HEY FRED, ARE YOU CHILLY? WHY DON'T YOU GO TO AUSTRALIA?

I see from Zachary Roth at Talking Points Memo that Fred Barnes, in his latest Weekly Standard column, has written the following about climate change:

The more the case for man-made warming falls apart, the more hysterical Gore gets about an imminent catastrophe.

Roth called Barnes to ask him for his evidence and this is what he got:

At first, he cited the fact that it's been cold lately.

Perhaps sensing this was less than convincing, Barnes then asserted that there had been a "cooling spell" in recent years. "Haven't you noticed?" he asked.

Asked for firmer evidence of such cooling, Barnes demurred, telling TPMmuckraker he was too busy to track it down.

That was the closest to actual evidence Barnes provided.

Er, yeah, there have been some nasty cold snaps this winter -- though it was 58 degrees in New York City yesterday. And yesterday there was also this:

Walls of flame roared across southeastern Australia, razing scores of homes, forests and farmland in the country's worst wildfire disaster in a quarter century. At least 35 people died and the toll could rise further, police said Sunday.

Witnesses described seeing trees exploding and skies raining ash as temperatures hit a record 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47 C) on Saturday in Victoria state and combined with raging winds to create perfect conditions for uncontrollable blazes....

Only idiots believe that isolated weather moments are accurate measures of overall global climate. But if right-wingers want to amuse themselves thinking that individual wintry days prove that global warming isn't happening (and they do, especially if those wintry days happen to coincide with public appearances by Al Gore), then what do they have to say about a record-high temperature in Australia?

Fred, your answer?