Gerard Henderson’s Media Watchdog digs up a few choice bones. On the topic of the Sydney Institute, the Salby talk is likely to be good next week, he has examined the role of the oceans as carbon sinks that buffer the level of CO2 in the air. Not good news for warmies.
Mrs Bunyip has been swallowed by the public health system in Victoria.
This has run in the Forum but in case anyone missed it, be sure to listen to this Alan Jones interview re Julia Gillard and the crooked trade unionist, the story that cost the jobs of journalists and revealed the totalitarian tendencies of this ALP administration.
Congratulations to William Easterly, winner of the Adam Smith Award for 2013. He has worked on Third World development problems in the free market tradition of Lord Peter Bauer.
Peter Klein looks at entrepreneurs and the auteur theory of film, the battle between heroic film-makers with artistic integrity and the money-grubbing capitalist studios.
Apropos a previous thread.
Irena Sendler
Died 12 May 2008 (aged 98)
Warsaw, Poland
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a plumbing/sewer specialist.
She had an ‘ulterior motive’.
She KNEW what the Nazi’s plans were for the Jews (being German).
Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger children).
She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto.
The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the infants’ noises.
During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 children/infants.
She was caught, and the Nazi’s broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely.
Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard.
After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family.
Most had been gassed. Those children she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was not selected.
President Obama won one year before becoming President for his work as a community organizer for ACORN
Anne
20 Jul 12 at 7:34 pm
Movies are entertainment not high culture, that is why the compact highly structured work of masters like Hitchcock in his prime (40s and 50s) will endure while Welles’s will not.
Welles’s high reputation has always been a mystery to me; the brilliance of Citizen Kane I’m afraid goes over my head. The first time I saw it I fell asleep about a third way through. So he took interior shots low down to show a ceiling — big deal.
manalive
20 Jul 12 at 7:58 pm
Anne
It is a tale of incredible courage. However she was nominated in 2007. And it gets better. The winner was the IPCC!!!
If you made it up no one would believe you.
Anon
20 Jul 12 at 7:59 pm
Anne,
I can’t remember exactly where I read this, but I think the sentiment was expressed in a line from a Les Murray poem that ‘justice to be real requires an afterlife’ – I wish Irena God.
Thanks for the insight, Les.
ella
20 Jul 12 at 8:16 pm
Brilliant line. Is it a paraphrase from Suspended Vessels? (just went searching for it)
I think it goes to the heart of modern western man’s devotion to an all-nurturing big govt. God may turn out to be the healthier delusion.
The Moronic Lodge
20 Jul 12 at 8:54 pm
Anne,
Have any raw data to support your assertions ?
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:07 pm
Louis, you can look up Irena Sendler on wikipedia for a start.
wreckage
20 Jul 12 at 9:12 pm
“Justice to be real requires an afterlife”
Please explain.
Otherwise it implies that whatever one does in the here and now, is irrelevant because final jurisdiction occurs in the after-life.
The problem lies in the idea that there is an afterlife in the first place.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:19 pm
Wreckage,
That’s a quasi-strawman response – all I am asking is for the raw data that the interpretation was based on.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:24 pm
Justice isn’t real unless there’s an afterlife? Who knew?
No need to pursue justice today, then. Ho-hum.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 9:24 pm
Of course there is! What if God forgives the bastards?
wreckage
20 Jul 12 at 9:28 pm
Louis, think of the millions who do Gods work for the term of their life and do not get rewarded by the Nobel committee. They watch Philip Adams and Germaine Greer get gongs and AO’s.
Do they care? No.
Their reward comes from the beauty they bring and the rewards they see beyond this life (this has nothing to do with that pervert jihadist distortion).
Token
20 Jul 12 at 9:31 pm
Wreckage,
The idea that God forgives is the issue. It allows perdition to be applied in the here and now on the basis of future salvation.
Why I regard the New Testament as the Neo-Roman empire’s slave management procedure manual.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:35 pm
Good point. I’m in.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 9:35 pm
Justice does appear to require an objective moral order. What does that require?
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 9:36 pm
I seem to have started something.
Urghhhh.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:36 pm
Reason and society
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 9:39 pm
dover_beach,
Best described as the 10 Commandments and a firm understaning of them. These are not religion specific.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:40 pm
And Reason is going just beautifully in our society at the moment.
The Moronic Lodge
20 Jul 12 at 9:42 pm
Abu,
society is a precondition, but reason is, often, problematical, as an explanation for observed human behaviour.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:42 pm
Hmm. Good point.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 9:45 pm
Although, actually, if we can agree on the definition of justice then those unreasonable acts likely fall outside of a reasonable, just society.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 9:47 pm
Abu,
Human activity can be classed into 2 categories – biological and “human”.
The biological is simply understood as the urge to continue breathing unhampered, for example. To defececate or pee when needed, assuming existing cultural mores. No one argues over those facts.
Mises pointed out another important idea – that what distinguished a “human” from an animal is the human’s ability to abstain from “instinctive” behaviour.
It’s this dichotomy that seems the problem.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:54 pm
Well, no, that’s the assumption that suffering now will pay-down deserved suffering later. The ancient Hebrews didn’t believe that, I’m pretty sure the Rabbinical tradition doesn’t, Reformation Protestantism doesn’t in any formulation, and Catholicism can sort of sound like it does… but actually doesn’t.
The Flagellantes were well into it. I don’t think anyone considers them orthodox though.
wreckage
20 Jul 12 at 9:54 pm
In this life power trumps justice most of the time. It is not until the veneer of power has been removed that true heroes can be revealed. Hence the need of an after life for justice to be received.
Biota
20 Jul 12 at 9:56 pm
Abu,
by definition unreasonable falls outside our definition. Unreasonable acts are those driven by biology itself, then.
Is that your understanding ?
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 9:57 pm
Right, I did say Catholic, but I was standing inside an elaborate chalk-and-salt circle as prescribed by Dee, so when Patton appears I will be protected.
I pity the rest of you though.
wreckage
20 Jul 12 at 9:58 pm
Are you guys kind of working on reinventing the distinction between Natural Law and “nature” as the survival impulses of biology?
wreckage
20 Jul 12 at 9:59 pm
Although, actually, if we can agree on the definition of justice then those unreasonable acts likely fall outside of a reasonable, just society.
Why should an objective moral order require our agreement?
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 10:01 pm
wreckage:
And your point is ????
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 10:01 pm
I was also working on an invocation to the Paddington succubus, but you’ve tipped it off. Spoil sport.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 10:04 pm
Dover: yes, indeed. More good 1st year philosophy revision.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 10:05 pm
Dover,
That means acceptance of God.
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 10:07 pm
Certainly makes things simpler.
Driftforge
20 Jul 12 at 10:17 pm
Thanks manalive, nice to see a comment related to the post:)
This thread appears to be functioning in lieu of the Forum. Just wait a couple of hours guys!
Poor Old Rafe
20 Jul 12 at 10:33 pm
Abu, if you get a chance buy the following book, of which there is a good review in the 22 July 2011 TLS by Anthony Kenny (behind a paywall).
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 10:35 pm
Sorry Rafe, but I’ve already recommended Hendo’s fisking of Burnside in the Open Thread once Abu notified all and sundry that this weeks edition was posted.
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 10:39 pm
Simplifying things further,
Yes,
Louis Hissink
20 Jul 12 at 10:41 pm
And we all know how that worked out for both parties.
Anon
20 Jul 12 at 10:47 pm
Thanks Dover. Will look into it.
Abu Chowdah
20 Jul 12 at 10:55 pm
In the spirit of commenting on the post, last year I downloaded & listened to the previous talk that Murry Salby gave at the Sydney Institute (on the variablity of naturally occuring Co2 & it causes).
Some brillant research that turns a lot of recent climate theory on it’s head. Well worth listening to next weeks talk & but definitely listen to last year’s talk as well, can’t recommend it enough.
Richard D
20 Jul 12 at 10:57 pm
Polish citizens have most medals of Righteous among the Nations, given by the State of Israel to non-Jews who saved Jews from extermination during the Holocaust. As of 2011, there are 6,266
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Righteous_among_the_Nations
In 1965, Sendler was recognized an one of the Righteous among the Nations. Only in that year did the Polish communist government allow her to travel abroad to receive the award in Israel.
I would rate Righteous among the Nations well above a peace prize. most of the Polish winners acted despite the risk of the Nazi execution of their entire families.
Jim Rose
20 Jul 12 at 11:11 pm
Jim, the Poles really did produce a batch of extraordinary individuals, none more so than Maximilian Kolbe.
dover_beach
20 Jul 12 at 11:25 pm
Father Kolbe was originaly beatified as a confessor.
while his ultimate self-sacrifice of his life was most certainly saintly and heroic, he was not murdered out of hatred for the Faith
Pope John Paul II when deciding to canonize him, overruled the commission he had established, which agreed with the earlier assessment of heroic charity.
the pope wanted to make the point that the systematic hatred of whole categories of humanity propagated by the Nazis was inherently an act of hatred of religious faith, meaning Father Kolbe’s death equated to martyrdom.
Must give john paul II great credit for that decision.
Jim Rose
20 Jul 12 at 11:34 pm
Larry Pickering gives his version of the alleged Gillard/Wilson scam at the Pickering Post. Much of Alan Jone’s program was a paraphrase of Pickering’s account. There are still revelations appearing and people prepared to testify.
Cold-Hands
20 Jul 12 at 11:37 pm
I’d have to agree- any award that values Al Gore and the IPCC frauds above Irena Sendler is clearly not worth a brass razoo.
Cold-Hands
20 Jul 12 at 11:41 pm
Cold-Hands, a litttle over the top.
the nobel prize goes to many armchair peacemakers.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Righteous_among_the_Nations_by_country
one was a japanese consul who issued 6,000 visas to travel to japan to join the russian jewish community that lived under the protection of the japan’s government.
Jim Rose
21 Jul 12 at 12:08 am
If you look at the Nobel Peace Laureates since 2001, you’ll find that the award recipients often fail to comply with Alfred Nobel’s stated selection criteria (“to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” ), and sometimes have been selected on the flimsiest of resumes.
2001: United Nations & Kofi Annan “for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world” Yeah, right.
2002: Jimmy Carter- enough said.
2003: Shirin Ebadi Iran “for her efforts for democracy and human rights. She has focused especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children.”
-who?
2004: Wangari Muta Maathai Kenya “for her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace”
-all very earnest but looks like an award make for political correctness.
2005: International Atomic Energy Agency & Mohamed ElBaradei -because they did such a good job with Pakistan, Iran and North Korea.
2006: Muhammad Yunus & Grameen Bank. “for advancing economic and social opportunities for the poor, especially women, through their pioneering microcredit work”- hardly fits the terms of Nobel’s will.
2007: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change & Al Gore -shonks and carpetbaggers.
2008: Martti Ahtisaari Finland “for his efforts on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts” possibly a valid award.
2009: Barack Obama “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” Another Politically correct appointment. Obama had done nothing to warrant this award.
2010: Liu Xiaobo, China “for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”. OK I suppose.
2011: Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia; Leymah Gbowee, & Tawakel Karman, Yemen “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”
Hmmm…
It is hard not to conclude that the recent recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize are selected using a totally different set of parameters than Nobel intended, and that consequently the prestige and stature of the prize has been diminished accordingly.
Cold-Hands
21 Jul 12 at 8:50 am
What are you telling us Cold Hands? A bunch of lefties, lego are blissfully ignoring the PC migration policies has handed large areas of their cities to welfare sponging zealots with no intention to learn their language or culture, would pervert the will of one the will of one the industrial age’s great capitalists?
Lefties role in the cycle of civilisation is to destroy the culture that nurtures them. It’s our role to build new structures & preserve the best of the existing.
Token
21 Jul 12 at 9:19 am
LegowhileToken
21 Jul 12 at 9:21 am
Louis, Justice is Dirty Harry.
cohenite
21 Jul 12 at 9:47 am
Yasser Araft was the best Peace Prize winner.
Richard, do you have a link for Salby’s talk last year?
On the topic of mighty Poles, check out Stanislav Andreski!
Poor Old Rafe
21 Jul 12 at 10:26 am
Rafe,
Try here:
http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/podcast/global-emission-of-carbon-dioxide-the-contribution-from-natural-sources/
If that doesn’t work (because of my complete lack of computer skills) it is a Sydney institute podcast – 2 Aug 2011
Richard D
21 Jul 12 at 1:08 pm
if you look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Peace_Prize_laureates quite a few winners have been lost in the mist of time in terms of who they were and why they won
Jim Rose
21 Jul 12 at 2:59 pm
At least you now admit your religiosity is purely instrumental, even if you don’t realize it, yourself.
Peter Patton
21 Jul 12 at 4:39 pm
What is my religiosity an instrument of?
dover_beach
21 Jul 12 at 4:44 pm
The answer to that dear boy is more rightly the object of your own ruminations, rather than my instruction. Though if the former befuddles you, the latter is at-the-ready. Just let me know.
Peter Patton
21 Jul 12 at 4:51 pm
Since it’s your diagnosis the former would be speculative.
dover_beach
21 Jul 12 at 5:01 pm