How Did We Live Before Social Psychology?

The Professor teaches Tautology 101

Surber reports on the newest study that proves beyond question (like anthropogenic global warming) that liberal atheists are smarter than gun toting, bible thumping conservatives: (my bold)

“Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly,” CNN reported.

Surber than ponders, “if liberals are so superior and smart, why could they not pass a bill on health insurance when they had 60 votes in the Senate?”

Good question, but still, I’m more bothered by the fact that the guy who invented the Internet, global warming, and the carbon credit scam is an atheist. I thought Al went to Divinity School at Harvard. Or do I have him mixed up with Barry?

Other random tidbits lifted from the CNN article:

Bailey also said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be "ways to communicate to everyone that you're pretty smart," he said.

What part of liberalism or atheism is “unconventional” in their world? But the observation on superiority and elitism explains a lot about super intelligent liberals, so thanks for that.

"It helps life to be paranoid, and because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of God everywhere," Kanazawa said.

Not that I’m either, but I’m intrigued by the argument: Paranoid = Religious = paranoid. Got it: a neologism wrapped in a tautology.

Vegetarianism, while not strongly associated with IQ in this study, has been shown to be related to intelligence in previous research, Kanazawa said. This also fits into Bailey's idea that unconventional preferences appeal to people with higher intelligence, and can also be a means of showing superiority…

I’d like to see the research that proves animal protein turns you into a meathead.

Neither Bailey nor Kanazawa identify themselves as liberal; Bailey is conservative and Kanazawa is "a strong libertarian.

Wow! What are the odds of that? And how brave of them to confess to being stupid.

After reading CNN’s report on this study, it’s hard to say whether non-liberal academic researchers or liberal journalists have the higher IQ. I’m going to say it’s a draw. And I’m going to bet that at least 50% of them are vegetarians.

I wonder if Social Psychology Quarterly is peer reviewed? Not that it matters, since we now know who their peers are.

Who Are You Going To Believe…Me Or Your Lyin’ Eyes?

 

Yes, it’s true. “Scientists” have just announced that January was the warmest ever on record, in the whole history of the world.

CLIMATE scientists yesterday stunned Britons suffering the coldest winter for 30 years by claiming last month was the ­hottest January the world has ever seen.

That claim is based on satellite data. I wonder how that works? Would satellite data be, do you suppose, more accurate or less accurate than non-existent weather stations in Siberia?  I don’t know either, but I’m going to guess less.

If you, too, are experiencing cognitive dissonance, here’s the cure from Soccer Dad: Cry havoc and let slip the fog of (agw) lore  (via American Digest):

 

In science there is a concept of falsifiablity. Though it isn't accepted by everyone, the concept introduced by Karl Popper is that an experiment cannot prove a theory, if there isn't some result that would prove the theory wrong. So if you claim that  anthropogenic global warming will cause BOTH an increase in fog AND a decrease in fog, (h/t Seraphic Secret) you aren't making a scientific claim. Since both contradictory results lead to the same conclusion, that conclusion isn't based on science, but faith.

The balance of the post excoriates Thomas Friedman’s imbecilic contention to the contrary:

Avoid the term "global warming." I prefer the term "global weirding," because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous.

The fact that it has snowed like crazy in Washington -- while it has rained at the Winter Olympics in Canada, while Australia is having a record 13-year drought -- is right in line with what every major study on climate change predicts: The weather will get weird; some areas will get more precipitation than ever; others will become drier than ever.

That is weird, Tom. Not science, not even true; but definitely weird. SD calls on some other heavy hitters to assist him in his take down, to wit: Charles Krauthammer – 14 years ago!

We've been lectured incessantly on how prideful man is spewing tons of fossil-fuel carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing global warming. We've been told further that this desecration of nature will ultimately wipe out winter, turn Kansas to desert and put Long Island under water. Now comes the exact opposite climatic event -- a monster snowstorm -- and that, too, is caused by our sinning against Gaea? Yes, holds the newest variation in environmental scolding. Global warming is now the cause not just of warming but of all weather "extremes," i.e., calamities. How? Warming increases water evaporation, adding moisture and energy to the atmosphere, making for more rain and storms -- and, mirabile dictu, "more severe droughts" as well. Huh? Exact opposites again? Yes, writes the Times' William Stevens: "in cases where atmospheric circulation conspires" -- a deliciously revealing anthropomorphism -- "to keep rain away from a given area." So global warming has now become a theory of everything, or at least everything bad: rain, snow, heat, cold, storms, droughts. You name it, we caused it. When anything unpredictable and unwanted occurs -- particularly if it occurs near a media center like Washington or New York -- we can now blame it on global warming and, by extension, on us. Is there a primitive religion that can match this one for attributing natural calamity to the transgressions of man -- this time around, to man's sins against Mother Earth and her environmental priesthood?

He wraps it with Instapundit’s observation that he’ll start believing this crap when it’s proponents start acting like they believe it. As they say, read the whole thing.

 Thomas Friedman’s house. Preach on Tom. Oh, and nice green belt.Glad to see you’re doing your part.

Come On Guys! We Can Do This Alone

In case you didn’t have a chance to watch the health-care summit today (and who didn’t?), here’s the only clip you really need to see to know how it went. It is also a pretty good summary of what’s wrong – from a fiscal standpoint – with the health care bill.

Hot Air titles the clip: Paul Ryan to Obama: You realize your bill is a fiscal disaster, right?

Even the MSM can’t paint the President’s summit as a pretty picture:

CNN’s DAVID GERGEN: “The folks in the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened.” (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

CNN's Gloria Borger: “The Republicans have been very effective today. They really did come to play. They were very smart.

They took on the substance of a very complex issue. ... But they really stuck to the substance of this issue and tried to get to the heart of it and I think did a very good job.

They came in with a plan. They mapped it out. (CNN’s “Live,” 2/25/10)

Someone else, I don’t recall whom, quipped  “Every Democrat came with an anecdote, every Republican came with facts.” That’s always worked for them in the past.

Obama looked for all the world like the hapless junior executive tapped to chair the big meeting, but who is in hopelessly over his head. He has no idea what anyone is talking about, either doesn’t have, or can’t figure out how to implement his meeting agenda and he just can’t wait for the whole thing to be over so he can go home and kick the dog.

The Chief, addressing the really important issues:

 

If you want to see more of the freak show moments, here’s a Hot Air link that has nicely captured them for your viewing pleasure. Don’t miss, they’ll make your day.

A good day for liberty and justice for all.

Although in typical fashion, when all was said and done and it was clear there was no compromise on the horizon, The Won threatened to take his marbles and go home. Reconciliation is a legit option in his book and if the voters don’t like it, they can speak in the next election. Has he not seen the polls? The voters have pretty much already decided where they stand on this.  I’m not sure that show of concern for his fellow Democrat legislators is going to foster a whole lot of support among their ranks for his bill. They may not be as committed to socialist ideology as they are their own hide.

Read My Lips: Snow New Taxes

Well, finally. A little common sense coming from Michigan’s Capital.  They stood in solidarity, demanding that the state’s legislative body cut spending instead of simply raising taxes yet again to deal with the deficit. Their position seems reasonable in a state that is losing population and business base at an alarming rate, and is well on it’s way to becoming California without the nice weather.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t anyone who actually worked IN the Capital that made this demand, but a bunch of snow goons that showed up to protest after a recent snow storm. Rumor has it that the group was  coordinated by a mid-Michigan group called Common Sense in Government that is affiliated with the Tea Party movement (ice tea in this case).

 Photos by Dawson Bell/Detroit Free Press

These Ice Tea Party goons are apparently mad as hell, and they have threatened to self immolate in protest when the sun comes out if their demands are not met.

Please pray for these little guys, they’re probably our last hope.

H/T  to Terry and the blogprof, who has a lot more pictures of the insurgents under cover of night

Deniers Are The New Nazi Appeasers – Is That An Upgrade Senator Sanders?

 

This is what passes for thinking in the MSM

As Paul Chesser wrote today in the Washington Times, the world is growing squeamish about global warming. He indicates that if journalists had done their job and closely examined the clap trap included in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) instead of leading its cheerleading section they might have discovered quite readily that “… beneath the IPCC surface is an error-laden swamp of green groups' promotional materials and amateur compositions by college students instead of the "peer-reviewed research alarmists had claimed.”  Healthy skepticism always requires you to follow the money, regardless of which side you’re on.

Let me cite Ed Morrisey’s conclusion from this earlier Hot Air  post:

The IPCC doesn’t do science.  They do advocacy, mainly for the idea of international control of energy and manufacturing, with a healthy dose of redistribution of wealth.  These revelations should put an end to any reliance on IPCC work for American policy, and the UN should be pressured to fire everyone involved in this sham, starting with railroad engineer Rajendra Pachauri.

On the heels of  the IPCC  Himalayan glaciers claim being revealed as speculation that wasn’t even copied correctly, we had two more embarrassing global warming “science mistakes.” First was the hysterical claim that global warming would kill off 40% of the world’s rainforests which was “exposed as an unsubstantiated claim from the World Wildlife Fund, postulated by two activists, neither of whom were climate scientists,” 

And then, scientists Mark Siddall , Peter Clark and Thomas Stocker were forced to withdraw their claims about rising sea levels due to, yes, more bad data. “We no longer have confidence in our projections for the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and for this reason the authors retract the results pertaining to sea-level rise after 1900.”  That’s about as complete as a retraction can be. Algore was not available for comment.

To the dismay of true global warming believers, it appears that the “science” remains far from settled after all. New investigation of previously reported climate science research has been reported in the Telegraph  in the last couple of weeks. They’ve examined the basis for the IPCC’s claims on AGW and discovered – surprise – much of it was based on highly suspect data .

Boldings in the following citations are mine, in each case identifying non-peer reviewed sources, many with vested interests in the outcomes of the debate, others based on student dissertations – masters, not even doctoral dissertations! These demonstrate some pretty low standards on which to base decisions that will divert a substantial portion of the world’s wealth to non-productive means: (again, Telegraph, via Hot Air)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) report is supposed to be the world’s most authoritative scientific account of the scale of global warming.

But this paper has discovered a series of new flaws in it including:

• The publication of inaccurate data on the potential of wave power to produce electricity around the world, which was wrongly attributed to the website of a commercial wave-energy company.
• Claims based on information in press releases and newsletters.
• New examples of statements based on student dissertations, two of which were unpublished.

More claims which were based on reports produced by environmental pressure groups.

It can also be revealed that claims made by the IPCC about the effects of global warming, and suggestions about ways it could be avoided, were partly based on information from ten dissertations by Masters students.

The IPCC also made use of a report by US conservation group Defenders of Wildlife to state that salmon in US streams have been affected by rising temperatures. The panel has already come under fire for using information in reports by conservation charity the WWF.

Estimates of carbon-dioxide emissions from nuclear power stations and claims that suggested they were cheaper than coal or gas power stations were also taken from the website of the World Nuclear Association, rather than using independent scientific calculations.

Still, Senator Bernie Sanders wants us to go “full-Gore” (can I trade mark that?) ahead with nihilistic measures to stop an unproved enemy of civilization; asserting that Climategate and all subsequent revelations of non-scientific methodology are merely “trivial mistakes” and that the complexity of global warming is beyond the grasp of us mere lay morons. He pegs those of us who haven’t bought into the fraudulent nature of the global warming scam as  “Nazi appeasers.” I guess that’s one step up from “deniers,”  but only because it implies stupidity alone, rather than stupidity combined with  Nazi loving, Jew-hating genocidal murderer. So thanks for the upgrade, Bernie.

And as an aside, for those who believe that content net neutrality exists, try Googling “global warming denier.”  No selective content there.

Update re. Google, 2-26-10: Search algorithms do matter. So does human intervention

Nerds Just Wanna Have Fun

I came across this at A Conservative Teacher (apparently not an oxymoron): dueling economic theories in Rap.

Fun with Economics: who’d of thunk it?

 

Keynes vs. Hayek: If you must bet (and we must), go with Hayek and free markets. You can afford to give the points, no matter how many they want. 

For more on the video’s creators: Econ Stories

 

Technorati Tags: economics,free markets,education

When the Truth is No Defense

The Netherlands used to be known as the most tolerant country in Europe, back when being tolerant was a good thing. Tolerance now is not so much of the “live and let live” variety. Especially if you happen to speak a truth that makes anyone, but most especially anyone of the Islam faith, uncomfortable. Free speech has been hijacked, and justice will, no doubt, be right behind.

The Netherlands is prosecuting Geert Wilders for the crime of something called “group insult” of Islam.  As if that isn’t ludicrous enough on it’s face,  a spokesperson for the Openbaar Ministerie explained:  “It is irrelevant whether Wilders’s witnesses might prove Wilders’s observations to be correct. What’s relevant is that his observations are illegal.”

Allow the ever reticent Pat Condell explain further:

H/T American Digest

 

Mark Styen also has an excellent column.

Hey, At Least We’re Not Cleveland!

Best news of the week: Forbes has announcement that Detroit is NOT the Worst City Ever (that would be Cleveland, who up till now was running a promotional campaign with the tag line “Hey, at least we’re not Detroit!). Detroit came in forth on this year’s list, just barely edging out Flint. This unexpected rating has raised hopes that Detroit can reclaim the title “Motor City”:

The New GM (Government Motors) Proudly Introduces the 2010 Obama

This car runs on hot air and broken promises. It has three wheels that speed the vehicle through tight left turns. It comes complete with two TelePrompters programmed to help the occupants talk their way out of any violations. The transparent canopy reveals the plastic smiles still on the faces of all the "happy" owners.

Comes in S, M, L, XL and 2XL  It won't get you to work, but hey, there aren't any jobs anyway!

From OhMyGov! via Weasel Zippers

My-partisanship: What Happens When the Won Get’s Miffed at Everyone

 Don’t Make Me Come Down There!

Our nation’s great white hope for the first post-racial, post partisan administration has been strained to the point of collapse.

The post-racial mantle fell away swiftly, with the enactment of “The Professor and the Policeman” morality play last summer. From that point forward, any and all disagreements with Obama’s policies or tactics have been branded as racist by the Left; I guess because this incident confirmed for them the immutable truth that all white people are inherent racists acting stupidly. Or something.

Bi-partisanship was seriously wounded when Rahm announced that the fortuitous financial crisis would form the perfect platform from which to launch Obama’s full-out socialist plan.   Just as Alinsky had taught his acolytes, this was a crisis that they could not allow to go to waste. The Obama administration began a quite partisan plan of government intervention in everything that moved, and some that didn’t.

With a supermajority, there wasn’t even any thought of reaching across the aisle. As a result, the only bill that Republicans have embraced under Obama’s leadership has been the disgustingly fraudulent “Stimulus” Bill. And although the future tea partiers of America saw this bill for what it was at the time, and objected vociferously, our elected officials of both parties could only smell the irresistible aroma of roast pork. As the colorful Stimulus Mardi Gras float rumbled by, they lined the streets like children, yelling “Give me somethin’ mister!

But the “disenchanted” “angry mob” (racists) refused to get on with their lives and leave the politics to Washington. They continued to inundate their representatives with angry, no doubt rude, calls and emails. Democrats disconnected their phones and Republicans pulled the “Who, me? There’s nothing I can do about it” gambit as the public debt mounted and the jobless rate climbed.

The marginalized tea party movement got madder and madder, eventually rousing the Republicans from their stupor. But the Dems went about their merry way, seduced by the security of  their super-majority, and convinced the tea partiers were the rightwing nuts portrayed nightly on Ms.NBC. No Bipartisanship needed here.

But following New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts, even the arrogant Democrats have been snapped to by the sting of reality. After Scott Brown’s election, they couldn’t drop the hot national health care ‘tater fast enough.

But hold the phone baby – national health care is the Won’s  prime objective.  He will not let you go gentle into that good night. For that notch in his belt, he appears to be willing to squander anything he’s got left – including his house slaves.

So he pretended to play nice with the Republicans. Except his arrogance prevented him from pulling it off (inexperience extracts its price).

As Wesley Puden pointed out in the Washington Times,

Barack Obama dropped by the White House press room the other day to stick it to the Republicans in the name of comity and fellowship. He offered to cooperate with the Republicans in the Mafia spirit of making an "offer you can't refuse.”

“I also won't hesitate to condemn what I consider obstinacy."

"Bipartisanship cannot mean that Democrats give up everything they believe in ...

True. In Obama’s world, bipartisanship means Republicans give up everything they believe in, and do it his way.

The only way Republicans can demonstrate their lack of obstinacy, the president made clear, is to adopt the Democratic agenda and to tug a forelock and do it now.

So much for bipartisanship, but with the mood of the country being what it is right now,Obama may not even be able to pull this off with partisanship. Despite reports that Obama is going to write his own health care bill (that’s a good one), combining parts of the Senate and House bills  and ramming it through as a budget reconciliation bill requiring only a 51 vote majority, we’ll see if there are still 51 Democrats willing to give up their cushy Washington gig.

If not, if neither Bipartisanship or Partisanship work, the Won is still not done. No my friends, there is still My-partisanship, or Barry Knows Best. If he can’t ram his hand-hewn (so-to-speak) bill through Congress with his remaining loyal Demo-brats, he’ll take matters into his own hands. He is the WON you know: he has executive powers.  As reported last week in the NYT:

With much of his legislative agenda stalled in Congress, President Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.

And he’s not afraid to declare the health care crisis and global cooling warming to be issues of national security if need be, to execute his own clear headed My-partisan, Chicago–style solutions:

Mr. Obama has already decided to create a bipartisan budget commission under his own authority after Congress refused to do so.

And the Environmental Protection Agency is moving  forward with possible regulations on heat-trapping gases blamed for climate change, while a bill to cap such emissions languishes in the Senate.

Oh, and did I mention recess appointments? The Won’s miffed at the audacity of the dopes in Congress who are holding up his carefully selected prime specimens for key jobs, so. . .

“If the stalling tactics continue,” said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, “he’s not ruling out using recess appointments for anybody that he’s nominated.”

Yes, it all sounds a bit heavy-handed, a bit tyrannical. A bit like he thinks he might be king.

I suppose it’s possible that we just didn’t completely understand Chicago rules.

 

.

Can Tiger Bounce Back?

An obligatory review of the Tiger’s obligatory hostage tape apology:

 

 

Good script, bad production, bad directing  and bad acting. Especially bad acting, in every sense of the word.

 

Prognosis:  The year of the Tiger will not be the year of the Tiger.

Does Algore Know About This?

Nice start Joey, but you’re going to need a lot more carbon credits than this to atone for your sins:

 

 Joe Biden, shown wearing the ashes given to Catholics on Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. The ashes symbolize repentance and serve as a reminder of human mortality.

Maybe if he had worn his hat, no one would have noticed.

So in case you haven’t decided what to give up for Lent yet Joe, might I suggest Cap and Trade?

It’s Not As Easy As It Looks

Woe, Canada!  Seven years in the planning, and still there have been snafus galore at the Vancouver Winter Olympics. According to the Seattle Times, the Olympic Committee has had to cancel 28,000 tickets to events at Cypress Mountain as the rain has melted the snow in the standing room observation area, leaving huge gaps in the straw bales beneath that people were falling into. The Vancouver Olympic Committee held  a briefing on Tuesday "touching on everything from transportation snafus to equipment failures to weather woes to the prison-camp look of the Olympic caldron display.”  Reporters were asking if  “this might be the worst start ever to an Olympic Games.”

In addition to the problem with the straw bales, one of four pillars supporting the Olympic cauldron to be lit at the Opening Night Ceremonies refused to open, making for some awkward television before they decided to proceed with the remaining 3 pillars. Transportation problems have hounded the venues, with busses getting ticket holders to events late, or not at all, due to the drivers getting lost and busses breaking down. And at the speed skating oval, delays of over an hour were endured when the Zamboni broke and couldn’t resurface the ice properly.  Concessions at venues are woefully undersized, which is a problem since spectators are not allowed to bring food or beverages with them. And while no one can do anything about the weather (or the climate, for that matter), it doesn’t seem as though event organizers did adequate contingency planning in the case of having to reschedule events due to predictably bad weather.

It’s really not as easy as it looks, is it?

Take the Salt Lake Winter Games in 2002 for example. Everything there went without a hitch.

It was not just luck. In fact, there were some very heavy odds betting against it. In 1999 the Salt Lake Olympic Committee was embroiled in charges of bribery and corruption. The Committee’s Chairman and President were both forced to resign. Mitt Romney was drafted to step in and attempt to salvage the games, and the United States reputation. When he took over in February of 1999, the budget was already deeply in the red, sponsors were all but non-existent because of the bribery allegations and staff morale couldn’t have gotten any lower unless you flushed.

The previous regime had already spent 3 years and a ton of money to become so engulfed in muck and debt. With less than 3 years to pull it together, Romney revamped everything from leadership (key in any endeavor) to policies. He reduced budgets and set about lining up private funding. By organizing 23,000 volunteers and providing leadership and oversight to the enterprise, Romney managed to pull off what many considered to be impossible: the Salt Lake Games came off without barely a hitch. And this, despite an unanticipated need to implement new, previously unheard of security measures  following the 9/11 terrorist attack just months before the start of the Olympics. The extra security required an additional $350 million  - nearly all of which was raised privately. As in “not government.”

You may not recall, but the 2002 Winter Olympic Games began in fear and trepidation because of the new age of terror. But they were a triumph of logistics, efficiencies, non-intrusive security and remarkable athleticism. They provided a needed shot in the arm of patriotic pride following the grim business of the previous September.

And the games ran like clockwork, the venues queued and cleared with remarkable proficiency. Transportation was plentiful, and managed to get spectators to and from the events on time. Traffic was effectively directed and managed at every venue, at every event. Lodging facilities were adequate for the crowds, as were the concessions and the all important porta-johns. And I report this as an on-the-ground observer. Despite crowds larger than the normal Sundance crowd by an order of magnitude, and unprecedented security, Park City was easier to get around in during the Olympics than during the annual film festival. By all accounts, athletes, spectators and even journalists were pleased with the way the games went.

Technorati Tags: 2010 Olympics,Mitt Romney,Vancouver

Salt Lake Winter Olympics Torch Over the Salt Lake Valley

 

And to cap it all off: the Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee actually made money: $100 million. An Olympian achievement, since most Winter Games loose money. Granted, Mitt Romney had an unfair advantage: he was a business man. He served as CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. It was probably that background that enabled  him to salvage a win from a seemingly hopeless morass of incompetency and corruption, and make us proud to be Americans following that horrible September.

I’d like to see our community organizer in chief pull that off.

You might  want to keep this story in mind when you contemplate who should serve in the Office of the Presidency next time around. I’m not advocating for anyone in particular, I’m just asking you to consider what kind of man – or woman – you would feel more comfortable with:

A man who would have you feel proud…

 

Or a man who would have you feel shame…

Protestors at Tent City — an improvised community set up, in street guerrilla fashion, on a developer’s lot in the downtrodden Eastside section of Vancouver – to protest on behalf of Vancouver’s homeless during the Olympic games. Nice Tents!

MOOSE-LIM DEMANDS

In Utah, most sentences that include both “moose” and “limb” involve a rogue moose chewing on  trees in our neighborhood.

 Moose limb attack filmed by our neighbor Daniel

Back in Detroit however, Moose-lim used in a sentence more often involves things such as demands for foot baths at the University of Michigan, the reading of Miranda rights to the Christmas Day panty bomber, or a fatwa regarding Muslims being body scanned at airports.

And in Britain, where things have gotten even more out of hand, Pat Condell has created a mini-industry of making fun of Muslim demands. But he’s actually quite ecumenical, having complaints with all other religions as well. In this video, Mr. Condell takes exception to being lectured on Human Rights by Saudi Arabia: saying that would be comparable to being lectured on animal rights by Koreans. There’s no political correctness here my friends, so consider yourselves warned.

 

Hat tip to Pilae

The Rhode Island School of Disinclined

Tax-paid teachers: Are we getting our money’s worth? 

 

Blogprof reports on one failing school system in Rhode Island whose superintendent has it together. Finally, someone  really did do something for the kids. Central Falls School Superintendent Frances Gallo pulled a Ronald Reagan and fired all of the unionized teachers in a high school performing so far below par that 50% of the students are failing all of their classes and the graduation rate is under 50%. Good by Detroit standards, but most likely not anywhere else.

The teachers, most of whom make between $75-78k compared to the average $22k median income of Central Falls, were asked to adopt a plan to improve the school’s shoddy performance, but the union rejected Superintendent Gallo’s plan. The onerous terms that they declined were:

…adding 25 minutes to the school day, providing tutoring on a rotating schedule before and after school, eating lunch with students once a week, submitting to more rigorous evaluations, attending weekly after-school planning sessions with other teachers and participating in two weeks of training in the summer.

Those are not some of the terms, those are the complete terms of a plan that Gallo said was crucial to improving the school, but the teachers were not used to giving something for nothing.

The teachers didn’t blink.

Under threat of losing their jobs if they didn’t go along with extra work for not a lot of extra pay, the Central Falls Teachers’ Union refused Friday morning to accept a reform plan for one of the worst-performing high schools in the state.

The superintendent didn’t blink either.

After learning of the union’s position, School Supt. Frances Gallo notified the state that she was switching to an alternative she was hoping to avoid: firing the entire staff at Central Falls High School. In total, about 100 teachers, administrators and assistants will lose their jobs.

$75k in an area where the median income is $22k. Who’s looking imperious now? Does anyone really think the “little people” working for the government need a union to protect them? From whom? The State? The taxpayers?

Well, maybe if it could protect them from stupidity. But that’s obviously not the case.

Yea, Though I Walk Through the Valley of Death. . .

The Valley of the Shadow of Death by Jay Patel

American Spectator is running an article on another thing about America that the O’s hate: business. At the same time it exposes Obama’s penchant for speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

In the SOTU speech earlier this month Obama called for shifting 50% of the balance of student loans onto the backs of taxpayers for those graduates choosing to go into “selfless” jobs in the public sector rather than business for themselves or others. But in the same speech he said: "Jobs must be our No. 1 focus in 2010, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America's businesses.” Or did he really mean government jobs, which are increasing at an alarming rate, even in the midst of a recession?

What do these two really believe? Look no further that Mrs. O’s comments on the campaign trail in 2008:

"We left corporate America, which is a lot of what we're asking young people to do," Mrs. Obama told a group of women in Zanesville, Ohio. "Don't go into corporate America. You know, become teachers. Work for the community. Be social workers. Be a nurse. Those are the careers that we need, and we're encouraging young people to do that. But if you make that choice, as we did, to move out of money-making industry into the helping industry, then your salaries respond."

Some of that is true, if by “then your salaries respond” she means you’ll make more money when you’re paid by the taxpayers (which all of the above mentioned jobs are, except nurses – so far):

"The number of federal workers earning six-figure salaries has exploded during the recession, according to a USA Today analysis of federal salary data. The growth in six-figure salaries has pushed the average federal worker's pay to $71,206, compared with $40,331 in the private sector."

And Obama’s own commencement comments at Wesleyan University that same year, advocating public service and telling students that they should not "take your diploma, walk off this stage, and chase only after the big house and the nice suits and all the other things that our money culture says you should buy."

I’m telling you, these Alinskyites hate our way of life, and they believe they’ve been anointed to change it. The best part of the article, however, comes from a commenter tagged as “coal carrier” who submits a new prayer:

The Socialist Psalm

The Government is my Shepherd, I need not work.

It alloweth me to lie down on good jobs.

It leadeth me beside still Factories.

It destroyeth my initiative.

It leadeth me in the paths of the parasite for politics sake.

Yea’ tho I walk through the valley of the shadow of laziness and deficit spending, I will fear no evil, for the Government is with me.

It’s dole and vote getters, they comport me.

It prepareth an economic Utopia for me, by appropriating the earnings of my grandchildren.

It filleth my head with Baloney, my inefficiency runneth over.

Surely the Government shall care for me, all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in a fools paradise forever.

AGW Religion Has Been Recalled Due To Multiple Manufactured Defects

Ah, this Hitler thing never gets old, does it? Enjoy. Pass it along. The world needs it.

From Neptunus Lex via American Digest

Other related news items from the weekend:

Doug Ross details why the jig is up on anthropogenic global warming:

The scientist at the heart of the Climategate scandal -- the Climate Research Unit's Dr. Phil Jones -- has admitted what any sensible person had figured out long ago. The United Nation's global warming initiative is a complete and utter fraud.

American Thinker article by Marc Sheppard in which Phil Jones fesses up: 20th century warming very likely not unprecedented. Apparently the science isn’t in yet.

And a veritable Climategate stream from Instapundit:

Climategate: Phil Jones Finally Proves Al Gore Right — The Debate Is Over.

Climategate: Phil Jones Still Has More Reflecting To Do.

Climategate: So Jones Lost the Data? It Was Worthless, Anyway

• Ann Althouse on skepticism:
• “It’s the nonskeptics who look bad. It’s not science to be a true believer who wants to ignore new evidence. It’s not science to support a man who has the job of being a scientist but doesn’t adhere to the methods of science.”
• And a Victory Lap, well earned by the much mocked Lord Monckton

But none of this is likely to persuade a True Believer, as they are members of a cult which provides them with a psychic rationale for their existence. No amount of information will dissuade them. No mere scientific truth will upend their Truth delivered by the great and holy guru of Global Warming, Academy Award winning director of cinema and Nobel Laureate:

Hi. My name is Al, and I’m a carbon fraud

I’m just saying, Sheryl - you are now free to use as much 2-ply toilet tissue as you’d like. I thought that would make her happy, but apparently it just made her mad.

Sheryl Crow screaming at crowd to “Please! Save the earth!”

Looking Like a Fool With ‘dat Snow on the Ground

 

It’s been reported that there is snow on the ground in 50 states as of February 13th. I can’t speak to the remaining 7 states, which haven’t been located yet, but I thought that this momentous occasion deserved a song.

SNOW ON THE GROUND

Snow on the ground,

Snow on the ground

Lookin’ like a fool with ‘dat snow on the ground.

There’s snow comin’ down from Hawaii to Maine

Why on God’s earth can’t it just be rain?

The earth is warmin’ at an alarmin’ rate,

Ignore the reports from Climategate.

All over the planet, there’s severe global warmin’,

That is, if you destroy evidence not supportin’.

Tweak and delete and you’ll hide the decline;

Your data’s suspect, but you can keep the plot line.

We’re freezing our butts off but end up contributin’

To the carbon tax scam of wealth redistributin’.

We’re buried in ice and climate hysteria,

Earth has a fever and it’s probably malaria

Gaia’s way of ending the fever:

A ton of snow to persuade the believer.

Snow on the ground

Snow on the ground

Lookin like a fool with ‘dat snow on the ground.

So hurry along now, buy your credits of carbon

A proper Valentine if you can still get ‘em.

Get ‘em before earth goes nuclear and freezes

And we all bow to Gaia and pray for warm breezes.

Before we regress to the middle dark ages

We should check out “Algore” in the green yellow pages:

Carbon credits available from the church of Gore

Are listed right under “supreme climate whore.”

Buy ‘em if you want, if you won’t feel dumb

Paying for cool while your feet go numb.

Loving the lecture by the alarmists of warmin’:

Snow, they say now, proves the need for reformin’;

Climate, we’re told, is more than weather observed -

This, from the idiots who bought the hockey stick, curved.

Snow on the ground

Snow on the ground

Lookin like a fool with ‘dat snow on the ground.

h/t: “General” Larry Platt & “Pants On The Ground”

Shoot All Extremists

As reported in the Detroit Free Press today, a group of Muslim-American scholars issued a religious ruling this week that called upon the faithful to not go through body scanners because the scholars said the machines violate Islamic rules on nudity.

This  is also known as a fatwa, or a religious ruling issued by an Islamic scholar that must be followed. Other famous fatwas include the death sentence visited upon the blasphemer, Salmon Rushdie,  for writing The Satanic Verses; likewise the death sentence fatwa against Danish cartoonist  Kurt Westergaard for drawing a cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb in his bonnet; and this fatwa that you might not have heard as much about but was recently issued: stating that all pigs living today are descended from Jews and must therefore be slaughtered. But remember, we are talking about the religion of peace - with just a few outliers.

But back to the fatwa at hand: according to the headline, Airport Body Scans Defy Islamic Law. Well isn’t that just too effing bad. Blowing innocent civilians out of the windows of their employers’ offices defies American laws too.

 

Nihad Awad, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (aka CAIR, which has ties to Hamas )  says it endorses the fatwa. God only knows what else they endorse.

As you may recall we’re not fans of airport pretend security measures, or “security theatre” as Cynical Synapse likes to call it, but if CAIR objects to it, we’re going to have to throw our support behind it just on general principle.

Muslims think they should be exempt from airport screenings on religious grounds. This is fine with us, just as long as they don’t fly anywhere. We don’t have any objection to the Amish not driving cars either.

Muslim version of the old bumper sticker: Shoot All Extremists. Only they mean it.

Ice House Detroit

 

What you are looking at is an “art installation”  in the inner-city of Detroit. It’s called the “Ice House” I’m seldom at a loss for words, but I’ll confess, this one flummoxed me.  So I went searching a bit beyond the information and links provided by the Detroit News and found this in the publication from the artist’s alma mater, Rice:

Radune and Holm want the house to serve as a "red flag," drawing attention to the glut of abandoned, dangerous houses in Detroit. "In effect, it will serve as a front operation for Ice House Detroit, the social capital project," Radune said. "Our goal is to highlight organizations within urban Detroit that are doing radical work to remake the urban fabric of the city by recycling materials from abandoned houses, foresting abandoned lots and putting up vegetable-growing greenhouses within sight of downtown."

That was the original intent. According to the Detroit News, upon its execution:

"It's grown into something much more than a reference to the housing crisis in Detroit and beyond and more about the personal quest that this has become and the community that has grown around it." 

It would seem that as either a “red flag” or “reference to the housing crisis” it’s about 25 years too late.  And having read the entire article and watched the video, I’m not sure there was much of  a community that grew around it beyond bored, curious nearby residents who wondered why a couple of dudes wanted to put a house on ice in the middle of a block of abandoned houses.

Apparently this house, along with hundreds of others are slated for “deconstruction” come spring. Deconstruction differs from demolition in that the materials are recycled, therefore making the demolition available for green funding from the newly green state of Michigan. One objective of the project seems to have already been met: urban looters had already “reclaimed” anything of value - plumbing, electrical, fixtures – before the artists arrived.

Donna Terek concludes in her article that the project was really all about the art, presumably because of the absence  of any significant contribution on any other front. I’m forced to concur, keeping in mind that “art” is solely in the mind of the beholder. As installation art, an abandoned house sprayed with water in the middle of winter is a far cry from that of Andy Goldsworthy who also collaborates with nature to produce transient art:

Andy Goldsworthy environmental art

But at least Matthew Redune and Gregory Holm raised their own money, paid the city and state for their services and provided a little entertainment in a woefully non-entertaining environment. And I presume they are planning to make some money when they self-publish a book about their project.  It seems a fairly harmless project even if it is also fairly pointless. But trust me, an “ice house” in Detroit in the middle of winter is not going to provide any more “red flags” than this, or  this.

But hey, any kind of “capital project” in Detroit can’t be bad, even if it’s only social capital.

 

William Livingston House, Detroit

Photo courtesy Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre

One Note Wonder

A picture speaks a thousand words on your hand.

 Loser

Nice Work If You Can Get It

 

Delta Tau Chi Fraternity House

American Thinker’s Greg Lewis has presented the Obama administration all too accurately in I Was a Teenage President.

The Obama administration resembles nothing so much as a big house in the suburbs where the parents are away for the weekend. In the absence of any responsible person to take charge, the Teenager-in-Chief is letting the rest of the adolescents run wild.

They've maxed out their parents' credit cards and have begun working on their overdraft lines in earnest . . .

Which is pretty funny, if you can get past the fact that he is describing the dismantling of the republic. I think the country is waking up to discover that we, or some of “we,” have elected a completely inexperienced president with the maturity of a  frat guy, the ego of a quarterback, and the intelligence of a linebacker on a football scholarship. And he’s hired all the terribly clever – not wise, clever - guys that he found so amusing and sophisticated as they sat around the student union plotting the takeover of the misguided American government when they were young.

The unseasoned, untested neophyte was elevated to superman status by a machine that he was led to believe he was driving. In fact, he was already obliviously in way over his head. Then, as is usually the case with pawns, the handlers blew enough smoke up his ass to inflate his head. Once such pawns begin to believe  their own press clippings, they become a made man.

The mystery is why the American electorate believed his clippings? Partially it was because Bush fatigue had established the perfect platform for hopenchange. Partly it was due to the nauseating  cheer leading by the MSM, combined with their suppression of any negative vibes related to the anointed one. For example,  BO’s affiliation with known America haters Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers was relegated to  paranoia, “birthers” were, and still are, ridiculed for raising a legitimate question which has yet to be properly addressed. His apparent disdain for middle Americans “clinging to their guns and religion” and his admonition to Joe the Plumber that we need to “spread the wealth around” went unchallenged by anyone other than Fox. And no one, but no one, on the MSM side of the dial thought it odd that Barack Obama made it through 2 ivy league universities without any academic records, grades, papers or even edited articles in the Harvard Law Review to show for his efforts. And even though BHO himself conceded he’d messed up with drugs while he was young, not one old media type was interested enough to to pursue it so as to ensure that he hadn’t been a crack addict anytime in the distant - or even near - past.

Worse, anyone with the audacity to question the dope (BO, not the drugs) was immediately marginalized as a racist rightwing hate monger. With help like that, we might have elected anyone. Oh wait, we did.

  Nice work if you can get it

Help! I’m Melting.

Himalayas, Nepal 

You probably think I’ve been kidnapped by global warming this week ( but then, haven’t we all?). But the news just keeps rolling my way. I promise: something different tomorrow.

But take a look at this report. Another little problem with the same 938 page landmark report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  that has already been discredited for including  scientific “data” about melting glaciers that came from  figures that were pulled from a Green Lantern comic book, or something.

Glaciologists have discredited the Himalaya claim, which is being withdrawn. . . No evidence could be found to show the claim had been published in a peer-reviewed journal and reports in Britain have said the reference came from green group the WWF, who in turn sourced it to the New Scientist magazine. (nota bene: NOT a peer reviewed publication)

This time, the IPCC’s report has been cited for containing inaccurate information about the Netherlands. Nothing important, mind you, just a statement that over half of  the country is below sea level. In fact, only 26% is below grade – so off by nearly a factor of 2. Close enough for government and global warming work. Oddly, the report was issued in 2007. Three years to correct a factual error that any public school educated Netherlander would know to be incorrect? That’s a helluva peer review process they’re using.

But don’t worry: they were on top of it: “Correcting the error had been ‘on the agenda several times’ but had never actually happened,” according to an environment ministry spokesman.

But here’s the money line:

The spokesman said he regretted the fact that proper procedure was not followed and said it should not be left to politicians to check the IPCC's numbers.

No kidding. If we have to rely on the pols for scientific accuracy, we are in seriously deep doo doo. While I’m fairly certain that most of them can read and write, based on what I see coming out of Washington, I’m going to say math is way above their pay grade.

Help!