Shunning the unbelievers:

“MITCHELL Taylor is a Polar Bear researcher who has caught more polar bears and worked on more polar bear groups than any other, but he was effectively ostracized from the Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) specifically because he has publicly expressed doubts that there is a crisis due to carbon dioxide emissions.
“Dr Andy Derocher, the outgoing chairman of the PSBG and Professor at the University of Alberta, wrote to inform Taylor that he was not welcome at the 2009 meeting of the PBSG.
“Keep in mind as you read his comments (below) that Taylor had arranged funding to attend the meeting in Copenhagen, and has been at every meeting of this group since 1981. With 30 years of experience in polar bear research, it goes without saying that he has something to contribute to any discussion about polar bear conservation. This is the original email from Derocher to Taylor explaining why he was not invited:

… more.

Germany’s Social Democrats take a beating:

The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg in Berlin says the result seems a disaster for the Social Democrats (SPD), who could have their lowest share of the vote since World War II.
The SPD have shared power with Mrs Merkel’s CDU/CSU in an awkward grand coalition since the last elections in 2005.
An exit poll for ZDF television gave the CDU/CSU 33.5%, SPD 23.5% and the FDP, Mrs Merkel’s preferred partners, 14.5%.
This would give the centre-right alliance, with 48% in total, a narrow majority over the SPD and the two other major parties, the Greens and the Left, both of which increased their share of the vote.

President Obama yesterday did his best impression of a high-school sophomore participating in his first Model UN meeting, retailing pious clichés he learned from his pony-tailed social studies teacher.

Even Woodrow Wilson might have blanched at the mushy-headed exhortations to world peace and collective action better suited to a college dorm-room bull session or a holiday-season Coca-Cola commercial.

(via DB)

We say: reductions must be made. And President Obama has even said, “I dream of a world without [nuclear weapons].” Yet before our very eyes, two countries are currently doing the exact opposite. Since 2005, Iran has violated five Security Council resolutions. Since 2005, Secretary-General, the international community has called on Iran to engage in dialogue. An offer of dialogue was made in 2005, an offer of dialogue was made in 2006, an offer of dialogue was made in 2007, an offer of dialogue was made in 2008, and another one was made in 2009. President Obama, I support the Americans’ outstretched hand. But what did the international community gain from these offers of dialogue? Nothing. More enriched uranium, more centrifuges, and on top of that, a statement by Iranian leaders proposing to wipe a UN member State off the map.

What are we doing? What conclusions are we drawing? There comes a time when facts are stubborn and decisions must be made.

(via Flea)

I would like Britain to keep its independent nuclear deterrent, largely because I don’t trust the French. I would also like the USA to have a very large amount of brand new and extremely efficient nuclear weapons – those really big ones that can destroy the earth – and China, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran to have none whatsoever. I am not sure yet about Russia: maybe they could have a few, to point in the direction of the Pankisi Gorge. Israel is allowed lots, India is allowed lots, but I would ask both countries not to use them unless absolutely necessary and in any case to check with me first. This, then, is the view I will take if I am ever elected to the United Nations Security Council, perhaps in place of Geri Halliwell or Bono …

… The genuflection in the direction of genuine multilateral disarmament is an embarrassing sham and Iran knows full well it is a sham, which is why it will continue the process of enriching its uranium. Giving up one Trident submarine is a particularly fatuous (and self-serving) genuflection.

Obama, Gates, and the generals and admirals.

But back to my job: making MO appear to be a fashionista with that keister of hers isn’t just a simple Photoshop tweak. I know I’m no ordinary mirror. I’m a DOD*/NASA digital reimaging system, sandwiched into a Cassegrain mirror matrix. I’ve got a gazillion bytes of nerd-tech miracles under my glass. But still. I was really down last January and needed a boost. That’s when I got a call from my cousin, Earle, who’s a funhouse mirror in Paducah. He told me that transforming peoples images provides a much needed service, can be very fulfilling and an awful lot of fun too.
***
Update:
Photoshop

Recall this:

” Canada is becoming the country that dares not speak its name!” ~ Michael Ignatieff

… and THIS.
Compare and Contrast:

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, appearing to forget that his countrymen are generally known for their modesty, declared on Friday that his nation was the envy of the world.
Harper, usually a fairly wooden performer, seized on a routine question at a news conference and used it to deliver an impassioned defense of his 33-million strong nation and how well it has coped with the global economic crisis.
“Canada remains in a very special place in the world. . . . We are the one major developed country that no one thinks has any responsibility for this crisis,” he said to laughter.
“In fact, on the contrary, they look at our policies as a solution to the crisis. We’re the one country in the room everybody would like to be,” he said at the end of the summit of the Group of 20 advanced and developing nations in Pittsburgh.

Cross-posted @ Cjunk

Now I feel better … for a moment there I thought that those in charge didn’t know what they were doing:

Related:
Julian Robertson is a much respected fund manager … when he gives a warning, it’s best to sit up and take notice:

Well, I– I– I think that– it’s almost Armageddon if the Chinese and Japanese don’t buy our debt. I don’t know where we could get the money. And– maybe we– end up printing it– and– taking– a million dollar bill– bill to the grocery– shop, which you have to do now in Zimbabwe. But– I– I think we’ve let ourselves get in– in terrible situation. And I think we ought to try to get out of it.
ERIN BURNETT: Do you think we can grow our way out of it?
JULIAN ROBERTSON: I think we can grow and save our way out of it. And– and– and I think that’s– the only way we’re gonna have that threat removed. I– I wonder what some of the Congressman who have been so upset about– financial leaders– I– I– I wonder what they think of– of the leadership of the country that’s permitted these very speculative– policies. I mean, it’s amazing. And we’re totally dependent on the Chinese and Japanese.

ht

I can’t believe I’m writing these words: the Canadian Human Rights Commission is proceeding with an investigation against Richard Warman for hate speech. The maximum disruptor is now about to be disrupted himself.

h/t BCF

It’s Friday night. Here’s a little something for the ladies.

Leftwing organizations generally exist for one reason only, and that is to sponge. With each victim class or cause that can be created, no matter how dubious, a parallel leftist organization or government bureaucracy is set up, and in each case, the pockets of the productive are drained to fund said NGO or bureaucracy.
The mother of all such organizations in North America is Acorn … its tentacles reaching far and deep, each with suction cups at the end designed with the singular purpose of sponging up every possible dime.
The list of suction cups is long … 294 long:

1. ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS FOR REFOR MAILING
1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70117-8402 FOREIGN NON PROFIT Name Type:LEGAL
Status:ACTIVE
Florida Secretary of State
2. ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION FOR REFORM NOW PRINCIPAL CORPORATE ADDRESS
1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70117-8402 Name Type:LEGAL
Filing Date:03/05/1980
Status:ACTIVE
Massachusetts Secretary of State
3. CHICAGO ORGANIZING AND SUPPORT CENTER, INC. BUSINESS
1024 ELYSIAN FIELDS AVE
NEW ORLEANS, LA 70117-8402 LOUISIANA NON-PROFIT CORPORATION Name Type:LEGAL
Status:CURRENTLY ACTIVE IN SECRETARY OF STATE RECORDS
Louisiana Secretary of State

… keep reading.

ht

Michael Yon was recently, er, terminated unexpectedly as an embed with the British Army at Helmand. He now takes on the matter, and other issues regarding Afstan, all barrels blazing. He is especially outraged by the answer to a Parliamentary question by Bob Ainsworth, the Secretary of State for Defence, an answer that would appear exceptionally economical with the truth. The whole piece is a must-read, an excerpt that should really give Canadians pause to consider:

…This dispatch is being written in downtown Kandahar City and I have not seen a soldier in days. The Taliban is slowing winning this city. There have been many bombings and shootings since I arrived in disguise [more here and here]…

Update thought: Seeing as Canadian media at KAF rarely go outside the wire anymore [see Globe and Mail pieces here]–busy on the death watch and all that you know, far too few of them from our cheapskate media organizations–we have to rely on foreign media to get much feel about what it is like in the field, especially combat [e.g. this link and this]. Besides which most members of the Canadian media know so little about things military and are so inexperienced in covering conflict that they could never hope to come close to the reporting of many American and British journalists.

–will be in their mighty hands! (*)

Free soup, bread and a bit of pampering were in order downtown yesterday as the London Homeless Coalition and a core-area yoga studio reached out with massage, foot care and meditation … A Salvation Army truck was on hand to provide donated bread and soup.

…

While she acknowledged few homeless people took part in being pampered, Peckham said it was a first-year outreach she hopes will grow in coming years.

…

Those who were not homeless — including a group of first-year nursing students from the University of Western Ontario – could choose to donate the value of their treatments to the homeless coalition.

Nursing student Cheryl Georgeneau said, “it’s definitely an interesting idea,” and for a worthwhile purpose.

Reflexologist Mary Benson said the event gave her some hands-on experience in London. “Everyone says how much better it makes them feel . . . I’m glad I can get my hands on people who would otherwise not be able to afford it.”

Jenny Finch, who expressed an interest in meditation and participated in a session on personal praise, was intrigued. “I just think this is cool,” she said.

There were also draws for a free haircut, yoga, Nia dance, therapeutic touch and psychic reading.

How could we have missed this? The clear and obvious answer to the age-old problems of poverty and hunger? Why, Nia dance and psychic readings, of course!
And rest assured that the only reason no homeless person’s opinion was sought to confirm the obvious success of this scheme was that those Sally Ann types kept on slinging soup down their gullets every time they opened their mouths. Just jealous, obviously.
Certain grumpy parties, however, suspect that there might be a snag:

While I’m sure all the granola eaters are gently patting themselves on the back for being so nice to the homeless for one day, let’s see how Moonbeam and Rainbow Chakra react when the urine people start camping out on their stoop for the next three years.

The inimitable Ibbitson’s Canada.