Mark Steyn on the ‘science’ of global warming

Have I ever mentioned that Mark Steyn is one of my favorite writers? He could be writing about the most apocalyptic story and still make you LOL. Here's an excerpt from his latest article. Be sure to read it all.

From Macleans

“ARGH. Just went back to check on synthetic production. Apparently—I have no memory of this at all—we’re not doing observed rain days! It’s all synthetic from 1990 onwards. So I’m going to need conditionals in the update program to handle that. And separate gridding before 1989. And what TF happens to station counts?

“OH F–K THIS. It’s Sunday evening, I’ve worked all weekend, and just when I thought it was done I’m hitting yet another problem that’s based on the hopeless state of our databases. There is no uniform data integrity, it’s just a catalogue of issues that continues to grow as they’re found.”

Thus spake the Settled Scientist: “OH F–K THIS.” And on the basis of “OH F–K THIS” the world’s enlightened progressives will assemble at Copenhagen for the single greatest advance in punitive liberalism ever perpetrated on the developed world.

Read More...

Summary only...

BC's HRT rules in favor of Mark Steyn and Maclean's Magazine

"For me the problem is not the book, the problem for me is Canada, and I will never think of the deranged dominion quite the same way again. It has made me understand just how easily and incrementally free societies, often for the most fluffy reasons, slip into a kind of soft, beguiling totalitarianism," he [Mark Steyn] said.National Post

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled yesterday that a controversial article about Islam in Maclean's magazine did not violate the province's hate speech law, marking the third time this year the Canadian Islamic Congress has failed in its efforts to force the magazine to print a rebuttal.

In dismissing the complaint, the three-member tribunal ruled that the article by Mark Steyn, which was published in 2006 and described the demographic and ideological dangers posed by a growing Muslim population in the West, was not likely to expose Muslims to hatred or contempt.

It ruled that the article, an excerpt from Mr. Steyn's book America Alone, contained historical, religious and factual inaccuracies, relied on common Muslim stereotypes and tried to "rally public opinion by exaggeration and causing the reader to fear Muslims."

....

Faisal Joseph, lawyer for the CIC, said he is considering an appeal, and that the decision "sends the wrong message."

"Apparently it is now acceptable for some columnists and media in this country to cloak freedom to hate in the mantle of freedom of speech," he said in a statement.

Mr. Steyn, a conservative columnist who describes his acerbic style as "apocalyptic stand-up," said America Alone was widely excerpted in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere, and only became the subject of a legal fight in Canada.

"For me the problem is not the book, the problem for me is Canada, and I will never think of the deranged dominion quite the same way again. It has made me understand just how easily and incrementally free societies, often for the most fluffy reasons, slip into a kind of soft, beguiling totalitarianism," he said.

Read More...

Summary only...

Small Victory for Free Speech

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint by a Muslim organization against Maclean’s and Mark Steyn. However, they are still facing the B.C. human rights commission. For a total victory, the human rights commisions/tribunals should be abolished. CBC
H/T: GM

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint by a Muslim organization against Maclean’s, ruling that the views expressed in one of the magazine's articles were not “of an extreme nature.”

The Canadian Islamic Congress had alleged that the article written by Mark Steyn entitled "The Future Belongs to Islam" and posted on the magazine’s website in October 2006 discriminated and spread hatred against Muslims.

The article, an excerpt of a book authored by Steyn, talks about Islam being a threat to North American institutions and values. It used statistics to show higher birth rates plus immigration mean Muslims will outnumber followers of other religions in Western Europe.

....

"The writing is polemical, colourful and emphatic, and was obviously calculated to excite discussion and even offend certain readers, Muslim and non-Muslim alike," wrote Lucie Veillette, secretary to the commission.

"Overall, however, the views expressed in the Steyn article, when considered as a whole and in context, are not of an extreme nature as defined by the Supreme Court."

The commission said there was "no reasonable basis in the evidence to warrant the appointment of a Tribunal."

On its website, Maclean's said it was pleased the complaint was dismissed and that the decision was in keeping with its position that the article "was a worthy piece of commentary on important geopolitical issues, entirely within the bounds of normal journalistic practice."

But it added that no human rights commission should have the mandate to monitor or assess the editorial decisions of the nation's media.

Exactly.

Read More...

Summary only...

Mark Steyn on Freedom

From the Shirenetwork an interview with Mark Steyn on the recent kangaroo court cases in Canada.
You can find the interview on the righthand side of the window.

Hat tip: Allahpundit
{nothing after}

Read More...

Summary only...