As IF Times

link The great global warming collapse – The Globe and Mail.

You know the jig is up when a Canadian newspaper prints a story daring to question a “green” cause.  As more evidence of cover ups by scientists  and scientific bodies at the core of the hysteria that is AGW, the fervent clamor to “do something” has died down.  Especially since the northeastern part of the United States  has been so hard hit with generations levels of snow and cold.  Understandably, Al Gore and his gang have been mercifully quiet recently, no doubt afraid to appear from his  mansion to face the pitchfork and torches crowd. 

As discussed in an earlier post, the international scientific body which supposedly knows about such things, the IPCC,  has admitted with great embarrassment that data upon which they made such dire predictions with regard to glacier melt was not only unchecked, they were bogus in the first place reinforcing the old computer credo, garbage in, garbage out.  This is not to indict the work of such bodies because I’m sure some science is involved with their work.  How are we supposed to know the weather forecast in 30 years if no one works on it? Besides, where’s all that research money going to go?

However,  all contentious science must be brought to closer scrutiny because as we have seen, there are many many players willing to capitalize on people’s naivete and fears.  In the case of AGW, entire industries, political action movements and opinions were spawned from the hysteria of the now iffy theories and projections.  In the old days, scientists were regarded with great respect for they were merely reporting observations and projecting conclusions.  There didn’t appear to be a  political agenda to the conclusions.  If subsequent research proved the theories wrong, the knowledge base was updated and people were better off. 

Vaccinations are a good example of this.  In my youth, it was just accepted that vaccinations against all manner of diseases was the way to go and there was not much questioning of that.  Recently, the outbreak of H1N1 has not made everyone panic to get inoculated, in fact many chose not to because of varying debates on efficacy and longer term effects.  I don’t recall that non participants in the vaccine  program were considered  foolish gomers. 

In today’s climate change discussion, critics of AGW are regarded with contempt, scorn and labelled deniers instead of having their views rationally aired.  A couple of things are at work here.  First, the whole Green movement needed a cause to get behind so they could rise to political influence in nation states, mainly in the west.  In fact, they were able to progress from a somewhat fringe movement to influencing legislative and tax policies in western governments.  The machinery for so called “cap and trade” was built by governments and large corporations savvy enough to see this as a monster revenue source.  To support this program, they had to bring the public on side with their vision, plus they needed their willingness to be taxed.   Sounds diabolical, but looking at the people at the forefront of AGW and then to follow the money trail to figure out who benefits is very revealing.  At least now it appears, the public is waking up.

The next logical step in this saga is, who’s going to get sued?  This step always happens at the end of any fiasco.  This will be a bonanza for tort lawyers who can pursue those who knowingly pushed or abetted the massive fraud which is AGW.  They will rope in politicians, former politicians, scientists, newspaper editors, teachers, cartoonists, comedians, entertainers, even lawyers that can be charged with propagating BS and costing taxpayers billions and billions.  The pool of defendants will be so big that someone coming out of law school now can make an entire career out of this alone. 

Meanwhile, the alarmist crowd will have moved on to the next issue.  Perhaps alien invasion or imminent planet collision.

link American Idol producers want Howard Stern to replace Simon Cowell as judge – NYPOST.com.

It’ll never happen.  Unless of course, Fox wishes to completely torpedo the succesful franchise.  American Idol was originally created as a program showcasing the emotional journey and talent of aspiring singers.  From very early on in the series, the drama surrounding the judges commanded as much buzz as the weekly display of talent itself.  Simon Cowell legitimately became the anchor for the show with his acerbic but honest critiques.  Randy and Paula played supporting roles but nonetheless, the show is now missing something with the departure of Ms. Abdul, despite her questionable judging abilities.   It became popular sport to watch her every week just to see what kind of train wreck she would display in her rambling commentaries.

The departure of Simon will be fatal to the show and especially if Mr. Stern is brought on board to replace Simon.  Firstly, Stern is a boor.  Secondly and most damning, he is not entertaining.  His brand of entertainment is so crass and without any redemptive value that the show’s ratings would crater like an NBC drama series. Besides, it’s supposed to be a talent contest.  The only thing Howard knows is the general difference between C, D and double D.   Idol has always been mainstream.  Howard Stern is the antithesis of mainstream. No doubt he must have a fan and audience base since Sirius radio was dumb enough to pay him $100 million a year as the anchor for their business model.   A model which has bled money from day one and is barely viable now.

Hard to deny that crassness and sophomoric “humor” sells though.  A number of entertainers have as their trademark shtick, the obnoxious, juvenile, over the top goofiness that is reminiscent of a spoiled teenager.  If in fact, they were teenagers, you could at least remark condescendingly, ” how sweet”.   The fact that many of these entertainers are well into middle age and still try to pass off  rudeness as precociousness is tiring at best, pathetic at worst.  Guys like Letterman, Stern and some others are reaching way past their demograhic when trying to be edgy for the 20 to 30 set.  Conan may be able to throw out the sexual double entendres, but when the Sterns and Lettermans do it, it’s just creepy and lecherous. 

If someone’s willing to pay Howard Stern $100 million bucks because he’s “entertaining”, that tells you that there’s a bear market in talent.  Couldn’t they just outsource a younger obnoxious host from say, India? Or China?  The networks would save a lot of money and the funny accents alone would be an audience draw.  They can bring Stern’s crassness to the judging as in:

“Begging your pardon, but you have no talent, please to show us your bosoms.”

It’s safe to say that in the entertainment racket, audience is everything and with the imminent departure of Simon Cowell, Fox is looking to get someone with some sizzle to maintain ratings.  Howard doesn’t seem to be the right guy to nail the 13 to 25 female demographic…in a manner of speaking.   Besides, it looks like some publicity ploy to get more money from Sirius. If Stern is considered, why not Bill Clinton, or Hugh Hefner? They would bring as much buzz to the show and both have better haircuts.  On second thought, none of the above are suitable.  No males would ever win.