Muammar “President For Life” Gaddafi

... would kindly like to point out that the foxy ladies in the background are just a few of the 30 all virgin female bodyguards he travels around with. Honestly. Seriously … you can look it up if you don’t believe him! You can’t out batshit-crazy the colonel. Don’t even try.

Global Warming in Toronto

When it's hot we are reminded daily by someone in the media of the dreaded global warming ... when it's not hot ... there is silence:

Toronto is having a Newfoundland summer.

Now I don't mean, even though it would be a wonderful idea, that there are bake-apple festivals at Bloor and Yonge. Or that the Bay Street stockbrokers are out jigging codfish on “food fish” weekends. Though that, too, would be an encouraging, even edifying, spectacle.

No, what I mean is that, for most of July, temperatures in the Ontario capital and beyond are in that sweet temperate zone of the low 20s, and there seem to be as many grey and rainy days as sunny ones. With a great heave of homesickness, I've even seen fog obscuring the shoreline of Lake Ontario and the nether parts of the metropolis itself. I know it's odd, but when I see the Royal York hotel clouded by mist, I immediately think of Twillingate.

For Toronto, a Newfoundland summer in 2009 is a godsend. Because as all of Canada and a good portion of the world knows, this city is caught in the turmoil of a garbage strike. Its citizens are doing the best they can with the ever-growing heaps of garbage, but it's been a hard go.

... read more of REX.

MSM Can't Buy You Love

This has got to hurt ... and confuse. When the MSM applied the Alinsky technique to vilify Bush, and brought his approval down to just about zero, it thought it could achieve the inverse by deifying The Big O.

Well, it got Barry Dunham elected, but America is catching on to the con, and all the MSM love in the world will not save this utopian socialist presidency.

There is still time for Barry to save his presidency though ... it's going to take an about face and settling for the praise of the moderate class while putting up with the scorn of the radicals ... which include Daily Kos, MoveOn, Prof. Gates, Rev. Wright, and even soulmate William Ayres ... it may even mean the loss of shivers running up the legs of some journalists.

One thing is for sure though; this crisis has been wasted.

Cheers!

What do Chavez, Khamenei, and Gates Have In Common

Obama:

By common consent, the most memorable moment of Barack Obama’s otherwise listless press conference on “health care” were his robust remarks on the “racist” incident involving Prof. Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge police. The latter “acted stupidly,” pronounced the chief of state. The president of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Chávez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police sergeant James Crowley.

For everyone other than the president, what happened at Professor Gates’s house is not entirely clear. The Harvard prof returned home without his keys and, as Obama put it, “jimmied his way into the house.” Someone witnessing the “break-in” called the cops, and things, ah, escalated from there. Professor Gates is now saying that, if Sergeant Crowley publicly apologizes for his racism, the prof will graciously agree to “educate him about the history of racism in America.” Which is a helluva deal. I mean, Ivy League parents re-mortgage their homes to pay Gates for the privilege of lecturing their kids, and here he is offering to hector it away to some no-name lunkhead for free.

As to the differences between the professor’s and the cops’ version of events, I confess I’ve been wary of taking Henry Louis Gates at his word ever since, almost two decades back, the literary scholar compared the lyrics of the rap group 2 Live Crew to those of the Bard of Avon. “It’s like Shakespeare’s ‘My love is like a red, red rose,’ ” he declared, authoritatively, to a court in Fort Lauderdale.

Uninsured

Kim Jong “I’m So Ronery” Il

... needs to know if his Mao/Paulie from the Sopranos hybrid track suit makes him look fat? He’d also like to know how Moammar stays so fit … maybe he’s getting tips from Barrack.

The Amazing Disappearing Charts

... or in other words, "Do as I say; Not as I do" :

Every alarmist from Al Gore to James Hansen has used this same chart in their every presentation - showing global temperatures since 1950 (or really since 1980) going up in lockstep with Co2. This is the alarmists #1 chart. All Fielding has done is shown data after 1998, something alarmists tend to be reluctant to do. Sure it’s a short time period, but nothing in any alarmist prediction or IPCC report hinted that there was any possibility that for even so short a time as 15 years warming might cease (at least not in the last IPCC report, which I have read nearly every page of). So, by using the alarmists’ own chart and questioning a temperature trend that went unpredicted, Fielding is “either incredibly stupid or a very bad man.” Again, the alarmist modus operandi - it is much better to smear the person in ad hominem attacks than deal with his argument.

Sinking America

While more and more US states launch measures to get budgets under control by shrinking the size of government, President Obama, Prime Minister Pelosi, and Commissar Reid continue down the road of economic ruin ... expanding government more than in any time in history other than the World Wars. Only complete imbeciles ... or those hell bent on creating enough voters dependant on government to ensure future power, would head down this path.

Which is it ... imbeciles ... or liberals so bent on power they are willing to risk their entire country to get it ... you decide.

Meanwhile, US states bow to the grim realities:

The bad news about state budgets just keeps getting worse. Only three weeks into the new fiscal year, gaps are already opening up. And the shortfalls are only expected to grow.

"If you think legislators are breathing a sigh of relief because their budgets are passed, think again," said William Pound, executive director of the National Conference of State Legislatures.

State legislators and governors had to contend with deficits totaling $142.6 billion as they closed out fiscal 2009, which ended on June 30 for 46 states, according to the conference. Three states have yet to pass balanced budgets for fiscal 2010, as officials tussle over painful budget cuts and tax increases.

But even some states that approved budgets are going back to the drawing board as revenues drop faster and more sharply than they had estimated.

Perhaps Canadians will now appreciate their lot in life, where starting with Brian Mulroney, government after government shrunk deficits and slowly began to repay Canada's massive Trudeau-era debt which reached explosive dimensions during the Mulroney years. It's taken decades to clean up the mess and only after painful budget work; like Paul Martin starving the provinces of healthcare funds, has Canada shed the liberal yoke of unsustainable deficit financing.

I wouldn't change places with Americans for anything ... they are about to find out the price that utopian liberals can exact. The greatest country in the world, with unprecedented upward mobility and prosperity, is about to become just another humdrum Western state ... or worse. Welcome to the world of failed liberal dreams.

Those Canadian businesses that depend on American wealth would do good to change their business models and take PM Harper's advice ... think Asia and Europe, the good times selling cheaper Ontario and Quebec products to America may be over.

It's No Longer the Science

... it's now simply a matter of PR:

Many of the maverick, self-promoting climate sceptics play this game well, which is one reason they exercise such disproportionate influence over public opinion. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), on the other hand, plays it badly. Rather than let loose its most presentable participants to tell the world how it achieves consensus on an unprecedented scale, it fails even to provide a list of the people involved in the process. It has no human face at all: the only images on its website are the palace or beach resort where it will hold its next meeting.

[...]

It is clear that the cautious language of science is now inadequate to inspire concerted change, even among scientists. We need a fundamentally different approach. Only then will scientists be in a position to throw down the ultimate challenge to the public: "We've done the work, we believe the results, now when the hell will you wake up?"

I suppose, that when the "science is settled", it becomes a matter of hearts and minds.

If you want to understand better the mind of a true believer, read the whole thing.

Speaking of true believers, we did provide a measurement instrument (peer reviewed even) whereby greens can measure their own level of sincerity ... click.

Jack “For the Working Class” Layton

…. can’t for the life of him remember where he left his car keys ... or his common sense ... or his ability to gain traction for his party ... or his appeal to most Canadians ... or his original talking points ... or his ….

Waterloo

Just Another Day in the World of "Honour"

A married Muslim woman has been warned by police that she could be murdered after her lover was attacked with sulphuric acid.
The 24-year-old Muslim man had the acid poured down his throat and was stabbed and beaten with bricks by four men.

He is not expected to live after suffering 90 per cent burns in the London attack, which blinded him and left his tongue destroyed.

Puts me in mind of THIS.

The Faces.

Giving New Meaning to "New Car Smell"

... and you thought that 97.4 billion dollars had been wasted ... shame on you unbeliever!

Click

Osama “Has Been” Laden

….. is in a smilin’ mood thanks to two lumps of dirt in his cave lichen tea this morning. He’d like to remind you that all requests for future jihads, and assistance with current jihads, have been put on hold until further notice.

Looking for the "Big Oil" Fingerprint

Surely, with nonsense like this being published, either "big oil" is behind it, or the authors are little more than quacks ... so will go the rebuttle by climate doomsters:

THREE Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity.

The research, by Chris de Freitas, a climate scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, John McLean (Melbourne) and Bob Carter (James Cook University), finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a key indicator of global atmospheric temperatures seven months later. As an additional influence, intermittent volcanic activity injects cooling aerosols into the atmosphere and produces significant cooling.

“The surge in global temperatures since 1977 can be attributed to a 1976 climate shift in the Pacific Ocean that made warming El Niño conditions more likely than they were over the previous 30 years and cooling La Niña conditions less likely” says corresponding author de Freitas.

“We have shown that internal global climate-system variability accounts for at least 80% of the observed global climate variation over the past half-century. It may even be more if the period of influence of major volcanoes can be more clearly identified and the corresponding data excluded from the analysis.

Tinker Toys

Climate science is one big massive tinker-fest:

I can understand why a researcher (data technician) might start down this path focusing on the desire for long-running series of temperature data. At some point that person or group should have stopped and asked a few questions of the sort: “What are we doing to the data?” or “What are the alternatives?” or “How do different time periods regarding a lengthily warming or cooling influence the outcomes?”

If they did these things it seems they chose a method that gave them a warming bias. If they did not do these things, than shame on them!

Are there no “facts” to work with in climate research?

... the discussion.

Speaking of tinker-toys, everyone hates the kid who won't share their's:

It must be humiliating for the UK Met Office to have to protect Phil Jones and CRU. Even a seasoned bureaucrat must have winced in order to write the following:

Bonus UK MET humiliation ... click.

Spanking Works?

A group of social scientists in Europe and the US has established a new journal of negative and unpublishable results in the social sciences. The mission of The Journal of Spurious Correlations (JSpurC) is to provide a legitimate venue for exploring pure and applied methodological questions in the social sciences in the company of colleagues without fear of professional embarrassment or reprisal. While a number of the present organizers are political scientists, such an initiative may be relevant to other social science disciplines as well, and to a range of methodological approaches beyond the ‘quantitative.’

I wonder what the most spurious of spurious correlations will be?

77 Billion AGW Dollars So Far

... remember when warmists used to mock skeptics for being in the pocket of "big oil". How about being in the pocket of "big green?"

The US government has spent over $77 billion since 1989 on policies related to climate change, including science and technology research, administration, education campaigns, foreign aid, and tax breaks. Despite the billions: “audits” of the science are left to unpaid volunteers. A dedicated but largely uncoordinated grassroots movement of scientists has sprung up around the globe to test the integrity of the theory and compete with a well funded highly organized climate monopoly. They have exposed major errors.

Billions in the Name of “Climate”

In total, over the last 20 years, by the end of fiscal year 2009, the US government will have poured in $32 billion1 2 for climate research—and another $36 billion3 4 5 for development of climate‐related technologies. These are actual dollars, obtained from government reports, and not adjusted for inflation. It does not include funding from other governments on the global industry.

Source

Regulating Plant Food

Only liberals and their warmist useful idiots could come up with a con this sweeping:

The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing the greatest regulatory intervention in US history, seeking to declare that carbon dioxide poses an “endangerment” under the Clean Air Act, threatening human health and the environment. To hear the EPA tell it, CO2 – which nonetheless remains indispensible to life on earth and without which plants die, more of which produces higher crop yields, etc. – will kill us all.

This proposal is a cornerstone of the Obama administration’s attempt to bring the energy sector of the economy under state control just as it seeks to do with health care, essentially ruining something in order to take it over in the name of cleaning up capitalism’s mess. It’s an old play, which the statists have run for decades, certain that every now and then it will break for a big gain. But an inconvenient EPA career professional just doing his job assessed the premise and informed his superiors, in the sole substantive report presented in the Agency’s internal deliberations, that upon scrutiny CO2 clearly does not drive temperatures or climate but oddly enough, the sun and oceans do. His boss told him to shut up, that nothing good could come to their office by injecting this analysis into the process, as the decision had been made.

One problem with that, of course, is that the decision is not allowed to be made before the process has run its course. That is the entire purpose of an internal debate which, internal documents now prove, was truncated and in fact illusory.

... keep reading.

Bringing Back the Skyraider?

I picked up the following link from Defense of the Realm where they have argued in the past that our air support in Afghanistan really isn't cost effective. We are using billion dollar cold war bombers dropping millions of dollars of ordinance on one or two baddies at a time. The armed UAVs are a great step forward, but Defense of the Realm argues we are forgetting lessons of the past, like the effectiveness of the A1 Skyraiders in Vietnam or the Rhodesian bush wars, where apparently small prop driven attack planes would actually land on roads and impromptu air strips near ongoing fighting, and wait on standby to be called in, the pilots basically living out in the bush.

The lessons haven't been lost on all though, and the US Navy Seals are looking into the idea of a small turbo prop attack plane, which could basically provide the same support, or sometimes better, than a B1, at a fraction of the cost:

In a move that harkens back to the days of recycled World War II torpedo bombers sheep-dipped as close air support planes, the Navy intends to field a limited number of turbo-prop attack planes outfitted with the most modern surveillance, tracking and weapons systems to help special ops forces keep track of bad guys and, in a pinch, put warheads on foreheads.

Call it an A-1 Skyraider on steroids – a “Back to the Future”-resurrection of a kind of plane last seen pounding enemy positions with rockets, guns and bombs over Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1960s.

Code named “Imminent Fury,” the classified, year-long program has so far produced one fully-outfitted plane and is set to field four more to directly support SEALs and other operators on the battlefield in Afghanistan.

According to a source close to the program who declined to be named, the Navy has leased an EMB-314 Super Tucano for the job. Made by the Brazilian aerospace company Embraer, it is now being tested on desert ranges in California and the service’s top test facility at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md. The Navy loaded it up with sensors and weapons systems that “would make an F-16 pilot blush,” the source said.

by: Junker

Honour?

At least Muhammad may be pleased (peace be upon him):

A Montreal family has been charged in the deaths of their three teenage daughters and a 50-year-old caregiver, more than three weeks after police pulled four bodies from a car submerged near Kingston, Ont.

According to Kingston police Chief Stephen Tanner, the deaths are a "needless and senseless loss of innocent human lives" which could be an extreme case of domestic violence.

[...]

The family is originally from Afghanistan but moved to Canada after spending 15 years in Dubai. Police say the family's culture may have contributed to the deaths.

CTV

Perhaps it would be best advised that Canadian authorities insist that Muslim women get swimming lessons before they immigrate to Canada.

Al “Hot Air” Gore

….. needs to interrupt your workday for just one second to point out that, yes, the sky is in fact still falling. Hopefully you don’t find this truth to be in any way inconvenient.

Amazing Cure for Constipation Found

I normally do not repeat medical information I get on Email, but this item is relevant and may be very helpful.

A procedure now being taught in all medical schools:

If you are bothered by occasional or frequent constipation, look in the mirror and repeat the following phrase three times in succession when symptoms occur:

“My financial and personal well being are totally in the hands of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Tim Geithner, Rahm Emmanuel, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, and Al Gore”

If that doesn’t scare the shit out of you, then you are probably destined to be backed up for the rest of your life.

There is no need to thank me for this advice; I’m just doing a public service.

Response to Obama-Care News Conference

ht

Taking a Step Back from AGW

When one takes a step back and takes the long view of what warmists portend ... it's difficult not to be struck by the incredible hubris of it all:

To extend knowledge of past events beyond the limits of actual measurements, Earth scientists developed a range of proxy measurements. But every proxy has an unknown correction factor. Consider the use of tree growth rings as a proxy measurement of past precipitation. The actual tree ring growth is the measure of the total of all environmental factors. If volcanic ash limited sunshine, if volcanic particulates deposited harmful chemicals, if pest or disease were prevalent during the growth cycle, then the size of growth rings is not a direct indication of precipitation. Years with sudden, intense rainfall might actually have higher levels than years with more even distribution.

Without complete and accurate information all math models rapidly compound the errors and result in hopelessly incorrect future projections. The folly of the Warmist movement is that carbon dioxide is a primary climate factor and that the tiny portion of proposed reductions in the human emitted gas would have a measurable effect. Had the planet’s climate been stable for millions of years and there was a measurable link of temperature and atmospheric CO2 then there could be AGW plausibility. Such is not the case.

... keep reading The Challenge for the Climate Change Savants.

Cambodiastan

By the Numbers !

Vladimir “The Enforcer” Putin

….. is puzzled that you pegged him as a tyrannical megalomaniacal overlord …. what on earth gave you that idea? Is it the fact the he could wipe the floor with any other world leader using a mix of black-belt judo and KGB open hand incapacitation techniques? Because he could …. but that doesn’t make him a tyrannical megalomaniacal overlord.

It's Not the Sun

The sun, as it turns out, has little to do with global warming ... or any other temperature trend for that matter. How do we know ... because the wonderful mystical models of warmist wonder say it is so.

Gavin (Warmist) Schmidt:

We use a suite of global climate model simulations for the 20th century to assess the contribution of solar forcing to the past trends in the global mean temperature. In particular, we examine how robust different published methodologies are at detecting and attributing solar-related climate change in the presence of intrinsic climate variability and multiple forcings.

We demonstrate that naive application of linear analytical methods such as regression gives nonrobust results. We also demonstrate that the methodologies used by Scafetta and West (2005, 2006a, 2006b, 2007, 2008) are not robust to
these same factors and that their error bars are significantly larger than reported. Our analysis shows that the most likely contribution from solar forcing a global warming is 7 ± 1% for the 20th century and is negligible for warming since 1980.

The comments section at WUWT has this little gem:

What we know, you could write a paper, what we don’t know, would fill a library.

So we write papers.

... no kidding.

Beck Blows It

... no excuse ... none. Had Olbermann done this, the entire rightwing blogosphere would've mocked him for the next 10 years.

How to Terrify the DNC

... with statistics ... click.

Step

The Invisible Hand of Socialism

Obama style:

The Department of Defense has allegedly compelled a private employer to fire a U.S. Army Reserve major from his civilian job after he had his military deployment orders revoked for arguing he should not be required to serve under a president who has not proven his eligibility for office.

According to the CEO of Simtech Inc., a private company located in Tampa, Fla., and contracted by the Defense Security Services, an agency of the Department of Defense, the federal government has compelled the termination of Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook.

Cook's attorney, Orly Taitz, wrote in her blog that Simtech CEO Larry Grice said he would try to find another position within the company for Cook, but nothing is currently available.

The Department of Defense does contracting in the general field of information technology/systems integration, at which Cook, a senior systems engineer and architect, was employed until taking a military leave of absence on July 10 in preparation for his deployment to Afghanistan.

"Grice told plaintiff, in essence, that the situation had become 'nutty and crazy,' and that plaintiff would no longer be able to work at his old position," Taitz wrote.

Grice made clear that it was Defense Security Services that had compelled Simtech to fire Cook, Taitz wrote.

Canada - Care

... this clip kind of reminds one of Canada ... red suits and all:

Three Strikes and You're Out

The crew over at the UK MET can count themselves lucky that they are scientists, and not baseball players. This year makes three summers in a row that the MET has completely blown their long term forecasts. You know what they say; three strikes and all. Pity.

"These events and short medium and long range forecasts now active spell failure for the Met Office forecast of a 'barbecue summer' which we advised our own forecast users to ignore. This is the third wet summer for Britain and Ireland in a row where the weather has turned out to be opposite to the Met Office long range prognosis and has instead been in line with our long range forecast. Along with the Met Office spectacular failure to predict the icy & snowy winter of 2008/09 which also confirmed WeatherAction's forecast one has to ask: For how much longer will government, 'opposition' and much of commerce continue to follow failed methodology?

... the details.

Nancy “Big Mother” Pelosi

….. has already warned you once. It’s an hour past your bedtime, and you’ve got school tomorrow, so get to bed! Mommy knows what’s best for you.

Better Than Death

I oppose the death penalty for two reasons.

1. Far too many innocent people would be executed. I don't trust the system to get it right each time.

2. A harsh life sentence is worse than death.

Guards push a single packet of Kool-Aid through the food slot of Paul Pilipow's prison cell with each meal.

He pours the drink mix into a cup of water, filled in his sink.

Pilipow eats breakfast, lunch and dinner -- from hamburgers and macaroni salad to pancakes with eggs -- alone in a concrete cell at Eyman State Prison outside Phoenix, Ariz.

The 30-year-old native of Melville is serving a sentence of life with no chance of parole for the brutal 1999 slaying of Phoenix-area senior Eloise Doyle. Pilipow's wife, Cherie, 33, is serving a 22-year sentence at the nearby Perryville State Prison for the same murder.

Paul was to face the death penalty if convicted, but was granted a life sentence in exchange for a guilty plea. Cherie's sentence was reduced after agreeing to testify against Paul.

... it's a good thing that Pilipow wasn't brought back to Canada to serve out 25 years (or less), in a Canuck country-club jail.

They Call it Science

... No ... really ... it is science:

The GISS temperature record, with its various adjustments, estimations, and re-estimations, has drawn my attention since I first became interested in the methods used to measure a global temperature. In particular, I have wondered how the current global average can even be compared with that of 1987, which was produced using between six and seven times more stations than today. Commenter George E. Smith noted accurately that it is a “simple failure to observe the standard laws of sampled data systems.” GISS presents so many puzzles in this area, it is difficult to know where to begin.

My recent post on the June, 2009 temperature found that the vast majority of temperatures were taken from airports and urban stations. This would cause some concern if the urban heat island (UHI) effect were not accounted for in those stations. GISS does attempt to filter out UHI from urban stations by using “nearby” rural stations – “nearby” meaning anything within 1000 KM. No attempt is made to filter UHI from airports not strictly listed as urban.

If stations from far, far away can be used to filter UHI, then it stands to reason some stations may be used multiple times as filters for multiple urban stations. I thought it would be amusing to list which stations were used the most to adjust for UHI. Fortunately, NASA prints that data in the PApars.statn.use.GHCN.CL.1000.20 log file.

The results were as I expected – amusing. Here are the top ten, ranked in order of the number of urban stations they help adjust:

... keep reading.

Losing His Mojo

Bumped by Boyle:

CBS, which airs only repeats that evening, agreed early Monday to cover the conference.

But for NBC, Fox and ABC, the decision was tougher. During a summer that's otherwise strewn with repeats, Wednesday includes all their top-rated reality programs.

Fox declined outright to air the news conference. NBC and ABC fell into line late Monday after the White House shifted the event's time from the previously announced 9 p.m. to the lesser-watched hour of 8 p.m.

The stakes were particularly high for NBC, which airs the most-watched show of the summer, "America's Got Talent," at 9 p.m. and this week, it includes a heavily promoted interview with "Britain's Got Talent" singing sensation Susan Boyle.

Sources said that NBC demonstrated reluctance to carry Obama's news conference live, and faced with the prospect of only one or two major broadcasters -- CBS and ABC -- covering it, the White House moved its start to 8 p.m.

The Future of Cap 'n Tax

... and Green Shift and all other such nonsense:

Targets for the Emissions Trading Scheme were already weak and have now been further undermined. . . At the moment the ETS embodies a reversal of the polluter pays principle, where instead polluters are being paid to do nothing to reduce their emissions.

After all, we are winning.

Golden Slacks

Hyperbole?

America's Right Issues a Retraction

... Mr. Harper is welcome to issue a correction as well:

Some of you may remember that after then Honduran President Zelaya was removed from office I wrote a piece about Obama's motivations for joining with Chavez and others in calling for Zelaya to be returned to power. Although the main point of the article was an analysis of Obama's decision-making - that I stand by - I also completely muffed the Honduran story. I went so far as to call Zelaya's removal a "coup".

As many of you proved in your well-researched comments: I was wrong.

... the reasoning.

Michael “4th Smartest Man in the World” Ignatieff

…. could go for a herb and basil scone with his Tall Decaf Soy Milk Chai Latte Americano this morning. He’d also like to take this opportunity to confirm that, no, he doesn’t believe it’s a bad thing to cart around a smug sense of self-satisfaction of gigantic proportions, but thanks for asking.

Great Afghanistan Picture Series

... from the Boston Globe:

Part One

Part Two

Sarah “Cool Sounding Salt-Water Fish” Palin

….is have'n a heck of great day, and thanks you for asking. She would just like to say that of the two people on this planet still sporting beehive hairdos, she is definitely hotter (sorry Amy Winehouse). Also, Sarah adds that red blazers are still ‘in’. In fact they never went out. Finally, she would like to clarify that “logging beaver country” is not a euphemism.

AGW is a "Moral" Issue

Rape Them ... Before You Kill Them

... that way, Islamic law will be satisfied:

In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband."

... keep reading.

Hilary “2nd place is the 1st place loser” Clinton

….would just like to express her befuddlement over your roaring laughter and talk of irony. She isn’t even sure what that is … isn’t that what the cleaners do with her pant suits? She also says that Bill says hi … to your 18 year old daughter.

Perhaps the Greatest AGW Obstacle

... is in getting a temperature.

We know from surfacestations.org that the surface temperature record is fraught with problems ... to the point that it may not be an accurate record at all. The problem is, that the satelite record may be no better:

From the comments at Climate Audit:

The weakness of the scientific method that consists in solely focusing on the measurement of one supremely variable parameter (temperature) as an indicator of climatic evolution is very real. The climatic significance of a mean global temperature evolution is yet to be determined especially when meteorological facts and synoptic reality are much more potent indicators of a climatic evolution that mostly contradict the conclusions suggested by the global mean temperature.

Ball Versus Strong

... the rest.

Pulblic Housing for Horses

The Gelded Age:

On Friday July 17, the House of Representatives met to debate . . . Go on, take a guess: Health care? The cap-and-tax racket? Stimulus Two? No, none of the above. Don’t worry, they’re still spending your money. Wild horses couldn’t stop them doing that.

And, as a matter of fact, that’s the correct answer: wild horses. On Friday, the House voted on the Restore Our American Mustangs Act — or ROAM. Like all acronymically cute legislation, its name bears little relation to what it actually does: It’s not about “restoring” mustangs. The federal Bureau of Land Management aims for a manageable population of 27,000 wild mustangs. Currently, there are 36,000, and the population doubles every four or five years. To prevent things getting even more out of hand, the BLM keeps another 30,000 mustangs in holding pens — or, if you prefer, managed-care facilities. That’s to say, under federal management, one in every two “wild” horses now lives in government housing. The American mustang population is road-testing the impending demographic profile of Japan and Germany: one worker for every retiree.

O - Pitch

The Big O can't even toss a ptich without the media covering for him. What's the big deal? It's just a pitch so why the rescue?

"ESPN NEWS ANCHOR: (music) Horrible camera work but it didn't bounce.

RANDI KAYE: (music) He pulled it off, putting the ball across the plate.

MIKE GALANOS: He made it to the glove.

KIRAN CHETRY: The president still performed a lot better than other big names.

MIKE ALLEN: It was a little low but he did fine.

REGIS PHILBIN: He did ok. He warmed up under the stands and then reached the catcher on a fly.

RUSH: Did not.

KELLY RIPA: I'm very proud of him. He's a lefty too.

ANN CURRY: The president said he didn't want to bounce it, and he didn't.

HARRY SMITH: It depends on the angle. It's all about the perspective from which you see that pitch. If you see it from back there at Pujols' angle, it doesn't look so bad.

RUSS MITCHELL: Made it all the way over the plate."




ht

Raid the Beer Cooler - In - Chief

America's entitlement spending is so out of control that even the Obama administration no longer tries to deny this fact. Instead they are trying something truly Orwellian. They are claiming - after printing trillions out of thin air - that fiscal responsibility dictates that we spend more money. This is like an alcoholic explaining that the only cure consists of raiding an entire 7-Eleven beer cooler.

Click

Kitchner's Last Volunteer

The world lost a great one:

He was one of the last three surviving British veterans of the First World War, the last surviving founder member of the RAF, the last man to have witnessed the Battle of Jutland and the last surviving member of the Royal Naval Air Service.

Afghanistan by the Numbers

Serious research from BruceR at Flit; I think we've certainly been doing our bit:

Just a quick look again at the combined Iraq-Afghanistan fatalities (figures from icasualties.org):

Total fatal casualties, both theatres (change in the 33 months since I did this the last time):

1. United States: 5066 (+1922)
2. United Kingdom: 364 (+204)
3. Canada: 125 (+83)
4. Italy: 48 (+6)
5. Spain: 36 (+6)
6. Germany: 33 (+15)
7. Poland: 32 (+15)
8. Denmark: 31 (+22)
9. France: 28 (+19)
10. Netherlands: 21 (+16)

... keep reading.

Barrack Hussein “Sugar Daddy” Obama

….would just like to remind you that he’s too sexy for this tie, too sexy for this tie, so sexy oh my! He also says that you can keep the change on that last trillion, you earned it. Now if you don’t mind he’s gotta go sculpt the ol’ guns and chisel out those pecks.

Who Saved GI Joe?

From Belmont Club:

But something forgotten may be remembered, especially when the organism is fighting for survival. Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner argued in 1983 that humans had “multiple intelligences” — ways of knowing that were poorly studied. One of these he called “naturalistic” intelligence, which might best be described as the ability to apprehend the communication conveyed by subtle changes in the environment in ways still known, perhaps, to primitive people. Who can say whether men in extreme danger might not suddenly experience a sudden revival of “knowing” in a way they had long forgotten. What did Mitchell Paige experience that night on Guadalcanal? Since we can reach no conclusion, we’d best let Paige finish his story, from the point when reinforcements arrived and they drove the Japanese back.

... which reminds me of what I consider one of the most important books ever written, one that just may change your life, or save it ... The Gift of Fear.

Only Westerners Would be This Stupid

When foxes are eating the chickens, do you seek the council of a fox to save the chickens?

In the 1990s, Western liberals, alarmed at the presence of Islamic fundamentalists in their midst, turned in desperation to Muslims whom they dubbed “reformers” or “modernizers.” They hoped that these figures would have a moderating influence on disaffected Muslim youths who refused to integrate into Western society. One such “reformer” is Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born academic. Ramadan has won the confidence of many in the West, including the British government, which asked him to serve on its task force for preventing Islamic extremism. But as Caroline Fourest shows in her superbly documented book, which first appeared in French in 2004, Ramadan is not a worthy figure.

... keep reading.

Liar

Race and Energy

The Skeptic's Handbook

Avoid the clutter:

The bottom line is simple

Don't fall for the "complexity argument or accept vague answers. The climate is complex, but the only thing that matters here is whether adding CO2 will make the world warmer.

Everything hinges on this one question. If carbon dioxide is not a significant cause, then carbon sequestration, cap-and-trade, emissions trading, and the Kyoto agreement are a waste of time and money. All of them divert resources away from things that matter - like finding a cure for cancer and feeding Somali babies. Having a real debate IS the best thing for the environment.

... read the Skeptic's Handbook.

Source

And more ... the dominoes continue to fall ... click.

Living on Credit

Deleveraging from excessive national debt is a painful and long task ... just ask Canadians. Now in America, we have what may be the most incipient cabal of progressives to ever run a country, anywhere. America's Democrats are about to cause a catastrophe which will ensnare Canada. Simply put, tax strapped Americans won't spend ... which means Ontario is apt to become a rust-belt; and, as always happens when progressives get frustrated that things aren't working, they lash out ... the result this time being that any protectionism Canada suffered during the Bush years will seem tame in comparison to what the dolts down south will unleash.

Truly, we are witnessing history in the making ... history that is racking up a bill of enormous proportions:

And today? Obama's first budget will consume 28 percent of the entire GDP; state and local governments another 15 percent. While there is some overlap, in 2009, government will consume 40 percent of GDP, approaching the peak of World War II.

The deficit for 2009 is $1.8 trillion, 13 percent of the whole economy. Obama is pushing a cap-and-trade bill to cut carbon emissions that will impose huge costs on energy production, spike consumer prices and drive production offshore to China, which is opting out of Kyoto II. The Chinese are not fools.

[...]

"The United States is declining as a nation and a world power with mostly sighs and shrugs to mark this seismic event," writes Les Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, in CFR's Foreign Affairs magazine. "Astonishingly, some people do not appear to realize that the situation is all that serious."

You Think it's Bad Now

... just wait until the rats begin to leave the ship:

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run. Although great uncertainty surrounds long-term fiscal projections, rising costs for health care and the aging of the population will cause federal spending to increase rapidly under any plausible scenario for current law. Unless revenues increase just as rapidly, the rise in spending will produce growing budget deficits. Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to more borrowing from abroad and less domestic investment, which in turn would depress economic growth in the United States. Over time, accumulating debt would cause substantial harm to the economy. The following chart shows our projection of federal debt relative to GDP under the two scenarios we modeled.

Lucky for us, the most brilliant mind in America ... and possibly the world, has a solution. Spend more money:

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”

Now, there's an idea Joe!

Taxation Without Representation

What a scam ... ensure power by setting it up that those who vote you in, don't have to pay tax. The only thing is, that the 50% who vote you in are too stupid to realize that in almost all cases taxes run down hill ... that is, small businesses and corporations pass on tax debt to their customers. If they can't, they simply leave town to more hospitable places. That's why Texas is booming as tax exhausted individuals and companies flee the "progressive" economies in other states:

It’s worth recalling that when the Founding Fathers led the American colonists in revolt against British oppression, they weren’t rebelling against torture on the rack or being chained in galleys or having to let aristocrats deflower their daughters. They were rebelling against taxes. To them, having to pay duties they hadn’t voted for themselves was a tyrannical taking of property—theft—and, in true Lockean fashion, they concluded that since government exists to protect life, liberty, and property, a regime that does the opposite renders itself illegitimate. What would they make, then, of today’s New York City, where 1.2 percent of the taxpayers—40,000 households—pay 50 percent of the income taxes, and half the households pay no income tax at all? If the tax code ensures that those who pay the bulk of the taxes are always a minority of those who vote for the legislature that imposes the taxes, isn’t that taxation without representation? Isn’t it also the tyranny of the majority that the Founders tried to prevent?

Oops

Could it be, that the amazing magical divining IPCC models of wonder are wrong?

"In a nutshell, theoretical models cannot explain what we observe in the geological record," says oceanographer Gerald Dickens, study co-author and professor of Earth Science at Rice University in Houston. "There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models."

Just Because

... enjoy AR-15 with a smile:

Ration

More Model Fantasy

Hardly a week goes by now without another "cut" being administered to warmist claims of runaway Global Warming.

Now, we find out that IPCC models may have way over estimated the warming caused by CO2:

A large aerosol cooling, therefore, implies a correspondingly large climate sensitivity. Conversely, reduced aerosol cooling implies lower GHG warming, which in turn implies lower model sensitivity. The upshot of this is that sensitivity values used in models for the past quarter of a century have been set too high. Using elevated sensitivity settings has significant implications for model predictions of future global temperature increases. The low-end value of model sensitivity used by the IPCC is 2°C. Using this value results, naturally, in the lowest predictions for future temperature increases. According to the paper “Consistency Between Satellite-Derived and Modeled Estimates of the Direct Aerosol Effect” published in Science on july 10, 2009, Gunnar Myhre states that previous values for aerosol cooling are too high—by as much as 40 percent—implying the IPCC’s model sensitivity settings are too high also. Here is the abstract of the paper:

And here I thought that the science was settled ... that humans had found out all there was to know about climate forcing and all that stuff. Pity.

Now You See It

... now you don't. How convenient. Suddenly the last 10 years of flat temperatures become warmer ... just in time for cap and tax. The new warming science seems to have more in common with Madoff than with science.

The Details.

Obama-Care Hell

Just in case you doubted that the only function of "progressives" was to grow government.

Canada Health Care

To our American readers, we ask that you view the following video. While you do so, keep in mind that health care in Canada varies from province to province. This video focussed on Quebec, where private care is an option; in all other provinces it's against the law.

Canadians have grown up with health care horror stories, so tales of long wait times, botched procedures, and impossible to get assistance are common. Like the video says, without any exaggeration, these stories number in the millions.

My own personal experience with Canada-Care is a mixed bag ... the least of the bad being long wait times. The point is, that just from my own family and personal circle of relationships I could tell you horror-stories that would spin your head.

On a positive note, I've noticed health care greatly improving in my own province, Saskatchewan, but the cost to the treasury is enormous, and wait times for virtually all procedures are still into the many months.

Elrose Storm Chase

Massive storms swept through West/Central Sk on July 13th. I waited out in Rosetown where I figured the greatest chance of tornadoes was. I moved my location to Elrose at about 4:00 pm and wasn't dissapointed. Although I didn't see any tornadoes, the storms that formed right overhead all produced funnel clouds and rapidly rotating wall clouds. A massive cell about 100 clicks West was drawing the cells Westward, so just as each storm formed by Elrose it would suddenly get pulled to the West, causing it to lift and rain through the base dousing any chance of tornadoes. The pictures here are (1) of a wall cloud, (2) funnel, and (3) an interesting formation I caught late in the day by Dinsmore.

A Frigid June

Some factoids for ya'll:

· This June is tied for the 8th coolest on record. The average temperature was 67.5. (That’s) 3.7 degrees below normal…which also occurred in 1897.

· This was the coolest June since 1958…when the average temperature as 67.2 degrees.

· Below average temperatures occurred on 23 out of 30 days this June…or 75 percent of the month

· Central Park has not hit 90 degrees in the month of June this year. The last time this occurred was back in 1996.

... keep reading.

Falling Down

... in California:

On May 19, California voters went to the polls to decide whether to pass a package of six tax-and-gimmick ballot propositions. Its supporters—Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democratic legislative leaders, the California Teachers Association, and the overwhelming majority of the state’s major newspapers—billed it as the last best hope to plug Sacramento’s $24 billion budget deficit. “Either pass it,” warned the Los Angeles Times editorial board, “or risk fiscal disaster.”

Those who believe that either money or the media determine political outcomes should pay close heed to what happened next: Although opponents were outspent by more than 7 to 1, they trounced the state’s political class, rejecting five of the six measures by an average of 30 percentage points. The only proposition to pass was an anger-driven new law that limits elected officials’ salaries.

Faced with such thorough repudiation, California’s best and brightest then did a telling thing. They lashed right back.

[...]

During the last two decades, the Golden State has been transformed from what was once known as the nation’s most anti-labor outpost to a state essentially run by public-sector unions. Nearly three in five publicsector workers are unionized, compared to less than two in five public employees in other states. The Democratic Party, which is fully in hock to unions, has controlled the legislature and most statewide posts, with the notable exception of the governor’s mansion, for more than a decade. That means more government workers, higher salaries, and drastically higher pension costs.

... keep reading about how Obama progressives destroyed the 7th largest economy on earth.

Barack on the Flying Trapeze

Rex nails it:

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease,

the daring young man on the flying trapeze.

We've been watching over the past two weeks, willingly or not, the wrong icon. Michael Jackson's a distraction. Barack Obama is the superstar of the world, the real celebrity. And because he's President of the world's foremost power (for now), his actions have real, not just symbolic, meaning.

We've seen him in action for a bit more than six months. What we can say with confidence, now that we have the evidence of his actions, is that had he run on (a) transforming the U.S. economy by massive federal government intervention, (b) taking an owner's stake in the automobile industry, (c) transforming the rules of America's energy economy, (d) instituting a national health-care system - all of these simultaneously and in the centre of a financial meltdown - Barack Obama wouldn't merely have lost the election, he wouldn't have got as many votes as gnarly old Ross Perot did in an election long past. He wouldn't, in other words, have beaten a bad-tempered, egotistical spoiler.

[...]

Mr. Obama has taken the real crisis of the U.S. (and world) economy and used it as the screen and lever for a massive agenda of transformation, a transformation that calls for expenditures on a scale never before seen in the history of government on this planet. The first expenditure, which began under George Bush's tenure, was large, but it was very specific. The financial “infrastructure” of America's economy was about to be exploded, and it was argued that government “had no choice” but to shore up the financial institutions without which there would be utter chaos in the overall economy. That was the genesis of the so-called bank bailout. After that came the stimulus package, the attempt to kick-start jobs, to get those “shovel ready” projects “out the door.” Both had to be done immediately. There was no time for review or oversight.

[...]

It is inconceivable that these ideas occurred to Mr. Obama postelection. His agenda is of such scale and particularity that it is evidence of design and previous contemplation. He knew what he wished to do when he was campaigning, but he was not going to whisper the scale and range of his designs while the campaign was on. It would have scared off people.

Heaven and Earth

Professor Ian Plimer:

Plimer’s uncompromising position has not made him popular. ‘They say I rape cows, eat babies, that I know nothing about anything. My favourite letter was the one that said: “Dear sir, drop dead”. I’ve also had a demo in Sydney outside one of my book launches, and I’ve had mothers coming up to me with two-year-old children in their arms saying: “Don’t you have any kind of morality? This child’s future is being destroyed.’’’ Plimer’s response to the last one is typically robust. ‘If you’re so concerned, why did you breed?’

[...]

One of the things that so irks him about modern environmentalism is that it is driven by people who are ‘too wealthy’. ‘When I try explaining “global warming” to people in Iran or Turkey they have no idea what I’m talking about. Their life is about getting through to the next day, finding their next meal. Eco-guilt is a first-world luxury. It’s the new religion for urban populations which have lost their faith in Christianity. The IPCC report is their Bible. Al Gore and Lord Stern are their prophets.’

[...]

Does he really believe his message will ever get through? Plimer smiles. ‘If you’d asked any scientist or doctor 30 years ago where stomach ulcers come from, they would all have given the same answer: obviously it comes from the acid brought on by too much stress. All of them apart from two scientists who were pilloried for their crazy, whacko theory that it was caused by a bacteria. In 2005 they won the Nobel prize. The “consensus” was wrong.'

... a note to trolls, don't bother with the "he's not a climatologist" shtick. Appeals to authority are not valid criticism and irrelevant.

(... and yes John, I've used appeals to authority myself in the past)

It would seem, that even the G8 are beginning to see the writing on the wall ... click.

Physically, Morally - Broken

In every conflict, climaxes that spell the beginning of the end for one side usually are signalled by increases, not decreases, in casualties on all sides. It happened in Iraq ... are we witnessing the same in Afghanistan?

Vance:

The general said Canadians have to remember progress in the war cannot be measured by the number of soldiers killed, because the purpose of the mission is to protect Afghans and help the country onto its feet.

That, he said, would be an enormous challenge even without the insurgency.
"It's a shattered place -- physically, morally, broken -- but has shown in the past the ability to rebound," he said.

"I see the ability to rebound present, and the potential, everywhere I go."

El Nino

... and what the sudden appearance of the latest one may teach us:

On the website The Blackboard, there is a plot of the latest sea surface temperature anomalies from the Hadley Center. It has jumped dramatically in just one month. The reason is clearly related to the 2009 El Niño which has developed quickly over the last several months as seen in the ECMWF ocean data (see).

The ECMWF vertical cross-sections (see, see, see and see) provide a useful perspective in that substantial cool (as well as warm) anomalies exist at depth. The El Niño signal is clear in the equatorial cross-section.

There are two messages in this data. First, the sudden development of this El Niño illustrates that it is dominated by ocean and atmospheric circulation changes, not an annual global average radiative forcing. Second, the regional variation in the patterning of heating further reinforces that climate is dominated by spatial variations in circulation features, and not a global-annual average surface temperature trend or other climate metric averaged on this space scale (see and see).

Problems for the Warmists

I came across the following at Jennifer Marohasy's blog:

... since Gore's movie was produced:

* Global temperatures have decreased;
* The Arctic Ice Cap has increased back to average levels;
* Sea levels have stopped rising;
* Only 5 independant IPCC scientists said they agreed CO2 was the cause of Climate change (not 2,500);
* 31,000 Us Scientists have signed a petition saying there is no conclusive evidence CO2 causes climate change;
* The IPCC temperature predictions have been shown to be wrong; and
* The Vostock Ice cores show (in past warming events) temperature rises before CO2 does (the opposite of Al Gores claims).

... I'm particularly interested in point 4. I'd like to know what "independent" means.

Warmists Lie: But the Sun and Oceans Don't

In most wars, the losing side usually reaches a point where it gives one final brutal push in an attempt to change the tide.

In the war between warmists and realists, it appears that warmists are getting ever more frantic to push their poison on the world ... their rhetoric, now completely devoid of reason and scientific fact, is becoming ever more shrill as they fight frantically to overcome what can best be described as a route.

Like the last spasms of Nazi Germany as Berlin fell to the Soviets, or the stubborn suicidal determination of the Japanese dug in on the home islands, warmists are tossing everything into the battle ... yet no matter how much they rant, rave, and lie ... nature refuses to obey, nor does the growing army of deniers who are bringing ever more scrutiny and research to the battle.

In the end, science will win simply because nature will run her course no matter what the IPPC's magical models of divining wonder say. The earth is not warming ... as the models forecast ... and with each year "real" scientists (who publish all their algorithms and data) bare down into the science behind climate and what they see doesn't march in step with the IPCC models.

Christopher Booker examines the disconnect between the science of global warming and the natural reality:

The moves now being made by the world's political establishment to lock us into December's Copenhagen treaty to halt global warming are as alarming as anything that has happened in our lifetimes. Last week in Italy, the various branches of our emerging world government, G8 and G20, agreed in principle that the world must by 2050 cut its CO2 emissions in half. Britain and the US are already committed to cutting their use of fossil fuels by more than 80 per cent. Short of an unimaginable technological revolution, this could only be achieved by closing down virtually all our economic activity: no electricity, no transport, no industry. All this is being egged on by a gigantic publicity machine, by the UN, by serried ranks of government-funded scientists, by cheerleaders such as Al Gore, last week comparing the fight against global warming to that against Hitler's Nazis, and by politicians who have no idea what they are setting in train.

What makes this even odder is that the runaway warming predicted by their computer models simply isn't happening. Last week one of the four official sources of temperature measurement, compiled from satellite data by the University of Huntsville, Alabama, showed that temperatures have now fallen to their average level since satellite data began 30 years ago.

Faced with a "consensus" view which looks increasingly implausible, a fast-growing body of reputable scientists from many countries has been coming up with a ''counter-consensus'', which holds that their fellow scientists have been looking in wholly the wrong direction to explain what is happening to the world's climate. The two factors which most plausibly explain what temperatures are actually doing are fluctuations in the radiation of the sun and the related shifting of ocean currents.

Two episodes highlight the establishment's alarm at the growing influence of this ''counter consensus''. In March, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which has a key role in President Obama's plans to curb CO2 emissions, asked one of its senior policy analysts, Alan Carlin, to report on the science used to justify its policy. His 90-page paper recommended that the EPA carry out an independent review of the science, because the CO2 theory was looking indefensible, while the "counter consensus'' view – solar radiation and ocean currents – seemed to fit the data much better. Provoking a considerable stir, Carlin's report was stopped dead, on the grounds that it was too late to raise objections to what was now the EPA's official policy.

Meanwhile a remarkable drama has been unfolding in Australia, where the new Labor government has belatedly joined the "consensus'' bandwagon by introducing a bill for an emissions-curbing "cap and trade'' scheme, which would devastate Australia's economy, it being 80 per cent dependent on coal. The bill still has to pass the Senate, which is so precisely divided that the decisive vote next month may be cast by an independent Senator, Stephen Fielding. So crucial is his vote that the climate change minister, Penny Wong, agreed to see him with his four advisers, all leading Australian scientists.

Fielding put to the minister three questions. How, since temperatures have been dropping, can CO2 be blamed for them rising? What, if CO2 was the cause of recent warming, was the cause of temperatures rising higher in the past? Why, since the official computer models have been proved wrong, should we rely on them for future projections?

The written answers produced by the minister's own scientific advisers proved so woolly and full of elementary errors that Fielding's team have now published a 50-page, fully-referenced "Due Diligence'' paper tearing them apart. In light of the inadequacy of the Government's reply, the Senator has announced that he will be voting against the bill.

The wider significance of this episode is that it is the first time a Western government has allowed itself to be drawn into debating the science behind the global warming scare with expert scientists representing the "counter consensus" – and the "consensus" lost hands down.

... keep reading.

Global Warming Science on the Skids

Once again, we find Global Warming advocates withholding key data from published "science" ... a practice that is unethical, yet incredible common when it comes to the so called scientific pillars of AGW. You'd think that for some reason warmists don't want their work scrutinized.

From the comments @ Climate Audit:

Here we go again. If the authors don't release their data and methods, can't we simply say that until they do, it is not a scientific study?

Sciencedaily - Not with this nonsense

ChickenBoneThrowingDaily - Yes

Al Winston Gore

The Presidential Ogle

There are ten good reasons for the O-Ogle. Honest ... ten of them:

1. I was just being polite. You know...when in Rome ...

2. It was an honest mistake. She said her name was Lulu so I naturally assumed she was the president of Brazil.

3. Honestly, Honey, if you had to have as many meetings with Nancy Pelosi as I do...

4. Blame it on Rio.

5. You think I'm bad, wait till you hear what Berlusconi did.

6. No, dear, I think you're mistaken. Gov. Sanford's friend is from Argentina. This young lady is from Brazil.

7. Honestly honey, if you had to have as many meetings with Hillary as I do ...

8. OK! OK! OK! I'll cancel the state visit to Brazil.

9. Really, Honey, if you had to have as many meetings with Joe Biden as I do....

10. Hey, at least it wasn't Brüno!

Frankly, I'm of the opinion that Obama is the victim of a bad camera angle and was in fact assisting the lady who was just stepping down. And, if he did sneak a peak ... so what. This affair is as stupid as Cookie-Quiddick. What have we become as a civilization when stories like the Obama-Ogle become news while our soldiers toil and die in Afghanistan, women get murdered in the streets of Iran, and the economy barely has a pulse. Next thing you know, the media will be filling the airwaves and broadsheets with lamentation every time a pop singer kills themselves via decadence.

Antrhopogenic Global Governance

You know it ... I know it ... it has little to do with science:

Former Colorado Senator Tim Wirth reportedly said, "We've got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing — in terms of economic policy and environmental policy."

From Climate Depot

Post-acquittal Detention Power

Not even Hitler-Bush was this daft ... what say you now oh great army of O-bots? Truly, O-nation is beyond ridicule ... click.

The discussion.

Cambodiastan

US attacks inside Pakistan during 2009:

• US kills 25 Taliban in second Predator strike in South WaziristanJuly 8, 2009

• US Predator strike on Taliban camp kills 8 in South WaziristanJuly 8, 2009

• US Predator strike kills 14 Taliban in South WaziristanJuly 7, 2009

• 13 Taliban fighters killed in US airstrikes in PakistanJuly 3, 2009

• Scores of Taliban killed in second US strike in South WaziristanJune 23, 2009

• Six killed in US Predator attack in South WaziristanJune 23, 2009

• US strikes target Mullah Nazir in South WaziristanJune 18, 2009

• US kills five in South Waziristan strikeJune 14, 2009

• US strikes Taliban, al Qaeda in North WaziristanMay 16, 2009

• US strikes again in South WaziristanMay 12, 2009

• US strike targets Baitullah Mehsud territory in South WaziristanMay 9, 2009

• US strike kills 10 Taliban in South WaziristanApril 29, 2009

• US airstrike targets Taliban training camp in South WaziristanApril 19, 2009

• US Predator kills four in South Waziristan strikeApril 8, 2009

• US strikes Haqqani Network in North WaziristanApril 4, 2009

• US launches first strike in Arakzai tribal agencyApril 1, 2009

• Latest US strike targets al Qaeda safe house in North WaziristanMarch 26, 2009

• US airstrike kills 8 in Baitullah Mehsud's hometownMarch 25, 2009

• US launches second strike outside of Pakistan's tribal areasMarch 15, 2009

• US missile strike in Kurram agency kills 14March 12, 2009

• US airstrike kills 8 in South WaziristanMarch 1, 2009

• US airstrike in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency kills 30Feb. 16, 2009

• US Predator strike in South Waziristan kills 25Feb. 14, 2009

• US strikes al Qaeda in North and South WaziristanJan. 23, 2009

• US hits South Waziristan in second strikeJan. 2, 2009

• US kills 4 al Qaeda operatives in South Waziristan strikeJan. 1, 2009

July 2013 - CO2 Ice Age

Leaders of the world's eight foremost industrialized economies have established an aggressive new marker in the battle against climate change: holding the global temperature to a two-degree-Celsius decrease.

To get there, the leaders agreed that the world's 32 industrialized nations should slash their greenhouse-gas emissions 80 per cent by 2050, though they did not agree on the base year from which the cuts would be made.

Recent model IPCC forecasts have predicted runaway global cooling if CO2 emissions aren't curtailed.

Says Dr. Al Gore, the new IPCC head ... not that long ago our models incorrectly attributed global warming to positive feedbacks, when in fact, we now know beyond a doubt that increases in CO2 trigger complex negative feedback events that threaten us all.

The G8 agreement will put added pressure on the Levant government to revise its climate-change plan to force deeper emission cuts than it currently proposes, John Drexhage, an Ottawa-based analyst with the International Institute for Sustainable Development, said Wednesday.

July 8 Storm Chase

Picture: A wall cloud crosses hwy 11 just north of Kenaston SK. Scud beneath this cloud was rotating rapidly but in an unusual "clockwise" direction. The storm was part of a line between Elbow and Blackstrap.



Picture 2: A classic prairie storm front just north of Elbow.

The World on the Brink

Few events cause me to truly lose faith ... perhaps, as a people or a species, we are truly doomed ... click.

Awakening

There ain't no crook like an old crook.

Billions of dollars in federal aid delivered directly to the local level to help revive the economy have gone overwhelmingly to places that supported President Obama in last year's presidential election.

That aid — about $17 billion — is the first piece of the administration's massive stimulus package that can be tracked locally. Much of it has followed a well-worn path to places that regularly collect a bigger share of federal grants and contracts, guided by formulas that have been in place for decades and leave little room for manipulation.

... America isn't Chicago ... nor is it California.