by Clifford F. Thies

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, has called for a Senate investigation into "climategate." While the Democrats, who run the Senate, will probably not act on the request, the global-warming industry must be nervous since polls point to a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives and possibly also the Senate. Then, the issues of academic fraud, misrepresentation, and the over-statement of scientific evidence will be discussed in a forum open to the entire world.

From Pajama's Media, "Senator Inhofe to ask for DOJ investigation" Feb. 23:

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) today asked the Obama administration to investigate what he called “the greatest scientific scandal of our generation” — the actions of climate scientists revealed by the Climategate files, and the subsequent admissions by the editors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).

Senator Inhofe also called for former Vice President Al Gore to be called back to the Senate to testify.

“In [Gore's] science fiction movie, every assertion has been rebutted,” Inhofe said. He believes Vice President Gore should defend himself and his movie before Congress.

It should not be a surprise that scientific disciplines include people with values ranging from the mainstream to any number of weird extremes. We might suppose that science is "value-free," but, this is a statement of the results of free inquiry, not a statement of individual scientists. The process of free inquiry should allow "the data to speak;" but, the domination of the academic world by the left and the arrogant assertion that certain matters are settled, threatens free inquiry.

We might also suppose that scientific findings are replicable, but, at the edges of scientific inquiry, controlled experiments may be impossible or nearly so. This is particularly true of disciplines that investigate global phenomenon, such as macroeconomics and the emerging field of climatology. When multitudes of variables are constantly changing, each potentially a cause and an effect of the other, distinguishing cause from mere correlation is a challenge.

As against free inquiry, we have the polemics of global warming. The evidence of human-induced global warming, the so-called Hockey Stick, we now know is bogus. The Hockey Stick has been massively contradicted by subsequent research. We know that there is a lot of natural variation.

What we don't know is to what extent man is contributing to variation in global temperature. I'm kind of persuaded by the climatologists who say that industrial emissions account for about one-fourth of the build-up of CO2 in the atmosphere, and this build-up of CO2 in the atmospheres accounts for about 3 percent of the increase of global temperature since 1970 of about 1 degree Celsius. But, I'm an economist, so what do I know?

When the Hockey Stick was found to be contradicted by subsequent research, the National Academy of Science reviewed the matter. It said that the Hockey Stick was not inconsistent with the data available at the time it was constructed. Such a thing is not uncommon in the advance of science. Somebody puts a finding out there; and, others follow-up, confirming it or challenging it. Either way, science advances.

But, we now know that the developer of the Hockey Stick filtered and truncated his own data. He discarded measurements that did not fit his preconceived views. Because of these new revelations, this fellow's colleagues at The Pennsylvania State University conducted an investigation. Here is their finding: "He did not add any false data to his sample."

They call that an exoneration?

Scientific inquiry, according to the academic community, allows excluding data inconsistent with your preconceived views. This standard is certainly a matter for the taxpayers who finance academic-based research to consider.

Editor's Note - Dr. Thies is a professor of econo-metrics and statistics at Shenandoah Univ. in Virginia.

by Ron Hart

Congress dragged Toyota, kicking and bowing, to Washington to testify this week in one of their indignant show trials they so love. I wish they would subpoena themselves and bring Congress before a Senate hearing under oath and the red hot lights of TV cameras. Then we might get to the root of most problems in America, which is too much government intervention, confusing rules, and second-guessing politicians.

Congress will say Toyota executives knew about a few break problems and just “drug their feet” on the matter.

It has been a tough year for Prius owners all around. It turns out there is no global warming.

It is so embarrassing for Prius owners that Toyota has also recalled that sanctimonious smug look drivers have on their face when they talk about how they are saving the world with their car. But on the bright side for liberals, they now are victims and they love that about as much.

The Democratic Congress’ poll numbers have plummeted so quickly that they should post them on the downhill Olympic race where they would be our best shot at a medal. They are trying to divert America’s dislike of them toward big bad business. It is what they do best.

In fact this problem with electronic braking came about because of Federal pressures on CAFE standards where manufacturers were attempting to make lighter cars. Politicians, as they often do, point the finger at big bad business. Then out comes a memo where Toyota cut a deal with their Washington regulators last year on the braking issue. Like with most finger pointing politicians do, usually at least three fingers are pointing right back at them.

The reality is that the businesses we have had the most difficulty with like banking, insurance and mortgage lending, and now car companies, are the ones most regulated. Less regulated businesses who are more free-market regulated have done fine like Wal-Mart, Coke, Google, Caterpillar and Home Depot.

Washington still does not get it; we are taxed and regulated to death. The lone Democrat Senator in Massachusetts and the man who was unable to beat George Bush, John Kerry still wants to push through cap and trade. This is the same man who had the insight and vision to tap John Edwards as his Vice Presidential choice (while Edwards was doing his own tapping of employees) ignores all the recent data uncovered saying that the “global warming” data is dishonest and agenda driven.

The fact that we are broke and man-made global warming has been a hoax does not seem to stop Kerry and other Democrats who do not let the facts get in the way of an opportunity to control and tax more of the economy.

Toyota has all the business incentive in the world to protect their reputation. It is what drives business to do the right thing. When plaintiff’s attorneys and their brethren in the Democratic Congress make it difficult to address a problem for fear of class-action litigation or humiliation then they stall.

And for an administration that is the new owner/operator of GM, but still aspires to get rid the world of the combustion engine, Obama finds it easy to jump on foreign owned Toyota. They must however remember, when U.S. Toyota sales go down they lay off employees at Toyota plants all across the South. The global economy has done more to tie the world together than any Kumbaya political rhetoric.

Clearly politicians do not understand economics or they would not be making all the bad long-term decisions they have of late for our country.

Editor's Note - our friend Ron Hart will be traveling today to see a speech in Florida, by libertarian humorist P.J. O'Rourke,sponsored by the Cato Institute.