Month: February 2007

GroupThink – We Are Borg, Resistance Is Futile. You Will Be Assimilated

Mulder

What happens when someone who is considered a leader switches sides? Should his followers shun him or follow him?

This question is being asked again by many on the left after Nick Cohen, infamous leftist protester and activist has come out with his new book What’s Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way.

I was pointed to an interview Nick Cohen gave and he has clearly not left his roots, but he is questioning the current state of affairs among what he calls “Guardianistas”.

“Serious people on the left I have no trouble with. They may not agree with me but they know something is going wrong. An Oxford don has told me, ‘I’m against the war but I hate going on a demo with anti-semites and Trotskyites’. It’s the soft left liberal intelligentsia, those bloody comedians we get these days — they want to feel righteous, they dislike all ambiguity. They want to think they are good. They swear at me.”

Auntie gets it on the chin too. “I support the BBC but I think our problem is the concentration of media in London. When there is an absolute liberal consensus, everyone they meet, eat or sleep with thinks the same damn thing.” So in Iraq’s case this groupthink didn’t come in the hard questions they asked the other side, but the soft questions they asked their own side. “For years,” he writes, “the BBC’s attack dog presenters couldn’t manage to give one opponent of the war a tough interview. Not even George Galloway.”

Auntie got her “impartial, balanced” revenge; on Radio 4’s Start the Week last Monday Cohen was politely monstered by every other left-liberal guest. The Guardian also came up with a novel way of pigeonholing Cohen’s politics as unworthy of serious discussion. “The Guardian online talkboards carried a discussion with me and another supporter of the war from the left with a Jewish name, which was entitled: ‘David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen Are Enough to Make a Good Man Anti-Semitic’.” Not funny, not clever. He has also been pilloried on the paper’s op-ed pages by an apologist for the communist dictatorship in Cuba.

In that quote we see the term “groupthink”. I recently came across this word in Paul Wells’ new book which I am reading now, but Paul elabourates on not only the meaning but some scientific study into “groupthink”. I will refrain from quoting Mr. Wells directly, but I will say that group think polarizes people according to the studies Mr. Wells quotes. It takes a bell curve where their are few at the extreme and shifts the mass of the bell towards that edge. This is clearly something our society is dealing with now on many issues. Americans and Brits in Iraq … polarized. Canadians in Afghanistan … polarized. Climate Change being unnatural … polarized, etc. etc. etc.

Cohen appears to be standing off from the polarized left on a few issues and as the quote says, he is being “pilloried … by an apologist for the communist dictatorship in Cuba.”?

Wow, with friends like these, who needs enemies?

The left and, in particular, Guardianistas, have made their bed by defending the rights of the minorities in their own nations. Yet only those hard core leftists, leave their own country to protest. The majority of that shifted Bell Curve crowd run and hide when push comes to shove and getting up off their ass is required. You never see the throngs protesting women’s rights in Kabul or Riyadh. You never see the throngs protesting the opening of a Chinese coal fired power plant in Shenzhen. Those not willing to go to the extreme are the ones that are polarized by GroupThink and not the idealogy itself. They just keep jumping on the bandwagon of the issue of the day and pick the left leaning side and champion it, keeping this GroupThink polarization mentality. After all, who wants to be pilloried by your “friends” over a Latte or a Chi at Starbucks?

According to Paul Wells, the Paul Martin government fell in large part due to GroupThink polarizing Liberals towards the idea of change and the extreme was too much change for Canadians. If we are lucky the leftist movement supporting Kyoto will fall because they are all pulling the rope in the same direction and it happens to be one heading towards a cliff that Liberal Environment critic David McGuinty said will cost us as much as $40 Billion a year. That’s a pretty steep cliff that even extreme left leaning Canadians may not want to get close to for fear of falling over.

If we can take anything positive from Nick Cohen’s defection, it is that resistance is NOT futile. We will NOT be assimilated. (If there is anything leftists can take from this, it is that polarization and groupthink will destroy them…but I wouldn’t want to be the one to tell them that before they make like lemmings.)

H/T to my friend Sandy for the Nick Cohen link.

Global Warming Brings End To Religion

Mulder

Limp WickChurches have lots of candles.

In recent years, the number of churches going up in flames has increased.

The primary reason is believed to be “limp wick” syndrome made popular by Al Gore. (Unlike the opposite syndrome which Bill Clinton suffers from.)

“Limp wick” is when warm air causes candles to tip over spilling wax and red hot wicks to the ground igniting carpeting. Due to the rise in this syndrome fire departments all across the world are closing up churches.

“Limp wick” is attributed to Global Warming.

I can’t make this up … I’m not allowed to do that.

Fearmongering 101 – What Kind Of Person Fearmongers?

Mulder

Well there is the childhood fearmonger…always good for a laugh.


ChickenLittle

Then we have the humourous “the end is near, my alien friends will take us to safety” fearmonger…always good for a laugh

Exidor

Then we have the goofball fearmonger…always good for a laugh.

HomerEndIsNear

Then we have the wacky looking (to attract attention) fearmonger…always good for a laugh.

End Is Near

And finally we have the get on a bus, travel across the country, to share the experience fearmonger….

Further

Oops, wrong bus. I meant the following person who plans to ride across the country in a bus and share his experience with the people. And he too is good for a laugh.

Suzuki

Con"service"ative With A Smile

Mulder

Friday morning the news hit the airwaves that the planned expansion of Limebank Rd. (scheduled for completion next year) would not happen on time after the NCC refused to go ahead with the planned sale of some land for the widening of the road.

With a couple of Conservative MPs on the job, the plan is back on schedule less than 24 hours after the hiccup appeared. THAT’S Service!!

Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre confirmed at about 2:30 p.m. that the NCC will no longer be blocking the sale of land.

“They (the NCC) are now out of the way,” said Poilievre. “They will no longer be blocking the sale of land needed for the expansion of the Limebank Rd.”

Poilievre said he and federal transport minister Lawrence Cannon, who is also responsible for the NCC, had two emergency meetings today to reverse the decision by the NCC.

How Many Times Is The Earth "Officially" Warming?

Mulder

Thanks to John Robson for these 6 historical quotes:

“It appears 1998 will go down as the year that atmospheric and scientific evidence finally put to rest any doubt that the planet is being subjected to global warming, with human activity the probable cause.”

– – Globe and Mail, 1998

“Now, what was once a hotly debated theory – that a vast layer of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other man-made gases in the atmosphere are causing the Earth’s envelope to heat up – has hardened into near certainty.”

– – Macleans, February 2000

“Scientists Now Acknowledge Role of Humans in Climate Change.”

– – New York Times, October 2000

“Scientists have dispelled most of the lingering doubts about the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere with new evidence from satellites orbiting the Earth.”

– – National Post, 2001

“Consensus grows on climate change”

– – BBC, 2006

“In the past five years or so, the serious debate has quietly ended. Global warming, even most skeptics have concluded, is the real deal, and human activity has been causing it.”

– – Time Magazine, 2006

Now let’s look at today’s headlines.

Science Panel Says Global Warming Is ‘Unequivocal’
– – NY Times, Feb. 2nd, 2007

Paris report calls climate change ‘unequivocal’

– – CBC, Feb. 2nd, 2007

Global problem – Climate-change report released in Paris

– – Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 2nd, 2007

Climate change: The DeniersStatistics needed — The Deniers Part I

Warming is real — and has benefits — The Deniers Part II

The hurricane expert who stood up to UN junk science — The Deniers Part III

Polar scientists on thin ice — The Deniers Part IV

The original denier: into the cold — The Deniers Part V

The sun moves climate change — The Deniers Part VI

Will the sun cool us? — The Deniers Part VII

The limits of predictability — The Deniers Part VIII

Look to Mars for the truth on global warming — The Deniers Part IX

Limited role for C02 — the Deniers Part X

Plenty of reading for fellow skeptics.

Who Will Be The Next Liberal Critic For The Environment Portfolio?

Mulder

First we had Scott Brison who said:

Instead, the previous plans in terms of Kyoto agreement was written on the back of an airplane napkin on the way to Kyoto. There was no altered planning. There was no real negotiations with the provinces or with industry sectors. In fact, it was a last minute, hastily drafted, agreement.

Scott was removed:

Well on Wednesday, the new Environment Critic, David McGuinty, brother of the infamous Dalton McShifty, showed me what kind of politician he really is.

First, he get’s bitchslapped by Environment Minister, John Baird when Baird quoted past statements by McGuinty:

While we are talking about quotes, what about this quote, “when people see the cost of Kyoto, they are going to scream”. Who said that? It was the environment critic for the Liberal Party, the member for Ottawa South.

Note the member from Ottawa South is David McGuinty.

Here is another quote that I wonder if the hon. member opposite will agree with: “If Canada does ratify Kyoto…the cost…would be as much as $40-billion a year.”

Do we know who said that? It was the official spokesman, the Liberal critic for environment, the member for Ottawa South, who said that.

Note the member from Ottawa South is David McGuinty.

So how does the grown up David McGuinty react? Let’s take a look. During points of order the following conversation took place.

Mr. David McGuinty (Ottawa South, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, during question period the Prime Minister was asked 18 times whether he was misleading Canadians then or misleading them now on climate change. In answering those questions the Minister of the Environment continued misleading the House of Commons and Canadians by taking out of context comments I have made in the past as a professional. This is precisely the kind of conduct that Canadians have come to count on from the new government.

I would ask the Minister of the Environment to table the documents. I would ask all Canadians to understand these comments were taken out of context.

I would ask the Prime Minister again to answer the question as to whether he was misleading Canadians then or whether he is misleading them now.

Hon. John Baird (Minister of the Environment, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to give the references for my comments in question period.

When I said, “if Canada does ratify Kyoto, the cost would be as much as $40 billion a year”, that was from the Globe and Mail of January 29.

When I said that the Liberal member for Ottawa South said that the Liberal Party was involved in a “medium sized car crash during the recent federal election”, that came from the National Post of March 23, 2006.

When I said “but when people see the costs of Kyoto, they are going to scream”, that came from Canadian Speeches, January 1, 2003, volume 16, issue 6.

The Speaker: I do not know that we are going far with this. It sounds to me like debate.

Is the hon. member for Ottawa South rising on another point?

Mr. David McGuinty: Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the Minister of the Environment for his extensive detailed research into my background. I thank him very much.

I would remind him on this point of order that the kind of conduct he is pursuing is conduct unbecoming of a Minister of the Environment. He should understand that Canadians are watching; his constituents and my constituents are watching. This does not advance the cause of climate change one iota. In fact, what the Minister of the Environment should do is prevail upon his boss, the Prime Minister, to answer the question.

The Speaker: I do not think we are on a point of order here, so we will move on.

Even the Speaker says it is not a point of order. I call it a point of whining on behalf of Liberals everywhere and with comments like these, I can’t imagine Dion will keep McGuinty on the Environment portfolio for long.

Smackdown – Deception In The House Of Commons

Mulder

We wouldn’t say the deception is intentional because that would be unparliamentary of us. But MP’s Maria Minna (Lib-Beaches-East York) and Irene Mathyssen (NDP-London-Fanshawe) tried to sling some mud at the Minister of Heritage and for the Status of Women, Bev Oda, yesterday.

But as usual, the Minister gave a straight answer that 1) Smacked back the attackers and 2) displayed that the Status of Women groups that are in an uproar over the recent cuts won’t even meet with the Minister.

I find it reprehensible for two MPs to try to portray the Minister as the one who won’t meet when she has offered these groups three dates to meet and all have been rejected.

You can watch the video of Oral Questions by clicking the link below ONCE.

If the above video did not play for you, try clicking the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5zLfLKlL4E

Burnt Babies Blamed On Global Warming

Mulder

Baby FormulaParents around the world prepare baby formula in a consistent manner to feed their newborns.

Hundreds of millions of forearm tests indicate the formula is perfect body temperature.

But by the time the bottle reaches the babies mouth, the formula has heated up and burned the babies.

Environmental scientists have concluded this can only be attributed to Global Warming.

I’m not making this up … I’m not allowed to do that.

Liberals Would Have Us Believe Lightweight Lift Aircraft Are Heavyweight Lift Aircraft

Mulder

On Tuesday January 30th, 2007 the Minister of Defence, Gordon O’Connor, cleared up any question of the heavy lift aircraft tender with one statement.

In answering Liberal Denis Coderre’s question regarding the contract being changed so that only one aircraft could meet the requirements, the Minister said:

Requirements are set by the military and they go through a process from a desk officer all the way to the Chief of the Defence Staff, and then they come to me. At that point I get the requirements from the military.

The military requirement was not changed after the Chief of the Defence Staff gave it to me. By the way, the weight I think was 39 tonnes and the aircraft we eventually selected lifts 85 tonnes.

(emphasis mine).

So let’s figure this out. Let’s say that the contract weight lift requirement was dropped to 35 tonnes to allow a second or third bid to be eligible, these options would be lifting LESS THAN HALF what the Boeing airplanes can lift.

Since the armed forces were not looking for a lightweight or middleweight lift aircraft, I think the arguments being made by opposition are simply baseless and the Boeing C18’s are clearly the king of heavy lift … twice over.

To accept other bids from aircraft that can lift 30 odd tonnes would be like a soccer mom buying a Volkswagon Golf instead of a Suburban. Oh sure, it can get our team to the game, but it would take two or even three trips to do it and when it comes to the troops putting their lives on the line, I would rather they get what they need as quickly as possible.

But the ulterior motive is that the Liberals would rather have a non Boeing company provide us with the aircraft because Boeing spreads the wealth around the country, whereas other contractors would focus much of the reinvestment in Quebec.

HandoutThis ties in nicely to how Gilles Duceppe is looking for 60% of the Boeing reinvestment to be in Quebec as Quebec has 60% of the military contractors in Canada. Does Mr. Duceppe not see the hypocrisy of his request? He is trying to slam the government for not addressing the fiscal imbalance but he wants a completely disproportionate amount of the Boeing money in his province. He is starting to look like a ragged beggar with his hand out all the time.