A gutless Aussie!

Normally you would think that the term "gutless Aussie" was an example of an oxymoron, but not in the case of Mr. Tim Lambert, the proprietor of 'Deltoid' (and, no, I have no intention of linking to it), a blog that amongst other follies acts as a cheer-leader for the HAFs (Hot Air Fanatics).  Needless to say, I have been causing them some grief recently by pointing up one or three blooper's in their reasoning, but all done in my usual jokey style.  The result?  I was called a liar, and when I expressed my surprise at that sort of language being permitted, I was censored.

Why do people like Lambert bother to have a site? As a blog-owner, of course, it gives one the opportunity to voice one's own views, but surely part of the pleasure is the ensuing debate in which opposite views are argued back and forth. I love it when people debate with me because it tests my opinions in the fire and whilst I usually put up a bold front, in fact, I am not nearly as certain as I make out.  From time to time, a commenter will rock me back with a point I had never considered, or perhaps, in researching a reply to some one else's argument I might come across facts that are new to me.  Throughout my life I have been forced to change my mind on some fairly large issues because I do listen and read other people's opinions.  What is the point of running a blog for like-minded people so that you all line up like so many nodding dogs in the back of an old Cortina?

As I tried to tell Lambert, when this global warming frenzy began I was neutral but suspicious.  (I am always suspicious of anything that the political classes, of all colours, start to embrace because I know from bitter experience that it will cost me money and they will almost certainly be wrong.  However, and despite my ignorance on scientific matters, I have tried to investigate the pros and cons of the matter and I am forced to say that one of the things that pushed me the hardest towards the doubters was the fanatical (I use the word deliberately) attitude of the Believer's. Like so many Gauleiters or Commissars, they will brook no dissent.  Now, I may not be a scientist but I know a little of the writings of Popper and Kuhn, certainly enough to treat all scientific pronouncements with caution, especially when they are in the area of what I would term quasi-science, of which climatology is a perfect example. But people like Lambert have certainty, almost as thought their very being depended on it.  Like creatures of the night, they cannot permit the slightest chink of light to enter their closed minds. Why?  Because, in the words of that woman, "They're frit!".  Like I said, a gutless Aussie!

Comments

[N.I.B.]

Obviously no-one would ever get censored here for their 'jokey style', would they?

[David Duff]

No.

[N.I.B.]

L**r.

[beep beep]

[Obscene word deleted]

Only joking.

[Hilary Wade]

On a lighter note, I saw Patrick Stewart in Macbeth last night.

[N.I.B.]

"I saw Patrick Stewart in Macbeth last night"

The dirty so-and-so.

[David Duff]

Hilary, ignore the children! What was your opinion? It's had rave reviews but after seeing two rave reviewed duds in the West End, I am somewhat jaundiced with critics these days.

[Hilary Wade]

I thought he was brilliant. Effectively he turns into Stalin, body language, paranoia, the lot. Macbeth has been summed up in one word as "ambition", but I think this director's take is more like "determinism" - the story of a man who, effectively, sells his free will in exchange for success. So, at the start, when he first meets the witches, you see him contemplating murder as nothing more than a possibility, one he can scarcely even bring himself to name. But by the end, when he delivers the "tomorrow & tomorrow &.." speech, he's become utterly trapped in the unfolding of his own fate - or at any rate perceives that he is... Possibly the key line is "cribbed, cabined and confined." The same set, a claustrophobic basement, is used throughout. It's a production that makes you re-think your ideas of Hell.

[David Duff]

Damn! It closes on Dec 1st. Wish I'd shot round to Chichester when it first came out in the summer. I wasted a day at Salisbury last week going to see an "Othello" that was beyond dire. I just hope to God, Russell Beale and Zoe Wannamaker do the business with "Muc Ado ..." at the National in January. Fingers crossed!

[beep beep]

Hey! Only half of is obscene!

[beep beep]

Damn, that doesn't even make sense anymore. Some censor you are.

[merkur]

You say: "I have been causing them some grief recently by pointing up one or three blooper's in their reasoning".

In fact, you said: "Why would anyone waste their time even opening this report which is the work of politicians and their bureaucrats" and then said anybody who gave it credence was a gullible mug.

[David Duff]

The IPCC report *is* the work of politicians and bureaucrats, so it follows that anyone who does give it credence *is* a gullible mug.

Is it right that I should be censored for stating the obvious?

[N.I.B.]

I worry for you, Duff, old thing, you'll be sidling up to people in the street soon and telling them out of the corner of your mouth that you have the real truth about the International Socialist/Fascist Global Warming Conspiracy...

[David Duff]

You mean, 'NIB', that *you* are one of those who believe that a report produced from that political, bureaucratic cesspit, otherwise known as the United Nations, in which everything must be 'fudged and nudged' in order to gain concensus, is a piece of fine, stringent, scientific thinking upon which the peoples of the world may place complete trust.

'NIB', can I interest you in one of my own, very fine, collecter's cars? You must act quickly because this bargain will be snapped up in an instant when I tell you, confidentially, that you will be buying two cars for the price of one - but, honestly, you can't see the join! I just know that you will appreciate this car being a man of such shrewd perspicacity.

[N.I.B.]

David, I'm not saying you *are* a raving conspiracy theorist. But you do sound like one, ranting on about the eeeeeviiil-yoooooouuu-eeennnnnn like that.

Which is a bit of a problem for you, credibility-wise.

[David Duff]

Oh, sorry, 'NIB', you mean the governments of Zimbabwe and most other African states; Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in the middle East; sundry South and Central American nations; to say nothing of China and North Korea; and not forgetting Russia and all those little gangsterdoms that fell out of the old Soviet Union; are all parliamentary democracies with impeccable human rights records and whose sole purpose in life is to save the globe?

Sorry, whose credibility were you doubting?

[N.I.B.]

Ah, so there *is* a conspiracy. All the oil producing nations want us to stop using their exports!

Keep taking the pills David.

[David Duff]

No, 'NIB', I have never mentioned the word "conspiracy". A simple question for you: Do you believe the IPCC report is a serious, scientific document?

[N.I.B.]

Do you believe it is a serious, scientific document? If not, explain why *without* attacking its authors, or what you imagine their motivation might be. Or copying something off Climate Audit.

Doesn't hold breath.

[David Duff]

Alas, as I thought, it is now confirmed that 'NIB' cannot answer even a simple question.

(Yes, yes, I realise we all knew that but I just wanted it demonstrated.)

[N.I.B.]

Yes, well done David, you've proved I'm a member of the Global Socialist/Liberal/Nazi Climate Change Conspiracy (nee Trot Lot). Good to see your interrogation training wasn't wasted.

Now, do you believe the IPCC is a serious, scientific document? If not, explain why *without* attacking its authors, or what you imagine their motivation might be. Or copying something off Climate Audit, or spewing up something that sounds like you cribbed it from a David Icke book.

Doesn't hold breath.

[Lance]

I was in attendance when you tried to entice Lambert and his fanboys to at least address a point or two. They would have none of it and answered with repeated salvos of peurile taunts.

Pretty much typical of the place really.

[David Duff]

Thank you, Lance, and the pity of it is that they never realise how much damage they do their own cause by their behaviour.

[Lance]

It just betrays their true motives, which are purely political.

Much as liberal democrats here in the states wait gleefully for news of ghastly carnage in Iraq, lefties world wide relish any disaster that can be blamed on "climate change".

Sad to have an ideology whose ultimate success is dependent on the death and suffering of others.

[David Duff]

Indeed, Lance, as I never cease to point out to those I call the 'Trot-lot', they can only ever hope for political success when, and only when, disaster strikes. Thus, despite their protestations concerning the plight of the 'working man', or the poor, or who ever, their real aim is to make things worse, not better, because only then will they get their chance. A similar imperative drives the HAFs (Hot Air Fanatics).