Among The Top Rank

David Brooks inspires "Fear and Loathing In Falls Church".

Comments

[clarice]

Good morning, JOM!!:http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/2014_lets_change_the_climate.html

[James D.]

Great Pieces, Clarice!

[clarice]

Thanks, James. Sometimes the column practically writes itself.

[Miss Marple]

clarice, That is a great column! And why didn't I think to ask earlier about good old Professor Turley's financial interest (other than the expedition itself)?

I bet if we did a concerted effort in digging we would find that almost all of these people have side businesses which are raking in millions, a la Al Gore.

Imagine if the GOP was pushing a new ice age as an imminent threat and an expedition headed by some university guy was found to be backed by Exxon, or that the leader owned a bunch of Exxon stock.

Wait! I think we know, because if I remember any study funded by an oil company is immediately discredited.

[narciso]

Morning, great pieces, they got there first, and tagged any objection 'denialism' funded by oil companies,

[Miss Marple]

narciso, Quite true.

When I was in college in the mid-70's all of the literature was predicting a coming ice age. I still have textbooks discussing it with dire predictions.

So I worked, then quit to raise kids, and when I finally started paying attention again, imagine my confusion when all of a sudden it was warming, not cooling, that was the big danger.

I have pondered this long and hard, and I have decided that the underlying motive is to kill American mining and oil production in order to enrich foreign powers while enriching the greenies with the fruits of their scam businesses. A side benefit is impoverishing the middle class and getting to lord it over all of us.

[daddy]

Beautiful column today, Clarice.

I really am enjoying this AGW Climate-meme taking a pounding, especially so since as I've noted the enlightened French are fully on board with criticizing this Expedition as a "Pseudo-Scientific Tourist Trip", and the Guardian has had to insert their official Climate Correspondent Editor, J Randerson, as gatekeeper and protector of Turney from the howling commenters ripping his idiotic expedition to pieces.

Most of all I love the French24 TV station that keeps playing every half hour that stupid video of those morons on the boat singing the following offensive song about the Chinese and French Antarctic teams that risked their lives and aborted their science missions to try to save these buffoons:

"Up in the air the Chinese came
Flew around once and went again
The French dropped by but couldn't get near
Bloody what a shame we're still stuck here."

Morons.

[JIB]

-47F wind chill warning for Green Bay @ 6AM Monday.

Great Pieces, Clarice. Its always been about money and greed. When I was in DC back in the late 80's, early 90's there were K street outfits that set up specialized shops that would write grant proposals for Universities and academics to reap the harvest of free money.

BTW, last night Stephanie posted a link to a house in Hammock Beach for a group rental. That place is notorious because the community lets the owners do that. Its right next to the tee box for the par 3 8th hole and it overlooks the tee box for the 9th hole.

55F here this morning. We don't get the deep freeze until Tuesday. The high in Orlando that day will be 49F. Brrrrr.

[narciso]

some clarification of the Politico piece;

http://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2014/01/04/the-eve-of-distraction/

with apologies to Barry McGuire.

[centralcal]

...Bloody what a shame we're still stuck here."

Ha. Not a shame at all - they deserve to be stuck.

I see the Busy Mom and Fashion Icon will be staying in Hawaii, while Obama and girls return home to DC. Supposedly it is an early birthday present to her from POTUS - lol - paid for, in part, by the taxpayer.

[daddy]

I also want to say that WattsUpWithThat has been outstanding and informative on this whole thing, and it deserves a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism if anyone does.

Simply scroll thru The ‘Clitanic’ Hot Sheet – News from the #SpiritofMawson fiasco posted yesterday, to see how in depth they are in covering this story:

Highlights are, (and this includes links in the comments):

---How much this rescue is costing
---How Turney, (who wrote the book "1912" on Mawson, is too stupid to know how much Mawsons' funding in 1912 compares to funds in 2013.
---How Mawson is dead wrong about the source of the B09B Ice Berg he's trying to blame this on
---How the Expeditions story changed in 24 hours from blaming Climate Change for their being trapped in ice to blaming it instead on the weather
---To multiple Science folks saying Turney's comments about Carbon show he doesn't even understand the Science that is settled.

[JIB]

More unhappy liberals.

Actually fascist douchebags as he calls them.

You have to love the first comment. No need to go further:)

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

That guy in your pix Daddy is not wearing a jacket. Wow.

Clarice, Pieces made my day - and it's still early!

My weather report says a low of 32 degrees today - and reports it is 9 degrees now.

[clarice]

Thanks.

Miss Marple: "I have pondered this long and hard, and I have decided that the underlying motive is to kill American mining and oil production in order to enrich foreign powers while enriching the greenies with the fruits of their scam businesses. A side benefit is impoverishing the middle class and getting to lord it over all of us."

BINGO!!

[James D.]

I have pondered this long and hard, and I have decided that the underlying motive is to kill American mining and oil production in order to enrich foreign powers while enriching the greenies with the fruits of their scam businesses. A side benefit is impoverishing the middle class and getting to lord it over all of us.

Exactly...although I'd reverse the two motives. Impovershing the middle class and lording it over us is the primary goal, I think.

These people ultimately want to be feudal lords, surrounded by a nation of poor, ill-educated (or maybe mis-educated) serfs.

[centralcal]

I have had two posts eaten by this danged blog ware.

US Coast Guard is on its way to rescue the hapless Ship of Fools.

[daddy]

And seriously, separated at Birth?

Here's Tiny Tim:

And here's Alvin Stone,

Turney's Expedition Communications Director, who yesterday told us “Climate Warming Led To The Vessel’s Awkward Predicament”!

[centralcal]

I will try another link ....

Oliver Darcy ‏@oliverdarcy 30m

AMERICA TO THE RESCUE: U.S. Icebreaker to rescue trapped ships in Antarctic ice: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/04/china-russia-ask-u-s-to-rescue-trapped-ships-in-antarctic-ice/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=story&utm_campaign=ShareButtons …

[narciso]

I linked the piece, about the bad science, that judge in New York, used to justify retaining the SAFE law, from Joyce Foundation favorites, Koper and Woods,

my fishwrap has another whine, from the Gitmo detainee's devils advocate, whining about the end of hunger strikes, protected interrogator witnesses, or something, apparently a new outfit, Potomac Square, that Trippi is a part of, has taken over the Levick acct.

[centralcal]

Great catch, daddy!

[henry]

Beasts, the 62 Vette 327/340 on that page looks just like my Dad's 62 (May probate send it to a good home).

+12 right now going to -21 tonight... Tonight's estimate is lower than it was yesterday, Colder up north in Green Bay.

[narciso]

this is from earlier in the year;

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/countries-seek-bring-home-guantanamo-detainees

[narciso]

It's funny what's considered negotiable and unnegotiable demands, anything Israel asks for falls in the latter category;

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_ISRAEL_PALESTINIANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[daddy]

Mike Lukovitch, Award winning Lefty Political Cartoonist, a few months back gave us the Left's perspective on the situation:

.

Think anybody will call him on it?

[windansea]

Hitler gets stuck in sea ice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03SWGkxt72A#t=208

[boricuafudd]

My post got eaten. Trying again.

Great pieces Clarice. The same thing happened this summer in the Artic, as recreational sailors got stuck trying to complete the Northwest passage. It did not get much play in the news but the CCG had to rescue some of them.

[daddy]

Since there 52 passengers on the Expedition, commenter Paul in Sweden had this intriguing idea---a deck of playing cards:)

Paul in Sweden
January 4, 2014 at 5:58 am · Reply
Jo, While I was wondering at WUWT about when the set of playing cards with the photographs and quips of the 52 Clitanic tourists is available who would be my favorite(Currently I am leaning towards milkshake boy but wait to see who will be on the Joker Cards). Coming here it occurred to me that the Australian Government could utilize the revenue stream from the sales of these cards and other novelty products to offset the costs of this latest Green Folly to the Australian taxpayers. -Paul

I'd instead recommend an "Old Maid" card game starring Turney as the Old Maid card that everybody wants to dump. What with comic caricatures of him and of the reporters from the BBC and the Guardian, I think they would sell like hotcakes in Australia.

Anybody know how to invest and market that quick?

[jimmyk]

I would think that Alvin Stone could be one of the jokers, maybe with Michael Mann.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Daddy:
Most of all I love the French24 TV...

I swore I thought you were going to say "news reader".

[daddy]

The same thing happened this summer in the Artic, as recreational sailors got stuck trying to complete the Northwest passage.

Bori, I recall that. It was at least 23 ships trapped in the "unexpected" sea Ice. The Sierra Club and the BBC predicted that the Northwest passage would be Ice Free in 2012. Easy to google stories about that, but here's a bit from the UK Mail on line:

Only six years ago, the BBC reported that the Arctic would be ice-free in summer by 2013, citing a scientist in the US who claimed this was a ‘conservative’ forecast. Perhaps it was their confidence that led more than 20 yachts to try to sail the Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific this summer. As of last week, all these vessels were stuck in the ice, some at the eastern end of the passage in Prince Regent Inlet, others further west at Cape Bathurst.

Shipping experts said the only way these vessels were likely to be freed was by the icebreakers of the Canadian coastguard. According to the official Canadian government website, the Northwest Passage has remained ice-bound and impassable all summer.

The BBC’s 2007 report quoted scientist Professor Wieslaw Maslowski, who based his views on super-computer models and the fact that ‘we use a high-resolution regional model for the Arctic Ocean and sea ice’.
Link.

It's worth mentioning how often now we are all linking to non-US based newspapers, to find out about what's going on in the world and in our home country.

[Janet - It's not cheating, it's allowed,...& it's free!]

Loved this comment from last night -

Daddy, too bad Benghazi wasn't engulfed in Ice.

Posted by: Gus

[narciso]

Some are starting to look outside the cave;

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-west-is-not-there-and-we-are-in.html

[daddy]

Hit,

I'd never heard that 1,067 cars were torched across France on New Years Eve from prettier lips!

This actually isn't the one I'm JimmyCarterin' in my heart, but she's okay doing the Climate Change weather.

[Immigration Lawyer]

"Not to mention the sort who finds great humor in truly torturing and intentionally wounding an innocent animal "

Calling all ignoramuses. Calling all happy, yet naive wanderers.....

This is Gonzo journalism, you insufferable twits.

Bigger than non-fiction, because it is bigger than life and so-called 'facts'

Read something beside Clownhall. Get outside and breathe something besides your dirty socks. Maroons.....

[daddy]

And Nadia Charbit has been outstanding on the elections in Mauritius...Or is it Muritania?

[Danube on iPad]

Wonderful today, Clarice.

[Beasts of England]

I hope seeing a picture of Tiny Tim first thing this morning didn't set the tone for my day! ;)

Great Pieces, Clarice!

[daddy]

L'il help.

Can you guys verify the first game starts in just under 3 hours from now?

We're planning on bailing out quick and trying to catch a seat about an hour 45 early since the place gets jam packed quick.

[Jeff Dobbs]

At the bar where I play pool, someone always has to put Tiptoe Through the Tulips on the juke box. At first, it was met with resounding and derisive boos, but now everybody just laughs.

It's a slippery slope the end results of which I'm not sure I'm willing to fully contemplate.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

I don't know whether to be happy or scared:

Could 2014 be the “Year of the Tea Party Democrat”?

[Jeff Dobbs]

Yes, daddy, just under three hours from now.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

Mitt Romney on FNS responding classily to that lisping idiot on MSDNC. Not sure why this is news and Romney looked uncomfortable talking about it. The current segment about the Feds hammering the Little Sisters of the Poor. A NARAL rep will have a difficult time arguing this.

[Janet - It's not cheating, it's allowed,...& it's free!]

I don't know whether to be happy or scared:

When libs can't defeat institution from the outside, they join & dismantle them from the inside.
So I'd say scared is the correct answer.

[daddy]

Thanks Hit-san,

Will be bailing soon.

Hard to recall my fav Tiny Tim episode. Carson, der Bingle, or Sinatra?

Cheers Beasts:)

[Jeff Dobbs]

Speaking of pool, we're starting our new season next week. I'm trying to get a new guy from the neighborhood committed to playing.

He's Canadian. I went and looked up his linkedin profile to find out more about him. He's a research scientist at an agri-business specializing in crop protection/production.

He graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with both a bachelor's and a masters.

His masters degree?

Master of Science (MSc), Weed Science

Dude, that's so cool man.

[jimmyk]

I'd never heard that 1,067 cars were torched across France on New Years Eve from prettier lips!

Daddy, keep an eye out for this lady, Melissa Theuriau, also apparently an excellent French news anchor.

[Captain Hate on the iPhone]

The blue dogs have shown themselves to be gelded curs who cower under Pelosi's leash. Maybe the hilljacks of West Virginny are happy with Manchin, and it's hard to dislodge incumbents, but I wouldn't worry about his ilk.

[clarice]

Thanks.

Gus, wonderful!

[jimmyk]

When libs can't defeat institution from the outside, they join & dismantle them from the inside.

Except that fortunately there is no "Tea Party" institution. My guess is that Dems moving to the right will have about as much success as Rs moving to the left.

[jimmyk]

Great Pieces, Clarice. I was inspired to look a map of Elephant and S. Georgia islands. Had not realized how close Patagonia is to all that, but it seems like Shackleton and his crew probably couldn't control the lifeboats so well and had to go whichever direction the currents and winds took them.

[jimmyk]

"South Georgia" got cut off, but you can see it in the upper right.

[daddy]

keep an eye out for this lady, Melissa Theuriau

Thanks JimmyK, Hopefully she'll be at the Great Canadian tonight!

Au revoir, a demain.

[Institutional tea party ignoramus]

It's like a war, but I digress.

"Democrats aren’t wasting any time tackling an issue they are convinced will help them this election year: income inequality.

One of the Senate’s first votes upon returning to Washington from their holiday break Monday will be on a bill reviving emergency unemployment benefits that lapsed at the end of 2013.

The vote marks the first concrete step by Democrats toward a populist economic platform ahead of the November elections. The inequality campaign will intensify later in the year with a push in the Senate to raise the federal minimum wage that will be synced with President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech expected to dig heavily into the issue of economic disparity.

The focus on income inequality builds on the economic themes Obama successfully harnessed to beat Mitt Romney in 2012. Democrats believe they can win again by spotlighting the growing divides between the rich and poor and daring Republicans to oppose legislation aimed at benefiting low-income Americans.
“Our Republican colleagues should take note. Certainly we’re going to build on the progress we’ve made to reduce the deficit, but it is no longer the most important issue that we face,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) in laying out Senate Democrats’ agenda for the coming year. “Issues like job creation, minimum wage, and unemployment insurance are going to weigh on the minds of voters far more than Obamacare by the time the 2014 elections roll around.”"

[DrJ]

New effin' thread.

[Account Deleted]

Compliments on a great Pieces, Clarice.

Jane,

If you use Gallup polling on approval of BOzo's failed performance as a surrogate for direction of various groups, then the last paragraph of that piece is correct. Conservative Dems are going to try and separate themselves as a bloc from the general failure of the Progressive Democrat Party but don't expect to see them at Tea Party rallies.

As the progressive failure of BOzocare and its negative effect upon employment becomes manifest we should expect to see Tea Party growth from the pure independent category. The pure independents show the greatest disaffection with BOzo's abject failure, with approval dropping from 47% to 23% as he has stumbled from one catastrophe to another over five years.

[clarice]

I see the Ronne ice shelf on that ap. Finn Ronne was an eccentric sort of norwegian explorer for whom we used to do some legal work. He was always angry at his wife and kept claiming he wanted us to file divorce papers immediately. We never did and they remained together until he died. She died about a yar or so ago.

[Danube on iPad]

Single payer is inevitable:

"One critical distinction generally lost amid the naïve but passionate backers of nationalized insurance is the difference between being insured and having access to care.

"Despite the chest-thumping that everyone is insured, U.K. citizens relying on the NHS experience unconscionable problems with access to care, problems not even remotely found in the U.S.

"How poor is access to care in socialized systems like the NHS? Access problems are so widespread that the government was compelled to issue England’s 2010 'NHS Constitution' in which it was declared that no patient should wait beyond 18 weeks for treatment."

[glasater]

I imagine the various TP groups take on various colors STS but...our local group started out with a great amount of interest from people all over the county.

That interest dropped considerably when the local group was taken over by members who were of a more religious bent. I know many who withdrew when that happened.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Glasater, I was just going to say that. The tea party in the next town is run by people I love, but who are completely fixated on social issues. I've taken them aside and warned them it is hurting enrollment, but it doesn't seem to stop them.

That is the biggest complaint I've heard about the tea party. And frankly, it is not what the tea party is about.

[sbwaters]

Jane, ask your buddies in the next town where in "Taxed Enough Already" it is that spells "social issues"?

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

I know SBW, I know.

[Janet]

What tea party group are you a member of, sbw?

I have a hard time with complaints about the people that are "in the arena".
After the non-stop slandering of tea party groups by the MFM, lots of the people that continued to engage were the hard core believers that didn't care what the MFM said....
I say God bless them. If the purist "Taxed Enough Already" citizens (with whom I agree) want to stay engaged...well then, STAY ENGAGED.

[glasater]

I hear you, Jane.

And then during the WA state's GMO initiative last Fall several members took advantage and peppered the group with food labeling propaganda in favor of!

I understand that there are some people who will take advantage of a group's good will but...

[glasater]

And I hear You Too, Janet :-)

[sbwaters]

What tea party group are you a member of, sbw?

None. It is hard to be an active member of political groups and publisher of a local daily newspaper so I just editorialize on the issues rather than advocate for specific groups.

They know where I stand.

[Janet]

Another thing...
It seems like a lot of the Obamacare push back has been from social conservatives that are are willing to fight.

Leftist Media Cult Members Attack Little Sisters Of The Poor, Calling Them “Weasels” For Refusing To Be Bullied By Obama Regime
http://weaselzippers.us/?p=166656

and Hobby Lobby.

[Porchlight]

Agree with Janet at 1:19.

[Porchlight]

And at 3:16.

Are the social moderates fighting for freedom of religion? Or are they leaving that up to the religious types? Because right after freedom of religion comes freedom of speech and all the rest. "First they came for the nuns," etc.

Also, find your staunchest fiscal conservatives in Congress and guess what - they're almost always the staunchest social conservatives as well. The fiscally conservative, socially liberal person is something of a rara avis, at least in public life. In this battle I will take any soldiers I can find.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

I think there is a definite meeting of social conservatives and tea partiers on most issues. The problem is, the intense concentration on social issues is off-putting to some people. I know of no one who ever changes their mind when forced into something. I think the trick is leading by example, like you do Janet, not talking about it endlessly, or surrounding people and making them part of practicing your beliefs.

In MA for example most independents and all democrats are pro-choice. If they are fiscal conservatives I want them to feel comfortable in the tea party.

[cathyf]

Getting the fnork to go along with repealing the insurance company bailouts is going to be a pretty tough sell. The top 5 recipients of insurance company lobbying are all Republicans, and #4 is Mitch McConnell.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries./indus.php?ind=F09

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

Interesting Cathy. I wonder who is giving them what.

[Porchlight]

I don't know how to make it work, Jane. But surely if folks didn't like what the local tea party is doing, then they could find a group in another town. That's how it works with churches, anyway - people shop around. Or with anything else. I guess you have to know that there are multiple options.

[Jane-Rebel Alliance1]

People don't look that hard for a tea party. Maybe that will change.