As I mentioned the other day in relation to Michael E Mann's latest "hockey stick", I'm honored to be alongside some of the most eminent scientists and some of the most rollicking commentators in a new book called Climate Change: The Facts. It's available right now from Amazon outlets worldwide (for a full list, scroll down).
Climate Change: The Facts has been put together by our friends at the Institute of Public Affairs in Australia, edited by Alan Moran, and features 22 essays on the science, politics and economics of "climate change". Aside from yours truly, you'll also find: Anthony Watts on the 18-year warming pause; Joanne Nova on the climate-change gravy train; Britain's former Chancellor Nigel Lawson on the economic consequences of abandoning fossil fuels; Patrick Michaels on the growing chasm between the predictions of the IPCC and real-world temperatures, Garth Paltridge on the damage such failed forecasts are doing to science, and Donna Laframboise on the damage the Big Climate alarmists have done to the IPCC; professors Richard Lindzen, Bob Carter and Willie Soon on climate sensitivity and factors such as greenhouse gases, natural variability, and the role of the sun...
Oh, don't worry, Michael E Mann and his "hockey stick" are in the book, in an analysis by one of the two men who've inflicted more damage on Mann's stick than anybody else, Professor Ross McKitrick. For all but the most hardcore climate alarmists, it's increasingly clear, almost two decades into the "pause", that climate science and its attendant politics need a fresh start. This book is an important contribution to that, by a wide range of authors whose writing on this subject over the years has held up a lot better than the dire predictions of the climate models.
Climate Change: The Facts will be available in paperback direct from the SteynOnline bookstore next month (and personally autographed by me, if you so desire). For now, it's available as an eBook from Kindle via Amazon.com and other Amazon outlets around the world (scroll down). It will be out in Kobo and Nook formats in the next few days.
~Speaking of books, as most readers are aware, sales from the Steyn store have to prop up my end of the epic Mann vs Steyn hockey stick suit, now well into its third year and no nearer Day One of the actual trial than when the procedurally incompetent DC justice system accepted the suit in 2012. I wouldn't want you to think that when you patronize my humble emporium you're not getting a world-class product in return. So, following the enthusiastic reviews for The [Un]documented Mark Steyn by Julie Burchill in Britain and Robert Fulford in Canada, I was heartened to pick up Tuesday's Washington Times and see this from Wes Vernon:
Mr. Steyn has a unique talent for injecting just the right portion of humor with a call to intellectual arms...
I'll take that. Mr Vernon also points out the timeliness of the book:
Mark Steyn has made the point in his series of best-selling books that Europe is dominated by Islam and that in anywhere from 40 to 75 years, there will be a continent that he calls Eurabia. Others of course, have similarly prophesied. Mr. Steyn's look into that future is simply more vivid...
That copies of Mr. Steyn's current best-seller were snapped off the shelves of America just as France was going through a week of Islamist violent hell, ironically may be seen as lending tragic weight to his credibility or sense of timing or whatever.
The author goes into the final stretch of "The [Un]documented Mark Steyn" interviewing Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff. Who? She's 90 — or 92 (even Wikipedia is uncertain) Who? Come again? Think Doris Day, one of the biggest movie, television, radio, recording stars of the 20th century. Naturally, Mark Steyn could get this very outgoing icon to detail her early career when she was so horrified that she ran offstage in the second verse of her ballad.
A book by Mr. Steyn offers a large landscape on life.
You can read the whole review here. Wherever you live on the planet, don't forget you can get a personally autographed copy of The [Un]documented Mark Steyn direct from SteynOnline.
~I'll be talking about The [Un]documented Mark Steyn and many other matters in conversation with Heather Reisman at Indigo Books on the corner of Bay and Bloor in Toronto later this month - 7pm Wednesday on January 28th. It's always fun when Heather and I get together, and I look forward to some lively and provocative questioning. Admission is free, but first come, first served. More details here. And Canadian readers can buy the book here - and I'll be happy to autograph it for you at the end of the evening.
~Still speaking of books, not everyone was a fan of America Alone (personally autographed copies of which, etc, etc). A gentleman with the Holmesian name of Ed Reichenbach writes from Charlie central:
Mark Steyn, I'm writing to you from Paris, France.
I've HATED America Alone, didn't buy it was given to me by someone, didn't even finish it, so disgusted I was with your twisting of facts, statistics and demonstration. See my review 'Steyn's Battle: if the accused is so obviously guilty, why does the prosecutor need to rig the case?' by Discophage, November 11, 2011.
And now the assassination of Charlie.
And here is one thing that strikes me very much: The New York Times refuses to publish the cover of the new issue. Why ?
Well, read the interviews of editor-in-chief Dean Baquet to know why:
'Here is how I made the call, and it wasn't easy. We have a standard that is pretty simple. We don't run things that are designed to gratuitously offend.'
'Gratuitously offend'? What is offensive about Charlie's last cover? Depicting a bearded muslim, not even designated as Muhammad, with a sign 'I Am Charlie' and a message 'All Is Forgiven'? Drawn by a guy who had been shot at a week before by two Islamic turds and miraculously managed to survive? Offensive TO WHOM?
Well, we know. We know that the New York Times has not shied from publishing anti-semitic caricatures when those caricatures were news. And Baquet makes no bones about it:
'Let's not forget the Muslim family in Brooklyn who read us and is offended by any depiction of what he sees as his prophet. I don't give a damn about the head of ISIS but I do care about that family and it is arrogant to ignore them.'
And Public Editor Margaret Sullivan adds: 'Ultimately, he decided against it, he said, because he had to consider foremost the sensibilities of Times readers, especially its Muslim readers. To many of them, he said, depictions of the prophet Muhammad are sacrilegious; those that are meant to mock even more so. We have a standard that is long held and that serves us well: that there is a line between gratuitous insult and satire. Most of these are gratuitous insult.'
So it's not that Baquet and the NYT are saying that Charlie's latest cover is particularly offensive or disrespectful. No, its only drawback it THAT IT IS. Not even 'a depiction of Muhammad'. No: a depiction of a bearded muslim that might be construed by some muslim reader in Brooklyn to be Muhammad.
What's the meaning of this? Some say that the NYT is simply scared, scared of being the target of Muslim fundamentalists if it publishes the Charlie cover. But it's not even that – which would already be bad enough. It's worse.
It's that they have made the choice that they'd rather pander to the sensibilities of their muslim readership, in Brooklyn or elsewhere, than bring them the news. They have accepted that if their muslim readership thought a depiction of a bearded muslim who may be construed as Muhammad was offensive to them, then they would not show it to them, or anyone else.
And what in turn is the meaning of this? 'Islam' mean 'submission', you know. The New York Times has made the choice of submitting to the 'sensibilities' – e.g., to the religious prejudices – of its muslim readership. Nobody seems entirely aware of this but, in effect, THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS, OF ITS OWN CHOICE, DECIDED TO BECOME AN ISLAMIC NEWSPAPER.
So: all your prophecies are becoming true. And the irony is: NOT in France, NOT in Europe: in America alone.
Ed Reichenbach
~And finally, if you want to be reading the new eBook Climate Change: The Facts within minutes, simply locate your friendly neighborhood digital bookstore below and click away:
For Amazon US, click here.
For Amazon UK, click here.
For Amazon Canada, click here.
For Amazon Australia, click here.
For Amazon India, click here.
For Amazon Brazil, click here.
For Amazon France, click here.
For Amazon Germany, click here.
For Amazon Italy, click here.
For Amazon Japan, click here.
For Amazon Mexico, click here.
For Amazon Netherlands, click here.
For Amazon Spain, click here.
For Kobo and Nook formats, you'll have to hold on a couple of days, but we will let you know.
