If there’s one time in the recurring annual cycle of our lives when we ought to turn from despair to welcome hope, it’s Christmas/New Year. And especially so this year, when we end a decade of seemingly endless gloom and look optimistically forward to what we hope might come to be remembered in another 10 years’ time as the “Rollicking Twenties”.
But the Twenties will only rollick if we, collectively, adopt a positive attitude, and do what we can to rid ourselves of those causes of despair that we can actually control.
I don’t want to dampen the Christmas spirit by writing too much about one such cause that is within our control – the current scaremongering about so-called dangerous global warming and a consequent alleged need to restrict our lives by avoiding the use of fossil fuels – but it is the most glaring example of how we have allowed ourselves to be the victims of a gigantic hoax.
In the name of “climate change” we are being urged to subject ourselves to the certainty of greatly increased costs for electricity and transport, indeed to the probability that this infantile Labour government (in terms of grasp of science and meteorological observation) will plunge us into actual blackouts and other interruptions to our power supply. For our Prime Minister to try to persuade us that there is a “climate emergency” is at best a parody of the meaning of the word “emergency”. For her Labour colleagues to follow like sheep, as do the loony Greens, is a sad commentary on just how distant they all are from the reality that we will need if we are to fulfil the hopes we entertain for the coming decade.
But, rather than have me rant on about this, have a look here for a reminder of how wrong the doomcasters have been in recent decades:
I can’t resist repeating: on the eve of Ardern’s “climate emergency” notice of motion in Parliament, a group of New Zealand’s climate scientists led by the original arch-scaremonger, Dr Jim Salinger, released a report saying that New Zealand had warmed by a measly 0.66 of a degree Celsius in the last 150 years. The previous Saturday morning, in Ardern’s Mt Albert electorate (and the rest of Auckland) the temperature had risen by 2 whole degrees C (over three times as much) in the three hours between 9 a.m. and noon, and there wasn’t so much as a whimper about any “emergency”.
How and why are they getting away with this hoax? One of New Zealand’s top fraud investigators John Rofe (who has written guest posts on The BFD ) has tried to persuade the appropriate authorities, including Police and the Serious Fraud Office, to act against Ardern and Climate Change Minister James Shaw on the grounds that laws such as “Zero Carbon” are fraudulent, but those authorities don’t want to know, let alone act.
Even worse, is the lamentable performance of what we are forced to endure these days as New Zealand’s mainstream news media (readers of last week’s column will recall my asking if henceforth, we should refer to them as the views media?). One would have thought that a seasoned fraud investigator accusing top Ministers of fraud would be at the ‘man bites dog’ level of newsworthiness; but our views media don’t want to know either.
These days I am ashamed to admit that I was ever a journalist, such is the low esteem in which our once proud metro newspapers and TV channels are now held. My early days in the late forties and fifties were based on the principle enunciated by legendary Manchester Guardian owner/editor, C.P. Scott in the centennial issue of his great paper: “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.” His whole essay is here.
These days, unfortunately, the mantra is as summed up by Mark Twain: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed.” For a giggle during the holidays see other gems from Mark Twain.
So, to the BFD faithful, I recommend the following as your New Year’s resolution: become a subscriber to three New Media sites:
The BFD
The NZ Centre for Political Research
Kiwiblog
You can get the works of all three for about the same as a sub to one of the mainstream viewspapers, and you will remain fully informed about how our country is fulfilling its hopes for what we, together, can make the “Rollicking Twenties.” And when you do, don’t stop at the posted articles, scroll down through the comments so many of you add, which are often even more revealing than the articles on which they comment.
Enjoy!
Please share this BFD article so others can discover The BFD.