This has been the most strange and unsettling week ever. Wiretaps, using the tax code as a political tool against your opponent, Huffington Post goes over to the dark side, and we witnessed the collapse of climate models ability to predict the future.
The Chinese must be laughing at our folly.
“May you live in interesting times“, often referred to as the Chinese curse, is reputed to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese proverb and curse, although it may have originated among the English themselves. It is reported that it was the first of three curses of increasing severity, the other two being:
“May you come to the attention of those in authority” (sometimes rendered “May the government be aware of you”). This is sometimes quoted as “May you come to the attention of powerful people.” (Alternately, “important people”.) Source
The icing on the cake this week is a portrayal as being one of the “Mad Men”, but given what’s been going on, one has to wonder, who really are the mad men? You just have to laugh though.
For those unfamiliar, this is a parody of the TV series Mad Men, which I have only a passing familiarity with. Apparently its about Madison avenue, sex, power, and smoke filled back rooms in the 60’s.
Unfortunately there’s no large version of the poster, because I’d surely like to print it and frame it for the sheer hilarity of it. It’s like somebody did a Vulcan mind meld with Mike Mann, and this was the image that came out. Of course, I want to frame the poster, rather than burn it like some that inhabit Mann-world do.
(Update: In comments, Michael Palmer says at June 7, 2013 at 10:48 am: here is a reconstructed mostly hi-res version of the picture. My thanks to him – Anthony)
Just a couple of notes for the artist, Steve Brodner, who didn’t bother to do his homework (all he had to do was check my “about page“), but instead allowed himself to get caught up in the Mannian fantasy vortex. For example, recall how Mike Mann reacted with full on conspiracy theory when I sent him a free calendar for Christmas.
I’ve met some, but not all of these people. As far as I know, none of them smoke. I asked Joe Bastardi yesterday whether he smoked or not (given his bodybuilding I highly doubted it) and he replied “only when I’m on fire!”.
For the record, both of my parents died of smoking related illnesses while I was young, and my severe hearing loss is connected to ear infections (and treatment by an ototoxic
drug) due to growing up in a smoke filled household. Smoking adversely affected my life, and made life choices for me that I didn’t plan. To portray me as embracing smoking is particularly unkind and most certainly inaccurate. But, that’s what happens when you live in The Mad Mad Mad World of Climatism.
While the cartoon is funny, the smoking portrayal does bother me a bit about this cartoon, because it is personal, and the artist of course is just another low information sap who works with popular memes. But, that smoking meme all part of the ongoing comparative smear to tobacco company tactics that Mann and Co. like to push, because after their own failure of the alarmist public relations strategy, all they have left now is denigration. Maybe they need to watch that “Mad Men” show for tips.
Oh, and also for the record I’ve also never gotten any money from big oil, small oil, Olive Oyl, Kochtopus, or the American Petroleum Institute, nor am I on the payroll (nor have I ever been) of any such organization. What you see is what you get, some advertising on the blog and the donation button on the right sidebar.
Finally, I don’t “deny” climate change. Most certainly the climate has changed over the last century. My view is that while CO2 has an effect, it isn’t as bad as being portrayed and it certainly isn’t living up to the expectations of the climate models. Like many eco-causes, it is over-hyped to get emotional churning which panders to the gullible.
Yes, we live in interesting times.
UPDATE: I’ve asked Steve Brodner on his blog (where he talks about the artwork) for a full sized copy. We’ll see how he reacts. I’d really like to get one. – Anthony
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[snip – Sorry, not interested in your personal observations about me and my family related to smoking – Anthony]
It is a superbly drawn poster. Maybe you could find out who drew it and buy it, spread around a little of the big oil money. 😉
REPLY: try reading the article for the name and link to the artist – Anthony
What is the third curse?
Echoing Rich H:
What is the 3rd curse?
What’s with the Scotch glasses that look like teacups? Are they all on the Johnny Carson show?
Why doesn’t Anthony rate a Martini glass? The cocktail was probably invented in the Bay Area.
Don’t forget the NYT going to the Dark Side;
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/07/opinion/president-obamas-dragnet.html?_r=0
I’ve made the point before and will make it again: I have never met a treehugger who doesn’t smoke.
For the record, both of my parents died of smoking related illnesses too. And my eldest brother…
I myself never ever smoked voluntarily although I did try a puff when I was 5 and again when I was 9 – due to peer pressure. I told my peers then that only morons smoke….
“May you come to the attention of those in authority”
That is the genuine article. It is in both Lao Tzi and Chuang Tzu. However, the sense of it is more along the lines of “May you be honored and treasured by those in authority” or “May your wisdom be sought by those in authority.” The idea is that you will be used by authorities, discarded by authorities, and loose your life. Keeping and extending one’s life is absolutely central to Daoist thinking.
As regards smoking, I think that smoking no longer means smoking. It is now just an empty put down, often class based, something along the lines of calling someone a Redneck or McDonald’s customer.
Sorry to hear about your ear problems. Got mine from measles back in ’56 or so.
Anthony,
Form is temporary, class is permanent. You are a class act and, quite simply, the other side cannot cope.
The media cover up Obama’s chain-smoking.
One of the vile things about the poster is the use of the word “denial.” I still consider this, first, an ad hominem smear, and second, a deliberate intent to minimize the meaning of the Holocaust. I believe that it has an anti-semitic intent. That the use has become commonplace is a sad commentary on our society.
First off, this IS a funny cartoon, even if the point he’s trying to get across is somewhere between deluded and offensive. It does show the world in the way the Warmist’s think it works. The “Mad Men” are advertisers and marketers who work to shape public opinion, and in the show, they’re brilliant at it. (Visualize a very dark version of Darren and Larry back in “Bewitched”)
The implication, of course, is that climate skeptics are nothing but very clever marketers – that’s how the warmists explain their defeats to themselves. They just don’t message well enough! They just don’t do very good marketing! If they just politicized the thing a bit more, and had a better ad campaign, everything would work out for them!
This, in fact, is a key insight into their basic psychology – it explains much of what they do, and ironically it explains why they keep losing. (although of course they can’t see it) They truly believe that things like “evidence” are trivial; to them the only real battle is in Communications and Messaging. This explains, for example, everything that Nucitelli has ever written, and every project that Cook has ever undertaken. They go for marketing stunts because to them, Marketing is the only “reality”.
And so of course, when they lose, it MUST be because the other side did a better job of “marketing”. The concept that something as mundane as “Facts” or actual “Science” could ever have a part to play is completely alien to them; so alien that they never even consider it, and think that our use of such things is just another very clever marketing ploy.
As old men, they will go to their graves still cursing the clever ways in which we out-marketed and out-communicated them. “Damn you, Cursed Facts!!!” will be a fitting epitaph.
Rich H says:
June 7, 2013 at 8:53 am
What is the third curse?
“May you find what you are looking for.” This is sometimes quoted as “May your wishes be granted.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_you_live_in_interesting_times
Which is very close to the more common “Be careful what you wish for.”
Picture of Mad Men without smoking is even worse than taking away FDR’s cigar. The problem is the author didn’t include any women. Joan, Peggy, and Betty are major characters, and now Megan is as well in the Top 10.
Among that group are more than the supposed two out of the 77 cherry-picked “active climate scientists”, so this poster is actually corrosive to the false “97%” claim.
I might be wrong but I would like to give the artist a little more credit for depth. On first sight, the poster shouted to me “Edward R. Murrow.”
Churchill: cigars. FDR: cigarette holder.
wws says:
June 7, 2013 at 9:03 am
Very well said. For them, when skeptics make a clear, concise, and calm presentation of fact they feel that they are being swindled. Can you imagine the emotional pain in such a life?
On the other hand, they are erasing cigars from Churchill’s photos.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7828755/Winston-Churchills-cigar-airbrushed-from-picture.html
Tim Ball, Piers Corbyn, the Pieikes, Eschenbach and many others. Lot of missing faces.
what was the 3rd curse?
Hmmm … the Soviets used to airbrush inconvenient men from pictures of Stalin. Modern progressives airbrush cigars and cigarettes out of the hands of those they admire and draw them into the hands of those whom they despise. MinTru double plus ungood.
If you smoke, I strongly suggest personal vaporizers instead. A lot cheaper and
very safe. I prefer, as do most vaping folks, a non-tobacco tasting eliquid. I like peach and banana
flavored eliquids. Believe it or not, but there are environmental type critics out there who
tell lies about vaping, claiming eliquids are “anti-freeze” based, and other
pure nonsense. Apparently, these morons think that if something looks like smoking, it must be harmful. After switching to vaping, your lungs will immediately improve. Two of the country’s top respiratory physicians have made videos recommending that smokers switch.
The centrists are convinced, and have been by the way since the ’30s, that through manipulation of “facts” you can convince everyone of anything. The Nationalist Socialist Party in Germany was famous for using the “Big Lie.” Lenin was the precursor with the Bolschevik propaganda. Both were notable failures and had to utimately rely on terror to maintain control.
Just like they run out of other peoples’ money, these types run into the wall that reality puts up. Pretty soon the tales become “inoperative.” I think that’s what Haldeman and Erlichman called it back during Watergate.
The average person isn’t stupid. Ignorant they may be, but while trying to live their lives, they tend to educate themselves, if only in the areas that directly touch them. When “advertising” of climate change starts to run into the reality of their daily lives, guess what they discount.
Most people are reasonably sceptical of hype – you can see that every week when the box office receipts come back for the movies that have been out a couple of weeks. You might be able to get the “fans” out to a movie one weekend, but watching the legs tells you what the real impact is.
When you think that a lot of the elite live on the coasts, and that media plays a big role in their lives, while science and engineering are only there because they need the magic, it’s easy to see how they get duped.
In the end, fraud is fraud, lies are lies, and those propagating them eventually pay. There’s a reason that “journalists” whine about the Blogosphere. It’s hard to keep getting paid for spreading lies, when people can rapidly find the truth out for themselves. The Mad Men have the same problem. When your soap actually makes the clothes dirtier, people catch on pretty quickly.
“we witnessed the collapse of climate models to predict the future.”
No less so than the ability of economic models to predict the unemployment rate.