Friday lay day blog

Its Friday blog lay day – which might mean anything. But today I provide some commentary on the scientific acumen of our federal government and a recipe to soothe souls torn by neo-liberal economic policies.

Today will be the last day of checking and editing my book on Europe – it will go to the publishers on Monday. Its title will be European Groupthink – denial on a grand scale. It is 368 pages long at present. It should be published for sale later this year.

Australian government – appeals to hard core science

The Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz, who last week triumphed over the unemployed by introducing pernicious new measures designed to make their lives even more miserable than they already are (see – Australian government now engaged in psychological torture of its citizens), had now demonstrated his command of all things science.

He was on national television last night waxing lyrical about families and was asked to comment on the claim by one of the speakers at the “World Congress o Families” being held in Melbourne this month that “abortion can lead to breast cancer”.

The – ABC News – documented the Q&A with one of the other panellists on the program (Mia Freedman):

Freedman: “What about the fact that one of the speakers at this conference promotes the factually incorrect statement that abortion leads to breast cancer. Do you believe that?”

Abetz: “I think the studies, and I think they date back from the 1950s, assert that there is a link between abortion and breast cancer.”

Freedman: “It is conclusively and scientifically incorrect in the same way that linking immunisations and autism are incorrect. So when this scientific non-information is being put out there, how can you be comfortable being part of something that promotes this non-science?”

Abetz: “Well I don’t know what your scientific expertise is to be able to run that commentary, I must confess I don’t have that … ”

Freedman: “It’s not me. It’s the Australian Medical Association.”

Abetz: “Well there are other organisations that have differing views as some of these speakers are clinical professors ..

I recommend the Minister visit – Spurious Correlations.

His assertion is up there with the “Number of people who drowned by falling into a swimming-pool being correlated with the Number of films Nicolas Cage appeared in” or “Per capita consumption of cheese (US) correlated with the Number of people who died by becoming tangled in their bedsheets” among the many more interesting associations!

Idiot. He should stick to torturing the unemployed. That is an altogether much simpler task when you have power to withdraw income support and there are not enough jobs to go around.

This UK Guardian article (August 8, 2014) – Eric Abetz’s abortion backtrack: an opportunity to study Liberal spin in its natural habitat – is also interesting and amusing.

Economic Collapse Crumb Cake

With unemployment starting to shoot up in Australia and Italy back into recession and Germany looking weak, maybe the – Economic Collapse Crumb Cake Recipe – will soothe souls.

Here is what the final product looks like.

Looks appetising.

Saturday Quiz

The Saturday Quiz will be back again tomorrow. It will be of an appropriate order of difficulty (-:

That is enough for today!

(c) Copyright 2014 Bill Mitchell. All Rights Reserved.