Utopia, you are standing in it!

Catherine II (May 2, 1729 – November 17, 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was Empress of Russia from 1762 until 1796—the country’s longest-ruling female leader. From 1793 on she also became Lady of Jever. She came to power following a coup d’état that she organised, resulting in her husband, Peter III, being overthrown. Under her reign, Russia was revitalised; it grew larger and stronger, and was recognised as one of the great powers of Europe and Asia.

Charles Peter Ulrich of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp and Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. Future Peter III and Catherine II, Emperor and Empress of Russia.

Catherine was born in Alt-Stettin, Pomerania, Kingdom of Prussia (now Szczecin, Poland) as Princess Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg. She was the daughter of Christian-August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst and Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp, sister of King Adolf-Frederik of Sweden, daughter of Prince Christian-August of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp, Prince of…

This post is to celebrate an extended extract with permission, from Michael Shellenberger’s new book, Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All, (HarperCollins 2020), 432 pages.  It is published at Quillette Why I Believe Climate Change Is Not the End of the World  A few excerpts from the article in italics with my bolds.

Summary in My Words:

There is no crisis requiring these climate policies.

If there were a crisis, these policies will not help.

Implementing these policies will create a social and economic crisis.

The End is Nigh, They Say

Andrea Dutton, a paleoclimate researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said, “For some reason, the media latched onto the 12 years (2030), presumably because they thought that it helped to get across the message of how quickly we are approaching this and hence how urgently we need action. Unfortunately, this has led to a complete…

At the end of my post yesterday morning I noted briefly

Of course, if Labour’s approach is bad, at least (being the government) it is on the table.  It is now less than two months until voting starts and we have no idea what National’s approach might be, but no reason to suppose it would be materially different or better.

Within a couple of hours we had a plan from National, or at least what Todd Muller describes as “the framework for the party’s Plan to create more jobs and a better economy”.   Just like the Prime Minister, he has a five-point plan, outlined in a speech given in Christchurch yesterday.   If you want the potted version there is even a one-page graphic.

I was no more impressed than with Muller’s previous speech, although at least he has dropped the (historically ill-grounded) paeans to Michael Joseph Savage.   There…

Ngapuhi leader David Rankin gets angry about the mainstream media’s soft-soaping with maori hypocrisy.

He issued the statement below in response to the contrived fashion-following maori furore over statues such as Captain Cook.

Desperate times, call for desperate measures and there’s no group more desperate than the wind and solar ‘industries’. With the global economy in meltdown – thanks to crippling and seemingly interminable coronavirus lockdowns – investment in the unreliables has plummeted.

In the USA, the wind and solar sector lost 106,000 jobs in March, with many more jobs lost since then. That slaughter prompted a march on Washington, as rent seekers clamoured for relevance and cash; only to be rebuffed and sent packing without a penny: Corona Mania: US Wind & Solar Industries Demand $Billions In Subsidies From Virus Stimulus Package

Now that they’re faced with their very own doomsday, the ‘End of Days’ rhetoric has changed course. As JoNova reports.

In the pandemic, investors fled from “Green Energy”. Desperate industry predicts 40 deaths a month in wake
Jo Nova Blog
Jo Nova
24 June 2020

Is that the dark smell of…

In another timely blog from our History of Parliament researchers, today Dr Simon Payling, senior research fellow for the Commons 1461-1504 project, discusses Parliament’s response to another plague outbreak as the courts of justice were suspended in June 1464.

On Wednesday 6 June 1464, at the beginning of Trinity term, a small piece of theatre was played out in Westminster Hall. Three justices of the court of common pleas ordered everyone present to hear the King’s command. The seal of a royal writ, dated ten days earlier, was then broken and the writ read aloud: the King, absent in the north campaigning against the Lancastrians, had heard of the plague raging in London and Westminster and decided to suspend the court for the whole of Trinity term. This sensible precaution reminds us that, although no visitation of the plague to these shores approached the devastating mortality of the Black…