<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff" STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;background-color:#ffffff; "><DIV> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><FONT size=1>In response to Ted’s post about global warming, Pat writes:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=1> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><FONT size=1>“It is just what one would expect at the end of an ice age. If the earth continues just as it always has we have no need to worry it will get cold again. As it does things will change...been that way awhile...will continue to be that way.”<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=1> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=1><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">The Discovery Channel tells me that there have been four major continental glaciations recorded in </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">North America</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The last, called the </SPAN><st1:State><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Wisconsin</SPAN></st1:place></st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">, began about 70,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m just guessing at your age here, Pat, but I think that’s about 9946 years before you were born.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As I know it’s rude to discuss a lady’s age, let me even things up by saying that it was <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>9962 years before mine.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=1> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=1><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">At the moment, we’re in what is called an interglacial phase that's expected to last for another ten thousand or so years.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In other words, we’re at the end of an ice age in the same way that we’re at the end of the </SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Hoover</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> administration.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, it’s over, and the Great Depression is behind us, but . . . wait!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m wrong!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>George W. Bush is the first President since </SPAN><st1:City><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Hoover</SPAN></st1:place></st1:City><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> to preside over a net loss of jobs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The federal deficit is unsustainable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The looming retirement of the baby boomers will bankrupt Social Security and Medicare, the dollar is dropping like a rock, and we continue to hemorrhage high-paying manufacturing jobs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps Pat is right!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Time is flowing backwards!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That super volcano beneath </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Yellowstone</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> will erupt, wiping out most of the entire </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">United States</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">, and all the ozone-destroying hairspray that preachers like Jimmy Swaggart and Jerry Falwell and Jan Crouch and Lou Dobson have used to get their fabulous follicles closer to God will mean that it’s going to get mighty, mighyt cold here in big damn hurry.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=1> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><FONT size=1>So don't worry about global warming. When Martha Stewart gets out of prison, we'll ask her to share some of her cave-decorating tips and her recipes for mastodon.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=1> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><FONT size=1>The ice age . . . it’s a good thing.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><o:p><FONT size=1> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"><FONT size=1>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>