Friday Funny / Quote of the week – the healing rift

I’m sure many WUWT readers on both sides of the AGW debate watched Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech last night. The most memorable line that got a standing ovation was a poke back at Obama’s famous line – “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.” given at his acceptance speech in 2008.

Marc Morano of Climate Depot has the story about how some folks are upset about that. Mike Mann, since he doesn’t have anything else to do since being put on “sabbatical” is of course given the opportunity to refute. He’s the ‘go to guy’ now that Gore has imploded.

Below are selected excerpts of the Politico article. To read full article go to here. (subscription required)

Politico: Romney’s climate change remark makes waves

By Alex Guillen

8/30/12 11:29 PM EDT

Mitt Romney took a shot at President Barack Obama’s climate change position during his acceptance speech Thursday.

“President Obama promised to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet,” Romney said after accepting the GOP’s presidential nomination in Tampa, drawing laughter from the crowd. “My promise is to help you and your family.”

The line received a standing ovation.

Romney was referring to now-famous remarks Obama made in 2008 after securing the Democratic nomination. “I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children … this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

A needless slam on science? That’s how it appeared to Penn State climate researcher Michael Mann.

“How sad it is to witness such fallacious logic from a major party candidate for president,” Mann, one of the nation’s best-known climate researchers, told POLITICO. “If we do not take the necessary actions to combat climate change now, we will of course be leaving our children and grandchildren the legacy of a degraded planet.”

[…]

Marc Morano, publisher of the climate skeptic blog Climate Depot, predicted that Romney’s line from Thursday’s speech will be memorable.

“Kudos to Romney for an accurate framing of the global warming debate,” he said. “Romney’s quip will serve to remind voters just how lofty Obama’s rhetoric once was. Romney’s reminder of Obama’s promise to command the oceans will be one of the most memorable lines of the speech.”

Romney’s speech also included a reiteration of his promise to achieve North American energy independence by 2020 “by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.”

To read full article and comment online:

https://www.politicopro.com/go/?id=13838 (subscription required)

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I agree with Dr. Michael Mann, candidate Obama’s statement about healing the planet was indeed “fallacious logic”, especially in lieu of his track record on climate now. – Anthony

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more soylent green!
August 31, 2012 1:24 pm

Zeke says:
August 31, 2012 at 12:29 pm
“Repeal and replace.” That refers to keeping the backbone of Romney/Obamacare in place: exchanges. Go fish.

Zeke, what would happen if we could somehow repeal ObamaCare without replacing it? Individuals would continue to not be able to deduct healthcare insurance purchases. Most payments would continue to be made by third parties. Healthcare insurance would continue to be linked to employment, and not portable.
Only through replacing ObamaCare will we get anywhere close to a market-oriented solution. Before ObamaCare, health care and health insurance were two of the most highly regulated businesses in America. Repealing ObamaCare won’t change that.
It’s also not politically viable to repeal it without offering a replacement. Personally, I believe what we had before is better than what we have now, but most of the electorate is not in agreement.

Kaboom
August 31, 2012 1:35 pm

But truth to be told, the rise of the oceans DID slow. Not sure about the healing stuff, removing an open sore like Osama might count towards that.

Tom J
August 31, 2012 1:37 pm

Let’s not be so critical of our dear Michael Mann and Barack Obama. You see, they’re kindred souls, they feel each other’s pain. They know, they just know what it’s like to have massive, but oh so thoroughly justified egos. They may look different: Mann, the chubby, balding one; Obama, the slim, close-cropped one. But in their hearts, or whatever organs they have that replaces them, they are the same. They know the feeling one gets when one looks in the mirror and likes what he sees so very, very much that a droplet of spitool dribbles from the corner of the mouth, and a small, inconsequential bulge develops under the clothing (from a mosquito bite).
Michael Mann knows what it’s like, as Barack Obama knows what it’s like, to have chosen to save us; the unwashed, unworthy ones who do not even exist on the same level as they so effortlessly inhabit. They know what it’s like to engage in this wondrous, humanitarian exercise, only asking that we properly drop to our knees, and pay them the mere bargain basement asking price of our impoverishment. What a pair of guys!

August 31, 2012 2:00 pm

The original Mad magazine protagonist encapsulated “fallacious logic” & now on funny friday a “this seat’s taken” parody: http://pjmedia.com/instapundit/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/whatmeworryobama.png

Don E
August 31, 2012 2:23 pm

Obama did keep his promise about slowing the sea level rise; it has slowed since he was elected.

August 31, 2012 2:29 pm

Don E,
Well, that proves it for me! Good thing the country immaculated Obama, eh? [We’ll disregard the inconvenient fact that the sea level was already decelerating.]
But what about me? Yesterday I predicted the sun would rise in the East this morning. And it did! I have plenty more predictions like that if you like. Can I be prez now?
/sarc

August 31, 2012 2:41 pm

Gail Combs says August 31, 2012 at 1:14 pm

… the recent Great Recession that officially ran from December 2007 to June 2009, ending just six months into Obama’s first term….

The brain washing seems to still be holding strong unfortunately.

Maybe it is your choice of journalistic diet? Try less left-leaning media and institutions …
.

August 31, 2012 3:00 pm

Gail Combs says August 31, 2012 at 11:50 am
All you have to do is read his actual statements to see …

Ummmm … isn’t it a little late for that now?
Would it be too much to ask to ask placere esse quietum until after the election?
After which you can become Cindy Sheehan for all practical purposes.
.

clipe
August 31, 2012 3:14 pm

ldd says:
August 31, 2012 at 9:46 am
What, TVO?

TVO is not so bad.
How to Grow a Planet – episode 2
http://ww3.tvo.org/video/178596/episode-2

Richard Patton
August 31, 2012 3:18 pm

Doug, no one appears to have caught your pun. Just to let you know from one punster to another: good one!
Doug Huffman says:
August 31, 2012 at 8:05 am
, “[T]here is no proof that any body can slow the rise of the oceans.”
I don’t know what might pass as proof, but freshman physics suggests that removal of the Earth orbiting body, the Moon, would eliminate Lunar tide rise and fall.

geran
August 31, 2012 3:32 pm

Note to Romney bashers—Consider the alternative….

Gail Combs
August 31, 2012 3:34 pm

more soylent green! says: August 31, 2012 at 1:24 pm
…Zeke, what would happen if we could somehow repeal ObamaCare without replacing it? Individuals would continue to not be able to deduct healthcare insurance purchases. Most payments would continue to be made by third parties. Healthcare insurance would continue to be linked to employment, and not portable…..
___________________________________
Much of the cost of healthcare is due to bureaucratic red tape, regulations and insurance. Just ask your doctor and you will get an earful.
One guy at Duke University I talked to told me new nuclear regulations caused the price of radiation sources to skyrocket by tens of thousands of dollars. He used to go to the physics department to get his radiation source. Now he has to buy it from a commercial source for mega bucks.
Studies report as a rule the average physician spends three weeks a year on billing- and insurance-related tasks, and has to hire two-thirds of a full-time employee per physician. The Institute for Justice found the remove of even one regulation spurred the growth of small business.
Most people have no idea of the cost of each additional regulation. In the UK, one dairy farmer, the last one left in his neighborhood, reported that 60% of his time was spent filling out forms. With the Food “Safety” Modernization Act 2010 regulations about to go into effect in 2012 expect many American farmers to exit farming or convert to growing trees or other non-food items. American farmers have neither the time, money or knowledge to meet the new regulations. Worse the penalty for screwing up can be a multi-million dollar fine.

…More than half of America’s farmers work a job off the farm to make ends meet, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
…In California and throughout the country, farmers open up their land to tourists, set up roadside stands and travel the farmers market circuit, but they also moonlight as mechanics, pool cleaners and even authors. They make jam and paint landscapes, work at banks and own businesses in order for the farm to survive….
60 percent of all farms reporting less than $10,000 in sales of agricultural products. Of the 2.2 million farms nationwide, less than half show profit from their farms. The remaining 1.2 million depend on non-farm income to cover farm expenses…. http://blackchristiannews.com/news/2010/12/50-of-farmers-have-to-get-a-second-job-to-pay-bills.html

Personally I have yet to met a farmer without a second job or at minimum without a wife working outside the home.
Romney is going to be facing the fall-out from this food law passed in a lame duck session and signed by Obama. The people targeted for “removal” will be the little street side veggie stands and organically grown beef, eggs and other products so beloved of the Organic Food crowd. So take the 73752 corporate farms out of the 2.1 million farms and multiply that by all the yuppies buying their products and you have a rather large number of potentially irate people. Oh and now they want you to register your home gardens too.
On top of that 46,405,204 Americans are already collecting food stamps according to the USDA. 48.8 million Americans are living on the edge of hunger Nearly one in four children in America lives in households that struggle to put food on the table.
Then there are the lies about coming out of the “Great Recession” in 2009 … the recent Great Recession that officially ran from December 2007 to June 2009, ending just six months into Obama’s first term…. What a crock! While “official” statistics show a decrease in unemployment thanks to lying with statistics, (Discouraged workers and part timers are not considered unemployed) Shadow Statistics shows about 23% are STILL unemployment and there is no real change from the sky-rocketing unemployment since 2009 link
Seems some one got their figures wrong on just when the “Great Recession” was. (The MSM usual blames it on Bush.)
To put it bluntly Romney if he wins has a really big mess to clean up.
23% are unemployed, 7.2% (as of 2006) are on welfare, 13% are over 65, another 17% (as of 2006) are working for the federal government, and who know how many are working in state, county or city government jobs or depend on government grants and of those who do work only 50% earn enough to actually pay taxes. Now add in a major rise in food costs thanks to the food law and you really have a mess in the making.
I am sure the MSM will be very happy to blame Romney for the mess though.

clipe
August 31, 2012 3:47 pm

http://ww3.tvo.org/video/178381/episode-1
The first episode takes a look at how plants created the world. A team of botanists, plant hunters and scientists hunt down the descendants of the plants that have dominated and driven the most fundamental changes in Earth history – creating the oxygen we breathe, the soil we walk on and deciding which animals live and die.
And
How to Grow a Planet
We might think that humans are the most powerful living thing on Earth, but it is plants that time and again have set the agenda for life. Plants enabled amphibians to leave the water, they had a hand in the rise and fall of the dinosaurs, and they ensured the ultimate triumph of insects, mammals and birds. This series offers a stunning new perspective on Earth’s history.

ldd
August 31, 2012 4:12 pm

Thanks Clipe, I will check this out as I have abandoned them in recent years as I have much of TV altogether. However recently I did check out some at Discover.ca and NatGeo for these kind of programmings as they both were doing earth and space series so after reading the descriptions thought I’d check out the space ones thinking they can’t tie in global warming with that now.
Wrong, they did right at the end. Apparently we’ll be Mars if we can’t control our C02… Sigh. But I will give this video a watch this weekend and see, in hopes.

August 31, 2012 5:27 pm

The stand out thing in this post, is Mike Mann put on sabbatical?
Is he loosing the plot with all his lawfare? are those higher up the food chain waking up to his shenanigans? Mike may soon fade into the sunset, from legend in his own lunch time to a broken man, like his hockey stick.

LazyTeenager
August 31, 2012 5:38 pm

Seems like you guys are getting it back to front. Obama means he wants you guys to stop commanding the oceans to rise.
So Romney is the guy who wants to nay say that and to continue commanding the oceans to rise even more vigorously.
Maybe in the far future there will be a new moral tale about King Romney. Along the lines of getting your feet wet if you apply great power unwisely.

Editor
August 31, 2012 6:01 pm

“his promise to achieve North American energy independence by 2020″ –> Note this includes Mexican and Canadian energy resources and NOT …. South American, Mid-eastern, and other rest-of-world resources.
An interesting proposition — any serious effort and even partial achievement will be a great improvement for us North Americans.

lucien
August 31, 2012 6:38 pm

Only 2 candidates in USA ?
Those 2 have put America (and the world) in a terrible mess , time to change no?

Bill Marsh
August 31, 2012 7:05 pm

I’m a federal employee, just like Dr Mann. I’m pretty sure that if I made a statement like his, I would be in a lot of trouble on Monday morning. I would probably lose my pension. I wonder why this guy is immune from the political constraints most federal employees operate under.

August 31, 2012 7:09 pm

Gail Combs says August 31, 2012 at 3:34 pm

Oh and now they want you to register your home gardens too.
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/891-utah-garden-challenge-actually-government-registration-in-disguise

Are you over-blowing and misinterpreting things (again)?
That is a simple ‘census’ of ag products grown in small gardens and plots. From your supplied link:

We need to know how much food is being produced in Utah. The Census of Agriculture is done every 5 years. Every agricultural operation in Utah, regardless of size, is vital to this question.
If you produce $1000 of agricultural products, you can influence economic development and decision making by filling out a NASS survey. We will only share your information with NASS by your permission. Your response to the census of agriculture is protected by law. For more information, you can go to http://www.agcensus.gov.

Sinister, I know …
.

CodeTech
August 31, 2012 7:16 pm

LazyTeenager, if I didn’t know you I’d have been laughing at the brilliant sarcastic wit.
However I do know you, and I’m laughing at your absolute refusal to let reality infringe on your world view.
0bama was referring to “his” environmental policies being the turning point, about the urgent need to fix the planet that we have so horribly “damaged”, and his intent to stop pollution and reverse the damage caused by 8 years of George Bush. Because, as everyone knows, pollution and planetary damage are not a problem when a democrat is in power. (Thus, the clintoon years were clean and green).
And in those rare places where an environmental problem occurs when a democrat is in power, it’s always some Republican causing it.
Look it up. It’s in the bible.

u.k.(us)
August 31, 2012 8:06 pm

_Jim says:
August 31, 2012 at 7:09 pm
=======
Please spell out your wisdom, I’m dying to hear it.
It must be an all-knowing sort of thing, that will be the benefit of us all.
Just say go.

Mac the Knife
August 31, 2012 9:05 pm

LazyTeenager says:
August 31, 2012 at 5:38 pm
“So Romney is the guy who wants to nay say that and to continue commanding the oceans to rise even more vigorously. ”
Please provide your source for this ‘fact’…
I have seen nor heard anything like your assertion above. I think you are not telling the truth.
RSVP with your specific source/reference for your statement of ‘fact’, that Romney “… is the guy who wants .. to continue commanding the oceans to rise even more vigorously. ”
Respond specifically with your source for that ‘fact’.
MtK

John F. Hultquist
August 31, 2012 9:06 pm

Bill Marsh says:
August 31, 2012 at 7:05 pm
“I’m a federal employee, just like Dr Mann.

One out of two, ain’t bad!

Mac the Knife
August 31, 2012 10:20 pm

_Jim says:
August 31, 2012 at 7:09 pm
“That is a simple ‘census’ of ag products grown in small gardens and plots. Sinister, I know …”
_Jim,
This is not a ‘simple census’. What I choose to grow in my backyard plot is none of your damn business. If I choose to trade fresh tomatoes and radishes to my neighbor for fresh eggs, it is none of the ‘NASS’ (whatever the hell that is…), IRS, EPA, OSHA, TSA, or ACLUs damn business either! Butt Out!
Get your hands… and your long,snoopy nose, out of my knickers. I don’t feel ‘stimulated’!
Mtk