Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Chance for Anthony Watts to show his worth

Anthony Watts now has two separate posts ringing with condemnation of Think Progress for a post last year that noted the terrorist Anders Breivik had accused climate science of actually being an eco-Marxist plot (that post disappeared temporarily but now it's back).


Watts to his credit condemned Heartland's revealing billboard campaign but AFAIK has stopped there.  I've already shown that HI has done this before, equating Al Gore with Ted Kaczysnki.  When I found that Heartland post, I also found another that I haven't written about until now:
Environmental Extremist Gunman Attacks Discovery Channel Headquarters 
James M. Taylor, J.D. – James M. Taylor – September 1, 2010 
An environmental extremist gunman has entered the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., and has taken a number of people hostage, according to Montgomery County Police. Police are trying to negotiate with the gunman, who may have armed himself with a bomb. Roughly 1,900 employees work at the building, which broadcasts a number of science-related programs. 
 The gunman has issued a manifesto and a list of demands, much of which reads like an environmental activist wish list....Much like the media largely ignored the environmental extremism that motivated the Unabomber, the mainstream media currently is largely ignoring the Discovery Channel gunman’s environmental motivation.
And another, also by James Taylor, J.D.:
Environmental extremist took an ugly turn Aug. 1 when activist James Lee, armed with two guns and several bombs stormed the Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., took employees hostage, and attempted to force the Discovery Channel to air environmental propaganda on global warming and other issues. The assault ended in the late afternoon when police shot and killed Lee as it appeared he was preparing to detonate a bomb and kill some or all of the hostages.... 
Gore Movie as ‘Awakening’
Lee was first arrested for engaging in disruptive environmental protesting outside Discovery Channel headquarters in 2008. At the time, he explained he had had an environmental “awakening” after seeing Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth.
In An Inconvenient Truth, Gore bemoans the fact that peaceful, democratic means have not motivated people to enact his desired global warming restrictions. “I used to believe in democracy,” Gore says near the end of the film. 
History of Violent Rhetoric 
In 2006, Grist magazine staff writer David Roberts wrote, "When we've finally gotten serious about global warming, when the impacts are really hitting us and we're in a full worldwide scramble to minimize the damage, we should have war crimes trials for these bastards—some sort of climate Nuremberg.” The penalty imposed in Nuremberg for war crimes was death.... 
In 2008 NASA global warming activist James Hansen said CEOs of fossil energy companies “should be tried for high crimes against humanity and nature." The penalty for high crimes against humanity is death....
According to Anthony Watts, noting these parallels is evil when Think Progress does it.  I've previously shown one other blog post where Heartland is substantially worse.  By Watts standard, that post and these two new ones also deserve condemnation.

For my part, I did not bring up these two posts when I found the first one equating Gore and Kaczynski.  I think the second of these posts is particularly stupid and inaccurate, but remember it's from James Taylor, and it's unsurprising that he doesn't understand the range of penalties available at Nuremberg and the International Criminal Court.  Still, I think these don't equate environmentalism as a whole with violent nutcases.  I don't see them as strong arguments, nor do I see the Breivik argument as that strong, but they're not innately wrong.

Watts disagrees with me on Breivik.  Presumably then he disagrees with Heartland on all three of the blog posts in addition to the billboards, and I hope he says so.

UPDATE Eli:  Anthony is going after Nick Stokes.  More hockey stick jumping.

20 comments:

William M. Connolley said...

Well, c'mon, the ThinkProgress memory hole is funny. And not at all to their credit. WUWT is crap, but you expect that.

Nick Stokes said...

Neither of those WUWT posts on Think Progress mentions anywhere Anthony Watts very similar post Charles Manson becomes an advocate for global warming.

bill said...

I'm confused. Have we forgotten 'When Warmistas Attack', or what?

J Bowers said...

"Chance for Anthony Watts to show his worth"

Well, that's torn it. No chance now ;)

Tony should get in touch with the DC FIRE crowd to see if they'd raise the money for his graph website instead. The sooner he jumps out of bed with Chicago, the better for him. Look at the regard they gave to their own satellite's hard work - zilch.

EliRabett said...

Sort of like the Kloor/Revkin school of churalistic balance. Basically, if someone messes up major, you tell them that, not that Eli did something ten years ago, so while it is bad, it is not so bad.

Lars Karlsson said...

Speaking fo Taylor, a month ago he wrote "More Global Warming Alarmist Games: Doctoring The Temperature Record". Pretty ironic given the previous Rabett post "UAH satellite temps being corrected by others. Knock me over with a feather".

Anonymous said...

lol You guys are so easy to lead. HI has got you playing a game keeping score on who denounces the crazies. You are wasting your energies on things 99.5% of the public is not even aware of that is going on.


Step back and take a look.



Celery Eater

J Bowers said...

CE falls for the game of keeping score on who's keeping score on who denounces the crazies: an even greater waste of energy.

Anonymous said...

J Bowers wins the score keeping and waste of energy game with his above comment.


Please all carry on.



Celery Eater

Anonymous said...

Anthony Watts makes a "poor editorial choice" yet Joe Romm posts an "angry and hateful rant"

Hmm...? http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/05/09/quote-of-the-week-a-warm-lesson-on-ethics-from-the-experts/#comments

Anonymous said...

Could please somebody help me out? Where did Watts actually condemn the billboards? He seemed to be more concerned about the bad PR they entail and that seems to be the main reason to reject them. The same goes for McKitrick on CA, IMO.

Former WUWT cockroach

Steve Bloom said...

According to Romm, the brief disappearance of the TP piece was because Think Green was folded into Climate Progress a couple weeks back along with all of its posts, including the Breivik one, and moved it off of his site onto another (TP Security) as soon as the squawking brought it to his attention.

So nothing too remarkable here.

Anonymous said...

Eli's Update in regards to Nick Stokes assuming the worse out of an account in an ANU email that went something like:

"I know a guy who knew a guy who said...."

Oh that is a serious threat, yeah whatever.

Jumping the Shark is more like it.


The wheels on the bus go round and round...



Thoroughly entertained this week


Celery Eater

Anonymous said...

To the Celery Eater:
Learn to follow the money. Maybe Tony has spent the money, and now is worried the check from Heartland will bounce. Given the mass evacuation by the corporate sponsors, this really leaves Bast's big daddy holding the bag and trying to keep Heartland afloat. Tony and his minions could be worried about where their money will come from.

Better hope the hotel holding the HI shindig got paid in advance, otherwise Heartland could leave the hotel holding the bag, as the Bast guys slither away with what's left of the money haul.

The Heartland con could be coming to an end. And their publishing arm that puts out PR based on Anthony Watts' delusional analyses, may be "outa business".

All cons eventually end.

zinfan94

Anonymous said...

Zinfin,

If HI goes away tomorrow 99.5% of the public will not even notice.

WUWT will carry on as it has.


Do you have any other points?



Celery Eater

THE CLIMATE WARS said...

I have great hopes for Taylor and the other Heartland Fellows racing for the bottom in generating free bloggerel for Forbes

They may pave the way for the prodigal Gleick's return.

Anonymous said...

Snow Bunny says:

Americans For Prosperity fostered a plank to investigate climate scientists for fraud. The Republican Party of Maine (taken over by Tea Partyers) put that into the Party plank of Maine.

The minute the State of Virginia Attorney General Cuccinelli took office in 2010 he launched an investigation of a climate scientist -- Michael Mann of 'hockey stick' fame who has just published a book -- for 'civil fraud'. A new law in Va. intended to prevent state funding from being diverted into pizza parties or something. The legal theory was mush and the consisted of contradicting climate science in much the style of say, Fred Singer. Cucc challenged -- actually, it wasn't clear in the brief exactly what he was challenging -- but 5 contracts were referenced. 4 of them were federal government contracts thrown out because the Virginia law did not apply. So was the 5th on other grounds. Eventually the Va. Supreme Court threw the case out "with prejudice" on 2 grounds a) there was no probable cause for the investigation b) the civil fraud law did not apply.

Also the scientist who noticed dead polar bears floating in the Arctic ocean has been interminably investigated for unspecified reasons and with inane questions.

It seems so far the legal cases have been instigated against climate scientists who have done usual research work that was dramatized in Al Gore's movie. I feel these cases are part of a deliberate policy.

Anonymous said...

Yep come to fine out Nick Stokes is a joke!


Celery Eater

a_ray_in_dilbert_space said...

Come to FIND out, CE spells as well as he thinks. Celery--it'll rot your brain.

Anonymous said...

a_ray,

Ah poor little a_ray's friend Nick Stokes has egg all over his face for his "death threats" BS and a_ray feeling all bad for his friend lashes out at spelling errors and attacks the messenger.

At least I have a brain to rot, you're a lemming of ideology and team play. A mindless robot spewing forth from your provided script.

Nice use of CAPS they make you look so impotent, er important.

You're a joke.



Celery Eater