Also, if you are going to use "No one challenged me and I got several upvotes and follow-on posts in agreement" as a pseudo appeal to authority, I don't think that the readership of a Hacker News comments section really qualifies as authority on this particular issue.
Edit: Oh, apparently models have already predicted temperatures since 1900 correctly via hindcasting, along with changes in climates after significant events such as the eruption of Mount Pinatubo. And so far, they seem to be on-track with empirical data: http://www.skepticalscience.com/images/SLR_models_obs.gif, though I fully understand if you want to discard that graph due to it's source; the risk of selection bias is very high when taking a shallow look at a large and deep subject.