SHADOW'S WORLD

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

CLIMATEGATE IS NOW OFFICIAL

Late on the night of November 19, news broke that a large amount of data had been stolen from one of the major climate research institutions by an unknown hacker and made available on the Internet. The hackers released about 172 megabytes of data, and we can be sure examining it closely will take some time. But after a few days, certain things are beginning to become clear.

•The data appears to be largely, perhaps entirely, authentic.
•The emails are incendiary.
•The implications shake the scientific basis for AGW, and the scientific reputations of some of AGW’s major proponents, to their roots.

Some of the emails are here; and a searchable database of all of emails is here. Expect to see much more as bloggers continue digging.

Charlie Martin comments on the computer codes.

And, finally, because of the media's lack of interest, should it be called CLIMAQUIDDICK?

IT WAS PEACEFUL!

Sarah Palin drew a crowd of over 4,000 on Monday to her book signing at Fort Bragg.

"It was just a peaceful crowd -- orderly, no one making any strange comments that I know of," a Fort Bragg official told FoxNews.

Oh, my. Don’t these tea-bagging conservatives know that they’re uneducated, racist, bigoted, violent, neanderthal thugs?

JUST IN THE PAST OF TIME

The swine flu epidemic may have already peaked. Vaccine for the general public may be available in December.

Remember this when you vote for ObamaCare.

On a personal note, it’s mildly amusing to see Congress trying to spend something on the close order of one-and-a-half trillion dollars to bring health care to the same standard it was 60 years ago when I was a child.

I SEE BY YOUR BUTTON THAT YOU ARE A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

Get yourself a button and be a community organizer too.

With apologies to the Kingston Trio.

MAGNIFICENT WARBIRDS

Photos from the 2009 Edwards AFB Open House.

THE PATIENT OR THE STATE?

There will be money for bureaucrats; just not for patients.

A NEW RECORD

The Obama Approval Index from Rasmussen just hit -15 for the first time.

Hope is fading fast. T-shirt is available here.

THE VALUE OF A LIBERAL EDUCATION

Via Frazz.

IMMIGRATION INSANITY

”Illegal immigration is a problem, but it can only be solved by overhauling our dysfunctional immigration laws, not by demonizing or scapegoating illegal immigrants. Those immigrants didn't come here in order to be lawbreakers; they broke a law in order to come here. That's a distinction with an all-important difference -- one that sensible and principled conservatives should be able to understand.”

Jacoby is right.

Monday, November 23, 2009

DON'T TELL THE DEMOCRATS

Sarah Palin's uterus has a blog.

UNEMPLOYMENT TRENDS

This one is amazing – a county-by-county, month-by-month slide show of unemployment from January 2007, when the Democrats took control of Congress, through September 2009.

Via “It is no doubt rude of me to point out that this outbreak video represents two years’ worth of a Democratic-controlled Congress, and one year’s worth of a Democratic-controlled government” Moe Lane and Instapundit.

GLOBAL SOMETHING OR OTHER

Global warming appears to have stalled.

The planet's temperature curve rose sharply for almost 30 years, as global temperatures increased by an average of 0.7 degrees Celsius (1.25 degrees Fahrenheit) from the 1970s to the late 1990s. "At present, however, the warming is taking a break," confirms meteorologist Mojib Latif of the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences in the northern German city of Kiel. Latif, one of Germany's best-known climatologists, says that the temperature curve has reached a plateau. "There can be no argument about that," he says. "We have to face that fact."

So here’s my question. Why is it inconceivable that the 30-year run-up in temperature is the outlier?

SMART BOOKS

Bay Area readers are too smart to bother reading Sarah Palin's Going Rogue:

“Our customers are thinking people,” said Nathan Embretson, a bookseller at Pendragon Books in Oakland. “They’re not into reading drivel.”

So what do they read? Here’s a selection of some of the non-drively, thinky-type books Mr. Embretson carries at his store, per the Pendragon Books website:

Jim Marrs, Inside Job: Unmasking the 9-11 Conspiracies
Ward Churchill, On the Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections on the Consequences of U.S. Imperial Arrogance and Criminality
Van Jones, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
(a collaboration), Inner Paths to Outer Space: Journeys to Alien Worlds Through Psychedelics and Other Spiritual Technologies
William Ayers, Fugitive Days: Memoirs of an Anti-War Activist
Mark Rudd, Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen
Lyndon H. Larouche, Cold Fusion: Challenge to U.S. Science Policy

Ah, yes, the reality-based community.

A THOUGHT ON OBAMACARE

Is there any ObamaCare supporter in his or her right mind (right mind? - Ed. I know, I know.) who believes that anyone in the Government or its hangers-on will ever be on the public option (or "consumer" option, as Nancy Pelosi has called it)?

Get real. They will all have "Cadillac plans" - paid for with your -and my - tax dollars.

MORE OBAMA PROTESTS

In St. Louis and Los Angeles.

HMM

So the guidelines for frequency of mammograms and pap smears have been revised.

I suspect the revisions are entirely reasonable, but the timing leaves me scratching my head. With the health care debate on the front burner - and boiling over - why on Earth would the Government risk bringing the rationing argument back to the fore?

One has to wonder about the Obama administration's competence. Are they completly clueless? Or simply arrogant?

[Update] It's been noticed.