What I really don’t get, as noted in my own post, was how this guy can look at a perfectly good graph of temperatures showing that the coldest point in the last 20 years or so is still warmer than the warmest point from 80+ years ago

This is an extremely important point you’ve brought brought up on your blog, and one I can’t emphasize enough. Thanks for mentioning it.

Nick,

It’s what they call themselves. Who am I to argue with them? Oh yeah… ANYWAYS, I use the word to distinguish these sheep from Conservatives with actual ideological integrity, like the late Bill Buckley, who I admired despite disagreeing with 90% of what he said. : )

I do have to disagree strongly with one point you make though … lobotomies are not legal. From the wikipedia lobotomy page:

In 1977, the U.S. Congress created a National Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research to investigate allegations that psychosurgery — including lobotomy techniques — was used to control minorities and restrain individual rights. It also investigated after-effects of the surgery. The committee concluded that some extremely limited and properly performed psychosurgery could have positive effects.

By the early 1970s the practice had generally ceased, but some countries continued small-scale operations through the late 1980s. In France, 32 lobotomies were performed between 1980 and 1986 according to an IGAS report; about 15 each year in the UK, 70 in Belgium, and about 15 for the Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston.

Of course, this lack of lobotomies completely fails to explain observable human intelligence, or lack thereof, in the U.S.

Personally, I’d rather have a free bottle in front of me than a prefrontal lobotomy.