Abbott ousts Turnbull in Oz

Anti-ETS (Emission Trading System) Lib Tony Abbot has won the leadership of his party by one vote over LINO (Liberal in Name Only) and AGW-believer Malcolm Turnbull. All is not good news, though, as Tim Blair explains. Still, the repercussions of Climategate roll on.

Update: Caz! Comment!

My statement on Tiger

by John G. Martin, non-Esq.

He's an idiot like everyone. Here he is on Obama, pre-election:

I've seen him speak. He's extremely articulate [black people are allowed to call each other "articulate"], very thoughtful, I'm just impressed at how well, basically all politicians really do, how well they think on their feet. Especially those debates. It's pretty phenomenal to see them get their point across. But I just think that he's really inspired a bunch of people in our country and we'll see what happens down the road.

Little did Tiger know that it would be an angry wife, a golf club, a fire hydrant, and a tree down that road.

Hey, if Buick's looking for new idiots to promote their products, I'm available.

Yeah, sure

Quote of the Day, from Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, in the Grauniad, natch:

"The processes in the IPCC are so robust, so inclusive, that even if an author or two has a particular bias it is completely unlikely that bias will find its way into the IPCC report," he said.

More craziness from Pachauri in a Guardian piece just before Climategate broke.

Update: Pravda brings its formidable integrity (what?) to bear on Climategate:

‘Climategate’ is not an ordinary case of falsifying data by a few rogue scientists. The fraudulent theory of Global Warming has provided the basis for an international political movement which has the stated goal of completely restructuring the entire global economy based on that fraudulent theory. ‘Global Warming’ is a con game perpetrated by dishonest scientists and the government and corporate leaders who provide the corrupt scientists with opportunities for advancement.

If we fail to stop the further politicization and institutionalization of the fraudulent theory of Global Warming, we will most certainly experience a future of ‘science’ controlled by government decree and of a world government that facilitates the operations of corporate industries while imposing severe restrictions and arbitrary taxes on the general public.

Thanks, P. We'll call if we need you.

(via "JonesII" in this thread at WUWT)

Booker: 'Greatest scientific scandal of our age'

Christopher Booker in the Telegraph:

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

Update: Not that this will surprise anyone who reads the thing, but the Denver Post has said not a word about C-gate except for a typically clueless Eugene Robinson syndicated column today ("The purloined e-mail correspondence published by skeptics last week — portraying some leading climate researchers as petty, vindictive and tremendously eager to make their data fit accepted theories — does not prove that global warming is a fraud.").

Where's Vinnie?

Update II: Look upon this blog; and, upon this. One has had three (count 'em) posts on Climategate; the other (by rough count) almost 60. Strange.

Laziest scam-mail ever

From one "Jimi Sanchez." In full:

Beloved,

I am Elizabeth Etters, a Christian.I picked your email randomly for an inheritance of $18M. Please contact me for more details via [redacted].

Beloved, huh? Well, who's Jimi, Liz? Always screwing around on me, then coming back and offering me $18 million. It's not enough, Lizzie. In fact, you have many who outdo you in wanting to give me money. And they love me much more than you do.

Update: Okay, this one beats all. It's from FedEx:

FedEx provides access to a growing global market place through a network of supply chain, transportation, and business and related information services.

Yes yes?

The FedEx courier Service Company is hereby passing an essential message to all our valuable customers to be very careful while presenting their Receivers/Residential Address to avoid wrong delivery. Authoritatively, this is the FedEx courier service company mailing you in respect of your parcel that was brought to this company to be delivered to you by one JOHN PETER. Before the delivery protocols commenced, there was a misunderstanding between you and the National Insurance Corporation of Nigeria (NICON) over the Insurance Certificate which caused the delay of you receiving your parcel for the past one year.

Now that you mention it, I do have some vague recollection . . .

Meanwhile we are happy to inform you that the FedEx has finalized everything with the (NICON) and subsequently approved yours among the 24 valuable parcels' to be couriered after the released of the parcels from the (NICON)We are happy to inform you once again that your parcel that contains a cheque worth $3 Million is among the 24 parcel's listed which is now in our office and also with your name as the receiver despise that we lost your private residential address which is an indication that you can now re-send your residential address back to the FedEx company where your parcel can be delivered to you without hesitation.

Yes yes?

Meanwhile remember that the sender of this parcel JOHN PETER. still owes this company the sum of $105 before the incident occued. Know you that we have spent some money in the process by recovering back your parcel. We once again appreciate your patronage.

Check's in the mail!

Without hesitation you are to pay for just the balance [I said, check's in the mail!]left by your sender via western union money transfer so that your parcel can be delivered to your residential address before it attracts demurrage.

Demmurage, eh?

Your parcel is not just an ordinary parcel but with a huge amount and I think you understand what I mean by accumulating a demurrage? [Now I do!] Which you will not allow to happen to the recovered parcel that almost gone if not for the love that the good God has for you and I. I urge you to make hay while the sun shines. We assure you that your parcel will arrive your country within 3 days as soon as this company receive your full residential address and the balance left by you and the tracking number of your parcel will be sent to you via e-mail immediately so that you can track it yourself to see whether we are competent in the discharge of our duties.

FedEx loves me!

FedEx courier Service Company do hereby inform all their customers to be at alert especially with allsorts of scam mails that might be coming to you Globally. Be careful with their e-mails so that your parcel will not be in danger with their evil.

And they're looking out for me!

Update II: I spent at least two minutes diligently looking for the Three Stooges doing the "Yes yes?" routine. No luck.

So 80s

Be afwaid. AP:

A creepy string of calf mutilations in southern Colorado has a rancher and sheriff's officials mystified.

Four calves were found dead in a pasture just north of the New Mexico state line in recent weeks. The dead calves had their skins peeled back and organs cleared from the rib cage. One calf had its tongue removed.

But rancher Manuel Sanchez has found no signs of human attackers, such as footprints or ATV tracks. And there are no signs of an animal attack by a coyote or mountain lion. Usually predators leave pools of blood or drag marks from carrying away the livestock.

Wait, you didn't use the phrase, "surgical precision."

Two officers from the Costilla County Sheriff's Office have investigated the mutilations but say they don't know what's killing the calves.

"There's nothing really to go by," said Sanchez, who's ranched for nearly 50 years. "I can't figure it out." . . .

Some in the area believe the mutilations are the work of aliens. An area UFO chaser, Chuck Zukowski of Colorado Springs, has been to the Costilla County pasture to investigate.

I'm betting it's the joooooos.

Just a pic . . .

Of Smelly Slob at the Pa-in-Law's today.


He had fowl, he had potatoes, he had green bean casserole, he had pie (apple), and he had Frisbee.

First pic with the 70-300 lens the enigmatically generous "Mr. B" gave me, free, gratis, and, uh, I forget. He said he never used it. You don't use that Lexis of yours much, either, Mr. B!

In any case, I need to learn how to use the damn thing.

Thought for Tomorrow

Today!

About three-quarters of all adult Indians suffer alcoholism and/or other forms of substance abuse. This is not a ‘genetic condition.’ It is a desperate, collective attempt to escape our horrible reality since ‘America’s Triumph.’ It’s no mystery why Indians don’t observe Thanksgiving. The real question is why do you feast rather than fast on what should be a national day of mourning and atonement. Before digging into your turkey and dressing on Nov. 23, you might wish to glance in a mirror and see if you can come up with an answer.--Guess who

Too lazy to find out which book it came from; found it quoted today at Dissident Voice.

Record?

Huffpo's piece on Sarah Palin being booed by disappointed autograph seekers in Indiana has amassed almost 15,000 comments. You have to look at the front-page right sidebar for that number, but there are 285 pages of them (mostly supportive of Palin, natch). I'll leave it to others to assess the possible political implications. Fifteen thousand. Don't believe I've ever seen even 2,000 anywhere else, including LGF back in the day.

Update: Oops, I see that Huffpo itself apparently routinely gets several thousand comments on individual posts. But still.