Rush is still under the weather, so I'll be back on the radio guest-hosting America's Number One radio show for three hours from 12 noon Eastern/9am Pacific. You can listen live, via one of our friendly New Hampshire affiliates, here. My new book, discussed in more detail below, is a Top 250 bestseller at Amazon, and a smash on the Climatology Hit Parade.
~That headline comes from Instapundit's characterization of my new book, and it may be the pithiest summation, although this one from Laura Rosen Cohen is also among my favorites:
It's not punching back twice as hard, or even thrice as hard.
It's punching back something like eleventy bazillion gazillion times as hard.
It's probably the longest, funniest, most savvily organized and meticulous "screw you" in the history of Western literature. It's probably a new genre. I don't know of any precedent for a literary vehicle of this kind.
If you saw Ted Cruz with that know-nothing Sierra Club guy, you'll get a glimpse of how in the run-up to the Paris talks the Big Climate alarmists are going to do nothing except drone their three or four talking points. As it happens, the Sierra honcho's line - about "the 97 per cent consensus" on "climate change" - is demolished right at the end of my new book. This is the story of the most famous "science" graph of the 21st century and how its malign influence got propelled onwards and upwards - to the IPCC, Al Gore's Oscar-winning crockumentary, every western government, every schoolhouse in the developed world, even to the Vatican. It's a hell of a story:
"A Disgrace To The Profession":
The World's Scientists - In Their Own Words - On
Michael E Mann, His Hockey Stick And Their Damage To Science
Volume One
In other words, to go back to Laura Rosen Cohen's money quote, it's not just me saying "Screw you!" to Mann and his hockey stick, but some of the most eminent scientists in the world. Personally autographed copies are available right now at the SteynOnline bookstore. But, if you can live without my cheery greeting, it's getting big bestseller discounts at Amazon. And, if you're too excited about it to wait for next-day delivery, it can be yours anywhere on the planet within the next 90 seconds via Kindle and Nook. Profits therefrom help to prop up my end of the upcoming climate trial of the century - and Josh's cartoons are worth the price all by themselves.
It started with a lawsuit, when the creator of the global-warming "hockey stick" decided to sue me for defamation. That suit over a 270-word blog post is now in its fourth year in the fetid choked toilet of the District of Columbia court system: if I lose at trial, it will be the most consequential setback for the First Amendment for 50 years. If I win, it would be a big defeat for the climate mullahs and a rare victory for sanity in the ongoing climate wars.
But a chap can't sit around forever waiting for the disgracefully lethargic jurists of a dysfunctional courthouse to get their act together, so I figured I might as well put some of the mountain of case research clogging up my rec room into a brand new book. Over at The Way The Ball Bounces, they give the book "two bristlecones - way up":
I expected the book to be on the dry side compared to Steyn's usual joyous romps. I was wrong. It was a pleasure to read. I was laughing by the time I reached the Table of Contents...
[The chapters are] like a Pez dispenser, you finish one, another pops up, staring you in the face. Daring you. OK, just one more. Just one more. This is definitely the last. No more Pez today!!
But it's not just a non-stop laugh riot. There's lot of science-type stuff in there, too. Ask Dr Natalie K Björklund-Gordon BSc PhD:
If you read only one book on the climate science wars, you need to read this book. In fact, it is my opinion that Steyn on Mann should be included as a mandatory textbook for anyone studying ethics of science or history of science, and wondering how not to be taken in by flimflam artists masquerading as scientists.
One of the world's leading climate scientists, Dr Judith Curry, says:
There is much wit and plenty of zingers in Steyn's narrative (not sure if anyone helped him with the technical aspects of this; seems pretty solid).
Indeed. And she reminds readers of her original warning to Ayatollah Mann when he launched his lawsuit:
"Mark Steyn is formidable opponent. I suspect that this is not going to turn out well for you." This book certainly supports my statement.
The Big Climate enforcers' plan was to sue me into silence. I leave it to others to assess how well that's working out. However, as Barack Obama likes to say, this isn't just about me. It's also about the perversion of science and the damage done by the Big Climate enforcers and the cartoon science of the hockey stick. Mann's graph told the simplest of stories: climate-wise nothing happened for nine hundred years until suddenly, in the 20th century, the mercury took off and shot up through the top right-hand corner of the graph - and now we're all gonna fry.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, the global-warming "pause" is about to enter its third decade, which suggests it may all be a bit more complicated than that.
So I hope you'll take a gander at "A Disgrace To The Profession": The world's scientists on Michael E Mann, his hockey stick, and their damage to science - Volume One. At SteynOnline, we're selling the paperback edition, personally autographed by yours truly, as an exclusive offer from the Steyn store. But, if you care naught for my John Hancock, it's available in print and eBook from Amazon and all the usual outlets.
~There are other ways to support my pushback against Big Climate, if you're so inclined:
1) STEYNONLINE GIFT CERTIFICATES
We usually only offer these at Christmas time, but, by popular request, we've made them available for the non-holiday season, too. You can buy a gift certificate starting at $25 (and soaring way up from there), and let your friends and relatives load up with Steyn books and music and trial merchandise at their leisure. The gift certificates have no expiration date, so if, in ten years' time, your favorite nephew has a sudden burning desire for $100 worth of Clash of Sticks mugs, it'll still be valid. Alternatively, if you want to buy a certificate and sit on it until I win the case, that works, too.
The gift certificates are available online here. Alternatively, US and Canadian customers can make a telephone purchase by calling (866) 799-4500 toll free from 8am to 3pm Eastern time on weekdays.
Aside from my climatological offering, I've written lots of other books, too, including one on free speech, which is the heart of this case. They're available individually or as part of various special offers.
3) EXCLUSIVE STEYN vs THE STICK TRIAL MERCHANDISE
We've introduced two new designs, "Steyn vs the Stick" and "Clash of Sticks", that are now available both on mousepads and coffee mugs and as T-shirts and sweat shirts (for men and women). The latter are the only things to be seen in if you're thinking of swinging by the DC Superior Court.
This is an important case: If Mann were to prevail, it would be the worst setback for freedom of speech in this country in half-a-century - which is why, if he were to win in DC, we'd be going all the way to the Supreme Court. I'm grateful to all the readers around the world who understand that and have expressed their support over the last three years. As my new book indicates, I'm taking Instapundit's advice - and punching back hard.
