WisdomIsVindicated

Yep. More money; less health care

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Less Health Care for More Money - HUMAN EVENTS:

Liberals cite medical horror stories from the very states they once cheered for enacting universal health care in order to argue for a national health care plan that will wreck the entire nation's medical care the same way liberal states already wrecked their own medical care.

Only Democrats could propose fixing one Bernie Madoff-style scam with an even bigger Bernie Madoff-style scam.

Please defend the "estate tax"

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:50:00 +0000

I'm interested to hear a defense of the "estate tax" from someone who supports it. ("No agreement yet on extending estate tax: Hoyer" | Reuters). In my opinion there is probably no better example of socialist tax policy that exists. Now that the question is so clearly loaded, any takers?

Hug a tree . . . and hose (seriously hose) your wife and family!!

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:57:00 +0000

From a Bloomberg op/ed on corporate values and Tiger Woods: (Tiger Woods and the Coming Decline of Celebrity Endorsements):

Green-values-oriented Nike is sticking with Woods for the moment, appearing to be rehabilitation-minded and comeback-oriented in other instances too. This fall, Apple, Excelon, and other companies dropped their memberships in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in disagreement with what they saw as the Chamber's foot-dragging on climate change policy. Nike kept its membership while resigning from the Chamber board in order to work for change from within, executives said. But the Chamber incident, too, is evidence that companies increasingly see that their values must be reflected consistently in every decision they make, every marketing campaign they run, and every partnership they form.

Dennis Miller on Climategate

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:48:00 +0000

The inimitable Dennis Miller's comments on Climategate:

Some of them are no doubt vaguely cognizant of the fact that they might have way overbet this hand and that there's now something much more important in play than the plight of the planet. And that of course would be their reputations and standing in the herd of man.

. . . .

In lieu of having the facts (i.e., the thermometer!) bear out their hypothesis, they are now going to have to get creative. They are going to have to press the bet now and steer into the delusional skid, and that sort of desperation makes for a really unsavory individual no matter how much good they are ostensibly doing for their fellow man.

Deniers will be disparaged, data will be fudged and theories will be advanced that are, if possible, even more wing-nuttier than some of the claptrap currently out there. If heretofore depictions of Manhattan under water in the year 2057 were shown to sixth-graders, they're going to have to drop it down to preschoolers in deference to the Gullibility Expansion Joint.

Way to go President Obama!!

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:01:00 +0000

These faux "quotes from the future" are hilarious . . . Obama already has stopped catastrophic climate change . . . in its tracks! Way to go President Obama!

World Leaders Send Apologies for Climate Change ... from the Future

UK's Blair says Saddam ouster right, without WMDs

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:48:00 +0000

Yep.

Blair articulately defends his decision on Iraq. And it drives people on the Left crazy that one of their few elected leaders won't yield to their intimidation.

Re. Obama's Nobel acceptance speech . . .

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:39:00 +0000

Conservative praise for Nobel speech - - POLITICO.com:

Added Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations: “If Bush had said these things the world would be filled with violent denunciations,” said “When Obama says them, people purr. That is fine by me.”

On climate: flawed premises produce flawed conclusions

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:10:00 +0000

Can we all agree that flawed premises lead to flawed conclusions? Okay, can we at least agree that flawed premises produce suspect conclusions? I guess not.

This article ("Sarah Palin, Dem greens' grinch" - - POLITICO.com) nicely illustrates the Left's efforts to distract from the damning--absolutely damning, revelations that leading global warming "scientists" were relying on deception and intimidation to promote their environmental agenda. Like the article implies, Sarah Palin (and other "Denialists") are attempting to steal the joy of what should be the HOLYday season for the Left. From the article:

[Democratic Congressperson] Ed Markey said he would welcome the Republicans in Copenhagen because they would be “exposed to the consensus the world has reached…They are in a very, very, very small minority on the planet.”"

Hey Ed, this purported "consensus" is built on the purportedly learned, unbiased, scientific conclusions of purportedly unbiased, honest scientists . . . premises all of which are severely in doubt based on the Climategate disclosures. What's there to "hide," Ed? What's there to "trick"erize? Since when does a scientist bury/destroy/misplace(!) data from which he's drawing conclusions?

Last night the family and I watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas, so pardon me while I run (the opposite direction) with Glenn Thrush's weak metaphor.

Climate alarmists like Al Gore are hoping they can shoo all us AGW skeptics back to our blissful slumber like little Cindy Loo-Who . . . who busts the Grinch stealing her Christmas tree.* In all candor, I think Ed Markey's brain is two sizes too small, and I pretty much believe that this whole climate alarmism scam will turn out alright in the end.

*Classic lines from imdb:
Narrator: As the Grinch took the tree, as he started to shove, he heard a small sound like the coo of a dove. He turned around fast and he saw a small Who. Little Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two. She stared at the Grinch and said...
Cindy Lou Who: Santie Claus, why? Why are you taking our Christmas tree? Why?
Narrator: But do you know, that old Grinch was so smart and so slick, that he thought up a lie and he thought it up quick.
Grinch: Why my sweet little tot...
Narrator: The fake Santie Claus lied...
Grinch: ...there's a light on this tree that won't light on one side. So I'm taking it home to my workshop, my dear. I'll fix it up there, then I'll bring it back here.
Narrator: And his fib fooled the child. Then he patted her head, he got her a drink and he sent her to bed. And when Cindy Lou Who was in bed with her cup, he crupt to the chimney and stuffed the tree up. Then he went up the chimney himself, the old liar, and the last thing he took was the log for their fire. On their walls he left nothing but hooks and some wire. And the one speck of food that he left in the house was a crumb that was even too small for a mouse.

The World's Oldest [form of recruiting]?

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:51:00 +0000

This story ("N.C.A.A. Is Said to Inquire Widely of Tennessee’s Recruiting" - NYTimes.com) about an NCAA investigation of UT's football program was poignant after hearing Phillip Fulmer on 104.5 yesterday and thinking about how different he seems to be from Lane Kiffin. From the article:

The N.C.A.A. is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into the University of Tennessee’s football recruiting practices, according to interviews with several prospects, their family members and high school administrators. A significant part of the investigation is focused on the use of recruiting hostesses who have become folk heroes on Tennessee Internet message boards for their ability to help lure top recruits.

Ever since watching Hoop Dreams way back when, I have been intrigued by the recruiting process, and Tennessee's program seems rather innovative . . . and less carnal than is implied in several recent reports I've seen.

Tip 'o the hat to The City Paper.

On a lighter note . . .

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:37:00 +0000

It is amazing to me that a man the size of Shaq is able to dance like this:

As a friend has told me in the past, it is very difficult to fully appreciate the agility of NBA players without watching a game in person.

Yeah, Congress'll figure out the best way . . .

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:39:00 +0000

Kind of like the incredibly pointed question asked of Dallas Cowboys coach Wade Phillips after the Giants loss, why in the world would we entrust design of a sports championship to Congress? House panel takes step to force college football playoff - USATODAY.com:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A House subcommittee approved legislation Wednesday aimed at forcing college football to switch to a playoff system to determine a national champion, over the objections of some lawmakers who said Congress had more pressing matters.

The bill, which faces long odds of becoming law, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I football game as a national championship unless that title contest is the result of a playoff.

Circling the global warming wagons

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:16:00 +0000

This report linked at National Review's The Corner blog--about Global Warming wagon circling, is hilarious: "The Perils of Groupthink, Cont'd" - Jonah Goldberg.

An Inconvenient Peer Review, cont'd

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Findings - Fracas Over Hacked Climate E-Mail Shows Peril of Spinning Science - NYTimes.com:

"In fact, one skeptic raised [a concern about drawing conclusions from two sets of data grafted together] in a comment posted in 2004 on RealClimate, the blog operated by climate scientists. The comment, which questioned the propriety of “grafting the thermometer record onto a proxy temperature record,” immediately drew a sharp retort on the blog from Michael Mann, an expert at Penn State University:

“No researchers in this field have ever, to our knowledge, ‘grafted the thermometer record onto’ any reconstruction. It is somewhat disappointing to find this specious claim (which we usually find originating from industry-funded climate disinformation Web sites) appearing in this forum.”

Dr. Mann now tells me that he was unaware, when he wrote the response, that such grafting had in fact been done in the earlier cover chart, and I take him at his word. But I don’t see why the question was dismissed so readily, with the implication that only a tool of the fossil-fuel industry would raise it.

Contempt for critics is evident over and over again in the hacked e-mail messages, as if the scientists were a priesthood protecting the temple from barbarians. Yes, some of the skeptics have political agendas, but so do some of the scientists. Sure, the skeptics can be cranks and pests, but they have identified genuine problems in the historical reconstructions of climate, as in the debate they inspired about the “hockey stick” graph of temperatures over the past millennium."

I love how Mann writes "to our knowledge." Sounds like a press secretary's resort to plausible deniability.

Jim Treacher's friendly chat with the global warming evangelist who lives in his head

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Jim Treacher has scripted what reminds me of most any on-line "debate" with a global warming alarmist. Here's an excerpt:

"Do you really think you know more than scientists? They're scientists.

Yes, and science is a wonderful thing. It's improved our lives in countless ways. It also has nothing to do with what these frauds, and the useful idiots who believed them, have been pulling."

ClimateGate criminal?

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:04:00 +0000

Robert Tracinski at RealClearPolitics discusses another aspect to the Climategate scandal: ("ClimateGate: The Fix is In"):

This is an enormous case of organized scientific fraud, but it is not just scientific fraud. It is also a criminal act. Suborned by billions of taxpayer dollars devoted to climate research, dozens of prominent scientists have established a criminal racket in which they seek government money-Phil Jones has raked in a total of £13.7 million in grants from the British government-which they then use to falsify data and defraud the taxpayers. It's the most insidious kind of fraud: a fraud in which the culprits are lauded as public heroes. Judging from this cache of e-mails, they even manage to tell themselves that their manipulation of the data is intended to protect a bigger truth and prevent it from being 'confused' by inconvenient facts and uncontrolled criticism.

I am skeptical that this is a criminal act, but I guess that depends on assertions that were made in grant proposals and the intent of these "scientists." In all candor (and Tracinski implies as much), I'm inclined to say that these fools sincerely believed the crap they were espousing . . . it was moral relativism mixed with arrogance that motivated them to quash dissent and do whatever was necessary to "be right."

Aunt B oughta like this report . . .

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:32:00 +0000

Most Aggressive Dog Breeds - Photos - WFTV Orlando

Covering their tracks on global "warming"

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 21:59:00 +0000

I guess this report should come as no surprise given that leading global warming alarmists had always blown off FOI (UK, US: FOIA) requests ("Climate change data dumped" - Times Online):

Roger Pielke, professor of environmental studies at Colorado University, discovered data had been lost when he asked for original records. “The CRU is basically saying, ‘Trust us’. So much for settling questions and resolving debates with science,” he said.

More Climategate reactions from "scientists"

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:56:00 +0000

From the WSJ:

A more thoughtful response to the emails comes from Mike Hulme, another climate scientist at the University of East Anglia, as reported by a New York Times blogger:

"This event might signal a crack that allows for processes of re-structuring scientific knowledge about climate change. It is possible that some areas of climate science has become sclerotic. It is possible that climate science has become too partisan, too centralized. The tribalism that some of the leaked emails display is something more usually associated with social organization within primitive cultures; it is not attractive when we find it at work inside science."

The response from the defenders of Mr. Mann and his circle has been that even if they did disparage doubters and exclude contrary points of view, theirs is still the best climate science. The proof for this is circular. It's the best, we're told, because it's the most-published and most-cited—in that same peer-reviewed literature. The public has every reason to ask why they felt the need to rig the game if their science is as indisputable as they claim.

Emphasis added.

Climategate in sum

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 18:26:00 +0000

Climategate is despicable on a host of levels . . . institutional censorship of opposing views, defamation, deception. Here's an excerpt from a great essay at Pajamas Media, "Climategate: The Skeptical Scientist's View":

As readers are now aware, the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, the main climate research center in Britain, has had 128 megabytes of secret emails and other data placed online by someone calling himself “FOIA.” A number of scientists have been trying for years to get the raw data possessed by CRU placed online, filing requests under the British Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Although required by law to release this information, CRU has not done so, or has claimed that the data were accidentally erased. We now have proof in the emails that the illegal withholding of information was intentional, and that the erasure of data was also intentional.

The now non-secret data prove what many of us had only strongly suspected — that most of the evidence of global warming was simply made up. That is, not only are the global warming computer models unreliable, the experimental data upon which these models are built are also unreliable. As Lord Monckton has emphasized here at Pajamas Media, this deliberate destruction of data and the making up of data out of whole cloth is the real crime — the real story of Climategate.

Emphasis added.

Tip o' the hat to Instapundit.

Meanwhile: here are some pathetic and almost humorous responses from Environmental Alarmists.

Wow, Arianna Huffington thinks we need to use more plastic . . .

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:16:00 +0000

Arianna Huffington has a post at her place entitled, "Will The Unemployment Disaster Be Obama's Katrina?". My first response (in my head, not audibly) was, "Of course not, Bush didn't cause Hurricane Katrina," but I figured that Huffington wouldn't share my perspective. As I read the essay, though, I realized how radically different was our difference of perspective. From the article:

His economic team's resistance to a second round of stimulus, 'lukewarm' reaction to Congressional jobs legislation, and prioritization of deficit reduction over job creation certainly has the feel of a taking-in-the-damage-from-2,500-feet flyover moment.

Wow. Then again, I guess you could say that Libs view economics like bad meteorology . . . giving a convincing forecast and then hand out raincoats with your logo on them.

Yep . . . "locked in" battle with the Left

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:25:00 +0000

Sorry, but I have to bring up I didn't notice or hear the phrase "locked in syndrome" the other day when reading about the guy who had been uncommunicative for 23 years. ("Paralyzed Belgium Man Was Awake for 23 Years" - ABC News).

A paralyzed Belgian man who spent the past 23 years incorrectly diagnosed as being in a vegetative state, was fully conscious and could hear everything around him the entire time.
. . . .
Finally, with a little help from a nurse who goaded the doctors, Chiappa was diagnosed as being "locked-in" rather than a vegetable. A massive stroke that hit the base of his brain had left him unable to move, but left his mind perfectly intact.

Neurologists say paralysis plays only one role in a complicated combination of impaired states that can trap a person in their body.

After seeing this story today, I googled "locked in" and "Schiavo" (as in Terry Schindler Schiavo--the relatively young woman at the center of the controversial case involving a loser husband wanting to put his estranged wife to death) and "locked in" and realized that the phrase only showed up in relation to the battle between Schiavo's loser husband and those--like her mother, who didn't think she should be deprived of oral nutrition and hydration. The little google exercise seemed to illustrate an epic clash of two world views.

Good thing this is an anomaly

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:43:00 +0000

My Way News - Pa. university students upset about fitness class:

A Pennsylvania university's requirement that overweight undergraduates take a fitness course to receive their degrees has raised the hackles of students and the eyebrows of health and legal experts.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about the gov't ever sticking its nose into our health and healthcare, right?

". . . it's only because of all the fact-checkers' copies"

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:35:00 +0000

My Way News - "Going Rogue" is going big:

Publisher HarperCollins said Friday that Sarah Palin's memoir sold 300,000 copies its first day, among the best openings ever for a nonfiction book. In 2004, Bill Clinton's 'My Life' debuted with sales of 400,000 copies. The year before, Hillary Rodham Clinton's 'Living History' started at 200,000.

TN gun ruling: whose Constitutional right is at stake?

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Reuters is reporting . . . Tennessee judge blocks law allowing guns in bars | U.S. | Reuters

Nashville Judge Claudia Bonnyman said the law was 'fraught with ambiguity' and ruled in favor of a suit brought by restaurant owners who argued gun owners would not be able to determine if an establishment met the criteria.

Legal gadfly Gordon Bonnyman's wife may be a bit of a gadfly herself; except she's a judge. Under what theory of "standing" does a restaurant owner sue against a law on behalf of patrons who might (or might not) be unsure about whether they're breaking the law? Regrettably, it appears that Judge Bonnyman, like her husband, is inclined to use the courts to legislate her policy preferences.

Bureaucratic boobs

noreply@blogger.com (ned) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Sister Toldjah nails the mammogram story ("Obama admin starts its health care 'cost cutting' measures")which probably could not come at a worse time for Obama and the Democrats as they prepare to foist government-run (aka "single-payer," "universal," "socialized," "public" etc.) healthcare on Americans. Nonetheless, the story reminded me of an interesting NYTimes article I came across a couple weeks ago--"Cancers Can Vanish Without Treatment, but How?". . . about studies which reflect that early and often cancer screens may be catching cancers that would otherwise disappear on their own.

Healthcare is complicated stuff . . . it's comforting to think that gov't bureaucrats may soon be making all these decisions for us, huh?