Climategate: Lead UN Warmist Scientists Dumped Data

Times UK: East Anglia U Climate Research Unit dumped raw data,

These people are the lead technicl activists for the UN and the worldwide global warmist cabal.

The dog ate Al Gore's homework.

Two Big Pictures: ClimateGate & Obama

Power Line/Muir/Ramiriz on Obama White House & Climategate.

Pictures worth 2000 words.

Climategate: Worst Science Scandal

Scientific Establishment Is Hopelessly Compromised

Our hopelessly compromised scientific establishment cannot be allowed to get away with a whitewash of what has become the greatest scientific scandal of our age.

A week after my colleague James Delingpole, on his Telegraph blog, coined the term "Climategate" to describe the scandal revealed by the leaked emails [/] from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, Google was showing that the word now appears across the internet more than nine million times. But in all these acres of electronic coverage, one hugely relevant point about these thousands of documents has largely been missed.

The reason why even the Guardian's George Monbiot has expressed total shock and dismay at the picture revealed by the documents is that their authors are not just any old bunch of academics. Their importance cannot be overestimated, What we are looking at here is the small group of scientists who have for years been more influential in driving the worldwide alarm over global warming than any others, not least through the role they play at the heart of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). [My emphasis]

From a Telegraph [UK] article, Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal , more below:

Millennium’s worst science scandal, so far. Sorry about that, Al Gore.

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7

Climate change: this is the worst scientific scandal of our generation [/] Our hopelessly compromised scientific establishment cannot be allowed to get away with the Climategate whitewash, says Christopher Booker. [/] By Christopher Booker [/] Published: 6:10PM GMT 28 Nov 2009

[...] Professor Philip Jones, the CRU's director, is in charge of the two key sets of data used by the IPCC to draw up its reports. Through its link to the Hadley Centre, part of the UK Met Office, which selects most of the IPCC's key scientific contributors, his global temperature record is the most important of the four sets of temperature data on which the IPCC and governments rely – not least for their predictions that the world will warm to catastrophic levels unless trillions of dollars are spent to avert it.

Dr Jones is also a key part of the closely knit group of American and British scientists responsible for promoting that picture of world temperatures conveyed by Michael Mann's "hockey stick" graph which 10 years ago turned climate history on its head by showing that, after 1,000 years of decline, global temperatures have recently shot up to their highest level in recorded history. [/] Given star billing by the IPCC, not least for the way it appeared to eliminate the long-accepted Mediaeval Warm Period when temperatures were higher they are today, the graph became the central icon of the entire man-made global warming movement.

Since 2003, however, when the statistical methods used to create the "hockey stick" were first exposed as fundamentally flawed by an expert Canadian statistician Steve McIntyre, an increasingly heated battle has been raging between Mann's supporters, calling themselves "the Hockey Team", and McIntyre and his own allies, as they have ever more devastatingly called into question the entire statistical basis on which the IPCC and CRU construct their case.

The senders and recipients of the leaked CRU emails constitute a cast list of the IPCC's scientific elite, including not just the "Hockey Team", such as Dr Mann himself, Dr Jones and his CRU colleague Keith Briffa, but Ben Santer, responsible for a highly controversial rewriting of key passages in the IPCC's 1995 report; Kevin Trenberth, who similarly controversially pushed the IPCC into scaremongering over hurricane activity; and Gavin Schmidt, right-hand man to Al Gore's ally Dr James Hansen, whose own GISS record of surface temperature data is second in importance only to that of the CRU itself.

There are three threads in particular in the leaked documents which have sent a shock wave through informed observers across the world. Perhaps the most obvious, as lucidly put together by Willis Eschenbach (see McIntyre's blog Climate Audit and Anthony Watt's blog Watts Up With That), is the highly disturbing series of emails which show how Dr Jones and his colleagues have for years been discussing the devious tactics whereby they could avoid releasing their data to outsiders under freedom of information laws. [/] They have come up with every possible excuse for concealing the background data on which their findings and temperature records were based.

[...] The second and most shocking revelation of the leaked documents is how they show the scientists trying to manipulate data through their tortuous computer programmes, always to point in only the one desired direction – to lower past temperatures and to "adjust" recent temperatures upwards, in order to convey the impression of an accelerated warming. This comes up so often (not least in the documents relating to computer data in the Harry Read Me file) that it becomes the most disturbing single element of the entire story. This is what Mr McIntyre caught Dr Hansen doing with his GISS temperature record last year (after which Hansen was forced to revise his record), and two further shocking examples have now come to light from Australia and New Zealand.

[...] The third shocking revelation of these documents is the ruthless way in which these academics have been determined to silence any expert questioning of the findings they have arrived at by such dubious methods – not just by refusing to disclose their basic data but by discrediting and freezing out any scientific journal which dares to publish their critics' work. It seems they are prepared to stop at nothing to stifle scientific debate in this way, not least by ensuring that no dissenting research should find its way into the pages of IPCC reports. […]

Government Caused Economic Debacle

Subprime Quicksand In Giant Government Created & Backed Banks

Placing the roots of the housing boom and bust in the free market and the solution in government is very convenient for politicians and for those who favor government interventions. But such explanations are inconsistent with facts, however impressive they might be as exercises in rhetoric.
Both the genesis of unaffordable housing in particular local areas and the responses with national policies to make buying a home easier were political in origin, and government regulation is what forced lenders to meet arbitrary quotas by eroding traditional mortgage-lending safeguards. [/] The facts could not be plainer.

Market criteria had long required such things as substantial down payments, as well as income and credit histories that made continuing payments likely. But all that was brushed aside in the political crusade for "affordable housing" and bigger homeownership statistics. [/] Both the unrealistic nature of policies pursued in the name of "affordable housing" and the serious dangers that such policies posed to the entire economy provoked many warnings from economists and others. But these warnings were repeatedly brushed aside by political leaders, often by shifting the focus to the supposed benefits of creating more homeownership through "affordable housing." [My emphasis]

From a Investors [Business Daily [IBD]] .com excerpt from a book by Thomas Sowell, How Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Sank In The Subprime Quicksand
, more below:

”An economic primer on the housing bubble, but more importantly, it is an examination of the ruling class's inability to leave well enough alone” – American Spectator on Sowell’s book

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7

More from an Investors [Business Daily [IBD]] .com excerpt from a book by Thomas Sowell, How Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Sank In The Subprime Quicksand

IBD EDITORIALS [/] How Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac Sank In The Subprime Quicksand [/] By THOMAS SOWELL [/] Posted 11/27/2009 06:48 PM ET

[…] Who, if not the taxpayers, would pay for these government subsidies — much less the defaults from making riskier loans — was not revealed.

For some homebuyers, the standards were relaxed to the point where there was no down payment at all required, contrary to a long-standing tradition that homebuyers should have some stake in the home, so as to reduce the risk of default on the mortgage. The reduction or elimination of traditional safeguards in mortgage lending entailed a rising riskiness of the mortgages acquired by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac under the new and lower mortgage loan approval standards.

Under these political pressures, traditional mortgage loans with traditional safeguards began to decline and mortgage loans made under the "innovative" and "flexible" standards urged by government increased.

[…] What was crucial was that the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which was among the federal agencies pushing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make more loans to people who would not normally be approved for loans — the "underserved" population, in the phrase often used — "allowed Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to count billions of dollars they invested in subprime loans as a public good that would foster affordable housing," according to the Washington Post.

In short, riskier loans were accepted as good loans by one of the key regulators of the housing markets.

Moreover, HUD was not just accepting subprime lending but pushing for more. After HUD became a regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 1992, these government-sponsored enterprises were set numerical goals — quotas — for what share of their lending was to be for "affordable housing" mortgages.

In practice, they were pushed to acquire more subprime mortgages.

This was important not only because of the risk to the assets of these two enterprises themselves but, because they are dominant forces in the housing market and major gigantic financial institutions, there were dangers to the whole financial market if things went wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose securities were widely held by other financial institutions on Wall Street and beyond. [/] The importance of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the housing markets is demonstrated by the magnitude of their mortgage guarantees, which total more than two trillion dollars. That is larger than the gross domestic product of all but four nations.

Ordinarily, financial markets would become less willing to invest in an enterprise with ever-growing risks. But, although Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are officially private, profit-making enterprises, their size and the federal government's involvement in both their creation and their ongoing operations led many investors to assume that the federal government would never allow them to fail.

Which is to say, the increasing riskiness of the assets of these two mortgage market giants was an increasing riskiness for the taxpayers, whether the taxpayers knew it or not.
[…] Moreover, "creative" accounting within Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac themselves concealed the full extent of the risk until independent audits turned up discrepancies at both places, which led to the resignation of the heads of both institutions.

[...] Next week: Alan Greenspan's concerns and how such concerns were dismissed by Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Chris Dodd and others who resisted reform of Fannie and Freddie. [My ellipses and emphasis]

Thank God for America!

Thanksgiving: The Great American Holy Day

Thanksgiving is not simply about giving thanks for what we have. It is about giving thanks for a country that has enabled us to earn what we have, keep what we have earned and live the way we live because of its great and enduring foundational strengths. These foundational strengths include our constitution, and our commitment to property rights and the rule of law. They include the respect for the individual citizen. These might seem like core American features, but it was never inevitable that we would have managed to keep them for 200 plus years.

Bottom line: Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for the reality of America and the fact that year after year for more than two centuries, we as a people have been able to depend on this country as a peaceful and promising place. [My emphasis]

From a Fox News .com article, Thanksgiving: The Great American Brand, more below:

Give greater thanks for greater blessings. Greater thanks for persistent, uninterrupted blessings. And give the greatest thanks for eternal blessings.

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. - Romans 1:21 KJV

More from a Fox News .com article, Thanksgiving: The Great American Brand:

Thanksgiving: The Great American Brand [/] John Tantillo - FOXNews.com - November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving is about giving thanks for the reality of America. [/] It is the one holiday that is most truly and powerfully ours as a nation. [/] July 4th, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veteran’s Day –these are all important holidays— but there is nothing quite as American as Thanksgiving Day. At times, unfortunately, I think we can lose sight of the very essence of Thanksgiving.

[...] Lincoln seemed to have this in mind when in the middle of the Civil War he invited the nation to set aside a day to give thanks (it wouldn’t become a Federal holiday until 1941). [/] The Civil War might seem a strange time to give thanks, but not if you are giving thanks for the very strengths that assured Lincoln that this country would endure past the tragedy and that its best days still lay ahead. Here’s part of what he wrote:

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict

Let’s face it. Gratitude is a kind of discipline. It requires perceiving the good by recognizing all that could have gone wrong, all that you should never take for granted. To be grateful is to make a positive choice.

In Lincoln’s invitation to give thanks, he made the point that as bad as things obviously were, the important things like order, the law and a peaceable society had been maintained and liberty, the lifeblood of our nation, had not been disrupted. These are no small things, but he knew that we could easily overlook them if we didn’t make the positive choice to see them and to celebrate them. [/] Recently a 1795 reeded-edge United States penny was sold for $1.3 million dollars at auction. Across the top of the penny the words “Liberty” are written. What other country’s citizens can look back over the past 200 plus years and identify with the ideal of liberty and know that the promise of liberty has remained uninterrupted? -- No European can. No Asian can. No African can. No South American or Central American can. – But an American can.

With all the talk of other nations eclipsing America with their rapid growth (i.e., China) or dynamic social policies (i.e., universal health care reform), it is easy to forget that these nations simply don’t have the incredible track record of stability, justice and just plain domestic peace that we do. [/] Every one of those countries has suffered horrible upheavals in their not-so-distant past in which members of their societies lost property and lost their lives because of tyranny. But if you lost your bounty in America in the last two hundred years, you couldn’t blame a corrupt state, a dictator or a communist ideology, it was almost always your own fault.

[...] The opportunity that Meb is talking about wasn’t his family’s opportunity because of how good and talented they were, it was the opportunity that America itself affords anyone who is here. [/] Meb and his family saw it clearly because they only knew too well what opportunity doesn’t look like. And when you know what opportunity doesn’t look like and then find it, you “make sure you use it.”

Our American uniqueness and this opportunity should never be a reason to become complacent as a nation, but it should be a reason to celebrate and above all be thankful. [/] Happy Thanksgiving! [...] [My ellipses and emphasis]

Abortion Debate Definition

t’s hard not to think of the late Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey, another Catholic Democrat. In a speech at the University of Notre Dame in 1995, he said: “Human life cannot be measured. It is the measure itself. The value of everything else is weighed against it. The abortion debate is not about how we shall live, but who shall live. And more than that, it’s about who we are.”

From a National Review .com article, Providence Provides.

The greater measure is the One who is both Son of God and Son of Man.

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7

Angelina Jolie Disses Barrack Obama!!!

From Us Weekly via AllahPundit

Barack Obama does not have Angelina Jolie’s seal of approval.

“She hates him,” a source close to the U.N. goodwill ambassador, 34, tells the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands now).

“She’s into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise,” adds the source…

“Angie isn’t Republican, but she thinks Obama is all smoke and mirrors,” the source says.

From a Hot Air .com article, Celebrity news of the day: Angelina Jolie thinks Obama’s a socialist phony.

Some of us had our suspicions but this settles the case for immediate impeachment.

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7

U. S. Government: Stupider Than Squirrels?!?

“Clever debt management strategy can’t completely substitute for prudent fiscal policy.”

“What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter,” said William H. Gross, managing director of the Pimco Group, the giant bond-management firm. “The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the ones left over from the last winter.”

From a New York Times article, Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government, more below:

Even the New York Times is taking notice of reality.

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7

More from a New York Times article, Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government:

PAYBACK TIME [/] Wave of Debt Payments Facing U.S. Government [/] By EDMUND L. ANDREWS [/] November 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — The United States government is financing its more than trillion-dollar-a-year borrowing with i.o.u.’s on terms that seem too good to be true. [/] But that happy situation, aided by ultralow interest rates, may not last much longer. [/] Treasury officials now face a trifecta of headaches: a mountain of new debt, a balloon of short-term borrowings that come due in the months ahead, and interest rates that are sure to climb back to normal as soon as the Federal Reserve decides that the emergency has passed.

Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today’s low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages.

[...] Americans now have to climb out of two deep holes: as debt-loaded consumers, whose personal wealth sank along with housing and stock prices; and as taxpayers, whose government debt has almost doubled in the last two years alone, just as costs tied to benefits for retiring baby boomers are set to explode.

[...] “The government is on teaser rates,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan group that advocates lower deficits. “We’re taking out a huge mortgage right now, but we won’t feel the pain until later.”

[...] The problem, many analysts say, is that record government deficits have arrived just as the long-feared explosion begins in spending on benefits under Medicare and Social Security. The nation’s oldest baby boomers are approaching 65, setting off what experts have warned for years will be a fiscal nightmare for the government.

“What a good country or a good squirrel should be doing is stashing away nuts for the winter,” said William H. Gross, managing director of the Pimco Group, the giant bond-management firm. “The United States is not only not saving nuts, it’s eating the ones left over from the last winter.”

[...] This month, the Treasury Department’s private-sector advisory committee on debt management warned of the risks ahead. [/] “Inflation, higher interest rate and rollover risk should be the primary concerns,” declared the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee, a group of market experts that provide guidance to the government, on Nov. 4. [/] “Clever debt management strategy,” the group said, “can’t completely substitute for prudent fiscal policy.” [My ellipses and emphasis]

Key Verse | Faith | 1 | First John 5:4-5 NKJV:

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Character of Justifying Faith: A, Begotten Of God

Our main topic is Faith. We capitalize “Faith” to signify that we are describing a very special kind of faith.

One special attribute of Faith is that it is begotten of God.

Our text is very clear about this. Particularly when examined closely.

The conclusion is plain: He that possesses Faith that is begotten-of-God has already achieved victory over the world.

Notes. “Whatever”, not “whoever” is plainly indicated by the Greek. “Overcomes” is closely related to “victory” in the Greek. “Has the victory over” may be substituted for “overcomes”, giving greater accuracy at the cost of wordiness. “Begotten” is a more literal translation than “born”. It covers the entire process from conception to birth. It is up to the reader to apply a narrower interpretation where it seems warranted.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; - First John 1:1 KJV

Hear, and thy soul shall live. - Isaiah 55:3 KJV

Tolerance Of Muslims Sometimes Unwise

American and Muslim Moral Values Not Always Congruent

Generally speaking, American non-Muslim fathers don’t run over their children with their cars and call it “honorable.” And American non-Muslim military personnel don’t intentionally kill their fellow soldiers. There is a pattern of very dangerous, deadly behavior with Muslims in America and around the world.

Americans must awaken to this reality, whether or not our President does. [My emphasis]

From a Town Hall .com article, "Tolerance" and the "Other" American Muslim Tragedy , more below:

The use of force and violence is limited by the Constitution --- and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I report and link. You decide. - BJon

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God. - Psalms 20:7

From a Town Hall .com article, "Tolerance" and the "Other" American Muslim Tragedy :

"Tolerance" and the "Other" American Muslim Tragedy [/] Austin Hill [/] Sunday, November 08, 2009

“... America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap, and share common principles -- principles of justice and progress; tolerance, and the dignity of all human beings...”

Those remarks were uttered by President Barack Obama on June 4th of this year. And I wish I could believe that they were accurate. [/] Obama was, of course, speaking at Cairo University, and making good on his campaign promise of “delivering a speech from the capitol of a Muslim nation.”

Yet, despite the immense power of Obama’s oratory skills (and his incredible confidence in his skills), he nonetheless appears to be merely human, and does not seem to possess the supernatural ability to “speak things into existence.” [/] Thus, Obama simply declaring that America and Islam “overlap,” and that Muslims and Americans share “common principles of justice and progress,” does not guarantee that this “sharing” and “overlapping” actually occur.

By now, the horrific profile of Army Major Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is widely known. And despite President Obama insisting that we must not “jump to conclusions” about this American Muslim man, the picture is still horrifying: an American soldier who openly disagreed with the policies of two American Presidents (the “Hawk” George W. Bush and the “Dove” Barack Obama), who complained about deployments, and made “outlandish statements” against his nation and its government, was nonetheless allowed to rise through the ranks of the U.S. Army.

The obvious question – the “elephant in the living room,” to use a term from the world of family psychology – is “why was this kind of behavior tolerated and apparently overlooked?” And the only obvious answer, at least at this point, is simply “because he is a Muslim.” [/] Our government and our President will make their “conclusions” when they make them. The rest of us who are private citizens and who want our unique American style of human freedom to continue, must begin communicating clearly, and honestly, about the Islamic problem in our midst. And that means getting beyond the “kid glove” approach we typically utilize in speaking about minority groups, and being willing to speak the truth about Muslims – even if that results in “hurt feelings” for some, or cries of "intolerance" from others.

The unwillingness (or perhaps it’s a matter of inability) to speak the truth on these matters is often painfully apparent in both local and national media. Several days before Major Hasan became a mass murderer, a series of misconstrued, soft-pedaled press conferences and news reports unfolded in Phoenix, Arizona about a man who murdered his own daughter by running over her with his Jeep suv. [/] [...] Immediately after the incident, the Peoria police department briefed the local media. And in what seemed to be an overarching attempt to avoid saying anything that may have cast the Muslim father in a bad light, it was explained that the motive for the crime appeared to have centered on the fact that the daughter was living in such a way that she was inconsistent with “her family’s values.” Shortly thereafter, the statewide Arizona Republic newspaper published a report entitled “Lifestyle May Have Put Woman In Hospital.”

A 20 year-old woman in Arizona who was in pursuit of a job, a college degree, and a husband of her own choosing was murdered by her own dad. Yet, law enforcement and media professionals, perhaps in an attempt to express “tolerance” or to show respect for the “diversity” of Islam, were suggesting that Noor’s choices and “lifestyle” were to blame for her death.

Generally speaking, American non-Muslim fathers don’t run over their children with their cars and call it “honorable.” And American non-Muslim military personnel don’t intentionally kill their fellow soldiers. There is a pattern of very dangerous, deadly behavior with Muslims in America and around the world.

Americans must awaken to this reality, whether or not our President does. [My ellipses and emphasis]