Royal Society protests as certain corporations remain the main funders of "flat-earth" groups that deny global warming exists
Some years ago, groups such as "corporatewatch" were smeared as "extremist" for trying to alert the world that some corporate slushfunds were getting used to distort democracy by keeping going "lobbying organisations" that emp loyed the gloss of fake academia, "influence peddlers", moulders of opinion, (sometimes bungs, bribes - or even worse) to "push" certain messages - even smearing or "character assassinating" people that said otherwise, then playing "news management" distraction games to con tain the 2+2=4 of situations. It was even suggested that the groups pointing this out were "against globalisation" - rather than in favour of a globalisation when we werent all played off against each other - in fact, it was often suggested that they were against technology - against progress even - when they had good questions to ask about the uses tech was put to, with a sensible differentiation of progress from mere "modernisation".
People in the large, corporate groups that donated the cash for these info-war-ops had also raised doubts about exactly what was happening ( - its VERY rare for people to get involved in the oil industry or the insurance sector, say, out of a desire to repress people in the "third world" or rip people off here - very often they are sharp engineers, ace organisers or good with numbers ! ) - sometimes even the people in the (insert-your-favourite-capital-letters-here) "front organisations" for these operations were quite unwitting of other aspects of them - even having very good intentions - with perhaps some blindspots - (who hasnt) - but growing suspicions that the reprioritisation of the things they thought they stood for was - shall we say, odd.
In the states, (republican) california has taken the unusual step of taking some corporations to court - less for the cash than out of disgust that the faction at present in control of the US administration in Washington that they put in hasnt moved over EVEN the "new-market-creating" kyoto treaty. ( flaws that demand a more serious treaty as a retort, perhaps, but that DOESNT excuse INACTION.)
Reporting all this, radio fours "news at ten" - (21/9/6) transcripts at website - came up with the most situation-distorting "people dont mind if world screws up" set of mangled logic - WITH POLLS ! - that ITS ever tried to . . . . has to get rechecked again SEVERAL TIMES to listen for guffaws of laughter - but ends up by saying that 98% of people are busy doing other things.( NYAAAA NYAAAA NYAAAA ) . . . . TAKING BALL AWAY, knocks boardgame off table, pulls plug out etc.
When the question "- but IF the owner of Mori is burning, is it your TOP priority - keeping in mind the fact that (etc etc etc etc - pre-load question here) to put him out - less than 1% of people had the presence of mind to inquire if


the thing is - i havent mentioned that very, very weird bit of the 22/9/6 TODAY programme - in its peak listening slot - when the punch + judy caricature of two people at each other got so bad it DOES get you thinking people have fallen into setting up a civil war.ALSO distracted - A BIT - from the piece about the 8 £bn vat fraud - 6 £bn of that - in trade with . . . . DUBEI ???? Hmmmm. HMMMM<.

defuse: 1 WHAT WAS IT?if you aint a democrat gertcha offda Brittischer place" against "i got more tine to speak than almost any other muslim in wireless histri so i is gonna WIND EVRYBODY UP BIGTIME BY SAYIN "islam'n'democracy is chalk'n'cheese"
2 STRAIGHTFORWARD DEFUSE
UK ethics dont "tolerate" a democracy thats unlimited either - hence constitution-type things, house of lords, the lawlords. . . . the law. (from "folk lore" perhaps, to complete the circle again - ie - the laws thatr are accepted by most folk when we have a chance to think about it over time . . . . )
IRAN is a multiparty democracy - hezbollah got ELECTED in a multiparty democracy. AL whatsit doesnt even complain about "democracy" as the thing its against. sharia law - - - - law. sharia can update, it always has, perhaps the question that MIGHT get asked is - can DEMOCRACY update (aint even got pr yet, but a singleparty state that swaps to "the other" party - perhaps - every few years as the background remains the same . . . . hmmmm. At this point - if this was some point scoring university debate - you could raise the issue of the iranian blokes having made some very good points about the 1945 UN structure in need
of democratising to keep or gain respect - but then it might have swapped the argument around so that a presenter was fulminating about the absurd, ridiculous dangerous idea of democracy - in thatcontext - the "security blanket council" as the equivalent of sharia law - anything else UNTHINK ?
Fact is, as the pope said, we are ALL going to have to get a bit of practise at hearing things said that sound outrageous but keep talking with each other as if we are each worthy of the respect to investigate a bit further -
(- yes - if you look at the VATICAN TRANSLATION of the actual sentence prior to the "quote that launched a thousand bricks" thats what he WAS saying. (CHECK IT you lazy journalist. tick tick tick tick. everybody else - ditto -or do you trust journalists!))
BUT THE THING IS - THIS ISNT A POINT-SCORING UNIVERSITY DEBATE.Quotes DO launch bricks - much worse, too. radio four as radio rwanda. listen again. It WAS that bad. Words stop wars too - pens mightier than swords, etc - but we need to sharpen the way we THINK about words too - even to "soften" them, sometimes.
We should perhaps expect flak - things ARE moving, at last, in lots of ways- after all!!!! things might seem as if we are getting played off against each other - turned up/down - but stay sensible - - - - the situation in the world is too dodgy at the moment to set off matches as we sit in pools of petrol