Brilliant! From Minnesotans for Global Warming, and they may count this native Michigander as one of their own if they like.

“This could prove to be climate science’s Vietnam.”

“Al Gore Wishes He Never Invented The Internet”

Though you may have heard this already, there’s a chance you haven’t, since the MSM have completely ignored it (though one UK writer is advising you dump any shares in ‘green’ companies immediately), so…Here goes. It broke at the beginning of my battle with Whatever This Bug is, so I’m late, but it’s too big to ignore, particularly since I’ve thought “climate change” was a God-insulting hoax to begin with. Though still getting my arms around it, I’ll give you what I can. Let’s just say this is so darned big that even the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has said,

…this ought to be reason enough for Congress, and the poo-bahs at next month’s U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen, to back off any dramatic new anti-carbon measures until we know whether the scandal goes deeper than this.

Just a few short days ago, thousands of emails apparently from the Climate Research Unit of England’s global-warming alarmist University of East Anglia magically appeared on the internet. These emails, if they’re genuine (to me, this is all to elaborate to be itself a hoax), prove that those perpetrating the massive scam that is “global climate change” have intentionally, erm, lost or destroyed or ignored altogether data suggesting that not only is there no global warming, that it’s not man-made or man-caused. Indeed, some emails specifically say things like, “I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temperatures to each series for the last 20 years (ie, from 1981 onwards) and from the 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline [in temperature].” This one, by the way, has already inspired its own t-shirt.

No adjusting of data fit a predetermined idea here!

Already, investigations of the scientists and universities involved are being called for. ClimateDepot.com is having an outright field day disseminating the latest and greatest in what should be a gargantuan news story spawning investigation after “gotcha” interview after expose. This is particularly the case when many, many Freedom Of Information Act requests had been made by various groups, individuals, and outlets asking for the data used to provide us with the models (language warning, but…it’s understandable…) predicting planetary doom and misery…and when we learn, perusing the emails (subject to FOIA requests), that those involved were asking others to delete related emails in order to evade the request. That, by the way, is illegal.

Jones tells Mann that he is sending station data. Says that if McIntyre requests it under FoI he will delete it rather than hand it over. Says he will hide behind data protection laws. Says Rutherford screwed up big time by creating an FTP directory for Osborn. Says Wigley worried he will have to release his model code. (1107454306)

So not only was there a conspiracy to lie to and defraud good, well-meaning people, but a conspiracy to evade the law?

Already, the Competitive Enterprise Institute has filed three notices of Intent to File Suit against NASA and the Goddard Institute of Space Studies over their refusal to provide the requested documents under the FOIA.

It is, quite frankly, a huge pile of poo, a smoking gun, a smear upon real science in general but ‘climate’ science and paleoclimatology in particular. In my current state, I cannot really begin to go through the data I’ve managed to figure out, but you are certainly most welcome to do so yourself. There are some real goodies here, for instance.

The NyQuil calleth, so enjoy your reading. It’s almost comical, really, and would be were it not so dangerous to liberty. Following, please view this short (about eight minutes) interview about the topic featuring none other than Chris Horner. It’s a good overview of what is going on, and you even get to listen to an “eco-entrepreneur” make no sense at all using no data, no facts, and no logic.

Ohio’s John Boehner is, God bless him, filibustering on the floor right now. A Mr. Smith moment? Guess it’s better to take a stand late than not at all, particularly when the republic is on the altar of this fascist, scam-founded bill. Boehner is reading through the 300-page addendum Waxman, aka “Phantom of the Congress”, slammed into the HR 2454 bill at three o’clock in the morning. You can watch live on CSPAN.

CALL THE HOUSE NOW and tell them to VOTE NO on cap & trade!

The lights of our cities and monuments are a symbol of human achievement, of what mankind has accomplished in rising from the cave to the skyscraper. Earth Hour presents the disturbing spectacle of people celebrating those lights being extinguished. Its call for people to renounce energy and to rejoice at darkened skyscrapers makes its real meaning unmistakably clear: Earth Hour symbolizes the renunciation of industrial civilization.

The real meaning of “Earth Hour”, Keith Lockitch

Those wishing to celebrate Earth Hour…do not need to take part in Human Achievement Hour. “Earth Hour is a viable alternative to human achievement hour,” says CEI Senior Fellow Eli Lehrer. “Those who wish to celebrate Earth Hour should sit in the dark, turn off the heat, and breathe as little as possible.”

Around the world tomorrow night (unless you’re one of those feisty rebels in Nashville, from what I’ve heard, though students there are being encouraged to wear black or dark blue tomorrow to promote the ‘blackout’), people are supposed to be shutting out the lights for “earth hour“. Doing so is meant to “cast a vote for earth” and draw attention to the scam that is “global warming”.

We will not be participating.

In fact, my intention is to flip on every freaking light switch in our house in protest and as my way of casting a vote…for liberty. For progress. (Real progress, not Obama’s idea of it.)

This sort of thing is not just indicative of people’s wishing to care for the earth, but it is their demanding that mankind submit to it. Not only is this mindset remarkable hubris, but borderline (if not complete) derangement. Certainly we are to be good caretakers of the planet God has graciously blessed us with, but for one thing, we are to place no other gods before God. We are not to worship the creation instead of its (and our) Creator. Furthermore, God told us to subdue the earth, wisely utilizing its resources to glorify Himself and to provide for ourselves. He told us to have dominion over it, and explained that He had given it and all the living things within it for our own good. Indeed, it was to man and only man God said these things; to the other living things, He only commanded that they be fruitful and multiply. Man alone was given both the authority and the order to take advantage of all earth has to offer. *

Obviously, those participating in tomorrow’s absurd “earth hour” don’t care about this, and some might even revel in turning out their lights as a symbol not only of their solidarity with the planet but as symbolic of flatly (and childishly) rebelling against God the Creator.

There is another angle, though (it is, unfortunately, necessary for conservatives and Christians to point out all of the above as well as the asterisked bit when discussing environmental concerns, because folks tend to think we’re all for endangered whaleburgers and spicy condor wings dipped in cheetah-bald eagle sauce), and Meghan Cox Gurdon explains it perfectly.

On our kitchen bulletin board, we used to have a dog-eared Mercator-style photograph of the world…The image was shot from space at night, and at a glance, it showed where on Earth people could use artificial light when the sun goes down.

You could see the shape of the oceans by the glimmering of electric light along their edges. Large parts of Europe and the United States were lit up like, well, Los Angeles.

The entire length of Japan blazed in the darkness. Africa, partly because of poverty and partly because it’s just so big, had only pinpoints showing areas of concentrated population.

And it was obvious where the border lay between North Korea and South Korea, because north of the 38th parallel everything was pitch black.

As I enjoyed pointing out to the children, this wasn’t a map that showed electricity: It was a picture of progress, prosperity and freedom. For by their darkness, shall ye recognize poverty and tyranny!

But now, this coming Saturday, we’re all supposed to embrace the darkness.

One can’t help but note the symbolism there. Methinks Gurdon didn’t phrase her thought this way accidentally.

On a Web site set up to promote the thing, we’re given a stark choice: “You can VOTE EARTH by switching off your lights for one hour. Or you can vote global warming by leaving your lights on.”

That’s the choice?

Actually, there are plenty of other options. …You might choose to go salsa dancing in a gaily-lit club, so as to enjoy a weekend night out.

Or if you have the misfortune to live in one of the world’s more blighted and corrupt corners, you might have to sit in the usual darkness caused by the usual blackouts wishing for some other engine of carbon dioxide than your own nostrils.

The witty disbelievers at the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington have their own idea — a Human Achievement Hour to coincide with Saturday night’s global orgy of dark earthiness.

In a press release, CEI cheerfully applauded organizations such as the Kennedy Center, Wal-Mart, Target and the United States Marine Corps for keeping the lights on (and, in the case of the Marines, for continuing “combat and humanitarian operations around the world”) throughout Saturday night.

“We salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible,” said Myron Ebell, CEI’s director of energy and global warming policy.

Quite right. This Saturday night, I hope you’ll join me in causing a beautiful blaze of light to shine out your windows.

…We can send our own powerful message to Copenhagen: Americans are people of light and progress and innovation, not peasants willing to scrabble about in darkness.

Hear, hear. Us too. And as we sit on our sofa, perhaps watching an old movie or playing a game, we’ll remember to thank and bless God for being so generous with mankind that He gave some men the brilliance to understand the mysteries of electricity and come up with ways for mankind to harness it. It is through God’s graciousness and generosity that man has achieved anything at all.

Furthermore, for those of you complaining that you can’t see stars at night…God gave men brilliance not only to domesticate animals like the horse, but the genius to come up with the miracle of the internal combustion engine. Please stop grumbling and utilize one of these truly fantastic things. We’re more than happy to sit with y’all on our little patio sipping sangria staring at the stars in the summertime, too; though we’re surrounded by large cities, we’ve no problem seeing countless beautiful pinpoints of light in our nighttime sky and quite enjoy the stargazing.

As for those light bulbs…Fire ‘em up!

More common sense:

This “Earth Hour”, leave the lights on at the National Post.

Alternative to Earth Hour from India’s Objectiveman.

“Let’s make sure that the precious inventions that freed the world from darkness are never taken for granted, and especially not destroyed by the anti-man philosophy of environmentalism and “Earth Hour.” Let’s change the tide of the culture by celebrating human achievement and literally fending off the darkness.” at The New Clarion.

* Man was set over creation as its caretaker and curator, and God is not big on muzzling the ox while it treads the grain. Nor was all this a suggestion; it was an imperative. It was His intention that we utilize the natural wealth He infused into the planet for our own benefit as well as His glory (because He glories in the creativity He has given to man). Though the term we find in Genesis for “subdue”, kabash, tends to have conquering, enslaving connotations, that obviously doesn’t fit here; God’s original intention was not for mankind to be locked into some sort of struggle or battle with the earth. Instead, as the NET Bible explains,

The general meaning of the verb appears to be “to bring under one’s control for one’s advantage.” In Gen 1:28 one might paraphrase it as follows: “harness its potential and use its resources for your benefit.” In an ancient Israelite context this would suggest cultivating its fields, mining its mineral riches, using its trees for construction, and domesticating its animals.

The Amplified Bible, um, amplifies this divine command parenthetically as “using all its vast resources in the service of God and man”.

(Hey, the book is about environmental stewardship, after all…just building a foundation…)

Anyhow, he’s right, I should spend these cold months reading up on the plant world, so I’m better prepared to properly care for the plants God allows me to put into our own little plot of dirt down here. Duly penitent, I started reading through my long-neglected “Gardening” folder in the RSS reader. Usually the stuff I find there isn’t exactly of general interest (and more often than not, every single garden blogger seems to believe all other garden bloggers, readers, and gardeners are hard-core environmentalists with the budget to put cisterns beneath their homes while being willing not to shoot the deer eating the roses and veggies).

But one of those more, ah, government-worshipping blogs (and truly, I can’t recall which or I’d credit them) pointed to a Minnesotan gent named the Renegade Gardner, who included the following wonderfulness in his version of year-end awards (love his gardening philosophy, by the way). Are you familiar with…Locavores?

Restaurants preparing locally grown food is a wonderful concept, and an even better reality, where enhanced flavors due to freshness coupled with reduced energy consumption from transport provide a real benefit to businesses and consumers. At the grocery store or farmer’s market, buying produce, dairy products and meats grown and raised nearby, while hardly a brand new opportunity, is also a simple choice that makes sense.

Of course, it wasn’t long before a small but vocal portion of Americans embraced the “locavore” movement and proclaimed it as the perfect solution to every food supply and energy consumption ill. Often entwined with other extremists from the organic food and animal rights brigades, they wonder how anyone could be so stupid as to not join them in envisioning a future society where each neighborhood diligently grows its own food and purchases what it can’t at nearby markets, supplied by small farmers who raise happy pigs and free-range chickens on the outskirts of town.

Well, humans tried that. It was called The Middle Ages, and if that had remained our food production modus operandi, there wouldn’t be any humans left on the planet to attempt it a second time (much to the pleasure, however ephemeral, of the animal rights extremists). Veering toward that model today would certainly result in massive loss of human life, considering how a global food market is necessary to provide food for those who—due to arid, infertile land and/or corrupt governments—cannot provide it for themselves. It also flies in the face of the fact that farmers, American and beyond, rely heavily on exporting in order to earn a living.

So to the happy, realistic locavores of America—thumbs up. It’s a fine option, and if my choices of locally grown foodstuffs available at my nearby markets increase in the future, hey, all the better. But I also maintain my freedom to splurge on Florida oranges, California asparagus, Belgian chocolates and Danish sugar cookies. I live in Minnesota, after all. Any of you ever tried Minnesota-raised foie gras? It’s terrible.

Hear, hear. Now, I love our farmer’s markets (there are three very close to home). More than that, we even grow our own veggies in our little backyard; the food is tastier, fresher, and less expensive, not to mention untainted by whatever it is we’re supposed to be afraid of.

At the same time, though, the growing season is short. Indeed, this year, nighttime temperatures dipped into the near-freezing zone as late as early May, and autumn frosts came quite early as well. Fresh, local food is in such short supply as to be almost nonexistent past November (the markets shut down in October).

Being a “locavore” is fine, just as being a vegetarian is fine. What most folks hate is being preached to (as opposed to being enthusiastically talked to by reasonable persons) about such things. Worse than the preaching is the snide attitude of those who ostentatiously polish their halos, talking about what angelic little consumers they are, refusing to buy out-of-season foods, much less out-of-state ones. In fact, these folks are almost worse than the ones demanding we all become locavores or vegans or basket-weavers.

What all of these people seem to forget is that we’re all individuals, and someone living in Minnesota, Montana, or New York State has far different concerns and weather issues to deal with than someone in Tennessee or North Carolina, much less someone in Arizona or Florida. Moreover, not everyone has a yard, or the time, physical ability, or space to can and store their home-grown produce (think Manhattanites, or any apartment-dweller). Many communities don’t have farmer’s markets, much less farms raising antibiotic-free cattle and poultry within driving distance who are willing to sell to locals.

Pure locavorism is wholly unreasonable and, frankly, un-doable for a large number of Americans. While most folks enjoy patronizing local growers and cultivating their own, not all can, and we can’t be surprised when some evil, earth-hating soul in Michigan decides they want grapefruit and pineapple any time of year, or even, Heaven forbid, asparagus out of season. This is particularly so when supposedly malevolent companies like Wal-Mart and Kroger are buying produce from local farmers for local stores, and broadcasting from the rooftops that one can support Farmer Vern down the street right at the supermarket.

The wide variety of (relatively) fresh foods most Americans can choose from at the supermarket truly is one of the wonders of the world, and we shouldn’t excoriate them for adding these things, however exotic or distantly grown, to their diet; I’d much rather have Minnesotans eating oranges or clementines than dying of scurvy or, perhaps just as dietarily dangerous, eating pre-processed garbage from the snack aisle (okay, so I’m a bit of a food snob myself).

As Don writes, locavorism is a terrific concept, and I’m all for it myself. But only if it’s done with reasonableness and and the understanding that denying someone the opportunity to try a starfruit, sesame seeds, or coconut just because it doesn’t grow within 25 miles of home is absurd, and not a little anti-liberty.

“If everyone started calling fish ‘sea kittens,’ they’d be a lot less likely to violently kill them for food, painfully hook them for ‘sport,’ or cruelly confine them to aquariums,” a spokeswoman said.

Note that last bit there? Remember, the goal of PETA and other animal-”rights” groups is not only compulsory veganism (don’t get me started), but the banning of pet ownership.

Well. Let PETA be PETA, I say.

Though one wonders: Will we now see a spike in fish sales thanks to the humungous numbers of cat-haters in the world?

Just curious. Chances are, my dad is already at the supermarket, stocking up on sea kitten steaks, sea-kitten sticks in beer batter, and Maryland-style kittencakes. Heck, now we might even be able to convince him that sushi is worth eating: after all, it’s not fish, it’s sea-kittens!

Had Fred Thompson or Duncan Hunter become president, do you think they’d have not only declared open season on punching hippies (more, more), but animal-rights wackos, too? Or is that redundant?

* I’m not linking to their pansy campaign to increase the hit count. Google, y’all.

Wink & a smile to Bret Baier of Special Report (oh, Brit! *SOB* Bret is charming, but…!)

Hopwood collected bees from several roadside sites in Kansas that had been restored to native plants, and compared them with nearby, unrestored roadsides. Not only did Hopwood find that native plants hosted more than twice as many bees and almost 30 more types than weedy sites, but she also found that this relationship held regardless of how many flowers were present.

“Even if there were a ton of exotic flowers, the roadsides that had native flowers in them still attracted more bees,” Hopwood said.

…The bees seemed to fare fine despite their proximity to speeding windshields: There were no fewer bees in plots next to heavily trafficked roads than in less-trafficked areas.

With nearly 10 million acres of roadside across the United States, it means we have more than enough opportunities to be good stewards not only of the bees, but make our country more lovely by adding native plants that also prevent erosion.

“The idea of taking what people often refer to as junk land, and, with just a little bit of effort, creating this haven for these grassland species is a way to make a difference,” said Kimberly Russell of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “We’re going to sprawl, but if you can do these little things to bring in native species, that’s a really good thing.

“It’s not going to cure everything.” Russel added. “You can’t say, ‘OK, we’ve got the roadsides to we don’t need to worry about prairie anywhere else.’ But I think taking this kind of management seriously could go a long way.”

Not only that, imagine how much more wonderful it’ll make roadtrips and even the commute…all for the cost of some seeds? Someone put those guerilla gardeners to work! They’ll probably do the sowing for free. Heck, I’d be willing to do so myself…the drive in and out of Pittsburgh would become a lot more interesting during the warm months.

Image information: The Gathering, Cesar Cabrera, Creative Commons License

Our next Vice President is a lifelong hunter who fills her freezer and feeds her family with the flesh of hooved mammals that she proudly stalked, killed and field dressed herself.

…Yet her speechwriter is an animal-rightist and vegan activist whose book was hailed by PETA in 2003 as their “Book of the Year!” And for excellent reasons. In his book, Governor Palin’s speechwriter denounces hunters as: “assassins … miscreants… bullies and cowards taking out their problems on animals.” …Matthew Scully denounces the sport of hunting as “a debauchery..an abomination!” Hunting magazines are “the pornography of blood-lust. And like other obscenities today, a multi-million dollar industry…. Sport hunters operate in a subculture like pornographers.”

…”groups like Ducks Unlimited, Quail Unlimited and Pheasants Forever, far from demonstrating those timeless “rural values” that “urbanites” simply can’t understand–these organizations reflect some of the worst traits of modern society.”

Wow, strong words! Yet Palin and Scully aren’t at each other’s throats. Amazing!

Now, if you are a hunter, you’ll want to read the entire post from American Thinker’s Humberto Fontova. He does a fine job of pointing out that, unlike most Americans, hunters actually contribute more to the well-being of nature than your average citizen, including PETA peeps. To the tune of nearly $2 billion dollars in 2007, to be exact.

And the meat thing?

A lot of people seem to think man doesn’t “need” meat. But this is silly, because frankly, there are proteins and other necessary things in meat not obtainable from any other food source. As someone whose health requires that I eat well — by which I mean eating healthfully — I know this stuff pretty well. Additionally, the basic rules of biology point to our being meat-eaters of the omnivorian set.

…note that The Big Bad Wolf, The Lion King, Winnie the Pooh and Tigger all have eyes that point forward, for the purpose of stalking the sources of their nutrition, whereas Bambi and Thumper have their eyes on the side of the head, to detect and attempt to evade these stalkers. Note that we humans also have our eyes pointing forward, like all predators. Our digestive system (hence, nutritional needs) likewise follow those of lions and tigers and bears. “Fifty percent of the fatty acids that make up the human central nervous system are only available in meat.” [Jen here: Some say 60%.] That’s not the Beef Council or The Texas Cattleman’s Association. That’s Britain’s Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine.

Interestingly, and if you’ll excuse my tangent, some scientists believe that game meat is even better for us that cattle, since it is what our ancestors ate, and there is a very small possibility that our bodies have adjusted to the different kind of meat cattle happens to be. (This goes for your pets especially, which is why a raw-food diet is far better for your dog and cat than the dried pellets and bizarre reconstructions of food found at the pet store.)

So Mrs Palin could inform her speechwriter that his digestive tract is much more akin to the Lion King’s than to King Louie the Orangutan’s, and utterly unlike Bambi and Thumper’s. …unlike the herbivores he seeks to mimic, his stomach secretes hydrochloric acid — and for one reason: to digest meat. That acid means the human stomach breaks down Moose-burgers in no time — much faster than his tofu, which is as unnatural a food for homo sapiens as granola. In fact, cellulose which makes up the walls of all plant cells, cannot be digested by the human digestive system at all, unlike grilled Caribou backstrap, which like all meat ingested by humans, crumbles down in two hours flat.

Tofu and other soy-based products are indeed horrendously unnatural for man to eat, and frankly, are downright harmful, especially to women and unborn children in the wombs of soy-eating women. But I’ve gotten pretty tired of beating that horse.

So to speak.

So, for a human, veganism is an attempt to fool Mother Nature. And as we all know: that’s not nice. Vitamin B-12, for instance, is only available in meat. And according to the Andrews University Nutrition Council (themselves vegetarians who take it in pill form), “Vitamin B-12 is essential for the development of red blood cells and it plays an important role in the normal function of the nervous system. A vitamin B-12 deficiency usually leads to disorientation, depression, mood disturbances, irritability, memory loss, and dementia.”

This explains much. Every vegetarian I’ve met is a Democrat.

Love it. The comments are superb as well. Now, I must say that if someone wants to be vegan or a vegetarian, that is just fine. Indeed, we eat vegetarian meals a couple of times a week, more often in summer when tons of fresh produce is available; for one thing, it’s lighter and easier to cook, and for another…Why not? I sincerely don’t mind vegetarians at all…as long as you leave my steak, venison, poultry, and fish alone. I won’t throw a T-bone on your plate if you don’t try to steal it off mine.

Additionally, one must keep in mind that some of us (myself included) can’t eat the meat “substitutes” because our bodies cannot process them properly or, worse, these “substitutes” (and there is no such thing, really) are harmful to us, soy being foremost among these. Many people get along just fine without meat, but not everyone can do so.

Additionally, and for some reason animal rights types don’t seem to understand this, if we don’t hunt, as it turns out, the prey-animal populations tend to get too big, which leads to starving, deformed, and generally ill animals. For some reason this doesn’t happen as often with predators (until we stop allowing humans to hunt down or trap the ones harassing the homestead, interestingly enough); nature seems to deal with them pretty fairly most of the time as far as I know. But deer? Rabbits? Nope. They overpopulate very, very quickly. Personally, were I Faline (or anything, really), I’d rather die of a gunshot wound than by starving to death or slowly wasting away due to some sort of malnutrition-caused illness.

Anyhow. Good stuff, and a very interesting conversation over at the original article.