501. Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine

Comment #45560 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 7:24 am

If this Brownarse fellow gets the presidential nomination, I think I will book the next flight out to the moon. What a fucking loon!

502. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45559 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 7:17 am

Oi Luthien. What have you got against primary school teachers. My first wife was a primary school teacher. Oooer, I see your point.

503. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45546 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 5:26 am

Sorry one further.

How do we know that the rate of change is too fast? What is that measured against? Historical data? Could that be wrong? After all, climate records don't go back that far do they?

Sorry if these are simplistic questions that may have been answered before. But then repitition does not damage an argument.

504. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45542 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 5:20 am

Steve. Good answers. It helps.

One follow up. Why is Mars also going through a global warming process? Is it connected with Earths?

Or have GM and Ford been selling all their crappy 4 x 4s to the Martians (^8!

505. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45534 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 4:54 am

actually leo you are accusing NMcC of something he didn't say. It was me that made the 'fair point, clumsily made' statement. In my defence I was agreeing with you, just having a wee dig at your grammar. Sorry, but thought I should straighten that out.

506. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45526 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 4:21 am

leodavinci. Fairynuff! It just seemed like a contradiction the way you said it. No arguments then.

507. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45525 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 4:16 am

no, by all means read the PM. It was not a heated response.

508. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45521 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 4:04 am

Steve:

OK you have pulled me back in because you are now being reasonable. I actually sent Brian a pm because I was depressed with your arrogant attitudes. However, I also was guilty. I apologise for the fuckwit comment, I too was tired. But I want to get to the bottom of this from a scientist not from a real fuckwit politician.

If I can ask a few reasonable questions!

Is there absolutely no way that current climate change could be down to just normal or even abnormal solar/climate cycles?

If not. Can we realistically stop AGW? Are we not past or heading fast towards a tipping point?

Why are the 'experts' who hold opposing views so wrong?

Do you, personally, not find the IPPC a worrying organisation?

My own environmental concern is the sea! Do you think that this is a priority for the future of life on earth over AGW?

Maybe preventing the religious nutters from blowing us all up is a more urgent, if perhaps not a scientific, problem?

How can science realistically address all the important issues? How do we prioritise them?

and finally

Do you really think that having Al Gore involved in this is a good idea if the end result is that he gets elected as President of the US?

I know those are difficult questions, but I don't expect comprehensive answers just some indicative response would be helpful!

509. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45508 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 3:23 am

So now I am a 'crank' 'not particularly well informed' a 'fringe cultist (wow)' all because I have some (very small) concerns about your ideology. I give up. I was going to respond with similarly disparaging ad-hominems, but I just can't be bothered.

The 'Gone Fishing' sign is up.

510. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45501 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 3:13 am

Ps. leave Bono alone,he's a good person,his heart is in the right place but his ideals are not, plus he is any easy target for ridicule.

With regards to his moving his money to another country for tax reasons - i live in Ireland and i see what the government spends my taxes on,if i had the choice,i would do likewise,fair play to him.

511. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45496 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 2:51 am

re Bono. I don't think you will meet with much disagreement on that score from me. His music sucks too, as does that of his hypocrite buddy Sir Bob Gedoffit.

512. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45492 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 2:45 am

Brian and Steve, you really are such a wonderful perfect pair. I hope you will be very happy together.

Typical responses to people who question you both involve:

sigh

Time to shut you up, etc. etc.

Thanks for answering my question Steve. I am sorry I don't measure up to your supreme intellects. Have a nice life.

513. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45486 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 2:23 am

Arre, and in 6th place is:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, by Benedict XVI. (Doubleday, $24.95.) The pope discusses Jesus' identity as revealed in the Gospels.

We are not winning by that much if a boring old man like de papa can come straight into 6th place with a totally subjective piece of nonsense like that.

514. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45484 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 2:19 am

NMcC, I understood quite well where you were coming from. My response was meant to be a tacit acknowledgement and agreement. I admire Professor Dawkins very much, but I don't always agree with him like some here seem to do.

Switch on your irony detector mate. (^8

515. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45481 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 2:09 am

Shuggy, interesting your choice of a motorbike type vehicle. Any particular reason for that (^8? While not dismissing this, I think that on the whole 4 wheels would be safer.

516. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45480 by pewkatchoo on May 28, 2007 at 1:59 am

Veronique

You have adopted a reasonable position, as I would expect from you. However, I think that Al Gore is an opportunist who has seen an opportunity to jump on a populist bandwagon in an orchestrated attempt to make a push for the White House. After years of Bush, is a Gore presidency really what the US needs at present. His AGW mission? I am an AGW skeptic, I freely admit that it is based on ignorance of the science. What it is based on is the fact that governments are ramming this consensus argument down our throats, in the UK as a clear prelude to increasing taxes, while it is clear that there is not actually a consensus. I am also worried that the IPPC is an organisation that apparently is subsidised by the UN which makes it a political organisation and not a wholly scientific one. Now I know that the channel 4 documentary came in for a lot of stick, but it sewed a lot of doubt in peoples minds. However, instead of showing scientifically why the thrust of the program was wrong most AGWers simply adopted a dismissive approach based on ad hominen attacks.

I already have a very low carbon footprint myself, probably a lot lower than most people here, so I don't have any guilty feelings in being skeptical. Personally I thought being skeptical was a healthy approach to life. However, I am now labelled a denier which apparently, according to our AGW fanatics, is a crime against reason. When people start yelling and screaming, my skepticism simply deepens. Brian and Steve99 are just a mite to vociferous for me to take seriously. After all, I only have Steve99's word for it that he is a climate modelling scientist who has the answers to everything. Until people start addressing the reasons for other people's skepticisim/denial, instead of attacking them, we are on a hiding to nothing.

I am going to start calling myself a contrarian. Maybe then they will lay off for a while.

Oh, by the way. I fully admit that I got some of my facts and figures wrong in my debates with Steve, but I have been relying on my own imperfect memory or impressions of events that I lived through in many cases. But Steve of course uses that to dismiss me for lack of knowledge. I know the type of person that does that. Steve and Brian lay claim to being men of reason, by their actions I submit that they are anything but.

Here is a couple of reasonable questions for Steve. Can you take your computer models and translate to a physical experimental model? Can you name any other area where computer modelling has been used to predict accurately similarly complex situations occurring in the distant future?

Keep in mind that we are all actually on the same side. Nobody wants to see the planet disappear under a deluge of seawater. My daughter lives on the coast of Holland, which would completely disappear if what the AGWers say is true.

But, I tend to disagree with your premise that Al Gore getting involved in AGW is a good thing. If polticians are involved so deeply in a scare scenario it should give you pause to think. What are they trying to keep our attention from? People keep saying that Al Gore is only guilty of clumsy phraseology (viz the Internet statement), but then they openly ridicule Bush for his slip-ups. You can't have it both ways. This is a bit of sneering hypocrisy from the chattering classes.

I submit that Al Gore is a venal opportunist that America and the AGW movement can well do without.

517. The Blairs' Witch Project

Comment #45440 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:07 pm

Harlon, I think Blair is probably much more intelligent than Bush. I think he is crazy as a fox, but that is it. He knows what he is about. He has been one of the worst post war PMs this country has had (possible exception of Heath) but he has managed to con his way to 3 UK election victories. Crazy people don't do that.

He is however a congenital liar. So much so that he has probably got confused within his own lies and now believes it is the truth.

518. Aiming for knockout blow in god wars

Comment #45439 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:02 pm

Russell, in your opinion, do you really think that Somerville believes the nonsense she is proposing or do you think it more likely that she has no real deep beliefs herself but is making it up as she goes along. That would mean that she is just in it for the publicity and self-aggrandizement.

You have read her work and would be better able to comment I feel.

519. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45411 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 3:51 pm

UK inflation peaked, officially, at 24 percent in 1975. However, actual price of foodstuffs were almost doubling. This makes a nonsense of the official 24 percent figure. Pretty much the same as the current 2-3 percent claimed nowadays. This does not seem to take into account house price inflation, council tax and rising energy costs. Even the importing of cheap goods from China, which has been helping to keep inflation low, is set to disappear. The next few years is going to prove a bumpy ride I think.

We should wait and see.

520. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45406 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 3:33 pm

Sorry I was talking about UK economic competitiveness. We actually slipped from 9th position (not 4th) in 1997 to 17th position in 2005. I got mixed up with economic size and competitiveness. I am probably not the first.

521. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45405 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 3:25 pm

NMcC they will cost around 90000 dollars. More than I would pay for a car.

Donald: I have looked for additional information on the Boobies but have found no reference to their going blind. Gannets also are high speed divers and there is no reference to their going blind either.

522. It came like yesterday

Comment #45398 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 2:55 pm

Brian, do you actively look for things to worry about. You seem to have an unhealthy obsession with global catastrophe. Go and have a nice cup of tea.

523. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45393 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 2:35 pm

Sorry, I missed your comment on the minimum wage.

You actually consider that to be a triumph. What it really does is ensure that people who would normally be paid reasonable salaries are now paid minimum wage because they can get away with it. NL also allowed unfettered immigration, thereby throwing away any advantage of the minimum wage because immigrants will work for below minimum wage thus putting British people out of work. Nice huh.

Under the Tory government, the gap between rich and poor was significant, under labour it has grown beyond all proportion. It cannot even be measured any more. Great legacy.

524. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45390 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 2:25 pm

Steve, I would be happy to discuss this topic at length with you, but I don't think this is the place to do it, so this will be my last on this.

You may have the inside track on anthropogenic global warming, but I have been dealing with the political disaster that is the current government for the last 10 years and for many year before that with preceeding labour governments. Let me tell you what the future holds for our children, that is assuming we don't all drown first or that we manage to prevent ourselves from blowing each other to nuclear hell or succumbing to any of the other problems we have created.

Taxes will increase to pay for the huge pensions deficit caused by the huge numbers of economically inactive people created by NL. This includes the 700,000 additional civil servants recruited by Brown. Whooops where is the money coming from to pay for them. Brown has already destroyed the pensions of half of middle Britain to raise cash, he has sold off half of our gold to buy useless euros, he is now going to sell off our inland waterways for 1 billion. There is no family silver left.

Wait until you see the huge bill that is coming in the shape of PFI! A scam that allowed gordie to build new hospitals and keep it off the books. Only problem is that it is a never ending milk cow for the companies that built and manage them. Our kids will have to pay for all this.

Other than the disaster that was the ERM, which incidentally Gordon Brown agreed with joining, the tories were actually responsible for repairing the economic disaster that was the UK after the previous Labour administration almost bankrupted the country. Perhaps you don't remember 50 percent inflation, endless strikes strangling the economy, Harold Wilson going cap in hand to the IMF to help prop up the mess made by Dennis Healey. I do though, the UK was an economic basket case and the joke of Europe. Gordon inherited a very healthy economy, courtesy of Ken Clarke, but now he has squandered the lot and there is nothing left in the kitty. When NL came to power, the UK was the 5th strongest economy in the world and was just about to become the 4th. It is now down around 17th place. The economy is built on cheap money (ie. shedloads of personal and corporate debt) and a vastly inflated housing market thanks in part to artificially low interest rates and uncontrolled immigration.

And now Gibbo is going to be our next PM while Tone goes off to his next lucrative sinecure (World Bank or next Pope, take your pick), thereby proving once and for all that there is no god.

I think you are a bit naive about what is really going on. Try reading The Welfare State We're In to see what has really been achieved under new labour.

525. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45373 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 12:53 pm

Steve, then you are not moving in the circles I move in. I run my own business too and I am also on the committee of a small business organisation with about 20,000 members. They all bemoan the huge amount of paperwork and hoops that they have to jump through with the taxman. I spend most of my weekends now filling in forms of one kind or another either for the government or as a result of government legislation. It does not leave me much time for my family. And now Gordon has increased corporation tax for small businesses while reducing it for large businesses.

In any event, it is not just about business. It is about education, health service, transport and all the myriad things that this government has spent billions on to absolutely no effect. Then there is the lies surrounding the Iraq war, the death of Dr Kelly under very strange circumstances, the way that the government publicly demeans anyone who stands up to them, the lack of probity (cash for honours, casinos, john prescott shagging his secretary and then sacking her when he gets found out, Mandelson and Robertson, etc. etc. ad nauseum.) mugging the pensions of half the country while voting themselves huge increases. And now the latest attempt to exempt themselves from the freedom of information act, an act that they introduced. They are a disgrace and they don't care what we think. Every day brings something new. Incompetent and venal pretty much sums them up.

So what that they now recognise gay and lesbian relationships. That is a very small thing compared to the people that they have fucked over. They couldn't even see their way to extending that recognition to sisters and brothers living together. I have two aged aunts who have been living together for the last 30 years. When one of them dies, the other doesn't inherit without paying huge inheritance tax bills. Ask the farmers in Britain how they feel about Blair and Brown and Margaret Becket while she was refusing to pay out money that was rightfully theirs. How many farmers have committed suicide because they saw no hope. I have a very good friend who was a farmer. He had to sell up and get a job as a postman because he could not afford to support his family. His farm was beautiful and had been in the family for over 140 years.

The only people that have profited in the UK under the current gov have been the rich, lawyers, civil servants, big city bankers, estate agents and, of course, the politicians themselves.

I don't have a bad life, but I am working a lot of hours to do so. 10 years ago I had a great lifestyle was earning about the same and working half the hours I do now.

So, no, I don't think bring on the rot. Still, I am very pleased for you.

526. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45344 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 8:50 am

I guess that you are probably right about US development. I am not that up on the history of economic development in the US, and maybe not as knowledgeable as I would like to be of the UK. I will read some more I think. I am always happy to have my views changed.

To the best of my knowledge, before I invite even more flamers, economic and technological innovation in the UK has been mostly through private corporations. This has often worked to our detriment, notably the development of computer technology, television and air travel, in which the UK took a considerable lead but then lost to the US as these developments were better funded there. Things have not really got any better today.

The US currently enjoys a technological advantage over the rest of the world. However, if you allow the undue influence of ID in schools then that advantage could diminish.

To call me right-wing is a misnomer. I am, I feel, a complex mix of right and left. Some issues I am right of centre while others I am left of centre, while on others I don't have any opinion at all. You really should read my meanderings on pukiemon.com with some more openness, it is supposed to be satirical you know. I actually don't hold with any particular political ideology and if the Tories get into power in the UK I will give them as hard a time as I did Blair and his cronies. I never liked Thatcher because of what she did to the hard working communities of the North, among others, and I don't like Blair for his lies and personal morality and his attacks on the middle-class of Britain while pandering to the rich. Thatcher may have started the political rot but Blair and Brown have progressed it to absurd ends.

Rtambree, thank you for your kind remark. (^8

527. Observer Diary 27th May 2007

Comment #45340 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 8:24 am

I actually moved house to minimise my air travel within the UK. I used to live in Scotland but worked mostly in London. I got so tired of having to jump through hoops for a bunch of rude airline security wallahs every week that I just up and moved my family to the south of England instead. I sometimes feel that life is pointless as the numpties are in the ascendance.

Eventually I intend to semi-retire to a farm in the west of France and breed horses, chickens, ducks and other fowl. I really wish I could have been with Prof Dawkins to see the pelicans and boobies. I really love to watch the behaviour of birds.

528. Happy 66th Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #45328 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:34 am

Have to say I was surprised. Prof Dawkins does not look 66! I thought he was in his late 50s.

529. Group Threatens to Sue Pentagon Over Military Role in Evangelical Festival

Comment #45327 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:28 am

Re John Doe letter. Now, if I were a religious person but a moderate, I would now be reconsidering my position. Not much of the spirit of peace and love about mr John Doe is there. And there are a lot of people who think this way.

How is it possible that religious people seem to be happy to have such people in their midst and still reconcile themselves with the principals of peace and love and 'jesus is our saviour'? Or is this just another of those famous American 'irony bypass' situations?

530. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45325 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:20 am

Brian

Yet, it is the failure to reflect the fully worked cost of energy that is such a part of the problem. The same problem we've solved with a dozen previous types of pollution.

Capitalism, "true" capitalism takes all costs into account, dumping them on some unsuspecting 3rd party is surely a kind of theft?

531. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45323 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:14 am

Steve33, you really should not end a sentence a preposition in!

Just trying to wind you up mate! I would actually love to have a beer with you sometime so you could re-educate me.

532. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45322 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 7:12 am

Windweaver, you know absolutely nothing about me other than that I don't hold with AGW. So what gives you the right to dismiss me as simply a free market capitalist. Bearing in mind that it is free market capitalism that has paid for most of the modern advances that you take for granted, including the funds to invest in AGW research paradoxically. I am not, as you say, wedded to this as the holiest of holies. If I were I would be spouting Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman all over the place. Now get back in your box until you have something substantive to contribute.

Sheeesh, you can't even be a skeptic nowadays without some moron having a go at you and pinning daft labels on you. OK I give up, AGW is real and we are all going to drown. Oh dear, I am in Holland, good job I have a second home in the mountains.

533. Another Christian Science Fair embarrasses itself

Comment #45289 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 5:23 am

Devolved (what a fuckwit): I just checked your astrophysicists treatise. What a load of old bollox. All he is saying at the end of it is 'goddidit'. So basically god created the light we see from distant stars 'on the way here'. What a total twat.

534. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45286 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 5:02 am

Steve88, you are never ever ever going to get Americans to give up their gas guzzling pickups. Well, not until all the oil runs out. Even switching to European engine design is not going to help if you need a 4 litre engine just to get the thing to move.

But seriously, it does not matter what you do if the Chinese are still going to be building hundreds of (dirty) coal burning power stations.

Make recommendations, by all means, but don't expect the developing world to listen. We are not that far apart in our thinking on what needs to be done to curb pollution, we are just coming at it from different angles.

By the way, your explanation still sounds like bollox to me. It would not be the first time that science has given us a bum steer. That is why I am so skeptical about this new science.

535. Group Threatens to Sue Pentagon Over Military Role in Evangelical Festival

Comment #45285 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 4:46 am

B T Murtagh. I can concur with your position. I also am ex-military (UK) and can say that there is quite enough peer bullying goes on in the military without adding a dangerously unstable religious element too.

This is extremely serious. Do you really want a brainwashed military ready at the beck and call of the religious right. That is what you are talking about here.

536. Group Threatens to Sue Pentagon Over Military Role in Evangelical Festival

Comment #45283 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 4:44 am

I was curious about the song mentioned so I went to Amazon to have a listen. Bloody hell, this guy has had a serious attack of the Patriotishites. Must have been something he ate.

What is scary is that he has produced about 6 albums of shite like this.

537. Group Threatens to Sue Pentagon Over Military Role in Evangelical Festival

Comment #45282 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 4:31 am

But I would have thought that a baseball bat could actually be quite useful in a football game?

538. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45276 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 4:08 am

Let me tell you Steve. I am 54 years old. I don't believe scientists without question on anything. That way lies another religion.

You made an argument earlier that I don't question when I get on a plane. Well, actually. I was almost shitting bricks the first time I got on a plane. But abundance of proof, after several hundred flights I am still alive so, although I am still not particularly comfortable with flying at least I am able to face it with a certain amount of calm.

Now to your computer models. Well, your explanation I understand had to be fairly simplistic and I am sure that there is a lot more to it than it would be possible to state here. However, your explanation (and this might just be down to you) does not make me feel any better as it just sounds like you are playing with data until you get the answers you want. This may not be the case, but it is how it seems from what you said.

Now, I think we can continue to waste time and effort researching AGW or we can use that time and the scientific resources to better effect by solving the problems that 'may be' contributing to global warming and spend money building defences against the possible outcomes. After all, it doesn't matter if it is AGW or just plain cyclical GW, the end effects are probably going to be pretty much the same.

If all that matters to you and another AGW fanatic on this site is that you are proven to be right... Now calm down, come in put your feet up and have a nice cup of tea.

539. Aiming for knockout blow in god wars

Comment #45272 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 3:34 am

This is a woman who talks about 'metaphysical realities'. She is just jealous and can see an opportunity to promote her own rather poorer offering 'The Ethical Canary'. She is on a publicity hunt and hunkering up to professor Dawkins would appear to be a good way of getting it.

540. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45266 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 3:10 am

Steve77, just in case you thought I had ignored your rant of comment 83, I have not. Your argument is ridiculous and did not answer my original question. I asked you to explain how your computer models could be used to prove AGW!

You went off on a rant telling me to go to school for 72 years to study, just like you did I assume. So what you are saying, pretty much, is: 'How dare you question me on this. I am far superior to you and don't have to justify myself in any way to you.'

To which I respond, fine, have it your way. I will just stick you in my fuckwit column and move on.

541. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45262 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 2:58 am

a-teapot-ist. I find your dismissal of AGW skepticss peculiar to say the least. Lets lump them in with smokers you say thereby upsetting many fine aetheists here who support AGW but who also might be smokers. I actually am an AGW skeptic, in other words I am not convinced by Steve88's computer models argument. Now I may not be a gee whizz scientist like Steve professes to be, but I have been working in IT for the last 15 years and I do understand the falibility of computer models (gigo). There is not the application written that can handle the multitudes of data that I assume is required to definitively answer the big question. It is easy to get the results you want to however.

Now all that does not make me an anti-environmentalist. I do believe that global warming is cyclical and that there is probably nothing we can do about it. However, I do advocate not wasting resources, I do advocate doing something about the obvious pollutions that we currently are responsible for; pollution of the sea, pollution of the land, etc. I don't know if this current obsession with separating out rubbish is of any value, I suspect not, but I am willing to go along with it just to keep the politicians happy.

I posited in my original post that, whether they are for or agin AGW, people should not put their hope in false prophets such as Al Gore. Well, actually I called him a twat, but you get my meaning.

542. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45258 by pewkatchoo on May 27, 2007 at 2:42 am

Nerdfiles

Burden of proof. It is not the job of science to disprove unintelligible propositions which are illogical.

We can use our pure reason to do this. All Abrahamic religions, deisms, polytheisms, and monotheisms are false and illogical.

Do not lump tautology (logic) with science (evidence) and say that anything without evidence must be outside of logic. Reason and science can be two different things.

543. Comic in US 'hate speech' row

Comment #45183 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 5:37 pm

I agree with Brian. Freedom of speech is the prime. Anyway, it is not even the teensiest bit racist as it does not mention any race. Dancingthemantaray is deluded. We are not talking about 'foreigners' here, whatever that means. Nearly all the muslims currently living in the UK were born there and so are British. People who play the racist card should remember Godwins Law.

544. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45176 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 5:13 pm

Good on yer Harvey. But he don't half get steamed up about it! I guess he is on a mission to save the planet. Good luck to you Steve. We will probably blow ourselves to bits before Global Warming (anthropogenic or otherwise) has time to run it's course. So enjoy your life and let me get on with enjoying mine. Ta ta the noo!

545. Another Christian Science Fair embarrasses itself

Comment #45160 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 4:25 pm

Beth, I have been hitting the media pretty hard on the Faith school issue over the last few months. I agree with you that it is a disgrace and should be totally discouraged. The latest attack on grammar schools is particularly despicable given the arguments used by both government and opposition parties. They state that grammar schools are a 50s answer to a 21st century problem while promoting a 15th century setup in the shape of faith schools. I am disgusted with education policy in the UK. I have to pay twice to ensure that my son gets some sort of reasonable education, once in taxes and twice for the private school that I put him through. And now the government wants private schools to make their facilities and teachers available to state schools. So I will be supporting them 3 times.

Faith schools are Britain's shame.

546. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45157 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 4:08 pm

Combine_Dave. Just what exactly has Al Gore done for the environmental movement, other than make a movie for which he has been handsomely paid and got a lot of publicity (yes, I know, he gave it all to charrideee), burned quite a lot of fossil fuels flying around the world on a self-publicising junket and keep the lights on in his house all night to burn even more.

Steve00 has nailed his colours to the mast, now I would like him to explain how his beloved computer models can be used to prove anthropogenic global warming!

547. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45154 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 3:49 pm

Steve99, I do not support AGW. Personally, I think it is a load of old tosh. Climatology is such a young science that I think the majority of people involved in it still have very little idea of what they are talking about. I am pretty green in my approach to life so I have nothing to feel guilty about.

I also have 2 children and what I don't want for them is to grow up in a world where they have to live in fear of the latest thing that the government and other people out to bang drums tells them is the scary flavour of the day.

I really detest the sort of scaremongering that is put about by Al Gore and that Milliband cretin. I am 54 summers old now and I have seen this sort of thing so often now that it no longer impresses me. It is just the latest in a long line of scare stories put about by the elite to keep the prolls under control.

Why do you think all the main political parties in the UK have jumped on the AGW bandwagon? If they really believed in it they would promote policies that would really help to alleviate the problems. For example, tele-working with tax breaks for companies that encourage it. They would be improving public transport and making it cheaper for people to use. But no, the best they can come up with is more taxes on people who drive and people who fly. This affects everybody except them of course because we pay for all their transport costs.

All in the name of a totally unproven science.

548. The Blairs' Witch Project

Comment #45094 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 11:09 am

And Blair is about to be replaced at No10 by a 'son of the manse'! So out goes one religious nut, in goes another.

549. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45092 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 11:02 am

I think you will find that Al Gore makes money out of Carbon Transfers, so it is in his best interests to attack the oil companies. And just how much of the profits are being donated to charity? But it is a nice soundbite when one is trying to push an agenda that might take him all the way to the White House.

His house, allegedly, has a higher carbon footprint than many households put together.

Oh yes, and I forgot, where were his morals when hundreds of thousands of people were being massacred in Rwanda?

He also invented the Internet, remember!

I am surprised that you are still willing to listen to people like this!

I actually don't care that much about the bad science, what I really object to is the fact that schools in the UK are showing this nonsense to young kids, promoted by our idiot government. More brainwashing.

550. Al Gore on Reason

Comment #45085 by pewkatchoo on May 26, 2007 at 10:09 am

I hate to be rude about a former vice president of the USA, but here goes.

Al Gore is an opportunistic twat with all the moral scruples of an Enron CEO and doesn't even have the courage of his convictions.

He is also guilty of promulgating bad science in the search for a quick buck.

So if he was to say that he is an evolutionist. I would treat that with the credibility it deserves.