UPDATE! As an alternative to Robert Tracinski's column, LiveScience.com offers a story headlined "Why A Climate Scientist's Libel Case Matters" by Seth Shulman, a "veteran science journalist" and "senior staff writer at the Union of Concerned Scientists". There doesn't appear to be a "Union of Concerned Denialists" for me to pad my bio with, so I may have to start one. At any rate, the veteran senior staff writer writes:
As a journalist who has written about the intersection of science and politics for three decades, I am a staunch defender of free speech. But...
There's an interesting quote from Dr Mann's Big Tobacco lawyer, John Williams, in the piece, and one from Dr Mann himself. But the "veteran science journalist" Seth Shulman never bothered seeking a comment from me or any of the other defendants - which, to their credit, Mother Jones, Newsweek et al all did. To the "veteran science journalist", it goes without saying that there's only one side of the story. The veteran senior super staffer unwittingly makes Mr Tracinski's point - that Dr Mann is America's Lysenko, commissar of the one-party state of "settled science", in which anyone who dissents is an unperson, even when the one-party state puts them on trial.
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I started the day with Toronto's Number One morning man John Oakley, chewing over the LGBTTIQQ2S parade (although I may have gone acronymically astray somewhere after the second T), Bill Clinton's love nests on every continent, and my forthcoming appearance at the Manning jamboree in Ottawa. It's always fun shooting the breeze with John, and I hope to join him in his luxurious lakeshore studio in a couple of weeks. You can hear the audio of this morning's conversation at the foot of this page.
~Robert Tracinski's column on Michael E Mann as America's Lysenko is gaining traction. Charles R Anderson, PhD writes:
If this opinion is upheld, it will be against the law to disagree with any government agency that claims the umbrella of science... The Invisibility Cloak so sought by many government agencies will become a pretense of science and in the name of that, they will wield the Hammer of Thor upon Americans.
Actually, whenever I read Dr Mann's prose, he seems more like the Mighty Snore.
Meanwhile, David Appel, the Javert to my Jean Valjean or (according to taste) Clouseau to my Sir Charles Lytton, has figured out my cunning plan:
Since he has no lawyers, Mark Steyn has to rely on bloggers (yikes).
Has any other defendant ever come up with the genius idea of crowdsourcing his defense, letting his opponent watch the entire time?
I can't think of any. {Brilliant!
But maybe it's all an ingenious head-fake, eh? Ever thought of that, eh, eh?
Still, now that he's rumbled me, I should throw Mann's four listed white-show lawyers invoicing into the small hours for reading blog posts off the scent by writing about saloon songs, ice dancing, topless senate candidates and obscure colonial administrators. You can figure out my real legal strategy by piecing together every seventh word, and then dividing by the first tree ring on the left in the Yamal peninsula.
~This week's Spectator, on newsstands across the United Kingdom and Australia from tomorrow, features a piece on me by James Delingpole. Lifelong readers are already canceling their subscriptions.
~A big contingent of supporters from the "S" end of the UN General Assembly bought gift certificates to support my legal battle yesterday - loyal readers from Spain, Sweden and Singapore. The Swede also downloaded my disco megamix of "A Marshmallow World". I always feel everyone should have at least one disco hit in Sweden, so fingers crossed. If you're from Slovenia, St Lucia or Swaziland and you'd like to swing by the Steyn store, we'd be happy to see you.
~And now here's that Oakley interview on AM640. Just click to listen:
