Sunday, November 23, 2008

Weather Channel "Global Warming" Freaks Get Whacked

Actually, the Washington Post online headline reads:

NBC Fires Weather Channel Environmental Unit

Well, good. It's about time.

NBC picked up the Weather Channel a few months ago and it's now in their often questionable TV broadcast stable along with the Clinton News Network (CNN) and MSNBS, er, MSNBC, now the far-left moonbat's cable network of choice since it vets their religious tenets 24/7.

The downside of this story (linked via the above headline), is that NBC's Weather Channel purge ousted a few really good actual meteorologists. Of course, anyone involved in business, including Wonker--who got pole-axed from his own company this summer--knows that when you get older and better paid, there's a target on your back, enabling management to more easily shoot you during economic downturns, eliminating your "high" salary to make it look like they're profitable while protecting their own outsized perks and bennies.

In any event, it's sad that some good people got sent packing. All the better to hire a few youngsters, pay 'em less, and work 'em twice as hard.

However, better news and more to our point is that Weather Channel's asinine, leftist, eco-freak, "Forecast Earth" people, have also apparently been ousted. They include, probably (no confirmation yet), that odious, condescending Stalinist Heidi Cullen. You know, the idiotarian who won fame by actually trying to get the American Meteorological Association to effectively disbar members who "denied" the phony reality of "global warming."

It's not clear what this all means. Maybe the "Forecast Earth" ratings were in the tank. As they should have been, given the series' obvious agitprop raison d'etre. On the other hand, a good chunk of perhaps previously suppressed evidence has been surfacing recently indicating that it's Al Gore's lack of intelligence rather than "global warming" that's becoming an "inconvenient truth."

But wait! There's more:
The timing of the Forecast Earth cancellation was ironic, since it came in the middle of NBC's "Green Week," during which the network has been touting its environmental coverage across all of its platforms. Forecast Earth normally aired on weekends, but its presumed last episode was shown on a weekday due to the environmentally-oriented week.
Heh.

As anyone who's suffered through the ongoing NBC and affiliate "Green Week" garbage knows, this propaganda has truly jumped the shark. As we posted earlier this year, people are getting sick of the Elmer Gantry preaching. Now, apparently, at least some of the purveyors of this crap are beginning to notice. In their wallets.

Now, if Weather Channel could only get back to the reason why lots of us USED to watch it. For the WEATHER for God's sake. Leave the cheap, often shallow Michael Moore-quality documentaries to "History" Channel and TLC, once known as "The Learning Channel."

Meanwhile, comments to the cited Post article duly note that the term "Global Warming" is now morphing into "Climate Change." Another lefty slight of hand, readying us for the New Ice Age to be shortly resurrected from its hiatus dating from the early 1970s? How will the brainless explain this one?

Stay tuned.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Debunking More "Global Warming" Bunk

We tipped you off yesterday to the new Ice Age shortly forthcoming. But wait. There's more.

As snowstorms howl through the U.S. last week and this, we now find out from the usual idiotarians at NASA (AlGore's "global warming" buddies) that this October has been one hell of a hottie. But there's one problem. They're wrong. They used the wrong dataset. But let Christopher Booker tell it:
A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.
What's the prob? Simple:
GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.
Yep, here's the usual suspects running full tilt with false data even while our new Ice Age is commencing with the accumulation of ice in and around Antarctica as we previously told you.

Read the rest at the initial link above. And a hat tip to Drudge for the link to this story. Next thing they'll be telling us is that the Rosenbergs were innocent.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

New Ice Age Upon Us?

From the desk of our "Ooops" Dept.:
An abnormally cool Arctic is seeing dramatic changes to ice levels. In sharp contrast to the rapid melting seen last year, the amount of global sea ice has rebounded sharply and is now growing rapidly. The total amount of ice, which set a record low value last year, grew in October at the fastest pace since record-keeping began in 1979.
This quote, extracted from a piece in DailyTech, provides the predictable rebuttal from our Global Warming friends, but then puts forth this interesting nugget:
On average, ice covers roughly 7% of the ocean surface of the planet. Sea ice is floating and therefore doesn't affect sea level like the ice anchored on bedrock in Antarctica or Greenland. However, research has indicated that the Antarctic continent -- which is on a long-term cooling trend -- has also been gaining ice in recent years.
Gosh. Who knew? Certainly, no one who reads the newspapers.

The piece notes that NASA's climate model--the one that's helped flog the "Global Warming" hoax for the past several years, doesn't account for the aforementioned data called out in the linked study info.

It's been HazZzMat's basic position that while "global warming" may be occurring at this point, it's neither a big nor catastrophic deal. Alternating warming and cooling cycles have existed since the planet started settling down from its early volcanic stages. While temperature numbers may currently be nudging up, they are not caused, in their entirety, by carbon dioxide emissions, which is the ridiculous case the "global warming" fanatics have been pushing in their underground effort to weaken western economies. Meanwhile, temperatures will cycle down again as inevitably as they went up.

Climatic temperature changes are provably cyclical and will reverse over time. The above data seem to indicate that such a reversal may already be occurring.

The ongoing "global warming" freakout could have been avoided had scientists not allowed themselves to be corrupted like humanities scholars did a couple of decades ago. Political propaganda is not a substitute for serious, skeptical science. And serious, skeptical science is already indicating that "global warming" is nearing its end. Until the next time.

Fossil fuel demand, pricing, and alternative energy technologies, as well as air pollution are and always have been the real issues here. They're worth seriously discussing and indeed, solving. "Global Warming" as cast by the left is a distracting circus sideshow whose ultimate aims are socialism, political correctness, and being invited to all the best parties. We'll take a pass.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Palin Cleared in "Troopergate"--On Election Day

Wouldn't ya know it?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - This time, Gov. Sarah Palin can claim vindication against allegations that she abused her power in office by firing her public safety commissioner.

Palin - running mate of Republican presidential candidate John McCain - violated no ethics laws, according to a report released by the state personnel board on the eve of Election Day. An earlier, separate investigation by the Legislature found that Palin had abused her office.

"There is no probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters," the personnel board's report said.

The report was actually released yesterday. But why did we know that the foregone conclusion of this bogus tempest-in-a-teapot wouldn't come out until all the electioneering was done? Meanwhile, we have yet to have a single comprehensive report in the MSM about Obama's deep affiliation with the radical left, including Gramsci disciple Saul Alinsky. Or about Obama's almost certainly illegal acceptance of effectively anonymous campaign contributions hugely adding to his total. Or about the systematic efforts of ACORN and others to steal the vote in all the battleground states.

Nope. Instead, we get a neverending, breathless take on "Troopergate," and, lately, more bogus stories about how no one supports Palin anymore and thought she was a bad choice for McCain's running mate. Even though she continues to draw record crowds wherever she goes. The truth has been a major casualty of this election cycle, as it was in the last two.

Sarah will be back. One way or the other. In the meantime, we'll see to what extent electoral fraud influences this electoral cycle shortly. With what we've clearly seen already, God help us.

Monday, November 03, 2008

The Next Opinion Is Yours: Express It

All day tomorrow you'll have your chance. Exercise the franchise generations fought and died for.

Luther

Obama's French Solution


France, Germany and most of continental Europe have reformed their economies, lowering taxes, loosening labor market restrictions, and reducing the scope of their social programs. Europe can no longer afford an economy that discourages productivity and entrepreneurship...But even as Europe abandons the French model, Sen. Obama wants to embrace it. The same policies that have failed in Europe won’t work here. Higher taxes on saving and working, government bureaucrats deciding how many workers companies can hire and how much — or little — workers will earn, government run health care, and not quite voluntary union membership discourage entrepreneurs from taking risks and starting new businesses. They discourage productivity and innovation. They discourage growth and prosperity...Sen. Obama proposes changing America, but change is a vague promise. Most Americans want to change course, but the change Obama promises would change America into a social welfare state where the American Dream is all but impossible...United States of France? James Sherk, National Review Online, 11/3/2008

Sherk's article is a good indication of where Obama would lead us. You still have time. While socialism like France's is somewhat more benign than other possibilities, it's still poison to the country we know.

Luther

One Observation on Election Eve

We are perhaps too verbose at times in outlining our positions on the known universe. Although in our defense, so little truth is being throw at the public these days on virtually all topics--including politics, jurisprudence, culture, arts, and education--that we feel a need to explain our positions in detail.

However, there are some with a real gift for the succinct. Try out this pull quote from a piece today by New Criterion's Roger Kimball who describes in a short graf just what's gotten us to this miserable point in our history where preening faux intellectuallism has been almost entirely substituted for reason and common sense in the electorate:
I understand that larger and larger swaths of America are turning purple if not blue as affluence coupled with tertiary education and cultural relativism transform more and more people into latte-drinking, NPR-listening, global-warming hysterics who regard Karl Rove as an evil genius and Sarah Palin as an anencephaltic breeding machine on skis.
Kimball's piece describes why he thinks McCain can still actually pull this election out. I myself, the eternal optimist, have my doubts, what with the Democrats' advantages of thousands of illegal votes via ACORN; quadrillions of extra campaign funds courtesy of flouted campaign promises and lousy electoral oversight; and the sight of a shameless media completely in the tank for Obama, completely shredding for all time any pretense at journalistic objectivity.

But I can't help but think that all of the above might not be shielding the mother of all surprises, given that a surprising proportion of working class voters may actually be on to Obama's creeping socialism. This could be skewing the polls which already build in extra skewing in favor of the Democrats. While I'm not entirely sure of a McCain surprise, I'm sufficiently disgusted with the reporting and the polling to believe that it just might be possible. So is Kimball.

Quote of the Morning: Victor Davis Hanson on American Resilience


The current financial crisis has startled America from a hypnotic trance of self-indulgence and irresponsibility. But as we return to American fundamentals, we may discover that our political, social and economic system - despite all the current election-cycle hysteria - is still by far the most resilient in the world....Comparing Us To What? Victor Davis Hanson, The Washington Times, 11/3/2008, cited on Frontpagemag.com, 11/3/2008

Before you run screaming to the polls, look up. The sky is not falling. Artificial value is being squeezed out of the market. Freedom lives. Doom is more suitable to the other side of the debate.

Make sure you remember which side you're on!

Luther

Obama Coercion for "Alternative" Energy


I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year...So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted...That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches....Senator Barack Obama, D-Il., cited in 'Obama Told SF Chronicle He would 'Bankrupt' the Coal Industry', Frontpage magazine War Blog, 11/3/2008

The Left at its finest. First, accept the false thesis of global warming. Then, build a policy on a fabrication. Carter was too clumsy a politician to get away with this. The Senator from Illinois is not.

Think! The country they're after is yours.

Luther

Obama Re-Education Camps, or Waffen SS?


Barack Obama was a founding member of the board of Public Allies in 1992, resigning before his wife became executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies in 1993. Obama plans to use the nonprofit group, which he features on his campaign Web site, as the model for a national service corps. He calls his Orwellian program, "Universal Voluntary Public Service."...Big Brother had nothing on the Obamas. They plan to herd American youth into government-funded reeducation camps where they'll be brainwashed into thinking America is a racist, oppressive place in need of "social change."...Michelle's Boot Camp for Radicals, The Editors, Investor's Business Daily, 9/4/2008

The Left's methods never change. Every step is a means to total domination. First, they lie about themselves. Then, they go after your children. The closer we get to an Obama Presidency, the more it looks like Americans, after two and a third centuries of getting away with being ignorant, are about to get sucker punched into voting for an agenda designed to do away with the country they love.

Luther

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Obama, Reid, Pelosi: The New 3 Stooges?

Check out this swell You-Tube video. Best intellectual response yet to next week's possible cultural Armageddon in the US:



Hat tip to Power Line for the link.