Sunday, February 14. 2010
Where is the MSM with this story?
We never doubted it for a minute: Moonbattery. Manchurian Candidate, thanks to the MSM's homo- or hetero- or Lefto- or whatever-eroticism.
I wouldn't mind if he had changed his view of the world since then, but I haven't heard that road-to-Damascus story yet.
Climategate's Phil Jones Confesses to Climate Fraud. For starters,
Imagine a man who has spent the better part of the past 25 years toiling to convince the world of CO2-forced 20th-century warming now admitting that the difference in warming rates for the periods 1860-1880, 1910-40 and 1975-2009 is statistically insignificant. Jones even acceded that there has been no statistically-significant global warming since 1995; that in fact, global temperatures have been trending to the downside since January of 2002, although he denied the statistical significance of the -0.12C per decade decline.
All the details at link above. And he said:
And he said that for the past 15 years there has been no ‘statistically significant’ warming.
Related, IPCC admits that they are not a scientific organization.
Related, World may not be warming, say scientists. Al Gore, Call your Agent.
Their party is over. My big question is "Why aren't the Warmists pleased and relieved to learn that it was a giant hoax perpetrated by grant-seekers, rent-seekers, carbon-credit investors like Al Gore and the oil companies, greedy governments, and the absurd, corrupt, and amoral UN?" Why not celebrate! They should be thrilled to know that they can quit worrying, and just get on with life.
But it just seems to make them more angry. Go figger. Maybe some people just like to be angry and upset about something or other to give life a bigger meaning.
Saturday, February 13. 2010
Poof! You're in the union. Right when you thought you were your own boss.
Steyn. A quote re the USA:
...the difference between America and Europe is that, when the global economy nosedived, everywhere from Iceland to Bulgaria mobs took to the streets and besieged Parliament, demanding to know why government didn't do more for them. This is the only country in the developed world where a mass movement took to the streets to say we can do just fine if you control-freak statists would just stay the hell out of our lives, and our pockets. You can shove your non-stimulating stimulus, your jobless jobs bill, and your multitrillion-dollar porkathons. This isn't karaoke. These guys are singing "I'll do it my way" for real.
Photo: A fair likeness of your News Junkie at Cannon Mountain this winter, with his few remaining brain cells well-protected after a nasty run-in with a hostile tree in early January.
Remember the Global Cooling hysteria? Well, Rare snowfall in Rome as cold snap grips Italy
Vibrator addiction?
Addicted to growing opium. Is it a Libertarian thing?
Licenses to use the internet? (h/t, Insty)
Homeland Sec refuses to use the I word. It might offend, I guess. The problem is that this sort of baloney offends me, and insults my intelligence. Plus I am paying for it.
VDH: The New Commandments on the Animal Farm Barn Wall
Putin Orders Obama Not to Defend America. Like Iran, the Russians see the O as a pussy to be pushed around. Yes, we did just call the O a pussy.
Re Sowell's Intellectuals and Society
Tough love for Greece:
Members of both government and opposition parties in the Bundestag said there would be no parliamentary support for any financial rescue package for Greece without clear evidence of drastic cuts in state spending. Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet on Monday, but no detailed rescue plan will be on their agenda.
Re NJ, at Tiger:
One state retiree, 49 years old, paid, over the course of his entire career, a total of $124,000 towards his retirement pension and health benefits. What will we pay him? $3.3 million in pension payments over his life and nearly $500,000 for health care benefits -- a total of $3.8m on a $120,000 investment. Is that fair?
Pretending that it was not the Dems who were blocking civil rights
Chose your side: Salmon vs. farmers. Not enuf water for both.
Joe Biden: We did it
Laurence Tribe via Surber:
“Laurence Tribe, one of the most brilliant lawyers in America, has said that Barack is the most incandescently brilliant student he ever taught. I think brains count. When you combine it with the kind of international background that he’s had, what’s he’s been through as a black person. It has not made him angry, but he’s rather hopeful by it. He’s an extremely positive person about the future of America. He’s the president I’ve been waiting for all my life.”
Get a room, Laurence.
Re the anti-obesity campaign:
"As the government assumes a larger share of health care costs, it is increasingly able to use that as a justification to intrude into personal decisions or private enterprises, whether it's a matter of smoking policy, trans-fats, or salt," we wrote last month. Now the Wall Street Journal is out with an editorial praising Michelle Obama's campaign against childhood obesity, reasoning, "the reality is that U.S. obesity imposes huge costs on taxpayers. In 2006, the per capita increase in spending attributable to obesity was 36% for Medicare and 47% for Medicaid, according to a paper last year in Health Affairs. Many fat kids grow up to be fat adults, and you've got to start somewhere."
This is treacherous turf.
Friday, February 12. 2010
Two assessments of the O:
Pajamas: Academically approved. A quote:
If only someone as gifted and righteous as The One were able to work freely on behalf of the common good, all would be well. After all, how could America go wrong pinning its destiny to a man that uses the word “elegant” and the phrase “academically approved” in the same sentence? You certainly weren’t going to get that from George Bush.
God save us from "academically-approved."
Noonan: The Off-center President. She asks "How did the president lose the room? How did he lose popularity?"
We think "global warming" is a political movement with quasi-religious overtones. Video via Moonbattery, who comments: "Is the global warming hoax a totalitarian plot? In a word: yes."
 Something has changed. Office romance is OK again.
The (loony) Lancet quietly corrects the record on autism
Bin Ladin's son thinks his Dad is a creep
What does "compromise" mean? Powerline
Obama-Care and Clinton's stent
Broder: Palin is pitch-perfect
Obama's Budget Would Redistribute $112 Billion From Top 1% of Taxpayers. Yes. That's the point.
At Kaus, the bit about the NYT and food stamps.
Iran has no respect for the O. They see him as a weak horse.
The O is changing his mind about raising taxes on the middle class. Nasty rant about the O at Blue Crab.
Via Surber:
“The fundamental understanding of the science of climate change, however, remains unchallenged and unchanged.”
Says who?
Thursday, February 11. 2010
If Amsterdam airport had a high-tech body scanner, the Christmas panty-crotch bomber wouldn’t have gotten on board. They’re in use at 19 US airports, so far. For those with privacy concerns about the explicit images they can produce, there is the option of a pat-down search.
Can you visualize the pat-down searches? Do you believe that a pat-down search would be as revealing of metal or non-metallic weapons, plastic or chemical explosives?
The Dutch are now using full-body scanners for US bound flights. “New software, however, eliminates that problem by projecting a stylized image onto a computer screen, highlighting the area of the body where objects are concealed in pockets or under the clothing and alerting security guards.”
Not to let science stand in the way of disarming security, the Figh Council of North America affiliate of the Islamic Society of North America and CAIR protesteth.
"It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women," FCNA explained. The group noted that Islam emphasizes modesty, considering it part of the faith. "The Qur'an has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts" and to be modest in their dress.
While exceptions can be made in cases of "extreme necessity," FCNA indicated that passenger body scans do not rise to that level.
I wonder if using them for this purpose would rise to that level?
An Arab Ambassador in the United Arab Emirates is suing his wife for emotional and moral damage after he married her without seeing her face and discovered that she was cross-eyed and had a beard.
In The Examiner:
...Obama was faced with a fundamental choice. He could either chart a bipartisan course in response to the economic emergency, or he could try to expand government to Western European magnitude as Democratic congressional leaders, elected for years in monopartisan districts, had long wished to do.
The former community organizer and Chicago pol chose the latter course.
To the surprise of many who watched previous presidents present specific administration policies to Congress, he allowed Democratic leaders to design the stimulus package they rushed into law in six weeks.
One-third of the money went to state and local governments -- an obvious payoff to the public employee unions that contributed so much money to Democrats -- and much of it went to permanently increase the baseline spending of discretionary programs, a longtime goal of Democratic congressional leaders.
Is Greece too big to fail? I doubt it. Also, at Cato, let them go bankrupt.
They obviously need a fresh start. Like California.
The O, via Biased BBC:
"The Middle East is a problem that has plagued the region for centuries."
 Dog training jigsaw puzzle for snowy days
Dr. Helen: Carnival of Misandry
Goofing off in college - and how colleges adjust to it (they lower their expectations)
Bearded and cross-eyed under her burkha
In which Krugman freaks out about the O. Yes, that was about News Flash: Obama Praises Capitalism
Obama Willing to Sign Less Ambitious Healthcare Bill. Duh.
Why Washington is blowing off Euroland
Two photos: Lahore and the UK
Menace in mad march of the thought police. h/t Steyn's Celebrate Conformity
The political goals of immigration in the UK, exposed. Put another way, can a government elect its own voters?
Rasmussen on the political class
MSM Ignores Republican Half of the Story on Healthcare Reform Efforts
From Bolt in Australia:
By deliberately not crossing T’s and dotting I’s, this government blew your billions, torched your houses, made death traps of others and lured four men to their deaths.
That in a simple scheme just to put insulation in roofs. Now they plan a great new tax to re-engineer our whole economy.
Should be a doddle for these clowns.
Andrew Cuomo's role in the housing mess
Knoller via Q&O:
When a sitting president calls for bipartisanship by the opposition – he really means surrender. And if they block his proposals, its “obstinacy” and not political views they hold as strongly as he holds his.
Wednesday, February 10. 2010
Mead: AP Story Breaks US Media Wall of Denial on IPCC Mess; Al Gore Still Silent. (via Driscoll's Global Warming: Is There Nothing It Can’t Do? Part Deux).
Also, from Mead's response to the NYT:
This is limp reportage and does a grave disservice to the Times readership. In the first place, a number of additional allegations have surfaced — some trivial, some more substantial. Rosenthal’s readers come away from this piece with no understanding of why the Guardian ran a commentary headlined “The Case for Climate Change Must Be Remade From the Ground Upwards” or another entitled “The IPCC’s Problems Have Been Exacerbated By Its Imperious Attitude“. They will not understand why in this Guardian report of Monday February 8 (“Climate Scientists Hit Out at ‘Sloppy’ Glacier Error“) climate scientists who worked on the IPCC report are said to be calling on Pachauri to step down. In case any New York Times readers are reading this post, here’s a quick summary of what the real story is and what it means...
ACNA Recognized in Spirited Debate by Church of England Synod, thus joining the Anglican Communion. It begins:
A spirited debate by the Church of England Synod saw the newly formed Anglican Church in North America recognized by all three houses – bishops, clergy and laity in an overwhelming vote.
and
On any kind of reading the passage of this resolution sends a signal to The Episcopal Church that they are not the only Anglican players in North America and the actions of TEC at GC2009 accelerated what took place here today.
How Global Warming Makes Blizzards Worse.
If there's no snow in DC next winter, that will be because of global warming too. I guess we'll have to add blizzards to the Complete List.
Also amusing: Moose numbers in MN dropping "because of global warming." Moose numbers in other states burgeoning...because of global warming?
Why they have begun terming snow "blizzards" I do not know. I took a drive this morning and saw nary a Moose, just an ordinary snowy day:
What an impressive, likeable, humble fellow he is. Video here.
Earthquakes prove anthropogenic global warming. Everybody knows that.
Prof Jones, via SDA:
Jones (nine years later) in a 2005 email:
(McKitrick and McIntyre) have been after the CRU station data for years. If they ever hear there is a freedom of Information act now in the UK, I think I'll delete the file rather than send to anyone.
Jones three days ago:
We interpret data. We don’t create or collect it. It’s all available from other sources.
A short appreciation and history of toilet paper
Who knew this was a felony? I am a repeat felon.
The New Dating Game - Back to the New Paleolithic Age.
Everybody agrees that the Obama invitation is a trap
The Federal Government is Working Hard To Shield States From Their Own Irresponsibility
Dick Morris: How Repubs will win the Senate
Hansen collegue says IPCC report "has no scientific merit". Related: Sen. Jim DeMint twitters: D.C. snow will continue 'until Al Gore cries uncle'
Related: Fred Singer on the IPCC:
In this enterprise, the group was aided not only by environmental zealots, anti-technology Luddites, utopian one-worlders, and population-control fanatics, but also by bureaucrats, businesses, brokers and bankers, who had learned how to game the system and profit from government grants and subsidies for exotic schemes to produce "carbon-free" energy and from the trading of carbon permits. Hundreds of billions have already been wasted -- most of this in transfers of tax revenues to a favored few.
These sums pale, however, in comparison to the trillions that would have been spent in future if some of the mitigation schemes had come to fruition -- such as an extension and major expansion of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to control greenhouse-gas emissions. Fortunately for the world economy and for taxpayers in industrialized nations, these schemes collapsed at the Copenhagen climate conference in Dec 2009.
Related: Bishop Hill vetted a random IPCC paragraph
Tuesday, February 9. 2010
First, from Dan Luskin:
New York Times, March 29, 2005:
...the big step by extremists will be an attempt to eliminate the filibuster, so that the courts can be packed with judges less committed to upholding the law than Mr. Greer. We can't count on restraint from people like Mr. DeLay...
New York Times, February 8, 2010:
Senators themselves should recognize this fact and push through changes in those rules, including eliminating or at least limiting the filibuster. This is something they could and should do, by majority vote, on the first day of the next Senate session.
The second from Q&O, from the NYT in 2005:
Mr. Bush has reacted by railing against Democrats for obstruction — as if Democrats are duty-bound to breathe life into his agenda and, even sillier, as if opposing a plan that the people do not want is an illegitimate tactic for an opposition party.
 The Harvard Psychedelic Club: Did LSD really kill the 1950s?
Is it a tragedy for languages to be lost?
Re the Trapp family, here's a good chronology
Pajamas: Hard truths about the immigration debate
At Volokh: What is the EU all about? I think it's about a bureaucratic empire and unelected mandarins who know what is best for the little people
Please, no! Coming together on a climate bill
Pam Geller destroys Reagan Jr
Thinking about John Jay of Rye and Katonah, NY
Day 386 of Chicago-style politics. Related, even Newsweek is worried (h/t, Dino)
George Will: Charting our way to solvency
The Antitrust Exemption For Health Insurers: Meaningful Or Not?
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