Oh, my. Steyn is not going to pull any punches after seeing what Esra Levant just did in Canada. He hints at a strategy to “go nuclear”. He writes:
When I ran into trouble with the “human rights” commissions five years ago, I had lunch with an old friend in Montreal who said just stay quiet, keep your head down, it’ll all blow over. If I’d taken his advice, I would have lost, Maclean’s would have lost, Canada’s media would have lost basic free press rights, and Canadian citizens would have lost basic free speech rights. And then I ran into Ezra Levant, who said no, you need to go nuclear. That’s Ezra’s advice for everything – parking ticket, slow line at Tim Hortons, whatever.
So we did go nuclear.
And Elmasry and the Canadian Islamic Congress couldn’t withstand the publicity, any more than the “human rights” racket could. By the time the CIC lost in court in British Columbia, they had already lost in a far more profound sense. I wish I were in Madam Justice Matheson’s courtroom rather than trapped on a roulette wheel of procedural sophistry in the District of Columbia. But I promise you this: by the time this is through, Michael Mann will have lost as profoundly as Elmasry did.
More on Ezra’s day in court here and here. To help support my pushback against Mann, please see here and here.
Read the full article here: An Inspiring Day
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I so hope Steyn wins, but to call Mann a fraud was reckless, since that word can mean many things, some of which are libelous unless proven true. Which is usually very hard to do because you have to prove intent to deceive as opposed to error.
does not giving up raw data and computer codes count as intent to deceive.
Steyn has it right.
Dust off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure!
“to call Mann a fraud was reckless, since that word can mean many things, some of which are libelous unless proven true. Which is usually very hard to do because you have to prove intent to deceive as opposed to error.”
I guess the ‘data’ will absolve The Mann
Mann will lose. But so will all the defendants – their money. Mann does not care about the money because he is being bankrolled. And that is his strategy. Bleed the others dry.
Very helpful to see Steyn mention and answer Mark Steyn Has A Fool For A Client by Ken White two weeks before. The man has his reasons. To despatch both Elmasry and Mann, in the two very differing jurisdictions, would be quite a double. Go team Steyn.
By ‘going nuclear’, does he mean X number of Hiroshima bombs per day of extra heat applied to Michael Mann’s feet?
To claim a tree ring is a thermometer is fraudulent.
luca turin (@lucaturin) says:
March 10, 2014 at 4:08 am
I so hope Steyn wins, but to call Mann a fraud was reckless, since that word can mean many things, some of which are libelous unless proven true. Which is usually very hard to do because you have to prove intent to deceive as opposed to error.
Actually, he said the hockey stick was f—-ent, which it was. I wouldn’t call it “reckless”. Brave, perhaps. Sometimes in war, a brave few have to stick their heads above the parapet.
Here’s one for Josh, after Mann loses his suit:
Image—Mann in a goalie’s uniform tied up in knots like Nick Stokes and backhandedly slapping the puck into his own net
Caption—Own Goal
Hmmm…, forgot that you can’t even copy/paste a comment with that word in it. I guess we should use “fake”, “phony”, or “sham” instead.
Mann is screwed no matter the outcome. He is unemployable because he has become a sh*t magnet. Any support he currently has will gradually be withdrawn. He is high profile in a bad way. Most institutions are conservative.
M. Mann R.I.P.
May it be as Mr. Steyn hopes.
I think the word fr@ud should simply be removed from the dictionary. Its use is obviously too dangerous for mere mortals. I noticed Yahoo finance used it the other day in regards to herbalife. Herbalife should hire Mann’s henchmen to put down Yahoo.
Steyn called Mann a “Fraud” which is definitely libellous. The only way Steyn can win is to prove that Mann had intent to commit fraud, and not just that Mann made many mistakes. Obviously Steyn’s lawyers will have told him this. So when Steyn says he will go nuclear, that means he has the evidence. This will be good. Very good. Very very good. And very bad for Mann.
@gzk – Not in this country. Steyn can call it anything he wants. He will only lose if Mann can prove 2 things. One it is not, but the second is harder. That Steyn knew it was not.
We need a paypal button so people can contribute without buying anything.
When lampooning his targets, Christopher Hitchens was very fond of employing the term “Chaucerian fraud” and I don’t believe he was ever sued for it. One particular character in The Canterbury Tales who cries out for comparison with a number contemporary fraudsters is the Pardoner, who is in the business of obtaining Divine forgiveness for sinners – at a price. If he were alive today, he would no doubt be selling carbon offsets.
Here’s an excerpt from the WIkipedia entry on The Pardoner’s Tale
The prologue takes the form of a literary confession in the same manner as The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.[4] However, rather than an apology for his vices, the Pardoner boasts of his duping of his victims, for whom he has nothing but contempt.[4] He says that his “theme”—biblical text for a sermon—is Radix malorum est cupiditas (“Greed is the root of [all] evils” 1 Timothy 6.10).[1] He explains that his false credentials consist of official letters from high-ranking church officials and a superficial use of a few Latin words;[5] then he will produce some “relics”, and claim that among them is a bone which has miraculous powers when dipped into a well and a mitten for which:
He that his hand wol putte in this mitayn,
He shal have multipliyng of his greyn, (lines 373–374)
But he will warn that any person that “hath doon synne horrible” will not be able to benefit from these relics.[6] The Pardoner says to the pilgrims that by these tricks he has acquired a considerable sum of money. He goes on to relate how he stands like a clergy at the pulpit, and preaches against avarice but to gain the congregation’s money; he doesn’t care for the correction of sin or for their souls.[7] Against anyone that offends either him or other pardoners, he will “stynge hym with my tonge smerte”. Although he is guilty of avarice himself, he reiterates that his theme is always Radix malorum … and that he can nonetheless preach so that others turn away from the vice and repent—though his “principal entente” is for personal gain. The Pardoner explains that he then offers many anecdotes to the “lewed [ignorant, unlearned] people”.[8] He scorns the thought of living in poverty while he preaches; he desires “moneie, wolle [wool], chese, and whete”[9] and doesn’t care whether it were from the poorest widow in the village, even should her children starve for famine. Yet, he concludes to the pilgrims, though he may be a “ful vicious man”, he can tell a moral tale and proceeds.
x2 with the Paypal button, particularly for OS donors Guy.
Meanwhile Tim Blair notices that someone else notices the rise and rise of the ‘professional crybabies’ that Steyn is bumping into-
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/professional_crybabies/
I think ‘professional crybabies’ sums up leftists superbly.
@ur momisugly Richard “does not giving up raw data and computer codes count as intent to deceive.”
Good question. Ordinarily I would say no, but in matters of science, showing your data is part of the process. It would be especially worth noting if Mann’s papers were published in journals that require having data available as a matter of editorial policy. In that case, the violation of standing policy would be clear evidence that Mann was attempting to circumvent best practices.
Just buy vouchers and never redeem them. Amounts to the same thing, after all.
Wrong way round – Mann has to prove be was libelled, and since as you say the word can mean many things, Mann has to prove that none of the other possible meanings was being deployed.
When one ‘proxy temperature record’ is crudely terminated in the graph – and some say hidden in the spaghetti mess – because it is about to head in the ‘wrong’ direction, what would one call that besides what Steyn called it?
Dr Strangemann or: How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Carbon Dioxide. Any thoughts on a suitable cast?
Guy Holder says:
March 10, 2014 at 5:19 am
We need a paypal button so people can contribute without buying anything.
Just buy vouchers and never redeem them. Amounts to the same thing, after all.
…I’m saying this from the other side of the planet, so I might be very wrong, but contributions may be viewed as income (and taxed?), whereas a purchased gift certificate will have to be recorded as a debt – a much more effective way to contribute.
Tim Groves says: When lampooning his targets, Christopher Hitchens was very fond of employing the term “Chaucerian fraud”
The Caunterbury Tales starts with a weather forecast which I am hoping may prove correct…
Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
The droughte or Marche hath perced to the rote,
A bit of Marchly droughte would not go amiss. At the end of his tale the Pardoner slips momentarily out of character and tries to gather himself by selling his wares to the pilgrims. Their host is quick to squash him…
Thou woldest make me kisse thyn old breech
And swere it were the relik of a seint.
A Steyn moment? Actually odd because it sounds as if their host has given up all thoughts of heaven, even though they are in that brief period when your sins counted for the duration of your visit to purgatory rather than a one way ticket to damnation we have today.