Back to work post.

I am heading away again today but this time I leave you two offerings. Patrick over at Born Again Redneck is currently running a series of “One hit wonders” so I thought I would go into competition with the following, which was a hit in Australia, God only knows why.


But for those fans of Obama I give this to both of you.

Muslim demonstration with a difference.

Hattip Angry Exile.

When I first saw this I have to admit I thought it was a pisstake, but it is linked to an organization called “British Muslims for Secular Democracy."



I wish them success and safety.

“Carbon hypocrites, tax grabbers or power seekers?”

Cartoon by Glenn McCoy.

I am doing a lot of GW posts of late with good reason. In a matter of weeks, unless we stop them, western governments along with the green movement, and the powers that be in every corrupt totalitarian shit-hole on earth are set to meet in Copenhagen to establish another tier of governance over us. This time there will be no accountability, no elections, no redress, and no chance of ever getting rid of them.

The three layers of government we have already are excessive in cost, compliance, and their deleterious effect on our liberties, we don’t need a fourth, especially one consisting entirely of an unelected bureaucracy.

Viv Forbes is as usual spot on:

“Carbon hypocrites, tax grabbers or power seekers?”

Every day we hear some pious politician bleating about the end of the world unless we reduce our usage of carbon fuels like coal, oil and gas.

But every day we see them using taxpayers’ money to promote motor rallies, international sports functions, games, expos, carnivals, tourism and their own frequent jaunts to yet another conference in yet another posh foreign location. Every one of these activities requires the burning of tankers of carbon fuel for its success.

Are they fools, do they think we are fools, are they hypocrites, or are they just whipping up climate hysteria to disguise their greedy grab for more taxes on everything we use and more control of everything we do?

The Australian is no longer taken in:

On Monday The Guardian in Britain quoted a top European official who described the idea of negotiating on targets as naive and said the best that could be expected was that countries would put up what they wanted to commit to.

Just as well, really, if we consider figures published in an article in The Washington Post, also on Monday, by Danish statistician and environmentalist Bjorn Lomborg.

His Copenhagen Consensus Centre commissioned well-known climate economist Richard Tol, a contributor to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to estimate the cost of emissions targets needed to keep the rise in global temperature to under the 2C limit suggested by the IPCC's work. Tol's answer is a global price tag of $US40 trillion in 2100, to avoid expected climate damage costing $US1.1 trillion. These figures are based on mainstream economic models and subject to the usual limitations of modeling over long periods. …

Kevin Rudd has been using various arguments to push his case for urgent, substantial action on climate change and one he used in the US last week is the threat of a European carbon tax on exports from countries "not doing their bit on climate change".

Rudd only mentioned remarks by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but it is actually a joint initiative by France and Germany's newly re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel. Instead of, at least implicitly, accepting this as a legitimate tactic by the Europeans, Rudd should be denouncing it at every opportunity.

The last thing Australia and the world need is a global trade war sparked by European attempts to bully the world into adopting its climate change policies, which are under attack in the EU itself, to shelter its industries from the economic damage its climate policies will impose.

Some more figures from Lomborg. Economic estimates suggest freer trade would deliver global benefits of the order of $US50trillion. Why put these gains at risk to avoid global warming damage estimated at $US1.1 trillion? Fortunately there has already been a reaction in Europe and in other countries against the Franco-German threat.

Rudd will use any strategy to march in lockstep with anyone who will give him any excuse to introduce further micromanagement on Australians, especially if it gives him the chance to tax and spend at a higher rate.

The whole thing is an exercise in futility as China and India are staying out:

On October 22, an accord was signed by Xie Zhenhua, China's vice minister at the National Development and Reform Commission, and Jairam Ramesh, India's environment minister, in New Delhi. The memorandum provides an alternative framework to counter pressure from America and Europe to adopt mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions in a new UN treaty. …

China and India, along with Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, have been adamant about staying out of any global requirement. By forming regional alignments that keep policy in the hands of national governments, the developing countries expect to be able to resist Western and UN pressure.

It is easier to stay independent of the climate paranoia if one does not believe the planet is in peril. Xiao Ziniu, director general of the Beijing Climate Centre, told the British Guardian newspaper recently that, "There is no agreed conclusion about how much change is dangerous.... Whether the climate turns warmer or cooler, there are both positive and negative effects....In Chinese history, there have been many periods warmer than today." He disputed the disaster warnings of the UNIPCC, saying, "The accuracy of the prediction is very low because the climate is affected by many mechanisms we do not fully understand."

I recommend this full article as the Chinese present a good case. This will not end this matter as Global warming has long ago moved from science into the political arena from the time that Al Gore marched on to the scene and realized the profits that could be garnered from frightening people with science fiction. It is no longer about the environment, its all about power and profit.

Allan Ramsay on politics: “it's Pavlovian.”

Alan Ramsey was a longstanding member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery from 1966 pretty much forever. Interviewed on the 7:30 report he had some rather unflattering things to say about our politicians. He has recently written a book called “A Matter of Opinion,” recounting this career.

According to the presenter, “There was one career interruption when Ramsey was hauled back to Sydney for a suitable penance after calling then Prime Minister John Gorton a liar from the gallery.”

This is about Australian Politicians and rings true from my observations and rings bells as to my reading of overseas polys:

Alan Ramsey, I'd like to start with the big changes that you've seen in politics over the 40-plus years, in the nature of how the game is played.

ALAN RAMSEY, AUTHOR, A MATTER OF OPINION: …

The growth of MPs entitlements and staff. Every backbencher used to have one staffer. Mick Young, when he was in the Whitlam Government, gave them two. The Keating Government gave them three. The Howard Government gave them four. And it's all about moving the cost of getting elected from the political parties onto the back of taxpayers.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Have you worked out the number of people at Parliament houses when the House is sitting?

ALAN RAMSEY: Yes, it's 3,500. I mean, that's the size of a lot of small country towns in this ... 3,500 in a sitting week. To look after, to look after, 226 people.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Compare today's backbencher, walking through the doors of Parliament House for the first time, with the MPs that you saw arriving to Parliament for the first time in those earlier years.

ALAN RAMSEY: They were much more representative of the Australian community in the earlier years, they really were. They didn't come with their university degrees and they didn't come out of ministerial offices. They really did come from the community at large - the great majority of them.

Not anymore. It's a real - it's a career path now. We don't have two separate political parties; we just have two groups of people who represent political careers. The Labor Party, to all intents and purposes to what it was, up until relatively recently, is dead.

I mean, do you really think that the politicians of today, federal politicians of today, are a more interesting group, are a more representative group of the Australian community, when you see them, you know, carrying on in the Parliament or you hear a speech by them, or you hear them talking on radio.

They all have their messages. It's all about - it's all about, I don't know, it's this dreadful daily sludge that goes on, whether in Parliament or out of Parliament. They're not real people anymore! They're just not!

KERRY O'BRIEN: Do you find that they're more controlled from the top?

ALAN RAMSEY: Yep. Absolutely. I mean, during campaigns, the el mobile, Blackberries, whatever they call them - I hate them, I hate them. You know, the daily message: this is the line, this is the line. Everyone repeats it.

You know, it's Pavlovian, all the time, little puppies, running around, saying the same thing, barking the same bark. It really is, it's just a - it's - and in Parliament, it's the same. Parliament has become - well it's indescribable.

KERRY O'BRIEN: What about the press gallery? Describe the gallery that you first came to and compare it to today.

ALAN RAMSEY: All blokes, except one woman, on woman, and in a junior capacity. Been here forever. Most of the senior people had been here forever. And new, younger blokes were just starting to take over the so-called head of bureau and whatnot.

Much younger blokes started to take over, but people who stayed more than just five minutes. It wasn't just a production line of journalists - come in, do your 12 months or your 18 months or whatever and fiddle off to something else.

There aren't all that many stayers anymore, and I sometimes wonder because the news management that goes on by the political parties is so awful, so ingrained, but sweeps them all up. They all operate on a 24-hour basis. Nothing happened before 24 hours ago, and nothing - they don't look any further forward than the next 24 hours. And it's all...

KERRY O'BRIEN: So what's the end result of all of that?

ALAN RAMSEY: Oh, the same sludge I was talking about, you know, in terms of what happens in the Parliament. It happens in the media. I mean the press, so far as the political process is concerned, are parasites. I mean we feed off it.

They always have done. That's no different. It's just a very blunt word to use. But it is so much worse. And don't get on the drip with the Prime Minister's office. I mean they freeze you out. This mob in their now, they know how to run their PR and they do it very, very well. Every bit as well as John Howard did.

KERRY O'BRIEN: What about the bureaucracy? What change - what significant change have you seen in the bureaucracy in 40 years?

ALAN RAMSEY: It's lost tenure. It lost its tenure. It ceased to be an apolitical public service. They know where their bread and butter is. Howard made sure of that - put them on contracts. Essentially, in one fell swoop, got a direction through the Remuneration Tribunal that increased their salaries enormously - I mean, the heads of department. And they run the department - everybody else takes their lead from it. The Rudd Government runs exactly the same sort of public service. It's no freer, no more independent than was the one that Howard created. That's gonna be his lasting legacy - it really is. ….

KERRY O'BRIEN: That time you spent in a political office with Bill Hayden, did that change your view of politics and politicians when you returned to journalism?

ALAN RAMSEY: My word, absolutely.

KERRY O'BRIEN: In what way?

ALAN RAMSEY: Um, it made me much more cynical about how the political process worked. It really did. You know, you're viewing it from the inside. You're viewing it sitting around tables where people are talking, "How can we do this and how can we do that? How can we get somebody's vote? How can we get the electorate at large vote?"

And I'll tell you what, you know, there's nothing that's particularly altruistic about what goes on there, ever.

KERRY O'BRIEN: But if one of those politicians were sitting here they would say, "But Alan, we believe that the policies we would formulate for this country are good for this country, so therefore it justifies the process."

ALAN RAMSEY: Mate, the bottom line of that is the line that was always used when I used to talk about these sort of things. They'd say, "Listen, don't you forget: our bastards are better than their bastards." ….

The full transcript is here.

Lord Monkton; Loss of sovereignty.

In the post below Viv Forbes talked of the speech by Lord Monkton. Here is the conclusion to it. I recommend to those with a lazy hour swinging in the breeze the full speech which can be found Here.

This is the extract:


Despite his effective refutation of manmade global warming, his closing remarks about the Copenhagen Treaty are chilling:

“I read that treaty. And what it says is this: that a world government is going to be created. The word "government" actually appears as the first of three purposes of the new entity. The second purpose is the transfer of wealth from the countries of the West to third world countries, in satisfaction of what is called, coyly, "climate debt" because we've been burning CO2 and they haven't. We've been screwing up the climate and they haven't. And the third purpose of this new entity, this government, is enforcement.

“So, thank you, America. You were the beacon of freedom to the world. It is a privilege merely to stand on this soil of freedom while it is still free. But, in the next few weeks, unless you stop it, your president will sign your freedom, your democracy, and your humanity away forever. And neither you nor any subsequent government you may elect will have any power whatsoever to take it back. That is how serious it is. I've read the treaty. I've seen this stuff about [world] government and climate debt and enforcement. They are going to do this to you whether you like it or not.”

What happens in Australia and USA in the next few weeks is crucial. If the warmist wing of the Liberal Party, in an attempt to postpone their own dismissal, allows Rudd to arrive in Copenhagen waving the Ration-N-Tax Scheme bill like peace-in-our-time Chamberlain returning from his compromise with Hitler, Australians will give great comfort to the green mafia pushing the US senate to do the same
We must reject the Ration-N-Tax Scheme and keep rejecting it no matter what the political consequences. Ordinary people are looking for that sort of leadership.

When all of this collapses, they will not be gentle with the Climate Chamberlains.

Why Compromise is Defeat.

Cartoon By Nate Beeler.

By Viv Forbes

(Editors Note): This is an extract from the original article. The full text can be viewed at "Carbon Sense."

The next few weeks are crucial. Australians can choose to assist the creation of the World Carbon Rationing, Tax and Redistribution Authority, administered by the United Nations, or we can take a step on the road back to energy and climate sanity.

The first step to sanity is to ensure that the opposition votes at all times to REJECT whatever Ration-N-Tax Scheme the Rudd government tries to get on the law books before the Copenhagen Climate Conclave. We must give no encouragement whatsoever to this international cabal of levellers.

Malcolm Turnbull and the warmist wing of the Liberal Party think that they are being politically savvy and achieving something useful by negotiating with the devil on a few clauses of the ETS (Extra Tax System). In matters as crucial as this, compromise is defeat.

In the long run, complete destruction of the ETS and the Climate Control Industry and its legislative mountain is far more important than one election, or the future of the Liberal Party. Like a dead fish, the Liberal Party is rotting from the head. Its survival is unimportant for Australians in the total scheme of things.

So we either block Rudd’s Ration-N-Tax Scheme now or, if blockage is impossible, we let them run riot and then use the backlash (and a new opposition with backbone) to then throw out ALL of the old extreme garbage of the Wong Ration-N-Tax Scheme, together with the Rudd government. We must not give birth to a compromise.

If Turnbull gets his way, and some weak compromise gets onto the law books, it will produce nothing but harm for ever more. Because of all the “mates-rates exemptions” and “free permits for friends” it will not be so obviously bad that people will throw it out at the first opportunity. With cunning manipulation, the initial effects may not be dramatic, and people will say: “Well the deniers ran a big scare campaign but the world did not end with the introduction of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme”.

However, even if many of the “compromise” exemptions remain for some time, all the red tape, regulators, hidden taxes, subsidies, redistributions, scams, frauds and mis-allocation of investment capital will infect the blood of the economy, remaining as a leaking stomach ulcer of chronic costs that no one can recognise, but everyone will suffer from.

Now is the time to draw a line in the sand.

Every one of us needs to make sure that our local member knows that, unless he opposes the Ration-N-Tax Scheme, he will not only lose our vote, but also that we will actively work against him (or her).

Which politicians can we support? The Climate Sceptics Party, though new and small, is the most informed and dedicated. Support them. Senators Barnaby Joyce, Ron Boswell and the Nationals have risked all on uncompromising opposition to the Extra Tax System. Support them. The brave Senator Steve Fielding stood alone against the tide. Support him and his Family First Party. Support also the DLP, the Citizens Electoral Council, One Nation and any Independent who opposes the Ration-N-Tax Scheme.

Use the preferential voting system to rank even the unpalatable options. Put all alarmists and fellow travellers last.

Finally, if in doubt “Throw the incumbent out”.

Make no mistake. The Ration-N-Tax Scheme is not something to take lightly. It will be as complicated as the Income Tax Act, as relentless as the GST, as destructive as the Global Financial Crisis and as prone to corruption as the UN.

And it will have no effect that anyone can measure on the climate. There is zero chance it will “improve” the climate. And the only way it can reduce man-made production of carbon dioxide is by depressing the economy. All of those fatuous targets discussed with great solemnity in conclaves of fools meeting in world tourist destinations have no chance whatsoever of being achieved except by a long chronic economic depression. As accurately as any other measure, emissions of carbon dioxide monitor economic activity. As China and India recognise very clearly, cap it and you cap economic activity.

The Ration-N-Tax Scheme has two more insidious elements.

Firstly, once they get any sort of watered down bill on the books, you can be sure it will give authority to the bureaucracy (ie the Minister of the day) to change rates, remove exemptions or reduce the cap without further reference to Parliament. Like so many government levies and taxes, once the principle is accepted, the rates will inevitably rise. In fact, after the first year at a low fixed carbon tax rate, the rate will be “set by the market”, and government will manipulate the permits issued to ensure the “carbon price” keeps rising. Politicians will then blame “market forces” for the increasing carbon tax with its noxious effect on jobs and consumer costs.

For those still contemplating the benefits of a compromise on the establishment of this monster new tax, ask this: “When did you last see a tax abolished”?

Secondly, the western world is teetering on the edge of the world carbon tax abyss. For the next month or so, there is no scare story too extreme, no compromise too tawdry, and no trade-off too un-principled, just to get something “agreed” and subject to some sort of “International Treaty”.

The unelected Climate Controllers in the UN’s IPCC know that the likes of Obama, Rudd and Brown will all lose office sooner or later. They want “The Copenhagen Treaty” to be so formatted that no-one can pull out once they put a foot on the sticky paper. Co-operative International Courts will try to override state sovereignty so that even if a new opposition is swept into power with a mandate to “clean the stables”, this “International Treaty” status will be used to defy the will of the people. Australian and US workers will become slaves, obliged to continually pay “climate compensation” to all the failed states of the world, and to pick up the tab to keep the IPCC cadre flying to places like Rio and Bali for their regular sabbaticals.

Christopher Monckton recently warned America about the likely loss of sovereignty. It was reported here:

You can watch his entire 1 hour 35 minute presentation. It is well worth the time if you can spare it.

The slide-show he frequently points to in this presentation can be viewed along with the video.

“Carbon Sense” is a newsletter produced by the Carbon Sense Coalition, an Australian based organisation which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food.

Big Government; the Facts.

I found this today while fooling around and decided to share with you. This video is from the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation presents real-world data and research showing that the burden of government spending is far too high not only in the United States (where the Bush-Obama policies have increased the federal budget by more than 100 percent):

Health fascism in Australia.

Cartoon by Ramirez.

From the Institute of Public affairs.

This week parliament will debate a bill to establish a national Preventive Health Agency, reminding of that classic Mark Twain observation: nobody is safe while the legislature is in session.

On The Punch Federal health minister Nicola Roxon insisted that she was no nanny statist, and that the purpose of the Agency was about saving lives and reducing health costs.

Most modern governments understand the follies of outright bans, such as the failed US Prohibition movement from 1919 to 1933. However, the Agency plans what it sees as the next best thing.

With a total budget of $133 million over four years, it intends to tax and regulate your booze, ciggies and fast food that it's more expensive or harder to get.

Minister Roxon denies that the Agency will embark on a nagging agenda. However it plans to spend $2 million this financial year on marketing campaigns about stuff you know already. (Really? Over-indulging in junk food has health consequences?)
So if that's not nagging, then exactly what is it?

The following year, in 2010?11, the proposed Agency intends to go into a healthy living ad campaign overdrive with the marketing budget lifted to $33.8 million.

That would represent a seventeen-fold increase in taxpayer-financed spending devoted to hectoring and cajoling you to skip your Friday night pizza and Tim Tams with coffee.

From The Preventative Health Nazis:

Food, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco are all consumables trading in our market system. When markets work efficiently, and consumers and producers act with full information, markets contribute significantly to community wellbeing. However, markets are imperfect and do not always produce optimal outcomes from a societal point of view.

Thus it appears that our health is not our own anymore in the eyes of these arrogant bastards but should only be seen as a little microcosm of their socialist empire and has to be seen from a "societal" perspective. There is already enough information out there on food, physical activity, alcohol and tobacco, for even the most ill informed among us to make fairly well balanced decisions in relation to how much exercise they should do, what types of food to consume, and what sort of substances to abuse and how much.

These fascists really need to lighten up, take something for their delusions of relevance, and understand that we are entitled to make choices for our own bodies, for our own reasons, for our own good, and butt out.

Public health is collectivized individual health, and is only relevant because medicine has been socialized in this country.

Those who gleefully accepted the governments largesse and voted them in on the promise of free medical treatment missed the downside, that being that he who pays the piper calls the shots. Well they don’t actually pay, we do in taxes, but government see it as their own to do with as they see fit.

Allowing the state to take responsibility for our health costs has effectively given them the idea that they now have the right to dictate our behavior to us.

Take note, USA.

Letterman caught at it on security tape.

Cartoon, by Warren.

From News.com.au

TALK-SHOW host David Letterman has been recorded on tape having sex with a female staff member - and he is worried that the footage will eventually be leaked, it's reported today.

Letterman, 62, recently admitted to having a series of sexual relationships with some of the women that work for him.

The chat show host and a much-younger female co-worker have apparently been captured on a studio surveillance tape in a compromising position. ….

“Dave apparently didn’t know the location of the security cameras at his Late Show studio.”

“It’s become a real battle,” a Late Show insider dished earlier this month.

“Regina is humiliated, and she wants to get even with David for his public admission he cheated on her repeatedly during their 23-year relationship. …

Probably the funniest bit on this was the accompanying brief:
Talk-show host caught on CCTV
Tape will "explode his marriage"
TV guide: What's on tonight

Letterman was of course the dirty old man who made a ‘joke’ laden with sexual innuendo against Sarah Palins fourteen year old daughter. The left feel that attacking the children of their enemies is fair. Its something like the leftist version of original sin or the Mafia killing the whole family of their enemies.

I don’t tend to be vengeful but its somehow satisfying to see this lecherous old coot twisting in the wind.

“Big Nanny Creates a Gas Bubble.”

Cartoon by Nicholson.

By Viv Forbes

The Carbon Sense Coalition today accused both state and federal governments of pushing policies that cause wastage of natural gas and increased electricity charges.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense” Mr Viv Forbes said that five silly government initiatives have created “The Big Nanny Gas Bubble”.

“The first foolish policy forced electricity suppliers to generate a proportion of their electricity from gas. This increased the demand and price for gas. It also increased the cost of generating electricity.

“Naturally, gas producers, pipeline companies and their suppliers applauded, but power consumers were unimpressed.

“The second silly gas policy promoted and subsidised the replacement of electric heating appliances with gas appliances.

“Naturally, gas producers applauded again. So did gas appliance manufacturers and retailers. Home owners were less enthusiastic.

“The third bad idea from Big Nanny was a law mandating that 20% of electricity is generated from “renewable energy”. The perverse consequence of this policy will be to force the construction of a parallel universe of gas fired power stations to prop up the green generators when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. This will create more demand for gas and further increases in gas prices. It will also increase costs and reduce the reliability of power supplies.

“Naturally, gas companies were delighted. So were Green Energy speculators and Chinese manufacturers. Power consumers were apprehensive.

“The fourth gas wasting scheme is the Ration-N-Tax Scheme from Big Nanny in Canberra. This scheme penalises production of one “greenhouse gas”, carbon dioxide, but not the main one, water vapour, which comprises more than 90% of all so-called greenhouse gases. Both are harmless, non-toxic gases that support all life on earth.

“This policy would encourage power companies to switch from coal to gas, even though they are both hydro-carbon fuels which produce the same two harmless gases when burnt. More rises in gas and electricity prices would follow.

“Naturally, gas companies applauded again, but consumers of electricity and gas became seriously alarmed.

“The fifth stupid gas policy proposed recently by the Queensland government attempts to hide the harmful effects of the other four policies by proposing export embargos and price controls for domestic gas.

“Suddenly, gas producers did not applaud. Nor should anyone else.

“Governments should repeal all these destructive market manipulations and allow producers and consumers to discover that combination of fuels, technologies and cost which best satisfy their values and needs.

“Governments are acting like rogue bulls in the energy china shop.

“Big Nanny must be curbed before she bursts the gas bubble”.

Viv Forbes is Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food. By Viv Forbes

The Carbon Sense Coalition today accused both state and federal governments of pushing policies that cause wastage of natural gas and increased electricity charges.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense” Mr Viv Forbes said that five silly government initiatives have created “The Big Nanny Gas Bubble”.

“The first foolish policy forced electricity suppliers to generate a proportion of their electricity from gas. This increased the demand and price for gas. It also increased the cost of generating electricity.

“Naturally, gas producers, pipeline companies and their suppliers applauded, but power consumers were unimpressed.

“The second silly gas policy promoted and subsidised the replacement of electric heating appliances with gas appliances.

“Naturally, gas producers applauded again. So did gas appliance manufacturers and retailers. Home owners were less enthusiastic.

“The third bad idea from Big Nanny was a law mandating that 20% of electricity is generated from “renewable energy”. The perverse consequence of this policy will be to force the construction of a parallel universe of gas fired power stations to prop up the green generators when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. This will create more demand for gas and further increases in gas prices. It will also increase costs and reduce the reliability of power supplies.

“Naturally, gas companies were delighted. So were Green Energy speculators and Chinese manufacturers. Power consumers were apprehensive.

“The fourth gas wasting scheme is the Ration-N-Tax Scheme from Big Nanny in Canberra. This scheme penalises production of one “greenhouse gas”, carbon dioxide, but not the main one, water vapour, which comprises more than 90% of all so-called greenhouse gases. Both are harmless, non-toxic gases that support all life on earth.

“This policy would encourage power companies to switch from coal to gas, even though they are both hydro-carbon fuels which produce the same two harmless gases when burnt. More rises in gas and electricity prices would follow.

“Naturally, gas companies applauded again, but consumers of electricity and gas became seriously alarmed.

“The fifth stupid gas policy proposed recently by the Queensland government attempts to hide the harmful effects of the other four policies by proposing export embargos and price controls for domestic gas.

“Suddenly, gas producers did not applaud. Nor should anyone else.

“Governments should repeal all these destructive market manipulations and allow producers and consumers to discover that combination of fuels, technologies and cost which best satisfy their values and needs.

“Governments are acting like rogue bulls in the energy china shop.

“Big Nanny must be curbed before she bursts the gas bubble”.

Viv Forbes is Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food.

Media bias and Bastardry part 38,463,421.

If anybody is in any doubt about bias on the good ol government channel, the ABC, ("You didn't ask for it, but we know you can't do without it even if you are too stupid to realize it,) just watch this.

Ration and Tax; the green road to fascism.

The last posting here was “Puppets in Parliament and Pay-offs on the Road to Carbonia” by Viv Forbes from Carbon Sense and included the following:

Those calling for “certainty” are mainly the voices of vested interests, and they expect a pay-off.

Some are already celebrating the pay-offs to come.

For example, the “Carbon Market Expo” to be held on the Gold Coast in October 2009 boasts, “more than 70 businesses will exhibit at the expo”. They include bankers, brokers, carbon asset managers, carbon investment managers, carbon accounting firms, carbon management firms, carbon consultants and auditors, carbon control consultants, emissions trading forums, carbon rewards groups, tree technology consultants, green fleet firms, carbon credit offset suppliers, carbon forest service companies, carbon certifiers and verifiers, carbon registries, carbon market infrastructure providers, recruitment firms, R&D advisers, PR firms, engineering contractors, University academics, carbon market advisers and of course all the federal, state and even local “climate smart” bureaucracies and their well traveled staff. …

So it appears that without the legislation being in place yet, we have a blood-sucking bunch of spiv industries all seeking to capitalize on what the government intend to do, or at least the expectation of it. Many of these could not survive in a free market or would be niche industries, but with the promise of compulsion by the state they are looking forward to a bright future at our expense.

The very survival of most depend on their ability to push the governments for the “right” as they see it to force us to use their “products,” which are in reality an arse covering fraud based on the perception that in the face of dubious and disputed science, political parties will adopt the policy of needing to be seen to do something. Turnbull has already stated as much with his remark that the Liberal Party will lose all credibility unless it negotiates with the government on the ration and tax legislation.

On the basis of this, these shysters are asking that we be handed over to them, not because we wish to deal with them but because we will be forced to. Their business principle seems to be; “We own your arse, bend over and take it like a man.” (In deference to political correctness and any female readers, perhaps, “Bend over and take it like a man would.”)

The demonization of carbon seems to be an addition to Kevin Rudd’s ‘War on everything,” perhaps we are seeing the first shots in “the war on elements.”

All jokes aside, the basic fact is that this legislation will hand us over against the will of the vast majority of us to be the forced clientele of people we have no wish and no need to trade in any way with. In a free society, anybody taking ‘climate change’ as it is promoted by the authoritarians seriously, could use these services to whatever degree they feel they need or can afford, but this is not what we are discussing here. Their services are compulsory for all of us.

This is tantamount to slavery or at least feudalism. In reality in response to a manufactured crisis the state intends to remove our last vestiges of right to freedom of thought and trade and commit us to the tender mercies of the sort of people they are most likely to be found with, the lobbyists.

Puppets in Parliament and Pay-offs on the Road to Carbonia

Cartoon by Gary Varvel.

By Viv Forbes

(Ed note, the full printer friendly version of this article is available at this link.)

Malcolm Turnbull met coal mining chiefs recently. He said later that the miners begged him to negotiate a compromise deal. They want the Liberals to lobby for exemptions from Penny Wong’s Ration-N-Tax Scheme.

The big miners supported the scheme in the belief that exporters would be exempt, and they would also get buckets of taxpayer money for fantasies like carbon capture and burial. Now they find that the dog they unleashed is menacing them. The Ration-N-Tax Scheme proposes a tax on fugitive mine emissions of methane and carbon dioxide. This will close many gassy mines unless they get a special exemption.

Other Liberal leaders have said that big business wants the “certainty” of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme. There can be no certainty on the amount of damage any Ration-N-Tax Scheme will bring. We know the economic damage of a full blown scheme will be large (that is what it is designed to do) but no one knows how large. The only certainty is that whatever we do with carbon dioxide will have no effect on the climate. The only way to get a “certain” outcome from Parliament is to reject this bill entirely.

The Liberal backbench are right in rejecting Penny Wong’s flawed legislation. They are reflecting the interests of real Australia outside the urban greens and the Big Business Councils.

And surely no one except Mr Turnbull wants a Clayton’s version of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme, with a huge bureaucracy administering nothing useful to the climate or anyone else - it must be thrown out.

It seems we have a house full of puppets in Canberra, all dancing as vested interests pull the strings?

Those calling for “certainty” are mainly the voices of vested interests, and they expect a pay-off.

Some are already celebrating the pay-offs to come.

For example, the “Carbon Market Expo” to be held on the Gold Coast in October 2009 boasts that “more than 70 businesses will exhibit at the expo”. They include bankers, brokers, carbon asset managers, carbon investment managers, carbon accounting firms, carbon management firms, carbon consultants and auditors, carbon control consultants, emissions trading forums, carbon rewards groups, tree technology consultants, green fleet firms, carbon credit offset suppliers, carbon forest service companies, carbon certifiers and verifiers, carbon registries, carbon market infrastructure providers, recruitment firms, R&D advisers, PR firms, engineering contractors, University academics, carbon market advisers and of course all the federal, state and even local “climate smart” bureaucracies and their well travelled staff.

Despite their totally mercenary aims, this large group of city business interests will talk reverently of their visions of Carbonia. This is a mystic land where only green carbon is permitted to exist; where nymphs and gnomes skip through sylvan forest of indigenous vegetation; where gentle breezes and warm rain are never disturbed by snow storms or heat waves; where floods, droughts and bushfires are unknown; and where a planned carbon depression has ensured there are no nasty farms, factories, mines or motor engines.

In other meetings across town, the alternate energy crowd are still celebrating their success in gaining bi-partisan support for the recent legislation forcing consumers to use their expensive and unreliable products. (Of course, the sun never sets and the breezes never fail in Carbonia.)

And those expecting continuing millions from taxpayers for carbon burial sink holes also have their lobbies and meetings for the faithful.

No doubt all these people are lobbying for the “certainty” of a place at the carbon trough.

But none of these “businesses” could exist without the taxes and controls to be imposed on everyone who consumes the products of carbon fuels – food, travel, electricity, steel, cement, chemicals and manufactured goods - all the tangible things we need to support our standard of living and our jobs.

A huge parasitic industry trading permits in hot air or living on carbon-funded welfare is gathering to feed off the dying carcass of our real industry. But when the hosts die, so will the parasites. And through all this planned turmoil, climate will go on changing as it always has.

Let’s turn the limelight of publicity onto the puppets in Parliament and the puppeteers calling their tunes.

The Labor Party dances to the fiddles and flutes of the green fairies, and their expected pay-off is election preference deals or voting support in the Senate. The Liberals dance to the big bass drums of business offering who-knows-what for exemptions, mandates, subsidies and special tax handouts.

No one consulted the Rockhampton Cement Plant which is being mothballed because of the threat of the Ration-N-Tax Scheme. An upgrade of the Gladstone plant is also is also a likely carbon casualty.

Does anyone care that farmers in droves are leaving the land, fishermen are leaving the sea and factories are migrating to China? Who represents these real workers whose jobs will slowly disappear in the green haze now intoxicating most politicians in every Parliament?

Things are no better on the international scene, where vested interests have created their own consensus - those expecting benefits from Copenhagen far outnumber those who will undoubtedly pay.

Who will be net losers from any Copenhagen carbon deal? It will not be places like France, heavily reliant on nuclear power; nor will it be places like Scandinavia, lucky enough to have harnessed their abundant hydro power; nor will it be places like Iceland, where geothermal energy is readily available; nor will it Russia who will take advantage of the collapse of Soviet industry to earn “carbon credits”; nor will it be places like India, China and Brazil, who see Copenhagen as the place where they will manage to extract massive funds and technology from the west in order to “clean up their industry”; and it will not be OPEC who are already seeking deals to get “compensation” if Copenhagen reduces demand for their oil.

Who is destined to play Santa Claus at the global warming party in frigid Copenhagen? The intended victims are those rich western nations heavily dependent on carbon fuels, such as Australia, USA, Poland and UK.

Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull are the Judas goats leading us to this slaughter.

The Ration-N-Tax Scheme must be rejected.

“Carbon Sense” is a newsletter produced by the Carbon Sense Coalition, an Australian based organisation which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food.

Please spread “Carbon Sense” around.

For more information visit our web site at www.carbon-sense.com

Literary, financial or other contributions to help our cause are welcomed.

Women in the Military ! Who said "NOT"

Well, Just a quick one before I go. I just got this one from Steve Maloney.

A story with a happy ending!

This nineteen-year-old ex-cheerleader (now an Air Force Security Forces Sniper) was watching a road that led to a NATO military base when she observed a man digging by the road.. She engaged the target (I.e., she shot him). Turned out he was a bomb maker for the Taliban and he was burying an IED that was to be detonated when a US patrol walked by 30 minutes later. It would have certainly killed and wounded several soldiers.

The interesting fact of this story is the shot was measured at 725 yards. She shot him as he was bent over burying the bomb. The shot went through his butt and into the bomb which detonated; he was blown to pieces. The Air Force made a motivational poster of her.

Nothing clears the mind of a Taliban terrorist like his arsehole going through it.

Heading back to work, some fun stuff for you.

I posted this a fair while ago, and still love it so I'll share it again. This is the Leningrad Cowboys and the Red Army Choir with "Sweet Home Alabama," the best version you will find.

Prof. Bob Carter's Presentation at Rockhampton.

Robert M. "Bob" Carter,is an adjunct research professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, Queensland[1] and the University of Adelaide South Australia. He is a geologist specializing in palaeoclimatology, stratigraphy, marine geology, and environmental science. He is currently on a lecture tour.

Here he is in an interview:


By Ron Kitching.

Last night, (06.10.09), I went to Bob Carter’s presentation at the Leagues Club at Rockhampton. The meeting commenced pretty close to the advertised 7 pm starting time. I suppose it was attended by 100 or so people. At one stage Bob asked those under 50 to raise their hands. Only about 3 did so.

The meeting was run by the Australian Climate Science coalition and The Australian Environment Foundation.

Bob has been a professional lecturer all of his life and made an excellent presentation touching on every aspect that I know of in the Global Warming/Climate Change debate.

It is obvious that the Australian population, led not only by the Australian Labor Party, but the Liberals also, are sleep walking into oblivion.

Bob broke his presentation into three parts with a question time at the end of each session.

In the second session of his presentation, Bob showed the enormous array of the forces of the enemy organised against humanity over this issue.

I bought a great laugh from the audience when one old squatter from Snake Gully, said in his deep gravely voice, “Jeez, we wuz worried before we came here!”

The two American organisations alone WWF and The Wilderness society have almost $1Billion between them and each spend several million a year on propaganda. but here, apart from the dark greens, we have Federal and State governments spending huge budgets on propaganda.

The Federal Governments department of climate has spent a billion dollars in the last 10 years on propaganda, but which has not contributed anything except anti-humanity propaganda. On top of that, Bob pointed out that the CSIRO, The ABC, all of the universities, most of the High Schools right down to primary schools are brainwashing people with anti-humanity propaganda.

Bob said that Ex PM Tony Blair is responsible for the mess the UK finds itself in, but his efforts are being ferociously out done by our PM Rudd, ably assisted by the Liberal leadership.

The so called financial industry is looking forward to the “trading frenzy” from which they will pluck countless billions if “service fees”. This accounts for Malcolm Turnbull’s dogged persistence in have a “sensible” trading scheme established here.

In total around the world about a trillion dollars has been wasted by the onslaught of the attack on humanity, but has contributed nothing to alleviating the poverty of the 1.5 billion who do not have enough to eat, let alone decent housing, schools and medical facilities.

Bob was in particular ferocious about how children are being turned into anti-industrial zealots by the system.

In the second question time, a sprinkling of dark greens opened their propaganda campaign at question time. Led by a scruffy looking pest, who grabbed a microphone and gave a speech, but was shortened by a hostile audience. His big gripe was industry, especially the coal industry which is polluting the nation. They even had a little girl trained to ask anti- industrial questions.

My view is that we have an enormous task to overcome the momentum and traction that the enemy has gathered over the years, but we can only hope that if we continue to persist, as organisations and as individuals that we will in the long term win the war - and make no mistake it IS a WAR.

It is the same old Communist ideology dressed in green clothes. Most people have no idea how determined the enemy is.

For those who are interested I would suggest people read Ludwig von Mises’s book titled “Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis”. Written in 1920, you can see that today how presages he was in addressing the various garbs the enemy uses to advance his cause.

Gores Hockey Stick: The greatest scientific fraud since Piltdown man.

This graphic compares the RCS chronologies from the two slightly different data sets: red – the RCS chronology calculated from the CRU archive (with the 12 picked cores); black – the RCS chronology calculated using the Schweingruber Yamal sample of living trees instead of the 12 picked trees used in the CRU archive. The difference is breathtaking. Source Steve McIntire.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Piltdown man, sometimes called the man who never was. In 1912 a series of skull fragments and a jawbone were unearthed at Piltdown, a village in England. While the discovery was always regarded as controversial, it was not exposed as a fraud until 1943, consisting of the skull of a modern human and the jawbone of an ape. During those 40 years this hoax seriously impacted on the study of human evolution.

We can all remember the infamous hockey stick graph, made known to all of us in Al Gores “An inconvenient truth,” the one where the predicted temperature was to imminently go through the roof. Though widely discredited over the ensuing years it has continued to be used as a scare tactic in the quest for government action on global warming, the appeal for its promoters being profits in Gores case, and power over all over our activities and massive taxation in the case of governments. We would never consent to this other than in an emergency, so one has been manufactured for us.

I have maintained for some time now that GW is a scam having read numerous articles disputing the findings of the IPCC who maintain in an unscientific manner that the debate is closed. Now it appears that the basic information going into the hockey stick is shaky at best, and is most likely fraudulent.

In the following I have used Bishop Hill for the easy reading, the full article is recommended. For more information and ready reference to Steve McIntyre's posts go to “Watts Up With That?” “Quote of the week #20 – ding dong the stick is dead”

From “Bishop Hill”: l

The story of Michael Mann's Hockey Stick reconstruction, its statistical bias and the influence of the bristlecone pines is well known. McIntyre's research into the other reconstructions has received less publicity, however. The story of the Yamal chronology may change that.

… Back at the start of McIntyre's research into the area of paleoclimate, one of the most significant of these was called Polar Urals, a chronology first published by Keith Briffa of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia. At the time, it was used in pretty much every temperature reconstruction around. In his paper, Briffa made the startling claim that the coldest year of the millennium was AD 1032, a statement that, if true, would have completely overturned the idea of the Medieval Warm Period. It is not hard to see why paleoclimatologists found the series so alluring.

……. In typical climate science fashion, just scratching at the surface of the Briffa archive raised as many questions as it answered. Why did Briffa only have half the number of cores covering the Medieval Warm Period that the Russian had reported? And why were there so few cores in Briffa's twentieth century? By 1988 there were only 12 cores used, an amazingly small number in what should have been the part of the record when it was easiest to obtain data. By 1990 the count was only ten, dropping still further to just five in 1995.

The reasoning behind Briffa's subsample selection may have been a mystery, but with the other information McIntyre had gleaned, it was still possible to perform some tests on its validity. This could be done by performing a simple sensitivity test, replacing the twelve cores that Briffa had used for the modern sections of Yamal with some of the other available data. Sure enough, there was a suitable Schweingruber series called Khadyta River close by to Yamal, and with 34 cores, it represented a much more reliable basis for reconstructing temperatures.



McIntyre therefore prepared a revised dataset, replacing Briffa's selected 12 cores with the 34 from Khadyta River. The revised chronology was simply staggering. The sharp uptick in the series at the end of the twentieth century had vanished, leaving a twentieth century apparently without a significant trend. The blade of the Yamal hockey stick, used in so many of those temperature reconstructions that the IPCC said validated Michael Mann's work, was gone.

HuffPo silences stimulus critics, more stimulating needed.

Good old Huffington Post can always be relied on to spring to the defense of the left. The leftie has to contend frequently with that nagging doubt in his ability to keep the faith, especially in the face of needing to defend trying again ideas, which have failed repeatedly in the past.

To question items of faith is of course heresy leading to dangerous thoughts of individuality supplanting collectivism, capitalistic tendencies, and that long slippery slope to the final indignity, being reported as a thought criminal to flag@whitehouse.gov.

Take for example the bailout, well two of them actually. They were promoted as saving jobs and all that is good and American. Such was the confidence in them that the administration posted the following graph, showing the effects of this expenditure vs. not doing it. Unfortunately some counterrevolutionary revisionist has vandalized the only copy I have, by marking it with the real figures:

Graph: Innocent Bystanders.

I can understand just why there would be some downcast looks from those who still support the New Deal or the Great Society. HuffPo has come to the rescue however, with an article telling us just where the real solution lies; doing it all over again and again until we get it right.

… Unemployment of this magnitude and duration also translates into ugly politics, because fear and anxiety are fertile grounds for demagogues, weilding the politics of resentment against immigrants, blacks, the poor, government leaders, business leaders, Jews, and other easy targets. It's already started. Next year is a mid-term election. Be prepared for worse.

So why is unemployment and underemployment so high, and why is it likely to remain high for some time? Because, as noted, people who are worried about their jobs or have no jobs, and who are also trying to get out from under a pile of debt, are not going do a lot of shopping. And businesses that don't have customers aren't going do a lot of new investing. And foreign nations also suffering high unemployment aren't going to buy a lot of our goods and services.

And without customers, companies won't hire. They'll cut payrolls instead.

Which brings us to the obvious question: Who's going to buy the stuff we make or the services we provide, and therefore bring jobs back? There's only one buyer left: The government.

Let me say this as clearly and forcefully as I can: The federal government should be spending even more than it already is on roads and bridges and schools and parks and everything else we need. It should make up for cutbacks at the state level, and then some. This is the only way to put Americans back to work. We did it during the Depression. It was called the WPA.

Well, there you have it. The real issue for massive government spending is that without it politics will get ugly for the Democrats. For a long time we have been told that the real reason for the downturn was that we have been spending beyond our means. Now that the consequences are upon us, the solution is not to cut all that irresponsible private spending, but to replace it with government spending.

Years ago here in Australia Julien Disney from ACOSS (Australian Council on Social Security) was deservedly ridiculed for proposing that the way out of the recession we had at the time was to give more money to SS recipients so they could spend the country into prosperity. Something akin to a welfare led recovery if you like.

The big problem with this idea is that you spend a trillion here, you spend a trillion there, pretty soon you are starting to talk about big money.

“Warming Myth Exposed”.

By,Viv Forbes.

A mere 20,000 years ago, massive ice sheets covered much of the earth. The sparse population led a cold hungry existence.

Then just 12,000 years ago, there was dramatic natural global warming - ice sheets melted, sea levels rose and the warming seas expelled carbon dioxide. The warmth and extra carbon dioxide plant food in the atmosphere encouraged the spread of grasslands, forests, animals and humans over lands once covered by thick, barren sheets of ice.

None of these beneficial climate changes were caused by emissions from the camp fires of the Cave Men.

Since then earth has experienced a see-saw of minor natural heating and cooling.

The most recent warming phase started at the depth of the Little Ice Age about 300 years ago, before James Watt invented the steam engine. There were no emissions from cars, trucks, trains, planes or cement plants, but still the planet warmed up.

Climate fluctuations continue in modern times, but not in step with industrial man’s carbon dioxide emissions.

When industry declined in the Great Depression of the 1930s, CO2 emissions fell but temperatures rose to a peak.

Then during the immediate post war boom in industry, emissions soared but temperatures fell and there were fears of a new ice age.

Now, since the start of the new century, with emissions from China and India booming, world temperatures are again falling.

The message is there for those prepared to read – there is not a scrap of evidence that man-made carbon dioxide causes global warming (or pollution).

For the IPCC to continue promoting the man-made global warming scare in the face of clear contrary evidence is devious or incompetent.

The man-made warming myth is exposed. Both the IPCC and the CSIRO should be challenged to justify their reckless and baseless climate scare-mongering.

For more detail and supporting evidence of the above statements go here.

Viv Forbes is Chairman of the Carbon Sense Coalition which opposes waste of resources, opposes pollution, and promotes the rational and sustainable use of carbon energy and carbon food.

Big Government:taking care of your individual needs, one size fits all.

H/T Libertarian Republican.

This is a great spoof of an ad done for MoveOn.org (what ever happened to them).



I have in the past posted some great parodies of the gun control issue, this one is for healthcare.

Northern Territory: Sex and the Silly Season.

Image: Northern Territory News.

I have always had a soft spot for the NT although I have not been back there for quite a while. I generally stayed away from Darwin itself, working mainly out around the McArthur River, and Tennant Ck, and Pine Ck.

One of the great things about the place is the people, who tend to rather irreverent and fairly independently minded, something I hope has not changed. The most amusing aspect at the time was that Porky Everingham was Chief minister of a government which having delusions of relevance, was determined to improve the image of the people, railing about everything from how much they drank to their way of dressing. The people on the other hand, were quite happy to be as they were and were totally cynical on this issue and seemed to enjoy taking the piss out of them.

About now is the start of the silly season up there, and reading the paper it seems that it is very pheromone based this year:

AN arrested couple have been sprung shagging in the back of a police paddy wagon while being driven to a Territory cop station.

Hannah Walker was driving behind the police car and said she was shocked to find the couple bonking in the back when she pulled up behind them at a red light. …

"I saw the two people kissing and thought 'geez, in the back of a paddy wagon - they're keen'," she said.
Ms Walker, 18, said by the time she reached the next set of lights and got stuck behind the police car again the couple were having sex.

"It was a red light (I am not sure if this is significant) and I had to sit behind the paddy wagon for a few minutes," she said. "I couldn't believe it when I saw them just going for it.

Miss Walker seems to have followed the vehicle until it turned off at the watch house.

And another:

A MAN and a woman were charged after police interrupted their 25-minute drunken sex romp in an allegedly stolen four-wheel-drive at a Territory service station.

Their frisky bowser bonk - captured on security camera - and charges for motor vehicle theft and drink-driving could cost the duo time behind bars.

I would have thought that a bit of discretion would be the order of the day when driving pissed in a stolen car.

But it gets better:

A MAN was caught having sex while driving because he and his girlfriend could not wait until they reached their destination, a court has heard.

Bradley Dean Milne, 33, was charged with not wearing his seatbelt, driving without due care and drink-driving when a witness called police after seeing his car swerving all over the road. Darwin Magistrates Court heard that the couple were planning to drive to East Arm Wharf in the Mazda ute to have sex. ….

They turned right onto Berrimah Rd, and the woman straddled Milne while he kept driving, swerving into the kerbside and back into the middle lane.

When police stopped the car and Milne was asked why he had been drinking - with a blood alcohol concentration of .097 per cent - he said: "Come on, mate. What would you do? We were going to the wharf but we didn't quite get there."

Milne's lawyer Ian Rowbottam told the Northern Territory News last night that Milne was too embarrassed to speak about the incident again.

The odd thing about this one is that he would have been in more trouble if he had been talking to her on his mobile instead while driving, that’s a chargable offense over here. Luckily he was only having it away with her.

Then:

A TERRITORY man filmed himself speeding at 150km/h while masturbating at the wheel of his drug-laden car, a court heard.

His Holden SV6 was allegedly laden with 5kg of drugs, including two cannabis plants resting on the back seat, the court was told.

There is no information as to whether it is available on Youtube yet.

And finally:

A MAN who described himself as a "Jack of all trades'' has been fined for exposing himself and masturbating in front of a woman on a Darwin-bound flight.

Lucas Steven Knudson argued he was "just adjusting himself" because his jeans were too tight.

A hard on will do that.

National Solutions for National Situations.

A couple of interesting reports came my way over the last day or so, indicating some similar sentiment on both sides of the Pacific. In the first, Rasmussen reports that:

At last week’s G20 summit, the leaders of the world’s most powerful nations pushed ahead with plans for greater international coordination of their national economic policies. But 60% of Americans think international organizations should have less influence on U.S. economic policy, not more.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 15% believe international organizations should have more influence on U.S. economic policies, while another 15% say international oversight should remain about the same as it is now.

The second comes from the Institute of Public Affairs newsletter pointing to Kevin Rudds rather idiotic statement that we should welcome the G20 as the 'global economic policy coordinating body' because Australia is a member. It is accompanied by the graph above by Alex Robson, ANU Economist, showing the difference between the unemployment figures of Australia and the G20 average.

It asks, “What exactly are the policies we should coordinate with those other 19 countries?” Australias voice will be a small one among many, and unfortunately we are more likely to end up just like them unless we insist on conducting our own economic policies in our own way. The reason why we are in better shape than the rest of the G20 is that we had a better more competitive economy to begin with.

Nations need to solve their own problems at home in their own way, not adopt a one size fits all solution based on other countries average economic situations.

Mea culpa; National Party discover cause of financial crisis.

National Party Senator, Barnaby Joyce has a home page on “Agmates,” a social networking site, and has a thread going railing against the dominance in Australia of Coles and Woolworth’s in the supermarket business.

Not being a great fan of regulation I got involved, resulting in the following comment from one of the members of the forum:

“Jim, your views are as near as I can tell at the extreme end of the spectrum and you certainly have been caught up in the free market view of the world. Sadly we have followed your path for much too long and the world is now reconsidering its axioms as a result of excessive freedoms given to huge banks based on your very ideas.”

Barnaby tends to have a fair sort of fan club going for him, probably because he bucks the system and the party line on occasions. Because of these stands he tends to appeal to those who are disillusioned with the current Tweedeldums and Tweedeldumses style of government and opposition. With the major political parties we have in Australia, elections are a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Regrettably I have serious doubts that he will make much of a difference in the long run as while he is more independently minded than most members of his party, his philosophy is rooted in the big government, nanny state camp.