Utopia, you are standing in it!

As we approach Bonfire Night on 5 November, Dr Paul Hunneyball of our Lords 1558-1603 project ponders whether we should be remembering a much more prestigious figure than Guy Fawkes…

The Gunpowder Plot is one of the great ‘what ifs’ of British history. For more than four centuries we’ve commemorated the scheme’s failure – but if it had succeeded, and the House of Lords had been blown up during the state opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, it would have been a devastating blow to England’s ruling elite. Potential casualties included the king, James I, his principal ministers and courtiers, almost the entire leadership of the Church of England, and many of the men who controlled local government. As the plotters calculated, political chaos would have ensued, opening the way for a possible Catholic rising and a dramatic change of regime. The Plot’s ambition and audacity was astonishing, and…

Some environmentalist groups along with other Leftist organizations (like the ACLU) are now taking to the courts to try to force the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to stop using teargas and other chemical weapons to halt the unrest in Portland, Oregon citing environmental risks. This lawsuit is nothing more than a way to assist the ongoing rioting and looting in Portland and other cities too. The teargas and other chemical-based methods used by police in Portland obviously worked. But the Left wants to put police at a disadvantage at every opportunity to continue the campaign of violence and destruction.

Environmental groups sue DHS over use of tear gas in Portland

By Darryl Coote

Oct. 21 (UPI) –A coalition of environmental, public health and social justice groups in Oregon has sued the Department of Homeland Security over its use of tear gas and chemical weapons to quell protests in Portland…

The first part of this post is a report that the IEA is accused of underestimating the amount of solar and wind power in recent years.  The second part presents analyses showing that media hype and misinformation lead the public to routinely overestimate the portion solar and wind contribute to power modern societies.

The IEA is under pressure about their wind and solar energy numbers, as reported at energypost.eu World Energy Outlook 2020: IEA responds to some difficult questions.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds

The IEA has issued an FAQ to try to answer some persistent questions and criticisms about their annual World Energy Outlooks (WEO). How come the growth of solar and wind have been consistently underestimated? When is “peak oil” going to happen? Will the IEA’s Sustainable Development Scenario limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 °C this century? Is it realistic? Why has a “Net…

A maniacal reliance on chaotically intermittent wind and solar poses an existential threat to Australia’s power grid. And Australia’s power problems have absolutely nothing to do with the grid itself.

Depicted above – courtesy of Aneroid Energy – is the output delivered by Australian wind power outfits to the Eastern Grid during July.

Spread from Far North Queensland, across the ranges of NSW, all over Victoria, Northern Tasmania and across South Australia its entire capacity routinely delivers just a trickle of its combined notional capacity of 7,728MW.

Collapses of over 3,000 MW or more that occur over the space of a couple of hours are routine, as are rapid surges of equal magnitude, which make the grid manager’s life a living hell, and provide the perfect set up for power market price gouging by the owners of conventional generators, who cash in on the chaos.

During June there were lengthy periods…

It is reported the the Prime Minister is toying with the idea of allowing Winston Peters to make a valedictory speech to Parliament. Right now this is no Parliament and there won’t be until the Writs are handed in and Members sworn in … by which time Peters will have ceased to be an MP.

Interesting precedent but you can you really do it for just one MP … albeit a senior Minister, who lost his seat. What about Ministers Ron Mark and Tracey Martin. What about ex Minister’s Tim Macindoe and Alfred Ngaro. What about all the other MP’s who lost their seats?

IMHO you pays your money and you takes your chance. MP’s who announce their retirement prior to the election get to make their valedictories. They are still MP’s at that stage. That’s their privilege.

Having non MP’s make speeches from the floor of Parliament creates an…

You may not know this, but Palestinians regularly seek and get medical treatment in Israeli hospitals, and are rarely refused entry into Israel for that.  For a Palestinian to avail themselves of the world-class health care available in Israel, they have to meet three conditions:

1. The illness cannot be treated in one of the several Palestinian hospitals. This means that care is sought largely by those with cancer, eye diseases, and heart diseases, as well as organ failure.
2. The patient must get permission from the Palestinian Authority to go to Israel for treatment.
3. Israel must determine that the patient or those accompanying him/her are not a danger to Israel, i.e., they cannot be terrorists or be suspected of meeting with underground terrorists in Israel. This denial happens rarely. In fact, several years ago, Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the terrorist organization Hamas, had his daughter treated for a serious condition…