Fat Louie was a fat fluffy white duck. He lived in a man made pond called Snapfinger Woods Lake.The pond was located east of Atlanta, and had been created as an amenity for the residents of Snapfinger Woods Estates, a small failed condominium complex that had gone broke,and been converted to rental units.
Fat Louie was called Fat because he was the fastest swimmer of the 12 to 14 ducks who called Snapfinger Woods Lake their home. Every day, the human residents would throw bread, cake, pizza crusts, and other assorted unhealthy foods into the pond.
The ducks would race for the food. Fat Louie being the fastest, would usually get there first. He would eat,and eat,and eat some more. Soon,Louie was the fatest duck in the pond.
When Fat Louie developed the gout as a result of eating too much rich food, he was forced out of the pond by the rest of the flock, who considered him defective due to his infirmity.
Following several years of unusually heavy rainfall,Atlanta, and the Southeast in general had suffered through a fairly severe drought, reaching a high or perhaps low point during the Summer.
When Fat Louie’s recently purchased overflow culvert/home dried up, he defaulted on his mortgage, and lost his home to foreclosure becoming part of the subprime statistic.The bad luck of a recession and the untimely drought had hurt everyone .
Even a fat white duck.
The low water levels and lean times resulted in Fat Louie dropping some weight. His gout disappeared.and as a result,the other ducks allowed him back into Snapfinger Woods Lake.
Halloween night in Atlanta was unusually chilly. The trick or treaters were forced to wear sweaters and jackets, a most unusual occurence that early in the season. The children argued, the parents grumbled, and everyone shrugged it off as an aberration. After all global warming was bringing elevated temperatures and melting ice caps.
Just not this year.
Fat Louie’s downe came in thicker and earlier than in past years.
Fat Louie was invited to a family reunion by his cousins in New York .The reunion was an annual affair usually lasting for most of the month of November. Donald and Donna Duck, were residents of Hempstead Lake State Park, and this year was New York’s turn to host the festivities.
Donald and Donna had been planning the event starting the day that last years ended. They caught a ride back to Long Island , from Minnesota’s Thousand Lakes, on a poulty truck. The meetings and committee formations began as soon as they reached their home.
Accommodation’s and food for several thousand relatives had to be balanced with ecological concerns.
Preserving Nature was a fowl obligation,and the Duck family took it seriously.
November was always the chosen month.It was Fall yet still mild enough to allow the family time to migrate to Wintering destinations before it became too cold to travel.
Fat Louie and 2000- 2500 of his relatives descended upon Hempstead Lake State Park shortly after Halloween.
The weather in New York was also cooler than usual, and became very cold midway through the month.
The celebrations were attended with great enthusiasm by most members of the Duck family, but several of the wild cousins sensing the onset of early Winter , organized their flight formations, and left for winter homes in warmer climates.
By Thanksgiving, the cold blast of winter chill accompanied by blustery winds and single digit wind chills, took the joy out of the Duck family reunion .
The day following Thanksgiving, the assembled Ducks awoke to the news that Grandpa Quillion Duck, the Duck family elder had died of frost during the night.
The panic spread like a Chicken Hawk on the prowl.
The Duck family took to flight, knocking into each other , flying in panicked circles.
The cold weather had come early . Heading south was a matter of life and death.
On the lake, some cooler heads prevailed.” Let them go”quacked Fat Louie.” This is the age of global warming.
This cold weather is just an accident.
Probably the coldest day of the year.”
Epilogue: The winter that seems endless is still dragging on.
Record cold weather has lingered from Halloween night (Oct.31st) almost without respite.
Multiple layers and wearing hats has become more of a necessity less a fashion statement.
And its only the end of February.
Well the good news is that despite the prolonged uninterrupted cold, we havn’t had very much snow. Snow would make things really miserable.
If it wasn’t for global warming we would really be in trouble.
Maybe even be into a new Ice Age.
So…you don’t believe that global warming is really happening?
The extreme temperatures you’re talking about are even an indicator that climate change is occurring. Just because parts of the world are colder than usual, doesn’t mean that the world as a whole isn’t experiencing a significant rise in temperature. And the glaciers are falling apart!
there are as many scientists that say the climate is cooling as warming, the main street press does not publish that fact because global warming is a socialist agenda to control our lives
it is an excuse to change our way of living it is more of a freedom issue, but noone will publicize that fact
sorry for bucking popular notions, but if you do some checking, you will see that at least there are 2 sides to this question, and in fact i have read that we are currently in a 25-30 year cooling trend that has been going on for 4-5 years already.
A cooling trend is, no offense, kind of a weak response by those who argue that global warming isn’t occurring. Sure, the planet goes through these trends every couple of hundred years where the weather shifts slightly, but the fact that greenhouse gases have increased exponentially during this same time period says something. It has also been proven scientifically that greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. Global temperatures have also risen on average by a few degrees and continue to rise…it all basically coincides.
I’ve never heard a strong argument that refuted global warming, and if I did, I would be more than willing to consider the idea to be false. The people/scientists that argue against have their own agenda as well. Call it the conservative agenda, free market agenda, laissez faire agenda, or whatever you like. The agenda of big businesses that don’t want to spend the money to clean up all of the pollution they are creating, because it will cost them. If global warming is a socialist agenda because people are unwilling to do what’s right for the world and mankind on their own, then I say let the government step in. Keep the government out when they invade my private life, but let them protect me from people trying to harm me, whether they are doing it directly, or slowly over time.
I wouldn’t even say that the other side doesn’t get press. I’m completely aware that scientists argue against it, but I would hardly say that the sides are even. There are scientists that for years have argued that smoking isn’t bad for you, that completely deregulated markets are what’s best for economy, and that evolution is completely wrong because it conflicts with what the Bible says. There will always be two sides to any argument, even if the facts are as clear as daylight. I think you should take a look at this one again. I must adamantly disagree.
there will be a day when (sadly) you will look up and say, dad was right, (I hope I’m wrong) and I am less free than I was when I was 23, I would much prefer that we were still free.
Just throwing this out there…I’m 24 : )
Also, I was hoping for a bit more of a heated argument. Clearly we disagree. That’s fine. we’ve been doing that on just about every charliechampion post I’ve commented on. We are both aware of how much we disagree on several issues and respectfully argue our points, and I enjoy that a lot. I would like to think that we are past the point of, “you’re young, and you’ll understand when you’re older.” If your latest response was based on the fact that I’m ok with big government in certain situations, then bring on the argument! I want your rebuttal!
If your response was based on your disapproval of my position on global warming, then once again, bring on the discussion! I would love to hear your side.
And if it was based on a general idea of my liberal views and my support for the current government, then there is certainly some validity, and I would like to argue that too! Because my support for the current administration is hardly unwavering, and I certainly disagree with many things that are going on, including almost $1 trillion in debt that we incurred with one pen stroke.
And I would also be willing to argue that I was much less free for the past 8 years than I have been in the past few months, and will be for the next 4 or more years. If nothing else, the Patriot Act was pretty offensive, among other Bush/conservative initiatives.
You are both wrong.
The earth does go through natural heating and cooling cycles. It was hotter during the middle ages, colder in the seventeen hundreds. Life was unbearably hot during the dinosaurs
Greenhouse gasses do trap heat and cause temperatures to rise
The problem is that forcing people and companies to use energy efficient air conditioners is not even close to a solution. Us sheep may pay more for a low energy light bulb, but businesses will just move offshore to some third world country where they can get away with this stuff.
What they need to do is take the money they spend on conservation, and put it all into innovation. Have a huge factory shooting spewing frothing greenhouse gasses into the air for five years, but have that factory producing hydrogen fuel cells. Technology is the only way out
Unfortunately the Patriot act is still in effect and if there is another attack, it will be a terrible option for marshall law,
Everything is relative, I hate Bush as much as you do probably more.
The problem I have with Obama, is that he has been elected out of nowhere, noone has seen so much as his college grades or any papers he wrote.
He has no executive experience, yet some how he raised 600 million for his election, much of the money coming from foreign interests, and behind the scene manipulators.I don’t believe that a million black kids with computers contribuuted 25 apiece to get him elected.
The only thing we know about his background is he has most liberal voting record in senate. Was there for 2 years, and has a group of very left wing socialist people as friends and advisors.
He has very ominously created a group of what he calls czars, which supercede the regular cabinet level people who must be approved and vetted by congress, Czars report directly to him. a very dangerous scenario, and a deviation from concept of seprate branches of government.
He doesn’t seem like a bad person, but he is beholden to those who “brung him to the dance” and that includes a lot of people with agendas that don’t bode well for America and Capitalism..not the Wall Street part, but the part that lets a me save his money and open a business, and reinvest to take care of his family
I fear that that part is slipping away into a welfare type European socialism.. see how well they are doing
Communism and socialism has never worked. It is another form of imposing the will of the ruling class on the rest of the population, but robs us of work ethic and risk taking
What an intelligent although oversimplified idea.
It is the agenda to tell us what auto to buy and what light bulb to use. Maybe how hot or cold our thermostats will be allow to set, what doctors we can see, and how cost effective it is to treat our illnesses.
Control is the name of the game
It works for the bosses, not that great for everyone else
Technology is certainly the way out. Which is why those energy efficient light bulbs and air conditioners help. That was technology finding more efficient ways to transfer electricity into what we use every day. Hydrogen fuel cells or any other kind of new technology will always always come with a cost. You can have some factory spewing them out, but nobody will by them on their own unless they are cheaper than what exists now. The only way for them to become cheaper is for them to be manufactured in mass (and for better technology to emerge, of course), and the only way that can happen is for someone to start using the technology, even if it is more expensive.
Hydrogen Fuel is very promising, i only hope that we can mass produce soon enough.,;;
hydrogen fueled vehicles are the best but they are still not widely available.`–