Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.
Food prices in America are going up and up. We’re not starving, thank goodness, but we are seeing more and more of our money go to groceries. Many see a direct connection with ethanol (i.e., using food to power cars) and rising food prices. Thus, despite the challenging drought, the
Continue readingThe scientists were wrong, so they blame it on climate change. Maybe they’re right this time that their wrongness is because of climate change. Or maybe the scientists simply don’t know as much as they think they do, whether because of poor data, poor predictions, or the fact that Mother
Continue readingThe news tells me that the US is suffering the biggest drought since 1956. Does that mean that anthropogenic global warming was as bad in 1956 as it is today? And if the Dust Bowl drought of the 1920s was even worse (and the news article doesn’t mention it), does
Continue readingA couple of weeks ago, I asked you all to link to a General Knowledge Quiz that DK publishing hosts. I disclosed at the time that this was not a purely altruistic act, even though I thought the quizzes were fun and I think the world of DK books.
Continue readingYears ago, the Bookworm Room took a leadership position in challenging man-made global warming dogma and I would comfortably assert that we have been winning the arguments. However, the battle is far from over. Today’s Chicago Tribune posted a column published by two credentialed climate scientists from the U. of
Continue readingI’ve been skeptical of climate change because (a) I think Al Gore’s an idiot; (b) the climate changers see everything in terms of climate change, which is nonsensical; (c) the Climate Gate emails indicated fraud and information suppression to advance the climate change narrative, suggesting that the actual facts do
Continue readingThe Science Channel’s Alien Encounters is a two-part pseudo-documentary that interweaves footage of real scientists and novelists talking about possible alien encounters, with faux footage of the world dealing with an actual alien encounter. Alien Encounters has gotten decent press from the usual suspects. I disagree. As a science show,
Continue readingToday at lunch, Don Quixote and I ended up talking about predestination and free will. Along the way we touched upon whether prayers are necessary (if God is omniscient, doesn’t he already know what we want?) and funerals (definitely for the living, although one doesn’t want to disrespect the dead).
Continue readingThere’s nothing like a Progressive who’s not worrying about reelection. If you thought Barney Frank’s moobs were repellent, wait until you get a look inside Lynn Woolsey’s brain. The 10-term House Democrat from Marin County is retiring this year, so she finally feels that she can speak freely. It’s not
Continue readingBummer! It’s two days before Christmas and there will be no white Christmas in Chicagoland, this year and the temperature will be above freezing. There’s not much snow north of here all the way to the Canadian border, either. Global warmening? I called a good friend in Cali’s San Joaquin
Continue reading“Facts are stubborn things.” — John Adams. “Ideologues are even more stubborn than facts.” — Bookworm A few nights ago, Mr. Bookworm watched the movie Shattered Glass with the children. It’s a fairly good retelling of the way in which Stephen Glass, a young feature writer at The New Republic,
Continue readingOn the heels of Bookworm’s excellent, hard-hitting essay on narcissism comes a nice coda on man-made global warming that is emblematic of Bookworm’s theme. Because of major discoveries involving the interaction of atmospheric aerosols and cosmic radiation, “climate models will have to be revised,” stated a communication from CERN that
Continue readingWe have an odd family friend. Fundamentally, she is a nice person and sports a very unconventional view of the world that occasionally emotes great insights into the human condition. She has a major flaw, however, one that she admits as a character flaw: she is an unabashed hater. Despite
Continue readingI know that we have been round and round on climate issues in our always edifying Bookworm Room discussions, so here is an interesting lecture that I found at our friends at Flopping Aces. The lecturer, Prof. Courtillot, professor of geophysics at the University of Paris, does an excellent job
Continue readingMr. Bookworm, New York Times reader, was telling the children that there was a total catastrophe in Japan, with the Japanese and the world exposed to the possibility of massive radiation poisoning. I calmed the children’s fears by telling them that the paper could be right, but it could be
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