Putin opponent assassinated in Moscow

New York Times:

Boris Nemtsov, a prominent Russian opposition leader and former first deputy prime minister, was shot dead Friday evening in central Moscow in the highest-profile assassination in Russia during the tenure of President Vladimir V. Putin.

... Mr. Putin condemned the killing, the Kremlin said, and Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said the president would personally lead the investigation. [Riiight!]

... “They have started to kill ‘enemies of the people,’ ” the former opposition member of Parliament Gennady Gudkov posted on Twitter. “Mr. Nemtsov is dead. Who is next?”...

Climate McCarthyism

Terence Corcoran:  The last climate science witch hunt

... the hunt for the hides of a few climate skeptics began last weekend when The New York Times climate beat reporter, Justin Gillis, co-wrote an attack on Wei-Hock (Willie) Soon, a sceptical scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.  ...

... In the end it is the warmists who will come out of this looking like the pathetic political witch hunters they are ...

Roger Pielke Jr.: I am Under ‘Investigation’

When “witch hunts” are deemed legitimate in the context of popular causes, we will have fully turned science into just another arena for the exercise of power politics. The result is a big loss for both science and politics.

 Chistopher Essex: Save Willie: The global warming movement is anti-science, oblivious to how little we know about climate

Peter Foster: Crushing climate thoughtcrime

The U.S. Democratic witch hunt against scientists skeptical about official climate science threatens to blow up in the faces of the Inquisitors. It lays bare the totalitarian mentality behind the radical climate agenda.

 Willis Eschenbach: Mental Midgets Try To Bite Dr. Willie Soon’s Ankles

 Faux outrage over Willie Soon’s disclosure

 

Pachauri's fifty shades of green

Peter Foster on the IPCC boss's resignation:

When you look at the long list of Mr. Pachauri’s disingenuities and evasions, you might be inclined to ask why one more (alleged) example of sleaziness would make any difference. 

... Mr. Pachauri’s resignation letter on Tuesday, aptly described by blogger Donna Laframboise as a “two-page love letter to himself,” moved from effrontery to gag-worthiness with its claim that “For me the protection of Planet Earth, the survival of all species and sustainability of our ecosystems is more than a mission. It is my religion and my dharma.”

Given that Mr. Pachauri’s hobbies include writing novels featuring the soft-porn adventures of an Indian climate expert ... the question now is whether ... Mr. Pachauri’s karma will run over the IPCC’s dogma.

 The contents of those sexts are bound to be titillating. ... one observer wryly noted,  we’re likely talking about “fifty shades of green.”

 Update: Pachauri admitted to hospital.

F.C.C. Expected to Enforce Net Neutrality

New York Times

... On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote to regulate the Internet as a public good. ...

UN IPCC climate head Rajendra Pachauri resigns

WUWT

From the “the hornier they are the harder they fall” department: The head of the United Nations climate change panel (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri, has stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations.

It would have been much better had he been given the boot long ago for failure of  leadership, blatant hypocrisy and conflict of interest.

But we'll take what we can get.

UN IPCC Chaiman accused of sexual harassment

From No Frakking Consensus:

Texts and e-mails allegedly sent by IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri tell a disturbing tale. Months after a female subordinate objected repeatedly and strenuously to his sexual advances, the UN official continued to physically and electronically stalk her.

Mail Today, New Delhi, February 21, 2015

Should we expect Dr. Pachauri to blame global warming for his overheated state?

Lying about the link between Islamist terror and Islam

In Saturday's National Post Andrew Coyne (attacking Stephen Harper) argued that we should be "Watching our words on Islamism".

Coyne makes the odd reasonable observation, like for example:

"... they [Islamists] are commanded by their faith to take up arms in its defence. Of this there can be no doubt: they have said so, on a hundred different occasions, and we would be wise to take them at their word."

... then, sadly, he decides to advocate for Obama's highly dubious "strategy" of lying about Islam's blatantly obvious connection with terrorism - concluding that to be truthful, like Stephen Harper, is "playing with fire".

In other words, Coyne, like Obama, presumably on the word of so-called "moderate" Muslims (Obama has close associations with members of the Muslim Brotherhood), prefers to ignore the obvious realities of political Islam and its extremist, violent opposition to the West (and to infidels everywhere).  He prefers to go along with the many "moderate" Muslims in the West who peddle the obviously self-serving fiction that ISIS and other similarly motivated terrorists "are not Islamic".

Rather than trying to mollify these "moderate" Muslims by ignoring or downplaying (lying about) the obvious links between Islam and Islamist terrorism we (that includes you, Mr. Coyne and Pres. Obama) should be insisting that they stop trying to obfuscate or deny the issue and instead to clearly and firmly denounce the radical elements in their midst - march in the streets (as they are so quick to do when Western satirists mock Mohammed).  If, as they claim, ISIS, al Qaeda and other killers are indeed perverting Islam (rather than faithfully observing it) and are giving the one "true" Islam a very bad name, it is up to these "moderates" to be shouting out, en-mass, against it loudly, publicly and often.  Can we expect this to happen any time soon?  Not bloody likely -  especially with the Obamas and Coynes among us giving them cover.

 BTW.  In the NP epaper, there were lots of great critical comments, while in the open version linked above there are a great many of the usual dhimmi leftists supporting Coyne.

And here is Blazing Cat Fur's blunt assessment:
 Idiot At National Post Says If We Pretend Islam & Terrorism Aren’t Linked Muslims Will Like Us More!