It's the last 25 years that is really starting to look unusual -- and that's not model-based.
Based on which temperature record? The surface record, the satellite record or the balloon record. I've heard the increase according to the balloon soundings and the satellite record wasn't really a big deal.
And was it Mr. Christy who said the said the upward adjustments to the satellite record were very peculiar since the adjustments were made primarily because they agreed with the models?
The ~0.8 C increase since the 70's is a surface record value. Depending on whose satellite data analysis is consulted, the lower troposphere warming is somewhere between 50% to about the same as that value. Radiosondes on balloons also give different values depending on the distribution of sites where they are deployed; James Angell's NOAA radiosonde dataset has shown warming consistent with the surface record.
And was it Mr. Christy who said the said the upward adjustments to the satellite record were very peculiar since the adjustments were made primarily because they agreed with the models?
I can't confirm that Christy said that, and if he did, I have no idea regarding the context of the statement. Certainly in the robust nature of scientific debate, Christy and Spencer have defended their methods and results as compared to the more recently released analyses from other groups.