Sort of funny, I guess. Makes a good point... an obvious one, but a point.

One thing they note that wasn't obvious to me (though I think I did wonder): when the noble Free Range Farmer makes his wondrous meal at the end, using old-world farming techniques, he apparently includes no meat whatsoever.

This gets the vegetarians and PeTA on board with Chipotle, while sort of ignoring the fact that Chipotle serves meat and chicken, just like any other fast food place.

Posted by: Ace at 11:07 AM | Comments (101)
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The Science is Settled.

But don't ask how the Science got Settled. That's like asking how a cow got turned into a hamburger. You don't want to know. It's ugly.

AP show the U.S. and other governments pushed scientists preparing a new UN climate report due out next week to omit or downplay evidence that the earthÂ’s atmosphere has stopped warming for the past 15 years.

From the wire - “Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted, saying a time span of 10 to 15 years was misleading in the context of climate change, which is measured over decades and centuries. The U.S. also urged the authors to include the ‘leading hypothesis’ that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean.”

Ahem. Why are government bureaucrats telling Scientists what they think the Science should be? Isn't the whole point of the "Consensus of Scientists" line that Scientists have come to these conclusions based on nothing but Science?

That article -- more of a round-up than a full article -- links to this fuller one.

STOCKHOLM – Scientists working on a landmark U.N. report on climate change are struggling to explain why global warming appears to have slowed down in the past 15 years even though greenhouse gas emissions keep rising.

Leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press show there are deep concerns among governments over how to address the issue ahead of next week's meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

...

The IPCC report is expected to affirm the human link with greater certainty than ever...

Let me just quickly say: "Of course."

... but the panel is under pressure to also address the recent lower rate of warming, which scientists say is likely due to heat going deep into the ocean and natural climate fluctuations.

...

Germany called for the reference to the slowdown to be deleted, saying a time span of 10-15 years was misleading in the context of climate change, which is measured over decades and centuries.

The U.S. also urged the authors to include the "leading hypothesis" that the reduction in warming is linked to more heat being transferred to the deep ocean.

Belgium objected to using 1998 as a starting year for any statistics. That year was exceptionally warm, so any graph showing global temperatures starting with 1998 looks flat, because most years since have been cooler. Using 1999 or 2000 as a starting year would yield a more upward-pointing curve.

Hungary worried the report would provide ammunition for skeptics.

Belgium wanted to play games with the start date. Hide the Decline 2.

As far as the US' insistence on the Ocean Gobbles Up More Excess Heat Than We Realized Hypothesis -- first, this is, by their own terms, just a hypothesis. This is a mere speculation offered up to account for the complete failure of their models, supposedly nearly flawless, to predict a 15 year span of no increased heating despite rising CO2 levels.

So there's so much hidden in this. First, they don't want to admit that part about "our models failed and now we're thrashing about throwing out off-the-cuff speculations."

Second, they don't want to admit that their models -- so perfect, so accurate that we should make multitrillion century long policy decisions based on their outputs -- now require supplementation by a brand-new untested, unproven speculation.

Third, throwing in an easy off-the-cuff speculation to a supposedly perfect model means the model as a whole -- the model plus the speculation -- now has the provenance of just the speculation. That is to say, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. If the theory-- supposedly a theory in the scientific jargon of an all-but-uncontestable demonstrable truth -- now relies, critically, on a new speculation, then the entire system is now just at the level of a speculation.

Fourth, My God. My old chemistry teacher used to joke about the Finageler's Constant one would add to any experiment when one's experimental results departed from the expected ones. "Just add the Finageler's Constant," he'd chuckle. "Or subtract it. Whatever it takes." (Note: He was kidding. He was actually calling us out for being in the habit of doing this.)

But this is what "Science" is now doing -- eh, just toss in the Finageler's Constant. Sure our vaunted models failed spectacularly, but if you grant us this new Finageler's Constant, they sort of look okay.

Fifth. After being told that it didn't matter that the models had no idea how to account for the effect of clouds -- an enormous moving part in any model of the geosphere -- and so would be assumed to have no effect at all, we're also now being told that it's No Biggie if they also don't know how to model the behavior of the Oceans.

What? Your models perfectly predict the interaction of sun, cloud, and ocean, except you never bother to look at the variation in the Sun's solar output, you just assume for mathematical convenience that Clouds don't matter at all, and now you add to this that the Oceans might have some Mystery Properties you were hitherto entirely ignorant of?

You don't understand the Sun, the Clouds, and now The Oceans, and you're telling me that apart from these niggling concerns, you understand all that there is to understand about the Earth's combined atmosphere and hydrosphere?

Can you tell me what you do know, and what you are able to accurately model, apart from these minor "Let's assume they do not vary" factors of Sun, Cloud, and Oceans?

One could understand if they couldn't account for some small-ball factors in all of this.

But The Ckufing OCEANS?

That doesn't seem like a minor factor to me, guys. Sort of seems like something important enough that you should have researched its properties long before even announcing your Pet Theory.

Yeah you're all right. You guys sound like you know exactly what you're talking about.

Certainly you don't sound like high school juniors who just got caught out by their teacher for adding in the Finageler's Constant. No, nothing like that at all.

Thanks to @rdbrewer4

It's Gets Better:

AllenG writes...

Wait. The ocean absorbing more of the heat would lead to higher ocean temperatures.

Oh it's better than that, guys. Because there is no measurable elevation of ocean temperatures. (Or, I should say, no elevation that can explain the missing Global Warming, anyways.)

So what they speculate is that the heat falls down to the bottom of the ocean where it can't easily be measured. Like it winds up sequestered beneath a thermocline or something.

That's this Finageler's Constant -- the ocean's warming up, sucking up this excess heat, but it does so in such a way that it can't be measured.

Could this be true? Ehhh... sure. It's possible. Doesn't seem likely, but whatever, sure, it's technically possible there are hitherto unknown "ocean belts of heat transport" which move excess heat to the bottom of the ocean, safely hidden from scientists' thermometers.

But many things could be true, for God's sakes. Science isn't supposed to be a matter of "eh... I dunno, maybe the ocean secrets away the excess warming so we can't see it? Yeah, go with that!!!"

more...

Posted by: Ace at 09:56 AM | Comments (358)
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On today's episode, PhD's Drew M., John E., Rick Tempest and I are joined by Sonny Bunch, PhD, Editor of The Washington Free Beacon.

We discuss the media's rush to blame the AR-15 for the Navy Yard shooting, Starbucks' announcement on open carry, the Washington Redskins and the media's selectivity with regard to calling things by their rightful names and, last but not least, the Doctors reluctantly wade into a discussion of the GOP's internecine warfare over ObamaCare.

Pay close attention around the hour and ten minute mark to hear Dr. Tempest unveil his Barack Obama and Jay Carney impersonations.

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Gabriel Malor, PhD (@GabrielMalor)
John E., PhD (@JohnEkdahl)
Andy, PhD (@TheH2 and @AndyM1911)

Posted by: andy at 01:20 PM | Comments (146)
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Yes, California is screwed. I don't think Republican's can ever win again when you hear this type of stuff. Students at USC: Obama's Nobel Peace Prize Totally Deserved, But Can't Explain Why.

Another student said she supported everything that he was doing. His very existence was creating peace, she said.

“I just feel like in general being a good guy, it’s just creating a lot more peace and like, mellow,” she said. “The fact that he is for the people creates peace in and of itself.”

When asked how she could support Obama’s Syrian policies but oppose Bush’s Iraq policies, she justified the contradiction by stating, “Bush, I just didn’t like him.”

Posted by: CDR M at 06:05 PM | Comments (935)
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Via @benk84's news dump: 18 shot in Chicago in a 4 hour period. This number includes a mass shooting in which 13 were shot, including a 3 year old baby.

It's very strange that the media just completely ignores a mass shooting event. (Caveat/Correction: gp says I'm just wrong about this-- that the media didn't "completely ignore" it, and didn't even mostly ignore it. I will provisionally take his word for that (while still doubting that the media give it Newton-style play or Navy Yard style play). But even if I'm wrong in the premise -- this would merely be the latest of a hundred deadly days in Chicago. If this one got coverage -- okay. But there were 99 before this one.)

I can only assume the perpetrator and the victims were both black. Because the media simply will not report on crime committed by blacks, or even committed against blacks (unless the perpetrator is white or at least a "White Hispanic").

This is a very weird effect of PC -- for years they embargoed stories about blacks committing crimes, ostensibly because Media You Guys helped perpetrate negative attitudes about blacks.

But it also has this bizarre side-effect: You have a bunch of victims here, who, were they white (or of differing races) would be America's Top Story. But because they're black, the media just shrugs and says "Meh."

So a rule imposed ostensibly to "help" blacks winds up also imposing a code of silence about blacks being victimized by crime and tragedy.

This is really the only thing I've learned in closing in on ten years of public writing: You can't outfox the truth.

By which I mean, the Truth is always the best policy. Always. When you get cute and decide some Truths shouldn't be reported, ostensibly for the Greater Good, you will soon find that you're actually advancing the Greater Evil.

I have to think right now that blacks might well be wondering why a mass-shooting in which most victims are black fails to generate the slightest blip on the national media radar.

Doesn't the media even care? I have to think some blacks are wondering.

And the actual answer, I think, is this: Yes, they do care. In fact so much they're willing to suppress the news of all tragedies that befall you. Because they think that is what is best for you.

So complete media silence on a tragedy due to a policy designed, condescendingly, to "help" blacks.

Has it helped them? Who knows. I don't. Perhaps it has. But it does result in a complete embargo of most crime occurring in inner-city mostly-black communities.

Perhaps the media is upset because people outside inner-city mostly-black communities don't seem to care. How could they care? The media has redacted all of this from the public record. How do they even know about it? The media's own policy is designed to ensure they don't know about it in the first place.

But when you deviate from the path of the truth, you travel with lies. And lies will lead to all sorts of bizarre outcomes, like a media which is suffused with White Liberal Guilt deciding that a bunch of black people shot in a mass shooting in Chicago is No Big Whoop.

I'm always amused by liberal critics who make fun of the media for only reporting crime involving or affecting whites. White blonde girl is kidnapped?, they giggle. Wow! That sounds like 24/7 coverage to me!

Well, first of all, let's point out that the kidnapping of a child is a major crime which naturally interests (outrages) people. It's a bit bizarre to suggest that such a thing is unworthy of coverage at all.

But second of all, let's do note that the reason for this strange outcome is that the media is dutifully obeying the rules laid down by the liberal critics themselves: Crime does not exist except if it involves white people, preferably on the "perpetrator" side of the ledger. And a kidnapping of a white girl will usually involve a white perp, so it's likely to turn out to be a "safe" story.

Hell, Michael Moore's big thesis in Bowling for Columbine was that America (high rate of gun ownership, high rate of crime) differed from Canada (high rate of gun ownership, low rate of crime) only because of the "fear" created by media reporting on crime.

It's a silly supposition, but the left is smitten with silliness. The sillier the notion, the more the left will be smitten with it. The left demonstrates its enlightenment by claiming to believe things that only a fool could believe.

And so here then is the result of trying to be cute with the truth, of trying to outfox the truth: 13 people, largely (or entirely) black, were shot in Chicago, and the media which loves stories about mass shootings has absolutely nothing to say on behalf of the victims.

My prescription for the media is the same I'd give to the government: Why don't you start treating people like adults deserving of respect and deserving of the truth, rather than misguided children who have to be forever insulated from it?

more...

Posted by: Ace at 08:52 AM | Comments (331)
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Drops?

Support for gun control has dropped to its lowest level in a year, despite this weekÂ’s Washington Navy Yard shootings and a string of mass shootings over the past 14 months.

What's more, a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that nearly half of all Americans--46 percent--believe that the nation would be less safe if only police and the military were allowed to have guns.

The poll is likely to shell shock those in Congress eager to revive gun control efforts in the wake of the Navy Yard shootings that left 13 dead, including the shooter.

Rasmussen found that just 33 percent believe stricter gun control laws would have prevented the Navy Yard shooting. Some 59 percent said more laws wouldnÂ’t have stopped the shooter.

Well that's correct -- gun control is unlikely to prevent purchases of the Joe Biden endorsed shotgun, unless the left implements its actual plan and confiscates every gun -- but I'm slack-jawed shocked that the public actually knows this.

Posted by: Ace at 08:07 AM | Comments (223)
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• Obamacare Exchanges In 36 States Can't Calculate How Much People Will Pay
  
• Obama Looking To Cripple The Coal Industry
  
• The Real Navy Yard Scandal
  
• US To Allow Syria To Miss Its First Deadline
  
• 18 Shot In A Four Hour Period In Chicago
  
• The Spies Inside Damascus
  
• Pope Francis Making Waves
  
• Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families Of The Deceased
  
• Taranto: The Press And The IRS
  
• Immigration Activist Featured By Time Mag Busted On Kiddie Porn Charges
  
• Going For Broke: Lost Household Income
  
• Man Who Shot Up The Family Research Center Sentenced To 25 Years
  
• Small PA Town Loses A Damn Fine Police Officer
  
• US Pilot Scares Off Iranians With A Top Gun Move
  
• Many Small Businesses Find A Way To Temporarily Sidestep Obamacare Rate Increases
  
• Pelosi Calls Obama Apolitical And Non-Partisan
  
• Why Ted Cruz Is Right About Defunding Obamacare In The Senate
  
• Elephant And Dog Are Best Friend
  
• One Of The Reasons Hockey Is Such A Great Sport
  

Follow me on twitter.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 05:28 AM | Comments (449)
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FRI-DAAAAAAAAY!

POLL: the last time Obamacare received majority support according to ABC-Post polls was in August 2009. There's some amazing results in this one, including that more men than women support the healthcare law.

Home Depot plans to cancel its health coverage for approximately 20,000 part-time workers and send them to the Obamacare exchanges.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee sent around this Buzzfeed-esque release on the President's hypocrisy on Keystone XL. more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:46 AM | Comments (262)
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And now for something really important...

Why the Hell Doesn't McDonald's Serve Breakfast All Day?

6 Books That Destroy Your Image of the People Who Wrote Them

And then you have the curious case of Lynn Cheney and 19th century lesbian erotica.

Plus Why Everyone Is Talking All Retarded and Shit Today

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:02 PM | Comments (652)
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Sorry. I really am run-down.

How about this?

A senior Muslim Brotherhood official who, until recently, had been employed by the William J. Clinton Foundation was arrested in Cairo on Tuesday and charged with inciting violence.

Gehad el-Haddad served as one of the Muslim BrotherhoodÂ’s top communications officials until Egyptian security forces seized him as part of a wider crackdown on officials loyal to ousted former President Mohamed Morsi.

Before emerging as a top Brotherhood official and adviser to Morsi, el-Haddad served for five years as an official at the Clinton Foundation, a nonprofit group founded by former President Bill Clinton.

What?

Can I ask why, exactly, Muslim Brotherhood agents are working for the Clintons?

Does this coziness have something to do with Obama's disastrous embrace of the Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi in Egypt? Or James Clapper's claim that the Muslim Brotherhood is a secularist organization?

Below, more tardigrade stuff.
more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:09 PM | Comments (564)
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