Month: April 2023

Cockup or conspiracy?

The fourth in the series of Spectator articles on wind droughts pointed a finger of suspicion at the meteorologists for failing to issue wind drought warnings.

Was it just bad luck and bad judgement that accounted for the failure of the meteorologists to notice wind droughts? Or did it suit them to fiddle while the British and German economies burned?

Warming alarmism begat the net zero crusade and what begat warming alarmism? Fun fact: the lead agency to formalize climate concern on a “scientific” basis was the WMO, the World Meteorological Association, commissioned by the UN in 1961 to work with the ICSU, the International Council for Science (ICSU) to develop a Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP).

GARP’s good work paved the way for the next great leap forward to promote concern about the “climate crisis”. Another major UN report on climate change was commissioned in 1974 and then in 1979 the WMO, in cooperation with a number of other UN agencies, organized a World Climate Conference

In brief, meteorologists have their fingerprints all over the climate science story and their agencies in every nation in the world have busy adjusting the official records to maintain the climate rage and the policies that follow from it, most obviously the subsidised and mandated corruption of the power grid by intermittent wind and solar power.

Wind droughts are the fatal flaw in the RE program and if they had been generally appreciated at the beginning the wind and solar industries could have been aborted until storage is available in some future life.

The four articles in the wind drought series in The Spectator can be found in the Basic Information Pack issued by The Energy Realists of Australia.

Australia is on the cusp of a surge of private investment in climate initiatives, according to the new chairwoman of the Climate Council, well-known businesswoman and philanthropist Carol Schwartz.

“What’s exciting now for business is that we have a government that’s very supportive of initiatives to address climate action, and we have businesses that are looking for great investments,” she says. “So I think we’re on the cusp of some very exciting new investment strategies by business in climate tech and climate opportunities. There are a huge lot of new opportunities opening up.”

The dark side of J K Rowling

Thanks to Bettina Arndt for ventilating a side of J K Rowling that escaped my attention up to date.

Rowling makes no attempt to hide her blinkered view about women’s vulnerability. A blog two years ago revealed that key to her concern about trans activism was her belief that women’s rights were under siege: “We’re living through the most misogynistic period I’ve experienced. Back in the 80s, I imagined that my future daughters, should I have any, would have it far better than I ever did, but between the backlash against feminism and a porn-saturated online culture, I believe things have got significantly worse for girls. Never have I seen women denigrated and dehumanized to the extent they are now. From the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’ to the incel (‘involuntarily celibate’) movement that rages against women who won’t give them sex, to the trans activists who declare that TERFs need punching and re-educating, men across the political spectrum seem to agree: women are asking for trouble. Everywhere, women are being told to shut up and sit down, or else.”

For heaven’s sake. How many of us wish the jabbering women dominating just about every aspect of our society would occasionally be told to shut up? As if that’s allowed to happen.   

Barry Humphries leaving us is a sad event. In my view he was he was the best comedian ever. I’m not talking about duos (e.g., Laurel and Hardy, Amos and Andy) or sit comms (e.g., Fawlty Towers, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm) or sketch shows (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Little Britain, The fast Show) or Joke tellers (e.g., Bob Hope), but the lone comedians who are just simply funny in themselves. Groucho Marx was funny and Tommy Cooper and many others I can think of and others who I can’t. It’s a personal thing, I realise but, right now, if I were sitting in a theatre with a choice of comedians – only one – to provide entertainment for half an hour, I’d pick Dame Edna Everage with Les Patterson a close second. Others would be also rans.

Tucker’s gone. I had reached a stage where my Fox News viewing had narrowed to just one show – Tucker Carlson. Apart from his silly forgivable fetish with UFOs, he was a conservative’s conservative. No wonder the rabble on the left are overjoyed that he’s been given the boot. By Rupert? By Lachlan seems more likely? I have read that his sacking stemmed from his coverage of the January 6 event. A bit of a riot and trespass turned into an “insurrection” by the satanic Dems. Maybe the Dems wielded the apparatus of the state to threaten News Corp or someone with something? Who knows?

Andrew Bolt had a take on it, which went something like hosts serve at the pleasure of the station which employs them. A novel thought. Who’d have thought? Blow me down with a feather. Though apparently, condescendingly, he liked some of Tucker’s work. Damning with faint praise just about described it. Didn’t like Tucker being objective and skeptical about the worth of the U.S. spending untold treasure to support Zelensky. Bolt, himself, has no such qualms apparently. It’s all in for Ukraine, otherwise you’re a rotter. There is no two sides to weigh. It’s Ukraine right or wrong. Full speed ahead whatever the fallout. You have to admire his resolute blinkered worldview. Personally, I wonder what the end game is of providing a continuing supply of high tech weapons to Zelensky. Never mind that, she’ll be right, say the Zelensky fanboys.

I see the federal department of health have started spruiking the experimental vaccines again. Seen a couple of ads on the telly. One includes a group of fit looking young people playing basketball. Mostly the people in the ads look healthy so far as I can tell. Yet they (and us) are being advised to take a booster if it’s been six months since getting Covid or having a vaccination. Every six months? Big Pharma must be pleased.

Let’s see, saw an article about Australia’s vaccination compensation scheme. Covered nasty sounding things like, the serious skin condition “erythema multiforme major, which involves blistering to mucosal sites such as the eyes, mouth and genitals.” Cardiac conditions, “pericarditis and myocarditis.” The serious condition, “cerebral venous thrombosis.” Demyelinating disorders: “Guillain-Barre syndrome and transverse myelitis (a neurological disorder of the spinal cord that can cause weakness in the arms and legs or problems with bladder and bowel control).” I have recently read of ocular and dental issues related to the vax. Can’t find the sources but it doesn’t matter. And just today read of encephalomyelitis (inflammation in the brain and spinal cord), cognitive impairment and chronic fatigue.

Why in the world are fit people at no risk from Covid being encouraged to pump (free) boosters into their bodies? Presumably every six months. One ad says that it’s to reduce the risk of severe disease. Doesn’t mention any potential debilitating side effects. Healthy people are at no material risk of developing severe disease. Surely the advertising campaign is unethical, breaching the Hippocratic Oath – do no harm, putting people at unnecessary risk for no good purpose. I’m being polite here. What I really think is unprintable. The UK Telegraph reported that conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has been expelled from the Conservative Party “after claiming Covid vaccines were the ‘biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust’”. The Holocaust reference is plain silly. But one of the biggest crimes against humanity, might be on the right track.

Had to stand on the bus again yesterday, and I’m not as young as I once was. How many migrants last year? Over 400,000 and over 600,000 expected in the next two years. Can extra buses be brought into service? Just asking. Imagine we might need more houses and hospitals and nurses and doctors too. And I feel sorry for Chris Bowen. How is he going to stop global warming from threatening the survival of the planet and the Great Barrier Reef with so many extra people to feed, to house, transport about, keep cool, and keep warm? Might need more wind and solar farms than even he envisions in the wildest of his wildest pipe dreams.

The Jizya is an Islamic poll tax that was levied on those who would not convert. The Jizya was designed to both penalise and humiliate the non-believer. For their tribute the non-believer both buys protection from the overlord and submits themselves publicly before the Collector of the Jizya. In this way, the unbeliever – and everyone else – is fully cognisant of their demeaned position.

A new type of Jizya, one with different overlords and different tribute-payers, has manifested in the West. Stories of trans-people claiming inclusion rights to access female-only spaces and compete in the sporting contests of women and girls are commonplace. But these claims for inclusion allocate equal time to an unbending indifference to the needs of others: for the trans lobby, rights and needs work in one direction only.

On the Open Thread today is a link to a report about the experience of four “freshmen” school girls showering after physical education in a Wisconsin school locker room in early March. The link is below. This is the précis.

Upon entering the locker room the girls noticed a male student, aged about eighteen, who was not part of their class but who they believed identified as transgender. Though feeling uncomfortable, they proceeded to the showers. While they were under the showers the male student entered the showers, undressed fully, and announced his trans status.

Initially, the male turned away from the girls but then turned around while still under the shower, fully exposing his male genitalia. The girls hurried to finish their showering and withdraw from the area. Afterwards, they did not know what to do. Finally, one of the girls confided the experience to another student. That student advised that the incident should be reported to the school. The families of the girls are taking legal action.

While the girls’ experience would be one of the most egregious ordeals of this kind, such instances are becoming more commonplace as transgender people insist that females include them in female-only spaces and activities.

Sometimes “acceptance” of the circumstance is the result of an unexpected and unnavigable situation, for which no-one ever agreed, as in this case. This is especially true for children who neither have the maturity or experience to respond to any type of harassment especially sexual harassment. At other times, decisions about inclusion management have ordained. Female place holders being required to stand on a dais while a male person receives the accolade for “winning” what is really a no-contest event, is an example of managerial box-ticking. But whenever diversity and inclusion claims become the only acceptable moral position, humiliation of the female – the penalty for the trans-Jizya – is the result.

Exclusion of males from competing in female-only sport has now begun – see swimming and athletics -but not all sports acknowledge what is patently obvious. Change rooms, toilets and showers are still “contested spaces” – like women themselves- as our former CMO, Dr Brendan Murphy, advised Senate Estimates not that long ago. Females and female-only spaces are not tribute. Politicians and bureaucrats are on notice.

https://twitter.com/scarlett4kids/status/1649441699641413633/photo/1

Penton (1904-1951) is forgotten because he died in mid-career. He almost certainly would have been the standout editor and commentator through the 1950s and the 1960s., flying the flag for classical liberalism and especially free speech. Fortunately there is an excellent biography by Patrick Buckridge and a short version on line.

He was born in Brisbane and moved to Sydney to pursue a career as a journalist, and novelist. That took him to London for protracted working spells, and back to Sydney.

For two years during the 1930s he wrote a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph called The Sydney Spy with a distinctive blend of tones and topics “urbane, mocking and iconoclastic, with an extraordinary range of cultural reference —which made him something of a cult figure in Sydney. His reputation was enhanced by the critical success of Landtakers, the story of Derek Cabell, an English immigrant to the Moreton Bay settlement in the 1840s”

He described himself as a classical liberal and he was a tireless critic of censorship. For him, freedom was all-important and freedom of speech was the first line of defence of freedom.

“The Daily Telegraph of the mid-1940s, under his direction, was a triumph of editorial co-ordination and flair. His style was irreverent, progressive and individualist, critical of ‘red tape’ and censorship, and seriously committed to improving public awareness and promoting a modern and civilized urban lifestyle.”

During the war he wrote a polemic on free speech Think -or be Damned and later Advance Australia – Where? urging people to prepare for the postwar challenge of living in Asia in a new world order without British protection.

“Penton’s private life was always controversial: his bohemian appearance and behaviour, his compulsive pursuit of women, and his refusal to defer to convention in the conduct of long-term, extra-marital liaisons made him some enemies. He was a noted bon viveur and an enthusiastic sailor. He was one of Australia’s great newspaper editors, an important novelist, a passionate but critical Australian nationalist, and a courageous liberal campaigner for what he called ‘a civilized mode of social living together’.”

In short, a paradigm case, an exemplar of the hippie conservative!

In response to some critical comment, extramarital adventurism and refraining from washing are not core characteristics of hippie or bohemian conservatism and those who choose to indulge in monogomy and bathing don’t need to feel that they are letting the side down.

https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/penton-brian-con-11367