New Flag for Australia?

This is my preferred version.

Simply remove the Union Flag from the top left hand corner and move the Federal Star to visually balance the Southern Cross. A white Federal Star and a white Southern Cross on a dark blue background – beautiful. Simple, distinctive and retains continuity with the current flag.

Here's a green and gold version:

It works, although my personal preference is for the blue version. Actually, various combinations of blue and gold work quite well:

Here's a variation which includes elements of the Aboriginal Flag. I don't think it quite works. In any case, we would need to be sure that the Aboriginal people were happy with this:

Arguing with Pigeons

Regarding the science of Climate Change

• That CO2 and certain gases trap heat in the atmosphere is established science which has been known since the late 19th century.
• That the concentration of CO2 has increased by about one third since pre-industrial times is also well established. It has been possible to measure the comncentration directly since the 19th century and the science to determine concentrations in the remote past (e.g. from ice cores) is well-established.
• An analysis of the prevalence of different isotopes of carbon in atmospheric CO2 indicates that the increase has come from burning fossil fuels, not volcanoes or any alternative source. See http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2004/12/how-do-we-know-that-recent-cosub2sub-increases-are-due-to-human-activities-updated/

Now if a Climate Scientist were able to come up with rigorous research, testable theories, models /mechanisms and calculations that indicated that in spite of the anthropogenic changes to concentrations of CO2, the global temperature will not rise significantly and the climate will not be adversely affetced, and had this published in a reputable, peer-reviewed scientific journal, there might be a debate. In fact, such a scientist and the institution that they worked for would be on the receiving end of rivers of gold from the fossil fuel industry.

So why are the deniers relying on clowns like ‘Lord’ Monckton, bloggers and writers with little or no scientific training, plus a few with scientific qualifications that are only peripherally or not at all related to climate science (e.g. Bob Carter – Marine Geology; Frederick Seitz – Physics)? Why are they reduced to hacking emails? Or poring through 8,000 page IPCC reports looking for typos? Can’t they find credible climate scientists to support them?

They are like creationists – they know the answer, they just need retrofit the evidence or ignore any that contradicts their faith. And arguing with a creationist is, as they say, like arguing with pigeons: 

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/4722822/Pretty+accurate+description/

Anyway, the pigeons will claim victory regardless.

Australia's Asylum Seeker Policy

We hear a lot from various Australian Coalition Government Ministers, MPs and supporters about how the purpose of the tough asylum seeker policy is to 'stop people from drowning'. The latest was Malcolm Turnbull (Communications Minister) on the ABC panel show 'Q & A' tonight (10/2/2014). They also talk about the integrity of our immigration program (some validity there) and the 'security of our borders'.

Rubbish. The Coalition has always tried to whip up moral panic over the issues. Our now Immigration Minister in Opposition issued press releases informing us about the supposed threat posed by asylum seekers - supposedly carriers of dread diseases, possible terrorists and would-be criminals who needed to be kept under police surveillance.

The purpose of the Coalition’s Asylum Seeker policy is to get racist bogans, and others who aren’t
racist but who have a blind spot about immigration and multiculturalism, to vote for policies they would not normally support. After all, few of them are free market ideologues who believe in:

1. Privatisation (so increased cost and reduced service levels from services now provided by the Federal Government -  privatise profits and socialise the losses);
2. Dismantling Medicare;
3. Putting downwards pressure wages and conditions for workers;
4. Transferring wealth up the socioeconomic scale;
5. Transferring more of the taxation burden to the GST and to PAYE employees;
6. Trashing the environment where ‘necessary’ to increase corporate profits;
7. Withdrawing from action on climate change;
8. Winding back public health care and public education to third rate safety nets for the very poor (numbers of whom will increase the longer the Coalition stays in office.);
9. Nobbling and eventually dismantling the ABC and SBS (the Coalition doesn’t like them and they compete too effectively with Rupert Murdoch and their other media mates);
10. In foreign relations and trade, unconditional support for the policies and positions of the USA. So many Liberal voters will get a shock when the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) starts to bite. Maybe a reduced Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) for a start.
11. Nobbling the National Broadband Network (NBN) so that it doesn’t detract from the profitability of Rupert Murdoch’s investment in Pay TV and Online media.