Also, Al Gore is Fat…

In my darker moments at the end of the semester, I sometimes find myself complaining to no one in particular that kids these days lack basic research skills and that their written work often reads like mediocre paraphrasing of Wikipedia entries.

Then again, it could be worse. Politico, for instance, should be lucky enough to hire reporters who actually know how to use Google. If Erika Lovley had even bothered to looked at the wiki entry for her major piece of “evidence” of growing scientific doubt about global climate change, she’d have discovered that the “31,000 scientists” on the laughable Oregon Petition included “Perry Mason,” “Geri Halliwell,” and someone by the name of “Redwine, Ph.D.” For the sheer fun of it, I just might sign the petition and stuff it in the late afternoon mail, thus blending my skeptical voice with fellow Alaskans “Edward M. Dokoozian” (a “Certified Safety Professional”), “Monte D. Mabry” (a staff geologist for ConocoPhillips), and dozens of other folks whose existence on the internet consists, so far as I’m able to tell, entirely of having “signed” the petition….

No word on whether “Ronald Ruck, Ph.D.” and “Rickey Rouse, DDS” have added their names to the list.

The rest of the piece is equally pathetic and weird. Did you know the Farmer’s Almanac “predicted that the next year will see a period of cooling”? If you’re the sort of person who doubts the predictive wisdom of the FA, you’re probably the sort of person who doubts that “if it rains on St. Swithin’s Day, it will rain for 40 more”. It’s scientifical!