Sir John Houghton Misquoted
Climate-Change Skeptics have been quoting Sir John Houghton, who played a critical role in establishing the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), as saying, “Unless we announce disasters, no one will listen.”
The quotation has since become the iconic smoking gun of the climate skeptic community. The words are the very first to appear in the “manual” of climate denialism written by the journalist and arch-skeptic Christopher Booker. They get more than a million hits on Google, and are wheeled out almost every time a climate skeptic has a point to make, the last occasion being in a Sunday newspaper article last weekend written by the social anthropologist and climate skeptic Benny Peiser.
The trouble is, Sir John Houghton has never said what he is quoted as saying. The words do not appear in his own book on global warming, first published in 1994, despite statements to the contrary. In fact, he denies emphatically that he ever said it at any time, either verbally or in writing.
In fact, his view on the matter of generating scare stories to publicise climate change is quite the opposite. “There are those who will say ‘unless we announce disasters, no one will listen’, but I’m not one of them,” Sir John told The Independent.
Even though the quotation appears on about 1.77 million web links, no one seems to know where it originated. On the few occasions a reference is cited, it is listed as coming from the first edition of Sir John’s book, Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, published by Lion Books in 1994. But Sir John does not say it in this edition, nor in subsequent editions published by Cambridge University Press.
Newt Gingrich Lies About Shoe Bomber – When former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and he assailed the administration for reading Miranda Rights to Detroit underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, Stewart drew a comparison to a similar situation that happened under George W. Bush.
“Didn’t they do the same with Richard Reid, who was the shoe bomber?” Stewart asked.
“Richard Reid was an American citizen,” insisted Gingrich.
WRONG! Reid is actually a British citizen of Jamaican descent.
Also, U.S. law requires Miranda Rights for non-citizens arrested in the U.S.
Later, when Gingrich acknowledged that part of his job is to reach out to the emotions of the American people, Stewart shot back, “I think that’s wise. And don’t let reality get in the way.”
Five-Year Old Denied Treatment by Death Panel Health insurance Company – Five-year-old Kyler VanNocker of Pennsylvania is ailing from a lethal childhood cancer known as neuroblastoma, and his insurer HealthAmerica is refusing to pay for the only known treatment that can save his life. His health problems have re-surged, and the VanNockers allege HealthAmerica is unjustly denying necessary care their son is entitled to under their insurance plan.
VanNocker’s oncologist told the Daily News last year that the MIGB therapy is the “standard of care” for neuroblastoma and “the results are often very good.”
Income Inequality Gap Soars Between Well-To-Do and Poor – There has been talk about income inequality over the past several years, but what is happening now is catastrophic. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston divided American households into 10 groups based on annual household income. Then it analyzed labor conditions in each of the groups during the fourth quarter of 2009.
The highest group, with household incomes of $150,000 or more, had an unemployment rate during that quarter of 3.2 percent. The next highest, with incomes of $100,000 to 149,999, had an unemployment rate of 4 percent.
Contrast those figures with the unemployment rate of the lowest group, which had annual household incomes of $12,499 or less. The unemployment rate of that group during the fourth quarter of last year was a staggering 30.8 percent. The next lowest group, with incomes of $12,500 to $20,000, had an unemployment rate of 19.1 percent.
Pastor Wiley Drake Prayed for the Death of Congressman John Murtha – Southern Baptist Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park sent out an email Monday night, saying that perhaps his prayers had been answered with the death of Rep. John Murtha yesterday. “Maybe God took him out,†Drake wrote. “Maybe God Answered our IMPRECATORY prayer that we prayed every 30 days.â€
The Pennsylvania congressman, a decorated former Marine who fiercely opposed the Iraq war, died at the age of 77 after complications from gallbladder surgery.
Drake has also prayed for the death of President Barack Obama. However, he dropped that because he wants to see Obama face charges that he is not a natural-born citizen and so cannot be president.
When Facts Don’t Agree with Ideology, Ignore Them – Matt Drudge and his anti-reason friends at Fox News have been saying that since it’s been snowing a lot in some places, that means global warming, or climate change, must be a hoax. Drudge and Fox News ignore the fact that the Winter Olympics in Vancouver is having a shortage of snow due to their warmest January in history.
Soft on Terror? Not Actually. – Have you heard the one about how the administration is soft on terrorism? Well, then how do explain this? Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud has been confirmed killed by U.S. missiles that hit his stronghold in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt in mid-January. U.S. CIA-led missile attacks also killed Mehsud’s predecessor just six months ago.
Fact Checking the Texas Governor’s Race
Heat index: A fact check of Perry’s claim on taxes, state budget
Rated 3 peppers: a serious misrepresentation of the facts.
Heat index: A fact check of Perry’s claim on Texas Enterprise Fund
Rated 2 peppers: stretching the truth a bit.
Heat index: A fact check of Perry’s claim on free roads becoming toll roads
Rated 2 peppers: stretching the truth a bit.
Heat index: A fact check of Hutchison’s claim on Perry’s travels
Rated 3 peppers: a serious misrepresentation of the facts.
Heat index: A fact check of Hutchison’s claim on highway spending
Rated 3 peppers: a serious misrepresentation of the facts.
Heat index: A fact check of Hutchison’s claim on dropout rate
Rated 1 pepper: true or mostly true.
Heat index: A fact check of Medina’s claim on transportation study
Rated 3 peppers: a serious misrepresentation of the facts.
Heat index: A fact check of Medina’s claim on governor’s office spending
Rated 2 peppers: stretching the truth a bit.
Heat index: A fact check of Shami’s claim on executions
Rated 4 peppers: totally false
Heat index: A fact check of White’s claim on electricity rates
Rated 1 pepper: true or mostly true.
Mr. President, We Need Jobs! 😉 – C’mon, President Obama – comedians need your help! You want to create more jobs, then help America’s comedians who need more work!! Can you please mispronounce some words, mangle an expression, maybe do a tap dance while waiting for someone on the White House porch, try to exit a stage through a fake door, fall off a Segway scooter, try to give a shoulder massage to a female foreign head of state, anything! Please!
Oh, never mind. We have Sarah Palin. She makes me appreciate the intellect of Paris Hilton.
Regards,
Jim
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