National’s incompetence, identity politics, faulty buildings

John Scarry, a structural engineer and member of the Free New Zealand think tank, wrote this today as a contribution to a discussion of the political philosophy through which Labour views the country and its problems. It seemed good enough to me to publish, and John was good enough to let me. It’s being published here because the Free NZ website is under construction.

Identity politics

Collapse of Hard Rock Hotel, New Orleans, in October, 2019 (click to enlarge).

1. I am completely opposed to identity politics, and it is, in large part, National’s wilting before and partial surrender to identity and woke politics that has got them into their current bad polling position and is keeping them there.

2. There may be many factors (including indoctrination at school and through the media) that have so many people in awe of the likes of Ardern and Shaw, but the main factor is that these people have never been properly exposed to sound, rational and consistent counter-arguments.

3. Ardern is pathetic under pressure, but she is never subjected to real pressure. She is given a complete pass on every artificial crisis she creates for her own political benefit and to enable her to implement her dystopian plan or, more correctly, the dystopian plan that she supports. The most disappointing current example of this is Chris Bishop as the National spokesman on COVID-19. If nothing else, masks do not work – that is the undisputed science, from multiple studies over many years. Yet Ardern is allowed to impose them in order to “keep up the scare” and to enforce obedience, unopposed. Continue Reading →

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Chaos

Chaos. (Click to enlarge)

 

David Wojick of CFact just posted this essay on a newsgroup I frequent. It’s accessible, compelling and deserves wide distribution. It exposes a fatal flaw in the dangerous anthropogenic global warming hypothesis, namely: weather is chaotic and impossible to predict.

I used to lecture on the role of chaos theory in science. It does not get the attention it deserves in the climate debate. In fact climate change may be nothing more than simple chaos, in which case nothing controls it. Here is a brief explanation. Continue Reading →

Visits: 530

Usual objections to racial favouritism

David Seymour released the Māori vaccine priority code on social media along with a message encouraging anyone to use it. Yesterday’s Herald carried an opinion piece from Heather Du Plessis-Allan, who said:

Many won’t care what it takes, as long as we get those jab rates up. In the spirit of pragmatism, many may look past their usual objections to racial favouritism just to get the thing done. (emphasis added)

Continue Reading →

Visits: 143

Lots of climate belief but no reason

For God’s sake tell us the EVIDENCE!

Belief, belief is everywhere,
Yet all the proof extinct;
A strong belief fierce binds us, now
Our minds no longer think.

With apologies to Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Institutional global warming

Unshakeable belief in global warming is now permanently installed in our important (and many minor) institutions. For evidence of this, browse through recent newspapers and websites: Continue Reading →

Visits: 497