Damon Linker writes at THE WEEK:
Is National Review doomed?
The conservative movement’s leading magazine faces a lawsuit that could bring it to its knees.
This part made me laugh:
The ideological descendants of the Birchers have since taken their revenge. Today they are the conservative movement’s most passionate supporters and foot soldiers. But they demand a steady diet of red meat, and National Review now exists in part to provide it.
Really? John Birchers?
Here’s a somewhat less volatile point of his argument, but still equally funny:
‘In July, Judge Natalia Combs Greene rejected a motion to dismiss the suit. The defendants appealed, and last week D.C. Superior Court Judge Frederick Weisberg rejected the motion again, opening the door for the discovery phase of the lawsuit to begin’
I guess he didn’t do much research into that fiasco and judge Natalia Combs Greene to see the whole story of how she reversed the plaintiff and the defendant in her ruling, which was later nullified by a competent judge.
Let’s say for the sake of entertainment purposes that Mann does win the lawsuit, how will he prove damages? Given Mann’s own propensity for self promotion, vitriol, and foot-in-mouth moments, IMHO Mann does more damage to his own reputation than anyone else. If Mann winning that lawsuit that were to happen, it would probably be a symbolic damages award, like $1. If the judge really wanted to send a message about frivolous lawsuits from climate scientists, he could make it 97 cents.
Read it all here: http://theweek.com//article/index/255756/is-national-review-doomed
But, the funniest part of it all, is the writer himself, Damon Linker, who could be a every-Mann climate scientist clone.
Oh now, you know how that side thinks – if you WISH something to be True hard enough, then it WILL be True!!! Right???
Fly, Tinkerbell, Fly!!!!
Didn’t I see him in one of Elmer’s videos? 😎
What is “The Week”? Never heard of it, and not going to feed the views by clicking on the link.
Mann can’t win unless he can get the defendants to cave. That is the goal, and the point of the trash-talking by the flunkies. Meh.
Damon Linker apparently doesn’t know that one of the early battles of the National Review involved W. F. Buckley reading the Birchers out of the conservative movement.
Damon Linker…another “reporter” missing Mr. Mann’s lawyers’ involvement with cap and trade and other climate lobbying?
Several years ago, there was a book written by a coastal elitist entitled “What’s Wrong with Kansas”.
The premise was that Kansans consistently voted agains their own self-interests and weren’t smart enough to know that “progressives” would be better for them than the conservative louts they keep electing.
Leaving that premise aside, let’s pursue the logic, and ask the question “What’s wrong with journalists”?
Can it really be that they are so stupid that they don’t recognize the consequences of the potential for Mann’s lawsuit to completely emasculate anti-SLAPP legislation?
Why is the ACLU the lone “progressive” group to recognize this threat?
I don’t want to be pessimistic. But this case will be tried in front of a Washington DC jury, one of the most virulently ignorant and left wing jury pools in the nation. If it goes to a jury, there’s really no telling how things will come out.
Slate is also on the record predicting NR’s demise.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/07/24/antiscience_defamation_climate_scientist_michael_mann_lawsuit_to_move_forward.html
With any luck, the discovery phase will include a subpoena for Mann’s ‘Back to 1400 CENSORED’ directory. And if Mann accidentally deleted it, we all know where to find a copy. Apart from the knowing crock of MBH98, the directory proves he in fact did do the R^2 verification test that he denied doing in testimony before congress.
That’s Manns day job, he dress up to be a climate scientist and wood bender.
Bizarre. Wm. F. Buckley, Jr’s National Review was the house organ of the conservative movement, and one of the greatest services that Buckley did for the movement was keeping the Bircher nuts marginalized. That’s why, when Reagan won his two landslides, he had the huge advantage of leading the “sane” Party. Nearly all the nuts were on the Left, in those days, thanks largely to Buckley.
Sane, moderate, patriotic Americans, who wanted sensible, competent leadership, voted for Reagan, because they knew he was level-headed and stable. Those swing voters won’t vote for Bircher nutcases or a Party that courts them.
I miss the days when nearly all the nutcases were on the Left, when Buckley kept the Bircher nuts tamped down. These days there are almost as many nutcases on the Right as on the Left. We seem to be overrun with Birchers, Ron Paul acolytes, Alex Jones zombies, and more. No wonder we’re losing so many elections.
This continues to expose something that the left appears blind to. Conservatives don’t take “marching orders” from “leaders”. Not even a little. We might listen to conservatives and nod and agree with them, or become aware of an issue from someone like Rush or Ann or even Sean… but we usually come to our own conclusions about how we feel about that issue.
Everyone I know who leans left, however, will come away from a tv or radio show with a completely fleshed out and unwavering opinion on an issue, formed and created for them.
These Mann supporters don’t realize that every action and claim like this makes their opponents snicker. I was never told what to think about Mann… his own words and actions were enough for that. As far as I can tell, his own words proved to me that he is a fraud, and his FAR over the top faux outrage shows me that he knows he’s been caught out.
Frank says:
January 30, 2014 at 2:54 pm
“But this case will be tried in front of a Washington DC jury, one of the most virulently ignorant and left wing jury pools in the nation. “
That is why we have appellate courts. If it even made it that far, there is no way an adverse verdict would pass the SCOTUS. The only question is the defendants’ staying power.
There is still DISCOVERY
http://wakeforestlawreview.com/when-staying-discovery-stays-justice-analyzing-motions-to-stay-discovery-when-a-motion-to-dismiss-is-pending
As I recall, one of the Bircher’s main goals was to get U.S. outa the U.N.
Their other causes may be zany, but they got that right!
What an ignoranus. With just a little research he would have found that National Review’s founder William F. Buckley, Jr. basically threw John Birch out of the modern conservative movement way back in 1962
What is the status of the lawsuit.
I think I am out of sync with the proceedings or I am conflating the Mark Steyn suit.
Doesn’t Mann have to re-file against NR? I was hoping he would because of discovery and wagered that he wouldn’t.
Did he actually refile? Help?
Wayne says:
January 30, 2014 at 3:13 pm
What an ignoranus. With just a little research he would have found that National Review’s founder William F. Buckley, Jr. basically threw John Birch out of the modern conservative movement way back in 1962
Did you not read the article?
“National Review once devoted itself to raising the tone of conservative intellectual discourse. As part of this civilizing mission, its founding editor summarily excommunicated the paranoid cranks of the John Birch Society from the conservative movement.”
Now who is the ignoranus hmmm?
Mark and two Cats, it’s not the Bircher’s causes that make them nuts, it’s their beliefs. They claim that “The Conspiracy” (and you can hear the capital letters when they say it!) is secretly running the whole world, that the world’s apparent governments are actually puppets controlled by a gigantic shadowy world government led by the Rockefellers, the Bilderbergers, the CFR, and the Trilateral Commission.
One year they had a national meeting at a hotel here in Raleigh, NC, and I got invited to come as a guest by one of the members. I’ve never heard so much delusional nonsense in one evening in my whole life. It was worse than listening to an Obama State of the Union address.
Jerome Corsi was the keynote speaker, but the other speakers were just crazy. As I recall, their President looked like an insane version of Bob Newhart. They claimed that “The Conspiracy” had been secretly running the whole world for hundreds of years, and that President Bush and Gov. Perry of Texas were secretly traitors, in service to The Conspiracy, conspiring with communists to merge the USA with Mexico & Canada. In fact, they claimed, the deal to do so had already been done.
The new common currency for all of North America, they claimed, was to be called the “Amero,” and their magazine ran a cover featuring the new combined flag.
The words “Bircher” and “reality” don’t belong in the same sentence together.
http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Mark-Steyn-vs.-The-Hockey-Stick
A great conversation at Ricochet with Mark Steyn about this suit. Just posted earlier today I think. The participants seem to think it’s ridiculous that Mann would win, but the suit itself will stifle free speech, unfortunately. Regardless of who wins.
Correction to my 3:22 pm comment (currently in moderation):
“the other speakers were just crazy” should have been “the other speakers were just as crazy.”
Sorry about that!
Please do not confuse conservatism with the republican party, that’s a Limbaugh-like error. The republicans are as progressive as are the democrats, just in a different direction. Progressivism is the political bowel movement to make-things-better willy-nilly damn the unintended consequences, The Poverty of Historicism.
Doug Huffman, you must live in the Northeast, or on the Left Coast. Where I live, and to a lesser extent nationally, the GOP is the conservative Party.
Pat Frank,
Here is Mann’s “censored” file. No wonder he didn’t want it seen!
=========================
Martin says:
“…William F. Buckley, Jr. basically threw John Birch out of the modern conservative movement…”
John Birch was KIA in Korea, IIRC, so he could not have been ‘thrown out’ of any organization.
never trust bald men with beargs or goatees
The real trouble is that the Birchers got a LOT right. “US out of the UN” – now from a protective stand point that is a bad idea. But other wise it encapsulates the real value of the UN.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society
The organization identifies with Christian principles, seeks to limit governmental powers, and opposes wealth redistribution, and economic interventionism. It opposes collectivism, totalitarianism, and communism. It opposes socialism as well, which it asserts is infiltrating US governmental administration. In a 1983 edition of Crossfire, Congressman Larry McDonald (D-Georgia), then its newly appointed president, characterized the society as belonging to the Old Right rather than the New Right.[14]
The society opposed aspects of the 1960s civil rights movement and claimed the movement had communists in important positions. In the latter half of 1965, the JBS produced a flyer entitled “What’s Wrong With Civil Rights?”, which was used as a newspaper advertisement.[15][16] In the piece, one of the answers was: “For the civil rights movement in the United States, with all of its growing agitation and riots and bitterness, and insidious steps towards the appearance of a civil war, has not been infiltrated by the Communists, as you now frequently hear. It has been deliberately and almost wholly created by the Communists patiently building up to this present stage for more than forty years.”[17] The society opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, claiming it violated the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and overstepped individual states’ rights to enact laws regarding civil rights. The society opposes “one world government”, and it has an immigration reduction view on immigration reform. It opposes the United Nations, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), and other free trade agreements. They argue the U.S. Constitution has been devalued in favor of political and economic globalization, and that this alleged trend is not accidental. It cited the existence of the former Security and Prosperity Partnership as evidence of a push towards a North American Union.[18]
================
Other than being clumsy (anti- civil rights because of communist influence) they seem to have some good ideas.
daveburton,
“Where I live, and to a lesser extent nationally, the GOP is the conservative Party.”
That is what the GOP claims to be, but their actions show that the only differences between the Democrats and the Republicans are a matter of (a very small) degree.
For the record, I live in Wisconsin.
The UN is not a friend of the US. It’s unspoken agenda is to confiscate the wealth of America and the West, then send it to other countries, and to hobble America’s military.
Under the current President, they are making great strides in accomplishing those goals.
There is no legitimate need for the UN. Any good they do, we could do far better on our own. We do not need the UN as a middleman, taking their hefty cut.
The UN should be promptly evicted from our shores, for the good of our citizens.
Linker isn’t a particularly deep thinker and his “analysis” lacks rigor. Apparently he never read the Mark Steyn article that Mann claimed defamed him. Anyone who does would come away scratching their heads about where the defamation is. Was it the “molesting data” line? Steyn didn’t say that, he just quoted another writer (Rand Simberg) and said he wouldn’t go so far as to say that himself. Was it ‘Michael Mann was the man behind the fraudulent climate-change “hockey-stick” graph’? Fraud is a serious allegation. It means “to deceive.” It’s possible that Mann did knowingly deceive people. At the very least, he hid his data (until he couldn’t legally) and his computer code (which he has never released).
It was only by a fortuitous circumstance that Stephen McIntyre and Ross McKitrick back in 2003 located what appeared to be a remnant of his computer code and realized why it produced a hockey stick. It inordinately gave hundreds of times more weight to the data from the few tree rings that showed an apparent warming trend (out of dozens that showed no trend whatsoever) so that the overall trend shows warming. McIntyre and McKitrick demonstrated that this code produces a warming trend even from random noise in most cases.
Surely Mann would have seen this himself, since he saw the actual tree ring data and could tell that only a few trees showed apparent warming compared to the dozens that didn’t. If he didn’t, he was either 1.) an idiot or, 2.) didn’t check his own methods for (pretty obvious) errors or, 3.) had a foreordained conclusion about what the data SHOULD show and ignored anything that didn’t support it. If it was the third option, then Mann did indeed commit fraud. Until he releases his computer code and explains how and why he inordinately weighted the extremely small number of tree ring proxies that showed warming, then it does look like he committed fraud, notwithstanding the uncritical “investigation” by Penn State, the same university that managed to overlook Jerry Sandusky’s behavior for a decade.
But that kind of detailed examination of the record of Mann and Steyn appears to be beyond the capability or desire of Linker.
Doug Huffman says:
January 30, 2014 at 3:44 pm
Please do not confuse conservatism with the republican party, that’s a Limbaugh-like error. The republicans are as progressive as are the democrats, just in a different direction.
We have two socialist parties. One espouses economic socialism. The other moral socialism. Those causes used to be united in the Progressive movement. The anti-progressives would be called libertarians today.
And the hall mark of the socialists is the need for big government and a surveillance state to implement their programs. The economic socialism is well known. The moral socialism is in fact Drug Prohibition which is keeping a cancer cure out of people’s hands because it is the “wrong” drug. (and the cancer cure is high THC high CBD cannabis – look up “marijuana inoperable brain tumor” for more.
http://classicalvalues.com/2014/01/another-move/
They are just fine, M Simon. Unfortunately, even those that consider themselves “moderate” have bought into the marginalization efforts of the hard-core left, purely statist media that we have had for probably the last 75 years. Make every one of their ideas “fringe” and their supporters “right-wing nut jobs,” and then you don’t have to answer the hard questions like “do you really think a one-world government as proposed by the UN, operating under the assumptions of Agenda 21, is a good thing?”
Nope, blissful ignorance until suddenly, one day, you have a bureaucracy worse than the EU in the US as well.
Mark
“I miss the days when nearly all the nutcases were on the Left, when Buckley kept the Bircher nuts tamped down. These days there are almost as many nutcases on the Right as on the Left. We seem to be overrun with Birchers, Ron Paul acolytes, Alex Jones zombies, and more.No wonder we’re losing so many elections.”
—- NO, same percentages. Just “other media” that exist now, but not then.Kind like the phrase,
“The rain falls on the good and the bad alike…” I.e., the sound comes from the good and the bad alike. Just that we have to use a “noise filter” (our intellects, hard to use at times…particularily if not used to it…) to filter out the noise and get the content.
Technically “socialism” encompasses both economic and moral statism/collectivism. It is a socio-economic philosophy. Capitalism a socio-economic philosophy is as well, except that its “socio” part is almost purely confined to individual rights and those end at your own doorstep, i.e., it does not advise on any social policy in particular except to leave your neighbor alone if he wishes you to.
Mark
The Republican Party is right wing in the same way that the National Socialists were right wing when compared to the Communists. All you need to do is narrow the terms of discourse. Which would of course make the liberty minded far right extremists
Wayne says @ 3:13 pm:
… found that National Review’s founder William F. Buckley, Jr. basically threw John Birch out of the modern conservative movement way back in 1962
Would have been hard to do. The Chinese Communists executed John Birch in 1945.
Actually, the UN has no intention of sending our wealth to other countries. They intend to keep it for themselves, which ultimately consists primarily of unelected wealthy patrons. The rest of us, across the entire globe, will then merely serve at their whim. Obama wants to bitch about the income inequality now… wait till we all make the same wage (read: nothing) and the elite sit in their mansions. Oh yeah…
Mark
Tanya Aardman says:
January 30, 2014 at 3:54 pm
“never trust bald men with beargs or goatees”
Whew… glad I don’t have a goatee or a bearg.
They claimed that “The Conspiracy” had been secretly running the whole world for hundreds of years,
I can make that claim on very rational grounds. With cites. I wouldn’t say they got the organization chart right. But the essence of it? Quite correct. If you want to start somewhere here is a good link on how it is done. http://www.ctrl.org/boodleboys/boddlesboys2.html
Also Check out Catherine Austin Fitts – former HUD undersecretary. Or Alfred McCoy – “The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia”.
National Review is the conservative movement’s leading magazine ? News to me.
M Simon wrote, “[The GOP] espouses… moral socialism… The moral socialism is in fact Drug Prohibition which is keeping a cancer cure out of people’s hands because it is the “wrong” drug. (and the cancer cure is high THC high CBD cannabis – look up “marijuana inoperable brain tumor” for more.”
Dear God only knows how I miss Wm F. Buckley, Jr! This is a great example of the kind of nuttiness that he kept tamped down at the conservative & libertarian ends of the political spectrum. He was actually sympathetic to pot decriminalization, but he had no patience for crackpot conspiracy theories, medical quackery, and strange Orwellian redefinitions of standard language.
John M says:
January 30, 2014 at 2:54 pm
Several years ago, there was a book written by a coastal elitist entitled “What’s Wrong with Kansas”.
************************************************************************
Sad part the dolt that wrote the book was from Kansas. A rich well to do suburb of KC none the less. He grew up a couple of miles from me same school district different High School.
I guess the premise of the book was since you dirt farmers out in western KS ( descendents of the Volga Germans, Czechs, Germans, Mennonites a few from back east) don’t listen to us liberals and since we know what is best for you, there must be something wrong with you because our policies are what is right for you since you don’t want them…
I apologize for the State of Kansas for the this ‘pundit’.
One more thingie he wrote for the WSJ but gave up the gig a few back since the readers made intellectual mincemeat of his weekly columns. It was sad. Worse than a one legged indian at a butt kicking contest., He has no intellectual firepower.
I have a goatee and am bald…..therefore I resemble that remark.
@Dave Burton,
Are you implying that Mark Steyn, an effete metro-sexual who loves show tunes, writes with the wit of Mencken, and has at other times reviewed films, books and contemporary music, is a Bircher?
Please, explain yourself.
Box of Rocks,
I meant “coastal elitist” as a state of mind. 🙂
daveburton said @ January 30, 2014 at 3:32 pm
There ya go! And I thought it was aliens 🙂
More here:
http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/%D1%81anada-minister-defense-ufo-959/
Looks like Damon’s hair has slipped down around his mouth, too. Is he a runt, as well?
Despite a possibly unfavorable outcome, the NR, as per The Volokh Conspiracy blog, probably has Libel Insurance.
The demise of the NR is doubtful.
And yes to all above commenters : the UN is generally worthless except as a good paying job with many perks.
@Gail Combs says: January 30, 2014 at 3:07 pm
“There is still DISCOVERY http://wakeforestlawreview.com/when-staying-discovery-stays-justice-analyzing-motions-to-stay-discovery-when-a-motion-to-dismiss-is-pending”
The Mann vs NR & Steyn case is being heard in a superior court, which is not part of the federal court system that your link article refers to, so the rules of discovery will be specific to DC law and may be different as superior courts are subject to their local state laws…
I’ll second that. I’ve not listened to Steyn before. It was a great podcast. He’s introduced after about 3 mins 30 secs.
make that closer to 2 mins 30 secs
Dr. Evil and Minnie Me
When you are bereft of ideas, you slander and slur. I doubt he has had an original thought since he opened his mouth after the doctor smacked his bottom.
dbstealey says:
January 30, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Pat Frank,
Here is Mann’s “censored” file. No wonder he didn’t want it seen!
=========================
Martin says:
“…William F. Buckley, Jr. basically threw John Birch out of the modern conservative movement…”
John Birch was KIA in Korea, IIRC, so he could not have been ‘thrown out’ of any organization.
=========================
No, I did not say that, it was Wayne that said it. I merely quoted what Wayne said:
Wayne says:
January 30, 2014 at 3:13 pm
“…William F. Buckley, Jr. basically threw John Birch out of the modern conservative movement way back in 1962…”
=========================
daveburton – refering to Ms
great example of the kind of nuttiness….medical quackery.. [appeals to ridicule, etc]
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
No – what M. Simon said is correct / true / backed up by 100s of peer reviewed studies.
Search pubmed for the evidence.
sorry – should have been “DaveBurton, re: M Simon’s comment
M Simon was correct / backed up by peer-reviewed studies / not opinion; not Vioxx quackery.
daveburton says:
January 30, 2014 at 4:35 pm
Dear God only knows how I miss Wm F. Buckley, Jr! This is a great example of the kind of nuttiness that he kept tamped down at the conservative & libertarian ends of the political spectrum. He was actually sympathetic to pot decriminalization,
But so much less was known about the endocannabinoid system when he was writing. We know so much more now. You might like to search “NIH cannabis cancer” for the latest – from the US Government. Crackpot indeed.
Or maybe you might like to hear about it from the discoverer of THC. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He starts about one minute into this video: http://youtu.be/oUkl0zIl72c the title of the video is Dr. Raphael Mechoulam discusses medical cannabis: Cancer Cure the mention of cancer is only a few seconds.
Here is something on how it works by biochemist Dennis Hill including the biological pathways:
http://rockford-for-safe-access.blogspot.com/2014/01/how-cannabis-cures-cancer.html
So yeah. It is total quackery – if you are ignorant of the science.
You know – we think of the CAGW boys as promoting bad science. And the population going along out of ignorance. Pot (heh) meet kettle.
BTW Buckley was also against cocaine prohibition. He frequently interviewed Michael Gazzaniga on the issue.
Khwarizmi says:
January 30, 2014 at 6:01 pm
Thanks! for helping dispel the ignorance – one comment at a time.
Martin says:
“No, I did not say that, it was Wayne that said it…”
My sincere apologies. I did not read the comments as closely as I should have.
Yeah, Birchers. The Koch’s daddy, Fred, was one of the founders.
REPLY: John Sully, I suppose that gives you just one more justification to give in to the irrational hate of the Koch espoused by Mann and other warmners, eh? It suits you. – Anthony
I would miss NR about as much as I miss TWC on Direct TV (Weather Nation is still going strong, has 24/7 Weather, not TruTV rejects, Antropogenic Global We’re Destroying The Planet nonsense and an occasional weather update).
That said, it would be unjust for them to be brought down by Mann instead of their own crony, corporatist, moderate irrelevance.
M Simon quotes approvingly a bunch of protectionist nutjobs, and then calls other people socialists.
Well. I lol’d.
Are they hatching these guys somewhere. I receive NRONLINE and consider it a valuable resource. Consider giving them a hand if you agree with that. Even if I did not read the magazine I would help them against the loathsome Mann.
This thing is a zero sum game in many ways so just avoiding the -1 because we didn’t fight hard enough is worth it to me.
The obituaries are quite premature. This is so far from over, and is not at all likely to turn out as the AGW hypesters wish.
Buckley pushed out the John Birchers. John Birch died long before.
Let us not let some Manniac ignoramus infect us as well.
Besides, that was “Wayne” and not “wayne”.
It may be a good time to change my too-simple login name to prevent these name collisions.
Well, I kinda thought that Mann would NOT like for the judge to order discovery, what with his opposition to the FOIA requests. Now he will have to comply.
Far from being an “effete metro-sexual”, Steyn is a no-holds-barred polemicist and a fierce advocate for free speech, and for personal and economic liberty. He broke the back of a suit brought against him and Macleans magazine by the Canadian Islamic Congress, which claimed they had violated a British Columbia hate speech law. Yes, he likes show tunes, and is a musical historian as well. He’s also one of the wittiest writers around. Mess with him at your peril.
Mann, OTOH, is a public figure. As such, the American law of libel (since NY Times V. Sullivan) requires that he prove Steyn acted with actual malice.. “The actual malice standard requires that the plaintiff in a defamation or libel case prove that the publisher of the statement in question knew that the statement was false or acted in reckless disregard of its truth or falsity. Because of the extremely high burden of proof on the plaintiff, and the difficulty of proving the defendant’s knowledge and intentions, such cases—when they involve public figures—rarely prevail.” (Wikipedia).
Since Mann will be subject to discovery regarding the “truth” of the Hockey Stick, he’s going to have to reveal his data and methods in order to show that their purported results are not “fraudulent”. Up until now he has been loath to do so.
The real cost to the National Review is the lawyer fees, not the damages.
wayne,
I give up…
CodeTech said at 3:02 pm:
Me too, My digestion of the facts, and what gets presented as facts, goes a long way toward determining who gets my vote. Local gets priority, statewide becomes more difficult because the money involved goes up, With Federal elections I’ve taken to writing in my brother-in-law who (despite being ineligible because he was born in Albania) would do a better job than anyone on the ballot in recent years.
Give me a valid third party and I’ll consider it.
@Just Steve, and others –
I have a goatee (and mustache) and I’m as bald as the cue ball on a pool table.
I never had them until seven years ago when I was diagnosed with leukemia and had to have chemotherapy. The only hair I didn’t lose was my goatee and mustache – so I’ve kept them, as my battle flags as I still fight this disease and its aftereffects.
I do NOT, however, look anything like the Womann-named-Sue, who obviously continues to be up to her old tricks.
And I have to ask, when will we ever really see the collapse of AGW, in practical terms? Not as long as the serpent inhabits the White House, methinks – and unfortunately he’ll be able to do a lot of damage before he leaves, to both science and the US’s economy and well-being.
dbstealey says @ 7:03 pm:
I give up…
Smokey wouldn’t have given up so easily.
Think I might need to grow myself a bearg.
Amusingly, the opening of the Soviet archives proved the Birchers were substantially correct. Oops!
What’s politics?
M Simon says:
January 30, 2014 at 4:09 pm
” … The moral socialism is in fact Drug Prohibition … ”
—-l
Are you in favour of any of the current anti-drug laws or do you feel that there should be no Drug Prohibition at all?
Not a good week for Damon Linker — he’s also been ripped a new one by Jerry Coyne for a clueless article criticising the New Atheists.
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/damon-linker-wants-atheists-to-struggle/
The problem is legal costs. Linker observed: “Small magazines often lose money and only rarely manage to break even. They certainly don’t have substantial legal budgets.” Steyn said that legal costs have thus far exceeded $500,000 and this is just on motions. I don’t know anything about National Review’s financial structure, but the costs of litigation are punitive. Mann has run up high legal costs himself but while Mann has portrayed the case as an individual against a larger entity, the reality is more likely that green-sympathizing organizations/individuals/foundations have funded Mann’s case. Their ability to outspend National Review should not be underestimated.
timetochooseagain says:
January 30, 2014 at 6:18 pm
M Simon quotes approvingly a bunch of protectionist nutjobs, and then calls other people socialists.
Well. I lol’d.
You have to admit that they got the UN right.
What Doug Huffman said and MSimon said!
Chad Wozniak says:
January 30, 2014 at 8:13 pm
From Time Magazine – not because it is particularly good. Just mainstream.
http://healthland.time.com/2013/10/28/study-marijuana-compounds-can-kill-some-cancer-cells/
Compounds derived from marijuana can kill cancerous cells in patients with leukemia, according to a recent study. [links at the link]
Testimonial:
http://www.cureyourowncancer.org/elias-coopers-story-treating-leukemia-with-cannabis-oil.html
By January 2013 Elias’s condition had advanced so far that chemo was the option Elias’s doctor left him with. Since Elias was opposed to chemo his wife, Debra Cooper, went online and started to look for alternative treatments for her husbands condition. Thank God for that decision because it is what has saved his life.
Debras research guided her to “Brave” Mykayla, the 8 year old who is using cannabis oil to treat her leukemia. Mykayla is one of the youngest medical marijuana patients in the US and has had great results using cannabis oil to treat her leukemia. Mykayla and her family have been on many TV news segments and shows sharing her story. Elias and Debra were very impressed at the results shown by Mykayla. They were so impressed that they decided to get Elias his medical marijuana card so he to could try cannabis oil. [links at the link]
From what I gather it is important to get cannabis with the right ratios of the various cannabinoids. A lot of the information is online. A lot of it isn’t. You may have to contact the people involved for assays. Look up “cannabis assays” for a place to get the assays done. You will want an HPLCMS assay (High Pressure Liquid Chromatography – Mass Spectroscopy) assay rather than a GCMS (Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectroscopy). Because GCMS carboxylates the cannabis changing the assay. HPLC is a cold process. GC is not (in this case).
SC Laboratories seems good but I have no experience – personal or otherwise – with them. I just watch their videos with some knowledge of chemistry and experience in making HPLC and GC machines. I did the electronics for read out for HPLC and GC machines.
“Oh now, you know how that side thinks – if you WISH something to be True hard enough, then it WILL be True!!! Right???”
It’s more like in religion. If everybody belive the same then it is experienced more like a truth?
If this is going to be a war of legal fees attrition, you have to wonder if the alarmists really believe all their whining about being up against a well funded machine.
negrum says:
January 30, 2014 at 9:48 pm
M Simon says:
January 30, 2014 at 4:09 pm
” … The moral socialism is in fact Drug Prohibition … ”
—-l
Are you in favour of any of the current anti-drug laws or do you feel that there should be no Drug Prohibition at all?
All these substances were legal over the counter pre 1914 before the Progressives thought they could improve America with Prohibitions.
“Addiction” explains nothing. My view is that “people in chronic pain chronically take pain relievers” – that would explain why so few get “addicted” compared to the numbers that try these drugs. And the pain? PTSD mostly (for which there is no current medical [chemical/biological] test). And the main cause of PTSD in America? Child abuse. Now PTSD has a genetic component. Only about 20% of Americans have the biology for long term PTSD. And of those only about 1/2 get it triggered. We see that in War Vets. About 20% to 25% of them in country return with long term PTSD. Must be a tough place.
Politically it will be a long time before we return to pre-1914 policies. But cannabis legalization is the first step along that road. And that will be done Federally by no later than 2025 with some where around 2020 the most likely date. Once that is done and we get a test for PTSD the rest of the prohibitions will fall. To regulation at first. It will take a long time and a lot more science to get over the fears that our media and government have promoted since 1900. But it will come. Someday.
BTW Law Enforcement Against Prohibition believes that ending all prohibition is a very good idea. You might like this video http://classicalvalues.com/2014/01/peter-christ-on-why-we-need-to-legalize-all-drugs/ where Peter Christ – a retired Police Captain from Syracuse, NY – makes the case as a LEAP speaker. It is kinda long at 37 minutes but I think well worth your time.
Re: It will take a long time and a lot more science to get over the fears that our media and government have promoted since 1900.
The media has been corrupt for a very long time. Thank The Maker for the ‘net.
M Simon says:
January 30, 2014 at 11:12 pm
” All these substances were legal over the counter pre 1914 before the Progressives thought they could improve America with Prohibitions. …”
—-l
Just to clarify – You feel that any citizen should be able to acquire, without hindrance or oversight, any substance classed as addictive, be it cannabis, cocaine, lsd or prozac?
I am assuming that under-age citizens are excluded from this concept, but correct me if I am wrong.
Damon Linker: A Mann-child?
Canman says:
January 30, 2014 at 11:09 pm
“If this is going to be a war of legal fees attrition, you have to wonder if the alarmists really believe all their whining about being up against a well funded machine.”
They probably do believe that. They see their task as bringing about (a sort of) utopia; and see the climate skeptics as the saboteurs that stop them from finishing their project. Why, they ask themselves, could the skeptics achieve this were it not for the fact that they are a well organized army with unlimited resources? Given that warmism has xxx billions in funding a year, the only explanation, in their minds, can be that skeptics must have even more funding.
They see ghosts.
I doubt that National Review is in trouble but if it was I’d chuck a few bucks in the fighting fund.
Remember, truth is a defense in a libel action. Much discovery needs to be done to determine that. Mann will have to start disclosing…..
$500k for what exactly? Filing a few briefs? Big whoop. Mann mentioned in the cg emails that he has some sugar daddy willing to harass pro bono. Until some law firm on the other side pries open their purse strings for the cause, this nonsense will continue. The Salem witch trials continued till the accusations started hitting too close to home. Same will happen here unless we find our own sugar daddy. If steyn loses, some lawyer should step up to represent Mcintyre pro bono vs Mann for libel. How expensive can it be to quote Mann vs steyn case law back at them? After Mcintyre, McKitrick. Then Ball. Maybe then, the idiots backing Mann will begin to understand what’s at stake here.
At http://www.steyonline.com, Steyn has said that he and NR have parted ways on the Mann suit and that he is alone in the fight. NR apparently did not see a possible win against Mann as justifying the cost and risk of defending the suit. In other words, a so-called “conservative” magazine caved. Not my kind of conservatives. Steyn is trying to raise money to continue the fight.
You are referring to the John Birch Society, are you?
As for communist infiltration to America, well. Furthermore, Operation Keelhaul was certainly a most disgusting deed.
negrum says: @ January 31, 2014 at 12:13 am
Just to clarify – You feel that any citizen should be able to acquire, without hindrance or oversight, any substance classed as addictive, be it cannabis, cocaine, lsd or prozac?
I am assuming that under-age citizens are excluded from this concept, but correct me if I am wrong.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Any child can get any and all sorts of drugs from his/pusher playmate on the playground. There is nothing to keep those drugs from being adulterated or lethal except the pushers desire not to kill his customer base.
In fact schools are giving kids ‘Speed’ (aka Ritalin, Concerta, Adderall) and in some cases taking parents to court when they object. See: How Public Schools Coerce Parents Into Giving Mind-Altering Drugs To Their Children
…Safer (1999) has presented, although not published, data indicating that from the early to mid-1990s the rate of ADHD treatment (i.e., school-administered Ritalin) among white boys in Baltimore County elementary schools was over 15%…. Among elementary students, 17% of all students and 33% of white boys had been diagnosed with ADHD and the vast majority had been medicated for this condition at some time during the 1997-98 school year
So how does law enforcement handle the drug problem?
So tell me again why we are not making drugs legal and then TAXING them? Perhaps because it is much much more profitable to the people in government NOT to have drugs legal?
Let’s say the judge does reduce the $1 award to 0.97. Mann still wins. Mann wins if he wins nothing. The game is not what the award should or should not be. The game is about intimidation and harassment – the same as revealed in Climategate only more so. As Steyn said, Mann needs to lose very obviously and very publicly or he achieves his objective. Revealing himself as a full-time bully and activist helps the skeptic side, but it needs to be combined with the second-rate graph and an ego untethered to science in a public way to disarm this guy’s tactics and his pseudo-scientific creations of selective data.
Gail Combs says:
January 31, 2014 at 7:20 am
” … Any child can get any and all sorts of drugs from his/pusher playmate on the playground. …”
—-l
This is way off topic, so I will only make the following statement:
NOT in my community. Drug dealers are considered vultures who prey on others under the guise of offering a service. I consider it to be similar to owning somebody’s mind and draining them slowly until they are of no further use. I have dealt with too many addicted people to have any empathy for drug dealers or laws that assist them to deal. I agree that what doctors and schools prescribe should be monitored closely.
I would be willing to debate the matter privately or on a suitable thread.
Fortunately for Steyn, the truth is an absolute defense. Unfortunately for Steyn, modern liberals are tolerant of everything but the Truth and dissent.
Just for the record, the conspiracy in question is fact. David Rockefeller actually admitted it in his memoirs. Buckley was never a conservative.
Screw William F Buckley….he was a Skull and Bones CFR Bilderberg Group agent and as someone once noted…a CRYPTO FASCIST!!
: )
“Mark and two Cats, it’s not the Bircher’s causes that make them nuts, it’s their beliefs. They claim that “The Conspiracy” (and you can hear the capital letters when they say it!) is secretly running the whole world, that the world’s apparent governments are actually puppets controlled by a gigantic shadowy world government led by the Rockefellers, the Bilderbergers, the CFR, and the Trilateral Commission.”
Dave maybe you should get your head out of the clouds…..so to speak….and study markets and finance…….then you may learn that what the Birchers have always been claiming….is a fact….and it is NOT a conspiracy it is just politics as usual…..there membership lists have never been secret and every US administration going back decades has been over run by members of these three groups
Where is Lyndon LaRouche when we need him?
This is wishful thinking by the left. A lot of what Mark Steyn does is humor. Calling Michael
Mann the “Jerry Sandusky of climate science” is not going to hurt NR or Mark Steyn.
They are going to lose this case as surely as they would if they sued Ann Coulter, who’s
shtick is sarcasm. You cannot touch people like this any more than you could have
gone after Jay Leno for a political gag.
I have dealt with too many addicted people to have any empathy for drug dealers or laws that assist them to deal.
Prohibition assists them more than regulation would. Kids have been reporting that illegal drugs are easier to get than beer for 30+ years. Dealers don’t card. Businesses do.
It has always amused me that the “for the children” people most favor a system that does the most to enable children to get the “stuff”. Blinded by words I call it. They think “prohibited” means “unavailable”. When it actually means “distributed by criminals”.
But it goes to the point that very few people are generally rational. Emotion almost always clouds something. We can see that in the CAGW people. We rarely see it in ourselves.
Bzzzzt! Confusion reigning supreme at Doug’s place?
” The Republican Party, for good or bad, happens to be the home of conservatism right now ”
https://www.google.com/url?
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2008/02/07/it_s_up_to_the_candidates_to_lead
“Now, I don’t know anybody who thinks the Democratic Party is going to be the future home of conservatism. The Republican Party traditionally has been.”
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2006/10/18/disaster_does_loom_if_democrats_win_and_will_lead_to_nomination_of_mccain4
Let confusion reign no more at Doug’s …
.
JUST as the link to your cited source shows – no, wait …
And if Buckley wasn’t conservative, just who was? BTW, assertions w/o cites are, well, a little lame …
.
The big debacle in legalizing ALL forms of Marijuana, sorry, THC ingestion awaits; legalizing the manufacture and sale of BHO (Butane Hash Oil) was just insane … doobies, that’s one thing …
.
Can you detail what existed in 1914 for the average person and what kind of skills were required of people, versus what exists today in 2014 and what is required of people to function for themselves and for the benefit of society?
I think that something akin to anachronistic fallacy begins to enter the picture given comparisons with 1914.
.
@M Simon –
Not sure what your purpose was, in mentioning me in connection with a discussion of legalizing marijuana.
I will say this, however – I want nothing whatever to do with marijuana, for any purpose. I am frankly skeptical of ALL claims that it is medically beneficial. I think that is just an excuse for getting high, based on my own observation of people who say they used it to relieve chemo side effects, but used a lot of it before and after their illnesses. I believe that if it were genuinely medical it would be taken as pills like other medicines, not smoked.
People can fry their brains and reduce their math skills and impair their cognitive functions all they want with this shit, for all I care, which is what happens to heavy users – well documented. The sad part is, haven’t they anything better to do than get high? And keep it the hell away from me.
I know there are those who will disagree sharply with me, but I am unmoved.
_Jim says:
January 31, 2014 at 5:25 pm
Well here is that link you asked for. http://opengov.ideascale.com/a/dtd/David-Rockefeller-s-book-Memoirs-admits-secretly-conspiring-for-a-NWO/4007-4049
David Rockefeller’s book ‘Memoirs’ admits secretly conspiring for a NWO
David Rockefeller’s book ‘Memoirs’ admits secretly conspiring for a NWO
In David Rockefeller’s book ‘Memoirs’ he admits he is part of a secret cabal working to destroy the United States and create a new world order.Here is the direct quote from his book, pg 405:
Some even believe we [Rockefeller family] are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – One World, if you will.If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it
====
I hope that helps.
_Jim says:
January 31, 2014 at 5:33 pm
Well you know with legalization that sort of thing – Butane Hash Oil – will be done in proper manufacturing facilities. Accidents will be far less common.
Chad Wozniak says:
January 31, 2014 at 8:24 pm
@M Simon –
Not sure what your purpose was, in mentioning me in connection with a discussion of legalizing marijuana.
I will say this, however – I want nothing whatever to do with marijuana, for any purpose. I am frankly skeptical of ALL claims that it is medically beneficial.
===
You have leukemia. Cannabis (high THC high CBD) cures leukemia. If you don’t want to be helped by it I don’t believe any one will force you.
As to medical claims. You might like these NIH links:
http://search.nih.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&affiliate=nih&query=endocannabinoids
http://search.nih.gov/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sc=0&query=endocannabinoids+leukemia&m=&affiliate=nih&commit=Search
You might want to get up to speed on the body’s endocannabinoid system. There are more receptors for that system in your body than any other receptor type.
Anyway lots of papers at the links. I hope you will start in debunking them at once. Because sound opposition is a very good thing. You might like to start with “ceramide cancer THC” and get that out of the way first. Lots of references to that on the general ‘net. Try Google or your favorite search engine.
Sound scepticism is the best thing science has going for it. I look forward to you providing some.
Chad,
Here is a paper for you: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/37948
Abstract: Autophagy can promote cell survival or cell death, but the molecular basis underlying its dual role in cancer remains obscure. Here we demonstrate that Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component of marijuana, induces human glioma cell death through stimulation of autophagy. Our data indicate that THC induced ceramide accumulation and eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2α (eIF2α) phosphorylation and thereby activated an ER stress response that promoted autophagy via tribbles homolog 3–dependent (TRB3-dependent) inhibition of the Akt/mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) axis. We also showed that autophagy is upstream of apoptosis in cannabinoid-induced human and mouse cancer cell death and that activation of this pathway was necessary for the antitumor action of cannabinoids in vivo. These findings describe a mechanism by which THC can promote the autophagic death of human and mouse cancer cells and provide evidence that cannabinoid administration may be an effective therapeutic strategy for targeting human cancers.
============
Now of course that is only mouse studies. And it may have nothing to do with humans.
Biochemist Dennis hill did the experiment on himself and explains the results (he had stage 4 prostrate cancer – stage 4 means it spread through his body) here: http://classicalvalues.com/2014/01/how-cannabis-cures-cancer/
He goes into THC and ceramide in more layman’s language than the above paper.
===========
The wider psychological implications are evident. People well aware of the manipulations they are being fed on AGW have no trouble buying in to the manipulations supporting Prohibition. A good starting point is to assume everything you know is wrong and recheck everything. Arduous? Yes. Worthwhile? Extremely. Difficult? One of the hardest things you will ever do because after age 25 when the body’s endocannabinoid production declines the brain/mind loses plasticity. For most people. But there are, like in any statistical distribution, outliers. I like to think I’m one of those. I’m 69. A very good year.
But how do they think a lawsuit can “bring National Review to its knees” when everyone knows that the vast right wing conspiracy is funded by deep pocket special interests? Even if NR lost the case, the billionaire Koch Brothers (cue dramatic organ music) could just step in and write the journal a check to cover any conceivable award. Does Linker imagine that Mann is going to win a ten or eleven-figure judgment against NR because one of their independent freelance contributors used hyperbole in describing Mann?
Of course maybe the Left doesn’t believe everything they say about the VRWC and in fact Linker believes even a $100,000 libel judgment would put a serious crimp in NR‘s ability to operate. In which case he should probably lead with that.
Not knowing whether “bearg” was a typo or a new term for some form of facial hair that I was not familiar with, I googled the term.
It’s interesting that the only definition I could find was “a castrated boar”
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/bearg
I wouldn’t laugh at a dollar award by a sympathetic jury as some sort of booby prize; in federal court that dollar award means the petitioner’s lawyers get all their attorney fees paid by the National Review.