It’s not just that it’s disappeared from media headlines this year - shoved off by the credit crunch and natural disasters, for example. It can’t be ignored that 2007 came and went as another very warm year - the 7th hottest on record since 1850 according to the World Meteorological Organization.
But it wasn’t a record. In fact that was 1998, a full 10 years ago - the year of an exceptional El Nino, a Pacific weather pattern which heats the whole globe. So is global warming not living up to the hype?
Two weeks ago Leibniz Institute’s Noel Keenlyside stirred an academic hornet’s
nest by saying that we may have to wait longer - a decade or more - for another
peak year, because a natural weakening in ocean currents may be cooling sea
temperatures.
Many scientists flatly rejected the idea, saying Keenlyside had over-estimated the effect. But some pointed out that a recent switch in a weather pattern called the North Atlantic Oscillation could indeed cool temperatures globally.
Along with the gratuitous photograph of floating ice, this author actually covered a little of the other side. Well one paragraph anyway.
Meanwhile one or two doubters are already saying the present lull in warming
casts doubt on just how far manmade greenhouse gases are influencing the climate. MIT’s Richard Lindzen reckoned that if it was as bad as all that temperatures would be rising faster.
What do you think?
Well, what do you think? You could always comment here, there, or both.
Election 2008 is proving to be mildly entertaining and mostly painful. One can’t pass a television without the media showing some politician talking about change.
Well at least videos like this come around every so often to mask the pain with a little entertainment.
I’ve decided to join the crowd of those that have a copy of Fitna posted. I’ll wait to see if I too get some persuasion from the “Religion of Peace” to remove it.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the video as an “offensively anti-Islamic film”, “hate speech” and “incitement to violence.”
Following is the text of the statement by UN SG Ban Ki-moon on the film Fitna:
I condemn, in the strongest terms, the airing of Geert Wilders’ offensively anti-Islamic film. There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here. I acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of this film, and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility.
The United Nations is the centre of the world’s efforts to advance mutual respect, understanding and dialogue. We must also recognize that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between small minorities of extremists on different sides with a vested interest in stirring hostility and conflict.
It baffles the mind to think that pointing out that Islam has violent roots in the Quran is considered an “incitement to violence”. If it’s untrue then how is it inciting violence from such a “peaceful” religion?
It’s sad to see the LiveLeak video pulled due to threats of violence along with a few others around the net. However, it’s encouraging to see the growing number of sites that have it posted in spite of (or perhaps due to) the threats and censorship elsewhere.
On South Park Al Gore frantically tries to convince people that “Man-Bear-Pig” is real and out to get them - in real life the self appointed Global Savior peddles Man Made Global Warming & Catastrophe. However, unlike South Park, folks in the “real world” believe him. On Gore’s appearance in the upcoming edition of 60 Minutes he says that being skeptical is the same as believing the earth is flat.
those people are in such a tiny, tiny minority now with their point of view, they’re almost like the ones who still believe that the moon landing was staged in a movie lot in Arizona and those who believe the world is flat,
…That demeans them a little bit, but it’s not that far off,”
Todays video is from the “I want to see more Arabs and Muslims like this” file.
Egyptian Sociologist Sa’d Al-Din Ibrahim: The Tyrannical Arab Regimes Are Using Israel As a Pretext. I Am Grateful to America for Promoting Reform in the Middle East
Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian Sociologist Sa’d Al-Din Ibrahim, which was broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV on October 20, 2005
As Islam is increasingly being portrayed as an obscurantist and violent religion which promotes cruelty, terrorism, human rights violation and a hindrance to progress & modernization, the Muslim apologists - who sometimes go by the label “moderate Muslims” - are desperately trying to defend Islam as a religion of peace, progress and modernity. In their desperation, Muslim apologists are often making extraordinary claims such as Islam’s contribution to human civilization as a measure of Islam progressiveness.
Debate on Islamism and Liberalism in the Arab World Deteriorates to an Exchange of Curses
Following are excerpts from a debate on secularism and Islamism in the Middle East with Syrian author Nidhal Na’isa and Egyptian cleric Sheik Ibrahim Al-Khouli, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on October 30, 2007.
The video gets pulled but here it i. I will continue to maintain a copy of the video here for as long as someone is looking for it, the YouTube embed will soon be replaced with my own so I don’t have to worry about them pulling it from my account like they have done with so many others.
James Walton - A senior, veteran & business owner. Also a victim of crime and a person who has faced a life and death situation twice in three weeks and survived. Only to be attacked by a great example of what’s wrong with journalists and media these days.
Feel free to link to this page, I will maintain a copy of the video here even if YT pulls it.
(Update 10/20) Yep, they did pull it. No surprise there I guess.
But wait! It’s not new or improved, but it is back…
This section is all about the Private Military Contractors, particularly those operating in Iraq. Recently there has been a whole lot of attention on just a few incidents. The media coverage and mass overreaction to these incidents makes them seem like we have 100,000 deranged maniacs running around shooting Iraqi civilians for fun & profit. Of course that is ridiculous. Here you will find some information about the PMC’s and the job they do.
Never missing an opportunity to lash out at the Bush administration, the media will report just about anything even remotely critical of President Bush, his policies, or anything else that could possibly make him look bad. I first watched this story on NBC Nightly News on the 12th. Brian Williams and Jim Miklaszewski managed to squeeze two minutes complete with references to torture, pictures of prisoners in Abu Grhaib from the Washington Post, video of soldiers, and president Bush in meetings from about 14 seconds of remarks by Sanchez.
My first thought was simply that if the speech was so harsh, the news would have shown more of it. The headlines around the internet were typical, such as:
NY Times “Former Top General in Iraq Faults Bush Administration“
Belfast Telegraph “Former US commander criticises Iraqwar effort“
Washington Post “Former Iraq Commander Faults Bush” later changed to “Ex-Commander In Iraq Faults War Strategy“
MSNBC “Ex-commander of coalition forces in Iraq lambastes ‘failure of leadership’” & “Ex-Iraq forces commander rips U.S. leadership“
So what did Sanchez really say? A lot actually, most of which the media was less than willing to report. For example, the Washington Post creatively dissected the 3,412 word speech, carving out a mere 141 words, arranged in such a way that excedes even Michael Moore’s talent for quote wrangling. That’s a exiguous 4.13% starting 1,501 (44%) words into the speech. I wonder what else he might have had to say in those 3,271 words they left out? Continue reading ‘Sanchez - The Rest of The Speech’
Oh how quickly Americans, particularly liberals forget. I remember Al Gore giving a speech criticizing Bush Sr. for not going to war with Iraq - now I have found the video of that speech here.
Here’s Gore in 1992, telling America that George H. W. Bush needed to rush to war in taking out Iraq’s terrorism-linked, wmd-seeking Saddam Hussein. I’m pretty sure this substantially proves that liberals will blindly follow whatever supports their preconceived ideas, i.e “I support Gore because the media says he’s smarter,” when all along they support Gore regardless. The knee-jerk reaction is to always see what supports our ideas and to downplay that which contradicts them. You can’t reason with a bigot; no matter what the issue is, you’re darned if you do and you’re darned if you don’t.
From RightLinx.com
My response to that is this collection of quotes from a few people.
Since the original post I have found this video that does a pretty good job of getting the point across.
Years before George W. Bush became our president, most prominent Democrats wanted Saddam Hussein’s head on a platter.
Now those same Democrats say that George W. lied to us and Hussein never had any WMDs, and the only reason president Bush went into Iraq was for the oil.
The next time one of these “Demon-crats”, masquerading as a politician, start spewing their Verbal Weapons of Mass Destruction; send them a copy of this web page.
“One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line.” President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998
“If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.” President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998
“Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biologicalweapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face.” Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998
(Actually signed by: Carl Levin, Joe Lieberman, Frank R. Lautenberg, Dick Lugar, Kit Bond, Jon Kyl, Chris Dodd, John McCain, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Alfonse D’Amato, Bob Kerrey, Pete V. Domenici, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Mikulski.
Thomas Daschle, John Breaux, Tim Johnson, Daniel K. Inouye, Arlen Specter, James Inhofe, Strom Thurmond, Mary L. Landrieu, Wendell Ford, John F. Kerry, Chuck Grassley, Jesse Helms, Rick Santorum) ~ Malagent
“Hussein has … chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies.” Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999
“There is no doubt that… Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of a licit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies.”
Letter to President Bush, Signed by Joe Lieberman (D-CT), John McCain (Rino-AZ) and others, Dec. 5, 2001
“We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them.”
Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002
“Iraq’s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power.” Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
“I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force– if necessary– to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”
Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002
“We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction.” Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002
“[W]ithout question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime … He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation … And now he is miscalculating America’s response to his contin ued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction … So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real …” Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003
Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium.
As 
