Friday, September 03, 2010

Ooooooh the irony #326

I'm not currently in New Zealand at the moment but I have lived in Christchurch on and off for the last year or two

So, it goes without saying, that I was concerned to learn that the Garden City has been hit by a biggish earthquake


Concerned but not surprised


And, once I found out that the casualty list is going to be relatively low, I allowed myself the guilty pleasure of wondering what the kind of eco-loons described in this article...
.



.. who I have had the pleasure of meeeting in 'Godszone', are going to make of the growing realisation that they've fled the entirely hypothetical threat of man made climate change in Britain and have settled down on a group of islands which sit directly over the meeting point of two fucking great tectonic plates


Personally, I was a totally up for it and about five minutes after arriving had secured enough supplies and equipment to see me through anything but a direct hit, along with suitable camera equipment to record the ghastly and hopefully highly photogenic aftermath


But to move down there because you think it would be some kind of safe haven from environmental catastrophe?

That says an awful lot about the level of ignorance of one subset of the AGW crowd
.


.

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

LMAO!

The bloke with explosives who held the Discovery Channel hostage was supposedly a bit of an anti-human eco-nutter.

His manifesto (http://cryptogon.com/?p=17419) looks like it came right out of John Holdren's book:

http://zombietime.com/john_holdren/

Anonymous said...

You're here in London then? *sets out to find Stef*

stef said...

8. Saving the Planet means saving what’s left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the human race from breeding any more disgusting human babies! You’re the media, you can reach enough people. It’s your resposibility because you reach so many minds!!!

when I read matey's maifesto I got all excited and thought maybe the police had shot Prince Philip, Bill Gates, George Soros or David Rockefeller for a minute

Anonymous said...

Do you subscribe?

Anon said...

His manifesto\actual opinion will probably be played down, or he'll be dismissed as unrepresentative. All terror is Muslims you know. I'll just pick up the pieces of my sarcasm detector here...

Anonymous said...

Hmmm... I expect if you have children named Milo and Theo that its much easier to tell your friends that you are leaving for New Zealand because of “Eco” reasons rather than “there’s to many darkies”.

Anonymous said...

I had to laugh at this.

Heard of these guys by any chance?

Worshipful Company of Security Professionals

noticed it in this news story.

BBC News - MI5 head warns of serious risk of UK terrorist attack

Anonymous said...

Our Company
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
The governing body of the Worshipful Company of Security Professionals is the Court. The Officers of the Company are the Master, the Senior Warden, the Middle Warden, the Junior Warden, the Immediate Past Master and the Treasurer. The remainder of the Court consists of between eight and twenty Freemen or Liverymen. The Court shall at all times reflect a reasonable balance within its membership of the principal disciplines in the world of security.
Standing Committees.
The Worshipful Company presently has three Standing Committees. They are:
Membership: A Committee of eight Members under the Chairmanship of Mr Roy Penrose OBE, QPM. Responsible for the vetting of applicants’ suitability for Membership.
Finance & General Purpose: Responsible for the day to day administration and finances of the Company. The Chairman is Mr Ray Le Monde, the Treasurer is Mr Andrew Knights, and there are nine other Members of the Committee.

Anonymous said...

YouTube - Gold Plated Tungsten Bars- Biggest Financial Swindle In History?

gyges said...

His Grace, Cranmer draws our attention to some enviro-fascist propaganda.

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2010/10/climate-change-terrorism.html

Incredible.

Would they have gotten away with this if they were advocating any other cause?

stef said...

there are some heart-warming comments underneath the Guardian's 10:10 article...


"It's no good, I've been thinking about this for half an hour and I'm still not quite able to believe that video ever got the go-ahead.

Last year I moved to be close to where I work, so almost eliminating my transport carbon emissions. I have never owned a car. My computer has an LED backlight, I'm using about 4 watts to light my kitchen with LED bulbs. I deliberately live in a smaller house than I can afford, to avoid wasting fuel on heating. I've flown about five times in the last decade.

In summary, my carbon footprint was already freakishly low, before I'd ever heard about this campaign.

And yet if I now fail to sign up to another 10% cut, apparently I deserve to die (albiet in a really clever satirical way written by comedy genius Richard Curtis)?

This video may just have convinced me to finally buy a car. Maybe a massive one."

Stef said...

will be back soon

...ish

Anon said...

This propaganda video is more evidence that the Georgia Guidestones are not a joke.

Wolfie said...

I couldn't help but notice in the 10:10 video that in spite of a multi-racial cast only white people/children had to die. I guess that has something to do with the white guilt thing that afflicts intolerant neo-liberals.

Something that has always puzzled me about the eco-loons was that they never want to talk about the fact that the last 50 years has seen an unprecedented population explosion in the developing world while native populations in the west are facing demographic decline.

I've personally seen the worrying rate of glacial melt in the Himalaya (as a mountaineering enthusiast) and I am convinced its happening but I'm not convinced of the proposed causes. The climate has been changed before by man, in the southern Mediterranean and the fertile crescent - it wasn't changed by industrialisation or carbon emissions. It was agriculture. Agriculture required to increase the carrying capacity of the Ancient world.

paul said...

re: the 10:10 weirdness
if r curtis is so rich, why isn't he clever?

stef said...

welcome to Richard Curtisland

stef said...

...It's not the fact that the BBC stopped making Monkey Dust that surprised me

It's the fact that it was allowed to be made in the first place

Anon said...

In other news, more quantitative easing?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-08/osborne-says-he-d-approve-a-bank-of-england-request-for-monetary-stimulus.html

stef said...

Uncle Michael explains what all that 'stimulus' is all about...

Why the IMF Meetings Failed - And the Coming Capital Controls

Anonymous said...

The student loan interest rate is pegged to inflation. This could get nasty...

Anon said...

Let me guess, Hudson will agree on having fixed exchange rates based on a representative basket of goods (not the current flawed CPI\RPI measures of course)?

Wolfie said...

Hudson has some good analysis and there little I can disagree with but its only half the story, which makes his conclusions plain wrong.

His assertions that the Chinese have not manipulated their currency is laughable.

http://static.businessinsider.com/image/4cb203807f8b9a6f06da0000-584-391/chart.png


He loses credibility with his odes to Marxist economic theory in his other posts too .


The "About" tab explains why he is reluctant to be critical of his sponsors.

paul said...

Hudson has some good analysis and there little I can disagree with but its only half the story, which makes his conclusions plain wrong.

Which conclusions, how and what is this other half of the story?

His assertions that the Chinese have not manipulated their currency is laughable.

Where does he assert this, and why does the US think it should manipulate china's currency? He says that China is using what methods it can to pursue its own interests as it sees them. The audacity of it!


He loses credibility with his odes to Marxist economic theory in his other posts too.


Universally, or just with you?


The "About" tab explains why he is reluctant to be critical of his sponsors.


No it doesn't, its just a list of those who give him a hearing. I'm sure if the UK or US governments asked his advice, he would deliver some criticism of the present arrangements.

stef said...

I read Hudson's piece on the 'currency wars' the same way as Paul above

I didn't notice any claims on Hudson's part that the Chinese were not manipulating their currency. Quite the contrary, he seems to be arguing that the Chinese and other nations have every moral right to manipulate their own currencies like fuck

The line...

"What is to stop U.S. banks and their customers from creating $1 trillion, $10 trillion or even $50 trillion on their computer keyboards to buy up all the bonds and stocks in the world, along with all the land and other assets for sale, in the hope of making capital gains and pocketing the arbitrage spreads by debt leveraging at less than 1% interest cost? This is the game that is being played today. "

... says it all

stef said...

as for hackneyed Marxist analyses, whilst not being a great fan of what are sometimes labelled Marxist solutions I find myself becoming increasingly partial to Marxist analyses

Hudson's emphasis on the triumph of rentiers over the rest of us dumb bastards offers more explanatory and predictive power than any of the Chicago School bullsh*t that drives the mainstream fairytales about what has been done and what is being done

My simple response to your comment is to ask who out there is presenting a better case than Hudson?

stef said...

and, for the umpteenth time, I have to say I do miss these little chats

and if I get the chance to crank this blog up again I will

Anon said...

Webster Tarpley? Although I don't agree entirely with his proposed economic solutions. However he does do a good job of laying into both the Austrian school (as he calls them, a bunch of rent-gouging Viennese landlords, with von Mises receiving Rockefeller foundation funding) and Chicago school.

paul said...

webster's good fun and often interesting but his bi-weekly sky fall declarations do him a disservice.

I'm finding the Modern Monetarists (Auerback/Wray) pretty good value these days. V low on conspiratainment values, but good solid stuff.

stef said...

Webster G. Tarpley...

- Has 'Griffin' in his name

+10 points

- Produces a podcast that sounds like some Loon raving to his furry toys in his mum's spare room

-10 points

.

Wolfie said...

I think Hudson is being economical with the broader picture. The Chinese aren't just manipulating their currency in response to American QE, their manipulations have been going on for some time and play a major part causing the original trade imbalances which are now feeding the American printing frenzy. This death-dance between these two super-powers is a danger to the stability of the whole world. Hudson is ignoring the GATT/WTO transition and painting a disingenuous picture of Chinese culpability in hollowing out global manufacturing output. There are no good guys. No mention of why the Americans are able to do this either?

Like I said, there is much I can still agree with in his analysis. You quite correctly pick up on the rentier/speculator economy, something I see as absolutely crucial in tackling if we are going to fix the economy, its really just simple corruption - existing legislation was ignored or repealed but he starts the old "system is broken"/wheel in Marx crap. Yes the Chicago School models are dumb but that doesn't warrant more broken methodologies being dumped on the poor proletariat, as it is the Western world is already overburdened with left-wing theocracy and needs to get back to down to earth empirical practicalities. Taking the crooks to the courts would be a good start.

paul said...

Chucking out stuff to GCN's particular demographic is going to have a detrimental effect on anyone. Look what it did to Jonesy, though he was fucking ill to start with.

stef said...

@wolfie

I could argue that Hudson is attempting to concentrate on a neglected, but valid, line of thought as counter to the prevailing mainstream narratives and isn't even attempting to put forward a nuanced or balanced point of view

But I won't

Hudson's not perfect, no-one is, but I ask again please point to a voice out there which is offering a less imperfect counter-narrative

stef said...

Personally, one of my biggest hang-ups with Hudsona and other Loon-friendly economicians is their frequent advocacy of debt forgiveness

The mean spirited, vindictive side of my nature cannot come to terms with the thought that the countries, organisations and individuals who fed the Monster and lived a life of wasteful and obnoxious excess in the process might be released from their obligations without suckling on the tit of the consequences of their own actions and learning some lessons in the process

I'm aware of the counter-arguments to that point of view and if I wasn't so grumpy today I'd probably lean towards them but I've met far too many folk who are in aching need to be busted flat for the sake of their, and everyone else's, immortal souls

paul said...

...but they are not the ones being forced to pay.

stef said...

...no, no they're not

paul said...

In fact, debt write off is the only thing that would make them pay.
Otherwise we are all going to have to get used to a low impact lifestyle, like the Haitians.

stef said...

My usual point of view

But I do like to occasionally fantasize about pitchfork wielding mobs

Just occasionally

stef said...

I think I may have found less imperfect thinkers than Michael Hudson on the subjects of $ Hegemony and Debt Default...

Crockett and Tubbs

"Money is a commodity. Like oil or water. And that American dollar, is the best brand there is in the world. Those of us who have it. Can make more of it. By loaning it to those who dont."

gyges said...

Anyone remember 'pick-a-passage'?

Anyway, reproduced below is a piece of text ... name the author.

"It is not difficult to achieve a conviction of the innocent. Over many decades several common factors have been identified, and the majority of them are present, centre stage, in this case: achieving the co-operation of witnesses by means of a combination of inducements and fear of the alternative (the tried and tested method of obtaining evidence for the prosecution on which many US cases rely); the provision of factual information by scientists where there is no proper basis for it (a recurrent theme in UK convictions as well as in the US); reliance on ‘identification’ evidence which is no such thing. Add to that the political will to achieve a prosecution, and the rest is easy. Fabrication demands outright dishonesty, but it isn’t always necessary, or necessary in every aspect of an investigation: the momentum of suspicion, and a blinkered determination to focus on a particular thesis and ignore evidence pointing to the contrary, is a certain route to achieving the desired end."

stef said...

I guessed Lockerbie but had to Google for the author

stef said...

I have not yet been in a position to follow up on the material coming out of the 7/7 Inquest-like-product but what I have skimmed through is, sadly, unsurprising

J7 Submissions to the 7 July Inquests

7/7 Bombings - Fascism at Work

7/7 Inquest: Causing More Questions Than Answers

paul said...

Or economic theory from one of mankind's most sacred documents:


We rob banks, but never
get to keep the money.

We steal money to buy coke,
then sell the coke to make more money.

- Capital investment, man.
- Why bother? We could just steal it.

No better way to steal
than free enterprise.

Smoke?

No, those things will kill you.

You want to live forever?

Stef said...

I'd definitely buy that for a dollar

paul said...

I think Hudson is being economical with the broader picture. The Chinese aren't just manipulating their currency in response to American QE, their manipulations have been going on for some time and play a major part causing the original trade imbalances which are now feeding the American printing frenzy. This death-dance between these two super-powers is a danger to the stability of the whole world.

The Chinese take off really got going in the late 80's, they can only work with the world they emerged into.

The neo liberal counter reformation in the West predated its rise by at least a decade.

American capital has decided on declining standards for its population and China has been trying to raise them for its.

There is no death dance.

A bit of pre election showboating is not going to change anything. The Remnimbi war is this month's greek hairdresser.

Hudson is ignoring the GATT/WTO transition and painting a disingenuous picture of Chinese culpability in hollowing out global manufacturing output.

Well that is pretty much a faustian pact between western capital and the Chinese government (except that there were no souls to be exchanged). Nike, Wal Mart and Apple seem happy with the arrangements. How this makes China particularly culpable, I don't see.
Did they force the West into this, the inscrutable bastards?

Economies may have been hollowed out, global production has risen over the period, if largely concentrated in Asia. This had to be a decision by Western capital, because they were the ones that had the capital.

There are no good guys. No mention of why the Americans are able to do this either?


Morality, good guys, when have these ever been big players in International Relations? Cuba sending doctors abroad is about the only one I can think of. Maybe Vietnam throwing out the Western supported Khmer Rouge.

Like I said, there is much I can still agree with in his analysis. You quite correctly pick up on the rentier/speculator economy, something I see as absolutely crucial in tackling if we are going to fix the economy, its really just simple corruption - existing legislation was ignored or repealed but he starts the old "system is broken"/wheel in Marx crap.


You'll have to point this out to me, everything I have read by him suggests a rebalncing of the predatory and productive apects of economies. He certainly mentions class war, but then so does the creepy sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett.
Besides, Marx didn't have many prescriptions to wheel in.
I also have to disagree, in that the system is fucked.

Yes the Chicago School models are dumb but that doesn't warrant more broken methodologies being dumped on the poor proletariat,


The Chicago policies are still being dumped on the proliteriat, as can be seen by the award of the reichsbank's chocolate Nobel to three economists who made the astounding discovery that over generous benefits are the world's problems.

The great difference between Marx and Chicago is that the former describes the world as it is and the latter as it would like it to be.

as it is the Western world is already overburdened with left-wing theocracy and needs to get back to down to earth empirical practicalities.


I see no evidence of this burden, where on earth do you live?

Taking the crooks to the courts would be a good start.

So everything is dandy apart from a few bad apples?

Stef said...

So everything is dandy apart from a few bad apples?

Thirteen to be precise

And they wear hooded capes

Stef said...

...and they're really aliens

paul said...

Not 9?

Stef said...

Ask Jeeves yields a large number of apparently mutually exclusive results - including most odd numbers up to 33 and an extensive selection of multiples of 6

Anon said...

I was referring to written articles, but okay, I confess I'm not an expert in media matters.

On the subject of debt forgiveness and solutions...what about those of us who have very little debt but still had the suffer the crappy economy despite useful skills to offer?

Anon said...

Alright, I have another suggestion, Fred Foldvary?

Here's one article of his I like in particular on taxation:

http://www.progress.org/2003/fold315.htm