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Thursday, September 26, 2013

Dealing with False Prophets of Doom.


"Love thy Neighbour" does not mean hanging on the word of every looney that shrieks out doom while nicking the coins from your pocket. In my experience there are more con-men than evil folk and more stupid folk that intelligent ones.

Unfortunately the first three still vastly outnumber the last. So, we have to shove a bloody big Pin in their fat Balloons.

Allowing stupid people, bigots, scare-mongers, etc to say their piece at least enables us to hear them coming. In 'set-up' TV audiences they make a lot of noise and as statistically every second person is on the dim side of average, they can very often be found on the TV.

And where are the Good? We have to look for and emphasise them.

Last week saw one con-man, 'Professor' Tim Flannery, get deafened by the almighty 'BANG' when his balloon was burst and that will leave more money to spend in the Tavern helping people 'get good'.

We cannot sit by and let the False Prophets of doom make Profits from our pockets.

James Delingpole, who can spend up well buying Grace by the bucket, introduced Jo Nova to the bar customers with this:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100236795/australia-shows-us-all-the-way-by-sacking-its-useless-pointless-climate-commissioner-tim-flannery/
As Jo Nova notes, while it may be a good day for the Australian taxpayer, it is far too late now to recoup the Billions which have already been wasted on the "expert" advice of Flannery and his alarmist chums David Karoly and Will Steffen.

        (Jo)   This agency propped up billions of dollars in pointless futile government spending trying to change the weather. Nothing will bring back money spent on desal plants that were mothballed when the floods came that real scientists predicted. Likewise the money burned on solar panels and windfarms is gone for good too, and still going.

As you'll see  one of the few things that Flannery is indisputably brilliant at is making idiotic statements and alarmist, pseudo-scientific predictions which seem to bear no relationship whatsoever to observed reality. So what, exactly, were his qualifications for taking on this supremely well-paid gig?  
We-e-ll, Flannery is that most dangerous of things – an English literature graduate.  

Yes, I know I'm an English literature graduate too, but I'm the exception to the rule: on the whole, it would not be unfair to say, English literature graduates have done more to promote the cause of climate alarmism than any other category with the possible exception of "University" of East Anglia environmental "science" graduates.

Now, as it happens, I consider the cult of credentialism one of the curses of our age.

Just because you've got some initials after your name  
doesn't mean you're not a pillock. 
And as we saw with the Climategate emails, being a qualified "climate scientist" is no guarantee of expertise on – or even entry-level understanding of – the science of climate.
No argument from me about any of that. But Australia has not been cursed only by the home-grown Flannery et al. We import them too. And pay taxpayer-coerced funds to them. And they can be even thicker than Flannery and spout the 'overseas persons' flannel that too many little-ozzers bow to.

Joanne Nova is 'home-grown' climate skeptic and is a more than welcome guest here at the bar. She can hold an audience like a Queen. When the Tavern boasts that it is a place fit for Heroes and Saints, Jo is right up there on the top shelf.


Not that she always was. Jo used to be a Greenie.

Yup! A genuine tree-hugger and whale fancier. She still likes trees and whales - and why not - but she ceased worshipping them some years ago when the Beam and Mote blinkers fell from her eyes and she exclaimed "WTF !" or perhaps some slightly more well chosen words.


Since that moment of conversion, well known to Christians who suddenly discover what it is really all about, she has become a zealot. And a damn fine one too. She is noted as one of only a few people who make it to the right column of this blog where you can see her blog continually updated.

(I will leave a note about her and her blog at the end).



Here is some of what she told us when Canadian 'Environmental Super-Star'
David Suzuki
was treated like a Messiah on the ABC's Q&A program the other night.

He is a multi-millionaire
from his many films and documentaries, TV shows and writings. He is 'Famous'. He is quoted and cited and his face and sound bites turn up supporting any green of climate change nonsense around.

So the ABC invites him, at public expense (although they won't say what they paid him from our pockets) to be a guest - the SOLE guest- on a program that usually has a panel of five or six people. The 'one-person' slot is usually only for Heads of State.

Suzuki is Global Warming Royalty.
David Suzuki bombs on Q&A, knows nothing about the climate
http://joannenova.com.au/2013/09/david-suzuki-bombs-on-qa-knows-nothing-about-the-climate/#more-30839


David Suzuki’s performance on Q&A last night was extraordinary.    (Said Jo)
I was knock-me-over amazed that he has not heard of UAH, GISS, HADcrut and RSS, and knew nothing of the pause in global surface temperatures that even the UK Met Office and IPCC lead author climate scientists like Hans von Storch are discussing. 
"Watch me gaze into the dismal future that's ALL YOUR FAULT, -
for just $30,000 an hour."

How afraid is Suzuki about man-made global warming? So afraid, it doesn’t occur to him to check the data, incredibly he doesn’t even know what the data is. Tony Jones had to rephrase the questions to explain them to Suzuki, who doesn’t even understand them. 
How much is his reputation as a scientist worth when he doesn’t even bother to check the evidence for a cause he stakes his reputation on? 

"I can look like I know stuff. See the leaves?"

Three times in Q&A he admitted he didn’t know — he didn’t know there was a pause in warming for the last 15 years, he didn’t know how global temperatures are measured, and he didn’t know that cyclones were not increasing over the Great Barrier Reef. He wants politicians jailed for “denying the science”. “You bet!” he exclaims, but then admits he hasn’t thought that through either. 
The cartoon-like responses were incongruous. Should we go nuclear to reduce emissions? Suzuki tosses numbers, evidence, and cost-benefits down a deep well of ignorance: “It’s just crazy”. “What the hell is going on”. “You’ve got sunlight!” “Solar farms could be spread everywhere”.  “There is plenty of sunlight beyond anything humanity needs”. The audience member who asked then pointed out we don’t have the batteries to cope with sunless cloudy days.  
Even Tony Jones asks how realistic solar is. At this first prod, Suzuki throws his hands up in the air, “I don’t know”. 
The man is emphatically an activist who might as well be innumerate.  
He is unburdened by data, evidence  
or logic.  
Why is the ABC giving him such a hallowed space, which is usually only given to PM’s? 
One can whistle for info on how much he was paid for this gig. He certainly does not care about the carbon footprint of flying from his multi-million dollar home although he is happy to excoriate others with homes larger than their grand-dad's and who drive a car.  'Don't know - Don't care, just gimme your money'.
Credit to the ABC for allowing Bill Koutalianos and Professor Stewart Franks to ask the first two questions and to respond. The event quickly became the “Professor Stewart Franks versus Professor Steve Sherwood Show”, because it was obvious it was a waste of time asking Suzuki a scientific question.  
The two of them, for a short while, were debating by proxy, and Suzuki was sidelined. He simply didn’t know enough to keep up. Even Tony Jones knew more about climate science than Suzuki did. 
Suzuki’s research on our atmosphere amounted to reading Naomi Oreskes, Jim Hoggan and DeSmog.  
"Look up there at the Atmosphere, while I pinch your wallet and frighten your kiddies."

He promotes the smear campaign  
against senior scientists but apparently has never read anything those senior scientists have written.  
This is living in a fishbowl, where Suzuki made a religious decision years ago to believe in the evil of corporate polluters and only ever reads people who agree with him.  
It leaves him completely naked in any science debate,  
knocked over by the average reader of any skeptical blog. 
Credit to Tony Thomas for asking if Suzuki still thought politicians should be jailed for denying the scientific consensus, thus exposing the inner-totalitarian.  
For a man who argues that consensus is a reason to be alarmed about the climate, it’s a tad hypocritical that Suzuki later discussed GM, where he disagrees with the consensus. He later  talks about how the Canadian government is building new jails and seems to be afraid of being jailed himself:  
“I’m wondering whether our Prime Minister thinks he is going to be creating new categories of crime, like eco terrorism or, as he calls us, environmental radicals, radical extremists.”  
Righto. Talking power to truth again David. He hasn’t noticed that all the power and money is on the climate consensus side.  
His principle seems to be “jail them if they disagree with me”. 
Suzuki’s world view is simplistic: “Government good, corporations bad”.  
He says ” …big corporations are bigger than most governments on the planet, they have the ability to fund political campaigns…” .  
There go the numbers again. The US Government has a $4 trillion annual budget, while the largest corporations in the world have less than $500bn annual revenue each. The US Government also has that slight military advantage over those scary corporations, who may wield malevolent cheques, but not so many missiles. 
When I was a student of science communication we were wheeled out to see David Suzuki speak as a  
hero of the field.  
That says it all really.


Andrew Bolt stepped manfully in while Jo took a well deserved deep draught of gin and tonic.
http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/suzuki_revealed_as_complete_know_nothing_by_very_first_question_on_qa/
Challenged from the floor by Professor Stewart Franks, Suzuki admits he might have been mistaken in claiming global warming was causing more cyclones,  
which he blamed for killing the Great Barrier Reef.  
He blames some Australian for “suggesting” it to him. The truth, as I’ve noted before, is easily found on the Bureau of Meteorology website:

A researcher into GM bananas, putting in more eyesight-saving vitamin A for countries where bananas are a staple, asks again about Suzuki’s irrational attacks on GM crops.  
Suzuki now denies this is “bad science”. But keeps saying we don’t know enough. “What’s the rush?” he demands.  
It’s been driven by money, complains multi-millionaire Suzuki, who charged a college more than $30,000 to give a speech 
Something tells me no information whatsover would ever be enough for this alarmist. Let the kids go blind.  
The Professor says this “rush” is actually 30 years. He then whacks Suzuki on his DDT alarmism.  
Suzuki again trots out his old conspiracy that the GM crops are just about money and are too expensive and are not developed to do good.  
The Professor whacks him again, noting several examples of GM technology being given away for free to feed poor countries.  
“I don’t know,” says Suzuki.  
In my opinion he is a complete phoney.

 
 Mollie also had a say:

I was struck by the worshipful expressions of the audience.  They regard suziki as some sort of high priest whose every word is a golden drop of wisdom.  a very select and worshipful audience.
 And John from Canberra piped up with...

I am reminded of a certain religion which has to remain nameless where the mantra is “there is no god but one god and Mohammed is his messenger”, What Suzuki showed last night was an inability to deal with an audience which was other than sycophantic.


The question is:  If Suzuki doesn’t know what HadCRUT, GISS, RSS and UAH are when they are cited to support the assertion that the world hasn’t warmed in 15 years, what exactly are his references to say the opposite?
 Clownfish also was unimpressed.

I’ve forced myself to watch it, and I’m just gobsmacked at how appallingly bad Suzuki was.

He repeatedly demonstrated utter ignorance of the current state of climate science, touted studies into GMOs that have been repeatedly debunked as scientifically worthless, and every time he was cornered, retreated into a mealy-mouthed argument from ignorance - hand-waving away challenges to his claims with, ‘oh, we just don’t know enough about that yet’.  
Suzuki is a disgrace to the word ‘scientist’.

Now. I said I was going to leave a note about Jo and her blog. Here goes, in her own words:

http://joannenova.com.au/2013/09/10-million-pageviews-1-6-million-visitors-new-media-reaches-an-influential-audience/
Statistics show 1.67 million unique visitors from 225 countries have come to the site.  From the extraordinary comments on Monday’s thread many readers are highly qualified in Engineering, Geology, Physics, Law, Medicine, Accounting, Architecture, Agriculture, Chemistry, Ecology and Education. From personal contact I know readers also include three national cartoonists, several members of the Australian and British Parliaments, State MPs, staffers to elected representatives, IPCC lead authors, journalists and at least six well known columnists. Readers include a professional full time carbon trader and several major investors, at least one of which I know has made quite a lot of money shorting renewables in Europe. I feel honored. humbled and grateful. Thanks to all who have supported me this year, to make this work possible. I still owe many of you a personal email. 

And my thanks to her splendid work.

Now that the intelligent skeptics, the evidence-demanders, the scoffers at mendacious thieves who steal from the public purse and curse the good and the faithful, have got the Global Warming Scammers on the run, perhaps we can turn some attention to the even more scurrilous wreckers of society and bane of taxpayers everywhere -
the man-hating, family-destroying, baby-murdering FEMINISTS.

Raise your glasses.

By the way, the Tavern is fortunate in that very few of the really stupid make their way up the hill to our doors. It is usually quite 'switched-on' and knowledgeable, even sceptical folk who know of this place.  They leave comments. But who knows, those that are not, - the thick and cons and even the really bad- might make it here and might leave a comment too.

Look out for them.


17 comments:

  1. Mister Amfortas, you are a crank, reducing every problem down to feminism (no matter how unrelated) and banging on, and on, and on, and on. You get the idea, mate.

    Maybe not. You are obviously intellectually challenged.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Did anyone force you into the Tavern?

    If you do not like the beer here, try elsewhere.

    As God said to Adam after he'd broken the rules, "Go Forth and Multiply"

    There is a more succinct modern phrase.

    Now, would you care for a bucket of water?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I said at the start of this post, the intelligent (and the good) are vastly outnumbered by the stupid, the evil and the con artists.

      The Anomymouse commenter (scared to even make up a name?) makes himself/herself look typical of the stupid.

      Delete
  3. Jo Nova and Anthony Watts (amongst others) should be nominated for a Nobel Prize for the work theyve done in bringing the truth about climate change (or lack thereof) and the massive gravy train behind it. Sterling work by very knowledgeable people.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I will drink to that, Sir. And pour a fine one for you as well. Now, hop over to Jo's place (follow the link) and give her your recommendation too.

      Delete
  4. Mate, there is no courage needed to make up a stupid moniker. Just a bit of thought, if a man can be bothered. A bucket of water is okay and thank you for your kindness.

    You do epitomise a crank. You are not kind in many of your pronouncements. Sometimes you are horrendously cruel like when you (on another blog) justified a shop owner throwing out a person with Tourettes, because it's their place and they can do whatever they want. Quite shameful. (I will provide the reference if you ask)

    You call yourself a Catholic, you embrace old fashioned values to the extent that you seem to wish that women would be uneducated and homebound. You ooze bitterness.

    As a homosexual man from a Catholic family you would pronounce me damned. Let me return the favour.

    Frank.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clearly I am not your mate. But at least you speak up. So let me address your points.

      The water is free and good for you. I am kind. I didn't have the bouncer chuck you out. It is a Free House and we simply ask that people do not piss on the floor or swear too much at the customers. Or at me.

      I am glad to hear you can give a name.

      I am not at all kind in some of my pronouncements. You are right. There is much to lampoon, criticise, condemn and reject in our world and in the Tavern I can say what I like. It is my Tavern after all. And I do get to say some kind things too. I play a bit of nice music. I invite people to say their piece. I even invite first rate chefs to cook for us.

      I epitomise nothing at all, let alone a crank. I am me and I can get cranky. Tough. Have a drink; join the conversation; or find better company more suited to your sensitivities. But I am not the highest of anything, not even of God's better creatures, like dogs and marmosets. But I am on a path that hopefully leads upward and onward and can always improve with a little help from useful criticism.

      Is it horrendously cruel to say that a man who has sunk his modest assets into building a business can choose his customers? If a chap with tourettes come into his shop and disturbs his quieter, more circumspect customers, of course he can throw him out. I bet the tourettes person would not stay very long in a concert hall or library before being chucked out either although he may stand around for quite a while in a rock concert of a brothel. There are many places where his tics and curses could be tolerated more easily. The owner has a choice. Would you deny him that choice? Do you want to make the Rules for him and go to his place and slander him for not agreeing?

      But I would still have sympathy for the tourette man's plight. He is unable to stop his behaviour. I would still have love for the man, despite his faults. I even find kindness and love for people who CAN help themselves but choose not to. But I will not simply accept any behaviour as something that I have to tolerate simply because you want me to. And I will not be 'shamed' by transparent totalitarianism even of your trivial and undernourished sort

      I am a Catholic. You are right. I do not find it necessary to hide that. It is part of my 'make-up'. Not a great one, mind you. Not even a very good one. Do not go there. Values have no use-by date so if you consider them 'old-fashioned', so be it. How are your more modern ones doing for you?

      I do NOT 'seem to wish that women would be uneducated and homebound'. That is plainly ridiculous. I have sponsored young women not even family members through university and professional training. I have paid for and supported two wives through University. Have you? With anyone? The other people reading this can make their own judgements about you and your need to calumnise.

      So, you are a homosexual man from a Catholic family. So? You are not from my family. Your sexual proclivities are yours. And I do not pronounce you damned. Damning is God's business. I just serve Grace in a Tavern. But the 'old fashioned' word is Sodomite. Or, if you prefer, Bugger. If you do not like that I have other blunt words from pretty well every language and culture that has ever existed. Nor do I damn a man who jumps off a cliff. I might warn him that what he is doing will not end well. He may well damn himself with his own actions. But I would simply (and with sadness) still love the man. I would hate him jumping off the cliff. I would not like to see hundreds of chaps jumping from high buildings into the middle of the Sodomites Mardi Gras either. Too much of a bad thing all 'round. Too much sadness.

      So, thanks Frank. You have said your piece and found me wanting. But only by making up scurrilous mendacities, being rather nasty and whining about things we have no clue about.

      You really do need some Grace.

      Delete
    2. Frank,

      That's a very rude, presumptuous and - at the end - deliberately offensive and disgusting post.

      You mention being a Catholic. I can't imagine why you include that statement other than to smear the concept of what a Catholic is. Fortunately, I think people here are capable of considering the individual without assuming such behaviour is common to any group they claim to belong to.

      Amfortas shows us all how a considerate gentleman politely deals with the slings and arrows of outrageous accusation.

      Delete
    3. Many thanks, Douglas. It takes an effort !!

      Mrs Bouncer is on duty tonight as the main Bounder gentleman has taken his muscle and guile off to bounce his little girl and boy on his knee for the evening. She is raring at the bit to whack someone and Frank nearly had a bunch of fives in the eye.

      Delete
  5. Wow - what a blinder!!!

    Yup! A genuine tree-hugger and whale fancier. She still likes trees and whales - and why not - but she ceased worshipping them some years ago when the Beam and Mote blinkers fell from her eyes and she exclaimed "WTF !" or perhaps some slightly more well chosen words.

    Well, that's a good thing then.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And a lesson in 'change of mind' too. There is hope yet for people who take a hard-line and stupid approach to issues. They too can change.

      Delete
  6. Obviously I am not your mate. For sure. May I also admit that this was just a wind-up and you handled it better than I (he, my boss) thought you would.

    I am not a homosexual man but it seemed like a bit of fun to present as such and play to your prejudices. Your sympathy for the tourettes victim 'despite his faults' is bang on what I was told would happen. A bit of tut tutting but really it's down to God to judge. Which let's you off the hook.

    Truth? I am a big fat rugby player. My boss enjoys making you and me, evidently, look like a prat. Particularly James who would have recognised the reference. He is not that perceptive but apparently he has already been lambasted for the tourettes abuse and presumably can remember that?

    Picture the scene. Six of us roll back after the game and Friday jollies. I am a lawyer and was already alive to the vibes and threats of a certain individual. You became the butt of our joke. You should be flattered that we pay you any attention because time is money and you have cost us.

    My boss is great. He throws great parties and he really does help people. I will be forever in his debt and if he wishes to stir you guys up, then he has his reasons.

    I guess I am signing off as the biggest troll ever. BTW, I was brought up Catholic and my parents are of that faith. I am not.

    Frank.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Frank, when you get to my age and seen the things I have seen and done even half of the things I have done and met and lived with as many folk as I have you will realise that you have not had a prejudged opinion for a very long time.

      I do have opinions but unlike most people who purport to have them, I have done my homework, looked at the pros and cons, studied even, and listened to as many 'sides' as I have found. Making judgements without doing those steps is prejudice.

      I care not for the cross-infection from other places that you want to bring here for private jokes. However, as a barman in a Tavern I am happy to let customers have their little secrets and giggles, and carry on cleaning their spittle off the bar top and pulling pints.

      You are a Lawyer. By crikey if ever a profession was in need of Grace, it is that one. But I will not hold it against you if you behave like a gentleman (unless you are a lady, of course) and don't piss on the carpet. It seems you do not speak the truth, so how is one to accept what you say?

      Drink. Enjoy the ambience. Very few things are unforgivable to the truly repentant. I am sorry that your little joke has already cost you time and money. I am not a bit flattered, however. You have to do better than that to impress.

      But from the depths of my crank, prejudiced (insert more criticism as you deem fit) soul I wish you well.

      Delete
  7. Message received. The very beautiful S, has cooked dinner for all us waifs and strays who have stayed over at "the farm" this weekend. What a wicked feminist she is!

    Very best wishes to you as well.

    Frank


    ReplyDelete
  8. I am happy for you. Give some Love to S, whoever she is. I have no idea what you are talking about, Frankly.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Amfy Anonymous is mine and James' tedious stalker troll. Don't feed it and hope it goes away.

    ReplyDelete

Ne meias in stragulo aut pueros circummittam.

Our Bouncer is a gentleman of muscle and guile. His patience has limits. He will check you at the door.

The Tavern gets rowdy visitors from time to time. Some are brain dead and some soul dead. They attack customers and the bar staff and piss on the carpets. Those people will not be allowed in anymore. So... Be Nice..