New Zealand Conservative

AGW advocates have given us the science, told us it's settled and have the models to prove it. Fair enough. Let's give them 9 years to prove it, and if they get it spectacularly wrong, only then let's suggest skepticism is well placed and their own accusations of "denier" can be seen as nothing but baseless slurs. Nine years sounds like a fair deal - so are you with me or not? Well, here's a prediction from the Climate Scientists at the University of East Anglia, the University at the centre of the Climategate controversy, where they have used the sum of many, many years of thorough and precise research to confidently predict the end of snow in Britain. Because of Man-made Global Warming. Now the neat thing about this is that the prediction was made in 2000, so we only have to wait until tonight for their 9 years to be up. Have a read of what they said back then:

From the Age via Stuff The US and Yemen are considering air strikes against al Qaeda bases in Yemen, in retaliation for the attempted downing of a US airliner on Christmas Day. The strikes are shaping up as President Barack Obama's first serious national security test. Several US networks reported that US intelligence agencies were preparing a list of possible targets after al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, an offshoot of Osama bin Laden's organisation, claimed responsibility for training and equipping Nigerian man Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. So President Obama has interrupted is busy Hawaiian schedule to "consider" air strikes against Al Qaeda and he has kindly let them know that he is doing this. If and when these air strikes take place you can be sure of one thing - anything that Al Qaeda values will be long gone from wherever the missiles land and the only thing the air strikes will achieve will be to make some holes in the desert. Clever - very clever.

Glen at the Beretta Blog, has alarming evidence of an upsurge in Christianity in New Zealand . Working off raw data sources he has produced compelling scientific evidence; peer reviewed by the University of East Anglia, and no doubt part of the IPCC report on Warming towards Christians. Some proponents are citing contrary claims, such as the atheistic bus campaigns and harping on about selective census information, but I don't see that reflected in the graph Glen has produced. By all indications, the science is settled, so educate yourself: We are heading for a revival .

Before Christmas, liberal Anglican Glynn Cardy of St Matthews-in-the-City of Auckland put up an offensive billboard lampooning Our Lady, Joseph and God. With out a doubt, a truly blasphemous billboard. I have just been reading a book on Purgatory , and quite honestly, Glynn Cardy needs our prayers. Blasphemy is a mortal sin, one that severs a person from God, and even if repented for, could quite easily call for a long, long (and very unpleasant) time in Purgatory. (For more, see St Catherine of Genoa: Treatise on Purgatory ) A number of Christians on David Farrar's blog have applauded the consequent vandalism of the offensive billboard, first coated in brown paint and then attacked by knitting needle wielding elderly lady. David Farrar's response, thinking Christians are dangerous fanatics , is almost appropriate, except for the fact that the vandalism was restricted to the billboard itself. It seems I was incorrect in thinking that most Christians would not approve of an...

Template Change It's been more than a year since we switched to this template, and I'm getting a hankering to apply some major renovations. Any comments you care to make before I hit the button, now is the time to do it. Should I get an 88% clear vote, then I'm liable to do a John Key. Hey, you think we are in a democracy? Whatever gave you that impression? OK, OK, unlike John Key, maybe I will listen to the people. What do my fellow authors think about a template switch, and how involved would you like to be in the process? I haven't checked my email in months, but I will do so (or drop a comment). If the 88% includes the cabinet (and we are all Prime Ministers) then feel free to smack me about the ears until you get what you want. It's not as if a light smack is a crime or anything. (Well, OK, depends on who you ask, and at what time of the day but now you are quibbling) I'd really like to have different style sheets based on the screen resolution -...

With Whaleoil (real name of "Cameron Slater" will not be mentioned for privacy reasons) due in court for allegedly violating name suppression rules by publishing a series of cryptic pictures as hints to the identity of the accused, I'm wondering why the mainstream media are not also in violation of name suppression rules, given the hints they also drop. After all, declaring information like "a former NZ Olympian", or "a comedian", as the media have done, gives people a running start. And as each former Comedian or Olympian quickly goes on record to declare their innocence it narrows down the field. For the courts to make any case against Cameron they are probably going to have to establish a points system that gets the media off the hook, and Whale completely hooked, if you pardon the accent. To help the process along, I've come up with a point system that might work, with a score of 100 points or more indicating contempt of court. So, where th...

How could anybody even think this - let alone write it? Now might be a good time to reflect upon the wisdom of the Psalmist to restore a little perspective. Psalm 145 (146) 1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul. 2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. 4 His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. 5 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 7 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The LORD looseth the prisoners: 8 The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous: 9 The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the w...

Linley Boniface has let rip about the Atheist bus campaign and the billboard controversy. Reading her rant you'd believe Christians are up in arms over the atheist advertising about to be plastered on the sides of a few buses. Well no actually - no Christian actually gives a toss, if atheists want to waste their money on advertising more fool them, I say and so does everybody else I know. In her screed there is little evidence of intolerance towards atheists from Christians. This is the best the poor deluded woman can come up with to support her thin case And when atheists launched a campaign to raise money to pay for bus ads reading, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life," there was a predictable outcry from people who felt that atheists should, actually, just shut up. Archbishop John Dew, president of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference, made the usual noises about upholding the rights of atheists to express their views before m...

I haven't seen Avatar yet, but after reading the reviews here's what it seems to be about: Imagine Saddam Hussein has space travel and technology. He lands on a planet of red white and mostly blue peace loving people, very similar in culture to the Americans, but without materialism and a lot more Oprah guiding their lives. Saddam and the tech Iraqi attack, although it's clear that there are splits in his command structure and some actually side with the Blue Americans. And Ripley battles the company to ensure the evil aliens don't invade and kill both, or something like that. And there's a whole new language, but the dialogue still stinks. I'd wait for DVD but seeing a metaphorical Saddam having way too much power if given nuclear technology and warp drive would seem to be too poignant a message to ignore.

Pathetic, but not unexpected: Facebook fan page has been set up in honour of Susanna Maiolo (above), a 25-year-old Italian-Swiss woman, accused of leaping over security barriers at a Christmas Eve service at the Vatican and knocking over the pope. Disturbing, and not required: Antonio Gentile, a senator for Mr Berlusconi's ruling party, said the page 'confirms the need for legislative action'. He added that 'a social network cannot be place that celebrates violence.' Why does the government feel it needs to legislate to this level? I'd rather have the information out in the open and let people see for themselves the uglier side of "freedom of speech". Such ideas (government censorship of the net) have been expressed more and more frequently over the past few years, and I'm wondering if 2010 will be the year the government takes off the velvet glove, all the better to use its iron fist. There may be more than a few of us uttering the Irish expleti...

New Years Resolutions? How about New Year Software to help manage my life? See attached image! The computer device for 2010 that may help most in this regard may be my iPhone. Purchased as an extravagant birthday present for myself a few months ago, it has proved valuable just for the email, browser and calendar functions, and is a joy to use compared to my previous mobile phone devices. On top of that are a few addictive games ( Geo-Defence Swarm springs to mind) and a number of cool tools and applications to play with whilst I wait for my bus, train, or plane. Air New Zealand's mPass has been very useful, and Jetset by BriteMac is a cool expense account tracker. It's really just scratching the surface of what is available though, and I've been scanning the app store to find that killer app that will help me with those New Years Resolutions, as only technology can. As only technology can. So anyway, what's your top iPhone picks? Bonus: for the technology mind...

From 0:48. I got the impression that because Benedict was alright afterwards, that it couldn't have been that bad. But looking at the footage - this woman was really going for him. No wonder an elderly cardinal broke his leg. Found on American Papist .

Here is Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve sermon, with commentary by Fr. Z . It's just beautiful. Dear Brothers and Sisters! "A child is born for us, a son is given to us" ( Is 9:5). What Isaiah prophesied as he gazed into the future from afar, consoling Israel amid its trials and its darkness, is now proclaimed to the shepherds as a present reality by the Angel, from whom a cloud of light streams forth: "To you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord" ( Lk 2:11). The Lord is here. From this moment, God is truly "God with us". No longer is he the distant God who can in some way be perceived from afar, in creation and in our own consciousness. He has entered the world. He is close to us. The words of the risen Christ to his followers are addressed also to us: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" ( Mt 28:20). For you the Saviour is born: through the Gospel and those who proclaim it, God now ...

So how is everybody this morning? The madness is all over for another year, although a week from now we can all binge again to ring in the New Year. But by then the tree will have wilted and its tinsel will be shedding on the carpet - its twinkly lights may well have long given up the ghost and will pointlessly hang from the branches. Who else besides me is relieved not to have to hear I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus for the next 10 1 / 2 months, nor Jingle Bell Rock whenever we venture forth from the sanctity of our homes? And even there is not safe, even attempting watching the News will ensure regular assaults on good taste, some from the items themselves but even more from the interminable advertisements, background scored by the oh so familiar dittys, the rubric delivered by same old faces now topped with red "santa" hats. Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! But I don't hate Christmas, on the contrary Christmas is one of the great feasts of the Church year - and it is right...

Our Merry Christmas message was actually contained in the previous post . That's the one you need to read to hear us wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas. And for the curious, here's 16 or so posts from us that all mention the word Christmas. Some actually are all about Christmas. So on behalf of my fellow bloggers: Merry Christmas from all at New Zealand Conservative

A fascinating idea from Lou at No Minister. Do you want to participate in something during 2010 that might become game changing? Please leave a comment here if you are interested. Peace on Earth and good will to all. Let's see if we can spread that message as far as possible. Merry Christmas

I've put a pillow on top of a bookcase for her. She likes sleeping up there, though there is limited room to sprawl out.

Don't drink 3 glasses of Lindauer Sauvignon Blanc on an empty stomach. Makes it necessary to ask hubbie to go down the road and get takeaways. In my defence, I have lots of cooking to do tomorrow, hence relaxing now. But I can still wire-wrap. I'm almost finished a wire-wrapped rosary. Will post a picture when I'm done.

Unbelievable! Wellington will host the next step in global efforts to address climate change, with a summit on agricultural emissions planned for March. Associate Climate Change Issues Minister Tim Groser revealed details of the summit yesterday after arriving back from the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Delegates from 20 to 30 countries were expected to come to Wellington for the summit, including the United States, India, France, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Canada. It would be a follow-up to the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases, a multimillion-dollar agreement that New Zealand led in Copenhagen to fund research into finding ways to rein in the carbon emissions caused by farming. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's the next big event in the climate change calendar," Mr Groser said of the Wellington summit. "We are not going to take the foot off the accelerator on this aspect of climate change because of a rather...

Yep, the Anglican priest who had that offending billboard of Mary and Joseph put up has been invited to speak at a Melbourne "progressive religion conference" next year. Uhuh.. Close to 1000 delegates will attend the conference. They include renegade Canadian clergywoman Gretta Vosper, author of With or Without God: Why the Way We Live is More Important than What We Believe, and deposed Catholic priest Peter Kennedy, leader of the rebel St Mary's in Exile community in Brisbane. Well then, it doesn't take much brain power to figure out what colors his flag is flying does it. Like recognizes like as they say. In other words his actions have been admired by a bunch of heretics including a defrocked priest and he has been asked to speak at a conference of same. I don't understand why these people still call themselves Christians; they obviously don't believe in the basic tenets of Christianity. It's like a man being appointed a tennis umpire and then pronoun...

"Globally significant news" from NIWA - Methane increasing over New Zealand The original press release comes complete with scary graph. Well the number of farting cows hasn't significantly gone up in the period under consideration - nor has the arctic tundra significantly thawed during this time despite what Al Gore has told you, so the only reason for this "significant" rise can be natural ie NOAA reported that drier than normal conditions in the tropics from 1999-2006 probably limited emissions from microbes in tropical wetlands while from 2007 wetter tropics and warmer Arctic conditions have led to increased emissions overall. And this press release is just another round in the continual battle for NIWA to justify its sorry existence - instead of getting on with what it is supposed to be doing - which would be real science as opposed to political activism.

The Wikipedia is great for background material, but the more contentious the issue the more we need to be suspicious of it. This latest scandal is a little like ClimateGate, but with the assumed power of community collaboration taken for a ride. This becomes another example [and here's another and another ] of why it's becoming increasingly harder to label AGW skeptics "deniers". [ Hattip: CR ] U.K. scientist and Green Party activist William Connolley would take on particularly crucial duties. Connolley took control of all things climate in the most used information source the world has ever known - Wikipedia. Starting in February 2003, just when opposition to the claims of the band members were beginning to gel, Connolley set to work on the Wikipedia site. He rewrote Wikipedia's articles on global warming, on the greenhouse effect, on the instrumental temperature record, on the urban heat island, on climate models, on global cooling. On Feb. 14, he began to ...

China wants to meter all internet traffic that passes through its borders, it has emerged. The move would require international agreement - but it is being discussed by the United Nations body in charge of internet standards. The United Nations seem to be in charge of a lot of things. In principle, they like the idea of monitoring traffic flows and charging for it. Mr Servida, deputy head of unit at the European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate General, has another opinion. He simply says: "Fencing the internet is not going to help anybody" Related Link: Chinese Walls And have a read of what Liberty Scott has noticed: Australia's draconian approach to the Internet

Perhaps lost in translation? I caught most of it, but then again I have a smattering of English.

[Background Reading to the issue: St Matthews on the Terrace ] I think David Farrar is just a little off the deep end with his latest post , having a dig at the people who have reacted aggressively to the billboard mocking Joseph and Mary. His point is that some have applauded an illegal act (vandalism), and that indicates a level of intolerance for freedom of speech that has him discussing extremists as if that applies to all Christians. The next time a female streaker performs an illegal act by running across the rugby pitch, perhaps those that applaud the law breaking will realise they themselves have become extremists heading down the road to burn an embassy? So I find myself fisking DPF. How strange, it's usually Idiot/Savant, or a Green press release that has me busy. Are times a-changing? It has been amazing to see the intolerance on display by some extremist Christians. Yeah, I’m amazed extremists are so extreme, but I’m equally amazed that all the moderate peo...

TGIF. Not that the weekend will bring much respite from work, but hey, it's a living. I wonder if that phrase applies to zombies? "Yeah, during the day I wander around the country side and look for helpless people to bite and suck their brains out. It's tough, but hey, it's a living." At least Zombies can work during the day. Vampires have to do night shift. I haven't caught any of the new programs (and it seems like there are a few) featuring Vampires as a lifestyle choice but it surely reflects the ongoing downward spiral of a dying culture. Listen to what the programs are suggesting: Even death seems like a better way of living. It's no surprise to me then that some Atheists are keen to advertise on buses sage advice to other atheists: "God probably doesn't exist, so stop worrying" they say. That implies to me that Atheists are worried, and need reassurance. Are they worried about becoming agnostic? Are they worried about life aft...

Last Wednesday I received an E-Mail pointing me to this press release on Scoop proudly announcing "that billboard" to be placed outside St Matthews in the City for the duration of the Christmas season. "Here we go again", I thought, "another attack on our Faith" . These things are common enough and it is always difficult to know what to do - the usual suspects will crow and blather on about free speech and Christian intolerance if we complain. And our complaints usually lead to more publicity for the blasphemy. So I held my tongue. But saying nothing can lead to even more egregious blasphemies. And given this blasphemy comes from a Christian Church there is no way ignoring it was going to work. Anyway the vandalism of the billboard gave DPF another bite at the cherry this morning and I left a tongue in cheek response to his post. Perhaps the gentleman who did it was exercising his right to free speech. [DPF: How sad that you do not know the difference...

I've just been looking at a really interesting web site by a guy called Perry Marshall who is a programmer and author of the book Industrial Ethernet published by ISA, now in its 2 nd edition, and who has written many dozens of magazine articles and white papers on computer networks. He has investigated the obvious code within DNA and issued a challenge years ago on the atheist Internet Infidels Discussion Board which goes like this - 1) DNA is not merely a molecule with a pattern; it is a code, a language, and an information storage mechanism. 2) All codes are created by a conscious mind; there is no natural process known to science that creates coded information. 3) Therefore DNA was designed by a mind. According to him, no one has satisfactorily been able to punch a hole in the theory. The gist of the argument, put simply, is that DNA is a code which no one can really dispute. It isn't random the way snowflake patterns are. Anything that is created starts with an idea and ha...

Oh no. Anglia. East Anglia. The University which acts with license to kill raw data, has been exposed by Russian agents who suggest the skewed Climate data is Overthetop and Onatop of previous ClimateGate scandals may finally blow this counter-intelligence mission wide open. Those cheeky little minxes from East Anglia have some explaining to do. Siberia is just down the road from Copenhagen, surely we could send them there for further interrogation? With a warming Arctic, it's not as if Siberia going to be cold or anything. The crux of the argument is that the CRU cherry picked data following the same methods that have been done everywhere else. They ignored data covering 40% of Russia and chose data that showed a warming trend over statistically preferable alternatives when available. They ignored completeness of data, preferred urban data, strongly preferred data from stations that relocated, ignored length of data set. One the final page, there is a chart that shows that CR...

Another picture from the Copenhagen Circus of the absurd. It comes from here . It amuses me to see Greenpeace on the receiving end of its own tactics. Speaking of Greenpeace, a funny thing happened last night, there was a knock upon the door, my boy Nik answered. There stood a young lady with a clip board. "I'm from Greenpeace" she said "Have you heard of us". "Yes" Nik replied. "Do you like what we do" asked the young lady. "No" quoth Nik "I don't, I think you are a bunch of posers". The young woman fled.

The above is plastered to the outside of St Matthews in the City in Auckland. The implication that Joseph just had sex with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and that Joseph didn't measure up is offensive in the extreme. Apparently the image is supposed to provoke discussion over where Jesus came from. I thought everyone knew where Jesus came from and I suspect that those at St Matthews also know, so then, one has to wonder why do this if they are Christian. Related Link: Anger at biblical bed scene ~ NZ Herald

Al Gore used figures he said was straight from the horses mouth, and ended up looking like the rear end of a donkey: Al Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years. "These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr. [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years." Doctor Maslowski however was no so certain about his own research: "It's unclear to me how this figure was arrived at," Dr. Maslowski said. "I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this." Well, in his defence, he said the scientist told him this unofficially, several years before the scientist published "the latest research", in an "off-the-record" "ballpark estimates" kind of conversation that possibl...

Saw this on the news today. It's a laugh really, isn't it.. The Copenhagen climate talks will generate more carbon emissions than any previous climate conference, equivalent to the annual output of over half a million Ethiopians, figures commissioned by hosts Denmark show. Delegates, journalists, activists and observers from almost 200 countries have gathered at the December 7-18 summit and their travel and work will create 46,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide, most of it from their flights. This would fill nearly 10,000 Olympic swimming pools, and is the same amount produced each year by 2,300 Americans or 660,000 Ethiopians - the vast difference is due to the huge gap in consumption patterns in the two countries - according to US government statistics about per person emissions in 2006. Despite efforts by the Danish government to reduce the conference's carbon footprint, around 5,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide will be created by the summit and a further 40,500 tonnes created by...

English author Jeanette Winterson has just published a book, The Lion, The Unicorn and Me: The Donkey´s Christmas Story which, according to the author was written after splitting up with partner, Deborah Warner a theatre director. According to the book the donkey beats the Lion and the Unicorn (Heraldic Bearers for the UK, incidentally)in a reality show like contest for the right to carry Mary to Bethlehem. The Guardian lets slip the real agenda here Details of the events celebrated at Christmas can be rather blurred for young children, many of whom now spend as much school time studying Hindu, Muslim and Jewish customs and beliefs as they do the tenets of the Christian faith. But does it matter if the nativity story is passed down the generations? Some parents without strong religious beliefs often welcome the mixed-faith basis of their local primary schools, but are less pleased to find their children are missing out on stories that are still the most influential in western culture...

World leaders in Copenhagen are making progress, discussing far reaching cutbacks that are necessary to save the globe. The check list is tough, but many people think it needs to be done, even if the possible tends to the impossible. For starters , the list of delegates and officials has been trimmed from an initial one million to a mere 15,000. It means that some people will be forced to write notes to inform others that couldn't make the trip exactly what other cutbacks have been decided. Taking those notes are 5,000 journalists, another small number reflecting the need to minimise air travel and pointless burning of carbon resources. Some of those journalists are from the print media, who will cut down entire forests to let the world know just how much energy the Copenhagen conference will save by broadcasting much the same information across the carbon dioxide rich air waves. Then there's the world leaders. At least 98 of them plus world leader minders , who have to nav...

Got this in my inbox - Jim Salinger will be on RadioLive tomorrow Sunday after 11am with Graham Hill. He will be taking calls. The number to call is on 0800 723465. Spread the word, get people to call and ask him awkward questions! So yeh, feel free to phone in.

You learn something new every day. I always thought that my political attitudes and beliefs were shaped by reason applied to life experience. Not so it seems, it turns out that I may have been indoctrinated as a child by my Thomas the Tank Engine books . Well maybe not since the Canadian Political scientist, Shauna Wilton , making this bold claim is making it on the basis of the TV show rather than the books. Political scientist Shauna Wilton, who is an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at University of Alberta's Augustana Campus, said parents should be more mindful of children's programming. It played a major role in shaping a child's conception of the world and in the case of Thomas the Tank Engine, it was not always constructive. Dr Wilton said the show conveyed a number of positive political values such as tolerance, listening, communicating with others and contributing to the community. "It also represents a conservative political ideology t...

Friday Night At NZ Conservative is the traditional time of the week where the gloves come off and we just kick back and chat. OK, it can be a bit strange compared to pulling out the BBQ and having people over face to face, but the tyranny of distance and busy lives can weigh against us. So you have to try a bit harder. So unless you are actually an Alien or a Communist you'll probably find there is some common ground and you could consider dropping in behind enemy lines and say hello. I'll be back after a Prawn Pizza. See you then?

But there seems little point

Doesn't look like an atheistic message to me. I would have thought that the word "probably" indicates the possibility of God existing, which is more agnostic that atheistic. Apparently coming soon, to a bus near you! Related Link: Controversial bus ads push atheist message ~ TVNZ

In today's From the Left opinion piece published in the Dominion Post, Chris Trotter compares those who believe that climate change is a scam designed to impoverish the world economy with Nazi sympathisers during WW2 . His opinion piece is titled, In the war for nature, the deniers are traitors . This is no mere hyperbole. There will be of course people who whisper that the enemy really isn't our enemy. That all our individual and collective sacrifices are quite unnessary. And that, if only we would stop listening to the alarmists and extremists, then this needless and terribly costly campaign could be brought to a happy conclusion. In 1940, England was full of such whisperers. The British ruling class in particular, was riddled with defeatists. Nazi sympathisers and traitors. Back then people called them "Quislings" and "traitors". The upper classes were riddled with defeatists, making an oblique swipe at Lord Christopher Monckton , who is out there f...

OK, has anyone else seen the new MySky 'Que Sera Sera' advertisement on TV? I'm linking to it HERE but I didn't want to embed such a thing on this site. I don't consider myself a prude, and I like a good laugh as much as anyone but the ad seems in incredibly bad taste to me. On first viewing I had my mouth hanging open, incredulous that someone would actually make an ad like this. It's supposed to be funny, but having a guy's hands bitten off by a shark, and showing him at the end of the ad with disabled appendages clutching a SKY remote just seems....well... It seems to me like these ad agencies are recruiting immature young people from right out of design school, whose infantile idea of humour is Something About Mary or American Pie. Not funny guys, not funny. I doubt it will be long before some disability group lodges a complaint.

DPF's annual anti-Easter Sunday mandatory day off for shoppers rant occurs early. Or maybe it's just major Christian holidays (it's nearly Christmas!) that sets him and parliamentarians like him , off the deep end. I'm sad to read that ACT want shopping on Easter Sunday as well. This attempt to force Easter shopping on the country by the Parliament shows just why I will never vote ACT again. While ACT has a good record on opposing the totalitarian tendencies of the Government in general, it as a party, doesn't get what is truly important. See previous posts: DPF's Annual Easter Trading Rant and Helen Clark

Willis Eschenbach plays around with climate adjustments using Darwin as his comparison dataset because of it's advantages as a station with multiple records, and finds that yes, the adjustments made to the three main global climate datasets were excessive. Basically, the adjustments change data from showing cooling to showing warming! To my great surprise, here’s what I found. To explain the full effect, I am showing this with both datasets starting at the same point (rather than ending at the same point as they are often shown). Figure 7. GHCN homogeneity adjustments to Darwin Airport combined record YIKES! Before getting homogenized, temperatures in Darwin were falling at 0.7 Celcius per century … but after the homogenization, they were warming at 1.2 Celcius per century. And the adjustment that they made was over two degrees per century … when those guys “adjust”, they don’t mess around . And the adjustment is an odd shape, with the adjustment first going stepwise, then cli...

There is a debate on Climate change on Close Up tonight in just over half an hour (7pm TV One) - Ian Wishart vs Gareth (Morgan?) People can text in to take part in a poll to see what the country thinks of it, and I encourage people to make their views known. [Update] The poll results are in: Ian Wishart 77% Gareth Morgan 23% So of those who texted, way more believed that man made climate change was not real.

Would you believe it, but television psychologist, Dr Nigel Latta, has given the thumbs ups to the anti-smacking law after undertaking a review of the law for the Government. Oh well, that's ok then. Our fears as parents of being unfairly persecuted by the Government for disciplining our children are obviously groundless. Nigel Latta says so. This morning, I was listening to Nigel Latta being interviewed on NewsTalk ZB. The angle taken was that Nigel Latta was respected by many parents in NZ who watch his show, and had been one of the prominent critics of the anti-smacking law, therefore was a great person to undertake the review and assure parents that all was well. Having never heard of Nigel Latta, nor seen his show, this lead to some bemusement on my part. At times while listening to him, it occurred to me that it sounded like he was channelling a mix of Sue Bradford and John Key, so similar were the words and phrases and ideas that he put forward. I don't know how inde...

It has started, a great orgy of conspicuous consumption in Copenhagen, paid for by the working people of the world. The sole purpose of which is to increase our tithes to the Earth Goddess, tithes to keep our Goddess contented so she will not harm us with devastating storms, droughts and floods in the future. Apparently the goddess is displeased with human progress and is signaling her ire at us by persecuting polar bears or so we are told. Ergo we are told we must sacrifice by transferring wealth from the productive in the first world to elites of the third world where it will be miraculously transformed into limousines and gold bath tubs all of which will no doubt please the Goddess. Some Christian churches in a show of subservience to the Goddess ring their bells her honor and of her great festival in Copenhagen. And in another demonstration of faith the EPA will apparently rule later on today that CO 2 threatens human health, thus allowing additional tithes to the Godd...

I'll have to wait to check the NewsTalk ZB archives as to what the exact quote is, but now John Key is also saying that ClimateGate is a "conspiracy theory". I really wish journalists would have the gumption to push him on that. It would be so easy.

Climategate goes uber-viral, Gore flees leaving evil henchmen to defend crumbling citadel ~ James Delingpole Climategate is now huge. Way, way bigger than the Mainstream Media (MSM) is admitting it is – as Richard North demonstrates in this fascinating analysis . Using what he calls a Tiger Woods Index (TWI) , he compares the amount of interest being shown by internet users (as shown by the number of general web pages on Google) and compares it with the number of news reports recorded. The ratio indicates what people are really interested in, as opposed to what the MSM thinks they ought to be interested in. North explains: Tiger Woods delivered 22,500,000 web and 46,025 news pages, giving ratio of 489. That is the “Tiger Woods Index” (TWI) against which I chose to measure a raft of other issues. Here are the rankings: 1. Climategate: 28,400,000 – 2,930 = 9693 2. Afghanistan: 143,000,000 – 154,145 = 928 3. Obama: 202,000,000 – 252,583 = 800 4. Tiger Woods: 22,500,000 – 46,025 = 489 ...

Don Brash responds to Garth George ~ WhaleOil I'm amazed that The Herald would not print this letter from Don Brash. There are no personal attacks in it. It's not very long and answers criticisms in a succinct and easy to read way. Though it does, through it's reasoned response, show why those criticising the 2025 taskforce do so for no good reason. Read it yourself. As Adolf says, it's important . GARTH GEORGE HAS IT SERIOUSLY WRONG Garth George was way off beam in his attack on the first report of the 2025 Taskforce. Leaving aside the personal invective, he claims that the “biggest absurdity” in the report is the proposition that New Zealand can and should catch up with Australia. He says that “there is just no comparison between the two countries”, with Australia having five times our population, 32 times our land area, and huge resources of minerals. Well, those are factual statements about Australia, but they ignore some important facts which he would be aw...