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In last week's show David Deutsch took us from the metaphysics and physics of our previous shows toward chemistry, biology, cognitive human beings, and epistemology. In tonight's talk, James revisits some of the chemistry of the matter, and he recalls his personal involvement with one of the three most important ideas of the twentieth century (which were: Quantum Physics, Computation, and DNA). I particularly like the first paragraph from Watson and Crick's Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acid (Nature, 1953):
"We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D.N.A.). This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest."
Lastly, James goes on to take a look at how all that effects how different people relate to reality in different ways. People need to understand that it's not just what we think differently, that is to say: what we disagree on; it's also how we think differently, such as spatio- temporally, logico- mathematically, musico- kinesthetically, socio- linguistically, &c. You can come up with a good set of these sorts of differences: it is interesting to compare and contrast them with personality types. And the neat thing is that it doesn't matter why humans are this way, that is to say: whether God made it so or it just is so; what matters about it per se is that it is so.
Your Reader Tips are, as always, welcome in the comments.
Hey lets all watch the Greenie heads explode - from the Corner
When Cults Collide (A Continuing Series) [Andrew Stuttaford]
Well, this report from the Daily Telegraph made me laugh:
Recycling could be adding to global warming rather than reducing it, a key [UK] government adviser on waste management has said. Peter Jones suggested that an "urgent" review of Labour's policy on recycling was needed to make sure the collection, transportation and processing of recyclable material was not causing a net increase in greenhouse gases. Mr Jones, a former director of the waste firm Biffa and now an adviser to environment ministers and the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, also dismissed kerbside recycling collections in many areas as "stupid" because they mixed together different materials, rendering them useless for recycling. He suggested that much of the country's waste should simply be burnt to generate electricity.
Hey, everyone. This is a fantastic (American) ad for the pro-life position. (I'm neither American nor Catholic.) Even those who disagree with the position ought to be impressed by the aesthetic quality of the ad itself. Enjoy!
http://www.catholicvote.com/
Cindy and Bert sing "Der Hund der Baskervilles".
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like Black Sabbath to me.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAzuqngOYo
After reading about Charest and Deceit demanding more money from Harper I just wish he would say "Since 1961 Quebec has been given over $200 billion dollars by the taxpayers of Canada and has never contributed to the equalization payments of Canada, which includes your province. It is about time, with this severe economic crisis that you begin to rely on your own finances to look after your province and make the hard choices to live within your means!"
Nah, just a pipe dream, never happen.
What's this about? Are the climate freaks coming up with a new story? Reads like a combo of AGW and acid rain.
I have a serious question: Quebec has a huge land mass which is rich in resources, fabulously beautiful, unique and has many millions of people who can work and create and make opportunities for themselves just like in other provinces.
With all of these people and all of the resources WHY can't Quebec ever dig itself out of the financial hole?
Why is Quebec the only province that NEVER is anything but a have not considering they have so much to work with?
Anybody?
Lorraine: Quebec has always been a province of big government and high taxes. The large scale exodus of anglophones and head offices because of the separatist thread also did not help.
Genetics is fascinating !! Really fascinating.
Now that SDA is famous everyone wants to cash in... KATE HAS A NEW FAN @ G&M
Rod Smelser from Maple Ridge, BC, Canada writes: Joseph Bloggins from Canada writes:
....Herman Munster? From the context, this seems to be a dig at Ignatieff. The problem is that I know many people who think Harper's face, especially his eyes, remind them of some horror flic character. So best to go easy on that angle. Vladimir Layton? I have to give you credit, that's a bit more civilized than the sleazy 'Taliban Jack' stuff you get at Kate MacMillan's Muslim-bashing SmallDeadAnimals cesspool.
Posted 30/01/09 at 7:00 PM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment
Be Not Afraid
Terrorists rely on intimidation and deception. We can’t be fooled, and we must resist.
By Gabriel Ledeen
Evil’s strength lies in its ability to intimidate. I saw this truth play out during my two tours in Iraq, as al-Qaeda dominated the spirit of Anbar’s Sunni population. The mighty Sunni Awakening movement represented the rejection of the oppression and intimidation the population had been enduring at the hands of al-Qaeda. As Sheikh Abdul Sattar Abu Risha said of his movement, “We Sunnis had to convince ourselves.” After all, their instincts and traditions had told them that we were the outsiders and therefore had to be worse than al-Qaeda’s Muslim operatives. They first had to understand the evil that we—and they—were confronting, and then they could take responsibility for their lives and act decisively.
More at: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTYxMjIyMGE3MDhjMGNiZWRkMjg5Nzc0OGI4OWIxNTE=
The Pansification of Canada
Hockey Night in Canada tells Mike Milbury he can't use the word "pansification" after some in the gay community complain to HNIC and the CBC.
Click here
"2009 International Conference on Climate Change
The Heartland Institute
Welcome
More than 70 of the world’s elite scientists specializing in climate issues will confront the subject of global warming at the second annual International Conference on Climate Change in New York City March 8-10, 2009.
They will be joined by economists, legal experts, and other climate specialists calling attention to new research that contradicts claims that Earth’s moderate warming during the 20th Century primarily was man-made and has reached crisis proportions."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2175921/posts
"'We're in for a long haul' (Kentucky remians paralyzed while Obama enjoys a Super Bowl party)
Governor calls up record number of Guard troops
Some 4,600 Kentucky National Guard troops are part of a record-setting effort to dig out from a paralyzing winter storm that continues to leave hundreds of thousands Kentuckians in the dark and is being blamed on a growing number of deaths.
"We're in for a long haul here," said Gov. Steve Beshear at a Saturday night press conference at the Boone Guard Center in Frankfort. Kentucky "is in the middle of the biggest natural disaster this state has ever experienced in modern history."
Beshear said state officials have confirmed seven deaths as storm related. But, he said, a total of 21 deaths are under investigation for being caused by the fierce weather conditions.
Updated numbers of Ky. customers without power Two nursing homes and six shelters in Western Kentucky, the hardest hit area of the state, have no power."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176156/posts
Re: DNA
Peter E. Nielsen, Triple Helix: Designing a New Molecule of Life
Peptide nucleic acid, a synthetic hybrid of protein and DNA, could form the basis of a new class of drugs—and of artificial life unlike anything found in nature.
Maj. Darin J. Blatt et al., Tribal Engagement in Afghanistan
There is an ongoing discussion about the merits of engagement activities — activities between coalition military forces and foreign civilian personnel — as a means of obtaining information, influencing behavior and building an indigenous base of support for coalition and government objectives.
During a recent rotation to Operation Enduring Freedom, Special Forces A-detachments 3321 and 3315 developed models in the Paktia and Paktika provinces of what can be accomplished in terms of tribal engagement by working within the existing tribal power structure in Afghanistan. An examination of the detachments’ understanding of the operational environment and subsequent methods of engagement can provide a model for others to use throughout Afghanistan...
Thanks for the seminar, vitruvius. My interest was in Schrodinger's focus that 'the essence of life is information' and then, Watson's acknowledgment of this within the biological world that information functions both within its production and its signalling. And the two realms operate differently (production and signalling).
Watson's focus was on production: the basic nature of information as a means of controlling/defining the future of a biological entity. His focus was on the structure of informational control; the double helix 4 point code of the DNA.
There's a lot to explore in the signalling sector of this process, what causes a structure to change that structure, i.e., from a healthy basic information producer to a cancerous information producer.
However, an interesting side issue was the actual intellectual process of discovery of new ideas. Apart from the energy supplied by Watson's and Crick's competition with Pauling, there is the PROCESS of discovery. And it isn't like the linear steps of adding two and two. Instead, it proceeds via guesses and faith, with a bit of knowledge thrown in.
Peirce called it abduction, as differentiated from induction and deduction. So, based on common observation that cells function in a normative or non-random or informed fashion, a 'surprising fact' C is observed. Cells seems to have a 'crystal-like' structure in one part of their make-up.
Now, comes the hypothesis, an 'informed guess', which is, IF C (that crystal form) acts as the RULE of operation (a structured DNA), THEN, it is this particular structure of C that acts as the Agent of Information.
Abduction requires FAITH, because it is only after this hypothesis, formed out of a combination of knowledge and guesses, that the structure of the DNA acts as the agent of information that one begins to experiment and test and finally, prove the validity of the hypothesis.
O's in his heaven—All’s right with the world*.
"All of the sudden, we are the family that's, like, at the center of the universe.'"
News from The Hindu.
...-
"Obama's extended family at home in White House
Washington (IANS): Along with Barack Obama's mother-in-law Marian Robinson, a group of about 50 people from Chicago, forming the president's extended family, have visited him at the White House and more friends and in-laws plan such trips.
About 50 of Obama's friends and in-laws arrived at the White House just after midnight Jan. 20, the Inauguration Day, for what they called a "housewarming party", the Washington Post reported Sunday.
They had celebrated more than a dozen moves together over the years, usually with casual dinners in bungalows on the South Side of Chicago. This time, they wore rented tuxedos and gowns as presidential staffers ushered them past Secret Service agents and into the East Room.
Robinson came downstairs from her new bedroom, and the family reunited as celebrities and political power brokers greeted them.
About an hour into the reception, Obama returned from his whirlwind tour of 10 inaugural balls, the report said. His wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Malia and Sasha, were exhausted and went to bed but the president called over a photographer and said he wanted one final memento from the historic day.
He gathered his in-laws -- teachers, secretaries and retirees from a self-described middle-class black family in Chicago -- and posed with them beneath a portrait of George Washington.
"I was just trying to soak it all in, and then this realization hit me," Steve Shields, Michelle Obama's 57-year-old uncle, was quoted as saying. "It was like, 'Okay. This is different. All of the sudden, we are the family that's, like, at the center of the universe.'"
To help him adjust to Washington, Obama has transported an entire network of unassuming friends and in-laws from the South Side into the capital."
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200902011740.htm
(*H/T God’s in his heaven—All’s right with the world
A line sung by a little Italian girl, Pippa, in the poem “Pippa Passes,” by Robert Browning.)
Peter Berkowitz, Constitutional Conservatism
After their dismal performance in election 2008, conservatives are taking stock. As they examine the causes that have driven them into the political wilderness and as they explore paths out, they should also take heart. After all, election 2008 shows that our constitutional order is working as designed. The Constitution presupposes a responsive electorate, and respond the electorate did to the vivid memory of a spendthrift and feckless Republican Congress; a stalwart but frequently ineffectual Republican president; and a Republican presidential candidate who — for all his mastery of foreign affairs, extensive Washington experience, and honorable public service — proved incapable of crafting a coherent and compelling message.
Indeed, while sorting out their errors and considering their options, conservatives of all stripes would be well advised to concentrate their attention on the constitutional order and the principles that undergird it, because conserving them should be their paramount political priority...
Mary Eberstadt, Is Food the New S*x?
Of all the truly seismic shifts transforming daily life today — deeper than our financial fissures, wider even than our most obvious political and cultural divides — one of the most important is also among the least remarked. That is the chasm in attitude that separates almost all of us living in the West today from almost all of our ancestors, over two things without which human beings cannot exist: food and s#x...
These disciplines imposed historically on access to food and s%x now raise a question that has not come up before, probably because it was not even possible to imagine it until the lifetimes of the people reading this: What happens when, for the first time in history — at least in theory, and at least in the advanced nations — adult human beings are more or less free to have all the s^x and food they want?
"Reads like a combo of AGW and acid rain"
Zeppo at January 31, 2009 11:46
Whats Up With That has a rebuttal on the BBC ocean acidification article.
"...it will take another 3,500 years for the ocean to become even slightly acid."
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/01/31/ocean-acidification-and-corals/#more-5407
Fertilizer........meet ventilator.
General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations -- Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?CategoryId=12396&ArticleId=320909
I'm bringin' popcorn, who has chips & beer?
More digging on the GM investment in Brazil using bailout money, it is a Nov/08 story but the interesting bit will be the public reaction given that a protectionist bent seems to be creeping in.
"[I am] a socialist in ideology, a capitalist in methodology."
-Maurice Strong as quoted in Macleans.
The Red-Green Show: Rudd's "social capitalism".
Red-Greens follow the footsteps of the socialists Hitler, Stalin and Mao et al.
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"Time for a new world order: PM(Looks like the Aussies picked a real winner)
KEVIN RUDD has denounced the unfettered capitalism of the past three decades and called for a new era of "social capitalism" in which government intervention and regulation feature heavily.
In an essay to be published next week, the Prime Minister is scathing of the neo-liberals who began refashioning the market system in the 1970s, and ultimately brought about the global financial crisis.
"The time has come, off the back of the current crisis, to proclaim that the great neo-liberal experiment of the past 30 years has failed, that the emperor has no clothes," he writes of those who placed their faith in the corrective powers of the market.
"Neo-liberalism and the free-market fundamentalism it has produced has been revealed as little more than personal greed dressed up as an economic philosophy. And, ironically, it now falls to social democracy to prevent liberal capitalism from cannibalising itself."
Mr Rudd writes in The Monthly that just as Franklin Roosevelt rebuilt US capitalism after the Great Depression, modern-day "social democrats" such as himself and the US President, Barack Obama, must do the same again. But he argues that "minor tweakings of long-established orthodoxies will not do" and advocates a new system that reaches beyond the 70-year-old interventionist principles of John Maynard Keynes.
"A system of open markets, unambiguously regulated by an activist state, and one in which the state intervenes to reduce the greater inequalities that competitive markets will inevitably generate," he writes.
He urges "a new contract for the future that eschews the extremism of both the left and right"."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176247/posts
New Democrat MP said that Stephen Harper doesn't want Barrack Obama to address parliament because the Conservatives "don't want the obvious, blatant juxtaposition of a neo-conservative leader in Canada and a progressive liberal leader in the United States." He said Harper wants the "glory that is Obama" all to himself.
The headline at the Ottawa Citizen? "PM worried about being upstaged." then, in smaller print, "U.S. president, opposition says."
"U.S. president says"? Uhh, nothing in the article even begins to suggest that Barrack Obama said Stephen Harper is worried about being upstaged. In other words, Obama never said any such thing. So why "U.S. President says"?
The headline at National News Watch removes the second phrase about the opposition MP and Obama, so the header to the link is simply "PM worried about being upstaged" -- in other words, turning a specious allegation from an opposition MP into a headlined fact.
Imagine the host of possibilities that this kind of news coverage opens up. For example, if one single Conservative MP described Michael Igantieff as a pompous poseur, we could see the headine "Michael Ignatieff is a Pompous Poseur," and then in smaller print "Pope, opposition MP says." And then NNW could follow up with simply "Michael Ignatieff is a Pompous Poseur."
That's not ever going to happen, though, is it?
Scratch a liberal/environmentalist and ...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1133316/Having-children-irresponsible-warns-Government-advisor.html
Worrying part is the number of commenters that actually support this kind of thing. Most, however, have just had it with Labour, the Greenies, and Big Interfering Government in general.
"“The global warming myth is a red herring...".
Make that a Red-Green herring.
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"Some Leftists believe the collective hallucination of warmism distracts from what they consider urgent progressive priorities:
-- “The most destructive force on the planet is power-driven financiers and profit-driven corporations and their cartels backed by military might,” University of Ottawa physics professor Dr. Denis Rancourt has written. “The global warming myth is a red herring that contributes to hiding this truth.”
-- Social historian Dr. David Noble of Canada’s York University concurs. He has lamented that warmism is “diverting attention from the radical challenges of the global justice movements.”"
...-
"Murdock: Even Left Now Laughing at Global Warming
So-called “global warming” has shrunk from problem to punch line. And now, Leftists are laughing, too. It’s hard not to chuckle at the idea of Earth boiling in a carbon cauldron when the news won’t cooperate:"
"-- “In terms of (global warming’s) capacity to cause the human species harm, I don’t think it makes it into the top 10,” Dr. Robert Giegengack, former chairman of University of Pennsylvania’s Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, told the Pennsylvania Gazette. Giegengack voted for Gore in 2000, and says he likely would again.
-- Commentator Harold Ambler declared January 3 on HuffingtonPost.com that he voted for Barack Obama “for a thousand times a thousand reasons.” He added that Gore “owes the world an apology for his actions regarding global warming.” He called Gore’s assertion that “the science is in” on this issue “the biggest whopper ever sold to the public in the history of mankind.”"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2176172/posts
Pity about that tarnishing recycling halo, those of you who worship the environment...
"Recycling 'could be adding to global warming', Government advisor warns"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1130142/Recycling-adding-global-warming-Government-advisor-warns.html
Government simply has to stop trying to manage or dictate our lives to have us live within certain 'carbon' or other 'man'dated restraints. To try to do otherwise is sheer folly and arrogance.
Scratch the socialist/communists, e.g. Chavez, and what do you find?
Antisemitism.
...-
"Barbarians at the gate: the Caracas Synagogue is profaned
Venezuela News and Views"
"...The synagogue of Caracas was attacked last night by a group of pro Chavez thugs. They knew perfectly well what they were doing, they knew how to find the Torah and left taking with them the surveillance videos. The antisemitism of Chavez is now having serious consequences. Preliminary information is found here and here."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2175892/posts
Weirdness of the finest water: the Prophets, the Third Temple, and the Raelians.
Carl Hoffman, Out of this world
(The Jerusalem Post)
Obama's lawyers want to restrict Obama-inspired marketing. Good luck with that, public figure.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aY4JojiQVy4c
This is from Agence-France-Presse, not the Canadian MSM.
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"Canada congratulates Iraqi voters
OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's top diplomat, Lawrence Cannon, Sunday congratulated Iraqis for turning out in weekend provincial elections, which he called "a crucial step in Iraq's evolving political process."
"Canada congratulates the people of Iraq on the successful conduct of the provincial elections," the foreign minister said in a statement.
"Canada hopes that these elections will serve as a gateway to further peace, reconciliation and stability in the country," he said.
"These elections are a crucial step in Iraq's evolving political process," he added.
"They not only set the tone for this year's parliamentary elections, but also reshape local government by ensuring it represents the full spectrum of Iraqi society."
Turnout was at 51 percent, lower than the 55.7 percent seen in the 2005 elections, according to the Iraqi election commission chief, who said 7.5 million of the 15-million electorate cast ballots in 14 of 18 provinces.
"The significant turnout at the polls testifies to the Iraqi people's commitment to the democratic process and to advancing the public will through non-violent means," said Cannon. Canada had refused to participate in the US-led coalition to topple the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003."
urlm.in/boqa
"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty*."
...-
"N.B. school ordered to resume playing O Canada before classes
SPRINGFIELD, N.B. - A New Brunswick school has been ordered to begin playing O Canada prior to classes again.
Belleisle Elementary in Springfield stopped playing the anthem in September 2007 following complaints by two families who took issue with the practice.
A superintendent for School District 6 says a flood of calls and e-mails from across the country convinced the board to reinstate the anthem."
urlm.in/boqb
...-
*"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
ATTRIBUTION: It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt.—John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the Right of Election, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.)"
bartelby.com
See Obama in yourself -- and take a photo for our gallery
http://www.freep.com/article/20090121/OBAMAINAUGURATION10/90121013
Big Ben and the Met Office are always right on time: It's The Met's Boinnnggg Show ...
More: from the AGW Hysterical Channel: Sir John Franklin and crew eaten by Polar Bears.
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"Met Office Report Card at the 2/3 Mark
1 02 2009
Guest post by Steven Goddard
The UK Met Office forecast last Autumn “the coming winter suggests it is, once again, likely to be milder than average. ”
We have now passed the 2/3 mark of the meteorological winter, and it is time for another report card to send home.
Yesterday’s press release was titled “Wintry start to February” which stated “So far, the UK winter has been the coldest for over a decade” and “Met Office forecasters expect the cold theme to the weather to continue well into next week with the chance of further snow.”
The UK is expecting the heaviest snow in about 20 years tomorrow. “Snow and freezing weather threaten to shut down Britain Arctic blizzards are set to cause a national shutdown on Monday as forecasters warn of the most widespread snowfall for almost 20 years.” “Now is the time you’d expect to see the daffodils coming out but we’re not expecting them for two or three weeks at best if it warms up.“
So why is this important? Climate is not weather, after all. The Met Office is one of the most vocal advocates of human induced global warming, and they have gotten into a consistent pattern of warm seasonal forecasts which seemingly fall in line with that belief system. Is it possible that their forecasts are unduly influenced by preconceived notions about the climate? It is worth remembering that London had it’s first October snow in 70 years this past autumn.
Or perhaps they know exactly what they are doing, and are just having a several year run of extremely bad luck with their long term forecasting."
urlm.in/boqi (wattsup)
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"January 26, 2009
Polar bear 'stranded' on The Thames
If you went down to the Thames today you were sure of a big surprise.
This giant sculpture of a polar bear stranded on a block of ice floated 7.5 miles from Greenwich towards the centre of London to highlight the problem of melting ice caps. The bear was also promoting the launch of a new television channel dedicated to natural history.
A total of 15 artists spent two months constructing the 20ft by 20ft square structure, which was launched at 6:30am before travelling up the Thames, stopping besideTower Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. The structure weighing, 1.5 tonnes, was winched into place.
The event coincides with the Eden Channel's Fragile Earth series, presented by Sir David Attenborough.
Melting ice caps threaten the existence of polar bears as their habitat disappears. There will also be serious consequences for the two billion people who depend on glacial meltwater to feed rivers.
Sir David said: “The melting of the polar bears’ sea ice habitat is one of the most pressing environmental concerns of our time. I commend Eden for highlighting the issue; we need to do what we can to protect the world’s largest land carnivores from extinction.”"
urlm.in/boqj (timesuk)
Any sighting of Liberals*: MartinJr, Minna, Graham, et al?
STOPIGGY.
...-
"Toronto's Tamil community holds overnight protest
Toronto's Tamil community ended a week of protests with an overnight demonstration at Yonge-Dundas Square in an effort to raise awareness about Sri Lanka's deadly civil war." (ctv)
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*"SINHALAYA'S FULL COVERAGE - Canadian Liberal Party's Unholy ...
CANADA’S LIBERAL PARTY IS REMINDED ALMOST DAILY ABOUT THEIR UNHOLY ALLIANCE WITH TAMIL TIGERS Hardly a day passes these days in the Canadian press reminding ...
www.sinhalaya.com/news/english/wmview.php?ArtID=15357"
""2009 International Conference on Climate Change
The Heartland Institute"
Let's hope they get more media attention than last time (last time it was virtually nil) when it begins to look like they might be on the right track.
Still, I do not expect a breakthrough at this time. There are still far too many AGW nutters in the media.
Youtube pulled Fitna.
EBD: "turning a specious allegation from an opposition MP into a headlined fact." Exactly right.
Stephen Harper is not the type to worry about being "upstaged" by someone like Obama. Moreover, I am not sure what Obama would have to say to Parliament at this point. We have just heard (a lot) from him and we know what his views are. I might be interested in having him address Parliament a year or two down the line, but at this point I have had an overdose of Obama. I am happy he is coming to Canada to discuss issues with the Prime Minister, but I think it is time to drop the adoration, get some perspective and pay attention to what Obama will actually do. News media are risking becoming irrelevant in their failure to cover real issues.
Re: warmism is "diverting attention from the radical challenges of the global justice movements."
The REAL challenge is exposing the fraud that is the "global justice movement", or "social justice" in general. It really means anything from the nuisance nanny state to murderous Stalinist socialism.