Archive for January, 2011
The decline of science due to user problems, Part II: sexy birds, money, and ‘climate change’
By Chuck Roger • January 28th, 2011 12:30 am
Yesterday’s post addressed how human nature can corrupt the scientific method. At the core of the discussion was a study conducted by psychologist Jonathan Schooler and summarized by Jonah Lehrer. Here is the crux of the argument presented as to why many of today’s scientific investigations yield non-reproducible (in other words, wrong) conclusions. Scientists, mere [...]
The decline of science due to user problems, Part I: scientists are people
By Chuck Roger • January 27th, 2011 12:30 am
The scientific method is just that–a method. And methods can be corrupted by people. Today’s most notorious illustration of junk science is the human-caused global warming hoax. However, even scientists who genuinely want to perform objective research are capable of practicing flawed science. In an article covering the rising incidence of flawed science, Wired magazine [...]
Using real science to dismantle the pretend science of global warmists
By Chuck Roger • January 25th, 2011 12:30 am
You’d think that with so many very cold, snowy winters, as well as objective climate research finally being conducted, that global warming zealots would give it a rest. Here’s a January 12 National Snow Analysis satellite image from the National Weather Service showing the United States 71% covered in snow. (Hat tip to Anthony Watts [...]
A business owner’s treatise on government heavy-handedness and union excess
By Chuck Roger • January 24th, 2011 12:30 am
Clear Thinking blog reader and business owner Don Ross recently received an email complaint from a customer. Don’s reply comprises a solid condemnation of Washington’s explosive invasion into our private lives. Don graciously granted me permission to post that reply following a summary of the customer’s concerns. The customer expressed disappointment at finding political commentary [...]
Bias in the American media, a longstanding tradition
By Chuck Roger • January 20th, 2011 12:30 am
The American mainstream media lied, concealed facts, and actively supported Barack Obama’s talking points in 2007 and 2008. A sufficient number of voters swallowed the distortions to get the man elected President. Throughout the first two years of the Obama administration, the media continued to shill for his prosperity-killing policies and demonize opponents of those [...]
‘Consensus’ science, global warming, and Obama’s reality-blind EPA
By Chuck Roger • January 19th, 2011 12:30 am
Three of the last four winters in the Northern Hemisphere, including the current winter, have been very cold and snowy. Hmm. Anthony Watts, who runs the Watts Up With That? website, recently posted a synopsis of certain aspects of the sun’s activity over the last ten years. The post is worth a look, especially if you’re [...]
A thought experiment on the ‘income gap’
By Chuck Roger • January 18th, 2011 12:30 am
Wealthy people must be punished–presumably for accumulating all that nasty “wealth.” At least this is the impression one gets from today’s class warfare mongering progressives, who talk of the evils of the “income gap.” Free To Choose Network director Max Borders suggests the following approach to kicking off a discussion with an income gap worrier. Whenever [...]
‘Journalist’ uses the Giffords shootings to disparage the Tea Party
By Chuck Roger • January 12th, 2011 12:30 am
The Tea Party has an “obsession with the Constitution.” Presumably this is a bad thing, according to Gideon Rachman, columnist for Financial Times. Rachman goes out of his way to point out that what murderer Jared Loughner’s “ramblings most suggest is a troubled mind. Anybody who lists both Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto as among [...]
Why worry over the ‘trade deficit’?
By Chuck Roger • January 11th, 2011 12:30 am
You hear it all the time. We’re getting killed by China! We need to stop shipping jobs overseas. Neither complaint holds water when viewed against global trade’s economic effects on America. Working off an inventory of topics which I’ve been collecting, I reach back to a September 2010 post by Cato Institute’s Daniel Griswold for an [...]
The Sierra Club’s Mission
By Chuck Roger • January 10th, 2011 12:30 am
Originally in American Thinker, December 24, 2010. “Don’t you care about global warming?” asked a sign carried by a Sierra Club demonstrator. The preachy admonishment packs the same intellectual weightiness as “Free the color purple!” Well-adjusted people “care” about neither purple nor global warming. Colors and recurring natural climate phenomena fly below the radars of emotionally [...]
