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NBC’s failed sweeps stunt: The snowjob of Kilimanjaro

By Michelle Malkin  •  November 24, 2008 04:02 AM

Let’s start your Monday morning off with a triple-snort.

It was ratings sweeps week last week and NBC’s Today Show decided to dispatch its celebrity journalists to all the corners of the Earth to show us that the planet’s melting and it’s all our fault.

Ann Curry must have drawn the short straw because NBC decided to send the 52-year-old Today Show anchor — an inexperienced climber with less than three weeks to prepare — to race to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in time for a dramatic, end-of-the-week ascent. Why Kilimanjaro? It’s the pet cause of Al Gore and his alarmist acolytes who blame humans for purportedly retreating snow caps there. The inconvenient truth is, as University of Washington climate scientist Philip Mote, put it: “Kilimanjaro is a grossly overused mis-example of the effects of climate change.” But that wouldn’t have reeled in sensationalism-seeking viewers for sweeps week.

Curry was expected to produce fresh, new photographic and video evidence of the man-made snow cap calamity for NBC’s green initiative. But her much-hyped interview segments turned into tragi-comic medical updates and plaintive wails as she and her large crew were slowed by fatigue and altitude sickness. The sweeps stunt bombed. Curry moaned:

“This is like climbing a Stairmaster for six hours a day with 20 pounds on your back,” Curry said in a telephone interview from her tent following Saturday’s climb.

She’s hardly an experienced climber. The last mountain she scaled was half the size, and she did it while in college, said Curry, who turns 52 on Wednesday. She learned of the assignment only three weeks ago, giving her little time to train…

“I miss my family,” said Curry, whose clothes were clammy and wet from a rainstorm Saturday. “And also warm showers. And I could really use a stiff drink.”

The exhausted NBC crew failed to summit and instead turned back with their 100 local tribal porters (nice of them to help the local economy, though those fired NBC/Weather Channel employees might question the expenditures).

Curry will be back today to try and save face. But as Marc Sheppard points out in a must-read blow-by-blow of the disaster, NBC execs have major egg on theirs. The network put the green agenda ahead of its employees’ well-being. And for what? Viewers were left as ill-informed as they were before Ann Curry took a single step:

With no grand eco-finale to deliver on Friday, Today producers were left with an anticlimactic recap of their tepid non-story and the announcement that Curry would return on Monday. Meanwhile, the audience was left to only wonder just how sick they were, and how much pressure was applied to drive them onward and upward. For her part, Curry declared the journey a success, “We’ve done our job. We’ve shown the problems.”

The Today website agreed, proclaiming the pictures they took “evidence that she and her team had completed their assignment.” After all: [my emphasis]

“The pictures show the ice cap on the verge of extinction and confirmed what researchers have been saying: More than 80 percent of Kilimanjaro’s famous ice cap has disappeared in the last 100 years.”

So a TV anchor and her crew may have risked severe injury and perhaps death to take pictures of mountain peaks readily available on-line, including here here here and here to confirm the established conclusions of qualified scientists. And for what? The straw man tactic of suggesting proof of melting is proof of warming-induced melting is equally absurd to suggesting proof of global warming is proof of anthropogenic global warming (AGW).

…The debate has never been whether or not the snows of Kilimanjaro are melting, but rather what force is driving the phenomenon.

The canard of global warming has been a favorite media culprit, despite being widely disputed long before and ever since Al Gore used the diminishing white peaks as poster child for warming alarmism in his eco-sci-fi movie. In fact, the Goracle’s Mount K assertions were among the nine statements in the film a UK judge ruled unsupportable by mainstream scientific consensus. The ruling compels British school teachers including the mockumentary in their curriculum to identify it as “a political work [which] promotes only one side of the argument.”

And there was no shortage of evidence on which to base that decision.

In an October of 2003 Nature Magazine piece, Betsy Mason explained why researchers blamed not global warming, but deforestation:

“Without the forests’ humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine.”

A June 2007 study published in American Scientist, found that Kilimanjaro’s melting had been going on for more than a century and most had occurred prior to 1953, when atmospheric CO2 levels were quite low. “Complex interacting factors” including a process called sublimation, which “occurs at below-freezing temperatures and converts ice directly to water vapor without going through the liquid phase” were cited.

…[I]n Curry’s November 13th blog entry, she wrote that “climate change is the lead suspect” in the melting. And that’s the very point her expedition set out to convey. Yet nothing she found or reported up to 16,000 feet advanced that arbitrary premise. Of course, having likely never heard the words “deforestation” or “sublimation” in this context, particularly from the MSM, most viewers simply assumed they were watching more proof of the ravages of AGW.

So you’ve got to wonder — just what imagery did NBC hope to showcase at the summit that might have really hit their misleading message out of the park?

Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly have merited such reckless disregard for the safety of their crew.

NBC’s botched climb would be comedy gold — worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit and endless Jay Leno mockery — if lives and truth weren’t at stake. Let NBC’s Snowjob of Kilimanjaro be an object lesson in the deadly serious consequences of enviro-nitwittery.

Posted in: Enviro-nitwits

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  1. NBC flops trying to show global “warming” on Kilimanjaro « Crush Liberalism
  2. Note to NBC: Mountain Climbing Takes Training. Now THAT’s an Inconvenient Truth! « Jane Q. Republican
  3. What I’m reading instead of working… : Pursuing Holiness
  4. Michelle Malkin » Dim bulb to light dim Capitol Christmas tree
  5. Environ-Mentally Challenged « Jane Q. Republican
  6. NBC’s failed sweeps stunt: The snowjob of Kilimanjaro « Top Daily Digest Reading

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Comments

  1. #1
    On November 24th, 2008 at 4:30 am, islandman78 said:

    Junk science by a junk journalist on a junk network, Nothing But Crap.

  2. #2
    On November 24th, 2008 at 5:13 am, graysonret said:

    Climbing that mountain takes training and experience. That’s why, every year, people get cerebral edema and altitude sickness, requiring immediate evacuation and treatment. So Ann “climbed a mountain” once. Yeah, well, I’ve climbed some myself, when I was a teen. Big deal. I certainly wouldn’t take on that mountain with “3 weeks of training”. Only a fool would do that. But, then again, we’re talking about NBC. What next? Everest, or go for the “gold” and try K-2? Another reason why I don’t watch shows like that, or even TV news, unless it’s local only.

  3. #3
    On November 24th, 2008 at 5:39 am, PBoilermaker said:

    Al Gore, you magnificent bastard!

  4. #4
    On November 24th, 2008 at 5:46 am, localmalcontent said:

    I will miss Dave Schwartz, of The Weather Channel, mostly.

    He always reminded me of weathermen/women of another era.

    In Yanush, Oklahoma, the temperature is 53 degrees, with 25 mile per hour winds out of the cold, cold northwest, right out of Denver… Dave might have said.

  5. #5
    On November 24th, 2008 at 5:54 am, graysonret said:

    Where’s all this “global warming” we’re supposed to be “suffering” under? It’s 10 degrees below normal here in SE Virginia.

  6. #6
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:02 am, RabbidSquirrel said:

    Maybe NBC should send a news crew down to the seashore and broadcast continually from MSL (Mean Sea Level).

    Then twice a day, for as far into the future as they would like, they can claim global warming is flooding the local area. (Some days will even be worse!) And then twice a day they can congratulate themselves for bringing the whole GW matter to our attention, and being able to facilitate CHANGE!

    BTW, what was this one news crews carbon footprint and was there an environmental impact statement published or in the works? (Dont answer… I dont care… really)

  7. #7
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:35 am, maine yankee said:

    DUMB idea, poor planning, half-hearted attempt, failed outcome.

    The Today website agreed, proclaiming the pictures they took “evidence that she and her team had completed their assignment.”

    And we wonder why the next generation can’t seem to get out of their parents’ house.

  8. #8
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:40 am, gridlock said:

    One wonders if all of the native porters made it back alive. Of course, one wonders in vain, because surely nobody bothered to ask.

  9. #9
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:44 am, gridlock said:

    Ann Curry and NBC fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous of which is to never get involved in a land war in Asia. Slightly less well known, but no less important, is to never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line (Ha Ha Hahahahaha - whump!)…

    It seems that Ann Curry and NBC believed their own propaganda, and that Global Warming had turned Kilmanjaro warm and pleasant, kind of like Palm Springs with darker natives…

    So she went up there in a lightweight parka and froze her butt off!

  10. #10
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:00 am, ctmom said:

    Rush should have a field day with this!

  11. #11
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:13 am, johnsteele said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 4:30 am, islandman78 said:
    Junk science by a junk journalist on a junk network, Nothing But Crap.

    Yes, but unfortunately it feeds the development of junk public policy by a junk-to-be administration. The Obama™ and his followers believe this junk and the rest of us are going to pay for it.

  12. #12
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:17 am, pookysgirl said:

    I blame Hemingway. Without him, the liberals would have never pined for “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.” I had to read it as an English major, and it was one of the things (Chopin was another) that gave me a clue as to how badly you can write and still be considered “one of the greatest writers of our time.”

  13. #13
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:29 am, TMoney said:

    Thank you for the update Michelle. I really, really appreciate you watching TV so I don’t have to. Truly, I do.

    Pookysgirl, literature is 200% subjective - maybe more.

  14. #14
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:32 am, travlinman said:

    NBC = Nuthin’ But Clowns!

  15. #15
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:37 am, MrOlympia said:

    STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! Too much that I could comment on in this one.

    If somebody would have told her there were naked photos of Sarah Palin at the summit she would have made that climb in record time!

  16. #16
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:46 am, FruNobulux said:

    Rocket-polishers. They’ve got ahold of the global warming thing — with both hands, clearly.

  17. #17
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:48 am, pookysgirl said:

    Pookysgirl, literature is 200% subjective - maybe more.

    TMoney, that’s why I never did well in my classes. Having to couch my rhetoric in acceptable terms never suited me well.

  18. #18
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:55 am, ArizonaNeanderthal said:

    graysonret:
    Climbing that mountain takes training and experience. That’s why, every year, people get cerebral edema and altitude sickness, requiring immediate evacuation and treatment.

    Well thanks for the information on cerebral edema-I had not heard of it before. But it sounds serious enough is just might help Ann Curry/NBC types think clearly. They are not doing to well without it.The Snows of Kilimanjaro made a pretty good movie, only the Drive By media could screw it up.

  19. #19
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:57 am, milesfromkansas said:

    I can’t believe Ann Curry is 52! If I tried that stunt I’d pack it in before lunch.

  20. #20
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:04 am, zorro said:

    enviro-nitwittery

    That sums it up in one word.

  21. #21
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:07 am, iamsaved said:

    At least when the weather reporter for a local station in the Washington DC area goes out on their patio to do a weather forecast, they don’t have to spend a large sum of money to send someone around the world in order to have the same affect, which is absolutely nothing. They’d have more believability if they filmed a local farmer standing in the middle of his cornfield during a downpour to tell them there was rain in the forecast.

    I keep waiting for the tree huggers to change the “official” name from global warming to climate change. That way they have all bases covered for their propaganda.

  22. #22
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:18 am, jsr said:

    I keep waiting for the tree huggers to change the “official” name from global warming to climate change.

    I thought they already had. It seems the temperature data is becoming to hard to ignore, and with many experts jumping off ship they need to change their story so they don’took like complete idiots. Climate change will be almost impossible to disprove since the climate is always changing and, just as in the past 200 years, there will always be new record highs, lows, droughts, floods, snows etc… that can be used to “prove” climate change is occuring.

    In any case, it is always a pleasure to see liberals get thumped by reality. It will provide some comic relief to the next four years.

  23. #23
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:21 am, Mrs. Happy Housewife said:

    Could Curry and Algore come tell me why I’m freezing my toes off here in Florida? This Global Warming thing is at least giving me a chance to bring out my rarely-worn sweater collection. Now, I’m gonna go climb Mt. Never Rest.

  24. #24
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:22 am, mojoe said:

    If a week of that gets you going, check out Animal Planet’s “Whale Wars”!

    A sea captain that left Greenpeace because their methods were too tame leads a ship (the Steve Irwin) full of Dumpster Muffin-types in an attempt to interfere with Japanese whaling ships.

    Every week I’m hoping their ship is torpedoed by a L.A. class sub, or cut in half a la PT-109 by a whaler. But the losers do make for riveting TV.

  25. #25
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:34 am, carole said:

    If the right had their own TV network, this would be fodder for days. LOL, make fun of liberals… Wish we had that kind of venue. It could change everything.

    Making fun of the left, muslims, etc. would doom them. They are hilarious if it weren’t so scary.

  26. #26
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:38 am, JDinTX said:

    Seriously, does anybody really watch NBC for news other than the nitwits? All I hear about is record cold everywhere in the U.S. and Al Gore keeps blowing smoke about global warming. Maybe he needs to adjust the thermostat in his overheated house.

  27. #27
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:44 am, deedledee said:

    I will miss Dave Schwartz, of The Weather Channel, mostly.

    He always reminded me of weathermen/women of another era.

    I’m going to miss “my friend”, too. He seemed real compared to the scripted presentations of the others.

    I know the founder of the Weather Channel, John Coleman, who doesn’t believe in man-made global warming has disputed the direction the Weather Channel has taken by embracing global warming which you’ll notice has now been changed to “climate change” just to hedge their bets.

    Expect to see Al Roker hosted specials move from the Food Network to the NBC owned Weather Channel and Ann Curry will host “climate change” specials on the Weather Channel. I expect to see NBC do alot of programming with their news people on that channel.

  28. #28
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:45 am, tre said:

    Nonsense Broadcasting Constantly.

    Nuisance Broadcasting Company.

    Nuts Broadcasting Constantly.

    Please, somebody stop me!

  29. #29
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:50 am, jangar said:

    The main stream media (MSM) is nothing more than a special interest, political machine. No news reported here, only muses from the minds of those suffering from cerebral edema* (swelling of the brain, resulting in the need to feel very important).

    *(Sorry, the condition is real and dangerous, just needed to take a light hearted look at things)

  30. #30
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:52 am, Jimmie said:

    Let us all remember…NBC, in the past was a NEWS organization. Some time ago it gave up the NEWS business and became an activist organization. This is an important distinction to keep in mind when and if you watch anything on NBC!

  31. #31
    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:56 am, Paul Revere said:

    I saw Dave Schwartz on TWC yesterday (Sunday). If he’s being layed off he’s being a team player and staying on until his last day. They should fire that meteorologist liar Heidi Cullen and keep Dave. I will miss Cheryl Lemke. She’s been on there it seems like forever. Eboni Deon is still too new for me to care one way or the other, but I wish her well. It’s a competitive field.

  32. #32
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:01 am, prendad said:

    Stupid Stupid Stupid. Ann Curry could have avoided all of this by saying a simple word: NO! When I was stationed with the RAF in the UK they put together an expedition to climb Mt. Kilomanjaro and these guys trained for months to get in shape. Maybe NBC should have sent Metro Man Matt Lauer to do the job.

  33. #33
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:03 am, WaterBoyz said:

    The other sad part about this story is that there will be hundreds of people who will believe the GW crap as portrayed in Curry’s story and then they tell hundreds more and then the untruth becomes the truth.
    They will be joined by those who get their news from ET and the sports channel.
    Now GW is a big freakin’ deal…again.
    It’s like the Repubs trying to outshout the Dems. They will never hear the Repubs because the Dems are always louder.

  34. #34
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:05 am, Ron said:

    The NBC stunt just shows how in the tank the media are for Al Gore’s global warming tripe. And sadly, most of the public is blissfully ignorant of the facts. It’s depressing. I can’t remember where I saw it this past week, but young Obama voters were asked what they knew about the basics of the debate this year, and it was essentially zero, nada, zip. We have a curiously over-educated but stupid electorate that is so unquestioning they’ll swallow any lie the left or the media care to throw in their direction. Pathetic.

  35. #35
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:08 am, Mrs. Happy Housewife said:

    Waterboyz, we’re not trying to outshout the Dems; we’re trying to speak sense over the din of their whining. Big difference.

  36. #36
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:09 am, Mixer14 said:

    Has anyone anywhere questioned NBC about the carbon footprint they’ve left by jetting their corrresondents to the four corners of the globe for this week long moan-a-thon on going green? Any word on how much they’ve paid the ’so-called’ carbon traders for the offsets needed for this stunt?

    ……..didn’t think so.

  37. #37
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:11 am, iamsaved said:

    Maybe NBC was trying to get rid of Ann Curry and make news in the process to avoid a gender or age discrimination suit if they outright fired her. Three weeks to get ready for an ardurous climb like that?

    Then again, maybe they’re just that stupid.

  38. #38
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:17 am, Storm Chaser said:

    Global weather enthusiasts fail to take note of past climate fluctuations which are independent of human activity. We may well be influencing the climate with our greenhouse gases, but natural cycles countermand our influence.

    As of July, the sun had produced few sunspots when it should have been. active.A blogger wrote “pray the sun has more sun spots and soon.” The last time the sun became inactive for a long period of time, we entered “the Little Ice Age.” That’s not to say it will happen, but it shows we know less about climate change than we think we do.

  39. #39
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:25 am, SW0303 said:

    I believe the fools now call it “Climate Crisis”. This is not going to go away anytime soon. They have way too much invested in their bogus claims.

  40. #40
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:29 am, happyscrapper said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:17 am, Storm Chaser said:
    Global weather enthusiasts fail to take note of past climate fluctuations which are independent of human activity. We may well be influencing the climate with our greenhouse gases, but natural cycles countermand our influence.

    As of July, the sun had produced few sunspots when it should have been. active.A blogger wrote “pray the sun has more sun spots and soon.” The last time the sun became inactive for a long period of time, we entered “the Little Ice Age.” That’s not to say it will happen, but it shows we know less about climate change than we think we do.

    I believe I heard just last week that actually, the globe has not warmed at all since 1995 and in fact is now cooling. Did I hear wrong? If that is true, why is Al Gore even showing his face in public? Shouldn’t he just follow his carbon footprints into obscurity?

  41. #41
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am, frontierguy said:

    Yes, but unfortunately it feeds the development of junk public policy by a junk-to-be administration. The Obama™ and his followers believe this junk and the rest of us are going to pay for it.

    John, I don’t think Obama believes it. He just needs enough of the population to fall for it to justify taxing Americans into oblivion.

  42. #42
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am, 30 pcs of silver said:

    Too funny!

    I jog around my neighborhood with my dog for exercise. That should be enough preparation for a marathon - no - I’m ready for a triathlon! Yeah… that’s the ticket. I’m 31 yrs old. I wouldn’t date try that at 52!

    I’m melting, melting…..

  43. #43
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:36 am, bigboy said:

    Hold on Pookysgirl…you can tinkle on global warming and libs all you want, but leave Hemingway out of it (I’m less worried about Chopin). Papa’s writing dwarfs everything written in the past fifty years and if liberals actually read and appreciated Hemingway…well, they wouldn’t be the way they are.

  44. #44
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:37 am, jangar said:

    Manmade Global Warming/Climate Change/Crisis…damaging the liberal god. S’pose that’s what this is all about and has their panties in a wad? I’m trying to get to the nut of it…but my mind cannot comprehend something so, so…(can’t come up with a word here that accurately describes this non-issue).

  45. #45
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:39 am, happyscrapper said:

    Weather Channel has taken by embracing global warming which you’ll notice has now been changed to “climate change” just to hedge their bets.

    Ah, yes…”climate change”. That strange phenomena that has been occuring since the formation of the planet. Very troubling. We must do something about it.

  46. #46
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:44 am, PhredE said:

    Ann Curry comes from Portland OR.
    Here, we had an ongoing situation where the official State Climatologist has publicly taken a luke-warm to cynical view of “global warming” to the behest of our Governor. Eventually, the disbeliever (the Climatologist) stepped down as a result of great pressure.

    Just goes to show, not “believing” can cost you a job, a career, etc… I wonder how much climate expertise our dear Governor has, anyway…?

    (link for the curious)

    I never watched NBC and never will. One problem solved :D

  47. #47
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:48 am, cabrerski said:

    Something I find amusing…

    The majority of people arguing the effects of global warming are pouring over countless bits of data and doing the number-crunching.

    Do you think the Gorester is using his calculator for anything other than adding up the profits?

    Follow the money…

  48. #48
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am, backwoods conservative said:

    I’m going to miss Cheryl Lemke. She was always my favorite. Besides being very competent, she was real easy on the eyes. I also noticed that she was a real workhorse, apparently willing to work any time slot, holidays, or whatever. I suspect management wanted to lose some people who had been there long enough to work their way pretty far up the pay scale.

  49. #49
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:53 am, jangar said:

    My local NBC weather guy got dumped almost a year ago, and it was widely known that he had no stomach for GW either.

  50. #50
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:55 am, cheapseat said:

    i was at a convention last week, and so the hotel tv’s were all tuned to nbc and this farce. talk about poor planning and execution, they switched about with one sentence to each designated moron, and i for one got absolutely nothing out of the story except it was environitwit propaganda done very poorly. an inconvenient truth, i think not, more an ill-conceived cluster****.

  51. #51
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:59 am, fighterDC said:

    not to mention the jet fuel used transporting Ms. Curry to and fro.

    Not very green…..

  52. #52
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:01 am, On-my-soap-box said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 8:04 am, zorro said:

    enviro-nitwittery

    That sums it up in one word.

    I was told that was three words. Kinda like what really causes global warming:

    Sun spots

  53. #53
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:02 am, longbow said:

    When the clowns start running things, you know it’s going to turn into a circus. Now more than ever the truth of Mencken’s statement is evident: “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people”.

    May God help us for the next 4 years.

  54. #54
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:05 am, Flyoverman said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am, backwoods conservative said:
    I’m going to miss Cheryl Lemke.

    She started at the Weather Channel in 1986. She was also my favorite. But there are no more professional jouranlists. Only cheeleaders and propagandists.

  55. #55
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:14 am, rocketman said:

    I worked many years for a missile / radar engineering company at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Many of the otherwise very competent engineers believed in the “global warming” and environmental B.S.

    I tried to show them the 500,000 year old Greenland ice core temperature / CO2 data, and the sunspot activity / temperature relationship curves. Some finally realized what the data indicates–others missed it completely.

    The much less technically educated American public seems to blindly believe this C**P. If the O’Bummer acts on the “greenie” agenda he will really damage our economy and lifestyle–for nothing.

    John Bibb

  56. #56
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:16 am, right4life said:

    May God help us for the next 4 years.

    I don’t think He’s going to…I think He’s gonna let all those liberal chickens come home to roost!

  57. #57
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:17 am, pookysgirl said:

    Papa’s writing dwarfs everything written in the past fifty years

    Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, bigboy. :D

    I find this “classroom” to be more free than my English classes, where the profs would have apocalyptic fits if I committed heresy of criticizing certain authors (and where I was kicked out of class for wearing a pro-W shirt).

    Would you agree, sir, that the liberals’ romanticizing of Hemingway’s work contributed to this fiasco?

  58. #58
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:19 am, rowsdower said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am, backwoods conservative said:

    I’m going to miss Cheryl Lemke. She was always my favorite. Besides being very competent, she was real easy on the eyes.

    I had a thing for Jill Brown..she left several years ago, shortly after she got pregs.

  59. #59
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:22 am, tre said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am, 30 pcs of silver said:

    I’m 42 years old. It takes me a couple weeks to work up to jogging about 4 miles. I’ve messed up and hurt myself a couple times.
    And she thinks 3 measly weeks is enough to work up to climbing a 20,000 foot mountain.

    Idiot!

  60. #60
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:23 am, jangar said:

    I don’t think He’s going to…I think He’s gonna let all those liberal chickens come home to roost roast!

    There, that’s better.

  61. #61
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:24 am, backwoods conservative said:

    I had a thing for Jill Brown..she left several years ago, shortly after she got pregs.

    I liked Jill. I miss Hillary Andrews, too. Last I saw of Jill she was working for CNN.

  62. #62
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:26 am, backwoods conservative said:

    And she thinks 3 measly weeks is enough to work up to climbing a 20,000 foot mountain.

    Idiot!

    The three weeks was all the notice management gave her. It was another boneheaded management decision.

  63. #63
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:28 am, On-my-soap-box said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:26 am, backwoods conservative said:

    The three weeks was all the notice management gave her. It was another boneheaded management decision.

    Should be worth about what - $200 billion?

  64. #64
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:34 am, happyscrapper said:

    I am stuck watching NBC once a day. It is my soap that I have watched for almost 40 years! Yes, I know I’m nuts. It just may be time to wean myself off that soap…they are starting to go all “greeny” on me! It is really annoying. I am so convinced this whole global warming stuff is a giant hoax, that I can’t stand to watch these lemmings make fools of themselves. I respect my environment, I recycle, now leave me alone!!

  65. #65
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:36 am, secondsight said:

    Kilimanjaro is a shield volcano, like Hawaii’s more low-lying Kilauea. Unlike other tall mountains, Kilimanjaro is easy to climb (its foothills start 50 miles away) and easy to get killed by altitude sickness. NBC is lucky they’re not bringing back caskets.

  66. #66
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:42 am, DBNinKY said:

    …The debate has never been whether or not the snows of Kilimanjaro are melting, but rather what force is driving the phenomenon.

    As long as NBC and the U.S. media continue to ignore this part of the global warming debate, acting instead as water carriers for the blame-man blame America “Greenies,” the more ill informed Americans will remain on this issue by being fed only one side of the argument.

    To their credit, most of the British print media haven’t lost their journalist’s skepticism on global warming, consistently presenting it from an opposing viewpoints strategy. Is it any wonder they continue to be the authoritative voices on this issue?

  67. #67
    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:50 am, 30 pcs of silver said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 10:22 am, tre said:
    On November 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am, 30 pcs of silver said:
    I’m 42 years old. It takes me a couple weeks to work up to jogging about 4 miles. I’ve messed up and hurt myself a couple times.
    And she thinks 3 measly weeks is enough to work up to climbing a 20,000 foot mountain.

    Idiot!

    I forgot to mention that I cannot swim. So, electing to partake in the triathlon is just so far out of my league that it isn’t funny.

  68. #68
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:00 am, maurelius said:

    Kilimanjaro can be totally technical or it is a long and hard walk. I vacationed in Tanzania back in the mid-late ’90s and my buddy and i went on that climb. I did not peak but my buddy did, I made it to the last stop and literally puked out.

    Given you are in reasonable health & physical shape one should be able to make it to the top. However, you should see those local porters, they have a load of wood on their back and they are running, while you are walking with one bag and having a hard time of it.

    It is real cold up on the top of that mountain. The outfitters will rent cold weather gear and it is needed. One more thing, bring multiple camera batteries, keep one close to your body and when the battery in your device gets cold & weak swap them out, it saved my photography.

    My buddy who peaked describe the last couple of hours of ascent, stake two-three steps, stop, try to catch breath, repeat. Real fun! I much preferred walking around Zanzibar’s old stone city drinking Castle Beers & eating lobster.

  69. #69
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am, ironman said:

    Global Warming is on par with how cartoonist Al Capp once described abstract art….. “It is a product of the untalented,sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.”

  70. #70
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am, backwoods conservative said:

    Uh, 30, you might want to take another look at the way you framed that last quote. You’re not really 42 years old, are you?

    Remember PIMF–Preview is my friend.

  71. #71
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:22 am, maurelius said:

    #65 SecondSight,

    While serious altitude sickness is possible on Mt. Kilimanjaro it is not common. My recollection is the Lonely Planet Guide characterized the number of people per year needing serious medical attention is on the order of a couple tens while the fatalities are even less numerous. This from thousands of people scaling the mountain every year.

  72. #72
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:22 am, Cathy B said:

    I sometimes watch the 9-10 Am hour of Today. It’s usually food and interviews, stuff like that. Today as I watch, they mentioned Ann Curry’s return from her adventure and that she was home today recovering from the trip with a blister or something.

    As someone mentioned earlier, it’s probably embarrassment.

  73. #73
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:28 am, tre said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am, backwoods conservative said:
    Uh, 30, you might want to take another look at the way you framed that last quote. You’re not really 42 years old, are you?

    Remember PIMF–Preview is my friend.

    HAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHA!

    No pie for you! Except throwin’ it in your face!

  74. #74
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:29 am, Kevin K. said:

    I agree with Pookysgirl: Hemingway is highly over-rated. Chopin, however, I like.

    NBC may have inadvertently done it viewers a service: warned them off of climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. For that they should probably pat themselves on the back and give themselves a prize.

  75. #75
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am, DBNinKY said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am, ironman said:

    Global Warming is on par with how cartoonist Al Capp once described abstract art….. “It is a product of the untalented,sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.

    Thanks, IM! I’ve never read that quote before, but I sure do like it.

  76. #76
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:31 am, Thunder_Run said:

    The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the - Web Reconnaissance for 11/24/2008 A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.

  77. #77
    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:42 am, Regulus said:

    NBC: “Narrative-Based Crapola.”

    This is the same “news” network that blew up a pickup truck to claim that its fuel tank was unsafe, and wasn’t it the same “news” network that tried to portray NASCAR fans as Murtha-style redneck racists by having “investigative reporters” pose as Arabs?

    And NBC surely wasn’t alone in helping along one of the greatest political frauds in history with their cheerleading and covering up for Hope-a-Dope.

    Journalism as we once understood it is dead, dead, dead. NBC is proof positive of this. I’m just waiting for the present global cooling trend to continue long enough for NBC and the other Chicken-Little herd-instinct media to come full circle back to the 1960s-1970s “The Coming Ice Age!” alarmism. Just wait; they’ll get there…

  78. #78
    On November 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm, Paul-Cincy said:

    How about the current WWF commercial from actress Sharon Lawrence on the imminent extinction of the polar bear? Which is nonsense, because the polar bear population is thriving. With the obligatory forlorn Mommy polar bear floating away on an ice floe with her Baby polar bear nuzzling up against her. Emotionality meet Chicken Little meet political correctness ignore reality.

  79. #79
    On November 24th, 2008 at 12:33 pm, 30 pcs of silver said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 11:07 am, backwoods conservative said:

    What tre said. ;-)

  80. #80
    On November 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm, fmfnavydoc said:

    I’ve figured it out…AGW is caused by….cat flatulence! THAT’S IT…FLUFFY’S FARTS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING! WE NEED TO STOP THIS….PUT A CORK IN YOUR CAT TO STOP GLOBAL WARNING! THE END IS NEAR!!!

    Quick…someone put me in for a Nobel Prize…and an Oscar…where’s my Prius…Leonardo, help me get the message out!!!

  81. #81
    On November 24th, 2008 at 12:48 pm, SpeakEasy said:

    Not that I wish harm to befall anyone but it would have been poetic justice if she had died of hypothermia.

    What? The libs are big fans of Darwin.

  82. #82
    On November 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pm, backwoods conservative said:

    Since the climate does go in cycles, the next ice age is inevitable. And since I don’t like being cold, I aim to stave off the next ice age for as long as possible.

  83. #83
    On November 24th, 2008 at 1:23 pm, NotaSlickFan said:

    This reminds me of one of George Carlin’s characters, Al Sleet, the Hippy Dippy Weatherman doing his TV weather report: “Weather tonight: Dark. Turning partly light by morning”.
    If only NBC had done this silly exercise as a comedy routine it might have actually worked. Tee-he.

  84. #84
    On November 24th, 2008 at 2:25 pm, Southpaw said:

    “NBC’s botched climb would be comedy gold — worthy of a Saturday Night Live skit and endless Jay Leno mockery — if lives and truth weren’t at stake. Let NBC’s Snowjob of Kilimanjaro be an object lesson in the deadly serious consequences of enviro-nitwittery.”

    Send a 52 year old woman on an altitude climb with little experience. Brilliant. Since we’re in the era of rewarding stupendous failure, I say we give the executive who thought up this stunt a bonus and give NBC a bailout.

  85. #85
    On November 24th, 2008 at 2:25 pm, rightisright said:

    NBC: Nothing But Crap

  86. #86
    On November 24th, 2008 at 2:57 pm, Danceswithdachshunds said:

    Robert Balling Jr is a professor in the climatology program of the School of Geographical Sciences at Arizona State University. He has served as a climate consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme and served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Via video link, he attended an climate conference by Obama / Schwarzenegger. He said things like this:

    …..So it would seem easy, is the earth warming or not? If you said how about the last 30 years, the answer’s absolutely, all three of those primary ways that we measure the temperature of the earth show warming. But if you said how about for the last 7 years from 2002 to present, all three show cooling.

    So you could answer the question a thousand different ways - if you said is the earth warming and you mean the last 100 years, the answer’s yes; if you mean the last 1000 years the answer may not be yes, or if you mean how about the last million years, the answer is well, we’ve actually been rather cold the last million years. So that question is not as easy to answer as it sounds at first glance.

    (bold emphasis mine - THAT my friends undeniably proves James Hansen’s predictions were WRONG! He predicted warming was going to continue after 1998. )

    Balling actually is one of Al Gore’s scientists but still, he’s not going to make outrageous statements like some NBC/GE parrot. So, when cornered, he tries to spin Al Gore’s fraud a little … but he is apparently an HONEST person:

    Of course he’s going to get a standing ovation, these are human beings, they’re going to be polite to speakers, there’s no question - if Al Gore keeps the issue alive, and you are a scientist who is in line to receive substantial federal grants, you might stand up and clap as well.

    If I’m in the audience I would certainly receive his message well, I’d be respectful, but again I don’t think he accurately represents the state of science. I mean, even if you were to download the IPCC technical summary

    For saying stuff like the above, the station carrying the conference, KVMR TV, had call-in questions with him. One caller actually accused him of being a ‘denier’!

    He restated over and over that he is ONLY is re-iterating things consistent with the IPCC report…

    via Icecap.us

    Meteorologist Art Horn: ….NBC Universal recently bought the Weather Channel and now the winds of change are blowing hard north of Atlanta. Up to 80 people are being let go with the biggest casualty being the dreadful Forecast Earth program with Dr. Heidi Cullen. This program was one of the best examples of global warming fear mongering ever. It now finds its final resting place where it belongs, out in the cold! …. With green stocks crashing and concern about the economy and the real world overtaking the global warming fantasy GE will be pushing harder than ever to “go green” It’s just not the same green that’s being pushed on the air. Being an employee at NBC Universal must be very trying if you’re not a global warming soldier.

  87. #87
    On November 24th, 2008 at 3:26 pm, PKAmmoTroop said:

    These folks would be lucky to accurately predict a sunset, let alone a climate trend.

  88. #88
    On November 24th, 2008 at 3:31 pm, bigboy said:

    Going back to pookygirl…

    Liberals don’t romanticize…romanticization requires a retrospective embrace that they’re not capable of. No, what they do is convert references from the past into legitimizing totems of contemporary moral concerns. Kilimanjaro to the liberal mind isn’t about Africa, irony, or the discovery of one’s place in life…to them it’s an image that has retrospective meaning that they play on to execute some contemporary plan.

    I’ll tell you what…if everyone had to read a ton and a half of Hemingway; all the hunting, fishing, fighting, and drinking (and carousing with really great women), all the manly sense of purpose and honor, and all the ultimate responsibility of the individual for his or her own choices…there wouldn’t be enough liberals left to field a soccer team.

  89. #89
    On November 24th, 2008 at 3:56 pm, backwoods conservative said:

    I think climatology is too young of a science to be relied upon too heavily. The climatologists who think they have it all figured out almost certainly have some surprises coming to them.

  90. #90
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    I hope some guy named Norgay wasn’t carrying Curry up the hill…

    Something this stupid is surely a job for Katie Couric. Oh, she’s in “news” now, sorry.

  91. #91
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:27 pm, RabbidSquirrel said:

    tre: same-same. I was training for a marathon last year, but if I had to walk out my front door and run 4 miles at this moment, I would probably keel over. However I am up here at altitude. Its great for cardio, but it makes the drinks very expensive at sea-level.

    —–

    You would think that meteorologists would be all for climate change. Diversity in weather patterns, and the more diverse the better,is what their business is all about.

    Otherwise you are just a weather-person in San Diego.

  92. #92
    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm, backwoods conservative said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 6:21 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    Something this stupid is surely a job for Katie Couric.

    Or Geraldo.

  93. #93
    On November 24th, 2008 at 7:26 pm, fluffy said:

    On November 24th, 2008 at 12:37 pm, fmfnavydoc said:

    I’ve figured it out…FLUFFY’S FARTS CAUSE GLOBAL WARMING!

    Maybe I shouldn’t have had that second burrito.

  94. #94
    On November 25th, 2008 at 10:41 am, pookysgirl said:

    #88 bigboy

    Good point about romanticizing. It is the twisting of literature beyond what its intent was (the prologue Mark Twain wrote in front of Huckleberry Finn, telling the world not to take it seriously, comes to mind) that makes me so angry when I see the liberals doing it. They take the power of a story and make it into some ideal we’re all supposed to give up everything for. It is quite ironic that the people who crusade against morality in every form wish to push their own morals on everyone else.
    Hemingway was a manly writer, to be sure, but I just didn’t care for his writing style or the fact that criticism was not allowed.

  95. #95
    On November 25th, 2008 at 12:56 pm, AlohaGuy said:

    Hemingway was a manly writer, to be sure, but I just didn’t care for his writing style or the fact that criticism was not allowed.

    Now on the other hand, his granddaughters….

  96. #96
    On December 26th, 2008 at 12:20 am, Dread Pirate Roberts VIII said:

    Curry’s a first rate nitwit.

    But she is nice to look at. She should be working the bars at high-end restaurants in a spaghetti strapped little black dress. Yum.

    And NBC has her in a parka on Kilimanjaro in the rain. Idiots.

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