Mostly sympathetically -- they can't avoid noting the liberal suspicion he's merely going senile, and the article suggests several times that he is merely a contrarian for the sake of contrarianism, so why pay him any heed? He's just trying to resist consensus to keep the science unsettled and self-examining, you know. Certainly he doesn't believe the crap he's saying.

Freeman Dyson has been notably un-noted by the MSM for quite some time-- despite being "infinitely brilliant," as one colleague says, they just haven't bothered to report his serious and quite well-credentialed skepticism of global warming. For the two usual reasons: They didn't want to provide this particular fire with any oxygen, and trashing a genius like Dyson -- and not merely a genius, but a beloved genius -- would require too much effort and nuance.

Note the lack of context supplied here:

A particularly distressed member of that public was Dyson’s own wife, Imme, who, after seeing the film in a local theater with Dyson when it was released in 2006, looked at her husband out on the sidewalk and, with visions of drowning polar bears still in her eyes, reproached him: “Everything you told me is wrong!” she cried.

“The polar bears will be fine,” he assured her.

This suggests that Dyson just doesn't care about polar bears. In fact, Dyson is certainly referring to the fact that polar bears swim all the time, and are frequently "stranded" on melting icebergs. Icebergs are always floating about the ocean and melting -- that's what they do. He's referring to the fact that Al Gore's picture of "drowning" polar bears is and always was a sham, a picture removed from the context that the iceberg was fairly near the coast. As this Australian TV report notes.

But as the article has it, Dyson simply dismisses any concern about the drowning polar bears.

I suppose there's a limit to how much truth the Times is willing to print.

Still, while the reporter dutifully suggests Dyson is just a cranky old crank you don't need to listen to, the story still manages to get out. Dyson doesn't think much of Al Gore or NASA's James Hanson, for example:

IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO that Dyson began publicly stating his doubts about climate change. Speaking at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, Dyson announced that “all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated.” Since then he has only heated up his misgivings, declaring in a 2007 interview with Salon.com that “the fact that the climate is getting warmer doesn’t scare me at all” and writing in an essay for The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin, that climate change has become an “obsession” — the primary article of faith for “a worldwide secular religion” known as environmentalism. Among those he considers true believers, Dyson has been particularly dismissive of Al Gore, whom Dyson calls climate change’s “chief propagandist,” and James Hansen, the head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and an adviser to Gore’s film, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Dyson accuses them of relying too heavily on computer-generated climate models that foresee a Grand Guignol of imminent world devastation as icecaps melt, oceans rise and storms and plagues sweep the earth, and he blames the pair’s “lousy science” for “distracting public attention” from “more serious and more immediate dangers to the planet.”

...

. Climate models, he says, take into account atmospheric motion and water levels but have no feeling for the chemistry and biology of sky, soil and trees. “The biologists have essentially been pushed aside,” he continues. “Al Gore’s just an opportunist. The person who is really responsible for this overestimate of global warming is Jim Hansen. He consistently exaggerates all the dangers.”

But what about the polar bears?

Worth reading. The link goes to excepts at NewsBusters, but worth clicking through to the whole NYT article if this topic floats your icebergs.

Posted by: Ace at 11:36 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 696 words, total size 5 kb.

The theme of the day. A canvasser for Organizing for America, aka Oliver's Army Obama's Army:

“We’re looking for supporters,” said DeHaven of Hoover, one of the event’s organizers. “We’re not looking for a fight. That will come later, when we have an army.”

I can't tell from the report whether he means this literally or metaphorically. Metaphorically, I suppose, though there's nothing in the account to determine it one way or the other. They already are fighting politically -- for Obama's obscene deficits -- so one wonders what fights they might have in mind, "later."

It should also be noted that left-wing trust-fund revolutionary types often employ the language of warfare without any real intent to do any warring themselves. But they do hope their unhinged rants will provoke others -- who aren't as soft and pussified as themselves -- into "direct action," as they call it.

Posted by: Ace at 11:15 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 156 words, total size 1 kb.

Keithie wants to agree so badly -- so he can bash some or other conservative for calling Obama a fascist -- but then sorta remembers he called Bush a fascist a fair amount, and ponders if he's employing a double standard.

Olbermann Watch mashes up Keithie's newfound antipathy for the term fascist with his previous embrace of the epithet.

The paranoid style of American politics -- Catch the Fever!

Posted by: Ace at 10:48 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 99 words, total size 1 kb.

So writes Fred Barnes.

I would say it's worse than "pablum." Frequently, it's simply a flat-out lie:

Obama also seems misinformed about America's economic record in recent decades. Prosperity was "fleeting," he said, but "our strategy is to ensure that we do not return to an economic cycle of bubble and bust." Again, this was in his text.

If he's talking about the past quarter-century, most Americans would love to return to that era. From late 1982 well into 2007, we experienced one of the greatest economic booms in the history of the world, interrupted only by two shallow and brief recessions. Prosperity wasn't fleeting. It was practically non-stop--until the housing bust and credit crisis hit last year.

An incredible period of growth, sustained over a quarter century, is termed "fleeting."

This is the true Obama. He is entirely unlike Clinton. His dream -- long and deeply held -- is to entirely remake America under the socialist models preferred by his mentors Frank Davis Long, Bill Ayers, and Sol Alinsky. It is for that reason he is compelled to contemptuously dismiss a nigh-uninterrupted quarter century of vigorous growth and innovation and prosperity as merely "fleeting." His goal is destroy America's economy and rebuild it along lines more pleasing to his socialist idols, and to do so, he must first lie about its history and convince the public they've been living lives of desperate squalor except for a brief phase of "fleeting" prosperity, which I suppose occurred for about a year before the market crash.

The lie must be rejected.

Thanks to EdwardR.

Posted by: Ace at 10:27 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 266 words, total size 2 kb.

The paranoid style of criticizing the paranoid style of politics.

And speaking of that. Hugely syndicated liberal cartoonist Pat Oliphant just doodled this off...

...and yet the left would presume to lecture the right on respectable discourse and paranoia, eh?

Posted by: Ace at 09:53 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 72 words, total size 1 kb.

Posted by: LauraW at 09:21 AM | Add Comment
Post contains 4 words, total size 1 kb.

BUMP.

Sorry to bore you guys, but I received a request to bump this post One More Time.

Original post below.
---------------------------------
We anticipate that in Summertime, there will be fewer opportunities for attendance at AOSHQ Moron meet n' greets. Meeting your fakey internet friends could take a backseat to vacations, weddings, outdoor activities and other seasonal social events.

So take advantage of this remaining time to shake a fellow hobo-hunter's hand (bring sanitizer).

The next Connecticut Moron Meetup is scheduled to occur THIS SATURDAY, March 28th in Norwalk. It will be held at a pool hall this time because Wiserbud is not comfortable around people who always wear shoes in public.

AOSHQ Morons from other states are very welcome at the CT Meetup.

UPDATE: Sassypants in the comments:

Technically, the CT Moron Meet Up is in South Norwalk or SoNo, which, if you're from around here, you know is much more exciting than regular Norwalk. Once again, New Yorkers, come out and play with us. Express trains from the city run every hour (7 minutes after the hour) and will take you to South Norwallk (stops are: Stamford, Noroton Heights, Darien, South Norwalk). A short cab ride (or walk even) is the next step. Be careful walking in SoNo at night, though. Lots of boutiques and good restaurants align Washington Street in SoNo. We had so much fun at the last CT meet-up, we hope to see all of you and many more newcomers.

IMPORTANT UPDATE #2: Sassy again:

I feel almost famous now, Laura, with my comments up at the top.

The Star-Making power of this blog is intoxicating.

As always, Blankminde's Google map with listings and email info. for regional groups is below the fold. more...

Posted by: LauraW at 08:04 AM | Comments (2)
Post contains 295 words, total size 2 kb.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:10 AM | Comments (7)
Post contains 8 words, total size 1 kb.

Item 1: This is local (in a Seattle sense) but really, what other city in this fine nation of ours provides such a steady stream of comedy gold? You’ve heard about the “Bridge to Nowhere” in Alaska? Well, how about the Sidewalk to Nowhere. Quite possibly the most nonsensical enforcement of a building regulation you’ll ever see. There’s video at the the link along with more linky to a Seattle Times article. Link courtesy of Dori Monson who appears to be some sort of radio talk show host.

Item 2: Ace put up a post earlier regarding Univision and their telenovelas, but he admitted at the end that he didnÂ’t really speak Spanish and whatnot. Which is probably true for most of us. So hereÂ’s a little primer to get you started. Feel free to try out your new language skills in the comments below. Next week, weÂ’ll work on mastering Mandarin.

Item3: I really shouldnÂ’t do this given what happened last weekend between a couple of the co-bloggers. But theyÂ’re not awake at the moment so here goes: An oldie but a goodie.

DonÂ’t forget to visit overnight open threadÂ’s sponsor, Remy lace wigs. TheyÂ’re wigilicious!

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to xgenghisx@gmail.com. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Posted by: Open Blog at 10:07 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 233 words, total size 2 kb.

So ruled U.S. District Judge David Circone on Monday (PDF), but this is apparently a fairly settled question.

Here, the plaintiff, David Hackbart, was parallel parking at a meter along a city street when another car approached from behind. That car's driver then pulled partially into the metered parking spot, thus preventing Hackbart from pulling into the spot. The other driver then refused to move, so Hackbart flipped him the middle finger.

This was witnessed by a passing police officer who then told Hackbart, "Don't flip him off." Well, Hackbart then flipped off the police officer too. So the police officer pulled him over and cited him for disorderly conduct. Hackbart fought it and now a federal judge says the police officer violated Hackbart's First Amendment speech right.

I can't say I every really thought about it before so I'm a little surprised by this result, but the judge did a great job analyzing the question. And he's not alone: more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:54 PM | Add Comment
Post contains 358 words, total size 2 kb.