Up is down, left is right, night is day . . .

. . . and just in time for Earth Day, the U.S. State Department is about to release a report in which the following is asserted:

Global warming is unequivocal and primarily human-induced ... Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.

To borrow a phrase from Will Ferrell, I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Before I go grind my molars into little nubs, I'd like to remind the resident geniuses at the State Department of a few points made by Stephen Milloy in a column from early last year:

First, we know from studies of Antarctic ice that, over the last 650,000 years or so, warmer temperatures have preceded increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by hundreds, if not thousands of years. The ice studies indicate that the carbon dioxide-causes-global warming theory is precisely backwards.

Second, during the 20th century, there is simply no correlation between carbon dioxide emissions and global temperature. Not only did most of the century’s temperature rise occur before most of the century’s manmade greenhouse gas emissions, but during 1940-1975 global temperatures actually declined while atmospheric carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide emission levels steadily increased.

It would be so great if the global warming bullies would challenge these points head-on, if they can, rather than pretending that CO2 levels and global temperatures have risen together in lockstep. It would also be great if I were taller.

Unfortunately, I expect I'll wake up tomorrow as short as I've always been. And global warmists' circular "arguments" will continue to resemble these villagers in Monty Python and the Holy Grail as they reason out whether they have a witch on their hands.