# SDMB Bigoted Asshole Omnibus Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 29, 2012, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489 "2012-05-29T22:59:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 43
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/841 "2012-06-06T02:00:29Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > Unfortunately, by the time it becomes obvious that the consumption of fossil fuels is causing global warming the damage will be considerable, and irreversible. I kinda doubt it. Global surface temperatures rose by a full degree over the 20th century. It did not cause significant damage, let alone considerable damage. Probably it would not have even been noticed if it weren’t for European science and record-keeping. So I have a hard time believing that another degree will be disastrous. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/842 "2012-06-06T02:03:18Z")
Commentary April 2007 This reasoning pushes me even farther into the realm of speculation. Insofar as I am suggesting that the Jews may have had some degree of unusual verbal skills going back to the time of Moses, I am naked before the evolutionary psychologists’ ultimate challenge. Why should one particular tribe at the time of Moses, living in the same environment as other nomadic and agricultural peoples of the Middle East, have already evolved elevated intelligence when the others did not? At this point, I take sanctuary in my remaining hypothesis, uniquely parsimonious and happily irrefutable. The Jews are God’s chosen people. > **[Jewish Genius](https://www.commentary.org/articles/charles-murray/jewish-genius/)** > > Jews are extravagantly overrepresented in every field of intellectual accomplishment. Why? ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/843 "2012-06-06T02:09:03Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > I kinda doubt it. Global surface temperatures rose by a full degree over the 20th century. It did not cause significant damage, let alone considerable damage. Probably it would not have even been noticed if it weren’t for European science and record-keeping. > > So I have a hard time believing that another degree will be disastrous. Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. • The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century’s last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850. • The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004. • Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss. • Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later. > **[National Geographic](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/)** > > Explore National Geographic. A world leader in geography, cartography and exploration. * * * Even a degree seems dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/844 "2012-06-06T02:17:43Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > I kinda doubt it. Global surface temperatures rose by a full degree over the 20th century. It did not cause significant damage, let alone considerable damage. Probably it would not have even been noticed if it weren’t for European science and record-keeping. > > So I have a hard time believing that another degree will be disastrous. Of course that only works by ignoring the feedbacks, so it is not one degree but two or more what the scientists expect is coming if nothing is done with our emissions. We should slow down before tipping over the edge. \*\*Republican _scientist Richard Alley in How to talk to an OSTRICH: Abrupt Climate Change_: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DiM1DSmCSUc/maxresdefault.jpg "How to talk to an OSTRICH: Abrupt Climate Change") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiM1DSmCSUc) But of course brasil is not an ostrich but a clam. Well, that is not for him but all others. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/845 "2012-06-06T03:23:39Z")
**GIGO** : C’mon. It’s not a pitting of **brazzie**. Sure, he deserves it, but we don’t need a hi-jacking of the perfectly valid pitting of **NDD** , who can’t seem to be bothered to avoid gish-galloping all over the damned place or responding intelligently (or at all) to any of the inconvenient facts that contradict his arguments. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/846 "2012-06-06T03:51:56Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > **GIGO** : C’mon. It’s not a pitting of **brazzie**. Sure, he deserves it, but we don’t need a hi-jacking of the perfectly valid pitting of **NDD** , who can’t seem to be bothered to avoid gish-galloping all over the damned place or responding intelligently (or at all) to any of the inconvenient facts that contradict his arguments. Well it’s hardly our fault that **buffoon84** and **Nudie** insist on playing “good bigot, bad bigot,” the oldest trick in the book. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/847 "2012-06-06T05:41:46Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > **GIGO** : C’mon. It’s not a pitting of **brazzie**. The _et al._ is inclusive, I should think. All “scientific racists” of the Dope are in this barrel. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/848 "2012-06-06T05:57:32Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > Commentary April 2007 > […] > [http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/jewish-genius/](http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/jewish-genius/) Interesting comment from the second paragraph of that same article: > [@](#): > > From 800 B.C.E. through the first millennium of the Common Era, we have just two examples of great Jewish accomplishment, and neither falls strictly within the realms of the arts or sciences. But what a pair they are. The first is the fully realized conceptualization of monotheism, expressed through one of the literary treasures of the world, the Hebrew Bible. […] The second achievement is not often treated as a Jewish one but clearly is: Christian theology expressed through the New Testament, an accomplishment that has spilled into every aspect of Western civilization. Oookay. So while the other peoples of the world were inventing geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, epic poetry, drama, dance, music theory, classical art and architecture, coastal navigation, surgery, inoculation, innumerable agricultural and domestic technologies, and all the rest of about two millennia of human achievement, the Jews are credited with…writing one book and inspiring another? That whole article is appallingly sloppy in terms of historiography (exhaustive debunking available upon request), which is just about what I would expect from Murray. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/849 "2012-06-06T06:17:07Z")
Crediting the Jews with inventing monotheism is, itself, a little weird. If God exists, then the Jews didn’t invent monotheism, they just wrote down what God told them about himself. And if God doesn’t exist, then the Jews created and perpetrated a false idea that persists to this day, which is hardly a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/850 "2012-06-06T07:00:03Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I take pride in many Jewish cultural values. That’s a long way off from saying we’re genetically superior. Huh. You must be Sephardic 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/851 "2012-06-06T07:06:10Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > I asked a simple question, and you are dodging it. Within a generation of immigrating to the United States so many Jewish children of impoverished immigrants qualified for entry to Ivy League colleges that quotas were set up to restrict entry. These were kids that grew up in places like Hell’s Kitchen. They were harassed by anti Semitic hoodlums. How were they able to do so well? Malcolm Gladwell addresses some of why quite nicely in his book _Outliers_ - basically, a combination of culture and, critically, timing. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/852 "2012-06-06T07:08:56Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Crediting the Jews with inventing monotheism is, itself, a little weird. If God exists, then the Jews didn’t invent monotheism, they just wrote down what God told them about himself. And if God doesn’t exist, then the Jews created and perpetrated a false idea that persists to this day, which is hardly a good thing. Or repurposed it from the Egyptians or Babylonians… ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/853 "2012-06-06T09:32:54Z")
> [@](#): > > • The rate of warming is increasing. Here’s a plot of temperature for the last 110 years: > **[Wood for Trees: Interactive Graphs](https://www.woodfortrees.org/plot/hadcrut3vgl/from:1900/to:2010)** Just eyeballing it, there does not seem to be any increase in the rate of warming. > [@](#): > > The 20th century’s last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, Given that the world emerged from the Little Ice Age over the last 400 years, this is not a big deal. > [@](#): > > • The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004. I’m skeptical of this, but the main point is that there has not been “considerable damage.” > [@](#): > > • Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss. This is complete nonsense. See [here](http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/AMSRE_Sea_Ice_Extent_L.png) and [here](http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/global.daily.ice.area.withtrend.jpg). With the clamp-down on hunting, polar bear populations are quadruple the levels of the 1950s. > [@](#): > > • Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana’s Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later. Changes in glacier extent are well within the range of natural variation. In Europe, glacier melt recently revealed a mountain pass which was in human use during Roman times. > [@](#): > > Even a degree seems dangerous. What exactly is the danger? How many people have died? What property has been destroyed? What species have been threatened or extinguished? Look, if National Geographic came out with an article on race what do you think they would say? Of course they would stick to the politically correct nonsense which almost all mainstream media sources follow. So why trust them on global warming? ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/854 "2012-06-06T09:41:46Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > This is complete nonsense. See [here](http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/seaice/extent/AMSRE_Sea_Ice_Extent_L.png) and [here](http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/global.daily.ice.area.withtrend.jpg). Those charts are not attributed to any source. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/855 "2012-06-06T09:48:59Z")
> [@brazil84](#): > > Look, if National Geographic came out with an article on race what do you think they would say? Of course they would stick to the politically correct nonsense which almost all mainstream media sources follow. So why trust them on global warming? We do not know how National Geographic would handle the race situation. Your argument is almost as weak as saying, “If whites would stop being so racist, blacks would perform and behave as well as whites do.” I do not expect liberal commentators to argue in favor of The Bell Curve. If they do not attack it I respect them. If they criticize it at all their criticisms had better be dispassionate and rational. ---
**Author:** ![New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9d8465/32.png) [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Deal_Democrat)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/856 "2012-06-06T09:52:36Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Malcolm Gladwell addresses some of why quite nicely in his book _Outliers_ - basically, a combination of culture and, critically, timing. Superior people create a superior culture, despite persecution and hardships. Inferior people create and maintain an inferior culture, regardless of government assistance. A few people took advantage of War on Poverty programs and bettered themselves. A larger number gamed the system and became unemployable members of the under class, often supplementing their welfare checks with the gains from criminal activities. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/857 "2012-06-06T10:09:42Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > Those charts are not attributed to any source. The charts are from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Polar Research Group. Their web site is here: [http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/](http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/) > [@](#): > > We do not know how National Geographic would handle the race situation. I think it’s a pretty good bet that they would be afraid to print the truth. I did a search on their site and actually found an article which touches on the controversy and briefly presents both sides. Which surprised me a bit, but still they gave the last word to a psychologist: > [@](#): > > Writing in response to their findings, University of Michigan psychologist Richard E. Nesbitt said that “there is not a shred of evidence” in the research to suggest the IQ gap between races has a genetic basis. > [@](#): > > Your argument is almost as weak as saying, “If whites would stop being so racist, blacks would perform and behave as well as whites do.” My point is simply that you cannot trust mainstream media sources when it comes to inflammatory issues. You need to look at both sides; you need to look at the underlying data; and you need to look at data from different sources. If you do that on global warming, you will see that the threat has been wildly exaggerated. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/858 "2012-06-06T11:07:36Z")
> [@New\_Deal\_Democrat](#): > > Superior people create a superior culture, despite persecution and hardships. Inferior people create and maintain an inferior culture, regardless of government assistance. A few people took advantage of War on Poverty programs and bettered themselves. A larger number gamed the system and became unemployable members of the under class, often supplementing their welfare checks with the gains from criminal activities. Just shut the fuck up and read the book, racist. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/859 "2012-06-06T11:32:32Z")
A mindless robotic white supremacist racist engaging in back and forth with a mindless robotic climate change denier? I think we are at the event horizon and the rest of us need to hit reverse thrusters immediately! ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2012, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489/860 "2012-06-06T11:48:42Z")
Dear lord. “Race Realist” vs. “Climate Skeptic”. …Now if only they would fight to the death. And then the winner gets killed too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489.md?page=42) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sdmb-bigoted-asshole-omnibus-thread/623489.md?page=44)