As a sort of "grand finale" to a presentation at a conference earlier this month in Los Angeles, climate "sceptic" Lord Christopher Monckton displayed on the giant conference screen a large Nazi swastika next to a quote from Adolf Hitler.

A few seconds later came another quote, next to another large swastika – an emblem still offensive to most people seven decades after the end of WWII. The quote this time was from Australia's climate change advisor Professor Ross Garnaut, which suggested that "on a balance of probabilities, the mainstream science is right" on human-caused climate change.

doing the email rounds...

JOHN Howard should have stood down as Liberal leader before losing government and his seat at the 2007 poll, former Liberal Senate leader Nick Minchin has declared in his farewell speech to parliament.

Senator Minchin used his valedictory today to list his failures, not just relive successes.

He admitted his regret at not having "the courage of my conservative convictions concerning my serious reservations at the time about the US plans for the invasion of Iraq."

He also expressed his disappointment at his inability to privatise Snowy Hydro and Medibank Private during his time as finance minister.

Tony Abbott has used Question Time to accuse the Government of abandoning democracy over its handling of the carbon tax, as criticism mounts over his proposal for a plebiscite on the issue.

The Opposition Leader demanded to know why Prime Minister Julia Gillard had promised there would no carbon price until a consensus of the people had been reached.

"How can she claim such a consensus exists when she refuses to put it to the people, preferably at an election, but if not at a plebiscite?" he said.

But Ms Gillard labelled the plebiscite proposal a "stunt".

 From the ABC Drum: Simon Tatz is the director of communications for the Mental Health Council of Australia

Quote:

US President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner made a winning team on the golf course - with federal budget discussion likely to have taken place between the shots.

They teamed up to beat Vice-President Joe Biden and Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich at a military base outside Washington DC.

The game was touted as an opportunity to socialise and discuss the budget.

Republicans want spending cuts with the deficit poised to hit $1.4tr (£865bn).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13813691

Realpolitik is less about policy than it is about messages, and sometimes messages are best delivered visually.

That's why politicians stage media stunts like visiting small businesses in the outlying industrial suburbs of Canberra, and, yes, Tony Abbott, I'm looking at you.

For months now the Opposition Leader has sought to lead the daily agenda, and get his face on the nightly news, by dragging gaggles of shivering (and sometimes even whimpering) journalists to fishmongers, glass pane purveyors, you name it, in order to emphasise the evil, world-as-we-know-it-slaughtering nature of the government's imminent carbon tax.

When David Flint asserts that the Queen is not a foreign national (Letters, June 16), is he claiming that she is Australian? If so, I would be interested to see her birth certificate. I'm not unreasonable - I'll accept the short form.

Michael Cahill Summer Hill

Opening a new phase in a race to define the direction of their party, the leading Republican presidential candidates gathered Monday night for the first time to begin drawing distinctions among themselves in a vibrant competition to be seen as sufficiently conservative for primary voters, but electable enough to defeat President Obama.

As the intersessional meetings of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change began with a faltering limp in Bonn last week, it was hard not to sense a grand emptiness.

The giant rooms of the Maritim Hotel in Bonn have been witness to almost nothing happening, as the climate talks have barely reached a murmur. This could be the last opportunity to generate any momentum before COP 17 to be held at the end of the year in Durban but differences, great and small, have prevented crucial conversations from even getting started. Over days, even the simple content of meeting agendas cannot be agreed.

THE two Americans in charge of Star City's makeover want the casino to become known as ''Sydney's Viagra''.

But they admit they have a long way to go if they want to change its reputation as ''an RSL on steroids''.

During an exclusive first look at the casino's revamped high-roller room, Larry Mullin, the chief executive of Echo Entertainment Group, spoke of how the almost $1 billion being spent on the site would change perceptions of it as a food court with pokies.

Russell Crowe went on an anti-circumcision tirade on Twitter late Thursday and early Friday morning (US time), later taking down his cutting Tweets and apologising for offending anyone.

"Circumcision is barbaric and stupid. Who are you to correct nature? Is it real that GOD requires a donation of foreskin? Babies are perfect," Crowe tweeted.

When a follower wrote, "There's actually a scientific reason for [circumcision], u should google it," Crowe replied: "My friend, 'human' science has caused too much damage, don't be a moron."

The Productivity Commission studied policies in China, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States and found over 1,000 policies in place aimed at reducing greenhouse gas.

"There are significant policies in place and planned across our trading partners," the report said.

It says they range from emissions trading schemes to policies that support particular types of abatement technology.

"Price-based instruments (such as the European Union ETS) appear to be relatively cost effective," it said.

But the study says it provides "little guidance" as to what the starting price of carbon should be.

... the full story is more interesting than any caricature. In the last decade, Germany has succeeded in some important ways that the United States has not. The lessons aren’t simply liberal or conservative. They are both.

With our economy weakening once again — and with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany visiting the White House this week — now seems to be a good time to take a closer look.

The brief story is that, despite its reputation for austerity, Germany has been far more willing than the United States to use the power of government to help its economy. Yet it has also been more ruthless about cutting wasteful parts of government.