Kevin Rudd Lives Up To (My) Expectations

Well there you have it. Kevin Rudd is as much as scumbag as John Howard.

It didn’t take long for his true colours to show. A year after he was elected on a campaign which had a strong focus on climate change action, he has totally ignored Ross Garnaut’s recommendations of 5 per cent per year and decided we’ll settle on 5 per cent by 2020 or 15% if the rest of the world falls into line. Let me remind you that Kevin Rudd COMMISSIONED the report from Garnaut in the first place. He used it as a tool to help him win the 2007 election – and then completely and utterly ignored it.

What a complete cunt.

I, of course, saw this coming and didn’t vote for him. I’ve been convinced for a long time that both parties are just as corrupted as each other. They are both controlled by the elite – ie, the seriously wealthy and powerful folks who really run things. And these people don’t want change. They live for the next quarterly results. They are mostly in their 60s and 70s and don’t care if the world goes to hell in a handbasket by 2020 – cuz they know they won’t be around. They are in it for themselves.

To those of you who voted for Rudd – how do you feel?

To those of you who are as pissed off and angry as I am – what are we going to do about it?

G’Day World #332 – Peter Singer, The Great Ape Project

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My guest today is Peter Singer.

Peter Singer

He is the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University, and laureate professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), University of Melbourne. Outside academic circles, Singer is best known for his book Animal Liberation, widely regarded as the touchstone of the animal liberation movement.

I invited him onto the show to talk about the recent news from Spain that they will soon probably extend basic legal rights to all non-human hominids, an idea that has been driven by an organization that Peter co-founded, The Great Ape Project. We also talk about the basic ethics of utilitarianism and how the best thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is to stop eating meat.

The G’Day World theme music:

End of DaysConquest
“Secrets of Life” (mp3)
from “End of Days”
(Dark Star Records)

More On This Album

G’Day World Video – Peter Ellyard discusses “Designing 2050”

I had the pleasure once again today to catch up with Dr Peter Ellyard, Australia’s leading futurist, one of our most popular public speakers and, of course, author of the historic first book published by TPNTXT:

“Designing 2050: Pathways to sustainable prosperity on spaceship earth”.

The auction for two signed proof copies of the book can be found here. The auction ends 15-Jun-08 22:11:27 AEST.

You can buy a new copy of “Designing 2050”, either in paperback or ebook format, here.

Watch the video interview:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_iRu1uOx8A&hl=en&fs=1]

JohnQ5 on Global Warming

If you haven’t seen this video yet, then watch it now. It’s a presentation of a basic analysis on the consequences of getting our position on climate change right or wrong. The arguments contained within it might be useful when you find yourself in a debate with someone who is still arguing against taking significant action.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI]

(thanks for Des Paroz for the link)

Cam’s World 26 June, 2007

Half the time I try to open a Microsoft Word attachment in my email (which is Gmail through the browser) I get this error message:

Word fails

Windows doesn’t seem to know that Word is the application to open a .doc. Anyone else seen this? Damn annoying!

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If you want to know what carbon trading is all about, listen to The Cleantech Show #007: Understanding Carbon Offsets – Interview with Jeff Angel, Total Environment Centre. It’s an excellent overview. Well done Nick!

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Cam’s World 30 April, 2007

While I was working out today I watched “Land Of The Dead“, George Romero’s 2005 4th zombie flick, starring Aussie actor Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper, Asia Argento and John Leguizamo. What a great way to pass a couple of hours of otherwise-boring exercise.

Two things I loved in particular with the “Making Of” doco.

1. Romero talking about how Hopper decided he wanted to play the part of the bad guy, Kaufman, as Donald Rumsfeld and the way Romero yells “Exactly! This is about the Bush administration!” Too many directors are oh-so-politically correct (even now!), but not George, oh no. He tells it like it is!

2. The other thing I loved was George’s glasses:

George Romero has the coolest old man glasses

When I saw the Ocean’s 13 trailer, with Elliott Gould wearing the same glasses, George Burns glasses, I said “I’ve got to have some!”

Elliott Gould does too

Anyone know where I can get some? Without real lenses of course. I have 20/20 vision (not like the rest of you geeks out there… how come I’ve read more books than the rest of you put together, I sit in front of a PC all day, and I *still* have 20/20?).

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Kevin Rudd is pitching himself at the ALP conference as “Mr 21st Century”. Yet, at the same time, he is content to wear his Anglican Christianity on his sleeve. I find it impossible to take anyone seriously who tries to position themselves as 21st century yet clings openly to a 2000 year-old mythology about a miracle worker who could fly.

That said, I admire his cojones in commissioning an Australian version of the Stern report. Do we really *need* another Stern report though? Isn’t one Stern enough Stern? Let’s face it – we call know not doing anything about climate change will be BAD. REALLY BAD. And those that continue to dispute that issue, aren’t going to be convinced by one more report, any more that Rudd will drop his Christianity by one more book pointing out that there is no evidence to support his mystery faith. It’s a waste of money.

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I see Dom Carosa’s been busy launching yet ANOTHER new site – NICE SHORTS. I stumbled on this (yes, using Stumble Upon) last night and watched a great clip by up-and-coming Aussie filmmaker Gabriel Dowrick.
His short film, “The Lord Is My Shotgun” is very impressive. I’ve got Gabe coming on G’Day World later in the week for a chat. I think he’s about 21 and has made something like 20 short films as well as a recent straight-to-dvd zombie slasher horror feature called “Nailed”.

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Did TWO – count ’em – TWO workouts today. 45 minutes on the xtrainer at 9am and then another 30 minutes at 5pm. Don’t want to be a fatblogger. I cannot for the life of me get interested in working out at 6am, so I tend to wake up, do email for a few hours, take the kids to school, and THEN get on the machine. And watch zombie flicks. I can pretend I’m running away from the flesh-eating zombies. SPEAKING of which… am I the only person who is surprised that with those rotten teeth they all seem to have, the zombies still manage to rip huge chunks of flesh, tendon and bone out of their victims? Shouldn’t their teeth just fall out when they try? Now there’s an idea for a postmodern zombie flick – the zombie’s attack, their teeth fall out, and everyone falls over laughing while the zombies spend the rest of the film trying to gum people to death….

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