Monday Morning Rant 64

In formulating ideas for the morning rant, I found myself on the verge of sharing a self-pitying account of my struggle to maintain my health. Shame on me! As I look at others in my age group I find that I have much to be grateful for and will not trouble you with details in which you have little interest. When one enjoys superb health, every hangnail turns into a tragedy and assumes an importance far beyond reality. I’ll just “cowboy-up” and deal with the additional medications and inconvenience and pray thanksgiving for what has been and God’s continued protection for the future. I also promise to complain less and write more. Thank you for your patience.

Don’t be Silly

Claire Berlinsky recounts in her book, “There Is No Alternative,” an important anecdote from conversations between Margaret Thatcher and Gorbachev. In their first 80’s exchanges before the end of the “cold war” Gorbachev attempted to instruct Mrs. Thatcher on the superiority of communism. She ended the matter by saying simply; “Don’t be silly, Mr. Gorbachev. You can’t even feed your own people.”

It was an unassailable truth which would have pulled the most demonic tyrant up short. Although powerful, Mr. Gorbachev, realized that the fact was not only in order but also a challenge to come up with reasonable solutions to bring it to an end. Within the decade, the Berlin Wall was razed and the old USSR was dissolved. Think of the courage it took to look one of the most powerful men in the world straight in the eye and say, “Don’t be silly!”

Today we are, decades later, still challenged by these unworkable notions. The lure of that old bugaboo, “something for nothing,” remains in the hearts and minds of some of our people. Fortunately, the concept of individualism has not been totally extinguished and is still alive to rescue us all from a Marxist fate.

The Hottest October on Record?

Al Gore’s principal ally in perpetuating the global warming hoax has long been Dr. James Hansen of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies. That body reported record high temperatures world wide in October.
The Telegraph.co.uk reported a bit different story however. They said, “This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonable snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.”

It now appears that the elevated “world-wide temperatures” were a result of using September data reported as October’s! These people claim to be scientists. Hansen, it should be noted, is not a climatologist. One wonders just what other false hypotheses he has advanced in his assigned discipline at NASA which has obstructed their program.

In a response to the article, one of the commenters furnished this list of interesting factoids which I share for your amusement:

“Let's keep it scientific then: Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is a theory (hypothesis). It is an unproven theory. What you do with theories is put them to the test with scientific observations. Let's see what data points we now have:
1) Average annual temperatures have not surpassed 1998 (NOAA) (University of Alabama)

2) Average annual temperatures are now trending downward since 1998 (NOAA) (University of Alabama)

3) Ocean temperatures have not risen since 2000 when the 3000 Argo buoys were launched.. The buoys even show a slight decrease in ocean temperatures

4) The Arctic ice froze to February levels by December 07, there are 1mm more sq km than before (previous was 13mm sq km)

5) The Arctic ice is 20cm thicker than "normal" (whatever that is)

6) All polar bear pods are stable or growing (NOAA/PBS)

7) Mount Kilimanjaro is not melting because of global warming, rather "sublimation"

8) The Antarctic is not "melting", it is growing in most places, the sloughing off at the edges is normal as the ice mass grows

9) The majority of the Antarctic is 8 degrees below "normal" (again, whatever that is)

10) The coveted .7 degree rise in temperatures over the last 100 years has been wiped out with last years below "normal" temperatures (NOAA coolest winter since 2001)

11) Al Gores film was just deemed "propaganda" in a court of law in the UK as many points could not be substantiated by scientists

12) It was also just revealed that some of the footage in Al’s film was CGI. The ice shelf collapse was from the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” (ABC)

13) One of the scientists that originally thought that CO2 preceded the warming has now found with new data that the CO2 rise follows the warming (Dr David Evans)

14) August 2008 was the first time since 1913 there were no sun spots.

15) The Medieval Warm Period was warmer than the 20th century (no SUVs)

16) Many scientists are now predicting 30 years of cooling.

17) The greenhouse effect is real, our small contribution to it cannot even be measured

18) Several publications, including those that are “warmist” have recently written that the “natural” cycles of the earth may “mask” AGW. Give me a break.

19) 31,000 scientist have signed a petition against AGW! Over the last ten years the world, along with China (1 new coal fired plant coming on line each week) and India spewing millions of additional tons of CO2 in to the atmosphere these results should be impossible.

Now, please be so kind to give me one piece of observable evidence that man is causing "global warming". And, when will Al Gore humbly give his “Noble Prize” back as he is a complete fraud?”

I may be just jealous. I see the “church” of global warming doing a much better job of proselytizing than any Christian sect I know. Obviously they have a far better pulpit to preach from since they “own” the airwaves, the government, the academy and unlimited resources. If their followers have their way, the current economic disaster will pale to insignificance in comparison to the cost of the false solutions to a made up problem for carbon offsets. It is well past time that we insist on a measure of scientific integrity in examination of these issues.

Gold finch update

The bird feeders have encouraged a wider variety of species to participate. The gold finches continue to dominate the hanging feeders with an on-board occasional presence of a junco, martin, and a sparrow or two. The interesting development has been the way the tiny birds provide for their larger cousins, the jays and cardinals. Plainly stated, they are messy eaters. For every seed they ingest, they dump a bunch on the ground below. This in turn provides a more stable feeding opportunity for the larger birds that have difficulty with the small access provided by the hanging feeders.

It is undeniable that this little part of the project is an unqualified success. I’m not really all that much of a “bird guy,” but I do enjoy watching them. It is addictive. The weather service predicted snow flurries for yesterday so I hope they all get stocked up and ready to get out of here on time.

I hope that we never lose sight of the complexity of life with which God has surrounded us. These dinky little birds are so incredibly capable it causes me to pause and wonder at those who see His creation as the result of a cataclysmic accident. What level of reason allows one to think in this manner?

In His abiding love,

Cecil Moon