John Hinderaker at PowerLine have been doing a great job digging through the emails leaked from the the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit.

The "tricks" to obscure climate data weren't just being used ten years ago. Here John notes a September 28, 2009, email on a researcher's efforts to massage the data to get an arbitrarily chosen "blip" in the data.

At the same link, John points out the emails reveal the less-than-scientific interests of the researchers:

What they reveal, more than anything, is a bunker mentality. These pro-global warming scientists see themselves as under siege, and they view AGW skeptics as bitter enemies. They are often mean-spirited; the web site American Thinker is referred to as "American Stinker;" at one point an emailer exults in the death of a global warming skeptic; another one suggests that the Ph.D. of a prominent skeptic should be revoked because of an error he made decades ago in his dissertation; another says that he is tempted to "beat the crap out of" the same scientist. The emails show beyond any reasonable doubt that these individuals are engaged in politics, not science.

In this post John tracks how the researchers responded to critique by circling the wagons and then slandering the critic.

And here he lists the discussion which led to the deletion of emails in the face of a FOI request.

Each post is highly recommended reading.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:16 PM | Comments (230)
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The lowest approval for Obama yet on Gallup, and the highest disapproval, and so of course the narrowest margin between them.

SNL, as Jimbo posted below, finally finds something funny about this president. That's what happens, I guess, when a president sinks to 48-44.

Posted by: Ace at 10:32 AM | Comments (198)
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Get your picks in before Jay Cutler starts throwing his. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 08:48 AM | Comments (278)
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Instapundit has this embedded, but it's not NBC's copy so they will probably get it pulled. The bloom is certainly off Obama's onion and this opening sequence for SNL is absolutely wicked. It takes a minute to get rolling, you have to wait for the Obama drone to shut up. But once it starts they tear him up on every one of his socialist programs and coming from the Chinese leader, that's rich. He is in deep shite now.

Bonus Lefty Troll Stupidity! [ace]: It's heartening to see the lefty trolls don't only spread their retardation on this site. Check out the first comment (at the moment) listed under this video on NBC's site:

Anyone who looks at this is a slam on Obama is watching too much Fox News. SNL and NBC are slamming the idiots who think the USA governs it's people in a superior way to China. Chinese government lies to their people all the time. But at least all their people know it. This skit is a slam on the left and right here in the states.

Uh-huh.

But seriously, if you haven't watched it, it's worth a watch. It's in the middle where the "Chinese President" really starts up on Obamanomics. I'm embedding it for your convenience.

Thanks for that to a poster whose email name looks like a contraction of a real name, so I won't post the name.

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 08:43 AM | Comments (187)
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I don't know what it is, but it looks to one of the rotating ads when it appears. IE 6 is working OK.

Obviously, one of the ad pushers doesn't test their shit too well before foisting it off on the public.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:30 AM | Comments (92)
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Is it an Awakening a la Anbar? Maybe, we'll have to see. But it is certainly good news.

ACHIN, Afghanistan — American and Afghan officials have begun helping a number of anti-Taliban militias that have independently taken up arms against insurgents in several parts of Afghanistan, prompting hopes of a large-scale tribal rebellion against the Taliban.

The emergence of the militias, which took some leaders in Kabul by surprise, has so encouraged the American and Afghan officials that they are planning to spur the growth of similar armed groups across the Taliban heartland in the southern and eastern parts of the country.

The American and Afghan officials say they are hoping the plan, called the Community Defense Initiative, will bring together thousands of gunmen to protect their neighborhoods from Taliban insurgents. Already there are hundreds of Afghans who are acting on their own against the Taliban, officials say.

It will take something just like this across much of the country, but it is exactly what Gen. McChrystal's plan calls for facilitating. What these tribes need now is our help ensuring they do not get rolled over by a Taliban push back. We need to give them air support, weapons, and yes satchels of cash to use as they see fit. We must tread lightly so as not to upset the local nature of these uprisings, but we must cover their backs. Then as we talk to tribal leaders in other areas we can point to these successes and give them some motivation.

It will be a delicate ballet as there are many different tribes who have as many beefs with each other as they do w/ the Talibs, but we can handle that. We need to take advantage of this and get our own push back against the enemy going. Our troops deserve a decision. Make the call sir!

Posted by: Uncle Jimbo at 08:18 AM | Comments (29)
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Okay, so this is OLD (thanks Dave at GR), but it pinged my weird-shit-o-meter when I saw it. All the female bears in a German zoo have lost their fur.

Veterinarians are struggling to determine why the zoo's female spectacled bears have suddenly lost nearly all their fur, which is typically shaggy for both females and males of their species. There has been speculation that a genetic defect could be responsible, but beyond the obvious hair loss and its accompanying itchiness, no other symptoms have been noted in the affected bears.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:00 PM | Comments (153)
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I've never seen anything like this before in my life


INDEXING OF AMOUNT.—In the case
5 of any calendar year beginning after 2017, the
6 applicable dollar amount shall be equal to $750,
7 increased by an amount equal to—
8 ‘‘(i) $750, multiplied by
9 ‘‘(ii) the cost-of-living adjustment de
10 termined under section 1(f)(3) for the cal
11 endar year, determined by substituting
12 ‘calendar year 2016’ for ‘calendar year
13 1992Â’ in subparagraph (B) thereof.


Also, far less offensive than the Pelosi POS, are the consequences if you fail to pay the tax/penalty:


WAIVER OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PENALTIES AND INTEREST.
—In the case of any failure
12 by a taxpayer to timely pay any tax imposed by this
13 section—
14 ‘‘(A) such taxpayer shall not be subject to
15 any criminal prosecution or penalty with respect
16 to such failure, and
17 ‘‘(B) no penalty, addition to tax, or inter
18 est shall be imposed with respect to such failure
19 or such tax.
20 ‘‘(2) LIMITED COLLECTION ACTIONS PERMITTED.
—In the case of the assessment of any tax
22 imposed by this section, the Secretary shall not take
23 any action with respect to the collection of such tax
24 other than—
1 ‘‘(A) giving notice and demand for such
2 tax under section 6303,
3 ‘‘(B) crediting under section 6402(a) the
4 amount of any overpayment of the taxpayer
5 against such tax, and
6 ‘‘(C) offsetting any payment owed by any
7 Federal agency to the taxpayer against such tax
8 under the Treasury offset program.Â’Â’.


Someone must have felt some scorching heat in the Senate to have stripped out the PelosiPrisons™ and substituted this much watered down penalty language.

PUBLIC PRESSURE APPARENTLY CAN GET ASPECTS OF THIS SHIT SANDWICH CHANGED. We should be encouraged by that even though the vote tonight didn't go our way. THEY ARE STARTING TO BEND.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:12 PM | Comments (131)
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Welcome to Saturday all you M&M-types. Grab a drink and get ready to speak of moronic things. If you can work in Hobo talk so much the better.

Beastie Boys' Sabotage Video Redone with Scenes from The Empire Strikes Back
The original video was pretty good and this one works surprisingly well too. So I guess that makes it a parody of a parody - a parody²?

Posted by: Open Blog at 06:10 PM | Comments (881)
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I think the moral of this story is that if you get a few thousand stupid people together, they will behave stupidly.

Three thousand people gathered at a mall in Garden City to see teen pop singer Justin Bieber. I've never heard of him, but apparently he gets the the teenage girls hot and bothered. About two hours before his scheduled arrival, the gathered fans had a mass conniption and started knocking each other down and sending each other to the hospital.

Police arrested a vice president from Bieber's record label, Island Def Jam Records, saying he wasn't cooperating with attempts to disperse the crowd.

James Roppo, 44, of Hoboken, N.J., was charged with a series of misdemeanors, including endangering the welfare of children and obstructing governmental administration.

"We asked for his help in getting the crowd to go away by sending out a Twitter message," said Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith. "By not cooperating with us, we feel he put lives in danger and the public at risk."

In this country, failure to act is almost never a crime. As the old lawschool hypo goes, an Olympic-class swimmer can watch a child drown in a lake and not be legally required to do anything about it. (This example is also frequently used to illustrate the difference between imposed legal requirements and moral duties.)

Unless this record label guy had some legal duty to protect the gathered fans, a conviction will never hold up. The Nassau County Police should know better. The report says he's charged with several misdemeanors, so maybe there's something more to the story.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:17 PM | Comments (72)
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