... recognize the difference between a question and an assertion.
"CNN Anchor Blames Asteroid on Global Warming." No, she didn't.
If you're going to play the other-people-are-stupid game, you have to play well.
February 10, 2013
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There is such a thing as a stupid question. Isn't there?
I go with the mockers.
It's an example of woman stupidity though, not leftist stupidity.
Well, as she works for CNN, there's probably something equally stupid she said at least once, so Newsbusters can probably get a little dispensation on this one.
It shows where her head is, anyway.
Asking a question as a suggestion is an effective way to assert your idea while softening the blow of telling someone they are wrong.
- Ralph Jean-Paul
I agree.
I assume the anchor knows that global warming doesn't cause answers. However, she's comfortable enough with the idea that she felt comfortable using it as a "question on behalf of the audience", which is what she was asking.
That is to say, she thinks her audience is dumb enough (or trained enough) to believe that global warming can cause asteroid strikes, and thus led in with that so that Bill Nye could immediately shoot it down.
And if she asked "isn't it true that babies come from storks" we would marvel at her ability to ask the hard questions?
Of course the question reveals something about the questioner. To assert otherwise is silly.
Deb Feyerick asked ... if an approaching asteroid ... “is an example of, perhaps, global warming?”
Didn't watch the clip. Did anybody say "No, of course not"?
Many people want to believe they're better than other people and will pay for flattery.
After watching the video I agree, she should not be mocked for her stupidity. She should be mocked for being a propaganda puppet for the global warming nuts.
Then again, why do I feel it is not beyond the realm of possibility that she does actually wonder if an asteroid strike could be caused by global warming? It's quite common for liberal talking heads to be absurdly ignorant of topics they profess to be experts on, the gun debate being a prefect example.
So either way I think she is fair game for mocking. Well played I say.
She did say:
“Every time we see a storm like this lately, the first question to pop into a lot of people’s minds is whether or not global warming is to blame?
Some people may also ponder global cooling.
Don't hot things attract hard things?
It would fit right in in a science section of The View.
The ladies could invite a man in to answer questions about science.
Is anyone surprised that the talking head doesn't know anything?
TV news has become the cotton candy substitute of intelligent thought - that's what you've allowed it to become by watching.
What's stupid is holding the TV news-people to a standard to which they only parrot to you because you said you showed that you would accept a certain standard.
(And by the way: scientists used to mock the churchmen for thinking that the earth was the center of the universe. Now scientists mock others for NOT thinking that the earth is the center of the universe.)
Wonder what Feyerick would say about the Associated Press headline this past summer regarding a heat wave: "Temperatures Nearing Boiling Point".
Let's face it professor, there is a lot of evidence that the average media member is uninformed and kinda dumb [watch your local news for a few nights if you doubt that].
Sorry, only a truly stupid person could even ask such a question.
Fully "mockable".
That particular question sounded more poorly stated than actual stupidity. Sounds like she got a little tongue-tied and meant to cover two separate topics, the asteroid and the storm, with Bill Nye. Making her slip up worse was that they never got to the asteroid.
Compare that to Fox News Commenter Shabani Joshi saying that Germany had a more successful solar program because it is much sunnier in Germany than the U.S. That was a stupid statement.
Now Althouse believes that just by prefacing a stupid statement with "What if" or "Is it true that" absolves a person of all responsibility of saying something stupid.
There are such things as stupid questions, and when someone asks them, they (even Althouse) should be called out on it, either because the question was not asked in good faith (e.g., "what if Hilary is faking her concussion?") or displays a deep ignorance (e.g., "Isn't it true that the geological records supports the notion that the earth is less than 10,000 years old?")
She asked a stupid question. Monumentally stupid. If people make something of it it''s a door she opened.
Compare that to Fox News Commenter Shabani Joshi saying that Germany had a more successful solar program because it is much sunnier in Germany than the U.S. That was a stupid statement.
It was a stupid premise. Germany does not have a successful solar program, just a highly subsidized one. Though I wouldn't expect someone like you to know the difference.
So we don't know if we can add asteroid strikes to this page yet?
Things Blamed on Global Warming
One that is most apropos:
Asteroid Strikes Increasing
I love that warm list, reminds me of phlogiston.
Look out! Freder's pullin' out the squirrel!
The question was idiotic. "Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way?
Is this an effect of, perhaps, of woodland pixies and flute-playing fauns, or is this just some meteoric occasion?"
Freder, it was a stupid question, it was asked in a profoundly stupid way, and now you're doing your usual spin spin spin spin spin to try to defuse it, out of some pathological devotion to upolding Team Blue at all costs. Can you ever stop being such a dickhead, even for a second? (Sorry, that was another stupid question.)
Well at least Fox talking head Joshi is a hottie and she could be causing a different type of warming. You can't say that about Feyerick.
Why not just agree Freder that Feyerick, at the least, had a brain cramp or that she is just not very swift?
Instead you jump to her defense. Why?
Occam's Razor.
1. It was CNN
2. It was stupidity
The Brits have it right when they call these people 'News Readers' rather than journalists.
They are selected for appearance, connections, and political views more than for any brains.
PS: she deserved to be mocked. She's either a brainless twit, or has a rote agenda embedded in wetware (e.g. her cortex).
Freder defends utter stupidity by reaching into his 'ready file' of Fox News comments to use as a Giant Deflector Shield or something. 'Pay no attention to that moron on CNN. Look...over here....this is not only dumb...but EVIL and dumb.'
Jeez...
Everyone knows that the snowstorm is a result of overseeding the wheat crops in Southern Albania last spring. The Asteroid? My guess is that the Gods are angry with us. They can only be assuaged with the fresh heart of a Politician. I know...I know...by definition- Politicians have no heart. That's what make this so unnerving.
Since as long as I've been here....and I suspect, for a long time to come- we have had large snowstorms, including blizzards. And yes- the universe will continue to throw rocks in our direction.
Now back to you at CNN.
This is not news. It's filler. And it's killing your brains.
Was the Holocaust an reasoned response to overpopulation or could racism have been the cause! Hmmmmm, don't know, just askin?
@Althouse, you can stop applying sophistry to defend the members of your gender with single digit IQs anytime. We'd appreciate it.
PPS: Althouse, one could make a case for:
"CNN Anchor attempts connect Asteroid with Global Warming."
It was mockable, but don't overreach when mocking. Ruins the whole effect.
The question worked as a funny set up, and we don't see in the Newsbusters clip how Bill Nye reacted. It might have been fun.
Newsbusters asks whether it is parody (before the flat-footed "blames" sentence that I'm criticizing), but deprives us of seeing how Nye played what might have been a good straight line.
Hurricanes, earthquakes (!), blizzards, floods, droughts: if it's a natural disaster, it has to be due to the angry god, "Climate Change." We left science behind long ago. Conditions that cause too much rain by definition cannot be the same conditions that cause too little rain.
So, this woman's question is not too much dumber than the daily blather about "Climate Change." When sceptics pointed out that phases of solar activity had been making ALL the planets a little hotter, one true believer said, no our pollution is heating up the whole solar system.
Instead you jump to her defense. Why?
Saying she was tongue tied and phrased a question poorly (in a profession where you should know how to ask questions properly), is hardly "jumping to her defense." My point is that is was not necessarily pure stupidity.
GOP humor often takes the form of calling people stupid and braying in their faces.
It's low humor. Get some subtlety. You can't beat stupid with stupid. It's sooo stupid.
If Newsbusters represents the people who go for the GOP, I don't want to be seen near those people.
Blizzards and asteroids, let's make funny!
"Now Althouse believes that just by prefacing a stupid statement with "What if" or "Is it true that" absolves a person of all responsibility of saying something stupid."
False.
Must I spell everything out.
I've said something specific. How about receiving it as I've stated it, not turning it into a cartoon and then mocking it?
There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else, where smart, good, fair-minded people go.
Apparently the Professor is unfamilar with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Bill Mahr, David Letterman. Chris Rock .... !
What if...just what if, she was mocking people who would think such a silly idea, as meteorites being somehow connected to global warming?
"GOP humor often takes the form of calling people stupid and braying in their faces."
Are you saying non-GOP political humor is any different? I certainly see no evidence of that.
"There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else"
Well, it would get you a better class of commenter, that's for sure.
With many of your commenters being so EAGER and willing to simply mock anything and everything they perceive to be outside of their belief systems, yes Ann you need to spell it out for them.
Well, it is almost short pant season!
LOL. Althouse are you joining the "No Labels" crew now? Getting all sanctimonious and schoolmarmish when someone calls a liberal stupid while you write post after post about the GOP being stupid for not wanting to import 10 million new Democrat voters?
I guess only a select circle of people are allowed to call other people stupid. Fortunately for you, you are one of those people!
deborah said...
Don't hot things attract hard things?
Soon as I get my viagra prescription refilled you can come over and we can discuss it.
There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else, where smart, good, fair-minded people go.
So you're thinking of being an east coast Mormon?
Inga said...
With many of your commenters being so EAGER and willing to simply mock anything and everything they perceive to be outside of their belief systems, yes Ann you need to spell it out for them.
No. Just the stupid stuff.
jacksonjay said...
Well, it is almost short pant season!
Althouse has made me self conscience about wearing short pants.
Where's the civility bullshit tag?
There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else, where smart, good, fair-minded people go.
Yet you listen to Rush Limbaugh frequently. Go figure.
Do you mean somewhere where everybody agrees with you and are just like you?
Just asking. I'm not saying that you are claiming you are always correct and anyone who disagrees with you is stupid and bad. But then again, you are so proud of how infrequently you have to use your "I was wrong" tag.
What makes some see the GOPers as the stupid party is that they stupidly fall into traps that make them appear stupid. OR they fail to recognize an opportunity to make themselves look smart, by reacting smartly, fairly.
I remember the schoolmarm hoping that the GOP would take the stupid bait on the same sex illegal immigrant issue! "Go ahead, Republicans be stupid! You can't resist Obama bait!
Do I remember that correctly?
Perhaps Althouse is recognizing the fact that she can't find enough fair minded folks in the Stupid Party. Not saying y'all are stupid, but you sound less than intelligent when you jump on the least likely scenario time after time after time.
"There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else, where smart, good, fair-minded people go."
Oh, brother.
Try Daniel Larison. In fact, why don't you set up a bloggingheads with him to discuss hackery and extremism in politics?
She called it a "meteoric occasion".
Inga said...
What makes some see the GOPers as the stupid party is that they stupidly fall into traps that make them appear stupid. OR they fail to recognize an opportunity to make themselves look smart, by reacting smartly, fairly.
Newsbusters made the comment, not the Republican Party or any of its officeholders.
PS What confirms the Democrats as the truly stupid party is that they continually rush lemming-like to buy moronic nonsense like global warming AND fail to recognize an opportunity to make themselves look smart by voting for narcissistic, incompetent sociopaths like Choom and Willie.
FIFY
So Miss Inga, which is the more likely scenario? Global warming or meteoric occasion?
Inga said...
Perhaps Althouse is recognizing the fact that she can't find enough fair minded folks in the Stupid Party.
No, it's her "I'm a Liberal, so I can't be nasty to women, blacks, and other historically-oppressed minorities even when they say something stupid" mode.
Give her a couple of days and she'll be over it.
Not saying y'all are stupid, but you sound less than intelligent when you jump on the least likely scenario time after time after time.
Y'all?
We're getting y'all from the She-Wolf of the SS, who claims to be Boomer-aged, born in Osterreich?
And, trust me, she's the one who sounds less than intelligent by twisting herself in knots to try to say whatever it is the copywriters gave her to put up here.
Copywriters? LOL, Ed, you give me far too much credit.
Althouse: You can't beat stupid with stupid.
You've obviously never seen Joe Biden or Alan Grayson on the campaign trail.
It's just that the palace media call the GOP on "their stupid".
I thought you were all referring to Cooper as she.
tits
Like Tina Fey's Sarah Palin quote about seeing Russia? You don't need to play well or fair, you just need momentum.
Like Tina Fey's Sarah Palin quote about seeing Russia? You don't need to play well or fair, you just need momentum.
That's where Tina Fey lost a lot of her journalistic integrity.
"There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else"
You could try an "I ♥ Bob Dylan!!" blog, for instance.
"When the Supreme Ruler of the universe wishes to destroy a nation, he takes away their wisdom in the first place, and they become insensible to their own interests, and they are filled with wrath; they give way to their anger, and thus lay the foundation of their own destruction."
...
"If the Government knew what the wants of the people were, they would take away the salaries of political demagogues, and stop their running and their stump preaching, from one end of the land to the other, to make proselytes to their cause. This would have a tendency to put an end to party names, to party jealousies, and to party conflicts forever."
"And the people should concentrate their feelings, their influence, and their faith, to select the best man they can find to be their President, if he has nothing more to eat than potatoes and salt—a man who will not aspire to become greater than the people who appoint him, but be contented to live as they live, be clothed as they are clothed, and in every good thing be one with them."
"It is yet in the power of the people of the United States to lay a foundation to redeem themselves from the growing consequences of past errors."
...
"Let the people, the whole American people, rise up and say they will have these abuses regulated, and no longer suffer political demagogues to gamble away their money, but turn them out of office to attend to their own business. Let the people make a whip, if not of good tough rawhide, of small cords at least, and walk into the temple of the nation, and cleanse it thoroughly out, and put in men who will legislate for their good, instead of gambling away their money and trifling with the sacred interests of the nation which have been entrusted to their keeping."
"I would not speak so plainly, were it not that statesmen use the same privilege, and that, too, in the halls of Legislatures. We can never get a true Republican government upon any other principle."
Brigham Young, Salt Lake City, July 4, 1854
There has been no global warming in the last 15 years, so normal events are made out to be abnormal events, caused by a problem we don't have.
You can't beat stupid with stupid. It's sooo stupid.
Mockery of women who are too uninterested to learn politics and science because it doesn't involve their feelings is always called for.
Girls, you have to up your game if you want to be treated as an adult in politics.
There's the message. How do you get it across?
Mockery.
Women's inclinations do not work out well in politics. There's a reason they didn't let women vote.
The republic goes unstable.
It was worse than stupid.
That newsreader has allow her critical thought process to be subsumed by a politically correct inference engine that she thinks will buy her admittance to the upper echelons of media and government.
Nor do I see where the mocking passed into "overreach".
It's stupid to insert a comment about an asteroid into a question about weather.
It's stupid to assert that the asteroid is falling from the sky.
It's stupid to assert that one storm provides any evidence for or against global warming.
It's stupid to have Bill Nye talk about weather.
It's stupid to watch CNN.
Bow ties are stupid.
I'll make an exception for the current Dr. Who's bow tie.
There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else
Imus said a couple of times that he lived in a house with a wife and three daughters, and for a few years there wasn't any time of the month when somebody wasn't crying and slamming the door.
The question worked as a funny set up, and we don't see in the Newsbusters clip how Bill Nye reacted. It might have been fun.
Every day News Buster zeroes in on one sentence — freeze it, personalize it, polarize it — go at it in isolation. The sentence may say: "Why do you center on me when there are other sentences that might put me in context and give me support?" Our hearts are hardened to that pathetic plea.
Sometimes it's just too easy.
Inga, the hypocrisy staggers the imagination.
I'm with Ann to this degree.
It's just too much sometimes.
Atthough we seem to have gotten here through different thought processes.
Let me summarize the totality of AA's initial heading and her subsequent retorts; "Mean people suck."
phx said:
That's where Tina Fey lost a lot of her journalistic integrity.
Did you hear Press Secretary Jay Carney recommend Jon Stewart's news analysis?
You know that the loinfos get their news from entertainers! How many people embrace the Chris Rock, he's my "boss", "you do what your Dad tells you to do", admonitions?
There has been no global warming in the last 15 years,
Now this is a stupid statement.
I don't want to be seen near those people.
Too late, Althouse.
We're here, and we sneer.
Inga said...
Copywriters? LOL, Ed, you give me far too much credit.
Bet you can't rewrite it so it makes sense.
The anchor is an airhead, but I agree her comment wasn't an assertion that meteors are caused by "global warming." It was a rather sophomoric play on words that fell flat. But since Bill Nye was next up, anything would be an improvement. When I see a man wearing wearing a bow tie, my bullshit detector starts going off.
"...calling people stupid and braying in their faces."
None of that going on here, no sirree:
We've changed! GOP Swears it's Not Stupid
The remark or question was just stupid. Logic fail.
“Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, of global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?”
Trying to conflate two completely unrelated things. 1.) Asteroids coming near Earth and 2.)the supposed phenomenon of Global Warming. Now....if she wanted to try to tie the 'meteoric' event of the Sun's cycle of sunspots and global warming...THAT would not be a stupid question or strange leap of logic.
The REAL ISSUE with liberals is that they think that they are the center of the universe. They attach way to much importance and significance to their own actions and extrapolate from there that Humanity is also the center of the universe. They don't believe in God, so they believe that they are as influential as God. That humans can destroy the world by using the wrong light bulbs or breathing heavily.
So of course, their idea that global warming somehow affects the rest of the Universe, alters the course of the planets, steers asteroids into the Earth, as some sort of punishment, I suppose, falls right in line with their own inflated self importance.
Get over yourselves liberals. We are NOT the center of the universe. Life goes on and will go on without you. Things happen that have no relationship to YOU.
"There's a reason they didn't let women vote."
Women getting the vote was decided by whom?
I'm still trying to get comfy w/ the claim that calling people stupid is a unique feature of "Republicans".
I won't say that it's stupid, but I will say that it's easily falsified by observations of reality.
So of course, their idea that global warming somehow affects the rest of the Universe, alters the course of the planets, steers asteroids into the Earth, as some sort of punishment, I suppose, falls right in line with their own inflated self importance.
Provide any evidence (other than the monkeys flying out of your ass told you so) that "liberals" believe this nonsense.
Beware the Death Panels (Palin) Stupid Party
We need Death Panels (Krugman) Smart Party
We gotta pass it to know ... (Pelosi) Smart Party
Gonna be able to keep your doctor (Obama) Smart Party
Premiums will go down (Obama) Smart Party
SS is not a problem (Reid) Smart Party
Leave Medicare alone (Everyone) Smart Party
Guam could capsize (Johnson) Smart Party
Perhaps news anchors and lawyers should be forced to take some physics in their eduction.
Going to give you the benefit of the doubt and blame it on lack of caffeine
Sorry Ann, but this one's a swing and a miss.
@Freder Frederson: Ummmm, the video linked in this post?
Speaking of things falling from the sky, what about the African-American birth rate being below replacement level - do you think that's caused by global warming or is it a natural consequence of Planned Parenthood's eugenic agenda? Or what is happening? Should we wait till they're wiped out before we ask any questions or is that total silence caused by global warming or it is a natural consequence of PC conformity?
Althouse memorializes: GOP humor often takes the form of calling people stupid and braying in their faces.
Donkeys bray, elephants remember.
Women getting the vote was decided by whom?
Their henpecked husbands?
I think that for a long time, giving women the vote didn't change the outcome of very many major elections, since women tended, at least early on in their voting careers, to vote as their husbands did - probably not because of any pressure on the husbands' part, but rather, from shared values. But, I think that in recent years, the two sexes have split apart somewhat socially, and also in voting behavior. Sure, part of it is female liberation, but I would suggest that it may be more women becoming comfortable with the government replacing men in their lives in terms of support. In short, the Julias that were so mocked by the right in the last election have become a significant power on the left.
Women getting the vote was decided by whom?
Voters' wives, probably.
What globe did the news babe think 'global warming' was happening on?
Althouse says:If Newsbusters represents the people who go for the GOP, I don't want to be seen near those people.
In many cases, it does. And in those cases, you don't. Fortunately for the GOP and America, Newsbusters doesn't represent all people who go for the Republicans, but unfortunately for the GOP and America, it represents a lot of them.
The Earth has been getting warmer for most of the last 12,000 years, when this little thing called an Ice Age ended.
I don't know about you, but I'm kind of happy about that.
Stupid question...stupid anchor...stupid network.
CNN is like a box of chocolates.
Well, a box of mostly white chocolates, anyway.
@Gahrie The temperature warmed for 4000 years coming out of the last ice age and has been cooling ever since. The current temperature is still below average for the 12000 year period. Take a look at the graphs, they are enlightening with respect to the hype and alarmism in the media.
Google up a hit of Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" to put news anchors into perspective
BTW, since every storm seems to be caused by global warming, maybe it really was an assertion.
Why don't you keep count?
@Big Mike- Ann, or any other person for that matter, do NOT have gender. Words have gender. People have sex.
Makes me want to scream at how PC is corrupting our language, discourse and lives
Have you heard of the Japanese Society of Energy & Rsources, Freder?
Even the UK Met office is changing their models.
Chip S sez:
CNN is like a box of chocolates.
Well, a box of mostly white chocolates, anyway.
CNN has become the Exotic Name Network!
Sanja Gupta
Ali Velshi
Christian Amanpour
Fareed Zakaria
Piers Morgan
Martin Bashir
Who did I leave out?
She wouldn't have asked the question if she didn't think it was somehow plausible, so yes, she's a moron.
Bruce,
"Their henpecked husbands?
I think that for a long time, giving women the vote didn't change the outcome of very many major elections, since women tended, at least early on in their voting careers, to vote as their husbands did - probably not because of any pressure on the husbands' part, but rather, from shared values. But, I think that in recent years, the two sexes have split apart somewhat socially, and also in voting behavior. Sure, part of it is female liberation, but I would suggest that it may be more women becoming comfortable with the government replacing men in their lives in terms of support. In short, the Julias that were so mocked by the right in the last election have become a significant power on the left."
What percentage of henpecked husbands would vote their wives wishes in the privacy of the voting booth, or were you joshing :)
I agree with your ananlysis, but that's what happens when individual liberty, technical progress, and politics meet. It strikes me as social evolution; tradition vs. variations on the theme of propagation of the species.
Soledad O'Brien and Wolf Blitzer (I mean, come on).
Bad headline. But yes, it is really stupid if some do think asteroids are caused by global warming. Why would she say, " “Every time we see a storm like this lately, the first question to pop into a lot of people’s minds is whether or not global warming is to blame?"
Deborah said... "There's a reason they didn't let women vote."
Women getting the vote was decided by whom?
By men in Wyoming who didn't have enough voters otherwise to qualify for statehood.
They started it. Damn their hides.
Astro
To be fair men in Wyoming are almost as tough and smart as women in Wyoming.
If you are going to mock someone's humor, make sure you recognize the difference between humor and criticism. The point was not to provide carefully calibrated humor, but to show how poorly GW is understood by those who are pretending to informing us. Talk about overreaching, Althouse.
"If you're going to mock someone for stupidity..."... recognize the difference between a question and an assertion.
"CNN Anchor Blames Asteroid on Global Warming." No, she didn't.
If you're going to play the other-people-are-stupid game, you have to play well.
Hmmm...perhaps Ann is so defensive about this because she thought it was a reasonable question, and wanted to hear the answer.
Not only was she stupid and ignorant enough to make an association between the earth's climate and an asteroid, she misused the word "meteoric", which refers to objects smaller than an asteroid.
Ivory Tower bigot Althouse says:
"There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else, where smart, good, fair-minded people go."
Is that the faculty lounge where you and the other leeches on society discuss which black public figures are and are not capable of writing their own speeches and which topics they are qualified to speak on?
You are such a good, fair-minded person Althouse. So much so that you need to call yourself one.
Ugly, ugly.
“Talk about something else that’s falling from the sky and that is an asteroid. What’s coming our way? Is this an effect of, perhaps, of global warming or is this just some meteoric occasion?”
"GOP humor often takes the form of calling people stupid and braying in their faces."
Boooo!
Really? Only the GOP does that?
No.
(And "braying" is a DNC brand specialty. So no to that too.)
And could a GOP tendency to call the opposing point of view "stupid" possibly have something to do with the rich variety of stupid that comes braying from the opposing point of view?
Yes.
Its a rhetorical question ... and a stupid one.
Not that Bill Nye is up to a softball these days, not impressive Bill.
[quote] There are days when I feel like shutting the door on politics and going somewhere else, where smart, good, fair-minded people go[/quote]
What makes you think they would let you in?
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