By Steve Erbach on Monday, June 15, 2009 5:29 AM

Human-caused global warming.  More and more it gets my dander up, most recently in the Amazon.com discussion forums.  Here's the byplay I had with one fellow over the past few days.

It started when I posted Freeeman Dyson's article about climate change.  Here's how it progressed on Amazon.com:

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By Steve Erbach on Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:56 PM

I'm a regular reader of Camille Paglia's monthly pieces on Salon.com.  This month's column (posted yesterday) leads off with a wonderfully incisive critique of President Obama's speech in Cairo.  Here's an excerpt:

Obama's lack of fervor may be one reason he rejects and perhaps cannot comprehend the religious passions that perennially erupt around the globe and that will never be waved away by mere words. By approaching religion with the cool, neutral voice of the American professional elite, Obama was sometimes simplistic and even inadvertently condescending, as in his gift bag of educational perks like "scholarships," "internships," and "online learning" -- as if any of these could checkmate the seething, hallucinatory obsessions of jihadism.

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By Steve Erbach on Thursday, June 11, 2009 3:00 PM

I normally don't get too worked up about emails sent by friends that have a series of pictures with either humorous or heart-rending captions.  The jokes are usually pretty lame and my heart usually isn't rended too much...

An email from my brother, Dan in Afghanistan, broke the mold enough that I thought I'd post the pictures and captions here.  It's all about looking beyond yourself when things get a little rough.  So, herewith the text and pictures from my brother's email.

Let’s not forget how good we have it in the United States; and thank a soldier when you see one for protecting our way of life.

When a soldier comes home...

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By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 5:00 PM

A 72-year-old woman filmed with police monitor equipment.  She gets tasered by a traffic officer. Tasered.  The incident occured May 11th of this year.

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, June 10, 2009 4:42 AM

Freeman Dyson, the Princeton physicist, has been an influential force in science for decades.  He's still alive and kicking. 

In March the New York Times Magazine published a cover story on Dyson's views of human-caused global warming.  It created a stir, to put it mildly.  So a fellow named Michael D. Lemonick, a Time magazine writer for 20 years currently writing for Climate Central, interviewed him for Yale Environment 360.

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By Steve Erbach on Friday, June 05, 2009 10:51 AM