There are currently 34,000 news articles in Google News warning of Global Warming, but Matt Drudge has found the one that doesn’t.

“Climatologist Calls Global Warming Fears ‘Greatest Deception in the History of Science’…”

That’s all fair enough, except that the article doesn’t seem to warrant the front page of one of the most widely read news sources in the US. It is written by Tim Ball, a former Geography professor who works for an anti-global warming consultancy that refuses to deny that it is funded by energy companies.

I have no problem with people denying Global Warming - I don’t believe in censorship and think that freedom of speech gives a greater chance of the truth. However, Tim Ball does believe in censorship, or he would reveal the source of his backers.

My main problem, however, is Drudge, who through ultra selective reporting also believes in censorship. Reporters in the US have to be very professional and fact check almost everything they write. Aggregators like Drudge don’t have such restrictions, if Drudge were a real journalist, he would be out of a job.

The Boston Tee-Hee Party

The Mooninite bombscare gets more and more surreal by the minute. It’s rather like someone had decided that traffic lights look like bombs, in the manner that one of Oliver Sacks patients famously mistook his wife for a hat, but because bombs are more serious than hats we have to take it all seriously.

Yes all bomb scares have to be taken seriously, but everything does not seriously constitute a bomb scare, or we would have no resourses to deal with bomb scares. Mad people are always warning about bombs and the end of the world and imaginary demons, part of the role of authorities is to filter out mad people that think everything is suspicious.

Things that do not constitute suspicious devices, include traffic lights, lamp posts, blinking movie signs and the same blinking street art that has been in NYC for more than a month before someone in the Boston mistook his wife for a hat.

Equally weird is the way the ‘must treat anything that has invoked the word terrorism seriously, however spuriously’ meme spreads into other aspects of the story, such as the po-facedness of the reaction to the bird flip, which is blurred out on TV coverage, lest it offend the people who couldn’t be exposed to Elvis’ pelvic wiggle.

To illustrate this stupidity, I’ve created a side by side comparison of the Mooninite figure as compared to a religious icon holding up a cross. If anything the Mooninite is a much more convincing cross bearer than bird flipper. I doubt we would censor the cross, even although it ironically represents a genuine instrument of Roman terrorism, rather than a naughty gesture.

Leading Democrats have recently visited Iraq.
Leading Republicans have recently visited Iraq.
Leaders of America’s allies have recently visited Iraq.
The son of Prince Charles is going to Iraq and most importantly, the sons and daughters of many ordinary people will be going.

But the person who sent them, President Bush, is not going because ‘it is too dangerous’.

White House: We will send more troops in Iraq - CNN.com

All four of Adam Curtis’ excellent documentaries about the mechanisms behind ‘manufactured consent’ are on Google video.

Here is the last and poss the best:

The Century Of The Self - Part 4 of 4 - By Adam Curtis - Google Video

I’ve noticed that even the use of the spin doctored prefix ‘not in full blown’ to pretend that Iraq is not in Civil War has been quietly dropped in the last couple of weeks by magazines like the Economist and people like Kissinger.

At the same time, people who supported the war in Iraq, such as Matt Drudge, the Economist and nearly all of the red blooded (now red faced) war bloggers are now desperately clambering all over each other to make sure the shit doesn’t stick to them.

They don’t want to be on the losing team, there is nothing in it for them to continue to support Bush over McCain or even the Democrats - except loyalty and integrity.

People who witnessed Murdoch switch his support, overnight, from the Tories to New Labour, in the UK, will not be surprised if even Fox News flips allegiance as its ratings drop. Expect freak shows like O’Reilly to be canned next year. Fox will only follow ideology if ideology happens to be in power and roughly in line with its bottom line.

To help its own switch, in a sleight of hand that doesn’t appear to be a switch at all, the Economist defends its original support for the war and blames Rumsfeld. This seems plausibly pragmatic till you consider that Rumsfeld was one of the only pragmatists on the Bush team, leaving them in self-contradictory pragmatic support of the crazy neo-con ideologues.

You can’t pretend to be pragmatic when you are choosing the ideologues over the realists. And its mighty convenient to use Rumsfeld as your scapegoat when nobody likes Rumsfeld anymore.

What if the decision to go to war in the first place was wrong?

What if old fashioned military tactics had been used and the outcome was even worse?

Here’s a thought. It may just be that Rumsfeld was the only competent person in the Bush administration.

That would leave the Economist, Drudge and the war bloggers to be wrong in the first place, unapologetic about it, and now guilty of absolute cowardice and hypocrisy by blaming the execution rather than the decision to go to war.

A year or so back, after the Iraqi elections, and a glimmer of hope, War Bloggers asked that those who were against the war follow Andew Sullivan’s lead, apologise, and admit that they were wrong.

Now its their turn.

The front page of CNN currently reads:

“Bush: Kerry owes troops an apology”.

At first glance, I read it as:

“Kerry: Bush owes troops an apology.”

Iraqi blogs make for depressing reading these days. The war appears to be all but lost.

Zeyad says:

“Another close friend of mine has been killed in Baghdad. We had lunch together in Baghdad just days before I left.

I can’t concentrate on anything any more. I should not be here in New York running around a stupid neighbourhood, asking people about their ‘issues’.

I now officially regret supporting this war back in 2003. The guilt is too much for me to handle.”

Healing Iraq

And nothing short of a revolt has happened over some pretty weird comments by the increasingly deranged ‘Iraq the Model’.

Iraqi Konfused Kollege Kid: Iraqi Bloggers Discuss Lancet Study, Iraq The Model

After luring in the Bush Administration with two tame prequels, the world’s most famous journalist delivers a devastating blow.

The Age summarizes the Woodward stance. Imagine for one second, while reading it, that there is no God, or that, less contraversially, there is no God that matches the sect within a sect within a sect that is Mr. Bush’s god.

With that single supposition, you leave the United States as the worlds most powerful vessel, rudderless, drifting aimlessly, its captain asleep at the wheel. A giant aircraft-carrier Mary Celeste bristling with nuclear materiel.

Woodward’s conclusion is a serious as it gets - the United States is leaderless.

“Mr Bush emerges as a man who not only lacks intellectual curiosity but is untroubled by self-doubt, a man who constantly tells his aides that as commander-in-chief his job is to exude confidence in his decisions. He is, according to Woodward, a man of deep faith, who prays regularly for guidance and believes his prayers are answered.”

Bush battens down for hurricane Woodward - World - theage.com.au

Well done Schwarzenegger. Smack bottom Bush.

Science News Article | Reuters.com

A bigger threat to your life than suicide bombers.