John Murtha, RIP

John Murtha, the old Pennsylvania bull who symbolized what is right about America but equally what is wrong with Congress, died yesterday at the age of 77. A few thoughts:

• It's difficult to remember now, given everything that has happened since then, but Murtha and the rest of his colleagues came to Washington as reformers in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Murtha was unusual in that he was a Vietnam veteran and had served with great distinction and there was much hope that he might be a leader of the group, a group that also included a Norbertine Order Catholic priest named Robert Cornell, who represented my home district, WI-8.


• Fr. Cornell left office in 1978, but John Murtha stayed on. And he soon became involved in the Abscam scandal. He managed to survive that and ended up serving 18 full terms in the Congress, becoming a porkmeister extraordinaire who survived by funneling ample federal largesse to his home district, while making occasional social conservative noises to deflect attention to the larger reality that he was part of the gang.


• Murtha came to prominence late in his career when he became an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq. Because he was a Marine, his words carried far more weight than the typical Congresscritter. Unfortunately, his words were thoughtless and, in the case of his fellow Marines at Haditha, outright slander. My friend Leo Pusateri and his colleagues have amply documented Murtha's career at the Murtha Must Go blog.

So what do we make of this American life? I do not know the condition of Murtha's soul and must presume that a merciful God will welcome the Congressman. The larger issue is that a man can spend nearly 40 years in the Congress. He's hardly alone -- there are plenty of old bulls roaming the halls there. John Dingell has been there for over 50 years. Congressional seats should not be sinecures and it's up to the voters to look for new leadership from time to time. Congressman Murtha came to Washington to reform it, but instead he became part of the thing. His nearly 40-year career deformed him, deformed his district and further impoverished our politics. That's a legacy I'd wish on no one. I pray for his family and thank Congressman Murtha for his long service to the nation, but I regret the results of it. RIP.

We Won't Get Gout Again

Back in late 1965 or thereabouts, Roger Daltrey sang the lyric:

Hope I die before I get old.

Last night, we found out why.

So which superannuated Baby Boom era rock act ought to get the call for next year's Super Bowl? The floor is open.

Lightning Round - Super Bowl Sunday

Gotta go fast.

• The game itself was satisfying, especially since the Saints played very well at the end and perhaps gave the rest of the world the formula for slowing down Peyton Manning. Sean Payton is one gutsy coach; the onside kick to start the 2nd half was perhaps the biggest roll of the dice I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. And Drew Brees was magnificent.
• I've already seen some speculation that Manning's costly interception might hurt his overall legacy as a quarterback. I don't see it. He's done way too many good things in his career and he'll have a decent shot at getting back to the Super Bowl in the next year or two. Most people will tell you that the gold standard for quarterbacking in the modern era is Joe Montana. The league is different now; there are a lot of of really good quarterbacks playing right now and Peyton Manning is still the guy you'd want to have in the clutch.
• Probably should say a few things about the ads. The Focus on the Family/Tim Tebow ad was pretty innocuous and it's amusing in retrospect to see how much fuss it created, although the fuss was awfully revealing. The most interesting ad by a long shot, at least from a political perspective, was the Audi "Green Police" ad. Audi seems to figure that it will sell cars by getting people ahead of the curve, but I think a lot of people won't see that sort of behavior as amusing. We are hectored all the time about our environmental sins and this is just a reminder of why the backlash against the greener than thou is coming.
• Also, if I never see dudes in underwear again, or screaming chickens, that would be a good thing, too.

Proof that President Obama reads the blogs

Much has been said and noted about President Obama being internet-savvy. And we now have conclusive proof that he is an avid blog reader and certainly ahead of the curve.

Over the last few days a massive snowstorm has crippled the mid-Atlantic region. Mr. Obama took note of this yesterday:

WASHINGTON — "Snowmageddon" – that's what President Barack Obama calls the storm that's shut down Washington.

His motorcade made it a few blocks through deserted streets so he could speak at the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting on Saturday.

That's a pretty clever quip. Obama must have found it somewhere. Could it have been in the blogosphere? Why yes. Yes it could.

As I mentioned in my Friday post, my son Ben absolutely loves camping and the Phillipo Scout Reserve may be his favorite place in the world. The camp itself is typical of most Boy Scout installation, a sprawling, beautiful site on the south bank of a dammed up section of the Cannon River known as Lake Byllesby. We arrived on Friday night a few hours prior to the onset of SNOWMAGEDDON. We set up in our cabin and then repaired to the Gwin Center, where we visited with our fellow campers.

So this feature had the term back on February 26, 2007. Back then I hadn't made much effort to publicize the blog at all; outside of my family, about the only regular reader of Mr. Dilettante in early 2007 was the lovely and talented Picklesworth, who in those days went by the name Hammerswing*. I didn't even have a Sitemeter back then to monitor blog traffic. Who could have known that an aspiring presidential candidate was already monitoring this feature and would later mine its vast archives for a quip describing the weather? I appreciate your patronage, Mr. President -- be sure to tell your friends!

Early forecasts indicate that the storm that is approaching Minnesota today will later make its way to the Beltway around mid-week and that it could be similarly ferocious. If President Obama needs a name for the second storm, we've got him covered.

* As alert readers of this feature know, Picklesworth/Hammerswing is of British ancestry, which might explain why he chooses blog handles that sound like bizzaro world London neighborhoods.

Benster and D Pick Your Game -- Super Bowl HYYYYYPPPPE Fest Edition

It's Super Bowl week! I think you know there's a lot of HYYYYYYYYPPPPPPE! And just in case you weren't sure, I'd be happy to supply a little extra HYYYYYYYYPPPPPE!

No, really? Imagine that, Seabiscuit!

I know there are a lot of commercials at the Super Bowl, but we're not here to rap about $5 Taco Bell boxes like Charles Barkley, who should (a) not be rapping at this stage in life and (b) probably ought to be advertising for Jenny Craig or something. Nor are we here to re-enact the Super Bowl Shuffle with the '85 Bears, which doesn't work so well when the participants are all in a nursing home. I can hear it now -- "I'm Otis Wilson and I have no teeth/I keep 'em in a glass that's beyond belief!"

Didn't realize you had these mad rapping skills, Youngblood.

There's a lot of things you don't know, Decrepit! Like where you left your socks! But enough of the trash talking, there's a game to pick. So let's do this.

New Orleans Who Dat? Saints (+5) vs. Indianapolis Mannings. New Orleans has come a long way since Katrina turned the Superdome into the world's largest hospital/refugee camp. Now the Saints are no longer the Aints, who inspired their fans to wear bags over their heads. It was a really good look when combined with Mardi Gras beads. But that's done now. Drew Brees, besides being my fantasy league quarterback supreme monster scoring machine, is at the controls of the NFL's best offense. On the other side, you have Peyton Manning, who was Decrepit's star fantasy league quarterback, and his cast of castoff receivers, and Tom Moore, who looks old enough to be the nursing home roommate of Otis Wilson. My belief is that whoever wins the turnover battle will hoist the Lombardi Trophy. I also think that the Colts will be exposed on defense, especially if Dwight Freeney cannot go. My prediction: Saints win and Drew Brees will be the MVP. Who Dat 70, Island of Misfit Toys 67.

So you're suggesting that a potential bettor might want to pick the over, huh? Although you barely mentioned them, the defenses are likely to show up to play the game, so I think your score might be a little high. To me, this is pretty simple -- Peyton Manning has a chance to prove himself one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history tomorrow. He's had his best season ever in many ways, considering that he's been throwing to people like Austin Collie (which sounds like a cross between a Mike Meyers movie and a Smashing Pumpkins album) and Pierre Garcon (who just sounds French). Can I be honest here? I didn't think the Saints were that good against the Purple squad, but now the citizens of Minnesota understand what the true depth of the Brett Favre Experience. I suspect Brees will play well, but Manning will be better. And therefore I'm picking the Colts. Colts 38, Saints 23.

Believe me, as a Packer fan I know the depths of the Favre Experience. Maybe Favre should be Otis Wilson's roommate in the nursing home. He could rap with Otis. "I'm the grizzled QB from Hattiesburg, I throw interceptions around the world!" Until next season, Ben out!

A question for the audience

So Barack Obama has been president for over a year now. Are we allowed to start holding him accountable for anything yet? Or is he still the Great Inheritor?

The floor is open.

Guilty Pleasures Part Sixty-Three -- A Week in Music

It has not been a very happy week around here for a lot of reasons, which is why we need a little joy. And when it's time for some joy, who else to turn to but. . . Fearless Maria!

Bonjour! Je m'appelle Fearless Maria! I don't know much French, but I can handle that much! So Dad, the title is "A Week in Music." Does that mean we're going to do songs about the days of the week? I suppose we could do Manic Monday, or Tuesday Afternoon, or Friday on My Mind, or Saturday in the Park, or. . . did anyone write a song about Thursday?

I'm having a hard time thinking of a song about Thursday. Maybe that's why we write these things on Thursday!

I'll write a song about Thursday, Dad! Guilty Pleasures, Guilty Pleasures! We write them on Thursday! Guilty Pleasures, Pleasures Guilty, we write them on. . . oh, what rhymes with Thursday anyway?

That might be why there aren't any songs about Thursday, Maria.

It's like trying to rhyme purple, Dad! Or orange! Well, do you have another approach?

Glad you asked, Maria. One thing I do each day on Facebook is post lyrics for a song by an artist whose birthday it is that day. We could look back at the past week or so and see if you like any of these. How does that sound?

I don't know how it sounds, Dad. You haven't played any of the videos, yet! It might sound good, but I'll be the judge of that!

Okay, that appears to be a call to action. Let's start with yesterday's song. As it happens, yesterday was the birthday of Ray Davies of the Kinks. And the song I picked is this one, from about 1970, a cranky little number called:

20th Century Man

I've heard of people having a bad day, Dad, but this guy sounds like he had a bad century! Was it really that bad in the 20th Century, Dad! Or did I plan it out smart by being born 15 days after the 20th Century ended?

I mostly enjoyed the 20th Century, Maria. And I'll bet that Ray Davies enjoyed it a little better than he's letting on in this song.

Well, I hope so, Dad! If he was complaining for the entire century, I'll bet people got pretty tired of him! Of course, if I was wearing ugly plaid pants like the guy was in some of the pictures in that video, maybe I'd have been a little cranky, too! Maybe rotten tomato juice got on his pants or something!

As a good a guess as I've heard. Now, speaking of cranky, the next song is from Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash, whose birthday was earlier in the week. Graham wasn't very happy about what was going on in Chicago in 1968, so he wrote this song:

Chicago

Dad, I've been to Chicago. It wasn't nearly as bad as these guys were saying! I loved Chicago! Didn't they go to Millennium Park?

No, it didn't exist then.

I know that -- I was teasing! But maybe that would have made them feel a little better about it. They could have played in the fountain instead of whining like 3-year olds!

The weird part, Maria, is that on some of the same land where the fountain is in Millennium Park, the Chicago police were having a big fight with the hippies.

The hippies! I can see it now -- hippie hippie forward hippie hippie arrest!

That's about what it was like, Maria.

Well, glad I waited until 2008 to go to Chicago, then! Forty years seems to have made a difference!

Indeed. So the next song was for Mike Campbell, who is one of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. This song is one of their very first ones, from way back in 1978, on an appearance on the British music show The Old Grey Whistle Test.

American Girl

Dad, I'm an American Girl, too, but I sure don't have the problems that this girl they're singing about seems to have! So do you think that the American Girl Company, with all the awesome dolls, would want to hire Tom Petty? He's a little cranky, but he seems to like American Girls better than the Guess Who likes an American Woman!

That's an excellent point, Maria. I hadn't thought of that!

Well, that's why I'm here, Dad! I get what you leave out!

Indeed you do, Maria. So shall we move on?

Sure. So who's next?

The next birthday belongs to Phil Collins of Genesis, who has every reason to be happy, given the huge piles of money he's earned over the years.

I guess Genesis didn't need to take an Exodus from making money, huh, Dad?

Nope. But they did get to prowl the streets of Amsterdam (I think) on this song from 1981:

Keep It Dark

Dad, didn't you say that Genesis was very successful?

Yes, I did. Why do you ask?

Well, they seemed to get through that whole video without ever actually having full instruments! Couldn't they afford them? Phil Collins was walking around Europe with just drumsticks? That seems strange to me! Or did he have to uh, keep it dark?

The streets in Amerstdam are pretty narrow, Maria. Maybe they couldn't get the tour bus in.

I don't think that's it, Dad. And why would they need a tour bus anyway -- no one would have recognized them in those big trenchcoats! They look like Sherlock Holmes with drumsticks!

It is very mysterious, Maria. Maybe the next song will make more sense.

Based on your track record so far, Dad, I'm not going to count on it. What do you have?

Okay. Another recent birthday was for Louie Perez of one of my favorite bands, Los Lobos. And I've always liked this particular song, a simple shuffle called:

That Train Don't Stop Here

They sure love to jam, don't they? They just keep playing and playing their song! That's a really long train ride, no wonder they didn't stop!

Yeah, they like to play. But they play very well.

If they keep playing much longer, the moon is going to come out and they'll be playing in the moonlight!

Funny you should mention that, Maria --

Oh, did I set you up again, Dad?

You sure did. Another birthday person was Phil Lynnott, the bassist and lead singer of the 1970s Irish band Thin Lizzy. Phil is no longer with us, but this song still works and it's got some moonlight going for it:

Dancing in the Moonlight

Sounds like that if they really got into it, their hair would get caught in the spotlight -- literally! Now these guys really look like 70s guys! I like the finger snapping, but tell me this, Dad -- did they not make buttons in the 1970s?

Why do you ask?

Look at the video, Dad -- their shirts are wide open and you can see all their gross chest hair! Who are they trying to be, Hairy Potter?

I suspect they weren't always up on the grooming tips, Maria.

Well, I can't help them now, but if they were here, I'd have a little talk with them!

I'm almost afraid to show the next video to you, although I think these guys have a little better grooming. The last birthday belongs to guitarist Andy Cox of the English Beat, who recorded this song in 1982:

I Confess

I confess that this is kind of a weird video, with some guy dressed up as an archbishop and then another guy wearing eye shadow and a cape! He's weirder than Thin Lizzy or even the Kinks' pants! That's saying something, Dad!

So you don't approve, Maria?

Of course not! If there was a survey for this band, and the choices for clothing were excellent, great, fair or poor, I'd make my own line and say extremely poor! It is a good song, but they probably need to visit a clothing store or something!

Well, that's a week's worth of music.

And the best part is that most of it wasn't really that weak! So you know what to do, people! Vote in the comment section! And don't come around here wearing any weird plaid pants!

State of Grace

We knew it was coming, but that didn't make it any easier to see on the CaringBridge page.

Sunday, January 31, 2010 11:04 AM, CST

Surrounded by his family, our dear John was called to his peaceful resting place early this morning. We are thankful he is now at peace and no longer suffering.

John Kunstman is my cousin and my contemporary. He was born about a year before me, but we both graduated from high school in 1981 and from college in 1985. He had been a succesful corporate executive, was a devoted husband for 17 years and the father of two children. John was 47 years old, felled by metastatic cancer that started as an innocent-looking mole on his back two years ago, but one that later spread to his lymphatic system and then throughout his body. On at least two occasions, John had thought he was cancer-free. But the cancer returned, each time with greater ferocity, despite the care and attention of world-class oncologists. While the words on John's CaringBridge site were often circumspect, one can surmise that he suffered greatly in the last six months of his life, not only from the pain he was enduring, but from the growing realization that his journey was coming to an end far sooner than he could have imagined.

John and his siblings grew up in Cudahy, Wisconsin, a working-class suburb of Milwaukee that was near the airport and is perhaps most famous for being the home base of Patrick Cudahy, a prominent meat supplier best known for supplying bacon to supermarkets throughout the country. I remember visiting John's house a few times as a kid and the roar of airplanes overhead was a constant feature of his world. John and his siblings were all excellent athletes and they were all outstanding students as well. John ended up going to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a business degree, then beginning a steady climb up the corporate ladder.

I always remembered John as being a focused guy -- he would meet you with a firm handshake and a steady gaze that sometimes seemed a little intense to me. He had an excellent sense of humor, but you always got the sense that he was serious and had a plan for his life. While I didn't see a lot of John over the years, it was clear that he was living his life well; he was an avid cyclist, worked hard and was able to adapt as he moved from place to place, from Milwaukee, to Indianapolis, Atlanta, Roanoke and on to suburban Washington, DC. He was a director-level financial executive at one of the largest healthcare companies in the country and it was clear that he had achieved great success in his life. And then the cancer came.

There are no tidy answers for those of us who mourn John's passing. God has a plan for all of us and there are times when that plan seems incomprehensible. This would be one of those times. We struggle to understand why John faced such a difficult journey and such a lonely one, even though his devoted family was there every step of the way.

John's college degree was in actuarial science, which is a necessary but often joyless endeavor. I'm guessing that John spent a fair amount of his career looking at numbers and data points without ever having to consider that his own number would come up so soon, that he would end up being an outlier on the actuarial table.

We are awfully good at reducing people to numbers and data points. It's something we do every day, just as aggregate numbers of the living and dying are part of the business in which John spent his working life. We love our numbers and we hate them, too. Numbers can tell many stories. My son sometimes chafes at the notion of grades, arguing that the number doesn't tell you the whole story. But one thing I know -- John understood that the numbers stand for something greater than data points. John cared about the people in his life and challenged them to be better -- the testimony of his colleagues on the CaringBridge site and the various online memorials that I've read are proof of that.

But in the end, even if you have everyone who loves you as you make the journey, you still have to face the solitary number you are. Somehow, John was able to make his peace with it. John said this to his brothers Andy and Greg shortly before he died:

"I have nothing to complain about, I have had a great life."

There's no disputing that. Our task, as we mourn this special man, is to do a little better, to understand that our complaints are transitory, to get beyond our complaints and to leave footprints, to make this world a better place. John could have complained about many things, but he found a way to leave this world and enter the next world with grace. It's a lesson worth remembering and a challenge for those of us who remain. Nothing in this world is promised to us, but promise remains. And the promise God has made to all of us is the one promise that matters in the end.

Lightning Round 020310

Fast. Fierce. Funny. That's right, it's time for another edition of the Lightning Round!

• So Rahm Emanuel, the president's ever-excitable, R-rated chief of staff, got in trouble for calling Democratic activists "f******** retards." Chastened, he has apparently decided to apologize to Tim Shriver of the Special Olympics. He has not apologized to the Democrats he insulted, though. Feel the love, activists!
• Rahm is not alone, of course. The President himself has a propensity to take shots at his friends as well. Consider the grief he's caused his chief water-carrier in the Senate, the lovely and talented Harry Reid, by bashing Las Vegas. Things aren't going so well in Sin City these days and Reid is in a lot of trouble. Here's a bet (pun intended) -- Obama's comments won't help him much.
• Fred Thompson demonstrates the joy of Twittering.
• Megan McArdle of the Atlantic Monthly seems to think the President is a little unclear on the concept, pointing out what she terms the "Quote of the Decade." Oh, the decade is young, Ms. McArdle. Rahm Emanuel could have that topped by lunch.

Caucus Day, New Brighton Precinct 1

I went to my caucus this evening -- New Brighton Precinct 1, House District 50B. I sat in a classroom at Mounds View High School with about 35 of my neighbors. The work at a caucus is nuts and bolts stuff -- pick the precinct leadership, pick delegates for the BPOU, start the process of selecting delegates for the state convention. And there's a little bit of politicking, too.

Back in 2008, the caucuses were absolutely nuts. There were probably 1,000 people at the caucus that time. This time, there were probably a third that many. The frenzy of 2008 was replaced with a smaller group of citizens, much more low-key, but focused. We heard from a potential candidate willing to take on the incumbent state representative. We batted around a few resolutions for changing the party platform. And we voted in a straw poll for governor.

I haven't written much about the governor's race yet, because I'm still trying to sort out the candidates. There are two frontrunners on the Republican side -- Tom Emmer and Marty Seifert -- and you could make a plausible case for either of them. As it happened, in our precinct Seifert got 18 votes and Emmer received 12, while the other votes were spread among the other candidates.

The sense I get is that the party apparatus is behind Seifert, but the activists support Emmer. It's easy to understand the reasons for this -- Seifert, although not yet 40 years old, has represented his Marshall-area district for over a decade and has paid his dues. Emmer represents the Delano area, which was once a rural area but is now on the edge of suburbia. These are both traditional, but very different, Republican areas. Emmer, who is a dynamic speaker and a forceful advocate for conservative values, is the sort of candidate who hits an activist's fun button. Seifert can be dynamic, but he's not as gifted on the stump. And while appearances shouldn't necessarily matter, Seifert is prematurely balding and looks like an assistant claims adjuster. Conversely, Emmer has what the Dilbert cartoonist Scott Adams calls "executive hair" and looks the part.

So how do we sort it out? We don't have to, yet. The conservation began in earnest today, in precincts throughout the state. And there will be a lot more to say. We'll be going to the BPOU on February 27. And by then we should know a lot more.

Radio Free Dilettante — Caucus Edition

No one should run on this platform:

Last Five:
Hot Rod Lincoln, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Drinkin' Muddy Water, The Yardbirds
The Times They Are A-Changin', Bob Dylan
Helter Skelter, U2
I've Been Everywhere, Johnny Cash


Next Five:
Heartbeat City, The Cars
Smokin' from Shootin', My Morning Jacket
Cocoanut Woman, Harry Belafonte
Hot 'Lanta, The Allman Brothers Band
I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement, The Ramones

Caucus Day

We talk a lot about politics 'round here, but there are times when talking isn't enough. Sometimes you have to take action. And today is a day in Minnesota when you can.

It's caucus day and the parties are holding caucuses throughout the state. For those of you who live in House District 50B, the caucus will take place tonight at Mounds View High School, 1900 Lake Valentine Road in Arden Hills. More info is available here at the House Republican 50B website.

We'll talk about a number of topics at the event, including the party platform and the potential candidates for governor, state representative and state senate. If you want to see Minnesota start to move away from the big government model that our DFL overlords prefer, the work starts tonight. Join us -- I'll see you there.

Even More Bad News for Copenhagen Kate

No wonder AGW advocates are concerned about heat. The heat is definitely on in the British media:

The IPCC's remit is to provide an authoritative assessment of scientific evidence on climate change.

In its most recent report, it stated that observed reductions in mountain ice in the Andes, Alps and Africa was being caused by global warming, citing two papers as the source of the information.

However, it can be revealed that one of the sources quoted was a feature article published in a popular magazine for climbers which was based on anecdotal evidence from mountaineers about the changes they were witnessing on the mountainsides around them.

The other was a dissertation written by a geography student, studying for the equivalent of a master's degree, at the University of Berne in Switzerland that quoted interviews with mountain guides in the Alps.

The revelations, uncovered by The Sunday Telegraph, have raised fresh questions about the quality of the information contained in the report, which was published in 2007.

It comes after officials for the panel were forced earlier this month to retract inaccurate claims in the IPCC's report about the melting of Himalayan glaciers.

Well, the good thing is that the IPCC is really concerned about scientific rigor and peer review, so it's okay to include some anecdotal information, right? Well...

The claims about disappearing mountain ice were contained within a table entitled "Selected observed effects due to changes in the cryosphere produced by warming".

It states that reductions in mountain ice have been observed from the loss of ice climbs in the Andes, Alps and in Africa between 1900 and 2000.

The report also states that the section is intended to "assess studies that have been published since the TAR (Third Assessment Report) of observed changes and their effects".

But neither the dissertation or the magazine article cited as sources for this information were ever subject to the rigorous scientific review process that research published in scientific journals must undergo.

Maybe next time our local representative and AGW enthusiast, Kate Knuth, holds a town meeting, she might want to address some of these issues. I'd suggest that she do so.

More Bad News for Copenhagen Kate

Those climate change deniers -- man, they aren't scientific, are they? So we've been told, repeatedly. Good thing that we have organizations like the U.N's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that maintain strict standards of scientific rigor. Right? Well, the British press continues to stay on the story. Needless to say, it keeps getting better and better.

A STARTLING report by the United Nations climate watchdog that global warming might wipe out 40% of the Amazon rainforest was based on an unsubstantiated claim by green campaigners who had little scientific expertise.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its 2007 benchmark report that even a slight change in rainfall could see swathes of the rainforest rapidly replaced by savanna grassland.

The source for its claim was a report from WWF, an environmental pressure group, which was authored by two green activists. They had based their “research” on a study published in Nature, the science journal, which did not assess rainfall but in fact looked at the impact on the forest of human activity such as logging and burning. This weekend WWF said it was launching an internal inquiry into the study.

Is it too soon to say that the 2007 report is baked wind? The glaciers aren't melting and the rainforest isn't being destroyed by global warming, either. Tell you what -- believe in AGW if you'd wish. But y'all can stop telling me that your views are ungirded with "science."

Is it too soon to say that the 2007 report is baked wind? What say you, Rep. Knuth?

Home Truth

Mark Steyn gets to the heart of the matter:

Functioning societies depend on agreed rules. If you want to open a business, you do it in Singapore or Ireland, because the rules are known to all parties. You don’t go to Sudan or Zimbabwe, where the rules are whatever the state’s whims happen to be that morning.

That’s why Obama is such a job-killer. Why would a small business take on a new employee? The president’s proposing a soak-the-banks tax that could impact your access to credit. The House has passed a cap-and-trade bill that could impose potentially unlimited regulatory costs. The Senate is in favor of “health” “care” “reform” that will allow the IRS to seize your assets if you and your employees’ health arrangements do not meet the approval of the federal government. Some of these things will pass into law, some of them won’t. But all of them send a consistent, cumulative message: that there are no rules, that they’re being made up as they go along — and that some of them might even be retroactive, as happened this week with Oregon’s new corporate tax.

In such an environment, would you hire anyone? Or would you hunker down and sit things out? Obama can bury it in half a ton of leaden telepromptered sludge but the world has got the message: More Washington, more micro-regulation of every aspect of your life, more multi-trillion-dollar spending, and no agreed rules in a game ever more rigged against you.

There's more, a lot more, at the link. Read the whole thing.

At least Bin Laden is aboard

The story on AGW keeps getting better and better. So earlier we learned that the Himalayan glacier story was crap. Now we discover that the head of the IPCC knew it before the start of the Copenhagen summit, but didn't bother to tell anyone:

The chairman of the leading climate change watchdog was informed that claims about melting Himalayan glaciers were false before the Copenhagen summit, The Times has learnt.

Rajendra Pachauri was told that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment that the glaciers would disappear by 2035 was wrong, but he waited two months to correct it. He failed to act despite learning that the claim had been refuted by several leading glaciologists. The IPCC’s report underpinned the proposals at Copenhagen for drastic cuts in global emissions.

Pachauri denies it, of course:

Asked whether he had deliberately kept silent about the error to avoid embarrassment at Copenhagen, he said: “That’s ridiculous. It never came to my attention before the Copenhagen summit. It wasn’t in the public sphere.”

But there's a problem.

However, a prominent science journalist said that he had asked Dr Pachauri about the 2035 error last November. Pallava Bagla, who writes for Science journal, said he had asked Dr Pachauri about the error. He said that Dr Pachauri had replied: “I don’t have anything to add on glaciers.”

Not when there's a chance to lock in a lot of money. And Dr. Pachauri could make a lot of money.

So what does the evidence actually show?

The Himalayan glaciers are so thick and at such high altitude that most glaciologists believe they would take several hundred years to melt at the present rate. Some are growing and many show little sign of change.

So what did Dr. Pachauri know, and when did he know it?

Mr Bagla said he had informed Dr Pachauri that Graham Cogley, a professor at Ontario Trent University and a leading glaciologist, had dismissed the 2035 date as being wrong by at least 300 years. Professor Cogley believed the IPCC had misread the date in a 1996 report which said the glaciers could melt significantly by 2350.

Mr Pallava interviewed Dr Pachauri again this week for Science and asked him why he had decided to overlook the error before the Copenhagen summit. In the taped interview, Mr Pallava asked: “I pointed it out [the error] to you in several e-mails, several discussions, yet you decided to overlook it. Was that so that you did not want to destabilise what was happening in Copenhagen?”

Dr Pachauri replied: “Not at all, not at all. As it happens, we were all terribly preoccupied with a lot of events. We were working round the clock with several things that had to be done in Copenhagen. It was only when the story broke, I think in December, we decided to, well, early this month — as a matter of fact, I can give you the exact dates — early in January that we decided to go into it and we moved very fast."

I guess nearly two months isn't so bad, even though we've been told that if we don't act now, the earth could be imperiled. But it's more likely that the delay gave a chance for the checks to clear.

The chairman of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has used bogus claims that Himalayan glaciers were melting to win grants worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Rajendra Pachauri's Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), based in New Delhi, was awarded up to £310,000 by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the lion's share of a £2.5m EU grant funded by European taxpayers.

It means that EU taxpayers are funding research into a scientific claim about glaciers that any ice researcher should immediately recognise as bogus.

Pachauri may not get that money now. But the good news is that Osama bin Laden is aboard. Maybe he'll fund the research.

Somewhere in the 651 Area Code, Kate Knuth Must Be Muttering. . .

Get off my side.

Demonstrating a surprising concern for the environment, Bin Laden voiced his dismay at recent international efforts to tackle global warming.

"Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality," he said. "All of the industrialised countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis."

No word on whether bin Laden regrets missing the confab in Copenhagen.

And in a surprise that should hardly be surprising to anyone who thinks about it for more than a moment, bin Laden likes Noam Chomsky:

The terror chief also appeared to reveal himself to be a reader of the Guardian when he quoted from an interview with Noam Chomsky, the liberal linguistics professor, which appeared in the newspaper in November.

"Chomsky was right when he pointed to a resemblance between American policies and the approach of mafia gangs," he said. "Those are the real terrorists." Western intelligence has yet to be verify the authenticity of the recording, which was broadcast on al-Jazeera television, but independent experts said the voice on it appeared to be Bin Laden's.

Bummer, Kate.

Guilty Pleasures Part Sixty-Two -- Mysterious Wild Things That Drive Fearless Maria Crazy and All She Wants to Do Is Stop Them

Fearless Maria is back for another round of Guilty Pleasures.

Greetings from Mars, Earthlings! Wait a second -- I'm an Earthling, too? I must have been hypnotized? Benster, were you playing with the hypnotizing machine again?

He's not here, Maria. He's downstairs watching a basketball game, which seems to be plenty hypnotic for him.

Well Dad, then I won't worry about him. Dad, I have many questions.

Musical questions?

I suppose, Dad. One question I have is this: did the music get any less weird around 1990?

Well, there's one way to find out. And that's look at some music.

Are you going to pick weird songs on purpose again, Dad? Are you trying to make me think that the real old songs you like are better than newer songs?

Well Maria, songs around 1990 are already 20 years old, so they aren't so new anymore.

Compared to all that ancient stuff you like Daddy-O, 20 years ago doesn't seem so long ago, even if I'm only 10 years old.

Well, here's a song that will drive you crazy:

She Drives Me Crazy

That song drives me crazy, Dad! It looks like an anime version of President Obama playing leapfrog with guys wearing couch cushions! I know that's not President Obama, but that's really strange, Dad!

Actually the singer's name is Roland Gift and he's British. So I don't think he's even eligible to be President, Maria.

Well, maybe he wasn't so gifted, then!

Not nearly as gifted as you are, Fearless Maria.

Why thank you, but let's get on to another song before the world ends. I hear an asteroid is coming soon!

Really? Hmmm.

Things That Make You Go Hmm.

Hmmm is right. That was pretty weird, Dad! I'm not sure that 20 year old music is all that good. I really don't like rap, you know!

There was a lot of rap back then, sweetheart. But I know a few other songs.

Dad, why would people want to listen to that anyway? I find it very mysterious!

Funny you should mention mysterious, Maria....

Mysterious Ways

That video is beyond mysterious, Dad! It's pretty freaky, really. It's like being inside a kaleidoscope! But why would I want to be inside a kaleidoscope anyway, Dad? All I want to do is have some fun!

What's that you said, Maria?

All I want to do is have some fun, Dad!

All I Wanna Do

Dad, I do have a question.

What's that, Maria?

What do car washes and beer have to do with fun? I don't think I'd want a drunk person washing your car! And I definitely wouldn't want them driving!

That seems like good advice Maria. Maybe we should send a note to Sheryl Crow and recommend that she try something different.

I think we should, Dad, but it's been a pretty wild night looking at all these weird videos!

But there's one more, Maria.

On a wild night?

Wild Night

See all the stuff that lady had to watch in the back of her taxicab? That's why I don't want to have a car yet! But I really like the puppies! Hint hint!

I think we've heard that hint before, Maria.

Well, here's another hint: it's time to vote, people! Pick your favorite song and put it in the comments section! And don't be mysterious! That will drive me crazy, or it will make me go hmmm....

"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life."

J. D. Salinger, the man who put those words in the mouth of his most famous protagonist, Holden Caufield, died today at the age of 91.

While I have always thought that The Catcher in the Rye is an overrated book, it is quotable. And some of the words Holden Caufield utters ring true, even if he's admittedly a terrific liar.

All morons hate it when you call them a moron.

Indeed they do.

People never notice anything.

I'm glad somebody noticed that. Of course, since we're dealing with a self-admitted terrific liar, you have to account for the possibility that Holden Caufield never noticed anything either. And often the most corrosive lies we tell are the ones we tell ourselves.

Boy, when you're dead, they really fix you up. I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.

It's not often that a man gets to write a fitting epitaph nearly 60 years before his own demise. Salinger spent nearly the last 50 years hiding from flowers and hosannas, walking away from the fame he'd achieved in the 1950s. As far as the larger world was concerned, Salinger might as well have been dead. And now that he has finally died, his works will come to life again and gain a larger audience than the occasional high school English class that seems to encounter him now. I don't think that is truly irony, even though irony is a deeply debased word, but I have to imagine that the old recluse might find it all somewhat amusing. And I'll bet that someone brings Salinger flowers, maybe even out of spite.

In a deeply dishonest world, sometimes a terrific liar is a useful guide. RIP.

SOTU Snafu

It's probably not worth rehearsing my policy differences with the President on the particulars of his State of the Union speech, but it's worth pointing out that his harangue against the Supreme Court was an amazingly dumb move. I don't think he earned himself much goodwill from the Court by doing it -- Justice Alito did a sotto voce version of Joe Wilson by mouthing "not true" at one point.

Even people who typically carry water for Democrats understood this was a bad idea -- for example, Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times:

This time, Justice Alito shook his head as if to rebut the president’s characterization of the Citizens United decision, and seemed to mouth the words “not true.” Indeed, Mr. Obama’s description of the holding of the case was imprecise. He said the court had “reversed a century of law.”

The law that Congress enacted in the populist days of the early 20th century prohibited direct corporate contributions to political campaigns. That law was not at issue in the Citizens United case, and is still on the books. Rather, the court struck down a more complicated statute that barred corporations and unions from spending money directly from their treasuries — as opposed to their political action committees — on television advertising to urge a vote for or against a federal candidate in the period immediately before the election. It is true, though, that the majority wrote so broadly about corporate free speech rights as to call into question other limitations as well — although not necessarily the existing ban on direct contributions.

So let's tote up the damage:

1) He insults a coequal branch of government (the judiciary) in the home of another coequal branch (the legislature), drawing the quiet ire of a Justice who will be in position long after the President has returned to Hyde Park;

2) He gets the facts of the case wrong; and

3) He complicates the life of Elena Kagan, his Solicitor General, to score a cheap point.

As we've all learned, President Obama has a lot to learn. Here's yet another suggestion that I'm certain the President will not accept, but I offer it anyway. Every administration engages in some measure of demagoguery, but smart administrations job out the demagoguery to underlings. Let Axelrod to this stuff, Mr. President -- it diminishes your office.