Jara

Excellent news this morning - cervical cancer has almost been eliminated in Australia due to the introduction of screening. No thanks to The Bananaby, of course, who voted against it on the grounds that it would encourage promiscuity among women. (My fingers are hovering over the keyboard, busting to make a crass comment about Barnaby and promiscuous women but.....oh god, it's tempting, but no, I can resist it...)

Yes, exactly, none of us here really know what we're talking about - all we can do is trust the science, the vast majority of which says that global warming is a threat to our civilisation. Personally, i think the denialists are in denial because, somewhere deep down, they are afraid to face the truth and its consequences. We've all got truths we're reluctant to face. Re your last comment, don't worry - I've yet to meet anybody on this site capable of "intellectually knee-capping" me.

Ethan - re that list of scientists you quoted - I think even the staunchest believers in global warming accept that it's only a theory, and there will always be those who disagree. But from my reading of it, the vast majority of professionals working in the field are convinced that global warming is anthropogenic (for example, see the organisations I mentioned above). They may be wrong - but surely we should take steps to reduce our impact on the planet, just in case they're not?

And the American Chemical Society? One of the biggest scientific organizations in the world. 150,00 members. Nobel Prize winners, internationally respected researchers, peer-reviewed journals galore. Quite unequivocally state their opinion that global warming is man-made. They're in on the conspiracy too, are they?

Well, I hope the economy goes well, but look what happened the last time we had a Republican idiot in the White House. Eight years of letting the Wolves of Wall Street run the show and we had a bloody GFC - dunno bout you, but my super took a solid whack.

But you still haven't answered my question. Why would the BOM want to fudge the figures? Like I said, I met some of them - they are very nerdy, precise, diligent individuals. Are you suggesting they're lying?

Alas, nothing as useful as medicine. I'd be happy to look at your rash, though - you guys don't seem too worried about the qualifications of the "experts" you use.

Dr. Marohasy? That's the bloody IPA entomologist again. She's not a climate scientist's cake-hole. She's weird: look at her bio. Says she's got a PhD, but doesn't tell you what it was for (there's some very dodgy doctors around - I should know - I'm one myself).

Well, there's at least one person who agrees with you: Trump himself.

Oh and Wrecker, I'm not the one who is denying the views of reputable scientific organisations such as the American Chemical Society, the American Geophysical Union or the American Geological Society, all of whom unequivocally support the view that global warming is man-made. You are. Ergo, you are a denialist.

Yeah, yeah, I know, your IPA entomologist showed that the BOM is corrupt. I interviewed several BOM scientists a few years ago. Those guys spend their lives trying to provide accurate information to the community. What on earth do you think is their motivation for them to fudge the figures?

Nice try, Earl, but the deniers don't pay much attention to reputable scientific organisations. They get their science from looking out the window and reading Andrew Bolt.

He's sucked you in. Dunno if that requires much brilliance.

How's Trump? "If there was a school shooting, I'd go running at the gunman, even if I didn't have a gun." Yeah, sure, like you did in Vietnam. Heel-spurs - wasn't that his excuse? Or VD? What a boastful, bloated, self-deluded moron.

No worries - it happens to us all - barracking for Melbourne scrambles your brains. I did meet the GG, and as far as I can tell, she was a woman (coincidentally, I also met Chloe on another occasion, and boy, was she a woman).

Er ...if Quentin Bryce was really Chloe's father, no wonder Bill was so in favour of marriage equality.

her father?

Damn, I was hoping he'd stay.

Who's McChins?

You've got to hand it to Trump - he has this uncanny ability - he's almost like Stephen Curry, lobbing those three-pointers - I've never seen anything quite like it - he has this astonishing ability to say the wrong thing. His brain must be made of jello. His response to crazies shooting children: arm the teachers and re-open the madhouses of the old days. Can you imagine what kind of weirdo could come up with such inappropriate ideas? No consideration of the obvious solutions: stop selling assault weapons to anybody who wants one and improve your health system. He's King Midas in reverse: everything he touches turns to merde. He's wrong on everything. (I wondered how he could have had the brains to build a property empire, then I remembered he inherited it) Which leads me to the obvious question: you Demonland climate deniers, what's it like having this fruitcake in your corner? Forget the science: I'd say, the mere fact that he doesn't believe in global warming is proof that it's happening.

binman, dunno about 'great' I reckon our own wide brown land was pretty good - pre 1788.

Omg, Hardtack - it's worse than I thought. He was porking his Chief of Staff? As well as Miss Vicki? And, presumably, Mrs Joyce from time to time? I didn't know that. What a man.

I reckon that huge New England majority was largely based on the fact that people thought it was ridiculous that he had to resign from Parliament. I agreed with them on that one, and wasn't surprised he won so easily. That water theft business: jeez, how depressing. I'd thought it was just some cowboys sneaking out at night and opening the valves or something. Then I saw the 7.30 / 4 Corners reports: my god, the scale of the theft. Huge, multi-national corporates just building dams, diverting massive amounts of water, killing the river for those downstream - all with the connivance of scumbags like Bananaby. The worst thing is that those guys always win. Throw your hat in with the monsters and you've got it made. You can bet that the second Bananaby leaves Parliament, he'll be lowering his fat ass into some million-dollar job created just for him by The Rhino.

Terrific post, Choke. Obama was constantly calling for greater gun control. Stalled by Republican hookers in the pay of the NRA. The Fat Orangutan, by contrast, says it's nothing to do with gun laws, all about mental health. Crazy boy just wanders in to the corner shop, buys a machine gun: 17 dead, most of them kids.

What on earth are you trying to say, Ethan?