Global cooling?

Global temperatures ignore global warming alarmists (again).

Little green Kevin lives big

Odd news for a man worried about rising sea levels. 

Global warming alarmist, anti-poverty/homelessness crusader and frequent traveller, former Prime Minster Rudd, likes to live big:

The Rudd family has purchased a holiday house at Castaways Beach, south of Noosa.

According to the selling agents, Kevin Rudd and his wife, Therese Rein, have chosen well, describing the property as a "stunning contemporary" home. For $3.1 million you would expect nothing less.

Fancy some meat?

Try the Dead Hippy burger.

Just give the dog up

This is a community service announcement. I repeat this is a community service announcement:   

There’s a one in billion chance…but if you’ve seen Natalie’s dog….please contact the Herald Sun Newspaper or the pound. His name is Cooper.

Also, it would be nice if some pop stars came up with some kind of group album, with emotional lyrics.

CNN’s geography issue

Who renamed Tasmania Queensland?

Quick, change the warming propaganda

They said heavy rain was history. Now:

UPDATE 12.25pm: MUCH of Victoria, including Melbourne, has been put on flood watch as Cyclone Yasi's aftermath brings a deluge.

Showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected to dump between 20mm and 50mm across Victoria today, with only the southwest and southeast corners of the state not at risk of flash flooding.

Power bills up, accountability down

Welcome to Labor's NSW:

Power bills are set to rise by 25 per cent this year - twice as fast as forecast.  The likely doubling is because households will pick up the tab for government green programs - meaning average electricity users face finding an extra $320 to $440.

Poor Liberal grandparents will face a cold winter.

A dam a day keeps starvation away

A dam a day keeps starvation away (at least that’s what the Chinese have figured out).

And speaking of which, this brings me to the headline of the month:  

Let’s get over our dam phobia

Thank you Andrew Robb.

Climate “scientists” are “never” wrong

Just jokes. From The New York Times (hat tip Tim Blair) :

 In interviews, several scientists recalled that in the decade ending in the mid-1990s, the polar vortex seemed to be strengthening, not weakening, producing mild winters in the eastern United States and western Europe.

At the time, some climate scientists wrote papers attributing that change to global warming. Newspapers, including this one, printed laments for winter lost. But soon after, the apparent trend went away, an experience that has made many researchers more cautious.

John M. Wallace, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, wrote some of the earlier papers. This time around, he said, it will take a lot of evidence to convince him that a few harsh winters in London or Washington have anything to do with global warming.

“Just when you publish something and it looks like you’re seeing a connection,” Dr. Wallace said, “nature has a way of humbling us.”

Let the humbling continue.

I connect

When you’re feeling down….there’s always:

The Rainbow Connection

A very Australian ark

Floods can bring out the best and worst in people. Columnist Andrew Bolt writes, “Rodney Dowton does the Australian thing at Lake Burrendong, saving locals from the floods.” More great photos in the UK’s Mail Online here.  As for the looters, well let’s just say I’m not opposed to floggings.  

Whale meat tastes like barbequed koala

Not everyone worships the whale. For some time I’ve been criticizing the hypocrisy of anti-whalers, as a strong supporter of free-range fishing and hunting rights.

The Weekend Australian’s Chris Kenny, though, is on fire:

FOR many people it seems whales are an animal above all others, deserving of reverence and never to be slaughtered for the sustenance of humankind.

Fair enough. Hindus have the same feelings toward the cow, and some tribal traditions assign a similar status to totemic animals.

But for policy-makers in our secular world, we should expect the whaling issue to be considered with a modicum of rational analysis. Instead, the major Australian political parties focus on a populist, emotional approach to whaling in a race to the bottom that only undermines serious debates about future conservation and natural resource management.

But wait there’s more (there's always more):

When I tell people I once was served whale-meat as part of an official, multi-course feast in Japan, they invariably inquire about the taste. And I respond with the old line that it's similar to koala.

However the point is a serious one. People the world over eat a wide variety of foods involving the killing of a vast array of animals; celebrity chef Luke Nguyen showed a cooked dog's head and ate dog's intestine on television this week. Much of what others kill and eat does not sit well with our palates or our sensibilities.

But unless we have a blanket rule against the killing of all animals for food, we need to approach the issue from a rational standpoint. After all, not even the strictest vegan can claim no animal is killed to sustain the production of their diet.

Canada, the capital of political correctness?

Free speechlessness 

Sure. Their ski fields are great. “But” maintains James Allan in Quadrant Online, Australia, “Canada is also the capital of political correctness run rampant, to an extent few Australians would credit as plausible. You get the newspaper columnist Mark Steyn taken before various Canadian Human Rights tribunals not for the fact what he wrote was false but rather simply because people were offended.  And then there’s the stand-up Canadian comedian taken before these same officious bureaucrats for hurting the feelings of a lesbian member of his audience.” To foreigners that’s the joke.

Ramadan-sensitive police

Still unconvinced? Canada too is home to both thought police and Ramadan-sensitive police (although it isn’t always easy to tell them apart). Recently, for example, the feminized cops have been apologizing to Ottawa Muslims for arresting them during Ramadan, a Muslim fasting period. (Seriously.) From the Vancouver Sun: “There is no reason for police to explain or apologize to the Muslim community when they arrest a Muslim, Siddiqui said. The notion that Muslims need special treatment or that their religious sensibilities need to be addressed is both patronizing and condescending, and effectively sets Muslims apart from other Canadians.”

Bedwetting adults

“In Canada especially, where hurt feelings are now specifically compensated in human rights law, taking offence looks like a growth industry,” explains the National Post’s Joseph Brean. “Tom Flanagan, a former aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, learned this recently when police investigated him for counselling CBC viewers to commit murder, after he quipped in a CBC interview that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be assassinated.” He concludes: “But

when the urge to complain is enabled and encouraged, and every humourless butt-inski has a global audience, the danger is that Canada becomes a nation of prudes....” Sad, really.

Overprotected students 

Even the education system (if that’s the right term). In Canada Free Press, Dr. Tim Ball writes, “The concept of classifying results as negative is part of the practice of not allowing failure. Students are imbued with the idea that a negative result is a failure. For example, in universities they write research papers or carry out lab experiments. They only pursue positive results. For example, if they research a topic they will only consider evidence that supports their original hypothesis. Some will abandon a topic rather than consider the null hypothesis.” No wonder “climate science” is felt.

The politics of New Year’s resolutions

Only 41% say they will make personal pledges   

Are Americans big fans of New Year’s resolutions? One nationwide survey of 1,022 adults provides a glimpse. Last month, the Barna Group found that: “Nearly two-thirds of the nation’s population (61%) has made New Year’s resolutions at some point in their lives. More than 90 million adults (41%) say they will make such personal pledges in 2011, representing roughly two-fifths of the nation’s population.” And call me ignorant but how many illegal immigrants participate in American surveys? Now that would make an interesting report. Details please.   

Sticking to your New Year’s resolutions is a challenge

I’ve found that a good New Year’s resolution is motivating. For others though the experience is negative. According to one BBC report, only 10% of people stick to their goals, and psychologist Richard Wiseman from the University of Hertfordshire too says that many fail in the first week. Some encouraging news though: If you treat your pledges like a series of steps, and reward yourself along the way, then you’re more likely to succeed.  Perhaps the fear of failure also motivated successful participants who shared their New Year’s resolutions with friends/family. 

Getting healthy is a top priority

One of my New Year’s resolutions is health-related. I’m not alone. Steve Vernon of moneywatch.com states: “According to a recent poll taken by the Society of Actuaries, about 80 percent of respondents said that taking care of their health was their top strategy for managing their medical bills, well ahead of buying medical insurance.”  He advises:  “Take just a few steps in January to establish good nutrition habits, and you’ll be well on your way to improving your health and increasing your lifespan.” (In America, it will take energy to escape Obama-approved death panels.)   

2011 doesn’t look like a green year

Returning to the Barna Group survey, we see that Americans aren’t as green as Hollywood’s jetsetters. Really: “When it comes to the types of resolutions people make, Americans not surprisingly focus on self-oriented changes. Among those planning to make resolutions, the top pledges for 2011 relate to weight, diet and health (30%); money, debt and finances (15%); personal improvement (13%); addiction (12%); job and career (5%); spiritual or church-related (5%); and educational (4%).” David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group noted, “virtually none of the survey respondents mentioned anything about becoming more green.”

Q&A: Lord Tebbit praises helpful “warming”

Some important questions and no-nonsense answers:

Q: So who is this Lord Tebbit?

A: To fill some Americans in: we’ve all heard of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the Iron Lady. Well, Lord Norman Tebbit of Chingford was one of her “outspoken” senior cabinet ministers. Today he’s a conservative columnist with little time for “global warming” nightmares.

And, to be frank, Tebbit comes from tough stock. Some history: He and his wife survived the infamous 1984 Conservative Party conference bombing in Brighton, England. Years before, Tebbit had escaped out of a burning Mosquito aircraft. (Seriously.)

Q: Why isn’t Tebbit afraid of a warmer world?

A: Did I mention that Lord Tebbit is fireproof? To my understanding, he was also depicted as a skinhead biker, or Thatcher’s enforcer, in the TV series, Spitting Image, the satirical ITV puppet show.

But he’s a realist too. While chatting with a global warm-y suit, for example, Tebbit suggested, “that if Greenland could again grow wheat and barley as it did 1100 or 1200 years ago it might be quite helpful in feeding the hungry.” So if we believe the earth is warming (another debate) there’s surely a positive side.

Q: What fuels Tebbit’s skepticism?

A: He’s no history denier.  As a former pilot in the RAF and British Overseas Airways, Tebbit understands weather/temperature extremes more than Hollywood starlets lounging in First Class. He states: “I was told that already the Russians were worried about the thawing of the perma frost. I asked if he [a distinguished warmist] had read about the recent discovery there of the remains of a baby mammoth beneath the ice which would seem to my untutored mind to show that in earlier times there must have been vegetation there since mammoths cannot feed on ice.”

Q: How is the Left responding to Tebbit-like arguments?

A: After throwing some facts to a warmist, Tebbit (who blogs at The Telegraph) recalls: “Sadly, he lost interest in the conversation, but perhaps one of my blog readers will be able to explain why restoring the world to temperatures it survived in the past would be an unmitigated disaster in the future.” In other words, Leftists don't do history, they just run from it, or change it, if they can. In 2000, British warmists pontificated about a snowless England, where snowmen-deprived children would have to live with snowless Januaries. (Seriously.)