Online polls and petitions should generally be regarded with grave suspicion. Promoted on Twitter and other social media platforms, they are open invitations to cast multiple votes and add bogus signatures. Yes, there are safeguards on many, but they are easily circumvented by those keen to rig the results. A petition of a different stripe […]

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Young Greta Thunberg and her posse have received such reverential treatment this encounter must have come as quite a surprise. UPDATE: American Digest has assembled a variety of clips that suggest patience with climate scolds and human traffic bumps is running out. David Thompson, whose blog is always worth reading, has more.

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Prime Minister Scott Morrison seems a jolly sort of chap, always ready with a smile when cameras are handy but on any normal day not likely to find much mirth in the pages of The Age and SMH. As an adult, he would likely lament that a pair of once-left-but-sane mastheads have populated their newsrooms […]

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In the Canberra Times, columnist Nicholas Stuart addresses the French submarines debacle, which can only grow worse as cost overruns mount, ‘mission creep’ sees design changes and the already outmoded technology on order becomes even more so: …turn your sonar on, and examine why the submarine project in particular represents such a terrible way to […]

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The Sydney Morning Herald reports: Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies has told Anglican supporters of same-sex marriage they should leave the church rather than “betray God’s word” in a scathing speech condemning progressive elements within the faith…. … “My own view is that if people wish to change the doctrine of our church, they […]

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Anyone who followed last week’s Extinction Rebellion disruptions will have seen news footage of protesters attempting to explain why blocking traffic, impeding productive citizens and parading in one’s underwear will help Gaia to recover from mankind’s alleged abuses. Incoherent, inarticulate and infuriatingly vague, they did not present as any sort of endorsement for Australia’s schools. […]

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At The Conversation, Charles Sturt University’s Piero Moraro writes of Extinction Rebellion’s human hazards to navigation: Nevertheless, this use of bail conditions against XR activists raises serious concerns, as citizens are threatened with jail if they insist on partaking in political activism. The conditions appear to violate basic democratic rights, namely, freedom of opinion, movement […]

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The full interview is available at this link, with the excerpt below a highlight: The whole construction of the Greta phenomenon is to make her impossible to oppose. Clearly it’s a way to smuggle a particular type of extreme green ideology in most successfully. It’s something like ‘I dare you’ — I dare you to […]

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In case you missed it, Mark Steyn on the most recent Outsiders:

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Viv Forbes of The Saltbush Club writes: They wanted water without building dams, cheap reliable electricity without using coal or gas or nuclear power, transport without using petrol or diesel, food without farmers or fishermen, employment without factories, metals and motor fuels without refineries and bridges and buildings without cement and steel. Their countryside was […]

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