Cow-fart gate.

Cartoon: By Nicholson.

Well, first there was 'climategate', then the floodgates really opened and the whole sorry scam of the global warming junkies started to come apart at the seams. It appears now that when one gate opens another gate opens, then another and another .......

I got this item from 'Newsmax' which appears to be excerpted from an article in the Telegraph reporting on yet another favourite alarmist sacred (belching and farting) cow, or should I say item of faith going down the gurgler.

‘Cowgate’ Is Latest Global Warming Scandal

Another claim by global warming alarmists has been discredited — this time assertions about the role livestock play in producing greenhouse gases.

In 2006, a United Nations report entitled “Livestock’s Long Shadow” claimed that “the livestock sector is a major player, responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. This is a higher share than transport.”

This led to demands for a “cow tax” in the U.S. and a campaign in Europe last year called “Less Meat = Less Heat,” political commentator Gerald Warner points out in Britain’s Daily Telegraph.

Now Dr. Frank Mitloehner, an air quality expert at the University of California at Davis, calls the U.N. report “scientifically inaccurate.”

In a report to the American Chemical Society, he reveals that the U.N. added all greenhouse-gas emissions associated with meat production, including fertilizer production, land clearance, methane emissions, production of feed, milk processing, and vehicle use on farms, to get the highest possible result.

But the transport figure included only the burning of fossil fuels, resulting in an “apples and oranges analogy that truly confused the issue,” Mitloehner disclosed.

In fact, just 3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. are attributable to the raising of cows and pigs, compared to 26 percent from transport, according to Mitloehner.

“It is becoming difficult to keep pace with the speed at which the global warming scam is now unraveling,” Warner writes, noting that the Washington Times has called the latest flap “Cowgate.”

“Himalayan glaciers, polar bears, Arctic ice, Amazon rainforests, all discredited.”

One of the authors of the U.N. report, Pierre Gerber with the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, told the BBC he accepted Mitloehner’s criticism: “I must say honestly that he has a point — we factored in everything for meat emissions, and we didn’t do the same thing with transport.”

The antics of these scumballs on the GW gravy train are not only reprehensible from the ethical point of view but the revelations that are continually coming out on this fraud are likely to discredit honest scientists for years to come. Sort of, "Don't tell mum I'm a research scientist, she thinks I'm a ukulele player in a brothel."

I am particularly happy for my old mates Ben and Bawb over in the US as they will be able to continue managing their livestock empires in Montana and Iowa without that haunting feeling of guilt they have never alluded to about destroying the planet and making things terribly hot for those in Washington who seek to 'serve' them by telling them what to do.

... A Fine time to lead us Barack.

H/T The Real Polichick.

This is too good not to pass around.

Need for some decent polys here.

I have been dismayed over more years than I care to remember over the paucity of belief in personal liberty among our political representatives we have here. There is no underlying concept of limiting the powers or the scope of government among our representatives, in fact quite the reverse. Our leaders tend without exception to believe that they have a natural right to inflict their will on us in order to create a sort of one size fits all Australian, and worse still bargain us as pawns to pressure groups in order to secure votes at election time.

To get the vote of the green marxists they create a stand in our way state, to fund their grandiose schemes they create a state of theft, and to get the wowsers onside they create an eye in the keyhole state. Our reps have delusions not only of grandeur but of relevance.

I have for some time regretted the fact that we have no politicians of the calibre of some of the US people on the political scene such as Jeff Flake, Ron Paul, and so on who strongly believe in personal freedom and small government. One guy I have seen a lot of lately is Paul Ryan, and I received an Email today from our LDP treasurer pointing out a couple of his great efforts of late with the words:

Paul Ryan - You need to watch this guy. Paul Ryan - a Republican congresman from Wisconsin.

Could you imagine anyone in our pathetic excuse for a government speaking like this?


Another great watch is his statement to Obama, taking the healthcare bill apart, a great performance.

I am noticing with the advent of the tea party movement some great candidates coming to the fore, such as Allan West, Rand Paul, Katherine Jenerette, and Christine O'Donnell. If you guys over there don't elect them you are mad, but if this happens then send them over here, we could use them.

“Earth Hour or Blackout Night?”

Photo: The Two Koreas from space at night.

(Acknowledgements to the Competitive Enterprise Institute.)

“Take a look at a place that celebrates ‘Earth Hour’ every night – Stalinist North Korea. Compare it to free South Korea that keeps its people warm, well fed and working (with the help of Australian coal):

By Viv Forbes

Chairman

The Carbon Sense Coalition

Email: info@carbon-sense.com

The Carbon Sense Coalition today said that Earth Hour should be renamed “Blackout Night” and be held outdoors, for the whole night, in mid-winter, on the shortest and coldest day of the year - 22 June in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that all supporters of alternative energy should spend just one night in the cold and the dark, emitting no carbon dioxide from coal, oil, gas, petrol or diesel for lights, TV, hot coffee, barbecues or cars. This will be good practice for the blackouts and shortages to come if Penny Wong’s rationing of carbon products and carbon energy is attempted.

“Winter nights are usually still and cold, so the candles crew can experience what it was like depending on alternate energy in the recent snowstorms in the Northern Hemisphere when wind turbines froze and solar panels were covered in snow. The back-to-nature brigade can also try living without iron roofs and concrete walls, both of which require coal and emit carbon dioxide during their production.

“To hold a candles-and-champagne party indoors, on the mildest night of the year, for just one hour, shows that the whole thing is green tokenism. Moreover both candles and champagne emit carbon dioxide. Let the true believers try the real thing in one of the extreme seasons so they can appreciate the great benefits we take for granted when using all of our carbon fuels and foods.

“Instead of sneering at human achievements they should salute the people who keep the lights on for the other 364 days of the year.

“Our salute will be to turn on every light on our property, and we urge all supporters to do the same.

“Australia gets almost 90% of its electricity from hydrocarbon fuels – black coal, brown coal, gas and oil. If the German Greens close their coal and nuclear power they can fall back on gas from Russia, nuclear power from France or hydro from Scandinavia when the lights go out.

“Australia has no prudent neighbours to bludge on if we gamble our future electricity needs on sunbeams, sea breezes and ceiling insulation. If we attempt the massive cuts in carbon dioxide emissions demanded by the deep greens we will see Australia headed for the Romanian power rationing experience - during the Ceaucescu regime in Romania, each house was limited to ONE 25 watt bulb for all of their light.

“All over the world we have aging power stations and an orchestrated campaign by a few warm and well-fed agitators to harass, delay and deter construction of new power facilities.

“Such a campaign can only have one result – many “Earth Night” blackouts are assured.

“So we support “Blackout Night” to prepare our population for the dark days ahead.

Grass is also Green.

By Viv Forbes, Chairman The Carbon Sense Coalition.

You may have heard of Peter Spencer, the desperate Australian farmer who went on a hunger strike to draw attention to the fact that government bans on clearing vegetation had stolen his assets and destroyed his business. Peter is just one of many Australian farm families reduced to desperation and even suicide by seizure or sterilisation of their land to satisfy the voracious green god.

The most massive injustice occurred a couple of years ago, when, as a sacrifice to the Kyoto god, the federal government conspired with state governments to ban vegetation clearing on all property, even freehold. This was done in an underhand way to allow the government to seize carbon credits from landowners without paying compensation.

Many well meaning people, while not happy with the tactics and the refusal to pay compensation for property seized or devalued, think that there will be some environmental or climate benefits to come from all this.

Generally there are none.

Even if extraction of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere was a good idea (and it isn’t), no tree can keep extracting it on a long term basis. Every living thing (including trees, grass, cows and humans) borrows carbon from the environment as it grows, stops extracting it at maturity, and hands the valuable carbon back to the environment when it dies and the body rots. Net life time extraction equals ZERO. It is absolute scientific nonsense to believe that trees can have a long term effect on so called greenhouse gases. Like everything politicians touch, short term appearances and secret agendas are preferred to long term reality.

Banning the clearing of scrub regrowth in our grasslands is also a backward step environmentally. Everyone can see and understand tree forests, but no one appreciates the grass forests beneath their feet. Natural fires created our grasslands long before humans occupied Australia. They are valuable environmental landscapes far more important to humans than the stupid carbon credit forests and eucalypt weeds now invading them. With closer settlement and excessive areas locked up by governments, fires no longer protect our grasslands and landowners must use machinery to maintain their grass. Preventing this is like telling a market gardener he is not allowed to chip weeds invading his vegetable patch. Every landowner tries to guard the long-term value of his land. No one has a monopoly on knowledge on how to do it. Some properties may need more trees, some less - if more trees are a benefit, landowners will grow them without coercion.

Does anyone seriously believe that a few green politicians and activists can devise one dictatorial land plan for every property from Longreach to Wagga and then use legal bludgeons, land confiscation and a desk bound bureaucracy to enforce the co-operation of landowners?

The Senate is currently carrying out an enquiry into some aspects of this massive land mismanagement. It is a bigger scandal than the home insulation scheme, and few politicians are free of blame. The Senate will be surprised at the injustices that will be revealed by this enquiry.

The Carbon Sense Coalition has (in some haste) made a Submission to this enquiry. We urge you to read it and print it out for friends. See it here.

Even if you don’t read it, open it and look at the pictures.

We must not let them sweep all this under the table again. We need your help to get this short note to every landowner, every media outlet and every politician. Pls help us spread it around.

And remember to tell everyone “Grass is also Green”.

Earth Hour/Human Achievement Hour.

Picture: Earth Hour contest; “And the winner is North Korea!”

On Saturday the 27th of March at 8:30 PM the idiots of the world who still support Al Gore’s global warming scam are going to celebrate “Earth Hour,” a time for all sheeple along with their assorted bureaucrats and government masters to turn off the lights for an hour and sit in the dark feeling self-righteous.

The TV coverage the next day will picture all of those lights in cities all over the world going off with the usual platitudes about saving the planet. Interestingly none as usual will question why all that lighting was on in the first place in empty buildings. Surely it can't be for security purposes as if that was the case they could hardly turn them off at all, let alone at an advertised time.

The competitive Enterprise Institute last year initiated Human Achievement Hour, which is a celebration of the progress of humanity from human endeavour. The one-hour celebration coincides with “Earth Hour,” which allows the sane to participate in their own way. Here is a video produced last year to promote it:

Human Achievement Hour

The optimistic nature of the video is in sharp contrast to the dire predictions of doom and gloom symbolised by the adherents of Gores version of Piltdown man, or their collective wet dreams of apocalypse.

Governments and lefties including the greens tend to be collectivists with an overwhelming belief that all things good can only be brought about by the state. This tends to push them into the area where they are hostile to any perception that human progress and innovation is able to improve the state of mankind, let alone accept that the scientific achievements of the past have already done so in free countries.

Instead they argue for reversal of what we have achieved maintaining that it cannot be sustained, hence the decades old predictions of world famine, peak oil, anthropogenic global warming and so on. The more we centralise the thinking process the less likely we are to improve the human condition as it is impossible for any think tank to come up with the diversity of ideas produced by millions of individuals attempting to better their own lives in their own way and and by doing so, enriching those around them.

I will be celebrating human achievement while the fuehrer’s of the left celebrate the darkness that matches their spirits.

My message to humanity and especially those guilt ridden souls who have fallen under the influence of the drab grey messengers of doom from the greens, the left, the right, and all those followers of bizarre lines of thought that lead down the road to authoritarianism, is:



It’s OK to feel good about yourself.


Can’t see the Grass for the Trees?

Cartoon: Eric Allie.

By Viv Forbes, Chairman, The Carbon Sense Coalition.

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called on the Australian Parliament to repeal the vegetation clearing bans before Australia’s productive grasslands are lost to woody weeds.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that the Kyoto bans were introduced deviously by state governments acting as stooges for the federal government to deprive landowners of potential carbon credits without paying compensation.

“Now they are creating a growing public liability as trees invade ancestral grasslands.

“Every continent in the world had vast native grasslands, often treeless, kept free of trees by lightning fires, and supporting huge populations of herbivores and their dependent predators. The treeless Prairies supported bison and antelope; the Pampas supported deer and camelids; the Veldts supported wildebeest, zebra and antelopes; and Australia’s grasslands supported kangaroos and emus.

“Trees and grasses are in continual competition for soil space and access to solar energy. Old journals, diaries, sketches and photos can attest the fact that there are now more trees in Australian grasslands than there were 100 years ago. Some properties can document the substantial tree invasion even since the first aerial photos were taken in the 1950’s. This invasion has accelerated since governments started meddling in vegetation control.

“Human settlers, both black and white, have learned that fires were essential to re-invigorate the grasslands and control their invasion by trees. But with closer settlement, there are reduced opportunities to use fires to control trees and landowners must use machinery to protect their grass.

“White settlement in Australia has brought two major changes to vegetation. Firstly, in the forests and scrubs along the coast, timber getters and small selectors cleared the fertile soil for crops and farms. Human development and infrastructure ensure that these forests seldom recovered. Secondly, scrubby regrowth and trees have invaded much of the grassland and open forest.

“If governments want to turn back the vegetation clock, they should be removing towns, roads, railways, schools, orchards, housing developments, cultivation and market gardens from the once forested coastal areas to allow coastal forests to re-establish. But this would lose too many votes, so they advocate accelerated destruction of our ancient grasslands. Their hope is that this will gain more votes from tree huggers than will be lost from grass farmers, where there are few votes to lose.

“Today the grasslands support domesticated grazing animals and farms of cultivated grasses and legumes that are essential food sources for humans. Invasion of Australia’s grasslands by eucalypt weeds is destroying our ability to produce food, which will show up in the cities as rising food prices and declining jobs.

“These bans can have no long term effect on greenhouse gases. They will reduce food production and slash property values. They are cynical exercises in vote buying and international grandstanding which should be immediately abandoned.”

“If action is not taken we will soon reach a state where we can’t see the grass for the trees.”

For a fuller discussion of “Grasses, Trees, Climate and Food” see here:

Disclosure: Viv Forbes and his wife own and live on a freehold sheep and cattle grazing property at Rosevale in Queensland. The tree population on this property has increased greatly during their occupation. The property is affected by vegetation management plans prepared without any consultation with the owners.

Dan Reihl nails it.

Cartoon: by Ramirez.

H/t Tabatha Hale.

For those of you who are unaware of the background, Harry Reid's wife and daughter were involved in a car accident the result being that his wife has a broken neck and back and is apparently in a fairly serious condition.

In view of the projected "death panels" that are apparently going to be the case for 'ordinary Americans' in their advancing years and requiring full on care, Dan Reihl has put up the following post. I was initially shocked at the callousness however in retrospect it is really a great analogy for what happens to the 'non-elite' under the proposed socialism of medicine:

Isn't It Time To Euthanize Reid's Wife?

I'm not sure I quite understand this, given that cost is so important as a burden to taxpayers when it comes to health care. If Democrats want so badly to abort babies because of it, why are we bothering with someone who has a broken neck and back at 69? It sounds to me like she's pretty well used up and has probably been living off the taxpayers for plenty of years to begin with. Aren't we at least going to get a vote on it? .....

I realize her crook of a husband and his pals in Congress have excluded themselves from the mess they're going to compel everyone else to join, but we're still paying the bills, are we not? I don't see that she's worth it at this point, frankly. I can't recall her ever doing anything for me.

Come on, Harry - do your civic duty. The nation's broke and counting on you guy. Pull the plug and get back to work. And don't bill us for a full day today, either. This is no time to be sloughing off. Air freight her home, you can bury her during recess on your own time and dime. Or are you going to bill us for that, too? .....

I doubt that when these people come up with these 'good ideas' that they think of them from the perspective of how they would affect them if they were from the 'great unwashed,' as they seem to view the populace.

This is a reminder to Harry and his crowd of what they are doing in the only sort of terms they are likely to understand. That is of course if they can actually relate to the electorate in any sort of inclusive terms.

In Australia a new centenarian gets a congratulatory message from the Queen. In America under Obamacare, they will spark a Senate inquiry into just how it was allowed to happen.

I fully understand the nature of the post and realise that the left are self righteously angry. I think they should examine their consciences with regard to the stuff they have published or agreed with that was vicious, and appalling, and ask themselves if this is really over the top.

I believe that under the circumstances it comes under my definition of 'fair comment' and while I have some sympathy for the lady, I feel Reid deserves none.

A simple guide to Obamacare.

From "The Real Polichick." (Click to enlarge.)

For all those of you US mates of mine who are somewhat confused as to how things will operate under Obamacare, this chart should simplify it somewhat.

Under the old disorganised anarchic free enterprise model, you just bought insurance and went to the doctor if you needed to. This will free you from that sort of exploitation and get your care to you in a timely (well probably a long timely) fashion.

Note: The chart is possibly not complete as there seem to be several layers of pork missing.

Kiwi Rugby loss; “Karma.”

This post is designed to poke a bit of fun at “Old Mate” who just couldn’t help sticking it to us Aussies over losing the ‘crucket’ the other night. I just can’t help bowling an ‘underarmer’ on this occasion.

Press release.

New Zealand sporting authorities have concluded an in depth investigation into the humiliating loss by their best rugby team Waikato, who were flogged mercilessly by the lowest ranked team, the perpetual wooden spooners in the competition, the Queensland Reds. Announcing the results today, the chairman of Sports NZ, Mr. Rory Yapp said that sometimes these things happen for no reason that can be detected.

“On this occasion however this is not the case. Its not just a matter of the best team winning on the night, they obviously weren’t. Nor was it, as is usually the case when Australians win, a biased umpire. None of the usual excuses will work here,” he said.

“What we have found on this occasion is that a Kiwi mine manager in some remote town in New South Wales really put shit on a group of Aussies over their loss in the one day cricket match the night before. This appears to have created the situation where Karma has resulted in the Aussies being given the chance to get back at us.”

Photo: NZ rugby authorities are seeking this man as a “Person of interest.”

In conclusion Mr. Yapp stated, “It is hoped that the Aussies will maintain their usual graciousness in victory and refrain from doing to us what we usually do to them when we win.”

In a demonstration of the courteousness of Queenslanders one sporting fan celebrating the event said, “Them Kiwis ul just have to dry their eyes an harden the f**k up a bit before they take us on again.”

Hang onto your tinfoil hats; yesterday mind control, today earthquakes.

Image: Laika the space dog.(From The Peoples Cube.)

For some time there have been rumors of a Karl Rove mind control ray, prompting a number of satirical posts such as, “Sunspot Activity Causes Brief Interruption of Karl Rove's "Mind-Ray" - Democrats Claim Rare Moment of Sanity.”

This although generally claimed to be carried out from some secret location, possibly his basement now in view of some of the current statements around the blogs there is a strong possibility that the HAARP site in Alaska is somehow implicated. HAARP or High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program appears mainly to be an effort at research the ionosphere using low frequency waves.

There seems now to be some suspicion among conspiracy theorists though, that it is actually designed to cause mental disturbances among liberal minded folks, possibly paranoia being a prime candidate among these.

Another reasonably bizarre suggestion is that it is actually designed to change the Earths climate. There are a number of posts out there suggesting that there is a program of seeding the contrails of highflying jets with heavy metals. Two that have been mentioned are aluminum, (I wouldn’t have called it heavy), and barium.

It is then claimed that by bombarding contrails with HAARP rays the climate can be changed. One post goes so far as to suggest that the recent Copenhagen global warming conference was sabotaged by this means, causing record low temperatures. The writer claims that by causing the coldest winter on record in the Northern hemisphere, the US was able to prevent any meaningful agreement taking place.

This means that it must have been carried out by some secret cabal, separate to the government as a whole, as the government seemed quite anxious for a solid agreement on GW, along with all those controls they could put in place as well as punitive taxes.

Now if you Google HAARP earthquakes, you will be met with a fascinating array of theories that most recent quakes were caused, (in most cases deliberately) by the governments targeting of fault lines with these rays. Seemingly the US government is giving subtle warnings to China, Haiti, the Kiwis, and Chile among others, using a weapon that is disguised as a natural disaster.

It is not understood how such events would be taken as a warning if the victims are unaware that a weapon has been used.  If you are trying to cause enough fear that nations will stop pissing you off, you really need to ensure that they know that you did it to them and they better pull their heads in or they will get it again, right where the chicken got the axe. A year or so ago Bush could have been blamed but all that has changed now.

Perhaps it is supposed to work by harnessing karma.

Danny Glover and other Hollywood celebrities are smart enough to understand that earthquakes are not caused by movements in the Earths tectonic plates, at least not since Bush was elected. They however claim they are caused by global warming.

“Scattering Green Stimulus Packages.”

Cartoon: (I can't quite identify the author, but its accurate)

The Carbon Sense Coalition today called for an end to all disruptive Green Stimulus packages.

The Chairman of “Carbon Sense”, Mr Viv Forbes, said that every targeted stimulus package hits the favoured industry like a hippo jumping into your bath tub.

“But when the hippo leaves there is no water left in the tub, and if the hippo runs riot and is shot, the smell is awful.

“Here’s a better procedure.

“Give every MP one million dollars in $5 notes. Tell them to drive around their electorate throwing bank notes out of the window.

“Some greenola will fall into every bath tub.

“But there will be no flash floods, no rampant hippos shot, no ministers lynched, no rogue operators, and no need for creative accounting, lobbying or red tape. “

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

Book Review

Has everyone read “The Hockey Stick Illusion; Climategate and the Corruption of Science”?

I have just read it and strongly recommend it. It is a real eye-opener. The author does an excellent job of pulling together and explaining very clearly the whole ‘Hockey Stick’ shemozzle. Some of the most notable points I gained from it were:

1. The level of control of IPCC exerted by the activist scientists

2. Peer review and how it has been corrupted.

3. The activist role of scientific journals such as ‘Science’ and ‘Nature’ to promote belief in the “Hockey Stick” and beat off criticisms.

4. Distortion of data.

5. Cherry picking of data.

6. Refusal to release data and methodology.

7. And the politics, agenda and funding of activist web sites like RealClimate

Recommended reading for anyone with an open mind and interested in “Dangerous man-made global warming” and what we should do about it.

“Global warming”: time to get angry.

Read the shocking story of the closure of Britain’s last great steel works.

We have seen the future and it does not work.

Amnesty International loses all credibility; Gita Sahgal “suspended.”

Gita Sahgal.

Amnesty International sounded like a great idea when I first heard of it. Their ideal of supporting he release and rights of political prisoners worldwide sounded like a really worthy cause way back. It still would be but unfortunately Amnesty turned out to be more driven by leftist politics and grandstanding towards that end, rather than being a crusading group determined to stand up to oppression regardless of who was carrying it out, or their ideology.

It became blindingly obvious that the organization was agenda driven when despite the horrors being committed by the communist block and its allies, it preferred to look for its villains in the West especially the US. I guess if you are going to take on governments, its safer to pick those with a strong ideal of due process.

Now, the head of Amnesty International unit for Women's Rights, Gita Sahgal, has been suspended by the group, for opposing the alliance of the group with a top Taliban supporter in the UK Moazzam Begg. Begg is the “jihadi” group, Cageprisoners based on supporting the Guantanamo prisoners, of whom he was a member until 2005 after being picked up in Pakistan in the wake of the Afghan invasion.

Treatment of women in Islamic countries varies from place to place, however the Taliban regime were deplorable and probably one of the worst.

Ms. Sahgal states that only accepted her job at AI after insisting to Widney Brown, senior director of International Law and Policy at Amnesty, that she be allowed to address their alliance with Begg and his group. It would be difficult for any serious supporter of women’s rights to accept an alliance with such a misogynistic group as the Taliban or their supporters.

From Wall St Journal:

"I told her, 'If you don't give me the power to clean up this Begg situation, I won't take on the gender affairs assignment. Widney encouraged me to write a memo on it and even came past my office late one night while I was writing to discuss it. There was no internal resistance against this. So I was promoted with full support. Then, when the Sunday Times story broke, everything I uncovered was deemed 'innuendo.'"

For Ms. Sahgal, her case is not simply a minor lapse in judgment. She thinks the problem is systemic. "This is a very peculiarly ideological approach to human rights, which misses the point."

It is interesting to observe that the only real support she is receiving at present seems to be coming from human rights advocates on the right such as Bob Brockley, who opposes the anti semites and Stalinists of the UK, and conservative columnist Mona Charen.

The left over recent years have increasingly allied themselves with radical Islam, possibly because as collectivists they share a hatred of such Western values as liberty, individualism, free market capitalism. They are also swayed by the old adage, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” after all anyone who burns George Bush in effigy must, in their opinion, share their values.