Climate Aliens Stole my Goat!

It's conspiracy time again! Yes, we are witnessing the birth of extraordinary conspiracy theories into public life driven not by evidence, but by ideology and the childish unwillingness to face the truth:

Like the HAARP conspiracists, who believe that if they can prove that earthquakes in Haiti, Sichuan, Kobe, and Chile furthered US imperial interests then they have as good as proven that the US military artificially induced them, these Global Warming denialists conflate consequences with causes. If “a” benefits “b,” they seem to be thinking, then “b” must have had a hand in “a.” The existence of anthropogenic global warming necessitates global solutions, which empower international institutions. By the light of their faulty logic it follows that “a” must be a Trojan horse—a fraud concocted out of whole cloth by the International Elites, who are looking to impose their Global Supergovernment on a world that is in reality cooling. Ipso facto, the scientists whose research supports global warming must have been corrupted by the Elite’s money.

Thus “Climategate”—the hacked emails between scientists at the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. To put a conspiratorial counter spin on the alleged conspiracy, if they hadn’t been discovered, someone would have had to invent them. As early as 2003, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, then Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, had declared that “with all of the hysteria, all of the fear, all of the phony science, could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it.” Upon the release of the Climategate e mails he swiftly demanded a Congressional investigation of what he called “the greatest scientific scandal of our generation.”

The release of 1000s of emails from the climate-hack didn't show any of the aledged conspiracy - a handful of emails about avioding FOI requests and use of the scientific term 'trick' do not a global cabal of evil scintists make. Indeedthe 1000s of emails should have been stuffed full of requests of fake data and instructing the 100s of other climate scintists in what the 'offical' line of the evil cabal was/is. But no - nothing. The climate-hack ws a damp squid for the conspiracy theorists.

The whole article is really worth reading, but here is the killer point;

In the real world, it seems, some scientists are no less subjective than English professors and politicians. But if it’s lucre that provides the motive for bad science, then it’s worth noting that there’s a lot more of it sloshing around the coal and oil industries (and for that matter, local TV news operations) than can be found at most research universities.

Fox News Falls for Global Warming Hoax

There is a hoax news story doing the rounds:

Global Warming Activist Freezes to Death in Antarctica

Famed global warming activist James Schneider and a journalist friend were both found frozen to death on Saturday, about 90 miles from South Pole Station, by the pilot of a ski plane practicing emergency evacuation procedures.

"I couldn't believe what I was seeing", recounted the pilot, Jimmy Dolittle. "There were two snowmobiles with cargo sleds, a tent, and a bright orange rope that had been laid out on the ice, forming the words, 'HELP-COLD'."

One friend of Prof. Schneider told ecoEnquirer that he had been planning a trip to an ice sheet to film the devastation brought on by global warming. His wife, Linda, said that she had heard him discussing the trip with his environmental activist friends, but she assumed that he was talking about the Greenland ice sheet, a much smaller ice sheet than Antarctica.

Yes it is quite funny. But even more fun the the deluge of joy the death of a person set off in the denialoshpere... They simply could not contain their joy. Here's a couple of samples from the amateur comedy session it set off:

Or maybe they thought that South Pole polar bears would snuggle up to them and keep them warm.

There ain't no loon, like a Global Warming loon.

I GUESS THESE BRILLIANT SCIENTISTS DIDNT HAVE BIG NANNY TO TELL THEM TO PUT ON A COAT

Ho ho! Death! Funny! Ha ha!

Anyhow, that bastion of error-checking and accuracy Fox News fell for this one hook-line-and-sinker, but they have deleted the post how, however the all-seeing Google cache has still caught it.

As for spotting a hum-dinger of a hoax story - c'mon 2 seconds Googling the famed guy's name tells you all you need to know - plus the details of the story are very silly. Oh yeah - that and the date the story was timed to the the internet - the 1st April.

Hmmm; it's almost as if these news outlets and bloggers are ready to believe any old shit provided it appears to validate their political ideology??

Save Bristol's Libraries!

Save Bristol's libraries from the Bristol IWW - good on 'em for this campaign as Libraries are important social spaces for sharing and learning!! We need more not less put into them.

The Bristol Branch of the IWW trade union is calling for strong and decisive action from other unions to stop brutal cuts wrecking Bristol's library service as the IWW today launch their own campaign against the cuts.

Bristol's library service, run by Bristol City Council, is looking to cut £225,000 from the libraries budget this year, largely by axing nine staff across the service. This is despite the libraries budget being underspent by £181,000 last year.

Most of these cuts will be made at the city's flagship Central Library where staff say users may have to wait two hours or more to obtain books and information from a slimmed down and understaffed reference library.

The council is also proposing to spend over £0.5m providing 'self-service' facilities at libraries and will then only provide one supervisor for every two branch libraries in the city.

IWW spokesman Frank Hutchison says,"Bristol City Council have promised there would be no cuts to frontline services. They lied.

"Libraries are among our most important and much-loved public services but here in Bristol the service is being systematically destroyed to save money.

"Meanwhile, despite the huge public outcry and concern, the traditional trade unions are sitting on their hands and failing to act.

"If they won't, we will. These unions are not only letting down their members but the wider community too.

"We will therefore be holding a public meeting in the near future to bring together library staff, concerned service users, other workers worried about the threat of cuts to public services in the city and the wider public."

The IWW says it will be fully committed to any campaign that's launched as a result of this meeting and will look to resource and fund that campaign as best it can.

"Doing nothing - or worse, doing a backroom deal to sell our library service down the river - is not an option," said Mr Hutchison.

Comment on Professor Phil Jones's Exoneration by MPs

Another enquiry has cleared climate scientists of any wrong doing, confirmed the science of AGW and hammers the denial case... Here's a couple of choice comments (one):

A few weeks back I suggested the denial movement should be careful for that they wish for: the chance to put climate science “on trial”. Well, it would seem this was such an opportunity. If one read the submissions you will see all the luminaries of the denial movement attempting to cast doubt on the science and attack the reputation of scientists - including a submission from our old friend Richard S. Courtney. It was a major effort on behalf of the denial movement to exploit the stolen CRU emails to discredit the science. And it failed spectacularly. It was a co-ordinated “push” by the denial movement to influence the outcome of the inquiry. And it failed spectacularly. It was the denial movement’s attempt to legitimise their claim the science was “fraudulent”. And it failed spectacularly.

This is their “Dover moment”: when both sides are given equal opportunity to present their arguments and evidence. It is up to an objective body to assess the veracity of each of their respective claims (see my post Putting climate science on trial: what is the worst that could happen?).

In Kitzmiller v Dover, the ID/Creationist movement was dealt a serious body blow. The climate change denial movement has just suffered an equally significant blow. This is what happens when the peddlers of propaganda attempt to take on science.

And two..

No doubt virtually all of the core findings will be ignored by the anti-science crowd, who will continue to push their while conspiracy theories about climate scientists.

Indeed, this outcome has the fingerprints of the NWO/Communists/Tree Huggers/Fascists/Lizards etc all over it... so we will be told.

Troops Charity in Costs Scam

Charity is important. It's a basic form of mutual aid and cooperation. Giving to help others/a cause with no gain is recognised as a valuable human trait, and with good reason. But when you give to an organisation that is a charity, you want to know that it is doing what it claims and not spending the money on other stuff. Now some costs going on administration, running costs, further fund-raising is inevitable; it would be impossible to expect 100% of the money to go to the cause. So what is a good percentage that goes to the front line of the cause? Some say that 75% of donations going to the front-line is a good figure, and if this drops below about 65% then the charities in question, "...are simply not living up to their missions." Another source says 60% is the minimum but agrees that 75% or more going to the cause is an efficient charity.

So square that with the 'Freedom Alliance' which is managing to give between 20% and 4% (just just fucking 4%!!!) of donations to the cause;

In fact, less than 20%–and in two recent years, less than 7% and 4%, respectively–of the money raised by Freedom Alliance went to these causes, while millions of dollars went to expenses, including consultants and apparently to ferry the [US Right-wing Celebrity, Sean] Hannity posse of family and friends in high style. And, despite Hannity’s statements to the contrary on his nationally syndicated radio show, few of the children of fallen soldiers got more than $1,000-$2,000, with apparently none getting more than $6,000, while Freedom Alliance appears to have spent tens of thousands of dollars for private planes. Moreover, despite written assurances to donors that all money raised would go directly to scholarships for kids of the fallen heroes and not to expenses, has begun charging expenses of nearly $500,000 to give out just over $800,000 in scholarships.

Sean Hanity is a right-wing dick-nut and it seems has an ego much bigger than the charity he supports. Check this;

Of course, as the [Fox news informant] tells it, there’d be a lot more money every concert to go to the cause if Hannity didn’t demand–and get–use of a Gulfstream 5 plane to fly him and his family/entourage to the concerts; a “fleet” (that’s the word the guy used) of either Cadillac or Lincoln SUVs for him and his family/entourage; and several suites at really expensive hotels for him and his family/entourage. The promoter apparently values Hannity’s star demands at well over $200,000 per event. The source says he heard that Oliver North pulled Hannity aside at one of the concerts and told him that this had to stop.

Fuck me - when you are being pulled up regarding your personal ethics by Oliver North - a guy who smuggled drugs to fund hit squads - you know you're down the moral black-hole.

Updates on this story here and here.