I can only assume that your recurring obsession with our entirely-on-the-record source of funding means that you remain desperate to avoid the climate conversation.

For the record, I have to say, again, that John Lefebvre is a good guy, and the record shows that he has always been forthright and transparent in his dealings - accounting honestly for his income, paying his taxes and cooperating with law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. He is also a philanthropist of immense generosity and (in my view) great wisdom. I'm proud to be associated with him and grateful for his support.

John A, you come mighty close to defamation. I'd watch what you say if I were you.

For anyone else who, like myself, has been unaware of the details of this "criminal behaviour", may I refer you to the following editorial which was posted at DeSmogBlog last July. You are beating a dead horse, John A. Buy a bicycle and get on with your life.

Fern Mackenzie

Globe editorial

Their gambling divide

From Friday's Globe and Mail

January 19, 2007 at 7:28 AM EDT

The U.S. crackdown on Internet gambling, a crusade that seems to involve arresting law-abiding citizens of other countries and threatening them with long prison terms, continues to claim new victims. The latest are Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, two Canadian businessmen who founded a company called Neteller, which handles payments for online gambling sites.

While the U.S. authorities would like to paint the two as criminal masterminds, the fact is that they have broken no laws in either Canada or Britain, where their company is based. Instead, they have run afoul of the hypocritical U.S. desire to restrict gambling on the Internet while allowing it to flourish at home, where it produces billions of dollars in tourism and tax revenue.

Neteller, which processed an estimated $7-billion (U.S.) in online payments last year, has become a well-respected entity with common shares that are publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange. To the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorney's Office, however, the company is "a colossal criminal enterprise masquerading as a legitimate business."

The two founders, both former Calgary lawyers who started the company in 1999, were arrested on Monday and charged with conspiring to distribute funds "with the intent to promote illegal gambling." Mr. Lefebvre was arrested in Malibu. Mr. Lawrence, who lives in the Bahamas, was arrested in the U.S. Virgin Islands. They were each released on $5-million in bail.

The men, neither of whom is currently an officer or director of the company they founded, are only the latest to be arrested. Last September, U.S. authorities detained the chairman of Sportingbet, a publicly traded online-gambling company based in Britain. In July, they arrested the CEO of a similar company, Betonsports. The founder of that company and two executives with a third online-gambling firm are considered fugitives from U.S. justice.

The impetus for the arrests was legislation (passed in October) that made online gambling a crime in the United States. Until then, authorities had to rely on a 1961 law that banned "gambling by wire" (the law under which the Betonsports CEO is being held); arrests were rare. Now, executives of online gambling-related companies avoid even changing planes in the United States for fear of being arrested.

In other words, gambling is not only permitted but encouraged when it takes place at a racetrack, lottery office or casino somewhere in the United States, but becomes a heinous crime when it takes place on the Internet. The absurdity of that position makes a mockery of the law the U.S. authorities seem so eager to enforce.

Oh dear.

You are either lying or are very ignorant of the science. If you had done any reading of quality articles and papers you would know why, in the past, CO2 has lagged temperature rise.

Yes, I do know why CO2 lagged temperature rise. But carbon dioxide has never ever been shown to LEAD temperature rise. And before you bore me with the concentration argument, carbon dioxide's forcing of temperature should be logarithmic, meaning that changes at lower concentrations should have proportionatley greater effect - but they don't have any measureable effect on climate. Quite the reverse.

ENORMOUS QUANTITIES OF FOSSIL CARBON DIOXIDE HAVE BEEN POURED INTO THE ATMOSPHERE MAKING TODAY'S CLIMATE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE LAST ICE AGES.

Looks like the "Caps Lock" key got pressed down in your excitement.

Several different studies of carbon dioxide in geological time reveal that modern levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are abnormally low. But then, you don't read scientific papers do you?

There is nothing at all exceptional about the modern climate. It was warmer 1000 and 2000 years ago, and much warmer 6-8000 years ago during the Holocene Optimum. The climate is not changing faster than normal, deserts are currently contracting, and incidences of tornadoes and hurricanes declined over the course of the 20th Century. Sea levels continue to rise at about 1mm/year just as they have done for 2-3 centuries.

So what is happening is not exceptional climate-wise. Carbon dioxide is the key signature for life, allowing plants to grow faster and stronger and grow better in marginal environments like semideserts.

So if you mean "exceptional" to be "much more conducive to the biosphere" then I'd agree with you.

"The major climate forcings during these times were caused by changes in the Earth's orbit thus changing the amount of radiant energy reaching the surface. This is completely different from what is happening today when the major forcing is now the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide."

That is the scenario fed into climate models. Not reality.

As I said, if climate models are so wonderful, why can't they predict anything until after it happens?

All of which is a long way from explaining why scientists who dissent from "CAPS LOCK" consensus science are smeared by this blog while it is funded from the proceeds of crime.

And we're still waiting for the explanation of the ethics and integrity gap....