Wednesday, December 31, 2008

glitter... right there


everyone loves glitter. I remember once in art class a teacher actually said that anything with glitter on it wasn't allowed to be called art. Sucks to him because he obviously hadn't seen my english poster circa 1992
hope you're all well
x
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Things were in a rush .. my wife had to be everywhere .. kids to get to school and prepare for the evening dance recital .. off to the gynacologist for the pre birth check up. My wife showers, towels and rushes. Gynacologist makes remark about taking care of herself. Daughter comes home and complains someone has used her glitter towel.

Israel Defense Force Postings


Israeli Air Force strikes government complex used by Hamas, which has targeted innocent civilians in a campaign of terror.
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The Israeli Air Force strikes terror operatives transferring short-range missiles destined for innocent civilians.
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Israel Navy attack against targets in gaza. film from a rocket mounted camera.
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Don't let the UN stop Israel from defending itself. Stop Hamas from its campaign of terror and the problem will be fixed.

Headlines Wednesday 31st December 2008

Who we clicked: the biggest stories of 2008
Celebrity tragedies, violent sportsmen and wacky politics dominated the headlines in 2008. Here’s what you clicked.
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Israel posts YouTube videos of Gaza air strikes
The Israeli military has launched its own channel on video-sharing website YouTube, posting footage of air strikes and other attacks on Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
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Bank glitch leaves man £100 billion overdrawn
A British man was left reeling in shock Tuesday when his bank statement showed him to be STG100 billion ($A208.44 billion) pounds overdrawn.
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World powers call for end to Gaza fighting - Obama has no answers
The world's top diplomats urged Israel and Hamas to halt their conflict on Tuesday, amid mounting concern over the bloodshed and fears the conflict could escalate.
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'Hostages taken, shots fired' in siege
Children have reportedly been taken hostage and shots are believed to have been fired in a siege on the NSW mid-north coast.
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'Barack the Magic Negro' has media twisted around his thumb
A senior Republican's distribution of a song titled "Barack the Magic Negro" has triggered a nasty battle for the soul of the struggling party.
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Job situation could get worse: Gillard
Australian jobs could be hit hard in 2009 by the continuing global financial crisis, Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says.
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IT’S JUST TOO HARD
Tim Blair
“We have done a lot of work on climate change on Sunrise,” writes morning TV presenter David Koch:
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LOVE BOMBED
Tim Blair
Michael Leunig presents a sophisticated view of current events in the Middle East:
Beautiful Sunset
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BANK SUSTAINED
Tim Blair
August: ”Bank of America has committed $20 billion over the next ten years to make their operation sustainable [and] reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
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SHE IS FROM FAMOUS SENATOR FAMILY
Tim Blair
Finally, someone stands up for Caroline Kennedy.
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ORANGE JIHAD
Tim Blair
A pro-Palestinian demonstrator in New York is violently opposed to liquid extracts:
Beautiful Sunset
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TOO BAD THEY’RE SO EXPENSIVE
Tim Blair
A warmenist dream from Dave Bath:
Wouldn’t it be great if we could force all climate-change deniers and mitigation stallers to buy homes and make property investments a metre or less above current king tide levels.
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SPENDING CONDEMNED
Tim Blair
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd urges that people spend quickly in order to “create more jobs across Australia and strengthen the Australian economy”. Paris Hilton helpfully obliges during a Melbourne visit, spending $5560 on dresses in 40 minutes:
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NOTHING TO SEE HERE
Tim Blair
The New York Times reports (in its Media & Advertising section):
Quietly, as the United States presidential election and its aftermath have dominated the news, America’s three broadcast network news divisions have stopped sending full-time correspondents to Iraq …

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy Tree Friends - Christmas Smoochie


Cub discovers that theres no time like the present to get your Christmas gift! Naughty or nice, hes in for a surprise!

nice shirt


communitychannel
November 28, 2008
bucks!!
thanks for all the previous comments, they were all very epic. You guys win. I actually have another video to post but i can't seem to so sorry about that. Hope your weekend is going well guys.
x
n

Headlines Tuesday 30th December 2008

O’Farrell sharpens his fighting cabinet
Piers Akerman
THE state of NSW, the lead in federal Labor’s saddlebags, has just experienced a massive increase in weight. NSW Opposition leader Barry O’Farrell has delivered a considered reshuffle of shadow portfolios that reflects his grasp of his job and an understanding of the task he faces to unseat the Labor Government at the March 2011 elections.
Clearly it cannot come too soon for the long-suffering residents and taxpayers of the embattled state. - I think there is still a ways that the ALP can implode. It is good to hear about the positive steps that the Liberal party are taking. I get tired when a good policy from the libs gets butchered by journalists fighting tooth and nail for the ALP in government. I can recall a time when it was suggested that the ABC were balanced because they could criticise the ALP in government .. and now it is clear that has been lost. Too often good policy is laughed to the roadside.
Yet when Barry was asked the morning of Monday 29th on 2GB if he was planning to sell power in NSW he gave a reasoned, balanced response and was met with the incredulous questions which suggested that it could never be sold .. an ALP line. Power can be sold, when it is responsible to do so. Iemma was wrong for a fire sale attempt .. the ALP were wrong not to sell it in ‘96.
Thing is, the ALP have been so rusted on that when they go there is a danger that a fauning press will sell the idea that it was the last bunch that was bad .. when it is all bad.
I’ve just had a major break in my case. It is possible (not likely) I will take down the government. I think Barry is ready to lead. - ed.

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US backs Israel's attack on Hamas, but Obama has no answers
Rebuffing Arab appeals, the United States on Monday gave its blessing to Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip but said it was working behind the scenes to forge a "durable ceasefire".
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Woman gives birth after being turned away from hospital
Two women about to give birth have been turned away from Blue Mountains Hospital because of a staff shortage.
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Bank robber leaves behind pay slip with name, address
A 40-year-old Chicago area man allegedly robbed a Chicago bank on Friday using a threatening note written on the back of his own pay slip, which was printed with his name and home address.

Monday, December 29, 2008

it'll grow on you


communitychannel
December 21, 2008
Honestly, it doesn't matter how many times i try things, i consistently dislike the same foods/drinks and no amount of "growing" changes that.
Hope you're all well and I hope you guys had a lovely weekend. Here's to the start of a new week

Dr Tran is NOT a doctor

Tim Blair had this on his site:

It occurs to me that if one replaces Obama with Dr Tran then one sees how ridiculous the campaign was that got Obama elected.

Headlines Monday 29th December 2008

PEOPLE WHO CARE
Tim Blair
Dismayed by Kevin Rudd’s decision not to destroy Australia’s economy, Sunday Age state political reporter Melissa Fyfe considers how her tribe might respond:
In the past fortnight, something has dawned on people who care about climate change: perhaps it is time to acknowledge that too much faith has been put in the political process.
Not enough people vote Green and Rudd isn’t closing power stations. The political process is therefore broken.
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SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH AL GORE’S HEAD
Tim Blair
The once-regal geological formation known as Al Gore’s Head is in danger of collapse:
Beautiful Sunset
Hell of a tilt Gore’s got going there.
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2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved
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HOLD THE COURSE
Tim Blair
Barack Obama during the election campaign: “We can’t just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world’s resources with just 4 percent of the world’s population, and expect the rest of the world to say, ‘You just go ahead, we’ll be fine.’” Subsequently dragged from their SUVs by agents representing the feared Office of the President Elect, Americans probably expected by now to be scuttling around their nation in Pelosi GTxi SS/RTs or tiny Obamacars:
Beautiful Sunset
But Obama is apparently averse to change, as Mark Steyn writes:
If I understand then Sen. Obama’s logic, in a just world Americans would be 4 percent of the population and consume 4 percent of the world’s resources. And in these past few months we’ve made an excellent start toward that blessed utopia: Americans are driving smaller cars, buying smaller homes, giving smaller Christmas presents.

And yet, strangely, President-elect Barack Obama doesn’t seem terribly happy about the Obamafication of the U.S. economy. He’s proposing some 5.7 bazillion dollar “stimulus” package or whatever it is now to “stimulate” it back into its bad old ways.
Certain people will do anything to keep their SUVs.

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PEACE STUDIED
Tim Blair
Piers Akerman notes a happy development for Dave the Jew-hater:
Not only has David Hicks, a self-confessed supporter of terrorism with an expressed lust for the murder of non-Muslims, been lionised by organisations such as the Left-leaning advocacy group Get Up! (the body which boasted of its representation at Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s farcical 2020 retrovision conference), he has now found a girlfriend from within Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.
Just one? You’d have thought he’d have a whole harem by now. Further on Aloysia Brooks, the future Mrs Dave:
Ms Brooks writes poetry on human rights issues and was this year enrolled at the University of Sydney’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies. A Sydney woman with her distinctive first name leapt to Mr Hicks’s defence on a newspaper website in 2006.

“David Hicks is someone’s brother, son and father,” Aloysia wrote. “He gets scared, bleeds and feels pain just like you or I ... He is someone who deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion no matter what he has done.”

does this hurt?


communitychannel
December 19, 2008
i don't go up and slap people in the face and ask if it hurts. Mainly because my slap is weak. You get my drift

hope you're well
x

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Headlines Sunday 28th December 2008

Bad jokes escape to evening news
Piers Akerman
BAD jokes used to be confined to Christmas crackers, but now they’ve escaped to the evening news.
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2008: CELEBRITIES
Tim Blair
SHE MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING
Singer Rihanna presumably did something terrible or otherwise press-worthy during 2008. The law of celebrity averages practically demands it.
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2008: POLITICS
Tim Blair
FINALLY, A POLITICIAN WORTH LOOKING AT – AND THEY DIDN’T ELECT HER
It’s probably for the best that Sarah Palin failed to become US vice-president, because if she had, the implosion among various snooty political classes, conservative and Left, would have been measurable from Venus. The world can only tolerate so much turmoil in one year.

Everyone always talks about the need for grassroots reform and politicians with real-world experience, then along came a real-world politician from the grass (well, snow) roots of Alaska, and the commentariat ridiculed her.
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2008: SPORT
Tim Blair
RICE PUN SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDED IN HEADLINE
Stephanie Rice successfully represented the emerging nation of Facebook at the Olympic Games, winning three gold medals.

She then embarked on a sequence of alleged romances, including one with US swim star Michael Phelps. Rice denied all the romance rumours, keeping alive the hopes of thousands of teenage boys who’ve recently signed up for swimming lessons.
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2008: AUSTRALIANS
Tim Blair
KEVIN ZOB
Aussies are a weird mob, according to John O’ Grady’s time-tested theory. And we’re getting weirder.

I blame Kevin Rudd, although we certainly had prior warning of our current leader’s essential oddness.

There was the earwax thing, of course, and also a curious exchange on the campaign trail in 2007. When a journalist asked if he could ask a national question, AAP reported, Rudd responded with: ”Zob zob zob.’’

The weirdness hasn’t stopped since Rudd became PM. At one point this year, the Canberra press gallery noticed Rudd habitually sorting and shuffling piles of paper on his desk during Question Time.

Sometimes he would pick one piece of paper from among his 17 or so piles and place it on another pile without reading it.

Other times, he’d write a couple of words (Zob zob?) on a sheet before consigning it to the pile judged most appropriate. Bear our leader’s antics in mind when assessing national weirdness. It’s not our fault.
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2008: WORLD OF ODD
Tim Blair
WHY EVEN ASK?
Farmer Kofi Owusu copped an unexpected inquiry during a romantic encounter with a goat on his farm in Ghana. Lost in goat-lust, Owusu was tapped on the back by neighbouring farmer Adams Kusi, who asked: “My friend, what abomination are you committing?” Declining to reply, Owusu fled the scene.
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STOP DOING EVERYTHING
Tim Blair
Pretty lights are bad:
Scientists have warned that Christmas lights are bad for the planet due to huge electricity waste and urged people to get energy efficient festive bulbs.

CSIRO researchers said householders should know that each bulb turned on in the name of Christmas will increase emissions of greenhouse gases.
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BAD ELF
Tim Blair
Didn’t get the Christmas gift you wanted? Blame Doobie:

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Obama has no answers as Hamas causes Gaza deaths
Israeli warplanes blasted Gaza targets including a mosque and a TV station on Sunday, after a day of airstrikes that killed more than 230 Palestinians.
At least 230 Palestinians, most of them militants, died and more than 400 were wounded on Saturday, one of the bloodiest days in decades of Israeli-Palestinian fighting. One Israeli was also killed and six Israelis were wounded.
The unprecedented assault sparked protests and condemnations throughout the Arab world, and many of Israel's Western allies urged restraint, though the US blamed Hamas for the fighting.
But there was no end in sight. Israel obliquely threatened to go after Hamas' leaders, and militants kept pelting Israel with rockets.
Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armoured corps troops headed for the Gaza border in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said.
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Man shot for talking during movie
A Philadelphia resident, enraged because a family was talking loudly during a film, threw popcorn at a boy and then shot the youngster's father.
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Big brother bosses put bus drivers on edge
Bus drivers say they're being spied on by their bosses, with fears the increased scrutiny from security cameras is putting lives at risk.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Headlines Saturday 27th December 2008

ONE MORE LINK AND KEVIN BACON WOULD BE INVOLVED
Tim Blair
This seems something of a reach:
The mother of the boyfriend of former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s daughter sent text messages to two police informants discussing drug transactions before her arrest on felony drug charges, authorities say.
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Ninth body found after suburban Santa massacre
A ninth body was recovered from the charred rubble of a Christmas Eve massacre on Friday as sketchy details emerged about the gunman responsible for the deadly killing spree.
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NSW bushfire burns into fourth day
Crews continue to battle a bushfire in central NSW which has been burning for four days.
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Swimmer missing amid shark attack fears
A massive search is underway in waters off a beach south of Perth for a swimmer believed to have been attacked by a shark.
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Road rage sparks tomahawk attack
Two men have been stabbed and attacked with a tomahawk in an apparent road rage attacked in Melbourne's south.
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Australia may take ex-Guantanamo inmates
US authorities have approached Australia and other countries about resettling former detainees from the US military jail at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
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'Nazi apologia': Critics slam Cruise's Valkyrie
An influential US critic on Friday blasted Tom Cruise's latest movie Valkyrie as "Nazi apologia" in the sharpest criticism yet of the WWII thriller.

Eartha Kitt - Just An Old Fashioned Girl


Eartha Kitt - Just An Old Fashioned Girl (Live Kaskad 1962)
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Eartha Kitt - I Want To Be Evil (Live Kaskad 1962)
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Eartha Kitt 1957 (Nat King Cole Show) - my heart belongs to daddy
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Eartha Kitt - C'est Si Bon

Friday, December 26, 2008

Jennifer 8. Lee: Who was General Tso?


http://www.ted.com Reporter Jennifer 8. Lee talks about her hunt for the origins of familiar Chinese-American dishes -- exploring the hidden spots where these two cultures have (so tastily) combined to form a new cuisine.

Headlines Boxing Day 2008

When labour-savers are headache-givers
Piers Akerman
ONE of the great lies about so-called labour-saving devices is the inevitability that, in time, the frustration they will create will undo any saving of physical or mental labour that may have taken place.
It’s a little like the concept of free time, time which is not employed actually being busy earning income and racking up hours, some of which may later be redeemed at a very uneven rate of exchange, say, 50 weeks’ work for two of ``free time’’.
Free time should really be called earned time. At least the word holiday conveys the accurate sense of a break from one’s usual occupation while free time is anything but.
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OLDEN TIMES
Tim Blair
There are two types of “women’s rights women”, reports the New York Times:
There are the intellectual, well-bred women, possessed with the idea that with the ballot woman would be able to right their own wrongs and elevate the administration of public affairs. Their argument, in this stage of civilization, seems to us mistaken, but they present it reasonably.
One the other hand the shrieking sisterhood is also with us, and growing in vigor and audacity. We may fear the worst.
That’s from late 1908, which should give us pause when considering how today’s mainstream views may appear to readers one century from now. The NYT‘s archives are a spectacular resource; in 1913, for example, the paper spoke with “English shipping man” J. P. Birch, who believed UK suffragettes were “nerving themselves up in some artificial way to their deeds of violence”. Crack-fuelled British feminists aside, Birch also offered this opinion:
The town of Port of Spain, for instance, is absolutely free from graft, in spite of the fact that the police are colored.
This was such an unremarkable line for its era that it passes without comment. Yet 37 years prior, in 1876, the Times ran a brilliantly Swiftian editorial following anti-Chinese violence in California:
There are other and, if possible, worse vices to which the Chinamen are notoriously addicted. They wash themselves and wear clean clothing. This loathsome practice naturally renders them hideous in the sight of the “hoodlum,” and it is not surprising that it is generally regarded as a direct insult to Democratic voters.
It’s a rare thing to say about any Times editorial, let alone one published 132 years ago, but read the whole thing.
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HAROLD PINTER
Tim Blair – Friday, December 26, 08 (04:09 am)

British playwright Harold Pinter, an occasional target around here, has died at 78.

UPDATE. US singer and actress Eartha Kitt has died on Christmas Day at 81:

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MAN-MADE WARMING
Tim Blair
It’s the answer to every humiliated warmenist’s prayers: the Snow Dragon Snowmelter, a 9,000,000 BTU baby able to convert snow into something that matches Al Gore’s predictions ...
Take for instance a football field covered with 6” of snow. This would cost about $5,000 to remove with a traditional snow haul. But, melt it away with a Snow Dragon® Snowmelter and you realize a savings of over 55%, which translates into over $2,800 you just kept in your pocket. With a Snow Dragon® Snowmelter, all your tenant and customer parking spaces, as well as airport runways and parking lots, will be clear and available for less than half the cost of a typical snow haul.
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Eight killed in Santa shooting spree
A man dressed as Santa has slaughtered at least six people at a Christmas party before setting the house alight and killing himself.
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Man stabbed in family Christmas fight
A South Australian man was stabbed nine times on Christmas Day in a family fight that ended only when a third family member whacked the alleged attacker with a golf club.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Steven Strogatz: How things in nature tend to sync up


http://www.ted.com Mathematician Steven Strogatz shows how flocks of creatures (like birds, fireflies and fish) manage to synchronize and act as a unit -- when no one's giving orders. The powerful tendency extends into the realm of objects, too.

Headlines Christmas Day 2008

Barry O'Farrell's Christmas and New Year 2008-09 Message

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Enjoy the little things: Rudd's message for a tough Christmas
The Prime Minister has urged Australians to use the Christmas break to enjoy the little things, like relaxing with family and friends, and remember those less fortunate than his self.
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Father injured in Christmas tree fire
The father of a family in Sydney's South West has suffered burns while trying to put out a fire which engulfed a Christmas tree.
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Drunken brawls starts Christmas in Sydney
Dozens of police officers, Polair and the dog squad have been called to a massive brawl between Christmas revellers at a western Sydney pub.
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Aussie charged for mummy smuggling
An Australian who allegedly stuffed his bags with 2,000-year old mummies has been arrested and charged with smuggling in Egypt.
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Christmas pilgrims flock to Bethlehem
Thousands of Christian faithful have flocked to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas and pray for peace in the traditional birthplace of Jesus.
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Mr Turnbull's Christmas Message
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MIGHTY KEVIN
Tim Blair
Several readers (scroll down) noticed the unusual ease with which Kevin Rudd recently picked up and handed over a cricket kit while visiting troops in Afghanistan. So did The Australian:
Presenting Australian troops with a Gray-Nicolls cricket bag, the PM seemed to lift the heavy object as though it was ... well, empty. A reporter from The Australian called Rudd’s office for clarification, but was assured the bag contained a full cricket set.

For a while there, it looked as though Rudd might be facing a similar issue to the one that has plagued George W. Bush since he dined with US troops in Iraq for Thanksgiving in 2003. Bush was photographed holding a huge turkey on a platter, which left-wing blogs to this day are describing as a “plastic turkey”. (It was, in fact, a real turkey decorated for display rather than consumption.)

But Kev08’s lifting of a full cricket set with just his fingers is remarkable. As any cricketer will confirm, lifting a cricket bag generally is a task for two blokes, if they are not wearing distinctive red and blue Superman suits under their creams.

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IT’S ALL ABOUT ANTONY
Tim Blair
Antony Loewenstein attempts a sentence:
As a Jewish non-believer, the festival of Hanukkah is upon us.
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HO HO HO
Tim Blair
From the Brisbane edition of MX, proof of economic stimulation—thanks to Santa Kev:
Beautiful Sunset
Beautiful Sunset

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Penelope Boston: Life on Mars? Let's look in the caves


http://www.ted.com So the Mars Rovers didn't scoop up any alien lifeforms. Scientist Penelope Boston thinks there's a good chance -- a 25 to 50 percent chance, in fact -- that life might exist on Mars, deep inside the planet's caves. She details how we should look and why.

Headlines Wednesday 24th December

Christmas Eve
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The guilt-free Christmas
Andrew Bolt
THE school chaplain was one of the many: ``Remember the people who aren’t as fortunate as you this Christmas.’’

And the following week a boy stuck up his earnest hand at a talk I was giving to a school at Melbourne University and pleaded: ``But what about the people of Sudan?’’

Then there’s the newspaper lectures you always get at this time of year denouncing consumerism and the giving of too many presents.

So I look at the great pile of gift-wrapped goodies under our tree—still not enough, cries my wife—and think, how is it that I don’t feel the slightest bit guilty?

I do indeed think of the poor and loveless this Christmas, I swear, and World Vision knows I do my little bit for the poor of Africa.

What’s more, I even worry that I spoil rotten my three children with each present that I can’t resist buying.

Yet at Christmas I put all that aside for the day and refuse to feel a skerrick of guilt for giving my children the kind of presents I know many children tomorrow will never enjoy, given with the love too many will never share.
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Rudd drives us broke
Andrew Bolt
SOMEONE please stop him. If Kevin Rudd saves any more jobs, we’ll all be out of work.

The Prime Minister’s $149 million ``rescue’’ of Holden this week revealed Rudd at his farcical worst.

First, he announced Holden would get $149 million from his ``green car’’ fund—and another $30 million from the South Australian Government—to build a new ``green’’ car in Elizabeth.

Except it’s not green. Holden promised only a diesel model and another using twice the petrol and emitting twice the greenhouse gas of a Toyota Prius.

But the jobs! Rudd boasts he is saving 600 jobs at Holden and 600 more in component manufacturing. Except he’s not creating jobs, he’s subsidising them.

Do the sums. The Government’s handouts to Holden work out at $50,000 a year for three years for every single one of those 1200 workers. But they’ll build more cars, right?

Except we’re not in a mood to buy. New car sales last month were the lowest in five years.
But the jobs! The jobs!
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How would you like your carols?
Andrew Bolt
I KNOW it’s Christmas because the billboards go up outside the churches.

Want carols? With candles or without? A nativity play? Or something for the more serious worshipper?

How about a Mass, with incense and the lot? At midnight, perhaps? Or something more civilised and casual?

And behind it all is this appeal, as written on a real estate board outside a lovely Uniting Church near my own home: ``If you only come to church once a year, make it this day.’’

This year, despite my agnosticism, I may answer that call because, like many Melburnians, I’ve been robbed.
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Santas of our time and other sadnesses
Andrew Bolt
Rodd Liddle reviews how we live now with our Santas. For instance:

The Santa Claus in a department store in Louisville, Kentucky was sacked because the children kept pointing out that he had extremely large breasts. This is because he was a she, one formidable lady called Marta Brown. But the breasts were not what the kids expected on Santa Claus, not when viewed in tandem with the traditional beard and stuff - so they took the piss. Marta was consequently sacked by the department store - but good news, she is suing the firm for $67,000 through the state commission on human rights, for injured feelings and sexual discrimination. This is where we are now.
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Don’t mention Hicks’ war
Andrew Bolt
You mean David Hicks didn’t train with al-Qaeda, enlist with the Taliban and shoot into Kashmir with Lashkar-e-Toiba, all of which he boasted of in a diary and in letters to his family?

So the Sydney Morning Herald seems to suggest:

A FREE man seven years after his arrest in Afghanistan, David Hicks has signalled his wish to clear his name and remove his terrorism conviction from his record.

Hicks has even found God, the New Age way:
Mr Hicks had undertaken volunteer work at a nursery and environmental agencies...
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Green means black
Andrew Bolt
Global warming hysterics and their political dupes have scared off investment in power stations:

In an interview with The Times, Steve Holliday, chief executive of the company that operates the power and gas transmission network, said that Britain was facing an acute shortage of generating capacity because a string of ageing nuclear and coal-fired plants were due to be retired from service....

“What is happening that people are not wanting to build enough power stations… The Government has an obligation to make sure that the markets are delivering,” Mr Holliday said. “You can’t afford for it to fail.”

Australia will soon face exactly the same problem - blackouts thanks to green scares.
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Rudd’s cars run on grants
Andrew Bolt
The figures for Kevin Rudd’s latest bail-out to Holden - ostensibly to make a new “green” car - are even worse than were first reported:

Holden said the new model would “support” 600 workers, but this may not translate into 600 new jobs because it could include some existing employees.

The federal Government will give Holden $149 million over three years from its $1.3 billion green-car fund, after the company meets certain milestones. The South Australian Government has promised $30 million over four years.

That works out to taxpayers giving $100,000 a year for three years to every worker involved in this project, including even those working only part-time on it.
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Vic MP Theo Theophanous denies rape charge
Victorian MP Theo Theophanous has denied a rape allegation made against him by a former friend and has slammed police over their investigation of the 10-year-old claim.
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Why shouldn't Rudd pay for Haneef stuff-up?
The release of judicial findings into the arrest of Mohamed Haneef requires some thinking.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Clarke Inquiry

This has been copied from another site. It is to do with Kevin Andrews, who was appallingly treated by the press.
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A decision in the national interest
No improper purpose! No conspiracy!

“The minister was faced with considering a question that had been under discussion among officers since 3 or 4 July, and against the background of community concern about the spectre of terrorism in which – wrongly as it turned out – Dr Haneef was implicated. The most likely reason the Minister acted to cancel Dr Haneef’s visa is that he had grave suspicions about Dr Haneef as a result of the material put before him and he genuinely believed the community wanted him to act decisively.”
- The Hon John Clarke QC, page 196

For the past 18 months, Dr Haneef’s lawyers and some other commentators have suggested that in cancelling the temporary work visa of Dr Haneef, I had acted improperly as part of a government conspiracy to detain him.

These suggestions have been categorically rejected by the Clarke Inquiry.

Improper motive

• “I gave the matter much consideration, and I am satisfied on the material before the Inquiry there was no improper arrangement between the AFP and DIAC and that the officers were simply doing their job in what were difficult conditions.” (page 192)

• “Further I do not accept that the Minister was simply going to do the bidding of his department. In my opinion Mr White and those working with him knew the Minister would bring an independent mind to the task of evaluating the material provided to him.” (page 192)

• “I found no evidence to suggest that any political pressure or influence was brought to bear on Mr Andrews or that he made his decision to cancel Dr Haneef’s visa in order to achieve some actual or perceived political advantage or in the interest of expediency.” (page 194)

• The totality of the factual material is insufficient to support an inference that the Minister was acting for an improper purpose.” (page 196)

• “There is no evidence supporting the conclusion that he acted improperly in cancelling Dr Haneef’s visa.” (page 196)

• “I found no evidence of political influence or motivation in connection with the decision to cancel Dr Haneef’s visa and issue a Criminal Justice Stay Certificate.” (page 228)

A legitimate use of the statutory discretion

• “I am satisfied that consideration of the possible cancellation of Dr Haneef’s visa arose legitimately as part of the broader security context from as early as July 4 – once Dr Haneef had been identified as a person of interest in connection with the UK incidents and it had been confirmed that he was in Australia on a subclass 457 visa.” (page 181)

• “It is not in dispute that it was legally open to the Minister to exercise his discretion to cancel Dr Haneef’s visa, both on the understanding of the law at the time of his decision and in light of the subsequent decision of the Federal Court.” (page 195)

• “Dr Haneef’s visa was not cancelled ‘as a result of criminal charge having been laid.’ [The contention of Haneef’s lawyers] It was cancelled because of his suspected association with people suspected of being involved in criminal conduct.” (page 195)

• “In considering these events [information provided to the Minister about the UK incidents and the Haneef association] it would, in my opinion, be clearly arguable that there were reasonable grounds for that suspicion (and, I emphasise in the context the circumstances of Dr Haneef’s attempted departure).” (page 269)

The national interest

• “Mr Andrews reiterated his assertion that he acted in the national interest, and I have no doubt he believes he did.” (page viii)

ASIO

Mr Clarke considered that the ASIO assessment should have been considered. However, he also found:

• “ASIO was not prepared to provide information to DIAC for consideration under s 501 and remained concerned about the potential disclosure of any material (notwithstanding the protection afforded by s. 503A).” (page 170)

• “ASIO’s views were not put before the Minister.” (page 197)

• Mr Clarke also notes that had ASIO’s advice been before the Minister, he may still have proceeded to cancel the visa. (page 206)

• Moreover, he recommends that: “The Minister for Immigration and Citizenship be added to the distribution list for security intelligence reports produced by ASIO, in addition to senior departmental officers.” (Recommendation 6, page 276)

Conclusion

The government has spent $4 million to be told what Justice Spender found last year: that I did not act with an improper motive.

The recent events in India remind us that we cannot be complacent about national security. The Australian people expected me to act. I had the courage to do so.

Benjamin Wallace: Does happiness have a price tag?


http://www.ted.com Can happiness be bought? To find out, author Benjamin Wallace sampled the world's most expensive products, including a bottle of 1947 Chateau Cheval Blanc, 8 ounces of Kobe beef and the fabled (notorious) Kopi Luwak coffee. His critique may surprise you.

Headlines Tuesday 23rd December

The twin scourge of racism and cholera
Piers Akerman
JUST to show the Christmas spirit can touch the most unlikely in the most mystical manner, Malcolm Fraser, the former prime minister directly involved in ensuring Robert Mugabe would rise to ultimate power in Zimbabwe, now believes the dictator’s time has come. - I agree. It is tragic that those who might act to help those in need don’t because of how such aid may appear. The average war lasts months. Some last longer, like WW1, WW2, US Civil War, Vietnam War and the US war of independence, to name a few. But even short wars like that in Afghanistan or Iraq can have extended peace time issues.
A major problem for Australia in Iraq and Afghanistan was that the left did not have any ownership of responsible positions. In UK, where Labor held office, the Blair government was dragged into doing the responsible thing .. the Blair government split but the opposition conservatives supported the effort.
Should the Rudd government find a responsible course of action, they would undoubtedly have conservative support, but can they find a responsible course of action? Rudd’s preference, as with Burma, would be to give money directly to bloodthirsty killers. US Democrats have a history of using bombs in lieu of the republican preference for troops - which worked at the end of WW2, but not very well in Yugoslavia, Korea or Sudan.
Something must be done now, before Obama makes the Presidential executive decision to leave it to the UN. Fraser's call may not be timely, and might even seem to be timeless.
Maybe it is time for African nations to act responsibly .. and not be misled by China into ignoring the issue at hand. - ed

===
Inexperience OK in a Princess of the Left
Andrew Bolt
Yesterday I contrasted the media’s treatment of Sarah Palin’s clothing allowance with its treatment of Quentin Bryce’s. Jonah Goldberg now draws another contrast:

For people who think there’s no cultural divide in this country, consider the treatment of two women much in the news in 2008.
===
Another smear of Andrews disproved
Andrew Bolt
Kevin Andrews, the Howard Government’s Immigration Minister, was accused of peddling false statistics on African crime to whip up racist votes. It turned out that Andrews was right, and his critics were peddling falsehoods.

Andrews was also accused of peddling a fake terrorism scare over Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef to whip up anti-Muslim votes. It turns out that Andrews was right again:

FORMER Howard Government immigration minister Kevin Andrews has been cleared of improper behaviour in cancelling the visa of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef.
===
Rudd’s cars run on grants
Andrew Bolt
The figures for Kevin Rudd’s latest bail-out to Holden - ostensibly to make a new “green” car - are even worse than were first reported:

Holden said the new model would “support” 600 workers, but this may not translate into 600 new jobs because it could include some existing employees.
===
Athens is burning
Andrew Bolt
For two weeks the barbarians of the Left and the anarchist movement have torn Greece to pieces. The latest:

HUNDREDS of rioters battled police in central Athens, fire-bombing finance offices and attacking the city’s Christmas tree two weeks after the police shooting of a teenager set off Greece’s worst unrest in decades.
===
More from the European front
Andrew Bolt
Reuters reports:

Police extinguish burning barricades on the main road in the immigrant-dominated suburb of Rosengard in Malmo in southern Sweden, early December 19, 2008. The fire department considered the area to be too risky to enter with their personnel. Clashes in the Malmo suburb Rosengard have escalated after the police in the beginning of the week cleared out and closed a basement facility in a rental building that was occupied after a dispute between the real estate owner and the Islamic cultural society in the neighborhood, local media reported
===
Scepticism grows
Andrew Bolt
There is a boom in interest in the blog of Anthony Watts, man-made global warming sceptic, Rightly so. Bookmark it, too.

Monday, December 22, 2008

Jay Walker: A library of human imagination


http://www.ted.com Jay Walker, curator of the Library of Human Imagination, conducts a surprising show-and-tell session highlighting a few of the intriguing artifacts that backdropped the 2008 TED stage.

Headlines Monday 22nd December

Murder: teen charged with train killing
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murdering another teenager on a busy commuter train in Sydney's south-west....
===
'Cowardly' bikie gangs slammed over drive-by shootings
Bikie gangs are being told to stop 'fighting like little girls' as they resist moves for a peace deal to stop a recent spate of drive-by shootings....
===
PM defends Andrew O'Keefe's drunken night out
VIDEO: As video footage of Andrew O'Keefe's now infamous drunken night out emerges, Rudd has weighed into the debate over the 'Deal or No Deal' star.... - Rudd is a 'survivor' of bad personal choices. - ed.
===
Motorcyclist bashed with own helmet, bike stolen
A motorcylist has had his bike stolen in Sydney's south-west after being struck over the head with his own helmet....
===
Desperate Ponting ready to wield the axe
Captain Ricky Ponting says Australia need to think hard about making changes to their bowling attack after Sunday's six-wicket humiliation against South Africa in the first Test at the WACA....
===
2009 will be "even darker": IMF head
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the economic situation could get even worse in 2009 if governments fail to take firm enough action....
===
Warner Music's video clips pulled from YouTube
Warner Music Group's videos will no longer be available on YouTube due to a contract dispute between the music company and the popular video-sharing website, US media reported....
===
Iraq wants Aussies to get out
Australia’s forces have been told Iraq’s parliament wants them out by the end of the month, despite a push from Canberra to keep them in the country for another six months. - I feel the same way about Rudd. - ed.
===
Horror sex attack on 86-yr-old woman
An 86-year-old Townsville woman was hospitalised after being sexually assaulted by a home invader at the weekend.
===
Stressed nurses turning to prostitution
Overworked and underpaid nurses have turned to prostitution in Queensland as a survey shows nurses in the state "hate their jobs".

A mother of two has told the Courier Mail she left her job as a registered nurse after 10 years to work in a brothel.

Four of her colleagues did the same, she said.

"We could no longer work in such an understaffed and stressful environment," the woman – known as Jenna – said.

"I was overworked, poorly paid and a mistake could have led to charges if I caused a death.

"I came to the conclusion the nursing shortage wasn't my problem but it was my responsibility to protect myself from burning out or making a fatal mistake."
===
Hicks won't go back to Afghanistan: dad
Former Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks has no intention of travelling back to Afghanistan, his father says.
===
This will cost
Andrew Bolt
The unintended consequences start now:

LANDLORDS could find it harder to evict tenants under a Rudd Government plan to combat homelessness...The Government will review the impact of without-grounds termination clauses on homelessness in state legislation and the lack of legislative protection for boarders and lodgers.
===
Grocery Unwatched
Andrew Bolt
How much did this fiasco of a stunt cost?

Just 100,000 hits were registered on the GroceryChoice site last month, down from 3.3 million in August.
===
Will Bryce get the Palin treatment?
Andrew Bolt
===
Rudd runs out of cash
Andrew Bolt
Spinning again:

KEVIN Rudd has resurrected his budget razor gang to slash government spending to counter the global financial crisis and ensure he can deliver his promise to boost pensions next year.

Rudd is cutting spending to counter the financial crisis? But haven’t reporters been announcing his plan after plan to boost spending to fight it instead? Indeed:

THE federal Government is introducing a $4.7 billion nation building plan to combat the affects of the global financial crisis, Kevin Rudd says.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Dan Gilbert: Exploring the frontiers of happiness


http://www.ted.com Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces.

NSW Lib Updates

Labor’s Stench Of Corruption Extends: Systemic Weaknesses Uncovered
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP & Anthony Roberts MP
Thursday, 18 December 2008
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell and Shadow Minister for Emergency Services Anthony Roberts said today Premier Nathan Rees cannot continue to ignore report after report into corruption within the State Labor Government.

The ICAC has found corrupt payments worth $2.4 million were paid to two former employees of the NSW Fire Brigades. The Commission has made 14 recommendations after it identified ‘systemic weakness’ in the Brigades capital works functions.
Read more...

Nathan Rees’ Budget Cuts Hitting Frontline Policing
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP
Thursday, 18 December 2008
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said today Nathan Rees’ budget cuts continue to hit frontline services – this time the NSW Police Force is being forced to slash overtime.

“This demonstrates yet again Nathan Rees has his priorities all wrong,” Mr O’Farrell said.
Read more...

O’Farrell Welcomes Developer Levies Change - Shame It Wasn’t Sooner
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell today welcomed the State Government’s reduction in property levies saying it would provide a much-needed boost to the NSW housing and construction sector.

“When the housing sector does well, the State’s economy follows,” Mr O’Farrell said.
Read more...

Customer Charter Offers No Guarantee Of Improvement And Like The Trains, It’s Running Late
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said today the introduction of a customer charter was like Sydney trains – late – and offers commuters little hope of improvement.

Former Premier Morris Iemma said the Charter, which was promised the day after the election following Sydney Harbour Bridge breakdowns, would be in place by June 2007.
Read more...

Bureaucrats Have No Place In Making Clinical Decisions In Our Hospitals
Written by Jillian Skinner MP
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
A leaked State Government memo directing bureaucrats to question doctors who admit patients with certain conditions with a view to cutting admissions by 35%, sets a disturbing precedent, Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.

The letter outlines a new program to reduce avoidable admissions, stating: “our plan will be to write to you requesting your advice each time” a patient is admitted with a condition categorised as an “avoidable admission”.
Read more...

Premier: NSW Housing Falls Behind Again! What Are You Doing?
Written by Chris Hartcher MP
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Shadow Minister for Housing Chris Hartcher today condemned Premier Nathan Rees for not doing enough to assist the housing industry in NSW after the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its September Quarter 2008 8750.0 ‘Dwelling Unit Commencements‘.

“The figures released today show that NSW is still falling behind all other States and Territories this quarter. NSW is also the only State to have fallen for the second quarter in a row in new unit dwellings,” Mr Hartcher said.
Read more...

Campbell Lies On Opposition IPART Submission - Again
Written by Gladys Berejiklian MP
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Transport Minister David Campbell has again lied over the Opposition’s position on IPART’s review of rail fares, Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian said today.

“The NSW Liberal/Nationals made a submission to IPART in July opposing any fare increases (copy attached),” Ms Berejiklian said.
Read more...

Commuters Forced To Pay For Labor’s Incompetence
Written by Gladys Berejiklian MP
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Shadow Minister for Transport Gladys Berejiklian today slammed the State Labor Government for increasing CityRail fares by up to 30% over four years given worsening train services.

“It is unacceptable that from 4 January 2009 commuters will be forced to pay an extra 7.5% to catch a train, for some commuters this will mean an extra 31% over four years,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Read more...

Hospital Waiting Lists Increase: An Extra 4,284 Patients In The Last 12 Months
Written by Barry O'Farrell MP
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Hospital waiting lists have increased by more than 4,000 patients in the last year, highlighting Labor’s mismanagement of the health system, NSW Opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell and Shadow Minister for Health Jillian Skinner said today.

In September 2007 the elective surgery hospital waiting list stood at 53,424. It has risen to 57,708 according to the September 2008 figures.
Read more...

More...
State Labor Government’s Neglect Condones Systemic Corruption In RailCorp
Canberra Saves Rees And Roozendaal From Even Bigger Deficit
10-Yr-Old Boy Left In Pain For 15 Hours With Dislocated Wrist And Fractured Arm
Further Prison Escape Revelations: Time For ICAC To Investigate And Rees To Release Tapes
Nathan Rees 100 Days: Wrong Priorities, Wrong Decisions And Lies

Headlines Sunday 21st December

Suspending belief in this climate of hot air
Piers Akerman
This year will go down in history as the one in which the Australian Government decided to pay people for producing hot air.
===
'We got it wrong': Rees to reinstate free school travel
NSW Premier Nathan Rees will reinstate free bus travel for students after admitting he'd been wrong to force families to pay for fares when many were already doing it tough. - contrite Rees admits he didn't know it would be THAT unpopular. - ed.
===
Keep it secret? No deal… Andrew O'Keefe video emerges
Video footage which allegedly shows Andrew O'Keefe during a drunken night out has finally surfaced, despite Seven reportedly forking out $25, 000 to keep it secret.
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Taiwan cabbie at work with corpse in front seat
A Taiwan taxi driver drove passengers around for a day with a corpse sitting in his front seat, a Taiwanese television report said on Saturday.
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Alan Jones discharged from hospital after brain tumour operation
Prominent Sydney radio broadcaster Alan Jones has been discharged from hospital after an operation to remove a brain tumour.
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Claims of secret coverup surgery after patient falls from operating table
Campbelltown Hospital, in southwest Sydney is being forced to answer claims a patient was left to fall from an operating table while under anaesthetic.
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Woman shot by police in Sydney's west
A female police officer has shot another woman inside a unit in Sydney's west.
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OK, OK... now online child abuse laws are getting scary
Tim Brunero got slammed last week for suggesting Simpsons porn should be considered real porn, but this time even he admits internet censorship laws are getting scary.
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Bringing sex workers into the light
Prostitution isn't going anywhere, so it's important we keep sex workers safe, according Tim Brunero.
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Govt plans to halve homeless Australians
National holiday road toll hits seven
US law suit aims to annul gay marriages
I thought I could fly: Man critical after five floor plunge
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Even Daylesford has woken up to wind
Andrew Bolt
Even in Daylesford, the Byron Bay of Victoria, the locals aren’t so stupid as to pay $3000 per household for a bit of off-and-on-again wind power to help “stop” a warming that stopped years ago:

Investment dollars have dried up as small investors keep a tight hold of their cash and large investors wait to be convinced that the project is viable.
===
Creating and solving homelessness in one go
Andrew Bolt
Yet more billions in handouts is shovelled out by the guy who before the election shouted, ”This sort of reckless spending must stop!”:

The Government’s long-awaited homelessness white paper will offer $6.1 billion, over the next five years, in a bid to reduce the number of homeless people by about 52,000 within 12 years.
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Yes but
Andrew Bolt
The Age grudgingly, finally reports on the sceptics among us, but even in blurbing the story cannot draw breath before damning these heretics:

Farmers sceptical about global warming, but most Australians want urgent action.

And above the story itself:
Many farmers in central Victoria are sceptical that global warming is real, despite the scientific evidence and the world-wide push for a carbon trading scheme.

Actually, the scientific evidence for man-made warming in this recently cooling world is highly ambiguous at best, and the push for a carbon trading scheme is not world-wide or there would be one already. Moreover, that push is not evidence of global warming but of the hype around it.

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Dennis vanEngelsdorp: Where have the bees gone?


http://www.ted.com Bees are dying in droves. Why? Leading apiarist Dennis vanEngelsdorp looks at the gentle, misunderstood creature's important place in nature and the mystery behind its alarming disappearance.
===
TED are producing a substantial number of global terror warning type videos ..

Liberal Messages Saturday 20th December

Rifleman Stuart Nash
On behalf of the Opposition, I express our deep sadness on learning of the death of Rifleman Stuart Nash in Afghanistan. A young soldier, he gave his life in the cause of freedom.

Without transparency, Rudd's infrastructure list raises more questions than answers
Today’s release of the first infrastructure projects list contains a number of worthy projects but no reasons for their selection and no explanation for the projects that did not make the cut.

Rescue mission reinforces our Navy's worth
Sending the HMAS Arunta this morning to rescue a French sailor in the Indian Ocean is a timely reminder of the importance of Australia’s naval capability needs and requirements.

Gillard leaves families in lurch on childcare
Minister Gillard’s failure to manage the ABC Learning crisis has resulted in hundreds of families being left in the lurch just six day before Christmas.

A cracked record and a broken promise on whaling
Prior to the election, Kevin Rudd made an express, clear and absolute promise on taking Japan to the International Court of Justice on whaling. The promise was absolute and unconditional.

Treasurer undermines confidence by flagging further stimulus
The Treasurer is further undermining business and consumer confidence by raising the spectre of a further spending package even before the $10.4 billion stimulus package or the recent interest rate cuts have had a chance to take effect.

Rudd, Campbell must act on ACL Bearings
The Rudd Labor Government must urgently act in concert with the Bartlett Labor Government to secure the future of ACL Bearings in Launceston.

Garrett misleads on the true value of the solar panel rebate
Peter Garrett is being deceptive and misleading today by telling Australians they will receive a $7,500 subsidy for their solar panel rebates under his latest solar scheme.

Let children be children – Stop the PC brainwashing
Australian parents and early learning childhood teachers should be concerned about the Rudd Government’s Early Years Learning Framework (Draft.) This is a bizarre attempt to foist political correctness on the youngest of all Australians.

Ageing crisis trivial to Australia's star struck PM
I call on the Rudd Government to guarantee to older Australians and aged care providers that we won’t see a repeat of this year’s performance when the Rudd Government back-flipped at the eleventh hour on cutting funding to aged care.

Rudd's rushed NGO reform
The Rudd Government is rushing through its reform of the not-for-profit sector and ignoring the concerns of organisations in its quest to bury the sector in bureaucratic red tape.

Shadow Minister visits GP practice
Shadow Minister for Health and Ageing, Peter Dutton, today visited the Dayboro Medical Centre and met with general practitioners and practice staff to discuss the challenges they are facing as frontline health care providers.

Smith responds to Coalition calls for action in Zimbabwe
As recently as last Sunday, Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull and I called for increased diplomatic action from the Rudd Government in relation to the disintegrating political situation and the escalating humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe.

Border security disaster looms
Yesterday’s illegal boatload of 37 asylum seekers is further proof that the Rudd Labor Government’s change of policy and lack of adequate resources, is been clearly noted by people smugglers.

$2,000 - $5,000 solar short change: Means test capitulation
Australian families will pay up to $5,000 more to install solar panels in their homes following today’s announcement by the Rudd Government. This is a $5,000 Solar Short Change.

Defence cut backs - Another Rudd broken promise
The Pappas Review commissioned by the Defence Minister will show the Rudd Government plans to slash military spending across the board and sell off bases and facilities.

How will the Government pay for Bradley?
The Shadow Minister for Education, Christopher Pyne, welcomed the release of the Bradley Review into Higher Education today.

Sherry's end of year report card a dim read
A broad range of key stakeholders have expressed to me their keen desire to see measurable outcomes from the Minister, rather than rhetoric and reviews.

NSW levy reductions welcome but infrastructure forgotten
The NSW Government has acted belatedly to reduce developer levies but this can’t be done simply to boost its budget at the expense of providing essential infrastructure.

Defence jobs at risk from base closures!
Bob Baldwin, has expressed serious concern today following reports that a draft audit of the Defence budget has recommended cutting defence spending by a further $10billion over the next decade.

The moment of truth for Labor in Higher Education
The Rudd Government has managed to delay developing its universities policy and making any hard decisions for over a year. Now the moment of truth has arrived.

Peter Dutton Daily Telegraph Blog - Kunning Kevin's environmental ruse
In the ultimate act of political cunning, Kevin Rudd has managed to squib on his election commitment on the ETS and be praised in the process.

Turnbull Joint Doorstop Interview with Robb - Emissions trading scheme white paper
Well the Government has presented today its 800 page white paper on its emissions trading scheme and we will be considering that with great care. It’s a very detailed document, and we’ll be reviewing it carefully.

Housing industry needs more than 'sugar hit' stimulus
Today’s dwelling commencement figures released by the ABS reveal that the Australian Housing Industry needs more than short term stimulus to turnaround a decline in housing construction across Australia that is ballooning undersupply and in turn driving up prices and rents.

Cap off the year by saying 'yes' to JSF
The Defence Minister has had 12 months in order to do his homework on the Joint Strike Fighter project and should make a decision on what his own Department sees as inevitable.

Wood welcomes new Crime Commission CEO
Congratulations are extended by the Coalition to John Lawler who will be the new Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Crime Commission.

Julie Bishop Fairfax Blog - Information is the key
There is an old saying that information is power and that is certainly true when dealing with all things financial. Those who are most informed about the unfolding problems in world financial markets are best placed to take appropriate steps to safeguard their investments and the welfare of their families.

Devil in the detail on Emissions Trading Scheme
The Coalition will make a considered evaluation of the Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme released today. This is one of the biggest structural changes in a generation to our economy. We will not be rushed into endorsing, opposing or suggesting amendments to this proposal.

Minister for Defence - Asleep at the wheel again
How much advice and time does the Minister for Defence need before he is jolted into action? The revelation that our troops in Iraq could be forced to exit sometime in the next few weeks is of a major concern.

Justice Virginia Bell
The Opposition welcomes the announcement today of Justice Virginia Bell as the next judge of the High Court of Australia.

Government must reveal EOI process for ABC
As more questions continue to arise about the future of the 241 ABC Learning Centres deemed “unviable”, the Government has a duty to ensure that the Expression of Interest process is transparent and fair.

Conroy's broadband farce sinks to new levels
The Rudd Labor Government’s exclusion of Telstra from the National Broadband Network (NBN) tender process on the most spurious grounds, is the latest example of the total ineptitude and mishandling that has plagued this process from the beginning.

Still no action on ADF Superannuation report!
It is now 356 days since the tabling of the Report of the Review into Military Superannuation Arrangements and there has still been no action or response from the Rudd Labor Government.

Labor denies thousands of families a Christmas bonus
Kevin Rudd’s promised bonus payments to families who receive the family tax benefit is being denied to more than 150,000 families.

PM fails to reverse the solar panel means test
Kevin Rudd has failed to reverse the inexplicable capping of the $8,000 solar panel rebate. By capping availability for the rebate, mums and dads on $51,000 each – middle income by any definition – are no longer able to access affordable solar energy.

Zimbabwe needs action
The Coalition has today called on the Rudd Government to increase diplomatic pressure on Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe to spare his people the catastrophic effects of a cholera epidemic.

Broadband panel hears from proponents now the public must hear from Conroy
Following presentations to the National Broadband Network (NBN) expert panel by proponents - scheduled this weekend - I call on Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to update the Australian public on the outcome.

Headlines Saturday 20th December

Green bans mean brown lawns and red ink
Andrew Bolt
Green ideologues have vandalised not just our finances but our culture:

THE cost of water restrictions for Australian towns and cities could be as high as $6 billion a year, and the failure to irrigate parks and gardens is damaging the health and social well-being of the nation.

We could build four new dams a year for that price.
===
Fools defrauded
Andrew Bolt
Here was Age columnist Tracee Hutchison on election night:

I knew Australia was experiencing a seismic shift in identity and direction.. I felt my body jolt upright with exultant anticipation and gushing love of country...

Here is Tracee today:

As the year wraps up it seems timely to wonder what happened to the momentum that was supposed to be kick-started by the symbols and rhetoric that were meant to herald a new dawn in Australian life.
===
No end of daze
Andrew Bolt
Adele Horin scoffs at those who predict we face an imminent fiery end:

It’s times like Christmas I’m glad to live in a secular country where federal Labor MP James Bidgood is a startling aberration. The colourful backbencher says the Book of Revelations predicted our current economic woes and he claims “we are at the end of times”. Such mumbo-jumbo from a mainstream politician would be unremarkable in the United States but in Australia it’s regarded as an embarrassment.

It is?

Then why is Tim Flannery a media hero for warning we are at the end of our warming times:

This round of negotiations (on emissions) is likely to be our last chance as a species to deal with the problem.
===
A guide for terrorists
Andrew Bolt
The ABC’s Phillip Adams is on the advisory board of a Leftist group which has published classified details of how US troops use radio-frequency jammers to stop Iraqi terrorists from exploding remotely detonated explosives. Those details were classified to protect the lives of Coalition troops, including Australians. The group’s co-founder is another Australian, Julian Assange.
===
Ramsey’s biggest mistake was his last
Andrew Bolt
Among the many things Alan Ramsey got wrong:

On the night of his farewell dinner he was coping with a late final version of an elegant speech of thanks to most of the people in the room. Ramsey was always a generous acknowledger of his debts. Perhaps it was the scribble over the typing read in dim light that led him to call Laura Tingle his “lovely wife Lorrie”.
===
Don’t steal them, dump them
Andrew Bolt
Thanks to the “stolen generations” myth, even the Aboriginal children now removed from danger can’t expect the level of care a white child would get:

Retired judge James Wood QC conducted his inquiry after the shocking deaths of two children, one an Aboriginal boy whose body was found in a suitcase in a lake.

The report notes that Aboriginal children are vastly over-represented in foster care. Almost everyone agrees that if these children can’t be at home, they should be with other Aborigines, a community that has little capacity to absorb them.

It is common for elderly aunts and grandmothers to be asked to take four or five neglected and abused children, lest they end up in white homes.
===
Rudd’s no-pain plan could bust his Budget
Andrew Bolt
Lenore Taylor, a warming believer, examines the Rudd Government’s bribery of business and rightly concludes the emissions trading scheme is a con - and a Budget buster:

It is a political deal cut with big industries that are also big employers…

Ongoing qualitative polling and old-fashioned political common sense convinced the Government that while swinging voters in the mortgage belt cared about climate change, they weren’t prepared to make big sacrifices in terms of their standard of living. So the Government was generous with its industry compensation, giving away in free industry permits a full $2.9 billion worth of the $11.5billion it expects to raise in the first year of the scheme. That represents 25 per cent of available permits, but the proportion could rise to 45 per cent by 2020, depending on how fast these industries grow.

The Government had already made the political compromise of offsetting any increase in petrol prices - blowing another $2.4 billion in the first year - and it allocated $700 million in the first year to ease the shock for the dirtiest brown-coal power generators…

Taken together, these political deals and compromises with industry had a fateful effect on the Government’s ability to push ahead with the thing the whole exercise was supposed to achieve: actually reducing Australia’s carbon emissions.

But this deal making may not merely wreck any plan to cut emissions. It may also wreck future Budgets, not least because governments find it easier to give compensation than to later withdraw it:


The Government has overcompensated low and middle-income households in the first year - at a total cost of $3.9 billion, assuming it gets $25 for each pollution permit it auctions - but if more and more of the auction revenue is eaten up by free permits to industry, there will be less money available for the increasing burden on the rest of the economy.

Officials have conceded household compensation may need to be funded from the budget in the future, rather than from the revenue the scheme generates from the auction of pollution permits....The Government cannot afford to go much harder, no matter what is decided in Copenhagen.
===
Apartheid banned by Macklin
Andrew Bolt
Small mercy:

(Indigenous Affairs Minister) Jenny Macklin has slapped down ambitions for a new indigenous representative body to have legislative powers, declaring the Rudd Government has no intention of creating “another ATSIC”.

Expectations that the new indigenous representative body - promised at the last election by Labor - could be granted powers to legislate on behalf of Aboriginal people and provide program funding were fanned by the appointment of Mick Dodson to a key advisory panel.
===
Send more troops or we’ll be defeated
Andrew Bolt
Major-General (Ret.) Jim Molan, the Australian who served as the Coalition’s head of operations in Iraq, says Afghanistan - not Iraq - threatens to be our Vietnam:

AUSTRALIA should prepare to deploy up to 6000 troops to Afghanistan and lobby for greater commitment to a war that the US-led forces are on track to lose, says a retired Australian general, Jim Molan.
===
CNN falls to the sceptics
Andrew Bolt
Scepticism is going mainstream when even CNN has a weatherman prepared to attack man-made global warming as a con - and when CNN gives him air time to do it:

You know, to think that we could affect weather all that much is pretty arrogant.
===
The fatal weakness of greenhouse theory
Andrew Bolt
A lucid summary by Dr David Evans of the case against man-made global warming - and why the theory still has its fierce propagandists:

From 1975 to 2001 the global temperature trended up. How do you empirically determine the cause of this global warming? ...

The signature of an increased greenhouse effect consists of two features: a hotspot about 10 km up in the atmosphere over the tropics, and a combination of broad stratospheric cooling and broad tropospheric warming…

We have been observing temperatures in the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes - weather balloons with thermometers… The radiosonde measurements for 1979-1999 show broad stratospheric cooling and broad tropospheric warming, but they show no tropical hotspot. Not even a small one. ..

Human carbon emissions were occurring at the time but the greenhouse effect did not increase. Therefore human carbon emissions did not increase the greenhouse effect, and did not cause global warming…

The only supporting evidence for AGW was the old ice core data. The old ice core data, gathered from 1985, showed that in the past half million years, through several global warmings and coolings, the earth’s temperature and atmospheric carbon levels rose and fell in lockstep. AGW was coming into vogue in the 1980s, so it was widely assumed that it was the carbon changes causing the temperature changes....

(But) by 2003 it had been established to everyone’s satisfaction that temperature changes preceded corresponding carbon changes by an average of 800 years: so temperature changes caused carbon changes… So the ice core data no longer supported AGW.

So if there is no evidence to support AGW, and the missing hotspot shows that AGW is wrong, why does most of the world still believe in AGW?

Part of the answer is that science changed direction after a large constituency of vested interests had invested in AGW… (S)cientists were being paid by governments to research the effects of human-caused global warming… AGW grabbed control of climate funding in key western countries… The alarmists are full time, well funded, and hog the megaphone.
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Films watched
Andrew Bolt
The New Zealand Film Commission denies it makes films New Zealanders don’t want to see, and attacks inaccuracies in the knocking claims of a report linked to here last month.
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Insight shown
Andrew Bolt
Mercy is shown to a serial rapist being sentenced for indecently assaulting an eight year old:

Victorian County Court Judge Carolyn Douglas ... told Avci that he had shown some insight into his behaviour.
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Rudd’s plan too hot for Garnaut
Andrew Bolt
The Rudd Government’s climate guru damns the Rudd Government for paying too much to compensate business for the costs of its $11.5 billion a year tax on carbon emissions:

THE Federal Government’s own climate adviser has savaged parts of its climate change plan, describing the assistance to big business as “over the top”.
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Where will they all live?
Andrew Bolt
Former Hawke Government minister Barry Cohen asks questions on immigration that governments won’t answer:

(G)overnments never connect the dots between increasing population numbers and the ‘crises’ that daily beset our citizens — congested roads, air and water pollution, prohibitive land prices, housing shortages, overcrowded hospitals and schools and so on. And that’s before the impact of climate change.

Why am I so obsessed? I was born in 1935 when Australia’s population was around five and a half million… It is now 21 million. In my lifetime the population has almost quadrupled…
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Cash for Clinton
Andrew Bolt
What on earth did those governments expect in return for their cash?

Former President Bill Clinton laid out a list of big-ticket donors to his foundation Thursday that is heavy with foreign governments and business interests sure to have a stake in the policies that Hillary Rodham Clinton carries out as secretary of state…
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What’s their word for “precious”?
Andrew Bolt
Professor Philip Parker had no idea Australia was so loopy:

He had never known anyone to claim intellectual property over a language…
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Let rip
Andrew Bolt
The Australia Institute thinks it’s simply making a complaint about Kevin Rudd’s emissions trading scheme:

The only effective way for households to reduce Australia’s carbon emissions will be to buy emissions permits and rip them up.
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Couldn’t they cheer Rudd like he was Bush?
Andrew Bolt
Reader Byron has watched the video of the reception our troops in Afghanistan gave to Kevin Rudd, and contrasts it to the one the US troops in Iraq gave last week to George Bush:

Reader Sherro, a former army captain, wonders whose idea it was to paint “PM” in big letters on Rudd’s body armor in a country filled with snipers. Was it:

a. Rudd’s media consultants’ decision

b. Rudd’s personal decision

c. Rudd’s security detail’s decision

or.

d. A couple of the soldiers finding a uniquely Digger way of politely letting their true feelings be known in the same vein as saluting unpopular officers in dangerous areas...
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No sell out
Andrew Bolt
George Bush on his lousy polls:

What do you expect? We’ve got a major economic problem and I’m the president during the major economic problem. I mean, do people approve of the economy? No. I don’t approve of the economy. ... I’ve been a wartime president. I’ve dealt with two economic recessions now. I’ve had, hell, a lot of serious challenges. What matters to me is I didn’t compromise my soul to be a popular guy.