Ben Mathis in Hollywood interviewed me on his KickAss Politics show and we covered a lot of ground, from my brand new book to how some no-account foreigner wound up guest-hosting America's Number One radio show.
It was a fun conversation, and you can hear it in full here. (Just click the Number One show at the top of the list.)
Also on the airwaves, Theo Caldwell of 1010 CFRB in Toronto discussed my book on his weekend show and concluded Michael E Mann had picked the wrong guy to sue:
I fear no man, and only one woman, but I wouldn't mess with Mark Steyn for all the carbon credits in China.
It comes up about 25 minutes in, if you click below:
As to the book, it's called "A Disgrace to the Profession", and it's available in print from Amazon - or, if you need it in the next 90 seconds, it can be yours anywhere on the planet via Kindle or Nook. For Canadian and other readers partial to Kobo, don't blame me. It keeps being submitted and accepted by Kobo - and then mysteriously "rejected" a couple of days later. I'm reluctant to think some global warm-monger on the staff is monkeying with it, but no one at their alleged customer service department has been able to provide a satisfactory alternative explanation. It's your loss, losers. Amazon Canada are making a ton of money off the book, and you could be, too - but hey, why let profit get in the way of ideological enforcement...
I'll be out and about on the plug circuit again this week, starting with Hannity & Colmes on Tuesday. I'll be swinging by Alan Colmes' radio show live at 7pm Eastern/4pm Pacific, and later checking in with Sean Hannity's TV show, coast to coast on Fox News at 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific. Alan's looking forward to it:
Author and Canadian Human Rights Activist Mark Steyn joins us to explain why scientists who think global warming is real are a disgrace to their profession.
Close enough.
~I greatly enjoyed this review of my book by a scientist herself, Dr Natalie K Björklund-Gordon BSc PhD:
Mark Steyn is a well known and not uncontroversial figure. Among his accomplishments were the defeat of Islamists who were using Canadian anti-hate laws to oppress their critics. In the current brandishing of his vorpal sword, Steyn called the darling of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming, Michael E. Mann, a fraud. Mann then decided to try to silence Steyn by suing him. Even though this highly unscientific habit of silencing critics by sending lawyers after them has worked well for Mann in the past, Mann made a very serious mistake taking on Steyn. Mann has thrown Steyn into Steyn's own Briar Patch. Steyn's book "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" illustrates the magnitude of Mann's error...
Steyn's book is a shocking collection of meticulously documented quotes set in context, from the scientific community itself. Supporters of Mann have accused Steyn of misquoting, cherry picking and using only the doddering ramblings of a few senile retirees. They have also accused Steyn of having an unnatural obsession with Mann. This is all simply untrue. Mann sued Steyn first. Steyn is defending himself from a lawsuit and this book is part of preparing that defense... Steyn's book is remarkably fair and balanced. He includes quotes from those who support and endorse the concepts of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming (man-made, not Mann-made) and those who do not... Each section is itself a neatly packaged essay. Steyn certainly can write. Even in the thick field of science, where soporific writing is often considered a virtue, he writes entertainingly and well...
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.
Do read the whole thing.
~Some other observations from around the world. Harry Buttle at Amazon Australia:
Well written, factual and hard hitting.
Dr Andrew Pattullo at Amazon Canada:
Mark Steyn should be recognized as a hero in this tragedy having never failed to stand his ground in spite of a childish and pathetic attempt to silence him.
Oh, it's too boring just reprinting raves, so how about the naysayers? The climate queens are not taking it well. dansat25 at Amazon US:
A load of tripe. The author is being sued for libel by Dr. Mann (and will likely have to pay), and has never published a paper on climatology or climate physics. He thinks the top 200 scientific bodies on Earth are wrong. Yet, he cannot come up with enough evidence to show why in a peer reviewed journal. This book is nothing more than a slop for conspiracy theorists inside their glass shell of confirmation bias. It's the equivalent of spraying vinegar to ward of the poison gases from mythical chemtrails. As Neil Tyson said, "the laws of physics are real, everything else is politics. I suspect this will be a big seller among those who only have (the second world standard) high school education.
Mann's hockey stick is nothing to do with "the laws of physics". He's not a physicist, by any stretch of the imagination. And in fact my book is full of many eminent physicists who have utter contempt for Mann's science. It's also full of quotes on Mann's work direct from peer-reviewed journals:
We conclude unequivocally that the evidence for a 'long-handled' hockey stick (where the shaft of the hockey stick extends to the year 1000 AD) is lacking in the data. - McShane & Wyner, The Annals of Applied Science
The underestimation of the amplitude of the low-frequency variability ...discourage the use of reconstructions to estimate the rareness of the recent warming. - Christiansen, Schmith & Thejil, The Journal of Climate
We have discovered that the geographic orientation of the CCSM field used by Mann et al (2005), Mann et al (2007a), and Mann et al (2007b) was incorrect. - Smerdon, Kaplan & Amrhein, The Journal of Climate
Just bad science. - Chapman, Bartlett & Harris, Geophysical Research Letters
Etc.
So it would seem unlikely dansat25 could even face the thought of opening a copy. Who's inside the glass shell of confirmation bias here?
Angus Rose at Amazon UK:
It's unfortunate that Mark failed to realise, that there are now 36 separate studies that all find a hockey stick from reconstructions of paleoclimate data.
So the the proper response, to anyone who now asserts that the Hockey Stick has been falsified, is to ask "Which one?"
God, do all you guys just recycle the same halfwit talking points:
The proper response to someone who asserts that the Hockey Stick has been falsified is to ask "Which one?"
I would have thought that was obvious, even to Angus Rose, from the subtitle:
The World's Scientists - in Their Own Words - on Michael E Mann, His Hockey Stick...
Which part of "his hockey stick" doesn't Angus Rose understand? As to that first condescending crack, it's unfortunate that Angus failed to realize there's an entire section of the book dealing with those other hockey sticks, beginning at page 171 and helpfully entitled - for the obtuse Mr Rose - "Spawn of the Stick".
Don't forget "A Disgrace to the Profession" is available in paperback, Kindle and Nook. I think you'll enjoy it.
~There are other ways to support Mark's side in the upcoming Mann vs Steyn trial of the century, if you're so inclined:
1) STEYNONLINE GIFT CERTIFICATES
You can buy a gift certificate starting at $25 (and soaring way up from there), for yourself or your friends and family. 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 Mark's disco CD, it'll still be valid. On the other hand, if you want to buy a certificate and sit on it until Mark wins 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 "A Disgrace To The Profession", he's written lots of other books, on free speech and much more. They're available individually or as part of various special offers.
3) EXCLUSIVE STEYN vs THE STICK TRIAL MERCHANDISE
Our "Steyn vs the Stick" and "Clash of Sticks" designs are available both on mousepads and coffee mugs and as T-shirts and sweat shirts.
