In which the pond goes dewy eyed at the thought of the age of steam and Tony Abbott, still dwelling in it ...

(Above: and more Wilcox here).

Every day brings a fresh delight for the pond.

The upside is that the pond is still around to enjoy the fresh delights; the downside is that it requires a peculiar view of the world to see the little hoppy toads that pop out of Tony Abbott's mouth as a delight.

Yes, the fearless rabbit is at it again, and as usual, it involved a little dog whistling with his old mate, the anti-wind farm Alan Jones ... as he did a jolly Joe about wind turbine ugliness, and doubled down by decrying the RET and mourning that it had ever been introduced.

There's no need to recap the conversation which took place yesterday morning, and so is already just part of the miasma and fog that surrounds the pea brain's predictable spoutings ... but for those who came in late to the conversation, Fairfax has the story at 'Awful and noisy': Tony Abbott slams wind farms during interview with Alan Jones. (with forced video)

The subtext to the conversation might be summarised as "this climate science is total crap, what a pity I have to pretend to believe in it, and do these dreadful things and implement awful policies involving noisy blights on the landscape and wretched promotion of noxious notions like renewable energy when we all know that coal will be loved for generations to come by anyone seeking decent energy."

Putting words into Abbott's mouth?

Not really. Abbott has articulated each of these points over the years, except for the lack of honesty and the dissembling disingenuous in refusing to admit publicly anymore that deep in his heart and his mind he still thinks climate science is absolute crap.

Now the pond understands that aesthetics is in the eye of the beholder.

The pond can remember the visual delight it experienced stumbling across the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm in California - you can wiki it here. There are some other great large wind farms in the USA, but that was the pond's first, and what's more was the remarkable quietness standing in the desert watching these behemoths go about their twirling business.

Have a look at Tucumcari where as bold as brass they have a wind turbine on good old route 66, which the pond once travelled at great length:

These grand sights are almost as good as the Mojave Air and Spare Port in the Californian desert, where they dump used airplanes (you can wiki it here).

But then the pond's a modernist, growing up at a time when rail and planes were hailed as futurist items, ways forward:

(There's some great period posters here for NSW Rail which are great fun for period buffs, the only downside being the sight of what NSW Rail has become).

Oh dear, in the usual way when considering the rabbit, the pond will do anything to seek a distraction, especially ones that produce a misty eyed nostalgia.

But let's get back to the sordid business at hand.

Naturally people took up the challenge and squawked at Abbott. Tom Arup in The Age furiously scribbled Prime Minister Tony Abbott blows hot air over wind farms, with attached forced video.

Arup made many fine and considered points, explaining where Abbott went wrong in relation to health concerns and the renewable energy target, and making an obvious point re aesthetics, especially for anyone who travels past the lunar landscape that was once called the picturesque Hunter Valley:

Mr Abbott aesthetic dislike of wind turbines is no surprise given his other comments. But nor is it really a problem either. 
After all beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many people similarly don't like the sight of giant coal pits. At other times we might mark these comments down to the missteps and overreach politicians sometimes make in interviews. 
But the Prime Minister's prior record suggests we should be more suspicious. Beyond reducing the renewable energy target, his government has slashed the budget of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and strives to close the quite successful Clean Energy Finance Corporation. 
Many countries, rich and poor, are going the other way and increasing support for renewable energy development. 
They are drawn to the benefits of cutting greenhouse gas emissions, reducing air pollution and greater energy security. Germany and China, hardly global lightweights, in particular are making steps in this direction. 
And this week G7 leaders threw their weight behind stamping out fossil fuel emissions by century's end. Pushing against this global trend doesn't seem like sound policy. 
But Mr Abbott comments suggest his reasons for doing so are more ideological than sound.

Indeed, because let's remember climate science is absolute crap ...

And over at the Graudian, Lenore Taylor scribbled a fine and considered piece pointing out the hypocrisy and conflicting dog whistles employed by Abbott, Tony Abbott's boast of windfarm cuts contradicts earlier stand on renewables.

Taylor recites chapter and verse Abbott's hypocrisy, his favouring of climate deniers (she politely calls them sceptics), like Dick Warburton and Moorice the man, and pointing out the luddites beavering away in the federal government in relation to health alarmism:

...now another Senate inquiry is yet again looking at the claims – and whether there is a need for more regulations and guidelines. Liberal National party senator Matthew Canavan told a recent television report he thought wind turbines might turn out to the “the pink batts of the air”. 
It seems unlikely any industry can ever achieve certainty unless it can operate for more than five minutes without changes to laws and regulations and unless it can be confident that politicians mean what they say.

Indeed, indeed, but by now everyone knows that Abbott is a routine liar and a hypocrite, who will pander to whatever audience happens to be listening, and it's the pond's unfortunate experience that you can't have a rational discussion with a fear-mongering luddite dog whistling to his base.

But as always, we have to ask how the reptiles responded to the latest challenge, and there it was on the front page. A cry of pain for coal:

Yep, that's the best way to present the luddite's views - embed them in a 'shed tears for coal' moment:

 If you want to read on, you can google, because the pond also wanted to watch at the way the reptiles weren't content with this, and doubled down on the digital top page with another story:

Okay, the pond bit, the way the pond usually does:

Uh huh. Sounds interesting. So what is the growing body of evidence? 

Well there, sadly it gets a bit murky. The pond challenges anyone to read the story about the good assoc prof and his opinions, and discover a single example of the growing body of evidence:

He felt? Now the pond knows that scientists have feelings, but damned if there was anything in that story except opinion dressed up as fact, and designed to support Abbott and the rest of the luddites beavering away in the government.

And while we're spending time with the reptiles, please allow the pond to jump sideways to another story, since there's only so long anyone should spend in the company of luddites and fear-mongers.

Yes, the lizard Oz editorialist was in fine form today, as they maintained the rage at bloggers and the twitterati. Being an occasional blogger, the pond was intrigued at what thought crime it might have committed:

Pathetic really, but here's a key point the Oz editorialist might have missed in outlining its key point, and no amount of sophistry and verbal word games can avoid the issue.

What exactly do they mean by better work practices and more flexible industrial relations?

Why they mean the increasing casualisation of the work force, so that people might be fired at the whim and the leisure of employers, and without too much fuss, and maybe only a week or a month's payout.

So how will that work with a casual or contract worker heading off to a bank for a loan of a substantial size which will last some twenty five years? You do the maths ...

As for the blather about real wages and productivity growth, you'd have to be a horse's arse or an Oz editorialist to think that even a wage increase of five thousand dollars a year would make a shred of difference to anyone attempting to buy into the currently crazy (RBA certified adjective) over-heated Sydney market.

Yep, as always, there's a delight a day, and reading the Oz editorialist farting crap into the air must surely count as one of them.

Oops, that sounds like a blogger venting some rage. How should the pond sound in its discourse?

Oh, okay, we need more than thought bubbles and half-baked throwaway lines from the Oz editorialist, as fine and reliable a fuckwit as can be found anywhere on the full to overflowing intertubes.

What else? Well there's always nostalgia and a retreat into history, though you might find the space crowded with sundry luddite monks and Abbotts ... so here's a couple more for trainspotters:

Ah, coal. Is there nothing it can't do? Please allow the pond to wipe a speck, a grit of soot from its moist, dewy eyes. Wind farms? Bah humbug, what was wrong with the age of steam wherein Mr Abbott still resides? Tell him, Ben Chifley, please tell him ...