*****Critical update: Dr. Singer responds at end of post.

Climate alarmism reached a new low Sunday as ABC's "World News" featured a hit piece on Dr. S. Fred Singer, the esteemed Professor Emeritus of environmental science at the University of Virginia.

In a segment disgracefully entitled "Welcome to 'The Denial Machine,'" anchor Dan Harris disparaged Singer at every turn.

With a picture of Singer behind his right shoulder, under which was displayed the words "THE SKEPTIC," Harris began (video available here):

On Sunday's "Meet the Press," Newsweek editor Jon Meacham hinted that if the Clintons were to execute a "corrupt bargain" which gave Hillary the nomination, it could lead to a split in the Democrat Party akin to what happened in 1824.

In that election, only one Party, the Democratic-Republicans, ran presidential candidates. Although Andrew Jackson won the most popular and electoral votes, he didn't receive a majority of either resulting in the House of Representatives controversially giving the nod to John Quincy Adams.

This skirmish led to a division in the Democratic-Republican Party such that four years later, Jackson ran and won the presidency as a member of the newly created Democratic Party defeating Adams who represented the newly created National Republican Party.

With this in mind, here's what Meacham said Sunday:

Hello. I am have created a new film thread following the one you, JasonC, has created. But this one deals with classic Silent films. I am creating this because I am a major silent film buff and I am sure the two major fim buffs here, JasonC and Leon are into silent films. I like silent films because they are the roots of modern cinema, despite the fact I was born in 1988. To start it off, my favorites are F.W. Murnau's 1922 masterpiece Nosferatu (the first Dracula adaptation), Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, and the 1925 film version of the Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney. Okay, my fellow film buffs on NB, start giving your silent film opinions!

April 22 -- Pennsylvania Primary

May 6 -- Indiana, North Carolina Primaries

May 20 -- Kentucky, Oregon Primaries

June 3 -- Montana, South Dakota Primaries

August 25 - 28, DNC Convention

It should go without saying that I by no means support China's recent position on Tibet.

However, it is nonetheless delicious to read an international opinion piece depicting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) as a "muckraker of her own hypocrisy" whose "double standards reveal her motives and those of her kind" that "[refuse] to check their facts and find out the truth" about issues before expressing "indignation [that] is reserved for those occasions when their interests are best served."

Coincidentally, if you exchanged all references to Tibet in this piece with virtually any major issue facing our nation today, the assertions would be dead on target concerning the Speaker's modus operandi.

Consider that as you read the following column by Xinhua's Wang Jiaquan (emphasis added to heighten your entertainment pleasure):

It would be enough to make Rev. Jeremiah Wright's accusation that the government created AIDS for purposes of perpetrating a black genocide sound almost rational. OK, scratch that. Nothing will render reasonable that morsel of moonbattery. But has the Rev. Wright's replacement suggested that NPR is . . . a Republican front operation?

As per this Fox News article, the theme of today's Easter sermon at the Trinity United Church of Christ was “How to Handle a Public Lynching,” the victim in question being the Rev. Wright. The controversial pastor's successor, the Rev. Otis Moss III, lit into the national media, coming up with a string of plays on their names to express his contempt:

As media continue to report current economic conditions as being almost Depression-like, they conveniently forget which political party has controlled both chambers of Congress since January 2007 as well as who was in the White House when key financial services deregulation was enacted.

Such a well-timed amnesia hit ABC's Claire Shipman Sunday when during the panel discussion segment of "This Week," she blamed the current financial crisis on Republicans.

Color me unsurprised.

After host George Stephanopoulos asked Shipman's husband, Time magazine's Jay Carney, "How does John McCain fix his problem on the economy," the following ensued:

With Eliot Spitzer gone, Chuck Schumer moves to the head of the list of smugly self-righteous New York pols. So it was particularly satisfying to see Sen. Jon Kyl [R-AZ] put Schumer is his place on This Week with George Stephanopoulos today.

A guest with Kyl for purposes of discussing the economy, Schumer clearly came in with a game plan: to analogize President Bush to the man who presided over the beginning of the Great Depression: Herbert Hoover. After Schumer tried it twice, Kyl had had enough and unleashed a riposte as devastating as it was reasoned.

One of the constants espoused by conservative media analysts is that the views of most mainstream press members are not shared by the majority of Americans.

This week represented a fabulous example of this assertion as media member after media member gushed over Barack Obama's performance in Philadelphia on Tuesday while a majority of citizens in a recent poll said that they were less likely to vote for the junior senator from Illinois as result of this speech.

As announced Thursday by Southern Political Report (emphasis added, h/t Protein Wisdom):

Does anybody else thinked the Aggies got hosed last night? It seemed to me that in the last three minutes or so, the Bruins could foul at will with nary a whistle, while by comparison, if an Aggie breathed too heavily, a Bruin was shouting free throws. Anybody else see it that way, or am I just too enamored with underdogs?

Today's schedule looks fun. Can Davidson continue its run? Any upset predictions?

Is Tiger finally going to lose one?

Federer loses -- to #98?!?

This certainly hasn't been the winter climate alarmists wanted to prove that global warming is destined to destroy the planet if we don't immediately cease and desist emitting that awful carbon dioxide into the air.

After all, not only has the cooling trend continued, but despite warnings that America was going to have so little snow that ski resorts across the fruited plain would all go bankrupt, the winter of 2008 produced record amounts of the white stuff in many parts of the country.

As reported by MLive.com, you can count Ann Arbor, Michigan, amongst the heavily snowed upon (emphasis added):

Al Gore and Thierry Lombard, Senior Partner LODH, at press conference in Switzerland on March 11, 2008 to announce that LODH and Generation Investment Management have decided to join forces to promote sustainable investment. Photo Reuters/Denis Balibouse (Switzerland)

 

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: Happy Easter.

What does this day mean to you? Has its meaning changed as you've grown older? Anybody doing anything special or out of the ordinary?

Does America have its religious priorities mixed up a bit inasmuch as we clearly give greater emphasis to Christmas? Should it be the other way around, and Easter be given more attention?

Any other thoughts this Easter Sunday?

It's hard to top the absurdity of the media hyping global warming presented in the NewsBusters story posted yesterday by Noel Sheppard about how the classic science fiction movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still," is being remade where Klaatu comes to earth to warn us about global warming. However, a global warming art show ranks pretty close to that movie remake in the silliness department. According to a Huffington Post blog, "The Art of Global Warming" posted by Kimberly Brooks, there is now a global warming "Things Fall Apart" art exhibit featuring the photography of Sasha Bezzubov:

There's nothing into which Saturday Night Live can't work its liberal politics--even a conventional game-show sketch. NBC aired a re-run of the February 24th SNL last night, and watching it this morning I spotted what you might call a "subliminable" anti-Ann Coulter product placement.

In "What's That Bitch Talking About?" two contestants viewing a succession of women offering bare snippets of dialogue have to guess what they're talking about. The male contestant is consistently clueless. But Tina Fey's character gets it uncannily right every time, down to details that would in reality be impossible to guess. Sample: a woman murmuring "okay" into a phone is indeed getting directions to a margarita party to celebrate her graduation from DeVry, etc.

The male loser is sent packing, but not before he receives a lovely parting gift in the form of the home edition of "What's That Bitch Talking About?" Cut to a quick close-up of the package featuring four women: Whitney Houston, Queen Elizabeth, a beauty queen who's presumably Miss South Carolina of "US Americans" fame, and, most prominently featured . . . Ann Coulter. See screencap.

View video here.

Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press reports that Muslims are incensed that a prominent Italian Muslim writer with a fondness for Israel became a Christian before Pope Benedict on the Easter vigil. (Magdi Allam's writings were quoted by Michael Ledeen on NRO several years ago.) Jihad Watch has new comments. (Photo from AJCBlog.) To the AP:

Italy's most prominent Muslim, an iconoclastic writer who condemned Islamic extremism and defended Israel, converted to Catholicism Saturday in a baptism by the pope at a Vatican Easter service.

An Egyptian-born, non-practicing Muslim who is married to a Catholic, Magdi Allam infuriated some Muslims with his books and columns in the newspaper Corriere della Sera newspaper, where he is a deputy editor. He titled one book "Long Live Israel."