More loops.

Free markets are efficient.

Free markets outperform all other means of commerce.
Free markets are self correcting. When demand exceeds supply, prices rise and more enter the market. When prices fall and an enterprise is not longer profitable, it fails. History and geography are littered with the skeletons of failed enterprises but at least for a time, we succeed best by doing what we do best.


Free markets are natural.
Yes, Nature is a free market, and that is where it becomes really scary because, like our towns and farms that are littered with the skeletons of failed enterprises, the history and geography of Nature is littered with the skeletons of failed species and we are not immune.

In the free market of Nature, species evolve to fill a slot in the ecosystem. If you fit the slot well, your species thrives. If not, it dies back so populations and resources are in equilibrium.

But we have changed the rules. We no longer evolve to fit our slot. We have found ways to change our slots to fit us, so our numbers have exploded. Can we avoid ‘market correction’? Of course not but we are in denial as has always been our nature. Diligent investigation identifies the problem and accurate identification suggests solutions. So why are we not choosing solutions?

Hope trumps action. Hope makes us feel better so we ignore the hard choices. We have faith that problems will solve themselves eventually one way or another and they do, sometimes killing us in the process.

So, are we on our way to extinction?
All species are but few have gone through the cycle of evolution from emergence to extinction quite so fast. If history is any guide we are on track to be the shortest lived species ever. But there is hope.

We are the first species to predict its own demise and the first to have the technology to prevent it, so there is a choice. Do we choose sustainability and suffer the cost, or do we procrastinate and find ourselves fighting to the death over the scraps?
Both choices are being made now. Some are fighting, some are cooperating. So how do we choose cooperation? How do we stop those are who will choose war in our name?

War has always been the default position and it did serve its purpose in Nature, but all-out war is now too destructive; too final. We can no longer let it happen. So are we thinking? Are we being brave enough to speak up when our friends are spouting political slogans, unaware of the implications? Are we asking the hard question? Are we demanding a future? Are we thinking big-picture, speaking out, voting, evolving?

On a good day, I believe reason will prevail but on a bad day I despair.
Make my day!

Rudd destroys his party, but why?

Australians are intrigued by the sudden resignation of their Foreign Minister. He won a clear victory in the 2007 election to become Prime Minister but was unable get his promised reforms passed.

He wanted so much to be the Green Messiah and take the image of a clean green Australia to Copenhagen. He signed Kyoto but his negotiations with Conservative Leader Turnbull we so soft on polluters that his fatally watered down bill was not supported by the Greens. On the other side of politics, Turnbull, by recognising the need for action on climate change was seen as a turncoat by his natural constituency, Big Business and was replaced by Abbott, the archetype Right Wing denier (and femophobe) who has since taken hate mongering to new lows.

When Rudd returned from Copenhagen to bad polls, he had a temper tantrum and turned his back on Climate Change reform, shocking his supporters and driving the polls even lower.
His cabinet colleagues were unhappy with his autocratic style and blamed his failure to secure climate change legislation, a mining rental tax and health care reform on his inability to negotiate, so he was replaced as Prime Minister by his deputy Julia Gillard who was known to be a team player.

Gillard has since suffered unprecedented vilification by Abbott who is desperate to depict her as incompetent by blocking any legislation that might solve those nagging problems like refugees arriving by boat, he falsely claims is a breach of border security and a major illegal immigrant problem. In fact they are all intercepted so there is no security breach and they are relatively few compared to those who arrive by plane, papers in order and money in the bank, clearly not desperate refugees.

I have been concerned about the effects of climate change for at least thirty years. As soon as I became aware that CO2 concentration was rising towards double its historic level, I said; “We can’t have a change of this magnitude and not have knock-on effects.” I was right, but back then I expected that wisdom to be so self-evident the whole world would take action immediately as happened when CFC’s were shown to be destroying the ozone layer.

But back to Rudd. I have no doubt he is trying to force his party to re-elect him as Prime Minister because he thinks he can turn around the party’s popularity as he did in 2007, but he is deluded.
Image trumped ability then but he was a failure as Prime Minister. On the day before his resignation, I said to IXL.’ What Rudd needs to do is say he totally supports Gillard, agrees she is the best person for the job and he will not be challenging her.’ That would have swung his supporters behind her and the next election would have been winnable, and more to the point, Labor’s reform agenda would have been secured.

Thanks to Gillard and her ability to work with her own cabinet and maintain the support of Independents and Greens, that agenda has essentially been achieved although on the way she handed Abbott the whip he has wielded ever since, insisting she is a liar. We can nit-pick and harp on her election promise not introduce a carbon tax and maybe we should quote John Howard who introduced the concept of the ‘non-core’ promise, but she was committed to a carbon trading scheme so the temporary imposition of the tax, although it has a bureaucratic (and political) cost, will start the move we must make to a nil-carbon economy. However, if an election is called before the positive results of those reforms can be demonstrated, they will be scrapped by Abbott and we will again join the US as the only two developed nations where climate change scientists are dismissed as alarmist and Big Businesses dictates public policy on climate change.

My prediction:
Rudd will lose and in a third pivotal hissy fit, will resign his seat. There will be a by-election that Labor will lose. Abbott will try his damndest to woo Peter Slipper back from the Speaker’s chair and force Labor’s Craig Thompson, the man suspected of having a grotty past, to resign. Either way, Gillard is unlikely to survive until the next election and will lose government to a leader who has no policies except that he promises to undo all Labor’s reforms. He is selling the concept that government by a party that has a set ideology that economic growth is sacred no matter what the long term cost and believes the Market will fix everything is preferable to one that governs by negotiation and consensus.

Abbott will quickly move to a double dissolution to break the Greens’ control of the Senate and Bob Menzies' Lucky Country will again feel secure that Daddy is in charge and we can go on living the good life, ignoring the fact we are the World’s Worst Per-capita Polluters, letting everyone else do the hard yards while we bask in temporary wealth of our China-driven mining boom.

In the Loop.

I am worried about Jim.

Jim is in an outer loop of the economy, a very precarious place to be. But first let me explain the ‘loops’.

Primary Producers are at the centre where all loops begin. They grow and raise food so they are not working in an expendable industry. My maternal grandfather was a farmer who used horses for everything from hauling logs to powering the sulky that took him and Grandma to town. But that all changed when he bought a tractor. Tractors do not eat grass and do not self propagate, so his purchase started a second line of loops that include tractor manufacturers, whose demand for materials created the next level of loops of miners, oil drillers, refiners, service mechanics, you get the picture.

More tractor manufacturers joined in so dealerships sprang up and new loops were formed that managed sales for manufacturing, a services not directly producing food or an object we can see and feel. But soon the dealer no longer had time to sweep out his showroom so he hired a cleaner and yet another loop was created.


Then the cleaner became so busy he hired Jim’s Pooch Grooming Service and now, every Thursday morning, Deefer gets a wash and a brush, her claws trimmed and anal glands expressed and yet another class of loops was added. We need these loops to create employment as productivity increases and industry continues to automate but we now have more people in outer loops than inner loops and it is these outer loops that are first to go when money gets tight.

Outer Loop jobs depend on our discretionary dollar. They include restaurant staff, tour operators and Jim’s Mowing, the specialist BBQ cleaner and I must not leave out the busty blonde who bursts into the blue-collar work place in her van offering espresso coffee and hot pies to blokes who gather around to admire her legs and torso while spending twenty times the cost of a cut lunch and thermos of coffee.

When the Great Depression peaked in the late 30’s, over half the population here worked on the land so when sons and daughters lost their town jobs they came home where there was a cow to milk, some chooks for eggs, a few fruit trees and a veggie patch so they did not starve and were hale and healthy when the economy recovered..

Now, Agriculture here in Oz employs less than one in forty so where do our sons and daughters go if unemployment hits 30% or worse?
We are facing fundamental and worldwide shifts in energy, environment, population and wealth distribution. We need a survival plan and leaders to explain it and guide us through it.

It seems they are here, but their voices are being drowned out by populists of the Right, who insist the Market will sort out all those loops we created while we were running up our credit cards and the Left which seems more interested in same sex marriage. Both are aided and abetted by media continuing to direct our attention to which celeb is cheating on whom, obscuring the fact we are in crisis and desperately in need of a global plan and a social contract to deliver it.

That mix of undermined respect for leaders, voyeurism, platitudes, scandal and lies leaves us confused. Confusion leads to anger and so we get Greece. There, rioting is threatening the fabric of their society and it is spreading. So what are our politicians doing as they jostle for power? They are talking war. Should we be surprised? Of course not.

That will get our attention away from their appalling economic management and the diminishing habitat of the brown breasted miniature whistling duck! To fight each other is in our genes so war it will be and our last chance to address the issues of environment, energy and population will be abandoned. Are we really that stupid?

......................

Note: No disrespect is intended towards the many good people who work in service industries, including Jim's franchises. 
I am really concerned for their futures, as I am for Humanity as a whole.

Does this article tell us what freedom mean to a patriot?

I stumbled upon this while trying to get into my own blog, hampered by lack of signal here in this wilderness and was driven to comment. However, as a non-'team member' I was not permitted to comment so I repeat  the complete article here and include my rejected comment. 

I also add, that this level of hate directed towards any elected individual must undermine the rule of law the writer claims to support! Alan Jones on steroids?

The biggest Communist in Congress?

Written on January 25, 2012 by Daniel Greystone from Patriot Update

The title of this article says a whole lot so do you want to guess which Congress person I am referring to? I know there is more than one communist in our government and sometime before the November 2012 Election, I will be telling the entire world who they ALL are (Unless I am snuffed out). 

For now, let us focus on this one member of Congress who is so bent, so angry and so ugly (as an American Citizen) that it is a miracle that she can even look at herself in the mirror. Speaking of which, “Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who’s the biggest Communist in Congress over them all?” As the mirror wakes up and smiles, the response is not earth shattering for it says, “Mr. Greystone, why of course it is Nancy. Nancy Pelosi.”

As Newt Gingrich rises in the polls and his momentum accelerates, Nancy Pelosi has decided to make known real mud and some rich dirt about Newt. In fact, she states that “Newt will NEVER be able to become President.” We can interpret this as a threat to Newt and if this same threat was issued by any other Congress person in regards to Obama, well, watch out for the drones!

So, Nancy Pelosi has some dirt and mud to throw at Newt. So what? This is the NEW democratic standard that we all need to get used to hearing. It is intimidation through coercion in order to get ones way. It happened to Herman Cain no matter if it was true or not true. He got bumped out of the running for the President because he did not listen to the threats from the Democrats. What does Nancy have to offer us American Citizens? Let me tell you…

If you ask me, Nancy Pelosi is a communist and has infiltrated our Government. If your parents and grandparents were alive, ask them how much they fought to keep America FREE from Communism. How many people have died and have given their life in fighting communism? Because of all of the fighting that happened years ago, the communists realized that a direct confrontation could not be won. So, they devised a scheme to subvert Americans and infiltrate our government in order to change us away from freedom into communism. In my opinion, Nancy Pelosi is the ring leader of this effort today.

What she did as Speaker of the House of Representatives is despicable and is against the very fabric of our American way of life. I could write a book about what she and her Communist cohorts have done as wolves in sheep’s clothing. Pelosi is parading around as “actually being FOR America, while passing laws and no budgets that is destroying America!” Nancy has the gall to say to America “I have some dirt on Newt and I am going to sling mud all over him!” It is implied that she will do this no matter what the LAW states about disclosure. Again, this just PROVES that she does not care about the rule of LAW in America. There is not one communist who does care about the rule of law. She and her cohorts (yet to be named) seek to undo every law that binds them to our US Constitution. Yet they create their own power base by stealing our federal money to pay off people to re-elect them back into office.

Nancy Pelosi feels very secure in all of her own back-door dealings and unethical behavior. She knows that no one will dig up dirt on her or sling mud on her either because she has the ‘goods on them’ or other communists in our government will see to it they are discredited (or worse). If anyone tries to expose her communistic ways to the general public, they would forever be silenced in one way, shape or form. Remember, communists’ demand things go their way; they have zero tolerance for anything else. Either they have total power over people, or they are trying to discredit hard working, honest Americans. There is not a person alive who is perfect and just because of our human nature we can say all of us have done things we are not proud of. However, moving America away from being a Free and Sovereign nation, Nancy Pelosi is leading us into servitude and tyrannical control. We are being enslaved by debt, bad policies and guilt for not being compassionate to others.

What we need is a leader; a Republican is who is stronger than the entire communist consortium in our government. We need this person to be someone who can withstand the plethora of dirt that will be thrown at them; someone who can wipe the mud off of themselves and become the LEADER of the greatest country in the world. Who can be that leader? Right now it is emerging as Newt Gingrich. Why do I say this? Well, look at what length the democrats are willing go to discredit him. Nancy Pelosi, one who has NEVER followed the LAW of this land, is willing to break the LAW to expose some dirt on Newt. She is willing to sling mud all over him and to ‘Hell with the consequences.’ She knows with her communists’ buddies already in place in our government, there will NEVER be any consequences. This is par for the course when dealing with communists.

In Summary

So here is what we have to be aware of: The Democrats want ALL of us live in tyranny. They want us to be scared to say or do anything for fear of some retaliation; to NOT be able to express our First Amendment Rights.  They want to subvert America into a Socialistic and Communistic Society where only THEY are in control of every aspect of our lives. They want to do away with consumer demand where we can now choose to buy something or not. They want YOU to believe and feel guilty for not having enough compassion for those people who refuse to work for a living. They will launch scare tactics to make us believe Republicans are evil and dishonest, will deflect any and all responsibility for what they are doing onto other people and other political parties and they will threaten us at every turn.

If we do not stand up, like our parents and grandparents did to these socialistic and communistic parasites, they will drain our life-blood from us and leave us with a stinking hulk that was once The United States of America. Stand up and let your voice be heard; we will NOT tolerate Nancy Pelosi and the socialistic practices they are ramming down our throats!

Comment: 

I don't know if I am a 'member of this blog' or not but I guess I will soon know!

From outside, and by saying that I really disqualify myself, it reads like paranoia to me that you brand Pilosi with any totalitarian label.

In the land of free speech and free elections there seems to be little tolerance for diversity. There are some of the Right one could brand a Nazi but having that philosophy seems less problematical than Democratic Socialism which is how I would describe the philosophies of Obama a far cry from both Nazism and Communism which in our experience were imposed in Germany and the USSR by force not by persuasion via the ballot box.

Here in Oz, there were attempts to ban the Communist Party in McCarthy's paranoid fifties but it failed because wiser heads decided that although their pro-USSR rhetoric was extreme, voters were trusted to see through it and we did, so it was never driven underground where it could have attracted sociopaths as do all 'secret' societies, the discredited KKK included.

So in closing, let me say it is my opinion that we should rejoice in the fact that we welcome opinions from all individuals in our multi-everything societies as a sign that debate is free and healthy and let the good sense of voters decide who they want to represent them.

Newt might make a good president, who knows? But unfortunately, like others before him, potential presidents seem to be judged on their sexual history rather than their administration skills. Or is there something important she knows about him that should disqualify him?

Here I agree that if she has something to say she should spit it out and let it be judged, not undermine his campaign by innuendo.  

Found this while surfing the web

Ode to boat people

Seeking dreams on foreign soil
The creak of salt soaked timbers
oil and diesel assail the nose
stretched upon the deck huddled
stench of fear uncertainty

Journey of months for some
Others years of labour hardships
All are equal on this boat on fear
Drift sleep sip water sleep again

The sailors cruel no compassion
Greed money unlawful desire
Pray to god land be near
Day and night nothing changes

Shift in mood the sailors scurry
Shadow of grey upon the horizon
Anticipation the journey end
Booming voice a new journey begins

Simyart

In Australia the 'boat people' debate has been a political football for years causing so much unnecessary pain to the most vulnerable of people.
Most of Simyart's poetry is romantic and can be found at http://simyart.tumblr.com/

Parallel Universes.

.
Newspaper headlines. (Often in same edition).

Oceans dying from CO2 acidification,
Newcastle Ports proposes new 2.7 billion coal loader.

Murray-Darling needs more flow to maintain system health.
Irrigators say cuts to water entitlements ‘irresponsible’.

Four trawlers mothballed at Mooloolaba for lack of fish.
Sign on fisherman’s ute: “Fix the fishery; shoot a greenie!”

How will we feed nine billion people in 2050?
Government pays baby bonus to increase birth rate.

AIDS epidemic in Africa. 40 million infected.
Pope bans use of condoms.









Challenge:
Add your own 'parallel universe couplet' as a comment!.

Maybe you got this in your inbox too.

Subject: Just a good example

"SOME IDEAS ARE SO STUPID ONLY INTELLECTUALS BELIEVE THEM."
George Orwell

When the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Is this man truly a genius? Checked out and this is true...it DID happen!

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
It could not be any simpler than that.
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.


These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

...............

My comment:
Can you really believe that any university would really do that? Can you believe any group of students would all return a paper with an opinion opposite to that of their professor? Did Obama really say: 'no one will be rich and no one will be poor'?
In this society there is a such inequity because we do not value the work of people who clean hospital floors for $4 an hour but do value a director of Lehmann Brothers who gives himself a $30 million bonus for dreaming up yet another way to siphon off more wealth through dodgy accounting. Who is offering value for money? Do you really think the cleaning lady could ever become a director of Lehman Brothers because of the rewards that offers?

Perhaps if George Bush's tax break billionaires paid their fair share of tax, she might be paid enough to not need food stamps and maybe put her kids through university and surely a million or two for sitting around a board table is enough, and like her, only if he performs.

Nobody is suggesting everyone gets the same rewards, just that the extremes are pulled in a bit so more of the pie can be shared. That seems to me what Obama wants, but propaganda like the above with it dishonest and simplistic message is paid for by the very rich to influence voters and it works. I wonder how many cleaning ladies can pay a PR company to flood the internet with such crap!

How about we send this quote out to Republicans and Tea Party members?
H.L. Mencken said: "For every complex problem, there is an answer that is clear, simple--and wrong."

Stop the world, I want to stay off.

Listening to John Howard on 7.30 Report reminded me of why he was rejected, but also the reasons for his long reign. My impression? He could make a comeback if he wanted the job.

What he had to say about decisiveness was the key. George Bush called him the Man of Iron for good reason and that reason was his willingness to act decisively but basically on intuition. His decisiveness led to our involvement in Iraq, arguably a war crime that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents. A decisive move by the current government to boost our economy during the GFC by subsiding house insulation led, in a roundabout way, to the accidental deaths of four young installers and a general impression the Government is incompetent. The ‘pink batt debacle’ is continually being revived as evidence of bad government but is never compared to the ‘War crime in Iraq’ debacle.  

When asked about Iraq, he restated in his own decisive manner that Iraq was ‘the right decision.’ No argument, no self doubt, no indecisiveness, no discussion. He was not reminded he knew the WMD scare was false, and when talking about refugees, he was not reminded he lied about that to manipulate public opinion. So why do we prefer decisiveness over honesty, thoughtful debate and exploration of options? He knows, as does his acolyte Tony Abbott, that enough of our people so prefer not to be bothered with issues, that we will change our government rather than do the homework. 

Our current government, made up of Labor, Greens and Independents has produced a period of negotiated consensus I think has produced needed reform and balanced policies. But it looks messy and that gives the Opposition plenty to attack and attack they do, with hate signs at rallies, blatant lies in outrageous scare campaigns, personal attacks, dishonest insinuations via the Murdock Press, culminating in one politician saying the Prime Minister is evil and should be shot! In the secrecy of the ballot box our true attitudes are expressed. We are returning to jingoism and intolerance as we scurry away from facing facts.

In this ambience, JH again showed that he is still the Man of Iron, with his attitudes to workers, foreigners, refugees and minor parties unchanged and his rewriting of history still evident in his ‘non-core’ memories.

Related short story.
A Returned Soldiers League President, after a 'few too many' was on the microphone.
"Australia is the best bloody country in the world!" (Shouts of encouragement and sporadic clapping).
Voice from the back; "You've been overseas then have yer mate?!"
The President:
"Nah! Fuck 'em!"

Unrelated story (for now).
This morning’s sobering hot-off-the-press investment advice:  ‘buy coal shares!’ Why? India just announced the construction of 147 new coal fired power stations.  

What do we think climate change denier and Carbon Tax allergic, T Abbott will do with that!? Sigh!

Scientific experiment anyone can do at home.

Mr ten percent explores his human foibles.

It has been said we Humans use only ten percent of our brains. So what do we do we do with the rest? Being a Darwinist, I look for advantage in everything, so I had a good look at IXL and realised my lovely lady would never have attracted my ardour had she had a head the size of a Pomeranian.

So it is 90% padding. But in most of us, even that ten percent seems to work less well than almost every animal when it comes to interpreting natural evidence. I refer to the fact that some very powerful people mentioned in my last few posts lack the ability to critically analyse their own ideas before declaring them facts.

Tony Abbott asked recently why Carbon Dioxide, which is an odourless, colourless gas that mixes totally with the atmosphere and is therefore weightless could possibly be measured in tons! If you reacted by asking; “So?” maybe it is time to close this screen. To those still wondering, I pose this question:

Why would anyone exposed to the evidence all around us that Science is keeping planes in the air, holding up skyscrapers, replacing heart arteries, splicing genes from fish to wheat, you name it, but still assume their own random assumptions are the absolute truth based on no evidence except that they thought it up or maybe it is what some bloke said at the pub?

In the same basket, let’s place that deadly elation that occasionally floods a soldier’s brain that causes him/her to rush a machine gun emplacement armed with nothing but bare fists and temporary insanity. Why the same basket? Stay with me and keep that ten percent open.

What if both examples enhanced the survival of the tribe?
What if we evolved to mindlessly accept the belief system of our tribe so we would follow the direction of our leaders in times of crisis and so not hesitate to sacrifice ourselves to enhance the survival of many? Making sense?
Any general will tell you that the purpose of boot camp is to render a soldier mindless so he/she will obey any order without question. Imagine what would happen if the order “Charge! “ was met by an incredulous “You've got to be kidding!"

Scientific training changes that for most of us. I say most because there are scientists who fail to critically examine assumptions they hold on issues outside their area of expertise, which they should know is very naughty indeed. Unfortunately, such pronouncements give succour to the Bachmanns and Abbotts of the world who declare Climate Change is a conspiracy or Intelligent Design is science and quote as their source, ‘hundreds of scientists’.

So, why do apologists get away with basically misrepresenting the evidence? We can all think, we all have access to the information but, my friends, we lack one simple process. We can’t seem to ask the one simple question that would boost us to the next level of intellectual honesty. We can’t say ‘WHAT IF I AM WRONG!?”

So my challenge is to try it.
Put the ego aside, take any firmly held belief, ask yourself the question, look for contrary evidence and see where it takes you.
It never fails to surprise me.

Cute dog pic borrowed from the net.

The Huns are coming!

“Climate Change is here!” does not compare to your classic “The Huns are coming!” as a generator of adrenalin.  So although it presents a more dire threat than whatever wiped out the dinosaurs, It is all happening too slowly for that. But once here, and it is here, unlike the Huns, it will never go away.

Now consider this. Both Snowbrush and Helen in comments on my post on political vitriol, mentioned Michelle Bachmann. I looked her up and discovered a right wing Republican, who among other things has more faith in her intuition than science while at the same time admitting she is not a ‘deep thinker’. She believes Intelligent Design is science, we should scrap the minimum wage and universal healthcare (those two go so well together, don’t you think?), feels threatened by taxes, abortion, gays and Muslims. She wants to control what happens in the bedroom but not what happens in the workplace or contribute to national health. If we could see into her mind, we would probably see the elephant in the room that Obama represents but I will not speculate. The public record is radical enough.

Then, did you hear (British PM) David Cameron, in his best Churchillian, threatening; ‘We will track you down… we will punish you”? Of course rioting and looting are mindless, frightening and criminal. Perpetrators should be arrested and tried but Cameron has exacerbated the problem by further dividing the US and THEM of British society, making the task of addressing the reasons unnecessarily difficult.

Here, Tony Abbott is determined to destroy Climate Change initiatives, and like Michelle Bachmann, is against any initiative that will cost the very wealthy anything. Their rhetoric is creating a division between the political left and right not seen since the Great Depression. Then consider where that led… Radical communism on one side and Radical Capitalism on the other, with Nazism in between. Radicalism happens when we feel stressed.

I did say feel stressed, because I believe Climate Change and the Global Economy can be fixed.  Hope energises people to make sacrifices and feel good about their contribution. But we are allowing political opportunists to scare us into radicalism again.

What happens next is classic tribalism. Both those problems are global, complex and require intelligent solutions. But that ain’t what’s happening folks. We are doing what we have always done. We are turning to ‘strong’ leaders who promise they will wipe out the Huns if we make them Chief.

But where are the Huns? Don’t worry, our Leaders will identify them for us. Hitler identified them as Jews. Milosevic identified them as Muslims. Marx identified them as Capitalists, Hoover identified them as Communists. Ayotollah Khomeini identified them as anything Western. But none will say “Climate Change” because they instinctively know it is not on our evolved list of adrenal triggers for many.

With Europe threatening to collapse, our energies and wealth being dissipated by ‘wars on terror’ and so many shrill voices with finger pointing, it seems we have evolved little since Chimps started raiding neighbouring colonies to kill and eat their babies.

Whatever happened to politicians who debated using facts, listened with respect, negotiated and voted from a shared wish to benefit all the people? I feel they are there but moderate voices rarely create headlines so we rarely hear them. 

Shoot the Prime Minister??

As if the rhetoric was not dangerous enough already, now we have a Conservative candidate saying 'Julia Gillard is evil' and should meet the same fate as John F Kennedy!


Of course his statement was disowned by the party but Tony Abbott must take responsibility for setting the stage. The Prime Minister has shown she is inexperienced in the job, making premature announcements and underestimating the ignorance of her constituents and so failing to fully sell her policies. But she is not evil. What is evil the wave of outrageous personal vilification Abbott and his Conservative Storm Troopers have generated against the Prime Minister.


It seems I was closer to the truth than I realised when I posted this piece of satire! (edited). Since then Abbott has said he will gain government at the next election then call a double dissolution as soon as his bills to dump the Carbon and Mining Taxes are blocked.


...........................


 Scene: Digger Pitt, mining magnate talking to Tony Abbott after he failed to attract enough support to form government. ('Rupert' is of course Murdock whose newspapers have been outrageously biased towards the big end of town).


Tony is on the phone to Digger.


“What the hell can I do now, Digger?”
“What? You’re asking me? Just get that bitch out! We need a new election before July or we’re stuffed!”
“With respect, Digger, it’s a bad look for me to go back on a promise, I…”
“Ha, ha, ha! Don’t shit me Tony. When did you not… paid maternity leave over your dead body, climate change is bunkum? Those two little doozies would have cost me a mint. But this is serious mate. We can’t pay a mining tax AND buy BHP Billiton!”
“But if I go back on that I’ll upset the independents more…”
“So? Just get me a new election and I’ll take care of them. With an Atheist in the lodge and a poofter running the Greens mate, we've got God on our side. I'll hit the media and you’ll win at a gallop!”
“But you’ll still have Greens in the Senate!”
“So they block and you get a double dissolution. Just get me an election and we’ll do the rest.”
“OK, Digger, leave it to me. I reckon I can bring her down.”
“Good boy Tony! Can I tell Rupert you’re on side?”
“Of course, always.”
“Thanks mate, we’ll be watching.”
Click!

Anatomy of a Joke 001.

·        
First principle:
      Carefully build a mental picture so the audience forms an image that is totally unrelated to the image you want them to end up with.

·        Then, with the very last word, shatter that image by introducing an obvious absurdity.

Example.

Want a skyscraper?

Ask an engineer.

Need cancer removed?

Get a surgeon,

A man on the moon?

Talk to NASA.

Get real about climate change?

Listen to Tony Abbott!

Pfthahagigglesnortbwhahaha…stoppit, you’re killing me!

Pic courtesy Moir

Paying the Piper.

Paul Keating has turned into the classic Grumpy Old Man but like most of us, he occasionally says something notable and he did so this week. Viz, “Abbott’s attitude is that if he isn’t given the job he will wreck the place!” Seems he is right, but read on to understand why he is really hell bent on 'wrecking the place'..


So despite the lowest unemployment and government debt in the world, highest terms of trade and because we still pay less for oil than we did three years ago, our national confidence is way down and support for the Government abysmal.

So what is destroying our self image when we should be feeling confident if not a little smug?

Any reformist government must ride out our inbuilt distrust of change as did the Howard Government when they introduced the GST, in retrospect a positive change. Our current government embarked on an overdue overhaul of policies on several fronts, including Climate Change and was supported by the voters. What they did not expect was the emergence of a new dumbed down style of opposition that started under Malcolm Turnbull and became total warfare, with no regard for destructive side effects under Tony Abbott.

The tactic is simple. In this age of the Celeb, the image of the leader is the image of the party, so they now  ‘play the man’ by continually naming the Prime Minister as incompetent, wasteful, dishonest, and responsible for every negative that happens and if no crisis exists, invent one. Now, before we look back with nostalgia to when Malcolm led the Opposition, remember his carping became so mean and negative he was dubbed by some in the press as the ‘Bishop of Quibley’. His relentless pursuit or Rudd culminated in the attempt to discredit him by using an approval-seeking bureaucrat to spy for him. Then despite Mal’s coaching before the spy appeared before a Senate enquiry, he admitted he had invented it all 'because I thought it was expected', leaving Malcolm with egg on his face. But that was not what brought Malcolm down. His response to Climate Change and his entry into negotiations with Labor so upset his corporate supporters that they demanded he be replaced.

So, he was rolled and replaced by ‘climate change is bunkum’ Tony Abbott, who spends his time now stirring up anger in all ‘polluting’ industries, warning workers (voters) they will all lose their jobs under this 'toxic tax', when what is proposed is an overdue and very modest start towards a clean energy future.

Now, take a side trip to this post from September last year and treat yourself to a little déjà-vu. Keep in mind the vitriol and scare mongering currently coming from Abbott, Labor bashing coming from Newscorp media and this week, Abbott declaring that, after he wins government (now looking likely), he will bring on a double dissolution and a fresh election to gain control of the Senate. Skip the first bit if you like, picking up the exchange between Abbott and Digger Pitt. Here is the link.
http://staffordray.blogspot.com/2010/09/long-day-in-politics.html

Crystal sets and in utero conditioning.

I really can’t afford the time, but I feel the need to do my grumpy old man act on this one.

When I was a kid of maybe twelve, I built myself a crystal set and could lie in bed and listen to the radio through earphones. However, the only clear station was the one that broadcasted Parliament from Canberra so I was exposed to politics and debate earlier than most kids are if ever. I must say debate back then was debate, unlike now when most of it is mindless childish posturing.

However, like pre-born babies who hear certain tunes or voices while in utero I am forever drawn back to listen to the sounds of my early youth. But let me get to the point.

You wouldn’t think it right now, but Australia on the whole has one of the highest per capita incomes on the planet. Our problem however, is that national income is heavy on coal and iron exports and not a lot of that trickles down, but still our living standards are very much higher than Indonesians, our nearest and in some ways our dearest neighbours.
Last time I flew to Timor and Flores was about fifteen years ago, but I doubt much has changed. There I visited a dozen or so homes, one the home of a reasonably highly placed official in Kupang. The house was smaller than houses were here a hundred years ago, about 8 squares, with a dirt floor, maybe three light bulbs and a small TV set.
Here most houses have a refrigerator or two, a freezer, washing machine, dryer, air conditioner, hot water on tap, twenty or more lights, a wide screen TV or two, vacuum cleaner, microwave, toasters, jugs a computer or three plus many more lesser electrical utensils.
I would estimate a per capita electricity use per head of maybe a hundred time that of the average Indonesian.
I stopped to listen as this idiot insisted that Australia need not do anything about climate change because ‘Indonesians are doing less’.

As you all know, my politics favours internationalism over parochialism, cooperation over confrontation and above all, an awareness of the science of Climate Change and a realisation that unless we fix that and pronto, all else will become academic. Chances are that by the time my grandchildren reach adulthood fixing it will be well beyond us.

When we have killed off our ocean ecosystem by allowing acidification to rise way past the ability of corals and krill to survive, made agriculture more difficult and continued to populate way past the ability of the planet to support us, human misery will cause such conflict that we will all be dragged into the most profound adjustment for humans the world has ever seen with the end of the Human Era a prospect, second comings and rapturings notwithstanding.

It is difficult, it is complex, it does require sacrifice and we would all wish it to go away. But as anyone who has built a bridge, developed a vaccine, won an Olympic gold medal or flown to the moon will tell you, none of those things happened by wishing for them. They took a lot of planning, skill, money and hard work over a long time. Wishing, praying and slogans did not lay even the first brick and so it is with our climate change response. Every one of us must commit or we are stuffed. But what are we getting from, our leaders?

As I see it, politics has degenerated into a contest of egos who say whatever polls indicate will get them votes. Unlike in the real world, dumbing down issues and compressing them into three word slogans works. Support for action is waning on the back of a few publicity seekers in media and politics who are saying basically that climate change is nonsense, or God is taking care of it and in any case there is nothing to worry about if you get rid of this government and vote for me.
Wherever you live, does that sound familiar?

Indonesian pic courtesy http://www.travelpod.co.uk/photos/2/Indonesia/Kupang.html
Kid with crystal set is not me. He is far cuter than I ever was.

Mooloolaba Trawlers.

Sign of the times.
First the entree.
Like a cheap boat? This one came in a few months ago after it was surrendered to the bank. She will go at a fraction of her replacement value and a bargain for anyone wanting a really big luxury American built cruiser.
The main story.
While handing out voting information during our recent Federal election I was accosted by an angry forty-something woman.
‘I’d vote Green but you won’t let me fish!’, she snarled at me, in a not-to-be-questioned statement. Our Green Party does have scientifically recommended policies to create more marine parks where species can survive to keep recreational and professional fisheries sustainable.

The level of debate here can be judged by a bumper sticker on a fisherman’s car that says “Fix the environment-shoot a Greenie”.
To illustrate depletion of fisheries I describe observations made in two fishing ports, Eden in New South Wales and Mooloolaba Queensland.

Eden in the 1960’s was a bustling international fishing port. I saw huge trawlers and ‘mother ships’, refuelling from one of four million litre tanks above the wharves across the bay from a substantial fish cannery, the biggest employer in the town. You can see the tanks over the bay behind my youngest with kids in about 2008. Empty, and a reminder of happier times.
When I was there three years ago, the cannery was gone, its long wooden wharf festooned with danger signs. For sale signs stakes out landscaped vacant land where the giant fuel tanks once stood. The three remaining working trawlers, tiny by comparison, were serviced from a road tanker filled from one of the two town gas stations.

Here in Mooloolaba, four of the largest trawlers have been tied up for two months, the crew gone, looking increasingly forlorn. Yesterday I asked and was told the ‘company’s broke’. That represents about a quarter of the current working fleet. Further questions revealed that those four were what was left of eight the company worked only two years ago. That business failed because the fisheries are no longer sustainable at even the current reduced level of activity.

So what should be done? Around here there is no doubt. Open marine parks to commercial fishing and/or shoot a Greenie. Although everyone here knows the truth, it is convenient to blame someone for their predicament and it seems there are plenty of populist politicians who pop up to direct the anger at their political opponents. It is rare a politician in opposition is forced to deliver so their rhetoric produces two unfortunate outcomes. They give people false hope, delaying their departure from dying industries and sometimes their rhetoric leads to frustration fuelled violence.

Meanwhile I am gertting on with curing my lovely old Tiziana of the measles. As you can see she has a serious case of the 'patches'.

Bin Laden Afterthought

I read the Horse Whisperer, and occasionally stumble upon a Dog Whisperer on TV and we now have Teenage Children Whisperers and all, but what we really need right now is a “Radical Fundamentalist Religion Whisperer”.

Pic borrowed from London Daily Mail.

Cut and paste.

The most exciting news for this month for the Global Greens is the electoral success of the German Green Party.



At the end of March elections were held in the German State of Baden-Württemberg. This is one of the richest areas of Germany and has traditionally returned a Christian Democrat government. But in this election the Greens managed to double their share of the vote to 24.1% and finish in second place. They are now in a position to form a coalition with the Social Democrats and to be the leading partner in the Coalition. This should result in Greens Leader Winfried Kretschmann becoming the Green Party's first regional "minister president" (State Premier).



We don't know of any other cases in the world where Greens have lead a State government. Reports suggest that two issues led to the Green's meteoric rise: dissatisfaction over a major project to redevelop Stuttgart's main railway station, and fear of the State's reliance on nuclear power following the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.

source: Australian Greens Newsletter April 2011.

Pearls in a vinegar bottle!

This little guy is only 1cm long (a little under ½ an inch) but he is a vital link in the chain that feeds billions of people. He is eaten by fish that eat other fish and we eat them. Pretty important stuff.

Sea Butterfly.

Tallest cathedrals
rest on a grain of sand.

Sharing the load
across its billions.

Mightiest oceans
rest on a butterfly

Giving its body
to succour humanity.


Scientists (who study these things) are screaming in the wilderness that unless we stop carbon dioxide emissions forthwith this tiny Sea Butterfly and thousands of like species will go the way of the dodo.

How? Like the story of the string of pearls in the vinegar bottle, their little calcium carbonate exoskeletons are melting, as oceans take up 80% of increased atmospheric carbon dioxide and become too acidic for them. For an explanation of the process, click here.

Our children will face that consequence (along with sea level rise, more violent weather extremes etc etc) and here in Australia we will lose the Great Barrier Reef, our most popular tourist attraction.

Now we come to the politics. Following the dumping of ‘Malcolm in the middle’ Turnbull “I will not lead a party that refuses to act on climate change’ as leader of the Conservatives in favour of Tony Abbott “Climate change is bunkum”, the long negotiations between Rudd’s government and the opposition to hammer out an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), was itself dumped.

So Gillard, Rudd, Swan et al discussed their options. There was a range of views, stretching from ‘dump it’ to ‘forge ahead regardless’. As Rudd said last week; ‘Some folk in the Caucus wanted to throw the ETS out forever’.

Following that mischievous little snippet of the obvious, the hunt was on to name those who wanted to dump it! We have lead stories and aggressive questioning by radio’s most ignorant shock jocks and even the ABC’s prestigious 7.30 Report presenter Chris Ullman wasted precious time trying to bully the Prime Minister into naming names!

Meanwhile back in the vinegar bottle, the whole maritime food chain is in meltdown, Australia’s greatest tourist attraction is a generation away from demise, and there I was again, watching our PM being prevented from explaining the importance of tackling climate change by another egotistical nincompoop. I wanted to cry!

Left Overs

In Sydney last weekend, thousands gathered in support of action to stop human induced climate change and made it clear that if a tax would help, they were for it. A short distance away, an opposing rally was told by the leader of the Opposition that a carbon tax was futile and unnecessary. The narrowness of the 'debate' was illustrated by one banner wielder's worry about her old Mom.

That banner reminded me of an octagenarian complaining in 1966, when Australia adopted decimal currency. Quote: "I just don't understand it. Why can't they put the damned thing off until all the old people die!"



The old irresponsible breed
Who march to Conservative creed;
Are arrogant fools,
Who ignorance rules,
And live in delusion and greed!

Greed: Economic growth now is more important than ocean, air and human survival.
Delusion: Abbott's answer to climate change; "We can plant trees."

The math is as follows (very roughly).
To absorb the CO2 for one car-year needs a hectare of trees. We multiply that by ten milion cars. In the next twenty years that is 200 million hectares, or 2 million square kilometres.
Coal fired powe stations produce 36% of carbon emissions. For each 20 years, if they continue as now, we need to plant out (say) 4 million square kiometres. By the time we add in cow flatulence and landfill dump emissions and a few miscellaneous, we are up to around 8 million square kilometres already.

But hang on, the total area of Ausralia is less than 8 million square kilometres.
We will just have to live somewhere else!

Limerick first published by Poetry 24.

Bear baiting and bible bashing.

Why is Terry Jones not behind bars? OK, so we agree that a demented mob killing UN workers and their guards in Afghanistan is so heinous a crime it overshadows that perpetrated by deluded egotist Terry Jones.

However, we can only deal with our own and hope their struggling justice system deals appropriately with theirs. It is all so tragic and unproductive but...



The more enduring tragedy is that moderate voices are lost in the hysteria. Surely it is realised that enduring change comes from within and Terry Jones, almost single handed, has gagged reformers within Afghanisan. Now, their mindless and excessive reaction is in danger of silencing moderates in the US too and so the insanity continues, polarising opinion and sucking us in.

Here, Terry Jones would have been arrested before he burnt a Koran. Incitement to violence has been a crime since 2005. Here is the opening statement of its introduction.

"Crimes Act Amendment (Incitement to Violence) Bill 2005. This Bill will criminalise threats of and incitements to racially or religiously motivated violence. Policy rationale. In order to maintain harmony in a multicultural and multi-religious society, Parliament must send a strong signal that threatening or inciting racial and religious violence is unacceptable. At the same time, law enforcement authorities should have the tools to target the purveyors of hateful, violent messages before, not simply after these messages are turned to action." (accentuation mine).

Note: The first person to come to attention under this act was a Muslim clerics. Mark Chipperfield's report (Sydney 27 Oct 2006) is instructive: 'Australia's most prominent Muslim cleric was threatened with deportation yesterday after he was reported to have said that women who "sway suggestively" and do not cover up can provoke sexual assault by men. In a sermon marking the end of Ramadan, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al Hilali told worshippers in Sydney that women who display their bodies were like "uncovered meat".'

What he still says behind closed doors in anybody's guess, but his public rantings have been curtailed by Incitement to Violence laws.

Here is an earlier post on the subject you might like.