The Scratching Post

Poetic Skill and Beauty

2009-11-28T16:22:00.000-08:00

... can be found here.

Aside: This has been a pretty linky day today. No, I'm not getting lazy and I'm not trying to copy the Puppy Blender, it just worked out that way.

Is Your Coffeepot This Green?

2009-11-28T12:48:00.000-08:00

I doubt it.

Link of the Day

2009-11-28T09:45:00.000-08:00

The List.

His Master's Voice

2009-11-28T07:00:00.001-08:00

Buried amidst the avalanche of slime coming out of ClimaQuiddick is this gem from NYT ecoblogger Andrew Revkin, writing to Michael "Fake Hockeystick Chart" Mann about skeptical inquiries from Stephen McIntyre.

I'm going to blog on this as it relates to the value of the peer review process and not on the merits of the mcintyre et al attacks.
peer review, for all its imperfections, is where the herky-jerky process of knowledge building happens, would you agree?

Andy doesn't know enough to critique McIntyre's assertions on his own, so he goes to Mann for advice.

Put another way, the reporter was too ignorant to take sides based on his own thoughts and instead let one of the two sides speak through him. That's what we all read in the newspapers and what was reported on TV and radio. Meanwhile, Michael Mann and his cronies had completely purged the peer review circles of any dissent like the KGB used to round up threats to the regime and shoot them. Andy the Wonder Journalist was too lazy, too naive and too compromised to do the real reporting necessary to discover it.

Modern journalism at its finest.
And now, on to Copehnhagen! There's no time to lose!

Well, At Least We Know Now

2009-11-27T16:11:00.000-08:00

... that CO2 causes cancer.

But slashing carbon dioxide emissions also could save millions of lives, mostly by reducing preventable deaths from heart and lung diseases, according to studies published this week in the British medical journal The Lancet.

Since breathing is a major source of CO2, I recommend we all kill as many living things as we possibly can. Really. It's the only way we can save ourselves.

The Rust Belt and the Scam

2009-11-27T12:25:00.000-08:00

Another thought on the global warming scandal. Just what will happen in the Rust Belt cities where unemployment is very high as the news of Climategate spreads? Do you think they're going to be very sympathetic to the politicians who help pass more and more stringent emission standards that end up putting them out of work to prevent a scenario cooked up by charlatans?

Detroit is positively thriving on green technologies. Like weeds.

Building Pressure

2009-11-27T09:15:00.000-08:00

How long can the MSM keep a lid on the Climategate story? Probably not a long time. What will happen when the foreign press and foreign governments start bringing it up?

Millions of measurements, global coverage, consistently rising temperatures, case closed: The Earth is warming. Except for one problem. CRU’s average temperature data doesn’t jive with that of Vincent Courtillot, a French geo-magneticist, director of the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris, and a former scientific advisor to the French Cabinet. Last year he and three colleagues plotted an average temperature chart for Europe that shows a surprisingly different trend. Aside from a very cold spell in 1940, temperatures were flat for most of the 20th century, showing no warming while fossil fuel use grew. Then in 1987 they shot up by about 1 C and have not shown any warming since. This pattern cannot be explained by rising carbon dioxide concentrations, unless some critical threshold was reached in 1987; nor can it be explained by climate models.

And that's in France. What do you think the press and government in India are going to do with this stuff? And when an Indian minister gives speeches ripping the whole CO2 modelling establishment and says India isn't going to stay poor to prevent fantasies based on fraudulent science, will the MSM cover that?

Fallout from the Climate Scandal

2009-11-27T06:07:00.000-08:00

I've got some random thoughts after having read more on the global warming scandal whose secondary explosions are still ripping through the Internet and unsettling the "settled science."

First off, the stories are starting to find their way into the Mainstream Media. Love him or hate him, Glenn Beck's got a pretty big following and he's covering the story. So is the Wall Street Journal.

...more than 3,000 emails and documents from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit (CRU) that have found their way to the Internet have blown the lid off the "science" of manmade global warming. CRU is a nerve center for many of those researchers who have authored the United Nations' global warming reports and fueled the political movement to regulate carbon.

Their correspondence show a claque of scientists massaging data to make it fit their theories, squelching scientists who disagreed, punishing academic journals that didn't toe the apocalyptic line, and hiding their work from public view. "It's no use pretending that this isn't a major blow," glumly wrote George Monbiot, a U.K. writer who has been among the fiercest warming alarmists. The documents "could scarcely be more damaging." And that's from a believer.

That bit from the WSJ could be the biggest thing of all. First, notice the scare quotes around "science" in the first sentence. That made it past the WSJ editors which means that the paper is now at least partially backing the skeptics. This is huge.

Subsequent stories on anything climate change-related may now contain paragraphs referring to this scandal. That means every time Obama makes a pronouncement on global warming, they'll cover that speech, but throw in references to the lies and fraud from these "scientists." Sort of like the way CNN would mention the casualty counts from Iraq during any discussion of the war by the Bush Administration. It will cut the legs out from under any message the warmers want to get out.

Second, what does this do to science in general? I started out as a scientist and did a bit of research in a previous life. I worked hard to make sure my data was accurate and it never occurred to me to massage it to get the results I was looking for. There was one time in particular where my research proved that a project I had proposed and been funded to complete was going to be a total waste of time. Ouch! I didn't "hide the decline" on that one, but these guys did. It wasn't on some minor research effort, either, they've been trying to remake the world in their image of perfection and have been doing it through bullying, lying and fraud. It is going to destroy public confidence in science.

Third, what happens to public figures who deny the magnitude of this scandal? President Obama is going to Copenhagen with a pledge to reduce American CO2 emissions by 17%, a figure unobtainable without huge costs in lifestyle and cash.

Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen for climate-change talks, where he’ll offer to cut U.S. emissions about 17 percent by 2020 in an effort to help break a deadlock between rich and poor nations.

He looks like a credulous dunce when he doesn't question the "settled science" behind these reductions. His authority is undermined by the scandal. He won't be able to hold news conferences without this being brought up, unless he tightly controls who he invites and look how well that worked with his war with Fox News.

Fourth, the whole trading scam is being revealed as a massive con game. From the Bloomberg article linked above comes this gem:

U.S. legislation backed by Obama to cut greenhouse gases and establish a market for the trading of pollution allowances passed the House in June and then stalled in the Senate. Administration officials said they aren’t going to Denmark empty-handed and Obama’s attendance will send a strong signal.

Emphasis mine. Al Gore has picked up a cool hundred mil from this racket. As the bombs from this scandal continue to go off, someone is going to start following the money and it's going to lead to all kinds of major public figures. Thanks to the ignorant policies being pursued by this economically illiterate administration, we're going to see double-digit unemployment and financial problems for some time to come. Imagine how the public is going to react to story after story of hucksters like Al Gore making tens of millions scamming us all. There's tar, feather and pitchforks. You do the math.

My final thought is that as the story ripples through the public, all the electric car drivers and solar cell subsidies are going to look idiotic.

Symbolism.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T07:20:00.000-08:00

I'm just popping in here to wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving. I'm home alone today, nursing a cold, eating raw oysters, drinking beer and watching football. A perfectly normal Thanksgiving.

Err, well, that might require an explanation. My wife and her sons are in Chicago taking care of her mother who fell ill (but is recovering nicely!), my kids are with their mom, and I'm still too contagious to visit my parents and expose them to my cold virus. So I'm here dining on the oysters we had planned to turn into oyster stuffing for some cornish game hens.

And loving it.

I don't think I'm going to post the rest of the day. Instead I'm taking some time to play with things I've been wanting to work with for some time. We'll see if any results of those efforts find their way to this blog.

Before I sign off, I want to say that I am deeply thankful to all of you, those who visit and those who comment - folks like Dean, B-Daddy, Kelly, Tim Eisele, Jeff Burton, Foxfier, Rose, Wollf, Justin, Mostly Nothing, the Secular Apostate, Mog, Sissy Willis and all the rest of you. This blog has been the focal point of my intellectual life and without you, it would be a lonely, empty enterprise.

I hope you all have a fun and blessed day.

Cheezburger of the Day

2009-11-25T12:51:00.000-08:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Concentrate on the Important Things

2009-11-25T09:06:00.000-08:00

Oh sure, it looks like the entire global warming thing has been a massive hoax perpetrated to keep the flow of tens of millions of research dollars going endlessly to the academics and to enrich frauds and hucksters like Al Gore to the point where his bloated carcass is worth more than a hundred mil, but let's get serious for a moment. What really matters is Michelle Obama's gown.

Looking glamorous in an elegant strapless gown by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan, Michelle Obama welcomed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Mrs. Gursharan Kaur to the White House Tuesday night and ushered in the Obama administration's first official state dinner.

Sparkly things distract people.
Oops! Maybe the people aren't so distracted. Here are a few comments from the ABC News story I linked to yesterday about global warming hurting women the most.

Apparently the author hasn't kept up with the crumbling foundation of Global Warming THEORY. And doesn't seem to be aware of a huge scandal at the heart of Global Warming central, where it is revealed that the "science" is a lie, and peer review a joke.
...
Yes, I too am surprised that apparently Ria doesn't know or is ignoring the recent headline about the computer hack that revealed documents and emails PROVING scientists conspired to alter "warming evidence" to make it seem as if there actually were "climate change." They were very frustrated that the evidence didn't substantiate their "theories", and schemed FOR YEARS to keep this evidence from ever surfacing.
...
Stella, you're my hero. I love your comments.

Didja know Al Gore was worth 2 million dollars when he left the white house? Now he is worth about 100 million, earned from his Climate Change crap. He's in it for the money and knows very well there is no climate change other than the natural cycles this planet goes through
...
The science of global warming is nothing more than consensus of Liberal Professors who skew the data to fit the paradigm the want to espouse. Follow the money and look at the political outcome to enhance their own power, wealth, and aggrandizement
...
There is No man made climate change. Read the recently hacked emails from uk. Its all a fraud

And then there is the all-time, best ever, Hall of Fame comment in this thread:

Women will suffer alright! With all that heat, there will not be a need to cuddle after sex

Booyah! Here is the runner-up:

Big surprise here. As the farce known as global climate change steadily unwinds it's time to pull out all the stops. Here's the gender card, race card soon to follow.

how pathetic

Dang. That's my line!

Meanwhile, P J Gladnick has the same idea. He does his bit with a 2001 theme.

It Is teh Awesome!!!1!!!

2009-11-25T06:05:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Allahpundit for turning us on to this gem.

Obama Prepares His Strategy; Islamists Have Theirs Already

2009-11-24T12:51:00.000-08:00

Headline: White House: Obama Afghan decision 'within days'

Meanwhile, the Islamofascists have got their strategy already and are employing it as fast as possible.

“The enemy should prepare coffins because we will respond quickly and decisively in the depths of the Zionist entity.*”

I recommend negotiating with them, perhaps preceeded by apologies.
* - This may not, in fact, be the precise reading of the strategy, but given the number of times this sort of thing is repeated, you have to figure it's way up on the list of campaign slogans.

Submitted without Comment

2009-11-24T09:41:00.000-08:00

From ABC News.

As global climate change intensifies, the negative effects will fall more and more disproportionately onto women, according to State of World Population 2009, a report released by the United Nations' Population Fund last week.

Women will need to work longer and harder as food and energy become increasingly difficult to procure in the developing nations most likely to be affected first by climate change, the report states. Girls are also more likely to drop out of school because of shortages, and the authors note that women are more likely than men to die in weather disasters that accompany climate disruptions, especially in places where women are significantly poorer than men.

A First Take on the Climate Email Bombshells

2009-11-23T14:28:00.000-08:00

I've had some thoughts on this, but here's a video that takes all of this to a much, much higher level. I had no idea the control of the literature was from such a tight clique. That shouldn't have been much of a surprise, given what I know about the groups that do the techncial reviews on the journals I'm familiar with. It's a ten minute video, but worth every second of your time.

The shoe that has yet to drop is the way in which Al Gore made his billion dollars based on this "science."

H/T: Mish.

Update: Dig this analysis of a monstrous comment file from the documents that reveals a programmer trying to make sense of what seems to be spaghetti code in the global warming models. Wow.

I Watched Football All Day Yesterday

2009-11-23T08:22:00.001-08:00

... and I don't even feel guilty about it. I laid around the house, suffering from a wretched head cold and watched the Indy-Baltimore game (please, can someone let Joe Flacco know what color his team is wearing?), the San Diego - Denver game (first place for the Bolts! Whoohoo!) and then the Philly-Chicago game (Michael Vick should be starting). And of course, I listened to the New Orleans Saints Radio Network and heard the Saints demolish the Bucs, 38-7.

Not bad for a sick day.

Hooray! The Health Care Bill Passed Its First Vote in the Senate!

2009-11-22T08:29:00.000-08:00

Soon we will have equality for all, just like these people do!
Voting yourself money works every time.

Yes, but What if I Buy Beer for a Tattooed Prostitute?

2009-11-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

It sounds like it would be a triple win for the economy! Explanation here.

Imaginary Congressional Districts

2009-11-21T13:30:00.000-08:00

By now, you've probably read that money from the Stimuloid Porkgasm™ is completely out of control - that it's been going to congressional districts that don't exist, that it's creating jobs when it hasn't even been disbursed yet, that there is case after case where the job creation claims are quickly and easily debunked. It's a good bet that the government agencies whose budgets have been goosed by tens of billions of dollars have simply blown it. They'd have to, as they are obligated to spend their budgets after a certain period of time. Why was it blown? The simple explanation is that those government agencies don't have the staff to manage an additional, say, $10B of contracts, particularly when they're trying to let those contracts to lots and lots of small companies.

In short, the money may be going up in smoke because there's just enough staff to spend it, but not enough staff to monitor its use. Now if the contracting professionals within these organizations are overwhelmed by the magnitude of the budgets, imagine how the Inspector Generals and auditors are overwhelmed. It's a good bet that these errors in accounting will never be tracked down for the simple reason that there's no one available to do it.

Allow me to suggest a darker possibility. The nation is simply being looted right before our eyes. So we've discovered that money is going to New Hampshire's non-existent 00th district. Now what? After a few barbed questions to Robert Gibbs in a press conference, we will ... do what? How will you, the private citizen, ever reliably find out where the money really went? Do you have any confidence that there is any tracking of this money?

Don't you think the people running those budgets know this?

Photo of the Day

2009-11-21T09:35:00.000-08:00

... our Official Artist has it.

Oink Oink

2009-11-21T06:52:00.000-08:00

Dig this.

Germany’s new finance minister has echoed Chinese warnings about the growing threat of fresh global asset price bubbles, fuelled by low US interest rates and a weak dollar ...

He added: “That low interest rate currencies such as the US dollar are increasingly being used as a basis for currency carry trades should give pause for thought. If there was a sudden reversal in this business, markets would be threatened with enormous turbulence, including in foreign exchange markets.”

Oink.

Oink

2009-11-21T06:29:00.000-08:00

Dig this bit about how the monster liquidity game being played by the Fed and the Obama Administration is screwing over the rest of the world.

Some officials in Asia are ... suggesting the Fed’s record-low federal funds rate -- the central bank’s interest-rate target for overnight loans between banks -- is pushing asset prices in their region too high...

Continuing the zero-rate policy may lead emerging economies “to overheat and experience financial turmoil,” Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said in Tokyo Nov. 16...

Asian policy makers, including officials from India, South Korea and Indonesia, are studying capital controls to limit “hot money” inflows that may stoke asset bubbles and force their currencies to appreciate. Indonesia’s central bank is “seriously” studying a limit on inflows to short-term bills, Senior Deputy Governor Darmin Nasution said Nov. 19. Taiwan last week banned international investors from placing funds in time deposits.

The U.S. shouldn’t adjust monetary policy to account for rising Asian assets, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said Nov. 18. “If there are problems in real- estate markets in Asia, it is not very practical to say you should raise interest rates in the U.S.,” he said.

Emphasis mine.

Now that's Smart Diplomacy™!

Oink.

Dave Ramsey, B-Daddy and more Leisure Time

2009-11-20T16:26:00.000-08:00

Over at The Liberator Today, B-Daddy points out yet another income redistribution effort.

...the health care legislation is designed to transfer wealth, the House version includes an income surtax on the "wealthy." Harry Reid's version calls for an increase in the Medicare payroll tax for those making over $250,000 per year.

Marginal tax rates for the wealthy, that is, the taxes paid on your last dollar of income, are going up, up, up. If you lived the Dave Ramsey lifestyle and had a modest home and modest cars while making as much money as you could, the Democrats' effort to raise taxes on the well-to-do could result in lots and lots more leisure time for you!

If you're living below your means, then increases in marginal tax rates could be met by working less and less. You wouldn't have crushing bills to pay, so you'd be able to cut back your hours. And why not, if the government is just going to take those earnings anyway?

Who is John Galt?

The Shape of Things to Come

2009-11-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

Mish posted this video of California college kids protesting a monster increase in fees.

California is facing another huge budget shortfall this year, something like $21B, since they have spent and taxed their way into financial ruin. Now all of the recipients of the goodies are starting to get squeezed and they're beginning to go wild.

This is just the beginning.

It's been so long since we've understood that you need to earn what you get that being confronted with it causes a violent reaction.

A Tiny Bit More on Sarah Palin

2009-11-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

... from James Taranto.

An Associated Press dispatch, written by Erica Werner and Richard Alonso-Zaldivar, compares the House and Senate ObamaCare bills. We'd like to compare this dispatch to the AP's dispatch earlier this week "fact checking" Sarah Palin's new book. Here goes:

Number of AP reporters assigned to story:
• ObamaCare bills: 2
• Palin book: 11

Number of pages in document being covered:
• ObamaCare bills: 4,064
• Palin book: 432

Number of pages per AP reporter:
• ObamaCare bill: 2,032
• Palin book: 39.3

On a per-page basis, that is, the AP devoted 52 times as much manpower to the memoir of a former Republican officeholder as to a piece of legislation that will cost trillions of dollars and an untold number of lives.

No one wants to slam the cool kid. If you did that, you'd be kicked out of the High School clique. It's much better to pile on the cheerleader you all hate.