I feel like a cracked record here but I am not going to let go. Another dime, another day, and Richard Black is at it again, illustrating that the climate alarmists are anxious for any new straw they can clutch. This time, it's our old friend, the farting cow syndrome - if that nasty CO2 doesn't get us, say dial-a-scare scientists, then methane will because billions of tons of it are trapped on the arctic sea bed and are about to be released by our grasping, capitalist ways. As usual, Mr Black doesn't deign to bring us any contrasting views to his own fanaticism. He also glosses over somewhat what seems to me to be the real story, that microbes seem to absorb methane at an astonishing rate. It's not scary, so let's not draw too much attention to it. For the cracked-record record, here's the in-proportion judgment about the importance of methane by a genuine scientist who hasn't got a greenie scare agenda. Update: There's nothing a greenie likes more than the idea of a new tax, and Mr Black and assorted chums from the WWF and other zealot organisations are demanding one with menaces here. He really is in overdrive. I'm all for sensible conservation, and maintaining so-called natural habits up to a point (though spare me from any form of ludicrous back-to-nature idealism - there are 7bn of us), but I guarantee that anything adminstered by the UN (as he advocates) or the EU will end up as a corrupt, stand-and-deliver monstrosity. Isn't it simply astonishing how greenies think the solution to everything involves handing powers to faceless, unelected, power-hungry, often corrupt bureaucrats? Actually, I think the wonderful Jo Nova could have been writing about Richard Black when she filed this. Enjoy. The BBC is never happier than bashing those who succeed in generating profit. I suppose this is a consequence of the fact that they are handed £3bn a year without having to do anything other than undermine the Nation whose name it bears. Give THIS interview a listen. It's classic anti-capitalism and the idea of balance is risible. TUC Comrade Brendan Barber leads the assault, and Garry Wilson gives the most meek and mild response one could imagine. No one (least of all me) wants to see greed and incompetence rewarded but the BBC has taken this on as a crusade (is it OK to use that word?) and bashes the Banks and "the bosses" at every opportunity. Busy day so my first chance to catch up with you!. Spoke to the Mail on Sunday today re the BBC offering a lucrative contract to Racing Driver David Coulthard even as he retains a lucrative contract with Red Bull. I trust they will run the story on Sunday. Also, was alerted to this call for diversity feedback from the BBC. It seems Amanda Rice, BBC Head of Diversity, wants to know what YOU think about how the BBC tackles this subject. Please, let her know - tomorrow is the deadline! I've gone through the questionaire and added my tuppence worth - some of the questions are a hoot! Matt Frei simply cannot help himself. In his latest blogpost, he reveals his political bias when he says this: I’ve been reading Melanie Phillips’s address to Ariel Conference on Law and mass Media, 30 December 2010. I find long articles more user-friendly read straight from the page like in the olden days, so I printed this one off. Whichever way floats your boat, do read it. The commonplace dismissal of her as Mad Mel had me stumped. How could such an eloquent, logical thinker be considered mad? I now see this ill-chosen soubriquet as the contemporary equivalent of mankind’s reception to the proposition that the world’s a sphere. An insight likely dismissed as bonkers by those who clung obstinately to the notion that the earth was flat. Now we know it’s round, it seems we are still looking for ways to fall off it. I’m saying Mel is right, and the naysayers just don’t get it. If you follow the saga of Middle East, and you know something of the complex political and religious situation, you’ll understand Melanie Phillips’s words of wisdom; to you, her language will sparkle and resonate. But many will be mystified, because the selective reporting dished up by the monolithic organisation that is obliged to ‘inform, educate and entertain’, has left an uninterested, misled, misinformed audience out in the cold, and they’re the ones who dismiss her words as inflammatory, scaremongering hyperbole. Many well-intentioned people say Israel has a right to exist, but not to defend herself, or that things would be easier if Israel was ‘not there’, or that Moslems are the new Jews. I don’t know if the eradication of Israel, or the extinction of Jews would bother them much, but I do know that being thought antisemitic bothers them a great deal. People often question the Arabs’ contribution to mankind’s development, and accuse them of stagnating, from the 6th century to the present day. But there is one area where their creativity and innovation is unsurpassed, an area as contemporary as could be; by deft management of public relations and presentation they have turned everything upside down, and seduced the world into doing the same. “The Arabs brilliantly reconfigured the Arab war of extermination against Israel as the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel.” As the process of appeasement and whitewashing of Islamism gets more and more indefensible, and as the demonisation of Israel gets more and more incompatible with the evidence, the truth must surely dawn, the penny must surely drop, and things must surely right themselves. But is there time to sit back and wait? Society currently finds itself "immersed in a total inversion of truth evidence and reason," Melanie says. Israel has allowed itself to be pushed into a defensive position, and she urges it instead to bolster the efficacy of its strikers. (The football terminology is mine.) The media must be recaptured and put to work for the home team. It must inform the misinformed, re-educate the ill-educated, and somehow scoop up the bigots and ineducable and carry them along with the tide. There is a long way to go. This morning Jeremy Bowen and Wyre Davies did their bit towards putting the case for the opposition. Wyre regurgitated the misconception that settlement building in ‘illegally occupied Palestinian land’ is the obstacle to peace, and Jeremy announced triumphantly “There’s been a steady toll of Palestinian deaths in Gaza at the hands of Israelis since the January 2009 war........ and rocket fire into Israel has been increasing recently.” Someone from the LSE, professor Fawaz Gereges completed the anti Israel triumvirate. This is not balance. At least the people who object to Israel’s point of view being aired, in any shape or form, will be happy. By drawing attention to the reporting omissions and bias of the BBC, we endeavour to redistribute the imbalance, and turn its far-reaching influence over the worldwide audience from negative to positive. Some hopes.
CRACKED RECORD...
SOMETHING'S BEEN MAKING ME BLUE...
>> THURSDAY, JANUARY 06, 2011
He said the corporation needed to be ‘refocused’ and had ‘strayed from the straight and narrow’. Sir David, who recently presented his first show for Sky, said it was vital that the licence fee-funded BBC represented ‘the highest aspirations of our society’.
Well, I don't think much of this. Of course the bloated BBC is too big, and of course it has strayed away from the original intent. But sails do not need to be trimmed, as he puts it. The vessel needs sunk. Further, the "license-fee" is an anachronistic obscenity which must end now.THOSE EVIL BANKERS! (cont)
DIVERSITY....
Matt Frei's Partisan Humor
I know John Boehner has the Tea Party Taliban breathing down his neck
Ha, ha, very droll. Just one more bit of slander from a BBC employee. I'm sure Helen Boaden is proud. Not to mention the fact that Frei's piece is generally a humorous dressing down of the new Speaker of the House. You know, I don't recall Frei or any other Beeboid doing something even remotely similar about Nancy Pelosi, or, in fact, any Democrat. No, all their "humor" is reserved for Republicans. And what a surprise - Nancy Pelosi made a snide remark about the size of Boehner's gavel, just like Frei and BBC North America editor, Mark Mardell. However, Pelosi made her remark on the floor of the House of Representatives, while in session, as she handed over the gavel to him. Pretty crass, yet the BBC's humor is reserved for the Republican who exhibited far more class than Pelosi or any Beeboid. While Frei and Mardell and other partisans focused on superficial personal details of the Republican, they missed an opportunity to inform you of the difference between the outgoing Speaker and the new one. Pelosi gave a little speech before she handed the gavel over, and Boehner gave one after receiving it. Both speeches can be viewed in full here. Pelosi's speech was full of self-aggrandizement, celebrating herself. Not only that, but she crowed about the Democrats' recent accomplishments, the very ones which led to her party getting soundly defeated last November, as if she has no connection to reality. In contrast, Boehner was more humble, more grounded: “The American people have humbled us. They have refreshed our memories as to just how temporary the privilege to serve is. They have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them. That includes this gavel, which I accept cheerfully and gratefully, knowing I am but its caretaker. After all, this is the people’s House. This is their Congress. It’s about them, not us. What they want is a government that is honest, accountable and responsive to their needs. A government that respects individual liberty, honors our heritage, and bows before the public it serves.”
Yet Matt Frei and his colleagues see fit only to ridicule. As we've seen over the last few days, the Beeboids are deathly afraid of the non-Left's new-found strength. They view Boehner and the Republican majority in the House as a threat to the President. In fact, they're so afraid that they seem to be exaggerating reality. Frei's interview with Tom Cole (video at the bottom of his post) is an example. Here's his description of the interview: Today, I spoke to Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma about the party's plans for their new power.
Power? They control the proceedings in one House of Congress, not both, and certainly don't control the Presidency. They can't do all that much without actual bi-partisan cooperation. But the Beeboids are afraid. Naturally, the first words out of Frei's mouth are about the size of Boehner's gavel. His line of questioning begins by assuming that the Republicans will be hyper-partisan. Then Frei sneers at Boehner's humble speech. Rep. Cole, fortunately, corrects Frei every step of the way. Every single question is an attack, and nearly every answer begins with a variation of "No, actually...." Matt Frei's partisanship is clear. This is the man who leads the BBC's nightly news broadcast targeted directly at the US (BBC World News America), and is a main conduit between the license fee payers and news about US issues. I'd say "caveat emptor", but as you're forced to pay for the BBC it's not appropriate.Mad World
BOX AND COX
I see Roger Harrabin and Richard Black - both main environment reporters at the BBC - as a rather sinister version of a modern-day Box and Cox act. Roger does his bit, then up pops Richard, spouting from the same hymn sheet. And here, in type, and on time, is Richard Black - aided by BBC weatherman Darren Bett (and Met Office slave), who, in his own words, became an "environmental scientist" because he didn't have the grades to become a doctor - softening us up to tell us that despite December being the coldest for a century, we are at the end of the warmest year on record. Actually, Mr Black and Mr Bett, despite your certainty that cold swallows don't make summers, that's not as open and shut as you so strongly claim. Try here, here, , here and here. Of course, reporters such as Mr Black and so-called scientists like Mr Bett don't do such humble research or mention such doubts; they already know - in their greenie fervour and lofty towers - what the narrative is and will invariably be. A ray of hope, though, is here. Climate scare stories are on the decline. Could our very own Box and Cox be for the chop? (Picture of a production of C19 production of Box and Cox from Wikipedia)
Friday, 7 January 2011
Well, bless my soul, but BBC stalwart David Attenborough - having moved to Sky - has attacked the BBC for becoming too big, claiming its ‘sails need to be trimmed’.
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