Political science

In today’s ‘Post’, Peter Foster is outraged by the political bias in a ‘science’ journal ‘Nature’ editorial criticizing Canada and the Harper government:

...it could easily have been written by David "Off with their heads" Suzuki. Maybe it was.

As evidence, the magazine cites the closing down of the office of science advisor Arthur Carty. Who knew it existed?

Climate change is in fact the real focus for Nature's attack, which also castigates Prime Minister Stephen Harper for backing away from Kyoto. Nature's implication that the Harper government is somehow resisting "settled" science is nonsensical.

When it comes to Kyoto, Nature is not being the least scientific.

Mr. Foster also goes after Victoria’s own .0005 Nobel laureate, Andrew Weaver. Weaver (or ‘Weasel’ as I prefer to call him) is a UVic climate modeller and pet political scientist for the uniformly alarmist local media:

Sounding suspiciously like Nature, [Weaver] suggested: "It's almost like a war on science is going on in government, which is very sad."

He also unleashed a diatribe against the research of Ross McKitrick and Stephen McIntyre, who inconveniently exploded the IPCC's alarmist "hockey stick" graph of temperatures soaring in the past century after a millennium of stability. Mr. Weaver has even suggested that it is dangerous to allow skeptics a voice in scientific debate.

That isn't science. And neither is Nature's editorial.

It’s truly a sad time for physical science when it’s so routinely subverted by political ‘scientists’.

Tag - Six unimportant things

Having been tagged, I’ll follow the meme: Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself:

I love peanut butter and lettuce sandwiches.

I once voted Liberal.

My wife thinks I’m a grouch - but she’s wrong, as usual.

I occasionally walk in my sleep.

Ed Schreyer was my high school geography teacher. My biggest recollection from his classes was a discussion of the meaning of the word "copacetic".

I once owned a B.S.A. 250 Starfire.

Tagging six:
A Dog Named Kyoto
Half Wisdom Half Wit
Canadian Blue Lemons
Grey Canada
Canadian Sentinel
Exactly Right

A short history of Canadian HRCs

Kathy Shaidle's excellent FrontPageMag piece provides a concise history of Canada's shameful Human Rights Commissions.

[via]

Carbon taxes are here!

Last week the BC government brought down its ‘green theme’ budget implementing one of Canada’s first carbon taxes. Finance minister Carole Taylor showed up for the cameras in a cutesy green outfit with green shaded visuals as a backdrop. Bleecchh!

The tax starts small at 2.4 cents/liter of gas (starting in a couple of months) and equivalent taxes on heating fuel. Aside from mild annoyance, there was very little adverse reaction from John Q Public; and a day or so later there was a market-forced bump of about 6 cents at the pumps which all but swamped the announced carbon tax.

Should we be blasé? Here’s Terence Corcoran’s take: B.C. launches CO2 planning nightmare:

Very neat, aside from one slight problem. When will we know if it works? B.C. Finance Minister Carole Taylor had a lot to say about her new carbon tax -- who pays, how it's "recycled," who gets it back, how much is collected, details about its impact on Toyota Matrix drivers -- but nothing to say about what the tax might be expected to accomplish in terms of, well, cutting emissions.
[...]
This is planning without having to set targets or prove they work. The only test will be to try to figure out whether carbon emissions go down in future. And if they don't, as is likely, the only option will be to ratchet up the taxes and regulations to a new level. It's a planner's paradise.

This is just the beginning and it’s a sign that the government has completely swallowed the global warming kool-aid. It will only get worse from here. In a couple of years the gas tax is slated to go to about 7+ cents/liter and who knows what other draconian, economically destructive anti-carbon tax measures they’ll dream up.

Over at Blue Like You, Joanne tells us that Kooky Suzuki thinks carbon taxes will bring, wait for it ... lower taxes. Aside from being a fruit-fly and climate expert, Kooky is now a master economist.

See also: this poll; and Lorrie Goldstein's "Green fever madness".

Taliban Top Ten

You Might Be Taliban if.....

1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.
2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.
3. You have more wives than teeth.
4. You wipe your butt with your bare left hand, but consider bacon "unclean."
5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.
6. You can't think of anyone you HAVEN'T declared Jihad against.
7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.
8. You've felt the "urge" after seeing a woman's exposed ankle.
9. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.
10. You've ever uttered the phrase, "I love what you've done with your cave."

[h/t: Vinney Di]

Warren Kinsella’s strange hobby

Mark Steyn’s recent column in Maclean’s was about the reception his book has received from mainstream media outlets such as The Economist in the wake of Maclean’s being dragged into the infamous "human rights" kangaroo court system:

...in defending free speech in general, they usually feel obliged to deplore my exercise of it in particular... "alarmist screed...", "alarmist", "alarmist", etc
[...]
By "alarmist," The Economist and Co. really mean "raising the subject."

Whether or not it's "alarmist" to ponder what those consequences might be, under Canada's "human rights" kangaroo courts it might soon be illegal.

After a thorough review of recent alarming events, Steyn gets round to dedicated defender of kangaroo courts and intrepid Nazi hunter, Warren Kinsella:

Warren Kinsella posted on his website a photograph he'd taken in a men's room stall showing the words "WHITE POWER" and a swastika scrawled on the wall at knee height. Why Mr. Kinsella is photographing public toilets on his knees I don't know, but every guy needs a hobby. At any rate, Warren sees this loser's graffiti as critical evidence of the imminent Nazi threat to the peaceable kingdom.

Concluding:

Our heroes pursue phantoms as the world transforms. Is sharia, polygamy, routine first-cousin marriage in the interests of Canada or Britain or Europe? Oh, dear, even to raise the subject is to tiptoe into all kinds of uncomfortable terrain for the multicultural mindset. It's easier just to look the other way, or go Nazi-hunting in the men's room. Nobody wants to be unpleasant, or judgmental, do they? What was it they said in the Cold War? Better dead than red. We're not like that anymore. Better screwed than rude.

It’s a great column and that image of Warren is priceless.

The ice is back!

As everyone knows, the Arctic is warming, sea ice is disappearing, polar bears are threatened,... Now, Terence Corcoran wants to alert the CBC that there’s a new story to tell:

In recent months, as anchor of CBC Television's The National, Mr. Mansbridge has taken camera crew and staff to record first hand the disappearing sea ice in Canada's North.

Thanks to really cold weather -- gee, where did that come from?--winter sea ice has been growing across the North.

There goes a good story. And if you doubt me on this, the source is as biased on climate change as sources get: The CBC.

"It's nice to know that the ice is recovering," Josefino Comiso, a senior research scientist ...told CBC News on Thursday.

"The ice is about 10 to 20 centimetres thicker than last year, so that's a significant increase," he said.

If temperatures remain cold this winter,... winter sea ice coverage will continue to expand.

Interesting how they seem to think this is good news. I wonder if they’ll be singing the same tune when it’s clear that a new ice age has begun. And speaking of polar bears - what happens to them when the ice in southern Canada is a few thousand feet thick?

Update (Feb 17): Following up on the comments re polar bears and the ice pack, these articles are relevant: Ice level highest in 15 years and Greenland polar bear invasion. The photo of Greenland brought back memories of a trip I made back in 1982 to a DEW site on top of the ice-cap (about 10,000 ft asl.) Transportation was a ski-equipped C-130D courtesy of 109 TAG Schenectady, NY Air National Guard. What a ride!

Also: Inuit rap US greens on polar bears and Global warming decision on polar bears delayed and the real truth about polar bears.