Free-range Link Farm 15-03-07

Fly-by post to some interesting links.

A great response in an LP comments thread about the Kyoto Protocol and what will come after it.
Quote: In my opinion if Australia was characterised as one person in the form of John Howard, on the issue of global CO2 emissions he would be seen as the bank robber who stole to support his life style and when caught protested to the court that it would be unfair for him to have to give up the proceeds of his crime as it would mean a drop in his living standard.

Bryan over at OzPolitics tells us why the one or two point changes in opinion polls from week to week are meaningless, and gives us some rules of thumb for interpreting the results.
Quote: The media has a vested interest in sensationalising the noise in polling sequences — a dramatic swing to a party one fortnight is headline news, and in the followed fortnight the dramatic swing back to the other party is also headline news.

AnonymousLefty draws some unflattering parallels between Japanese and Australian policy in regards to history.
Quote: No, I'm sure the country of Japan learned its lesson - which is why modern Japanese textbooks feel it's unnecessary to teach modern Japanese children about what their country really did sixty-odd years ago. Just like we in Australia don't need to teach our kids any parts of our history which we don't really want to look at too closely.

Tim Dunlop gives us a run-down of the Santoro Saga, an amusing situation for a Government who's recently been trying to attack the Opposition Leader on his supposed ethical breaches.
Quote: Eventually “remembering” that he had the shares, he tells the PM, sells his holding, in the process realising a one hundred percent profit on the deal that he forgot about, and so walks away with $6000. The PM exonerates him for his breach of the code of conduct and praises him for giving his profit on the shares to charity.
Trouble is, the charity he gives the money to isn’t a charity. It’s a rightwing lobby group called the Family Council of Queensland, Inc. Whoops again.
And now for the interesting bit. It turns out that the person who offered Senator Santoro the shares in the first place is the associate director of....you guessed it...the Family Council of Queensland, Inc., Alan Baker.

From Dave at Orcinus, a lovely collection of all the nice things major right-wing US political commentators have had to say about libuhrals. While the left can be fairly vitriolic, as Shakes points out most of the people listed here are national media figures, not just bloggers with a bug up their butt.
Quote: They are arranged by categories of eliminationism, namely: Expressing a desire or a demand for extermination, removal, or infliction of harm; identification of opponents with national enemies; identification of opponents as a target for retaliation or incarceration; expressing a desire for or approval of genocide or murder; identification with vermin or disease. Some of these overlap, and in some instances they reflected all of the above.
It seems these people are dedicated to "democracy" when it involves invading a foreign country, but not when it consists of respecting the opinions of others with differing views to express those views and, y'know, not suffer or die for them.

Speaking of Shakes, the wonderful Shakespeare's Sister (not the dodgy early 90s dog-note-singing pop duo) gives moral meddlers a little reminder about where their right to dictate other people's behavior ends, inspired by General Pace's comments about "immoral" homosexuality and the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy in the US Army.
Quote: And same-sex relationships pass the MREWYB test with flying colors. Spudsy's right to kiss and hug and love and fuck and marry and get a flat and a car and an adorable dog with his husband has absolutely no capacity to infringe on any of my rights. Or anyone else's. And the cool part about it is that it doesn't stop anyone else from complying with God's wishes as they interpret them. If your God says homosexuality is immoral, then you don't have to be gay—but the people who are gay can be as gay as the day is long, and better yet, equal to the rest of us.

Thanks to Glenn Greenwald, a downright chilling account of a luncheon (you have to click through an ad to get to the article) attended by George The Decider to honour one of his heroes, historian/historical revisionist Andrew Roberts. If you want an insight into why the hawks in the US admin continue to pursue destructive policies in the face of overwhelming domestic and worldwide condemnation, read it.

Quote: Roberts urged the president not to concern himself with these anti-American feelings, since in a unipolar world the lone superpower cannot be loved. His advice: "Get your policies right and history will prove a kind muse."

Scared yet?