Readers and listeners have kindly asked for an update on the law suit brought against me by the global-warming "hockey stick" inventor and Big Climate enforcer Michael E Mann. Recently I touched on the subject in an interview on "climate denial", etc, with Ben Weingarten of The New Criterion:
If you enjoyed that, you can see the full interview here.
Other than that, the case is now approaching the start of its fifth year in the choked toilet of the District of Columbia "justice" system. For a word on its current status, including its delivery into the hands of a judge who takes three years to deliver rulings, see my recent testimony to the United States Senate. The hearing was an instructive experience for a foreigner. If you missed it, here's my opening statement:
The point I made - about the criminal enforcement of state ideology - has since been reinforced by the disgusting behavior of 20 (so far) attorneys-general from California to the US Virgin Islands ganging up to investigate and charge "climate deniers" for the crime of holding a different opinion and exercising their First Amendment right to express it. As I noted in my testimony, a group of lavishly enriched climate scientists led by Professor Jagadish Shukla of George Mason University recently urged the President to prosecute climate dissenters under RICO racketeering laws. In fact, the behavior of Shukla and his gang more closely resembles that of racketeers - as does the conspiracy of state attorneys-general. The freedom-of-information release of Shukla's emails is most instructive. As one professor, Alex Bozmoski, cautions his colleagues:
It's just an impossible topic to not scream hard-core left. You're talking about prosecuting conservatives.
Quite. This is the pitiful state to which "settled science" has been reduced: show trials for apostates.
Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts did not take kindly to the presence of dissenters in the world's most augustly august body. Here's me and the very courageous Dr Judith Curry pushing back against the extraordinarily ill-mannered Bay State brute:
...which is apparently the first time in over two centuries that anyone's turned the tables and started peppering the senator with questions. If that's so, Americans should do it more often.
On the broader climate questions, while waiting for the lethargic jurists of the DC Superior Court to bring this thing to trial, I was honored to be part of two climatological bestsellers this last year. The first - Climate Change: The Facts - is just that. The second is more directly focused on the cartoon climatology on display at the US Senate and elsewhere: "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 is my fun round-up of what real scientists think about the planet's most notorious cartoon climatologist.
Ross McKitrick, along with Steve McIntyre, did more to demolish the global-warming "hockey stick" than anybody else. As he wrote in Canada's Financial Post:
As Mark Steyn's excruciatingly convincing book A Disgrace to the Profession makes clear, about the only thing there's a real consensus on today is that, despite its prominence in government reports, the hockey stick was garbage.
As you know, Mann's plan was to sue me into silence. We're happy to say it's not working out quite as he intended. And, while we're waiting for Doctor Fraudpants to agree to discovery, "A Disgrace To The Profession" is a great way to prop up my end of this interminable case, and arm yourself with the facts to push back against the Big Climate enforcers. To order the book, simply click here.
~Certain readers and listeners have demanded to know what the hell I'm doing releasing a cat album - to wit, Feline Groovy: Songs for Swingin' Cats, dedicated to my own cat Marvin. Well, the above-mentioned half-decade trial by ordeal in the DC septic tank has consumed sufficient of my time and money that one is obliged to be a little bit inventive about keeping one's head above water. So I'm pleased to see that Feline Groovy has a four-and-a-half star rating over at iTunes and continues to rack up five-star reviews at Amazon. I was particularly touched by this latest thumb's-up from Brendan Smith, "I Categorically Recommend It":
An album of (mostly) cover songs about cats, by a cat lover and dedicated to his cat is not an item I expected to buy in this life time. What ultimately drew me in were the 30 second snippets provided by Amazon.After many listens, I can tell you those snippets don't do this album justice. It's a treat not just for cat lovers, but more so for music lovers...
His renditions are clever, unique, and satisfying... He's assembled a fantastically talented band that just nails it, and seems to be having a great time in the process.This album exists in the sweet spot where hard work and fun, as well as cleverness and joy overlap, Whatever the theme of Steyn's next disc, I hope he brings these players back for an encore. They and he are utterly delightful.
Mr Smith is quite right about the fantastically talented band. Feline Groovy: Songs for Swingin' Cats is available on CD, but, if you can't wait that long, it can be yours in seconds via digital download from Amazon or iTunes.
