If you're so smart and the world's climatologists are so dumb, for the love of god stop yammering about it on Slashdot, publish, and collect your Nobel Prize.

I tried. I'm actually just shy of the Nobel Prize. Only problem is that every time I suggest in my grant proposal that I'm going to attempt to prove that the earth isn't warming due to mankind I never get the funding.

Funny how that works.

Any one who is genuinely interested in learning about how and why complex systems change catastrophically should read "Limits to Growth" - the classic by the MIT team headed by Donella Meadows.

Yes, let's all jump on the 1970s Club of Rome fad and do exactly what they suggested---controlling the reproductive and development rights of third world countries while amassing all of their resources in the first world. Then we will all bask in the wonders of the United States empire while masturbating to Kissinger porn while the neutered africans can stick to their caves where they belong. All for the sake of Malthusian paradise, of course.

As far as your economics analogy, it is pretty poor. No one agrees that economic law is a natural science or that it's entirely accurate or even measurable. Do you not know follow the ten trillion debates that follow every data collection technique and every data series, nevermind the models upon which the data is based? Do you not wonder why companies spend hundreds of billions a year publishing and researching economics studies? You might have caught a bit of it if you, uh, ever read the newspaper in the past 100 years.

But to suggest that it is possible that the data collection techniques and models of such an exacting "science" such as climate change might be off? Why that's a Limbaugh conspiracy!

You people are funny---for some that always harp about complexity and exponential feed back loops you sure have a hard time thinking that it's remotely possible you've missed any exponential feedback loops in the opposite direction and the resulting massive change that would have on your predictions.

But what am I saying---I'm just a mathematician.

You mean entire unimmunized community, right?

Up next: desu desu desium

I like how helping poor, sick bastards is now considered "redistribution". Last I checked that was just being a decent fucking person.

Oh, and btw, you can be working and not pay income tax. It's called being POOR AS SHIT.

Mr. Obama's plan also calls for giving a $500 tax break to Americans making $75,000 a year or less, and rebates to those who don't pay income tax. Mr. McCain's campaign calls that "welfare." But unlike welfare -- payments to people who aren't working -- Mr. Obama's rebate would go to people who are. It would essentially beef up the earned-income tax credit, a policy that originated with Republicans. And even those working Americans who don't earn enough to owe income taxes pay Social Security and Medicare taxes. Mr. McCain himself has proposed a $2,500 health-insurance credit that would be available to individuals who don't pay income taxes.

Mr. Obama also has been accused by Mr. McCain of advocating a government takeover of the health-care system. It's true that five years ago, before he was a U.S. senator, Mr. Obama endorsed a government-run system. His current plan, however, would bolster the private employer-provided system of health insurance. It would require larger businesses to provide coverage or pay a fee to help finance a plan with the options available to federal employees and members of Congress. Small businesses would be exempt from the requirement, but would receive tax credits if they cover their employees. Existing government programs for low-income Americans would be expanded.

Mr. Obama's plan takes a similar approach to the one adopted in Massachusetts under former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. Somehow, Mr. Romney has escaped the socialist label.

This is an odd time for the Republican ticket to accuse Mr. Obama of socialism. Mr. McCain, along with Mr. Obama, backed the Bush administration's $700 billion bailout of the financial system -- the biggest government intervention in the economy in decades. Mr. McCain suspended his campaign to work for the plan's passage, and blasted Mr. Obama for not doing the same.

There's no question there are fundamental differences between Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain on economic policy. Misleading labels are a poor substitute for an honest discussion of them.