We love intellect - it's the intellectuals we can't stand

"In the world we live in, you can't really separate science from politics.

The money that researchers need to do their research comes from agencies that have to generate that money on the basis of exploiting public fears."

- Professor Robert Fallon (co-director of the Air Pollution Health Effects Lab at UCI)

If you have been following along with things here in California, you may know we have our own little Climategate brewing in the Golden State.

Yesterday, we directed your attention to Leslie's post on Dr. James Enstrom of UCLA who is fighting to get his job back after he blew the whistle on what he believed was a fraudulent CARB (California Air Resources Board) study that has been used as justication for jobs-killing CARB regulations and which was authored by a CARB board member with diploma mill doctoral credentials.


Check out the Reason.tv video here for the details on this travesty and the accompanying academic thuggery.




We swiped this from the always entertaining and insightful Secular Apostate who had this to say regarding this whole sorry affair:

Thankfully, the epidemic of irrationality has not infected all scientists. That’s the good news. Here’s the bad: the scientific process has been corrupted, possibly beyond repair. The attempt to stifle debate on anthropogenic global warming by hijacking scientific boards and character assassination is a perfect example of that. And now we’re seeing it in spades in California and air quality regulation.

Do yourself a favor and check out the entire post.


The poltical class in this country has been working itself into a lather the past 2-3 years over what they perceive as an anti-intellectualism that has seized the conservative movement and the country class as a whole.

They've got it all wrong. It's not an anti-intellectualism per se but rather anti-intellecuals as in we're done listening to intellectuals spew what they perceive as intellect and science because they have become hopelessly compromised and corrupted beyond redemption.

And unlike their favorite bogeyman, the collective religious right, the fact that they sit at the levers of power means their moral scolding actually gets codified into law by vote or regulatory fiat giving them much more control over our lives than Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson could ever dream of having in their worst fever swamp nightmares.

Much like our open-border adversaries, the "intellectuals" have poisoned the well with their bad faith negotiating and junk science and finding any common ground upon which to move forward is gone until they all exit the stage.

Anti-intellectualism? Quite the opposite, really.



P.S. The video suggests that Dr. Enstrom's hearing was on April 4th. We'll keep our eyes peeled to see how it went down and will post accordingly.

Stuff you just can't regulate

Boston.com has got some great pictures of the volcano, here.

(please... please click image to enlarge)



And Temple of Mut has some good science stuff on the very un-Earth Day-like behavior of Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull, here.

Perspective

Was the last 10 years really as sucky as we think it was or that we were told it was?

Still, most economic models suggest that the fundamental source of growth is new ideas, which enable us to produce more from a given set of resources. To the extent that the rest of the world becomes wealthier, there’s more innovation, as my colleague and co-blogger Alex Tabarrok, professor of economics at George Mason University, argued recently. China, for instance, is moving toward the research frontier in areas such as solar power, scientific instruments, engineering and nanoscience, all of which can benefit the United States. Unlike the situation of just a few decades ago, a genius born in Mumbai now stands a good chance of becoming a notable scientist, whether at home or abroad.

We tend to focus on big events like wars or big atrocious events like 9-11 but linked article argues that globally-speaking the Oh-Nos weren’t too shabby.

We blog, you decide.

Photo image of the day

It’s come to this.




Forget email, FaceBook or even texting. We have now come the full circle in memorializing guy-a-log , i.e., what cool bands and music nephews think their uncle needs to check out on Youtube and Itunes as detailed at a 21st birthday party a few evenings ago.

More impressive acts of faith

Hey, do you remember when they told us that if we voted for McCain it would mean a continuation of religion and of agenda-driven moral certitude holding sway over facts, reason and science? Well, they were right.

The high-priestess in the Obama administration’s faith-based global warming cabal, Carol Browner, can't be bothered with these silly hacked emails and the deletion of the East Anglia Climate Research Unit’s original raw data.

Also ignoring this scandal is our very own president, who announced last Wednesday that he will attend the long-anticipated, high-stakes global climate summit in Copenhagen. Obama's climate czar, Carol Browner, announced on the very same day that global warming science is "settled.' No need to even address those pesky e-mails that purport to show differently.

"I'm sticking with the 2,500 scientists. These people have been studying this issue for a very long time and agree this problem is real," said Ms. Browner. The 2,500 hundred scientists, by the way, are comprised mainly of United Nations bureaucrats who have a vested interest in the massive wealth re-distribution that they suggest as a solution to this non-crisis.

It should be noted that Browner, who received her B.A. in English and law degree from the University of Florida is perfectly suited to make these pronouncements from within the Obama administration.

So, it's on to Copenhagen where we can at least take some degree of perverse back-handed comfort that it will be all about politics and not about science and the worst that will come of it is some more non-binding commitments and toothless resolutions that these climate conferences usually produce.

Oh, and just in time for Christmas, Pajamas Media has a complete Climategate Document Database and Facebook Climategate group sign-up link, here. Weeeeeee!!!!!

What are these "typewriters" you speak of?

Staff Finds White House in the Technological Dark Ages.

…but with the “B” and “O” still intact on the Selectrics. B-Daddy has some thoughts on the transition, here.

Remind Us to Tell our Dad about This Place

Chart Smart swung by the other day so we wanted to return the favor by stopping by their place. OK, these guys are smart…. we had a vague notion of what they were talking about nearly 50% of the time. The site devotes its energies to world markets and science/technology and as the site name would suggest, lots of charts and graphs. We cherry-picked a couple of posts we found interesting and we hope you will also:

Tired of that linguini entrée behind your entertainment center? Fear not - help is on the way in the form of wireless technology that is HD-capable. Click here.

And something called the Baltic Dry Index as leading economic indicator for global markets as it tracks shipment around the world of raw materials rather than finished products.