The Black Knights Of KyoTwo

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Lead author David Douglass elaborates: The observed pattern of warming, comparing surface and atmospheric temperature trends, does not show the characteristic fingerprint associated with greenhouse warming. The inescapable conclusion is that the human contribution is not significant and that observed increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases make only a negligible contribution to climate warming. So far, science hasn't had much to do with the global warming debate. I still think, though, that when voters understand that the "cure" for alleged anthropogenic global warming is for them to get poorer, interest in the scientific validity of the theory will be piqued.

Just a flesh wound no doubt...

Along Our Road

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com The effect of the NIE puts me in mind of Churchill's words in Parliament condemning the Munich Agreement. Referring to the relief felt by the people of England to the temporary avoidance of war with Germany, he avowed that "they should know that we have sustained a defeat without a war, the consequences of which will travel far with us along our road[.]"

The Absolute Worst

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com "Su Wei, a top climate expert for China's government attending the U.N. Climate Change Conference, said the job belongs to the wealthy. He said it was unfair to ask developing nations to accept binding emissions cuts and other restrictions being pushed for already industrialized states." He said the United States and its fellow industrial nations have long spewed greenhouse gases into the atmosphere while newly emerging economies have done so for only a few decades. "China is in the process of industrialization and there is a need for economic growth to meet the basic needs of the people and fight against poverty," Why have things come to the point where the most stable and prosperous democracies in history must vie for the approval and acclamation of the Chinese bureaucrats and self-appointed nongovernment organization inspectors? It is in part because Western "intellectuals" who should know better have submitted the moral judgment of the relative best to the absolute worst.

The Tragedy

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com The Times Online reports: A British imam's daughter is living in fear of her life under police protection after she received death threats from her family for converting to Christianity. The young woman, aged 32, whose father is a Muslim imam in the north of England, has moved house 45 times to escape detection by her family since she became a Christian 15 years ago. And who's taken up the cudgels for the woman? The women's liberation movement? The Left? Why it's ... The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, will claim "freedom to believe" is under threat in Britain because of Islamic hostility to conversion. The story is interesting because it advances two conjectures. First the native Western liberal intellectual elite is going betray every principle it espouses to a) bash America; b) keep itself "safe". As I have often said, the War on Terror has been a tragedy for the Left in a way that it has never been for conservatives.

I Will Miss Israel Greatly. New York And Washington Not So Much...

clipped from pajamasmedia.com it will be taken as confirmation of the view that we should not do anything mean to the mullahs. We should talk to them instead. And that’s just what the Estimate says: …some combination of threats of intensified international scrutiny and pressures, along with opportunities for Iran to achieve its security, prestige, and goals for regional influence in other ways, might–if perceived by Iran’s leaders as credible–prompt Tehran to extend the current halt to its nuclear weapons program. Incredibly, the authors of the document claim they can prove all this: “The impact of international pressure is beyond dispute, the officials said, a “cause-and-effect” relationship backed up by an ‘evidentiary trail.’ “ But any good student who has taken Psych 101 will tell you that it’s nigh unto impossible to determine someone else’s intentions, especially when presented by “analysts” who think that Ayatollah Khamenei and President Rafsanjani are as rational as the rest of us.

No Such Scrutiny

clipped from pajamasmedia.com No matter: the contemporary campus almost habitually serves as fierce critic of society with the understanding that no such scrutiny should ever apply to itself—whether that be tuition that rises higher than the rate of inflation, faculty governance that ensures no outside auditors dare question teaching competency or productivity, lifelong employment through tenure that has resulted in uniformity of belief rather than encouraged mavericks, and the steady erosion in common skills and basic education shown by recent college graduates.

Stalemate: A Perspective

clipped from www.americanthinker.com General George Marshall is noted for his famous economic assistance "Marshall Plan" commencement speech at Harvard in 1947. However, less appreciated was his "Stalemate Strategy," which George Kennan called "containment." General Marshall pointed out that we made a serious mistake after World War I by pulling our troops out of Europe, and allowing strife to be renewed. Prevention of large scale fighting must never again be allowed, he said, and the developed nations must collaborate in its prevention. Unfortunately, prevention is a multiple step process of transition from dictatorship to a democracy. It usually takes generations, and involves a sequence of stages.                 Fighting....Exhaustion     STALEMATE.....Negotiation.....Democracy The critical stage is "stalemate," which requires the immediate availability of a superior garrison military force, to be used if needed. Stalemate can then encourage a process of negotiation,

The Awkward Fit

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Any researchers who haven't fully signed on to the "social stigmatization" argument might like to dust off the reports following the stabbing in 2002 of Paris' first openly gay mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, by a Muslim immigrant, Azedine Berkane. Le Monde reported the views of M Berkane's neighbors: “He was a bit like us,” said one. “We’re all homophobic here, because it’s not natural.” “It’s against Islam,” said another. “Muslim fags don’t exist.”  As I say somewhere in my book: If you think Iraq's Kurds and Arabs, Sunni and Shia are incompatible, what do you call a jurisdiction split between post-Christian secular gay potheads and anti-whoring anti-sodomite anti-everything-you-dig Islamists? If Kurdistan’s an awkward fit in Iraq, how well will Pornostan fit in the Islamic Republic of Holland?

Iraq = D.C.

clipped from blogs.dailymail.com The left’s demand for instant democracy is laughable. “In Baghdad, politics are a mess. Critics of Bush’s policy complain that the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite fundamentalist, has not reached out with sufficient vigor to Sunni Arabs to seek reconciliation. In fact, the situation is far worse than that,” Cole wrote. Oh? Two months into the fiscal year, Congress has yet to pass a federal budget. Critics of Harry Reid complain that “he has not reached out with sufficient vigor to” Republicans “to seek reconciliation. In fact, the situation is far worse than that.” Congress mirrors conditions in the Iraqi parliament because of the left’s refusal to accept victory.

I've been saying this for a while now...