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Foretelling the future and negating the wrath of the Gods
The thing is that as there are now many thousands of people who have studied science enough to have “qualifications” it has become a very “broad church” that has elements that can support and endorse almost any proposition. Add to that the fact that there are many millions of people who are reasonably scientifically literate and an Internet to allow anyone to engage in the previously closed shop and you have the foundations for science becoming the new secular religion of the modern world.
No more perfect example of the making science a religion exists than the branch of science that deals with our climate and trying to predict the way that it may change into the future. Because “climate science” is utterly immune to any testing by the foundational tenet of science, the scientific method, So instead of being able to test the theory of AGW (which we can’t do because we don’t have a spare planet earth to experiment on) we the public are fed a constant stream of faith statements and dire predictions all of which are based upon some rather convoluted reasoning built upon a great deal of assumption, a little bit of (incomplete) data and huge amounts of confirmation bias, The proponents of this theory have take on a priest like role and many of their congregation argue about what they imagine will happen with the certainty of the religious zealot.
the simple truth is always going to be that we won’t know what the future of the climate will be until it actually happens and we are going to have to adapt to any changes if and when they come. We can try to anticipate change and spend a great deal of effort and treasure in the process but what if those anticipations are based on a wrong call? That was the underlying point of Newman’s piece in the Australian. As a “clever country” we have to be able to jump which ever way we have to to survive and prosper into the future. The planet is littered with edifices to failed millenarian thinking, the temples and monuments meant to placate the gods that did not avert the expected end of humanity lets not fall into the same trap of wasted effort just because the priests of the new warming religion wear white coats and use computers instead of tearing the beating hearts out the chests of human sacrifices on the altars of their faith.
Cheers Comrades
the only certainty in life is that we will all eventually die
Some thoughts about mooted changes to Media ownership law in Australia
People are creatures of habit and it is only that so many people are habituated to buying the news papers that any are still being sold at all. Just take any kind of commute on public transport and consider how many people are reading a paper and how many are staring at a screen instead. Some certainly may be playing games or even watching video but I expect that they will be out numbering those who are still reading dead tree editions of the MSM.
Then there is the things in the paper that people buy them for, most papers are not exclusively about politics and current affairs anyway, so some readers will be buying the paper for its coverage of sport, lifestyle or even just for the crossword puzzles. My point is that the political classes (in particular those from the left ) just look at the raw sales figured and they think that every reader of the Herald Sun is in the thrall of Rupert Murdoch and that the owners dictate to their readers directing their opinions. The reality is that all media entities write to their audience. If they don’t their audience wither away quite quickly. With the coming of the internet this is even more how things work Online entities are even more in an endless quest for readers so you have to play to what your readers want rather than thinking that you can manipulate their thinking. I have been writing a blog for nearly a decade now and I have noticed just how quickly particular readers flit in and out its the same now with the way that people read things online from the likes of Murdoch, Fairfax or even the Guardian People don’t just get their news from one source any more no matter what the subject is they will read what several sources say about it and then make up their mind. This behaviour is the same when it comes to broadcast TV people flit form one channel to another seeking different perspectives. My argument is simple, if the media consumers have changed their habits then perhaps there is something in the notion that media diversity laws from the last century should perhaps reflect those changes as well.
Cheers Comrades
Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and dodgy passports
Relatives of passengers on the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 arrive for a meeting with airline officials in Beijing. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images
Now as the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 continues we have the revelation that at least two travellers on that flight were flying on stolen identities. Now while the report from the Guardian is very quick to down play the the possibility that the plane was deliberately brought down by an act of terrorism. personally I think that at this point in time its a better than evens chance that the loss of the aircraft is the result of an act of Jihad.
The Malaysia Airlines flight missing with 239 on board may have turned around just before it vanished from radar screens, the country’s air force chief said on Sunday as the government said it had contacted counter-terrorism agencies around the world following concerns over unidentified passengers.
Transport and defence minister Hishamuddin Hussein said officials were considering all possible explanations for the disappearance of flight MH370, adding: “We cannot jump the gun. Our focus now is to find the plane.”
The airline warned families to prepare for the worst as the search widened amid inconclusive reports that debris had been spotted floating in the sea between Vietnam and Malaysia.
At least two people on the plane were travelling together on stolen passports, fuelling concerns about the Boeing-777’s abrupt disappearance in the early hours of Saturday. However, experts said there were many possible reasons for why it vanished and for people to travel on false documents.
Malaysian officials said they were looking at four suspect identities and were examining the entire passenger manifest. Interpol confirmed that at least two passports were listed in its database as stolen and that it was examining other documents.
The international police agency’s secretary general, Ronald Noble, said it had spent years urging countries to screen all passports systematically. “Now, we have a real case where the world is speculating whether the stolen passport holders were terrorists, while Interpol is asking why only a handful of countries worldwide are taking care to make sure that persons possessing stolen passports are not boarding international flights,” he said.
The fact that Malaysia is an Islamic country may well have made its national carrier think that it would be very low on the possible targets list but with the very acrimonious schisms within Islam I don’t think that we canmake assumptions like that, besides which the next world superiority over this may have made the possible death of Muslims logistically acceptable.
Secondly despite my utter aversion to flying I do appreciate that modern planes do not just suddenly disappear off radar screens without some sort of communication to ground informing the air controllers that they have a problem. The there and then gone aspect of this disappearance suggest at the very least a sudden catastrophic failure of the aircraft. With a sudden disappearance AND two passengers using stolen documents to travel on the plane its not looking good for those who want to make excuses for the religion of peace.
Coincidentally My lovely wife organised for us to go on a date to the movies yesterday and the film she picked was , of all things “Non Stop” which is a film about terrorists on an airliner. Not a bad flick really with lots of twists and turns to the plot, every possible passenger stereotype from the virtuous Muslim doctor, a to the scared unaccompanied little girl, an off duty NYPD cop, a plucky stewardess. There was echoes of 911 in the reactions of the passengers and at the end a good exploitation of brinkmanship and, as you would expect from an American film an uplifting resolution of the plot. I could not help thinking about MH370 though and that happy endings are easier to find in the reel world. No matter what the reasons for this tragic loss may prove to be, the families and friends of the compliment of MH370 are going to be grief stricken. I for one hope that the cause is found sooner rather than later but I expect with the crash site as yet undiscovered its going to be a rather long wait for answers.
Later Comrades
Things are no longer so simple
Lesson to be learnt
This documentry from the BBC has a great deal to tell this country about the potential effects of the sort of “throw open the doors ” mantra we so often hear from the Loopy Greens and other defenders of those who hop onto those leaky boats. Certainly this is a large country with a potential for a great deal of future growth but the lesson of the British experience is that we should be far more cautious that the economic growth junkies would have us be. Because if we don’t learn from the experience of Britain and other ever more crowded first world nations we will be condemned to suffer the same social problems that are becoming evident in places like Britain, the Netherlands and the other countries of western Europe.
Unlike Britain and Europe we have the luxury of a geography that helps us have effective control of our borders and the real ability to control the future shape of our nation. Frankly we would be delusional and stupid if we don’t learn the lesson here without repeating the follies of both the left and right when it comes to managing the way that line of least resistance decisions taken will affect the nature of the society that we will be leaving our children.
Cheers Comrades
Hat tip to “Sparta of Phoenix, AZ USA” in this comment
TPVs and saying goodbye to the UN refugee convention
As I suggested the other day the government has easily found an adequate workaround to overcome the stunt pulled by the Greens and the ALP in moving to disallow TPVs in the senate:
The cap ordered yesterday has been set at the current number already issued this year – 1650 – meaning not a single new permanent residency visa will be granted until at least July when the cap will be reset.
This is also when the new Senate will be sworn in, stripping Labor and the Greens of their power to block legislation.
Mr Morrison has also used provisions under section 46 of the Migration Act – which apply to ministerial discretion to allow applications to be made by asylum seekers offshore – and has placed a self-imposed ban on allowing applications to be made for permanent protection visas.
All other humanitarian visa programs remain in place, such as those which apply for asylum seekers in UN-administered refugee camps overseas.
Mr Morrison said the effect of the Greens-led roadblock in the Senate – supported by Labor – would be asylum seekers in Australia would be denied any access to work rights or welfare payments other than what is allowed under the bridging visa program.
He said the move was necessary to ensure people smugglers did not use the Labor-Greens Senate alliance to “re-open the door to asylum seekers” as propaganda to encourage more people to get on boats.
He said the freeze on permanent protection visas would remain until the Senate changed its mind.
So all that the stunt will do is provide a small hiatus in the issuing of TPVs and in the mean time those who would qualify for them will suffer more. Good one Mr Shorten. of course this issue clearly begs the question “just how out of date is the UN convention?” and for those of us who have been suggesting for some time that the answer is a resounding “completely!”. Of course the minions of the left claim that the UN convention is wonderful and overflowing with fine principles about “protecting” vulnerable people and I will admit that the original intention was precisely that. However the passage of sixty odd years finds that the world is a vastly different place, in many ways its two worlds, there is the well governed old world countries that have both stability and relative prosperity and then there is the ill governed rabble that makes up the majority of the planet’s nation states. Sadly many of that rabble will never get their act together enough to provide the opportunities for their citizens that we can take for granted. Minions of the far left take the point of view that materially successful nations are required to feel guilty about those who live in dysfunctional societies and to subsequently supply them with either money or allow them to immigrate so that they can share the spoils of our good governance and our ordered society, the problem with this seemingly humane approach is just where to draw the line about just how generous we should be, Its clear to me that for the far left there should be no line at all which will lead to our nation being overwhelmed.
The history of immigration has largely been a success because the numbers have generally been held at the level that can easily be absorbed into our society the problem with the open borders left is that they are just too myopic to see the bigger picture and the possible consequences of the things that they advocate. That is fine when you are dealing with just one person but when that individual is but one of many thousands then we have a big problem.
Going out on a limb here I would suggest that if the Abbott government were to consider pulling out of the UN convention it would be done by providing a legislative instrument setting out the way that asylum-seekers would be treated. An instrument that enshrines in law that we offer temporary protection and that permanent residency would forever be out of the question. Likewise I would expect that those applicants who arrive without any form of documentation would generally be considered suspect. Now if this sort legal basis was enshrined in our law I tend to think that we would not be the only nation to get off the UN convention bandwagon. because we are certainly not the most put upon nation that has to deal with the mass migration from the third world.
In mediaeval Japan anyone who set foot on the shores of the land was subject to immediate beheading. We certainly do not want to get to that extreme but the more that western nations have a problem with an uncontrollable influx of the world’s poor the more brutal the methods to control the flow will surely become. This country , being an island, is better placed than either Europe or the US to have very effective border controls and it is the duty of our federal government to make-sure that those who come here are people that we choose, people who add to the whole rather than create a social problem but most importantly who can become Australians first and foremost rather than just living here.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- Visa decision will leave asylum seekers worse off, Scott Morrison says (oddonion.com)
- Immigration Minister freezes refugee visas (dailytelegraph.com.au)
- The Depths of Indecency (speakupforthose.wordpress.com)
- Morrison puts a cap on protection visas (news.theage.com.au)
- Abbott castigates Labor on TPVs (news.smh.com.au)
- Morrison puts permanent visas on hold (skynews.com.au)
- Senate quashes temporary visas (news.com.au)
- Senate quashes temporary visas (skynews.com.au)
- Morrison visa halt ‘brutal’: Labor, Greens (news.smh.com.au)
Royal Australian Navy Taxi service now off-line
Well if there is an upside to the Indonesian hissy-fit of Labor authorising phone tapping its this instruction to the Australian navy to stay out of Indonesia’s search and rescue zone. Frankly even when we have kissed and made up with SBY I think that the current restriction on our navy’s operations should continue for several very sound reasons.
click for source
Firstly it will be a mighty powerful disincentive to people who have may be seduced by the people smugglers to buy one of their poisoned tickets because as it stands the so called asylum seekers have been relying on our Navy being a virtual taxi service.
Secondly for a nation of islands it seems ridiculous that Indonesia can not provide adequate rescue capabilities in its own waters and its just not our job to provide an eternal back up service to take up their slack.
Thirdly we keep being told that the constant rescue operations are wearing out both our personnel and our hardware at a prodigious rate keeping our assets out of Indonesian waters will allow proper maintenance to be done and personnel to recharge their batteries.
Fourthly it will help the budget bottom line.
Now of course I expect the usual suspects to scream blue murder if a boat full of asylum seekers founders but in that unhappy event it will be the fault of Indonesia if any lives are lost but some how I don’t think it will come to that as long as the water-borne mendicants get the message that our taxi service is no longer an option.
Cheers Comrades
Related articles
- Indonesia spy row: talks have stalled, say Indonesians (theage.com.au)
- Indonesia refuses to take asylum seekers (skynews.com.au)
- Mid-ocean boat stand-off (smh.com.au)
- Australian Navy show off sub rescue capability Australian Navy show off sub rescue capability Read more posts and click here (h16613.com)
- PM says Indonesia at fault (theage.com.au)
Be good or be gone from open society, there should be no other options for all non-citizens
The fundamental expectation that we all have of any visitor to our homes is that they be well mannered and respectful of our house rules, and at a national level I reckon its no different so when we have people that we as a community have welcomed and offered our support and succour its entirely reasonable that if they break our laws and cause grief and suffering to our society that we show them to a seat on the next plane outta here. Frankly we don’t need the sort of bullshit that my fellow Poms have had trying to deport some of the most depraved jihadists and even foreign nationals who are common criminals . All because of England being a signatory to fine sounding international law instruments. The opposition have been quite vocal of late about a proposed change to our law to quickly deport any non-citizen who commits any offense that may incur a sentence of a year or more of imprisonment upon conviction.
click for source
This sounds about right to me and if we have to denounce aspects of the UN charter to expel undesirable scum-bags then so be it but if the “compassionate” desire of our friends from the left prevents the deportation of criminal immigrants because they fear “persecution” in their home country then indefinite imprisonment seems fair enough to me. I wonder how many of these foreign criminals will lose all of that “fear” once their choice is leave this country or spend a very long time at Her Majesty’s pleasure? Most by my reckoning.
The most interesting thing for me in the Age piece that I cite here is the Poll at the bottom where roughly two thirds of the respondents agree with the coalition policy. Given the general lean to the left of the Fairfax demographic this is a significant result indeed.
Cheers Comrades.
Letting Allah decide in Syria
Sadly far too many of the compassionate left tend to think that when the people rise up in revolt against a despot the rebels must by definition be fighting the good fight and there for they should be worthy of both moral endorsement and material support.Back in the real world those of us who are more sensible realise that often its really a pissing contest between the despicable and the utterly contemptible.Thus I have been entirely unmoved and rather uninterested in the whole “Arab spring” thing in general and the war in Syria in particular. When it comes to the endless killing in places like Iraq where we are seeing the centuries old schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims played out in the form endless bombings,and other acts of violence. The civil war in neighbouring Syria is another page form the same book and I tend to think that the desire to stop the blood shed there is virtuous however the reality is that any cessation of hostilities is hardly likely to have any permanence . Put simply you don’t resolve centuries old animosities with socialist good intentions. So I found my self in agreement with, of all people , Sarah Palin:
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Palin is right here when it comes to these internecine conflicts we should just let these idiots kill each other and let their god sort out who is right in the after life. With any luck they will wipe each other all out in an orgy of religious fervour. My concern about this war is the number of Australians of Syrian extraction who hop on a -plane and go “home” to fight against Assad. This strikes me as being the clear problem with notions of dual citizenship. I think that any Australian duel citizens who play soldiers in the war overseas they should have to show cause why they should not be stripped of their Australian citizenship especially if they have been fighting for an ideology that is antithetical to our secular democracy .
Cheers Comrades
Iain Hall's SANDPIT 