Gorezilla Vs. Science

James Taylor (not the singer) writes in the Chicago Sun-Times today citing scientific publications that prove, rather handily, that Al "Gorezilla" Gore badly distorted the evidence in his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. In fact, 'distort' is probably too weak a term. Many of the claims in the movie turn out to be completely false.

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."

Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, "Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine."

Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.

Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.

There's more at the link. Taylor invites Gore to try to lead by example and follow what Gore pleads for in his new book – to stop distorting science to reach a political goal. But with Gore's history of hypocrisy, it seems unlikely that he'll do anything of the sort.

“Critical”

The British government has just raised the terrorism alert level for that country to "Critical", the highest alert level.

GLASGOW, Scotland – Two men rammed a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance in what appeared to be the third attempted terror attack on Britain in two days, witnesses said.

Hours later, Britain raised its security alert to "critical" — the highest level possible and an indication that terrorist attacks are imminent. U.S. airports increased safety precautions.

Both suspects were arrested at the Glasgow airport, Scotland's largest. One, his body engulfed in flames as police pulled him from the vehicle, was hospitalized.

Obviously, they believe they have a real problem right now. After three attempts in the past day or so, they appear to be correct.

Glasgow Updates

The Daily Mail is now reporting that the crash of a vehicle into the Glasgow airport terminal appears to have been intentional. Officials are still not calling it terror-related, but some witnesses sure are. Witnesses report that some bystanders who saw one of the two men who were in the vehicle with his clothing on fire shouted, "Let him burn."

One eyewitness, who knocked the terrorist suspect over with his forearm said: "The man was wrestling with police on the ground.

"I had seen him and the other man get out of the car. The flames were burning through his clothes. Police were telling everybody to get back.

"Some people who were close by shouted "let him burn". I saw the holidaymaker who had tackled him with blood streaming from his face and I myself had knocked into him with my forearm."

The pair were held down before police led them away.

The flames from the Jeep were put out with a fire extinguisher but smoke continued to billow out from the side of the airport. Passengers were cleared from the terminal building amid fears that this was a terrorist attack.

The incident took place just a day after a double car bomb attack on central London was foiled. It is also a peak time of year for holidaymakers, as schools across Scotland have already broken up for their summer holidays.

Taxi driver Ian Crosby, who witnessed the carnage, said he was in no doubt that it was a terrorist attack.

"It looks to me like these people were intent on doing some serious damage," he told the BBC.

He saw a small explosion which looked like it was coming from the back of the vehicle.

"There was smoke coming from inside of the back seats," he said. "Immediately I realised this was a terrorist attack."

"Somebody had planned this. This was no accident."

He praised the bravery of those who put "their lives at risk" to stop the men.

Others: Hot Air (with a big round up of coverage), Jawa Report, Ed Driscoll, Pajamas Media, The American Pundit, JammieWearingFool, BitsBlog, FullosseousFlap, Riehl World View ,

Burning Car Crashes Into Glasgow Airport

Witnesses report that a burning Land Rover was driven into the terminal building at the Glasgow airport in Scotland. There are no reports of injuries, but police were seen "scuffling" with the driver of the vehicle.

Police have confirmed a vehicle has driven into the terminal building in Glasgow Airport and is now on fire.

Earlier, the BBC reported witnesses saying a car on fire had tried to drive into the airport through the main doors.

The car's occupants were seen fighting with police inside the terminal, they said.

The Strathclyde Fire Service is at the scene. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Witness James Edgar told Sky News he was in the airport during the incident.

He said a four-wheel drive, believed to be a Land Rover, tried to drive into the building, but was stopped by barriers.

"I was in the airport booking a holiday, suddenly people were running as if they were missing their flight, but then we were told to get out of the airport," he said.

The reports are very confused right now, so I'll update if more information becomes available.

Summer Campaign

The reptile legions of the Animal Uprising™ have launched their summer offensive, sending alligators to invade Virginia this year. A woman in Reston, Virginia had to wrestle on of the beasts into a guinea pig container to keep it from chowing down on the neighborhood children.

Erin Kemp has had lots of practice rounding up her kids' guinea pigs, so capturing a stray alligator that wandered into her Reston neighborhood Monday night seemed like no big deal.

"You see it on Animal Planet," said Kemp, who watched the late Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter," do it lots of times on his popular TV show.

"I wasn't really scared," she said. "It was kind of exciting."

Kemp, 45, a stay-at-home mom, spotted the 2 1/2 -foot-long gator when she was taking out the garbage about 6 p.m. It noticed her, too.

"It was definitely coming after me; it was not friendly," Kemp said.

She told her neighbor, Erin Miller, 9, who was out walking her dog and also saw the gator, to run for it. Before grabbing the pen she uses to corral the guinea pigs, Kemp made sure her own kids and the family pets were all safely inside.

Then she called Fairfax County Animal Control for backup.

As neighbors started gathering — and her 16-year-old daughter slipped back outside to watch — Kemp tried to single-handedly capture the gator, but it bolted. In the panic that ensued, Kemp picked up the pen again and threw it over the gator while her daughter tried to toss a towel over its head to subdue it.

Ah, the towel on the alligator trick. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard would like to draw Ms. Kemp's attention to the little disclaimer that runs at the bottom of the television screen that says, "Don't try this at home." Authorities in Australia have seen a large increase in the number of poisonous snake bites in recent years as people tried to emulate what they saw Irwin do on television.

Sick, Sick, Sick

The Hamas television show that featured a ripoff of Mickey Mouse named Farfour indoctrinating children to jihad has ended its run. With the mouse getting beaten to death by an actor portraying an Israeli. This is beyond sick.

 Hamas TV on Friday broadcast what it said was the last episode of a weekly children's show featuring "Farfour," a Mickey Mouse look-alike who had made worldwide headlines for preaching Islamic domination and armed struggle to youngsters.

In the final skit, Farfour was beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, Farfour called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.

The weekly show, featuring a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice, had attracted worldwide attention because the character urged Palestinian children to fight Israel. It was broadcast on Hamas-affiliated Al-Aksa TV.

Station officials said Friday that Farfour was taken off the air to make room for new programs.

And Jimmy Carter wants to provide funds to these people. Presumably then they could make even more sick programs. It is utter and complete depravity to treat children like this.

And Jimmy Carter wants to provide funds to these people. Presumably then they could make even more sick programs. It is utter and complete depravity to treat children like this.

Rampaging Through The Media

The Albany, Oregon Democrat-Herald newspaper got a first-hand look at the Animal Uprising™ this week. They were, of course, oblivious to the implications.  

Employees of the Democrat-Herald received a surprise visit Tuesday morning from a wandering blacktail deer. Pictured are Cathy Ingalls, left, Cheryl Surendra and Gregg Burgess. Albany police chased the deer around downtown for some time, eventually using a Tazer in an attempt to stop the animal. The deer pulled free of the Tazer probes, however, and continued running, eventually making its way toward the river. Officers lost sight of the deer at Water Avenue and Main Street.

Yet another Taser-proof animal and they report it as just a deer wandering about. The animal overlords have been sending these shock-proof shock troops out for some time, of course. Obviously, the newspaper has been cowed by the deer and is ducking out of reporting the truth.

“Get Your Buns Outta That Car”

That was the line the police presumably had to use when they pulled over what they thought was a stolen vehicle. A suspicious officer had run the plates of the vehicle and it came back as stolen, so he did his duty. Yep, he popped the Wienermobile.

MADISON, Wis. – Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer … car thief? An Arizona Highway Patrol officer who ran the Wienermobile's plates as the vehicle traveled for a promotion briefly thought the giant hot dog on wheels was, well, hot

The Wienermobile was on the road for a promotion in which contestants sing the Oscar Mayer jingle for a shot at appearing in a commercial and winning "American Idol" tickets.

The 27-foot-long, 11-foot-tall vehicle was in a construction zone in downtown Tucson Wednesday, slowing traffic. Officer Korey Lankow caught up to it and ran its "Y-U-M-M-Y" license plate to make sure it was street legal.

The plate came back as stolen. Lankow pulled over the Wienermobile, and two more officers arrived to help.

It turns out someone had indeed stolen the "Y-U-M-M-Y" plate off the Wienermobile in Columbia, Mo., back in February. Oscar Mayer officials reported the theft to police there, company spokeswoman Syd Lindner said. The company got a replacement YUMMY plate that same month and notified police in Missouri, Lindner said.

Officer Lankow is now the target of merciless ribbing from his fellows. This will undoubtedly go down as the wurst experience he's ever had. Who says cops only chase doughnuts?

North Korea To Shut Down Reactor

The International Atomic Energy Agency and North Korean officials have reached an agreement on how to monitor the shutdown of the reactor at Yongbyon to ensure compliance with the agreement North Korea has reached with the US and allies.

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency returned Friday to the North Korean capital from a two-day trip to the Yongbyon nuclear complex, broadcaster APTN reported. It was the first IAEA visit to the facility since U.N. monitors were expelled from the country in 2002.

"We have concluded this understanding, what our monitoring and verification activities are in principle," IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen said in footage shot by APTN. He did not provide specifics of the agreement.

Heinonen said his team, which was scheduled to leave Pyongyang for Beijing on Saturday, was preparing to report to the IAEA board of governors within one week, but noted that the timing of the shutdown was up to the six countries involved in North Korea nuclear talks.

"This is for the six parties to decide," he said in the APTN footage. "You have to ask them the time scale. When they do (decide), we will be ready."

An IAEA official in Vienna, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to media, said that a board meeting would likely take place July 9, with the 35 member nations expected to approve sending the first inspection team to the North as quickly as possible.

North Korea pledged to close and seal Yongbyon in exchange for economic aid and political concessions in an agreement with the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The purpose of the IAEA trip was to discuss how the agency's inspectors would monitor and verify a shutdown.

Not that anyone should be naive enough to trust the North Koreans not to cheat if they think they can get away with it, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

Back From The Shadows

I don't know who is worse, the bloviating politicians who use idiotic descriptions of illegal immigrants "living in the shadows" or the fawning press that reports things like that with a straight face. Kathryn Jean Lopez points out a picture carried in the New York Times showing a group of illegal immigrants brought to the Capitol building by advocates of the failed immigration "reform" bill. There they are, sitting in the Capitol lounging on benches. Five of them sitting in the "shadows".

I think that is one of the reasons there was so much grassroots opposition to the Senate bill. Everyone but the Senators in Washington are about tripping over all the illegals. There are so many of them that they are casting a shadow at this point, not hiding in them. But if Washington will not first get serious about enforcing existing immigration law, then the public will have to find elected representatives that will. If the argument is true that we desperately need a huge number of workers to do "jobs that Americans won't do" then our nation should be able to handle a large influx of legal immigrants. We do not need a tidal wave of people flooding over the borders without any control.

Car Bomb Found In London

What police are deeming a potentially very deadly car bomb was found in central London. It was defused by bomb experts but could have cause significant casualties had it detonated. The device was inside a Mercedes and consisted of propane cylinders, gasoline and nails.

Police have defused a car bomb found near Piccadilly Circus in London's West End.

The "explosive device", discovered at 2am, posed a real and substantial threat to the surrounding area, according to a police source.

Specialist officers have made the bomb safe and loaded the car, a silver Mercedes, onto a lorry to be taken from the scene.

Police were alerted this morning to a suspicious vehicle in The Haymarket area in the heart of theatreland, close to Regent Street's popular shopping area.

A witness reported seeing gas canisters being removed from the car, believed to be a silver Mercedes, at around 4am.

The vehicle was covered in a blue tarpaulin as forensic teams examined it.

The area, including Piccadilly Underground station, has been cordoned off and will remain closed for some time, police said.

Scotland Yard said detectives from Counter Terrorism Command were investigating the potential bomb plot.

There is no indication yet who built the device or why. While the British press is calling it a car bomb, the New York Times is only calling it a "suspected" one. You know, it might be any number of things when propane cylinders, gasoline and lots of nails are wired together with a detonator. Maybe a planter, right NYT?

High On Corn

Actually, high in the corn. With a car. And with two police cars in hot pursuit.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – A Dutch farmer watched in disbelief as a driver under the influence of cocaine drove a slalom course through his corn field, only to be joined by two police vehicles in hot pursuit, adding to the damage.

Police, backed up by a helicopter, eventually managed to corner the 35-year-old driver after he careered into a neighboring orchard and crashed into a ditch.

"Shoot out two tires… then the problem is solved," irate farmer Ad van Schendel told police, according to the Brabants Dagblad newspaper.

That last comment shows how ignorant some folks are about guns. Shooting out a tire is not at all easy. In fact, it is impossible with many handguns. But we digress. There is a picture posted of the damage over at this site. The good news for the farmer? He now has a ready made corn maze! It could be a gold mine for him.

DEAD

Ed Morrisey watched the cloture vote and live blogged it. The immigration bill is dead. a flat majority – 53 Senators – voted against cloture. Not even close.

UPDATE: Now, if we can start getting real enforcement actions like this, we may be able to make real progress on getting the situation back under control. Then we can really address the issue.

Dissolution Of The Three Ds

Daniel Henninger, in his weekly Opinion Journal column (via Real Clear Politics) takes a last look at the US Supreme Court ruling in the Morse v. Frederick case. That's the one everyone will forever remember as the "Bong hits 4 Jesus" case. Henninger recommends reading the opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas which discusses the history of the decline and fall of American public education. Somewhere along the line we lost the "Three Ds" as Henninger calls them: decorum, decency and diligence.

What he's done is rummage back through school cases, mostly from 19th century state courts, to invoke the idea of a public school. His premise is that the schools' role was most certainly in loco parentis, in that they and parents broadly agreed on what made an adolescent grow into a good person; what schools need least is court interference in this hard job.

A North Carolina court in 1837 spoke of the need "to control stubbornness, to quicken diligence and to reform bad habits." In 1886, a Maine court said school leaders must "quicken the slothful, spur the indolent and restrain the impetuous." An 1859 Vermont court spoke of preserving "decency and decorum."

Missouri's court in 1885 found reasonable a rule that "forbade the use of profane language." Indiana's in 1888 ruled in favor of "good deportment." An 1843 manual for schoolmasters speaks of "a core of common values" and teaching the "power of self-control, and a habit of postponing present indulgence to a greater future good."

Antique words from a world long gone? Even Justice Thomas admits "the idea of treating children as though it were the 19th century would find little support today." I'm not so sure about that. How else can one explain the flight from the public schools–into home-schooling, parochial schools, private schools and even charter schools, which invest public principals with greater control? Parents are spending thousands to have what American schools had from 1859 to 1959–some basic measure of the Three Ds: decorum, decency and diligence. Self-control as a higher "common value" than out-of-control.

Justice Thomas argues that the 1969 Tinker case dragged the schools into a morass of arcane First Amendment jurisprudence. He's right.

Here's a final quotation from Monday's "Bong" decision to pass out on street corners: "Students will test the limits of acceptable behavior in myriad ways better known to schoolteachers than to judges; school officials need a degree of flexible authority to respond to disciplinary challenges; and the law has always considered the relationship between teachers and students special. Under these circumstances, the more detailed the Court's supervision becomes, the more likely its law will engender further disputes among teachers and students. Consequently, larger numbers of those disputes will likely make their way from the schoolhouse to the courthouse. Yet no one wishes to substitute courts for school boards, or to turn the judge's chambers into the principal's office." More right-wing rant from Clarence Thomas? Nope, that's liberal Justice Stephen Breyer's concurrence.

The loss of that set of common values is a real problem. It is not a liberal of conservative problem – it is a problem for all of this society. There is plenty of evidence that children need limits on what they do – and that they crave that definition of boundaries. We have somehow lost sight of that when it comes to our schools.

Do Nothing, Get Raise

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, having done virtually nothing whatsoever since taking over in January, has patted itself on the back and given itself a raise in pay. Welcome to Washington.

Democrats have for weeks been privately wringing their hands over whether to accept an automatic 2.5 percent pay increase, fretting that the raise may appear inconsistent with their campaign promises.

But last night, the House made its peace with it, rejecting a bid to block the automatic cost-of-living raise of about $4,400 on a 244 to 181 vote.

Sources say Majority Leader Steny Hoyer supported accepting a bump in the $165,200-per-year salary since the Democrats kept their word by quickly pushing through the first federal minimum-wage increase in nearly a decade after taking power in January.

But Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel– ever conscious of ensuring that Democrats stay in power — was said to be a bit skittish about it, because Democrats made the raise a big issue during the elections. The Illinois congressman has long donated his salary increases to charity.

Emanuel is right to be skittish. The Democratic noise machine was in full power mode yesterday to try to get a meme started that the Republicans were "obstructionist" – for using exactly the same tactics in the Senate that the Democrats used when in the minority, mind you. (When they were doing it, they painted themselves as champions of the underdog.)  Memeorandum had a bunch of prominent left-wingers all spouting the same well-coordinated "spontaneous" language on that subject. But there is no cover for them in the House where nothing has been accomplished of any real value since Pelosi took the gavel. Yet they just took a raise for themselves. Expect that little fact to come back to haunt them around election time.