[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: An inconvenient truthiness

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Posted by The Night Writer:
An inconvenient truthiness
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1170803701.shtml


       Even knowledge has to be in the fashion, and where it is not,
                      it is wise to affect ignorance.
                            -- Baltasar Gracian

   "Truthiness" is the recent colloquialism that describes things that
   are thought to be facts merely because they "feel" right. The word is
   new, but the phenomenon isn't, as reflected by the Mark Twain quote at
   the top of this page all this week: "We all do no end of feeling, and
   we mistake it for thinking." I knew I was going to throw that quote up
   there as soon as I saw the Super Bowl commercial on Sunday claiming
   that 50,000 (or whatever) people die of second-hand smoke this year,
   and wondering if I was "alright with that." It actually made me wonder
   how many billions of dollars was going to be burned due to second-hand
   statistics this year in the name of politically-correct junk science.
   Actually, it is in the name of an ever-more-grasping (and brazen)
   attempt to choke off individual freedoms and liberty, supposedly for
   our own good, whether the issue is city-wide, state-wide or
   nation-wide smoking bans, or the latest global warming power-play. The
   strategy is all-too-familiar; get yourself some "science", declare it
   reflects a consensus and then shout-down any opposition in an effort
   to intimidate or marginalize scientists with differing views and
   evidence and in the hopes of the public can be beaten into such a
   stupor that it can't think or reason for itself. The effort is so
   obvious it is almost comical except that it the stakes are getting far
   too high.
   The [1]scientific method of observation, hypotheses, prediction,
   correction and ultimately verification by repetition to determine
   facts is being readily replaced by obfuscation, hypocrisy, perversion
   and political correction ultimately verified by repeating the lie over
   and over again. For centuries we've been told that religious fanatics
   are those who cling to their dubious "facts" in the face of scientific
   evidence to the contrary, yet the anti-smokers and the global-warmers
   often do the same thing today and will go after those who differ with
   them with a fervor and vitriol that Galileo would recognize. Whether
   it's out of religious fervor, a desire for political power or
   something as prosaic as [2]profit, there is no shortage of those who
   apparently picked up their scientific knowledge while staying at a
   Holiday Inn Express. They're even going so far in some places in
   Europe to outlaw anyone who dissents from the global-warming consensus
   (which will come in handy when they try to squelch the reporting on
   how poorly Europe is doing in meeting its own Kyoto-mandated
   objectives).
   Facts, as they say, are stubborn things, and they aren't illegal yet.
   Their is, in fact, some significant evidence mitigating or even
   opposing the new flavors of scientific consensus, whether it's the
   effects of second hand smoke or the causes for changes in the
   environment (and whenever one side accuses the other of having an
   agenda, it's useful to look at which group is trying to examine the
   facts and which is exercising personal attacks). By all means, check
   out the [3]American Lung Association on second-hand smoke, but then
   look at Dave Hitt's site, [4]The Facts to see how the ALA's studies
   hold up (Dave, too, has an agenda, it's listed [5]here).
   There's also -- at least for now -- a wealth of information on global
   warming that differs from the "consensus"; including a recent,
   peer-reviewed report that suggests [6]global cooling">global cooling
   is on the way. This week [7]Bogus Gold linked a handy reference for
   [8]Refuting the Climate Goebbels that features a series of articles in
   The National Post (Canada) describing a series of "Global Warming
   Deniers" -- extremely credible scientists, climatologists,
   statisticians, and more -- who are braving the group-think to focus on
   the facts. I've read through the first couple in the series and I
   think it's worth linking all ten here for easy reference.

     Canada.com -- The Deniers Series
     [9]Statistics Needed -- Part 1
     [10]Warming is real, and has benefits -- Part II
     [11]The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science -- Part
     III
     [12]Polar scientists on thin ice -- Part IV
     [13]The original denier: into the cold -- Part V
     [14]The sun moves climate change -- Part VI
     [15]Will the sun cool us? -- Part VII
     [16]The limits of predictability -- Part VIII
     [17]Look to Mars for the truth on global warming -- Part IX
     [18]Limited role for CO2 -- Part X

References

   1. http://physics.ucr.edu/~wudka/Physics7/Notes_www/node6.html
   2. http://www.nationalcenter.org/2007/01/enrons-green-fingered-successors.html
   3. http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=35422
   4. http://davehitt.com/facts/index.html
   5. http://davehitt.com/facts/agendas.html
   6. file://localhost/var/www/powerblogs/thenightwriterblog/posts/<a%20href=
   7. HT: Bogus Gold http://bogusgold.com/posts/1170778954.shtml
   8. http://www.uncorrelated.com/2007/02/refuting_the_climate_goebbels.html
   9. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=22003a0d-37cc-4399-8bcc-39cd20bed2f6&k=0
  10. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=1d78fc67-3784-4542-a07c-e7eeec46d1fc&k=0
  11. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=ae9b984d-4a1c-45c0-af24-031a1380121a&k=0
  12. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=b228f4b0-a869-4f85-ba08-902b95c45dcf&k=0
  13. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=63ab844f-8c55-4059-9ad8-89de085af353&k=0
  14. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=fee9a01f-3627-4b01-9222-bf60aa332f1f&k=0
  15. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=17fad0e2-6f6b-41f3-bdd8-8e9eeb015777&k=0
  16. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=9bc9a7c6-2729-4d07-9629-807f1dee479f&k=0
  17. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=edae9952-3c3e-47ba-913f-7359a5c7f723&k=0
  18. http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=069cb5b2-7d81-4a8e-825d-56e0f112aeb5&k=0