I had to laugh when I saw this post from climate blog regular caerbannog666 re-tweeted by Dr. Michael Mann:
That iron lung comment piqued my interest, and I wondered who is this guy? A well known climate blog regular, he’s been bloviating all over the climate blogs for years. After finding him though about a minute’s worth of Googling public information, I wish I could unsee what I found. Meet Caesar Augustus Rossi Carvalho (Caerbannog)
Caesar Augustus Rossi Carvalho (Caerbannog) on Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/caerbannog666/photos
http://www.myspace.com/caerbannog666/photos/17286555
http://www.myspace.com/caerbannog666/photos/4486705#{%22ImageId%22%3A4486705}
UPDATE: In retrospect, it should be noted that people are free to dress up any way they want, whether it be in the dark style above, or as a superhero like Professor Scott Mandia (aka SuperMandia), leader of Michael Mann’s legal defense fund to keep those public emails from falling into the hands on an inquiring public.
I just find it humorous that Dr. Mann’s supporters are so, er, emotive.
UPDATE: 7/16/2012 Caebannog writes at his UT San Diego Forum:
Note: I will neither confirm nor deny that I am this individual.
So I’m a bit of a Goth as well. This character is an embarassment to Goths. Goths are reputedly a skeptical and unaffiliated lot or so I am told by others looking in. Sort of the opposite of a group thinking throw back to the 1960s, which would describe most of the RC crowd.
I just find it humorous that Dr. Mann’s supporters are so, er, emotive.
——–
I find it emotive that Dr Mann’s supporters have a sense of humour. And are able to poke fun at themselves. And not take themselves to seriously.
So, we’re doing ad hominem attacks now?
Michael Bacigalupo says:
July 13, 2012 at 10:56 am
“Also, CaerBannog is a reference to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’
yes indeed – the “Cave of CaerBannog”, the lair of the evil rabbit, is a disused copper mine on the southern shores of Loch Tay in Perthsire and is near where I grew up. I visited the mine when I was 8 or 9 and found some nice mineral specimens and that’s what got me interested in geology.
This guy looks like something out of Monty Python’s worst nightmares.
more soylent green! says:
July 13, 2012 at 11:33 am
“So, we’re doing ad hominem attacks now?”
No – only ad gothinem…
Put a shirt on Auggie. Nobody wants to see your bird chest,
Herr Dr.-Prof. Spookytooth is right. Goths are people seeking attention, and [with a little help from Anthony] Caerbannog got a lot more attention in the past few hours than most. Success, Caerbannog!! Do you have an agent?
Surely that’s Marylin Mann son
@Paul Westhaver
Except, you know, this picture was not taken at a Congressional hearing.
This is more properly described as the Poisoning the Well fallacy (http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/poisoning-the-well.html), a variant of ad hominem.
Which is quite the shame – Caerbannog has some well supported work out there (try Google) regarding climate change, particularly the surface temperature anomaly data.
Jonas Salk’s vaccine was infected with the SV40 monkey virus which causes cancer, he may have been responsible for killing millions, so maybe our gothic friend’s analogy makes more sense than you realise. Its a death thang!
Let’s look at what Anthony actually wrote (He also added an update, perhaps in response to all those on here today who left their sense of humour somewhere).
But the original comment was:-
“That iron lung comment piqued my interest, and I wondered who is this guy? A well known climate blog regular, he’s been bloviating all over the climate blogs for years. After finding him though about a minute’s worth of Googling public information, I wish I could unsee what I found. Meet Caesar Augustus Rossi Carvalho (Caerbannog)”
And we have people here waxing indignant that he’s resorting to ad hominem!
Seriously, you think this is an ad hominem “attack” on this character?
OK. If THAT’s an “ad hominem”, what are we to call the hate speech crap that Anthony & the rest of us get subjected to every day?
C’mon, lighten up.
Or go start your own blog.
I’ve been thinking about the “ad hom” aspect – and I don’t think that does apply. No one is attacking this guy (or Mann) for how he looks. We’re observing his chosen image and drawing reasonable conclusions about the type of adult who would choose to look like that (i.e. as a rather dark, even evil character – note the “666” in the nick). It is fair (I think) to suggest that this person may be less than rational.
Since Jonas Salk’s vaccine actually worked, I’m sure he made all his research work available for verification. I’m sure all results were published of the effectiveness or lack of on all who were vaccinated in their studies.
Jonas Salk: Turn over my data? Sure thing. It’s important that people have full faith in the soundness of my vaccine.
Maybe we could entice Caesar Augustus Rossi Carvalho to perform with Ray Pierrehumbert. I actually would give some thought to paying to see that.
http://geosci.uchicago.edu/i/RayPierhumbert.jpg
As do some of the others [Ben Wilson @ur momisugly 7:56], I find Michael’s retweeting of this comment regarding Jonas Salk the most astonishing aspect.
Being of sufficiently advanced age, I can say with only a moderate amount of disinformation that I knew Jonas Salk***. Jonas Salk was a friend of mine. And, Michael Mann, you are no Jonas Salk. [An apology to Lloyd Bentsen.]
Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk
“The field trial set up to test the Salk vaccine was, according to O’Neill, “the most elaborate program of its kind in history, involving 20,000 physicians and public health officers, 64,000 school personnel, and 220,000 volunteers.” Over 1,800,000 school children took part in the trial.[3] When news of the vaccine’s success was made public on April 12, 1955, Salk was hailed as a “miracle worker”, and the day “almost became a national holiday.””
***Salk was at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. I was 60 miles away and Pittsburgh was our source of TV – the first family set arriving in the fall of 1954. Polio visited our neighborhood. Did I ever meet Dr. Salk? No. Did we all think we knew him? Yes.
Michael Bacigalupo said on July 13, 2012 at 10:56 am:
The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog?
Oh yeah, I can see the resemblance.
blackswhitewash.com says:
July 13, 2012 at 9:12 am
Not sure this post was worth it Tony. He’s a Goth, so what? I was once.
REPLY: Yes and as a kid I had a Superman cape. I outgrew that both physically and mentally. I just think its funny. – Anthony
….
in other words…
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
Chapter 13, verse 11
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Chapter 14, verse 20
KR says:
Caerbannog has some well supported work out there (try Google) regarding climate change, particularly the surface temperature anomaly data.
Bullshit. If Alice’s arguments were worth half a doggam he/she wouldn’t be hiding behind Daily Kos’ Kevlar Komment filter.
Here’s an example of “bird chest” pluggin Michael Mann’s ad homy book – A 911-Truther wrote the “Most helpful” 1-star Amazon review of Dr. Mann’s book “The Hockey Stick…”
You know how somebody becomes a lifetime Daily Kos diarist in good standing?
I’ll let Bob Hope explain.
[snip – fake email address from a Anonymous Proxy Server – read the policy page if you want your comment published ~mod]
I think many of the comments on this topic have entirely missed the point because of their efforts to appear politically correct with respect to being non-judgemental about lifestyles. On the conrrary, the topic highlights the bias of Mann when he disparages his opponents and bloggers for their lack of professionalism and therefore lack of gravitas in matters concerning climate science, while he at the same time lends his own claims to gravitas to a blogger exhibiting just what kind of professionalism and gravitas? Can you imagine what Mann would have to say about the professionalism and therefore the gravitas of an opponent blogger exhibiting similar behavior?
The better “example” of denialism is not iron lungs, but the Marxist “false consciousness” phenomenon. When one is involved in a pseudo-scientific thought movement, like Marxism or climate science-phrenology, you need an explanation for the contradiction of at one side claiming science on your side, and on the other maintaining the faith system that denies or ignores dissent. Thus the “false consciousness” explanation was invented, or expanded from Marx’s ideas. “False consciousness,” like denialism, is not so much to assist the deniers in their supposed defective thinking, but to gloss over the limited thinking of the accusers–the believers in the thought system that claims itself scientific. “False consciousness” is aimed at outside information, “politically correct” thinking works to keep the insiders from diverging.
The correct way to attack the denialism phenomenon is to point out the contradictions in the accusers, and the ego defenses they exhibit by using the term “deniers.”
We’re skeptics remember. Just because Cesar LOOKS like a creepy loon is not PROOF that he’s a creepy loon. He may actually be a really sweet guy.
anonymous says:
July 13, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Jonas Salk’s vaccine was infected with the SV40 monkey virus which causes cancer,
Huh. I was one of the kids in the test — when do I get my monkey cancer?
I’m always bemused at the CAGW/Leftist love of street art, puppetry, cosplay, dancing and singing. As if that makes they’re position more legitimate. No facts just emotion.