Consensus Cracking

So the consensus on anthropogenic global warming at the American Physical society is crumbling a bit, but not officially. The clarification is kind of funny, really.

Update:

The plot thickens.

More updates:

Buttle’s World reader Agrapha sends along some links indicating that the sun’s cycles are still normal, They seem to explain historical temperature changes as long as you account for volcanic aerosols, and while we know they’re important, current climate models don’t seem to account for them fully.

Ergo, your SUV is warming the planet. Or something like that.

More here.

NASA’s Orion Ahead of Schedule and Under Budget

Made you look.

Best Puff Piece Ever

So says the Onion. And they’re never wrong.

AOPA’s Blunder

I’ve been a member of AOPA (AIrcraft Owners and Pilots Association) for something like a quarter of a century. It’s always been a good resource for pilots, and a fine advocate for general aviation.

Which is why I was shocked to learn that they have been taken in by Algore and the morons at SOSN (Stop Oil Speculation Now.)

I just used their contact form to send them this message, and I encourage all members of the AOPA to do likewise:

I have heard that the AOPA is urging pilots to join “Stop Oil Speculation Now”. If this is true I must insist that you withdraw that letter and withdraw all support for SOSN immediately.

Oil speculators do not drive the price of oil. They are indicators of probable future prices, not the causes of them.

Al Gore and his SONS cronies are in it for the money. As long as environmentalists and their “peak oil” agenda keeps driving up the price of oil, they stand to make millions off of “alternative” energy sources.

As a pilot I’m as miffed as anybody at spending $6.18 per gallon to tank up the Warrior. If the AOPA wants to help lower my fuel bill it should support not only alternative energy but oil drilling HERE and NOW.

I am shocked that the AOPA could have fallen for this. You can see in your records how long I’ve been a member. I’ve enjoyed the magazines and the online services. But I will not send ONE MORE PENNY to an organization that tries demonizing the free market. It’s antithetical to everything I, and other pilots, stand for.

Once again, I insist that you withdraw all support for SOSN.

Pilots: Once again it’s time to make your voices heard. Sadly, it’s our own AOPA that needs to get the message.

Phony Theory, False Conflict

Charles at LGF dug up an old Charles Krauthammer column that (should have) put a stake through the false dichotomy the ID gang insists on using.

How ridiculous to make evolution the enemy of God. What could be more elegant, more simple, more brilliant, more economical, more creative, indeed more divine than a planet with millions of life forms, distinct and yet interactive, all ultimately derived from accumulated variations in a single double-stranded molecule, pliable and fecund enough to give us mollusks and mice, Newton and Einstein? Even if it did give us the Kansas State Board of Education, too.

Even those of us who don’t (or, as in my case, no longer) believe in God have to agree. If you want wonder, and something to marvel at, you can’t beat how life on this planet has evolved. God should take it as a compliment.

The Vatican has made peace with evolution. Mormons are going that direction, too. It’s a relatively narrow brand of Christianity and, unfortunately, a much larger swath of Islam, which thinks evolution is an -ism which contradicts religion.

The Unbearable Lightness of Barack

Charles Krauthammer asks the musical question, just who does he think he is?

We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when “our planet began to heal.” As I recall — I’m no expert on this — Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.

If you can read the whole thing without laughing and/or crying, you’re a better man than I.

Dr. Horrible

Joss Whedon can write.

And during the writer’s strike he wrote this.

I can hardly wait for Act III.

A Right Recognized in Britain?

Not quite. But Samizdata is cautiously optimistic.

Meanwhile, the police in Chicago are preparing to mow down crowds of people.