When Nobel Fantasists Attack . . .

Just one more word on Nobel Peace Fauxreate Michael Mann's suit against NR for mocking his hockey stick (I'm plowing through the charge sheet in between a sick kid and other more pressing matters). As we have established, Dr. Mann enjoys passing himself off as a Nobel Peace Prize winner. That's all harmless fun until you make the mistake of believing your own sad fantasy. Paragraph five of the official complaint against me and NR reads:

It is one thing to engage in discussion about debatable topics. It is quite another to attempt to discredit consistently validated scientific research through the professional and personal defamation of a Nobel prize recipient.

Accepting for the purposes of argument that there is such a crime in U.S. law as "defamation of a Nobel prize recipient", don't you have to be a Nobel prize recipient to be the victim of it?

The Nobel Prize committee has no record of a Dr. Michael Mann ever receiving a Nobel Prize. He is a "Nobel prize recipient" only in the canyons of his mind - unless he paid $19.95 for a Nobel diploma from a prestigious online self-help academy in Kazakhstan or some such.

As I said below, I've fended off various legal challenges around the world, but this is a first for me: A man who has declared himself a Nobel laureate is suing NR for refusing to respect him as one.