Well I won’t be sorry to see them go

Sticking to the theme of law enforcement I note this little piece about the demise of the rego sticker in WA.

Another upside to the demise of rego stickers is not having to read the government propaganda on the labels

Cutting-edge technology being used by West Australian police has made the stickers redundant, saving millions of dollars.

Police superintendent Lance Martin said hand-held computers were now providing officers with instant advice on registration expiries — as well as an extraordinary amount of other data — simply by tapping in a request.

A car’s owner, previous owners, registration status, even the engine number, were all available within seconds to officers on the beat.

Frankly i won’t miss the bloody things at all, especially as I am the the poor sod who has to replace them on our cars, If you manage to get them right down into the bottom corner of the wind screen they are then very difficult to remove, assuming that you mange to get them to stay on in the first place. The one on the Subaru will have to be scraped off with a blade and I am not relishing that one bit.
If the future is to be stickerless, then I say bring it on.
Cheers comrades

Consider the calibre of the inmates before going off half cocked

When you blog it seems to me that your posts become like buses. In particular they tend to come in clusters of posts that have a similar topic. Well I could not let the piece from the Sydney Morning Herald go with out notation here because it does demonstrate that our prisons are not filled with naughty schoolboys who some times get up to some jolly japes.

Many of them claim after they are assaulted by prisoners, others for the psychological injuries sustained because of it.

In the past three financial years 216 prison officers have been assaulted, one fatally.

But the union that represents them fears the number of assaults could rise as staffing numbers decline.

Matt Bindley, the chairman of the prison officers’ branch of the Public Service Association, said he had grave concerns about the consequences of staff cuts.

Officers have to be constantly on their guard and aware that tension can suddenly spill over, he said. ”It’s really hard to gauge … you could be having a really quiet day and all of a sudden there’s a situation there to start fights.”

Our Prisons are generally populated by some rather nasty individuals who see their time inside as an opportunity to hone their criminal skills and a never ending chook yard battle to maintain and enhance their status as “hard men”. I have the greatest respect for the men and women who have to keep the peace within our prisons and I just wish that the bleeding hearts would take a step back and consider the calibre of the inmates before going off half cocked about how hard done by they are.

Cheers Comrades

Finding the right currency

Recently I had a bit of a debate over at Oz Politik about prison visits on Christmas day and I was struck by the consistent attitude of that blog’s author and his commentators that seemed to see all prison inmates as victims. Victims of social circumstances, victims of bad luck(in getting caught) or just plain “victims” of life in need of eternal compassion.
As I see it the role of any prison is three fold, firstly as a place of punishment for those who break the law, secondly as a place where those who pose a threat to society can be contained and thirdly as a place where miscreants can be rehabilitated (if that is possible). To achieve the first part of this trifecta imprisonment has to be an unattractive prospect. I repeatedly make jokes about our prisons being “Her Majesty’s fine Hotels” because that is what so many lefties would have them become but the reality is that we need to tread the fine line between being humane and making the stay in prisons unattractive. Making sure that escape is impossible is not difficult but doing so in a way that does not brutalise both the staff and the inmates doers take some effort. Finally we come to rehabilitation and that is the tricky one because there are so many individuals in our prisons who for various reasons are beyond redemption. Old lags know how the system works and they will work at pressing all of the right “buttons” to earn the maximum remission and so many bleeding hearts take the protestations from inmates that they are “reformed‘ characters at face value. Sadly for my friends from the compassionate left there are lots of liars who know how to manipulate the well meaning if it results in them getting out of jail just that little bit sooner. Those who are genuinely rehabilitated are of course disadvantaged by the lying scumbags but I can’t for the life of me see how this will ever change. Far better I think if we can make imprisonment something to be feared  so that those who are tempted to offend think twice before committing the crime in the first instance:

A huge drop in crime on the Isle of Man has been put down to criminals 'living in fear' of being sent to Europe's only non-smoking prison (file picture)

The crime rate on the Isle of Man was already low, with experts saying it is down to ‘low unemployment and high community spirit’, but also that the criminal justice system takes a hard line on crimes, with even small crimes often resulting in imprisonment.

One former prisoner, who spent six months there, said the smoking ban had cons ‘crawling up the walls’ in desperation for a nicotine fix.

The inmate, who didn’t want to be named, said today: ‘As soon as you get to the prison they take your fags and lighter off you.

‘It came as a big surprise to a lot of us – smoking is something that helps people doing time stay sane – it’s something to do with all that time you have on your hands.’

He added: ‘As soon as word got round that it wasn’t a joke and that all smoking was banned, even in the exercise yard, a lot of people I know started having second thoughts about committing crimes.

‘It was something they genuinely feared. Not prison itself, but the idea of being forced to give up smoking.

‘Some of my mates have simply given up crime, whether it be stealing cars, shoplifting to order or burglary, as a direct result of the smoking ban.’

A spokeswoman for the prison said that the huge drop in recorded crime could not be ‘wholly attributed’ to the non-smoking prison, but said the non-smoking status of the prison was now a well known fact on the island.

Two things are obviously in play here, first is the willingness of the courts on the Isle of Man to actually imprison the miscreants, and secondly the fear of nicotine withdrawal. Now I don’t know if one would work in the absence of the other but the combination does seem to be effective. The only problem that I can see is that those bleeding hearts here may try to argue that depriving inmates of their tobacco in some way constitutes cruelty…
Cheers Comrades

A lead injection for his trouble

The regime in China is obviously brutal and essentially totalitarian and I have no love for its so called justice system but it makes no secret of its willingness to execute criminals even if they are not Chinese citizens. Smuggling 4kg of Heroin is not a trivial offence in any jurisdiction but I find it very hard to believe that it is worthy of a capital sanction. The Chinese obviously consider the crime worthy of the ultimate punishment.

Family members said that they hoped China would show clemency because, they say, Mr Shaikh suffers from bipolar disorder that makes him mentally incompetent to understand fully what is happening to him.

Akmal Shaikh was said to have been duped into being a drug mule due to his mental state

His daughter, Leilla Horsnell, said she was not optimistic. She told the BBC: “I’d like to be hopeful, but time just seems to be running out.”

She said it was a good thing that the Chinese authorities had kept from her father the information that he faced execution tomorrow until just 24 hours before the sentence was to be carried out. “And so I don’t think him being told would mean anything … it might make it worse if he was aware of what was happening.”She said it was unclear how far his mental state had deteriorated. “We do know in one of the appeals he insisted on giving his own statements and he couldn’t even speak properly, and what he was saying wasn’t making much sense.”

Two cousins, Soohail Shaikh and Nasir Shaikh were accompanied by British consular officials when they visited Mr Shaikh at a secure hospital in Urumqi, capital of the restive, mainly Muslim Xinjiang region, this morning.

I have no doubt that by the time this post has been published that Akmal Shaikh will have been executed , the Chinese have repeatedly shown that they are indifferent to what anyone else thinks about the way that they provide “justice” in thier country. However it seems to me that the argument that because Akmal Shaikh has bi-polar disorder he would not have been competent to understand that smuggling heroin  was wrong or that countries like China may give you a bullet in the back of the head if they catch you trying to do it. As soon as you suggest that someone has any kind of mental illness many people think that it is a “get out of jail free card”, Personally I think that the sort of disorder is important because not every type of mental illness makes someone incapable of appreciating the gravity of their actions.

I suspect is that the family are holding on to the mental illness idea because then they can maintain the belief that Akmal Shaikh is still worthy of their love, and that he does not deserve his fate.

Akmal Shaikh did the crime  and by now he has paid the price so the lesson to be learned here is don’t be a stupid as this chap and you won’t get a lead injection for your trouble.

Cheers Comrades

For my lovely daughter

This photo is for my daughter, who has developed an affection for types of felines , especially lions..

Pride: The grumpy father lion bites his cub on the head after it was tugging and chewing on his mane (Daily Mail Photo)

Cheers Comrades

Wet days, Music festivals and playing boy mechanic

As I found the engine bay

It looks like another showery day is likely here at Chez Hall and this will undoubtedly mean that my beautiful wife’s visit to The Woodford Folk Festival is going to be a soggy one, but she is very determined to go  as she has each year for a while now. Definitely a day for the stout ( and water proof) walking shoes I think!

I will be spending the day trying to fit the replacement engine into the Subaru that I have bought I know that i have plenty of time to get the car sorted but I want to return the block and tackle to my mate around the corner sooner rather than later. I have had to remove the R/H head because the engine would not turn right over and that meant that I could not undo all of the bolts that hold the flex plate to the torque converter . I turned out that having blown its head gasket that water got into number two cylinder and the bore was caked with rust preventing the piston from going up to the top of the bore, a bit of scraping and some firm pressure on the spanner attached to the crankshaft nut solved that particular problem. Now that I have the engine out the next step is to remove the flywheel from the “new ” engine and replace it with the drive plate from the original so that it will work with the transmission.

I am wondering if I will be able to get away with re-using the exhaust flange gaskets I think that it should be OK  but if it isn’t it is no biggie (just six M10 nuts to replace them). So far I have a short-list of parts to get from Subaru and I plan a parts run next week so getting this car going may be quicker than I thought , have to visit the wreckers to replace the missing intake hose (that goes from the throttle body to the air box ) as the airflow meter is attached to the air box the engine will not run at all without it. Also needing replacement are the steering rack boots which are better replaced with new I think.

Well its time to go and swing the spanners so I’d better get to it!

Cheers Comrades

Thank God for the incompetence of evil men

“Thank God for the incompetence of so many evil men.” Is all that I can say when I read reports like this one:

This alleged attack on a US airplane on Christmas Day shows that we must remain vigilant in the fight against terrorism at all times,” said Attorney General Eric Holder.

“Had this alleged plot to destroy an airplane been successful, scores of innocent people would have been killed or injured.

“We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously and we will use all measures available to our government to ensure that anyone responsible for this attempted attack is brought to justice,” the statement read.

Passengers told investigators that Abdulmutallab spent about 20 minutes in the bathroom before returning to his seat and pulling a blanket over himself, the Justice Department said.

“Passengers then heard popping noises similar to firecrackers, smelled an odour and some observed Abdulmutallab’s pants leg and the wall of the aeroplane on fire,” the Justice Department said.

“Passengers and crew then subdued Abdulmutallab and used blankets and fire extinguishers to put out the flames. Passengers reported that Abdulmutallab was calm and lucid throughout.”

A preliminary FBI analysis found that the device contained PETN, also known as pentaerythritol, a high explosive. FBI agents also recovered what appear to be the remnants of a syringe believed to have been part of the device.

Abdulmutallab was badly burned as he tried to set off the sophisticated explosive device aboard a Northwest Airlines Airbus A330 carrying 278 passengers and 11 crew from Amsterdam to Detroit.

He was arrested upon arrival and taken to the University of Michigan Medical Centre in Ann Arbor for treatment.

He ordered increased security for air travel, the White House said. The Department of Homeland Security said airline passengers should expect to see additional screening measures on both domestic and international flights.

The incident aboard Northwest Flight 253, an Airbus 330-300 carrying about 278 passengers, came as the plane was approaching the airport just before noon (4am AEDT today). It landed safely after the pilots declared an emergency. Though a Northwest flight, the plane had Delta markings. After a merger, Delta Air Lines now owns Northwest.

Stephanie van Herk, a passenger from the Netherlands who was in seat 18B, said the plane had lowered its landing gear when she heard a loud bang. At first she thought the plane might have blown a tyre, she said, but then she saw flames leap from the lap of a man in the row behind her in the window seat 19A. “It was higher than the seat,” said Ms van Herk, 22 years old.

“Then everyone started screaming,” she said. “It was panic.”

Flight attendants shouted “What are you doing? What are you doing?” They called for water, and the man began pulling down his burning pants, said Ms van Herk. She and other passengers got water from the galley and the man was doused. Then a Dutch man jumped him.

Flight passenger Syed Jafry, a US citizen who had flown from the United Arab Emirates, said he was seated three rows behind when he saw a glow and smelled smoke. He said, “A young man behind me jumped on him.”

The explosive was at first believed to have been a small firecracker.
One passenger was taken to the University of Michigan Medical Centre and remained hospitalised.

I am reminded of the other would be Jihadist who tried to blow up the Scottish airport not so long ago, who ended up only burning himself up in the process and think that my comments about there being some sort of justice in the terrorist suffering excruciating pain from his injuries applies here as well. We can take comfort from the fact that on this occasion US law applies and that they have a capital sanction for acts as despicable as the one (allegedly) committed by Abdul mutallab.

Cheers Comrades

Merry Christmas to Everyone

the eco-friendly but hi-tech solution to the present delivery problem

Merry Christmas to all of my readers and commentators, I hope that you and yours enjoy the blessings of the season and are able to spend it with those who matter most to you.

A laid back one at home this year at chez Hall the children are excited and will appreciate the fact that Santa is being kind to the reindeer and the boomers by doing the rounds in this snazzy number that is powered with eco-friendly hot air, all supplied by the Warministas in Copenhagen just a few days ago.
Cheers Comrades

Divorced from reality

Uncomfortable: A passenger sleeps on the floor after her flight is cancelled at Luton Airport (Daily Mail photo)

The weather here at this time of the year is on the whole rather good even if it is a trifle warm, When we have one of those summer storms we all know that the sensible thing is to find somewhere to sit out the worst of it and relax until the fury subsides . You just can’t fight it and win.

The same rule applies when you are in a place that has wildly cold weather at this time of the year, raging about it and the way that it has affected your travel plans is just pointless and makes you seem like an idiot in the process.

I was just amazed how unrealistic so many travellers stranded by the weather induced breakdowns of the Eurostar trains were when they were interviewed by news reporters on the TV. Sure being stuck in the tunnels was unpleasant and the disruption of their travel plans  inconvenient but no one is to blame, Its the weather stupid! In days gone by before the era of mass transit travellers knew and understood that sometimes it was just too dangerous or too difficult  to travel. Nowadays so many travellers think that no matter how bad the weather that they have the right to go anywhere they please on the planet and curses on anyone who has not worked out a way to defy the laws of physics to make their travel plans come to fruition.

Travellers in such conditions need to have a little humility and accept that they are not distinct from the environment they live in. I blame being able to get all kinds of produce at any time of the year. Quite simply too many people have lost touch with the seasons of the year and they think that they have a right to anything they desire any time that they want it. We need to respect the earth and its moods and to respect the fact that no matter how clever the machines we make are that they won’t always be able to go where we want precisely when we wish to do so.

If you are stuck somewhere for Christmas think of it as an opportunity to share good will to all and to create some joy with strangers, after all isn’t that part of the spirit of the festival?

Cheers Comrades

Pissing into the wind

Can you see beyond the visual trickery?

During my holiday I was watching the reports coming out of the Copenhagen conference with a sort of wry bemusement, to see so many of the Warminista faithful gathered in one place freeze their nuts off in a northern winter struck me as delightfully ironic. The third world mendicants ran  to the usual script of sanctimoniously denouncing the developed nations and begging for their largess. I personally doubt that they even believe in the liturgy of the green faith but they certainly believe that tickling the first world’s guilt chips will bring them bucket loads of cash. While I don’t think that the “One world government” conspiracy theories have much credence it is clear that there are as many different political agendas circling the ‘climate change” issue as there are players on the stage. For those aforementioned mendicants it’s all about another way to extract aid money , For China   it is to maintain the obsolete fiction that they are a ‘third world nation”, something that strikes me as entirely ridiculous considering their pre-eminent position as the worlds manufacturer of all things consumable.

Brother Number One has come home to the Greens trying to deal themselves back into the game by announcing that they are willing to negotiate from their previously intransigent position out there on the fringes of fundamentalist belief.

But Senator Brown said: “I think the time has come for the government to sit down and negotiate with the Greens.”

Previously, he has said the Greens were “deeply critical of the legislation as drafted” but were willing to negotiate openly on the CPRS.

“We originally argued for an unconditional cut of 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, but we proposed many months ago that Australia make an unconditional offer of 25 per cent, moving to 40 per cent if the world agrees to the kind of ambitious action that is needed,” he said.

“There will be no effective global deal if countries like Australia refuse to lift their targets to scientifically justified levels.”

Of course brother Number One won’t take up this offer because he knows that to do so would be to entirely root the country’s economy for not environmental or electoral benefit. Brown is of course playing to the Latte belt where his core constituency,  who are  off with the fairies,  will be delighted by  gesture.

The government is clearly hurting   on this issue now and I think that the general public here are just utterly fed up with the crap being sprouted by our dear leader and his climate change minister Penny W(r)ong. they must be able to smell the “Eau de urine” that emanates from both of them.  Because it must be evident by now just how futile the attempts to get a world agreement on any kind of action to “stop” climate change. All of the advocates for emission reductions are pissing into the wind and wasting their time trying to achieve a scientifically dubious solution   which is politically impossible anyway.

Adaptation is the key, now if only the politicians would just admit that and stop all of the Canute like nonsense we can move forward and spend our energy and treasure on building a better future with good sense and humility, rather than bathing in the fine yellow mist of futility.

Cheers Comrades

8)

Delightful

Ok I admit that this is a piece of frivolous fluff but you just have to admire the skill needed to make something like this, just as a work of art.

Dream machine: The P-51D Mustang took Young C Park, a retired Honolulu dentist, an incredible 6,000 hours to construct

For the source piece go here

I have been looking at the political stuff but for some strange reason I just don’t feel inspired to write about it at present.

Normal blogging will return shortly

Cheers Comrades

It was the best of times and the worst of times

Our usual practice on road trips is to pack the car the day before and leave home in the pre dawn hours avoiding all of the city traffic and because of the failure of the Ford’s air-con much of the heat as well. It was 4 am when we got the kids settled in the back seat and my wife and I fare welled Shaggy who was frankly rather disappointed that he could not come with us but we had arranged for my brother to come and house sit for us to keep an eye on things and feed the animals.

“You will be OK mate “I told our loyal hound, giving him a pat” We will be back soon and you will have some company but until then you guard the house” He looked up at me with cataract clouded eyes and tilted his head to one side as if to say “yeah right” I could see him standing at the window as I backed the car out and I thought of just how long we have shared our lives with that small brown dog.

He had arrived via Airfreight, a very small puppy in a very large pet pack.  I had bought him to be the stud for my dog breeding enterprise and he was from the start something special, a bundle of fluff the colour of dark chocolate with an affable nature and the quick intelligence that his breed is known for and the other dogs quickly accepted him that we had at the time. His papers said that his name was “Saisonelle Country style” which we thought was terrible so we called him “Chakotay” after the character from Star trek Voyager.

Chakotay was an inquisitive pup and just days after we got him home he disappeared and I was convinced that a Wedgie had got him when I could not find him . The place we where we were living was in the middle of a field surrounded by tall clumps of metre high grass and as it turned out he was lost amongst that jungle and it was only when my wife had been in our outside dunny that she had heard his cries that we found him again. He had spent the night trying to find his way back and had picked up 14 ticks in the process. We rushed him to the vet and it was touch and go if he would survive. The vet was actually surprised that he survived because one tick can kill a full grown dog and fourteen on a very small pup is very bad indeed. But survive he did and as we watched him grow to maturity we were delighted with the dog that he became. He learnt all of the usual things that we humans think that I dog should know with ease learning to be part of our pack without losing his dignity in the process. When he grew big enough to perform the stud duties that I had bought him for I remember joking to a friend that he was a very lucky dog who made his living   by shagging, this was a joke that I told quite a few times to various people, from that observation and that ribald joke he earned the title of “The Shaggs” and eventually we began to call him just Shaggs or Shaggy.
During the time that I was actively breeding dogs the Shaggs fathered many pups and the vast majority of them turned out to be great dogs and when I decided to get out of the dog breeding game Shaggs was the only dog that we kept, all of the bitches found new homes with new owners but the Shaggs was quite contended to retire to household duties and he formed a particularly close bond with my wife. Shaggs saw the arrival of our children and he was never jealous or mean to them even when the pulled his ears or treated him roughly he retained his gentle nature.
He had the sort of canine ESP that meant that he knew when a walk was going to happen and no amount of subterfuge could ever fool him and going on a walk with out the Shaggs well that was just unthinkable until just a couple of months ago when he began to find it too much. He wanted to go still but he had stopped pulling on the lead and the hills seemed to be too much. And when he got sick a few weeks ago so clearly in pain I took him to the vet, She was trying to be diplomatic but I just knew that his days were numbered. The pills she prescribed made him comfortable but he was losing a lot of weight because he just ate so little. It was like watching him melt away.
As we drove away from home I wondered if he would be waiting at the door when we got home. There was part of me that just wanted him to see Christmas. Denial is a wonderful soporific and we all just let our worries about the Shaggs slide as we got into travel mode. Our journey was uneventful and thankfully quicker than it has been in previous years because of the upgrades to the road, setting out early helped as well and after ten hours on the road we arrived at our home for the next week. It all went to the usual holiday script until the phone rang last Thursday evening.

“I have some bad news for you Iain” my brother told me ” Shaggy has passed away “

He told me the details and I was glad that the Shaggs had not suffered. He had just gone quietly in his sleep.

We discussed where he was to be buried and my brother took up the crowbar and the shovel to dig his grave, working well into the night until it was finished.

My wife was grief stricken and my daughter cried those deep sobs that make you feel so inadequate. Together we all talked about how much we were going to miss the Shaggs and as you do when someone you love has died we talked about the things about his life that we fondly remembered. With the remembering came some small comfort and some easing of the pain but we all wanted to be home then but with just one more full day by the beach it just made sense to stick to our plan to leave early on Saturday morning.

We sort of spent Friday in a daze of sorts My wife took the children to the estuary for a swim and I buried myself into the pages of Stephen King’s  “The Stand” where I found the familiar but largely forgotten narrative some comfort. After packing the car on Friday evening and cleaning the house we ate our last dinner there and after the family went to sleep I spent a while watching a rather corny disaster film about London being wiped out by a storm surge and during the far too frequent ad breaks I managed to catch the news reports about the failure (as expected) of the Copenhagen talk fest.

Our journey home was almost entirely unremarkable; the children were even able to get along. We cheered as we crossed the Queensland border even though we had many miles left to travel, by the time that we got to the bottom of our own mountain all of us wanted to be home, out of the car and in our house the thought of a cup of tea made with rainwater was what kept me going up the last bit of road. As I pulled into the garage I could see the small mound of earth that marked Shaggy’s grave. We all got out of the car and hand in hand we stood around the disturbed earth thinking about our little mate, of the puppy that he was and the fine dog that he became and the way that he was part of our family.

There are some jaded souls who just don’t get the way that our companion animals come to be so important and how we can grieve as deeply for a dog as we do for any human being. I am not one of them. The future will see another dog becoming part of our family and as I used to tell so many people when I was a dog breeder, a new pup does make it easier to get over a loss but it is best not to be too hasty.

We will get another dog soon enough but not before the time is right.

Cheers Comrades

8)

Summer Holiday

As the song says we are off on a little holiday and my blogging and commentary will be for all intents and purposes non existent for the next week. We are going to our favourite beach on the New South Wales coast. I plan to read a book and just chill with the wife and the kids .

Socky may provide you with a post or two, (but then maybe he won’t) but if you are feeling a little deprived of my wordy wisdom I recommend that you check out this blog’s archive, there are a few gems in there that are worth another read.

Cheers Comrades

Promises were made to be broken

The minister has been taking lessons in spin from Brother Number One (ABC image)

So Brother Number One has failed to deliver on a promise, well who is surprised?

KEVIN Rudd’s promise to build 35 GP super clinics across the nation appears to be in tatters, with only one completed centre in operation after two years of Labor government.

The Australian can reveal that despite the Prime Minister’s claims that six more centres are partially complete, at least two are offering little more than conventional GP services.

And one centre claimed by Health Minister Nicola Roxon as a partially functioning GP super clinic — in Darwin — is in fact being fully funded by the Northern Territory government.

Mr Rudd campaigned for the 2007 election promising to spend $275 million on super clinics — medical one-stop shops in areas struggling with inadequate medical services.

I am likewise entirely unsurprised that what meagre progress that there has been on this plan has in factbeen subject to much spin and exaggeration by the minister Nicola Roxon

Despite Ms Roxon claiming the Palmerston facility as evidence of the success of the program, Health Department officials told a Senate budget estimates committee earlier this year that it was funded by the Northern Territory government and was not a super clinic. The Woongarrah clinic also offers limited services and the super clinic is not due to open for a year.

Its not like this government has “form” for excessive spending that produces little by way of results, oh hang on a second they do!
Cheers Comrades

A piece of religious flim-flamery

Could there really be a more cringe worthy piece of religious propaganda? When I saw part of this on the news last night I just could not believe it! Especially after  reading one of  the Pee pee club‘s resident Waministas say this :

The science is accepted at the highest levels and despite the “Hysteria*” of the ludittes like your self, there will be action, there is action so argue away if you feel it gives you some sort of purpose.

“surlysimon“

The notion that we sceptics are being hysterical about the  “climate change” issue is so utterly laughable  when you look at what is being produced by the Warministas  to rev up  the faithful at Copenhagen. Like the show from  Leah Wickham of  Fiji who is apparently having some sort of crisis about the possibility that the seas may engulf her Island home:

Leah Wickham, a young Fijian student activist, was suddenly overcome with emotion as she stood on stage with the president of the UN climate conference, Danish Environment Minister, Connie Hedegaard, facing a room full of reporters and TV crew (click for source)

For some thing that is supposed to be a serious part of solving a serious problem for the entire planet why does this whole production have the stench of the tent show revivalists? The heart string plucking use of sweet little poppet’s making   appeals to be saved , not from damnation in the next world but in this one is even enough to make AGW  believers like my friend Ray write about just how awful this crap is . Oh yeah i forgot to make note of the fact that the poppet has a Polar bear soft toy that that’s swallowed by the earth as well!!!!

Shit they just could not lay the clichés on any thicker if they tried!

Expect more of the cute little poppet making the gut wrenching appeals for salvation, more news reports about disappearing islands in the Pacific,  and generally more more hysterical appeals for salvation.

Do you have sin in your heart?

Oh yeah!

An electric appliance or two?

Oh yeah!

Do you drive a car?

Oh yeah!

Do you have a plasma TV?

Oh yeah!

Repent now !!!!

Put on that hair shirt and don’t you dare blaspheme  by saying  that you can see the emperor’s buttocks because you know that  a vile  sin  like that will bring the Wrath of Gaia upon you………

As I said at the beginning, it is  utterly cringe worthy.

That  “climate scientists” and world leaders should lend their credibility to such a piece of religious  flim-flamery is incredibly disappointing but sadly I am not surprised and that is the real worry.

Cheers Comrades.

* bold added

Update

Oh it gets even better !

With the leaking of a draft of an agreement sending many delegates into something of a tail spin:

The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.

The agreement, leaked to the Guardian, is a departure from the Kyoto protocol‘s principle that rich nations, which have emitted the bulk of the CO2, should take on firm and binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gases, while poorer nations were not compelled to act. The draft hands effective control of climate change finance to the World Bank; would abandon the Kyoto protocol – the only legally binding treaty that the world has on emissions reductions; and would make any money to help poor countries adapt to climate change dependent on them taking a range of actions.

The document was described last night by one senior diplomat as “a very dangerous document for developing countries. It is a fundamental reworking of the UN balance of obligations. It is to be superimposed without discussion on the talks”.

You could not invent this stuff!