No Minister

Lets be realistic

2009-11-26T08:03:00.003+13:00

We all know now that climate change is based on fraudulent data and that the ETS should not have been passed. But lets be realistic. The current piece of crap legislation is still better than the previous piece of crap legislation that Clark and her buddies passed last year.

What we need to do now is to put pressure on to repeal both pieces of legislation and get to a point where the climate change policy is based on open source science rather than closed source politically influenced pseudo science.

No right turn, comments on post: The first secret bill..

2009-11-25T22:04:00.004+13:00

I rarely look at "no right turn". Not because I disagree with most of what he writes (allthough I do) but because he does not permit comments. Blogging for me has sadly become mainly about reading the comments with maybe two or three notable exceptions.

Anyway, his most recent post mentions the retrospective implementation of a law affecting the way new cops are sworn in. It looks to me like they are fixing a cock up and fair enough too I guess (allthough it has to be a guess because as NRT points out it is all being done urgently and without any info).
He then goes on to have a pop at those of us that screamed about Clark using retrospective legislation and wondering whether we will scream about the Nats doing it..

In reply to that I would have to say.
YES.
I for one will scream the house down if National introduce retrospective legislation to avoid having to face Bernard Darnton in court and to legislate their way out of a situation where they got caught blatantly stealing and defrauding the country to prop up their party finances.

Readers should in no way perceive this post as support in any way whatsoever for National.
The events of the last 12 months have demonstrated to me that they are no better than the last lot of wankers. The ETS is only the most recent example of rank stupidity that began when they did not hang Cullen and co by their toes for breaching PREFU.
The only upside is that Clark is gone.

Studies show you ought to be dead

2009-11-25T21:28:00.000+13:00

I did enjoy this. The Listener's Nutrition column featured an interview with the PM's science advisor, Peter Gluckman. Here's an exerpt:

“Science is not simple,” he says, “and particularly the issues that tend to impact on the public; they’re usually involving complex science. Things like human biology and nutrition, for example, are complex issues. Nutrition represents very complex biology, which is projected by people as very simplistic biology. It’s complex because you have food, which is more than ingredients. Then you have the complexity of the biological organism that eats it, namely the individual, and every person has a different genetic, developmental and physiological make-up. Therefore the interaction between that individual and what they eat can be quite variable.”

Which is why bollocks like the Listener's nutrition column, or Petra Bagust's finger-wagging at us on TV, in which we're told to eat this or not eat that because "studies show..." is exactly that - bollocks. Why? Well, here's the Listener on Gluckman again:

“The media and others are bad at communicating concepts of probability and risk,” says Gluckman, who dislikes the use of phrases such as: “eating food X doubles your risk of disease Y”.

“You’ve got to look at what that means. It might mean nothing if it’s shifting it from one case in 200 million to one case in 100 million. And yet we regularly see that kind of reporting, particularly in relation to food.”

Using a numerator and denominator, rather than percentages or doubling terms illustrates the true impact. “If something increases your risk from one in a 100 to one in 10, [that] is a very big increase in risk. But an increase in risk from one in a million to one in 100,000, which is equally a tenfold increase in risk, is still a very rare risk.”

And yet, how often do you see supposed "scientists" telling you not to eat this, that or the other on the basis of exactly those kind of very rare risks? How often? Do you know? I do - the answer is "Fucking."

I read Gluckman's comments as pretty much an admonishment of the interviewer by Gluckman, but she doesn't seem to have shared that view, given that she published them. All I can say is, keep Gluckman's words firmly in mind during the next lot of squawking from Professor Rod Jackson (the man who gave us "there should be a health tax on butter" and "[vitamin supplements] should be prescription-only drugs.")

What Nick Smith really thinks of the ETS

2009-11-24T22:32:00.004+13:00

Sometimes, and it happens rarely, Labour has a point.

The importance of getting this legislation right cannot be overstated. [The development of an ETS] represents the most significant economic reform since the deregulation of the economy in the late 1980s. Getting this bill right is also important for the environment. Poor policy can also have unintended adverse environmental consequences.”

Moreover, “the legislative process has been rushed and inadequate given the bill’s complexity and significance. The public has not had adequate time to examine and submit on the bill, and it is inevitable that serious mistakes will be made that will adversely affect New Zealanders”.

Thus, “this process has not been conducive to getting such an important bill right nor in getting the cross-party support needed to ensure the stability and longevity of New Zealand’s ETS”.

This was Nick Smith last year after Labour had taken a year to pass its ETS, with a number of external fora and consultation periods before the Bill was introduced.

Grant Robertson calls is "breathtaking hypocricy". As I said in the introduction, sometimes even the Labour Party is right.

Comment of the day

2009-11-24T22:20:00.002+13:00

Mine over at Farrar's place, and repeated here in a blatant attempt at self-ingratiation.

The problem here is actually very simple and can be summed up in one word: politicians.

They decided we needed an intergovernmental panel. They paid the scientists on it. They then pork-barrelled their way to implementing ETS schemes. One in particular runs giant funds management companies that make billions on green investments.

The politicians here could not wait to implement an ETS. The other politicians at the time said theirs would be better – not that it’s a dumb idea, but theirs would be better. Then the others got in power and made a very bad situation a lot worse. Then Maori politicians sold their people down the river for a trip to Copenhagen and a few trees. I could go on but I’m sure you all get the picture.

The problem with most of the issues in life is politicians. They butt into everything. They change health, tax, employment, education, superannuation etc every election. All this puts enormous cost on businesses and families. I’ve seen it first hand in my consulting business.

Folks, the problem is not the ETS. If it wasn’t the ETS it would be the Foreshore and Seabed or bidding wars over who is toughest on crime or anything else. The problem is politicians.

ACT says we should have 99 of them. That would be a start. I figure about 50 is all we need. We don’t need them. They are the problem, always have been, always will be.

That is why Reagan said government was the problem not the solution. Governments and politicians are not constructive, they’re destructive.

The ETS is just an example of the problem, not the problem itself.

Why think conspiracy when you can have a clusterfuck

2009-11-24T10:35:00.002+13:00

This is really quite funny via climate audit mirror site. There is an alternative explanation to the hacking or leaking at WUWT. Somebody left a zip file prepared for a denied Freedom of Information release on a publicly available network site. I find it quite believable.

Charles of WUWT offers a new and interesting theory of the file: that the file was not “stolen”, it was “found”. See
here. Charles’ epithet: “Never assume malice where stupidity will do”.
Here’s his scenario.
The collation of files was made by the university in connection with the FOI appeal – an appeal that they were going to thoroughly document because of all the publicity during the summer. They then used the intranet server to share the file among interested parties for the FOI review on Nov 13.
And then between Nov 13 and Nov 17, someone came along and found this astonishing file sitting on the server. Sound impossible?
Read last summer’s posts on the “Mole” at CRU. Phil Jones had refused to provide station data claiming that it was covered by all sorts of confidentiality agreements (though he couldn’t find the agreements and couldn’t remember who they were with.
One day in late July, I discovered that they had left station data versions from 2003 and 1996 on their server – without webpage links but accessible all the same. They were stale versions of the requested data, but this data was supposedly hugely “confidential”. They were just sitting in cyberspace waiting for someone to download.
Charles hypothesizes that that’s what happened here. No hacker, no mole.
This theory could be disproved one way or another by the university’s FOI department. I’m sure that someone will ask them about their role, if any, in compiling the zip file.

Two Great Melts Down

2009-11-24T05:22:00.003+13:00

History will record two of Western Civilisation's greatest ever follies occuring in quick succession - both caused by socialists.

First it was the phenomenon of ninja loans and junk bonds wherein good clean capitalism gave way to socialist interference and millions of loans to people with no incomes, no jobs and no assets. These worthless pieces of paper were bundled up and sold as securities around the world, creating a commercial binge fueled by corporate greed.

Before those financial shock waves have receded we find ourselves being plunged into a further multi-billion dollar disaster in the form of Emission Trading Schemes based on a foundation of junk science and bogus predictions of impending doom with the creation of so called carbon credits. These worthless pieces of paper are being bundled up and sold as securities around the world, creating a commercial binge fueled by corporate greed.

Adolf will predict that his beloved National Party will take a king hit in the polls over this incredible piece of ill timed and poorly managed folly.

The only question worth asking is 'Where will the unhappy voters go?' They can't go to Labour or the Greens because their version of the folly would have been worse.

I'd say that the ACT Party should be rubbing its hands with glee as the punters forget about Rodney Hide's trip away with his bit of fluff and focus on ACT's vociferous and right minded opposition to all this fraudulent AGW and ETS nonsense.

Look for fifteen ACT MPs come 2011.

Life

2009-11-24T02:14:00.003+13:00

From Manesh, my spiritual advisor

Sometimes you need to ask yourself some questions.

What am I?

Where do I come from?

What is life?

Where am I going?

Will the bar be open when I get there?

Pissing on a Twyford

2009-11-23T21:10:00.004+13:00

I've spent the last two days in Wellington with my family.

We did the usual: Te Papa, Cable Car up to Botanical Gardens, shopping in Cuba Street and Lambton Quay, dinner at a fabulous Malaysian eatery in Ghuznee Street (KK Malay) and a visit to Parliament today.

But the highlight of the trip was a visit to the Wellington Airport restrooms this afternoon.

As I was ejecting the bottled water from my system, I peered down and saw it. The name. It was there.

Who would have thought that while in the capital, where the politicians hang out, I got to piss on one - well, by name at least. And an annoying one at that.

With a backdrop like that, is Phil pissing into the wind trying to win Waitakere on 2011?

Double whammy

2009-11-23T21:00:00.004+13:00

When you see a headline like this, you know we are stuffed.
Our future is now being set in concrete.
Race based politics and crooked science.
Talk about a double whammy.
John Key's leadership is a disgrace to our country.

Your cheque's in the mail

2009-11-23T06:40:00.005+13:00

I saw the imbecilic press release from the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition last week, in which it's claimed that women are effectively working for free until the end of the year because women on average earn 12% less than men, but didn't plan to write anything about it (other than leaving a comment at the Hand Mirror suggesting the coalition get some members who understand statistics).

However, "not writing about it" was before I realised that a group of women at my workplace, some of whom will earn more than I do for a similar job (through longer service), featured in the local newspaper in a protest claiming they're being made to work for free until the end of the year because I, along with the other testicle-equipped, am supposedly ripping them off for 12% of their "deserved" salary.

I could forgive this. Many people fail to understand what the term "average" means and there is a general ignorance in society of how to interpret statistics, so it's not that surprising people should make the mistake. What's unforgivable: it's definitely unsurprising they should make that mistake when the women's group rep organising the protest is a fucking social sciences lecturer.

A qualified social scientist knows how to interpret statistics. A qualified social scientist ought to be someone whose views on how to interpret statistics can be trusted. And a qualified social scientist who says an average figure equals individual results is like a doctor who says antibiotics will cure a viral infection: either too stupid to live, or has some ulterior motive. In the case of this social scientist, I'm picking the ulterior motive "self-interest" rather than stupidity:

Dr Cat Pause said "...it's about wanting more for women."

In recognition of the Pay Equity Challenge Coalition's efforts, I've posted their propaganda photo (slightly edited) above.

+44 (0) 1603 592090

2009-11-22T22:52:00.002+13:00

This global warming nonsense is going to provide months of fun for some of us.
The piece below is copied/ ihimaera'd directly from a comment left at the most excelent Bishop Hill blog. It describes the timeline for a FOI which is much the same as our feeble system for making govt departments release info. At the bottom is the email sent by Phil Jones who it turns out is one of the key climate liars in the UK. You will note he is asking Michael Mann (remember him, the hockey stick liar?) to delete emails directly related to the FOI.

Oh, the phone number? It is Phil Jones direct line. Be sure to call him and thank him when our government saddles us with a massive new government department and tax regime cooked up because some nerds in east anglia have conspired to con the world.
No word yet from Bomber over at Tumeke, our thoughts are with him. Bwahahahahaha.

David Holland has also made FOI inquiries to Keith Briffa, a lead author of AR4 chapter 6. Here's a progress report documenting:
May 5 - FOI request

May 6 - CRU Acknowledgement

June 3 - CRU Refusal Notice

June 4 - Holland Appeal

June 20 - CRU Rejection of Appeal

May 5 Holland FOI Request to CRU

Dear Mr Palmer,
Request for Information concerning the IPCC, 2007 WGI Chapter 6 Assessment Process

Drs Keith Briffa and Timothy Osborn of your Climatic Research Unit served as lead authors on the IPCC Fourth Assessment, which by international agreement was required to be undertaken on an comprehensive, objective, open and transparent basis.1 On 31 March 2008, I asked Dr Briffa for important specific information, not so far released, on his work as a lead author to which I have had no reply or acknowledgement, but have, through other FoI enquiries, been given a copy of his email dated 1 April 2008, to several other IPCC participants including Dr Philip Jones, and to which my letter was attached. He told his colleagues his response to me would be brief when he got round to it. Also included in the documents released to me is an email dated 14 March 2008 to Dr Briffa, among others, from Susan Solomon, Co-Chair of WGI, advising the addressees not to disclose information beyond that (which I consider inadequate) already in the public domain.

Accordingly, I hereby request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and/or the Environmental Information Regulations 2004:

Phil Jones, three weeks after David Holland's FOI request:

From: Phil Jones
To: “Michael E. Mann”
Subject: IPCC & FOI
Date: Thu May 29 11:04:11 2008

Mike,

Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4?
Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis.
Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t
have his new email address.
We will be getting Caspar to do likewise.
I see that CA claim they discovered the 1945 problem in the Nature paper!!
Cheers
Phil

Prof. Phil Jones
Climatic Research Unit Telephone +44 (0) 1603 592090
School of Environmental Sciences Fax +44 (0) 1603 507784
University of East Anglia
Norwich Email p.jones@uea.ac.uk
NR4 7TJ

Global Warmenising Conspiracy Unravells

2009-11-22T16:52:00.006+13:00

This morning Adolf posted on the unmasking of the Global Warmenising Conspiracy here.

Powerline has further information just to hand and it is startling. The conspirators have destroyed the evidence of their wrong doing.

"Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have with Keith re AR4? ["AR4" is common shorthand for the U.N. IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, which was released in 2007.] Keith will do likewise. He's not in at the moment - minor family crisis.

Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don't have his new email address.

We will be getting Caspar to do likewise."

These guys are buggered, now the internet is on to them. It's clearly not a case of hacking but rather of a massive leak by a disgusted whistle blower.

Yes, it looks like jail time coming up for the disciples of Al Gore.

Aaaaaah, Those Bonding Sessions

2009-11-22T12:29:00.002+13:00

Somehow Adolf never got to participate in a bonding session like this one.

"The teenager and then 26-year-old teacher "bonded" when putting the school yearbook together and had sex only once after classes for the year had finished but while the student was still technically enrolled."

I wonder if they's save the news clips for the child's twenty-first?

On the drivel of rock stars and actresses

2009-11-22T08:37:00.005+13:00

In this morning's Sunday News, a guitarist for a rock band who is related to Rodney Hide's girlfriend, was interviewed over his thoughts on Rodney Hide's recent use of travel perks.

In next week's Sunday News, Rodney Hide will be interviewed over his thoughts on Phil Buscke's guitar playing ability, and the lifestyle of rock musicians.

This follows hot on the heels of Keisha Castle-Hughes commenting on John Key's climate change decisions, with (presumably), a number of meteorologists and scientists also seeking direction from John Key on their acting abilities.

Frankly, I'm sick to death of these wankers and wastrels in acting, music, and other "arty-farty" types who think that their chosen profession entitles them to make all kinds of expert commentary.

And in the case of Ms Castle-Hughes, it's safe to say her own carbon footprint would be significantly smaller if she hadn't decided to engage in unexpected teenage reproduction. It's quite selfish of her to generate added all this unplanned carbon consumption on the rest of us, don't you think?

What John Key Should Read

2009-11-22T08:06:00.005+13:00

Powerline's John Hinderaker writes a superlative analysis of the recently hacked e-mails of the world's most prominent global warmenisers. The e-mails are conclusive and devastating. The world has been conned by a bunch of pseudo scientists fronted by a B grade US presidential no-hoper. The gas bag at last has been pricked.

The whole scientific basis of global warming alarmism is flawed and indeed fraudulent.

The much vaunted IPCC report is baseless.

Here's the stand out line:-

"It, along with the rest of the email archive, makes an utter mockery of the alarmists' claim that the science of global warming is settled in their favor. On the contrary, the conclusion an observer is likely to draw from the CRU archive is that the climate alarmists are making up the science as they go along and are fitting facts to reach a predetermined conclusion rather than objectively seeking after truth. What they are doing is politics, not science."

New Zealand should demand a rigorous review of all the so-called 'accepted science' attached to global warming hysteria and as an interim measure we should IMMEDIATELY withdraw from Kyoto and the economic suicidal folly which is an Emissions Trading Scheme.

Adolf Agrees With The Union

2009-11-22T07:37:00.003+13:00

Here's a very disturbing case.

Adolf heartily agrees with EPMU president Andrew Little.

What an earth gives the police the right to ask a person who his or her employer is in the first place, let alone trot off and dob in an employee for an offense?

What would they have done if a clever lawyer had successfully defended her case?

By what bizarre twist of bureaucratic chicanery can an employer demand under the OIA the hitherto confidential name of a person charged?

There are many more questions to be asked about this extraodinary orwellian and totalitarian episode.

Climate Change alarmists caught with hands in Co2 jar

2009-11-21T10:12:00.003+13:00

I'm off to Wellington for the weekend. Should be fun.

In the meantime, Ian Wishart has a biggie. Read this, this & this.

Let's not forget this.

Nor this.

Earlier this week Lucy Lawless, and that failed NIWA ~~spindoctor~~ scientist, Jim Salinger, tried to pull a stunt by giving John Key the airfare money to fly to Copenhagen next month. Key refused.

He should now go. I have written his speech (see below).

Ladies and Gentlemen

New Zealand has this week been shown to be the least corrupt country in the World.

We are justifiably very proud of that.

On that basis we do not wish to be involved with the cheats, liars and frauds running the climate change circus.

We are pulling out of Kyoto and scrapping the ETS.

Have a nice conference.

I'm now flying back to New Zealand in Al Gore's private jet.

Don't reward the plagiaristic University

2009-11-21T09:16:00.006+13:00

At the University of Auckland, plagiarism is ok.

Not for the students, who are expected to perform honestly, submit original work, and follow the rules. University staff will work hard to ensure students sit exams in a fair, honest and proper way.

But plagiarism is ok for the staff. In fact, the more senior you are, the better it is to copy other people's work.

Professor Witi Ihimaera is a man whose work I thought was good. But it turns out that he has been a plagiarist, and has incorporated other people's work in his literature, and had profited financially, professionally and socially from it.

It's simply not good enough. And the University of Auckland is complicit in this scandal because they aren't going to reprimand him.

But, I hear you say, maybe Professor Witi Ihimaera should be shown some forgiveness. Perhaps he should be shown a way in which he can make amends? Isn't that what universities strive to do?

Well, the University of Auckland certainly didn't do that when it came to Dr Paul Buchanan, who famously told a student they weren't good enough and they shouldn't expect any easy rides. Buchanan had to go to court to get his reputation back.

So on the one hand, they punish a lecturer for demanding high standards from original work, and on the other hand, they fail to punish a professor for one of the biggest sins in academia - plagiarism.

The University of Auckland has, like it or not, sent a strong and powerful message about itself - they are pathetic eunuchs, and intellectually bankrupt. They don't deserve financial contributions from alumni.

Farmers back ACT position

2009-11-20T21:32:00.005+13:00

Federated Farmers, most of whom received numerous propaganda from ACT at the last election on the cost an ETS would put on them, have now done an about turn.

It's true that a tax on carbon won't necessarily affect the weather per se, but as a change-inducing component, it could change behaviour over the long term. A tax on carbon is also fiscally neutral.

Fed Farmers now agree. If they'd just voted ACT last year their 300,00+ votes might have stopped the ETS in its tracks. Now they'll have to wait and see.

If Fed Farmers read this take note: if you vote for who you always have you'll continue to get what you always got.

And of course there is better reason why a carbon tax is better than a rorting ~~scam~~ scheme:

Trading of emission permits around the world will become a financial rort that fails to reduce carbon emissions - and will ultimately be scrapped in favour of a simple carbon tax, a former senior official in the Clinton administration has forecast. Robert Shapiro, former US undersecretary of commerce and author of Futurecast, predicted that the US Senate would reject the emissions trading scheme proposed by President Obama, which is now before it.

ON ECONOMIC SABOTAGE

2009-11-20T10:46:00.004+13:00

The announcement by Phil Goff that Labour is abandoning 20 years of monetary policy consensus might be viewed by some as economic sabotage.

Especially when it is accompanied by a refusal to spell out any alternatives.

Others may view it as an abject failure of leadership.

For the Veteran it's a case of any headline in a storm occasioned by dismal poll rating going south and bugger the consequences.

Channeling Mike Williams.

2009-11-20T06:18:00.003+13:00

I always find Wellington local politics a bit of a mystery. It is a shitty little town with dreadful weather populated by grey drones that won the eternal Lottery when the Auckland merchants and Canterbury farmers compromised about where to put the government.
This story about some clown trying to bribe students to join a bus protest nearly made me cough up my weetbix. It is right up there with shouting KFC for retards on polling day.

Quote of the day

2009-11-19T12:55:00.003+13:00

This time it goes to "Ted" Henry over in the Mother Country when commenting on Neemia Tialata's tweeting of his dropping from the team to play England:

"I had to find out what bloody Twitter was, I thought he was the new five-eighth playing for England," he said.

SCRAP THE ETS!!!

2009-11-18T12:56:00.002+13:00

I feel like it's campaign 2008 all over again.

Of course, only one party campaigned on scrapping the ETS in 2008.

ACT Leader Rodney Hide today launched a scathing attack on the Emissions Trading scheme, vowing to have it scrapped and to pull New Zealand out of Kyoto Agreement.
"The scheme involves strict penalties on New Zealand businesses and farmers who allow Co2 emissions - which includes farm animals belching," Mr Hide said.

"Today we held a piece of street theatre in Auckland's Cornwall Park involving an unfortunate farmer being whipped by a broom-wielding witch as he hauled a trailer bearing a cheque for $5 billion dollars made out to Russians and signed by Helen Clark on behalf of New Zealand taxpayers.

"That's the ETS money that will be sent to the UN - which will, in turn, pay it to the Russians because they have large forests. New Zealand farmers alone will pay $1,200 million into the scheme.

"This is sheer lunacy - New Zealand emits 0.02 percent of world Co2 emissions. Nothing we do will change the world's weather.

"The ETS scheme will cost the nation tens of millions of dollars, cost 22,000 Kiwis their jobs and not do anything to mitigate global warming.

"We need smart green policies, not this madness. The Germans and Canada have said they will not wreck their economies to meet Kyoto obligations, and nor should we.

"We need to grow our economy - not shrink it with this nonsense. Only a country with a strong economy can engage in smart green polices to protect our environment. ACT will scrap both ETS and Kyoto," Mr Hide said.

Quote of the day

2009-11-17T21:41:00.004+13:00

"Look, who knows what the price of carbon will be tomorrow, next week or in twenty years time. We just don't know".

John Key, on Newstalk ZB this morning, whose party is introducing a price cap on carbon.