One for the Australians

[blamebrampton]

Something I noted in town today with the pro and anti carbon tax people. At the pro rally, there were people of all ages, from toddlers to the ancient.

Everyone I saw wearing Anti T-shirts later was over 55 (or a really rough looking 50).

It's like the 'protests' against the mining tax. It cost the mining industry $22 million to get rid of Kevin Rudd last year, I wonder who's bankrolling the anti carbon tax lot? Especially since they are shrieking on every telly program that will have them, but we don't even HAVE a tax yet, and the one that has been commented on as probably coming in is a business tax, for which a wide range of compensations for lower income earners are also proposed in the very likely event that businesses past on the full cost and possibly gouge a bit more.

I'm thinking of starting a political movement against power companies who have spent the last 40 years ignoring the need for investment in green energy and instead ignoring the future at the same time as increasing their profits by astronomical percentages. Call me wacky, but I think that consumers have far more reason to complain than power generators do.

Meanwhile, back in sane people land, farmers are looking at carbon sequestration using legumes, which seem to be able to increase the soil's ability to store carbon by 10% at the same time as improving their soils. Nice work!

Comments

[embolinaoz.livejournal.com]

I'll join :)

Oh and have you ever noticed that people who want positive social change look (for the most part) happy and healthy and those who want to maintain the status quo look ill and tired?
Maybe it's all that carbon!

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I did notice that the antis looked very cross when I ran across them in town, which can't have been them giving me a 'filthy hippy' scowl, because I was wearing a nice frock and heels!

[illereyn.livejournal.com]

One for the pro-carbon tax people then!

And your political movement doesn't sound wacky at all. :)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

I shall call it the Sensible Cross People Party, and anyone who cannot justify at least 87% of their beliefs on the basis of verifiable and repeatable proofs will be expelled from the party.

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

i would definitely join your 'sensible cross people party'. in fact i do right now. i'm your first member! (or... do you have an entry criteria to weed out the non-sensibles? :P)

[blamebrampton.livejournal.com]

My prior knowledge of you grants you an in -- should you turn out to be secretly mad there won't be any sort of Night of the Long Knives, more Afternoon Tea of the Disappointed Sighs ...

[mrsquizzical.livejournal.com]

i really shouldn't have sipped my (evening) tea as i read that. *snorts*

also, thank you for the in. i will endeavour to maintain my eligibility!

[ant-queen.livejournal.com]

Ooh! Pick me! I need some form of political relief. I've been feeble on an epic scale recently and have had to stop watching the news or the internet because it makes me cranky and my poor body can't cope with cranky.

Actually that would be fun, a Climate Change "beliefs" session where people say their "belief" about climate change, or carbon taxes etc.. and sane, rational people sort them into little boxes based on what kind of fallacy they are. Would be a very educative process. It doesn't help to just tell people they're wrong, they need to be shown why they're wrong. Most of the wacky beliefs around climate change aren't about the science as much as about faulty logic.

I accept a certain level of cognitive bias in people as that's just being human, but they should still be able to form a good argument and know what it is that makes an argument solid and how to identify fallacies.

There really should be some kind of mandatory induction course for politicians that covers all this and they're not allowed to speak publically until they've passed with at least 85% proficiency.

[emerald-dragon8.livejournal.com]

I would absolutely join that political movement. Every day I get closer and closer to physically tearing my hair out in frustration. :(

[ecosopher.livejournal.com]

I'm in - mostly because I'm in one of the 'low-income households' to which politicians keep referring and about which I'm not sure they're really that concerned... and I still think that it's a good idea (despite the fact that we'll probably have to tighten our belts even more - unless the proposed compensations eventuate). Plus I'm naive enough to think that if we can all put in some effort, a difference can be made and change might be accomplished.

[mabonwitch.livejournal.com]

Go farmers!

Also, I am in favor of some sort of Sensible People Party. I am not sure I'd pass the 87% criterion on religious grounds. Does it count if I do not try to convince other people of my personal unjustified beliefs? Perhaps I shall have to start some sort of auxiliary wing...

[teganscrush.livejournal.com]

I think you should take over the world in an epic coup d'etat - I'd fall happily in line. You show much more sense and empathy than any current world 'leader' as far as I can see. *loves*

[kiminii.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is enlightening 22 million huh? So about double the budget, a reasonably junior role, in local govt, in Europe, might have to play with... everything about this makes me cry just a little.

On this basis well up for joining your political party and on the subject of legumes - fab things chemically speaking from what I remember of experimenting on them at 16. Sad but true.