THIS is Global Warming. No joke.

Explanations are at the ready for the recent cold, one scientist going so far as to say that global warming (a.k.a. climate change) will only be delayed by a possible mini-ice-age.  For real.

While this is a micro-level weather event, in a global warming scenario predicted by the likes of Al Gore, this is pretty much impossible:

A long-lived Arctic cold outbreak will remain entrenched across the Plains, Midwest, South and East through the first week of 2018, shattering more daily records and sending wind chills to dangerously cold levels.

The latest batch of Arctic air to arrive in the Lower 48 is gripping parts of the Midwest and East for New Year's weekend. This will be followed by another reinforcing shot of bitterly cold air during the latter half of the week ahead.

It's interesting that embedded within the findings of the mini-ice-age is the notion that no matter what the impact of human activity on global warming the sun always trumps us.

Let's hope Mr. Hope and Change doesn't take credit for it.

On June 3rd, 2008, the evening he won the Democratic Party's nomination for president, Barack Obama identified the time of his nomination as the day that global warming started to end.

"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

Yes, he did say that (at 27:04 here). Set aside the ego, and consider the possibility that President Obama is both lucky and opportunistic.  When he ran for President the turning point in defeating John McCain who had begun to close the polling gap was the economic meltdown and Obama's cool response to the crisis compared to McCain's odd response. Circumstances and an opportunistic response worked in his favor.  Similarly in defeating Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President, he was very opportunistic and had a lot of breaks go his way as well.  Granted, he has not always been as opportunistic as he could be, like with the Gulf oil spill, but he is an opportunist.  But that isn't of great consequence when luck is on his side.  Indeed, either factor alone can be enough at times.  But both working together can be an unbeatable combination.