To The Australian        Unlike the Australian Republic Movement, I'm glad that our armed services personnel and politicians are required to swear loyalty to the Queen rather than to the Australian people or Australia ("Diggers 'serve us, not the Queen'", 23/12). Her Majesty is a person, not an amorphous abstraction or a geographical location. What's more, she has been trained from childhood to assume royal responsibility and has acquitted herself as monarch magnificently. Even more importantly, she has accepted her role as a trust given by God to whom she dedicated her life in humility and wisdom. So our loyalty to her is also a commitment to align our lives with the guidance of divinity, not with current political correctness or ideological fashion. Moreover, she is not a "foreign monarch" but Queen of Australia in her own right - one of us by legislation and in reality.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Australian         You are right ("Seeking comfort in the mystique of Christmas", 24/12) that "the season's theological underpinnings run far deeper than sentiment." Even deeper than theology is the metaphysical reality about which theologians discourse. However, your statement that "at its heart, Christmas is mysterious and bittersweet" is surely only half right. It is mysterious because it symbolises the penetration into our everyday world of a higher understanding, something that can come when one has been "born again" (as Jesus explained to Nicodemus). That revelation is fundamentally joyous. The celebration of Easter, of course, is a different matter. There is where the bitterness and sorrow of human life is acknowledged, but also its ultimate overcoming by that which in our deepest depths is eternal.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Australian        Noel Pearson has compared the "65,000 years of presence" of Aboriginal peoples on this continent with the "250 years of British dominion" ("Ministers present but voice muffled", 28-29/12), evidently believing that this contrast of numbers justifies the campaign for Aboriginal constitutional recognition. He should ask himself which of those passages of time has contributed more to the flourishing Australian nation in which we live today. The answer is that quality of culture easily trumps longevity of tenure. In any case, we cannot return to yesterday and should not try to. The present Australian nation has now lasted long enough to justify its constitutional hold on this land. Pearson purports to "rehearse the main grounds for objection to positive recognition", but ignores many of the most important, such as the need for internal stability, national security and equity for all Australians. Perhaps Paige Taylor could now give us an article of similar length reporting in depth on the whole range of arguments against constitutional recognition and the key persons advocating them.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Age        David Wilson suggests (30/12) that "the monarchy is no longer relevant to contemporary Australia", but in fact its importance for our future well-being grows stronger by the day. We live in challenging and even threatening times and our response to these will be wiser and firmer if it is based on adherence to royalty and its divine basis. Republics are sometimes needed for a while if monarchies go bad, but such is not the case for us. The House of Windsor, whatever the personal failings of some of its members, possesses a noble record of public service and dignified contribution to government and public affairs. Let 2020 be a year when Australia returns to its traditional roots, those on which our great nation was built.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave

To The Age         Perhaps Waleed Aly is too pessimistic in his doom-saying prognosis of a coming "public hell" due to "system breakdown" ("A new decade of public hell", 4/1), but he may be right to focus on a growing "disillusionment with democracy itself." Australian society, like that of other nations based in Western European culture, appears more and more clearly to be oligarchic in structure despite its self-promotion as "liberal democracy"; and to many people that oligarchy appears to be too well entrenched to be able to be successfully challenged. That, apart from the seductions of technological inventiveness, may be why people are turning inward and withdrawing from participation in the forums of "public space." Aly, in exhibiting a distaste for renewed movements of nationalism (why?), asserts that "globalisation isn't about to be undone." It depends what you mean by globalisation. A renewed sacred movement of reform within Christianity might work wonders; but one means reform and not a superficial revival based on flawed church authority or a simplistic insistence that "the Bible is the Word of God."
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Australian        Damien Freeman asserts that "it is unfair to conclude that indigenous people make demands that are endless and can never be satisfied" ("Wyatt on right track for recognition of indigenous people in constitution", 4-5/1). However, during past decades ample evidence has accrued from the published statements of indigenous leaders and their non-indigenous supporters to refute Freeman's wishy-washy idealism. Kow-towing to the Uluru Statement is seen by many key players as just the first step towards enabling indigenous people to reclaim most if not all of this continent for themselves. Freeman's phrase "a constitutional anchor" sounds reassuring, but, in fact, if enacted, it would become a constitutional fetter on Australians seeking to maintain the traditional political order of our nation. Furthermore, constitutional amendment is not needed at all "to ensure indigenous voices are heard." They are being loudly heard everywhere, with the assistance of financially powerful supporters. Finally, neither former chief justice Murray Gleeson nor anyone else has been able to show that constitutional amendment would not fatally strike at the principle of equity (fair treatment) for all Australians.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Svante Arrhenius (1859-1927) was a Swedish scientist who first claimed that the burning of hydro-carbons like coal, oil, gas, peat and wood may cause global warming. In 1895 he calculated (incorrectly) that a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 concentration would lead to a 4-5o C rise in global temperature. However, Arrhenius suggested that this increase could be beneficial, making the various climates on Earth “more equable" and stimulating plant growth and food production. Then a showman/politician, Al Gore, gave life to the theory that extra carbon dioxide due to human activities will cause dangerous global warming. But temperatures refused to obey the alarmist computer model forecasts. So they switched to the universal bogey-man - climate-change, where every bit of bad weather was blamed on western industry. But this did not scare enough people so it morphed into climate emergency, which allows coal, oil, gas, cars and cattle to be blamed for everything bad - floods and droughts, snowstorms and heatwaves, bushfires, coral bleaching, species extinction and pollution anywhere. But the carbon dioxide scare is proving false - it’s time for some climate sense.

     Human activity can never control atmospheric CO2 or global temperature. Much bigger forces are at work – solar system cycles, earth orbital changes, volcanic activity (especially on the sea floor), El Nino episodes, declining magnetic field and magnetic pole reversals, variable cosmic rays and cloud cover, and absorption/expulsion of CO2 by the mighty oceans. Geological records show that today’s CO2 levels are very low - so low that plants grow slower and need more water. Moreover, the ice core records from Antarctica and Greenland show clearly that atmospheric temperature always rises before CO2 levels rise. So rising CO2 is the effect of rising temperature not the cause. Warming oceans are like warming beer – they both expel bubbles of CO2 into the atmosphere. When oceans cool, they take it back. The dense plant and animal populations in equatorial regions shows that humans need not fear global warming – in fact the Russian President has welcomed the possibility of warming for his cold land. We live in a natural warm interlude but we are past the warming peak. There will still be fluctuations and extreme weather events but the next big move will be global cooling – the 11th freeze-up in about a million years. All it needs are oceans heated by submarine volcanoes, and skies made cold by volcanic ash that blocks incoming solar energy.

The Power of the Torch
“There can be few if any races who for so long were able to practice the delights of incendiarism.”
                Geoffrey Blainey “Triumph of the Nomads – A History of Ancient Australia.” Macmillan 1975.

     The Fire-lighter was the most powerful tool that early humans brought to Australia. Fires lit by aboriginal men and women created the landscape of Australia. They used fire to create and fertilise fresh new grass for the grazing animals that they hunted, to trap and roast grass dwelling reptiles and rodents, to fight enemies, to send smoke signals, to fell dead trees for camp fires, to ward off frosts and biting insects, and for religious and cultural ceremonies. Their fires created and maintained grasslands and open forests and extinguished all flora and fauna unable to cope with frequent burn-offs. Early white explorers and settlers recorded the smoke and the blackened tree trunks. They admired the extensive grasslands, either treeless or with well-spaced trees, and no tangled undergrowth of dead grass, brambles, branches and weeds. Making fire without tinder boxes or matches is laborious. So, most aboriginals tried to keep their fires alive at all times. When on the move (a common situation), selected members of the tribe were charged with carrying a fire stick and keeping it alight. In really cold weather several members may have each carried a fire stick for warmth. When the stick was in danger of going out, the carrier would usually light a tussock of dry grass or leaves and use that flame to rejuvenate the fire stick (or light a new one). As they moved on, they left a line of small fires spreading behind them. They have been observed trying to control the movement of fires but never tried to extinguish them.

     There was a time when Australian foresters kept Australian forests safe and productive. They maintained access tracks bridges and fire breaks, undertook prescribed burning, cleared flammable litter from the forest floor, cut suckers, manned fire lookouts and maintained their own fire-fighting crews in decentralised districts. University-trained professional foresters were supported by tough experienced rangers who learned their job in the bush. Almost every advance in bushfire management in Australia, from the science of fire behaviour to aerial burning was thanks to our foresters. Into the 1980’s they were regarded as international leaders. To pay for good forest management, sections of the forest were logged, allowing ground space and sunlight for the swift re-growth of new trees. And those fading die-hards still beating alarm drums about man-made global warming should be reassured - the use of hardwood and softwood timber in power poles, telephone poles, bridges, wharves, posts, sleepers, haysheds and houses provided long term sequestration of the dreaded carbon. Moreover, growing trees extract CO2 more quickly than mature trees. Win, win, win.

     Then we entered the Green Era. Foresters and timber-getters were demonised by urban greens, their tame bureaucrats and academics, and their ABC mates. State forests were converted to National Parks and Wilderness Areas and John Howard created the hated Kyoto Protocol Forests on private land. Timber imports rose. Every locked-up, un-managed, un-burnt forest inevitably breeds disastrous wild-fires. The combination of heavy fuel load, poor access for fire fighters, drought, hot winds, arsonists and dry lightning has only one assured outcome – a bushfire tragedy for the forest and the neighbours. (Why are no greens chaining themselves to trees now?) This must change. No enquiries are needed. Anyone without green blinkers can see the evidence daily. So, cut the locks, open the tracks and remove the trash. Then call tenders from local people to use recreation, tourism, timber getting or hunting feral animals to fund proper care and maintenance of our forests. A well-managed forest can pay for its own management and also keep the community safe and happy.

     It was so predictable that probably no bookie would have take money for it, but the Democrats are charging ahead with impeachment against Trump, even compounding impeachment articles in the hope of getting something to stick. The Republicans responded by denying any wrong doing from Trump.

  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-intel-panel-releases-trump-impeachment-report 

     Here is some more fantastic news about the coming environmental apocalypse from Professor doomsday himself, who has been wrong about doomsday since the 1960s.
  https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/technology/a-lot-of-suffering-grim-3000yo-warning-about-to-come-true/news-story/84274e09f8cc1ae708bfb0b43947d297?type=curated&position=6&overallPos=6&utm_source=AdelaideNow&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial

“It’s happened before, now some claim it’s happening again. In 1200BC, the world’s most advanced civilisations — Egypt, Assyria, Cannan — were burnt to the ground all at once. It was the era of the Biblical Exodus and the poet Homer’s Trojan War. A convergence of catastrophes made these nations weak. And it’s happening again. “We’re f**ked,” says eminent biologist, Paul Ehrlich, whose 1968 book The Population Bomb triggered international debate. Speaking to news.com.au, Professor Ehrlich was pulling no punches. “We’ve talked for a long time about the coming collapse. Now we’re in it. Every sign says so.” He has joined with Flinders University ecologist Professor Corey Bradshaw to present their global systems change modelling to Australia’s politicians. And the predictions are not pretty. “We can limit the damage, but we can’t avoid it,” Professor Bradshaw says.

     Have a guess who is propping up China’s surveillance state? It is those lovers of freedom, globalist Big Techy:
  https://www.technocracy.news/western-tech-giants-propping-up-chinas-surveillance-state/

“A bombshell follow-up report to a major document leak which confirmed and detailed China’s vast Uyghur Muslim Xinjiang prison network and system for monitoring communications and whereabouts has named names. Names that is, of US tech giants that are actually aiding and abetting China’s multibillion-dollar surveillance industry being used to impose a total electronic police state on the communist country. And it’s not just Google and IBM, but a growing list of recognizable names. “U.S. companies, including Seagate Technology PLC, Western Digital Corp. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., have nurtured, courted and profited from China’s surveillance industry,” the scathing report begins. “Several have been involved since the industry’s infancy.” These American companies gained greater scrutiny after the US Treasury recently targeted up to eight Chinese surveillance companies, blocking their ability to export US technology through which they could help the Chinese state in committing human rights and individual privacy violations. This included a federal ban on US agencies purchasing video surveillance equipment manufactured by Dahua, Hikvision, and Hytera Communications.

To The Australian        Frank Corrigan's review of Robert Verkaik's book Posh Boys: How the English Public Schools ruin Britain (Review, 7-8/12) certainly conveys that author's hostility to private education but also seems to share his one-sided approach. What is forgotten is that society needs to reward high achievers and a major way of doing that is to have them able to secure the best education they can for their children. It sounds awful, but is not: posh people deserve to have available posh schools. Equity, not equality should be the principle invoked. Toss out "equality of opportunity", but replace it with "a fair go for the less privileged." If in the UK a "huge disparity" exists between private and public schools, then redress the balance to a fairer ratio. As to the claim that "posh hustlers make disastrous political leaders", this seems to result from a blinkered and prejudiced approach. Jacob Rees-Mogg provided much evidence to the contrary in his recent book The Victorians.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Age        Jason Steger is right ("The arts are vital to everyone", 7/12) to remind us that our artists are "just as important in telling the world about the nature of Australia" as our sports stars. Thus it is reasonable for him to question what seems a diminution of government support for them in the PM's "rejigging of the federal public service." On a wider scale Steger expresses puzzlement at our nation's "fraught relationship with the arts." That their value "is not fully tangible" may indeed be part of it. The arts direct our awareness beyond the mundane and the merely logical to regions not currently in fashion with outdoor hedonists or money-makers. Yet a significant number of culturally alert Australians still do value them for the "intrinsic quality they bring to society." What is omitted in Steger's analysis is the close link (for good as well as bad) between the arts and left-wing politics. If artists and patrons could be kinder to right-wing views, a centre-right government might return the favour.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave   

     This week Clintel attended the Heartland COP 25 conference at the Marriott Hotel in Madrid. The hotel was full of champagne-drinking COP delegates who were clearly enjoying themselves (‘climate business model in action’). To be sure they were not disturbed by demonstrators, Clintel had a recording room somewhere at the back and we heard about its coordinates on the same morning. Guus Berkhout was the first speaker at the event that was live-streamed from the Marriot Hotel. It was not an official COP25 event but a Heartland side-event with the aim to sound a different message to the world. Heartland had arranged several excellent speakers, such as Will Happer (who for the past year worked as an adviser in the White House), Lord Monckton, Anthony Watts, Douglas Pollock (our Chilean Clintel ambassador), Tom Harris, Stanley Goldenberg and a fascinating young German girl, Naomi Seibt, who gave an impressive speech about contentious issues such as climate change and the immigration crisis. The whole event was available online at  https://climaterealityforum.com/  and a record 76,000 watched.

A few conclusions:

1) The world should move from mitigation panic to intelligent adaptation (Guus Berkhout)

2) The economy of Chile is ruined by climate policy (Douglas Pollock)

3) The energy prices in Germany are vastly increasing (Wolfgang Müller)

4) New scientific insight shows that future climate sensitivity for CO2 is not more than 1.5 degrees, probably significantly smaller than 1.5 due to saturation effects (William Happer)

5) Climate models are immature and unfit for making policy (Christopher Monckton)

5) There is no evidence that global warming causes more natural disasters (Stanley Goldenberg)

6) Homogenisation of measurements lower the temperatures in the past (Anthony Watts)

7) The killing of birds and bats by wind turbines is much higher than reported (Tom Harris)

8) School children are massively brainwashed (Naomi Seibt)

     Greg Johnson at Counter-Curents.com, explains the doctrine of accelerationism as follows: “Accelerationism is the idea that the best way to achieve White Nationalist goals is to accelerate the decline of the present system. This will supposedly have two effects. First, acceleration will weaken the system’s ability to maintain power, including to oppress dissenters. Second, acceleration will anger and awaken the white masses, making them more receptive to our message.”
  https://www.counter-currents.com/2020/01/against-accelerationism/

     Once we accept that the system is occupied, not by our kind, that the rulers are unelected Deep Staters and other elites, and that we deplorables are ear-marked for the Great Replacement, the conservativism of the past, and past strategies and tactics, need drastic modification. Accelerationism, or as others have called it, destructionism, looks forward to the collapse of the system as needed for any chance of rebuilding, since reform of what exists now is simply impossible. Look at Trump as the last chance of any sort of mainstream poliytical answer to the problems that confront us.

     For your interest, the IMF chief is worried about a Great Depression 2.0, which I think would be a splendid idea, for what we have now is death by a thousand cuts, and anything accelerating the end of the system, not maintaining present power structures and increasing the oppression of us, but breaking down the alien system, which society has become, must be good. Note, this is all done by the internal contradictions of the system, and not by people striving to change it, because that awakening is not likely to happen any time soon due to the ostrich factor, and we are whistling in the dark if we expect it:
  https://www.amazon.com/Ostrich-Factor-Our-Population-Myopia/dp/0195122747
  https://www.technocracy.news/imf-chief-warns-on-great-depression-ii/
  https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/17/head-of-imf-says-global-economy-risks-return-of-great-depression

“The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that the global economy risks a return of the Great Depression, driven by inequality and financial sector instability. Speaking at the Peterson Institute of International Economics in Washington, Kristalina Georgieva said new IMF research, which compares the current economy to the “roaring 1920s” that culminated in the great market crash of 1929, revealed that a similar trend was already under way. While the inequality gap between countries had closed in the last two decades, it had increased within countries, she said, singling out the UK for particular criticism. “In the UK, for example, the top 10% now control nearly as much wealth as the bottom 50%. This situation is mirrored across much of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), where income and wealth inequality have reached, or are near, record highs.” She added: “In some ways, this troubling trend is reminiscent of the early part of the 20th century – when the twin forces of technology and integration led to the first gilded age, the roaring 20s, and, ultimately, financial disaster.” She warned that fresh issues such as the climate emergency and increased trade protectionism meant the next 10 years were likely to be characterised by social unrest and financial market volatility. “If I had to identify a theme at the outset of the new decade, it would be increasing uncertainty,” she said. With disputes still raging between the US and Europe, she said “the global trading system is in need of a significant upgrade”. Georgieva said uncertainty affects not only businesses but individuals, especially given the rising inequality within many countries. She said that “excessive inequality hinders growth and ... can fuel populism and political upheaval”. Eric LeCompte, the head of debt charity Jubilee USA, said: “The IMF delivered a stark message about the potential for another massive financial disaster that we last experienced during the Great Depression. “With inequality on the rise and concerns of stability in the markets, we need to take this warning seriously.”

     Doctors betraying us? Those warriors of health who once took an oath to put the health and welfare of the patient, first. To do no harm. Sure.

“GPs are being paid to hand over data on their client’s weight and alcohol use and patients are not being asked for their permission. The Federal Government is requiring doctors to hand over patient data to Primary Health Networks on 10 performance measures in return for a $50,000 a year taxpayer-funded practice incentive payment. The data is meant to be de-identified but the Australian General Practice Alliance (AGPA) said “the likelihood that it could be re-identified in the event of a breach is very high.” To qualify for the money GP practices must provide information on their patients’ diabetes status, smoking, weight classification, alcohol use and influenza immunisation status. The government wants to use the information to track the treatment and improve the management of patients with key chronic health conditions. Nine in ten GP practices have already handed over de-identified patient data and earned $20.3 million while 395 practices were granted an exemption over concerns about data security. Under the guidelines for the program GPs are meant to ask their patients for permission to transfer the data but this has not been happening and patients are not being given the chance to opt out. Asked whether patients permission was being sought Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president (RACGP) Dr Harry Nespolon said the short answer was “no”. The collection of the data was covered by legislation that allows doctors to collect quality assurance type data “as long as it’s de-identified you can do it”, he said. The AGPA however says history shows it is very easy to re-identify health data.In 2016 when the Department of Health released 30 years’ worth of Medicare data it took Melbourne University computer experts just three days to decrypt it. And medical appointment booking firm HealthEngine was recently caught passing on users’ personal information to law firms seeking clients for personal injury claims, AGPA Director and former AMA president Dr Mukesh Haikerwal said.

     There you go, if you want less religion, and ultimately go to hell and burn for eternity, just keep up watching the porn, like a good Leftoid!
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5439973/

“Pornography has become increasingly accessible in the United States, and particularly for younger Americans. While some research considers how pornography use affects the sexual and psychological health of adolescents and emerging adults, sociologists have given little attention to how viewing pornography may shape young Americans’ connection to key social and cultural institutions, like religion. This article examines whether viewing pornography may actually have a secularizing effect, reducing young Americans’ personal religiosity over time. To test for this, we use data from three waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. Fixed-effects regression models show that more frequent pornography viewing diminishes religious service attendance, importance of religious faith, prayer frequency, and perceived closeness to God, while increasing religious doubts. These effects hold regardless of gender. The effects of viewing pornography on importance of faith, closeness to God, and religious doubts are stronger for teenagers compared to emerging adults. In light of the rapidly growing availability and acceptance of pornography for young Americans, our findings suggest that scholars must consider how increasingly pervasive pornography consumption may shape both the religious lives of young adults and also the future landscape of American religion more broadly.”

     I have assembled a large number of articles updating the vast selloff of Australia which is occurring now. We have pretty much lost this country, and organisations that should be fighting this, are caving in:
  https://cairnsnews.org/2019/10/23/national-farmers-federation-which-doesnt-represent-family-farmers-wants-them-to-make-way-for-china/

“KAP Federal Member for Kennedy, Bob Katter has today slammed the National Farmers Federation (NFF) after they appeared on national television and announced they were lobbying the government to provide financial incentives to drought-affected farmers to leave their land; a campaign which is being echoed by the National Party. A livid Mr Katter said, “Your solution is to get rid of the farmers. It is in the back of the mind of every intelligent Australian ‘why do you want these people out?’ So your big corporate masters, Chinese investors, prominent amongst them can buy them out and we can have corporate farmers.  The city suits and foreign nations will be our farmers and we peasants will be out there working for nothing in little towns that are vanishing. That is the solution by National Farmers Federation.”