Environmentalists Peddle Scientific Illiteracy

Powerline has this story:

the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s “Carbon Program.” whose web site says:

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the pH of surface ocean waters has fallen by 0.1 pH units. Since the pH scale, like the Richter scale, is logarithmic, this change represents approximately a 30 percent increase in acidity.

Except that the true percentage is 0.7% for a 0.1 unit change in pH.  If the people ever learn how pathetically bad the science is, they'd stop  paying even a nickel of tax money for it.

Your ignorance is not a license to defame

Just lost one of my best friends from college over a political argument.  He's an ardent Democrat.  Not even so much a flaming liberal as a devoutly loyal team player who was raised a Democrat and has never wavered.  He was a good athlete growing up and a loyal basketball teammate.  As an alum, he continues to be a strong, loyal supporter of his alma mater and its sports programs.  It's just the way he's wired.  And he's the same way about his political team.  As a high schooler, his parents were struggling about whether they could vote for McGovern in 1972.  His impassioned arguments about the need to support their team convinced them to stay loyal.

I prefer to be loyal to principles rather than politicians.  But I can respect his decisions.  I know him to be a person of integrity and honesty in his personal dealings.  So how did we lose this friendship?  I have an idea and I'm sure I will develop it more fully as I think about it, but I think it comes down to media bias and the liberal cocoon.

He gets his news from the mainstream media and the DNC.  He simply is ignorant of most of the revelations about the president, his dishonesty, his corruption and his incompetence.  So when he reads something I have written which points out that Obama has set up his credit card system deliberately to make it easier to accept illegal and fraudulent campaign contributions, he thinks it must be a lie.  Because he's never heard or read the first word in support of such a charge.  And he certainly doesn't want to believe it.  Or that the budget scoring for Obamacare was a fraud that the CBO, by law, had no choice but to swallow.  He just knows cannot be true.  Not about his leader.  Not about his team. He pays attention to the news and he's never heard anything about such claims.

He's also convinced, because it is an article of faith among his liberal friends and political allies, that Fox News and Rush Limbaugh concoct lies every day to arouse anger and indignation among ignorant Tea Party types.  I can only assume that he believes that I have foolishly believed a bunch of lies.  His team and his leader have had a really bad month.  I'm sure he's likely a little frustrated (although he'd never admit anything but confidence about the November election).  And no one likes to see their leader and teammate disparaged.

But I don't get my news from Fox News and Rush.  [And Fox and Rush have a track record of integrity that's better than the mainstream media, anyway.]  I get my news from a very wide range of sources with a track record of integrity -- law professors, lawyers, scholars, et al.  Many of them aren't Republicans.  Some were once left-wingers, even radicals.  They are often people who have undertaken the long and arduous task of examining their cherished political beliefs in light of the evidence and realized that they were wrong.  They tend not to be focused on support for parties or politicians because they've developed a healthy disdain for both.  Some voted for Obama.  Invariably they provide source material to allow the reader to evaluate their claims regarding facts.  And every single one has demonstrated a willingness to bend over backward to publish corrections if something needs to be corrected.  They even go to great lengths to identify any edits made of posts to insure that readers understand what has been changed and how. 

My friends don't think I am a liar.  And my friends don't think I am a fool.  So anyone who disparages me with a long string of nasty adjectives which in summary make me out to be either a fool or a liar is not my friend.  It is sad that someone who once knew me well would think that I would carelessly make claims of corruption or dishonesty against the president without sufficient evidence to support the charge.  I can only hope that he did so because of the liberal cocoon he inhabits and his passionate desire to be loyal to his team.  But ...

Your ignorance is not a license to defame.

Roberts joins Obama in defrauding citizens of their most basic right

Justice Roberts and the SCOTUS have violated the US Constitution today.  Justice Douglas instructed us that there are basic rights protected by the Constitution which are penumbras emanating from the nature of the rights enumerated.  I assert that the citizens have a right to be protected from a Federal government which lies to them repeatedly and extensively about legislation that is being passed.

If the Constitution does not protect us from devious fraud by our president and elected representatives, then it doesn't protect us from anything.  Obamacare was sold as something vastly different from what Roberts told us it is.  The public was deceived.  Without the fraud and deception, the bill would not have passed.  By endorsing this despicable behavior, Roberts has robbed the people of the most basic of rights.

Roberts and SCOTUS credibility

An e-mail I just sent to Sean Trende at realclearpolitics.com

Sean,

I haven't read this anywhere else, so I though I'd point out a factor that should go into Roberts thinking (assuming that he actually worries about the credibility of the court in deciding how to vote on Obamacare).  Everyone seems to think that he should worry that Democrats would view the court as lacking credibility if Obama loses.  I think that's focusing on the reaction of the wrong group.

If Obamacare stands, Roberts will have completely lost conservatives forever.  No possible chance of reconciliation.  And on the flip side, liberals aren't going to trust him anyway regardless of the outcome of this case.  If he actually worries that the outcome of the case is going to cost the institution credibility, the loss will be far greater for a much larger group of citizens if the law stands.  For conservatives, this case is about whether the US has a constitution any more.  Is the federal govt limited or not?  If this type calculation really went into Robers' vote, his focus should have been on worrying that the conservative half of the electorate would revolt.

Obama doubles down on stupid

 Even after the Romney campaign put Obama on notice that there is a difference between outsourcing and off-shoring, Obama put both feet in his mouth with a stunning display of ignorance:

Obama responded thus: “Yesterday, his advisers tried to clear this up by telling us that there was a difference between ‘outsourcing’ and ‘offshoring.’ Seriously. You can’t make that up.”

Stupid is as stupid does.  Maybe BO should have asked the Miami Heats.

Shocker -- Antarctic ice shelves not melting at all

I'm shocked, shocked!

Twenty-year-old models which have suggested serious ice loss in the eastern Antarctic have been compared with reality for the first time - and found to be wrong, so much so that it now appears that no ice is being lost at all.

"Previous ocean models ... have predicted temperatures and melt rates that are too high, suggesting a significant mass loss in this region that is actually not taking place," says Tore Hattermann of the Norwegian Polar Institute, member of a team which has obtained two years' worth of direct measurements below the massive Fimbul Ice Shelf in eastern Antarctica - the first ever to be taken.

According to a statement from the American Geophysical Union, announcing the new research:

It turns out that past studies, which were based on computer models without any direct data for comparison or guidance, overestimate the water temperatures and extent of melting beneath the Fimbul Ice Shelf. This has led to the misconception, Hattermann said, that the ice shelf is losing mass at a faster rate than it is gaining mass, leading to an overall loss of mass.

The team’s results show that water temperatures are far lower than computer models predicted ...

Wow.  The computer models had no basis in reality.  Who'd a thunk it?

hat tip -- neoneocon.com

Americans as allies

“The real problem of having the Americans as your ally is you never know when they will turn around and stab themselves in the back.” A Turkish general offers a bit of wisdom.