Adam Buckman at the NYPost blew the whistle last week on a moral equivalence-marinated PBS documentary that airs tonight. Melanie Morgan and I chatted about the smearing of the Greatest Generation with Rush Limbaugh during the “From the Frontlines” web-a-thon on Friday. I’ve heard from many upset WWII vets. Read Adam’s column here.

There's been a lot of excited chatter over an appallingly written Indy piece:The Indy is please note that even not claiming that the Arctic Ocean will or could be ice free this year. Specifically they are making a deal out of normal Arctic Ocean ice drift carrying some thinner, first season ice over the geographic North Pole and breathlessly beating up the fact that thinner ice melts more easily than thicker, multiyear ice. While this may be emotively significant to some (certainly it has some propaganda value, apparently) its net climatic significance is exactly nothing.

For some reason the media have a habit of hyperventilating about water at the North Pole, remember the infamous New York Times debacle and quiet correction a few years ago? The late John L. Daly put together a piece on open water at the North Pole soon after.

See also Is Arctic Ice Thinning Rapidly? in Ice and Climate News (.pdf) for important perspective -- h/t Dennis Ambler

A Review: Climate Confusion by Roy Spencer - How Global Warming Hysteria Leads To Bad Science, Pandering Politicians And Misguided Policies That Hurt The Poor

Spencer's book, Climate Confusion, is the most comprehensive discussion of "global warming" (aka, human-caused climate change) available today. Spencer's PhD in Meteorology shines through with the very best description of how weather systems function to help maintain a moderate climate. It is an outstanding book for anyone whose interest in climate and weather has stopped short of actually reading a book about it. No deep scientific background is required to understand the processes Spencer describes.

This book is an excellent companion to Dr. Howard Hayden's book, A Primer on CO2 and Climate. Spencer does not go into detail regarding CO2's limitations as a heat retention agent, possibly due to the more technical nature of such discussions. Hayden's book complements Spencer's in that it is not overly technical in detail and presents an easy-to-understand discussion of greenhouse gases that help the reader understand the degree to which alarmists have vastly overrated the dangers of CO2 emissions. (Bob Webster, Web Commentary)

Global Warming: Has the Climate Sensitivity Holy Grail Been Found? - The following is a simplified version of a paper entitled "Chaotic Radiative Forcing, Feedback Stripes, and the Overestimation of Climate Sensitivity" I submitted on June 25, 2008 for publication in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. (Roy W. Spencer, Ph.D.)

The UN climate change numbers hoax - It’s an assertion repeated by politicians and climate campaigners the world over: “2,500 scientists of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agree that humans are causing a climate crisis.”

But it’s not true. And, for the first time ever, the public can now see the extent to which they have been misled. As lies go, it’s a whopper. Here’s the real situation. (Tom Harris and John McLean, Online Opinion)

The cynical politics of global warming and its hobgoblins - "Cynical politics" may be a redundancy, but it is hard to imagine a more cynical political issue than global warming. In his 1992 book "Earth in the Balance," Al Gore called for a "wrenching transformation of society." Leftists, with their elitist penchant for social engineering, didn't need any convincing. (Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson, White Mountain Independent)

Science by intimidation - Truth may enter the world by many doors, but she is never escorted by force. I thought that was a lesson learned long ago, and learned by none more tellingly than scientists. Real scientists, actually, have learned it. A new amalgam has emerged however, the scientist-activist, and for that specimen it's a lesson passed by.

In the dawn of the Enlightenment, it was scientists who were hauled before tribunals and inquisitions. Galileo is the arch example, the pioneer empiricist who rejected the ancient Earth-centric model of the (then known) universe, and for his pains earned the attention and wrath of the distinctly unscientific Inquisition.

I am drawn to these thoughts, and to the long-decayed example of the Inquisition, by a most curious outburst this week by James Hansen, the principal voice of NASA on the subject of global warming, a man who played – as it were – John the Baptist to Al Gore's messianic teachings on the subject. Dr. Hansen is largely credited with “sounding the alarm” on man-made global warming, and he has been a persistent, high-profile and very aggressive proponent of the cause for over two decades now. Dr. Hansen doesn't take kindly to those who dispute his apocalyptic scenarios. I choose the term, apocalyptic, deliberately. According to Dr. Hansen, mankind may have reached the tipping point with global warming. Should that be the case, wide-scale calamity and catastrophe are inevitable. And should we not have reached the point of absolute crisis, should there be a minuscule interval for the human species to act and avert the very worst, according to Dr. Hansen, what yet remains to be faced is still horrible enough indeed.

Not all the world shares Dr. Hansen's vision of imminent ecological Armageddon. (Rex Murphy, Globe and Mail)

Newsweek Blames Midwest Floods on Global Warming - Newsweek's senior editor Sharon Begley has taken it upon herself to publicly declare the recent floods in the Midwest are being caused by global warming.

Those familiar with her work shouldn't be even slightly surprised by this, as Begley was the person responsible for the August 13, 2007, Newsweek cover story "Global-Warming Deniers: A Well-Funded Machine" which evoked widespread criticism including from one of her fellow editors.

Regardless, Begley is at it again with an article in the upcoming issue of Newsweek disgracefully entitled, "Global Warming Is a Cause of This Year’s Extreme Weather" (NewsBusters)

Climate skeptic: Don't panic - The readers of various climate realist blogs may already know this 10-minute video created by Climate-skeptic.com and posted by Coyoteblog - these two websites actually have the same person behind them unless I misunderstand something. ;-)

But I found it so insightful that you might enjoy it, too. It discusses the importance of feedbacks, why most of them are negative, and what contrived things you have to assume if you want to believe that climate sensitivity significantly exceeds 1 °C. (The Reference Frame)

What if it never was the tomatoes? - How were tomatoes pinpointed as the source of the latest salmonella outbreak that, as of today’s count, infected 810 people across the country between April 10th and June 15th? Nearly 2,000 tomato samples across the country and in Mexico have been tested and not a single tomato has been found to be contaminated with salmonella. The FDA has cleared 41 states and most of Mexico from being a source of tainted tomatoes.

What if tomatoes never were the source? (Junkfood Science)

MSM Shuns Embarrassing 'The Population Bomb' Anniversary - Today is the official publication date of The Dominant Animal: Human Evolution and the Environment by Paul and Anne Ehrlich. The release of this book was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the publication of Paul Ehrlich's once exceedingly popular "The Population Bomb" in 1968. If you expect to see much about either of these books in the mainstream media, you are in for a big disappointment. The MSM is avoiding the whole subject of Paul Ehrlich and his apocalyptic "The Population Bomb" like the plague nowadays. The reason is probably because it might draw embarrassing attention to the fact that apocalyptic visions, despite their popularity at one time such as the current global warming alarmism, are usually proven to be flat out wrong. Such was the case with Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb" which the Intercollegiate Studies Institute ranked as one of the 50 Worst Books of the 20th century due to its many errors. (NewsBusters)

Audio: Comprehensive immigration reform “will be my top priority yesterday, today, and tomorrow,” says McCain

Senator McCain's response to Clark was Clintonesque. He sounds hurt. Is he really surprised that Democrats seek to destroy him?

"We don't need The Messiah to redefine patriotism. We know it when we see it. We know it when we don't see it."

In a pickle with your spouse over laundry you neglected to do or trash you forgot to take out?

Looking for an easy way to wriggle out of a tough spot with your boss?

Never fear. Michelle Obama is here with her new patented subject-changer:

“You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids.”

Worked like a charm yesterday during her softball interview with NBC’s Meredith Viera:

MEREDITH VIEIRA: Michelle, do you feel that the Reverend Wright betrayed your husband?

MICHELLE OBAMA: I think Barack has spoken so clearly and eloquently about this.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: But do you personally feel that the Reverend Wright…

MICHELLE OBAMA: You know what I think Meredith? I think we gotta move forward. You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids. You know, it doesn’t help kids out there who are looking for us to make decisions and choices about how we’re going to better fund education.

I can see it now:

- Homeowners under water in heated discussions with their banks:

“You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids.”

- Speeders arguing with traffic cops:

“You know, this conversation doesn’t help my kids.”

You know when Michelle really should have used that line? When she was sitting in church with her kids sometime over the last 20 years listening to Jeremiah Wright “conversing” about his standard litany of grievances against America.

Bad news out of Canada, according to Greenwire. It seems that not only have the Chinese overtaken the U.S. as the largest overall emitter of carbon dioxide, but our wretchedly excessive per capita emissions also have fallen behind other kinder, gentler nations.

China of course is and says it will remain exempt from the Kyoto scheme, much like other top and rapidly growing emitters India, South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico among 150 others.

Now, it turns out, those nice, polite neighbors to the north are larger per-capita emitters than Americans are. I wonder if they know that they can't just go around setting their thermostats where they want and driving the vehicle of their choice, and think other countries are going to just accept that.

This can't be good for the global warming industry, predicated on decrying America's rogue, outlier status as a means to shame us into accepting onerous economic restrictions — binding upon us, thanks to our judicial system, while largely ceremonial for those few other countries purporting to also accept those restrictions.

As I've said before, beginning next January, the press will no doubt begin noting that the U.S. did sign Kyoto (under Clinton, not that mean George Bush) but that the Senate chose not to ratify it. And, of course, U.S. emissions have been rising at a fraction of the pace of Europe's, despite our economy and population having grown faster then those of our EU counterparts. Given these two bits of information, a "hard cap" rationing scheme such as Kyoto — which restricts only those countries whose emissions aren't rising as fast as the developing world's — may not necessarily be the only way to go.

That will be the story come January. Then again, McCain could still win the election.

Obama misleads on oil leases: WSJ