Hi, Gus here... apologies about the language...

This morning I nearly choke on my breakfast... The cartoon is the SMH ("Syderney" Morning Herald, 16/02/07) by Alan Moir was not bad but was lacking somewhat... In it, every one and sundry was claiming they were too insignificant to be contributing to global warming... Not on your nelly! The one thing missing was that on one side of the globe, a dutiful claimant that "generates 25 per cent of the world economy" and, mind you, nearly 50 per cent of the world's CO2 emissions couldn't give a damn whether they were small or not in the process and would continue to fart.

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From the ABC

Poorer, richer nations urged to reduce carbon emissions

Leading politicians from around the world have agreed that both developing countries and richer states should limit their carbon emissions.

The non-binding declaration, reached during a conference in Washington, is seen as vital in influencing a replacement for the Kyoto protocol.

The law-makers want negotiations over the next global climate deal to be in place by 2009.

They want an agreement on a top limit beyond which CO2 should not be allowed to go, which is 550 parts per million.

British negotiators had to fight off objections from the German G8 advisers on the issue, but then said it was too lax.

They have resolved that all nations, including China and India, should have to face CO2 limits of some kind.

But a Republican Senator at the conference, Larry Craig, says the agreement fails to take the interests of American businesses into account.

"I am not going to make any apologies for my country, if Germany were producing 25.5 per cent of the world economy today, they would be the largest polluter," he said.

"That is the reality of the technology we have, and the only way you can achieve that level of growth and economics is to be there."

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Gus: When the interest of American business are under water then the Larry Craig of the parallel planet might say: Oops! but in this one they won't... they'll find some subterfuge to make things worse while telling us we should feel better. Ugly. 

Not only that they'll make sure they fart twice as hard as before while telling countries that have no economy, thus no possibility to emit CO2 apart from having a wood fire for cooking that they should reduce that to 10 sticks and one log less a day . Ugly.

 

You gotta give it to Miranda. Al Gore and his spruiking machine deserved some dressing down... And a Devilish wedgee is something to fear. Her portrait "And now spotlights for his Oscars?" is a fascinating exposé off the hypocrisy of the President who never was... You bet.

Yes Miranda, the world of action and information is a funny beast. But...

But... Imagine for a minute: a hippy, fully bearded and unwashed grumpy-bum, travelling on foot, or on an ancient rusty bicycle, with the same information on global warming, had the same Al Gorish presentation material — except not on PowerPoint (he-he) but on bits of recycled paper in his home-made knitted "sachocce" (we don't do leather goods), papers that he pinned on the dusty blackboards of church halls, dance halls and crumbling primary schools walls...

This travellers — who would deserve our eternal respect, ten recycled Oscars and a posthumous knighthood (he would die of constipation or saddle-rush) — would have messaged about 257 people — of which 30 per cent would have been under the age of reason, 45 per cent would have been with one wobbly foot in the grave, 3 per cent would have been village idiots — plus half a dozen cats, several rats and two dogs, in about ten years. Result: nil. And Miranda would get stuck into him, rightfully of course, for eating mostly beans that at the other end would have created twice the methane allowed emission for humans. The hypocrite bastard.

Al Gore with all the electrowatts consumption of his big house, the megaemissions of his travelling circuses, the kerosene burning overseas trip, his staff, his computers, his entourage, his dancing monkeys —all combined comes to a miniscule minute half-fractious microbe of the personal entertainment budget of a media mogul who would do all he can to bury the truth in his media outlets, using the old media rule: fifty per cent of truth (about 20 per cent really by omission of argument), fifty per cent of porkies (running hot at a true 80 per cent by twisting facts)— hey? who wants to know the dull truth? News is entertainment, entertainment is news...

So Al Gore — with his modest consumption of electrical sines and monthly power bills that could buy a house for an average American family — reached about two billion souls, rattled many a tight-arse rat-bag ratty right wing government — not so much by convincing the powers-in-loco (powers that do not want to do anything courageous to save the planet, nor something brave against "business" in the church of "economy" — a misnomer since this church runs on spending not with "economising" on bonuses and lavish salaries) but by convincing the powers electorate they would lose the seat of their pants if nothing was done about it... Crude but sophisticated spruiking in which facts are shown as they exist, plus a bit of dancing girls routine to make sure we do not forget.

So Al, if you're out there reading this, make sure you use a few more weirdo light globes, feed the show-lights with solar panels and no more than two spotlights per Oscar. Capisci?

And I'd like to shake your hand when you come a-rowing to these shores again... Ah, just kidding... why don't you take the plane? we need you more than ever.

You got to give dues to Miranda when they are due... Her word-spill this week (SMH 8/3/07) is pertinent and to some extent well thought out... There is no politics, no bagging of the loony left to support the ratbag right, but a heart-felt protective defense of youth from the predation of older mature people, in the teaching environment.

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Sympathy for offenders misplaced

Miranda Devine
March 8, 2007

Notes on a Scandal, the new movie in which Cate Blanchett plays a 37-year-old teacher in a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student, is a case of art imitating life, after an epidemic of such cases in the courts. And, as in real life, in the movie it is the mother of the boy who brings moral clarity to the situation.

"Slut! How could you? He's only a child - a wee boy," screams the woman, all wild hair and flailing fists as she attacks Sheba Hart (Blanchett) at her front door.

The mother is portrayed as a mad harridan, but her vehemence is a reproach to all those "progressive" thinkers out there who think that the age of consent is some moveable feast, that there is some grey area in which teachers preying on children in their care is OK, just because the victim is a boy."

...

Taken to their ultimate end, as untrammelled freedoms always are by someone, broken taboos lead to the exploitation of children."

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Gus: too right, Miranda. As you also mention: "That's right - it doesn't. In NSW the age of consent is set at 18 for any student having sex with a teacher."

No sympathy for offenders from me. Nor for those who protect offenders in their attempt to protect a system, secular or religious, rather than protect the vulnerable young. My hat to Miranda.