Courtney

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 10:23:23 -0800

I'll tell you what's most frustrating Brad: that so many have bought into the language of "the opposing view" in the first place. When a scientist is researching something, it is not the responsibility of other scientists to suddenly rush out, define the opposing view, and then try desperately to prove it. Science, like so many other things we refuse to acknowledge as such, works primarily in grey areas and cares not a whit about opposition per se. We have been given this horrible concept by lawyers and politicians, and personally I think we should have kicked it to the curb as soon as it was presented to us. We need to understand natural phenomena and scientific results in all their complexity: we do not need to drop them into a cage match inspired by the World Wide Wrestling federation.

Brad Fregger

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 21:54:01 -0800

As a passionate independent who enjoys NPR, Jon Stewart, and Talk Radio, it is important to me that all advocates, left and right, tell the truth and not spin the facts in order to prove their point. You’ve done that in regard to what I understand to be the school board’s decision regarding the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. It seems the school board required the teacher to show the other side of the issue. What’s so unreasonable about that? Did they say that she had to show Frosty’s view? Which I would strongly agree does not belong in a science classroom. If not, then they meant that she had to show another scientific view. It disturbs me that on the Jon Stewart show she said that she looked for another view and couldn’t find it; that she could only find a Newsweek article that was 30-years old. If this wasn’t a lie, it speaks very poorly for her ability to do proper research and therefore her ability to teach proper science. There are many Internet sources for other scientific views; here’s just three: 1) The entire subject is well covered in Wikipedia and includes most major opposing and agreeing views regarding the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis. Search "Global Warming Controversy" 2) Amazon’s page for the book, Global Crises, Global Solutions, which makes a very good case for ignoring global warming and focusing on other, more pressing, societal issues. Search the title in Amazon The Great Global Warming Swindle - Documentary Film. This film is an excellent scientific explanation of the other view and points out very clearly many of the misstatements in Gore’s film. This would have been a perfect opposing view film for her to use in her classroom. On Google Video, this film, produced in Britain, has had 71,500 views since it was posted. In addition, it can be downloaded for free--there's no excuse for not using it. Search the title in Google Videos Now, the question is, do you have the intellectual honesty to consider seriously that there just might be some opposing views that must be looked at seriously? Brad Fregger

Seattlest: Inconvenient Truth Unbanned In Yakima, Apocalypse Undaunted

Courtney

Brad Fregger