Loose Ends (45)

As has already been noted here in the latest Green Weenie Award, the climatistas are all spun up to say that Hurricane Florence proves that catastrophic climate change is upon us and that we need to hand over our car keys to Al Gore right now. If you pay attention to extreme weather trends, you’ll know that the period between Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and last year saw no hurricanes making landfall on the continental U.S. (Sandy was a tropical storm by the time it made landfall in 2012), but that hiatus didn’t mean anything. Weather only means something when it fits the narrative.

Check out this chart, from Roger Pielke Jr, of long term hurricane landfalls on the eastern seaboard (“MH” means “major hurricanes”):

The first period is before the 20th century warming began. This is what you call an “inconvenient truth.” But don’t expect the mainstream media to report this. They’re all going with how Hurricane Florence is Trump’s fault.

 

I’m not going to waste my time reading the Woodward book. Read Byron York’s column for a thorough takedown of Woodward’s reportorial methodology. I know from people who have dealt with Woodward that he is a genius at getting people to talk, by making you think he’s your best friend, but sometimes with the veiled threat that if you don’t cooperate with him, you might be a target in his book. He has an almost hypnotic quality when he talks to you, people have told me—the con man’s ability to make you trust and like him, and consequently spill the beans.

Much of what Woodward “reports” in his books would not be accepted in a serious or scrupulous newspaper (okay, not many of those around), because most newspapers require two sources for a factual claim. Many of Woodward’s quotations are hearsay at best. They are comments reported by a third party as though he was present in the room.

But the final problem with Woodward’s reporting is that he is basically Forrest Gump. He “reports” things he’s heard or seen, but there is no analysis or insight. Essentially his books are just a slightly polished version of a raw dump of his reporter’s notes. I’ve read a few of his previous books, and there is almost nothing of interest to be learned from them. Only gossip. I suspect the National Enquirer is actually breaks more real news. (They were right about John Edwards after all.)

 

• With all of the Florence news dominating our attention today, there’s only been a glance at the local catastrophe of gas explosions in Andover, Massachusetts. Early reports say it is the result of the gas pressure being set too high by the local utility.

Hmmm. Just speculation here, but this is exactly the kind of thing that a cyber attack would seek to cause. Which is one more reason for everyone to listen to the latest Power Line podcast on this very subject (if for no other reason than that my pseudonymous guest, “Lucretia,” Power Line’s International Woman of Mystery, is really good on this subject, and also fun to listen to).

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