The church of eternal money making flim flam

It looks to me that our favourite palaeontologist is trying to channel Bernard Madoff, and dreaming of the pots of money that will be extracted from the people under various ETS schemes. He is, I am rather sure, hoping that he can be part of the financial action in the same way that he sees him self as being part of the liturgical action.

Tim Flannery ... estimates benefit of $2 billion a year. Photo: Simone DePeak

Green carbon, such as biochar – a type of processed charcoal used to store carbon in soil – is not included in the Australian emissions trading scheme or any international agreements.

Under the Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme, Australian carbon credits can only be generated through revegetation of trees to avoid deforestation.

‘‘The Government could then buy a certain amount of permits from farmers for carbon soil storage … at, say, $15 a tonne and sell them on to the US at $20 through the desk,’’ Mr Flannery said. ‘‘If we could get 10 per cent of the US market at, say, $20 that would be about $2 billion a year coming into Australia and [would] help Australian farmers expand carbon storage projects.’’

Under the single-desk plan, government assessors would be sent to evaluate carbon storage to ensure they were legitimate projects before the Government could sell them. Mr Flannery’s proposal would require Australia to lift a temporary ban on selling carbon credits internationally – except to New Zealand – currently included in the emissions trading legislation before Parliament, and require green carbon’s inclusion in an international climate change agreement.

Why is it that all of the Profits of doom are so keen on these futile ETS schemes if it is not to get a slice of the action?

Not satisfied with the buckets of money that they have convinced governments and business to channel to their “research” (which seems to result in yet more faulty climate models) they now want to create a scam so big and so embedded in our economy that they will be able to milk the gullible public from now until the sun stops shining.
Its all about the money….
Its always all about the money…
Cheers Comrades

“Organic” food

The pedant in me has always thought that the term “organically grown food” is something of a misnomer because short of some rather bizarre substances (is Vegemite really made from a living thing?), all of the food we eat is actually created by some sort of organic processes, quite simply we are, like all animals intended to eat other living things that must by definition be ” organic”. Putting pedantry aside though I have long held the view that paying a premium for so called “organic” produce is a rather pointless and futile exercise. I have just never thought that it is ever worth paying a premium when there is no substantive difference in the quality of the produce. The recent research in the UK suggest that I have been right all along:

(Ben Gurr/The times) The organic food industry is worth £2.1bn a year in the UK

The £120,000 year-long study by a team from the London School for Hygiene and Tropical health was headed by Dr Alan Dangour, a public health nutritionist. His team identified some differences between organic and conventionally produced food but concluded that they were not sufficiently important to make any difference to a person’s health or give nutritional benefit.

Dr Dangour said: “There is more phosphorous in organic food. Phosphorous is an important mineral but it is available in everything we eat and is not important for public health. Acidity is also higher in organic produce but acidity is about taste and sensory perception and makes no difference at all for health.

“A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced crops and livestock but these are unlikely to be of any public health relevance.

“Our review indicates that there is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally-produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority.”

The one thing that the research did not look into is the question of flavour but that is such a subjective thing isn’t it? None the less I would love to see some serious double blind taste testing of the various types of produce to find out if there is a difference because my own experience is that if you tell people that something is “organic” they will often insist that it tastes better, even if you were lying about it being “organic”…

Whatever you think about organic vs conventionally farmed produce the most important thing that you can do to feed your family well is to cook your meals from the basic ingredients rather than eating ready-made from a packet or a can….

Cheers Comrades

Its the only way to be fair

Nude swimming in all competitions

Usually I let any sporting controversy fly straight through to the keeper but I can’t help thinking that the solution to the “swimsuit controversy” is simple:

Eleven world records on the opening two days at the World Swimming Championships have left two of Australia’s greatest swimmers worried.

“It’s a contamination of swimming and I’m right behind the American proposal to list two world records for events from now on, one for the full-body suit era and a real one,” said Wenden, the dual freestyle gold medallist from the 1968 Olympics.

“Swimming has put itself in this absolutely ridiculous situation of becoming a technical event and no longer about pure human performance.”

Armstrong forecast the suit issue would get uglier with legal challenges to suit limitations for next year when only textile suits will be allowed.

“The new suits issue is like fighting the ‘new drugs’ scourge in sport,” Armstrong said. “You need regulations but how are they going to be enforced effectively. What’s textile?.”

We should take a leaf out of the original Olympic rule book and insist that all swimmers compete nude. then no one can have any kind of advantage from either streamlining or extra flotation from these silly suits and there will be a level playing field.
You know it makes sense Comrades

Would a warmer world be better or worse for humaity?

The Warminista orthodoxy tells us that a warmer climate must mean disaster for humanity but why should this be so when the evidence from the archaeology is that a warmer climate may well make productive parts of the planet that are currently rather hostile to civilisation. For many years the reasons for building Machu Picchu in what is now such a hostile place, vexed archaeologists but now it is clear that, rather like Greenland this place flourished because of the medieval warm period.

Warmer weather helped fuel the Inca's agricultural development with the tribe constructing a series of terraces, such as these at Wiaywayna, which were fed by glaciers

New research reveals how an increase in temperature between AD1100 and 1533 allowed the Incas to cultivate more land, and develop irrigation, canals and terraces.

Palaeo-ecologist Dr Alex Chepstow-Lusty, from the French Institute for Andean Studies in Lima, Peru, said research showed climate change helped the Incas become successful farmers.

Dr Chepstow-Lusty said the warm spell helped serve as a ‘perfect incubuator’ for the ancient tribe’s expansion, which stretched from Columbia to the middle of Chile.

By analysing sediments on the floor of Lake Marcacoha in the Cuzco region of the Andes, scientists found clues which pointed to evidence of warm climate at the time.

They found a range of trees, crops, seeds buried in the mud at 11,000ft above sea level which corresponded to a tree line edging upwards.

Dr Chepstow-Lusty  said as the treeline moved higher up the mountains, the Incas redeveloped the landscape to increase productivity.

So as I see it, even if the Warministas are right* in their predictions of world wide warming, the answer lays in adaptation and not some futile attempt at “mitigation” which is impossible to achieve technologically or politically. This may mean that we have to look to other places to grow our crops or to build our cities but adapting to the way the world is rather than attempting to force the planet to do our bidding is the only way.

Cheers Comrades

8)

* they aren’t BTW

Outragious….”A bread van which can do 180mph”

Ok just a light hearted quickie this morning.
As you may know I have a rather soft spot for outrageous and quirky expressions of the car builders art, it gives me endless “OMG” amusement to see what some people will spend huge amounts of effort on. This  is an occasion when  I think that the result is pretty neat.
Sorry not religion or politics this morning as I am still very much in “Car mode” as my clubman rebuild nears completion…

From this...: The work-in-progress Citroen 2CV prepares to get the Ferrari engine and a makeover

To this: The finished £150,000 Ferrari can do a staggering 180mph

What do you get if you cross a Citroen 2CV with a Ferrari?

A bread van which can do 180mph.

Okay it might sound much of a joke, but this is no joke, just the hard work of two car enthusiasts who spent five years producing the £150,000 super-hybrid.

Nicolo Lamberti, 35, and Milko Dalla Costa, 51, who run the Italian ‘Nimik’ rally team, took the chassis and engine of a speedy Ferrari F355 Berlinetta and combined it with the body of a 12bhp Citroen 2CV Fourgonnette bread-van.

Cheers Comrades
8)

Please consider….

These attitudes when you denounce those of us who criticise any aspect of Islam…

Cheers Comrades

8)

Apologists for evil

Its Pat Condell telling the truth that will upset the lefties , but then the truth hurts them SO much….

and I found this rather silly response  from a rather foul mouthed lefty who epitomises the points being made by Pat:

Cheers Comrades

8)

“Faith alone will not get us there.”

Regular readers here will have noticed just how sensitive those of the Green persuasion are to the accusation that their belief in AGW is a faith position, they will hotly deny that they hold their views on anything other than “science and reason” Of course they do this because they are deluding themselves and nothing is more delusional than their contention that “renewables” can provide the base load power that we need for our electricity grid. The thoughts of Martin Ferguson expressed in today’s OZ shows that even among the ranks of Brother Number One’s Government the Green liturgy is being questioned.

Martin Ferguson

After Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said yesterday the government wanted to invest in renewable energy development, Mr Ferguson writes in The Australian today that the green lobby has to accept that the technology does not exist for clean renewable energy generation supplying baseload power.

“Technologies capable of producing clean, affordable, reliable baseload power from the sun, the wind, the ocean — or from low-emissions coal — may still be several years away,” Mr Ferguson writes.

“Over the next few decades, uranium and LNG are set to play a significant role in the global response to climate change. Put simply, blanket opposition to these industries is a political stance, not a practical one.”

Mr Ferguson expresses frustration that people claiming to be “true environmentalists” are criticising the government for promoting uranium exports and the development of LNG fields off the northwestern coast of Western Australia.

He writes that with 1.6 billion people mired in poverty and lacking access to electricity, critics need to explain how they will meet burgeoning energy needs if they are unwilling to use gas and uranium as transition fuels while research continues into clean renewables.

“I am yet to meet anyone who opposes the use of cheap, reliable renewable energy,” Mr Ferguson writes. “However, the factors limiting the uptake of renewables remain technical, not political.

“We must have a rational, science-based pathway to overcome those hurdles. Faith alone will not get us there.”

Of course the old Queen of the Greens, Bob Brown is practically having a hissy fit that anyone should question the liturgy of his faith but I for one am not surprised because this issue is so emblematic of the continuing conflict with in the forces of the darkness on the left, as the cabbage hearted Greens do battle with the more pragmatic realists like Ferguson who actually understand the nature of the problem unencumbered by the strictures of an unyielding faith.
Cheers Comrades

“Technical” rape

For your average misandrist feminist the crime of rape is cut and dried, there are no grey areas, no difficult ethical considerations. In their minds it is just so simple, unless there is a very clear and definitive consent to the sex act then the act is rape. This case from South Australia poses a more difficult ethical question though.

Ourage over sex assault excuses ... Judge David Smith. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Sloan, 29, of the Adelaide suburb of Highbury, pleaded guilty to raping the woman in the city’s east parklands in June 2008.

The court had heard Sloan met his victim at the PJ O’Brien’s pub and suggested they have sex across the road.

She agreed and the two began to have sex but she fell asleep during foreplay – which Sloan continued despite her being unconscious. Both were drunk at the time, with the woman being “heavily intoxicated”.

Sloan was due to be sentenced yesterday. Prosecutors had asked he receive at least a suspended jail term for his crime. However, Judge Smith said that might not be an appropriate penalty.

“I would put this offence at the lower end of the scale because the (sex act) began as a consensual one before the victim passed out and became incapable of consenting,” Judge Smith said.

He declined to pass sentence, saying he needed more time to consider his ruling.

He remanded Sloan on continuing bail until next week.

Anne Cossins, from the NSW Government’s Sexual Assault Task Force, branded the judge’s comments “typical”.

Daily Telegraph

Now you won’t find any bloke who is more keen to advocate the “no means NO” doctrine than yours truly but I can understand why the judge is being rather more circumspect in this case, and I am very keen to hear the thoughts of my readers on the matter because you have to wonder how many randy drunks would actually stop upon discovering their partner was too far gone to appreciate their attentions?

Not that many I would think

A tricky one Comrades

Sending them to jail

This is a subject that I have written on before, when I expressed my outrage that the feminists and the judiciary were very keen to either downplay the frequency of false accusations or to treat far to leniently those who make such misleading claims against the innocent.

Jennifer Day: 'Extraordinary performance'

Jennifer Day, 34, who made the false allegation against former boyfriend Andrew Saxby after a row, was told by the judge that she had undermined efforts to treat genuine rape victims fairly and sympathetically.

The court also heard that Mr Saxby was subjected to ‘degrading and upsetting’ examinations while being held by police for ten hours.

Judge Ian Graham said the investigation had wasted £4,000 of taxpayers’ money and 270 police man hours.

He added: ‘The police have put great stores on providing sympathetic treatments of women who make genuine complaints of rape and you abused that.

‘You have undermined and jeopardised the efforts that are being made about the need to treat genuine victims of rape properly, fairly and sympathetically.

‘The offence is in itself a serious one, it has terrible consequences potentially and actually for the victim and wider implications for those women who have genuinely been raped.’

The fact that this woman has got real jail time should send a very clear message to those who think to do as she has done, to make false and malicious complaints about a rape that never was. I personally don’t think that two years is enough, it is far better than there being the non sanction of a suspended sentence or some sort of community service order (which is getting off in my book). As I have said before if you make a false allegation of a crime any concept of justice requires that you should receive a sentence that is equivalent to the one that the crime you falsely accused someone of committing would have received.
Still, two years jail is  an improvement and something to be lauded.
Cheers Comrades

Driving a “Silver Green” car

According to recent study from DuPont, only two percent of new vehicles built in North America in 2007 were painted green.

Green was even a less popular choice than yellow, which accounted for three percent of manufacturers’ colour choice.
source

VW Golf GTI

Volvo

911

Toyota RAV4 Sport

Mini Convertable

Now if you were an upcoming young(ish) barrister  with an affiliation to the Australian Green party what sort of new car would you buy? Would you go for the sporty 911 (in green) or perhaps you would make a statement about road safety  by buying a Volvo. Heck,  you may think that a green Golf GTI would be the go, after all a VW is the people’s car.  Perhaps you would furfill you secret desire to be all macho with a 4WD RAV four, telling all and sundry that you have bought it for those sunday drives in the bush, or even a new Mini convertable (because the Germans have actaully made them better and you don’t think that a Mini is a” girly” car at all ).

Then again you might just  go all the way and prove just how devoted to the Green cause you actually are by getting an example of the ultimate Green car , that is light weight, environmentally friendly and that gets the very best gas mileage possible*

Cheers Comrades

*40g of mung beans to the kilometre

Went to the Movies…

Took my daughter to see this film yesterday and we both enjoyed it even though   it was somewhat darker in tone than the last one and the ending sort of leaves you hanging without the clear resolution that the previous films have managed.

Oh yeah, and  hasn’t Emma Watson grown into a handsome young woman?

Cheers Comrades

8)

They’re Back…

We all know that the same crowd who brought us the Bali bombings have not been defeated so it was sadly hardly surprising that they have been able commit another atrocity in Indonesia.

Now you see him now you don’t:

CCTV reveals a man walking in the Ritz-Carlton hotel a split second before a bomb went off inside the lobby

The screen fills with smoke as the devastating blast causes widespread destruction and death

There is no need for me to go into a long rant about the horror of this affront to us all but we can take some comfort that Indonesia does have a capital sanction for terrorists , however they are also far too willing to try to reform the J I operatives that it captures which is proving to be a total failure.

Well I think that a few more bullets fired in jungle clearings is needed rather than trying to reform the intransigent.
You know it makes sense…

Angry, Comrades

Smells a bit dodgy to this little black duck…

Yesterday Damian asked me this:

As a follower of Qld politics, Iain, have you written about this “smell of corruption” in the past?’

Well to be perfectly honest I’m not sure if I have written a previous post about corruption here in the Sunshine State. I have written about the former member of the government convicted of sexual abuse of under-age girls , and I am sure that I have mentioned , in passing, the Nuttal case (which was pending at the time so not a proper topic for discussion  at all). This story however is typical of the opportunism that is so often exploited by government members and it smells just a little dodgy to me.

THE wife and electorate officer of Labor backbencher Bernie Ripoll – a man who counts the Prime Minister and the Treasurer as friends and is a frequent traveller to China – has established a development company that stands to profit from Chinese mining interests in Queensland.

The company, FFR Developments, last year purchased two tracts of vacant land in Bowen, just weeks before the state government designated the city an industrial hub and the Chinese government-owned mining giant Chalco declared it the likely site for a $2.2 billion refinery.

Chalco’s parent company, Chinalco, is at the centre of the diplomatic stand-off between Australia and China over the detention in China of Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu.

FFR Developments’ co-founder Margaret Ripoll is employed by her husband in his Ipswich office, west of Brisbane, and is so vital to his political affairs that she handled the correspondence when local car dealer John Grant was making inquiries of the government’s OzCar scheme.

The company purchased the two residential blocks a week after it was registered in March last year: a 1133sqm site in Gregory Street for $269,000 and a 1012sqm site in Gordon Street for $230,000.

The date of sale and settlement for the blocks is listed as April 1, 2008, in transaction records.

The company has since pushed a development application through council for the Gordon Street property, which has approval for the construction of six residential units and is back on the market for $395,000.

Of course anyone who has been following the development bandwagon my have seen this same opportunity to profit from changes in the development potential of the dirt in question but as an MP was Bernie Ripoll privy to the upcoming changes? If he was then he has a case to answer and he should be judged harshly for seeking to line his pockets in what is essentially “insider trading”.

Hmm the “eau de corruption” has clearly not been purged from the Labor party with the conviction of Gordon Nuttal maybe Anna Bligh(t) is engaging in that  favourite Labor pastime of” spinning”  the truth when she suggests that the conviction of her former pal  has removed the “bad apples” from the Labor barrel…

Cheers Comrades

“Nothing’s for nothing”

No one who follows Queensland politics can be unaware of the smell of corruption that has tainted the Labor party up here, and yesterday Gordon Nuttal, former cabinet Minster in the Beattie Government, was sent to jail while he awaits sentencing for corruptly receiving $360,000.

Gordon Nuttall, wife Liz and daughter Lisa walk into court for the jury¿s verdict at the District Court in Brisbane yesterday. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Nuttall had pleaded not guilty to 35 charges of corruptly receiving secret commissions worth almost $300,000 from Macarthur Coal founder Ken Talbot between October 2002 and September 2005. He also pleaded not guilty to corruptly receiving a one-off $60,000 secret commission from Brisbane solicitor and coalmining executive Harold Shand in April 2002. Throughout the entire judicial process, Nuttall, who retired from parliament in 2006, vehemently maintained his innocence, insisting the money was merely private loans from personal friends to help his children enter the real estate market.

He continued to defend his decision not to declare the payments on the parliamentary pecuniary interest register or to cabinet meetings, insisting he had not done anything in return for the money, nor had he been asked for favours by Mr Shand or Mr Talbot. “Nothing was asked, nothing was offered and nothing was given,” Nuttall repeated when asked about each man.

But it was in the dying minutes of his stint in the witness box that Nuttall brought himself undone, the prosecution claimed.

After withstanding hours of intense cross-examination by Crown Prosecutor Ross Martin SC, Nuttall answered a seemingly simple question from his own counsel, John Rivett, about whether he believed he was entitled to more than he could afford. “I don’t think anyone’s entitled to anything … you have to work your way through life,” he said. “Nothing’s for nothing.”

This comment drew smiles from the prosecution legal team.

Mr Martin led his closing address with the same words, calling the admission a “fatal slip” and the “defining moment of the trial”.

The one concern that I have about this case is the reversal of the onus of proof, Nuttal’s team had to prove that the payments were not received for a corrupt purpose and this seems to go counter to the usual expectation that the prosecution has to prove that the defendant has actually committed the crime. So even though I am rather glad that a member of the Labor   side of politics has been brought undone by his own greed I can’t help feeling just a little unease about the process  that has sent him to the slammer.

Cheers Comrades

8)