in light of the failure and prmature closing of the Durban meetings.  And because my rss reader burped and mislocated a bunch of files that I just relocated!

 CO2 may not warm the planet as much as thought.

What was going on with the East Anglia coverup. “’We don’t know which data belongs to which station, correct?’. That’s staggering, it’s gotta be in the running for some kind of truth in advertising award. Shame he wasn’t that honest with me. Instead, he worked hard to obscure that fact. . . . My conclusion after all this time is that Phil truly didn’t get it. He actually didn’t understand. He was not the owner of private data. He was the curator of public data. He didn’t understand that FOI requests are legal documents. Throughout the whole episode he treated them as some kind of optional request to grant or not as he saw fit. In this he was aided and abetted by David Palmer. . . . The saddest part is that the new revelations of the unthinking, off-hand venality of these main scientists of the AGW movement have lost their power to shock. That is a tragedy for climate science in particular and for science in general.”

Climategate scientists DID collude with government officials to hide research that didn’t fit their apocalyptic global warming. 

Back Off Man, We're Scientists

on a roll

Chris Christie heckles ‘Occupy’ protesters in Iowa.

“Here’s the way I feel about it: They represent an anger in our country that Barack Obama has caused,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd. “He’s a typical cynical Chicago… politician who runs for office and promises everything and then comes to office and disappoints, and so their anger is rooted not in me or Mitt Romney, their anger is rooted in the fact that they believed in this hope and change garbage.”

Christie called them disillusioned and said he “feels bad” for them.

“Now they are angry but they’re not mature enough to know they should be angry with themselves,” he said.

During yesterday's big-hug-to-Teddy-Roosevelt speech on the economy, President Obama declared that “Some billionaires have a tax rate as low as 1 percent—1 percent. That is the height of unfairness.” Billionaires who pay just a single percent of their ginormous incomes in taxes? Can you believe it?!?!

Better question: Should you?

Glenn Kessler, who writes The Washington Post's Fact Checker column, decided to look into the source of the data point about billionaire tax rates. Turns out there isn't one.

An administration official conceded the White House had no actual data to back up the president’s assertion, but argued that other reports showed that some of the wealthy pay little in taxes. [bold added]

To put it in terms Obama might use: There are some who say that that billionaires pay tax rates as low as 1 percent, but they are just making shit up don't have have any evidence for the claim.

I blew past 5200 sometime last week and didn't even notice!  Not sure which movie it was so I'll highlight three from the period that were noteworth.

First up:   Margin Call from this year.  An outstanding look at an early 24 hours of our banking crisis from inside an unnamed lending institution; how it effected those involved, from front line, bottom end workers to top dogs.  Stellar cast (Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Simon Baker, Stanley Tucci among others)  Highly recommended.

on a lighter note - I'm a fan of good heist movies, and most aren't.   Flypaper  is on the bubble.  Patrick Dempsey is caught in the middle of two simultaneous bank robberies and is trying to protect the photogenic Ashley Judd.  Leftovers fave Tim Blake Nelson gets of many of the best lines.  NOT a great movie, but light fun with a predictable yet satisfying ending.  

And finally perhaps the best of this bunch, the underrated 1995 movie  Citizen X, based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who, over many years, claimed victim to over 50 people.  The filmmakers have done a GREAT job showing, gently, without ever referencing it, the subtle changes that took place in the USSR/Russia as this movie takes place from the late 1980's into the 90's.  Stephen Rea might be remembered from his star turn in  The Crying Game three years earlier.  His understated portrayal of a man many call the greatest police detective ever is spot on.  His interactions with Donald Sutherland are priceless.  The comeuppace of Joss Ackland is telegraphed a bit but stisfying nonetheless.  In an otherwise serious piece there are some GREAT tension breaking laugh lines.  Max von Sydow is a bit over-wraught but Jeffrey DeMunn was never better.  Highly recommended, but NOT a date flick.  This is a serious evening of viewing.

dropped this a while ago ....but actually had a request to finish it up .... here goes:

#3:  Avoid making irrevocable decisions while tired, hungry or otherwise incapacitated.  NB:  Circumstances may force your hand so think ahead.

following fast on the heals of the SEC / BCS fiasco, we're treated to the MSM's treatment of the newest unemployment figures.

then I found this from Big Journolism

Take a look at these headlines:

The President’s Jobless Recovery
Frustrated Job Seekers Cause Jobless Rate To Drop
Economy Adds Few New Jobs
Low Jobless Rate Reflects Lost Hope
US Jobless Rate Drops But For Wrong Reasons

Recent headlines regarding the drop in the unemployment rate from 9% to 8.6% right?

Wrong.

Wrong, indeed. Those headlines are from 2004 when then President Bush was gearing up for re-election and the unemployment rate had dropped to 5.7%. How many millions of Americans would be jumping for joy at that unemployment rate right now? Yet, back then news outlets, including some allegedly unbiased sources like the Associated Press, were cranking out doom and gloom stories about the rate drop actually being bad news.

Here are headlines from Friday’s job numbers:

Unemployment Rate Drops To 8.6% Raising Hopes
Jobless Rate Drop Could Boost Obama
Obama Gets Economic Indicator He Can Crow About
Good News On Job Front For Obama
Jobless Rate Lowest In 2.5 Years

See the difference? I am not one to go one about “the liberal media.” That would indicate the media as a whole has a sought after liberal agenda (and some of them do but they’re easy to spot). The problem is, most journalists have an inherent bias that affects their reporting. They just don’t realize it. It just comes out naturally. The majority of those who work in journalism are Democrats/liberals.

I’m not as generous as my TheRightSphere.com colleague. I happen to think a lot more journalists intentionally skew the news to push an agenda, but the overall point is accurate. The media is dominated by Leftists and their bias comes out naturally.

Here we have almost the exact same scenario being reported in two opposite ways. The “mainstream” media is picking sides. In this case, they need to make it look like Democrats, and Obama specifically, are turning the economy around. Back in 2004, they needed to make it look like Bush (with unemployment significantly lower than it is today) was leading us in the wrong direction.

Does it get any more blatant that this?

 Obama Now Blames The Internet For Job Losses.

Meanwhile, with predictable snark, reader Alex Whittaker writes: “So if now the Internet is the reason for unemployment, I suppose we should reasonably blame Al Gore for the mess we’re in, as he invented the Internet.” Absolutely!