Update on Climate Change Snowjob

Eduardo Zorita, PhD, one of the contributors to the UN IPCC, weighs in on the scandal of the millennium.

A few items of note:

One, we have an IPCC contributor reiterating in print, again, that the "hockey stick" graph is a lie.

Two, he notes, almost casually, the history of intimidation behind this tight knit bunch of con artists. He makes mention that his own career may suffer for speaking out against Jones, Mann & Co. and also comments on the pressure put on up and coming scientists to tow the AGW line.

So much for impartial objectivity and the rigorous pursuit of scientific truth.

Jeff "Skunk" Baxter

Possibly the most underrated, undernoticed, underappreciated guitarist ever, showing how it's done in an instructional video. Far worse ways to spend 10 minutes of your life.

Plus the Japanese subtitles are trippy.

Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation

City of New York, Oct. 3, 1789

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”


Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.


And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Now I can die happy.

HT Allahpundit

Tee Hee

UPDATE 3: A reminder to Global Warming devotees who wish to debunk the claim that global temps haven't risen since 1998: said claim was issued by the very people they now seek to defend. Which kinda sorta of means they're on the hook to accept the "1998" assertion as fact...right? Or does their defense of the CRU only extend to explaining away damning emails?

UPDATE 2: A refresher on the "Hockey Stick" Fraud seems in order, since some of the Climategate "scientists" were the self same fabricators of this lie.

UPDATE: Robert Tracinski touches on all the salient points thus far, and points out on thing that the others have all missed: the criminality of this scam.

No Schadenfreude here

It's over

If these brave SEALs are convicted for the crime of which they are accused, namely, giving terrorist scumbag Ahmed Hashim Abed a fat lip, then Western Civilization is dead. We might as well all bend over, grab ankles and let the barbarian savages have their way with us.

That these fine men are even being brought up on charges is a travesty. Abed was the mastermind of the murder of four Blackwater sercurity guards in Fallujah in 2004. You might remember that the corpses of those American civilians were dragged through the streets and some were then hanged from a bridge spanning the Euphrates. You might remember how the international community of vultures known as "The Press" flocked to that bridge to photograph those bodies, thus giving Abed and his fellow terrorists a much larger platform by which to broadcast their "message." You might remember how Markos Moulitsas eulogized those murdered Americans with those two little words, "screw 'em."

Much like the New York City trial of Khalid Sheik Muhammed, the treatment of these three brave Navy SEALs in this fashion is the re-gouging and liberal application of salt to a wound just barely beginning to heal. If our brave men and women in the Armed Forces are rewarded with such contempt for their heroism, it will be small wonder if fewer and fewer of them enlist. The decision to prosecute these enlisted men can be traced back to the limp wristed policies of liberal, self-loathing civilians. When simply arresting a villain like Abed has become for our protectors an act of altruism, it makes me wonder how much more abuse our protectors will take before they decide that we can fend for ourselves.

Bye Bye, Twitter

So I deleted my Twitter account yesterday.

I actually sort of deleted it once before, but being a weak man, I re-enstated it within the grace period that Twitter allows for wishy washy types like me to change their minds. This time, it's a done deal. Not saying I'll never open another Twitter account, but I'm going to stay away for the indefinite future.

I love Twitter. Probably too much. It's a great deal of fun to try to express a thought in 140 characters or less. And it was far more dynamic experience to engage with the 1,800 or so people who were following me there, than jotting my thoughts down here, where they may or may not ever be seen by the 4 people who may or may not still be followers of this blog.

But I realized I didn't like the person I was projecting on Twitter. Twitter had, for me, almost exclusively become a forum to type sarcastic and mean spirited things about liberals generally and Obama specifically. My chief aim in life is to glorify Christ. I am, in John Piper's words, "to make Christ look magnificent." To say that some of my tweets fell short of that is an understatement in the extreme. My heart is prone to sarcasm and bile. I revel in it. I have at times fancied myself an artist of the medium. I have been an idiot and I have harmed the cause of Christ.

And since I'm not the sort of person to tweet things like "Standing in line at TJ Maxx. Sale on bedding!" or the sort of Christian who tweets prayers or verses that no one is going to bother reading, I decided that there was really no use for Twitter anymore.

This is not to say I won't continue to excoriate liberal idiocy on this blog.

It seems like the previous statement should be followed with a "but..." but I really don't have anything to add to that.