Listening to Barack Obama tonight brought tears to the eyes.

Politics has long been missing the simplicity of both hope and intention. Sure it’s easy to sell change but I was left with the impression that he realises that the job is just starting and that everyone must pull together.

John McCain too made a speech full of integrity and dignity. What a lesson they both provided for our politicians in New Zealand who noticeably changed their demeanours in tonights final debate.

Could this be the remaking of the US? That’s hard to say but the reaction around the globe will be ecstatic, knowing we can move on from 8 ridiculous years. Watching Obama take Florida so easily just reinforces the injustice of Gore’s loss.

The Lord, however, moves in mysterious ways. Gore may not have been that great a President. Obama may have never been elected. In a way Bush laid the path for Obama. So destitute of ideas and principles the country, nay the world, was holding out for a hero.

Tonight Obama looked like a man who knows he is in for the long haul.

Let’s hope he can take the US in a new direction and build bridges to the world instead of blowing them up.

And with that in mind here’s something to mellow out with on a very special evening.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

This seems to parellel Article 6. Surely all are equal before the law?

Well as we know that is not the case. Or to paraphrase Orwell, “all humans are equal, but some are more equal than others”.

Men and women for example are treated unequally in many jurisdictions. Sometimes it makes me wonder how they drafted this thing with a straight face. Did they actually believe it? Answers on a postcard please.

It’s taken a bit of time but someone decided to publish my climate change proposal. After being rejected by the Journal Of Climate Change for being too grand, the Environmentalist, the publication of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment in the UK, published an amended version last month.

You can read it here if you haven’t read the old version.

The key theme is that we must control what we take out of the earth rather trying to control emissions after use. It also stresses the need for a global carbon budget.

Nothing has happened in recent years to change my thoughts on it. It is a large canvas with many themes to explore. If anyone wants to take on some of those themes in a new piece of research just let me know.