I posted this on the Daily Lew Issue 5 as an update, but I decided it was so telling of the state of mind for the SkS crowd that it needed its own separate post. This also happens to be post 7000 on WUWT.
I had pretty much ignored the SkS forum dump when it was happening, thinking that perhaps they were being treated unfairly, but since John Cook has gone a bridge too far now with this Lewandowsky “moon landing survey” mess and his association with it, I no longer feel the need to hold back on what is going on behind the scenes over there.
Here is Glenn Tamblyn (Skeptical Science author/moderator) secretly conversing with his SkS pals on their off limits forum and saying “we need a conspiracy to save humanity”. The Viet Cong comparison is a nice touch too. There’s talk of convening a “war council” too.
And this isn’t about science or personal careers and reputations any more. This is a fight for survival. Our civilisations survival. .. We need our own anonymous (or not so anonymous) donors, our own think tanks…. Our Monckton’s … Our assassins.
Anyone got Bill Gates’ private number, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson? Our ‘side’ has got to get professional, ASAP. We don’t need to blog. We need to network. Every single blog, organisation, movement is like a platoon in an army. ..This has a lot of similarities to the Vietnam War….And the skeptics are the Viet Cong… Not fighting like ‘Gentlemen’ at all. And the mainstream guys like Gleick don’t know how to deal with this. Queensberry Rules rather than biting and gouging.
..So, either Mother Nature deigns to give the world a terrifying wake up call. Or people like us have to build the greatest guerilla force in human history. Now. Because time is up…Someone needs to convene a council of war of the major environmental movements, blogs, institutes etc. In a smoke filled room (OK, an incense filled room) we need a conspiracy to save humanity.
[As quoted by Geoff Chambers in this Bishop Hill thread. http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2012/3/26/opengate-josh-158.html?currentPage=2#comments ]
Yet climate skeptics are being painted as conspiracy theory nutters by the very same people who say “a conspiracy to save humanity” is needed.
Gleick was fighting with “Queensberry Rules” when he assumed a fake identity and stole documents from Heartland?
Riiiight.
===========================================================
For the excitable people that get upset about such things as this post, it is worth pointing out that the SkS “secret” forum was left wide open, and Cook blames himself No hack or ‘Gleick Queensberryness’ was needed, also from BH by poster David who captured this SkS announcement on 23 February 2012 by Cook himself:
Got an email from Brian P this morning saying that the whole forum was publicly available to him, even when he wasn’t logged in. I checked and this was true.A little panicky, I investigated and worked out that all the permission levels of each forum had been set down to zero. Normally, they’re set so only authors can access most of them, except the translator forum is also accessible to translators. Strangely though, there is an admin forum that only admins can access and that wasn’t set to zero – it was still set so only admins can access it.
I have no idea how this happened. Several possibilities come to mind. First, I did it by accident when I was screwing around with the database sometime. Someone with admin access (there are about half a dozen SkSers with this access) made the change. Or we were hacked in some way and the hacker changed the levels. None of the options seem likely to me but the most likely is human error on my part although the fact that the admin forum was still set at admin level belies some kind of blanket wiping of all levels.
So I’m a little freaked out – it’s not knowing how this happened that has me most worried. Has anyone been looking at the forum and how long has this been available? But I’ve been procrastinating some of those security measures that have been suggested to me and as soon as I get to work this morning, am going to implement some of those measures.
UPDATE: It gets worse.
Steve McIntyre points out the wholesale deletion of over 50 of Tom Fuller’s comments at Lewandowsky’s blog today (after they had been in place for days) and made this comment:
Steve McIntyre: Posted Sep 15, 2012 at 1:43 PM
Re: Iain McQueen (Sep 15 13:28),
In the secret SkS forum, a member of the SkS squadron stated that “McIntyre must go down”. In another post, another SkS squadron member fantasized about ripping out Watts’ throat as follows:
Sometimes you just want to let loose and scream about how you want to take those motherfucking arseholes, those closed-minded bigotted genocidal pieces of regurgitated dog shit and do unspeakable violence to their bodies and souls for what they are doing to the safety of what and who we all hold dear. (Ain’t a lack of a moderation policy a cleansing and liberating thing?)…
Work out what you are best suited too and do that. But be able to distance yourself enough from your personal reactions to also see the bigger picture of the entire war and contribute to framing that broad campaign – “We need to focus on this and this and this. But my personal contribution will be to ripe Anthony Watts’ throat out – metaphorically of course.”
Such nice people, those SkS authors, contributors, and moderators.
Anthony, I wonder if this should not be publicised as widely as possible to highlight the warped thinking of these people. The opening sentence says it for me…..”this isn’t about science”.
The delightful language gives a clear insight into their calm and impassionate logic…..sarc!
Max Hugoson says: “I’d like to share this with some people who are “open to being educated”. It really would not have the proper IMPACT on them (in terms of the significance of the childishness and emotional instability of these folks) unless I give them a Curiculum Vita for the people cited.”
Mr. Hugoson, perhaps all you need to do to have the “proper impact” is to draw parallels between these communications and the leaked emails by those who do have a long Cuirulum Vita. Glad I could help.
All this talk about “secret” forums got to me think about the Pentaverate. The Pentaverate, run by the 5 wealthiest people in the world, control everything in the world. They are the ones keeping climate change legislation down. If humanity broke from the yoke of the Pentaverate and implemented measures to prevent climate change, they would lose all their money and influence.
Of course, I’m not serious but I am referring to the movie So I Married An Axe Murderer.
Even though I’m joking, I wouldn’t be surprised if the “team” actually believed some conspiracy theory that is similar to the one joked about in that movie. Every time I think of Lewandowsky, I’m going to think of the Pentaverate, followed quickly by “HEAD PANTS NOW!” (If you watched the movie, you’ll immediately get the reference.) I’m going to watch So I Married An Axe Murderer now.
Should “SkS” now be “SS”?
REPLY: No. Let’s not go there. It serves no purpose. – Anthony
James Allison said on September 15, 2012 at 4:24 pm:
Oh come on now, we can do better than that!
I think we should start calling them Skleptomaniacs, and the site Skleptical Science. They have an irrational desire to keep stealing Science for themselves, despite not having earned it and clearly having no idea how it should be used.
They’re sort of like small animals who steal shiny objects just because they’re shiny. Kind of cute in a way, until your keys or jewelry suddenly disappear and can’t be found…
clipe says:
September 15, 2012 at 4:36 pm
Kevin Schurig says:
September 15, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Reading those posts I get a picture of a bunch of losers sitting around a table in a basement passing around a joint while saying this garbage. I would laugh myself unconscious if their actions wouldn’t ultimately destroy nations’ economies.
—
In other words your conspiracy theory?
================
Nice one Clipe, now we need to test the theory.
Could said “bunch of losers sitting around a table in a basement passing around a joint “, have gotten us into a worse mess than we are in now ?
(remember, said losers have had no practice in running anything).
Our ‘side’ has got to get professional, ASAP. We don’t need to blog.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Dear SkS and Co.
1. Yes, your “side” absolutely DOES need to get professional. You’ve tried every tactic imaginable EXCEPT being professional. You have discredited yourselves. All blogs like CA and WUWT have done is expose your deceipt, misrepresentation of the facts, suppresion of evidence embarrasing to your cause and fabrication of evidence to support your cause. I urge you, for the sake of humanity, to conduct yourselves professionaly.
2. Yes you do need to blog. You need to do so in a professional manner. Your own blogs have failed for the exact reason that you have not been professional. Being professional by the way, means accepting that when you lack the facts, evidence, and logical conclusions to support your position, you accept, both publicly and privately, that you may be wrong.
So you have it half right. But more importantly, you must also come to the realization that you may in fact be wrong about the science. Is your frustration related to your inability to promote your agenda? Or your inability to justify your agenda because is simply is not founded upon science?
Do you want to metaphorically “ripe” our throats out? Or address the facts that are presented to you? If your “side” had proper science to present, one would think that there would be no need to resort to the lack of professionalism and underhanded tactics that your “side” seems so fond of. You don’t need your own Monckton or your own WUWT as much as you need to engage on the science in an honest dialogue, and when your “side” fails to present compelling scientific evidence in support of your position, to accept that you’ve been advocating for a position that the science itself does not support.
Lastly, you need to face the grim reality that the actions proposed to reduce CO2 emissions are as dangerous, perhaps more so, but far more certain, than the dangers you purport to protect humanity from. Sending us back to a zero emissions society, despite your fantasies about wind and water power, is a dream, but the type of dream most accurately referred to as “your worst nightmare”. You propose a cure without consideration, or even an understanding of the consequences, for an ill you cannot provide evidence even exists.
Professionalism indeed. I couldn’t encourage you more in that regard.
richard-until scientists and taxpayers and parents understand what Constructivism is, how modelling is simply a new term for it Jere Confrey came up to mask it from the previous “wars”, and that it is the essence of both K-12 and higher ed going forward under the enforcement powers of the accreditation agencies, it will not be over.
We will be declaring it over while it is going viral through the next generation of voters. I wrote this post today http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/develop-learners-who-think-and-behave-and-view-themselves-as-systems-citizens/. Twelve to 16 years to create a mindset that has no clue what the truth or reality are. Mostly being put in place by people being paid by the taxpayer. And it’s worse in other countries as Gore’s loss in 2000 pulled the US off the UNESCO inspired track. We are fast catching up though. There is no hard scientific knowledge left in this vision for educational institutions.
This will be an epic tragedy we funded unless we wake up quickly as to what is being done in our educational institutions, K-12 and higher ed all over the world, in the name of Sustainability.
Or Gaia herself as quite of a few of the educators acknowledge.
These have got to be the stupendous people on the planet. If their case for AGW was so powerful; then why don’t they use it? Instead they show how weak their argument is by personal attacks and creating conspiracies. Neither of which they do very well, and only serve to make them that much more laughable. Liberals…they’re all alike!
Back when John Cook’s squadrons*** of non-skepticians started to become extremely paranoid across the blogosphere about anyone using the traditional straight forward acronym SS for their blogsite, I suggested instead using $$ as an acronym given their uncritical support of all funding of IPCC and gov’t CAGW biased science. : )
Now when we have recently seen the secret forum dialogs; we see the cult-like musings of John Cook’s squadron*** of non-skepticians; so now we can understand emotionally their sensitivity to the acronym SS . . . . their dialogs are emotionally similar to the spooky creepy feeling you get from some of those low budget grade B WWII movies.
Now that we see the core of what they are focused on, I suggest a new name for the Skeptical Science site => Conspiracy Paranoiaville. : )
*** I borrowed the term ‘squadrons’ when applied to JC’s blog dudes & dudettes from a comment by McIntyre at his CA site. : )
John
“I should warn you that your fly buttons are undone and your mind is hanging out” Wilbur Smith
gringojay, a wonderful recitation. You even included a norseman (Leif) in your chronology. Hah. Isn’t creationism fun.
How long will it be before these kooks decide to win the ‘war’ they must commit genocide and thin the herd?
From John Whitman on September 15, 2012 at 5:50 pm:
Strange, when I read that I think “John Cook’s squadrons of flying monkeys”.
I blame Judy Garland.
If someone wants to host it all online I can help. MySQL ready to go.
Glenn Tamblyn – name rings a vague bell.
He’s a busy boy, writing articles and leaving posts all over the place. I think I’ve come across him before somewhere, perhaps our ABC 🙂
Certainly a bit peculiar to think that Sydney harbour can be boiled dry (every 12 hours!!!): http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/the-earth-is-still-warming-enough-to-boil-sydney-harbour-dry-36560
Some of his comments are a bit way out, for example:
http://www.designnews.com/messages.asp?piddl_msgthreadid=245568&piddl_msgid=562705#msg_562705
“If you read back through some of my earlier comments you will see that warming is continuing unabated. The oceans are accumulating heat pretty much unchecked at a rate of multiple Hiroshima Bombs per second. Its just that over the last decade circulation patterns in the ocean have changed a bit and more heat is being drawn down to greater depths so the surface isn’t warming much so the atmosphere isn’t warming much.”
Seems to have missed ARGO.
He’s a prolific commenter at designnews.com. Must have plenty of spare time running that cafe of his out in the country.
More strange stuff: http://climateandrisk.com/tag/glenn-tamblyn/
He likes following John Cook around, leaving comments where John goes: http://www.abc.net.au/religion/articles/2011/11/16/3367852.htm
= = = = = =
kadaka (KD Knoebel),
I like yours better. Good to have laughed here on the US west coast on a Saturday night.
>>and now for some fun Saturday Night Alive parody of CP (Conspiracy Paranoaiville => Skeptical Science).
Now it is your fault that soon when I will have a brew I will have visions of munchkins dancing around singing ‘follow the yellow brick road, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road”. And because of you I sincerely fear that one of them surely will seem to resemble JC’s face . . . . it is your fault. Bad kadaka.
>>end of parody
Take care.
John
Mods,
The WordPress nether gods may have grab my very recent comment. Perhaps because of the C word that is a topic of the main post.
Can you see if you can resurrect if from the nether regions?
John
[Reply: Rescued & posted. — mod.]
Well, I haven’t taken the time yet to read the comments but clearly the “secret SkS team” seems to see Anthony Watts and Steve McIntyre as 4 star Generals in the Army of Independents marching for the truth. Are the Realist Army volunteers? Can we be defeated? You wanna try? Bring it on!
A well placed shot of the truth from the ranks is terminal.
Carry on.
Anthony Watts says: “Reply to J. Peterson: there is no secret forum on WUWT”
Oh, dang. Next you’ll tell us there’s no secret handshake, either. And what about badges? Can we have badges?
richardscourtney says:
September 15, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Friends:
Please do not lose sight of the important fact; i.e. the AGW-scaremongers know they have lost.
davidmhoffer says:
September 15, 2012 at 5:37 pm
1. Yes, your “side” absolutely DOES need to get professional. You’ve tried every tactic imaginable EXCEPT being professional.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Richard & David;
I know we had some disagreements on a prior thread. I just want to give you both a call-out that I agree 100%. 🙂
= = = = =
Hey there — mod, thanks.
Have a good night.
John
Badges?
We don’t need no stinking badges!!! /bad late night movie accent
(Seriously, you will never be able to see the badges we don’t have……)
I just find this whole thing sad. All I have ever wanted is a true debate by people with the uncorrupted data that I could watch and participate in as I am able so that the ground truth could be discerned. That includes, at the end of the day, the possibility that we very well may not have the right data, or we have been asking the wrong questions, and really don’t know anything at all. Good science goes where the experimental results guided by theoretical work lead. Conclusions developed a priori to experimental testing are just guesses that can be as ill-informed as the opinions of the guy on the next bar stool on a Saturday night at the corner pub. I wish these folks would quit being “true believers” and become scientists, but alas, magic isn’t real either.
All of this pussyfooting around, looking to spare the feelings of skeptics.
It’s time the warmists stood up and told us how they really feel. Sheesh.