This post is in response to David Appell’s post, “About TonyHellerExposed,” where he makes an unsuccessful attempt to out me. He also called me a liar. So let it be known he took this fight public first. Even world class climate change denier’s like me have a reputation to uphold.
So what’s got our good friend David all worked up? Well, basically he screwed up a story and instead of owning up to his mistake, he’s trying to pin it on me. Here are the boring details for the record.
My name is Tony Heller (aka Steven Goddard). I’m a professional climate change denier and I use this blog to blow the whistle on myself and sometimes others, too.
If you get a moment, check out Judith Curry’s latest blog post, “Ins and Outs of the Ivory Tower.” In it, Curry relies on her same tired trick of copying and pasting large swathes of text from others and then “reflecting” on how she thinks said person’s thoughts might have important implications for the larger climate debate. It’s a cheap way for her to sound profound without actually needing to be profound. Continue reading
Update #1, September 4, 2015: If you are coming from David Appell’s website and, like him, don’t understand the concept of parody, read the last paragraph on this blog post.
My name is Tony Heller (aka Steven Goddard). I’m a professional climate change denier and I use this blog to blow the whistle on myself and sometimes others, too.
Some know me as the Donald Trump of the climate denier world. That’s because I say a lot of stupid shit and insult people to get attention. Every once in while it works and actual climate scientists like Judith Curry write about me. I also like using salty language too because, hey, why the fuck not? If you’re offended, you’re just some politically correct pansy.
What is with all this PC bullshit anyway? As conservative pundit Mark Steyn reminds us, there once was a time when men were men and you could poke fun at gays and insult just about anybody without getting any guff. And that’s the problem with the climate debate, it’s become limp-wristed. And just like Judith Curry says:
“We need to open up the public debate about climate change, and get rid of the tyranny of political ‘correctness’ in the climate debate that is being enforced by a handful of self-appointed and readily-offended fools.“
You tell ’em Judy! If I want to destroy the reputation of a scientist by attacking his professional integrity, I should have free reign. The only rights that should matter are mine. And if I want to call Judith Curry “Aunt Judy,” I know she can take it ‘cuz she’s my kind of woman.
Like me, Mark Steyn is a man who understands the critical importance of an attention-grabbing title. In his 2012 C-SPAN interview about his book, “America Alone,” Steyn credits his editor, Harry Crocker, for rescuing his book from a fate in bookstore bargain bins and onto the New York Times bestseller list by coming up with a great title. Steyn says his original name for the book was “far more artful and elusive title that [Crocker] thought was for losers and would guarantee we sold, you know, 2,800 copies.”
Mark Steyn, the conservative pundit, was out strutting around the wrestling ring that is his blog yesterday trying to work his conservative fans into a frenzy in the hopes he could get them to lose all control and start snapping up his latest hit piece on climatologist Michael Mann and other merchandise. One of his heels for this match was yours truly, who he believes—wrongly and without one scintilla of evidence—is a “sock puppet” for Michael Mann.
In his post, Steyn huffs and puffs about the “palpable misogyny in way some of Mann’s defenders attack his female critics.” I’ll address this charge, particularly the completely bogus charge of misogyny leveled against me which actually ends up exposing Steyn’s own misogynistic tendencies, in another post. Stay tuned.
Right now, I’d like to tell you how I first met Mark Steyn. It was just a few days ago. The first words out of Mark Steyn’s Twitter account to me was:
My name is Tony Heller (aka Steven Goddard). I’m a professional climate change denier and I use this blog to blow the whistle on myself and sometimes others, too.
Earlier this month, I talked about one of my favorite cherry picks, the cherry blossom pick. Today, we are going to talk about one of the dangers of the cherry pick which is that the evidence you use today can be used against you tomorrow. That’s because over the short-term, climate change indicators can fluctuate all over the place and a short-term trend in one direction can quickly trend to the other direction.
Continue reading
My name is Tony Heller (aka Steven Goddard). I’m a professional climate change denier and I use this blog to blow the whistle on myself and sometimes others, too.
I know some of you thought I went too far calling Judith Curry a “Climate Junkie,” but if you aren’t convinced that’s exactly what she is, then go take a quick look at her latest blog post. You can skip past whatever point she’s trying to make in her long-winded and lazy, copy-and-paste essay about transparency in research and go right to the last line where she finally gets around to delivering her payload:
“Lets face it – ‘Mike’s Nature trick’ to ‘hide the decline’ means . . . ‘Mike’s Nature trick’ to ‘hide the decline.'”
That this quote has anything sinister behind it has been debunked so many times now that only true hard-core denialists believe it. And yet here Curry is repeating it once again reporting on it as if it were fact. And as usual, she doesn’t directly attack the science behind the hockey stick graph. Why? Because she can’t. Instead she just drops this mined quote at the end of her rambling post as a dog whistle to her devoted followers that she’s on their side.
This excellent five minute video from a couple of Mother Jones reporters clearly and efficiently explains the real story behind the “hide the decline” quote.
And for a fuller exploration about the controversy about the hockey stick graph which was put to bed long ago, take a look at The Hockey Stick: The Most Controversial Chart in Science, Explained which had this to say:
Climate deniers threw everything they had at the hockey stick. They focused immense resources on what they thought was the Achilles Heel of global warming research–and even then, they couldn’t hobble it. (Though they certainly sowed plenty of doubt in the mind of the public.)
Sorry, Judith, but you need the equivalent of methadone for your rhetoric. Stop relying on the Climategate smack to give you a lift.
