Ignorance be damned

It's well after 2am and I can't sleep. I am frustrated with the ignorance and selfishness of people around me, both known and unknown.

First, I would like to applaud Seattle for not using salt on the roadways. Here are a couple of arguments for using salt:

1. "Puget Sound is salt water" um...even so, is Lake Washington? Lake Union? Green Lake?

2. "A little extra salt isn't going to hurt anything." seriously? Are we just adding a dash of salt? Would you go up to your friend's salt water fish tank and shake the salt shaker into it? I think you'd lose a friend. Puget Sound is laden with pollution for the entire region and salt is certainly going to cause a problem.

3. "We use salt all the time on the East Coast and there are still fish there." This one made me laugh out loud. When was the last time this guy looked at species decline in whatever region he was living in? I even wonder how many of the fish he's thinking of are native.

So anyway...that's really grating on my nerves. Today I also got into an argument with my own father about global warming. The man can't cite any sources nor is he willing to look them up for me. He can't explain to me what he means when he spouts off some 'fact' without using a whiny sarcastic voice (and then he still doesn't answer my question). I actually yelled, and I mean yelled, at him when he pulled that on me. This all started when he swept his arm about to indicate the snow and said "This was all caused by global warming." I responded, "Actually, we should expect to see more precipitation in our region whereas the interior of the country will see far less." Here are some other quotes:

"We're in a two year cooling period"
"We're in a warming trend..in the 1600's..." Don't think he ever finished that bit about the 1600's but I heard it brought up a lot.
"What are we going to do when we find out they were wrong?" Um, rejoice? Enjoy our cleaner air and healthier bodies?
"Al Gore is an idiot."
"There are lots of scientists who don't believe it." like whom? and I can guarantee it there are a lot more who do.
Something about "humans can't alter the environment." At that point I reminded him that we're animals and look at the crazy shit we do. We build cars and buildings that can regulate heat, we make machines that let us talk to people on the other side of the world. Thought that might lead into a theology argument but it didn't.

Oh, I think I remember one of the 1600's statements. It was something about what did I think people thought when there was a cooling period in the olden days and people's crops couldn't grow. I said, so straight faced I was so proud, I said "they probably thought they were smited by God." Booyah! And he couldn't argue.