Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 02:28 pm
What do you get when you take a man who lies about being a climate specialist, who knows nothing at all about climate science, and introduce him to Sheriff Joe Arpaio and the topic of Presisdent Obama’s birth certificate? You get a man who lies about Obama’s birth certificate and knows nothing at all about Obama’s birth.
If you want to know how little Monckton knows about climate science, consider this fact reported by dedmogblog.com, that “Monckton also cites the Cambrian Period as proof plants love carbon dioxide, although it was a time period where there were no land plants.”
Monckton is as much a climate scientist as David Barton is a historian.
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Hmmm, no wonder then that WND lauds the very existence of Christopher Monckton, “a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher” who “told Americans it’s time to put their faith in another man who wears the star, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.”
Christopher Monckton tells many lies about his own credentials so its no surprise that he has jumped on Joe Arpaio’s birther bandwagon. Says WND contributor and former pastor Drew Zahn:
The U.K.’s Lord Christopher Monckton, known internationally for his climate-change skepticism, is calling on those still skeptical about Barack Obama’s eligibility to be president to put their money where their mouth is and back Arpaio’s ongoing Cold Case Posse investigation into the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Apparently, as of “only three months ago” – a fact which will leave none of us shocked, I’m sure – ”Lord Monckton had never really looked into the issue of Obama’s eligibility and had never even heard of Arizona’s Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.”
But Lord Monckton, who has never been able to resist a good scam, signed on to this birther hucksterism immediately:
”My particular purpose in coming to Tombstone today is to ask you … to contribute as generously as you can to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Posse,” Monckton told Tom Ballantyne, author of “Oh Really, O’Reilly!” and cameraman Gabe Zolna. “They need help to pay for further investigations. They don’t want to charge this one to taxpayers. The Cold Case Posse is funded entirely by people like you who would like to reach the truth on this question and are willing to help the sheriff.”
Here’s where things start to go very wrong for Monckton: Christopher Monckton doesn’t have much in the way of science credentials. As James Hoggan writes in Climate Cover-Up (2009), “His most prominent current position seems to be as ‘chief policy advisor at a think tank called the Science and Public Policy Institute’ (This Frontiers of Freedom knockoff, founded with a start-up grant from Exxon, has my favorite denier webname: SPPINstitute.org. You have to give them points for transparency.).”
Monckton isn’t a scientist. He also wasn’t a policy advisor. His biography on the SPPINstitute.org site claims he was Special Advisor to Margaret Thatcher as U.K. Prime Minister from 1982 t 1986, and gave policy advice on technical issues such as worship hydrodynamics.”
But as Hoggan writes, this is “unfounded self-promotion.” In 1982, details Hoggan, “Monckton was a thirty-year-old researcher who had studied classics and journalism. You have to wonder if he would have been the expert of choice when the Iron Lady and the Royal Navy were considering the design of their warships.”
Yeah, I’m thinking not so much.
Monckton also claims Nobel status in 2007 but he is not on the Nobel list. In 2006 he claimed moreover (in a letter to two U.S. Senators) that he was a member of the House of Lords. But he was not. In fact, the House of Lords got so incensed with his incessant lies on the subject that they took the unprecedented step of sending Monckton a cease and desist letter which ended with: “I am publishing this letter on the parliamentary website so that anybody who wishes to check whether you are a Member of the House of Lords can view this official confirmation that you are not.”
Oh dear.
By the way, Monckton sees the only way to stop AIDS as being quarantining victims for life (he now admits there are too many victims for his solution to work but that it could have at the time) and in a 2007 interview, said he would “leave the European Union, close down 90 per cent of government services and shift power away from the atheistic, humanistic government and into the hands of families and individuals.”
No wonder those out of touch with reality love him so. It’s particularly easy to see why he would be idolized on WND.
Monckton also claimed to have won a £50,000 libel judgment against Guardian columnist George Monbiot but he did not. Monckton even claimed to have authored a peer-reviewed article “contradicting the scientific consensus about climate change” but that is just another lie and the American Physical Society expressed its outrage stating in unequivocal terms: “The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review, since that is not normal procedure for American Physical Society newsletters” and reaffirmed its own position that greenhouse gasses are affecting the earth’s climate.
As Hoggan goes on to say, “More broadly, Monckton says that former U.S. vice president and legitimate Novel laureate Al Gore is all wrong about climate change. But the evidence…the evidence is such a nuisance.”
Oh, don’t we know it.
And so it is with Obama’s birth certificate, which has been realized, the authenticity of which has been verified by the State of Hawaii (and grudgingly recognized by the Secretary of State of Arizona). Hoggan says of Monckton that “Despite his literary ticks, despite his Orwellian track record of rewriting history and his paucity of scientific credentials, he remains a favorite on the lecture and radio talk show circuit.” And now he is certain to equal that accomplishment in birther circles. At least, if WND has its way.
Monckton the very political liar said of the very political liar Arpaio:
“This is not a man to be dismissed lightly,” Monckton said of Arpaio, “and when I met him, I found him to be very thoughtful, very cautious, very meticulous, very careful and above all, very non-political.”
Monckton, whose support of cases supported by non-facts is well-attested, explained, “Many people of a certain political faction will try to make out that this is a purely political investigation or a [racist] investigation, and there is nobody less [racist] than this sheriff that could possibly be found.”
“The sheriff clearly has done a good job,” he continued. “There were clearly material things wrong with the document that appeared on the White House website.”
Cautious and meticulous are not exactly words Monckton understands, and his own veracity is to be valued at zero, leaving the value of his endorsement of Arpaio somewhat questionable. WND, having an equally abysmal track record with regards to the facts, has gravitated to the fantasist position that facts that are inconvenient are to be ignored or re-written.
It is no surprise at all that this sensationalist tabloid should endorse the fraud Monckton endorsing the criminal Arpaio, who was investigated for two years by the State Bar of Arizona, who is facing a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department for civil rights violations. We would all be shocked, I think, if Republicans suddenly stopped acting like Republicans, but acting like Republicans is hardly a recommendation nor a reason to applaud one proven liar endorsing the lies of another liar. Only among conservatives could such an event earn any cachet.
After all, as George Monbiot writes, in addition to his many other lies, Monckton has “falsely claimed to have won the Falklands war (by suggesting to Margaret Thatcher that the SAS introduce a mild bacillus into the water supply in Port Stanley); maintained that he has invented a cure for HIV, multiple sclerosis, influenza and other diseases; and grossly exaggerated his role in shaping Margaret Thatcher’s views. Yet none of this seems to have discouraged his disciples one jot.”
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
