So here's the deal. Professor Mann shares a Nobel Peace Prize with former vice president (and rightful former president) Al Gore. He helped publish the "hockey stick" diagram where world temperatures for the past 1,000 years were stable. It was only around 1900 that world temperatures started to spike up unrelentingly with no signs of stopping.
It's firm data, but that didn't Professor Mann from being attacked from all sides over accusations of academic manipulation. Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli even spent 500,000 dollars of taxpayer money unsuccessfully suing Professor Mann. Seven investigations were launched over Mann's data and all investigations ended up declaring the data to be accurate and the accusations of data fraud to be baseless.
So, unable to take the high road, Mark Steyn decided to stay classy and compare Professor Mann to famous Penn State child molester Jerry Sandusky. In a July 15th blog post Steyn parted the lips of his ass and said:
(Professor Mann) has molested and tortured data in the service of politicized science that could have dire economic consequences for the nation and planet.
Okay, now do you see why I read the National Review? You simply can't get stuff this good in real life!
Still, Professor Mann somehow took offense at this little bit prose comparing him to a child molester.  He launched a defamation suit against the poor dears of National Review and has even gone so far as to say very, very mean things on his Facebook page. Mann said that this lawsuit is part of a "battle" to assist climate scientists in the fight against those who attack their work.
Go to it Professor Mann! Get this done. I'd even set up a fund for you if I were organized enough and not unemployed. In the meantime, here in Florida, our sailfish season is off to a slow start due to the unseasonably warm winter (yes, even in Florida it's getting a little TOO hot). My friends in Oklahoma are replacing street lamps that had literally melted in the 125 degree heat last summer, my friends in Missouri are cleaning up after two consecutive record-breaking heat waves and tornado seasons and my friends at the National Review are doing their ding-dang darndest to ignore all of that. Seriously, it's tough enough being a writer at National Review.... ignoring the weather, ignoring George W. Bush, ignoring polls, ignoring basic math... it's really getting difficult to be a Republican these days. Shall we pal around and maybe donate a few dimes to the National Review defense fund? Or grab the popcorn and watch them try to whine their way out of it? The banner alone is pretty hilarious :-)