Patterico's Pontifications

2/5/2010

Washington Braces for Snow

Filed under: Government — DRJ @ 4:11 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

An “historic” snowstorm is set to hit Washington, D.C., and the mid-Atlantic:

“Snowfall totals over northern of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and southern Pennsylvania and southwen New Jersey will tally well over a foot. Some places across northern Virginia, eastern Maryland and Delaware may be buried with between 2 and 3 feet of snow. The storm may reach the top 3 of all-time in the Washington, D.C., area and may rival the record of 28” from the “Knickerbocker” storm of 1922. Philadelphia may see up to 18″ of snow in the area. A 2-to-4-inch snow is possible for New York City on the storm’s northern fringe.”

Federal offices have already shut down and Washington could be at a standstill for days. Residents face long lines at grocery and home supply stores, while local wags are already calling it Snowmageddon.

The good news is that Congress can’t do anything for a few days.

— DRJ

127 Responses to “Washington Braces for Snow”

  1. I think someone needs to check their records. I lived in Laurel, MD about 12 miles north of DC in winter of 79-80, and we received 30 inches of snow at one time.

    peedoffamerican (7783d2)

  2. I mean it was pretty bad. Where I lived on Muirkirk Rd., we were all trying to find our cars in the parking lots due to the drifts. All that could be seen were roundish humps of snow. Thank goodness they had the privately contracted snowplows out all night keeping the roads clear.

    peedoffamerican (7783d2)

  3. So Al Gore is speaking where in the area this weekend?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  4. DRJ noted:

    The good news is that Congress can’t do anything for a few days.

    I guess that explains why they finally let Scott Brown take his seat in the Senate.

    The Dana who notices these things (474dfc)

  5. We’re supposed to get three to seven inches of snow out of this, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be toward the lower end of the estimates. Why? Because I stopped at Turkey Hill this morning and filled up the gas can for the snow blower! With the snow blower ready, I won’t need it; if it wasn’t ready, we’d get buried.

    The optimistic Dana (474dfc)

  6. Wise words. I’ve long thought I can make it rain by getting my car washed.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  7. I am driving home in a blizzard in the dark. I left Columbus, OH 4 hours ago, and have 2-3 to go. It normally takes 3 hours. F*ck algore.

    JD (00db08)

  8. Godspeed, JD, as you proceed at snail speed.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  9. JD: Are you driving and blackberrying? It is a good thing you are so judgemental of others’ behaviors when you are endangering the lives of every driver you pass as you’re not paying attention in your coffin on wheels. Moron.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  10. I remember a snowstorm in Chicago in 1967 (I think it was) in which my father couldn’t find his car for a week. He told us about living in Cadillac Michigan in the 1920s when snow was to the roofs of stores in town. They would plow the street and tunnel to the store front doors.

    I’m content to watch it in the mountains now although Big Bear was cut off for a few days by the last storm here. They were out of fuel and food for a couple of days. It was a big ski weekend but there was no food or gas to get home so the highway patrol closed the road.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  11. Does intelltrollology have anything useful to say ?

    Mike K (2cf494)

  12. Battle brewing over AB 32

    California’s pioneering climate change law, AB32, is facing a battle this election season.

    Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue—among whose biggest financial backers in 2008 were real estate developers, paper products companies, and electric utilities—has announced that he will begin collecting signatures to put a measure on the 2010 ballot to suspend the law. (Logue says no fossil fuel groups are behind the move. – Papertiger says, “why not? We just had a historic decision passed down by the SC exactly so we can get fossil fuel money on our side. When have the statists ever shyed away from using fossil fuel money for their perverted purposes?”)

    Logue’s prop. would block implementation of AB32 until the unemployment rate drops below 5.5 percent, roughly where it was at the beginning of 2008.

    papertiger (0b82c2)

  13. I stopped for gas, idiot. And a meal. But don’t let that get in the way of your asshattery.

    JD (00db08)

  14. So Al Gore is speaking where in the area this weekend?

    Yeah, I know somebody would beat me to it.

    Subotai (3cf1a3)

  15. Mike K., no. Intelliology does not. Especially not after having been shown to be abject liar recently.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  16. http://www.suspendab32.org/

    We need 433,971 signatures to put AB 32 to an honest up or down vote in California.

    But let’s get an even 500,000 just to be sure.
    You know how the Greenpeace trolls are with petitions.

    Get your banner ad and widget here.
    http://www.suspendab32.org/banners.htm

    papertiger (0b82c2)

  17. 13.I stopped for gas, idiot. And a meal. But don’t let that get in the way of your asshattery.

    Comment by JD — 2/5/2010 @ 4:56 pm

    Don’t you worry your empty little head about it. I will definitely not let it get in my way.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  18. If British public opinion is any indication, that initiative has a good chance of passing.
    Only 26 percent of Brits surveyed for the BBC now say climate change is largely man-made.
    In November 2009, a similar poll by Populus – commissioned by the Times newspaper – showed that 41% agreed that climate change was happening and it was largely the result of human activities.

    Look for polls in the U.S. to indicate growing disbelief in human-caused global warming.

    Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc)

  19. Oh, there is no doubt that your asshattery will continue. It is who you are.

    JD (00db08)

  20. JD,
    It is not worth responding to.

    Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc)

  21. I should be jailed, and am driving a coffin. You are a hateful little cur, aren’t you?

    JD (00db08)

  22. I know, Bradley. Back out into all of this algore global warming.

    JD (00db08)

  23. Bradley – rather, look for polls in the US indicating better understanding of science and scientific method and analysis … same result, from understanding rather than from belief or disbelief …

    AGW (now known as “Climate Change”) is the Creationism version of “Climate Science” …

    SPQR #3 and Subotai #14 – we were discussing that on another blog yesterday … (grin)

    Alasdair (e7cb73)

  24. Alasdair, the Al Gore Effect has better statistical support than MBH ’98.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  25. Global climate change doesn’t exist because it is snowing outside. I love when this argument is attempted by these cotten-headed ninnymuggins who pretend to be so wise in the ways of science.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  26. Intelliology, since AGW adherents have used every heat spell as a proof of warming, your continued ignorance of the topic is noted.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  27. I love it when these large storms hit DC, and all of the agencies have to pull out their “critical manning” lists to alert the 10-15% of their personnel that are needed to show up and keep the show playing.
    Got to tell you, a President who really wanted to put a crimp on the expanding Leviathan would mandate that those lists are in effect every day, and RIF the excess.

    AD - RtR/OS! (9f8017)

  28. Nice broad generalization, SPQR. Nicely played. I’ll bet two can play at that game. All George W. Bush voters in 2004 believed that Saddam was responsible for 9/11. I like this game.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  29. Well, there’s more truth to your lie, than there is in AGW.

    AD - RtR/OS! (9f8017)

  30. An “historic” snowstorm is set to hit California, and the global warming movement:

    A proposed initiative to suspend California’s landmark legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emission was cleared by the secretary of state’s office late Wednesday to begin collecting signatures.

    A creator of the initiative, Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Linda, said he has commitments of $600,000 from business interests for a campaign to qualify the measure for the ballot.

    The initiative would suspend implementation of Assembly Bill 32, which called for reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

    Logue and other opponents have argued that AB 32 would be extremely costly to businesses and take a heavy toll on the state’s economy.
    The proposed initiative would suspend the state’s greenhouse-gas reduction requirements until California’s unemployment rate, currently above 12 percent, falls to 5.5 percent or less for four consecutive quarters.

    To qualify for the November ballot, backers of the initiative must collect 433,971 voter signatures by June 24.

    CARB will be shutdown and the envirolobby’s political power will be brought to a standstill for years.
    Long suffering state residents waiting in unemployment lines will get relief, while local wags are already calling it Climageddon.

    The good news is the Assembly, Gore, and Arnold, can’t do anything about this.

    papertiger (950a5b)

  31. SPQR – Don’t forget hurricanes. Those global warming alarmists think it causes stronger and more frequent hurricanes!!!!11ty!!!!

    I wish their opinions weren’t stifled so often!

    daleyrocks (718861)

  32. Does intelltrollology have anything useful to say ?

    No.

    Any form of arguments or counter-points has been largely abandoned by her.

    Her positions are weak. All she has left are insults and her caustic personality, along with a propensity toward jumping to conclusions. Oh, and she likes fairy-tales.

    Pons Asinorum (ffeb5e)

  33. daleyrocks, in fact, Intelliology falsely claimed that the severity and damage of hurricanes had increased with global warming in a thread where we showed Intelliology’s incompetence.

    Which was a different thread from the one where we showed Intelliology was a brazen liar.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  34. I hope Obama calls the people in D.C. pussies again this year for not being able to deal with a little harsh weather. He’s so endearing that way, as he keeps his thermostat at 80 degrees in an environmentally responsible manner.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  35. Intelliology, the practice of heralding every cold spell as the end of AGW began as a form of ridicule because of the practice of AGW alarmists to claim every hot spell as proof of global warming.

    That this goes over your head surprise me not at all. Its of a kind of your incompetence.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  36. You mean it’s an actual “her?” Comes across more like a frustrated Tranny, or some other kind of hybrid asexual Shemale. Either way it doesn’t get any, that much is assured by the responses – the projection is quite strident.

    Dmac (539341)

  37. SPQR – I know, I brought it up as a reminder. The AGW folks claimed Katrina, Rita and Wilma were each caused by global warming so the little asshat has that to look back on when people mock the claims of the alarmists by claiming a snow storm is a sign of a trend. He’s too thick to understand what’s going on.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  38. BTW, 20 inches of snow? We got that about 12 years ago, last month downtown Chicago got 12 inches – my back still hurts from that one.

    What a bunch of wussies! (grin)

    Dmac (539341)

  39. daleyrocks, too thick? I thought so, but the “A Special White House” thread showed that Intelliology was a brazen liar. So I’ve abandoned the idea that Intelliology’s false claims and faux ignorance are unintentional.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  40. Global climate change doesn’t exist because it is
    snowing outside.

    The Earths climate has been constantly “changing” for the past four billion years and will undoubtedly continue to change for the next few billion. So it takes dishonesty of a leftist degree to pretend that it’s a big deal that the climate is “changing”.

    Subotai (a1180d)

  41. Hey, Intelliology? Your university degree is in what? And your science courses taken were?

    I’m curious, so that we can all start quizzing you, so that you can demonstrate that you aren’t…what was it? Oh, yes:

    “… a cotten (is that like “cotton”?) headed ninnymuggin pretending to be wise in the ways of science..”

    What is it with these trolls and such obvious projection?

    Such a freaking troll. It’s sad, really.

    Eric Blair (c8876d)

  42. Arnold is changing tone a bit.

    “So the environmentalists so many times are a little bit confused about that and they are confused because they want to have renewable energy but then when it comes to the permitting process, of getting that renewable energy and building the solar plants, they are then in the way. And they then talk about, ‘You cannot go and destroy this squirrel.’

    “I say, ‘What squirrel? I was out there, I didn’t see a squirrel.’

    “They say, ‘Well, there could be a squirrel coming very soon.’

    “So I say, ‘But there’s no squirrel there right now.’

    ” ‘But you’ve got to protect things that could be there.’

    “So I say we can’t do that. I mean, how can you be competitive if you go and start worrying about the squirrel that doesn’t exist? And they talk about a snake and that the horn and the sheep and the this and the that and all those kind of things. And I’m an environmentalist. I want to protect the environment. That’s why I’m interested in building renewable energy. But sometimes people become fanatics and they go overboard.”

    From the Sac Bee Capitol Alert.

    papertiger (950a5b)

  43. “Back out into all of this algore global warming.”

    Inevitably someone comes up with this idiocy. Usually it is someone who considers themselves quite knowledgeable on global warming issues.

    imdw (216b56)

  44. You mean it’s an actual “her?”

    No idea Dmac, but I refer to Intelliology as a her because of a statement she made to JD. It did not strike me as something a man would say:

    to JD: “You’re why men build prisons.”

    I may be mistaken, but she has not corrected me.

    Pons Asinorum (ffeb5e)

  45. Good job of showing your usual trollery, imdw.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  46. Proof of Global Warming — it is conspiring with the Dems to stop Scott Brown from voting on health care!!

    :oP

    OBloodyhell (aacc3d)

  47. Because the totals are supposed to be higher this go around and because there was already snow on the ground I think this snow should be Snowpocalypse. The one in December with 21 inches was Snowmaggedon. At least here in PG County where we shoot your dogs but know better than to bring a gun to a snowball fight. But hey, who’s keeping track.

    I’ve got some pictures up of my backyard in the midst of The Accumulation!!!!

    We’ve had two six inch snows in a row, which would normally be totally awesome snow for DC. Now we’ve got FEET of snow. FEET. Multiple FEET. In ONE WINTER!

    In other news, Tucker Carlson is subhosting for Sean Hannity to I can watch the 9 o’clock hour on FNC without grinding my teeth!

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  48. > Does intelltrollology have anything useful to say ?

    Did you REALLY just ask such a silly question?

    OBloodyhell (aacc3d)

  49. #

    Does intelltrollology have anything useful to say ?

    Comment by Mike K — 2/5/2010 @ 4:53 pm

    –No. He’s just got elected to the Nanny State Legislature. Give the guy a break though… some people are just born believing they have the God given right to make false accusations and tell the world how to live. He’ll grow up someday maybe….

    DaveinPhoenix (2bd6c3)

  50. “The good news is that Congress can’t do anything for a few days.”

    Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

    generalMalaise (55c598)

  51. “Does intelltrollology have anything useful to say?”

    He says nothing of consequence, like his Fearless Leader.

    generalMalaise (55c598)

  52. Comment by Eric Blair — 2/5/2010 @ 5:50 pm

    I have a very rich background in science.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  53. Inevitably someone comes up with this idiocy. Usually it is someone who considers themselves quite knowledgeable on global warming issues.

    So we can assume that you’re going to enthrall us with your awesome scientific knowledge, replete with recent studies proving your thesis, and those studies naturally were peer – reviewed, yes?

    Let’s see it.

    Dmac (539341)

  54. He or she is just a kid. At least I hope so, based on the posts.

    Eric Blair (e1af45)

  55. Really? Define “heat island” first. Then “adiabatic.”. We can go from there.

    You are just a kid. If not, prove yourself. Troll.

    Eric Blair (e1af45)

  56. Yeah, rich, that’s why you could not tell the difference between an absolute value and a rate of change, Intelliology.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  57. “You’re why men build prisons.”

    Bet you say that to all of the little girls just before you drop their cold, lifeless bodies into the icy waters of the nearest lake, intelliproctology..

    GeneralMalaise (55c598)

  58. They usually are, Eric.

    Mike K (2cf494)

  59. 56.Yeah, rich, that’s why you could not tell the difference between an absolute value and a rate of change, Intelliology.

    Comment by SPQR — 2/5/2010 @ 6:56 pm

    I provided data about both of those items. Bruised ego, you have.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  60. @52 Intelliology — I have a very rich background in science.

    Yeah it shows. Those darn rates of change !!

    (although there were many examples of your “very rich background in science”, that exchange with SPQR was my favorite from that thread).

    Why is it that people who have advance science degrees and training are more than happy to talk about their specific field, but those who claim to have it are almost always vague?

    Pons Asinorum (ffeb5e)

  61. No, Intelliology, I assure you that my ego is not bruised. Because you beclowned yourself with little goading.

    Because you really don’t have any command of the topic at all.

    Next, you’ll be linking another “science” article from a JFK conspiracy website. It will be hilarious.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  62. “I have a very rich background in science.”

    Intelliology – Did you get it all from those Truther websites?

    daleyrocks (718861)

  63. I have a very rich background in science.

    Then stop avoiding the issue and discuss it at length right here, right now. No more dodging and weaving – let’s have it, all of it.

    And no more “I provided it previously blah, blah, blah.” Should be quite easy for a Sooooper Genius like yourself to call it up in a millisecond, yes?

    Dmac (539341)

  64. Global warming is 500,000 signatures away from the ultimate peer review.

    What do you believe?

    The media will not be televising this event.

    We need publicity. We need it now.
    In a week the big players, the WWF’s and Sierra Clubs, will have framed the debate and their propaganda mills will be churning away on all cylinders.

    So what are you gonna do? Curl up in the fetal position and hold your personal co2 pollution?

    papertiger (0b82c2)

  65. We’re going to have to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town.

    Now excuse me, I’ve got to get back to my orchids.

    B. Soetero, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  66. Oops, there goes India. Guess they’re not believers anymore.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7157590/India-forms-new-climate-change-body.html

    Pons Asinorum (ffeb5e)

  67. “State Department Office Remain Open Despite Snowstorm – Pedestrians Hardest Hit”

    w3bgrrl (12f86d)

  68. I’d like Intelliology to share with us his/her vast knowledge on how that evil man-released CO2 is melting Himalayan glaciers.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  69. Its mendoucheity is unprecedented. Not long until the twoofer LIHOP and BDS comes spewing out.

    JD (9188e9)

  70. What’s amazing is how fast the whole global warming movement has been discredited as a fraud. Every time the alarmists say “… okay, that one study was wrong, but the science is still solid,” yet another supposedly solid study is shot full of holes.

    And the IPCC and its sex novelist leader is a gift that just keeps on giving.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  71. Yeah it shows. Those darn rates of change !!

    OMFG, the coward who ran away after getting atomic wedgied on the earlier GW thread actually comes back days later to continue his tilting at windmills, even after refusing to answer any of the direct questions asked of it. I had already dropped that thread when it came slithering back to continue it’s inanity. Thanks for the link – unreal.

    Dmac (539341)

  72. Back under its bridge…

    GeneralMalaise (55c598)

  73. Farewell, Rumpleforeskin!

    GeneralMalaise (55c598)

  74. Regarding the Himalayan glaciers supposedly being destroyed by CO2 emissions, a study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory tells a different tale.

    The fact that glaciers in the Himalayan mountains are thinning is not disputed. However, few researchers have attempted to rigorously examine and quantify the causes. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientist Surabi Menon set out to isolate the impacts of the most commonly blamed culprit—greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide—from other particles in the air that may be causing the melting. Menon and her collaborators found that airborne black carbon aerosols, or soot, from India is a major contributor to the decline in snow and ice cover on the glaciers.

    “Our simulations showed greenhouse gases alone are not nearly enough to be responsible for the snow melt,” says Menon, a physicist and staff scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division. “Most of the change in snow and ice cover—about 90 percent—is from aerosols. Black carbon alone contributes at least 30 percent of this sum.”

    This is not the first study to point out the role of aerosols, but it appears to be the most definitive on the subject. If about 90 percent of increased glacier and snow melt is aerosols, that leaves just 10 percent that could be possibly caused by greenhouse gases.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  75. Bradley:

    What’s amazing is how fast the whole global warming movement has been discredited as a fraud.

    Very true. It must have been a very shaky foundation to go so quickly.

    And please tell your Brother Barry Soetero that his orchid comment was quite funny, although he probably didn’t mean it that way.

    DRJ (84a0c3)

  76. DRJ,
    I had no idea that my brethren in the media had been so mind-numbingly stupid/biased/lazy that no one did the basic investigation that is now taking place.

    If anyone wants to use this global warming fraud as evidence that the media is not only useless but harmful, I would have to agree. People who trusted the media on global warming got negative knowledge.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  77. Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R.:

    People who trusted the media on global warming got negative knowledge.

    I think that applies to more than just the subject of global warming.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  78. EW1(SG),
    I think that applies to more than just the subject of global warming.

    Sadly, Yes!

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  79. I have a very rich background in science.

    I just have absolutely no idea what to make of that statement.

    After having worked for more than a decade at one of the premier research laboratories in the country, I wouldn’t be so vain as to describe myself that way: I am very aware that my role as an engineer was not as a scientist and does not qualify me to claim a “very rich” background in science. My primary area of expertise was in collecting data, and being able to describe its limitations to the scientists who did sciency stuff with it.

    That our significantly dishonest and demonstrably ignorant troll would lay claim to such a background leads me to wonder if it perhaps has a background in the pastry sciences…a demonstrated facility with fondant, perhaps. Or maybe a silver spoon heritage funded by an earlier generation, say a DuPont?

    In any case, I doubt it has ever used an Erlenmeyer flask for anything but tippling at a frat party, if it has handled one at all.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  80. I don’t think our little friend is much past a sophomore in college, EW.

    Eric Blair (c2a27d)

  81. I tend to agree.

    On another note entirely, one of drawbacks of living in a small, fiscally responsible town is having to get up very early to go blasting around town in the snow. One of the nice things about living in the Seattle area was that a snowstorm would leave the roads pretty much deserted, since it’s sufficiently rare to have snow that requires the roads to be cleared. But here, the damn town trucks are out late and early, meaning that it’s awfully hard to get snowed in. 🙁

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  82. EW, I lived in Seattle for awhile, too. I hated leaving my car at the top of the hill so I could get out the next day. I like living in a flat, warm place now.

    Virtual Insanity (d93c26)

  83. It’s my dislike of hot weather, dating back years, that is a major reason I sensed AGW was a bunch of crap. That’s because I’ve often looked at weather charts and when noting an approaching high pressure system, which is what causes heat, thought of that phenomenon as similar to the rising of a big, smelly armpit.

    AGW fanatics have yet to correlate the role of carbon dioxide and its effect on the “H” commonly seen on a typical weather chart.

    Also, nothing makes me more pissed than when the fools who pray at the altar of global warming choose to live in warm-weather climates. I’m looking at you, John McCain, resident of friggin’ Arizona.

    Mark (411533)

  84. “I have a very rich background in science.”

    Mummy & Daddums cook meth for a living and are doing quite well, they just haven’t been sent to “grad” school yet.

    AD - RtR/OS! (9f8017)

  85. Comment by EW1(SG) — 2/5/2010 @ 9:14 pm

    Well then I guess my background beats yours.

    Intelliology (00d844)

  86. intelliogoly or something said:

    “cotten-headed ninnymuggins who pretend to be so wise in the ways of science.”

    I’m thinking Norman Borlaug would have spelled it “cotton,” but you’re the science guy.

    Too bad about the Himalayan glaciers, though. Gone in 2035. We knew them well.

    I’m also tired of the worn-out religious argument of the climate crowd pretending that “settled science” means people can’t ask questions.

    Everyone who comments here is smart enough to know that weather doesn’t equal climate. And everything I heard about climate change thirty years ago has yet come to pass and I suspect will not come to pass in the next thirty.

    Does that mean we shouldn’t reasonably do everything we can to reduce pollution? Of course not. And I’ll put my “green” bonafides up against any comer. Not because I’m right, but because it makes sense to me.

    Ag80 (1592cc)

  87. Well then I guess my background beats yours.

    Comment by Intelliology

    It’s really funny how insecure this one is. Even his moniker attempts to compensate for his sense of inadequacy.

    We get it, intell, you want us to know you are really smart. Because you aren’t confident your comments make that clear. And you’re right, they simply don’t.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  88. “Well then I guess my background beats yours.

    Comment by Intelliology”

    I needed a good laugh before bedtime.

    daleyrocks (718861)

  89. Well, if we are guessing at science backgrounds and their richness, I suppose those two classes I took as a sophomore on Science-Fiction Literature would totally qualify me as having a RICH sciencefiction background.

    Therefore,with awed solemnity and with great authority I declare that the “science” in AGW theory is bankrupt. My consensus with myself is final.

    Now, if someone can just pass me a lightsaber so I can clear a path to my car, I’d be grateful.

    Also, if someone could please talk me through how a “consensus” has jack-doodly-squat to do with actual science, I’d be grateful. Dealing effectively with consensi was not part of the curriculum while I was studying Medieval History with a Sciencefiction minor. Maybe I should have taken those religious studies classes after all. You know, the ones that deal with cults. kthnxbai

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  90. Vivian,

    What part of PG county do you live in? I lived in Laurel 1979-1981 and then moved to Severn near Ft. Meade for about another year.

    peedoffamerican (7783d2)

  91. #84 AD – RtR/OS!:

    Mummy & Daddums cook meth

    ROTFLMAO!

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  92. #86 Ag80:

    Not because I’m right, but because it makes sense to me.

    There is a big difference between being sensible, and turning good practice into a religious experience. Something the ever so earnest troll may never discern, because you can’t fix stupid.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  93. I think that “ninnymuggin” is a great new name for Little Boy Troll. I think it is hysterical how often he displays the very traits he claims to abhore. In this case, he had his talking points about GW. But he doesn’t understand anything at all about it. Many of the folks posting here have backgrounds in science or engineering. Others take the time to look beyond political posturing. I think that makes trollish types feel inadequate.

    Eric Blair (6c11e5)

  94. ^bah, I laugh at your silly professional qualifications and degrees of knowledge – you’re just not rich enough in your scientific background to opine on GW.

    If anyone wants to use this global warming fraud as evidence that the media is not only useless but harmful, I would have to agree. People who trusted the media on global warming got negative knowledge.

    Yes, but unlike your media brethren, you always kept your mind open to the possibility that the GW claims could be incorrect, even though you had every reason to believe that the studies you had reviewed were legit. So kudos to you and a big wazoo to people like that NYT hack who sent secret missives to his best pals at the IPPC and NASA, all in order to perpetuate the cover – up.

    Also, Michael Crichton’s a genius – I only wish he had lived long enough to see his work vindicated. The amount of crap he took after that book was published was unprecedented, shame on his fraudulent detractors.

    Dmac (539341)

  95. That earlier missive was directed at EW1(SG), but it goes double for you, Eric!

    And the inadequacy you talk about may have more to do with another type of failing, and I’m not just talking about intellectual capacity. After all, would anyone who was actually accomplished really spend all this time and effort on a blog that obviously is above their cognitive level? Geez, get a job, go outside, kiss a girl (or a boy) for once in your life.

    Dmac (539341)

  96. It turned out that I was right: three inches, as measured at the Official Jim Thorpe Measuring Station. 🙂

    I shoveled the sidewalk, and never went to the effort to get out the snowblower.

    The clairvoyant Dana (474dfc)

  97. AD – RtR/OS! wrote:

    Got to tell you, a President who really wanted to put a crimp on the expanding Leviathan would mandate that those lists are in effect every day, and RIF the excess.

    And we would find such a President where? And I don’t mean ask about just this current Administration.

    Or century.

    The disappointed Dana (474dfc)

  98. #94 Dmac:

    ^bah, I laugh at your silly professional qualifications and degrees of knowledge – you’re just not rich enough in your scientific background to opine on GW.

    Agreed, which is why I generally try to avoid just that.

    The data, though, gives me some heartburn.

    EW1(SG) (edc268)

  99. Dmac, I don’t know if I have told you this story. In 2004, I was visiting the University of Wisconsin at Madison, giving a research seminar. I was there for a couple of days, and got to meet some very nice and smart people.

    I was in one professor’s—a very sharp and nice lady—office, and she saw that I had a copy of “State of Fear” by Crichton in my book bag.

    “Why do you have that nonsense?” she asked me.

    I replied that it had just been released, and I had picked it up in the airport to see what the hullabaloo was about. Then I asked if she had read it, since seemed to have such strong feelings about it. I wanted to know what she thought of the book’s contents.

    “No,” she replied, “but I read the New York Times article about it.”

    I didn’t argue with her. But it is funny how anti-authoritarians seem to bow to some kinds of authority, eh?

    Michael Crichton had good things and bad things about him, like everyone else. But his afterword to “State of Fear” was very well done.

    And I think Dr. K. has recommended this, but it is worth another read:

    http://www.michaelcrichton.net/speech-whyspeculate.html

    Here is the “money quotee”:

    “….Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

    In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know. …”

    That describes how I feel about the MSM and most politicians, precisely.

    And this, too, about AGW:

    http://michaelcrichton.com/speech-ourenvironmentalfuture.html

    It won’t matter to trolls, but what would?

    Eric Blair (c2a27d)

  100. Late to the party but, Intelli’s comment, very rich background definitely tells me it’s a female or someone who wants to be a female. Don’t think men would say such a thing.

    My son lives near York, PA, and yesterday they were saying it was going to be really bad. Will be interesting to hear how really bad it was.

    PatAZ (9d1bb3)

  101. We’ve got at least 2 feet here in Annapolis! It’s gorgeous! And it makes a great cocktail!

    Cat Martini (1f59f3)

  102. […] PDRTJS_settings_658642_post_1109 = { "id" : "658642", "unique_id" : "wp-post-1109", "title" : "Liquid+Lunch", "item_id" : "_post_1109", "permalink" : "http%3A%2F%2Fthedrunkreport.net%2F2010%2F02%2F06%2Fliquid-lunch-30%2F" } Snowed in here in MD…BLIZZARD 2010…this Cat loves playing in the snow!  (Patterico’s Pontifications) […]

    Liquid Lunch « The Drunk Report (220927)

  103. EB,
    Crichton was more right than I suspected at the time. And he was dead-on right about journalism. There is a great example of such invincible ignorance from one Margot Roosevelt, an environmental reporter propagandist in the Los Angeles Times, about the initiative to suspend California’s ridiculous greenhouse gas law.

    The effort to ignite a revolt in the Golden State comes as years of industry-backed campaigns have sown doubts about the scientific consensus behind global warming and as the public has become more concerned about the economy.

    Not a word about Climategate and the other examples of false or fraudulent scence. It’s just those “industry-backed campaigns”.

    Environmental shills like that who masquerade as reporters are even more dangerous than the rest of the pack.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  104. I’ve been arguing skeptically about AGW for a dozen years and I’ve yet to see any checks from those mythical “industry-backed campaigns”.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  105. We’ve got more than 2 feet now. I’ve enjoyed watching the heaviest bands of snow get whipped back around to hit us a second time.

    I’m also actually enjoying the orgiastic nature of the reporting on snOMG, Snowtorious B.I.G., Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon here in the DC area. So fun. More pictures of the snow on my blog.

    I admit that I am very much enjoying watching the AGW shibboleths fall, one after the other. It started with that report on Mt. Kilimanjaro and continues with, oh, everything. Now we know that we’ve been fed a platter of crap sandwiches based on unreliable thermometer readings in China, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Fun article to read on the subject.

    Vivian Louise (643333)

  106. Bradley: I well remember your skepticism of Crichton, and I admire how you are willing to reconsider issues. It’s the mark of intellectual honesty; too many people get their egos tied up in that kind of thing.

    As I wrote, Crichton had good things and bad things about him. But he was right to be skeptical of this subject. And the ironic part is how un-skeptical he was of other issues!

    The Walt Whitman quote comes to mind.

    Eric Blair (c2a27d)

  107. Eric Blair,
    I wish Crichton were still alive, so I could let him tell me, “I told you so.”

    Again, I am still gobsmacked at how many gross errors were uncritically swallowed by our wonderful press, the Guardians of Democracy®.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  108. Brother Fikes. Thanks for the link to the Margot Roosevelt story.

    That same phrase caught my eye immediately.
    Bald faced lie.

    If only there were a blogger that specialised in pointing out bald faced lies and propaganda by the LATimes.

    Hey! Isn’t there someone like that?

    I know there use to be.

    papertiger (4d1249)

  109. The thing I admired most about MC, Bradley, is that he genuinely didn’t care if people disagreed with him. If they hadn’t done their homework, he would remind them.

    It was from a talk by MC that I got my “reminder to students” line. A audience member got all agitated with him during the speech, and tried to heckle him. MC–who was about 6 feet 9 inches tall, just grinned down at him.

    “So,” he said, “can you tell me how your toaster ‘knows’ to spring up when it does?”

    The heckler just goggled at MC, who nodded.

    “I thought so. Yet you also think that you can understand climate? I am being skeptical; you are taking things on faith.”

    I use that in the classroom (softened a great deal) when students get overly sure of themselves. I wish it was on YouTube.

    I doubt MC would say “I told you so” to you, if he were alive today. Instead, he would be delighted to discuss his concerns about the practice of science in this case.

    Eric Blair (c2a27d)

  110. I think Margot has been adding to the post since it first appeared.

    As evidence, compare and contrast with this copy from the Fresno Bee.
    http://www.fresnobee.com/green/story/1811153.html

    papertiger (4d1249)

  111. The effort to ignite a revolt in the Golden State comes as years of industry-backed campaigns have sown doubts about the scientific consensus behind global warming and as the public has become more concerned about the economy..

    -Versus later in the story –

    Suspending AB 32 “would be the real job-killer,” said Susan Frank of the California Business Alliance for a Green Economy. “The mere passage of AB 32 has generated green job growth even as the rest of the economy has contracted.” A December study by Next 10, a San Francisco-based think tank, found that jobs in California green businesses grew 36% from 1995 to 2008, while total employment expanded only 13%.

    Total employment in California increased 13%! Who knew?
    Why have they been keeping this great news a secret? And where are all these people standing on the corner by the freeway begging for a handout coming from?
    Must be imports – what with this rosie job market and all.

    papertiger (4d1249)

  112. That “green jobs” horse manure has been well-debunked. But even if it was true, the 13% job growth in California’s economy in 13 years is the real embarrassment.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  113. When I was a kid growing up in MT during the mid 70’s, winter time was cold. Not “kinda” or “sorta”, but bitterly cold. Even the old-timers were saying they hadn’t really seen such cold (that in itself was a bit scary, because the old-timers had stories about everything, especially bad weather).

    One day at school, during a particularly bone-jarring cold snap (they ne-ver cancel school in MT, well rarely, maybe), we students were talking about it. That is when the smartest kid in the class (a real science nerd who rarely spoke) said, “It’s because we are entering an ice age”.

    Stunned silence and upon arriving home I asked my parents about it: “Yep,” they said “it’s in all the news reports — oh, don’t forget to take out the trash.”

    (Great thing about my parents, the world is about to end as we know it, but my chores will survive).

    Fast forward to adulthood: Global Warming; you’d have thought I would have learned my lesson. But no, Global Warming (and more specifically, Anthropogenic Global Warming) gave me considerable pause. I mean what are the chances all those scientists were wrong, after all, they believed AGW was likely (and in some cases, they were vehemently certain; complete with data!).

    I was a bit more skeptical, but was prepared to accept the findings of AGW. A few years ago, the theory started falling apart, and then came the deceit. As a scientific theory AGW is dead, but now is evolving into a belief system. Indeed, some of its followers have commented on this thread (although, only a couple — that such still believe, is truly fascinating, but perhaps a subject for another thread).

    Maybe it is time to study climate and the factors that influence it without the need to interject personal philosophies and weigh political advantages. Look at everything (anthropogenic and otherwise), but not confuse climate science with environmentalism (which in turn should not be confused with liberal dogma).

    Not that the devoted AGW follower has to worry, as this is unlikely to happen in the US as long as President Obama has anything to say about it.

    Pons Asinorum (f6829b)

  114. Oh my goodness. That Bee story I linked in #110 has a page two. My bad.

    Someone explain to me the need for pages in an online report?

    Is it that they run short of bits?

    papertiger (ef009a)

  115. Papertiger, good question.

    I was thinking maybe for printing purposes, but when I did a “print preview”, page-one was blank and the entire story fit on page-two.

    Go figure.

    Pons Asinorum (f6829b)

  116. Hey, I got 18 inches of “global warming ash” outside right now.

    Neo (7830e6)

  117. Global Warming; you’d have thought I would have learned my lesson.

    Just always keep in mind that the seasons (ie, spring, summer, fall and winter) are due to the amount of energy from the sun falling on earth due to the planet’s tilt. The sun. The tilt of earth. The energy of the sun falling upon earth.

    As for carbon dioxide? Oh, that’s a substance we humans exhale every few seconds. If we didn’t, we’d all be dead.

    And when observing hot weather — particularly “record high!” temperatures, not to mention drought — always observe the presence of high-pressure systems floating in the atmosphere, sort of like (since I dislike hot weather) a big fat butt hovering over Earth.

    Mark (411533)

  118. You deniers don’t want to admit that the mere fact that it’s a blizzard on most of the east coast just proves that AGW’s entire thesis is sound, and that you’re just witches aching to be burned at the stake.

    I bought into the AGW canard, hook, line and sinker – mostly due to some horrendous summers that Chicago experienced in the late 80’s through the mid – 90’s. But those were aberrations, as we’ve seen. But when my enviro – journals started claiming that every weather event was somehow proof of AGW, I started getting off that bus. BTW, anyone seen any mea culpas from the MSM regarding their hysterical screeching that last Summer was supposed to be an unprecedented year for category 3 or greater hurricanes to reach landfall in the US?

    Yeah, me neither.

    Dmac (539341)

  119. Here’s something interesting.

    Five crates of rare 101-year-old Scotch whisky and brandy have been discovered intact deep in the ice under Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic hut.
    The whisky along with two crates of brandy were recovered by a team restoring a hut used by the famed polar explorer.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1248967/Served-ice—Shackletons-102-year-old-whisky-Antartic.html#ixzz0en0MewBy

    But I thought Antarctica was melting.

    papertiger (ef009a)

  120. A great piece by veteran science writer Matt Ridley

    “Journalists are wont to moan that the slow death of newspapers will mean a disastrous loss of investigative reporting. The web is all very well, they say, but who will pay for the tenacious sniffing newshounds to flush out the real story? ‘Climategate’ proves the opposite to be true. It was amateur bloggers who scented the exaggerations, distortions and corruptions in the climate establishment; whereas newspaper reporters, even after the scandal broke, played poodle to their sources . . .

    The Climate Consensus may hold the establishment — the universities, the media, big business, government — but it is losing the jungles of the web. After all, getting research grants, doing pieces to cameras and advising boards takes time. The very ostracism the sceptics suffered has left them free to do their digging untroubled by grant applications and invitations to Stockholm.”

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (9eb641)

  121. CO2=plant food=more grass=more cattle=cheaper beef prices=some damn fine steaks on my bbq grill

    🙂

    peedoffamerican (cadcec)

  122. Bradley, Matt Ridley is indeed a fine science writer—his biography of Francis Crick is wonderful. But he has suffered a bit from lack of acceptance of AGW dogma. Funny thing, that.

    Also, he has been given a bad time for being—gasp—someone who doesn’t see government as an answer:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Ridley#Debate_over_Ridley.27s_political_philosophy

    Ridley is a good guy, and deserves better.

    Eric Blair (c2a27d)

  123. Comment by The disappointed Dana — 2/6/2010 @ 8:20 am

    Well, Dana, you have your fantasies, and I’ll have mine.
    But, somedays, dreams do come true.

    AD - RtR/OS! (a61dac)

  124. due to some horrendous summers that Chicago experienced in the late 80’s

    I still recall a year in the late 1980s when the East Coast was suffering through a long, miserable heat wave. I remember it mainly because the West Coast, or at least southern Calif, by comparison was enjoying a summer of rather comfortable days. I felt guilty but relieved about such a yin-yang in climate, which is a phenomenon (ie, yin and yang) that’s hardly unusual.

    I’ve noticed countless times when the western US will have sweltering heat and the eastern US won’t. Or visa versa. Or the West Coast will be cool and rainy while the Northeast is sunny and warm. Or visa versa.

    It was just a few years ago the Pacific Northwest was going through a winter of sunny and drought-ridden weather. The people there — particularly since a lot of “progressives” call places like Seattle and Portland, Oregon home — must have thought “Global warming!!! Run for you life!!!” But in the meantime, we in California were living through a period of cool, wet weather.

    This is just one more reason why I’ve long suspected AGW is nothing but a bunch of hype and crappola.

    Mark (411533)

  125. Ridley is a good guy, and deserves better.

    Certainly better than being critiqued by George Moonbat.

    Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc)

  126. We are seeing the MSM just now starting to report on controversies that bloggers Climate Audit and Watt’s Up With That have first discussed in some cases years ago.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  127. The irony meter is off the charts, isn’t it? I still remember the snide comments and dismissing out of hand commentary along the lines of “what does a retired engineer know about climatology?”

    Dmac (539341)


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