Joining the Twitterati

Since #Cablegate hit the news I've been dipping into Twitter to catch the latest news.  At the same time I've been wondering about my blogging.  It seems harder these days to find the time to sit down and write - but at the same time there is lots of good stuff going on that I want to share.....

So now I can.  As from yesterday you can find me on Twitter ... @DiggersAll.

Wikileaks: What the good book says

“There is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, nothing hidden that will not be made known. Everything you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight; what you have whispered in locked rooms will be proclaimed from the rooftops.”  – Luke 12:2-3

The Bible is not really my cup of tea but this quote is spot on..   so too is the article where I found it -on Daniel Ellsberg's blog, citing a press release by the 'Institue for Public Accuracy' about Wikileaks and the American government's problem with integrity, justice and accountability. 

It was Ellsberg that leaked the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War - and the press release is signed by list of heavy weights all familiar with the predicament Julian Assange & Private Manning now find themselves in.

All power to their elbow...  Go read!

Climate change - ostriches and a train crash

[image: NOAA]

"For January–October 2010, the global combined land and ocean surface temperature was 0.63°C (1.13°F) above the 20th century average of 14.1°C (57.4°F) and tied with 1998 as the warmest January–October period on record."

"Sitting here shivering at the end of the coldest late November in living memory (well, in this living memory at any rate) it's somewhat surreal to contemplate the assembled panjandrams of the climate alarmism industry sunning themselves in Cancun while delivering apocalyptic pronouncements of the doom that will befall us should a sufficiently draconian regime of carbon control be imposed upon the world."

Under the title 'Rhetoric and Reality on Climate Change' the Heresiarch kicks off a discussion on whether it would be better to give up any attempt to limit man's climate impact and just start learning to live with the consequences.

"Advocates of action to forestall global warming" are we learn in a "state of desperation". 

It's strikes a disappointingly sceptic tone, but is an interesting read - not least for stating the obvious, that politically we globally don't have our act together.  We are all on board the same train.. and we are heading full speed at the buffers.

Now the little guy at the back of the carriage has tried.. "er, excuse me, but maybe we should slow down?" (many times)..  and the train drivers union has called a meeting to discuss what to do..   And now it's too late to stop the train... we are going to crash.  And the little guy is standing on his chair shouting.  "Use the f****** brakes". 

Hitting the buffers slowly will always be better than charging at them full speed.  Learning to live with the consequences is clearly a something we need to do...  but what we have to live with depends very much on how hard we manage to brake the train. 

Full speed ahead is not the right answer...

Wikileaks: the messenger and the hydra's teeth

You can understand that it is uncomfortable for some to find their dirty washing hanging out in public.  I am all for privacy...

But whose privacy? Do we want privacy for government and surveillance of the individual?  Or the opposite.  Transparency in government and privacy for the individual?

Governments, senior politicians and powerbrokers everywhere are leaning hard to close down Wikileaks...   their DNS servers, their Paypal account.  One is struck by the effort going into closing down the source of the leak - rather than admit to or address the issues raised.. 

But why shoot the messenger?  Whistleblowing is a recognised and protected principle.  Journalistic sources are protected  - for instance in the Swedish constitútion - and in many countries including the US, there are laws protecting individuals rights to blow the whistle on misdoings and get protection for it...   In Britain for instance the Public Interest Disclosure Act covers dicslosure of

• a criminal offence;
• the breach of a legal obligation;
• a miscarriage of justice;
• a danger to the health or safety of any individual;
• damage to the environment; or
• deliberate covering up of information tending to show any of the above five matters

Do the cablegate leaks count?  Well judging by the international coverage of them I'd say the case for public interest is proven.... 

So do we want THEM to put the genie back in the bottle?  To go back to feeding us a massaged variant of the truth?  Well... mixing my metaphors a little - it looks like it is not going to happen.  Wikileak mirrors are springing up all over to carry the torch.  Cut off a head and another grows in its place.

The truth will out... inconvenient or not...

For information on Wikileaks mirrors check here...