JME editors defend publication of "After-birth abortion" paper

Further to my previous post, in a blog post yesterday, the editors of JME defended the publication of the paper following a "storm of opposition" (referring mainly to comments on The Blaze blog post), closing with:

...What the response to this article reveals, through the microscope of the web, is the deep disorder of the modern world. Not that people would give arguments in favour of infanticide, but the deep opposition that exists now to liberal values and fanatical opposition to any kind of reasoned engagement.

So, killing babies is a liberal value? As for "opposition to ... reasoned engagement", they got lots of reasoned response (eg. the National Catholic Register). They just cherry picked the angriest comments to justify their "defence". And there's a virtual tsunami of 'reasoned engagement' in the comment thread to the JME's own blog post - eg. this short one:

Savulescu is correct, our society gets overly hysterical and can't handle intellectual discussion on moral ethics. I long for a society where you could freely and calmly discuss genocide. Like, say, Germany 1933.

"After-birth abortion"

Published in the Journal of Medical Ethics:  "After-birth abortion: why should the baby live?"

ABSTRACT
Abortion is largely accepted even for reasons that do not have anything to do with the fetus’ health. By showing that (1) both fetuses and newborns do not have the same moral status as actual persons, (2) the fact that both are potential persons is morally irrelevant and (3) adoption is not always in the best interest of actual people, the authors argue that what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled. ...

CONCLUSIONS
If criteria such as the costs (social, psychological, economic) for the potential parents are good enough reasons for having an abortion even when the fetus is healthy, if the moral status of the newborn is the same as that of the infant and if neither has any moral value by virtue of being a potential person, then the same reasons which justify abortion should also justify the killing of the potential person when it is at the stage of a newborn.

National Catholic Register:

Here’s the thing - they’re right. If you accept their premises, they’re absolutely right.
... It’s almost a pro-life argument in that it highlights the absurdity of the pro-abortion argument.

Medical "ethics"? That's a long way down that slippery slope!

[Via]

Update:  See next post.

Climate debate - skeptics are winning (the data say so)

Who Are You Going To Believe – The Government Climate Scientists or The Data?

We check the main predictions of the climate models against the best and latest data. ... the climate models got all their major predictions wrong.

Conclusions ...
1.The climate models are fundamentally flawed. Their assumed threefold amplification by feedbacks does not in fact exist.

2.The climate models overestimate temperature rises due to CO2 by at least a factor of three.

FakeGate

Catching up on more climate hanky-panky (cribbed directly from FOS email):

FakeGate (James Delingpole's designation)

The possibly criminal misdeeds of Dr Gleick, President of the Pacific Institute and Chairman of the AGU’s Task Force on Scientific Ethics (sic!), in trying to undermine the reputation of the Heartland Institute, have been all over the blogosphere. Ken Gregory has summarised events on the Friends of Science website ... I am not going to add to that. If you are not up to date on the ethics boss having had his hand in the cookie jar (his arm, some say), you should consult the background at WUWT , or the dedicated site <http://fakegate.org/>.

Previous Heartland correspondence with Gleick is here.

Gleick’s revealing 2007 testimony for the US Senate is here.

DeSmogBlog, the HuffPost and ThinkProgress assisted in distributing the unchecked allegations and forged document.

An interesting record of the manipulations by DeSmogBlog propagandists is here.

"Systematic fraud" in IPCC's 5th Assessment Report

Expert reviewer Alec Rawls at WUWT:

... My training is in economics where we are very familiar with what statisticians call “the omitted variable problem” (or when it is intentional, “omitted variable fraud”). ...This problem is manifest at the very highest level of AR5, and is built into each step of its analysis.

Like everyone else who participated in this review, I agreed not to cite, quote or distribute the draft. The IPCC also made a further request, which reviewers were not required to agree to, that we “not discuss the contents of the FOD in public fora such as blogs.”

Given what I found—systematic fraud—it would not be moral to honor this un-agreed to request....

Harper-hating media

BC Blue comments on the media frenzy over the Robocall "scandal".

And today Andrew Coyne climbed aboard the "conspiracy" bandwagon.  Note that he's now 'coyned' the term "Robocon" as a substitute for Robocall. Too cute.

It apparently hasn't occurred to Coyne that the "conspiracy" here is that first Liberals and now NDP partisans are coming out of the woodwork to claim they've been Robocalled by Conservatives.  It's a convenient, risk-free smear they can perpetuate till the cows come home.

Update: From BC Blue - NDP MP Pat ("Big Mouth") Martin being sued for defamation

Ugly headlines

Above the fold on the front page of today's Vancouver Sun:

Mobile euthanasia - Six units will travel around the country to help the Dutch die at home.

Six "mobile euthanasia units" will become available in the Netherlands starting Thursday, to zip around this tiny and remarkably liberal country to help Dutch citizens facing an "unbearable" and "hopeless" medical situation die in their homes.

A group of prominent citizens, meanwhile, has been lobbying since 2009 for a major expansion in the scope of Dutch assisted-death laws, allowing older people who are "tired of living" but have no serious medical problem to end it all without the involvement of a physician. ...

Learning classroom politics - BCTF president Susan Lambert discusses her union on the verge of a strike, and a scolding that changed her life. 

The BCTF is arguably one of the most militant, radical unions in the country.  Susan Lambert's benign granny looks belie her militantly radical leftist stance and leadership of the BCTF.

Killing the Wheat Board - a step closer

This is taking forever:  "Canadian Wheat Board dealt blow by Manitoba judge"

A progressive's take on Romney

Jonathan Kay speculates on conservative motives. Lame, partisan "analysis", as usual.

The new Luddites threaten prosperity

UAW and "The 99% Spring"

No more "Occupy", now it's "The 99% Spring" which the Daily Caller says is led by the UAW.
It fits Obama's class warfare re-election messaging so the Dems will use it.

That's in the USA.  No doubt it'll spill over into Canada, also with union funding and leadership.

Technorati.  Forbes.

[Via]

Climate alarmist Andrew Weaver defends oil sands

Further to my post yesterday, here's Ezra Levant with Lorrie Goldstein:



Here's Weaver on the "tar" sands three years ago.

And CTV News had a story last night on the EU's proposed anti-oil sands legislation and Canada's threat to retaliate.  (No mention of Weaver's oil sands research in last night's broadcast but it's in this online version.)

... On Feb. 23, the EU will vote on a proposal to label crude from the oilsands as causing 22 per cent more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil ...

... Canada has fired a diplomatic shot across the bow of the European Union, warning that any move to single out oilsands crude as environmentally unfriendly will be met with retaliation.

Justin Trudeau's brain

Today with Ezra Levant:



Yesterday in the Ottawa Sun - Justin Trudeau’s brains an inch deep:

... poor Justin is just artlessly parroting assumptions so pervasive among the smart set they’re never examined.  Including the feeling that Tories are not merely partisan adversaries or politically mistaken, they are illegitimate.

... Perhaps we need a House Un-Canadian Affairs Committee, to pursue Tories but welcome Bloquists.

See also:

Breaking: Climate alarmist tells truth

UVic's Andrew Weaver says impact of burning all Alberta’s oilsands negligible:

Andrew Weaver isn’t what you’d call an oilsands apologist.

Weaver, who holds the Canada Research Chair in Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria, was a lead author with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He is one of the world’s leading authorities on global warming, and one of the fiercest critics of the Harper government’s carbon emissions policy — or lack thereof.

That’s what makes Weaver’s latest research publication such startling news. This Sunday, Feb. 19th, Weaver and his doctoral student, Neil Swart, published an analysis in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change, an offshoot of Nature, the world’s most prestigious science journal.

In their paper, Swart and Weaver conclude the impact of burning all the economically viable proven reserve of Alberta’s oilsands — all 170 billion barrels — would be negligible. Burning all the proven reserve between 2012 and 2062, they say, would raise global temperatures by just 0.02 C to 0.05 C.

[...]

I've been following Weaver's climate alarmism for some time.  He has been the Canadian equivalent of James Hansen. He won't likely be changing his tune on AGW, but good for him in telling the truth about this.  Now as Ezra predicts, will he be the subject of vicious attacks from his fellow true believers?

The certainty of disastrous sea level rises in BC

The Vancouver Sun has this story on today's front page (must be short of "news"):

"South Delta (Ladner) will be vulnerable to disastrous flooding in the coming decades without wholesale adaptation to rising sea levels.

"... global warming likely means a “multi-metre” rise in ocean height by the end of this century."

Even though,

"... global sea level changes at present are lagging behind a global warming trend and no one can predict when the oceans will catch up, although it’s a certainty that they will." ["a certainty" only if the warming predicted by AGW hysterics is a "certainty" - which it most certainly isn't.]

"SFU’s Clague said the sea level may be changing more rapidly than it has in several thousand years ..." [So much for certainty.]

It must be time for these SFU and UBC "researchers" to renew their government grants; and given that the BC government has bought into AGW hysteria lock-stock-and-barrel grant renewals are a near certainty.

When moving to the lower mainland a couple of years ago I considered Ladner but decided against it - not because of global warming but global warming hysteria and the potential for gigantic tax increases - and even worse plummeting Ladner housing values caused by this alarmism. 

Update:  CTV Vancouver News covered this "story" last night as if it were a certainty.  The dimwitted anchor thought it was gospel because "computer models" showed the flooding that would occur (What? No computer model showing what Vancouver would look like after the asteroid hits?)  If I were a Ladner home owner I'd be damn pissed at these SFU, UBC, Vancouver Sun and CTV warm-mongers for depressing my property values.

Christopher Hitchens vs William Craig - Does God Exist?

William Lane Craig debated Christopher Hitchens on the question - Does God Exist?
Hosted by Biola University and moderated by Hugh Hewitt:



Though less than satisfying, as are most debates of this kind, this one was interesting and entertaining. Dr. Craig performed very well and Hitchens was relatively well behaved.  I'd say Dr. Craig won.

"The language is a little salty and the reasoning unclear ..."

"Let’s play a game. Let’s see if you can guess the author ...

...Contrarianism, nihilism, apocalyptic fantasies? All clues.
...Operatic victimhood, comical bluster?
... All our young lives.

Yes, it’s the stoical and subtle philosophy of Laurie Penny."

FrackNation

From the producers of "Not Evil, Just Wrong" comes "FrackNation":



[via]

Why conservatives SUCK

[via]

Germany's green energy horror story

Lessons for Ontario and other "renewables" promoters - "Germany’s Green Energy Supply Transformation Has Already Failed!":

... the former Socialist-Green coalition government ...enacted the so-called Renewable Energy Feed-In Act in 2000 ... [which] requires electric utilities to buy all renewable energies, such as solar and wind power, from all producers at fixed, exorbitant rates  ...  for a period of 20 years. [Sounds familiar]. ... [T]housands of homeowners, businesses, and investors have installed thousands of megawatts of solar and wind power.

...The problem is that these energy sources are weather-dependent and thus their sporadic supply is starting to wreak havoc on Germany’s power grid and is even now threatening to destabilize power grids all across Europe. The other problem: the power grid needed to distribute the decentrally produced green power is simply not there yet. They forgot to build it! ...

... in a fit of panic and hysteria, the German government shut down 8 of its older 18  nuclear reactors in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, ... Germany had been a net power exporter; today it is a net power importer ...

... how could such absurd decisions have been made to begin with? Were there no experts involved in the planning of the new power generation infrastructure? ... Power executives are viewed as evil, dirty and greedy polluters, and thus were never really consulted. ...   the decision to shut down the German nuclear power plants and to massively support renewables was done unilaterally by the government...

... Offshore wind parks, but no transmission lines to industrial regions!

... Activists groups blocking grid expansion

... In a death spiral…”will fail spectacularly”

Dalton McGuinty, are you paying attention?

[via FOS]

Jason Kenney defunds Palestine House

Details at Blazing Cat Fur: Happy Valentines Day Jason Kenney! Islamofascist Palestine House Defunded!

Good on Jason! 
BUT I have a few questions:

(1) What took so long?
(2) Only "defunded"? Considering BCF's list of Palestine House's activities you'd think the criminal code might have come into play.
(3) Where were/are Richard Warman and the CJC?

CPAC - Daniel Hannan on America and Europe

A tremendous speech by a Brit Member of the European Parliament compares America with the EU:



[via]

Ann Coulter at CPAC 2012

Ann Coulter with Brian Lilley at CPAC

Supreme Court justice trashes US constitution

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg went on Egyptian TV recently and said, among other lunatic things:

You should certainly be aided by all the constitution-writing that has gone one since the end of World War II. I would not look to the US constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary... It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done. Much more recent than the US constitution - Canada has a Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It dates from 1982. You would almost certainly look at the European Convention on Human Rights. Yes, why not take advantage of what there is elsewhere in the world?

Wow!  As PJTV's Stephen Green says: "... Ginsburg needs to recuse herself from any case involving the constitution."

David Suzuki Foundation: Charity or Lobbyists?

Calling Canada Revenue Agency!

facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is "a self-serving hypocrite"

Peter Foster: "Two-faced book"

... [Adam] Smith noted that businessmen — like all human beings — are often self-serving hypocrites. His point was that free commercial markets turned self-interest into public benefit. We can only serve ourselves by serving others. Meanwhile Smith scoffed at those who would “trade for the public good.”

Posturing obviously comes more easily to the search engine and Internet tycoons because they can claim they are more virtuous than those who run wicked old smokestack industries. Except, that is, when they are advertising their products, which just happens to be how the new tykes make most of their money. This brings us to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s letter in this week’s IPO filing.

... In his letter, Mr. Zuckerberg, who stands to be worth up to US$28-billion, claims that Facebook was “built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.”

... Where it really gets murky is where he writes, “Over time, we expect governments will become more responsive to issues and concerns raised directly by all their people rather than through intermediaries controlled by a select few.”

... We have representative democracies for a reason. They don’t always work that well, but they are certainly preferable to the rule of any NGO-stoked Occupy cybermob.

... it’s worth noting that while rattling on about higher purpose and the voice of the people, Mr. Zuckerberg ... is keeping a firm grip on Facebook control via a dual share structure.  ... while he is paying lip service to the meddlers, he is doing his best to insulate himself from them. We knew he was a smart young man. Shame about the bafflegab.

Great column!  Read any corporate annual report and you'll find it filled with the same kind of posturing bafflegab about "stakeholders", "corporate social responsibility" and "sustainability". They dedicate people as full-time generators of this bullcrap and to sucking up to NGOs.

Warren Buffett's tax-avoidance plans

And what does he stand to gain from Obama's cancellation of Keystone XL?  That among other things about Buffett's phony "tax-the-rich" mantra: