I’ve got a new "Think Again" column called "A Hard Week On the Planet," which tries to get at what we still know to be true about global warming, despite all the noise and scandal that’s been associated with some of the science involved, here.

Here’s Charles:

CHARLES PIERCE

NEWTON, MA.

"Dreaming/though it’s all hot air."

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: "Take Your Big Hands Off" (AlbertaHunter)–Let it be known that I would love New Orleans even on tapedelay.

Short Takes:

Part The First: I have this to say about Mr. Woods and that’s all I have to say.

Part The Second: It was a tough couple of weeks week for SenatorMcDreamy. First, he goes out of his way to pay a visit to the NervousHospital. (Note to Sen. McD: talking to CPAC really kind of blows up that whole "independent" scam, unless you’re also talking to Netroots Nation next summer.) Then, he goes on with Neil Cavuto and, well, let’s say he doesn’t exactly handle this question adeptly. Apparently, up here, it was a good thing we elected him or his followers would be flying planes into buildings. A lot of work to be done before ’12, boys.

Part The Third: A note to Mr. Binswanger, who appears to be over the age of 16 and, alas, still clinging to Ms. Rand and her barely sublimated sexual politicum dentata while mistaking it for a womb. My argument is that the Constitution begins, "We, the People" and not, "I, the Dickhead." Pass it around the next campfire at the Circle Jerk Ranch.

Part The Penultimate: The latest from Tucker (Fail) Carlson’s newvanity project. Look!Women at CPAC! Real ones, without staples in their midsections! HolyTruncated Libido, Batman! Is there any medium in which there no room forthis clown to fail, utterly? I swear, if you put him in a time machine andshipped him back to Lascaux, the other cavemen would tell him his wall paintings sucked and throw him out in thesnow.

Part The Ultimate: Does it make me a bad American to admit that I’m alittle sick and tired at this point of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey team andits win over a Soviet team that, as the years go by, looks more and morelike a bunch of people who no longer were that enthusiastic about theirjobs or the State that employed them? On Sunday, we had the greatest day ofhockey ever. The Russians beat the Czechs, and Alexander Ovechkin laid ahit on Jaromir Jagr that will have the latter’s bell ringing until July.(It resulted in as pretty a goal as you’ll ever see; putting Overchkin outthere with Evgeni Malkin and Alex Semin is simply unfair). Then the USouthustled and out-hit the Canadians, who look as though they’re skatingwith anvils on their backs at this point. The day wrapped up with theSwedes–Niclas Lidstrom!–shutting out the Finns. The medal round ofthis tournament is going to be absolutely sick. And yet, in its infinitewisdom, the NBC mother network gave us another retrospective on the 1980Lake Placid miracle in the middle of which Al Michaels–who, at thispoint, seems firmly to believe that he landed on Omaha Beach or something30 years ago–said, "It seemed like we went from burning flags to wavingthem."

Oh, Jesus H. Christ On A Power Play, just shut up already, please?

The only people I remember burning American flags in 1980 were theIranians, whom I am fairly sure Michaels did not have in mind. The countrywas somewhat dispirited and the inspired fakery of the Reagan Revolutionwas just a bit over the horizon, which I am fairly sure Michaels does havein mind. Dragooning that admittedly marvelous game into the service ofreactionary politics has been subtext of every anniversary piece done onthe 1980 team ever since. Yes, we all felt great for a while but, withintwo years, the economy sank into a horrible recession, due completely toReagan’s smiling fixation on crackpot economics. (The players themselvesseem blessedly unwilling to play their roles in this, and good for them,and Mike Eruzione’s dad used to make great pizza at Santarpio’s in EastBoston, so there’s that, too.) Now that it’s 2010, amid another recession,we can all admire Alex Ovechkin as the glorious capitalist superstar thathe is. I think things are better for that.