Kumkum Dasgupta -no wind in those windmills

The moment I lay my eyes on this article on windmills by Kumkum Dasgupta in today's Hindustan Times, I just knew that it would be strong on uninformed tosh and unquestioning credulity. I was not disappointed(or rather was-  that this large article was no different from thousands of others).Here is the gist of it-

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A little bit of push from the government always helps, as it did for Samsoe, which is located in the middle of Denmark, a country of 406 islands and peninsula Jutland. Thanks to its geographical position, the Viking explorers once used Samsoe as a meeting point. Today, it has become the centre of the country’s renewable energy (RE) programme. Thanks to a community initiative, the island now runs on 100 per cent RE.

That Samsoe’s contribution is part of Denmark’s larger plans of moving from fossil fuels to RE is clear: by 2025, Denmark wants at least 30 per cent of its total energy consumption to be powered by RE. As of today, RE accounts for over 15 per cent of the country’s gross energy consumption and about 27 per cent of the electricity that is generated.

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The residents responded wholeheartedly: they gave up their oil-burning furnaces for centralised plants that burned leftover straw or wood chips to produce heat and hot water. They bought shares in new wind turbines. Then they invested in 11 large land-based turbines, enough to meet their electricity needs.

They also supported the construction of 10 massive offshore turbines. Banks backed the resident-investors because the Danish government assured the price of electricity for 10 years.
“We care about the production, because we own the wind turbines. Every time they turn around, it means money in the bank.


And, being part of it, we also feel responsible,” Hermansen said in an interview to a newspaper.
“The spin-offs have been enormous: the islanders not only saved on its fuel/electricity bills but Samsoe became an island for eco-tourism

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“We care about the production, because we own the wind turbines. Every time they turn around, it means money in the bank. And, being part of it, we also feel responsible,” Hermansen said in an interview to a newspaper.

Ok, we get the narrative - a green island paradise that is now teaching the world how to give up completely it's dependence on fossil fuels, a sort of renewable energy kibbutz that actually works and makes money, grassroots collective action for nature and for profit.

Kumkum Dasgupta, following to a T other 'environmental' writers' techniques, raises no doubts, interviews no contrary voices, questions nothing.The truth, alas, is often not found in a newspaper article -a strange and tragic irony.

Ms. Dasgupta, here some facts that you seem to be unaware of -

The answer is that the president's (repeat) claim that "Denmark produces almost 20 percent of their electricity through wind power" is false. Denmark actually produces much less of its own electricity from wind, as low as 4 percent depending on the year, with the recent average of 9.7 percent. This despite a massive buildout of what they flatteringly call the "wind carpet," on some of the most hospitable terrain for wind power in the world.

It is also in return for its households paying the highest eletricity rates in Europe. With a substantially lower per-capita energy use. That means, to get half of what Obama seeks, the U.S. would have to carpet itself twice over — which means lots of windmills where birds fly and Kennedys live — and pay Danish-style rates.

Oh. Wait. That still won't do it. Apparently Denmark's experience isn't even scalable to Scanadanavia. It turns out that, if the Norwegians and Swedes tried to replicate Denmark's expensive folly, well, it would blow the system up. Here's why. Denmark took advantage of long-since-paid-for interconnectors between Jutland and Norway, and the island on which Copenhagen sits and Sweden. It made a political decision that windmills would be their "national champion" industry, and as you will hear to no end throughout the Copenhagen COP, a big part of their national identity. So they built a lot of windmills, and started a mythology.

This buildout was only possible because the Norwegians and Swedes use enormous percentages of hydropower and nuclear, both of which can be dialed up or down according to the whimsy of the wind. When the wind does deign to blow, Denmark sends fully half of its very expensive, ratepayer subsidized wind power to its neighbors at cut rates, in return for said neighbors indulging Denmark's wind mill image-making by dialing up or down its hydro power or nukes at other times (which, most of the time, means "up").

When the wind picks up, the story gets worse. On top of subsidizing their neighbors' electricity and allowing them to go without building more of their own, it turns out that increases in wind generation, under the current buildout, are shipped nearly 100 percent and at a considerable below-cost discount right out of the country. With its politicians now vowing to massively increase installed wind ("50 percent of our elecricity" — how about getting to 20 percent first?), that means Denmark will be sending even more domestic wealth to its neighbors.

Because it is displacing carbon-neutral electricity — as a condition precedent even to deploying the machines, mind you, so this is not something that can be changed — you can kiss claims to massive CO2 reductions (or reduced fuel use) goodbye.

When it comes to Obama's claim that Denmark, not discredited Spain, is the model to follow: waiter, the food was horrible, and the portions too small. You can't replicate Denmark's model — and its a good thing, too.

Although, I'm informed that the Danish wind industry admitted the problems to the media this morning before muttering about needing further (ratepayer) investment, expect the American wind power industry to spin wildly in coming days. Which, incidentally, is more than we can say about their products.

So, the merry islanders are laughing their way to the bank while rest of Denmark pays the highest energy bills in Europe. Denmark has to ship out it's wind-generated electricity at a loss to it's neighbors. And to top it all, the alleged CO2 reductions are a myth.


And this you say, Ms.Dasgupta, is model for the world to follow. Really?



(emphasis mine)


Update -
missing links added.


Update 2-

        Related-



        BBC refuses to air a film not duly worshipful of windmills


       Artists against windmills

Iranian protesters taunt-plead-shame Obama with Bushspeak

One of the biggest transformations going from Bush to Obama has been the trashing of human rights by the new team in power. They are leftists, after all, freedom and human rights has never been the Left's forte.

A most heart-rending struggle of current times is the desperate struggle of Iranians against their brutal fanatic regime - a regime which does this:



(video link)

A girl is walking away and a riot guard stops her, she is all alone against the big metal gate, defenseless and not bothering anyone, but an anti-riot guard decides to lash her across the sheens a couple of times with his truncheon. But there is worse to come, another girl is pulled over and this time she is smacked in the face with the truncheon, she is knocked out and when a young man comes to her aid, he too is pulled away and kneed in the face before more women come to their rescue. Also notice the security agent with the camera who is filming the protesters. This is what they do in public, just imagine what they do behind the prisons.

For Obama the protestors have been irritants in his set-in-stone policy of  talking to the mullahs. He even cut off funding for center documenting Iranian human rights violations to suck up to the regime. The protestors are now trying to shame Obama into doing the right thing-

The New York Times reports that opposition protesters in Iran, in between beatings and tear-gassing from riot police and the regime’s hired thugs, have started a new chant: “Obama, Obama -- either you’re with them or you’re with us.”

In case you were wondering what the answer might be, the statement yesterday from White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it all. Gibbs declared that Obama administration officials were following reports of the unrest and “hope greatly that violence will not spread.” This was a great moment in the annals of diplo-speak. No mention of who might be committing the violence, or who might be its victims. Violence, it seems, has the capacity to spread without any human involvement.

Unpleasant as it may be for the president to hear, his policy is objectively aiding the Tehran regime and harming the opposition in their ongoing struggle.

The chanters are right. The United States can either be with them or against them. Right now, President Obama is against them. But it’s not too late for him to switch sides.

I hate to say it - but the most powerful man in the world has his moral compass pointing in the wrong direction
.

Leftists fail again to turn lead to gold

At last,somebody discovered a government program that actually worked!

That is like fulfilling the supreme quest of alchemy to transmute lead into gold. Deserves at least a dozen Nobel awards all at once. From the fertile brain field of BHO and the Democrats came this wonderful piece of goodness for the economy and the environment -Cash for clunkers. Wise man Joe Biden called the program “an unqualified success”.

 But hold on to those Nobels yet-

Cash for clunkers had two objectives: help the environment by increasing fuel efficiency, and boost car sales to help Detroit and the economy. It achieved neither. According to Hudson Institute economist Irwin Stelzer, at best "the reduction in gasoline consumption will cut our oil consumption by 0.2 percent per year, or less than a single day's gasoline use." Burton Abrams and George Parsons of the University of Delaware added up the total benefits from reduced gas consumption, environmental improvements and the benefit to car buyers and companies, minus the overall cost of cash for clunkers, and found a net cost of roughly $2,000 per vehicle. Rather than stimulating the economy, the program made the nation as a whole $1.4 billion poorer.

The basic fallacy of cash for clunkers is that you can somehow create wealth by destroying existing assets that are still productive, in this case cars that still work. Under the program, auto dealers were required to destroy the car engines of trade-ins with a sodium silicate solution, then smash them and send them to the junk yard. As the journalist Henry Hazlitt wrote in his classic, "Economics in One Lesson," you can't raise living standards by breaking windows so some people can get jobs repairing them.

In the category of all-time dumb ideas, cash for clunkers rivals the New Deal brainstorm to slaughter pigs to raise pork prices. The people who really belong in the junk yard are the wizards in Washington who peddled this economic malarkey.

Now can anybody name any government program that works?

Aesop in our time

This is too good to pass up –Aesop’s Ant and the Grasshopper updated for our times:

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, ‘It’s Not Easy Being Green.’

Acorn stages a demonstration in front of the ant ’s house where the news stations film the group singing, ‘We shall overcome.’ Rev. Jeremiah Wright then has the group curse God for the grasshopper’s sake.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ants food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant’s old house, crumbles around him because he doesn’t maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote in 2010.

Paul Krugman runs into reality

Just like the Oscars, the standards of the Nobel Prize have really fallen (I’m not including the hard sciences).They will now give them to just anybody –even the likes of Paul Krugman. Or, especially the likes of Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman is undoubtedly very smart.  Paul Krugman also undoubtedly knows quite a bit about economics.  But. . .he just doesn't know how to apply it, to separate facts from his wishes.

  
In his columns at the New York Times and other outlets he constantly flogs the joys of the Canadian health care system.  As a participant on a panel recently, spouting once again on the superiority of  Canadian health care, he asked the Canadians to raise their hands.  Seven went up.  Confidently and smugly he then asked them how many think Canada has a bad health care system?  Whoops!  Most of the Canadian hands shot up!   "Bad move on my part!"

No, Nobel Prize for Economics winner Paul Krugman, propagandizing for a system you don't experience is the bad move.  Not letting facts get in the way of your theories is the bad move.  And doing so impedes fixing some of the admitted flaws in our system.

Everything is caused by global warming, part 2

From the great Andrew Bolt again-

2002:

Australian scientists say global warming is turning the world’s squid into much larger creatures…

2009:

Global warming is shrinking fish.

There'e more.

Black first, human later?

To the left a black is a black, not a human being that can be dissociated from his skin color.He is a perpetual victim and an oppressed minority that the leftists will feel good by enacting expensive and discriminatory(affirmative-action, quotas) laws to "help" him.In exchange they expect the minorities to be co-ideologists.

So a colored person who does not believe in the leftist drivel poses a special kind of challenge to them.Harry Alford, representing the National Black Chamber of Commerce is one such person.

His exchange with Barbara Boxer during a meeting with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is a must watch-

link

George Joyce has some excerpts-

Harry Alford, representing the National Black Chamber of Commerce lashed out at Senator Barbara Boxer during a meeting with the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Alter was challenging Boxer’s position on climate change legislation – specifically, Boxer’s contention that green jobs were being created in California.

Alter responded by telling Boxer:

“The last time I checked California is an economic basket case and these green jobs aren’t going to solve it.”

Well, that’s when the fireworks began. After citing a PEW study on climate change, Boxer decided to patronize Alter by citing “resolutions” and statements – not research - from the NAACP and John Grant, CEO of 100 Black Men of Atlanta.

Alter quite rightly exploded, asking Boxer what statements from other black men have to do with determining the truth of climate change legislation.

"All that's condescending and I don't like it. It's racial. I take offense to it. As an African-American and a veteran of this country, I take offense to that. You're quoting some other black man -- why don't you quote some other Asian or some other... You're getting racial here."

Boxer’s strategy of citing other black men in order to persuade Mr. Alter didn’t quite cut it with this penetrating and astute gentleman:

"We've been looking at energy policy since 1996. And we are referring to the experts, regardless of their color. And for someone to tell me, an African-American, college-education veteran of the United States Army, that I must contend with some other "black group" and put aside everything else in here -- This has NOTHING to do with the NAACP, and really has nothing to do with the National Black Chamber of Commerce. We're talking about energy. And that -- that road the chair went down, I think is God awful."

When will liberals stop patronizing minorities in America?

Excellent question!
(emphasis mine)

"Obama is a symbol of everything wrong in higher education today"

Clarice Feldman-

Obama is a symbol of everything wrong in higher education today:He has graduated Columbia and Harvard Law School with a head full of a fluff, no substance. He throws around words that are in vogue among the academicians, but it is clear that he (and probably they) have no notion of what they mean.

It's hard to disagree.That university faculties have gone ga-ga for Obama is no secret.They love him as much as they hated Reagan.It is like a clear symptom of a deep-rooted disease.

Roger Kimball has a book on it- Tenured Radicals. Highly recommended by the LNC.

(emphasis mine)

Leftist first, gay later

Gay rights groups in the West have a double standard-

Gay rights advocates make a huge issue of Christian opposition to gay marriage, while remaining indifferent to the Islamic jihad -- or, if they care about the jihad, many are still willing to throw overboard allies who may not be in lockstep with their social agenda. The fact that the Islamic jihadists, once in power, will treat gays far more harshly than Christian conservatives ever dreamed of doing doesn't seem to enter into their calculations.

As with feminists who have abandoned their suffering sisters in the muslim world, they are leftist first, gay later

When the UN gets seriously involved in something the results are usually depressing.In Sudan they are tragic as well-

So the UN set out to work. The Lou Nuer tribe was targeted for disarmament first, but the SPLA pillaged the tribe’s cattle in the process, while neglecting its need for security against its tribal rivals. The Lou Nuer tribe formed its own army and attacked the SPLA. It was eventually defeated, at the cost of over 2,000 lives.
  ...................................
...an incompetent, corrupt, or criminal administration, with an equally malign army, is being cheered on by the UN as it tries to carry out a process of civilian disarmament

More tragedy awaits-

the UN, pleased with how well its approach has worked in southern Sudan, is eager to take its act worldwide

Mark steyn says that  "Environmentalism seeks to return us to the age of kings"

I always enjoy it when the masks slip and the warm-mongers explicitly demand we adopt a massive Poverty Expansion Program to save the planet. “I don’t think a lot of electricity is a good thing,” said Gar Smith of San Francisco’s Earth Island Institute a few years back. “I have seen villages in Africa that had vibrant culture and great communities that were disrupted and destroyed by the introduction of electricity,” he continued, regretting that African peasants “who used to spend their days and evenings in the streets playing music on their own instruments and sewing clothing for their neighbors on foot-pedal powered sewing machines” are now slumped in front of Desperate Housewives reruns all day long.

(emphasis mine)

Nailing Paul Krugman

The best description(and not just physical) of Paul Krugman ever-

the bearded boob

The myth of "Green jobs"

Max Schulz on the yet another intellectual scam: "Green jobs"-

(Van)Jones (President Obama’s chief advisor on green jobs) has been tasked to coordinate green-jobs policy as part of Obama’s bid to transform America’s fossil-fuel-heavy energy economy, and his work is cut out for him. Not that it should be difficult to create scores of green jobs: Congress and the administration are working hand-in-glove to formulate policies that subsidize renewable-energy technologies and fuels, mandate their use in our energy mix, and punish fossil-fuel usage. Strip away the novel green veneer, and the promise of job creation differs little from New Deal–era make-work efforts. Just as government can pay people to dig ditches needlessly, it can pay them to install solar panels, even if the free market wouldn’t. That may be job creation, but it’s a lot closer to welfare than to free enterprise.

But will all this subsidized activity succeed in transforming our energy economy? For that matter, will it do anything meaningful to fix inner-city problems like poverty, crime, illegitimacy, and drugs, as Jones says it will? The evidence suggests that it won’t. Wind, solar, and other so-called renewable-energy sources play negligible roles in our energy economy because they fail in competition with oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. Those sources account for the lion’s share of our energy needs, not because of government favoritism or conspiracy by avaricious corporate powers, but because they provide large amounts of energy reliably and at attractive prices. Renewables don’t come close to doing either of those things. Government-directed job-training efforts, similarly, have nearly always failed to impart useful skills to disadvantaged workers (though they have succeeded spectacularly in wasting taxpayers’ dollars).

(emphasis mine)

Amaresh Mishra -a case of intellectual rottenness

(Update - audio of an interview with Amaresh Mishra by ABN.)

Till recently I did not know very much about Amaresh Mishra but that he had written a book that appeared to be of dubious merit and dodgy scholarship. I briefly touched on it in an earlier post- Amaresh Mishra opens my third eye and piques my sixth sense. I have not read the book(or his other books) -only about the book -so I reserved my more substantial judgment on Mr. Mishra's intellectual outpourings.

Now it seems that that dodginess runs deep indeed -deep into the dark recesses of conspiracy theories. He suffers from the same strain of kookiness that Union Minority Affairs Minister A R Antulay does. Here is Mr. Mishra's searchlight of an intellect throwing light on the Mumbai terrorist attacks-

Mumbai is under attack. People and forces who killed Mahatama Gandhi, who demolished the Babari Mosque have triumphed. More than 16 groups of terrorists have taken over Taj, Oberai and several hotels. Hundreds of people are dead. For the first time no one is blaming Muslim organizations. The Mumbai ATS chief Hemant Karkare and other officers of the ATS have been killed. These were the same people who were investigating the Malegaon Blasts - in which Praggya Singh, an army officer and several other noted personalities of the BJP-RSS-Bajrang Dal-VHP were arrested. Karkare was the man to arrest them. Karkare was receiving threats from several quarters. LK Advani, the BJP chief and several other prominent leaders of the so-called Hindu terrorism squad were gunning for his head. And the first casualty in the terrorist attack was Karkare! He is dead - gone - the firing by terrorists began from Nariman House - which is the only building in Mumbai inhabited by Jews. Some Hindu Gujaratis of the Nariman area spoke live on several TV channels - they openly said that the firing by terrorists began from Nariman house. And that for two years suspicious activities were going on in this house. But no one took notice.

Our worst fears have come true. It is clear that Mossad is involved in the whole affair. An entire city has been attacked by Mossad and probably units of mercenaries.
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RSS type forces and Israel are all involved in not only destabilizing but finishing India. India should immediately snap all relations with Israel. We owe this much to Karkare and the brave ATS men who had shown the courage to arrest Praggya Singh, Raj Kumar Purohit, the army officer and several others.

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This is a moment of reckoning especially for Hindus of India. The killers of Gandhi have struck again. If we are true Sanatanis and true Hindus and true nationalists and true patriots we have to see this act as a clear attack by anti-national deshdrohi forces. Praggya Singh, Advani and the entire brand is anti-national. They ought to be shot. Any Hindu siding with them is hereafter warned of serious consequences.

This is a question of nationalism. If no one else, the Indian army will not take this lying down. Communal, anti-national forces have attacked the very foundation of the Indian constitution and the nation. We will fight a civil war if need be against the pro-Hindutva, communal forces and their Israeli backers.

He belongs to that overflowing breed of intellectual/media/pundit/academic class that sees Mossad and CIA (or America and Israel) as the fountainhead of most evil in the world.Kookiness is not an aberration in this circle but a feature.This class will loathe Bush for 'torture' and then go smooch a murderous leftist and/or anti-American dictator(Castro, Chavez, Saddam, Ahmedinajad).

It appears that Amaresh Misra is a gentleman too-

The Citizens for Justice and Peace had hosted a meeting at the St. Xaviers College Hall to condemn the horrific terror attacks and to outline an action plan for youth and citizens. All of us were gathered there, scattered in the quadrangle and the hall. Swami Agnivesh and Mufti Fuzail Ul Rahman Hilal Usmani, our special guests, were also present having been escorted by my husband and colleague, Javed Anand. Suddenly Mr Amaresh Mishra arrived on the scene and first started using abusive language against M Rajdeep Sardesai, editor in chief of CNN-IBN at which point his mother Smt Nandini Sardesai also intervened. He then started haranguing Swami Agnivesh our guest, "warning" him on how he should speak related to the recent terror attacks in Mumbai! He soon turned to abusing both Mr Javed Anand and journalist Sajjid Rashid in offensive and unprintable language. In fact our daughter hurried to me at this point thinking that her father, Javed Anand was about to be assaulted. One of the over dozen witnesses, Shahbaz Khan intervened at this point and escorted Mr Amaresh Mishra out of the college.

Sir, there were many witnesses present that day, December 4, 2008 when Mr. Mishra in fact did his best to disrupt our meeting and abuse Mr.Rajdeep Sardesai, Mr. Javed Anand and others. I believe he did this because he is threatened by the scope and reach of our activities and
especially the role of MSD in drawing the Muslim community into Civic, Secular Democratic issues breaking the manipulative stereotypes perpetrated by the Hindu right wing -- the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the VHP among many other organizations -- against the entire community. Specifically, I believe that Mr Amaresh Mishra was out to discredit the courage and initiative shown by both Mr Javed Anand and myself in suggesting to Indian Muslims all over the country to demonstrate in one voice against the enemies of India and the forces of terror following the recent attacks on Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
---------------------------------

There are more falsehoods, Sir, in Mr Mishra's claims. He mentions three respected members of the Muslim clergy who he says also condemned M Javed Anand for "ostensibly attacking Mr Mishra (sic)". One of the three respected persons Maulana Mustaqeen Azmi specifically spoke to me, categorically refuting Mr Mishra's claim that he had issued any such statement of condemnation. Finally, Mr Mishra ends his diatribe stating that he spoke to some persons that include Mr Javed Akhtar, Ms Shabana Azmi and me, Ms Teesta Setalvad about the incident. This is an absolute lie. He did not speak to either of us and has not for some time.

The above was written by Teesta Setalvad as a response to an article in the Rashtriya Sahara Urdu, Mumbai edition, in which Mr.Mishra's scholarship on the Mumbai attacks scorches the newsprint. In fact Mr. Mishra is on a scorching spree-

A group of Muslim leaders on Wednesday decided to float a political party in Maharashtra, just in time to contest the Lok Sabha and
assembly elections.

Senior cleric Maulana Badruddin Ajmal will lead the front, which will be launched in 40 days. The name proposed for the new party is Maharashtra United Democratic Front.
-----------------------------------------------
The cleric-led front has appointed journalist-historian Amresh Mishra, a known Sangh Parivar-baiter, as its spokesperson. Explaining the reasons why a Muslim-based party was the hour's need, Misra said that the Congress "lost the confidence'' of the community years ago.

Here is Mr. Mishra's new boss fighting for freedom of speech, dissent and freedom-

Maulana Ajmal demands extradition of Taslima Nasrin

President of Assam United Democratic Front, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal demanded extradition of Taslima Nasrin in a letter written to the Prime Minster Mr. Manmohan Singh.

Blaming both left and right wing of Indian political scene of using Nasrin as political gimmick, he requested the prime minster to extradite her from India. ---------------------------------------------------------------
“It will undoubtedly be a wise decision on behalf of seventeen crore Muslims in India,” said Maulana in the letter. He added that “no mainstream Muslim or Muslim organization favours her stay in our country” blaming her for her insults on Prophet of Islam and Islamic doctrines.

(Note -it seems that either the reporter who wrote the above or Maulana Badruddin Ajmal or both are confused about the meaning of 'extradition'. I suppose they mean 'expulsion'.)

But hey who are we plebeians to quibble?
Aren't we told that Amaresh Mishra is a renowned historian? I am glad we were enlightened or we might have come to the conclusion that he is a conspiracy mongering lout.

(emphasis mine)

Professors that hate

The Blogger at the Venerable Beads has an excellent post on the postmodern rot that runs through modern academics.It's well worth reading in whole but this is a gem-

The excesses of postmodern gibberish in academic writing have been well and truly exposed and surely need no further attention, you may say.
To which I would reply: as Zed Books proudly show us, the exposure has certainly not been sufficient to kill the excesses exposed. Those responsible continue to reap the rewards of their squalid assault on reason, in salaries, influence and tenure, and the rest of us continue to reap the harvest of their brainwashing each new generation. Year on year a new crop emerges from the universities, parroting the same jargon and attitudes, untouched by self-awareness, irony or any real sense of just how many people hate them.

As is this-

Take the ICA for instance. That's the Institute of Contemporary Arts, if you're lucky enough not to know, still another of those cultivatedly bland names that seems to promise nothing creepier than a forum for the mindless show-offs of the current art scene to show videos of themselves pissing to easily-impressed trendies so dim that they genuinely couldn't come up with such things themselves

Read the whole thing.

(Via Melanie Phillips)

Ice is melting, the world is ending -and Gore is making a lot of money

Hardly a day goes by when some report or 'expert' or the other doesn't try to scare the wits out of us plebeians.

The Arctic is melting!
The Maldives are sinking!
New York and Bombay will go into sea in a few years(or is it next month?)!

Remember Gore's 20 foot wall of water"inundating the world’s coastal cities in his Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth?"

Remember the (il)liberal Hollywood doing it's bit on inflicting psychological damage on impressionable youngsters by putting out dumb and "breathtakingly paranoid" films like The day after tomorrow ?



Fortunately the disease of Global warming alarmism has a simple and free antidote -just facts.

Here are some-

Global Sea Ice Trend Since 1979 - surprising

Obviously people cannot make the claim that sea ice is being lost. It isn’t. The data shows that our trend is basically flat during this time of unprecedented temperatures. It’s clear that there has been no significant change in sea ice area.

This is almost enough to make me turn in my Skeptic union card, but increased CO2 warming the earth makes some sense to me, the magnitude is in question. The fact that polar sea ice not melting is not an insignificant point. It is also important to realize that the changes are too small to fit with IPCC statements about the trend. Unlike trees, ice does make a good thermometer. I can’t say this strongly enough— This is a strong indication of substantial errors in the computer models and temperature data which needs to be addressed before we throw what’s left of our global economy to the wind. How would Earth’s total sea ice ignore such substantial warming? It’s a good question which deserves an answer.

More facts now(this time from Learning is Fun school of thought).Tom Moriarty has an "easy quiz"-

Here are five false color images of the sea ice in the arctic. The images represent the ice on five year intervals on July 18th of 1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, and 2008. Your task is to use your knowledge of changing conditions in the Arctic to put them in the proper chronological order.

He also spells out what the hacks running your morning newspaper or TV "news" channels don't-

The sea ice area in the Arctic has been monitored by satellite for almost 30 years, since 1979. The area of the ice rises and falls, as you would expect, as the year cycles through its seasons. It reaches its yearly minimum by late September or early October. On the average, this minimum has been declining for the last 30 years. After October the northern sea ice area increases until it reaches a maximum in late March or early April each year. The yearly cycle is huge. Typically, about 60% of the total sea ice area melts away as is goes from yearly maximum to the yearly minimum.

The 2007 melt season was very severe and the Arctic sea ice area anomaly reached its lowest level since satellite tracking began. But that low level was immediately followed by an unprecedented rise in sea ice area in the Arctic in the months following the 2007 summer melt season. The 2008 melt season was quite severe, but not as severe as the 2007 melt season. In order to go from the minimum ice extent of 2007 to zero ice in 2012, the Arctic sea ice extent minimum needs to drop an average of about 600,000 square kilometers per year. But the Arctic ended up with slightly more ice area (about 100,000 square kilometers more) after the 2008 melt season than after the 2007 melt season.

Don't you get the feeling that we are being had?
An old adage tells us to follow the money. While I don't believe that money is the chief cause of Global warming alarmism (they are philosophical and psychological), lets abide by the adage and see where it leads-

Al Gore's Inconvenient Loot

Former Vice President Al Gore has built a Green money-making machine capable of eventually generating billions of dollars for investors, including himself, but he set it up so that the average Joe can't afford to play on Gore's terms. And the US portion is headed up by a former Gore staffer and fund raiser who previously ran afoul of both the FEC and the DOJ, before Janet Reno jumped in and shut down an investigation during the Clinton years............can an individual who stands to make millions from Global Warming really be trusted as an honest broker on that topic?


The Media Ignore Al Gore's Planned Global Warming Profiteering

How is Gore trying to be a climate change profiteer? Essentially, he wants to make a fortune by creating a new market for a product that he is attempting to create by legislative fiat. If he succeeds and carbon emissions trading comes to the United States, Al Gore will be uniquely positioned to cash in. He's made sure of that.
Gore himself is chairman and founder of a private equity firm called Generation Investment Management (GIM). He says the London-based firm invests money from institutions and wealthy investors in companies that are becoming environmentally-friendly, to use green parlance. GIM appears to have considerable influence over major carbon credit trading firms: the U.S.-based Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) and the U.K.-based Carbon Neutral Company (CNC). CCX appears to be the only firm in the U.S. that claims to trade carbon credits.

As a politician, Gore speaks warmly of transparency. But as GIM chairman, Gore has not been forthcoming. Little is known about his shadowy firm’s finances, where it gets funding and what projects it supports.
As reported in the August 2007 issue of Foundation Watch ("Al Gore’s Carbon Crusade: The Money and Connections Behind It," by Deborah Corey Barnes), with help from friends at Goldman Sachs, including Hank Paulson, the investment bank’s former CEO who is now the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Gore has created a web of organizations to promote the so-called climate crisis.

Meanwhile, Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection is pushing for tougher environmental regulations on the private sector. It wants “cap-and-trade” legislation enacted so that companies will be forced to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and buy carbon credits. Untold billions of dollars could be generated in a brand new U.S. carbon market.

When Gore's potential for immense profits is factored in, the $300 million outlay for ads (some of which is likely to come from donations to the Alliance's "We Campaign") seems like a drop in the bucket.

If Gore can keep up the pressure for carbon emissions restrictions, he could end up a very wealthy man.

I suspect, in his own way, Pachauri is doing very well off the warming panic too.
(emphasis mine)

Consequences matter more than intentions

This is so good that I am forced to lift it almost entirely-

Obama And That Road That's Paved With Good Intentions

From Campaign Spot reader Mark:

Yesterday Rush played on his radio show Obama saying, “The government should ensure that every person has a shot at success.”

His philosophy is the very reason we are in the financial crisis. Simply replace the words “…at success” in his statement above with “…at owning a home.”

Presto, the financial crisis due to Obama’s philosophy.

While I don't think it's quite that simple, one of the many frustrations with McCain is the absence of a theme that when it comes to policy-making, good intentions aren't enough. Most social welfare programs were set up with the intent to help the poor, not to foster a state of chronic, multi-generational dependency. Banning DDT was meant to prevent people's exposure to pollutants, not foster a comeback of malaria.
------------------------------
To put it in terms our friends on the left can understand, America invaded Iraq with good intentions.

In the end, consequences matter more than intentions, and the voters ought to have that in mind when they enter the voting booth...

(emphasis mine)

Display of fascism by the Obama team

Peel away the mask of 'concern for the poor' and you find that just about every leftist is at heart a thug.

And Obama is a leftist- ultra-leftist.

Is this display of fascism a preview of what could be in store under the Obama administration?

What Indians need to hear about Russia

What Indians need to hear about Russia but won't-

EU foreign ministers meeting in emergency session today to discuss the situation in Georgia should begin by asking why it took the outbreak of war to focus their attention. They had no cause to be surprised. The warning signs had been apparent for at least a year, and the Georgian government had made strenuous efforts to raise the alarm. This time last summer a Russian jet violated Georgian airspace and dropped a missile north of Tbilisi in what appeared to be a botched attack on a Georgian radar installation. Russia denied involvement, but two separate independent investigations found otherwise. Despite this, Georgia's plea for diplomatic support fell almost entirely on deaf ears.

Whether or not the incident was planned in order to test international reactions to an escalation of Russian military action in Georgia, Moscow clearly took encouragement from the absence of a response. With western governments preoccupied elsewhere - not least with Iran, where they need Russian support for a negotiated solution on the nuclear issue - Russian strategists evidently concluded that they enjoyed a free hand in their "near abroad". In April, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be strengthening official links with Georgia's two breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, including opening formal relations with their political bodies and strengthening trade ties.

This only confirmed what had been apparent for several years - that Russia is actively supporting secessionist forces instead of respecting its mandate and behaving as an honest broker. But it ripped away the final pretence that its role in Georgia is one of peacekeeping. Other steps of escalation quickly followed. Russia moved 400 troops into Abkhazia under the pretext of working on a railway project. Russian planes started shooting down Georgian aerial drones. There was an increase in armed attacks by Russian-backed forces in South Ossetia, including a roadside bomb that injured six Georgian policemen and an attempt to assassinate the head of the pro-Tbilisi provisional administration of South Ossetia.

None of these incidents received much coverage outside the region, so the impression has been created that Georgia initiated the current fighting with an unprovoked assault on South Ossetia. This is quite false. It has surely been a big misjudgment on Georgia's part, but resort to offensive operations came at the end of a long period of rising tension in which Russia had done everything it could to stir up trouble and provoke a reaction.

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But complexity is no excuse for abdicating moral judgment in situations of this importance. If responsibility for the conflict is not a black and white matter, the picture is not uniformly grey either. By any reasonable measure, the impact of Russian policy has been uniquely destructive in generating instability and political division in the Caucasus. The events of the early 1990s notwithstanding, Georgia's treatment of minorities that have remained under its rule has been generally good. Whatever his faults, Saakashvili is no Milosevic - and wild Russian allegations of genocide have no independent support. Under appropriate international supervision, it would be perfectly possible to turn his offer of autonomy for Abkhazia and South Ossetia into a workable constitutional settlement that guaranteed the security and fundamental rights of people living those territories.

The problem is that considerations of this nature form no part of Russia's vision for the region. It talks about defending the people of South Ossetia, but the Kremlin's aims are geopolitical rather than humanitarian. It seeks to restore the sphere of influence it regards as Russia's birthright, which it lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union (a "major geopolitical disaster", according to Putin). There is no place for an independent Georgia (or Ukraine or Moldova) in this mental picture. When Russian leaders talk about the benefits of "sovereign democracy", they are talking exclusively about their own sovereignty and not at all about democracy. The countries on their borders have no right to foreign policies of their own if they conflict with Russia's. This is especially true of energy supplies, where Georgia's role in maintaining the only east-west pipeline route free of Russia's monopolistic grip causes double offence. This is about the Kremlin's attitude to us, too.

----------------------------------------

There are troubling signs in some of the victory statements coming out of Moscow yesterday that Russia may feel emboldened to impose a punitive settlement, perhaps by annexing territory. This is not something that the EU and its allies should be prepared to tolerate. As so often with bullies, the Russian government's behaviour disguises deep insecurity and a craving for respect. This makes it more susceptible to our opinions than we often think. Further aggressive steps against Georgia would certainly be a reason to reconsider whether Russia should continue to enjoy the prestige that comes with membership of the G8.

From an excellent article by David Clark in the Guardian.Read the whole thing.


Now this is something you won't hear, see or read in the India media unless by some fluke. Ask yourself why some opinions(or rather some kinds of opinion) are shut out from the Indian press.


(emphasis mine)

Where are all the anti-war jholawalas?

Where are all the anti-war activists? Is the Russian invasion of Georgia not a war worthy of their attention? Or are they selective in being 'anti-war'?

Imagine if it was America bombing a small country on some pretext - there would would be such a din of protest in many cities all over the world.

Now we have an authoritarian, imperialistic superpower which has a horrendous past of occupying, brutalizing and even decimating whole of nationalities -and not a squeak out our professional keepers of conscience.

Where are the Indian politicians- they were pretty quick to lacerate Israel over Lebanon, even going to the extent of passing a resolution in the parliament?

What about our 'anti-imperialist' comrades? Or is their 'anti-imperialism' just a charade? (They never had a problem with Soviet and Chinese imperialism)

Where are those bearded jholawalas* and jholawalis*, who when you shout 'America' begin to bark like rabid dogs?

Still waiting for shrill condemnations of Russian aggression from seasoned anti-imperialists like Chomsky, John Pilger , Robert Fisk and Arundhati Roy.

Tiger Hawk asks the same question-

Of course, the Russians have no meaningful justification under international law, far less than the imperfect case the United States and its coalition built to justify regime change in Iraq.

That caused me to wonder, where are the anti-war groups?
----------------------
So far, at least, it is safe to conclude that these organizations are not so much anti-war as they are anti-American and anti-Israeli. It is useful to clear that up. And, by the way, if they decide to organize massive anti-war rallies against Russia and belatedly reveal themselves as intellectually honest, I will be the first to say so.

(emphasis mine)

C'mon guys, where are you? There is a war on you know. Just go out and do what you do best -protest a small country from being bombed by an imperial superpower. I'll throw you another juicy bone -there is even oil involved. You must be drooling by now and I am sure we can expect massive street protests, burning of Russian flag and trashing of the Russian embassies anytime.
You won't disappoint me, won't you?

Won't you?


*The colorful Indian language translator-
jholawala -a scornful term for leftists in India, who have the reputation of dressing sloppily, often in kurtas and carrying a shabby, shapeless bag called a jhola, giving a general impression of poverty and simplicity. However, as in many things concerning the left, impressions can be misleading. Their 'simple' kurtas are often sourced from choicest of trendy(and expensive) boutiques, and the 'ethnic' look that is so sought after is achieved by burning a fair amount of moolah.

There is an interesting page about the jholawalas here.

jholawali -female of the above species, often giving the impression of being aggressive and querulous(think Vandana Shiva)

Note -I do not condone trashing of any embassy. I am merely pointing out the hypocrisy involved.