GenY is trying to break out

qanda tonight .

Did you notice the young geek who dared to speak heresy in church last night - couldn't close him down even with an angry boy. (" don't look at me" the blessed saint of ABC gen Y said)
In the occasional glimpses of straight talking that can happen when you have an audience that talks back, gen Y showed what they think of the baby boomers whose lack of moral moorings is covered up by empty emotional niceties .Tony treading so lightly!

Adults now move, not the left, like they like to think , but to mere emotion; their children are smart enough  to move to the right because such superficiality is so pathetic.

As usual it was a child who put the adults straight about what science and truth telling is all about,

Qanda falls into another big hole of irrelevance

Whtya expect when the polys dominate on Tony's carefully crafted collection . Go nowhere and stay stuck in popular prejudice and ignorance ( middle ground)
No bigger hole was dug than when Tony Jones tries to use a clip of Tony Abbott to prove his pathetic pedantry and less obvious ignorance in economic and intellectual matters  .
Yes, Tony Abbott did talk about a carbon tax; but he wasn't like Jones,  making a pedanticly pathetic point. Abbott was making a relevant point about relevant taxes like fuel taxes .  Abbott  talked about it as a progressive tax (* targeted ) not like the original sin for which we must pay penance --- the silly ABCchurch view .
Me thinks the greatest evil is being done in the name of the best intention - no new tax could be sold,  unless you had a great big excuse for it .  Guilt brings people together ,  ....but not necessarily for good .Penance and pedantry is always a poor substitute for precision in decision.

A desperate Labor gamble with no help from the ABC

I will start taking the ABC ( and its partners on the left ) seriously on science when they take themselves seriously on the subject - and allow scientists to run proper panels on the subject --esp of what polys think is science (not a gambling man but it might be up there with brilliance in business).
In a week when everyone in Australia is confused by polys playing football promoting their own tax level to solve the biggest crisis on earth , who does 730, Lateline and put on to be convincing , fault prone Flannery and Brandt - another bunch of polys or paid up adherents  .
No wonder Karl Bitar is jumping ship -a good reason to tax us more can only look/win  that way while the proponents sound credible.
Labor is not credible about much and certainly not science. But where,  like the much over venerated CSIRO is the ABC when you need them to call up authors on science /science practice? 

Living in the past and tied to a post

Mark Scott, ABC TV producers and Film Australia do not get it --do they - they have been funding home grown indulgence and tragedy ridden, conflict avoidance and  dumbing down stuff for decades .Go visit some real worlds .
 The children are in charge because the adults haven't grown up and got some guts ( esp in thinking about true toughness) . The 4 corners program and revisit to  arakun ( try revisiting Margaret Meads samoan girls sometime? ) and ABC2 ( the day the immigrants left ) says it all - I am so glad the original Australains are showing us the way. But then will the ABC follow up with some insightful questions  ?

We allow children to do what they feel like at their peril!  Get real you lot.  Angry boys get drunk and beat up and get beat up- Dead head and dead end stuff .  You won't stop bullying by role playing and mummy boys stuff ,  but by teaching children to grow up and respect the roles of those there to train them in the tough decisions of life

Environmentalism is failing

Simply because it is increasingly alienating and opposing sound scientists.

Typically ABC cut the address on BIG IDEAS when it got too hot to handle ( suzuki 's speech )

Any effective political ambition in a democracy must be rooted in a consensus amongst a wide range of practical people who have trained and proved their training on the ground.

Environmenatalism is a faith that has extended itself beyond the boundaries that true scientists would set themselves (david suzuki correctly points to reductionism in practice) becoming so heavenly minded they are of little earthly use.

Desperate selling of a dream of power

Since we posted the note here we note that the PM, while avoiding projection can't help using the fear triggers in her speech on Qanda.

Life's big questions --- a good start Scott

Scott Stephens has started something that is very welcome with Matt and hopefully his next guests (Compass 20th Feb ).Without adding to the rhetoric , Scott presents the points well enabling both guest and audience to fully participate .


So how big are the questions and how good are the answers ? 
Going on the lack of depth in the answers , the questions were really big . Great because this means there is room for more questions . Great that Matt and others are willing to be so honest because so much public discourse seems to avoid these questions ( saying as they have done for decades that such questions are" irrelevant "- certainly aren't irrelevant to very young and the aged - just not politically correct to ask them.

On another level (of  real world question stuff) its interesting that some much public good by governments in our day is about "trying to answer questions that anyone with a bit of common sense would know the answer to ".
Maybe Scott might like to ask his guests whether we have really lost common sense and even a sense of balance over science ( why don't people believe that Co2 production is a disaster  )  and faith and few wounds and running sores.
Can govts really replace a lack of common sense with ads and warnings? Like many I find such advice trite and insulting. Maybe we as a civilization are a civilization that 's only interested in answering questions that any reasonable thinking person can answer because there were very few " answers ".
No person reading this should support the projection problem all around us where we tell others how to solve their problems . When it comes to the critical optimism and pessimism  issues we need more of this world view discusion to actually move away from the morass of " things we have heard before ".

Kindergarten crap class - if you want to clear up science questions invite scientists

What a waste of time qanda is - too many polys and not enough scientists means Tony Jones is incompetent .
Tony Jones doesn't realise that unless he puts someone other than Flannery in the science seat not only he is not credible . -all lthose young questioners who squeezed through his carefuly designed defence and then the whole country will finally realise that the Flannery file is fulla holes .One day soon The king maker Jones will be wearing no clothes.
Mike Kelly got away with talking a whole lotta crap  about "science dangers "and noone there to pull him up . '
what a waste of time the program is ..............and the kids watching knew it best !

If only the ABC was really independent

People like Katter wouldn't have to wait for decades to be heard . Would he be right to get everything he wants ? Probably not , but to blast him as though everything he does/ requests  in this period will be to demonstrate that reporters control the ABC and not those who would seek to represent the people - as he does .  

Look how well those 3 have focused first on the parliamentary problems - what Australian won't celebrate that in history ?.The softies in both parties will be mad that they can't work together well enough to achieve that  , but our ABC is not reporting that !
The coverage of the Vic Premier saying how wonderfully well the emergency services were working on the floods ( so soon after they whitewashed their incompetence over the fires ) and reporters reporting themselves ( and not the people - the Wimmera river won't create any unusual problems yet they tell us that !) was the most blatant bit of ho hum dum dum I' ve seen in years.

Qandary fuels the Population Paranoia

Guilt and blind prejudice were the elephants in the room. That's why,  apart from a  few unexpected moments when guilt and fear wasn't being passed around (the man next to Flannery who talked about real economic matters ) the heavenly and emotional focus of the depressingly ignorant and deterministic dogmatists never hit the ground .

  

Fear prevents people really facing the issues and there was no facing of the issues last night( The water and infrastructure challenges are known,  but the club of mere description think they needs more information. before they ever make a decision - HOW PREDICTABLE  .
There was no facing of the issues amongst most of the consensus driven wanderers on qandaries typically constrained conversational paradigms ( lots of "no talk "issues ) .


What an absolute disgrace that our ABC, instead of hosing down the fire in Sydney,  pours fuel on it ( and they want us to believe commercial TV is bad) 
What a disgrace that the hangers on like Brown and Flannery use their guru like status among the glazed over googleyed to play the blind prejudice card as well.  Watch the pied pipers  change their tune again!   
The water and infrastructure challenges are known . 
 Woosy Tony Burke couldn't say so  and Tony Jones, to be generous,  couldn't see the antidote to the overwhelming air of pessimism  in the room .
None either could tell poor dick smith that his drama was rich with false intuition over his the favoured driver - Nature Mr Smith does keep on growing ( we are going to grow so much more carbon that we are going to have to bury it !) 
Key optimistic direction questions were being ignored because the chief fearmongers Bob and Tim can't cope with the real eco  issues. Naturally they can cope with a simple argument based on nature - who doesn't among all those who help drive this stupid prejudiced preoccupation about population. 
Bob and Tim would clearly  bog us down in bureaucracy .Who would vote for such stupid panic merchants and even changing agenda speculators  ? 
Who did not notice that  the famous chameleon Bob changed direction when that the thoughtful Perera reminded the audience they had completely lost heart on this issue .
 From saying the population issue was urgent, he went to the population issue could best be planned . Bob would say anything to get a few more votes ? So much for nailing the greens down in the real world ! 

Qanda should be worried

 Tweets are more interesting than the feeds to the screen . If the ABC were serious the bottom of the screen would be seen - not in line with what the producers prefer .What did we think of julia ? Here 
I

Conclusion - No consensus No idea

Qanda
Julia Gillard is right about one thing ( would have set the other girls on the panel straight , me thinks)- there is no consensus,  and talk of mandate by Wong is wrong - ( should you need a real basic reason - for no other reason than she's not sure what she'd use the tax for!.)
The boys ( none more than Tony who has stood by while she tried to talk herself out of trouble on many long nights of noknives on Lateline) knew that Wong was again wandering over the territory .( and no substance -just more  technology of tax talk)
I can't see why anyone would vote Labor when Penny and Christine can get so emotional about a subject and not get down the tin tacks of nailing the solutions ( Take Christine Milne throwing the dead cat trick of "forests" and "tiny presumably helpless marsupials"  into the ring )
Why would anyone follow them both (hand in hand now )  into taxing us to the hilt .....to do what .....they don't even know themselves ? Christine , for example would get us to plant a tree and lock up a forest ,  but like the myopic green she is,  she would n't know what's best to with it  once it grew . Neither indeed would Penny - where is all her careless talk of sequestration ? )
Stop talking , take a bex and lie down for a while.

Hitch VS The very Kitch

Jennifer Byrne wasn't the only one surprised by her Book club guest Christopher Hitchens. He was supposed to be a member of the congregation and therefore " quite safe" to take the lectern  at ABCCHURCH-infact he's seen to be "one of the latest and greatest" -
But he said things that surprised us.
Jennifer  was even worried  . She called him a racist !
Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised - he's often been a leading theologian  at the home of the reactionaries
Even though I've always see him as a reactionary,  and therefore a chameleon of sorts , I was quite surprised just how much Hitchens allowed himself to be painted , on that program , as a reactionary.( not normally a good look for an old lefty) That trivial tirade  of renaming famous books "2days in the life of ...."

Perhaps he 's also just being true to his word about being a chameleon?
Maybe his next book will be
" What the modern woman is missing out on "
-(Imagine Jennifers blood pressure and Hitchen's  fortune  ) Subtitled " A review of women in the Abrahamic tradition " -Hitchens  would be smart enough to print the book,  but not the byline ;  would the leader of Kitch -Jennifer ? )
On the whole,  as far as reactionaries go,  Hitchens was streets ahead of Jennifer.

I too could be rich writing the book I have just started today with the above title . Remember you heard it first on Blogger. Copyright EA

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Qanda can be very entertaining when it is not so controlled

Virginia may not welcome another stint on qanda but we all will . Unlike the controlling Jones , she let the discussion happen . Mind you, after last week,  no leader could keep order over what was on the publics mind over Julia .
Looking deeper into this nonsense of Shortens about thinking deeply, its only a week since Rudd ran all over O'Brien - "lighten up mate !". And Shorten  wants us to think they are thinking deeply to stop talking to sustainable carbon and talk about sustainable population . Its toxic and so is new labor's focus !

The ABC want us to believe they are objective, let alone funny - the paradox for the pedants in church is why Barnaby was so funny and why the Gillard defenders were so serious  and so clearly desperate enough to go personal- completely losing it with the audience as the lack of tweets ( published) so clearly demonstrated.
John Clarke was very funny before he got a badge from the school of meredescription - maybe there is too much limiting of free speech at the ABC? Not possible ?

Outsiders and Insiders on Quanda

It would be interesting to know , as it always is in human dilemma discussions( brief health and education care discussions)  what J R Saul and Lionel ( Outsiders on the left from the Americas)  would say about Australains all on the right. What do they really think ? How well are we Aussies are ready for the future .
The great Australian stupor . I have no doubt they would say -you have much that you can be proud of - but do you appreciate it ?

The guests all seemed to share one great concern;
Why is Labor so inept and why do left thinking people retreat to "concerns about the truth" ( that woman over there named Dorothy)  when such reactionary pedantry clearly pushes them back into kindergarten class.  
WE've gone soft on the disciplines of learning and thinking.That was the big issue and like the big issues do on Qaunda it gets lost in tonys desire to move on ---as if questions can be answered in just a few moments .
While Tonys contributions were some of his best ,the prgram needs an alternate leader. Bout time someone else had a go, just so the very talk about knowing  people "being cut off "( SAUL's concern)  doesn't apply to the ABC directly . If the ABC can't do something about that,  its credibility on truth is at stake .Audiences would be surprised at how much further we would get after an hour - rather than the wanderings now too common .

Cricket on qanda - One jolly good show chaps

Another round of the best on the Test at the ABC ( qanda) More here

Science Ed in trouble -Forget blue skies, we're under a cloud right now

LATELINE
Penny Hackett (CSIRO chief ) presumably doesn't disagree that science is increasingly politicized;  its just that she isn't the person to say so,     nor is she the person to prescribe the way out .
Ticky did a good job with some good questions but no answers came
" I don't know of any dissent,  except we do whatever we do to a very high standard " might just go down as political not scientific.
More on the dilemma of science education here
Penny Sackett was completely out of her depth on the critical question of why kids don't want to do science...  and lets not do a U turn  to Jeff and think its just about money .  As one who had a great career in science , I know that MOST of the great careers of independance in applied env science are just plainly no longer on offer.

Yes Ticky,  in areas i know these dull edged attempts by CRC and quangos  to FOCUS  but they often only  add to the confusion , they duplicate and their role is dubiuos because they interfere with good information flow .( questions and answers ).
 Great to see the ABC taking the issue seriously.
 Realistically,  the debate needs an ongoing forum to be effective.

Oh dear we are not sure what we are anymore

Conservatives or progressives . The discussion on qanda tonight pushed the limits in a good way . For too long the left have characterized the right and the right ,the left and w'eve all gone home happy with old prejudices. What emerged from the welcome honesty was a recognition that we ignore the areas of  agreement with members of each others congregations at the peril of the power for good; at the peril of powerlessness . More ere 

I am not fanatical - but You are !

ABC news SUNDAY of the world conference of Atheists in Melbourne this week made for lively controversy in the news . We want this . We are concerned about that ; about them!. What though are we to make of the media correction attempt dominating the report( "I'm not vehement, am I?" ) Paraphrasing Richard Hawkins .Looked more like a talk about others than about AFA; looked more like denial too.

More too of this ABC disease about quoting " what scientists say " to say what you as a non scientist want to say?
To believe too much in tying up the loose ends of scientific study is to risk ignoring too many loose ends.
To paraphrase again "Why do we have to use symbols and metaphors ,Why can't we just be long winded and completely greek - believing only in what we can see from , dare I mention it - mere rhetoric .We know you used the word "science" but if you want to talk "philosophy of science",  talk some more about the range of scientific studies ( including psychology ) to be credible .
Take Dawkins denial of  "aggression". Does he not have adrenalin flowing in his veins ? Sound sustainability scientists accept the role of aggression, and are not in simple denial about it.
Richard Dawkins is less convincing than he thinks because he doesn't appear to be aware of what he's doing . Sure you can make money like Dan Brown questioning everything and "having a go" . React to a trend . We rebels ALL agree that words are powerful , but never let us stop using them, carefully to stop mere predjudice and panic ( more the basis for real concern in the public mind about "religions',say with regard to Islam )
If you going just destroy the temple you are only half doing the job .Whats the point of trying to kill all those people - all the elephants in the room . More effective it is to try to remember whose actually in there and why , and then you won't just end up with a lot of splinters and offending the scientists in there by wearing their badge so carelessly ( Are you promoting the science of evolution(ANS) or the philosophy of evolutionary determinism (ED)- viva la difference) Who really is being reactive here ? Whose the worry -the radicals or the moderates?
Most of us observing rebels share AFA's concern about the dangers of "institutional religion" BUT are asking " are you in denial about being religious yourself" .( science of the mind rather suggests we all are" religious") \Its easier to deal with a problem, if you admit you are part of it .
On the convincing stakes, having Peter Singer as second fiddle is not very convincing.; Surely the man has spent more time chasing reactionary trams than any old greeks we know .

Giving the "primitive" Christians a sporting chance

Qandas lineup on Monday night reminded me of the scene at some coluseum in the 2nd century.

Emperor Julian, to this day, would be wondering why he couldn't kill em all- and their wacky ideas.

Not sure that our modern ABCTV program setup supported the suggestion that this program was somehow a evolutionary improvement on that old theatre( why always the polys and spin mercahnts when we are trying to talk a bit deeper- its dumb!)

However I have got to hand to Tony . He asked a good question. They say the traditional world view of the west means democracy is possible because of the good in some ABC jounos,BUT neccesary because its not always so when they are in control of the gate. Do we allow the truth to pass unhindered. Applies to all of us .
Jones made the simple but important point that " sacrifice" is noble - isn't it?
Tony Jones tried to reign in the diatribe of verbosity that came forth as a response to a quite reasonable intellectual question. When the grand promoter of reasonableness refused to answer the Muslims big and sound question about the value of words without a sense of God in the picture , many of could see him playing politics or religion on the question of reasonableness.
Never were , or will The elephants in the room agree that Dawkins can so easily dismiss the people who sit in the pews and clap at congregations of atheists (egtake just the atheistic worldview leaders in our century)
To say that aetheists believe in nothing in particular and that gives them freedom to believe in whatever they choose, means thay may rank lower than Flanders in the woosy and unthinking stakes .
"My nasty word is bigger and more nasty than your nasty word!"
The struggle indeed is about evil, but are we really talking to it, or around it .