September 15, 2009

Paddy's little starbursts*

Michelle "Korematsu" Malkin brings 2 million to Milwaukee
You couldn’t join the hundred thousand or more [sic] people on the National Mall ...
Actually they marched up Pennsylvania Ave. Was ace journalist Patrick McIlheran duped by the 1997 Promise Keepers photo as well?

And, scroll down to John Foust's comment re: Willie Soon, who McIlheran identifies as an "astrophysicist" and who, McIlheran claims, "managed to offend climate alarmists with, of all things, data."

McIlheran only left out two words: "misuse of" before "data."
Journalists may obtain a .pdf copy of this article by request to Harvey Leifert [of the American Alarmists Geophysical Union].
No wonder Patrick McIlheran couldn't obtain a copy!

Earlier: "I possess skills" — McIlheran

* Lowry in Love (with the former Governor of Guam).

1 comment:

Display Name said...

You've got to give the right-wingers credit for being politically correct: If they wanted to be historically accurate Tea Party-ers, they'd dress as native Americans as the True Patriots did. You know, because they wanted someone else to take the blame for their blatant destruction of someone else's property.

As for my comments there, it was the result of a few seconds of searching and examining front-page Google results, and I quoted SourceWatch and Wikipedia. I see nothing wrong with using such sources for inspiration and jumping-off-points as long as their claims can be cross-checked.

Which reminds me of Soon: Like anyone, he can make claims in a speech or a paper or a movie or a political advert. He might even interpret some "data," which has the same import as saying he'll use "words," Mr. McIlheran.

Science starts out a bit like politics in that sense. You can make a claim, but you better be able to show your work. Not only that, but others will attempt to reproduce and verify your results. It's a rare day when you can slap down some data (as McIlheran suggests) and say "Take that, bitches." Because they will take that. And they will question that. And they'll try to reproduce that. And if they can't, they'll be all up in your face with that. It's exceedingly rare to get the final word on a subject, and even when you do, the wise will acknowledge that they are standing on the shoulders of giants who came before.