Singer's Folksy Schtick

William Connolly writes that Fred Singer gave a talk at his former institute about 5 years ago, and Singer used the same folksy manner in an attempt to cover up glaring errors:

He used junk data, and anytime anyone pointed this out, he put on the folksy-old-man persona and pretended he knew nothing about it. As a rhetorical trick, I don't think it works well: rather than a poor old man being assailed by nasty young men pointing out his errors, he comes across as a senile old chap who doesn't really know what he is talking about.