What is the cost of free speech? 18c has not curbed Hizb Ut-Tahir but has prosecuted Andrew Bolt for good journalism. Yet some say we need 18c to do exactly what it has failed to do. And yet speech is not free for normal people. It has become a rule for bigots opposing reason. But the most egregious abuse of 18c from the point of view of the Conservative Voice is that the refusal to report on newsworthy items by the mainstream press which have not required freedom of speech legislation .. they just choose to report only on what they feel protects their narrative. Hamidur Rahman is dead from such abuse. And his blood is on their hands too. We need free speech. But 18c is only an impediment. We don't have free speech even without 18c.

Oakes attacks Hockey. Apparently Oakes feels that that is the best way to prosecute an ALP agenda, and it has nothing to do with current issues. Hockey was right to say Shorten can't support Liberal security policy if he refuses to allow the government the funds to pay for it. Meanwhile Shorten claims today that there would never be a carbon tax under a government he leads. But even after the change of senate, ALP clung to the tax to the bitter end .. even after Rudd claimed to have ended it. Shorten promises a carbon trade, which would replace a carbon tax and function like one. Mr Abbott has to protect and foster the economy. ALP are holding up $28 billion in savings.

The constipated air warriors are not effective without ground forces. Obama has made the wrong call and many people are dying because of it. The Algerian migrant Benbrika is converting others to Jihadism from jail. There are many such examples around the world. Benbrika's sentence is pathetically short for his crime which put him there. Probably just as Pistorius' one will be too.

In the interests of free speech I include some of the correspondence received from yesterday's post.

From Australian Political Debate, open forum;

Otto Mellar Antarctic ice MASS is decreasing, despite thin sea ice covering a larger area.
Suggest checking the scientific facts before taking the words of an unqualified blogger....See More

POLETOPOLECAMPAIGN.ORG
David Daniel Ball .. I suggest you look at the references before embarrassing yourself by spreading lies.

Otto Mellar If you have scientific evidence that ice MASS is increasing or staying the same, then please present it.

In the meantime, new from NASA this week:

http://phys.org/.../2014-09-goce-reveals-gravity-dip-ice...

GOCE reveals gravity dip from ice loss (w/ Video)
Although not designed to map changes in Earth's gravity...
PHYS.ORG

David Daniel Ball (Although not designed ..)

David Daniel Ball .. anyway .. one of your glorious leaders has said the increase was as expected ..

Otto Mellar "glorious leaders" = one of the highly qualified scientists?
Yes, sea ice may well be widely spread, but it's much thinner and formed from the lowered salinity sea water. The salinity in the Antarctic is dropping due to increased ice from the land entering the ocean.
And as I have said twice, the total mass of ice has decreased.

But if evidence is not your thing, I won't trouble you with any more of it.

Bruu Swayn Otto, put those facts away. They ruin the rhetoric.

David Daniel Ball .. which is the fact, Bruu? the scientist contradicting themselves proudly? The observations based on materials not designed for it? Or the measurements you don't want to believe?

Robert Hayes Negatory according to ICESAT http://wattsupwiththat.com/.../icesat-data-shows-mass.../ to paraphrase Bruu "Robert, put those facts away. They ruin the rhetoric."

ICESAT Data Shows Mass Gains of the Antarctic Ice Sheet Exceed Losses
The results of ICEsat measurements are in for Antarctica,...
WATTSUPWITHTHAT.COM

Bruu Swayn Did you read the links, David?

Bruu Swayn Robert, you're linking Anthony Watts again.

Robert Hayes Who's linking to a peer paper.

Robert Hayes Are you not the least bit skeptical Bruu of record southern sea ice? And the prescribed warming causes ice counter intuitive claim. Is the dog ate it also a plausible explanation?

Bruu Swayn " While the interior of East Antarctica is gaining land ice, overall Antarctica has been losing land ice at an accelerating rate. Antarctic sea ice is growing despite a strongly warming Southern Ocean."

http://www.skepticalscience.com/antarctica-gaining-ice...

Is Antarctica losing or gaining ice?
While the interior of East Antarctica is gaining land ice, overall Antarctica is losing land ice at an accelerating...
SKEPTICALSCIENCE.COM

Jules Lees David Daniel Ball your silence is pretty weak chief.

Robert Hayes Are you doing this to me because I linked Watts? That's not a fair trade.

Bruu Swayn That links to more papers, which put perspective on the land ice, and it's important to relate the Arctic losses

Robert Hayes At all.

Bruu Swayn Yes it is

Robert Hayes HADCRUT says no warming

Robert Hayes RSS for slightly different lats shows the same thing

Otto Mellar No warming? And the mechanism for ice moving off the continent is ...?

Robert Hayes Is the snowfall just meant to mound there year after year?

Bruu Swayn HadCRUT for instance has a cool bias

http://www.skepticalscience.com/first-look-at-hadcrut4.html

First Look at HadCRUT4
The UK Met Office Hadley Centre has just released HadCRUT4, which is an update to HadCRUT3 which, as...
SKEPTICALSCIENCE.COM

Bruu Swayn

Bruu Swayn Cherry picking is a wonderful thing

Robert Hayes How is that cherry picking? At least you don't have a cool bias Bruu.

Bruu Swayn Because look at my graph - same data sources. Clear warming, isn't there?

Otto Mellar And so you are really convinced that the gravity measurer did not measure a gravity reduction?
Care to back up that claim with evidence?

Robert Hayes Go on link to GISTEMP, their record goes all the way to 11.

David Daniel Ball My silence, Jules? I just post the facts ..

Jules Lees 23 post since your last one. Lots of questions and evidence that proves you are wrong or have not explained something correctly - going to address them?

David Daniel Ball I've looked, and no point seems extant .. care to list them for me? You might be the better reader

From Bolt Report Supporters Group
Sandra Maiden What a load of old horse feathers.
David Daniel Ball .. all the statements are backed up by articles .. feel free to challenge them if you work out what it is that you disagree with.

Paul Corrigan Work out!Anyone?

Bob Lawson Your a blogger David Daniel Ball. Your facts don't even tally with the statement the other day from the federal weather people saying that an enormous chunk of the Antarctic ice sheet has recently broken off and is slowly heading north. Please mate before you put this nonsense in print at least try to refute the weather science first. While some of modelling I think is the worst possible scenario there is no doubt that the earth's climate is warming and greenhouse gases not just CO2 that are man made are the major cause.

Bob Lawson Before you challenge me on academic grounds David Daniel Ball. I have three degrees. One in biology, another in industrial chemisty and third a masters degree in medicine. So I know what I am talking about where as you obviously don't.

David Daniel Ball Bob, The reason for the large chunk breaking off .. because there is so much ice .. the weight .. can't support it.

Bob Lawson Your understanding of physics is as flawed as your climate change sceptic blog mate. Here are the facts mate; the strengh of frozen H2O is reliant on temperature and temperature only. The warmer it gets the less ordered and therefore the less cohesive the water molecules become. The ice event I quoted has been completely stable for all of recorded history mate. Now all of a sudden it isn't. This is nothing to do weight Daniel just temperature. There you go you have eve learned some first year Uni physics.

David Daniel Ball lol .. and yet the AGW alarmist I quoted admitted it was building up and claimed the models predicted that .. argue with them ..

Bob Lawson You can find any looney to back up any point of view. The ice chunk that broke off is as big as some European countries. No I chose to argue with you and your no nothing and do nothing blog. My science is based on the properties of physics David Daniel Ball. They are not open to spin or selective interpretation by you or any other ratbag climate change sceptic. Thank god you people are in an ever decreasing minority.

David Daniel Ball dream on, Bob .. know nothing ..

David Daniel Ball .. thing is .. that guy you call looney is one of yours .. but a leader of yours .. and credentials that exceed your first year science. I'm not arguing my observations. Were I to do so I would point out that the Weather guy who is AGW alarmist is also on average 10 degrees off every single night .. always predicting more than I experience .. just an observation.