Global warming trek to North Pole called off due to extreme cold

Explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen called off their trip to the North Pole to highlight global warming this past weekend. The reason? Extreme cold that led to frostbite! According to this article, organizer Ann Atwood said, “They were experiencing temperatures that weren’t expected with global warming.”

Of course, rather than acknowledge that crisis-level warming is a flawed theory, Atwood wrote off the cold to the “unpredictability factor” that “comes with warming.” Sure, that… or maybe they’re just dead wrong.

Well, not dead wrong literally, thank goodness. Despite some frostbite, the two explorers made it out without major casualties or losses. But are they swayed by their experience with the North Pole’s genuine cold? Not at all. They plan to try again another time. Maybe next time they should limit themselves to a Ford Explorer, complete with a van rack.

Cool it, Al!

If one believed everything Al Gore had to say about climate change, there’d be no need to be interested in Orlando condos, since he says Chicago will be about as warm in a decade or so, anyway, while Florida will be largely underwater. Don’t believe the hype? Hey, not even the very liberal New York Times can swallow everything Al Gore’s selling these days!

In an article by William J. Broad, several middle-of-the-road scientists are stepping forward to give Al Gore a clear message on global warming: chill out, dude!

Here are some of the more salient quotes:

* Don J. Easterbrook, an emeritus professor of geology at Western Washington University: “I don’t want to pick on Al Gore, but there are a lot of inaccuracies in the statements we are seeing, and we have to temper that with real data.”

* Kevin Vranes, a climatologist at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado: “[Gore is] overselling our certainty about knowing the future.”

* Bjorn Lomborg, a statistician and political scientist in Denmark: “Climate change is a real and serious problem … The cacophony of screaming does not help.”

* Benny J. Peiser, a social anthropologist in Britain who runs the Cambridge-Conference Network, or CCNet, an Internet newsletter on climate change and natural disasters: “Hardly a week goes by without a new research paper that questions part or even some basics of climate change theory.”

* Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia: “Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet, nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.”

* Dr. Easterbrook again: “I’ve never been paid a nickel by an oil company, and I’m not a Republican.”

* From the Broad article: “He hotly disputed Mr. Gore’s claim that “our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this” threatened change. Nonsense, Dr. Easterbrook told the crowded session. He flashed a slide that showed temperature trends for the past 15,000 years. It highlighted 10 large swings, including the medieval warm period. These shifts, he said, were up to “20 times greater than the warming in the past century.”

* Paul Reiter, an active skeptic of global warming’s effects and director of the insects and infectious diseases unit of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, on Gore’s claim that warming spreads malaria: “For 12 years, my colleagues and I have protested against the unsubstantiated claims. We have done the studies and challenged the alarmists, but they continue to ignore the facts.”

But even all this won’t be enough to calm down “eager-for-disaster” liberals, who love to use environmental panic to advance their political agenda. Even if it means sacrificing science at the alter of Al Gore.

McCain keeps skipping conservatives… no kidding, Sherlock!

Beltway newspaper The Hill is breathlessly reporting that Arizona Senator John McCain and deluded GOP presidential nominee John McCain has “skipped his fourth conservative conference event in a row.” C’mon, is anyone really surprised by this?

Only by the standards set by the New York Times and the StarTribune is McCain even remotely considered a conservative, and the smarter folks on those staffs know it’s a sham. McCain’s a liberal, they know it, but if they can label him a conservative long enough, maybe they can convince the GOP faithful to vote for him and then, no matter who wins in ’08, it’ll be a liberal.

Sorry, Elana Schor, but Wonderful Pessimist isn’t buying what you’re selling, even if all it is, is pet supplies. Ever since jumpin’ Jim Jeffords left the GOP, McCain’s been just about the most liberal Republican on Capitol Hill. We’ll do our presidential shopping elsewhere, thank you!

One of the 57 percent!

According to a CBS News/New York Times opinion poll, 57 percent of GOP voters would prefer having more choices to pick from in the upcoming presidential season. For once, CBS/NYT has a poll I can agree with, even though I still think that all polls are hokum.

Of course, the primary reason at least 57 percent of GOP voters want more choices is because the three main front-runners are moderates at best, and in the case of John McCain, full-blown RINOs. While current front-runner Rudy Giuliani is the least objectionable RINO candidate, it remains true that Giuliani and Mitt Romney are northeast liberals of the highest order, even if they do wear GOP clothing. And geography has nothing to do with McCain’s liberalism.

Of course, there are minor conservatives out there, but none that are sparking a fire under GOP voters’ butts. Sam Brownback: Who? Mike Huckabee: Another Arkansasan to the White House? Not likely. Umm… are there any other conservatives in the race? Maybe even via video conferencing?

Perhaps.

Over the weekend, former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson, a Reagan Republican of the highest order, tossed his hat into the ring. Thompson has name recognition because aside from his stint as senator, he’s been in the Die Hard movies with Bruce Willis and a regular on Law and Order. He’s a minor celebrity.

Now, no one is saying that Thompson’s the second coming of Ronald Reagan, and certainly if Georgia’s Newt Gingrich eventually tosses his hat in the ring, he has more name recognition, but Thompson’s the first decent conservative to enter the race this year. The real question is whether he can compete with the three RINO stooges, Giuliani, McCain and Romney.

I’m not sure he can, but I’d love to see him succeed. He possesses a higher profile than Huckabee, and people know who he is. That’s a plus. And Gingrich may never enter the race, for all we know. For now, Thompson is the default favored candidate of Wonderful Pessimist, but we’re still taking applications.

C’mon, conservatives! Pull your heads out of the sand and stand up for limited government, lower taxes, a free market economy and all the other values that made the GOP a majority party under Reagan-Bush and a congressional majority under Gingrich.

Conservatism works every time it’s embraced. Pulling back from it and governing like Democrats? That just makes folks want to vote for the real liberals.