Another climate change scandal

Posted on by

When you really, really want something to be true it’s easy to find evidence and “reasons” which match your desired belief. This may be another case:

Exposed: How world leaders were duped into investing billions over manipulated global warming data

The Mail on Sunday today reveals astonishing evidence that the organisation that is the world’s leading source of climate data rushed to publish a landmark paper that exaggerated global warming and was timed to influence the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.

A high-level whistleblower has told this newspaper that America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) breached its own rules on scientific integrity when it published the sensational but flawed report, aimed at making the maximum possible impact on world leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron at the UN climate conference in Paris in 2015.

…

NOAA’s 2015 ‘Pausebuster’ paper was based on two new temperature sets of data – one containing measurements of temperatures at the planet’s surface on land, the other at the surface of the seas.

Both datasets were flawed. This newspaper has learnt that NOAA has now decided that the sea dataset will have to be replaced and substantially revised just 18 months after it was issued, because it used unreliable methods which overstated the speed of warming. The revised data will show both lower temperatures and a slower rate in the recent warming trend.

The land temperature dataset used by the study was afflicted by devastating bugs in its software that rendered its findings ‘unstable’.

The paper relied on a preliminary, ‘alpha’ version of the data which was never approved or verified.

A final, approved version has still not been issued. None of the data on which the paper was based was properly ‘archived’ – a mandatory requirement meant to ensure that raw data and the software used to process it is accessible to other scientists, so they can verify NOAA results.

…

The sea dataset used by Thomas Karl and his colleagues – known as Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperatures version 4, or ERSSTv4, tripled the warming trend over the sea during the years 2000 to 2014 from just 0.036C per decade – as stated in version 3 – to 0.099C per decade. Individual measurements in some parts of the globe had increased by about 0.1C and this resulted in the dramatic increase of the overall global trend published by the Pausebuster paper. But Dr Bates said this increase in temperatures was achieved by dubious means. Its key error was an upwards ‘adjustment’ of readings from fixed and floating buoys, which are generally reliable, to bring them into line with readings from a much more doubtful source – water taken in by ships. This, Dr Bates explained, has long been known to be questionable: ships are themselves sources of heat, readings will vary from ship to ship, and the depth of water intake will vary according to how heavily a ship is laden – so affecting temperature readings.

Dr Bates said: ‘They had good data from buoys. And they threw it out and “corrected” it by using the bad data from ships. You never change good data to agree with bad, but that’s what they did – so as to make it look as if the sea was warmer.’

ERSSTv4 ‘adjusted’ buoy readings up by 0.12C. It also ignored data from satellites that measure the temperature of the lower atmosphere, which are also considered reliable. Dr Bates said he gave the paper’s co-authors ‘a hard time’ about this, ‘and they never really justified what they were doing.’

Quote of the day—Christiana Figueres

Posted on by

This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.

Christiana Figueres
Executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change
February 3, 2015
Figueres: First time the world economy is transformed intentionally
[See also: Global Warming is About Destroying Capitalism? and U.N. Official Reveals Real Reason Behind Warming Scare.

They always have to use force don’t they? It’s always about control by whatever ruse they think might work.

Free markets and free minds are just not acceptable to them.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Spitzer

Posted on by

A cluster of issues come together with gun rights zealots. They’re predominantly older white males who think the country is falling apart at the seams; they’re suspicious of outsiders, and quick to blame others for issues the country may face. The worldview typical of an NRA member is the same as that of a far-right conservative person. This is the group that has been very important for the Trump coalition.

Robert Spitzer
February 3, 2017
In Trump’s America, Nothing’s Off the Table for the NRA
[You just keep thinking that.

Reality may be a bit different. Barb and I went to the range last weekend and about half of the people there were women.—Joe]

The police will protect you

Posted on by

Watching a Stefan Molyneux video, he quoted note from a listener referring to gun-free zones and the Berkley riots over Milo:

“Give up your guns, they said. The police will protect you.”

Only if you are one of those that the police / state think are worth protecting.

Sobering thought when there is a transition of power from one party to another, and you realize there is another foot that might wear that jackboot you’d hope would step on the throat of your enemies.

But I bet a lot of leftists still won’t understand.

Quote of the day—lock-him-up

Posted on by

I think all the psychos need to arm themselves with automatic weapons and masny rounds of ammo and go visit once a week Republic Party politicians and their mothers, wives, and their children and thank them!

lock-him-up
February 2, 2017
Comment to House strikes regulation to keep mentally ill from buying guns
[This is the caliber of people who oppose the right to keep and bear arms. They have difficulty with spelling and grammar, and, if they could arrange it, they would have Republicans killed.—Joe]

Options

Posted on by

Just had the movie rights to my book optioned. So now we start working to get the casting and promotions done so a good funding page (likely on GoFundMe) can be put together and production monies raised. If we hit the minimum goal, then he buys the movie rights and moves forward with starting to produce it. Because he’s a relatively small operation, and the book is long, the basic goal is to make just a portion of it, and make it well enough that it can act as a “prof of concept’ to raise enough money for more of it. That’s just a small part of the big picture (no pun intended), of course. When the promo trailer (a simple but scene to shoot) is ready I’ll let people know.

Quote of the day—Charles Hugh Smith

Posted on by

To get anything done in a culture of entrenched interests, one must either have an overwhelming political mandate to dismantle the entire machine–Trump does not–or you need Insiders who know the pressure points of the system and its key players–in effect, Insiders who know how to slip a political stiletto into the kidneys of key players and twist the blade to get done what would otherwise be impossible.

Charles Hugh Smith
January 18, 2017
Why Outsiders Need Insiders To Get Anything Done
[It sounds plausible.

But I’m not entirely sure I understand why the legislature and president couldn’t just say, “The ATF no longer exists. The FBI will enforce any of the laws that need to be enforced. The FBI may hire up to 10% of those newly unemployed people if they pass the normal selection criteria. ATF Office space and equipment will be reallocated, rented and/or sold during the next 60 days.”

Why would there be a burning need for “insiders” in that sort of situation?—Joe]

Quote of the day—Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Posted on by

It’s not easy losing to the most unpopular candidate in history while outspending him nearly 3-1.

I propose Hillary deserves a lifetime achievement award. Her noteworthy performance may never be broken.

Mike “Mish” Shedlock
January 18, 2017
Did Fake News Help Trump? New Study Says Ads More Important
[The one big take away I have from the spending reports is that money apparently isn’t as important as it was thought to be.

I like that.—Joe]

I’m good with Judge Gorsuch

Posted on by

David Hardy found a couple firearms cases with Judge Gorsuch contributions and doesn’t find much to directly indicate how he will rule on 2nd Amendment issues.

But from what I have been able to find out, such as here and here, he is an originalist and textualist. That is what I am looking for in a SCOTUS judge. And he is relatively young and should be around for many years. So, I’m good with Judge Gorsuch.

Now to see if the Republicans can get him past the obstructionist Democrats in the Senate.

Reloading report

Posted on by

As I reported on the first of this month I enhanced my program which parses and reports on my reloading logs. Not too long after making those changes I made still more changes. In now outputs a section with the yearly and monthly totals for every caliber combined. Here is that section of the report including the 3300 rounds of .40 S&W (minor power factor Blue Bullets for steel matches) I reloaded this month:

Year Total Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
1996: 11274 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 10944 141 189
1997: 7585 300 0 40 1210 719 106 0 100 1088 804 1060 2158
1998: 11574 570 258 718 1657 1812 1710 542 20 0 1240 900 2147
1999: 4912 20 964 181 877 718 657 60 0 0 179 653 603
2000: 3690 845 120 142 0 57 1095 400 396 43 521 60 11
2001: 2724 25 300 497 532 15 20 1198 73 0 0 0 64
2002: 898 0 0 0 0 0 0 198 0 200 300 0 200
2003: 649 0 300 302 18 0 0 0 0 0 0 29 0
2004: 1345 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 300 600 445 0
2005: 1059 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 659 400 0 0
2006: 1000 0 0 0 0 400 0 0 0 0 200 400 0
2007: 1136 0 0 0 0 0 0 118 518 300 200 0 0
2008: 2398 0 300 0 0 0 0 900 399 0 200 0 599
2009: 1702 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 102 300 900 400
2010: 1400 0 0 0 0 100 200 700 0 200 0 200 0
2011: 2300 300 0 400 100 0 500 500 200 0 0 0 300
2012: 399 0 200 0 199 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2013: 600 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 100 500
2014: 530 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 530
2015: 10005 1699 2696 3064 0 0 0 547 200 400 100 200 1099
2016: 18265 2197 700 1462 837 1899 1999 1000 1500 1216 1957 1500 1998
2017: 3300 3300 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Grand Totals 88745 9256 5838 6806 5430 5720 6287 6163 3406 4508 17945 6588 10798

Quote of the day—Roger Kimball

Posted on by

Now some of this is just adolescent play-acting, even if many of those involved, being professors, are far beyond the chronological limits of adolescence.  Academia has an infantilizing effect. I understand that. Many professors dress and act like adolescents right up to the time they are ready to hand in their tenure and live off their generous pensions. The Peter-Pan aspect of academia is not entirely the professors’ fault.  After all, the points at which the real world intrudes upon academia are so few and so tenuous that academics may be forgiven for some of their hyperbole and inadvertently comic displays of self-importance.  They exist, like kept women of yore, entirely at the pleasure of an affluent society they despise. So in a way it is not surprising that they endeavor to transform their entire campus into a sort of existential boudoir, which is French for “room for pouting in.”

Roger Kimball
January 15, 2017
A Modest Disposal
[Interesting observation.—Joe]

Quote of the day—The Original DB

Posted on by

Does carrying a pistol make you safer? As a rule, men do not carry pistols for self-defense. Men carry guns around with them because they are the #1 non-pharmaceutical treatment for erectile dysfunction.

The Original DB
April 13, 2016
Comment to Does Carrying A Pistol Make You Safer?
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

We have facts and SCOTUS decisions. They have grade-school insults.—Joe]

Son-in-law in Front Sight magazine

Posted on by

Last October I posted that my son-in-law came in 13th at the USPSA Open nationals.

The Jan/Feb issue of the USPSA magazine, Front Sight, just arrived and before I had a change to open it daughter Xenia texted me to tell me her husband was in it.

Yup. He sure is:

FrontSightJanFeb2017JohnV

Quote of the day—Winston S. Churchill

Posted on by

British troops were still fighting hard in the centre of Athens, hemmed in and outnumbered. We were engaged in house-to-house combat with an enemy at least four-fifths of whom were in plain clothes. Unlike many of the Allied newspaper correspondents in Athens, our troops had no difficulty in understanding the issues involved.

Winston S. Churchill
1953
Triumph and Tragedy (The Second World War Volume VI)
Page 259
[I find it interesting the press is frequently so out of touch with reality. Ulysses S. Grant made similar observations several decades earlier.

This six volume series on WW II by Churchill is excellent. His perspective is, of course, a bit different from what I learned in history classes and I enjoyed seeing things from his view.—Joe]

Lead Ammo ban

Posted on by

As a parting gift to the shooting community, the Community Organizer in Chief, BHO, had the US Fish and Wildlife issue a new regulation  banning lead ammo on most Federal lands. All federal lands administered by the F&W, parks and refuges. With less than a day left in the outgoing administration. Yeah, he’s just that kind and considerate. But at least it’s easily undone, and it’s (yet one more) thing that highlights the contemptuous attitude of the regulatory masters.

Drain the swamp.

Quote of the day—Ti

Posted on by

“A chicken in every pot……..and a completed 80%’er behind every door” Let’s make America great again.

Ti
January 26, 2017
Comment to ATF Cracks Down on Retro Builders using 80% Receivers
[I wonder if they mean behind every door in the house (I approve) or just behind the outside doors (insufficient).—Joe]

CRA – not tired of winning

Posted on by

This popped up on a couple of different sources at about the same time, not sure who was first. Likely the WSJ, as this ZeroHedge post cites it. Short version: when congress passes a law and the president signs it, it will often have an outline of what’s to be done, and it directs the appropriate agencies involved to write up the implementing regulations and guidelines. A three page law might have hundreds of pages of legalese added to the Federal Register. Heck, the entire edifice built on “title IX” is standing on a single sentence! Anyway, a law passed in 1996 called the Congressional Review Act requires that after the regulations are written they have to send a report to congress, where they must be voted up or down by simple majority vote within 60 days. Congress was trying to keep an out-of-control agency from getting too hog wild on the details that were delegated to them.

The clock stars ticking when the regulations are published, or when the report gets sent to congress, whichever is later.

Well, it seems that the last administration was a tad sloppy on their paperwork. They rarely sent a report to congress. Trump can direct any agency under his command (effectively all of them) to send a report to congress if they have not done so already. If it gets voted down, the law is on hold until they can put together regs that are acceptable to congress, and the next attempt at reg-writing cannot be to simply re-submit essentially the same thing again. So a whole bunch of junk passed in the last 8 years might be, ah, revisited.

Suddenly Trump’s statements about reducing regulation hugely doesn’t sound so absurd.

Nope, not tired of winning yet.

Gun Song – Battle of New Orleans

Posted on by

“Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton is a classic “Americana” song. Quoting Infogalactic: “The Battle of New Orleans” is a song written by Jimmy Driftwood. The song describes the 1815 Battle of New Orleans from the perspective of an American soldier; the song tells the tale of the battle with a light tone and provides a rather comical version of what actually happened at the battle. It has been recorded by many artists, but the singer most often associated with this song is Johnny Horton. His version scored number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959 (see 1959 in music). Billboardranked it as the No. 1 song for 1959.[1]

Another small case won

Posted on by

From SAF:

BELLEVUE, WA (1/27/17) – The Second Amendment Foundation has scored another court victory, this time in Montana where a federal district court judge has entered a preliminary injunction against the state’s citizenship requirement in order to obtain a concealed carry license.

U.S. District Court Judge Donald W. Molloy at the district court in Missoula has also stayed the case because the Legislature is currently considering legislation that would repeal the citizenship requirement. The case is Knutson v. Curry.

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb noted that this is just the foundation’s latest effort to secure protections for permanent legal resident aliens. The plaintiff in this case, Lenka Knutson, resides with her husband and two children in Whitefish. She is a citizen of Slovakia and a SAF member.

“We’re certainly happy with the judge’s ruling,” Gottlieb said, “and we’re gratified that the Montana Legislature is working to fix this problem. We’ve fought similar battles in Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas, North Carolina and New Mexico on behalf of legal resident aliens.”

“This lawsuit is about the recognition that lawful resident aliens share the same Second Amendment rights as citizens,” attorney David G. Sigale noted. “We are very gratified that the Court has vindicated Ms. Knutson’s right to self-defense, and we are also glad the State is taking steps to correct a clearly discriminatory law.”

Under terms of the order, Judge Molloy also cancelled a scheduled Feb. 13 trial.

Lenka had gone to the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office in 2014 to apply for a concealed carry permit, even though she is not a U.S. citizen. The permit was denied because she is a permanent resident and not a citizen. The lawsuit followed, with representation by Sigale of Glen Ellyn, Illinois and Quentin M. Rhoades and Nicole L. Seifert of Missoula.

“The decision by Judge Molloy is one more example of SAF’s effort to win firearms freedom, one lawsuit at a time,” Gottlieb stated.

I think it is best to incrementally win nearly every small case rather than have a moderate or high risk of losing a big case. If enough precedent is established with the small cases the big cases will be easier to win.

The quilt story

Posted on by

Last July Robert Avrech posted a picture of a comforter designed as a U.S. flag and expressed his desire to have one:

A few years ago, Karen and I came across this comforter designed by Timothy Oulton. “I want it,” I said. Karen looked at the price tag and said, “We’ll just have to settle for a photo.”

Sister-in-law Julie makes quilts (over 600 so far) so I asked her to make one for me. We agreed on the price and I offered to give it to Robert. He readily accepted. It took a few months for the flag quilt to get to the head of the queue but I was able to pick it up the last time I was in Idaho and ship it to Robert.

Why? Because he is a Hollywood screenwriter and producer who is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. I’m not sure I would have the courage to risk my livelihood by being so outspoken behind enemy lines, I wanted to let him know that his efforts are appreciated, and give him a small reward for his courage and support of our specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.

Today he posted pictures of and thanks for the quit (go to the bottom of the post).