“An update on the plight of the Thompsons“. Oh, the plight! The comedy of Anthony Watts’ sudden burning interest in an Australian farmer’s family continues. Why, oh why is there “no help from the usual [alarmist] suspects and their flocks”? (Oops, there goes “the high ground.” Again.) Are Anthony and his denialist friends the only people who care about ordinary people? Umm, perhaps its time for Anthony to come clean and admit that his topics and motivations are entirely political.

Maybe things aren’t going too well on the denialist front in spite of Anthony’s ever-louder declarations that victory is near. His much-loved Viscount Monckton has been rather brutally revealed as a dishonest buffoon, the deluded Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli’s harassment of climate scientists has been laughed out of court, the cherished Wegman Report has been dissected and shown to be puffed up nonsense full of incompetent plagiarism, misrepresentation and even old-fashioned padding. This little tempest is a good distraction.

Frankly, I have some sympathy for the “honest hardworking” Thompson family (that link’s a kook factory) but no opinion on the core issue of farming regulations. The fact that they have been taken up with such vigor by fanatical strangers is a pretty dodgy sign though. Tough luck, apparently, for the millions living in, say, Bangladesh. Wrong color? Wrong politics? Wrong religion?