Blue Crab Boulevard

James Taylor (not the singer) writes in the Chicago Sun-Times today citing scientific publications that prove, rather handily, that Al "Gorezilla" Gore badly distorted the evidence in his movie, An Inconvenient Truth. In fact, 'distort' is probably too weak a term. Many of the claims in the movie turn out to be completely false.

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."

Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, "Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine."

Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.

Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.

There's more at the link. Taylor invites Gore to try to lead by example and follow what Gore pleads for in his new book - to stop distorting science to reach a political goal. But with Gore's history of hypocrisy, it seems unlikely that he'll do anything of the sort.

The British government has just raised the terrorism alert level for that country to "Critical", the highest alert level.

GLASGOW, Scotland - Two men rammed a flaming Jeep Cherokee into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance in what appeared to be the third attempted terror attack on Britain in two days, witnesses said.

Hours later, Britain raised its security alert to "critical" — the highest level possible and an indication that terrorist attacks are imminent. U.S. airports increased safety precautions.

Both suspects were arrested at the Glasgow airport, Scotland's largest. One, his body engulfed in flames as police pulled him from the vehicle, was hospitalized.

Obviously, they believe they have a real problem right now. After three attempts in the past day or so, they appear to be correct.

The Daily Mail is now reporting that the crash of a vehicle into the Glasgow airport terminal appears to have been intentional. Officials are still not calling it terror-related, but some witnesses sure are. Witnesses report that some bystanders who saw one of the two men who were in the vehicle with his clothing on fire shouted, "Let him burn."

One eyewitness, who knocked the terrorist suspect over with his forearm said: "The man was wrestling with police on the ground.

"I had seen him and the other man get out of the car. The flames were burning through his clothes. Police were telling everybody to get back.

"Some people who were close by shouted "let him burn". I saw the holidaymaker who had tackled him with blood streaming from his face and I myself had knocked into him with my forearm."

The pair were held down before police led them away.

The flames from the Jeep were put out with a fire extinguisher but smoke continued to billow out from the side of the airport. Passengers were cleared from the terminal building amid fears that this was a terrorist attack.

The incident took place just a day after a double car bomb attack on central London was foiled. It is also a peak time of year for holidaymakers, as schools across Scotland have already broken up for their summer holidays.

Taxi driver Ian Crosby, who witnessed the carnage, said he was in no doubt that it was a terrorist attack.

"It looks to me like these people were intent on doing some serious damage," he told the BBC.

He saw a small explosion which looked like it was coming from the back of the vehicle.

"There was smoke coming from inside of the back seats," he said. "Immediately I realised this was a terrorist attack."

"Somebody had planned this. This was no accident."

He praised the bravery of those who put "their lives at risk" to stop the men.

Others: Hot Air (with a big round up of coverage), Jawa Report, Ed Driscoll, Pajamas Media, The American Pundit, JammieWearingFool, BitsBlog, FullosseousFlap, Riehl World View ,

Witnesses report that a burning Land Rover was driven into the terminal building at the Glasgow airport in Scotland. There are no reports of injuries, but police were seen "scuffling" with the driver of the vehicle.

Police have confirmed a vehicle has driven into the terminal building in Glasgow Airport and is now on fire.

Earlier, the BBC reported witnesses saying a car on fire had tried to drive into the airport through the main doors.

The car's occupants were seen fighting with police inside the terminal, they said.

The Strathclyde Fire Service is at the scene. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Witness James Edgar told Sky News he was in the airport during the incident.

He said a four-wheel drive, believed to be a Land Rover, tried to drive into the building, but was stopped by barriers.

"I was in the airport booking a holiday, suddenly people were running as if they were missing their flight, but then we were told to get out of the airport," he said.

The reports are very confused right now, so I'll update if more information becomes available.

The reptile legions of the Animal Uprising™ have launched their summer offensive, sending alligators to invade Virginia this year. A woman in Reston, Virginia had to wrestle on of the beasts into a guinea pig container to keep it from chowing down on the neighborhood children.

Erin Kemp has had lots of practice rounding up her kids' guinea pigs, so capturing a stray alligator that wandered into her Reston neighborhood Monday night seemed like no big deal.

"You see it on Animal Planet," said Kemp, who watched the late Steve Irwin, the "Crocodile Hunter," do it lots of times on his popular TV show.

"I wasn't really scared," she said. "It was kind of exciting."

Kemp, 45, a stay-at-home mom, spotted the 2 1/2 -foot-long gator when she was taking out the garbage about 6 p.m. It noticed her, too.

"It was definitely coming after me; it was not friendly," Kemp said.

She told her neighbor, Erin Miller, 9, who was out walking her dog and also saw the gator, to run for it. Before grabbing the pen she uses to corral the guinea pigs, Kemp made sure her own kids and the family pets were all safely inside.

Then she called Fairfax County Animal Control for backup.

As neighbors started gathering — and her 16-year-old daughter slipped back outside to watch — Kemp tried to single-handedly capture the gator, but it bolted. In the panic that ensued, Kemp picked up the pen again and threw it over the gator while her daughter tried to toss a towel over its head to subdue it.

Ah, the towel on the alligator trick. We here at Blue Crab Boulevard would like to draw Ms. Kemp's attention to the little disclaimer that runs at the bottom of the television screen that says, "Don't try this at home." Authorities in Australia have seen a large increase in the number of poisonous snake bites in recent years as people tried to emulate what they saw Irwin do on television.

The Hamas television show that featured a ripoff of Mickey Mouse named Farfour indoctrinating children to jihad has ended its run. With the mouse getting beaten to death by an actor portraying an Israeli. This is beyond sick.

 Hamas TV on Friday broadcast what it said was the last episode of a weekly children's show featuring "Farfour," a Mickey Mouse look-alike who had made worldwide headlines for preaching Islamic domination and armed struggle to youngsters.

In the final skit, Farfour was beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfour's land. At one point, Farfour called the Israeli a "terrorist."

"Farfour was martyred while defending his land," said Sara, the teen presenter. He was killed "by the killers of children," she added.

The weekly show, featuring a giant black-and-white rodent with a high-pitched voice, had attracted worldwide attention because the character urged Palestinian children to fight Israel. It was broadcast on Hamas-affiliated Al-Aksa TV.

Station officials said Friday that Farfour was taken off the air to make room for new programs.

And Jimmy Carter wants to provide funds to these people. Presumably then they could make even more sick programs. It is utter and complete depravity to treat children like this.

And Jimmy Carter wants to provide funds to these people. Presumably then they could make even more sick programs. It is utter and complete depravity to treat children like this.

The Albany, Oregon Democrat-Herald newspaper got a first-hand look at the Animal Uprising™ this week. They were, of course, oblivious to the implications.  

Employees of the Democrat-Herald received a surprise visit Tuesday morning from a wandering blacktail deer. Pictured are Cathy Ingalls, left, Cheryl Surendra and Gregg Burgess. Albany police chased the deer around downtown for some time, eventually using a Tazer in an attempt to stop the animal. The deer pulled free of the Tazer probes, however, and continued running, eventually making its way toward the river. Officers lost sight of the deer at Water Avenue and Main Street.

Yet another Taser-proof animal and they report it as just a deer wandering about. The animal overlords have been sending these shock-proof shock troops out for some time, of course. Obviously, the newspaper has been cowed by the deer and is ducking out of reporting the truth.

That was the line the police presumably had to use when they pulled over what they thought was a stolen vehicle. A suspicious officer had run the plates of the vehicle and it came back as stolen, so he did his duty. Yep, he popped the Wienermobile.

MADISON, Wis. - Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer … car thief? An Arizona Highway Patrol officer who ran the Wienermobile's plates as the vehicle traveled for a promotion briefly thought the giant hot dog on wheels was, well, hot

The Wienermobile was on the road for a promotion in which contestants sing the Oscar Mayer jingle for a shot at appearing in a commercial and winning "American Idol" tickets.

The 27-foot-long, 11-foot-tall vehicle was in a construction zone in downtown Tucson Wednesday, slowing traffic. Officer Korey Lankow caught up to it and ran its "Y-U-M-M-Y" license plate to make sure it was street legal.

The plate came back as stolen. Lankow pulled over the Wienermobile, and two more officers arrived to help.

It turns out someone had indeed stolen the "Y-U-M-M-Y" plate off the Wienermobile in Columbia, Mo., back in February. Oscar Mayer officials reported the theft to police there, company spokeswoman Syd Lindner said. The company got a replacement YUMMY plate that same month and notified police in Missouri, Lindner said.

Officer Lankow is now the target of merciless ribbing from his fellows. This will undoubtedly go down as the wurst experience he's ever had. Who says cops only chase doughnuts?

The International Atomic Energy Agency and North Korean officials have reached an agreement on how to monitor the shutdown of the reactor at Yongbyon to ensure compliance with the agreement North Korea has reached with the US and allies.

A team from the International Atomic Energy Agency returned Friday to the North Korean capital from a two-day trip to the Yongbyon nuclear complex, broadcaster APTN reported. It was the first IAEA visit to the facility since U.N. monitors were expelled from the country in 2002.

"We have concluded this understanding, what our monitoring and verification activities are in principle," IAEA Deputy Director Olli Heinonen said in footage shot by APTN. He did not provide specifics of the agreement.

Heinonen said his team, which was scheduled to leave Pyongyang for Beijing on Saturday, was preparing to report to the IAEA board of governors within one week, but noted that the timing of the shutdown was up to the six countries involved in North Korea nuclear talks.

"This is for the six parties to decide," he said in the APTN footage. "You have to ask them the time scale. When they do (decide), we will be ready."

An IAEA official in Vienna, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to media, said that a board meeting would likely take place July 9, with the 35 member nations expected to approve sending the first inspection team to the North as quickly as possible.

North Korea pledged to close and seal Yongbyon in exchange for economic aid and political concessions in an agreement with the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and South Korea. The purpose of the IAEA trip was to discuss how the agency's inspectors would monitor and verify a shutdown.

Not that anyone should be naive enough to trust the North Koreans not to cheat if they think they can get away with it, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

I don't know who is worse, the bloviating politicians who use idiotic descriptions of illegal immigrants "living in the shadows" or the fawning press that reports things like that with a straight face. Kathryn Jean Lopez points out a picture carried in the New York Times showing a group of illegal immigrants brought to the Capitol building by advocates of the failed immigration "reform" bill. There they are, sitting in the Capitol lounging on benches. Five of them sitting in the "shadows".

I think that is one of the reasons there was so much grassroots opposition to the Senate bill. Everyone but the Senators in Washington are about tripping over all the illegals. There are so many of them that they are casting a shadow at this point, not hiding in them. But if Washington will not first get serious about enforcing existing immigration law, then the public will have to find elected representatives that will. If the argument is true that we desperately need a huge number of workers to do "jobs that Americans won't do" then our nation should be able to handle a large influx of legal immigrants. We do not need a tidal wave of people flooding over the borders without any control.