The "Good Lie"...

...is a lie that may be necessary or excusable to advance a greater cause. Thus, Phil Jones of Climategate infamy felt obligated to use a "good lie" to "hide the decline". History abounds with thousands of other examples. A storm of controversy is brewing on Twitter and elsewhere about the professional conduct of Johann Hari, the Left-wing Independent columnist and winner of the Orwell Prize for journalism. (A paradox, as Orwell saw the truth when most of his literary colleagues colluded with lies. See masthead above.) Hari has been using printed excerpts as verbatim oral quotes - a "cut and paste" journalism that has aroused his critics ...Now Hari says it doesn’t matter it he invents a conversation because it helps to express a “vital message” in the “clearest possible words”. The idea of a “good lie” is a dramatically Orwellian device, designed to deceive and to patronise. A lie is a lie, whether your intention is to convince people that Saddam is evil and must be bombed or that Gideon Levy is a brainy and decent bloke. Lying to communicate a “vital message”, a liberal and profound “truth”, is no better than lying in order to justify a war or a law’n'order crackdown or whatever. That more journalists cannot see this, that many of them have instead allowed their personal friendship with Hari to cloud what they think of this affair, is depressing. Why would anyone take seriously the reporting or commentary of people who believe it is acceptable to massage and refashion the facts in the name of telling “The Truth”?...why indeed ? And we surely see this every day with unquestioning media acceptance of the green political movement and its bedrock foundation of green lies. Are greenpeace and green politicians really "pro-environment" ? Or shouldn't they more accurately be termed anti-capitalist ? How grotesque it appears then, that the Orwell prize for journalism ( "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” ) may have been so mis-directed.

Headline of the week...

...The science is settled (1) : US liberals really are the dumbest creatures on the planet... guess what these liberals believe the problem with Climate Change is? Go on: think of the most stupid, reality-denying, fact-ignoring, evidence-torturing tosh anyone involved in the media could possibly have to say on the subject... H/T Climate Depot...They think that the naughty yellow pixies who pull the special, magic Climat-O-Levers which control the weather have been paid by evil capitalists with fat cigars in their mouth and $ signs on their pinstripe suits to make the world’s climate all horrid so that poor, underprivileged and disabled people and endangered creatures suffer – and that the reason we don’t know about it is because the media is run by evil Conservatives who want to keep this truth a secret.
Well, almost. What these liberal opinion-formers actually think – and you’ve really got to hand it to them: not even a lobotomised amoeba could beat them in a competition for dumbest creature on the planet, these three are absolute champs – is as follows.
They think the main reasons for the public’s growing scepticism on Climate Change are 1. The media has been far too balanced on the subject and is not pushing the eco-message hard enough. 2. Big business is funding Climate Denialism. 3. Evil Conservatives – led by Evil Talk Show Hosts Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck – are deliberately telling lies about Climate Change. 4. The Republican party is “anti-science”...more from James Delingpole of the UK Telegraph here...

The Science is Settled (2)...from The US Supreme Court, "The court, we caution, endorses no particular view of the complicated issues related to carbon-dioxide emissions and climate change,” reads the 8-0 decision, delivered by the court’s acclaimed liberal, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

But the Supreme Court judges would say that, wouldn't they? They all work for big oil...More here...
...and another Headline of the Week...Vote for Change...link here

Geert Wilders acquitted...

...from the redoubtable Cranmer...it is not a criminal offence to offend a group of people about their theology.And not just theology, but political theology...Either one is free or one is not. And it is no freedom at all which may not criticise or offend. All that Geert Wilders did is tell it as he sees it. And that isn’t so very far from how thousands if not millions of others see it. Ignorant of the nuances of Islamic theology they may be. Unaware of Islamic scholarship and the plethora of schools of thought they undoubtedly are. But all Geert Wilders did was to point out the fact that the Qur’an contains offensive passages and that some imams still preach it – and they are free to do so. His Grace is sometimes called a bigot. The Pope is occasionally called the Antichrist. The Holy Bible is frequently defiled, Christians are mocked and reviled, and the name of Jesus is dragged through the mud. And we all have to live with it. There should be no special protection for Allah, Mohammed, the Qur’an or Muslim sensitivities. For that would be to treat people unequally and elevate Islam to that place in law once occupied by Christianity.Geert Wilders has fought to defend the liberties of us all, and he won. Rejoice! This is a marvellous day for democracy and for liberty. When a politician sounds the trumpet to warn a continent of the incursion of an antithetical ideology and an oppressive power, it is ironic indeed that he should have been silenced not by that alien ideology or foreign power, but by the very agencies of government he seeks to guard and of which he is part. But Geert Wilders has been vindicated. He will now be exalted, and his Party for Freedom poll rating will go stratospheric. Doubtless millions of Europeans will only be sorry that the Presidency of the European Council is not subject to the popular will. And the ruling class will breathe a sigh of relief...more here... and from the UK Telegraph...a historical Dutchman who went on trial for saying such things about Christianity would be lauded across Europe. Wilders says things about a more conservative religion and he is accused of a hate crime. Where is the liberal outrage at this trial? Where are the BBC radio plays? When’s George Clooney going to make a film about Europe’s Islamophobia McCarthyite witch-hunts? Unlikely – the Oscars in 2005 didn’t even mention Theo Van Gogh on their annual slide show of movie people who died in the previous year. Freedom, if anything, means defending the rights of people you profoundly disagree with, even find offensive. Half a century ago the idea that a major European politician could go on trial for insulting a religion, in the Netherlands of all places, would have been fitting only for a dystopian parody. Yet this is really happening, as western Europe adopts Singapore-style multicultural authoritarianism...more here...

The Ultimate Resource...

...with thanks to Slattsnews...Part 3. Part 2 was written by the late, great doomslayer Julian Simon, who argued that human ingenuity would guarantee increasing prosperity and development (as long as totalitarian control kept its hand off the tiller.) Taking up this theme is Matt Ridley of The Australian...

...POLLYANNA is a fool; Cassandra was wise. As a self-proclaimed "rational optimist" who argues that the world has been getting better for most people and that the future is likely to be better still, I am up against a deep prejudice towards pessimism that dominates the intelligentsia. As John Stuart Mill put it, "not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage". What is more, pessimism has become a hallmark of the Left, chiefly because it justifies activism... Today, infected by Malthusian ecology, the Left relentlessly preaches millennial doom and technological risk: the climate is heading for catastrophe; resources are running out; population is growing too fast; farming cannot keep up; habitat is being destroyed; poverty, hunger, pollution, disease and greed are only going to get worse. A dramatic change in human stewardship of the planet is needed...The evidence suggests that these predictions are likely to be wrong. Based on the trajectory of the past five decades, and even (or especially) if the world economy grows rapidly, this century is likely to see mild climate change, cheap and abundant resources, falling population, ample food, more wilderness, and the average person becoming gradually - though erratically - wealthier, healthier, happier, cleverer, cleaner, freer, kinder, more peaceful and more equal. Each of the past five decades has almost certainly seen records set for each of those adjectives for the world as a whole. Yet the pessimism monster is irrepressible...Read the full article here... and by the way...
...The Japanese recent, 3/11 Tohohu earthquake, ... left Tokyo with 5 minutes of noisy shaking and virtually no damage in the world’s most high-tech city. See more here...

...and I just couldn't go past this from the UK Telegraph's James Delingpole...The Man Made Global Warming industry is a crock, a scam on an epic scale, fed by the world’s biggest outbreak of mass hysteria, stoked by politicians dying for an excuse to impose more tax and regulation on us while being seen to “care” about an issue of pressing urgency, fuelled by the shrill lies and tear-jerking propaganda of activists possessed of no understanding of the real world other than a chippy instinctive hatred of capitalism, given a veneer of scientific respectability by post-normal scientists who believe their job is to behave like politicians rather than dispassionate seekers-after-truth, cheered on by rent-seeking businesses, financed by the EU, the UN and the charitable foundations of the guilt-ridden rich, and promoted at every turn by schoolteachers, college lecturers, organic muesli packets, Walkers crisps, the BBC, CNBC, Al Gore, the Prince Of Wales, David Suzuki, the British Antarctic Survey, Barack Obama, David Cameron and Knut – the late, dyslexic-challenging, baby polar bear, formerly of Berlin Zoo...

On the banned list...

...are FLUSH TOILETS. Flush toilets ? You better believe it. They are apparently responsible for the deaths of untold numbers of goldfish. No, no, no, so sorry got that wrong. It's GOLDFISH that are to be banned. No kidding. Their lives as pets swimming round in dirty little bowls, psychotic with boredom and so intolerably overfed they explode has been deemed cruel. So cruel that their purchase as pets is to cease. So says The San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission anyway. Puppies, guppies, hamsters and kittens (and pythons pining for the fjords) are likely to be next.

Global warming and ecosystems ya see... Read all about it here..

..and from the UK Guardian...

...Leaving climate change out of the curriculum would allow sceptical teachers not to teach their pupils about climate change. “It would be like a creationist teacher not teaching about evolution," said Bob Ward.
Climate change should not be included in the national curriculum, the government adviser in charge of overhauling the school syllabus in England has said. Tim Oates, whose wide-ranging review of the curriculum for five- to 16-year-olds will be published later this year, said it should be up to schools to decide whether – and how – to teach climate change, and other topics about the effect scientific processes have on our lives. In an interview with the Guardian, Oates called for the national curriculum "to get back to the science in science". "We have believed that we need to keep the national curriculum up to date with topical issues, but oxidation and gravity don't date," he said. "We are not taking it back 100 years; we are taking it back to the core stuff. The curriculum has become narrowly instrumentalist...more here...

from an Anonymous commentator yesterday...this deserves further exposure...
When all the WATERMELON WARMERS admit their LIE
We will raise a MONUMENT into the SKY
A monument of SOLID Carbon
To commemorate their BOGUS BARGAIN.

...and from Andrew Bolt...

We may be in for some cooling:
Scientists say the Sun, which roils with flares and electromagnetic energy every 11 years or so could go into virtual hibernation after the current cycle of high activity, reducing temperatures on Earth. As the current sunspot cycle, Cycle 24, begins to ramp up toward maximum, scientists from the National Solar Observatory (NSO) and the Air Force Research Laboratory independently found that the Sun’s interior, visible surface, and corona indicate that the next 11-year solar sunspot cycle, Cycle 25, will be greatly reduced or may not happen at all… “This is highly unusual and unexpected,” stated Dr. Frank Hill, associate director of the NSO’s Solar Synoptic Network, in a statement. “But the fact that three completely different views of the Sun point in the same direction is a powerful indicator that the sunspot cycle may be going into hibernation. . ”If we are right, this could be the last solar maximum we’ll see for a few decades. That would affect everything from space exploration to Earth’s climate.” ...more here...

Environmentalists are still split over the issue..

...how very nice to know that the green movement is consuming itself - as left wing movements tend to do - over nuclear energy. In the 80's and 90's, the green debate in Germany was between the Realo's and the Fundi's. Judging by German Chancellor Angela Merkel's anti-nuclear lunacy the Fundi's must have won. This seems to put Europe's powerhouse economy at odds with its neighbours. This from the UK Guardian...

Nuclear power is back in favour, at least in government circles. Today, energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband will expand upon the UK's plans for a fleet of new nuclear reactors. Elsewhere, Sweden has reversed its decades-old ban on nuclear power and an increasing number of countries are expanding their nuclear generating capacity. Four new reactors are under way in Europe at the moment: two Russian-designed reactors in Slovakia, plus Finland's Olkiluoto 3 and France's Flamanville 3, which both rely on the French state-owned Areva's involvement and expertise. The Finnish site has been beset by delays, rising costs and criticisms over safety and still has no definite opening date, while the cost of Flamanville 3 has risen from €3.3bn to €4bn. But it's China that is pursuing nuclear power more enthusiastically and on a bigger scale than anyone else...more here...

...and from the comments...

...This was always going to be the case. The silly wind turbines are a feint for the real deal which will be implemented by New New Labour (the tories). Co2 is a very clever scam. Could you imagine hordes of enviro-dummies screaming for nuclear power ten years ago ?

...and from Nature.com , What are the knock on effects of Germany's decision ?...If Germany doesn't import electricity, its domestic carbon emissions are likely to increase — because even a doubling of power from renewable sources combined with a 10% cut in demand can't quite replace the low-carbon nuclear power that will be lost. Analysts put the increase between 170 million and 400 million tonnes of carbon dioxide between 2011 and 2020 (depending on different assumptions about the country's shifting power mix). Germany has national targets to cut carbon emissions to 40% below 1990 levels for 2020. That means that by 2020 it needs to slash 70 million tonnes a year from its electricity sector's carbon emissions, says Varró. "Without nuclear power, decarbonization is more difficult and more expensive," he says — predicting that the nuclear phase-out will lead to a surge in lower-carbon gas plants replacing coal plants...all up a signal that Germany, read Europe, will not meet its carbon emmissions targets...Ultimately, the effects of Germany's nuclear phase-out decision will spread around Europe. Other countries may have to replace coal plants with gas plants, and electricity will become a little more expensive for everyone. There will be a greater need for networks to transmit the cheapest sources of renewable electricity (such as northern European wind power or southern European solar power) across many European countries. "The power system needs to change substantially from a national to a supranational system," says Lindenberger.