Climate Scientist, Heated Up Over Satirical Video, Threatens Lawsuit

By Ed Barnes

- FOXNews.com

The Penn State climate professor who has silently endured investigations, hostile questioning, legislative probes and attacks by colleagues has finally spoken out. He says he'll sue the makers of a satirical video that's a hit on You Tube.

The Penn State climate professor who has silently endured investigations, hostile questioning, legislative probes and attacks by colleagues has finally spoken out. He says he'll sue the makers of a satirical video that's a hit on You Tube.

Their response: Bring it on.

Michael Mann, one of the central figures in the recent climate-data scandal, is best known for his "hockey stick graph," which was the key visual aid in explaining how the world is warming at an alarming rate and in connecting the rise to the increase in use of carbon fuels in this century. E-mails stolen from a university in England were released online, revealing exchanges between climatologists and a reference to a "trick" that Mann had used to get the graph to portray what global warming scientists wanted to see.

The parody video, titled "Hide the Decline," had more than 500,000 viewers on YouTube and received national attention when Rush Limbaugh played it on his radio show. It features a cat with a guitar, a talking tree, and a dancing figure sporting the image of Professor Mann. It's the use of his image that Mann is complaining about, arguing that the video supports "efforts to sell various products and merchandise."

"The guy is crazy to threaten legal action," said Jeff Davis, the President of No Cap and Trade, a large organization that includes the group Mann is threatening to sue, Minnesotans for Global Warming. "A lawsuit would give us full discovery -- and there's a lot to look at in his work."

Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann

The revelations of the leaked e-mails brought into question the methodology used to prove the Earth is getting hotter, and the phrase "hide the decline" became a catchphrase for questioning a human role in global warming.

Mann faced investigations both by Penn State and in England. While both found his work acceptable, critics have nevertheless charged that the probes were superficial and have prevented a closer analysis of the science upon which his view of global warming is based.

In his letter Mann threatened legal action, claiming the spoof video "illegally used his image and defamed him."

Neither Mann nor Penn State responded to requests for comments. Mann's lawyer, Peter J. Fontaine of the Washington D.C. law firm of Cozen O'Connor, told FoxNews.com "we don't comment on any pending legal matters for clients."

Davis and No Cap and Trade said they welcome the lawsuit.

The group is eager to conduct an in-depth probe of Mann's work and "finally look at how it was done. We understand why Michael Mann is eager to silence public discussion of the hockey stick scandal, but truth is an absolute defense."

According to Davis, the video was created in the wood-warmed RV that is the "world headquarters " for Minnesotans for Global Warming and its three members, who jokingly think that Minnesota could use a little more heat.

When the letter first arrived, they quickly pulled the video from You Tube and their website because they couldn't afford to defend against a lawsuit. But, as word spread of the legal threat to the jokesters, a number of groups, including No Cap and Trade, rallied to their defense. They even backed a newer version of the video titled "Hide the Decline II" and re-posted on You Tube and the No Cap and Trade site.

"It is hard to believe in global warming when you live in Minnesota. During last winter we all wished we had some global warming," Elmer Beauregard, a nom de plume of one of the members of the group, said at a press conference announcing the new video on Tuesday.

Here's the link for the video, folks: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/26/climate-scientist-heated-satire-threatens-lawsuit/

What a bunch of idiots.

Firearms & Stupidity...

Virginia to Teach Gun Safety in Elementary Schools

FOXNews.com

A new law will require Virginia's education department to come up with a gun-safety curriculum for public elementary schools that incorporates guidelines from the NRA.

Two Arizona made guns are shown at Caswells Shooting Range Tuesday, April 6, 2010 in Mesa, Ariz. (AP)

Schoolchildren in Virginia who aren't old enough to pack their lunches yet will soon start learning about packing heat.

Move over, Crime Dog McGruff. There's a new mascot on the playground and he's got the backing of the powerful National Rifle Association.

The NRA's Eddie Eagle will soon be offering his brand of gun-safety lessons to the state's schoolchildren.

A new law will require Virginia's education department to come up with a gun-safety curriculum for public elementary schools that incorporates guidelines from the NRA.

The law allows local school divisions to offer gun-safety education to pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade. While each school board can decide whether to offer it, those that do must use the state curriculum -- which will include rules used by the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.

Some parents are up in arms over the new law.

"I personally don't think firearm safety has a place in the schools," Lori Haas, spokeswoman for the Virginia Center for Public Safety, told FoxNews.com. "That's up to the parents to teach that at home."

Haas, whose daughter is a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007, said her group is outraged that state lawmakers are placing "a burden" on the state school board that it didn't ask for.

"For the general assembly and governor to dictate to the board of education in writing curriculum is not their area," she said, calling the law a "freebie to a special interest group."

Legislation passed in March by the General Assembly had included an amendment that allowed the curriculum to include materials from the National Crime Prevention Center. But Gov. Bob McDonnell proposed removing the amendment because there is no such group, and the legislature on Wednesday approved his change.

The legislation meant to refer to the National Crime Prevention Council, home of McGruff the Crime Dog. But McDonnell spokeswoman Stacey Johnson said that rather than fixing the name, the governor deleted it because the council doesn't have a current stand-alone gun-safety program.

NRA's Eddie Eagle website says that the program's goal "isn't to teach whether guns are good or bad, but rather to promote the protection and safety of children."

The Eddie Eagle mascot advises children: "If you see a gun: STOP! Don't Touch. Leave the Area. Tell an Adult."

Eddie Eagle does not promote firearm ownership or use and firearms are never used in the program, the website says.

"Like swimming pools, electrical outlets, matchbooks and household poison, they're treated simply as a fact of everyday life," the website says. "With firearms found in about half of all American households, it's a stance that makes sense."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This is just plain stupid. But it's America, where being stupid, in some jurisdictions, seems to be a way of life. Or am I being too harsh?

My Sometimes Burning Butt

Sometimes, I get into trouble because of Homo Escapeons, who is certifiably nuts.
At a Hallowe'en masquerade party, he went as Quebec Premier Rene Levesque, who was trying to get predominantly French-speaking Quebec to separate from Canada.

Prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, who was also French, was central to the theme. So I was him trying to destroy Levesque, who had a cigarette in his mouth apparently every second. We both got extrmely drunk & stupid.
No. More stupid than the night we both stripped down at my mom's cabin and went cross-cuntry skiing.
Believe it or not, Donn was even dumber then. Really.
I have no proof, really -- besides all these pictures...

I don't quite get it. Ihad a whole bunch of other pix to download from the Web. And it is important for me to note that none of these pix were taken by me.Instead, these pix were taken by a variety of different people through the years. Of various Common wealth Expeditions featuring Filipinos, Indians, Canadians, Australians, Brits, Scots, Irish...any peoples from Commonweath countries.

It was all run by a Brit named Colonel Lionel Gregory, who served in India at some point and came to love it. And his idea, I think, was to spread the word about India and encourage an exchange of cultures among Commonwealth nations.

Back then, in 1979 or so, the Shah of Iran had not yet been deposed; A year later, the U.S. hostage-taking would occur. Iraq, constantly at war with Iran I believe, was under the rule, even then, of Sadam Hussein.

He would later be found by the Americans and I believe was executed. Talk about a bit of a fall from grace.

This is somewhere on that trip. From Deal, England to India. On the way back to England, I left the trip and my job as a navigator abord the Manitoba bus to hitc-hike home We were in Iran or Turkey.

The trip took us from Deal to The Netherlands, what was then West Germany, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India -- where we spent roughly a month -- before, driving back, me and a fellow Canadian named Dick -- left the expedition and hith-hiked back.

I think we left the trip at Mount Ararat in Turkey. Er had to wait at the border-crossing there forever, so he and I left. Wecaught a ride a day or two later with a trucker, a lorrie driver, going home to Britain.

I can't remember his name now, but he was brilliant. He brought us through Bulgaria and Sweden, I think, places we wouldn't otherwise have gone. It was a great trip I went on and I learned lots about life.

I also tore my right knee ligaments on a hill in turkey while playing Frisbee football. But that's another story.