Thursday, July 26, 2007
BACK SOON
Just as well Bolty is back, because I’m out of here until mid-August.
(Not entirely; there’ll be occasional posts meantime, and the column never sleeps.)
(Admin note, July 31, 2007: sorry folks, forgot I had set comments to close after five days. Since you all (well, most of you all) seemed to be having such fun, I’ve extended the comment expiration to ten days. Andrea Harris, Administrator.)
CRUSHING OF DESCENT
Wasn’t global warming meant to be the big threat to ski resorts? Turns out a greater danger is hatred of George W. Bush:
A backlash quickly emerged after the Telluride Town Council adopted a resolution last week calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
“It’s huge, unbelievable,” said Telluride Mayor John Pryor. “Ski groups are canceling for the winter. Hundreds of people are bailing. The (town) Web site is flooded with people saying they’re canceling their vacations here.”
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
“MRS. CARBON SASQUATCH”
Climate scold Laurie David is living it up with a new guy, enjoying sustainable water-skiing jaunts and the like (hope that boat’s a hybrid!). A neighbour of the wealthy eco-tyrant isn’t amused:
Actually, Laurie David has been creating one HUGE carbon footprint here on Martha’s Vineyard for the last 6 years. Her disgusting and ostentatious trophy building has been virtually ceaseless for about 6 years now. The trucks and pollution stop only when Mrs. Carbon Sasquatch is here for her summer vacation, making herself the center of everyone’s attention.
And I’d say the fact that I saw Laurie and her hottie but dumb building contractor, Bart Thorpe, holding hands while walking on a secluded dock to a boat yesterday, has a lot more to do with her marriage breaking up than the scratchy toilet paper she’s forced on her family.
These people are beyond belief.
RETURNEES
Andrew Bolt is back on deck - and so is RebeccaH, following the world’s first heart attack to be posted live in comments.
SELF NOTED
Tim Dunlop notices himself:
I’ve noted before that I’m not exactly a big fan of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ...
BIGFOOT
How big is Al Gore’s carbon footprint? Experts estimate it to be approximately 5.3 Madonnas.
UPDATE. Connect the dots! A vicious plot to bring down the former US vice-president now involves Jay Leno:
“Al Gore’s lovely daughter Sarah got married over the weekend,” and “critics are now bashing Al Gore for serving Chilean sea bass at his daughter’s wedding because it’s an endangered species. But in his defense,” whenever “Al Gore picks up a knife and fork, any species is endangered.”
SHUFFLE ABILITY
Pity the poor fragile threatened doomed little Great Barrier Reef:
From a boat at sea, the Australian Great Barrier Reef seems invincible, its myriad corals stretching beyond sight.
But the reef’s vastness covering 2,300 kilometers, or 1,450 miles, and wave- smashing outcrops mask fragility in the face of climate change threatening to bleach its fluorescent depths the stark white of death.
The reef ... will be “functionally extinct” by 2050, [according to] a draft report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released in the past week.
Maybe not:
Coral geneticists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science have found that many corals store several types of algae, which can improve their capacity to cope with warmer water.
“This work shatters the popular view that only a small percentage of corals have the potential to respond to warmer conditions by shuffling live-in algal partners,” said institute marine scientist Madeleine van Oppen ...
The Australian scientists said this “shuffle” ability might explain why coral reefs have been able to survive for thousands of years during various climate changes.
Which may have involved a few coldenings.
LAUGHTER DRAWN
Should pasta-producing Durham wheat be used to feed hungry Italians, or to sate Gaia with green-happy biofuels? CNN gets an answer:
At this popular Roman restaurant, talk of sacrificing pasta for environment draws laughter.
Sensible people, the Italians.
UPDATE. It’s “Durum” wheat, dammit!
INDY OUTED
They’re bringing it down from the inside! Global warmenist Mark Hoofnagle exposes a climate change conspiracy:
I have come to the conclusion that the Independent, with stories like this one, are trying to bring down the science of global warming from the inside ... These ridiculous assertions from the Independent are just as annoying as those coming from anti-GW cranks like Tim Blair who rejoice in every cold-snap.
As annoying as the Independent? Them’s fighting words, Hoofy.
EXEMPLARS OF LEAPS OF LOGIC OF THE EMBERS OF FIRES OF IRAQ
Mark Bahnisch, academic:
The battle lines are relatively clear, with the right wing commentariat being the exemplars of tortured non sequiturs and ludicrous leaps of logic in the face of the collapse of the Iraq War. In any event, such voices are usually very muted (and fewer) now as reality has finally caught up with the faith based community. The probable election of a Rudd government will see the last embers of the fires of the Iraq War in Australian political debate die away very quickly, and hopefully we will have learned some lessons.
Yes; some writing lessons, in Mark’s case. Meanwhile, Peter Beaumont observes progress in Iraq:
In Mosul, which once hosted 21,000 US soldiers in the city, now only a single battalion, in the mid-hundreds, remains inside the city, matched by an equivalent drop in attacks. And it is not only in Mosul that security is improving. The sense that things are getting better is reflected in Nineveh Province. In two years US troop levels around Tal Afar, once the heartland of al-Qaeda, have been reduced from 6,000 to 1,200.
The general trend for acts of violence - despite some spikes - also has been steadily decreasing.
The Times has good news from Baghdad:
Fed up with being part of a group that cuts off a person’s face with piano wire to teach others a lesson, dozens of low-level members of al-Qaeda in Iraq are daring to become informants for the US military in a hostile Baghdad neighbourhood ...
“They are turning. We are talking to people who we believe have worked for al-Qaeda in Iraq and want to reconcile and have peace,” said Colonel Ricky Gibbs, commander of the 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, which oversees the area.
And Iraq’s national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie is also upbeat:
For those of us who actually live here, progress is visible to all but the most irreconcilable skeptics.
(Via Instapundit)
MARTIANS RELIEVED
Only a quarter or so of his team’s current list had even been born when Kevin Sheedy began coaching Essendon. The Prahran plumber’s reign is finally over after 27 years. Wikipedia:
He is also fond of talking about how Martians cost his side the game in post-match press conferences, an oblique reference to the umpires, as AFL rules forbid coaches from criticising umpiring decisions.
Personally, I’ve always blamed Presbyterians.
TOPLESS BODIES IN BRAINLESS CROWD
Breast-flashing anti-war crones invade a crowd of Hillary boosters. Hilarity ensues.
(Via LGF, currently in roaring form; do scroll awhile.)
UPDATE. Speaking of form, house troll Miranda Divide has been absolutely spectacular of late. It’s good to have her around.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
MODELS INCONSISTENT
Beset by unexpected summer rain, George Monbiot questions the science:
It wasn’t meant to happen like this. The climate scientists told us that our winters would become wetter and our summers drier. So I can’t claim that these floods were caused by climate change, or are even consistent with the models. But, like the ghost of Christmas yet to come, they offer us a glimpse of the possible winter world that we will inhabit if we don’t sort ourselves out.
So, although Britain’s present weather seems to have nothing to do with climate change, it still indicates a future climate change deathscape - that won’t be warmer, but colder. Robert Fisk, who misses his snow, will be delighted.
(Via Jay Santos)
FROM AL GORE’S PERSONAL SUPPLY
“Quite possibly the most non-PC meal ever,” emails reader Fidens. “Whale veal.”
(By the way, a friend recently returned from a whale-munchin’ nation reports that whale steak is “like regular steak, except it’s the best steak you’ve ever tasted.” This requires further study.)
CARELESS AND COSTLY SLIP
Kevin Rudd forgets a candidate’s name:
Kevin Rudd is in Launceston where he got the name of his candidate wrong, calling her Jodie Kingston rather than Jodie Campbell in an interview with the Across Australia program.
“I have had a bit of time to have a wander around with Jodie Kingston, our candidate,” he said.
Must’ve been thinking about Margo. Expect coverage equal to that which recently followed John Howard’s similar memory lapse, including:
• A piece on the ABC’s PM program;
• Another piece on ABC’s Lateline;
• Several hundred words from AAP (plus an Age audio link);
• The Age’s Michelle Grattan weighing in on Rudd’s “extraordinarily careless and costly slip” (plus an Age video link);
• A further slab of analysis from AAP (plus a Sydney Morning Herald audio link);
• Deep thoughts on the incident from the Sydney Morning Herald’s
chief political correspondent (plus a Sydney Morning Herald video link);
• And yet more from the Albury Border Mail, the Hobart Mercury, and the Australian.
In other crucial news, John Howard yesterday tripped over then got up.