You wanted proof of athropogenic global warming?

"NASA Study Links Severe Storm Increases, Global Warming"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081227214927.htm

To quote directly:

"The frequency of extremely high clouds in Earth's tropics -- the type associated with severe storms and rainfall -- is increasing as a result of global warming, according to a study by scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."

"In a presentation today (Dec. 28, 2008) to the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, JPL Senior Research Scientist Hartmut Aumann outlined the results of a study based on five years of data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua spacecraft. The AIRS data were used to observe certain types of tropical clouds linked with severe storms, torrential rain and hail. The instrument typically detects about 6,000 of these clouds each day. Aumann and his team found a strong correlation between the frequency of these clouds and seasonal variations in the average sea surface temperature of the tropical oceans."

"For every degree Centigrade (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in average ocean surface temperature, the team observed a 45-percent increase in the frequency of the very high clouds. At the present rate of global warming of 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade, the team inferred the frequency of these storms can be expected to increase by six percent per decade."

"Climate modelers have long speculated that the frequency and intensity of severe storms may or may not increase with global warming. Aumann said results of the study will help improve their models."

Still think it's a hoax?

Debugging the DDT Lies

According to conservatives, the worldwide de facto ban on the insecticide DDT has been responsible for more deaths than Hitler, and we have Rachel Carlson and her environmentalist ilk to blame.

A few facts are in order:

1. There is no de facto ban.
2. Trade bans for using DDT are not threatened.
3. Reinstating DDT in South Africa did not cause a 95% decrease in deaths.
4. The environmentalists’ ban on the agricultural use of DDT saved lives.
5. Mosquitoes have begun to be immune to DDT.

You can read the detailed info in Tim Lambert's blog .

By the way, the biggest proponent of this mistruth is Roy Spencer, a global warming skeptic and a creationist (perhaps why doesn't realize that mosquitoes "evolve" a resistance to DDT, no?).

Update on Barack Obama's birth certificate

FactCheck.org got their hands on the real thing. Yep, it's legit. Seals, stamps and everything. It even has the registration number on it, so click here and see it for yourself. Oh, yes, they also found a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser dated Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961, so you conspiracy freaks can direct your attention to another red herring.

And stop calling Chiyome Fukino and Alvin Onaka!

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA!

I could not say it any better:


From the film "Wattstax":

Obama's Birth Certificate and Supposed Kenyan Citizenship

The right-wingers on talk radio are still spreading the outright and blatant lies that Barack Obama's birth certificate can't be located and there's no "proof" that he's a US citizen by birth, and that he's secretly a Kenyan citizen.

Yes, you read right, I said "outright and blatant lies".

Click this link to read Barack Obama's birth certificate.

He was born on 4 August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. As Bruce Springsteen sang, "Born in the U.S.A.".

As for his alleged Kenyan citizenship, FactCheck.org did some research and found out that Barack Jr's Kenyan citizenship through his father was valid only until his 21st birthday. Since he didn't swear an oath or alliegiance to Kenya or renounce his USA citizenship, his status of dual citzienship expired on his 21st birthday.

Barack Obama Jr. is, and remains, a native-born citizen of the United States of America.

So there.

I know, he's a comedian...

...but Jon Stewart is my man! Only he can show the dirty side of "moralists" and (at least for now) get away with it. Sort of the sly humor that royal court jesters had to have in Medieval Europe when tweaking the nose of His Majesty. Case in point, here's his take on the "Sarah Palin Gender Card" issue (from 3 September 2008):



And this is his take on the Fox "News" Network's reports on alleged voter fraud and trying to link it to the Obama campaign (from 9 October 2008):

If only the "real" news reporters could deliver the truth this well...

"Lipstick On A Pig"

Yes, yes, yes, the right-wingers are shrieking over this; Obama's "lipstick on a pig" quote, insisting it was meant as a swipe at VP candidate Sarah Palin. Well, guess what? Seems that the present VP Dick Cheney used the same folksy quote a number of times during the 2004 campaign:

"Now, in the closing days of this campaign, John Kerry is running around talking tough. He's trying every which way to cover up his record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work. As we like to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but at the end of the day it's still a pig." - (November 1, 2004, Vice President's Remarks in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii Convention Center, Honolulu, Hawaii )

"You saw John Kerry Wednesday night trying to back off that idea of a "global test." That notion fits with his whole career, but he doesn't want us to know about his whole career. He is trying to hide it, to cover it up by using a little tough talk during the course of this campaign. But you can't do that. It won't work. To use a phrase that we like in our home state of Wyoming, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" - (October 15, 2004, Remarks by the Vice President at a Victory 2004 Rally, Deltaplex Entertainment & Expo Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan)

"Now in the closing days of this campaign, John Kerry is trying every which way to cover up his record of weakness on national defense. But he can't do it. It won't work. As we like to say in Wyoming, you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. (Laughter and applause.) That's my favorite line. (Laughter.) Want to hear it again? (AUDIENCE: Yes!) As we say in Wyoming -- (laughter) -- you can put all the lipstick you want on a pig, but at the end of the day, it's still a pig. (Applause.)" - (October 30, 2004, Vice President's Remarks in Zanesville, Ohio, Hallowed Hills Conference Center, Zanesville, Ohio)

And one from Mrs. Lynne Cheney:

"John Kerry tries to put a bunch of fancy, fancy talk -- tried to disguise that record, sort of like his fancy haircut, fancy manicure, tried to disguise the whole thing. (Laughter.) But there is nothing you can do to really -- to really obscure that record. You can try, though. And in Wyoming, we've got a saying for what it is when you keep trying to make something that's not so good look good, we call it putting lipstick on a pig." - (Following a Debate Watching Party, Embassy Suites Hotel, Coraopolis, Pennsylvania, October 13, 2004)

But let's let Republican Presidential candidate John McCain speak for himself:



And again:

Read your history, folks!

Many Americans are completely ignorant of the War of 1812, save for the fact that it was when the poem "Defense of Fort McHenry" was written, and then "filked" to fit the lyrics of the British melody "The Anacreontic Song (To Anacreon in Heaven)" to create the song "The Star-Spangled Banner".

But do most Americans know, or were even taught in schools, that during that war, British troops from Canada made their way to Washington DC and burned down the White House?

This is something that Canadians love to gloat about: That the only two countries that the USA failed to win a war against were Vietnam and Canada.

The Canadian folk trio Three Dead Trolls In a Baggie have taken this sentiment and written a song about it, entitled simply, "The War of 1812".

Below is a YouTube video of the song, set to clips from Ren & Stimpy cartoons (The cartoon duo's creator, John Kricfalusi, is Canadian). Enjoy.

Re-running the "news"?

Guess what, folks? The Fox "News" Channel is using nearly the same hysteria, half-truths and outright lies against Barack Obama that they used against John Kerry.

Surprised? I thought not.



How does that song go? "Everything old is new again"?

US Coast Guard gets ready for a climate change

From the US Coast Guard itself:



Ever think the USCG would have permanent bases in the Arctic?

You can read more about the Coast Guard base in Barrow here.

To quote Adm. Gene Brooks, Cmdr. of the Coast Guard in Alaska:

""Because the multi-year polar sea ice has receded, this is water longer than it's ever been, which means that all maritime activities that can occur anywhere else -- Savannah, New Orleans -- can now occur here for longer periods of time, and they are coming, (...) We have to prepare for the world coming to the Arctic."

Reading, Writing & Right-Wing Shouting

Bill O'Reilly, the mad dog of the Fox "News" Channel and talk radio, has written The O'Reilly Factor for Kids; A Survival Guide for America's Families.

Uh...yeah. This is the guy who has dropped racist hints in his commentaries and is prone to shouting "SHUT UP!" to his detractors while on the air!

In case you forgot about that second part:



I took a little peek at the reviews on Amazon and found this by "Todd and In Charge":

"Boy oh boy, as a father with kids who regularly watch the Factor I was looking forward to this book. But I have to tell you: it's a disappointment! Poorly written, little actual advice of a substantive nature, more platitudes and homilies that you could have written for Bill yourself. This one really looks like Bill is milking a cash-cow to death, and with the economy the way it is, we could all spend our money more wisely than purchasing this book. I hope that doesn't make me a 'pinhead.'"

Todd gave the book one out of five stars.

Brave New Films, the folks you brought you Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism, has made a short video about O'Reilly and his book. It's worth a look:

Like I said...

We won a battle, but not the war.

After the FCC ruled against Comcast in a 3-2 decision, Comcast is readying their lawyers to try to get the ruling overturned.

FreePress is raising funds to keep this victory intact. Click here to donate!

Internet Neutrality Upheld...For Now

Some good news for a change!

From SaveTheInternet.com:

Today the FCC delivered a technical knock-out to Comcast. In a landmark decision, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein approved an “enforcement order” that would require Comcast to stop interfering with the use of popular peer-to-peer applications by people on its network.

Today’s FCC move is precedent-setting. It sends a powerful message to phone and cable companies that blocking access to the Internet will not be tolerated.

It also gives the FCC (one still controlled by industry-friendly Republicans) the teeth to stop powerful companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from getting between you and what you want to do online.

And it wouldn’t have happened without the strong public backlash against phone and cable companies and their gatekeeper ambitions. Activists, bloggers, consumer advocates and everyday people who love an open Internet took on entrenched corporate power and won — defying every ounce of conventional wisdom in Washington.

In short, we won a battle, but the war continues.

Exaggerating the Exaggerators

Here we go again. Yet another "scientific expert" who is supposedly going to expose the "myth" of climate change...

According to an article on Sydney, Australia's Herald Sun) (which is also reported on Alex Jones' Prison Planet), "IPCC external reviewer Dr Madhav Khandekar says the UN body has exaggerated the costs of global warming."

In the article, Exaggerators: IPCC accused by its own, written by Andrew Bolt:

"The full paper, kindly sent to me by Dr Khandekar, a former research scientist with Environment Canada who holds a PhD in meteorology and has worked in the fields of climatology," makes the following claim:

"The exaggerated claim of GW impacts by the IPCC has led to a distortion of the reality of climate change and its future impact. The earth’s climate has changed and is changing continuously, a fact accepted by most climate scientists on both sides of the present debate. Is the present climate change deleterious to human societies? Are there beneficial aspects of climate change that have been overlooked? Do adverse impacts outweigh beneficial impacts? We do not have all the answers yet. There is a definite need to carefully analyze climate change impact on world-wide human societies. The IPCC assessment is far from objective and needs to be critically re-assessed."

Permit me to express my thanks and appreciation to "KarmakazeNZ" for bringing up the following points that I will post below:

Dr Khandekar is a member of the Friends of Science Scientific Advisory Board.

“In an August 12, 2006, article The Globe and Mail revealed that the group had received significant funding via anonymous, indirect donations from the oil industry, including a major grant from the Science Education Fund, a donor-directed, flow-through charitable fund at the Calgary Foundation. The donations were funnelled through a University of Calgary trust account research set up and controlled by U of C Professor Barry Cooper. The revelations were based largely on the prior investigations of Desmogblog.com, which had reported on the background of FoS scientific advisors and Cooper’s role in FoS funding.”

“Following an internal audit and review begun in March of 2007, the University determined that some of the research funds accepted on behalf of the Friends of Science “had been used to support a partisan viewpoint on climate change”. As a consequence, the University advised FoS “that it would no longer accept funds on the organization’s behalf”, according to an email from University legal counsel Elizabeth Osler sent on December 24, 2007. On February 17, 2008, CanWest News Service reported that U of C officials had shut down Cooper’s “‘Research on Climate Change’ trust account”, and were about to advise Elections Canada of the University’s ongoing review of the matter. In the wake of the revelations, Liberal public works critic Mark Holland called for parliamentary hearings to investigate the source of donations. A few days later, CanWest reported that the targeting of the FoS radio ad campaign to key Ontario ridings was directed by then FoS media contact Morten Paulsen (later a vice-president at Fleishman-Hillard), who also served as volunteer spokesperson for the Stephen Harper led Conservative Party of Canada during the election.”

Strike One!

"The journal Energy and Environment is a social science journal published by Multi-Science. The journal’s editor is Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, a reader in geography at the University of Hull in England and climate skeptic.

Energy and Environment is not carried in the ISI listing of peer-reviewed journals. Its peer review process has been widely criticised for allowing the publication of substandard papers. Numerous climate skeptics and contrarians have published in the journal and these studies have later been quoted by Republican critics of global warming science such as Senator James Inhofe and Congressman Joe Barton.”

Strike Two!

What else has Dr Khandekar been involved in?

Well, there was the “2008 International Conference on Climate Change”.

“The 2008 International Conference on Climate Change was a conference held at the Marriott New York Marquis Times Square Hotel in New York between March 2-4 . The conference was organised and “sponsored” by the Heartland Institute, a U.S. think tanks that in preceding years received substantial funding from Exxon for its work downplaying the significance of global warming.”

“The conference was described by Washington Post reporter, Juliet Eilperin, as “a sort of global warming doppelganger conference, where everything was reversed.” At the event, skeptics unveiled their response to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) report, edited by corporate-funded skeptic Fred Singer, argued that “recent climate change stems from natural causes.” Eilperin notes that “while the IPCC enlisted several hundred scientists from more than 100 countries to work over five years to produce its series of reports, the NIPCC document is the work of 23 authors from 15 nations, some of them not scientists.”

The New York Times reports that while the Heartland conference “was largely framed around science ... when an organizer made an announcement asking all of the scientists in the large hall to move to the front for a group picture, 19 men did so.” The conference invitation identified its goal as “to generate international media attention to the fact that many scientists believe forecasts of rapid warming and catastrophic events are not supported by sound science.”

The Heartland Institute offered “$1,000 to those willing to give a talk,” and “a free weekend at the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan, including travel costs, to all elected officials wanting to attend,” according to the RealClimate blog.”

Strike Three! Yer OUT!

To quote "Karmakaze", "I hope Dr Khandekar and Andrew Bolt enjoy their blood money."

Whoops! Looks Like Dick Cheney Was Right!

Back in 1994, before he was Vice President, he said that invading Iraq would be a "quagmire"!

Maybe he should have listened to himself, no?

Fox "News" In Denial

MoveOn.org and ColorOfChange.org organized a petition drive against Fox News Channel's racially tinted commentary on apparent Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. First it was the 'fist bump' between himself and his wife Michelle supposedly being a "terrorist fist jab". Then it was Michelle Obama being referred to as Barack's "baby mama". So, MoveOn.org organized the following petition campaign directed to NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and other media outlets:

"FOX is a Republican mouthpiece, not a legitimate news organization. Real news organizations must reject FOX's smears of Barack Obama, not parrot them and distract Americans from the pressing issues of the day."



What did Fox do on 23 July when 620,127 signatures on the petition was delivered to their offices in New York City, accompanied by the rapper Nas? They refused to accept them! I guess sometimes the truth hurts.



News of Fox's refusal hit Rolling Stone, Billboard Magazine and MTV news sources, but not Fox, which chose not to report the incident. Steven Colbert on Comedy Central's ''The Colbert Report'' invited Nas on his show and brought the petitions. You can see the video here. It includes Nas performing his track "Sly Fox" which tears the "fair and balanced" network a new one.

Want to know more about Fox News Channel and its notorious bias? Visit Fox Attacks. They watch Fox... so you don't have to.

APS Position on Global Warming Remains Unchanged

On 18 July 2008, the conservative blog American Thinker has posted an article entitled "You were saying something about a Global Warming Consensus?". In a gloating manner, the article states:

"The American Physical Society representing nearly 50,000 physicists "has reversed its stance on climate change and is now proclaiming that many of its members disbelieve in human-induced global warming," according to an article in The Daily Tech. The leadership of the society had previously referred to global warming evidence as 'incontravertible.'
What does this mean? It doesn't mean that the APS has abandoned its position on man made climate change. What they have done is perhaps more significant; they have opened the subject up for debate once again. And once the facts can be judged on their merits and not on who is submitting them, at the very least global warming deniers have a powerful platform to present their findings."

Even conspiracy monger Alex Jones saw fit to repeat this posting in its entirety on his website Prison Planet.

But has anyone bothered to check the website of the American Physical society about this? If you did, you'd see on their website's front page (which I accessed on 20 July 2008), the following statement:

"The American Physical Society reaffirms the following position on climate change, adopted by its governing body, the APS Council, on November 18, 2007:

'Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate.'

An article at odds with this statement recently appeared in an online newsletter of the APS Forum on Physics and Society, one of 39 units of APS. The header of this newsletter carries the statement that 'Opinions expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the APS or of the Forum.' This newsletter is not a journal of the APS and it is not peer reviewed."

Even Fox News had to admit it!

The July 2008 disclaimer listed here reads as follows:

The FPS Executive Committee strongly endorses the position of the APS Council that "Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth's climate." The statement in the July 2008 edition of our newsletter, Physics and Society that, "There is considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO2 emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution" does not represent the views of the Executive Committee of the Forum on Physics and Society.

If you'd like to read the APS statement on Anthropogenic Global Warming, simply click here.

So all I can say to you deniers is: "Close, but no cigar."

Baldfaced Lie: "And not a drop (of oil) was spilled!"

Taken from the Center for American Progress Action Fund:

Offshore drilling advocates know that the specter of oil-slicked beaches would doom their campaign, so they are desperate to wish its environmental impact away. Yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed "not a drop of oil was spilled during Katrina or Rita." This myth has been told again and again by the likes of Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, Mike Huckabee, George Will, and Bill O'Reilly. There were, in fact, major onshore and offshore spills due to the hurricanes. According to the official Minerals Management Service report, the hurricanes caused 124 offshore spills for a total of 743,700 gallons, six spilling 42,000 gallons or more. The largest of these spills dropped 152,250 gallons, well over the 100,000 gallon threshhold considered a "major spill." In addition, the hurricanes caused disastrous spills onshore throughout southeast Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Coast as tanks, pipelines, refineries and other industrial facilities were destroyed, for a total of 595 different oil spills. The nine million gallons reported spilled were comparable with the Exxon Valdez's 10.8 million gallons, but unlike the Exxon Valdez, they were distributed throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and other Gulf Coast states, many in residential areas.

If you go to the original article, you'll find two other myths refuted: The "Drill Here, Drill Now Pay Less" myth and the "China On Our Coasts" myth.

More Proof That Fox Isn't "Fair & Balanced"

Okay, this is just plan nutty. Media Matters ran a report on this, but let me just post the article from UPI in its entirety.

NEW YORK, July 2 (UPI) -- A New York Times (NYSE:NYT) editor Wednesday said a Fox News Channel graphic in which images of two Times reporters were altered was "beneath comment."

Fox aired photographs of Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and television editor Steven Reddicliffe on its morning show, "Fox & Friends," in a segment firing back at a June 28 Times report that referred to "ominous trends" for Fox News's ratings.

The liberal Web site Media Matters posted the photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe, which appeared to have been manipulated to yellow their teeth, add dark bags under their eyes and distort other facial features.

The photos appeared to have been altered using graphics tools, Editor & Publisher magazine said Wednesday.

As the photos aired, "Fox & Friends" personalities Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade chatted about the Times article and called it a "hit piece" on Fox News. They also derided Reddicliffe's tenure as editor of TV Guide -- owned by Fox News's parent company, News Corp. (NYSE:NWS)

Neither Steinberg nor Reddicliffe was available for comment Wednesday, E&P said. Times Culture Editor Sam Sifton called the Fox graphic "disgusting."

"This was a hit piece by Fox News," he said. "It is beneath comment."

Neither Fox News nor News Corp. had commented by Wednesday afternoon, E&P said.


Further info on the story can be read here. I've said it before and I'll say it again, "'Fair and Balanced', my ass!"

Jesse Helms Dies on the Fourth of July!

Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr., five-term Republican US Senator from North Carolina, heralded as a hero by the Neo-Conservatives, died on July 4th at the age of 86.

Heralded as a "staunch conservative" by today's right-wing, he was also an ardent segerationist back in the 1950's and '60's. During his years as an editorial commentator on WRAL-TV in Raleigh, he once referred to the University of North Carolina, a bastion of liberalism during the years of segregation, as the "University of N*gg*rs and Communists". In his later years, he made openly homophobic statements. Jerry Falwell's Liberty University opened the Jesse Helms School of Government in 2005 (Talk about birds of a feather flocking together!).

He was the subject of a number of songs, such as Todd Rundgren's "Jesse", Loudon Wainwright III's "Jesse Don't Like It" and MC Hawking's "Why Won't Jesse Helms Just Hurry Up and Die?"

Here's hoping that the "Old South" dies with him.

Here's some fitting music: Todd Rundgren's "Jessie".
(WARNING: Harsh Language. Not Safe For Work!)



Lyrics to the song are here.

A family safe song, Loudin Wainwright III's "Jesse Don't Like It", is here:


And some nerdcore by MC Hawking:
(WARNING: Harsh Language. Not Safe For Work!)

The Red, White and ...what?

No, this is not an American flag taken from the Bizarro world of the Superman universe. This is supposedly the "United States Civil Flag of Peacetime" that has supposedly been suppressed from public knowledge. There's even a website promoting it and another website selling the flags.

There's just one little problem. It's wrong. Very, very wrong. It's based on a description of the United States Customs Service flag in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter". There is an excellent webpage refuting the idea of a "civil flag" entitled "The Civil Flag - Forgotten Flag or Flag of Fiction?".

No, it isn't legit. There's never been a "Civil Flag of Peace" in the USA. Save your money and fly the real Old Glory with the horizontal stripes and white stars in a blue field. If you're pissed off at something, fly the Gadsden Flag instead. Thank you.

Something positive

After all my ranting and complaining, here's something positive. A remix of Sharif Ezzat's Global Mind Change meme by way of "The Pinky Show".



Thank you, Sharif & Pinky!

Unwired

After subscribing to it since the very first issue, I've canceled my subscription to WIRED magazine. I've been reading less and less of it, since it was quickly becoming a techie version of Playboy, seemingly more interested in promoting the newest gadget that will be outdated before the month is up. The editorials were sliding into a heavy Libertarian mindset, and after briefly being a member of the Libertarian Party of New Jersey, it was leaving a bad taste in my mouth (Who was it who wrote that Libertarians worship Liberty the way Christians worship Christ, or that Libertarians believe in "all the freedom money can buy"?)

Well, what got stuck in my craw was Matt Power's article Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green. While they do have a number of (glaringly obvious) truisms (nuclear energy deserves a second look, Urban living can be better for the environment), they got their math horribly wrong on the carbon footprint of air conditioning and harvesting of old growth forests.

I strongly urge you folks to read Real Climate's article Wired Magazine's Incoherent Truths.

Besides, I get more enjoyment reading MAKE and CRAFT. Those are magazines that I truly look forward to (I even keep them in slipcases!).

So long, Wired. It's been nice knowing you.

George Carlin Dies

Dammit. First Tim Russert, now him.
Read George's Wikipedia bio here.
Here's one of his best riffs. Enjoy.
WARNING: HARSH LANGUAGE; May not be safe or work.

Alex Jones Speaks For Himself (New Video)

While I didn't normally agree with the late William Cooper (who was, in my opinion, yet another fringe conspiracy monger), he does expose Alex nicely.
(Thank you "pumpitout", for this video.)

Gorebash!

No, not the dragon from the film "The Flight of Dragons", but yet another half-truth from Fox News Channel.

Bret Hume, with a graphic listing Al Gore as "Climate Charlatan", quoted a report from the Tennessee Center for Policy Research that Al Gore's house, after major renovation, uses 10% more energy than before. "Faux" News didn't bother to mention a reply from a Gore spokeswoman that it was "Green Energy" that was supplied by Nashville Electric Service's Green Power Switch program which allows subscribers to obtain energy from renewable resources.

Read about it here.

"Fair And Balanced", my ass!

It's official! The US Gov't says it IS getting hot out there!

I know, I know, there are those out there who are still beating the conspiracy drum, saying that "Climate Change" and/or "Global Warming" are colossal hoaxes foisted upon civilization. Even many of the big wigs in Washington are repeating that echo, often quoting sources that are from think tanks heavily financed by ExxonMobil for the sole purpose of refuting scientific research findings supporting the reality of climate change.

Welllll, lookie lookie lookie here... The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) came out with a report today (19 June 2008), entitled "Weather and Climate Extremes in a Changing Climate - Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.3". Let me quote a Bloomberg news report on the paper:

Today's report didn't specifically mention the Iowa floods. (Thomas Karl, co-chairman of the report), when asked about Iowa, said, "Those types of events will increase in frequency as time goes on and global temperatures increase.''

The climate program was created by President George W. Bush in 2002 to integrate research from federal agencies, including the Energy Department and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Last month, the agency reported that burning fossil fuels in power plants and automobiles is most likely responsible for global warming, endorsing an opinion accepted by many of the world's scientists.

"Human-induced warming is known to affect climate variables such as temperature and precipitation,'' according to the report. "Within a changing climate system, some of what are now considered to be extreme events will occur more frequently.''

Carbon dioxide, a byproduct of burning coal, oil, and natural gas, contributed most to global warming in the last century, the climate program said. Greenhouse gases cause the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, leading to heavy downpours, and sea surface temperatures to rise, which produces stronger hurricanes.

A strange change from the often edited reports from this administration, almost always stating that if there was any climate change, then it was purely cyclical and non-athropogenic (that is, not caused by man). I can't help but wonder why the sudden change in direction by the Bush administration right now. Perhaps Dubya wants to leave office with a clear conscience?

Or for that matter, a conscience of any kind?

Before you start sending me hate mail, please take a look at Coby Beck's excellent resource "How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic". It will deflate a few common myths like, the Medieval Warm Period was just as hot as it was today, so warm in fact that Vineland was full of grapes (nope, they were berries!), that it is a globalist conspiracy, or that in the 1970's, the big to-do was "Global Cooling".

And by the way, the claim that England used to be a major producer of wine? Guess what? It still is! (Or at least, it was until climate change ruined it.)

While you're waiting for my first official posting...

...here's a dance number by a young Bill O'Reilly (by way of video artist Torrey Meeks.

WARNING: Crude Language! Not Safe For Work!

Test posting