OUT: Abbott IN: Turnbull

[Earl Hood 5,890]

If we are talking about Abbott embarrassments we now have Christopher Pyne's review of our national curriculum! For heavens sake the agreed curriculum that has been developed laboriously with the states over the last four years has not yet been deployed. We have no data to measure yet but Pyne sees the need to review! The man is an ideological midget! His nominated reviewers are already talking about the need for more emphasis on religious studies. Good heavens are now going to be studying Creationism versus Evolution?

And since when has curriculum content been of any real consequence? A child's education is more dependent on process, developing thinking skills, leadership skills, problem solving, working in teams, content is secondary I would have thought.

[Hannibal 5,814]

By the way Tomic has just gone down to Del Potro.

Who gives a **** about Tomic ?

[Dee Fan 3,247]

No I don't have the statistics but I do know there are several levels of car parks under every high rise office building in Melbourne's CBD and I assume they are full of cars every day, I know the ones I go to every now and then are full and have a few spaces for visitors, the rest are for regulars. That is telling me something, maybe a percentage of workers in every high rise building in the CBD are driving to work and then home. Maybe different policies could persuade them to get there by different means. But let's not go there Robbie, lets just be angry! $8 billion of your money on a tunnel I hope it is money well spent.

PS yes you are right I don't know the answers to your questions. I don't know how many people live in Fitzroy, how many work or how many vote international socialists. Who does? And by the way who would care?

You may not know the answers but I'm sure you get the correlation, it's not the residents it's the rent a crowd mob who get out there every day and 50 to 60 out of 50,000 isn't a lot. They are ferals and by association........

[Biffen 12,567]

Yeah- East-West tunnel is not something I really care about .

I use a jet pack to get from a to b.

But I am protesting every day just to upset commerce and the rule of law.

I get a free falafel when I go to Fitzroy for a yell.

and it helps waste tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on bike paths.

When every cyclist is removed from the roads , I will feel safe again.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

If we are talking about Abbott embarrassments we now have Christopher Pyne's review of our national curriculum! For heavens sake the agreed curriculum that has been developed laboriously with the states over the last four years has not yet been deployed. We have no data to measure yet but Pyne sees the need to review! The man is an ideological midget! His nominated reviewers are already talking about the need for more emphasis on religious studies. Good heavens are now going to be studying Creationism versus Evolution?

And since when has curriculum content been of any real consequence? A child's education is more dependent on process, developing thinking skills, leadership skills, problem solving, working in teams, content is secondary I would have thought.

Quite a large % of the teachers in our schools are left leaning dodo's and they are pushing their agenda on to the young students as if they are facts, not their opinion. The teachers get dumber and therefore the students get dumber, the next generation of teachers drop a little further down the intelligence chain so on it goes.

Politicians should just keep their noses out of education but unfortunately the Labor Party found the best way to pollute young minds and tune them in to their agenda was to get to them early through the education system. Kids nowadays accept a whole load of rubbish as fact because that's what they are taught.

It is increasingly becoming a case of the blind leading the blind.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

I suppose I should start the new year off with something. How about Tony's business advisor Maurice Newman and his latest rant in the Oz about the religious cult of Global Warming? I mean this is scary stuff, the flat earthers are everywhere it seems.

Haha, but no mention of the (far more dangerous) religious cult of catholicism?

[Dee Fan 3,247]

Haha, but no mention of the (far more dangerous) religious cult of catholicism?

There are many religions that pose a bigger threat than "Global Warming", when we find ourselves back in the Stone Age we will welcome the days when Global Warming was seen as the "big threat".

Edited January 12, 2014 by RobbieF

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

You mean this warmist ?

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/did_warmist_david_karoly_actually_read_the_paper_he_told_the_abc_was_wrong/

If you expect to have any kind of credibility with people other than those who ring up talk back radio you really shouldn't be linking to/quoting anything the Dolt has to say.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

There are many regions that pose a bigger threat than "Global Warming", when we find ourselves back in the Stone Age we will welcome the days when Global Warming was seen as the "big threat".

I'm not really qualified to state with certainty whether human activity is changing the climate of the planet. I am also very cynical that the environmentalist movement has been co-opted by governments and used as another form of taxation and control.

However at its core I agree with the premise that human activity is destroying the environment and make the planet less habitable not only for ourselves but for the vast array of other species we cohabit with. There definitely needs to be new thinking in regards to how we go about using non-renewable resources, how we have devastated the forests and marine eco-systems of the planet, how we have seen constant build-up of industrial wastelands pumping toxic substances into the atmosphere to feed the never-ending need for capitalist "growth" instead of focusing on "sustainability". Whichever way you cut it our current lifestyle is unsustainable. It's bad enough when Europe and North America lead the lifestyles we currently do but how will we cope when over a billion Indians and over a billion Chinese want to join us?

We need more creative thinking and more creative planning of our society moving forward rather than just the easy yet ultimately extremely costly quest for never-ending growth.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

BTW I think your alarmist "back in the Stone Age" talk is just as ridiculous as the "we'll all be under water by 2050 when the ice caps melt" and does your argument no favours.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

BTW I think your alarmist "back in the Stone Age" talk is just as ridiculous as the "we'll all be under water by 2050 when the ice caps melt" and does your argument no favours.

Wait and see what happens to Afghanistan when the Tailban take control again and if they continue to gain influence in Pakistan and therefore control of Nuclear weapons there could be enormous consequences.

The threat of a Nuclear war will dwarf Global Warming. Stone Age under those circumstances is a real possibility.

[Hannibal 5,814]

If you expect to have any kind of credibility with people other than those who ring up talk back radio you really shouldn't be linking to/quoting anything the Dolt has to say.

CLEARLY I disagree. Bolt is fantastic and I doubt he has a view with which I disagree.

I love the fact he enrages left wing flogs like you.

EDIT: and if you're not left wing my comment still applies.

Edited January 12, 2014 by The Myth

[Hannibal 5,814]

I'm not really qualified to state with certainty whether human activity is changing the climate of the planet.

However at its core I agree with the premise that human activity is destroying the environment and make the planet less habitable not only for ourselves but for the vast array of other species we cohabit with.

Quoted for mirth.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

Sorry I thought you meant back in the Stone Age due to climate change policies.

Religious nuts with nukes have had the world on the brink for 70 years. Just look at the US.

BTW it's one thing to have nukes, it's another altogether to have the capacity to do anything with them. The threat from the Taliban, Pakistan, Iran etc is there but on the scale of things it's way down the pecking order compared to threat from US, China and our own lifestyles. I'm about as scared of the Taliban as I was scared of Iraq i.e. not at all. Just another cartoon bogeyman for the US to roll out when they want to stage another invasion to keep their own population docile and distracted from the fact they are being robbed and raped by their own government every single day and to fatten the pockets of the corporaions who run the government.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

Quoted for mirth.

You can destroy the environment without destroying or changing the climate of the planet, but I wouldn't expect someone with such a lack of capacity for critical thinking as you to be able to discern between the two.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

I'm not really qualified to state with certainty whether human activity is changing the climate of the planet. I am also very cynical that the environmentalist movement has been co-opted by governments and used as another form of taxation and control.

However at its core I agree with the premise that human activity is destroying the environment and make the planet less habitable not only for ourselves but for the vast array of other species we cohabit with. There definitely needs to be new thinking in regards to how we go about using non-renewable resources, how we have devastated the forests and marine eco-systems of the planet, how we have seen constant build-up of industrial wastelands pumping toxic substances into the atmosphere to feed the never-ending need for capitalist "growth" instead of focusing on "sustainability". Whichever way you cut it our current lifestyle is unsustainable. It's bad enough when Europe and North America lead the lifestyles we currently do but how will we cope when over a billion Indians and over a billion Chinese want to join us?

We need more creative thinking and more creative planning of our society moving forward rather than just the easy yet ultimately extremely costly quest for never-ending growth.

I've been saying for a long time now that population growth is a massive issue and our current growth rates are out of control. Problem is the countries that are least able to afford it are the biggest reproducers. Then they become refugees.

We cannot continue to reproduce as we are; its simply unsustainable.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

CLEARLY I disagree. Bolt is fantastic and I doubt he has a view with which I disagree.

I love the fact he enrages left wing flogs like you.

EDIT: and if you're not left wing my comment still applies.

He doesn't enrage me, in fact it saddens me that the population of our country is so stupid and lacking in education that his "opinion pieces" based on beliefs and prejudice rather than facts are taken as "journalism".

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

I've been saying for a long time now that population growth is a massive issue and our current growth rates are out of control. Problem is the countries that are least able to afford it are the biggest reproducers. Then they become refugees.

We cannot continue to reproduce as we are; its simply unsustainable.

We also can't continue our lifestyles on the current western level, that is unsustainable too.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

Sorry I thought you meant back in the Stone Age due to climate change policies.

Religious nuts with nukes have had the world on the brink for 70 years. Just look at the US.

BTW it's one thing to have nukes, it's another altogether to have the capacity to do anything with them. The threat from the Taliban, Pakistan, Iran etc is there but on the scale of things it's way down the pecking order compared to threat from US, China and our own lifestyles. I'm about as scared of the Taliban as I was scared of Iraq i.e. not at all. Just another cartoon bogeyman for the US to roll out when they want to stage another invasion to keep their own population docile and distracted from the fact they are being robbed and raped by their own government every single day and to fatten the pockets of the corporaions who run the government.

The religious nuts like the Taliban are not interested in their own lives let alone ours. If they gain control and drop one on Israel then we could see massive consequences.

If you are playing chicken with the Russians it's one thing, they have as much to lose as you do, if you are facing an opposition that's quite happy to die, it's another altogether.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

We also can't continue our lifestyles on the current western level, that is unsustainable too.

Then what are you prepared to give up?

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

Then what are you prepared to give up?

It's a pretty long list. But as a start, I see no reason why individual houses and buildings can't be fully self-sufficient rather than linked to a power/resource grid, particularly new buildings/dwellings.

Clearly I don't think it's feasible to just go live by yourself in a cabin in the woods like Ted Koscinski and expect be able to meld in with modern society however I think there has to be a middle ground. I also think that while individual based, grass roots activities can be taken and are necessary without a broader plan and more creative thinking from our governments about how we want society to look in 30, 50 or 100 years rather than just what will play with the voters and get me re-elected ultimately the impact will be minimal.

[Dee Fan 3,247]

It's a pretty long list. But as a start, I see no reason why individual houses and buildings can't be fully self-sufficient rather than linked to a power/resource grid, particularly new buildings/dwellings.

Clearly I don't think it's feasible to just go live by yourself in a cabin in the woods like Ted Koscinski and expect be able to meld in with modern society however I think there has to be a middle ground. I also think that while individual based, grass roots activities can be taken and are necessary without a broader plan and more creative thinking from our governments about how we want society to look in 30, 50 or 100 years rather than just what will play with the voters and get me re-elected ultimately the impact will be minimal.

Bit of a Motherhood statement there Dr., you need to look at what you would give up, not what you want others too.

Maybe the second car, or the second Plasma, or perhaps "the dine out once a week" instead of a simple home grown, home cooked meal.

Problem is we need to have employment to keep all the additional people we produce in a job, so if you give up the second car, then someone loses his job, same with the Plasma, or the night out at the restaurant.

We are consumers and that's what keeps the economy afloat, there's no point in spending money and resources on a solar heating system that's going to cost more in resources than it's gong to save, other than to sustain another bogus industry.

[Biffen 12,567]

Then what are you prepared to give up?

Your food and water.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

Bit of a Motherhood statement there Dr., you need to look at what you would give up, not what you want others too.

Maybe the second car, or the second Plasma, or perhaps "the dine out once a week" instead of a simple home grown, home cooked meal.

Problem is we need to have employment to keep all the additional people we produce in a job, so if you give up the second car, then someone loses his job, same with the Plasma, or the night out at the restaurant.

We are consumers and that's what keeps the economy afloat, there's no point in spending money and resources on a solar heating system that's going to cost more in resources than it's gong to save, other than to sustain another bogus industry.

My family only has one car, we have one plasma TV, we generally eat home cooked meals other than for birthdays, anniversaries or maybe a night out once every couple of months...

You clearly miss the point/we have diametrically opposed views so it doesn't look like we'll have consensus here. Suffice to say I don't see people as "consumers" but as people. There are plenty of useful things for people to do to keep them employed, they don't just have to be working a counter at McDonald's or working in factories producing plasma TV's and cars. As far as Australia goes this is a bit of a fallacy anyway as I would hazard a guess that all (if not close to all) TV's purchased in Australia are built off-shore and this will be the same for cars soon too. One thing that should be done immediately to curb this is to tear up the bogus "free trade agreements" and disband the WTO which only exist to fatten the wallets of those at the top at the expense of those whose jobs you'd seek to save by ensuring every family has multiple cars and TV's.

[Dr. Gonzo 22,847]

And again, I don't think it's really a motherhood statement to state that our governments (both Liberal and Labour) lack any vision whatsoever for creating a sustainable society.

As mentioned there are quite a number of things I would be prepared to give up but I don't really think the fact that I have a TV for instance is going to make any impact whatsoever on the grand scheme of things, it will be like pissing in the ocean.

As for my comment about sustainable buildings, solar power and solar hot water systems as well as self-sufficient water supplies that re-use grey water etc are completely feasible and there is no reason why new dwellings can't be made to be completely self sufficient.