Don’t post crap! Troppo readers were up in arms about Rafe Champion’s post on the Monckton and Dennis climate change debate. Rafe wants to know "how the warming lobby and Greens managed to inflate a possible temperature increase of a degree or two over the next century into the greatest moral challenge to humankind." Commenter Mr Denmore has a question of his own: "When did Club Troppo become a home for nut jobs?"
Menzies House: There’s room for (almost) everyone. "When people suggest to you that climate change is not a moral issue, they’re wrong" says coalition front bencher Malcolm Turnbull. "It is an intensely moral issue." Back in May Menzies House blogger Colin McKay posted pictures of sliced testicles and suggested Turnbull’s stance on climate change was motivated by a desire to get "his balls back" after being named in a multi-million dollar law suit. Commenter Sean hit back: "This is a conspiracy-theory nutjob article and I think the editors should read articles before they are published."
You Can’t Say That! Controversial German author Thilo Sarrazin will join other opponents of ‘political correctness’ at the Centre for Independent Studies’ next Big Ideas Forum. According to the Economist: "Mr Sarrazin’s argument is that the right sort of German women are having too few babies and that the wrong sort—Muslims and those with little education—are having too many. The result is not only that Germany’s population is shrinking, it is also getting dumber." But at Spiegel Online last year Reiner Klingholz explained why the debate over Sarrazin’s book is missing the point. If Germany is to avoid the demographic problems afflicting Japan, it needs to look to the immigration policies of countries like Australia and increase its intake of skilled migrants.
Is the pool room full? At the Economist’s Democracy in America blog Matt Steinglass wonders whether consumers are getting sick of buying new stuff. It’s an idea that appeals to Kim at Larvatus Prodeo. Over the past few months she’s been arguing that "having lots of stuff is losing its lustre."
Bogans of ancient Rome. On a recent trip to Rome’s Capitoline museum, Skepticlawyer stumbled across an exhibit of not particularly tasteful ancient Roman knick-knacks: "It’s so nice to know that other civilisations had their equivalent of bogans, chavs, neds… and the attendant tatt."
Abandoning the burbs? According to a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, Generation Y aren’t interested in outer suburban McMansions. But after looking at data from the last Census Joel Kotkin disagrees. In fact there’s "a marked acceleration of movement not into cities but toward suburban and exurban locations."
