In which Erica and the Lomborgians put on a fine consensual display ...

(Above: and more excellent Pope here. Hasn't he caught a canny likeness in his portrait of Erica?)


It was around four sentences in - that the pond stopped listening to freedom boy:

Last week, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, delivered the Centre for Independent Studies' Acton Lecture titled "Should bakers be required to bake gay wedding cakes?" 
Fisher raised a range of challenges facing religious liberty in Australia and across the world. 
He rightly argued a "true democracy is a political order that acknowledges deeply held moral and religious convictions are important ... [and] concedes that people must obey both God and Caesar".

It's called the meaning of structure in sentences, and we might derive from freedom boy this thought:

Rightly argued ... true democracy concedes that people must obey ... God ...

Well first we'd need to define the god we must obey. The Christians can't agree, and the Islamic god is out of the question, and should we drag in Xenu? Even the spaghetti monster is a bridge too far for the pond ...

But you may keep reading here - a functioning Fairfax website allowing - as it suddenly struck the pond - there was a sighting on The Drum last night as well - that suddenly it seems to be dawning on freedom boy that things might well get nasty down the track, what with the Catholics and the angry Sydney Anglicans leading the bigotry charge ...

Could it be that all his soothing rabbiting on about religious freedom back in the day for the reptiles of Oz might come back to haunt him?

Right now Erica is out and about showing how it's done, talking of negroes and wedding cakes, and setting the pace for bigots ...

Meanwhile ... could it be?

Be still, beating heart, it was just titillating click bait for political junkies ...

The rest was about the unseemly battle for Joe Hockey's seat, while the real work of undermining is carried on by others.

Erica isn't just talking about negroes and wedding cakes you see, he has plenty of things to fume about, and the reptiles of Oz rushed off to Erica and other important figures for a crucial story about the cruel fate of their favourite Lomborgian pet:

Oh indeed, indeed, the shameless, shameful poodle caving in ...

You can tick them off - Erica, Cory, Dennis the menace, Tony Pasin, a croweater nonentity trying to earn a decent ratbag nickname, and to cap it all off, dear old Moorice himself with the splendid insight that things were done differently in the days of the climate denialist captain ...

Naturally the reptiles couldn't let it rest there. They just had to put their pet on parade.

Now this is a convenient point for anyone with a useful life to go off and lead that useful life, because it's possible to summarise precisely what Lomborg is saying in a few words ...

Yep, renewable energy is useless and expensive, so we may as well keep using coal and gas ...

There, expert insights done and dusted, and without spending a cent of that four million dollars ...

Of course, Lomborg dresses it up with all sorts of nice statistics and data and eminently impressive rhetorical trickery and finery, and there's a splendid illustration of wilting windmills ...

No, no, not just the splash, let's take it out into a more widescreen 16:9 format:

And so to the argument, and remember, all we're really saying is renewables are useless and expensive, so let's just stick with coal and gas ...

Now while mourning the suffering of existing coal and gas suppliers,  it's important at this point not to mention fossil fuel subsidies, but to focus on the main game, so hey nonny no, on we go ...

And remember, renewable energy is useless - why not just stick with coal and gas? - and it's important to note that the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't sun, at least where Lomborgians tend to stick their consensual heads ...

Now you can see where all this fine talk of damage costs is heading.

For the love of the long absent lord, can't we just stick with those fine people peddling coal and gas ... because, after all, when it's all said and done people, what's the point?

Yes, it's good news on several fronts.

Now that the consensus centre has been snatched away from Lomborg, he can go about his usual business, decrying renewable energy, implying coal and gas are the only sensible way forward, and purporting to worry about climate change, but in fact marginalising and minimising any concerns punters might have ...

And the reptiles will faithfully regurgitate his words because they still cling to the siren song of the Lomborgians ...

Which means we've save four million bucks on a consensus centre, and can get all the blather for free, and if that isn't a win-win, you must be the kind that gets money for nothing and your windmills for free ...

Sorry Erica and Co., the poodle is clearly a visionary ... and everything is for the best in the best of all climate denialist worlds ...

What's more, the pond is convinced, thanks be unto the reptiles and their loosely paywalled consensus centre...

Let's shout out long and loud and hard with the helpful consensual Lomborgians ... it's coal, coal, coal ... and gas ... for the wooorrrrrlllldddd ...

(Below: and by Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Warvan, isn't Rowe in good form this day, and more Rowe here ...)