Via Paul Tingley, who writes;

On a personal note: I went to a mutual fund (sustainable or green funds) seminar this spring put on by TD Brokerage. A young man beside me said that the highly intelligent people from the US coasts were going to lead America to a brighter future now that the red-neck knuckle-dragger states were no longer in power. I suggested that a more likely scenario would be that some of those un-intellectual states, led by Texas, would probably secede after the geniuses in NY and California go bankrupt.

Reader Adrian emails – “Surely it can’t be, a State/government run incentive scheme that is clumbersome, bureaucratic and doesn’t work… Whats going wrong? The future depends on these plans …doesn’t it?”

Bryan Marsal, CEO of Lehman Brothers Holdings (via Calculated Risk)

One of my partners said yesterday that we are going to call this phase the “extend and pretend” phase in our economy. Which is you extend someone’s maturity – because they are going to default – and you pretend that business will come back or that leverage factor is going to come back.
Then we’ll enter phase two, which he said is the request to extend or “amend”.
Then “send”. In other words send the keys.
That is the phases we are in right now. Everyone is trying to buy time, as opposed to dealing with the leverage, they are trying to buy time. Whether you are a banker or a company, they are all trying to buy time. I don’t see the leverage coming back, and I don’t see the consumption of good and services coming back.

“For the record, this month’s Al Gore / ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ Index indicates that global temperatures have plunged approximately .74°F (.39°C) since ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was released.”

Bonus QOTW (in the comments) – “Yessir, Mr. Malarkey, we must do something to stop this runaway train screaming past us on the way to carbon Armageddon at the speed of…0.”

Lawrence Solomon;

DuPont made a killing in the battle over CFC regulation. Now it’s poised to do it all over again with carbon dioxide.

*

This is not your grandma’s humane society. Think PETA, with a better business model.

It’s astonishing how many in media seem unaware of the nature of this group – even Rush Limbaugh has been sucked in by this scam.

Heh.

One mining company president told The Times that governments that had promised a way out of economic turmoil with bold schemes to subsidise green cars, solar panels and other environmental technology had “spoken without understanding the upstream of modern products”.
Don Burbar, the chief executive of Avalon Rare Metals, said: “The crux of the matter is that there are now a lot of technologies that can’t work without rare earths, and China is currently in effective control of the global supply. China has positioned itself to retain control, and meanwhile politicians around the world do not appreciate how the supply side of green technology works.”

h/t Tomax7

Part one of a series. That and more, via David Thompson.

Just a five letter word for “Lennon”.
h/t Ron.

Bjorn Lomberg;

Naturally, many CEOs are genuinely concerned about global warming. But many of the most vocal stand to profit from carbon regulations. The term used by economists for their behavior is “rent-seeking.”

One frame in a slide show at WaPo: Great Right North

(And things are only looking up!)

h/t Paul

(Click the graphic for details.)

From a nurse’s letter written during the 1918 Flu Pandemic, before America lost its moral bearings.*

Two German spies, posing as doctors, were caught giving these Influenza germs to the soldiers and they were shot last Saturday at sunrise. It is such a horrible thing, it is hard to believe, and yet such things happen almost every day in Washington.

That’ll be your “least read” Canadian news story for April 24th, 2009 . Why do I say “least”? Because this is the only place you’ll find it.
The Fiscal Monitor for February 2009 was released today.
h/t Allan

UN Watch; “the rank hypocrisy of Durban II was exposed before the world this week when UN Watch surprised the Libyan chair — by bringing a victim of Qaddafi torture to confront her on Libya’s brutal torture and scapegoating of five Bulgairan nurses and a Palestinian doctor.”

Wow. Is there no engineering advance that Obama can’t sign into existence?

The Independence Institute asked the Denver Museum of Science and Nature to provide certain statistical information regarding the now-famous solar array. Specifically, the Institute asked for:
1 ) Two years worth of electric bills prior to the installation of the solar array,
2 ) All electric bills following the completion of the installation.
The Museum denied those requests.

(*Note: that would be a different “sun” than the one deniers claim is capable of altering the earth’s climate)
h/t
Update – after reading some of the comments, I realized I may have given the impression that I’m against solar energy. Well, I’m not. For example, I love that my calculator works by just holding it under a desk lamp.

Conservative voices…

His global warming agenda and the democratic process appear to moving in opposing directions.

From the comments, this request;

I am one of the researchers responsible for updating the Water Chronicles map shown on this page, and take it very seriously. The maps are updated daily. We have good sources in most provinces but in Ontario and Alberta there is no public information available. We have to rely on media advisories. Although Ontario still posts advisories on its water site, they have not been updated since October 2008
Please email us at armstrong.water@gmail.com to let us know of any incorrect boil water advisory on our maps. Our aim is to provide a valuable service.
The Water Chronicles also offers daily water news roundups, reports on water issues in Canada and the US, and live interviews.

(emphasis mine)
The Water Chronicles site is here.