John Howard, Ian Plimer, Gerard Henderson, and how to use a cheat sheet for progress in education ...

(Above: click to enlarge).

It being the silly Xmas season, can anybody explain why the Catholic church runs an employment arm that is involved in newspaper headlines, none of which resonate with Christian ministry.

Catholic Church accused of rorting multibillion-dollar jobs scheme runs the header, as if the Caholic church doesn't already have its paws deep in the till with school funding - Federal funding a bonanza for Catholic schools.

This all began under the Howard government - take a read of Religion in 21st Century Australian National Politics for an overview - but the Labor government has been just as wasteful, and indulgent - School Christian chaplain program puts kids 'at risk', warn counsellors and psychologists ran another header warning that many chaplains aren't qualified to counsel, and there were fears religious recruitment is growing.

Yet still the federal government clings to its slush fund, while in New South Wales the likes of Fred Nile maintains the rage about ethics classes.

What's the bet that when Dr. No gets going, it'll be Dr. Yes for his Pellist mates? A pity that Christ isn't around to get amongst the money takers lurking in the temple ...

And another thing. Can anyone explain why sniffer dogs routinely harass the citizenry at Newtown station, when it's clear the dobber dogs will dob in anyone for a cheap reward, and never mind the accuracy of the result? (Sniffer dogs get it wrong four out of five times).

And yet another bloody thing. Can anyone explain why Greg Hunt has gone screeching into the void about how Durban has been a major failure? (Opposition says Durban climate talks a major failure).

Doesn't he realise that climate science is complete crap, a conspiracy of scientists to get easy grants and take over the world using black helicopters, and Dr. No's idea of doing anything is to do nothing?

Isn't he aware that parents are seriously worried that the entire climate science business is a vast international scam? Hasn't he caught up with the news that parents should be seriously concerned about what's being taught in schools.

Isn't he up to date on the 101 questions students should be asking their teachers? To reveal that climate science is a vast scam ...

Isn't he ready to follow his former leader into the trenches behind Ian Plimer and his new book?

Yep, the man who had an ETS as a prime part of his election platform has recanted, as Howard lends support to anti-climate change book. It seems that climate science is part of a vast international progressive left conspiracy:

Mr Howard helped launch the book and last night said the "progressive left" had a "grip on the commanding heights of education instruction in this country".

Grip + climate science = scam. There, that's how to do a scientific equation.

It seems that the ETS was just meaningless window dressing:

He also clarified why he went to the 2007 election promising an emissions trading scheme.

"I proposed an emissions trading scheme and some people say, 'Well why on earth did you do that?'" he said.

"[It was] predicated on the rest of the world moving in the same direction and also predicated on a structure that would preserve the international competitiveness of those industries that gave our country a competitive trade advantage, it could do no harm."

Yep, it could do no harm. Of course it wouldn't do any good either, because climate science is a progressive leftist international conspiracy and scam, which means Howard was prepared to piss billions against the wall on meaningless window dressing. Just to get re-elected. And now he's on side with Ian Plimer's plans for educational progress:

Now students can carry a cheat sheet of climate questions and answers from the book, intended to embarrass, humiliate and infuriate poorly prepared teachers. ('How to get expelled': Climate sceptic recruits kids).

A bloody cheat sheet. Asking questions by rote from an idiot prompt card. And never mind informed, rational discussion, but instead treat science like a barney around an Irish dinner table (oh to be sure the fun in the barney). And school as an ideological battleground ...

By golly, the amount of sheer idiocy doing the rounds has sent the pond into a frenzy, so it's about time to take it out on Gerard Henderson, peddler of conservative inanities in the Fairfax press.

So what's the inanity du jour? Well wouldn't you know, by happenstance, it turns out to be climate change, with Dead letter used on Abbott as Cameron's climate commitment slips.

Henderson is predictable when it comes to climate science. He very rarely tackles it head on, but instead prefers chicken little hand-wringing and Hanrahan 'we'll all be ruined' rhetoric, and sly innuendo and a Machiavellian approach, and today's piece is of a kind.

There's that niggling matter of the letter British PM David Cameron wrote to Julia Gillard supporting her carbon pricing/ETS scheme, which by implication knocked Tony Abbott's 'let's just plant a lot of government-funded trees and shove money down the throats of government-selected industries in best socialist style' approach.

Now it seems Cameron is in retreat, and everything is changing, and the cheer-leading progressive leftists who dominate the Murdoch press have no excuse for not reporting this news, rather than barracking for their cause in the usual way Henderson does for Fairfax.

It's all the fault of the economy of course, and the single currency and the EU, with a total collapse entirely possible, and therefore nothing can be done about anything in the near, medium or long term future. Perhaps until the twelfth of never, which is a very long long time.

The implications are so mind-boggling as to be mind boggling. Recession in Europe will see Republican Newt Gingrich defeat Obama, and anyway did we mention that California, which adopted an ETS, is bankrupt, not that this is necessarily due to the ETS, but it should be mentioned ...

And so on and so forth, with much blathering about the grim economic news leading to a reassessment of climate change policies, and not a single mention of how grim scientific news might lead to a reassessment of climate change policies.

Henderson concludes by plaintively asking for the chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne to write a new letter to the antipodes, explaining the change in British policy, but for some strange reason, known only to Henderson and his one eye, it's a pity he also didn't ask Chris Huhne fresh from Durban:

Britain – led by Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne – also pressed hard to leave scope for tougher measures over the next decade, despite determined opposition from the big polluters, especially China. It succeeded, together with Europe, in forming a potentially transformational alliance with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries. (here, in The Telegraph of all places).

Not to worry. The upside of John Howard turning up alongside Ian Plimer to launch his book, reveals what any sensible person knows already, which is that you only have to scratch the surface of the average Liberal politician and Liberal commentariat cheer leader to discover a deeply embedded climate science denialist.

Come on down Greg Hunt, and tell us how an Abbott government is going to tackle the urgent problem of the vast international conspiracy/scam, and the progressive left grip on science teaching in schools across the nation ...

Another upside? Now we have a new way forward in education. Students, get out your cheat sheets. Anyone doing diligent research - which is to say anyone in the grip of activism - who refuses to use a cheat sheet deserves to be expelled ...

(Below: the hits and memories of golden oldie cheat sheets ...

... and since we occasionally print handy cheat sheets, here's the latest, which we've found always works perfectly).