It’s Christmas Eve, and I’ve got ramblin’ on my mind. T’was the day before Xmas and all through the net, my spies were a’searching to find good stuff to vet. And here’s what they found.
- Whale Oil finally ends up in court, and asks the obvious question:
Any Pro-Bono Lawyers Out There - Actor Michael Caine’s favourite book is . . . The Fountainhead! (Well, I was hardly going to be telling you if it was Das Kapital, was I)
Michael Caine's favourite book is ... - Yet more global warming alarmists are linking environmentalism with religion. And it often starts with Al Gore.
Al Gore's Merger of Environmentalism and Religion - Now that Copenhagen the city “has turned Barack Obama into a double loser (Olympics & Climate lunacy),” Lubos Motl reckons you may want to see Copenhagen the play: a 125 minute piece of theatre exploring a major moment in the lives of two of the twentieth-century’s top physicist: Niels Bohr’s visit to Werner Heisenberg in 1941.
Copenhagen (the play) - As revealed in the ClimateGate emails, the chap reviled more than any other by the IPCC’s scientists features in this 45-minute Fox News Special.
Global Warming, or a Lot of Hot Air - With the release this week of GDP figures showing (supposedly) that NZ and Australia are “out of recession,” Kris Sayce schools up economists and non-economists alike on the illusion created by “stimulus.”
Wayne Swan and the Damage the Stimulus is Doing to the Economy - Finally someone has gone through ALL the ClimateGate emails and done a succinct summary, giving all the context that warmists say was missing. And it’s not pretty. But it is great drama.
Climategate Part 1 – 2,000-page epic of science and scepticism
Climategate Part 2 — 2,000-page epic of science and scepticism - The Modern Drunkard has two pieces of great topical interest for NOT PC readers:
Boosing Through the Bad Times: Just Because the Economy is Depressed You Don't Have to Be
The Subtle Art of Beer Snobbery - And here’s one local beer snob’s best New Zealand beers of 2009, from top to bottom. Add some of these to your supermarket cart.
Best Beers of 2009 - It’s a day late, but Jazz on the Tube offers a birthday tribute to Chet Baker.
Happy Birthday Chet Baker: December 23rd
- The IRD rips $2.2 billion out of the Big Four banks, and politicians and their apologist everywhere celebrate the windfall. Thank goodness for folk like Mark Hubbard.
http://www.interest.co.nz/ratesblog/index.php/2009/12/23/banks-settle-structured-finance-tax-disputes-with-ird-for-nz2-2-bln/comment-page-1/#comment-53695 - Speaking of rip offs, just see what the head of the UN’s IPCC has been doing.
Pachauri’s Carbon Choo-Choo off the rails - Here’s a strategy for folk under attack by lawyers: head up into the Alps and live in a tent. It worked for America’s most-wanted doctor. For a while.
One Possible Class-Action Defense Strategy: Disappear and Live in a Tent
“Global warming may be a problem, but it's not a certain problem, and it's
certainly not one of epic proportions, as Al Gore would have us believe. It
is one environmental concern among many, whose science is far from settled."
- Lawrence Solomon, quoted in ‘Copenhagen another costly UN failure?’
- You know how the Artic sea ice is supposed to be disappearing? Check out this day-by-day time lapse movie of Arctic sea ice from 1979 to 2009 and see for yourself. As Rand used to say, don’t just trust, know at first hand.
- Was this the best NZ music of 2009?
The best of New Zealand music 2009 - Was this the best music of the decade?
NME's 100 TRACKS OF THE DECADE - Uh oh. Here’s how a good website design goes bad. You get a dog, and start barking yourself.
How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell - Here’s the result of some important research, revealing “that an unsupported 12B bust can bounce up to 8cm and a 16DD bust as much as 19cm during high-impact exercise such as running, or in physically demanding sports such as netball.”
a aAustralian women risk permanent damage to breasts by working out in the wrong type of bra - “If Copenhagen reveals anything at all — apart from the stupidity of politicians — it is that the cult of socialism is alive and is as intolerant and as ignorant as ever. So where do young people get this socialist drivel from?”
Wondering why young people spout Marxist claptrap? Look no further than the universities - “Art works best when it celebrates the godlike in us: and this is just what so many contemporary artists fail to do.”
The human, above all
“Far from achieving a major step forward, Copenhagen—predictably—achieved
precisely nothing. . . The reasons for the complete and utter failure of Copenhagen are
both fundamental and irresolvable. The first is that the economic cost of decarbonizing
the world's economies is massive, and of at least the same order of magnitude as any
benefits it may conceivably bring in terms of a cooler world in the next century. . .
“The time has come to abandon the Kyoto-style folly that reached its apotheosis
in Copenhagen last week, and move to plan B. And the outlines of a credible plan B are
clear. First and foremost, we must do what mankind has always done, and adapt
to whatever changes in temperature may in the future arise.”
- Nigel Lawson: ‘Time for a Climate Change Plan B’
- James Cameron’s film 'Avatar' makes film history, says Andrew Bolt. It’s the first mass-market movie about war between aliens and humans in which we’re meant to barrack for the aliens. The perfect misanthrope’s film.
http://bit.ly/4tJY4u - What’s wrong with global warming anyway? Cold weather kills. We NEED the earth to warm up!
http://bit.ly/82s5Ld - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/ycw6qdg - The 2009 Christmas Price Index (CPI)
- Message to Ann Tolley: Choice in education is always much more important than NATIONAL STANDARDS
http://bit.ly/6EiogU)
More from those ClimateGate emails:
“Faking up data here is very time-consuming”
MikeHulme to TomWigley http://bit.ly/6xfm58
- New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/ydhdsbn - ObamaCare: it’s bad for me ‘ealth, guv
- Warmist mag National Geographic concedes that #ClimateGate derailed Copenhagen
http://bit.ly/4qBCvV - See if you can spot what the BBC didn't cover as reasons for the failure in Copenhagen. Here’s a clue: It starts with a ‘C’.
http://bit.ly/7qpUaK
“Dear Santa. For xmas, I would like: less government, more freedom, and
a 2000L brewery. I have been a good boy”
-Signed Greig
- New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yap65tu – Young conformists Raging With the Machine
- Victory of RageAgainstTheMachine in UK Christmas chart war raises an important question: are today’s youth the least cool generation in living memory?
http://bit.ly/6Gc3te - INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Greg Perkins explains intellectual property and the foundations of property rights to Stephen Kinsella & Tom Palmer. Kinsella (at least) maintains his deafness.
http://bit.ly/6AuYtZ - ECONOMICS: And Frank Shostak schools Ben Bernankem who thinks the American economy is “recovering.” Explains Mr Shostak: “The so-called economic recovery in terms of GDP is likely to continue for another six months on account of massive monetary pumping. This, however, will continue to undermine the economy's ability to generate real wealth and hence a sustained economic recovery.”
Correction, Mr. Bernanke - Check out this video tour of the latest exhibition at Michael Newberry’s gallery, ‘Landscape with a Modern Edge’:
- New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yjparvp - The 2000s: What changed?
- New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yhrc3dy - Remember that ‘Buy Kiwi’ campaign? Guess how much it cost you
- Organized Crime just loves the warmists’ cap and trade system
http://bit.ly/8LBO3l - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/ybhdbuv - Jack Bauer interrogates Santa
- Remember 'Blood for Oil.' Well, someone was certainly lying.
http://bit.ly/52vaEA - Fisking Time magazine's canonization of the Fed's Ben Bernanke: Not 'Man of the Year' but 'Impoverisher of the Year'
http://bit.ly/7SKWnW - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yaeeqf2 - 2081: “Everyone has been *made* to be equal.'”
- Euereka! They’ve found it! The earth’s thermostat:
http://bit.ly/52dZ1m - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yjok5pk - John Key’s ETS: Why the rush? Now we Know
- Here's a template for free-market reading groups: 'Liberty in the Books.'
http://bit.ly/8FHKPs - The Gore Effect severely impacted Copenhagen's climate
http://bit.ly/6SV8HX - Christopher Monckton Assaulted to Unconsciousness by Police in Copenhagen
http://bit.ly/5AIIDc
“The policies that are being developed to fight 'climate change' are a
catalyst to the deindustrialisation of the West.”
- Cynicus Economicus, in ‘ClimateGate & Economics’
- Adolf summarises Steyn on ClimateGate and more.
http://bit.ly/6KoiuI - Who's Your Airplane Seat-Mate from Hell?
http://bit.ly/7BeSu3 - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/ybvwwat - Phonics farm gets well-deserved Christmas cheer
- New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yfl6jrp - GUEST POST: ‘Global Warming: The Heart of the Matter’
- Here's a place to send your Xmas donations this year: An "alternative camp where boys can be boys" - & learn to read as a bonus
http://tinyurl.com/ydwkln4 - How weak was the Copenhagen deal? Let Barack Obama explain it to you...
http://bit.ly/6wvzoM - There's more than five feet of global warming falling in parts of the US! More snow than the forties!
http://bit.ly/4JYEHB - Passengers were stranded in ChannelTunnel after cold halts trains
http://bit.ly/5VoZsJ Today eerily like Atlas Shrugged . . - #ClimateGate: How the warmist cabal controlled Wikipedia
http://bit.ly/6Szdd1 - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yfl6jrp - GUEST POST: Capping Our Carbon and Crushing Our Spirits-
- A word to blog trolls:
- Copenhagen: the sweet sound of exploding watermelons
http://bit.ly/5uxeWi - Commercialism Only Adds to Joy of the Holidays 'Tis the season for earthly pleasures...
http://tinyurl.com/yaebo8e - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/yc7d3ht - Top Ten Stories of the Last 4.5 Billion Years
- Ayn Rand Center announces winners: "Atlas Shrugged" Winner Pockets $10,000!:
http://bit.ly/80azKn - Driven from its habitat by unprecedented polar melting, 'polar bear' heads to Copenhagen asking "Where is Phil Jones"?
http://bit.ly/6gTy2a - New blog post: http://tinyurl.com/y9ob7ak - An Austrian analysis of the burst Dubai bubble
- Capitalism's Best Salesman: Yaron Brook replies to Wall Street Journal's Heather Wilhelm’s misconceptions:
http://bit.ly/52Ld7W - Zimbabwe toilet sign advises: use tissue only, not our nation's paper currency [BB] http://is.gd/5qnew
- THINK BiG 2.0 hits Wellington, with $2.4 billion of your money poured down the economic black hole that is the capital.
http://bit.ly/6nURYm - Arguments to build Transmission Gully? Precisely none.
http://bit.ly/8uufMv - Transmission Gully. It's a $3 a head subsidy for a $20 a head road. A bad bargain.
http://bit.ly/4RLURj - #ClimateGate: Russians say Hadley Center “probably tampered with Russian climate data.” Now, why would you do that unless...
http://bit.ly/668a00 - Hysterical photobomb: Diana’s caption: "Sometimes, it's just not easy to get a picture of the right pussy."
http://bit.ly/8zo3FV - Here's the REAL climate hockey stick! As Madeleine says, “It really raises questions of sustainability.”
http://bit.ly/6QqHLd - Against Eco chic? "Environmentalists criticise 'buying green,' because at root they are against buying anything."
http://bit.ly/5V6UYc - Why Atlas Shrugged Changes Lives
http://amplify.com/u/14p8TweetDeck - This photo just split RadleyBalko's brain in two.
http://bit.ly/8R7b5T - Is this really the best propaganda to be mustered from 1.5million testimonies? If you have to lie to make your point...
http://bit.ly/57XAmK - Legendary investor Jim Rogers tries not to make predictions, but talks world-wide depression
http://bit.ly/7YLkgt - Common law: It’s the ultimate example of spontaneous order-"the product of human action, but not of human design."
http://bit.ly/5uMvUg - Hiked UK taxes set off another Great British Brain Drain. Will they ever learn?
http://bit.ly/6H8veN - Economist Paul Samuelson "helped push economics down the wrong road .. fateful choice was the late 1940s"
http://bit.ly/5xeQQb - Front page UK story: 'Climate Change is Natural: 100 reasons why.'
http://bit.ly/8TZqby - Marsden Fund 'science' grants: Surely they are taking the piss
http://bit.ly/74AKm6 More alleged science - Fair trade coffee keeps poor coffee producers poor.
http://bit.ly/7TPGEN - The overpopulation bogie has now infected the Financial Post.
http://bit.ly/6KfJ8c "Whole world needs to adopt China's one-child policy." Yikes - Greenpeace Leader admits claims about Greenland ice sheet melting were propaganda! If you have to lie to make your point . . .
http://bit.ly/4rR2pw - What (so far) is the most destructive and harmful law ever enacted by a United States President? Briggs Armstrong argues it was the Federal Reserve Act, signed into law by Woodrow Bloody Wilson in 1913.
Sad Day in History
Thanks for reading. Have a salacious Saturnalia ! And watch out, there are cougars about [hat tip Cactus Kate] :-)
4 comments:
Merry Christmas to you Peter, and to your readers and commenters.
Thanks for running an interesting and thought provoking blog..... all the best for 2010 :-)
Bugger.... sorry... I should have said "Salacious Saturnalia". But you get the idea anyway I'm sure - hahahaha
The world is in recovery - there will be no W shaped recession.
When I was buying US shares last February people on SOLO were abusive - calling me a mad bitch, an idiot.
Have had the best year ever,just shows the herd were wrong as usual.
Thanks for the link Peter. As an irrelevant point of interest, that bank vs IRD thread got me to No. 1 commenter on Hickey's site :) I suspect a hearty little band of Libertarians made it over there from here.
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