Anthony Watts, the proprietor of the well known climate skeptic blog, WUWT, seems to have a double standard on what constitutes an insult to ethnic groups. Watts is making a big deal out of some recent comments by Timothy Wirth, a former U.S. senator and now the president of the UN Foundation, who reportedly said this during a recent conference call:
"[W]e have to--I think, again as I've suggested before--undertake an aggressive program to go after those who are among the deniers, who are putting out these mistruths, and really call them for what they're doing and make a battle out of it. They've had pretty much of a free ride so far, and that time has got to stop."
Watts and the right wing news outlet that is making hay out of Wirth's comments, are disingenuously twisting the meaning of his words. Wirth is merely suggesting that climate skeptics should be more aggressively challenged on their claims, that's all. But Watts, a combat leader in the climate wars, puts his own spin on this for obvious partisan purposes:
Well yesterday, the former senator insulted the Jewish race with the tired old "denier" label, then set his foot on fire, then stuck it in his mouth trying to tell about half of the US population (according to recent polls) that he's "coming after them" because they don't share his opinion.
Please. People should be able to see through this for what it is. Also, funny how Watts is offended on behalf of the "Jewish race" (interesting phrasing). Several days ago, Watts mentioned that he was "dismayed" by Lord Monckton's recent use of Nazi imagery, in a post titled
Note to Lord Monckton: this isn't helping
In that post, Watts wrote that
putting swastikas in planned public powerpoint presentations, and linking that by name to a person, is in my opinion, way over the top and in very bad form and totally hijacks and negates the important messages elsewhere in the presentation.
Evidently, such behavior doesn't rise to the level of insult to Jewish people. It's just "way over the top and in very bad form," because it undermines the climate skeptic argument. What's very bad form is when partisan climate bloggers express phony, selective outrage.
