Irony-gate: Viscount Monckton, a British peer, says his paper was peer-reviewed by a scientist.

“The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley” is full of crap himself. Before casting a wary eye on his new ribaldry, however, let me direct you to yet another dismantling of his “thesis” — this one by Deltoid at ScienceBlogs: “Monckton’s triple counting.” [UPDATE: Even more debunking here.]

But I digress. The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, as he prefers to call himself, or TVMOB, as I will call him because, damn, the acronym is just too sweet, has penned an epistle to the president of the American Physical Society, which you can peruse here. [Please note that the picture on the right is not TVMOB nor do I think he would ever participate in this.]

TVMOB is displeased with the new APS disclaimer on his article: “The following article has not undergone any scientific peer review. Its conclusions are in disagreement with the overwhelming opinion of the world scientific community. The Council of the American Physical Society disagrees with this article’s conclusions.”

TVMOB writes, “This seems discourteous.” You see, TVMOB holds the view that peer review occurs if his article gets suggested edits by a co-editor who happens to be a scientist.

Let me not make the obvious point that being edited by an editor ain’t scientific peer review. You can read the editor’s requested edits on page 2 of TVMOB’s letter. Anybody who has actually been peer-reviewed will note that the proposed edits aren’t anything close to what a peer-reviewed set of comments looks like, especially for an analysis as flawed as this one.

Since TVMOB’s letter is straight out of Monty Python, let me rather make the point in kind that a peer is “a person who holds any of the five grades of the British nobility: duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron.”

By that definition, I am sure that TVMOB’s paper was not given proper peer review. Indeed, I’m not certain TVMOB has a proper peer on this Earth. Perhaps Senator Inhofe or President Bush.

But pity the poor modern British viscount who whines in his letter, “I had expended considerable labor, without having been offered or having requested any honorarium.” Join the club, buddy. Since when do you think scientific newsletters pay you a nickel? Oh, I forgot. You aren’t a scientist.

I especially love the conclusion to his epistle:

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