Posted by Terry Etam on January 14, 2022
“Wow, you really are happy to see me, luv.”
“Blimey, no, I’ve got me ferrets in me trousers.”
Any Monty Python fans out there? For the non-initiated, the UK comedy troupe unleashed a barrage of wickedly funny absurdist humour that set a high watermark for comedy for decades. The Ministry of Silly Walks. Ancient philosophers playing soccer against one another. Legendary quotes such as this one from a French solider to “I don’t want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal-food-trough wiper. I fart in your general direction.”
In order to get a fix, us fans had to go dust off old DVDs or sample random snippets on YouTube. There has been little comparable since the group folded. Until now, that is.
That famous British droll absurd weirdness has now infiltrated the news, and what makes it especially funny is that the newscasters deliver it with straighter faces than the legendary comedians.
The quote at top is not Monty Python, but it could be, and it is indicative of what passes for news in Britain. For the wise soul that does not pay attention to the news, Europe (and the UK in particular) is undergoing an energy crisis – industries are shutting down due to the high cost of power/natural gas, and citizens’ utility bills are going through the roof. Many cannot afford the bills and are taking drastic measures to keep costs down.
One British energy utility posted a blog (since modified), as reported by the BBC, offering helpful tips to consumers: Cuddle with your pets to keep warm. Eat porridge because it increases blood flow, but stay away from spicy chili because it makes you sweat. Have a hula hoop contest with your children.
If that’s not blistering satire, what is? The country is in the midst of an existential energy crisis where people may or may not be able to heat their homes, and a utility provides…that?
Nor is that the end of it. At the recent COP26 circus, the gathering of the world’s guilty global elites, celebrities flew in from around the world on private and commercial jets to formulate lectures on how the rest of the world needed to quit being such energy gluttons. Funny addendum: should there actually ever be any meaningful global emissions reductions, all serious commentators have noted that carbon sequestration will be a necessity. The hydrocarbon industry pretty much must be at the center of any CCS plans, because it is a game played on their gameboard.
Yet the organizers of COP26 barred from participation any hydrocarbon companies (though some snuck in to see what would unfold), as noted in Euronews: “COP26 has made it a policy to exclude polluters from the summit.” [Emphasis added]
So…providers of fuel are polluters, and not welcome. Hollywood celebrities on private jets are deemed not polluters, and hailed as heroes.
Furthermore, the EU has gone one stupid step further: both private planes and yachts are exempt from the latest EU Carbon Pricing plan
Let’s head over to Germany for a wrap, some stereotype-busting proof that the Germans can play the absurdist game as well as anyone. Germany is arguably the nation most advanced in its drive to go all renewable and to limit emissions no matter the cost. The country has spent hundreds of billions on wind and solar. Yet, at the start of this year, Germany shut down three perfectly capable nuclear plants that were injecting emissions free energy into the system. This lost power has been replaced mostly with coal and natural gas.
Actually, the last bit isn’t quite true – the Germans would love to replace the lost nuclear power with natural gas if they could, but because of a pissing contest with Russia, that gas is unavailable, and the rest of the world is in a bidding match for what is out there.
Sadly, the whole situation is not funny at all, even if these actors are. BNN Bloomberg summed it up well: “Europe’s energy crisis intensified as the risk of war pushed up gas prices, power-plant halts were extended and the French government asked its biggest utility to take a $8.8 billion hit to protect consumers.”
As much as I feel sorry for the citizens of Europe, two thoughts come to mind: first is that I’m glad this catastrophe isn’t happening in a place like Africa or India or other low income region; and secondly – you voted for these idiots. No gloating here though, Canada isn’t far behind.
Pick up “The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity” today, before it’s illegal! Available at Amazon.ca or Amazon.com.
Oh my – – – the poor people of the EU will have to round up the feral cats at last and bring them in to their homes for warmth!
https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/current/press-releases/cats-must-stay-indoors-protect-wildlife
Zil lanes for the commissars…
There is a reason the super wealthy are more progressive leaning now. They know full well on that side of politics you can easily buy your exemptions from whatever onerous rules come down on the common man. This is the most glaring exampe to date.
Russian gas is available. However, under the long term contracts that Gazprom insist on, once a buyer has taken up his contracted volume per year, but wants more then it is at the ruling spot price, not the contract price. Some of the German buyers [ OMV comes to mind ] decided in mid-December to not buy at the spot price. Hence the line through Belarus was closed down. { Source Bloomberg }.
The EU adopted the infamous Enron spot-price scam, result just like Enron in 2001.
As Enron CEO Skilling said ‘we are on the side of angels, taking on monopolies’.
Straight radical FREE MARKET bunkum.
Along comes the US with special LNG tankers at spot-price of course – they see a FREE LUNCH!
Free Market does indeed work, just not for you.
Well, unless people rise up and drag these anti-human scumbags into the streets and hang them nothing is going to improve.
There is a big problem for comedy when the Left take over. It is very hard for comedy scriptwriters and comedians to come up with something funnier than what the government is doing. They write something absurd and amusing only to find it is actually already government policy delivered with a straight face. Hence the term:- you couldn’t make it up.
“They write something absurd and amusing only to find it is actually already government policy”
See The Babylon Bee – many of their parodies turn out to be predictions instead. And in many cases they’re being out-beed by reality.
“I feel sorry for the citizens of Europe … you voted for these idiots”.
I most emphatically did NOT vote for these twunts.
And if they play their cards right it can be a very profitable game too.
How so?
Well pumping carbon dioxide into a depleted oil reservoir is an excellent way of extracting more oil from the trap. Also the company gets the clients to pay for this and still manages to earn political “Brownie Points”. That’s not to like?
I fear the utility companies may have been sincere when recommending hoola hooping or cuddling your pets, much as Marie Antoinette may have been sincere when advising the consumption of cake if bread is in limited supply, though I cannot claim to be clairvoyant. In my mind, that is even darker and more Orwellian that outright mockery because it assumes they fully comprehend the plight but instead of wanting to rectify the problems at root, the best they can come up with is how to make do with less.
They remind me of the “nice” Roman officer at the prison in Life of Brian, who sees off each condemned man with gentle spoken words of encouragement – Crucifixion? Good, take the line on the left, chin up, there’s a good fellow.
The government is the enemy of the people.