Something to ponder

I was doing a bit of a summer clean of The Right Aussie office (still in progress, and probably will be until April, at least), and came across an old email dated 11 February 2000. I re-read the email, remembered the story, and knew why I had printed it off and kept it. Time for me to share it with you. As a precursor to 2010, it’s a good’n. Enjoy – and emulate if at all possible.

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd." I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friend tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives." He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived. As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with me and my friends. He said yes. We hung all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. And my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Damn boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship. Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than me and all the girls loved him! Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!" He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. "Thanks," he said. As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began.

"Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach... but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story." I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life.

"Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly."

Author Unknown

Still here

A very happy new year to you all.

Here in the rolling hills of the Southern Tablelands we having been enjoying some lovely warm, sunny days post what was a very wet Christmas. Christmas Day, in spite of the weather, was great: lunch out the back on the patio, some delicious Aussie red, and steady rain on the tin roof. Wonderful!

Regular blogging will recommence shortly. The Right Aussie has undergone a minor facelift for the new year, but is, I hope you will agree, still recognisable.

***

and it's goodnight from him

That's it from me for 2009. 

A heartfelt thanks to the small, but ever-growing number of readers to this blog. Thank you for your comments and feedback. 

I will be back very early in the new year.

May the happy face and sparkling eyes of the new-born baby Jesus give us everlasting joy and remind us of our new birth in Him. 

A blessed and safe Christmas and a happy 2010 to you all. 

*** 

email from Lord Monckton

I sent Lord Monckton an email thanking him for his efforts in helping to save the world from mass global warming hysteria and its associated nutcases; and I also enquired as to whether he ran into Kevin Rudd in Copenhagen.

I received a reply only a matter of a few hours later, which I'm sure His Lordship won't mind me reproducing, below:

Many thanks for your very kind comments. Not too much harm was done at Copenhagen. I didn't meet Rudd: he wouldn't have dared. The truth about the climate is emerging now, and it will prevail. - Monckton of Brenchley 

Christmas morn

Follow the star to silent Bethlehem!

The Saviour's cry proclaims salvation's dawn.

With "It is finished!" shall begin for us

The future born with Him on Christmas morn.

For us the Lord of Life will conquer death,

Banish with light the darkness of the tomb,

And breathe with us, who dare to love, the breath

Of life eternal from the mortal womb.

Creator creature, Father son, Life life,

Love love becomes, and wins a mother's smile,

And wrests our freedom from the age-long strife

Of light with dark, of truthfulness with guile,

Of right with wrong, of joy with misery,

Of life with death. This day the world is free!

What a nice chap - and quite a dab hand at poetry, too.




*** 

Not every Prime Minister can pull this off

There seems to be a Kiwi theme running through vids on this blog lately ... anyway, this very amusing (and eye-opening) video is of New Zealand PM, John Key, hamming it up on The Edge radio station. Kevin - don't even think about doing something like this...you're just not funny.

My reading and viewing list for the holidays

During these all-too-short-holidays, I plan to read two books and see a movie. Those who know me well will have just passed out at the 'movie' bit, as the last time I went to the cinema Bob Carr was till premier of NSW. But I really want to see Bright Star (trailer below). It looks stunning, and I have always like Keats' poetry.

On to the books.

I pre-ordered Going Rogue - an American Life by Sarah Palin, off Amazon, and finished it tonight. It was worth waiting for. Going Rogue is an apt title, as Sarah had to contend with the shackling imposed on her by 'Headquarters' - faceless GOP hacks who, from the sounds of it, had as much political savvy as a flock of Herdwick sheep. 

The rubbish and bitchiness Palin had to put up with would have broken a lot of males, and it is a testamony to her strength and resolve that she carried on with grace and humour to the end. 

I think Palin, instead of going 'rogue' on the campaign, should have gone 'ballistic', especially at the morons in the GOP HQ who tried to pull her strings. Palin doesn't hold back in the book, and nor should she have. 

Below is an exceprt from Going Rogue by Sarah Palin:

You can't claim to be a fiscal conservative and then instititute massive new spending programs without even attempting to reduce government in other areas. President Ronald Reagan used to speak of reducing the federal government. Now some Republicans barely bat an eyelash when helping create a whole new federal bureaucracy. Today, if you ask, "Why exactly do we need that federal program? Can't we do without it?" people will look at you as if you're from outer space - or perhaps from Alaska.

Many people had stopped questioning this federal government growth - until we elected an administration that is growing govermnent at a rate unprecedented in our history. This "change" has awakened the curiosity and concern of all Americans. Now people are asking: "Why do we continue to add to our skyrocketing debt? How will our children pay these bills? We are already in a very deep hole; when will we stop digging?"

We have allowed the left, with its unconstrained vision, to convince us that America's current woes were caused by too little government involvement and regulation, and that the only way to fix our problems is for bureaucracy to regulate more, to stifle more freedoms, and to force itself even deeper into the private sector.

This is nonsense. We got into this economic mess because of misplaced government interference in the first place. The mortgage crisis that triggered the collaspse of our financial markets was rooted in a well-meaning but wrongheaded desire to increase home ownership among people who could not yet afford to own a home.

Politicians on the right and left wanted to take credit for an increase in middle-class home ownership. But the rules of the marketplace are just as constraining as human nature. Government cannot force financial institutions to give loans to people who can't afford to pay them back and then expect that somehow things will all magivally work out. Sooner or later, reality catches up with us.

Excellent commentary from a lady who is clearly very switched-on. The book is well-written, pacy, and goes some way toward outlining Palin's vision for America. Whether Palin sees herself as both the architect and builder of this vision, she doesn't let on ... well, not in so many words. 

Highly recommended.

---

A change of pace now, and the second book I want to get through is the first novel of Boris Johnson, former Tory MP, editor of The Spectator, and now Mayor of London. The book is called Seventy-Two Virgins, and here, courtesy of Amazon.co.uk, is a synopsis:

Seventy-Two Virgins is a comic political novel, with similar appeal to Stephen Fry or Ben Elton, written by one of Britain's most popular politicians. It is Boris Johnson's first novel. To much fanfare, the American President is on an inaugural visit to the Houses of Parliament. Our hero, a hapless MP on a bicycle, gets caught up in the ferocious security arrangements. A stolen ambulance runs into trouble with the Westminster Parking Authorities. A man, born in Lebanon but going by the name of Jones, manages to persuade his way through the barriers. The best sharpshooter in the United States is enlisted and stationed on the roof of the building adjoining Westminster Hall. Henry VIII's tennis ball gets caught up in the melee. These disparate parts meet head-on -- and the events are broadcast live on worldwide television.

I will let you know my thoughts on the book in the new year.

***

Copenhagen climax shows up leaders' shortcomings

The climate change conference farce in Copenhagen has ended with, mercifully, no world government, and no treaty, but rather, an 'Accord'. 'The Copenhagen Accord.' The US is a signatory to this Accord, so is Britian, and so is Australia and 24 other countries. 


For signing this Accord, and, ipso facto, for their firmly-held belief that human activity can somehow affect global temperature, all who are signatories to this Accord should be ashamed of themselves and feel justifiably humiliated. But we, the constituents of said culpable politicians, should not get off lightly, either. We ought to be embarrassed that we have elected to office people with the intellectual acuity of backyard fairies.


***

A serious environmental Q & A session in the New Zealand parliament

I was alerted to this erudite debate via Tim Blair . Original YouTube vid, below. 


BTW - I hope none of these guys get jobs lip-synching.



***

Queen joins plebs on train to Sangers

My apologies to the 20 million people I'm sure to have offended with the title of this post.

As someone who is completely ambivalent re the whole monarchy vs republican thing, I am, nevertheless, a great admirer of the Queen. It is heartening to see her catch a regular passenger train to Sandringham (King's Lynn, actually). Although the train was probably begat of the Japanese variety and ran to the nanosecond. Lucky passengers.

One would have thought a helping hand would be lent to one who is eighty-three! Air, but it's 'hands orf' isn't it? If only Paul Keating were h'yah...

(Photo: AFP)

God Save the Queen. I hope she has a nice Christmas. I am sure she will, because, unlike me, I bet she won't have to worry about whether the turkey's been in the oven long enough.


***

Strokes of Genius

Today, for my natal anniversary, I treated myself to a day off work and a visit to the 'Masterpieces from Paris' exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.


It was a drizzly, rather gloomy morning in Canberra today - perfect for a gallery visit. Several hundred others had the same idea, judging from the ticket lines, and the crowds inside the exhibition halls.


The press releases and reviews of this exhibition breathlessly state that this is a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity to see works from some of the greatest impressionist painters ever.


For some, it might indeed be a 'once-in-a-lifetime' opportunity; but I find that to be such a limiting phrase. Classic PR drivel. What's stopping people from seeing this marvevllous collection of paintings - whether at the NGA in Canberra, or at their home at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris - more than once? Indeed, I hope they do. One simply cannot do justice to the collection in one visit.


If you are planning to visit the exhibition in Canberra, I recommend you buy the catalogue of the exhibition (picture below) from the gift shop. At $39.95, it is nealy fifteen dollars more than the cost of admission, but it is a fine memento of a very classy exhibit.

***

The stupidest strike of the year

Sydney and Newcastle public bus drivers are striking from 4am today anuntil 4am tomorrow morning.


News of this industrial action was all over the internet news sites, newspapers, radio and TV, yet, amazingly, I heard reports this morning of stranded commuters not knowing what was happening. Hello, anyone home?! These same people probably still think Neville Wran is Premier.


I digress.


This would have to be one of the dumbest strikes ever. Apparently discussions between the bus drivers' union and the state government have been going on for the past six months. I wouldn't be surprised if the unions were hoping for the date to click over to one week before Christmas with no outcome on the table so they could call a strike, squeeze the government's ginoculars, and put as much of the travelling public offside as humanly possible (the unions will argue that the latter was never their intention - which is heifer dust, because the inevitable side-effect of industrial action is a pissed-off populace.)


The question I have heard most often today is why in the hell couldn't bus drivers continue to drive, and simply collect no fares?


Damn idiots.


*** 

My Favourite YouTube Videos This Year

Please note, that although I may have stumbled upon these videos this year, not all of them were made in 2009. In spite of that, I found them all to be funny, clever, witty, poignant, remarkable, thought-provoking and inspiring - not all at once, I hasten to add. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. I have listed them from Number 10, to my favourite at Number 1.
Number 10


Number 9


Number 8


Number 7


Number 6


Number 5


Number 4


Number 3


Number 2


Number 1

Allow me to speculate where the Federal Government Aviation White Paper will not

The long-awaited Federal Government White Paper on Aviation has been released today to much yawning, from what I can gather.


Of particular interest to me, as an amateur propellerhead – albeit a non-flying one - was what the report said about the much talked-about, and much needed Second Sydney Airport.


It had this to say on the matter (my bolding):

The development of an integrated planning approach to examining future Sydney region airport capacity does not support the construction of an airport at Badgerys Creek.

Badgerys Creek is no longer an option. It has been overtaken by years of urban growth in the area and is inconsistent with future NSW spatial planning and land use development for the south-west region of Sydney  ....

At this time the Government will not be speculating about any other particular locations or sites for additional aviation capacity which will be in or out of the aviation strategic plan. These locations will be developed as part of the work overseen by the Steering Committee and undertaken by Australian Government and NSW officials.

That successive governments have been planning for an additional major airport to ease capacity problems at Kingsford Smith for the past fifty years, yet have absolutely nothing to show for it to date, is nothing short of a national embarrassment and a complete betrayal by our elected leaders - state and federal - to commit to anything less they suffer the consequences of NIMBYism through a voter backlash.


My message to government is this: pull your finger out and build some first-world transport infrastructure in this country.


If the government will not speculate, I will. To this extent, my thoughts on the matter of a site for a second airport for Sydney are these:


Option 1 – Canberra. Canberra airport is currently undergoing a much-needed building program, with a multi-storey car park nearing completion, and a brand new terminal under construction. New infrastructure at Canberra Airport notwithstanding, I believe Canberra is too far from Sydney to be feasible as a genuine second airport - even if it were eventually linked to Sydney with a high-speed train. The other problem with Canberra is aircraft noise. The resulting increased air traffic in and out of Canberra would affect current flight paths, leading inevitably to a dispersal of air traffic over suburban Canberra. I don’t think Canberra is the answer.


Option 2 – Goulburn. The mooted site is the Gundary Plains, south of Goulburn. The people and civic leaders of Goulburn are a very pragmatic lot, many of whom actually lobbied for their city to be the site for a second Sydney airport. The Goulburn site has an airstrip serviced by light aircraft only, but would need to be redeveloped from scratch, meaning that although it would take longer for the site to become operational, the completed airport would (should) have a much better design and functionality. Like Canberra, an airport at Goulburn must be integrated with a high-speed train connecting it first to Sydney, and, subsequently to Canberra and Melbourne.


Option 3 – Sydney, offshore. I am not at all an expert on floating airports or land reclamation. If this were in any way a viable option, I am sure I would have heard proposals for an airport of this kind. I have heard none. I do like the idea, however.
I favour option 2. Would the government please hurry up and tell us which option it favours?

***

Monckton sets right another warmy

Lord Monckton helps dispel more myths about AGW, this time courtesy of an Australian reader (not I) to his blog.


I will let Lord Monckton explain :

An Australian reader has sent in a question-and-answer sheet on the climate completed by Dr. Andrew Glikson on behalf of a Member of Parliament who believes “global warming” is a global crisis and has circulated Dr. Glikson’s document to her constituents. The reader has asked us to provide a commentary on Dr. Glikson’s answers, which we do with pleasure.

The "with pleasure" bit lets you know what is about to happen, I think!


I have met Andrew Glikson - last century, and very briefly (he certainly wouldn't remember me) - when we both worked for the same organisation. He seemed to be a fairly quiet chap who gave the impression he knew what he was talking about. He never gave me any trouble. 


It would appear, however, that Glikson is welded onto the global warming bandwagon. Monckton sums up quite a long treatise: 

We conclude that Dr. Glikson’s note is inaccurate, misleading, and relentless prejudiced in one direction only – inventing a problem where there is none, and then magnifying it. That is not science: it is politics.

The link to the article in question is also in the shared links box on the top right of this blog.


***

Palin's star is rising

Barack Obama, small ‘l’ liberals, and moderate Republicans should be very worried at the rise in fortunes of Sarah Palin. MSM seem to be starting to take her seriously. This is due, in no small part, to Palin’s book, ‘Going Rogue’, which is setting sales records all over the place.

From Real Clear Politics: 

….the convergence between Mr. Obama and Ms. Palin is remarkable. There is no statistical difference between the one and the other.

This represents a substantial gain in public esteem for Ms. Palin since she resigned as governor of Alaska in July, and a substantial decline for Mr. Obama over the same period.

Sarah Palin's been on a roll since the publication of her autobiography last month. "Going Rogue" is already the second-biggest seller among nonfiction books in history (only Bill Clinton's 2004 autobiography, "My Life," sold more copies in the first month), and could be No. 1 before the end of her book tour, since her sales seem to be holding up better than his did.

The book tour itself is a cultural phenomenon. At each stop hundreds, often thousands, of people have waited hours, sometimes days, to meet her.

Regrettably, the demonizing of Sarah Palin, and the belittling - no matter how unjustified - of her opinions, will continue for some time. But it is heartening to notice a turnaround – albeit a slow one – in the positive coverage Palin seems to be getting lately.

***

Monckton saves the world from another idiot

One of the comments on this video sums it up perfectly: 

this is absolutely and unequivocally the greatest video about climate change and the sheer stupidity of people I have or will ever see.

Lord Monckton's blog

During and post-Copenhagen, I recommend Lord Christopher Monckton's website and blog: http://sppiblog.org/ - the link to which I have now put in the sidebar.

***

Barnaby accurately assesses Kevin Rudd

Barnaby Joyce has copped it this week for speaking his mind, not toeing the party line, etc. In The Sunday Mail today, a seemingly unrepentant Joyce takes the journo's bait and offers some interesting morsels - especially this, on Australia's dear Leader:

Asked about his views of Kevin Rudd, Senator Joyce said: "Angry but decent. His biggest weakness is he doesn't understand how it really works. He just doesn't get economics."

Mr Rudd's temper was proof he was "a selfish little boy who can speak Chinese. I'm so smart, just let me show you. I speak Mandarin. Well, woopdy doo, so do 1.3 billion Chinese," he said. 

***

Bless her...

Blessed Mary McKillop looks set to soon become Australia's first Saint. 

THE Vatican is gearing up to give Australia a joyous Christmas celebration, with Blessed Mary MacKillop almost certain to be our first saint within days.

The decision will end decades of lobbying for the canonisation of the woman revered for her tireless work helping children and the needy. Australia's five million Catholics will rejoice at the news, with the sainthood predicted to spark a surge in interest in the Church and faith, particularly in South Australia where Mary co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph.

This is great news for us Catholics. Let's just hope the church doesn't bump up the cost of admission to Sunday mass.

For those who constantly bandy around the term "religion" without thinking of the word's real meaning, here is a quote from American lawyer and artist, Louis Nizer, who was probably labelled a heretic for this comment. But there is nothing heretical about it: "true religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess."

***

Continue, Barnaby...

By speaking your mind you continue to do what the electorate wants, that is, echo their opinions, and be a sounding board for their concerns. By doing so, you will have to resign yourself to the fact you will draw disparaging remarks from the out-of-touch, Canberra-cloistered commentariat, such as these from Paul Kelly:

The risk for Abbott is that populist stances—threatening Chinese government investment, warning about US debt default and talking up bank divestiture—create unease, uncertainty and doubt about the Coalition’s economic reliability. It is no mistake that Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner argued yesterday that Labor should make economic trust its defining brand for the 2010 election. 

Excuse me? I admit I am not an ardent follower of pronouncements by Lindsay Tanner, but I had to read the last sentence more than once to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

If Labor makes the 2010 poll an election on the ETS, it will lose 15 seats. If it decides to run on economic trust, as Tanner gormlessly averrs, then they deserve to lose one-and-a-half times that number.

UPDATE

Jack Waterford, writing today in the Fyshwick Guardian, attributes Barnaby Joyce with "intellectual sloth and political mendacity" (no link).  Such vitriol and ad hominem remarks, deserve, of course, to be dismissed as the foundations for any valid conclusion whatsoever. But, Mr Waterford, remember, is writing for the chardonnay socialists in the National capital, and his readers would expect nothing less from their Pyongyang-style broadsheet than a thorough carpeting - no matter how illogical or ill-informed - of the principles of freedom, free enterprise, and smaller government.

***

2UE needs help with programming - replaces one Steve with another

I was elated and deflated this week. Elated that Steve Price had announced he was quitting his role as morning host at 2UE (a role he should never have been given); and deflated at the announcement of his successor in Steve Leibmann. If 2UE are aiming at soldering on the 65 - 80 demographic, then they might be onto something. As for me - the only thing I'll be onto as a result of this announcement is Prozac.

***

I'm looking forward to more press releases from Barnaby

The following is the full text of the first press release from Senator Barnaby Joyce since he was appointed Opposition Finance Minister.

It's well worth a read.

HELLO WAYNE

December 08, 2009 15:49

I must admit that after the appointment to Shadow Finance Minister my comic relief came from Treasurer Swan’s media release stating that I must follow Labor’s strict rules on fiscal discipline.

It’s like Captain Calamity’s instructions on yoga. There’s one thing that is absolutely certain, I will not be taking any lead, whatsoever, from a crowd who have taken us from having tens of billions of dollars in the bank, to debt up to our eyeballs, with more dogs tied up around town than Bernie Madoff.

Labor has gone on a spending bender and is now waiting for the fairy godmother to come and rub the red ink from the books.

Let’s get this right from the start. The Labor Party have not got a clue what money is worth. They have no respect for debt.

Currently, so the Australian people know, the debt they owe, to a range of countries such as China, the good people of Japan and the Middle East and everyone in between, amounts to $115.71 billion dollars.

I will bet you London to a brick that this debt is only going to go in one direction under the Labor Government and that is up.

Why is there no exit strategy to pay off the debt that they have lumbered Australia with?

A long range forecast for the Labor Party is a cacophony of confusion, with a range of excuses that it might be bad but it is not as bad as some countries. 

Over time, the countries they are comparing us with will get worse and worse and worse, until we end up once more with the Labor Party saying that our financial position is preferable to that of certain South American dictatorships and collapsed Eastern European economies.

The good news is, if they wanted to, there is the capacity now to discontinue on the path they have us on.

That opportunity will disappear if they keep spending borrowed money the way they are spending it at the moment.

Please Wayne, stop the media releases. Your last one brought the house down.

***

Slight change to blog colours - no need for alarm

I have decided to embark upon a small, personal, yet totally meaningless protest at all the "green talk" going on in Copenhagen (or 'Dopenhagen' as Lord Monckton delightfully calls it.) Lately, the mere sight of and oral reference to anything 'green' has me feeling nauseated, so I have removed said colour from this blog - at least until Jokenhagen is over.

***

Lord Monckton's latest video on the fraud that is Anthropogenic Global Warming

There are four videos in the series, the links to which can be found following the first video or by watching them on You Tube.

Please watch them all and forward the links to your warmist friends (most of whom are probably at home right now relaxing in air-conditioned comfort to escape the Australian afternoon heat.) 

The final video mentions the victims of Climategate, including someone very close to home.

Monckton is, as usual, riveting.

Found: another op-ed writer awake to Climategate

George F. Will, writing for The Washington Post:

Some climate scientists compound their delusions of intellectual adequacy with messiah complexes. They seem to suppose themselves a small clerisy entrusted with the most urgent truth ever discovered. On it, and hence on them, the planet's fate depends. So some of them consider it virtuous to embroider facts, exaggerate certitudes, suppress inconvenient data, and manipulate the peer-review process to suppress scholarly dissent and, above all, to declare that the debate is over.

Meanwhile, more evidence of global warming here, and here.

***

Let the Conservative Party in Australia be just that

Malcolm Turnbull floats the same idea I had about establishing a third major political party.

I admit that I wrote about such an idea from the perpective of a bad outcome for the conservatives in the Liberal partyroom last week, not a win.

But the idea has merit. Would it split the conservative vote? Well, if a centre-right party got going, the conservatives would know where their true home lies and would vote accordingly; the tree-hugging republican warmists would vote for Turnbull, and the rest would go with Rudd.

Should a third major political force eventuate, a split in the conservative vote is the main consequence the commentariat will come up with, so brace for it. Of course, it will be spun as a bad thing - you will hear 'divisive', 'inharmonious', 'rebellion in the ranks', 'Labor will be in power for the next 30 years'. All predictable. All BS.

Just remember that there is already a major split in the vote in this country - but between The Greens and Labor.

Don't expect to hear much about that, though.

***

So-called 'election anaylists' are completely wrong - again

Veteran analyst Malcolm Mackerras has warned that Greens candidate Clive Hamilton will win Higgins, in Melbourne's well-heeled inner east, in a backlash against Mr Abbott's election.

Newspoll chief executive Martin O'Shannessy said he believed the Liberals would hold both seats, neither of which Labor is contesting, but Ms O'Dwyer would be forced to preferences.

ABC election analyst Antony Green agreed. "If it went to preferences, the Liberal Party could live with that," Green told The Weekend Australian. "If they lost the seat it would be an uproar."

And what actually happened in the by-elections:

The Liberal Party will hold both Higgins and Bradfield without needing to go to preferences in either - a vindication of Tony Abbott's ascension to the party leadership and his stand on Labor's disastrous Emissions Tax.

With the exception of Mr O'Shannessy (who only gets half a point, incidentally), it seems the election analysts quoted above are either hopelessly out of tune with the sentiment of the electorate, or else their predictions are totally subjective and based on their own political ideology.

Either way, I am sure there are some budding psephologists out there who get it right more often than not. They should send their CVs to The Australian and Auntie, posthaste, and let the current crop, especially Mr Mackerras, get on with other things - like retirement.

***

Canadian TV Host Rex Murphy on Climategate

As you are so unlikely to see a similar clear and erudite summary on our ABC, do watch this.

***

Kid drives heavy machinery

I really like this story. Sort of a real-life Bob(by) the Builder.

A NINE-year-old boy at the centre of an Industrial Court case regards driving a 30-tonne front-end loader for the past three years as "fun".

I believe that; and, providing he stays off public roads, good on him, I reckon. I'm all for kids getting a bit dirty growing up in a too-PC world. Sadly, I'm in the minority.

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