Copenhagen Treaty

Before our government (or any government) becomes a signatory, I think it's a good idea for us to know what it means....

From a speech by Lord Monckton you can find this here at Watts Up With That?

Here were Monckton’s closing remarks, as dictated from my audio recording:

At [the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in] Copenhagen, this December, weeks away, a treaty will be signed. Your president will sign it. Most of the third world countries will sign it, because they think they’re going to get money out of it. Most of the left-wing regime from the European Union will rubber stamp it. Virtually nobody won’t sign it.

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 satisfication 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.

How many of you think that the word “election” or “democracy” or “vote” or “ballot” occurs anywhere in the 200 pages of that treaty? Quite right, it doesn’t appear once. So, at last, the communists who piled out of the Berlin Wall and into the environmental movement, who took over Greenpeace so that my friends who funded it left within a year, because [the communists] captured it – Now the apotheosis as at hand. They are about to impose a communist world government on the world. You have a president who has very strong sympathies with that point of view. He’s going to sign it. He’ll sign anything. He’s a Nobel Peace Prize [winner]; of course he’ll sign it.

[laughter]

And the trouble is this; if that treaty is signed, if your Constitution says that it takes precedence over your Constitution (sic), and you can’t resign from that treaty unless you get agreement from all the other state parties – And because you’ll be the biggest paying country, they’re not going to let you out of it.

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.

But I think it is here, here in your great nation, which I so love and I so admire – it is here that perhaps, at this eleventh hour, at the fifty-ninth minute and fifty-ninth second, you will rise up and you will stop your president from signing that dreadful treaty, that purposeless treaty. For there is no problem with climate and, even if there were, an economic treaty does nothing to [help] it.

So I end by saying to you the words that Winston Churchill addressed to your president in the darkest hour before the dawn of freedom in the Second World War. He quoted from your great poet Longfellow:

Sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

Link posted earlier under Wand's guest post, but it deserves its own post.

Thank you, Wand!

Not even with a fist full of fivers

It appears that the A1 race on the Gold Coast is off.

It's supposed to be next weekend, the Queensland government has already paid organisers almost $2M. The Qld government had pledged over $11M.

This was supposed to replace the GP.

About the A1 race here, with information on Plan B.

The announcement has just been made that the A1 race is cancelled and it's not on a news site on the web yet.

What about the rest of us...

Those unsure of their origins?

I have a paperback book, assembled by a geneaology hobbyist in the family, which is about one of my ancestors who jumped the Portugese whaling ship he was bosun on in Sydney, disappeared for six months and then turned up again married.

Then there's the German roots. He was from Germany and a shearer, he and his wife lived in Greenacre when I was a child.

And the Welsh chap from Welshpool, who built a church there.

There are more, but I don't know of them.

Read about The Welcome Wall here.

You think you've got problems!

Cleaning the toilet today in a rush and whaddya know, the brush broke. I was busting and had to clean it before I could use it, of course. The brush handle broke into three pieces, the bit in my hand, the bit with the brushy thingy on the end, and a middle bit which fell into the, uh, water - the foaming water.

No gloves (gloves are for sissies, and besides, I have a brush, I don't need gloves, that suff isn't touching my skin!), the dunny was cleanish so I plunged my hand in and grabbed the middle 2 inches of the brush handle.

Now I'm just hoping that my right hand doesn't dissol

Like, what a dumb ditz, like - and, like, more!

DEEPA GUPTA: I think with any - like, when you get - are in a war, like there's so much hurt done on both sides that you can keep arguing for one side or you can keep arguing for the other side and I don't think you actually get anywhere, and that's what's been happening. Like, people don't understand the hurt that has been done on the other side. And, furthermore, like on the issue of cultural boycotts, like I understand the effectiveness of cultural boycotts but, at the same time, like I think music plays a really big role in bringing peace. Like earlier this year in India we did a climate solutions road tour and we had a solar powered rock band travelling with us and a dance troupe and - and these people were from America and they sang songs in Hindi and the most amazing thing was - you know, often, especially with rural communities, it takes weeks to build up trust with them and to help them understand what these issues are with music and dance we were able to break down these cultural barriers within 30 minutes. Like people were happy and dancing and open and really open to listen and I think that we need to acknowledge that music plays a really big role in connecting with people's hearts and helping then understand each other.

Someone explain to this greentard warmy twit what "base load" is, because she has no idea what it is and why it is necessary.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, I think what we've got to do is not - it's not a matter of either or. The reality is that we have a great opportunity in Australia to expand the renewable energy sector massively. But when I go to international conferences I, with due respect, don't see the Chinese and Indian representatives saying, "We're not going to have any more coal fired power stations." What, in fact, they're doing, is building them at a rate that is scary. Because unless clean coal technology can be made to work, then we are going to have a real problem. So we need to invest in new technology and research and get it right, whether it's clean coal technology or whether it's renewable, the problem is that developing countries will want, just as we have benefitted from base load power, they will want base load power and there is two options at the moment: coal and nuclear. They're the two options that are around. We need to invest in renewable technology to make sure that we - to see if that can be developed and there's great prospects with solar thermal and geothermal, et cetera. But I don't think we can afford to say, "No, we'll just cut off that option and not worry about it.

DEEPA GUPTA: I don't think it's an issue based on power though. It's an issue of the fact that it's cheap electricity.

NIKKI WILLIAMS: No, it is an issue of - you have to have base load power because, you know, if you look at a developed economy, probably about 20 per cent of the electricity use in that economy will be residential. The rest of it is industry and business, the things that actually employ us, that keep our economies going. So for that kind of electricity demand, you have to have base load. So you need a reliable energy source...

Then perhaps a lesson in economics, regarding supply and demand, and economies of scale so that when supply of electricty exceeds demand we will have to pay!

DEEPA GUPTA: To be honest, it just feels like non on here actually cares about the issue of climate change. Like this is threatening the survival of - like the future of my generation and all future generation and you're sitting here debating - you know, one party debating like 10 per cent for 2020 and another party debating whether we do anything or not, full stop.
...

DEEPA GUPTA: But to ensure the survival of like all nations and people and to stop - like, you know, to stop countries from going underwater, we need to aim for like 350 parts per million as a safe - like the upper limit of safe carbon - carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And for that, like, Australia needs to be taking targets of like 40 per cent of more by 2020 and none of you guys are even talking about it.

and this from another deluded audience member:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah, look, I want to know why we're still sitting around here talking about clean coal and spending billions of dollars on research on development when the technology is years off - the dangers are huge from this technology; it's completely untested - when we have got the answers in our hands in renewables?

More like, depth, from Deeepa:

TONY JONES: So where did you see the solution coming from, because Nikki is absolutely right. I think it is 80 per cent of China's power comes from coal. In India 66 per cent of carbon emissions in India come from coal. Both huge countries, both developing countries. Both want more electricity.

DEEPA GUPTA: Yes, I understand that they do both want more electricity but I think that that lies in renewables. Like, for Australia it is one of the windiest, one of the sunniest countries in the world. It's surrounded by ocean. It has the best hot rocks and, you know, for Australia - the CSIRO's study, I think, says that in the next 15 years we can actually generate 1 million clean energy jobs. So in Australia it is definitely possible. Now, secondly, you raised India. Similarly, India is also one of the sunniest countries in the world and, you know, India is really exciting in the sense that they have the opportunity to develop sustainably, if possible. But the question is is that India has two challenges on its hand. It has that of development and that of climate change. India has 800 million people living on less than $2 a day so that needs to be addressed simultaneously with development and so I think what we need is we need developed countries to support countries like India and other developing nations to develop cleanly so that they can avoid the problems that developed nations have created, and I think that's totally possible.

The whole shemozzle is here.

This exchange between Albanese and Pyne:

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Well, that doesn't mean it's true. Most of what is reported on these issues is distorted and I note we've had Philip Ruddock and Kevin Andrews and people out there, once again, because the Coalition don't have a policy - our policy is pretty clear.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: You're in government, so why don't you fix the problem.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: We have done - well, because...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Why don't you do something yourself.

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Why don't you just fix Afghanistan and fix Sri Lanka.

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Why do you keep talking about the Opposition all the time?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: Because that is...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: Why don't you do something?

ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...that is - that is the source. There are push factors there that lead...

CHRISTOPHER PYNE: (Indistinct) the Opposition.(I am sure that you can hear what he says in the audio.)

ANTHONY ALBANESE: ...that lead to people seeking asylum. It is not about Australia's policy. It is what is going on overseas.

TONY JONES: Okay.

Guest Post: Tax Carbon to Stop Corruption

The story titled “Tax carbon to stop corruption” in this morning’s Australian by Peter Walsh was based on his President's Report 2009 for the Lavoisier Institute.

Of course Peter Walsh from the Hawke Labor government and Labor's chief internal sceptic has never been backward in calling a spade a spade. So it is both refreshing but no suprise to see him call the ETS, AGW and all the attendant rent seekers and carpetbaggers for what they are - frauds.

Some gems from his report:

The Kyoto junkies wallow in belief but ignore factual evidence. Until they change any national Government should spurn their disastrous advice.

In the late 1980s Global Warming became a favourite topic for the 'chattering classes' who recognised it as a viable excuse for sabotaging the economy.

'Global Warming' has since morphed into 'Climate Change'... because it is more nebulous, offered more opportunities for activists to peddle their junk science and terrify the masses.

The IPCC record is disgraceful, even by UN standards. It habitually concocts evidence to prop up its predetermined conclusions.

The Kyoto junkies, as part of their brainwashing programme, assert that renewable energy, solar and wind, are suitable for base load power. That is another bare faced lie.

Al Gore, champion charlatan of 'global warming' and 'climate change'

It is almost beyond 'reasonable doubt' that the Kyoto hypothesis is a hoax, for which the Rudd Government and Turnbull Opposition have fallen.

But why does he suggest a Carbon Tax? The answer is simple: a tax can be easily abolished when the scam is exposed but the ETS will be exceedingly difficult to remove.

Thanks to Wand for his guest post after my exhausting week!

And another link to words from Lord Monkton.

Was emailed this today...

A man was sitting in the bar at Mascot Terminal and noticed a really Beautiful woman sitting next to him. He thought to himself:

'Wow, she's so gorgeous she must be an air hostess. I wonder which Airline she works for.'

'I still call Australia home' he says to her.

She pulled away from him & gave an ice cold glare.

'Obviously not with QANTAS'. He thought.

Hoping to pick her up, he leaned towards her and uttered the Delta Airline Slogan, 'Love to fly and it shows?'

She gave him a blank, confused stare and he immediately thought to Himself:' Well, she obviously doesn't work for Delta.'

A moment later, another slogan popped into his head, so he leaned towards her again and said, 'Something special in the air?'

She gave him the same confused look, and he mentally kicked himself, while scratching Singapore Airlines off the list.

He thought 'Perhaps she works for Thai Airways...' and said, 'Smooth as silk?'

This time the woman turned on him and said, 'What the F*** do you want?'

The man smiled, slumped back in his chair, and said 'Ahhhhh, Jetstar!'

Q & A - tonite

Tonight's panelists
Alexei Sayle - British comedian
Anthony Albanese - Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government
Christopher Pyne - Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training
Deepa Gupta - Executive Director, Indian Youth Climate Network
Nikki Williams - CEO, NSW Minerals Council

Newsflash Ant Albanese et al:

CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT A POLLUTANT

Dang. Missed next week's guests!

OK! Here's next weeks panel:

Annabel Crabb - Journalist
John Elliott - Businessman and Blogger
Craig Emerson - Minister for Small Business
Peter Dutton - Liberal MP
Louise Adler - Publisher

Not terrorists - but we'll blow ourselves up if we don't get our way

Sure they're desperate. Desperate to jump the queue.

From thisevening's PM program:

MARK COLVIN: There's obviously political sensitivity too, isn't there, because the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam are regarded in many parts of the world as a terrorist organisation and so there would be great reluctance to associate themselves with that group in any way.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Yeah that's right, and in fact one of the repeated things they said is "we are not terrorists" and they seem to waiver between making these sort of threats of violence of blowing themselves up, to then sort of tempering that when they realise that makes them sound rather unsavoury and so they're trying to sort of deliver a softer line, saying that we want international assistance.

What they really don't want is to go through the normal process. They're fully aware that if they get off the boat and end up in an immigration detention centre they will be there for up to 10 years. That's what happens. They've got 16 million asylum seekers around the world, that's the queue that they're trying to jump, it's a long one and that's something that they're trying to avoid through this sort of desperate performance they have on the boat at the moment.

More here.

Another snippet I heard was this, regarding the war of words between Rudd and Turnbull regarding rewarding illegal entry by permitting the entrants to stay.

EMMA GRIFFITHS: Neither the Opposition Leader nor the current immigration spokeswoman Sharman Stone have publicly embraced the idea.

They say the focus should be on the Government.

SHARMAN STONE: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course. We are developing policy but the issue right now is what is this Labor Government doing, what is its policy, what are its strategies because the Australian community doesn't care about what an opposition's strategy might be or could be at the next election. They want to know what is happening right now as the numbers on Christmas Island groan to maximum capacity.

More here.

Janet Albrechtsen - Human rights platitudes

THE Left has a gift for using clever language to push its causes. The trick is to start with a literal truth, a platitude so steeped in emotion it tugs on the heartstrings of human nature, something that just about every sane person will agree on. But what makes the use of a literal truth so seductive is the way it is used to hide a substantive untruth. A bit of intellectual rigour lifts the cloak on these dishonest word games. Just a few quick examples before we move to something far more serious.

Last Thursday evening I was a panellist on ABC1’s Q&A program. On the left side sat Todd Sampson, a successful advertising executive who appears on The Gruen Transfer, also on the ABC. Like any good advertising executive, Sampson, who is also the co-creator of Earth Hour, knows how to use an emotional platitude to get a response.

More.

Gems of idiocy via email...

Global 350

THE ISSUE
350.org is an international campaign dedicated to creating an equitable global climate treaty that lowers carbon dioxide below 350 parts per million.

350 is the number that leading scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide measured in parts per million (ppm) in our atmosphere. 350 ppm is the number humanity needs to get back below as soon as possible to avoid runaway climate change. We are now very close to 390 ppm.

For some truly idiotic crap please visit this site.

Note the supporters (aiders/abetters), and the sponsors.

Supporters (I guess this means they're not contributing any of their hard earned)

Bill McKibben

Vandana Shiva

Abp. Desmond Tutu (hero my armpit!)

Dr. James Hansen

Dr Tim Flannery

Liz Thomson (link?)

Pres. Mohamed Nasheed

Bianca Jagger (Mick's ex missus)

David Suzuki

Van Jones

George Monbiot Moonbat (no link provided by me!)

Rachel Ward - actress, celebrity

Peter Fitzsimons - "journalist"

Jennifer Byrne - should have more sense...

Richard Neville - "futurist" whatever the fuck heck that is

Paul Loeb - activist

Deepa Gupta ?

Robyn 100 metres Williams

Greta Scacchi - another bloody actress/activist/celebrity

Sponsors:

GetUp!

Eureka Funds Management

Avant Card

Cafe of the Gate of Salvation

Baker & McKenzie

Thumper One

Henry Davis York Lawyers

Zen Studios

The Videoplus Group

***
And if that isn't enough, I also received this:

2009 Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History
There's just a few weeks left to apply for this award. Nominations are sought from an individual or a group for any work first published, produced or broadcast between January 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009. This may include a published book, documentary film, documentary for radio or television, CD-ROM, DVD, other form of multimedia or a series of these works. Apply online. Details: pmhistoryprize@deewr.gov.au or 02 6240 9047.

My question is:

Can you make it up yourself, or does it have to be, er, History?

Sad tale of our times...

Eddie McGuire flies to Baghdad to watch a young Iraqi play Aussie Rules and is suitably impressed and arranges for him to come over to Collingwood.

He's signed to a one-year contract and the kid joins the team for the pre-season.

Two weeks later the magpies are down by 6 goals to Carlton with only 10 minutes left.

The coach gives the young Iraqi the nod and he goes in. The kid is a sensation - kicks 7 goals in 10 minutes and wins the game for the magpies!

The fans are thrilled, the players and coaches are delighted, and the media are in love with the new star.

When the player comes off the ground he phones his mum to tell her about his first day of AFL.

'Hello mum, guess what?' he says. 'I played for 10 minutes today, we were 6 goals down, but I kicked 7 goals and we won. Everybody loves me, the fans, the media...

'Wonderful,' says his mum, 'Let me tell you about my day. Your father got shot in the street and robbed, your sister and I were ambushed, raped and beaten, and your brother has joined a gang of looters, and all while you were having such great time.'

The young Iraqi is very upset.

'What can I say mum, I'm so sorry.'

'Sorry? You're sorry?' says his mum, 'It's your fault we moved to Collingwood in the first place

Quadrant online - Bob Carter reviews "Not Evil, Just Wrong"

Towards the end of the film, Patrick Moore scores another impressive and fourth goal, by stressing the little acknowledged fact that the much vaunted IPCC-advice, on which the Australian and other governments rely for setting their global warming policy, comes from a very narrow coterie of meteorologists, geographers and environmentalists; little input is provided from experts in geology (the custodian science of climate change through time), geophysics and astrophysics, which amounts to ignoring more than half of the major fields of expertise that are relevant to climate change. It has been shown repeatedly that most earth scientists see contemporary climate change as being caused by natural forces; and that climate continues to constantly change today, just as it has during the entire 4.6 billion year history of planet Earth, surprises no well-educated scientist.

More here.

Watching ABC - How sad is the Ganges?

The sacred river is terribly polluted and could be dangerous.

Fecal coliform acceptable level is 500ppm for drinking water. Five metres from the shore it is over 40,000ppm.

Yuck!

Corpses are burnt on the riverbank, the ashes are thrown into the river. Pregnant women and children are considered pure and don't need purification by fire (cremation), they are thrown into the river complete.

There are people who try to clean the river, removing rubbish and corpses and dead cattle, but they are fighting a losing battle.

Hollywood compassion, comparison & analysis by Christopher Hitchens

...Paul Shaffer feels he perhaps ought to say something about Phil Spector's conviction for the murder of another human being whose name most people cannot remember.

So he does say something. "I regret all the tragedy that has surrounded Phil in recent years," is what he chooses to say. Not really even a try, let alone a nice try.

More here.

Thanks to my friend W.

Bit of a noise and light show going on outside

Check it out!

Fascinating old stuff, anthropological things and Henry VIII

This would be so interesting!

I would like to know more about the sailors. It would be wonderful for complete skulls to be scanned and then computer faces generated using the markers to show us what these people looked like - it makes them more.... real? Is that the right word?

Regarding the furore over the "blackface" skit on Australian Television

Having just watched thie Bill O'Reilly show's coverage with the two hysterical women, Gretchen Carlson & Margaret Hoover blowing off about the skit and human rights and respect on this site, and the accumulated rubbish reported about Australia's racism and human rights tardiness, I have one thing to say:

US researchers for these programs, if they use researchers, are incompetent.

Australia is different to America. We've been a lot less restricted and PC with our humour. We've never had anything like the Black and White Minstrel Show (it was imported from the US). To us, if you are not black and need to play a black person you must be blacked up. To me, blackface was the minstrel look, big white lips, and white around the eyes, not completely black. For heaven's sake! If a black person wanted to play a white person would they "white up"? The Wayans brothers did, and dressed as women, for one of their movies.

For crying out loud, we had bare boobs and nakedness on our TVs in the 70s. We even showed married people sleeping in the same double bed (not in the US!).

I didn't think the skit was funny 20 years ago, Red Faces wasn't terribly funny anyway, and it wouldn't have been funny on Wednesday night when it aired again.

Offsiders

Not a bad smackdown of errant sports "stars".

Insiders

Andrew Bolt
Annabel Crabb
David Marr

Started off, surprise, surprise, all about the opposition and current issues...

Julie Bishop is the studio guest, and on Talking Pictures is Brendan Nelson.

Andrew Bolt asks why all the questions aren't being asked of Kevin Rudd - Annabel agrees.

Marr is a rude pratt. And that's putting it mildly.

"Mr Stokes is a man of great integrity and I cannot see him putting a Prime Minister in a position of conflict of interest." Julie Bishop.

Funny how nothing was said about the PM's integrity.

Interesting that the only news is Malcolm Turnbull's leadership and Libs issues.

The tulips at Canberra's Floriade are beautiful.

Opinion seems to be mixed on Your Shout regarding Libs' leadership.

Blackface sketch: Marr and Bolt agree... someone's gonna faint. Marr said that Australians look at something like that with Australian eyes and Harry Connick was looking at it with American eyes, and I think that sums it well. Australia is not America, and v-v.

Marr spoke about the human rights act and the emissions trading scheme all barely better than nothing.