I do not, in fact, object to a zoo giraffe being ‘culled,’ per se. There was apparently a giant to-do over the entire thing; and while I understand the ‘save the cute baby giraffe’ impulse the zookeepers have a point: zoo animals have a bit of a genetic bottleneck situation going on. And if you’re going to kill an animal, you shouldn’t just throw it away afterward. Lions, in point of fact, eat giraffes (when they can): it is not unreasonable thing to feed them freshly-killed giraffe meat. Continue reading My official statement on the Copenhagen ‘baby giraffe culled, fed to lions’ thing.
Tag: copenhagen
Right-wing rag unloads on Obama over Copenhagen flop.
He came, he saw, he disappointed.
As President Barack Obama arrived in Copenhagen on Friday morning for the last day of the U.N. climate summit, all eyes were upon him. Only Obama, the argument went, had the power and prestige to break the deadlock at this summit, widely regarded as humanity’s last good chance to preserve a livable climate. But hopes that the president would bring something new to Copenhagen, that the U.S. position would move closer to what science says is required to avoid catastrophic climate change, were dashed by the president’s surprisingly lackluster remarks.
Oh, did I say ‘right-wing rag?’ I meant to type out ‘Vanity Fair.’ Must have been one of those automatic writing episodes that Victorian/Edwardian occultists so loved. Nonetheless, they’re still unhappy, unhappy, unhappy. Not to mention fearmongering, but what can you expect of such notorious theocrats?
No, that last epithet wasn’t sarcasm.
Moe Lane
(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)
The inevitable Al Gore + Global Warming Conference = SNOW! post.
Byron York wants to know what Republican legislators are doing in Copenhagen.
Getting snowed in, apparently.
As if on cue with former Vice President Al Gore’s arrival in Copenhagen, the site of the United Nation’s climate summit is expected to receive heavy snowfall and bitter cold temperatures. With a bit of amusement some have pointed to the arrival of the cold weather as an example of the ‘Gore Effect’.
In recent years, the term ‘Gore Effect’ has come to take note of unseasonable weather that seems to accompany the Nobel Laureate or when a significant global warming event is held. Since 2004 these coincidences occur with uncanny frequency.
Well, at least this way Al Gore’s killing less polar bears.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Copentecosthagen.
Well, I thought that it was worth doing.
Even if nobody else does. Besides, I need the practice.
Apologies to Caleb Howe for sucking him into this, which got indirectly inspired by this.
Copenhagen Disaster Porn lacks only the Wilhelm Scream*.
(H/T: Hot Air) Feast your eyes on what the Copenhagen folks decided to start their conference with:
…Whoops! Sorry, wrong video. Obviously, I meant this one:
[pause]
Yeah, I know: they would have been better off with the first one. If for no other reason that they could have gotten their putative message in at half the time.
Moe Lane
PS: Never go back for the stuffed polar bear. Never go back for the stuffed polar bear. What are they teaching kids in school these days?
Continue reading Copenhagen Disaster Porn lacks only the Wilhelm Scream*.
Phrase of the day: ‘Climategate Denier.’
As per Simon Scowl of Deceiver.com, who uses it with malice aforethought against Cubslayer Gore. The context: Gore claimed that the Climategate emails were ten years old, and the CNN guy called him on it right away, and Gore… said nothing further about it. Simon Scowl:
His financial and psychological investment in this crap is way too deep for him to acknowledge such, ahem, inconvenient truths. The only way to deal with such a massive blow to his ego is to just bull through it. Pretend it’s not happening. He is, to borrow a phrase, a Climategate denier.
Perfect.
Moe Lane
PS: Having listened to Gore, I’m reminded: dag. Triple-digit IQ people believe in this guy? And how long will the CNN guy last at his job?
Crossposted to RedState.
UK Met office pushes reset button on CRU data.
It’s going to take a while for them to cycle through the process, though. As in, more than a week. A lot more than a week.
The Met Office plans to re-examine 160 years of temperature data after admitting that public confidence in the science on man-made global warming has been shattered by leaked e-mails.
The new analysis of the data will take three years, meaning that the Met Office will not be able to state with absolute confidence the extent of the warming trend until the end of 2012.
The Met Office database is one of three main sources of temperature data analysis on which the UN’s main climate change science body relies for its assessment that global warming is a serious danger to the world.
Just in time for Copenhagen, which relied heavily on the climate change data that CRU provided, and can no longer even remotely back up. Meanwhile, the President – who seems to have a real gift at walking into these controversies at the worst possible moment for him – seems determined to use the luster of his name to ensure results at the Copenhagen thing. Personally, I think that it’d be good for the planet, the country, and his political party if the President just dropped the trip entirely. Which he won’t, of course.
Via Q&O, who thinks that they should completely cancel Copenhagen; and Hot Air, who thinks that the British government should stop trying to keep the Met Office from pushing the reset button. And if either actually happens, all three of us will be massively surprised.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Today is the 66th anniversary of the rescue of the Danish Jews.
If you don’t know the story, let me sum it up for you: at the end of August, 1943 the country of Denmark was finally fully taken over by Nazi Germany. This meant, among other things, that the Jewish population of Denmark (roughly 8,000) was now in deadly danger: the Danish government had been, up to that point, politely, respectfully, and absolutely inflexibly refusing to allow Nazi Germany to persecute its Jewish citizens. While the story that the King of Denmark himself wore the yellow star is not true, what is true is that no Danish Jew did – and if you think that this is a minor point, well, no, it’s not: things like the star were the tools used to isolate Jews from the larger community, thus making it possible to go on with sequestering them into ghettos, then taking them away to be murdered.
So. When the Danish government was taken out of the picture as an independent entity, the Nazis suddenly had a clear hand to take away the Danish Jews on October 1, 1943 – only a (German) diplomat got word of the planned deportation, and on September 28, 1943, tipped off the Danes. Who then proceeded to smuggle their Jewish population out of the country and to Sweden in an ad hoc, spur-of-the-moment rescue mission. The few that the Nazis swept up continued to be protected by the Danes; in marked contrast to other nations, Denmark constantly raised a stink about Danish Jews, resulting in their being transferred to a relatively safe concentration camp and allowed Red Cross supplies. It is estimated that the actions of Denmark saved roughly 95% of their Jewish population – and this, I think, says more about the stubborn decency of the Danes than anything else:
Denmark was also different and special in another way. Almost everywhere else in Europe, returning Jews found their homes had been broken into, and everything of value stolen. When the Danish Jews returned , they discovered that their homes, pets, gardens and personal belongings were cared for by their neighbors.
What with the various thiings going on in and to the USA right now, it might surprise some of you to hear that the President is actually going to Copenhagen (capital of Denmark) this week. To plead for a Chicago venue for the 2016 Olympics.
Fuck the Olympics.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.