George Rebane
The lying season is in full swing. Yesterday the Obama administration released the latest assessment on the progress of global warming, climate change, or whatever their nom du jour for what’s happening with the weather (‘Third National Assessment on Climate Change’). The bottom line of this latest issue of climategate is that the reason the economy has been doing so badly is that AGW has been screwing up America’s businesses with all these “extreme weather events” for which there is no evidence whatsoever. The leftwing Brookings Institute reports that every year of Obama’s administration has seen more businesses close than open their doors.
The report is again touted by 97% of all scientists in the universe who put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Americans spewing CO2 into the atmosphere; and if we only quit doing that then things would turn around and Miami streets would not soon be six feet under water. Again, there is no evidence to support any of their claims other than the religious fervor of progressives some of whom have been awarding generous grants to compliant ‘scientists’ worldwide.
A definitive refuting of the whole case is found in ‘The Climate Inquisitor’, but that will not make a difference in minds already calcified in “the debate is over” cement. It is election year after all, and the American electorate has proven itself to be among the world’s most gullible and proud (just check the longitudinal study of the country’s adult literacy results). So the bottom line for the poor state of the union is AGW, income inequality, and Bush2’s fault that Obamacare has landed flat on its ass – did I leave something out? (Added scholarly refutation can be found in NIPCC's 'Climate Change Reconsidered II'.)
Heard about the new National Women’s History Museum now being planned for the Capitol Mall? This little progressive propaganda palace was going full-tilt boogie until some folks started questioning about the kinds of displays and exhibits it would ensconce. Well, you’ve never seen the fogbank descend so fast before in Washington. (Actually that’s not true, just recall the fog that hovered over the cowpile that became Obamacare.) But true to form, the NWHM planners invoked what is sure to become a perennial progressive plaudit when such discoveries are attempted in the future . They pulled out the Pelosi Principle – we really can’t talk about what is going to be in the museum until it is built.
What??!! Museums are built because there is a need to exhibit very specific things that society should recall, understand, and honor through the coming years. But not according to leftwing logic; we build the damn thing first, and then we’ll tell you what we’re going to put into it. Sign here and shut up.
[update] Common Core continues to confound. The 7may14 Union published a distinctly one-sided and confusing report – ‘Republicans approve Common Core standards amidst opposition’ – on the McLaughlin poll released this Monday (more here). From it the conclusion is drawn that Republicans and swing voters back CC – which some now call ObamaCore. On the same day the Univ of Connecticut released its poll with the main finding that at least 6 out of 10 Americans had no clue about CC, with most of them not even having heard of it, and concluding that “Americans are skeptical about Common Core”. While McLaughlin’s sample agreed with the wholesale ignorance about CC, its Republican backed conclusion was, when told that CC was a set of uniform national school standards, that they then backed it (more here).
All that really happened was that the UConn and McLaughlin polls re-established that about two thirds of Americans don’t know squat about CC, and that those who claim they do have notions that range all over the map, mostly concentrating in the belief that CC is a new curriculum for schools. None of the reports contain the illumination that “support” for uniform standards in schools does not automatically imply support for CC since that is only one specific set of standards which competes with various existing educational standards already in place across the land. And you can bet the ranch that 99 and 44/100 percent of the people know nothing of what CC standards entail. So to draw conclusions and then report that such polls discover support for CC is at best ignorant and at worst specious.
[10may14 update] More on the recent climate change bamboozle. In a piece titled 'Inside the sausage factory', the 10-16may14 Economist describes the generation of the last IPCC report's executive summary (the part intended for policymakers and the only part anyone reads) –
… having a report reviewed by officials who are themselves interested parties "created and irreconcilable conflict of interest". The details, arguments and numbers remain in the full report. But the summary aimed at policymakers is not necessarily a good guide to them.
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment