Make a Difference

Day: April 17, 2009

Really Inconvenient Truths (For Liberals)

Just ordered this book from Amazon: The Really Inconvenient Truths: Seven Environmental Catastrophes Liberals Don’t Want You to Know About–Because They Helped Cause Them

Like most people, I want to live in a world where we are responsible in our care for creation, and treat the resources of the world as gifts to be nurtured, shared and valued, rather than just as objects to be consumed. But environmental activism and legislation has a pretty sorry history – and has more often harmed than helped.

We need to be wiser, and policy and action need to be based on fact, not feel-good fantasy.

From the book’s cover:

Al Gore is bad for the planet…

Talk about really inconvenient truths–that’s one of the many you’ll find in Iain Murray’s rollicking exposé of environmental blowhards who waste more energy, endanger more species, and actually kill more people (yes, that’s right) than the environmental villains they finger. Did you know that estrogen from birth control and “morning after” pills is causing male fish across America to develop female sex organs? Funny how “pro-choice” and “environmentalist” liberals never talk about that. Or how about this: the Live Earth concert to “save the planet” released more CO2 into the atmosphere than a fleet of 2,000 Humvees emit in a year? We hear a lot about AIDS in Africa, but the number one killer of children in much of Africa is malaria–and guess who was responsible for banning the pesticide that used to have malaria under control? Iain Murray, a sprightly conservative environmental analyst with a long record of skewering liberal hypocrisy, has dug up seven of the all-time great environmental catastrophes caused by the Left and exposed them in The Really Inconvenient Truths. Murray lays bare:

* How ethanol, the liberals’ favorite fuel, is destroying the world’s rainforests–and could cause global food shortages
* How Al Gore’s hero Rachel Carson cost the lives of millions of Africans through her efforts to ban DDT
* How the environmentalists have covered up the polluting effects of contraceptive and chemical abortion drugs
* How the Endangered Species Act actually endangers species
* How Gore’s vision of greater state control over the economy has already produced some of the greatest environmental disasters in history

All of us want a planet with clean air and clean water, vibrant forests, healthy animal populations, and glorious open space. But liberal environmentalists aren’t the ones to deliver it. In fact, they’ve made the planet worse, while old-fashioned property rights, unpopular hunters, and the innovative engine of capitalism have made it better. The facts are all here, in a book that Al Gore would rather burn than read.

Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince Trailer

A couple of posts with an entertainment theme today, so I thought I might as well include this trailer for the new Harry Potter movie – Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

David Yates, who directed Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – easily the best of the series so far, and better than the book, which was filled with page after page of tedious teenage angst – also directed Half Blood Prince. So it should be good.

Due to open in the US on July 15th. And no doubt available on the internet shortly after. Or even before.

Green Lantern Gets Green Light

Sorry, that was just too hard to resist.

Green Lantern

Warner Bros will start filming the Green Lantern in Sydney in November. It wasn’t one of my favourite comics – I loved Iron Man (and enjoyed the film version with Robert Downey Jnr, too) and Dr Strange. But Green Lantern was still pretty cool. His abilities come from a ring of power given to him by Ganthet, last Guardian of the Universe (in the current incarnation anyway – earlier versions had him being given the ring by a dying alien called Abin Sur).

But his real power comes from within – the power of an unbreakable will informed by reason and moral sense.

In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil’s might,
Beware my power… Green Lantern’s light!

Free Online Games

If you like the idea of becoming a hero or building an empire while interacting with people around the world, but want to play for free, these two games might be for you.

Travian – start as the chief of a small village and end up building a wonder of the world.

Or start as a raider and become a civilisation builder with Civony.

Development and server time is funded by in-game gold purchases, but you can manage perfectly well without buying gold.

Both games have had good reviews. Enjoy!

As for me and my house, we will stick with World of Warcraft!

Update. I forgot about Last Chaos, which is probably the biggest of the free MMORPGs (massivley multi-player online role-playing games). Again, I haven’t played it, but it looks great.

Jesus Was A Community Organisor, Pilate Was A Governor

So (blinding flash of religious insight) Barack Obama must be wonderful, and Sarah Palin is really, really bad.

Just overlook the fact that Bill Clinton was also a governor. Because he was like, you know, cool and stuff. And so supportive of women. Lots of them.

But just ask yourself: ‘Who of Obama or Pailn is more likely to ask himself (there’s a hint right there) “What is truth?” and then to wash his hands of it?’

I think when it comes to washing your hands because of condemning innocent blood surely this is the modern Democratic party. When it comes to abortion, cloning, ESCR, Euthanasia, and even some cases infanticide then surely you hear the sounds of washing hands from the likes of Obama and company. State Senator Obama determined that it was more politically expedient to let children die that were born alive after a failed abortion to protect abortion. Pilate would have understood Obama’s politically expediency since he did the same thing.

Free Speech, Climate Change, Fiji and Holocaust Denial

Historian and former teacher Frederick Toben has been found guilty of contempt of court because he continued to publish material claiming the Holocaust never happened, and that some people (notably some Jews) were making money out of keeping the story going.

Holocaust denial is stupid, and probably motivated by racism.

But fining people or putting them in jail for disagreeing doesn’t make sense. It makes the deniers look like victims of bullying. Even worse, it makes people wonder why free speech on this subject is not permitted, and then begin to wonder whether someone is hiding something that someone doesn’t want anyone to know.

You may remember this story: Fiji’s military strongman, Frank Bainimarama, has clamped down on radio and internet access in the troubled Pacific country, declaring free speech causes too much trouble.

He’s right. Free speech does cause trouble, because it means people can say things that are untrue, inconvenient, even harmful.

Look at Minister for Hot Air Penny Wong, for example.

She is free to say, despite the evidence of scientists like Professor Bob Carter, and the cautionary remarks of Labor’s hand picked guru Ross Garnaut, that the government is going to do as it jolly well pleases, and spend billions of dollars fixing a problem that doesn’t exist, seriously damaging our resource and energy industries, and further wrecking our economy in the process.

That is going to cause vastly more damage than some silly old goat saying the Holocaust didn’t happen.

© 2024 Qohel