Thursday, May 17, 2012

And so on a sunny day in Sydney to sundry forms of denialism ...


(Above: Christopher Pyne).

Oh it's a glorious day in Sydney, and what fun to see the liar Christopher Pyne caught out in his lies?

Oh you say, isn't that a bit strong? Isn't it defamatory to call someone a blatant liar?

Well indeed it might, unless truth might be called to the defence, along with more than a tad of public interest, along with the evidence provided in Jessica Wright's Pyne sent aide email after drinks.

Yes, it turns out that despite ongoing denials by Pyne, he was immediately in contact with James Ashby after sharing a beer with him, and Fairfax has the smoking gun in the form of an exchange of emails. (pdf here)

How on earth did they get hold of it? Have they been spammed? Not to worry, if the pond goes down, the Herald will go down with it too.

The silliness in all this? Well what with Craig Thomson continuing to immolate himself and the Labor party with a stellar performance of denialism (the latest is Thomson says he won't name names to the police - yet), there was no need for Pyne to expose himself in this way.

But can you stop children playing in the mud? Not in the pond's experience, and the pond did in its time eat many a Tamworth-baked mud pie ...

Now it seems it'll be Pyne's turn to eat mud pie. Will Tony Abbott support a proven liar in his front bench? Of course, he's a politician, and mud - from Thomson to Pyne - is what keeps the system going ...

But enough of the liar Pyne (why that sounds infinitely better than poodle Pyne), what else has Fairfax conjured up today?

Well there's George Monblot giving the cult of Christianity a blast in Truth is the forgotten family value, proving yet again that a gay Mafia runs the Herald. Amazingly the gay haters didn't resort to the letters pages - as proposed by Fairfax reader person Judith Prisk the other day - but instead simply availed themselves of the comments section to unload their hate - in the loving way that can be expected of Christians.

Hate, hate, fear and loathing ... and did we mention unnatural? Seems like god invented the world, but was truly stuffed as an architect. Seeing as how she created the whole world and either deliberately introduced the notion of lesbianism, or simply overlooked it ...

Now mentioning architecture would on a Thursday provide a natural throw to Elizabeth Farrelly blathering on about Sydney spatiality, but today she's on an anti-popularity 'elitism is good' kick in The PC crowd that's keeping the world of art mediocre. It seems art is mediocre because of post-modernism, Barry O'Farrell's refusal to acknowledge he's an expert in architecture, and writer Tony Birch's refusal to call himself Black Caviar. Well they say a rant is cheaper than therapy, and it surely this is a first class rant, full of post-colonial London envy ...

And speaking of London should be a natural throw to Paul Sheehan scribbling about the Celtic disease of laziness that's ruining the world, but today Sheehan's target is Spain, and football - a game the pond likes to call soccer, at least until they ban head and chest and 'arm of god' balling in the game.

Spain's pain exposes the problem with putting your faith in football runs the header, and immediately it becomes painfully obvious that Sheehan went today in search of column fodder and came up short.

We learn that Sheehan has been to Barcelona, and to the Sagrada Familia thrice, but his real beef is that TV replays aren't allowed to disallow goals. Oh for the love of the long absent lord, magic water, sourdough and now manifest and avoidable injustices in soccer ... will someone either give him a red card, or let TV replays become the arbiter.

He even scribbles about how the local soccer scene is concerning. As if anyone gives a toss about the folly of billionaires ...

Meanwhile, that closeted cabal of conspiratorial scientists continue apace in their scheming to prove that humanity has a finger in recent observed changes to the world's climate.

RN was all over it this morning - well as much as you can expect RN to get excited - with a report on Melbourne University research you can listen to at Climate Research shows human-caused warming.

Oh dear, and here the pond was thinking that the Daily Terror had already dealt with this sort of fear-mongering, and unnecessary alarmism.

Well it just so happens that the pond has at the ready a sturdy stock reply on these matters:

Climate change is a deeply political issue, at least as much as it is a scientific issue.
For this reason, the latest report from the Melbourne University team led by Farquhar and Karoly must be viewed in terms of its political impact as well as using it to gauge any potential environmental dangers.
The climate activist lobby becomes frustrated when their work is judged through a political eye, arguing instead that their claims should stand separate of any such considerations.
The science, they argue, is above politics.
But considering the enormous sums of public money dedicated to climate change issues, and the potential differences that policy decisions may have on people throughout NSW, the political element of the climate debate deserves rigorous inspection.
Whether or not one is inclined to follow or dispute claims that humankind is overwhelmingly responsible for global warming, it is also worth keeping in mind the new report arrives at a time when the federal government's carbon tax is proving deeply unpopular with the electorate.
This isn't to suggest that the Melbourne University's report should be dismissed out of hand.
Far from it. The suggestion that humanity might have a hand in climate change, as depicted in the report is extremely worrying, and a complete surprise to us here in the editorial department of the Daily Terror. Who'd have thunk it?
Yet there is also reason to maintain at least some doubt over the report's more extreme predictions and alarming use of evidence from ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons.
Now there's no natural self-evident way that we can drag in Tim Flannery, because Tim Flannery isn't part of the actual Melbourne University team, but would it be wrong of us - because Tim Flannery is our very favourite piñata - to mention that those who have followed the climate debate closely will be aware that Professor Tim Flannery, the head of the Climate Commission, previously forecast that Sydney's dams might run entirely dry by 2007.
Our dams are now overflowing. Take that, ice cores, tree rings and coral skeletons.
As a basic rule, we should always endeavour to care for our environment and to minimise our impact. At the same time, we should be cautious when assessing the power of that impact. We urge that all citizens read Melbourne University's report, and to proceed with care.

There, done and dusted. How dare those damned academics prop up the Labor government by issuing a report that might have taken years to compile at this very sensitive moment in the political season.

Once again the Daily Terror emerges unscathed, victorious and validated. Truly they scribble climate denialist editorials which can do service anywhere at any time.

For those who missed the joke, they can read the Daily Terror scribbling furiously about the Climate Commission report that preceded the Melbourne University report under the header Caution and care with our climate.

Yes, yes, of course, it's a cunning plan by the pond to boost the sale of emetics ...

Now how can we draw all this together, starting as we did with that well-known liar Christopher Pyne?

Could it be Pyne getting agitated about the ABC? (Aunty apologises to Pyne)

No, here's a better one. Remember when Pyne got extremely agitated about the use of the words 'denialism' and 'deniers', claiming that they should be reserved to the context of the Holocaust? (Christopher Pyne links climate change denial to the Holocaust).

Indeed. Turns out that denialism can apply to many modes of thought. Including Craig Thomson denialism about the doings of Craig Thomson, Christopher Pyne denialism about emails, Elizabeth Farrelly denialism about post-modernism, and Paul Sheehan denialism about sounding batty when scribbling about soccer ... all of them right up there with the Daily Terror's routine climate science denialism.

Oh it's a sunny day in Sydney ...

(Below: before you ask, the answer's yes. Found here).


1 comment:

  1. The original denialist?

    ... whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:32-33

    ReplyDelete

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