More Polar bear-gate: Wife was peer reviewer

From Human Events:

In particular, investigators are asking questions about the peer review work on Monnett’s drowned polar bear paper, which was done by his wife, Lisa Rotterman, as well as Andrew Derocher, the lead researcher on the Canadian study under review by the inspector general’s office…

With investigators suggesting his research is collapsing, Monnett was defensive in the interview, and asked for the inspectors’ credentials to question his work or second-guess his calculations.

For example, there was some confusion as to whether it was three or four dead bears used in the calculation to determine the ratio of survival, and whether Monnett assumed that four swimming bears seen the week earlier were the same polar bears recorded as dead in the next survey. The statistic in question was the percentage of bears likely to survive when swimming in a storm—Monnett estimated it to be around 25%, whereas investigators put the number at more than 57%.

Is there a potential we made a mistake, and the peer reviewers didn’t catch it? Possibly,” Gleason said.

So what part of climate alarmism isn’t scam-like?

Dutch treat: Tax by the mile driven

As spotlighted in Steve Milloy’s book “Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Control Your Life and What You Can Do to Stop Them” (Regnery 2009), the Netherlands is proposing a tax to charge drivers a usage fee for the miles they drive, factoring in the cost to society in the form of pollution, traffic congestion and wear and tear on roads. Read the New York Times report.

Name that drug

While we have a healthy skepticism toward the pharmaceutical industry, former Obama adviser Ezekiel Emanuel’s attack in the New York Times on Big Pharma for not selling cancer drugs because they can’t make any money is long on accusation but short on facts: Continue reading Name that drug

Rick Santorum: No place we shouldn't drill

Yes, he appallingly sided with Arlen Specter over Pat Toomey in the 2004 Senate primary in Pennsylvania, but Rick Santorum said the right thing today (and more) when asked about oil drilling. Continue reading Rick Santorum: No place we shouldn't drill

Obama: Job blocker-in-chief

As our economy perhaps heads into another tailspin, it’s worthwhile contemplating how much economic growth and how many jobs President Obama and his comrades are blocking with the EPA and the rest of the federal, state and local regulatory bureaucracies. Continue reading Obama: Job blocker-in-chief