Maggie's Farm

Last year at this time it was the piece "the size of California" that was breaking off the arctic shelf that was in the news. MSNBC and Fox News were on it like flies on dog shit.

What's odd about the ice shelf story is that it doesn't make sense from a basic pragmatic viewpoint -- never mind climate change.

It's been snowing on the arctic ice pack for millions of years. So why isn't it 20 miles high, instead of a few hundred feet?

Because ice isn't a solid. The weight of new snows push it down and outward and eventually it breaks off the edge.

It's when ice chunks stop breaking off that it's time to worry.

Interestingly, CNN has pulled back from the AGW precipice of late. It's not that they're running any anti-AGW articles, but they seemed to have hopped off the bandwagon. Fox News has tapered back a little recently, but MSNBC is still going whole hog.

One interesting thing to watch for is how articles on rising food costs dance around the ethanol issue. It's usually mentioned in paragraph 17, and only as a 'contributing factor'. Never mind that food prices started to skyrocket the same day the latest congressional energy bill was passed dictating that ethanol play a greater role in our future.

On the other hand, whenver I get depressed these days about state nannyism or goofy AGW laws or bowing to Muslim demands, I simply remind myself what all Americans should remind themselves of during these dark times:

At least we're not British.