Philosophical Aspects of the Climate Change Controversy

The Intellectual Conservative
"One might reasonably ask why Al Gore built a mansion on an oceanfront property, considering his dire pronouncements about rising sea levels? "
....

Photo from Doug Ross Journal

"In general, people confuse two concepts: expertise and objectivity. Having great intelligence or specialized knowledge isn't assurance against a person remaining unbiased in their public opinions. Persons of all stripes are generally loyal to their source of income. We shouldn't assume that every expert begins their search tabula rasa, that is to say, without an agenda or wholly independent of prevailing consensus.

"That is why appeals to credentials or expertise are never as conclusive as they ought to be.
....
"Often people who advocate for legislation curtailing greenhouse gasses offer us an argument ... “What if we don’t act, but Climate Change is a reality? When we know for sure it will be already too late.”

"But the point is easily reversible. We may pass unnecessary legislative measures that irretrievably harm economic and technological development, as well as forfeiting national sovereignty and restraining individual liberties. Consider everything carefully."


By the way, the rumor that the Gore's home in Nashville uses 20 times more electricity than average is not entirely true. Even if we have become un-enamored with the man, let's be truthful with our claims about him.

Flashback 2007: Senator Obama Calls For AG Gonzales To Step Down

Weasel Zippers 
Every time he refers to Gonzales just plug in “Holder” to see how apropos this is…  

Special Report Panel on Obama's Scandals

Video: Special Report Panel on Obama's Scandals 

 

You should know this: Why did British bystanders watch a soldier get hacked to death?

Daily Caller  "The recent attack on a British soldier by assassins wielding meat cleavers while bystanders looked on raises the question: “Why didn’t anyone try to help the victim?”
"Because British citizens are prohibited from carrying objects that could be used as “offensive weapons.”
"While it is well known that Brits cannot carry guns, a lesser known law prohibits any subject of the Queen from carrying a knife of consequence, pepper spray or a stun gun."
....
According to the United Kingdom government website, the online storehouse of British government regulations, it is illegal to:

• sell a knife of any kind (including cutlery and kitchen knives) to anyone under 18
• carry a knife in public without good reason – unless it’s a knife with a folding blade 3 inches long (7.62 cm) or less, eg a Swiss Army knife
• carry, buy or sell any type of banned knife
• use any knife in a threatening way (even a legal knife, such as a Swiss Army knife)

Mark Steyn; To the Slaughter; British lions come up lambs in Woolwich.
"In Woolwich, a large crowd of Londoners apparently volunteered to “shelter in place,” instinctively. Consider how that will play when these guys’ jihadist snuff video is being hawked around the bazaars of the Muslim world. Behold the infidels, content to be bystanders in their own fate."
...."And so life goes on, and it’s all so “mundane,” in Simon Jenkins’s word, that you barely notice when the Jewish school shuts up, and the gay bar, and the uncovered women no longer take a stroll too late in the day, and the publishing house that gets sent the manuscript for the next Satanic Verses decides it’s not worth the trouble. . . . But don’t worry, they’ll never defeat our “free speech” and our “way of life.”"

 

Telegraph publishes falsehoods about Qur'an in attempt to clear Islam of responsibility for London jihad murder/ US Networks help out

JihadWatch
"Note what Mehdi Hasan leaves out of his Qur'an quotation. "The Muslim faith does not turn men to terror: The two suspects in the Woolwich killing were violating the doctrine of their own holy book," by Mehdi Hasan in the Telegraph, May 23 (thanks to JH):

'Whosoever killeth a human being…” says the Koran, in the 32nd verse of its fifth chapter, “it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind.”

 "Yes, let's be clear. Qur'an 5:32 actually says this:

For that cause We decreed for the Children of Israel that whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind, and whoso saveth the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind. Our messengers came unto them of old with clear proofs (of Allah's Sovereignty), but afterwards lo! many of them became prodigals in the earth.

.... "Now we see why Mehdi Hasan left that part out of his Qur'an quote.
So it is permissible -- indeed, commanded -- to kill those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after "corruption in the land." Islam doesn't permit the killing of innocents, but this victim was a British soldier. He was, in the view of his killer, making war upon Allah and his messenger and spreading corruption in the land by fighting in Afghanistan. In that case, the killer's jihad was defensive, and Hasan's words about it being only permissible if sanctioned by a legitimate government are simply false in terms of Islamic law."
Emphasis added.

Network Evening Shows Don’t Name Islam in London Terror Attack "Over at ABC, on “World News with Diane Sawyer,” reporter Lama Hasan would only say British authorities were trying to find out including “whether or not one of [the attackers] is of African origin with ties to terrorist groups.” Of the one attacker’s video rant, Dian Sawyer said, “officials in the United States and the United Kingdom are studying the meaning of this tape.” Yes, it’s a real head-scratcher.
"By contrast, the U.K. media seems to be calling the attacks what they are. The BBC (no right-wing media shop) reported that one of the attackers told a witness, “I killed him because he kills Muslims over there and I am fed up that people kill Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The BBC also said that “The Muslim Council of Britain said the murder was ‘a truly barbaric act that has no basis in Islam and we condemn this unreservedly,’” and noted that “At least two plots by Islamist extremists to kill soldiers in the UK have been foiled in recent years.” "

Two more arrested as London terror probe expands

Fox News  "Late Wednesday, riot police fanned out in Woolwich as about 50 men waving the flag of the far-right English Defense League gathered, singing nationalistic songs and shouting obscenities about the Quran.
"Meanwhile, Muslim groups quickly condemned the attack, calling for the police to calm tensions. The Muslim Council of Britain called it a "barbaric act that has no basis in Islam," adding that "no cause justifies this murder."

"Britain has been at the heart of several terror attacks or plots in recent years, the most deadly being the 2005 rush-hour suicide bombings when 52 commuters were killed. More recently, Parviz Khan was convicted in 2008 of plotting to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in Birmingham.
"Some extremists have lashed out at Britain's involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Recently, groups have also criticized Britain's assistance in the French-led mission to Mali to root out Islamic extremists in the north." 

WH planted the Code Pink Protester

RedState   Hat tip to Andy Miller at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook
"C’mon now that is just one of those vast right-wing conspiracy theories to get you to come read my blog… Really? This one pretty much wrote itself.
Yesterday, I came across this tweet…

honestly, how does Medea Benjamin get into anything anymore. the CIA's russia operation should have her teach classes

"How does she get in? That’s a damned good question!
A little while later, I see this tweet…

The President of the United States staging a heckler in his own audience? Why that's just kah-razeee talk       http://www.ndu.edu/NDU%20Statement%20on%20Disturbance%20During%20President's%20Speech.pdf …

"It made me curious, so I ended up at the National Defense University website…

There’s a fly in my soup; Obama’s shameful ad hominem presidency.

Ad hominem;

1: appealing to feelings or prejudices rather than intellect

2: marked by or being an attack on an opponent's character rather than by an answer to the contentions made. 

Charles Krauthammer  "In such grim proceedings one should be grateful for unintended humor. Horrible customer service is when every patron in a restaurant finds a fly in his soup. But when the maitre d’ screens patrons for their politics and only conservatives find flies paddlewheeling through their consomme, the problem is not poor service. It is harassment and invidious discrimination."
....
"It’s not unlawful to run an ad hominem presidency. It’s merely shameful. The great rhetorical specialty of this president has been his unrelenting attribution of bad faith to those who disagree with him. He acts on principle; they from the basest of instincts.
"Well then, why not harass them? Why not ask the content of their prayers? "Why not read their e-mail? Why not give them especially horrible customer service?
"Waiter! There’s a fly . . . "

Strassel: Conservatives Became Targets in 2008 

The White House insists President Obama is "outraged" by the "inappropriate" targeting and harassment of conservative groups. If true, it's a remarkable turnaround for a man who helped pioneer those tactics.

 "If the country wants to get to the bottom of the IRS scandal, it must first remember the context for this abuse. That context leads to this White House." 

The slain British soldier and his Royal Artillery Regiment

Woolwich Attack: British soldier butchered on London Street identified as Drummer Lee ‘Riggers’ Rigby

Royal Regiment of Fusiliers  Rigby pictured at left.

Rigby with son and wife, below

So Much for Land for Peace: The Deal the Palestinians Rejected, The History That Was Never Made

The Tower  "In a stunning development that calls into question the basic willingness of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to accept any peace agreement with the Jewish state, TheTower.org has obtained a hand-drawn map created by Abbas documenting a 2008 peace proposal outlined to him by then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – which Abbas rebuffed – and has confirmed the existence and details of the settlement offer in an exclusive interview with Olmert.

The front of Abbas’s map

"Given the chaos sweeping the Middle East since the September 2008 offer was rejected by Abbas, and the security deterioration on multiple Israeli borders, Olmert’s offer contains elements likely to be seen as essentially incompatible with Israel’s fundamental security requirements."
...."The two men discussed Olmert’s proposal in great detail, poring over a large map Olmert unfurled showing the dramatic territorial concessions Israel was prepared to make. Abbas acknowledged the offer and returned to Ramallah."

Islam and The Murder at Woolwich

 American Thinker  "Just as we all expected! All the predictable things that could be said are being said. All the clichés about 'communities sticking together' and that these killers 'don't represent Islam" (even from David Cameron). And I heard a Sikh from London defend himself because he thought he may be the victim of revenge attacks."

Al-Shabaab To British PM David Cameron: London Terror Attack “Not A ‘Betrayal’ Of Islam But Rather A ‘Portrayal’ Of Islam”…
The headline refers to this article in PJ Media:
Cameron called the “shocking” attack “not just an attack on Britain” but “also a betrayal of Islam – and of the Muslim communities who are give so much to our country.”
“There is nothing in Islam that justifies this truly dreadful act,” he said.
Al-Qaeada-linked Somali terror group Al-Shabaab disagreed with that in a series of tweets from its official media arm this morning.

Obama Administration Calls for the ‘Human Rights’ of Jihadi Murderers
"It’s well known that whenever jihadis attack and slaughter innocent people — especially Christians — the Obama administration tries to ignore or whitewash. Lesser known, however, is that whenever foriegn governments try to subdue the jihadis, the Obama administration objects and calls for the “human rights” of the terrorists."  Via Lucianne

DENMARK: Piglets removed from agricultural exhibit because Muslim kids were stoning them to death 
"In one case a piglet was killed after children of a different (aka Muslim) ethnic background than Danish had stabbed a piglet with a stick."

When Did We Vote to Become Mexico?

Ann Coulter  ...."To the contrary, it's result of an insane government policy. Teddy Kennedy's 1965 Immigration Act was designed to artificially inflate the number of immigrants from the Third World, while making it virtually impossible for anyone from the nations that historically provided our immigrants to come here.
"Pre-1965 immigrants were what made this country what it was for a reason: "They were the pre-welfare state immigrants. From around 1630 to 1966, immigrants sank or swam. About a third of them couldn't make it in America and went home -- and those are the ones who weren't rejected right off the boat for being sick, crippled or idiots."