Ball, Ridd, Steyn: All the World’s a Stage The Quiet Revolution

Written by Alan L. Stewart on February 23, 2018. Posted in Current News

Serendipity provided two apropos quotes separated by 80 years.  One by Churchill and another by the current U.S. president.

Never give in, never give in—never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.—Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) “Never Give In Speech” Harrow School, 1941

This is about Good News.  This is about free speech and the price of that most valuable of human interactions.  This is about bravery and analogous to David vs Goliath.  This is about three separate legal battles created from the battlefield that is the Global Warming Issue.

In the mainstream media you will literally find zero number of reports re these legal actions, as news of extreme importance, such as Melania Trump’s high heels or the color of her dress take the headlines.  This is the stage: The road to totalitarianism begins when opposing views are stifled.  The protagonists in this play of life are in the title.  The antagonists are the Left Media, Academia and those politicizing science.  (view below Eisenhower’s military industrial complex speech).

Cast of characters:

Dr. Timothy Ball, age 79, Canadian.  Professor of Geography, University of Winnipeg (1971-1996) Defendant.

Prof. Peter Ridd, age 58, Australian.  Marine scientist at James Cook U.  Plaintiff.

Mark Steyn, age 56 (est.) Canadian/U.S. Columnist, political pundit, wit. Defendant

Michael E. Mann, age 52, American Director of Earth Systems Science Center at Penn State U. Plaintiff.

James Cook University, Chancellor Sandra Harding, Defendants.

Plotline:  This is a multi-act production extending over many years and the final scenes have not been written yet.  The basic plot revolves around the movement in left of centre governments and institutions and the 4^th Estate moving radically towards Socialist ideologies.  In essence this is Orwell’s ‘1984’ novel of totalitarianism in action.  The plot is extremely complex but it is the state acquiescing to legal action against the individual.  The cost of legal defense is tacitly implied as, also, an economic David vs. Goliath.  For more information I suggest you type any Boolean combinations of the cast names above into your browser.

Quick Summary:

• Ball is the hardest hit with two lawsuits. In approximately 2011 climate scientist (?) Andrew J. Weaver (British Columbia Green Party leader) brought suit as Ball, in a newspaper article, questioned his ability to understand basic climate science. In February 2018 and many thousands of dollars later Dr. Ball won his case.  Good News.
• Ball immediately went on the offensive as, more Good News, he is being backed by thousands of small donations from believers in free speech. His second suit is from Michael Mann.  Ball, with his normal jocularity had the audacity to say that Mann; ‘Should be in the State pen, not Penn State.”  Sticks and stones…………. and more rich lawyers.  Both suits were brought via lawyer Roger McConchie paid by the multi -billion dollar funded U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ironic not.  My donation is on the way to Tim.  Good News.
• Mann is also suing Mark Steyn for some obscure statements he made? The difference here is that Steyn seems to have done well in the bank account department and revels in the challenge.  I would love to be in court and listen to his wit and erudition defending himself in that final scene.  Continuing and Good News.
• Finally there is Peter Ridd. He had the temerity to question government funded scientific organizations information. In brevity, the university is threating him and telling him to shut up or be fired. Peter and his mum said NO!!  Like Dr. Ball he is a scientist and not exactly rich.  He threw out a HELP on the net and within two weeks his goal of $95,000 was exceeded and he, with integrity, cut off the donations.  What is really interesting is a $10.00 donation under the name of Donald J Trump??? Real or not; more Good News.

The absolute good news is that people are fighting back.   Ideally, somewhere in the far, far future this play will end with some words from President Trump about the horror in Parkland Florida:  ‘We need to have a culture that creates deep and meaningful human connections that turns colleagues and classmates into friends and neighbors.’

I have termed Mann as the owner of Lawsuits Inc. and the link below provides an insight into his character, this one not Good News.

https://principia-scientific.com/aaas-honors-hyper-partisan-name-calling-bully-michael-mann/

About the author:  My training is not within the Natural Sciences, but within what may be termed the science of Sales & Marketing or the Art of the Message.  Marshall McLuhan is a good link to those disciplines.  At age 70 I am starting to learn the natural sciences and see such an elegance and purity within those disciplines.  The greatest mechanism to truth is the Scientific Method, the rigor of peer review.  Only a fool rejects criticism as ‘errare humanum est’; Seneca: “To err is human, but to persist in error (out of pride) is diabolical.”

Alan L. Stewart  [email protected]

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