History Shorts: The Little Ice Age (1250-1850)

The Earth cooled following the Medieval Warm Period. It began in 1250 (or 1350) and ended around 1850. The cause of the cooling is debated. Theories range from solar activity to ocean currents to volcanic activity. Glaciers spread, winters lengthened, famines occurred, and rain increased. Essentially, it was a cold, wet period in global history. The Little Ice age caused some of histories great famines, ruined crops helping to precipitate the French Revolution, walloped Napoleon in Russia, led to ice in the Great Lakes during June, ended the Viking Age, and may have led to witch hunts after crop failures. It finally ended around 1850. This coincided with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As a result, some have proposed that global warming began as a result of industrialization. Others have pointed to other natural factors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuZSMVwJLq0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdK6zbPnHw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AXbSRjMmRI

Quotes of the Month: June 2014

Quote of the Month: "Mr. President, you love to trade people. Why don’t we set up a trade? But this time, instead of five Taliban, how about five Democrats? I’m thinking John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi; couldn’t we send them to Mexico? "It was a joke. Except for Nancy Pelosi, I was serious about her."

-Rand Paul

　
Stupid Quote of the Month: "We need to consider whether we can talk about trying to reduce population growth and whether that’s compatible with the very reasonable concerns people have about women’s right to control their life decisions and their reproduction."


-Professor Peter Singer on controlling women to stop climate change.

　

and the rest...
"We all say stupid stuff when we're mad."

-David Price on David Ortiz

"There were times—there are still times—when I turn on the TV and I wish they'd just beheaded him on TV and gotten it over with."


-One of Sgt. Bergdal's would-be rescuers
"You see that there's that unfortunate bubble in the White House where they are too often isolated on something like this."


-Bob Woodward on The Obama Administration
"They [the Obama administration] have no idea what they actually did. Even those of us who might grudgingly accept the cost of that swap would understand that this is a defeat for the United States."

–Charles Krauthammer

"But there will be hell to pay if we find they go on to kill Americans."


-Senator Mark Kirk
"Where’s the dishonesty in the portrayal of Bergdahl so far? I haven’t seen it. What’s been misconstrued about him so far?"


-Chris Matthews
"If [President Obama] just tried to empty that jail, people would be calling for his impeachment,"

-Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

"This is the coward's way out, in my opinion."


-Owner of California Chrome on his competition not running in the Kentucky Derby
"We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt."


-Hillary Clinton
"Rarely has a U.S. President been so wrong about so much at the expense of so many."


-Dick Cheney
'History has proven that you got it wrong in Iraq'


-Megyn Kelly to Dick Cheney
"I don't believe you."


-Paul Ryan to the IRS Commissioner
"I hate that man Obama more than any man I've ever met, more than any man who ever lived."


-Bill Clinton
"Not only does the president regularly ignore the law, he brags about it and brags about his willingness to change it unilaterally."


-John Boehner

Quotes of the Month: February 2014

Quote of the Month: "I didn't have a dad in the house, and I was angry about it, even though I didn't necessarily realize it at the time. .... I got high without always thinking about the harm that it could do."

-Barack Obama
  Stupid Quote of the Month: "In a sense, climate change can now be considered the world's largest weapon of mass destruction, perhaps even, the world's most fearsome weapon of mass destruction."

-John Kerry


Stupid Quote #2: "All are untrue, but they are being told all over America."

-Harry Reid on the Obamacare horror stories

"The word ‘embarrassing’ is an insulting word, to tell you the truth."


-Peyton Manning after being asked if he was embarrassed by the Broncos performance in the Superbowl

"The towering presence, the empire that ascended to affirm a colossal footprint. The revolution that birthed one of modern history’s pivotal experiments. But if politics has long shaped our sense of who they are, it’s passion that endures. As a more reliable right to their collective heart. What they build in aspirations, lifted by imagination. What they craft, through the wonder of every last detail."

-NBC Documentary on Soviet Communism

"I mean this is stuff that that you do in a banana republic."

-Charles Krauthammer on Obama changing laws without congressional approval

"I can do whatever I want."

-Barack Obama

F.A. Hayek said, ‘We shall not grow wiser until we learn that much that we have done was very foolish.’ Nothing is more foolish – and immoral – than sending men into battle to risk their lives winning victories that are later lost by politicians for political reasons."


-THOMAS SOWELL

"What [a federal minimum wage increase] is, is a transfer of wealth from some low-income earners to other low-income earners… this is so obvious, not rocket science -- some will be better off, will make more, but others are going to lose everything."

-CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

"I have obviously failed to galvanize and prod, if not shame enough Americans to be ever vigilant not to let a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the ACORN community organizer gangster Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way into the top office of authority in the United States of America."

-Ted Nugent

Quotes of the Month: February 2010

Quote of the Month: "That girl, for me, is a drug. And drugs aren't good for you if you do lots of them. Yeah, that girl is like crack cocaine to me. Sexually it was crazy. That's all I'll say. It was like napalm, sexual napalm."


-John Mayer on Jessica Simpson

Stupid Quote of the Month: "These 'Snowpocalypses' that have been going through D.C. and other weather events are precisely what climate scientists have been predicting, fearing, and anticipating because of global warming ... In fact you could argue these storms are not evidence of a lack of global warming, but evidence of global warming."

-Dylan Ratigan on how colder weather is evidence of global warming.

And the rest:

“Fucking retarded.”

-Rahm Emmanuel after hearing that liberal special interests would target Democrats that opposed health care reform.

“I’m all for full disclosure, but not the full monty.”

-Evan Bayh on posing nude

“Remember the old song, ‘Mickey’s Monkey’? Well, this is Jimmy’s Johnson.”

-Tony Kornheiser on Jimmy Johnson becoming a pitch man for Extenze.

“She looks like a Holden Caulfield fantasy " when she wore a skirt he described as "way too short for somebody in her 40s or maybe early 50s by now. She looks like she has sausage casing wrapping around her upper body. I know she's very good, and I'm not supposed to be critical of ESPN... But Hannah Storm today? Come on now. Stop. What are you doing?"

-Tony Kornheiser (again) on Hannah Storm (who looks better at 47 than she did at 27)

“The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it.”

From The Catcher in the Rye (Holden Caulfield is the main character in the book)

“I am in control here.”

-Alexander Haig (1924-2010)

"I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems. On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving."

-Elton John

“We like Rich Rodriguez. Stay as long as you like.”

-MSU fan

"I was really disappointed that these guys came with their Eurotrash game."

-Olympic Hockey Analyst Mike Milbury on the Russian team’s 7-3 loss to Canada.

"I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00, and it's the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they're the only team that has beat Kentucky this year,"

-Jim Bunning on why he refused unanimous consent to renew emergency unemployment

Douche Bag of the Year

Now it is time for my first annual Douche Bag of the Year Award. There were about 20 contenders. I narrowed it down to ten. Here are the nominees for Douche Bag of the Year:

1. ACORN: Now we know what community organizers do. They organize pimps and hos!

2. Anita Dunn: The former White House Communications Director and all around lousy human being loves Chairman Mao and likes to quote him to students. Mao killed 60 million.

3. Global Warming Advocates: Turns out they are not only wrong, but cooking the information as well.

4. Perez Hilton: Gets mad at Carrie Prejean for supporting “traditional” marriage, attacks Fergie, and the cries on his webcam after someone in Will.I.Am’s entourage beat him up. He was the odds on favorite to win this until recently.

5. Notre Dame University: Refusing to go to a bowl game against CMU. COWARDS!

6. Barack Obama: Barack Obama is now the most disliked president of all time at this stage of his presidency. No president has been as low in the polls 11 months into office as Obama. The stimulus failed, the job seminar was a useless photo op, he’s ignored the economy to focus on a health care plan NO ONE wants, Iran has completely snubbed him, it took forever to decide to help the troops in Afghanistan, and world leaders consider him a joke. Lastly, he keeps blaming all the world’s problems on the Republicans, but he was in Congress just as responsible as anyone else for today’s problems. On the bright side, he is going to do a holiday special with Oprah.

7. Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow: If you liked Joseph Goebbels and Eva Braun, these two are for you! Goebbels may have been less hateful than Olbermann.

8. Reality TV Wannabes: Balloon Boy. White House Party Crashers. One of these days, these reality star wannabes are really going to hurt someone.

9. Kanye West: How do you diss Taylor Swift??

10. Tiger Woods: This has become rather amusing. Karma strikes a true phony.

The Winner: Reality TV Wannabes!