Greece: The Movie

An absolute must read, by Steyn:

While Barack Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand-new, even-more-unsustainable entitlement at the health-care “summit,” thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split-screen -- because they’re part of the same story. It’s just that Greece is a little further along in the plot: They’re at the point where the canoe is about to plunge over the falls. America is farther upstream and can still pull for shore, but has decided instead that what it needs to do is catch up with the Greek canoe. Chapter One (the introduction of unsustainable entitlements) leads eventually to Chapter Twenty (total societal collapse): The Greeks are at Chapter Seventeen or Eighteen.

What’s happening in the developed world today isn’t so very hard to understand: The 20th-century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to. In America, the feckless, insatiable boobs in Washington, Sacramento, Albany, and elsewhere are screwing over our kids and grandkids. In Europe, they’ve reached the next stage in social-democratic evolution: There are no kids or grandkids to screw over. The United States has a fertility rate of around 2.1 -- or just over two kids per couple. Greece has a fertility rate of about 1.3: Ten grandparents have six kids have four grandkids -- ie, the family tree is upside down. Demographers call 1.3 “lowest-low” fertility -- the point from which no society has ever recovered. And, compared to Spain and Italy, Greece has the least worst fertility rate in Mediterranean Europe.

Help Needed from Global Warmists

... to assist me in reconciling the years of name calling, sceptic bashing, and hubris dished out by warmists, with THIS:

What are the implications of the disclosures for the integrity of scientific research?

1. The Institute is concerned that, unless the disclosed e-mails are proved to be forgeries or adaptations, worrying implications arise for the integrity of scientific research in this field and for the credibility of the scientific method as practised in this context.

2. The CRU e-mails as published on the internet provide prima facie evidence of determined and co-ordinated refusals to comply with honourable scientific traditions and freedom of information law. The principle that scientists should be willing to expose their ideas and results to independent testing and replication by others, which requires the open exchange of data, procedures and materials, is vital. The lack of compliance has been confirmed by the findings of the Information Commissioner. This extends well beyond the CRU itself – most of the e-mails were exchanged with researchers in a number of other international institutions who are also involved in the formulation of the IPCC’s conclusions on climate change.

3. It is important to recognise that there are two completely different categories of data set that are involved in the CRU e-mail exchanges:

· those compiled from direct instrumental measurements of land and ocean surface temperatures such as the CRU, GISS and NOAA data sets; and

· historic temperature reconstructions from measurements of ‘proxies’, for example, tree-rings.

4. The second category relating to proxy reconstructions are the basis for the conclusion that 20th century warming is unprecedented. Published reconstructions may represent only a part of the raw data available and may be sensitive to the choices made and the statistical techniques used. Different choices, omissions or statistical processes may lead to different conclusions. This possibility was evidently the reason behind some of the (rejected) requests for further information.

5. The e-mails reveal doubts as to the reliability of some of the reconstructions and raise questions as to the way in which they have been represented; for example, the apparent suppression, in graphics widely used by the IPCC, of proxy results for recent decades that do not agree with contemporary instrumental temperature measurements.

6. There is also reason for concern at the intolerance to challenge displayed in the e-mails. This impedes the process of scientific ’self correction’, which is vital to the integrity of the scientific process as a whole, and not just to the research itself. In that context, those CRU e-mails relating to the peer-review process suggest a need for a review of its adequacy and objectivity as practised in this field and its potential vulnerability to bias or manipulation.

7. Fundamentally, we consider it should be inappropriate for the verification of the integrity of the scientific process to depend on appeals to Freedom of Information legislation. Nevertheless, the right to such appeals has been shown to be necessary. The e-mails illustrate the possibility of networks of like-minded researchers effectively excluding newcomers. Requiring data to be electronically accessible to all, at the time of publication, would remove this possibility.

8. As a step towards restoring confidence in the scientific process and to provide greater transparency in future, the editorial boards of scientific journals should work towards setting down requirements for open electronic data archiving by authors, to coincide with publication. Expert input (from journal boards) would be needed to determine the category of data that would be archived. Much ‘raw’ data requires calibration and processing through interpretive codes at various levels.

9. Where the nature of the study precludes direct replication by experiment, as in the case of time-dependent field measurements, it is important that the requirements include access to all the original raw data and its provenance, together with the criteria used for, and effects of, any subsequent selections, omissions or adjustments. The details of any statistical procedures, necessary for the independent testing and replication, should also be included. In parallel, consideration should be given to the requirements for minimum disclosure in relation to computer modelling.

Are the terms of reference and scope of the Independent Review announced on 3 December 2009 by UEA adequate?

10. The scope of the UEA review is, not inappropriately, restricted to the allegations of scientific malpractice and evasion of the Freedom of Information Act at the CRU. However, most of the e-mails were exchanged with researchers in a number of other leading institutions involved in the formulation of the IPCC’s conclusions on climate change. In so far as those scientists were complicit in the alleged scientific malpractices, there is need for a wider inquiry into the integrity of the scientific process in this field.

11. The first of the review’s terms of reference is limited to: “…manipulation or suppression of data which is at odds with acceptable scientific practice…” The term ‘acceptable’ is not defined and might better be replaced with ‘objective’.

12. The second of the review’s terms of reference should extend beyond reviewing the CRU’s policies and practices to whether these have been breached by individuals, particularly in respect of other kinds of departure from objective scientific practice, for example, manipulation of the publication and peer review system or allowing pre-formed conclusions to override scientific objectivity.

How independent are the other two international data sets?

13. Published data sets are compiled from a range of sources and are subject to processing and adjustments of various kinds. Differences in judgements and methodologies used in such processing may result in different final data sets even if they are based on the same raw data. Apart from any communality of sources, account must be taken of differences in processing between the published data sets and any data sets on which they draw.

... oh, by the way, the above is part of a submission by the Institute of Physics.

It's a Never Ending Train-Wreck

If there ever was the need for "back to the drawing board", it's with the world surface temperature record. Although no clear conclusions can be drawn from the following report, about a million questions arise.

One also gets a greater sense as to why those climate scientists who are keepers of the world's surface temperature record are so secretive with their methods ... the smell of guano is thick in the air:

The following plot shows that the monthly U.S. temperature anomalies from the two datasets are very similar (anomalies in both datasets are relative to the 30-year base period from 1973 through 2002). But while the monthly variations are very similar, the warming trend in the Jones dataset is about 20% greater than the warming trend in my ISH data analysis.

[...]

In fact, the results for the U.S. I have presented above almost seem to suggest that the Jones CRUTem3 dataset has a UHI adjustment that is in the wrong direction. Coincidentally, this is also the conclusion of a recent post on Anthony Watts’ blog, discussing a new paper published by SPPI.

... the details.

It is my understanding that Environment Canada used Jonesian methodology in adjusting it's own temperature records ... if so, there needs to be a full blown re-evaluation.

Mr. Prentice ... are you listening?

Blogging Tories are Evolutionary Untermensch

Enjoy:

"Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs."

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

[...]

The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans' evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.

... it would appear that the only thing that hasn't evolved, is the "progressive" infatuation with eugenics.

Gratitude

911 to the Olympics; story of appreciation:

The bond that a Dublin woman formed nearly a decade ago with a Canadian fishing village has inspired a TV segment set to air Sunday night during the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics.

A viewing audience of millions will learn about Shirley Brooks-Jones and her efforts to give back to the community of 4,000 that welcomed her and hundreds of other stranded airline passengers in its schools, churches and private homes after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001.

The retired Ohio State University administrator - who, with U.S. airspace closed, spent three days as a guest in the town of Lewisporte - has repaid the kindness in the ensuing years by raising almost $1 million in college scholarships for young people in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Could This be Vengance 2

It's not as if Vengance wasn't a specialty of Mossad:

Australia has summoned the Israeli ambassador to explain why three new suspects over the Dubai killing of a Hamas leader used Australian passports.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Canberra would "not be silent on the matter".

Dubai police think Israeli agents were involved in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's death but Israel says there is no proof.

The police say they have identified 15 more suspects - using British, French, Irish and Australian documents - taking the total to 26.

Sob-Story-in-Chief

From America ... To Canada

With Love:

Dear Michael Yon,

Today we were sent your story of February 14, 2010. The “unknown” Canadian is our son Danny. He is a 23-year-old soldier from Vancouver, Canada.

Your photographs were extraordinary and have impacted so many people here in Canada. There has been an outpouring of affection for the Americans who helped Danny in his moment of need. For that, we thank you for recording these acts of kindness into history.

Danny's injuries were the result of an explosion on February 12, 2010. Four Canadian soldiers were injured and tragically one Canadian soldier was killed. Within 20 minutes of the explosion, Danny was airlifted by helicopter to Kandahar. Upon arrival he received emergency surgery that saved his life and prepared him for the flight to Bagram that you were on.

After landing in Bagram, Danny was again airlifted by a US transport aircraft to the US Army run Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. There he underwent additional surgery that closed up his wounds. Once stabilized, the Canadian government dispatched a Challenger jet to bring him home. This afternoon in Vancouver, the shrapnel that did all the damage to him was finally removed. Danny is now recovering in hospital.

This was Danny's second tour of duty in Afghanistan and his platoon on this tour has had heavy causalities and injuries. Physically, Danny will overcome his injuries. He also has the support of his family, his friends and his community to deal with the emotional side of this war. Our hearts go out to those families who have had the loss of a soldier or who have had to deal with greater injuries.

Danny and his whole family are very grateful, and are actually overwhelmed, by the support he received while in US care. The Canadian military have also been wonderful. It is our intention to personally thank everyone who worked so hard to save Danny's life. We have already made contact with Major Deborah "Lucy" Lehker to thank her.

Sincerely,

Jim & Holly

You will find the whole background story HERE.

Help Needed from Global Warmists

Dear Warmists ... you've railed for years now about the peer review process ... about blogging scientists not being fit to be called scientists; or more importantly, climate experts. You've mocked sceptic after sceptic for their "junk" science, for their pathetic lack of "understanding" ... and claimed that climate realism was actually driven by some shadowy "big oil" donors who slipped millions into hidden accounts.

Please assist me then, in reconciling your hubris with THIS.

Global Warming: Only in the City

Much critique has been levelled at the methodology used to adjust for the urban heat island effect. Now, more ammo has been added to the sceptic camp:

“The problem would seem to be the methodologies engendered in treatment for a mix of urban and rural locations; that the ‘adjustment’ protocol appears to accent to a warming effect rather than eliminate it. This, if correct, leaves serious doubt for whether the rate of increase in temperature found from the adjusted data is due to natural warming trends or warming because of another reason, such as erroneous consideration of the effects of urban warming.”

[...]

Both raw and adjusted data from the NCDC has been examined for a selected Contiguous U. S. set of rural and urban stations, 48 each or one per State. The raw data provides 0.13 and 0.79 oC/century temperature increase for the rural and urban environments. The adjusted data provides 0.64 and 0.77 oC/century respectively. The rates for the raw data appear to correspond to the historical change of rural and urban U. S. populations and indicate warming is due to urban warming. Comparison of the adjusted data for the rural set to that of the raw data shows a systematic treatment that causes the rural adjusted set’s temperature rate of increase to be 5-fold more than that of the raw data. The adjusted urban data set’s and raw urban data set’s rates of temperature increase are the same. This suggests the consequence of the NCDC’s protocol for adjusting the data is to cause historical data to take on the time-line characteristics of urban data. The consequence intended or not, is to report a false rate of temperature increase for the Contiguous U. S.

...the details.

In a not-so-round-about-way, the study gives weight to THIS.

Brooks Interviews LCol Smyth

Damian writes:

The most exhilarating moments I've ever spent in the air have been in a helicopter. Specifically, one low and fast ride in a CH-135 Twin Huey back at RMC, and more recently, a couple of jaunts between KAF and Camp Nathan Smith (if you haven't watched the shaky video at that previous link, I heartily recommend it). On a less visceral level, I appreciate the fact that Tac Hel's entire focus is on facilitating the operations of another element; it's the most service-oriented pointy-end part of the CF, in my opinion.

So I was thrilled to speak recently with LCol Jeff Smyth by Skype from Kandahar Air Field. Not only is he the CO of 408 Tactical Helicopter Squadron in Edmonton, but he's also currently Commanding Officer of the Canadian Helicopter Force (Afghanistan). The videos below are about twenty-two minutes long in total, and touch on everything from the type of training and missions Smyth's Griffon and Chinook crews are flying, to little known Air Force interactions with the fledgling ANA Air Corps, to the reliability of the helicopters under his command - a couple of which might have flown in Vietnam!

... view the interview here.

Amazing Story of Personal Risk

Courageous:

The son of one of Hamas' founders served as an Israeli spy for more than a decade and helped prevent dozens of suicide bombings, he reveals in a new book.

Mosab Hassan Yousef, 32, was Israel's top informant inside the bloody terrorist group before he fled Ramallah to become an evangelical Christian in Southern California.

He is the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, the jailed West Bank head of Hamas, and was dubbed "the Green Prince" by his Israeli intelligence handlers because of the color of the Hamas flag and his family being terrorist royalty.

... can you hear the leftist heads popping ... not only was one of their favorite terrorist organizations, Hamas, double crossed, the hero in this case became a "Christian" ... the horror.

Even Some Sceptics Think Scientists are Above it All

It's becoming clear that even some sceptical scientists are getting queasy about the possibilities of public hearings into possible "misconduct" on the part of global warmists. They feel that scientists who have engaged in "bad" science, which I view as simply shoddy work, or fraudulent science, which is deliberate chicanery, should not be dragged up before public boards to be savaged.

In response, I posted the following on Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog:

There is a clear difference between "bad science" and fraudulent science. "Bad" science can get one into trouble via the civil courts while fraudulent science can get one into trouble via criminal law. Bad science can become negligence; fraudulent science can become crime.

Congressional or Senate investigations are designed to root out either "bad" or "fraudulent" processes. It is, in fact, the fear of hearings that keeps many potential fraudsters in check, and prevents many practitioners from simply doing “bad” work; be they car manufacturers, or scientists, or NASA space program project managers.

I am frankly quite shocked that it is lost on so many in the scientific community that the misconduct by some scientists in this case, be it "bad" science, or fraudulent science, has cost the tax payer hundreds of billions of dollars globally in schemes, grants, kick backs, graft, and carbon trading simply because AGW was said to be an established fact. I don't think the propeller heads have wrapped their very keen brains around just how ugly this can get if, and when, "fraud" or even "bad" science is exposed in the public arena ... which is what Inhofe intends on doing. I think that sometimes scientists get so involved in the academic debate, that they forget that tax payers and entire economies have already been impacted by the AGW issue and that yes, scientific chicanery that involves the public purse can land one in jail ... and it should, no matter what side of this issue you fall on. Scientists who take public money need to be sobered up ... and I hope that by the time Inhofe is done, there is a lot of “sober” to go around. Perhaps then, and only then, will those who pay the salaries and buy the beakers trust scientists with their hard earned dollars. Grants, don’t grow on trees, they come right out of the pockets of ordinary people.

Meanwhile, over at Climate Audit, Enron rears its head ... and aptly so:

As noted the other day, Gerry North was one of the presenters at Ralph Cicerone’s AAAS panel. North had previously been chairman of the NAS panel on Surface Temperature Reconstructions, where he described their due diligence process as “not doing any research” and that they just “winged it” – the sort of due diligence failure when charged with responsibility that has allowed climategate to fester so long.

More recently, North was one of two “expert” witnesses interviewed by the Penn State Inquiry. To non-climate scientists, North’s admission that he hadn’t read the Climategate Letters {out of “professional respect”) would seem to disqualify him as an expert, but not, it seems, in the bizarro world of modern climate science.

There was an extremely interesting blog post a few days ago by Rob Bradley, an old friend of North from Enron days – where North had been Bradley’s climate consultant – in which Bradley asked North very pointed questions in which he compared the present behavior of climate scientists to Climategate to their shared experience (as innocent parties not in the know) through the gradual revelation of Enron problems. Bradley:

... keep reading.

ht

Then we have a back and forth at WUWT where "rebuilding" trust rears its head ... a discussion that prompted the following:

The problem is that 71.3% of what passes as peer reviewed climate science is simply junk science, as false as the percentage cited in this sentence. The lack of trust is not a problem of perception or communication. It is a problem of lack of substance. Results are routinely exaggerated. “Scientific papers” are larded with “may” and “might” and “could possibly”. Advocacy is a common thread in climate science papers. Codes are routinely concealed, data is not archived. A concerted effort is made to marginalize and censor opposing views.

And most disturbing, for years you and the other climate scientists have not said a word about this disgraceful situation. When Michael Mann had to be hauled in front of a congressional committee to force him to follow the simplest of scientific requirements, transparency, you guys were all wailing about how this was a huge insult to him.

An insult to Mann? Get real. Mann is an insult and an embarrassment to climate science, and you, Judith, didn’t say one word in public about that. Not that I’m singling you out. No one else stood up for climate science either. It turned my stomach to see the craven cowering of mainstream climate scientists at that time, bloviating about how it was such a terrible thing to do to poor Mikey. Now Mann has been “exonerated” by one of the most bogus whitewashes in academic history, and where is your outrage, Judith? Where are the climate scientists trying to clean up your messes?

The solution to that is not, as you suggest, to give scientists a wider voice, or educate them in how to present their garbage to a wider audience.

The solution is for you to stop trying to pass off garbage as science. The solution is for you establishment climate scientists to police your own back yard. When Climategate broke, there was widespread outrage … well, widespread everywhere except in the climate science establishment. Other than a few lone voices, the silence there was deafening. Now there is another whitewash investigation, and the silence only deepens.

And you wonder why we don’t trust you? Here’s a clue. Because a whole bunch of you are guilty of egregious and repeated scientific malfeasance, and the rest of you are complicit in the crime by your silence. Your response is to stick your fingers in your ears and cover your eyes.

So it is, that the Proles just may have their day ... where climate fraudsters are dragged one by into the shining light of day:

Environment and Climate ministers meeting in closed session in Bali last night insisted that an independent review should be carried out following the publicising of mistakes in its last report, and a row surrounding Dr Pachauri's robust response to his critics. If his management is found to be at fault his position could become untenable.

Participants in the unprecedented meeting – held at the annual assembly of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) Governing Council in Bali – were sworn to secrecy over the decision and it is only expected to be announced after its detaled scope and composition have been worked out by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organisation, the two UN agencies that oversee the IPCC's work.

Putting AGW on Trial

This should be fun ... courts have real standards of evidence ... not the garbage that passes as "evidence" among warmists:



3 states are off to the courts.

... and now an energy powerhouse joins the fight.

Good News

We're Saved:

European Commission officials have produced a lavish comic book portraying themselves as heroes battling to save the world:

Warmists Beware: November 2010

... that's when the GOP regains control and you'll have to face THIS GUY.
(there is a promo before the vid)

Help Needed from Global Warmists

I've forgotten entirely why AGW must be stopped ... no really ... it's slipped my mind as to what the horrors I'm supposed to be afraid of are... it's not the melting glaciers of Northern Asia, you know, the ones that were supposed to put several billion people at risk ... It's not reduced crop yields in Africa or North America ... nor is it vanishing rain forests ... or vanishing corals ... or sea level rise ... or even increased costs due to weather extremes ... please help me remember what it is I'm supposed to be so fearful of as all the above have now been proven to be at best, meer speculation.

Oh now I remember ... could it be increased hurricanes?

Hurricane counts (with no adjustments for possible missing cases) show a significant increase from the late 1800s to present, but do not have a significant trend from the 1850s or 1860s to present3. Other studies23 infer a substantial low-bias in early Atlantic tropical cyclone intensities (1851–1920), which, if corrected, would further reduce or possibly eliminate long-term increasing trends in basin-wide hurricane counts. Landfalling tropical storm and hurricane activity in the US shows no long-term increase (Fig. 2, orange series)20. Basin-wide major hurricane counts show a significant rising trend, but we judge these basin-wide data as unreliable for climate-trend estimation before aircraft reconnaissance in 1944.

Finally a Canadian Conservative Speaks Truth

Whether it's the act of a lone wolf, or part of a CPC strategy to begin the debate, it's a welcome move:

Canada’s ex-foreign affairs minister has come out swinging on behalf of climate-change skeptics and assailed what he describes as alarmism over global warming.

Maxime Bernier has taken a public stance against the conventional wisdom on global warming.

The prominent Conservative MP has written a letter to La Presse newspaper saying there is no scientific consensus on the matter.

He says the issue has been taken over by alarmism — and he applauds the Harper government for taking a go-slow approach.

“The debate over climate change, stifled for years by political correctness, has finally broken out in the media,” Bernier wrote in a letter published Wednesday.

“The numerous recent revelations on errors by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have supplemented the alternative theories put forward for many years.

“We can now see that it’s possible to be a ‘skeptic,’ or in any case to keep an open mind, on just about all the main aspects of warming theory.”

Bernier says Canada may have taken a beaten by environmentalists at last year’s Copenhagen conference, but he says it would have been wrong to take a deep plunge into regulating greenhouse gases.

... keep reading.

Now we'll wait and see if the CPC slap down Bernier or let his comments stand.

ht to Adam

For Warmists, Historic Relics Mean Nothing

Especially when those relics damage the warmist cause:

The latest independent analysis of world climate data by acclaimed skeptic blogger ‘Chiefio’ (aka E. M. Smith) and his blog contributors confirm that the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN) has cynically dumped the world’s second oldest and reliable climate record at Prague in the Czech Republic for no scientific reason.

Climate skeptics claim the censoring of the Czech’s raw data has been perpetrated by climate scientists because the Prague records prove there has been no warming in Europe for over two hundred years.

... the details.

Dear Global Warming Fanatic

Thank you for taking the trouble to write to me. If I may, I shall highlight various passages from your letter in bold face, and then respond to them seriatim in Roman face.

“I am not a climate scientist, and so I can only go by the overwhelming consensus amongst scientists that man-made climate change is occurring and that it poses a grave threat to humanity.”

First, science is not – repeat not – done by consensus. Aristotle, in codifying the dozen worst fallacies to which mankind is prone, described this one as the “head-count fallacy”, or, as the mediaeval schoolmen called it, the argumentum ad populum. Merely because many people say they believe a thing to be true, they do not necessarily believe it to be true and, even if they do, it need not necessarily be true. Abu Ali Ibn al-Haytham, the astronomer, mathematician and philosopher of science in 11th-century Iraq who is credited as the father of the scientific method, said this –

... keep reading.

Man With a Gun

Back story.

... and more.

ht

Another Reason to Loath Canadian Progressives

... even "progressive" Conservatives.

Like all elites of the progressive class, they have rules for the Proles, and rules for themselves; they launch into high dudgeon at any hint of dismantling the Canadian nanny state (and that includes some conservatives), yet they flee, each and everyone, to the USA for care rather than face "the system" along with the Proles they rule over ... either that, or they queue-jump.

By the way, do you know of a single politician or public personality in Canada who has languished on a waiting list along with the rest of us? I don't.

The latest POS progressive in conservative clothing, is one Mr. Danny Williams.

An unapologetic Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

"I did not sign away my right to get the best possible health care for myself when I entered politics."

The 60-year-old Williams said doctors detected a heart murmur last spring and told him that one of his heart valves wasn't closing properly, creating a leakage.

... in the end though, if Canadians are willing to swallow the guano that progressives like Williams dish out ... then so be it. Enjoy your crap sandwich Proles! ... and enjoy that waiting list.

You Know You've Lost the Debate ...

... when the term "global warming" becomes a colloquial for THIS.

More @ EUR

Married to the Lie

It is the scare that drives global policy, including the actions of Canada's climate change believers, the CPC. Without the scare, there is no need for global policy. Hence, they are married to the scare, not the science.

Scare, is all they have left:

This is something the likes of Corner, Pachauri and the rest need to learn, but seem incapable of learning. Shrieking at us, calling us names, and demanding unqualified belief, isn't working any more – it never really did. But they can't try honesty – if they do, they have no scare and lose their power.

The warmists, therefore, are wedded to their lies. They have nowhere to go.

EUR

... and they just keep digging ... deeper and deeper with each utterance:

But we are all getting a little weary with the desperation of the warmists to pin their conspiracy meme on us – the constant prattling about climate sceptics being funded by corporate interests.

As with just about everything associated with these people, there is a fundamental dishonesty about their argument. They pick up on the sceptic funding, ignoring the fact that most activists are entirely self-funded and working on a shoe-string, and ignore completely their own funding.

Climate Whining

Here is the snivelling quote of the month ... from Mr. AGW propaganda himself, Gavin Schmidt ... when speaking of Steve McIntyre:

One little-known irony of the debate is that for all the harsh words, many scientists have a grudging respect for Mr. McIntyre's intelligence. “He could be a scientific superstar,” Mr. Schmidt says. “He's a smart person. He could be adding to the sum total of human knowledge, but in effect he adds to the reduction of the sum total of human knowledge.”

... it is precisely attitudes like this that turned me into a sceptic, long before the evidence against the IPCC was as solid as it is now. I couldn't phathom how scientist/activists like Schmidt could produce anything that would come to good given their horrific bias and political bent.

All They Want

... are a few golden stars and a cookie:

It’s a mistake to think that the infantilization of once-free peoples represented by the micro-regulatory nanny state can be confined to pancakes and hot tubs. Consider, for example, the incisive analysis of Scott Gration, the U.S. special envoy to the mass murderers of Sudan: “We’ve got to think about giving out cookies,” said Gration a few months back. “Kids, countries — they react to gold stars, smiley faces, handshakes, agreements, talk, engagement.”

Actually, there’s not a lot of evidence “smiley faces” have much impact on kids in the Bronx, never mind genocidal machete-wielders in Darfur. So much for the sophistication of “soft power,” smiling through a hard-faced world.

... read the whole thing.

Maldivesgate

Like shooting fish in a barrel:

Scientists have been forced to withdraw a study on projected sea level rise due to global warming after finding mistakes that undermined the findings.

The study, published in 2009 in Nature Geoscience, one of the top journals in its field, confirmed the conclusions of the 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It used data over the last 22,000 years to predict that sea level would rise by between 7cm and 82cm by the end of the century.

At the time, Mark Siddall, from the Earth Sciences Department at the University of Bristol, said the study "strengthens the confidence with which one may interpret the IPCC results". The IPCC said that sea level would probably rise by 18cm-59cm by 2100, though stressed this was based on incomplete information about ice sheet melting and that the true rise could be higher.

... with hardly a global warming scare left standing, isn't it time that the CPC take a stand?

Is Lack of Proximity Killing Democracy

Keep them home, and out of the bubble:

We send our elected representatives far from home to conduct The People’s business. We send them to Washington, D.C. where they form what our flyboys (and flygirls) call “a target-rich environment” for the lobbyists and for the political party leadership.

We send them far from us … to conduct our business. There was no other way in the 18th, 19th, and most of the 20th century. In the 21st century, of course, this is absurd.

As things now stand, it is too easy for lobbyists and party leadership to “get at” our elected legislators. And too hard — impossible, on a concentrated basis — for voters to spend “face time” with their representatives.

We plain folks, and our representatives, would be well-served by changing the rule requiring our legislators to vote from the floor of Congress. And this could be done by a simple rule change, no legislation or constitutional amendment required.

... keep reading.

Message for Canadian Conservatives

... it's not good enough to just not suck as much as the other guy:

Click

Griffin Ride Out of KAF

ht

Crystal Clear

Is the Anglo-sphere Going It Alone

Holland:

The Dutch coalition government collapsed Saturday over whether to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan, leaving the future of its 1,600 soldiers fighting there uncertain. An early election is now expected.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende announced that the second largest party in his three-party alliance is quitting, ending what had always been an uneasy partnership.

"Where there is no trust, it is difficult to work together. There is no road along which this cabinet can go further," Balkenende said.

The Dutch debate comes as opinion polls in many troop-providing European countries indicate growing public opposition to sending more soldiers to Afghanistan amid a global financial crisis and shrinking defence budgets.

Update: Yep, they're gone.

No Turning Back to MSM

Climate Genius - in - Chief

Enlightened Sovereignty

... at home:

The federal government is expected to announce new rules Tuesday that would make it more difficult for first-time buyers to enter Canada's hot housing market.

Sources have told The Canadian Press that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is ready to move on the issue because of concern Canadians may be taking on too much debt.

Economists have advised the minister the best way to protect Canadians is to institute a debt affordability test in order to qualify for a Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corp. insured mortgage.

... and abroad:

During the January 2010 World Economic Summit in Davos, Switzerland, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the current chairman of the G-20, presented the upcoming agenda for the G-20 and G-8 meetings to be held in Ontario in June. Many were shocked to hear this Conservative leader declare, "We also know markets need governance. For the new global economy, the G-20 is what we have." Harper went on to speak as an avowed Keynesian committed to a one-world global economy, creating a world "we have been trying to build since 1945". He went on to warn the world that national self-interest and sovereignty must be opposed to stave off a greater crisis than the current recession. For the next several months leading up to and including the G-20 meetings, Stephen Harper will be attempting to convince the world to find global unity of purpose and adopt what he calls "Enlightened Sovereignty."

... the speech.

... some more thoughts here and here.

So Much for Rising Sea Levels

***

Requiem

WSJ:

The central contradiction in modern liberal politics is that Otto von Bismarck's entitlement state for cradle to grave financial security is no longer affordable. The model has reached the limit of its ability to tax private income and still allow enough economic growth to finance its transfer payments.

You can see this in bankrupt Greece, where government spends 52% of GDP; or in California and New York, where the government-employee unions have pushed tax rates to punishing levels and the states still can't pay their bills. Americans can see that this is where Mr. Obama's agenda is also taking Washington, and this is why they are rejecting it.

Hornets Over Vancouver

24-7 ... like hawks watching their brood:

It's the sound of security.

The thundering noise of CF-18 fighter jets will reverberate across the Lower Mainland this week as the Canadian Forces fly over Olympic venues in final preparation for their mission during the Winter Games.

"The pilots are doing their training flights to familiarize themselves with the area and with the conditions in which they will be operating," Lieutenant (Navy) David Lavallee said Monday in an interview.

They will be flying at a variety of different altitudes, dropping to as low as a couple thousand feet during manoeuvres. The aircraft will be at higher altitudes while pilots familiarize themselves to the landscape. "If people see them and hear them, it is nothing to be worried about. It is just training flights."

The fighter jets are prepared to shoot down aircraft that violate the restricted airspace, Lt. Lavallee also said. But he quickly added that the decision to use lethal force would be a last resort, after a process of escalating efforts to identify the flight and its purpose had failed.

ht ... with photos

Splish Splash

Just wondering ... was Mr. Baradar mirandized and lawyered up according to O-policy ... or did they play splish splash with the POS if he refused to spill the beans:

The Taliban's top military commander has been arrested in a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in Pakistan.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the No.2 behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden, was captured in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi.

The arrest represents a major victory against the insurgents as U.S. troops push into their heartland in southern Afghanistan.

Baradar was held 10 days ago with the assistance of the United States and 'was talking' to his interrogators.

... the details.

As an aside, any guess what the LPC and NDP policy would be with Baradar, given their hair pulling over even the thought of a Taliban being so much as scowled at.

Animal Undie Chic

ht

It Must Kill Them

... to have to report stuff like this:

Palin-mania easily surpassed Danica-mania at Daytona International Speedway on Sunday.

While Patrick got all the headlines for the better part of two weeks, she had no stake in the Daytona 500. Palin did, and as a VIP guest for the race, she ate up all the attention.

When she arrived for the drivers meeting, Palin was immediately mobbed. She briefly chatted with Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele, shook hands with supporters and smiled big.

She took a seat up front next to Harry Connick Jr., who sang the national anthem for the race. When NASCAR president Mike Helton acknowledged her as a special guest, she got the largest ovation from the room, packed from the front to the back with drivers, team members, support personnel and onlookers.

After sitting through the meeting, Palin could not get out the door. Fans mobbed her, asking for pictures and autographs. Her 12-person entourage, comprised of track security, a policeman, friends and spokespeople, tried to get her to the door and to her next appearance. But Palin could not help herself, and kept signing and posing for pictures.

If Yanky Greens Don't Like Us ...

... Go East:

Canada, faced with growing political pressure over the extraction of oil from its highly polluting tar sands, has begun courting China and other Asian countries to exploit the resource.

The move comes as American firms are turning away from tar sands because of its heavy carbon footprint and damage to the landscape.

Whole Foods, the high-end organic grocery chain, and retailer Bed Bath & Beyond last week both signed up to a campaign by ForestEthics to stop US firms using oil from Canadian tar sands. The Pentagon is also scaling down its use of tar sands oil to meet a 2007 law requiring the US government to source fuels with lower greenhouse gas emissions.

Major oil companies such as Shell are also coming under shareholder pressure to pull out of the Canadian projects. Earlier this year, Shell announced it was scaling back its expansion plans for the tar sands after a revolt by shareholders. Producing oil from the Alberta tar sands causes up to five times more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional crude oil, according to the campaign group Greenpeace.

(content warning: Source is the ultra-warmist Guardian)

... interestingly, "world pressure" has some of our politicos quaking in their pants.

Canada risks becoming the international poster child of unsound resource development if it doesn't do a better job of developing the oilsands, says federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice.

He told a Calgary business audience Monday that the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper supports continued expansion of the oilsands, but that large energy companies need to do more as Canada seeks to reach its targets under the Copenhagen climate change accord.

Surprise: Snow Extend Increases Over Past Decade

Lending imperical support to the hypothesis that the past decade has cooled, we now find that snow is moving south:

As we have been discussing on WUWT, three of the last four months have seen top ten Northern Hemisphere snow extents and the decadal trend has been towards increasing (and above normal) snow extent during the autumn and winter. It appears that this month will achieve snow extent among the top two Februaries on record.

As you can see in the Rutgers University maps below for mid-February, the excess snow cover is necessarily found at lower latitudes. Snow cover radiates out from the pole, so the only place where snow extent can increase is towards the south.

The implication of the observed trend towards increasing snow extent is that the Northern Hemisphere autumn/winter snow line is moving southwards over the last ten to twenty years.

I Left My Heart in Abercrombi: A True Love Story

For this Valentines day, I thought it would be appropriate to re-run the epic tale of my one true love, now tragically lost to time for ever. Enjoy, and Happy Valentines Day.

A Pant's Passing

We gather here today to mourn the passing of my size 34-34 Levi's Dockers Wrinkle Free Classic Fit pants.

Levi Docker the 34th, or less formally ‘Slacks’, as I fondly referred to her, was as stout and conforming as any pair of pants I have owned. Born in a Bangladesh sweat shop in 1998, I first met Slacks at a two for one sale at The Gap. It was the turbulent year of ‘99. Bill Clinton had finally gotten around to putting on his own slacks, and, pants firmly in place, he commenced with the bombing of the Balkans. Y2K threatened to destroy every microwave this side of Timbuktu. Pokemon swept the globe in an attempt at world domination. Ricky Martin pushed the boundaries of high-tensile leg wear. And “The Blair Witch Project” scared the pants off of about 5 people(the rest showed emotions ranging from mild irritation to blinding fury at the stupidity of it all).

It always weighed heavily upon my heart that Slacks was the free half of the two-for-one deal on that fateful day in June. I walked out of the store carrying a pair of Cabin Creek® Double Knit 5 Pocket Stretch Cords, and Slacks was relegated to a ‘bonus’ status. I lament also the fact that I didn’t recognize Slacks wonderful simplistic beauty immediately. Instead I was mesmerized by the cheap, flashy, whorish good looks of the Stretch Cords. Sure, we had some good times together, but she never fit oh so perfectly the way Slacks did, she never loved me the way Slacks loved me.

Slacks was always my rock, my pillar of strength. She was always there. That time I missed a 1 foot putt for birdie on the 17th hole, Slacks was there. She stood confidently by my side as I unleashed an unhuman scream of fury, cursed the very creator of this earth, and wrapped my putter around a ball washer. And, she stood steadfast with me as I was not-so-graciously escorted off of the golf course.

In times of peril, Slacks never wavered, and she always showed dogged determination. She easily weathered the waist expansion of Christmas 2001, the great Cola spill of 2002, and several catastrophic button losses. When her hems started to fray she took it all in stride and went for a new ‘rugged’ look. Stained nearly irreparably, Slacks took the plunge and dove into an acidic bath of color-guard bleach and emerged with only a slight loss in overall hue, and no stain whatsoever. Truly, there was never a more rugged pair of pleated double stitch chinos.

And yet, all good things must come to an end. So it was with Slacks. Having braved the very worst of spilled beverages and grass stains, Slacks finally met her Waterloo in the form of a hundred pound Doberman Pinscher. It was the summer of this year. Slacks and I walked dotingly along a riverside boulevard, enjoying our 10th year together. Certainly by that time Slacks showed her age, her creases weren’t quite as crisp and her waistband was rough on the edges, but she never lost her dignity. Emerging around a lazy corner of the paved path that fateful day, we were accosted by a hellish looking beast. Its intent was clear, and my options limited. I turned and ran, and Slacks stuck with me stride for stride, her “classic” loose fit allowing me to take tremendous bounds. It was almost enough. Salvation was in sight, a shoulder high chain link fence. Taking the final strides I leapt over, headfirst. But, before I cleared that barrier, the Doberman grabbed Slacks and ripped a tremendous piece of her away. The damage could not be mended.

And so here we are gathered. Thoughts of clipping off the other leg and starting her life anew as a pair of shorts, like so many tattered jeans, have certainly crossed my mind. But it would not be the same. Slacks, like the warm breezes of summer giving way to fall's brisk air, has passed us by in immeasurable beauty. We shared so much, and yet, Slacks we hardly knew ye. May the great landfill fires carry you, like Vikings past, to your Valhalla, and may you know that my new pair of Pronto Uomo Charcoal Stripe Fancy Flat Front Slacks will never truly replace you.

AVE ATQUE VALE

The Day Consensus Died

Dr. Phil Jones:

An initial point to make is that in the responses to these questions I’ve assumed that when you talk about the global temperature record, you mean the record that combines the estimates from land regions with those from the marine regions of the world. CRU produces the land component, with the Met Office Hadley Centre producing the marine component.

Temperature data for the period 1860-1880 are more uncertain, because of sparser coverage, than for later periods in the 20th Century. The 1860-1880 period is also only 21 years in length. As for the two periods 1910-40 and 1975-1998 the warming rates are not statistically significantly different (see numbers below).

[This indicates that the recent warming is not exceptional. Moreover, even if it had been “exceptional,” that would not prove it is due to greenhouse gas emissions?]

... be sure to read the whole thing ... and as you do, recall the hubris and tisk tisking as they lectured us about "consensus".

The Early Days of Barack Obama

Dr. John C. Drew interview.

ht

Me

Who Needs Judges on the Supreme Court

How about, instead, we pick community organizers, union lawyers ... and perhaps Acorn defence attorneys:

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., criticized the American Bar Association on Thursday, saying it should "get a new life" in how it rates prospective federal judges, after one of his choices got a mixed review.

In remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Reid said the bar association's ratings board puts too much weight on whether judicial nominees have prior bench experience and overlooks "real world" qualifications.

Reid expanded his criticism to include the Supreme Court, whose makeup, he said, consists of "people who have never seen the outside world."

"I have asked President (Barack) Obama, 'Let's get somebody on the court that has not been a judge.' They need to do more than thinking of themselves as these people who walk around in these robes in these fancy chambers."

... the details.

... sheesh ... and they knock Palin for being stupid.

A Staggering Perversion

EUR:

Prof Peter Liss, acting director of the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU), claims sceptics are endangering the lives of generations to come by making unsupported claims. Critics of the science behind man-made global warming theories are playing "Russian roulette with the planet".

"The evidence is hugely for there being substantial climate change due to man's activities and if you want to argue against that case you have to produce some evidence," he said.

Er ... excuse me. The IPCC is making unsupported claims. We are pointing that out, all in the context of a demonstrably political process where science, quite clearly, has gone off the rails.

But this is the modern "post science" norm, it would appear. With the benefit of millions of pounds of taxpayers' cash, these people make their assertions, and sceptics, from their own resources, are supposed to prove them wrong.

This is a staggering perversion. It is up to the proponents of change to put up their arguments, then to expose them to scrutiny, entering into a debate where the issues are explored and discussed, against a backdrop of the free exchange of information.

[...]

Then, when a much-delayed and fragmented debate begins to emerge, up pops the likes of Liss, indulging in what is known in the trade as "shroud waving". Do as I say, or people will die ... the classic cry of the demagogue and the rent seeker.

Feeling Unloved ... Canada?

Oh my ... they don't love us anymore:

A new poll says the world thinks a lot less highly of Canada than last year, thanks in large part to our poor showing at the Copenhagen climate change conference and a problematic prime ministerial trip to China.

A BBC World Service poll of public opinion across 18 countries released this week found that people's view of Canada's influence has worsened during the last year, particularly in the U.S., Britain and China.

The poll of more than 20,000 people, which was conducted by international polling firm GlobeScan, showed a decline in Canada's reputation around the world for the first time since tracking began in 2005.

Clearly, the negative vibes from the global community have some of our leaders shaking ... but one needs to ask, how do we reconcile it all with THIS?

Slowly the Lights Come On

Click ... just like that, a progressive gets hit with a clue bat:

Addressing the Tea Party, Sarah Palin wrote three notes on her hand: "Energy, Taxes, Lift American Spirits." Why? She already had notes in front of her on the podium. Surely she could remember three simple themes. Why write notes on her hand?

Here's my take on why: she knew that they would be visible when she gave the speech. And she knew that she would be made fun of -- as so stupid that she needs to write notes on her hand. And that's one of her most effective tactics -- to be made fun of. It's an integral part of her strategy of standing in for hardworking, Middle Americans, derided by the condescending, know-it-all liberal elites.

... keep reading Huffpo.

Making a List

... and checking it twice:

Acne, agricultural land increase, Afghan poppies destroyed, poppies more potent, Africa devastated, Africa in conflict, African aid threatened, African summer frost, aggressive weeds, Air France crash, air pressure changes, airport malaria, Agulhas current, Al Qaeda and Taliban Being Helped, allergy season longer, alligators in the Thames, Alps melting, Amazon a desert, American dream end, amphibians breeding earlier (or not), anaphylactic reactions to bee stings, ancient forests dramatically changed, animals head for the hills, animals shrink, Antarctic grass flourishes, Antarctic ice grows, Antarctic ice shrinks, Antarctic sea life at risk, anxiety treatment, algal blooms, archaeological sites threatened, Arctic bogs melt, Arctic in bloom,....

... keep reading, you've just got started.

A Deep Unrest is Brewing

VDH:

There is an unfocused but growing anger in this country — and it should come as no surprise. Nobody likes to be lectured by those claiming superior wisdom but often lacking common sense about everything from out-of-control spending and predicting the weather to dealing with enemies who are trying to kill us all.

Bonus:

Where is Europe's unrest?

From the Land of Klaus

Luboš Motl, Czech physicist, explains:

As Reuters and the Czech media noticed today, the Czech grid is overloaded and the company in charge of it, ČEPS, is finalizing its plans to solve the situation.

ČEPS urges the electricity distribution companies to halt the connecting of the new solar and wind plants. At the end of 2009, they were giving 600 MW to the grid. However, projects that would add a whopping extra 3,500 MW have already been approved! This is a genuine threat to the stability of the grid.

ČEPS has informed that if the rules won't be changed to avoid the danger raised by these ludicrously subsidized and hugely irregular sources of energy, it will have to start to disconnect them. This could mean that the green investors could lose their money which would be great.

[...]

Needless to say, billions of dollars are flying and corrupt, green, or otherwise dirty politicians and bureaucrats have helped to distort the market, all the rules, and the stability of the grid, for ideological, irrational, and egotistic reasons (or simply to lick the buttocks of their bigger but even more idiotic EU colleagues), paying no attention to what their decisions would mean to the consumers and the economy at large.

The irresponsibility in the "renewable" electricity subsidies was particularly shocking in the Czech Republic. But I am sure that other countries face similar threats, too. It's just that they don't have any responsible people or companies who would dare to mention that the spontaneous explosion of these "renewable" sources is a fast path to hell.

Petulant - in - Chief

My lord ... America elected a bunch of 8th graders:

This administration’s efforts have disrupted dozens of terrorist plots against the homeland and been responsible for killing and capturing hundreds of hard-core terrorists, including senior leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond — far more than in 2008. We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war

[...]

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda.

The Moderate Taliban

Where Blogs Lead

Again and again, blogs are not only scooping the MSM, but are in some cases months ahead in research and investigative reporting.

Dr. Richard North:

... on the state of the media. We started pumping stuff into the system in mid -December yet, even though our stories have been replicated in whole or part, thousands of times, it really is quite remarkable how few journalists bring anything new to the table.

Most of the stuff seems to be recycled, very often poorly understood and most often incomplete and behind the curve – and very rarely acknowledging the source. And it came full circle yesterday, with the New York Times finally broaching a story about Pachauri and the IPCC, two months are we started the hare running.

... case in point ...Pajamas way out front:

Who is Achim Steiner? A German, born in Brazil, he is a longtime environmentalist, former head from 2001-2006 of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN. (Sample of UN climate networking — take a deep breath, don’t even try to follow this, just roll with it: The IUCN has been phenomenally intertwined over the years with the UN cast of climate characters. When Steiner left the IUCN in 2006, he was succeeded there by a sister-in-law of a former U.S. ambassador to the UN, Richard Holbrooke. This Holbrooke in-law, Julia Marton-Lefevre , in turn, had just finished serving as rector of the UN University for Peace, in Costa Rica, which had been greatly beefed up in the years prior to her arrival by the so-called godfather of the Kyoto Treaty, Maurice Strong – first head of the same UNEP that Achim Steiner now runs).

Hurricane Hazel

Mayor Hazel McCallion from 2005: (They don't make them like this any more)

The long-serving mayor of Mississauga is considered one of the best in the world, according to an international contest organized by a UK-based group.

Mayor Hazel McCallion was given the title of second best mayor in the world. Dora Bakoyannis, the mayor of Athens, Greece, took the top spot.

The contest tallied 87,000 votes cast from around the world over a five-month period.

In all, 550 mayors were nominated for the World Mayor Award, which recognizes mayors who have made contributions to the well-being of cities nationally and internationally.

In granting second place to McCallion, the contest organizers said since taking the mayor's job in 1978, "Her administration has become a by-word for businesslike and prudent city management."

They also credit McCallion with keeping Mississauga debt-free and safe. Support for McCallion came from all across Canada and parts of the U.S.

This international honour comes on the heels of the Order of Canada, which McCallion received last month.

Preserving the Dignity of the Whitehouse

Taking On the Granola Lobby

One shot at a time:

"We really do love our trees," Palin said. "I named my daughter Willow. Isn't that granola enough for them?"

They Stole the Captain

How We Held Down the Fort

At times it seemed that all our guys were doing is putting out fires:

Four years after Canadians first deployed to Zhari district, here is one writer's synopsis of all that we achieved:

"In many places, as in Zhari, the battle is just beginning."..

As for the insurgent leaders mentioned, Kaka Abdul Khaliq and Jabar Agha, yeah, I know those names, too. You gotta give 'em credit for keeping alive this long with all the effort put into hunting them over the years [likely our guys involved]. Slim customers, those two.

... more at The Torch.

An Evisceration by BBC

ht goes to the Dragon Slayer.

Pach will be Jailed

Bonus:

Evil ... just plain evil.

There Is No Monster Under the Bed

There's a monster under my bed. I can even see its head. It's black and blue And eats my shoes--It's the monster under my bed. There's a monster under my bed. It's searching for my head. It sings weird songs And wears long johns--It's the monster under my bed. ~ Purcell Kendal

In the end, AGW horrors were no more real than the monster under the bed:

Another - gate.

The Global Warming Greening of Africa

The other day Africagate exploded onto the world stage, and now it turns out that not only will AGW likely not harm parts of Africa, it may actually help:

Desertification, drought, and despair—that's what global warming has in store for much of Africa. Or so we hear.

Emerging evidence is painting a very different scenario, one in which rising temperatures could benefit millions of Africans in the driest parts of the continent.

Scientists are now seeing signals that the Sahara desert and surrounding regions are greening due to increasing rainfall.

If sustained, these rains could revitalize drought-ravaged regions, reclaiming them for farming communities.

This desert-shrinking trend is supported by climate models, which predict a return to conditions that turned the Sahara into a lush savanna some 12,000 years ago.

And that's it, isn't it ... that for every perceived horror of AGW there can likely be found a benefit. After all, warm periods in earth's history were always times when species thrived ... just ask T-Rex, or the Romans.

Sceptics and Big Oil

Oh my, the greens are pulling out all the stops and are now falling back on standard leftist boilerplate ... somewhere, somehow, they'll blame Exxon ... I can't wait to see how they tie Haliburton in:

A complicated web of relationships revolves around a number of right-wing think-tanks around the world that dispute the threats of climate change. ExxonMobil is a key player behind the scenes, having donated hundreds of thousands of dollars in the past few years to climate change sceptics. The Atlas Foundation, created by the late Sir Anthony Fisher (founder of the Institute of Economic Affairs), received more than $100,000 in 2008 from ExxonMobil, according to the oil company's reports.

... for a good laugh, keep reading.

In the meanwhile, I'll see their $100,000 and raise it a trillion or so.

... or at least several dozen billion.

Climate Fraud: Time to Sue

Everyday that ticks by brings the Harper CPC closer to crossing the line between simply being political game-players, to being wilful participants in defrauding Canadians out of hundreds of millions of dollars. The BC, Quebec, and Ontario governments may have already crossed that line.

In America the class action crowd are sharpening their knives ... daring the EPA to take action on CO2 ... daring Congress to use "global warming" as justification for massive cash transfers.

I strongly suggest that lawyers in Canada who specialize in class actions begin doing the ground work. There is a line that is about to be crossed and I'd love nothing better than to have the governments of BC, Quebec, and Ontario dragged before the courts where "real" evidence is needed to justify robbing citizens of their hard earned cash in the name of science ... not the garbage that passes as "evidence" in the IPCC ... not the garbage pedaled by David Suzuki, nor Al Gore guano, nor the entire Global Warming cabal.

The idea of using the courts to fight back against "green" fraud is catching on, and I hope we are going to see lots of court cases in the future. It's one thing to want a cleaner and more sustainable society; it's entirely something different when politicians and activists use environmentalism as a simple excuse to tax, reduce personal freedoms, enrich themselves, and expand government.

Steyn gives us a peak into just how unsupportable the AGW theory is ... imagine a team of ruthless lawyers taking greens, governments, and the IPCC to the courts for defrauding us of hard cash ... the thought is enough to make one smile for days.

Steyn:

Well, our reader didn’t want to get hung on footling details: “The disproportionate evidence supports the anthropogenic cause of global warming,” he concluded.

Yes, but how did the “evidence” get to be quite so “disproportionate”?

Take the Himalayan glaciers. They’re supposed to be entirely melted by 2035. The evidence is totally disproportionate, man. No wonder professor Orville Schell of Berkeley is so upset about it: “Lately, I’ve been studying the climate-change-induced melting of glaciers in the Greater Himalaya,” he wrote. “Understanding the cascading effects of the slow-motion downsizing of one of the planet’s most magnificent landforms has, to put it politely, left me dispirited.” I’ll say. Professor Schell continued: “If you focus on those Himalayan highlands, a deep sense of loss creeps over you—the kind that comes from contemplating the possible end of something once imagined as immovable, immutable, eternal . . .”

Poor chap. Still, you can’t blame him for being in the slough of despond. That magnificent landform is melting before his eyes like the illustration of the dripping ice cream cone that accompanied his eulogy for the fast vanishing glaciers. Everyone knows they’re gonna be gone in a generation. “The glaciers on the Himalayas are retreating,” said Lord Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank and author of the single most influential document on global warming. “We’re facing the risk of extreme runoff, with water running straight into the Bay of Bengal and taking a lot of topsoil with it. A few hundred square miles of the Himalayas are the source for all the major rivers of Asia—the Ganges, the Yellow River, the Yangtze—where three billion people live. That’s almost half the world’s population.” And NASA agrees, and so does the UN Environment Programme, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the World Wildlife Fund, and the respected magazine the New Scientist. The evidence is, like, way disproportionate.

Bonus:

American Thinker discusses possible illegal manipulations of world markets .

Canada’s New Prime Minister: Robert Fife

image: King Fife

A common whisper among Canadian conservatives these days is, “we can’t do what we want to, because of the media!”

On conservative blogs the theme is rampant; if Harper fails, blame the media ... if Harper doesn’t stand against the global warming fraud, blame the media ... if Harper stops showing overt support for the Afghan mission, blame the media ... if public support for the CPC wanes, blame the media.

Well then, how about this; if the media is so pervasive and all-powerful, I suggest that Stephen Harper relinquish the title of Prime Minister and hand over the crown to none other than Robert Fife, Ottawa bureau chief of the CTV. Being chief and all of an organization that supposedly is powerful enough to determine CPC policy, strategy, and direction, it only makes sense ... chief ... Prime Minister ... king ... take your pick.

Conservatives point to the prorogation scandal as proof that only the media frenzy surrounding it and dishonest reporting have caused the public to frown on the CPC. It’s beyond Conservatives, it seems, to blame their leadership ... to realize that prorogation was a made for media red meat issue. I’ll admit that the move may have been strategic, where the outcry was expected but that “other” considerations motivated the CPC. But, it doesn’t change the fact that conservatives are blaming the backlash on King Fife and his court.

And so we come back to the CPC fear of and disdain for the media. Sure, one may be justified in criticizing the media; we all know that the average journalist is a dutiful Liberal, but that is no excuse for inept political leadership, dunderheaded message control, and a woeful inability to speak directly to the people of Canada.

Conservative leaders throughout the entire 20th century had to deal with a hostile media, yet many of them prevailed. Reagan and Thatcher come to mind as stand outs. The key was that they weren’t constantly on the defensive, and that they kept their message straightforward, simple, and used the very media that sought to bring them down, to get the conservative message across.

Take the global warming fraud for example. A conservative friend of mine has told me that if the Harper government pulled back from Copenhagen and took a neutral stance, the media would savage them, that the media would not let it happen. A month ago I may have agreed, but not today.

I find it impossible to believe that a strong leader, or minister, who knew his or her facts, would not be able to clearly articulate the “facts” as they pertain to climategate in every possible media venue offered, and to do so in a simple and repetitive fashion that would apeal to the common sense of Canadians. At this point, just about any sceptical blogger could stand against the likes of David Suzuki and Al Gore and Jack Layton in a public forum on climate change, so why not our elected representatives? Only the most zealous green or politically motivated dunderhead won’t, or can’t, be made to understand that human caused catastrophic global warming is not an established fact and that the apparent dire consequences of global warming are based on the most flimsy of evidence.

Furthermore, by clearly enunciating its reasoning, the CPC would force the media to examine the points of contention, to openly examine climategate, glaciergate, Africagate, and all the other “gates”. Before long, even King Fife might be wondering about the veracity of IPCC claims, just like his counterparts in the UK are beginning to wonder.

Just this past week we learned that UK citizens are turning against the idea that global warming is human caused and that it will be catastrophic ... and this from the people who more than any other brought us the IPCC and global warming fanaticism; where even conservative politicians are hardcore believers. If UK citizens can be made to switch their views by a handful of blogs and a few broadsheet editorials, imagine what an honest and skilled CPC communication campaign might effect.

Yet, we find the pros (I use the word loosely) like Jim Prentice, chastising the Oil Industry, clinging to Copenhagen, and giving life support to the IPCC in a blatant attempt to avoid the disapproval of King Fife. I thank the stars above that Canada isn’t facing any crisis of magnitude, as our current crop of conservatives couldn’t lead us through a rain shower, least of all a time of true crisis.

What has happened, in essence, is that the Conservative Party of Canada has allowed Robert Fife and his court to become the de facto rulers of the land. The CPC have crawled into the gutter with the NDP and Liberals in an attempt to avoid the ire of King Fife (hogs in a wallow are hard to tell apart) and they’ve allowed King Fife to dictate what will pass, and what won’t, in Canadian governance and discourse.

Long live the King ... hail Fife!

Cry Me a River

Don't you love it when scallywags begin to whine when they get caught.

It reminds me of those little female street-Nazis driving daddy’s car. They drive like maniacs, ignore the rules, text while speeding, and flip the bird to those they cut off. Then, when they finally meet the bumper of an SUV you see them there sitting on the curb, tears pouring down their cheeks, while they call daddy on the cell phone to come and rescue them.

Dr. Phil Jones of Climategate fame is just one such piece of guano. He was instrumental in flogging the international hysteria about global warming which has already cost the world hundreds of billions, if not trillions of dollars of diverted funds. He's been responsible for bullying sceptics, rejoicing in the death of a sceptic, fudging the "science", and acting like a petulant 8th grader all the while ... and now, that he's been caught, he's having one hell of a pity-party:

THE scientist at the centre of the “climategate” email scandal has revealed that he was so traumatised by the global backlash against him that he contemplated suicide.

Professor Phil Jones said in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times that he had thought about killing himself “several times”. He acknowledged similarities to Dr David Kelly, the scientist who committed suicide after being exposed as the source for a BBC report that alleged the government had “sexed up” evidence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

In emails that were hacked into and seized upon by global-warming sceptics before the Copenhagen climate summit in December, Jones appeared to call upon his colleagues to destroy scientific data rather than release it to people intent on discrediting their work monitoring climate change.

Jones, 57, said he was unprepared for the scandal: “I am just a scientist. I have no training in PR or dealing with crises.”

Climategate Mainstreaming

IPCC Farmgate

Recall all the blog crawling warmists chatizing sceptics for their lack of peer review:

A LEADING British government scientist has warned the United Nations’ climate panel to tackle its blunders or lose all credibility.

Robert Watson, chief scientist at Defra, the environment ministry, who chaired the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) from 1997 to 2002, was speaking after more potential inaccuracies emerged in the IPCC’s 2007 benchmark report on global warming.

The most important is a claim that global warming could cut rain-fed north African crop production by up to 50% by 2020, a remarkably short time for such a dramatic change. The claim has been quoted in speeches by Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC chairman, and by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general.

This weekend Professor Chris Field, the new lead author of the IPCC’s climate impacts team, told The Sunday Times that he could find nothing in the report to support the claim. The revelation follows the IPCC’s retraction of a claim that the Himalayan glaciers might all melt by 2035.

... keep reading.

But dear reader ... don't run away quite yet ... we also have Africagate to report:

Following an investigation by this blog (and with the story also told in The Sunday Times), another major "mistake" in the IPCC's benchmark Fourth Assessment Report has emerged.

Similar in effect to the erroneous "2035" claim – the year the IPCC claimed that Himalayan glaciers were going to melt – in this instance we find that the IPCC has wrongly claimed that in some African countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50 percent by 2020.

At best, this is a wild exaggeration, unsupported by any scientific research, referenced only to a report produced by a Canadian advocacy group, written by an obscure Moroccan academic who specialises in carbon trading, citing references which do not support his claims.

Let's see now, it may be time for a tally of global warming horrors turned to guano:

1) 4 billion Asians are not about to lose their main fresh water supply in the Himalayas because of AGW. (Ocean rise?)

2) Amazon rain forests aren't going to vanish because of AGW.

3) The ocean's corals aren't going to vanish because of AGW.

4) The Stern report on the cost of AGW natural disasters is full of inaccuracies and gross exagerations.

5) USA crop production is not going to decrease as a result of AGW.

6) The world is not warming at a historically unusual rate.

7) Antarctica isn't shrinking. (Ocean rise?)

8) Arctic Ice isn't vanishing.

9) There is no evidence that hurricanes will increase as a result of AGW.

10) Holland isn't going to vanish as a result of AGW.

11) The planet has stopped warming for now.

12) African crop production will not be cut by half, because of AGW.