Free TV!

It's in Chicago. Sic boy, you interested?

Update: it was taken down but fortunately we got a screen shot for your viewing pleasure.

I pledge allegiance to Global Warming

Taranto:

The Met Office, Britain's national weather service, "has embarked on an urgent exercise to bolster the reputation of climate-change science" in the wake of a whistle-blower's revelation of widespread misconduct by climate scientists, London's Times reports:

More than 1,700 scientists have agreed to sign a statement defending the "professional integrity" of global warming research. They were responding to a round-robin request from the Met Office, which has spent four days collecting signatures. . . .

One scientist told The Times he felt under pressure to sign. "The Met Office is a major employer of scientists and has long had a policy of only appointing and working with those who subscribe to their views on man-made global warming," he said.

The concept of scientists--or journalists, or artists--signing a petition is ludicrous. The idea is that they are lending their authority to whatever cause the petition represents--but in fact they are undermining that authority, which is based on the presumption that they think for themselves.

The problem with the petition as a form is also a problem with the Met Office petition's substance. The purpose of the petition is to shore up scientists' authority by vouching for their integrity. But signing a loyalty oath under pressure from the government is itself a corrupt act. Anyone who signs this petition thereby raises doubts about his own integrity. And once again, the question arises: Why should any layman regard global warmism as credible when the "consensus" rests on political machinations, statistical tricks and efforts to suppress alternative hypotheses?

To be sure, Joseph McCarthy was right about communism even though the ways he combated it were wrong and counterproductive. But that's all the more reason that honest scientists who view global warmism as credible--if such creatures exist--should rise up against these McCarthyite tactics.

British people eat the strangest things

The Guardian:

To fight climate change and tackle the growing crisis of diet-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer, British consumers must cut down on meat and dairy produce, reduce their intake of processed foods and curb waste.

I know some people have a hard time giving up meat, but how hard could it be to stop eating curb waste?

Once in a while you get shown the light

Reformed leftist Andrew Klavan explains the left:

Shame and guilt and self-hatred are universal. Whether you chalk it up to original sin or to Oedipus or call it Jewish guilt or Catholic guilt or white guilt or black guilt, every single one of us knows he is not the person he was made to be. There are honest ways to confront that. You can kneel before God and pray for forgiveness and live in the joy of his love. Or you can drink heavily and make sardonic remarks until you destroy everyone you care about and then keel over dead – that’s honest too. But what a lot of people do is try to escape their sense of shame dishonestly by constructing elaborate moral frameworks that allow them to parade their virtue and their lavish repentance without any real inconvenience to themselves while simultaneously indulging in self-righteousness by condemning others for their impenitent evil. That’s the bad version of religion – the sort of religion Jesus came to dismantle. And that’s exactly the sort of religion leftism is: an elaborate system for hiding shame behind a cheap mask of virtue. That’s why they demonize any opposition. To them, we’re not just disagreeing with them, we’re threatening to tear off the mask of their virtue and reveal them to themselves. Which, without God or sufficient whiskey, would be unbearable.

Powerful stuff. Click on over and read the whole interview.

HT: Errol Phillips

Some kind of Missile Test? This Spiraling Light seen over Norway last night.

One article about this light can be read here.

Video Shows how it moves. Intriguing.

Better Video at:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1562587976?bctid=55946023001

20% of Voters want Obama Impeached!

At last! Hints of Sanity amongst the United States' population.

Finally 20% of voters, including 35% of Republicans [as well as 10% of Democrats, and 5% of people who voted for Obama], support impeaching Obama for his actions so far. I'm not clear exactly what 'high crimes and misdemeanors' they are using to justify that position but there may be a certain segment of voters on both the right and the left these days that simply think the President doing things they don't agree with is grounds for removal from office. I don't think Obama has a lot to worry about on that front.

Personally, if I had to communicate any single message to any politician running for Federal Office, I'd tell them I will not vote for any candidate who does not publicly state that he is hell-bent on repealing every piece of major legislation the Obama Administration has passed, and that he will not rest until that is done, and Obama himself is impeached. That's what it will take to get my vote. If they can impeach someone for lying under oath, then certainly what Obama did to the GM bond-holders alone is a good start to a decent case for impeachment. And even just 11 months into his Presidency, it seems there are countless other actions that could be reasonably be considered "impeachable offenses". I won't hold my breath.

HT: Public Policy Polling

F*&% it's hard to get a job these days

So five guys want to go sign up for jihad in Pakistan, and they get turned down for a lack of references.


Mmmm yeah...about that IED report. If you could have that on my desk by Wednesday, that'd be great.