POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Dr. Marxist Welby

Trevor Loudon digs deep to examine the communist cadre behind health care reform.

Oh, and Tom Daschle, unregistered lobbyist.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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How insurance companies work

Vast simplification: very carefully.

Okay, I'll give you a little more detail than that, but still very simplified.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

Yet More Warmaquiddick Gorebacle Fallout [UPDATED]

Noel Sheppard continues explicating the meaning of the CRU disclosures, despite the spin of asshats such as Gavin Schmidt of NASA at the ineptly named RealClimate.org. Setting aside as secondary the matter of the emails, which climate scammers will insist are being read out of context, Sheppard focuses instead on what is revealed by the CRU metrics source code and its annotations, and comes to these conclusions:

Clamoring alarmists can and will spin this until they’re dizzy. The ever-clueless mainstream media can and will ignore this until it’s forced upon them as front-page news, and then most will join the alarmists on the denial merry-go-round.

But here’s what’s undeniable: If a divergence exists between measured temperatures and those derived from dendrochronological data after (circa) 1960 then discarding only the post-1960 figures is disingenuous to say the least. The very existence of a divergence betrays a potential serious flaw in the process by which temperatures are reconstructed from tree-ring density. If it’s bogus beyond a set threshold, then any honest men of science would instinctively question its integrity prior to that boundary. And only the lowliest would apply a hack in order to produce a desired result.

And to do so without declaring as such in a footnote on every chart in every report in every study in every book in every classroom on every website that such a corrupt process is relied upon is not just a crime against science, it’s a crime against mankind.

Indeed, miners of the CRU folder have unearthed dozens of email threads and supporting documents revealing much to loathe about this cadre of hucksters and their vile intentions. This veritable goldmine has given us tales ranging from evidence destruction to spitting on the Freedom of Information Act on both sides of the Atlantic. But the now irrefutable evidence that alarmists have indeed been cooking the data for at least a decade may just be the most important strike in human history.

Advocates of the global governance/financial redistribution sought by the United Nations at Copenhagen in two weeks and the expanded domestic governance/financial redistribution sought by Liberal politicians both substantiate their drastic proposals with the pending climate emergency predicted in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Kyoto, Waxman-Markey, Kerry-Boxer, EPA regulation of the very substances of life – all bad policy concepts enabled solely by IPCC reports. And the IPCC, in turn, bases those reports largely on the data and charts provided by the research scientists at CRU – largely from tree ring data -- who just happen to be editors and lead authors of that same U.N. panel.

Bottom line: CRU’s evidence is now irrevocably tainted. As such -- all assumptions based on that evidence must now be reevaluated and readjudicated. And all policy based on those counterfeit assumptions must also be re-examined.

While none of the information has gotten any coverage on the legacy networks, yet, Declan MCCullagh has a suitably damning post on CBS's news website that also references Schmidt's sordid evasions. William Teach also points out an AP article that contains a startling quantity of reality. You really do need to read Schmidt's piece to get the complete flavor.

He avers that the emails (setting aside the source code) are remarkable for what they don't display, and then goes on to attack a series of straw men. He's right, though. They are remarkable for what they don't display, such as any concern for scientific probity. In the following interview with Stuart Varney, Ed Begley makes an egregious ass of himself:

Part of what we now know is that these people engaged in threats and intimidation to prevent contrarian analyses from appearing in peer reviewed journals, and actively sought to undermine and subborn the peer review process. For Begley to make such a deal about peer review is disingenuous, and the activites of CRU and related entities resemble nothing so much as the operations of pseudo-scientific mafiosi.

So, in short, fuck them and their enablers. They are beneath contempt.

My theory on the provenance of the documents is that it was an inside job by one of the programmers, who was ordered to back-construct the "raw data" in order to comply with the FOI requests, and was driven so mad by the process that he went rogue.

A Serr8d joint

Brought to mind by Van der Leun

UPDATE: Now comes news from Reuters that Obama will indeed be traveling to Copenhagen, where he promises to bow to Gaia.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Ponderings on the Life and Etiquette of Trolls

A fascinating set of questions was put forth by Meep today. These questions deserve to be answered. As such, I have decided they are worthy of a distinct post. This post, in fact. So, I post Meep's questions and turn the floor over to Meep to tend to the discussion.

I’ve been wondering how one gets a dedicated troll.

And why at many blogs there seems to be only one [at least, at a time]… is there some kind of claim-staking that occurs, or some kind of troll distribution system?

Or maybe a new troll checks out a site, sees someone is already there, and moves on?

Truly worthwhile questions. Deserving of answers. Or, at the very least, further investigation.

I would like to add my own Meep-inspired questions to the mix. Foremost is this one: can Trolls bi-locate? Or, to Meep's point, can they only haunt one blog at a time? But there are other questions too. Is there some Troll Code of "honor"? Do taller Trolls haunt more robust blogs? Is there a hierarchy among Trolls? Are there distinct flavors of Trolls? Do they travel in packs - ever? Who governs them and where do they come from?

And then there's this: Troll support group?/Confessions of a Troll?

The first rule about troll etiquette is that we don't talk about troll etiquette.

The second rule about troll etiquette is that we don't talk about troll etiquette.

The third rule about troll etiquette is that if it is your first troll, you still have to post something.

Basically troll etiquette, is simply put, you take the net etiquette about using the Internet...and you basically do the opposite of what it says. Instead of being nice and polite to others, you are angry and upset and impolite to others. Instead of using logic, reason, and critical thinking, you use illogic, emotions, logical fallacies, and name calling if you have to as well as personal attacks and strawmen and other fallacies.

- Troll Hard

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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A Story of Two Hate Crimes

St. Louis County officials have refused to meet with Ken Gladney, who was beaten by Purple Shirts for having the temerity to sell Gadsden Flags in front of a townhall where there were Tea Party protesters. So far, no charges have been brought against his assailants, despite the video evidence.

In Chicago, though, some idiot woman pulled the headscarf of a Muslim while raving about Ft. Hood, and has been charged with a felony hate crime punishable by up to 3 years in prison.

So, it should surprise you not at all that Navy Seals who captured a notorious terrorist murderer in Iraq are being court-martialed for allegedly having given the evil douchebag a bloody nose. And Malkin's predicted that this isn't liable to get much national coverage.

More on hate crimes at NRO. And a breakdown on religiously motivated hate crimes from Jim Hoft.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Newsweek and Warmaquiddick (and Sparkman)

In an interview with James Hansen, subtitled, "Climate scientist James Hansen talks about global warming, Copenhagen, and his new book," and dated today, November 24, 2009, Newsweek manages not to ask him at all about the revelations of enormous fraud.

If it weren't so pathetically predictable, it would be merely unbelievable.

In a wonderful rant, The Anchoress demonstrates that the AGW fraud is Bush's fault.

The morons at the RNC aren't exactly covering themselves in glory.

Somewhat related are the reactions to the determination that Bill Sparkman hanged himself.*

David Weigel indulges in sheer asshattery. (Stacy McCain says he's being ironical, in which case I apologize for my tin ear.)

HuffPo comments dig for the real meaning.

* A few thoughts on Sparkman, which diverge a little bit from Stacy's:

First off, I don't feel the same animus toward Sparkman that I do toward many who have staged hate crimes for motives more venal on their own behalf. It's theorized that Sparkman simulated a murder so that his adoptive son would collect on his life insurance. And in order deliberately to kill himself, he had to be in a pretty bad place. In other words, I don't think that his motive was principally to hang this albatross on conservatives (or anyone else in particular), though that would have been the reaction in many quarters. He was acting out of desperation more than anything else.

The idea, it seems to me, for the shape of the ruse was accidentally suggested to him by his cop friend, who urged him to be cautious on his rounds. I think that Sparkman was being more revealing than his friend could have known when he said that he wasn't afraid.

I am glad that the attempted fraud was unsuccessful, but I also feel sorry for the man that what he in his confusion viewed as his sacrifice failed. I know that his adopted son was living with friends in a trailer for awhile, there.

Most of all, though, this is a tragedy involving a desperate man. It's sad that in death he was used the way he was . . . even if he used himself as he did. I think pity is appropriate. YMMV.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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CRU and Sarah Palin

Robert Tracinski at Real Clear Politics succinctly outlines the fraudulence exposed by the CRU emails, source code (h/t TSK9), and other information.  Fortunately, Tina Brown and Scarborough have their priorities straight in focusing on Sarah Palin and her supporters:

Here's Brown's Daily Beast's coverage of global warming, including this brief from a publication whose heyday passed about 25 years ago. So far, there's no acknowledgment of the scandal.  Scientific American ought to devote a special supplement to this, but they won't, of course.

Some of what Brown says about Palin is certainly true: namely that her popularity is fed by Obama's shafting of the American people.  This really is the same meme, though, that's being advanced by the pseudo-conservative troika of Frum, Brooks, and Friedersdorf, that Palin has no policy chops.  What they don't get, that most Americans do, is that policy is a reflection of values, and not vice-versa.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Holdren Implicated in Warmaquiddick

It just gets better and better:

“A perfect person and opportunity appeared. On 16^th October 2003 Michael Mann, infamous for his lead in the ‘hockey stick’ that dominated the 2001 IPCC Report, sent an email to people involved in the CRU scandal; “

Dear All,

Thought you would be interested in this exchange, which John Holdren of Harvard has been kind enough to pass along…” At the time Holdren was Teresa and John Heinz Professor of Environmental Policy & Director, Program in Science, Technology, & Public Policy, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government. He is now Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Co-Chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology—informally known as the United States Science Czar.

““In an email on October16, 2003 from John Holdren to Michael Mann and Tom Wigley we are told:

”“I’m forwarding for your entertainment an exchange that followed from my being quoted in the Harvard Crimson to the effect that you and your colleagues are right and my “Harvard” colleagues Soon and Baliunas are wrong about what the evidence shows concerning surface temperatures over the past millennium. The cover note to faculty and postdocs in a regular Wednesday breakfast discussion group on environmental science and public policy in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences is more or less self-explanatory.”

Soon and Baliunas argued that it was clear from all the relevant data that there was indeed a Medieval Warming Period.

And what kind of direct evidence can one find for a Medieval Warming Period? Well, here's a fascinating example. Of course, science has been restored to its rightful place under the Oddministration, but read the whole thing for a savor of this arrogant fuckwad totalitarian.

Now the Competitive Enterprise Institute is suing NASA for their failure to cough up climate data repeatedly requested over a 3-year period under the FOIA.

In case you are wondering what actual climate science looks like, this is a good example.

Regarding yesterday's prediction regarding the coverage, it was too easy.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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ObamaCare

You shall not pass!

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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