Firewords, Round II

Ding, ding, ding. Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger have offered another volley in their earlier criticism of Joe Romm. In doing so, they’ve blown the whistle on a clash between Romm and my colleague Roger Pielke Jr. Following suit, Roger has now entered the fray as well.

Nordhaus and Shellenberger do a nice job of pitching a blogospheric version of the guilt by association fallacy, while I do an equally superb job of mangling metaphors.

Weakness of the Will

George “WTF” Will has a new piece out in Newsweek, and it’s a real howler. Our skeptical castaway with implausibly many Ys in his last name has a few corrections for Will. More interesting to me, however, is the extent to which public pundits can get away with repeating the same tired lines, over-and-over again.

How many times have we heard that the climate is cooling now? How many times have we heard reference to the “global cooling” article in Newsweek from 1975? How many times have we heard that climate change is little more than a media phenomenon?

Most of the scientific blog community has set to demonstrating the falsity of Will’s claims by appealing to trend lines, offering five million objection-specific responses, or pointing out Will’s supposed similarity to Alfalfa. (Alfalfa? Really? Sherman is a far better match.) Journalists have done as much as well.

What’s crazy about Will’s claims is not what he asserts, but how self-defeating his argument is. It is asinine how dependent he is on climate science to support his criticism of climate science.

For instance…

And Now, For My Next Trick

Here’s a nice example of an appeal to fear, intermingled with an appeal to pity, as well as several other fallacies, including outright falsehoods. But eh, what’s an outright falsehood when freedom’s on the line? The Daily Show, as usual, is on the case.

A Guide My Students Need

This has very little to do with anything, and yet, it has something to do with everything.

Our Microbrews are Better Anyway

Looks like Rep. Betsy Markey of Fort Collins, Colorado — congressional guardian of the struggling hamlet to our north — voted against Saturday’s historic healthcare bill, HR 3962. While Boulder’s guy, Jared Polis, has had a few choice words about the healthcare legislation himself, he did, in the end, support HR 3962. (My god. What the hell is up with that website? It’s like the Game of Life on LSD.)

While it’s true that Fort Collins has a few things going for it — over, perhaps, the banana theocracy to our south — Betsy Markey only may or may not be one of those things. Not sure. The verdict is still out.

Whatever the case, there is a feisty rivalry between our two towns on many issues, extending well-beyond healthcare: academics, sports, energy alternatives, and beer. Fat Tire, for some reason, gets a lot of the Colorado press, but I am here to notify readers from outside the state of Colorado that the colonists at New Belgium only represent the teensy tip of an iceberg well-worth exploring. Fort Collins does have the fantastic Odell’s brewery (their IPA is unreal). But Boulder (and nearby hamlets Lyons and Longmont) boast a whopping 13 or more microbreweries.

If you ever end up in Boulder, be sure to give Avery’s IPA and Maharaja a sample. Apart from Avery, we have Lefthand, Boulder, Mountain Sun, Walnut, Upslope, Oskar Blues,  Twisted Pine, among others. And, of course, Denver has its annual Great American Beer Festival.

None of this post is intended to make any sense, except to signal that I’ve somehow found a way to weave commentary on the health care bill, climate legislation, and beer together in one pathetic entry. Carry on.