A Kansas mother is praising a neighbor as a 'Superman' after her 6-year-old daughter told her he somehow found the strength to lift a car off her.
Obama: On 'Cusp' of Reform
President touts Senate Dems' deal to pass health care overhaul but says there's 'still work to be done'
Warnings of Fraud on Cap-and-Trade
Top cops in Europe say carbon-trading fallen prey to organized crime scheme that pocketed $7.4B
Whacked by Winter
Winter storm socks East Coast, dumping more than a foot of snow and creating unsafe driving conditions
Talkfest ends in a lot of hot air
THEY went to Copenhagen to save the world but in the final hours global leaders tried to save face.
Hail Mary MacKillop the Australian saint
POPE Benedict XVI approves a second miracle by Mary MacKillop clearing the way for sainthood.
Clemency plea for ill Schapelle Corby
SCHAPELLE Croby's family says she's lost in her own world and her sentence should be slashed.
Oboe player Joseph Daniel Hall found dead in Hong Kong hotel
A YOUNG musician has died and his friend is fighting for life after a suspected drug overdose in a Hong Kong hotel room while on tour with an Australian youth orchestra.
Is this $1120 bikini a bit of a stretch?
FASHION label says "special craftsmanship" justifies the $1120 price tag for signature bikini.
Searchers find wreck of Centaur
SHIPWRECK hunters have found the Centaur which was torpedoed in 1943 killing 268 people.
I can't sack Labor
NSW Governor Marie Bashir has acknowledged voter outrage over the dysfunctional State Government, but declared there is nothing she can do.
After months of denials, Iran acknowledges for the first time that at least three people were killed in country's postelection turmoil by their jailers.
=== Comments ===
Message on climate emotive, but a fraud
Piers Akerman
THE Copenhagen conference was rightly killed by greed, science fiction and a surfeit of hot air emitted by the 45,000 delegates, rent-seekers and assorted hangers-on, all of whom attempted to defy common sense and cripple the global economy. - I was fascinated to hear the political master Mr Howard at work on the issue on Fox. Basically he took on board everything that Piers has said here, and pointed out the problem of the fraudulent nature of GW believers. However, the fact that material has been falsified and fabricated doesn’t mean there is not a danger. Instead it means that we still have to be prudent. The promotion of Nuclear energy as a clean source is important. Whilst the mislabeling of CO2 is wrong, it is inarguable that pollution needs to be limited in a sustainable way. IMHO, the scientists behind GW extremism are spruikeing socialism, not salvation. The Copenhagen debate is misleading and never included what was important for the future. It goes on my record I supported Mr Turnbull, and was betrayed by him when he embraced GW extremism despite his promises not to embracer anything that was useless. I am glad Mr Abbott is leader, and I note he is a good leader. - ed
===
HE COULD HAVE BEEN PRESIDENT
Tim Blair
Metaphor master John Kerry summarises Copenhagen:
It’s a powerful signal to see President Obama, Premier Wen, Prime Minister Singh, and President Zuma agree on a meeting of the minds. These are the four horsemen of a climate change solution.Those four horsemen of the warmalypse must now decide who among them is Conquest, War, Famine or Death. (Junior ponyboy apocalypser Kevin Rudd already claims Sniffles.)
(Via CL and Rielh World View)
UPDATE. “No sooner does the climate change conference in Copenhagen close than global warming is mercilessly crushed in Fairfax, Virginia.”
===
SWERVIN’ MERVIN
Tim Blair
On day 43 of his death-for-climate quest, Starvin’ Marvin mentions:
I was driving home today …Two questions. He’s stopped eating, but he’s still driving a car?
And how safe is it to drive a car after not having eaten any food at all for 43 days?
Forget doctors. Call the police.
===
Don’t grovel, man
Andrew Bolt
Is Barack Obama bowing yet again to a despot? The LA Times’ Andrew Malcolm:
So if this photo of Obama leaning way over to stress his point isn’t technically a bow, who do you think in this picture out of Copenhagen is doing the selling/pleading—China’s Wen Jiabao or America’s Democrat president?===
Copenhagen: epic fail
Andrew Bolt
How complete a failure was Copenhagen? Feel the deal:
Obama’s Accord was the final, watered-down version of a document that had been worked on for more than a week by leaders and officials from 25 countries selected by the Danish Government. To win over the Chinese it included a softened section on international scrutiny of emissions that instead would allow emerging economies to monitor their own efforts, with only occasional outside checks.What’s more, this is the deal they couldn’t even seal:
It did not include emissions goals, but recognised scientific advice that global warming should be kept to within two degrees. It did not specify a year by which emissions should peak.
And while it asked countries to put their emission reduction targets into a register by February 1, the accord did not spell out penalties for any country that failed to meet its promise.
Most contentiously, the proposal was not legally binding.
It was blocked by six countries - Sudan, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba and Tuvalu - who accused the US of trying to dictate to the developing world and who dismissed the plan as too weak to prevent serious climate change… After countless hours of highly emotion negotiations, it was finally decided that the UN would ‘’take note’’ of the accord but not adopt it - effectively just acknowledging its existence.You’ve got to laugh. This is the deal they couldn’t even seal with bribes:
Defeat of the proposal could deprive the poorest developing countries access to a proposed $US30 billion ($A33 billion) green fund over the next three years to help them adapt to lower emission targets.UPDATE
All of this means that Kevin Rudd is committing Australia to painful cuts in emissions to set an example that most other nations have just announced they will not follow:
As it stands, the accord simply describes Australia’s current emission reduction target range of 5 per cent to 25 per cent in the political agreement. Mr Rudd said Australia would announce its final target once all nations had submitted their targets by February 1.The result is inevitable: Australian jobs will be shipped overseas.
UPDATE 2
Undeniably true:
THE failure of world leaders to strike a legally binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions ‘’entirely vindicates’’ the Opposition’s decision to reject the Government’s emissions trading scheme, Tony Abbott claimed yesterday.Not something Malcolm Turnbull could have said.
UPDATE 3
It’s astonishing how green groups could look at all this and draw exactly the wrong and most economically devastating conclusion - that in the face of a refusal by the world’s great emitters to slash their own emissions, tiny Australia should slash its insignificant own even harder, just to show ‘em:
The Australian Greens said the Government must now commit to a 40 per cent cut in emissions by 2020 - well in excess of the maximum 25 per cent target that would apply if a binding global deal had been struck…Mad.
Australian Conservation Foundation executive director Don Henry said the deal was disappointingly weak… ‘’Australia is at risk of being left behind,’’ Dr Henry said.
UPDATE 4
Of course, you could argue that the Copenhagen summit to lower temperatures has clearly worked. Here’s Barack Obama landing at the Andrews Air Force Base on his return from the talks:
===
Speaking of conference tourists…
Andrew Bolt
A free trip to a nice European city, with the extra benefit of TV exposure as a planet saver? No wonder:
Around 45000 participants wanted to get into Copenhagen’s Bella Center built for only 15000And among those freeloaders and showboaters who added exactly zero to the negotiations but plenty to the carbon dioxide emissions:
Speaking from the conference, ACTU president Sharan Burrow said the two-degree target wasn’t enough.What on earth was Burrow doing there, and why did the workers of Australia have to pay for her frolic in support of an agenda that could cost them their jobs?
“(The deal) won’t meet the needs of trying to protect continents like ours, or indeed the vulnerability of our Pacific neighbours,” she told Sky News on Saturday.
===
Czech President Klaus: Global Warming Not Science, but a 'New Religion'
As the Copenhagen climate conference drew to a close Friday, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, long a global warming skeptic, had a message for the world: do not dictate to humanity how to live based on an "irrational ideology," which he sees as the product of political correctness.
Global warming is a "new religion," not a science, he said in an interview with FoxNews.com.
"I'm convinced that after years of studying the phenomenon, global warming is not the real issue of temperature," said Klaus, an economist by training. "That is the issue of a new ideology or a new religion. A religion of climate change or a religion of global warming. This is a religion which tells us that the people are responsible for the current, very small increase in temperatures. And they should be punished."
Klaus, the second president of the Czech Republic since the fall of communism, is often called the Margaret Thatcher of Central Europe. In the interview, he sounded more like Winston Churchill, vowing to defend liberty and freedom from those who would restrain global economic growth.
"I'm absolutely convinced that the very small global warming we are experiencing is the result of natural causes," Klaus told FoxNews.com. "It's a cyclical phenomenon in the history of the Earth. The role of man is very small, almost negligible."
===
Shocked by the ABC’s lone conservative
Andrew Bolt
If you are an ABC reporter or current affairs presenter such as, say, Robyn ”100 metres” Williams or Jon ”No Climategate” Faine, and opine strongly and wildly from a Leftist point of view, then the ABC will voice not the slightest objection.
But if you are an ABC reporter or currennt affairs presenter who is a conservative - and Chris Uhlmann is the only one I can think of outside Michael Duffy’s show - then all hell breaks loose:
ABC journalists have been warned by management not to express personal opinions on ABC websites, a week after the public broadcaster launched its commentary website The Drum.(Thanks to reader Baden.)
ABC News director Kate Torney emailed staff this week warning them to be clear about the difference between news and opinion, after Media Watch host Jonathan Holmes revealed a schism among ABC journalists and the director of editorial policies, Paul Chadwick. “You will not be asked to write material based on personal opinions, and it is important anything you write for The Drum does not undermine the integrity of your work as a journalist,” Torney wrote.
ABC journalists, including The 7.30 Report’s Chris Uhlmann and Lateline’s host Leigh Sales, have been articulating strong opinions in various media, including on social media site Twitter.
Last week Media Watch host Holmes wrote he was “gobsmacked” by the strength of Uhlmann’s opinions.
===
Searching for Dr Jones
Andrew Bolt
Phelim McAleer, maker of the brilliant documentary Not Evil Just Wrong, scours Copenhagen for Phil Jones, the most infamous of the Climategate scientists. If he doesn’t find Jones, he sure finds the mindset that both produced and protects him.
===
Rudd’s carbon cops
Andrew Bolt
No, it’s not a parody. Kevin Rudd really is creating a force of carbon cops:
REFORMS TO ENHANCE POLICE CAPABILITYExcuse me, sir, but do you have a licence to breathe?
18 December 2009
Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, today announced significant administrative reforms to the Australian Federal Police (AFP) as part of the government’s response to the Federal Audit of Police Capabilities…
The major areas of reform include:
a new funding structure providing flexibility to meet existing and emerging priorities including: counter-terrorism; serious and organised crime, including e-security crime; border protection; overseas deployments and peace keeping; criminal law enforcement in business regulation; and support to the enforcement of the anticipated Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
===
Turnbull: trust a child above an old scientist
Andrew Bolt
Former Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull, having first likened climate sceptics to Holocaust deniers, smokers and Hitler appeasers, then plays the age card:
A curious feature of climate change denial is that it seems to be found overwhelmingly in the ranks of the old. I have never known a contentious issue where one side of the debate is so old. ..We should listen to the young — their passion for action on climate change and their concern for the environment reflects the fact that they have the most future at stake.Well, that rules out listening to Turnbull (55), Al Gore (61) and James Hansen (68), but not Nir Shaviv (37).
Turnbull’s obvious assumption is that we have most to learn from those who’ve learned least, being younger. So he’d no doubt approve of Kevin Rudd’s latest choice of scientific advisor:
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has drawn on the words of a seven-year-old Canberra girl to help him convince world leaders to seriously tackle climate change.Turnbull’s dismissal of sceptics on the grounds of their alleged age, rather their arguments, is not only anti-reason but also contrary to everything we each experience very personally. By that I mean we all have seen for ourselves that as we grow older, we seem to know and understand more. How many of us think we are more stupid now than we were a decade ago?
===
Rudd’s step too far
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd, talking of Copenhagen, has never said truer words by sheer accident:
“As of 24 hours ago, these negotiations stood on the point of total collapse …at midnight last night, we were staring into the abyss,” he said. He said the “big step forward” in the talks came with rich and poor countries agreeing to the goal of containing global warming to 2ºC.(Thanks to reader Trenny.)
===
Planet savers demand better cooking
Andrew Bolt
The green-preaching environment reporter of The Age describes the full horror of Copenhagen:
Put aside the shocking organisation and the terrible food; the failure to agree on a substantial climate change accord in Copenhagen wastes two years of work ...Beautiful. This from the brigade that demands the dirty masses drink rats’ milk, eat food raw, eat our pets and stop eating meat.
===
Climategate: how the cabal controlled Wikipedia
Andrew Bolt
Lawrence Soloman on how the Climategate scientists hijacked Wikipedia to preach warming and censor sceptics:
As we now know from the Climategate Emails, this band [of Climategate scientists] saw the Medieval Warm Period as an enormous obstacle in their mission of spreading the word about global warming. If temperatures were warmer 1,000 years ago than today, the Climategate Emails explain in detail, their message that we now live in the warmest of all possible times would be undermined…This scandal grows more astonishing by the day - in its extent, its effect, its shamelessness, its savage intolerance and its betrayal of science. But this aspect of Climategate also sounds a deep warning of how easily the new technology of information dissemination can be hijacked by only a few well-placed extremists. Add that to Google’s promotion of Al Gore last week on its home page, and you can see and fear the potential.
With the help of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the highest climate change authority of all, they published what became the icon of their movement — the hockey stick graph. This icon showed temperatures in the last 1,000 years to have been stable — no Medieval Warm Period, not even the Little Ice Age of a few centuries ago.
But the UN’s official verdict that the Medieval Warm Period had not existed did not erase the countless schoolbooks, encyclopedias, and other scholarly sources that claimed it had. Rewriting those would take decades, time that the band members didn’t have if they were to save the globe from warming.
Instead, the band members turned to their friends in the media and to the blogosphere, creating a website called RealClimate.org. “The idea is that we working climate scientists should have a place where we can mount a rapid response to supposedly ‘bombshell’ papers that are doing the rounds” in aid of “combating dis-information,” one email explained… One person in the nine-member Realclimate.org team — U.K. scientist and Green Party activist William Connolley — would take on particularly crucial duties.
Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known – Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003, ... Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site. He rewrote Wikipedia’s articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to erase the Little Ice Age; on Aug.11, the Medieval Warm Period. In October, he turned his attention to the hockey stick graph. He rewrote articles on the politics of global warming and on the scientists who were skeptical of the band. Richard Lindzen and Fred Singer, two of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, were among his early targets, followed by others that the band especially hated, such as Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, authorities on the Medieval Warm Period.
All told, Connolley created or rewrote 5,428 unique Wikipedia articles. His control over Wikipedia was greater still, however, through the role he obtained at Wikipedia as a website administrator, which allowed him to act with virtual impunity. When Connolley didn’t like the subject of a certain article, he removed it — more than 500 articles of various descriptions disappeared at his hand. When he disapproved of the arguments that others were making, he often had them barred — over 2,000 Wikipedia contributors who ran afoul of him found themselves blocked from making further contributions… In these ways, Connolley turned Wikipedia into the missionary wing of the global warming movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment