ETS - it's got the world talking

Did I say talking. I mean shitting themselves.

McCain is in the same spot as Nelson. He has to decide whether to send the economy into freefall on a whim for no appreciable provalble gain, or not. Be unlike Nelson he is choosing wrong.

Nelson is not only right. He's on a winner. Be grateful that at this moment this country can produce a leader that has nuts, when the US can't. I expect a wave if immigration from the US come November.

The entire media is spinning it that Turnbull and Hunt rapped Nelson's knuckles last week for suggesting the ETS could wait, or the cap and trade idea was not the best and the Nelson fell back into line. I don't buy it. Where was the public retraction? The guy is silent. He's taking annual leave! This saga is only just beginning and it is the duty of the conservative commentariat to get behind the guy. No exceptions.

Nelson has time to assert himself and should not be afraid to subtly adjust his position. if the Mayo bi-election gets a swing to the Libs on his watch Turnbull's position will be weaker again. Turnbull cannot challenge before then - like bull at a gate. There's is a reason why he didn't make it up the first time. The parliamentary party dont trust him to consult them. That hasn't changed. His presumption to lead the leader on last Thur's 7:30 report can't have helped.

From Nelson's form to date you know he can suck up as much pressure as Howard for as long as he wants and still get his message to the electorate.

Pollies face-off on climate

UPDATE: Whatditellya? Hunt and Turnbull are the ones who's green images are on the line, and they are trying to manipulate Nelson's position through the media. Or are they clarifying it? I don't know. The green paper comes out on Wednesday. I think they will find common ground.

Whether Liberal's 2012 ETS deadline has a flexible or fixed, the main thing is that Nelson has got everyone to agree that if China and India dont make significant sacrifices neither should we. This position is a significant shift from the "act first and lead" position - the implausible position implicitly supported by anyone courting the green vote.

Nelson's position was Howard's defense in not signing Kyoto, which Turbull opposed. It was Rudd's position after Garrett screwed up during the campaign. But Rudd forged ahead and signed Kyoto without requiring the Chinese to sign up to even non-binding targets as they had promised to consider at APEC (thanks to Howard and Bush). Now Rudd is saying the G8 climate talks was a failure because the developing countries have not fallen into line. He's making wiggle room.

No one is admitting it, but everyone's position is moving slightly to the right, and Nelson is leading (the politicians). They are all cooling slightly on the issue of warming and (sorry to keep going with the metaphor but) this issue is one that needs to stay hot if it is going to maintain a head of steam. It's panic driven. If we all start acting rationally it will lose all politicial momentum. The world is actually cooling. I'm sitting here freezing and I want cheap power so I can leave the heater on dammit!

UPDATE: Bolt has dug up the quotes I alluded to here. Bolt is pushing the idea that Turnbull disagrees with Nelson (as did the Aus) whereas Turnbull is denying this and Nelson is not talking. Bolt sides with Nelson. I honestly think this was Nelson's whole ploy. His statement came straight after the ABC publically admitted that GW believers were embarrassing in their religious zeal. And after the Hollowmen (the latest ABC spoof about Rudd) was announced. The media momentum has shifted. Nelson has played for the conservative media's support and got it. They had always plumped for Turnbull in the past. That's what had to end.

Nelson has nuts

OMFG!! Nelson is refusing to ask Aussies to lead on climate change in direct and open opposition to Rudd on the issue. Not even the mighty Howard had the guts to do this as the election approached.

Nelson has picked a huge fight. The main opponents to this move are Malcolm Turnbull and Greg Hunt. He is facing down the Libs who want to drag the party to the mushy consequence-free Left. It's a huge gamble. I hope to lord he wins.

He has alot of the voters behind him as we saw in Gippsland, plus the (Labor) States, critically the unions, and now finally the media are getting behind him. Even the conservative media! Whooda thunk it?

Thing is I always knew Nelson had nuts because he refused to betray Howard. He sucked it up during the first few months (Kyoto, apology) like a true battler. Bolt is only realising it now. Bolt and Albrechsten's refusal to support Nelson and fantasizing that Costello has a future are my only complaints about my respected rival commentators.

The ABC finally realises warming isn't cool

Everybody is going on about the ABC political editor's rant (it's not a riff, Bolt. Back in Black is a riff). It seems that GW-scepticism is the new atheism. Sure, I'm happy about it. One less commie at the ABC. But I'm not that impressed. The ABC are following not leading on this issue. The cool kids have known for ages that GW attracts nutters, like all of the Left's anti-capitalist rants.

Might I remind you of an inconvenient truth that goes by the name of ... MANBEARBIG!



Genius

Thank goodness for the States

Just as Federal defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon calls for the abolition of the states, we get a lesson in just how important the states are. NSW and Victoria are railing against the energy-destroying measures proposed by Garnaut in his interim report.

It's all about division of powers. Australia is like the US in that it is a federation of smaller states that have their own representative governments. The British and French governments are much more centralised. The government in Britain or France can change every persons life in the country in almost any detail, from tax on petrol to beds in hospitals to education standards, with the stroke of a pen. The Australian government can't.

That means that Rudd can't fuck the country up that much. What a relief.

The division of powers is demonstrated by COAG holding him to ransom over the "environmental threat" to the Murray. But the states dont just have legal powers, they have a legit elected voice and thus alot of political power aswell, which they can use to persuade/pester the federal government.

If Garnuat is just one of Rudd's inputs on climate change policy, hopefully the states are the other ones. They are having the good sense to protect jobs, power supplies and investment security in this country. I hate to say good things about the ALP, but I am impressed by the right-wing of said party finding common ground between the welfare of employees of the coal-fired power industry, and the business leaders in that sector.

This is exactly the sort of alliance between the blue-collar and the big-end-of-town that Howard would have approved off. What's the aim? Nation building, as it always is when people rise above "class" interests. We need to secure our future by making sure people who give enough of a shit to build power stations dont go under, taking their employees and the nation's energy supplies with them.

This has a flow on affect to national confidence. When rock bands plug in their amps, thereby keeping us entertained and boosting morale, they need to be damn well sure there's gonna be power. Electricity and rock are inseperable. Why do you think our greatest band is called AC/DC? And nobody, but nobody, has done more for this country's cultural confidence than AC/DC.

Now that the left of the ALP is in charge federally, the states are moving right to balance them. Without the states pencil-pushing power-trippers like Penny Wong could enforce a life of ascetic denial on us in the name of Al Gore, and destroy all the progress in national confidence-building made under Howard. Balance of power is a good thing for this country. Of course that balance would be better served by conservatives at state level. But better the right-wing of the ALP than than wall-to-wall tree-huggers.

Joel Fitzgibbon's call for the abolition of the states would not have gone unnoticed or unapproved by Rudd. For Rudd to let this statement be made demonstrates (1) he wants more power and (2) his judgment is so flawed he must never be allowed to have it. Rudd is Mini-Mao. (Picture A Commie version of Dr.Evil saying to Rudd, "You complete me") Rudd wants bureaucratic control over every aspect of our lives. He hates disorder and disagreement with a pathological passion. He is blinded by his own sense of self-righteousness. He wants to extend his micro-management to your home and your wallet and your head, because he thinks he knows what's good for you better than you do! Because of our beautiful constitution we can say "up yours, Rudd" with immunity. I say thanks to the States for doing just that.

UPDATE: SMH acknowledges that the states are holding back Rudds enviro agenda. That say it pisses them off, but cracks are appearing in their religious adherence to the apocalyptic doctrine of GW.

Under the bit which forecasts what will happen if we do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases, it predicts 1276 Queenslanders will die each year from temperature-related causes by 2030. That figure will increase to 5878 a year by 2100. In the most extreme "hot, dry" case, there would be 11,322 Queenslanders dying by the end of the century.

...

How anybody can model with any precision the exact numbers of deaths that will result in another 82 years based on an estimated small rise in temperature is known only to a few and baffling to the rest.

If the SMH are saying this. Rudd is pushing poo up a steep incline.

New scientific discovery: druggies enjoy drugs

This report in the OZ of how the "spiritual experience" of magic mushrooms can make people feel good is bad science and distorts for possiblity of bad physicatric ill effects. The find is based on a series of experiements on human volunteers where they were given the drugs.

Who do you think is going to volunteer for this kind of experiment?

Right. Druggies.

Who do you think conducts experiments like this, and edits the results

Right. Druggies.

Are these results any surprize?

Most [subjects] reported having a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.

More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Mr Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

"This is a truly remarkable finding," he said.

"Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."

Is that a fact? Perhaps the positive results have got something to do with the fact that it's based not on objective measures of the benefits but no heresay: what druggies said about their drug experience.

When data that is more reliable than an opinion came in it was prompty swept aside

While some of our subjects reported strong fear or anxiety for a portion of their day-long psilocybin sessions, none reported any lingering harmful effects, and we didn't observe any clinical evidence of harm," Mr Griffiths said.

Of course they said that you idiot. They want the research to support their drug use.

At least the researchers admitted one thing sensible:

Hallucinogens should not be given to people at risk for psychosis or certain other serious mental disorders, the researchers said.

Guys, that's everybody. Until you take the drugs there is no way of knowing how you will react. People flip out and there is no going back. I wonder how these experimenters could have been so sure that the people they were giving the drugs to would not freak. Could it be because these people had taken the drugs before? on multiple occasions?

None of the results of this test can be taken seriously unless the prior drug use of the participants is (honestly) published as well. Those conducting the experiment must be subjected to as much scrutiny as those who were used as subjects.

This is bad science. I fear bad data, bad interpretation and misreprsentation are being used to peddle an agenda, a dangerous one.

Just how dangerous is revealed by the most compelling piece of information in this survey, a quote from a subject on their drug experience:

Surrender is intensely powerful. To 'let go' and become enveloped in the beauty of - in this case music - was enormously spiritual," one volunteer said.

The evidence is clear. Drugs make you a dickhead.

Phillip Adams hates Australia

Gippsland's emphatic rejection of Rudd and his perversion of the Aussie lifestyle doesn't it well with pinko Phillip Adams. His peice in the OZ today speaks volumes of his love for the common man ... NOT!

I learned several things from the article:

Phillip Adams Hates Australia

WHY do we have such a rotten national anthem? It’s because the only words that rhyme with Australia are dahlia and failure.

I love the national Anthem. Australia is advancing, and is fair in every sense of the word. And at least we've got the country's name in our anthem. Unlike Britain.

Adams is indulging himself in the almost-intellectuals' favourite passtime: denouncing the cultural cringe whist unconsciously participating in it and reinforcing it. He describes us as a failure in his title "Add Warming to the Failure List" and then disparages us for seeing ourselves as failures. That a man who writes such contradictions considers himself intellectual is, well, contradictory. Yet he ploughs on, undeterred by his lack of intelligence or wit.

Because were [sic] into failure in a big way. Think of all the films weve [sic] made about our failures. Even before Gallipoli and Burke & Wills ....

Adams lists a bunch of films without a happy ending. Some might claim that Australian's did not need the sacharine bullshit of a happy ending. We appreciate Tragedy, just like the ancient Athenians, the most intellectual and strong-willed people that ever lived, and of course Shakespeare the world's foremost literary giant ever. The best example of Aussie tragedy is Mad Max II. The best and most original film ever made. Oh yeah, and how about The Lighthorsemen. It's got one of those happy endings that Aussies don't need but on the plus side it celebrates a victory that actually happened. Pity commies like Adams bagged it in the 80s for precisely this reason, saying the happy ending celebrated war. The reason why Aussie films can be negative is because of the almost-intellectuals' hatred of Australia and desire to represent it as a failure. These films do not represent Australia or the mindset of the broad Aussie public. The man in the street does not make films, and he doesn't watch many Aussie films (apart from Mad Max II "I am The Humungus!").

I also learned that Phillip Adams has little faith in the institutions of democracy, and supports Dictatorship:

Oh, they might be able to slow down the disaster in an authoritarian country, but it is the nature of democracies to dispute and dither.

I see. What does Adams suggest?

In war we switch to a command economy and form war cabinets

Ah. The commie reveals himself. It's those nasty market forces that are the problem. And those naughty political oppositions. Can't the opposition just join with the government in a bi-partisan war cabinet? If only we could force them to agree with the leader.

Still learning: Phillip Adams has no sense of perspective, and as such is a Global Warming alarmist.

we were tackling a problem that makes the Cold War look penny ante, let alone that trivial war on terror

Yeah, Adams. We were wrong to fight the commies in the cold war. If we'd had just given in we could have enjoyed the pleasure of always agreeing with the authorities an the joy of humble poverty. And that war on terror. Adams says that it's trivial that Aussie citizens were killed in cold blood. Say no more.

All that fear mongering over such a "trivial" thing. How can politicians and pundits stoop so low? Then Adams finishes with (speaking of Australia as a swagman)

And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong.

Translation "We're all gonna die!". Even if the world did warm up this would not happen. It would be really annoying and cost alot of money. But we are not all going to die. This is much more about humbling business and the populace so that they sacrifice themselves at the almost-intellectuals' new alter of submission - climate change.

Lastly I learned, Phillip Adams is an old man.

You are an old man, Adams. An old man. Old, man. Man, you are so old. Sooooooo old.

You don't know what the world is coming to do you, Adams? You aren't "cool" anymore so nobody gives a toss what you say, except other old farts. The world does what it wants and all you can do is frown. You miserable old git.

Your cuddly-but-cruel Baby-boomer values are old and out out date. Just like Victorian moral stuffiness and stifling deference.

Soon the hippies of the 60s will all be dead, and you'll be with them. You can have all the peace you want in the grave.

Young Australia has this little thing called life to live. That takes pride, determination and self-belief. We will not humble ourselves with your perverse puritanical post-modern religion. We are too busy building a great nation.

Australia fair advances. Get out of out way, Adams, you geriatric unpatriotic hippie scum.