Tim Blair, Andrew Bolt, Global Warming, name calling and the art of the Jedi

(Above: modesty usually forbids me from boasting about my MIT degree, and it has forced me to excise my name, but I think you'll agree the degree's as strong a qualification as any Tim Blair and Andrew Bolt might have when it comes to commenting on climate change).

People in glass houses really shouldn't throw stones, at least when the stones make no discernible point, or perhaps only serve to point out the stupidity of the stone thrower.

Here's the eternally irascible Tim Blair:

We’ve already got a “leading paleontologist on climate change”, a “leading politics perfesser on climate change”, a “leading has-been politician on climate change”, a “leading beach fisherman on climate change”, a “leading slightly messed-up perpetual adolescent on climate change” and a “leading grumpy old lady retiree on climate change”, so why not a leading academic legal guy on climate change:

Andrew Macintosh, Australian National University climate law expert …

Climate law. What a very fascinating time it is to be alive. 

Well I guess that climate law is no better or worse than climate blogging by a Werribee-born lad who somehow manages to barrack for Collingwood, and did his cadetship on the noble tit-laden rag the Melbourne Truth, now sadly departed from our midst. Excellent situation for environmental field work, no doubt about it, and I'm wondering what he should call himself so he can fit in to the above montage of humorously caricatured commentators. 

A leading nonentity and childish prat blogger expert on climate change? 

As for Andrew Bolt, I see he managed a year of university before heading off to The Age for a cadetship, and then like Blair spent some time as a sports writer before becoming all knowing and all trumpeting chief poo bah to the mikados of scepticism.

Now should this admirably qualified pair of loons continue to write about the environment, and climate change and warmistas and have a jolly old time lampooning everybody else's credentials?

Well of course they should, even if they fail Professor Ian Plimer's stringent demand for mastery in a dozen areas of scientific expertise before achieving any credible understanding of the mystic science of climate change, and especially the adept tenth level of scepticism which explains everything as a paranoid conspiracy theory involving Stalinist show trials.

Here on loon pond, it's a level playing field, and we should all just play up and play the game. But really name calling and smirking and telling the guy in the scrum you've just fucked his wife shouldn't be on, especially if you've just stuck your finger up his bum.

Or is it just that Blair likes name calling as a pastime because he's not big on coat hangers? Ah well I never expected to see much scientific truth emerge from a game of AFL, and I guess it's too much to expect anything but name calling from journalists who somehow think their lack of expertise allows them to abuse others for a lack of expertise.

It reminds me of being caught in a pub any number of times with a flock of drunken journalists all shouting at each other as if they're engaged in some kind of dialectical discourse.

But name calling is mindless fun. Now where are those flies I caught, it feels like it's about time to pluck off their wings as a way of passing the time ...