We left Hong Kong a couple of years ago, hence no real posts since then.

Swapping to WordPress.

In my not so humble opinion, Civic Exchange is not so much a think tank, but rather a panic tank. This time their press release screams "Climate Change: Will the Factory of the World Sink or Swim?". For various reasons, I am not going to bother replying to this nonsense coming from Loh and Co.

Been busy!

Oasis Airlines was grounded on their maiden flight yesterday. I was hoping this little airline would get a big start. Unfortunately, they were sideswiped by Russian red tape, which was not the airline’s fault. They had previous approval to fly over Russian airspace.

On a related note, the Hong Kong government is still restricting free competition on some airline routes, and all bus routes. From what I understand, Cathay Pacific is the main culprit for the air routes. (Were they the ones that opposed Oasis getting a license to fly in and out of Hong Kong as well?)

On an unrelated note, Teddy Wang’s father has a legal bill of $560 million for contesting his son’s estate. The cost of (in?)justice is very high in this city. Certainly lawyers should be rewarded for their intellectual ability, but this case needs more investigation. Surely it does not cost half a billion dollars to verify four pages of a hand written will.

Finally, the future has arrived. Would you like to book your own private space journey, for yourself and 5 friends. Please click here, and book your dream holiday today. (Terms and conditions apply. Caveat Emptor, proceed at your own risk. We are not a travel agent. etc. etc.)

Within a few years, I would expect prices to reduce substantially, and longer stays in space possible – mabye even space hotels. Wow, what an opportunity.

Always busy now, so less time to post. Anyway I just have to note that Flagrant Harbour picked up on Al Gore’s claim that smoking contributes to global warming. Al Gore is really on a runaway train he can’t get off now, I predict even more hysterical statements from Mr. Gore in future.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace is continuing to use strange surveys to raise more money for its offices and staff. In Saturday’s South China Morning Post, Greenpeace campaigner Francis Yeung is apparently trying to pass government janitors off as global warming experts. He writes:

More proof of global warming’s effect on Hong Kong comes from a survey conducted by Greenpeace and the Government Mod 1 Staff General Union last month. Nearly all of the 201 government janitors interviewed for the study reported that it was getting hotter working outdoors. More than 90 per cent said they had suffered dizziness, suffocation and heat exhaustion. Serious cases such as shock and heatstroke were also reported.

Whilst I do sympathize with anyone that has to work outdoors without the benefit of air conditioning, I sincerely doubt that janitors are fully reliable as measurements of any global warming. Working out in the hot weather is certainly not nice, however janitors are not scientists.

On another global warming point, my own letter about a recent SCMP editorial appeared on October 2. In that I said:

American Senator James Inhofe, Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee cited recent studies that have shown polar icecaps to be expanding, not contracting — making complete nonsense of Mr. Chugani’s claims of polar ice shrinkage.

Senator Inhoffe also noted that the left-wing media was completely biased in its coverage of global warming. I wonder, did ATV or the Post cover Senator Inhofe’s speech? The senator also noted that the American public can, and do find his speeches on the Drudge Report. There will be an American outcry over global warming alarmism, just opposite the one Al Gore and the Post intend.

An outline of Senator Inhofe’s speech to the US Senate is here.

I put this up because I notice that a certain blogger named Chris is not criticizing the logic of the Senator’s argument. Rather Chris is criticizing the Senator for accepting money from oil and gas "interests". This seems standard operation for Chris, despite the fact that the senator has done a great deal of work researching this issue. (See link above). There are a couple of things to note here:

1. The science is on the side of Senator Inhofe. (Chris claims I would put my argument, even it was untrue. It is just as easy to assert the opposite to be true. Could it be that Chris knows there is no real science behind the claim that global warming is man made? Chris, get some evidence!)

2. NGO’s and government scientists receive hundreds of millions of dollars a year in funding based on their shrill claims. So if Chris wants to bring up the funding issue, I suggest he look carefully at the champagne lifestyle that some environmental frauds in Hong Kong are engaging in, and the reasons they continue to push their crazy ideas as "fact".

3. Global warming conspiracy theorists incorporate corporate bashing into any argument. Whilst there are a few rogue companies out there (including Enron and the Tobacco companies), most companies realize they have to survive on reputation. Reputation is easy to lose with false claims. (Please note: this is not an endorsement of those companies that run to the government for protection. I support companies that profit from their own effort, not from their ability to collude.)

Anyway, as Gore continues to make his claims, it seems he is only strengthening the resolve of people like Senator Inhofe.

According to Variety.com, it’s official; Angelina Jolie will play Dagny Taggart in the film adaption of Ayn Rand’s iconic masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged. This movie has been planned for decades with everyone from Clint Eastwood to (even) Robert Redford wanting lead roles in the movie. More details on the story can be found here. (Thanks to Betsy Speicher for the URL.)

It was wonderful to see Richard Straw’s excellent letter to the editor in the SCMP today, regarding claims by global warming alarmists. To quote from Mr. Straw:

The chief proponent of anthropogenic global warming is US scientist Michael Mann who, along with a number of colleagues, is famous for his "hockey-stick" temperature graph – the sticky-up bit on his line chart is supposed to represent where global temperatures are today relative to the past several hundred years.

The work of Dr Mann and company underpinned the stance taken by the 2001 United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, Dr Mann’s studies and conclusions have been formally challenged by scientists and economists (a graph is a graph is a graph, as the South China Morning Post’s very own Jake van der Kamp will tell you) in reputable scientific literature because they have been unable to replicate the numbers.

Of course Dr. Mann has quite a notorious reputation. More information on the hockey stick effect can be found here on John Daly’s website.

Islamic militants are protesting against Joseph Ratzinger (the Pope) for saying that Islam is spread by the sword. They burn churches, and kill a nun. Then according to a news story by Associated Press. We have this:

Al-Qaida in Iraq and its allies said Muslims would be victorious and addressed the pope as "the worshipper of the cross," saying "you and the West are doomed as you can see from the defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere. … We will break up the cross, spill the liquor and impose the ‘jizya’ tax, then the only thing acceptable is a conversion (to Islam) or (being killed by) the sword."

And this:

"You infidels and despots, we will continue our jihad (holy war) and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks and raise the fluttering banner of monotheism, when God’s rule is established governing all people and nations," said the statement by the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of Sunni Arab extremist groups in Iraq.

And this:

Another Iraqi extremist group, Ansar al-Sunna, challenged "sleeping Muslims" to prove their manhood by doing something other than "issuing statements or holding demonstrations."

And finally this:

"If the stupid pig is prancing with his blasphemies in his house," the group said in a Web statement, referring to the pope, "then let him wait for the day coming soon when the armies of the religion of right knock on the walls of Rome."

Chilling. How much longer will our own politicians and leaders ignore the provocation and hatred these people preach? How much longer will the man in the street shrug, or turn the other cheek? How much longer will left wing intellectuals continue to not only apologize for the militants, but also blame the West for the hatred the militants spew out? How much longer – probably until after it was too late.

I noticed this week’s HK Magazine is doing a cover story on the lesbian scene in Hong Kong. I will have a look at this article over the next few days. But it does raise another issue – that of same sex marriage, or same sex civil unions.

I want to state, that I think same sex relations are abnormal. If other people wish to shun such couples, they should be free to do so. The natural union is of man and woman. However this does not make same sex relations immoral, if the people involved have thought about the issue and implications carefully. If such people truly believe they will be happy together, then it is their choice to make. After all, their own individual life is the proper standard of value, not some make believe mystical creature.

Which leads me to the next point. Marriage is not a mystical union dreamed up in another dimension. Marriage is essentially a contract between two people. It is a truly special contract, based on respect for each other’s values and mutual love. A married couple centre their family, money, and lives around each other.

So if two people of the same sex wish to contract to live the rest of their lives with each other, this too should be backed up by law. That is, they should have the same rights as people of the opposite sex who marry. Whether this is called marriage or a civil union, is not so important, either way it has the same characteristics of marriage.

I wonder how much support there is for the idea of same sex civil unions.