UPDATE! I had a grand time filling in for Rush today. I arrived five minutes before air time after a rather dismal encounter with American health care. Speaking as a "customer", it feels less and less like a private health care system, and takes on more and more of the characteristics of a decrepit government monopoly. But enough of my woes. After a rollicking three hours with EIB listeners, I was perked up no end, and departed at 3pm Eastern with a spring in my gait. As always, there are a few highlights from the show posted here. It's always an honor for a penniless immigrant to host America's Number One radio show. I understand Rush is still feeling grotty (to use a Briticism) but is itching to get back behind the Golden EIB Microphone tomorrow.
~As far as I can recall, I didn't mention self-conferred Nobel Laureate Michael Mann's lawsuit against me. But listeners from across the fruited plain responded very generously by helping support my legal battle through SteynOnline gift certificates and products. Many supporters also came this way courtesy of Watts Up With That, the world's Number One climate website. Many thanks to Anthony Watts - and also to my New Hampshire neighbors at Granite Grok.
~We also had a flood of patrons from Australia, thanks to Andrew Bolt's post at The Herald Sun. Andrew and I shared a stage in Melbourne during my last Aussie tour. At the risk of jumping the gun, you may have heard we're putting together another nationwide tour Down Under for later this year, and hoping to get to some of the towns we didn't make last time round (Darwin? Hobart?). But we will be back in Melbourne, where, as Andrew well knows, the cause of free speech can always use a bit of help.
~Thank you also to my many compatriots from the Great White North who've expressed their support. If you want to put a face to the defamation lawsuit, I'll be in Ottawa next month for Preston Manning's annual jamboree with Jason Kenney, Paul Wells and other chums. It's the political event of the year for Canadian conservatives. More details here.
~Elsewhere on the warm-mongering front, the Leftosphere is still prancing in the streets singing "Ding Dong! The Denier's Dead" - or at any rate doomed:
The lawsuit, brought by climatologist Dr. Michael Mann, claims that the National Review and its wingnut blogger Mark Steyn defamed Dr. Mann, comparing him to a child molester and alleging that he manipulated climate data in his research. (Since the lawsuit was brought, National Review and Steyn have parted company). Steyn, a former drama critic with no scientific credentials, is well-loved among the radical right for his extremely nasty commentary.
When musical-comedy queens attack!
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Rush is feeling a little under the weather this morning, so I'll be returning to the Golden EIB Microphone to guest-host America's Number One radio show later today, live coast-to-coast at 12 noon Eastern/9am Pacific. I have a medical appointment myself this morning plus a sick kid on my hands so the entire Ice Station EIB operation is also disease-riddled, but we'll do our best to provide three hours of seat-of-the-pants Excellence in Broadcasting on the news of the day - and hope Rush is restored to health for tomorrow's show.
~If you missed it, I was interviewed yesterday by the leftie lads at ThinkProgress. Andrew Breiner gave me a fair shake, which is all a chap asks - especially when even I can't tell when I'm joking anymore. Don't forget, we're moving into the discovery phase of fake Nobel Laureate Michael Mann's defamation lawsuit against me for mocking his global warm-mongering "hockey stick", so if you've any suggestions as to what we should be asking for - third tree-ring on the left, etc - do pass them along to me via email at [email protected].
~I believe I'm also the first ne'er-do-well to attempt to fund his legal defense entirely by sales of his Christmas album. But, if there's only so much "Marshmallow World" you can take, you can also support the cause via our SteynOnline gift certificates, starting at $25. It looks like the Scopes Monkey Trial of the 21st century (as The New York Times billed it) is going ahead, and I promise you full value for money.
~Speaking of our bookstore cum legal campaign, Habib Jones tweets his suggestion for a boffo new merchandising item:
The Steyn store needs autographed copies of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.
Hmm. I don't know how Thomas Jefferson & Co would feel about me putting my John Hancock all over that. I'm reminded of the episode of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" where Ted offers to give Lou his autographed copy of Churchill's History Of The English-Speaking Peoples, and Lou asks Ted how he got Churchill to autograph the book. "No, Lou," says Ted. "Autographed by me."
~See you in a couple of hours on America's Number One radio show - or, as M J Murphy, Toronto's Number Two ovine-fornication specialist, calls it, "the snow fence of failure".
