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Thursday, July 12, 2007
John McCaslin :: Townhall.com Columnist
Climate Terror
by John McCaslin
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Poll
Will the Dems' health care Christmas Present to America be an improvement or detriment to our health care system?


Big bull's-eye

We have to laugh at left-wing documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, who was asked the following question during a live chat on the Huffington Post:

Jonathan in Los Angeles: "I would like to ask Mr. Moore ... have you everthought about running for president?"

Mr. Moore: "No. I would like to live."

Washington posts

Speaking of which, that was Ariana Huffington dropping by Washington political pollster Frank Luntz's annual baseball all-star party in McLean on Tuesday night.

The former conservative turned "progressive populist" tells Inside the Beltway she'll be making the rounds in official Washington during most of July before returning home to Los Angeles.

Getting whipped

"I've learned that life in the minority provides you a little more time to think. Not necessarily a good thing, but not necessarily a bad thing to have occasional moments to take stock."
- House Republican Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri, reflecting this week on the eight months that have passed since Democrats swept to power on Capitol Hill.

Persistent problem

Republican Party activist LaDonna Hale Curzon says she just enjoyed watchingon Turner Classic Movies a Ronald Reagan B-movie made in 1939.

"Entitled 'Secret Service of the Air,' a dashing 28-year-old Mr. Reagan plays the role of Lieutenant 'Brass' Bancroft, an ex-Navy flier who works as a commercial airline pilot. One day he quits his well-paying, safe job to becomean agent for the Secret Service," she explains.

"His first assignment is to infiltrate a gang that smuggles illegal aliens from Mexico into the United States by airplane. I found it fascinating that illegal aliens from Mexico were an issue in 1939."

Say what?

Speaking of infiltrators along the U.S.-Mexican border, a Republican congressman isn't buying Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's claim that illegal entry into the United States is decreasing.

"According to their reports, the number of illegals arrested on the Mexico-U.S. border has decreased almost 25 percent," notes Rep. Ted Poe of Texas, a former judge. "Now [Mr. Chertoff] claims illegal crossings are down because apprehensions on the border are down. That is like saying there are fewer carson the road because the police are issuing fewer traffic tickets."

Urgent matters

Now that some in Congress have heaped praise on this past weekend's Live Earth global warming concerts, a Republican congresswoman from Tennessee says it's time to get back to work.

"The last time I checked, global warming didn't have one single thing to do with putting a bomb in Piccadilly Circus or trying to blow up the JFKairport," says Rep. Marsha Blackburn. "Global warming didn't bomb the USS Cole or take down the Twin Towers. Climate change can be studied, but it need not be done at the expense of human intelligence needed to help eliminate international terrorism. We need to adjust our priorities."

Balancing act

No, those won't be protesters closing down Pennsylvania Avenue between 12th and 13th streets Northwest, rather waiters and waitresses.

This year marks the 33rd anniversary of Washington's original Bastille Day Waiter and Waitress Race - 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. - part of the Brasserie LesHalles 2007 Bastille Day Races & Celebration.

Washington, organizers will have you know, was the first U.S. city ever to host a Bastille Day race, and tomorrow restaurant wait staff from all acrossthe region will speed-walk the Pennsylvania Avenue course while balancing atray and its ingredients on one hand.

Our taste buds, meanwhile, can't help but observe that this week's Brasserie menu is drawn from the historical 1824 return to Washington (after a 39-year absence) of French Gen. Marquis de Lafayette. The Frenchman played an essential role in the American Revolution and was much revered and feted by the young nation.

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About The Author

John McCaslin is a contributing columnist on Townhall.com and author of Inside The Beltway: Offbeat Stories, Scoops, and Shenanigans from around the Nation's Capital .

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(16 comments so Far)
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Reply # 1
Date: Jul 15, 2007 - 8:28 AM EST
Eastlake Joe
"I don't know where you get your ideas dude, but I have never made any claims on the world being only 4000 years old. The fossle evidence here in the United States would disprove that."

Trouble is Joe, you're trying to debate with liberals. Liberals don't debate. They use words like "consenus" and "denier" to shut the debate DOWN!

The truth is, that unless you are directly involved with the science, you are at the mercy of the scientific journalists who decide what they are going to tell you.

That is why we all must do our own internet research and keep an open mind.

Hey, maybe man-made global warming is real. However, the upper level for the projected sea level rise is down to 17 inches. Not an average level, but an upper level:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/10/nclimate10.xml

Of course, there are all those pesky non-linearities like "tipping" points that we all have to worry about.

Maybe that's true.

But all these tipping points are all so convenient if the data doesn't match your projections:

"Hey, I know the data tells us not to panic, but what about the TIPPING POINTS!"

In any case, a rerun of the malaise speech really doesn't cut it.

If the liberals are serious about all of this being a problem, then why not some big government initiative for nuclear power and hydroelectric power?

Oh I forgot. The environmental pressure groups Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth don't like practical solutions ... they really want all of us to live like hermits.

Hey - maybe that's what the Medieval warming period was all about! Maybe we had laptops and cars centuries ago, the climate got a bit warmer, and ye olde liberals stepped in and banned progress, like all good progressives do!

Just kidding! They didn't have laptops, only notebooks.

(Just wait for me to be quoted out of context)
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Reply # 2
Date: Jul 14, 2007 - 5:22 PM EST
This column
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Reply # 3
Date: Jul 14, 2007 - 7:26 AM EST
Macro and micro
"I wonder why we are to believe that the computer models can predict the climate 50 years from now when the weather people cannot predict with accuracy the weather next week."

They can measure trends but all you have is a trend line.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4349133.stm

I haven't read enough about the hockey stick to understand if it is just a statistical prediction, or whether there are scientific models underpinning it.

If it is statistical only, then don't forget that statistics require interpretation:

If parameter A rises when parameter B rises that can be down to any number of causes:

- A causing B
- B causing A
- C causing A and B
- Coincidence

Of course, the bold statement "A rises when B rises" is a bit of a simplification ... you also need to understand the degree of correlation.

Otherwise you end up with nothing more scientific than the "skirt length" stock market theory:

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/Comment/2002/c020507c.htm

Building a model is a more scientific approach, but I would imagine that the complexities and uncertainties for a climate model of the earth would be huge.

I have an open mind about man-made global warming. Mildly skeptical about the more outlandish claims, but cautious as well.

I have greater suspicions about the left's attempts to stifle debate than I do about the right's attempts to find holes in the theories.

As soon as someone on the left uses the "consensus" word I know someone is lying to me, because they are using a political word in a scientific context.

As soon as someone on the left uses words like "holocaust denier" to describe climate change skeptics then I know we are dealing with wicked environmental totalitarians (read the source material and you will find out what I mean)
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Reply # 4
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 10:42 PM EST
1Square
A good example of that is the fact that for the last week they have predicted rain in the Eastlake Ohio area and we have yet to recieve any appreciable precip.
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Reply # 5
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 10:31 PM EST
Climate
I wonder why we are to believe that the computer models can predict the climate 50 years from now when the weather people cannot predict with accuracy the weather next week.
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Reply # 6
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 10:29 PM EST
saramouche
I don't know where you get your ideas dude, but I have never made any claims on the world being only 4000 years old. The fossle evidence here in the United States would disprove that.
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Reply # 7
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 5:55 PM EST
I LIKE THE WAY YOU THINK
Thinker-

"Climate Error" Amen!!
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Reply # 8
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 5:10 PM EST
Al Gore doesn't know everything
"Global warming is real; all credible scientists agree on that, the only disagreement today is what global warming will cause to our world."

Global warming MAY be man made.
But how can I tell?

I am not a climate scientist, but I do have a scientific background, and I do know that the term "credible scientist" can be something of an oxymoron.

Let me explain.

Scientists make predictions based on:

(1) Empirical evidence
(2) Mathematical models of the physical world

There is then a dialogue between the empirical evidence and the mathematical models leading to greater refinement of the models and a requirement for more measurements to be taken.

This is how we arrive at a scientific understanding of the world.

However, the "scientists" are trying to have their cake and eat it.

On the one hand, they want us to believe that there may be dangerous positive feedback mechanisms and non-linearities that could lead us to a "tipping point".

You know - all of a sudden the seas rise and we are all under water.

On the other hand, they want us to believe that THEY can accurately predict what is going to happen in 50 years time.

Now you can't have it both ways.

If it is possible to predict what the climate will be like in 50 years time, then either you have an unbelievably valid model (which is implausible) or you are making lots of linear assumptions.

But I just said that in order to be scared of all of this, you need to assume non-linearities.

If we were to be mature about this, the science would continue, and we would take steps to reduce emissions.

Given the number of people on the planet, and given the rate of economic growth, I would suggest that such steps would include:

(1) Nuclear power
(2) Hydroelectric power

But as I have identified on my blog, if you read what the environmental movements have to say about nuclear power and hydroelectric power you will realise that they are motivated by an anti-humanist ideology that values the little fishes and scare-mongering more than human need.

You need to separate out the far-Left politics from the science.
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Reply # 9
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 3:15 PM EST
scarahoochie
if you cannot correctly predict cloud cover or rain then you have very little knowledge of global weather changes.
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Reply # 10
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 10:04 AM EST
GLOBAL WHAT???
in my/your house/car, the temp. varies by at least 10 degrees, depending on the place of measurement - heat/cold air inlet, the middle, etc.

a HALF a degree (if not a few degrees) is a statistical error.

Ask 1 mln people to measure the Earth's temp., and you will get ONE MILLION ANSWERS.

Think, people, think.

PS do you listen to ALGOR, the "Internet inventor", the pro-Iraq war when vice prez, and anti-war when out of the White House?
Rush plays his tapes to prove it.
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Reply # 11
Date: Jul 13, 2007 - 6:21 AM EST
we do need to
reduce the population and conserve resources, but
global warming is the natural dying of the earth.

Nothing will reverse that.
IF, -- global warming was caused by people, then
we had better get rid of at least 5 billion, and
pretty damn quick.
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Reply # 12
Date: Jul 12, 2007 - 9:57 PM EST
don't usethe enterkey
Somebody needs to tell Mr. McCaslin not to use the enter key; word processors take care of line wrapping for you. "becomean agent," "carson the road," "JFKairport," "acrossthe region," "balancing atray." Ugh.
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Reply # 13
Date: Jul 12, 2007 - 8:14 PM EST
Global warming
If man and over population plus industrializing the world is causing the global warming then why did the glaciers from the ice age, when man was at his beginning, disappear? There are factors involved that have nothing what so ever with man and canot be reversed.
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Reply # 14
Date: Jul 12, 2007 - 6:05 PM EST
Having said that ...
I'm doing what Rush (and Ann Coulter) have warned me against doing ...

... that is giving ground to liberals.

As soon as you try to meet them in the centre, they start becoming fascists and start dictating to you how you should live your life.

It's criminal that they have appropriated the term "liberal" which used to have connotations of social and economic liberty, and are using it as a euphamism for Marxist.

It's like those countries that have "Democratic Republic" in the title - one thing you can be sure of is that they are not democratic.
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Reply # 15
Date: Jul 12, 2007 - 5:57 PM EST
stephen
"if al gore has his way...
we'll all be pooping in holes in our back yards!"

I agree 101%, and that is precisely the problem with liberals.

EVEN IF man made global warming is a problem, liberals are still very, very wrong about the answers to energy security.

There are 6 billion people on the planet, who all need energy and the energy requirements are growing due to increasing prosperity.

But pressure groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth don't give a stuff about humanity, because they hate nuclear power and they hate hydroelectric power.

Rush Limbaugh's site pointed me to the following UK think tank:

http://www.optimumpopulation.org/

These b******s want to radically reduce the world's population to meet decreasing resources.

I tell you, there are some seriously bad people within liberalism.
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Reply # 16
Date: Jul 12, 2007 - 12:09 PM EST
For stephen
Boregore tried using the crybaby approach of getting his way in 2000--and failed miserably. He is obviously unfamiliar with the proverb (also in scripture) "He who wishes to lead, should first SERVE".
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