Liars Hoist on a Wind Turbine

Fresh from the chat in the bars about the Liar-in-Chief yesterday, we were again regaled by tales of more liars, this time called to account.

I just love it when the 'elite' nasties get their due rewards.

This concerned Wind. You know, the stuff that blows your hair around as well as fills sails, and those folk who do not fully support - as the elites demand they do - the Wind Power Industry that is going to save us all from Global Warming doom and we poor folk going down in smoke.

There are legions of people who make vast sums of money from the wind industry. And there are many who are considerably inconvenienced by wind farms. And those who fight the good fight.

Sort out for yourselves which is which.

Meanwhile some have already shown their colours.

A lady fighter has been maligned by the rich and powerful, and has fought back. I am happy to let the record show in the Tavern. 

Four liars – Ketan Joshi, Ken McAlpine, Simon Chapman & Peter Hannam, get the wind shoved up them. 

One might quibble about the difference between lies and calumnies. 

Dr Sarah Laurie Hits Wind Industry’s Usual Suspects 

STT Champion: Dr Sarah Laurie bags 4 wind industry liars in a row.

Dr Sarah Laurie has been the voice for rural communities set upon by the wind industry. For over 5 years, she has been advocating for an Australian ‘fair go’ for people trying to get a decent night’s sleep in their own homes; and, to that end, has relentlessly sought to get relevant, meaningful and enforceable noise standards drawn up to cover all industrial noise sources, including wind turbines.

Fortitude, resilience, stoicism, fearlessness, and an overall desire to let right be done: terms that only begin to capture the essence of a remarkable woman.

Set upon by the attack dogs that help run media and political interference for the wind industry, Sarah has been subjected to more than her fair share of utterly unwarranted, vilification and abuse. And the lion’s share of that has been generated, or orchestrated, by a former tobacco advertising guru and his mate, Vestas front man, Ken McAlpine.

The guru, along with fellow wind power propagandists, McAlpine, Infigen’s Ketan Joshi and the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hannam sent Tweets to their band of intellectually challenged followers, asserting that Dr Laurie had been “deregistered”; implying that she had engaged in professional misconduct, causing the Medical Board to chop her registration.

For no apparent reason – save malice – Joshi and Hannam sent the malicious Tweet (first sent by McAlpine) around once more during the guru’s hand-trembling appearance before the Senate Inquiry. In a “we’re not going to take it any more” move, in response, Sarah Laurie sent in her legal team, who ultimately forced the lot of them to banquet on a very generous helping of humble pie.

Sarah’s first slimy-scalp was none other than the guru, and it’s no small pleasure for STT to pop up his mea culpa, once again:

CORRECTION & APOLOGY FROM PROFESSOR SIMON CHAPMAN TO SARAH LAURIE

I am a Professor of Public Health at the University of Sydney.

On 20 March 2014, I retweeted the following tweet concerning Sarah Laurie:

NOT DROWNING, RANTING: Deregistered “Dr” Sarah Laurie doesn’t like the medicine dished up by @ama_media Waubrafoundation.org.au/resources/open”

My tweet implied that Ms Laurie had given cause to the Medical Board of Australia to deregister her as a medical practitioner, on account of unprofessional conduct: that she is not entitled to use the title “Dr”; and that she does so in contravention of the laws that govern the conduct of medical practitioners.

These allegations were implied without foundation and are entirely false.

Ms Laurie is not deregistered and has never been sanctioned by the Medical Board of Australia. Sarah Laurie allowed her registration as a medical practitioner to lapse for personal reasons; and accordingly, does not currently practice.

I sincerely apologise to Sarah Laurie for the harm, embarrassment and distress caused by my allegations, which I unreservedly retract.

Professor Simon Chapman

University of Sydney

NSW

Sarah’s next back-down was wrung out of Vesta’s McAlpine.

McAlpine’s fitting apology exposed a long-running campaign to discredit Dr Laurie, who has spoken out for residents affected by noise from wind turbines and other industrial sources through the Waubra Foundation.

What Sarah said about the guru’s personal attacks on her professional integrity apply with equal force to McAlpine, Ketan Joshi and Peter Hannam – as “just [another] example of a broader strategy employed by the wind industry to denigrate, marginalise and, therefore, exclude from public and political discourse anyone sincerely investigating a worldwide public health issue”.

With the respect and admiration STT holds for Sarah, it would be rude not to run McAlpine’s apology, at least once more:

CORRECTION AND APOLOGY FROM KEN MCALPINE TO SARAH LAURIE

I am a consultant Special Advisor to Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd. On 19 March 2014, I uploaded the following allegations on Twitter concerning Sarah Laurie:

NOT DROWNING, RANTING: Deregistered “Dr” Sarah Laurie doesn’t like the medicine dished up by @ama_media: waubrafoundaton.org.au/resources/open

At the time that I uploaded the Tweet, I was employed by Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd. The thrust of my allegations is that Sarah Laurie had given cause to the Medical Board of Australia to deregister her as a medical practitioner, on account of unprofessional conduct and that Sarah Laurie is not entitled to use the title “Dr”.

These allegations were made without foundation and are entirely false.

Laurie is not deregistered and has never been sanctioned by the Medical Board of Australia.

I understand that Sarah Laurie allowed her registration as a medical practitioner to lapse for personal reasons; and, accordingly, does not currently practice as such. By reason of her academic qualifications, Sarah Laurie is entitled to use the title “Dr”. I sincerely apologise to Sarah Laurie for the harm, embarrassment and distress caused by my allegations, which I unreservedly retract.

Ken McAlpine

Special Advisor, Public Affairs,

Vestas Australian Wind Technology Pty Ltd

Next on the list of wind industry backed liars was the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Hannam.

Hannam has been an overweening mealy-mouthpiece for wind industry propaganda from the get-go. His articles drool for the these things; and are drenched in fairy-tale fantasy: Hannam, if not posing as a ‘journalist’, could be forgiven for simply being infantile and gullible; but Sarah wasn’t about to let him off the hook for repeating his buddies’ and benefactor’s lies. Hannam, too was forced to withdraw his calumny; and apologise for the harm caused. Here’s scalp number three:

APOLOGY TO DR SARAH LAURIE

On June 29 I retweeted a tweet concerning Dr Sarah Laurie that was the subject of questioning by Senator Xenophon at a Senate inquiry into the health effects of wind farms. In doing so, I did not intend to convey any suggestion in the original tweet that Dr Laurie was not a doctor nor that she had been deregistered. If any readers interpreted my retweet in that way, I withdraw any such suggestions and apologise to Dr Laurie for any embarrassment caused.

Peter Hannam

Sydney Morning Herald

Gee, that must have hurt!

But Sarah wasn’t content to let it rest there.

Oh no, the good Doctor was also after Infigen’s top propaganda parrot, the insipid Ketan Joshi.

Joshi parades as the fountain of all knowledge, when it comes to espousing the ‘wonders’ of wind power; ‘properly’ paid to do so, of course (for a giggle, why not check his ‘ode to wind’ website). But, in truth, is just another vacuous ninny, who apparently amuses himself (as most walking jokes tend to do) with an endless stream of inanities on Twitter.

Although he did manage to amuse STT with his ‘submission’ to the Senate’s wind farm Inquiry, which was a moaning missive, entirely dedicated to STT. Apparently, Joshi hasn’t twigged to the fact that Australians have no time for whingers (you’ll need to Google it, Ketan). And Sarah Laurie, quite rightly, has no time for nasty little liars, like Joshi. Here’s scalp number four:

Clarification from Ketan Joshi to Sarah Laurie

I am a Research and Communications Officer employed by Infigen Energy, which operates wind farms in Australia.

On 29 June 2015, in the context of a series of tweets describing the proceedings of a public hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Wind Turbines, I published the following tweet:

In the interests of avoiding confusion, I would like to re-state that the allegation contained in the tweet by Ken McAlpine, linked to in my tweet that Sarah Laurie is a “deregistered” medical practitioner, is without foundation and entirely false.

I would like to reassert that Sarah Laurie is not deregistered and has never been sanctioned by the Medical Board of Australia. Sarah Laurie allowed her registration as a medical practitioner to lapse for personal reasons.

Ketan Joshi

Research and Communications Officer

Infigen Energy

“Without foundation and entirely false”, hey! Who would have thought: wind industry operatives caught out spreading nasty lies?

An industry that is built on a series of fictions – and peopled by malicious liars – has only one tactic when it comes to people with honesty and integrity, like Dr Sarah Laurie; and that’s to crush them with falsehoods about their true motives and character. 

More power to Sarah for calling them out for precisely what they are: a pack of lying hounds.

One can quibble about a lot more than lies and calumnies. There is much to quibble about the monies involved, the subsidies, the actual costs of even making the steel, mining the rare earths and digging up acres of farmland per windmill and filling the enormous holes with concrete. 

Jo Nova is a sound source for the numbers and she pops in here from time to time. Or you can go to see her yourselves. (see the side wall).

Victoria’s windfarms have saved virtually no coal from being burnt.

 http://joannenova.com.au/2012/09/wind-farms-are-96-useless-and-cost-150-times-more-than-necessary-for-what-they-do/

South Australian windfarms have saved 4% of their rated capacity in fossil fuels at a cost of $1,484 per ton.

That’s only $1,474 above the current price of carbon credits per ton in the EU. They are 96% useless, and cost 150 times more than necessary for what they do (except for the times they are more useless and more expensive).

One can look in places other than this great land of Oz for wizard numbers too.

There's money in wind. Just look at the subsidies. Who do you think gets all that taxpayer money? Well, four names above for a start.... and for what? The generation of electricity is miniscule.

Sarah and her legal team has brought them down to earth.

Drinks all around for Sarah and her supporters.

Such fun.

Pax