focus on this problem.

    Taxpayers are paying for this. There are non-profits supporting this lunacy.

    Eventually, if the religious community does not get its act cleaned up it will be even more necessary to tax the churches. And tax the businesses owned by the churches.

  11. Rocky says

    I’m soooo happy this ass monkey AND the school board have the spotlight on them. Hopefully this ridicule will change rational minds, and they will show students the film.

  12. says

    What I find odd (well, I don’t really) is that “mainstream” Christians are notoriously reluctant to take on twits like this. They get all hot and bothered over Dawkins, and write reams about how silly he is for not reading Aquinas’s third treatise on divine nipples, yet they do *nothing* about creationism and other garbage that hides within their midst. They willingly shelter and support these nutcases, even when the “more enlightened” among them do actually accept the modern scientific formulation of evolution.

    It all goes back to Jesus, unfortunately. When weirdos were galloping around the Decapolis (I think) casting out demons in the name of JC, the disciples asked him if they should prevent this mayhem. Jesus *should* have said, “yeah, tell these eejits to feck right off”, but instead he said “he who is not against us is for us”. At least, that’s what he was reported to have said.

    Christianity has a very very dirty house to put in order.

  13. says

    Mark Brook:

    No, God only promised not to kill everyone in a giant flood again. Burning everyone to death is apparently one of those loopholes Noah forgot to ask about.

    Kind of like Hannibal Lecter promising to never again kill anyone by drowning them in Hollandaise sauce…

  14. rrt says

    Frosty is weaving some non-Christian kookiness into this tapestry, too. This:

    The thing people should really be on the watch for instead of global warming, is a red celestial body (comet or asteroid) that will appear as a cross in the sky.

    sounds a lot like a (possibly Christianized) version of this, vaguely familiar and pulled from a posting in another forum I frequent:

    There’s another theory of a suppose extra planet orbiting our sun every 3600 years. According to NASA, 80% of the solar systems in our galaxy are binary(composed of two suns)..meaning that this celestial body could very well be our Sun’s twin..Ancient civilizations call it the red comet, the frightener, the destroyer, or Nibiru..As of now, we can not see it since it’s coming from the South hemisphere(underneath our solar system). The Mayans had such astronomical exactitude in their calculations, that their calendar was 2 days more exact than ours in a period of 10000 years..
    What seems even more intriguing is that supposedly this great celestial body comes into the eliptic of our planet Earth in 2012..exactly the same year the Mayan calendar comes to an end.

  15. JD says

    Can someone please tell me what it is about christian fundamentalists that make them deny global warming so readily?

  16. BlueIndependent says

    I don’t know what to say. After reading that retort (“reply” is too kind), well, I just don’t know. That is perhaps the single most self-damning thing I’ve ever read from someone vis a vis their level of intelligence.

  17. says

    Build giant nuclear-powered refrigerators at the north and south pole.

    Okay. Now that’s good material… Yet another fine product from the same people who brought you I Can’t Believe It’s Not Satire!

    Clausius would be so proud.

  18. says

    Way to go, PZ. The Geocities site that housed the loon’s diatribe to which you pointed got so much traffic in the past couple of hours that it blew its data transfer limit and had to be shut down. No telling how any people have been exposed to his lunatic ranting. But at least it’s shut down for now.

  19. emkay says

    JD: The smarmy answer is that it’s the same mental illness that makes them believe all the fairy tales of their religion.

    As for why they deny global warming, I don’t have an answer, except perhaps they have fallen for the never-ending propaganda efforts of the well-funded corporate deniers and their foundations and think tanks. I mean, they believe all those whackjobs like Roberston…

  20. says

    No telling how any people have been exposed to his lunatic ranting.

    It’s not how many people are exposed to his ranting, it’s how exposed to ridicule his ranting gets. If you hold up your ideas for admiration (on the web, on a public street, even in a large church), you are simultaneously and unavoidably holding up your ideas for mockery, too.

    Let the feckin’ eejit (love the term) speak; it’s the best way to destroy any influence of his views.

  21. says

    Um, the whole point of a nuclear power plant is to generate heat. The process (in highly abbreviated form) is: nuclear fission -> heat -> water -> steam -> drives turbines -> generates electricity.

  22. GH says

    A nuclear reactor at the poles huh? This man is so clueless as to defy a legit response. Larson is simply cowering as polititians are wont to do when they see a vocal mob coming.

  23. says

    Build giant nuclear-powered refrigerators at the north and south pole.

    This sounds like something a Marvel Comics supervillain would do.

    Or Pinky and the Brain.

  24. says

    The thing people should really be on the watch for instead of global warming, is a red celestial body (comet or asteroid) that will appear as a cross in the sky.

    sounds a lot like a (possibly Christianized) version of this, vaguely familiar and pulled from a posting in another forum I frequent:

    Our guy must have read his Immanuel Velikovsky, yes?

  25. says

    It’s very striking that someone with this kind of crazy world view doesn’t bother to connect his ravings to the widespread ideas about geo-engineerging as a response to global warming. There are proposals that could work (setting aside the worries about fly-swallowing that loom there). This guy is so crazed that he can’t pay attention to anyone else’s ideas, even when they lead exactly where he seems to want to go.

  26. ROF says

    “Larson is simply cowering as polititians are wont to do when they see a vocal mob coming.”

    A “mob” of one — or perhaps one & a fraction, if you can cede the wife as a part of a separate person — in this case?

    o
    o

  27. Torbjörn Larsson says

    People en mass do not want to hear of such things though, as they do not wish to be held accountable for the things they do here.

    The moral argument used to deny the use of morality (relieving the effects of global warming). Nice wooing, Frosty!

    JD:

    Can someone please tell me what it is about christian fundamentalists that make them deny global warming so readily?

    I assume that in their version of divine curse and effect, it is their god that has sealed Earth with Armageddon, and no humans can change that.

  28. Torbjörn Larsson says

    People en mass do not want to hear of such things though, as they do not wish to be held accountable for the things they do here.

    The moral argument used to deny the use of morality (relieving the effects of global warming). Nice wooing, Frosty!

    JD:

    Can someone please tell me what it is about christian fundamentalists that make them deny global warming so readily?

    I assume that in their version of divine curse and effect, it is their god that has sealed Earth with Armageddon, and no humans can change that.

  29. Nathan says

    From the comedians Flanders and Swann;

    “You can’t pass heat from the cooler to the hotter”

    Nuff said

  30. Nathan says

    D’Oh

    I of course meant the exact opposite. Excuse me while I go and hang my head in shame.

  31. Rocky says

    “Larson is simply cowering as politicians are wont to do when they see a vocal mob coming.”
    A “mob” of one — or perhaps one & a fraction, if you can cede the wife as a part of a separate person — in this case?”
    ROF, I was wondering the same thing. ONE certified nutcase completely cowers the school board, and important information CANNOT be shown unless information from the other side is shown too. What other information?? A big dose of unverifiable woo, with a little astrology tossed in?
    What crapola.

  32. QrazyQat says

    If you google, you’ll also find that Frosty Hardison is a PowerPoint fan. One of his favorite city council haunts actually ending up banning PP presentations as they were becoming endless and uninformative.

  33. George says

    An instant classic! Thank you, Frosty! The whole thng is priceless. Can’t. Stop. Laughing.

    The thing people should really be on the watch for instead of global warming, is a red celestial body (comet or asteroid) that will appear as a cross in the sky. That event will happen long before global warming makes a serious and noticeable impact into the lives of people on earth. People en mass do not want to hear of such things though, as they do not wish to be held accountable for the things they do here.

    WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

  34. Anton Mates says

    One way this WORLD could make a dent in what has already transpired, would be to build several huge nuclear power plants in the polar regions and install several freezer coils at the edges of the polar glaciers to begin expanding the size of the ice and begin making more ice.

    Wow, a creationist who doesn’t understand the Second Law of Thermodynamics? Who would have guessed?

  35. says

    You know, there are something like 39 time zones on the earth. You could look at that as 39 corners of a thirty-nine-a-hedron… Thirty-nine separate days in a rotation of the earth.

    OMFG… what will the TimeCube guy do?

    Technically, he should send me $1000 per his site that says he’ll pay if you disprove cubism. Muhaha thirtynineahedronism for the win!

    Some who understands greek connective terms can figure out what the name of a 39-hedron is. I surfed the great oracle but couldn’t figure it out.

  36. Sophist says

    So I present this potential solution: One way this WORLD could make a dent in what has already transpired, would be to build several huge nuclear power plants in the polar regions and install several freezer coils at the edges of the polar glaciers to begin expanding the size of the ice and begin making more ice.

    Linda: I’m sure those windmills will keep them cool.
    Morbo: Windmills do not work that way!

  37. says

    I’ll bet the film doesn’t address Ragnarok, either. Stupid liberals. (sarcasm off) Seriously, I do wonder how these people would feel if religion truly WAS given equal time with science – ALL religions, not just theirs. I honestly don’t think they can even conceive of it in their tiny one-trick-pony minds.

  38. Affront says

    Greetings from over the pond (if you’re on the other side of it, that is). Surely there’s something in the US constitution which bans this kind of thing? I’m in the ‘let these people sound of as often as possible because the more people hear from them the less they’ll think of them’ camp. But enough is enough: can’t you just make it a criminal offence to think as sloppily as this?

  39. SkookumPlanet says

    The nested levels of ignorant assumption here are like celestial spheres. My favorite is glaciers. The fact that glaciers have a dynamic and a science he needs to learn has never occurred to this guy.

    “So just keep ’em from melting at the edge.”

    “What if they start melting at higher altitudde?”

    “Put more freezer coils up there.”

    “Okaaay. What if globabl warming reduces percipitation, so ice field reservoirs are replenished. No new ice, by-by glacier”

    “Are you stupid, man. Then you just freeze the whole damn glacier. Stop the whole thing in it’s tracks.”

    “Uh, glaciers are already frozen.”

    “Yeah, what’s your point?”

    “They aren’t frozen in their tracks. They’re moving. Downhill. Cutting mountains in half. And they’re already frozen. A strange force is pulling them down. It’s called gravity. You gonna freeze gravity?”

    “That’s no problem.”

    “It’s not?”

    “No. That’s just a bug. All ideas have bugs. Even geniuses can’t think everything through. . . you just do something like. . .uh . . put the coils inside the glacier. Yeah, so when it moves it’s still frozen. You understand that? The coils inside keep it from moving. See? It was just a little detail. Already solved.”

  40. says

    Greetings from over the pond (if you’re on the other side of it, that is). Surely there’s something in the US constitution which bans this kind of thin

    No. The KKK can have rallies at the statehouse, and crazy fanatics can go near (but not too near) the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq and with signs and shouted slogans like “The only good soldier is a dead soldier” and various anti gay statements that don’t come to mind at the moment.

    This is believed to be the strength of our democracy. What it really boils down to is this: We don’t trust ourselves, justifiably I think, to know what to put limits on.

    This is why so much emphasis on education. We are fighting a battle for the minds of our youth, with the hope that their hearts will follow.

  41. Mena says

    Can someone please tell me what it is about christian fundamentalists that make them deny global warming so readily?
    Posted by: JD

    Because Al Gore is a liberal.

    I wonder what this guy thinks of Comet McNaught.

  42. Chris says

    Where does the heat from the nuclear power plants go? Where does the exhaust heat from the giant refrigerator go?

    What exhaust heat? You just take a standard heating coil and plug it in backwards so it becomes a cooling coil.

    Hey, if you can believe in a young earth, you can certainly believe in that…

    Or maybe he intended to build a giant radiator array to radiate the waste heat into space. (Thus proving that he doesn’t know what “greenhouse gas” means…)

  43. Hal McCleskey says

    Actually, this is secretely brilliant, and provides political cover for a great plan. Like someone noted above, this sounds exactly like a Marvel Supervillian or P&tB plot. So let’s do it! Get the Evil Atheist Conspiracy to fund it, ostensibly as a good PR effort, but secretely as our doomsday weapon!
    Also, because this is Pharyngula, there will be giant Ice-armored Octopuses. Because, you know, if you’re gonna do it, do it right.

  44. says

    What a curious phenomenon. Hardison proposed two solutions: the nuclear powered refrigerator and baptizing everyone in the holy spirit. Everyone is getting a huge laugh out of the first, but ignoring the second, which to my mind is even more insane.

    Why is that? Do even the heathen Pharynguloids give religious BS a little more leniency?

  45. SkookumPlanet says

    JD
    Re: Christians and GW

    I have an analysis. Here’s the telegram version.

    As part of its 24/7/365/30+ sociopolitical psychomarketing campaign, Right Wing, Inc. has developed structures and institutions. This includes it’s media franchise system, like think tanks, columnists, and talk radio. We’re seeing the refinement of a kind of joint-venture, plug-in capacity, specifically Exxon’s global warming skeptics campaign.

    In some form Exxon is contributing, and the franchises have taken up it’s cause. Part of this 30 year campaign has been taking over the Republican party and making evangelicals the new base. For several reasons, they must be kept constantly riled up [see War-On… of-the-month-club]. So the machinery to do this exists, Exxon’s renting it, therefore the script filters out to the footsoldiers. [There actually is a script-equivalent and it’s outlines can be discerned.]

    It works in reverse, also. Seems like, bit by bit, some franchisees are climbing on the Intelligent Design bandwagon. Some of these people clearly know better, think it’s a crock, and are providing the weakest, lukewarm support. But how many are calling ID bullshit? Few.

    I would argue, but I’m factually ignorant here, that these evangelicals are simply following the direction of leaders. If the pastor says global warming is junk science, then it’s junk science. End of discussion.

    .
    P.S. OK PZ, I just called all these Christian regurgitators amoral liars.

  46. steve s says

    So I present this potential solution: One way this WORLD could make a dent in what has already transpired, would be to build several huge nuclear power plants in the polar regions and install several freezer coils at the edges of the polar glaciers to begin expanding the size of the ice and begin making more ice. What are the odds of that happening? There is your “INCONVENIENT TRUTH”.

    Somebody should hook that guy up with the Intelligent Design movement. He could be a world-class ID theorist, right up there with Michael Behe and Salvador Cordova.

  47. says

    As much as I would like to say that this lunacy is restricted to the US alas I can not. Recently here in the great white frozen north, a.k.a. Canada have seen similar incidents. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/01/09/bc-yoga.html is a prime example. These people need to be publicly humiliated, scorned at every opportunity and public officials should, after letting them have their constitutionally due freedom of speech, tell them they are idiots and to stop wasting the taxpayers time. (I know, I’m dreaming)

  48. Rocky says

    SkookumPlanet sez; “If the pastor says global warming is junk science, then it’s junk science. End of discussion.”
    Exactly right. I’ve been told exactly that many times. Recently, I got into a discussion with a religious friend about the fossil reproduction of Archaeopteryx on my wall. He let me know that birds do not have ancestors, and are not dinosaurs because his pastor told him so. I told him of some of the latest findings, and where to find them, and questioned what science background his pastor has. He felt even looking would be questioning this pastors authority. I feel so sorry for this friends limited worldview.

  49. Millimeter Wave says

    Why is that? Do even the heathen Pharynguloids give religious BS a little more leniency?

    I think it’s just that the nuclear powered refrigerators comment does have a certain novelty to it.

    Not to mention unintentional comedy…

  50. says

    @Blake Stacey: Wait a second. 3500 years ago = circa 1500 BCE — before the Bible was written, yes?

    Yeah, a few millenia before the New Testament obviously (much of which was written in the second century AD), but the authorship of the older books of the OT is in dispute.

    Obviously, this wingnut thinks Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Moses lived 3500 years ago. There probably was a historical Moses of some sort or other. Sigmund Freud is interesting on this point.

    I am not an expert at all, but no serious scholar that I am aware of, secular, ecclesiastical or rabbinical, has supported Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch for a really long time, like, since the eleventh century. People have found little things, like the moment late in Deuteronomy when “Moses” writes that no one knows where Moses’ grave is… Stuff like that. Of course, it might not be that simple, because in copying and recopying, a text that was “authored” by Moses could be gradually altered.

    Julius Wellhausen, a nineteenth-century German textual critic (can I get a “hell yeah!” from this crowd for good old-fashioned German philology?), and scholars who follow him trace the Pentateuch to the 10th to 5th centuries BCE. More recent scholars have refined this to c.800 BCE to the 5th century. At least those are the oldest sources to which scholars can uncover any reference.

    Historically, the politics of this chronology has been interesting. Although there are Sanskrit texts well older than this (as Europe learned in the eighteenth century), if the bulk of the OT is 8th century, then it is no older than Homer (if there was such a man, he would be the oldest known European “writer”), and really contemporary with the classical Greek literature. For centuries there have been disputes about what was oldest and therefore most original (this dispute makes sense if you think of human history as marked by a Fall).

    So yeah, he’s a little behind on his biblical scholarship.

  51. George says

    His wife is spouting off now.

    #113109Posted by gayla_hardison at 1/12/07 3:07 p.m.

    She wants a presentation by Marlo Lewis [of Competetive Enterprise Institute fame] to be shown alongside the Gore video.

    I was made aware of one presentation of the opposition by someone by the name of Marlo Lewis. It is worth reading. Perhaps if Mr. Lewis’ presentation is shown along with the statement that for those who believe that the Earth is millions of years old and that global warming happened even millions of years ago (long before our nasty power plants and factories existed). Then ask the question “What did the US do to cause global warming then? Did those of you who do not subscribe to Christianity catch that…? Scientists have shown that global warming happens approximately every 3500 years. Since America has not had the technology during those times, I ask those of you who are alarmists, WHAT DID WE DO TO MAKE IT HAPPEN THEN???

    Here’s something short and to the point for Gayla to read:

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1489955,00.html

    The strongest evidence yet that global warming has been triggered by human activity has emerged from a major study of rising temperatures in the world’s oceans.
    […]
    In the study, Dr Barnett’s team examined more than seven million observations of temperature, salinity and other variables in the world’s oceans, collected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and compared the patterns with those that are predicted by computer models of various potential causes of climate change.

    It found that natural variation in the Earth’s climate, or changes in solar activity or volcanic eruptions, which have been suggested as alternative explanations for rising temperatures, could not explain the data collected in the real world. Models based on man-made emissions of greenhouse gases, however, matched the observations almost precisely.

  52. says

    “(did you see the play on words there? Cause and effect — curse and effect?)”

    I literally cringed with embarrassment for him when I read the above.

  53. Steff Z says

    We’re not just boggling at the nuke-fridge. We’re boggling at the nuclear-powered refrigerator at the North Pole.

    There’s no land at the north pole. There’s an ice cap. A kindof thin one*. It will hold up a dogsled or a helicopter or a small science station in prefab huts. But a nuke plant? Maybe not. Also, the ice over the pole moves around, and no amount of extra-freeziness can stop that. So it can’t really even be at the pole for long.

    *Ice on top of water cannot get as thick as ice on top of land. Ice, as pointed out above, flows. If you try to make a sea-going ice sheet thicker, it just squishes out to the sides and flows away. The ice-water friction is a lot less than ice-land friction, so on land, it can stack up higher, with less squishing away to the side.

  54. Rey Fox says

    George: Touchy, isn’t she?

    What a curious phenomenon. Hardison proposed two solutions: the nuclear powered refrigerator and baptizing everyone in the holy spirit. Everyone is getting a huge laugh out of the first, but ignoring the second, which to my mind is even more insane.

    Well, you gotta realize the frame of reference here, particularly from those who’ve read this blog for some time. We like novelty. The notion of nukular fridgeridaires at the poles is a novel one. The notion of saving the world by baptizing everyone is old, old hat.

  55. Anton Mates says

    The notion of nukular fridgeridaires at the poles is a novel one. The notion of saving the world by baptizing everyone is old, old hat.

    Plus, global baptism just wouldn’t do much of anything re: global warming, whereas nuculopolar refrigators would be actively counter-productive. Hence, funnier.

  56. Bill from Dover says

    Give Frosty a freakin’ break. This could be another one of those successes that just hasn’t happened yet.
    As far as dissipating the heat generated, just build the frigger upside down.

  57. Brian X says

    I don’t know… you could build a platform like an oil rig for it.

    Granted you’d have to solve the flowing pack ice problem, the subfreezing water construction problem, the containment issue of having a nuclear reactor on an ocean platform, the warm-water outflow issue from the cooling loop, and a small matter of heat exchange, but it’s perfectly plausible.

    I mean, I don’t see what the big deal is. I’m sure impossible structures, pending environmental atrocities, and repealing the physical laws governing heat flow are all perfectly surmountable problems.

  58. Michael says

    Actually, I just really want to know where he got the exact time limit of two years for everyone to be baptized from? Even the fridge on the North pole has a five year olds logic to it. But why 2 years? That’s not even nuts. It’s just like a mental vacuum.

  59. moleculargoo says

    I really don’t see what the problem is with building nuclear cooler plants at the North Pole. We only need to figure they could be Intelligently Designed.

  60. Carlie says

    No one’s mentioned the biggest problem with the nuclear cooler plants yet – getting a construction variance from Santa Claus, not to mention how much he’s jacked up the price of the land after getting hosed by that whole Arctic pipeline fiasco. Someone’s got to pay for all that elf labor!

  61. Atlas Spanked says

    The problem here isn’t wingnut christianity, or right-wing blowback, or even overtolerance of nutjob parents by tired school board members – it’s all about pathological contrarianism, an identifiable, oft-seen form of megalomania.

    You can see it all over internet posting boards, and it’s common among conspiracy theorists, radical evangelists, and, politically-speaking, ‘constitutional libertarians’.

    They see everyone as clueless sheep. Only they know the REAL truth. And, unfortunately, most of them have the psychotic, manic energy to relentlessly pursue their agenda when everyone else around them just wants to get on with their real life.

    I do agree, ridicule helps to outshout them, but it often reinforces their ‘chosen one’ suspicions. Personally, I think that forced psychiatric evaluation is the most effective way to take them out. A solid lithium dose might help this dork (and numerous other pathological gadflies). But more than that, it might help the rest of us forget him and move on.

  62. says

    You know, I happened to blog on this guy the other day. Becaus he made me laugh, and that is a precious thing. And my kids are not in the federal way school system. That helps too.

    Today I blogged on the comet.

    Then I read this –

    “The thing people should really be on the watch for instead of global warming, is a red celestial body (comet or asteroid) that will appear as a cross in the sky.”

    Keep looking up, Frosty. God is trying to tell you something. Of course, so far it lacks an evil reddish hue.

    Oh well.

  63. SkookumPlanet says

    What Atlas Spanked said, last paragraph assumed sarcastic.

    I’ll edit his opening a bit and create an additional very serious element — the organized, professional exploitation of such people by groups with sociopolitical goals, as here. Hmmmm. I guess he may disagree it’s an issue, now that I consider it. But maybe not.

    An example is at SciAm’s blogs in editor George Mussers’ first two of four global warming skeptics topics. It’s the talking point that Exxon has scripted for those who are too stupid/ignorant to talk about science. George speaks to this in his taxonomy of skeptics’ arguments. It becomes obvious because his invitation created a great sample totaling 300 comments.

  64. jpf says

    What a curious phenomenon. Hardison proposed two solutions: the nuclear powered refrigerator and baptizing everyone in the holy spirit. Everyone is getting a huge laugh out of the first, but ignoring the second, which to my mind is even more insane.

    Why is that? Do even the heathen Pharynguloids give religious BS a little more leniency?

    It’s a well known phenomenon in fiction writing: people are willing to suspend their disbelief for the impossible but not the improbable. Nuclear powered polar refrigerators are wrong for entirely prosaic and easily explained reasons and thus the suggestion is annoying, whereas mass baptizing to affect the climate is batshit insane and thus acceptable.

    What worries me is that old Frosty is raising seven future idiots.

    What should worry you more is that Frosty is raising an army of killer buzz-saw robots in his garage.

  65. Fred Levitan says

    Frosty should be sentenced to eternal confinement in a small cell with Drew Hempel.

  66. George says

    I have a flying saucer shape in mind with twin 1/4″ Steel blades rotation counter each other – basically a circular hedge trimmer with some serious attitude.

    OMGosh! He’s coming to get us!

  67. says

    Well, this guy can build his giant floating nuclear reactors at the north pole, and the resulting melt-water will baptize everyone. He better work fast on his baptism skills, since he might not have much time before he goes under.

    I didn’t see it addressed before, but this guy thinks the earth is 14,000 years old, a bit older than most other yecs. Another blog (or maybe it was here in an earlier post) stated that since it stood out.

  68. HCN says

    I did a search on Google on Frosty and his ideas… and came across several other bloggers who seem to think this is about the SEATTLE school district.

    Now the Seattle school district has its problems (like trying to close undersubscribed schools with fools crying “racism”!), but not this!

    So folks.. like those at:
    http://bodyhairtransplant.blogspot.com/2007/01/idiots.html

    and
    http://gradstudentmadness.blogspot.com/2007/01/frosty-snowed-mom.html

    GET a MAP! Federal Way is several miles away from Seattle!

  69. jpf says

    GET a MAP! Federal Way is several miles away from Seattle!

    READ your BIBLE! Washington State has only one area of human habitation: Seattle. The rest is vast forests populated by sasquatches and the occasional Starbucks.

  70. Observer says

    In the comments section on this blog there is a letter to the Federal Way School Board and a reply from one of it’s board members. I’m not familiar with this blog, I came across it in a search.

    I’m trying to decide who was the nuttier person of the past week: Frosty with his 14,000 year old Earth (no wait, in his second screed he says 14,000 or 12,000…what’s a couple of thousand years when you’re so off base anyway), OR the lady in Florida who says Anne Frank spoke to her from “The Beyond” and apparently forgives Hitler (Orac wrote about this.)

    Both are involved with kids in one way or another.

    And Frosty thinks condoms in school are a problem?? Man, I wish he’d wear a condom on his brain. Give one to the lady in Florida, too. Geesh.

  71. HCN says

    jpf said “Washington State has only one area of human habitation: Seattle. The rest is vast forests populated by sasquatches and the occasional Starbucks.”

    Since my family is from Yakima I know that much of the area in the State of Washington is actually desert.

    So what tiny burg in Washington did you come from to declare Seattle the only habitable part? Clarkston? or Naches? or perhaps Colville? or Spokane? or Chehalis? or Wapato?

  72. says

    JD: Part of it is “dominionism”. The idea that the Earth was built for humans to use as they see fit, and that it doesn’t matter, since God will provide and the end times are coming soon anyway. Part of it is because their leaders say it isn’t happening, and they say it in part for the first reason, and in part because they are being cynically manipulative – this is the Republican connection. I.e., they are using Marx’s famous “opium of the people”.

  73. Mike says

    Here’s an excerpt from an article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
    ( http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/299253_inconvenient11.html
    1-11-2007)

    —————————-
    The requirement to represent another side follows district policy to represent both sides of a controversial issue, board President Ed Barney said.

    “What is purported in this movie is, ‘This is what is happening. Period. That is fact,’ ” Barney said.

    Students should hear the perspective of global-warming skeptics and then make up their minds, he said. After they do, “if they think driving around in cars is going to kill us all, that’s fine, that’s their choice.”

    Asked whether an alternative explanation for evolution should be presented by teachers, Barney said it would be appropriate to tell students that other beliefs exist. “It’s only a theory,” he said.
    —————————-

    Evolution is “only” a theory? Obviously Mr. Barney has never taken general science 101, otherwise he would know the difference between a theory and a belief.

    When was Federal Way transported from Washington to Kansas?