The Australian Government’s human scarecrow.

Tim Flannery has had years of practice trying to terrify us into thinking human-made climate change will destroy the Earth, says Andrew Bolt. TIM Flannery has just been hired by the Gillard Government to scare us stupid and I can't think of a better man for the job. This Alarmist of the Year is worth every bit of the $180,000 salary he'll get as part-time chairman of the Government's new Climate Commission.

It is alleged that Tim Flannery is on $3,600 a week of our taxpayer’s money for working just three days a week making up more BS. With remuneration like this no wonder he is toeing the government line.

For those who haven’t read Andrew Bolts article in the “Herald Sun” – “It pays to check out Tim Flannery's predictions about climate change,” here is part of it. To read the full article click here and scroll down to where you left off. - Werner

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His job is simple: to advise us that we really, truly have to accept, say, the new tax on carbon dioxide emissions that this Government threatens to impose. This kind of work is just up the dark alley of Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, that bible of booga booga.

He's had years of practice trying to terrify us into thinking our exhausts are turning the world into a fireball that will wipe out civilisation, melt polar ice caps and drown entire cities under hot seas.

Small problem, though: after so many years of hearing Flannery's predictions, we're now able to see if some of the scariest have actually panned out. And we're also able to see if people who bet real money on his advice have cleaned up or been cleaned out.

So before we buy a great green tax from Flannery, whose real expertise is actually in mammalogy, it may pay to check his record. Ready? In 2005, Flannery predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in as little as two years because global warming was drying up the rains, leaving the city "facing extreme difficulties with water". Check Sydney’s dam levels today: 73 per cent. Hmm. Not a good start.

In 2008, Flannery said: "The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009." Check Adelaide’s water storage levels today: 77 per cent.

In 2007, Flannery predicted cities such as Brisbane would never again have dam-filling rains, as global warming had caused "a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall in some areas" and made the soil too hot, "so even the rain that falls isn't actually going to fill our dams and river systems ... ".

Check the Murray-Darling system today: in flood. Check Brisbane’s dam levels: 100 per cent full. All this may seem funny, but some politicians, voters and investors have taken this kind of warming alarmism very seriously and made expensive decisions in the belief it was sound. So let's check on them, too.

In 2007, Flannery predicted global warming would so dry our continent that desalination plants were needed to save three of our biggest cities from disaster.

As he put it: "Over the past 50 years, southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming . "In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane , water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months." One premier, Queensland 's Peter Beattie, took such predictions - made by other warming alarmists, too - so seriously that he spent more than $1 billion of taxpayers' money on a desalination plant, saying "it is only prudent to assume at this stage that lower-than-usual rainfalls could eventuate".

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My thought for today: - Werner
We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. Konrad Adenauer

Australians are led by the nose by their respective governments.

And may I add, they treat their electors like mushrooms; they keep them in the dark and feed them bullshit. They have a proclivity for telling us only what they want us to know; this is stuff they have learnt from the modus operandi manual of the Nazis.

The Australian Federal government and the Queensland state government are very much on the nose these days and the proverbial axe is hovering behind their collective necks.

The federal government inherited 42 billion dollars from the Howard coalition government. However, it didn’t take long for this grossly incompetent new Rudd Labor government to squander all the 42 billon dollars, on stimulus packages. Many more billions were borrowed for harebrained schemes like the education revolution, computers for every school kid, the building of school halls; grocery and fuel watch; the pink batts insulation scheme, which killed four installers. Just to name a few. None of those schemes were completed, but the money had gone – and sent a lot of insulation businesses broke.

Eventually, Rudd was replaced by Julia Gillard who formed a coalition of a motley crew of independents and the myopic and the tunnel-visioned Greens, God help this country when they will gain the balance of power in the Senate in July 2011. Gillard lied to the people of Australia in saying no carbon tax would be introduced by a government she would lead – now she made a somersault. It is absolutely ludicrous to tax the air we breathe, yet we would be the only country in the world doing this – what a joke.

Here is what an expert had to say about carbon dioxide. Terence Cardwell, who has spent 25 years in the Electricity Commission of NSW; said the following, I quote.

“First, coal fired power stations do NOT send 60 to 70% of the energy up the chimney. The boilers of modern power stations are 96% efficient and the exhaust heat is captured by the economisers and reheaters and heat the air and water before entering the boilers.

The very slight amount exiting the stack is moist, as in condensation and CO2. There is virtually no fly ash because this is removed by the precipitators or bagging plant that are 99.98% efficient. The 4% of energy lost is heat through boiler wall convection.

Coal fired Power Stations are highly efficient with very little heat loss and can generate massive amounts of energy for our needs. They can generate power at efficiency of less than 10,000 b.t.u. per kilowatt and cost wise that is very low.” Unquote.

To read more of what Terence Cardwell wrote click here.
What else are our governments up to, find out here.
Please read this if you want to know what they have in store for us. This fellow would have to be joking. - W.

In Queensland, the Bligh Labor government sold the state assets, is billions of dollars in the red and we have lost our Triple A Rating. Queensland suffered from extensive flooding and extensive damage from cyclone Yasi, but up to date few have been paid out by the insurance companies who are dragging the chain and trying to wriggle out of insurance payments by trying to re-define what a flood is. It is a sad state of affairs that so many people have not received any money from the 250 million dollar flood appeal. We drove to Townsville recently, which took us through part of the cyclone devastated areas and I was amazed that we didn’t see any rebuilding work in progress, yet the cyclone happened on the 3rd of March 2011.

Under Bligh, electricity prices and the cost of living in Queensland keep skyrocketing and are becoming unaffordable for many people. Will you vote for Anna Bligh again?

Bligh also mandated Water fluoridation without asking the electorate whether they want it or not. They will also remember this at election time. Queensland ain’t what it used to be. The Brigalow Corporation is another legacy of the Queensland Labor government.

Do you own your home or land? Think again. There is something rotten in the state of Queensland; it is called the Brigalow Corporation. I was made aware of this some time ago and what I learnt about this corporation scared the wits out of me. I wonder if the general public of Queensland and in particular the Labor voters know about the “Brigalow Corporation. Just Google for “Brigalow Corporation” if you want more information, but don’t do it if you haven’t got a strong heart or are easily upset.

There are two things Gillard and Bligh are good at and this is to pose for pictures. Bligh even made the front page of the Australian Women’s weekly, plus pages of photo poses. They have learned this “art” from the former Queensland premier Peter Beattie who was a self confessed “media tart.”

The people of Queensland are increasingly waking up to Bligh and Gillard and, Jim Pavey from Atherton North Queensland put it succinctly in the following letter to the editor, “The Cairns Post, our local daily newspaper. – Werner. I Quote:

True leaders will act on promises.
IN the immediate post Yasi period, you could bet on two things when you turned on the TV.

One was the images of the devastation and the affected population and the other was a concerned-looking Anna Bligh solemnly stating how she would do all within her power to assist those in need.

The people were impressed and her popularity soared. We felt that she really did care about the Far North.

Next came a visit from PM Julia Gillard and there was Anna right beside her affirming what she had stated in previous days.

Next Prince William toured the devastated areas and, you guessed it, there was a beaming Anna right beside him soaking up the limelight and again stating her intentions to "do all I can".

Now that the cameras have stopped rolling what have we got? Nothing. People still are living in tents and wait on promised assistance from our Premier, who weeks before seemed to be everywhere a TV camera was pointed.

Some voters were fooled by the seeming compassion of our post Yasi Premier, but the deafening silence and lack of action from her office since then has shown her true colours.

The press conferences, the solemn pledges, the hand-shaking with cyclone victims were little more than a publicity stunt to boost a flagging public image. And for a time it worked.

But let's not be fooled because anyone can make promises, but true leadership is when the promises are upheld and followed by action. Sadly for us all, this has not happened. – Unquote.

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My quote for today: - Werner

No matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back. - Turkish Proverb

On the road to Pottsville . . . .

Not many people in Australia would have heard the name Pottsville, nor would they have had any idea “where on earth” it was. I was one of those, until December 1972 when we met our then future son in law, Bob Hardy, who drove up to Cairns to introduce himself to us, and a few days later was getting engaged to our eldest daughter, Sonja.

Pottsville (New South Wales Australia) is about a 30 minute drive south from the Queensland/NSW border. It is a quiet coastal town with excellent beaches. The natural surrounding beauty of Pottsville is spectacular, set at the mouth of a creek with long, uninterrupted beaches. You can enjoy the breathtaking coastline, and in-land sub-tropical rainforests.

Bob grew up in Pottsville and he reminisces that in his youth it was a laidback lifestyle, and all one could do was to fish, laze at the beach or engage in sport. When we visited Pottsville for the first time in 1973 there were only about 2 dozen houses and a few small shops. Calling it a two horse village would have been more appropriate than to call it a “town.” Click on map to enlarge!

Pottsville today, is not a quaint little village anymore; it woke up from its slumber quite some time ago and is now a modern tourist town, though the laid-back ambience has been retained. One can blink and sneeze now to one’s heart content – without having to worry about driving past Pottsville and not noticing it. I hope that you enjoy my amusing little story. – Werner

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On the road to Pottsville – something extraordinary happened!

When we were in Brisbane for Bob & Sonja’s wedding, Stella, Bob’s mother, (see picture) invited us to come down to Pottsville NSW and stay a few days as her guests, while Bob and Sonja were on their honeymoon in Tasmania. Until we met Bob, we never knew that Pottsville existed. Bob had fond memories of Pottsville; it was the place where he grew up. Pottsville in those days, was only a tiny speck in the beautiful landscape of northern New South Wales, and Bob gave us strict instructions, not to sneeze or blink when we reach the outskirts of his old village – “Otherwise,” he said, “you’ll miss Pottsville and drive past it”.

We made a gallant effort and refrained from sneezing or blinking as soon as we crossed the border into New South Wales. We had no trouble finding the tiny village of Pottsville – and indeed, there were only about as many houses as I had fingers on my two hands - and perhaps a couple of toes.

Although we had our own car, Bob insisted that we take his car to drive to Pottsville. We were not sure why – but we could only assume that he thought, in case we get lost, his car will find Pottsville. However, since I had never driven a car with an automatic transmission before; this was the deciding factor for me to take Bob’s car.

As soon as we were on our way from Holland Park, where Bob & Sonja (then) lived, we noticed that every car that overtook us tooted their horn, and passengers looked at us - smiled and waved. We were overwhelmed by this “southern” friendliness and had always thought that such a thing was an endemic characteristic only North Queenslanders possessed. We off course reciprocated, true to our North Queensland tradition – and waved and smiled back at our “admirers”.

This effusive friendliness made us so ecstatic that we were just about to glow. We wondered why nothing like this had happened on our long journey from Cairns to Brisbane. This exuberant friendliness of our “fellow travellers” came to an end when we reached Pottsville - the end of our journey. A touch of sadness came over us, the tooting, the waving and the smiles had stopped. For a fleeting moment we wondered if we should have driven on and continued with this wonderful experience.

In the end, it wasn’t difficult to find Stella’s little house, she heard us pull up and met us in the street. We couldn’t tell Stella quick enough about the wonderful experience we had along the way. When we opened the car boot to take out our luggage, the mystery about the cheerful car passengers driving past was solved. On the back of Bob’s car was written in big white letters: “Just Married!"

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The moral of this story: If you want to be recognised by your fellow travellers – write the magic two words on your car boot – “Just married!”

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PS. I should also mention that when we visited Bob’s mother (August 1973) it was winter in Australia. Since we live in the tropics and we have eternal summer, with winter day temperatures fluctuating between a comfortable 24 and 28 Celsius above zero. In Pottsville, however, the night temperature came down to 15 degrees Celsius above zero, which was for us extremely cold.

So, Stella had to give us an electric blanked for the bed - and that is the reason we are still alive today and never go south in winter. – W.

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My thought for today; - Werner
Cheerfulness greases the axles of the world. Anon