Sound and Fury
Astonishing silence appears to the response of the scientific community regarding Harold Lewis’ spectacular resignation letter.
Of course, the anti-AGW crowds are eating this up. The Czar thinks that might be too eager a reaction: if the Hadley CRU incident was insufficient to expose whatever the heck is really going on, this will be a blip on the screen.
There are some pro-AGW folks (very few) who are incensed over this. Fortunately, they all seem to agree on one thing: Dr. Harold Lewis is obviously ignorant about climatology. In fact, other sciency folks with less pedigree than Lewis are having great sport mocking every aspect of the letter. What a jark: he misuses the word literally. Clearly he is not even a real scientist, since Lewis failed to have his resignation letter peer reviewed.
Heck, one supporter says, even Einstein was wrong about very obvious things. Just another old, useless scientist who is long past his day. Did you know Lewis used to throw out his research data after a few years? Yeah, but when Dr. Mann does it, the deniers go apeshit.
So the response has basically been this: mocking, jeering, and a plea to ignore the old man. Sound familiar? He says something we do not like, so they tell him good riddance. Crazy old grandpa. And we can dig up something out of context from his past that makes him look like a deluded hypocrite.
Yes, Dr. Lewis may be right—politics is alive and well in science. And whether the AGW crowd is right or wrong, they wind up looking like pedantic jackasses who still cannot seem to address basic questions in a real direct and simple fashion. It sounds so much like other agenda-driven industries that it makes one think. Or it should.
However, the Czar predicts this: there will be no explosive outcome, no mass support for Dr. Lewis, no demand for clarity or review. This letter will fade away in a few weeks, appearing only in out-of-date e-mails from people with sporadic internet connections. This resignation letter is a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
And that is a tragedy.
Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.