Monday
Sep122011
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill The power of laughter
Sep 12, 2011 Greens I was gently taken to task by a commenter for my levity in linking to the Newsbiscuit story yesterday. I think this is wrong. The importance of having people laugh at one's opponents cannot by underestimated in my view, which is why I'm grateful to Jane Coles for this image of the latest fashion accessory for "right-on" kids everywhere.
Reader Comments (37)
Well to be honest you had me there fir a few minutes, until I read tge article and realised it was a p1ss take :)
Then again, Mann Made Global Warming (tm) is serious business don't you know? ;)
Regards
Mailman
Superb, BH. I agree with you. Please keep the humour coming!
The Hughes-Josh waterlevel duck causes many to (after the quick laugh) pause and think.
Your Grace, I beseech you, please do keep leavening our lives with occasional levity. If laughter were to be banished from these hallowed posts, Josh would have to go elsewhere ... and that would be a TRAVESTY!!
"If I studied all my life, I couldn't think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of congress"
Wil Rogers
When it gets to be beyond a joke, then you know you have lost...
Going down, down, down...
http://fenbeagleblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/hey-girl-whats-going-down-down-down/
I agree Bish. What would life be like without a good laugh and cartoons by Josh?
Made me smile Bish. I guess taking and interest in Climate Science requires having your funny bone removed! Then again......I have yet to see a picture of Mann/Hansen smiling!
Ooops, I forgot to mention Fenbeagle. Apologies.
Can it be ordered in XL in time for Xmas.
I have always considered Mann made global warming a good joke to laugh at.
Why would we need humor? Aren't Wagner, Jones, Trenberth, Schmidt enough? '-)
Fen, lovely portraits, and yet rather dark at the end there!
All: a sense of humour is a sense of perspective, as my old teacher used to say, and with climate science we sorely need that.
"Laughter is the best medicine"
With the way the western world economies are shaping up Bish, you are going to have to keep the humourous posts coming thick and fast.
You might also find this amusing (though it's an example of particularly "English" humour.
http://newsthump.com/2011/09/09/rendition-torture-flights-unacceptable-says-department-for-climate-change/
Quote: “MI5′s carbon footprint is nearly 500 tonnes per confession, and we’re not happy about it. We’re demanding answers.”
As Mann et al are a bunch of Pill(ock)s?
You just gotta laugh at them surely?
Laughter is by far and away the best medicine
Sorry about the ending Josh...... Some things make me down,down,down.
But I'm told that he who gets to laugh last, will laugh the loudest.
Could I add an accessory:
www.thudguard.com
Pedantic point, but don't you mean 'should not be underestimated' or 'cannot be overestimated'... ?
Saying 'the importance [of humour] ... cannot be underestimated' suggests it's very unimportant.
The very best satire is either a fairly straight report of actual events with some comic touches, or a fictitious account which you have to look at twice to make sure it isn't true.
Does it say "Little Green Rascals"?
Do I get a hint of that "end of term" feeling!
The work is all done, and we are just waiting to hear the exam result!
Meantime, the resident self appointed Mormon theologian-climatologist from BYU e.g.:
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=12&num=1&id=332
http://www.tektonics.org/af/bickmore02.html
http://bbickmore.wordpress.com/about-this-blog/
is busy as a little bee calculating how much juicy Apostasy he can squeeze out of those pesky sceptical scientists to balance on the pin of his head:
http://bbickmore.wordpress.com/roy-spencer/
http://bbickmore.wordpress.com/the-church-of-monckton/
BUT where the rubber on the tires of the mighty CAGW bandwagon (which poor BB so desperately wants to reconcile/integrate with the teachings of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young etc., etc.,) meets the highway of reality…..
alas, the famed oil slick in the shape of Jesus (of which the latte day saint Carl Hiassen wrote in his frothy missive to the faithful ‘Lucky You’), awaits:
http://rossmckitrick.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/0/8/4808045/mmh_asl2010.pdf
http://www.atmos.washington.edu/~qfu/Publications/grl.fu.2011.pdf
Apparently, global warming has been fixed:
http://www.newsbiscuit.com/2011/09/09/responsible-hotel-towel-use-has-solved-world-climate-crisis-say-experts/
5000 tons of CO2 per confession! Brilliant! Everything has a CO2e tonnage rating these days. I get it one with my power bills. Kwh to tons of GHG. That wasn't on my old radiation slide rule.
Here in Oz it is pointless discussing climate science. The MSM and the ABC told us years ago that the science is settled. The ABC science presenter told us that a sea level rise of 100 metres is "possible". So the government next week will legislate a carbon pollooshun (as our PM calls it) tax of $23 a tonne on the top 400 carbon polloodin industries. Job losses will be minimal compared to the millions of green jobs created and we will all frolic through the wildflowers singing Kumbaya knowing that we have yet again punched above our weight in the planet saving business.
Polls show that 60-70% are against it and it isn't about blogs like this or scientific debate. It's about the wallet. But it's also I believe about humour, piss taking in fact about the catastrophic predictions that haven't eventuated. Piss taking about the revised and recalibrated catastrophic predictions that are most definitely going to happen. Piss taking along the lines of the Newbiscuit articles and the doleful lists at Numberwatch.
It's a political issue now, not a scientific one, so more power to those who provide the average bloke with this brand of satire and humour. Sadly, it's about all we've got left down here, but it can be very effective. Not with the intelligensia of course. Our MSM cartoonists use it brilliantly, but their reporters haven't caught up as yet.
History teaches us that laughing at tyrants is the best way to show people the feet of clay these tyrants stand on.
So 'banning' humour is self-defeating.
Anyway, aren't Josh's cartoons the epitome of not just making us laugh, but also piercing the self-importance of the Team and encapsulating our arguments within a few strokes of his pen?
As for fenbeagle: love it - wouldn't want to be without it!
Humor can be a two edge sword or more likely chain saw. It must be used carefully or it will be misunderstood and cause all sorts of grief.
That said, I take it that the score at the football game was 10:10. :)
In the spirit of adding a little Humour her is Ray Stevens offering on Global Warming
http://www.raystevens.com/raytv.html?ma_id=2&mc_id=4&p=1
Many more good songs on this site !
or
A little humor mixed in the right amount has an intoxicating result, like a little vermouth in a martini.
John
"The importance of having people laugh at one's opponents cannot by underestimated in my view, ... "
Do you mean "should not be"? If it _cannot_ be underestimated then no estimate is too low so the importance is zero.
In the spirit of adding a little Humour her is Ray Stevens offering on Global Warming
http://www.raystevens.com/raytv.html?ma_id=2&mc_id=4&p=1
Many more good songs on this site !
An RAF weather instructor used to start with the statement, "Meteorology is not an exact science - it tends to be affected by the weather."
(from a letter in the Telegraph a year or two back.)
What does it say on the back?
"Too many beans Mummy!"
Steve Short:
Classy, Steve. It might sometimes be legitimate to point out ways in which someone’s religion could be biasing their conclusions about climate change, or some other scientific subject. But to avoid the appearance of being a raging bigot, one would normally point out how such a bias might come about. Since Mormons seem overwhelmingly to be climate change deniers, I’m not seeing it. Perhaps you can point it out to me, because I get the impression that you probably know more about Mormonism than I do. I can just feel waves of religious erudition pulsing outward from your post.
And thanks for the links showing that climate models are not perfect predictors of all aspects of climate change. I’m shocked. However, it would shock me even more if you would explain why there’s so much paleoclimate evidence indicating that climate sensitivity is likely to be somewhere around 3 °C for 2xCO2. Could it be that the models don’t do as well at shuffling energy around within the Earth system, but do ok at mimicking the net energy in and out of the system as a whole? I know, I know… modelers around the world would all be astonished at this result.
The Leftists pushing CAGW, through agitators wrapped up in lab coats, claim the high moral ground, as always. Whats the best way of knocking them off their perch of smugness: laugh at them. Point out what nonsense they are spouting, point out how their nostrums, if effected, will disadvantage the poor, those they profess to love above all; but most of all, stick it to them over their hypocrisy. That they can't practice what they preach invalidates any of their arguments, ie they don't really believe it. Would Gore really have a carbon consuming palace if he believed his own speaches? Would all those climate scientists being jetting around the world to conferences if they believed in the imminence of teh disasters they predict?
Some wise words from the Bishop in his role as advocate " The importance of having people laugh at one's opponents cannot by underestimated ". This piece here from No Tricks Zone made me laugh yesterday . It must be the silliest argument in the ACC deniers portmanteau , comparing dead planets with the Earth being less than persuasive imho.