Sleepless in Midland

Jeryl Bier calls out the Southern Poverty Law Center's fake news

Political bias is the only possible explanation for the MSM's reliance on the press releases from the SPLC. Whenever I see a reference to SPLC research without some skepticism I typically dismiss it as probably misleading and possible false.

So it's refreshing to see "Fake News From the SPLC -- A church fire started by a congregant isn’t an example of ‘hate.’" in the print edition of the Wall Street Journal. Here's the paywalled link. There Jeryl Bier describes a case of church arson described by the SPLC as a hate crime. But there's much more to the story. Here's Mr. Bier:

But the SPLC:s "harbinger" turned out to be fake news. Three weeks after the center issued its report, police arrested a member of the vandalized church, Andrew McClinton, and charged him with arson. According to the Washington County Circuit Clerk's office in Greenville, Mr. McClinton has been indicted and is awaiting a trial date. The state fire marshal told the Associated Press in December he did not believe the incident was just the crime was "politically motivated."

Although the December 2016 arrest was widely reported at the time, the SPLC did not update or correct its report until I called it to their attention this week.

The SPLC enjoys labeling innocent people as members of hate groups, but it looks as if the SPLC is itself a hate group.

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1:40 PM 10/14/2017

Faked gay marriage survey -- like counterfeit bills, you know there are more out there

By now everyone has everyone has heard about the survey the gay UCLA PhD published which purported to demonstrate that contact with a gay canvasser can change people's opinions about gay marriage. The survey was later shown to be bogus. They've created another fissure in the credibility of social scientists and the journalists who aid and abet that mendacity.

Daniel J. Flynn in What the Faked Gay Marriage Study Says About Academia and the Media says this:

Ultimately, the fraudulent peer-reviewed study says more about the corruption of the media and academia than it does about the corruption of one activist professor. Journalists and professors ostensibly dedicated to the search for truth unravel the institutions they serve when they imagine themselves as already possessing the truth.

The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, and other leading publications initially ran uncritical pieces on the research. Princeton hired Michael LaCour, the UCLA Ph.D. allegedly responsible for the faked data, as an assistant professor and Science published his co-authored article.

We needn't look any farther than the global warming movement to see examples of science subjugated by ideology with willing media accomplices.

It's a little bit like counterfeit money. If a fake twenty dollar bill shows up at a convenience store, you know there wasn't just one out there.

Valerie Plame removes all doubt that the whole thing was partisan politics

In Outing Valerie Plame the New York Post reminded us how Valerie Plame, et ux., Joe Wilson, made such a big deal about how someone outed her as a CIA employee. It was Richard Armitage, not Karl Rove who leaked that information. But that didn't come out until later, so their disinformation operation on the Bush administration was a success.

Now we learn from the article linked above that Valerie Plame "has happily retweeted" an article at Glenn Greenwald's site that names the CIA employee who allegedly participated in the enhanced interrogations of terrorist suspects and lied to Congress.

So Valerie Plame is an anti-Republican hypocrite. Not much news there for those who paid attention. But then there are the folks who saw Fair Game and believed it was a true story. They are the ones who elect presidents. What a shame that they can be so easily duped.

Flaming faucets or flaming fakes -- Natural gas opponent resorts to fakery in propaganda movies

There's an environmentalist out there named Josh Fox who has made a couple of movies, Gasland and Gasland II, in which the crowning images in both are flames coming from household water taps. His goal is to thwart natural gas exploration and production in the name of saving the planet, and he counts as a "win" any government restriction on the oil and gas industry whether based on fact or fiction.

There's a theory that for many ardent environmentalists, "environmentalism" is like a religion. And its most ardent proponents are comparable to religious zealots with their presumed moral superiority and their fight against evil. Mr. Fox's tactics reinforce that theory.

Freebeacon.com addressed Mr. Fox's movies today in Gasland Director Presents Anti-Fracking Hoax as Evidence in New Film. Energyindepth.org addressed it as well in From Flaming Faucet to Flaming Hose: The Continuing Fraud of Gasland.

Unfortunately, the news source of the low information voter, The Daily Show, presents Mr. Fox as a voice of reason. See for yourself at segment 1 and segment 2.

But the problem with those flaming water taps depicted in his films is that they are either unrelated to oil and gas production or outright hoaxes. The one in the first film was supposed to be blamed on natural gas drilling, but in fact it was a phenomenon common to the area for years and which the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission had already investigated. They found that the water wells in question, "contained biogenic gas that was not related to oil and gas activity." Link to special report, which concludes with this:

Finally, it should be understood that the COGCC Director, Dave Neslin, offered to speak with Gasland’s producer, Josh Fox, on camera during the filming of the movie. Because the issues are technical and complex and arouse concerns in many people, Director Neslin asked that he be allowed to review any material from the interview that would be included in the final film. Unfortunately, Mr. Fox declined. Such a discussion might have prevented the inaccuracies noted above.

The scene in Gasland Part II of the flaming water hose was fake. A Texas court had already determined that the hose was connected to a gas vent and not a water source. See From Flaming Faucet to Flaming Hose: The Continuing Fraud of Gasland. Furthermore, the Texas Railroad Commission had already investigated the matter and concluded that the gas was naturally occurring and which probably seeped from a shallow formation which was completely unrelated to any oil and gas production in the area. (The targeted oil company posted the RRC report online.)

Mr. Fox has the audacity to ask why haven't government regulators done anything about this. (See The Daily Show segment 1.) His own answer to that question is that, "The natural gas industry has come in and literally taken away the regulatory agencies from the people, has obstructed the science, and has advised even the President of the United States."

Maybe the crusader Mr. Fox believes his opponents are so evil then his deception tactics are relatively minor sins, and the religion of environmentalism absolves him of any guilt. Reminds me of Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men." In his view his work was so important that a minor crime like murder was an inconvenient byproduct.

Why scammers admit they are from Nigeria

We've all gotten them. They are emails from someone claiming to represent the heir to the fortune of a Nigerian Finance Minister or some such. All they need is a reputable person to help with the transfer of funds. You could be that reputable person. There's a substantial sum coming your way if you do.

They are so common the shorthand moniker is "419 scam" named after the section of the Nigerian law that makes the scam illegal.

Admitting that the sender is Nigerian should raise a red flag to just about anyone. So why admit it? Microsoft researchers have studied the phenomenon, and in an overly long answer say that the pool of potential victims is very small, and the scammers don't want to waste time with people who aren't gullible enough to fall for the scheme. Therefore, simply saying they are from Nigeria is the buzz phrase that will deter the skeptical. And the only people who are tempted are the really, really gullible. It's so dumb it's smart.

Links: BusinessInsider.com;
Research.Microsoft.com PDF;
via NewmarksDoor.com.

Poor Mrs. Gaddafi

Did you get her email, too?

All she needs is someone in the U.S. to help her with a huge sum of money.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Mrs. SAFIA FARKASH, wife of late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed by the unfaithful opposition leaders in my country Libya .I am desperately looking for a foreign partner whom I can trust to handle some investment for me. ...

She goes on to explain that she fled Libya for Algeria, however her IP address shows her to be in Bangkok, Thailand. Bless her heart.  The poor widow is so distraught she doesn't even know where she is.

But never mind that. She left behind US$65.4 million "at two reputable security companies in Africa." All she needs is someone to help her invest it.

Sorry, lady. I would love to help, but I'm busy rearranging my spice rack.

Nigerians scam lawyers

A gang of Nigerians conned some U.S. and Canadian law firms out of over $31 million in a clever scam. There's probably a lawyer joke in there somewhere, but here's what happened.

Con-man #1 contacts a law firm and engages it to collect a debt from someone. The lawyer who takes the case contacts the debtor who agrees to pay the debt. The debtor turns out to be Con-man #2, and he sends a fake check to the law firm. The lawyer calls the bank to verify that the check is good. Presumably the lawyer calls the phone number on the fake check, because the person who takes the call on behalf of the bank is Con-man #3 who assures the lawyer the check is good.

So the lawyer deposits the check in the law firm account and writes a check to Con-man #1 who promptly cashes the check and takes off for Nigeria to live the high life.

One of the Nigerians, Emmanuel Ekhator, was extradited to the U.S. a few weeks ago. Link. But whether any of the money will get returned is anybody's guess.

There now.  Here's what you've been waiting for:

The two partners in a law firm were having lunch when suddenly one of them jumped up and said, "I have to go back to the office - I forgot to lock the safe!"

The other partner replied, "What are you worried about? We're both here."

Had enough?  One more.

Q: How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?

A: You won't find a lawyer who can change a light bulb. Now, if you're looking for a lawyer to screw a light bulb...

The Arctic is warming! The Arctic is warming! A warming warning from 1922.

Predictions are always tricky, especially if they concern the future.

Some believers of the man made global warming theories will never give up, particularly those with a financial or ego investment in it.

But this is really funny. It's a Washington Post report about global warming in 1922. Here's the link at Snopes.com.

The Arctic ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulafft, at Bergen, Norway. ...

Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones, the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.

Hasn't there been an "ice age" in the intervening 90 years? Via.

One more reason to distrust Smiling Bob

You'll remember Smiling Bob, the guy on the TV commercials with the silly grin and the swooning ladies trying to sell Enzyte, the "male enhancement."

We've written about that before, see So That's Why Smiling Bob was Smiling noting the criminal charges that resulted from the Enzyte operation.

And now, via the Illinois Poison Center Blog, we learn that the drug could even be harmful.

A study cited in the article concluded that it lengthened the QT interval, the time it takes the heart to get ready to accept the next electrical charge telling it to beat again. In a healthy person it may not matter, but for someone with an already long QT interval due to age, disease or drug interaction, it could cause arrhythmia.

So what does Smiling Bob do if he experiences arrhythmia? Well, he could cough hard to try to remain conscious for a few seconds and hope the arrhythmia quits on its own. But that's a iffy situation. See Cough CPR for more.

Or he can hope that one of those lovely companions knows CPR.

Disclaimer: While I try to be as accurate as possible, I'm a blogger, not a doctor. So don't take any of this as medical advice, whether it's to stop arrhythmia or enhance a male, and do your own research before trying this at home.

The curious case of Rom Houben

It was a tragic case of a man in a coma for 23 years. Recent reports in the Daily Mail and the Guardian said he wasn't really in a coma, he was awake but paralyzed -- aware of all that happened around him but unable to communicate. But then it became apparent that his means of communicating was a woman who manipulated one of his finger over a keyboard to type out eloquent responses. So which one was doing the communicating?

Watch the video, and the whole thing is looking like a hoax. It was a story so amazing that people hearing it wanted so much for it to be true that they didn't want to look too closely for fear of seeing the flaw.

James Randi has, and he makes a strong case that it's a fraud. It's just too unlikely that someone could type the way Mr. Houben is supposed to be typing -- note that he is supposed to be doing it with one finger which is taped to a stick and guided by the facilitator. Mr. Houben doesn't appear to be paying much attention as his finger glides over the keyboard typing out those articulate phrases. The facilitator is the one with total focus on the screen, and she appears from the video to be in complete control of that finger.

It's a shame, really. It was such a great story. It was too good to check even though a test could be easily conducted. And coming on the heals of the huge global warming research scandal it should make us all aware that we need to stay on constant guard against hucksters.