Amnesty is not a moral guardian
(27May07) “…Political hyperbole makes great headlines, but poor analysis. Amnesty International's secretary general Irene Khan has just delivered one of the most egregious pieces of political extravagance in her latest annual report on human rights abuses by linking two of the world's most evil political leaders, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, with John Howard and George W. Bush. Such an association may give joy and comfort to the lunar Left but it adds little to the need for a rational debate on the monstrous evils that abound…..” Amnesty is not a moral guardian , Alan Gold, The Australian “…For Amnesty International to link Howard with Bashir and Mugabe is an exaggeration so monstrous as to question Khan's ability to determine what are human rights and what are human wrongs…. Amnesty International has become so biased, so politicised, that its founder, British lawyer Peter Benenson, wouldn't recognise the organisation today…. for Amnesty to single out Howard for special mention in company with two of the most infamous people alive today makes any reader doubt the worth and validity of the entire report….”
(24May07) “…A few weeks ago in a column I wrote about David Suzuki's rudeness and hypocrisy I admitted that similar to that green guru, I too love this planet and try to have as small a negative environmental impact as possible but unlike him, I don't believe that human-made CO2 is the main driver of global warming…. Yesterday, world renowned paleoclimatologist and geology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa , Dr. Tim Patterson, was in Calgary to pass that basic message on. (that the cause of warming is the sun)…” Sun of a Gun by Licia Corbella “…Though his message was rather technical. He brought reams of proof, scientific studies, graphs and the like to back up his claims. Indeed, one of the more interesting, if not alarming statements Patterson made before the Friends of Science luncheon is satellite data shows that by about the year 2020 the next solar cycle is going to be solar cycle 25 -- the weakest one since the Little Ice Age (that started in the 13th century and ended around 1860)… Post World War II, as the world started cooling, CO2 was going up like crazy. All the evidence shows that warming periods were all solar driven and that there is no correlation between CO2 and temperature." But solar flaring on its own, says Patterson, does not account for most of the warming -- which is an increase of 0.8C since the end of the Little Ice Age. It's only when its coupled with evidence about galactic cosmic rays, do all the historic warming (and cooling) pieces fit together….”
Welcome to “Apocaholics Anonymous
(24May07)“…H i, I'm Gary and I'm a recovering Apocaholic. I am currently Apocalypse free for nearly 18 years. I left the church of the Religious Apocalypse in 1976, over 30 years ago, and I resigned from the secular church of the Financial Apocalypse in 1989. Yes, I still feel the urge to proclaim the end of all things, from time to time, but I white-knuckle my way to a history book for a little perspective, and then I breathe easier. If you wish to join AA, the only requirement is that you give up the adrenaline rush of media-fed fantasies…..” Welcome to “Apocaholics Anonymous by Gary Alexander “…I was born in July 1945, the day the first atomic bomb exploded in Alamogordo , New Mexico . That mushroom crowd has haunted our lives ever since. As a teenager, I became convinced the world would end before I was 30. Too soon old…too late smart, I was very, very wrong…. My apocalyptic addiction began 50 years ago, in the Year of Sputnik, when all of us Seattle-area 7 th graders – mostly the offspring of Boeing engineers – were told that we must now learn more science and math, to close the missile gap with the Soviet Union …”
Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe : are you laughing yet?
(22May07) “… Listen carefully and you will hear regular appeals to "the international community" or to "the UN" or to "what the rest of the world thinks"….Start with the UN itself. The old UN Commission on Human Rights was dismantled in June last year for being ineffective, biased, ridiculous: take your pick. In its place we have the UN Human Rights Council, with 47 member countries. And in its short lifespan it has already made nine resolutions criticising human rights abuses. Sounds good, right? Well, not one of those resolutions was critical of Sudan (over Darfur), or Zimbabwe , or China , or anywhere, save Israel . Yes, Israel is the only country this new body has criticised (on nine separate occasions, no less) for rights abuses….How about the UN Commission on the Status of Women? At its 2007 annual conference, when surveying the plight of women around the entire world, what countries did it single out? Saudi Arabia , maybe, where women aren't allowed to drive and are liable to be stoned to death? Or big chunks of Africa ? Or Afghanistan ? Nope. Apparently the only country that warranted a resolution for violating women's rights was, wait for it, Israel ….” Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe : are you laughing yet? James Allen, The Australian “…Or how about this? The UN Commission on Sustainable Development, which is charged with economic development and the environment, just elected as its chairman Zimbabwe . Yes, Zimbabwe , which has annual inflation of more than 2200 per cent and whose economy is contracting by more than 5 per cent a year. Or what about the UN's Disarmament Commission? Iran was just elected to serve as vice-chairman, with Syria as rapporteur…I think we can be sceptical of both these things. If you randomly drew 100 names from the phone book, those people would be a better guide to how to draw the many debatable and contentious rights-respecting lines that need drawing than anything likely to emerge from the UN or "the international community".
The Tyranny of ‘Global Warming
(21May07)“…Dave Legates served as an adviser and mentor to me while I pursued my own graduate degree at the University of Oklahoma . He aided me in my statistical approaches and helped to design the statistical methods that I used in my graduate research… In order to conduct research and ultimately publish the results in refereed scientific journals, scientists need money, government money mostly. Unfortunately, journals are unlikely to publish, what scientists call, negative results… For instance, if you conducted a scientific experiment to test the effectiveness of a new drug on the treatment of cancer and found that patients administered the drug had the same rate of survival as those who received a placebo, these would be negative results. The information is valuable, because it has identified a fruitless path of inquiry, but it is also considered not worthy of publication, in most cases. As a result, there is an enormous amount of pressure placed upon scientists to produce significant results….” The Tyranny of ‘Global Warming' by Michael J Shaughnessy “…This isn't to say that global warming proponents in the scientific community are dishonest and faking their data. It simply means that scientists have a great deal of incentive to interpret data in the most positive ways possible…. This bias is the paradigm that Dr. Legates has run into. Skeptics such as myself and Dr. Legates are the voices in the crowd crying out that ''the emperor has no clothes.'' We do so at great professional risk, and for little or no personal/professional benefit. The response to this skepticism is, at best, to be ostracized by our peers and, at worst, threatened with reprisals that include losing jobs, demotion or lack of advancement in our fields…. Why are the global warming proponents so determined to end the debate over global warming? If the evidence in support of the idea is so overwhelming, it should only be a matter of thoughtful debate and time before everyone comes to agreement on it. Yet, skeptics and dissenters are discredited, threatened professionally and encouraged to keep silent on the issue. Throughout history, tyrants and despots have made their first priority the end of debate and the silencing of their critics…”
(20May07) “….Many former believers in catastrophic man-made global warming have recently reversed themselves and are now climate skeptics…. The list below is just the tip of the iceberg. A more detailed and comprehensive sampling of scientists who have only recently spoken out against climate hysteria will be forthcoming in a soon to be released U.S. Senate report….The voices of rank and file scientists opposing climate doomsayers can serve as a counter to the alarmism that children are being exposed to on a daily basis….” Climate Momentum Shifting: Prominent Scientists Reverse Belief in Man-made Global Warming - Now Skeptics “… The voices of rank and file scientists opposing climate doomsayers can serve as a counter to the alarmism that children are being exposed to on a daily basis. (See Washington Post April 16, 2007 article about kids fearing of a Climactic Armageddon ) The media's climate fear factor seemingly grows louder even as the latest science grows less and less alarming by the day. (See Der Spiegel May 7, 2007 article: Not the End of the World as We Know It ) It is also worth noting that the proponents of climate fears are increasingly attempting to suppress dissent by skeptics. See UPI May 10, 2007 article: U.N. official says it's 'completely immoral' to doubt global warming fears ……” Download a free copy of Adobe Reader if you don't already have it as you need it to read this site.
Here's the waterfront drama that Aunty did not show
(19May07)“…If the ABC wanted to make a drama about the waterfront in Australia, one may wonder why it didn't look at a matter rather more dramatic and significant than that depicted in Bastard Boys, and one that has been suppressed with Orwellian thoroughness by the Australian history industry: the waterfront strikes that occurred throughout World War II, and at times when Australia's national survival appeared to be at stake… As Japanese forces attacked Milne Bay in 1942 and Australia and the US tried to rush reinforcements to the troops holding on there, Townsville watersiders refused to load heavy guns unless paid treble or, later, quadruple time…” Here's the waterfront drama that Aunty did not show , Hal G.P. Colebatch, The Australian “…In Adelaide in 1942, watersiders deliberately wrecked US aircraft engines by dropping them from cargo nets until American soldiers fired sub-machineguns….On the Brisbane wharves Australian watersiders also deliberately wrecked US P-38 fighter planes….When No317 radar station was being set up at Green Island near New Britain, it was found that all the valves for the radar sets had been stolen by wharf labourers at Townsville…These are a small sample of accounts that I have collected dealing with literally hundreds of incidents of wartime strikes and pilfering on the wharves from 1939 to 1945, as well as outright sabotage….Too bad the ABC is not interested. The story would make a great drama….”
Pakistan's President Says Muslim Nations Should Stop Blaming Others
(17 May07) “…Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has told a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Islamabad that Muslim nations must stop blaming others for their troubles and solve their own problems …. In unexpectedly blunt opening comments, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the meeting comes as the Muslim community faces unprecedented challenges, many of them self-imposed…."The crises confronting the Islamic world are not only external but also internal, flowing from our own weaknesses, our own vulnerabilities, our own divisions within," he said. "The Islamic world is on a downward slide and we must face this…" Pakistan's President Says Muslim Nations Should Stop Blaming Others , by Benjamin Sand “…. The president also lashed out at Muslim hardliners who he blamed for fueling Western fears of the Islamic world. "While the world views Islam as a militant, intolerant religion, this thought is reinforced by our own extremist forces," he said. "We are in a state where these semi-literate clerics are closing the minds of people." The president urged the Islamic Conference to completely revamp its charter so it can more effectively represent and revitalize Muslim nations…”
(15 May07)“…A t the annual Cairo antiwar conference in Egypt , the hot panel discussion this year was “Bridge-Building Between the Left and Islam.” John Rees, a British Trotskyite, observed: “Where else can you sit down in a single evening and listen to senior people from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, people from the revolutionary left and the antiwar movement from around the globe?”… Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Middle East Media Research Institute, recently reported in the New York Sun on the growing alliance between elements of the hard left and the Islamist extremists. “The roster of Islamist-left alliances quietly grows every day,” Stalinsky writes. For example, “Massachusetts Institute of Technology linguistics professor Noam Chomsky praises Hamas and denounces America on Hezbollah's Al-Manar television. London Mayor Ken Livingstone invites a leading Islamist, Sheikh Yosef Al-Qaradawi, who is known for supporting suicide attacks, to visit his city…” Jihadi Chic , by Jonah Goldberg “…I'm a big believer in the importance of ideas and the notion that ideology matters. But I can't help but think ideology isn't everything. Something else is going on. For example, I recently participated in a debate at the Oxford Union (the subject of the debate: “This House regrets the founding of the United States of America ”)…. I got the distinct impression that something else explained their run-of-the-mill socialist twaddle. Both men seemed to be Muslims because that's where the action is for lefty radicals today…In the 1960s, every would-be revolutionary called himself a Marxist, usually without any serious regard to what Marx wrote, said or believed. The specifics of the ideology didn't matter, because Marxism was the oogah-boogah word radicals used to scare the fat, lazy bourgeoisie. ….”
Scroll to the bottom of the link below to navigate to parts 1 through 5
(11 May07)“…There are a lot more ‘inconvenient truths' than Al Gore would have you believe….In this eye-opening documentary viewers will discover how the most respected researchers from all over the world explode the doom and gloom of global warming. Humans stand accused of having set off a global climate catastrophe by increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere…. Doomsday called off “…The prophecy of doom is clear and media pass on the message uncritically…Now serious criticism has arisen from a number of heavyweight independent scientists. They argue that most of the climatic change we have seen is due to natural variations…They also state that if CO 2 is to play a role at all -it will be minuscule and not catastrophic! This story presents a series of unbiased scientists as our witnesses.We will hear their eloquent criticism of the IPCC conclusions illustrated by coverage of their research work..”
(11 May07)“…For years, the Soviet Union benefited from those Vladimir Lenin is said to have dubbed "the useful idiots of the West" — reporters, scholars, leftists, and assorted romantics who said the Soviet system of totalitarianism was not so bad. Leading its own charm offensive, another evil empire, The Muslim Brotherhood , has assembled its own enablers among the West's august institutions during the last few years….The current issue of Foreign Affairs carries a propaganda piece by Robert Leiken and Steven Brooke, "The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood," that is so lacking in inquisitiveness it is being used as a calling card by the Brotherhood's Politburo….its attempts to form a new evil empire are largely presided over by the Muslim Brotherhood…” New Useful Idiots , The New York Sun “…Officially created in Egypt in 1928, the Brotherhood conjured the specter of jihadist Islam with its evergreen slogan, "Islam Is the Solution."…The Brotherhood's program has remained largely unchanged for seven decades: scrapping civil laws in favor of Shariah law…The heart of the Brotherhood remains the working manifesto written by Sayed Qutb while he was in jail in Egypt, which is venerated by all Muslim Brotherhood chapters to this day…In "Milestones," published in 1964 and the source of charges used to justify Qutb's 1966 execution, he crystallized the logic of fighting national governments to create the Ummah, one nation for all Muslims….To the Muslim Brotherhood, "Milestones" is what Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf " was to the Nazi movement: the foundation text for its desired revolution. So Westerners looking into the tenets of the Brotherhood must avoid being ensnared by its seductive side…”
Not the End of the World as We Know It
(11 May07)“….During the so-called Medieval Warm Period between about 900 and 1300 A.D., for example, the Vikings raised livestock on Greenland and sailed to North America. New cities were built all across Europe, and the continent's population grew from 30 million to 80 million…The consequences of the colder temperatures that plunged civilization into the so-called Little Ice Age for several centuries after 1300 were devastating….When temperatures plunged unexpectedly once again in the 1960s, many meteorologists were quick to warn people about the coming of a new ice age -- supposedly triggered by man-made air pollution…It was not until the rise of the environmental movement in the 1980s that everything suddenly changed….Environmentalists, adopting a strategy typical of the Catholic Church, have been warning us about the horrors of greenhouse gas hell ever since…” Not the End of the World as We Know It , Olaf Stampf, Der Spiegal “…According to our computer model, neither the number nor intensity of storms is increasing," says Jochem Marotzke, director of the Hamburg-based Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, one of the world's leading climate research centers….it quickly became apparent that the horrific tale of a melting South Pole was nothing but fiction. The average temperature in the Antarctic is -30 degrees Celsius. Humanity cannot possibly burn enough oil and coal to melt this giant block of ice….As a result, the total rise in sea levels would in fact be reduced by about 5 cm (2 inches)…because the Arctic sea ice already floats in the water, its melting will have virtually no effect on sea levels…A healthy dose of skepticism is a good idea, especially when scientists become all too confident and make themselves out to be oracles. But there can be a wide gap between their predictions and the end result -- a fundamental weakness of all computer simulations that present only incomplete pictures of reality…”
(8 May07)“….The war will be won or lost, like it or not, fairly or unjustly, in the next six months in Baghdad….Win Iraq in the sense of a government stabilizing analogous to Kurdistan or Turkey, and even at this late hour, pundits and politicians will scramble around to dig up their 2002-3 quotes supporting the war, while Hollywood goes quiet and turns to more sermons on Darfur. Sad, but true….a large minority of Muslims, according to polls, condones terrorist attacks on civilians, while a vast majority is vehemently anti-American. Their prejudice apparently is chalked up to our omnipresence—like saving Kuwait, feeding Somalia, stopping Muslims dying en masse in the Balkans, ridding Afghanistan of the Soviets, paying astronomical prices for their oil, and giving nearly $100 billion over the years to the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Palestinians.
Our prejudice surely could not be due to 19 Muslims slaughtering— to the delight of millions—3,000 Americans, nor to the news almost every hour of Christian-Muslim violence, Hindu-Muslim violence, Buddhist-Muslim violence, or secular-Muslim violence. And now the much circulated quote from Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council…” The Crazy Middle East , Victor Davis Hanson “…What to do? We should give not a cent to any government in Palestine . Americans might wish the people there well, but explain due to their vehement anti-American prejudices, we cannot accept any into this country, revoke the visas of those who are here, and politely ask them to settle their own differences with Israel. Perhaps with Gulf oil money, they can one day forget Israel , create a just society, foster a vibrant, non-corrupt economy, and then with confidence negotiate with Israel about borders. But until then, there is no reason to have relations with this government or its populace. Its mother's milk is envy and jealousy that a displaced decimated people was placed down beside them in rock and scrub, and sixty years later built a humane, prosperous society that is a daily reminder to them that what they do—statism, gender apartheid, tribalism, feuding, religious intolerance, corruption, autocracy, polygamy, honor killings, etc.—lead to the very opposite sort of society in which nothing is invented, no discovery is found, no security or prosperity is achieved, and hand-outs are demanded but never appreciated….”
Will Britain one day be Muslim
(8 May07)“…On Tuesday, five men were sentenced to life in prison for plotting to use a huge fertiliser bomb in what would have been the UK's largest mass murder….Is it absurd to hope that the exposure of their evil after a 13-month trial which cost an estimated £50 million has finally provided the wake-up call that this slumbering country so badly needs? Or will we continue to allow the politically-correct lunatics to stay in charge of what is becoming an asylum?..... one aspect of contemporary British society which I refuse to adjust to is its weakness in the face of the enemy within. In my many conversations with like-minded people about the threat that radical Islam poses to the British way of lifen - and, indeed, to European civilisation - we frequently end by despairingly agreeing that the West seems intent on committing political and cultural suicide. When we look starkly at the demographic statistics, the wimpishness of our Establishment in the face of the threat, the perversions perpetrated by political correctness and our own passivity, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that within a couple of generations, Islam will be in control in Europe…” Will Britain one day be Muslim by Ruth Dudley Edwards, Daily Mail “….Why wasn't there a national debate about whether it was wise to mortgage our cultural future for the sake of a mess of financial pottage? Where were the politicians arguing against the doctrine of multiculturalism which holds that upholding majority values is somehow illegitimate? Who among the liberal elite's commentariat were challenging the moral relativism that flew in the face of sense and sensibility by insisting that the culture of Shakespeare, the King James Bible, Keats's poetry, Turner's paintings and Elgar's music was no more important than - and probably morally inferior to - the cultures of other imported, minorities?.... it is time the blunt truth was told about the dangers posed by radical Islam. We wring our hands over Iraq and blame Bush and Blair, but Al Qaeda was engaged on its murderous mission and Omar Bakri was preaching violent jihad in Britain years ago, in the days of Clinton and Major. Right across the world, fundamentalist Muslims are fighting people of all religions as well as non-believers, because they are trying to impose their will through violence. But where is the resistance to this? In Britain , we have a consensus imposed by political correctness where such threats are not discussed. In other words, dissenting voices are censored…”
We Cannot Sit Back And Let Sharia Law Take Root In Britain
(8 May07)“….For centuries, the principle of equality before the law for all citizens has been at the heart of our society. It has been one of the cornerstones of our liberty, stretching back to the time of Magna Carta. Now, thanks to the pernicious doctrine of multi-culturalism, it is under attack as never before… In a political climate of craven appeasement towards Muslim extremism, the Islamification of our country is steadily accelerating. Across large swathes of urban Britain, Muslim practices, customs, schooling and dress-codes now prevail….But perhaps the most dramatic indicator of this process comes from the West Yorkshire town of Dewsbury, where Muslim elders have decided to set up their own Islamic court to impose Sharia law in civil disputes within their communities… Crucial issues such as divorce and child custody are settled by a panel of four senior Muslim clerics and scholars….” We Cannot Sit Back And Let Sharia Law Take Root In Britain , Leo Mckinstry, The Daily Express “…The age-old British attachment to trial by jury or by magistrates is at risk from an utterly alien Islamic code imported from regions far less civilised and democratic than our own. This could be just the first step towards the creation of localised Taliban regimes in Muslim areas of British cities, enforcing their own distorted moral codes, clamping down on alcohol, imposing new forms of censorship, promoting anti-western attitudes and peddling yet more grievances against the British state……Muslims continually bleat about so-called “Islamophobia” but the isolation they experience from mainstream society is of their own making. British society has bent over backwards to accommodate Islam….But none of this is ever good enough. The more we fall to our knees, the more emboldened radical Muslims become. That is because we have made the grievous error of thinking that Islam is another religion, like Christianity or Buddhism, based on the individual relationship between the believer and God. In reality Islam, certainly in its modern manifestation, is as much an aggressive political ideology as a faith…”
Unions plan to get rich (and powerful) with bargaining fees
(6 May07) “….Last week when Julia Gillard dropped her guard, telling big business it risked getting injured if it entered the debate over Labor's industrial relations plan, it echoed the infamous Mark Latham handshake….On the eve of the 2004 election, Latham, towering over John Howard, aggressively shook the Prime Minister's hand outside an ABC radio studio like some standover bruiser boy. Gillard delivered a verbal equivalent with her threat to Australian business….there are many aspects of Labor's IR agenda that the party and its union funders do not want us to know about….For those who doubt this, Gillard yesterday confirmed the ALP's secret plan to achieve the unions' holy grail - compulsory unionism - by stealth….Gillard admitted to the Herald Sun that Labor would not stand in the way of the unions achieving their greatest dream….The ALP plan ensures them a hefty financial stream at a time when workers are turning their back on unions and unions are ploughing through assets and cash to fund a multimillion-dollar campaign against Work Choices….” Unions plan to get rich (and powerful) with bargaining fees Janet Albrechtsen, The Weekend Australian Ausrralian “…Unions will set the price of a compulsory bargaining fee paid by non-union members just above that of union membership fees. Naturally workers will opt for the lower union fee, joining up in droves. That's how it worked until bargaining fees were outlawed in 2002. …It is a crafty win-win position for Labor and the union movement.The ALP receives a fixed percentage of annual fees from every member of an affiliated union. So, more union members means more money flowing through to the ALP….Collier says union contacts have told her they are hoping they can pull this off because it will save the union movement. And while Labor knows the community won't wear compulsory unionism, this plan is a backdoor way of achieving that goal. Labor's IR policy means unions can force employers to collectively bargain when only 50 per cent of workers plus one vote in favour of a collective bargain. So, in a workplace with 1000 workers where 100 workers turn up to vote, 51 workers will end up dictating the collective agreement. Unions will collect a fee, either a union fee or a bargaining fee, from all 1000 workers. Money will flow through to union and ALP coffers….”
Why should we have to justify ourselves to the people who want to bomb us?
(5 May07)“…Although we shall never know how the Prophet would have received a plan to blow up "slags" in a London nightclub, there is no avoiding the feeling that for some of today's more respectable non-Muslims, this particular target might appear more . . . how shall we say - understandable? - than others….. Ed Husain, author of a revealing and alarming account of his experiences inside radical Islam, said of the "slags" comment: "That was me, man. That's classic Hizb-ut-Tahrir rhetoric." In his new book, The Islamist, Husain identifies a professed horror of western decadence as the next, infinitely promising excuse for Islamist murder… where Islamist complaints about immorality and women's sexual behaviour are concerned, there are calls for self-examination, for all the world as if we brought the stash of weedkiller on ourselves. On the Today programme yesterday, Patrick Mercer, formerly the Tory homeland security spokesman, said: "We have got to understand why we look offensive to those who choose to suborn our society …." Why should we have to justify ourselves to the people who want to bomb us? Catherine Bennett, The Guardian “…Why have we got to? It's like an innocent woman asking what she did to incite her rapist. Was it the short skirt?..... In The Islamist, Ed Husain confirms what you might suspect: his former colleagues included sexual hypocrites, as well as offenders, thugs and homophobes. Many preferred ranting to prayer. The same activists who banned discos and western music at his London college, and who bullied homosexuals and Brick Lane 's prostitutes and inadequately covered female students ("Hijab - put up or shut up"), would decide, having thoroughly reviewed the theology, that pornography was acceptable. And concubines. "I prefer blondes from the Balkans, personally," announced one hammer of western decadence….”
Europe (finally) gets the war on terror
(5 May07) “….Two headline-grabbing signals came from Europe this week, one from Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany , and the other from Nicolas Sarkozy, the presidential front-runner in France . Both show a new desire to heal the Atlantic alliance, which has been badly strained in the last several years….Chirac was scheming to become the first full-term president of the EU. Schroeder kept his office by scapegoating the Bush Administration. The EU Constitution was supposed to carry it all over the top, and the European Union was supposed to sail into everlasting paradise. Breaking away from America was the key….Well, it didn't happen that way… Europe can no longer deny the Islamist threat. The War on Terror isn't just George W. Bush's private phantasmagoria any more. Nicolas Sarkozy as French Minister of Interior has had to deal with two years of nightly riots by thousands of ethnic Muslim adolescents….” Europe (finally) gets the war on terror by James Lewis, American Thinker “….Europeans might not say it out loud, but they finally "get" the War on Terror --- six contentious years after the Twin Towers fell. They still hope that a Democrat will be elected in 2008, because they are more comfortable with a European-style socialist in the White House….We are beginning to see a reconstruction of the Western alliance after a decade of unprecedented propaganda attacks from the European Left….the fact is that Europeans do not trust themselves to exercise a muscular foreign policy in the Middle East. If German fighter jets bombed Iran or Iraq, ancient European fears of a revived Prussianism or Hitlerism would arise automatically, justified or not…In retrospect, the Bush Administration may look much like the Truman Administration, which first confronted the Stalin challenge in the Cold War. George W. Bush is a conviction politician just as Harry S Truman was. He has taken his stand, and it will have historic impact, just as Truman's did….”
(4 May07) “…Islam isn't interested in winning the debate, it's interested in winning the real fight – the clash of civilizations, the war, society, culture, the whole magilla. That's why it doesn't care about the inherent contradictions of the argument: in the Middle East early in 2002, I lost count of the number of Muslims I met who believed simultaneously (a) that 9/11 was pulled off by the Mossad and (b) that it was a great victory for Islam…. The quality of your argument is only important if you want to win by persuasion. But it's irrelevant if you want to win by intimidation. I'm personally very happy to defend my columns in robust debate, but after five years I'm a bit bored by having to respond to Muslim groups' demands (in America) that I be fired and (in Canada) that I be brought before the totalitarian-lite kangaroo courts of the country's ghastly “human rights commissions….” Don't Get Even, Get Mad , Mark Steyn “…. That's the advantage of madness as a strategy. If one party to the dispute forswears sanity, then the obligation is on the other to be sane for both of them. Thus, if a bunch of Iranian pirates kidnap some British seamen in Iraqi waters, it is the British whom the world calls on to show restraint and to defuse the situation. If an obscure Danish newspaper prints some offensive cartoons and in reaction Muslims murder people around the planet, well, that just shows we all need to be more sensitive about Islamophobia….. The EU's principal “fear” about an actual ongoing epidemic of hate crimes against Jews is that it could hypothetically provoke an epidemic of hate crimes against Muslims….And so the more the enemies of free society step on our feet the more we tiptoe around. After the release of the Royal Navy hostages, the Right Reverend Tom Burns, Roman Catholic Bishop of the Armed Forces, praised the Iranians for their “forgiveness”… And so these twin psychoses – Islamist rage and our determination never to see it – continue their valse macabre on the brink of catastrophe…”
A warming scientists' confession
(4 May07) “….In a remarkable admission of how shallow - "trendy" may be a better word - climate science is, scientist David Evans - an advisor to the Australian government on climate modeling - explains why he has done an about-face and become a global warming skeptic ( link here ). It seems scientific data gathered since 2000 (unreported by MSM ideologues, natch) is contradicting global warming assumptions, specifically:
1.) CO2 levels have not corresponded to temperature increases
2.) Ice core data shows historic warming has preceded CO2 increases.
3.) Solar cycles seem to better correspond to climate change.
A warming scientists' confession by Henry Payne“…Evans' most damaging confession reveals how an infant scientific field has been manipulated by politics and government grants: "The evidence was good enough: not conclusive, but why wait until we are absolutely certain when we apparently need to act now? So the idea that carbon emissions were causing global warming passed from the scientific community into the political realm, and actions started to happen. . . . The political realm in turn fed money back into the scientific community. By the late 1990's, lots of jobs depended on the idea that carbon emissions caused global warming. Many of them were bureaucratic, but there were a lot of science jobs created too. I was on that gravy train, making a high wage in a science job that would not have existed if we didn't believe carbon emissions caused global warming. And we had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet! "But starting in about 2000, the evidence. . . fell away or reversed." …. On such fragile science Greens want to fundamentally change western civilization?
(4 May07) Another doco broadside against “human induced” Climate Change (24 mins), and again from a once “rusted on' apostle. Don't expect to see it on 4 Corners, or the Cutting Edge any time soon.
As the skeptics score points, the political climate starts to change
(4 May07)“….After the Global Warming storm troopers, armed with billions of dollars, the backing of the Hollywood elite, the news media and most of academia have done everything possible to threaten, bully and force their one-sided propaganda on us, the so-called global warming skeptics seem to be coming out of their hiding places in ever greater numbers. The debate is now taking a dramatic change. As the skeptic side is heard, more Americans are beginning to understand that there are legitimate reasons for skepticism. Here are just a few of the latest developments…… Just days before Gore's charge up Capitol Hill, a high profile climate debate between prominent scientists ended with global warming skeptics being voted the clear winner…” As the skeptics score points, the political climate starts to change , by Tom DeWeese, American Policy Center “…Before the start of the debate, held in New York City, the audience polled 57.3% to 29.9% in favor of believing that Global Warming was a crisis. But following the debate the numbers completely flipped to 46.2% to 42.2% in favor of the skeptical point of view. Conclusion - when people hear both sides they can easily judge for themselves what is truth…On March 13, The New York Times, one of the most adamant promoters of the Global Warming gospel, published a landmark article stating "scientists argue that some of (former Vice President Al) Gore's central points are exaggerated and erroneous."…. French scientist Claude Allegre, a prominent French Socialist and supporter of Global Warming dogma, recanted his belief in man-made catastrophic global warming and now says promotion of the idea is motivated by money...More climate scientist "strongly disagree" than "strongly agree" with the notion that climate change is caused by humans… Most climate scientists do not believe "the current state of knowledge is able to provide reasonable predictions of climate variability" over 100-year periods..”
Climate change debate invalid when only one side is heard
(4 May07) “….The mainstream media have bludgeoned us continuously for years with their dire predictions of global catastrophes that are supposedly caused by mankind's "pollution" of the environment with carbon dioxide. And anyone who disagrees with this scenario is a segmented worm or the devil or worse….To all on the left who have "drunk the global warming Kool-Aid," let me throw a little cold water on your anti-industrial parade by reminding you of some "inconvenient truths," to borrow a phrase. If the media were not either intellectually lazy or guilty of having a political agenda about global warming, they could easily ascertain, as I did, that man-made global warming is, to quote Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." …Here are some facts and quotations you may find interesting:…Julian Morris of the United Kingdom-based International Policy Network notes, "The IPCC is not a scientific body: it is a consensus-oriented political body. Further, the choice of authors and reviewers as well as the final review of its reports is conducted by government officials, who may or may not be scientists…” Climate change debate invalid when only one side is heard , John Kollias, mysanantonion.com “…in a recent survey of climate scientist only 9.4 percent of respondents "strongly agree" that global warming is caused by human activity and only 22.8 percent "strongly agree" that IPCC reports accurately reflect a consensus within climate science….The vast majority of the "scientists" referred to by Al Gore & Co. as supporting his viewpoints are not qualified to do so. An analysis of Citizens for a Sound Economy research puts 90 percent of the 2,600 "scientists" alleged to be experts by the left-wing group Ozone Action into this category, and only one of these "scientists" is actually a climatologist….Greenpeace co-founder, and now skeptic of climate alarmism and green pressure groups, Patrick Moore lectured the U.K.'s Royal Society about playing a political blame game: "It appears to be the policy of the Royal Society to stifle dissent and silence anyone who may have doubts about the connection between global warming and human activity. That kind or repression seems more suited to the Inquisition than to a modern, respected scientific body."
Now our children are being force-fed warming hysteria
(1 May07)“…Just when you thought some common sense was back in schools with the return of core subjects history and geography, it turns out there may be new nonsense on the agenda. Apparently the NSW Board of Studies is looking to introduce climate change classes for kindergarten to Year 6 children as part of its science and technology syllabus. At first glance, it sounds sensible. Climate change could be a critical issue for our children, as well as for us. The problem, of course, is what they will be taught…Debate over the what, how, why, and when on global warming has been drowned out by hysteria. Global warming has been cleverly framed as the big moral issue of our time to quarantine it from debate…If you disagree with some of the science, and the religious fervour it has fuelled, or even evince a level of agnosticism towards it, you are not just wrong. You are a bad person forced to defend your integrity as well as your arguments. This is an old trick, but a good one….” Now our children are being force-fed warming hysteria , Janet Albrechtsen, The Australian “…Given that stultifying atmosphere among adults, it is a stretch to imagine that classroom talk will be different…a hint of what students might learn came a few weeks ago. My 13-year-old daughter returned home from school to tell me our house on the coast would be swamped by 6m of water. Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was compulsory viewing for Year 8 students at her Sydney school that day…Curious about the climate change curriculum, I asked the school if the movie coincided with a follow-up lesson to enable students to discuss or even question the Gore message on global warming. No, came the answer. "So Gore was it?" I asked. Yes, said the teacher…Indeed, of all the reasons to be sceptical of the climate change agenda is the way it is coalescing with the anti-globalisation, anti-capitalism movements…Indeed, of all the reasons to be sceptical of the climate change agenda is the way it is coalescing with the anti-globalisation, anti-capitalism movements….”