Thursday, December 17, 2009

Headlines Thursday 17th December 2009

Samuel Ball's funeral is today, in Melbourne
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The involvement of Rachel Uchitel (front) in the Tiger Woods scandal has cast new light on the business of VIP hostesses who cater to celebrities.

House OKs Debt Limit Hike
Bill would allow federal government to borrow nearly $300B to finance its operations for just six more weeks

Climate Deal Brings Legal Objections
Critics say Obama's mission to save the earth from global warming could come at the expense of the Constitution

Endangered Species vs. Private Land
Find just one of 1,410 listed endangered species on your property and the gov't could take charge of the land


Opposition Finance Minister Barnaby Joyce turns art critic, saying sculptures at Parliament House look like they were created by a couple of drunken men

Agonising wait for impaled woman
VOLUNTEERS support a woman impaled on a steel fence for 47 minutes until ambulance arrives.

Ugly protests mar Copenhagen deal hope
HUNDREDS arrested in Denmark but host nation optimistic a deal can be struck by the weekend.

How Scrabble helps judge, cop in jail
DISGRACED judge, top cop share Scrabble and crosswords while braving inmates' taunts, insults.


Iranian-backed insurgents intercept video feeds from U.S. Predator drones using off-the-shelf software, possibly providing them with info to monitor U.S. military operations.

Top Mexican Drug Lord Killed in Clash
Arturo Beltran Leyva is the highest-ranking figure taken down in Mexico President Felipe Calderon's drug war

Single-Payer Dream Killed
Senate liberals' hopes of a gov't-run health care system for all dies as senator vows it will return to the legislation

Obese underwear model sheds layers
IT has taken months of intensive work but "pile-it-on" Paul James is back to his original weight.

New MasterChef season in boilover
PRESSURE of repeating success of the first season leads to tears, walk outs and a sick judge.

Suicide pills bought as Christmas gifts
ELDERLY couples are buying each other suicide kits as Christmas presents, says campaigner.

Unique program produces results in the HSC for Menai High School
A UNIQUE teaching program which includes a four-day week for senior students is returning amazing HSC results for a small high school on Sydney's suburban fringes. - the program, as described, fails to account for the student performance. All good students regularly revise their work. They don't need school time to do it. What is the real reason? Is the school recently selective? - ed.

Water-rich 'super Earth' discovered

ASTRONOMERS may have discovered a new Earth-like planet that is larger than our own.

Risque billboard upsets Catholics

A BILLBOARD depicting Jesus's parents looking dejected after sex has outraged church groups.

Teen girls 'wanted to be raped'
A TEENAGE boy charged over the pack rape of two 15-year-old girls says he's done nothing wrong.

Fires threaten homes in two states
HOUSE engulfed in flames as fast-moving fires put properties at risk in NSW and Victoria.

Murder linked to $100m mortgage racket
MICHAEL McGurk's murder linked to an alleged mortgage racket involving hundreds of homes.

Scientists crack cancer gene codes
TWO common forms of cancer have been genetically mapped for the first time, scientists say.
=== Journalists Corner ===

Keepin' Up With Kim Kardashian!
On TV - in the papers - even on the runway! Kim's in so many places, it's hard to keep up! So what's her next move?
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Guest: Economist Art Laffer
Amidst rising inflation and massive government spending, is America about to face tax hikes like we've never seen before?
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Body Language Breakdown!
Michelle headlined Barbara's top 10 list... Now, body language examines the "fascinating" interview!
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Guest: Michelle Malkin
Obama mounts a last-minute push to keep his health care plan alive, but the GOP wants it DOA ... so what's the final prognosis?
=== Comments ===
Snowflake will last for longer than PM’s pledges
Piers Akerman
WOULD Prime Minister Kevin Rudd lie to the Australian people? The chief climate negotiator for China and the small African nations at Copenhagen think so.
According to Lumumba Di-Aping, an African who lives in New York, the “message Kevin Rudd is giving to his people, his citizens, is a fabrication. - I think that Rudd sincerely believes he is smart, and capable of making decisions for the person who votes for him. In relative terms, that may be true. However, I note that many people who voted for Rudd claim to have done so on the issue of Global Warming. I believe them when they tell me that, although I suspect that it was less to do with any issue, but really a media driven hatred for conservatives. Still accepting the prima facie argument, I feel that it will soon be the case those former supporters will support Mr Abbott's stance. Mr Abbott has the track record, and the right of the current debate. - ed.
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Democratic Party Divided Over Health Care
By Bill O'Reilly
The far left is furious that a government-run insurance concern and more Medicare entitlements have been stripped from the Senate bill.

The head of the far-left Daily Kos says: "The insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate."

A Huffington Post blogger says: "It's been pretty clear that the members of the Democratic leadership in the Senate are a bunch of amoral cowards who are afraid to play hardball."

What has the far left really insane is Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who will not support the massive entitlement spending. Lieberman can block the voting and is making life very difficult for his former party.

Remember, the senator from Connecticut is no longer a Democrat. He ran as an independent and won.

So now the far left is attacking Lieberman's wife. A vicious Web site wants her fired as global ambassador for a breast cancer charity, if you can believe it.

A personal note here: For 13 years I have been personally attacked by the far left. They never stop. But I'm on the front lines. There is no excuse for attacking Hadassah Lieberman. It is just sickening. All the woman is trying to do is help people with cancer.

Personal attacks have no place in public discourse, period. And attacks on families are unacceptable, yet you see them all the time on NBC and other media outlets. Disgraceful.

Back to the health care fiasco. On Tuesday, President Obama met with some Democratic senators because the bill may collapse. Here's what the president said after that meeting:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Now let's be clear. The final bill won't include everything that everybody wants. No bill can do that. But what I told my former colleagues today is that we simply cannot allow differences over individual elements of this plan to prevent us from meeting our responsibility to solve a long-standing and urgent problem for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Translation: Pass it at any cost.

Late Tuesday, Howard Dean said the president should kill the entire bill. Another far-left guy saying a compromise is not worth it.

The question is: What will happen now? I don't know.

But I do know one thing: This trillion-dollar health care deal is as chaotic as anything I've ever seen in Washington.
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OUR BEST HOPE
Tim Blair
“It’s the protesters who offer the best hope for our planet,” according to Johann Hari. We’d best take a look at them, then.

Oh.

UPDATE. In other protest news, Starvin’ Marvin is on his 40th day without food. Maybe he wants to be the new skinny Santa.

UPDATE II. No protests against Copenhagen anti-capitalist Hugo Chavez: “The applause was deafening.”

UPDATE III. Compare Copenhagen’s screeching greens with the sensible and modest Stephen McIntyre. (Via Treacher)

UPDATE IV. Protesters protested!

UPDATE V. Protesters attack a harmless poley bear:

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PARTY LIKE IT’S 2009
Tim Blair
Jo Thornely presents her Six Commandments For Still Having A Job Come January.
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BURDEN OF ENVY
Tim Blair
“One thing I love is how rich people have no taste,” writes the SMH’s Elizabeth Farrelly, who is evidently working through some personal issues:
When you’re feeling burdened by envy but at the same time sickened by how unerringly the world’s douche bags seem to float to the top, try this for therapy. Swing down to the Gucci-Prada end of town, saunter the racks of thousand-dollar frocks and five-thousand-dollar suits and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, there’s not a thing you’d be seen in, dead or alive.
Her language seems unusually strong today. Fancy clothes make Elizabeth angry:
Taste and wealth seem to be mutually exclusive, which I can only put down to two things. One, that today’s riche are mostly of the nouveau persuasion, and, two, that devotion to fattening the pockets leaves little time to educate the eye.
But enough about the Prime Minister and his wife. Elizabeth has a point to make:
Imagine if rich people built places of genuine beauty, like the Moorish palaces of Cordova or Seville.
They’re palaces, woman. They were built by rich people. It’s nice, though, that poverty-stricken folk like Farrelly are able to scratch together enough money to visit such places.
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BAD THINGS
Tim Blair
The Alternative Media Group of Australia lists the world’s evils:
Nuclear power, war, cancer, deforestation, genocide, black Nazis, Tim Blair and NSW Labor.
NSW Labor? That hurts.
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GET OUT OF HERE WHILE YOU STILL CAN
Tim Blair
Reason‘s Ron Bailey reports from Copendorken:
Not surprisingly, I have not heard a word about Climategate inside the COP meeting. However, I did snap this picture of a polar bear wondering where Climate Research Unit’s Phil Jones was.
Driven from its traditional feeding areas by unprecedented polar melting, the beast’s foraging infuriated delegates:
To a chorus of boos, a man dressed as a polar bear entered Copenhagen’s main conference center Tuesday and began paging the discredited climate scientist whose hacked e-mails sparked the Climate-Gate scandal.

Using a megaphone to pierce the rumble of hundreds gathered inside the Bella Center, which is hosting the city’s global climate summit, the polar bear boomed out:

“PHIL JONES??? HAS ANYONE SEEN PHIL JONES???” …

While no one in the highly partisan crowd attacked the bear, one woman advised him to “get out of here now while you still can.”
(Via Nicole, who writes: “I want this on a postcard.")
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CALL THAT A CHEESE?
Tim Blair
Axis-style conflict among trolley-maddened boxheads:
Two Germans needed hospital treatment after they fought a pitched battle in a supermarket with salamis used as clubs and a chunk of Parmesan cheese brandished like a dagger.
(Via Brat, who adds: “I blame global warming.")
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GOLD-PLATED GAS
Tim Blair
Electrical engineer Scott Wilkie emails:
Queensland Transport is offering an option to offset carbon emissions from your car on their website.

Clicking the “Balance Now” tab takes you to a screen where you select your type of car and it calculates the amount of CO2 emmissions for the year. I selected “medium car” which gave me a total of 3.77 tonnes of CO2 for the year. You then click the “calculate” tab to determine how much it will cost to give a warm feeling that I am not belching out poisons into Gaia’s precious atmosphere.

Imagine my surprise when the amount they are charging is $59.00 for my 3.77 tonnes of CO2. But then imagine my further surprise when I realise that this includes an optional 50 per cent government subsidy, bringing the cost of my 3.77 tonnes of CO2 to a total of $118.00 or $31.30 per tonne.

So I then checked out the Chicago Climate Exchange to see if I would be getting value for money for my “feel goodliness”. But it would appear that the current price for a tonne of CO2 on the CCX is $0.15 US. Can anyone explain?
It’s got to be due to the costs of freighting all that grade-A export quality carbon from Chicago to Brisbane, in the hulls of those enormous carbon arks. Other explanations are also invited, however.
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Still waiting, yearning, for the apocalypse
Andrew Bolt
Humans have never lived lives so long, healthy, comfortable and secure. Yet such plain facts cannot disrupt the theoretical certainties of a Guardian columnist such as Madeleine Bunting:
Copenhagen reminds us we have been living in a civilisation that has been destroying the life systems on which human wellbeing depends.
In fact, catch Bunting on another day, and she’ll confess:
Contrary to the naysayers, we are having it all.
UPDATE

Another eco alarmist demonstrates the pleasures of preaching austerity from first class:
He may be the green prince, but Britain’s heir to the throne has been slammed for being a hypocrite after flying to the Copenhagen climate change summit to deliver a keynote speech on an executive jet with a large carbon footprint, UK media reports say.

Prince Charles attended the conference in Denmark on the $21,800 RAF Royal Flight that emitted about 6.4 tons of carbon dioxide, the Daily Mail reported… The Prince, an avowed environmentalist, will offset the carbon emissions by investing in green initiatives using taxpayers’ money, the Daily Express reported…

At Copenhagen, the Prince said in a speech that the human exploitation of the earth’s resources had pushed it “to the brink” and the planet has reached a point of crisis that can only be resolved with global action.
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Rudd makes us pay for his mistakes
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd’s botching of the boat people laws is costing us plenty already:
CHRISTMAS ISLAND’S residents will receive a $50 million boost to the island’s infrastructure as the Rudd Government seeks to placate the permanent population for the burden of its offshore detention program.... More than 1400 detainees are being held in the island’s detention facility, which has about 100 staff…

The Government has also approved $11.3 million to provide a fibre optic network for the island.
This reckless spending must stop.

(Thanks to reader Brett.)
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Putting our economy in the hands of Chavez fans
Andrew Bolt

These maniacs in Copenhagen are voting on your future:
President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - “our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.
UPDATE

And at the end of this first clip, Chavez rouses the rabble with more anti-Americanism, too:
I don’t think Obama is here yet. He got the Nobel Peace Prize almost the same day as he sent 30,000 soldiers to kill innocent people in Afghanistan.

UPDATE 2

And a mass-murderer at Copenhagen lectures us about our crimes:
The anti-capitalist theme was picked up on by Mr Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s veteran President, who is the target of Western sanctions over alleged human rights abuses.

“When these capitalist gods of carbon burp and belch their dangerous emissions, it’s we, the lesser mortals of the developing sphere who gasp and sink and eventually die.”
UPDATE 3

Nothing is real in Copenhagen - not the temperature record, not the predictions, not the agenda, not the “solution”. In fact, here’s how fake it all is:
The lead negotiator for the small island nation of Tuvalu, the bow-tie wearing Ian Fry, broke down as he begged delegates to take tough action.

“I woke up this morning crying,” and that’s not easy for a grown man to admit,” Mr Fry said on Saturday, as his eyes welled with tears.

”The fate of my country rests in your hands,” he concluded, as the audience exploded with wild applause.
So moving. But let’s now learn more from Samantha Maiden about this former Greenpeace official from “Tuvalu”:
But the part-time PhD scholar at the Australian National University actually resides in Queanbeyan, NSW, where he’s not likely to be troubled by rising sea levels because the closest beach at Batemans Bay is a two-hour, 144km drive away. Asked whether he had ever lived in Tuvalu, his wife told The Australian last night she would “rather not comment”....

Still, it’s a long way from the endangered atolls of Tuvalu, with his neighbour Michelle Ormay confirming he’s lived in Queanbeyan for more than a decade, while he has worked his way up to being “very high up in climate change”.
(Thanks to readers captainperi and Observer of Wodonga.)
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How you’ll pay for the Third World’s great climate shakedown
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Rudd is considering a deal that will see us hand over hundreds of millions of dollars each year to countries such as China and Zimbabwe as a bribe to sign a global warming treaty:
AFRICAN nations, led by Ethiopia and backed by France and Britain, have presented a plan to break the deadlock at the Copenhagen talks by raising billions of dollars to help poor countries cope with climate change through levies on international aviation and shipping and possibly even a controversial global financial tax.

Kevin Rudd discussed the plan with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi…

The financing plan proposes to raise $80bn a year after the three-year “fast-start” program expires, rising to $160bn a year by 2020, through levies on international shipping and aviation and possibly a financial transaction tax such as the Tobin tax on global financial transactions… (T)he fact that it is being presented by Ethiopia could help overcome developing-nation suspicions and encourage major developing-country emitters such as China and India to promise internationally binding emission reductions....

So far, Japan has reportedly offered $11bn a year for the “fast-start” financing fund, and the EU about $10.5bn. The US and Australia have promised to contribute their “fair share”, without specifying amounts.
With Rudd and West handing over cash like that, I’d be a warming believer, too, if I were an African or Chinese despot.

This is the greatest gathering of carpetbaggers in our history, and our sorry role under Rudd is to fill those bags until they say “when”.

UPDATE

For Heaven’s sake, just how much of our money is Rudd shipping overseas in his warming crusade?
AUSTRALIA is among six Western countries that announced they had agreed $US3.5 billion ($3.87 billion) to help fight climate change by attacking deforestation, in a program that would run from 2010-2012… They described this as “an initial investment” in developing countries that submit “ambitious” plans for preserving their forests instead of logging the resources for timber.
An urgent question: Mr Rudd, how much are you spending at Copenhagen?

UPDATE 2

The ABC finally gets a price - on just Rudd’s Copenhagen downpayment:
Fast-track financing worth $3.5 billion has been committed to the developing world, including a $120m contribution from Australia.
That’s each year, of course, and just the beginning.
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These bears having nothing to teach us
Andrew Bolt
At last a bear cull worth backing:
THE climate change talks in Copenhagen have killed off all the polar bears. And the koalas. And the rabbits and chickens, as well as a few aliens.

All the environmental activists who turned up in silly costumes to attract the cameras at the UN climate summit were banished yesterday in an official cull of the thousands of people who have been allowed in as representatives of non-government organisations…

(I)t is a very bad thing in the eyes of groups such as Greenpeace, which labelled the clampdown on NGO access to the conference a dangerous attempt to “restrict the participation of civil society” in the crucial last days.
Just who out there is so dull of mind as to think they have something to learn about climate scientist from people dressed like this:

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Greenpeating the tactic
Andrew Bolt

Surely Greenpeace would approve of this homage to their tactics:
Global warming skeptics from CFACT yesterday pulled off an international climate caper using GPS triangulation from Greenpeace’s own on-board camera photos to locate and sail up long-side of the infamous Greenpeace vessel, Rainbow Warrior. Then in Greenpeace-like fashion, the CFACT activists unfurled a banner reading “Propaganda Warrior” which underscored how the radical green group’s policies and agenda are based on myths, lies, and exaggerations.

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So where are these weapons of mass warming really?
Andrew Bolt
Why didn’t they tell us before the science wasn’t half as settled as they pretended? Did they lie to build the case for war against warming?

Tony Blair on September 14, 2004:

WHAT is now plain is that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialisation and strong economic growth from a world population that has increased sixfold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that began as significant, has become alarming and is simply unsustainable in the long term. Apart from a diminishing handful of sceptics, there is a virtual worldwide scientific consensus on the scope of the problem.

The end of certainty. Blair in Copenhagen on Monday:

IT is said the science around climate change is not as certain as its proponents allege. It doesn’t need to be. What is beyond debate, however, is that there is a huge amount of scientific support for the view that the climate is changing and as a result of human activity. Therefore, even purely as a matter of precaution, given the seriousness of the consequences if such a view is correct, we should act. Not to do so would be grossly irresponsible.
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Climategate: was Russia’s warming also man-made?
Andrew Bolt
The Russian business daily Kommersant reports new evidence that Climategate scientists fudged data to exaggerate warming:
Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory.

Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports.

Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.

The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

The HadCRUT database includes specific stations providing incomplete data and highlighting the global-warming process, rather than stations facilitating uninterrupted observations.

On the whole, climatologists use the incomplete findings of meteorological stations far more often than those providing complete observations.

IEA analysts say climatologists use the data of stations located in large populated centers that are influenced by the urban-warming effect more frequently than the correct data of remote stations.

The scale of global warming was exaggerated due to temperature distortions for Russia accounting for 12.5% of the world’s land mass. The IEA said it was necessary to recalculate all global-temperature data in order to assess the scale of such exaggeration.
Steve McIntyre notes how one of the key Climategate scientists, Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann boasted in an email of having done his best to stfile criticism of the Russian data:
Recently rejected two papers (one for JGR and for GRL) from people saying CRU has it wrong over Siberia. Went to town in both reviews, hopefully successfully. If either appears I will be very surprised, but you never know with GRL.
Jeff Id of the Air Vent shows just one of the Met Office graphics that used the Russian data to show unusual warming over a huge section of the globe:

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Rudd’s 54th boatload
Andrew Bolt
How many more before Kevin Rudd admits he blued last year by weakening the laws against illegal immigrants?
THE immigration detention centre at Christmas Island is near bursting point following the arrival of another asylum boat.

The boat was intercepted just after 8pm on Tuesday by HMAS Launceston about 30 nautical miles northeast of the Ashmore Islands. Onboard, were 51 passengers and four crew.

So far this year a total of 54 boats carrying 2519 passengers have arrived on Australia’s shores.
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Gore stung
Andrew Bolt
Paul Reiter, one of the world’s greatest experts on mosquitos, nails Al Gore on yet another deceit:
I am a scientist, not a climatologist, so I don’t dabble in climatology. My speciality is the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. As the film [An Inconvenient Truth] began, I knew Mr Gore would get to mosquitoes: they’re a favourite with climate-change activists. When he got to them, it was all I feared.

In his serious voice, Mr Gore presented a nifty animation, a band of little mosquitoes fluttering their way up the slopes of a snow-capped mountain, and he repeated the old line: Nairobi used to be ‘above the mosquito line, the limit at which mosquitoes can survive, but now…’ Those little mosquitoes kept climbing.

The truth? Nairobi means ‘the place of cool waters’ in the Masai language. The town grew up around a camp, set up in 1899 during the construction of a railway, the famous ‘Lunatic Express’. There certainly was water there — and mosquitoes. From the start, the place was plagued with malaria, so much so that a few years later doctors tried to have the whole town moved to a healthier place. By 1927, the disease had become such a plague in the ‘White Highlands’ that £40,000 (equivalent to about £350,000 today) was earmarked for malaria control. The authorities understood the root of the problem: forest clearance had created the perfect breeding places for mosquitoes. The disease was present as high as 2,500m above sea level; the mosquitoes were observed at 3,000m. And Nairobi? 1,680m.
Reiter also gives yet more evidence at the corruption of the scientific process that is at the heart of the IPCC.

UPDATE

Yet another Gore whoopsie, this time on extra “tree motality” thanks to global warming. At what stage can we call this fraud a bare-faced liar? It’s odd that not one of his many, many mistakes errs on the side of calm.
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I’m warming to that bear
Andrew Bolt
What, no one laughed? That’s the scary bit:
To a chorus of boos, a man dressed as a polar bear entered Copenhagen’s main conference center Tuesday and began paging the discredited climate scientist whose hacked e-mails sparked the Climate-Gate scandal.

Using a megaphone to pierce the rumble of hundreds gathered inside the Bella Center, which is hosting the city’s global climate summit, the polar bear boomed out:

“PHIL JONES??? HAS ANYONE SEEN PHIL JONES???” …

While no one in the highly partisan crowd attacked the bear, one woman advised him to “get out of here now while you still can.”
(Thanks to reader John.)
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The new church of Baal
Andrew Bolt
A bishop finds a new religious justification for the Catholic tradition of fish on Fridays:
A Dutch Roman Catholic bishop has called for the Catholic tradition of eating fish on Friday to be restored, as a contribution to the fight against climate change.
(Thanks to reader Greg.)
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By their actions you will know the fascist
Andrew Bolt
That polar bear is unmasked, as is the inner fascist of the Copenhagen moralisers:

Question: Have you ever seen a climate sceptic assault a warmist?
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It’s that pre-Christmas down-tools, all over again
Andrew Bolt
Reader Ian asks:
Is it my imagination or has there been a sudden surge in industrial action this Christmas?

Postal workers in Victoria, NSW and Queensland:
http://www.theage.com.au/national/postal-strike-brought-to-an-end-for-now-20091216-kxhr.html

Qantas engineers:
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/travel-news/domino-effect-now-qantas-jetstar-engineers-call-strike-20091217-kyjr.html

Qantas security screeners:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/16/2773059.htm?section=business

Bus drivers in NSW:
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-bus-strike-tomorrow/story-e6freuy9-1225811301580

Queensland rail workers:
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/qr-strike-the-first-of-many-unions-20091209-kiyk.html

Tasmanian paper mill workers:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/14/2771483.htm?section=business

Perhaps those of us who’d like to get where we’re going this Christmas, or send and receive mail, might be yearning for the good old days of WorkChoices!
I must admit, it’s been years since I’ve noticed the old pre-Christmas mail-and-flights strike double.

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